Albert Pike: The Man Beyond the Monument
Chapter 6
The Craft He Loved and Served
on Masonry
It will come as no surprise that a great deal of Albert
Pike's writing is concerned with Masonry. When, in 1850, he received
the three degrees of Blue Lodge Masonry at Western Star Lodge No. 2,
in Little Rock, he knew he had found a home. The more he reflected upon
the degrees, the more excited he became.
[Masonry] began to shape itself to my
intellectual vision into something imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious
and grand. It seemed to me like the Pyramids in grandeur and loneliness,
in whose yet undiscovered chambers may be hidden, for the enlightenment
of the coming generations, the sacred books of the Egyptians, so long
lost to the world; like the Sphinx half buried in the sand.... So I
came at last to see that [Masonry's] symbolism is its soul.
VIEWED FROM THE OUTSIDE
Pike was fully aware that Masonry, viewed from the outside
by those who have never taken the trouble to understand it, can seem
rather pointless and strange. In The Meaning of Masonry, Pike looks
with dispassion at some of those outside opinions, but he then explains
just why Masonry is valuable to the man and to the world, and Pike's
statement makes a good starting point for our look at the Craft.
It is indeed true that the world
at large, the statesmen and the men of business, are not in the habit
of attaching much importance to the peaceful operations, the active
efforts and silent influences of Masonry. Some even think evil of the
order; to others its pretensions are the subject of mirth and food for
ridicule; while probably the general impression is that it is a harmless
and inoffensive association, rather laudable for its benevolent propensities,
its charities, and the assistance its members mutually lend each other;
but one in which the world at large is in no wise interested, one whose
ceremonies are frivolous, its secrets mere pretense, its titles and
dignities absurd, and its dissensions mere childish disputes for barren
honors and an empty precedency, fit only to excite the pitying smiles
of the grave and the sarcastic laughter of the ill-natured....
Is society really interested in
the peace and progress of Masonry? Has the world a moral right to demand
that harmony shall govern in our Temples? Is that a matter which at
all concerns the community? How grave and important are the interests
that by our mad dissensions we recklessly put at hazard?
Such are the questions which it
is demanded of me to consider. To do so, it is evidently necessary first
to settle what Masonry is, and what its objects are, and by what means
and appliances it proposes to effect those objects.
The well-being of every nation,
like that of every individual, is threefold,...physical, moral, and
intellectual. Neither physically, morally, or intellectually is a people
ever stationary. Always it either advances or retrogrades; and, as when
one climbs a hill of ice, to advance demands continual effort and exertion,
while to slide downward one needs but to halt.
The happiness and prosperity of
a people consist in advancing on each of the three lines, physical,
moral, and intellectual, at once; for the day of its downfall draws
nearer, even when its intellect is more developed and the works of its
genius are more illustrious, and while its physical comforts increase,
if its moral progress does not keep pace with its physical and intellectual,ý
and yet without the last, the two first do not make the loftiest condition
of a great people.
That institution deserves the
title of "public benefactor," which by a system of judicious
charities and mutual assistance diminishes the sum total of haggard
want and destitution, and relieves the public of a portion of the burden
which the necessities of the poor and shelterless impose upon it: for
it thus aids the physical advancement of the people.
It still more deserves the title,
if in addition, it imperatively requires of its members the strict and
faithful performance of all those duties towards their fellow-men as
individuals, which the loftiest and purest morality enjoins; and so
is the potent auxiliary of the laws, and the enforcer of the moral precepts
of the Great Teacher who preached the Sermon on the Mount: for it thus
labors for the moral elevation of the people.
And still more, if its initiates
are also, and of necessity, devoted to the true interests of the people;
if they are the soldiery of Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood, and at
the same time of good government, of good order, and of the laws, that
made by the representatives of all, for the general good of all, must
be implicitly obeyed by all: for thus again it aids in elevating still
higher the moral character of the people.
And most of all, if in addition
to all this, it strives to elevate the people intellectually, by teaching
those who enter its portals the profoundest truths of Philosophy, and
the wisdom of the Sages of every age; a rational conception of the Deity;
of the universe that He has made, and of the laws that govern it; a
true estimate of Man himself, of his freedom to act, of his dignity
and his destiny.
With that as an overview, how does Masonry go about
it?
