Secrets and Practices of the Freemasons: Sacred Mysteries, Rituals and Symbols Revealed - Jean-Louis de Biasi 2011

Egypt: The Hidden Widow of Freemasonry
The Widow’s Sons

Alexandria: Birth of the Ancient Mysteries

the hermetic school and the ancient mysteries

It may seem strange to look to the past—usually thought of as prescientific, non-empirical, and archaic—in order to understand the present. It’s just as strange and even amazing to imagine that scientific discoveries can come from the ancient traditions. So it is extremely useful to see if this supposition is true, and to understand the characteristics of this knowledge, and of course, where we can find it.

In The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown says that ancient knowledge was spread across time, secreted away in thousands of books; this knowledge originated from the ancient papyrus scrolls of the Egyptians and even the clay tablets of the Sumerians. Yet despite the diverse sources, the texts all say the same thing; these secrets of ancient knowledge can be unlocked. This seems almost contradictory. The first one shows that ancient knowledge cannot be found in one single place. The second shows that these secrets can be found in the venerable writings on the same subject, and all coming from the same source: east of the Mediterranean basin.

This notion illustrates the feeling that has existed for centuries in Western culture, that this region was the early origin of important moral and spiritual ideas as well as the beginnings of technological and scientific knowledge. This part of the world is not far from where human beings first appeared.

The ancient Greeks, eager to be initiated into this ancient wisdom, came to Egypt, and many of these seekers did receive a part of this heritage and its secrets. They used what they received, but they also respected what was called secret. It’s for this reason you find so few explicit Greek writings on those rituals and mysteries.

The priests of ancient Egypt did not look upon these Greeks seeking the Ancient Mysteries as equals. The gods had transmitted sacred knowledge to the Egyptians in their temples the seekers had to receive these mysteries in ceremonies more religious than philosophical. We should not expect to find in ancient Egypt any rational analysis of their magical and religious practices, nor will we find their gods and goddesses in classifications logical to our modern minds. The distinction between reason, science, and religion was not as strict as today.

As the centuries passed, Egypt was invaded several times and many Greeks and other foreigners began to live in this country. Alexandria, the city founded by Alexander the Great, progressed into a very important center for spiritual, religious, and scientific studies. It is in this period of history, called the Ptolemaic[1] period, that a real exchange of ideas began between initiates from different cultures—Phoenician, Greek, Chaldean, Jewish, Egyptian, etc. Until this time, Egyptian initiates were what I could call “elitist,” looking at other cultures as inferior and without interest. Following the will of Ptolemeus Soter the First, an honest and balanced man, the city of Alexandria began to illuminate the whole world. No doubt that the protection of Alexander the Great, buried in the city, was effective in this issue.

During this difficult time for Egypt, some priests met regularly with religious people and initiates of other faiths then living in Egypt, principally in the north of the country. New interpretations of ancient local traditions rose from this exchange, integrating the best of each. Links were established on different religious, initiatic, philosophical, and scientific levels. An amazing example of this benevolent collaboration came about through the meeting between an Egyptian priest, Manethon, and the Greek priest of Demeter, Timoteus. From their theological debates arose a new divinity named Serapis, whose image of a divine and noble old figure carrying on his head a basket/grain-

measure symbolizing his agricultural character was undoubtedly a fusion between Osiris-Apis and Demeter. This god was often associated with Isis and Harpocrates, and was present in Isiac worship and mysteries throughout the ancient world. A Serapeum was built in Memphis to accommodate this new god. Nearby was a semicircular auditorium surrounded by statues of Greek philosophers who had come to study in the Egyptian temples. Among these figures were Solon, Thaleus, Plato, Eudoxus, and Pythagoras. Greeks identified Harpocrates with Asclepius, and patients came to sleep in his temple in order to receive dreams of healing guidance.

At this time, Alexandria was a city where everyone freely prayed and worshiped the gods of their choice. Greeks frequently went to Egyptian temples and the Egyptians freely reciprocated. Besides their own feeling for one or another divinity, it was often the deity’s recognized “rulership” (purpose or function) that determined their choice.

Please note that the tradition I am talking about in this book is not religious. Its philosophy is not opposed to religion per se, but it does not use the dogmatic and theological approach, nor the sacraments found in some religions.

The contacts between different cultures in Alexandria during the Ptolemaic period went further than simple religious discussion. Greeks brought with them a rationalist and analytic way of thinking almost unknown to the Egyptian Tradition. From this connection between wise adepts and initiates, a completely original school was founded on the Hermetica (Hermetic texts) and, more precisely, on the famous Emerald Tablet.

As the French scholar Françoise Bonardel once wrote: “Hermeticism was autonomous regarding Christianity and independent regarding the initiatic societies it organized. In fact Hermeticism would have gathered all along the centuries of Western history, a family of minds first of all eager to work on overtaking all forms of dualism. It would be characterized by some sort of feeling, tolerance allowing one to receive different ways of spiritual realization.” The uniqueness of the Hermetic Tradition is this determination and desire to link reason and intelligence, and to progress toward a free spirituality. In spite of the loss of very important texts in the destruction of the famous Alexandria library, a real philosophical corpus is still available to us—including the Corpus Hermeticum, the Chaldaic Oracles, and various theological and philosophical treatises belonging to this school.

