Every Freemason is aware that God has been represented as the “The Great Architect of the Universe”. Some may not know why, when and how the “Great Architect of the Universe” became a symbol representing the One Supreme Being in Freemasonry?
This painting was a page from the French manuscript edition of “Bible Moralisee c. 1250”.
The idea of God as a “Great Architect” antedates speculative Freemasonry, as this painting of the Divine Being circumscribing the limits of creation indicates. William Blake (1757 – 1827) also rendered a beautiful painting of God as “The Grand Geometrician of the Universe”. Though not a freemason he expressed many Masonic ideals in his writings and paintings.
Interestingly the Chinese also has a version of the creation of the universe with the aid of a compass and a square. A Chinese painting featuring the first legendary Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi with his consort Nu Gua with their dragon bodies intertwined as one with Fu Hsi holding a compass and Nu Gua holding a square, hence, the altar of earth in Peking was a square, whilst the altar of heaven is circular, thus the old Chinese saying “Without compass and ruler, there would not be squares and circles.” All items used to communicate with heaven or God like candles and joss sticks are circular. Joss stick containers and candle stands are likewise circular.
This painting was unearthed in 1969 in Astana, Turpan, Winjiang, along the Silk Road. The Silk Road started in Changan, the ancient capital of China in the Tang Dynasty, via Tibet and India and ended in Tyre, on the edge of the Mediterranean. Marco Polo was in China in 1270 and served the Emperor Kublai Khan for about 25 years. He returned to Italy in 1295 and may have brought back more than just spaghetti.
We can only speculate as to whether Freemasonry which is organized on similar Hung Triad Society's concept and structure of an "Universal Brotherhood" of men standing up for justice, equality and liberty for all people under heaven spread to China via the Silk Road or vice versa. An Italian once told me it was Marco Polo who brought spaghetti to China and the Chinese called it Chinese noodle. It was perhaps Dr. Milne who first noticed the similarities between Freemasonry and the Chinese Hung Triad society. He presented a paper Munchener gelehrten Anzeigen in 1857 on this topic which so impressed Zurich freemason Dr. Jos. Schauberg that he produced his own paper in 1861 expressing his conviction that the initiation ceremonies, signs and symbols of Freemasonry were similar to that of the Hung society.[1]
Is this a possibility? Since Marco Polo's visit to China, there were certainly "Chinese experts" amongst the Jesuit missionaries who stayed for long periods in China and were familiar with Chinese culture and had mastered its language. Chinese classics were translated into Latin and other European languages since the 17th century or even earlier. Chinese eye-lash-paint-vases were found in the Egyptian tombs of the XVIII and XX dynasties (1800 -1100 BC) that suggested there existed a direct or indirect intercourse between Egypt and China in that time.[2] According to Wells Williams, author of Middle Kingdom, the Chinese established a relationship with the Romans and Anthony even sent an ambassador to China and the relationship continued until the eleventh century.[3]
Gustave Schlegel, author of The Hung-League in his introduction noted the exact similarities between the Pythagoras system and the Chinese musical system which attached a number to every musical note is of the view that Pythagoras learned it from the Chinese.[4] Some other modern scholars believe that Pythagoras’s journey to the east was a fable of the Alexandrine period. Among other similarities, Dr. Schauberg noted the common emphasis on fraternal love, equality and the worship of Shang-ti which in Chinese is the One Supreme Being. He compared Yin and Yang symbolically with Jachin and Boaz, which we were told originated from the Essenian (through Moses) and Egyptian twin heavenly and earthly pillars.[5]
The black and white checkered floor of the Masonic temple; the Ming-thang which in Chinese is the temple of light, the common emphasis on the importance and significance of numbers 3, 5 and 7 may be more than just a coincidence. The Chinese too like the Pythagoreans since ancient times were fascinated with mathematics and believe numbers to be sacred. Similar to Pythagoras’s system, in the numbers one to ten, the Chinese assigned the odd numbers, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 as representing heaven, yang (male), day, positive; the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 represent earth, Yin (female), night and negative. The harmonious interpenetration of the yin and yang (1 & 2, 3 & 4) numbers created all other things. In this manner all things both organic and inorganic are assigned positive or negative numbers in its various multiples with its inherent energies (properties) vibrating at fixed frequencies.
