by Moe | Mar 1, 2013 | Freemasons, Meaning of Symbols
Since the beginning formations of the Brotherhood of the Order of the Quest, the end goal for all who joined was to have peace, unity, wisdom and love on earth. A simple goal to help place an end to the endless wars and human misery that have plagued our planet for thousands of years via a coordinated effort of like minded brothers, where the purpose of our Great Work was to help create a world that was unified under this common banner of peace, love, unity and justice for all. What some may call , “heaven on earth” or even a “Solomon’s Temple” that covers the globe.
In order to accomplish this monumental task, Tubal Cain and his descendants were instructed by God in Matthew 10:34 where it is said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” Tubal Cain is the widow’s son who originally was “a sharpener”—one who whets or sharpens instruments. (more…)
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
by Moe | Aug 26, 2011 | Illustrations of Masonry
Illustrations of Masonry
by William Morgan
[1827]
Start Reading
This book has a controversial backstory which is part of the mythology of anti-Freemasonry. ‘Captain’ William Morgan, the author, was a disappointed Freemason in Batavia, New York. Rejected by the local lodge, he announced that he was going to publish a work exposing Masonic rituals and secrets. Shortly before publication in 1826, he disappeared, and three Masons were later convicted of kidnapping him. Although claims were made that Morgan had been murdered, some say that he was forced to leave the US. Either way, it was good publicity for this book, which was published in 1827, but bad for the Masons. The incident led to widespread protests against Freemasons in the US, and eventually an anti-Masonic Party, which at its height in 1832 got seven electoral votes for William Wirt for President.
So why read this book? Stripped of the fevered historical background, and ignoring the publisher’s antimasonic introduction, this becomes simply one of the first published accounts of US Freemasonry in the early 19th century. It seems accurate, based on other published Monitors, such as Ducan’s. At this perspective, Illustrations is no more offensive than Robert’s Rules of Order, although it makes more interesting reading.
Production Notes: I have, as is the usual practice, silently cleaned up egregious punctuation errors in the text, particularly quotation marks. There were no obvious chapter breaks, so I have inserted file breaks at logical boundaries in the text. As usual, any text in small green type was added to the text by the transcriber.–J. B. Hare.
Title Page
Verso
Introduction
Illustrations of Masonry
Opening the Lodge
First Degree Initiation
Closing the Lodge
First Section of the Lecture on the First Degree
Second Section of the Lecture on the First Degree
Third Section of the Lecture on the First Degree
Second or Fellow Craft Degree Initiation
First Section of the Fellow Craft Mason Lecture
Second Section of the Fellow Craft Mason Lecture
Third, or Master Mason’s Degree
First Section of the Master Mason Lecture
Second Section of the Master Mason Lecture 1
Second Section of the Master Mason Lecture 2
Freemasonry at a Glance
Entered Apprentice Degree
Fellow Craft Degree
Master Mason’s Degree
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
by Moe | Aug 26, 2011 | Illustrations of Masonry
p. i
ILLUSTRATIONS
—OF—
MASONRY
—BY—
ONE OF THE FRATERNITY
Who has devoted Thirty Years to the Subject.
“God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light.”
Copyright Secured.
Printed for the Proprietor,
CAPT. WM. MORGAN’S
EXPOSITION OF
FREEMASONRY,
Republished with the addition of engravings, showing the Lodge-room Signs. Grips and Masonic Emblems.
Chicago: Ezra A. Cook Publications
[1827]
Scanned, proofed and formatted at sacred-texts.com by John Bruno Hare, April 2009. This text is in the public domain in the US because it was published prior to 1923.
Title Page
Next: Verso
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
by Moe | Aug 26, 2011 | Illustrations of Masonry
p. ii
Northern District of New York to wit:
Be it Remembered, That on the fourteenth day of August, in the fifty-first year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1826, William Morgan, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit:—
“Illustrations of Masonry, by one of the fraternity who has devoted thirty years to the subject. ‘God said, Let there be light, and there was light.'”
