THE TRUE FREEMASONRY: EXOTERIC & ESOTERIC - PART II.


"Hiram the Architect
Did all the Craft direct
How they should build."

(Masonic Hymn)!

INTRODUCTION.
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It is the considered view of those well qualified to speak with
authority that the Masonic Order is swiftly evolving to greater
things than the majority of its members yet realise, and that at
some not distant date the germinal truths which at present lie
secreted and undiscerned within the husk of its doctrine will ripen
to widespread recognition. Hitherto, they declare, the Craft has
preserved the witness of the Mysteries through an epoch in which
intellectual materialism has temporarily eclipsed the perception of
spiritual values. But, as a branch of initiate science instructs
us, times and seasons are providentially appointed for all things;
the sea of spiritual knowledge has its ebbs and flows, and today
the far-receeded tide is fast returning; carrying the Ark of the
Mysteries towards us on its incoming waves.  Hence, we may safely
predict that ere many years have passed the pristine function of
those Mysteries will become revived in a form adapted to our time
and to present intellectual needs, and then, is aforetime, men will
seek and be granted initiation into the secrets and mysteries of
ultimate Being as now they apply for admission into the schools and
colleges of secular learning. Indeed; it is awaiting this time, and
when "circumstances permit", that our great world-wide Brotherhood
has been designed and provided by those far-seeing Founders who,
concealing their identity but with wisdom and foreknowledge,
projected the Craft some three centuries ago.

IV. - THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF THE CRAFT.

Continuing the analogy in the Craft to the Seven Principles of Man,
we come to the next proposition:-.

(9)..The Craft, like the individual man, has, its higher or
immortal, and its lower or mortal principles; the former, being, a
triad, and the latter a quaternary, and those form seven principles
analogous to those of man.

In the first part of this Paper we have already demonstrated that
the Craft has an outward visible organic body which is a living
entity.  If, then, there be a material body of Freemasonry wherein
a spiritual individuality is manifesting, these must involve seven
principles, and accepting the ordinary classification they should
comprise a triad and a quaternary.

The demonstration, so far as it relates to the Craft may be
expressed in these terms:-  There exists a visible organised
association, the reason for whose existence is the promulgation of
certain teaching.  Like a material human teacher, it has a physical
body and a guiding spirit.  The physical body is necessary for the
purpose of communicating to those of its members now in earth-life
the teachings which are put forth by the guiding spirit. It follows
from this that the student or the critic, either for motives of
learning or of argument, should regard the Craft as they would a
human teacher, and in the first place should ascertain carefully
what that teaching is; bringing intuition to bear in order to
recognise under the outward form of the words, the character and
doctrine of the guiding spirit.  The postulate is that the guiding
spirit speaks through the material organism of the Craft as a
"whole", as distinctly and clearly as the imperfection of a
material vehicle allows.  But, it has never been declared that the
guiding spirit speaks through anyone member of the Craft, or any
group of members less than the whole. Now, in order, to judge,
fairly of a human, teacher we first ascertain what his own thought
is of himself, what his commission to teach is, and upon what
subjects he can give instruction. This information forthcoming, we
then have two questions to solve; (1) whether such knowledge that
he is prepared to impart is for the benefit of humanity; (2);
whether the teacher himself fulfils his own theory of his
commission. These questions being answered in the affirmative, we
may proceed to analyze the teaching. Applying this method to the
Craft; we find that the theory of the Craft itself is that its
commission to teach arises from the inspiration, guidance and
occult direction of the Spirit of Wisdom. Moreover, the Craft
regards itself merely as the vehicle for giving material expression
to the teaching of this Spirit, just as a man's body may also be
regarded as the vehicle for giving material expression to the
spiritual monad incarnated therein.  The instruction to be given by
this means will obviously be limited to such truths as all men may
learn with benefit to themselves, the sole condition; test, and
training being the humility which is necessary for a disciple (the
devotion to one's Guru of the Eastern sages), without which no
knowledge is attainable at all.  And bearing in mind the official
description that Freemasonry is "a peculiar system of morality,
veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols", no objection should
be raised if the statement is made that in the present state of the
advancement of humanity only a comparatively small amount of
Masonic teaching can be fully and publicly given out in clear and
definite words. Indeed, the student who investigates the matter for
himself, will soon come to know that the amount of teaching which
the Craft as an Institution has put forward in exoteric form, is
exactly that amount which can, for the benefit of humanity, be
safely promulgated. 

