Wooden Tracing Board hand-painted by J.

Bowring, 1879 Tracing Boards are training devices using symbols of the Renaissance classical revival assembled into integrated images. The First Degree Board [depicted above] sets out the general Western metaphysical scheme and shows the place of the human individual within it. The Second Degree Board is a symbolic representation of the individual in greater detail. Here Jacobs Ladder had become a winding (spiral) stair leading to the interior of the Temple. The Third Degree Board alludes to a process, analogous to death, by which the individual can, if it be Gods will, transcend the limitations of ordinary human life and realize a richer interior potential. - W. K. Kirk MacNulty, Freemasonry - A Journey through Ritual and Symbol

Masonic Beliefs and Practices

Initiation Into the Lodge (1) The Symbolism of the Lodge

Although the rule is no longer rigorously applied, Freemasonry requires that candidates must be of sound mind and able bodied; any physical handicap is supposed to bar admission. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus This is similar to the basic requirements for admission into the Yahad or Unity group described in several of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

As the candidate progresses through the ceremonies he learns that at the building of King Solomons Temple at Jerusalem the skilled masons were divided into two classes, Apprentices and Fellows; that they were presided over by three Grand masters (King Solomon, Hiram King of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff) who shared certain secrets known only to them; that these secrets were lost by the murder of Hiram Abiff - a result of his refusal to divulge the secrets - and that certain substituted secrets were adopted until time or circumstance should restore the former. The implication in the ritual is that Freemasonry was already established in Solomons time and has continued as an unchanged system since them. The ritual, however, as the candidate quickly realizes, is not literal or historical truth but a dramatic allegory by means of which the principles and tenets of the Craft are handed down. - John Hamill, The Craft, A History of English Freemasonry While there probably are some actual stone-workers who are Masons, Masonry does not teach is membership the literal techniques of stonework. Rather, it takes the actual operative work of Medieval Masons and uses it as an allegory for moral development. Thus, the symbols of Masonry are the common tools that were used by medieval stonemasons: the gavel, the rule, the compass, the square, the level, etc. Each of these has a symbolic meaning in Masonry. For example, Masons are said to meet on the level, meaning that all Masons are brothers, regardless of social status, personal wealth, or office within the Lodge or in the world at large. Similar symbolism exists for other tools. - Andrew Fabbro, Freemasonry FAQ Version 1.2 The purpose of Masonry is to train a human being so that he will reconstuct, through the body of change and death which he now has, a perfect physical body which shall not be subject to death. The plan is to build this deathless body, called by modern masons Solomons Temple, out of material in the physical body, which is called the ruins of Solomons Temple. - Harold Waldwin Percival, Masonry and Its Symbols in the Light of Thinking and Destiny And since sin has destroyed within us the first temple of purity and innocence, may they heavenly grace guide and assist us in rebuilding a second temple of reformation, and may the glory of this latter house be greater than the glory of the former. - Masonic prayer The lodge as a room or hall is an oblong square, which is a half of a perfect square, and which is inside or outside the lower half of a circle. Each lodge meets in the same room, alike furnished, but the lodge working in the Apprentice degree is styled the Ground Floor, the lodge working the Fellow Craft degree is

called the Middle Chamber, and the lodge working the Master degree is called the Sanctum Sanctorum, all in King Solomons Temple. - Harold Waldwin Percival, Masonry and Its Symbols in the Light of Thinking and Destiny Q. Where were you made a Mason? A. In the body of a Lodge, just, perfect and regular. Q. And when? A. When the sun was at its meridian. Q. As in this country Freemasons Lodges are usually held and candidates initiated at night, how do you reconcile that which at first sight appears a paradox? A. The sun being a fixed body and the earth continually revolving about the same on its own axis and Freemasonry being a universal science, diffused throughout the hole of the inhabited globe, it necessarily follows that the sun must always be at its meridian with respect to Freemasonry. - Masonic ritual Freemasons today claim always to meet symbolically at noon on the basis that Freemasonry is a worldwide organisation and therefore the sun is always at its meridian with respect to Freemasonry. Masonic reference to God as the most high is therefore a description of Re, the sun god in his ultimate position, the zenith of the heavens at noon. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Note that the initiation rights for the various degrees of Freemasonry may vary somewhat from lodge to lodge. (2) First Degree - Entered Apprentice Freemason The working tools of an Entered Apprentice are the gauge and the mallet. When the Candidate is first admitted into a Masonic Lodge his condition as an Entered Apprentice is represented by the Rough Ashlar, the first of a set of three symbols which the Craft calls the Three Immovable Jewels. An ashlar is a building stone; a rough ashlar is a stone which has not yet been shaped into the form required by ts place in the structure. - W. K. Kirk MacNulty, Freemasonry - A Journey through Ritual and Symbol

...The perfect ashler is also a stone, made ready by the workingtools of the fellow craft, to be adjusted in the building; and the trestle-board is for the master workman to draw his plans and designs upon. - Duncans Masonic Ritual and Monitor or Guide to the Three Symbolic Degrees of the Ancient York Rite The material which makes up the First Degree encourages the Candidate to take such a deep look at himself and the workings of his psyche, and it is for this reason that one must ask to become a Mason. No one should b persuaded to assume that sort of responsibility until he feels he is ready for it. - W. K. Kirk MacNulty, Freemasonry - A Journey through Ritual and Symbol The initiation to the first degree begins when the candidate is brought before the entrance to the temple and the guard hits the door with the hilt of his sword. I was hoodwinked (that is, blindfolded) and dressed in loose-fitting white trousers and top. One foot was in a simple slipper (the expression for this is slipshod), my left leg was exposed to the knee, and the left breast of the tunic had been drawn aside so that my chest was bared on that side. Unbeknown to me a hangmans noose had been put around my neck and draped down my back. I had been relieved of all metal objects and I was not ready to be lead into the Temple. (We later learnt that this mode of dress, the rough smock with the running noose about the neck, was exactly how a medieval heretic would have been treated by the Inquisition prior to making his confession.) - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus The hangmans noose is actually called a cable-tow which is defined as a rope; cable; cord; ritualistically, symbol or method of control of and initiate (which may have been how a person was led during the Inquisition). Several Masons have written to me that most of the information Knight and Lomas present about Freemasonry is either outdated or incorrect The candidate was questioned with a dagger blade pressed to his throat about his eligibility and whether his motives in joining are worthy. (Although the dagger is apparently not used in many [if not all] American lodges, I have been reliably informed that it is still used in United Grand Lodge of England [UGLE] rituals.) After a short prayer, the candidate is lead three times around the perimeter, pausing on each lap to be introduced as a poor candidate in a state of darkness. In the coronation of an Egyptian pharaoh, too, the new king is conducted around the Temple to show himself worthy . The candidate is then brought before the Worshipful Masters pedestal:

Q. How were you prepared? A. By being divested of all metals, neither naked nor clothed, barefoot nor shod, hoodwinked, with a cable-tow around my neck; in which condition I was conducted to the door of a Lodge by a friend, whom I afterward found to be a brother. Q. How did you know it to be a door, being hoodwinked? A. By first meeting with resistance, afterward gaining admission Q. How gained you admission? A. By three distinct knocks. Q. What were said to you from within? A. Who comes here? Q. Your answer? A. Mr -----. who has long been in darkness, and now seeks to be brought to light, and to receive a part in the rights and benefits of this worshipful Lodge, erected to God, and dedicated to the holy Sts. John [John the Baptist and John the Evangelist], as all brothers and fellows have done before. - Duncans Masonic Ritual and Monitor or Guide to the Three Symbolic Degrees of the Ancient York Rite The abbreviated modern version goes: Q. Having been in a state of darkness, what is the predominant wish of your heart? The answer is whispered into the candidates ear. A. Light. Q. Then let that blessing be restored. The blindfold is removed and the lights of Freemasonry revealed - the Volume of the Sacred Law (the Bible), the Square and the Compass. The secret signs, grips and password of the first degree are explained, as well as the meaning of Boaz, the left-hand pillar in the Porchway of Solomons Temple. The candidate is then presented with a white lambskin apron more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle. Throughout the ceremony Apprentice is taught moral virtues based on architectural analogies. At the conclusion, as in each degree, is a celebratory dinner with much toasting, speeches and singing. (3) Second Degree - Fellowcraft Mason The working tools of a Fellow Craft are the plumb, the square and the level. The candidate is admitted to the Temple in the same garb as he wore during the First

Degree. He then has to recite memorized answers to a series of questions, including: Q. What is Freemasonry? A. A peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. Q. What are the three grand principles upon which Freemasonry is founded? A. Brotherly love, relief and truth. - Masonic ritual In the Second Degree ceremony the candidate is asked, What are the peculiar objects of research in this degree? The answer he is required to give is: The hidden mysteries of nature and science. On completion of the making of the new Fellow Craft he is told: You are now expected to make the liberal arts and sciences your future study. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Again the candidate is conducted around the Temple, new signs and passwords revealed, and a white apron with two rosettes. This time he learns the meaning of the right hand pillar of Solomons Temple, Jachin and is permitted to extend his researches into the hidden mysteries of science and nature. The Second or Fellowcraft Degree of Freemasonry gives very little knowledge to the candidate but it does introduce the idea of hidden mysteries of nature and science and makes a clear reference to what is called the Galilean Heresy. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus (4) The Third Degree - Master Mason The working tool of a Master Mason is the trowel, which spreads the cement and completes the work of the Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft. The candidate first must pass a series of test question before he is given a password to enter the temple which is in total darkness. The ceremony begins with a brief review of the other degrees and the candidate is told: But the Third Degree is the cement of the whole; it is calculated to bind men together by mystic points of fellowship, as in a bond of fraternal affection and brotherly love; it points to the darkness of death and to the obscurity of the grave as a forerunner of a more brilliant light, which shall follow at the resurrection of the just, when these mortal bodies which have been long slumbering in the dust

shall be awakened, reunited with their kindred spirit, and clothed with immortality... - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal The candidate after this is prepared, blindfolded and tied with cable-tow around his waist, enters the lodge. He is received on both points of the compass, pressed against his breast. - Harold Waldwin Percival, Masonry and Its Symbols in the Light of Thinking and Destiny After a prayer and a ceremony resembling the first two degrees, the Worshipful Master tells the story of Master Hiram Abiff, said to have been the principle architect of Solomons Temple. Wither our Master Hiram Abif had retired to pay his adoration to the Most High, as was his wonton custom, it being the hour of high twelve. - Masonic Ritual According to Masonic tradition Hiram was murdered by three of his assistants [Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum] soon after he had completed the bronzework of the Temple [of Solomon]. And this event was for some reason regarded as so laden with meaning that is was commemorated in the initiation ceremonies for Master masons - in which each initiate was required to play the role of the murder victim. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal Refusing to divulge the secrets of his craft, Hiram receives a violent blow on his forehead which drops him to his left knee. At that point in the story, the candidate receives a light blow to his temples and is pressed to the ground by two deacons to his left knee. The story where Hiram seeks to escape by the west gate and is struck with another blow. The candidate goes down on his right knee. At the east gate, the third ruffian struck him a violent blow full in the center of the forehead with a heavy stone maul, which laid him lifeless at his feet. Such was he manner of his death. In the light of the candle I saw the Worshipful Master reach forward over his pedestal with an instrument which touched my forehead and I felt many hands pulling me backwards to the floor. I was held straight and my feet were kept in place, so that I hinged backwards as I swung into the darkness. As I touched he ground a funeral shroud was immediately draped around me, so only my upper face was uncovered.

- Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Blindfolded on the ground, the initiate hears the three murderers decide to bury him in a pile of rubble until low twelve (midnight), when they will carry the body away from the Temple. To symbolize the burial of Hiram Abiff, the candidate is wrapped in a blanket and carried to the side of the room. Soon he hears a bell strike twelve times and is carried from the rubble grave to a grave dug on the brow of a hill west of Mount Moriah (the Temple Mount). He hears the murderers agree to mark his grave with a sprig of acacia, then set out to escape to Ethiopia across the Red Sea. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood The Junior Warden attempts to raise the candidate from his grave using the grip of an Entered Apprentice, but fails. The Senior Warden then is told to try using the Fellowcraft grip which is equally ineffectual. Finally, the Worshipful Master himself grips the candidate tightly using the Lions Paw or Eagles Claw grip and pulls the candidate immediately to his feet. As I reached the vertical position the Worshipful Master whispered two peculiar words in my ear. Maat-neb-men-aa, Maat-ba-aa. ...These words are pure Egyptian meaning: Great is the established Master of Freemasonry [Maat], Great is the Spirit of Freemasonry [Maat]. - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Maat means righteousness, truth, and justice within a level and ordered symmetrical scheme and cannot be properly translated into English. Knight and Lomas have chosen Freemasonry as the closest equivalent meaning. A Freemason has confirmed that some of the ceremony is recognizable but the last part about the particular words is not correct. The Worshipful Master continues: ...You will perceive that you stand on the very brink of the grave into which you have just figuratively descended, and which, when this transitory life shall have passed away, will again receive you into its cold bosom. The candidates gaze is directed down in the darkness to an open grave. Inside are a human skull on a pair of crossed thighbones. The candidate is then told:

...Even in this perishable frame, there resides a vital and immortal principle, which inspires a holy confidence, that the Lord of Life will enable us to trample the King of Terrors beneath our feet, and lift our eyes to that bright morning star whose rising brings peace and tranquillity to the faithful and obedient of the human race. The Worshipful Master indicates a small illuminated star to the east of the candidate. He takes the three steps to the altar where he kneels for the third time, rests his hands on the Bible, square and compass, and takes the obligation of a Master Mason. He asks for further light in Masonry. He is brought to light by the Master of the lodge, and hoodwink and cable-tow removed. Thus he sees that both points of the compass are above the square. This is a symbol that with one who has reached this degree both aspects of the Thinker are operative above feelingand-desire because feeling-and-desire have put themselves under the guidance of the Thinker. He receives the pass and grip of a Master Mason and wears his apron as a Master Mason, that is, with the flap and all corners down. - Harold Waldwin Percival, Masonry and Its Symbols in the Light of Thinking and Destiny

Traditions from the Ancients

(1) The Murder of Hiram Abiff

A Modern Invention? The legend of the Master-Builder [Hiram Abiff] is the great allegory of Masonry. It happens that his figurative story is grounded on the fact of a personality mentioned in Holy Scripture, but this historical background is of the accidents and not the essence; the significance is in the allegory and not in any point of history which may lie behind it. - A.E. Waite, New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry The legend of Hiram Abiff is closely tied to the origins of German Templarism. Some of these seventeenth-century manuscripts [preserving the Old Charges] do not refer to Hiram Abif, which has led some to believe that the character was an invention of this relatively recent period. However, the name Hiram Abif was only one designation for this central figure; he is also referred to as Aymon, Aymen, Amnon, A Man or Amen and sometimes Bennaim. It is said that Amen is said to be the Hebrew word for the trusted one or the faithful one, which fits the role of Hiram Abif perfectly. But we also know that Amon or Amen is the

name of the ancient creator god of Thebes, the city of Sequenere Tao II. Could there be an ancient linkage here? - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus A Connection with the Mystery Religions To the initiated Builder the name Hiram Abiff signifies My Father, the Universal Spirit, one in essence, three in aspect. Thus the murdered Master is a type of the Cosmic Martyr - the crucified Spirit of Good, the dying god - whose Mystery is celebrated throughout the world. The efforts made to discover the origin of the Hiramic legend show that, while the legend in its present form is comparatively modern, its underlying principles run back to remotest antiquity. It is generally admitted by modern Masonic scholars that the story of the martyred Hiram is based upon the Egyptian rites of Osiris, whose death and resurrection figuratively portrayed the spiritual death of man and his regeneration through initiation into the Mysteries. Hiram is also identified with Hermes through the inscription on the Emerald Tablet. - Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy According to scripture, Hiram was not an architect but a master worker in brass and bronze. He was not murdered but lived to see the temple completed and then went back to his home. - Baigent & Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge Sequenere Tao II? The only reasonable explanation that we had come across regarding the actual name of the Masonic hero was that Hiram meant noble or kingly in Hebrew, while Abif has been identified as old French for lost one, giving a literal description of the king that was lost. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Knight and Lomas advance the theory that Hiram Abif was actually Sequenere Tao II, the true Egyptian king who lived at Thebes, four hundred miles south of the Hyksos capital at Avaris, near the end of Hyksos rule. Sequenere was the new king over Egypt, that knew not Joseph, who was vizier around 1570 B.C.E. Apophis, they speculate, wanted to know the secret rites of Horus, which allowed the pharaohs in death to become Osiris and live eternally as a star. Apophis sent henchmen to extract the information from Sequenere, but he died from violent blows on the head rather than divulge anything. The identification of Hiram Abif as Sequenere is based on the skull of the mummy, which appears to have been smashed by three sharp blows, similar to

those dealt Hiram Abif. And the killers described in Masonic lore as the Juwes? Knight and Lomas suggest that they were two of Josephs estranged brothers, Simeon and Levi, assisted by a young Thebian priest. As evidence, Knight and Lomas point to a mummy found alongside that of Sequenere. The unembalmed body was that of a young man who died with his genitals cut off and his face contorted in agony. Was he buried alive in punishment for his crime? Masonic ritual refers to Hiram Abif as the Son of the Widow...In Egyptian legend the first Horus was uniquely conceived after his fathers death and therefore his mother was a widow even before his conception. It seemed logical therefore that all those who thereafter became Horus, i.e. the kings of Egypt, would also describe themselves as Son of the Widow. [See Isis, the Black Virgin for more information.] - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus A Sufi Martyr? Sufi martyr Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj, who died in 922 CE bore some interesting parallels to the Old Testaments descriptions of Hiram the artificer: first, both men were sons of widows; second, both men had sons of David play key roles in their lives (Hiram worked for Solomon, and one of Hallajs prosecutors was named Ibn Daud [Massignon, Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr 1994], which is Arabic for Son of David), and third, the Old Testament Hebrew for Abiff is abyu (Kohlenberger, ed. The New International Version Hebrew-English Interlinear Old Testament 1987). - Frater Baraka, IV, Baphomet: A Mystery Solved At Last? (2) Symbolism from the Mysteries In the late 18th and early 19th centuries many Europeans, Masons among them, found their way to the Middle East, where they discovered the relics of those cultures which had practiced the Ancient Mysteries. Masons with a philosophical turn of mind recognized the similarities between their Order and the ancient traditions. The similar symbolism, some of which, like the ladder from a Temple of Mithras, is shared with Masonry, encouraged the idea of Freemasonrys direct connection with those ancient rites. Although there is evidence for a generic connection between the Craft and the Ancient Mysteries, there is no explanation of how the material might have been transmitted or how the tradition could remain hidden through the rigors of the Dark Ages and the probing of the Inquisition. - W. Kirk MacNulty, Freemasonry - A Journey through Ritual and Symbol

Masonry...conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it. - General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma A brief note about Albert Pike is in order. Pike (1809-91) was a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War who was almost singlehandedly responsible for the creation of the modern form of Scottish Rite Freemasonry. Wealthy, well read and possessing an extensive library, he served as Grand Commander of the order from 1859 until his death and wrote a number of books on history, philosophy and travel, the most famous being Morals and Dogma. Outside of the perhaps half a million members of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, most masons have never read Pikes work. Pike is often criticized by fellow masons who charge that his mystical and often controversial views have provided ample ammunition for enemies of Freemasonry. Much of the writings of Albert Pike are extracted from the books of the French magician, Eliphas Levi, one of the greatest transcendentalists of modern times. Levi was an occultist, a metaphysician, a Platonic philosopher, who by the rituals of magic invoked even the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana, and yet Pike has inserted in his Morals and Dogma whole pages, and even chapters, practically verbatim. To Pike the following remarkable tribute was paid by Stirling Kerr, Jr., 33? Deputy for the Inspector-General for the District of Columbia, upon crowning with laurel the bust of Pike in the House of the Temple: Pike was an oracle greater than that of Delphi. He was Truths minister and priest. His victories were those of peace. Long may his memory live in the hearts of the Brethren. Affectionately termed Albertus Magnus by his admirers, Pike wrote of Hermeticism and alchemy and hinted at the Mysteries of the Temple. Through his zeal and unflagging energy, American Freemasonry was raised from comparative obscurity to become the most powerful organization in the land. - Manly P. Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins pp 413-414 ...The Rite is organised as a pyramid, the majestic tomb of Hiram, at the top of which a mysterious stair of seven steps is placed, similar to Eraclitus path which rises and descends and it is one and the same. The pyramid image immediately leads to the Egyptian sepulchres and to the journey of detachment from the body and rising, which constitute the target of the initiation. At the same time, it wonderfully synthesises the sedimentation of traditions that the Rite has made... - Maurizio Nicosia, The Sepulchre of Osiris

