The Lost Keys of Freemasonry E-Book

Manly P. Hall

• Herausgeber: Reading Essentials
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

A high-ranking Mason offers a fascinating glimpse into the Western world's most secretive society. Manly P. Hall, a scholar of occult and esoteric ideas, traces the path followed by initiates to the ancient craft. Hall also recounts the ethical training required of a Freemason, and he profiles the character traits a Mason must "build" within himself. More than a mere social organization a few centuries old, Freemasonry can be regarded as a perpetuation of the philosophical mysteries and initiations of the ancients. This book reveals the unique and distinctive elements that have inspired generations of Masons. Thoughtful members of the craft, as well as outsiders, will appreciate its exploration of Masonic idealism and the eternal quest, from humble candidate to entered apprentice and master Mason.

Leseprobe

The Lost Keys of Freemasonry 

by Manly P. Hall

First published in 1923

This edition published by Reading Essentials

Victoria, BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany

[email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except in the case of excerpts by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

THE LOST KEYS OF FREEMASONRY 

by MANLY P. HALL

PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD

The steady demand and increasing popularity of this volume, of

which eighteen thousand copies have been printed since it first

appeared a few years ago, have brought the present revised and

rearranged edition into being. The text can be read with profit by

both new and old Mason, for within its pages lies an interpretation

of Masonic symbolism which supplements the monitorial instruction

usually given in the lodges.

The leading Masonic scholars of all times have agreed that the

symbols of the Fraternity are susceptible of the most profound

interpretation and thus reveal to the truly initiated certain

secrets concerning the spiritual realities of life. Freemasonry is

therefore more than a mere social organization a few centuries old,

and can be regarded as a perpetuation of the philosophical

mysteries and initiations of the ancients. This is in keeping with

the inner tradition of the Craft, a heritage from pre-Revival days.

The present volume will appeal to the thoughtful Mason as an

inspiring work, for it satisfies the yearning for further light and

leads the initiate to that Sanctum Sanctorum where the mysteries

are revealed. The book is a contribution to Masonic idealism,

revealing the profounder aspects of our ancient and gentle

Fraternity - those unique and distinctive features which have

proved a constant inspiration through the centuries.

FOREWORD

By REYNOLD E. BLIGHT, 33 degree, K. T.

Reality forever eludes us. Infinity mocks our puny efforts to

imprison it in definition and dogma. Our most splendid

realizations are only adumbrations of the Light. In his endeavors,

man is but a mollusk seeking to encompass the ocean.

Yet man may not cease his struggle to find God. There is a

yearning in his soul that will not let him rest, an urge that

compels him to attempt the impossible, to attain the unattainable.

He lifts feeble hands to grasp the stars and despite a million

years of failure and millenniums of disappointment, the soul of man

springs heavenward with even greater avidity than when the race was

young.

He pursues, even though the flying ideal eternally slips from his

embrace. Even though he never clasps the goddess of his dreams, he

refuses to believe that she is a phantom. To him she is the only

reality. He reaches upward and will not be content until the sword

of Orion is in his hands, and glorious Arcturus glearns from his

breast.

Man is Parsifal searching for the Sacred Cup; Sir Launfal

adventuring for the Holy Grail. Life is a divine adventure, a

splendid quest

Language falls. Words are mere cyphers, and who can read the

riddle? These words we use, what are they but vain shadows of form

and sense? We strive to clothe our highest thought with verbal

trappings that our brother may see and understand; and when we

would describe a saint he sees a demon; and when we would present a

wise man he beholds a fool. "Fie upon you," he cries; "thou, too,

art a fool."

So wisdom drapes her truth with symbolism, and covers her insight

with allegory. Creeds, rituals, poems are parables and symbols.

The ignorant take them literally and build for themselves prison

houses of words and with bitter speech and bitterer taunt denounce

those who will not join them in the dungeon. Before the rapt

vision of the seer, dogma and ceremony, legend and trope dissolve

and fade, and he sees behind the fact the truth, behind the symbol

the Reality.

Through the shadow shines ever the Perfect Light.

What is a Mason? He is a man who in his heart has been duly and

truly prepared, has been found worthy and well qualified, has been

admitted to the fraternity of builders, been invested with certain

passwords and signs by which he may be enabled to work and receive

wages as a Master Mason, and travel in foreign lands in search of

that which was lost - The Word.

Down through the misty vistas of the ages rings a clarion

declaration and although the very heavens echo to the

reverberations, but few hear and fewer understand: "In the

beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was

God."

Here then is the eternal paradox. The Word is lost yet it is ever

with us. The light that illumines the distant horizon shines in

our hearts. "Thou wouldst not seek me hadst thou not found me." We

travel afar only to find that which we hunger for at home.

And as Victor Hugo says: "The thirst for the Infinite proves

infinity."

That which we seek lives in our souls.