With regard to the lower principles of the Craft, after the
demonstrations following the propositions set out in the first part
of our Paper, the identification of the principles of the lower
quaternary need not be difficult.  The individual members of the
Craft correspond to the cells, or better perhaps, to the molecules
of the human body, and when referred to the collective entity of
the Craft these are its physical body (Sthula Sharira). The binding
force which holds the individual members together ("esprit de
corps"), is the life or Prana of the Craft, and it should be noted
that as in the human body there is a life of the cell, semi-
independent and conceivably conscious, which unites the molecules,
and that these themselves have a life of their own; so the
collective life of the Craft is not the life of individual Lodges,
still less the life of individual members, but is the uniting force
("the mystic tie") constituting a distinct entity of the whole
Craft.  The ideal form or conception of the Craft, the form so to
speak into which the life unites the members, is the astral body
(Linga Sharira), and this, like the astral body of the human being,
when looked at apart from its outward and visible form, is to a
large extent plastic, and may be moulded by him who contemplates
it; many misconceptions of the Craft arise from mistaking this
astral form, moulded by the imagination of him who sees it, for the
actual visible Craft.  Finally, all action and thought and desire
of the Craft as a living body, which spring from or belong to its
material and lower principles, constitute its Kama Rupa or body of
desire; this is the "self" of the Craft, and the fertile source of
most of its corruption.  Such is the material instrument through
which the mind of the Craft, corresponding to the incarnating
monad, expresses itself in an outward perceptible and human manner. 
If it be objected that the Craft as a teacher should not evince
human defects, the answer is that such defects are an intrinsic
part of the system, which is based on the belief in a
teaching-spirit assuming a human instrument in order to speak as
man to man, the ultimate object being the re-uniting in each
individual member of the incarnating monad with what is known as
the Higher Self - this operation being termed the At-one-ment, or
the making at one what before was separate.  Hence, the destiny of
the Craft is to make its outward visible form the exact reflection
of its spirit, uniting thus its intellect (Lower Manas) with its
Higher Self, and perfecting its own at-onement as an entity; also
to make each individual member a microcosmic reflection of itself,
his personality uniting with, and becoming merged, in his Higher
Self and his at-one-ment being accomplished.

This brings us to the next proposition:-

(10)..The Divine Unity, the Spirit of Wisdom, which guides and
animates the Craft is represented in the Order rituals by the
traditional "Three Grand Masters," Solomon, King of Israel; Hiram,
King of Tyre; and Hiram Abiff. Thus according to the doctrine of
the Craft, the Divine Spirit, the "Spirit of Freemasonry," is its
Higher Self or Triad, and the visible Craft is the "body of
Freemasonry" or the lower quaternary.

For the purpose of Masonic doctrine the indissociable triadic
constituents of the Divine Unity (the upper triad - Atma - Buddhi 
- Manas of the Eastern schools) are personified by three quasi
historical characters:-

1..SOLOMON; KING OF ISRAEL: representing WISDOM contriving creation
subjectively and ideally.

2..HIRAM, KING OF TYRE: representing STRENGTH - projecting the
world of Nature as the material out of which the creative idea is
to take shape in the creature.

3..HIRAM ABIFF: representing BEAUTY - 'the architectonic and
geometrical power which finally moulds the idea into objective form
and perfection.

A further word of explanation is here necessary as to the concealed
significance of the Masonic Trinity.  Solomon, personifies the
primordial Life-Essence or substantialised Divine Wisdom which is
the basis of our being. It is defined in the Hebrew "Book of
Wisdom", as "a pure influence flowing from the glory of the
Almighty, the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted
mirror of the power of God and the image of His goodness". It is
described as a "king" because it must needs transcend and over-rule
whatever is inferior to itself, and as "king of Israel" because
"Israel" itself means "co-operating or ruling with God", as
distinct from being associated with beings or affairs of a sub-
divine order. To conjoin this transcendental "Life-Essence to a
vehicle which should give it fixity and form required the
assistance of another dominant or "kingly" principle, personified
as Hiram, King of Tyre, who, supplied the "building material". Now
inasmuch as we are dealing with purely metaphysical ideas, it will
be obvious that the Tyre in question has no relation to the
Levantine sea-port of that name. The word Tyre in Hebrew means
"rock", and the strength, compactness and durability which we
always associate with rock, whilst the same word recurs in Greek as
"Turos" and in Latin is "Terra", and as "Durus", implying form,
consistency and durability.  "King of Tyre", therefore, is to be
interpreted as the cosmic principle  which lives solidity and form
to the spiritual fluidic  and formless Life-Essence, and which is
comparable to a cup intended to hold liquid. Solomon and Hiram of
Tyre having contributed their respective properties of Life-Essence
and durable form ("building material") as the groundwork of the
soul, it is then made functionally offective by the addition of the
third principle described as Hiram Abiff, and personifying the
active intellectual principle or Manas.  Hiram Abiff represents the
Cosmic Builder; the Great Architect "by whom all things are made",
the "Son of the Carpenter", to use an expression which is common to
both the Hindu Puranas and the Christian Gospels. The name Hiram
Abiff, sometimes given as Adoniram, means the representative or
messenger from the Lord. ("Adonai") or Father ("Abba") i.e. from
the Higher Self or paternal spiritual principle; it is the Hebrew
form of the Greek, "Hermes" (the son of the All-Father, Zeus), the
messenger and intermediary between the gods and men. In Craeco-
Alexandrian scriptures Hiram is called both Hyrmes and Thoth (the
Divine Thought or Creative Mind), and appears as the great
Initiator and Teacher of hidden knowledge; Hermes (instead of
Hiram) is also mentioned in some of the old Masonic charges. Hiram
Abiff, then, is the Christ-principle immanent in every soul;
crucified, dead and buried in all who are not alive to its
presence, but none the less resident in all as a saving force -
"Christ in you, the hope of glory".

