‘Emulation Ritual’s bicentenary’

    

emulationloi.org

I wanted to get to this last Monday, which was the actual 200th anniversary, but anyway I’ll note the landmark occasion of the start of Emulation Lodge of Improvement on October 2, 1823 thusly.

Emulation is a Masonic ritual under the English Constitution of Freemasonry. The United Grand Lodge of England has no official ritual; there are, if I understand correctly, approximately eighty rituals found in UGLE lodges around the world, but I’m told practically all of them are variations of Emulation.

What is Emulation?

Seal of the Ancients.

I would say Emulation was the ritual component of bringing together the Grand Lodge of England (the “Moderns” of 1717) and the Grand Lodge According to the Old Institutions (the “Ancients” of 1751). There was a lot more that went into the amalgamation of the grand lodges in 1813 than merely who was going to be in charge. Matters of ritual and regalia and a lot more required a meeting of the minds. To discuss the ritual department, I will defer to Brent Morris and Art de Hoyos, who co-wrote the Introduction to The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry and The Holy Royal Arch, published by the Masonic Book Club in 2021.

The two former rivals had ritual variances and, for the next two years, a Lodge of Reconciliation met to create a new form of ritual acceptable to all. They did not create an ‘authorized ritual’ which was to be enforced throughout the English Constitution, but rather created a satisfactory form of ritual. Lodges would be free to include variations so long as the essentials were included…

In 1823 the Emulation Lodge of Improvement was founded for Master Masons only. Several of its members had belonged to the Burlington and the Perseverance Lodges of Instruction. Burlington began working in 1810 under the Moderns Grand Lodge, while Perseverance started in 1818 under the United Grand Lodge. As Colin Dyer noted, ‘Among the Founders [of Emulation Lodge] were some who were very able ritualists and who had a great deal of experience and expertise in the working of the new forms according to the Grand Stewards’ Lodge system.’ The founders were almost equally split in membership among the former rival grand lodges.

Peter W. Gilkes

Peter William Gilkes (1765-1833) joined Emulation Lodge of Improvement in 1825. He was initiated at age twenty-one in British Lodge No. 4, a Moderns lodge, in 1786, and became a preeminent instructor of Masonic ritual. Although not a member of the Lodge of Reconciliation, he visited it about ten times. He was known for his strict adherence to verbal accuracy, which is still a characteristic of lodges using Emulation working. It is not known precisely when the lodge adopted its particular working, beyond the lectures, but we can narrow it down to a five-year period. In 1830 the lodge sent a petition, or “Memorial,” to the Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, requesting a special warrant to continue its practice, and sometime between then [and] about 1835, it formalized its ritual working. The earliest notice of the Emulation working appeared in an article in The Freemasons Quarterly Review (1836):

About the year, 1823, several Brethren considered that the Masonic lectures were not worked in the Lodges upon a sufficiently regulated system, and that if those whose attainments as working Masons placed them as a prominent authority, were to meet together and to work efficiently, they might be the means of effecting much improvement. They accordingly met, we believe in Wardour Street, pursuant to a general notice in the public papers, which advertisement created a considerable sensation in the Craft. Some members of the Grand Stewards’ Lodge, hitherto the only authority for a recognized system, felt that it was necessary to watch the proceedings. Some Grand Officers, with Brother E. Harper, the Grand Secretary, also attended. The several chairs from the Master to the Outer Guard were all filled with the most practical and experienced Masons of the day; and we have the authority of a Grand Officer for stating,  that never was there so perfect an illustration of the ceremonies and lectures ever before manifested. The visitors separated, highly delighted; and among them, the lamented Peter Gilkes, who so highly approved of the proceedings, that, in about twelve months afterwards, he joined the Lodge, and supported it until the time of his death.

 

It was likely in 1836 that the first version of an “Emulation ritual” was printed, appearing under the title, The Whole of the Lodge Ceremonies, and Lectures in Craft Masonry; as taught by the late P. Gilkes. Although an imprint was absent from the publication, the printer may have been George Claret (1783-1850), a well-known ritualist and acquaintance of Gilkes. This work was the first post-Union plain text English ritual, printed as a fraternal aide-mémoire rather than as a public exposé.

