Whence came the Moral Law in Freemasonry?

moral law, Thomas Hobbes

The Moral Law is a foundational aspect of the Fraternity if Freemasonry.

Anderson uses the phrase in his Constitution of 1723 without any explanation of what exactly he means in his phrasing of it.  And, increasingly, it is being used as a de facto totem of decision making in violation of litigation and jurisdictional disputes. But in the modern civic age were criminal, civil, federal, and state (and lets not even get into international) laws abound we have in many ways lost sight (if ever we had a clear one) of what exactly the ideas were behind the linking of the “Moral Laws” to the fraternity.  The source is ancient without a doubt, and most likely a challenge to come to any consensus over.  Is the Moral Law from a religious perspective, as in given to man by the Great Architect, or a man-made law constructed with religious ideas but applied in a humanistic manner to apply to our interaction with one another.  And then, how does it apply to Masonry?  Is it a religious injunction or an instruction for how to behave?

At the root are the question then is what the Moral Law is and what is its purpose to be invoked in any decision making.

The first step to see it at the time when it was adopted by Freemasonry is to trace the idea though the ages, and it’s clear that the idea of a moral law has been around for some time. Before we get to these first steps, however, perhaps we should explore what exactly the moral law is.

From Wikipedia, Natural Law is defined as:

Natural law or the law of nature (Latin: lex naturalis) has been described as a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere. As classically used, natural law refers to the use of reason to analyze human nature and deduce binding rules of moral behavior. The phrase natural law is opposed to the positive law (meaning “man-made law”, not “good law”; cf. posit) of a given political community, society, or nation-state, and thus can function as a standard by which to criticize that law. In natural law jurisprudence, on the other hand, the content of positive law cannot be known without some reference to the natural law (or something like it). Used in this way, natural law can be invoked to criticize decisions about the statutes, but less so to criticize the law itself. Some use natural law synonymously with natural justice or natural right (Latin: ius naturale), although most contemporary political and legal theorists separate the two.

It likens the essence of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to the ideas of the Natural Law, something any American reading should be intimately familiar with.

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes

To better encapsulate the idea of the Moral or Natural Law, we need to borrow from the ideas of Thomas Hobbes (a late philosopher who codified it into modern times) who says of the Natural Law that it is “a precept or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or takes away the means of preserving the same; and to omit that by which he thinks it may best be preserved.”

Hobbes breaks the Natural Law down to 19 points which he illustrated in his work Leviathan.

  • The First Law of nature is that every man ought to endeavor peace, as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all help and advantages of war.
  • The Second Law of nature is that a man be willing, when others are so too, as far forth, as for peace, and defense of himself he shall think it necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himself.
  • The Third Law is that men perform their covenants made. In this law of nature consisteth the fountain and original of justice… when a covenant is made, then to break it is unjust and the definition of injustice is no other than the not performance of covenant. And whatsoever is not unjust is just.
  • The Fourth Law is that a man which receives benefit from another of mere grace, endeavor that he which giveth it, has no reasonable cause to repent him of his goodwill. Breach of this law is called ingratitude.
  • The Fifth Law is complaisance: that every man strives to accommodate himself to the rest. The observers of this law may be called sociable; the contrary, stubborn, insociable, forward, intractable.
  • The Sixth Law is that upon caution of the future time, a man ought to pardon the offenses past of them that repenting, desire it.
  • The Seventh Law is that in revenge, men look not at the greatness of the evil past, but the greatness of the good to follow.
  • The Eighth Law is that no man by deed, word, countenance, or gesture, declare hatred or contempt of another. The breach of which law is commonly called contumely.
  • The Ninth Law is that every man acknowledges another for his equal by nature. The breach of this precept is pride.
  • The Tenth Law is that at the entrance into the conditions of peace, no man require to reserve to himself any right, which he is not content should be reserved to every one of the rest. The breach of this precept is arrogance, and observers of the precept are called modest.
  • The Eleventh Law is that if a man is trusted to judge between man and man, that he deal equally between them.
  • The Twelfth Law is that such things as cannot be divided, be enjoyed in common if it can be; and if the quantity of the thing permits, without stint; otherwise proportionably to the number of them that have right.
  • The Thirteenth Law is the entire right, or else…the first possession (in the case of alternating use), of a thing that can neither be divided nor enjoyed in common should be determined by lottery.
  • The Fourteenth Law is that those things which cannot be enjoyed in common, nor divided, ought to be adjudged to the first possessor; and in some cases to the firstborn, as acquired by lot.
  • The Fifteenth Law is that all men that mediate peace be allowed safe conduct.
  • The Sixteenth Law is that they that are at controversies submit their Right to the judgment of an Arbitrator.
  • The seventeenth law is that no man is a fit Arbitrator in his own cause.
  • The Eighteenth Law is that no man should serve as a judge in a case if greater profit or honor, or pleasure apparently ariseth [for him] out of the victory of one party, than of the other.
  • The Nineteenth Law is that in a disagreement of fact, the judge should not give more weight to the testimony of one party than another, and absent other evidence should give credit to the testimony of other witnesses.

