Speculative Freemasonry: Intellectual and Spiritual Guidance System, Exercises of Religion

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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. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. The popular religious teaching of any people, Christian or not, is as it were for the masses as yet incapable of stronger food and unadapted to rigorous discipline ; it is accommodated to the simple understanding of the man in the street, jog- trotting along the road of life. Initiation is meant for the expert, the determined spiritual athlete, ready to face the deeper mysteries of being, and resolute to attain, as soon as may be, the heights to which he knows his own spirit, when awakened, can take him. Is not the present declension of interest in popular religion and public worship due-far from entirely, yet largely-not to irreligiousness, but to the fact that conventional religious presentation does not satisfy the rational and spiritual needs of a public forced and disciplined by the exigencies of modem existence to insist upon a clear understanding and a firm intellectual foothold in respect of any form of venture duction it is called upon to undertake? Is not the turn-over of so many essentially religiously-minded and earnestly questing people from the Churches to variants of religious expression, including Masonry, due largely to that reason and to the fact that the Churches, whilst inculcating faith, offering hope, proclaiming love, fail entirely in providing what the Mysteries of the past always did-such a clear philosophical explanation of life and the Universe as provided-not proof, which in regard to ultimate verities it is impossible to offer-but an intellectual motive for turning from things of sense to things of spirit? Nothing is further from my wish or intention in these pages than to extol Masonry at the expense of any existing Religion or Church, or to suggest competition between institutions which are not and can never be competitors, but complementaries. I am merely asserting the simple obvious facts that popular favour has turned, and will more and more turn, to that market which best supplies its needs, and that for many nowadays the Churches fail to supply those needs, or form at best an inferior or inadequate source of supply. The growing human intelligence has outgrown-not religious

truth but presentations of it that sufficed in less exacting social conditions than obtain to-day, and it is calling for more sustaining nutriment. It may be useful to recall how the position was viewed not long ago by an advanced mind racially detached from the religion and ways of the Western world. A Hindu religious Master, an Initiate, who attended the World's Congress of Religions at Chicago as the representative of the Vedantists, made an observational tour of America and Europe with a view to sympathetically understanding and appraising their religious organizations and methods. His conclusions may be summarized thus :"The Western ideal is to be doing (to be active) ; the Eastern, to be suffering (to be passive). The perfect life would be a wonderful harmony of the two. Western religious organizations (Churches and sects) involve grave disadvantages ; for they are always breeding new evils, which are not known to the East with its absence of organization. The perfect condition would come from a true blending of these opposite methods. For the Western soul, it is well for a man to be born in a Church, but terrible for him to die in one ; for in religion there must be growth. A young man is to be censured who fails to attend and learn from the Church of his nation ; the elderly man is equally to be censured if he does attend ;- he ought to have outgrown what that Church offers and to have attained a higher order of religious life and understanding ." The same conclusion was expressed by an eminent and ardent religionist of our own country :"The work of the Church in the world is not to teach the mysteries of life, so much as to persuade the soul to that arduous degree of purity at which Deity Himself becomes her teacher. The work of the Church ends when the knowledge of God begins ."In other words Initiation science (in a real and not merely a ceremonial sense) is needed and commences to be applicable only when elementary spiritual tuition has been assimilated and richer nourishment is called for. The same writer, though a zealous member of the Roman Church, affirms frankly and truly that in any age of the world, the real Initiate of the Mysteries, whatever his race or national religion, must needs always stand higher in spiritual wisdom and stature than the non-initiate of the Christian or any other faith. Such testimonies as these point to-what many others will feel to be a necessity-the need of some complementary, supplementary aid to popular Religion ; some Higher Grade School, in the greater seclusion and privacy of which can be both studied and practized lessons in the secrets and mysteries of our being which cannot be exhibited coram populo. Such an aid is provided by a Secret Order, an Initiation system, and is at hand in Freemasonry. It remains to be seen whether the Masonic Craft, in both its own and the larger ulterior interest of society, will avail itself of the opportunity in its hands. There being a tendency in that direction in the Craft to-day, the pages of this and of my former book are offered to encouraging that tendency to a fruition that could not make otherwise than for the general good. But let those of us who are desirous to farther that tendency, and to see provided an advanced system of spiritual instruction, never entertain a notion of competing with any other community, or permit ourselves a single thought of disparagement or contempt towards either those who learn or those who teach in other places. Life involves growth. The hyacinth-bulb in the pot before me will not remain a bulb, whose life and stature are to be restricted to the level of the pot it has been placed in. It will shoot up a foot higher and there burst in flower and fragrance, albeit that its roots remain in the soil. Similarly each human life is as a bulb providentially planted in some pot, in some Religion, some Church. If it truly fulfils the law and central instincts of its nature it will outgrow that pot, rise high above the pot's surface-level, and ultimately blossom in a consciousness transcending anything it knew whilst in the bulb stage. That consciousness will be one not of the beginner, the student, the neophyte in the Mysteries ; it will be that of the full Initiate. But that perfected life will still be rooted in the soil, and, far from despising it, will be for ever grateful for the pot in which its growth became possible. Masonry will, therefore, never disparage

