Studies

Mariano Bizzarri

The Mysterious Staircase in the
XXX degree of the Scottish Rite

tetraIn the Areopagus chamber (XXX degree of the Scottish Rite) there is, in the centre of the Temple, a double staircase composed by seven steps for each side. The ascending steps are named after the seven liberal arts, which are, from bottom to top: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy 1; On the descending side the steps bear, from top to bottom, the names of Prudence (Discretion), Commitment, Labour, Faith, Gentleness, Purity, and Justice. On the first jamb, the following inscription appears: «Love for your fellow man»; on the second jamb is written «Love for the Almighty».
tetraFar from being an ancillary symbolic element, the staircase has a central value and meaning in the degree’s rituality, representing on the one side a summary of the initiatic journey done till that point by the Mason, and, on the other, the anticipation of the access to the greater mysteries, so beautifully expressed by the symbolism of the double headed, crowned eagle 2. The mason that, having reached the XVIII degree (Prince of Rose Croix), virtually has reintegrated the primeval state in himself, is now called to render effective the reaching of such state in order of being able to ascend the Mysterious Staircase which will bring him towards the acquisition of the Greater Mysteries and the fulfilment of the Great Work.
tetraThe staircase represents, in all the regular Traditions, overall proof and sign of the relations and the ways linking earth and heavens, meaning, first of all, the different dispositions or states that the being has to pass through in the process of its becoming and, chiefly, in the course of the initiatic fulfilment.In the above sense, the symbolism of the staircase can be applied both to the exoteric dominion (meaning the reach of knowledge by means of an external source, and as often utilised, for example, by the Fathers of the Church), as well as in the esoteric dominion, and in this field, to well distinct subjects.
tetraThe staircase can be represented as such or utilising the symbol of a tree (which has the same meaning of connection between earth and sky), or even the stairs of a temple, like the pyramids, the ziggurat of Mesopotamia or the centro-american teocalli, or the same rainbow. In all these situations it is apparent the presence of a primeval contact between earth and sky, subsequently broken and maintained only by means of a stair of a predominantly sacred nature. This is an aspect that should be considered in its full meaning and importance. The stair is elevated from the house of God (as in the case of Jacob and for the Temples in general) or is a product of nature itself (rainbow). In both cases is never build by man with the purpose of reconstructing the broken link with the Great Architect. In this sense, the symbolical meaning of the Babel’s Tower has the same meaning of the myth of the Giants (who built a pyramid made of stones to storm the Olympus) and should be intended as having a quite opposite nature, since in those cases the stair represents an unlawful, illegitimate attempt to usurp the power, of a clear titanic nature.
tetraThe staircase of the Kadosh knights has seven steps corresponding to the seven liberal arts; seven are, as well, the steps of the Siberian birch and the colours of the Buddha’s stair. The Mithraic stair is also constituted of seven metals. There can be no doubt that the arts, the colours and the metals all lead to an equal number of planetary spheres, as mentioned by Dante in the Paradise when, with regard to the seven heavens, he compares them to the Sciences: «I say science for heaven and sciences for heavens».
