Masonic Tradition And The Royal Arch
- Part 2"
Part 2 of 2
But after nearly five hundred years - I
am speaking still within the hypothesis of the symbolism -
there rose up the Grand or Royal Lodge, which was in the
day of restoration and the day when things are reborn, or
made anew, when Zerubbabel, the prince of the people, with
their prophet and priest, led back Israel out of exile. It
came about that, having made a great discovery within the
precincts of the First Temple, they held their Lodge at
Jerusalem, and proclaimed the glad tidings, which are
called the climax of Freemasonry - at least within the
measures and under the obedience of the Old Law. And the
original of that which we term the ROYAL ARCH is the Grand
or Royal Lodge. In the sense of this symbolism,
notwithstanding all disparities occasioned by things that
are left at a loose end and all temporal lacunae, it may
be said that the Holy Order does, within its own degree,
complete the Masonic circle - though only within measures
of the Craft - in virtue of that mystical recovery which
made the glory of the Third Grand Lodge even as the glory
of the first, and Jerusalem in the days of Zerubbabel as
Horeb in those of Moses, who first promulgated the
beneficent Law of Masonry.
The ROYAL ARCH may be defined briefly
as the Grade of the Word attained; but while a certain
expectation is intimated on the part of those who ruled,
there is nothing to show that the Brethren who made the
discovery were qualified by antecedent knowledge or were
themselves dedicated to the work of quest. It was the
providence of an accidental happening which brought about
the event, and as such - on the surface - it does little
honour to the important subject in hand. The discovery
itself is unintelligible, as the story stands, since there
is nothing leading up thereto - either in the Craft or
Arch. But in Masonic Grades external to both the
preliminary steps are found and the motive at work
throughout. In view of this fact, as explained already, it
would look as though the ROYAL ARCH had been lifted out of
some Ritual series and utilized as an epilogue to the
Craft, not a little to its own detriment, because it was
never intended originally to stand alone. In Masonic
history we hear of the bare title and of some undescribed
symbol belonging thereto being carried in a Masonic
procession, tempus 1743, while a year later there is an
allusion to the Grade itself, but under circumstances
which suggest that more than one version was about. The
preliminary sidesteps or intermediates to which I have
alluded and which throw light on the subject are not in
distinct evidence till a later period. If I may put
forward a personal opinion, purely at its hypothetical
value, it seems to me that as the ROYAL ARCH originated in
these islands, certainly and beyond question, so also
there were other Grades, side-steps or preliminaries
connected therewith and essential there unto. It is
impossible to speculate about their original form, in the
absence of all evidence, or on how far they have departed
from it in the Degrees now extant: if we may judge by the
vicious editing of the Arch Degree itself, they have
suffered drastic change. The Grades in question are called
respectively ROYAL and SELECT MASTER. But before offering
a brief description of their scope and motive I must refer
to the year 1754, when several important items were
grouped together under the auspices of a French Rite, as
if they had been manufactured suddenly or suddenly
collected together. I refer to the COUNCIL OF EMPERORS OF
THE EAST AND WEST, otherwise the RITE OF HEREDOM or RITE
OF PERFECTION, working twenty-two Grades superposed on
those of the Craft. In virtue of certain sub-titles
attached to some of them on the authority of rare MSS. now
in my hands, it would appear that not all of them were of
French Origin, though it is impossible to have any
assurance on such a debatable point. The examples include
ENGLISH MASTER, as alter native to INTIMATE SECRETARY, and
ILLUSTRIOUS IRISH MASTER, as substitute for PROVOST AND
JUDGE. However this may be, we are concerned more
especially with the thirteenth Grade of the Rite, called
ROYAL ARCH OF ENOCH, or - in early examples - Knight of
the ROYAL ARCH. As there are two titles, so also there are
two forms and that which is the more important is, I
think, perhaps the later: it is incorporated at the
present day into the long series of the SCOTTISH RITE. It
goes very near to the root-hypothesis of the Secret
Tradition and delineates the circumstances under which the
Sacred Word was placed in the hiddenness, long prior to
the Three Prototypical Grand Lodges. In this form, I
believe, it to be of foreign invention as well as
redaction: its importance for our purpose is that it
places a Masonic complexion on an early epoch of the
Tradition. In the alternative and possibly earlier form
there is no question that it is of English origin as to
its root-matter or that it derives from the ROYAL and
SELECT MASTER GRADES, but from the former more especially,
and at a time when both were in a state corresponding more
nearly to the mode in which they were communicated, not so
many years ago, under the auspices of the EARLY GRAND
Scottish Rite, rather than that of the CRYPTIC. The latter
bears marks of editing by persons who had no acquaintance
with the Secret Tradition. As regards all recessions, the
time is that of Solomon, the Temple is still uncompleted,
but the mythical history in each case is subsequent to the
Hiramic myth, which is still left at its original loose
end. The Grades in their several forms throw light on the
central point of the Royal Arch, because they shew how a
place of concealment was planned for the Secret Mysteries
and how these were hidden therein until time or
circumstances should render their restoration essential.
