Obadiah Storm - Historian of the Dead

I made this video a few years ago, I actually forgot all about it. At the time I writing historical stories for the city in which I live, Somersworth New Hampshire. As you can see I used an alter-ego named Obidiah Storm as the writer, a name I still love. If your interested in any of the stories they can be found at:

                        Obadiah Storm

Historian of the Dead & The Keeper of Secrets in the Somersworth NH Region

In Search of Light - What is Light?

Each and every Freemason asks for 'light', the question I have is 'what is that light' and did you receive it?

In my personal pursuit for the meaning of 'light' I came up with varied definitions.

According to the text 'Masonic Biography and Dictionary: Comprising the History of Ancient Masonry ...by Augustus Row

"Light.—The term is used figuratively; as those without the pales of Freemasonry are considered in darkness as to its mysteries and ceremonies, and hence the candidate is brought from darkness or ignorance to true masonic light, or a practical knowledge of its usefulness and design."

Brother Row's definition as we will see is simplistic and very exoteric, and and one the majority of the brethren today would give if asked about Masonic 'light', yet one that offers very little depth.

Now let us go a little deeper. Please read very carefully, that written within the parenthesis is my notations, not that of the author.

"Light was, in accordance with this old religious sentiment, the great object of attainment in all the ancient religious Mysteries (Freemasonry is very much a Mystery School). It was there, as it is now, in Masonry, made the symbol of truth and knowledge. This was always its ancient symbolism, and we must never lose sight of this emblematic meaning, when we are considering the nature and signification of masonic light. When the candidate makes a demand for light, it is not merely for that material light which is to remove a physical darkness; that is only the outward form (the exoteric), which conceals the inward symbolism (the esoteric).He craves an intellectual illumination which will dispel the darkness of mental and moral ignorance, and bring to his view, as an eye-witness, the sublime truths of religion, philosophy, and science, which it is the great design of Freemasonry to teach."...The Symbolism of Freemasonry: Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths and Symbols...Albert Gallatin Mackey

As we can see Brother Mackey adds to the definition truth, knowledge, religion, philosophy, and science, all subjects rarely discussed within the lodge of today's Freemasonry. I would be remiss to not to mention that as of late some very forward thinking Lodges (although not enough in my humble opinion) have been contacting and inviting speakers from various schools of thought to address the brethren on subjects such as Masonic history, alchemy, psychology, and philosophy, all subjects that fit the criteria Brother Mackey used in his definition of 'light'.

Let's descend deeper into the rabbit hole. 

There just may be light at the end of the tunnel.

 "Truth, whether as expressed in Masonry or otherwise, is at all times an open secret, but is as a pillar of light to those able to receive and profit by it, and to all others but one of darkness and unintelligibly."...The Meaning of Masonry, Walter Leslie Wilmshurst

I have found that over my Masonic career 'The Meaning of Masonry' by Brother Wilmshurst as one of those go to books when one needs to research some of the more esoteric symbols found within Freemasonry, a title all brothers should be required to read. In the case of light I think Brother Wilmshurst hits the nail on the head when he says; "It means the awakening of those hitherto dormant higher faculties of the soul which endue their possessor with "light" in the form of new enhanced consciousness and enlarged perceptive faculty." Here we see Brother Wilmshurst alludes to a level of consciousness that is higher than our normal everyday consciousness, a level with a greater awareness and perception.

I believe Brother Wilmshurst is referring a type of wisdom to which is illumined by the light within; it comes with the maturity of the soul, and opens up the sight to the similarity of all things and beings, as well as the unity in names and forms. 

From one that has spent many years studying Buddhism I see Brother Wilmshurst expansion of consciousness correlates easily with the Buddhist concept of 'enlightenment', a state of consciousness that most understand little of. 

Allow me to explain, the Sanskrit word for enlightenment is "bodhi," which means "awakened." But awakened to what?

The only true answer to the question is to realize en-lighten-ment. Short of that, we must come up with provisional answers that come from those that have experienced that level of consciousness, yet because we are not on their level their descriptions do not really do justice to definition of enlightenment.

