THE DORMER MASONIC STUDY CIRCLE #47

"THE GREAT WORK IN  SPECULATIVE FREEMASONRY"

"There can be no rational doubt, however, that the moral influence of
Freemasonry would be much more powerful and efficient if the sources of
intelligence amongst the Fraternity were augmented, and a higher grade
of science substituted for the meagre outline which at present prevails in
our Lodges."  
(Dr. George Oliver-1846.)


THROUGHOUT the ages the spiritual doctrine which is concealed within
the architectural phraseology of our modern Craft system has undergone
the influence of many different traditions of the Ancient Wisdom.  The
student, therefore, who seeks to analyse Freemasonry as it stands to-day
often finds himself lost in a bewildering maze of various tributaries of
knowledge, and is apt to pore indefinitely over a mass of fragmentary facts
without perceiving their inter-relation, or being able to coordinate them into
one comprehensive scheme.

In this Paper the attempt will be made to present, for the guidance of
Masonic students, an interpretation of the Egyptian metaphysical tradition
in harmony with the teachings set forth in what are called the Mysteries;
the Egyptian tradition will then be briefly discussed in the light of its
transmission and ultimate incorporation in Speculative Freemasonry;
finally, reasons will be given in support of the theory, which we hold to be
valid, that the Great Work ("Magnum Opus") of the Rosicrucians and
Spiritual Alchemists is the same as that which is symbolised in our
Masonic legend of H.A. Thoughtful students may find in the references to
the Old Wisdom and the Mystery tradition an introduction to a great
subject; nor should the Mysteries be thought of only as institutions long
vanished into the night of time; rather their re-establishment is to be
accepted as inevitable. In years to come a wiser generation will restore the
sacred rites which are indispensable to the spiritual, intellectual and social
security of the race. Meanwhile, preserving the witness, Freemasonry
keeps burning the light of the perpetual Mysteries in a dark age.  If, in
comparison with former witnesses, Freemasonry is but a "glimmering ray"
rather than a powerful beam of light, it is none the less a true ray; a kindly
light lit from the world's central altar-flame, and sufficient at least to lead
some aspirants on amid the encircling gloom until the existing "state of
darkness" is dispelled by the dawn of a new era.

It is now generally acknowledged by those competent to judge, that of all
the ancient peoples the Egyptians were the most learned in the wisdom
of the Secret Doctrine; indeed, there are some who would have it that
Egypt was the Mother of the Mysteries, and that it was on the banks of the
Nile that the Royal Art was born.  We can affirm, without entering into any
controversy on the matter, that the wisest of philosophers from other
nations visited Egypt to be initiated in the sacred Mysteries; Thales, Solon,
Pythagoras and Plato are all related to have journeyed from Greece to the
delta of the Nile in quest of knowledge; and upon returning to their own
country these illumined men each declared the Egyptians to be the wisest
of mortals, and the Egyptian temples to be the repositories of sublime
doctrines concerning the history of the Gods and the regeneration of men. 
To the earliest period of Egyptian metaphysical speculation belongs the
fable of Isis and Osiris, and we find that the myth of the Dying God recurs
in many of the great World Religions; also it is an established fact that the
life, death and resurrection of the immortal-mortal have become the
prototype for numerous other doctrines of human regeneration.

The fable, as it has descended to us in the account given by Plutarch, the
celebrated Greek biographer, has not been much amplified by modern
research; nor has any new key been found to unlock this sublime drama,
which may well be termed the "Passion Play" of Egypt. Plutarch himself,
however, says that "the mystic symbols are well known to us who belong
to the Brotherhood," and this intimation suggests that the interpretation of
the myth as it is given by him in his "Isis and Osiris" will reveal its hidden
meaning to students who are already familiar with the principles of the
doctrine.  Moreover, a perusal of the introductory remarks made by
Plutarch discloses that these are of special significance, for if he, by any
word or symbol, reveals even a small part of the sacred Mystery to the
uninitiated, we may fairly claim that such revelation is to be found in the
following excerpt from the text of his work :-

"Isis, according to the Greek interpretation of the word, signifies
knowledge; as does the name of her professed adversary Typhon;
(signify) insolence and pride, a name therefore extremely well adapted to
one, who, full of ignorance and error, tears in pieces and conceals that
holy doctrine, which the Goddess collects, compiles and delivers to those
who aspire after the most perfect participation of the divine nature."

We have in this passage a clear indication that Osiris is to be regarded as
the personification of an Order of learning, because Plutarch identifies him
beyond question with the "holy doctrine," or, in other words, the Mystery
tradition.  Hence, we may further deduce that since, in the Egyptian
system, THOTH personifies the whole sphere of knowledge (and it was
through THOTH that OSIRIS came into being), so Osiris embodies the
secret and sacred wisdom reserved for those who were proficients in the
ancient rites. To the Elect, therefore, Osiris represented "primordial
knowledge," and He signified not only divine "at-one-ment" with the
Absolute (which is the end of all illumination), but by his life, death and
resurrection, He also revealed the means by which mortal consciousness
could attain that end.  Stated alternatively, the personality of Osiris typifies
the Institution erected by the ancients in order to perpetuate the deathless
truths of the soul.

