The Ancient Craft

• It is one of the most beautiful features of the Masonic Institution, that it teaches not only the necessity, but the nobility, of labor.

• "ARBEIT MACHT FREI"

• Trestle Board, the acknowledged symbol of the Divine Law, in accordance with whose decree 199 labor was originally instituted as the common lot of all; and therefore the important lesson that is closely connected with this symbol is, that to labor well and truly, to labor honestly and persistently, is the object and the chief end of all humanity.

In, at times, a strongly worded article Dr. S. Morris, a member and Past Master of Patmos Lodge #70, Ellicott City, Maryland, has "set the record straight" on the myth that the Great Seal of the United States represents a Masonic symbol. The facts are clearly presented, together with several examples of the use of the "All Seeing Eye" prior to any known Masonic use. This straightforward article is being presented as a STB so that Freemasons may have an answer when the question is asked "Is the Seal of the United States a Masonic symbol?"


HISTORIANS must be cautious about many well-known "facts." George Washington chopped down a cherry tree when a boy and confessed the deed to his father. Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball. Freemasons inserted some of their emblems (chief among them the eye in the pyramid) into the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States. These historical "facts" are widely popular, commonly accepted, and equally false.

The eye in the pyramid (emblazoned on the dollar bill, no less) is often cited as "evidence" that sinister conspiracies abound which will impose a "New World Order" on an unsuspecting populace. Depending on whom you hear it from, the Masons are planning the takeover themselves, or are working in concert with European bankers, or are leading (or perhaps being led by) the Illuminati (whoever they are). The notion of a world-wide Masonic conspiracy would be laughable, if it weren't being repeated with such earnest gullibility by conspiracists like Pat Robertson.

Sadly, Masons are sometimes counted among the gullible who repeat the tall tale of the eye in the pyramid, often with a touch of pride. They may be guilty of nothing worse than innocently puffing the importance of their fraternity (as well as themselves), but they're guilty nonetheless. The time has come to state the truth plainly and simply!

The Great Seal of the United States is not a Masonic emblem, nor does it contain hidden Masonic symbols.

The details are there for anyone to check, who's willing to rely on historical fact, rather than hysterical fiction.
Benjamin Franklin was the only Mason on the first design committee, and his suggestions had no Masonic content.
None of the final designers of the seal were Masons.
The interpretation of the eye on the seal is subtly different from the interpretation used by Masons.
The eye in the pyramid is not nor has it ever been a Masonic symbol.
The First Committee

On Independence Day, 1776 a committee was created to design a seal for the new American nation. The committee's members were Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, with Pierre Du Simitiere as artist and consultant[1]. Of the four men involved, only Benjamin Franklin was a Mason, and he contributed nothing of a Masonic nature to the committee's proposed design for a seal.

Du Simitiere, the committee's consultant and a non-Mason, contributed several major design features that made their way into the ultimate design of the seal: 'the shield, E Pluribus Unum, MDCCLXXVI, and the eye of providence in a triangle."[2] The eye of providence on the seal thus can be traced, not to the Masons, but to a non-Mason consultant to the committee.

"The single eye was a well-established artistic convention for an 'omniscient Ubiquitous Deity' in the medallic art of the Renaissance. Du Simitiere, who suggested using the symbol, collected art books and was familiar with the artistic and ornamental devices used in Renaissance art."[3] This was the same cultural iconography that eventually led Masons to add the all-seeing eye to their symbols.
The Second and Third Committees

Congress declined the first committees suggestions as well as those of its 1780 committee. Francis Hopkinson, consultant to the second committee, had several ideas that eventually made it into the seal: "white and red stripes with- in a blue background for the shield, a radiant constellation of thirteen stars, and an olive branch."[4] Hopkinson's greatest contribution to the current seal came from his layout of a 1778 50-dollar colonial note in which he used an unfinished pyramid in the design. The third and last seal committee of 1782 produced a design that finally satisfied Congress. Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress, and William Barton, artist and consultant, borrowed from earlier designs and sketched what at length became the United States Seal.

