Glimpses of Masonic History E-Book

Charles Webster Leadbeater

• Herausgeber: E-BOOKARAMA
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Charles Webster Leadbeater was influential early in the development of mixed gender Freemasonry and at the peak of the Theosophical influence. Annie Besant was also a Theosophist and she also introduced Theosophical elements into her Freemasonry, but Leadbeater (together with Wedgewood) went way over Besant in that regard.

Leadbeater wrote a lot, but it seems that his bibliography contains just two books about Freemasonry, both published in 1926. The first is called "Glimpses of Masonic History" ( later:  Ancient Mystic Rites). The second "The Hidden Life in Freemasonry". 

Combining seership with science, in "Glimpses of Masonic History" Leadbeater presents an absorbing, in-depth, study of the mystery schools of Egypt, Greece, Judea, the Knights Templar of the Middle Ages, and the emergence of Co-Masonry in the twentieth century.

Leseprobe

Table of contents

GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

Author’s Preface

1. Schools Of Masonic Thought

2. The Egyptian Mysteries

3. The Cretan Mysteries

4. The Jewish Mysteries

5. The Greek Mysteries

6. The Mithraic Mysteries

7. Craft Masonry In Medieval Times

8. Operative Masonry In The Middle Ages

9. The Transition From Operative To Speculative

10. Other Lines Of Masonic Tradition

11. The Scottish Rite

12. The Co-Masonic Order

GLIMPSES OF MASONIC HISTORY

Charles Webster Leadbeater

Author’s Preface

WHEN I wrote The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, it was at first my intention to devote my second chapter to a brief outline of Masonic history. I soon found that that plan was impractical. The most compressed account that would be of any use would occupy far more space than I could spare, and would entirely overweight the book with what is after all only one department of its subject. The obvious alternative is to publish the historical sketch separately; hence this book, which is really but a second volume of the other.

The keynote of both volumes, and indeed the only reason for their publication, is to explain precisely what the title indicates - the hidden life in Freemasonry - the mighty force in the background, always at work yet always out of sight, which has guided the transmission of the Masonic tradition through all the vicissitudes of its stormy history, and still inspires the utmost enthusiasm and devotion among the Brn. of the Craft to-day.

The existence and the work of the Head of all true Freemasons is the one and sufficient reason for the virility and power of this most wonderful Organization. If we understand His relation to it and what He wishes to make of it, we shall also understand that it embodies one of the finest schemes ever invented for the helping of the world and for the outpouring of spiritual force.

Many of our Brn. have been for many years unconsciously taking part in this magnificent altruistic work; if they can be brought to comprehend what it is that they are doing and why, they will continue the great work more happily and more intelligently, throwing into it the whole strength of their nature both bodily and spiritual, and enjoying the fruit of their labours far more definitely than ever before.

1. Schools Of Masonic Thought

A HISTORY of Freemasonry would be a colossal undertaking, needing encyclopaedic knowledge and many years of research. I have no pretension to the possession of the qualities and the erudition required for the production of such a work; all I can hope to do is to throw a little light upon some of the dark spots in that history, and to bridge over to some extent some of the more obvious gaps between the sections of it which are already well known.

THE ORIGINS OF MASONRY

The actual origins of Freemasonry, as I have said in a previous book, are lost in the mists of antiquity. Masonic writers of the eighteenth century speculated uncritically upon its history, basing their views upon a literal belief in the history and chronology of the Old Testament, and upon the curious legends of the Craft handed down from operative times in the Old Charges. Thus it was put forward in all seriousness by Dr. Anderson in his first Book of Constitutions that “Adam, our first parent, created after the Image of God, the great Architect of the Universe, must have had the Liberal Sciences, particularly Geometry, written on his Heart,” while others, less fanciful, have attributed its origin to Abraham, Moses, or Solomon. Dr. Oliver, writing as late as the first part of the nineteenth century, held that Masonry, as we have it to-day, is the only true relic of the faith of the patriarchs before the flood, while the ancient Mysteries of Egypt and other countries, which so closely resembled it, were but human corruptions of the one primitive and pure tradition.

