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Freemasonry

group of fraternal organizations

Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. Freemasonry now has a membership estimated at around six million world wide following a system of morality found in allegory and illustrated by symbols.

Initiation of an apprentice Freemason around 1800. This engraving is based on that of Gabanon on the same subject dated 1745.
The grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race. ~ George Washington
The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucius, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian Pyramids — always by a Freemason. ~ Ambrose Bierce

Quotes

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God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, 'This is my Country.' ~ Benjamin Franklin
 
As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes... ~ Benjamin Franklin
 
Masonry propagates no creed except its own most simple and Sublime One; that universal religion, taught by Nature and by Reason. It reiterates the precepts of morality of all religions... It extracts the good and not the evil, the truth, and not the error, from all creeds... ~ Morals...of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)
 
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. ~ Benjamin Franklin
 
What was all this strange masquerade about? Gradually the picture grew clearer. ~ Leon Trotsky
 
Even those who are obliged to change the substance of their opinions force them into ancient moulds. ~ Leon Trotsky
 
Yates thinks Bruno may have had a role in the invention of either Rosicrucianism or Freemasonry or both. ~ Robert Anton Wilson
 
The major offense of Masonry to orthodox churches is that it, like our First Amendment, encourages equal tolerance for all religions, and this tends, somewhat, to lessen dogmatic allegiance to any one religion. ~ Robert Anton Wilson
  • The spirit of Freemasonry is the spirit of Judaism in its most fundamental beliefs; it is its ideas, its language, it is mostly its organization, the hopes which enlighten and support Israel. It’s crowning will be that wonderful prayer house of which Jerusalem will be the triumphal centre and symbol.
  • Freemasonry, in its development, in its growing power at first and later in its decadence, represented in a way the development, power, and moral and intellectual decadence of the bourgeoisie. Today, fallen to the sad position of a senile old intriguer, it is a useless, sometimes malevolent and always ridiculous nullity, whereas, before 1830 and especially before 1793, having gathered together at its core, with very few exceptions, all the minds of the elite, the most ardent hearts, the proudest spirits, the most audacious personalities, it had constituted an active powerful, and truly beneficial institution. It was the energetic incarnation and implementation of the humanitarian ideal of the eighteenth century. All those great principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity, of reason and human justice, elaborated theoretically at first by the philosophy of that century, became in the hands of the Freemasons practical dogmas and the foundations of a new moral and political program, the soul of a gigantic enterprise of demolition and reconstruction. In that epoch, Freemasonry was nothing less than the universal conspiracy of the revolutionary bourgeoisie against the feudal monarchical and divine tyranny. It was the International of the bourgeoisie.
    • Mikhail Bakunin, "Letter to the Comrades of the International Workingmen's Association of Locle and Cheau-de-Fonds", (1869)
  • Freemasons, n. An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II, among working artisans of London, has been joined successively by the dead of past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embraces all the generations of man on the hither side of Adam and is drumming up distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants of Chaos and Formless Void. The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucius, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian Pyramids — always by a Freemason.
  • Th' Almighty said, 'Let there be light,' Effulgent rays appearing. Dispell'd the gloom, the glory bright To this new world was cheering; But unto Masonry alone, Another light, so clear and bright, In mystic rays then shone; From east to west it spread so fast, That, Faith and Hope unfurl'd, We hail with joy sweet Charity, The darling of the world.
    Then while the toast goes round, Then mirth and glee about, Let's be happy to a man; We'll laugh a little, we'll drink a little, We'll work a little, and play a little.
    • J. Bisset, "Song XXX" in William Preston's Illustrations of Masonry (1804)
  • We cannot help but greet socialism (Marxism – Communism) as an excellent comrade of Freemasonry for ennobling mankind, for helping to further human welfare. Socialism and Freemasonry, together with Communism are sprung from the same source.
  • The technical language, symbolism, and rites of freemasonry are full of Jewish ideas and of terms (...). In the Scottish Rite the dates of all official documents are given according to the Hebrew months and Jewish era, and use is made of the older form (Samaritan or Phenician) of the Hebrew alphabet.
  • The truth is, the Jesuits of Rome have perfected Freemasonry to be their most magnificent and effective tool, accomplishing their purposes among Protestants.
    • John Daniel, in The Grand Design Exposed (1999), p. 302.
  • The science of the sexual magic is the key to the development and the underlying secret of all Masonic symbols.…[I]t is certain that the sexual question has become the most burning question of our time.
  • Each Lodge is and must be a symbol of the Jewish Temple: each Master in the chair a representative of the Jewish king; and every Mason a personation of the Jewish workman.
  • Masonry is based on Judaism. Eliminate the teachings of Judaism from the Masonic ritual and what is left?
  • The most important duty of the Freemason must be to glorify the Jewish Race, which has preserved the unchanged divine standard of wisdom. You must rely upon the Jewish race to dissolve all frontiers.
  • Freemasonry is founded on the ancient law of Israel. Israel has given birth to the moral beauty which forms the basis of Freemasonry.