In the above painting, Fu Hsi represents heaven/male/sun and Nu Gua earth/female/moon being surrounded by a sun and a moon linked to all the stars in the universe. The compass and square are instruments used in that painting to measure the cosmos. The sun, moon and stars had just been created and an earth without form and void was in the process of taking form. Fu Hsi rules the sky and represents the yang/positive forces and Nu Gua rules the earth and represents the yin/negative forces. In the ancient Chinese creation myth, yin and yang were held inside the cosmic egg until the interaction of the opposing forces cracked the shell and exploded everything into existence.
The yin and yang symbol expresses the interaction between these two forces, which gave rise to the universe and everything within it. Though opposites, they are interlocking and mutually dependent. Together they form a perfect circle. The two small spots show that each opposing force contains a small seed of the other within itself; representing the seed of change and reversal. The unity of these two forces was depicted as and still is essential for all species to continue to exist in the universe. They cannot be separated; otherwise the result would be extinction.
They co-exist as one at the same time in eternity. Duality (yin/yang) is the divine method by which God and everything in the universe is manifested. The invisible becomes visible and vice versa. The light comes on when the positive and negative current is connected when you on the switch and when separated the light goes off. Just like birth and death. When you were given birth (form), you were at the same time given the seed of death (formlessness). The formless takes form from the interaction of yin and yang and vice versa. There is no need to fear death; it is the most natural thing in the world, inseparable from and just as natural as its twin polarity – birth.
Take a walk through nature and in a forest not tamed by man, you will see and be surrounded by both the abundant life and death in every step you take. They exist side by side in harmony, stillness and mutual acceptance, the young saplings of trees and plants, the fallen trees and its decaying trunks and rotting leaves. Take a closer look at the decomposing matter and you will find that death supports life and are full of life in its midst. Termites, insects, worms and other microorganisms are busy at work; molecules are rearranging themselves, recycling and breaking down matter into top soil to support the living. In truth, death is only the metamorphosis of life forms. Life is not the opposite of death. The opposite of death is birth.
Life as spirit created by T G A O T U is eternal; what God created no man can destroy. Man can destroy life forms and its civilizations but not life itself. All forms both organic and inorganic are always in the process of transformation; subjected to change, death and renewal. Where one part ends another begins. Yin and Yang is God’s system of eternal continuous creation and change, of self-renewal and immortality. Whether we realize it or not, we are an essential part of this system and we are immortal only because the system (God) is immortal. This is the divine intelligent system that brings order into chaos. God is The One Supreme Being. From the One, it manifest itself into two (Yin/Yang), then into the four seasons followed by the eight trigrams and the 10,000 things while uniting all things and remaining as One. It will always be in him and through him. According to Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu in Chinese means “the Grand Old Master”:
There is a Being, wonderful, perfect;
It existed before heaven and earth.
How quiet it is!
How spiritual it is!
It stands alone and it does not change.
It moves around and around, but does not on this account suffer.
All life comes from it.
It wraps everything with its love as in a garment, and
Yet it claims no honor; it does not demand to be Lord.
I do not know its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way,
And I rejoice in its power. [6]
To Fu Hsi is attributed the discovery of the BaGua in about 3000 BC. The constantly changing interactions of yin and yang give rise to the infinite variety of patterns of life, symbolized in the three-line symbols of the eight trigrams. The top line of each trigram represents heaven, the bottom line earth and the middle line is humankind which is a result of the union of heaven and earth. The BaGua forms the basis of I Ching also known as the Book of Changes and I Ching numerology system also called the magic square.
Tranquility (shalom) is achieved when the forces of heaven and earth merged as one as depicted in I Ching’s hexagram No. 11. This symbol is similar in meaning to that of the Star of David (the six pointed star) when the pyramids from heaven and earth interlocked as one. Likewise on earth when the male and female (being opposites) come together as one in harmony, a new loving light is brought forth in the birth of a child. This male and female principles at the heart of the perpetuation of life in the Universe as represented by Yin and Yang in China have its parallels in Shiva and Shakti in India, Isis and Osiris in Egypt and sol and Luna in Europe.
Therefore balance and harmony is found only with an understanding and cooperation of the positive and negative forces of nature represented by the immutable laws of Nature. Yin and yang is the empirical code to understanding the Tao inherent in all things in the Universe; the divine Universal symbol of the union of the male and female principles in cosmic orgasm, a divine state of fusion thus giving birth to life forms in the 10,000 things.
