Dr. David Harrison

Category: Freemasonry

  • An interview with the Albanian Media

    An interview with the Albanian Media

    Recently, while visiting Kosovo and Albania, I was interviewed for local media there. Here is the full question and answer interview in English. The interview in Albanian can be seen here.

    1. How did you first get acquainted with Albanians?
    Mainly through my interest in Albanian historical fugures such as Skanderbeg and Ali Pascha, who I became familiar with through my interest in the poet Lord Byron.
    2. And with Kosovo, as part of Albania, can you say?
    Kosovo is a new and beautiful independent state, a new democracy that has a very bright future. It is a time for the people to work for this new state, to build it up and also for politicians to keep the faith of the people, and to create a new, strong democracy in the political landscape of Europe. After all, there has been many sacrifices for this freedom, and Kosovo will have a great future as there are many people with energy that want to contribute to this great nation.
    3. Why have you been interested in Albanian history and culture?
    I was deeply attracted to English adventurers who came to Albania in the past, such as John Newport with Skanderbeg and Lord Byron with Ali Pascha. Also, early English diplomats such as Sir Harry Eyres and Colonal Stirling, who, in the 1920s, made such an impact in Albania, Eyres being the first foreign diplomat there. They all seem to have been accepted in Albania, and all seemed to have found a home from home here. When I’m here, I often think of these Englishmen as I am comfortable here and I am beginning to find this as a home from home.
    4. Do you have direct contacts with Albanian personalities?
    I am very friendly with the family of Sophie Kastrioti, and they have given me an introduction to other personalities in Kosovo, and they have given me advice on places to visit.
    5. In the British world our national hero is known, Skanderbeg, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa, Albanian actor Bekim Fehmiu and winner of ‘Man Booker International’ writer Ismail Kadare; Can’t say about these personalities?
    I am very familiar with all of those personalities. Actor Bekim Fehmiu is a favourite of mine, especially his film about Count Cagliostro, which is an all time favourite, as Cagliostro was an influential Freemason who I have written about in one of my books ‘The Lost Rites and Rituals of Freemasonry’.
    6. But in England are two well known Albanian singers, Rita Ora and Dua Lipa, your opinion?
    They are fantastic singers. There are many other excellent Albanian musicians, I particularly like Bebe Rexha and, being a historian, I very much like Albanian folk music, which preserves a sound that can be found in European medieval music.
    7. What is your message to Albanians?
    Albanians should be very proud of their past, as the nation has always been vital to the survival of Europe. For example, in the time if Skanderbeg, John Newport said ‘the invasion of Europe will be a fact, for there is no other power capable of resisting the Turks if the Albanian stronghold falls’. This shows how Albanians are a vital part of European society. There is another story I like that I was told about by an Albanian academic from Kosovo called Ylli Prebibaj, where English spy Morton Frederick Eden, in 1919, was travelling in a car with his Albanian friend, Vice Prime Minister Preng Bib Doda. The car was stopped by criminals, and Doda said to them ‘Kill me please but don’t shoot my friend because he is my “besa”’. In an outright act of violence such as this, the Albanian tradition still has a respect for outsiders in their land.

  • Richard Carlile and the Peterloo Massacre

    Today is the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre; a tradgedy that became a seizemic event in British social history. The gathering at St. Peter’s Fields in Manchester witnessed a crowd of thousands of working men and women assembling to hear speeches from radical commentators of the time. One of those speakers was to be Richard Carlile.

    Carlile was about to speak when the Manchester Yeomanry stormed into the crowd, killing an estimated 15-20 people, and injuring many more. The panic and confusion swept through the people as the Yeomanry indiscriminantly rode into the crowd. Carlile went on to report about the massacre in his journal The Republican, which led to Carlile being jailed for blasphemy, blasphemous libel and sedition.

    It was while he languished in jail that he was to write his Masonic expose, which was originally published in The Republican. This expose went on to become The Manual of Freemasonry, a book that can still be found in Masonic Hall libraries around England and Wales. My latest book, out soon entitled Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry will detail the life of Carlile and discuss the high degree rituals displayed in The Manual, presenting for the first time an examination of the complete Carlile rituals.

