We Build
Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternity and we certainly have a very diverse membership in Arizona and we should welcome and celebrate our diversity. This concept is first introduced to the newly made mason in the Entered Apprentice degree during an explanation of “Brotherly Love”, one of our three principle tenets. It reads in part, “Masonry unites men of every country, sect, and opinion and causes true friendship to exist among those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance. For me, this is one of the most enjoyable benefits of being a Mason and one of the most important to foster in our Lodges as well as in life.
The Motto or Slogan this year is “Together We Build”. I believe this is of vital importance to our Fraternity, our Communities and our Country. Coming together and working with each other in the best interest of whatever endeavor we undertake builds and produces a far better outcome. One that should and will create a greater sense of Pride in our accomplishments through our shared efforts.
….
Jim Baker, Grand Master of Arizona Free & Accepted Masons.
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Brethren,
We are into the second quarter of this Grand Lodge year, and I am pleased to see brothers from around the state working together for the benefit of others and our lodges. There seems to be a renewed vigor in the fraternity since the lifting of the covid restrictions we endured in 2020. We not only want to resume our normal lives but also to re evaluate our priorities and focus on what defines us as a great fraternity of good men striving to be better men.
We say that the Masonic fraternity takes good men and makes them better, but how do we accomplish that goal? In my opinion it is as simple as associating with good men that possess the shared values of moral and ethical behavior. We don’t make good men better.
“We say that the Masonic fraternity takes good men and makes them better, but how do we accomplish that goal?”
...MW Jim Baker, Grand Master Arizona F. & A.M.
understanding and meanings of the lessons taught.
We give them the opportunity and encouragement to improve themselves. One way is by challenging them to pass a proficiency to advance and progress through the degrees of freemasonry. With memorization and repetition should come the
Early in my masonic journey I was asked what my interpretation was of the lessons taught in the three degrees. My answer was and still is these are the lessons taught to me in my youth by my parents. We should all remember them and act according to the lessons we try to instill in our own children by leading by example.
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Before we were allowed to knock on the door of the preparation room, we were asked a series of questions. One of those questions was:
Do you have a desire for knowledge, and a sincere wish to be serviceable to your fellow creatures?
Your answer was yes and therefore it is our personal responsibility to expand our minds and do good deeds. The Entered Apprentice degree set you on a path of learning duties, responsibilities, and loyalty. The Fellow Craft degree expanded that learning by introducing you and challenging you to study the seven liberal arts and sciences.
others while building your character and maintaining integrity in all you do. At the end of the master mason degree the Master informs you that “The eyes of the fraternity are upon you. Be faithful. Be True. Be Just. And convince the whole world that on becoming a Master Mason you have become a better man. “
Our lodges are meant to be a place of learning and sharing of knowledge creating an environment conducive to free thinking and open-minded discussion. Does your lodge have a friendly and welcoming atmosphere that makes you feel happy and excited to be among your brothers? The Lodge provides the setting, the tools, and the support. The rest is up to you!
“
The Master Mason degree entrusted you with the tools to share and spread that knowledge and to do good for yourself and
“The eyes of the fraternity are upon you. Be faithful. Be true. Be just. And convince the whole world that on becoming a Master Mason you have become a better man”.
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Celebrating the Diversity of Freemasons in Arizona – Together We Build” Fraternally, Jim H. Baker Grand Master Arizona F. & A.M. 2022 2023
In the late 1800’s, Freemasonry in Arizona was in its infancy. Aztlan Lodge No. 1 had formed in Prescott, Arizona in 1882. Arizona Lodge No. 2 was formed in Phoenix in 1879. In the latter part of that same year, a few members of the Masonic fraternity residing in and around globe gathered together for the purpose of discussing the formation of a Lodge in the Globe area. Aztlan 1 & Arizona 2 had been granted a charter from California. But at the time, the jurisdiction of California prohibited the holding of masonic lodge meetings on the ground floor. New Mexico, however, allowed such meetings provided they were safe from intrusion and properly tyled. On January 18th, 1881, New Mexico granted a charter to White Mountain Lodge No. 5. Just a year later in 1882, the Grand Lodge of Arizona was organized and recognized by both California and New Mexico. White Mountain applied to the Grand Lodge of Arizona for Recognition, and it was granted a Charter as White Mountain Lodge No. 3 in Arizona.
