The Arcane Schools, Wisdom Ancient
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
ARCANE SCHOOLS
by
John Yarker
This book provides a background necessary to understand elements of the
Golden Dawn and O.T.O. initiations, particularly in matters like the inclusion
of the Samothraian deities in the former and the details of the lower and middle
degrees for the latter. The Western Occult Revival is documented in it's origins.
Yarker's thesis is to demonstrate universal and indigenous initiation in
symbol and legend throughout the history and places of the world; and, by
relating the meanings and practices of ancient and modern Masonry (through
the 19th century), to disclose the universal content of the rites and mysteries.
The author is more skeptical than most, and there is a distinct flavor of Frazier
in the style of presentation. Many Christian traditions are presented in great
detail and multiple example to be ignorant glosses of the ancient mysteries.
Theories of lost continents are briefly propounded with open mind, some
dated by limits of scholarship of the period: e.g. Yarker did not know that
Polynesians traveled thousands of miles by ship, that mid oceanic sea floors
spread, etc.
Theosophical legends are used with more restraint than was common in the
period.
"Aryan" is used for an imaginary race, common in the period but not as later.
"Learned" racist stereotypes of the period are perpetuated, but with
considerable more restraint than in other contemporaries. At the time of
writing, race and culture were muddled concepts. Since universal "Masonry" is
the subject of this work, "Aryan" is better understood in most instances as
"possessed of the secrets of illumination" or some such concept.
There is occasional and excessive dependence on philology for evidence, also
common in the period of authorship.
In the last chapters of the book, Yarker defends variant Masonry on the
grounds of the United Grand Lodge of England being ignorant of many
traditions and indifferent to older charters. "York" masonry is upheld as being
more traditional.
The Arian and Cabiric races taken for granted in this book are fictional,
though based on far more limited actual ancient cultures. At the period in
which this work was written, a racist theory of world civilization was current.
This theory culminated in anti-Semitism and ultimate atrocity in the second
quarter of the 20th century. Caution should be exercised by the reader to
distinguish the later excesses of Arianism from the altitude of Yarker's book.
European scholars of the time were themselves a development of history, as
such remain today. These racist theories of world history stem, in part, from
the earlier religious belief in the age of the world as roughly 5,000 years. For
so short a span, a universal and simplistic view of history is a natural concept.
With the modern discovery of several millions of years for human tenure alone,
a more diverse genesis of history is appropriate. For "Arian", take empire-
building conquerors and invaders. For "Cabiric", take indigenous pagans or
settled people of the soil. The latter is sometimes associated with "natural
religion" by Yarker. The various theories and dates must be further adjusted in
light of modern archaeology and ethnology.
Scholars and students of European literature will find unusual value in the
work. How else may we understand stray references like: "We should look like
the two sons of Aymon, who had lost their brother." -- from Chapter XXVIII of
"The Three Musketeers" of Alexandre Dumas?
(Spelling varies in the original text for some names and common words.
Punctuation also varies from contemporary norms, perhaps representing the
oratorical style of breaking long passages more than error in usage. Original
typos are also common. An alphabetical list of variant spellings is available for
this text.)
--- Bill Heidrick
PREFACE.