THE MASONIC INITIATION

From Darkness to Light

CHAPTER I

W. L. WILMSHURST

No more needed and useful work is to be done in the Masonic Order to-day than the education of its members in the true purpose of rites of initiation, that they may the better appreciate the reason, the importance, and the seriousness, of the work the Order was designed to achieve. Hitherto that educative work has been grievously neglected, with prejudicial results to the Craft through the admission of candidates little adapted to appreciate its purpose. Some members have no wish to be masonically educated. They are content to be Masons in name only, and are satisfied that the monotonous, mechanical repetition of unexplained ceremonies and side-lectures fulfils every requisite, and conveys all that is to be known. Yet in every Lodge are to be found brethren who are asking for something more than this, who know that the Craft was designed for wider and better ends; who, as earnest seekers after Wisdom and Light, entered the Order in the hope of finding them, but who too often are repelled by what they do find there, or lose interest on their needs being left unprovided for. It is in the special interest of this worthier type of Mason that this address is given. We greatly need competent, trained exponents of the meaning and symbolism of the Craft ; not merely teachers of the letter of its rituals and lectures. The duty and responsibility of providing this wider instruction surely lies upon those holding the rank of Installed Master. Is not their place in that East from which real Light should continually be coming, and whence they are supposed to employ and instruct in Masonic science those who sit in less or greater degrees of darkness in other symbolic quarters of the Lodge? Are they not the figurative representatives of royal Solomon, and symbolic mouthpieces of a more than human Wisdom? Over each of them has there not been raised a most solemn petition that they may be endued with wisdom to comprehend, judgment to define, and ability to enforce obedience to the holy law declaring the conditions upon which real Initiation depends, so that they may effectively enlighten the minds of their Brethren? How many Installed Masters are conscious in their hearts of possessing, or of even striving to acquire, that wisdom, that understanding of our science, that power of raising others from darkness to Light in any real and vital sense? Now you have called me to the presidency of this large Association of Installed Masters, whose function is to farther the best interests of the Craft in this district. In accepting that position of honour, can I better use it than by inviting you, my Worshipful Colleagues, to consider with me some lines upon which true Masonic instruction should be directed, so that we may combine in raising the general level of Masonic science in our respective Lodges, and at least try to justify more fully our pretension to be Masters of it? My purpose now, therefore, is, firstly, to give some idea of what real Initiation involves, and to show how great a difference exists between it and mere formal passage through the ceremonies of the Craft. Secondly, it is to explain what Initiation meant and still means in the more secret and advanced systems out of which modern Masonry has sprung as a comparatively new branch from a

very ancient tree. And lastly, it is to indicate how, and with what greater efficacy, our Lodge-work might be conducted if we better realized the true nature and purpose of the Order.

