Studies

 

 

Paolo Lucarelli

Freemasonry and the Ars Regia

Relationships of the Masonic Ritual
with the hermetic ritual of
the Great Work

 

For somebody in love with the hermetic doctrine, the temptation to analyse the Masonic symbolism in search of relations with the Ars Regia is irresistible. This is particularly so if this somebody knows the masterly study of Eugene Canseliet on the rite in the Catholic mass, that is to say «Universal», like the Medicine to which the alchemist tends, Phàrmacon Katholikón (in Greek, ‘universal medecine’), after the title of a noteworthy hermetic treatise of the XVII century.
We will therefore follow the same impulse, though within the limits imposed by the set length of this article and the diminishing length of the present phase of this macrocosmic cycle. The time is, in fact, a matter of ever-increasing value, if compared with that vulgar gold which the insipid persons insist to describe as the ultimate scope of the hermetic philosophers. We shall thus shortly examine only the rituals of the Apprentice’s initiation, the passage to Fellowcraft, and the elevation to Master Freemason, more in order to give an indication to the inquisitive than for making a complete exegesis, which would bring us too far.
The Son of the doctrine will realise, from the very first moment of his arriving in the Lodge’s entrance hall (the reflection chamber), that a link with the symbolism of the Alchemical Science does exist. The black walls of the room, the will that the candidate has to lay down, the attitude of the guiding Master are all clear signs of death, somehow useful and beneficial, that evidently has to precede any other operation. The operative alchemist knows that this first and basic event of the Great Work is the time of the putrefatio, the first death of the matter, in order to obtain, at the end of the operation (if this has been done with wisdom and prudence) the blackest of blacks - nigrum nigro nigrius -, first gift of the spirit, and first long awaited confirmation that the preparation was done according to rules, the time and place was well chosen, and theory was well assimilated.
Referring to this extraordinary and fundamental result, which brings the craftsman to overcome the first step in the stair of wisdom, and ensure to him, together with the possess of the first matter, the success in successive labours, Isis proudly says, in the Kore Kosmu: «Listen to me, Horus my son, because here you hear the secret doctrine which my ancestor Kamepsis learned from Hermes.... and from Hermes to me, when he honoured me with the gift of the perfect black» 1.
And in fact, without the separation between the blackest black and the shining white, and between heavens and hearth, which for the ancient Masters represented the end of the first day of the lesser genesis according to the sequence given by Moses, the Great Work cannot continue, having not received, from above, the seal ensuring entrance in a external world much more elevated than the common one. The name of this dark room, therefore, is for the philosopher an occasion of astounding meditation, since he knows that it is the phenomenon of reflection of the spiritual sign, which the white colour reproduces as in a mirror -Speculum Artis- that gives to him the perfection, and ensure the easy execution of the remaining part of his First Work, «Quod facile est, si Saturnus in Speculum Martis suam formam aspexerit», «Which will be easy, if Saturn would have seen his image in the Mirror of Mars....» 2.
This text, done symbolically in the Lodge by reading the candidate’s will, would be positively followed by the operator after having made, with the mason’s hammer, the stroke which separates the black head (caput) from the whitest body, or after that he would have made the decapitation which the Apprentice degree poses as his main act:
«Testam repudia, nucleumque selige»
«discard the head, choose the nucleum» 3.
After this very mysterious act is done (by nature and not by the craftsman), the Philosopher’s Mercury must undergo three successive refinements which will elevate it to such a state of perfection to render it suitable for further work. Three are the passages of the immutable sequence leading water, by mean of air, to a fire that will not be the common fire of our fireplaces, but the secret one, or philosophical. The three journeys of the candidate exactly reproduce this, while the noise, describing the slag’s of Mercury, gets softer and softer till it disappears completely, leaving only the element representing purity itself. The task is symbolically repeated at the end of the Apprentice works by the guiding Master who demonstrates the exact modalities with his example. It is with the Steel of the Sages, an iron mullet, that the stone is to be stroked three times for its extreme purification, or squaring:
«purga tercia vice per ignem ac salem»
«cleanse three times, by fire and salt». 4
At this point, the First Work is accomplished. Its most important result being remembered by the black column, whose name reminds of the strength hidden in the head. The book gets open in the air, to demonstrate that the matter itself is now disclosed, while the square, superimposed to the compasses, tells us that the spirit is deeply rooted in that land from where it is impossible to escape: it has eventually been fixed and embodied.
In the three degrees, the candidate represents the main essence of the rite itself, together with his extraordinary result. We shall therefore have, in the correct order of acquisition the Mercury first, then Salt and eventually Sulphur, or if using the ancient symbology, Water, Air, and Fire. In this degree, the candidate plays the role of Mercury, double-natured entity located partially on one plane and partially on another, and therefore extremely instable or, technically speaking, volatile.
This is the reason for initially rendering the candidate symbolically lame, with one feet without shoe and half naked, as can still be read in this XIX century catechism, in which the Worshipful Master so questions the candidate on his initiation:
«Q. How have you been received?
R. With all the required formalities.
Q. Which are these formalities?
R. I had the naked knee on the square, the right hand on the sword, I kept a pair of open compasses pointed towards the left side of my breast, which was naked» 5. For the same reason, being the Philosopher’s Mercury white in colour, the apron of this degree will be white.
The passage to the Fellowcraft degree makes reference to one of the most secret aspects of the practice, aspect upon which many of the Adepts remained silent, or worst, like Philalethes, substituted it with a series of clearly fake and invented operations, in order to confuse the scholar. In this regard, already Fulcanelli deplored the envy of the mysterious English philosopher of whom Pierre Dujols, under the pseudonym of Magophon, rightly writes in his Ipotiposi al Mutus Liber: «The practice of Philalethes, though presented in an amicable and convincing way, is to be considered among the most subtle and perfidious deceits of the hermetic literature. And still it contains the truth, but in the same way as the poison, sometime, contains its own antidote, if you know how to isolate it from the pernicious alkaloids» 6.
And, as a matter of fact, the preparation of the Mercury of the Sages is introductory to the freeing of the Sulphur from the matters which keeps it confined. Amongst the classical writers, only Basilius Valentinus can give some clue as to the operation defined calcinatio by the ancients, which allows to open the lock of the King’s prison.

