|
www.Edmond-Mason.org |
|
webmaster |
Anti-Masonry Frequently Asked Questions compiled by Trevor W. McKeown version 2.8 June 20, 2001 This Anti-Masonry FAQ only addresses issues of ignorance or malicious misinformation. This FAQ contains verifiable and documented historical events and facts. Please address all errors or omissions to <A HREF="mailto:anti-masonry@freemasonry.bcy.ca"> Trevor W. McKeown</A>. The Freemasonry FAQ isavailable by emailing <A HREF="mailto:rogeri@netcom">rogeri@netcom</A> with a subject of SEND FAQ. Anti-Masonry has a history dating to the early eighteenth century in London, England. Anti-Masonic thought can be grouped into two broad categories: accusations of anti-Christian or Satanic objectives and accusations of political and social manipulation. Both of these categories rely on fraud, unsubstantiated paranoia, historical hoaxes, leaps of logical fallacy, and often the writings of anti-mason, John Robison; fraud, Leo Taxil; and the often misquoted Masonic author, Albert Pike. Contemporary anti-masons such as William Cooper, Jim Shaw, Jack T. Chick, and Pat Robertson also rely heavily on their own imaginations. Current Anti-Masonic thought generally turns to one of the many conspiracy theories currently popular in the media. This vein of imaginative thought is beyond the scope of this FAQ. Further information on Conspiracy Theory literature has been compiled by Xavier Poez,<XPOEZ@PAIR.COM and can be found at http://www9.pair.com/xpoez/. Contents from http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/anti-masonry01.html#illuminatiI ORGANIZATIONS 2. Does the Trilateral Commission control the Freemasons? 3. Who are the Trilateral Commission? 7. Is the Club of Rome an Illuminati front? 8. Did high-ranking mason, Albert Pike found the Ku Klux Klan? II SYMBOLS 1. Why do Freemasons use the Satanic pentagram/pentacle? III PEOPLE IV FREEMASONRY 1. Is a 33rd degree Mason more important than a 3rd degree Mason? 3. Is Freemasonry anti-religious? 4. Is Freemasonry a racist organization? V HISTORY VI HOAXES AND FRAUDS 1. What were the Protocols of the Elders of Zion? 2. Did Albert Pike give a speech claiming "Lucifer is God"? 3. Does A.L. mean "In the year of Lucifer"? 4. Isn't the Masonic Bible supposed to be Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma"? 5. Did George Washington renounce Freemasonry? 6. Doesn't the "Big Book of Conspiracies explain all this? VII ARE THE MASONS RESPONSIBLE FOR (fill in event) 1. Did the Freemasons cause the French Revolution of 1789? 2. Did the Freemasons kill Captain William Morgan? VIII RELIGION 2. Are Freemasons really Gnostics? I ORGANIZATIONS 1. Who are the Illuminati?An undocumented and undefined group with the unconfirmed goal of world domination or control. Much fiction has been written on the topic. Although the subject of speculation, there is no documentation of any active and effective group currently using the name. (See Section V Subsection 1. on the Bavarian Illuminati.)2. Does the Trilateral Commission control the Freemasons?No, and before you ask, the Freemasons don't control the Trilateral Commission either. There are over 420 influential "think tanks" around the world; the Trilateral Commission is one of them.3. What is the Trilateral Commission?Launched in 1973, the European Union, North America (the United States and Canada), and Japan---the three main democratic industrialized areas of the world---form the three sides of the Trilateral Commission. The Commission's members are about 330 distinguished citizens, with a variety of leadership responsibilities in business, politics (except for government positions), academia, and the media.The full Commission gathers once each year: the 1995 meeting was in Copenhagen, the 1996 meeting was in Vancouver, and the 1997 meeting was in Tokyo. In addition to special topical sessions and reviews of current developments in the regions, a portion of each annual meeting is devoted to consideration of draft reports to the Commission. These reports are generally the joint product of authors from each region, who draw on a range of consultants in the course of their work. Publication follows discussion in the Commission's annual meeting. The authors are solely responsible for their final text. The 1994/1995 report, titled Engaging Russia, focused on our future Trilateral relations with Russia. The 1995/1996 reports were devoted to Maintaining Energy Security in a Global Context and to Globalization and Trilateral Labour Markets: Evidence & Implications. The task forces reported at the spring 1997 meeting in Tokyo, focusing on developments and future prospects of the Asia Pacific community as well as on a reassessment of trilateral cooperation, i.e., on the management of the international system in the next decade. A separate publication contains the principal presentations at the annual meeting. The Commission has three permanent regional offices in New York, Tokyo, and Paris. Further information and a list of Trilateral Commission publications can be found at: http://www.jcie.or.jp/thinknet/tc/tc_contents.html 4. Who are the Bilderburgers?A creation of Milton William Cooper who reprinted the well known hoax The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as fact, and writes stories of an ongoing invasion of aliens from outer space.(1) Three quotes from his book, "The Secret Government" follow:"Throughout our history, the Aliens have manipulated and controlled the human race through various secret societies, religions, Satanic cults, witchcraft and occult movements."Mr. Cooper's writings are, in the main, fiction. This fictional creation is not to be confused with the Bilderberg Conference. Started by Prince Bernhard in Oosterbeek, Netherlands in 1954, it is an annual three-day conference attended by a changing delegation of some 100 bankers, economists, politicians and government officers chosen by an international steering committee with offices in the Hague. Its main founder was the Polish political philanthropist Joseph Retiger. Both Gary Allen, in None Dare Call It Conspiracy and William Bramley, in The Gods of Eden refer to the Bilderberg Conference as the Bilderbergers, stating that the conference refers to itself as such. Bramley further suggests a link with the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. No proof or documentation for any of this is supplied. A public statement by the Bilderberg Conference 1. Behold a Pale Horse. Milton William Cooper. Light Technology Publishing, Sedona, AZ: 1991. pp 267-332. 2. The Secret Government, The Origin, Identity, and Purpose of MJ-12. Milton William Cooper, May 23, 1989. 