THE MASK OF MASONRY
The identification of the cultus of Lucifer with devil-worship pure and
simple is not, as we have seen, at first sight an entirely just
proceeding, but at the same time it is inevitable. As already observed,
the source of all our knowledge concerning Modern Diabolism exists
within the pale of the Catholic Church; the entire literature is written
from the standpoint of that church, and has been created solely in its
interests. Some of that literature has been put forth with the special
marks of high ecclesiastical approbation, and to some this guarantee is
wanting, but the same spirit informs the whole. To insist on this point
is important for many reasons which will become apparent at the close of
our enquiry, and for one which concerns us now. It is impossible for
the Catholic Church to do otherwise than brand the cultus of Lucifer as
identical with that of Satan, because, according to her unswerving
instruction, the name Lucifer is an equivalent of Satan, and, moreover,
the Luciferian cultus is so admittedly anti-Christian that no form of
Christianity could do otherwise than regard it as a worship of darkness
and evil. While, therefore, the adoration of a good principle under this
discredited name may in one of its aspects be merely an error of
judgment, and not the worship of a devil, apart from other facts which
destroy this consideration, we must all agree that from the standpoint
of Christian and Latin orthodoxy the Luciferian is a diabolist, though
not in the sense of the Satanist.
The doctrine of Lucifer has been tersely described by Huysman as a kind
of reversed Christianity--a Catholicism _à rebours_. It is, in fact, the
revival of an old heresy founded on what we have most of us been
accustomed to regard as a philosophical blunder; in a word, it is a
Manichæan system having a special anti-Christian application, for while
affirming the existence of two equal first principles, Adonaï and
Lucifer, it regards the latter as the god of light and goodness, while
the Christian Adonaï is the prince of darkness and the veritable Satan.
It is inferred from the condition of the world at the present time that
the mastery of the moment resides with the evil principle, and that the
beneficent Deity is at a disadvantage. Adonaï reigns surely, as the
Christian believes, but he is the author of human misery, and Jesus is
the Christ of Adonaï, but he is the messenger of misfortune, suffering,
and false renunciation, leading ultimately to destruction when the _Deus
maledictus_ shall cease to triumph. The worshippers of Lucifer have
taken sides in the cause of humanity, and in their own cause, with the
baffled principle of goodness; they co-operate with him in order to
insure his triumph, and he communicates with them to encourage and
strengthen them; they work to prepare his kingdom, and he promises to
raise up a Saviour among them, who is Antichrist, their leader and king
to come.
Such is the doctrine of Lucifer according to the testimony of witnesses
who have come out from his cultus; it is not an instruction which _à
priori_ would seem likely to commend itself to a numerically powerful
following, but the society which is concerned with its propagation is
affirmed to have spread over the whole world, and to be represented in
all its chief cities. It is that which we have already found mentioned
by M. Huysman as possessing a demonstrated existence and being a proof
positive of modern Satanism, namely, the Palladian Order. Having broadly
ascertained its principles, our next course is to discover its alleged
history, and here it is necessary to admit that it is a matter of some
difficulty to place the position in such an aspect that it will be a
tolerable subject for inquiry among readers in England. The mystery of
modern Diabolism and the Cultus of Lucifer is a part of the mystery of
Masonry as interpreted by an Anti-Masonic movement now at work in
France. The black magic, of which we hear so much, involves a new aspect
of the old Catholic Crusade against the Fraternity of the Square and
Compass, and by the question of Lucifer is signified an alleged
discovery that Masons diabolise.
Now, we are all well acquainted with the historical fact that the Latin
Church has long been hostile to Masonry, that popes have condemned the
order, and have excommunicated its initiates. Having regard to the
position of the brotherhood here in England, most of us have been
content to infer in this respect that the ripe old age of the Church is
passing into a second childhood; some, however, have concluded that
there may be more in Continental Freemasonry than meets the English eye,
and here the Church herself comes forward to assure them that the
fraternity abroad is a hotbed of political propaganda, and is
responsible for the most disastrous revolutions which have perplexed the
modern world; that it is actually, as the exploded Robison described it,
a conspiracy against crowned heads; and that it is at the present time
the most potent, most secret enemy which checkmates and hinders herself.