Later, this philosophical and spiritual tradition was organized around the Greek Academy of Plato and its work. Masters of the academy kept these inner teachings from Egypt alive for many centuries. Today it is called Neoplatonism, but the heirs of Plato did more than just perpetuate his teaching, codifying and organizing it into a complete system called Religio Mentis, the “religion of mind.” For us today, following the work of Thomas Aquinas and the German philosophers, philosophy can be seen as mostly an abstract and purely mental practice.

Hermetic philosophy, however, is not a pure mental abstraction with no other purpose than to examine the essence of things and beings. The practice of this philosophy cannot be separated from spiritual life and the search for the divine. Reason linked to spiritual and symbolic practices allows this progress in a stable and balanced way. Of course, Hermetic initiates did have a religious practice, but their intellectual studies were not necessary for popular religious practice.

We can view initiation in two ways:

1. The first consists of progressive training and practice of philosophy. It is mostly mental and links in a balanced way reasoning, visualization, and meditation. You will learn more about that in the practical part of this book.

2. The second corresponds to specific rituals that I specifically call the Mysteries.

It is evident that Hermetists who practiced the first way received at the same time one or more initiations to the mysteries. At that time, no initiation was considered superior to another and it was common to be initiated into several divine mysteries. We see this in Apuleus’ writings: “I was initiated in Greece to most of the religions. Symbols and gifts were given to me by priests and I keep them piously. There is nothing extraordinary, nothing prodigious here . . . there are many religions, several ritual practices, a large variety of ceremonies which I studied for love of the truth and as duty for the Gods.”[2]

These “mystery cults” are very close to some Masonic rituals, but have to be differentiated by the common religious practice. The mysteries transmit hidden, esoteric knowledge to a small number of people sometimes chosen for their moral qualities. They use different spiritual and ritual practices relating to the sacred geographical places that perpetuate them. These same processes further encouraged the development of the hidden powers of the human being, helping one to understand one’s essence and the way toward the full possession of one’s potential.

Dan Brown in The Lost Symbol explains that the ancient knowledge hidden in these texts enabled practitioners to access and control powerful, almost magical, abilities that lie hidden within the mind. Such powers were too dangerous to be wielded by the uninitiated, and hence the mysteries were only disseminated to a select few by the masters, whom they believed could handle and control this newfound power with skill and morality. An analogy can be made to the use of fire. In the correct hands, fire is a beneficial and advantageous tool when used for cooking food, warming a house, etc. In the wrong hands, fire can be used as a murderous weapon or as an instrument of torture.

It is for this reason that the Ancient Mysteries or initiations were intended to keep the initiatic process, understanding, and knowledge secret. These secrets were given only under very different and solemn oaths. Most of our present knowledge came from initiates who betrayed their oath, often after being converted to Christianity. Clement of Alexandria (chief of the Theological School of Alexandria in the second century CE) wrote: “Not only Pythagoreans and Plato hide most of their dogmas, but the Epicureans confess themselves that they have secrets and they do not allow everybody to handle the books where these teachings are written. On the other hand, following the Stoics, Zenon wrote some treatises which they do not give easily to read to their followers.”[3] In the same way, Iamblicus wrote: “The Pythagoreans kept for themselves the most important and the most understandable of their dogmas, forbade giving them to exotericists, and teaching them without writings, as divine Mysteries, to their successors.”[4]

These Ancient Mysteries were organized in different schools dedicated to specific divinities. The word Mysteries comes from the Latin mysterium, and from the Greek musterion, meaning in this context “a ritual or a secret doctrine.” An initiate who had experienced such mystery was a mystos, an “initiate.” They constituted the esoteric aspect of rituals and popular beliefs.

It is really only those mysteries that can be called “initiatic groups,” like those of Eleusis, Bacchus, Samothrace, etc., that are of interest to us here in the discussion of Freemasonry.

However, Hermetic philosophy is not something radically different from the practice of the mysteries. It is a teaching developed from the Thoth-Hermes revelation and transmitted by the initiates to the mysteries. Mircea Eliade wrote: “Differently than private groups governed by a hierarchic power, initiatic rituals, and progressive revelation of a secret doctrine, Hermeticism, just as alchemy, implicates simply some texts revealed, transmitted, and interpreted by a master to a few followers well prepared. [. . .] You should remember that the revelation contained in the big treatises of the Corpus Hermeticum constitutes the supreme gnosis, the esoteric science allowing salvation. The simple fact to understand and assimilate is the same to an ’initiation’.”

