Thank you for joining Wars of the Roses as we continue with part three masonry as a philosophy from the meaning of masonry by WL wilmshurst chapter 2 masonry as a philosophy signs are not wanting that a higher Masonic Consciousness is Awakening in the craft members of the
Order are gradually and here and there becoming alive to the fact that much more than meets the eye and ear Lies Beneath the surface of masonic Doctrine and symbols they’re beginning to think for themselves instead of taking the face value of things for granted and as their thought develops facts that
Previously remained unperceived assume prominence and significance they discern the Masonic system to be something deeper than a code of Elementary morality such as all men are expected to observe whether forly Masons of not they reflect that the phenomenal growth of the craft is scarcely accountable for upon the supposition that modern
Speculative masonry perpetuates nothing more than the private associations that once existed in connection with the operative Builder trade they recognize that there can be no peculiar virtue or interest in continuing to imitate the customs of ancient trade guilds for the mere sake of so doing or of keeping on
Foot a costly Organization for teaching men the elementary symbolism of a few building tools supplemented by a considerable amount of social conviviality upon a little thought it becomes pretty obvious that our third degree and the Great Central legend that forms the climax of The Craft system
Cannot have and can never have had any direct or practical bearing upon or connection with the trade of the operative Mason it may be urged that we have our great charity system and that the social side of our proceedings is a valuable and humanizing asset granted but other people and other societies are
Philanthropic and social as well as we and a secret society is not necessary to promote such ends which are merely supplemental to the original purpose of the order the discernment of such facts as these then suggests to us that the craft has not yet entered into the full
Heritage of understanding its own system and that side matters connected with masonry which we have long emphasized so strongly valuable in their own way as they are are not after all the primary and proper work of the order the work of the order is to initiate into certain
Secrets and Mysteries and obviously if the order fails to expound its own secrets and Mysteries and so to confer real initiations as distinguished from passing candidates through certain formal ceremonies it is not fulfilling its original purpose whatever other incidental good it may be doing now as these facts are the basis upon which
This lecture proceeds let me at the outset make my first point by stating that as the the progress in the craft of every brother admitted into its ranks is by gradual successive stages in like manner the understanding of the Masonic system and Doctrine is also a matter of gradual
Development stated in the simplest terms possible the theory of masonic progress is that every member admitted to the order enters in a state of darkness and ignorance as to what masonry teaches and that later on he is supposed to be brought to light and knowledge putting it in other terms he
Enters the craft symbolically as a rough ashler and it is his business to develop both his character and his understanding that ultimately in virtue of what he has learned and practiced he may be as a finished and perfect Cube now the understanding of the Masonic scheme tends to develop upon precisely similar
Lines its meaning is not discernible all at once and unless our minds are properly prepared and our understandings carefully trained they are unlikely ever to participate in the real secrets and Mysteries of masonry at all how however often we may watch the performance of external ceremonial or however
Proficient we may be in memorizing the rituals and instruction lectures the first stage the first conception of what masonry involves is concerned merely with the surface value of the doctrine with an acquaintance with the literal side of the imparted knowledge which we all obtain upon entering the craft Beyond this stage the vast
Majority of Masons it is to be feared never passes this is the stage of knowledge in which the craft is regarded as a social semi-public semi secret Community to which it is agreeable and advantages to belong for sociable or even for ulterior purpose in which the goal of the Mason’s ambition is to
Attain office and high preferment and to wear a breast full of decorations in which he takes a literal superficial and historic view of the subject matter of the doctrine in which ability to perform the ceremonial work with dignity and Effectiveness and to know the instru ruction catechisms by heart so that not
A syllable is wrongly rendered is deemed the height of masonic proficiency and where after discharging these functions with a certain degree of credit his idea is often to have the lodge closed as speedily as maybe and get away to the relaxation of the festive board now all these things belong to
What may be called the very rough ashler stage of the Masonic conception I am not of course alluding to any individual Mason I confess frankly to having come within this category myself and I think we may agree that we have all passed through the phase I have described for
The simple reason that we knew nothing better and had no one able to teach us something better let us not complain if we look back upon the progress of The Craft during the last 150 years we cannot but congratulate ourselves upon the enormous if gradual strides made in
Masonic progress and decorum even in the rough ashler stage of our conception of it anyone familiar with the records of old lodges will have been brought into close touch with times when almost every element of reverence and dignity seems to have been lacking lodges were held in the public rooms of Tavern whatever
Official Furniture decorated these primitive temples quart pots and church wardens figured largely among the unauthorized equipment in one of the great London galleries there hangs a famous picture called night by the great artist and moralist of his age hogar his purpose was to depict a characteristic night scene in the
Streets of London as they appeared in his time among the typical specimens of depravity haunting those ill lit streets the great artist has held up to the derision of all time the figure of a Freemason staggering home drunk still wearing his apron and being assisted by
