[As far as I am aware this document is in the Public Domain,

if you know otherwise,

please contact me at c

Colin J…]

There are 45 pages – 16,515 words

colin49mail-index@yahoo.co.uk

A BASIC HISTORICO-CHRONOLOGICAL MODEL OF THE

WESTERN HERMETIC TRADITION

R.Wy. Frater Trevor Stewart, VIII0, SRIA

1 MASONIC INITIATION OF TODAY VIEWED AS A PROCESS

If Masonic Initiation is examined, not as a matter of textual analysis but rather as

a lived-through experience, it becomes clear fairly quickly that it is a process in

which there are some Hermetic features. For the individual candidate his

Initiation is a process that begins even before he makes his application for

admission to membership. The Master and the rest of the Brethren must be

assured that he is ‘properly prepared’. A clue as to the two-fold nature of this

preparation is given in one of the answers which a newly made freemason is

required to give to the Master during a short interrogation before he can be

passed to the Second Degree:

Where were you first prepared to me made a mason?

In my heart.

Where next?

In a convenient room adjoining the Lodge.

His preparation is, therefore

• spiritual and then

• physical.

The physical preparation of a Candidate for Initiation is made dramatic so that he

will always remember it, but few English-speaking freemasons seem to have

given much thought to the nature of the previous spiritual preparation which it is

assumed the Candidate will have effected in the secrecy of his own heart. That is

not surprising because nowhere in any English Craft ritual are Brethren told in so

many words what might be the nature of this prior, inner preparation.

Nevertheless, there are six clues about it in the interrogation which a Candidate

is put through by the Master just after he has managed to cross the threshold.

• He declares himself to be a free man and to be of the full age of 21 years

(these are, of course, simple matters of fact that are easily verified).

• He professes a belief in God and declares that he puts his whole trust in

Him in ‘all cases of difficulty and danger’.

• He asserts that he has presented himself for Initiation of his ‘own free

will and accord’.

• He assures those present that he has not been influenced by ‘any

mercenary or other unworthy motive’ (i.e., that he not come expecting to

gain some kind of mundane advantage from membership of the Order).

• He states that his real reasons for coming forward are that he has

1. a sincere desire for knowledge and

2. an equally sincere wish to make himself ‘more extensively serviceable’

to others.

• He claims that he has already acquired ‘a favourable opinion

preconceived of the Order’ and believes that the order will help him to

acquire this deeper knowledge and an ability to render himself ‘more

extensively serviceable’ to other people.

These are the declarations which all freemasons have to give in open Lodge. If

they reflect that genuine preparation which was wrought in their hearts even

before they came forward to the Master’s pedestal, then they were indeed

‘properly prepared’ to take full advantage of the ceremonials which were only

the beginning of the process of their true Initiation.

The idea of masonic Initiation being a process can be illustrated in three ways.

• Consider the fact that the implements which the newly-made freemason

is presented are working tools. Now forget, for a moment, that each of

them can be interpreted symbolically and ethically. As symbols they all

have meanings that are deeper than those which are communicated in

explicit terms. The crucial fact is that they are instruments of labour.

Hence, they are a collective reminder that

1. hard work is the lot of Man on Earth and

2. sustained and patient effort are the defining characteristics of a true and

conscientious craftsman in the daily use of his working implements,

whatever they might be.

As a freemason, however, the new member has left the multitude of workers in

the ordinary, profane world. Willingly, he has put his hands to a task that

demands not only sustained effort but efforts that are not usually demanded of

those still left in that profane realm.

• Next consider the idea of process and struggle referred to in that

injunction to the Candidate to ‘make a daily advancement in masonic

knowledge’. Naturally, the first feeble steps in this are becoming familiar

with the content of the rituals and committing whole passages of it to

memory. This is an ancient method of mental self-improvement (i.e., a

form of mental training used to train orators and lawyers ) and has been

very ably described by Frances Yates in her books The Art of Memory

(1966) and The Theatre of the World (1969).

• However, mere intellectual assent to the principles inculcated in the

rituals is not enough. To fulfil the purposes for which a Candidate is

initiated, he must assimilate these instructions and the symbols and

allegories into his daily life. And that is not always easy, of course! It is

sometimes very difficult to act according to masonic principles in a world

in which he may have to deal with other folk who are not actuated by the

same principles. Nevertheless, he does have a real responsibility to

adhere as faithfully as he can to those principles – no matter that may

cost. Fortunately, not many are called upon to face the supreme test but

in their everyday lives they do come up against many small matters that

test. These are the ‘repeated trials and approbations’ to which the First

Degree ritual refers and they do not always come from outside.

Sometimes, indeed often, the tests originate internally.

Now this distinction between the objective world outside of ourselves and the

subjective world within ourselves is crucial in order to deepen an appreciation of

what is meant by ‘masonic Initiation’. The apparently simple act of leaving the

outside world and entering a Lodge room can be regarded (as can be seen in the

French ritual to which I shall refer below) as a symbolic action that represents

• a withdrawing from the material realm - a profane world in which we

acquire crude, unrefined experience only via our five physical senses –

and

• an entering into a subjective realm, an inner world, a world of which we

have more immediate, direct and emotional experience.

Actually, in addition to the non-masonic realm of ordinary daily existence, there

are three such inner, subjective worlds between which there can be some conflict

occasionally.

• A man inhabits the world of his emotions and instincts wherein he

experiences pleasure, and sorrow, attraction and repulsion. Desire and

aversion. This is the realm of passions, appetites and standards.

• Simultaneously, a man inhabits a world of reason in which he exercises

his intelligence and acquires and perfects those manifold skills that are

essential for him to master his physical environment.

• At the same time, however, there is a third realm – a spiritual dimension

– beyond the limitations of the other two in which a man’s soul strives

with more or less success towards eventual union with the Deity.

But there are four realms of a freemason’s existence through which he must

pass:

• the ordinary profane world;

• the world of ethical standards or morality;

• the intellectual world of arts and sciences and

• the spiritual dimension in which he communicates with the Deity.

And all four are alluded to by a curious symbol that appears on some of the First

Degree Tracing boards but which is only alluded to in a curious piece of

dialogue in the opening moments of the Third Degree. The Master and the two

Wardens engage in a short catechismical exchange with the Master asking the

questions to which he presumably knows the answers.

Q. Brother Junior Warden, whence come you?

1. From the East, Worshipful Master.

2. Wither directing your course, Brother Senior Warden?

3. Towards the west.

4. Brother Junior Warden, what inducement have you to leave the east and

go to the west?

5. To seek for that which was lost which, by your instruction and our own

endeavours, we

hope to find.

1. Brother Senior Warden, what is that which was lost?

2. The genuine secrets of a Master Mason….

Q. Brother Senior Warden, where do you hope to find them.

A. Upon the centre.

Q. Brother Junior Warden, what is a centre?

A. That point within a circle from which every part of the circumference is

equally distant.

Q. Brother Senior Warden, why upon the centre?

A. Because that is the point from which a Master Mason cannot err.

You will see this encapsulated in an otherwise neglected symbol illustrated

as Fig. 1. I propose to deconstruct this image which is crammed with meaning

because most of that meaning is ignored in English-speaking Lodges today.

The symbol of a plain circle, with a central dot and two parallel tangents drawn

vertically, appeared in the rituals first the middle of the 18th

century when the

Lodges had begun to furnish their own rooms to reflect developments in the

doctrines of the Order much further. By then the Masters had acquired pedestals

(sometimes referred to as the Altars) on which open copies of the Bible would be

placed. On the front of these pedestals and in full view of the Brethren there

would be large pieces of card fixed. On those cards would be drawn simple

circles of such dimensions that the circumferences could touch the outer,

perpendicular edges of the pedestals, the edges of the surfaces on which the

Bibles rested and the floors which had been covered with cloths coloured with

back and white squares. In the centre of these circles would be drawn a single

dots or points. At a later stage, there were two parallel lines drawn as tangents to

the circles to represent the two outer edges, perpendicular edges of the pedestals.

What can be made of this? It is an image that has provided almost endless fun for

those who have become involved in interpreting masonic symbolism. Here are a

few random examples.

• Bro. Thomas Smith Webb (1771-1810), writing in his Freemason’s

Monitor (1797), claimed that

the point represents the individual Brother and the circle the boundary lines of

his duty to God and his fellow creatures.

• Bro. Rev. Dr. George Oliver DD (1782-1867), writing in his Antiquities

of Freemasonry (1823) was of the opinion that

the circle is a primordial symbol, dating from the Paradise of Eden, the Point

being that emblem of Divine omnipresence – the centre everywhere and the

circumference nowhere! The perpendicular parallel lines represent the two trees

in the Garden of Eden – the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge.

• Later that same century, Bro. John Fellows, in his Mysteries of

Freemasonry (1871), concluded that

the Point in the Circle represents the Supreme Being: the Circle indicates the

annual circuit of the Sun; and the parallel lines mark out the solstices within

which that circuit is limited. The freemason, by subjecting himself to ‘due

bounds’, in imitation of ‘that glorious luminary’, will not wander from the path

of duty.

• Bro. J M S Ward, in his Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods (1921),

thought that the parallel lines represent the solstices, or day and night, or

good and evil, or male and female etc., etc. He seemed to be introducing

some extremes into his interpretation but he did make the point which

may be significant:

when travelling round the circle, we are compelled to touch both these poles and

thereby gain through bitter experience that education of the soul is the chief

reason for our birth into this material world.

He went on:

If we were simply being whirled for ever around the circle of Fate, our outlook

would be hopeless but we are ourselves the compasses and the point which rests

on the centre is that Divine Spirit with in each of us and is, therefore, that centre

from which we cannot err.

• According to some of the early versions of William Preston’s Lectures

the two lines were taken to represent the two Saint Johns: that on the left

symbolised St John the Baptist and that on the right symbolised St John

the Evangelist – the two Patrons of the medieval mason craft. Preston

pointed out that, so far as he was concerned:

the two parallels in modern times are applied to exemplify the two St Johns as

Patrons of the Order whose festivities are celebrated near the solstices of those

times when the Sun, in its zodiacal career, touches these two parallels.

