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

Apotheosis
Spirit of Freemasonry

The Washington Monument was intended to be a monumental statue to George Washington. By the virtue of a beautiful synchronism, this project evolved into the building of an obelisk, rising toward heaven from Earth. But I must now explain why Dan Brown linked the obelisk, the circumpunct, and the notion of apotheosis.

Figure 22: Circumpunct

As mentioned here and there in The Lost Symbol, the obelisk seems not to be a Masonic symbol. However, the ancient gnomon can reveal more than we might expect. In the Christian painting tradition, there is an important subject: the two Saint Johns or the Holy Saint John. Generally, Saint John the Apostle and Saint John the Baptist are on each side of the Virgin Mary with her baby. Freemasonry chose these two saints as protectors (patron saints). Further, Freemasons “created” a symbol composed of a circle with a central point and two vertical lines touching each side. This representation can be seen in the Blue Lodge. The two vertical lines represent the summer and winter solstices, the shortest and longest nights of the year, respectively. These nights, since antiquity, have been important in the pre-Christian Mysteries. They are also connected to the two solstice points on the zodiac, Cancer and Capricorn.

These astrological indications are interesting, but it is possible to go further with the symbolism of the numbers 4 and 8. The obelisk, at center of a circle, indicates the four directions. By rotation of the square, a double square is obtained, birth of the symbol of the 8 the limit between the material world and the spiritual world.

The shape of the obelisk shows its function of dispersing negative forces, piercing the dark sky in order to attract the higher energies in this symbol of the light. There is no better function that could be given by divine providence to the federal capital. A monument was given to this new nation that was able to destroy negativity and to invigorate the exact center of the buildings used to house its government. As in antiquity, the obelisk was built in the center of large open place, as were the temples of the solar god Ra, raised on a sacred cornerstone in a city that would also be called the “City of the Sun.”

The obelisk, emblem of resurrection, would be connected to the birth of the new nation, the new age, and the new man. All these elements are coherent together and reveal the key of our being, transformation, and destiny.

Like Freemasonry, the Hermetic Tradition[6] uses the symbol of the triangle and the square to represent the soul and the body, respectively. This is well represented in the Craft by the cube and the pyramid above it. The same symbolic principles are found in the obelisk with the trunk (body) and the capstone (soul). There is a place in Washington DC to perfectly understand this ancient mystery: the Mall. But the special position on it can be found in the Corpus Hermeticum: “Thus then, my son, stand in a place uncovered to the sky [. . .] at sunrise be face to the East wind.”[7]

Imagine you are at the west of the Mall, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, facing east. In front of you, the Sun will rise above Capitol Hill and continue its daily movement, rising to its highest point at the vertical of the obelisk. The reflecting pool, between you and the obelisk, shows its reversed reflection. The stage is ready and the symbolic mysteries can speak again.

In the beginning was the principle of all things, the Great Architect of the Universe, the creator. The most ancient representation is the Sun, high in the sky giving its power, its light to Earth, and allowing all creatures there to live. It is the origin of all things, the center of the universe. To represent this character, the symbol chosen by the first initiates was the circle. The eye, also representative of Ra, reminds us that the strongest and best source of light is the Sun. With its help, we can see clearly around us.

But all these very interesting symbols are yet Exoteric. In order to figure out this message, it is necessary to go deeper in the hidden world, and listen to the teachings of the Esoteric and Hermetic Traditions.

Plotinus, chief of the Neoplatonic Tradition, explains that God is always present in all beings, inside us, even if it is not possible to feel it or know it. The soul is immortal, without beginning, without end. Eternity and immortality are represented by an unbroken circle, turning around a central point that is the source of all emanations.

The circumpunct (#1) is the Neoplatonic representation of the soul in the spiritual world and in relation to the One, beauty, right, and truth.

But there came a time when the immortal soul, keeping this original light, began its descent in nature. Going through the different veils of creation, through the eight spheres, each planet, your soul entered into your body. If you are west of the reflecting pool, face east: this situation of the soul incarnated can be seen in the reversed image of the obelisk (see the figure below). The triangle, representation of the divine soul, is at the bottom, close to you, the central point in your direction. This is the indication of the descent accomplished in the matter. The square (really a rectangle) is above. This is really a reflection, an unreal representation of the reality, the symbol of the material world.

This is your situation as a human being. Your soul is often under the domination of your body and your passions (#2). But it is possible to begin the work on your inner “stone” in order to recreate a harmonious union of this composite (#3). Purifying your microcosm, the hidden memory of the divine world begins to work subconsciously. At the beginning it is not precise and it is very difficult to be aware of it. In The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown mentioned the engraving by Dürer titled Melancholia. This is your situation when your inner work increases this strange feeling of regret, of nostalgia. Your soul sighs trying to understand the cause of this strange feeling. Then another emotion appears that will progressively increase: desire. Maybe your spiritual and initiatic inner work allows you to understand your situation and your destiny: coming back to your origin, your homeland. This is a conversion, a real turnaround.