This idea is very well illustrated by the prayer opening the Commentary on Plato’s Parmenides by Proclus: “I pray all Gods and Goddesses to guide my mind in this study that I have undertaken—to kindle in me a shining light of truth and enlarge my understanding for the genuine science of being; to open the gates of my soul to receive the inspired guidance of Plato; and in anchoring my thought in the full splendor of reality to hold me back from too much conceit of wisdom and from the paths of error by keeping me in intellectual converse with those realities from which the eye of the soul is refreshed and nourished.”[5]

The student should deeply study the texts of the tradition he received as this training is the fruit of a long solitary learning, but it would be wrong to stop there. It is clear that the philosophical study as conceived by Plato following Pythagoras is in direct relation to mystical currents such as Pythagorism and Orphism. It is useless trying to divide these heritages, because the similarity of these doctrines is obvious.

At its beginning, Hermeticism put the emphasis on philosophical study rather than on ritual work. Mystical revelation manifests itself as the result of this inner practice linking meditation and philosophical analysis. The practitioner of this form of asceticism progresses towards the state of contemplating the One, going from phantasms of the material world to the clarity of the world containing the first principles.

It was between the second and sixth centuries CE that this particular form of spirituality was established. Among those who structured this tradition were Plotinus, Iamblicus, Plutarch, Syrianus, Proclus, Damaskios, and others. Initiatic rituals, some separate from Hermeticism, were in harmony and had direct interaction.

From the beginning, this spiritual and mystical path was placed under the protection of Thoth-Hermes, an all-knowing and omnipotent god. The appearance of the founder god of this tradition is the subject of a very symbolic myth, which can be viewed in relation to Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol.

In this story of creation, the world originates as one formless primordial ocean, a primitive chaos with only the primordial powers present, represented by four pairs of personified divinities. According to the Egyptian Tradition, every divinity was symbolically represented in both a human and an animal form: the body was human while the gods had a frog’s head and the goddesses a snake’s head.

Then the eight divinities (the divine ogdoad [6]) began organizing and balancing each other, bringing order to chaos. A primordial hillock appeared in the center of the sea and a lake was formed on this island.

An ibis (one of the symbolic forms of Thoth) appeared gliding above this shining island, alighting on the top of the hill and laying an egg. The egg cracked and Ra, the Sun-god, appeared in a blazing light. Going up to the sky, the blaze of this first sun illuminated the whole universe.

Then the members of the divine ogdoad appeared in their visible aspect and went to the lake. Performing a magical ritual together, they made a lotus flower from the water. The flower opened in a shining light and gave birth to a female being.

This goddess then rose in the air and united with Ra. Thoth was born from this union, the first divine birth and the founder of the initiatic tradition. For this reason, the ogdoad was sometimes called the “souls of Thoth.” It was on this first sacred hillock, center of the world, that the city known by the Greeks as Hermopolis or by the Egyptians as Khemenou (“City of the Eight” or “Eight Cities”) was built.

Therefore it was there that the Hermetic (Ogdoadic) Tradition was really born.

Since the most ancient times, Thoth was considered as a lunar god. It is very interesting to see this symbolic relation between Thoth and the appearance of Ra rising out of the ibis’ egg. It is undoubtedly for this reason that, as the Moon owes its light to the Sun, Thoth’s authority rises from his work as secretary and adviser to his father, Ra. You find this connection to the east in most of the Masonic temples, in representations of both the Sun and the Moon.

It was Thoth who brought language and science to men. Thoth governed worship in the temples, sacred rituals, as well as the texts that composed them. Esoteric wisdom was his attribution.

With Isis, he represents the magical aspect of rituals and practices. The invisible action of symbols used in rituals was taught by Thoth and it was he who taught Isis the magical formulas that allowed her to revive her husband Osiris.

Knowing the possible relationship between the Isis-Osiris story and Hiram’s myth, we can see how the action of Thoth can be hidden behind the resurrections of the deity and Master Hiram. It is Thoth who plays an important function in life after death, where he is at the same time psychopomp and judge of the dead. As possessor of secret formulas of resurrection, Thoth is the one who allows the transition from life to death and from death to life.

As you may know, it is the word, written or pronounced, that contains the divine power that is creative in itself. The central position of the secret (and lost) word in Freemasonry comes directly from this origin. Progressively, Thoth will be connected to the god Hermes, giving birth to the figure of Hermes-Trismegistus under the aegis of whom this tradition was perpetuated.

One of the main intentions of the Hermetic initiation was to restore unity, putting humans back into their ordained function as mediator between the material world and the divine. The vocation of Thoth-Hermes is therefore to assist humanity in this work, which Freemasonry synthesizes into this sentence: unite what is scattered. From multiplicity and chaos, the goal is to recreate a unity of order and harmony, which has been lost to us both inwardly and outwardly.

One of the important consequences of this Hermetic doctrine is the refusal to divide knowledge into different parts. Hermes leads the initiates toward unification of opposites with the ability to exchange one’s own perspective for that of another, thus welcoming the difference between people in respect of their essence. Hermeticism is the intuition of this unity in every initiate’s action. But, at the same time, Hermetists know that it is impossible to have a real definition of the divine. The initiate knows that exclusion and dogma are opposite to this balanced path to unity.

