
THE MITHRAISM - FREEMASONRY CONNECTION
[written at the request of the ESU]
I. BASIC PREMISE AND BACKGROUND
Freemasonry is transmogrified Mithraism. One must understand that the
Picti (the inhabitants of Calidonia, before it became Scotland), copied
the Romans in just about everything: from kilts (taken from the Roman
basic tunic), to bagpipes (what the Romans marched to), even to the sporan,
which is based on the chain-mail to protect a legionary's groin, now
transformed into a purse!
To protect Roman Britannia, the Emperor Hadrian ordered a stone wall built across the island. (It was built by the legionaries, to keep them in good shape. Most of the Roman roads were also built by the men in the legions, not slaves as many believe.) The wall was over seventy miles long, with mini-forts
every mile. Fires were use to signal along it. If something happened, all
units would know about it in a matter of minutes.
The Romans spent centuries on that wall! They didn't spend all their
time fighting the Picti. They simply enforced a cordon sanitaire: a
zone in which the Picti were not allowed to dwell. If the Picti were
rash enough to build a village in this zone, the Romans went and burned
it down. The Romans expected to be obeyed, and they played hard-ball!
(An interesting aside is that if a Pictus saw the Romans coming, he
would use a burning cross to warn the others the Romans were on their way,
so a burning cross as a warning comes from deep inside Race-Memory.) But,
if the Picti played by Roman rules, they got along o.k. Sometimes they
traded--selling POWs was a wide-spread commerce at that time, and
the Picti often fought among themselves--the Romans cash were buyers. (Picti
prices for captives were cheap.) Over the centuries, these Picti got
to know a lot about the Romans, and they copied a lot from them.
(After all, the Romans were top dog, and that's usually who gets copied.)
The major cult among the Roman legionaries was a cult which had come
out of the Middle East called "Mithraism." Mithra is an ancient Indo-
European name. (Mitra is still one of the principal gods in Hinduism,
which is a lot older than Judaism or Xianity.) As this cult moved westward
out of Chaldea, the figure of Mithra changed. He looked more and
more Graeco-Roman, and not like a Persian or Hindu. The name is
about the only thing that stuck--that and the iconography. Mithra was
depicted slaying a bull, and in the carving were usually also a dog
and a scorpion. (The above illustration is from a Mithraeum. There's also a full-scale
Mithraeum at Yale Univ., in New Haven, CN--in case one wants to take a look.)
Mithra became identified with the sun, so much so that (for religious purposes), by
the time of the Emperor Diocletian (~305), Sol Invictus - Mithra was proclaimed
"The Protector of the Empire." The Unconquerable Sun and Mithra were fused.
(Diocletian was an old soldier himself and a Mithra follower: one who hated
Xianity and persued the last great effort to stamp out this Death-Cult.)
Why this fascination with Mithra and the symbols (most Mithraea were caves or
grottos)? Nothing particular about the rites--because the Xians simply
incorporated ALL of them into Xianity, and made up the requisite mumbo-jumbo
to account for the Seven Mithraic Sacraments becoming the Seven Xian
Sacraments. (Note: sacramentum is a military term: it means the solumn oath,
the oath a soldier swears to obey without question.) The Xians even took the word--and they made
Mithra's birthday Christ's birthday: the winter solstice--December 25th (at the
time). The tie-in between Mithraism and Xianity is well indicated in Xianian lore.
Remember the story of the Three Wise Men, or Kings, or Magi? Well, Magus is the
word for astrologer: star-gazer, wizard. They "followed the new star." How did that
get in Xian lore? Because it came from Mithraism. The Magi were the ones who
promulgated Mithraism, and so they had to fit in Xian lore, which is a hodge-podge
of Jewish, Hellenistic, and (most importantly) Mithraic lore.
The Magi were star gazers and had been for hundred and hundreds of years.
(Aster is the Greek [and also Late Latin] word for "star." They named their
calling "astrology": knowledge of the stars. When real science took up the subject,
it had to devise a different name; "astrology" was polluted. One could have
"biology, zoology, minerology" but not "astrology," because that was a
superstition; so they came up with astronomy, which means "star
measurement"!)