Tradition of the day was that when a lodge was chartered under a new state, the old charter would be returned. According to Paul Dore’, Past Master of White Mountain Lodge No. 3 (2004) “When the
The Original Charter of White Mountain Lodge No. 5, New Mexico. Photo credit: Bo Buchanan
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New Mexico Grand Lodge proceedings [pg. 13], 1881
lodge folds, the rule was that you had to return the charter to the Grand Lodge who issued it.” The story goes that the charter was sent to the Grand Secretary of Arizona to be returned. It never made it back to New Mexico. “(George) Roskruge, who was the Grand Secretary at the time” says Paul Dore’, “he turned around and said that we could keep it.” Today, on the back of the charter is written the following: “The Grand Lodge committee on charters recommended that the several lodges be allowed to retain their old charters as souvenir's for the their early trials and struggles”.
“
Who has the charter” ensued for many years. Groups of Masons from New Mexico would travel to Arizona organizing “a search for the charter”. Somewhere along the way, when representatives from New Mexico were attending the Arizona Grand Communication, they would steal the White Mountain banner and Arizona Grand Lodge officers attend the New Mexico Grand Communication to steal it back.
What happened to the charter after that is a bit of a mystery. Some people say it was last seen in the 1930’s, others say it was seen in the 1950’s. One story from New Mexico even says that it was returned to New Mexico but was smuggled out in a baby carriage. After the disappearance of the charter, a lighthearted game of
In the 1960’s, the games reached a new height. Most Worshipful Gary Deck, grand Master of New Mexico addressed the Grand Lodge members at the Arizona Grand Lodge session, June 4, 2010: “Whereas the Grand Lodge of Arizona F&AM worked illegally without benefit of a charter, under authority of Grand Lodge of New Mexico F&M for seven years at Globe Lodge in Arizona at White Mountain #5, now #3, and whereas during that time Grand Lodge of Arizona absconded with all the funds of $91.14 due and payable to the Grand Lodge of New Mexico does hereby demand such payment of $91.14 compounded annually to satisfy the long, overdue debt to the Grand Lodge of New Mexico. In the spirit of Brotherly love and cooperation, we are willing to adjust the interest rate to a paltry 1%. Resulting in $1.2 million dollars of debt. “
Arizona Grand Communication, 2022
Arizona Grand Lodge proceedings [pg. 69], 2010
One story from New Mexico says that the charter was smuggled out of New Mexico in a baby carriage.
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While this fodder makes for a good story, the truth of the matter is that the Grand Lodge of New Mexico had recognized our authority over White Mountain Lodge #3 as early as 1882 when they reported in their proceedings that White Mountain was “Incorporated into Grand Lodge of Arizona”.
their moment the following year when The Grand Lodge of Arizona and the Grand Lodge of New Mexico gathered at White Mountain Lodge to organize a search for the charter. White Mountain #3 Past Master Paul Dore’ organized a formal “Search for the Charter” in Globe: “In 2013, we did a search for the charter we’ve been doing then since the 1940’s or 50’s. Every 7 or 8 years we would put on a program. I did the last three”. As it turns out, the 2013 search for the charter would be the last.
Now, by this time the tradition of stealing the Lodge banner from one another had become common practice. “The tradition has been that at New Mexico’s Grand Lodge, Arizona would steal the banner” says the Current Grand Master of New Mexico Bill Pogue “and then at Arizona Grand Lodge, New Mexico would steal it back”.