I’m starting to ramble, but let me close with a few words from my copy of Emulation, a well used second edition from 1970 that I bought ages ago from Yasha.

The Emulation ritual MM tracing board from Lewis Masonic’s 1970 edition.

Emulation Working takes its name from the Emulation Lodge of Improvement whose committee are the custodians of this particular ritual.... The Emulation Lodge of Improvement for Master Masons first met on 2nd October 1823. The Lodge was formed for Master Masons only, and worked, in its earliest years, only the Masonic lectures. However by about 1830 in accordance with general practice the ceremonies were also being rehearsed—always with considerable attention to accuracy, so that no alteration might inadvertently become practice. The Lodge of Improvement has met uninterruptedly since those days, so soon after the settling of the ceremonies by Grand Lodge in 1816, for the purpose of demonstrating unchanged, so far as has been humanly possible, the Emulation Ritual in accordance with the original method. Since June 1965 the variations permitted by the Grand Lodge Resolution of December 1964, with consequential amendments, have also been periodically demonstrated.

None of this has anything to do with ritual in lodges in the United States. Our practices commenced in the 1700s and evolved on their own paths into what we have today, with all their differences from state to state. Emulation is perfectly comprehensible to the American eye and ear; the biggest difference, I’d say, is the absence of our Enlightenment-era Prestonian lectures. And they have Working Tools that we do not.

If I’m not mistaken, Emulation can be found in America, in certain lodges that adhere to either the Observant or European Concept models. I think Vitruvian 767 in Indianapolis works it. Many years ago, when Marco became Master of St. John’s 1 in Manhattan, he was installed by a Board of Installed Masters of the Emulation style. Needed dispensation for that.

One of many Emulation books.

Emulation Lodge of Improvement still exists and, in fact, hosted an anniversary celebration Friday night. (I tried to join its private Facebook group last week, but couldn’t pass the test questions!) If you are interested, you can purchase ritual books from Lewis Masonic here.

     

‘1730 Fellow-Craft’s Degree’

     

Thank you for reading The Magpie Mason. Today, we begin our fifteenth year together.

Publicity Lodge 1000 returned from its Summer Refreshment on Monday the twelfth, beginning a new year of Masonic labor. The Magpie Mason was scheduled to present a discussion of Masonic educational value, so, with a Ceremony of Passing on the trestleboard for an upcoming meeting, I chose the Fellow Craft Degree as that topic of conversation. And not just any second degree, but the one printed in 1730 by one Samuel Prichard in his essential ritual exposure Masonry Dissected, newly published by the Masonic Book Club. Masonic rituals, Masonic lodges, Masonic grand lodges, Masonic everythings were very different 300 years ago. All of it was very basic compared to what we have today.

I explained how when Masons think of lodges, we understandably envision the modern lodge room, with its varied furniture, seating arrangement, equipment, décor, etc., but things were primitive in the early eighteenth century when lodges met in tavern dining rooms or in private homes. There were no tall pillars flanking the Inner Door (there was no Inner Door!), and instead the brethren spoke ritually of J and B, explaining their purposes and describing their looks, using language similar enough to what we know today.

I told the lodge I was going to read the ritual of the degree. Read the ritual?! That could take hours! Yet the ritual of that period was very basic as well, consisting of a call-and-response dialog among the Worshipful Master and the brethren (not unlike our current Opening and Closing rituals) that spans only five pages of the MBC edition. The Fellow Craft Degree of 1730 included no elaborate floor work, no lengthy monolog lecture or other ceremonious orations, no hoodwink, nor other elements we today expect. Some of those features already were revealed to the candidate during the “Enter’d ’Prentice’s Degree,” and so went forsaken in the second degree. Anyway, reading the entire “Fellow-Craft’s Degree” ritual required only a couple of minutes. I won’t transcribe it all here, but do recommend to you the new book from the MBC. They will have more copies for sale after the subscription sales have been satisfied. (I saw Lewis Masonic had it listed for sale the other day, but it seems to be gone from their website now.)

