10mythsaboutmasonry by Rocky Mountain Mason

Excerpted from the Rocky Mountain Mason Issue 4

L L Modern

Myths About

Masonry Held By

Masons 0 0 102

Rocky Mountain Mason

. That the Chamber of Reflection was Never a Part of the First Three Degrees.

he Chamber of Reflection is still used previous to initiation as an Entered Apprentice in the Red Degrees (that is, the first three degrees as transmitted through the A.A.S.R. rather than the York Rite) which places it’s use as common to the Entered Apprentice earlier than the latter 18th Century – and likely a lot earlier still. Resultantly, the Chamber of Reflection is still used in Central and South America and in continental European Lodges in conjunction with the First Degree. Albert G. Mackey – the estimable Masonic Scholar – writes that, “In the French and Scottish Rites, a small room adjoining the Lodge, in which, prepatory to initiation, the candidate is enclosed for the purpose of indulging in those serious meditations which its somber appearance and the gloomy emblems with which it is furnished are calculated to produce, It is also used in some of the advanced degrees for a similar purpose. Its employment is very appropriate, for, as Gadicke well observes, ‘It is only in solitude that we can deeply reflect upon our present or future undertakings, and blackness, darkness or solitariness, is ever a symbol of death. A man who has undertaken a thing after mature reflection seldom turns back.’”1

1. Mackey’s Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, by Albert G. Mackey, Vo. 1, The Masonic History Company, 1901, pg. 190. See also The Chamber of Reflection, by Giovanni Lombardo, Lodge Room International Magazine, June 2006. Rocky Mountain Mason

. That the word “profane” is derogatory and its use elitist.

he word profane, often associated with “profanity”, and therefore something derogatory and debased, actually means simply “relating to that which is not sacred or biblical; secular rather than religions”. The etymology makes this clearer – Pro, Latin for, “in front”, and Fanum, Latin for “Temple” – or, out in front of the Temple, or, if you will, outside the Lodge. So someone profane, therefore, is someone outside of the Lodge, and not a derided or debased figure. It is true that semantic drift has changed this primary meaning of “secular” into a more derided, secondary meaning. However, the primary meaning remains.

. That Masons should volunteer for every Masonic duty.

hile volunteerism is certainly admirable, it is also, sadly, unaccountable. This author believes it correct, where a Lodge can so afford, to recompense Brethren where appropriate. After all, giving a Brother a useful job for some pay is “teaching him how to fish”, so to speak, as opposed to feeding him for a day with a simple charitable handout. Moreover, Lodges should be run to be self-sustainable, and generate cash-flow whereby activities are afforded. Lodges should be run like a business – the business of Charity requires it.

. That discussion of sacred things in Lodge is against the Constitution.

he famed Masonic author of the nineteenth century, Albert Pike, writes: Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion; and its teachings are instructions in religion.2 And the Grand Master of Masons of Colorado, Joseph Milsom, in his address to the San Juan Masonic Society on St. John the Baptist’s day, 1901, titled “On Masonry and its Relation to Religion”, was heard to remark that: The instructions which constitute the hidden or esoteric knowledge of Free Masonry are forbidden to be written, and can only be communicated by oral intercourse of one Mason with another. In all the ancient mysteries, the same reluctance to commit the esoteric instructions of the hierophants to writing is apparent, and hence the secret knowledge taught in the initiations was preserved in the symbols, the true meaning of which was closely guarded from the profane.3 He then was heard to provide an 2. Morals & Dogma, Ch. 13, Royal Arch of Solomon, Albert Pike, pg. 213

3. See Telluride Daily Journal, June 27th, 1901 issue, or the Rocky Mountain Mason, VOl. I, Iss. 2, for a full transcription of this speech.

103

ancient mystery schools from which Freemasonry claims descent was inseparable from astrology.4

overview of many religions and practices all united by the common bond of secrecy.

. That the 7th Liberal Art and Science is Astronomy.

uring the time when the second degree was established in its recognizable form, the line between astronomy and “astrology” was very thin. The one was the operative art enabling a speculative art in the other. They were not, strictly speaking, distinct. The Senior Deacon reminds every Fellow Craft ascending toward the Middle Chamber that: Astronomy is that Divine art by which we are taught to read the wisdom, strength, and beauty of the Almighty Creator in those sacred pages, the Celestial Hemisphere. And: While we are employed in the study of this science, we must perceive unparalleled instances of wisdom and goodness; and through the whole creation trace the glorious Author by his works.