These two saints protected the medieval stonemasons’ Craft and half-yearly

Festivals were held to commemorate their Feast Days – 24 June and 27

December respectively – which were conveniently six months apart. In the early

decades of speculative Freemasonry these festivals were retained as occasions on

which the Masters of the Lodges could be ‘chaired’. In an era when English

speculative Freemasonry was still Christian in outlook, these figures of the two

saints represented the beginning and the end of the Christian dispensation as

boundaries of freemasons’ experience: the Baptist was the representative of the

start of Christ’s ministry, while the Evangelist, then believed to have been the

author of the apocalyptic Revelation at the end of the New Testament, was the

representative of the conclusion of Christ’s work on the final Day of Judgement.

Thus the two parallel lines, as minimalist symbols of the two Saint Johns, were

representative of the entire Christian dispensation from its beginning in the River

Jordan to its conclusion on the glassy plain before the Great White Throne.

The neatness with which the zodiac, the sun, the two solstices, the two saints and

the half-yearly ‘chairings’ of Masters of Lodges are all made to inter-lock is

typical of the early 18th

century mentality.

• Later, when the ritual became de-Christianised, this Christian

interpretation of the two lines was replaced by others. For example, in

some detailed MS notes of the Lectures which were being used the mid-

18th

century, there are the following catechismical exchanges mentioning

the dedication of King Solomon’s Temple:

1. How is this dedication designated in Lodges?

2. By a point within a circle within two parallel lines described as tangents

to that circle.

3. Why?

4. As representing the centre of the Universe, the Divine Architect, Whose

goodness we represent by the sun and for the benefits we derive from that

great luminary.

5. What does the circle represent?

6. The zodiac is here represented as the prescribed path of the sun’s system

to mark the limited nature of the most wonderful creatures we behold.

7. What do the parallels represent?

8. The tropics, to remind us of the Supreme Being Who has set bounds to

all creatures and prescribed the

limits of planetary systems.

There was an alternative interpretation of the two parallel tangents that began to

emerge at about the same time (see Fig. 2). The line on the left was now taken to

represent Moses, the giver of the moral law, or the realm of morality; that on the

right was taken to represent King Solomon, who was not only the presiding

Builder of the Holy Temple (itself a metaphor for the freemason’s true

enterprise) but also a personification of wisdom. Thus the two simple parallel

lines came to stand for Moses who represented the realm of ethical conduct and

for Solomon who represented the world of intellectual endeavour. The Bible,

touched by the circumference of the circle, came to represent the third of those

inner worlds inhabited by a freemason referred to above: the realm of the spirit,

or man’s highest spiritual aspirations and communication with the Word of God.

However, the circumference of the circle also touched the black and white

squares of the carpet on the floor of the Lodge room. These black and white

checks have always been taken, ever since their first appearance in Lodge rooms,

to represent the vagaries of the mundane or profane world with its light and dark,

its joys and sorrows, its good and bad, its disappointments and triumphs, its

certainties and uncertainties.

A favourite interpretation in an important, pioneering study of masonic

symbology from the later part of the 18th

century by Bro. William Hutchinson

FSA (1732-1814) is as follows:

As the steps of Man are trod in the various and uncertain incidents of Life, as our

days are chequered with a strange contrariety of events, as our passage through

this existence (though sometimes attended with prosperous circumstances) is

often beset by a multitude of evils – hence are our Lodges furnished with mosaic

work to remind us of the precariousness of our mortal state on this earth – Today

our feet may stride in prosperity; tomorrow we trotter on the uneven paths of

weakness, temptation and adversity. Whilst this emblem is before us, we are

instructed to boast of nothing, to have compassion and to give aid to those who

are in Adversity … Such is this existence that there is no station in which Pride

can be stably founded …

The circle, a traditional symbol for eternity, can be interpreted as that track

described by freemasons as they pursue their self-appointed task and pilgrimage

while inhabiting the four realms described. It is bounded, like this circle, on four

sides: on the left by the line that represents the realm of morality (Moses); on the

right by the line that represents the realm of the intellect or wisdom (Solomon);

at the top by the Bible representing the world of the spirit and at the bottom by

the squared pavement representing the profane, precarious and ordinary world.

Clearly the point within the centre of the circle was put there to remind Brethren

that a proper, undistorted circle could be drawn to touch equally each of the

symbolic representations of the four inhabited worlds but only if the centre was

used. Imagine, therefore, that the individual freemason is a pair of compasses.

One of his legs is extended on the point and the other is used to describe the

circumference of the circle that will just touch each of those four realms in turn.

If the freemason deviates from that point (i.e., if he steps away from the

designated centre) then the circle which he can describe cannot touch those four

realms equally. There will be an inevitable distortion such that one or more of

them will be favoured to the exclusion or detriment of the others. In other words,

if he does not move away from the central point, the circle which he can describe

will touch them all equally.

The point from which a freemason cannot err is that in the centre of the circle

because the track which he can describe (by living his life truly and constantly in

complete accordance with the principles he is taught in his Lodge) will proceed

touching all of those four inhabited realms with equanimity and harmony. If he

leaves that point, then his track through though four realms will become

unbalanced, characterised by excessive attention to one or other of those realms

to the neglect of the others. Thus, this simple symbol serves to remind a

freemason that excessive mundane activity, excessive dedication to ethical

conduct, excessive intellectualism or even excessive concentration of things of

the world of the spirit will distort his total existence. A freemason’s inhabiting of

the four realms should ideally receive due care and cultivation, keeping each

realm in true perspective and recognising the proper limits and proportions of

each. In this way his life, taken as a whole, will become balanced and

symmetrical. In this way he may become a Perfect Ashlar, one that is fitted for

its proper place in the spiritual temple.

Frankly, however, not much is made of this Hermetic image or any of the others

which have been mentioned already in this paper. The general level of Hermetic

exploration on a regular basis in English-speaking Lodges is now minimal. Their

present state of philosophical impoverishment has accumulated for more than

150 years since the compromise formulation which defined Freemasonry in

minimalist terms at the union of the two rival Grand Lodges in London in 1813.

That Union created the present UGLE which has formally shunned making any

clear recommendations regarding possible interpretations of symbols or even

propounding any syllabus for systematic study. It does not even espouse an

official ritual and, to this day, there are several popular rituals in circulation.

Their textual differences are, of course, minimal largely because of the explicit

‘doctrinal’ injunction that it is not possible for any one to introduce any major

innovation into the body of Freemasonry without properly seeking and obtaining

the express permission from the UGLE. Much is made of avoiding such

innovations, thereby preserving the so-called ‘Landmarks’ of the Order, but the

UGLE has made no known effort to define what they might be. This is a policy

of avoidance, of what not to do rather than a proactive one that might engender

further spiritual growth among its adherents.

The UGLE has not propounded any agreed list of these defining ‘Landmarks’ of

the fraternity. A document, adopted in 1949, printed thereafter as part of the

‘Introductory’ section in each successive edition of the Book of Constitutions and

entitled ‘Aims and Relationships of the Craft’, might be assumed to set out the

fundamental principles but, in summary form (as below) these are simplistic:

• Belief in ‘the Supreme Being’ is a sine qua non to membership;

• The Volume of the Sacred Law, whatever that might be, must be open

when a Lodge is open for its meetings;

• All candidates must take their Obligations by touching that particular

sacred book;

• All freemasons must be peaceful and law-abiding subjects who obey the

laws of whichever country they happen to reside in but without denying

their primal allegiance which they owe to their own sovereigns;

• All freemasons, as ordinary citizens, are entitled to hold their own

political opinions but, while in Lodge meetings (i.e., while acting as

freemasons) they cannot discuss political or religious topics;

• Freemasonry is totally impartial as to relations between governments and

parties and towards political philosophies.

There is nothing much of Hermeticism here. Indeed, the UGLE expressly refuses

to participate in any conferences that are designed to examine the principles and

symbols of Freemasonry generally while Clause 11 of its declared ‘Aims’ states

that ‘There is no secret with regard to any of the basic principles of

Freemasonry’ but the UGLE will ‘in no circumstances … enter into a[ny]

discussion with a view to any new or varied interpretation of them’ – especially

when such gatherings are organised by, or which include, [irregular] freemasons

who they claim do not adhere to these few basic principles. American

freemasons have not been nearly so reticent but they have hardly revealed any

thinking that might be called ‘Hermetic’. For instance, over 70 years ago Albert

G. Mackey (in his Encylopaedia of Freemasonry, 1925 and in his Jurisprudence

of Freemasonry, 1927) compiled an interesting analysis of the lists of

‘Landmarks’ that were being propounded by 24 Grand Lodges in the USA and

an authoritative commentary on this compilation was published in The

Philalethes Magazine (May, 1946). It is worthwhile quoting this listing in

summary form if only to demonstrate the poverty of thinking.

• Freemasons must believe in the existence of the Supreme Being, in the

certain revelation of His will, the resurrection of the body and the soul’s

immortality.

• They take solemn Obligations and use traditional means of mutual

recognition.

• Symbols – derived from Solomon’s Temple, the legends of that king and

his partners in the temple building, the observed habits and customs of

the construction workers so employed and from the instruments and

materials used therein - are used ritually to teach moral virtues, goodwill

and the doctrines of natural religion.

• Freemasons must obey the moral laws and the government of any

country in which they reside.

• The Grand Master is the sovereign of the Order, the Worshipful Master is

the presiding officer of the subordinate Lodges and the Grand Lodge is

the only governing body within its territorial jurisdiction.

• Each Lodge is entitled to be represented by its three principle officers at

meetings of the respective Grand Lodge.

• Lodges alone have the power to initiate and are free to administer their

own private business.

• All candidates for initiation must be of majority age, free-born, strong

and healthy. They must be voted for openly and in secret by all of the

subscribing members of the Lodge and only after careful investigation as

to their character and background.

• All freemasons, as freemasons, are equal and all Lodges and Grand

Lodges are equal in status.

• No member of the Order may be installed as a Master of a Lodge unless

he has served at least the office of a steward of that Lodge, unless he

obtains a special (prior) dispensation from the Grand Master.

• The content of the Obligations, the means of mutual recognition and the

ceremonies used by the Lodges in the conferment of the Degrees are

secret and must be kept as such by all members.