It is for this reason that Hermeticism is so modern today and so important despite its ancient origin. It is this Hermetic ideal, reflected in the principles developed in eighteenth-century Europe as the “Philosophy of the Lights,” that Freemasonry and the Founding Fathers of the United Statesunderstood, transmitted, and accomplished in the constitutional birthing of the nation.

the prophecy

Hermetic, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman schools of the mysteries were developed during antiquity with the Egyptian city of Alexandria as their intellectual and spiritual center. This book is not the place to recount the entire extraordinary history and destiny of this city. However, its spiritual and initiatic schools, as well as its famous library, remain undying landmarks for Hermeticism and the mysteries.

The deities of fate are always very efficient in their creation of fortuitous symbolic chance occurrences, which I would name synchronistic. The coherence of a group of symbols is traditionally seen as the manifestation of such synchronism. The same is true, as you will see, with some very significant names of United States cities.

The city of Alexandria, Virginia, first known as Belhaven, was named in honor of John Alexander, who in the late seventeenth century bought from Robert Howison the land on which the city now stands. The first settlement was made in 1695, and Alexandria was laid out in 1749 and incorporated in 1779. This place was not chosen by chance, because Shuter’s Hill[7] was the very spot once proposed by Thomas Jefferson as the ideal site for the nation’s capitsl. Shuter’s Hill was also the actual site in Alexandria, Virginia, for the Masonic memorial to President George Washington built in the shape of the Alexandria, Egypt lighthouse.

In fact, the Capitol was constructed more to the north and was included in the symbolic Mall of Washington. However, such a symbol could not remain without symbolic meaning. Chance acted once again, and it was on February 22, 1910, that a meeting was organized at the Alexandria-Washington Lodge for the purpose of forming an association to plan and build a suitable memorial to President George Washington, the Freemason. The representatives of the twenty-six U.S. Grand Lodges approved the erection of the memorial and formed the George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association. Ten years later, the concept of the colossal building was approved.

The site selected was located on land with which General Washington was familiar and gives a prominent place for a symbolic building. As you can read in The Lost Symbol, the Masonic memorial to George Washington was built to symbolize the intellectual ascent of humanity, from the most basic to the most complex, in its choice of Greek columns and architecture, and was directly inspired by the Pharos lighthouse in Egypt’s Alexandria.

Uniting both cultures of the past, this monument also included some elements of the Parthenon’s architecture.[8] The inside of this building contains temples, meeting rooms, and, of course, a rich library.

On the website of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial you can read that “George Washington did not ascend into greatness simply by his intellect, but through his deep morality, his profound spirituality and devotion to country.”[9] These are the real Masonic virtues that were always linked to the expression of Religio Mentis, manifesting the Hermetic spirit.

This building was very well designed to represent and manifest this Alexandrian ideal. Of course, it is the memorial of a famous man, but it is well known that tradition is always composed by leaders who put values and heritage above their own needs and desires. They are modest before the responsibility placed upon them. George Washington did not seek to be the first president, but his friends urged him to accept the position and his feelings of duty and loyalty to the work still to be undertaken encouraged him to accept this historic role.

This broad acceptance of morality was always very important in the Hermetic Tradition and in Freemasonry. This search for virtue and its personal necessity in rising toward the divine, cultivating the most sacred values, was present at all times. This moral demonstration of fidelity regarding responsibility placed upon the individual and the collective consequences is one of the pillars of Freemasonry. One aspect of the founder myths that best explains this principle is the figure of the widow. She appears several times in Hiram’s myth, as well as in Isis’ myth. Hiram is called in the Bible “a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphatali.”[10]

In The Lost Symbol, we can see this aspect of the widow myth, although it less used in the English-speaking countries. In other countries, we can quite literally hear these famous words when a Mason is looking for some help: “Is there no help for the widow’s son?”

Later in the novel, this subject is directly connected to one of Freemasonry’s origin myths, Hiram’s murder.

The first Freemasons, called the Adonhiramite Masons, tell the story that they looked after the mother of Hiram after the death of their master. Being all brothers, they were naturally called “the widow’s sons.” Today, Freemasons refer to themselves as “widow’s sons” because they are the descendants of this first mythical brotherhood. This expression became in some countries a synonym for the Freemasons. The widow’s story is seen in Masonic art containing death’s symbolism. It was also the basis for the casual clothing of the Freemasons that can be seen during some meetings, which emphasizes sobriety and seriousness.

Next, I can reveal a little more of this story and go back to a source almost forgotten. As usual, it is clear that this expression is symbolic and hides another reality. It is interesting to explain who really the widow is. She may be only a symbol illustrating the necessity of collective moral requirements to build a better man and society. But at the same time, she is a memory of a more ancient teaching from a tradition that was veiled in order to be perpetuated. It is a familiar phenomenon among initiatic traditions and one should not be surprised to find it here.