The Magi had been studying the stars a long time; so long in fact that their
records went back to when the Vernal Equinox occurred when the sun was in Taurus:
the constellation represented by a bull. But the equinoxes change. The earth
"wobbles" on its axis, producing The Precession of the Equinoxes. The
ancients discovered this about 130 b.c.e. They knew what, but they didn't why.
(It wasn't until Issac Newton, that the why became known--and that
lay far in the future.)
According to the "science" of the time, the earth was a sphere at the center of the
universe. The sun, moon, plants, and (most distant) celestial sphere (stars) moved
around the earth. The Equinox, the start of spring and new life, had occurred when
the sun was in Taurus; but a Mighty God, mightier than any other, had reordered the
whole universe, "slaying" the bull and moving the equinox into Aires. (Where it was
when Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales: "the sonne its course through the
Ram [Aires] hath runne ..." Now, it is Pisces, on its way to Aquarius--you know
"The Age of Aquarius." It takes about 26,000 years to complete the Precession; about
2,000 years in each zodiac sign.
II. CONDITIONS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE
By the time of Diocletian the term "Senate and the People of Rome" had become a
pathetic joke. The Rome of Scipio Africanus, that hardy Celto-Germanic stock, had
been mongrelized into non-existence. Well over a century before, Martial wrote,
"Orontes in Tiberem defluxit!" ("The Orontes [a river in Syria] empties into the
Tiber [the river that runs through Rome]!") The city had been overwhelmed by
aliens. The Multi-Cultural Mongrolians of its day left it only two things:
the Latin language (now corrupted) and the institution of the Empire. Otherwise,
nothing about Rome was Roman! Alien races, alien cultures, alien Emperors
(Diocletian was a Bosnian!) had overwhelmed the native Roman stock. It became so
absurd that the Emperor Caracalla made every freeman of the Empire a Roman
citizen. One was a Roman "citizen" or a slave; there was no in between.
Amidst this chaos, there developed an intense longing for some symbol of unity, and
the all-powerful, unconquerable sun had been chosen as this symbol, named Sol
Invictus. But the ability to move even the sun from one position to another
indicated a Supreme Godhead, and so the sun was proclaimed Sol Invictus - Mithra,
Protector of the Empire. Mithra was regarded by the army as their god, and the
Empire depended upon the legions for its survival. The sun was the brightest object in the
sky, but the brightest object in the celestial sphere--the sphere of fixed stars--was (and is)
the constellation Orion, and Mithaics held it depicted Mithra's triumph over Taurus. What is the brighest
star in the night sky? Sirius, the dog-star in the constellation Canus Major, who
faithfully accompanies Orion (Mithra) in the slaying of Taurus. The scorpion? Ah,
when the vernal equinox was in Taurus, the autumnal equixon was in Scorpio.
(It's now in Virgo, moving toward Leo). So as Mithra eliminates the bull, his dog
eliminates the scorpion. Hence the hymn of the Legio XXX Macedonia, which put Rome
above all nations and Mithra above all.
Macedonia? That's not Rome. That's the wild area north of Greece, where Alexander
the Great came from. Why does the 30th legion have this name? Because the legions
were no longer recruited from among (nominal) Romans. Army life was too hard, for
those getting their "welfare" and blood-soaked "Super-Bowls" from the state. Pan
et circenses: bread and circuses! No one used to that was going to stand duty at a
frozen wall in the far north of Britain, so that after 20 years of service, he'd be
given a small farm and a smaller pension. The legions were drawn from semi-civilized
tribes, able to endure the hardship entailed. (A legionary on the march
lived off porridge: oatmeal without milk, sugar or butter to make it tasty. How'd
you like to march from Scotland to Iraq, living off unflavored oatmeal? Only a
rugged semi-savage could endure the hardships required of a legionary. And one
should remember that the Roman Emperor [from Bosnia] was once a common soldier
also.)
III. WHAT WAS MITHRAISM?
It was a soldier's cult (women were not allowed), in praise of the all-highest,
most powerful of gods. The services took place in caves or grottos. There was a
baptism, which ushered one into the Militia Mithrae, the Army of Mithra in the
eternal struggle against Evil. A communion too, but bread and water, not wine.
