Freemasonry’s Inner Circle and The Blue Lodge degrees
Freemasonry’s Inner Circle and The Blue Lodge degrees
The Blue Lodge degrees are:
(1) Entered Apprentice
"The Entered Apprentice may be termed a materialistic degree."- The Lost Keys of Freemasonry or The Secret of Hiram Abiff by Manly P. Hall
"The lost key of the Entered Apprentice is service."- The Lost Keys of Freemasonry or The Secret of Hiram Abiff by Manly P. Hall
(2) Fellow Craft
"The Fellow Craft is religious and mystical, while the Master Mason is occult or philosophical"- The Lost Keys of Freemasonry or The Secret of Hiram Abiff by Manly P. Hall
"Fellow Craftsmen must know and apply their knowledge. The lost key to their grade is the mastery of emotion, which places the energy of the universe at their disposal."- The Lost Keys of Freemasonry or The Secret of Hiram Abiff by Manly P. Hall
(3) Master Mason
Hiram Abiff plays the central role in the 3rd degree Master Mason's ritual.
"Mr. Singleton, 33rd degree, after describing the mystical death in the Ancient Mysteries, says, "The Intelligent Mason will, from this, discover the origin of the Rites in the 3rd Degree of Symbolic Masonry and the 5th and 31st Degrees, A. A. S. R. . . . The Mysteries, in all their forms, were funereal. They celebrated the mystical death and revivification of some individual by the use of emblems, symbols, and allegorical representations." (History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders, p. 73.)"-Ancient Mysteries and Modern Masonry : Charles H. Vail, Rev 32 pg. 205
"THE THREE STEPS
Usually delineated upon the Master's carpet, are emblematical of the three principal stages of human life, viz.: youth, man-hood, and age. In youth, in Entered Apprentices, we ought industriously to occupy our minds in the attainment of useful knowledge; in manhood, as Fellow Crafts, we should apply our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, our neighbors, and ourselves; so that in age, as Master Masons, we may enjoy the happy reflections consequent on a well-spent life, and die in the hope of a glorious immortality." - Duncan's Ritual And Monitor Of Freemasonry by Malcolm C. Duncan
"Sir Albert Pike, our wise and revered Masonic Historian, gives us a hint of it in his "Legenda," in these words: "What is most worth knowing in Masonry is never very openly taught. The symbols are displayed, but they are mute. It is by hints only, and these the least noticeable and apparently insignificant, that the Initiate is put upon the track of the hidden Secret."It was never intended that the mass of Masons should know the meaning of the Blue Degrees, and no pains were spared to conceal that meaning'" - The Lost Word Found by J. D. BUCK, 32° Pg. 14-15
"The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them. Their true explication is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry.....It is well enough for the mass of those called Masons, to imagine that all is contained in the Blue Degrees; and whoso attempts to undeceive them will labor in vain, and without any true reward violate his obligations as an Adept.....There must always be a common-place interpretation for the mass of Initiates, of the symbols that are eloquent to the Adepts. " (Morals and Dogmas, Albert Pike)
"It is in the ancient symbols of Freemasonry that its real secrets lie concealed, and these are as densely veiled to the Mason as to any other, unless he has studied the science of
symbolism in general, and Masonic symbols in particular. In place of the term Mystic Masonry, the term Symbolic Masonry might have been used alone, but just here lies the whole secret, a profound mystery, and few Masons up to the present time have had the interest or the patience necessary to such investigation." - Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry By R. Swinburne Clymer pg. 39
“Freemasonry is a fraternity within a fraternity– an outer organization concealing an inner brotherhood of the elect. Before it is possible to intelligently discuss the origin of the Craft, it is necessary, therefore, to establish the existence of these two separate yet interdependent orders, the one visible and the other invisible. The visible society is a splendid camaraderie of “free and accepted” men enjoined to devote themselves to ethical, educational, fraternal, patriotic, and humanitarian concerns. The invisible society is a secret most august fraternity whose members are dedicated to the service of a mysterious arcanum arcanorum (secret of secrets.)” - Lectures on Ancient Philosophy—An Introduction to the Study and Application of Rational Procedure: The Hall Publishing Company, Los Angeles, First Edition 1929, Manly P. Hall pp 397
“Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals [emphasis in original] its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be mislead; to conceal the Truth, which it [the Mason] calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it.” (Albert Pike – Morals and Dogma p. 104-105)
"Even the casual observer must realize that the true wealth of Freemasonry lies in its mysticism. The average Masonic scholar, however, is fundamentally opposed to a mystical interpretation of his symbols, for he shares the attitude of the modern mind in its general antipathy towards transcendentalism. A most significant fact, however, is that those Masons who have won signal honors for their contributions to the Craft have been transcendentalists almost without exception. It is quite incredible, moreover, that any initiated Brother, when presented with a copy of Morals and Dogma upon the conferment of his fourteenth degree, can read that volume and yet maintain that his order is not identical with the Mystery Schools of the first ages..... for whichever way the Mason turns he is confronted by these inescapable issues of philosophy and the Mysteries. Yet withal he dismisses the entire subject as being more or less a survival of primitive superstitions." -Lectures on Ancient Philosophy—An Introduction to the Study and Application of Rational Procedure: The Hall Publishing Company, Los Angeles, First Edition 1929, Manly P. Hall pp 413-414
"The initiated brother realizes that few Masons today know or appreciate the mystic meaning concealed within these rituals." -Manly P. Hall, "Lost Keys of Freemasonry" page 14
"Much of the Masonic secret manifests itself, without speech revealing it, to him who even partially comprehends all the Degrees in proportion as he receives them; and particularly to those who advance to the highest Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. That Rite raises a corner of the veil, even in the Degree of Apprentice; for it there declares that Masonry is a worship."Albert Pike – Morals and Dogma p. 218-219
Next to this, the form of a learned or literary society is best suited to our purpose, and had Free Masonry not existed, this cover would have been employed; and it may be much more than a cover, it may be a powerful engine in our hands. By establishing reading societies, and subscription libraries, and taking these under our direction, and supplying them through our labors, we may turn the public mind which way we will.
In like manner we must try to obtain an influence in the military academies (this may be of mighty consequence) the printing-houses, booksellers’ shops, chapters, and in short in all offices which have any effect, either in forming, or in managing, or even in directing the mind of man: painting and engraving are highly worth our care.”-Adam Weishaupt (from John Robinson’s “Proofs of a Conspiracy” p. 112)
"to be often traced more or less vaguely in the West, that the Great Lodge of the Magi, the Adepts, the Perfect Masters, known and designated also by many other names, has never ceased to exist; that this Lodge has often, though secret and unknown, shaped the course of Empires and controlled the fate of Nations. That this is a fact beyond dispute has only lately been proven openly in the issueing of a Secret Mandate that the Secret Degrees of Mystic Oriental Masonry should be worked and by the appointment of a Deputy Grand Master in America by the Supreme Order of the Universe." - Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry By R. Swinburne Clymer pg. 37
The Blue Lodge and Hermeticism
"The Adepts of Hermeticism framed the Master's degree, and incorporated in it the symbolism and mystical meanings with the words and phrases that concealed them, which had been received by them at the hands of those who were the surviving custodians of the mutilated antique mysteries ." - Book Of Words Albert Pike pg. 57
"There is no doubt that the true signification of many of the symbols of Blue Masonry is to be looked for in the Books of the Hermetic Philosophers, where, unfortunately, they are as profoundly concealed as in Masonry itself." - Book Of Words Albert Pike pg. 64
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