It would be utterly impossible within the limits of this Paper, to
enter on a disquisition of all the various ideas, noted and
connoted, in the word Christ, and in the ancient mystic Christos,
the Path, and the Purifier, union with whom was the object of the
early Initiates.  Moreover, the student who engages in this wide
field of speculation should be prepared to study the etymology and
history, both of the name and the idea itself, through the
cosmogony and mythology of every great race which has yet lived on
earth, tracing also the inter-relation of these races, as well as
their language and philosophy.  Short of this a partial knowledge
must certainly land him in a fallacy. However without dealing fully
with this aspect of our subject, the following will probably not be
contested. All historic religions have assumed a higher state to
which individuals should aspire, and an endeavour on the part of
the best of mankind to attain such state themselves and help others
to attain it. Further, in the schools of the Mysteries, as also in
the great religions of the world, the actual attainment of this
spiritual goal is enacted or taught under the veil of a tragic
episode analogous to that of the Craft third degree; and in each
there is a Master whose death the aspirant is instructed he must
imitate in his own person. In the Craft system that prototype is
Hiram Abiff: but it must be made clear that there is no historical
basis whatever for the legendary account of Hiram's death.  The
whole story is symbolical and was purposely invested for reasons of
the Craft teaching. If you will examine the Craft central legend
closely, you will at once perceive how obvious the correspondence
is between this narrative and the story of the death of the
Christian Master as related in the Gospels.  In the one case the
Master is crucified between the two thieves; in the other he is
done to death between two villains. In the one case appear the
penitent and the impenitent thief; in the other we have the
conspirators who make a voluntary confession of their guilt and
were pardoned, and the others who were found guilty and put to
death.  As every Christian is taught that in his own life he must
imitate the life and death of Christ, so every member of the Craft
is "made to represent one of the brightest characters recorded in
the annals of Freemasonry but as the annals of Freemasonry are
contained in the Volume of the Sacred Law and not elsewhere, it is
not difficult to see who the character is who is alluded to.
Moreover, as that great authority and initiate of the Mysteries,
St.Paul, taught, we can only attain to the Master's resurrection by
"being made conformable unto His death", and we "must die with him
if we are to be raised like Him": and it is in virtue of that
conformity, in virtue of being individually made to imitate the
Grand Master in His death, that Freemasons are made worthy of
certain "points of fellowship" with Him: for the "five points of
fellowship" with Him: for the "Five points of fellowship" of the
Craft third degree are the five wounds of Christ. The three years'
ministry of the Christian Master ended with His death, and these
refer to the three degrees of the Craft which also end in the
mystical death of the Masonic candidate and his subsequent raising
or resurrection. The death, then, to which Freemasonry alludes,
using the analogy of bodily death and under the veil of a reference
to it, is none other than that death-in-life to mans' own lower
self to which St. Paul also made allusion when he protested "I die
daily", for it is over the grave not of the dead body but of the
lower self, that the aspirant must walk before he can attain the
heights.  In the terminology of Freemasonry, the perfect cube must
pass through the metamorphosis of the Cross, thereby signifying
that complete self-sacrifice and self-crucifixion are, as all
religions teach, essential before the soul can be raised "from a
figurative death to a reunion with the companions of its "former
toils".  The soul must, in other words, pass voluntarily and
consciously through a state of utter helplessness from which no
earthly hand can rescue it, and in trying to raise him from which
the grip of any succouring human hand will but "prove a slip":
until at length Divine Help itself descends from the Throne above
and, with the "lion's grip" of almighty power, raises,the faithful
and regenerated soul to union with itself in an embrace of
reconciliation and at-one-ment.

