GNOSTICS, OCCULTISM & MASONRY
Chapter 5
The philosophy of Gnosticism was declared heretical by the early Roman Church; it is a religion that combines occultism, mysticism, astrology, magic, esoteric Hebrew, a modified Christian perspective of redemption, and Zoroastrianism. Included also are the ancient rituals of Egypt and Mesopotamia that are prevalent in Freemasonry today. The Gnostics' beliefs in resurrection and dualism come from Zoroastrian religious ritualism. (God created man and woman in His image on the Sixth Day, giving them charge over the world; but Eve did not yet exist.) God had set Adam to name every beast, bird, and other living thing. When they passed before him in pairs, male and female, Adam cried 'Every creature but I have a proper mate', I pray God will remedy this injustice. God then formed Lilith, the first woman, just as He had formed Adam, out of pure dust. From Adam's union with this woman, Tubal Cain and his sister sprang Asmodeus. Many generations later, Lilith came to Solomon's judgment seat.
Adam and Lilith never found peace together, for when he wished to lie with her, she took offense at the missionary position he demanded. "Why must I lie beneath you?" She asked! "I also was made from dust, and am therefore your equal." Because Adam tried to compel her obedience by force, Lilith, in a rage, uttered the magic name of God, rose into the air, and left him. Adam complained to God: "My helpmate has deserted me." God at once sent three angels to fetch Lilith back. They found her beside the Red Sea, a region abounding in lascivious demons, to which she bore Lilim (The children of Lilith) at the rate of more than one hundred a day.
"Return to Adam without delay," the angels said, "or we will drown you!" Lilith asked, "How can I return to Adam and live like an honest housewife, after my stay beside the Red Sea?" "It will be death to refuse!" they answered. "How can I die," Lilith asked, "when God has ordered me to take charge of all newborn children: boys up to the eighth day of life, that of circumcision; girls up to the twentieth day. Nonetheless, if ever I see your three names or likenesses displayed in an amulet above a newborn child, I promise to spare it."
To this, they agreed, but God punished Lilith by making one hundred of her demon children perish daily, and she could not destroy a human infant because of the angelic amulet. She escaped the curse of death, which overtook Adam since they had parted long before the fall. Undismayed by the failure of Adam, unable to keep a suitable helpmate, God again created a woman and let him watch while he built up her anatomy. The sight caused Adam such disgust that even when this woman, the First Eve, stood there in her full beauty, he felt an invincible repugnance, so then God took the First Eve away. Where she went, nobody knows.
God creates a third woman, having taken a rib from Adam's side while he slept; He formed it into a woman, then adorned her, like a bride, with twenty-four pieces of jewelry before waking him. (Some say that God created Eve not from Adam's rib, but from a tail end which had been part of his body. God cut this off, and the stump, now a useless coccyx, is still carried by Adam's descendants.) According to Isaiah 34: 14-15, Lilith dwells among the desolate ruins in the Edomite Desert where satyrs (se'ir), reams, pelicans, owls, jackals, ostriches, arrow-snakes and kites keep her company. The Gnostics were religious mystics who proclaimed gnosis, knowledge, as the way of salvation. They taught that knowing your true self allowed Gnostic men and women to know God directly, without any need for the mediation of rabbis, priests, bishops, imams, or other religious officials. Religious officials, who were not pleased with such freedom and independence, condemned the Gnostics as heretical and a threat to the well-being and good order of organized religion. Gnostics sought knowledge and wisdom from diverse sources and accepted insight wherever it could be found. Gnostics studied religious works from the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Zoroastrians, Muslims, and Buddhists. All such sacred texts disclosed truths and were to be celebrated for their wisdom.
The Occult:
The word occult denotes hidden forces and the art of subjecting such forces to human control. (Nevertheless, there is nothing that is not governed by natural laws). As above, so below; all obey those by which they manifest. The Original Man's progression must be founded on knowledge. With thorough knowledge of himself, can he expect to progress? All knowledge is based on experience, distinguishing [me from the not-so-me]. No one can deny their existence. Occult scientists have demonstrated Magic, Astrology, and Alchemy. The occultist prepares for immortal life, a life of never-ending progression, while yet gaining knowledge of universal laws.
