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THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF SPECULATIVE FREEMASONRY
CHAPTER I
part I - the heritage of freemasonry
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
W.
M. Don Falconer PM, PDGDC
Unlike other animals,
humans have an insatiable curiosity concerning their origins.
Speculative
freemasonry is a natural extension of the spiritual and mental
attempts of humans to unravel their origins, to comprehend the
meaning of life and to perceive their ultimate destiny. Although
purely speculative lodges are of recent origin, speculative
freemasonry is as old as the operative art itself. Moreover, those
who established the first purely speculative lodges that led to the
formation of the early Grand Lodges in the eighteenth century, did
not invent the speculative rituals. These early speculative
freemasons were intellectual men who saw great value in existing
rituals, which they culled, collated and codified into the form used
in speculative ceremonials. In so doing they were careful to ensure
that every passage of ritual was expressed appropriately in the best
language of the day. The resulting rituals neither did nor could
include all the available material, because the work in operative
lodges had many local variations, but were a sound basis for the
speculative ceremonials.
It
must be emphasised that those who established the early speculative
lodges did not see the ritual work as an end in itself, but rather
as a foundation for philosophical discussion. The ceremonials used
in the lodge room should be an unobtrusive vehicle, subsidiary to
the primary function of communicating one’s thoughts to others.
These ceremonials have been standardised to relieve the
participants’ minds of extraneous matters, that otherwise might
impede clear thought and hinder the delivery of the charges.
However, word perfect delivery of the ritual has no value unless
communicated to the recipient in such a manner as to engage his
mind, arouse his interest and incite his comprehension. Nor should
the words of the ritual be the sole instruction, because they are
intended to provide a sound basis on which to establish discussions
on subjects of relevance and interest. Unlike other animals, humans
have an insatiable curiosity concerning their origins and the
environment in which they live. Since recorded history began some
6,000 years ago, there is continuing evidence of mythologies and
religions being developed in an attempt to provide answers to these
concerns, which also is the purpose of speculative freemasonry. To
appreciate how freemasonry developed and influenced humanity, it is
important to consider the origins of the human race and the
evolution of human beings themselves.
It
is presently considered that the physical universe as we now know it
has existed for about 20,000 million years, although our solar
system is much younger, having been formed only about 4,600 million
years ago. Although the first living organisms on earth probably
came into existence about 3,500 million years ago, they appear to
have remained unchanged for several thousand million years. Life
first flourished in the seas, but dry land was not successfully
colonised until about 400 million years ago, when all the present
continents were still intact, forming a single continent called
Pangaea. It was about 100 million years ago when the present
continents began to split apart, reaching their present
configuration around 40 million years ago at the height of the last
great Ice Age, when so much water was locked up in the polar ice
caps that the sea level fell, exposing most of the continental shelf
areas. The ice caps and glaciers had retreated to roughly their
present positions by about 8000 BCE.
The
most recent investigations of archaeologists and palaeontologists
suggest that the ramapithecines, which lived from 14
to 8 million years ago and flourished across Africa, Asia and
Europe, might be our earliest hominid ancestors, distinguishing us
from all other primates. But this is by no means certain, because
the ramapithecines are followed by a gap of some 4
million years in the fossil record, after which several hominid
species begin to appear. A more recent and more certain ancestor is
called Homo habilis, which signifies skilful
man, who lived
in the Rift Valley of East Africa about 2 million years ago and
survived for almost a million years. Our most recent forebear seems
to have been Homo erectus, which signifies
upright man, who lived for about 1.5 million
years. Modern humans have been in existence for 100,000 years or so
and belong to the branch Homo sapiens, which signifies
wise man. Human occupation of the earth has been for a
very short period indeed when compared with the age of the
universe.
The
first 50,000 years of the existence of Homo sapiens
was almost at the end of the Old Stone Age, which had lasted for
nearly 250,000 years. This was the period of the Early Hunters,
during which cultural advance was very slow. Nevertheless, they made
a wide range of stone implements and weapons and also achieved the
control of fire, although they could not kindle it. They could cut
and stitch fur clothing, approaching the standard of modern Eskimos,
whilst both men and women ornamented themselves with necklaces and
bracelets of shells, teeth, ivory beads, mother of pearl and stone.