Before the light of Freemasonry could shine in the world and participate in the founding of the United States, the light of the original tradition, just born in Alexandria, Virginia, had to increase. There were signs pointing out that the ancient land of initiation would see important events that would change forever the nature of the relationship between the spiritual and the divine world. Among the sacred Hermetic texts there is a book, of which only the Latin translation was saved. The title is the Asclepius. It contains valuable teachings on cosmology, the essence of God, destiny, cycles of the world and life, theurgy, etc. In the ninth part of this book, we can read an amazing prophecy linked to a beautiful explanation of the way Egypt was considered by the initiates.

Trismegistus said:

Dost thou not know, Asclepius, that Egypt is the image of Heaven; or, what is truer still, the transference, or the descent, of all that are in governance or exercise in Heaven? And if more truly [still] it must be said—this land of ours is Shrine of all the World.

. . . The time will come when Egypt will appear to have in vain served the Divinity with pious mind and constant worship and all its holy cult will fall to nothingness and be in vain.

For that Divinity is now about to hasten back from Earth to Heaven, and Egypt shall be left; and Earth, which was the seat of pious cults, shall be bereft and widowed of the presence of the Gods.[11]

And foreigners shall fill this region and this land; and there shall be not only the neglect of pious cults, but—what is still more painful—as though enacted by the laws, a penalty shall be decreed against the practice of [our] pious cults and worship of the Gods—[complete] proscription of them.[12]

. . . For Darkness will be set before the Light, and Death will be thought preferable to Life. No one will raise his eyes to Heaven; the pious man will be considered mad, the impious a sage; the frenzied held as strong, the worst as best.”[13]

Beyond its prophetic dimension, this important text reveals different keys that can shed more light on the sacred mysteries and the initiates, for the initiates were the authors of this text.

Here we discover a very interesting idea: the earth (as the temple) can be the representation of heaven, the spiritual world. Egypt was considered in that way and temples were built in precise and symbolic places in order to help the manifestation of invisible divine powers. Gods and goddesses welcomed every day in temples represented the presence of heaven in the world. As the above quotation says, “This land of ours is Shrine of all the World.” Once again this is the manifestation of the powerful Hermetic motto quoted again and again: “As above, so below.”

The Lord’s Prayer says: “On earth as it is in heaven . . .”

“As above, so below.” This well-known sentence takes on a new and very interesting aspect. The microcosm is the temple. The macrocosm can be the earth itself. As below, so above. This is what the Egyptians wanted to do with their sacred land. The process is the same for the temple and for the initiate’s body, which is also a temple. The divine power is invoked in order to be manifested.

But the prophecy tells of a time when this close relationship between heaven and earth would be interrupted. The gods would leave the earth and go back to the sky. And so the earth became widowed of the gods. The intimate relationship that joined them and which allowed this descent of the divine and the rise of the soul was lost. The earth was widowed of the benevolent and constant presence of the divine. The prophetic message was given, but the only ones who fully realized its importance and decided to perpetuate this teaching were the Hermetists, from whence came the Freemasons, the widow’s sons. They are really the sons of the earth, which became widowed by the disappearance of the gods, and without the gods’ divine presence became unbalanced, a condition that still continues today. It is also the earth that constitutes our own physical bodies and which lost vision of the inner presence of the divine, as we are reminded by the Hermetic motto just quoted, and by the alchemical injunction of the Chamber of Reflection, VITRIOL (a Latin acronym for “Visit the interior of the earth and rectifying [i.e., purifying] you will find the hidden stone”).

The second part of the prophecy describes the appearance of a power that will forbid practices, worship, studies, etc., on which was based until then this balance between sky and earth. It uses expressions that are today common in the Masonic language, “Darkness will be set before the light, and death will be thought preferable to life.” Facing the start of these religious restrictions, the initiates wisely chose to keep this tradition of living mysteries alive under a thick veil so it could continue to live on but in secret.

The Dark Days and the Secret Chain of Initiates

the dark days

Around the third century, Christianity, until then a simple religious group, began to constitute a substantially greater political power. In the year 356, Constance II, successor to Constantine, forbade the celebration of traditional rituals and of all kinds of prophesying. He ordered the closing of temples; the confiscation of the personal belongings of people called “pagans” (peasants); and proscribed worship of the traditional divinities. The prophecy began to happen.

In the fourth century CE, despite the efforts of the Emperor Julian to restore religious tolerance and equality of worship, it was not possible to restore what had been broken. The light of Alexandria began to disappear. Emperor Julian was assassinated on June 26, 363, and I can say that his death put an end to the ancient world. After this, political and religious powers tried to eliminate by every possible means the respectable old traditions. The simple possession of books, and more so of religious treatises and written rituals, became punishable by death. Even today there are many examples of religious groups working in the same way. Some followers fearfully burnt their libraries. This loss was absolutely disastrous for the Western world. Fortunately, some of them could not resign themselves to it and hid some of their documents. This was also true for some followers of the Hermetic Tradition. Some tried to hide their books in tombs, while others put them in jars buried in caves.

