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We are
also informed that the Brotherhood in its higher degrees is deeply concerned
with the cabala. Albert Mackey, in the authoritative Encyclopedia
of Freemasonry , asserts that cabala is, " . . . intimately
connected with the symbolic science of Freemasonry," (2).
He goes on to say that:
Much
use of it is made in the advanced degrees, and entire rites have
been constructed on its principles. Hence it demands a place in any general
work on Freemasonry.
More recently,
Thomas D. Worrel spelled out, in a paper delivered to the Allied Masonic
Degrees Britannia Lodge #303, where in Masonry the Cabala is mainly
to be found:
Some of our rites have obvious kabbalistic influence, such as the
28th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish rite which is called:
"The Knight of the Sun". (3)
Albert
Pike is yet another well-respected Mason avowing the central place of cabala within
the craft. He wrote: "Masonry is a search after Light. That search
leads us directly back, as you see, to Kabalah" (4).
He also confirmed for us that Kabalah lies at the heart of
Masonic cryptography, "All the Masonic associations owe to it their
Secrets and Symbols" (5).
Pike seems o have regarded Knight of the Sun as an extraordinarily important
degree, for he devoted no less than 219 pages of Morals and Dogma to
an exposition of it - far, far more than to any of the other degrees
(6). The largest single chunk of this chapter is taken up by fifteen pages of a 'Lecture of the Kabalists'.
This starts in the form of a 'Masonic question and answer ritual', concerning
the numerical mysteries of the cabala, and is prefaced by the words,
'Omnia in numeris sita sunt' - 'Everything lies veiled in numbers' (7).
Pike tells us that not only is cabala 'the key of the occult sciences',
but that this key turns on the secret science of numbers - a big hint
about the nature of Masonic cryptology.
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Brother
Thomas Worrel is more explicit than Pike about how cabalistic numerology
is employed in practical terms as a cryptic technique, and cites another
eminent Freemason in his exposition (8):
Gematria is basically exploring the inner meaning of mystical writings
and scriptures by use of numerology. The way it is used is by interchanging
letters of special names, phrases, and passages with their numerical
equivalent. This is only done with the ancient languages of Hebrew,
Greek, Latin, and Arabic. It is thought that the ancient writers
were adept at hiding the initiatic wisdom in this fashion. Paul
Foster Case (1884 - 1954), a writer, occultist, and Freemason, explains
it thus:
Gematria is based on the idea that words having the same value,
have correspondences in meaning (9).
The Magical Language is a mode of cryptic writing used to preserve
and transmit the practical secrets of the Western Tradition of Ageless
Wisdom. It is an artificial language, combining Hebrew, Greek and
Latin elements. Its outstanding characteristic is that the letters
of the three alphabets it employs serve also as numbers. Consequently,
every word, phrase, or sentence is also a number, the sum of the
values of the letters (10).
We can see that the artificial language used by the ancient writers
to conceal their initiatic secrets was essentially a language of numbers
hidden from view, beneath the words, by means of gematria. Gematria
is a viable cryptographic technique - and one of fundamental concern
to the higher levels of Freemasonry. Some Freemasory's most enduring
secrets are thereby hidden.
Top
A
Big Secret
One indicator
that we are dealing with a big secret here is the fact that Paul Foster
Case's book is strictly off-limits to the general public. When I enquired
about buying a copy with the publishers, Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.),
they informed me that it was only available to members of their organization
- and only those who had served a fifteen year probationary
period. This is extraordinary caution. Clearly there are secrets of
great significance revealed in Mr Case's exposition of 'the magical language'
of gematria.
At first
glance, the secrecy is also rather curious, since there are a good number
of books openly published on the subject of gematria, some of which
are evidently written by Freemasons.
The Canon by "William Stirling" is a prime example.
We also find that John Michell, who is the modern editor of The
Canon, has written a number of excellent books on the subject:
The View Over Atlantis, City of Revelation, The
Dimensions of Paradise, etc. Additionally, there are works examining
Hebrew gematria, such as S.L. MacGregor Mather's The Kabbalah Unveiled
and those concerned with Greek gematria, like David Fideler's Jesus
Christ Sun of God and Kieran Barry's The Greek Qabalah.
An example
currently displayed online comes courtesy of the J.J. Crowder Masonic
lodge in California.
There
are some Masonic researchers who think that the letter “G”
represents . . . gematria . . . Exploring this technique of letter-number
substitution, one looks for words, names, and phrases that add up
to like values. Like values are thought to have meaningful relationships.
For example, the Hebrew word for “heaven” (ha-shamayim)
has the same gematria value as the word for “soul” (neshamah);
that is, 395, derived by adding up each letter to arrive at a total.
The Qabalist would say this means that the soul is identical with
heaven.
This
exegetical technique can be used with both the Hebrew scriptures
and the Greek Christian scriptures. There are other texts that have
been found to contain hidden gematria in Latin and Arabic, as well.