As scientific and historical knowledge progressed in other fields of research, and especially in the criticism of the Scriptures, scientific methods were gradually applied to the study of Masonry, so that today there exists a vast body of fairly accurate and most interesting information upon the history of the Craft. In consequence of this and other lines of investigation there are four main schools or tendencies of Masonic thought, not in any way necessarily defined or organized as schools, but grouped according to their relation to four important departments of knowledge lying primarily outside the Masonic field. Each has its own characteristic approach towards Freemasonry; each has its own canons of interpretation of Masonic symbols and ceremonies, although it is clear that many modern writers are influenced by more than one school.

THE AUTHENTIC SCHOOL

We may consider first what is sometimes called the Authentic School, which arose in the latter half of the nineteenth century in response to the growth of critical knowledge in other fields. The old traditions of the Craft were minutely examined in the light of authentic records within reach of the historian. An enormous amount of research was undertaken into Lodge minutes, documents of all kinds bearing upon Masonry past and present, records of municipalities and boroughs, legal and judicial enactments; in fact, whatever written records were available were consulted and classified. In this field all Masons are greatly indebted to R. F. Gould, the great Masonic historian; W. J. Hughan; G. W. Speth; David Murray-Lyon, the historian of Scottish Masonry; Dr. Chetwode Crawley, whose work upon the early Irish Craft is in its way a classic; and others of the Inner Circle of the famous Lodge Quattuor Coronati, No. 2076, the fascinating Transactions of which are a precious mine of historical and archaeological lore. Two great names in Germany are J. F. Findel, the historian, and Dr. Wilhelm Begemann, who made the most minute and painstaking researches into the Old Charges of the operative Craft. A vast amount of material which will be of permanent value to students of our Craft has become available through the labours of the scholars of the Authentic School.

This school, however, has limitations which are the outcome of its very method of approach. In a society as secret as Masonry there must be much that has never been written down, but only transmitted orally in the Lodges, so that documents and records are but of partial value. The written records of speculative Masonry hardly antedate the revival in 1717, while the earliest extant minutes of any operative Lodge belong to the year 1598.* ( *History of the Lodge of Edinburgh, by D. Murray-Lyon, p. 9.) The tendency of this school, therefore, is quite naturally to derive Masonry from the operative Lodges and Guilds of the Middle Ages, and to suppose that speculative elements were later grafted upon the operative stock - this hypothesis being in no way contradicted by existing records. Bro. R. F. Gould affirms that if we can assume the symbolism (or ceremonial) of Masonry to be older than 1717, there is practically no limit whatever to the age that can be assigned to it* (*Concise History of Freemasonry, by R. R Gould, p. 55.); but many other writers look for the origin of our Mysteries no further back than the mediaeval builders.

Amongst this school there is a tendency, also very natural when such a theory of origin is held, to deny the validity of the higher degrees, and to declare, in accordance with the Solemn Act of Union between the two Grand Lodges of the Freemasons of England, in December, 1813, that “pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz, those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.”* (* Book of Constitutions, 1884, p. 16.) All other degrees and rites are, among the more rigid followers of this school, looked upon as Continental innovations and are accordingly rejected as “spurious” Masonry.

As far as interpretation goes, the authentics have ventured but little further than a moralization upon the symbols and ceremonies of Masonry as an adjunct to Anglican Christianity.

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCHOOL

A second school, still only in process of development, is applying the discoveries of anthropology to a study of Masonic history, with remarkable results. A vast amount of information upon the religious and initiatory customs of many peoples, both ancient and modern, has been gathered by anthropologists; and Masonic students in this field have found many of our signs and symbols, both of the Craft and higher degrees, in the wall-paintings, carvings, sculpture and buildings of the principal races of the world. The Anthropological School, therefore, allows a far greater degree of antiquity to Masonry than the Authentics have ever ventured to do, and traces striking analogies with the ancient Mysteries of many nations, which clearly possessed our symbols and signs, and in all probability ceremonies analogous to those worked in Masonic Lodges to-day.