Some of these hiding places have been found in modern times close to the ancient city of Thebes. The hiding place in which were found most manuscripts close to the Hermetic gnosis is now famous: Nag Hammadi. Another hiding place was discovered in Thebes and contained principally magical and alchemical papyri.

The philosophical Neoplatonic and Hermetic schools continued to be specifically attacked and persecuted. In 380 CE, Emperor Theodose ordained the complete destruction of all ancient traditions as well as their practice, even in private life. In 529, the Neoplatonic academy of Athens was closed by the authorities, and in 550 the last sanctuary of Isis, the temple of Philae, was forced to close its doors. All creative endeavors were censored (books, art, etc.), religious or philosophical meetings were prohibited, and several initiates, both women and men, were incarcerated, tortured, and killed.

This confusion between the spiritual and the temporal gave birth to excesses and the desire for absolute power. So the logical consequence was the loss of religious and philosophical freedom and a totalitarian power appeared, which continued for more than a thousand years. The Roman Catholic empire reigned supreme.

Secrecy, an integral part of the initiatic process, then became a necessity, allowing the protection of the initiatic tradition. It was necessary to keep the teachings alive and to transmit them to trusty followers. As stated in The Lost Symbol, the initiated began to form brotherhoods and fraternities, designed to share and pass along the Ancient Mysteries in safety as the authorities strove to extinguish the light.

And so the darkness increased during the next centuries, lasting the whole of the Middle Ages. Any form of wisdom other than that of the rulership was considered dangerous, and so was hunted down and eliminated. Of course, it was the same for all forms of traditional initiations, divination, or theurgy. Fortunately, the inheritance had been veiled and it survived through the centuries. This secret tradition perpetuating the mysteries did not have specific name. It included the followers of the initiatic school transmitting the traditional knowledge and was sometimes called the Aurea Catena (“golden chain”) of initiates.

This “golden chain” became the heart of Hermeticism. It is this chain that allows contemporary Freemasonry to continue to receive the powerful beneficent influence of its founders. This invisible and indivisible familial link between the initiates had constituted, for the first centuries, a powerful chain, which Freemasons later physically made a symbol of this concept and wear as an emblem of their brotherhood. You will find it on every officer of a Masonic lodge in the collar that he wears around his neck. You also find it on the walls all around some Masonic temples, delimiting the sacred place. This cord oftentimes has special knots called “lakes of love.” Freemasons also use the symbol of the chain when they sometimes create a “chain” at the end of a ceremony, holding each other by the hands. The French Freemasons call it a “union chain.” It symbolizes this indefectible fraternity and the link of the adepts that travels through the ages until today.

The symbol of the gold chain may have been first mentioned in the eighth song of Homer’s Iliad. Zeus, presenting himself as the most powerful of the gods, says: “Gods, try me and find out for your selves. Hang for me a golden chain from heaven, and lay hold of it all of you, gods and goddesses together—tug as you will, you will not drag Jove the supreme counselor from heaven to earth; but were I to pull at it myself I should draw you up with earth and sea into the bargain, then would I bind the chain about some pinnacle of Olympus and leave you all dangling in the mid firmament. So far am I above all others either of gods or men.”[14]

This text will be the subject of several interpretations and become “the chain which links the initiates of the same Hermetic revelation as the various worlds or the different states of matter in alchemy. It is only the symbolic representation of the whole Hermetic Art and the functions of the Magus.”[15] Jean-Baptiste Porta,[16] in his book on natural magick, wrote: “[The gold chain] is a cord stretched from the first cause to the infinite things, by a reciprocal and uninterrupted link: so that the upper virtue shines from this point, and if we touch a part of it, we will be affected and will move all things.” Here this symbol linking the initiates goes much further and veils a philosophical doctrine in which man is the central point of creation and receives the impulses of divine wisdom. This gold cord constitutes the link that divine providence uses to weave the rug of human destiny, creating continuity between macrocosm and microcosm, between gods and men. But above all, it continues to represent the link of unfailing brotherhood that joins those who chose to transmit the light of initiation, keeping undamaged the flame of wisdom and knowledge across the centuries of obstruction. This transmission took the form of a secret society of mysteries, which I will describe when I speak about symbolic principles and rituals.

However, even though the followers were hidden, this does not mean they did not have influence in the following centuries. On the contrary, their presence was constant and they often influenced ideas and symbolic art of their time, going as far as political and religious oppression allowed. Recruiting new candidates with caution, they perpetuated the sacred rituals, keeping as the most precious treasures the doctrines and Hermetic practices, allowing humanity to again discover its true nature and origin, making man capable of undertaking what was called, in the words of the hymn to all gods by Proclus, the “sacred way of return.”

symbols of the mysteries

Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol mentions that, surprisingly, keys were used throughout the centuries as markers indicating the presence of the Tradition: keys such as allegory, symbols, and myth. You saw the importance of myths and the main role they play in the allegorical transmission of esoteric and mystical doctrine. They also play an important part in the ritual use of symbols. But other markers were used by the initiates like footprints to show their presence. It’s in art and architecture that these symbols are undoubtedly even more visible and therefore paradoxically even less recognized as such. It is well known that to hide a secret in a very efficient way it is necessary to put it in the most visible place. We find it in the story of the gods trying to hide the secret of the humanity, deciding to put it where one would lastly go to search: hidden in the depths of the human being.