We cannot, in this short Paper, discuss the extremely interesting
questions which are involved in a study of the period of transition
from prechristian to Christian religion.  Neither can we attempt to
explain why or how the Christian Mysteries are the efflorescence of
the earlier ones and transcend them. Nevertheless, we must point
out that in their central teachings, as well as in the philosophic
method of life they demand, the two methods are identical.  The
differences between them are only such as are due to amplification
and formal expression, for, as it is written, Christianity came not
to destroy, but to fulfil and expand.  Now, when properly
understood, that fulfilment and expansion are found to be
consequent upon an event of cosmic importance which is spoken of as
The Incarnation, and by that event something happened which
affected the very fabric of our planet and every item of the human
family. What that something was, and the nature of the change it
wrought is too great and deep a theme to develop here, but, to
illustrate it by Masonic symbolism, it was an event which is the
equivalent of, and is represented by, the transference of the
Sacred Symbol of the Grand Geometrician of the Universe from the
ceiling of the Lodge, where it is located in the elementary grades
of the Craft, to the floor, where it is found in the Royal Arch
Degree surrounded with flaming lights and every circumstance of
reverence and sanctity. For the purpose of our present study, it is
essential to recognise that in this piece of symbolism, Freemasonry
is giving affirmation and ocular testimony to precisely the same
fact as the churchman affirms when he recites in his Creed the
words, "He came down from heaven, and was incarnate and was made
man." Here we must direct attention to the fact that there is one
ever-recurring Divine Event which is always the theme of the great
rituals; it is the sacrifice of the Logos, "who for us men and for
our salvation came down from heaven".  Without this voluntary
self-sacrifice and limitation of God, the universe cannot exist for
all objects, animate and inanimate, exist only because God "died"
to the fullness of His nature.  But, as the great rituals are
designed to keep prominently before the human memory, His
self-chosen "death" was and is only in order that, through the co-
operation of those for whom He died, He may rise to a more glorious
existence - more glorious because those He died for live with Him 
in a conscious communion. There are three great rituals which show
this archetypal basis of true ritualism; they come from Egypt,
India and Europe. Widely different though they may seem to be in
externals, Freemasonry, the Prajapati ritual of ancient Hinduism,
and the Mass of the Christian Church, all three tell of the
primordial sacrifice of the Logos.  As this Paper is written for
members of the Craft, we need but take the Prajapati ritual and the
Mass for comparison. In the former, God as Prajapati, "Lord of
Creatures", lays Himself down on the altar as a voluntary victim,
to be slain and dismembered by the Devas, the elder children of His
family, and from the dismembered parts then arise all creation; men
exist in their individual natures only because He was slain. It is
this sacrifice of Prajapati which is commemorated each day in the
great ritual, and as the dismembered Godhead can be made whole and
resurrected from the dead only by God Himself, man (who is God)
must perform the commemorative sacrifice and "make Father Prajapati
whole once more". The Mass in Christianity commemorates the
voluntary sacrifice of God as Christ; He is called "the victim"
"hostia", or Host); He came foreknowing His crucifixion, and it is
only because of His crucifixion that men can be saved; every act of
His life was foreordained, and He was "the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world".  Therefore His whole mission, from the
Descent from heaven to the Ascent, was but a reflection of a Divine
Procession of events in the heavenly worlds.  The most exalted aim
of religion is the intimate union of man with God; and in the great
rituals there is always the climax when Divinity reveals Himself
through the ritual; this is the moment of the "Real Presence", and
it is this alone that makes a ritual really sacramental. The
obstacle is the case of sacramental mysticism is naturally
incorrect performance of the ritual; every act in the series must
be performed, and if one of them is omitted, the mystic magic will
not create the necessary force.  Knowledge has little to do with
the magic; as the turning of a switch will set a hundred electric
bulbs alight, provided one knows where the switch is, so anyone who
is taught the ritual can perform the magic. However, in order to
achieve the results he must perform it according to the rubric,
keeping to the ancient landmarks; to omit or to add mars the ritual
and hinders the magic, for the rubric was carefully made by those
who knew in what way each part of it should point to an event in
the heavenly world, and sacramental mysticism ceases to be
sacramental when there is not the perfect mirroring of heavenly
acts by earthly actions. The ideal of sacramental mysticism is the
priest; he must of course be formally consecrated for his function
because the magic will not work unless the operator is a true
priest.  In Hinduism a man must be consecrated as a priest; in
Christianity he must be ordained; and in Freemasonry the Worshipful
Master must be duly installed. Here comes in the great question of
the validity of Orders" in Christianity, and the regularity or
irregularity of Masonic bodies, but this matter goes deeper into
occultism than may be considered to be within the scope of this
treatise.