tetraThis explanation needs some considerations; it is, first of all, evident that we are now referring to traditional sciences, that is to say a sacred knowledge centred upon wisdom and the use of the Word. To this clearly refer the Arts of Grammar, Rhetoric and Music. The (traditional) sciences of the work hint to the demiurgic (initiatic or magical) potentialities of the Word, as veiled in the prologue of St. John and as is to found in many traditions, all addressed to discover and articulate the Name of Names, or the secret name of God.
tetraThis is present in many degrees of the Masonic rites, when is underlined (as in the case of the XIII degree, the Knight of the Royal Arch), that the exact spelling of such word has been forgotten. The name we are referring to also means the «lost word» whose search is the search for the Grail. The search for the «secret name» of God (The hundredth name according to the Islamic tradition) is, according to many traditions, the possession of the Grail 3 and this is by no means the only clue linking the stair symbolism to that of the Sacred Chalice.
tetraThe fifteen gradual psalms (the canticles of the Degree also said «the lofty paths of the hearth») are considered by the Bible as steps of the imaginary stair leading to the centre of the hearth, and therefore to God. It is here noteworthy that the term Grail (Graal) derives from grazal or gradual meaning «vessel» in the ancient language which was spoken in Provence, or «Step» in medieval Latin. On the other hand, in Byzantium Mary was imagined as a celestial stair using which the Most High descends to dwell amongst men and by the use of which men ascend to God. In her passive form Mary was associated to the ark, and to the vessel receiving the blood and the spirit of Christ.
tetraKnowledge of a secret alphabet, possess of the Grail, ascent of the staircase are all symbols alluding to the mastering of a Science able to permit a direct communication with God. The compulsory knowledge of a particular sacred language as a necessary mean to attain the ascent to heaven is indirectly revealed by the same myth of the Babel’s tower, in the context of which it suffices to «confound» the languages in order for the project to fail and the people to be scattered upon the earth. Similarly, an ancient medieval Scottish text, which has been attributed to Taliesin the bard, «The Battle of Trees», makes explicit reference to the concealed reconstruction of a secret alphabet, the alphabet of the White Goddess, source of mysterious teachings able, amongst other, to give the entry key to directly speak with the Divinity.
tetraSecondly, as remembered by Guénon, the heavens 4 represent, within a superior symbolical order, the superhuman states of initiation peculiar to the initiate who, after having re-integrated the primeval state of the Eden, prepares himself to tackle the Great Work «...he dominates already the condition of existence of this World, of which he has become a Master; That is why the Rebis of the Rosarium Philosophorum keeps the Moon under his feet, and that of Basilio Valentino dominates the Dragon».
tetraSimilarly St. Perpetua underlines how, when ascending the spiritual ladder, it is necessary to crash the Dragon’s head when attempting the first step 5. St. Augustine will comment this vision by saying that the head of the dragon represents the first step (St. Augustine, Sermons, 280,1) , and that it is «impossible to begin the ascent without trampling the dragon first». The Dragon, then, must be defeated before starting the ascent, while suspicion remains for all those myths which, by posing the dragon at the summit, confer to it the meaning of the ultimate test (as in the case of the Warden of the threshold) before achievement of the Work.
tetraIn fact, the ascent of the stair in the initiatic sphere follows and do not precedes the re-integration of the status as enjoyed while in Eden.Is not by chance that Dante puts the Stair in the Paradise, after having overcome not only hell and purgatory but the seven planets as well, the last of which, significantly, is Saturn:

