Do Masons Really Worship Lucifer?
Albert Pike is one of the main figures whose name and work is always trotted out when people get to arguing about Masonry. Anti-Masons are always trying to use his writing to prove things like that Masons worship Lucifer. I don’t know enough about this to make a decree one way or another. But I’ve explored this elsewhere a bit in my article, “Is Jesus Lucifer?” It seems mainly that Masons, if they really do venerate Lucifer, do so in the esoteric tradition where Lucifer is not evil or the Devil, but is symbolic of liberation and free will.
There is a really interesting passage from Albert Pike on the subject of Satan/Lucifer at yet another anti-Masonic website:
“If the buckler [shield] of Satan did not stay the flight of Michael’s lance, the power of the Archangel would be lost in the void, or would necessarily display and manifest itself by an infinite destruction, directed from above to below.
“And if the foot of Michael did not arrest Satan in his ascent, Satan would go to dethrone God, or to lose himself in the abysses of height.
“Satan is then necessary to Michael, as the pedestal to the statue; and Michael to Satan, as the brake to the locomotive.
This seems to be another variation on the doctrine that Rudolf Steiner taught, using the names Lucifer and Ahriman to represent these universally opposing forces:
In simplest terms these two represent energy and matter respectively. Lucifer is the symbol of energy, dynamic motion, dissolution of boundaries, and in a larger context, light, transcendence, and immateriality, hence an association with spirituality and even morality that can be misleading.
Ahriman is the symbol of matter, crystallization, formation of boundaries and limitations, solidification in all regions. Ahriman is the tendency for the animate to become inanimate, for motion to become stillness. Ahriman is thus identified with unconsciousness, materialism, and stasis. Because matter is ‘mute’ Ahriman can be considered to be the enemy of nonmaterial abstractions like morality and ethics.
Neither one is inherently harmful. Without Lucifer there is no motion, only dead matter, and without Ahriman there is no form, only endlessly fluctuating colliding forces.
I’m no Mason, but this seems like something that comes up again and again in esoteric traditions. If I had to interpet it for myself, I’d say the idea of venerating Lucifer “merely” is the recognition of the lifeforce, the spark that moves matter into energy and consciousness. Lucifer, after all, means “light-bringer.” I’ll have to look into this more, but this seems like a good start for further exploration.
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12 Comments
Hmm… I’m a little surprised of that you’re not more interested in the big picture of masonry. I’ve read many of your other memos on Jehovas Witnesses and Scientology for example, and you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see the connection. I think Hubbard really proved the point with his doctrine, simply that it doesn’t matter what you teach, It’s the way you teach it. Freemasonry has always been about the way the teaching and symbology is presented, to make the lower mason to follow the higher masons. Theres many many doctrines teached under the umbrella of Freemasonry, but the system is always the same (and pretty much the same as Latter Day Saints, Mormons and Hubbard) You find the system in the Muslim world (who probaly had the first “masonic” organisations) and you ofcourse find it in the christian world too. I really think you should atleast try the case of that Pike and his buddies never was interested in “enlightning” enybody of his lower masons. But hey, I’ve been wrong before….
Jay is right when he makes the connection between Freemasonry and Islam. More specifically, the masonic rites derive from the teaching of the ninth century mystic Dhu’l Nun al-Misri who founded the order called al-Bannayin or ‘the Builders’.
The Islamic/Masonic links are many and obvious - even on the overt level (exclusion of women, the black and white chequerboard patterns, the appellation of ‘bey’ in early US Masonry as well as links to the Shriners who reference Mecca rather than the Temple of Solomon) but there is an even more interesting and under-researched aspect in the figure of Satan.
Satan, in the Sufi reading (ie not orthodox Islamic) is the original true monotheist and hence regarded as someone who is the Sufi archetype. Unlike in Christianity, his ’sin’ was to refuse to bow to Adam as God commanded him to - hence he was exiled. But in the Sufi belief he was a good Muslim for refusing God in this way as no-one but God should be worshipped. hence the Sufis hold Satan in very high regard - this is alter seen in such Sufi-derived groups as the Yezidis and also, in this instance, the Masons.
There is much more to the Sufi/Masonic connections (including the fact that the Ka’aba was built wit 33 degrees or courses of stone and wood) but I won’t bore anyone with them here
Thanks Segovius. That’s all very helpful. Do you know of any resources which highlight the Islamic(Sufi)/Masonic connection?
Follow the development from the first heretical Islamic orders, like the “Hashshashin”. What I found really interesting is that most of these muslim orders was/is very anti-islamic in their higher degrees, just as the western masonic systems are. That’s an important connection.
Sorry. That should be: … just as the western masonic systems are anti-christian in their higher degrees…
PS.
I very much am interested in it, but thought it would be easiest to carve it off in chunks and ask people for help. It seems to be working.
I’ve been studying masonry and talking to masons for several years now, pretty much because i wanted to find out what their “secret doctrine” is, just as i’ve been trying out many other mystery religions the same way. But the conclusion i came to with masonry was not a pure teaching, symbology or doctrine… just the same controll system everywhere… And even if the “masters” and founders practice some serious wierd ritual stuff in the top degrees they teach confusing symbology to the lower degrees to make them even more cut of from their normal social networks…
Hi Tim - I do not know of any really good resources on the net. I suppose if this area is related to a Masonic inner teaching then it is not so surprising.
I think the Bektashi Dervish order are very much a survival of the earlier root of Masonry though. They might be worth a look. Big in Albania.
Antiquities of the Illuminati has a very extensive online book tracing the origins of Freemasons, which does touch on Yezidis etc.
Well, isn’t that exactly the whole point of mystery religions, Jay? That it’s a mystery? Of course it’s going to be confusing and hidden from the lower levels of initiates. The way I understand it is that it’s got everything to do with levels of psychological and spiritual preparedness, and the levels of iniation are designed to induce and/or recognize them. I think your apparent frustration with it seems like exactly how you’re supposed to be feeling. It sounds like you want to just skip ahead to the end, without going through all the middle stuff.
Tim - re the Islamic connection, there are some pics you might find interesting of Shriner/Masonic symbols over in this thread at the Rigorous Intuition Board.
Most fascinating is the similarity between the Shriner symbol and the New Orleans Police logo - actually it’s the same. And it’s the Islamic Start and Crescent!
Lucifer is from Latin lux=light and ferre=to bear; Lucifer means “the light bearer.” The gospels were written in Greek, and there Jesus is referred to as phosphoros - Greek for “the light bearer.”
The mystery schools, just like the major religions, were started by good people who knew what they were talking about and wanted to help other seekers. Then the fucking Matrix gets wind of it and proceeds to invade and hijack.
By following the clues and connecting the dots, it may be possible to reverse engineer the Lie back to the Truth, but you’d have to be willing to find out for yourself what the truth is about everything no matter what it turns out to be - that’s the secret ingredient.
So, some people are worshipping the light bearer; the Matrix (aka the Archons) corrupts it and turns it to serve entropy/darkness/negative - but keeps the name lucifer, and invents all this mythological bullshit about refusing to obey God and getting punished, when refusing to obey the half-maker is the very way to the truth. This is just the sort of double triple twist we should expect from Twisted Shadowy Creatures who hate us for having the divine spark they lack.