Enlightenment can be defined as the cessation of dukkha, which is a Sanskrit word usually mangled in translation. It can be defined as the full realization of the truth (light). It can be defined as awakening to a great reality most of us never perceive without doing the work, known as the Royal Art (Ars Regia) in alchemy, the science many of our early brothers embraced (that's a story for another time).

Please allow me to creep a little deeper into the rabbit hole.

Many of our ancient brothers believed it was possible to reach a level of consciousness that was called 'Union with the Divine', or in today's vernacular 'Cosmic Consciousness'.

When we look back to the inception of modern Freemasonry (early seventeen hundreds) we find many of our founders were of the Christian faith (not the same dummy downed Christianity of today), they were surely familiar with Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and his system of integration of Neoplatonic motifs into a Christian framework. From this system three streams emerge:

1. an outlook concerning the nature of reality

2. a proposed method to interpret and understand this reality

3. a means by which reality Itself is transcended into union with the divine.

All of which I find alluded to esoterically within the rituals of Freemasonry. Don't get hung up on the word 'Christian',  like I said this is not the same as today's Christianity, many of our early brothers understood the bible to be symbolic, allegory, metaphoric, and not necessarily literal.

If we look at number three we see a type of illumination and union which has to do with a level of consciousness far above our normal everyday mindset, a level where if put in a spiritual context may also be associated with transcendence or spiritual enlightenment. If this seems far reached its because you have limited YOUR search for light. 

If we look back to where we started in our search for light, we all asked for something that was not present when we began our journey, and we called this light. What we must ask ourselves, what is that light? 

We Meet Upon The Square

Freemasonry's mode of transmission is symbolism, a type of language that has to be studied to be understood, where a symbol may have multiple meanings. In Freemasonry we call these multiple meanings levels.
In my last blog I addressed the mistake I believe United Grand Lodge of England made when it removed the penalty portion of the degrees, penalties I believe that were meant to inform not warn.
Now I would like to address another change in Masonic ritual that should be looked at.
It is said in Freemasonry we meet upon the level, meaning we are all equals.
The fact is that makes no sense, in Freemasonry we have more titles then the military.
We are also told to square our actions, another symbol taken out of context.
Enter Brother William Preston who wrote a series of lectures on the degrees in the late 1700s which Thomas Smith Webb revised and rewrote for American use in the early 1800s. Almost all Grand Lodges in the United States work a ritual derived from Preston and Webb’s work. Here is where we find the lost in translation moment.
In Preston's ritual we find "we meet upon the square and hopefully depart on the same level.", a simple sentence brother Webb may of misunderstood when he rewrote the American ritual.
I believe Preston's makes more sense when you understand the underlying philosophy of Freemasonry (oh yes brothers there is a philosophy).
Allow me to explain; the square is symbolic of matter. What is matter, none other than this life, our body, this earth. This is the plane in which we now meet, matter, the square.
As for the level, once one begins to understand the symbolic meaning of the seven levels (or steps) to the Master of the Lodge and how they relate levels of consciousness (or understanding) than one will understand why it's actually alluding to a high level of awareness we hope to depart with (not some rank system).
I guess Webb just didn't understand what Preston was trying to convey (I guess they weren't on the same level).

What if said to circle your actions, or triangle your actions, would that make sense?

Freemasonry - Why the Wrong Individuals Seek Entrance

A couple years ago I was listening to a Masonic podcast when the guest made a statement I thought preposterous at the time, in essence he believed Freemasonry was not attracting the right individuals, as it did in the past.
Now before you get your hackles up, at the time I thought our brother was wrong (and out of place), how arrogant!
Well that was a couple of years ago, and guess what, I get it.

Allow me to make my case...