We will next examine the Egyptian historical tradition.  According to this,
Osiris is the first of the five children of the Goddess NUT ; He therefore
corresponds with the first of the five divine kings of China and the five
exoterically known Dhyana-Buddhas of Lamaism.  The five children of NUT
are otherwise the five traditional root races which have populated the five
continents which have appeared upon the earth. Isis is represented as
being born on the fourth day, and is connected with the fourth race
(populating Atlantis-see Plato "Timaeus" and "Critias"), the tradition of
Osiris (the primitive revelation of the first race) coming into Egypt through
the Atlantean Mystery School, of which Isis is the symbol. From the
Egyptian account of the reign of Osiris as King we glean the following
philosophical history; there was a time, the Golden Age, when truth and
wisdom ruled the earth, and this aristocracy of wisdom was a benevolent
despotism in which men were led to a nobler state of being by the firm
kindly hand of the enlighted sage.  This was the dynasty of the
mythological Priest-Kings, who were qualified to govern humanity by
reason not only of temporal, but of divine attributes; through his priests,
Osiris, representative of the hidden tradition, ruled the entire world by
virtue of the perfection resident in that tradition.  If, then, we may concede
that Osiris is the positive pole of the universal life agent, Isis becomes the
receptive pole of that activity ; He is the doctrine, She is the Church; and
as in Christianity it is customary to refer to the Church as the Bride of
Christ, so in ancient Egypt the institution of the Mysteries was the Great
Mother, the consort of heaven itself.  From this interpretation we gain a
deeper insight into the symbolism of the whole Osirian cycle.             Isis
signifies the temporal order of the priesthood, the cumulative body of
Initiates; She is personified as the Temple; She is the Mother of all good,
the protectress of right, the patron of all improvement; She ensures
nobility, inspires virtue, and awakens the nobler passions of the soul; like
the Moon as reflector, She shines only with the light of Her sovereign Sun,
even as the Temple can only be illumined by its indwelling truth.

In the Egyptian metaphysical system, TYPHON, the conspirer against
OSIRIS, is the embodiment of every perversity; He is the negative creation
(the AHRIMAN of Zoroaster); He is black magic and sorcery, the Black
Brotherhood and his wife, NEPHTHYS, is the institution through  which He
manifests. The traditional history relates that TYPHON lured OSIRIS into
the ark of destruction, stated to be it chest or coffin (the symbol of material
organisation-the imprisonment of the soul in a physical body), at the time
when the Sun entered the house of Scorpio, i.e., the 17th day of the
second month of the Egyptian year (corresponding to the month of
November in our calendar); hence we know him to be the type of the
eternal negative, the betrayer of the Lord, namely JUDAS.  In the initiation
rites Typhon is also the "tester" or "tryer" ("the Lord who is against us"),
personifying ambition the patron of ruin. Typhon was assisted in his
"impious design" to usurp the throne of Osiris by ASO (the Queen of
Ethiopia) and seventy-two other conspirators.  These conspirators
represent the three destructive powers, "the three ruffians," which are
preserved to modern Freemasonry as the murderers of the Master Builder;
they are ignorance, superstition and fear.  Thus the advent of greed and
perversion marked the end of the Golden Age, and with the death of
Osiris, Typhon forthwith ascended the throne as regent of the world.  It is
further narrated that in consequence of the material organisation of the
social sphere which followed upon the exile of Truth to the invisible world,
Isis, the Mother of the Mysteries, was so defiled and desecrated by the
profane, that her sages and prophets were forced to flee into the
wilderness to escape the machinations of the evil one.  At this stage, Isis,
now represented by the scattered but still consecrated body of Initiates,
began the great search for the secret that was lost; and in all parts of the
world the virtuous in "grief and distress" raised their hands to the heavens,
pleading for the restoration of the reign of Truth. Continuing their search
in all parts of the earth and throughout innumerable ages, the
congregation of the just at last re-discovered the lost arcana and brought
it back with rejoicing to the world over which it once ruled.  In this manner,
we learn, Isis by magic (the initiated priests were magicians), resurrected
the dead God, and through union with him brought forth an order of
priests under the collective title of HORUS.  These were the HERJ SESHTA
(the Brothers of Horus), the chief of whom wore the dog-headed mask of
ANUBIS.  Anubis was the son of Osiris by NEPHTHYS (the material world)
and represents the divine man, or the mortal being who rose to
enlightenment.