• No innovation can be made in ‘the body of Freemasonry’ because the

‘Ancient Landmarks’ are the supreme law of Freemasonry and they

cannot be changed or repealed.

Leaving aside the various criticisms that might be levelled against these

‘fundamental principles’, it is clear that even these more elaborate listings do not

contain much that could be called ‘Hermetic’. Indeed, the distinctly non-

Hermetic feature is the explicit refusal to allow any exploration of the symbolism

and legends by subjecting them to discussive analysis. That is not how the giants

of the western Hermetic tradition behaved in the past!

It was perhaps to remedy this perceived doctrinal diffidence that various other

institutions have emerged in the English-speaking masonic world. For instance,

almost every Province in England has at least one ‘lecture’ Lodge to which

Brethren may belong. These meet usually only three or four times each year

when a lecture on some aspect of masonic history (or more rarely symbolism) is

delivered by a guest speaker. This is a typical sharman-disciple relationship with

the non-interactive bestowal of information, some historico-philosophical insight

and interpretations. There are also a few genuine research Lodges. Full

membership to these is limited though their annual transactions are published

widely. Mostly these bodies are concerned with charting the ‘archaeology’ of

Freemasonry. The most important, and oldest, of these is the famed ‘Quatuor

Coronati’ Lodge. It is worthwhile pointing out in the present context, that one its

earliest members was Bro. Dr Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) and he made several

attempts to steer the representatives of the prevailing ‘authentic’ school of

masonic historiography into considering the possibility of Freemasonry having

more occult origins. That approach was ridiculed then and anyone who has tried

to make similar suggestions since then has received a similar response generally

from the members.

In contrast to this somewhat narrow orthodoxy the Masonic Study Society was

founded in London in 1921 by Alvin L. Coburn, James S. Ward and Walter L.

Wilmshurst et alia. Their aim was to encourage the study of masonic symbolism,

to chart its origins and possible interpretations along anthropological lines.

Avoiding the methodology espoused by the so-called ‘authentic’ school, this

group is still active and studies Freemasonry in light of cultural phenomena that

are broadly similar, in the past and present. They use approaches that have been

adopted in the fields of comparative religion and folklore studies. They view

Freemasonry as a living organism. Their published transactions are circulated

world-wide and devote special attention to the symbolic and mystical

interpretation of the various masonic Degrees. The Dormer Study circle, founded

also in London in 1938, has almost exactly similar objectives though it meets

more frequently. Their discussions tend to be rather more free ranging than those

of the MSS. But these efforts (and there are many others throughout the English-

speaking masonic world) to broaden the methodology of masonic research have

never prevailed widely and the ‘authentic’ school, preoccupied with its self –

appointed mission to chart only the archaeology of Freemasonry, still dominates

scholastic efforts.

Of course, it could be claimed that this official diffidence in propounding an

official line in doctrine or the interpretation of symbols is deliberate. It was

adopted knowing that the Brethren would be facilitated thereby in formulating

their own interpretations. If they were allowed the freedom to do that then they

could grow more profoundly in spiritual insight. If that were the reason, then it

has failed because, in the English-speaking masonic world, at the individual

Lodge level, most Brethren have become preoccupied with rank within an ever-

expanding organisational hierarchy, regalia and other externalities. They pay

great attention to the correct, meticulous performance of the rituals but seldom

are they given opportunities are examine or debate the detail or the underlying

principles. Their so-called Lodges of Instruction have become Lodges of

rehearsal when the ceremonial skills of serving officers are perfected. It has

always been the mark of institutions in terminal decline that they become

obsessed with the minutiae of organisation, with procedures, status and the

things that they take to represent status. They generate masses of paper in the

mistaken supposition that to document problems is to solve them.

A BASIC HISTORICO-CHRONOLOGICAL MODEL OF THE

WESTERN HERMETIC TRADITION

2 SOME EVIDENCE OF EARLY MASONIC INVOLVEMENT IN

‘HERMETICISM’

Something has been said already that there may be Hermetic traces in the

masonic rituals but it is when we look for any trace of Hermetic involvement in

the earliest days of English speculative Freemasonry that we encounter a familiar

difficulty. The Lodges’ records from the early decades of the 18th

century are

scrappy – to say the least. Their secretaries were not always diligent in keeping

the records and even in making the required Annual Returns of their members to

the Premier Grand Lodge. There was a sustained, widespread resentment of such

interference from London. Generally, those Minute Books that do survive only

provide dates, places and rough indications who attended the meetings and what

office (if any) hey took during the ceremonies. Even the Premier Grand Lodge

itself does not seem to have bothered to keep Minutes of its own proceedings

until five years after its founding and although Scotland has splendid sets of

Lodge records (some of which date from the late 16th

century!), they too very

fragmentary in their detail. Even so, much has been made of the experience of

the ancient Lodges in Kilwinning, Aberdeen and Edinburgh which were

attracting ‘gentlemen’ as members even in the middle of the 17th

century. The

point which David Stevenson and others have made recently is that something

extraordinary must have been occupying these Lodges to make these busy

educated men want to join and – what is perhaps more important – to retain their

memberships over several decades and to celebrate that membership - as does

that notable alchemist, Latin scholar and artillery officer Sir Robert Moray FRS

for instance.

With this in mind perhaps something tentative might be said about what may

have been Hermetic features of the ‘work’ by a few members of some of the

earliest English Lodges. There were possibly some esoteric characteristics but

they were short-lived and fragmentary. Perhaps they indicated the emergence of

a broadly based Hermetic approach but, in the English cultural climate that was

severely pragmatic and sceptical in outlook, they did not survive for long. The

general nature of those early activities and, by implication, the underlying

Hermetic principles seem to have been lost somehow from English-speaking

Freemasonry since those formative times.

As indicated above, we have to rely mostly on evidence that does not come from

the Lodges themselves. For example, the Letter of Verus Commodus (1725), an

anti-masonic pamphlet, refers scornfully to

the August Title of Kabalists … a Knot of whimsical, delirious Wretches who

are caballing together, to extirpate all manner of Science, Reason and Religion.

One of the better-known pieces of evidence is part of an obscure 1715

publication entitled Long Livers, an English translation of a French book by De

Longeville Harcouet. The translator and editor was one ‘Eugenius Philalethes

FRS’ (= the talented Robert Samber, a prolific translator and author). It is his

‘Dedicatory Letter’ to Long Livers that contains some pertinent references to

Hermetic activities that may have been occurring among some early groups of

English freemasons. Samber claims that Freemasonry belongs to ‘an

uninterrupted Tradition’ and that individual freemasons are ‘living stones built

[into] a spiritual house’, ‘a chosen Generation, a royal Priesthood’ as well as

‘imprisoned … exiled Children …’ and ‘Sons of Science … who are illuminated

with the sublimest Mysteries and profoundest secrets …’. God is conceptualised

as ‘the Centre of all Things, yet [HE] knows no Circumference’. There were

many hermetic books published in a great variety in European languages in the

early decades of the 18th

century so Samber was probably well acquainted with

at least the vocabulary. This is shown repeatedly, for example, in his Treatise of

the Plague (1721) which he also dedicated to the then Grand Master, the Duke of

Montague. What is also interesting to note in this ‘Dedicatory Letter’ is that

Samber mentions that were several levels of masonic understanding and this was

within a mere five years of the founding of the Premier Grand Lodge. When he

addresses his fellow freemasons, the dedicatees, he draws a clear distinction

between

those of you who are not far illuminated, who stand in the outward Place and are

not yet worthy to look behind the Veil

and ‘those who have … greater Light’.

There is some evidence of Hermetic involvement in some of the Lodges’

inventories. English Lodges owned very few books, of course, but one of those

titles which features often in these lists is The Voyages of Cyrus by the Chevalier

Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686-1743). Ramsay had probably been initiated in c.

1728 in the Old Horn Lodge (Westminster) shortly after his return to England

after a 20-year sojourn in various European cities. His career and his [in]famous

Oration (1737) have attracted plenty of attention. Apart from his education

connections with the Royal House of Stuart in exile, he was masonically and

culturally the equal of many of the FRS who joined that Lodge at about the same

time. His first work, however, which dealt in a fictional form with copious

learned excursions into ancient theological and philosophical systems, was his

very popular Voyages de Cyrus (1727). In this and other writings, Ramsay shows

himself to have been the intellectual heir of the Cambridge Platonist, Ralph

Cudworth (1616-1688), whose True Intellectual System of the Universe (1st

end.,1678) was hugely influential in the cultural life of the nation then. It was

after his Initiation that Ramsay had his Voyages de Cyrus translated into English

by Bro. Nathaniel Hooke (d. 1763) and he added a long ‘Discourse upon the

Theology and Mythology of the Ancients’ in which he attempted to support his

narrative with precise if somewhat obscure references to classical literature,

providing extensive quotations in the original languages and including copies

extracts from esoteric texts such as the Hermetica, the Oracula Chaldaica and

the Orphica. It was an extremely popular venture which went through 30 English

editions, and was even translated in German, Italian, Spanish and Greek. The

fact that the masonic Lodges purchased copies and loaned them out to members

would seem to suggest a taste of such Hermetic ‘exploration’ then amongst

ordinary freemasons.

Then there are other clues in the following hitherto unexploited particular

sources:

• the records of the Old King’s Arms Lodge, now no. 28, which still meets in London;

• the mysterious collection of Kaballistic drawings known as the Byrom Collection and

named after their enigmatic former owner, John Byrom FRS (1691-1763), a Jacobite,

inventor of a primitive form of short-hand writing, freemason and spy;

• the ritual of the Order of Heredom which became transmuted eventually into the present

day Royal Order of Scotland and

• the Royal Arch Ceremony.

The Old King’s Arms Lodge began its long history in 1725. When it began

there were only 14 members. The first extant Minute Book covers the years

1733-1756 after the Lodge had moved to the King’s Arms Tavern in the Strand.

By then there were 43 new members, none of whom had been among the

original founders. A tradition had been acquired somehow of being ‘entertained’

by lectures on a whole variety of abstruse subjects at the regular meetings.