The Tyler of the lodge no true Mason can regard this picture without a burning sense of shame and without registering a resolution to redeem the craft from this stigma we have I hope got past such things as these we have awakened to some sense of dignity and self- reverence the
Craft is well governed by its higher authorities and individual lodges take a pride in providing proper temples and in conducting their assemblies with due regard to the solemnity of masonic Doctrine May the order never relapse into the Primitive and chaotic condition from which it has emerged but this Improvement in matters of external
Deportment great and welcome as it is is not enough to prevent the order settling down into a state of self-satisfaction with its social Privileges and the agreeableness of friendly intercourse among its members to prevent its making its claims to being a system of knowledge and science as perfunctory and
Little onerous as possible the Improvement I have spoken of must be attended and I believe is destined to be attended by an Awakening to the Deep significance of The Craft internal purposes and since I’ve referred to what I have termed the rough ashla conception of that purpose you have the right to
Ask me now to state that loftier conception which may be regarded in comparison as the perfect Cube the answer to this inquiry I shall not attempt to state in so many words I invite you to regard this whole lecture as an indication of what that answer
Must be to some extent I endeavored to formulate that answer upon a previous occasion but whilst I then entered rather into the details and minui of The Craft system and symbols I shall treat the subject now upon broader lines and deal with masonry in its wider and more
Philosophic aspect I said upon that occasion and I must repeat it now that in its Broad and more vital Doctrine masonry was essentially a philosophic and religious system expressed in dramatic ceremonial it is a system intended to supply answers to the three great questions that press so inexorably
Upon the the attention of every thoughtful man and that are the subject around which all religions and all philosophies move what am I whence come I whether go I it is a truism to say that in our quieter and more serious moments we all feel the need of some
Reliable answer to these questions light upon them is the predominant wish of our hearts and upon such light as we can obtain whether from masonry or elsewhere depends our philosophy of life and the rule of conduct by which we regulate our life in a larger sense then than our
Conventional limited one the Masonic candidate is presumed to enter the order in search of light upon these problems light that he has presumed not to have succeeded in finding elsewhere if his candidature is actuated by any motive other than a genuine desire for knowledge upon these problems which
Beyond all others are vital to his peace and by a sincere wish to render himself by the help of that knowledge serviceable to his fellow creatures then his candidature is less than a worthy one the reason why no man should be solicited to join the order is that in
Regard to these matters of sacred and momentous import the first Springs of impulse must originate within the postulant himself the first place of his preparation must ever be in his own heart and it is to the cry and knocking of his inward need and for no less a
Motive that in theory though scarcely in practice the door to the Mysteries is opened and the Seer enters in and finds help at another stage of his symbolical progress the candidate learns from his Superior Brethren that they along with himself are in search of something that
Is lost and which they have hopes of finding and it is here that the great motive of this and of all quests as well as the clue to the real purpose of masonry appears prominently and is stated in emphatic terms masonry is the quest after something that has been lost
Now what is it that has been lost consider the matter thus why should we or the World At Large require systems of religion and philosophy at all what is the motive and reason for the existence of a masonic order and of many other orders of initiation both of the past
And the present why should they exist at all I might reduce the matter to the compass of a small and personal Point by asking why have you come to hear this lecture and why should I have been striving for many years to acquire the information that enables me to give it
If it be not the fact as indeed it is that every man in his reflective moments realizes the sense of some element of his own being having become lost that he is conscious if he be honest with himself of the sense of moral imperfection of ignorance of restricted knowledge about himself and his
Surroundings that he is aware in short of some radical deficiency in his Constitution which were it but found and made good would satisfy this craving for information for completeness and Perfection would lead him from Darkness to light and would put him Beyond ignorance and Beyond the touch of the
Many ills that flesh is air to the point is too obvious to need pressing further and the answer to it is to be found by a reference to a great doctrine that forms the philosophic basis of all systems of religion and all the great systems of the Mysteries and of initiation of
Antiquity viz that which is popularly known as the fall of Man however we may choose to regard this event and throughout the history of the human race it has been taught in innumerable ways and in all manner of Parables allegories myths and legends its Sole and single meaning is that
Humanity as a whole has fallen away from its original Parent source and place that from being embedded in the Eternal Center of Life man has become projected to the circumference and that in this present world of ours he is undergoing a period of restriction of ignorance of discipline and experience that shall
Ultimately fit him to return to the center when he came and to which he properly belongs Paradise Lost is the real theme of masonry no less than of Milton as it is also of all the ancient systems of the Mysteries the Masonic Doctrine focuses and emphasizes the fact and the sense of
This loss beneath a veil of allegory describing the intention to build a certain Temple that could not be finished because of an untimely disaster masonry implies that humanity is the real Temple whose building became obstructed and that we who are both the Craftsmen and the building materials of