Ambition, however, personified by Typhon, knowing that temporal power
must die if divine power, in the form of Truth, became re-established in the
world, put forth all its might to again scatter the doctrine, and this time so
thoroughly that it should never again be re-discovered.  If, as Plutarch has
suggested, Typhon in one of his manifestations represents the sea, then
it would appear that the second destruction of Osiris may refer to the
Atlantean deluge (alluded to in the dialogues of Plato) by which the
doctrine was swallowed up or lost, and its fragments scattered among all
the existing civilizations of that time.  According to the narrative, the body
of Osiris (the Secret Doctrine) was now divided into fourteen parts and
distributed among the parts of the world; that is, it was scattered through
the seven divine and seven infernal spheres (the "lokas" and "talas" of the
Indian tradition), or by a different symbolism, through the seven worlds
which are without and the seven worlds which are within.  The parts of
Osiris were now scattered so hopelessly that Typhon felt his authority to
be secure at last, but wisdom is not so easily to be cheated, and in due
time, we are informed, Isis succeeded in recovering all the parts except
one, the phallus, which had been thrown into the river and devoured by
three fishes.  Failing to recover the phallus, Isis is said to have substituted
a golden replica for the missing organ.  In our interpretation of this
symbolism we must infer that mankind itself is represented by the fish, the
phallus being the symbol of the " vital and immortal principle," and so
used in Egyptian hieroglyphics.  The phallus, therefore, denotes the Lost
Word (the three-fold generative power), and the golden replica of Egypt,
which was rendered alive by magic, is the equivalent of the three-lettered
word of our modern Freemasonry, concealed (in the Royal Arch Degree)
under the letters A-U-M.  It should here be noted that in the Egyptian rites,
Isis, by modelling and reproducing the missing member of Osiris, gives
the body the appearance of completeness, but the life power is not there;
recourse is therefore had to magic and the golden phallus is brought to
life by means of the secret processes rescued from the lost "Book of
Thoth." The allusion is to the restoration of divine power through the
regeneration of man himself and the Initiation processes.

Isis was the patroness of the magical arts among the Egyptians, but the
use to which magic should be put is clearly shown in the Osirian cycle
where Isis applies the most potent of her charms and invocations to
accomplish the resurrection of Osiris. In other words, the magical power
is used solely for the purpose of the redemption of the human soul.
Masonic students are recommended to study carefully such magical
practices as evidenced in the various types of dramatic initiatory ritual.  To
quote the eminent psychologist, Dr. Jung, from his commentary to "The
Secret of the Golden Flower":-

"Magical practices are the projections of psychic events which, in cases
like these, exert a counter influence on the soul and act like a kind of
enchantment of one's own personality.  That is to say, by means of these
concrete performances the attention, or, better said, the interest, is
brought back to an inner sacred domain which is the source and goal of
the soul. The inner domain contains the unity of life and consciousness
which, though once possessed, has been lost and must now be found
again."

In the Egyptian rites HORUS is the saviour-avengert son of ISIS, conceived
by magic (the ritual) after the brutal murder of OSIRIS; hence he is the
posthumous redeemer.  The destruction of TYPHON is to be
accomplished by ISIS through her immaculately conceived son, HORUS,
which is a term concealing the collective body of the perfected adepts
who were "born again" out of the womb of the Mother-ISIS, the Mystery
School.  We can apply this analogy to our great modern system of
Initiation, which has certainly perpetuated the outer form of the ancient
rites.  Freemasonry as an Institution is, in this sense, the modern ISIS, the
Mother of the Mysteries, from whose dark womb the Initiates are born in
the mystery of the second or philosophic birth.  Similarly, all Masonic
adepts (Master Masons) are, by virtue of their participation in the rites,
figuratively speaking, "Sons of the Widow"; they are the offspring of the
Institution widowed by the loss of the living Word, and theirs is the eternal
quest-they discover by becoming.

The metaphysical significance of the death and resurrection of the
Egyptian demi-god has for the most part been lost to the Craft,
notwithstanding the undoubted fact that Masonic scholars of the calibre
of Pike, Mackey and Oliver are in general agreement as to a definite
association between the legend of Osiris and the drama enacted in the
Third Degree.  We may, however, attribute the failure of students to
recognize the Egyptian origin of certain parts of Craft Lodge ritualism and
symbolism to the transmission of the legend by way of the Hebrews who,
naturally, superimposed their own terminology on the tradition they
received from Egypt.  In the Schools of Hebrew mysticism, the Mystery
drama of the death and resurrection of Osiris became that of the slaying
and raising of the Master Builder, and the Temple of Solomon took the
place of the Egyptian " House of Light." With the Rabbinical mystics the
erection and subsequent vicissitudes of Solomon's Temple provided a
great glyph or mythos of the upbuilding of the human soul, and this secret
lore also found partial, although cryptic, expression in the Hebrew public
Scriptures in terms of building.