The point up to which these observations are meant to lead can now
be stated.  It is that a group of men, themselves Initiates, were
inspired to devise and project the modern Craft in the 16th, and
17th. centuries, to keep alive the universal tradition of
Initiation and the Divine Mysteries at a critical period when
spiritual life was running low and the modern intellectual
mechanical, and industrial era was about to set in. Being guided by
what may be termed the prior history of the working of the Spirit,
which in all ages has induced men to strive after reunion with the
higher Self, these men were led to the idea of forming an
association as a human vehicle for the promulgation of the
knowledge they were anxious to impart, in order that, as the Spirit
had been held to speak occasionally through a prophet, or seer, or
master; and as the individual monad assumes human personality, and
manifests, itself thus to other men, so this Spirit actuating them,
might have a constant, visible human medium, whereby men might
speak to men and convey the words of the Spirit.  Nothing is here
postulated with regard to an historic Master, save that the
teachings promulgated by (or ascribed to) Jesus of Nazareth, were
adopted as the ethical code of instruction.  All we now affirm is
that the Spirit of striving after union with the Higher Self,
called by a certain school of thinkers Christos or Christ, was
believed by them to urge or direct them to form a society for the
propagation of teaching tending to that end; and that they
conceived the relation between the society and the guiding spirit
corresponded to that between the higher and lower principles in
man.  Stated in other words, the Founders of the Craft realised
that before the true spirit and inward content of Speculative
Freemasonry could be appreciated upon a scale sufficiently wide to
constitute the Order a real spiritual force in the social body, it
would be necessary in the first instance to build up a great,
vigorous and elaborate physical organisation as a vehicle in which
that spirit might eventually and efficaciously manifest. In view of
the importance of the ultimate object aimed at it matters nothing
that from two to three centuries have been needed to develop that
organisation, to build up that requisite physical framework, or
that the material of which it has been constructed has not been so
far of ideal quality. The growth of a great institution - a nation,
a Church, a system of the Mysteries - is a slow  growth, 
proceeding from material apparently unpromising, and involving
continual selection, before something becomes finally sublimated
from it and is forged into an efficient instrument.  To take a most
appropriate analogy - the erection of Solomon's Temple was a work
of years, but it was not until it was completed, dedicated, and
consecrated as a tabernacle worthy of the Shekinah, did that
Presence descend upon it, illuminating and flooding the whole House
and enabling the earthly vehicle to fulfil a spiritual, purpose.
So, with the Masonic Order; as a physical vehicle, a material
organisation, it is as complete, as elaborated and as efficiently
controlled as perhaps it can ever be expected to be. It now stands
awaiting illumination, and that illumination must, come from within
itself, even as the Divine Presence manifested within thy symbolic
Temple.

V._ - CONCLUSION: THE OBJECT AND MISSION OF THE CRAFT.

In the last section we have traced out the seven principles of the
Craft according to the ordinary classification of the "Seven
Principles of Man" as understood by the Eastern schools. It would
be profitless speculation to undertake to distinguish more
accurately and sharply the principles of the Higher Triad, from one
another, inasmuch as the Craft has never by authoritative utterance
attempted to do so. It should, however, be possible for students to
discern that the Triad (Solomon and the two Hirams) considered
together forms the Higher Self of that entity called the Craft (or
to express the same thought in the language of the Church, forms
the Church Triumphant, wherewith the Church Militant or the visible
association of human beings is seeking union), and it has been
indicated by eminent Freemasons, such as W.Bros. W.L.Wilmshurst and 
A.E. Waites that the metaphysical, intellectual and moral aspects
of this Higher Self correspond with the three higher principles.

Briefly recapitulating the position, we see that the craft is a
living composite entity, composed of living human units, as the
human body is composed of living semi-independent cells. That this
entity has its own organic life and has evolved its own
Constitution and rules of being.  That its right to evolve such a
Constitution is in accordance with the undoubted right possessed by
every Association to formulate its own rules and laws; and to expel
from membership all who refuse to be bound by those laws.  That it
has an organic voice by means of which certain definite
declarations have been made in the name of the Craft, and that
these declarations (issued by the authority of Grand Lodge
representing the whole Craft) must necessarily be accepted by all
members; not-withstanding that upon other matters affecting
Freemasonry they may lawfully differ. That the United Grand Lodge
of England is a Sovereign and independent Body practising
Freemasonry only within the limits defined in its Constitution as
"pure Antient Masonry". That from time to time the Grand Lodge has
deemed it desirable to set forth in precise form the aims of
Freemasonry as consistently practised under its Jurisdiction since
it came into existence as an organised body in 1717 and also to
define the principles governing its relations with other Grand
Lodges with which it is in fraternal accord. That the first
condition of admission into, and membership of, the Craft is a
belief in the Supreme Being, and that by the very nature of the
teaching this is essential and admits of no compromise. Finally,
that there is no secret with regard to any of the basic principles
of Freemasonry, although it must be freely acknowledged that the
one point which stands out conspicuously in the teachings of the
Craft is the Law of Love - love for all nations and of all men,
this is clearly defined in the Instruction Lectures as follows:-

"By the exercise of Brotherly Love, we are taught to regard the
whole human species as one family, the high and the low; the rich
and the poor, created by the same Almighty Being, and sent into the
world for the mutual aid, support, and protection of each other. On
this grand principle Freemasonry unites men of every country, sect,
and opinion, and, by its dictates, conciliates a true friendship
between those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual
distance." (First Lecture, Sixth Section).