What was intended to be an unparalleled structure are owing to a certain unhappy event living here in this world in conditions where the genuine and full secrets of our nature are for the time being lost to us where the full powers of the soul of man are curtailed by the
Limitations of physical life and where during our apprenticeship of Probation and discipline we have to put up with the substituted knowledge derivable through our limited and very fallible senses but whilst masonry emphasized is this great truth it indicates also and this is its great virtue and real
Purpose the method by which we may regain that which is lost to us it holds out the great promise that with Divine assistance and by our own industry the genuine realities of which we at present possess but the imperfect Shadows shall be restored to us and that patience and perseverance will eventually entitle
Every worthy man to a participation in them this large subject is mirrored in miniature in the craft ceremonial the east of the lodge is the symbolic Center the source of all light the place of the Throne of the master of all life the West the place of the disappearing sun
Is this world of imperfection and darkness from which the Divine spiritual light is in large measure withdrawn and only shines by reflection the ceremonies through which the candidate passes are symbolic of the stages of progress that every man whether a formal member of The Craft or not may make by way of
Self-purification and self-building until he at length lies dead to his present natural self and is raised out of a state of imperfection and brought once more into perfect union with the Lord of life and Glory into whose image he has thus become shaped and conformed it is in this large sense then
That masonry may become for us as indeed it was intended to become by those who instituted our present speculative system a work work Philosophy for those brought within its influence IT Supplies a need to those who are earnestly inquiring into the purpose and Destiny of human life it is a means of
Initiating into reliable knowledge those who feel that their knowledge of life and their path of Life have hitherto been but a series of irregular steps made at haphazard and under Hoodwinked conditions as to whether they are going not without good reason does our catechism assert that masonry contains
Many and invaluable Secrets but these are of course are not the formal and symbolic signs tokens and words communicated ceremonially to candidates they are rather those Secrets which we instinctively keep locked up in the recesses and safe repository of our hearts secrets of the deep and hidden
Things of the Soul about which we do not often talk and which by a natural instinct we are not in the habit of communicating to any but such of our Brethren and fellows as share with us a common and a sympathetic interest in the deeper problems and Mysteries of life I
Have said already that masonry is a modern perpetuation of great systems of initiation that have existed for the spiritual instruction of men in all parts of the world since the beginning of time the reason for their existence has been the obvious one resulting from the Cardinal truth already alluded to
That man in his present natural state is inherently and radically imperfect that sooner or later he becomes conscious of a sense of loss and deprivation and feels an imperative need of learning how to repair that loss the great world religions have been ordained to teach in their respective
Manners the same truths as the mystery systems have taught their teaching has always been two-fold there has always existed an external Elementary popular Doctrine which has served for the instruction of the masses who are insufficiently prepared for deeper teaching and concurrently therewith there has been an interior Advanced
Doctrine a more secret knowledge which has been reserved for riper minds and into which only proficient and properly prepared candidates who voluntarily sought to participate in it were initiated whether in Ancient India Egypt Greece Italy or Mexico or Among The Druids of Europe temples of initiation
Have ever existed for those who felt the inward call to come apart from the multitude and to dedicate themselves to a long discipline of body and mind with a view to acquiring the secret knowledge and developing the spiritual faculties by means of experimental process cesses of initiation of which our present
Ceremonies are the faint Echo it is far beyond my present scope to describe any of these great systems or the methods of initiation they employed but in regard to them I will ask you to accept my statement upon two points one that although these great schools of the
Mysteries have long dropped out of the public mind they or the doctrine they taught have never ceased to exist the enmity of official ecclesi icism and the Tendencies of a materialistic and Commercial age have caused them to subside into extreme secrecy and concealment but their initiates have
Never been absent from the world and two that it was through the activity and foresight of some of these Advanced initiates that our present system of speculative masonry is due you must not imply from this that modern masonry is by any means a full or adequate presentation of these older and larger
Systems it is but their pale and Elementary shadow but such as they are and so far as they do go our rituals and Doctrine are an authentic embodiment of a secret Doctrine and a secret process that have always existed for the enlightenment of such aspirants as putting their trust in God as our
Present candidates are made to say have knocked at the door of certain secret sanctuaries in the confidence that that door would open and that they would find in due course that for which they were seeking those who instituted modern speculative Masonry some 250 years ago took certain materials lying ready to
Hand they took that is the elementary rights and symbols pertaining to Medieval operative Guilds of stonemasons and transformed them into a system of religio philosophic Doctrine then forward from being related to the trade which deals in stones and Bricks the intention of masonry was to deal solely