The next important influence affecting the ancient tradition was that of the
Christian Mysteries, those rites of which Clement and Origen spoke so
highly; and as the course of Hebrew history advanced and the stream of
mystical doctrine widened into its Christian development, the same
symbolic terminology continued to be used.  We find, therefore, that the
Gospels, the Epistles, and the Apocalypse teem with Masonic imagery and
allusions to spiritual building.  Indeed, it is in these that the human soul is
expressly declared to be the real Temple which was prefigured by the
earlier historic or quasi-historic structure, while a spiritual
Chief-Cornerstone, rejected of certain builders, is mentioned.  St. Ignatius,
one of the known pupils of St. John, is to be found expounding the
teaching of the Mysteries in the following purely Masonic terms :-

"Forasmuch as ye are stones of a Temple, which were prepared
beforehand for a building of God, the Father, being hoisted up to the
heights by the working-tool of Jesus Christ, which is the Cross, and using
for a rope the Holy Spirit ; your faith being a windlass, and love the way
leading up to God.  So then ye are all Companions in the way, spiritual
temples, carrying your Divine principle within you, your shrine, your Christ
and your holy things, being arrayed from head to foot with the
commandments of Christ." 
(Ignatius: "Epistle to the Ephesians")

The pronounced Masonic imagery used by St. lgnatius (who was martyred
at Rome in A.D. 107) tends to corroborate the tradition that the Square,
the Level and the Plumb-rule, now allocated to the Master and Wardens
of a Lodge, were formerly associated with the Bishop, Priest and Deacon,
when serving at the secret altars of the persecuted Christians.  Put
together, the three tools form obviously a Cross, which, on the
worshippers being disturbed by the secular authorities, could be quickly
knocked apart and appear as builder's implements.

The Mysteries came to an end as public institutions in the sixth century,
when from political considerations they and the teaching of the Secret
Doctrine and philosophy became prohibited by the Roman Government,
at the instigation of Justinian, who aimed at inaugurating an official uniform
State-religion throughout the Empire.  Since the suppression of the
Mysteries, however, their tradition and teaching have been continued
under various concealments, and to that continuation our modern Masonic
system is due.  To the early Middle Ages the inner Christian tradition
appeared again in the Knight Templars and the Mysteries of the Holy Grail,
and it is significant that these henceforth become associated with
Speculative Freemasonry.  But, the most profound influence which went
to make Freemasonry what it is today was that of the mysterious Order of
the Rosy Cross.  The memory of this Rosicrucian influence is preserved,
not only in the Eighteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, but
also (and perhaps as much) in the Craft Degrees, especially in the Third
Degree.

The exoteric history of the Rosicrucian Society commences with the year
1614.  In that year there was published at Cassel in Germany a pamphlet
entitled: "The Discovery of the Fraternity of the Meritorious Order of the
Rosy Cross, addressed to the Learned in General and the Governors of
Europe." After a discussion of the momentous questions of the general
reformation of the world, which was to be accomplished through the
medium of a secret confederacy of the wisest and most philanthropic men,
the pamphlet proceeds to inform its readers that such an association is
already in existence, having been founded over one hundred years earlier
by the famous C.R.C., grand initiate in the mysteries of Alchemy, whose
history (which is clearly of a fabulous or symbolical nature) is given.  The
following year a further pamphlet: "The Confession of the Rosicrucian
Fraternity, addressed to the Learned in Europe" appeared, and in 1616,
"The Chymical Nuptials of Christian Rosencreutz." This latter book is a
remarkable allegorical romance, describing how an old man, a lifelong
student of the Alchemistic Art, was present at the accomplishment of the
"Magnum Opus" (Great Work) in the year 1459.  From the Masonic point
of view, it was obviously not without adequate reason that Michael Maier,
one of the greatest of the reputed Rosicrucians (born 1568), exhibited on
the title page of his book " Septimana Philosophica (et Arabias Regina
Saba nec non Hyramo Tyri Principe)," King Solomon imparting his riddles
to the Queen of Sheba on his right hand, and Hiram on his left.  And as
early as 1638 we find Adamson declaring in his " Muses' Threnodie":-

"For we are Brethren of the Rosie Cross,
We have the Mason Word and second sight."

showing how intimately the two Orders were identified.  We also have the
later testimony of Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom, who claims to have been
initiated into the Society of the Rosicrucians on the Isle of Maritius on 12th
September, 1794, by the mysterious Comte de Chazal, and who has left
extensive manuscripts setting forth his findings and opinions on matters
of importance to Masonic students. The learned Doctor describes the
transition through which the Ancient Brotherhood passed in the process
of externalising certain parts of itself in the system we know as Speculative
Freemasonry.  His conclusions agree with the available evidence, all of
which points to the fact that one definite group was behind the movement
which projected the Craft system.  To trace the genesis of this movement,
which came into activity some two hundred and fifty years ago (our rituals
and ceremonies having been compiled round about the year 1700), is
beyond the scope of our present subject.  It should, however, be stated
here that the movement itself incorporated the slender ritual and the
elementary symbolism which, for centuries previously, had been employed
in connection with the mediaeval Building Guilds, but it gave to them a far
fuller meaning and a far wider range.  We may regard it as certain that the
Craft received from this source much that the old Operative Lodges had
never possessed, such as the Third Degree (with its highly mystical
Opening and Closing); the Craft Legend or Traditional History; the central
part of the Installation Rite (now observed in the Conclave or Board of
Installed Masters); and many other allusions to occult science, mysticism,
and even magic.