The Anthropologists do not confine their studies to the past alone, but have investigated the initiatory rites of many existing tribes, both in Africa and Australia, and have found them to possess signs and gestures still in use among Masons. Striking analogies to our Masonic rites have also been found among the inhabitants of India and Syria, interwoven with their religious philosophy in a way which renders entirely impossible the idea that they were copied from European sources. Masonic scholars have by no means exhausted the facts which may be discovered in this most interesting field of research, but even with our present knowledge it is clear that rites analogous to those we call Masonic are among the most ancient on earth, and may be found in some form or other in almost all parts of the world. Our signs exist in Egypt and Mexico, in China and India, in Greece and Rome, upon the temples of Burma and the cathedrals of mediaeval Europe; and there are said to be shrines in Southern India where the same secrets are taught under binding pledges as are communicated to us in the Craft and high grades in modern Europe and America.

Among pioneers in this field we should mention Bro. Albert Churchward, the author of several interesting books on the Egyptian origin of Masonry, although it may be that he is not always quite sufficiently critical; Bro. J. S. M. Ward, the author of Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, Who was Hiram Abiff? and a number of other works, who looks to Syria as the source of Masonry, though he has compiled a mass of valuable information from many other lands; and Mr. Bernard H. Springett, author of Secret Sects of Syria and Lebanon, who has collected much material bearing upon Masonic rites among the Arabs.

To the work of the Anthropological School is due a clear revelation of the immense antiquity and diffusion of what we now call Masonic symbolism. It tends, however, to find the origin of the ancient Mysteries in the initiatory customs of savage tribes which, although admittedly of incalculable antiquity, are often neither dignified nor spiritual.

Another important work which has been accomplished by its efforts is the justification of many of the higher degrees to be considered “pure Antient Masonry”; for in spite of the pronouncement of the Grand Lodge of England quoted above, there is just as much evidence for the extreme antiquity of Rose-Croix as of Craft and Arch signs and symbols, and the same may be said of the signs of many other degrees as well. It is quite clear from the researches of anthropologists that, whatever may be the precise links in the chain of descent, we in Masonry are the inheritors of a very ancient tradition, which has for countless ages been associated with the most sacred mysteries of religious worship.

THE MYSTICAL SCHOOL

A third school of Masonic thought, which we may call the Mystical, approaches the mysteries of the Craft from another standpoint altogether, seeing in them a plan of man’s spiritual awakening and inner development. Thinkers of this school, on the record of their own spiritual experiences, declare that the degrees of the Order are symbolical of certain states of consciousness which must be awakened in the individual initiate if he aspires to win the treasures of the spirit. They give testimony of another and far higher nature upon the validity of our Masonic rites - a testimony that belongs to religion rather than to science. The goal of the mystic is conscious union with God, and to a Mason of this school the Craft is intended to portray the path to that goal, to offer a map, as it were, to guide the feet of the seeker after God.

Such students are often more interested in interpretation than in historical research. They are not primarily concerned in tracing an exact line of descent from the past, but rather in so living the life indicated by the symbols of the Order that they may attain to the spiritual reality of which those symbols are the shadows. They hold, however, that Masonry is at least akin to the ancient Mysteries, which were intended for precisely the same purpose - that of offering to man a path by which he might find God; and they deplore the fact that the majority of our modern Brn. have so far forgotten the glory of their Masonic heritage that they have allowed the ancient rites to become little more than empty forms. One well-known representative of this school is Bro. A. E. Waite, one of the finest Masonic scholars of the day, and an authority upon the history of the higher degrees. Another is Bro. W. L. Wilmshurst, who has given some beautiful and deeply spiritual interpretations of Masonic symbolism. This school is doing much to spiritualize masculine Masonry, and the deeper reverence for our mysteries that is becoming more and more apparent is without doubt one of the marks of its influence.

