20 Rocky Mountain Mason

I just got back from Norwood Lodge (which is in Nucla, Colorado), from a sparsely attended meeting. I was the first to arrive, and I immediately noticed the brown envelope stuck to the front door. The back was faded

by the sun – it had been there for months. I unlocked the front door to our small building, and carefully tore the envelope free. It was one

of those big ones, you know, eight-and-a-half-by-eleven, big enough to fit unfolded paper in and, by the feel of it, there was paper in there about half-an-inch thick. It was addressed to “Masonic Members and Associates” in large, hand-drawn black letters. Here we go, I thought, this is not from the assessor or insurance company.

The Nuclaean... ScreedNot the Nicean Creed... it’s:

Rocky Mountain Mason 21

I opened it up and drew out a carefully prepared packet. The title, in hand written print, read “CHRISTIANISM IN THE MASONIC LODGE”. Oh boy.

Someone had clearly taken a lot of time to prepare this packet, which unequivocally proved, according to the bottom of the first page, that Masons were being “cunningly deceived and led by Satan, straight into hell!”.

I decided to peruse the document a little. No one had arrived yet and, to be honest, this kind of stuff amuses me. So I read the first page.

Apparently, “Long after one reaches the 32º, or is elected into the 33º are the first documents revealed to the initiate”. These “confidential” documents, intended only “for the inner circle” clearly prove that “Masonry is lifting up and exalting Satan as their light, lord and creator”.

It gets better, because, you see, “Masonry glorifies all pagan and false gods, including the Muslems [sic] – Allah and Osiris – God of the underworld” (I didn’t know that Osiris was a Moslem, but I kept reading), “Masonry states the Muslems [sic] Koran ‘belongs’ on their altar and that the Holy Bible is nothing more than furniture in the Lodge.”

That made me smile. So what was this fascinating secret

document that revealed the grand plan of the 33º to lead all Masons “straight into Hell”? What was this confidential,

well-hidden source, apparently revealing the true Masonry only to the paymasters and demonic puppeteers that secretly controlled every Masonic institution up there somewhere, at the lofty heights of the 33º ? I turned the page. Yep, you guessed it: Morals & Dogma, by our man Pike.

For Pete’s sake, I thought, a wry smile curling my lips. There was a recreation of the frontispiece of this Masonic tome. The author had kindly highlighted relevant sections and pointed out long words, supplying definitions with underlining, just so I wouldn’t get lost. “Dogma” an arrow pointed out meant “A belief taught as true by AUTHORITY [underlined twice]. An opinion asserted in a positive manner as if authoritative.” And “Esoteric” meant “intended for an inner circle”, “secret”, and “confidential”. This was clearly a book “GIVEN TO THE INITIATE ONLY AFTER HE REACHES THE 32º, NOT BEFORE!!”

Well Amazon is going to be miffed, I mused. They better take down all those copies they’ve got for sale, then.

The rest of the packet included pages Xeroxed out of Morals & Dogma in a piecemeal hodge-podge of supposed damnation. It was covered in highlighted passages, arrows, sections of the Bible, and frenetic underlining. I paid close heed.

But everywhere the error seemed to be on the author. I spent a good amount

The Nuclaean... Screed

“I felt compassion for this person. Desperate to save us poor, lost Masons from the damnation we were bringing upon ourselves, determined to zealously pounce on scripture, to deny any other opinion, and declaim us as witches led astray, they were somehow lost in their own graveyard. But these weren’t my bones they were digging up. Nor Masonry’s, neither.”

The religious rumblings of an anonymous Anti-Mason

22 Rocky Mountain Mason

Commas are important. The author of the screen has erroneously interpolated a parenthetical where there isn’t one, to read a rhetorical superlative (“God is, above all, the Baalim”) over a juxtaposition of Supremecy of God (“God is above all the Baalim”). The difference is profound.