  • Why had the merchants, artists, bankers, officials, and lawyers, from the first quarter of the seventeenth century on, begun to call themselves masons and tried to recreate the ritual of the medieval guilds? What was all this strange masquerade about? Gradually the picture grew clearer. The old guild was more than a producing organization; it regulated the ethics and mode of life of its members as well. It completely embraced the life of the urban population, especially the guilds of semi-artisans and semi-artists of the building trades. The break-up of the guild system brought a moral crisis in a society which had barely emerged from medieval. The new morality was taking shape much more slowly than the old was being cut down. Hence, the attempt, so common in history, to preserve a form of moral discipline when its social foundations, which in this instance were those of the industrial guilds, had long since been undermined by the processes of history. Active masonry became theoretical masonry. But the old moral ways of living, which men were trying to keep just for the sake of keeping them, acquired a new meaning. In certain branches of freemasonry, elements of an obvious reactionary feudalism were prominent, as in the Scottish system.
  • In the eighteenth century, freemasonry became expressive of a militant policy of enlightenment, as in the case of the Illuminati, who were the forerunners of revolution; on its left, it culminated in the Carbonari. Freemasons counted among their members both Louis XVI and the Dr. Guillotin who invented the guillotine. In southern Germany, freemasonry assumed an openly revolutionary character, whereas at the court of Catherine the Great it was a masquerade reflecting the aristocratic and bureaucratic hierarchy. A freemason Novikov was exiled to Siberia by a freemason empress.
    Although in our day of cheap and ready-made clothing hardly anybody is still wearing his grandfather’s surtout, in the world of ideas the surtout and the crinoline are still in fashion. Ideas are handed down from generation to generation, although, like grandmother’s pillows and covers, they reek of staleness. Even those who are obliged to change the substance of their opinions force them into ancient moulds.
  • The revolution in industry has been much more far-reaching than it has in ideas, where piecework is preferred to new structures. That is why the French parliamentarians of the petty bourgeoisie could find no better way of creating moral ties to hold the people together against the disruptiveness of modern relations than to put on white aprons and arm themselves with a pair of compasses or a plumbline. They were really thinking less of erecting a new building than of finding their way back into the old one of parliament or ministry.
  • To enlarge the sphere of social happiness is worthy of the benevolent design of a Masonic institution; and it is most fervently to be wished, that the conduct of every member of the fraternity, as well as those publications, that discover the principles which actuate them, may tend to convince mankind that the grand object of Masonry is to promote the happiness of the human race.
    • George Washington, in a letter to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (January 1793), published in The Writings Of George Washington (1835) by Jared Sparks, p. 201.
  • It was not my intention to doubt that, the Doctrines of the Illuminati, and principles of Jacobinism had not spread in the United States. On the contrary, no one is more truly satisfied of this fact than I am. The idea that I meant to convey, was, that I did not believe that the Lodges of Free Masons in this Country had, as Societies, endeavoured to propagate the diabolical tenets of the first, or pernicious principles of the latter (if they are susceptible of seperation). That Individuals of them may have done it, or that the founder, or instrument employed to found, the Democratic Societies in the United States, may have had these objects; and actually had a seperation of the People from their Government in view, is too evident to be questioned.
  • Most historians merely mention that Bruno was charged with the heresy of teaching Copernican astronomy, but Frances Yates, a historian who specialized in the occultt aspects of the scientific revolution, points out that Bruno was charged with 18 heresies and crimes, including the practice of sorcery and organizing secret societies to oppose the Vatican. Yates thinks Bruno may have had a role in the invention of either Rosicrucianism or Freemasonry or both.
    Bruno's teachings combined the new science of his time with traditional Cabalistic mysticism. He believed in a universe of infinite space with infinite planets, and in a kind of dualistic pantheism, in which the divine is incarnate in every part but always in conflicting forms that both oppose and support each other. Whatever his link with occult secret societies, he influenced Hegel, Marx, theosophy, James Joyce, Timothy Leary, Discordianism, and Dr. Wilhelm Reich.
    • Robert Anton Wilson, in Everything Is Under Control : Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-Ups (1998), p. 95.
  • Although Masonry is often denounced as either a political or religious "conspiracy", Freemasons are forbidden to discuss either politics or religion within the lodge. Gary Dryfoos of the Massachusetts Institute of technology, who maintains the best Masonic site on the web, always stresses these points and also offers personal testimony that after many years as a Mason, including high ranks, he has not yet been asked to engage in pagan or Satanic rituals or plot for any reason for or against any political party. The more rabid anti-Masons, of course, dismiss such testimony as flat lies.
    The enemies of Masonry, who are usually Roman Catholics or Fundamentalist Protestants, insist that the rites of the order contain "pagan" elements, e.g., the Yule festival, the Spring Solstice festival, the dead-and-resurrected martyr (Jesus, allegedly historical, to Christians; Hiram, admittedly allegorical, to Masons).     All these and many other elements in Christianity and Masonry have a long prehistory in paganism, as documented in the 12 volumes of Sir James George Frazer's Golden Bough.
    The major offense of Masonry to orthodox churches is that it, like our First Amendment, encourages equal tolerance for all religions, and this tends, somewhat, to lessen dogmatic allegiance to any one religion. Those who insist you must accept their dogma fervently and renounce all others as devilish errors, correctly see this Masonic tendency as inimitable [sic] — to their faith.
    • Robert Anton Wilson, in Everything Is Under Control : Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-Ups (1998),Freemasonry, p. 187; in the final sentence here, inimitable perhaps should be "inimicable".

Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Albert Pike (1871)

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Full text online, multiple formats (also published as The Magnum Opus or the Great Work of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry)
  • Though Masonry neither usurps the place of, nor apes religion, prayer is an essential part of our ceremonies. It is the aspiration of the soul toward the Absolute and Infinite Intelligence, which is the One Supreme Deity, most feebly and misunderstandingly characterized as an "architect." Certain faculties of man are directed toward the Unknown — thought, meditation, prayer. The unknown is an ocean, of which conscience is the compass. Thought, meditation, prayer, are the great mysterious pointings of the needle. It is a spiritual magnetism that thus connects the human soul with the Deity. These majestic irradiations of the soul pierce through the shadow toward the light.
    It is but a shallow scoff to say that prayer is absurd, because it is not possible for us, by means of it, to persuade God to change His plans. He produces foreknown and foreintended effects, by the instrumentality of the forces of nature, all of which are His forces. Our own are part of these. Our free agency and our will are forces. We do not absurdly cease to make efforts to attain wealth or happiness, prolong life, and continue health, because we cannot by any effort change what is predestined. If the effort also is predestined, it is not the less our effort, made of our free will.
    • Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1.
  • The Bible is an indispensable part of the furniture of a Christian Lodge, only because it is the sacred book of the Christian religion. The Hebrew Pentateuch in a Hebrew Lodge, and the Koran in a Mohammedan one, belong on the Altar; and one of these, and the Square and Compass, properly understood, are the Great Lights by which a Mason must walk and work.
    The obligation of the candidate is always to be taken on the sacred book or books of his religion, that he may deem it more solemn and binding; and therefore it was that you were asked of what religion you were. We have no other concern with your religious creed.
    • Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1.
  • A Freemason, therefore, should be a man of honor and of conscience, preferring his duty to everything beside, even to his life; independent in his opinions, and of good morals, submissive to the laws, devoted to humanity, to his country, to his family; kind and indulgent to his brethren, friend of all virtuous men, and ready to assist his fellows by all means in his power. (p. 113)
    • p. 113
  • It is not the mission of Masonry to engage in plots and conspiracies against the civil government. It is not the fanatical propagandist of any creed or theory; nor does it proclaim itself the enemy of kings. It is the apostle of liberty, equality, and fraternity; but it is no more the high-priest of republicanism than of constitutional monarchy.
    • p. 153
  • Masonry teaches that all power is delegated for the good, and not for the injury of the People; and that, when it is perverted from the original purpose, the compact is broken, and the right ought to be resumed; that resistance to power usurped is not merely a duty which man owes to himself and to his neighbor, but a duty which he owes to his God, in asserting and maintaining the rank which He gave him in the creation.
    • p. 155
  • Masonry is not a religion. He who makes of it a religious belief, falsifies and denaturalizes it.
    • p. 161
  • No man, it holds, has any right in any way to interfere with the religious belief of another. To that great Judge, Masonry refers the matter; and opening wide its portals, it invites to enter there and live in peace and harmony, the Protestant, the Catholic, the Jew, the Moslem; every man who will lead a truly virtuous and moral life, love his brethren, minister to the sick and distressed, and believe in the One, All-Powerful, All-Wise, everywhere-Present God, Architect, Creator and Preserver of all things....
    • p. 167
  • The great distinguishing characteristic of a Mason is sympathy with his kind. He recognizes in the human race one great family, all connected with himself by those invisible links, and that mighty net-work of circumstance, forged and woven by God.
    • Ch. XI : Sublime Elect of the Twelve, or Prince Ameth, p. 176.
  • Let the Mason never forget that life and the world are what we make them by our social character; by our adaptation, or want of adaptation to the social conditions, relationships, and pursuits of the world. To the selfish, the cold, and the insensible, to the haughty and presuming, to the proud, who demand more than they are likely to receive, to the jealous, ever afraid they shall not receive enough, to those who are unreasonably sensitive about the good or ill opinions of others, to all violators of the social laws, the rude, the violent, the dishonest, and the sensual, — to all these, the social condition, from its very nature, will present annoyances, disappointments, and pains, appropriate to their several characters. The benevolent affections will not revolve around selfishness ; the cold-hearted must expect to meet coldness; the proud, haughtiness; the passionate, anger; and the violent, rudenesa Those who forget the rights of others, must not be surprised if their own are forgotten; and those who stoop to the lowest embraces of sense must not wonder, if others are not concerned to find their prostrate honor, and lift it up to the remembrance and respect of the world.
