Daniel Beresniak - Symbols of Freemasonry (2003).pdf

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CONTENTS
PREFACE
7.
THE VOLUME OF THE
SACRED LAW
The' first grearer lighr
8.
THE TWO PILLARS
A symbolof duality
14.
THE WORLD AND NATURE
Nature is the other great book
15.
GREAT BANQUETS
Eating and drinking tOgether
16.
THE MOST
COMMON RITES
Exploring behaviour
through ritual
17.
LODGES OF ADOPTION
Brothers and sisters
INTRODUCTION
I.
THE CALENDAR
Dating the creation
of the universe
2.
THE CHAMBER OF REFLECTION
Prepararion for a journey
3.
KING SOLOMON'STEMPLE
A community of brothers
9.
THE BUILDER'S TOOLS
Increasing the power of the hands
10.
THE MASON'S CLOTHING
Dressed for work
II.
THE BLADES
The cut and thrust of
clear thinking
18.
IDEAS AND THE ARTISAN
Thought is the raw material
19.
BECOMING A FREEMASON
Reaching further
4.
THE MOSAIC PAVEMENT
Opposires united
5.
KING SOLOMON'STHRONE
The Master's chair
12.
THE VEGETABLE WORLD
Food, signs and attributes
6.
LIGHT
A metaphor for the word
13,
THE ANIMAL WORLD
Images for humankind
CONCLUSION
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PREFACE
Freemasons prosper in all free countries
and wherever there is law and order. They are
victimised and persecuted in all states governed
by the whims of an autocratic ruler or a single
party, and in places where all truth is considered
to be found in a single book which is raised on a
pedestal, a fixed monument.
In the city, that teeming mass of isolated
people inhabiting today's urban sprawls, the
Masonic lodge is a place where people can come
together in a spirit of fraternal joy. The Rule,
rites and symbols, allow every person to become
themselves: to discover that they are all makers
of meaning; to recognise themselves and others
as sources of light adding to the general light,
while accepting that no one of these single
flames can shed light everywhere. Masonic
teaching is known as "The Royal Art", a term
which used to be applied to alchemy. Many
books exist on this subject, but they are generally
so strange and difficult to understand as to infuri-
ate any reader who is unused to going beyond the
literal meaning of things. However, there are two
aspects of the Royal Art-the tradition from
which Freemasons draw most of their symbols-
which should encourage us to examine it more
closely. The first reveals its central role in the
history of human behaviour. Whenever an all-
embracing orthodoxy has the power to exclude
or kill those who have doubts or ask questions,
whenever the pressure to conform is so heavily
imposed that dissenters are threatened with
death, free spirits have always found the means of
sharing and spreading their ideas. This may
involve veiling them in allegory or wrapping
them up in thick layers of lies and absurdity.
The second aspect, which leads on from
the first, places the Royal Art firmly within the
history of ideas. Even today, all the metap,hors
which allude to the act of becoming, and which
we still now use to describe reality, derive from
the vocabulary of alchemy. The act of becoming
is a metamorphosis.
This concept underscores
Masonic thought.
A metamorphosis takes place during a
journey through different landscapes, among
forms and colours, during which each of us is
transformed. But, in this context, the term has
intentionally been trivialised into the act of
putting on a costume and playing a role. Those
who undertake this adventure come out of it
with varying rewards, depending on the land-
scape they visit, their approach, what they make
of it and how much of it they see. A journey of
initiation is not. a package tour. There are no
sign-posts. The risk of becoming lost, of sliding
back when attempting to go forwards, is what
gives life to the unexpected. The intertwining of
danger and promise creates the possibility of
understanding and allows the idea of freedom to
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