And simply with the greater science of Soul building and save for retaining certain analogies which the art of the Practical stud Stone Mason provided then forward it became dedicated to purposes that are wholly spiritual religious and philosophic perhaps the chief evidence of the transformation thus affected was the incorporation of the central Legend
And traditional history comprised in our third degree obviously that Legend can have had no relation to or practical bearing upon the operative Builder’s trade I will ask you to reflect that no building of stone no Temple or other edifice capable of being built with hands has remained unfinished through
The death of any professional architect such as hyam abith is popularly supposed to have been the principles of architecture the genuine secrets of the building trade are not and never have been lost they are thoroughly well known and the absurdity is Manifest of supposing that Masons of any kind are
Waiting for time or circumstances to restore any lost knowledge as to the manner in which temporal buildings ought to be constructed we know how to re buildings today quite as well as our Hebrew forefathers did who built the famous temple at Jerusalem and indeed a well-known architect has stated that
Most of our London churches are both for size and ornamentation far larger and more Splendid than that Temple ever was our duty then is to look behind the literal story to pierce the veil of allegory contained in the great Legend and to grasp the significance of its
True purport that which is lost is to be found we are told with the Center but if we inquire what a center is the average Mason will give you nothing more than the official enigmatic and not very luminous answer that it is a point within a circle from which every part of
The circumference is equidistant but what Circle and what circumference for there are no such things as centers or circles in respect of ordinary buildings or architecture and here the average Mason is at an utter loss to explain press him further why with the center and again he can only give you the
Elusive and perplexing answer because that is a point from which a Master Mason cannot ER and you are no wiser Brethren it is just this elusiveness these intentional enigmas this purpose puzzle language that are intended to put us on the scent of something deeper than the words themselves convey and if we
Fail to find to realize and to act upon the intention of what is veiled behind the letter of the rituals we can scarcely claim to understand our own Doctrine we can scarcely claim to have been regularly initiated passed and raised in the higher sense of those expressions whatever ceremonies we have
Formerly passed through the letter kth the spirit giveth life let us inquire what the spirit of this puzzle language is the method of all great religious and initiatory systems has been to teach their Doctrine in the form of myth legend or allegory as our first tracing board lecture says the philosophers
Unwilling to expose their Mysteries to vulgar eyes concealed their tenets and principles of philosophy under hieroglyphical figures and our traditional history is one of these hieroglyphical figures now the literally minded never see behind the letter of the allegory the truly initiated mind discerns the allegory spiritual value in
Fact part of the purpose of all initiation was and still is to educate the mind in penetrating the outward shell of all phenomena and the value of initi cre ation depends upon the way in which the inward truths are allowed to influence our thought and lives and to
Awaken in us still deeper powers of Consciousness the legend of the third degree then in which the essence of masonic Doctrine lies was brought into our system by some Advanced Minds who derived their knowledge from other and concealed sources the legend is an adaptation of a very old one and existed
In various forms long before its association with modern Masonry in the guise of a story about the building of a temple by King Solomon at Jerusalem they were promulgating the truth which I have alluded to before and which is generally known as the fall of Man as our Legend runs upon the literal
Side of it it was the purpose of a great king to erect a superb structure he was assisted in that work by another king who supplied the building materials by a skillful artificer whose business was to put these together according to a pre-ordained plan and by large companies of Craftsmen and
Laborers but in the course of the work an evil conspiracy arose resulting in the destruction of the chief artificer and preventing the completion of the building which remains unfinished therefore to this day now I will ask you to observe that this Legend cannot refer to any historical building built in the
Old Metropolis of Palestine if we refer to the Bible as an authority you will find that that Temple was completed it was afterwards destroyed rebuilt and destroyed again on more than one occasion moreover the biblical accounts make no reference whatever to the conspiracy or to the death of hyam on
The other hand they State expressly that hyam made an end of building the Temple that it was finished and completed in every particular it is very clear then that we must keep the two subjects entirely separate in our minds and recognize that the Masonic story deals with something quite distinct from the
Biblical story what Temple then is referred to the temple Brethren that is still incomplete and unfinished is none that can be built with hands it is that Temple of which all material edifices are but the types and symbols it is the Temple of the collective body of humanity itself of which the great
Initiate St Paul said know ye not that ye are the temple of God a perfect Humanity was the Great temple which in the councils of the most high was intended to be reared in the mystical holy city of which the local Jerusalem was the time type the three Great Master
Builders Solomon and the two hyrams are a Triad corresponding after a manner with the Holy Trinity of the Christian religion hyam abith being the Chief Architect he by whom all things were made and in whom as St Paul said using Masonic language the whole building fitly framed together groweth unto a
Holy Temple in the Lord the material of this mystical Temple was The Souls of men at once the Living Stones the fellow Craftsmen and collaborators with the Divine Purpose but in the course of the construction of this ideal Temple something happened that wrecked the scheme and delayed the Fulfillment