Within just one decade (6 August 1733 to 4 January 1743) there were 36

lectures/demonstrations that can be described broadly as ‘Hermetic’ in the

broadest sense. It is worthwhile recalling the subjects of these lectures:

Topic No. of Lectures

(Human) Physiology, including practical dissections (!) 7

Scientific phenomena and techniques 7

Ethical concepts 6

Architecture 5

Industrial processes 3

Mechanical inventions and scientific apparatus 3

Art and aesthetics 2

History (classical) 1

Masonic apparel 1

Mathematics 1

Even though it was only one of about 60 Lodges in and around London at that

time, the frequency of these meetings of the Old King’s Arms Lodge and the fact

that they were continued over a decade would seem to suggest at least something

about the character and intellectual background of the membership of this

particular London Lodge. It hints at what they regarded a legitimate or proper

working of a masonic Lodge (i.e., that it was not merely a Degree ‘factory’ or a

convivial foregathering in a tavern).

The variety of topics is revealing itself. It shows the London Enlightenment

gentlemen freemason at his leisure, interested in the practical application of

sciences and in the philosophical bases of ethical concepts, his vision rooted

firmly in this world though hardly limited or inward-looking. His Freemasonry

has not yet become introverted, feeding only on itself. His was a clearly marked

fascination with measuring and quantification which not only suggests

something of the English Enlightenment mentalite in general but also goes some

way to explaining in particular the frequency of the references to geometry and

practical measuring apparatus which came to proliferate throughout the English

masonic rituals.

Sadly, however, the ‘Hermetic’ exploration by the members of this Lodge

declined in the late 1740s. Even by the early years of that decade there is some

indication in the Minute Book that the original impetus for papers was abating.

On 2 February 1743 there is a reference to fact that

frequent Disappointments had happened by Brethren not performing their

Promises of giving Lectures

and by the end of the year (7 December 1743) things had become even more

desperate obviously because the Minutes state

The Master called upon several Brethren to oblige the Lodge with a Lecture

upon any useful subject which not being compiled with, Sir Robert Lawley was

so kind to offer a further continuance of a lecture in Masonry either on the next

or the succeeding Lodge night…

In case it may be thought that this approach to Freemasonry was unique to only

one London Lodge in those days, it may be worthwhile recalling that the practice

of having lectures delivered regularly at Lodge meetings was wide-spread.

According to Francis Drake of York in 1726

… most Lodges in London, and several other Parts of this Kingdom, [my

emphasis] a Lecture on some Point of Geometry or Architecture is given at every

Meeting …

Bro. William Smith of Gateshead, in the Preface to his compilation The Book M

(1736), wrote that he recommended to his subscribing readers in their Lodges

the Studys (sic) of Geometry and Architecture and that there should never pass a

Lodge Night without some Discourse upon those Heads….

The anonymous author of the half-exposure/half-apology of Freemasonry, A

Word to the Wise (1795), reported that

from the Minute Books of various lodges in the earliest dates, it would appear

that the Members were not content with merely proceeding in the usual form of

Masonry, but Lectures were occasionally given by those who were qualified in

the branches of the Arts and Sciences.

The same author noted that the members of the Grand Stewards’ Lodge meeting

in London

in particular on their public nights entertained their visitors with a diversity of

knowledge … Natural Philosophy in general, dissertations on the laws and

properties of Nature, the doctrine of fluids etc., were commented upon and

explained. These subjects were gratifications to the intelligent and which

primarily distinguished this fountain of honour.

There are traces of ‘Hermetic’ lectures being delivered to meetings elsewhere.

For instance, Desaguliers delivered such an oration on 24 June 1721 to the

Premier Grand Lodge in Stationers’ Hall in the City of London. Five years later,

referring to an as yet untraced London Lodge of ‘Antediluvian Masons’ due to

meet in the Ship Tavern in Bishopsgate Street on 24 June 1726, a newspaper

advertisement mentioned that there would be

several lectures on Ancient Masonry, particularly on the Signification of the

Letter G … a particular Description of the Temple of Solomon … [as well as] an

Oration in the Henlean stile (sic).

Martin Clare, a London schoolmaster, ‘entertained’ the members of the Grand

Stewards’ Lodge on 17 November 1735 with

an excellent Discourse containing some maxims and Advice that concerned the

Society in general.

According to the later ‘testimony’ of Oliver, Clare’s

grave and quiet method of delivery made a strong impression on the audience

and [his] conclusion was received with loud approbation…

Certainly his lecture was considered to be so good by those present that they

asked the Master of the Lodge, one Sir Robert Lawley – a Kabbalistic associate

of Byrom (see below) – to recommend to the Grand Lodge that they hear it

again. This was done on 11 December 1735 to ‘great Attention and Applause’.

Clare later had the revised text printed in a yet untraced pamphlet and this

version was translated thereafter into both French and German (1754).

John Byrom’s life and taste for Hermeticism have been described already by

Joy Hancox. His library is revelatory. A catalogue of his 3,300+ titles and 40+

MSS was printed privately in 1848 and fortunately most of the collection came

to the Chetham Library in Manchester in 1870. This collection reveals Byrom’s

sustained interest in theology, ecclesiastical history, liturgy, apologetics,

mysticism and ‘the occult’. For instance, there were 26 titles by his close friend,

the non-juror mystic William Law (1636-1761) as well as first editions of

Agrippa’s De Occulta Philosophia (1533) and Porta’s Natural Magick (1591).

There were also books on necromancy and witchcraft together with copies of

Reuchlin’s De Arte Caballistica, The Divine Pymander and Dee’s Monas

Hierogylphica. There were many of the standard mathematical and geometrical

texts, works by Descartes, books on trigonometry and a wide selection of

alchemical texts, ranging from Bacon to Boyle. There were contemporary

scientific works too, including the standard works of Newton and the then latest

volumes on electricity and magnetism as well as books on codes, including a

rare, valuable copy of John Falconer’s early work on codes Cryptomenis

Patefacta (1685). Byrom’s interest in physiology and medicine is reflected in his

ownership of texts ranging from Galen and Paracelsus, Elizabethan herbals and

pharmocopeias to the latest research in inoculation. In addition, his collection

contained Rosicrucian texts by Andrea, Maier and Vaughan.

Byrom’s enthusiasm for Hermetic exploration is also evidenced in his

membership of a discussion group known only from many references to it in his

journal as the ‘Sun Club’. This group of freemasons met weekly at various

London taverns from the late 1720s, including the Goose and Gridiron tavern in

St Paul’s Churchyard. It included some interesting personalities some of whom,

such as Martin Folkes, George Graham, James Jurin and Ralph Leycester, were

active freemasons. Sadly, there are no surviving clues as to what these

enthusiasts discussed at their weekly gatherings but we can glean some

impression perhaps by reference to the published records of a comparable

provincial group of which some of them were also members: the Spalding

Gentlemen’s Society. The latter group had a permanent home. This enabled them

to accumulate their own library and museum, a physics garden and even their

own harpsichord (for their frequent musical recitals). Their lectures,

demonstrations and discussions covered a wide range of literary and scientific

topics, including archaeology, astronomy, biology, engineering, horticulture,

mathematics, medicine and ornithology, and the prestige of the group might be

indicated by the fact that no less a personage than Newton was a member.

These were the fairly conventional enthusiasms of leisured middle-class

amateurs. The general features of their interest in literature, history, science and

mathematics, as cultural phenomenon have been very well delineated and there

is nothing much that might be called classically Hermetic in their discussions.

However, Byrom wanted to expand the range of his inquiries with his

companion explorers so, on 9 March 1725, he proposed to the members of the

‘Sun Club’ the formation of an inner group to be called the ‘Caballah Club’. This

also met regularly but more secretly in London taverns and it is the activities of

this smaller group of Hermeticists, some of whom at least were freemasons, that

is most interesting.

The range of their occult discussions is shown by the unique Byrom Collection

which was found (accidentally) in 1969. This collection consists of 516 separate

pieces of paper and card, of varying thicknesses, sizes and shapes. The materials

range from thick and mottled coarse card to fine paper. Some of them (171) can

be dated from the mid- to late-17th

century using watermarks which are well-

known. They consist of drawings, done very carefully by hand and using

geometrical precision instruments. Some are coloured yellow and gold and a few

have the telltale press marks which show that they may have been patterns for

printing. There is a variety of styles of calligraphy, beautifully styled and

executed, displaying a remarkable consistent standard of penmanship over

several generations of scribes. Viewed generally, the drawings date from the late

1570s to 1732 but the MS comments in margins are written in English, French,

German and Latin in a variety of cursive styles that were common in the mid-

17th

and early-18th

centuries. At least some of these drawings may have been

copied from a curious Rosicrucian collection, or scrapbook, in the British

Library that had been compiled pseudonymously by a ‘Theophilus

Schweighardt’ and is entitled Speculum Sophicum Rhodo-Stauroticum (1618).

There are two crucial considerations to take into account when assessing the

importance and relevance of this collection. Firstly, it was a collection, kept

secretly in tact among the Byrom family archives. Secondly, there are several

signs that these curious pieces of MSS were actually working drawings that were

referred to and passed around (perhaps among several people who knew their

significance). For instance, many of them have very old coffee stains and candle

wax marks. Some others have hastily scrawled notes added. Yet others have

pierced holes from the repeated practical use of compasses. Moreover, the whole

sequence, as it was discovered, had been rearranged by someone so that they do

not appear in any logical sequence. Still others have larger holes at their ‘top’

edges hinting probably that they were hung up on string in displays. Others have

tiny pencil dots which would imply that at least one user has been engaged in

measuring the dimensions of the figures therein.

The drawings cover an interesting range of topics. Lots of them display plans of

at least five well-known London theatres dating from Elizabethan and Jacobean

times. These are based largely on the plans of Roman theatres based on a French

version of Vitruvius and others based on Palladian designs. Several are drawings

of complex timber roofing constructions, such as the Rhenish Helm format. The

drawings are so accurate that it has been proved possible to reconstruct a three-

dimensional scale model of the Globe Theatre using some of them.

Another group of the drawings are concerned with ‘sacred’ locations – such as

King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; the Temple in London and Westminster

Abbey. Others depict complex military fortifications from Renaissance Italy.

