I bow before the divine intelligence which we all are in humble gratitude that I can again address you for a year on subjects the deep thinking Mason can’t help but consider. I contend there is a core secret in Freemasonry that is sequestered in our gentle Craft for a future aware generation to recognize. I believe that which Masonry protects is vital to the continuation of the human species on Earth. I believe the esoteric is often a path for young men today to seek membership in Freemasonry.

In my articles I may expose you to concepts that a traditionally educated mind won’t want to consider. With your back against the wall you will exclaim that indeed your teachers were correct! Just for fun though, just for a minute once a month as you read this column, put on your unattached mindset and consider the idea that what if, in some rare instance (or every single instance maybe) of history, what we are taught is not because it is true, but because it’s what everybody for generations was taught and believed to be true, and maybe, in this rare instance I’m suggesting, someone back in history interjected their interpretation of that event that wasn’t accurate but ended up getting taught for so long that it is presumed to be actual history? What if in some particularly rare instance (or maybe every single instance), this interjection of a different take on a historical event was done not to aggrandize a king’s memory, but done to manipulate the population; to get the people to believe something occurred in history that made things the way they are now, as a way to cover up the fact that they themselves in fact have made things the way they are now, usually for their own profit, and at the expense of the people.

If you can accept that could have actually happened, say, once (and clearly it has...history is written by the victors), then be prepared that I might show you architectural evidence, art evidence, geologic evidence, and photographic evidence that the world might have gone through a rigorous transformation during the formative years of Freemasonry (the period around the 1717 formation of the first Grand Lodge). A transformation that has been overlooked because of a confusion of historical periods and dating. A transformation that repeated again in the 1800’s.I came about this line of inquiry because you may recall from when I last wrote this column I explored how Masonry points the way to the realization that we are eternal spiritual beings that can wake up to our True nature while in body.

The next line of inquiry I have made is from the second degree admonition to look at the science, architecture, art, and mathematics of the period of the formation of Freemasonry. I looked for clues to what our craft’s originators might have hidden in it, if they did hide anything. Was there any technology we knew then that we have forgotten? Remember my thesis is that Masonry is a message in a bottle about who we really are, where we came from, and the secrets to a lost technology that was used to build the megalithic stone buildings (from pyramids to cathedrals) around the world. If there was a group of learned men during a cataclysmic period that saw this knowledge about to be lost, perhaps in the face of an enemy, I suggest they may have stored this knowledge in plain site in the structure of Freemasonry.

Or maybe not, and I’m tilting at windmills and Masonry really is only the outer teachings about Faith, Hope, and Charity. Of morality. Of mortality. Of fidelity of trust. Maybe all the Masonic esotericists which abound today are making a mystery out of borrowed symbols from an amalgamation of ancient mystery school traditions that in sum total don’t really mean anything at all. I am not of the opinion that is the case, but my mind remains open.Outside of my personal quest to ferret out an understanding of our symbols, membership growth in our lodges is a good reason to explore the esoteric in Freemasonry. There are a few reasons people will join a club. Education (learn about a new hobby maybe), personal/spiritual growth (one might join a church or an ashram, or AA), maybe they might join a club to build business and give to the community (Rotary, Kiwanis).

Masonry can provide a man with all these opportunities, but for most of these things there are other more attractive venues today than a club where you have to wear an apron and memorize a bunch of stuff. (Don’t get me wrong, I am proud to wear the apron of a Master Mason, and I enjoy memorizing...I’m just exaggerating how some might view us at first glance).But Freemasonry has something different no other organization has. Our gentle craft is replete with obvious clues that point to something significant. It points to a spiritual knowledge which we have already explored (the Monad, the point within a circle, must be represented in every regular lodge...how more blatant can a symbol be to point to our True nature?).

Most obviously though Masonry points to a lost knowledge of a technology. I mean, unless you really believe outer space aliens built the pyramids and cathedrals around the planet, then you have to admit us humans built those things, and well, we can’t do it today and we have no idea how it was done, so pretty much that means we’re talking about a lost technology. That means we did not progress from stupid apes to texting while driving. We had a world wide advanced culture and it was lost. The stone masonry around the planet shows giant machine tool marks, molded stone, and stone shaped while in a softened state. But there’s more, because these stone structures around the planet are now known to all lie on a giant earth-wide geometric grid. That had to take some impressive technology. The esoteric messages in Masonry have to do with something at the root of the human condition on this planet. Something that changed. Something that is hidden if not completely lost. I believe this aspect of Freemasonry, whether the esoteric stuff really does mean anything or not, is an attractive element to today’s potential Masons.

This is not why your grandfather joined lodge, and I know a lot of long time Masons do not want to even think about the esoteric. It really is so much folderol, right? Well, unfortunately men don’t join Masonry to grow their business anymore. It’d be nice to cultivate that environment again, but Rotary has that niche in our community today. Some few men may join Masonry to better themselves and to seek a spiritual connection with a brotherhood. That is a culture worth fostering in our lodges and is very likely to attract some few new members. Some people do seek out a venue for becoming better people and giving to the community, and often we’re on their short list of organization options.

I believe there is value in fostering a culture of interest in the esoteric. Our lodge room alone abounds with symbols with veiled levels of meaning, not to speak of our ritual. Did you know that an image of a pelican in early esoteric art refers to a piece of glassware used in Alchemy? Esoteric symbols were used all over the art and architecture during the formative years of Freemasonry. Of course our craft is filled with these symbols. Our symbols speak to other layers of meaning, but even our most overt stories like King Solomon’s Temple must lead one to wonder. King Solomon’s temple is one of the most prominent symbols in Freemasonry. King Solomon’s temple was built to hold the Arc of the Covenant, a possibly nuclear powered device that burned bushes in it’s path, had to be carried on long wooden poles, and would blind anyone that looked at it. The building constructed to house it was made with no iron in it’s construction, was made of solid stone, and the inside lined with thick solid sheets of gold.

We’re not talking a wedding chapel kind of thing here. Clearly this building was special in a technological way, and Freemasonry makes a big deal about it...why? And then the Jewish historian Josephus says; “the temple was burnt four hundred and seventy years, six months, and ten days after it was built”. Burned? Solid stone? What kind of burning are we talking about? And how about other massive stone buildings which survived to the common era that appear melted on top with obvious burn marks? What happened? When? Clearly our planet saw a significant conflagration that maybe has repeated at regular intervals.

Does Masonry hold this information so we can recognize it in time before we’re largely wiped out again by some cyclical event that has been overlooked in our recent past? Is there a force on the planet that endeavors to keep us ignorant of our true history so that the information had to be hidden in the 1700’s in our symbol filled Freemasonry?I suggest there is indeed a set of technological secrets from the past hidden in Freemasonry, and I suggest that exposure to the possibility that could the case might attract some modern young men to explore Masonry and become a part of it so that they too can be exposed to all of the mysteries Freemasonry holds for it’s initiates. After all, you can’t really know where to find the clues if you’re not initiated into our great, ancient, most Gentle Craft.