~ excerpt from Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy
Q. Is there any connection between the words "mystery" and "masonry"?
A. If, in fact, the masonic institution, as Mackey and Oliver
both admit, was descended from the ancient "Mysteries," there
should be some close connection between the words "mystery"
and "masonry," even if the latter is not directly derived
from the former. The word "mystery," which originally had an
exclusive meaning, came in process of time to have three different
meanings, all derived from the original one:
1. It was the name of the sacred drama which constituted
the ceremony of initiation into the secret religious associations
of the ancients, which were so named from the fact that the
"aspirant" for initiation was blindfolded. The word "mystery" is
derived from the Latin mysterium, from the Greek
from from to shut the eyes.
2. In the middle ages it came to be applied to a different
sort of "sacred drama," founded on the legends of the Christian religion.
These "Mysteries" or religious dramas, were,
These "Mysteries" or religious dramas, were,
however, performed in public, and had no element of secrecy
about them.
3. Another use of the word "mystery" arose from the fact
that all scientific knowledge was formerly concealed in the
ancient Mysteries, and communicated only to the initiated.
Great skill, therefore in any art which required scientific
knowledge, anciently implied initiation into the Mysteries.
Hence, in process of time, and even after the Mysteries themselves
were suppressed, the word "mystery" was applied to
any art which required scientific knowledge in addition to
manual dexterity. The art of architecture is one which requires
not only a proficiency in geometry, but several other sciences.
In more ancient times, owing to the peculiar position and construction
of temples, considerable knowledge of astronomy,
even, was required by the architect. This art was therefore preeminently
above all others denominated a "mystery," and the
words "mystery" and "masonry"—i.e., architecture—became
synonymous in meaning. Architecture was thus probably the
first one of the arts called a "mystery"; this name, however, at
length came to be applied to all the arts without distinction,
including even those wholly mechanical.
There can be no doubt that all the early architects, at least,
like the Tyrian artists who directed the work at the building of
King Solomon's temple, derived the scientific knowledge
required for their profession from having been initiated into
the Mysteries of Dionysus. The word "masonry" has been
thought to be derived from several different roots, by different
writers, but it is not so far removed either in form or meaning
from the word "mystery" but that it might not have been
derived either directly or indirectly from it. In fact, Hutchinson,
in his "Spirit of Masonry," advances the idea that the word is
derived from a corruption of the Latin mysterium, but fails to
give any satisfactory reason for his opinion. The foregoing
considerations, however, tend to show that his conjecture is
not without some support. The derivation of the word
"mason" from the french "magon," a house, will only take us
back to the Mysteries by another path, for the word "magon"
is derived from the Latin maceria, a wall or inclosure, which
carries with it the idea of secrecy, and the exclusion of all who
have not a right to enter. Thus, all those who were not initiated
into the Mysteries were called the profane—i.e., pro-fano,
those without the temple—and who had no right to enter at all
times. The words "temple" and "house" were also anciently
synonymous. (See 2 Kings 6:7-9; also, 2 Chron. 3.) Brother
J. H. Little, formerly G. H. P. of Virginia, derives the word
"Freemasonry" directly from the Egypto-Coptic, and uses the
following language on the subject:
Great mistake has arisen from the very name we bear,
and many do not understand what we are, or what our
name itself means. Masons are not free, in the sense in
which the word is sometimes use; they are positively
bound by absolute laws, they are the slaves of truth and
their word—unqualified obedience to their duty. The
profane are free, the mason is not. The origin of our
name shows this. Our title is "Freemason," and this is
not an English word, nor is our Order of English origin.
The name is not of any of the languages of modern
Europe, nor is it found in the classic tongues of Greece
and Rome; nor is it a part of the languages of Syria,
Tyre, or Chaldea, nor is it Hebrew. More ancient than
all, it comes from a nation that had organization, architecture,
and literature, before Abraham first beheld the
stars glitter above the plains of Shinar. It is from the
language of ancient Egypt; that wonderful land where
all antediluvian science and art was preserved and
extended, where a system of priestly and kingly government
was carried out which has been the wonder of
the world; that land where men of science, organized
into a close and secret organization, ruled; where they
created a mystic language, and where they erected those
mighty works of architectural skill whose undestroyed
firmness still amazes the world—among these ancient
sages the sun was an object of veneration, as the visible
power of life and light. In their language it is called
Phre, and in the same language mas means a child.
Hence, being born of light, that is, knowledge of every
kind, physical, moral, and intellectual, they called themselves
Phre-massen—Children of the Sun, or Sons of
Light. They inculcated and practiced purity and perfection
of the body, control of all the passions, or moral
purity, and devoted themselves go the intense study of
all intellectual acquirements. Now, this is Freemasonry—
we are true Sons of Light.
(St. Louis "Freemason's Monthly," January, 1872)
Q. How came operative architects, or masons, to be the last
custodians of the secrets of the ancient Mysteries?