THE OCCULT SCHOOL

The fourth school of thought is represented by an evergrowing body of students in the Co-Masonic Order, and is gradually attracting adherents in masculine Masonry also. Since one of its chief and distinctive tenets is the sacramental efficacy of Masonic ceremonial when duly and lawfully performed, we may perhaps not improperly term it the sacramental or occult school. The term occultism has been much misunderstood; it may be defined as the study and knowledge of the hidden side of nature by means of powers which exist in all men, but are still unawakened in the majority - powers which may be aroused and trained in the occult student by means of long and careful discipline and meditation.

The goal of the occultist, no less than that of the mystic, is conscious union with God; but the methods of approach are different. The aim of the occultist is to attain that union by means of knowledge and of will, to train the whole nature, physical, emotional and mental, until it becomes a perfect expression of the divine spirit within, and can be employed as an efficient instrument in the great plan which God has made for the evolution of mankind, which is typified in Masonry by the building of the holy temple. The mystic, on the other hand, rather aspires to ecstatic union with that level of the divine consciousness which his stage of evolution permits him to touch.

The way of the occultist lies through a graded series of steps, a pathway of Initiations conferring successive expansions of consciousness and degrees of sacramental power; that of the mystic is often more individual in character, a “flight of the alone to the Alone,” as Plotinus so beautifully expressed it. To the occultist the exact observance of a form is of great importance, and through the use of ceremonial magic he creates a vehicle through which the divine light may be drawn down and spread abroad for the helping of the world, calling to his aid the assistance of Angels, nature-spirits and other inhabitants of the invisible worlds. The method of the mystic, on the other hand, is through prayer and orison; he cares nothing for forms and, though by his union therewith he too is a channel of the divine Life, he seems to me to lose the enormous advantage of the collective effort made by the occultist, which is so greatly strengthened by the help of the higher Beings whose presence he invokes. Both these paths lead to God; to some of us the first will appeal irresistibly, to others the second; it is largely a matter of the Ray to which we belong. The one is more outward-turned in service and sacrifice; the other more inward-turned in contemplation and love.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE OCCULTIST

The student of occultism, therefore, learns to awaken and train for scientific use the powers latent within him, and by their means he is able to see far more of the real meaning of life than the man whose vision is limited by the physical senses. He learns that each man is in essence divine, a veritable spark of God’s fire, gradually evolving towards a future of glory and splendour culminating in union with God; that the method of his progress is by successive descents into earthly bodies for the sake of experience, and withdrawals into worlds or planes which are invisible to physical eyes. He finds that this progress is governed by a law of eternal justice, which renders to each man the fruit of that which he sows, joy for good and suffering for evil.

He learns, too, that the world is ruled, under the will of T.M.H., by a Brotherhood of Adepts, who have Themselves attained divine union, but remain on earth to guide humanity; that all the great religions of the world were founded by Them, according to the needs of the races for which they were intended, and that within these religions there have been schools of the Mysteries to offer to those who are ready a swifter path of unfoldment, with greater knowledge and opportunities for service; that this Path is divided into steps and degrees: the probationary Path, or the Lower Mysteries, wherein the candidates are prepared for discipleship, and the Path proper, or the Greater Mysteries, in which are conferred within the Great White Lodge itself five great Initiations, which lead the disciple from the life of earth to the life of adeptship in God, to become “a living flame,” as it is said, “for the lighting of the world.” He is taught that God, both in the universe and in man, shows Himself as a Trinity of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, and that these Three Aspects are represented in the Great White Lodge in the Persons of its three chief Officers, through whom the mighty power of God descends to men.

