THE LOST KEYS OF FREEMASONRY 

or The Secret of Hiram Abiff 

by MANLY P. HALL

PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD

The steady demand and increasing popularity of this volume, of

which eighteen thousand copies have been printed since it first

appeared a few years ago, have brought the present revised and

rearranged edition into being.  The text can be read with profit by

both new and old Mason, for within its pages lies an interpretation

of Masonic symbolism which supplements the monitorial instruction

usually given in the lodges.

The leading Masonic scholars of all times have agreed that the

symbols of the Fraternity are susceptible of the most profound

interpretation and thus reveal to the truly initiated certain

secrets concerning the spiritual realities of life.  Freemasonry is

therefore more than a mere social organization a few centuries old,

and can be regarded as a perpetuation of the philosophical

mysteries and initiations of the ancients.  This is in keeping with

the inner tradition of the Craft, a heritage from pre-Revival days.

The present volume will appeal to the thoughtful Mason as an

inspiring work, for it satisfies the yearning for further light and

leads the initiate to that Sanctum Sanctorum where the mysteries

are revealed.  The book is a contribution to Masonic idealism,

revealing the profounder aspects of our ancient and gentle

Fraternity - those unique and distinctive features which have

proved a constant inspiration through the centuries.

FOREWORD

By REYNOLD E. BLIGHT, 33 degree, K. T.

Reality forever eludes us.  Infinity mocks our puny efforts to

imprison it in definition and dogma.  Our most splendid

realizations are only adumbrations of the Light.  In his endeavors,

man is but a mollusk seeking to encompass the ocean.

Yet man may not cease his struggle to find God.  There is a

yearning in his soul that will not let him rest, an urge that

compels him to attempt the impossible, to attain the unattainable.

He lifts feeble hands to grasp the stars and despite a million

years of failure and millenniums of disappointment, the soul of man

springs heavenward with even greater avidity than when the race was

young.

He pursues, even though the flying ideal eternally slips from his

embrace.  Even though he never clasps the goddess of his dreams, he

refuses to believe that she is a phantom.  To him she is the only

reality.  He reaches upward and will not be content until the sword

of Orion is in his hands, and glorious Arcturus glearns from his

breast.

Man is Parsifal searching for the Sacred Cup; Sir Launfal

adventuring for the Holy Grail.  Life is a divine adventure, a

splendid quest

Language falls.  Words are mere cyphers, and who can read the

riddle? These words we use, what are they but vain shadows of form

and sense? We strive to clothe our highest thought with verbal

trappings that our brother may see and understand; and when we

would describe a saint he sees a demon; and when we would present a

wise man he beholds a fool.  "Fie upon you," he cries; "thou, too,

art a fool."

So wisdom drapes her truth with symbolism, and covers her insight

with allegory.  Creeds, rituals, poems are parables and symbols.

The ignorant take them literally and build for themselves prison

houses of words and with bitter speech and bitterer taunt denounce

those who will not join them in the dungeon.  Before the rapt

vision of the seer, dogma and ceremony, legend and trope dissolve

and fade, and he sees behind the fact the truth, behind the symbol

the Reality.

Through the shadow shines ever the Perfect Light.

What is a Mason? He is a man who in his heart has been duly and

truly prepared, has been found worthy and well qualified, has been

admitted to the fraternity of builders, been invested with certain

passwords and signs by which he may be enabled to work and receive

wages as a Master Mason, and travel in foreign lands in search of

that which was lost - The Word.

Down through the misty vistas of the ages rings a clarion

declaration and although the very heavens echo to the

reverberations, but few hear and fewer understand: "In the

beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was

God."

Here then is the eternal paradox.  The Word is lost yet it is ever

with us.  The light that illumines the distant horizon shines in

our hearts. "Thou wouldist not seek me hadst thou not found me." We

travel afar only to find that which we hunger for at home.

And as Victor Hugo says: "The thirst for the Infinite proves

infinity."

That which we seek lives in our souls.

This, the unspeakable truth, the unutterable perfection, the author

has set before us in these pages.  Not a Mason himself, he has read

the deeper meaning of the ritual.  Not having assumed the formal

obligations, he calls upon all mankind to enter into the holy of

holies.  Not initiated into the physical craft, he declares the

secret doctrine that all may hear.

With vivid allegory and profound philosophical disquisition he

expounds the sublime teachings of Freemasonry, older than all

religions, as universal as human aspiration.