5. What was the P2 Lodge?Originally a lodge under the jurisdiction of the Grand Orient of Italy, their warrant was revoked and a number of their members expelled for unmasonic conduct.The P2 Incident was a by-product of three related factors; the vagaries of Italian Masonic History, the joint effects of past repressions and social patronage on the Italian Craft, and certain defects in their Constitution. Italian Masonic history has been influenced by the political and ethnic history of that country and the P2 Incident needs to be placed in that context. Irregular Lodges (not recognized by mainstream Freemasonry), both in France and Italy, had become quite political during revolutionary periods in their national histories, and operated as true secret societies. Italy has only been a united country since 1870 and regional, ethnic and traditional differences are still felt in contemporary Italian society. Italian society, then and now, has been said to largely run on patronage and favouritism. Few other Grand Lodges had recognized Italian Masonry as regular until 1972. Several Grand Lodges have been formed in Italy, the first in 1750, but all were proscribed or suppressed and, with the exception of the short period during the Napoleonic Occupation, Freemasonry was not revived until about 1860 when two Grand Masonic bodies emerged. The first, the "Supreme Council Grand Orient of Italy" opened in Turin; later moving to Rome. Although politics and religion were officially banned from discussion in Lodges, in practice the Italian temperament views discussion of state affairs as a duty. In 1908 a schism resulted when the Grand Orient expelled a number of members for their political stance and the National Grand Lodge was formed. It continues to this day as an irregular body. Masonry was again prohibited in Italy from 1926 to 1945. At this time several competing groups sprung up, out of which the Grand Orient of Italy and the National Grand Lodge resumed their leading positions. This Grand Orient was considered regular by many American Grand Lodges and extended recognition. It was recognized as regular by the English, Irish and Scottish Grand Lodges in 1972 and shortly thereafter by a number of other Grand Lodges who tend to take their direction from the United Grand Lodge of England. The following year, the majority of Lodges under the National Grand Lodge seceded and joined the Grand Orient, leaving the National Grand Lodge as a weak and splintered dissident group. Although the National Grand Lodge is not relevant to this article, this history of suppression, irregularity, political infighting, and class consciousness is. In 1877 the Grand Orient granted a warrant to a Lodge in Rome called "Propaganda Massonica". This Lodge was frequented by politicians and government officials from across Italy who were unable to attend their own Lodges. Although its potential for Masonic mischief was recognized, there is no evidence that any was forthcoming. The Lodge was not on the Grand Orient's registers but operated as the Grand Master's own private Lodge, allowing for the initiation of members whose names would not therefore appear on the Grand Orient's rolls. If any apology is needed, it should be noted that "an organization which had a long experience of great opposition to it, of political and religious damnation, and of being often forced to close up, is likely to view every influential friend it can get as important." When the Grand Orient was revived after the Second World War it was decided to number the Lodges by drawing lots; Lodge Propaganda drew number two, thus it became P2. It rarely held meetings and was almost inactive. In 1967, Brother Lucio Gelli, who had been initiated into a Lodge in Rome in 1965, was placed in virtual control of P2 by the Grand Master of the day. He was considered to be a shrewd and successful businessman with a great gift for recruiting. In 1970 he was made secretary of P2 and subsequently a substantial number of well-placed men were initiated. In most recognized Grand Lodge jurisdictions, these practices would not be countenanced. An argument could be made that by Italian standards, nothing was amiss. Gelli's growing influence became a concern of the then Grand Master who,
in late 1974, proposed that P2 be erased. At the Grand Orient Communication
in December 1974, of the 406 Lodges represented, 400 voted for its erasure.
In March 1975 Gelli accused the Grand Master of gross financial
irregularities, withdrawing the accusations only after the Grand Master
issued a warrant for a new P2 Lodge--despite the fact that the Grand Orient
had erased it only four months earlier. P2 was considered regular; its
membership was no longer secret and Gelli was its Master. In 1976, Gelli
requested that P2 be suspended but not erased. This nuance of jurisprudence
meant that he could continue to preserve some semblance of regularity for
his private club without being answerable to the Grand Orient. In 1980, Gelli told a press interview that Freemasonry was a puppet show in which he pulled the strings. Italian Masonry was outraged by this, struck a Masonic tribunal which in 1981 expelled him and decided that P2 had been erased as a Lodge in 1974 and therefore any contrary action by a Grand Master had been illegal. The same year the police investigated Gelli for a range of fraudulent activities and, in searching his house, found a P2 register of 950 names - mostly prominent people. Several government ministers resigned and the Italian Government fell. Gelli managed to get out of the country. A Special Parliamentary Commission found Gelli to have an obscure and opportunistic past and to count among his friends many such as the fraudulent banker Calvi who was later found dead under London's Black Friars Bridge, and the banker Sindona who was later jailed in the USA for fraud and suspected murder. The nature and aims of Gelli's alleged political intrigues have never been explained. From his South American hideaway, he has sent out obscure messages and has offered to give himself up to Italian police if certain conditions were met. The authorities have issued no public statement. The President of the Parliamentary Commission of Investigation, while openly hostile to Freemasonry at the outset, eventually declared that Freemasonry itself had been Gelli's first and principal victim. While three successive Grand Masters (two now deceased and one expelled from Freemasonry) had manipulated secret funds, secret members, secret decisions and secret Lodges, the body of Italian Freemasonry was neither guilty nor culpable in the P2 Affair. At the Grand Orient Meeting of March 1982, no incumbent Grand Officer was re-elected. Researchers are referred to a paper written by Kent Henderson, from which this article is excerpted: The Transactions of the Lodge of Research No. 218. "Italian Freemasonry and the 'P2' Incident", Kent Henderson. Victoria, Australia: 1987 pp. 25-33. [ISBN 0 7316 2645 1]. 