Glimpses on Masonic Origins

Posted by K.’. Art on December 4, 2009 at 6:14 PM

by Bro. Reggie Estialbo, 32o

Magdalo Lodge #79

Since my initiation into the rows of theSons of Widow only few references could truly satisfy my insatiable thirst forknowledge to trace the roots of Universal Freemasonry until I found to the endthe books by Bro. Charles Leadbeater and the Rev. Herbrand Williams. They havecoinciding assertions that freemasonry indeed has its origins in Ancient Egyptwhich were also supported by Ernesto Word, C.H. Ward, and Sir Arthur Keith, whowere noted Masonic pundits.

One of the authors recounted:

“Two thousand four hundred years after Poseidon Islandsank beneath the Atlantic Ocean in year 9564 B.C., Manu reincarnated as Menesand united the whole of Egypt under one rule, and founded at the same time thefirst dynasty and his great city of Memphis. This empire had already flourishedfor more than a millennium and a half even before the reign of Remises theGreat, who himself the Master of one of the principal Lodges during his time.

The governmentof the country was directed from within the organization of the Mysteries.Egypt was divided into forty-two counties or satraps and the county ruler wasthe Master of principal Lodges of the county. There was a Grand Lodge whichconsisted of all provinces, and of which the Grand master was the Pharaoh. ThisGrand Lodge was convened in Memphis and worked a very different ritual fromthose of the lower grades. It was through this body that the Pharaoh announcedhis decrees; for although his power in the land was almost absolute yet, beforeany serious decision was made, he always took counsel of his governors – andjudging by their decisions, they were a very capable body of men. Lessermatters were settled by an executive committee of this Lodge presided by thePharaoh, important steps were always discussed in the Grand Lodge itself. Thusthe Mysteries entered into political as well as into religious life in the olddays; and politics were much less selfish in consequence.

Asupreme rule existed in the lodges that any brethren who are not in perfectharmony with each other should not put their aprons until they have settledtheir differences. In Ancient Egypt there was an intensity of brotherly loveamong members (that in today’s time is rarely reached). They felt themselvesbound by this sacred obeisance, not only as parts of the same machine, butactually as fellow workers with God Himself. The ritual practiced by the GrandLodge was known as The Building of the Temple of Amen. It was indeed one of themost splendid and powerful sacraments known to man. It was celebrated forthousand of years during which Egypt was a mighty land.

Therewere also dotted all around the country numerous Lodges, which closelyresembled those of modern times. Their work was much more varied that of thethree Grand Lodges and they met more frequently, for to them was entrusted thework of preparing their members for higher things, and giving them a liberaleducation. Their purpose was the same as that of the Mysteries everywhere, toprovide a definite system of culture and education for adults. The Mysterieswere the great public institution, centers of national and religious life, towhich people of the better classes flocked in thousands, and they did theirwork well, for one who had passed through their degrees – a process of manyyears – thereby became what we should now call a highly educated and culturedman or woman, with, in addition to his knowledge about this world, a vividrealization of the future after death, of man’s place in the scheme of things,and therefore of the true object of life and what was really worth doing for.

Evenin the ordinary Lodges every member took part in the work, and the labor ofthose in the columns was regarded as more arduous than that of the officers.Though the latter had special physical actions through which they must go withgreat accuracy, the former has to use their thought-power all the time. Theyhad all to join at certain points in the ritual in sending out streams of thought,more in the nature of will-power than of meditation, the object of the wholeeffort being to erect over and around the Lodge a magnificent and radiantthought-form of perfect proportions, specially constructed to receive andtransmit in the most effective way the Divine Force which was called down bytheir act of devotion.

If anymember’s thought was ineffectual, the mighty temple-like thought form wascorrespondingly defective in one part; but the Master of the Lodge was usuallya clairvoyant priest or priestess who could see where the defect lay, and socould keep his Lodge strictly up to the mark. Thus these Lodges also shared in the same great work of forcedistribution, though on smaller scale than the three Grand Lodges which werespecially entrusted with that task.”

This part of the narration deserves a briefcommentary for the benefit of the Masonic Lodges in our land. There is no doubtthat we have a beautiful opening and closing ceremonies in our lodges; we have initiations, exaltations and other extraordinary routines of square and compassbut most often we immediately close our floorworks, omitting and leaving the important and sacred parts which is the construction of a beautifulthought-form serving as a channel of Divine Energy that helps the world byusing the power of our thoughts to emit mental currents by means of meditations, concentrations and introspections. Owing perhaps to our negligence, our national Lodges suffered at present not only from aninexplicable melancholy but also from total spiritual starvation.