In 2012, while representatives from Arizona were visiting the Grand Communication in New Mexico, things took a turn for the worse. “Mike Manning, John Engstrom and I were visiting New Mexico, said MW Bill Garrard (PGM 2013) “we got wind that there might be something going on. When we were introduced, the Grand Master at the time, Bill Childers, told us that stealing from another Mason is wrong. “Grand Marshall” WM Childers commanded “put these brothers under arrest, handcuff them and take them away”.
“Luckily” Bill Garrad says “Manning & Engstrom had those universal cuff keys so we escaped”.
Arizona, not to be outdone, would have
Grand Master at the time, PGM Jeffrey Carlton (2014) was sitting in the East. “It was a huge deal” Carlton said “I went, the GM of New Mexico went...I think it was the last one we did”. The story, according to MW Bill Garrard: “I was in the West as SGW and I said ’MW Carlton, there seems to be quite a bit of discord between Arizona and New Mexico over this banner. We shouldn’t put up with this discord, they’ve stolen it once again”. The attending Grand Master of New
New Mexico Grand Lodge proceedings [pg. 199], 1882
2022 Arizona Grand Communication. AZ Grand Master Randy Jager returns the Globe Banner back to MW William Pogue, Grand Master of New Mexico.
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Mexico was Joshua Lightle (2012 2013). During the opening of the search, it was mentioned that MW Lightle’s grandfather—William T. Lightle, had been Master of White Mountain Lodge No. 3 in 1935. Discussion ensued and some brothers stated that the charter hadn’t been seen since the 1930’s. Conjecture took over and there was talk that perhaps Lightle’s own grandfather had stolen the charter. “I propose we file charges against William Lightle” Bill Garrard put forward. MW Bill Lightle of New Mexico said “I am an officer of the law, I will do the investigation” . But nothing came of it.
So why is all this such a big deal? “I’ve been hearing about this for quite some time” says Jim Baker, current Grand Master of Masons in Arizona “it seems like a source of amusement and camaraderie. I think it’s great that we have that relationship with the Grand Lodge of New Mexico”. It also seems his New Mexico counterpart agrees. “I think it has provided some very good camaraderie between our two Grand Lodges” says Bill Pogue, GM of New Mexico. “I don’t think surrendering the charter is going to have anything to do with stealing the banner back and forth”. Surrendering the charter? What does he mean? Well, he is referring to the fact that the Lost Charter has been found.
A few years ago, we didn’t have any idea where the charter was” Past Master of White Mountain #4 Paul Dore’ said. “A past brother from our lodge came up to me and wanted to meet with me privately” said Paul “When I met him, he presented me with a plastic folder that
contained a folded up piece of paper. The only condition he had was that I couldn’t tell anyone who gave it to me.
In 2022, PM Paul decided it was time for the Charter to go back home. “I kept it for 4 or 5 years but I didn’t want to keep holding it” Paul says “considering my age, I wanted it to be in a safe place”. On June 11th, 2022 Paul Dore’ presented the charter back to the lodge. “Who it actually belongs to, I don’t know” says AZ Grand Master Jim Baker “It’s nice to know, from a historical point of view, that the original charter has been found”.
Fraternally,
Bo Buchanan
Grand Editor, Arizona F. & A.M., 2022
PM Paul Dore’ presents the Lost Charter to White Mountain Lodge No. 3. L to R: SW Ernest Miranda, PM Paul Dore’, WM Dewey Jefferson, JW Bill Greenen.
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One may find in the arguments of the antimasons against our beloved Fraternity the accusation that we are part of or even the leaders of a vast conspiracy against governments and established religion.
Now, the word conspiracy derives from Latin and means literally ‘to breathe together’ and is now used to designate two or more people engaged in a common purpose, usually with nefarious ends in mind. Such a group has often been called a cabal, which sounds like it derives from
Dictionary gives, “A small body of persons engaged in secret or private machinations or intrigue; a junto, clique, côterie, party, faction.”