IN the following pages I have sought to satisfy a request, often made to me, to
give a short but comprehensive view of the whole fabric of the Arcane
mysteries, and affinity with the Masonic System; and I here take the
opportunity of recording my protest against the sceptical tendencies of the
present generation of the Moderns who are Masons, and against the efforts that
are made, in season and out of season, to underrate the indubitable antiquity
of the Masonic ceremonies. These efforts, which tend to lower the prestige of
our ancient Craft, are not altogether without good results, as they have led to a
more careful examination of our Masonic legends and of ancient documents,
and I have therefore added, to a general History of the Arcane Schools, a view,
sufficiently explicit, of the ancient rites of the Masons, leaving the intelligent
Freemason of our day to trace the relative bearing of these. It is no compliment
to the Masons who founded the Grand Lodge of England in 1717, and who,
however ill informed they may have been in London, yet, as is amply proved,
accepted old customs of the Guilds with discrimination, to suppose that they
unanimously undertook to impose upon the public, a system as ancient which
they themselves were engaged in concocting. Nor is it any compliment to the
intelligence of their imagined victims. Whether or not I succeed in convincing
the candid reader of the great antiquity of the Institution must be left to time;
those of my readers who are pledged to the views of these Moderns will no
doubt adhere {v} through life to the ideas in which they have indoctrinated
themselves, but enquiry is progressing and there is still a very large
substratum of the Craft whose belief is yet strong in the good-faith of their
predecessors, whether, in what was last century, termed Ancients or Moderns,
and it is to such that I more particularly address myself. The best reward for
my labours would be to find that the study of our Craft and analogous societies
was making progress, and that others are supplying new facts from old books,
that may aid in bridging over any chasms that may be noticed in the following
pages. My endeavour has been to print well authenticated matter only, in
order that the information supplied may be reliable. Every paragraph is a fact
or deduction from facts, and however much condensed nothing of moment,
known to the present time and having a bearing upon Freemasonry, has been
omitted. The works of the learned Brother George Oliver, D.D., lack critical
cohesion, and have consequently fallen into undeserved neglect, but sufficient
will be found in these pages to show that his theories are not devoid of method,
and will admit of an authentic construction being put upon those claims which
he advances for the antiquity of the Masonic Institution.
Those who obstinately deny the existence of anything which is outside their
own comprehension are fully as credulous as those who accept everything
without discrimination. There are certain intellects which lack intuition and
the ability to take in and assimilate abstruse truths, just as much as there are
people who are colour-blind, or deaf to the more delicate notes of music; this
was well known to the ancient theologians and mystics, and the reasons which
they assigned for the mental incapacity will appear in the following pages.
I cannot allow the opportunity to pass, in closing my labours, without
thanking my publisher for his invariable kindness, courtesy, and general care;
and the reader is also much indebted to him for the compilation of the Index.
We have considerably exceeded the 500 pages {vi} with which we made the
announcement to the public, hence the slight delay in publication.
I have also to thank our subscribers for their unwearied patience in waiting
for the appearance of this work, which, except for modern revisions, has lain
dormant for 10 years.
JOHN YARKER.
WEST DIDSBURY,
MANCHESTER,
"17th April, 1909."
{vii}
INTRODUCTION.
THE object of the following chapters is to give a broad but condensed view of
the various traces which are to be found amongst the ancients, in their
religion, in their Art, and in their buildings -- civil, sacred, and military -- of a
speculative system, such as is now professed under the designation of
Freemasonry. The work is necessarily a compilation of suitable information
gathered from books upon history, mystery, mysticism, and Freemasonry; but
it embraces the most recent views upon these subjects which have been
evolved by a close critical examination, and generally accepted by the learned.
In the "first and second chapters" will be found the proofs of a system of most
ancient sacerdotal grades and mysteries which in the earliest or proto- Aryan,
civilisation added to their ceremonies those emblems of geometry and art which
have been transmitted by Freemasonry.
In the "third and fourth chapters" we see more clearly the advance which the
Aryan civilisation introduced into the primitive association; the development of
a caste organisation, and the reduction of the more ancient civilisation, by
invasions, to a subject state, which in time created an independent system of
Art-Mysteries, combined with natural religion, or what we now term
Freemasonry.
In the "fifth and sixth chapters" we have attempted the elucidation of the
doctrine and symbolism of the Ancient Mysteries and their relationship with
the minor schools {x} of Philosophy which sprang from them, as for instance
the Pythagorean and Platonic schools, proving that all these possessed much in
common -- in doctrine, rites, and symbols, not only with each other but with
Free Masonry of our own days, without the distinguishing features of the latter
as an operative art; whilst, side by side, the Arcane schools of Philosophy
passed onwards through the centuries of Christianity, in numerous branches,
with the old rites and symbols.
In the "seventh and eighth chapters" we have, for convenience, a
recapitulation of proofs of the existence and transmission of Art Mysteries and
symbols from the most ancient times to our own days, with details of the
Constitutions of a Fraternity, speculative in its teaching and operative in its
application, for the conservation of Arts and Sciences in their tripartite
application to houses, churches, and fortications, and which entering this
country in British and Roman times from Egypt was modified by Culdee monks
and learned clerics, and so continued as Folc-motes or Guilds in the time of the
Anglo-Saxons.