Interestingly, we can turn to a religious perspective, coming specifically from a Catholic perspective; where the Natural/Moral Law is applied when the exterior actions of the actor reflect their interior motives as their source. It links the theological virtues to the Law citing Thomas Aquinas in saying that lacking the Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude and the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity, that a moral choice is impossible. (See Aquinas Ethicus: or, the Moral Teaching of St. Thomas. A Translation of the Principal Portions of the second part of the Summa Theologica)

From Wikipedia:

According to Aquinas, to lack any of these virtues is to lack the ability to make a moral choice. For example, consider a man who possesses the virtues of justice, prudence, and fortitude, yet lacks temperance. Due to his lack of self-control and desire for pleasure, despite his good intentions, he will find himself swaying from the moral path.

To fully appreciate this, we must first look to Romans 2:14 when Paul of Tarsis, speaking of the Gentiles says: Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. Interesting to note, this  is something Pike picks up on in his exploration of the 10th degree of Scottish Rite Masonry as he points to the tenants of the “old primitive faiths.”

One has to wonder how this foundational statement from the church became the basis of the Moral Law in Masonry.  It does seem a natural fit – the Cardinal and Theological virtues in conjunction to the other ideas beginning to take shape, but it seems that they were naturally woven in as reasons for being, rather than the basis of the Natural Law.

Anderson in his Constitutions of 1723, says in item I:

A Mason is oblig’d by his Tenure, to obey the moral law; and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist nor an irreligious Libertine.  is speaking to something else, which I suggest is towards John Locke’s idea of the Moral Law.

Cicero, Roman, Philosopher
Roman Philosopher Cicero

A statement, you’ll note, devoid of linkage to the Cardinal and Theological Virtues.  Anderson’s idea of a Moral Law came from somewhere, but where?

Cicero

Perhaps it can be traced back to the time of the Roman Philosopher Cicero whose contribution to the idea was to suggest that:

“…natural law obliges us to contribute to the general good of the larger society.  The purpose of positive laws is to provide for “the safety of citizens, the preservation of states, and the tranquility and happiness of human life.” In this view, “wicked and unjust statutes” are “anything but ‘laws,” because “in the very definition of the term ‘law’ there inheres the idea and principle of choosing what is just and true.” Further that “the virtues which we ought to cultivate, always tend to our own happiness, and that the best means of promoting them consists of living with men in that perfect union and charity which are cemented by mutual benefits.”

John Locke

John Locke, moral lay, philosophy
John Locke

But, to see the Moral Law in a contemporary context, we must look to John Locke, for several reasons, and not just his ideas philosophy.

Locke’s point of the Moral Law was to say,

“the nature of the world is governed by laws and so too is man’s conduct, and that without moral laws, men would not have society; without moral law, trust between men would collapse.” 

Locke’s concept of the Moral Law was a re-working of Hobbes ideas, saying instead that people could justifiably overthrow the existing state and create a new one if the ruler went against natural law.

“Though in a constituted commonwealth, standing upon its own basis, and acting according to its own nature, that is, acting for the preservation of the community, there can be but one supreme power, which is the legislative, to which all the rest are and must be subordinate; yet the legislative being only a fiduciary power to act for certain ends, there remains still “in the people a supreme power to remove or alter the legislative,” when they find the legislative act contrary to the trust reposed in them: for all power given with trust for the attaining an end, being limited by that end: whenever that end is manifestly neglected or opposed, the trust must necessarily be forfeited, and the Power devolve into the hands of those that gave it, who may place it anew where they shall think best for their safety and security.”