The leaders of this vast conspiracy are vary identified as the Grand Masters Conference of North America, the Supreme Council or Councils of the several jurisdictions of the Scottish Rite, or even a super secret organization of certain Masons unknown even to those venerable Bodies. As a member of just that super secret body, I can tell you that it’s all true.
Yes, contrary to the minds of many Masons, their family, their friends and acquaintances, and the great majority of those disposed to think well of the oldest fraternity in the world, there is in fact—a true Masonic conspiracy.
...Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry, SRRS Annotated edition, p. 310
that peculiar form of medieval Jewish mysticism called the Kabbalah, but is also an acronym for Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley (Earl of Shaftesbury), and Lauderdale, who signed the Treaty of Alliance with France for a war against Holland in 1672. Definition 5 of the Oxford English
That such a conspiracy was early denied is no evidence that it doesn’t exist. An early exposé called A Mason’s Examination (1723) affirmed there was no such thing as a Masonic conspiracy with the words, “…Free Masons are no prying inquisitive Busybodies, but honest industrious Persons, who desire only to excel in their own Profession; that the, Worshipful Society are no Innovators in Religious Affairs, no Perjured Plotters or Conspirators against the established Government: …” (quoted in Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry, SRRS annotated edition, p. 310).
“Freemasons are no prying inquisitive busybodies, but honest industrious persons who desire only to excel in their own profession”
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The above claim notwithstanding, the history of Freemasonry is replete with the advocacy of innovation in religious affairs. The plots against established government are almost too many to list.
The seeds of the Masonic conspiracy were laid in the eighteenth century within the womb of the European Enlightenment as its greatest philosophers emphasized the use of reason and the scientific method in the study of human nature. From this perspective, they also explored issues in education, law, philosophy, and politics and attacked tyranny, social injustice, superstition, and ignorance. This conspiracy sought to undermine the most cherished institutions of the political and religious realms. To suggest that such plans could be hatched at that time in the open light of day and within the public domain is hardly credible. Therefore, Masons met in private homes or taverns where they could be assured of being surrounded by friends and like minded comrades whose aims were the same as theirs. The expression of purposes was shrouded in symbolic
“The seeds of the Masonic conspiracy were laid in the eighteenth century within the womb of the European Enlightenment
”
PGM Rex Hutchens
….
language, vague historical allusions and a cloak of allegory guaranteed to secure their intentions and bring about the appearance of a harmless collection of simple men with simple aims for social improvement. Such, however, was not the case.
Freemasonry was, and is, not about mere social improvement it is about revolution. In hearing this word, we are wont to think of armed
insurrection against the powers that be. While this is not always the case, it is certainly common enough to justify the sobriquet. Indeed, the parade of patriots who fought for liberty is rife with Freemasons. To suggest otherwise would be to turn our backs on the most blatant facts of history: the American Revolution was inspired by Masonic ideals and led by Masons; the same can be said for certain factions within the French Revolution. In Latin America, Spain also was to quake under the promotion of Masonic ideals expressed in revolutionary terms. Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, both Masons, sowed the seeds of revolution and changed the political landscape of Latin America forever.
Even small revolutions had their Masonic contributors: the philosophical underpinnings of the Cuban revolution against Spain were expressed in the writings of the Freemason Jose Martí; so secure were its revolutionary credentials that Freemasonry today in Cuba under Communism has a higher per capita membership than the United States.
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The number of Freemasons involved in the Mexican Revolution is almost beyond counting. Perhaps the clearest demonstration of Masonic involvement would be to point out that 39% of the Spanish Constituent Congress of 1931 were Freemasons. Nonetheless, the chief model for the Mexican Revolution was the French Revolution of nearly a century and half before.
In Nicaragua in the 1920s Freemasonry, as a revolutionary society, even found itself allied with Communism through the efforts of Augusto Cesar Sandino. He had spent time in Tampico, Mexico and there discovered the dominant influence of Freemasonry in the Mexican Revolution. In Tampico there was a Lodge of Freemasonry with a particularly radical bent; it was under the jurisdiction of an organization that called itself the Bolshevik Grand Lodge! Regardless of his inability to wrest Nicaragua for U.S. domination in the 1920s and 30s, his ideals live on today in the modern organization named after him: the Sandinistas.
