Arguably the most famous Mason in the United States, famous for being a Mason, is Albert Pike.
Certainly there are more famous Masons. George Washington, John Wayne, here in my little corner of the world, ‘Scoop’ Jackson. But these men were famous for their accomplishments outside of Freemasonry. I’d argue that Pike’s fame came from his Masonic involvement.
Pike wrote, and compiled writings on the esoteric side of Freemasonry. Yet even he, at the height of his fame as Grand Commander of the Mother Scottish Rite Jurisdiction of the world presented those esoteric ideas to his fellow Masons with care.
Recall his words in the Preface to Morals & Dogma:
“Every one is entirely free to reject and dissent from whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound. It is only required of him that he shall weigh what is taught, and give it fair hearing and unprejudiced judgment.”
Those of us who hope to teach our fellow Freemasons should keep his words firmly in mind as we endeavor to do so.
Freemasonry is composed of symbolism and allegory. That symbolism and allegory is the only means by which it teaches the powerful lessons that it contains.
Freemasons, and those outside of Freemasonry often talk about the secrets and secrecy of the order. Conspiracy nuts sometimes decide that we hold secrets because we are working to control the world. Never understanding that we seemingly struggle to change light bulbs in our own buildings. Freemasons who don’t truly contemplate Masonry are sometimes heard to say that the only secrets Freemasonry holds are the ritual signs, tokens, and words. Never realizing that real secrets are hidden behind a veil.
The fact of the matter is that Freemasonry holds secrets precisely because its lessons are taught through symbolism and allegory. Symbolism and allegory are defined differently by every man who encounters them. Our very well known Square and Compasses for example will mean something different to me than they do to some other member of my Lodge. That is good, and right, and true, for we can only understand how a particular symbol impacts our life if we have lived our life, for each and every life is unique.
We don’t hold our true secrets because we are trying to keep things from anyone. Our secrets exist as such because what the Common Gavel precisely means to me will precisely mean something else to the Mason sitting next to me. And putting these very subtle yet very profound thoughts into words is beyond us. That is why we teach through symbolism. Because words fail. Some secrets exist because we can’t adequately explain, not because we don’t want to explain.
That is what Brother Pike was trying to say in his Preface to Morals & Dogma. That he was presenting his ideas about the lessons of Freemasonry, but that it was good and proper if other Masons had different ideas about those same lessons.
His example in this case is one of humbleness.
And it is one that we should imitate.
We may have an absolute fascination with some esoteric aspect of Freemasonry. Let’s say, for example, Alchemy. We find Alchemy to be awesome. We see Alchemical symbolism contained within Masonic symbolism. We find writings old and new that discuss parallels between Freemasonry and Alchemy, and we follow modern Alchemists who are also modern Freemasons.
From all of that we adopt Alchemical/Masonic theories first posited by others, and we slowly develop our own theories on the Alchemical/Masonic connection as well.
This is all fine and good. In fact, if we want to learn about Freemasonry, we should understand those movements that had an impact on it, and we should be eager students of that which interests us.
But we must also understand that it might not be of interest to other Freemasons we encounter.
And we must also understand that they might interpret the symbolism for themselves in a very different way than we do. Where we see Alchemy, they might well see something much different.
Finally, we must understand that these differences are OK. Freemasonry is not dogmatic. We are all completely free to interpret it however we like, and indeed we must do so if it is to have a positive impact in our lives.
Because of this, we need to use care, when communicating about what we see in those esoteric aspects of Freemasonry. We should not communicate in such a way as to leave the listener with the impression that we believe what we see in the symbolism as absolute fact that must be accepted by other Masons, lest they be wrong.
We can’t do that because there are no right or wrong answers.
We also can’t do that because Masons who view Freemasonry differently than us won’t want to listen if we communicate in a dogmatic way. I’ve found Freemasons to be almost universally open to discussing the esoteric and philosophic aspects of Freemasonry, when that discussion is an equal sharing of ideas. I’ve also seen plenty of Freemasons lose all interest in any such discussion when ideas that cannot be known to be absolute truth for all presented in that manner anyway.
Likewise, no matter how excited we might be about our particular bit of Masonic study, we can’t turn every Masonic conversation towards those particulars. Other Freemason are going to view Freemasonry much differently than we do, and that’s OK. They will even want to hear how we view it, occasionally. But in exchange, they will want us to listen to how they view it, and they don’t want to have every conversation turned to our particular interest.
That’s why I occasionally post things that could go here on Emeth elsewhere instead. Because I don’t want to overly burden those who read Emeth with too much of my particular esoteric interests. For a burden it can become. In fact, it is a form of proselytizing.
I’ve seen this create conflict between Masons and in Lodges.
But it is an easy conflict to avoid if we remember that everyone sees something different within Masonry, and that is OK. If we remember to present our ideas with a grain of humility, and if we remember that if we want the other guy to listen to our ideas, then we have to be willing to listen to his as well.
Tonight we will have our weekly gathering over Zoom, Rummer & Grapes, for all those who hold a paid subscription to Emeth. Login information will go out in the afternoon, and we’ll begin at 7:30 Pacific. Please join us!
All good points. I think those of us who are interested in the esoteriscm, needing a community, sometimes are overly zealous in epressing our ideas. The joureny through our symbols and deep arcanum is an iterative process, and what we believe one day we may not the next. Unfortunately i feel many authors write wiith zeal the realizations that they experience, as if they are historical fact. These conclusions are often adopted as fact and that essentially becomes dogma. i think that having outlets for brothers oriented toward the esoteric would help a lot, a place of peers who share and debate would normalize the experience and the body of knowledge. Pike spoke of the 'Adepts of the order' , and i feel these men are the conduit of the Light that seperates Freemasonry from other fraternities, and as such we should make a space for these men to evolve in a healthy and productive way. Right now its the Wild West of esoteric thought. I also think there is an emerging new esoteric community inside Freemasonry that may in time restore our connection to the mystical. I saw that at the esoteric conference last month, and in other nacient programs getting started. time will tell.
I always like to stop by and read what you have to say and thinking all the time what I will do when I become the WM of one of my Lodges in 2024 and just how and what I will be doing.
And I hope to do more than just run a Stated Meeting open to close.
One of these days I will try to stop by for the Zoom meetings when I can and you know how once I get started I will most likely be there for all of them.
The last few days were not easy since I missed going to the one Lodge on saturday for Installations because of the wind storm and no power for over 40 hours and at my place that means no heat or water and all the rest........it took over 12 hours to heat the house back up again today.
But now I have the meeting at the other Lodge on wednesday where I become the SW for next year and I plan ahead when I do anything like this.
Thanks as always MW Brother