Let there be light! - the Almighty spoke, Refulgent streams from chaos broke, To illume the rising earth! Well pleasd the Great Jehovah flood The Power Supreme pronouncd it good, And gave the planets birth! In choral numbers Masons join, To bless and praise this light divine. - from Anthem III in William Prestons Illustrations of Masonry (1804) (3) The Architect of the Universe According to Professor Cornford [of the Royal College of Art], every old master painting he had investigated conformed to fairly straightforward geometric and/or arithmetic subdivisions of the rectangle. There were two basic types of system - one was based on the account of the creation given in Platos Timaeus, and was published by Alberti in his Ten Books on Achitecture (Florence, 1485). It proceeds by calculation as much as by construction using instruments, and it had great appeal in the High Renaissance and its aftermath, since it both dissociated art and architecture from the old, manual masonic tradition of mediaeval times, and associated them with humanist scholarship. Moreover the number system used was a kind of invocation of the divine inasmuch as the building or painting became a microcosmic rehearsal of the primal act of creation. The other type of system was the masonic-geometric. According to Professor Cornford, this was incomparably the older of the two, indeed it seems to have been known to the Ancient Egyptians and to our own megalithic culture. It survived, often surrounded by an atmosphere of craft (if not cult) secrecy, until Albertis time, and subsequently went into eclipse... - Henry Lincoln, The Holy Place One who would walk in the Way of the Craftsman must do one thing more. He must remember, always, that he is building a temple to God. He is building an edifice in conciousness in which he, himself, is an individual stone. In time, each human being will square his stone and place it in that temple, and when that temple is complete, God will behold God in the Mirror of Existence and there will be then, as there was at the beginning, only God. - W. Kirk MacNulty, The Way of the Craftsman The ancient Mysteries did not cease to exist when Christianity became the worlds most powerful religion. Great Pan did not die! Freemasonry is the proof of his survival. The pre-Christian Mysteries simply assumed the symbolism of

the new faith, perpetuating through its emblems and allegories the same truths which had been the property of the wise since the beginning of the world. There is no true explanation, therefore, for Christian symbols save that which is concealed within pagan philosophy. Without the mysterious keys carried by the hierophants of the Egyptian, Brahmin, and Persian cults the gates of Wisdom cannot be opened. - Manly P. Hall, Masonic, Hermetic, Quabbalistic & Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy For he (God) is the Builder and Architect of the Temple of the universe; He is the Verbum Sapienti. - Yost, i, 411 In Platos Timaeus, there appears the earliest known equation of the Creator with the Architect of the Universe. The Creator, in the Timaeus, is called tekton, meaning craftsman or builder. Arche-tekton thus denoted master craftsman or master builder. For Plato, the arche-tekton crafted the cosmos by means of geometry. - Baigent & Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge Although Freemasonry require each of its Candidates to confirm his belief in God, it does not expand on the subject but leaves religion and its practice to the individual Mason. As a result, men of all religious persuasions have been able to join in the study of Freemasonrys moral and philosophical principles. - W. Kirk MacNulty, Freemasonry - A Journey through Ritual and Symbol (4) Thoth and Enoch In ancient Egypt, the engineers, draftsmen, and masons who worked on the big architectural projects were accorded a special status. They were organized into elite guilds... Evidence of the existence of these special guilds was uncovered by archaeologist Petrie during his expeditions to the Libyan desert in 1888 and 1889. In the ruins of a city built around 300 BC, Dr. Petries expedition uncovered a number of papyrus records. One set described a guild that held secret meetings around the year 2000 BC. The guild met to discuss working hours, wages, and rules for daily labor. It convened in a chapel and provided relief to widows, orphans, and workers in distress. The organizational duties described in the papyri are very similar to those of Warden and Master in a modern branch of...Freemasonry. - William Bramley, The Gods of Eden

I am the great God in the divine boat...I am a simple priest in the underworld anointing in Abydos, elevating to higher degrees of initiation...I am Grand Master of the craftsmen who set up the sacred arch for a support. - Thoth to Osiris, The Egyptian Book of the Dead According to a very old Masonic tradition, the Egyptian god Thoth had played a major part in preserving knowledge of the mason craft and transmitting it to mankind after the flood.... - David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry ...The author of a well researched academic study [The Origins of Freemasonry]...went so far as to say that, in their early days, the Masons had regarded Thoth as their patron. ...The Book of Enoch has always been of great significance to Freemasons, and...certain rituals dating back to long before Bruces time [1730-1794] identified Enoch himself with Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom. In the Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia is an entry that Enoch was the inventor of writing, that he taught men the art of building, and that, before the flood, he feared that the real secrets would be lost - to prevent which he concealed the grand Secret, engraven on a white oriental porphyry stone, in the bowels of the earth. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal

Masonic Ceremonies and Regalia

(1) Ceremonial Aprons

Egyptian hieroglyphics depict their extraterrestrial gods wearing aprons. The priests of ancient Egypt wore similar aprons as a sign of their allegiance to the gods and as a badge of their authority. - William Bramley, The Gods of Eden Egyptian priests were not permitted to wear wool, since wool came from animals, and animals obviously were unclean. They wore only fine linen, stored in special rooms of the temples and cared for by other priests whose function it was to assure their cleanliness. - Bob Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic The earliest ceremonial aprons appear to have been simple and unadorned. As time went on, mystical symbols and other decorations were added. Perhaps the most significant change to the apron occurred during the reign of the powerful

Canaanite priest-king, Melchizedek, who had achieved a very high status in the Bible. Melchizedek presided over an elite branch...the Melchizedek Priesthood. Beginning around the year 2200 BC, the Melchizedek Priesthood began to make its ceremonial aprons out of white lambskin. White lambskin was eventually adopted by the Freemasons who have used it for their aprons ever since. - William Bramley, The Gods of Eden

The Worshipful Master Masonic Apron presented me with a lambskin or white linen apron which he informed me was an emblem of innocence and the badge of a Mason; that it had bee worn by kings, princes, and potentates of the earth; that it was more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle; more honorable than the Star or Garter, or any other order that could be conferred on me at that or any time thereafter by king, prince, potentate, or any other person, except be he a Mason... - Duncans Masonic Ritual and Monitor or Guide to the Three Symbolic Degrees of the Ancient York Rite In ancient Masonry, the Masonic apron was an untrimmed white lambskin tied around the waist. This lambskin has been proclaimed by Masonry to be a badge of innocence and purity...

The Templar Rule forbade any personal decoration except sheepskin, and further required that the Templar wear a sheepskin girdle about his waist at all times as a reminder of his now of chastity, a context within which purity and innocence are vital... - W. K. Kirk MacNulty, Freemasonry A Journey through Ritual and Symbol The apron shown above contains a wealth of symbolism: the beehive, emblematic of the Masonic lodge itself; the trowel, the mallet, and the trestleboard; the rough and trued ashlars; the pyramids and hills of Lebanon; the pillars, the Temple, and checkerboard floor; and the blazing star and tools of the Craft. The center of the apron is occupied by the compass and square, representative of the Macrocosm and the microcosm, and the alternately black and white serpent of astral light. Below is an acacia branch with seven sprigs, signifying the life centers of the superior and the inferior man. The skull and crossbones are a continual reminder that the spiritual nature attains liberation only after the philosophical death of mans sensuous personality. - MPH, A Masonic Apron With Symbolic Figures (2) The York Rite The York Rite, like the Scottish Rite, is an appendant body of Masonry, and confers degrees beyond the Blue Lodges three degrees. It consists of nine degrees additional degrees: Mark Master, Past Master, Most Excellent

Master, and Royal Arch Mason; the Cryptic Degrees of the Royal Master, Select Master, and Super Excellent Master; and the Chivalric Orders of the Order of the Red Cross, Order of the Knights of Malta and the Order of Knights Templar. The Temple degrees, which comprise the top degrees of the York Rite are specifically Christian. Or at least, it can be stated that the oath is: in some Grand Lodges in the US and abroad, one need not be a Christian, but rather only be willing to take a Christian OATH. The difference here is that there are some who would willingly swear to defend the Christian faith on the grounds that they would defend any mans faith. The Chapter (or Royal Arch) and Council Of Royal And Select Masters (Cryptic Rite), which comprise the first two sections of the York Rite, are not specifically Christian. - Andrew Fabbro, Freemasonry FAQ Version 1.2 The York Rite Mason progresses through a series of degrees that culminate in his being made a Masonic Knight Templar. The York Rite Templar commanderies in the United states alone claim over a quarter of a million members. They maintain a national foundation for research into eye diseases of children; and fund cataract surgery for the financially disabled. John J. Robinson, Dungeon, Fire and Sword (1991)

(3) Royal Arch The Master Mason who wants to be exalted to the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch must fist prove himself by answering the text questions of the Craft Third Degree before he is given a grip and a password (the meaning of which is my people having obtained mercy) to allow him to enter. The candidate wears his Master Masons apron and is blindfolded with a length of rope tied about his waist. - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus In the ritual of the Royal Arch, or Seventh Degree, the candidate re-enacts the excavation of the first temple of Solomon. In the first part of the ceremony he must search in darkness until he finds a vellum scroll. The candidate is then readmitted with two other Companions playing the parts of the three Master Masons of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego. As they enter they take part in a ceremony known as Passing the Veils, which represents a Priest of the Temple approaching the Holy of Holies of the Temple of Solomon. - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus The three sojourners, freed from captivity in Babylon, offer their services to Zerubbabel to help rebuild the

Temple at Jerusalem after the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon. They are assigned the lowly job of repairing the foundation. The whole narrative is told as though those conducting the excavation were Jews from Babylon digging in the ruins of the first Temple, but we believe it is actually describing the discoveries of the Knights Templar at the site of the last Temple. It can only refer to the ruins of Herods Temple because the type of arch described in the ceremony is an arrangement of stones supporting each other in compression to form a curved load-bearing structure which was unknown at the time of Zerubbabel. The curved arch employed wedge-shaped, precisely cut stones requiring little or no mortar, and since it is that type of arch with three keystones which plays such a prominent part of the Royal Arch ceremony, it is absolutely certain that the setting of the story re-enacted in the ritual is Herods Temple, which was constructed using Roman engineering principles. - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus In the next part of the ceremony, the three masons return and discover the keystone of the principal arch of King Solomons Temple and the masters jewels. The account continues as they are questioned by the First Principal: A. We repaired to the place as before, which I

descended as before. The sun shone forth with such redoubled splendor that I was enabled to descend; in the eastern-most part thereof was a trunk of curious form, overlaid with gold, having on the top and sides certain mysterious characters; availing myself of this I gave the signal and ascended; on arriving at the top of the arch I found my hands involuntarily placed in this position to guard my eyes from the intense light and heat that arose therefrom above; with the trunk we repaired to the Grand Council. Q. What was their opinion of the trunk? A. That it was the Ark of the Covenant. Q. What were its contents? A. A pot, a rod, and a book. Q. What was their opinion of the pot? A. That it was the pot of manna, which Moses by divine command, laid up in the side of the ark as a memorial of the miraculous manner in which the children of Israel were supplied with that article of food for forty years in the wilderness. Q. What was their opinion of the rod?

A. That it was Aarons rod, that budded and blossomed, and bore fruit in a day, which Moses also, by divine command, laid in the side of the ark as a testimony, to be kept for a token. Q. What was their opinion of the book? A. That it was the book of the law in which it was written, I am the Lord, I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac and Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my great and sacred name was I not know unto them. Q. What does it contain? A. A key to the mysterious characters upon its top and sides, by which they found those upon its sides to be the initials of our three ancient Grand Masters, S. K. of I. [Solomon, king of Israel], H. K. of T [Hiram, king of Tyre], and H. Abiff. Those upon its top, the Grand Omnific or Royal Arch word, which we as Royal Arch Masons should never give except in the presence of three Royal Arch Masons, we first agreeing by three times three, and under a living arch. - Duncans Masonic Ritual and Monitor or Guide to the Three Symbolic

Degrees of the Ancient York Rite By this time the sun had attained its greatest altitude, and shining in al its splendor, darted its rays immediately into the aperture, which enabled me to distinguish those objects I had before but imperfectly discovered. In the center of the vault I saw a pedestal of pure virgin marble, with certain mystic characters engraven thereon, and a veil covering the upper face of the altar. Approaching with reverential awe, I lifted the veil, and beheld what I humbly supposed to be the sacred word itself. - Masonic ritual quoted in Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus The meaning of the sacred word is revealed later in the ceremony. Making a living arch, three masons grasp each others left wrist at waist level and their right wrist over their heads. They then intone: As we three did agree, In peace, love, and unity, The Sacred Word to keep, So we three do agree, In peace, love, and unity, The sacred Word to search; Until we three, Or three such as we, shall agree To close this Royal Arch. They then balance three times three, bringing the right hand with some

violence down upon the left. The right hands are then raised above their heads, and the words, Jah-buh-lun, Jeho-vah, G-o-d, are given at low breath, each companion pronouncing the syllables or letters alternately... - Duncans Masonic Ritual and Monitor or Guide to the Three Symbolic Degrees of the Ancient York Rite In the ritual of exaltation, the name of the great Architect of the Universe is revealed as JAH-BUL-ON....Each syllable of the ineffable name represents one personality of this Trinity: JAH = Jahweh, the God of the Hebrews BUL = Baal, the ancient Canaanite fertility god associated with licentious rites of imitative magic ON = Osiris, the Ancient Egyptian god of the underworld ...During the years between 1723 and 1813 the invocation of the name of Christ in the endings of prayers gradually died out. In masonic quotations of scripture the name of Christ came very pointedly to be deleted from the text. It is perhaps because the Freemasonic God, as revealed to Royal Arch Masons, is so far from being that Religion to which all men agree that it was determined that Holy Royal Arch workings should not be conducted in Lodges but separately in Chapters under the control of a Grand Chapter and not of Grand Lodge. - Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood Knights analysis is only partly correct

and his conclusion is almost certainly off the mark. ...The assumption that Jahbulon means Jehovah [Yahweh], Baal, and Osiris is itself pure conjecture. No one knows for certain what it means, or even how the name was originally pronounced before it underwent changes from centuries of strictly verbal communication. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood In the initiation ceremony, the candidate is told: It is a compound word and its combinations form the word Jah-Bul-On. Jah the first part, is the Chaldean [Sumerian] name of God and signifies his essence and majesty incomprehensible; it is also a Hebrew word signifying I am and shall be, thereby expressing the actual, future and eternal existence of the Most High. Bul is an Assyrian word, signifying Lord or Powerful, it is itself a compound word signifying in or on; and Bul signifying Heaven on High, therefore this word means Lord in Heaven or on High. On is an Egyptian word, signifying Father of All, and is also a Hebrew word implying strength or power, and expressive of the

omnipotence of the Father of all. All the significations of these words may, therefore, be thus collected: - I am and shall be; Lord in Heaven; Father of all. - Masonic ritual quoted in Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus The first part, Jah, is the Hebrew word for their god, very probably with a Sumerian connection. It can be seen in this form in the name of the prophet Elijah, which is actually Eli-jah, meaning Yahweh is my god (El being the ancient word for a god). - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Simply, Baal is a Hebrew word that means lord or master. Numerous deities were addressed by that title in the Middle East, but their names have not come down to us. It is an honorific title that is still used by the Jewish faith. For example, one who can work miracles in the name of God is known as a Baal shem, the lord (or master) of the Name. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood On is also the Hebrew word for one. Jah-Baal-On could thus be interpreted to mean Yaweh, the one Lord over all which would be very much in keeping with the Christian nature of the Royal

Arch rites. Most students of Masonic lore, however, prefer to place the origin of On in ancient Egypt. 1. JAH. This name of God is found in the 68th Psalm, v. 4. [Yahweh] 2. BAAL or BEL. This word signifies a lord, master, or possessor, and hence it was applied by many of the nations of the East to denote the Lord of all things, and the Master of the world. 3. ON. This was the name by which JEHOVAH was worshipped among the Egyptians. - Duncans Masonic Ritual and Monitor or Guide to the Three Symbolic Degrees of the Ancient York Rite During dynastic Egypt Ras [the god of the sun during dynastic Egypt] cult center was Annu (Hebrew On, Greek Heliopolis, modern-day Cairo). - Shawn C. Knight,Egyptian Mythology FAQ ON is but another name for the [Egyptian] god Amen...and...in Revelation 1:8, in the original, inspired text of this verse, the Greek word Christ used was On - the existing one. - Brad Steiger, Worlds Before Our Own My feeling is that Jah-Baal-On was simply the names of the three great gods, of the Jews, the Canaanites and the Egyptians , all of whom were referred to as the Most High. - Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

A Freemason correspondent does not remember these secret words being given in the Royal Arch Degrees so the ritual may have changed since Duncans book was written. Today about one in five Freemasons are Royal Arch Companions, these constituting a more fervent, more indoctrinated, closer-knit inner circle. - Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood

Masonry Today
History will show that Freemasonry has always been outlawed under totalitarian regimes. As an aside; some 200,000 Masons perished in the Nazi holocaust. Both the Church of England and the Baptist Church have recently completed studies of the Craft and have decided that it is eccentric but not dangerous. - InterNews 1.0@wolfe.home.com. The old English Masonic model involving three degrees of membership still exists, and many Masons stop at the third degree, that of master mason. Others, however, go through a ceremony called the royal arch, which admits them to a spectrum of higher degrees. The Ancient and Accepted Rite of Masonry is a system of thirty-three degrees that offer such titles as perfect master, prince of Jerusalem, grand pontiff, chief of the tabernacle, commander of the temple, grand elected knight kadosh, grand inspector inquisitor commander, and sublime prince of the royal secret. And the

Ancient and Accepted Rite is but one of a staggering array of rites and orders. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects The Masters, who form the largest proportion of Freemasons, are in most cases quite unaware of the thirty superior degrees to which they will never be admitted, nor even hear mentioned. This is the real picture, with the three lowly [Craft] degrees governed by a Grand Lodge and the thirty higher degrees governed by a Supreme Council. Although Craft Freemasonry is worldwide...it has no international organization. The Ancient and Accepted Rite of the Thirty-Third Degree is the only cohesive masonic group run on truly international lines. The Supreme Council in London is one of many Supreme Councils in various parts of the globe, of which the senior is the Supreme Council of Charleston, USA, which effectively operates a worldwide network of Freemasons in the most powerful positions in the executive, legislature, judiciary and armed forces as well as the industry, commerce and professions of many nations. - Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood The Grand Orient of France is considered a clandestine body by many Grand Lodges due to a major revision of the Constitution of Freemasonry. The Grand Orient of France removed the requirement for belief in a Supreme Being and for belief in the immortality of the soul in 1877. This was done on the basis of Freemasonrys lack of status as a religion. Whereas Freemasonry is not a

religion and has therefore no doctrine or dogma to affirm in its Constitution... This caused considerable uproar in England, whose Grand Lodge came to the conclusion that the Grand Orients actions were in violation of the Landmarks of Freemasonry. Visitors from France could not be received in English Lodges unless they could prove that they were initiated within a Lodge the professed belief in the G.A.O.T.U. Masonic communication between the Grand Lodge of England and the Grand Orient of France ground to a screeching halt. The Grand Orient of France permitted the Rite of Memphis and Mizraim to govern Initiation, Passing and Raising under its own authority. Today, Craft Lodges function entirely under the authourity and legislation of the regional Grand Lodges. These Grand Lodges are extremely wary of organizations claiming to make Masons while operating in their regions. Seeing as M&M had the capacity to do exactly this as it functioned under the Grand Orient of France, and understanding the questionable status of said Grand Orient, many Grand Lodges treat it as irregular and are very cautious about the Rite of Memphis and Mizraim. - Jody Lemoine There are also a number of social organizations that draw their membership from Masonry without actually being connected with it. In the United States, the most visible of these is the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine - better known as

the Shriners - which admits only those who are at least thirty-second-degree Masons. Founded in New York in the 1870s, the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine was created mainly by American actor William Florence. While touring France, Forence attended a party given by an Arabian diplomat and became fascinated by Eastern rituals. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects Members of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles the Mystic Shrine for North America (AASONM is an anagram for A MASON) are members of the Scottish Rites 32nd degree, and/or Knights Templer of the York Rite. The Shrine is most noted for its emphasis on philanthropy and its jolly outlook on life it has been called the playground of Masonry. This is expressed as Pleasure without intemperance, hospitality without rudeness, and jollity without coarseness. - Andrew Fabbro, Freemasonry FAQ Version 1.2 The Shrine is the wealthiest charity in America. Its assets for 1984 were estimated by the internal Revenue Service at $1.979 billion. Thats almost twice as much as the second richest charity, the American Red Cross, with assets of $1.07 billion, and four times as much as the American Cancer Society which takes third place, with $446.8 million in assets. ...The Shrine spent only 29.8 percent of its 1984 income on its program services, compared with 84 percent by the American Red Cross, 67.2 percent by the