Unsurprisingly, the letter G is very significant to the degree. I’ll share this brief passage. It rhymes and is in question-and-answer form. The dialog is between the Master and different brethren in the lodge (not the candidate, who wouldn’t be capable of answering), so you really had to know your ritual because you wouldn’t know which answers you’d be expected to recite on any given evening.

Q. Can you repeat the letter G?

A. I’ll do my endeavor. In the midst of Solomon’s Temple there stands a G, a letter fair to all to read and see, but few there be that understands what means that letter G.

Q. My friend, if you pretend to be of this fraternity, you can forthwith and rightly tell what means that letter G.

A. By sciences are brought to light bodies of various kinds, which do appear to perfect sight, but none but males shall know my mind.

Q. The Right shall.

A. If Worshipful.

Q. Both Right and Worshipful I am, to hail you I have command, that you do forthwith let me know, as I you may understand.

A. By Letters Four [the Word of EA] and Science Five [the fifth science, Geometry] this G aright does stand, in a due art and proportion, you have your answer, friend.

Q. My friend, you answer well, if Right and Free Principles you discover, I’ll change your name from friend, and henceforth call you Brother.

A. The Sciences are well composed of noble structure’s verse, a Point, a Line, and an Outside, but a Solid is the last.

Q. God’s good greeting be to this our happy meeting.

A. And all the Right Worshipful Brothers and Fellows.

Q. Of the Right Worshipful and Holy Lodge of St. John’s.

A. From whence I came.

Q. Greet you, greet you, greet you thrice, heartily well, craving your name.

A. (Candidate gives his name.)

Q. Welcome, Brother, by the grace of God.

     

‘Masonry disrupted’

    

MBC photo

Frontispiece and title page, autographed by Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris, are ready to go. That’s Harry Carr, as rendered by Travis Simpkins, at left. Carr edited the MBC’s first imprint of Masonry Dissected in the 1970s, and his commentary is updated for this edition.

Masonry Dissected, the 1730 English ritual exposure to be published anew this month by the Masonic Book Club, is delayed, according to an email sent today to us subscribers.

Shortages of both white paper and colored binding materials are disruptive enough, but a ransomware attack on the printing company delayed the job. If you’ve been waiting with anticipation, you may remember yesterday would have been the shipping date but, as Brent Morris explained in today’s email newsletter, the printer now says July 19 sometime in August.

“We haven’t yet decided on the 2023 volume because we want to see the costs of paper, ink, and other materials,” he also said. “As a point of reference, the manufacturing costs today for [last year’s book] are about 70 percent higher than they were in 2021!”

And so it goes.

Click here for some background.

      

‘This mighty Secret’

    

The Masonic Book Club announced today how its second offering to subscribers will be Masonry Dissected, that early ritual exposure from 1730 that gives us the first evidence of a Master’s Degree.

To recap: The MBC is no longer organized for dues-paying members, but instead now publishes books in limited runs predicated on advance sales. Pre-paid orders, at $30 per copy, are being accepted now through February 28. We can expect to receive our books in the mail in June. Those who decline to purchase in advance are to be pitied, and therefore will have a slight chance of obtaining the book at $40 a copy. Don’t be one of those guys.

Samuel Prichard is unknown to history save for the publication of this book, the full title of which is:

Masonry Dissected; being a Universal and Genuine Description Of all its Branches from the Original to this Present Time. As it is deliver’d in the Constituted, Regular Lodges, Both in the City and Country, According to the Several Degrees of Admission; Giving an Impartial Account of their Regular Proceedings in Initiating their New Members in the whole Three Degrees of Masonry, viz. I. Entered ’Prentice; II. Fellow Craft; III. Master. To which is added, The Author’s Vindication of himself. By Samuel Prichard, late member of a Constituted Lodge. London; Printed for J. Wilford, at the Three Flower-de-Luces behind the Chapter-house near St. Paul’s. 1730 (price 6 d).

And that vindication?