It now remains to conclude this study that the object and mission
of the Craft should be appraised in their relation to the general
social life surrounding the Order; for the Craft is not something
apart and detached from that life but an integral element of it,
and between the two there is perpetual interaction and reaction.
The Masonic system was devised three centuries ago, at a time of
widespread unrest and change, as a preparatory infant school in
which once again the alphabet of a world-old "Gnosis" might be
learned and an elementary acquaintance made with the science of
human regeneration.  However misunderstood and misapplied have been
its rites, the Craft exists as an occult society whose object is
the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, the perfection of the Human
Ego, and its reunion with its Higher Self.  Moreover, the Craft is
a Society which is prepared to impart the means whereby this may be
accomplished: which offers to every candidate admitted the
essential teaching to enable him to reach his owner Higher Self,
and therewith the far more priceless privilege of aiding it the
regeneration of humanity.  We need, then, express no surprise when
our investigations reveal that the Spirit that has from its
inception animated the Craft, finds as St, Paul found "a law in its
members warring against the law of the spirit".  Indeed, such being
the mission of the Craft, it is inevitable that the Spirit which
animates the corporate body must always be opposed to the will of
the lower principles, and for this reason the primary work of each
individual Craftsman is "to learn to rule and subdue his passions";
in other words, to subordinate his lower to his higher nature. The
method or "way of attainment" comprehends exercises on all the
planes of being; "by a prudent and well regulated course of
discipline; "by contemplation"; and participation in ceremonies
which have distinct psychic effects in either reducing the strength
or purifying the nature of the bodily wants. Freemasonry neither
estimates the problem of human relationships. St. Paul found it
necessary to remind the early Christians that they were all members
of one body, although they might differ in gifts and
qualifications. As, however, no one member of the human body can
boast its independence of other members - the eye, for instance,
cannot boast of its independence of the hand or foot - no more is
the individual independent of the other members of the group.
Freemasonry drives home this truth by another metaphor; Freemasons
are taught to think of themselves us "living stones" of a vast,
social structure, and that the value of the individual unit lies in
his contribution to the larger edifice.  Hence the insistence on
personal discipline; each stone must be squared, levelled and
plumbed if strength, symmetry and safety are to be known.  Now this
condition of complete individualisation is not attained without
time, or without the struggle and pain inevitable to all growth,
and we need not be impatient at the slow development of that inner
permanent Masonic "superstructure, perfect in all its parts and
honourable to the builder", which is to be reared upon the Craft
foundation.  At this stage of progress we do not attempt to deny
that an observer looking at the Craft from without easily detects
many deficiencies among the members, including jealousies,
intolerance and bigotry, and it is also true that these things
often deter genuine seekers from investigating further; but we are
surely entitled to ask, can any initiation be achieved without a
test or a trial? And if this first trial discomforts the intending
novice, he most certainly will not obtain that which is promised on
admission to the Order, for what the Craft really is, and the real
value of its teaching and training, can only be known from the
inside.  Even in the case of a material temple the rough, unsightly
stones are outside, while the within - it is folly to stand outside
and affirm that the glory does not exist. In the case of the Craft,
those who are within know better and those who are without, if they
are deterred from entering by such protestations, have not yet come
up to the level of the first initiation.

"Many are the candidates seeking Initiation,
But few are the perfected Initiates."

APPENDIX

AN ELEMENTARY NOTE ON THE SEVEN PRINCIPLES.