American Cancer Society, 70.6 percent by the American Heart Association and 73 percent by National Easter Seals. In fact, no other charity in the top fourteen listed by the IRS gave less than 57 percent of their total income to their program services - almost twice as much as the Shrine. - William T. Still, New World Order In defense of the Fraternity, as a combined group, they spend about $1,500,000.00 per day on charities. This includes the Scottish Rite Hospitals and Shriner Hospitals. The budget for the Scottish Rite Hospital...in Dallas is about $42,000,000.00 per year. The hospital has no accounts receivable department. They accept no government nor insurance monies and no patient is ever charged a cent. They feel as though there would be too many strings that come with the money and the only people they must answer to now is the Board of Directors and the Scottish Rite Bodies. - Freemason Correspondent

The Communist Machines (1) Precursors in the Carbonari

It has been said that the European version of the Order of the Illuminati contributed in no small measure to the development of revolutionary doctrines which eventually culminated in the

Russian and other Communist Machines. - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies ...As soon as, perhaps sooner than Weishaupt had passed away, the supreme government of all the Secret Societies of the world was exercised by the Alta Vendita or highest lodge of the Italian Carbonari. The Alta Vendita ruled the blackest Freemasonry of France, German, and England; and until Mazzini wrenched the scepter of the dark Empire from that body, it continued with consummate ability to direct the revolutions of Europe. - Mgr. George E. Dillon, D.D., Grand Orient Freemasonry, Unmasked as the Secret Power Behind Communism In 1816, Charles Nodier, an alleged Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, published anonymously one of his most curious and influential works, A History of Secret Societies in the Army under Napoleon...It develops a comprehensive philosophy of secret societies. And it credits such societies with a number of historical accomplishments, including the downfall of Napoleon. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail In the early nineteenth century, certain figures - Charles Nodier, for example...and Filippo Buonarroti, a master conspirator who was much admired by such men as Bakunin - make a point of inventing, and disseminating information about a number of wholly fictitious secret societies. So convincing

was this information that perfectly innocent people found themselves being harried and persecuted for alleged membership of clandestine organizations that did not exist. Confronted by such persecution, the victims, as a means of self-defense, began to form themselves into a real secret society which conformed to the blueprint of the fictitious one. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy According to the Carbonari, or charcoal-burners, the history of this organization started in Scotland as happy democratic mystics. For the purpose of avoiding suspicion of ulterior motives, they took to charcoalburning, which is described as the industry par excellence of Scotland. Francis I, King of France, was supposedly admitted to the Order. When he went back to France, he scrupulously fulfilled his undertaking, declaring himself Protector of the Carbonari, and he increased their numbers. The Order now spread through Germany, France and England. It has been said by some historians that the inspiration of the Carbonari and similar societies came from preChristian times, for there were settled in the Alps communities which seemed to owe allegiance to Gnostic and other ideas which some profess to see reflected in Freemasonry, Templarism and the discipleship of the way of the Sufis. The Italian patriots Garibaldi, Mazzini

and Cavour revived the secret society after 1830, and its members were again found to be ready for any sacrifice for republicanism and rule by the Carbonari. The effect which they had upon the world was considerable: and it continued to be so. For fifty years they had fought in civil war; they spread to many other lands, including Germany, where they were responsible for the Totenbund (the Death League) which was dedicated to assassinating tyrants.) - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies (2) The Palladian Rite Hoax In 1870, Mazzini and Pike reached an agreement for the creation of the new supreme rite, to be called the New and Reformed Palladian Rite. Pike was to be called the Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry, and Mazzini was to be called Sovereign Chief of Political Action. Pike was to draw up the statutes and grades. - William T. Still, New World Order No mention of it would ever be made in the assemblies of the Lodges and Inner Shrines of other rites...for the secret of the new institution was only to be divulged with the greatest caution to a chosen few belonging to the ordinary high grades. Palladism is essentially a Luciferian rite. Its religion in Manichean newgnosticism, teaching that the divinity is dual and that Lucifer is the equal of Adonay. The whole masonic world was set up at Charleston, the sacred city of the Palladium.

- Edith Star Miller, Occult Theocracy If Lucifer were not God, would Adonay (The God of the Christians) whose deeds prove his cruelty...and hatred of man, barbarism and repulsion for science, would Adonay and his priests calumniate him? Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also God. For the eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without ugliness, no white without black. That is why the intelligent disciples of Zoroaster, as well as, after them, the Gnostics, the Manicheans and the Templars have admitted, as the only logical metaphysical conception, the system of the two divine principles fighting eternally, and one cannot believe the one inferior in power to the other. Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is heresy; and the true and pure philosophic religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay; but Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil. - Gen. Albert Pike,

Instructions In the 1880s,there was a Parisian publisher named Leo Taxil who was famous for his scurrilous anti- Catholic tracts. Then one morning he proclaimed his conversion to Catholicism. Shortly thereafter, he declared that he had unearthed the doings of the Satanic Masonic sect called the Paladins. He began publishing the memoirs of a woman named Sophia Walden, who claimed to have left the order. For two years this fed into an anti-Masonic hysteria in Europe, and there was even a Papal Benediction given to Sophia Walden, whom no one had even met. After a few years, Taxil broke down and confessed that hed made it all up. Its interesting that one hundred years ago, you also saw nativist stories in the United States about Masons, Catholics and Mormons who were allegedly kidnapping children and holding them as slaves. And a hundred years later, we seem to be experiencing more of the same. - Gerry OSullivan, Satanism in America In many anti-Masonic books youll see what is supposed to be a quotation from Pike, saying that all Masons of the Higher Degrees are secret worshipers of Lucifer. The historical fact is that those words were written in 1894, three years after Pikes death. They were written by a notorious atheist and pornographer named Gabriel JogandPages who was better known by his pen name, Leo Taxil. Taxil was engaged in an elaborate hoax to discredit the

Church of Rome and made up the Pike quotation out of thin air. His purpose was to show that the Church had failed to recognize the threat posed by Freemasonry and was, therefore, headed by fools and incompetents. Taxil publicly admitted the hoax in 1897, but it had already been published by a man named Abel Clarin de la Rive, who took Taxils hoax at face value. Rives book, La Femme et lEnfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie Universelle (Woman and Child in Universal Freemasonry), was quoted by Edith Starr Miller in 1933 in her book Occult Theocrasy. She translated the quotation into English. Since that time, several writers of antiMasonic books have simply repeated the quotation without checking on its source or authenticity. Taxils public confession notwithstanding, the lie continues to shadow the name of Pike, who was, to his death, an Episcopalian Christian. - Jim Tresner, Conscience and The Craft (3) The Russian Revolution The February 1917 Revolution was provoked by Freemasons and was operated from the few masonic Lodges left after decades of persecution from Tsarist Secret Police. Alexander Kerensky, Justice Minister in the provisional government of Prince Georgi Yevegenievich Lvov, was a Freemason. After the Petrograd uprising in July 1917 which led to the resignation of Lvov, Kerensky took over as Prime

Minister and appointed exclusively Masons to the government. - Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood In its organization, in its techniques for recruitment, in its means of eliciting loyalty from its adherents, in its Messianic urgency, Lenins revolutionary party structure derives directly from Bakunin, as Lenin himself acknowledges in his notebooks. But for Bakunin, revolution was more than a social and political phenomenon. It was ultimately cosmic, theological, religious in character. Having spent more than twenty years working his way up through the ranks of Freemasonry, Bakunin had acquired a metaphysical philosophical framework for his social and political ideas. Bakunin was a selfproclaimed Satanist. According to one commentator, he saw Satan as the spiritual had of revolutionaries, the true author of human liberation. Satan was not only the supreme rebel, but also the supreme freedom-fighter against the tyrannical God of Judaism and Christianity. The established institutions of church and state were instruments of the oppressive Judaeo-Christian God, and according to Bakunin it was a moral, and theological obligation to oppose them. Although Lenin himself never explicitly indulged in any such cosmological conceptions, there is no question that he recognized their utility. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy Bakunin and Lenin were both apocalyptic zealots, while their Marxist

rivals...were - in comparison Pharisees. - A.P. Mendel, Michael Bakunin: Roots of Apocalypse

The Illuminati Exposed

Mysterious Beginnings (1) Islamic Parallels

Sufi historian Indries Shah traces the name of the Illuminati back to a verse in the Koran which mentions a shining star... - Robert Anton Wilson, Cosmic Trigger See Patar and the Judean Illuminator for ancient Egyptian and Judean connections to the Illuminati. The term Illuminati was used by one early writer, Menendez Pelayo, as early as 1492 and is attributable to a group known as the Alumbrados of Spain. The Alumbrados were said to receive secret knowledge from an unknown higher source, resulting in superior human intelligence. This group was condemned by an edict of the Grand Inquisition in 1623... Some writers claim that a group know as the Illuminated Ones was founded by Joachim of Floris in the eleventh century and taught a primitive, supposedly Christian doctrine of poverty and equality. - William T. Still, New World Order The sixteenth century saw the rise of a powerful society based upon a secret

cult, in the mountains of Afghanistan the Roshaniya, Illuminated ones. The earliest figure named in the history of the cult is one Bayezid Ansari, of Afghanistan, whose family claimed descent from the Ansar - the Helpers, who assisted Mohammed after his flight from Mecca nearly fourteen hundred years ago. As a reward for this service, he stated, his ancestors had been granted initiation into the mysteries of the Ishmaelite religion: the secret, inner training which dated from Abrahams rebuilding of the Temple at Mecca, the mystical Hiram. Not far from Peshawar, which is now in the north-west of Pakistan, Bayezid set up a small school, where he carefully coached those who had been initiated by him in the knowledge of the supernatural that he claimed. A period of probation was expected from each candidate, during which he would to into periods of concealment or meditation, known as khilwat - silence. During this time he was to receive the illumination which was emanated from the supreme being, who desired a class of perfect men- and women- to carry out the organization and direction of the world. Merchants and soldiers contributed lavishly to the chiefs upkeep and his most expensive military, political and espionage system. At this stage of success, Bayezid now preached that there was no after-life of the kind currently believed in: no reward or punishment, only a spirit state which was completely different from earthly life. The spirits, if they belonged to the

Order, could continue to enjoy themselves and be earthly powers, acting through living members....Eat, drink and be merry. Gain power, look after yourself. You have no allegiance except to the Order, he told them: and all humanity which cannot identify itself by our secret sign is our lawful prey. Forty years after the last religiomilitary leader of the Afghan Illuminate Ones died, a society of the same name (the Illuminati) came into being in Germany, formed, it is said, by Adam Weishaupt, the young professor of Canon Law at Ingolstadt University. Coincidences of date and beliefs connect these Bavarian Illuminati with the Afghan ones, and also with other cults which called themselves Illuminated. - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies One of my correspondents has pointed out that in Mary Shellys novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein was also in Ingoldstatdt around 1790 creating his famous monster. Coincidence...or was there something Mary Shelly was trying to tell us? (2) Adam Weishaupt Rather than obey the dictates of the real, and adjust himself to his reduced limits, late eighteenth-century man took refuge among phantoms; satisfying his nostalgia with the marvels offered by impostors and necromancers, he fled matter and denied its existence....A whole culture was collapsing. - A. Viatte, Les Sources occultes du

Romantisme: Illuminisme-Theosophie 17701820 Adam Weishaupt adopted the teachings of radical French philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau (17121778) and the anti-Christian doctrines of the Manicheans. He was indoctrinated in Egyptian occultism in 1771 by a merchant of unknown origin named Kolmer, who was said to have traveled Europe in search of converts. - William T. Still, New World Order Brilliant and well trained by the Jesuits in the conspiratorial methods of access to power, young Weishaupt decided to organize a body of conspirators, determined to free the world from the Jesuitical rule of Rome and help humanity back to the pristine Christian faith of the hermetic martyrs. He is reputed to have been initiated by a German merchant named Kolmer, he had spent many years in Egypt, into a secret doctrine based on Manichaeism. Mayday of 1776, Weishaupt founded his own sect of the Very Perfectibles better known as the Illuminati - with five original members, self-described as reformist libertarians, partisans of absolute equality. - Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks Adam Weishaupt, Professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt, conceived the idea of founding an order which, by mutual helpfulness, counsel, and philosophic discussions, would increase morality and virtue, lay the foundation for the reformation of the

world, and oppose the progress of evil, all of which objectives were expressed in the name, Order of Perfectibilists or Perfectionists, which was soon changed to Illuminati, which is best translated as intellectually inspired. Modesty and humility seems to have been no trait of Weishaupt, for he was one of the first to attempt to fly with little knowledge of human aerodynamics. His ambition outweighed his judgement; his ideals were too refined for a rude world. Like many other promoters, Weishaupt sought the aid of Freemasonry to give his machine both propulsion and ballast. But it dragged Freemasonry down without helping Illuminism very much. He was too shrewd and subtle for his own good, though such qualities gave him headway for a time. Although he formerly belonged to the Jesuits, he secured admission to a lodge of Freemasons in 1777. Ironically, that was named Lodge of Caution. We are not informed as to just how Weishaupt became associated with Adolph Franz Friedrich Ludwid Baron Von Knigge, for the latter lived in North Germany, was of the nobility, and, after his initiation in 1773, showed little interest in Freemasonry. But noblemen were found in abundance in the most fraudulent orders in Germany claiming some Masonic connections. Weishaupt, in 1780, dispatched the Marquis de Costanzo to propagate Illuminism in the north and Knigge probably then first showed interest in the society. He became more and more enthusiastic as the plan was revealed to him, and, in

1781, accepted the invitation to visit Bavaria and receive full access to all of Weishaupts materials. Knigge not only completed the scale of degrees but became a proponent of them, bringing to his aid the assistance of Johann J. C. Bode, a prominent German Mason. The order was at first very popular and attracted, it is said, some of the best men in Germany and some of the worst. It had 2000 names on its rolls and spread to France, Belgium, Holland, Denamrk, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. - Henry Wilson Coil, Coils Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961 Unable in Catholic Bavaria to achieve this utopian goal by direct means, Weishaupt determined to work from within an existing organization: the Masonic order....By 1779, there were 54 members of the Illuminati, mostly young noblemen and clergymen, established in four Bavarian cities. Thereafter, with the help of a Masonic bookseller, Johann Bode, the order branched out through Southern Germany and Austria, and down into France and Northern Italy, intellectuals, such as Goethe, Schiller, Mozart, and Herder were attracted. - Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks Knigge, especially, was a highly religious and intellectual man and would have had nothing to do with that or any other order which was antiChristian, yet, the vicious attacks and accusations by Baruel and Robison had great influence, and it was even charged that the Illuminati were themselves

agents of the Jesuits, though the latter were opposing it in their usual secret manner. The Illuminati were extremely secretive, even identifying themselves and their chapters by assumed classical names; for examples, Weishaupt was Spartacus, Knigge was Philo, Ingolstadt, the headquarters, was Eleusis, Austria was Egypt, etc. Dates were given in a sort of cryptography. - Henry Wilson Coil, Coils Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961 Thomas Jefferson strenuously defended the Illuminati, and described Weishaupt as an enthusiastic philanthropist. - William T. Still, New World Order As Weishaupt lived under the tyranny of a despot and priests, he knew that caution was necessary even in spreading information, and the principles of pure morality. This has given an air of mystery to his views, was the foundation of his banishment....If Weishaupt had written here, where no secrecy is necessary in our endeavors to render men wise and virtuous, he would not have thought of any secret machinery for that purpose. - Thomas Jefferson The Illuminati were finally beset by both internal and external disorders, for Weishaupt found fault with some of

Knigges ritualistic work and peremptorily ordered it changed, whereupon, Knigge became disgusted and resigned in 1784. The Jesuits had fought it from the first and eventually all priests became its active enemies and raised so much opposition that the Elector of Bavaria supressed the Order by edict, June 22, 1784, many Illuminati being imprisoned and some, including Weishaupt, being forced to flee the country. Though the first edict had been obeyed, it was repeated in March and August, 1785. Not only Illuminism, but Freemasonry was exterminated in Bavaria and neither ever recovered its former position. The Illuminati seem to have completely disappeared everywhere by the end of the 18th century. - Henry Wilson Coil, Coils Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961 The suppression of the Illuminati of Bavaria in 1785 created a tremendous furor whose echoes reached as far as New England, drawing George Washington out in support of the suspect American Freemasons. In fact the Illuminati proved to be the unwilling occasion for the birth of modern conspiracy theory. Wildly exaggerated accounts of their supposed wickedness and of the imminent peril which they represented for society were published in a great epidemic of pamphlets. Their secrecy, their insistence on recruitment of important civil servants, their concealment of the true aims of the society from all but a few highly placed initiates, combined to make them into the bogeymen not only

of the German conservatives but of a wider European public. Four years later, when the French Revolution broke out, the mythical beliefs about the Illuminati of Bavaria were incorporated in a vaster and wilder conspiracy theory, which found room also for the Templars. - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians What is today called the conspiracy theory was born in the flood tide of books, pamphlets, and articles denouncing the Illuminati and linking them to an ever-lengthening list of other supposed plotters. The scope of the accusations is reflected in the title of one anti-Illuminati book, published in 1797: Proofs of a Conspiracy against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, Carried On in the Secret Meetings of Free Masons, Illuminati, and reading Societies, Collected from Good Authorities....The 170year-old Proofs of a Conspiracy was reissued in 1967 by the John Birch Society, which apparently considered the Illuminati a clear and present danger. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects (3) Rites of the Illuminati The aristocratic mumbo-jumbo of the Templar lodges pandered to the confused conservatism of the German nobles and ad a great deal in common with the mumbo-jumbo of the Rosicrucians, to whose ideas the Illuminati were absolutely opposed. The Bavarian Illuminati were an austere emanation of the spirit of the German

Professorate, inspired by a consciously bourgeois program, irreligious and radical. - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians The ceremonies were divided into three principal classes and those into degrees as follows: I- The Nursery 1. Preparatory Literary Essay 2. Novitiate 3. Minerval 4. Minor Illuminatus 5. Magistratus II- Symbolic Freemasonry 1. Apprentice 2. Fellow Craft 3. Master 4.(a) Scots Major Illuminatus ..(b) Scots Illuminatus Dirigens (Directory) III- Mysteries 1. Lesser (a) Presbyter, Priest, or Epopt (b) Prince or Regent 2. Greater (a) Magus (b) Rex or King (some of these latter degrees were never completed) Henry Wilson Coil, Coils Masonic Encyclopedia, 1961

Status as a Mason was not required for

initiation into the Order of Illuminati since the fourth, fifth and sixth degrees of Weishaupt and Baron Von Knogges system practically duplicated the three degrees of symbolic Freemasonry. Although Knigge claimed to have a system of ten degrees, the last two appear never to have been fully worked up. - Jeff_Jorczak@vos.stratus.com Openly political and antimonarchial, Weishaupts Illuminati formed another channel of higher degrees for Freemasons to graduate into after completing the Blue Degrees. Weishaupts Illuminati had its own hidden master known as the Ancient Scot Superior. - William Bramley, The Gods of Eden In the lower ranks - the nursery - the member was very much in the dark as to the way in which the Order was run, and how it should accomplish its design of freeing the world. As he progressed, however, he found that a part of his service to the Society was to gain financial and social power, and to place them at the disposal of the group. He was expected to be a diligent Mason, and to try to gain control over Masonic funds. It was not until the tenth rite of promotion had been completed that the member was given - with the grade of Priest - certain definite knowledge. This included the fact that the Illuminati were proposing to destroy princes and prelates throughout the world, and were to remove forever the feeling of local nationality from the minds of men. The ways in which this was to be done

involved infiltrating high positions in education, administration and the Press. The very highest degrees showed that the rationalism and materialism of the thinkers who developed it were determined to stamp out belief in religion. God and any faith in a deity, the initiate was told, were human inventions, and had no real meaning. Subsequently this was developed further, and the member who arrived at the highest position (that of Rex, King) learned that he was now equal to a king, and that all men were capable of equal advancement; hence the need for kings over ordinary mortals was an illusion. - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies

Revenge of the Templars?