    • Ch. XXII : Grand Master Architect, p. 193.
  • The great distinguishing characteristic of a Mason is a sympathy with his kind, He recognizes in the human race one great family, all connected with himself by those invisible links, and that mighty network of circumstance, forged and woven by God. (p. 176)
    • p.213
  • The practical object of Masonry is the physical and moral amelioration and the intellectual and spiritual improvement of individuals and society.
    • p.218
  • Masonry represents the Good Principle and constantly wars against the evil one,... at everlasting and deadly feud with the demons of ignorance, brutality, baseness, falsehood, slavishness of soul, intolerance, superstition, tyranny, meanness, the insolence of wealth, and bigotry.
    • p.221
  • No one Mason has the right to measure for another, within the walls of a Masonic Temple, the degree of veneration which he shall feel for any Reformer or the Founder of any Religion. We teach a belief in no particular creed, as we teach unbelief in none.
    • p.308
  • The true Mason labors for the benefit of those that are to come after him, and for the advancement and improvement of his race. That is a poor ambition which contents itself within the limits of a single life. All men who deserve to live, desire to survive their funerals, and to live afterward in the good that they have done mankind, rather than in the fading characters written in men's memories. Most men desire to leave some work behind them that may outlast their own day and brief generation. That is an instinctive impulse, given by God, and often found in the rudest human heart; the surest proof of the soul's immortality, and of the fundamental difference between man and the wisest brutes. To plant the trees that, after we are dead, shall shelter our children, is as natural as to love the shade of those our fathers planted.
    • Ch. XIX : Grand Pontiff, p. 312.
  • The desire to do something that shall benefit the world, when neither praise nor obloquy will reach us where we sleep soundly in the grave, is the noblest ambition entertained by man.
    It is the ambition of a true and genuine Mason. Knowing the slow processes by which the Deity brings about great results, he does not expect to reap as well as sow, in a single lifetime. It is the inflexible fate and noblest destiny, with rare exceptions, of the great and good, to work, and let others reap the harvest of their labors.
    • Ch. XIX : Grand Pontiff, p. 316.
  • If not for slander and persecution, the Mason who would benefit his race must look for apathy and cold indifference in those whose good he seeks, in those who ought to seek the good of others. Except when the sluggish depths of the Human Mind are broken up and tossed as with a storm, when at the appointed time a great Reformer comes, and a new Faith springs up and grows with supernatural energy, the progress of Truth is slower than the growth of oaks; and he who plants need not expect to gather. The Redeemer, at His death, had twelve disciples, and one betrayed and one deserted and denied Him. It is enough for us to know that the fruit will come in its due season. When, or who shall gather it, it does not in the least concern us to know. It is our business to plant the seed. It is God's right to give the fruit to whom He pleases; and if not to us, then is our action by so much the more noble.
    • Ch. XIX : Grand Pontiff, p. 316.
  • To sow, that others may reap; to work and plant for those that are to occupy the earth when we are dead; to project our influences far into the future, and live beyond our time; to rule as the Kings of Thought, over men who are yet unborn; to bless with the glorious gifts of Truth and Light and Liberty those who will neither know the name of the giver, nor care in what grave his unregarded ashes repose, is the true office of a Mason and the proudest destiny of a man.
    • Ch. XIX : Grand Pontiff, p. 317
  • Thus Masonry disbelieves no truth, and teaches unbelief in no creed, except so far as such creed may lower its lofty estimate of the Diety, degrade Him to the level of the passions of humanity, deny the high destiny of man, impugn the goodness and benevolence of the Supreme God, strike at those great columns of Masonry, Faith, Hope, and Charity, or inculcate immorality, and disregard of the active duties of the Order.
    • p.525
  • Masonry propagates no creed except its own most simple and Sublime One; that universal religion, taught by Nature and by Reason. It reiterates the precepts of morality of all religions. It venerates the character and commends the teachings of the great and good of all ages and of all countries. It extracts the good and not the evil, the truth, and not the error, from all creeds; and acknowledges that there is much that is good and true in all.
    • p.718

