Freemasonry : Rituals, Symbols and History of the Secret Society

by Stavish, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780738711485
• ISBN10: 0738711489
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-01
• Publisher: Lightning Source Inc

Summary

As one of the worlds most famous mysterious societies, Freemasons remain the largest fraternal organization in the world. Some of the most heroic and creative thinkers in history belonged to the order, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Goethe, and Mozart. What links the philosophy of these great minds with the estimated four million Freemasons who actively maintain this ancient brotherhood today?

Author Biography

Mark Stavish (Pennsylvania) is an active Freemason under the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction: What Is the Secret of Freemasonry?	p. xix
How to Use This Book	p. 1
What Is Freemasonry?	p. 3
Operative and Speculative Masonry	p. 4
Ashmole: Angel Magician and First Freemason	p. 7
Robert Moray: Alchemist and Freemason	p. 9
The First Grand Lodge	p. 10
Anderson's Constitutions	p. 11
Masonic Landmarks and the Making of a Movement	p. 13
Philosophy, Fraternity, and Charity and the Making of a Man	p. 15
Antients and Moderns: The Craft's First Crisis	p. 15
Proliferation of the Craft	p. 17
The Temple of Solomon and the Legend of Hiram Abiff	p. 23
The Temple of Solomon	p. 24
Solomon as Magician	p. 29
The Picatrix	p. 32
The Clavicula Salomonis	p. 33
Shekinah: Goddesses of the Temple	p. 35
Solomon and the Divine Feminine	p. 36
Hiram Abiff and the Unique Mythology of Freemasonry	p. 37
Masonic Initiation and Blue Lodge	p. 43
Initiation: The Making of a Freemason	p. 44
Isolation, Individuality, and the Beginning of Masonic Awakening	p. 46
The Trestle Board: Masonic Instruction through Symbols	p. 48
Symbolic Masonry: Blue Lodge and the Starry Vault of Heaven	p. 50
The Entered Apprentice: The Gate of Initiation	p. 51
The Fellowcraft: The Middle Chamber	p. 55
The Degree of Master Mason: The Holy of Holies	p. 58
A Mason in the World	p. 61
The Pentagram	p. 63
The Worldview of the Renaissance: The World Is Alive, and Magic Is Afoot	p. 69
The World of Natural Magic	p. 75
Angelic Magic	p. 75
John Dee	p. 76
The End of the Renaissance	p. 79
Sacred Geometry, Gothic Cathedrals, and the Hermetic Arts in Stone	p. 83
Temples, Talismans, and the Survival of the Stone	p. 93
The Forty-seventh Problem of Euclid: The Great Symbol of Masonry	p. 98
The Lost Word and the Masonic Quest	p. 105
In the Beginning Was the Word	p. 105
Reuchlin and the Miraculous Name	p. 108
Fludd and the Rosicrucian Connection	p. 112
The Masons Word	p. 113
Scottish Rite and the Rise of Esoteric Masonry	p. 125
Origins of Scottish Rite: The French Connection	p. 125
"Ordo Ab Chaos"	p. 127
The Degrees	p. 128
Albert Pike and the Renewal of Scottish Rite	p. 129
Morals and Dogma: The Unofficial Bible of Scottish Rite	p. 131
The Royal Art: Freemasonry and Human Evolution	p. 132
Occult Masonry in the Eighteenth Century	p. 141
Occult Masonry	p. 141
Rosicrucianism	p. 142
The Elus Cohen	p. 147
Egyptian Masonry	p. 150
Adoptive Masonry	p. 153
Hermetic-Alchemical Rites and the Illuminati	p. 154
Conclusion	p. 160
York Rite and the Survival of the Knights Templar	p. 165
Royal Arch: Capstone of Masonry	p. 166
Cryptic Degrees and the Lost Word	p. 167
Chivalric Degrees	p. 170
Origin of the Templars	p. 171
Fall of the Templars and Their Survival	p. 172
Templars in York Rite Masonry	p. 174
Templars and the Occult	p. 175
Freemasonry and the European Occult Revival	p. 181
Co-Masonry and the Invisible Adepts Revisited	p. 182
Martinism and Rosicrucianism Reborn	p. 186
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn	p. 190
Knights Templar Anew	p. 192
Conclusion: Modern Masonry: Much Ado About Nothing, or the Revival of the Lost Word?	p. 199
Afterword	p. 203
Sacred Geometry and the Masonic Tradition, John Michael Greer	p. 207
Symbols of the Tracing Boards and the Degrees	p. 221
Excerpts from Morals and Dogma on the Three Degrees of Masonry	p. 226
Index	p. 231
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