(1) Threads of Conspiracy

After their recent exposures in Bavaria, The Illuminati had been driven even further underground, taking on a variety of names, such as The French Revolutionary Club. As radicals flocked into these new varieties of Illuminism, a larger meeting hall was needed. The Hall of the Jacobins Convent was leased, and it was from this hall that they eventually derived their new name, the Jacobin Club. The Jacobin Club met in secret and eventually boasted of having some of the best-educated and most influential men in France among its 1,300 members. The Jacobins vowed to destroy the monarchy, as well as other existing institutions, and sought to establish what they called a New World Order, or

Universal Republic. The famous magician and occultist, Cagliostro, was initiated into the Illuminati in 1783. Many years later, he told Catholic priests about his initiation. The initiation took place in an underground room near Frankfort, Germany. - William T. Still, New World Order An iron box filled with papers was opened. The introducers took from it a manuscript book [which] on the first page...read: We, Grand Masters of the Templars...then followed a form of oath, traced in blood. The book stated that Illuminism was a conspiracy directed against thrones and altars, and that the first blows were to attain France, that after the fall of the French Monarchy, Rome must be attacked. By March, 1789, the 266 lodges controlled by the [French] Grand Orient were all illuminized without knowing it, for the Freemasons in general, were not told the name of the sect that brought them these mysteries, and only a very small number were really initiated into the secret....In the following month the Revolution broke out.

- Cagliostro (Nesta H. Wesbster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements} Cagliostro was the Agent of the Templars, and therefore wrote to the Freemasons of London that the time had come to begin the work of re-building the Temple of the Eternal. He had introduced into Masonry a new Rite called the Egyptian, and endeavored to resuscitate the mysterious worship of Isis. The three letters l. P. D. on his seal, were the initials of the words Lilia pedibus destrue, tread under foot the Lilies [of France], and a Masonic medal of the sixteenth or seventeenth century has upon it a sword cutting off the stalk of a lily, and the words talem dabit ultio messem, such harvest revenge will give. - General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma In his Mmoires pour servir lhistoire du Jacobinisme published in three volumes from 1797 to 1798, Barruel [a Jesuit scholar] derived all evils from Mani and the Manicheans and demonstrated the existence of a continuous historical conspiracy. - Edward Burman, The Assassins Holy Killers of Islam In the minds of Barruel and Cadet de Gassicourt [Le Tombeau de Jacques de Molay] there was in invincible belief in a continuous historical conspiracy, through which anarchist beliefs had passed from the medieval heretics in the west and the Assassins in the east to the Templars and thence through the four

Templar lodges which were set up after the death of Jacques de Molay in 1314. - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians - The Templars and their Myth All revolutionaries and murderers since then had been part of a single Templar society - including Cromwell, the murderer of Henry IV of France, conspirators in Portugal, Brazil and Sweden, and of course Robespierre and Danton. - Edward Burman, The Assassins Holy Killers of Islam Eliphas Levi claimed that the French Revolution represented the Templars revenge for the persecution they had suffered in the thirteenth century. - David Conway, Ritual Magic A Lodge inaugurated under the auspices of Rousseau, the fanatic of Geneva became the center of the revolutionary movement in France, and a Prince of the blood-royal went thither to swear the destruction of the successors of Phillipe le Bel on the tomb Jacques de Molai. The registers of the Order of Templars attest that the Regent, the Duc dOrleans, was Grand Master of that formidable Secret Society, and that his successors were the Duc de Maine, the Prince of Bourbon-Cond and the Duc de Cross-Brissace. It was impossible to unfold to the people the conspiracy of the Templars against the Thrones and the Tiara...[To do so] would have been to initiate the multitude into the secrets of the Masters, and to have uplifted the veil of Isis.

When Louis XVI was executed, half the work was done; and thenceforth the Army of the Temple was to direct all its efforts against the Pope. - General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma (2) The Reign of Terror In the spring and summer of 1789, an artificial shortage of grain was created by Illuminist manipulations of the grain market. This produced a famine so intense that it brought the nation to the edge of revolt. One of the leading figures in this scheme was the Duc dOrleans, the grand Master of the grand Orient lodges. The Illuminatists claimed that their revolution would be for the benefit of the bourgeoisie with the people as instruments... but in reality the conspirators held up the food supplies and blocked all reforms in the National Assembly to exacerbate the situation, and the populace starved. By July 14, the Bastille was stormed, from which a grand total of only seven prisoners were liberated. Even French historians now acknowledge that the purpose of the revolutionaries was not to destroy the Bastille or liberate the prisoners, but to steal arms and gunpowder. Thus armed, on July 22, 1789, the Jacobins set into motion one of the most elaborately timed revolutionary exercises ever attempted. It would later be known as The great Fear. A panic was created simultaneously around the nation. Horsemen rode from town to town telling the citizens that

brigands were approaching and that everyone should take up arms. Citizens were instructed that the conspirators were being harbored in the larger estates, the chateaux, and that by edict of the King all should be torched. The people, obedient to their monarch, complied. Soon, the flames of destruction were soon burning out of control. Anarchy continued to grow as citizens began raiding and pillaging and not only for food. - William T. Still, New World Order With the overthrow of the monarchy in 1792, from the 10th of August onwards, we find the tricolor replaced by the red flag of the social revolution, whilst the cry of Vive notre roi dOrleans! gives way to the masonic watchword Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. - Nesta H. Wesbster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements Terror was rampant in the streets of Paris....In November 1793 a campaign against religion was inaugurated by a massacre of the priests all over France. In the cemeteries the cherished motto of the Illuminati, Death is an eternal sleep, was posted by the order of the Illuminatus Anaxagoras Chaumette. In the churches of Paris, Feasts of Reason were celebrated where women of easy morals were enthroned as goddesses. These were also known as Exoterion, and were modeled on Weishaupts plan to honor the god of Love. In 1791, after returning to the United States from a three-year stint as minister to France, he [Thomas Jefferson] described the carnage as so beautiful a

revolution and stated that he hoped it would sweep the world. He claimed to believe that most Frenchmen were Jacobins. Their excesses, if one called them such, reflected that national will. By 1793, much of France lay in ruin. Industries were decimated, libraries burned, the bourgeoisie all but wiped out. Even the great chemist Lavoisier had been guillotined on the excuse that the Republic has no need of chemists. Toward the end of 1793, the new revolutionary Republic found itself faced with hundreds of thousands of working men for whom it could not find employment. The revolutionary leaders embarked upon a fearful new project that was to be copied by tyrants ever after, called depopulation. The idea was to reduce Frances population of twenty-five million down to either eight or sixteen million, depending on which source you believe. Maximilien Robespierre believed depopulation to be indispensable. - William T. Still, New World Order The system of the Terror was thus the answer to the problem of unemployment - unemployment brought about on a vast scale by the destruction of the luxury trades. - Nesta H. Wesbster, Secret Societies and Subversive Movements In France members of the revolutionary committees in charge of the extermination toiled day and night over maps, calculating just how many heads must be sacrificed in each town. Fearful Revolutionary Tribunals tried to

determine who would be killed, and a never-ending stream of victims marched to a variety of deaths. In Nantes, 500 children were killed in one butchery, and 144 poor women who sewed shirts for the army were thrown into the river. ...Estimates of the final death toll at the time ran around 300,000. - William T. Still, New World Order I have seen half the earth desolated. Were there but an Adam & Eve left in every country, & left free, it would be better than it now is...The liberty of the whole earth was depending on the issue of the contest. - Thomas Jefferson

Rosslyn Chapel
(Click here for a full-size image.)

Mysteries of the Templars

The Baphomet

(1)

Rumors and Charges

An Abominated Idol Public indignation was aroused by...charges of ...worshipping the devil in the form of an idol called Baphomet. Baphomet was the Templar symbol of Gnostic rites based on phallic worship and the power of directed will. The androgynous figure with a goats beard and cloven hooves is linked to the horned god of antiquity, the goat of Mendes. - Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks Some confessed that they had also worshipped an idol in the form of a cat, witch was red, or gray, or black, or mottled. Sometimes the idol worship required kissing the cat below the tail. Sometimes the cat was greased with the fat from roasted babies. The Templars were forced to eat food that contained the ashes of dead Templars, a form of witchcraft that passed on the courage of the fallen knights. - John J. Robinson, Dungeon, Fire and Sword (1991) In the list of charges drawn up by the Inquisition against the Templars on 12 August 1308, there appears the following: Item, that in each province the order had idols, namely heads, of which some had three races and some one, and others had a human skull. Item, that they adored

these idols or that idol, and especially in their great chapters and assemblies. Item, that they venerated (them). Item, that (they venerated them) as God. Item, that (they venerated them) as their Savior.... Item, that they said that the head could save them. Item, that [it could] make riches. Item, that it made the trees flower. Item, that [it made] the land germinate. Item, that they surrounded or touched each head of the aforesaid idols with small cords, which they wore around themselves next to the shirt or the flesh. Item, that in his reception, the aforesaid small cords or some lengths of them were given to each of the brethren. Item, that they did this in veneration of an idol. Item, that they (the receptors) enjoined them (the postulants) on oath not to reveal the aforesaid to anyone. - The Articles of the Accusations An Eastern Origin? ...They bestowed worship in their chapter on a heathen idol, variously

described as to its physical characteristics, but known as a Baphomet, which etymologically was the same word [in Old French] as Mohammed. [Once or twice the form Mahomet is actually used by witnesses in the trial.] Like so many persecuted heretical groups of the past, they were said to hold their chapters only secretly and at night. It was impossible for the Templars to have picked up in the East the practice of worshipping an idol bearing the name of the Prophet Mohammed, since no such idol existed anywhere in the Levant, even among breakaway sects such as the Ismailis or the Druse. The idea that Muslims were idolaters was itself a part of another system of smears, the pejorative representation of the oriental world by western Christians. - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians Probably relying upon contemporary Eastern sources, Western scholars have recently supposed that Bafomet has no connection with Mohammed, but could well be a corruption of the Arabic abufihamet (pronounced in the Moorish Spanish something like bufihimat). The word means father of understanding. In Arabic, father is taken to mean source, chief seat of, and so on. In Sufi terminology, ras el-fahmat (head of knowledge) means the mentation of man after undergoing refinement - the transmuted consciousness. - Idries Shah, The Sufis Sufi martyr Husayn ibn Mansur al-

Hallaj died in 922CE. He was a pantheist, an alleged miracle worker, and a most definitely unorthodox Muslim, Hallaj was imprisoned and tried for blasphemy for his public descriptions of his mystical union with God. Finally convicted after a nine year inquiry, Hallaj was maimed, crucified, beheaded, and his torso was cremated. Some of the stories surrounding his death include an account of the Caliphs Queen Mother having Hallajs head preserved as a relic (Singh, 1970). Various Sufi sects have rituals commemorating Hallajs death, and Shah claimed that Hallaj was the model for the Hiram Abiff character in the Master Mason initiation ritual. Hallaj according to the medieval Islamic poet and historian Farid al-Din Attar, turns out to have been known by several titles beginning with abu-.... Could the charge that the Templars worshipped a head called Baphomet not have had some factual basis, namely the commemoration of a decapitated Sufi martyr whose head became a relic and who had been given the sobriquet abufihamet? The only problem here is that despite all the other abu- titles belonging to Hallaj, there is no known documentation linking him to abufihamet. - Frater Baraka, IV, Baphomet: A Mystery Solved At Last? A Gnostic Origin? Another theory suggests that Baphomet is a compound of the words baphe (baptism) and metis (wisdom) ...Both theories imply the Templars were worshipping, or at least privy to, a

secret knowledge. Several commentators believed this points to the Templars having been gnostics (gnosis meaning knowing). - Encounters magazine, issue 11: 45 (2) A Bearded Head The Brothers Testimony The idol was described by Philip the Fair as: ...a mans head with a large beard, which head they kiss and worship at all their provincial chapters, but this not all the brothers know, save only the Grand Master and the old ones. - Philips instructions to his seneschals During The Trial of the Templars in 1307 Brother Jean Taillefer of Genay gave evidence. He was received into the order at Mormant, one of the three perceptories under the jurisdiction of the Grand Priory of Champagne at Voulaine. He said at his initiation an idol representing a human face was placed on the altar before him. Hughes de Bure, another Burgundian from a daughter house of Voulaine, described how the head was taken out of a cupboard, or aumbry, in the chapel, and that it seemed to him to be of gold or silver, and to represent the head of a man with a long beard. Brother Pierre dArbley suspected that the idol had two faces, and his kinsman Guillaume

dArbley made the point that the idol itself, as distinct from copies, was exhibited at general chapters, implying that it was only shown to senior members of the order on special occasions. The treasurer of the Paris temple, Jean de Turn, spoke of a painted head in the form of a picture, which he had adored at one of these chapters. Nearly all the brethren agreed that the head was bearded and had long hair, and the Templars, like the majority of their contemporaries, regarded long hair as effeminate, so the length of the idols hair was remarkable for this, if for no other reason. - Noel Currer-Briggs, The Shroud and the Grail - A Modern Quest for the True Grail According to the most consistent accounts, the idol was: ...about the natural size of a mans head, with a very fierce-looking face and beard. - Deposition of Jean Tallefer He went on to say that he could not describe it more particularly, except that he thought it was of a reddish color. - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? The mysterious object at one of the Templars Paris ceremonies was brought in by the priest

in a procession of the brethren with lights; it was laid on the altar; it was a human head without any silver or gold, very pale and discolored, with a grizzled beard like a Templars. - Stephen of Troyes Other descriptions, clearly referring to copies, included mention of gold and silver cases, wooden panels, and the like. But the Paris head is different. One gets the distinct impression that this was the holy of holies, accorded ceremonial strikingly reminiscent of that used by the Byzantines. - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? The Templar Cord In the Inquisition evidence there are several references to members of the order receiving on initiation a little cord that had been in contact with the head. - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? Upon being initiated into the Order of the Peacock Angel (Yezidis),a holy thread, of intertwined black and red wool, is put around the neck. Like the sacred thread of the Parsis and other ancient Middle Eastern cults, this must never be removed; and it sounds like the cord that the Templars were accused of wearing when the Order was suppressed as heretic. - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies

(3) Theories About the Head John the Baptist? It is possible that the head idol was Alchemists symbol intended to represent Caput Mortuum the severed head of (the dead head) John the Baptist, based on allegations that he was revered by the Order. The Templars took part in the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1203-4. Robert de Clari described the opulence and numerous relics at the sacred chapel of the Boucoleon Palace, amongst them supposedly the head of John the Baptist. An egregore is a magical entity that is artificially created by the focused thoughts and desires of a medium (analogous in many ways to Tibetan tulpas.) Supposedly a medium or statue could then serve as a tenant for the egregore, nourished by the sexual lifepowers of the members. The Egregora does [sic] exist in the so-called astral plane and it is a demon, that is to say, an illusory entity. It is not a true Microcosm, but a gestalt of vitalized shells, a focus for everything that is negative, defeatist, maudlin, bigoted, introverted in human nature - a morass completely hostile to progress and to the spiritual evolution of mankind. - Marcel Ramos Motta

(from P. R. Koenig below) The representation of the egregore as bust recalls the ancient literary tradition of animated statues or Salome, who wanted the head of John the Baptist, probably to master his visionary powers.....The classic prototype of such an egregore is Baphomet, the alleged egregore of the Templars, who was (as the Roman Emperor of the Gods) likewise worshipped in the form of a bust. In the secret statutes of the Templars, Baphomet was besought with the introduction to the Quran and dismissed with the 24th chapter of the Book of Sirach. - P. R. Koenig, Too Hot to Handle A Likeness of the Lord? Another possibility as to the identity of the Baphomet may lie with Nicodemus, who in the Gospel of John who brought spices for Christs burial. He is also mentioned in the apocryphal Evangelium Nicodemi (4th C.) as a ruler of the Jews who testified in Christs favor. The Interpolation in the First Continuation of Chrtiens Perceval (12??) tells of the flight of Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to England and includes the following intriguing passage: Nicodemus had carved and fashioned a head in the likeness of the Lord on the day that he had seen Him on the cross. But of this I am sure, that the Lord God set His hand to the shaping of it, as they say; for no man ever saw

one like it nor could it be made by human hands. Most of you who have been at Lucca know it and have seen it. - Interpolation in the First Continuation of Chrtiens Perceval The Skull of Hugues de Payen? Another possibility for the origin of the Head relates to the imagery on the first Grand Masters shield, which consisted of three black heads on a gold field. After about two hundred years, it is plausible that this head imagery could have worked itself into the legend of the Baphomet. According to more than one account, the Head was the actual skull of Hugues de Payen, which was preserved as an object of veneration. - Forrest Jackson, The Baphomet in History and Symbolism The Mandylion/Shroud of Turin? Surely this evidence [given by Templars at their trial] suggests that copies of the head, perhaps some of them not unlike the Sainte Face de Laon, others of carved stone or alabaster, such as those of the Nottingham School of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were widely distributed throughout the orders houses. This would at least explain why nothing resembling a pagan idol was found after the brethren had been arrested, and why none of the pictures found in their chapels raised so much as an eyebrow. - Noel Currer-Briggs, The Shroud and the Grail - A Modern Quest for the True

Grail The idol was also described as: ...An old piece of skin, as though all embalmed and like polished cloth. - Chronicles of St. Denis Ian Wilson also hypothesizes that the Templar idols were representations of Christs face copied from the Mandylion/Shroud. A possible surviving example, on a painted panel found at Templecombe, England, shows a bearded male head, with a reddish beard, lifesize, disembodied, and, above all, lacking in any identification mark....It conforms too, to some of the most rational Templar descriptions: a painting on a plaque, a bearded male head, lifesize, with a grizzled beard like a Templars. (The Templars cultivated their beards in the style of Christ). - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? A Daemon Guardian? ...The descriptions given of it [the Baphomet] varied wildly. The physical characteristics assigned to the Baphomet seemed to come either from the mauf or demon of northern folklore, or from church reliquaries. It was often said to represent a cat, a beast traditionally associated with witchcraft and heresy. - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians INQUISITOR: Now tell

us about the head. BROTHER RAOUL: Well, the head. Ive seen it at seven chapters held by Brother Hugh de Peraud and others. INQUISITOR: What did one do to worship it? BROTHER RAOUL: Well, it was like this. It was presented, and everyone threw himself on the ground, pushed back his cowl, and worshipped it. INQUISITOR: What was its face like? BROTHER RAOUL: Terrible. It seemed to me that it was the face of a demon, of a mauf [evil spirit]. Every time I saw it I was filled with such terror I could scarcely look at it, trembling in all my members. - from M. Michelet, Procs des Templiers Based upon the idols description as a demon having very fierce-looking face and beard, the idol very likely could have been Asmodeus, the daemon guardian who helped Solomon build his Temple. A statue of the demon guards the door of the parish church at Rennes-le-Chteau. The Templars stronghold in Jerusalem, the site of their foundation, was finally overrun by the Moslems in 1244. Thirtythree years later the victorious sultan, Baibars, inspected their castle and is

recorded to have discovered inside the tower a great idol, in whose protection the castle had been placed: according to the Frank who had given it its name [this is an unreadable word, made in diacritic letters]. He ordered this to be destroyed and a mihrab [Moslem prayer niche] constructed in its place. - Ian Wilson, The Shroud of Turin - The Burial Cloth of Jesus Christ? (4) A Feminine Origin? CAPUT LVIIIm ...We found indisputable evidence for the charge of secret ceremonies involving a head of some kind. Indeed the existence of such a head proved to be one of the dominant themes running through the Inquisition records....Among the confiscated goods of the Paris preceptory a reliquary in the shape of a womans head was found. It was hinged on top, and contained what appeared to have been relics of a peculiar kind. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The reliquary was: A great head of gilded silver, most beautiful, and constituting the image of a woman. Inside were two head bones, wrapped in a cloth of white linen, with another red cloth around it. A label was attached, on which was written the legend CAPUT LVIIIm.

