more on the widow's son

Music: Curve: Gift (2001)

The next part of my essay on Freemasonry, with some not-so-secret secrets revealed! I rewrote the introduction as well (see previous post). I added some pretty pictures to make it more fun to read:

What is Freemasonry?

Freemasonry is a beautiful and profound system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. The design of the Masonic Institution is to make its members wiser, better, and consequently happier. This is accomplished by means of a series of moral instructions taught according to ancient usage, by types, symbols, allegorical figures, and lectures. The forms and ceremonies of this institution have come down through a succession of ages and are all designed to impress upon the mind significant and solemn truths.
--"Lecture in Preparation Room" to an Entering Apprentice candidate[11]

Upon entering a Masonic lodge for the first time, every candidate that petitions the fraternity is told to strip (excepting undergarments) and to remove his shoes. He is blindfolded ("hoodwinked"), and dressed in a symbolic manner: he is told to put on some loose-fitting rags and to place a slipper on one foot; the left leg and breast are exposed, and a noose ("cable-tow") is placed around his neck. In this or a similar "destitute" condition he represents a poor "widow's son" trapped in the darkness of ignorance. Once the lodge door is ceremonially opened to him, each candidate will enter the lodge in pursuit of "more light," participating in a lengthy, complicated, highly-symbolic (and initially confusing) ritual that is at least 250 years old.

Although space and the author's respect for the Craft prevent any thorough account of the rituals, most of them consist of "circumambulating" the lodge and a lot of kneeling, praying, and repeating of strange words and phrases (much of the ritual--and the conduction of every day business in Masonic lodges--has a close resemblance to Parliamentary procedure). There are three basic ceremonies, each of which are symbolic of degrees: the Entering Apprentice Degree (1°), the Fellowcraft Degree (2°), and the Master Mason degree (3°). At the conclusion of each ceremony, the candidate kneels before "The Book of the Law" (a Bible in the West, but theoretically this can be any holy book that is dominant in a region) and is asked to take an oath not to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry under penalty of gruesome consequences that get worse with each degree. Of course, the obligation and the consequences for violating it are symbolic: no one will die or be disemboweled if he reveals the "secrets" of Freemasonry, but he may get kicked out.[12] After the performance of each degree, the candidate works with a "coach" to memorize a catechism based on the performance, as well as a series of questions and answers that are designed to encourage reflection on the meaning of Masonic symbolism. Nothing of these catechisms is written down, and their contents and meaning can only be discussed in speech among Masons of the same degree.

Contrary to what is often reported in the popular press (e.g., in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code), there are only three degrees in Masonry proper, and once one has been granted the degree of Master Mason, he can go no "higher" in the fraternity. Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris explain:

To say that someone is a Mason means that he has passed through the Degrees of Blue Lodge or Ancient Craft Masonry, under the authority of a Grand Lodge. Grand Lodges normally operate exclusively within a geographic jurisdiction, usually a state. Grand Lodges attend to the administrative affairs . . . and charter local lodges, which 'make Masons' by conferring the three degrees. . . . Grand Lodges exercise the executive administrative power to determine which organizations may be considered "Masonic" in their jurisdiction, and they reserve the right to prohibit their members from joining any organization which [sic] requires Masonic membership. All other Masonic organizations are said to be "appendant" to a Grand Lodge.

As Freemasonry evolved since the 1700s, a number of "appendant bodies" have developed that significantly complicate the Masonic organizational structure and often lead to confusion about degrees both inside and outside the fraternity. Some appendant bodies are not recognized by all the Grand Lodges of the world, but there are a number that are. De Hoyos and Morris explain that the largest and most universally recognized by state Grand Lodges is the Scottish Rite, an American system that expands Masonic ritual by 29 degrees to the 32°. There is a 33°, however, this degree is typically only conferred by the governing "Supreme Council" to longstanding Masons with an outstanding, lifetime record of service to Masonry. Nevertheless, Scottish Rite Masonry is often confused with the Blue Lodge: if a given Mason is said to be of the 33°, he is also a Mason of the Blue Lodge, but not necessarily vice versa.

Like the degrees in the Blue Lodge, the Scottish Rite degrees are represented by rituals that are performed for initiates. The principle difference, however, is that after the degrees were re-written in the nineteenth century, a majority of them were transformed into less-Parliamentary-style "plays" that are presented in a theatre (hence, most older Scottish Rite temples have or are theatres, such as the Austin Scottish Rite Theatre pictured on the right). Other famous Masonic bodies and systems include: The York Rite, the higher degrees of which require a belief in the divinity of Jesus; the Order of the Eastern Star, which is open to and largely administered by women; and the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or the "Shriners," most known for their charity work with children, which explains why they are often remembered for their fez hats, public clowning, and teensy go-carts, which they drive around in at local parades to help promote their charity work.