It is now further affirmed that behind the Masonry of to-day--here in
England posing as a benefit society, and political or not upon the
Continent, but everywhere disclaiming any connection with a religious
propaganda--there is affirmed to be another Masonry, of which the
ordinary Mason knows nothing, secretly directing the order, and devoted
to the cultus of Lucifer. This organisation, which has sprung up within
recent years, is largely, though not exclusively, recruited from
Masonry; it works through the powerful Masonic apparatus, and, according
to the evidence which has been put in, it has obtained a substantial and
masterful control over the entire Fraternity. It has focussed the raw
material of Masonic hostility towards the Catholic Church; as it is
anti-Christian in religion, so is it revolutionary in politics; and once
more, it is called the Palladian Order.
This exceedingly grave and important accusation, together with its side
issues, has perhaps all the more claim on our consideration because,
apart from actual diabolism, which is in itself so paralysing as almost
to arrest discussion, it conflicts with all that we know or believe
concerning the Masonic constitution. Let me briefly collect the points.
(a) Masonry possesses a secret directing centre--which has been
strenuously denied by the Fraternity. (b) It has a religious mission and
a doctrinal propaganda--which has also been invariably denied. (c) It is
concerned with political objects--which, for the most part, is denied.
(d) It has a transcendental teaching--which is generally denied, and (e)
is concerned largely with transcendental practices and phenomena--which
would be denied absolutely, had the question been seriously raised till
this day. (f) It initiates women--which, except in a very secondary,
occasional, and insignificant manner, is _in toto_ and at all times
denied. The last point is brought within the scope of our inquiry
because the Palladium is an androgyne order.
Now, it will be fairly well known to many who are not within the ranks
of the fraternity that the Grand Lodges of every country are supposed to
be autonomous, and that there has been no previous impeachment of this
fact; that, ostensibly at least, there is no central institution to
which they are answerable in Masonry. Individual lodges derive from a
single Grand Lodge and are responsible thereto, but Grand Lodges
themselves are supreme and irresponsible. It will be known also that the
Masonic system in England differs from that of France, that the French
rite has always occupied a somewhat heterodox position, and that since
the Grand Orient expunged the Grand Architect of the Universe, so to
speak, from its symbolism, official communication has been suspended by
the Grand Lodge of England. It will be known further that outside
recognised Masonic systems many rites have arisen which are only Masonic
to the extent that their point of departure is from the Master-grade. As
a special instance may be cited the Supreme Oriental Rite of Memphis and
Misraïm. In England the Lodge meetings of these rites are never suffered
to take place in the great central institution of Freemasons Hall; in
France, the Grand Orient has consistently forbidden its members to
participate in the Memphis system. To hold Masonry responsible for
irregularities or abuses which from time to time may obtain in these
fantastic developments from the parent institution, would be about as
just and reasonable as to impeach the Latin Church on the score of
corruptions now existing in the heresies which have separated from her.
Having established these points in view of the result of our inquiry,
let us now trace the manner in which a supreme authority, frequently
termed by the accusers Universal Masonry, is alleged to have grown up.
Upon this subject not only the most complete information but the only
formal narratives are provided by the later witnesses, so that the
following account, while in no sense translation, is based exclusively
upon the works of Domenico Margiotta and Dr Bataille.
On the 20th of May, 1737, there was constituted in France the Order of
the Palladium, or Sovereign Council of Wisdom, which, after the manner
of the androgyne lodges then springing into existence, initiated women
under the title of Companions of Penelope. The ritual of this order was
published by the Masonic archæologist Ragon, so that there can be no
doubt of its existence. At the same time, so far as I am aware, there
are few materials forthcoming for its history. In some way which
remains wholly untraceable this order is inferred to have been connected
by more than its name with the legendary Palladium of the Knights
Templars, well known under the title of Baphomet. In any case it failed
to spread, and it is uncertain whether the New and Reformed Palladium,
also an androgyne order, with which we shall presently be concerned, is
a metamorphosis or reconstruction of the original institution, but a
connection of some kind is affirmed. For a period exceeding sixty years
we hear little of the legendary Palladium; but in 1801 the Israelite
Isaac Long is said to have carried the original Baphomet and the skull
of the Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay from Paris to Charleston in
the United States, and was afterwards concerned in the reconstruction of
the Scotch Rite of Perfection and of Herodom under the name of the
Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite, which subsequently became widely
diffused, and it is stated that the lodge of the thirty-third degree of
the Supreme Council of Charleston has been the parent of all others, and
is therefore, in this rite, the first supreme council of the entire
globe.