  • Sir Harry Eyres; an English Diplomat in Albania

    Sir Harry Eyres

    When Sir Harry Charles Augustus Eyres (1856-1944) was called out of retirement to be appointed as a temporary representative to Albania in 1921, the English diplomat found himself welcomed by a government who was gratified that the first diplomat from an established power had arrived in their country. Eyres’ appointment took place during a tense political period for Albania; recognition of the territory of Albania was being debated by both the Greeks and the Italians, and border disputes were becoming a troublesome issue.

    British interest in Albania at the time may have been down to something else entirely; the writer William Bland put forward that petroleum had been found previously in southern Albanian by the occupying Italians. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which had contacts in the British government, such as Winston Churchill, and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company had opened up negotiations with the Albanian government in 1920, so Eyres’ appointment was issued against a backdrop of political and economic intrigue.

    Eyres was not the only Englishman to be working for British interests in the Balkan region, or indeed the only Englishman to have embraced Albania. Albania had previously witnessed the English adventurer John Newport fighting for Skanderbeg, and relatively more recently Lord Byron had visited Albanian shores to be entertained by local overlord Ali Pasha. However in the 1920s, there was a plethora of Englishmen in the region, not only assisting the cause of British influence in the area but all being pro-Albanian. Englishmen such as Morton Frederic Eden (1865-1948), who, according to Lampros Psomas, was a British spy operating in Albania, collecting intelligence and supplying Eyres with information. Eden was a pro-Albanian and was a member of the Anglo-Albanian Association, an association that was founded by Mary Edith Durham and a number of other pro-Albanians in 1913.

    Lieutenant Colonel W.F. Stirling

    It was Eyres who contacted another Englishman, Lieutenant Colonel W.F. Stirling (1880-1958), to assist in the reorganisation of the Ministry of the Interior. Stirling was in Albania from 1923-1931, and wrote his autobiography Safety Last, which had a foreword by none other than poet Siegfried Sassoon and covered Stirling’s memoirs of his time in Albania in a chapter. Stirling served under King Zog (Ahmet Zogu), and in his book, Stirling claims to be instrumental in the Pact of Tirana in 1926, advising Zog, which brought in Italian loans, but also seemed to be the beginning of the end of any British influence in Albania. Indeed, Stirling writes about the fate of the oil exploration:

    ‘Meanwhile, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company had acquired a concession from the Albanian Government to prospect for oil. After drilling in a number of places, an oil-bearing stratum was discovered in the low hills north of Valona, and several wells were sunk. The quantity of oil found was considerable but the quality was poor. It was so thick that it was almost impossible to pump, so that a refining treatment at the wellhead would have been required before it could be piped down to the coast for shipment. At world market prices this was not a lucrative proposition for the company, so the concession was offered to the Italians, who accepted it at once.’

    Stirling provides a first-hand account of the revolt in June 1924 headed by Orthodox Bishop Fan Noli, where Ahmet Zogu, who was serving as Minister of the Interior, had to flee. However, Zogu returned with the help of Yugoslav forces, and quickly re-established control of Albania, becoming prime minister in early 1925, then president, and finally king of Albania in 1928. With Zog establishing security in Albania after the revolt, Stirling writes how he was commissioned to return to England to get recruits and possible government support for organising a professional gendarmerie force. However, the British government refused to give official support to Stirling’s proposal, though he did go ahead and recruit soldiers, but they were to have no protection at all from the British government. The British Secretary of State had also informed Mussolini in Italy about the plans. Stirling went on to write that the attitude of certain members of the government was perhaps down to the fact that the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was prospecting for oil and they did not want to arouse ill-feeling with the Italian government.