There were also "ranks": a novice was called a Corax (a "crow"). Why it's not
known. What is known is that the sacredote was called Pater and had taken a vow
of celibacy. As faithful service in the legion led to "veteran's benefits," so
faithful service in the Army of Mithra led to Eternal Salvation. The dogma of
Mithraism is hard to reconstruct, because there was no supreme authority. At most
there was a Pater patrum, a sort of bishop, but nothing beyond that. The myths
have Mithra as a warrior from conception (from a rock), to combat Ahriman: Evil
and Death. Mithra was both the creator of man and his mediator between this creation
and the transindental gods: Infinite Time and Light (Mazda). Another myth is Mithra
dining with Sol Invictus and their being fused as a result.
What rank a man held in the outside world had no significance: only the Mithraic
rank counted. A slave might be the superior of a Senator in the Army of Mithra.
(One must remember this. We will see it again.) The parallells with Xianity are
striking. The total exclusion of women was a great weakness; furthermore, the
Xianians held that Christ was an historical person as well as being God incarnate.
There was another great difference: NO JEWISH LORE IN MITHRAISM: The Mosaic
mythology was totally absent.
When Contantine first assumed the Imperial Title, it was in the name of Sol
Invictus. Christianity's elevation a religion of the Empire was not immediate,
and it came as a complete surprise. Xians were a very small percentage of the
population. There were far more adherents to Mithraism. The pacifism of Xianity was
not welcome in the legions. Mithraism lingered there far longer than in
any other segment of society. Indeed, given the similar tenets and rituals, the
Mithraic cult should have been easily absorbed, especially as the Xians arranged that Mithra
and Christ should have the same birthday; but the legions didn't like the Jewish lore.
What was going on in the Mediterranean basin was not immediately felt at that
frozen wall across Roman Britannia. It's reasonable to assume that many Picti
accepted Mithraism. After all, all men were equal in the cult: Roman or Pictus,
slave or free. Certainly there were Picti who had, over the centuries, accepted Roman
values as they were later to accept Roman dress and implements, modifying them to
their own design. It should also be noted after the errection of Hadrian's Wall, the Antonine
"wall" (more an impressive earthern work than a wall) was errected and manned for a while.
This subjected areas of Caledonia to Romanizing (and Mithraism). When the Romans
abandonded the Antonine Wall and returned to the stone wall of Hadrian, no doubt a number
of Romanized Caledonians joined in the evacuation. That there were Picti in the Army of
Mithra seems certain.
IV. POST-ROMAN BRITAIN
The separation of Britain from the continent has been the single most important
factor in its history. During the circa 400 years of Roman occupation, there were a
great many events which served to isolate Britain from occurences in other parts of
the Empire. On more than one occassion, the local commander tried to set himself up
as an independent potentate, requiring action by the Imperial government and
resulting in a localized civil war, which effected the Roman residents, but not the
local Celts. This estrangement was already in place when Constantine pulled his
coup of installing Xianity as the state cult and moving the capital east to "his"
city of Contanstinople. While there was a love-hate relationship with Rome, Britain
had nothing in common with the Eastern Empire. Greek was virtually unknown (outside
the drawing rooms of large landowners). The Celts gladly cultivated the black
walnut trees the Romans had brought from Persia [!], but the violent squabbles of
this new state cult, which didn't even know what its beliefs were, held scant
interest for the residents of Britain. If anything, it made Mithraism (which at
least was a known entity, and devoid of heresy as it had no dogma) that much more
attractive. Not that there were that many adherents, but those who were, were
mainly concentrated in the north, with many co-religionists in the legions
stationed along the wall.
Xianity was mainly limited to the south, that area closest to the continent. In 383
c.e., following the confusion of Julian and the all-too-brief pagan restoration,
C.E. Maximus, another imperial pretender, siphoned a number of troops from Britain.
Then, a few years later, Gaul was under Frankish rule, cutting off Britain from
Rome itself. Romano-Britons were left isolated. As their forces were meagre
and manpower small, they turned to hiring Saxons to repel other Saxons. This led to
the two Saxon factions coming to an "understanding" and both turning on Romano-Britain.
