THE MASONIC INITIATION

1 THE MASONIC INITIATION TO ALL BUILDERS IN THE SPIRIT BY W. L. WILMSHURST The Sequel to The Meaning Of masonry THE MASONIC INITIATION masonry and Religion Introduction W. L. WILMSHURST This book is meant to be a sequel to, and an amplification of, my previous volume, The Meaning of masonry , first published in 1922--a collection of papers issued diffidently and tentatively on the chance that they might interest some few members of the Craft in the deeper and philosophic aspect of Freemasonry. It at once met, however, with a surprisingly warm welcome from all parts of the world, and already has had to be thrice reprinted. Any personal pleasure at its reception is eclipsed by a greater gratification and thankfulness at the now demonstrated fact that the present large and rapid increase in the number of the Fraternity is being accompanied by a correspondingly wide desire to realize the significance and purpose of the MASONIC system to a much fuller degree than till now has been the case.

2 The MASONIC Craft seems to be gradually regenerating itself, and, as I previously indicated, such a regeneration must needs make not only for the moral benefit and enlightenment of individuals and Lodges, but ultimately must react favourably upon the framework in which they exist -the whole body of society . In these circumstances it becomes possible to speak more fully, perhaps also more feelingly, upon a subject which, as a large volume of public and private testimony has revealed to me, is engaging the earnest interest of large numbers of Brethren of the Craft. So I offer them these further papers, [presenting the same subject-matter as before, but induction different form and expounding more fully matters previously treated but superficially and cursorily. By "the MASONIC INITIATION " I mean, of course, not merely the act and rite of reception into the Order, but Speculative Freemasonry-within the limits of the Craft and Arch Degrees-regarded as a system, a specialized method of intellectual guidance and spiritual instruction ; a method which to its willing and attentive devotees offers at once an interpretation of life, a rule of living, and a means of grace, introduction, and even intromission, to life and light of a supra-natural order.]

3 masonry being essentially and expressedly a quest after supranatural Light, the present papers are schematically arranged in correspondence with the stages of that quest ; they deal first with the transition from darkness to light ; next with the pathway itself and the light to be found thereon ; and, lastly, with light in its fullness of attainment as the result of faithfully pursuing that path to the end. - In a final paper I have re-surveyed the Order's past and indicated its present tendencies and future possibilities In their zeal to appreciate and make the best of their connection with the Order, some members, one finds, experience difficulty in defining and "placing" Freemasonry . Is it Religion, Philosophy, a system of morals, or what ? In view of the deepening interest in the subject, it may be well at the outset to clear up this point . masonry is not a Religion, though it contains marked religious elements and many religious references.

4 A Brother may legitimately say, if he wishes,-and many do say-" masonry is my religion," but he is not justified in classifying and holding it out to other people as a Religion. Reference to the Constitutions makes it quite clear that the system is one meant to exist outside and independently of Religion ; that all the Order requires of its members is a belief in Deity and personal conformation to the Moral Law, every Brother being free to follow whatsoever form of religion and mode of worship he pleases . Neither is masonry a Philosophy ; albeit behind it lies a large philosophical background not appearing in its surface-rituals and doctrine, but left for discovery to the research and effort of the Brethren . That philosophical background is a Gnosis or Wisdom-teaching as old as the world, one which has been shared alike by the Vedists of the East, the Egyptian, Chaldean and Orphic INITIATION systems, the Pythagorean and Platonist schools, and all the Mystery Temples of both the past and the present, Christian or otherwise.

5 The present renaissance in the MASONIC Order is calculated to cause a marked, if gradual, revival of interest in that philosophy, with the probable eventual result that there will come about a general restoration of the Mysteries, inhibited during the last sixteen centuries . But of this more will be said in the final section of this book The official description of masonry is that it is a "System of Morality." This is true, but in two senses, one only of which is usually thought of . The term is usually interpreted as meaning a "system of morals." But men need not enter a secret order to learn morals and study ethics ; nor is an elaborate duction ceremonial organization needed to teach them. Elementary morals can be, and are, learned in the outside world ; and must be learned there if one is to be merely a decent member of society . The possession of "strict morals," as every Mason knows, is a preliminary qualification for entering the Order ; a man does not enter it to acquire them after he has entered.

