The Meaning of Masonry
W. L. Wilmshurst
Frontspiece
INTRODUCTION - The Possibilities of the Masonic Order
CHAPTER I - The Deeper Symbolism of Masonry
CHAPTER II - Masonry as a Philsophy
CHAPTER III - Further Notes on Craft Symbolism
CHAPTER IV - The Holy Royal Arch
CHAPTER V - The Relation of Masonry to the Ancient Mysteries
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Introduction
THE POSITION AND POSSIBILITIES OF THE MASONIC
ORDER
The papers here collected are written solely for members of the
Masonic Order, constituted under the United Grand Lodge of England.
To all such they are offered in the best spirit of fraternity and
goodwill and with the wish to render to the Order some small return
for the profit the author has received from his association with it
extending over thirty-two years. They have been written with a view
to promoting the deeper understanding of the meaning of Masonry; to
providing the explanation of it that one constantly hears called for
and that becomes all the more necessary in view of the unprecedented
increase of interest in, and membership of, the Order at the present
day.
The meaning of Masonry, however, is a subject usually left
entirely unexpounded and that accordingly remains largely unrealized
by its members save such few as make it their private study; the
authorities of what in all other respects is an elaborately organized
and admirably controlled community have hitherto made no provision
for explaining and teaching the " noble science " which
Masonry proclaims itself to be and was certainly designed to impart.
It seems taken for granted that reception into the Order will
automatically be accompanied by an ability to appreciate forthwith
and at its full value all that one there finds. The contrary is the
case, for Masonry is a veiled and cryptic expression of the difficult
science of spirit life, and the understanding of it calls for special
informed guidance on the one hand, and on other a genuine and earnest
desire for knowledge and no small capacity for spiritual perception
on part of those seeking to be instructed; and infrequently one finds
Brethren discontinuing their interest or their membership because
they find that Masonry means nothing to them and that explanation or
guidance is vouchsafed them. Were such instruction provided,
assimilated and responded to, the life of the Order would be
enormously quickened and deepened and its efficiency as a means of
Initiation intensified, whilst incidentally the fact would prove an
added safeguard against the admission into the Order of unsuitable
members which is meant not merely persons who fail to satisfy
conventional qualifications, but also those who, whilst fitted in
these respects, are as yet either so intellectually or spiritually
unprogressed as to incapable of benefiting from Initiation in its
true sense although passing formally through Initiation rites.
Spiritual quality rather than numbers, ability to understand the
Masonic system and reduce implications into personal experience
rather than perfunctory conferment of its rites, are the desiderata
of the Craft to-day.
As a contribution to repairing the absence explanation referred to
these papers have be compiled. The first two of them have often been
read as lectures at Lodge meetings. Many requests that they should be
printed and made more widely available led to my expanding their
subject-matter into greater detail than could be used for occasional
lectures, and accordingly they are here amplified by a paper
containing fuller notes upon Craft symbolism. To complete the
consideration of the Craft system it was necessary also to add a
chapter upon that which forms the crown and culmination of the Craft
Degrees and without which they would be imperfect-the Order of the
Royal Arch. Lastly a chapter has been added upon the important
subject which forms the background of the rest-the relationship of
modern Masonry to the Ancient Mysteries, from which it is the direct,
though greatly attenuated, spiritual descendant.
Thus in the five papers I have sought to provide a survey of the
whole Masonic subject as expressed by the Craft and Arch Degrees,
which it is hoped may prove illuminating to the increasing number of
Brethren who feel that Freemasonry enshrines something deeper and
greater than, in the absence of guidance, they have been able to
realize. It does not profess to be more than an elementary and far
from exhaustive survey; the subject might be treated much more fully,
in more technical terminology and with abundant references to
authorities, were one compiling a more ambitious and scholarly
treatise. But to the average Mason such a treatise would probably
prove less serviceable than a summary expressed in as simple and
un-technical terms as may be and unburdened by numerous literary
references. Some repetition, due to the papers having been written at
different times, may be found in later chapters of points already
dealt with in previous ones, though the restatement may be
advantageous in emphasizing those points and maintaining continuity
of exposition. For reasons explained in the chapter itself, that on
the Holy Royal Arch will probably prove difficult of comprehension by
those unversed in the literature and psychology of religious
mysticism; if so, the reading of it may be deferred or neglected. But
since a survey of the Masonic system would, like the system itself,
be incomplete without reference to that supreme Degree, and since
that Degree deals with matters of advanced psychological and
spiritual experience about which explanation must always be
difficult, the subject has been treated here with as much simplicity
of statement as is possible and rather with a view to indicating to
what great heights of spiritual attainment the Craft Degrees point as
achievable, than with the expectation that they will be readily
comprehended by readers without some measure of mystical experience
and perhaps unfamiliar with the testimony of the mystics thereto.
