"Not anyone who is paying attention. Lights, camera, action, pure Masonic theatre"
Me:
Modern Freemasonry is a boy scout club.
Did Nazi Hitler use the swastika for its original purpose?
Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemaïs, not Albert Pike wrote:
"The people will always mock at things easy to be misunderstood; it must needs have impostures."
"A Spirit," he said, "that loves wisdom and contemplates the Truth close at hand, is forced to disguise it, to induce the multitudes to accept it. . . . Fictions are necessary to the people, and the Truth becomes deadly to those who are not strong enough to contemplate it in all its brilliance. If the sacerdotal laws allowed the reservation of judgments and the allegory of words, I would accept the proposed dignity on condition that I might be a philosopher at home, and abroad a narrator of apologues and parables
In fact, what can there be in common between the vile multitude and sublime wisdom? The truth must be kept secret, and the masses need a teaching proportioned to their imperfect reason."
So here is what Albert Pike wrote in the same chapter.
Human progress isn't driven by machines alone, but by invisible forces we must learn to wield. Here are the 10 key forces at man's disposal, as outlined by a profound philosophical text.
1. The Force of Cohesion & Sympathy
Just as attraction turns sand to rock, friendship and love are the cement of civilization. Without them, society dissolves into a savage multitude. In times of danger, this cohesion is our greatest strength.
2. The Force of Morality
Morality is our inner compass, a magnetic attraction to Truth and Virtue. Like a ship's needle guiding it through storms, it steers us safely. When it fails, we are left helpless, adrift on faithless currents.
3. The Force of Honor & Duty
For a principled person, Honor and Duty are the Pole Stars. To lose sight of them is to invite spiritual shipwreck, leading to a fate "unhonored and unwept."
4. The Forces of Growth & Revolution
Nations, like people, must grow or decay. Revolutions don't happen overnight; they have long roots in the past. The pressure of restraint builds until it erupts, like a volcano. A true leader sees these currents in progress.
5. The Force of Public Opinion
This is an omnipotent, inconstant force in free societies. Like atmospheric currents, it must be shaped and directed. It forms International Law and can even constrain victorious despots.
6. The Force of Habit & Prejudice
Habit is second nature, and prejudices are given to men and nations like passions. They are powerful tools—valuable if skillfully managed, destructive if mishandled.
7. The Force of Love for Home & Country
Patriotism and state pride are engines of immense power. A migratory people have little love of country. Permanency of home is essential for true patriotism to flourish.
8. The Force of Eloquence
The power of speech is mighty. It must be used to teach, exhort, and ennoble—not to mislead and corrupt. Corrupt orators are the assassins of public liberty and morals.
9. The Force of Will
The human Will is a spiritual and divine force, its limits still unknown. It is the men of will and action, not merely of intellect, who truly govern the world.
10. The Supreme Moral Forces: Faith, Hope, Charity
These three are the greatest:
- FAITH is the foundation of all government and the only true WISDOM.
- HOPE is STRENGTH and the insurer of success.
- CHARITY is BEAUTY, making united effort possible.
An association powered by these should be unstoppable. If it fails, it is because it has lost them.
* * * * * *
1. The Three Great Disciplines: Providence uses three pillars to train humanity: War (the Camp), Monarchy (the Palace), and Priesthood (the Temple). These structures provide the initial order necessary for societal development.
2. The Gradual Awakening: Humanity advances step-by-step. Freedom from one oppression (e.g., personal slavery) makes people sensitive to the next (e.g., political oppression), and then to intellectual and religious tyranny. Progress is non-linear and often includes pauses and regressions.
3. The Present Imperfection: Despite progress, the world remains flawed. Despotisms persist, priesthoods govern by dogma, poverty and ignorance are rampant, and wars continue. This imperfection creates a vast and necessary field of labor for Masonry.
4. Freedom Lies in Reason: True human freedom is not license, but the liberation from impulse through reason. A rational man can reflect, foresee consequences, and live by principle, thus overcoming the "tyranny of sense and passion." This intellectual freedom is the foundation of political freedom.
5. The Power of Thought: No thought or labor is wasted. A single thought can be as significant as a revolution. The goal is not to divorce thought from action, but to ensure that action springs from wise and true thought, which is inherently generative.
6. Masonry as the Guiding Light: In a world where most are non-reflective, Masonry seeks to be a beneficent, unambitious guide. It is a perpetual work in progress, always building, teaching, and maintaining the beacon-light of knowledge, faith, and loving-kindness for humanity.
7. The Seed of Truth: Speaking truth is vital, even if it seems to fall on deaf ears. Truth is like the Rose of Jericho—it may lie dormant, carried by the winds of time, but it will eventually find the conditions to germinate and grow. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for after many days it shall return."
8. Wisdom of the Ancients: The text highlights perennial philosophy. It draws from Pythagoras (God as "Living Absolute Verity," the Word as Number, the supreme importance of order over anarchy) and the Holy Kabalah (God as the ineffable, intelligent Infinite, the concept of the Sephiroth as emanations of the Divine).
9. The Reality of God: The idea of God is the grandest and most necessary human aspiration, the foundation of morality. Skepticism in the face of the universe's intelligent design is a "foolish superstition." The cause (an Intelligent Source) must be at least equal to the effect (a thinking being and a lawful cosmos).
10. The Grand Arcanum: The ultimate secret of Initiation is hinted at but not revealed—it is "the Royalty of the Sages," mastery over the fundamental principles of life and matter (symbolized by solving the quadrature of the circle or the philosopher's stone). It is found not beyond the tomb, but in how we live here and now, where virtue is its own reward and vice its own punishment.
* * * * * *
The great traditions teach that our inner state shapes our outer reality, and that secret knowledge is reserved for those who can bear its weight. A deep dive into the roots of Western esotericism.
The Law of Correspondence: Inner corruption manifests outwardly. Moral disorders literally produce physical ugliness, creating the "frightful faces" we associate with demons. The spiritual defines the physical.
Intentional Secrecy: Masonry, like all true mysteries (Hermeticism, Alchemy, religions), actively conceals its secrets from the profane. It uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who are unworthy or unable to receive the Truth.
A Hierarchy of Understanding: Truth, or Light, is not for everyone. Some are spiritually "color-blind." Therefore, every age is given a religion suited to its general capacity, protecting the masses from truths that would be harmful or that they would pervert.
The Arrogance of Ignorance: Most teachers, even of Christianity, are ignorant of the true, esoteric meaning of their own scriptures. The Bible is as misunderstood as the Zohar. Modern Masonic writers (Preston, Webb) are pitifully ludicrous, adding superficial elements like the Bible and a ladder to ancient Kabalistic symbols and offering "profoundly absurd" interpretations. True understanding is for the Adept alone.
"The people will always mock at things easy to be misunderstood; it must needs have impostures."
"A Spirit," he said, "that loves wisdom and contemplates the Truth close at hand, is forced to disguise it, to induce the multitudes to accept it. . . . Fictions are necessary to the people, and the Truth becomes deadly to those who are not strong enough to contemplate it in all its brilliance. If the sacerdotal laws allowed the reservation of judgments and the allegory of words, I would accept the proposed dignity on condition that I might be a philosopher at home, and abroad a narrator of apologues and parables
In fact, what can there be in common between the vile multitude and sublime wisdom? The truth must be kept secret, and the masses need a teaching proportioned to their imperfect reason."