The teachings of Freemasonry; like all other mystical teachings, begins with God as the centre and source of all things. “From the centre we must not err.” “When in the centre, every point on the circumference is equally distant.” Lao Tzu expressed this maxim 2500 years ago, “Just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take its course”. Chuang Tzu, his disciple added:
The ‘this’ is also ‘that’. The ‘that’ is also ‘this’.
That the ‘that’ and the ‘this’ cease to be opposites is the very essence of Tao.
Only this essence, an axis, as it were, is the center of the circle responding to the endless changes.
Being in the center is the middle road between opposites, freed from them and yet uniting them within it. We thus become free from prejudice, enabling us to observe and accept things as they truly are and not trap in the tension of polarity. From the center, we have a 360 degree perspective of existence. The sun is the centre of our solar system, from its perspective there is only light. Darkness is but a shadow. It exists because the light shines on life or an object. There is no absolute darkness. In the night the moon and stars exist for us. Day and night follows one another continuously. It does not stop and begin again. From light to darkness and from darkness comes light.
The circle is symbolic of Tao, literally meaning the Way, life and the eternal renewal of life. Any point on the circumference can be a beginning and at the same time an end. The first day of a new life is also the first day of dying (decay). Enlightenment is the realization of becoming of what we already are from the beginning (non form). If you start your journey at any point, and travel far enough you will inevitably end up where you started. Therefore, in the cycle of life, an end is always a new beginning. It seems English poet T S Eliot made the same observation when he wrote:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Akhenaten, Nerfitti and their children being blessed by the sun god Aten.
Akhenaten, Pharaoh of Egypt (1353-1336 BC) was perhaps the first from the western world who appreciated the concept of one universal God. A center and circle is a symbol of four symbols which formed the name Akhenaten. During his reign, he issued a degree banning polytheism. Only his God Aten was to be worshipped as the One Supreme Being, the one and only creator God of the universe. “Thou shall not have other Gods before me”. The conversion of the Egyptians to monotheism lasted only 17 years during his reign and Egypt subsequently reverted back to its old polytheistic religion.
Many scholars have suggested that his monotheism is the source of the Hebrew prophets a few centuries later, when monotheism was defined in Israeli religion. Authors Messod and Roger Sabbah believed that Akhenaten was Abraham of the Old Testament. Their arguments as contained in their book Secrets of the Exodus are most persuasive. It is interesting to note that the other sun God of Egypt Re is represented by the center and the circle symbolizing the good, peace, satisfaction and oneness of Re, the king of the Egyptian gods. Another interesting discovery is that many of the statues and other representations of Akhenaten represented him as both male and female. There were confusion on the interpretation of such statues and Egyptologists disagree amongst themselves as to the reason of such representation. I venture to offer that it symbolizes that Akhenaten had spiritually transcended and merged the male and female principles (yin/yang) and am now centered (one) with Aten.
Akhenaten being represented with both male and female physical characteristics.
The original Gnostic Christians also believed the divine as having both a masculine and feminine face. They valued men and women equally, as expressions of God and Goddess. “They saw the division of the sexes as a correlate of that primal duality which is the source of creation, a duality that when made one, as in the act of love brings the bliss of union that they called Gnosis”. [7] If you are centered, you are free from all tension. It may be that all knowledge and wisdom of all cultures in the world originated from the same one source, the One Supreme Being.
Dr. James Anderson when writing the Book of Constitutions sometime between 1720 – 1723 gave an account of the Craft which would be a real work of Masonic ‘history’ opened with this line, “Adam, our first Parent, created after the Image of God, the great Architect of the Universe, must have had the Liberal Science, particularly Geometry, written on his Heart…….”. The description of God as “The Great Architect of the Universe” is an appropriate and neutral term. It fits in nicely with our Constitution amended in 1738, which allows people of all races and religion to be a member as long as he believes in a Supreme Being.
Freemasonry is not a religion but is the Centre of all religion. We have Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and others who just simply believed in a Supreme Being amongst us. It teaches spirituality without a brand. God is manifested in different forms in different times and different places to different people. Every Master Mason knows or should know that he stands together with all others as one in the light of a single integrated Divine spirit, which connects everyone and everything in the entire field of existence in infinity and eternity. The development of such individuals is the purpose of the craft. Amazing grace is the realization that we with our unique differences are one. It is a rich, loving, deeply fulfilling and rewarding experience. Below our different color skins and features, our DNA protein structure is identical.