We must emphasize at this stage that our present Masonic system is not
one coming from remote antiquity.  There is no direct continuity between
us and the Egyptians, or those ancient Hebrews, of whom we have
already spoken.  What is extremely ancient in Freemasonry is the spiritual
doctrine which is concealed within the architectural phraseology of the
Ritual; for this is an elementary form of the doctrine taught in all ages, I no
Matter in what garb it has been expressed.  To put it another way:
Freemasonry offers, in dramatic ceremonial, a philosophy of the spiritual
life of man and a diagram of the process known as regeneration.  This
philosophy is not only consistent with the doctrine of every religious
system taught outside the ranks of our Order, but it explains, elucidates
and more sharply defines, the fundamental doctrines common to all
religions of the world, whether past or present.  Allied with no external
religion itself, Freemasonry is yet a synthesis, a concordat, for men of
every race, of every creed, of every sect, and its foundation principles
being common to them all, admit of no variation. The function of every
phase of Masonic routine, the avowed intention of its principal rituals, and
the implication of its teaching, is to assist the genuine candidate by his
aspiration to find that unity of being which is variously described as the
Centre, the Kingdom of Heaven, the pure essence of Mind, the
Buddha-nature, the Inner Self, and the Christ within.

In the light of the foregoing, it will be seen that Freemasonry depends for
its life and strength on the Ancient Wisdom teaching which is enshrined
in it; a Teaching designed to answer those eternal questions as to the
why, the whence, and the whither of all human existence.  These, indeed,
are the deepest problems of life, and ultimately we are concerned only
with their solution, for sooner or later we are forced to enquire-why live at
all, why exert ourselves in any personal or social endeavour, if we know
not whither it all leads? The problems of the why and whither of human life
are those which have ever occupied thinking men ; they are at the bottom
of every philosophic system, and the systems themselves are but an
attempt to answer them.  And yet no words can ever fully answer these
problems, for no language can express the Reality of Life; this can only be
experienced by the living soul of Man. As Emerson truly says: "The soul
answers never by words, but by the thing itself that is inquired after." It is
in the experience of Life that the answers are found, and only the man
who has lived deeply is really wise.  The wisdom of the sage is the
sum-total of his human experience, but even he cannot impart his
knowledge to others; they, in their turn, must first experience the realities
of Life, for only by such means do they attain to a wider consciousness. 
How, then, is it possible that anything so profound and intimate as what
Freemasonry calls "the Centre " in Man, can be held fast as a permanent
force acting in the world of phenomena? It is possible, in virtue of the
special power represented by tradition.  A spiritual tradition is never
objective knowledge, nor practice which has become mechanical, but a
living continuance of the living impulse which created it.

Every great Initiation system, so long as its progress is guided by
enlightened minds, distinguishes clearly between its Ritual and oral
tradition. It is on the oral tradition that the main stress is laid; tradition
alone can teach how the text of the Ritual ought to be understood, which
in the end is the only thing that matters. Whosoever claims that he can
extract the original meaning from the text of the Ritual without the help of
tradition, is really only reading his own meaning in to it ; and it is only if
the two minds are specially congenial, or the one has a special gift for
entering into the mind of another, that the new meaning in any measure
coincides with the old.  What is true of comprehension is even more
generally true of being, for comprehension too is handed on as a state of
being.  Here the universally valid law is manifest, that everywhere like
works upon like ; hence the eternal validity of the relation of Master and
disciple, and the traditional reference in our Masonic Lectures "To seek for
a Master and from him to gain instruction" (First Section, First Lecture).

The widening of consciousness gained by direct experience is so great
that, as shown in the traditional Ceremony of admission into the Craft, it
is called an Initiation-" a new beginning." A new life does indeed begin for
him who has been "regularly initiated" into the Mysteries; an actual change
has taken place in him, and needless to add no words could ever
accomplish as much.  The candidate for Initiation in the Schools of the
Ancient Mysteries, therefore, did not attain merely by hearing and
repeating words, but always by undergoing the process conferred upon
him by already initiated Masters or experts, an experience which resulted
in an expansion of his consciousness. St. Clement of Alexandria testifies
to this when he writes:-

"But the Mysteries are delivered mystically, that which is spoken may be
in the mouth of the speaker; not in his voice, but rather in his
understanding. The writing of these memoranda of mine, I well know, is
weak when compared with that spirit, full of grace, which I was privileged
to hear.  But it will be an image to recall the archetype to him who was
struck by the Thyrsus."