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says of Locke’s idea:

“…sense experience proclaims the existence of a supreme lawmaker, a wise creator of the world, which has made man for a purpose. Man, thus has purposes – to contemplate and to procure and preserve his life. Yet the moral law cannot be garnered from consent – from mass or democratic agreement, for the voice of the people is as likely to lead to fallacies and evil. Men’s actual morality may be highly relative, but differences do not undermine the existence of commonalities in the law, hence we should not obey (or follow) others blindly. Nonetheless, the conservative Locke continues to argue that we ought to obey our lawmakers as possessing rightful power over creation, but our obedience should not just be out of fear for the lawmaker’s power, but conscientiously too: we ought to obey it because the magistrate should request morally right action.”

Locke, formerly a firm believer in the Platonic ideal of a good captain steering the ship, came to the idea of leadership having a limit to the extent that he perceived as authority’s reach which we can see when he says “…it cannot be supposed the people should give any one or more of their fellow men authority over them for any other purpose than their own preservation, or extend the limits of their jurisdiction beyond the limits of this life.”

This is important in that It’s been posited that Locke was a Freemason and that perhaps it was his ideas of the Moral Law, especially as they pertained to governance and leadership, pertained to Freemasonry too.

In a paper presented by W.Bro. Ronald Paul Ng titled The Age of Enlightenment and Freemasonry, Br. Ng asks and then answers:

“Was Locke a mason? The answer is probably yes. There is an entry on the “Leland Manuscript” in Albert Mackey’s “Encyclopedia of Freemasonry” in which he quoted a passage by the famous Dr. Oliver in the Freemasons’ Quart. Review, 1840, p 10, where Dr. Oliver said, “… this great philosopher [Locke] was actually residing at Oates, the country-seat of Sir Francis Masham, at the time when the paper [Leland Manuscript] is dated; and shortly afterward he went up to town, where he was initiated into Masonry. These facts are fully proved by Locke’s Letters to Mr. Molyneux, dated March 30 and July2, 1696.”

In his essay, Br. Ng talks on several levels about how Locke’s ideas may have permeated into the Freemasons, including religious toleration and the process of learning by experience.  But, in this context, did Locke’s ides of a Moral Law follow him also into the Lodge, if not in the letter then in spirit?

The Moral Law

It seems that in combination of both the religious and humanist application, one which at the time they were adopted they were likely blurred lines of between, the two were combined into the ideals and principals of Freemasonry.  The Cardinal Virtues and the Theological Virtues tempered into the ideals of a Moral Law to give fairness in action and faith. Both the application of How to be Good Men, and in the principals of getting along in society, come into play now in issues of recognition, jurisprudence, and internal governance and the source of the Moral Law has to be of consideration in some way when acting in a way that invokes a Moral Law as the basis of the decision. Is it as Hobbes set down, remodeled by Locke, or is it in the manner of Paul of Tarsis in speaking of the faith of the Gentiles? Or, is it in a more oblique Catholic manner in applying the Cardinal and Theological virtues, something unmistakable to every Mason in his perception?

Further still, is it something older and less tangible like the ideas of Cicero in that the Natural Laws are laws that cannot in fact be laws, because to be so, they invalidate there very natural state if looked at as such?

What stands out in greatest resonance with Masonry is Cicero’s remark,

“the virtues which we ought to cultivate, always tend to our own happiness, and that the best means of promoting them consists in living with men in that perfect union and charity which are cemented by mutual benefits.”

This seem to best build the foundation of Hobbes and Locke to identify the Moral Law in Freemasonry and giving us a place to then make decisions from – perfect union and charity…cemented by mutual benefits.

Thanksgiving Vespers

quotes to inspire on the thanksgiving holiday
The first Thanksgiving

All of us at Freemason Information would like to offer you a happy and hearty Thanksgiving. Here is one of my favorite Thanksgiving Blessings from  Arthur R. Herrmann at the Masonic Poets Society.

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Oh, Lord, now this we’re thankful for:
The good things life has held in store;
The love of those within our home,
And friends to greet wherever we roam;
The health and strength wherewith to toil,
The bounteous food from freedom’s soil;
We thank Thee for the right to pray
And worship Thee in our own way;
To live within a land that’s free;
For this, dear Lord, our thanks to Thee;
And through these blessings, one by one,
May Thy will, Lord, on earth be done!

This collection of seemingly unrelated passages all seem to speak to the promise of a new world, a “new Jerusalem“, a crowning jewel of the world. It is to that vision that we are thankful for and celebrate this day. I am thankful for my country, its warts, blemishes and all. We daily strive to build our collective city upon a hill.

Happy Thanksgiving.