The misinterpretation of the seal as a Masonic emblem may have been first introduced a century later in 1884. Harvard Professor Eliot Norton wrote that the reverse was 'practically incapable of effective treatment; it can hardly, (however artistically treated by the designer), look otherwise than as a dull emblem of a Masonic fraternity.[5]
Interpreting the Symbol

The "Remarks and Explanations" of Thomson and Barton are the only explanation of the symbols' meaning. Despite what anti-Masons may believe, there's no reason to doubt the interpretation accepted by the Congress.

The Pyramid signified Strength and Duration: The Eye over it & the Motto allude to the many signal interpositions of providence in favor of the American cause.[6]

The committees and consultants who designed the great Seal of the United States contained only one Mason, Benjamin Franklin. The only possibly Masonic design element among the very many on the seal is the eye of providence, and the interpretation of it by the designers is different from that used by Masons. The eye on the seal represents an active intervention of God in the affairs of men, while the Masonic symbol stands for a passive awareness by God of the activities of men.

The first "official" use and definition of the all-seeing eye as a Masonic symbol seems to have come in 1797 with The Freemasons Monitor of Thomas Smith Webb -- 14 years after Congress adopted the design for the seal. Here's how Webb explains the symbol.

"[A]nd although our thoughts, words and actions, may be hidden from the eyes of man, yet that All-Seeing Eye, whom the Sun, Moon and Stars obey, and under whose watchful care even comets perform their stupendous revolutions, pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart, will reward us according to our merits."[7]
The Eye in the Pyramid

Besides the subtly different interpretations of the symbol, it is notable that Webb did not describe the eye as being in a triangle. Jeremy Ladd Cross published The True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor in 1819, essentially an illustrated version of Webb's Monitor. In this first "official" depiction of Webb's symbol, Cross had illustrator Amos Doolittle depict the eye surrounded by a semicircular glory.[8]

The all-seeing eye thus appears to be a rather recent addition to Masonic symbolism. It is not found in any of the Gothic Constitutions, written from about 1390 to 1730. The eye -- sometimes in a triangle, sometimes in clouds, but nearly always surrounded by a glory -- was a popular Masonic decorative device in the latter half of the 18th century. Its use as a design element seems to have been an artistic representation of the omniscience of God, rather than some generally accepted Masonic symbol.

Its meaning in all cases, however, was that commonly given it by society at large -- a reminder of the constant presence of God. For example, in 1614 the frontispiece of The History of the World by Walter Raleigh showed an eye in a cloud labeled "Providentia" overlooking a globe. It has not been suggested that Raleigh's story is a Masonic document despite the use of the all-seeing eye.

The eye of Providence was part of the common cultural iconography of the 17th and 18th centuries. When placed in a triangle, the eye went beyond a general representation of God to a strongly Trinitarian statement. It was during this period that Masonic ritual and symbolism evolved; and it is not surprising that many symbols common to and understood by the general society made their way into Masonic ceremonies. Masons may have preferred the triangle because of the frequent use of the number 3 in their ceremonies: three degrees, three original grand masters, three principal officers, and so on. Eventually the all-seeing eye came to be used officially by Masons as a symbol for God, but this happened towards the end of the eighteenth century, after congress had adopted the seal.

A pyramid, whether incomplete or finished, however, has never been a Masonic symbol. It has no generally accepted symbolic meaning, except perhaps permanence or mystery. The combining of the eye of providence overlooking an unfinished pyramid is a uniquely American, not Masonic, icon, and must be interpreted as its designers intended. It has no Masonic context.
Conclusion

It's hard to know what leads some to see Masonic conspiracies behind world events, but once that hypothesis is accepted, any jot and tittle can be misinterpreted as "evidence." The Great Seal of the United States is a classic example of such a misinterpretation, and some Masons are as guilty of the exaggeration as many anti-Masons.

