The Beginning of Masonry

Brother Frank C. Higgins was the founder of the Magian Society on September 29, 1913, for the study of Masonic symbolism.

Joseph Fort Newton of the Builder Magazine, said of Higgins,

More than once we have called attention, editorially and otherwise, to the admirable work of Brother Frank C. Higgins, of the Magian Society, New York, in his department of Masonic Research in the Masonic Standard. At first it began as a column of inquiry and answer dealing with the Deeper Problems of the meaning of Masonry, but it grew, most happily, into a series of systematic studies, or lessons–Masonry, as Brother Higgins conceives it, being the perpetuation among us, albeit little understood, of the ancient philosophy of Cosmic Harmony which, among the Hebrews, traced everything to the great Jehovah; at once a religious and a scientific pursuit, conducted along mathematical, geometrical and astronomical lines. In this field Brother Higgins is a master, and comes nearer than anyone with whose work we are acquainted, making the treasures of that rich but difflcult culture intelligible to the average reader. In order to call attention again to his researches, and also to express the hope that they may be gathered into permanent form, we venture to reproduce two brief sections of his series of studies dealing with the meaning of initiation. This Society keeps an open and responsive heart toward all its fellow-workers, glad and grateful for any one who toils to make our great and many-sided Masonry more intelligible and effective.

Here again, we seek to gather his work into a permanent form.

The Beginning of Masonry

Frank Higgins, zodiac, Freemasonry

THE ancient Cosmic Science, of which Freemasonry is the modern survival, gives the date of its inception, as that at which the above Cardinal Signs commenced their reign, viz. 3995 BCE, commonly reckoned as 4000 BCE, which, added to the current year, gives us our Masonic date.

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