6. What was Palladium?Taxil purported to reveal the existence of "Palladium," the most secret Masonic order, which practiced devil-worship. He recounted the story of its high priestess Diana Vaughan; and ended by publishing the Memoires d'une ex-Palladiste after her conversion to Catholicism. When doubts began to spread, Taxil realized the time had come to end the deceit. In a widely reported conference in Paris (April 19, 1897), he confessed that it had all been a hoax.After Taxil's public confession, Abel Clarin de la Rive (b. 1855) expressed his disgust and recanted his writings on Diana Vaughan in the April 1897 issue of Freemasonry Disclosed, a magazine devoted to the destruction of the Craft. As much as he hated Freemasonry, de la Rive had the integrity to admit Taxil's hoax in the following editorial: "With frightening cynicism the miserable person we shall not name here [Taxil] declared before an assembly especially convened for him that for twelve years he had prepared and carried out to the end the most extraordinary and most sacrilegious of hoaxes. We have always been careful to publish special articles concerning Palladism and Diana Vaughan. We are now giving in this issue a complete list of these articles, which can now be considered as not having existed."Possibly the inspiration for Taxil's choice of name, but otherwise of little interest other than to Masonic historians, the Order of Palladium was a Masonic society open to both men and women, founded in Paris in 1737. Termed a very moral society by Mackey, it does not appear to have survived its founders. _________________________ New Catholic Encyclopedia. (R. Limouzin-Lamothe, s.v. Taxil, Leo) Quoted in Alec Mellor's Strange Masonic Stories. (Richmond, Va.: Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., Inc., 1982) p. 151. 7. Is the Club of Rome an Illuminati front?No. According to John Lear, William Cooper and others, the Club of Rome is a front for the Illuminati, or the 'Cult of the Serpent' backed by an 'alien' or non-human vanguard, the so-called 'Greys'. An often quoted article, titled 'Pine Gap Base: World Context', written in French by Lucien Cometta and later translated into English by Dr. Jean Francois Gille, covers the same theme, with an equal lack of verifiable documentation. The Club of Rome was founded in 1968 by Dr. Aurelio Peccei (1908-84), an Italian scholar and industrialist, and Alexander King, with a group of scientists, economists, businessmen, international civil servants, heads of state and former heads of state from the five continents but with similar concerns for the global future. It currently has 27 honorary members, including a number of active and former heads of states as well as noted scholars. Soka Gakkai International President Daisaku Ikeda was nominated on February 28, 1997 as an honourary member by Club of Rome president, Dr. Diez-Hochleitner. Soka Gakkai is a lay Buddhist association in Japan founded on the premise that human beings inherently possess the ability to create value in their lives and, therefore, are able to live life to the fullest while contributing to the welfare of society. "Soka" means value creation; "Gakkai," society. The SGI's relationship with the Club of Rome began with SGI President Ikeda's friendship with Aurelio Peccei. Their dialogue on world problems was published as Before it is Too Late in 1984. Many books written by club members are available to the public, including the 1972 bestseller The Limits of Growth, which first linked economic growth to negative consequences for the environment. The club also maintains a web site at http://www.clubofrome.org. The following are abstracts from a paper entitled "The Club of Rome - The New Threshold" by Alexander King which was read into the Congressional records of the United States on Tuesday, March 20, 1973: "The Club of Rome is:Since the death of Aurelio Peccei and the retirement of Alexander King, the Club of Rome has developed an updated Charter under its president, Ricardo Diez Hochleitner and its secretary general, Dr. Bertrand Schneider. More information and background is available. Those requiring further information should contact The Club of Rome Secretariat at cor.bs@dialup.francenet.fr 8. Did high-ranking mason, Albert Pike found the Ku Klux Klan?No.There is no documentation or record that would suggest that Masonic author, Albert Pike, was ever a willing member of the Ku Klux Klan, much less a founder or organizer. The 19th century Ku Kux Klan was originally organized by six Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee in the spring of 1866. It obligated members only to "have fun, make mischief and play pranks on the public." It was structured into a vehicle for Southern white resistance to Radical Reconstruction at a convention in Nashville, Tennessee in April of 1867 under the leadership of George Gordon. Several weeks later Nathan Bedford Forrest was offered the position of Grand Wizard. On August 28, 1868 Forrest granted an interview to a reporter from the Cincinnati Commercial, in which he confirmed the existence of the Klan, declared his sympathy and co-operation with them, but denied his membership. In January 1869 Forrest issued "General Order Number One", the only directive to come from Imperial Headquarters, ordering the group be disbanded. Local branches remained active, prompting the U.S. Congress to pass the Force Act of 1870 and the Ku Klux Act in 1871. By the time the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Klan unconstitutional in 1882, it had practically disappeared as an organization although independent acts of violence were to continue under the banners of the American Protective Association and the Whitecap movement, among others. The growth, decline and transformation of the 20th century Klan has no connection with the original Klan, other than the name. Confederate Lieutenant General and Klan first (and only) Grand Wizard, Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877), was an Entered Apprentice of Angorona Lodge No. 168 in Memphis, Tennessee. There is no record of his having progressed further or having been active in Freemasonry. Although twentieth century Klan organizer Colonel William J. Simmons was a Freemason, he was also a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Odd Fellows, and eight other lodges. He was never a Grand Lodge or Lodge officer in Freemasonry. There is no available documentation that Edward Y. Clarke or David Curtis Stephenson were Freemasons. As a counterpoint, note that famous slavery abolitionist, John Brown was at one time, an active Freemason, while the two major proponents of the Ku Klux Act, Benjamin F. Butler and John Scott were also active Freemasons. As always, it should be stressed that regular Freemasonry is not concerned with politics, leaving its members to act as their conscience dictates. For further information and citations, view http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/kkk.html. II
SYMBOLS
Masonry has traditionally been associated with Pythagoras, and among
Pythagoreans, the pentagram was a symbol of health and knowledge; the
pentagram is consequently associated with initiation, as it is in Masonic
iconography.