It is well.  Blessed are the eyes that see, and the ears that hear,

and the heart that understands.

INTRODUCTION

Freemasonry, though not a religion, is essentially religious.  Most

of its legends and allegories are of a sacred nature; much of it is

woven into the structure of Christianity.  We have learned to

consider our own religion as the only inspired one, and this

probably accounts for much of the misunderstanding in the world

today concerning the place occupied by Freemasonry in the spiritual

ethics of our race.  A religion is a divinely inspired code of

morals.  A religious person is one inspired to nobler livi ng by

this code.  He is identified by the code which is his source of

illumination.  Thus we may say that a Christian is one who receives

his spiritual ideals of right and wrong from the message of the

Christ, while a Buddhist is one who molds his life into the

archetype of morality given by the great Gautama, or one of the

other Buddhas.  All doctrines which seek to unfold and preserve

that invisible spark in man named Spirit, are said to be spirit

ual.  Those which ignore this invisible element and concent rate

entirely upon the visible are said to be material.  There is in

religion a wonderful point of balance, where the materialist and

spiritist meet on the plane of logic and reason.  Science and

theology are two ends of a single truth, but the world will never

receive the full benefit of their investigations until they have

made peace with each other, and labor hand in hand for the

accomplishment of the great work - the liberation of spirit and in

telligence from the three-dimensional prison-house of ignora nce,

superstition, and fear. That which gives man a knowledge of himself

can be inspired only by the Self - and God is the Self in all

things. In truth, He is the inspiration and the thing inspired.  It

has been stated in Scripture that God was the Word and that the

Word was made flesh.  Man's task now is to make flesh reflect the

glory of that Word, which is within the soul of himself.  It is

this task which has created the need of religion - not one faith

alone but many creeds, each searching in its own way, e ach meeting

the needs of individual people, each emphasizing one point above

all the others.

Twelve Fellow Craftsmen are exploring the four points of the

compass.  Are not these twelve the twelve great world religions,

each seeking in its own way for that which was lost in the ages

past, and the quest of which is the birthright of man? Is not the

quest for Reality in a world of illusions the task for which each

comes into the world? We are here to gain balance in a sphere of

unbalance; to find rest in a restless thing; to unveil illusion;

and to slay the dragon of our own animal natures.  As David, King

of Israel, gave to the hands of his son Solomon the task he could

not accomplish, so each generation gives to the next the work of

building the temple, or rather, rebuilding the dwelling of the

Lord, which is on Mount Moriah.

Truth is not lost, yet it must be sought for and found.  Reality is

ever-present - dimensionless yet all-prevailing. Man - creature of

attitudes and desires, and servant of impressions and opinions -

cannot, with the wavering unbalance of an untutored mind, learn to

know that which he himself does not possess.  As man attains a

quality, he discovers that quality, and recognizes about him the

thing newborn within himself.  Man is born with eyes, yet only

after long years of sorrow does he learn to see clearl y and in

harmony with the Plan.  He is born with senses, but only after long

experience and fruitless strivings does he bring these senses to

the temple and lays them as offerings upon the altar of the great

Father, who alone does all things well and with understanding.  Man

is, in truth, born in the sin of ignorance, but with a capacity for

understanding.  He has a mind capable of wisdom, a heart capable of

feeling, and a hand strong for the great work in life - truing the

rough ashlar into the perfect sto ne.

What more can any creature ask than the opportunity to prove the

thing he is, the dream that inspires him, the vision that leads him

on? We have no right to ask for wisdom.  In whose name do we beg

for understanding? By what authority do we demand happiness? None

of these things is the birthright of any creature; yet all may have

them, if they will cultivate within themselves the thing that they

desire.  There is no need of asking, nor does any Deity bow down to

give man these things that he desires.  Man i s given by Nature, a

gift, and that gift is the privilege of labor.  Through labor he

learns all things.

Religions are groups of people, gathered together in the labor of

learning.  The world is a school.  We are here to learn, and our

presence here proves our need of instruction.  Every living

creature is struggling to break the strangling bonds of limitation

- that pressing narrowness which inhabits vision and leaves the

life without an ideal.  Every soul is engaged in a great work - the

labor of personal liberation from the state of ignorance.  The

world is a great prison; its bars are the Unknown.  And eac h is a

prisoner until, at last, he earns the right to tear these bars from

their moldering sockets, and pass, illuminated and inspired, into

the darkness, which becomes lighted by that presence.  All peoples

seek the temple where God dwells, where the spirit of the great

Truth illuminates the shadows of human ignorance, but they know not

which way to turn nor where this temple is. The mist of dogma

surrounds them.  Ages of thoughtlessness bind them in.  Limitation

weakens them and retards their footsteps. They wander in darkness

seeking light, failing to realize that the Eght is in the heart of

the darkness.