The Great Seal and Masonic symbolism grew out of the same cultural milieu. While the all-seeing eye had been popularized in Masonic designs of the late eighteenth century, it did not achieve any sort of official recognition until Webb's 1797 Monitor. Whatever status the symbol may have had during the design of the Great Seal, it was not adopted or approved or endorsed by any Grand Lodge.

The seal's Eye of Providence and the Mason's All Seeing Eye each express Divine Omnipotence, but they are parallel uses of a shared icon, not a single symbol.

Gnosticism, as the Mother of Freemasonry, has imposed its mark in the very centre of the chief symbol
of this association. The most conspicuous emblem which one notices on entering a masonic temple, the one which figures on the seals, on the rituals, everywhere in fact, appears in the middle of the interlaced square and compass, it is the five pointed star framing the letter G. Different explanations of this letter G are given to the initiates.

The masonic G is said to signify "Geometry" for the lower grades
But for brothers frequenting lodges that admit women, it is said to signify "Generation" but this revelation is attended with great secrecy
Then For those found worthy to penetrate the sanctuary of the Knights Kadosch, the enigmatic letter becomes the initial of the doctrine of the perfect initiates which is "Gnosticism"
It is Gnosticism which is the real meaning of the G in the flamboyant star, for, after the grade of Kadosch (a Hebrew word meaning consecrated) the Freemasons dedicate themselves to the glorification of Gnosticism

The G which the Freemasons place in the middle
of the flamboyant star signifies Gnosticism and Generation,
the most sacred words of the ancient Cabala. " See Eliphas
Levi, Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, vol. II, p. 97.

On the subject of Hypnotism and Crime, Hudson, writing further, reaches however a fatally false conclusion
which for many years remained unchallenged.
He states (p. 140) " It is true that, on ordinary questions,the truth is always uppermost in the subjective mind.
A hypnotic subject will often say, during the hypnotic sleep, that which he would not say in his waking
moments. Nevertheless, he never betrays a vital secret...
That this is true is presumptively proved by the factthat in all the years during which the science of hypnotism has been practised, no one has ever been knownto betray the secrets of any society or order. Theattempt has often been made, but it has never succeeded."Hudson attributes this reticence to auto-suggestion
13. Hudson, The Law of Psychic Phenomena, p. 236

opposing the suggestion of another. This however isnot the case, for, where a member of a secret society
or order is concerned, that member was already hypnotized during initiation and it is not his will that guards
the secret," it is the will of another, the will of the Lodge.How many people know that hypnotism is about all
there is to initiation ? Hypnotism and fear. The rest is camouflage. In the event of this statement being doubted, we quote herewith from Freemasonry Universal an article which needs no further comment: 14
" The Stewards prepare the candidate ; the Tyler first, and afterwards in turn the I. G., Deacons and Junior Wardens should inspect the candidate to see that everything is strictly correct. " The preparation symbolises poverty, blindness (or ignorance) and poverty of spirit, — but it may also signify a purification, i.e., that the riches and pleasures which bind one to the material side of life are discarded and the spirit
blinded to their attractions. The baring of the right arm, left breast, left knee and right heel being slipshod, are apparently a reference to the awakening of occult centres in one's being which may only become active when purification of the whole nature has begun. " The very specific character of the preparation points
to real knowledge of the occult physiology of the process of initiation on the part of those who originated the method which has been so faithfully preserved. Certain Forces are sent through the candidate's body during the ceremony, especially at the moment when he is created, received and
constituted an Entered Apprentice Freemason. Certain parts of the Lodge have been very heavily charged with magnetic force especially in order that the Candidate may absorb as much as possible of this force. The first object of
14. Freemasonry Universal vol. V, Part 2, Autumn Equinox,
1929, p. 58.