Purposely these papers avoid dealing with matters of Craft history
and of merely antiquarian or archaeological interest. Dates,
particulars of Masonic constitutions, historical changes and
developments in the external aspects of the Craft, references to old
Lodges and the names of outstanding people connected therewith -
these and such like matters can be read about elsewhere. They are all
subordinate to what alone is of vital moment and what so many
Brethren are hungering for - knowledge of the spiritual purpose and
lineage of the Order and the present-day value of rites of
Initiation.
In giving these pages to publication care has been taken to
observe due reticence in respect of essential matters. The general
nature of the Masonic system is, however, nowadays widely known to
outsiders and easily ascertainable from many printed sources, whilst
the large interest in, and output of literature upon mystical
religion and the science of the inward life during the last few years
has familiarized many with a subject of which, as is shown in these
papers, Masonry is but a specialized form. To explain Masonry in
general outline is, therefore, not to divulge a subject which is
entirely exclusive to its members, but merely to show that Masonry
stands in line with other doctrinal systems inculcating the same
principles and to which no secrecy attaches, and that it is a
specialized and highly effective method of inculcating those
principles. Truth, whether as expressed in Masonry or otherwise, is
at all times an open secret, but is as a pillar of light to those
able to receive and profit by it, and to all others but one of
darkness and unintelligibility. An elementary and formal secrecy is
requisite as a practical precaution against the intrusion of improper
persons and for preventing profanation. In other respects the vital
secrets of life, and of any system expounding life, protect
themselves even though shouted from the housetops, because they mean
nothing to those as yet unqualified for the knowledge and unready to
identify themselves with it by incorporating it into their habitual
thought and conduct.
In view of the great spread and popularity of Masonry to-day-when
there are some three thousand Lodges in Great Britain alone-it is as
well to consider its present bearings and tendencies and to give a
thought to future possibilities. The Order is a semi-secret,
semi-public institution; secret in respect of its activities intra
moenia, but otherwise of full public notoriety, with its doors open
to any applicant for admission who is of ordinary good character and
repute. Those who enter it, as the majority do, entirely ignorant of
what they will find there, usually because they have friends there or
know Masonry to be an institution devoted to high ideals and
benevolence and with which it may be socially desirable to be
connected, may or may not be attracted and profit by what is
disclosed to them, and may or may not see anything beyond the bare
form of the symbol or hear anything beyond the mere letter of the
word. Their admission is quite a lottery; their Initiation too often
remains but a formality, not an actual awakening into an order and
quality of life previously unexperienced; their membership, unless
such an awakening eventually ensues from the careful study and
faithful practice of the Order's teaching, has little, if any,
greater influence upon them than would ensue from their joining a
purely social club.
For "Initiation" - for which there are so many
candidates little conscious of what is implied in that for which they
ask-what does it really mean and intend? It means a new beginning
(initium); a break-away from an old method and order of life
and the entrance upon a new one of larger self knowledge, deepened
understanding and intensified virtue. It means a transition from the
merely natural state and standards of life towards a regenerate and
super-natural state and standard. It means a turning away from the
pursuit of the popular ideals of the outer world, in the conviction
that those ideals are but shadows, images and temporal substitutions
for the eternal Reality that underlies them, to the keen and
undivertible quest of that Reality itself and the recovery of those
genuine secrets of our being which lie buried and hidden at "the
centre" or innermost part of our souls. It means the awakening
of those hitherto dormant higher faculties of the soul which endue
their possessor with "light" in the form of new enhanced
consciousness and enlarged perceptive faculty. And lastly, in words
with which every Mason is familiar, it means that the postulant will
henceforth dedicate and devote his life to the Divine rather than to
his own or any other service, so that by the principles of the Order
he may be the better enabled to display that beauty of godliness
which previously perhaps has not manifested through him.