INITIATION, REAL AND CEREMONIAL

It may be a surprise to some members of our Craft to be told that our ceremonial rites, as at present performed, do not constitute or confer real Initiation at all, in the original sense of admitting a man to the solemn mysteries of the human soul, and to practical experience in divine science. The words "Initiation" and "Mysteries" have become so popularized and debased that they are nowadays used in relation to familiarizing anyone with the methods of, say, the Stock Exchange, or any other pursuit with which he is unacquainted. We profess to confer Initiation, but few Masons know what real Initiation involves ; very few, one fears, would ' have the wish, the courage, or the willingness to make the necessary sacrifices to attain it if they did. Nevertheless our Craft Degrees give us a rough outline and fragmentary sketch of what the real process entails, and they leave it with ourselves either to amplify that sketch by our own efforts and to make its implications such a reality that our whole life becomes transformed in consequence, or to treat it as so much ceremonial through which we are only to pass formally, leaving our old imperfect nature not a whit changed by the process. Now if Masonry, with its solemn prayers, assurances and pledges, means anything, its true purpose is to promote the spiritual life and development of its members to a degree far in advance of what it accomplishes at present. Otherwise it remains but a social formality, while its obligations and religious references are apt to lapse into profanity or even blasphemy. To prevent this there is needed a dear grasp of the fundamental purpose of an initiatory system and the reason for its existence, after which one can proceed more advantageously to understanding its degrees and symbols in detail. For without such knowledge and understanding there can be no real power, no spiritual driving-force, behind our rites; and without that power ceremonies are but perfunctory, inefficacious formalities. Ceremonies were instituted originally to give an external form to an internal act; but where the internal power to perform such acts does not exist, a ceremony will avail nothing and achieve nothing. You can go on making nominal Masons by the thousand, but you will only be creating a large organization of men who remain as unenlightened in the Mysteries as they always were. You cannot make a single real Initiate, save, as our teaching indicates, by the help of God and the earnest intelligent co-operation of those qualified to assist to the Light a fellow-being who, from his heart and not merely from his lips, desires that Light, humbly confessing himself spiritually poor, worthless, immersed in darkness, and unable to find that Light elsewhere or by his own efforts. For real Initiation means an expansion of consciousness from the human to the divine level. Every system of real Initiation, whether of the past or present, is divided into three clear-cut stages ; since before anyone can pass from his natural darkness to the Light supernal and discover the Blazing Star or Glory at his own centre, there are three distinct tasks to be achieved. They are as follows : First, the turning away from the attractions of the outer world, involving detachment from the allurements of all that is meant by "money and metals," and the purification and subdual of the bodily and sensual tendencies. Not everyone is able or ripe for doing this ; the natural life maintains a powerful hold over us, and our ingrained habits are not readily changed. Yet as long as any of these sensible attractions magnetize and chain us to physical enjoyment, so long are we "in worldly possessions" and precluded from attaining real Initiation into what is super-physical. This work of detachment and self-purification is our Entered Apprentice work, and to it, as you know, is theoretically allotted the long period of seven years. The reason for the seven years apprenticeship

Pierce thy heart to find the key With thee take Only what none else would take Lose, that the lost thou mayst receive ; Die, for none other way cant live. When earth and heaven lay down their veil And that apocalypse turns thee pale, When thy seeing blindeth thee To what thy fellow-mortals see, When their sight to thee is sightless, Their living, death ; their light, most lightless ; Seek no more.... Francis Thompson's "Mistress of Vision ." For it is then, and only then, that true Initiation is achieved, that the lost Word is found at the deep centre of one's own .heart, and the genuine but withheld secrets of our immortal being are restored to us in exchange for the natural knowledge and faculties which, in this world of time and change, have been given us by Providence as their temporary and mortal substitutions.

The Purpose of the Mysteries

We shall understand little of the purpose of Masonry unless we know that of the older systems out of which it issued. That purpose was to promote and expedite the spiritual evolution of those who desired the regeneration of their nature and were prepared to submit to the necessary discipline. Thus the work of the Ancient Mysteries was something vastly more serious and momentous than merely passing candidates through a series of formal rites as we do to-day. Their great buildings, which still survive, were assuredly not erected at such immense labour and skill merely to provide convenient meeting-places, like our modern Lodge premises, at which to administer a formal rite at the end of a day devoted to business and secular pursuits. The mass of Initiation literature and hieroglyphs available to us reveals how drastic and searching was the work to which candidates were subjected under the expert guidance of Masters who had previously undergone the same discipline and become competent to advance their juniors. With them the work was a difficult but exact science, claiming one's whole time and energies ; it was the highest, greatest and holiest of all forms of science-the science of the human soul and the art of its conversion from a natural to a regenerate supernatural state. Reminiscences of the dignity of this work still survive in our references to Masonry as the "noble science" and "royal art," terms meaningless to-day, although each newly made Mason is charged to make daily progress in Masonic science and every one installed into the chair of a Lodge is termed a Master of Arts and Sciences.