…for we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us…
John Winthrop

“God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have. For I will impart unto thee, for the love of God and men, a relation of the true state of Solomon’s House. Son, to make you know the true state of Solomon’s House, I will keep this order. First, I will set forth unto you the end of our foundation. Secondly, the preparations and instruments we have for our works. Thirdly, the several employments and functions whereto our fellows are assigned. And fourthly, the ordinances and rites which we observe.

“The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible….

… I give thee leave to publish it, for the good of other nations; for we here are in God’s bosom, a land unknown.”
Francis Bacon – The New Atlantis.

Dore_paradisio14

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Revelation 21:1-3

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
– George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though our mouths were full of song as the sea,
and our tongues of exultation as the multitude of its waves,
and our lips of praise as the wide-extended firmament;
though our eyes shone with light like the sun and the moon,
and our hands were spread forth like the eagles of heaven,
and our feet were swift as hinds,
we should still be unable to thank thee and bless thy name,
O Lord our God and God of our fathers,
for one thousandth or one ten thousandth part of the bounties
which thou has bestowed upon our fathers and upon us.
– from the Hebrew Prayer Book

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.
– H.U. Westermayer

Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them, and the evils of it bear patiently and calmly; for this day only is ours: we are dead to yesterday, and we are not yet born to the morrow. When our fortunes are violently changed, our spirits are unchanged, if they always stood in the suburbs and expectation of sorrows and reverses. The blessings of immunity, safeguard, liberty, and integrity deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life.
– Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, Intendant of the Building

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
– Eric Hoffer, Reflections On The Human Condition

Thanks are justly due for boons unbought.
– Ovid

Find the good and praise it.
– Alex Haley

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.
– Charles Dickens

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union. It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
– Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863
from the collection of Lincoln’s papers in the Library of America series

Perspectives on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism

Perspectives on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism

Perspectives on American Freemasonry and FraternalismRegistration is now open for the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library symposium

Perspectives on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism

April 11, 2014

From the Library:

The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library announces its symposium, Perspectives on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism, to be held Friday, April 11, 2014.

This day-long symposium seeks to present the newest research on American fraternal groups from the past through the present. By 1900, over 250 American fraternal groups existed, numbering six million members. The study of their activities and influence in the United States, past and present, offers the potential for new interpretations of American society and culture.

The symposium program is as follows:

  • “’The Farmer Feeds Us All’: The Origins and Evolution of a Grange Anthem,” Stephen Canner, Independent Scholar
  • “Painted Ambition: Notes on Some Early Masonic Wall Painting,” Margaret Goehring, Assistant Professor of Art History, New Mexico State University
  • “The Colored Knights of Pythias,” Stephen Hill, Sr., Phylaxis Society
  • “Mid-Nineteenth Century Masonic Lodges: Middle-Class Families in the Absence of Women,” Kristen M. Jeschke, Adjunct Professor, DeVry University
  • “Pilgrimage and Procession: The Knights Templar Triennial Conclaves and the Dream of the American West,” Adam Geoffrey Kendall, Henry Wilson Coil Library & Museum of Freemasonry, Grand Lodge of F. & A.M. of California
  • “Bragging Brethren and Solid Sisters? Contrasting Mobilization Patterns Among Male and Female Orders During the Spanish-American War,“ Jeffrey Tyssens, Professor of Contemporary History, Vrije Universiteit Brussels
  • Participants’ choice of a staff-led tour of “A Sublime Brotherhood: Two Hundred Years of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction,” a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum collections or a tour of highlights from the Van Gorden-Williams Library and Archives.

Registration, open now through March 21, 2014, is $65 ($60 for Museum members) and includes morning refreshments, lunch, and a closing reception. The registration form with full instructions and details can be found on the Museum’s website at www.monh.org.

For more information, contact Hilary Anderson Stelling, Director of Exhibitions and Audience Development, at hstelling@monh.org or 781-457-4121.

The symposium is funded in part by the Supreme Council, 33°, N. M. J., U. S. A.

The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library is dedicated to presenting exhibitions and programs on a wide variety of topics in American history and popular culture. The Museum is supported by the Scottish Rite Freemasons in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States. The Museum is located at 33 Marrett Road in Lexington at the corner of Route 2A and Massachusetts Avenue. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission to the Museum is free. For further information contact the Museum at 781-861-6559.

More info at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, Inc. – National Heritage Museum 

Devil Gets His Due

Remember back at the beginning of 2013 when Mercedes-Benz ran an ad featuring Willem Dafoe as the devil seductively attempting to buy the soul of a young man for the price of a car?  In the ad, you may recall, the devilish antagonist (Dafoe) attempts to seduce a young man to trade his soul for a life of glitz, celebrity and excess that comes from owning a spiffy new Benz.