The implicit throughout is that in such case the
providence protecting what is understood as Masonry would
intervene in favour of the Art, as it did ex hypothesi at
the epoch of the Second Temple.
We may follow the Secret Tradition into
strange places of Masonry, and if the intimations are
often at variance they are in agreement on at least two
points. The Tradition is always concerned with the power
and grace of a Word, usually a Divine Name, and there is
always an intention to show that a hidden Knowledge
concerning it goes on from age to age. There is the Grade
of KNIGHT OF THE EAST, which in one of its versions
belongs to the Maccabean period, and the Candidate is in
search of the Sacred Treasure after the profanations of
Andochus Epiphanus. There is the Grade of TRUE SCOTTISH
MASTER, which belongs to Adonhiramite Masonry. It affirms
that the Word of God was never lost in reality, and that
after the sacking of Herod's Temple, at the destruction of
Jerusalem by Titus, a mysterious inscribed plate was found
beneath one of the Pillars. This fable is recited in a
kind of historical discourse, and although on the surface
we are still in the days of Solomon, we are already on the
threshold of Christian Masonry, for the Lodge of the Grade
is said to have been instituted by St. John the Evangelist
in succession to one which was held on the banks of the
Jordan by St. John the Baptist.
When we pass definitely into Christian
Masonry the Tradition is still with us, although under
several mutations. It owes something to Philostorgus and
his ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, written at the beginning of
the 5th Century. In connection with the baffled attempts
to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem he tells us of certain
workmen let down by means of ropes into a deep well, at
the bottom of which - emerging above the water - there was
found a small column, and on the column, a book wrapped in
a linen cloth. When examined, it proved to be a copy of
St. John's Gospel. For the rest, according to Christian
Masonry, the Keepers of the Secret Tradition are
represented as Knights of the Morning, Knights of
Palestine, Sons of the Valley, Thebaid Brethren, a secret
Brotherhood perpetuated from generation to generation in
the heart of Jewry, but unknown to Jewry at large. They
looked for a Master who was to come, the Deliverer and
Messiah. In the fullness of time they found the Word in
Christ, which is the message of the Christian Grades.
I have been dealing with questions of
fact in Ritual and with the tradition out of which they
arise. I do not intend on the present occasion to dwell on
the inferences to be drawn, however legitimate. I have
followed the Secret Tradition in its development through
several paths, within and outside of Masonry. That there
is a meaning behind the Tradition I am entirely certain,
for it is of symbolism or allegory after its own manner
and within its own measures, even as Masonry is. The great
BOOK OF THE ZOHAR contains the whole doctrine of the Lost
Word and of the circumstances under which it shall be
restored on the coming of Israel out of exile, in the day
of Messiah. But the ZOHAR is the book of the Secret
Tradition in Jewry under the Christian aegis. As regards
the Lost Word, it depends from a question of fact, which
of itself is of minor consequence, being the loss of the
mode in which the High Priest pronounced the Divine Name
when he entered the Holy of Holies once a year to make
atonement for the sins of the people. Over this the ZOHAR
allegorizes and in their fervid hearts the doctors of the
Greater Exile looked for magnalia Dei when it should be
put again into their mouths. But that which it meant in
their symbolism was the coming of the Kingdom of God on
earth - to the chosen people above all, but apparently by
derivation from these to all tongues and tribes and
peoples and nations. The Secret Tradition was taken over
by zealous scholars of Christendom during the 16th and 17th
Centuries, and they sought to convince Jewry that all
which was expected had come in Christ, that it was
possessed by the Gentiles and might be enjoyed by them if
they would turn their hearts to Him. This is the
philosophy of the Tradition in brief and crude summary.
But in another form and aspect, it is the philosophy of
the Tradition in Masonry, which is another story of a Word
in loss or hiddenness, and this fact, which might be one
of coincidence, is linked up with the Secret Tradition
because it is represented - in variably and only - by a
Sacred Name, an omnific and ineffable message, and the
plenary grace of a mystery abiding in a Name of God. Now
the Tradition of the Name in Masonry was taken over by
other Zelatores, who, after all intimations of the ROYAL
ARCH OF ENOCH, Arch of Zerubbabel and Arch of Josiah the
King, after all that was said to be inscribed on sacred
plates of gold, came forward in their later day and
founded the Christian Grades - the ORDER OF THE TEMPLE,
the ROSE CROIX, the RED CROSS OF CONSTANTINE and KNIGHT OF
THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. Like other makers of legend, they
testified that the Word is Christ. It follows that those
rumours of a Secret Tradition which are conveyed in the
Royal Arch are not confined thereto. In one or other form,
they are in the body- general of Masonry.
E. A. Waite
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