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

The Original Myth of Freemasonry
The Masonic Tradition

At the beginning of speculative Freemasonry in the eighteenth century, pastor John Anderson wrote a strange story. Deeply rooted in the first books of the Bible, the story explains the origins and the founders of this fraternity. This story is the heart of contemporary Freemasonry and reveals many elements of its real origins and goals.

As in the ancient oral times, let us tell you the epic story of the Craft (Freemasonry).

At the beginning of time was the first being, father of all humanity. Biblical tradition gave him the name of Adam, the original man, and put Eve beside him. Created just as the representation of God, the Grand Architect of the Universe, Adam received, engraved in his heart, the knowledge of Liberal Sciences, particularly geometry. Grateful to his creator, he transmitted his knowledge to his sons, Cain and Seth. Using his knowledge of the Craft, the first son created the most ancient cities. He became the prince of the first half of humanity. Seth, the second son and less educated than his brother, became the first farmer and taught his descendants the divine sciences of geometry and of masonry.

It is in this epoch that dramatic and extraordinary constructions were undertaken. The memory of other architectural realizations was orally transmitted in the first populations.

In these ancient times, God was in constant interaction with men. One day, God asked Noah, the ninth son of Seth, to build a big ark to protect Noah and his family from an imminent disaster. The ark was constructed according to the rules of geometry and masonry.

It was the way in which Noah and his three sons, Japhet, Shem, and Ham, all three true Masons, transmitted this traditional knowledge through the flood.

Then they decided to glorify God by building a huge and marvelous city manifesting God’s glory on earth. Over several years, they used their knowledge to build a colossal tower in the center of the city. They worked without pause, raising the construction higher and higher to the sky. A huge number of workers was organized and equipped with science, allowing uninterrupted work.

Seeing their work, God did not react as they expected. God hadn’t asked them to manifest their skills like that. His anger increased in front of what he considered as a mark of human vanity. Then God decided to interrupt this demiurgic work. He introduced confusion into their minds, making them unable to understand each other. Until then, all had been the heirs of the same family and spoke the same language. Suddenly, hundreds of different languages appeared. Eager that the secrets of geometry and masonry would not disappear, and to be able to prove their status as initiates, the Master Masons created signs, gestures, and simple words belonging to the ancient original language. Then they scattered in the world, leaving this marvelous city, and built new kingdoms and new buildings in Chaldea, of Egypt, and many other regions.

In these new kingdoms, upon the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, there flourished many learned priests and mathematicians known by the names of Chaldeans and Magi, who preserved the good science, geometry, as kings and great men encouraged the Royal Art.

The Royal Art was brought down to Egypt by Mitzraim, the second son of Ham, about six years after the confusion at Babel, and after the Flood. The ancient noble cities, with the other magnificent edifices of that country, and particularly the famous pyramids, demonstrate the early art and genius of this civilization.

The ancestor Masons went through all known lands. They raised the most beautiful temples, honoring the Eternal God in all divine forms he had in the countries where they were.

About 268 years after the Confusion at Babel, Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans, where he learned geometry and the arts that are performed by it, which he would carefully transmit to Ishmael, to Isaac, and to his sons by Keturah; and by Isaac to Esau and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs: nay, the Jews believe that Abram also instructed the Egyptians in the Assyrian learning.

Many years passed. Civilizations developed. Wars devastated countries followed by periods of peace, during which the Masons built both in stones and bricks. Then Moses, having learned the science of the Egyptians, guided his people out of Egypt into the arid desert of Sinai. It was there that the god of his people revealed to him the laws, which would guide the tribes of Israel. In his texts and commandments, God revealed to him the plans for the glorious tent that was to contain the Ark of the Covenant and allow the manifestation of the Eternal. Revealing for the first time to men the perfect plans of the temple, allowing the divine epiphany, Moses became the first General Master Mason. I could say the first Grand Master of Freemasonry. He was the first king of Jerusalem and transmitted the teaching of Egypt to his people, linking it to the divine revelation he’d received. The sublime knowledge of Masonry was saved. Before dying, Moses installed the first lodge and taught his followers the charges, orders, and signs that he received.