THE SEARCH FOR LIGHT
The primary symbol of Masonry is, of course, Light. The search for Light
is a symbol of education, of knowledge, of enlightenment. Lux, meaning
light, for instance, is in the mottoes of Yale University and the University
of North Carolina. The movement from Darkness to Light, consequently,
has played a part in the initiatory rites of all ages and all cultures,
as the late Joseph Campbell, noted lecturer and author of The Hero with
a Thousand Faces, so often demonstrated. Pike remarks:
To the ancients, this [Light] was an
outflowing from the Deity. To us, as to them, it is the apt symbol of
truth and knowledge.
Masonry is a march and a struggle toward
the Light. For the individual as well as the nation, Light is Virtue,
Manliness, Intelligence, Liberty. Tyranny over the soul or body, is
darkness.
Masonry to the Masonic Brethren is a
search after, and a journeying toward Light. The Masonic Light is Truth.
It is the inculcation of truth by means of symbols and instructions.
Teaching a pure morality by its lessons and lectures, it is also a great
system of philosophy and of political and of religious truth concealed
by symbols.
THE STRUGGLE TO BE SOMETHING MORE THAN ANIMAL
Closely bound with the search for Light is the struggle
to overcome and subordinate the Dark, the passions of the body. Chapter
XI, "The Pleasures of the Flesh, the Balance of the Spirit,"
will explore that question more fully, but a few brief comments by Pike
make the Masonic position clear.
Masonry is the struggle of the Divine
in us to overcome the human. This is our march towards the Light.
Freemasonry is, or ought to be, a constant
endeavor to subordinate that which in us is material, sensual, and human
to that which is spiritual, rational, and Divine.
Its charitable nature comes from the
fact that Masonry cuts across the artificial barriers which separate
men.
[Masonry] is philanthropic; for it recognizes
the great truth that all men are of the same origin, have common interests,
and should co-operate together to the same end.
THE SECRETS OF MASONRY
|
Pike's
33rd Degree Jewel
|
The "secrets" in Masonry are personal insights.
They are secret not because we are pledged to conceal them, but because
they
cannot be truly communicated from one person to another.
It is for each individual Mason
to discover the secret of Masonry, by reflection upon its symbols and
a wise consideration and analysis of what is said and done in the work.
Masonry does not inculcate [impress upon the mind by frequent repetition]
her truths. She states them, once and briefly; or hints them, perhaps,
darkly; or interposes a cloud between them and eyes that would be dazzled
by them. "Seek, and ye shall find," knowledge and the truth.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE FRATERNITY
Few questions have led to so much confusion, not to
mention so much spilled ink, as the question of the antiquity of the
fraternity. The only answer is, of course, we just don't know how old
Freemasonry is. Masonic writers have placed the origin (mythically)
at the Garden of Eden, the building of Solomon's Temple, or the continuance
of the Knights Templar. Allen E. Roberts, in Masonic Trivia and Facts
(1994), states that at least 24 theories regarding Masonry's origins
have held credence at some time.
Pike, it must be admitted, added fuel to the fire, not
by what he wrote so much as by the fact that people did not take the
time to understand what he wrote. Pike uses the word "Masonry"
to mean two different things. One is an attitude, a view of the world.
The other is the fraternity itself. It really isn't hard to figure out
in any given case which he means...Pike is too good a writer not to
make his meanings clear. But he assumed that someone who read Morals
and Dogma would come to it with a fair background knowledge in Masonry
itself. And he assumed that one would read the book from start to finish...not
dip into it here and there looking for a sentence of phrase which could
be made to mean something he never intended.
Thus, when he speaks of Masonry as being the successor
to the Mysteries, he does not mean that we have somehow kept the ancient
rites of Adonis or Osiris going through the centuries. He means that
Masonry, like the Mysteries, teaches by means of initiation and through
the use of symbols.
And he is equally clear when he is talking about the
Freemasonic fraternity itself.
It is of greater antiquity than other
orders and associations; but is not so old as to give it the superiority
once supposed; for it is now certain that there were no Degrees in Masonry
two hundred years ago; and that the Master's Degree is not more than
one hundred and sixty years of age.
But those who framed its Degrees adopted
the most sacred and significant symbols of a very remote antiquity,
used, many centuries before the Temple of the King, Solomon, was built,
to express to those who understood them, while concealing from the profane,
the most recondite and mysterious doctrines in regard to God, the universe,
and man.
