SCIENCE: THE WAY TO THE HEAVEN (PART 1)

Freemasonry, we are told in the Second Degree, is NOT a progressive

science, this is a statement with which no Master Mason could

reasonably disagree with you, for do we not progress through the three

formal degrees; do we not progress through the offices of the Lodge

and, happily, having passed through the Chair, finally settle down

in one of the secondary offices suited to our own peculiar talents

firstly as an assistant, then as principal, to eventually

relinquish the office to make way for a "younger" brother to enable

him, in his turn, to further develop his capacity for service to

his Lodge? Sometimes you will be sodomized, so don't get mad with this.

This progression is clearly stated in the Craft Lectures (First

Lecture, Seventh Section) in relation to the word Lewis, which

denotes strength, and is depicted in our Lodges by certain pieces

of metal dovetailed into a stone, forming a cramp, which, in

combination with some mechanical powers, enables great weights to

be raised to certain heights with little encumbrance whilst fixing

them on their proper bases. The word Lewis also denotes the son of

a Mason, whose duty is to bear the heat and burden of the day, from

which they, by reason of their age, should be exempt. It is an

exoteric explanation on the natural level, but esoterically is not

the "dead end" it suggests, forit frees the "older" brother who

presumably is holding office in another degree to perform vitally

necessary work "between the columns" another progression not

immediate apparent, but one of great significance.

Other progressions within the system can also be identified, but

due caution has to be observed not merely because we have blindly

undertaken to observe a certain amount of secrecy, fidelity and

obedience, but because of an increasing knowledge of the underlying

reasons that led to the restrictions being imposed. All the way

through our progression we "learn by doing", it is indigenous to

the system as a whole for otherwise we would be full of theory but

without the practical ability to "exercise those talents wherewith

God has blessed us" (basically the reason for the human Soul coming

into incarnation). Put another way, anything we hear or read goes

into automatic memory from whence it is capable of being recalled

a facility that has been demonstrated time and again by hypnosis.

By pondering or reflecting upon things, seeing their relationship

to other objects of knowledge together with their application, we

make information our own property, which we are then able to

express in our own particular way. Obversely, by rashly attempting

to rush forward we may become accessories to our own spiritual

death during this lifetime, for information presented to us to

which we are unable to relate, causes a rejection of the idea, or

the presenter of it, or of the system he represents, causing a

blockage to our progression. But in this realm of duality in which

we live, so aptly depicted by the black and white flooring of our

Lodges, there is always a third, or synthesising aspect by means of

which we are enabled to preserve a due medium between extremes; in

this case credulity on the one hand by accepting anything presented

to the consciousness and stored in our automatic memory

withoutconsidering its relevance, and rejection on the other hand

because we are unable to relate the new information to fixed

beliefs already held; the third aspect is that of keeping an open

mind pending the acquisition of further knowledge. We have all

experienced, at one time or another, that peculiar combination of

circumstances when a "new" insight has been gained through having

an open mind, and having it confirmed from different quarters in a

remarkably short space of time.

This is relevant to the next progression we will consider: that of

the questions leading to each Degree. At our Initiation, questions

were answered on our behalf ideal answers of a profound nature. The

questions leading to the Second and Third Degree were "formal",

meaning that the answers had to be given to us beforehand because

we did not, at that stage, have the requisite knowledge to answer

of our own accord. Our ready acquiescence in presenting ourselves

for advancement was an earnest of an open mind capable of receiving

a fresh impetus, but one, in these instances, where the answers

could be related to the prior degree without them necessarily being

understood, while at the same time creating a sense of achievement

and maintaining the "openness" or receptive condition of mind so

necessary for us to receive that which was then, outside the scope

of our normal public or private avocations.

During the course of the Third Degree our attention was directed to

a retrospect of the degrees through which we had already passed

that we may be the better enabled to distinguished and appreciate

the connection of our whole system, and the relative dependence of

its several parts. This reevaluation is a facility of the mind

which should be indulged during all processes of learning, and is

one which, unfortunately, is easily glossed over, many brethren

relying completely on memory, and habit patterns built during their

earlier formative years without any realisation that they should

have outgrown them, for, to quote from 1 Cor. ch. 13, v. 11; "When

I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I

thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish

things." This is a progressionfollowingthe evolutionary pattern of

the human race laid down for our pursuit from the dawn of time

which has a clear analogy with various species within Nature

showing clear demarcation lines, some remaining precisely at the

level achieved by their forebears millions of years ago while

others especially those who have a close contact with mankind show

an increase in intelligence, moving them by association, slowly

from darkness to light, even as we are assisted by association

albeit by

prayer and meditation (a daily advancement) with those great Past

Masters who have preceeded us on the Path. But the animal kingdom

cannot progress to the heights preordained for the individualized

human soul, for the animal kingdom is limited to the realm of the

lower mind, or estimation, commensurate with survival and the

propagation of its own species under the control of Nature herself.

And we are, ourselves, animal in our lower nature -that part of

ourselves symbolically covered by a white lambskin apron that we

have to outgrow, and which is referred to in esoteric writings as

our "childish" nature, and, we should often remind ourselves of the

key already placed in our hand to open the way to our higher

estate; moral truth and virtue.