From the practice of gematria have arisen extremely interesting
techniques, which reveal a type of spiritual Geometry hidden within
the Scriptures. (11)
The crux
of the matter here, as Sherlock Holmes noted in the dog that didn't
bark in the night, is that something is missing. There has been no credible
work ever published on the subject of Latin gematria. We are informed
that the subject exists and that it is important, but nowhere is it
expounded. Why not? The reason for this omission hinges on the fact
that gematria is not confined simply to the ancient
languages, as the brethren would have us believe, but also extends to
the modern European languages which are based on Roman (Latin) script.
Some of the greatest secrets of Freemasonry are hidden in the gematria
coding of these languages - not least of which is English.
Top
Nothing
Is Missing But The Key
The really
big secret is the key: the actual code used. It appears never to have
been published and probably so for the reason that any Mason letting
the cat out of the bag might expect to have his tongue cut out at the
root, his beating heart plucked from his chest and his guts drawn painstakingly
through his ears and burnt to ashes before his all-seeing eyes.
How can we find this code?
Like all
the mysteries of Freemasonry, finding the key is a matter of following
a trail of clues. We saw above that the Masonic degree most closely
associated with numerical cabala, or gematria, is the 28th degree in
the Scottish Rite: 'Knight of the Sun'. If we wish to find out a little
more about this degree we can go to Albert Mackey's History of Freemasonry.
Here, he tells us that, "Knight of the Sun . . . in its original
ritual is a mere condensation of Rosicrucian doctrines."(12)
This is interesting. He then goes on to put the point more forcefully
with the words, "There is not in the wide compass of Masonic degrees,
one more emphatically Rosicrucian than this." Mackey seems quite
clear about this, and not in the least bit allegorical.
What
does he mean by this term 'Rosicrucian', and where does it lead? He
elaborates when he tells us that Henry Cornelius Agrippa's Three
Books of Occult Philosophy, ". . . may be considered as the
text book of the old Rosicrucian philosophy." (13)
It is in Agrippa's esoteric compendium, published in 1531, that we find
the key. The second book of this tome is devoted to numbers and mathematical
magic: the eighteenth chapter gives the gematria code of Greek,
the nineteenth chapter gives that of Hebrew
and the twentieth gives the code of Roman script languages, such as
English. Eureka! We've found it!
Top
The
Missing Key
(*
'Hi' is an obsolete letter)
The
Right Key?
How
can we be sure that Agrippa's key is the right key? Once again our Masonic
writers confirm it for us. "William Stirling" drops a hint
like a ripe plum on page 153 of The Canon when
he likens the Greek Orpheus to Jesus Christ:
" . .
. the name ΟΡΦΕΥΣ has the value of 1275 . . . in the earliest efforts
of Christian Art, it is not uncommon to find Christos depicted playing
upon a lyre in the fashion of Orpheus. No reason is known for this
singular impersonation, but the number 1275, deduced from the name
Orpheus, suggests the reason why the two gods had a similar identity."
The number
1275 in no way suggests any reason why Christos should have a similar
identity to Orpheus - at least not until we count the name 'Jesus Christ'
by Agrippa's code. If we do, we find the letter values of his name sum
as: 600 + 5 + 90 + 200 + 90 + 3 + 8 + 80 + 9 + 90 + 100 = 1275. It is
quite clear that "Stirling" is alluding to Agrippa's code,
and it is equally clear from the veiled nature of his reference that
it must constitute an initiation secret of high degree Freemasonry.
Now we
have the key, we can turn it - and begin to unlock the thesaurus of
King Solomon's Temple.
Footnote:
Revealing the secrets of Freemasonry
Notes
1) William Stirling, The
Canon - An Exposition of the Pagan Mystery Perpetuated in the Cabala as
the Rule of all the Arts, London, 1897, - modern ed., The Garnstone
Press, London, 1974, p.39.
2) Albert Mackey, Encyclopedia
of Freemasonry, Vol. I, p. 166.
3) Thomas D. Worrel, 'A
Brief Look at the Kabbalah', A Paper presented to the Allied Masonic
Degrees Britannia Lodge #303, March 3, 1996 (see - http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/worrel/kabbalah.htm)
4) Albert Pike, Morals
and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry, Charleston,
1871, p. 741.
5) Pike, p. 744.
6) Pike, pp. 581-800.
7) Pike, pp. 626-642
8) Worrel, op. cit.
9) Paul Foster Case (Anon.), Gematria: The Magical Language, Builders of the Adytum, Los Angeles,
1988, p. 1.
10) Foster Case, ibid.,
p.7
11) See http:\\mastermason.com/jjcrowder/threedegrees/threedegrees.htm
12) Albert Mackey, The
History of Freemasonry, 1881, modern ed. Gramercy Books, Random House,
1996, p.353.
13) Mackey, History
of Freemasonry, p.350.
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