If you haven’t seen the new commercial yet, have a look for yourself of what change looks like.

(The video has since been taken offline)

Just in case you missed it in the spot, you can clearly see the devil’s new ring at the bottom of this post.

The devil, however, was no red pajama wearing horned jape with a pitchfork and pointy tail.  Rather, Mercedes portrayed him as a suave, well coiffed debonair gentleman (albeit with pointy fingernails) who also happens to be wearing an easily recognizable Masonic ring.

Right as the commercial starts, the Square and Compass was almost immediately noticeable (albeit in a quick flash on the screen).  Seeing it used this way took more than a few by surprise.  The original video published on YouTube has been taken down but you can still find it with a quick search.

Recently, the ad, featuring Kate Upton, Usher and of course Willem Dafoe, from February’s big football game, made its way back on the air waves this time, noticeably, without the use of the Freemason symbolism.  It appears that Mercedes-Benz has removed the square and compass from the original commercial.

How, or why the square and compass came off is a bit of a mystery.  After a brief search, I couldn’t turn up any press release or announcement saying it was being revised.  Maybe this kind of change isn’t the sort of thing you state publicly?

Perhaps the change came from a deluge of comments and messages to Mercedes-Benz on Facebook the day the ad appeared.

Or, perhaps it was the post that went up about it on Mark Koltko-Rivera’s blog Freemasonry: Reality, Myth, and Legend, reposted here alerting those watching the day the commercial aired.

Maybe it was the petition that was started on Change.org (Mercedes-benz: Remove the Masonic Ring shot in your Super Bowl commercial titled, “Soul”. ) asking the iconic world wide brand Mercedes-Benz to, respectfully, remove the sacred symbol and stop a vicious cycle of linking Freemasonry with Satanism.  With more than 2,800 signatures on the petition to date, whose to say if the auto manufacturer and  felt the pressure to remove the tell tale symbol of Freemasonry.

But, change it they have.

Now the commercial, in both its long and short form, no longer bears the distinctive emblem of the fraternity prompting us to say:

Thanks Mercedes-Benz for breaking the cycle of linking Freemasonry and Satanism.

Now who can say that the Freemasons still dosen’t  hold some sway…

Old Ad, New Ring, at 00:12
masonic ring new commercial

And, from later on in the extended cut commercial at 01:19

masonic ring new commercial 2

And, the before and afters:

mercedes changes ring side by side 1

mercedes changes ring side by side 2

Labor Day and the Masonic Nexus

Equality, Fraternity, Justice and Labor.

Can America celebrate Labor Day without celebrating the Laborer?

Could there be a connection between Labor Day and Freemasonry through which they share an intersection in the forgotten halls of history and why we celebrate this national American holiday?

The U.S. Department of Labor defines the Labor Day holiday as a day

…dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

As a day to recognize the common laborer in America, Labor Day can be traced to 1882 when it was first proposed as a holiday by machinist Matthew Maguire who proposed the idea while serving as the secretary of the Central Labor Union of New York.  In just a short time the momentum to make the day a National Holiday grew to a crescendo on the heels of the violent conflict between rail workers and the US military in 1894.

Stemming from, essentially, an unfair control of labor and housing, the Pullman Strike began as the result of a refusal to include reductions in housing costs for the laid-off workers forced to live in the company town of Pullman, today a suburb of Chicago in Illinois.

The town, George Pullman envisioned, would be

a model community, a total environment, superior to that available to the working class elsewhere…[from which] he hoped to avoid strikes, attract the most skilled workers and attain greater productivity as a result of the better health, environment and spirit of his employees.

When laid off workers, who had been forced to live in company housing, were let go the company who owned the town (and the housing therein) refused to lower their rents on company owned properties. The result of the layoff and unaltered rents created undue hardships for the laid off workers and their families who had few options because of the sudden loss of income. Company owner George Pullman refused to address the issue, or go into arbitration over it, prompting a wildcat strike with the local Pullman Palace Car Company.

Drawing from Machinists’ monthly journal, Volume 27, By International Association of Machinists, page 413, 1915, from Wikipedia.

Gradually the work stoppage grew into a national strike organized by the American Railway Union reaching its height when it became a national boycott that included train stoppages through the efforts of close to 250,000 workers in 27 states disrupting national transportation lines, and consequently mail delivery.

