The Phoenix. An illustrated review of occultism and philosophy

sets forth a Masonic creed, his Masonic creed. In this is epitomized the Grand Commander's philosophy of life: "BELIEVE IN GOD'S infinite Benevolence, Wisdom and Justice; HOPE for the final triumph of Good over Evil, and for perfect HARMONY as the final result of all of the concords and discords of the Universe; and BE CHARITABLE, as GOD is, towards the unfaith, the errors, the follies and the faults of men; for all make one great brotherhood."

This brings up a most mooted question, one which has perplexed Masonic scholars in particular and the Craft in general for a goodly number of years: IS FREEMASONRY A RELIGION? The superficial Mason is likely to answer in the negative. Studious investigation, however, will reveal that as the outer symbols are in the main derived from the religious symbols of ancient nations, it naturally follows that the inner traditions of the Craft are concerned with the esoteric interpretation of those symbols. This interpretation must inevitably deal with the various aspects of sacred sciences. If we turn to our Oracle a reference to Albert Pike as a source of wisdom once more, we find the answer in the opening sentence of the Legenda a collection of traditional readings for the degrees for the nineteenth degree, where Pike declares: "Masonry has and always had a religious creed. It teaches what it deems to be the truth in respect to the nature and attributes of God, as the loving and beneficent Father of all mankind, as a Supreme and Perfect Intelligence, as not in anywise the gigantic and distorted image of a man reflected upon the clouds." His fullest statement upon this subject, however, is to be found in his essay on Masonic Symbolism, where he writes: "But those who framed its Degrees adopted the most sacred and significant symbols of a very remote antiquity, used many centuries before the Temple of the King Solomon was built, to express to those who understood them, while concealing from the profane the uninitiated, the most recondite and mysterious doctrines in regard to God, the universe and man. And those who framed the Degrees and adopted these symbols, used them as expressions of the same sacred and holy doctrine, and interpreted them quite otherwise than they are now interpreted in our Lodges. I have, at least, arrived at this conviction after patient study and reflection during many years. I entertain no doubt, and am ready to give the reasons for my faith, that the principal symbols of Freemasonry, all that are really ancient, concur to teach the fundamental principles of a great and wide-spread religious philosophy, and hieroglyphically express certain profound ideas, as to the existence, manifestations and action of the Deity, the harmony of the Universe, the Creative Word and Divine Wisdom, and the unity of the divine and human, the spiritual, intellectual and material, in man and nature; that have re-appeared in all religions, and have been expounded by great schools of philosophy in all the ages. The ancient symbols of Freemasonry teach, I think, the profound religious truths and doctrines that in reality ARE Freemasonry. I am so far from being one of those who think that it teaches no religious creed or doctrine, as that I firmly believe that it consists in the religious philosophy that it teaches; and that he only is a true Freemason who correctly interprets for himself the Symbols."

Here Pike commits himself in no uncertain manner to the fundamental premise of metaphysics and

occultism: namely, that under the outer symbols and dogmas of religion there exists an esoteric key to the secrets of Nature and the purpose of human existence. The point which Pike is trying to make is that Freemasonry is not a religion but the religion. Freemasonry does not align itself with any individual institution of faith that seemingly exists largely for the purpose of confuting some other cult. Freemasonry serves and nurtures man's natural impulse to worship and venerate God in the universe and Good in the world. It interferes with the creed of no man, for it is above creeds. Calling its members from vain wrangling over jot and tittle the smallest details or trivialities, it invites them to unite in harmonious adoration of the universal Creator. It calls men from theory to practice, from vain speculation to the application of those great moral and ethical truths by which the perfection of human nature is wrought.