(Stromateis: Bk. 1. ch. 28.)

Such an experience was of necessity always reserved for the few, but
notwithstanding some shadow of it was also within reach of those who,
although not fully qualified to become Initiates, were none the less genuine
seekers for knowledge.  For them there were the Lesser Mysteries, in
which the actual change in consciousness did not take place, but
something of its meaning was conveyed to the candidate by his
participation in a series of rites in which the chief events of the Greater
Mysteries were presented to him in dramatised form.

We can now proceed to judge of what supreme importance the influence
of the Rosy Cross was to Speculative Freemasonry.  The mysteries of the
Rosy Cross were the Greater Mysteries, as we know from the testimony
of those who were admitted to them, and the contact of the Rosicrucians
with Freemasonry undoubtedly resulted in the gradual importation into
Masonic Lodges of teaching derived from more hidden and exalted
sources.  Many students of the Craft system are unaware of the great
value of literary works attributed to Rosicrucian authorship.  These works
call for our serious study because their contents are directly related to that
body of science and doctrine concerning human nature and its
perfectibility, which the concealed Founders of the Craft system, subtly
and under deep veils of phrasing, planted in the soil of Masonic ritual. 
The Hermetic Lore, as the body of the Rosicrucian teaching is often called,
comprehends both a spiritual and a physical science ; a Science of the
Spirit, and a Science of Nature.  Both of these elements of the Rosicrucian
wisdom are also to be understood by the use of the term " Great Work ";
and while it is true that the goal of the Hermetic philosopher included such
knowledge as would enable him to transmute base metals, there was the
higher or spiritual aspect in which the laboratory was Man himself, the
base metals his own lower nature, and the transmutation, that change by
which through mystic death ("putrefactio"), a Rebirth ("regeneratio") took
place.  Modern scholarship, of course, still leaves unsolved the question
of the correct classification of Rosicrucian alchemical treatises as mystical,
magical, or simply primitively chemical.  The most reasonable view,
however, is surely that which is prepounded in the treatises themselves,
namely that the physical problem of the transmutation of base metals into
gold is, in essence, the same as that of Man's physical regeneration. 
Michael Sendivogius alludes to this conception of the work in his treatise
appropriately entitied " New Chemical Light," as follows:-

"The Sages have been taught of God that this natural world is only an
image and material copy of a heavenly and spiritual pattern; that the very
existence of this world is based upon the reality of its celestial archetype;
and that God has created it in imitation of the spiritual and invisible
Universe, in order that men might be better enabled to comprehend His
heavenly teaching, and the wonder of His absolute and ineffable power
and wisdom.  Thus the Sage sees heaven reflected in Nature as in a
mirror; and he pursues this Art, not for the sake of gold or silver, but for
the love of the Knowledge which it reveals; he jealously conceals it from
the sinner and the scornful, lest the mysteries of heaven should be laid
bare to the vulgar gaze."

("New Chemical Light," Part 11, Concerning Sulphur.)

The work for which the Craft was designed is described in the language
of Alchemy as the "ERGON"-primary work; the work of natural science and
the making of physical gold is but the "PARERGON"-secondary work. In
the sense of the primary work Gold is the attribute of divinity and is closely
connected with Fire as a spiritual emblem:-

"But he knoweth the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come
forth as gold."

(Job 23, verse 10).

"Every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work
of what sort it is."

(1 Corinthians 3, verse 13).

The doctrine of Freemasonry in relation to the Rosicrucian
mystery-teachings can best be appreciated after a preliminary statement
of some of the basic principles on which, it is affirmed, rests all progress
in the Royal Art.  There is, however, independent evidence of the
Rosicrucian influence on the genesis of the Craft system.  Historical
research indicates that the originators of Speculative Freemasonry, the
members of the so-called " Invisible Society," simultaneously with
launching the Craft, arranged for the formation of the Royal Society, which
became chartered in 1662 for the advancement of scientific knowledge. 
Strictly in accordance with the Hermetic wisdom, therefore, the "Invisibles"
projected two systems; one (the Craft) intended to be devoted to mystical
studies and personal spiritual development; the other (the Royal Society)
aiming at the promotion of natural science upon occult principles and
under the guidance of qualified experts.

