Esoteric Research & Practice

The resolution looks like an extreme case of Accomodationism. We are never going to satisfy our critics. What we need to do is to look at the reasons people are drawn to Freemasonry: The interest in our institution is largely due to a perception of esoteric content (witness Dan Brown's novels) and we already lose many new members when we fail to satify that interest.

I suspect this unwise resolution may come to be more honoured in the breach than in the observance.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition:


Seriously, we should consider the suffering of our eighteenth century Brother, John Coustos and the Craft's response at the time. I suggest we then ask ourselves if such an anti-intellectual ruling against the raising of proscribed subjects is actually unmasonic, rather than merely being unwise.

A fruitful outcome of this edict may be an exploration of what constitutes esoteric research and practice in a masonic context. Esoteric Freemasonry is a term bandied about, but I suspect it means different things to different people. To the members of the committee responsible for drafting the edict, it appears to be anything which might bolster the antimasonic opinions of the ultraorthodox Sydney Anglican Diocese, who are considered (and consider themselves) to be extremists within the wider Anglican Communion: Let's face it, the only way we are going to appease this lot is to cease and desist everything masonic.

So what is esoteric Freemasonry? My take on the subject is that it depends on who you ask: For some it consists of profound moral allegories; for others it is to do with mysticism; for still others it is ceremonial magic; and for some it is kooky stuff tied up with aliens, UFO’s and reptilian shape-shifters.

The focus is usually on Freemasonry being an expression of what is called the Western Mystery Traditions, along with Hermeticism, Cabbalism, Gnosticism, Tarot, Astrology, Rosicrucianism etc. Within Co-Masonry, incongruous elements of Eastern Mystery Traditions have been introduced through its early Theosophical members. Consider too that Protestantism itself was once considered heretical and conflated by its detractors with diverse esoteric practices.

For most esoteric Freemasons (esoterics), the practice of Masonic ritual is the same as usual, it is their interpretation which renders it esoteric; Others may introduce elements to the ritual to help join their esoteric dots; while some may even devise novel rituals.

Characteristically, there is an element of elitism, with esoterics vainly thinking that what they believe constitutes a superior understanding of Freemasonry as compared to the understanding of the naïve souls for whom Freemasonry is simply a peculiar but fairly straight-forward system of morality and an expression of Brotherhood.

Esoterics have a long association with Freemasonry, as with Moray and Ashmole and, I suspect, Desaguliers and our 18th Century founders of the Premier Grand Lodge. The popular perception of such an association can be detected in Henry Adamson’s 1638 poem, The Muses Threnodie:

For we be brethren of the Rosie Cross;
We have the Mason Word and second sight,
Things for to come we can foretell aright.

As for a Masonic ban on discussion of esoteric subjects, such a proscription raises the difficulty of where to draw the line. Indeed, a discussion of Rosicrucianism may be of historical relevance to the Origins of the Craft. Moreover, can we confidently state that there are no elements of the Craft which may legitimately lend themselves to an esoteric interpretation?

For instance, consider the Hermetic elements of Earth, Air Water and Fire. These are explicitly represented in a Rosicrucian College by the pillars of the four Antients; they are expressly invoked in some esoteric lodges; and when one examines our A.P.s, there they are! (1°, Water; 2°, Earth and Air; 3° Fire). A coincidence? Perhaps, but if so it is but one among many.

Finally, consider the very concept of Brotherhood. People commonly baulk at addressing women as Brothers, without considering how it is similarly imprecise to call anyone Brother with whom one has no familial relationship. Does the usage only represent a fraternal bond within a particular institution or does it, as we are taught in the 2°, refer to the unity whereby, “We are all sprung from the same stock, partakers of the same nature and sharers of the same hope.”

It is this bond, this “Mystic Tie” (as we used to say), which unites us all as more than familial brothers. Bear-in-mind, the quintessential mystical experience is that of deeply knowing the unity of all things as One Life. Who would presume to censure discussion of that ultimate Truth?

Max and Philip, its more likely of who they are afraid of, sadly there are those whose freemasonry is all about the ritual and want to keep control, why delve into things over which you are clueless and can have no control over, ie we will tell you what to do , just don't try and think for yourself, we know best