It is therefore a matter of penetrating the earth, or practising the main axiom of the Hermetic Science, known to all, but understood only by a few in its concreteness:

Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem, Veram Medicinam

Visit the inner sides of the earth and, rectifying, you will find the Hidden Stone, true medicine

The initial words of the famous sentence, remembering in advance that the vocal U and the consonant V were confused together, when read one after the other, give the name of the most precious result:

Vitriolum

And if we consider, within the five journeys of the passage ritual, the sequence of the tools utilised each time, we shall see that in the first four journeys they are:

The Apprentice has now gone over again, this time in the inverse order, the journey of the four elements to return back to the earth from which he first came from, to visit her depths and find the hidden treasure. In the fifth journey this is represented by the Pentalfa (pentacle) of blazing star, the ancient symbol of the sage’s Vitriol that, being a perfectly balanced combination of spirit and matter, needs that, in this degree, square and compasses stay intertwined.
Talking about this star, which is the real canonical seal of the Work, we should now explain the meaning of the letter G placed in the middle. Fulcanelli says, in a chapter which is a peculiar blend of envy and charity, that this letter is the initial of the common name of the matter that the operative philosopher has to choose to complete his Work. It is impossible to say more, without indulging into a useless and dangerous exercise. We can nevertheless add that, being this symbol amongst the oldest, the word should evidently be searched in a language which is probably no more alive, and perhaps not even in our present alphabet, also if the structure of the letter remains the same. We then suggest to the scholar to search amongst the texts of the Berthelot, and we would assure him that his time, if he will be patient and ready enough, will be well spent.
Lastly, to complete out comments on this degree, we note the sign makes reference to the operation of extraction from the centre, that is to say from the hearth, of something which becomes visible. And it is perhaps in a peculiarity of this sign, which we will find again in an important phase of the elevation to the degree of Master, that the key permitting to succeed quite simply in the operation is to be found. Vitriol, if correctly obtained, takes a splendid green colour, reason for which it was also called the Philosopher’s Emerald, the colour, as it is said, of the Holy Graal. Consequently, for what has been said, this is then the colour of the apron for this degree.
When this point of the practice is reached, the craftsman has eliminated the jailer who kept strictly chained the philosopher’s gold, called by Basilius Valentinus, most appropriately, Saturn. He therefore can, without further delays, proceed with freeing the Sulphur. Because of its very character of being extracted from the bosom of the earth, and because this procedure begins with a second Putrefactio, the ancient Masters always referred to it as the exit of a resuscitated person from his grave, and have often insisted on the need to «revive the dead». Indeed Hiram, dead and deeply buried in the earth, positively represents that metallic soul of which the wattle bough reminds of its golden character and which, true embodied Universal Spirit, can be liberated from its sepulchre by a long and difficult series of operations defined as sublimation’s, in which the entire Second Hermetic Work is summarised.
Those sublimation’s were sometimes called Eagles by some Masters, particularly Philalethes, since that bird, dedicated particularly to Zeus, and therefore to the element Air, well represents the attractive action of the Sage’s Mercury, which only can pick up and get hold of the tiny seed that would become, once freed from darkness and simply cooked -Ludus puerorum- in the appropriate pot, the splendid gem of the third work. Of this name and this symbol only remains, in the elevation ritual, the firm grip of the Master, the only thing that can raise the rotten body from the grave. It is true that in this operation the Sage’s Mercury has to be aided, just like the Worshipful Master, by two other craftsmen at work.
This series of operation, if well conducted, is the true sign of mastery, as always was known, in Spagiria and in pharmaceutics the extraction and the preparation of the quintessence of a body. To this regard the English Adept tells to us: «Scia Frater, quod exacta Aquilorum philosophorum paeparatio, primus perfectionis gradus censetur, in quo cognoscendo ingenium requiritur habile», «You know, my brother, that the exact preparation of the philosopher’s eagles is considered the first degree of perfection, for the knowledge of which a skilful mind is required» 7. He further says: «Intelligere ergo, frater, Sophorum dicta cum scribunt, aquilas suas ad leonem vastandum esse ducendas, quarum quo parcior numerus, eo gravior lucta, tardior item vistoria, paestantissime autem opus perfici septenario numero aut noveno»,«You realise therefore, brother, the sayings of the Sofi, when they write that we should bring the eagles to devour the lion, of which eagles the fewer in number the harder is the fight and the farest is the triumph, but the operation is accomplished in an excellent way by the number seven or nine» 8.