To the few who have found Him, God is revealed.  These, in turn,

reveal Him to man, striving to tell ignorance the message of

wisdom.  But seldom does man understand the mystery that has been

unveiled.  He tries weakly to follow in the steps of those who have

attained, but all too often finds the path more difficult than he

even dreamed.  So he kneels in prayer before the mountain he cannot

climb, from whose top gleams the light which he is neither strong

enough to reach nor wise enough to comprehend.  He l ives the law

as he knows it, always fearing in his heart that he has not read

aright the flaming letters in the sky, and that in living the

letter of the Law he has murdered the spirit.  Man bows humbly to

the Unknown, peopling the shadows of his own ignorance with saints

and saviors, ghosts and spectres, gods and demons.  Ignorance fears

all things, falling, terror-stricken before the passing wind.

Superstition stands as the monument to ignorance, and b efore it

kneel all who realize their own weakness; wh o see in all things

the strength they do not possess; who give to sticks and stones the

power to bruise them; who change the beauties of Nature into the

dwelling place of ghouls and ogres.  Wisdom fears no thing, but

still bows humbly to its own Source.  While superstition hates all

things, wisdom, with its deeper understanding, loves all things;

for it has seen the beauty, the tenderness, and the sweetness which

underlie Life's mystery.

Life is the span of time appointed for accomplishment.  Every

fleeting moment is an opportunity, and those who are great are the

ones who have recognized life as the opportunity for all things.

Arts, sciences, and religions are monuments standing for what

humanity has already accomplished.  They stand as memorials to the

unfolding mind of man, and through them man acquires more efficient

and more intelligent methods of attaining prescribed results.

Blessed are those who can profit by the experiences of ot hers;

who, adding to that which has already been built, can make their

inspiration real, their dreams practical.  Those who give man the

things he needs, while seldom appreciated in their own age, are

later recognized as the Saviors of the human race.

Masonry is a structure built upon experience.  Each stone is a

sequential step in the unfolding of intelligence.  The shrines of

Masonry are ornamented by the jewels of a thousand ages; its

rituals ring with the words of enlightened seers and illuminated

sages.  A hundred religions have brought their gifts of wisdom to

its altar.  Arts and sciences unnumbered have contributed to its

symbolism.  It is more than a faith; it is a path of certainty.  It

is more than a belief; it is a fact.  Masonry is a univers ity,

teaching the liberal arts and sciences of the soul to all who will

attend to its words.  It is a shadow of the great Atlantean Mystery

School, which stood with all its splendor in the ancient City of

the Golden Gates, where now the turbulent Atlantic rolls in

unbroken sweep.  Its chairs are seats of learning; its pillars

uphold the arch of universal education, not only in material

things, but also in those qualities which are of the spirit.  Up on

its trestleboards are inscribed the sacred truths of all nations

and of all peoples, and upon those who understand its sacred depths

has dawned the great Reality.  Masonry is, in truth, that long-lost

thing which all peoples have sought in all ages.  Masonry is the

common denominator as well as the common devisor of human

aspiration.

Most of the religions of the world are like processions: one leads,

and the many follow.  In the footsteps of the demigods, man follows

in his search for truth and illumination.  The Christian follows

the gentle Nazarene up the winding slopes of Calvary.  The Buddhist

follows his great emancipator through his wanderings in the

wilderness.  The Mohammedan makes his pilgrimage across the desert

sands to the black tent at Mecca.  Truth leads, and ignorance

follows in his train.  Spirit blazes the trail, and ma tter follows

behind.  In the world today ideals live but a moment in their

purity, before the gathering hosts of darkness snuff out the

gleaming spark.  The Mystery School, however, remains unmoved.  It

does not bring its light to man; man must bring his light to it.

Ideals, coming into the world, become idols within a few short

hours, but man, entering the gates of the sanctuary, changes the

idol back to an ideal.