Pike is actually stating the opposite. The reader has been unable to fathom the subjunctive mood, the hypothetical, of Pike’s writing, that Pike is actually saying “if this were so” then “this absurdity will result”.

Among many other definitions, the author was kind enough to include a definition of “Baalim” for we hapless Masons, led into darkness in ignorance.

The favorite passage of all evangelical anti-Masons - the inevitable “Lucifer” clause. But Pike was not writing that Lucifer is God. The mistaken interpretation is two fold - one, a misunderstanding of the origin of the term “Lucifer” (as the Morning Star - an appelation given to Venus when rising before dawn - a title given to many people in the Bible, inlcuding Jesus) and, two, ignoring the context of the quote completely.

“Much of the screed highlighted

serious philosophical underpinnings of

the Judeo-Christian faiths, but the writer

had interpreted them in a horribly

inverted way.”

Rocky Mountain Mason 23

of time paging through it all, believe me, and besides, the author appeared sincere (if half-mad). So I thought I should at least try to understand their point of view.

But it was everywhere skewed. Case in point: about 20 pages into it, page 226 of M&D had been copied, and the following sentences highlighted in yellow and pink highlighter (throughout this mess, the author used pink for the really incriminating stuff):

“[yellow highlighter] Masonry, around whose altars the Christian [underlined twice], the Hebrew, the Moslem, the Brahmin, the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster, can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer to the [begin pink highlighted section] one God who is above all the Baalim, [end pink highlighted section]…” The author had kindly defined “Baalim” as “Hebrew-plural of Baal” and then, next to that, explained that Baal meant (in capital letters) “FALSE GOD!”, “SUN GOD”, “CHIEF GOD OF THE CANAANITES”, “GOD OF FERTILITY”.

Thank goodness the one God is above all of these, I thought. But then I realized. The author had somehow inserted a parenthetical clause into the sentence which

wasn’t actually there. He was projecting what he hoped to find, and subconsciously had twisted the logic around. The author had somehow read, “the one God who is, above all, the Baalim” interpreting “above all” as some sort of rhetorical interjection; a superlative of rhetorical fact, rather than a supremacy of position above all that is false.

Commas are important. I felt compassion for this person.

Desperate to save us poor, lost Masons, from the damnation we were bringing upon ourselves, determined to zealously pounce on scripture, to deny any other opinion, and declaim us as witches led astray, they were somehow lost in their own graveyard. But these weren’t my bones they were digging up. Nor Masonry’s, neither.

Much of the screed highlighted serious philosophical underpinnings of the Judeo-Christian faiths, but the writer had interpreted them in a horribly inverted way. This screed was a mirror, not of Masonry, but of the person who wrote it.

It just goes to show why secrecy is important, and why “Holiness” is “For the Holy”. Because it doesn’t matter what someone or something says. People of small minds (and heavy hearts) will quickly

fill the letters with their own ink, and snatch ghosts of their own personalities from between the lines.

Is it any wonder our system of morality is veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols? Awakening to an understanding of God is a personal journey and a received, personal experience. It’s an experience that transcends mere words. And it’s a secret that can be given only to one who already possesses it.

Water from the purest well is readily stained, when drawn in a dirty bucket.

I thought about sitting down with this person to explain some of this, and gently point out the erroneous interpretations in every instance (and I mean every instance), but they hadn’t left a name or contact. Probably a seventh-day Adventist from the church down the street, I supposed. There is really no one else in Nucla. But wait, weren’t the seventh-day Adventists shunned by the Catholic Church for not believing in the hypostasis of Trinity?

I think so. Bloody heretics.

The Editor of the Rocky Mountain Mason magazine, and principal at the Laughing Lion press, comtemplates the Nuclean Screed in front of his modernist painting titled, “After the Apple: At the Gates of Eden”.

Q

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INCORRECT!!!!!!

WRONG!!!!!

NO!!!

Note to the sensitive reader - the Editor of this publication has no beef with seventh day Adventists. It’s a joke. One man’s savior is another man’s heretic.