this curious method of preparation is to expose to this influence those various parts of the body which are especially used in the ceremony. In ancient Egypt, there was another reason for these preparations, for a weak current of physical electricity was sent through the candidate by means of a rod or sword with which he was touched at certain points. It is partly on this account that at this first initiation the candidate
is deprived of all metals since they may very easily interfere with the flow of the currents. " All kinds of nice inspiring symbolical interpretations of the ritual are generally given for the benefit of people who seem to want them, but it is here evident that the candidate, unknown to himself or herself, has acted throughout the ceremony of initiation under the stress of hypnotism. No longer a free agent, the initiate takes the oath under hypnotic force which, has also been used to instil into him the feeling of fear. Fear guards the secret of initiation, fear born under the power of hypnotism to serve henceforth as the controlling agent of the initiators over the initiated. The Right Worshipful Master must be a genuine occultist, as it is up to him to charge (hypnotise) the candidate, for to give this in the words of Freemasonry Universal : " The R. W. M. gives the light, the pure white light of truth and illumination. 15 Illumination, alias Kundalini, alias Serpent power, alias Electro-magnetic force, alias the Sex force, etc. ! Even in our western world any one wishing to study Hatha Yoga can learn to neutralize the action of gravity and go some yards up in the air. This stunt, and the assumption of any size at will, are tricks for which training is essential, and if one works at it hard enough, one will eventually be able to mesmerise people for 15. Ibid., vol. V, Part 3, Winter Solstice, p. 108.

• Can classical music supercede mathematics, in describing physical economics?

• The Musical Soul of Scientific Creativity (MP3 audio file) I think
  they pulverize Wagner in this discussion.

• Facebooked

Facebutt!!!

Privacy is something that's now to be written for the history books. Just wait until hackers find out how to turn on the cameras on the new iphone.

The Door of Initiation

The real meaning underlying the phrase door of initiation is that of obstruction, of something which bars the way, of that which must be opened, or of that which hides or stands between the aspirant and his objective. This is a much more exact significance and one much more useful for the aspirant to grasp. The picture of a man moving along the Path of Evolution until suddenly one day he stands before an open door through which he may joyously pass has no faintest resemblance to the truth;

The soul - in its own nature - is group conscious and has no individual ambitions or individual interests, and is not at all interested in the aims of its personality. It is the soul which is the initiate. Initiation is a process whereby the spiritual man within the personality becomes aware of himself as the soul, with soul powers, soul relationships, and soul purpose. The moment a man realizes this, even in a small measure, it is the group of which he is conscious.

The Rays and the Initiations - Part Two - Introductory Remarks

This thought of group initiation must be remembered, for it will color all that I shall seek to convey to your minds and will hasten the day of your own acceptance.

No one is admitted (through the processes of initiation) into the Ashram of the Christ (the Hierarchy) until such time as he is beginning to think and live in terms of group relationships and group activities. Some well-meaning aspirants interpret the group idea as the instruction to them that they should make an effort to form groups - their own group or groups. This is not the idea as it is presented in the Aquarian Age, so close today; it was the mode of approach during the Piscean Age, now passed. Today, the entire approach is totally different. No man today is expected to stand at the center of his little world and work to become a focal point for a group. His task now is to discover the group of aspirants with which he should affiliate himself and with whom he must travel upon the Path of Initiation - a very different matter and a far more difficult one. He needs to bear in mind the meaning of the following words from the Archives of the Masters, given in question and answer form. The questions are addressed to the neophyte who is getting his first glimpse of group relations leading to group initiation:

The Master: And dost thou see the Door, O Chela in the light?

The neophyte: I see the door and hear a calling voice. What should I do, O Master of my life?

The Master: Go through that Door and waste not time in backward glances at the road just trodden. Go forward into light.

The neophyte: The door is far too narrow, O Master of my life. I fear I cannot pass.

The Master: Go closer to the Door and take the hand in thine of another pilgrim on the way of life. Go closer to the Door; seek not to enter it alone.

