Rosicrucian and Masonic 3

Rosicrucian and Masonic 3

This house he enveloped in

clouds, it is said, so that men could not discover it. What are these "clouds," however, but the rituals

and symbols under which is concealed the Great Arcanum-that unspeakable mystery which every

true Mason must seek if he would become in reality a "Prince of the Royal Secret"? Paracelsus, the

Swiss Hermes, was initiated into the secrets of alchemy in Constantinople and there beheld the

consummation of the magnum opus. He is consequently entitled to be mentioned among those

initiated by the Arabians into the Rosicrucian work. Cagliostro was also initiated by the Arabians

and, because of the knowledge he had thus secured, incurred the displeasure of the Holy See. From

the unprobed depths of Arabian Rosicrucianism also issued the illustrious Comte de St. -Germain,

 

 

 

over whose Masonic activities to this day hangs the veil of impenetrable mystery. The exalted body

 

of initiates whom he represented, as well as the mission he came to accomplish, have both been

concealed from the members of the Craft at large and are apparent only to those few discerning

Masons who sense the supernal philosophic destiny of their Fraternity, [p 405]

 

The modem Masonic order can be traced back to a period in European history famous for its

intrigue both political and sociological. Between the years 1600 and 1800, mysterious agents moved

across the face of the Continent. The forerunner of modern thought was beginning to make its

appearance and all Europe was passing through the throes of internal dissension and reconstruction.

Democracy was in its infancy, yet its potential power was already being felt. Thrones were

beginning to totter. The aristocracy of Europe was like the old man on Sinbad's back: it was

becoming more unbearable with every passing day. Although upon the surface national

governments were seemingly able to cope with the situation, there was a definite undercurrent of

impending change; and out of the masses, long patient under the yoke of oppression, were rising up

the champions of religious, philosophic, and poUtical liberty. These led the factions of the

dissatisfied: people with legitimate grievances against the intolerance of the church and the

oppression of the crown. Out of this struggle for __EXPRESSION__ materialized certain definite ideals, the

same which have now come to be considered peculiarly Masonic.

 

The divine prerogatives of humanity were being crushed out by the three great powers of ignorance,

superstition, and fear— ignorance, the power of the mob; fear, the power of the despot; and

superstition, the power of the church. Between the thinker and personal liberty loomed the three

"ruffians" or personifications of impediment-the torch, the crown, and the tiara. Brute force, kingly

power, and ecclesiastical persuasion became the agents of a great oppression, the motive of a deep

unrest, the deterrent to aU progress. It was unlawful to think, well-nigh fatal to philosophize, rank

heresy to doubt. To question the infallibility of the existing order was to invite the persecution of

the church and the state. These together incited the populace, which thereupon played the r61e of

executioner for these arch-enemies of human Uberty. Thus the ideal of democracy assumed a

definite form during these stormy periods of European history. This democracy was not only a

vision but a retrospection, not only a looking forward but a gazing backward upon better days and

the effort to project those better days into the unborn tomorrow. The ethical, political, and

philosophical institutions of antiquity with their constructive effect upon the whole structure of the

state were noble examples of possible conditions. It became the dream of the oppressed,

consequently, to re-establish a golden age upon the earth, an age where the thinker could think in

safety and the dreamer dream in peace; when the wise should lead and the simple follow, yet all

dwell together in fraternity and industry, [pp 405-406]

 

During this period several books were in circulation which, to a certain degree, registered the pulse

of the time. One of these documents—More's Utopia— was the picture of a new age when heavenly

conditions should prevail upon the earth. This ideal of establishing good in the world savored of

blasphemy, however, for in that day heaven alone it was assumed could be good. Men did not seek

to establish heavenly conditions upon earth, but rather earthly conditions in heaven. According to

popular concept, the more the individual suffered the torments of the damned upon earth, the more

he would enjoy the blessedness of heaven. Life was a period of chastisement and earthly happiness

an unattainable mirage. More's Utopia thus came as a definite blow to autocratic pretensions and

attitudes, giving impulse to the material emphasis which was to follow in succeeding centuries.

 

Another prominent figure of this period was Sir Walter Raleigh, who paid with his life for high

treason against the crown. Raleigh was tried and, though the charge was never proved, was

executed. Before Raleigh went to trial, it was known that he must die and that no defense could save

him His treason against the crown was of a character very different, however, from that which

history records. Raleigh was a member of a secret society or body of men who were already moving

 

 

 

irresistibly forward under the banner of democracy, and for that affiliation he died a felon's death.

 

The actual reason for Raleigh's death sentence was his refusal to reveal the identity either of that

great pohtical organization of which he was a member or his confreres who were fighting the

dogma of faith and the divine right of kings. On the title page of the first edition of Raleigh's

History of the World, we accordingly find a mass of intricate emblems framed between two great

columns. When the executioner sealed his lips forever, Raleigh's silence, while it added to the

discomfiture of his persecutors, assured the safety of his colleagues, [pp 406-407]

 

One of the truly great minds of that secret fraternity—in fact, the moving spirit of the whole

enterprise-was Sir Francis Bacon, whose prophecy of the coming age forms the theme of his New

Atlantis and whose vision of the reformation of knowledge finds __EXPRESSION__ in the Novum Organum

Scientiarum, the new organ of science or thought. In the engraving at the beginning of the latter

volume may be seen the little ship of progressivism sailing out between the Pillars of Galen and

Avicenna, venturing forth beyond the imaginary pillars of church and state upon the unknown sea

of human liberty. It is significant that Bacon was appointed by the British Crown to protect its

interests in the new American Colonies beyond the sea. We find him writing of this new land,

dreaming of the day when a new world and a new government of the philosophic elect should be

established there, and scheming to consummate that end when the time should be ripe. Upon the

title page of the 1640 edition of Bacon's Advancement of Learning is a Latin motto to the effect that

he was the third great mind since Plato. Bacon was a member of the same group to which Sir Walter

Raleigh belonged, but Bacon's position as Lord High Chancellor protected him from Raleigh's fate.

Every effort was made, however, to humiliate and discredit him. At last, in the sixty-sixth year of

his life, having completed the work which held him in England, Bacon feigned death and passed

over into Germany, there to guide the destinies of his philosophic and pohtical fraternity for nearly

twenty- five years before his actual demise.

 

Other notable characters of the period are Montaigne, Ben Jonson, Marlowe, and the great Franz

Joseph of Transylvania— the latter one of the most important as well as active figures in all this

drama, a man who ceased fighting Austria to retire into a monastery in Transylvania from which to

direct the activities of his secret society. One political upheaval followed another, the grand climax

of this political unrest culminating in the French Revolution, which was directly precipitated by the

attacks upon the person of Alessandro CagUostro. The "divine" Cagliostro, by far the most

picturesque character of the time, has the distinction of being more maligned than any other person of history.