Even the independence of Texas from Mexico
was a revolution headed by Freemasons. A list can be provided on request, as if, given the present audience, such were even necessary.
Nineteenth century Italy gave us Giuseppe Mazzini whose Masonic and revolutionary credentials were impeccable. The Italian government was so afraid of him that they issued a decree of perpetual banishment! This Past Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy fomented rebellion against the established government in Mantua (1852), Milan (1853), Genoa (1857), and colluded with another Mason, Giuseppe Garibaldi, in his expeditions against the government in 1860, 1862, and 1867. Banishment was not good enough for Garibaldi and he persevered under a death sentence imposed in 1834. After a sojourn in South America, where he stirred up the revolutionary fervor of Brazil and Uruguay, he lived for a time in America. Eventually he returned to Italy and overthrew the antiMasonic king Francis II and then went on to serve the Scottish Rite as Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council in Italy.
Arab revolutionaries under the mantle of Freemasonry can be cited: Abd el Kader (1807 1883) was an Algerian patriot and Mason whose guiding purpose in life was to free Algeria from French colonialism. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica provided the following description of his character: “Throughout this period Abd el Kader showed himself a born leader of men, a great soldier, a capable administrator, a persuasive orator, a chivalrous opponent.” Sadly, Algeria’s fate was that of most colonial occupations, backed by the superior training and equipment of European armies.
In Egypt in the 1870’s, the Freemason Sayyid Jamāl al Dīn al Afghani did the same against
Paris, France March 18, 2018: Liberty leading the people, painting by Eugene Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France.
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British influence in the Ottoman Empire. Documents discovered in the early 1970’s revealed that al Afghani attempted to use Masonry as a ready made agency for political mobilization and agitation against the Khedive Ismā’īl and the increasing European intervention in the affairs of Egypt. The Khedive’s own son, Tawfīq Pasha, along with other notables and military officers, joined the Fraternity and were involved in al Aghani’s revolutionary activity. This intimate relationship between revolution, or at least anti European sentiment, and Freemasonry is revealed by an Egyptian contemporary, Adīb Ishāq, who said of al Afghani, “[He had] a strong desire to save Egyptians from humiliation,” and when European interventions multiplied and the financial crisis worsened he realized that something had to be done, so he joined the Masons.
Certain Arab groups and individuals were not alone in opposing Turkish rule during the period of the Ottoman Empire. Greece, in 1814, chafing under the same despotism, resisted and we find
In the Philippines, one particular Freemason, Emilio Aguinaldo, was such a thorn in the side of colonial Spain that he was paid to leave the country. When he returned at the behest of America, after the Battle of Manila in 1898, he was asked to form a government, which he did and headed; as well, he formed the first independent Philippine army. The clearest indication of a Masonic resistance to Spanish rule of the Philippines was his organization of Triagle Magdalo, with other Freemasons and this revolutionary organization became Magdalo Lodge, which held its meetings at his home and on the balcony of this residence the First Republic was proclaimed as well as the unveiling of the original Philippine flag. He could not be blamed that America chose to impose its own form of colonialism on the Philippines until after World War II.
The world at large is little changed from a century or two ago. The great majority of the people of the world chaff under the chains of various forms of religious and political despotism. The supposed pope of world Freemasonry, Albert Pike saw, in the square, as an instrument of attack on Hiram Abif at the second station, a symbol of the rigidity of the union of church and state.
”
“The great majority of the people of the world chaff under the chains of various forms of religious and political despotism
PGM Rex Hutchens
….
there the formation of Philikí Eaireía or Society of Friends. This group of Greek patriots worked for the liberation of their country and based their form, structure, practices, and initiatory ritual on you guessed it Freemasonry. By 1820 this Society had expanded into almost all parts of Greece and even members of Greek communities abroad joined.