Indefinitely this was the fall of Man the conspiracy of the Craftsman turn to the Book of Genesis you will find the same subject related in the allegory of Adam and Eve they were intended as you know for Perfection and happiness but their creators project became nullified by their Disobedience to certain
Conditions imposed upon them I will ask you to observe that their offense was precisely that committed by our Masonic conspirators they had been forbidden to eat of the tree of knowledge or in Masonic language they were under obligation not to attempt to extort the secrets of a superior degree
Which they had not attained now the Hebrew word hyam means Guru teacher of supreme knowledge Divine Light and wisdom and the Liberty that comes there with but this knowledge is only for the perfected man it is that knowledge that ham said was known to but three in the
World that is known only in the councils of the Divine Trinity but it is knowledge that with patience and perseverance every Mason every child of the Creator May in due time become entitled to a participation in but just as Adam and Eve’s attempt to obtain illicit knowledge caused their expulsion
From Eden and defeated the Divine Purpose until they and their posterity should regain the paradise they had lost so also the completion of the great Mystic iCal Temple was prevented for the time being by The Conspirator attempt to extort from hyam the master’s secrets and its construction is delayed until
Time and circumstances God’s time and the circumstances we create for ourselves restore to us the lost and genuine secrets of our nature and of the Divine Purpose in us the tragedy of hyam abith then is not the record of any vulgar brutal murder of an individual
Man it is a parable of cosmic and Universal loss an allegory of the breakdown of a Divine scheme we are dealing with no Calamity that occurred during the erection of a building in an eastern city but with a moral disaster to Universal humanity hyam is slain in other words The Faculty
Of enlightened wisdom has been cut off from us owing to that disaster mankind is here today in this world of imperfect knowledge of limited faculties of checkered happiness of Perpetual toil of death and frequent bitterness and pain our life here is to use a poet’s words
An Ever moaning battle in the Mist death in all life and lying in all love the meanest having power upon the highest and the high purpose broken by the worm the Temple of human nature is unfinished and we know not how to complete it the want of plans and
Designs to regulate the disorders of individual and social life indicates to us all that some heavy Calamity has befallen us as a race the absence of a clear and guiding principle in the world’s life reminds us of the utter confusion into which the absence of that Supreme wisdom which is personified as
Ham has thrown us all and causes every reflective mind to attribute to some fatal catastrophe his mysterious disappearance we all long for that light and wisdom which have become lost to us like the Craftsman in search of the body we go our different ways in search of
What is lost many of us make no discovery of importance throughout the length of our days we seek it in pleasure in work in all the varied occupations and diversions of Our Lives we seek it in intellectual Pursuits in religion in masonry and those who search farthest and deepest are those who
Become most conscious of the loss and who are compelled to cry maone MCB the master is smitten or as the Christian scriptures word it they have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him ham abith is slain the high light and wisdom ordained to guide and Enlighten Humanity
Are wanting to us the full blaze of light and perfect knowledge that were to be ours are vanished from the race but in the Divine Providence there still remains to us a glimmering light in the east in a dark World from which as it were the sun has disappeared we have
Still our five senses and our rational faculties to work with and these provide us with the substituted secrets that must distinguish us before we regain the genuine ones where is H and buried we are taught that the wisdom of the most high personified as King Solomon ordered
Him to be interred in a fitting Seiler outside the holy city in a grave from the center 3 ft between North and South 3T between east and west and 5T or more perpendicular where Brethren do you imagine that grave to be can you locate it by following these minute details of
Its situation probably you have never thought of the matter as other than an ordinary burial outside the walls of a geog rical Jerusalem but the grave of hyam is ourselves each of us is the Seiler in which the smitten Master is interred if we know it not it is a further sign of
Our benightedness at the center of ourselves deeper than any dissecting knife can reach or than any physical investigation can fathom lies buried the vital and Immortal principle the glimmering ray that Affiliates us to the Divine Center of all life and that is never wholly extinguished however ever
Evil or imperfect our lives may be we are the grave of the master the Lost Guiding Light is buried at the center of ourselves high as your hand May reach upwards or downwards from the center of your own body I.E 3 feet between North and South far as it can reach to right
Or left of the middle of your person I.E 3 ft between West and East and 5T or more perpendicular the height of the human body these are the indications by which our cryptic ritual describes the tomb of hyam abff at the center of ourselves he is buried outside the holy
City in the same sense that the posterity of Adam have all been placed outside the walls of paradise for nothing unclean can enter into the holy place which elsewhere in our scriptures is called the Kingdom of Heaven what then is this Center by Reviving and using which we may hope to regain the
Secrets of our lost nature we may reason from analogies as the Divine Life and will is the center of the whole universe and controls it as the sun is the center and lifegiver of our solar system and controls and feeds with life the planets circling around it so at the secret
Center of individual human life exists a vital Immortal principle the spirit and the spiritual will of man this is the faculty by using which when we have found it we can never ER it is a point within the circle of our own nature and living as we do in this physical world
