Freemasonry and pagan religious ceremonies
Reason Number One: Freemasonry uses pagan religions as an inspiration for their ceremonies
Paganism, as a world view, is generally nature driven. Pagans look to creation and its cycles to perceive expressions, or patterns, of the supernatural within it. Most pagans celebrate yearly festivals set in motion by the changes of the seasons. Some pagan spiritual systems revolve around a god and goddess, a male and female expression of deity. These can readily be seen in many of the fertility, or mystery, religions of the ancient world. These deities have different names depending upon their culture but are generally linked to observations of the cycles of winter and summer.
Paganism and Christianity differ in their initial starting points. Paganism begins its explanation of the spiritual world within the context of nature. Christianity, on the other hand, begins its journey outside this world, with God. Paganism interprets nature to explain God; Christianity allows God to explain nature. Paganism believes nature is a visible expression of invisible spiritual powers; Christianity believes God created nature and its cycles for life. In paganism, there is no objective source of revelation but rather subjective interpretation. In Christianity, objective truth exists outside of nature in the Old and New Testaments. Paganism would say the conflicting systems of nature tell us of a complex spiritual world. Christianity would say that the conflicting systems of nature are the result of a cataclysmic event called the Fall. It cannot be trusted to reveal God, because it is flawed and broken. Paganism and Christianity thus start their respective journeys for truth in different corners of the universe.
Freemasonry returns to the world of pagan thought for inspiration in a number of its ceremonies and ideas.
In the 21st Degree of the McCleanachan monitor, called the Prussian Knight, we see a direct relationship between a pagan ceremony and Freemasonry:
“They meet only on the nights of the full moon, and allow no other light than hers, because such was the ancient custom of the order; derived from the mysteries of Ceres and the old worship of Isis.” (Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, McCleanachan, 1885, p. 322)
Ceres is the goddess of the moon, as worshiped among the Romans. Isis is her Egyptian counterpart. This degree links the Prussian Knights, called the Holy Vehme, and the worship of Isis and the mysteries of Ceres.
Ceres, as the moon goddess, has been worshiped throughout the ages in many different cultures and forms. She was worshiped in Rome as the goddess of agriculture and human fertility from at least 723 B.C. The mysteries of Ceres involved various celebrations that venerated her as the giver of things that grow. She quickly became associated with women and human sexuality. Pigs, an unclean animal in God’s commandments, were sacrificed to her. The term pig became a slang term for women’s sexuality due to the sacrifices given to Ceres. (Alicia Ashby, Nov. 28, 2001, Dr. Maclean’s Religions of the Hellenistic World.)
While Jesus was casting demons into pigs in Judea, pigs were being sacrificed to Ceres in Rome.
Ceres is worshiped today in the current revival of paganism. In fields and in covens, she is adored as the goddess. Most books on the occult will reference her as part of trinity of feminine deities. Isis, her Egyptian counterpart, mourns for the death of Osiris the sun deity in pagan myth. With the retreat of the sun, it was believed that Osiris was killed, and Isis, as the goddess, continues to mourn his death.
Not only is it interesting that Freemasonry links pagan worship with this degree, but also that it adopts the Prussian Knights into its register of chivalrous themes. The Holy Vehme, or Prussian Knights, was a secret organization operating as a criminal tribunal outside the law. They were, in a sense, self-proclaimed vigilantes. They carried secret signs by which to identify each other. Any non-member found at a meeting would be put to death. The only punishment that the Holy Vehme could inflict was death. Execution was by hanging, and a knife with Cabalistic letters was left with the body to show it was not a murder. Accusations leveled at a person by the Holy Vehme appeared mysteriously at night, usually nailed to a tree. Failure to appear before this body was punishable by death as well. Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, abolished the order in 1835. (P. Wigand, Das Femgericht Westfalens, 1825 Hamm, 1893 Halle)
The inclusion of this phraseology concerning Ceres and Isis in the Prussian Knight degree was not the work of McCleanachan. It came from Albert Pike in his Magnum Opus, his first draft of the Scottish Rite degrees. (Magnum Opus, Albert Pike, XXI, p. 7) In the 20th century, this McCleanachan reference was dropped. I wonder why.
(Image & Text #1)
References to pagan ceremony continue through the degrees. In the Prince of the Tabernacle Degree we are told:
"We, like our ancient Masters, mourn Osiris - the type to us of the Sun, of light, of life…Weep, my brethren, for Osiris!…Weep for Osiris, type of the good the true, the beautiful.” (Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, McCleanachan, 1885, p. 356)
The initiate is encouraged in this statement to grieve for the loss of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the Sun. This, for a Christian, is a matter of idolatry. We are told in the book of Exodus: “Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips.” (Exodus 23:13)
For the Christian, it is odd that deities God told the children of Israel to avoid are now placed upon their shoulders.
This play between the sun and moon is repeated throughout the McCleanachan monitor of the Scottish Rite:
Historical - The sun is centralized in a symbol of Scottish Rite bodies (23 BAASR)
In fact, a symbol of the Scottish Rite features a personified sun in the center. (Image & Text #2)
What makes the continual use of the sun motif a challenging issue for church leaders is the fact that Ezekiel states that the presence of God left the sanctuary as God beheld twenty-five men bowing to the sun. Designations of the sun and moon as pagan deities were not eradicated in the 20th century monitors. A statement is made in the 1956 edition of the Scottish Rite linking the sun and moon to Osiris and Isis. They also happen to agree with the world of the occult when they state that their colors are gold and silver.
“The gold and silver of the Jewel are emblems of the sun and moon, themselves symbols to the ancients of Osiris and Isis, since gold is the metal which they appropriated to the sun, representative of the male or generative power, and silver was by them appropriated by the moon, representative of the female or productive power; these two being symbolized by the two columns JACHIN and BOAZ, or strength, potency, energy, and stability; the active and the passive forces manifested in nature.” (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Charleston, 1956, p. 115)
It is without question that Freemasonry in the Scottish Rite has looked to pagan religions as inspiration for a number of degrees.
In addition to the emphasis of the sun and moon, other pagan deities surface in the Scottish Rite. In the 1956 monitor, we read that initiates are to look to a planet hanging over the West. They are told that solitary shepherds worshiped this star as a goddess. They are then told to look to the West again. The object of their attention, the planet Venus, was indeed often worshiped as part of the trinity of goddesses in the Middle East. The ancients noted that this star happens to draw a pentagram in the sky approximately every eight years.
“First of the stars, when at evening the moon lingered behind the eastern hills, VENUS, the Star of Love, shone centuries ago on the Chaldean plains, and the solitary shepherd bent low toward the West, and worshiped her as a goddess. Look to the West again, my brother!” (Liturgies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Charleston, 1956, p. 167)
Many cultures associated Venus as the goddess with the pentagram. In fact, her route through the heavens was drawn as a pentagram with one continuous line. As with the other pagan deities mentioned in the Scottish Rite, the goddess Venus is also worshiped today in the occult. Today, Masonic bodies use the symbols of the sun and moon, and their meaning seems clear. They are attached to Isis and Osiris. Clear references to pagan practice have entered the ceremonies of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
The Christian in the Lodge must be concerned about these pagan expressions as he attempts to follow the Lord. These are, in fact, the deities the Israelites were told to leave. God told them to walk away. Because there are two separate commandments of the Lord that revolve around the issue of idols and other gods, Christians need to take idolatry very seriously. |