Masonic Prayers

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  • Merciful and Eternal God: We thank Thee for the peace and serenity that comes to us in times of grief when we stop and realize that Thou art ever in our presence. We pray Thee, Our Father, to teach us day by day that we are but pilgrims and strangers upon this earth, that here we have no continuing city. As the ties of family are broken one by one and kindred and friends pass from our sight, give us the grace to place our affections more and more upon the things that are spiritual and enduring now and forever more. Amen.
    • Handbook for Masonic Memorial Services, Grand Lodge Of Iowa A.F. & A.M. (2008)
  • The Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make His face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us; the Lord lift up His countenance upon us, and give us peace, both now and forever more. Amen.
    • Handbook for Masonic Memorial Services, Grand Lodge Of Iowa A.F. & A.M. (2008)
  • Great Artificer of the Universe, teach us how to use the three great lights in Masonry to guide us in discharging our duty to You, our neighbor, and to ourselves. Show us how to make use of the Holy Bible in learning and doing out duty to You, O God. Assist us in squaring our actions through virtuous living in all our relations with our fellow human beings. Enable us to use the compasses in marking out our duty to self. Guide us with the light from these three helps as we conduct our business in this assembly. All this we pray for Your Name's sake. Amen. (Delivered at the opening of the 15 March 1986 Stated Meeting at Weatherford, Texas)
  • Living God, remind us as we prepare to depart just who we are as Masons. We are supposed to be men who would rather yield up our lives than forfeit our integrity. We are supposed to be men who believe that selfishness must die in us if we are truly to live. We are supposed to be men who believe that the soul is immortal, and that this has consequences for our lives on this earth right now. Keep us ever mindful of those teachings from the Sublime Degree and enable us to put them into practice in our daily living. Amen. (Closing prayer given during the 16 January 1988 Meeting at Weatherford, Texas)
  • Gracious and Great God Almighty, the Masonic cornerstone lies in the northeast corner, between the north, the place of darkness, and the east, the place of light. Thus it reminds us that we are ever to be progressing from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge. Help us in the next twelve months to enable those of our fraternity on whose lives the shadow of our influence may fall to know more about Freemasonry. Guide the leadership we will elect today so that nothing may interrupt the light which flows from the Great Light in Masonry upon the Holy Altar to the station of the Master in the East. We pray all of this for Your name's sake, Amen. (Opening prayer at the 18 March 1989 Stated Meeting at Waco, Texas)
  • May the Great Architect of the Universe bless His gifts to our use, and whilst partaking of His benefits, make us ever mindful of the needs of others. So mote it be.
    • Masonic Prayers: Samples, by Rev. Gregory A. Megill (24 March 2014)
  • We thank Thee, Architect Above,
    For good food and brotherly love.
    Relief for all in need we pray,
    Thy Truth, our Aid from day to day.
    • Masonic Prayers: Samples, by Rev. Gregory A. Megill (24 March 2014)
  • We thank Thee, Father, for the happy fellowship of our Fraternity, and for all Thy bounties spread before us. Grant that through these blessings we may be strengthened and refreshed for Thy service.
    • Masonic Prayers: Samples, by Rev. Gregory A. Megill (24 March 2014)