The pentagram (also called pentacle, pentalpha, pentacle, pentagle, or
pentangle) is thought by some occultists to trace its esoteric significance to
an astronomical observance of the pattern of Venus'
conjunctions with the Sun and has had many meanings in many cultures through
the ages. It is only from the fact that it forms the outlines of the
five-pointed star to represent the "Five Points of Fellowship" that
it has any Masonic significance. It has no relationship to the Blazing Star,
which has no specified number of points.
The use of a five pointed star in some Grand Lodge seals and banners as
well as on the collar of office worn by the Masters of Lodges and Grand
Masters of Grand Lodges is of interest to students of Masonic history and art.
But its absence from the ritual and lessons of Freemasonry point out that its
value is ornamental and any symbolic value is a matter of personal
interpretation or opinion.
Those who would freeze the angle of the compasses in the Masonic square and
compasses at 72° to equate it with the pentagram, ignore the many representations
which set the angle at anywhere between 60° and 68° , and in some older
examples, at 90°.
"The Medieval Freemason considered it a symbol of deep wisdom, and it
is found among the architectural ornaments of most of the ecclesiastical
edifices of the Middle Ages." 1 Éliphas
Lévi claimed, with no justification or historical precedent, that one
point upward represents the good principle and one downward, the evil. 2
The pentalpha seems to have been widely used in Christianity, and may even
be found in certain Gnostic sects. It is commonly known as the "Star of
Bethlehem," the "Star of the East," or "Star of
Solomon," and is a symbol of Divine guidance.
It was appropriated in the mediaeval period as a charm to ward off demons,
evil spirits and witches, which seems to be the root source of its common
association with modern wicca and satanism.
Few masonic writers will say Freemasons are luciferians, none will say they
are Satanists. They use "luciferian" to denote a spirit of enquiry
and a search for knowledge, wisdom and truth; not as a form of worship. The
terms "lucifer" and "luciferian" do not appear in any
recognized ritual or lecture of Freemasonry (See Section
VIII, Subsection 3.)
Of the four men involved in designing the USA seal in 1776, only Benjamin
Franklin was a Mason, and he contributed nothing of a Masonic nature to the
committee's proposed design for a seal. The committee's members were Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams, with Pierre Du Simitiere as artist
and consultant.1
Du Simitiere, the committee's consultant and a non-Mason, contributed
several major design features that made their way into the ultimate design of
the seal: "the shield, E Pluribus Unum, MDCCLXXVI, and the eye of
providence in a triangle."2
Congress declined the first committees suggestions as well as those of its
1780 committee. Francis Hopkinson, consultant to the second (1782) committee,
used an unfinished pyramid in [his] design. Charles Thomson, Secretary of
Congress, and William Barton, artist and consultant, borrowed from earlier
designs and sketched what at length became the United States Seal. None of the
final designers of the seal were Masons.
"The single eye was a well-established artistic convention for an
'omniscient Ubiquitous Deity' in the medallic art of the Renaissance. In 1614
the frontispiece of The History of the World by Walter Raleigh showed
an eye in a cloud labeled "Providentia" overlooking a globe. Du
Simitiere, who suggested using the symbol, collected art books and was
familiar with the artistic and ornamental devices used in Renaissance
art."3
The misinterpretation of the seal as a Masonic emblem may have been first
introduced a century later in 1884. Harvard professor, Eliot Norton, wrote
that the reverse was "practically incapable of effective treatment; it
can hardly, (however artistically treated by the designer), look otherwise
than as a dull emblem of a Masonic fraternity."4
The first "official" use and definition of the all-seeing eye as
a Masonic symbol seems to have come in 1797 with The Freemasons Monitor
of Thomas Smith Webb--14 years after Congress adopted the design for the Seal:
"...and although our thoughts, words and actions, may be hidden from the
eyes of man yet that All-Seeing Eye, whom the Sun Moon and Stars obey, and
under whose watchful care even comets perform their stupendous revolutions,
pervades the inmost recesses of the human heart, and will reward us according
to our merits."5
A pyramid has never been a uniquely Masonic symbol, although a few Grand
Lodge jurisdictions incorporate it into their seals. The eye inside of an
equilateral triangle, point up or down, has often appeared in both Masonic and
religious art. The combining of the eye of providence overlooking an
unfinished pyramid is a uniquely American, not Masonic, icon.
A number of conspiracy
theorists, such as Jordan
Maxwell, have claimed that the eye and pyramid symbol is printed in
Bavarian Illuminati texts found in the British Museum. No citations or
references are given, although mention is also sometimes made to UFOs and
extraterestrials. The dust jacket illustration for the 1972 hardcover edition
of None
Dare Call it Conspiracy includes the eye and pyramid symbol. Although
passing mention is made inside to the Illuminati, no mention is made to the
seal. III
PEOPLE
To suggest that Ashmole introduced Solomon's legend into the masonic ritual
is to ignore the Sloane
Manuscript (No. 3329, British Museum) or the rituals of the 12th
century French stonemason corporation, Compagnonage. They clearly show
that operative masons were familiar with the legend. Ashmole's reputation with
his contemporaries was that of an antiquarian and historian, not a ritualist.
And unfortunately he never got around to writing a history of the Craft.
His Novum Organum and later work, The New Atlantis
"exerted a considerable and beneficial influence on the manners of his
age"1
. Simply put, he proposed that truth is not derived from authority and that
knowledge is the fruit of experience. In his utopian allegory The New
Atlantis, Bacon wrote of a 'House of Solomon': a college of scientific
observation and research.