Ancient Masonic Rites:
These rites and pictorial representations have been significant to a broad group of people worldwide, across all ancient nations. Remnants have been found on remote African shores and in the fertile valleys of the Nile, Red Sea, Tigris, and Euphrates rivers. Indeed, for the most enlightened inhabitants of our globe, this Divine symbolic language has successfully weathered nature. The Ancient Doctrine preserved in the symbolic forms of Masonry, the rites and hieroglyphics that Albert Pike labored over to understand, also the teachings of Mackey, come from the same foundation; the works of the first Masons who lived in the valley of the Euphrates and the Chaldeans will not be forgotten. The original Masons were Magi and/or mental builders. The Masonic Brethren labored in the erection of Solomon's Temple. The early Mason was not a stone worker but a mental builder; astrology was studied as a sacred science; these were the magi, the original masons. From childhood a rigid, culture in the development of the mental physical, and spiritual faculties to penetrate the innermost recesses of nature.
Therefore, the early masons sought correspondences in nature and built their pictorial symbols into the far reaches of the sky as the Temple of Solomon for the Grand Architect of the Universe. The Ancient Masons have ever sought a fitting symbol to represent each principle or function of life and to build it into a Temple. Why were two pillars erected in the Temple of Solomon the King? Life depends upon positive and negative forces; there is no life without sex. Recognizing these two attributes, they erected two columns: the pillar on the right is called Joachim in Ancient Hebrew, and the pillar on the left is called Boaz. The Masculine and Feminine symbol, therefore, is the Plumb, a symbol of the masculine principle in nature, as the Earth is considered the womb of nature. The square is suited for the measurement of plane surfaces, angles, and single planes. The Compass Instrument used to draw circles; the union of the compass and square forms a diamond, the hardest and most precious of stones. With the G in the center representing God, the manifestation of life is represented by the Hebrew letters Yod-He-Vau-He (IHVH) within the compassCompassuare.
Modern Masonry had its beginning in the society of Architects under the protection of King Robert Bruce. The Order of Knights Templar traces their origin to the Ancient Mysteries practiced in the East. Still, they only knew three degrees out of the seven lesser and 10 greater, the doctrines of the old Egyptians that are seven branches of astrology, seven branches of alchemy, seven branches of magic, seven psychic senses, seven physical senses, and seven states of consciousness, all of which must be mastered before reaching adeptship. Jacques de Molay, a knight of eastern France, was the last to hold the honor of grandmaster of the Knights Templar. Initiated in 1265 at the age of twenty-one, then at forty-eight, he was the grandmaster of the order.
On October 12, 1307, the grandmaster was among the nobility of Europe who acted as a pallbearer at the funeral of Princess Catherine, the deceased wife of King Philip's brother, Charles of Valois. Friday the Thirteenth would be the unluckiest day of the year for the Order of the Temple, as Philip's troops descended on every Templar commander across France and put fifteen thousand men into chains that had been prepared for them. All this, from October 13 to the issuance of a papal bull on November 22, the imprisoned Templars in France were being tortured to obtain confessions of heresy.
Thirty-six Templars died in the first few days after the tortures began. To dispel the notion that the Templars were not guilty but rather victims of greed, it was decided that the order's grand master would make his confession before the world. The nobility, prelates of the church, and commoners were invited to witness the historic event on March 14, 1314. De Molay was to confess his guilt and that of the order, but Molay condemned himself to death in these words, 'I think it only right that at so solemn a moment when my life has so little time to run, I should reveal the deception which has been practiced and speak up for the truth. Before heaven, Earth, and all of you here as my witnesses, I admit that I am guilty of the grossest iniquity. However, the iniquity is that I have lied by admitting the baseless charges against the Order. I declare, and I must declare, that the Order is innocent. Its purity and saintliness are beyond question. I have indeed confessed that the Order is guilty, but I have done so only to save myself from terrible tortures by saying what my enemies wished me to say. Other knights who have retracted their confessions have been led to the stake, yet the thought of dying is not so awful that I shall confess to foul crimes, which have never been committed.
Life is offered to me, but at the price of infamy. At such a price, life is not worth having. I do not grieve that I must die if life can be bought only by piling one lie upon another. Brother de Charney shouted out his retraction and assertion of the innocence of the order, as he and de Molay were hustled off the platform. While on fire, Jacques de Molay called down a curse on Philip of France and upon all of his family for thirteen generations. He called upon both king and pope to meet with him within the year for judgment on the throne of God. Clement V died in April, followed by Philip's death in November of the same year.