Science, in the popular mind, represents nothing more than the body of
those beliefs, conclusions, or generalizations, which individual scientists
at various times put forth in a tentative way as landmarks, so to speak, in
their endless search for increasingly valid formulations of Reality.  It is to
these conclusions, often called "facts," that we allude  when we state that
"science teaches" this or that.  But strictly speaking science does not
"teach" anything at all.  It is a method rather than a body of conclusions,
and it is scientific method in Speculative Freemasonry with which we are
here concerned.  Let us illustrate by a few specific examples.  We live in
a world which the ordinary man accepts as a reality, existing quite
independently of himself.  To him it is supremely real, and to doubt this
fact would seem to be sheer madness.  Yet he cannot fathom his own
relation to this world, and he cannot adequately explain how he actually
perceives it.  Is it by means of the senses? If so, how does the sense
impression affect consciousness? When we "see" an object, all we can be
sure of is that something outside us has affected our eyes by means of
vibrations of a definite rate; that our optic nerves convey the impression
to the brain-cells; that a chemical change takes place there, and then-we
"see" the object; we are aware of a certain shape, various colours and
textures.  What mystery has taken place by means of which the chemical
change in the grey matter of the brain has created in our consciousness
the image of the object? And, having "seen," as we say; what do we, after
all, really know about the object? Similarly, in the attempt to formulate a
philosophical exposition of the world and life experience, almost any first
statement we may make can be seized upon and criticized as one-sided,
and therefore untrue.  The world is a unity; the world is pluralistic.  Time
is continuous; time is composed of irreducible atomic elements.  The
world comes to the individual from without; the world of the individual is
a world of inner experience.  Each of these premises is admitted to be true
in one respect or another.  But how are they true? In what sense are they
true? In what general point of view can be set up in accordance with
which the apparent conflicts are resolved? Is this world a dream
world-daily existence, friends, work-is it all a fantastic illusion.  Yes and no. 
This is a paradox the world in which we live is Real and yet Unreal; the
mystery of its relation to us and its measure of reality can only be
disclosed in the depths of our own consciousness. Plato compares
ordinary men to prisoners bound in a cave, of which they can see only the
back wall.  On this wall fall shadows cast by those who pass the mouth of
the cave.  The play of shadows is the prisoner's world; it is reality to them;
but whenever one of them succeeds in freeing himself, and sees the
entrance, sees the Light and the real beings moving in it, then he realizes
that he has lived in a world of illusion, that he has been "in a state of
darkness," and that his eyes have been "hoodwinked." We must know
ourselves in order to know the world.  The man, therefore, who becomes
proficient in "that most interesting of all human studies, the knowledge of
himself," renounces the popular world; and he gradually attains
consciousness in a world described as "not to be touched by hand or to
be seen by eye," but otherwise supremely real.  Withdrawal from this world
of illusion, however, involves a transition from the ordinary natural state
and standard of living towards what is @n as the regenerate state, with its
correspondingly higher standard.  A word now upon the faculty to be
employed in the apprehension of interior truth.

It is often remarked @that a natural timidity affects those to whom is
suggested a transition from old and familiar roads of study, comfortably
charted and lit with the bright lamps of convention, to a new and unknown
path of research striking away into the darkness of obscurity beyond the
official boundaries of orthodox systems of knowledge.  The earnest seeker
after Truth, however, fortified by the imperative will to know, soon learns
that the outer darkness on investigation reveals rare lights of its own, and
is in fact but "darkness visible," although light of a quality hitherto
undiscerned.  In this difficult study, knowing depends entirely upon doing;
comprehension is conditional upon and the corollary of action " He that
will do the will shall know of the doctrine " for the doing automatically
liberates an inward faculty capable of directly cognizing self-evident truth. 
We know not how to describe a faculty which when awakened, exists and
functions in complete independence of the physical organism.  In our
Masonic symbolism, as in other treatises of arcane psychology, it is
described, in analogy with the natural luminary, as "the Sun, to rule the
day," whilst the logical understanding is "the Moon, to govern the night"
and direct the merely temporal affairs of life.  This latter, embracing as it
does the reasoning faculty and tie lower or objective mind, is appointed
to serve as a light in the natural world, but, the gift notwithstanding, it
forms a cloud of darkness as regards light from the spiritual element that
is both within and without us, and indeed, may obscure all spiritual vision. 
Not until a man has learned to relegate this "lesser light" to its appropriate
use in the natural world, can he, walking in darkness, hope to see the
great luminary, which, invisible to the physical sense, but present in the
central depths of his nature, lightens every man coming into the world,
and which, to those who having clean hands and pure hearts, are fitted to
evoke it, manifests in mental illumination and expanded consciousness.