The circle of our existence is bounded by two grand parallel lines one representing Moses the other King Solomon that is to say law and wisdom the Divine ordinances regulating the Universe on the one hand the Divine wisdom and mercy that follow us all the days of our life on the other very truly
Then the Mason who keeps himself thus circumscribed cannot H masonry then is a system of religious philosophy and that it provides us with a doctrine of the universe and of our place in it it indicates IND Ates whence we are come and whether we may return it
Has two purposes its first purpose is to show that man has fallen away from a high and holy Center to the circumference or externalized condition in which we now live to indicate that those who so desire may regain that Center by finding the center in ourselves for since deity is as a circle
Whose Center is everywhere it follows that a Divine Center of vital and Immortal principle exists within ourselves by developing which we may hope to regain our l and Primal stature the second purpose of the craft Doctrine is to declare the way by which that Center may be found within
Ourselves and this teaching is embodied in the discipline and ordeals delineated in The Three Degrees the Masonic doctrine of the center or in other words the Christian Axiom that the Kingdom of Heaven is within you is nowhere better stated than by the poet Browning truth is within
Ourselves it takes no rise from outward things whatever you may believe there is an inmost Center in ourselves where truth abides in fullness and to know rather consists in finding out a way when the imprisoned Splendor May Escape than by affecting entrance for a light supposed to be without Brethren may we
All come to the knowledge how to open the lodge upon the center of ourselves and so realize in our own conscious experience the finding of the imprisoned Splendor hidden in the depths of our being whose Rising within ourselves will bring us peace and salvation how then does the craft Doctrine prescribed for
The liberation of this imprisoned Center its first injunctions are those of our first degree there must be purity of thought and purpose I need scarcely remind you that the word candidate derives from the Latin candidus white in the sense of Purity or that our postulants before entering the lodge
Leave behind them in the precincts the garments that belong to the fashion of the outer World whose ideals they are desirous of relinquishing and enter the lodge clad in white as emblematic of the blamelessness of their thought and the purification of their lives as this symbolic white clothing is worn during
Each of the three degrees it is as though the Seeker after the highlight of the center must always come uttering the triple ascription holy holy holy as the token of the three-fold purity of Body Soul and Spirit which is essential to the achievement of his quest he has left
All money and metals behind him for the gross things of this world are Superfluous in the world that lies within whilst if any dross of thought or imperfections of character remain in him he will find the impossibility of attaining to the consciousness of His Highest self he will learn that he must
Renounce them and begin again and that his attempt at real initiation must be repeated he must be animated by a spirit of universal sympathy Financial dos and practical relief to the pecuniary poor and distressed are admirable practices as far as they go but they by no means
Exhaust the meaning of the term charity as masonry intends it the payment of a few guine to philanthropic institutions is scarcely a fulfillment of St Paul’s great definition of charity so often read in our lodges by exercising which we are won to say that a Mason attains the summit of his
Profession there is a far larger sense of Brotherhood than the limited conventional one obtaining among those who are members of a common Association there is that deep sense in which a man feels himself not only in fraternity with his fellow men whether masonically his breth or not but
Realizes himself brother to all that is part of the universal life that Thrills through all things a great illuminate St Francis of AI expressed what I refer to when he wrote in his famous Canticle of his brothers the sun and the wind his sisters the moon and the Sea his
Brethren the animals and the birds as being all parts of a common life all constituents in the scheme of the great architect for the restoration of the Temple of creation and its dedication to his service and as all worthy of a common love upon our part even as they
Are the subject of a common solicitude upon his and passing from these primary qualifications we proceed to what is signified by our second degree wherein is inculcated the analysis and cultivation of the mental and rational faculties the study of the secrets of the marvelous complex psychical nature
Of man the relation of these with the still higher and spiritual part of him which in turn he may learn to trace even to the throne of God himself with which he is Affiliated at the root essence of his being these studies Brethren so lightly touched upon in our passing
Ceremony so glibly referred to as we recite our ritual when undertaken with the seriousness that attached to them in the old mystery systems are not without just reason described in our own words as serious solemn and awful the depths of human nature and self- knowledge the
Hidden mysteries of the soul of man man are not as real initiates well know probed into with impunity except by the properly prepared the man who does so has as it were a cable toe around his neck because when Once stirred by a genuine desire for the higher knowledge
That real initiation is intended to confer he can never turn back on what he learns thereof without committing moral suicide he can never be again the same man he was before he gained a glimpse of the hidden mysteries of life and as the angel stood with flaming sword at the
Entrance of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life so will the man whose initiation is not a conventional one find himself threatened at the door of the higher knowledge by opposing invisible forces if he rashly rushes forward in a state of moral unfitness into the deep secrets of the center
Better remain ignorant than Embark upon this unknown sea unwisely and without being properly prepared and in possession of the proper passports and eventually the aspirant after these preliminary disciplines has to learn the great truth embodied in the third degree that he who would be raised to Perfection and regain what he has long