In the second degree, God is represented as “The Grand Geometrician of the Universe”. Geometry, mathematics and Architecture are related arts and sciences necessary for the construction and building of the universe and are tools used for creations. Masonic scholars from the mystical school believe that Freemasonry goes back a long time to the time of Lamech, about 3200 B C. Lamech was a descendent of Cain. The concept of God as a Geometrician and Architect perhaps originated from early Masonic manuscripts. The Harlean, Sloane, Lansdowne, Edinburgh and Kilwinning manuscripts all relate that the Craft evolved in the most ancient Biblical times and many early Lodge constitutions cite the founders as being the sons and daughter of Lamech, namely Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-cain and Naamah. They wrote their various sciences upon two pillars – one called Marbell, which would resist fire, and the other called Laturus, which would resist water. Lamech was the father of Masonic symbolism and his son Jabal was the master geometrician. Some scholars view such claims by freemasons of its ancient pedegree as nothing more than fantasy and romanticism.
Dr. Charles Pellegrino, a paleontologist recently discovered from clay tablets found near the ruins of Babylon near Iraq that “schoolchildren in Babylon were learning about the hypotenuse of a right triangle in 2000 BC; i.e. seventeen hundred years before Euclid introduced his ‘new’ geometry at Alexandria”. [8] Zoroaster (1200 BC) during a prolonged period of contemplation concluded that the cyclical nature of time, the seasons and the course of the planets indicated the presence of a ‘universal architect’ – a creator. The late Professor Carl Sagan of Cornell University, a well known author and astronomer is of the view that the Universal language that could be understood by all civilizations in the universe is mathematics. Bertrand Russell expressed this view in The Study of Mathematics: ‘Mathematics possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.’ Is mathematics therefore the language of God? .
Many mathematicians believe that mathematics is not just a language to describe nature, but is inherent in nature itself. In the Western world, Pythagoras was the originator of this belief with his famous statement, “All things are numbers.” He taught a very special kind of mathematical mysticism and introduced logical reasoning into the domain of religion and according to Bertrand Russell laid the foundation for Western religious philosophy:
The combination of mathematics and theology, which began with Pythagoras, characterized religious philosophy in Greece, in the Middle Ages, and in modern times down to Kant… In Plato, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz there is an intimate blending of religion and reasoning, of moral aspiration with logical admiration of what is timeless, which comes from Pythagoras, and distinguishes the intellectualized theology of Europe from the more straightforward mysticism of Asia. [9]
We were all numbered when we were born. The Gnostics, like their predecessors the Pythagoreans used numbers and mathematical formulas to encode their mystical teachings. They regarded mathematics and geometry as sacred sciences which reveal the workings of God. Plato inscribed over the entrance to his Academy: ‘Let no one ignorance of mathematics enter here.’ In the ancient Greek alphabet, each letter also signified a number.
A word or a name also had a numerical value and is used to convey mathematical information or hidden meaning and teaching. According to the Revelation of John the number of the ‘Beast’ is 666. The Greek name of Jesus (Iesous) expresses the number 888. According to the Chaldean number system, the compound number of 666 when added together is 18 and when reduced to a single digit it becomes 9. The symbolism of this compound number is difficult to translate. It is pictured as “a rayed moon from which drops of blood are falling; a wolf and a hungry dog are seen below catching the falling bloods in their opened mouths, while still lower a crab is seen hastening to join them.”
It is symbolic of materialism striving to destroy the spiritual side of nature. The number 9 symbolically represents the planet Mars. Both the first and second Temple of King Solomon was destroyed on the 9th day of the Jewish month called Ab. On that day Jews cannot wear the Talith and Phylacteries until the sun has set. The compound number of 888 is 24 and when reduced to a single digit, the number is 6. The compound number 24 denotes the benefits of love and the happy union of man and woman. The number 6 symbolically represents the planet Venus.