A. It has no doubt been a puzzle to more than one, why the
architects and temple-builders of antiquity should have been
so intimately connected with the Mysteries, and thus have
been in a position to hand down their essential secrets and
philosophical teachings, from generation to generation, to
those skilled workmen who came after them. In other words,
how was it that the operative masons, or architects, became
special guardians, and their guilds, or associations the depositories
of these philosophical mysteries? If a good and sufficient
answer to this question can be found, one great stumbling
block and source of skepticism will be removed. This question
we think we can answer. The ancient Mysteries, as is well
known, were celebrated in the hidden recesses of the temples.
In order to present the grand and impressive drama of initiation,
many secret chambers, doors, and labyrinthian passages
had to be constructed within the interior; also, much ingenious
mechanism, by which wonderful and sublime spectacular
effects were produced. It was, therefore, a matter of necessity
that the building of a temple (except the bare outside walls)
should be intrusted only to those who had been duly initiated.
Any "tattling mechanic" might otherwise disclose the whole
secret. Such operative architects and artists, therefore, who
were known and distinguished as the most cunning workmen,
were initiated in all branches of the Mysteries, because their
services were imperatively necessary.
Among the buildings uncovered at Pompeii is a temple of
Isis, which is a telltale of the Mysteries of the Egyptian deity,
for the secret stairs which conducted the priests unseen to an
opening back of the statue of the goddess, through whose
marble lips pretended oracles were given and warnings
uttered, now lies open to the day, and reveals the whole
imposition. ("A Day in Pompeii," "Harper's Magazine," vol. ii.)
When the sages of India conducted Apollonius to the
temple of their god, singing hymns and forming a
sacred march, the earth, which they struck with their
staves in cadence, was agitated like a boisterous sea,
and raised up nearly two feet, then calmed itself and
resumed its usual level. The act of striking with their
sticks betrays the necessity of warning workmen, who
were placed beneath, to raise a moving stage covered
with earth—an operation plainly effected by the aid of
mechanism, very easy to be comprehended. It is probable
a similar secret existed in other temples. English
travelers who visited the remains of the temple of
Ceres, at Eleusis, observed that the pavement of the
sanctuary is rough and unpolished, and much lower
than that of the adjacent portico. It is therefore probable
that a wooden floor on a level with the portico covered
the present floor, and concealed a vault designed to
admit of the action of machinery beneath the sanctuary
for moving the floor. In the soil of an interior vestibule
they observed two deeply indented grooves, or ruts,
and as no carriage could possibly be drawn into this
place, the travelers conjectured that these were grooves
to receive the pulleys which served in the Mysteries to
raise a heavy body—"perhaps," said they, "a moving
floor." In confirmation of this opinion, they perceived
further on other grooves which might have served for
the counterbalances to raise the floor; and they also
detected places for wedges, to fix it immovable at the
desired height. These were eight holes fixed in blocks
of marble, and raised above the floor, four on the right
and four on the left, adapted to receive pegs of large
dimensions.
We are also informed that, in order to descend into the
caves of Trophonius, those who came to consult the oracle
placed themselves before an aperture apparently too narrow
to admit a middle sized man; yet, as soon as the knees had
entered it, the whole body was rapidly drawn in by some
invisible power. The mechanism used for this purpose was
connected with other machinery, which at the same time
enlarged the entrance to the grotto. The person who went to
consult this oracle was obliged to make certain sacrifices, to
bathe in certain rivers, and to anoint his body with oil. He was
then clothed in a linen robe, and, with a cake of honey in his
hand, he descended into the grotto in the manner before
described. What passed there was never revealed, but the person
on his return generally looked pale and dejected. The
individual whose name this cave bore was an architect of great
skill, and in conjunction with his brother, Agamides, was the
architect of the temple of Apollo, at Delphi; and they were, of
course, the designers and constructors of all the mechanical
secrets of that temple, no doubt far more ingenious and terrifying
in their nature than those of the oracular cave just
described. The Mysteries being also celebrated in the temple,
the demand for secrecy was imperative, and the priests, fearing
that the initiation of Trophonius and Agamides would not
insure their silence, resorted to assassination. The brothers
were desired by the god, through the priests, to be cheerful,
and to wait eight days for their reward; at the end of which
period they were found dead in their beds—the result of poison,
or some other secret means of murder. (See Salverti's
"Philosophy of Magic," vol. 1, Chapter XI).
Instances might be multiplied of the secrets involved in the
construction of ancient temples, which made it a matter of
necessity that the architects should be initiated, if allowed to
live. But enough has been advanced to make it plain that the
initiation of operative architects was a matter of absolute
necessity, When the Mysteries were discontinued, after the
advent of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman
Empire, it was no longer necessary for the temple-builders to
belong to any such organization, but by that time operative
architects had found that the bond of union which the initiation
into the Mysteries had established among them was useful
and profitable. It enabled them to keep the higher secrets of
their art among themselves, thus giving them a monopoly of
the whole business of temple-building. They were thus also
enabled to assume an independence and consequence, upon
which followed the favor of princes and those high in authority,
who desired their services to erect a palace or build a
cathedral. The operative architects, therefore, kept up their
secret organization, and thus preserved the occult tie which
originally united them in the Mysteries, of whose legends,
signs, and emblems they became the last custodians, after the
Mysteries themselves had fallen into disuse, and ceased to be
celebrated either at Athens or Rome. Thus originated those
mysterious "travelling Freemasons" of the middle ages, who
left so many "massive monuments of their skill" as early as the
ninth and tenth centuries. Thus, also, originated those famous
guilds of operative masons of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and
seventeenth centuries. No other hypothesis will satisfactorily
account for the strange character and mysterious nature of
those secret associations of operative architects.