The members of this Study Circle are acquainted with the axiom that
Man is a Microcosm of the Macrocosm, and have grown familiar with
the idea that in some mysterious manner Man is an epitome of the
Universe.  Nevertheless, it may be helpful to students to note in
this place that the word "Microcosm" is a Greek compound signifying
"Little Arrangement", i.e. "little world"; and is a term applied by
ancient and modern mystics to Man when considering the seven
aspects or organic parts of his constitution.  Over the temples of
initiation of antiquity was inscribed the sentence "Know thyself
and thou shalt know the Universe and God", a phrase which implies
in the first place that the uninitiated man is without the
knowledge of himself, and in the second place that when he attains
to that knowledge he will realise himself to be no longer the
separate distinctified individual he now supposes himself to be,
but a Microcosm or summary of all that is and to be identified with
the Being of God.  Our modern Masonic system of Initiation
perpetuates this maxim by recommending self-knowledge to candidates
as "the most interesting of all human studies", while the
Instruction Lectures provide the first lesson in that knowledge by
directing attention in a cryptic manner to what is called "the form
of the Lodge".  This is officially described as "an oblong square;
in length between East and West, in breadth between North and
South, in depth from the surface of the earth to its centre, and
even as high as the heavens", all of which is to be interpreted as
alluding to the human individual. Man himself is a Lodge, and just
as the Masonic Lodge is stated to be "an assemblage of brethren met
to expatiate upon the mysteries of the Craft.", so the individual
Freemason is a composite being made up of various properties and
faculties assembled together in him with a view to their harmonious
interaction and working out of the purpose of life. Accordingly,
the Masonic Lodge is sacramental of the candidate as he is when he
seeks admission to the Order, and a man's first entry into a Lodge
is symbolical of his first entry upon the science of knowing
himself.  The human organism is, symbolised by a four square or
four sided building, and this is in agreement with the very ancient
philosophical doctrine that four is the arithmetical symbol of
everything which has manifested or physical form. Spirit, which is
unmanifest and not physical, is expressed by the number three and
the triangle, but Spirit which has so far projected itself as to
become objective and wear a material form or body is denoted by the
number four and the quadrangle or square.  The Lodge, however, is
shown to be an oblongated (or duplicated) square, because man's
organism does not consist of his physical body, alone. The physical
body has its "double" or ethereal counterpart in the astral body,
which is an extension of the physical nature and a compound of the
four basic metaphysical elements (fire, water, air and earth) in:
an impalpable and more tenuous form.  Hence the oblong spatial form
of the Lodge must be considered as referable to the physical and
ethereal nature of man in the conjunction in which they in fact
consist in each of us.  The "depth" of the Lodge "from the surface
of the earth to its centre" - alludes to the distance or difference
of degree between the superficial consciousness of our earthly
mentality and the supreme divine degree of consciousness resident
at man's spiritual centre.  The "height" of the Lodge "even as high
as the heavens" - implies that the range of consciousness possible
to us, when we have developed our potentialities to the full, is
infinite.  Consciousness, however, cannot exist without body, and
in the same manner that no Bother can enter the Masonic Lodge
except he be clothed with the Apron proclaiming his spiritual rank,
so no one can enter any of the unseen worlds without wearing an
appropriate body. There are bodies terrestrial, adapted to use on
the lower planes of life, and bodies celestial or ethereal, adapted
to functioning on higher levels. Indeed, man is a composite of
many, bodies, one within the other, although ordinarily he is
unaware of it and has not yet organised them and come to know them
separately. The physical body is but one, and the grossest of the
physical plane (terrestrial) bodies; it is but a plaster of
organised chemical particles, within and around which his subtler
bodies exist, and for which it forms a nexus of fixation-point. 
When totally discarded at death it disintegrates; when partially
abandoned as in sleep its energies persist passively, and
connection with it is kept by the cable-tow or "silver cord". In
each case the Ego, whether aware of it or not, stands minus its
physical sheath and enclosed in the remaining ones; and a similar
divesting of each successive body may take place until only the
ultimate Ego remains. That Ego, the ultimate Divine Principle in
man, is represented by the triangular flap of the Masonic Apron,
because the triangle (or pyramid form) is the geometrical symbol
for Spirit or Fire, and the ultimate Spirit of man may be likened
to a pointed flame or tongue of fire. The succession of bodies or
forms which the Ego assumes on descending into manifestation is
represented by the lower quadrangular part of the Apron.  The
candidate's first investiture with the Masonic Apron is symbolic
therefore of his Ego's entrance into this world, and becoming
clothed with form or body; he is meant to realise himself as a
sevenfold being, his triangle of Spirit combining with the
quadrangle of materialised form to make up the perfect number
seven.

It is now necessary to recall that throughout the Paper to which
this Appendix is attached, the septenary classification of the
"Principles of Man" as understood by the Eastern schools has been
largely used for purposes of analogy, and for the guidance of
students we give an interpretation of the seven principles as
follows:-

The 1st. Principle  STHULA-SHARIRA.  (Dense physical Body).

STHULA-SARIRA (Sanskrit). "Sthul," means "coarse", "gross", not
refined, heavy, therefore conditioned and differentiated matter. 
"Sarira" - "form", generally speaking.  The lowest substance -
principle of which man is composed: the physical body.

The "Sthula Sarira" or physical hierarchy of the human body is
builded up of cosmic elements, themselves formed of living atomic
entities, which, although subject individually to bewilderingly
rapid changes and reimbodiments, nevertheless are incomparably more
enduring in themselves as expressions of the monadic rays than is
the transitory physical body which they temporarily compose.

Strictly speaking the physical body is not a "principle" at all: it
is merely a house, man's "carrier" in another sense, and no more is
an essential part of him than are the clothes in which his body is
garmented. Man is really a complete human being without the
"Sthula-Sarira"; and yet this statement while accurate must not be
taken too literally, because even the physical body is the
expression of man's constitution on the physical plane.  The
meaning is that the human constitution can be a complete human
entity even when the physical body is discarded, but the
"Sthula-Sarira" is needed for evolution and active work on this
sub-plane of the Solar Cosmos.

The 2nd. Principle. PRANA. (The Life-force),

PRANA (Sanskrit). - The word is derived from "pra" prepositional
prefix meaning "before"; and "an" - verb meaning "to breathe", "to
blow", "to live".  Usually translated "Life", but rather the
psycho-electrical veil or "psycho-electrical field" manifesting in
the individual as vitality.  Commonly called "Life-Principle".  The
function of the life principle is to hold together the elements
composing "Sthula-Surira", but it also comprehends the faculty of
responding to what are known as etheric thrills which in the East
are termed "Tatwas". and which we in the West recognise as the
means whereby external objects appeal to the five senses, there
being a "Tatwa" (or system of thrills) for each sense.

The 3rd. Principle.  LINGA SHARIRA. (The Astral Body).
LINGA SARIRA (Sanskrit). - "Linga" is a Sanskrit word which means
characteristic mark; hence "model", "Pattern", "Sarira" "form",
from a verb-root "sri", meaning "to moulder", or "to waste away",
the word thus signifying "impermanence".