However, their most significant cultural advance towards the end of
this period, probably was that they buried at least some of their
dead with ceremony. It was not uncommon for graves to be marked with
stones or horns and for food and implements to be placed beside the
bodies. Thus, for the first time, human beings were manifesting a
belief in some form of after-life, heralding the “age of
wisdom” signified by Homo sapiens. Thereafter
human development accelerated at an ever increasing rate.
The
Early Hunters usually lived in limestone and sandstone caves where
these were prevalent. In other areas they gradually learnt to use
locally available materials such as grass, reeds, mud and even
mammoth bones to construct huts, as well as to make tents from the
skins of animals. In the Mediterranean region the Early Hunters
developed into Advanced Hunters at the height of the last great Ice
Age, between 35000 BCE and 30000 BCE, then into the Late Hunters who
brought about the Agricultural Revolution from region to region
during the New Stone Age, which in various locations began at
different times, ranging from about 10000 BCE to about 8000
BCE. The Advanced Hunters developed a remarkable artistic genius and
were the originators of representational art.
The
Gravettians of eastern and central Europe used ivory, bone, clay and
even stone to make small figurines of women and also some lively
animal carvings. But the greatest achievement of the Advanced
Hunters was to develop painting, principally in the southwest of
France and in Spain. The earliest known paintings are attributed to
the Magdalenians, who most probably were descendents of the
Gravettians. Their paintings were made between 15000 BCE and 10000
BCE, mostly deep inside caves and far from the hearth and living
area. Many of their cave roofs are crowded with paintings of bison
and other animals in the polychrome style, using powdered ochre,
haematite and manganese applied moist with brush, pad or blowpipe.
This period also is noted for being the first when stone was used in
construction, albeit in the simplest form. Although natural caves
are quite common in the eastern Mediterranean, huts with circular
stone footings were built in Palestine and Syria, probably with
light domed coverings made from twigs and daub. There is evidence
that at about the same time on the plains of Mesopotamia, where
there are no caves, shelters with stone footings were also used,
probably with superstructures of reeds. These people, the Advanced
Hunters of around 10000 BCE, therefore were the unlikely progenitors
of architecture and masonry.
The
humble beginnings of the Agricultural Revolution, ushered in by the
Late Hunters in the New Stone Age, laid the foundation of
civilisation and provided the necessary impetus for its subsequent
growth. True farming was first developed in the uplands that sweep
to the east and north on the flanks of the valley of the fertile
crescent formed by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. This was the
natural area for development, because the wild ancestors of wheat,
barley, sheep and goats were all native there, while the upland
valleys generally provided fertile soil and good water supplies. The
oldest known evidence of the domestication of sheep and goats is to
be found in this area, dating from about 8200 BCE, possibly
earlier. As the cropping and grinding of cereals and the herding and
domestication of animals developed, the small upland settlements
extended down into the fertile valley, where villages began to form
in about 6000 BCE. Mixed farming had been carried to the
fertile plain of Thessaly in Greece at about the same time, thence
southwards to the Peloponnese, to Crete and to Cyprus.
The
population grew in line with these developments and settlements
became larger and more permanent. As a result of this impetus, mud
bricks were first made in Mesopotamia and the Eastern Mediterranean
and used to construct houses. The early bricks were shaped by hand,
as at Jericho, but later the mud was rammed into moulds. The use of
stone for walls and dykes also became more prevalent. The largest
villages may then have held up to 5,000 people, but generally were
much smaller. Jericho is probably the oldest city in the world and
when constructed around 8000 BCE it occupied 4 hectares. It was
surrounded by a massive stone wall 3 metres thick and
4 metres high, against which was constructed at least one
circular tower of rock 10 metres in diameter and
8.5 metres high, with a built in stairway. This is the world’s
oldest structure known at present. Jericho was abandoned for a
period, but was colonised again in about 7000 BCE. The town
walls were not renewed, but rectangular houses of mud brick with
high quality plastered walls and floors spread over the whole site.
