Said our late and beloved distinguished Brother, ALBERT G. MACKEY:
"The true history of Freemasonry is much in its character like the history of a nation. It has its historic and prehistoric era. In its historic era, the institution can be regularly traced through various antecedent associations, similar in design and organization, to a comparatively remote period. Its connection with these associations can be rationally established by authentic documents, and by other evidence which no historian would reject. Thus dispassionately and philosophically treated, as though it was the history of an empire that was under investigation -- no claim being advanced that cannot be substantiated, no assertion made that cannot be proved -- FREEMASONRY -- the word so used, meaning, without evasion or reservation, precisely what everybody supposes it to mean -- can be invested with an antiquity sufficient for the pride of the most exacting admirer of the society.
"And then for the prehistoric era--that which connects it with the mysteries of the Pagan world, and with the old priests of Eleusis, of Samothrace, or of Syria--let us honestly say that we now no longer treat of Freemasonry under its present organization, which we know did not exist in those days, but of a science peculiar, and peculiar only to the Mysteries and to Freemasonry ----a science which we may call Masonic symbolism, and which constituted the very heart blood of the ancient and the modern institutions, and gave to them, while presenting a dissimilarity of form, an identity of spirit. And then, in showing the connection and in tracing the germ of Freemasonry in those prehistoric days, although we shall be guided by no documents, and shall have no authentic spoken or written narratives on which to rely, we shall find fossil thoughts embalmed in those ancient intellects precisely like the living ones which crop out in modern Masonry, and which, like the fossil shells and fishes of the old physical formations of the earth, show, by their resemblance to living specimens, the graduated connection of the past with the present.
"No greater honor could accrue to any man than that of having been the founder of a new school of Masonic history, in which the fictions and loose statements of former writers would be rejected, and in which the rule would be adopted that has been laid down as a vital maxim of all inductive science--in words that have been chosen as his motto by a recent powerful investigator of historical truth.
"Not to exceed and not to fall short of facts--not to add and not to take away. To state the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth"
Our late Brother, ALBERT G. MACKEY, has thus clearly presented a true statement of the prehistoric and historic continuity of our Ancient and Honorable Fraternity. Tradition and symbolism have come down to us through the ages, as well as being recorded in hieroglyphics upon the monolithic monuments and in the temples of that most ancient land of mysteries and knowledge, Egypt, the land of the Pyramids and the Sphinx, watered by the River Nile, from whose bosom was recovered the infant MOSES, and with him in after times the knowledge and mysteries, in the Arcana of the past and the present Masonic world. PHILO says that "Moses was instructed by the Egyptian priests in the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics as well as in the mysteries of the sacred animals." The sacred historian also says "he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." MANETHO and other traditionary writers inform us that "he was educated at Heliopolis (the City of the Sun) as a priest, under his Egyptian name, OSARSIPH, and that there he was taught the whole range of literature and science which it was customary to impart to the priesthood of Egypt. When, then, at the head of his people, he passed away from the servitude of Egyptian taskmasters, and began in the wilderness to establish his new religion, it is not strange that he should have given a holy use to the symbols whose meaning he had learned on the banks of the Nile."
Karnak is the name of a village in Upper Egypt, occupying a portion of the site of ancient Thebes. The Great Temple of Amon, commonly known as the Temple of Karnak, is located on the east side of the Nile, about two miles northeast of Luxor. An avenue of sphinxes led to the water. Besides the Great Temple there are some twenty smaller edifices dedicated to Mut, Khonsu, Mentu, Ptah and other deities. These ruins combine to make the most extensive collection in the world. The whole is a wonderful aggregation of buildings of temples, colonnades, courts and the inner sanctuary. It is constructed with a unity of design, and is different in that respect from the temple at Luxor. The roof was supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns eighty feet in height, and upon them the hieroglyphics may still be read of the histories of the various dynasties of the race of PHARAOHS or kings. Here was where MOSES was initiated and graduated in the Ancient Mysteries, and from his knowledge gained in this school or academy he was able to found and organize the Jewish religion with civil and military government and the worship of the true GOD.
It is reasonable also to suppose that when he was for so many years an exile in the wilderness to the eastward, that his superior knowledge and attainments enabled him to communicate readily and have intercourse with those persons of like character on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, and even from farther India, from whence the Egyptians originally derived in part and in a modified form the religion and mysteries they practiced, and which formed the curriculum of the hierarchy of Egypt.
REGHELLINI, in his work, "Masonry considered as the result of the Egyptian, Jewish and Christian Religions," published at Paris in 1833, says: "MOSES, in his mysteries, and after him, SOLOMON adopted a great part of the Egyptian symbols, which, after them, we Masons have preserved in our own."
