The Arcane Schools

John Yarker

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9783849630836
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

A Review of their Origin and Antiquity; with a General History of Freemasonry, and its Relation to the Theosophic, Scientific, and Philosophic Mysteries. The object of the work is to give a broad, but condensed view, of the various traces that are to be found amongst the ancients, in their religion, in their art, and in their buildings, civil, sacred and military, of a Speculative System such as is now embodied in Freemasonry. The work is necessarily a compilation of suitable information to be found in ancient and modern writers upon history, mystery, mysticism, and Freemasonry; but it also embraces the most recent views on these subjects which have been evolved by close and critical examination. There will be thirteen chapters, divided into three parts, with an appendix of a series of constitutions. Part I, The Arcane Schools. Part II, Operative and Speculative Freemasonry. Part III, the Speculative Revival. Part IV, Ancient Manuscripts.

CHAPTER V. PHILOSOPHY IN RELATION TO MASONIC RITES.

We mentioned in our last chapter the introduction into the State Mysteries of an intellectual class who, as laymen, were destined to exercise great influence upon succeeding generations. The most notable was Pythagoras, who was by birth a Samian of the period of 570 B.C. He obtained initiation into the Mysteries of various countries, and consolidated all that he had thus learned into a school of his own, which he opened at Crotono in Magna Graecia. He conferred upon himself and pupils the title of Philosophers, or lovers of Wisdom, and Philosophy began to lay claim to all the Wisdom possessed by the Mysteries. It was the first of the Arcane Schools that sprang out of the State Mysteries, in the same way that private Lodges of Masons sprang out of the General Assemblies; and in the language of Masons, the School of Pythagoras would be termed a new Rite of the Mysteries, but Pythagoras went beyond speculation, in a Masonic direction, by his practical views upon the necessity of studying the Liberal Arts and Sciences, and though he flourished nearly two centuries before Plato, and nearly three centuries before the time of Euclid, he made Geometry the basic plan of all creation.

The Rite of Pythagoras was divided into three classes or grades, and Dr. George Oliver in his History of Initiation, makes the School or Academy of Plato, to consist equally of three degrees with Initiatory rites, but it is doubtful whether he had any better authority than will be found in this section; it is full of Masonic doctrine and symbolism which must be left for the reader to apply. The Pythagorean Rite was Exoteric or public in its teaching, and Esoteric or private in things intended for his Disciples, and a like rule was followed by the Egyptian priests. The first step of the Esoteric teaching was an Apprenticeship of five years of silence, which Iamblichus informs us might be abridged in cases of merit; the Aspirants were termed Mathematici, because the grade embodied instruction in the Liberal arts, and Hippolitus informs us that Deity was denominated "Grand Geometrician;" even as we saw that the Chinese termed Deity the "First Builder," and the Indian Art fraternity the "Great or Divine Builder." The brethren advanced to the second step were termed Theorilici, and here they were instructed in the elements of divine wisdom. Then followed the very select class of Electi, who were Perfect Masters. The School had a series of darkly-worded apothegms, as for instance, "Stir not the fire with a sword" -- be calm. "Abstain from beans" -- be chaste. It had also secret modes of recognition. Their brotherly-love was often exemplified in the most remarkable manner, and their devotion to the Society, and its laws, by the sacrifice of life itself. "The Master has said it," was an all-sufficient guide in their conduct.

Ovid in his Metamorphosis has an essay upon Pythagoras and his doctrines: -- "Why dread such mere visions as death and Hades? Souls cannot die; they only leave one body to enter another, as I (Pythagoras) know by experience who was once Eupherbus, and recognised the shield I, in his person bore. Death is mere change; the breath goes forth from one body to enter another (be it human or animal) but beneath different shapes the soul remains substantially the same. Hence the horror of killing creatures, it may be, tenanted by kindred souls. But one may go further and say, that not souls alone, but all things shift and pass -- night and day, the hues of the sky and sun, and the shapes of the moon. The seasons, the year, changes in correspondence with the ages of man, Spring answering to youth, Summer to prime, Autumn to maturity, and Winter to old age."

Porphyrios, who was a Tyrian of the name of Melek, informs us that the numerals of Pythagoras are hieroglyphic symbols, by which he explained all ideas concerning the nature of things, and hence of the nature of the symbols to which we have previously alluded. It is said that he taught the true Astronomy, termed Mesouranios, as typifying the sun in its relation to revolutions of the planetary bodies. Nor need we feel surprised at the knowledge which this implies, as the Vedas and Shastras of the Hindus indicate a conception that the earth was round and the planets in revolution, at least 2,000 B.C. Pythagoras was Initiated in Egypt after severe trials, and Porphyrios states that he was initiated in Babylon by Zarades, but it is doubtful whether this person or even Zoroaster were names of persons. Zar-ades may be interpreted by Na-zar-ad, vowed or separated, and Zar-ades may be a chief or Rab-mag, whilst Zoroaster may have been a Zara of Ishter, and Zerubabel the Zoro or Nazar of Babylon, a Nazarene and recoloniser of Jerusalem.

Pythagoras claimed that all things were created by Geometry and numbers, or as his follower Plato expresses it, "God perpetually Geometrises." Censorinus thus develops his doctrine of the "Harmony of the spheres": "Pythagoras asserted that the whole world is made according to musical proportion, and that the seven planets between heaven and earth have an harmonious motion and intervals, correspondent to the musical diastemes, and render various sounds according to their several heights, so consonant that they make the most sweet melody, but to us inaudible by reason of the greatness of the noise, which the narrow passage of our ear is not capable to receive." Our old Masonic MSS. allege that Jabal discovered the musical notes by listening to the sound of the hammers of Tubal Cain, and tradition assigns the discovery to Pythagoras by the same chance.