Another group shows miscellaneous symbols that have Hermetic significance:

the letter Tau, the Swastika, the Hexalpha and the Hexagon. There is a group of

compass cards to be used in navigation. One card depicts the five Platonic

Solids; another shows the Tree of Life and several show designs for three-

dimensional lectern-shaped sundials and 24-hour clocks such as those at

Lamancha and Haddington in Scotland.

Of especial interest and relevance in the present connection are the names of

men whom the MSS mention and who are known to have strong Rosicrucian

and/or Hermetic connections: Colet, Riley, Fludd, Dee, Le Bon, Boehme, Meirer

and Khunrath. This is a veritable Who’s Who of the western Hermetic tradition.

The Order of Heredom originated among Scots freemasons living mostly in or

around London. It was formed in the early 1730s to correct the abuses which

they perceived to have crept into St John’s Masonry. This so-called ‘Scots (or

Ecossais) Masonry’ was intended to form a superior, more knowledgeable

Freemasonry and its members attributed to themselves a sort of supervisory,

inspectorial role. It was certainly resented by some of the leading members of the

Premier Grand Lodge because its very raison d’etre was to correct the mistakes

which the latter were alleged to have been introducing into Freemasonry by,

inter alia, abbreviating the ‘Lectures’. Another reason for it being rejected by the

London-based masonic authorities then could have been its popularity among

freemasons in France, England’s traditional enemy.

The ritual contains distinctively Hermetic and Kabbalistic themes. Among the

most important of these are:

1. mystical perambulations representing the soul’s pilgrimage in search of a Lost

Word;

2. an recurring emphasis on numbers (e.g., 9, 7, 5 and 3);

3. references to the Seven Wonders of the World;

4. allusions to men who are said never to have died (e.g., Enoch transported by

fire into Heaven);

5. references to the descent and removal of the Divine Shekinah;

6. escape from the imprisoning confines of human physicality;

7. admission into a ‘Cabinet of Wisdom’;

8. allusions to Kabbalistic dimensions assigned to the Christian Church and to the

generality of the east-west alignment of all sacred buildings;

9. remarkable passages encapsulating an apocalyptic vision of the Last

Judgement.

Part of its regalia is a thistle green cordon or baldrick and so the Order of

Heredom may have been the so-called ‘green-ribbonned cabal’ which is referred

to several times in some of the contemporary anti-masonic literature. However, it

died out quickly in England probably because of the determined opposition of

the Premier Grand Lodge. After c. 1756 it was transported to Edinburgh where it

became transformed into what is now called ‘The Royal Order of Scotland’. That

Order is still very active on a world-wide basis, is much cherished and continues

to contribute a distinguished Scottish variety of Hermetic ‘lived-through’

experience in a masonic context for the Brethren who are privileged to be invited

to join its elite ranks.

With the departure into Scotland of the Order of Heredom (‘Heredim’ =

‘Princes’ or ‘Rulers’), the English masonic landscape became even more

impoverished as far is any emergent Hermeticism is concerned. In one way the

intensity of the esoteric vision which it represented was replaced by the Royal

Arch ceremony with its emphasis on the deliberate burial of a secret ‘Word’ in

an underground vault within the Temple precincts and the accidental discovery

of that secret ‘text’ by stonemasons employed in the reconstruction of the

Temple after the return of the remnant of faithful Jews from their 70 years of

captivity in Babylon. The esoteric features of the Royal Arch ceremony include

the following:

• a subterranean cave;

• concealment of arcaneities (texts and carved inscriptions) in that vault in order to

preserve them from the profane;

• the legend of the accidental discovery of those secrets by ordinary workers who could

not understand at first what it was they had found until the significance was explained to

them;

• the rewarding of those discoverers;

• the revealing of the meaning of that hitherto hidden Word which is taken to refer to the

Supreme Deity.

The theme of a subterranean vault containing hidden artefacts and accompanying

the discovery of these with Hermetic instruction is echoed also in the Royal

Master Degree – one of a sequence of four Degrees invented in the mid—19th

century. In that ceremony, the Neophyte is accompanied by a ‘Magus’ figure on

seven circular perambulations around the precious Ark of the Covenant buried

below Solomon’s Temple. During that journeying, the elder man imparts his

accumulated wisdom to his new disciple in a lengthy oration. However, the

sequence of Degrees, known collectively as the Royal and select Masters, is not

very popular among English-speaking freemasons and only a tiny minority of

brethren ever bother to join.

Furthermore, what cannot be denied is that the Royal Arch ceremony was not

always accepted officially among members of the Premier Grand Lodge as part

of ‘pure’ Freemasonry, even though some of them were active members of what

they regarded as a separate masonic Order. Indeed, for several decades in the

early 18th

century there was active opposition and discouragement of Premier

Grand Lodge Brethren from taking part in Royal Arch ceremonies. It found

acceptance only slowly and its popularity increased fitfully throughout the 18th

century. Its ritual is preserved today (more or less) although some of its zodiacal

features were removed in the extensive revisions in the 1830s. However, the

presence today of the Royal Arch ceremony does not prove that there are

surviving Hermetic elements in speculative Freemasonry that influence the

‘living-through’ experience of English-speaking freemasons generally. The

Royal Arch is still not popular. Only a third of English freemasons ever bother to

join it. In Scotland it is still regarded officially by that Grand Lodge as no part of

‘ancient’ Freemasonry. Officially, the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Royal

Arch of Scotland do not recognise each other’s existence even though, of course,

most of the Royal Arch ‘Chapters’ do meet in premises owned and operated by

Craft Lodges and some of the leading office-bearers of the Scottish Craft have

also been simultaneously the prominent office-bearers in the Royal Arch Order.

3 SOME EUROPEAN INITIATIONS TODAY

Today the same intellectual approach is demonstrated in three rites which are

widespread in Europe:

• the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite (33 Degrees);

• the Rectified Scottish Rite (6 Degrees) and

• the Scandinavian Rite (10 Degrees).

A Candidate’s advancement through any of these three systems is slow,

sometimes occupying him in decades of sustained effort to understand and

explain the symbols and doctrines of each successive Degree. Moreover, the

Candidates have to prove to the other, more senior members of their Lodges their

proficiency and understanding of the symbols before they are allowed to make

further progress.

In all English-speaking Constitutions, the first three Degrees of the Ancient &

Accepted Scottish Rite (AASR) are not worked because the ordinary three Craft

Degrees are regarded by convention in those constitutions as being their

equivalent. Besides, only sovereign Craft bodies in the English-speaking world

are allowed historically to initiate newcomers. In fact, in terms of their

symbolism the Craft Degrees and the first three of the AASR are far from

similar. The same sort of ‘shortening’ applies to the Rectified Scottish Rite

(RER). However, all of the 10 Degrees in the Scandinavian Rite are worked in

those countries where it has been adopted. In Europe, in the AASR, the 4th

-33rd

Degrees are worked fully. In Scotland and Ireland, however, the 4th

-13th

Degrees

and the 19th

-28th

Degrees are simply conferred on appropriate Candidates by

name. The 14th

-18th

Degrees and the 29th

-33rd

Degrees are worked in extensio. In

America the whole of the series 4th

-33rd

Degrees can be gone through in a single

weekend by Candidates who are properly qualified residentially. In England, the

4th

-17th

Degrees are conferred by name, the 18th

Degree is worked completely.

Thereafter, the 19th

-29th

degrees are also conferred by name for the few

appropriately qualified Candidates who are elected to the 30th

-33rd

Degrees in

ever-more exclusive groups. No formal proofs of competence or of doctrinal

understanding are ever exacted at any stage. The English-speaking Constitutions

tend not to take the proving of a Candidate’s competence very seriously.

Generally, they have no way of knowing his Hermetic preparedness for further

enlightenment.

This lack of intellectualising and lack of intensity in spirituality in the English-

speaking masonic world can be seen even more markedly in the admission

ceremonies and procedures as practised on the Continent. The Hermetic themes

of the European rites can be illustrated by referring in some detail to current

French and Dutch rituals for their First Degrees. The Scandinavian system,

superimposed on the basic Craft ritual, is controlled rigorously. It is entirely

Christian in symbolism and much more complex but it is almost impossible for

‘outsiders’ to be accorded the privilege of examining those rituals even for the

purposes of academic study.

There are at least seven varieties of masonic Initiation practised in France in the

three major Obediences: the Grand Orient de France, the Grand Loge de France

and the (regular) Grand Loge Nationale de France (the GNLF:

• a 18th

century Russian ritual;

• a Ukrainian ritual;

• two varieties of an 18th

century northern French ritual;

• the Rectified Scottish Rite, referred to generally as the RER (Rite

Ecossais Rectifie), which has nothing to do with Scotland I assure you

but which can be worked by any Lodge who wish to use it;

• the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (AASR, the first three Degrees

are worked in those Lodges which so chose) and

• a reasonably new French ritual which differs only slightly from the

previous two ceremonies.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that most Lodges in the three

Obediences are empowered by the terms of their Charters to work the first three

Degrees in any or all of the RER, the AASR or the new standard French rite. So

a particular Lodge may decide to work say a First Degree from the RER at one

of its public meetings, and the Brother who is thus initiated must wait until the

next open meeting at which a Second Degree in the same series is being worked.

Meanwhile, the Lodge may have decided to work a different Degree in one of

the other Rites. It sounds complicated and it certainly lends plenty of variety.

Some of the crucial differences between English speculative Freemasonry and

the main Continental varieties that are current, especially comparing the different

qualities of the ‘lived-through’ Hermetic experience which they provide, might

be best understood by using the metaphor of taking a train journey. A freemason

who has completed the basic three Degrees may want to make further progress in

developing his understanding. In England, to achieve this extra ‘insight’ he will

have to join 14 separate Orders, each with its Grand Master and hierarchy, its

administration, headquarters, rituals, traditions, doctrines and ‘secrets’. It is as if

he were taking a long train journey and he would not only has to change trains

but even change lines and directions. On the Continent, however, there are no

such ‘branch lines’. It is one continuous journey and if he were to get off at one

station, to rest up before continuing, then he can wait around. The next train will

come along eventually travelling along the same line and, climbing on board, he

can proceed further towards his destination at his own rate. Generally speaking,

there are no separate Orders and so, within his Lodge, there are opportunities to

develop his spiritual quest in a sequence that is more or less continuous. It is this

very continuity that assists the practice of Hermetic exploration in European

Lodges whereas the disjointed systems in England, which arose largely because

of historical decisions taken in 1813, militate against that continuous

‘adventure’.