Man is climbing an endless flight of steps, with his eyes fixed

upon the goal at the top.  Many cannot see the goal, and only one

or two steps are visible before them.  He has learned, however, one

great lesson - namely, that as he builds his own character he is

given strength to climb the steps.  Hence a Mason is a builder of

the temple of character.  He is the architect of a sublime mystery

- the gleaming, glowing temple of his own soul.  He realizes that

he best serves God when he joins with the Great Ar chitect in

building more noble structures in the universe below.  All who are

attempting to attain mastery through constructive efforts are

Masons at heart, regardless of religious sect or belief.  A Mason

is not necessarily a member of a lodge.  In a broad sense, he is

any person who daily tries to live the Masonic life, and to serve

intelligently the needs of the Great Architect.  The Masonic

brother pledges himself to assist all other temple-builders in

whatever extremity of life; and in so doing he pled ges himself to

every living thing, for they are all temple-builders, building more

noble structures to the glory of the universal God.

The true Masonic Lodge is a Mystery School, a place where

candidates are taken out of the follies and foibles of the world

and instructed in the mysteries of life, relationships, and the

identity of that germ of spiritual essence within, which is, in

truth, the Son of God, beloved of His Father.  The Mason views life

seriously, realizing that every wasted moment is a lost

opportunity, and that Omnipotence is gained only through

earnestness and endeavor.  Above all other relationships he

recognizes the unive rsal brotherhood of every living thing.  The

symbol of the clasped hands, explained in the Lodge, reflects his

attitude towards all the world, for he is the comrade of all

created things.  He realizes also that his spirit is a glowing,

gleaming jewel which he must enshrine within a holy temple built by

the labor of his hands, the meditation of his heart, and the

aspiration of his soul.

Freemasonry is a philosophy which is essentially creedless.  It is

the truer for it.  Its brothers bow to truth regardless of the

bearer; they serve light, instead of wrangling over the one who

brings it.  In this way they prove that they are seeking to know

better the will and the dictates of the Invincible One.  No truer

religion exists than that of world comradeship and brotherhood, for

the purpose of glorifying one God and building for Him a temple of

constructive attitude and noble character.

PROLOGUE

IN THE FIELDS OF CHAOS

The first flush of awakening Life pierced the impenetrable expanse

of Cosmic Night, turning the darkness of negation into the dim

twilight of unfolding being.  Silhouetted against the shadowy

gateways of Eternity, the lonely figure of a mystic stranger stood

upon the nebulous banks of swirling substance.  Robed in a shimmery

blue mantle of mystery and his head encircled by a golden crown of

dazzling light, the darkness of Chaos fled before the rays that

poured like streams of living fire from his form divin e.

From some Cosmos greater far than ours this mystic visitor came,

answering the call of Divinity.  From star to star he strode and

from world to universe he was known, yet forever concealed by the

filmy garments of chaotic night.  Suddenly the clouds broke and a

wondrous light descended from somewhere among the seething waves of

force; it bathed this lonely form in a radiance celestial, each

sparkling crystal of mist gleaming like a diamond bathed in the

living fire of the Divine.

In the gleaming flame of cosmic light bordered by the dark clouds

of not-being two great forms appeared and a mighty Voice thrilled

eternity, each sparkling atom pulsating with the power of the

Creator's Word* while the great blue-robed figure bowed in awe

before the foot-stool of His Maker as a hand reached down from

heaven, its fingers extended the benediction.

"Of all creation I have chosen you and upon you my seal is placed.

You are the chosen instrument of my hand and I appoint you to be

the Builder of my Temple.  You shall raise its pillars and tile its

floor; you shall ornament it with metals and with jewels and you

shall be the master of my workmen.  In your hands I place the plans

and here on the tracing board of livig substance I have impressed

the plan you are to follow, tracing its every letter and angle in

the fiery lines of my moving finger.  Hiram Ab iff, chosen builder

of your Father's house, up and to your work.  Yonder are the fleecy

clouds, the

* The Creative Fiat, or rate of vibration through which all things

are created.

gray mists of dawn, the gleams of heavenly light, and the darkness

of the sleep of creation. From these shall you build, without the

sound of hammer or the voice of workmen, the temple of your God,

eternal in the heavens.  The swirling, ceaseless motion of negation

you shall chain to grind your stones.  Among these spirits of

not-being shall you slack your lime and lay your footings; for I

have watched you through the years of your youth; I have guided you

through the days of your manhood.  I have weighed y ou in the

balance and you have not been found wanting.  Therefore, to you

give I the glory of work, and here ordain you as the Builder of my

House.  Unto you I give the word of the Master Builder; unto you I

give the tools of the craft; unto you I give the power that has

been vested in me.  Be faithful unto these things.  Bring them back

when you have finished, and I will give you the name known to God

alone.  So mote it be."