But this secret immemorial science could be imparted only to those morally fit and spiritually ripe for it, as not all men yet are. It was meant only for those bent on passing from the moral and intellectual darkness in which normal humanity is plunged, to that Light which dwells in their darkness, though that darkness comprehendeth it not until it is opened up at their centre. It was solely for those who sought the way, the truth and the supernatural life, and were ready to divest themselves of the "money and metals" of temporal interests and concentrate their energies upon the evolution of the higher principles of their nature, which is possible only by the abnegation and surrender of their lower tendencies. Evolution, nowadays recognized as a universal process in Nature, is sometimes supposed to be a modern discovery. But the ancient Wisdom-teaching knew and acted upon it ages before modem scientists discovered it in our own day. It recognized that in all the Universe there is but one Life broken up and differentiated into innumerable forms, and evolving through those forms from less to greater degrees of perfection. In Masonic metaphor it saw Nature to be the vast general quarry and forest out of which individual lives have been hewn like so much stones and timber, which when duly perfected are destined to be fitted together and built into a new and higher synthesis, a majestic Temple worthy of the Divine indwelling, and of which Solomon's temple was a type. All life has issued out of the "East," i.e., from the Great World of Infinite Spirit, and has journeyed to the "West" or the Little World of finite form and embodiment, whence, when duly perfected by experience in those restricted conditions, it is ordained to return to the "East ." Hence when our Entered Apprentice is asked in the lecture, whence he comes and whither he goes, he replies that he is on his way back from the temporal West to the eternal East. The answer corresponds with a fuller one to be found in the surviving records of the early British Initiates, the Welsh bards, where to the same question the following reply is made: "I came from the Great World, having my beginning in Spirit. I am now in the Little World (of form and body) where I have traversed the circle of strife and evolution, and now, at its termination, I am man. In my beginning I had but a bare capacity for life ; but I came through every form capable of a body and life to the state of man, where my condition was severe and grievous during the age of ages. I came through every form capable of life, in water, in earth, in air. And there happened to me every severity, every hardship, every. evil, every suffering. But purity and perfection cannot be- obtained without seeing and knowing everything, and this is not possible without suffering everything. And there can be no full and perfect Love that does not provide for its creatures the conditions. needful to lead to the experience that results in perfection Every one shall attain to the circle of perfection at last." ---From "Barddas" ; the ancient initiate tradition of Welsh Druidic Life, then, was seen as broken up and distributed into innumerable individualized lives or souls and as passing from one bodily form to another in a perpetual progression. (In Masonic metaphor those individualized souls are called "stones," for stone or rock is an emblem of what is most enduring, and the stones are rough ashlars or perfect cubes accordingly as they exist in the rough or have been squared, worked upon, and polished). The bodily form with which the soul becomes invested upon entering this world (symbolized by the Mason being invested with the apron) was seen to be transient, variable, perishable, of small moment compared with the life or soul animating it. Yet it was of the greatest importance in another way, since it provided a fulcrum point or point of resistance for the soul's education and development. It was, as we still term it, the "tomb of transformation" ; the grave into which the soul descended for the purpose of working out its own salvation, for transforming and improving itself, and ascending out of it the stronger and wiser for the experience. Thus life was seen as one continuous stream, temporarily checked by the particular form that clothed it, but flowing on from form to form to ever new and higher conditions ; slumbering in the mineral, dreaming in the plant, waking in the animal, and reaching moral self- consciousness in man.