It was the same here, and arts were one of the ways chosen by the Tradition. Naturally, to be real and vital symbols, it is necessary that they are consistent and coherent, and they have to relate to the same doctrine that can be interpreted from them. It is absolutely appropriate for Freemasonry that architecture was a means of transmission. I have already mentioned some of the symbols that were used to point out and even to demonstrate their power and meaning in the spiritual and invisible plan. This is the case of the pyramid, the triangle, the four directions, and some particular numbers.

In The Lost Symbol, where Freemasonry is central to the novel’s theme, it is natural that we find several references to numbers considered to be symbolic. Among these numbers, the number 8 is very important to understanding the novel. It’s a prime example showing how a novelist can intuitively perceive the importance of a symbol even though the number 8 is not emphasized in Freemasonry. This number is used several times in the novel, and Eight Franklin Square is presented as a clue.

The Western Tradition came from Chaldea, and the Masonic founder myth showed us that the first human construction was the Tower of Babel. It was the predecessor of the pyramid, the temple tower of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, having the form of a terraced pyramid called the ziggurat. The etymology of this word’s roots is in the Assyrian words ziqquratu (“height, pinnacle”) and zaqaru (“to be high”). This origin is very interesting at many levels. The design shows a representation of an eight-pointed star. You can find it above the symbol of Ishtar and in some coins of King Mausolus (fourth century BCE).

Figure 16: Representation

of the eight-pointed star and the ziggurat from the Aurum Solis tradition

The eight-pointed star was found on a seal in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur (2000 BCE). Some pieces of black marble were found, showing this star very closely resembling the interlaced star of eight points. Excavations from Ur reveal early use of the eight-pointed star, often in the form of an eight-petal rosette used in gold jewelry. The Sumerians used an arrangement of lines as a symbol for both star and god. The linear eight-pointed star represented the goddess Inanna, Sumerian queen of the heavens, and Ishtar (Astarte), the Babylonian goddess known as “the Lightbringer.” An eight-pointed star enclosed within a circle was the symbol for the Sun god.

Freemasonry’s early roots in the Hermetic Tradition are shown in a very rare representation found on some ritual Masonic glasses called “cannon,” from their use in the ritual Masonic banquet.[17] On these cannons, an eight-pointed star appears at the top of a ziggurat. On both sides you can see the Moon and the Sun in triangles. Historians have doubts regarding this representation, but the identification is very clear if you connect it to the Hermetic tradition. Albert Pike understood this and wrote in Morals and Dogma: “We learn this from Celsus, in Origen, who says that the symbolic image of this passage among the stars, used in the Mythraic Mysteries, was a ladder reaching from earth to Heaven, divided into seven steps or stages, to each of which was a gate, and at the summit an eighth one, that of the fixed stars. The symbol was the same as that of the seven stages of Borsippa, the Pyramid of vitrified brick, near Babylon, built of seven stages, and each of a different color.”

Of course, this civilization (followed by the Egyptians) is well known for the use of astronomy and astrology connected to architectural principles. The eight lines are symbolic of the four corners of space (north, south, east, and west) and time (two solstices and two equinoxes). So the double square is a perfect illustration and connection with this early representation of the eight directions.

In Greece, this representation was connected to the eight divinities of the winds. It was the same in Rome with the utilization of the double square.

The latter is also a symbol that can be found in Greece and later in Italy. A relationship is created between the pyramid (possibly a stair-pyramid), the number 8, and the first mythical buildings rising to the sky, built by the most ancient Freemasons. But this surprising connection does not stop there, because I am going to prove that it was a constant indication of the presence of one of the most ancient traditions: Hermeticism, which permeates Freemasonry.

Figure 17: Main symbol

of the Ogdoadic

Tradition today called “Aurum Solis”

The myth of Hermopolis shows the creation made by four couples of divinities. Egypt gives us several examples of this division of the number 8 into two by four. This number represents a balanced group. The architects of ancient Egypt knew the use of the four cardinal points. Inner organs withdrawn for the embalming process were protected by four “Horus’ sons,” themselves protected by four goddesses. Sarcophagi texts explain that Shu created eight infinite beings to help him to support the body of Nut. The Egyptian tradition also gives us the star of eight points. But considering this number 4, it is going to be linked to 8 by the natural doubling of the square, moving by a rotation of 45 degrees. This symbol often appears in the history of the Western Tradition and it is interesting to see how it combines with and follows from the eight-pointed star.

