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THE MITHRAISM - FREEMASONRY CONNECTION
by "Ursus Major"
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!
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 Christianity.) 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 Christianity 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
Christians simply incorporated ALL of them into Christianity, and made up
the requisite mumbo-jumbo to account for the Seven Mithraic Sacraments
becoming the Seven Christian Sacraments. (Note: sacramentum is a
military term: it means the solumn oath, the oath a soldier swears to obey
without question.) The Christians 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 Christianity is well indicated in
Christianian 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 Christian lore? Because it came from
Mithraism. The Magi were the ones who promulgated Mithraism, and so they had
to fit in Christian 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 Christianity are striking. The total exclusion of women was
a great weakness; furthermore, the Christians 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. Christians were a very
small percentage of the population. There were far more adherents to
Mithraism. The pacifism of Christianity 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 Christians 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 Christianity 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.
Christianity 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 Christianity
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 Christianity in the north was tenuous at best; while in
the south, once Christian 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 Christianity. 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 Christianity 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 Christianity 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"
Christianity Margaret found in Scotland probably was a product of Mithraic
influences being mingled in.
The similarities between Mithraism and Christianity 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
Christianity had the same date for Christmas (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 "Christians" 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 Christians, 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 Christian 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 Christian 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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