With a growing strike, the Federal Government under President Grover Cleveland, procured a court injunction and moved in with the Army to end the boycott and alleviate the obstruction of trains which (carrying mail) ultimately cost $80,000,000 in damage due to riots and sabotage. In the end 13 strikers lay dead and another 57 wounded.

At its conclusion the U.S. Army, with its court injunction, broke the blockade of trains in Lockwood, Montana, precipitating the end of the strike.

In the end the union was dissolved, the trains were moving, mail began to flow, the American Railway Union leader was imprisoned and American workers were given Labor Day as a national holiday six days following the collapse of the strike. 

Interesting to note, President Grover Cleveland, with the full support of Congress, unanimously voted to create the Labor Day holiday we celebrate today in a conciliatory gesture towards American Labor.

In its foundation, the national celebration of the holiday was to exhibit “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations, with the Sunday before the Holiday a Labor Sunday, dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.”

So how does Freemasonry factor into the complex composition of the creation of this national Holiday?

The Masonic Connection

George Mortimer Pullman

As it turns out, the city of Pullman,and its parent company, the Pullman Palace Car Company, were founded by Freemason George Pullman, a member of Renovation Lodge No. 97, in Albion, New York.

Pullman established Pullman Palace Car Company in 1862 with the goal of building luxury train cars with all the amenities of the day. 

In support of his early factory, the Pullman Company constructed a company town, uniquely named Pullman, within which some 4,000 acres housed 6,000 company employees and their dependents, many of whom were at the center of the Pullman Strike and the creation of Labor Day. 

In one entry about the town, it is suggested that employees were required to live in the town even when cheaper housing was nearby.  Reading the Wikipedia entry on the Pullman Company, its easy to see today how the conflict of corporate and worker interest would conflict. It reads:

The company built a company town, Pullman, Illinois on 4,000 acres (16 km²), 14 mi (23 km) south of Chicago in 1880. The town, entirely company-owned, provided housing, markets, a library, churches and entertainment for the 6,000 company employees and an equal number of dependents. Employees were required to live in Pullman, despite the fact that cheaper rentals could be found in nearby communities. One employee is quoted as saying “We are born in a Pullman house, fed from the Pullman shops, taught in the Pullman school, catechized in the Pullman Church, and when we die we shall go to the Pullman Hell”. Alcohol was prohibited in the town, as George Pullman found it a distasteful habit for his workers; though it was available in the company’s Hotel Florence, primarily for the benefit of the hotel guests as it was generally too expensive for laborers.

Pullman, a member of Renovation Lodge No. 97, Albion, New York, in his construction of the city of Pullman converted the swampy southern Chicago landscape into a planned industrial town complete with facilities for a Masonic Temple. The temple housed Palace Lodge No. 765, A.F. & A.M., Pullman R.A.M. Chapter, and Woodlawn-Imperial R. & S.M. Council.

Such was Pullman’s association with Freemasonry that in 1894 he was given a Masonic Cornerstone laying ceremony in honor of his father, Lewis Pullman (also a Freemason), which hosted two hundred Masons from Albion, Medina, Holley, and Lockport who processed along the Main Street for the cornerstone ceremony at Pullman Memorial Universalist Church of Albion, New York, today part of the Unitarian Universalist tradition.

The Labor Connection

Eugene V. Debs

On the other side of the labor dispute was labor leader Eugene V. Debs.  Also a man of great passion, Debs was a man possessed with the welfare and well being of the worker who was greatly involved in the developing American labor movements making five runs for the White House under the Socialist Party, his 1912 run receiving 5.99% of the popular vote on a working man political ticket.  While not a Freemason, Debs was an interesting luminary becoming, the most well known socialist living in America.  As the organizer behind the Pullman Strike and boycott, Debs served a six month jail sentence for violating the federal injunction.

While Debs has no Masonic connection, what is interesting to note are his many associations that were grounded in the foundation of fraternal brotherhood namely in the trade unions which you can see carry the earmarks of that mystical chain of union in his  own motto of “Equality, fraternity and justice.” 

Personal ideals aside, Debs held memberships in several national unions including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Brotherhood of Railway Firemen, the Industrial Workers of the World, and, of course, the American Railway Union.  Through those affiliations, you can get a sense of his passion for epitomizing what it means to be in fellowship with those you are in union with.

Ultimately, Debs passion was the betterment of the working class based on fairness, the basis for which he found in his saying “Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most – that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least.”  This could, perhaps, summarize his involvement with the labor movements.  Today, Debs work is remembered through a Terre Haute Indiana foundation founded in his name, The Eugene V. Debs Foundation, whose mission is to “keep alive the spirit of progressivism, humanitarianism and social criticism epitomized by Debs.