This, the unspeakable truth, the unutterable perfection, the author

has set before us in these pages. Not a Mason himself, he has read

the deeper meaning of the ritual. Not having assumed the formal

obligations, he calls upon all mankind to enter into the holy of

holies. Not initiated into the physical craft, he declares the

secret doctrine that all may hear.

With vivid allegory and profound philosophical disquisition he

expounds the sublime teachings of Freemasonry, older than all

religions, as universal as human aspiration.

It is well. Blessed are the eyes that see, and the ears that hear,

and the heart that understands.

INTRODUCTION

Freemasonry, though not a religion, is essentially religious. Most

of its legends and allegories are of a sacred nature; much of it is

woven into the structure of Christianity. We have learned to

consider our own religion as the only inspired one, and this

probably accounts for much of the misunderstanding in the world

today concerning the place occupied by Freemasonry in the spiritual

ethics of our race. A religion is a divinely inspired code of

morals. A religious person is one inspired to nobler living by

this code. He is identified by the code which is his source of

illumination. Thus we may say that a Christian is one who receives

his spiritual ideals of right and wrong from the message of the

Christ, while a Buddhist is one who molds his life into the

archetype of morality given by the great Gautama, or one of the

other Buddhas. All doctrines which seek to unfold and preserve

that invisible spark in man named Spirit, are said to be spiritual

. Those which ignore this invisible element and concent rate

entirely upon the visible are said to be material. There is in

religion a wonderful point of balance, where the materialist and

spiritist meet on the plane of logic and reason. Science and

theology are two ends of a single truth, but the world will never

receive the full benefit of their investigations until they have

made peace with each other, and labor hand in hand for the

accomplishment of the great work - the liberation of spirit and

intelligence from the three-dimensional prison-house of ignorance,

superstition, and fear. That which gives man a knowledge of himself

can be inspired only by the Self - and God is the Self in all

things. In truth, He is the inspiration and the thing inspired. It

has been stated in Scripture that God was the Word and that the

Word was made flesh. Man's task now is to make flesh reflect the

glory of that Word, which is within the soul of himself. It is

this task which has created the need of religion - not one faith

alone but many creeds, each searching in its own way, e ach meeting

the needs of individual people, each emphasizing one point above

all the others.

Twelve Fellow Craftsmen are exploring the four points of the

compass. Are not these twelve the twelve great world religions,

each seeking in its own way for that which was lost in the ages

past, and the quest of which is the birthright of man? Is not the

quest for Reality in a world of illusions the task for which each

comes into the world? We are here to gain balance in a sphere of

unbalance; to find rest in a restless thing; to unveil illusion;

and to slay the dragon of our own animal natures. As David, King

of Israel, gave to the hands of his son Solomon the task he could

not accomplish, so each generation gives to the next the work of

building the temple, or rather, rebuilding the dwelling of the

Lord, which is on Mount Moriah.

Truth is not lost, yet it must be sought for and found. Reality is

ever-present - dimensionless yet all-prevailing. Man - creature of

attitudes and desires, and servant of impressions and opinions -

cannot, with the wavering unbalance of an untutored mind, learn to

know that which he himself does not possess. As man attains a

quality, he discovers that quality, and recognizes about him the

thing newborn within himself. Man is born with eyes, yet only

after long years of sorrow does he learn to see clearly and in

harmony with the Plan. He is born with senses, but only after long

experience and fruitless strivings does he bring these senses to

the temple and lays them as offerings upon the altar of the great

Father, who alone does all things well and with understanding. Man

is, in truth, born in the sin of ignorance, but with a capacity for

understanding. He has a mind capable of wisdom, a heart capable of

feeling, and a hand strong for the great work in life - truing the

rough ashlar into the perfect stone.

What more can any creature ask than the opportunity to prove the

thing he is, the dream that inspires him, the vision that leads him

on? We have no right to ask for wisdom. In whose name do we beg

for understanding? By what authority do we demand happiness? None

of these things is the birthright of any creature; yet all may have

them, if they will cultivate within themselves the thing that they

desire. There is no need of asking, nor does any Deity bow down to

give man these things that he desires. Man i s given by Nature, a

gift, and that gift is the privilege of labor. Through labor he

learns all things.

Religions are groups of people, gathered together in the labor of

learning. The world is a school. We are here to learn, and our

presence here proves our need of instruction. Every living

creature is struggling to break the strangling bonds of limitation

- that pressing narrowness which inhabits vision and leaves the

life without an ideal. Every soul is engaged in a great work - the

labor of personal liberation from the state of ignorance. The

world is a great prison; its bars are the Unknown. And each is a

prisoner until, at last, he earns the right to tear these bars from

their moldering sockets, and pass, illuminated and inspired, into

the darkness, which becomes lighted by that presence. All peoples

seek the temple where God dwells, where the spirit of the great