FREEMASONIC FABLIAUX

     Freemasonry is a generic term for a number of different secret fraternal societies, some of which have existed since the eighteenth century. Artists and statesmen like Voltaire, Goethe, Haydn, Mozart, Washington, Jefferson, Mazzini, and Garibaldi are among those who have been Freemasons. Freemasonry has also served as a vehicle for the study and preservation of religious mysteries derived from earlier sources like the Bible, Qabalah, and Western ceremonial magic. But what are the origins of this movement?

     Masonic legends trace the origin of Freemasonry back to the building of Solomon's Temple. The workers were supposedly organized into three grades, apprentice, journeyman, and master. The two kings, Solomon of Israel & Hiram of Tyre, left the running of the actual construction to their master architect Hiram Abiff. Though the various legends differ in details, the main lines of the story tell how three journeymen murdered Hiram Abiff because he denied them the word that would mark them as masters. The original rituals of Freemasonry supposedly derive from the memorialization of Hiram Abiff by his disciples. However, historical research has raised a number of convincing doubts as to the truth of these legends.

     First of all, Hiram Abiff seems to be an extrapolation from the Bible; there is no mention of the Masonic story in the Bible itself, and if Hiram Abiff ever existed it is curious that his history should have been preserved orally, in a literate society, for over 2000 years before coming to light. Secondly, the three original Masonic degrees bear no relationship to ancient Hebrew customs, but do parallel in a few respects the structure of medieval guilds. The term 'freemason' itself derives from medieval English guilds of stoneworkers. These guilds, like others, took part in various public holidays, performing miracle plays and the like. They also developed their own social structure, passwords, grips, signs, and specialized inscriptions. During the seventeenth century, the story goes, these guilds began to enrol honorary members, of architectural or antiquarian skill, as so-called 'accepted' masons. Some of these accepted masons, for instance Elias Ashmole, were also apparently connected with the Rosicrucian movement of that era. In 1717, under the guidance of the physicist J.T. Desaguliers, four lodges of freemasons in London were united as the first Grand Lodge, from which all later Masonic societies derive, in spirit if not by actual warrant.

     Originally, the Freemasons worked only three rituals, or degrees, of membership, the Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft (or Journeyman) Mason, and Master Mason. These first three degrees are now known collectively as the Blue Lodge. It was not long before new degrees were introduced, as some writers say, for the entertainment and enrollment of members of higher social classes. The original development of the degrees from fourth to fourteenth inclusive (known as the Ineffable degrees) is traced to Chevalier Andrew Ramsay, a Scottish partisan of the Stuart family who shared their exile in France. Ramsay introduced his version of Freemasonry to the French upper classes, apparently in an effort to build support for the Stuart cause. As time went on the number and variety of Masonic groups proliferated all over western and central Europe. More degrees were added until the number reached 33 in modern Scotch Rite Masonry. In the nineteenth century even more degrees were added by some of the so-called Irregular branches of masonry, in some cases reaching over 90 degrees. These new degrees were operated not by Blue Lodges but by various other bodies. The Ineffable degrees are administered by bodies called Lodges of Perfection.

     During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries there was an explosion of masonic activity. There are a number of possible reasons for this development, ranging from the decay of secular control by the Christian churches to the self-promotion of numerous frauds and charlatans. Whatever one thinks of Giuseppe Balsamo, the self-styled Count Cagliostro, it cannot be denied that his activities in promoting various forms of his Egyptian Masonry in western Europe increased the vogue of this type of society among the petit bourgeoisie. During this period the original Biblical and Rosicrucian inspirations of masonry were joined by a deluge of other influences, feudal, Jesuit, Kabbalistic, Hindu, and political. As might be expected, the profusion of various groups produced a backlash. Governments sought to control and direct the development of the movement within their territories, but the inherent difficulty in controlling a secret society led in some cases to the infiltration of revolutionaries into government circles rather than the opposite. Some masons themselves sought to head off political repression and fraud by unifying their movement. Steven (né Étienne) Morin was a major figure in this process, both in France and the United States, and his introduction of Scotch Rite Masonry to Charleston, South Carolina, led eventually to the unification of all Scotch Rite masons under one 'supreme council'. These masons, exemplified by the great nineteenth century American masonic writer, Albert Pike, considered themselves 'regular' masons and those whom they did not recognize as 'irregular'. This regularization gradually proceeded to swallow up the world's masonic bodies, though not without opposition from competing 'supreme councils' like the Grand Orient of France.

     Irregular masonry did not cease to exist merely because it was not recognized by the respectable middle class organizations. In England the spirit of irregular masonry was exemplified by John Yarker. Yarker was not only a member of almost every masonic body in existence, but he seemed to hold the patents to charter most of them. It is to John Yarker that many present-day irregular masons owe much of their masonic heritage. His publication, "The Kneph", and his books, including Speculative Masonry and The Arcane Schools, play a role, even today, in the survival of irregular masonry's traditions and fables.