The great light died out of the heavens, the streaming fingers of

living light vanished in the misty, lonely twilight, and again

covered not-being with its sable mantle.  Hiram Abiff again stood

alone, gazing out into the endless ocean of oblivion - nothing but

swirling, seething matter as far as eye could see.  Then he

straightened his shoulders and, taking the trestleboard in his

hands and clasping to his heart the glowing Word of the Master,

walked slowly away and was swallowed up in the mists of primord ial

dawn.

How may man measure timeless eternity? Ages passed, and the lonely

Builder labored with his plan with only love and humility in his

heart, his hand molding the darkness which he blessed while his

eyes were raised above where the Great Light had shone down from

heaven.  In the divine solitude he labored, with no voice to cheer,

no spirit to condemn - alone in the boundless all with the great

chill of the morning mist upon his brow, but his heart still warm

with the light of the Master's Word.  It seemed a ho peless task.

No single pair of hands could mold that darkness; no single heart,

no matter how true, could be great enough to project pulsing cosmic

love into the cold mist of oblivion.  Though the darkness settled

ever closer about him and the misty fingers of negation twined

round his being, still with divine trust the Builder labored; with

divine hope he laid his footings, and from the boundless clay he

made the molds to cast his sacred ornaments. Slowl y the building

grew and dim forms molded by the Maste r's hand took shape about

him. Three huge, soulless creatures had the Master fashioned, great

beings which loomed like grim spectres in the semi-darkness.  They

were three builders he had blessed and now in stately file they

passed before him, and Hiram held out his arms to his creation,

saying, "Brothers, I have built you for your works.  I have formed

you to labor with me in the building of the Master's house.  You

are the children of my being; I have labored with yo u, now labor

with me for the glory of o ur God."

But the spectres laughed. Turning upon their maker and striking him

with his own tools given him by God out of heaven, they left their

Grand Master dying in the midst of his labors, broken and crushed

by the threefold powers of cosmic night.  As he lay bleeding at the

feet of his handiwork the martyred Builder raised his eyes to the

seething clouds, and his face was sweet with divine love and cosmic

understanding as he prayed unto the Master who had sent him forth:

"O Master of Workmen, Great Architect of the universe, my labors

are not finished.  Why must they always remain undone? I have not

completed the thing for which Thou hast sent me unto being, for my

very creations have turned against me and the tools Thou gavest me

have destroyed me. The children that I formed in love, in their

ignorance have murdered me.  Here, Father, is the Word Thou gavest

me now red with my own blood. O Master, I return it to Thee for I

have kept it sacred in my heart.  Here are the too ls, the tracing

board, and the vessels I have wrought.  Around me stand the ruins

of my temple which I must leave.  Unto Thee, O God, the divine

Knower of all things, I return them all, realizing that in Thy good

time lies the fulfillment of all things.  Thou, O God, knowest our

down-sitting and our uprising and Thou understandest our thoughts

afar off. In Thy name, Father, I have labored and in Thy cause I

die, a faithful builder."

The Master fell back, his upturned face sweet in the last repose of

death, and the light rays no longer pouring from him.  The gray

clouds gathered closer as though to form a winding sheet around the

body of their murdered Master.

Suddenly the heavens opened again and a shaft of light bathed the

form of Hiram in a glory celestial.  Again the Voice spoke from the

heavens where the Great King sat upon the clouds of creation: "He

is not dead; he is asleep.  Who will awaken him? His labors are not

done, and in death he guards the sacred relics more closely than

ever, for the Word and the tracing board are his - I have given

them to him.  But he must remain asleep until these three who have

slain him shall bring him back to life, for ever y wrong must be

righted, and the slayers of my house, the destroyers of my temple,

must labor in the place of their Builder until they raise their

Master from the dead."

The three murderers fell on their knees and raised their hands to

heaven as though to ward off the light which had disclosed their

crime: "O God, great is our sin, for we have slain our Grand

Master, Hiram Abiff! Just is Thy punishment and as we have slain

him we now dedicate our lives to his resurrection.  The first was

our human weakness, the second our sacred duty."