According to Count Louis Harnon, this is based on Pythagorean esoteric mathematics. With the near complete destruction of the Inner Mysteries of the Gnostic Christians and the burning of all ancient writings not conforming to the politically correct dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, the keys to decode the allegories have been lost and modern scholars and numerologists can only attempt to reconstruct its meanings. We were given a name at birth, we can change our names (given by man) by deed poll but we can not change our numbers as the Universe (God) gave it.
To Pythagoras is attributed the discovery of the 47th proposition of Euclid, which now forms the jewel of the IPM in English Freemasonry. He is said to be the one who put together a number of scattered and unrelated mathematical facts and organized it into a science. Some Masons believed that it was Pythagoras (582 BC) also known as Peter Gower who brought Masonry from the East to the West. Many Masons affectionately refer to him as our ‘ancient friend and brother’.
He was a great philosopher who founded the Pythagorean School, which taught philosophy, mathematics, geometry and music. His school was reputed to produce the finest characters in his time in every field of education. Philolaus in expressing the keynote of the Pythagorean system said, “Number is great and perfect and omnipotent, and the principle guide of divine and human life". To them number is order and limitation, and alone makes a cosmos possible. By numbers nature moves, and to understand numbers is to be the master of nature.
Towards the end of first century B C, the Roman architect Vitruvius articulated and expanded the role of the architect. He had recommended that builders be organized into mutually beneficial societies or ‘collegia’, thereby providing some solid precedents for later builders. He had insisted, ‘Let the altars look to the east’, as the twin pillars of Freemasonry and Christian churches do. He had defined the architect as something more than a mere draughtsman. In his words, the architect ‘should be….. a skilful draughtsman, a mathematician, familiar with historical studies, a diligent student of philosophy, acquainted with music……familiar with astrology……’.
Vitruvius’s idea of an architect was a well rounded Wiseman, well versed in the humanities, art, music and science with a special understanding of the underlying laws of nature, especially geometry, on which he was to draw plans and construct temples ‘by the help of proportion and symmetry….. ’. [10] Through the study of geometry, therefore, certain absolute laws appeared to become legible – laws, which attested to an underlying order, an underlying design, and an underlying coherence. This master plan operating through the laws of nature is infallible, immutable, and omnipresent and by virtue of these very qualities, it could be construed as something of divine origin. A manifestation of divine power, divine will and divine craftsmanship.
Many scientists and philosophers prosecuted in that era by the Roman Catholic Church including Masons took cover under the ‘Invisible College’, which was later registered as the Royal Society of London. Dr. Desaguliers, our third Grand Master was the inventor of the planetarium and a close friend of Isaac Newton. Many Masons were members and there were no less than twelve Grand Masters who were also Fellows of the Royal Society in that time. Its members included Brethren Sir Robert Moray, Elias Ashmole, Sir Christopher Wren, Martin Folkes, John Arbuthnot, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift. [11] Science and especially geometry played an important part in the rebuilding of London after the great fire in 1666. Science, democracy, freedom and ultimate spirituality goes hand in hand.
None can flourish without freedom and peace. Understanding the seven liberal arts and sciences (see painting of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Pythagoras) enables us to appreciate and experience the beauty and grandeur of our infinite and eternal Creator and the Universe he created for our joy. If not for scientists and courageous men who loved freedom and truth more than life, we may still be living in the dark ages. If we do not self destruct, sooner or later we would be landing men on Mars and attempts will be made to make Mars ‘habitable once again?’ Our new frontier will be space and beyond, even than, man’s eternal questions and answers will always be there. Each and everyone exist to discover and live his truth and fulfill his destiny in his own time and place.
Raphael's School of Athens depicting Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Pythagoras in dialogue about the arts and sciences.
Tubal-cain was known as “an instructor of every artificer in brass and metal”. He was the greatest metallurgist in his time and has long been revered as a great patriarch of the Master Craftsmen. Ham – Thoth, the grandson of Tubal-cain, traditionally known as “Great Architect” was the inheritor of the Wisdom of Lamech according to ancient initiation rituals of the Egyptian mysteries. The Wisdom of Lamech was based on the Anunnaki testament known as the Table of Destiny, which contained “all that humankind had ever known, and all that would ever be known”.
Some scholars believe that the content was eventually translated to an emerald tablet (philosophers’ stone) by Ham-Thoth who was attributed to be responsible for the building of the Pyramids in Egypt. The Gothic cathedral and other Temples and places of worship were built based on geometric principles, on abstract mathematical relationships. The only ornamentation permitted was of an abstract geometrical kind – the maze, for example, the arabesque, the chessboard, the arch, the pillar or column and other such ‘pure’ embodiments of symmetry, regularity, balance and proportion.