Figure 23: Symbols representing the different steps of the ascent of the soul

This understanding is simple in this beautiful place of Washington DC. You just have to look up and forget the reflection. The real obelisk is in front of you, vertical, now showing the right direction. The direction of the triangle, symbol of the soul, has been reversed. It is pointed now to the sky (#4), creating the symbolic representation of the double square (#5). Each element must be animated by the soul united to its previous position under the aspect of the two triangles constituting the second square. This association of the triangle, apex of the obelisk in the reflecting pool oriented below, and the other one at the top oriented above, recalls the Hermetic declaration: “As above, so below.”

Figure 24: The obelisk

and its reflection

This second square shows the two moments of the soul capable of giving the inner and divine animation of your being. You must imagine that you are now standing up straight as this axis at the center of the circumpunct. Your body, surrounded by the elements and activated by the human soul, can look up again and use the energy of its desire to ascend into the light. This axis shows you the mystical way. The ascent of this ray of light is an invocation of your inner divinity. For the first time, consciously, you will be crowned by the soul (#6). But you must ascend to the first principle. This step is a strange paradox because you are not already dead. You are a living human, trying to allow your soul to come back to your homeland. As you can see at the top of the obelisk, the soul is oriented to the sky. But that means that you are going to the center of your soul too. The connection between you and the highest level is inside you. This can be represented by the ascension of the soul above the body (#7) but at the same time by the mystical inner union (#8).

This is an important part of the divine mysteries. The thousand pages of the Bible can give you only one or two sentences, while the most accurate sources and explanations can be found in a text called “The Key” in the Corpus Hermeticum. According to these sacred writings, the direction of your quest is given by the feeling of good and beauty. Around you, on the Washington Mall, in the beauty of the place, the harmony and the goodwill of the Founding Fathers are still here. The aspiration to ascend to the divine can be manifested.

As Dan Brown analyzed correctly, the word apotheosis is a main concept in the Hermetic texts. The great mystery of this divinization, this apotheosis, is shown as a union with the divine principle, but not a fusion. The apex, the capstone, shows the Sun, concentrating the power of the soul, creating this enlightenment that is the higher expression of this essential part of one’s being. Thoth-Hermes says: “And the soul’s vice is ignorance.” This is the expression of the Hermetic (and Masonic) philosophy. Faith is not enough. We must use our rationality, all our mental abilities to enlighten the virtue of the soul, which is knowledge.

The understanding of the Western Tradition is often lost, sometimes confused, or reduced to the Eastern spiritual interpretation. The contact of the soul, the contemplation of the divine unity, is at this moment a real and intimate union without fusion and disappearance. We are like singers around the chief choir’s representation of the One.

This is the time of your divine transformation. In this contemplation of beauty, truth, and good, your own divinity is revealed and manifested. We are becoming gods. But don’t be mistaken. You are not becoming a god, the One, but gods (plural!). Somehow the Biblical monotheism overlooked this reality, and even Dan Brown noted in The Lost Symbol that God was not one but many.

As the initiates of this tradition said, the manifestation of this inner experience is generally incomplete because of the physical body. You are still connected to your living body, so this representation of your apotheosis is an allegory. It will be a reality later, when you become a “Completed Master” as stated in Masonic terminology. The classical tradition, well understood by the architects of the federal capital, represented this allegorical apotheosis as the physical incarnation of divine beauty, a divine metamorphosis. The physical body becomes a divine body, an expression of spiritual beauty. Classical art represents the body as a god in the middle of the other gods on Olympus, and sometimes as Zeus the Great. “God [the One] knows the man, and God wants be known. This is the only salvation for a man: God’s Gnosis [knowingness]. This is the Way Up to Mount Olympus. By this way only the soul becomes good.”

You remember the Capitol (in front of you at the east, beside the obelisk) as the temple of the gods, the protectors of the city. This is the place to show the masterpiece of these mysteries, and as for the Washington Monument, the stage is also ready. The Apotheosis of Washington clearly depicts George Washington being “transformed into a God.”[8]

Figure 25: Dome of the U.S. Capitol

You can see the same allegorical subject in the mysterious statue depicting again the Founding Father in Zeus’ exact posture. Nothing comes from the biblical tradition in this sacred place. The immortal divinities surround the representation of the One, a bright sky without representation. Immediately below, the Olympians are seated all around the enlightened apex. Like Zeus, George Washington is enthroned in the middle of them. The gods are invoked in a coherent way and their presence is welcomed in the purity of the tradition. The new nation can be protected and is shown the way to stay free, expressing the highest spiritual level a human can reach. Because a “human being is a living divine,” you can keep your perception of the sacred and your reason for the realization of your own divinity together in a balanced way, for the good of humanity.

Figure 26: Structure of Freemasonry

[1]1. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, The Architecture, Book 1, Chapter 7:1.

[2]2. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, The Architecture, Book 4, Chapter 9:1.

[3]. James Anderson (1679—1739) was a minister in the Church of Scotland and a Freemason. He was commissioned by the Grand Lodge to write a history of the Freemasons, published in 1723 as the “Constitutions of the Free-Masons” (see Chapter One).

[4]4. “Before the world began, the Word was there. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1—5.

[5]. Book of the Dead, 125:18—27.

[6]6. Explanations of these symbols can be found in the book by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips, The Foundations of High Magick, first volume of The Magickal Philosophy (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications).

[7]. Corpus Hermeticum, Book 13:16.

[8]. Corpus Hermeticum, Book.