His association with, or influence on, Freemasonry is questionable. If he
was initiated or active in any operative or speculative Masonic lodge, no
record is known. Christoph Nicolai wrote that Lord Bacon had taken hints from
the writings of John Andrea2
, the founder of Rosicrucianism and his English disciple, Fludd3
and that his ideas heavily influenced Elias Ashmole.4
Christoph Nicolai claims that Ashmole and others used Masons' Hall, London
to conceal their secret political efforts to restore the exiled house of
Stuart and to build an allegorical 'Solomon's House'.5
The New Atlantis did exert a strong influence on the formation of the
Society of Astrologers with Elias Ashmole in 1646 and they did meet at Masons'
Hall. Many members of this society also became Freemasons. If they had any
influence on the ritual or doctrines of Freemasonry, it is not apparent, from
what few records remain.
Albert Mackey refers to Nicolai's theory on the Bacon inspired origin of
the Grand Lodge of England as "peculiar."6
Author of Morals
and Dogma, he extracted much from earlier authors, such that the
book's preface reads: "Perhaps it would have been better and more
acceptable, if he had extracted more and written less." The preface also
states that, "Every one is entirely free to reject or dissent from
whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound."
Albert
Pike is popular with anti-masons for three reasons. Firstly, Léo
Taxil falsely accused him of claiming that the god of Freemasonry was
Lucifer (Note his public
confession); secondly, Susan
L. Davis and Walter L. Fleming, without documentation or proof, claimed
him as a leader of the Ku Klux Klan; and thirdly, Pike's extensive writings
are easily quoted out of context to demonstrate pagan or occult leanings.
In the strongly anti-Church climate existing throughout France, Léo Taxil
believed that he would find a ready market for anticlerical publications. He
wrote anti-Catholic satires, poking fun at church leaders. In hopes of
gathering anti-Church material, Taxil joined the lodge Le Temple de L'Honneur
Français in Paris in 1881. His true character quickly surfaced, and he was
expelled from the lodge before going beyond the first degree. Over the
succeeding years, his anti-Catholic writing brought him very little income but
earned him a great deal of criticism and condemnation from the clergy. He
needed another target for his literary talents.
Léo Taxil confessed on April 23, 1885 to the sins he had committed in
writing and publishing anti-Catholic pamphlets. He then began writing a series
condemning the Freemasons. Titles include: The Three-point Brothers; The
Anti-Christ and the Origin of Masonry; The Cult of the Great Architect;
The
Legend of Pope Pius IX as a Mason and The Masonic Assassins.
Taxil honed the simple declaration, "Lucifer is God," and
attributed it to Albert
Pike, supposedly delivered to Freemasons in Paris on Bastille Day, July
14, 1889. (See
Section VI Subsection 2)
He also coined the non-existent title, "Sovereign Pontiff of Universal
Freemasonry", for Pike. Of the hundreds of Masonic bodies in the world at
that time, Pike was the leader of just one, the Southern Jurisdiction of the
Scottish Rite. A blatant fraud, Taxil's forgery was a huge success.
On April 19,1897, Taxil used his celebrity status to attract a large
audience to a meeting in Paris. Journalists came, along with members of the
Catholic hierarchy. There Taxil announced that every word written about
Masonic devil worship was the
product of his own fertile imagination. A Paris newspaper published the
thirty-three page text of his speech
the following week. The incorrigible opportunist moved away from Paris to a
stately home in the country, where he enjoyed a comfortable life until his
death at the age of fifty-three, in 1907.
An English translation of Taxil's published
confession appeared in in Volume 5 for 1996 of the Scottish Rite Southern
Jurisdiction's education journal, Heredom, edited by S. Brent Morris.
No individual speaks for Freemasonry so Masonic membership is no real
criterion for evaluating views, opinions, conclusions, or actions. One list of
Freemasons can be found at: http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/textfiles/famous.html
American President George Bush? Miss Diana Vaughan? Was Joseph Stalin a Martinist Freemason? Karl Marx? American President Millard Fillmore? The architects of Washington DC? IV
FREEMASONRY
There are three degrees in Freemasonry, Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and
Master Mason. Some jurisdictions recognize a fourth degree as completing the
third degree, while the Swedish
Rite confers 10 degrees.
Individual lodges elect their "Master" for a one or two year
term, individual Grand Lodges elect their "Grand Master" for a
similar term of office, but these are not degrees. What are called appendant
or concordant bodies confer "side" degrees that have no bearing on,
or authority over, regular Freemasonry. [With the exception of a few
jurisdictions such as the Grand East of the Netherlands and the National Grand
Lodge of Sweden.] The most important concept to note is that Freemasons meet
as equals, "on the level".
Those Grand Lodges that don't use the appellation "Ancient",
claim immediate descent from the "Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons
under the constitution of England".
This Grand Lodge was constituted from four lodges on June 24, 1717 and
designated "Modern", or premier. The "Moderns" and
"Ancients" united in November 25, 1813 to form the United Grand
Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England.
Lodges and Grand Lodges whose charters' roots derive from the United Grand
Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of England, The Grand Lodge of Ireland, or the
Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland, use the
expression, A.'.F.'.& A.'.M.'.
Ancient or Antient Freemasons: Free: Free and Accepted : Accepted: Although a few individual Masonic authors have commented unfavorably on
individual religions, many more have written about the value of religion and
religions. Freemasonry as a body is indifferent to religion,
insofar as it has no opinion on individual religions.
No recognized Grand Lodge jurisdiction can coerce or compel membership. If
a member wishes to cease being a Freemason, he is free to do so. (Visit the
Grand Lodge of British Columbia website at http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/Writings/member.html
to see how one jurisdiction treats the issue.) V
HISTORY
The Edicts (on June 22, 1784, for its suppression) of the Elector of
Bavaria were repeated in March and August, 1785 and the Order began to
decline, so that by the end of the eighteenth century it had ceased to
exist.... it exercised while in prosperity no favorable influence on the
Masonic Institution, nor any unfavorable effect on it by its
dissolution."(2) Coil describes the Order as a "short lived,
meteoric and controversial society"(3) while Kenning refers to it as a
"mischievous association".(4) In his own defence, Weishaupt did say: As regards any information derived from celebrated anti-mason, John Robison
(6): "In the (London) "Monthly Magazine" for January 1798 there
appeared a letter from Bottiger, Provost of the College of Weimar, in reply to
Robison's work, charging that writer with making false statements, and
declaring that since 1790 'every concern [sic] of the Illuminati has ceased.'