And seven are, in fact, the Masters sent for Hiram in the present ritual, while - without contradiction to the practice - an older catechism so reads:
Q. What is the meaning of the nine stars?
A. The number of masters sent after Hiram 9.
In accordance with the preceding degrees, the apron becomes red, while the Spirit (the compasses) elevates itself upon the matter (the square) and dominates it, perfectly fixed. The craftsman, the Master Mason, has found the wattle. Like Ulysses, Enea, and all true initiates, he has penetrated the middle chamber and has seized the golden bough, the «Moly», the «Bovissa», the «Baraas», the «Lunaria» and, eventually the extremely precious philosopher’s gold which, nevertheless: «est enim nondum Lapis, at Sulphur nostrum verum»,«Is not yet the stone, but our true Sulphur» 10.
And since the Masonic ritual here terminates, we can see that it does not complete the teaching, but it stops on the threshold of the third work without even mention it. In the reality it exists, in the «five points of the mastery» a precise hint for the preparation of the raw material for the final burning, but nothing more.
However our researches on the so called «higher degrees» of the most common rites never brought us to other conclusions. All of them, from the Royal Arch to the thirty-third and last degree of the Scottish Rite, go back to the already given teachings, without adding anything positive to what the ancient masters gave already with wisdom and simplicity. It should then be deducted, as a logical and understandable conclusion, that the most secret instructions were to be transmitted, via a more occult form, to the few that already had penetrated their value, in the only possible traditional way, which is to say orally. And we refer, as well, to the teachings upon the partial part of the work, to that preparation that renders alive and philosophical the matters, and without which it would not be possible to hope in any result.
And in this respect, we cannot but praise the wise prudence of the Ancients, who perhaps foresaw that the long searched for «Masonic Secret» would not have remained stored in the Temples for long.
We have then examined the rituals of the Freemasonry in the light of the operations of the Great Work, so as we have learned from our master Eugene Canseliet F.C.H. - sole disciple of Fulcanelli - and partially verified in our laboratory. The result appears so perfect to us, in his dual correspondence that, concluding, we cannot exempt ourselves from replying to a obvious question. Do we truly believe that the entire Masonic ritual has an Alchemical origin, and has as its scope that of transmitting the operative hermetic teachings? Let’s immediately be said that, if we have here often used the main work of Eireneus Philalethes to exemplify some assertions, this is because we know that the Adept, operating in England in the first half of the XVII century had relationships and contact with some of the first «speculative» masons.
Elsewhere we have said and tried to demonstrate the fact that the German Rosicrucian movement had been at the origins of the Masonic exoterism that we know today. Finally, we believe that the sequence perfectly appears beyond any possible fortuitous chance, while, for the sake of brevity, we did not lingered on all aspects of the ritual, like we could have had. Therefore we could answer in the affirmative, but we prefer to wait, with the maximum availability, for somebody else to furnish us, of all of this, a complete and different Exegesis. Till then, we remain personally convinced of the validity of the old saying of the Sacred Science, from Eliopolis to the present days:«Quod ubique, quod ab omnibus, quod semper».

 

Notes

  1. Fragment of Stobeus no. XXIII:«abstract from the sacred book of Hermes Trismegistus named -pupil of the world-», para 31.
  2. Introitus apertus ad Occlusun Regis Paiatium Authore Anonimo Philaleitha Philosopho, in Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa. Libro III, Sect. III, Substec. IV, cap. VII.
  3. Introitus, op. cit., ibidem.
  4. Introitus, op. cit., ibidem.
  5. Instructions pour Les trois prerniers grades de la Franc–Maçonnerie.
  6. «MutusLiber» avec une hipotypose de Magophon in Bibliotheca Hermetica, E. P. Denoël, Paris 1971, p. 24.
  7. Introitus, op. cit., ibidem.
  8. Introitus, op. cit., ibidem.
  9. Instructions ctc., op. cit.
  10. Introitus, op. cit., cap. XIX.


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