The Greeks mention the visit of a man of the name of Abaris from the Hyperborean regions; he appeared at Athens carrying a bow and quiver, girt with a gilded belt, and a plaid round his body. He was a learned man, instructed in Greek, very judicious, and Toland shews him to have been a Druid from the Hebrides. Pythagoras had no reserve with him, nor the Druid with him, and they parted with mutual esteem. It is said metaphorically that Abaris shewed Pythagoras the sacred arrow which Apollo used against the Cyclops by which we are to understand Druidical astronomy, and magic or in Celtic dry, to which the Anglo-Saxons added craft, denominating Magic Drycraft.

Pythagorean Clubs or Schools were established at Crotona, Sybaris, Metapontum, Tarentum, and other places in Magna Graecia; and Cicero says that he died at Metapontum. The dates assigned to his birth vary from 608 and 570 B.C., and of his death 497 to 472 B.C.

The Philosopher Plato, who died at a great age in the year 347 B.C. was so much attached to Geometry, which the old Masonic Constitutions tell us was the original name of Masonry, that he wrote over his study: "Let none enter here who are ignorant of Geometry"; in his Republic he says that "Geometry rightly treated is the knowledge of the eternal"; and in Timaeus he says, that Pythagoras first brought Geometry to perfection; but Herodotus and Iamblichus say that Geometry was perfected in Egypt, owing to the necessity of surveying their lands after the overflow of the Nile; that is it had to be applied to the practical purpose of landmeasuring, and one of the probable derivations of the word Mason may be deduced from this use of Geometry.

The poet Chaucer, who was a Clerk of Works to the King and therefore in constant contact with Masons, uses the old word "Mase" to signify an artistic building, and "to mase" is to think out; and Krause observes that, in almost every tongue, m-t, m-s, metz, mess, masz, is used to define the boundaries of an object, and in general, to invent, to measure, to work according to measure. In Latin we have mansio, a day's journey, and Macerieo, a boundary wall, hence our word mansion. The term Mase has now passed out of use, but at the period when the word Macon arose was well understood.

Our ancient MSS. distinctly state that in early Saxon times the word was not in use and the Craft was designated Geometry; we may therefore seek the origin of the word in the Teutonic. In the Somneri Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum, Oxon. 1689, we have a word which covers what we seek -- Massa, or "Maca, par locius, censors, conjux, a peer, an equal, a companion, a mate." It is therefore a term equally applicable either to the Society or the trade. The builders were Masons because they were Sociates and Fellows of Craft, and the trade was the same because the Sociates made and mated the stones to form a building. The word Massa, a table, a mate, indicates fellowship.

Brother Wm. S. Rockville has hazarded a derivation from the Coptic Mai to love, and Son a brother, which is quite applicable philologically, and he points out that the hieroglyphic of the first word is a sickle, plough, or scythe, and of the second a chisel, or a seal is used.

Geometry was the chief qualification for the Arcane Schools, as well as for Masonry, and the following which Plato gives in the Philebos, and perhaps derives from an older source, appears also in the Masonic MSS.: "All arts require Arithmetic, Mensuration, and Statics, all of which are comprehended in the Mathematical science, and are bounded by the principles which it contains, for the distribution of numbers, the variety of measures, and the difference of weights are known by this science." But Proklos makes Geometry to be also the basis of religion, and confirms what was stated in our last chapter, for he says: -- "The mathematical disciplines were invented by the Pythagoreans, in order to be a reminiscence of divine concerns, at which through these, as SYMBOLS, they endeavour to arrive."

Even at the present day Geometry and its diagrams are the technical language of Architects by which they convey their ideas to each other, and which they have inherited with the Craft of the ancient Masonic Society. It follows that architecture is the best school in which to study speculative geometry, and there must always have existed a close relationship between operative Masonry and Speculative Philosophy, based as the latter is, to a great extent, upon geometrical science. There must be a good reason why old Masonic MSS. couple all the sciences which go to form a liberal education; and though it may seem incongruous to couple grammar and logic, with qualifications necessary to build houses, we can give very ancient Greek evidence to prove its necessity and bearing. Ammonius Saccus says: "For in general the end of theory is the beginning of practice; and so reciprocally the end of practice the beginning of theory. Thus, for instance, an Architect, being ordered to build a house, says to himself, 'I am ordered to build a house; that is to say a certain defence to protect against the rains and the heats. But this cannot be without a roof or covering.'" From this point therefore he begins his theory. He proceeds and says, "But there can be no roof if there be no walls; and there can be no walls without some foundations; nor can there be laid foundations without opening the earth." At this point the theory is at an end. Hence, therefore, commences the practice or action. For, first, he opens the earth, then lays the foundation, then raises the walls, and lastly puts on the roof which is the end of the action or practice, as the beginning of the practice was the end of the theory. And thus also the philosopher does; being willing to form a demonstration he says to himself: "I am willing to speak concerning demonstration. But inasmuch as demonstration is a scientific syllogism, it is impossible to say anything concerning it without first saying what is a syllogism; nor can we learn what is simply a syllogism without having first learned what is a proposition; for propositions are certain sentences; and it is a collection of such sentences that form a syllogism; so that without knowing propositions it is impossible to learn what is a syllogism, because it is out of these that a syllogism is compounded. Further than this, it is impossible...

Table of contents

• Freemasonry – Its Origin And History
• ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
• ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY OF FREE MASONRY