The direct traditional and historic base of our Craft rests upon the construction of Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem, itself a compendium of architecture, religion, science and philosophy, and the focus to which was directed the vision of all the learned of the ancient world, as well as the principal architects and builders, who came from Egypt, Phoenicia, Greece, from the West, along the shores of the Mediterranean to the far East, beyond the Euphrates and Tigris to India, and even far-off Cathay, to construct the first and the most splendid Temple ever erected to the worship of the true GOD, and built by that ancient "Parliament of Religions," the Masonic Builders of the World. To be sure, the inner Temple or Sanctum Sanctorum, was to be sacredly and secretly used by the Levitical Priesthood, in accordance with the Mosaic ritual of the Tabernacle set up in the Wilderness, yet the knowledge of its purposes, and for what it was designed, was fully understood by the Architect Masons who constructed it and all the secret recesses and chambers of that wonderful edifice. The great porch or tower of 20 cubits or 39 77/100 feet square, and 120 cubits or 238 1/2 feet high in front of the Temple, before which stood the two great brazen pillars, was for astronomical as well as military purposes; to study the heavens, as did the Shepherd Kings centuries before on the plains of Chaldea, as also to serve as a watch-tower to look over the City of Jerusalem, and watch the approach of invading enemies.
The great purpose of SOLOMON was to maintain peace, magnify his influence and power and to control the then great highway of overland commerce from India to the Mediterranean -- having unlimited resources and power, and having for his chief ally the friend of DAVID, his father, HIRAM King of Tyre, with whom he divided the revenue of imports and exportation. Therefore, he cultivated the friendship of all surrounding countries and their governments, from whence came so many Craftsmen of all kinds and of all shades of religious beliefs, but having a central fundamental principle of the worship, each in his own way, of the one only and true GOD, for which the Great Temple was to be erected; and for the Deity Himself, each according to his nation and tongue, gave Him a name, accordingly, which was compounded and three names that were chosen by the chiefs of the architects at last became one for their own private recognition, according to legend and tradition.
When the time came for the dedication of the Temple, it was to be done out of doors in sight of everybody, and not in the Temple itself; nor was it done by the Jewish priesthood, but by King SOLOMON himself, as king and sovereign of the people, the representative of the people and for the people, not of the Israelites alone, but for everybody under his protection who might desire to come there and worship GOD in his own way and of his own free will; for in the midst of his memorable prayer he said:
"Moreover, concerning the stranger, which is not of thy people, Israel, but is come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm; if they come and pray in this house; then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all the people of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people, Israel, and may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name."
This part of his prayer was chiefly intended for the foreign Masons who had helped to build the Temple, for we read, "And DAVID commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and he set Masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of GOD." "And SOLOMON numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith DAVID, his father, had numbered them, and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand, and three thousand and six hundred. And he set threescore and ten thousand to be bearers of burdens, fourscore thousand to be hewers in the mountain, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people at work.
Thus it will be seen came the first systematic organization of Freemasons of which we have any historic account, and to be directly employed upon government and religious work, under the immediate direction of one HIRAM ABIF, the chief architect of the work, who was sent by HIRAM, King of Tyre, in compliance with the expressed desire of King SOLOMON. It is upon the knowledge, education, skill, life, and tragic death of this most distinguished Mason of which there is any account, either historical, traditional, or legendary, that is formed the structure of our philosophic, semi-religious, speculative, and symbolic Freemasonry of today, which has come down to us through the ages--for a period of over twenty-nine centuries--and carrying with it the history, tradition, and mysteries of as many centuries before. He is the central figure of all recorded time and the Master Builder of the Masonic World. He had the highest recommendation that could possibly be given to him at the time. HIRAM, King of Tyre, said of him in his letter to King SOLOMON:
"And now I have sent a cunning (wise) man, endued with understanding of HIRAM my father's. The son of a woman of the daughters of DAN, and his father was a man of Tyre, skillful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord DAVID, thy father."
He was relieved, however, from having to originate the plans for the Temple, for DAVID, it seems, was the original designer who drew the plans of the Temple, in accordance with divine direction, for everything in and about this wonderful edifice then to be built, and had given them to his son, King SOLOMON for the account given of it is as follows:
"Then DAVID gave to SOLOMON his son, the pattern of the porch and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat; and the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of GOD, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things. * * All this, said DAVID, the LORD made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern," etc.