"Be it so," answered the Voice from Heaven.  The great Light

vanished and the clouds of darkness and mist concealed the body of

the murdered Master.  It was swallowed up in the swirling darkness

which left no mark, no gravestone to mark the place where  the

Builder had lain.

"O God!" cried the three murderers, "where shall we find our Master

now?"

A hand reached down again from the Great Unseen and a tiny lamp was

handed them, whose oil flame burned silently and clearly in the

darkness.  "By this light shall ye seek him whom ye have slain."

The three forms surrounded the light and bowed in prayer and

thanksgiving for this solitary gleam which was to light the

darkness of their way.  From somewhere above in the regions of

not-being the great Voice spoke, a thundering Voice that filled

Chaos with its sound: "He cometh forth as a flower and is cut down;

he teeth also as a shadow and continueth not; as the waters fail

from the sea and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth

down and riseth not again.  Yet have I compassion upon the children

of my creation; I administer unto them in time of trouble and save

them with an everlasting salvation.  Seek ye where the broken twig

lies and the dead stick molds away, where the clouds float together

and the stones rest by the hillside, for all these mark the grave

of Hiram who has carried my Will with him to the tomb.  This

eternal quest is yours until ye have found your Builder, until the

cup giveth up its secret, until the grave givet h up its ghosts.

No more shall I speak until ye have found and rais ed my beloved

Son, and have listened to the words of my Messenger and with Him as

your guide have finished the temple which I shall then inhabit.

Amen."

The gray dawn still lay asleep in the arms of darkness.  Out

through the great mystery of not-being all was silence, unknowable.

Through the misty dawn, like strange phantoms of a dream, three

figures wandered over the great Unknown carrying in their hands a

tiny light, the lamp given to them by their Builder's Father.  Over

stick and stone and cloud and star they wandered, eternally in

search of a silent grave, stopping again and again to explore the

depths of some mystic recess, praying for liberation fr om their

endless search; yet bound by their vows to raise the Builder they

had slain, whose grave was marked by the broken twig, and whose

body was laid away in the white winding sheet of death somewhere

over the brow of the eternal hill.

TEMPLE BUILDERS

You are the temple builders of the future.  With your hands must be

raised the domes and spires of a coming civilization.  Upon the

foundation you have laid, tomorrow shall build a far more noble

edifice.  Builders of the temple of character wherein should dwell

an enlightened spirit; truers of the rock of relationship; molders

of those vessels created to contain the oil of life: up, and to the

task appointed! Never before in the history of men have you had the

opportunity that now confronts you. The world waits - waits for the

illuminated one who shall come from between the pillars of the

portico.  Humility, hoodwinked and bound, seeks entrance to the

temple of wisdom.  Fling wide the gate, and let the worthy enter.

Fling wide the gate, and let the light that is the life of men

shine forth.  Hasten to complete the dwelling of the Lord, that the

Spirit of God may come and dwell among His people, sanctified and

ordained according to His law.

CHAPTER I

THE ETERNAL QUEST

The average Mason, as well as the modern student of Masonic ideals,

little realizes the cosmic obligation he takes upon himself when he

begins his search for the sacred truths of Nature as they are

concealed in the ancient and modern rituals.  He must not lightly

regard his vows, and if he would not bring upon himself years and

ages of suffering he must cease to consider Freemasonry solely as a

social order only a few centuries old.  He must realize that the

ancient mystic teachings as perpetuated in the mo dern rites are

sacred, and that powers unseen and unrecognized mold the destiny of

those who consciously and of their own free will take upon

themselves the obligations of the Fraternity.

Freemasonry is not a material thing: it is a science of the soul;

it is not a creed or doctrine but a universal expression of the

Divine Wisdom.* The coming together of medieval guilds or even the

building of Solomon's temple as it is understood today has little,

if anything, to do with the true origin of Freemasonry, for Masonry

does not deal with personalities.  In its highest sense, it is

neither historical nor archaeological, but is a divine symbolic

language perpetuating under certain concrete symbols the sacred

mysteries of the ancients.  Only those who see in it a cosmic

study, a life work, a divine inspiration to better thinking, better

feeling, and better living, with the spiritual attainment of

enlightenment as the end, and with the daily life of the true Mason

as the means, have gained even the slightest insight into the true

mysteries of the ancient rites.