Jericho was abandoned and reoccupied a number of times thereafter
and perhaps is best known for its destruction by Joshua in Biblical
times.
Two
other events in this period also were of particular significance,
these being the construction of some of the earliest known religious
buildings at Çatal Hüyük in Turkey and the construction of what have
become known as beehive houses at Khirokitia in
Cyprus. The beehive houses were circular in plan,
around 8 to 10 metres in diameter, with high thresholds to keep out
surface water. Their foundations were of stone, which was carried to
a height of about 2 metres, while the superstructures were
corbelled vaults constructed of mud brick and of sufficient height
to accommodate a bedroom gallery accessed by ladder or stairway. The
ground level compartment was partitioned as required with mud brick
walls which also served as supports for the gallery. These
beehive houses continued to be used in Cyprus until
supplanted by more conventional houses in about 5000 BCE,
perhaps even more recently. The mud brick vaulted arch was a
significant advance in architectural design and construction, paving
the way for arch construction in stone. The beehive
houses in Cyprus typified the advances made in design and
construction by the earliest masons.
Çatal
Hüyük was occupied from about 6500 BCE to 5500 BCE and covered an
area of 13 hectares. It is thought to have had a population of
6,000 at its peak, comprising three different races nowhere else
found together in that period. The houses were rectangular timber
framed structures, with mud brick exterior walls and flat mud roofs
placed on closely packed timber poles supported by timber rafters,
furnished with hearths, platforms, benches and ovens. Among the
houses was a series of elaborately decorated shrines, which were
similar to the houses in construction and furnishings, though
frequently larger. Their sanctuaries were decorated with wall
paintings, plaster reliefs, cult statues and animal heads. The
richly coloured wall paintings frequently depicted hands and ritual
or magic hunting scenes, but the most unusual painting found was a
unique landscape depicting a terraced town of individual houses and
blocks of houses and shrines, with a volcano erupting in the
background. The dead of successive generations of the same family
were buried with appropriate grave goods within the platforms of the
shrines. This indicates a significant advance in religious thought,
even though the crude and sometimes barbarous manifestations within
the shrines are in stark contrast with the religious inspiration of
architecture and art that was soon to blossom with
civilisation.
Operative
freemasonry, by its nature, requires repeated speculation concerning
the siting of the structure and the building work in progress, no
matter how primitive the building might be. Before work commences it
is necessary to consider the availability of materials and their
suitability for the intended structure, having regard to the type
and dimensions of the building and the conditions at the site. The
best location and orientation of the structure must be determined
for the available site. Sound and level foundations must be provided
to support the structure properly. Care must be taken to provide
suitable and adequate drainage. The dimensions must be delineated on
the ground before erection can commence. The walls must be plumbed,
the corners must be squared and the tops of walls must be levelled
during erection, to ensure that the structure is both stable and
pleasing to the eye. Even the earliest stonemasons had to accomplish
some or all of these operations, which required constructive thought
that inevitably would heighten their awareness to things other than
their immediate requirements. For example, after they had
constructed walls of rough stones, they soon realised the advantages
of regular bricks and used their ingenuity to provide them. Later
when tools were available to cut stones, they saw the advantage of
using larger stone blocks. Thus, in a practical sense, speculative
freemasonry was born from a consideration of physical requirements,
which led to a contemplation of the tools and actions required to
achieve the desired outcomes and hence their symbolic meaning.
The
next important period of development was from 5000 BCE to
3000 BCE, roughly coinciding with the copper age and ushering
in the first of monumental architecture found in Egypt and
Mesopotamia. Using the simplest of raw materials, principally mud
brick and imported timber, the local inhabitants achieved remarkable
results. Egypt concentrated on huge royal tombs. The mastaba tombs
of the First Dynasty are typical and were decorated externally to
represent a palace facade. Efforts in Mesopotamia were
concentrated on temple building. Their temples rapidly grew larger,
more complex and externally more impressive, as typified by Eridu,
in Sumer, where a continuous series of temples has been
distinguished from about 5500 BCE to 3000 BCE. At Arpachiya, in
northern Mesopotamia, circular houses were constructed similar to
the earlier beehive houses of Cyprus, which were usually extended by
a rectangular gable roofed wing, the unit being called a
tholos. Another notable development was the fortified
settlement at Dimini in Greece, one of the earliest towns known in
Europe, which was dominated by the megaron palace with
its pillared porch. Dimini was encircled by six concentric walls of
undressed limestone and was provided with narrow gateways and
passages to form a defensive system.