The Temple of Solomon was built according to God’s geometric measurements and instruction. Some scholars believe that the Knights Templar, first known as Templum Salomonis, who billeted themselves at the site of Solomon’s Temple, may have found the tables placed in the Ark of the Covenant and returned to France with the sacred knowledge of number, measure and weight that enabled the building of the superb Gothic cathedrals so rapidly. [12] We shall never know for sure but the connections and repercussions are fascinating.
In a Gothic cathedral, geometry was the single most important factor. An example is the Chartres Cathedral built on the site of the old Romanesque cathedral after the fire in 1194 in Champagne, France. It was completed in less than 30 years and is described by many authors and visitors today as the most beautiful medieval cathedral in France. Well known author Peter Marshall, doctor of philosophy and author of The Philosopher’s Stone, had a beautiful experience and was obviously touched by its beauty and balance when he visited Chartres. I would like to quote some of his impressions and observations which he put it across very nicely:
“…….the pointed arch, the great height, the cross-ribbed vault, flying buttresses, the wide window, the tall clerestory and the tracery - they came together in Chartres in a unique way. It was one of those rare moments in history when the technical engineering, the architectural vision, the spiritual life and the energy of thousands all fused in a coherent whole. It is the balance of its parts and its supreme simplicity that Chartres is the most perfect cathedral ever created.” [13]
“The proportions throughout the cathedral are extraordinary and they all interrelate as one harmonious whole. This is because the overall design was determined from the first parts laid out. The width of the window openings, for instance, was made the same as the thickness of the piers, thereby creating a kind of a contrapuntal harmony down the nave. Another example is the spaces in the aisle. The voids of the aisle, measured between the piers on one side and between pier and wall shafts on the other, relate in the proportion of the Golden Mean – the ratio said to underlie the proportions of most growing things”. [14]
“I suspected that the harmonious proportions reflected a continuous tradition – the Hermetic tradition – of sacred science inherited by Europe from Egypt via the Middle East at the time of the building of the Gothic cathedrals. It is a tradition which Solomon took from the Egyptian priest and which the Knights Templar may well have uncovered during their sojourn in Jerusalem. Just like the Great Pyramid, Chartres Cathedral appeared to me to be a finely tuned musical instrument with many resonances. Goethe once called architecture ‘frozen music’; in the case of Chartres, it is a living symphony of light and music and stone. It is indeed the very image of heaven”.
“To the philosophers of Chartres, God appeared as the great architect who created the cosmos out of the prime chaos of matter according to ‘measure, number and weight’ in perfect proportions. The world was thus a work of architecture. God had provided its sacred proportions to Noah for his Ark, to Moses for the Tabernacle, to Solomon for the Temple”.
Chartres Cathedral in France
According to Marshall and other well known authors/editors on Chartres Catheral there are many enigmas at Chartres. The black Madonna in the crypt which according to local chronicles was an ancient statuette of Isis sculpted before the birth of Christ, the nail in a flagstone in the southern transept which is lit up by a shaft of light through a small hole in a stained-glass window on the summer solstice, the labyrinth which is the largest and best preserved in medieval France and others.
The labyrinth in Chartres
A special feature at Chartres was the use of light by the master glazier to reflect the radiance of truth. The special stained-glass windows of Chartres transform the cathedral into a living jewel and no one has been able to reproduce the peculiarly luminous quality which makes the glass glow from within. Light does not seem to pass through them but rather radiates from within. True stained glass first emerged in Persia towards the 11 century from the laboratories of Muslim alchemists. Marshall speculated that the Knights Templar brought the secret recipe back from Muslim alchemists in the Middle East. He posited that Templar Hugues de Payns and at least six of his fellow knights were portrayed on the north porch of Chartres, also known as the ‘Door of the Initiates’ escorting a very precious object from Jerusalem in 1128, believed to be the Ark.