Realized has been lost to himself may do so only by utter self-abnegation by a dying to all that to the eyes and the reason of the uninitiated outer world is precious and desirable the third degree Brethren is an exposition in dramatic ceremonial of the text who so would save
His life must lose it beneath the of the death of the master and remember that it is allegory is expressed the universal truth that mystical death must precede mystical rebirth know ye not that ye must be born again unless a grain of corn fall into the ground and die it
Abideth alone if it die it bringeth forth much fruit and it is only thus that all Master Masons can be raised from a figurative not a physical death to a regenerated State and to the full stature of human nature the path of true initiation into fullness of Life by way of a figurative
Death to one’s lower self is the path called in the scriptures the narrow way of which it is also said that few there be who find it it is the narrow path between the pillars between the pillars for Boaz and Jain stand impliedly at the entrance of every Masonic temple and
Between them we pass each time we enter the lodge very great prominence is accorded these pillars in the ritual but very little explanation of their import is given and it is desirable to know something of their great significance to deal with them at all fully would require an entire lecture
Upon this one subject and even then there would have to remain unsaid in regard to these great symbols much that is unsuited to treatment in a general lecture the pillars form and have always formed a prominent feature in the temples of all great systems of religion and initiation whether Masonic or not
They have been incorporated into Christian architecture if you recall the construction of yorkminster or Westminster Abbey you will recognize the pillars in the two great Towers flanking the main entrance to those Cathedrals at the West End of the structure non-masons therefore enter these temples as we do
Between the pillars in the west they look through them along the straight path that leads to the high altar just as the Mason’s symbolic passage is also from the West to the throne in the east that path is as it were the straight path of Life beginning in this outer
World and terminating at the throne or altar in the East many centuries before our Bible was written or the Temple of Solomon described in the books of kings and Chronicles was thought of the two pillars were used in the great temples of the Mysteries in Egypt and one of the
Great annual public festivals was that of the setting up of the pillars what then did they signify I can deal with the subject but very superficially here in one of their aspects they stand for what is known in eastern philosophy as the pairs of opposites everything in nature is dual
And can only be known in contrast with its opposite whilst the two in combination produce a metaphysical third which is their synthesis and Perfect Balance thus we have good and evil light and darkness and one of the pillars was always White and the other black active and passive positive and negative yes
And no outside and inside man and woman neither of these is complete without the other taken together they form stability morning and evening unite to form the complete day man is proverbially imperfect without his better half woman the two marry to impart strength to each other and to establish their common
House physical science shows all matter to be composed of positive and negative electric forces in perfect balance and that things would disintegrate and disappear if they did not stand firm in perfect union every drop of healthy blood in our bodies is a combination of red and white corpuses by the due
Balance of which we are established in strength and health whilst lack of balance is attended by disease the pillars therefore typify in one of their aspects perfect Integrity of body and soul such as are essential to achieving spiritual perfection in the terms of ancient philosophy all created
Things are composed of fire and water fire being their spiritual and water their material element and so the pillars represented also these Universal properties in one of the apocryphal scriptures to ezras 778 the path to True wisdom and life is spoken of as an entrance between a fire
On the right hand and a deep water on the left and so narrow and painful that only one man may go through it at once this is an illusion to the narrow and painful path of real initiation of which our entrance into the lodge between the pillars is a symbol now all great
Symbols are shadowed forth in the person of man man himself the human organism is the true Lodge that must be opened and wherein the great Mysteries are to be found and our Lodge rooms are so built and furnished as to typify the human organism the lower and physical part of
Us is animal and earthy and rests like the base of Jacob’s Ladder upon the Earth whilst our higher portion is spiritual and reaches to the heavens these two portions of ourselves are in Perpetual conflict the spiritual and the carnal ever Waring against one another another and he alone is the wise man who
Has learned to effect a perfect balance between them and to establish himself in strength so that his own inward house stands firm against all weakness and Temptation and in still another sense the two pillars may be seen exemplified in the human body there are our two legs
Upon both of which we must stand firm to acquire a perfect physical balance and having discerned this simple truth and having seen that the path of true initiation which is one of spiritual rebirth is an arduous and painful progress to him who undertakes it let me ask you to consider in all
Sacredness another physical phenomenon the great mystery of which we perhaps think little of by reason of its frequency and of our familiarity with it I refer to the incident the great mystery I might say of childbirth Brethren every child born into this world coming into this life as
Into a great house of initiation trial and discipline passes amid pain and travail through a straight and narrow way and between the two pillars that support the Temple of its mother’s body and thus in the common places of life in which for those who have clean Hearts there is
Nothing common or unclear but everything is sacred and symbolic the act of physical birth is an image and a foreshadowing of that mystical rebirth and of that passing through Straight Gate and a narrow way in a deeper sense without which it is written that a man shall not enter into the kingdom of