When a Candidate, known as a ‘profane’ [= ‘uninitiated’], is to be considered by

a French Lodge for Initiation his Proposer and Seconder have to speak separately

to the members, at one of the private [= ‘closed’ or business] meetings,

explaining

• why they think that he would make a good freemason and

• why they would like him to be initiated in that particular Lodge.

They can, and usually are, questioned closely by the members about their

Candidate’s qualities. If everything seems to be in order, the Master appoints two

other members of the Lodge (who do not know the Candidate already and who

are usually Past Masters of the Lodge) to interview him separately in his own

home in order to

1. question him as to the reasons why he wants to be made a freemason

(note not to just join the particular Lodge);

2. make certain that he has the total support of his wife and the rest of his

family in that intention.

The two commissioned Brethren report back to the Lodge at the next ‘closed’

meeting and they can be, and again they often are, questioned closely by the

Brethren about their two interviews. It is only then, when the reports are deemed

satisfactory by the Lodge, that a vote is taken as to whether ‘Mr A. B.’ shall be

‘heard under the hoodwink’. If that vote is favourable, the Secretary is asked by

the Master to write officially to the Candidate inviting him to attend on the

evening of the next ‘closed’ meeting of the Lodge.

On that occasion, the Candidate is kept in a completely bare room where he can

have no contact with freemasons or sight of anything masonic. In due course, the

Master of Ceremonies comes to him, blindfolds him and leads him into the

Temple where he is seated on a chair in the centre of the room. The Brethren and

the officers are seated in the respective places around him. The Master then asks

him any questions he wishes (there is no set pattern) regarding his desire to be

made a freemason and then invites any member of the Lodge who wishes to do

so to question him. Often there are such unscripted questions put to the

Candidates who are expected to answer as fully and as sincerely as possible.

When everyone is satisfied, the Master of Ceremonies is commanded by the

Master to lead the Candidate out of the Temple, back to the adjacent waiting

room, where he removes the hoodwink, thanks him for attending and tells him

that in due course he will hear from the Lodge. He is told then that he can leave

the building. After the Candidate has left and the Master of Ceremonies has

returned to report his leaving, a vote is taken as to whether ‘Mr A. B.’ should be

initiated. If the vote is favourable, he is made a freemason at the next available

‘open’ meeting of the Lodge.

When an approved Candidate arrives for his Initiation he is left alone, seated in

the small adjacent waiting room. It is dimly lit and is known now as the Chamber

of Reflection. It is devoid of any decoration and of any furniture apart from a

chair and a small table that is covered completely with a black cloth. On the table

are placed a skull and cross bones (the traditional ‘emblems of mortality’), two

sheets of paper and a pen. On one sheet he has been instructed by the Master of

Ceremonies to write and date his answers to the four questions that are printed

thereon. The questions are intended to stimulate and clarify - for him and for

others - the state of his current spiritual preparedness for Initiation. They are

quite revealing pieces of evidence of the Hermetic process taken to underlie the

whole procedure and its ideational thrust:

• What is Man’s duty to his Creator?

• What is Man’s duty to himself?

• What is a man’s duty to his fellow mortals?

• What is a man’s duty to his ‘Mother Country’?

On the other blank sheet which is blank he has been instructed to write legibly

and date his Testament in which he must emphasise the spiritual and

philosophical aspects of his life to date.

After a suitable interval, someone collects the two sheets, takes all money and

other metals from him (metals are thought to be spiritual pollutants and perhaps

they hinder or deflect his further progress). He is told to wait there. The two

sheets are presented formally to the Master who reads what the Candidate has

written aloud to the assembled Brethren. A discussion as to their merits follows

and if the Brethren are satisfied the ceremony can continue. I have known of

Candidates being rejected at this stage because their present state of spiritual

preparedness for Initiation was considered by the Lodges to be lacking.

The Candidate is prepared physically in the usual masonic manner in the

Chamber of Reflection by of the Master of Ceremonies. He is blindfolded and a

long cord is tied around his waist in such a way that it hangs down in front. He

learns later that this is a symbol of the umbilical cord that is the last tie with the

profane world of darkness that he is about to leave forever. In other words, he

has been figuratively entombed in a chamber deep underground and is about to

die to the outside world and be reborn into a new life. This theme of rebirth is

one of the most crucial in this Degree but it follows a Candidate throughout his

masonic career in various guises. Therefore, he must be purified by the four

elements: earth, air, water and fire. When he is led into the Temple, he is made to

bend almost double as he has supposedly just passed through the Earth on his

pilgrimage from the underground Chamber of Reflection. In other words,

symbolically he emerges from a hole in the ground and this is the first

purification: that by earth.

The Candidate is led to stand in the west of the Temple between the Wardens

and facing east. After a prayer to ‘The Great Architect of the Universe’, the

Master tells the Candidate those duties that will be demanded of him as a

freemason:

• the maintenance of complete silence about anything which he may hear

or discern in the Lodge;

• the vanquishing of all of those passions which dishonour the man who

succumbs to them;

• the obedience to the rules, regulations and constitutions of the Order.

Before he can proceed any further, the Master tells the Candidate that he must

take a solemn oath to fulfil these duties using a sacred chalice. If he is sincere, he

may drink from it without fear. If he is insincere or unsure, however, then he

should put the chalice aside. Not to put it aside at that stage and to continue will

have disastrous results for him later. He fears not and so drinks the pure water

contained therein. He takes the oath administered by the Master phrase by phrase

and then, at the Master’s command, he drinks from the chalice again. This time,

however, the liquid is bitter because unknown to the Candidate the Master of

Ceremonies standing nearby has quietly added strong vinegar. The Master

explains to him:

the bitter taste that the contents of the cup may have left on your lips proves that

in all human intentions, however pure they may be, there is always a particle of

curiosity and egoism.

The cup is put aside by the Master of Ceremonies and at a single knock from the

Master he is led clockwise around the Temple on the first of three symbolic

journeys during which he is purified by the remaining three elements.

The first of his journeys is accompanied throughout by loud stamping of feet and

the clashing of swords by the Brethren seated in the north and south Columns.

This tumult is a symbol of the inherent discord that prevails constantly in the

profane world that he is about to leave. He is led over a large wooden board

placed flat on the floor. This board has irregularly sized blocks of wood stuck on

it at irregular intervals. These will cause him to stumble, thus signifying to him

the hard road that he has to travel through the rest of his mortal existence.

Further round the Temple, he is led up a sloping wooden board. He falls off the

upper end on to the floor thus bringing him to the earth through the air in a rush.

This symbolises his purification by air.

When the Candidate arrives to stand in his place between the Wardens in the

west, the Master explains to him that his first journey is emblematic of

• the life of Man generally;

• the conflict of opposing endeavours and

• the difficulty of overcoming the many obstacles that are placed (often

deliberately) in his path by enemies.

The Candidate’s second journey is accompanied by the clash of the Brethren’s

swords (as before). On reaching the pedestal of the Senior Warden, his right

hand is grabbed by one of the Deacons and plunged three times into a large

metal bowl of water held by the Master of Ceremonies. This is meant to

represent to him the purification by water. The bowl is removed and he is

positioned to face the east again. The Master then explains to him that the second

journey presented much less difficulty as there were no hidden obstacles being

placed in front of him and then he tells him:

It is thus in life; the obstacles disappear little by little under the steps of him who

perseveres in the path of virtue.

Nevertheless, he is not yet totally delivered from the battle that he is obliged to

fight in order to triumph over his passions and those of his fellow mortals. Those

conflicts were symbolised by the clashing of the swords.

The third journey is accomplished in complete silence. The Candidate has now

quitted the profane world and he is about to penetrate into that realm that only

true initiates are allowed to enter. As he is led round the Temple, he passes once

again in front of the Junior Warden’s pedestal and suddenly a naked flame of fire

is shot quickly across his face. That symbolises his final purification, by fire.

When the Candidate is repositioned between the Wardens, the Master expresses

admiration for the courage he has shown. He tells him, however, that his trials

are not yet ended for the day may come when he could even be called upon to

shed his blood in defence of the Order to which he seeks admission. The Master

demands:

Are you prepared to make such a sacrifice and have you the necessary courage to

give us proof of this other than by words? If so, you must seal your oath with

your own blood shed before us. Brother Surgeon, do your duty!

One of the Brethren, equipped with a carving knife and a butcher’s sharpening

steel, comes to stand close to the Candidate and proceeds to sharpen the knife.

The rest of the Brethren cry out in unison:

Mercy, Venerable Master! The blood of a man is too precious to be wasted!

The Master responds:

So be it, if the Brethren desire. But remember that if you are called upon to shed

your blood, let it be for a just and sacred cause.

The Master then informs the Candidate that a painful and indispensable

operation must be performed, nevertheless: that of being branded with the red

hot seal of the Order burnt into his flesh. When the Candidate gives his consent,

his bare left arm is grabbed and held tightly and to it the ice cold seal of the

Order is applied quickly and forcibly. It has been brought forward solemnly by

the Master of Ceremonies on a cushion from its place below the Master’s

pedestal or Altar at the precise moment.

The seal and cushion are put aside and the Master of Ceremonies instructs the

Candidate soto voce how to approach the Altar in the east by taking three slow

equal strides forward. On reaching the dais, he is told soto voce to kneel on both

knees, to support in both hands an open copy of the VSL (it is always opened at

the first chapter of the Gospel according to St John). In that position he repeats

the Obligation phrase by phrase following the Master’s careful annunciation.