    It was in 1926 that Sir Harry Eyres ended his role as envoy in Albania, and certainly Stirling’s role in the country was also coming to an end, as he writes in his autobiography:

    ‘As the years went by the Italians gradually began to turn against me, not for personal reasons but through the policy of their Government. They felt that I was the one obstacle to their gaining control of King Zog, since he was a close friend of mine and, to a certain extent, took my advice. At the same time the local political leaders feared me since I knew so much of their murky past and they disliked my influence with the King. The Jugoslav Government was also very suspicious of me.’

    Stirling continued:

    ‘My position in the country was becoming daily more insecure, so that finally I felt safe only when I was up in the mountains with the tribes. In the circumstances, I reckoned that my usefulness in Albania was coming to an end, and in the spring of 1931 I resigned my post and returned to England.’

    The period between 1921-1931 certainly witnessed an English influence in Albania, especially in relation to the ambitions of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in southern Albania. It can be said that Eyres, Eden and Stirling had an influence on political and economic affairs at the time, Eyres working with Eden and introducing Stirling, and for a brief moment in history, there was a definite drive by certain English men and women to promote Albania and to assist in the country’s development as a modern nation.

    References

    William Bland and Ian Price, A Tangled Web: A History of Anglo-American Relations with Albania, 19121955 (London: Albania Friendship Society of Southern California, 1986), p. 13.
    R. W. Ferrier, The History of British Petroleum Company: The Development Years, 1901-1932, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
    Lampros Psomas, A Spy in Albania: The Question of Southern Albania and Morton Frederick Eden, (University of Winchester, 2007).
    W.F. Stirling, Safety Last, (London: Hollis and Carter, 1953).

    Many thanks for Mevi Rafuna who has subsequently translated this article into Albanian and has found it a home in a number of Albanian news journals.

  • Skenderbeu dhe aventurieri anglez John Newport

    My article on Skanderbeg and the English Adventurer John Newport translated into Albanian by Mevi Rafuna