Although
great advances were made in architecture and the development of
cities during this period, the greatest achievement undoubtedly was
the dawning of literate civilisation. The Sumerians of the southern
plain of Mesopotamia, in about 4500 BCE, first drew cuneiform
pictograms that represented actual material objects, to assist in
the recording of inventories for grain, cattle and other
commodities. The turning point came when it was realised that a sign
could also stand for a sound, when phonetic writing began. But as
the scribal profession and schools developed, the system of combined
ideograms and phonetics became extremely complicated and it was not
until about 3500 BCE that writing had been forged into a
practical vehicle for the communication of language. Meanwhile the
Egyptians were developing hieroglyphic writing, incorporating a
combination of signs for ideas and also for sounds like our
alphabet. Hieroglyphs were first used about 3300 BCE. The
Egyptian word for writing signified “speech of the
gods”, which reflected its use for inscriptions of the
divine pharaohs, contrasting with the cuneiform writing which was
used in Sumeria primarily for the keeping of accounts.
Emphasis
on the erection of larger and more complex buildings, palaces,
temples, shrines, monumental works and sepulchral structures
increased continually, which meant that construction was no longer a
simple task for a small gang of stonemasons, so that larger and more
highly skilled gangs of freemasons began to develop. To enable the
work to be carried out successfully it would have been necessary for
the chief of the builders, or master mason, to arrange training and
supervision for very large gangs of masons and allied workers. This
must have been an extremely difficult task, especially as working
instructions could not then be given in writing. The only means of
tuition available to them was by catechism, aided by sketches on
slate or an earthen floor, which constituted their tracing boards.
Archaeological investigations have provided overwhelming proof that,
despite these difficulties, the early masons constructed many
outstanding edifices with a remarkably high standard of finish.
Instruction
in the speculative aspects of freemasonry must have begun in this
fashion, from which the modern systems developed. Moreover, the
continuing involvement in the construction of shrines, temples,
cathedrals, monuments and sepulchral buildings that masons have had
through all ages, must have induced them to contemplate the meaning
of life and the certainty of death, as well as to seek an
understanding of the hereafter, much more so than would have been
usual among the general population. This would have contributed
significantly to the speculative aspects of masonry and would also
have fostered symbolic explanations of the mason’s implements of
labour. As in the present day, many relevant masonic expressions
became a part of the everyday languages of those ancient times,
which were recorded with the advent of cursive script. The
philological evidence proves beyond doubt that at least some
elements of symbolism and speculative thought must have been
included in the instruction given in lodges of operative freemasons
from the earliest days.
A
host of symbolic references in masonic terms are to be found in the
scriptures, many of which are as well known as the following
examples. During his visit to Bethel in about 745 BCE, Amos
prophesied the fall of Israel about thirty years before the event,
when he said in Amos 7:7-9 that the Lord had “measured
his people Israel with a plumb line” and found them to be
irremediably warped by sin. In the reign of Manasseh, the murderous
and idolatrous king who ruled from 696 BCE to 642 BCE, the
captivity of Judah by Babylon around 606 BCE was foretold in
II Kings 21:13, when the Lord said he would “stretch
over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the
house of Ahab”. In Isaiah 28:16, which was written
between 750 BCE and 700 BCE, the coming of Christ is
foretold in the words “Behold I am laying in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious corner stone, of a
sure foundation.” This prophesy is referred to in
I Peter 2:6-8, in about 60 CE, when the death of the
Messiah is alluded to and “for those who do not
believe” the following significant words were added:
“The very stone which the builders rejected has become the
head of the corner, a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that
will make them fall”. Other passages from the book of
Genesis, together with many of the traditions preserved in Sumerian,
Assyrian and Hebrew literature, also provide some interesting
sidelights on masonry.