Masons claim that only men of sound mind, good health, moral conviction, and excellent reputation are eligible for membership, and these qualities are assessed by an "investigation" committee that spends weeks--sometimes months--discussing an individual's character with colleagues, friends and families. Masons must also profess a belief in deity, although they are not required to detail their particular beliefs about "God." Once the investigation committee is satisfied of the moral character and spiritual faith of a petitioner, they offer a recommendation to the lodge members to accept or reject the petition. Then, the members of a lodge vote by secret ballot to allow a man "receive the degrees" and join their lodge. This is done by having each member place either a single white ("yes") or black ("no") marble or die into a covered wooden box. If there are more than one black marble cast during a balloting, that candidate is "black balled" and cannot receive the degrees.

To date, Freemasons are predominately white, and in the United States the issue of minority membership remains quite controversial among them. Masonry developed in this country concurrently with the union, and consequently, its history has a segregated, colonial past that is reflected in the establishment of Prince Hall Masonry, an African American fraternity that dates back to the American revolution. Prince Hall, the "Father of Black Masonry" in the United States, was granted a charter for a lodge by the Grand Lodge of England in 1787. In the eighteenth century, and even shortly after the War of Independence, the Grand Lodge of England emerged (after many squabbles with others) as the supreme authority of Freemasonry approved charters for Grand Lodges in other parts of the world (who would then oversee local lodges, and so on). Since the North American colonies were not yet united as an autonomous sovereign, states began establishing their own Grand Lodges (and sometimes without approval from the Brits).13 Consequently, some Grand Lodges recognize Prince Hall Masonry (e.g., California) and allow any man to petition a lodge for membership, while others (e.g., Louisiana) do not. The states of the failed confederacy remain those whose members seem the most reluctant to recognize Prince Hall Masonry, although this situation continues to change rapidly as older, more bigoted generations of Masons pass away.[14]

The politics of membership in a Masonic body also concerns religion, although this politics is largely a consequence of its long association with, and commitment to, popular democracy. It is sometimes erroneously reported, for example, that Masonry is a "religion," or that Masonry discriminates against Catholics and Jews, or that it is part of a conspiracy to take over governments--all of which Masons deny. The fraternity was and remains, however, a strong proponent of republicanism and democracy, and maintains a principled commitment to the separation of church and state, which drew fire from the Roman Catholic church. Although we heard it countless times in high school civics class, the norms of democracy and republicanism that contemporary U.S. citizens take for granted were not always popular. For example, Margaret C. Jacob reports that in

1738 the Papacy condemned [F]reemasonry, partly in response to the popularity of the lodge in Rome, and Catholic apologists who promulgated the Papal Bull explicated its logic in detail. At the top of their list of [M]asonic offenses was republicanism. The ingenuity of the English nation, they explained, has revived the purity of [F]reemasonry, and this "society . . . imitates an aspect of the government of Republics. Its leaders are chosen, or dismissed, at its will." . . . Catholic opponents of the fraternity fixated on its custom of holding elections.[15]

It is probable that from this hundred-years-old antipathy in Europe comes the oft-told observation that Catholics "hate" Masons and vice-versa. Although it is true that Masonry adheres to a characteristically Protestant understanding of biblical exegesis, the ability humans to intuit the spiritual and divine without an intercessor, Masonry is not hostile to Catholics and many do belong to the fraternity in the United States. It is not clear among ecclesiastical scholars, however, whether the Vatican presently forbids membership.[16]

It is frequently said by Masons that the strength of its brotherhood is partially derived from a self-imposed censorship: the two topics that are presumably banned from discussion in a Masonic lodge are those also banned from many family dinner tables: politics and religion. The supposed ban on these topics is in the lodge, however, only reflects a very narrow construal of the terms: one is not to discuss party politics in a lodge, nor is he to discuss the merits or problems with specific, organized religion, and this is because brothers from across the political and religious spectrum are welcomed. Politics more broadly conceived as the relationship of individuals to the state and state power, and religion more broadly conceived as discourse about deity, however, implicates Masonry as one of the most famous theo-political organizations in the country. Politically and religiously, one of the rationales for secrecy was ensure the lodge was a forum where one speak freely about matters of philosophy, science, politics, and religion, without fear of persecution from the Church or the State; the Masonic lodge was, in other words, a product of civil society and the Enlightenment.[17] Moreover, the close, trusting bonds between men promoted by Masonry "played an important role in building the camaraderie necessary for the survival of the army--and thus the American Republic," argues Steven C. Bullock.[18] Masonic fraternities can be linked to American revolutionary activities (e.g., the Boston Tea Party),19 and lodges were likely the places where the merits and virtues of constitutional societies were discussed and debated. Unlike the protections on free speech that we have today, as late as the early twentieth century the clandestine character of the Masonry was helped to protect and promote the political and religious ideas that had yet to find widespread support.