Although the Mysteries themselves are traced back historically
to the days of ancient Egypt, yet there is no chronological
impossibility, or even improbability, of their connection with
the societies above mentioned, for they were celebrated in
some form as late as the eighth and perhaps twelfth century,
while the traveling Freemasons are traced back to the eighth
or tenth century. Notwithstanding the celebration of the Mysteries
was prohibited by the Christian emperors succeeding
Constantine, as being connected with the pagan worship, yet
many of their rites continued to be observed under assumed
names and the pretense of convivial meetings, for a long time
afterward (Gibbon, Chapter XXVIII). Maximus, Bishop of
Turin, writes in the middle of the fifth century against the
ancient worship, and speaks of it as if existing in full force in
the neighborhood of his city. The Eleusinian Mysteries at
Athens, indeed, seem to have enjoyed a special exemption, for
Gibbon informs us that the Emperor
Valentinian immediately admitted the petition of Praetextatus,
proconsul of Achaia, who represented that
the life of the Greeks would become dreary and comfortless
if they were deprived of the invaluable blessing
of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
This petition was, no doubt, accompanied with an assurance
that the secret doctrines taught in the Mysteries, being those of
the unity and spiritual nature of God, and the immortality of
the soul, were not inconsistent, but rather in harmony, with
the Christian religion, which would account for the petition
being so promptly granted. The Mysteries at Athens, in consequence,
although suspended, do not seem to have ever been
totally suppressed, but continued to be celebrated in some
form as late as the eighth century. It is also certain that the
Mysteries, under various forms, continued to be celebrated in
Britain and on the Continent as late as the tenth century.
Dr. Oliver says, in his "History of Initiation,"
We are assured, on undoubted authority, namely, from
the bardic writings of that period, that they were celebrated
in Wales and Scotland down to the twelfth century
of Christianity.
This brings us down to an era when it is admitted on all
hands that the travelling Freemasons existed, by whom, some
claim, our fraternity was invented. It is not, however, claimed
that the Mysteries in their purity or original splendor existed at
so late a period. No doubt they had become corrupt, and
many of their secrets had been lost. No doubt they had
become obscure, but still they existed, impressed with their
original character. The connection is therefore close between
them and the mysterious secret rites and ceremonies of those
societies of operative masons and architects above mentioned.
When, in process of time, the celebration of the ancient Mysteries
in a modified form was confined to these associations of
operative architects, for the reasons before given, then it was
that the term Freemason began to be descriptive of the initiated.
This would more rationally account for the present name
of our fraternity than the ingenious derivation of the words
"free-mason" from the Egyptian roots, Phre-massen (Children
of Light) as advanced by Brother J. H. Little.
Salverti, in his "Philosophy of Magic," is of the opinion that
the occult sciences, possessed by the secret societies of the
middle ages in Europe were derived from the learning taught
in the Mysteries. He says:
It is certain that, in that age of ignorance, learned men
have conveyed the charge of their knowledge to secret
societies, which have existed almost in our day. One of
the brightest geniuses who shed honor upon Europe
and the human race, Leibnitz, penetrated into one of
these societies at Nuremberg, and, from the avowal of
his panegyrist [Fontenelle, "Eloge de Leibnitz"], obtained
there instructions which, perhaps, he might have sought
for in vain elsewhere. Were these mysterious reunions
the remains of the ancient initiations? Everything conduces
to the belief that they were, not only the ordeal
and the examination, to which it was necessary to submit
before obtaining an entrance to them, but, above
all, the nature of the secrets they possessed, and the
means they appear to have employed to preserve them.
(See "Philosophy of Magic," vol. 1, Chapter XI)
But if, as Salverti learnedly argues, the scientific secrets of
the Mysteries were thus transmitted to the secret societies of
the middle ages, we may be certain that not only the form of
initiation in substance, but also many of the legends or scientific
allegories, as well as the symbols and emblems connected
therewith, were also handed down in like manner, and the
same may probably be said of many of the signs and modes of
recognition. In this connection it is worthy of remark that none
of the passwords of Freemasonry are either English, German,
or French, nor indeed of any modern spoken language. Had
Freemasonry been invented, or fabricated, either in Germany,
England, or France, such would not have been the case. We
might as well expect to find the armies of France, Germany,
England, or America, using Coptic, Chaldean, and Hebrew
countersigns, as the Freemasons do, had our fraternity originated
in either England, France or Germany.
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