As I see it (and many may not), Freemasonry is a philosophical tradition, which only reveals itself to those that are willing to spend the time unlocking its veiled symbolism (a task few will do).
I would love to share tales of knights and wandering masons, but the fact is (as I see it) modern Freemasonry arrives at the party in the mid to late sixteen hundreds when a philosopher named Descartes rocks the world, Cartesian philosophy is born.
It's important you grasp this, Cartesians view the mind (the stuff in your head) as being wholly separate from the corporeal body. Sensation and the perception of reality are thought to be the source of untruth and illusions, with the only reliable truths to be had in the existence of a metaphysical mind. 

Such a mind can perhaps interact with a physical body, but it does not exist in the body, nor even in the same physical plane as the body. In general, Cartesian thought divides the world into three areas of existence: that inhabited by the physical body (matter), that inhabited by the mind, and that inhabited by God (see the triad).
Why is Cartesian philosophy, something rarely discussed in your local Masonic Temple important?
When you begin to unlock the veiled symbolism of Freemasonry you begin to see a philosophy that may be a reaction to a mode of thought (your mind is separate than your body, and the world is outside your head) that still to this day defines the way many see reality.

Many reading this blog have never heard the name Descartes, or even heard of Cartesian philosophy, but this wasn't always the case when it comes to Freemasonry. During the inception of modern Freemasonry (late 1700's) this was a hotly debated issue, so hot that if you went too far out on a limb repercussions could come from all fronts, church, state, and universities.
Now to the crux of what this blog was meant to address, most (if not all) of the founders of modern Freemasonry were men of science, philosophy, and theology, many being giants of their time. Today we have become Joe the plumber.
I now get it.

(I apologize, I'm not picking on plumbers, after all I just cut hair!)

The Divine Feminine & How It May be Symbolized in Freemasonry

"There was a boundless darkness in the abyss, and water and a subtle intelligent spirit, abiding by divine power in Chaos; then a holy light sprang forth, and the elements were compacted of sand from the humid substance, and all the gods distributed the seminal principles of nature."...Hermes Trismegistis

Fig. I.—Heaven and Earth, separated by Air (the god Shu). (Egyptian original in the Museum at Turin.)

Nut, the great mother goddess of the ancient Egyptians, is a personification of the heavens, and there are many pictures of her extant. She is commonly represented as star-spangled and bending over in such a way that both her hands and her feet touch the ground. Under her lies Seb, her husband, the god of earth. His body is painted over with plumes. Nut and Seb were once united in close embrace, but Shu interfered and separated the two, producing a space between them and thus dividing the watery mass above the firmament from the dry land below.

As I pointed out in previous blogs, most of the titles addressing Masonic symbolism pre-WW2 tended to look at the esoteric aspects of Freemasonry, where after WW2 most appealed to the fraternal aspect "we make good men better men". This particular blog entry would appeal to another time, a time prior to today's Freemasonry, pre-WW2.

In many of the older titles it was not uncommon to find esoteric Masonic authors attempting to date the inception of Freemasonry in Ancient Egypt, a mistake which can understood when we consider how symbolism is actually interpreted. 

Each symbol contained within Freemasonry can be interpreted from three perspectives, personally, culturally, or universally, and some times more than one.

We also know, as we are told Freemasonry is veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, which means Freemasonry is an exoteric as well as an esoteric science, one which is clearly articulated to the candidates through the oral interpretations of the working tools which reveals a moral science, but at the same time a veiled side that few candidates will ever endeavor to uncover.

I showed my few readers a good example of this in my blog entry "Talk About Time Off - My Evolution", where I attempted to show that the United Grand Lodge of England jumped the gun when they removed the penalties attached to the degrees (for the disclosure of the secrets they have defined as modes of recognition, another mistake). By removing the penalties may have appeased the exoteric brothers, but sadly the esoteric brothers are missing very important keys that lead to the inner sanctum.

Now as to why many of our esoteric brothers assumed the origins of Freemasonry to be   Ancient Egypt, I believe they were intuitively seeing the symbols universally, and were beginning to connect the dots.  

If we look at the illustration above, Fig. I.—Heaven and Earth, separated by Air, we see a trinity much older than that of the Christian era, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Interestedly in the older illustration, and unlike that of the Christian era where the trinity becomes a male dominated trinity, we find great mother goddess Nut, the divine feminine displayed prominently.    