The neophyte: I cannot see the door, now that I grasp the hand of the brother on the right and the brother on the left. I seem surrounded by the pilgrims on the way. Alike they seem, their note is one; they seem like unto me, and press around on every side. I cannot see the door.

The Master: Move forward on the Path, O pilgrim in the light, and stand together, hand in hand, before the Door of Light. What seest thou?

The neophyte: The door again appears, and wide it seems, not narrow as before. What was that I saw before? It was not like the door which now confronts this band of brothers as we stand together on the Path.

The Master: The door you saw before was a figment of your mind; a thought-form of your separative creation, something that cuts you off from truth - too narrow for your passing yet full of wrong allure. Only the man who holds his brother's hand can see the Door in truth; only the man, surrounded by the many who are one, can enter by that Door which shuts itself upon the man who seeks to enter it alone."

The report for the most part dodges such controversy, surveying members and the wider public on Masonic themes such as male bonding, charitable work and ritual. It argues that members value the community of Freemasonry and that outsiders are largely ignorant of how the organisation works.

With 250,000 members in England and Wales and six million around the world, they are a minority, albeit one associated with the levers of power. The first US President, George Washington, and another leading American revolutionary, Benjamin Franklin, were Masons. Today a significant proportion of the Royal Household are members, and the Duke of Kent is grand master of the United Grand Lodge of England.

Masonic rules demand that members support each other and keep each others' lawful secrets, which has led to fears of corrupt cliques developing.

It's nothing new, says Observer newspaper columnist Nick Cohen.

Ever since the 1790s Masons have been "whipping boys" for global conspiracy theorists, he argues, adding that after the French revolution, Catholic reactionaries were looking for a scapegoat and the Jews - the usual target - were too downtrodden to be blamed.

Continue reading the main story
Freemasons in popular culture

Freemasons Hall in London's Covent Garden stood in for MI5 headquarters in the BBC spy drama, Spooks (pictured above)

An episode of The Simpsons charted Homer's attempts to join a fictional secret society called the Stonecutters, and the comic disasters that ensued

Fred Flintstone of the eponymous 1960s cartoon belonged to a club with Masonic echoes - the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes Lodge, for men only

Do you have a question about the Freemasons?
It was the Freemasons' turn and the narrative of a secret society plotting in the shadows has never gone away, says Cohen. "You can draw a straight line from the 1790s onwards to the Nazis, Franco, Stalin right up to modern Islamists like Hamas."

The charter of Hamas - the Islamist party governing Gaza - states that the Freemasons are in league with the Jews and the Rotary Club to undermine Palestine.

These theories are "clearly mad", says Cohen, (Cohens got the obligatory PPE from Oxford) but attacking the Masons has become a staple for anyone suspicious of a New World Order.

Distrust remains strong. Last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams controversially named a Freemason as the next Bishop of Ebbsfleet. He had previously said that Freemasonry was "incompatible" with Christianity. In August 2010 it emerged that a new national Masonic lodge had been set up by senior police officers.

Former Home Secretary Jack Straw tried to address the issue of Freemasons working in the criminal justice system. In 1999, new judges were required to publicly disclose whether they were Masons.

But after a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, the requirement was dropped in 2009. Police officers have a voluntary requirement to disclose - but only to their superiors.


An open day at the Masonic lodge in Paris
Researching his book in the 1980s, Short found that "corruption in the police was enhanced and shielded by the Masonic lodges."

It's difficult to know whether anything has changed as the Freemasons do not make their membership list freely available, he says. Brown responds that to do so would breach data protection rules.

Given all the suspicion, it's hard not to feel sorry for Freemasons, says Cohen. (Cohens got the obligatory PPE from Oxford) (:
"Researching them, you do become rather sympathetic. If people want to say Freemason lodges are nests of corruption then fine. But they've got to prove it. It's no good just saying it."