Eight years later, on the 29th of December 1809, a man of great
importance to the history of Freemasonry was born in the city of Boston.
Albert Pike came of parents in a humble position, who, however,
struggled with their difficulties and sent him to Harvard College, where
he duly graduated, taking his degree as M.A. in the year 1829. He began
his career as a schoolmaster, but subsequently led a romantic and
wandering life, his love of untrodden ground leading him to explore the
Rocky Mountains, then very imperfectly known. In 1833 he settled in
Arkansas, and, drifting into journalism, founded the _Arkansas
Advocate_, wherein his contributions, both prose and verse, but the
latter especially, obtained him a reputation in literature. The
admission of Arkansas into the confederation of the United States was in
part his work, and from this period he began to figure in politics,
becoming also the recorder of the Supreme Court in that state. One year
after the civil war, in which he took active part, Pike removed to
Memphis in Tennessee, where he again followed law and literature,
establishing the _Memphis Appeal_, which he sold in 1868, and migrated
to Washington. His subsequent history is exclusively concerned with
unwearying Masonic labours.
Now, it was at Little Rock in Arkansas that Albert Pike was first
initiated, and ten years later, that is, in 1859, he was elected
Sovereign Commander Grand Master of the Supreme Council of Charleston.
Having extraordinary powers of organisation, he became a person of wide
influence in the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite, and a high authority
also on the ritual, antiquities, history, and literature of Masonry.
Under his guidance, the Scotch Rite extended and became dominant. Hence,
when the Italian patriot Mazzini is said to have projected the
centralization of high grade Masonry, he could find no person in the
whole fraternity more suited by his position and influence to
collaborate with him. Out of this secret partnership there was begotten
on September 20, 1870--that is to say, on the very day when the Italian
troops entered the Eternal City--a Supreme Rite and Central Organisation
of Universal High Grade Masonry, the act of creation being signed by the
American Grand Master and the Italian liberator, the two founders also
sharing the power between them. A Supreme Dogmatic Directory was created
at Charleston, with Pike at its head, under the title of Sovereign
Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry. Mazzini took over the Supreme
Executive, having Rome as its centre, under the title of Sovereign Chief
of Political Action.
If we now recur to the statements that the genuine Templar Baphomet and
the skull of Jacques de Molay had been deposited at Charleston for the
space of seventy years, and that Albert Pike was Grand Master of the
Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite in that city, we
shall understand why it was that the new institution was termed the New
Reformed Palladian Rite, or the Reformed Palladium. Subsequently, five
Central Grand Directories were established--at Washington for North
America, Monte Video for South America, Naples for Europe, Calcutta for
the Eastern World, and Port Louis in Mauritius for Africa. A Sovereign
Universal Administrative Directory was fixed at Berlin subsequently to
the death of Mazzini. As a result of this astute organisation, Albert
Pike is said to have held all Masonry in the hollow of his hand, by
means of a twofold apparatus--the Palladium and the Scotch Rite. During
all his remaining days, and he lived to a great age, he laboured
indefatigably in both causes, and the world at the present moment is
filled with the organisation that he administered.
Four persons are cited as having been coadjutors in his own country--his
old friend Gallatin Mackey, in honourable memory among Masons; a
Scotchman named Longfellow, whom some French writers have ludicrously
confused with the poet; one Holbrook, about whom there are few
particulars; and, finally, Phileas Walder, a native of Switzerland,
originally a Lutheran Minister, afterwards said to have been a Mormon,
but, in any case, at the period in question, a well-known spiritualist,
an earnest student of occultism, as were also Holbrook and Longfellow,
and, what is more to the purpose, a personal friend and disciple of the
great French magus Éliphas Lévi. Albert Pike was himself an occultist,
whether upon his independent initiative, or through the influence of
these friends I am unable to say. Miss Diana Vaughan, who is one of the
seceding witnesses, affirms that it was an early and absorbing passion.