6 It is true he finds the Order insistent on obedience to the Moral Law and emphasising closer cultivation of certain ethical virtues, as is essential to those who propose to enter upon a course of spiritual science ; and this is the primary, more obvious sense in which the term "system of morality" is used . But the word "morality," in its original, and also in its MASONIC , connotation, has a further meaning ; one carrying the same sense as it does when we speak of a "morality-play ." A "morality" is a literary or dramatic way of expressing spiritual truth, putting it forward allegorically and in accordance with certain well-settled principles and methods (mores) ; it is the equivalent of a usage or "use," as ecclesiastics speak of "the Sarum use" or liturgy . In the same sense Plutarch's Moralia is largely a series of disquisitions upon the mores of the ancient religious Mystery-schools.

7 A "system of morality," therefore, means secondarily" a systematized and dramatized method of moral discipline and philosophic instruction, based on ancient usage and long established practice ." The method in question is that of INITIATION ; the usage and practice is that of allegory and symbol, which it is the Freemason's duty, if he wishes to understand his system, to labour to interpret and put to personal application. If he fails to do so, he still remains and the system deliberately intends that he should in the dark about the Order's real meaning and secrets, although formally a member of it . The Order, the morality-system, merely guarantees its own possession of Truth ; it does not undertake to impart it save to those who labour for it . For Truth and its real arcana can never be communicated directly, or save through allegory and symbol, myth and sacrament. The onus of translating these must ever rest with the recipient as part.

8 -of his lifework ; until he makes the truth his own he can never know it to be truth ; he must do the will before he can know the doctrine . "I know not how it is" (said St. Bernard of Clairvaux of allegory and symbol) "but the more that spiritual realities are clothed with obscuring veils, the more they delight and attract ; and nothing so much heightens longing for them as such tender refusal." masonry , then,-as a "system of morality" as thus defined-is neither a Religion nor a Philosophy, but at once a Science and an Art, a Theory and a Practice ; and this was ever the way in which the Schools of the Ancient Wisdom and Mysteries proceeded. They first exhibited to the intending disciple a picture of the Life-process ; they taught him the story of the soul's genesis and descent into this world ; they showed him its present imperfect, restricted state and its unfortunate position ; they indicated that there was a scientific method by which it might be perfected and regain its original condition.

9 This was the Science-half of their systems, the programme or theory placed induction advance before disciples, that they might have a thorough intellectual grasp of the purpose of the Mysteries and what admission to them involved . Then followed the other half ; the practical work to be done by the disciple upon himself, in purifying himself ; controlling his sense-nature ; correcting natural undisciplined tendencies ; mastering his thought, his mental processes and will, by a rigorous rule of life and art of living . When he showed proficiency in both the theory and the practice, and could withstand certain tests, then but not before he was allowed the privilege of INITIATION -a secret process, conferred by already initiated Masters or experts, the details of which were never disclosed outside the process itself. Such, in a few words, was the age-old science of the Mysteries, whether in Egypt, Greece or elsewhere, and it is that science which, in very compressed, diluted form, is perpetuated and reproduced in modem masonry .

10 To emphasizing and demonstrating this fact, both the present and my former volume are devoted ; their purpose being coupled with a hope that, when the true intention of the Order is perceived, the Craft may begin to fulfill its original design and become an instrument of real initiating efficiency instead of, as hitherto, a merely social and charitable institution . Indeed the place and office of masonry cannot be adequately appreciated without acquaintance with the Mysteries masonry of antiquity, for, as a poet (Patmore) wrote who knew and the latter perfectly, Save by the Old Road none attain the new, And from the Ancient Hills alone we catch the view ! masonry having the above purpose, whilst not a religion, is consistent with and adaptable to any and every religion. But it is capable of going further. For an Order of INITIATION (like the monastic Orders within the older Churches) is intended to provide a higher standard of instruction, a larger communication of truth and wisdom, than the elementary ones offered by public popular religion ; and at the same time it requires more rigorous personal discipline and imposes much more exacting claims upon the mind and will of its adherents.