The bones inside were those of a rather small woman. - Oursel, Le Procs des Templiers Caput LVIIIm - Head 58m - remains a baffling enigma. But it is worth noting that the m may not be an m at all, but the astrological symbol for Virgo. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail The number 58 is less puzzling if one remembers that five (5) is the number of the pentagram and eight (8) is indicative of Isis. We may now complete the simple equation which exposes her secret number: 5 X 8 = 40 = 58 - 18 ISIS The numbers 5 and 8 are also exhibited in the beliefs of the Brothers of the Rose Cross, where the rose is constructed with a centre of five petals, surrounded by eight petals. - David Wood, GENISIS (1986) That it had a feminine origin is shown by Gerald Massey who writes METE was the BAPHOMET or mother of breath. According to Von Hammer, the formula of faith inscribed on a chalice belonging to the Templars is as follows: Let METE be exalted who causes all things to bud and blossom, it is our root; it is one and seven; it is octinimous, the eight-fold name. - Kenneth Grant, Nightside of Eden Cults of the

Severed Head Herodotus (4:26) speaks of the practice in the obscure Issedones of gilding a head and sacrificing to it. Cleomenes of Sparta is said to have preserved the head of Archonides in honey and consulted it before undertaking an important task. Several vases of the fourth century BC in Etruria depict scenes of persons interrogating oracular heads. And the severed head of the rustic Carians which continues to speak is mentioned derisively by Aristotle. - Julian Jaynes, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind A similar tradition could be found in the Celtic cult of the severed head which figured predominently in Peredur, a Welsh romance about the Holy Grail. A great lady of Maraclea was loved by a Templar, a Lord of Sidon; but she died in her youth, and on the night of her burial, this wicked lover crept to the grave, dug up her body and violated it. Then a voice from the void bade him return in nine months time for he would find a son. He obeyed the injunction and at the appointed time he opened the grave again and found a head on the leg bones of the skeleton (skull and crossbones). The same voice bade him guard it well, for it would be the giver of all good things, and so he carried it away with him. - Ward, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods One chronicler cites the name of the

woman in the story - Yse, which would seem quite clearly to derive from Isis. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail At one time there was only God. He was all omnipotent and existed alone. This caused him to become discontented, thus he split himself in two in order to create a mate. He kept the elements of Order and Logic for his own being and gave his mate the elements of Chaos and Emotion for her being. Her name is Yse (pron. Issa). She became so overwhelmed with love at her creation that when he kissed her, she gave him a reaction which was to become known as the Chosen Response. The Chosen Response was the first acknowledgement and reaction of love between a male and female in the universe, and this became the greatest secret of and mystery of mankind, being The Holy Grail. - Synopsis from the Merovingian Bible, Angels Among Us! The Gnostic (Johannine) Christian Path Use of the Atbash Cipher Dr. Hugh Schonfield in The Essene

Odyssey had discovered a system of cryptography - he called it the Atbash Cipher - which had been used to conceal certain names in Essene/Zadokite/Nazarene texts. This system of coding figured, for example, in a number of the scrolls found at Qumran. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy Schonfield showed that by applying the Hebrew Atbash code to the name Baphomet, the name Sophia [ShVPIA], female wisdom, is revealed. Sophia is equated with Isis by Plutarch. - David Wood, Genisis Isiss magic was allied to the wisdom of the Egyptian god Thoth. His wife or consort, Nehemaut, was known to the Gnostics as Sophia. By this analysis, therefore, when the Templars worshipped Baphomet what they were really doing was worshipping the principle of Wisdom. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal From the Templars use of the Atbash Cipher, it is probable that some form of Nazarean or neo-Nazarean sect had continued to survive in the Middle East as late as the twelfth century, and had made its teachings available to the West. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy The Black Virgin Plutarch compares Isis to knowledge,

and Typhon to ignorance, obscuring the light of the sacred doctrine whose blaze lights the soul of the Initiate. No gift of the gods, he holds, is so precious as the knowledge of the Truth, and that of the Nature of the gods, so far as our limited capacities allow us to rise toward them. - General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma The great Egyptian goddess Isis, often depicted as a black woman, is inextricably linked with alchemy and is closely associated with the Black Madonnas of Europe. - Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince, Turin Shroud - In Whose Image? The Shocking Truth Unveiled The ankh [the looped cross of Egypt] which Isis carries as supreme initiatrix may account for some of the oddlyshaped scepters carried by the Black Virgins who, like Isis, often favor the color green. Their greeness and blackness points to the beginning of the opus whose secret, according to alchemists, is to be found in the sex of Isis. -Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin The Black Virgin..is Isis and her name is Notre Dame de Lumire. - Pierre Plantard de St Clair (former Grand Master of the Priory of Sion) The Templars, imprisoned and awaiting death in the Castle of Chinon...composed a prayer to Our Lady acknowledging Bernard to be the founder of her religion. In addition to

the numerous hymns and sermons he addressed to her, he wrote about 280 sermons on the theme of the Song of Songs, the epithalamion of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, whose versicle I am black, but I am beautiful, O ye daughters of Jerusalem is the recurring refrain of the Black Virgin cult. -Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin I am black, but beautiful, daughters of Jerusalem. Like the black tents of Cedar, like the pavilions of Solomon. - Song of Songs 1:5-6 Most of the several hundred statues in France known as Black Madonnas were accidentally darkened by smoke and fumes from votive candles. Others were originally constructed of a dark wood like ebony (and later pear) or deliberately darkened through periodic treatment with oil or wine. Syrian, Coptic, or Ethiopian images transported to France during the Crusades may have served as prototypes for the Black Madonnas. Black represented the color of earth - the source of fertility and life, or divine flesh, or sorrow. Many effigies of goddesses were black including Isis, Diana and Cybele. From early on in Christianity, the Bride of the Song symbolized the Church and the Virgin Mary. Churches of the Black Virgin often bore the name of Mary Magdalene. In 1247, Emperor Baldwin II (who helped establish the Templars in Jerusalem) exchanged pieces of the Shroud of Turin

with the Abbey of Vzelay for the purported body of Mary Magdalene. A secret tradition states that the Magdalene was Jesus wife and bore Jesus offspring to Southern France. There she was revered as a medium of occult revelation.

The Hidden Legacy of the Templars

(1) Deep into Africa

Prester John In the year 1145, the German bishop Otto of Freising reported in his Chronicon a most astonishing epistle. The Pope, he reported, had received a letter from a Christian ruler of India, whose existence had been totally unknown until then. And that king had affirmed in his letter that the River of Paradise was indeed located in his realm. Bishop Otto named as the intermediary, through whom the Pope had received the epistle, Bishop Hugh of Gebal, a town on the Mediterranean cost of Syria. The ruler, it was reported, was named John the Elder or, being a priest, Prester John. He was reputedly a lineal descendant of the Magi who had visited Christ the child. He defeated the Muslim kings of Persia, and formed a thriving Christian kingdom in the lands of the Ends of Earth. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal Prester John is a corruption of Presbyter John - the Apostle John - even

in the Gospel, it says that a rumor had arisen that John would never die, but that this was not true. Combine that with the several emperor Johns of Byzantium, at a time with Europe was threatened by Muslim invasion, and it becomes conflated into a rumor of hope of assistance. - Steve.Schaper (@cheswicks.toadnet.org) ...No sooner had Bishop Otto reported the existence of Prester John and of the River of Paradise in his realm, then the Pope issued a formal call for the resumption of the Crusades. Two years later, in 1147, Emperor Conrad of Germany, accompanied by other rulers and many nobles, launched the Second Crusade. As the fortunes of the Crusaders rose and fell, Europe was swept anew by word from Prester John and his promises of aid. According to chroniclers of those days, Prester John sent in 1165 a letter to the Byzantine emperor, to the Holy Roman emperor, and to lesser kings, in which he declared his definite intention to come to the Holy Land with his armies. Again his realm was described in glowing terms, as befits the place where the River of Paradise - indeed, the Gates of Paradise - were situated. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal If indeed you wish to know wherein consist our great power, then believe without doubting that I, Prester John...exceed in

riches, virtue, and power all creatures who dwell under heaven. Seventytwo kings pay tribute to me. I am a devout Christian and everywhere protect the Christians of our empire...We have made a vow to visit the sepulcher of our Lord with a very great army...to wage war against and chastise the enemies of the cross of Christ... Our magnificence dominates the Three Indias, and extends to Farther India, where the body of St. Thomas the Apostle rests. It reaches through the desert toward the place of the rising sun, and continues through the valley of deserted Babylon close by the Tower of Babel... - Prester John in a letter addressed to Manuel Commentus, Emperor of Byznatium (1165) Where was Prester John? His reference to the Apostle Thomas tomb pointed to India, but so muddled were medieval notions of geography that India was thought to be somewhere near the Nile; thus when, in 1177, the Pope wrote to PresterJohn, his letter was presumably carried into Middle India, or Ethiopia. - Mysteries of the Past

Harbay, reigning Zagwe monarch of Ethiopia before his brother Lalibela deposed him, is deduced to have been the mythical Prester John. Derived from Jano, a reddish-purple toga worn only by royalty, the word [Jan] meant king or Majesty... - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal Prester Johns letter also contained a warning against the Templars, who were believed to have been allied with his brother against him. There are Frenchmen among you, of your lineage and from our retinue, who hold with the Saracens. You confide in them and trust in them that they should and will help you, but they are false and treacherous...may you be brave and of great courage and, pray, do not forget to put to death those treacherous Templars. - Prester John in the letter written to varous Christian kings (1165) The Churches of Lalibela In Parzival, a member of the Grail Company...spoke, amongst other things, of riding deep into Africa...past the Rohas. ...Rohas was the old name for a town in the remotest highlands of Ethiopia - a town now called Lalibela in honor of the great king who was born there and who made it his capital when he returned to it in triumph in the year

of our Lord 1185...Lalibela had spent the previous quarter of a century in Jerusalem rubbing shoulder with the knights of a military-religious order whose headquarters stood on the site of the Temple of Solomon - knights who would have had a special interest in any contender to the throne of a country which claimed to possess the lost Ark that the Temple had originally been built to house. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal Writing was seen on the Gral to the effect that any Templar whom God should bestow on a distant people...must forbid them to ask his name or lineage, but must help them gain their rights. When such a question is put to him the people there cannot keep him any longer. If a land should lose its lord, and its people see the hand of God in it and ask for a new lord from the Gral Company, their prayer is granted...God sends the men out in secret. - Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival Ethiopias diplomatic relationship with Christian Europe were to continue into the following century. It is known that this emperor [Wedem Araad

of Ethiopia] in the...year of our salvation 1306 sent thirty envoys [who]...presented themselves reverentially before Pope Clement V at Avignon. - Giovanni da Carignano (a Genoese cartographer active during the years 1291-1329) By a considerable margin, the eleven rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were the most architecturally advanced building that Ethiopia had ever known (indeed, in the considered opinion of UNESCO, they deserved to be ranked amongst the wonders of the world.)....Towering edifices, the churches remain places of living worship eight hundred years after they were built. It is important to stress, however that they were not built at all in the conventional sense, but instead were excavated and hewn directly out of the solid red volcanic tuff on which they stand. In consequence, they seem superhuman - not only in scale, but also in workmanship and in conception. ...Considerable efforts have been made to cloak their real natures: some lie almost completely concealed within deep trenches, whole others hide in the open mouths of huge quarried caves. Connecting them all is a complex and bewildering labyrinth of tunnels and narrow passageways with offset crypts, grottoes and galleries - a cool, lichenenshrouded, subterranean world, shaded and damp, silent but for the faint echoes of distant footfalls and priests and deacons go about their timeless

business. On the arch of the ceiling of the rockhewn church of Saint Marys...can be seen a stylized croix patte contained within a Star of David - a most unusual symbol in a Christian place of worship, but one to which it is known that the Knights Templar were particularly attached. Behind the arch...[is]a clothwrapped column said by the priests to have been engraved by King Lalibela himself with the secrets of how the rockhewn churches were made. Another croix patte is carved on a boulder on the outskirts of Axum, and several more can be found in the ruins of King Kalebs palace - a structure that could well have been still standing and inhabited in the thirteenth century. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal (2) Portugal: The Knights of Christ In Portugal, the Templars were cleared by an inquiry and simply modified their name, becoming the Knights of Christ. They survived under this title well into the sixteenth century, their maritime explorations leaving an indelible mark on history. (Vasco da Gama was a Knight of Christ; Prince Henry the Navigator was a grand Master of the Order. Ships of the Knights of Christ sailed under the Templars familiar red patte cross. And it was under the same cross that Columbuss three caravels crossed the Atlantic to the New World. Columbus himself was married to the daughter of a former Grand Master of

the Order, and had access to his fatherin-laws charts and diaries.) - Baigent & Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge ...The first and most active figure on whom any solid information is available was Prince Henry the navigator, Grand master of the Order of Christ and a man described by his biographer [Zurara] as possessing strength of hear and keenness of mind to a very excellent degree...[who] was, beyond comparison, ambitious of achieving great and lofty deeds. Born in 1394, and actively involved in seafaring by 1415, Henrys greatest ambition - as he himself declared - was that he would have knowledge of the land of Prester John. Chroniclers who were his contemporaries, as well as modern historians, are in full agreement that he devoted the greater part of his illustrious career to the pursuit of precisely this goal. It is notable that he immersed himself in the study of mathematics and cosmography, the course of the heavens and astrology, and that he was constantly surrounded by Jewish doctors and astronomers - men in every was reminiscent of Wolframs character Flegetanis who saw hidden secrets in the constellations [and] declared there was a thing called the Gral whose name he read in the stars without more ado [Parzival ]. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal In Portugal, Dom Enrique, mestrat of the Knights of Christ became know as

Enrique the Navigator and exploited every modern method. At Sagres his staff included geographers, shipwrights, linguists, Jewish cartographers and Moorish pilots. The team studied map making and how to improve navigational instruments, the astrolabe and compass. Islam had conquered the Spains; Christianity would conquer Africa, then Asia. By 1425 his brethren had colonized Madeira and the Canaries. In 1445 they settled the Azores. The systematic exploitation of the west African coast began in 1434, made possible by the new caravels, the most seaworthy ships of their day. Rigged with many small sails instead of one or two huge spreads of canvas as hitherto, these new ships were much easier to handle - a smaller crew make provisions last longer. - Desmond Seward, The Monks of War Our knowledge of the Henrican voyages is inadequate, and this is largely due to the adoption of a policy of secrecy which included the suppression of facts...historical works...nautical guides, maps instructions to navigators and their reports. - Edgar Prestage, The Portugese Pioneers Indeed, so great was the commitment to secrecy in Henrys time that the release of information on the results of the various exploratory voyages that were undertaken was punishable by death. Despite this, however, it is known that the prince was obsessed with the notion of making direct contact with Ethiopia - and that he sought to achieve

this end by circumnavigating Africa (since the shorter route through the Mediterranean and then into the Red Sea via Egypt was blocked by hostile Muslim forces). Moreover, even before the Cape of Good Hope was rounded, the masters of Portuguese vessels venturing down the West African coast were instructed to enquire after Prester John to see whether it might mot be quicker to approach his kingdom overland. It was not until the early years of the twentieth century that certain secret archives pertaining to the last decade of his life came to light. Among these archives a brief note was found to the effect that an ambassador of Prester John visited Lisbon eight years before Henrys death. It is not known what the purpose of this mission was, or what the prince and the Ethiopian envoy discussed. Nevertheless, two years after their meeting it can hardly have been accidental that King Alfonso V of Portugal granted spiritual jurisdiction over Ethiopia to the Order of Christ. In 1487 King John II of Portugal, then Grand Master of the Order, had sent his trusted aide Pero de Covilhan on a perilous journey to the court of Prester John via the Mediterranean, Egypt and the Red Sea. Disguised as a merchant, Covilhan passed through Alexandria and Cairo to Suakin and there, in 1488, he took ship in a small Arab barque for the Yemeni port of Aden. He then became caught up in various adventures which delayed him considerably. As a result it was not until 1493 that he finally succeeded in entering Abyssinia.

Once there, however, he made his way immediately to the emperors court where he was first welcomed but later paced under comfortable house arrest. One can only speculate as to why this happened, but...Covilhans greatest skill was a spy (he had previously worked as a secret agent in Spain)... In 1497 Vasco da Gama, also a Knight of the Order of Christ devoted a considerable part of the expedition [to India] to African exploration and is reported to have wept for joy when, at anchor off Mozambique he was rightly told that Prester John lived in the interior far to the north. ...the first official Portuguese embassy to the court of Prester John landed at the port of Massawa in 1520 and made its way inland [in a grueling eight month march] to meet with Lebna Dengel, the Solomic emperor who had been on the throne since 1508. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal We saw...to our great joy the tents and camps of the Emperor Prester John. - Captain of the Portuguese expedition (October 20, 1520) At the center of this tent capitol, in a red pavilion guarded by warriors wearing lion skins and by live lions on leashes, the travelers beheld him, the negus, or emperor, of Ethiopia. That neither he nor any of his subjects had heard of Prester John fazed the Portuguese not at all, so elated were

they to have found him at last. - Mysteries of the Past One of the members of this embassy was Father Francisco Alvarez...who had been told by priests of the ancient tradition that the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela had been made by white men....Carved into the roof of this great edifice [the church of Saint George], he said, was a double cross, that is, one within the other like the crosses of the Order of Christ. - Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal (3) Spain: Viva la Muerte In Spain the brethren of Calatrava, Alcantara and Santiago were the spearhead of the Reconquista, consolidating the Christian advance, destroying the exotic Moslem civilization of Cordoba and Granada. On the vast and lonely meseta where no peasant dared settle for fear of Moorish raiders, the monkish frontiersmen ranched hears of cattle and sheep, a practice which reached North America by way; of the Mexican haciendas. In the later Middle Ages politicians used them to capture the whole machinery of Castilian government. They were the perfected instrument of five centuries of warfare with Islam, given their final shape by the Templars example. Much of Spanish history cannot be understood without some knowledge of the brethren [which became the Order of

Knights of Christ and The Aragonese Order of Montesa after the dissolution]. They had become the Reconquista itself and helped form their countrys military tradition, that compound of unspeakable ferocity and incredible gallantry, expressed in the modern Tercio Extrajeros motto - Viva la Muerte. It was this spirit and the techniques of the Reconquista which overcame Aztecs and Incas, creating the Spanish Empire, while Portuguese brethren transformed the crusading idea into a movement of colonization which ended with Europe dominating the world. - Desmond Seward, The Monks of War Not long after the Templar dispersal, very accurate and inexplicable seacharts began to appear all over Europe. These maps, called portolans (thought to be derived from port to land), were far superior to the Ptolemaic maps studied by academic ecclesiastics in the monasteries and fledgling universities. Most of the portolans covered the area of the Mediterranean and the European Atlantic coast. They covered the areas crucial to European sea-commerce. The earliest dated portolan chart is the Opicinis de Canestris map of the Mediterranean of 1335 A.D. It demonstrates that maps of inexplicable accuracy began to appear in Europe less than 25 years after King Philippes surprise raids against the Templars and the papal elimination of the Order under Clement V. ...Is it mere coincidence that his flagship, the famous Santa Maria, bore