In the "ninth and tenth chapters" some space is devoted to an enquiry as to
the origin of the Semitic legends of Free Masonry which entering this country
in Anglo-Norman times, with an Eastern system of work, of marks, and
symbols, were engrafted upon the older Constitutions; together with some
account of the esoteric marks, emblems, and rites of the organised Building-
brotherhood who erected our noble Gothic edices, and references are made to
many of these edifices in illustration of Free Masonry. We see the end of the
Gothic and revival of the Classic Arcanum.
The remaining "eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters" give a short
account of the principal points in the history of Modern Freemasonry from
1717 to our own days; and which includes a chapter upon the design, origin
and history of what has come to be termed high-grade Free-masonry, {xi} and
out of which sprung the distinction between Ancient and Modern Masonry, a
dissension which continued until the union of these two sects of Masons in
1813.
Lastly in the "Appendix" we have added a full series of Constitutional Charges
which continued in force from Saxon times until the year 1717 and even much
later; these we have slightly modernised for the ease of the reader.
{xi}
C O N T E N T S.
------
Page.
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
INTRODUCTION -- GENERAL PLAN OF THE WORK . . . . . . ix
PART I. -- THE ARCANE SCHOOLS.
Chapter.
I. ARCHAIC LEGENDS . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. PROTO-ARYAN CIVILIZATION AND MYSTERIES . . . . . 20
III. ARYAN CIVILIZATION AND MYSTERIES . . . . . . . 67
IV. THE MYSTERIES IN RELATION TO PHILOSOPHY . . . . . 100
V. PHILOSOPHY IN RELATION TO MASONIC RITES . . . . . 123
VI. THE MYSTIC AND HERMETIC SCHOOLS IN CHRISTIAN TIMES . . 154
PART II. -- OPERATIVE AND SPECULATIVE.
VII. RECAPITULATED PROOFS OF ANCIENT MASONRY . . . . . 219
VIII. MASONRY IN BRITAIN AND SAXON ENGLAND . . . . . . 245
IX. MASONRY IN NORMAN TIMES . . . . . . . . . 295
X. FREEMASONRY IN MODERN TIMES . . . . . . . . 365
PART III. -- SPECULATIVE REVIVAL.
XI. ORIGIN OF THE SYSTEM TERMED HIGH-GRADE (ANCIENT) . . . 421
XII. FREEMASONRY IN THE GRAND LODGE ERA (MODERN) . . . . 491
XIII. FREEMASONRY UNDER THE UNITED GRAND LODGE . . . . . 521
PART IV. -- ANCIENT MSS.
APPENDIX --
SERIES OF CONSTITUTIONAL CHARGES . . . . . . . 537
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567
ERRATA.
----
PAGE
1 -- 5th line from top, for "was" read "were."
16 -- 10th line from top, for "term" read "terms."
24 -- 4th line from top, for "exists" read "exist."
37 -- 3rd line from top, for "proto-Aryan" read "pre-Aryan."
96 -- top line, after "the legend is," read
GR:Eta-Kappa-Upsilon-Rho-Iota-Alpha-Epsilon
Iota-Sigma-Iota-Sigma Alpha-Gamma-Nu-Eta.
96 -- 6th line from top, after "1490 is," read "GR:Epsilon-Iota-Sigma
Zeta-Eta-Upsilon-Sigma Sigma-Alpha-Rho-Alpha-Iota-Sigma
Alpha-Pi-Omicron-Nu Omicron-Nu-Omicron-Mu-Alpha
Sigma-Alpha-Beta-Alpha-Omega Phi-Omega-Sigma
Alpha-Nu-Alpha-Tau-Omicron-Lambda-Eta Chi-Theta-Omega-Nu
translated One Jupiter, Serapis, Holy Name, Sabaoth, the Light, the Day-
Spring, the Earth! GR:Epsilon-Iota-Sigma Theta-Epsilon-Omicron-Sigma
Sigma-Alpha-Rho-Alpha-Pi-Iota-Sigma
(often abbreviated into GR:Epsilon. Omicron. Zeta.) There is but
one God. and he is Serapis. He is also called GR:Epsilon-Iota-Sigma
Zeta-Omega-Nu Theta-Epsilon-Omicron-Sigma, The one Living God.
127 - 12th line from top, for "locius," read ", Socius."
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]