THE OCCULT RECORDS

It will be seen that this occult knowledge depends no more upon the study of books and records than do the experiences of the mystics; both belong to a higher order of consciousness, the existence of which cannot be satisfactorily demonstrated on the physical plane. Nevertheless, the study of the physical-plane records of the past is of value in confirming the historical researches of the trained occultist, who is able to read what are sometimes called the akashic records, and so to acquire an accurate knowledge of the past. This subject is so little understood that it may perhaps be useful if at this point I quote somewhat at length from a book entitled Clairvoyance which I wrote many years ago:

On the mental plane (the records) have two widely different aspects. When the visitor to that plane is not thinking specially of them in any way, these records simply form a background to whatever is going on, just as the reflections in a pier-glass at the end of a room might form a background to the life of the people in it. It must always be borne in mind that under these conditions they are really merely reflections from the ceaseless activity of a great Consciousness upon a far higher plane. ...

But if the trained investigator turns his attention especially to any one scene, or wishes to call it up before him, an extraordinary change at once takes place, for this is the plane of thought, and to think of anything is to bring it instantaneously before you. For example, if a man wills to see the record of the landing of Julius Caesar in England, he finds himself in a moment standing on the shore among the legionaries, with the whole scene being enacted around him, precisely in every respect as he would have seen it if he had stood there in the flesh on that autumn morning in the year 55 B.C. Since what he sees is but a reflection, the actors are of course entirely unconscious of him, nor can any effort of his change the course of their action in the smallest degree, except only that he can control the rate at which the drama shall pass before him - can have the events of a whole year rehearsed before his eyes in a single hour, or can at any moment stop the movement altogether, and hold any particular scene in view as a picture as long as he chooses.

In truth he observes not only what he would have seen if he had been there at the time in the flesh, but much more. He hears and understands all that the people say, and he is conscious of all their thoughts and motives; and one of the most interesting of the many possibilities which open up before one who has learnt to read the records is the study of the thought of ages long past - the thought of the cave-men and the lake-dwellers as well as that which ruled the mighty civilizations of Atlantis, of Egypt or Chaldaea. What splendid possibilities open up before the man who is in full possession of this power may easily be imagined. He has before him a field of historical research of most entrancing interest. Not only can he review at his leisure all history with which we are acquainted, correcting as he examines it the many errors and misconceptions which have crept into the accounts handed down to us; he can also range at will over the whole story of the world from its very beginning, watching the slow development of intellect in man, the descent of the Lords of the Flame, and the growth of the mighty civilizations which They founded.

Nor is his study confined to the progress of humanity alone; he has before him, as in a museum, all the strange animal and vegetable forms which occupied the stage in days when the world was young; he can follow all the wonderful geological changes which have taken place, and watch the course of the great cataclysms which have altered the whole face of the earth again and again.

In one especial case an even closer sympathy with the past is possible to the reader of the records. If in the course of his inquiries he has to look upon some scene in which he himself has in a former birth taken part, he may deal with it in two ways; he can either regard it in the usual manner as a spectator (though always, be it remembered, as a spectator whose insight and sympathy are perfect), or he may once more identify himself with that long-dead personality of his - may throw himself back for the time into that life of long ago, and absolutely experience over again the thoughts and the emotions, the pleasures and the pains of a prehistoric past.

In the light of this occult knowledge (which is within the reach of the inner sight) Masonry is seen to be far greater and holier than its initiates appear generally to realize. As tradition has always indicated, it is found to be a direct descendant of the Mysteries of Egypt (once the heart of that splendid faith whose wisdom and power were the glory of the ancient world - those Mysteries which were the parent and prototype of the secret schools of other neighbouring lands), and its purpose is still to serve as a gateway to the true Mysteries of the Great White Lodge. It offers to its initiates far more than a mere moralization upon building tools, and yet it is “founded upon the purest principles of piety and virtue,” for without the practice of morality and the living of the ethical life no true spiritual progress is possible.