The Model-body, popularly called "astral body", because it is but
slightly more ethereal than the physical body, and is in fact the
model or framework around which the physical body is builded, and
from which, in a sense, the physical body flows or from which the
physical body develops as growth proceeds.

At death the "Linga-Sarira" remains in the astral realms, and
finally fades out, dissolving "pari passu", atom by atom, with the
atoms of the physical body.  The "Linga-Sarira" is formed before
the body is formed, and thus serves as a model or pattern around
which the physical body is moulded and grows to maturity; it is as
mortal as the physical body, and disappears with the physical body. 
The dense and etheric bodies are not normally separated during
earth life; they ordinarily function together, as the lower and
higher strings of a single instrument when a chord is strick, but
they also carry on distinct though co-ordinated activities.

The 4th.  Principle. KAMA-RUPA. (The Desire Body).

KAMA-RUPA (Sanskrit) - A compound word signifying "desire-body". 
It is that part of man's inner constitution in which dwell or
inhere the various desires, affections, hates, loves, and, in
brief, the various mental and psychical energies. After death it
becomes the vehicle in the astral worlds of the higher principles
of the man that was.  But these higher principles are nevertheless
scarcely conscious of the fact, because the rapture of the cord of
life at the moment of the physical death plunges the cognising
personal entity into a stupor of unconsciousness, in which stupor
it remains for a longer or shorter period depending upon its
qualities of spirituality or materiality.  It is this "Kama-Rupa"
which legend and story in the various ancient world religions or
philosophies speak of as the "Shade", and which it has been
customary in the West to call the "ghost". The "Kama-Rupa" is an
exact astral duplicate, in appearance and mannerism, of the man who
died physically; it is his "eidolon" or "image".

                             
The 5th, Principle. MANAS. (Spiritual Self-Consciousness)

MANAS (Sanskrit). - The Sanskrit root of this word means "to
think", "to cogitate" "to reflect" - in short, mental activity. 
"Manas" is the third aspect of the Divine Triangle or Higher Triad
("Atma-Buddhi-manas") which overshadows the human personality, and
must not therefore be confused with what is ordinarily designated
"Mind" in popular language.  This Principle is usually presented in
its dual aspect of Higher and Lower, and while this division is
correct so far as it goes, it leaves much to be desired; for in
reality Mind, like all the Principles, is septenary with three main
divisions corresponding to body, mind and Spirit viz. the
Subconscious, the Rational, and the Spiritual or Superconscious,
Mind.  It is the Spiritual or Superconscious Mind which is the real
5th. Principle which overshadows the personality. The Higher Self
("Atma") being purely spiritual, can have no direct consciousness
in the physical world; hence, to enable it to complete its
manifestation in all worlds and to become a redeemer, it must send
down a Ray of itself into the human-animal body, in order that
through this expression in matter it may complete its destiny. In
the East this Ray is called "Antaskarana", meaning the bridge which
joins the lower to the higher, the earthly to the Divine; it is
also called the bridge across the "Great Abyss", over which the
pilgrim must cross to the "eternal shore",

The 6th Principle. BUDDHI.  (The Spiritual Soul.)

BUDDHI (Sanskrit). "Buddhi" comes from a Sanskrit root "Budh",
commonly translated "to enlighten", but a better rendering is "to
perceive", "to cognise", "to awaken" and therefore "to understand",
"Buddhi" is the Principle or organ in man which gives him spiritual
consciousness, and in the vehicle of the Most High part of man -
the "Atma". "Buddhi" is the faculty which manifests as
understanding, judgment, discrimination. When "Buddhi" (The
Spiritual Soul) and "Manas the Spiritual Mind are blended and
illumined by the Divine Ray ("Atma"), they become the Divine
Trinity, the Higher Triad or Higher Self.

The 7th, Principle. ATMA. (The Divine).

ATMA (Sanskrit). - The root of the word "Atma" is hardly known; its
origin is uncertain, but the general meaning is that of "self".  It
is the highest part of man; Self: Pure Consciousness "per se", and
is the essential and radical power or faculty in man which gives to
him sentient consciousness of Selfhood.  This principle cannot be
expressed in words, save by some abstraction such as "Universal
Soul", "All Father", "Divine Spark". How it can be Universal and
yet a Principle in each individual man is a mystery only to be
solved by the knowledge of "Buddhi" - "No man cometh unto the
Father but by me". Yet, although a mystery, undoubtedly it is the
case because union with the Universal Soul is the aim of all the
great religions, and unless such Universal soul were already
somehow part of ourselves, no idea of it would be possible. The
union in fact now exists but is rendered imperfect by separateness;
and separateness proceeds from the lower "self" whose home is in
"Kama-Rupa", but whose chief manifestation is in "Sthula - Sarira".


"In the midst of Solomon's Temple there stands a G,
A letter for all to read and see;
But few there be that understand
What means the letter G,

My friend, if you pretend to be of this Fraternity
You can forthwith and rightly tell what means that
letter G"