(The legend of King Arthur, a Roman of distinction rallying the Romano-Britons probably
dates from this era.) Still, Saxon force proved stronger, and as the Romano-Britons
were being driven west and north, the Celtic element began to predominate, as the Celts
were always in the majority and rarely bothered to learn Latin. The decline of Roman
Britain meant the extinction of the "Romano" and the severe restriction of the Britannic.
The situation in the north was somewhat different, as the Angles were the main
Germanic tribe, not the Saxons. The transition to Xianity among the Romano-Briton-
Caledonian population near the wall had resulted in virtually a unique religion, one
in which the Pelagian heresy was the prevailing form. British-born Pelagius
preached a doctrine that Divine Grace played a small role in a man's salvation.
This, of course, would find favor among those still attached to Mithraism, because
there is no "Divine Grace" in Mithraism. Salvation is attained by consistancy and
courage in the relentless war against Evil. In Ireland, a distinct brand of
Christianity emerged, the Celtic Church. It has its own rituals and dogmatic basis
(including the distinctive "Celtic Cross," which remains to this day). Eventually,
the Celtic Church agreed to conform to Roman rites and dogma, but the position of
Xianity in the north was tenuous at best; while in the south, once Xian Romano-Britain was
thoroughly pagan, due to the Saxon conquest.
Caledonia (Scotland) had to be re-converted by Irish monks (Columba being the most
famous), but the Calidonians tended to cling to the Roman ways: the legionary's tunic
became the kilt, etc. And as for Mithraism, it simply went underground: not
practised, but not forgotten: much like the "wee people" among the Irish Celts. The
difference was that this special diety was to re-emerge in substance, if not in
form, with the appearance of Scottish-rite Freemasonry.
V. THE EMERGENCE OF "SCOTLAND"
Scotland and Northumbria--those areas where Mithraism had been strong--were
late in adopting Xianity. The Scottish lowlands were subject to the Angles, Danes,
and Mercians. The highlands underwent Irish-Celtic settlement. (Scotus meant
Irish.). While the lowlands under Roman occupation had introduced Xianity in the
late 4th century, it was confined to small areas. Even by the 11th century, when
St. Margaret came from Anglo-Saxon England, she found Xianity in Scotland to be
virtually a unique form. There is scant history, as Norse raids left the monasteries in
ruins. Consolidation of these diverse tribes (clans) into a kingdom required nearly 200
years. The Picti became absorbed, but the contrast between Nordic barbarism and
Roman civilization was so great, that much of what the Romans had accomplished
probably passed into forelore. As shown, the Scottish national dress was a remembrance
of Rome. The "unique" Xianity Margaret found in Scotland probably was a product of
Mithraic influences being mingled in.
The similarities between Mithraism and Xianity are very strong: a ritual of
baptism, a communion, and a central figure incarnating The Light and the Good, in
perpetual conflict with Evil. Margaret found that Scotish Xianity had the same date
for Xmas (birthday of Sol Invictus - Mithra) but a different date for Easter. The
Scottish Easter of her era coincided with the equinox, when Light assumed a greater
portion of the day than Dark. (Given its extreme northern location, the contrasts
in seasonal daylight in very dramatic in Scotland.) Unlike most European countries,
there was no great flowering of monastic life in Scotland. The Kingdom of Scotland
received official recognition only in 1328, when both the Pope and the King of
England affirmed Robert I the Bruce as "King of the Scots." The problem was that
the papal bull, authorizing coronation and unction (annointing) was not issued
until six days after the death of Robert the Bruce in 1329. For the remainder of
its history as a totally independent nation, the King of the Scots was beset by the
encroachments of the English and the defiant independence of the clans. Rarely in
the course of Scottish history was the whole country under the actual rule of the
monarch. Clan independence meant the preservation of clan folklore, and the re-emergance
of Latin with the founding of universities affirmed the echo of that distant Roman past.
VI. THE EMERGENCE OF FREEMASONRY
Freemasonry started as a type of "Y" among stone masons. Unlike
other guilds, masons didn't set up shop in a fixed place. A tailor had
his shop, but a mason had to go where structures were being built of
stone. These were usually castles, cathedrals, and monasteries (many
more in England than in Scotland). This period saw the drawing up of
The Old Charges: a rule book for the lodges, which were indeed lodges:
providing food and shelter for the masons working on projects like Windsor Castle, etc. The
oldest one in existence comes from 1390, but it is known there were older ones,
which did not survive.