Another important symbolic aspect of the number 8 is an interlaced star. This very ancient star can be seen in famous Roman mosaics such as that of Demeter in Villa Roman del Casale near Piazza Armenia, Sicily, in 320 BCE. This symbol is also found in the Coptic Tradition, which directly follows the ancient Egyptians.

Hebrew esotericism is an important part of the Western Tradition and has often been associated with Freemasonry throughout its history. In one of the most famous Qabalist books, the Sepher Yetzirah, the numbers are associated with the ten spheres of the Tree of life called Sephiroth, and to the planets. So Malkuth corresponds to Tellus (Planet Earth), Yesod to the Moon, Hod to Mercury, Netzach to Venus, Tiphareth to the Sun, Geburah to Mars, Chesed to Jupiter, Binah to Saturn, Chokmah to the sphere of Fixed Stars, and Keter to the Spiral Nebula.

If we consider this succession of spheres from the bottom (closest to Earth) Moon, the representation comes from Chaldean astrology, which puts the Sun in the center, the first planet being the Moon, and the highest of the seven traditional planets is Saturn. Beyond that, the eighth sphere is the Ogdoad, the zodiacal sphere.

In one of the Hermetic manuscripts discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, it is said that the revelation of Hermes must be kept in a secret place protected by eight guards. Further along in this old text, we read: “Rather, by stages he advances and enters into the way of immortality. And thus he enters into the understanding of the eighth that reveals the ninth.”[18] Considering now the succession of Sephiroth in a descending movement, which in the Qabalah is the descent of the divine power, the eighth sphere is that of Mercury, Hermes. Esoteric tradition attributed a magical square to each of the planets and so to every Sephirah. The eighth sphere is Mercury and corresponds to the kamea 8 x 8, and so to the “square order 8.” Dan Brown’s novel is right to focus on this number.

The number 8 is the manifestation of the Ogdoad of the ancient Hermetists is in the same time the number of Hermes in the Qabalah. It is also interesting to say that the eighth sphere in the ascending path is the zodiacal one that moves on the fixed stars sphere. Albert Pike, the reformer of the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction (United States), explained these ideas in a paragraph of his most important book, Morals and Dogma:

The number 8, or the octary, is composed of the sacred numbers 3 and 5. Of the heavens, of the seven planets, and of the sphere of the fixed stars, or of the eternal unity and the mysterious number 7, is composed the Ogdoade, the number 8, the first cube of equal numbers, regarded as sacred in the arithmetical philosophy.

The Gnostic Ogdoade had eight stars, which represented:

the eight Cabiri of Samothrace,

the eight Egyptian and Phoenician principles,

the eight gods of Xenocrates,

the eight angles of the cubic stone.

The number eight symbolizes perfection: and its figure, 8 or , indicates the perpetual and regular course of the Universe.

8

One can find this symbolism of the seven planets and the twelve zodiacal signs in the Mythraic Tradition. Two Mithraeums show it very well, one in Doura Eutropos, Syria, and the other one in Ostia, Italy. Again Albert Pike describes this number symbolism, saying:

[T]he Mithraic ladder was really a pyramid with seven stages, each provided with a narrow door or aperture, through each of which doors the aspirant passed, to reach the summit, and then descended through similar doors on the opposite side of the pyramid; the ascent and descent of the Soul being thus represented.

Each Mithraic cave and all the most ancient temples were intended to symbolize the Universe, which itself was habitually called the Temple and was the habitation of Deity. Every temple was the world in miniature; and so the whole world was one grand temple. The most ancient temples were roofless. . . . All temples were surrounded by pillars, recording the number of the constellations, the signs of the zodiac, or the cycles of the planets; and each one was a microcosm or symbol of the Universe, having for its roof or ceiling the starred vault of Heaven.

All temples were originally open at the top, having for their roof the sky. Twelve pillars described the belt of the zodiac.[19]

The starry arch that you see in the Egyptian, Isiac, and Mithraic temples, and in some Christian churches, represents this Ogdoadic sphere as the border of the spiritual world between the visible planets and the divine space where can be found the One, the Grand Architect of the Universe of Freemasonry. This representation of the zodiac can be found in many places throughout history. One of the most famous is in the temple of Denderah, Egypt. The representation of zodiacs is significant for two reasons: (1) it indicates a specific moment useful to understand the purpose of the builders; and (2) it can have an effect on the place itself, like a real talisman increasing the power of the planetary group.

It is an importing element found in various Washington buildings. Today, one might think that a zodiac is a simple representation of the celestial world, but it was different in the past. Stars wer considered to be divine powers and the manifestation of their special function was very real. A representation of the zodiac in a sacred space is therefore an invocation of divine power. It is a way to keep alive the divinities’ memory and influence in a world that lost its belief in and understanding of its relationship with them. But during this period, during which the darkness of obscurantism reigned over the known world, the sacred tradition was perpetuated and was soon to reemerge in the Renaissance, in Italy.