Hug A Freemason Day

Marie Onette

Marie Onette, Alex’ Director of Communications, writes:

Hi, Alex has gone off to London and left me in charge of his Wizard’s tower for the day. After clearing up from last night’s magical ritual, and taking all the empties down to the bottle-bank, that has left me with enough time to compose today’s blog-post: Hug A Freemason Day.

Yes! Freemasonry is an important part of the Western Mystery Tradition. In a perfect world, both masons and non-masons have much to contribute to magick and should be able to meet together without divisions caused by sectarian dogma! If you do not like having Masons in your temple, that makes you a racist!

“90% of the quotes about me on the internet are just made up.” – the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are some reasons why you should hug a Freemason:

• 

  Inside A Magical Lodge by John Michael Greer

  Magical temples run smoother with when Masonic-style organisation is used. The best illustration of this is Inside a Magical Lodge by John Michael Greer.

• Two of the most influential magical systems – the Golden Dawn and the Elus Cohens – were originally founded by Masons using the lodge structure. In fact the Masonic-style was considered the de rigeur model upon which to found any kind of secret society back in the 18th / 19th centuries, whether esoteric or not.
• Whilst regular Freemasonry may consist of a bunch of old men who would not recognise anything esoteric even if it danced naked in front of them shouting “Hi, I’m something esoteric!” – not all Freemasonry is regular. For example, there is Memphis Misraim, Pansophic Freemasonry, and Co-Masonry. The latter uses a ritual written by Annie Beasant which contains enough mystical inner workings to rival those of the rituals of the Golden Dawn! Incidentally, it is within Alex’ personal knowledge – or so he was telling me between glasses of Merlot last night – that there used to be at least two Lodges warranted by UGLE that actually worked this Beasant-ritual in Lodge… until UGLE found out what they were up to, and banned them from practising it.

In relation to the last point, there have been criticisms voiced by certain people on the internet that Freemasonry is not by its nature esoteric. However this displays great Anglocentric bigotry. On the continent of Europe, it is considered quite usual within regular Freemasonry for each initiate to present a short paper in Lodge demonstrating what they have learnt whilst in that degree – they cannot advance to the next degree without doing so. For example: if an English Mason wanted to join the CBCS in Belgium (which a lot of them have done, as it happens), he would expect to have to write and present a paper on the subject of what spiritual integration means to him, before ever hoping to progress to the highest degree. In this way the continental CBCS manages to preserve some of the proto-Martinist ideals of its founder, Jean-Baptiste Willermoz.

Indeed, Alex has heard from his contacts within the illuminati that many continental Masons are surprised that this does not happen in England!

For those who are concerned about admitting into their order the wrong sort of Mason – otherwise known as the “Joiner” or “Knife-and-Fork-Mason” – here is a really simple test to set candidates for initiation. Ask them the magic question: “How many Masonic Units do you belong to?”

If he answers any number, not realising it’s a trick question, get rid of him straightaway.

If, however, he says something like: “I don’t belong to any ‘Masonic Units,’ they’re all valid orders in their own right,” then he is worthy of further consideration. The key to understanding this is that “Masonic Unit” is a ghastly term used by owners of masonic venues who treat the orders that meet there as nothing more than commodities. Doesn’t matter if your order is a noble brotherhood with a long and honourable tradition, if you hire a masonic hall and then dine afterwards, you are just a “Masonic Unit” in their eyes. Most worrying though is the number of Freemasons who use the term themselves without any sense of irony!

So go out today and hug a Freemason! They are a friendly bunch, both the male and the female kind, and it’s surprisingly easy to join them! So easy, in fact, that only a complete idiot who gets into silly arguments with other people easily would fail to find a home there!