The work of the Ancient Mysteries was, therefore, a "perfecting" work, or a work of initiation introducing men to a new order of life, since it was designed to make imperfect beings whole and perfect by completing their evolutionary possibilities. The Greek word for this (teleios) has the twofold meaning, "to make perfect" and "to initiate ." It occurs constantly in the Scriptures, the greatest text-book of Initiation-science that exists. They speak of "the just made perfect" ; "be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect " ; "we speak wisdom (initiation science) to such as are perfect (or initiated)." And this perfecting work was for all men alike, of whatever race, language or religion, as Masonry is to-day. For all are brethren, and upon an equal footing in respect of this work, though not all men are necessarily ready to undertake it at the same moment ; all their religions are but so many radii of one circle, designed to lead them from the circumference and surface of life to the one Light at its centre. The qualifications of a candidate for the Mysteries were precisely those provided for Masonic candidates to-day. The one dominant wish of his heart in asking for admission had to be a yearning desire to pass from his natural blindness to the innermost Light, and to have his old imperfect nature revolutionized and transformed. Let me quote one of the oldest prayers in the world, still used in the East by those seeking real Initiation. In its original Sanskrit it consists of but six words, which may be Englished thus: From the unreal, lead me to the Real! From darkness, lead me to Light! From the mortal, bring me to Immortality It expresses the desire that should be not only upon the lips but burning in the heart of every candidate the world over, under whatever system of Initiation he may come. Without that desire as the deepest urge of his heart no real Initiation is possible, nor is any candidate properly prepared to ask for it. No one can expect to come to the revelation of the supernatural Light or to be raised to the sublime degree of a Master-soul, who is content with his present life as it is, who regards himself as not in darkness but as already enlightened, or supposes his present mortal existence to constitute real life. Only by perceiving the unreality and impermanency of the present world and its interests can one really begin to detach himself from it and divest himself, in thought and desire, of its "money and metals ." So long as one carries these with him or remains in any sense "in worldly possessions," so long he darkens his own light and automatically defers his own initiation into it. They mean not merely one's cash and temporal belongings. They include all that clogs and clings to us from our immersion in the outer world ; our intellectual possessions, our stores of notions, beliefs and preconceptions about truth, and the mental habits and self-will we have acquired, even with the best motives, in our state of darkness. All these constitute our "worldly possessions," and they are not our real wealth but our limitations. It is a paradox, but a true one, that we can only gain by giving them up. Their attraction must cease if that high Light we profess to seek is ever to be found, and the aspirant for it must stand at the door of the Mysteries in the deepest sense a poor candidate in a state of darkness, content to be as a child and surrender himself to an entirely new order and rule of life. Few are prepared for this task of self divestment of all that, as experienced men of the world, they have clung to and built into their mental fabric. How many of those who ceremonially profess to do so would be ready or content to do it really? On being told of this pre- requisite to Initiation they would go away sorrowful, for they have great possessions, and are not yet prepared to give them up for something intangible. In a like sense the candidate had to be a free man ; free in a moral rather than in a civil sense ; voluntarily offering himself for the work and free from all attachments hindering its achievement ; and so becoming also free to the goodly fellowship of all other initiates the world over and free from any less .worthy intercourse. He had to be of full age ; that is, in full bodily and mental maturity so as to be fit for the disciplines awaiting him, and spiritually mature (as not every one is)

for undertaking the final stages of his evolution. Sound judgment, a sound mind in a sound body, was also essential in view of the demands made on the mental and psychic faculties, involving the risk of insanity to the mentally unstable. Strict morals (or chastity) were imperative, since the task of self-transformation involves physiological changes in the bodily organism necessitating the utmost personal purity and continence. And he had to be of good report. This does not mean of good reputation. It means that on being tested by the initiating authorities he must be found spiritually responsive to the ideals aimed at and "ring true," giving back a good sound or report like a coin that is tapped to determine its genuineness. In the wonderful Egyptian rituals in the Book of the Dead, one of the titles always found accorded to the Initiate was "true of voice." This is the same thing as our reference to possessing the "tongue of good report." It does not mean that he was incapable of falsity and hypocrisy, which goes without saying, but that his very voice revealed his inherent spirituality and his own speech reflected and was coloured by the divine Word behind it. The vocal and heart nervous centres"the guttural" and "the pectoral," as we say-are intimately related physiologically. Purity or impurity of heart modifies the tonal quality and moral power of one's speech. The voice of the real Initiate or saint is always marked by a charm, a music, an impressiveness, and a sincerity absent in other men ; for he is "true of voice" ; he possesses the "tongue of good report." The rule of the Ancient Mysteries was, and still is in other systems, that twelve years of preparation should elapse before the last great spiritual experience was permitted that brought the candidate to the Light at his centre and qualified him for Mastership, though less sufficed in appropriate cases. As the result of his purification and labours he had become an illuminate and he was mystically said to be twelve years old. From a rough ashlar he had become a polished perfect cube, a stone meet for building into the "holy city" which we are told lieth foursquare and has twelve gates that are always open. For all the parts of his organism were now equalised and balanced, and all his gates (or channels of intercourse with the divine world), no longer shut and clogged by the darkness of his former impurities, lay open for the passage through them of the true Light. In Masonry, this condition is called the "hour of high twelve" ; and he who has attained it will be, like Hiram Abiff, in constant communion with, and adoration of, the Most High. Similarly, when the candidate had advanced still further to the sublime degree and powers of Mastership he was said to be thirty years old. You will find these mystical ages referred to in the third Gospel, where we are told (Luke ii, 42) of the Great Exemplar being twelve years old and so illuminated that His wisdom confounded the academic but unenlightened teachers of the Temple ; and again (Luke iii, 23) that He "began to be about thirty years old," at which period began his work as a Master, which continued for another three years and manifested such works and teaching as are possible only to a Master. Thirty-three years was, in the Mysteries, the mystical duration of life of every initiate who attained Mastership. That period has no relation to bodily age ; it is based on considerations we need not now enter into but referring to the completion of human evolution, when it can be said of the soul's travail "It is finished," "He hath wrought the purpose through of That which made him man." It is for this reason that the Antient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry extends to 33 Degrees, in perpetuation of the original secret tradition. Of the detailed methods employed in assisting properly qualified candidates to the Light of the centre, whether in the ancient systems or at the present day, and of the wonderful change wrought by them in the candidate himself, nothing can be said publicly ; these are matters belonging to silence. The secrets and mysteries of real Initiation can never be fully communicated except in the course of the process itself. They are not disclosed in Masonry at all. Our teaching refers to them as being "serious, solemn and awful," but leaves them at that and provides various substituted ones

