Introduction:
A Brief History of the Lodge

The Social Influence of Freemasonry

       The Masons now emphasize the fact that they do not foster any specific religious, political or enonomical creeds. As a result, the organization has constantly attracted more and more members. During the past ten years their membership has increased by almost a million.... About one out of every twelve adult American males is a Mason.⁽¹⁾

       From the charitable outreach of the Shriners' Hospitals, to the fraternal image portrayed by the Blue Lodge (Craft Masonry), and its affiliated organizations of Job's Daughters, Rainbow Girls, DeMolay, and the Order of the Eastern Star, few areas of modern society have escaped the far-reaching influence of the Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. Its membership transcends all social and religious barriers, expanding to include a multitude of professing Christians, and even many clergymen.
       Researcher and critic of Freemasonry Martin L. Wagner observed, "Masonry, with its numerous offsprings, is a powerful factor in our civilization. It is influencing our civic, our social, our family, and our moral and religious life far more than is generally realized."⁽²⁾ Freemasonry exists today in 164 countries of the world.⁽³⁾ More than 33,700 Lodges can be found around the world, at least 15,000 of which operate within the United States.⁽⁴⁾ The roster of well-known Masons, both living and deceased, is seemingly endless. As many as fourteen United States Presidents have been Masons, including George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Gerald Ford. In fact, all but a few of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the majority of the framers of the United States Constitution, were Freemasons.
       Other well-known Masons were and are the late "father" of the "positive thinking" movement, Norman Vincent Peale, actor Ernest Borgnine, Sir Winston Churchill, "Old West" heroes Christopher "Kit" Carson and William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, authors Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, and Rudyard Kipling, comedians W.C. Fields and Oliver Hardy, as well as Benjamin Franklin, Harry Houdini, Paul Revere, Roy Rogers, Robert Dole, J. Edgar Hoover, Gene Autry, Douglas MacArthur, Charles Lindburgh, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.⁽⁵⁾
       The layout of the District of Columbia was designed by French Freemason, Pierre Charles L'Enfante to depict various Masonic symbols, and both the White House and Capitol building were designed by architect James Hoban, another Freemason. Even many of America's most familiar emblems are Masonic in origin. The design of the Great Seal of the United States, for example, is replete in Masonic symbolism. On the front is found the symbol of the eagle (originally a phoenix) with outstretched wings, clutching an acacia twig in one talon and thirteen arrows in the other. Above the head of the bird is what is known in Masonry as the "clouded canopy," within which are depicted thirteen stars which, when joined in two overlaying triangles, form what is commonly known as the "Star of David" — yet another sacred Masonic symbol.
       On the so-called "reverse side" of the Seal we find two Latin phrases — Annuit Caeptis and Novus Ordo Seclorum. The first phrase is translated, "He favors our undertaking." This phrase was taken from Virgil's epic poem, Aeneid, and refers to the pagan deity, Jupiter, which is represented by the "All-Seeing Eye" overseeing the construction of a novus ordo seclorum ("New Order of the Ages"), symbolized by the unfinished pyramid. It is interesting to note that this "reverse side" was virtually ignored from its creation in the Eighteenth Century until it was placed on the United States "one dollar" Federal Reserve Note by Thirty-Second Degree Mason Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the suggestion of Henry A. Wallace, the Franklin Administration's resident occultist. This act followed Roosevelt's implementation of his "New Deal" with the declaration, "We could never go back to the old order."⁽⁶⁾

The Origins of the Lodge

       Before we begin our investigation into the beliefs and ceremonies of the Masonic Lodge, it is imperative that we first explore its origins. In the Middle Ages, various groups of stone-cutters formed exclusive guilds in order to protect their trade secrets from outsiders. These were the "Operative Masons" — descendants of the Phoenician stone and cedar cutters of Tyre and Sidon who were employed to construct Solomon's temple and builders of the magnificent castles and cathedrals of medieval England.
       According to its own scholars, modern Freemasonry, or "Speculative Masonry," can be traced back to the founding of the first Grand Lodge in London in 1717. The individuals who formed this society were not themselves stone-cutters as were the Operative Masons, but mimicked the closed societies of the guilds and adopted many of the tools of the craft, such as the square, compass, trowel, and others, as secret symbols, or "landmarks," to which were attached mystical meanings. The esoteric interpretation of these symbols will be examined in a later chapter.
       At first, protest arose amongst the Operative Masons that their ideas and practices were being pirated by men who had no working knowledge of the architectural trade from which they were being taken. An early publication entitled A Pocket Companion for Freemasons stated the objection as follows: "No man ought to attain any dignity in Masonry who has not, at least, a competent knowledge, in geometry and architecture; and if the sciences were more followed in the Lodges, what is unhappily substituted in their place would not prevail as it does."⁽⁷⁾ Gradually, however, the number of Operative Masons began to dwindle until the Lodge memberships were largely, and often exclusively, made up of Speculative Masons. Consequently, what once served as a workman's guild for the protection of trade secrets soon was transformed into a stronghold for the philosophical "enlightenment" of the elite minds of humanity.
       Today, Speculative Freemasonry exists as a complex organization consisting of various levels of advancement known as "degrees." At the bottom of the Masonic ladder is what is referred to as the "Blue Lodge," which consists of the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. From there, the individual Mason may elect to pursue additional degrees in either the Scottish Rite (thirty-two degrees and a thirty-third honorary degree) or the York Rite (nine degrees).
       Believing that the whole of the Masonic system is to be found in the Blue Lodge, most initiates never advance beyond the third degree of Master Mason. However, as Henry C. Clausen noted, "It must be apparent that the Blue Lodge... degrees cannot explain the whole of Masonry. They are the foundation.... An initiate may imagine that he understands the ethics, symbols, and enigmas, whereas a true explanation of these is reserved for the more adept."⁽⁸⁾ Albert Pike, another acknowledged Masonic authority, wrote that the Blue Lodge degrees are merely "the entrance to the great Masonic Temple, the triple columns of the portico." Those Masons who content themselves with these degrees will never take "the first step toward the inner sanctuary and heart of the temple" or begin to ascend "up the slope of the mountain of Truth."⁽⁹⁾ Manly P. Hall likewise described Freemasonry as "a fraternity within a fraternity — an outer organization [the Blue Lodge] concealing an inner brotherhood of the elect."⁽¹⁰⁾ It is the "secret doctrine" of this "inner brotherhood of the elect" that is the subject of this book.

Endnotes

1. Robert J. Tyler, essay: "Freemasonry," World Book Encyclopedia, Volume XIII, pages 209-210.

2. Martin L. Wagner, Freemasonry: An Interpretation (Dahlonega, Georgia: Crown Rights Book Company, [1912] 2002), page 23.

3. Reference: Kent Henderson, Masonic World Guide (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1984).

4. Reference: H.V.B. Voorhis, Facts For Freemasons (Richmond, Virginia: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, 1953).

5. Reference: Voorhis, ibid., pages 128-170.

6. Franklin D. Roosevelt, On Our Way (New York: The John Day Company, 1934), page 36.

7. A Pocket Companion For Freemasons, quoted by Charles W. Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (New York: University Books, 1965), Volume II, page 9.

8. Henry C. Clausen, Clausen's Commentaries on Morals and Dogma (The Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., 1981), page 148.

9. Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (The Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry of the Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., 1962), page 106.

10. Manly P. Hall, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy: An Introduction to the Study and Application of Rational Procedure (Los Angeles, California: The Hall Publishing Company, 1929), page 397.