In conformity to the act of Congress of the United States, entitled “An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned,” and also to the act entitled “An act supplementary to the act entitled ‘An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned,’ and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.”
R. R. LANSING,
Clerk of the Northern District of N. Y.
Next: Introduction
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
by Moe | Aug 26, 2011 | Illustrations of Masonry
p. iii
(WRITTEN FOR THE ORIGINAL EDITION.
By the Publisher, Col. David C. Miller, Batavia, N. Y.)
In the absence of the author, or rather compiler of the following work, who was kidnapped and carried away from the village of Batavia, on the 11th day of September, 1826, by a number of Freemasons, it devolves upon the publisher to attempt to set forth some of the leading views that governed those who embarked in the undertaking.
To contend with prejudice, and to struggle against customs and opinions, which superstition, time, and ignorance have hallowed, requires time, patience, and magnanimity. When we begin to pull down the strongholds of error, the batteries we level against them, though strong, and powerful; and victorious at last, arc at first received with violence; and when in our conquering career we meet with scoffs and revilings from the beseiged partisans of untenable positions, it the more forcibly impresses us we are but men; and that in every work of reformation and renovation we must encounter various difficulties. For a full confirmation of our statement we might refer to the history of the world. It is not our intention, however, to give a full detail of the whims and caprices man to bring forth the historic records of other years as roof of the windings and shiftings of the various characters who have “Strutted their brief hour on life’s stage” in order to convince that customs, associations, and institutions are like the lives of the authors and abettors, fleeting and fragile. Many of them rise up as bubbles on the ocean, and die away. Circumstances give them existence, and when these causes cease to exist, they go into the same gulf of oblivion as countless exploded opinions and tenets have gone before them. The mind that formed and planned them, goes on in its dazzling flight, bounding over barrier after barrier, till it has arrived at the ultimate goal of consummation.
The daily occurrences before us bring forth the full conviction that the emanation from the God of light is gradually ascending to regions of greater intellectual brilliancy.
p. iv
When we view man, in the infancy of society, as in the childhood of his existence, he is weak, powerless and defenceless; but in his manhood and riper years, he has grown to his full stature, and stands forth in commanding attitude, the favored and acknowledged lord of the world. For his comfort and well-being as a member of society, rules and regulations are necessary. In the various stages of his progress, these systematic improvements undergo various changes, according to circumstances and situations. What is proper and necessary in one grade of society, is wholly useless, and may be alarming in another. Opinions and usages that go down in tradition, and interfere not with our improvements in social concerns, adhere to us more closely and become entwined in all our feelings. It is to this we owe our bigoted attachment to antiquity—it is this that demands from us a superstitious reverence for the opinions and practices of men of former times, and closes the ear against truth, and blinds the eyes to the glare of new lights and new accessions of knowledge through which medium only can they break in upon the mind.
We have within ourselves the knowledge; and everywhere around us the proofs that we are beings destined not to stand still. In our present state of advancement, we lock with pity on the small progress of our fathers in arts and sciences, and social institutions; and when compared with our elevated rank, we have just cause of pride and of grateful feelings. They did well for the times in which they lived, but to the ultimatum of perfectability we are nearer, and in the monuments we have before us of the skill and genius of our times and age we have only fulfilled these destinies for which we were created; and we object to every obstacle that opposes or attempts to oppose the will of heaven.
In the present enlightened state to which society has advanced, we contend that the opinions and tenets and pretended secrecies of “olden times,” handed down to us, should be fully, fairly and freely canvassed; that from the mist and darkness which have hung over them, they should come out before the open light of day, and be subject to the rigid test of candid investigation. These preliminary remarks lead as to the main object of our introduction.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
by Moe | Aug 26, 2011 | Illustrations of Masonry
p. 10 p. 11
ILLUSTRATIONS
—OF—
MASONRY, ETC.