    Gjergj Kastrioti, apo siç njihet me emrin Skënderbeu, ishte Prijësi Legjendar i ushtrisë shqiptare, në shek. XV, i cili me sukses mblodhi gjithë bashkë-atdhetarët, kundër sulmit dhe pushtimit që vinte nga Perandoria Osmane. Duke qenë se fama e Skenderbeut si Prijës Ushtarak mori dhenë, qindra aventurierë dhe vullnetarë nga vendet e tjera të Europës, iu bashkangjitën ushtrisë së Skenderbeut, duke pranuar me vetdeshirë të ishin nën shërbimin e tij. Ndër ta kemi personalitete të shquara si Stefan Maramonte, i cili nën qeverisjen e Skenderbeut shërbeu si ambasador, me 1457 dhe anglezi John Newport i cili shërbeu nën qeverisjen e Skenderbeut, përgjatë të njejtës kohë.Shumë nga këta të huaj të ardhur nga Europa, dhanë kontributin e tyre në luftën ndaj osmanëve duke i qëndruar besnik Skenderbeut deri në fund.
    Edhe pse veprimtaria e John Newport është pak e njohur për publikun, është interesante të dihet se pavarësisht, kombësisë s’ë ndryshme, një anglez mund të gjendet në Shqipëri, duke luftuar kundër turqve, krahë Skenderbeut, prijësit më të njohur shqiptar të të gjitha kohërave.
    Si u bë që Newport të hynte nën shërbimin e Skenderbeut?
    A ishte ai një mercenar aventurier apo besonte në kauzën e madhe për mbrojtje të Europës, kundër zgjerimit të Perandorisë Osmane?
    Thamë më lartë se Skenderbeu me famën e tij, tërhoqi shumë vullnetarë të huaj, të cilët u rreshtuan nën shërbimin e tij, siç vinin nga Franca, Italia dhe sigurisht në rastin e Newport i cili vinte nga Anglia, e që vendi i tij i lindjes akualisht gjendet në Uells. John Newport mahniti një numër të madh shkrimtarësh dekadave të fundit, ndër ta dhe shkrimtari komunist William Bland, i cili udhëtoi në Shqipëri me 1984 ( kohë kur Shqipëria ishte ende nën komunizëm), me qëllimin që të bënte për s’ë afërmi kërkime për aventurierin anglez, por nuk arriti të gjente diçka konkrete.
    Blond thotë: ‘Kam punuar për disa kohë,në një skicë biografike për anglezin John Newport, i cili ishte luftëtar i Skenderbeut, ata më organizuan intervista dhe takime me specialistë në terren, që të më ndihmonin në gjetjen e burimit se ku është përmendur emri i John Newport në “Historinë e Shqipërisë”.Si rezultat i kërkimeve mbetet e qartë që burimi origjinal nuk gjendet në Shqipëri, por unë duhet ta kërkoj diku tjetër’1
    Megjithëse dokumentet janë të rralla për figurën e Newport ne dimë se ai ishte një mbështetës besnik i Skenderbeut,i cili luftën e tij e shihte si esenciale për shpëtimin e Europës. Në disa vepra moderne John Newport përshkruhet si një kalorës i cili kishte shkruar:
    ‘Pushtimi i Europës do të jetë fakt sepse nuk ka asnjë forcë tjetër që është në gjendje t’i rezistojë turqve, nëse fortesat shqiptare bien. ‘2
    ‘Në të vërtetë kjo thënie qëndron sepse mbështetësit e Skenderbeut dhe luftëtarët e tij në ato kohë,ishin forca vetme, që po luftonte ekspansionin osman. Newport në një letër drejtuar Kardinalit Piccolomini, thekson se ai është një kalorës anglez me emrin John Newport, i cili komandon një grup të harkëtarëve në betejën e vitit 1457 kundër osmanëve. Nën shoqërimin e një ambasadori të Skenderbeut, pas kthimit nga Napoli Newport niset për në Romë,ku kërkon ndihmë për Skenderbeun pasi që i kanosej rreziku nga osmanët.’3
    Anglia dhe Uellsi në atë kohë ishin shumë të njohura për harkëtarët e tyre, harku dhe shigjeta ishin shumë të dëshiruara pasi që u përdorën në “Betejën e Agincourt”me 1415 dhe kishin vazhduar të përdoreshin përgjatë shek. XV. Ndërsa mbreti hungarez Luis I, në ekspeditën e tij ushtarake në Itali, kishte shumë ushtarë që përdorin harkun dhe shigjetën, të cilët vinin nga vendet e cekura më lartë.
    Ushtarët harkëtarë ishin prezentë deri në fillimet e shek XVII, ku ata u zevendësuan nga armët e zjarrit. John Newport shfaqet si udhëheqës i një grupi profesional harkëtarësh dhe para kohës së tij të pranishme në historinë angleze shfaqen Grupet Mercenare që në shek.XII dhe më pas Grupet e Lira të cilat ekzistuan deri në fundin e shek. XIV me një lider të njohur i kësaj natyre i cili quhej Sir John Hawkwood (c.1323-1394).
    Në këtë artikull u shfaq vetëm një dëshmi e vogël e jetës s’ë John Newport, i cili iu bashkua Skenderbeut, duke na lënë të kuptojmë se aktivitetet ushtarake të Skenderbeut, gëzonin respekt të madh në qarqet tjera ushtarake në Europë dhe se si ai arriti t’i tërhiqte komandantët europian nën shërbimin e tij ushtarak. Harkëtarët anglez ishin ndihmës të Skenderbeut në ekspeditat e tij ushtarake përgjatë vitit 1457, dhe pikëpamja e Newport me të vërtetë tregon rëndësinë e ushtrisë s’ë Skenderbeut e cila ishte jetike për mbijetesën e Europës.

  • Blenheim House, Batley, West Yorkshire

    Blenheim House, Batley, West Yorkshire

    I love visiting other Masonic Halls, and I was privileged to be invited to give a talk to the Emmaus Society at Blenheim House in Batley in West Yorkshire, which is a Masonic Hall that is home for a number of lodges and side degrees.