Further, Paul Foster Case (the worthy Masonic author and scholar of the early 20th Century) says in his primer, The Masonic Letter G: Astronomy is the pinnacle of the Masonic pyramid of instruction. Nor should we forget that the astronomy of the 104

. That the Worshipful Master is All Powerful when Running the Lodge.

hile the Master has great prerogatives, he nonetheless cannot act contrary to a motion carried by the Brethren when voted in Lodge assembled. During Installation of the Worshipful Master, the Brother so elected assents to the following tenets before assuming his office: You agree….to submit to the awards and resolutions of your brethren, in Lodge convened, in every case consistent with the Constitutions of Freemasonry… You agree to be cautious in your behavior, courteous to your brethren, and faithful to your Lodge…. It is clear that the Worshipful Master, as the presiding Officer of a Lodge in assembly, is the director of discussion for the fair and open deliberation of his Brethren – not an autocrat bent on enforcing a personal agenda contrary to the will of a majority.

4. The Masonic Letter G, Paul Foster Case, Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., Inc., pgs. 54-55.

. That Masonry Is Not a Religious Society.

he Lecture on the Middle Chamber of the Second Degree clearly establishes the fallacy of this statement: [Masonry] is so far interwoven with religion as to lay us under obligation to pay that rational homage to the Deity which at once constitutes our duty and our happiness. It leads the contemplative Mason to view, with reverence and admiration, the glorious works of creation, and inspires him with the most exalted ideas of the perfections of his Divine Creator. Moreover, the required belief in Deity for membership is worthy to remember.

. That the Chain of Union at the Closing of a Blue Lodge is a Recent Innovation in “Traditional Observance” Masonry.

hile the Chain of Union, represented symbolically by the tessellated border in every regular and well governed Lodge, is not typical of Andersonion Lodge work as practiced today, yet it remains practiced in symbolic Lodge Masonry in South America and Continental Europe, where it has been continually practiced since at least the early nineteenth century, and potentially since Masonry first settled there. Albert G. Mackey informs us: Rocky Mountain Mason

To form the Mystic Chain is for the Brethren to make a circle, holding each other by the hands, as in surrounding a grave, etc. Each Brother crosses his arms in front of his body, so as to give his right hand to his left-hand neighbor, and his left hand to his righthand neighbor. The French call it Chain d’Union. It is a symbol of the close connection of all Freemasons in one common brotherhood.5 Mackey does not specify Companions – and clearly says “Brother” and “Freemasons”. Clearly Albert Mackey was aware of Freemasons practicing the Chain of Union in Blue Lodge Masonry at least as early as the mid-1800s. Let us not forget the Royal Arch closing; which, of course, before the split between the Antients and Moderns in the eighteenth century, was practiced in English Blue Lodges in some Masonic jurisdictions. “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one…” Jn. 17: 22.

2 I

. That Kabbalah is Unimportant to Masonry

n the 4th degree of the A.A.S.R., the Junior Warden specifically states that: An understanding of Mason-

5. Mackey’s Revised Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Albert G. Mackey, The Masonic History Company, 1909, Vol. 1, Pg. 189 Rocky Mountain Mason

ry is impossible without some understanding of the Kabbalah. The Three Pillars of the symbolic Lodge are also taken by Scottish Rite Masons to allude to the three columns of the Etz Chayim (the Tree of Life). Arthur Edward Waite, writing in his A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, states that: The root-matter of much which is shadowed forth in the [Hiramic] Legend, as regards the meaning of the Temple and the search for the Lost Word, is to be found in certain great texts known to scholars under the generic name of Kabalah – a Hebrew word meaning reception, or doctrinal teaching passed on from one to another by verbal communication.6 Albert Pike writes, that “All truly dogmatic religions have issued from the Kabalah and return to it: everything scientific and grand in the religious dreams of all the illuminati, Jacob Boehme, Swendenborg, Saint-Martin, and others, is borrowed from the Kabalah, all the Masonic associations owe to it their secrets and their symbols.”7 And, “Masonry is a search after light. That search leads us directly back, as you see, to the Kabalah.”8 And, let us not forget, that King Solomon, our purported first Grand

Master, is accepted as a Kabbalist by nearly everyone with any knowledge of the subject. Kabbalah should never be mistaken for anything but an oral tradition and symbolic system used to communicate abstract ideas on the question of being.

. That Masonry is “not a secret society”, it’s just “a society with secrets”.

his is explicitly contrary to the 23rd Landmark of the Craft! The Landmarks are unchangeable governing principles which are preserved at all times “in which it is not in the power of any man, or body of men, to make the least innovation”. The 23rd Landmark states: 23. That Masonry is a secret society in possession of secrets that cannot be divulged. Enough said.

6. A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Arthur Edward Waite, University Books, Inc., 1970, pg. 417 7. Morals & Dogma, Albert Pike, Pg. 744. 8. Ibid, pg. 741 105