The revolutionary character of Freemasonry is so well recognized that it is either banned outright by such governments or only slightly tolerated and riddled with government spies. This could be true in the United States too. Who knows how many FBI agents, Secret Service agents, policemen and sheriffs have become Masons just to keep an eye on us?
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Yet, there is another dimension of Revolutionary Freemasonry that should occupy the rest of our time. While militant revolution is dashing and far more interesting, the revolutionary character of Freemasonry has an essentially peaceful underpinning. The demands of liberty, equality and fraternity echoed in the French Revolution only became militant by the armed resistance of the established order to the changes inherent in the advocacy of these virtues over the tyranny of church and state.
Yes, Freemasonry is a conspiracy. It is a conspiracy against established orders of religious and political despotism; it is a conspiracy against the tendency of men to be less than they can be.
The antimason A. Ralph Epperson has claimed that Freemasonry is the head of the drive for a ‘New World Order’; this claim is also made by the television evangelist Pat Robertson. Well, I suppose, it’s true. If the present world order continues to promulgate war and sectarian strife as potential solutions to the world’s ills, then some sort of new world order would seem to be an advantage. As a child of the Enlightenment Era, Masonry has always promoted the clearly revolutionary ideals of intellectual and political freedom.
Such ideals have failed to take root in eighty per cent of the world, suppressed by some form of political and/or religious tyranny.
Politics and religion make strange bedfellows as the old cliché puts it. A clear example of this can be found in the very Bible that rests on most Masonic altars: the venerable King James Version. An earlier English Bible The Geneva Biof 1599 uses the word tyrant over four hundred times. King James, apparently fearing an invidious comparison, forbad its use in his Bible even once! Another example of his meddling in this otherwise scholarly effort is the translation of the Hebrew word for sorcerer as witch so that his Bible would read “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” and giving him a supposed God granted right to burn witches or anyone accused of being so.
“Yes, Freemasonry is a conspiracy. It is a conspiracy against established orders of religious and political despotism; it is a conspiracy against the tendency of men to be less than they can be.”….PGM Rex Hutchens
This political interference was so pervasive that the initial reaction to the translation was largely negative. Even by 1620 the Pilgrim’s elected to bring with them to the New World the Geneva Bible and not the politically tainted King James Version.
The religious character of Freemasonry is bound by neither restrictive dogma nor the dictatorial mandates of men who aggregate unto themselves that power of judgment reserved for God alone. The political character of Freemasonry is the absolute liberty of the mind; each is free to express the dictates of his conscience as long as he does not impinge upon the rights of others.
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This description of Freemasonry as a revolutionary institution begs a reexamination of certain basic principles of the Craft. Masonry has survived for over three centuries because it has grasped within its lessons the most fundamental truths of the human condition and the behavioral changes necessary to bring about real improvement of the individual and, by extension, the society. Paraphrasing Aristotle, we might say that the great lessons of this Fraternity are not true because we teach them; we teach them because they are true.
Nonetheless, the principal tenet of truth is the least discussed teaching of the Craft. Masons, on the whole, do not even know what it means. We have trivialized this virtue by teaching that we should tell the truth, as if that virtue was not taught at our mother’s knee, else we are Masons in vain. Truth is not about telling the truth, it is about seeking the truth.
Blabbering about new paradigms is another exercise in futility. Masonry does not need a new paradigm; it is the paradigm. Paradigmatic changes are changes in mission and purpose. They are fundamental restructurings intending to create an entirely different understanding of the nature of things.
Taken in its entirety, Freemasonry is incapable of improvement; its ideals (expressed in symbols) are its soul and those who would seek to change it only betray their ignorance. Every man who would seek to improve the Fraternity should remember that he joined—not for him to make it better, but for it to make him better.
Fraternally, Rex Hutchens
Past Grand Master, Arizona F. & A.M.