The ceremonies of Freemasonry (those at least of its higher degrees) are dramatizations, as it were, of sections of the invisible worlds, through which the candidate must pass after death in the ordinary course of nature - which also he must enter in full consciousness during the rites of initiation into those true Mysteries of which Masonry is a reflection. Each degree relates to a different plane of nature, or to an aspect of a plane, and possesses layer after layer of meaning applicable to the consciousness of T.G.A.O.T.U., the constitution of the universe, and the principles in man, according to the occult law formulated by Hermes Trismegistus and adopted by Rosicrucians, alchemists and students of the Kabbala in later ages: “As above, so below.” The Masonic rites are thus rites of the probationary Path, intended to be a preparation for true Initiation, to be a school for training the Brn. for the far greater knowledge of the Path proper.

THE SACRAMENTAL POWER

To the occult student Masonry has also another aspect, of the greatest importance, concerning which I have written in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry It is not only a wonderful and intricate system of occult symbols enshrining the secrets of the invisible worlds; it has also a sacramental aspect which is of the utmost beauty and value not only to its initiates but to the world at large. The performance of the ritual of each degree is intended to call down spiritual power, first to assist the Bro. upon whom the degree is conferred to awaken within himself that aspect of consciousness which corresponds to the symbolism of the degree, as far as it can be awakened; secondly to aid in the evolution of the members present; and thirdly and most important of all, to pour out a flood of spiritual power intended to uplift, strengthen and encourage all members of the Craft.

Some years ago I undertook an investigation into the hidden side of the sacraments of the Catholic Church, and published the results of that investigation in a book called The Science of the Sacraments. Those who have read that book will remember that the shedding abroad of spiritual power is one great object of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and of other services of the Church, and that it is attained by the invocation of an Angel to build a spiritual temple in the inner worlds with the aid of the forces generated by the love and devotion of the people, and the charging of that temple with the enormous power called down at the consecration of the Sacred Elements. A somewhat similar result is achieved during the ceremonies performed by the Masonic Lodge, although the plan is not exactly the same, being indeed far older; and each of our rituals, when properly carried out, likewise builds a temple in the inner worlds, through which the spiritual power called down at the initiation of the candidate is stored and radiated. Thus Masonry is seen, in the sacramental sense as well as the mystical, to be “an art of building spiritualized,” and every Masonic Lodge ought to be a channel of no mean order for the shedding of spiritual blessing over the district in which it labours.

Sometimes orders and rites which were once channels of great force have admitted, as the years passed by, Brn. less worthy than their predecessors - Brn. who thought more of their own gain than of service to the world. In such cases the spiritual powers associated with those grades were either entirely withdrawn by the H.O.A.T.F.,* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, pp. 15, 185.) to be introduced later into some other and more suitable group, or allowed to remain dormant until more fitting candidates should be found to hold them worthily - the bare succession passing down and transmitting, as it were, the seeds of the power, although the power itself was largely in abeyance.

On the other hand, there have been cases in which a rite or grade has been manufactured by a student who wished to throw some great truth into ceremonial form, but knew little of all this inner side of Masonry; if such a degree or rite were doing useful work and attracting suitable candidates, sacramental powers fitted for that rite or grade were sometimes introduced into it, either by some Bro. on the physical plane who possessed one of the lines of succession mentioned above, which was then adapted by the H.O.A.T.F. for the work, or by a direct and non-physical interference from behind.

Furthermore, the inner effect of a given degree, even in a rite that may be fully valid, may vary greatly with the degree of advancement and general attitude of the Bro. upon whom it is conferred; so that in one case, let us say, the 33 ° would confer stupendous spiritual power, and in another, less worthy, the powers given would be much smaller, because of the candidate’s incapacity to respond fully to them. In such cases a fuller degree of power will manifest itself as greater advancement is made in the development of character. It also appears to be possible for power to be temporarily withdrawn in cases of evil-doing by one of the Brn., and to be restored later when the evil-doing has ceased.