To comply with this definition of Initiation which it might be
useful to apply as a test not only to those who seek for admission
into the Order, but to ourselves who are already within it - it is
obvious that special qualifications of mind and intention are
essential in a candidate of the type likely to be benefited by the
Order in the way that its doctrine contemplates, and that it is not
necessarily the ordinary man of the world, personal friend and good
fellow though he be according to usual social standards, who is
either properly prepared for, or likely to benefit in any vital sense
by, reception into it. The true candidate must indeed needs be, as
the word candidus implies, a "white man," white
within as symbolically he is white-vestured without, so that no
inward stain or soilure may obstruct the dawn within his soul of that
Light which he professes to be the predominant wish of his heart on
asking for admission; whilst, if really desirous of learning the
secrets and mysteries of his own being, he must be prepared to divest
himself of all past preconceptions and thought-habits and, with
childlike meekness and docility, surrender his mind to the reception
of some perhaps novel and unexpected truths which Initiation promises
to impart and which will more and more unfold and justify themselves
within those, and those only, who are, and continue to keep
themselves, properly prepared for them. "Know thyself !"
was the injunction inscribed over the portals of ancient temples of
Initiation, for with that knowledge was promised the knowledge of all
secrets and all mysteries. And Masonry was designed to teach
self-knowledge. But self knowledge involves a knowledge much deeper,
vaster and more difficult than is popularly conceived. It is not to
be acquired by the formal passage through three or four degrees in as
many months; it is a knowledge impossible of full achievement until
knowledge of every other kind has been laid aside and a difficult
path of life long and strenuously pursued that alone fits and leads
its followers to its attainment. The wisest and most advanced of us
is perhaps still but an Entered Apprentice at this knowledge, however
high his titular rank. Here and there may be one worthy of being
hailed as a Fellow-Craft in the true sense. The full Master- Mason -
the just man made perfect who has actually and not merely
ceremonially travelled the entire path, endured all its tests and
ordeals, and become raised into conscious union with the Author and
Masonic Giver of Life and able to mediate and impart that Order life
to others is at all times hard to find.
So high, so ideal an attainment, it may be urged, is beyond our
reach; we are but ordinary men of the world sufficiently occupied
already with our primary civic, social and family obligations and
following the obvious normal path of natural life! Granted.
Nevertheless to point to that attainment as possible to us and as our
destiny, to indicate that path of self-perfecting to those who care
and dare to follow it, modern Speculative Masonry was instituted, and
to emphasizing the fact these papers are devoted. For Masonry means
this or it means nothing worth the serious pursuit of thoughtful men;
nothing that cannot be pursued as well outside the Craft as within
it. It proclaims the fact that there exists a higher and more secret
path of life than that which we normally tread, and that when the
outer world and its pursuits and rewards lose their attractiveness
for us and prove insufficient to our deeper needs, as sooner or later
they will, we are compelled to turn back upon ourselves, to seek and
knock at the door of a world within; and it is upon this inner world,
and the path to and through it, that Masonry promises light, charts
the way, and indicates the qualifications and conditions of progress.
This is the sole aim and intention of Masonry. Behind its more
elementary and obvious symbolism, behind its counsels to virtue and
conventional morality, behind the platitudes and and sententious
phraseology (which nowadays might well be subjected to competent and
intelligent revision) with which, after the fashion of their day, the
eighteenth-century compilers of its ceremonies clothed its teaching,
there exists the framework of a scheme of initiation into that higher
path of life where alone the secrets and mysteries of our being are
to be learned; a scheme moreover that, as will be shown later in
these pages, reproduces for the modern world the main features of the
Ancient Mysteries, and that has been well described by a learned
writer on the subject as "an epitome or it reflection at a far
distance of the once universal science".
But because, for long and for many, Masonry has meant less than
this, it has not as yet fulfilled its original purpose of being the
efficient initiating instrument it was designed to be; its energies
have been diverted from its true instructional purpose into social
and philanthropic channels, excellent in their way, but foreign to
and accretions upon the primal main intention. Indeed, so little
perceived or appreciated is that central intention that one
frequently hears it confessed by men of eminent position in the Craft
and warm devotion to it that only their interest in its great
charitable institutions keeps alive their connection with the Order.
Relief is indeed a duty incumbent upon a Mason, but its Masonic
interpretation is not meant to be limited to physical necessities.
The spiritually as well as the financially poor and distressed are
always with us and to the former, equally with the latter, Masonry
was designed to minister. Theoretically every man upon reception into
the Craft acknowledges himself as within the category of the
spiritually poor, and as content to renounce all temporal riches if
haply by that sacrifice his hungry heart may be filled with those
good things which money cannot purchase, but to which the truly
initiated can help him.