As Euclid and Roman writers had praised masons as true craftsmen
(technoi in Greek: like "technology," the science of skilled use), it
was considered a fit calling for the younger sons of minor nobility: an
alternative to the celibate church, hence the term free mason, as
no person of servile origin could be a true mason, merely a bricklayer
or hod-carrier. In Anglo-Saxon times, King Athelstan had the lords draw
up the "Constitution" for these master craftsmen of genteel origin. As master
masons were "genteel," a rather fanciful history was invented for
the guild: the Masonic Fraternity had built the pyramids, the Temple of
Solomon, on and on. This gave them "status" above, say, a shoemaker.
Masons were supposed to deport themselves as gentlemen, and were held in
high esteem.
As the wages of a true mason were much higher than a mere bricklayer,
and masons moved around a lot going to where the work was (one couldn't
bring the castle to them), there was the obvious temptation for one
unqualified to pass himself off as a mason. To prevent this, the masons
developed secret handshakes and ways of knocking at the lodge's door, to
prevent pretenders from passing themselves off as true masons. This was
the era of Operative Masonry, when the lodges were indeed places of
repose for qualified stone masons.
VII. THE RISE OF "SPECULATIVE MASONRY"
The Masonic Guild was less rendered by the Reformation than most
other guilds. They were already a closely knit fraternity of sorts and
were horrified at seeing people calling themselves "Xians" massacring
each other, being burned alive, tortured, over something as absurd as
whether King Henry (in England) should be allowed to remarry, or Queen
Mary (in Scotland) allowed to practice her faith. They didn't see much
"brotherly love" among the Xians, just a lot of heads being chopped off
and the beautiful monasteries they had built destroyed.
During the medieval period, Masons were required (translating out of
the Middle English of the time) to "love God, the Holy Church, and all
Saints." (Notice there nothing about the Bible.) In 1583, "saints" was
dropped; and by 1717, the Constitution had been simplified to "Moral
Law" and to respect the religion in which all men agree, [who are] Men
of Honor and Honesty, irrespective of what Denomination or Persuasion
they profess. In an age when Catholics were being hunted in Holland and
Sweden (and treated like cattle in Ireland), and Protestants were still
being burned in Spain, here was the first profession of total toleration.
(Jews were admitted after 1723.) In 1738, Pope Clement XII forbad
Catholics from becoming Masons, stating it was, "a pagan religion." He
was probably correct: Freemasonry being revamped Mithraism.
How do we know? Well, we don't know for sure: there's no specific
connection between the long vanished cult of the Roman legions and this
new "fraternity," which required merely the profession of belief in "A
Supreme Architect of the Universe," but there are a lot of indications
--strong ones.
VIII. MITHRA DONS A POWDERED WIG
The most grandiose stone structure even constructed in Britain was,
and is, Hadrian's Wall (much of it still standing): over 74 miles long,
with mini-forts every mile. No operative mason could have failed to be
impressed by it. It was unprecedented, not only in Britain but in the
known world at the time. (The greater one in China wasn't known until
much later.) Obviously, a mason would have been curious about those who
could construct such an edifice, and in learning about who built it--now
relegated to folklore--they would have encountered that other aspect of
the folklore: that those who built it were in the service of The Supreme
Architect of the Universe, who brought forth the celestial spheres--Mithra.
Mithraism was a religion with no dogma, no "original sin," no revelation, no history of
absurd "miracles," totally tolerant, stressing benevolence (no "divine grace"),
possessing ranks as (secret) initiation rites in consecrated Mithraism--and barring
women. The Speculative (or Accepted) Masons didn't subscribe to some
of the Mithraic dicta; they subscribed to ALL of it--including barring women
(who formed their own auxiliary organization called "Daughters of the
Eastern Star"). If sheer coincidence, there's a staggering amount of it. I'd call 100% a
staggering amount.