MASONRY AND RELIGION
This brings us to another unnecessary confusion, a confusion
between Freemasonry and Religion. Anti-Masons are always trying to claim
that Masonry is a religion, and they are perfectly willing to invent
a doctrine, a theology, and a plan of salvation which they claim Freemasonry
teaches. They would have to invent it for us, because we certainly don't
have one of our own.
And again, poor old Albert gets blamed for most of it.
In his writing, he uses the word "religion" to mean two things
as well. And again, one of them is an attitude...the sort of thing we
might call "spiritual awareness" a conscious or unconscious
awareness of the Deity and a desire to do what is pleasing to Him. Pike
insists this attitude permeates all human life.
An example is his oft-misquoted line, "Every
Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion."
Pike has, of course, just spent the two and a half pages before that
line explaining what he means by religion. He points out that there
is a religion of work, which is to work honestly and fairly, giving
full value for the wages received. He points out that there is a religion
to law, when the law is used with justice and equity and mercy to improve
the lives of people. He gives several other examples. And then, just
in case the reader has missed it up to this point, Pike clearly explains
what he means when he says a Lodge is a temple of religion. One just
has to read the next few sentences.
Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion;
and its teachings are instruction in religion. For here are inculcated
disinterestedness [unselfishness], affection, toleration, devotedness,
patriotism, truth, a generous sympathy with those who suffer and mourn,
pity for the fallen, mercy for the erring, relief for those in want,
Faith, Hope, Charity. Here we meet as brethren, to learn to know and
love each other.
But Masonry is not a religion in the sense that the
term is generally used, the sense in which we would speak of Christianity
or Islam or Judaism as a religion. And Pike makes that perfectly clear.
Masonry is as little a religious sect
as it is a political party. As it embraces all parties, so it embraces
all sects, to form from among them all a vast fraternal association.
The morals of antiquity, of the law of Moses, and of Christianity, are
ours. We recognize every teacher of Morality, every Reformer, as a Brother.
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 un-belief in none. In all religions there
is a basis of Truth in all there are fragments at least of pure Morality.
All that teach the cardinal tenets of Masonry, we respect; all teachers
and reformers of mankind, we admire and revere.
We do not undervalue the importance
of any Truth. We utter no word that can be deemed irreverent by any
one of any faith. . . . Masonry, of no one age, belongs to all time;
of no one religion, it finds its great truths in all.
It is not disbelief nor skepticism.
It has its own creed, simple and sublime, to which every good man of
every religion can assent. It expounds all the old philosophies, and
modestly and not oracularly utters its own.
To every Mason, there is a God...One,
Supreme, Infinite in Goodness, in Wisdom, Foresight, Justice and Benevolence;
Creator, Disposer and Preserver of all things. How, or by what Intermediates,
Powers or Emanations He creates and acts, and in what way He unfolds
and manifests Himself, Masonry leaves to Creeds and Religions
to inquire.
[Masonry] teaches what it deems to be
the truth in respect to the nature and attributes of God, as the loving
and beneficent Father of all mankind, as a Supreme and Perfect Intelligence,
as not in anywise the gigantic and distorted image of a man reflected
upon the clouds. It no more tolerates false ideas of the Deity and accepts
them as God, than images of Him carved of wood or stone. To believe
and teach the immortality of the soul, it must of necessity have some
not wholly erroneous idea of the nature of the soul, or else its belief
is but an idle formula of empty words.
The best gift we can bestow on man is
manhood. It is that which Masonry is ordained of God to bestow on its
votaries: not sectarianism and religious dogma; not a rudimental morality,
that may be found in the writings of Confucius, Zoroaster, Seneca and
the Rabbis, in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes; not a little and cheap
common-school knowledge; but manhood and science and philosophy.
Not that Philosophy or Science is in
opposition to Religion. For Philosophy is but that knowledge of God
and the Soul, which is derived from observation of the manifested action
of God and the Soul, and from a wise analogy. It is the intellectual
guide which the religious sentiment needs....
As to Science, it could not walk alone,
while religion was stationary. It consists of those matured inferences
from experience which all other experience confirms....
The purpose, therefore, of education
and science is to make a man wise. If knowledge does not make him so,
it is wasted, like water poured on the sands. To know the formulas of
Masonry [the words of the ritual] is of as little value, by itself,
as to know so many words and sentences in some barbarous African or
Australian dialect. To know even the meaning of the symbols, is but
little, unless that adds to our wisdom, and also to our charity....