In Masonic symbolism, however, Albert Pike senses something more exalted than even the ethical and moral virtues. Speaking of the Ancient Schools, the prototypes of modern Freemasonry, Pike notes: "It is certain that something in the ancient initiations was regarded as of immense value by such intellects as Herodotus, Plutarch and Cicero. The magicians of Egypt were able to imitate several of the miracles wrought by Moses; and the Science of the Hierophants high priests who revealed sacred mysteries produced effects that to the initiated seemed mysterious and supernatural." Pike even invites the studious Brethren to discover anew those recondite philosophies, through the understanding of which man becomes an adept not by name alone but by virtue of his transcendental powers.

The Freemasonry of Albert Pike is too vast and grand a thing to be grasped by those who have not spread the pinions of their inspiration and soared upward into the rational sphere. Albert Pike was a real Masonic initiate. He felt the dignity and profundity of the work. He knew the high calling to which master builders are dedicated. Piercing the veil of futurity with his prophetic eyes, he dreamed with Plato and Bacon of a world ruled by wisdom and the return of the golden age. Ponder well this prophetic utterance: "Let the most Absolute Science and the Highest Reason again become the appanage a natural accompaniment or right of the Chiefs of the people; let the Sacerdotal Art the sacred priestly work and the Royal Art the sovereign work of self-mastery reassume the double sceptre of the ancient initiations, and the world will yet again emerge from chaos."

By the passing of Albert Pike into those Greater Mysteries of which the earthly lodge is but the outer symbol, Freemasonry was deprived of one of its staunchest defenders and noblest exponents. The period of Pike's administration was the golden age of Masonic enlightenment, a renaissance of those great institutions of the ancient world rendered luminous by the exalted personalities of Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato, the triumvirate of enlightened learning. Weary with his labor, bowed but never broken by the responsibilities of his office and the misunderstandings of an unbelieving world, this noble soul passed his dreams to the keeping of others and, drawing the folds of his robes about him, laid down to rest. Over his mortal remains, splendid even in death, was spoken the funeral service of the Kadosh meaning 'Holy' in Hebrew; a high degree in the Scottish Rite, words he himself had framed and bestowed as a priceless legacy upon the Craft.

"Death is the inexorable creditor, whose indulgence nothing in the world can purchase. Every moment that sees a newborn child laugh at the light sees also a man die, and hears the cry of a breaking heart, and the lamentations of those who sit lonely and in the desolation of affliction, no longer seeing the faces of dearly loved ones. Round the little island of our being, on which we follow our various pursuits of toil or craft, of usefulness or mischief, throbs the illimitable ocean of Eternity, upon which, round the isle, a broad circle of impenetrable darkness brooding lies. But beyond that zone the outer ocean sparkles, and its white-crested waves dance in the light, and somewhere in the distance the islands of the blessed are dreaming, girdled by the peaceful waters."

The spirit of Albert Pike still guides Freemasonry to higher honors and fuller understanding. The impetus he gave to a clearer realization of spiritual and ethical values will continue in ever widening circles like the ripples of water from the stone thrown in the pool. The whole world has been enriched by the memory of this philosopher, whose words are known to comparatively few but whose genius has tinged the lives of the multitude. In closing this tribute to the

"Master Builder," we would like to leave with the reader the same message which he left with the Brethren of the Craft. Though cults and creeds may come and go upon the ebb and flow of the universal tide, the Freemasonry of Albert Pike will endure as a monument throughout the ages to the vision of a true Prince of the Royal Secret the title of the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite.

"So religions decay into idle forms and the mummery of meaningless words. The Symbols remain, like the sea-shells washed up from the depths, motionless and dead upon the sandy beaches of the ocean; and the Symbols are as voiceless and lifeless as the shells. Shall it always be so with Masonry, likewise? Or shall its ancient Symbols, inherited by it from the primitive faiths and most ancient initiations, be rescued from the enthralment the state of being enslaved of common-place and trivial misinterpretation, be restored to their ancient high estate and again become the Holy Oracles of philosophical and religious Truth, their revelation of Divine Wisdom to our thoughtful ancestors; and thus make true and real the immense superiority of Freemasonry over all the modern and ephemeral associations that ape its forms and caricature its Symbolism?"

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