Bottiger also offered to supply any person in Great Britain, alarmed at the
erroneous statements contained in the book above mentioned, with correct
information." (7) Documented evidence would suggest that the Bavarian
Illuminati was nothing more than a curious historical footnote.
Hesychasts: Hesychasm is a form of Eastern Christian monastic
life requiring uninterrupted prayer. Dating from the 13th century, it was
confirmed by the Orthodox Church in 1341, 1347 and 1351, and popularized by
the publication of the Philokalia in 1782.
Alumbrados: (Spanish for 'enlightened') Members of a mystical
movement similar to the French Guerinets, in 16th century Spain; for the most
part they were reformed Jesuits and Franciscans. They believed that the human
soul could enter into direct communication with the Holy Spirit and, due to
their extravagant claims of visions and revelations, had three edicts issued
against them by the Inquisition. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits in
1534 and composer of the 'Constitutions" of the Society of Jesus, has
written nothing that would suggest he was in sympathy with the Alumbrados.(8)
The name translates as 'illuminati' in Italian but the name is the only
similarity with the later Bavarian Illuminati.
Geurinets: 17th century France.
Illuminati of Avignon: Formed by Pernetti in Avignon, France in
1770; moved to Montpellier as the "Acadamy of True Masons" in 1778.
Inactive.
Illuminates of Stockholm: The Illuminated Chapter of Swedish
Rite Freemasonry is currently composed of approximately 60 Past or current
Grand Lodge officers who have received the honorary 11th degree.
Illuminated Theosophists or Chastanier's Rite: A 1767
modification of Pernetti's "Hermetic Rite" that later merged with
the London Theosophical Society in 1784. Inactive.
Concordists: A secret order established in Prussia by M. Lang, on
the wreck of the Tugendverein (German for the Union of the Virtuous), which
latter Body was instituted in 1790 as a self-styled successor of the Bavarian
Illuminati. It was suppressed in 1812 by the Prussian Government, on account
of its supposed political tendencies.(9)
Order of the Iluminati: Formed by masonic degree-monger, Karl
Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), in Munich and Berlin.
Die Alte Erleuchtete Seer Bayerns (Ancient Enlightened Seers of
Bavaria, Reformed) Allegedly founded in 1947 by employees of the Munich
newspaper, "Suddeutsche Zeitung," there are unsubstantiated claims
linking the group to Adam Weishaupt. Claiming some 100 members in Bavaria,
Baden-Wurttenburg and Thuringia, they have disavowed ritual, and keep
organised structure to a minimum.[Marc
Lachance]
The following is a well researched compilation of proven Freemasons:
(e) Generals in George Washington's Continental Army: (f) Presidents of the Continental Congresses (1774-89): (h) Chief Justices of the United States:
A curious distortion
of the historical record; in fact Edward the boy king, or his regent, was
actually sensitive to the needs of stoneworkers and their guilds, as can be
seen from a perusal of his statutes VI
HOAXES AND FRAUDS
The conceptual inspiration for the Protocols can be traced back to
the time of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. At that
time, a French Jesuit named Abbé Barruel, representing reactionary elements
opposed to the revolution, published in 1797 a treatise blaming the Revolution
on a secret conspiracy operating through the Order of Freemasons. Barruel's
idea was nonsense, since the French nobility at the time was heavily
Masonic, but he was influenced by a Scottish mathematician named Robison who
was opposed to the Masons. In his treatise, Barruel did not himself blame the
Jews, who were emancipated as a result of the Revolution. However, in 1806,
Barruel circulated a forged letter, probably sent to him by members of the
state police opposed to Napoleon Bonaparte's liberal policy toward the Jews,
calling attention to the alleged part of the Jews in the conspiracy he had
earlier attributed to the Masons. This myth of an international Jewish
conspiracy reappeared later on in 19th century Europe in places such as
Germany and Poland.
The direct predecessor of the Protocols can be found in the pamphlet
"Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu", published
by the non-Jewish French satirist Maurice Joly in 1864. In his
"Dialogues", which make no mention of the Jews, Joly attacked the
political ambitions of the emperor Napoleon III using the imagery of a
diabolical plot in Hell. The "Dialogues" were caught by the French
authorities soon after their publication and Joly was tried and sentenced to
prison for his pamphlet.
Joly's "Dialogues", while intended as a political satire, soon
fell into the hands of a German antisemite named Hermann Goedsche writing
under the name of Sir John Retcliffe. Goedsche was a postal clerk and a spy
for the Prussian secret police. He had been forced to leave the postal work
due to his part in forging evidence in the prosecution against the Democratic
leader Benedict Waldeck in 1849. Goedsche adapted Joly's "Dialogues"
into a mythical tale of a Jewish conspiracy as part of a series of novels
entitled "Biarritz", which appeared in 1868. In a chapter called
"The Jewish Cemetery in Prague and the Council of Representatives of the
Twelve Tribes of Israel", he spins the fantasy of a secret centennial
rabbinical conference which meets at midnight and whose purpose is to review
the past hundred years and to make plans for the next century.
Goedsche's plagiary of Joly's "Dialogues" found its way to
Russia. It was translated into Russian in 1872, and a consolidation of the
"council of representatives" under the name "Rabbi's
Speech" appeared in Russian in 1891. These works furnished the Russian
secret police (Okhrana) with a means with which to strengthen the position of
the weak Czar Nicholas II and discredit the reforms of the liberals who
sympathized with the Jews. During the Dreyfus case of 1893-1895, agents of the
Okhrana in Paris redacted the earlier works of Joly and Goedsche into a new
edition which they called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The
manuscript of the Protocols was brought to Russia in 1895 and was
printed privately in 1897.