Templar crosses on her sails when Columbus set sail from Palos? Is it mere coincidence that his voyage was financed, not by the sale of Isabellas jewelry as so commonly thought, but by a mysterious consortium of wealthy men which included Jews and other heretics? And is it only coincidence that Columbus weighed anchor on August 3, 1492 just a few hours before the deadline for all Jews to be out of Spain? - Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic (3) England: The Peasants Rebellion For several years before the Peasants Revolt in England in 1381, a group of disgruntled priests of the lower clergy had traveled the towns, preaching against the riches and corruption of the church. During the months before the uprising, secret meetings had been held throughout central England by men weaving a network of communication. After the revolt was put down, rebel leaders confessed to being agents of a great Society, said to be based in London. Another mystery was the concentrated and especially vicious attacks on the religious order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, now known as the Knights of Malta. Not only did the rebels seek out their properties for vandalism and fire, but their prior was dragged from the Tower of London to have his head struck off [along with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Treasurer] and placed on London Bridge, to the delight of the cheering

mob.....One captured rebel leader, when asked the reasons for the revolt, said, First, and above all...the destruction of the Hospitallers. Pope Clement V had directed that all of the extensive properties of the Templars should be given to the Hospitallers almost seventy years before the Peasants Revolt. Walter the Tyler exploded into English history with his mysterious uncontested appointment as the supreme commander of the Peasants Rebellion on Friday, June 7, 1381, and left it as abruptly when his head was struck off eight days later on Saturday, June 15. Absolutely nothing is known of him before those eight days. That alone suggests that he was not using his real name...In Freemasonry the Tyler, who must be a Master Mason, is the sentry, the sergeant-at-arms... Archbishop Courtenay, who became the leading churchman in England as successor to the archbishop whose head had been lopped off by Wat Tyler, identified the existence of the Lollard group in the spring of 1382, less than a year after the Peasants Rebellion. He drove them out of Oxford and attempted to crush the entire movement. Lollardy, however, survived his efforts, and those of other civil and church leaders, for the next two centuries by the expedient of going underground. The Lollards conducted business in conventicles, or secret meetings, in a network of cells throughout the country, and they somehow gained the support of certain members of the aristocracy,

especially the knightly class. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood In the early 1300s John Wycliffe, a professor of Divinity at Oxford University, realized that the major problem with the Church in England was that the Bible could only be read by the educated clergy and nobility because it was written in Latin. Although the common man was generally illiterate, Wycliffe decided that if an English translation of the Bible was available, then general literacy might be stimulated as well. As Wycliffe translated the Latin text, he organized a group called the Order of Poor Preachers. They began distributing the new Bible through-out England to anyone who could read. For the first time, it was possible for the common man to know what the Bible actually said. Suddenly, peasants flocked to the village greens and country parsonages to hear preachers read aloud from the new English translation. Opponents of Wycliffes Order of Poor Preachers called them and their followers Lollards, which means idle babblers. The Lollards grew so quickly, not only among the country folk, but even the artisans and noblemen that one opponent wrote: Every second man one meets is a Lollard. The Lollards made such an impact in Britain that eventually Wycliffes words were banned and the Pope ordered him to Rome to undergo trial. Although Wycliff died in 1384 of a stroke before he could undertake the journey, Lollardy continued to grow. By 1425, forty-one years after his death, the

Roman Church was so infuriated with Wycliffe that they ordered his bones exhumed and buried together with 200 books he had written. - William T. Still, New World Order (4) Scotland: The Scots Guard The church at Kilmartin, near Loch Awe in Argyll, contains many examples of Templar graves and tomb carvings showing Templar figures; furthermore, there are many masonic graves in the churchyard. ...There was a strong Templar connection with this area of Scotland from the time when Hugues de Payen married Catherine de St Clair. In fact the first Templar perceptory outside the Holy Land was built on St Clair land at a site to the south of Edinburgh now known as Temple. By the beginning of the fourteenth century the Templars had many estates in Scotland and a great deal of affection and respect from the people. The Templars reportedly provided assistance to William Wallace. ...There was a battle between the Scots and the English at Roslin in 1303 which was won with the support of Templar knights, led by a St Clair. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Scotland...was at war with England at the time [1307], and the consequent chaos left little opportunity for implementing legal niceties. Thus the

Papal Bulls dissolving the Order were never proclaimed in Scotland - and in Scotland, therefore, the Order was never technically dissolved. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail ...Part of the Templar fleet made the decision to head to Argyll and the Firth of Forth, where they knew Robert the Bruce was engaged in a rebellion against England. The fact that Robert the Bruce was excommunicated combined with the long St Clair family links with Rosslyn was the greatest attraction of Scotland as a sanctuary - it was one of the few places on the planet where the Pope could not get at them. Because of the war with the English the Templars also knew that as skilled warriors, they would be received with open arms. The Scots greatest triumph was the Battle of Bannockburn on 6 November 1314. The battle is recorded as going strongly against Bruces army until an intervention by a unknown reserve force quickly turned the tide of the whole battle and ensured victory for the Scots. Stories quickly spread that these mysterious warriors had carried the Beausant (the battle flag of the Templars). The force was led by the Grand Master of the Scottish Templars, Sir William St Clair. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus According to legend - and there is evidence to support it - the Order

maintained itself as a coherent body in Scotland for another four centuries. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail At the bloody Battle of Verneuil in 1424, the Scottish contingents had acquitted themselves with particular bravery and self-sacrifice. Indeed, they were virtually annihilated, along with their commander, John Stewart... The new French army created by Charles VII in 1445 consisted of fifteen compagnies dordonnance of 660 men each - a total of 9000 soldiers. Of these, the Scottish Company - the Compagnie des Gendarmes Ecossois...was explicitly accorded premier rank over all other military units and formations, and would, for example, pass first in all parades. The commanding officer of the Scottish Company was also granted the rank of premier Master of Camp of French Cavalry. In 1474, the numbers were definitely fixed - seventy-seven men plus their commander in the Kings Guard, and twenty-five men plus their commander in the Kings Bodyguard. With striking consistency, officers and commanders of the Scots Guard were also made members of the Order of St Michael, a branch of which was later established in Scotland. The Scots Guard were, in effect, a neoTemplar institution, much more so than such purely chivalric orders as the Garter, the Star and the Golden Fleece. The nobles comprising the Guard were heirs to original Templar traditions. They were the means by which these

traditions were returned to France and planted there, to bear fruit some two centuries later. At the same time, their contact with the houses of Guise and Lorraine exposed them in France to another corpus of esoteric tradition. Some of this corpus had already found its way back to Scotland through Marie de Guiss marriage to James V, but some of it was also to be brought back by the families constituting the Scots Guard. The resulting amalgam was to provide the true nucleus for a later order - the Freemasons [Scottish Rite Freemasonry]. As late as the end of the sixteenth century, no fewer than 519 sites in Scotland were listed by the Hospitallers as Terrae Templariae - part, that is, of the self-contained and separately administered Templar patrimony. - Baigent & Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge c.1560. When the Knights-Templars were deprived of their patrimonial interest through the instrumentality of their Grand-Master Sir James Sandilands, they drew off in a body, with David Seton, Grand Prior of Scotland, at their head. - A History of the Family of Seton (5) West to America? Josephus, the historian of the Jews in the first century, observed that the Essenes believed that good souls have their inhabitation beyond the ocean, in a region that is neither oppressed with storms of rain or snow nor with intense

heat, but refreshed by the gentle breathing of the west wind which perpetually blows from the ocean. This idyllic land across the sea to the west (or sometimes the north), is a belief common to many cultures, from the Jews to the Greeks to the Celts. The Mandeans, however, believe that the inhabitants of this far land are so pure that mortal eyes will not see them and that this place is marked by a star, the name of which is Merica. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Knight and Lomas argue that this was the true source of the name America. Historical convention, of course, states that the continent was named after Amerigo Vespucci. This was, Knight and Lomas say, is due to an error committed by an obscure monk in the Duchy of Loraine who had mused over a meaning for America and confused it with the amateur navagator. Now, these parts of the earth (Europe, Africa, Asia) have been more extensively explored and a fourth part has been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (as will be described in what follows). Insomuch as both Europe and Asia received their names from women, I see no reason why any one should justly object to calling this part Amerige

(from the Greek ge meaning land of), i.e., the land of Amerigo, or America, after Amerigo, its discoverer, a man of great ability. - Cosmographiae Introductio When the monk published the information in Introduction to Cosmography it quickly became part of popular folklore. If you look at a map of the road network of France, which the Templars had built and policed, it is very noticeable that all the great longdistance routes meet at one point - at La Rochelle, on the Atlantic coast. The harbour of La Rochelle lies in a natural bay, is easy to defend, and it was laid out and developed by the Templars very early in their history. Furthermore, the Order owned a huge fleet, and other seaports in the north, for links with England, and in the south, as a startingpoint for voyages to the Holy Land and the Mediterranean islands. La Rochelle, however, is far too far north to serve as a viable port of embarkation for Palestine, and the same applies to voyages to England. For this purpose, it was far too far south. There were other ports from which one could cross to Britain far more quickly and simply. For this reason, La Rochelle must have had some very special significance. The town was not merely the seat of a simple Commanderie, but also the capital of a Templar Province. Its population grew quickly over the years. In which

direction did the Temples shipping lines lead, if it was neither to the north nor to the south? There can only be one possible explanation for the position of this seaport - the Orders ships set course from it due west, to America. After Napoleon conquered Rome in 1809, some files were brought back to Paris from the secret archives of the Vatican. Among these were a few documents relating to the Templar trials. In one of these records was the statement of Jean de Chalons, a member of the Order from Nemours in the diocese of Troyes. - Johannes and Peter Fiebag, The Discovery of the Grail, translated from the German by George Sassoon On the evening before the raid, Thursday October 12th 1307, I myself saw three carts loaded with straw, which left the Paris Temple shortly before nightfall, also Grard de Villiers and Hugo de Chalons, at the head of 50 horse[men]. There were chests hidden on the carts, which contained the entire treasure of the Visitator Hugo de Pairaud. They took the road for the coast, where they were to be taken abroad in eighteen of the Orders ships. - Jean de Chalons There is no record of the seizure of eighteen Templar ships from their naval

base at on the French coast, or of any Templar ships anchored in the Thames or at other seaports in Britain....Since many of the Templar ships were galleys, they were ideally suited for piracy, because becalmed ships were always easy prey for those that did not depend upon the wind. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood The Zeno Narrative tells of a mysterious ocean voyage west one hundred years later by a Templar descendent, Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney. Indian legends and a number of clues suggest that the landfall was Nova Scotia.

Preserving the Secrets

(1) Rosslyn Chapel

It is known that the Templars fled to Scotland, too, after the dissolution of 1312, and it is known that some found refuge among the Saint-Clairs of Rosslyn in Midlothian. There is a Templar cemetery there. -Michael Bradley, Holy Grail Across the Atlantic No family in Europe beneath the rank of royalty boasts a higher antiquity, a

nobler illustration, or a more romantic interest than that of St. Clair. -Sir John Bernard Burke, Vicissitudes of Families and Other Essays

Rosslyn Chapel Choir (Click here for a full-size image.)

...We encountered repeated references to the Sinclair family - Scottish branch of the Norman Saint-Clair/Gisors family. Their domain at Rosslyn was only a few miles from the former Scottish headquarters of the Knights Templar, and the chapel at Rosslyn - built between 1446 and 1486 - has long been associated with both Freemasonry and the Rose-Croix. In a charter believed to date from 1601, moreover, the Sinclairs are recognized as hereditary Grand Masters of Scottish Masonry. This is the earliest specific Masonic document on record. -Baigent and Leigh, The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail Choir Rosslyn Chapel is decorated inside with carvings of Masonic significance...and botanical significance.

Arches, lintels, pillar bases and such like are mostly covered in decorative but highly detailed plant motifs, with many different species represented. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus Two of the motifs resemble the aloe cactus and maize cobs, plants indigenous to the New World and supposedly unknown to Europe before the sixteenth century.

Greenman (Click here for a full-size image.)

...Everywhere there were manifestations of the green man, the Celtic figure that represented fertility. Over a hundred green men have been counted but it is believed that there are even more subtly peeping out of the vegetation. the symbolism is Egyptian, Celtic, Jewish, Templar and Masonic in profusion. A star-studded ceiling, vegetative growth coming form the mouths of the Celtic Green Men, entangled pyramids, images of Moses, towers of the Heavenly Jerusalem, engrailed crosses and well as squares and compasses. The only certain

Christian imagery was in later Victorian alterations: the stained glass windows, the revolting baptistery and a statue of the Madonna and child. Recalling the legend of Hiram Abif, high up in the corner where the south and west walls meet, and level with the organ, is a head with a severe gash on the right temple and in the opposite side of the west wall is the head of the person who killed him. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus ...William St Clair himself masterminded the whole construction of the building from its inception to his own death in 1484, just two years before it completion; furthermore, he personally supervised every tiny detail of the work...William St Clair had brought some of Europes finest masons to Scotland for this great project, building the village of Rosslyn to house them. From the outside, Rosslyn is a representation in stone of the Heavenly Jerusalem as depicted in Lamberts copy, with towers and a huge central curved, arched roof. Inside the Rosslyn shrine, the layout is a reconstruction of the ruin of Herods Temple, decorated with Nasorean and Templar symbolism. In the north-east corner we found a section of the wall carved with the towers of the Heavenly Jerusalem complete with the Masonic compasses, styled exactly as they are shown on Lamberts scroll. As we looked directly upwards from

the organ loft, we could see that the arched roof had a running series of keystones down its length, just like the one the Royal Arch degree describes as found in the ruins of Herods Temple! - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

Apprentice Pillar (Click here for a full-size image.)

Early this morning on resuming our labors we discovered a pair of pillars of exquisite beauty and symmetry: proceeding with our work, we discovered six other pairs of equal beauty which from their situation, appeared to be the remains of the subterranean gallery leading to the Most Holy Place. - Royal Arch Degree In Rosslyn, we observed that the fourteen pillars had been arranged so that the eastern eight of them including

Boaz and Jachin, were laid out in the form of a Triple Tau. The formation and the proportions were exactly as the Royal Arch degree depicts today. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus The Triple Tau, signifying, among other occult things, Templum Hierosolyma, the Temple of Jerusalem. It also means Clavis ad Theosaurum - A key to a treasure - and Theca ubi res pretiosa deponitur - A place where a precious thing is concealed, or Res ipsa pretiosa - The precious thing itself. - Royal Arch Degree The famous Grail Seeker Trevor Ravenscroft claimed in 1962 that he had finished a twenty year quest in search of the Grail at Rosslyn chapel.....His claim was that the Grail was inside the Prentice Pillar (as it is known) in this chapel. The chapel is often visited now by Grail Seekers and many references to the Grail can be found in its stonework and windows. Metal detectors have been used on the pillar and an object of the appropriate size is indeed buried in the middle. Lord Rosslyn adamantly refuses to have the pillar x-rayed. - Chris Thornborrow, An Introduction to Current Theories about The Holy Grail

Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas believe that the small crypt of the Rosslyn shrine was the lower middle chamber where the masons received their wages. Before the vaults were sealed off when the chapel was completed, twenty Templar knights were buried there in full armor. Seemed all on fire that chapel proud, Where Roslins chiefs uncoffined lie: Each baron, for a sable shroud, Sheathed in his iron panoply. - Sir Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel The vaults themselves may yet be far more than a simple tomb, other important artifacts may be contained therein. The one recorded action of the Lords Sinclair that apparently contradicts their well earned reputation for chivalry and loyalty may also be explained if the vaults are opened, for it is just possible that some clue as to the whereabouts of certain treasures of great historical interest may also be discovered. - Tim Wallace-Murphy, An Illustrated Guide to Rosslyn Chapel The Companions Jewel of the Royal Arch is a double triangle, sometimes called the Seal of Solomon, within a circle of gold; at the bottom is a scroll bearing the words, Nil nisi

clavis deest - Nothing is wanting but the Key, and on the circle appears the legend, Si tatlia jungere possis sit tibi scire posse - If thou canst comprehend these things, thou knowest enough. -Royal Arch Degree Knight and Lomas speculate that the reconstructed treasure vaults of Herods temple are located below the main floor of the Chapel. An Seal of Solomon (Star of David) can be constructed from the alignment of pillars between the entrance and Triple Tau formation. At the very center of this invisible Seal of Solomon, in the arched roof there is a large suspended boss in the form of a decorated arrowhead that points straight down to a keystone in the floor below. It is, we believe, this stone that must be raised to enter the reconstructed vaults of Herods Temple and recover the Nasorean Scrolls. Rosslyn is not a free interpretation of the ruins in Jerusalem; as far as the foundation plan is concerned, it is a very carefully executed copy. The unfinished sections of the great western wall are there, the main walls and the pillar arrangements fit like a glove and the pillars of Boaz and Jachin stand precisely at the eastern end of what would be the inner Temple. The spot we identified as being at the center of the Seal of Solomon turned out to correspond exactly with the center point of the medieval world; the middle of the Holy of Holies; the spot where the Ark

of the covenant was placed in the Temple at Jerusalem. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

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by Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas Andrew Sinclair (The Sword and the Grail, Arrow Books 1994) did some ground radar investigations of the chapel and found evidence of large metallic objects and vaults. They drilled down into a vault but were unable to get a mini-TV camera down because rubble kept filling the borehole. - George Sassoon (private communication) (2) Freres Maons Jacques de Molay and his predecessors signed documents over the title Magister Templi, Master of the Temple. And that temple, taking its name from the Temple of Solomon, certainly was left unfinished upon the murder of its masters, who also had been tortured to reveal their secrets by three assassins who ultimately destroyed them. Not Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum, but Philip the Fair of France, Pope Clement V, and the order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem. What the secret society needed was

men who would affirm their belief in God, with a desire for brotherhood strong enough to accept any mans personal religious persuasion as secondary to their principal goal of survival. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood The formation of the The Illuminati by Freemasons and the instigation of the French Revolution and anti-papacy movements in the eighteen century have been seen as a fulfilment of Templar revenge. The Templars, or Poor Fellow-Soldiery of the Holy House of the Temple, intended to be re-built, took as their models, in the Bible, the WarriorMasons of Zorobabel, who worked, holding the sword in one hand and the trowel in the other. Therefore it was that the Sword and the Trowel were the insignia of the Templars, who subsequently, as will be seen, concealed themselves under the name of Brethren Masons. [This name, Freres Maons in the French, adopted by way of secret reference to the Builders of the Second Temple, was corrupted in English into Free-Masons]. - General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma Thus the Order of Knights of the Temple was at its very origin devoted to the cause of opposition to the tiara of Rome and the crowns of Kings, and the Apostolate of Kabalistic Gnosticism was

vested in its chiefs. For Saint John himself was the Father of the Gnostics, and the current translation of his polemic against the heretical of his Sect and the pagans who denied that Christ was the Word, is throughout a misrepresentation, or misunderstanding at least, of the whole Spirit of that Evangel. Hence Free-Masonry, vulgarly imagined to have begun with the Dionysian Architects or the German Stone-workers, adopted Saint John the Evangelist as one of its patrons, associating with him, in order not to arouse the suspicions of Rome, Saint John the Baptist [the Johannite heresy], and thus covertly, proclaiming itself the child of the Kabbalah and Essenism together. - Allocution of Pio Nono against the Free Masons

The Rosy Cross

Dantes Divine Comedy
Dante Aligheiri (1265-1321) was an Italian Christian poet wrote his great cosmic vision in Ravenna. The work is a poetic trilogy, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. Through the first two sections

the poet is escorted by Virgil, who stands for natural reason. He is taken into Paradise by Beatrice [an unrequited love of his youth], reason enlightened by divine revelation, who leads him through the hierarchy of the nine heavens. From there Bernard of Clairvaux, the great contemplative mystic, guides him towards the beatific vision. And now his sight is strengthened, and is able to pierce through the beams of Divine light to their very source. And here he discerns the whole universe in God. - John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions In that abyss I saw how love held bound Into one volume all the leaves whose flight Is scattered through the universe around... - Dante Aligheiri, The Divine Comedy Gradually he sees the Creator through the creation, three circles of three colors, yet occupying one space, one reflected from the next, and the third of flame emanating from both (here the Christian theology of the Trinity has determined the details of the mystical vision), and through these a human form. - John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions High fantasy lost power and here broke off, Yet, as a wheel move

smoothly, free from jars, My will and my desire were turned by love, The love that moves the sun and the other stars. - Dante Aligheiri, The Divine Comedy A prominent Freemason writer of the nineteenth century interprets The Divine Comedy which in a light which is contrary to Dantes Christian piety. The work of the great Ghibellin is a declaration of war against the Papacy, by bold revelations the Mysteries. The Epic of Dante is Johannite and Gnostic, an audacious application, like that of the Apocalypse, of the figures and numbers of the Kabbalah to the Christian dogmas, and a secret negation of every thing absolute in these dogmas. His journey through the supernatural worlds is accomplished like the initiation into the Mysteries of Eleusis and Thebes. He escapes from that gulf of Hell over the gate of which the sentence of despair was written, by reversing the positions of is head and feet, that is to say, by accepting the direct opposite of the Catholic dogma: and then he re-ascends to the light, by using the Devil himself as a monstrous ladder. Faust ascends to heaven, by stepping on the head of the vanquished Mephistopheles. Hell is impassable for those only who know not how to turn back from it. We free ourselves from its bondage by audacity. His Hell is but a negative Purgatory. His Heaven is composed of a series of Kabalistic circles, divided by a cross, like

the Patancle [sic] of Ezekiel. In the center of this cross blooms a rose and we see the symbol of the Adepts of the RoseCroix for the first time publicly expounded and almost categorically explained. The Rose was for the Initiates the living and blooming symbol of the revelation of the harmonies of being. It was the emblem of beauty, life, love, and pleasure. Flamel, or the Book of the Jew Abraham, made it the hieroglyphical sign of the accomplishment of the great Work. To unite the Rose to the Cross, was the problem proposed by the High Initiation. - General Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma In the Islamic tradition...Gabriel serves as the revealing or dictating Angel coextensive with what in Christian tradition might otherwise be called the Holy Spirit. Here, whatever else one might say of him, Gabriel is the guide in the Highest Heaven - traditions about Mohammed too are not immune from such heavenly Ascents - not unlike the role Dante ascribes to Virgil and finally Beatrice in his rendition of a similar ecstatic ascent and vision. - Robert Eisman and Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered I stood in silent ecstasy Revealing that which over my spirit went and came. Lo, in His face commingled Is every charm and grace; The whole of Beauty

singled Into a perfect face Beholding Him would cry, There is no God but He and He is the most High. - Ibn Al-Farid ...The Beatific Vision, beheld by Dante in the radiant celestial bowl of the rose of Paradise, and to be seen, finally, by Galahad within the mystic vessel of the Grail are the same. - Joseph Cambell, Creative Mythology