A Description of the Ceremonies used in opening a Lodge of Entered Apprentice Masons; which is the same in all upper degrees, with the exception of the difference in the signs, due-guards, grips, pass-grips, words and their several names; all of which will be given and explained in their proper places as the work progresses. One rap calls the lodge to order—one calls up the Junior and Senior Deacons—two raps call up all the subordinate officers, and three, all the members of the lodge.
The Master having called the lodge to order, and the officers all seated, the Master says to the Junior Warden, ‘Brother Junior, are they all Entered Apprentice Masons in the south?’
Ans. ‘They are, Worshipful.’
Master to the Senior Warden, ‘Brother Senior, are they all Entered Apprentice Masons in the west?’
Ans. ‘They are, Worshipful.’
The Master then says, ‘They are, in the east,’ at the same time he gives a rap with the common gavel or mallet, which calls up both Deacons.
Master to Junior Deacon, ‘Brother Junior, the first care of a Mason?’
Ans. ‘To see the lodge tyled, Worshipful.’
Master to Junior Deacon, ‘Attend to that part of your duty, and inform the Tyler that we are about to open a lodge of Entered Apprentice Masons, and direct him to tyle accordingly.’ The Junior Deacon then steps to the door and gives three raps, which are answered by three raps from without; the Junior Deacon then gives one, which is also answered by the Tyler with one; the door is then partly opened and the Junior Deacon delivers his message, and resumes his situation
p. 12
and says, ‘The door is tyled, Worshipful.’ (at the same time giving the due-guard, which is never omitted when the Master is addressed.)
The Master to Junior Deacon, ‘Brother, by whom?’
Ans. ‘By a Master Mason without the door, armed with the proper implement of his office.’
Master to Junior Deacon, ‘His duty there?’
Ans. ‘To keep off all cowans and eaves-droppers, see that none pass or repass without permission from the Master.’ (Some say without permission from the chair.)
Master to Junior Deacon, ‘Brother Junior, your place in the lodge?’
Ans. ‘At the right hand of the Senior Warden in the west.’
Master to Junior Deacon, ‘Your business there, Brother Junior?’
Ans. ‘To wait on the Worshipful Master and Wardens, act as their proxy in the active duties of the lodge, and take charge of the door.’
Master to Junior Deacon, ‘The Senior Deacon’s place in the lodge?’
Ans. ‘At the right hand of the Worshipful Master in the east.’ [The Master, while asking the last questions gives two raps, which call up all the subordinate officers.]
Master to Senior Deacon, ‘Your duty there, Brother Senior?’
Ans. ‘To wait on the Worshipful Master and Wardens, act as their proxy in the active duties of the lodge, attend to the preparation and introduction of candidates, and welcome and clothe all visiting Brethren. [i.e., furnish them with an apron.]
Master to Senior Deacon, ‘The Secretary’s place in the lodge, Brother Senior?’
Ans. ‘At the left hand of the Worshipful Master in the east.’
Master to the Secretary, ‘Your duty there, Brother Secretary?’
Ans. ‘The better to observe the Worshipful Master’s will and pleasure, record the proceedings of the lodge; transmit a copy of the same to the Grand Lodge, if required; receive all moneys and money bills from the hands of the Brethren, pay them over to the Treasurer, and take his receipt for the same.’
p. 13
The Master to the Secretary, ‘The Treasurer’s place in the lodge?’
Ans. ‘At the right hand of the Worshipful Master.’
Master to Treasurer, ‘Your duty there, Brother Treasurer?’
Ans. ‘Duly to observe the Worshipful Master’s will and pleasure; receive all moneys and money bills from the hands of the Secretary; keep a just and true account of the same; pay them out by order of the Worshipful Master and consent of the Brethren.’
The Master to the Treasurer, “The Junior Warden’s place in the lodge, Brother Treasurer?’
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