After that and still blindfolded, he is raised and led back to stand between the

Wardens in the west facing east again. There is his instructed to keel again on

both knees. Meanwhile, one of the Brethren has left his seat on one of the

Columns, taken off his sword and regalia, lies down on the steps to the dais and

is covered by a ‘blood’-stained cloth by the Master of Ceremonies. Two other

Brethren then leave their seats and come to stand at the head and feet of the

‘body’ pointing their swords at it. Meanwhile, the Master of Ceremonies has lit

two candles, placed one at the head and the other at the feet while the general

lighting in the Temple is lowered to almost complete darkness. The rest of the

Brethren have also left their seats quietly and have come to stand near to the

Candidate and to point their swords directly at him. The hoodwink is removed

quickly from the Candidate so that he can now see the corpse in the east and also

the surrounding circle of sharp Swords pointing directly at him. From

somewhere in the surrounding gloom he now hears a solemn voice exclaiming:

Woe to him who violates his word! Woe to him who seeks to enter where he has

not right to go! Woe to him who is unworthy of the confidence placed in him!

The Master then stands behind the Altar facing west and the Candidate whom he

addresses thus:

These pale funereal lights are sombre fires emphasising the retribution that waits

each miserable purjurer. These swords, pointed towards your breast, indicate the

number of irreconcilable enemies ever ready to pierce your heart should you ever

violate your solemn Obligation. In whatever corner of the Earth you may hide

yourself, seeking safety, however important a position you may occupy in the

outside world, never will you find shelter. The whole world over, the news of

your criminal perjury and of your renouncement will forestall you, spreading like

lightning and wherever you may be, the hand of vengeance will reach you and

right fearful will be your punishment!

At a discrete signal from the Master of Ceremonies the Brethren replace their

swords and stand aside. There is an even more dramatic variation of this used in

Greece where the Brethren, at the appropriate point in the ceremony, have

quickly attached balls of cotton wool soaked in methylated spirits to the points of

their swords and then ignited them. When his blindfold is taken off the poor

Candidate is confronted suddenly with a most disconcerting circle of flaming

swords pointing at him!

The Candidate is told quietly to stand. The Master of Ceremonies extinguishes

the two candles on the steps to the dais, puts them aside and the general lighting

in the Temple is raised. The Master the commands that the Candidate can now

withdraw in order to regain his personal comforts. He is led out into the

Chamber of Reflection where he adjusts his clothing. Once again, however, he is

blindfolded and led back into the Temple.

Meanwhile, the ‘body’ on the steps to the dais has been removed and the

Brethren (including the Master and the Wardens) have formed a large circle on

the floor of the Temple holding hands but with their arms crossed and facing

inwards. A space has been left for the Candidate and he is brought to stand in his

now ‘usual’ place in the west. The Master then addresses the Candidate thus:

I ask you one last question. You have known many men and perhaps have

enemies. If you should find any in this Lodge, or amongst other freemasons,

would you be willing to extend the hand of friendship and forget the past?

If and only if the Candidate replies in the affirmative without any prompting, the

blindfold is removed. The Master then says to him:

It is not only face to face that you meet the enemies that are mostly to be feared.

Look behind you!

The Candidate turns as he is bidden and there he sees his own Proposer and his

Seconder have been approaching him silently from behind coming from out of

the shadows. They each greet him with the customary fraternal embrace of three

kisses and then tell him to join the Chain of Union with them as a Brother,

holding hands with crossed arms.

That done, the Master addresses him thus:

Our hands unite you to us and to the altar of Truth. The hand-clasps confirm that

we shall not forsake you as long as you maintain as sacred Truth, Justice,

Discretion and Brotherly Love. Brethren, break the Chain!

The Brethren do so and all retake their seats leaving the Candidate standing in

the west. He is led to the east where he is told by them to kneel on both knees.

The Master leaves his throne and comes forward to stand over the kneeling

Candidate, bringing his sword in his left hand and his gavel in his right. He holds

the sword at an angle over the Candidate’s head while he says:

To the Glory of TGAOTU and in the name and under the auspices of the …

Grand Lodge, I hereby make [taps the Candidate’s right shoulder once with the

blade of his sword], create [taps his left shoulder with the sword as before] and

constitute you [taps his head as before] an Entered Apprentice in the First

Degree of the … Rite and as a member of this Worshipful and Worthy Lodge,

regularly constituted in the Province of … under the number … and named …

Then still touching the Candidate’s head with the flat blade of his sword, he

gives the blade three sharp blows in the rhythm of the First Degree using his

gavel, thus: xxx, xxx, xxx. The Master retakes his seat taking his sword and

gavel with him. The new-made Brother is raised to his feet and placed in the

north-east corner of the Temple where they leave him (to retake their seats in the

north and south Columns respectively, their work being done now) and where

the Master of Ceremonies awaits him to teach him soto voce how to make the

Sign, give the Grip or Token and exchange the Word of the First Degree. The

new Brother is made to practice these several times until the Master of

Ceremonies, aware that everyone else is watching him tutor his new charge, is

satisfied with his performance.

There are several features that are different to English practices and they merit

some explanation.

• By this stage in the ceremony, there has been a more subtle emphasis

than in the English basic masonic ceremonies on the fact that the

Hermetic exploration starts and ends in the heart of the individual. This

has been done systematically using sense impressions thereby stressing a

candidate’s individuality and the ardour and strength that will be required

in pursuing that exploration. This is accomplished by

1. seating him in isolation in the Chamber of Reflection and obliging him to

write his own

philosophy of life;

2. ‘abusing’ his five senses thus – his sight (by blindfolding him); his

hearing (with the clashing of the swords; his touch (by having him

stumble during one of the perambulations and later to feel the impress of

the seal on his skin); his taste (by having his drink water than vinegar)

and then his sense of smell (by passing a naked flame near to his nostrils)

3. making the Working Tools which he has to carry during his

perambulations quite large and therefore very heavy to carry in one hand.

• Another clearly Hermetic feature is the emphasis on the perambulations.

This serves to reinforce the concept to the Candidate that, by becoming a

freemason, he is starting out on a journey, a pilgrimage, one that requires

patience, tenacity, courage, self-reliance and trust.

• Even though the Sign is the same as in England, the Word is that of the

English Second Degree. The reason for this is simple. France acquired its

Freemasonry from English immigrants in the very early 1730s at a time

when the Premier Grand Lodge in London felt itself driven (by certain

circumstances that were largely beyond its control) to reverse the Words

of the First and Second Degrees. France merely copied what was then the

current English practice. However, England later relented and then

changed the Words back to their original order. European Lodges,

however, did not make the sudden change back. This means that they are

now ‘out of step’ with the current English practice, though it ought to be

remembered that for a time in the mid-18th

century in England the present

Second Degree Word was adopted temporarily as the First Degree Word

and visa versa.

• In France, and indeed in most of the rest of Europe, the Words of the

Degrees are never given at length, are always lettered and are never

spoken aloud. The new Brother is instructed by the Master of Ceremonies

that whenever he may be asked for the word of a Degree, he must

respond to the inquirer:

I can neither read nor write. Give me the first letter and I will give you the

second.

And he must wait for that first letter before going any further in the exchange.

• The Grip or Token is given more or less as is done now in England

except that the thumb is used to give a pressure in the rhythm of the

knocks of the Degree.

The detailed instruction complete, the Master of Ceremonies conducts the new

Brother to a seat that has been reserved for him at the west end of the south

Column near to the Junior Warden. You will have noted that there is no

investiture of an apron at this stage. The newly created freemason simply has to

purchase his own Apprentice apron from the Secretary of the Lodge in time for

the next meeting which he is entitled to attend.

There is one final intriguing piece of ritual which completes the ceremony of

Initiation. The Master then calls on the Lodge Orator, usually a distinguished

Past Master, to address the Lodge and particularly the newly created Brother on

the symbols and their meaning. The Orator is regarded as the custodian of the

teaching of the Rite. His speech is termed ‘un morceau d’architecture’ [‘a little

piece of architecture or stonework’] and it relates to the interpretation of the

symbolism of the Degree that has been worked. The content and length vary

considerably. The depth of their understanding displayed therein is often

profound. They are not learned nor recited. They are delivered extempore and so

are a real test of the Orator’s skill and understanding. In the 18th

and 19th

centuries the French Lodges laid great emphasis on these orations and

collections of the better ones were printed and sold to raise funds for the Lodges.

Fortunately, there is one published edition of these orations which is more easily

accessible than most. It is preserved in the Morison Collection (item no. 520)

and is a 1807 collection which had been prepared by the members of the Loge

des Chevaliers de la Croix de St Jean in the early 1800s. These texts are

sometimes quite long and involved, but they make fascinating reading for they

show not only how those freemasons conceived of their Freemasonry but also

how their interpretations of the symbology developed over the years.

That is not the end of the new freemason’s ordeals. Before he can be accepted by

the whole Lodge for promotion into the Second Degree, he has to learn an

extended catechism by heart and write and read aloud to the Lodge members a

paper of his own compilation in which he outlines two features:

• what the Initiation ceremony has meant to him, particularly what has he

learned about its symbols and

• what differences in his everyday life, in the profane world outside, being

a freemason has made to him.

The Brethren will sit in judgement on the manner in which he responds to the set

questions. Once again, he can and will be questioned about this essay and I have

known some Brethren how have been rejected by their Lodges as not having

made sufficient progress in their understand. I knew one member who waited

four years before he felt he had acquired sufficient understand to present himself

for ‘higher wages’.

The new standard Dutch Initiation ceremony is broadly similar. There are,

however, no swords for the Brethren (though the Master and Wardens retain

theirs). There is the heavy emphasis placed on the spirituality of the Candidate’s

progression from profane darkness into enlightenment. There are the three same

journeys though they are given slightly different interpretations. The first

journey round the Temple is meant to teach to the Candidate about the stumbling

blocks that lie in himself, that a Brother will invariably protect him and so give

him wisdom. The second journey, which terminates with the hand-washing, is

meant to teach him about the battle of life and the need for a determined

application of strength and that the cleansing of himself is essential if he is to

pursue his way towards the light. In the third journey he symbolically attains

beauty but without the assistance of anyone else. He is able to achieve that

because he already has acquired both wisdom and strength during the previous

journeys.

There is also the Chain of Union and the method using the sword and the gavel

by the Master to actually create the new Brother. In Dutch Craft Lodges,

however, it is the Master himself who teaches the new member about the sign,

token and word. There is also an investiture of an apron and a presentation of

two pairs of white gloves: one for himself and the other for she who stands

highest in his estimation.