vid’io uno scaleo eretto in suso
tanto, che nol seguiva la mia luce.
Vidi anche per li gradi scender giuso
tali splendor, ch’io pensai ch’ogni lume
che par nel ciel fosse diffuso
(Dante, Paradiso, XXI, 28-34)

(I saw such an high, standing ladder
that my light could not reach it
I also saw such splendours
coming down the stairs
That I though that every light
in the sky was giving out)

tetraThis is particularly important when considering that the stair permits to reach that realm of immortality from which man was deprived with his fall. It is not by chance that the Kadosh Knight is «one century and more» old, further and manifest symbol of the reached immortality and, for this reason, compared with Melkitsedeq «The ever-living», King of the Saint City, expression of the «staying of immortality» of the Hebraic tradition.
tetraIt is said in the Genesis that the place in which Jacob dreamed of the ladder upon which the angels ascended and descended was called Beith-El (House of God); The Hebraic traditions says that the place was previously called Luz, or «core of immortality», in whose whereabouts was an almond tree near to which was concealed the entrance to a subterranean city in which, as Guenon says, «the angel of death cannot penetrate».
This is only apparently confused, symbolically evidentiating, instead, the clear relation between ascending the stair and entrance to the Terrestrial Paradise in which is the enigmatic Tree of Life, capable of transforming the «virtual immortality» as achieved by the initiate arrived to the Greater Mysteries to a stable condition of possess of the superior states of being.
tetraThe stair, the Grail are only the mean, the way ( the so called Tao te Ching) to attain such result. It is without question that the mysteriosophical teaching linked to such themes could have helped, by mean of a «reversed» reading of the symbol, the counter-initiatic research and literature, set to identify an elixir of long life within a new Prometean undertaking aimed at snatching from the Olympus the secret of eternal life.
tetraIt is also not by chance that a certain «diverted» ermetism (to use the expression created by Guenon), like a considerable portion of the Celtic and German mythology, do underline the central importance of the queste for a polar Luz (such as King Arthur’s Avalon, in which the King of this World rests, waiting to return to rule upon his Reign) which has caused lengthy researches and hard studies. Both the myth of the Babel’s Tower, together with the Greek myth of the Giants clearly indicate how a «reverse» Queste for the Grail is actually possible, a diverted recovery of functions and knowledge otherwise reserved for initiates trailing upon legitimate ways. It is in fact mentioned in the Genesis

«The Lord said: here, they are one people and have a single language, this is the beginning of their work, and now what they have in mind to do will not be impossible...(Gen. 11, 6-7).

tetraSimilarly the Greek tradition remembers how was that, thanks to Hercules only, it became possible for the gods to defeat the Giants, headed by Porphirius. It is evident how these myths hint to the existence of an illegitimate way to re-conquer the primeval status and to use the Tree of Life by those that the Masonry has always identified as Counter-initiates. As a matter of fact, the ascent of the staircase is specially subject to the counter-initiatic hidden dangers (intended both as a resurgence of the inner dragon as well as difficulties to the initiate due to the external «environment») as testified by the medieval representations as described by the Fathers of the Church.
tetraTo them the staircase identifies not only a tool but a journey as well. St. Isaac of Syria underlines how «the stair to this Reign (of God) is hidden inside you, in your soul. Do wash yourself from the sin and you will discover the steps for ascending». According to St. John Climacus and St. John Crisostomus the steps of the stair are gradual spiritual exercises to be overcome step by step.
tetraIt is here worth mentioning the strict relation existing between spiritual exercise (intended as the practice of an initiatic path) and the initiatic techniques of the awakening of the chakra, to be found in every initiatic tradition) which permit to pass the Way of the Gate of the Mind of the Japanese tradition, centred as well upon seven colours ranging from red to violet. Similarly William of St. Thierry spoke of the seven degrees of the soul, while a long dissertation was dedicated by St. Bernard to the scala mystica (mystical staircase).
tetraIn the above writers the stair is clearly linked to the symbolical meaning of the journey, the pilgrimage full of difficulties and perils like all journeys of the soul. Like all the axial symbols, the stair is characterised by one direction: as it can be ascended, in the same way in can be descended. Herrado of Lansberg speaks of a stair of virtues having black and white alternate steps, with the demons persecuting the sinner in order to cause their fall. The higher is the summit reached, the greater are the perils to fall down. The danger of being transformed in a statue made of salt (as it happened to Lot’s wife when she turned her head to look back) is always well present in the journey of the initiate, as in the case of the knight Kadosh, once he approaches the Greater Mysteries.
tetraBut the possibilities of descending should also be intended with a different significance, being a duty for the initiate that of daily reintegrating himself in the Humanity, bringing with him the acquired heritage, thus influencing the daily reality. In order to do that, while considering the dangers of the descent, the knight Kadosh must fortify himself in the virtues, now much more needed than in the ascending phase. For this reason the Masonry, in its wisdom, wanted to underline, as the most important virtue, the Discretion (Ghemoul in Hebraic language), or the Prudence that necessarily has to permeate every action and each revelation to those that have not experimented the knowledge of the Mysteries.
tetraIn what above it is easy to see a further confirmation of the importance of that secret which, as said by Guenon, is now so unpopular in the Modern World. And it is by adhering to such a secret and by practising those virtues which is possible to «contribute to the happiness of our akin». It is the practice of those virtues that helps the Masters of the XXX degree to carry out their duty «Because it is your duty: this is the last word of Masonry - here is what we mean for knightly spiritual values at their highest».