If we are to insist on being freemasons and roused by the desire to continue the works of our ancient brethrens, we should not assist for any reason to omit which in our possession the internal essence of the Egyptian Masonic ceremonies that was undoubtedly the inspiring source ofthe pre-eminence of their old kingdom. Our negligence is perhaps due to our grave lack of understanding on the gravity of the altruistic aims of our order,or our fatal lack of convictions about most of the Masonic ideals in our country. Our understanding was only reduced to mutual aids that give us grounds to visit our sick brothers, bury our deceased brethren, and why we are present at every routine of our stated floor works; after reading the minutes and other correspondences, initiation of new brothers and exaltations of deserving ones,we usually look forward to end our works immediately so we could proceed to our Festive Boards and bacchanalian revelries. In the second end it is possible to attribute itself to our habitual apathy regarding lack of attendance of our members during stated meetings – apathy which stems undoubtedly from the insipidity that the routine works of what our ritual offers and from little importance we render to our Masonic temples.

Let us keep into our minds what ourI llustrious Brother Lead beater said on the Masonic devotions of our Ancient Egyptian brethrens:

“InEgypt nobody bothered the Bro. Secretary with letter of excuse; the brethrenconsidered their membership the most privilege and blessing of their life werealways in the Lodge at the proper time except for serious illness.

Deep reverence was their strongest characteristic. They regarded their temple much of the earnest Christians regard their church, except that their attitude was dictated by scientific knowledge rather than by feeling. They understood that the temple was strongly magnetized, and that to preserve the full strength of magnetism great care must be necessary. To speak of profane matters in the temple would have been considered as sacrilege, as it would mean the introduction of disturbing influences.”

This clairvoyant freemason took in his memory about the cloudy times of mosaic epoch whose learning had something todo with the Egyptian Mysteries. In Ancient Egypt, the Mystery teaching was closely guarded and only an extreme need and under special conditions that a foreigner was admitted into them. One was Moses which the biblical history says, “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.”  He passed on his knowledge to the Jewish sacerdotal class, and thus it survived in a more or less defective form till the reign of David and Solomon, who constructed his temple according to Masonic lines and made it a center of Masonic symbolism and work. No doubt that Solomon built his temple to demonstrate and preserve for his people a system of measurement which contained all kinds of geodetic and astronomical facts as enshrined in the measurement of the Great Pyramid. He was not so successful because much of the tradition had been lost, or perhaps to say it more exactly that although the external Ceremonies and the traditional forms had survived,their true meaning were no longer known. Until then the initiates of the Jewish Mysteries had their attention directed to the House of Light in Egypt; but Solomon resolved to keep their thoughts and temperaments strictly focused to the temple which he himself constructed. Instead of speaking about the symbolic death and resurrection of Osiris, he concocted a drama that constitute the present Masonic tradition of which is the legend of Hiram Abiff, replacing the original Egyptian words with Hebrew, although without altering in some cases the original meaning.

It should be remembered that having acted upon this fate, Solomon was only bringing the practice of his people in line with the surrounding nations. There were many lines of mystery traditions, and though the Hebrews had carried with them across the desert of Sinai much of the Egyptian traditions, the Syrians and others were preserving the tradition ofthe descent of Tamuz or Adonis instead of the dismemberment of Osiris.

Through the conduit of the Jews, freemasonry came principally to Europe, and it seems that the soldiers from the army of Vespasian and Titus introduced it to Rome who besieged Jerusalem thus comprising the traditions and ceremonies of the Roman Collegia. It was then handed on to the Comacine Masters and other secret societies during the dangerous times of Middle Ages, until the persecution abated it appeared more openly during the renaissance. In 1717, its several fragments met together to form the Grand Lodge of England as it survives today in our time.

A similar tradition of Chaldean sources had given rise to Masonry as practiced in continental Europe. And it seems the Knight Templars brought another tradition upon their return from the crusades.The history of freemasonry is indeed interesting but the secret character of this society made it almost impossible for us from verifying it true origins by means of any documents that are now available which is just causing more confusions because of several contradictions among various accounts.

Much of the ancient wisdom has been allowed to fall into oblivion and some of the true secrets were lost to the great body of the brethrens. But these true secrets have been preserved unscathed by thehierophants of the Great White Brotherhood, who always recompense the pursuits of the real fervent masons.

“TheHead of the Seventh Ray upon the validity of all rites and degrees depend soften selects pupils from among the brethren of Masonic Order, and prepares those who have fitted themselves in the lower mysteries of Masonry for the true Mysteries of the Great White Lodge of which our Masonic initiations are but faint reflections, for Masonry has ever been one of the gates through which the White Lodge might be reached.”