At the end of the ceremony and at the Master’s command, the new member is

taken by the Junior Warden to perform his allotted tasks on the Rough Ashlar, a

huge rough hewn stone placed near to the Junior Warden in the south west

corner of the Temple.

• He has to learn and give the knocks of the First Degree on the Rough

Ashlar using in turn the Maul, the Chisel and the Measuring Rule. All of

these Working Tools are very large and quite heavy to handle. The

knocks have to be done thus: xxx, xxx, xxx each time. Thus the new

member is taught how to knock 27 times in all on the Rough Ashlar

which is a symbol of his own soul – strong, dependable but as yet

unfitted for lining up with the Smooth Ashlars (the other Brethren who

have progressed before him) to form part of the wall of a spiritual

Temple. Hence, symbolically he is at work already on his own

personality. The significance of the number of those knocks is explained

only later to the new Brother thus: 27 = 2 + 7 = 9 = 3 x 3, a triple trinity!

• measuring of the exposed length, breadth and height of the Rough Ashlar

using the Square, the Compasses and the Ruler. These implements are

also huge and, purposely, are quite difficult to handle. That difficulty

itself is intended to be instructional. Thus the new Brother is taught how

to measure the Rough Ashlar in three directions using each of the three

Working Tools. This makes 27 different measurements so the significant

number 27 makes yet another appearance.

The last interesting feature of the Dutch ritual is its extended catechism. At the

end of his Initiation, the newly made freemason is handed a card on which is

printed a catechism of no less than 48 questions and answers! It shows the range

and complexity of the symbolism which each new member is expected to cope

with in his initial stages. The new Brother is really tested on them all at a

‘closed’ meeting of the Lodge. He is brought to a chair placed in the centre of

the Temple near to a ‘Broken Column’, a particularly potent symbol in most

Continental Freemasonry which refers to the destruction of King Solomon’s

Temple in antiquity and hence to the urgency and continuing nature of the

freemason’s task in this world. Surrounded by the silent figures of the listening

members of his Lodge, the Entered Apprentice has to give his answers to the

Master’s questions: confidently, without stumbling and (above all) with

sincerity. Then he is asked to leave and the discussion about his merits as a

Candidate for the Second Degree are discussed. If everyone is satisfied with the

evident progress that he has made, then a vote is taken and if that is favourable

he is invited in writing to present himself at the next available ‘open’ meeting

when a Second Degree is to be performed. A similar exhaustive ‘testing’ has to

be completed successfully before he will be allowed to proceed to his Third

Degree.

4 FUTURE PROSPECTS

In trying to answer the question ‘What part, if any, does speculative

Freemasonry have within the western Hermetic tradition’ I have suggested that

the model preferred by the prevailing orthodoxy of the ‘authentic’ school of

masonic historiography may have to be abandoned now. It simply has not

produced the evidence that would connect speculative Freemasonry up generally

with any previous esoteric ventures, that evidence may well unavailable.

Besides, dealing almost exclusively with texts it regards the masonic experience

in a textual way, denies that it might be Hermetic and ignores the fact that the

experience’s potency lies mainly in its lived-through continuity. It is no longer

any use looking to the past to find a viable answer to the question.

So I have turned to the present and examined the different Initiation rituals used

in England and on the Continent. I have tried to show that though there were and

are interesting traces of Hermeticism within the English-speaking masonic

tradition, these became neglected gradually. Demographic factors, throughout

the 19th

century influenced the influx of men with a bourgeois or a military

mentality into English-speaking speculative Freemasonry and this brought about

a laxity. The emergent British middle classes provided the motivation, the zeal,

the opportunities and the personnel for the agrarian and industrial revolutions

and the subsequent burgeoning economic prosperity in the 18th

century. Once

established as the major potent political force within the nation, they even

brought about the acquisition and maintenance of the British Empire during the

19th

century. These were worthy achievements in their day, of course, but they

were centred on this world and not on any kind of Hermetic experience. Those

men came to speculative Freemasonry in their droves with all of their cultural

expectations, career experiences and training and their social ambitions and

expectations. So, while the original potentially Hermetic traces remained as

symbols within the texts of their masonic rituals, they became neglected

generally as signposts for the ‘lived-through’ experience within Lodges.

Besides this, the minimalist and compromise definition of what is meant by

‘pure and ancient freemasonry’ by the nascent Union in 1813 meant that the

possibility of Hermetic exploration on a continuous basis in a masonic context

became severely restricted in the early decades of the 19th

century. Those

freemasons who wanted to pursue their Hermetic pilgrimages had to seek for or

create opportunities outside of the restrictions imposed by their membership of

the English-speaking Craft. This was why most of the so-called ‘higher’ degrees

took their rise and flourished only in the latter half of the 19th

century as part of

that occult revival which was itself part of a general, spiritualised reaction

against the incipient and rampant materialism of the post-Darwinian age. Since

then, however, most English-speaking freemasons have become pre-occupied

with various kinds of mere externalities; the Hermetic enterprise – in terms of

individual Lodges’ corporate experience – ground almost to a halt.

But that Hermetic impulse is still preserved among European speculative

freemasons. Their ‘lived-through’ experience is more prolonged, more intense,

more cerebral – more Hermetic – again for historical reasons. So, as far as

European Freemasonry is concerned the answer to the question posed is: ‘Yes, in

Europe, speculative Freemasonry does have a secure place within the western

Hermetic tradition’ because it still requires its members to engage in sustained

reflection on the whole purpose of the phenomenon and the meaning of the

symbols it employs.

What then of the future? What place, if any, can speculative Freemasonry have

in the Hermetic enterprise in the next millennium?

I want to answer this, not by trying to guess whether and how Grand Lodges will

adjust to the many fierce exigencies of the new age, but by raising some serious

questions about the whole nature of the more orthodox varieties of speculative

Freemasonry. How can it, as a cultural institution, claim to have any place in the

modern world?

• How can any institution that has secrecy as one of its key notions

continue to be valid in the age of the every expanding and developing

scientific and electronic communication? I can see the need for

preserving secrecy in financial, military and even political matters where

peoples’ lives and livelihoods may be at risk. I can see that the injunction

to keep the masonic ‘secrets’ secret was simply a convenient

psychological ploy, intended to serve as an exaltation and legitimisation

of the revelation in Neophytes’ minds but the insistence now on

preserving ‘secrets’ which are not comparable secrets must seem false in

the modern world.

• Furthermore, is there not an inherent contradiction between the principles

of universal brotherhood and equality and that same notion of secrecy?

Besides, how can any institution that professes pan-humanic amelioration

require absolute secrecy of its members?

• There is another aspect of this preference for universality. All of the

Hermetic groups that I have studied have been small, even tiny in

membership. Often, the most important insights have been produced in

written form by individual scholars working largely in isolation. This

diminutive membership size and this seclusion did not deter the pioneers

of the ‘Invisible College’ in the late 17th

century. Perhaps they realised

that in order for any Hermetic group to be lastingly successful it would

have to be small and exclusive. What then can be made of speculative

Freemasonry’s claim to bring about a universal brotherhood?

• How can any institution survive in the modern world when it demands

large sums of money from its Initiates but refuses to define its basic aims

and objectives. Speculative Freemasonry claims to be involved in the

inculcation of ethical principles but it has yet to attempt a clear,

systematic and thorough definition of all its fundamental philosophy.

• It is claimed, among English-speaking speculative freemasons that the

basic motivating principles are brotherly love, relief and truth. How can it

survive then when at least two of these are no longer operative for it? The

idea of a national organisation devoted to providing charity to deserving

cases seemed fine in the 18th

century when there was no welfare state but

now it might be argued that in most modern states at least there is

substantial, systematic provision for the poor. As far as devotion to the

truth is concerned in the English-speaking masonic world, there seems

little evidence now of any searching for truth, especially Hermetic truths,

at an organisational level. Brotherly love seems to escape quickly out of

the nearest window when the seasons for announcing promotions up the

hierarchies come about and jealousy abounds once again. The rituals

proclaim equality but the practice of awarding ever better ranks, for

instance, proclaims inequality. And that inequality is there for all

members to see.

• How can speculative Freemasonry survive in the modern world as an

organisation when it carries a hierarchy of at least 28 grades of officers in

the various Grand Lodges in the UK and elsewhere - a hierarchy that is

mirrored in detail at every Provincial level. Such structures become self-

perpetuating and they militate inevitably against Hermetic exploration.

People become obsessed with their place in the structure, with correct

and orderly behaviour and decorum - not with their spiritual

development. Huge, complex organisations have rarely been sources of

profound religious or philosophical insights that accelerate Man’s

progress towards greater understanding. Besides, in the ordinary, profane

world, no manufacturing or commercial organisation would last if it

continued to develop along such Byzantine lines. Such hierarchies are not

sufficiently flexible in terms of their administrative hygiene to adapt

creatively to external pressures for change. And after all, even Heaven

itself has only nine orders of angels!

• How can any institution survive if it refuses to accept the need for

continual change? I am not thinking of mere organisational adjustments

but of an acceptance of basic change as a part of the culture – or social

psychology - of the organisation. In particular, how can speculative

Freemasonry in the English-speaking world survive when it cannot

conceive of the possibility of radical changes being necessary at some

stage to its rituals?

• Speculative Freemasonry, of the so-called ‘regular’ kind, excludes

women from membership though there are no clear, identifiable reasons

why this is so. How can any institution be Hermetic, or continue to exist

in the modern world, when it arbitrarily excludes half the adult

population? If the ‘lived-through’ masonic experience is concerned (at

least in part) with the inculcation of ethical principles and uses the model

of the transition from the Rough Ashlar to the Perfect Ashlar to represent

the ethical progress brought about in individual members, how can

speculative Freemasonry (as an organisation) say – by implication – that

women are not capable of making that transition, of attaining that moral

improvement? Such an exclusion is not Hermetic and is not in accord

with the modern world and any institution which retains that exclusion in

the next millennium will not continue to attract new members in

sufficient numbers and so the exclusion of women will assist its

inevitable decline.