From the formation of the first Grand Lodge in 1717, Freemasonry
quickly spread through out Europe and European colonies. As in ancient
Mithraism, the rank of the individual in the secular world had no direct
significance in the Masonic lodge (although kings, who happened to
be Masons, usually found it easier to attain the rank of Grand Master of
their lodge than others). By the latter portion of the 18th century, it
was usually easier to ask which luminary was not a Mason, rather than
which was. Despite the ban of the Catholic Church (repeated in 1758 by
Pope Benedict XIV), Holy Roman Emperor Francis I was a Mason. This
resulted in a rather sticky problem, as Vienna lay in the Archduchy of
Austria, whose ruler was his wife, Maria-Theresa. She was badgered
by the cardinal to suppress these "neo-pagans." The Masons still
preserved their identifying handshake and knock on the lodge door, to
verify they were truly Masons. To this was added another "special knock":
that of Maria-Theresa's police! This provided ample time for her husband to exit via the
back door, before the front door was opened to a very patient police chief; thereby
avoiding putting the Holy Roman Emperor under arrest for participating in forbidden
rituals. (How would one handle a wife arresting her husband--when he
happened to be the Holy Roman Emperor?)
It was no less a luminary than Frederick the Great who coined the
term "Scottish Rite." It seemed to differ from the vague "York rite"
(which didn't mean much of anything), in that it had more grades. Like
Mithraism, Freemasonry had a number of levels, each with an arcane name
and a secret "trial" as a form of initiation or elevation. The Scottish
Rite became the principal one on the continent and in the U.S., with a
host of levels up to the 33rd degree, which was purely honorary. Again,
like Mithraism, benevolence was the prime focus. The French Lodge,
Grande Orient removed even the requirement that one profess a belief
in a "Supreme Architect." It had no qualifications or disqualifications
whatsoever. The sole aspect was the stress on benevolence.
Mozart was a devoted Mason, as was his father--and Haydn too. George
Washington took his Masonic affiliations very seriously. He wouldn't set
foot inside a Xian church, but was the Grand Master of two lodges. With
Ben Franklin, it was three: one also in France. The Prince of Wales
(later George IV) was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge; several kings of
Sweden and Denmark were also at one time Grand Master of this London-
based Grand Lodge, and all the future monarchs of the U.K. from George
IV through George VI were Grand Masters. (Queen Elizabeth II, being
female, is not allowed to be a Mason: Mithraism casts a long shadow.)
IX. FREEMASONRY: THE FLACK-CATCHER
Freemasonry has two things going against it: it definitely isn't a
Xian institution (which makes it anathema to Bible-Thumpers), and it
has the residuum of the Mithraic secret initiation rites. This "secrecy"
has made it anathema to totalitarian regimes. In went from being banned
in the Third Reich to being banned in the Soviet-puppet G.D.R. (Totalitarian regimes don't
look fondly on "secret" societies, but few have been as silly as the Nazi Anti-Masonic
Expo, which "showed" the "poisoned pen" the Mason Goethe used to murder Schiller
[?]!) Funny no one ever comes up with allegations that the Elks or Rotarians are bent on world
domination. (I'm not so sure I'd object to a world dominated by neo-Mithraics.)
What makes Freemasonry unique is that it does not accept the
Mosaic mumbo-jumbo. The "Chinese Wall" between membership and religious
tenets is older and stronger in Freemasonry than in The U.S. Constitution
(which was written by a much of Masons, for the most part).
X. CONCLUSION
About 400 c.e. Hadrian's Wall was abandoned. But it stood, and it
reminded. It reminded those who were kept out by it and those protected
by it of a concept called "civilization." It passed not only into folklore but also into
the Collective Unconscious, or the Race-Culture; and with it went the concept of
a deity, whom those lonely men from a far off portion of the world worshiped: a
soldier's god, a man's god, The Greatest Builder of them All. These lonely men
served in Europe's army, carrying their Eagles. This army they served with their
stamina and with their swords. They also served in another army, the Militia Mithrae,
which they served with their dedication and acts of kindness: that there
be more Good in the world than Evil, and that eventually Good would
overwhelm Evil. No god commanded them to do it; they were volunteers.
Stones last, as does the memory of good men, among those who will
remember. Did some remember this non-judgmental, tolerant, and effective deity, and--in
their own way--follow the example these lonely men on a remote wall had set: an
example of loyalty, bravery, obedience, and benevolence?
... I tend to believe so: U.M.

-FINIS-
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