As civic republicanism was eventually--and violently--instituted in the United States, the stress on the clandestine nature of the fraternity's governance and teachings has gradually weakened. The characteristically tight-lipped grandfather or uncle who refused to say anything about Masonry to family members and friends is partly due to the dynamics of American revolutionary history, but is also simply a misunderstanding about what Masons are allowed to say about themselves to non-Masons. In fact, most of the so-called secrets of the Craft are well-known and widely published, such as its ceremonies and the over-loaded significations of many of its symbols (about which more below). The actual secrets of the Craft concern certain parts and aspects of the ceremonies, and a number of secret "words" (such as the "Master Mason's word"), passwords, and handshakes.[20] These secrets, however, are also not difficult to find in a number of books and by a simple Google search of the Internet. The real secret of Masonry has always been in plain sight: Masonry purports to have a route to Enlightenment, moral uplift, and spiritual awareness. In other words, Masonry claims to have a privileged practice and teaching that members call its "philosophy," but which readers might more readily characterize as its "rhetoric." It is to the unique occult rhetoric and symbolism of Freemasonry that I now turn.

"Veiled in Allegory and Illustrated by Symbols": Masonic Rhetoric Explained

It is by Rhetoric that the art of speaking eloquently is acquired. To be an eloquent speaker, in the proper sense of the word, is far from being either a common or easy attainment; it is the art of being persuasive and commanding, the art, not only of pleasing fancy, but of speaking both to the understanding and to the heart.
--Lecture on "The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences" to the Fellowcraft candidate[21]

Because Masonic ritual and symbolism is hundreds of years old, one can understand why the Masons continue to "lecture" candidates on rhetoric as it was understood in the eighteenth century. The ritual, liturgy, and catechism of the Blue Lodge has changed very little in the past 250 years. If we understand the domain of rhetoric to include the study of persuasive (conscious) and suasvie (unconscious) processes in general, however, one can characterize the whole of Masonic teaching, or what Masons term their "philosophy," as a particular kind or type of rhetoric that has a deep affinity with the occult rhetoric of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.[22] In general, we can define the occult as the study of secrets, and more specifically, as the study of secrets as they pertain to magic and mysticism.[23] Central to all occult rhetoric is the pride of place established for secrets and their telling, as well as the characteristically Platonic emphasis on spiritual truths that cannot be communicated in human language or representation. Occult practices that believe in changing the world or themselves by supernatural means concern magic (often of the ceremonial variety), whereas those concerned with contemplation, reflection, and understanding are understood has coming from the traditions of hermeticism and mysticism. Freemasonry is in the second, hermetic camp and, protests to the contrary by contemporary Masonic apologists, the fraternity unquestionably an occult organization.

Notes

[11] The Louisiana Masonic Monitor, ed. G.C. Huckaby (Kenner, LA: River Parishes Printing/The Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana, 1988), 20. Every state in the country has its own "monitor," which contains the ceremonial and procedural rules for running a lodge, a number of public ceremonies (such as the Masonic funeral ceremony), and various "lectures" that are often memorized and repeated during "degree work," or during initiation ceremonies. No two monitors are alike, and therefore, the selection from the lecture here may differ significantly from that of another state.

[12] At this point some readers may be wondering if the author is a Master Mason, and if so, worry that I am disclosing or about to disclose some of the fraternity's secrets. I am a Mason, however, as I explain below, the secrets I have sworn not to disclose concern ways to recognize a fellow Mason; the meanings of the rituals, allegories, and symbols of Freemasonry have been widely published and discussed.

[13] Henry Wilson Coil, Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, eds. William Moseley Brown, William L. Cummings, Harold Van Buren Voorhis, and Allen E. Roberts (Richmond VA: Macoy Publishing, 1996), s.v. "Grand Lodge."

[14] In the popular imagination Masonry is sometimes erroneously associated with the Ku Klux Klan, which Freemasons strenuously deny (this does not preclude the possibility that men could have belonged to both groups). The association probably related to the dubious claim that Albert Pike, a famous and well-respected Confederate officer, public intellectual, and long-time leader of the Scottish Rite, was a "high ranking" official of the Ku Klux Klan. There is no historical evidence to support this claim. In one newspaper report Pike argues for a reformed secret society like the Klan, because "the disfranchised people of the South, robbed of all the guarantees of the Constitution . . . can find no protection for property, liberty or life, except in secret association. Not in such association to commit follies and outrages; but for mutual, lawful , self-defence." This is hardly an endorsement of racist violence. See Walter Lee Brown, A Life of Albert Pike (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997), 439. For summary of all the claims, see "Discredited Histories of the Ku Klux Klan," Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, available http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/discredited.html accessed 8 August 2006.

[15] Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, 23.

[16] Joel Schorn, "What is the Catholic View of Freemasonry?" U.S. Catholic (May 2005): 43.

[17] See Margaret C. Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, ____.

[18] Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 110.

[19] Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 113.

[20] See Hodapp, Dummies, 17-18.

[21] Louisiana Masonic Monitor, 102.

[22] For an overview of this rhetoric, see Joshua Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric: Mass Media and the Drama of Secrecy in the United States (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005).

[23] See Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric, _____.

[24] Leland M. Griffin, "The Rhetorical Structure of the Antimasonic Movement." Readings in Rhetorical Criticism, ed. Carl R. Burgchardt (State College, PA: Strata Publishing, 1995), 371.

[25] Rex R. Hutchens, Pillars of Wisdom: The Writings of Albert Pike (Washington, DC: The Supreme Council, 33°), 1.

Rhetoric/Death of Freemasonry 15