In
Genesis 4:19-22 we read that Lamech, a descendant of Cain, had
two wives Adah and Zillah. Adah bore two sons, Jabal and Jubal, the
former being recorded as “the father of those who dwell in
tents and have cattle” and the latter as “the father
of all those who play the lyre and pipe”. Traditionally,
Jabal is also said to be the founder of geometry and the first mason
who built stone walls and houses of stone. Zillah bore a son
Tubal-cain and a daughter Naamah. Tubal-cain is recorded as
“the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron” and
Zillah is referred to in the traditions as the founder of weaving.
These four are thus credited with the origin of civilised society.
We also read in Genesis 10:8-11 that Nimrod was “the
first man on earth to be a mighty man”, that he was “a
mighty hunter” and that “he built Nineveh . . . . that
is the great city”. In the traditional histories of the
medieval operative freemasons it is said that masons first came into
prominence during the building of the Tower of Babel, which is the
first structure mentioned in the scriptures, in Genesis 11:1-9.
The traditional history also says that Nimrod was a master mason who
loved the craft, formed his masons into lodges and gave them a
charter and a charge when he sent them forth to build all the cities
in his kingdom. Although it is impossible at present to date events
such as these with any accuracy, they must have occurred around the
beginning of the Agricultural Revolution, when civilisation was
being established after the flood.
By
3000 BCE the Egyptians had developed a calendar with 365 days
to the year, from which time their historical records are accurate.
The development of writing and literature continued apace in
Sumeria, but Egypt was supreme in the visual arts and architecture.
Civilisation began to flourish and monumental masonry developed on
an immense scale and with unprecedented complexity. The three Great
Pyramids of Giza in Egypt and the huge Ziggurat of Urnammu in
Mesopotamia are typical of this period. Although the scale of
building in Mesopotamia was not as huge as in Egypt, the
Mesopotamians were more innovative in their use of the arch, which
they used extensively in tombs. The oldest true arches presently
known were found in the Sumerian tombs of the Royal Cemetery at Ur,
constructed from 2700 BCE to 2370 BCE. The art of writing
continued to develop in the Near East and its use was becoming more
widespread. Signs unearthed at Byblos in Lebanon, dating from about
2500 BCE, are in a script similar to that then used in Syria.
Pottery from the period 2100 BCE to 1700 BCE found at
Byblos and Sidon, also in Lebanon, provide some of the earliest
evidence of the use of a linear script that is called
pseudo-hieroglyphics. This was an early form of non-Egyptian
alphabetic script variously designated as Canaanite, Sinaitic or
proto-Phoenician.
This
simpler script progressively replaced the syllabic cuneiform scripts
of Babylonia and Syria and the complex hieroglyphic writing of
Egypt, so that by about 1500 BCE an alphabet was in general
use. From this alphabet were progressively derived the Phoenician
about 1000 BCE, early Hebrew about 700 BCE, old Greek also
about 700 BCE and formal Greek about 500 BCE, whence the
Roman was derived. The development of writing as a familiar medium
in an era of prodigious monumental construction, while moral and
religious teaching was advancing, must have fostered the speculative
aspects of freemasonry. They would also have received considerable
impetus during the building of the magnificent temple of King
Solomon completed at Jerusalem in about 950 BCE. The later
desecration of the temple and its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar
about 587 BCE must have had a serious impact on the faith of
the freemasons, but it would have been renewed by the decree issued
by Cyrus in 538 BCE, allowing the captives in Babylon to return
to Jerusalem to rebuild the house of the Lord. The Bible records
that the foundations were laid under the leadership of Sheshbazzar,
but that the turbulence of the people in the surrounding areas
impeded the work and necessitated Zerubbabel’s return to Babylon to
obtain the support of Cyrus in quelling the disturbances. The
reconstruction of the temple was completed by Joshua in about
515 BCE, under the leadership of Zerubbabel. It has been
suggested that Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel were the same person, but
research indicates that Sheshbazzar almost certainly was
Zerubbabel’s uncle. The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, records
in Antiquities that 1,000 priests were trained as
masons when Zerubbabel’s temple was restored and enlarged by Herod
during the period 20 BCE to 64 CE. Although they were
mainly engaged in building the shrine, the priest-masons must have
influenced speculative freemasonry significantly.