From these two, Pullman and Debs, we can see parallels in passion for brotherhood and, while at odds with the promulgation of those passions, both at the nexus of recognizing the importance of Labor in America.  Pullman, a Freemason, saw at some level the importance of the spiritual need to belong to a fraternal chain of union and Debs the physical political manifestation of that ideal in the real life condition of workers in brotherhood raising the common lot of those whose blood and sweat continue to serve the growth of American prosperity.

From their intersection of history, the Pullman and Debs conflict gave us the Labor Day holiday so that while we take a much appreciated rest at the end of summer we can celebrate the esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations whose efforts have given us this day to be celebrated.

Happy Labor Day.

A Modern History of the OTO

OTO lamen

Originally published on Jan 10, 2013, in the video author and publisher James Wasserman shares his experience in the development of the modern Thelemic movement, some observations on the contemporary scene, and his continued enthusiasm for the spiritual teachings of Aleister Crowley.

Wasserman, you may recall, was a guest on Masonic Central in 2009 discussing his work The Mystery Traditions and other more esoteric topics.

This video was recorded at Swirling Star Lodge of Ordo Templi Orientis in Pompano Beach, Florida.

It includes numerous photos of influential figures in the development of Thelema as well as the early years of TAHUTI Lodge in New York City.

The video offers some interesting insights into the one time Masonic organization Ordo Templi Orientis, better known as the OTO.

More Masonic History.

More on the Orient Templi Orientis

Mitt Romney and the Mormon Masonic Connection

Image from Wikipedia, by Greg Skidmore,

I thought this would be of interest to readers, politics aside.

You can catch the full documentary on Current TV (still in rotation as of the date of this publication), but for this post I wanted to explore a clip from The Mormon Candidate which speaks to the Mormon tradition of swearing “Masonic oaths”.

This tradition, taken in the First Token of the Melchizedek Priesthood, was abandoned in 1990, and was part of the taking a covenant with God in a ritual held in the Mormon Temple.

For those in the know, the ordinance penalties bear striking similarities to Masonic oath traditions which this clip from The Mormon Candidate discusses.

In the clip Church Elder Jeffrey R. Holland agrees that Romney took the ordinance vows (pre-1990) which have similarities to the Masonic rituals in relationship to its pledge toward God.

While it was not the swearing of an oath, Holland says “We do not have penalties in the temple, we used to…the vow that was made was regarding the ordnance, the ordnance of the temple…its similar to a Masonic relationship.”

His oath, Holland says, was “that he [Romney] would not tell anyone about his personal pledge to the Lord.”  Something that Holland opines about any religious candidate “…any religious candidate…who has a relationship to God has made a pledge of some kind to God, there should be some kind of loyalty to God, or what kind of God is that?”

Prior to 1990, those vows were accompanied with penalty oaths recognizable to any Mason around the world in their Masonic context which seem to have parallels to past Mormon ritual signs and penalties.

But the connection between Mormonism and Masonry has been a long and, at times, contentious one explored by more than a few scholars.

Most of those scholars suggest that while a few gestures and grips don’t go far enough to bridge the gap between Freemasonry and Mormonism, some Mormons find that Joseph Smith adopted the Masonic rituals for the Mormon endowment integrating many of the broad stroke ideas and subtle articulations of the Fraternity like the points of fellowship, the grips, signs and penalties.  And why not?  Many of those in close association with Smith, at the time of his founding of the faith tradition, were Freemasons.

Yet, the road between Masonry and Mormonism are fraught with ideological landmines and eschatological paradigms.  It makes for an interesting exercise to explore the links between Masonry and Mormonism along with their parallels and differences akin to the perennial quest to answer which came first, the chicken or the egg.

The take away from this for me is that Mormonism likely adopted some Masonic elements and attributes into the creation of the religious tradition.  While still without complete agreement, this seems to be the prevailing opinion between scholars who suggest that Mormonism is a continuity of the Mormon and Masonic traditions with differences in the meaning of the activity.  Certainly, the church Elder sees the similarities, a fact which he openly agrees with.

If you can catch The Mormon Candidate on Current TV, I think it will give you a bird’s eye view of Romney’s faith behind the politics at the intersection of religious observance on the road to the White House.

Update – You can watch the full video, while it’s on YouTube, below.