Are we always going to be content with making merely formal Masons and maintaining a merely social and philanthropic society? If so, we shall remain no different men from the popular world who are not Masons. Or are we wishful that the Craft should fulfill its purpose of being a system of real initiating efficiency by awaking the undeveloped spiritual potentialities of its members and raising them to a sublimer level of life? If so, we must educate ourselves more deeply in its meaning. Let me indicate how things would go if our work were conducted upon more intelligent lines. It is too much to expect any marked or sudden change to take place in old methods or habits, and resistance to any improvement may always be expected from some who are satisfied with things as they are. Nor can improvement be forced upon anyone ; to be advantageous it must come spontaneously. But many Brethren and many Lodges sincerely desire it, and so let me offer you a picture of what an ideal Lodge would be ; you may then consider how far it may be practicable to attempt to conform to that ideal. In the first place, Lodge meetings would be primarily devoted to what we are taught is their chief purpose, namely, to expatiating on the Mysteries of the Craft and educating Brethren in the understanding of them. This is now never done ; largely because we are without competent instructors. We suppose that our side-lectures are sufficient instruction. This is not the case. There are additional large fields of knowledge that Masons must explore if they wish to learn this science, while our official lectures are themselves packed with purposely obscured truths that are left to our own efforts and - perspicuity to discover, but the purport of which at present remains entirely concealed. The duly opened Lodge would be a sanctuary of silence and contemplation, broken only by ceremonial utterances or such words of competent and luminous instruction as the Master or Past Masters are moved to extend. And the higher the degree in which it is opened, the deeper and more solemn would be the sense of excluding all temporal thoughts and interests and of approaching more nearly that veiled central Light whose opening into activity in our hearts we profess to be our predominant wish. In such circumstances each Lodge meeting would become an occasion of profound spiritual experience. No member would wish to disturb the harmony of such a Lodge by talk or alien thought. No member would willingly be absent. If he were, save from necessity, it would indicate that, though entitled to wear the apron in a literal sense, he was temporarily not properly clothed in his mind and intention to be qualified to enter the Lodge. Every one would regret when such a meeting closed and it became necessary to be recalled from such peace and refreshment to the jars and labours of the outer world. The admission of a new candidate would be a comparatively infrequent event. For no one would be received to membership save after the fullest tests of his genuine desire for Masonic knowledge and of his adaptability to it. The conferment of the different degrees would be at much longer intervals than is now authorized, so as to ensure their being assimilated and understood, as is impossible at present. And upon the notable occasion of a degree being conferred, those present would be not merely passive spectators of the rite. They would have been educated to become active though silent helpers in it by adding the force of their united thought and desire to the spoken word, and so creating such a tense and highly charged atmosphere that an abiding permanent uplift in the candidate's consciousness might be hoped for. For the efficacy of rites like ours does not depend solely on the Master who performs them. He is the mouthpiece for the time being of all those present, but it is the whole assembly that should really be acting ; forming, as it were, a battery of spiritual energy, and drawing the new Brother into vital fraternity with itself. Great power resides in strong collective thought and intention, and when these are focused and concentrated upon a candidate properly prepared in heart