But if Masonry has not as yet fulfilled its primary purpose and,
though engaged in admirable secondary activities, is as yet an
initiating instrument of low efficiency, it may be that, with
enlarged understanding of its designs, that efficiency may yet become
very considerably increased. During the last two centuries the Craft
has been gradually developing from small and crude beginnings into
its present vast and highly elaborated organization. To-day the
number of Lodges and the membership of the Craft are increasing
beyond all precedent. One asks oneself what this growing interest
portends, and to what it will, or can be made to, lead ? The growth
synchronizes with a corresponding defection of interest in orthodox
religion and public worship. It need not now be enquired whether or
to what extent the simple principles of faith and the humanitarian
ideals of Masonry are with some men taking the place of the theology
offered in the various Churches; it is probable that to some extent
they do so. But the fact is with us that the ideals of the Masonic
Order are making a wide appeal to the best instincts of large numbers
of men and that the Order has imperceptibly become the greatest
social institution in the Empire. Its principles of faith and ethics
are simple, and of virtually universal acceptance. Providing means
for the expression of universal fraternity under a common Divine
Fatherhood and of a common loyalty to the headship and established
government of the State, it leaves room for divergences of private
belief and view upon matters upon which unity is impracticable and
perhaps undesirable. It is utterly clean of politics and political
intrigue, but nevertheless has unconsciously become a real, though
unobtrusive, asset of political value, both in stabilizing the social
fabric and tending to foster international amity. The elaborateness
of its organization, the care and admirable control of its affairs by
its higher authorities, are praiseworthy in the extreme, whilst in
the conduct of its individual Lodges there has been and is a
progressive endeavour to raise the standard of ceremonial work to a
far higher degree of reverence and intelligence than was perhaps
possible under conditions existing not long ago. The Masonic Craft
has grown and ramified to dimensions undreamed of by its original
founders and, at its present rate of increase, its potentialities and
influence in the future are quite incalculable.
What seems now needed to intensify the worth and usefulness of
this great Brotherhood is to deepen its understanding of its own
system, to educate its members in the deeper meaning and true purpose
of its rites and its philosophy. Were this achieved the Masonic Order
would become, in proportion to that achievement, a spiritual force
greater than it can ever be so long as it continues content with a
formal and unintelligent perpetuation of rites, the real and sacred
purpose of which remains largely unperceived, and participation in
which too often means nothing more than association with an
agreeable, semi-religious, social institution. Carried to its
fullest, that achievement would involve the revival, in a form
adapted to modern conditions, of the ancient Wisdom-teaching and the
practice of, those Mysteries which became proscribed fifteen
centuries ago, but of which modern Masonry is the, direct and
representative descendant, as will appear later in these pages.
The future development and the value of the Order as a moral force
in society depend, therefore, upon the view its members take of their
system. If they do not spiritualize it they will but increasingly
materialize it. If they fail to interpret its veiled purport, to
enter into the understanding of its underlying philosophy, and to
translate its symbolism into what is signified thereby, they will be
mistaking shadow for substance, a husk for the kernel, and
secularizing what was designed as a means of spiritual instruction
and grace. It is from lack of instruction rather than of desire to
learn the meaning of Masonry that the Craft suffers to-day. But, as
one finds everywhere, that desire exists; and so, for what they may
be worth, these papers are offered to the Craft as a contribution
towards satisfying it.
Let me conclude with an apologue and an aspiration.
In the Chronicles of Israel it may be read how that, after long
preparatory labour, after employing the choicest material and the
most skilful artificers, Solomon the King at last made an end of
building and beautifying his Temple, and dedicated to the service of
the Most High that work of his hands in a state as perfect as human
provision could make it; and how that then, but not till then, his
offering was accepted and the acceptance was signified by a Divine
descent upon it so that the glory of the Lord shone through and
filled the whole house.
So - if we will have it so - may it be with the temple of the
Masonic Order. Since the inception of Speculative Masonry it has been
a-building and expanding now these last three hundred years.
Fashioned of living stones into a far-reaching organic structure;
brought gradually, under the good guidance of its rulers, to high
perfection on its temporal side and in respect of its external
observances, and made available for high purposes and giving
godly witness in a dark and troubled world; upon these preliminary
efforts let there now be invoked this crowning and completing
blessing that the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding may descend upon
the work of our hands in abundant measure, prospering it still
farther, and filling and transfiguring our whole Masonic house.
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