The Temple and its Sacred Altars

The Most Excellent Master, or Sixth Degree in the American York Rite, celebrates the Completion of King Solomon's Temple.  Four things are set in place in this degree.  The cap-stone is placed into one of the principal arches of the Temple, completing the building. The ark is safely seated within the Holy of Holies, and, after King Solomon offers the dedicatory prayer, fire descends upon the Altar of Sacrifice and the Shekhinah also appears. The lecture of the degree talks to us specifically about building our own inner or spiritual Temple, and draws our attention back to the progress we have made in the preceeding degrees.

Let us review the various Degrees and observe how the Altar of Freemasonry represents the various Altars of King Solomon's Temple as we progress through the degrees.

We are taught that Entered Apprentice Masons hold their meetings on the ground floor of King Solomon's Temple. The ground floor is the Courtyard, where the Altar of Sacrifice is located. It was upon this Altar that the Sacred Fire from Heaven descended and consumed the Sacrifice at the dedication of Solomon's Temple.  Once burning, the Fire from the Altar of Sacrifice is never extinguished.  It is carried into the Holy Place and used to light the Lampstand and its coals are used to kindle the Incense Altar, and is carried by the priests in censers whenever the Tabernacle must be moved.  It is the manifest presence of that Eternal Flame which never goes out, the Aur Ein Sof (Light Without End) of the Kabbalists, universally depicted over the Master's Chair in Freemasonry as the letter G.

Fellow Craft Masons hold their meetings in the Middle Chamber of King Solomon's Temple.  In the Middle Chamber we find the Incense Altar, where incense burns both day and night before the veil, and prayers ascend like smoke up over the veil into the Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy of Holies.  We also find the Seven-branched Lampstand here, and the Table of Shew-bread which are symbolized by the Wages of a Fellowcraft Masons, corn(wheat), wine and oil, and which, in the Temple, provided sustenance for the priests.

Master Masons hold their meetings in the Sanctum Sanctorum, or Holy of Holies.  Here we find an "Altar" called the Ark of the Covenant, which is a small chest or coffer, made of Acacia wood, and overlaid inside and outside with gold, into which were placed the tablets of the Law (both the broken and the unbroken sets), a pot of Manna, and Aaron's Rod which budded and blossomed with almonds.  A copy of the Torah was also kept within the Holy of Holies, next to or possibly upon the Ark.  The Jewish High Priest, standing before this Ark, or Altar, would offer prayer for his own sins and the sins of his people, and this was also where, according to Masonic legend, Hiram Abiff offered his prayers each day during the building of the Temple.

Upon the lid of the Ark (called the Mercy Seat) rested two additional Cherubim, made of the same piece of beaten gold as the Mercy Seat, facing inward, with their wings covering over and supporting the Ark.  The Holy Writings describe the Cherubim as having four faces, those of a Lion, an Ox, a Man and an Eagle, with one face towards each direction. These same creatures were also depicted on the standards of the four principal tribes of Israel, as described in the Royal Arch, or Seventh Degree, and when the Israelites were traveling in the wilderness for forty years, in their Encampment, it was these very same four tribes, Judah, Ephraim, Rueben, and Dan, who respectively camped directly to the East, West, South, and North of the Tabernacle.

Through a study of the Volume of Sacred Law, particularly Leviticus chapter 16, and also of the Talmud, we may learn a great deal about the ceremonies in which the High Priest engaged. He would enter the Holy of Holies on only one day of the year, Yom Kippur, and upon entering, he would pass beneath the Wings of the Cherubim. The Cherubim referred to are the large ones which stretched from one wall of this chamber to the other, touching the tips of their wings together in the midst of the room, as described in the Royal Master, or Eighth Degree.  After entering, the High Priest would place a golden censer filled with coals and incense upon the floor before the Ark of the Covenant, and retreat outside the room, where he would offer a prayer before the vail with hands uplifted before YHWH.  It was on this occasion, during this prayer, that he was permitted to speak aloud the Great and Sacred Name of Deity, and upon offering this prayer, the Shekhinah or Divine Presence would descend and rest above the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant.  He would then re-enter the Holy of Holies, and indirectly behold the Shekhinah through the hazy cloud of smoke which had emanated from the his Golden Censer and filled the room. This smoke was so thick that he was required to use his hands to block the smoke from entering his nostrils.  As also described in the Royal Master degree, as well as in the Sacred Writings, the Bath-Kol (Literally, "Daughter of Voice," in Hebrew), or Voice of God Unseen issued forth from between the wings of the Cherubim and was heard by the High Priest.