All this may seem a little bewildering to the student of the form side of Masonry; and indeed it is a fact that there is but little means on the physical plane of judging the inner effect of a given degree without reference to those who may be working it. It may however be generally stated that the chief lines of Masonic tradition - those which are of the greatest inner or spiritual value - are the Craft degrees, upon which all other grades are superimposed, the Mark and the Arch degrees, and the chief degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the 18 °, 30 ° and 33 °. Other degrees that are worked have their own peculiar powers, and these are often valuable; but the grades which I have mentioned are those which are considered by the H.O.A.T.F. to be of the greatest value to our present generation, and they are therefore those which are worked at present in the Co-Masonic Order. Another line of great interest, though very different from any other degrees existing among us, is that of the rites of Memphis and Mizraim, which are relics in their occult power, although not in their form, of perhaps the very oldest Mysteries existing upon earth. These too have their part to play in the future, as in the past, and they have therefore been preserved and transmitted to us in the present day.

THE FORM AND THE LIFE

In all cases we must realize that the form of the degrees of Masonry and their life are two very different things, although of course in a perfect system, as in that of the ancient Mysteries at the height of their glory, they would correspond perfectly. Masonry is yet in a transitional stage, and is but emerging from the ignorance of the Dark Ages. The rites of Memphis and Mizraim are an example of this discrepancy.

These colossal systems of 96 ° and 90 ° respectively are a mass of artificially-manufactured ceremonies, of but little value to a Masonic student except as a record of high-grade Masonic invention in France at the end of the eighteenth century. Most of the degrees have little occult power, and have simply been inserted into the rites by Brn. who could have known nothing of their real purpose; but behind the rites and quite independent of the form side of the tradition a line of succession has been handed down from a past even more ancient than that of the Scottish Rite itself. Even in the Scottish Rite many of the intermediate degrees are of but little occult value.

The whole position will be best understood if it can be realized that the plan of Masonry is in the hands of the H.O.A.T.F., who rules His mighty Order with perfect justice and the most marvellous skill, so that all that can be done is done for the greatest good of all. The powers that stand behind Freemasonry are great and holy, and it is but right that they should be conferred in their fullness only upon those who are likely to use them as they should be used and to treat them with the reverence they deserve. There is a great and glorious reality in the background all the time, ever pressing towards realization, and employing whatever channels are available for its manifestation. Whatever can be used is always used to the very fullest extent, and none need fear that he is overlooked. It is obvious, however, that where the Brn. think more of gratifying their own vanity than of the Hidden Work, where they spend their time in banqueting and revelry and curtail the sacred ritual in order that they may adjourn as quickly as possible to the South, they are less worthy channels of the Divine Glory than those more spiritual Brn. who are willing to study and to understand. All the time the H.O.A.T.F. is watching; He sees the slightest endeavor of the Craftsmen to serve, and He will pour forth His wondrous power just in so far as the Brn. become worthy of it.

ORTHODOXY AND HERESY

Another point which arises in connection with the transmission of Masonic degrees will be developed more fully as we proceed. We must realize that in Masonic ritual it is not a case of one orthodoxy, and a number of heresies and schisms; it is rather that there are as many lines of tradition in form as there are types of succession in inner power. The Mysteries worked in the different countries of the ancient world varied considerably in the details of their form and legend, and vestiges of these differences remain in the various workings now in use among us. Many equally valid streams of tradition have crossed and recrossed one another throughout the ages, and have influenced each other to a greater or less degree. The seating of the principal officers in a Craft Lodge, for instance, differs in English and Continental Masonry. English Masonry follows the old Egyptian method of arranging them, while Continental Masonry follows the Chaldaean plan and seats them in an isosceles triangle.

The powers of the succession of I.M.s in these two systems are in essence the same, but since in the Continental Lodges the ceremony of Installation is reduced to the merest vestige, only the minimum of power necessary for the actual transmission of the degrees is conferred, and very much less is done for the R.W.M. than under the English plan. But this is a question of imperfection of form rather than of absence of power. The spiritual powers behind Masonry work through the different forms according to the value of the form and the will of the H.O.A.T.F. behind, who is the only judge of the much-argued difference between genuine and spurious Masonry. In the light of this view of the Masonic succession, it will be seen that genuine rites are those which possess and transmit spiritual power, whereas spurious Masonry is the working of a form from which for one reason or another the life has been withdrawn, or to which it has never been linked.