If all the Impositions that have appear’d amongst Mankind, none are so ridiculous as the Mystery of Masonry, which has amus’d the World, and caused various Constructions and these Pretences of Secrecy, invalid, has (tho’ not perfectly) been revealed, and the grand Article, viz. the Obligation, has several Times been printed in the Publick Papers, but is entirely genuine in the Daily Journal of Saturday, Aug. 22, 1730, which agrees in its Veracity with that deliver’d in this Pamphlet; and consequently when the Obligation of Secrecy is abrogated, the aforesaid Secret becomes of no Effect, and must be quite extinct; for some Operative Masons (but according to the polite way of Expression, Accepted Masons) made a Visitation from the first and oldest constituted Lodge (according to the Lodge Book in London) to a noted Lodge in this City, and was denied Admittance, because their old Lodge was removed to another House, which, tho’ contradictory to this great Mystery, requires another Constitution, at no less Expense than two Guineas, with an elegant Entertainment, under the Denomination of being put to Charitable uses, which if justly applied, will give great Encomiums to so worthy an Undertaking, but it is very much doubted, and most remarkable to think it will be expended towards the forming another System of Masonry, the old Fabric being so ruinous, that unless repair’d by some occult Mystery, will soon be annihilated.

I was induced to publish this mighty Secret for the public Good at the Request of several Masons, and it will, I hope, give entire Satisfaction, and have its desired Effect in preventing so many credulous Persons being drawn into so pernicious a Society.

Cazart! That guy needed an editor. We today are lucky to have Brent Morris and Arturo de Hoyos, who are reprinting the MBC’s earlier imprint of Masonry Dissected, and augmenting Harry Carr’s commentary.

I’ve always wondered somewhat if the author truly intended to harm the Craft, because what actually happened was our ancient brethren were able to obtain a ritual book for use as a guide. Grand lodges wouldn’t publish such books officially for about another 200 years, so I figure it’s possible that Prichard deserves some credit for promulgating and proliferating the Third Degree. In addition to being reprinted twenty-one times up to 1787, Masonry Dissected also was translated into Dutch, French, and German in the 1730s, when Freemasonry took root across Europe. Unintended consequences? Coincidences? I wonder.

     

‘Possible MBC offerings’

      

You’re all subscribers of the Masonic Book Club, yes?

Well, if you aren’t, you will want to remedy that to avail yourselves of the rare titles the MBC is considering for publication.

Last month, the vast support staff at the MBC polled its subscribers—“and I think we all know how painful that can be”—to assess our interest in these seven books. You’ve read a few; you’ve heard of some; you don’t know others. From the survey:

The Arcane Schools by John Yarker was published in 1909 and is a survey of initiatory practices and connections worldwide which may share a relationship to Masonry and esoteric societies. The book is similar to Frazer’s The Golden Bough in some regards, and contains much interesting (as well as highly speculative) material.

The Book M or Masonry Triumphant was first published in 1736 and has never been reprinted. This rare work contains early versions of Masonic history, lectures, charges, and songs. The title may allude to Rosicrucian themes, and has an esoteric bent.

Burlesque Degrees were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These are parodies of fraternal initiations intended to be performed for the amusement of members, families, and friends. This collection would feature the more popular such scripts.

The Meaning of Masonry and Masonic Initiation by W.L. Wilmshurst are two of the most popular esoteric Masonic books. Wilmshurst’s works explore deeper esoteric aspects of the rituals, and how they relate to practical Masonic work for the member.

Reprints by the Leicestershire Lodge of Research No. 2429 were published from 1907 to 1929. They were much like MBC volumes, reproducing significant Masonic documents (usually pamphlets) with commentaries. The collection is very scarce and valuable.

The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry by Arthur Edward Waite was first published in 1911. The expanded and revised 1937 edition was so much improved that he considered it a new text. It traces esoteric themes within the degrees and rites.

Three Distinct Knocks and Jachin and Boaz, with commentary. After Masonry Dissected was published in 1730, there was almost a 30-year gap before new exposures like these appeared in England and showed how the ritual had evolved. These purported to reveal the rituals of the Antients and Moderns.

I want ’em all, but we were asked to rank them in preference, so we’ll see how it shakes out.

Join the Masonic Book Club today and cast your vote!

     

‘Masonry Dissected is MBC’s next’

    

Courtesy MBC

The recently relaunched Masonic Book Club notified its members Wednesday how its next offering will be Masonry Dissected, the seminal ritual exposure that informs historians of the earliest available form of the Master Mason Degree.