How does this relate to Freemasonry you may (or not be) asking? 

What is the most common symbol used to illustrate water?

The downward pointing triangle, the ancient symbol of femininity, symbolizing the downward flow of the divine.

Now where do we find this inverted triangle symbolized in Freemasonry?

Now as to why many of our esoteric brothers assumed the origins of Freemasonry to be   Ancient Egypt, I believe they were intuitively seeing the symbols universally, and were beginning to connect the dots.  

If we look at the illustration above, Fig. I.—Heaven and Earth, separated by Air, we see a trinity much older than that of the Christian era, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Interestedly in the older illustration, and unlike that of the Christian era where the trinity becomes a male dominated trinity, we find great mother goddess Nut, the divine feminine displayed prominently.    

How does this relate to Freemasonry you may (or not be) asking? 

What is the most common symbol used to illustrate water?

The downward pointing triangle, the ancient symbol of femininity, symbolizing the downward flow of the divine.

Now where do we find this inverted triangle symbolized in Freemasonry?

On the flap of the Masonic apron.

The question than becomes, if the square represents earth (or possibly Seb in this case), and the inverted triangle represents the downward flow of the divine feminine (Nut), who is wearing the apron?

As we saw in the illustration, Shu can be seen supporting the sky goddess and daughter Nut (or Nuit) above his head while the earth god Seb (or Geb) resides below his feet. It has been said that if Shu were to ever be removed from his place, chaos would come to the universe and all life would cease.

What could this mean today?

As physicist Heinz Pagels puts it, "Human intention influences the structure of the physical world," which is not a picture of the real, but a creation deriving from our interactions with it.

According to another popular physicist and writer Fred Wolf, "the whole universe comes into existence whenever we observe it" and therefore "we are the artists in the game of the universe."

Could this Shu that holds the firmament up over the earth actually be ourselves? (and the Egyptians and early Freemasons knew it)

I Know A Secret (and you don't)

If your one of the two readers that view my blog, thank you, your on your way to a Masonic education that only your great great great great grandfather would understand (hope I said enough greats).
Now to the crux of this enlightening blog entry, the real reason Freemasonry probably chose a secretive path (in my opinion).

Time to go back the fall of 1670, forty years before Freemasonry would out itself. Many of the cast and characters your about to meet were not Freemasons themselves, but I bet they may have had more influence in the hidden symbolism of Freemasonry than most would think.

In October (1670) Henry More (philosopher, theologian) was visited at Cambridge (England) by Francis Mercury van Helmont (Kabbalist), son of the famous alchemist Jan Baptista van Helmont. (you gotta love an alchemist that names his son Mercury)
More asked van Helmont, who was also a physician, if we would visit his friend and fellow philosopher Anne Conway, to treat the incessant debilitating headache which had troubled her for many years (and which had defeated every other medical practitioner).
It was during this time, and under the tutelage professor More, a German scholar named Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (and friend of van Helmont) undertook the task of translating the Zohar into Latin.
The western world was about to learn the secrets of the Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism), but it would come with a cost.
Within the intellectual association of More and Conway were many of Enlightenment giants that I believed influenced the origins of modern Freemasonry, including Robert Boyle (Royal Society), John Locke (Royal Society, philosopher), and Isaac Newton (Royal Society, the real deal), all of which took a particular interest in the Kabbalah, an interest that would soon turn into secrecy.
Viscountess Conway's landmark treatise of the time, "Principles of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy", is saturated with Kabbalist ideas, ideas apparently ruffled the wrong feathers. It should be noted that the separation of church and state had not occurred yet.
Newton himself was so strongly influenced by the Kabbalah that his theory of the mutual property of gravitation is rumored to have been derived from Zohar. He spent the last three decades of his life in relative seclusion in order to try to solve hidden codes and messages in the Bible, suggested by his reading of von Rosenroth's translation.
The Enlightenment's attempt to bring the Kabbalah out of its primarily Jewish domain ended with disaster. Conway's treatise was branded heresy by the college that “claimed” her, Cambridge, and effectively condemned her work, Indexed as Prohibited.
In the 1690s. Newton and Locke were both brought before Parliament and charged with heresy, largely because they refused to take Christian vows, but also because of their known association with Viscountess Conway, who's heretical Kabbalist treatise was published in London the previous year.
Locke escaped punishment by penning "On the Correctness of Being Christian" 1694. Newton was embarrassed by the charges on him, abdicated his Lucasian Chair at Cambridge as well as resigning his position as accountant to Parliament, also in 1694, in order to protect his reputation among scholars.
The heresy charges on Newton were dropped about the time of Conway's formal prohibition, which made one of the key pieces of evidence against him inadmissible in court.