The age of the Masonic school is not to be calculated by hundreds

or even thousands of years, for it never had any origin in the

worlds of form.  The world as we see it is merely an experimental

laboratory in which man is laboring to build and express greater

and more perfect vehicles.  Into this laboratory pour myriads

*This term is used as synonymous with a very secret and sacred

philosophy that has existed for all time, and has been the

inspiration of the great saints and sages of all ages, i. e., the

perfect wisdom of God, revealing itself through a secret hierarchy

of illumined minds.

of rays descending from the cosmic hierarchies.* These mighty

globes and orbs which focus their energies upon mankind and mold

its destiny do so in an orderly manner, each in its own way and

place, and it is the working of these mystic hierarchies in the

universe which forms the pattern around which the Masonic school

has been built, for the true lodge of the Mason is the universe.

Freed of limitations of creed and sect, he stands a master of all

faiths, and those who take up the study of Freemasonry witho ut

realizing the depth, the beauty, and the spiritual power of its

philosophy can never gain anything of permanence from their

studies.  The age of the Mystery Schools can be traced by the

student back to the dawn of time, ages and aeons ago, when the

temple of the Solar Man was in the making.  That was the first

Temple of the King, and therein were given and laid down the true

mysteries of the ancient lodge, and it was the gods of creation and

th e spirits of the dawn who first tiled the Master's lodge.

The initiated brother realizes that his so called symbols and

rituals are merely blinds

*The groups of celestial intelligences governing the  creative

processes in cosmos.

fabricated by the wise to perpetuate ideas incomprehensible to the

average individual.  He also realizes that few Masons of today know

or appreciate the mystic meaning concealed within these rituals.

With religious faith we perpetuate the form, worshiping it instead

of the life, but those who have not recognized the truth in the

crystallized ritual, those who have not liberated the spiritual

germ from the shell of empty words, are not Masons, regardless of

their physical degrees and outward honors.

In the work we are taking up it is not the intention to dwell upon

the modern concepts of the Craft but to consider Freemasonry as it

really is to those who know, a great cosmic organism whose true

brothers and children are tied together not by spoken oaths but by

lives so lived that they are capable of seeing through the blank

wall and opening the window which is now concealed by the rubbish

of materiality.  When this is done and the mysteries of the

universe unfold before the aspiring candidate, then in t ruth he

discovers what Freemasonry really is.  Its material aspects

interest him no longer for he has unmasked the Mystery School which

he is capable of recognizing only when he himself has spiritually

become a member of it.

Those who have examined and studied its ancient lore have no doubt

that Freemasonry, like the universe itself, which is the greatest

of all schools, deals with the unfolding of a three-fold principle;

for all the universe is governed by the same three kings who are

called the builders of the Masonic temple.  They are not

personalities but principles, great intelligent energies and powers

which in God, man, and the universe have charge of the molding of

cosmic substance into the habitation of the living king , the

temple built through the ages first of unconscious and then

conscious effort on the part of every individual who is expressing

in his daily life the creative principles of these three kings.

The true brodaer of the ancient Craft realized that the completion

of the temple he was building to the King of the Universe was a

duty or rather a privilege which he owed to his God, to his

brother, and to himself.  He knew that certain steps must be taken

and that his temple must be built according to the plan.  Today it

seems that the plan is lost, however, for in the majority of cases

Freemasonry is no longer an operative art but is merely a

speculative idea until each brother, reading the mystery of hi s

symbols and pondering over the beautiful allegories unfolded in his

ritual, realizes that he himself contains the keys and the plans so

long lost to his Craft and that if he would ever learn Freemasonry

he must unlock its doors with the key wrought from the base metals

of his own being.

True Freemasonry is esoteric; it is not a thing of this world.  All

that we have here is a link, a doorway, through which the student

may pass into the unknown.  Freemasonry has nothing to do with

things of form save that it realizes form is molded by and

manifests the life it contains.  Consequently the student is

seeking so to mold his life that the form will glorify the God

whose temple he is slowly building as he awakens one by one the

workmen within himself and directs them to carry out the plan that

h as been given him out of heaven.

So far as it is possible to discover, ancient Freemasonry and the

beautiful cosmic allegories that it teaches, perpetuated through

hundreds of lodges and ancient mysteries, forms the oldest of the

Mystery Schools;* and its preser-

* This is a term used by the ancients to designate the esoteric

side of their religious ceremonials.  T