The
emergence of Greece as a colonising nation and centre of learning,
art, and religious thought in the eastern Mediterranean, in about
1100 BCE, heralded the era of classical masonry. Their first
stone temples were erected at Corinth and Isthmia before
650 BCE, whence the Doric order originated, followed by the
temples at Corfu and Ephesus within the next hundred years, whence
the Ionic order originated. The Corinthian order was first used in
Delphi around 390 BCE. Even in Rome, Greek architecture
prevailed around the Mediterranean and temples proliferated until
the ascendancy of Rome itself. Without doubt the most famous
classical Greek structures are the Parthenon of Athens and its
surrounding structures, built between 447 BCE and 432 BCE.
Because of the importance that the Greeks placed on the ancient
Mysteries in classical times and which continued into
the turbulent period of Roman rule, the Mysteries
inevitably would have been the prototype for moralistic reasoning
and ritualistic procedures in those days and are still reflected in
masonic ceremonials.
Rome
began to expand her territory by taking Carthage and Corinth in
146 BCE and Pergamum in 133 BCE. By 100 BCE Rome’s
territory nearly encircled the Mediterranean and by 117 CE the
Roman empire was at its greatest in strength and extent. Rome
developed cities and constructed amphitheatres and temples apace
throughout its region of influence, particularly in the Middle East.
Of the Roman era, the two most celebrated structures probably are
the Colosseum in Rome and the temple complex at Baalbek in Lebanon,
about 50 kilometres inland from Beirut. This temple complex was
built in several stages on the podium of an ancient temple, over a
period of almost 300 years, finally being completed in about
260 CE. When Baalbek became part of Ptolemy’s Egyptian empire
in 332 BCE, until the Roman occupation in about 30 BCE, it
was the religious centre of the region and called Heliopolis in
Phoenicia. The temples are remarkable for their size and
architectural finish. Many stones in the foundation courses are
4 metres square in cross-section and 20 metres long, each
weighing up to 800 tonnes. There also are monolithic columns of pink
granite that were brought from Aswan in Egypt and stand 19.6 metres
tall. It would have been a major feat to transport those columns
from the quarries in Aswan by land to the Nile River; load them onto
barges and transport them almost 1,000 kilometres down the Nile
River and about 500 kilometres across the Mediterranean Sea,
probably to Saidon or Tyre; unload them from the barges and then
haul them overland for almost 200 kilometres, crossing a mountain
range in the process to reach Baalbek, which is in a valley at an
elevation of about 1,150 metres above sea level. Even in modern
times this would be a substantial project.
The
decline and fall of the Roman empire heralded the beginning of the
final phase in speculative evolution, the medieval period of almost
continuous cathedral building in Britain and Europe that lasted from
500 until at least 1700. In England the operative or Guild Masons
worked with royal approval at least from their Annual Assembly that
is reputed to have been authorised and encouraged by King Athelstan
and held in 926. Lodges of operative freemasons were organised under
the guardianship of craft guilds, which originally were religious
fraternities. Masters of lodges were responsible for the moral and
religious welfare of their employees, especially the indentured
apprentices, as well as for their practical training in the craft.
The Ancient Charges testify to this. The Guild Masons
continued to operate as religious fraternities until all such
fraternities were disendowed in 1547 under an Act issued by Henry
VIII. It is clear from the old catechisms and other records that
have come down to us from the operative lodges, especially in
Scotland where the Reformation was less drastic in its effect, that
moral instruction was an integral part of the ceremonies. It is
clear that the working tools were used symbolically from an early
date and that various aspects of a mason’s work were used to
communicate moral instruction. Dr James Anderson and other early
speculative ritualists adopted these methods when preparating the
rituals in use today. Thus it is evident that the first Grand Lodges
in England, Ireland and Scotland were formed solely for the
establishment of alliances and the consolidation of the ritual
procedures. They were not the beginning of speculative freemasonry,
but only the continuation of an evolutionary process that began in
prehistoric times.
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