You've probably heard the analogy that our body is a Temple, a house for the Spirit of God to dwell in, or that we are to construct "a spiritual building, pure and spotless, fit for the habitation of him who dwelleth only with the good."

What follows is speculative, and is intended to stimulate your own thoughts on this subject:  I want to compare the events of the Most Excellent Master degree to both the physical and spiritual aspects of the human body and see if the completion of the Temple can be represented there in the same manner.  I will begin by suggesting that our Heart (or possibly, our Heart and Stomach) represents the Altar of Sacrifice.  Physically, the heart is the center of our body's blood system, and blood is the primary ritual element of the sacrifices which were performed in the Temple.  The blood from the sacrificial animals was placed upon the horns of the Altar of Sacrifice, and was also carried into the Holy Place and placed upon the horns of the Incense Altar.  Scriptures frequently relate Fire to the heart.  Psalm 39:3, for example, reads "My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue."  Jeremiah 20:8-9 reads "For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily. Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But [his word] was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."  Luke 24:32 says, "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"

As I mentioned, some of the blood was carried in to the Incense Altar, and the Psalm also said, "then spake I with my tongue."  Our throat has an Incense Altar within it, consisting of the tongue and also the larynx, or voicebox, by which we create speech and offer prayers. The throat is also where air enters our body, like the smoke ascending up from the incense altar and over the vail.  If our voice sends forth the prayer, and afterwards we pass through the vail into the Sanctum Sanctorum of our head where we stand in waiting for an answer to our prayer, would not the daughter of voice, the Bath-Kol, be that still small voice (see 1 Kings 19:11-13) of God, speaking directly to our mind. Would not the greater Cherubim reaching across the room be the eyes, whose optic nerves, like wings, meet in the middle of the Holy of Holies, and would not the lesser Cherubim upon the Ark, be our ears, whose canals lead inward, covering over and supporting the mercy seat?  The Bath-Kol is the Voice of God which issues forth from between the wings of these Cherubim and enters our thoughts as divine inspiration.  Perhaps the smoke of our Golden censer, is the temporary closing of our eyes and ears to outside sensory distractions so that we can listen for the Bath-Kol.  Perhaps, like the High Priest, we may invoke the True Word (not the Royal Arch Word, but that which it represents), and summon the Shekhinah to appear in our Holy of Holies to give us direction.  This direction is not identical to our own thoughts, but is added unto them, mixing with them.  Neither is it identical to that wisdom which descended to rest upon Solomon in the Past Master, or Fifth Degree, represented by King Solomon's Crown or the Top Hat of the Master.  But before we are to hear the Bath-Kol, we must ensure that the building is Completed, that the Keystone is set into the Principal Arch of the Temple, that the Ark is Safely Seated, and that there is a Fire burning upon the Altar of our Heart.  Remember, the Fire upon the Altar of our Heart should be continually burning, and the Incense should be offered both day and night, but the Shekhinah is only manifest when invoked by use of the Great and Sacred Name.

So, what do the Keystone and the Principal Arch represent in our bodily Temple?  How can we prepare our inner Temple for this event?   And, why must this event transpire before we are permitted to travel into foreign countries, or to go into that undiscovered country from whose borne no traveler returns, the privilege finally bestowed upon the craftsmen at the dedication of the Temple?

Please divert all comments on this article to the copy posted on the Reames Chapter #28 R.A.M. Website.

Masonry as Divine Ascension

As some of you may know, I don't fit into a particular religious model very well. Some of my beliefs are rooted in Mormonism; early Mormonism to be specific. I want to share part of my view of Masonry as it pertains to my personal religious beliefs, but before I do so, it becomes necessary to explain in brief my take on the connection between Masonry and Mormonism:

Many are familiar with the fact that Joseph Smith borrowed certain elements of Masonic ritual when forming the Mormon Temple ceremonies. This type of borrowing was not a new thing, but had happened both before and after that time, in the formation of such fraternal groups as the Grange, Elks, Woodmen, Foresters, Buffaloes, etc., and even some Masonically sponsored groups like DeMolay. Typically it was individual Masons themselves doing this borrowing, and since they were only borrowing the language, structure, and trappings of the degree work, they did not violate their obligations by revealing any of the secrets which they had been obligated not to reveal. Unlike some of the others, I believe Joseph also had some divine inspiration in what he did which, combined with the faith of his followers, made the result "Celestial" in character. But unfortunately, the Church has, since that time, corrupted their ceremonies in many ways, and diminished the amount of teaching they do pertaining to its symbolism and significance. I therefore believe that, unfortunately, the rituals of today's Freemasonry are more effective than the Mormon Temple rituals from a spiritual, transformative point of view. But if it were still 1877, I might say the opposite.