Upon reviewing the historical accounts of the origins of Masonry and being an avid student of the mystical aspect of our fraternity, one realizes that freemasonry is indeed a compendium of ancient wisdoms handed down to generations that centers on our perfection thru Enlightenment and Self-Gnosis. No doubt that we are lineal heirs to a valuable philosophical initiatory system fully charged with universal truths existing since the mist of antiquity which became a beneficial guiding influence on the evolution of humanity. Our rituals are replete with higher teachings and spiritual principles albeit shrouded by symbolisms, dramas and allegories which we could use as working tools to exhume our self from the morass of our brutish state and reinstate it to the effulgent radiance  of our Highest Self.Freemasonry provides a system of morality and spirituality which is universal and in harmony with the cosmic laws and principles that can be lived out in every moment of our days, aiding man to perfect his conducts, guiding him in his search for the sacred, assisting him to tread the road leading back to his pristine origin, his DIVINITY.

However, it is observed that most of the brethrens especially in this part of our land simply ignored or failed to acknowledge our ancient heritage and see beyond the deeper aspects of our fraternity. For most of us, our order simply becomes a social association of men bounded by common aspirations and centralized interest. And there is no doubt that the state of Freemasonry here under the cosmic point of view is entirely abnormal. The question of Masonic sovereignty and jurisdiction alrights hitherto still remains a thorny issue. Today, our jurisdiction which is the Gran Logia Nacional de Filipinas under the auspices of Supremo Consejo del grado 33 para Filipinas, first in the Far East, a progeny of a Spanish Grand Orient following the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rites tradition, is continually maligned and pilloried since its inception and being labelled with unsavoury appellations as “clandestine”,“fake” and “irregular” Masonic body.  But the fact that we could boldly claim that the precursors of Freemasonry in the Philippines were initiated in the temples of Gran Oriente Español, from which our jurisdiction got its lineage, under the incumbency of the late Gran Master Miguel Morayta. And all the Freemasons who took active part during the Spanish and American Revolutions were allmasons under the same obedience. We, therefore, cannot afford to simply disappear into oblivion. The raison d’être of our continued existence is indeed o carry on and preserve the Masonic legacies in our land, as espoused in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite with LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY as its famous battle cry, that gave our brother heroes and compatriots the impetus not only to fight and shed their bloods for the emancipation of our motherland from the yoke of foreign tyranny and imperialism but also to elevate the consciousness of the Filipinos to higher purpose of life leading ultimately to their Enlightenment.

According to our Most Illustrious brother, Timeteo Paez on his basis in founding our Supreme Council,  “The reason for which we have proclaimed our Masonic independence is very simple.The degree of capacity of an individual is measured by his culture and education and it is the same with institutions. We believe that the time for the emancipation of Philippines Masonry has come, not only because of circumstances demand it, because it has attained a state of development where it must stand by itself, “

It is sad to think that while our respective jurisdictions agreeing fundamentally with the aims of freemasonry but there naturally exists remoteness of wills and intentions that induces occasional distrust, diffidence and lack of goodwill that, in most cases, led to repugnance among persons belonging to same ideals thus obstructing the way of the law of attraction and cohesion that must preside at the destiny of such a sacred and universally altruistic institution as Freemasonry. The present condition of our fraternity in this land could be compared to an old light house where the brethrens are busily attending to improve its surroundings but they have forgotten to illuminate the light which the watchtower uses to serve its original purpose.

“Masonry which is Morality and Philosophy must not cease to do its duty. We never know at what moment success awaits our effort – generally when most unexpected – nor with what effect our efforts are or are not to be attended. Succeed or fail, Masonry must not bow to error, or succumb under discouragement. There were at Rome a few Carthaginian soldiers taken prisoners, who refused to bow to Flaminius. Masons should posses an equal greatness of soul. Masonry should be an energy, finding its aim and effecting the amelioration of mankind… Masonry should not a mere watch-Tower,built upon mystery from which to gaze at ease upon the world, with no other result than to be a convenience for the curios,” says Pike.

Only if we could pierce what is really behind the veil of our mysteries then perhaps we could understand that the ongoing questions and debates regarding Masonic regularity is really a non-issue.The metes and bounds of its sovereignty are not simply confined to the physical walls of any regular lodges. For its span penetrates the whole universe and the realm of infiniteness, and the revealing of its revered mysteries and secrets are truly bestowed upon by the arahants ofthe higher spheres to the deepest innerness of every indefatigable soul who is genuinely seeking after LIGHT and TRUTH.

Nevertheless, a silent voice is now slowlyheard waking up a movement that breaks the bestial points of our triune templestending to unify our wills under the nexus of a common brotherhood. Oh, if thissublime intention should turn into reality, the present generation of FilipinoMasons shall be writing the most shining pages of the Golden Age of Masonic historyin the Far East!

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