    The Emmaus Society was set up in 1999 for certain members of the Provincial Priory of West Yorkshire, and speakers are invited to talk at the annual meeting, with previous eminent speakers including an old friend of mine Neville Barker Cryer.

    Blenheim House was built in the Victorian period, and became home to Scarborough Lodge No. 1214 in 1925, and it is now also home to Howley Lodge No. 5012 and Trafalgar Lodge No. 971. Blenheim House is also available for events.

    Blenheim House
    The dining room
    The lodge room
    The banner for Scarborough Lodge. The lodge uses the symbolism found in the Rose Croix of the pelican pecking her breast to feed her young

     

     

     

  • Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry

    Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry

    The new book, which will be published this Fall, entitled Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry, has had a number of working titles, including The Freemasonry Behind Freemasonry, which was inspired by a quotation by Many P Hall, in which he attempts to describe the hidden Freemasonry that lies behind Freemasonry:

    ‘FREEMASONRY is a fraternity within a fraternity—an outer organization concealing an inner brotherhood of the elect.’1

    This particular reference came from a work that Hall wrote before he actually became a Freemason, though Masonic writer Arthur Edward Waite also referred to the ‘Masonry behind Masonry’, in Waite’s work Devil-Worship in France. This book examined an episode from the infamous Masonic exposé written by French hoaxer Léo Taxil, an exposé that did much to harm Freemasonry in the mind of the public when it was published in the early 1890s. Taxil claimed inside information through the confessions of a certain Diana Vaughan, who entered into a fantasy world of Luciferian Freemasonry that was a total hoax. Even Waite seems to have been taken in, and in his Devil-Worship in France he says:

    ‘…it is obvious that Miss Vaughan is a witness of the first importance as to whether there is a Masonry behind Masonry…’2

    Though overall, Waite’s work can be viewed with a slightly humorous tone overall.

    My particular use of the phrase ‘Freemasonry behind Freemasonry’ was to be used to examine the many Masonic Orders behind Freemasonry, and their various rituals, using Richard Carlile’s Manual of Freemasonry as a unique window for the use of these ‘high degrees’ in the early nineteenth century; a world of Freemasonry that lies behind Craft Masonry.

    The working title finally changed to Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry, and the book not only examines Carlile’s rituals for the first time, but discusses Carlile’s life and his long lasting contribution to Freemasonry, a work that also celebrates 200 years since the Peterloo Massacre, an event that Carlile was present at.

    References:

    1. Manly P Hall, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy – An Introduction to the Study and Application of Rational Procedure: (Los Angeles: The Hall Publishing Company, 1929), p.397.
    2. Arthur Edward Waite, Devil-Worship in France, (London: George Redway, 1896), p.166.

     

     

  • Magical Fraternal Societies

    I was conducting some research for a side project, looking at more magical Orders that had existed and how some of them were related to Freemasonry. As with most side projects, it was permanently placed on the side, so I thought I’d post their histories in brief here.

    l’Odre du Temple
    Bernard-Raymond Fabré-Palaprat founded the l’Odre du Temple in 1804, a neo-Templar imitation order, somewhat inspired by the revived interest of Templar Orders seen previously with the Strict Observance. Fabré-Palaprat then went on to found the Johannite Church in 1812, and he claimed to possess a list of 22 successive Grand Masters starting from Jacques de Molay in 1324 to Fabré-Palapratin 1804. This was an early example of trying to establish a ‘legitimate lineage’ that was pure fantasy.

    The Brotherhood of Luxor
    The late nineteenth century Brotherhood of Luxor were heavily influenced from the sex-magic of Paschal Beverly Randolph and certainly went on to influence the magico-sexual flavour of the OTO. Peter Davidson, a Scottish Occultist who later emigrated to the US, was influential in the Order. Paschal Beverly Randolph is a fascinating leading occult figure of the nineteenth century, being one of the first to promote sex-magic.