The "degree" given in the Temple (although they do not use that term in this sense) is called the Endowment, and in the words of Brigham Young:

Let me give you a definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.

I believe that this description applies to certain parts of Freemasonry, as well. I see the Degrees as a map of our individual life, death, and ascension back to a very literal "Celestial Lodge Above" which is so often mentioned in our rituals.

The D-G> and PS> of the EA, FC, and MM Degrees are deeply symbolic beyond what is taught in the ritual. And they are reiterated in another, perhaps more ancient form by the three Masters of the Veil in the Royal Arch Degree. I believe they are expressive of the more pure and ancient form of Worship.

The Mormon conception of this ascension includes the idea that man takes on the attributes of, and eventually becomes a God. But the God that he becomes is not like the God described by the popular denominations of the day. Mormonism - historically - tends not to shy away from the anthropomorphism of God, but rather embrace it fully, for it teaches that God was once a mortal man on another world who walked this path before us, and ascended degree by degree to reach His high station in the heavens, finally becoming the Father of the human family upon this earth, whose spirits He, Adam, and his wife Eve had borne out in the celestial world.

Adam and Eve are thus, from my Masonic perspective, easily seen as the first and original Masons. Was Adam not the first to wear an Apron? The first to build an altar with stone? The first to make a covenant or obligation with His God? (Preston and Anderson traced Freemasonry to Adam, while Mackey doesn't acknowledge the meaningfulness of this, see "Freemasonry, History of" in Mackey's Encylopedia of Freemasonry) I believe the fact that we are trying to improve ourselves, and become better men in Masonry by following in the steps of our original Grand Master is enough to say that Masonry originates with Adam.

(See also "Primitive Freemasonry", in Mackey's Encylopedia, where the subject of Antediluvian Masonry is discussed in depth.)

Angels or Demons

The "Radtcliffes" have recently made it a point to up the esoteric ante on the Masonic blogosphere. I will play this game, too.

A friend and Brother of mine deals in Auras for the purpose of identifying problems and healing people spiritually. He came up with the theory that certain Masonic gestures are actually opening (and he believes, subsequently closing) the Aura so that you are more susceptible to what is about to occur.

I'm not usually one who deals with Auras explicitly, but I took a fancy to this idea when I heard it. Upon more deliberate consideration, I think I believe it does a bit more than only this. I would propose the following possibility, but as always, each Masons beliefs are his own, and so your mileage may vary with the following:

When kneeling at the altar of Masonry in the Entered Apprentice Degree we have our aura opened for the first time in this particular way. After doing so, we are directed to the Lights and next receive a secret grip or token, and also a secret word, which, we are strangely told, is the name of the token - as if the token is a person.

I believe that these names could be specific angelic or demonic names of spiritual entities that we are allowing into our bodies, to perform their spiritual work.

In turn, it is possible that the other work that we magically attach at this juncture, the hand gestures, signs, grips, and the name or word itself, could allow us to control or direct this spiritual entity, maybe not only in ourselves, but in others who have received it, creating a sort of hive mind (beehive anyone?), or spiritual energy pool, or egregore, if we learn how to work it properly.

Thus, the True Words are names of these spiritual beings, whereas the Pass-Words are merely words used to gain admission, holding no power in and of themselves, for they have no signs attached, but have been adopted for reasons perhaps akin to those given us in the rituals themselves.

As Master Masons, we are professing to be searching for "the WORD" or in other words, the true, ineffable name of God, and if we do proceed to receive it, after opening our aura properly, we would be able to become possessed by the actual spirit of deity, becoming some sort of Avatar for God, or for a particular God. (This is actually the first time I have thought this through to its conclusion, and I must say, wow!)

At the opening of Lodge we all open our auras to the Senior Warden and Worshipful Master, in particular, and they reciprocate to us; or, in another sense, we are all opening them to each other, becoming one so that we can proceed in Unity. For this reason, it is particularly important that no contention exist amongst brethren in a Lodge room. If you have contention with a Brother who is present, you should voluntarily remove yourself from the room until you have solved the problem so that the ebb and flow of spiritual energy may be undisturbed by your ill feelings.

As I mentioned above, I do not believe that we actually close the Aura. I think we open it, and it heals naturally with time. But I have heard of other ceremonies where the Aura is deliberately closed, so I believe it may be possible to do so, it just isn't part of the Masonic practice in my estimation.

So, for those taking a tally, I believe the EA, FC, MM, Past Master, and Royal Arch Degrees each allow us to become possessed with one of these sojourning spirits, the Most Excellent Master probably does not; and the Mark almost certainly does not, it being derived from the FC.