The people of Israel built cities, fortresses, and buildings. Years passed until there appeared a wise king, taught by the traditional knowledge. This king of peace, an architect himself, undertook to build the temple that would allow honoring the god of its people. He recruited many workers in the neighboring regions. Adoniram worked in the mountains of Lebanon. Solomon dealt with Hiram king of Tyre, who sent his masons and carpenters and gave him the wood of cedar that was necessary for it. But Solomon also asked Hiram, to authorize the most accomplished of his masons to go to Jerusalem in order to supervise the construction of the temple.

For seven years and six months, all worked according to the instructions of Solomon and Master Hiram. At the end of this fantastic work, a meeting point of the human and divine, as the Grand Master of the Lodge of Jerusalem, King Solomon solemnly dedicated the temple. This ceremony took place in the presence of the Grand Master of the Lodge of Tyr, King Hiram and Hiram Abif. Since this time, all the Masons are under the protection and assistance of the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Many artists employed for this construction, under Hiram Abif, after it was finished dispersed themselves into Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Chaldea, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Arabia, Africa, lesser Asia, Greece, and other parts of Europe, where they taught this liberal Art to the freeborn sons of eminent persons, by whose dexterity the kings, princes, and potentates built many glorious edifices, and became the Grand Masters, each in his own territory, and were emulous of excelling in this Royal Art.

But several hundred years after its consecration, the sacred beauty of this temple increased the jealousy of other monarchs. The Grand Monarch Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem and burnt down the Temple. Understanding progressively his error, he learned the mysteries of architecture from the masons and architects that he had taken to his city of Babylon. With this education, he developed his city and conceived wonderful gardens, which became one of the seven wonders of the world. He became the Grand Master of the Masons of his country.

In later years, Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered Babylon and many other nations. It was with Cyrus’s decree that the Israelites were allowed to come back to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. And Cyrus having constituted Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel the Head, or Prince of the Captivity, and the Leader of the Jews, the Israelites returned to Jerusalem and began to lay the foundation of the second temple. This temple was even more marvelous than the first. Even the people of other religions admired its splendor that seemed incomparable.

Then the Royal Art of Masonry was transmitted in Greece. It was after this transmission that the finest buildings of this country were constructed. Pythagoras contributed greatly to the learning of geometry. Architecture, religious, civil, and military art expressed in all countries the genius of these people and their inheritance. The research into proportions expressing the best balance and harmony raised human realizations of a divine ideal, glorifying the soul.

Many famous names contributed to the development and teaching of divine geometry and the art of Masonry. But it was under the reign of Ptolemeus Philadelphus (Grand Master of the Masons), the best protector of Liberal Arts and builder of the famous library, that the Craft came back to Egypt. He ordered the construction of another wonder, the tower of Pharos or lighthouse of Alexandria. Let us not forget to name the remarkable buildings of Sicily and the presence of the scientist Archimedes.

The Roman Empire, present throughout the Mediterranean world and continental Europe, transmitted this knowledge of architecture. The size of its architectural buildings demonstrates this inheritance in all architecture, religious or civil. Vitruvius was undoubtedly the father of all architects of our time.

Nor should it be forgotten that painters and sculptors were always recognized as good Masons, as much as builders, stone-cutters, bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, upholders, or tent-makers, and a vast number of other craftsmen that could be named, who perform according to geometry and the rules of building. And then the noble science geometry was duly cultivated, both before and after the reign of Augustus; even until the fifth century of the Christian era, Masonry was held in great esteem and veneration.

After centuries, the secret teachings were transmitted to the architects of the medieval and gothic religious buildings.

From Noah to Egypt, from Alexandria to medieval Europe, this mysterious, magical, and almost divine “Art of Geometry,” which I call the Craft, was given in the secrecy of the lodges. Heirs of the ancient demiurgic secrets, the contemporary Freemasons always learned how to build the temple. As for an outward realization in the past or as today an inner work, the goal is the same: to allow the manifestation of the divine in our world.