Friday, May 30, 2008
"ALBERT PIKE, MYSTIC"
The Masonic Trowel website is large and contains several articles. One with the above title was written by Bro. Henry R. Evans, and appeared in The Master Mason in May of 1925. Comments made there are interesting because they indicate a relationship between Judaism, Freemasonry, and Rosicrucianism. Much of the article is devoted to the Cabala. Evans writes:
It is well known to all students of Masonry that the degrees of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States are, more or less, tinctured with the occult doctrines of Jewish Cabala and the Hermetic and Rosicrucian teachings, to say nothing of the principles of Neo-Platonism and other mystical schools of philosophy....General Albert Pike...was a deep student of the Cabala...
He asserted that the Square and Compasses, the Oblong Square, the Three Grand Masters, the idea embodied in the Substitute Word, the Double- Headed Eagle of the Scottish Rite, the Sun, Moon, and Master of the Lodge were all derived from Hermetic and Rosicrucian sources. He wrote as follows :
I cannot conceive of anything that could have induced Ashmole, Mainwaring, and other men of their class to unite themselves with a lodge of working Masons, except this - that as the Alchemists, Hermeticists, and Rosicrucians had no association of [their] own in England or Scotland, they joined the Masonic lodges in order to meet one another without being suspected, and I am convinced that it was the men who inherited their doctrine who brought their symbols into Masonry, but kept the Hermetic meanings to themselves....
There are over thirty-eight Masonic manuscripts by Albert Pike in the library of the Supreme Council under lock and key, of course, and highly prized....
It is interesting to note that Pike was Chief Adept and Archimagus of the Societas Rosicruciana of America, and wrote a ritual for the Order....
The Cabala - the symbols, sacred words and esoteric doctrine - which has so influenced the degrees of the Scottish Rite, represents the theosophy of the Jews. "It contains," says Joseph Jacobs, in his Jewish Contributions to Civilization, "in itself all the mystic elements of the cultures through which Judaism has passed - the ectasies of the Bible theophanes, the Neo-Platonism of Alexandria, and the Sufism of the Arabs."...
When Jerusalem was captured by Titus, the son of Vespasian, and the second temple was destroyed, many of the inhabitants of the Holy City fled from the victorious Romans and sought refuge in the neighboring mountains. Among them was the Rabbi Simon Ben Jochai, who had been condemned to death by the Roman general. According to tradition, he lived for twelve years in a cave, hermit-like, where he was visited by a faithful band of disciples. He had constant ecstatic visions like all mystics. He communicated the occult doctrines, orally transmitted from the Patriarchs of olden times, to his son Rabbi Eliezer, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba, who put them into writing for the first time. From this material was subsequently built up the famous Zohar, or splendor. This book, together with the Sepher Jetzirah and the Commentary of the Ten Sephiroth, constitutes the body and doctrine of the Cabalistic teachings.
The lecture on the "Knight of the Sun, or Prince Adept" (28d), as contained in the Morals and Dogma is the real Hermetic ritual of the Rite. The Supreme Council of Belgium lays particular emphasis on this abstruse but beautiful degree, which goes to the bedrock of Gnosticism, Cabalism, and Hermeticism. For a scholarly exposition of the Cabalistic cosmogony the student is referred to the Jewish Encyclopedia....
An interesting feature of the Zohar is its theory of a prior creation and destruction of worlds...
The Cabala is the efflorescence of the mystical schools of Alexandria, and as such was duly appreciated by General Pike...
Among the adepts of India the symbol of the Diety is the mystic word Aum, sometimes spelled and pronounced om. "A Brahmin," says Menu, "beginning and ending a chapter on the Vedas, must always repeat to himself the syllable "Om." This sacred triliteral monosyllable is perhaps the oldest name of the Deity known to man. Its origin is unknown....Among the Sufis of Persia the pronounciation of the word Aum represents the creative process: the outgoing and incoming of the great breath...The sacred syllable Aum is concealed in the names of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, and in the Irano-Aryan name of God, Ahura-Mazda. Its letters form the initials of Agni, Ushas, Mitra. It was perpetuated among the Egyptians by the word Amun, and is concealed in many of the Masonic sacred words.