“Taken in its entirety, Freemasonry is incapable of improvement; its ideals (expressed in symbols) are its soul and those who would seek to change it only betray their ignorance.”….PGM Rex Hutchens
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When Worshipful Brother Bo Buchanan (Editor) asked me to contribute a four part series of articles for Arizona Masonry Magazine, my initial thought was to compose something on the Four Cardinal Virtues. But, on further consideration, I decided against it because the Virtues have been picked all but clean in the literature and commentary of Freemasonry. I wanted to address something a little less commonly considered; something that still had deep Masonic significance, but with which many of us may be less than familiar.
I finally decided on the Pythagorean Tetraktys not only because it consists of four stages (which I needed to produce a four part series of articles), but also because each stage has both a geometrical and metaphysical significance. This dynamic, I found to be in keeping with the operative and speculative denominations of the Craft, as well as Freemasonry’s veneration for Geometry: “the first and noblest of sciences, [and] the basis upon which the superstructure of Masonry is erected.” In its Masonic context, the Tetraktys may be encountered everywhere from the old Prestonian lectures to its appearance on the jewels and in the attendant symbolism of certain (primarily Continental) jurisdictions.
What is the Tetraktys?
The Tetraktys (Greek: τετρακτύς) is a mystical figure first utilized in the teachings of the Craft’s “ancient friend and Brother” Pythagoras of Samos. The philosopher and his followers held the symbol in such high regard that they deemed it “holy” and were said to have taken their oaths upon it. [Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences, Everts & Co., 1884; Entry: “Tetraktys”]
TETRAKTYS
“Bless us, divine number, thou who generated gods and men! O holy, holy Tetraktys, thou that containest the root and source of the eternally flowing creation! For the divine number begins with the profound, pure unity until it comes to the holy four; then it begets the mother of all, the all-comprising, all-bounding, the first-born, the never swerving, the never tiring holy ten, the keyholder of all.”
Dantzig, Number: The Language of Science, Macmillan, 1930, p. 42
The Tetraktys consists of ten regularly spaced points arranged in an upward pointing equilateral triangle, having one point on the top tier, two on the second, three on the third and four at the bottom (see figure above). It is a model illustrating the organization of space through the emanations of the Grand Geometer: from a point, to a line, to a superficies and, finally, to a solid. For the first installment of this four part series, we will turn our attention to the first cosmogonical stage of this enigmatic figure: the point.
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The Point
From the geometrical (operative) perspective, the point is the beginning, or origin, of all constructions. It describes a position without dimension; a location in space without magnitude.
A point is located in space by reference to the three cartesian coordinates x, y and z, of which it is the theoretical vertex. The abscissa (x axis) runs side to side; the ordinate (y axis) runs front to back; and the applicate (z axis) runs up and down.
Taken together, the three Working Tools of the Fellowcraft the plumb, the level and the square may be seen to ‘try’ each of these dimensional coordinates. The plumb proves the applicate in that it tries a vertical line; the level proves the abscissa in that it tries the horizontal; and the square proves the ordinate, in that it bisects the x axis at the origin, thereby forming a 90° angle, which is of course a square.
Metaphysically (speculatively), or rather ‘meta geometrically,’ the point is the singularity from whence spatial dimension comes into being this being the essence of cosmogony, the origin
of the very cosmos. In the Pythagorean tradition, the point, or Monad, symbolizes God, as it was called the “First,” the “Seed” and the “Builder.” We are also reminded of the famous quote from the 12th century theologian, Alain de Lille (though Rabelais attributed it to Hermes Trismegistus), who said, “God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” In Freemasonry, we encounter this concept in reference to the Point within a Circle diagram, wherein the point represents the individual Mason, about which too much ink has already been spilt.
In the next article of this series, we will move on to the line (the second tier of the Tetraktys, consisting of two points) and examine its operative and speculative implications
Fraternally,
Jaime Paul Lamb
Author, “Myth, Magick & Masonry”
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