Do not lose sight, then, of the true
object of your studies in Masonry. It is to add to your estate of wisdom,
and not merely to your knowledge.... It is the great truths as to all
that most concerns a man, as to his rights, interests, and duties, that
Masonry tries to teach her Initiates.
THE ATTITUDE AND ACTIONS OF A MASON
So what is the effect? How is a Mason supposed to act
and think and feel? What are we supposed to do? Pike sets a pretty high
standard. His friend George Moore summed up Pike's position in a few
words:
"For him the true Mason is he who each day strives
to make some other man wiser and better, and who, for that purpose,
constantly strives to become wiser and better."
Pike expends some of his best writing on the question
of just who a Mason is supposed to be and what he is to do.
To be trustful, to be hopeful, to be
indulgent; these, in an age of selfishness, of ill opinion of human
nature, of harsh and bitter judgment, are the most important Masonic
virtues, and the true supports of every Masonic Temple.
To sleep little, and to study much;
to say little, and to hear and think much; to learn, that we may be
able to do, and then to do, earnestly and vigorously, whatever may be
required of us by duty, and by the good of our fellows, our country,
and mankind,...these are the duties of every Mason who desires to imitate
the Master Khurum [Hiram].
To make honor and duty the steady beacon-lights
that shall guide your life-vessel over the stormy seas of time; to do
that which is right to do, not because it will insure you success, or
bring with it a reward, or gain the applause of men, or be "the
best policy," more prudent or more advisable; but because it is
right and therefore ought to be done; to war incessantly against error,
intolerance, ignorance, and vice, and yet to pity those who err, to
be tolerant, even of intolerance, to teach the ignorant, and to labor
to reclaim the vicious, are some of the duties of a Mason.
The true Mason is a practical Philosopher,
who, under religious emblems, in all ages adopted by wisdom, builds
upon plans traced by nature and reason the moral edifice of knowledge.
He ought to find, in the symmetrical relations of all the parts of this
rational edifice, the principle and rule of all his duties, the source
of all his pleasures. He improves his moral nature, becomes a better
man, and finds in the reunion of virtuous men, assembled with pure views,
the means of multiplying his acts of beneficence. Masonry and Philosophy,
without being one and the same thing, have the same object and propose
to themselves the same end, the worship of the Grand Architect of the
Universe, acquaintance and familiarity with the wonders of nature, and
the happiness of humanity attained by the constant practice of all the
virtues.
There can be no genuine Brotherhood
without mutual regard, good opinion and esteem, mutual charity, and
mutual allowance for faults and failings. It is those only who learn
habitually to think better of each other, to look habitually for the
good that is in each other, and expect, allow for, and overlook, the
evil, who can be Brethren one of the other, in any true sense of the
word. Those who gloat over the failings of one another, who think each
other to be naturally base and low, of a nature in which the Evil predominates
and excellence is not to be looked for, cannot be even friends, and
much less Brethren.
Then he wrote this. It is, to my own personal tastes,
probably the single most beautiful statement of Masons and Masonry I
have ever read. And the astonishing, the wonderful, thing is there are
hundreds of Masons I know who fit this description.
The good Mason does the good thing
which comes in his way, and because it comes in his way; for a love
of duty, and not merely because a law, enacted by man or God, commands
his will to do it. He is true to his mind, his conscience, heart, and
soul, and feels small temptation to do to others what he would not wish
to receive from them. He will deny himself for the sake of his brother
near at hand. His desire attracts in the line of his duty, both being
in conjunction. Not in vain does the poor or the oppressed look up to
him. You find such men in all Christian sects, Protestant and Catholic,
in all the great religious parties of the civilized world, among Buddhists,
Mahometans, and Jews. They are kind fathers, generous citizens, unimpeachable
in their business, beautiful in their daily lives. You see their Masonry
in their work and in their play. It appears in all the forms of their
activity, individual, domestic, social, ecclesiastical, or political.
True Masonry within must be morality without. It must become eminent
morality, which is philanthropy. The true Mason loves not only his kindred
and his country, but all mankind; not only the good, but also the evil,
among his brethren. He has more goodness than the channels of his daily
life will hold. It runs over the banks, to water and to feed a thousand
thirsty plants. Not content with the duty that lies along his track,
he goes out to seek it; not only willing, he has a salient longing to
do good, to spread his truth, his justice, his generosity, his Masonry
over all the world. His daily life is a profession of his Masonry, published
in perpetual good-will to men. He cannot be a persecutor.