    The Brotherhood of Light
    Author Elbert Benjamine – pen name CC Zane – wrote the Brotherhood of Light lessons from 1910 -1950, who was a central figure of the Order, astrology being a main theme, though the Lessons contained other thoughts such as The Inner Nature of Poverty, Failure and Disease, which was published in 1936, and presented how birth charts and astrological reports could help. The Church of Light seems to have been a progression from the Brotherhood of Light, led by Benjamine, both being based in Los Angeles.

    Sangreal Sodality
    William G. Gray (1913-1992) was a founder of the order in 1980, a magical society that allowed its members to find their own inner identities and values. When he was younger, Gray had met Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune before finding his own pathway. He worked traditional magic with Robert Cochrane and went on to write numerous works on ‘folk magic’ such as The Rollright Ritual and By Standing Stone and Elder Tree: Ritual and the Unconscious. Gray put forward a folk-tradition approach to his practice of magic, saying that ‘Real esotericism was not just dressing up in handsome robes and manipulating symbols for the sake of doing so. It was knowing how to apply the meaning of such symbols to Life itself.’ Temples, lodges or chapters can be formed by members of the Sangreal Sodality and can be operated independently from one another, so anyone that is inspired by the teachings and practices of the order can, with like-minded people, set up a lodge.

    The Clan of Tubal Cain
    Robert Cochrane (1931-1966) founded the Masonic sounding Clan of Tubal Cain in the early 1960s, the clan worshiping Herne the Horned God and the White Goddess, the particular brand of Wicca being closer to nature, Cochrane being referred to as the man behind what is now called Traditional Witchcraft. Cochrane committed suicide in 1966. Despite the name of the Clan, there was no apparent link to Freemasonry, though some colleagues of Cochrane have admitted being Freemasons in private interviews.

    The Builders of the Adytum
    This order, founded in 1922, has its roots in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn of which Paul Foster Case was a senior member. After having a disagreement with Moina Mathers, the widow of Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers over the teaching of sex magic, Case formed the Builders of Adytum (Adytum being Latin for Inner Shrine or the Holy of Holies) and the order has since flourished. Case later objected to the Enochian magic performed by the Golden Dawn, disliking the scrying work of Dee and Kelley, Case exploring a different method, that of the tarot and dreams.

    Fraternity of the Hidden Light
    This is an order that, like the Builders of the Adytum, traces its lineage to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It was founded in the 1980s by Dr Paul Clark, who was trained by Ann Davies, a protégé of Paul Foster Case. Dion Fortune, who had corresponded with Case, was also an influence on the order.

    Fraternity of the Inner Light
    Dion Fortune founded the Fraternity of the Inner Light in 1922 after a disagreement with Moina Mathers. Preliminary training was given to her followers by Fortune before they entered into the Lesser Mysteries, then journeyed onward into the Greater Mysteries. The society has since moved away from the ceremonial content of the Golden Dawn as alterations were introduced, the fraternity progressing and transforming into a separate order with its own identity. Fortune was also associated with Alpha et Omega, and the Rite of Isis and the Rite of Pan were two of Fortune’s major rituals.

    Servants of the Light
    This was an order founded by Walter Ernest Butler (1898-1978) in 1965, who had previously done his training with the Fraternity of the Inner Light. Butler was a medium, a student of the Qabalah and had met Theosophist and Co-Freemason Annie Besant. The Servants of Light were founded with the intention of spreading esoteric knowledge.

  • Manly P Hall and the Dweller on the Threshold

    Manly P Hall and the Dweller on the Threshold

    Artwork by Jens Rusch

    Manly Palmer Hall (1901-1990) is quite the Masonic enigma; he only joined Freemasonry over 20 years after writing his ground-breaking Secret Teachings Throughout the Ages, a work that is still well renowned amongst Freemasons today. He was finally initiated in 1954, but had been writing about Freemasonry and the occult for decades. Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society in 1934, and lectured prolifically on all matter of occult subjects such as Freemasonry, ancient religions, astrology, philosophy and reincarnation. His library collection included many works on mysticism including alchemy, esoterica and Hermetica. Hall is still held in high esteem on both sides of the Atlantic, and his mystical teachings still resonate today, especially in the Masonic community.