We turn now from the psychologic to the metaphysical aspect of the Great
Work.  The entire object of the Royal Art of the Rosicrucians and spiritual
Alchemists is said to be the uncovering of the inner faculty of insight and
wisdom, alluded to above, and the removal of the veils intervening
between the mind and dividing it from its hidden divine root.  Not only
does this science envisage an individual in whom the several constituents
of consciousness are united, but it aspires towards the development of an
integrated and free man who is likewise building up in the present life what
is known in the technical language of mysticism as the "resurrection" or
"arch-natural" body.  This is also the profound idea which governs our
symbolic craft of Masonry; the "raising of a superstructure, perfect in all its
parts and honourable to the builder." As to the metaphysical material of
which these structures are to be reared, the Hermetic and Alchemical
schools adopted the mystical terms of Scripture and called it a "stone," the
"philosopher's stone." It is, indeed, the "white stone" which is given "to him
that overcometh" the lower nature, as that Apostle did who thereupon
received the name that implies "a stone"; for it is only then that the
individual aspirant becomes a "foundation," a "rock" upon which may be
erected a "temple," a personal sanctuary of the Spirit whose abode is the
souls of men rather than temples made with hands.  The teaching of the
Alchemists demonstrates how this "stone" must be "confected," worked up
in the individual by a "manual art" (like our Masonic "art" not to be
understood in the literal sense) from chaos to perfection.  They describe
the work as undergoing three stages: the black, the white, and the red,
which are the Alchemical equivalents of the three Degrees of Speculative
Freemasonry.  Thus as, psychologically, regeneration involves the three
traditional stages of purgation, illumination, and union, so, metaphysically,
there are three corresponding stages of corporeal development.  To each
of these may be added a fourth, although unlikely of achievement in this
life; the attainment of divine union in permanence, which during physical
life can only be temporary and partial; and the corresponding perfecting
and consolidation of the arch-natural vesture perfect holiness belongs only
to the Lord."

The first stage in Alchemy "the stone at the black in Freemasonry a poor
candidate in a state of darkness"; is intended to typify the benighted mind
and unclarified state of the soul's vesture at the outset of the Great Work. 
At this stage the physical nature must be accounted an integral factor in
the "work," and is to be dedicated and employed accordingly.  It is the
vessel or crucible in which the alchemic change is to be wrought, but the
regimen enjoined is "the renewing of your mind," not the maceration of the
body; for, in a deeper than the familiar sense, "corpus sanum" will ensue
surely enough upon "mens sana." The second stage ; in Alchemy " the
stone at the white"; in Freemasonry "clothed in White Apron and gloves as
emblems of innocence"; signifies that the clouded mind and the soul's
black vesture of "earth" have been cleansed by the baptism of "a fall of
water"-the Alchemical remedy of "the Elixir of Life." The third stage in
Alchemy "the stone at the red"; in Freemasonry the sublime Degree";
symbolises entrance into the sanctuary and denotes the aspirant whose
purified soul enters the experience of the divine union.  Following the
Alchemical precedent Freemasonry recognizes that the third stage involves
two "operations," known in Alchemy as the refining of silver and gold, and
accordingly the three Degrees of Freemasonry also "include the Holy
Royal Arch of Jerusalem" as their climax.  The clothing, therefore, worn in
the Master Mason Degree is distinguished by silver, the first of the "noble"
or "precious" metals; whereas in the Royal Arch Degree, "the completion
of the Master Mason Degree," it is adorned with gold.  The transmutation
has now been effected ; in the Holy Royal Arch the soul is "all glorious
within" and the clothing is of wrought gold ; " wrought," since gold
indicates that holy ultimate substance, which, although always latent in
each one of us, like gold-dust in common soil, needs mining, refining, and
working up by skilful craftsmanship before becoming a "jewel" for the
King's Treasury.  Lastly, the "gold must be tried in fire"; the growing
celestial body must be perfected and fixated until capable of eternal
endurance in the burning heat of the Divine "penetralia." This perfecting is
scarcely to be looked for in the present life, but its achievement, as the
state attained by those who become "king and priests unto God," is
symbolically attested in Speculative Freemasonry by the robes worn by
those who are called to corresponding rank in the outer Chapter; the
prince prelates of the Grand Sanhedrin, represented " in the persons of the
three Principals."

Our thought in this Paper has reached high ground, but we have laboured
to be lucid in speaking of things exacting unwonted claims upon the
normal understanding and that, although the subject of an abundant
literature, have ever been expressed in terms of great restraint and
concealment.  The understanding of these things will be assisted by
realising physical things to be in faithful correspondence with
metaphysical, and that, as we advance from the one to the other, we
employ in turn the self-blinded eye of sense, the closed eye of faith, and
the opened eye of the soul.  At the beginning of the Quest the aspirant is
conscious only of things of the physical order.  Let him, however, commit
himself, with bandaged eyes, to his instinct in the possibility of a great
self-transfiguration, believing that "My covenant is with your flesh," and at
the end of it, as with John, the spiritual seer, the hoodwink is removed and
faith passes into sight.  His eyes "see" the salvation prepared before the
face of all people, but hidden from them by a passing blindness, and he
can testify that in very deed "the tabernacle of God is with men," and not
elsewhere.  We will conclude with a quotation from Plotinus which may
serve to illustrate the position of this Study Circle in relation to our
Brethren of the Craft:-

"If we speak and write, it is but as guides to those who long to see: we
send them to the place itself, bidding them from words to the Vision: the
teaching is of the Path and the Plan, seeing is the work of each Soul for
itself."

(Plotinus-Ennead VI, 9.4. tr. Stephen McKenna.)

SO MOTE IT BE.