Heaven the regenerated man the man who not merely in ceremonial form but in vital experience has passed through the phases of which the Masonic degrees are the faint symbol is alone worthy of the title of Master Mason in the building of the temple that is not made with hands
But that is being built invisibly out of the souls of just men made perfect not only in this world is this temple being built only the foundations of the intended structure are perceptible here the craft contemp Ates other and loftier PLS of Life Other Stories of the vast
Structure than this we live and work in just as our craft organization has its higher assemblies and councils in the form of the provincial and the grand lodges that regulate and minister to the need of The Lodges of common Craftsmen so in the mighty system of the universal
Structure there are grades of higher life hierarchies of celestial beings working and ministering in the loftier portions of the the building beyond our present Ken and as here at the head of our limited and temporal Brotherhood there rules a Grandmaster so too over the cosmic system there presides the
Great architect and most worshipful grandmas of all whose officers Are Holy Angels and the recognition of this Truth May tend to consecrate Us in the discharge of the little symbolic part we severally perform in the system which is the image of the great scheme The World
At Large Brethren is as it were but one great lodge and place of initiation of which our Masonic lodges are the little mirrors Mother Earth is also the mother Lodge of us all as its vast work goes on souls are ever descending into it and
Souls are being called out of it at the knocks of some great unseen Warden of life and death who calls them here to labor and summons them hence for refreshment after the lodge the festive board after the labor of this world the repast and refreshment of the Heavenly
Places and thus Although our after proceedings have no formal place in the Masonic system any more than the afterlife is in formal connection with us whilst our sphere of activity is in this present world still it plays a striking and appropriate part calculated to awaken us to the Deep significance of our customary
Conviviality upon such occasions we are want to drink the toast of the king and the craft remembering as loyal subjects and loving Brethren our Earthly Sovereign and our Masonic comrades through throughout the world but here again I would ask every master who gives and every brother who drinks this toast
To lift his thoughts to a greater King and to a larger craft than our limited and symbolic fraternity I would remind you how in the Christian Mysteries there was another Master whom unconsciously we imitate who also after supper took the cup and when he had given thanks to the
King of Kings pledged himself as it were to that larger craft which is coextensive with Humanity itself directing them in this manner to show forth symbolically a certain great mystery until his coming again but this Brethren is none other than what is implied in our own Masonic
Words when we also are directed to use certain substituted Secrets until time and circumstances shall restore to us the genuine ones in submitting then these thoughts to you it may be claimed that masonry offers to those capable of appreciating it a working philosophy and a practice iCal rule of life it
Discloses to us the scheme of the universe a scheme once shattered and arrested but left in the hands of humanity to restore it indicates our place our purpose and our destiny in that Universe it is as a great house of instruction and initiation into the mysteries of a larger and Fuller life
Than the unenlightened worldling is as yet ripe for appreciating let us therefore value and Endeavor fully to appreciate its Mysteries let us also be careful not to cheapen the order by Fai failing to realize its meaning and by admitting to its ranks those who are unready or unfitted to understand its
Import I said at the outset of this lecture that some Masons are beginning to awake to a larger consciousness of the true meaning and purport of our craft I say now at the end Brethren lift up your hearts throw wide open the shutters of your minds and imaginations learn to see in masonry
Something more than a parochial system enjoining Elementary morality performing perfunctory and meaningless rights and serving as an agreeable accessory to social life but look to find in it a living philosophy a vital guide upon those matters which of all others are the most sacred and the most urgent to
Our ultimate well-being realize that its Secrets which are many and invaluable are not upon the surface that they are not those of the tongue but of the heart and that its Mysteries are those Eternal ones that treat of the spirit rather than of the body of man and with this
Knowledge clothe your elves and enter the lodge not merely the lodge room of our symbolic craft but the larger Lodge of Life wherein silently and without the sound of metal tool is preceding the Perpetual work of rebuilding the unfinished and invisible Temple of which the mystical stones and Timber Are the
Souls of men in that rebuilding men and women are taking part who whilst formerly not members of our craft are still unconsciously masons in the best of senses for whosoever is carefully and deliberately squaring his stone is fitting himself for his place in the intended structure which gradually is
Being put together with exact nicity and which though erected by ourselves one day will become manifest to our clearer vision and will appear more like the work of the great architect of the universe than that of human hands upon us Masons therefore who have the advantage of a regular and organized
System which provides and inculcates for us an outline of the great truths that we have been in considering and that always in the world have been regarded as secret as sacred and as vital there rests the responsibility attaching to our privilege and it must be our aim to
Endeavor to enter into the full Heritage of understanding and practicing the system to which we belong thank you for watching and please don’t forget to share like subscribe and comment and if you can please consider donating to Wars of the Roses links to PayPal and patreon are in the
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