I do understand that most would like to date the inception of Freemasonry to the time of Pythagoras, Seth, or even Osiris, I think (personally) you might want to look a little closer at the cast and characters above (and maybe look at the six degrees to Bacon, not Kevin, Francis). Some things are better discussed behind closed doors, our founding brothers learnt the hard way!

Talk About Time Off- My Evolution

Talk about going dark, I can't believe it's been a year since my last posting in Purposely Hoodwinked.
For those two individuals that really read it, I apologize.
Just a little update. I've been working tirelessly on a title that delves into the secrets of Freemasonry.
Oh, I forgot, according to many the only secret is we have no secrets.
If you really believe that..I got a bridge I'd love to sell you.

So why back to blogging my two readers may ask?
In my research into the secrets of Freemasonry (which don't exist) I learnt the United Grand Lodge of England discontinued the penalty portion of the degrees (in 1986).
Really?
I offer my apology to all my brothers on the other side of the pond (England), because of that rather foolish move your journey towards light may take even longer.
Allow me to share a little of what my English brothers are missing.
The penalties of our obligation are meant to inform, not warn!
Call it a wheat and chaff moment, the wheat will become curious and delve into the symbolism, the chaff will believe it, even going so far as fearing the beach.
The information they share when understood correctly can assist the inquiring brother in moving aside the veil (oops, forgot again, no secrets, no veil).
For those brothers across the pond I'll elaborate on one, you'll have to figure out the other two.
In the penalty portion of the Entered Apprentice when when have your ****** cut from ear to ear, you are Matter separate from Spirit. Without a good understanding of Spirit and Matter your journey through Freemasonry will just be a Rotarian experience.
"Where the tides ebbs and flows, twice in twenty four hours", this should be very easy for all you esoteric brothers.
Only the ocean ebbs and flows twice in 24 hours, salt water (one of the three cardinal principles of alchemy, a favorite subject of early Freemasonry).
Now what causes the tide to ebb and flow?
The moon! (which just so happens to be one of the lesser lights of Freemasonry)
I just gave you a little symbolism that can be found in the penalties that were meant to inform, not warn, now let me give you a clue to the next three.
In the first water (Matter) was alluded to, in the second you'll find a possible transition from Matter to Spirit beasts of the field (matter) fowls of the air. Notice how we now have a second element alluded to, air.
In the penalty of the third degree your going to burn baby, fire!
Three very important elements, symbolized by the Three Mothers of the Hebrew alphabet.
I know, I hear you, fire, water, air, the Hebrew alphabet?
Yup, all this and more is hidden within the penalties my English brothers know nothing of.

For those interested in the Three Mothers, allow me to share.
The Three Mother letters of the Hebrew alphabet are Mem (water) Aleph (air), and Shin (fire).
This section is for Masons only:
The Three Mothers Mem, Aleph, and Shin have corresponding body parts, Mem the bowels, Aleph the heart, and Shin the throat. I mention this because any Mason should be able to see the importance of these areas, yet you may know them in reverse?
In the Entered Apprentice (throat) fire (or Spirit) is descending into Matter, in the Fellow Craft; Matter is looking to Spirit (heart), and Master Mason Spirit has descended into Matter.
I learned all that (and more) from penalties our English brothers know nothing of.