    Hall, speaking decades before he became a Freemason, talked of how he believed Freemasonry to be a fraternity within a fraternity – there being a hidden Masonry that concealed the outer, more visible society, this idea being similar to Waite’s ‘Masonry behind Masonry’:

    ‘FREEMASONRY is a fraternity within a fraternity—an outer organization concealing an inner brotherhood of the elect.’

    Hall went on, revealing his thoughts in the lecture, which stretched around the philosophies of mankind, into the tarot, ancient religions and into other avenues of Truth seeking, but he kept a place for Freemasonry close to his ideas, and this can be seen here with his belief that Masons were ‘dwellers upon the Threshold’ of an inner circle of Masters that are behind all the prodigious secret societies:

    ‘In each generation only a few are accepted into the inner sanctuary of the Work, but these are veritable Princes of the Truth and their sainted names shall be remembered in future ages together with the seers and prophets of the elder world. Though the great initiate-philosophers of Freemasonry can be counted upon one’s fingers, yet their power is not to be measured by the achievements of ordinary men. They are dwellers upon the Threshold of the Innermost, Masters of that secret doctrine which forms the invisible foundation of every great theological and rational institution.’

    An influence on Hall was Max Heindel (1865-1919), who founded the Rosicrucian Fellowship in California. There was certainly a fashion for founding Rosicrucian Orders around this time such as the AMORC in the US and of course Waite’s Fellowship of the Rosy Cross in England, the philosophy of Rosicrucianism being attractive as it combined a more Christian type of mysticism, Hall also considering the Rosicrucians as a central Order. Hall also spoke kindly of Cagliostro, discussing how he prophesised the fall of the French throne and that he was ‘no more a charlatan than was Plato’. Like Waite and Crowley, Hall created his own tarot deck, the Knapp-Hall Tarot, with J. Augustus Knapp designing the cards in collaboration with Hall.

    Hall certainly explored many mystical ideas, his works covering many areas of esotericism and mysticism, such as Freemasonry, ancient religions, astrology, philosophy and the tarot. He examined the hidden mysteries of nature and science, explored the deeper secrets of the universe and tried to make sense of them, leaving for us a unique body of work that will continue to guide us.

  • Arthur Edward Waite, the Tree of Life and the Tarot

    The Tree of Life appears in many religions and cultures, in Islam it appears in the Quran as the tree of immortality, the tree which is forbidden to Adam and Eve by Allah. In Catholic Christianity it represents the immaculate state of humanity, free from the original sin before the Fall of Man. It appears in Norse mythology as Yggdrasil or the world tree, and it appears as the main symbol for the Kabbalah, which comprises of ten sephirot powers in the Divine realm, and a spiritual pathway for the ascent of Man. This Kabbalistic Tree of Life was used as a guide for spiritual advancement and as a depiction of creation, from Keter at the top, to the tenth at the bottom named Malkuth. Keter (meaning crown) represents the primordial energy from which all things are created, followed by Chokhmah signifying Divine Wisdom, and then Binah, meaning Understanding.

    Freemason and writer Arthur Edward Waite’s ideas on the Tree of Life were not only reflected in his Order the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, but also in his tarot deck. Indeed, the ritual presents pathways for the initiate so he/she can find the hidden knowledge they seek: ‘…the Rivers of Eden flow from a central source in DAATH , which is the Higher Knowledge. Lead us, O Lord, in Thee to the union of CHOKMAH and BINAH.’ The initiate is thus being made aware of the doorway to knowledge so he/she can progress to the highest point of grace. The doorway is of course hidden within us, and this concept is revealed to the initiate, though there are two pathways to choose from when entering the door; those of dark and light, hence there is a guide in the ceremony to keep the initiate on the correct path (Part II Grade of Practicus). DAATH serves to marry the continuous bond between the two higher powers of intellect, that of Chokhmah and Binah, which represent wisdom and understanding. Thus the initiate is progressing through the Order in an emblematical tree of life, gaining knowledge and learning to use it wisely.