The special-stained glass windows of Chartres
One small column carved in relief shows the transport of the Ark in a cart by a couple of oxen. It has the description Archa cederis – ‘You are to work through the Ark’’. On the same door is a carving of St. John the Baptist carrying a lamb. John the Baptist is the patron saint of Freemasonry and new initiates are placed in the north east. On the right bay of the Royal Portal of the cathedral surrounding the black Madonna are carvings of the seven liberal arts and sciences and the authors who best represent them from the classical world: Geometry by Euclid, Rhetoric by Cicero, Dialectic by Aristotle, Arithmetic by Boethius, Astronomy by Ptolemy, Grammar by Donatus and Music by Pythagoras. For more details on Chartres, you may wish to refer to Jean Favier’s book, The world of Chartres by Thames & Hudson of London, Malcolm Miller’s book, Chartres Cathedral: Medieval Masterpieces in Stained Glass and Sculpture and Peter Marshall’s, The Philosopher’s Stone.
Philosophy seated between the seven liberal arts - Picture from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad von Landsberg c.1180.
Marshall ended his visit to Chartres with a lasting impression, in his own words:
“As the dark winter evening drew in, I pondered on these matters in front of the west rose window which appeared like a great coloured mandala. Its subject is the Last Judgement. Christ is at the centre surrounded by the first series of petals, containing eight angels. They are placed in pairs between four apocalyptic animals who represent the four evangelists at the cardinal points. Quietly focusing my gaze on the whole rose, a sense of calm and peace descended on me. The darkening gloom of the church was suffused by a deep blue from on high. I was within the womb of a mysterious and beautiful creature, gently breathing, emanating a diaphanous light. The interior was as dark as moonlight. I realized that in the pillars, arches and buttresses of the cathedral energy was not only descending but also rising as the breath within me. It circulated around the building and through my being.
Then quite unannounced, the rose was transformed. Its luminous blues suddenly broke into a rainbow of colour created by the bright rays emanating from the setting sun behind the dark winter clouds. The cathedral, and I within it, was transfigured. The finely tuned building, symphony of stone, light and sound, came together in that sudden unexpected epiphany. The masons and glaziers had attained the end of their Great Work with the divine help of the source of all energy and life: the sun.
In that moment it became clear that the cathedral was the symbol of heaven on earth: As above, so below. The spiritual end of alchemy and of the Gothic cathedral is the same: to enable the seeker to leave the labyrinth of this world and to pass through the celestial gates into the light of heaven”. [15]
It seems Marshall ended his visit to Chartres with a deeply moving spiritual experience, a celebration of life, light and beauty and in that moment, the observer and the observed were merged as one.
Another example, is the building of Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, the construction was conducted under the direction of the so-called ‘Master of the Work’. Such master would devise his own unique geometry with which everything that followed had to harmonize. Such work reflects a metaphysical, spiritual or in the language of Freemasonry, ‘speculative’ character which attest to a high degree of education and sophistication. It attests to men who were scientists and philosophers as well as builders
One manuscript dating from 1410, speaks of a ‘science’ whose secrets were revived after the Flood by Pythagoras and Hermes. Hermes is the Greek name for Ham-Thoth, also known as the ‘Great Architect’, and builder of the Pyramids and keeper of the ‘Hall of Records’ who according to Edgar Cayce was buried under the Sphinx and Pyramid waiting to be discovered this century. The Pyramids built about 4800 years ago (according to mainstream Egyptologists) is an excellent example of geometric precision masonry even by today’s standard.
Recent modern scholars believed it was built around 10,450 BC with advanced technology and up to date no one can give a satisfactory explanation as to how the ancient Egyptians could have acquired such technology. Our science today may not be able to duplicate the Pyramids. And thus geometry came to assume sacred proportions, becoming invested with a character of transcendent and immanent mystery.
On a metaphysical level, the second degree describes the “regular progression of science from a point to a line, from a line to a superficies, from a superficies to a solid”. This is the way nature moves. According to W Kirk MacNulty, “This idea is actually a neo-platonic device using a mathematical idiom to describe the process by which God brings the Universe into existence. From this geometrical perspective the process starts with a point as the fundamental element; the point moves, and in doing so generates a line; the line moves in a direction not parallel to itself, and generates a plane (superficies); the plane, moving in a similar way generates a solid”.