Quotes about

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  • Blessings. Under this heading should come the various types of blessings such as are given in the Church, in Freemasonry, and by the pupils of our Masters.... The second type of blessing is that which is uttered by an official appointed for the purpose, through whom power flows from some higher source...
  • An occult fraternity, which has endured from very ancient times, having a hierarchy of officers, secret signs, and passwords, and a peculiar method of instruction in science, religion, and philosophy. . . . If we may believe those who, at the present time, profess to belong to it, the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, the art of invisibility, and the power of communication directly with the ultramundane life, are parts of the inheritance they possess. The writer has met with only three persons who maintained the actual existence of this body of religious philosophers, and who hinted that they themselves were actually members. There was no reason to doubt the good faith of these individuals -- apparently unknown to each other, and men of moderate competence, blameless lives, austere manners, and almost ascetic in their habits. They all appeared to be men of forty to forty-five years of age, and evidently of vast erudition . . . their knowledge of languages not to be doubted. . . . They never remained long in any one country, but passed away without creating notice.
  • Though Masonry neither usurps the place of, nor apes religion, prayer is an essential part of our ceremonies. It is the aspiration of the soul toward the Absolute and Infinite Intelligence, which is the One Supreme Deity, most feebly and misunderstandingly characterized as an "architect." Certain faculties of man are directed toward the Unknown — thought, meditation, prayer. The unknown is an ocean, of which conscience is the compass. Thought, meditation, prayer, are the great mysterious pointings of the needle. It is a spiritual magnetism that thus connects the human soul with the Deity. These majestic irradiations of the soul pierce through the shadow toward the light. p. 1.
  • A Freemason, therefore, should be a man of honor and of conscience, preferring his duty to everything beside, even to his life; independent in his opinions, and of good morals, submissive to the laws, devoted to humanity, to his country, to his family; kind and indulgent to his brethren, friend of all virtuous men, and ready to assist his fellows by all means in his power. (p. 113) The great distinguishing characteristic of a Mason is a sympathy with his kind, He recognizes in the human race one great family, all connected with himself by those invisible links, and that mighty network of circumstance, forged and woven by God. (p. 176) The practical object of Masonry is the physical and moral amelioration and the intellectual and spiritual improvement of individuals and society. (p.218) Masonry represents the Good Principle and constantly wars against the evil one,... at everlasting and deadly feud with the demons of ignorance, brutality, baseness, falsehood, slavishness of soul, intolerance, superstition, tyranny, meanness, the insolence of wealth, and bigotry. (p.221) The true Mason labors for the benefit of those that are to come after him.. To plant the trees that, after we are dead, shall shelter our children, is as natural as to love the shade of those our fathers planted. p. 312.
  • The desire to do something that shall benefit the world, when neither praise nor obloquy will reach us where we sleep soundly in the grave, is the noblest ambition entertained by man. It is the ambition of a true and genuine Mason. Knowing the slow processes by which the Deity brings about great results, he does not expect to reap as well as sow, in a single lifetime. It is the inflexible fate and noblest destiny, with rare exceptions, of the great and good, to work, and let others reap the harvest of their labors. (p. 316) Masonry propagates no creed except its own most simple and Sublime One; that universal religion, taught by Nature and by Reason. It reiterates the precepts of morality of all religions. It venerates the character and commends the teachings of the great and good of all ages and of all countries. It extracts the good and not the evil, the truth, and not the error, from all creeds; and acknowledges that there is much that is good and true in all. (p.718)
  • As regards the lodges of Freemasons. It is quite certain that among them are many that are purely political and very harmful. In some countries, with the rarest exceptions, Masonry has degenerated into buffoonery. Such a degeneration of originally highly moral and beautiful inceptions is very tragic, and the Great Teachers feel inexpressible grief because of it. Bear in mind also that today there is an unprecedented amount of the most terrible black magic and sorcery, and this is almost everywhere. Often, not bad but ignorant people are caught in this black trap. (17 February 1934)
  • The Druids were the Masons of very ancient times... At the head of the Druids was a woman, who bore the title of Mother of the Druids.


Misattributed

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  • The masonic Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the higher degrees, maintained in the Purity of the Luciferian doctrine.… The true and pure philosophic religion is the belief in Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil.
    • The 1894 anti-Masonic text La Femme et l'enfant dans la franc-maçonnerie universelle attributed this passage to Freemason Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma (1871). The publicly available text of that work contradicts it and writer Léo Taxil subsequently admitted fabricating it as part of a hoax against both Freemasonry and the Catholic Church.

See also

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