There is a secret tradition that King SOLOMON when the Temple was nearly completed, had tired of HIRAM ABIF, the Chief Architect of the Temple, who was the representative of the people and who had risen from their level to become the companion of kings. The necessity of personal intercourse during the construction of the Temple had made his architect familiar with that royalty which was but recent and in the second generation only; and the Tyrian architect regarded SOLOMON as but a man and the son of a shepherd of fortuitous circumstances, who by causing the death of his elder brother ADONIJAH, the next in line to DAVID, had succeeded the first occupants of the throne upon the change of the autonomy and form of government of the people of Israel. King SOLOMON being jealous of his power and glory, and determined that no other monarch should erect a similar temple of equal magnificence and splendor, is said to have himself, secretly and surreptitiously, secured the plans and the last designs drawn upon the trestle-board of the Temple, and secretly contrived to plot whereby his chief architect might be removed, that no other king or nation should have them or be able to secure his services. The unconscious instruments of his purpose performed the part they were incited to enact, not knowing who was the actual chief conspirator whose will they had carried out, when they supposed that they were only executing their own; and yet received the decision of their fate at his hands, the chief conspirator and criminal acting as their judge -- his grief and indignation simulated and hypocritical --and from whose royal decree there was no appeal.
Through the long line of martyrs whose lives have been sacrificed on the altars of Truth, Science, and Philosophy and for Civil and Religious Liberty, Freemasonry has come down to the present age brighter than ever in its effulgence, and, like the sun in its course, will forever shine, giving life and light wherever the unfettered intellect and the freed soul of man can measure the distance and the courses of the stars and find repose in the bosom of its divine Creator, the All Father and the ALMIGHTY GOD.
As a Brotherhood, traveling from one country to another in camps or lodges, ready to under take the reconstruction of buildings, destroyed by the ravages of war or of the elements, from their ruins, or to build new ones--whether churches, cathedrals, public or private edifices or fortresses--the banded Craftsmen pursued their calling in every country of Western Asia, Northern Africa, and throughout all the countries of Continental Europe and the British Isles. While temporarily sojourn ing in huts or lodges themselves, they were ever ready to contract to build a most gorgeous, sumptuous palace, a costly cathedral, a lordly castle, or a plain citizen's dwelling. The science of construction in Grecian, Roman, Moorish, or Gothic architecture was as familiar to them as the curriculum of the most noted universities of today to the scholarly professors who occupy the chairs at Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Whether in Athens or in Rome, Grenada, Seville, or in Paris, at Dresden, Munich, Cologne, or Rheims, at London, Edinburgh, Stirling, or Melrose, these journeying Craftsmen, with their masters schooled in the learning of the old Colleges of Architecture at Rome, traveled with freedom from toll over the face of Europe, carrying the secrets and mysteries of their Craft with them, fully understanding the purposes and nature or character of the buildings to be constructed, and their handiwork still remains to be seen commanding the admiration of the beholders for centuries since the last finishing strokes were given and the scaffolding removed.
The ancient mysteries and knowledge of all the religions were known to them, for they had to erect the temples and edifices for them, and thus they learned the symbolism, faith, and philosophy of each, and were always well prepared to digest and analyze all shades of doctrines and beliefs while inwardly committed to none but their own independent thoughts, studying Nature and reading her mysteries by the God-given Light of Reason, and worshiping their Creator in the star-lighted Cathedral of the Universe, the mountains for their altars and the plains and valleys for the checkered pavement of their temple and kneeling floor.
Their working tools furnished them symbols for teaching moral lessons and guides for their conduct, while the blade of the trowel of the Master Mason reminded him of the form of his coffin, upon which in the lines from the points at right angles, if a Christian, he could discern the symbol of his faith, and, in its handle, he grasped the ever-living acacia, which again placed in the ground at the head of his grave, like AARON'S rod, would take root and bud and bloom anew in full strength and fragrance, the symbol and type of his own immortality.
These scattered lodges were at last mostly found in England, and after the Great London Black Plague and Fire of 1666. The four lodges that were engaged in the finishing of St. Paul's Cathedral in 1717, having admitted to their fellowship the scholars and philosophers and scientific men of that day as "Accepted Masons," instructed them in the allegories, legends, and symbols of the Craft, and Freemasonry, thus augmented, expanded and widened to a larger sphere and became stronger in its growth, while the floor of its temples became neutral ground, where political disputations ceased and polemical discussion of sectarian religious beliefs were rigorously hushed and barred, and Nature's humanity and loving kindness were given a chance to bring good men of opposite opinions together, "who might have forever remained at perpetual distance from each other."
Such was the origin of Freemasonry in the beginning until the so-called "Revival of Freemasonry" in 1717, and which has come down to us with but few modified changes from that date for a period of one hundred and seventy-nine years. ESTO PERPETUA.
Source: Masonic History of the Northwest, 1902.