So, yes, you’ll want to make certain you have this. The MBC did print this title back in the seventies, but this edition will augment that classic text (with Harry Carr’s commentary) with new thoughts from Brent Morris and Arturo de Hoyos. MBC members will get the memo when it’s time to place orders.

Masonry Dissected burst onto the London Masonic scene in 1730, and was reprinted and reproduced multiple times around England in just a couple of weeks. Whether it was intended to be an aid to the memory for the brethren’s benefit or a malicious betrayal of secrets, I don’t know. What I can promise you is you’ll be amazed by both the form of Masonic ritual in the early eighteenth century and by how much you’ll recognize from what your lodge does today.

     

‘MBC’s first offering announced’

     

The newly reestablished Masonic Book Club’s first title is a in production. The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry and the Holy Royal Arch are “the lineal ancestors of the official Emulation ritual and lectures,” according to the MBC’s announcement.

Per the stated conditions, the presses will roll only if the sufficient number of copies are sold in advance, and you have until January 21 to place your order (I was the tenth to do so). The cost of this 392-page volume is only $25. Click here.

With its publicity today, the MBC provided a PDF sample of the book that includes seven pages of the 21-page Introduction, and several pages of lodge Opening ritual. This will be a beautiful book, replete with marbled covers, decorated pages, and a satin ribbon—so you won’t have to dog-ear the pages like a savage. A step above the SRRS’s laudable Heredom, which is not an unattractive book.

If Perfect Ceremonies goes to press, it will ship at the end of March; if not, buyers will receive their refunds at the end of January. So order today! I want to see if the lectures are Preston’s or Hemming’s.

     

‘Masonic Book Club’

     
If you’ve been wondering what has been going on with the Masonic Book Club, an announcement from the Illinois Lodge of Research tonight on Facebook clarifies things:

“In response to several inquiries, the Masonic Book Club of Illinois is no longer in operation and was formally dissolved on June 14, 2013.”

Courtesy Princeton Antiques & Books

It has been about five years since the MBC published a book, so this is not quite shocking news, but it still is a notable loss. The club reprinted rare, historic, and odd out-of-print titles from the vast corpus of Masonic literature. Reading these unique books was rewarding, but waiting to see which curiosity would arrive in the mail was the fun of it.

I think it was around eight years ago when Secretary Robin Carr stepped aside, and I knew then the MBC would not endure for long. Many projects in Freemasonry cease when their sole organizers retire or pass away. The MBC website remains on-line, another predictable example of confusion among the workmen, but I wish I knew the disposition of the inventory of books.
     

'At the bindery'

If you ever considered joining the Masonic Book Club, now is an opportune time. The 2009 book is late, but I'm told it is now at the bindery, the last step before shipping.

Members should receive the book, a reprint of Prof. John Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy from 1798, in about three weeks.

A little more information is here.

This copy of Proofs of a Conspiracy is a fourth edition published in 1798. It is among the items displayed at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library at Lexington, Massachusetts in its current exhibit on anti-Masonry.

The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library (previously the National Heritage Museum) is now exhibiting Freemasonry Unmasked!: Anti-Masonic Collections in the Van Gorden-Williams Library and Archives. More information is forthcoming on The Magpie Mason, but in the meantime click here.

‘Conspiracy!’

     
The Masonic Book Club has begun the new year with an announcement of its 2009 book offering: Proofs of a Conspiracy: Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, Carried on in the Secret Meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies by Professor John Robison. Magpie readers, if you ever wondered exactly how the surreal fears and outlandish speculations that have surrounded our gentle Craft for centuries were conceived, this book answers your curiosity.

Archived within the restricted access Rare Book and Manuscript Library on the sixth floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, is this fourth edition of Proofs of a Conspiracy: Against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, Carried on in the Secret Meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati and Reading Societies by Professor John Robison. The Magpie Mason had the good fortune to peruse this archive’s Masonic (and anti-Masonic) contents during a visit in 2007 with the Masonic Library and Museum Association. Sorry for the blurred image.