and mind for our ministrations, we might hope to induce in him something like real initiation ; but otherwise he will be listening to but a formal recital of words. It follows that we should never hear such things as the usual talk about "making one's Lodge a success," or as personal praise to anyone for having performed his work creditably. Whether our work is really done well, in the sense of being spiritually effective, God alone knoweth, to whom all gratitude should be rendered for any good achieved ; while the only worthy success for a Lodge is its capacity for vitally affecting the lives of those who enter it and transforming their mental and moral outlook. The Lodge-room should be holy ground ; a Temple consecrated to Masonic work and used for it exclusively. For it is a symbol of the temple of the human individual, and we who are taught the necessity of every intending initiate's excluding money and metals from his thought, and who have before us the significant example of a Master who vigorously scourged all money-changers out of the Temple, should surely conform to those lessons by keeping our symbolic temple sanctified and entirely free from secular use. There is a practical advantage in so doing, for premises continually devoted to a single purpose become, as it were, charged and saturated with the thought and ideals thrown off by those who habitually so use it. A permanent spiritual atmosphere is created, the influence of which appreciably affects those who enter it, and the possibility of the efficacious initiation of candidates is thereby greatly increased ; whereas that atmosphere becomes defiled, and any spiritual influence stored in it neutralized, by promiscuous use. Visiting other Lodges would no longer be for social reasons, but, as in ancient times, solely with a desire to enlarge one's Masonic knowledge and experience, to share their spiritual privileges, or even to bring spiritual reinforcement to Lodges needing such help. No practice is more beneficial than intercourse between those of different Lodges engaged in a common work, and no right is more firmly established than that of any seeker of the Light to claim and be given hospitality and assistance conducing to that end. But our modern practice of mass-visiting is calculated to disturb the true work we ought to be doing, and is somewhat of an abuse and travesty of a privilege dating from antiquity, when occasional representatives of one school of the Mysteries journeyed, often long distances, to another in a different land to enlarge their own knowledge or impart it to those they visited. Promotion to office in, the Craft would not be by rotation or from seniority of membership or social standing in the outside world. It would depend entirely upon spiritual proficiency ; upon ability to impart real illumination to candidates and advance the true work of the Craft. The little jealousies and heartburning that now occur at the annual promotions would be impossible; such things belong to the base metals in our nature, which ought long ago to have been got rid of in any one really qualified for office. Did we better realize the serious nature of Initiation work, we should often shrink in humility tool from accepting positions we are now eager to seize. Remember that in leaving the outer world and. passing the portal of the Lodge into the world within, all values change; all questions, and even all sense, of personality should cease. You become engaged not in a personal task but in a common fraternal work before God, in whose sight all are equal and who will act through such instruments as seem good to Him. Therefore "let him that is greatest among you be as he that is least" ; it may well be that the apparently least among us is often likely to be the more efficient workman. These, I know, are lofty ideals, largely impracticable at the moment, and I have no wish to alienate any Brother's interest in the Craft by imposing a standard beyond his present capacity and desire. Yet Brethren to whom the ideal appeals, and to whom it is both desirable and practicable, might unite in meeting with the intention of conforming to it, and here and there even a small new Lodge might be formed for that special purpose, leaving other Lodges to work on their accustomed lines.

