SECRETS AND PRACTICES OF THE FREEMASONS
Sacred Mysteries, Rituals, and Symbols RevealedBy Jean-Louis de Biasi 32° |
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Those who have read Dan Brown’s last novel, The Lost Symbol, will be pleased to find specific explanations in this latest book by 32nd Degree Freemason Jean-Louis de Biasi referencing many of the examples Brown gives. And, if you are at all familiar with Washington DC, you are likely to find a new wealth of fascinating metaphysical information about locations and buildings in that capital city of which you were previously unaware.
Not counting the Introduction and Appendix, our author fittingly divides his book into 8 chapters, 8 being an important number to Freemasons.
Chapter 1, entitled “The Masonic Tradition,” deals first with the real function of myth, usually thought of as merely legend or fictional tales. The goal of true myth is seen as giving meaning to life. “The word meaning,” says di Biasi, “indicates that the myth shows the moral values of your life, speaks about your origin, and gives you the direction in which you must go in pursuit of your greater purpose.”
He proceeds to recount a strange 18th century story, based on the first books of the Bible, explaining the origins and founders of Freemasonry. From it, we can begin to glean the relationship between constructing a building and making (or purifying and refining) one’s soul.
In keeping with the metaphor of a worker’s skill in masonry, we are told that the objective is to look for “the hidden stone within in order to work on it” (my emphasis). It’s the same as using the analogy of making the “philosopher’s stone, an alchemical substance that could transmute lead into gold and even confer immortality to its owner.” Put in still another way, we might say the essential goal of Freemasonry is to reveal the “key for understanding the search for the philosopher’s stone, which will become the cornerstone on which you will raise the temple.”
The Neo-Platonist Plotinus is quoted from his Enneads, in essence saying that the secret stone, the soul, is imprisoned in you and it is necessary “to go deep inside your own self” to find it. Your soul has descended into the material world (your body), and you must work to “remember” its divine origin by “moving aside the veils of illusions of this world.” The process of the various initiations in Masonry can help you accomplish this.
The initiate must first die to this world in order to be resurrected into a state of consciousness where the temple can be rebuilt. The temple, of course, is your own body. Fittingly, the end of the first chapter recounts the famous Egyptian myth of the resurrection of Osiris.
Chapter 2, beginning symbolically on page 33, takes us on a Qabalistic and Hermetic ride through Washington DC, highlighting the House of the Temple (pictured in Figure No. 8), the national headquarters of the Supreme Council 33rd Degree, a building which plays a prominent role in Dan Brown’s novel. We are given a diagram of the layout of a typical Masonic lodge, and we begin to see that the Mall of the capital city itself is laid out as a giant reproduction of the floor plan of a lodge.
Chapter 3, “The Widow’s Sons,” speaks to us of a prophecy about the present time when “the gods would leave the earth and go back to the sky. And so the earth became widowed of the gods.” The earth also constitutes our own physical bodies which have “lost vision of the inner presence of the divine” and are, thus, unbalanced. It is the goal of Freemasonry to return to the state of the Hermetic motto and the Lord’s Prayer: “As above, so below” and “On earth as it is in heaven…”
Chapter 4 is full of geometric attributes applicable to Washington DC, including Vitruvius’s 2-dimensional gnomon (sundial) geometry, which he suggested should be used for organising a new city, as well as the placement and design of the US Capitol building and the Library of Congress. We are told that the Scottish Rite Degrees reorganised by Albert Pike show an interconnection between the various fields of Western Esotericism: Theosophical, Hermetic, Rosicrucian, Pagan, Wiccan, etc., and we are reminded that the “Great Architect of the Universe is inside its creation, not outside.”
We are told to recall the Hiram Abif myth, presented in the first chapter, and its account of the loss of the sacred Word (our connection to divine truth, as in John 1:1-5). The lost Word(s) is our original heritage, an understanding of the knowledge given in the sacred literature so as to be able “to overcome death, to come back to heaven, and to reach the highest transformation called apotheosis.”
It’s in Chapter 4 that we are shown nine geometric symbols representing the different steps in the ascent of the soul back to its source: from #1 the Circumpunct to #9 the Gnomon. The upward pointing Washington Monument obelisk above ground with its downward pointing image in the reflecting pool as seen from the Lincoln Memorial is a representation of our return from imprisonment in the “jail” of this world to our rightful “homeland.”
Chapter 5 reveals the Masonic organisational structure and the Rose-Cross, and Chapter 6 begins with the transcription of an interview with noetic scientist Dr. Jaden Francis Ward on the untapped potential of the human mind. Later in this chapter, we are again reminded that, “the true object of the work is ourselves,” and is “about polishing your own stone.”
We are shown that the key to the use of symbols is creative visualisation. It’s the cornerstone of real esoteric work. The Masonic Meditation is given, we are told of the importance of the mysterious letter G, and this is followed in Chapter 7 with explanations of the ritual practices in some of the higher degrees.
Chapter 8 is devoted to thought-form exercises that we can use while we are actually at some of the locations on the Washington DC Mall. It’s a walking pilgrimage of sorts that acquaints us with the “hidden portals” mentioned in The Lost Symbol. De Biasi says, “There are several gates in Washington DC that allow the transfer of the energy that is accumulated on the spiritual plane to be directed to a gate in Washington DC in the physical world. Of course, each gate has a special key…. This process and its associated keys are true for other cities” as well.
We must not neglect the Appendix of the book. It includes Albert Pike’s Masonic Decalogue (the Ten Commandments for initiates) excerpted from his great work Morals and Dogma, as well as pictures of the Hermetic Tree of Life (the Sephiratic Tree of the Qabalah), the hexagram symbol for the higher degree practice Knight of the Sun, and the keys to various Masonic cyphers. In addition, the Glossary covers many terms also used by Dan Brown, from “Abramelin” and “Alchemy” to the “Zohar.”
While I feel the short Index at the end of the book could be much more complete, Secrets and Practices of the Freemasons is a formidable volume in the sense that the casual reader will no doubt be in awe of the breadth of information, while the seasoned esotericist (and especially those initiated into The Craft) will find new meaning and inspiration in what M. de Biasi has put forth. Much is given here for “he who has eyes to see and ears to hear.” This is a truly rewarding book for the knowledge seeker and the practitioner alike.
– Reviewed by Alan Glassman in New Dawn 129