The MBC describes it:

“This book represents a good synopsis of the events it describes. It shows the frame of mind of the time. It is surely worth reading by everyone interested in this topic.

“Interestingly by the time this book was first published, the organization of Bavarian Illuminati was gone. Robinson was very much an advocate of science and rationalism, in later life, disillusioned by the French Revolution, he became an ardent monarchist.

“Robinson traced the story of the 1776 founding of the Illuminati by Adam Weishaupt, a professor at Ingolstadt and the suppression of the order by the royal and church authorities of Bavaria in 1785. However, his preaching against it raised the specter of conspiracy, which still hangs over the Illuminati.

“Nonetheless, this book makes fascinating reading, and in conjunction with other historical accounts of the French Revolution, helps put into perspective this period of history.

“John Robison (1739-1805) was a Scottish scientist who wrote one of the definitive studies of the Bavarian Illuminati. He was a contemporary and collaborator with James Watt, with whom he worked on an early steam car; contributor to the 1797 Encyclopedia Britannica; professor of philosophy at the University of Edinburgh; and inventor of the siren.”

What concerns me is the back-to-back books from the MBC on matters Illuminati. I just don’t think it is that fascinating a subject, or even significant enough to Masonic studies, to justify two consecutive books that concern the Illuminati. The 2008 choice from the MBC was reviewed by The Magpie Mason here, and I’m just hoping the same individual who brought that text to the publisher’s attention is not involved with this one also. (But I was amused to see the tiny blurb on the MBC website that markets the 2008 book lifts phrases directly from my review of last February.)

There are positive changes at the MBC that should not go unappreciated. After many years of incommunicado management that left prospective subscribers wondering for months if they had become members, the MBC now has this website, replete with an on-line store, PayPal payment option, and some information on when to expect delivery. The inventory of previous years’ selections is listed for your perusal, with each title priced fairly to equal a year’s dues. And speaking of dues, you can pay yours on-line. The MBC is now affiliated with the Illinois Lodge of Research’s Louis L. Williams Library, which has been a vendor of Masonic books and has maintained a web presence for some time. This alone says a lot about the direction the MBC is taking, and I wish them well. I’ve been a reliable cheerleader for the club since I joined, and I hope to remain so.

Just get the books into the mail, okay guys? You mentioned an October ’09 delivery.


Magpie edit: I just wanted to provide this link to today’s Boston 1775 blog concerning this topic. It’s a great blog. Bookmark it, and check in often.
     

‘Diogenes’ Lamp’

   
It’s been months since the Magpie Mason reviewed a book, and now that the 2008 offering from the Masonic Book Club is out, what better opportunity?


“Diogenes’ Lamp” by Adam Weishaupt is subtitled “Or, an Examination of Our Present-Day Morality and Enlightenment.”


If you know who Weishaupt was, you realize his present day was the late 18th and early 19th centuries – the Enlightenment – and that he founded the storied and feared Illuminati. But it would be wrong to view this as an Illuminati book. This originally was published near the end of Weishaupt’s life, several decades after the Illuminati was suppressed by the state, and the author renounced his affiliation with the order.

Diogenes of course was the Greek philospher of the Cynic school who carried a lamp in broad daylight in his search for an honest man.

“When I compare our world of today with the worlds of older times – the worlds of the Greeks and the Romans, or even just the Middle Ages – the differences appear so great to me that, by my way of thinking, people from those distant eras would have trouble recognizing themselves in us or convincing themselves that the scene of their former activities is still the same place and that we are their descendants,” Weishaupt begins his book. “Not just people and actors have changed, but also objects and things. Both Heaven and Earth have expanded since that time, and entirely new peoples have shared in the ruling of this earthly globe. Where, in the older world, nomadic tribes wandered with their flocks through the wilderness, states have now arisen that, like so many powers of the first water, have advanced the direction of European political knowledge.”

If only the man could have seen how his own name and his Illuminati would fuel the minds of paranoid, benighted kooks and opportunist authoritarians alike in generations to come.

“Diogenes’ Lamp” is a discourse in the first person. Not divided into chapters or subjects (he really could have benefitted from an editor), this book is a clarion in Weishaupt’s voice calling for man to arise to right thinking and right action. It is a philosophical treatise, and reading it, one cannot help but wonder why he continues to inspire so many conspiracy theorists. Not only is his philosophy non-threatening to decent people and just societies, but there isn’t even anything “new” in his thinking.