However this may be, the New Reformed Palladium was kept most rigidly
separate from all other Masonry, the Scotch Rite included; that is to
say, no initiate of even the highest grade had, as such, the right or
opportunity of entrance into the occult order, which, at the same time,
was chiefly recruited, as already stated, from the higher ordinary
grades, but the recipients of the new light became silent from the
moment that it was imparted. Now, it was exclusively in the Palladian
order that Albert Pike and his confidants propagated transcendental
religion, as it is said to have been understood by them. In other words,
while the Scotch Rite continued to speculate, the Palladium betook
itself to magic and succeeded so well that there was a perpetuity of
communication between Charleston and the unseen world. It does not
appear from the evidence either when or why Albert Pike and his
collaborators transferred their allegiance from the God of the sages to
Lucifer. The Catholic Church regards all magic as diabolism, and makes
or tolerates no mystic distinction between the black and white
departments of transcendental practice, but the specific character of
the Palladian cultus is so clearly defined in the depositions that it
cannot pass as a presentation of magical doctrine distorted by
prejudice. It is almost stripped of correspondence with any existing
school of occult teaching, and it is either the true statement of a
system founded by Pike, or the deliberate invention of malice. The
thaumaturgic phenomena tabulated in connection therewith are of an
extremely advanced kind, including the real and bodily presence of
Lucifer at frequent and regular intervals.
When Mazzini died he indicated to Albert Pike a possible successor in
Adriano Lemmi, who became in due course the chief of the Executive
Department, and when in the fulness of years the pontiff of Luciferian
Freemasonry himself passed on to the higher life of fire, which is the
Palladian notion of beatitude, and in the peace and joy of Lucifer, the
sovereign pontificate itself, after resting for a short period upon
incompetent shoulders in the person of Albert George Mackey, was
transferred to the Italian; the seat of the Dogmatic Directory was
removed to Rome; a split in the camp ensued, inspired by a lady
initiate, since famous under the name of Diana Vaughan, and to this we
owe most of the revelations. Furthermore, with the death of Albert Pike
the cultus of Lucifer is said to have undergone a significant
transfiguration. For him the conception of Satan was a blasphemous
fiction, devised by Adonaïte priestcraft to obscure the veridic lustre
which inheres in the angel of the morning-star; but this view
represented, as it is said, rather the private opinion of the Masonic
pontiff, impressed by his strong personality on the lodges he
controlled, and propagated by the instruction of his rituals. The more
discerning among his disciples regarded it as the besetting weakness of
their grand old man, and surreptitiously during his life-time the cultus
of Satan pure and simple, that is, of devil-worship, the adoration of
the evil principle as evil, was practised at numerous Palladian centres.
After his death, it is said to have unmasked altogether, and Adriano
Lemmi himself is depicted as an avowed Satanist.
Now, I believe it will fairly interpret the feeling of all readers to
admit that when the authority of a great church has been brought into
operation to crush a great institution by charges which most seriously
discredit it--which represent it as diametrically and in all respects
opposite in its internal nature to its ostensible appearance--we must by
no means make light of the impeachment; we must remember the high
position and the many opportunities of knowledge which are possessed by
such an accuser; we must extend to that accuser at least the common
justice of an impartial and full hearing; _à priori_ considerations of
probability and inferences from our previous knowledge, much less from
opinions obtained at second-hand, must not be permitted to prejudge a
case of so great importance; we must be prepared, if necessary, to admit
that we have been egregiously deceived; and if the existence of
Palladian Masonry can be proved an undoubted fact, we must assuredly do
full honour to the demonstration, and must acknowledge with gratitude
that the Church has performed a service to humanity by unveiling the
true character of an institution which is imposing on a vast number of
well-intentioned persons within its own ranks, who are admittedly
unaware of the evil to which they are lending countenance and support.
On the other hand, the same spirit of liberality and justice will
require that the demonstration in question shall be complete; in support
of such terrible accusations, only the first quality of evidence can
obviously be admitted.
In the chapters which follow immediately, I shall produce in succession
the evidence of every witness who has anything to tell us about
Palladism, including those whose experience is of a personal kind and
those whose knowledge is derived. Where possible, the testimony of each
witness will be weighed as we proceed; what is unconvincing or
irrelevant will be dismissed, while that which is important will be
carried over to the final summary. In two cases only will it be found
necessary to reserve examination for special and separate treatment.