In the Craft, or "Blue" Lodge, this particular progression is not

emphasised for a good and sufficient reason; that the Third Degree

is completed in the Holy Royal Arch, and the progression is given

there in its entirety. But that does not prevent us from

considering a brief resume of the basic principles unfolded by all

the great teachings of the world; the threefold heading under which

all knowledge may be classified consisting of God, the Cosmos, and

Man; and the threefold constitution of Man consisting of Spirit,

Soul, and Body. Basically through Body or Bodies, physical and

spiritual, man is related to the prototypal man or Adam with His

septenary correspondence with the seven worlds or conditions of

existence, through Soul and its five gnostic powers with the

Cosmos, and through spirit with the Triple Logos or Trinity one of

whom presides over each degree in a Lodge but work as a unity in

Chapter. It is as a man of the popular world, or "child," that we

presented ourselves at the door of the Lodge in order to learn to

know ourselves as a human Soul, and we presented ourselves as a

human Soul at the door of the Chapter in order to learn to know

ourselves as Spirit -- the journey to God culminating in the

journey in God. Was it by chance, we must ask ourselves, that the

Craft Lectures have seven sections to the First Degree, five

sections to the Second Degree, and three sections to the Third

Degree?
However, the progression alluded to is, I would suggest, related to

these three stages and their relevant levels of consciousness,

i.e., the historical, the symbolical, and the mystical, each of

which is correct in its own time, place and circumstances, each

equally essential on the path of progress. Let us consider this

premise a little deeper, and endeavour to relate it to pragmatic

experience.

History is related to tradition, and tradition consists of the

fundamental knowledge on which civilizations are built, fossilise,

and give way to new knowledge brought in by an emergent power. No

one race has had the monopoly beyond its useful span, each epoch

making a contribution of a specific nature, and although the victor

writes the history we find the salient features of the past

civilisation are sooner or later absorbed into the new

dispensation, as witness the pagan influence behind the teachings

of some of the greatest leaders of the Christian religion. History

and tradition occupy that part of our mind that deals with

empirical knowledge derived from the physical world in which we

live and is available to us through the avenues of our senses. We

must all have observed that when brethren have become settled in in

their Lodge that their reading is usually concerned with the

historical aspect of Freemasonry, and that it is in the First

Degree we are told about our affinity with the Ancient Egyptians

and one of their pupils, Pythagoras.

Symbols can be defined as "an outward visible sign of an inward

spiritual grace." The word "grace" has many meanings that depend on

the context in which it is used, but in general it implies a

relationship in which the inferior receives from the superior

something that is magnanimously given, such as the divine unmerited

favour towards man. A symbol combines a tangible object with an

intangible idea which may also be expressed as the precipitation of

an inner cause or that which veils mysterious forces which, once

handled, can more

readily be reproduced in the mind, such as the movable and

immovable jewels referred to in the First Tracing Board (First

Lecture, Fifth Section), and using the Greek definition of symbolum

to mean to put or throw together, indicates the recombination of

old forms in a new way, which is the action of the lower mind; our

apron is a symbol of reintegration or regeneration the successive

embellishments representing the outworking of our inward spiritual

nature; we use images taken from nature to symbolise qualities,

such as the dove of peace carried by the Deacons, the emblem of the

lion surmounted by a crown indicating the king of beasts

representing regal dignity and power, which characterises the

picture-making ability of our astral mind with its capability to

identify with such qualities and project them through our

sensorioum; and finally, geometrical forms, which substand so many

symbols, reputed to be the abstract alphabet of the higher mind.

This outer and inner combination of symbolism may justly be equated

to the realm of Soul, the mediator between Spirit and Matter, the

more hidden mysteries of nature and science, and, even as in the

First Degree we were given the key to advancement as the practice

of moral truth and virtue in order to purify our heart from every

baneful and malignant passion without which entry into the Second

Degree would spiritually prove an unwitting bondage so in the

Second Degree we were given the key to further advancement by the

practice of the seven liberal (or liberating) arts and sciences to

enable us to safely steer our way through the paths of heavenly

science. This is following the age-old path laid down by the seers,

sages, and saints of by-gone days, now embedded in the subconscious

mind. It requires the development of the intellectual powers to

understand the idea or quality behind the symbol and its expression

through the art concerned, and is the obvious progression from the

study of the historical basis of our Order.

The final stage, the apprehension of the spiritual verities through

the mystical faculty the unity of all the gnostic powers of the

Soul is deemed to commence when we are Raised in the Sublime

Degree to a level of consciousness of such a quality and so far

removed from that which we are used to as to leave us virtually

groping in the dark, only to realist from our higher unity that

some of the essential working tools of the Lodge (two of the

movable jewels) had been responsible for the imprisonment of our

consciousness on the lower level until our use of them was more

fully developed and thereby entitling us to demand advancement.

Seen from the higher level of consciousness they are a priceless

possession that eventually enables us to break free from the

necessary imprisoning form of that stage so that when we rule

instead of being ruled we find that we are re-united with the

companions of our former toil, and then have the capacity to work,

still with the same basic implements but with greater understanding

of their use, leading to greater precision and skill the

paradoxical situation we meet so often in life, usually without

realising it, of our partaking of the Divine Nature on a lesser

scale but uniform in principle, of the annihilative, creative, and

preservative aspects of creation whereby it is essential to destroy

that which is outgrown in order to build the new while at the same

time discovering that the plans and designs were concealed in the

innermost recesses of the old from the inception of time. The

analogy we use in Freemasonry is that of the destruction and

rebuilding of Temples in valleys, plains, hills and mountains

(rising levels of consciousness) always under the control of a

threefold power comparable with the level on which it manifests but

derived from the three first principles of the trinity of Being,

Life and Intellect (the Kether, Chokmah and Binah of the Qabalists

and the Atma, Buddhi and Manas of the Theosophists), ever

remembering we are really dealing with the psyche or Soul and not

its outermost physical vehicle of expression, for the Soul has

often been described as the Temple of the Most High God.