“For about four thousand years, as far back as our history goes, we humans have, on this earth, thought, acted, believed, taught, and governed. Despite all this, it is widely and generally believed that we remain unchanged, and not one iota better than before. If this belief has grounds, then thinking, believing, teaching, and governing are the most unnecessary things in the world, and it would be impossible to make their disgrace and disparagement more plain.”

Here he seems to reject Rousseau’s grim view of human nature and culture. He continues:

“Our assessment of humanity’s moral behavior does not look much better. In this area as well, all human beings hold very high opinions of themselves. Humanity’s finer side conceals such opinions behind the veil of modesty. But this so-pleasant virtue is for the most part just a facial expression we assume... As a result, everyone has the greatest difficulty suspecting themselves capable of flaws and afflictions.”

I’m reminded of Decartes and his “Discourse on Method,” in which his wit and candor are set to labor, very effectively, to make the reader laugh at human foibles. Weishaupt however is more blunt than witty.

“I am malicious, if this way of being different deserves to be called malicious, because I am neither a flatterer nor blind; because I distinguish between the better driving forces and the worse ones; because no one could wish more for things to be better than they are; and because at the same time I am convinced that things cannot be better until people stop failing to recognize the true forces driving their actions. If using a higher standard to determine people’s true value indicates maliciousness, then I cannot deny that I am malicious, and I believe I would be the loser if I were any other way.”

Contrary to resembling the architect of a godless, totalitarian “New World Order,” Weishaupt reveals himself in these pages as an optimistic thinker with highly Catholic tastes. (He was Jesuit educated.)

“Our men of the world are completely correct when they claim that a person can act morally, be a very upright, generally respected, and beloved man, and still be able to deny the future. People certainly have sufficient other reasons for behaving justly and correctly. They do not require the gallows or the wheel to do so. A certain moral behavior results from the nature of the relationships under which we live. Our needs force us to fulfill certain obligations. Some of the ends we pursue with themost yearning cannot be achieved without our suppression of our own demands and self-interest. It is in every man’s interest to be just and moderate… There is also no lack of examples of men who denied the future and yet lived as philanthropists.

“This may well all be probably perfectly true. A morality built on unbelief may be completely adequate for humans to become the way they currently are, but it is not adequate if people want to become more than they currently are; it is not adequate if the source of our lamentations is to be lifted. it does not suffice for making people into what they are capable of becoming, or ennobling the mind itself as the source of all behavior. it does not suffice for people to act uniformly and always in this same manner. It does not raise the mind up above all temptations and attractions, to do the opposite. there are situations in which the usual reasons for correct behavior do not pass the test. There are situations that raise people up above the usual considerations...

“Therefore, if men of the world call upon the philanthropy and goodness of their actions as evidence of higher morality, they may indeed be very good, when judged by their effects, but this does not prevent the source from being dishonest and the foundation from being shaky. What is truly good is found not in the actions but in the convictions. The virtue exists not in individual deeds, because virtue is a Whole, and where it is not, there can be good deeds that are not good, and there are only too many of those.”

For Weishaupt, the perfect society is a busy place. Its citizens are striving for happiness, each by bringing his strengths and weaknesses into balance. In Masonic history, Operative Masonry was the laborious construction of physical buildings, which gave way to Speculative Masonry, as in the improvement of the self through gradual embracing of high minded ideals. Adam Weishaupt takes us full circle. His Operatives would metabolize the Speculative teachings, making them second nature, and then resume their labors in constructing, not stone cathedrals, but societies founded on virtues.

Of course that is what agitates the manipulators of religion and politics. In short, his thesis is the twin of that of the 32° of Scottish Rite Masonry, which came to light almost simultaneously to the publication of this book.