In the following chapters I shall endeavour to trace the descent of the Masonic tradition from the Egyptian Mysteries to the present day, not in any way attempting to delineate each separate link in the chain of succession, for that would be the work of a life-time and would not be of any fuller value to the student, but touching rather upon important periods of Masonic history, as revealed by the inner sight, and confirmed in the writings of Masonic scholars.

2. The Egyptian Mysteries

THE MESSAGE OF THE WORLD-TEACHER

In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I have described to some extent the form and meaning of Freemasonry as I knew it in Egypt about six thousand years ago. That form was largely due to the birth of the World Teacher among the Egyptian people about 40,000 B.C. when He taught them the doctrine of the Hidden Light. It may be well to sketch briefly the history of the nation from that period up to 13,500 B.C., where I took it up in the previous book.

The authentic history of Egypt, as determined by modern scholars, begins with the First Dynasty, which was founded by Mena or Manu about 5,000 B.C. - the dates are variously given. It is considered that the pyramids of Gizeh, which played so great a part in the hidden side of Egyptian worship, were built by the Kings of the Fourth Dynasty, Khufu (Cheops), Khafra (Chephren) and Menkaura (Mycerinus), during the fourth millennium B.C. But the inner history of Egypt and its pyramids extends back further than this, into ages upon which even tradition is almost silent, although some echoes of the reigns of the Divine Kings of the Atlantean Dynasties, who ruled Egypt for many thousands of years, appear in the Egyptian and Greek myths of the gods and demigods who are said to have reigned before the coming of Manu.

According to Manetho, the Egyptian historian of the Ptolemaic period, whose works are now lost (except for certain fragments preserved in quotations), the gods and demigods reigned for 12,843 years. After these came the Nekyes or Manes, who are said to have reigned for 5,813 years; and some of these may perhaps be identified with the Shemsu Heru, or Followers of Horus, who are frequently mentioned in Egyptian texts.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. The Nile, p. 26.) Diodorus Siculus, who visited Egypt about 57 B.C. , tells us that it was traditionally believed that the gods and heroes had reigned over Egypt for a little less than eighteen thousand years before the time of Mena.* (*Diod. Sic., Hist, Bk. I., xliv.) The book Man: Whence, How and Whither carries us much further into the past, and gives us the following facts.

The Atlantean conquest of Egypt took place over one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, and the first great Egyptian empire lasted until the catastrophe of 75,025 B.C., when the two great islands Ruta and Daitya were whelmed beneath the ocean, and only the island of Poseidonis remained.* (*Op. cit.,pp. 119 and 132, and The Story of Atlantis, by Scott Elliott.) It was during the dominance of that empire that the three pyramids were built in accordance with the astronomical and mathematical lore of the Atlantean priests;* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, p. 229.) and it is to this age also that we look for the origin of those Mysteries which have been handed down to us in the ceremonies of Freemasonry. Even then the ceremonies were ancient, and we must search a still more remote past for their ultimate source. In the great catastrophe of 75,025 B.C. the whole land of Egypt was flooded, and nothing remained of all its glory save the three pyramids rising above the waters.* (*Man: Whence, How and Whither, pp. 242 and 283.) After this, when the swamps had become habitable, there came a negroid domination; and then the land was again colonized by the Atlanteans, who restored the splendour of the Egyptian temples and established once more the hidden Mysteries which had been celebrated in the great pyramid. This empire lasted up to the time of the Aryanization of Egypt in 13,500 B.C.; it was ruled by a great dynasty of divine kings, among whom were many of the heroes whom Greece later regarded as demigods, such as Herakles of the twelve labours, whose tradition was handed on to classical times.

It was to this people about 40,000 B.C. that the World Teacher came forth from the White Lodge, bearing the name of Tehuti or Thoth, called later by the Greeks Hermes; He founded the outer cult of the Egyptian Gods and restored the Mysteries to the splendour of byegone days.