Not more naturally does the beaver
build or the mocking-bird sing his own wild, gushing melody, than the
true Mason lives this beautiful outward life. So from the perennial
spring swells forth the stream, to quicken the meadow with new access
of green, and perfect beauty bursting into bloom. Thus Masonry does
the work it was meant to do. The Mason does not sigh and weep, and make
grimaces. He lives right on. If his life is, as whose is not, marked
with errors, and with sins, he ploughs [plows] over the barren spot
with his remorse, sows with new seed, and the old desert blossoms like
a rose. He is not confined to set forms of thought, or action, or of
feeling. He accepts what his mind regards as true, which his conscience
decides is right, what his heart deems generous and noble; and all else
he puts far from him. Though the ancient and the honorable of the Earth
bid him bow down to them, his stubborn knees bend only at the bidding
of his manly soul. His Masonry is his freedom before God, not his bondage
unto men. His mind acts after the universal law of the intellect, his
conscience according to the universal moral law, his affections and
his soul after the universal law of each, and so he is strong with the
strength of God, in this four-fold way communicating with Him.
Pike could describe the ideal as well as anyone alive.
But he was wise enough to realize that an ideal is just that. Reality
will often fall short of it. That was all right as long as it was merely
a matter of being human. It was as the sound of fingernails on a blackboard
to Pike when people not only were prone to human error but also were
stubborn about it.
It is the motionless and stationary
that most frets and impedes the current of progress; the solid rock
or stupid tree, rested firmly on the bottom, and around which the river
whirls and eddies: the Masons that doubt and hesitate and are discouraged;
that disbelieve in the capacity of man to improve; that are not disposed
to toil and labor for the interest and well-being of general humanity;
that expect others to do all, even of that which they do not oppose
or ridicule; while they sit, applauding and doing nothing, or perhaps
prognosticating [predicting] failure.
Men will be men, and human nature will be human nature.
I suppose, in a way, it's comforting to know that the buzzard's roost,
which one finds in some Lodges, composed of those determined to fight
any idea they didn't think of themselves fifty years ago, isn't a recent
development. But, buzzards and all, Pike still held high hopes and a
high vision for Masonry.
The Moral Code of Masonry is still more
extensive than that developed by philosophy. To the requirements of
the law of Nature and the law of God, it adds the imperative obligation
of a contract. Upon entering the Order, the Initiate binds to himself
every Mason in the world. Once enrolled among the children of Light,
every Mason on earth becomes his brother, and owes him the duties, the
kindnesses, and the sympathies of a brother. On every one he may call
for assistance in need, protection against danger, sympathy in sorrow,
attention in sickness, and decent burial after death. There is not a
Mason in the world who is not bound to go to his relief, when he is
in danger, if there be a greater probability of saving his life than
of losing his own. No Mason can wrong him to the value of anything,
knowingly, himself, nor suffer it to be done by others, if it be in
his power to prevent it. No Mason can speak evil of him, to his face
or behind his back. Every Mason must keep his lawful secrets, and defend
his character when unjustly assailed, and protect, counsel, and assist
his widow and his orphans. What so many thousands owe to him, he owes
to each of them. He has solemnly bound himself to be ever ready to discharge
this sacred debt. If he fails to do it he is dishonest, and forsworn;
and it is an unparalleled meanness in him to obtain good offices [kindnesses]
by false pretenses, to receive kindness and service, rendered him under
the confident expectation that he will in his turn render the same,
and then to disappoint, without ample reason, that just expectation.
Masonry holds him also, by his solemn
promise, to a purer life, a nobler generosity, catholic [universal]
in his love for his race [the human race], ardent in his zeal for the
interest of mankind, the advancement and progress of humanity.
Such are, we think, the Philosophy and
the Morality, such the True Word of a Master Mason.
Note
for on-line readers: The following is the Foreword, Introduction, and
first chapter of Jim Tresner's Albert Pike, The Man Beyond The Monument.
Chapter Six, in which Pike discusses Masonry is also online. The book
is hardbound, 254 pages, and fully illustrated with rare photos. The
publisher's price is $19.95 but the book is available to Scottish Rite
members for $12.00.
Send check or money order to:
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