The Rosicrucian Manifestoes

(1) Mystical Origins

Member of a worldwide brotherhood claiming to possess esoteric wisdom handed down from ancient times. The name derives from the orders symbol, a combination of a rose and a cross. The teachings of Rosicrucianism combine elements of occultism reminiscent of a variety of religious beliefs and practices. - Encyclopaedia Britannica The psychological power of the cabal as archetype is illustrated by the original Rosicrucians of the early seventeenth century. They - whoever they were announced their invisible existence through the publication of inflammatory tracts and pamphlets. Their historical existence as an organization has never been satisfactorily established. Yet the belief in their existence was enough to engender a wave of hysteria throughout Europe - and, as Francis Yates has

argued, to play a vital role in the development of seventeenth-century thought, culture and political institutions. - Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln, The Messianic Legacy Others, however, view 16th- and 17thcentury developments as simply a revival of the order and contend that Rosicrucian doctrines not only flourished in ancient Egypt but were espoused by such outstanding philosophical and religious figures as Plato, Jesus, Philo of Alexandria, Plotinus, and others. There is, however, no reliable evidence to date the orders history earlier than the 17th century. - Encyclopaedia Britannica The Rosicrucians offer an esoteric mystical gnosis. Truth is the Great Architect of the Universe. There are three principles, Salt, Sulfur and Mercury, all contained in primal matter, Phar-Min Adama, represented by a circle encompassed by a square (the earth-heaven symbolism in Taoist art). The circle symbolizes Unity, from which the Quaternary Number results. Other Mystic Figures include the interlaced Equilateral Triangles, and the Blazing Star, the latter standing for that subtle Quintessence which penetrates all things in a moment by its moist and temperate fire and so communicates its gnosis. The catechism from which that phrase is taken goes on: Why do you people speak so obscurely? - So that only the Sons of God may understand me. But the ultimate aim is the joy of supplying the needs of men of good

report and only to be ignored by the world, only to live for God, Who is the sole aim of our true brethren. - John Ferguson, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Mysticism and the Mystery Religions (2) Christian Rosenkreuz We, deputies of the principal College of the Brethren of the Rosy Cross, are staying visibly and invisibly in this town by the Grace of the Most High, to whom the heart of the just turns. We show and teach without books or masques how to speak the language of every country where we wish to be, to bring our fellow men out of the error of death. - Rosicrucian broadside An examination of this most intriguing of secret organizations must begin with the Fama Fraternitatis, the earliest document that clearly and unambiguously mentions the brotherhood by name and purports to tell the story of its foundation. Written anonymously in German, the pamphlet was part of a larger Protestant treatise entitled in its first English translation The Universal and General Reformation of the Whole Wide World: together with the Fama Fraternitatis of the Laudable Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, Written to All the Learned and the Rulers of Europe. The German manuscript probably began

circulating around 1610, and the work was subsequently published in several languages. The first printed edition appeared in 1614 in the town of Kassel in western Germany. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects The Fama recounts the journeys of Christian Rosenkreuz, the reputed founder of Rosicrucianism, who was allegedly born in 1378 and lived for 106 years. - Encyclopaedia Britannica Rosenkreutz apparently demonstrated great natural skills in medicine and healing, which bought him to the attention of the wisest men in the city. And he, in turn, found their knowledge of science, mathematics, and other arcane matters inspiring. The youth forthwith decided to put aside his original itinerary and to seek the wisdom of Arabia at its fount. The sages of Damascus directed him to a city called Damcar - a place that has never been identified and is presumed by many to be mythical. In Damcar, the Fama recounts the learned men to whom Nature was discovered received the precocious boy not as a stranger but as one whom the had long expected; they called him by his name, and showed him many other secrets among them mathematics, physics, alchemy, and a document the Fama refers to as the Book M. This last treasure, whose full name is thought by some to be Book Mundi, or Book of the World, is said to have held the secrets of the universe. Young Rosenkreutz decided that he would translate this

prodigious work into Latin, so that he might share it with others upon his return to Europe. After three years in Damcar, Rosenkreutz traveled to Egypt, where he studied natural history and, presumably, the metaphysical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary ancient Egyptian sage. The youth then journeyed to Fez, in Morocco, where he was introduced to magic and to interpretations of the Scriptures based on the medieval Jewish system of mysticism known as the Cabala. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects From the Arabians C. R. C. [Christian Rosenkreuz] also learned of the elemental peoples and how, with their aid, it was possible to gain admission to the ethereal world where dwelt the genii and Nature spirits. C.R.C. thus discovered that the magical creatures of the Arabian Nights Entertainment actually existed, though invisible to the ordinary mortal. From astrologers living in the desert far from the concourse of the market-place he was further instructed concerning the mysteries of the stars, the virtues resident in the astral light, the rituals of magic and invocation, the preparation of therapeutic talismans, and the binding of the genii. C. R. C. became an adept n the gathering of medicinal herbs, the transmutation of metals, and the manufacture of precious gems by artificial means. Even the secret of the Elixir of Life and the Universal Panacea were communicated to him. Enriched thus beyond the dreams of Croesus, the Holy Master returned to

Europe and there established a House of Wisdom which he called Domus Sancti Spiritus. This house he enveloped in clouds, it is said, so that men could not discover it. What are these clouds, however, but the rituals and symbols under which is concealed the Great Arcanum-that unspeakable mystery which every true Mason must seek if he would become in reality a Prince of the Royal Secret? - Manly P. Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins p. 405 Christian Rosenkreuz is now generally regarded to have been a symbolic rather than a real character, whose story provided a legendary explanation of the orders origin. According to the Fama, Rosenkreuz acquired secret wisdom...which he subsequently imparted to three others after his return to Germany. The number of his disciples was later increased to eight, who went to different countries. - Encyclopaedia Britannica Rosenkreuz himself finally died in 1484...and was buried in a large tomb, a secret one naturally. After all the original members of the group died, the location of Rosenkreuzs tomb was forgotten, and was rediscovered only by accident by members of the third generation of adepts who were building one of their secret dwellings. - Daniel Cohen, Masters of the Occult The following is a description of the tomb: In the morning following,

we opened the door, and there appeared to our sight a vault of seven sides and corners, every side five foot broad, and the height of eight foot. Although the sun never shined in this vault, nevertheless it was enlightened with another sun, which had learned this from the sun, and was situated in the upper part in the center of the ceiling. In the midst, instead of a tombstone, was a round altar covered over with a plate of brass, and thereon this engraven: ... This is all clear and bright, as also the seven sides and the two Heptagoni: so we kneeled altogether down and gave thanks to the sole wise, sole mighty and sole eternal God, who hath taught us more than all mens wits could have found out, praised be his holy name. This vault we parted in three parts, the upper part or ceiling, the wall or side, the ground or floor. Of the upper part you shall

understand no more of it at this time, but that it was divided according to the seven sides in the triangle, which was in the bright center; but what therein is contained, you shall God willing (that are desirous of our society) behold the same with your own eyes; but every side or wall is parted into ten figures, every one with their several figures and sentences, as they are truly shown and set forth Concentratum here in our book. - from the first pamphlet, Fama Inside the tomb there were said to have been alchemical books with a quasipolitical overtone, definitely favoring the court of Frederick V, the Elector Palatine. All this was disseminated as gospel in a kind of alchemical Protestant revival. Curiously, these texts, The Fama and The Confessio, had many doctrinal similarities to Dees Hieroglyphic Monad, so that it appears that Dees earlier work was used as the model for the Rosicrucian broadsheets by their authors. - Terence McKenna, The Archaic

Revival < Satisfied that they had done as Father Christian had wished 120 years before, the brothers closed the door of the vault and sealed it, knowing that it was now time to go forth with their message of worldwide moral renewal and to open the ranks to a new and larger membership. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects (3) Paracelsus Included amongst the books [inside Rosenkreuzs tomb] was a copy of the Vocabularium of Paracelsus, by the renowned Swiss physician and alchemist. Paracelsus, whose real name was Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, was not even born until 1493, nearly a decade after Christian Rosenkreutz is said to have been buried. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist who died in 1541, is also regarded by some as the real founder of Rosicrucianism. - Encyclopaedia Britannica Paracelsus, the Swiss Hermes, was initiated into the secrets of alchemy in Constantinople and there beheld the consummation of the magnum opus. He is consequently entitled to be mentioned among those initiated by the Arabians into the Rosicrucian work. Cagliostro was also initiated by the Arabians and, because of the knowledge he had thus secured, incurred the displeasure of the

Holy See. From the unprobed depths of Arabian Rosicrucianism also issued the illustrious Comte de St.-Germain, over whose Masonic activities to this day hangs the veil of impenetrable mystery. The exalted body of initiates whom he represented, as well as the mission he came to accomplish, have both been concealed from the members of the Craft at large and are apparent only to those few discerning Masons who sense the supernal philosophic destiny of their Fraternity. - Manly P. Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins p. 405 (4) Johann Valentin Andrae The third and last book in the Rosicrucian trilogy, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, appeared a year later in Strasbourg....The story of replete with rich allegorical details, as well as cosmological, alchemical, astrological, magical and chivalric symbols. As the allegory began, Rosenkreutz was preparing for the celebration. All manner of trials, ordeals, and strange initiation rites were put before him, but he triumphed over them in what can be seen as a spiritual progression. Finally, he reached his destination and was greeted as the guest of honor. He was invested with the chivalric Order of the Golden Stone, an apparent reference to the legendary philosophers stone, by means of which base substances could be turned into gold and silver. As in the earlier tracts, the author went to great lengths to indicate that the goal of

Rosenkreutz as well as all the others who received the Golden Stone was a transmutation of the spirit and not the crasser sort of alchemy. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects This tract was eventually claimed by a German Lutheran pastor Johann Valentin Andrae (1586-1654) Andrae had envisioned a society for the reformation of social life - and he, with or without assistance from others, created the legend and published the documents describing it. A few have seen Rosicrucianism as a complete hoax. Most believe, however, that either Andrae formed an order combining his interest in esotericism and the reformation of society, which the documents promoted, or, more likely, Andrae wanted the documents to catalyze others to initiate the Rosicrucian work. - J. Gordon Melton, Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America ...It is a singular coincidence that Andrea was a fervent Lutheran - and Martin Luthers coat of arms bore a rose and cross. - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies (5) Rosicrucians in England Several other documents on the Rosicrucian thesis were written, all confessing to have solved the riddle of the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm. This was also the name of a book written by Robert Fludd. Fludd is attacked by Kepler as a mystic

who uses numbers as a form of cabalistic symbolism, and engages in a wild defense of his writings. Almost immediately, several Rosicrucian documents are written and circulated, all published by the same publisher in the Palatinate. [Sir Francis] Bacon, - Gerry Rose ,The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry One of the truly great minds of that secret fraternity - in fact, the moving spirit of the whole enterprise - was Sir Francis Bacon, whose prophecy of the coming age forms the theme of his New Atlantis and whose vision of the reformation of knowledge finds expression in the Novum Organum Scientiarum, the new organ of science or thought. In the engraving at the beginning of the latter volume may be seen the little ship of progressivism sailing out between the Pillars of Galen and Avicenna, venturing forth beyond the imaginary pillars of church and state upon the unknown sea of human liberty. It is significant that Bacon was appointed by the British Crown to protect its interests in the new American Colonies beyond the sea. We find him writing of this new land, dreaming of the day when a new world and a new government of the philosophic elect should be established there, and scheming to consummate that end when the time should be ripe. Upon the title page of the 1640 edition of Bacons Advancement of Learning is a Latin motto to the effect that he was the third great mind since Plato. Bacon was a member

of the same group to which Sir Walter Raleigh belonged, but Bacons position as Lord High Chancellor protected him from Raleighs fate [state execution]. Every effort was made, however, to humiliate and discredit him. At last, in the sixty-sixth year of his life, having completed the work which held him in England, Bacon feigned death and passed over into Germany, there to guide the destinies of his philosophic and political fraternity for nearly twenty-five years before his actual demise. - Manly P. Hall, Rosicrucian and Masonic Origins p. 407 In the Apology, Fludd described the Rosy Cross brothers as true Christians and the spiritual descendants of Hermes Trismegistus. He declared himself to be a disciple without being a member, and he thought it possible that there was no formal Rosicrucian organization; a community of minds sharing the same spiritual and philosophic goals was quite enough to constitute a movement, in his opinion. I affirm that every Theologus of the Church Mystical is a real Brother of the Rosy Cross. Fludd singled out for broad reform the realm of mathematical sciences, including geometry, arithmetic, algebra, and optics, and he went on to express a kind of Rosicrucian dream that humankinds ethics, politics, law, theology, and economics might all be subjected to the scrutiny of virtuous people and ultimately made more harmonious.

- Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects The whole of mankind is surrounded by elemental spirits [jinn] which can do him service. These could be brought to his will by the Rosicrucian by imprisoning them in a ring, a mirror or a stone, and compelling them to appear when desired. Here is a distinct parallel with Arabian cabbalistical literature, some of which, folklorized, is in the Arabian Nights. - Arkon Daraul, Secret Societies Precisely as Celtic gods became the fairies of Christan Irish folklore, so did Persian, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Indian become the Jinn of Moslem popular belief. - Joseph Campbell, The Portable Arabian Nights The Rosicrucians claimed not to be bound by the limits of the present world, but to be able to pass into the next world (inaccessible only in appearance) and to be able to work in it, and to come back safe (and self-same) out of it, bringing their trophies with them... - Hargrave Jennings, The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries Hargrave Jennings, a founder of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, hinted as strongly as he could that these rites and mysteries were of a fundamentally sexual nature, though to make his point in Victorian England he was obliged to resort to some involved and often poetically purple prose. Dancing around the theme of Tantric sex as the basis of

the Rosicrucian philosophy, Jennings was almost specific when he pointed out that...the Masonic seal of Solomon symbolizes the intertwined triangles of male and female, which in conjunction represent life... - Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks

Origins of the Society

The Old Charges of Freemasonry
(1) The Operative Craft

There exists a collection of documents which has been called up as evidence both for the operative and non-operative origins of Freemasonry. Described by Anderson as the Gothic Constitutions, and now known collectively as the Old Charges, some 127 versions have been traced of which 113 are still in existence....All have a common form: a. an opening prayer b. a legendary history of the mason craft tracing it from biblical origins to its establishment in England c. a code of regulations for Masters, Fellows and Apprentices covering both craft practices and morals d. arrangement for large-scale territorial assemblies at which attendance was obligatory e. procedures for the trial and punishment of offenders f. admission procedures for new men that were never charged before, including an oath of fidelity. Historically, the Old Charges fall into three groups. The first comprises the

two earliest versions, the Regius MS of c.1390 and the Cook MS of c.1420...The second, and largest, group begins with the Grand Lodge No. 1 MS, dated 25 December 1583, and covers all the versions datable before the formation of the premier Grand Lodge in 1717. The third group comprises manuscript and printed versions produced after 1717, the majority of which appear to have been produced as antiquarian curiosities. - John Hamill, The Craft, A History of English Freemasonry The Wood manuscript, written in 1610 traces the history of the Order from two pillars that were found after Noahs Flood, none made of a marble that would not burn with fire, the other made of a substance known in Masonic legends as Laterus, which would not dissolve, sink or drown in any water. One of these pillars was found and upon it were inscribed the secrets of the sciences from which the Sumerians developed a moral code that passed to the Egyptians through the Sumerian Abraham and his wife Sarah. The script goes on to describe Euclid teaching geometry to the Egyptians, from whom the Israelites took it to Jerusalem, which resulted in the building of King Solomons Temple. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus A record of the society written in the reign of Edward IV, said to have been in the possession of the famous Elias

Ashmole, founder of the Museum at Oxford, and which was unfortunately destroyed, with other papers on the subject of Masonry, at the Revolution, gives the following account of the state of Masonry at this period: That though the ancient records of the brotherhood in England were many of them destroyed, or lost, in the wars of the Saxons and Danes, yet king Athelitane, (the grandson of King Alfred the Great, a mighty architect,) the first anointed king of England, and who translated the Holy Bible into the Saxon tongue, (AD 930) when he had brought the land into rest and peace, built many great works, and encouraged many Mason from France, who were appointed overseers thereof, and brought with them the charges and regulations of the lodges, preserved since the Roman times; who also prevailed with the king to improve the constitution of the English lodges according to the foreign model, and to increase the wages of working Masons. - William Preston, Illustrations of Masonry (1804) Prestons accounts of the history of

Masonry in England, beginning with the Druids and Romans, are based on the mythical history included in Andersons Constitutions (1773) and his own 1776 Appendix. In the west of England there is a magnificent chain of cathedrals without parallel elsewhere: Exeter, Wells, Gloucester, Worcestershire and Hereford, as well asmany abbeys and castles, on which building was carried out almost continuously during the five centuries before A.D. 1500. The Regius MS and the Cooke MS, based on a lost 1360 manuscript, are the only pre-Reformation versions of the Old Charges still extant. Both say that Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great gave charges to masons for he was the King of Wessex before he became King of All England [c.895-939], and he is reputed to have been the founder in 932 of the monastic house which was the fore-runner of the cathedral at Exeter. According to the Cooke MS, Athalstans youngest son loved well the science of Geometry and he became a mason himself. He, in turn, gave charges to masons as it is now in England. Moreover he obtained a patent from the king that they should make assembly when they saw reasonable time to come together. - Bro. J. R. Clarke, The Old Charges (A New Look at the Oldest of Them) During the reign of Henry II, the Grand Master of the Knights Templars superintended the Masons, and employed them in building their Temple in Fleet-street, A.D. 1155. Masonry

continued under the patronage of this Order till the year 1199, when John succeeded his brother Richard in the crown of England. - William Preston, Illustrations of Masonry (1804) The term freemason appears as early as 1375 in the records of the city of London. It referred to working masons who were permitted to travel the country at a time when the feudal system shackled most peasants closely to the land. Unlike the members of other crafts of the time smiths or tanners for example - the masons gathered in large groups to work on majestic, glorious projects, moving from one finished castle or cathedral to the planning and building of the next. For mutual protection, education, and training, the masons bound themselves together into a local lodge - the building, put up at a construction site, where workmen could eat and rest. Eventually, a lodge came to signify a group of masons based in a particular locality. - Freemasons; Mortar and Mysticism, Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects At the beginning of the reign of Henry VI, in 1425, a ban was placed on holding them [annual assemblies of masons] on the ground that they contravened the Statutes of Labourers. The masons protested that they were as loyal and law-abiding as other trades and objected to being singled out for attack. Condor (The Hole Craft and Fellowship of Masons, p.77) observes that we do not hear of this Act being put into force and he

gives high legal opinion that it was repealed in 1562. It may be a coincidence but it was about this time that the earliest extant post-reformation versions of the Old Charges appeared. - Bro. J. R. Clarke, The Old Charges (A New Look at the Oldest of Them) A record in the reign of Edward IV runs thus: The company of Masons, being otherwise termed Free-Masons, of auntient staunding and good reckonings, by means of affable and kind meetyngs dyverse tymes, and as a lovinge brotherhode use to doe, did frequent this mutual assembly in the tyme of Henry VI in the twelfth yeare of his most gracious reign, A.D. 1434. - William Preston, Illustrations of Masonry (1804) It has been demonstrated that freemason - in an operative context - is a contraction of freestone mason....The earliest printed use so far traced comes in The Pilgrimage of Perfection - usually attributed to William Bonde - printed in 1536 by Wynkyn de Worde. - John Hamill, The Craft, A History of English Freemasonry The freemason setteth his pretyss first long tyme to learn to hewe stones and

whan he can do that perfectly he admytteth him to be a freemason and choseth hym as a conynge man to be master of the Craft. - The Pilgrimage of Perfection Guilds of mason were common, and can be found emerging in Scotland (where guilds were generally known as incorporations) in the late Middle Ages. - David Stevenson, The First Freemasons ...The Masons were countenanced and protected in Scotland by King James I. After his return from captivity, he became the patron of the learned, and a zealous encourager of Masonry. The Scottish records relate, that he honored the lodges with his royal presence; that he settled a yearly revenue of four pounds Scots, (an English noble,) to be paid by every Master-Mason in Scotland, to a Grand Master, chosen by the Grand Lodge, and approved by the crown, one nobly born, or an eminent clergyman, who had his deputies in cities and counties, and every new brother at entrance paid him also a fee. His office empowered him to regulate in the fraternity what should not come under the cognizance of law-courts. - William Preston, Illustrations of Masonry (1804) In Scotland such lodges [established for long-term site building activity], under burgh control, can be traced in