Drawing his conclusion, Weishaupt says “...we would be very much in error if we wanted to believe that this insight and conviction are for everyone. Convincing oneself that such a way of acting is the only way and the best way requires, if you do not want to fool and undermine yourself with empty words, great understanding of the overall situation, and thus a very highly developed mind. It presupposes that you first know how many ways of acting exist, which effect result from each of them, how every deed, emotion, and idea behaves in relation to what has already happened. It requires you to be able to prove the agreement and the contradictions of yourself and others, and to be able to distinguish the apparent agreement or contradiction from the real. All of these are great and unusual prerequisites and characteristics.

“In general, acting in accordance with the purest of motivations and highest principles is such an equivocal thing, associated with so many difficulties, that in reality it is one of the rarest of occurrences.”


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It is essential reading, but there are big problems with this book. Masonic Book Club publications often are facsimiles of original and rare titles, allowing the modern eye to see the books as they were intended for the first readers. Because Weishaupt’s original is in German, a direct reproduction is impossible. The typeface chosen for this printing makes an already challenging content a little more difficult to read for comprehension. I don’t know the name of this font, but it is italicized and has exaggerated serifs. The accumulated effect of hundreds of pages of this is not kind to the eyes.

Also, Weishaupt, a native of Bavaria, obviously composed his teachings in German, so this publication is an English translation. (The text is translated by Amelia Gill.) Nevertheless, the text includes numerous quotations of Greek, Latin and French sources, and there is extensive use of German; none of these are translated into English. Footnotes could have been used, or even an appendix, but no such luck. A rotten editorial judgment that detracts from this book’s usefulness because Weishaupt uses these quotations for direction before expanding on their meanings.

Even worse, frankly, is the 20-page, two-part introduction authored by Mark Bruback, who inexplicably is credited as a Knight Templar. What that affiliation has to do with this book or with the MBC is lost on me. He also is listed as the project coordinator, a mysterious appellation requiring a visit to his MySpace page for clarification. As it appears on February 8:

“I acquired the dusty old volume, Lara Croft style, in an old Masonic Library where I instantaneously recognized the author’s name and proceeded to carefully flip through the aged manuscript. Printed in Austria in 1804, its brittle 368 pages stirred in me a wonder.”

And then:

“Even though I have been offered thousands of Dollars by various private individuals and churches to sell the original book, I felt it so important to continue this project I had to turn them down. Afraid they might try and destroy it and/or slant it in their own unknown agendas, I declined their offers when the prospect (and need) for money in my life was very strong.

“In order to safe guard the book, I heavily insured it and mailed it to the Masonic Temple in Evanston, Illinois. I let my contact, (the Knight Templar commander who knighted me there in 2001) know the importance (and financial value) of safeguarding the book and suggested it be put in the large vault within the sanctified walls of the temple.”

There is no explanation of how this rare and valuable book, once the property of a Masonic library, came to be owned by Sir Knight Bruback for his disposal. (If SK Bruback is reading this, he is cordially invited to post a comment to explain. The lamp Diogenes carried, after all, was to help him find on honest man.)

He goes on to say he intends to publish this commercially.

“I am relieved now as the Masonic Book Club of America is releasing this gem in December of this year, slated as their book for 2008… This is by no means the stopping point of this project. My literary agent J. Joyce is working hard, as we speak, to find a major publishing house to release this book to the masses.”

I would direct his attention to page iv, where the MBC’s copyright is printed.

Anyway, his introduction to “Diogenes’ Lamp” rambles in a juvenile voice, displays a variety of style inconsistencies, and distracts the reader with countless errors in punctuation and grammar. Note to the editor: The ampersand (&) is not universally interchangeable with “and,” the proper conjunction that eluded you. Albert Mackey’s name has become MacKey. And on, and on. These transgressions are so numerous and so damaging to the book that longtime members of the MBC are in for a staggering shock. Perhaps the patrician reliability of the Club is being dropped in an appeal to the My Space generation. (If you do not know, the Masonic Book Club has begun a new era under new management upon the recent retirement of Robin Carr. I hope the new management gets the help it needs. Today.)

As one popular Masonic author phrased it yesterday, “The good news is that we at last have the first book of authentic Illuminati writings translated into English. The bad news is it's this one.”

This misstep aside, the MBC is worthy of the brethren’s support. I think. Membership is limited to 1,500 and vacancies exist. There is a new website.