    The Major Arcana of the tarot reveals a cycle that starts with the Fool; a card that represents naivety and someone that is setting off on a journey. The character is unsure of the path he is on, and in the Rider-Waite deck he is displayed as about step of cliff, unsure and insecure. In short, he is literally setting off into the unknown and knows little, if nothing at all of what is to come in his journey. In contrast to the Fool, the Major Arcana ends with the World, a card that indicates knowledge of the world around you, and a recognition of how to use it. In this respect the Tarot represents a similar journey to what the candidate takes on within the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross, with the Neophyte beginning his journey, and gaining knowledge through the various grades, until he finally attains the final grade.

  • The Tesseract, Freemasonry and the gateway to God

    The Tesseract, Freemasonry and the gateway to God

    My latest book, Rediscovered Rituals of English Freemasonry, due out in the autumn, uses the tesseract symbol on the cover. There are a number of reasons why I chose this image for the new book, so I thought I would discuss the history and meaning of this highly spiritual symbol.

    The tesseract is a four dimensional hypercube consisting of eight cubic cells that can be unfolded to form a cross, an image that can be seen in Salvador Dali’s 1954 painting Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus), comparable to the way that a cube can be unfolded into six squares. The term tesseract was first used by British mathematician Charles Howard Hinton in 1888, who presented his ideas to the Washington Philosophical Society in 1902 before publishing his book The Fourth Dimension two years later. In his book, Hinton presented diagrams of cubic cells, instructing how they could be mentally assembled into a tesseract, explaining that ‘the higher world is four-dimensional’ and ‘within space are given the conceptions of point and line, line and plane, which really involve the relation of space to a higher space’.1 Thus the four dimensional tesseract is inaccessible to the mind, just like the concept of God is incomprehensible to humans, the unfolding of the tesseract into a cross allows us to comprehend a three dimensional image of it, akin to comprehending Christ as a human form of God.

    Hinton’s ideas influenced an OTO ritual decades later, which similarly constructed the tesseract line by line, to reconstruct the universe by the magician, while reciting a number of Hebrew letters. Hinton’s work was certainly an influence on English Freemason and occult author Dudley Wright, who delved deep into the more spiritual aspects of Hinton’s ideas, the tesseract being seen as a way to access an alternative reality, Wright publishing his own work in 1906 entitled The Fourth Dimension. Wright was attracted to spiritualism and theosophy, researching various religions, eventually converting to Islam in 1915. He became a Freemason in 1912, being initiated into Eccleston Lodge No. 1624, was Exalted into the Royal Arch and joined a Mark lodge. Wright was a colleague of Arthur Edward Waite, both having contributed to the Occult Review, and also worked on the editorial team of the Builder, bringing him into the sphere of US based Masonic author Joseph Fort Newton.2

    Theosophist Alexander Horne also discussed the more mystical properties of the tesseract in his book Theosophy and the Fourth Dimension, which was published in 1928. Horne lectured regularly to lodges of the Theosophical Society on various subjects, specifically in the San Francisco area, publishing a variety of works with the Theosophical Press and in journals such as World Theosophy. As an editor, he had worked on Blavatsky’s Alchemy and the Secret Doctrine, but it was his work on the fourth dimension that Horne is better known, his diagrams of the tesseract and mystical views on the topic still influencing writers and mathematicians today.3

     

     

    References
    1. See Charles Howard Hinton, The Fourth Dimension, (London: George Allen & Co., 1912), pp.2-3.
    2. See John Belton and Simon Mayers, ‘The Life and Works of Dudley Wright’, Heredom, 23, (2015), pp.11-53.
    3. See Alexander Horne, Theosophy and the Fourth Dimension, (Theosophical Press, 1928), and for an examination of the visual aspect of the tesseract in a geometrical context see John Barnes, Gems of Geometry, (London: Springer, 2012), pp.85-86.