Usain Bolt and the Masonic Ring.

This should be filed under the material culture of Freemasonry, the validity of which is open to interpretation.  Yet, the video illustrates the story itself.

The footage comes from the Usain Bolt’s DJ Challenge channel on YouTube within which the Olympic medalist talks about his love of music from a 2010 spot for the 2010 Singapore Olympic Games.

In the video, at about 10 second mark, you can see his sporting of a gold Masonic ring with a red jewel and  a gold square and compass in the center.

It’s been a topic of conversation in the Godlike Productions conspiracy internet forum which is where I noticed the 2010 video being bantered about a week or so ago.  It was a topic of a photo of the athlete published in a 2010 piece in Jahkno! asking if Bolt was a Freemason then as the same ring is clearly shown on his pinky.

Needless to say, its made for a cavalcade of suggestive connections to the Illuminati, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, and the hip hop underground of secret societies and world domination.

Yet, after a brief search on the web, all that seems to come to the surface are mentions of Bolt’s success because he is a Freemason, world domination from Freemasons, and how the Illuminati is running the world through actors like Bolt nothing readily comes to the surface about his affiliations.  So, I file this one under the material culture of Freemasonry as another example of Masonry in the world.

square and compass, freemasonry, S&C, freemason information

The Masonic Bible

Two interesting “non-Masonic” takes on the Masonic bible.

I have to admit its amusing to me the degree that these are extolled as “satanic” or “evil” which I suppose just goes to show how little is known or understood about the fraternity today from these obviously very old Bibles.

Enjoy

I really like the 2nd video’s bible, lots of images to go along with the content.

If you don’t already have one of your own, you can still pick up a Master Mason Edition Bible on Amazon.

The Great Canopy of the Heavens is falling.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." - Mark Twain - from the North American Review

I was plugging in some numbers from the MSANA recently to update myself on the trend in membership from my original analysis in 2007, the results of which I published in the piece “So what? The Dynamic of Masonic Membership.”

In it you may, or may not want to, recollect the trend of membership numbers from 1960 to a projected 2010. In the piece, the numbers ran in a more or less steady declination of 20% per decade at an increasing clip.

Given our proximity to the fiscal 2010/2011 calendar, I wanted re-calculate the numbers for 2010, and there is some good news to report, but not without a dire observation.

In the last 10 years, the original work projected a 29% decline, but a recalculated 2010 projection (adding in 1999 in lieu of 2010’s numbers) value comes back at only 26% declination. A 3% change is not enough to turn the tide, but it may offer a glimpse of a changing trend which might push out further projected losses based on continued work to increase that change. Or, the 3% change might just represent a smaller pool from which to pull total losses from, reflecting the overall drop in membership – Fewer members to lose from equating to a lower members loss.

The numbers trued up like this:

1999     to     2000
1,902,588   1,841,169   -61419   -3.2%

2000    to    2001
1,841,169   1,774,200   -66969   -3.63%

2001    to    2002
1,774,200   1,727,505  -46695   -2.63%

2002    to    2003
1,727,505   1,671,255   -56250   -3.25%

2003    to    2004
1,671,255    1,617,032   -54223  -3.24%

2004    to    2005
1,617,032    1,569,812   -47220   -2.92%

2005    to    2006
1,569,812   1,525,131    -44681   -2.84%

2006            2007
1,525,131     1,483,449  -41682   -2.73%

2007    to    2008
1,483,449     1,444,823  -38626  -2.60%

2008    to    2009
1,444,823     1,404,059  -40764  -2.82%

Total Decrease -498,529
– 26% 1999 – 2009

Equating to a 26% net loss – less than the two preceding decades, 1990 – 2000 and the projected 29% at the time of writing the original piece in 2007, which is good news. However, before celebrating, the total loss still represents the overall change in data to fall into the established parameters of an in excess of 20% loss moving into the second decade of the 21st century.

An interesting note, the Grand Lodge of New Mexico and the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island both held positive gains in the 2008/2009 fiscal years with increases of 16 and 143 new members (respectively) over their loss, so clearly these two states are doing something in the right direction.

In the original, I made this observation:

The overall calculation led to an extrapolation, if the fraternity lost on average 560,152 members, per decade – from 2010 to 2020, our national number of members would be under 1 million members at 738,303. In ten more years 2020 to 2030 our national member base would be 178,151.

With the data trending in that manner from 1999 to 2009, it would seem that the observation is bearing out with little change, the 20%+ drop rate is trending right as predicted.

So what do we do about it?