Aberdeen and Dundee in the late fifteenth and early sixteen centuries. But they appear to have declined or disappeared entirely shortly before or after the Reformation of 1560 brought a new protestant church to Scotland. The legacy of the Medieval masons obviously contains much that is later found in freemasonry; the mythical history of the craft, the identification of masonry with mathematics; organization in lodges; secret signs and words; and rituals of initiation. - David Stevenson, The First Freemasons (2) A Brother to Pirates and Corsairs Concerning stonemasons in the Middle Ages, their vocabulary and most likely their ability for abstract thought must have been very limited indeed. Travel for all but the most highly skilled master masons was a rare event so secret signs, grips and passwords would not be of much value; end even if they did travel from one building construction to another why would they need secret means of recognition? - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus A final check at Oxfords Bodleian, one of the great libraries of the world, and I finally felt absolutely secure in stating that Freemasonry did not evolve from the medieval guilds of stonemasons in Britain because it would appear that there were no medieval guilds of

stonemasons in Britain. The French-language roots of the lost words of Masonry indicate the strong possibility that the society was in existence in the first half of the fourteenth century... - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood Masonic expressions that Robinson said were derived from French language roots include: Tyler: tailleur, one who cuts Cowan: couenne, ignoramus or bumpkins From the affair of Jephthah, an Ephraimite was termed a cowan. In Egypt, cohen was the title of a priest or prince, and a term of honor. Bryant, speaking of the harpies, says, they were priests of the sun; and, as cohen was the name of a dog as well as a priest, they are termed by Apollonius the dogs of Jove. Now, St. John cautions the Christian brethren, that without are dogs, cowans or listeners (Rev. 22:15), and St. Paul exhorts the Christians to beware of dogs, because they are evil workers (Phil. 3:2). Now, a dog, or evil worker, is the masonic cowan. - Historical Landmarks, Vol 1. p. 349

Due guard (ID sign): geste du garde, a protective gesture Lewis (son of a Mason): levees, sprouts or scions Abiff: biffer, to strike out or eliminate (Hiram a Biffe, Hiram who was eliminated) Jube: jube, rood screen a place of penance or punishment (venir a Jube, to get ones just desserts) Intrant (Entered Apprentice): entrant The surviving members of the Knights Templars in England would have had to flee or hide to escape persecution and death. ...We can find no fourteenth century precedent for any organization that consistently referred to fellow members as brothers [frere Macon], except for the various religious orders, which, of course, included the Knights of the Temple. An old charge of Masonry says that if a brother comes to you, give him work for two weeks, then give him some money and direct him to the next lodge. Why the assumption that he will need money? Because he is running, and hiding. What he got was not the allegorical work, but actual lodging. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood To all poor and distressed Masons, wherever

dispersed over the face of Earth and Water, wishing them a speedy relief from all their sufferings, and a safe return to their native country; should they so desire it. - The Tylers Toast All through the oaths and the Old Charges we see emerging a mutual aid and protection society, protecting men who could die if caught. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood You have come to us bound, half-naked, and defenseless. You have no money with which to feed and lodge yourself, no armor to ward off the blows of your enemies, no weapons with which to defend yourself. Take comfort from the fact that all of your brothers are sworn to help you. If you are naked, we will clothe you. If you are hungry, we will feed you. We will shelter and protect you from your enemies. We will keep your secrets. Your call for help will never go unanswered. - Masonic initiation Another Old Charge says that a visitor brother is not to go into the town unless accompanied by a local brother who can witness for him (i.e., vouch for him to the local authorities, who had the

right to arrest strangers of unknown business in the town). ...In the initiation of the Master Mason of the third degree...he asks that his body be cut in two and his bowels burned to ashes should he break his oath of secrecy. Such a penalty would seen totally out of line for a broken oath taken by a stone cutting guild member, but would not have seemed to much to a man whose betrayal would mean days and weeks of torment with whips and chains and red-hot irons, with the ultimate risk of being burned alive at the stake. In the lecture that sums up the initiation of a new Master Mason, the newly admitted candidate is told that this degree will make you a brother to pirates and corsairs. That statement makes no sense whatever in the context of a society descended from medieval stonemasons. When the Templars processed around their circular churches they had only one way to move: in a circle, just as todays Masons process in their circumambulation of the lodge. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood We can now be certain, without any shadow of doubt, that the staring place for Freemasonry was the construction of Rosslyn Chapel in the mid-fifteenth century; later historical developments confirm this view because the St Clair family of Rosslyn became the hereditary Grand Masters of the Crafts and Guilds and Orders of Scotland, and later held the post of the Master of Masons of Scotland until the late 1700s. - Christopher Knight & Robert

Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus William St Clair designed and built Rosslyn Chapel using the plans of Solomons Temple, and incorporating many Templar and Masonic motifs. Knight and Lomas speculate that the Chapel also contained a copy of the vaults at Solomons Temple and its hidden treasure. William St Clair had an obvious problem with security; the masons building his scroll shrine had to know the layout of the underground vault network and they knew that this strange building was to house something of great value. William St Clair was a brilliant and talented man and we believe that he devised the First Degree of Craft Masonry and the Mark Mason Degree to give his operative masons a code of conduct and an involvement in the secret, without telling them the great secret of living resurrection which was reserved for speculative Masons. It is a matter of record that he had two grades of stonemason on site; the 10 pounds-ayear standard masons (or apprentices) and the 40 pounds-a-year mark masons who were honored by the possession of a personal mark in the continental fashion. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus

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n in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry by John J. Robinson Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of

by Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas

Origins of Modern Freemasonry

(1) The Acception

King James VI of Scotland (also later James I of England) was the only child of Mary Queen of Scots and the first king to rule both England and Scotland. He was also the first king known to be a Freemason, being initiated into the Lodge of Scots and Perth in 1601 at the age of thirty five. He made a leading Mason by the name of William Schaw his General Warden of the Craft and instructed him to improve the entire structure of Masonry. Schaw started this major project on 28 December 1598 when he issued The statues and ordinances to be observed by all the master maissouns within this realme, signing himself as the General Warden of the said craft. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus The man who more than anyone else deserves the title of creator of modern Feemasonry was William Schaw. The younger son of a laird (landowner) with close connections with the court, Schaw developed a strong interest in

architecture and in 1583 was appointed master of works by King James VI of Scotland. - David Stevenson, The First Freemasons Schaw started this major project on 28 December 1598 when he issued The statues and ordinances to be observed by all the master maissouns within this realme, signing himself as the General Warden of the said craft. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus As general warden and master of works Schaw issued two codes of statutes, in 1598 and 1599. In these he laid down regulations for the organization and practice of the mason craft through a system of lodges. At first sight is might seem that his statutes are solely concerned with the organization and regulation of the working lives of stonemasons....He was doing much more, reviving and developing Medieval masonic mythology and rituals in a Renaissance atmosphere. Scotlands early freemasons, it would appear, probably kept specific religious practices out of their lodges as to do otherwise would have been to confront the church with an attack on its monopoly of religion but as a later date the morality without religious worship of the lodges made freemasonry attractive to those developing tolerant or deistic attitudes.

- David Stevenson, The First Freemasons Sir Francis Bacon, who became SolicitorGeneral under fellow Freemason James I of England, was a champion of inductive reasoning and has been described as the father of modern science. It is highly likely that Brother Bacon was the driving force behind the styling of the new second degree introduced by his close colleague William Schaw. - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus In Scotland there is a wealth of evidence for the existence of operative lodges organized on a geographical basis and backed up by statue law. From the early 1600s there are also many documented examples of the introduction of non-operatives into Scottish operative lodges. There is not, however, any evidence that these nonoperative members in any way altered the nature or workings of Scottish operative lodges until very late in the seventeenth century, by which time accepted Masonry was well established in England. All the evidence suggests that accepted Masonry emerged in England and spread from there to Scotland. The legend of the Commacine Masters...stated that the masons of the Como area of Northern Italy were so renowned and had such recondite secrets to impart to their operatives that they were formed into an Order by a

-non-existent- Papal Bull and ordered to travel Europe sharing their skills and mystery. Evidence of their actual existence is singularly lacking. The traditions and records of the German Steinmezen and French Compagnonage were diligently searched for traces of a speculative element, but none was found. The evidence comes back all the time to the appearance of non-operative masonry in England in the seventeenth century. - John Hamill, The Craft, A History of English Freemasonry By the seventeenth century, as the number and stature of masons grew, some lodges had begun to admit honorary members who were not stoneworkers. The London Masons Company founded the Acception, a parallel organization for that purpose, in 1619. It took in as accepted Masons men who did not belong to the company but who were willing to pay double the initiation fee. - Freemasons; Mortar and Mysticism, Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects ...Elias Ashmole was one of the first recorded inductees into the Freemasons, but the actual first recorded induction was Dr. Robert Moray in Edinburgh in 1641. Both Ashmole and Moray were founding members of the British Royal Society. - Gerry Rose ,The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry Ashmole was an admirer of the Knights

Templars. Even after their trial, the Templars were a noble Order, no less famous for martial achievements in the east, than their wealthy possessions in the west...Which gave occasion to many sober men to judge, that their wealth was their greatest crime. - Elias Ashmole, Institutions, Laws and Ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter (1672) Masonry became so fashionable that as the seventeenth century progressed the acceptance (the collective term for nonstonemasons) became the majority in the masonic Lodges. For example, in 1670, the Aberdeen Lodge had thirty-nine accepted members while only ten remained operative masons. In England, one thing united a majority of politically conscious people at this time: the need to preserve the gain of the Civil War of 1642-51 - the limitation of the power of the King. Much was eaten much was drunk, and much was discussed in the privacy of masonic meeting placed (usually taverns) after the rather dry formal doings in Lodge were over. The better the Lodge - in the sense of social class the better the conversation and the more lavish and expensive the entertainment....The sights of its prime movers were already set on a movement underpinning a type of society

admirably suited to its purposes: a stable society with limited social mobility in which a secret inner Old Boy association could provide an environment where considerable benefit could be gained by members who knew how to play the masonic organ - Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood A Masons lifes the life for me, With joy we meet each other, We pass our time with mirth and glee, And hail each friendly brother: In lodge no party-feuds are seen, But careful we in this agree, To banish care or spleen. The Masters call, we one and all With pleasure soon obey; With heart and hand we ready stand, Our duty still to pay. But when the glass goes round, Then mirth and glee about, Were all happy to a man; We laugh a little, we drink a little, We work a little, we play a little. .... Th Almighty said, Let there be light, Effulgent rays appearing.

Dispelld the gloom, the glory bright To this new world was cheering; But unto Masonry alone, Another light, so clear and bright, In mystic rays then shone; From east to west it spread so fast, That, Faith and Hope unfurld, We hail with joy sweet Charity, The darling of the world. Then while the toast goes round, Then mirth and glee about, Lets be happy to a man; Well laugh a little, well drink a little, Well work a little, and play a little. - from J. Bisset, Song XXX in William Prestons Illustrations of Masonry (1804) (2) The Invisible College We can be sure that the Royal society germinated from the hothouse of thinking that was released by Bacons definition of the Second Degree of Freemasonry well before people such as Ashmole and Wilkins pierced it all back together after the traumas of the Civil War. - Christopher Knight & Robert

Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus We date the formation [of the British Royal Society] earlier than was previously thought. There was a series of meetings in England in 1640. This is an important year because it was the beginning of the Long Parliament. Comenius and Samuel Hartlib were involved. Comenius was originally from Bohemia, and was in the Palatinate during the fateful Rosecrucian years, along with the Englishman Samuel Hartlib, with whom he was in close contact. With the defeat of the Palatinate they both, through different routes, end up in England. When the Long Parliament started, there was another outburst of ecstatic literature [following the dissemination of Rosecrucian pamphlets]. One piece written by Hartlib in 1640, A Description of the Famous Kingdom of Macaria, is a utopian work addressed to the attention of the Long Parliament. A year later, Comenius wrote The Way of Light. They call for an Invisible College, which is a Rosicrucian code name. Now the plot thickens. In 1645, a meeting takes place for a discussion of the natural sciences. Present at the meeting are Mr. Theodore Haak from the Palatinate and Dr. John Wilkins, who at the time was the chaplain to the elector of Palatine. Wilkins was the man behind the Oxford meetings which become, in 1660, the British Royal Society. Another founder of the Royal Society was Robert Boyle, who in letters

in 1646, refers to, again, an invisible college. John Wilkins writes a book in 1648 called Mathematical Magic, in which he explicitly mentions the Rosy Cross and pays homage to occultists Robert Fludd and John Dee. The key to the actual Rosicrucian tradition in the British Royal Society is Elias Ashmole. He was unabashedly a Rosicrucian and in 1654 wrote a letter to ask the Rosicrucians to allow him to join their fraternity. His scientific works were a defense of John Dees work, in particular Dees Monas Hieroglyphicas, and the Theatrum Chemicum Britanicum of 1652. This is a compilation of all the alchemical writings by English authors. In the opening of this work he praises a mythical event in which a brother of the Rosy Cross cures the Earl of Norfolk of leprosy. Ashmole was one of the official founding members of the British Royal Society. The other major, explicitly Rosicrucian figure was Isaac Newton. He had copies of both the Fama and the Confessio in his possession, and the book compiled by Ashmole, The Theatrum, was Newtons bible. Also...Newton had a series of papers on the book of Daniel calculating the end times. Historian Frances Yates, in her book The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, in a chapter entitled Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, quotes one De Quincey, who states, Freemasonry is neither more nor less than Rosicrucianism as modified by those who transplanted it in England, whence it was re-exported to the other countries of Europe. De Quincey states that Robert Fludd was

the person most responsible for bringing Rosicrucianism to England and giving it its new name. What is fascinating is that Elias Ashmole was one of the first recorded inductees into the Freemasons, but the actual first recorded induction was Dr. Robert Moray in Edinburgh in 1641. Both Ashmole and Moray were founding members of the British Royal Society. - Gerry Rose, The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of Freemasonry Men of science in London, Oxford, and Cambridge met in secret in what has been termed an invisible college, which now appears to have existed in secret Masonic lodges in those areas. Their first secret meeting was held in 1645, just three years after the death of Galileo. By 1660, the group felt secure enough in the apparently Protestant reign of Charles II to petition the crown for a royal charter, which was granted in 1662. The name they chose was The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge... - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood While there are many stories about the ancient origins of the Freemasons, here is an announcement for one of their meetings in 1676: To give notice that the Modern Green-ribboned Cabal, together with the ancient brotherhood of the Rosy Cross: the Hermetic Adepti and the company of Accepted Masons.... It is interesting to note how clear the tradition is. - Gerry Rose, The Venetian Takeover of England and Its Creation of

Freemasonry When Freemasonry came public in 1717...it appeared that the Royal Society was virtually a Masonic subsidiary, with almost every member and every founding member of the Royal Society a Freemason. - John J. Robinson, Born in Blood (3) The New Grand Lodge System The new Grand Lodge system established at the Goose and Gridiron Alehouse in 1717 consisted at first of only one level (degree) of initiation. Within five years of the Lodges founding, two additional degrees were added so that the system consisted of three steps: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason. These steps are commonly called the Blue Degrees because the color blue is symbolically important in them. - William Bramley, The Gods of Eden Like the cords worn by the Templars, each Masonic Blue Lodge initiation requires the use of a cord, or rather a cabletow. - Forrest Jackson, The Baphomet in History and Symbolism
For a descripton of the initiation rites into the three degrees, click here.

We believe that the current content of the three degrees of Craft Freemasonry was already present in just two degrees prior to Schaws reorganization that inserted an extra level of speculative masonry in between Entered Apprentice

and Master Mason (which was originally known as the Masters Part). This new degree was introduced and designated the Fellow Craft, derived we think from the fact that these masons were not workers in stone but workers in the fellow craft of speculative masonry. We are now sure that this degree was a development of the Mark Mason degree (and not the other way around as most Masons believe). - Christopher Knight & Robert Lomas, The Hiram Key: Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus The Scottish operative lodges began in the seventeenth century to admit nonoperative members as accepted or gentleman masons and that by the early eighteenth century in some lodges the accepted or gentleman masons had gained the ascendancy: those lodges became, in turn speculative lodges, whilst others continued their purely operative nature. The speculative lodges eventually combined to form the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736. - John Hamill, The Craft, A History of English Freemasonry The craft of Freemasonry was one of the more extraordinary manifestations of the Age of Reason, typical of its time not only because it stood for rationalism, deism, and benevolence, but also because of the ambiguity which turned one side of its affairs from rationality to mystery. It was in one way an emanation of that most British of institutions, the club. It took shape during the first three decades of the

eighteenth century, and reflected the tolerance and the confidence of Hanoverian England. Its ideology, founded on the metaphors of the architecture of the universe and the building of the Temple, was deist and non-confessional. The Freemason obliged himself to submit to the civil power, whose benevolent nature was assumed; this optimism was typical of British Whig self-assurance. The Mason asserted a non-clerical ethos, and a middlebrow and commonsensical attitude to life. He claimed to be instructed and enlightened, but he did not set up to be learned; this distinguished his society from those of the contemporary academies. - Peter Partner, The Murdered Magicians Toward the end of the 1730s, there were lodges in Belgium, Russia, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. But it seemed to have a special appeal in France, partly because of the rage then current there for all things British. In 1735, there five Masonic lodges in Paris; by 1742, the number was twenty-two. Some forty-five years later, on the eve of the French Revolution, there were perhaps 100,000 Masons in France. - Ancient Wisdom and Secret Sects By 1730 when the Roman Catholic Duke of Norfolk was installed (prior to the first papal condemnation of Freemasonry in 1738), there had been nine Grand Masters, six of them nobles. The first royal Grand Master was the Duke of Cumberland, younger son of George II, who was installed in 1782,

with an Acting Grand Master, the Earl of Effingham as his proxy. In 1787 both the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) and his brother William (the future William IV) were initiated. The patronage by the Royal Family of the new secret society was thenceforth assured. Queen Elizabeth II is the present Grand Patroness. - Stephen Knight, The Brotherhood Remember that you are the Salt of the Earth, the Light of the World, and the Fire of the Universe. You are living Stones, built up a Spiritual House, who believe and rely on the chief Lapis Angularis which the refractory and disobedient Builders disallowed. You are called from Darkness to Light; you are a chosen Generation, a royal Priesthood. This makes you, my dear Brethren, fit Companions for the greatest Kings; and no wonder, since the King of Kings hath condescended to make you so to himself, compared to whom the mightiest and most haughty Princes of the Earth are but as Worms, and that not so much as we are all Sons of the same One Eternal Father, by whom all Things were made; but inasmuch as we do the Will of his and our

Father which is in Heaven. You see now your high Dignity; you see what you are; act accordingly, and show yourselves (what you are) MEN, and walk worthy the high Profession to which you are called.... Remember, then, what the great End we all aim at is: Is it not to be happy here and hereafter? For they both depend on each other. The Seeds of that eternal Peace and Tranquillity and everlasting Repose must be sown in this Life; and he that would glorify and enjoy the Sovereign Good then must learn to do it now, and from contemplating the Creature gradually ascend to adore the Creator. - Eugenius Philalethes, Long-Livers (1772), preface