The Protocols did not become public until 1905, when Russia's defeat
in the Russo-Japanese War was followed by the Revolution in the same year,
leading to the promulgation of a constitution and institution of the Duma. In
the wake of these events, the reactionary "Union of the Russian
Nation" or Black Hundreds organization sought to incite popular feeling
against the Jews, who they blamed for the Revolution and the Constitution. To
this end they used the Protocols, which was first published in a public
edition by the mystic priest Sergius Nilus in 1905. The Protocols were
part of a propaganda campaign which accompanied the pogroms of 1905 inspired
by the Okhrana. A variant text of the Protocols was published by George
Butmi in 1906 and again in 1907. The edition of 1906 was found among the
Czar's collection, even though he had already recognized the work as a
forgery. In his later editions, Nilus claimed that the Protocols had
been read secretly at the First Zionist Congress at Basle in 1897, while Butmi
in his edition wrote that they had no connection with the new Zionist
movement, but rather were part of the Masonic conspiracy.
In the civil war following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the
reactionary White Armies made extensive use of the Protocols to incite
widespread slaughters of Jews. At the same time, Russian emigrants brought the
Protocols to western Europe, where the Nilus edition served as the
basis for many translations, starting in 1920. Just after its appearance in
London in 1920, Lucien Wolf exposed the Protocols as a plagiary of the
earlier work of Joly and Goedsche, in a pamphlet of the Jewish Board of
Deputies. The following year, in 1921, the story of the forgery was published
in a series of articles in the London Times by Philip Grave, the
paper's correspondent in Constantinople. A whole book documenting the forgery
was also published in the same year in America by Herman Bernstein.
Nevertheless, the Protocols continued to circulate widely. They were
even sponsored by Henry Ford in the United States until 1927, and formed an
important part of the Nazis' justification of genocide of the Jews in World
War II.
The complete debunking of the Protocols has not stopped their
continued circulation. In an attempt to negate the refutation, William
Guy Carr claimed in 1958 that the Protocols were actually an older
document recording a speech by Mayer Rothschild in 1773. This claim is
occasionally repeated, although Carr provided no justification, documentation
or citation for an accusation founded on his paranoid fears of international
communism and banking.
What follows is a forgery by Léo
Taxil, falsely identified as part of a speech and written order which Albert
Pike was supposed to have delivered to Freemasons on Bastille Day, July
14, 1889:
No one in regular Freemasonry ever held the title of "Sovereign
Pontiff." Also, the title "Universal Freemasonry" has never
been used, since there is no such organization. Of the hundreds of Masonic
bodies in the world at that time, Pike was the leader of just one, the
Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite. In spite of its blatant
fraudulence, Taxil's publicly
confessed forgery was a huge success. (See Section
III Subsection 7.)
This lie was unwittingly reprinted in Abel Clarin de la Rive's La Femme
et L'Enfant dans la Franc-Maçonnerie Universelle(1894) and later copied
by Lady Queensborough, (Edith Starr Miller), in her Occult Theocracy,published
in two volumes in 1933. De
la Rive retracted his support of Taxil and any of his creations in the
April 1897 issue of Freemasonry Disclosed,
He remained a member of the Craft from his initiation into the Lodge at
Fredericksburg, Virginia No. 4 on Nov 4, 1752 until the day he died on
December 14, 1799, when he then, at his widow's request, received a Masonic
funeral.
The compiler, Doeg Moench, DC Comics and Time Warner Entertainment Company
have avoided actionable libel by including a carefully worded
"Publisher's note", defining conspiracy theories as opinions, which
may or may not be true, inferring relationships between facts, which may in
fact have no relationship, and drawing conclusions without any other proof.
Most of the fanciful claims made in this "comic book" are
addressed in this FAQ. Errors in facts and specific claims regarding
Freemasons are detailed and refuted in the "Big
Book page".
American President, John F. Kennedy, gave an address to a gathering of
newspaper publishers on April 27, 1961. The full text, available from the
Kennedy Library in Massachusetts, shows that, in context, Kennedy was
criticizing the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This excerpt makes
it clear that Kennedy's concern was government, not fraternities:
It does not take much imagination to look at a map
of Washington, DC and see the outline of a five pointed star in the
streets to the north of the White House. But the assumptions required to
believe that this arbitrary geometric shape reveals a secret political or
occult agenda have no foundation.
One has to assume that the pentagram is a uniquely evil symbol, highly
valued by Freemasons who believe that its physical representation can have a
real impact on the world and that Freemasons are responsible for intentionally
including it in Washington's street plan.
None of these assumptions bear scrutiny. First, the pentagram
is not an exclusively satanic symbol nor does it have any particular Masonic
significance. Second, Freemasonry, promoting rationalism, places no power in
symbols themselves. It is not a part of Freemasonry to view the drawing of
symbols, no matter how large, as an act of consolidating or controlling power.
Third, there is no published information establishing the Masonic membership
of the men responsible for the street plan. Although Freemason George
Washington commissioned Pierre Charles L'Enfant and approved the
streetplan executed by Andrew Ellicott and Benjamin Bannecker, it was the
work of non-masons.
Drawing lines on a map of Washington, DC proves nothing other than the
physical existence of streets and buildings. VII
ARE THE MASONS
RESPONSIBLE FOR [insert event]?
"Not only did Freemasonry have no
part in instigating the movement but it was one of the principal
sufferers... and the majority of Paris Masters lost their lives." Before
the Revolution the Grand Orient of France had 67 lodges in Paris and 463 in
the Provinces, Colonies and Foreign Countries; the Grand Lodge had 88 in Paris
and 43 outside. During the Revolution only two or three of the Paris lodges
kept open.(1)
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was initiated into Army Philadelphe Lodge in
1798. His brothers, Joseph, Lucian, Louis and Jerome, were also Freemasons.
Five of the six members of Napoleon's Grand Councel of the Empire were
Freemasons, as were six of the nine Imperial Officers and 22 of the 30
Marshals of France.