“The geometrical characteristics of this succession of figures are such that each action brings a new object into being which has its own characteristics, but which also contains - and includes the characteristics of – the object which generated it. Thus, for example, the solid, which is defined by the rules of three-dimensional geometry, contains the plane from which it was generated; and the laws of solid geometry are those of plane geometry with some additional complexity. The neo-Platonists used this geometrical idiom to describe the process by which Divinity (the Point, the fundamental, essential, Source-of-All) projected itself into existence, through the progressively complex levels of the Spirit (line); the Psyche/mind (superficies) and finally Materiality (solid); each of these ‘worlds’ containing within itself the next higher level from which it was derived”. Dying is the reverse process, a return to the original source, the first original dot.
And there you have it, the geometrical creation of the body, mind and spirit of man in the image of God. Freemasonry teaches that the spirit (Inner Light), psyche/mind and body are to be perceived as one wholesome being connected to the Creator by his original Divine Spirit. God is in everyone and everyone is in him. The kingdom of heaven is within us here and now. As God is in everyone and everything and everyone and everything is in him, you could call him by different names or any name or give God no name, which many different people do differently. For me, the name is no longer important, the essence is. The essence is now and he is experienced as a presence. Some of us may not realize or experience it; the truth is we always live only in the now, in his presence and in eternity. Existence exists now. Everything that happens happens in the now and if you wish to do or think anything, you can only do it now, not yesterday or tomorrow. His energy (essence of life or holy-spirit) also known as ‘chi’ or ‘prana’ flows and circulates through the eternal process of change and renewal and connects everyone and everything in the entire field of existence.
One of the essential requirements to be admitted into the Order is the belief in One Supreme Being. By its implication, it is clear that you need not belong to any religion as long as you believe in One Supreme Being. As we have Brethren of different races and religions, it is obvious that the different “Gods” worshipped are actually different manifestations of the same One Supreme Being. God is God. God is generic; you do not need a brand. However, if you need or choose to carry a brand and call yourself a Christian, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist or Muslim, that is also fine.
The important thing is to be happy and to communicate happiness to others. Another name for TGAOTU can be "The Greatest Philosopher of the Universe". In Freemasonry, He is the One Supreme Being, TGAOTU. ONE GOD, ONE PEOPLE, ONE UNIVERSE embracing people of different races and cultures and the ten thousand things as they are here and now. Our differences are to be enjoyed and not destroyed. Freemasonry represents the universal brotherhood of men in union with one God regardless of race or religion. When you are in union with God living daily in his presence, you do not need a religion.
The other important entry requirement is that you must be a freeman. Unless you are free, you cannot find wisdom, happiness and God. Being free means being free from fear, theology, dogma and preconceptions, otherwise you will see and interpret things as what you think, believe or would like them to be and not as they truly are. Being free is being in the centre.
Fu Ceyi
Singapore
30th November 2002
Updated 3rd January 2006
Endnotes
Freimaurerei, Theil I, S. 178. Zurich, 1861, Gustave Schlegel, The Hung-League, IX first published in
1866,Tynron Press, Scotland 1991
[2] Davis, China and the Chinese, Gustave Schlegel, The Hung-League, IX, Tynron Press, Scotland 1991,
[3] Wells Williams, Middle Kingdom, II 214 & 420, Gustave Schlegel, The Hung-League, x.
[4] Gustave Schelegel, The Hung-Leage, x, Tynron Press, Scotland 1991
[5] Ibid, 241, 242
[6] Houston Smith, The World’s Religion
[7] Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy, Jesus and the Lost Goddess
[8] Charles Pellegrino, Sodom and Gomorrah
[9] Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy 56
[10] Michael Baigent & Richard Leigh, The Temple and the Lodge, 133, Vitruvius, De architectura, IV.c.IX.,
I.c. I:3., III.c.I:9.
[11] Hamil & Gilbert, Freemasonry: A Celebration of the Craft
[12]Louis Carpenter, The Mysteries of Chartres Cathedral (1966), tr. Sir Ronald Fraser (London, Research
into Lost Knowledge Organisation Trust, 1972), Peter Marshall, The Philosopher’s Stone, (Pan Books,
2002) 268.
[13] Peter Marshall, The Philosopher’s Stone, 273
[14] Jean Favier, The world of Chartres (London, Thames & Hudson, 1990) 172 & drawing, von Simson, The
Gothic Cathedral, 41, 155, 211, Peter Marshall, The Philosopher’s Stone, 274 .
[15] Peter Marshall, The Philosopher’s Stone, 276, 277.
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