 

Notes

1. (UP) In some later version of the Rite this sequence has been substituted with another, on both the stair’s jambs, according to the following succession: mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, sociology on the ascending side, and: sincerity, patience, courage, prudence, justice, tolerance, devotion on the descending side. to our opinion, such substitution (as for example mentioned in the Farina’s ritual: cfr. S. Farina, Il libro completo dei rituali massonici, Atanor, Rome, 1981) presents a clear character of irregularity for the illegitimate comparison done between Traditional Arts and Modern Sciences (if disciplines as sociology and psychology can be considered as such). Even the insertion of the tolerance is probably due to the Enlightenmental influence on the speculative Masonry and badly translates the symbolic meanings peculiar of the operative Masonry. The seven mentioned virtues are the same than those inscribed on the Knight Kadosh medallion, attributed to Dante by Valli and kept in the Vienna’s museum, upon which the following words can be read: Fides, Spes, Karitas, Iustitia, Prudentia, Fortitudo and Temperantia.
   (Note of the editor: the steps of the mysterious staircase in the Rite of Perfection, which constitute the backbone of the future Scottish Rite are, from bottom to top: «T Sed halad, Scarlabac, Moteck, Emunah, Hamach Sciata, Sabael, Choemel Binah Tabinah» (in Francken Manuscript, 1783). In the Rituals of the Supreme Council of Charleston, Southern District, taken as the basis of the present Scottish Rite, the degree of Knight Kadosh, copied down in 1802, is at the XXIX and not at the XXX level, and has written, on the staircase, the same words as in the Rite of Perfection. In both Rites, at the bottom of the stair it can be read: «nec plus ultra» (Ordo ab Chao. The original and Complete Rituals of the first Supreme Council, 33, Boston & New York 1995, Poemander press, p. 329)).
2. (UP) «In the East, above the throne, is a crowned double-headed eagle, with open wings, half white and half black, keeping a sword amongst the claws.... an equilateral triangle is on the breast with the Hebraic word Adonai in it» (U. Poli, Massoneria Iniziatica, la via scozzese, Atanor, Rome, 1981, p. 121). The symbolical meaning of the eagle is too complex to be explained within this article, but it should here be underlined how the double-headed eagles refers to Melchi-Tsedeq, twice sovereign as King of Peace and Justice, King of the World (cfr. R. Guenon, Il Re del Mondo, Adelphi, Milan 1977, p. 55 and following) and ruler of the «land of the living», where «death cannot penetrate».
3. (UP) It is extremely interesting to remember how the Druidic tradition always kept secret its language, whose alphabet is concealed in the Taliesin’s romance, the Battle of the Trees, and even more of relevance is the fact that mastering such alphabet permits to acquire a well determined magic operativeness addressed to the mother goddess (the White Goddess) and gaining access, in such a way, to the mysteries of immortality.
4. (UP) In the Islamic tradition as well the stair is composed of seven steps. The Koran also describes an episode similar to that mentioned by the Genesis and involving Jacob: In the course of Mohammed nocturnal ascent propitiated by the archangel Gabriel, it appeared a stair which is used by men to ascent to heaven and to which the dying men turn their face. In this passage there is reference to the immortality which is acquired by ascending the stair, opposing the Reign of the Living (Allah) to that of Man.
5. (UP) «The Dragon then, as if fearing me, pulled out his head from below the stair and I, climbing the first step, trampled on the head..» (cfr. Passio S. Perpetuae, n. 4, in Armitage Robinson, The Passion of St. Perpetua, in «Eranos Jahrbuch», 1950, Zurich, 1951, p. 53).