THE MASONIC INITIATION

Light on the Way

CHAPTER II

W. L. WILMSHURST

" They went up with winding stairs into the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third ." ---1 Kings vi, 8. "Does the road wind up-hill all the way ?" Yes, to the very end. "Will the day's journey take the whole long day ?" From morn to night, my friend! "But is there for the night a resting-place? A roof for when the slow dark hours begin? May not the darkness hide it from my face ?" You cannot miss that Inn. ---Christina Rossetti In the previous paper we have spoken of the transition from darkness to light made by those who seek to effect the reconstitution of their natural being and to develop it, by the science and methods of Initiation, to a higher and ultra-natural level. It has been made clear that that transition must necessarily be gradual, and that, though ceremonially dramatized in three Degrees which can be taken in successive months, to realize the implications of those Degrees in actual life-experience may be a life-time's work ; perhaps more than a * life-time's. The Apprentice who has entered himself to the business of rebuilding his own soul has much to learn and to do before he becomes even a competent Craftsman in it ; the Craftsman, in turn, has much to do and far to journey before he can hope for complete Mastership. The work of self-transmutation is a strenuous one, not suddenly or hurriedly to be performed, and one needing hours of refreshment and passivity as well as hours of active labour, to each of which he will find himself duly summoned at the proper time. There is much to be learned in regard to the secrets of his own nature and the principles of intellectual science, which only gradually, and as the result of patience and experience, can become revealed to his view. There is a superstructure to be raised, perfect in all its parts ; a work involving much more than is at first supposed. There are tests and ordeals of a searching character to be undergone on the way. A measure of Light, a first glimpse of the distant Promised Land, may come to the eager sight of the properly prepared candidate from the first moment of his entrance upon the work, but he must not suppose that he has yet fully captured it and made it permanently his own. It is something, however, to have felt that a veil has been suddenly withdrawn from his previously darkened sight and that he has become able to distinguish between his former benightedness and the goal lying before him.

We will entitle this present section, therefore, "Light on the Way," and make it treat of a variety of matters calling for the aspirant's attention as he pursues the way that intervenes between his first glimpse of the Light and its ultimate realization ; and in a subsequent section we shall speak of Light in its fullness of attainment. We will supplement our previous explanation of Masonic doctrine by dealing with further symbols and passages in the rituals, with which every Mason is familiar formally and by the outward ear, but the significance of which too often passes unexplained and unobserved. The expositions in this Section are offered not Light only for the private reflection of - members of the on Craft, but with the suggestion that they may serve the as material for collective meditation by Brethren in open Lodge or at Lodges of Instruction. For those upon the path to real Initiation, meditation is essential. For meditation opens a window in the mind through which Light streams into the understanding from the higher, spiritual principle in ourselves ; which window is symbolized by the dormer-window in the emblematic Temple of Solomon, through which came light to those ascending the stairway that wound inwardly to the middle chamber leading to the central sanctuary where alone Light in its fullness was to be found. The practice of meditation, moreover, whether personal or collective, conduces to that quietness and control of the normally restless, wandering mind. which are indispensable for the apprehension of deep Truth. Ancient Lodges, _ we are told, were wont to meet on the highest hills and in the lowest valleys ; and in an old Instruction-lecture it is explained that those expressions are meant to be figurative and relate less to actual places than to the spiritual and mental condition of those assembled. To meet in the valley, implied being in a state of sheltered passiveness and tranquility, when the minds of the Brethren surrendered themselves to quiet collective thought on the subject of their work ; and thus, being "led beside still waters," they became, like the limpid unruffled surface of a lake, a clear undistorting mirror for the reflection and apprehension of such rays of light and truth as might reach them from above. To meet on the high hills, on the other hand, implied the more active work of the Lodge and the performance of it upon the superphysical planes-the "hills" of the spirit ; for the real work of Initiation is only there accomplished, and is no longer a ceremonial formality. There are times for work and times for repose in the Craftsman's task-times of labour and refreshment and to perform that task efficiently both must be utilized. Modern Lodges, in the general imperfect conception of Masonry, follow merely the rush and hustle methods of the outside world, which, of course, inside the Lodge have no place and ought no longer to be emulated. They are busy enough on the active side, but they provide no opportunity for cultivating the equally necessary passive aspect of the work. It would be found eminently advantageous, therefore, if Lodges which desire to- realize true Masonry adopted the practice of collectively contemplating points of symbolism and teaching ; devoting certain meetings to this special purpose, and then, without more discussion than is necessary and helpful, quietly and earnestly concentrating attention upon the significance of some symbol or point of doctrine brought before them. For those seriously engaged in the ascent of the winding staircase, - the following expositions may perhaps serve as helpful rays of light from the dormer window. They are necessarily brief and merely elementary introductions to phases of the science which, as the aspirant proceeds, he will find inexhaustible and claiming not cursory notice but his constant deep attention. May they, however, be as a lamp to his feet and a light upon the spiral path to ledge his own middle chamber, and help to guide him to that final central sanctuary where the Light itself shines in fullness and waits to be found.

"THE KNOWLEDGE OF YOURSELF"