French General of the Revolutionary Army, Jean Victor Moreau (1763-1813)
was one time Master of Loge Parfaite Union in Rennes, France. He headed the
Republican and Royalist conspiracy against Napoleon. (2)
In brief, William Morgan was an itinerant worker who settled in Batavia in
1824. He managed to convince the Masons of Batavia that he was a Mason and
participated in Lodge activities, made speeches and visited other Lodges. He
signed a petition for the formation of a Royal Arch Chapter in Batavia, but
some other Masons questioned his Masonic legitimacy. Another Royal Arch
petition was then submitted, which he was not permitted to sign. Morgan was
furious about this, and vowed revenge. He agreed to work with David Miller,
the publisher or the Batavia Advocate, the local newspaper, and several
partners, in the publication of a book exposing Freemasonry. The project was
made public and there was pandemonium among the Masons of Batavia and the
surrounding towns in western New York, leading ultimately to his disappearance
on September 19th, 1826. It is generally agreed that William Morgan was taken
to Canada by Masons and there given $500 and a horse, with the agreement that
he never return. However, despite a lack of evidence, rumors persisted that he
had been murdered.
Those involved issued the following statement;
Public interest in the affair began about three weeks after Morgan's
disappearance in the form of inflammatory hand-bills printed throughout New
York and Canada accusing the Freemasons of Batavia of abducting and murdering
William Morgan. Conventions
and public meetings were held demanding an investigation and offering
rewards for the discovery and conviction of those involved.
DeWitt Clinton, a distinguished and eminent Mason, was Governor of the
State of New York at the time. He issued proclamations condemning the actions
of those accused of abducting Morgan and secured indictments against the four
men involved in the conspiracy.
The Grand Lodges throughout the United States passed resolutions,
disclaiming all connection or sympathy with the outrage.
Freemasons have played roles in a number of fictional accounts of the death
of John Paul I. None of them are backed by any proof.
Although many participants in the events surrounding Kennedy's
assassination were Freemasons, and a number of accusations have been leveled
by popular authors, there is no evidence or proof that Freemasons were
responsible. (Also see Section
VI Subsection 7 VIII
RELIGION
Freemasonry seeks no converts. Freemasonry has no dogma, cosmology or
theology. Freemasonry offers no sacraments nor does it claim to lead to
salvation by any definition. Freemasonry
is not a religion.
Gnosticism is a religion. Freemasonry is not a religion. There have been
those Masonic writers who have filtered their personal understanding of
Freemasonry through their personal Gnostic beliefs. The same can be said of
Masonic writers of any religious belief.
"Gnostic" is often erroneously used as a pejorative for any
belief or faith that excludes Jesus and has become almost synonymous with
"pagan". It is also often equated with secret writings and concealed
knowledge. Gnosticism, under its own name and at least eight others, was
declared heretical within the first three centuries of the Roman Catholic
Church. Gnosticism, though, is not only an old Catholic heresy, it is also a
living religion.
Gnosticism may be considered a Perso-Babylonian syncretion with three
definable schools, Essenic, Samaritan (Simon Magus), and Alexandrian (Philo),
with the Judaic "Qabala" as an arguable fourth.
Gnostic thought contains four main threads, first; that God is unknowable,
or ineffable, mankind being rude matter cannot comprehend God. Second; that
knowledge, not through intellect, but through special revelation, is an aspect
or emanation from God and therefore superior to faith. Third; that mankind's
goal is redemption of the soul from the material world. And fourth; that
knowledge could only be revealed as the petitioner was trained to understand
it.
With rare exception Gnostic writing had no place for a personal Redeemer or
Savior God. With the knowledge of personal revelation and the proper
passwords, a Gnostic believed that his soul would find its way back to its
creator. The cosmology encompassed a wide range of complex and hotly-debated
explanations for the spiritual mechanics of a dualistic universe composed of a
world of sense-appearance and a realm of real being: matter and God, with
matter being essentially evil.
Gnostic practices ranged from the rigorous ascetism of Saturninus to the
unbridled libertinism of the Ophites. The Gnostic tradition flourished in such
communities as the Essenes and the Ebionites and Carinthus. The ritual was
defined by two extreme schools, one rejecting all sacraments and the other,
mainly Marcosians, developing an extreme symbolism and mystic pomp in worship,
with many sacraments and varied rites.
The only surviving Gnostic community is the Mandeans, found near the lower
reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Gnosticism is a religion, teaching beliefs about God. Freemasonry is not a
religion and does not teach its members what to believe about God.
The name Lucifer was applied to Satan by St. Jerome and then to the demon
of sinful pride by Milton in Paradise Lost. This was a fanciful
development of an original reference confused in translation. The single
reference to Lucifer in the Christian Bible is found in Isaiah
14:12. It was not, in context, a reference to Satan.
"Lucifer" is the term originally used by the Romans to refer to
the planet Venus
when that planet was west of the sun and hence rose before the sun in the
morning, thereby being the morning star.
The word "Satan" is from a Hebrew word, "Saithan",
meaning adversary or enemy.
In literature and poetry, Lucifer, as a reference to a light-bringer, is
often used as a metaphor for knowledge wisdom, or learning.
A more complete explanation can be found at: http://www.bc-freemasonry/Writings/LuciferandSatan.html
Deism is a belief in the existence of a god without accepting revelation;
it is also sometimes mistakenly termed natural religion. Freemasonry does not
deny revelation--Freemasonry simply does not define revelation. Freemasonry,
not being a religion,
does not consider itself qualified to put forward a definition of revelation.
Naturalism is a philosophical standpoint which claims that nothing exists
outside nature. In other words, if God exists, he is part of nature and
subject to its laws. Freemasonry, not being a religion,
does not consider itself qualified to put forward any definition of God. |