Freemasonary and the Masonic Lodge — Ron Carlson

Ron Carlson, president of Christian Ministries International, has lectured in 52 countries around the world. He is a recognized authority on world religions and non-Christian cults. This has been titled Freemasonry and the Masonic Lodge.

I have you back tonight as we continue this special series on the non-Christian cult. Tonight we have a very important subject to deal with, a subject that I know touches close to home for many of you.

We may have some men here who are involved in the Masonic Lodge, Freemasonry, or the Shriners, ladies in the Eastern Star, or girls in Job's Daughters, or Rainbow Girls, or boys in DeMolay. And as I speak tonight on Freemasonry and the Masonic Lodge, I realize that probably only one in 10 ,000 Masons fully understands what they are involved in.

If you are a Mason tonight, I realize that a good majority of you do not fully understand what you are involved in. Many of your uncles and grandfathers and fathers and brothers who have gone into this do not fully understand what they are involved in, because the Masonic Lodge has cloaked itself under a veil of secrecy.

And men swear blood oaths not to reveal any of the secrets of what goes on inside of the Masonic Lodge, under penalty of death, if they reveal any of the secrets. And since Masons are sworn to secrecy by their own blood, I want to take it upon myself tonight to peel away that veil of secrecy for you, and to expose the true inner content in teaching, philosophy, and religion, and practice of the Masonic Lodge, to realize that it is not compatible with Christianity, rather it is anti-Christian and contrary to everything that God has revealed to us.

And if you are a Christian tonight, you have no business having anything to do with the Masonic Lodge. As I was driving down 41 tonight, just before you get to Shano Avenue, you can look over and see off of 41, the big Masonic Lodge there with the square and compass and the big G in the center.

We'll talk about what that symbol means tonight. I am not here to attack or tear down any individual, but we are told in Jude verse 3 that as Christians we must contend earnestly for the faith, delivered once for all time and to the saints.

First Peter 3 .15 tells us to give to every person an answer, a reason for the hope that lies within us. First Thessalonians 5 .21 says test all things, hold fast to that which is true and good. That is what we want to do tonight, to test these things, to see what is true and good.

Now to give you a little background as to Freemasonry and the Masonic Lodge, there are approximately five million members worldwide. Of these, about three and a half million members are here in the United States and Canada.

Of those three and a half million members in America, and throughout the world, there are approximately one million Shriners. Now within the Masonic Lodge you have two different groups. One the Scottish Rite, which is most familiar, and also the York Rite.

Within the Scottish Rite, which most Masons go through, you have what is known as the Blue Lodge. The Blue Lodge is the first three degrees in which all Masons go through. And then you have, after that, 29 degrees that one may progress to the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite, and then become a Shriner.

All Masons go into the Blue Lodge, and after they go through the first three degrees, then they can choose whether to go into the York Rite or the Scottish Rite. Some will go through both. When most of you think of Masons or the Shriners, what do you think of?

Most people will think either of the Masonic homes for the aged, or the hospitals. They'll think of the Shrine hospitals, or the Shrine Circus perhaps, of what appears to be a fraternal organization doing many good deeds.

And the Masons do, do many good deeds. We do not question that. But the problem is that many Masons are buying the outer wrapping of a package, having never examined the content of what they're buying.

And before they know what they are getting into, they are sworn to secrecy with blood oaths under penalty of their own death if they reveal any of the secrets before they're told what they're supposed to keep secret.

And it's not until you go through the 32 degrees that you are then at the 32nd degree, given the authoritative work of Masons, which is Albert Pike's book, Morals and Dogma, which tells you exactly what you have just gone through.

Now you don't find this out until you've already gone through these rituals and ceremonies of the 32 degrees of the Scottish Rite, and we'll be looking at that in a moment. When you talk to Masons, as I said, most of them do not understand what they're getting involved in.

They get involved in the Masonic Lodge out of peer pressure. Their friends are involved in it. Some go into it thinking it gives them business advantages within the community. Some see it only as a social club or a mutual aid society.

Some are lured to it by its mystic secret rituals. Others see it as a means of self-development and philanthropy. Some go into it out of their own pride, a system of morality and good works where they feel they can, through this, earn their own salvation and eternal life.

Before we get into the teaching of Masonry and the rituals, just a little background as to its history. Masonry was begun as an institution in England in 1717 and was then brought here to the United States, where it has become very prominent, as well as many other countries.

Freemasonry has its mysteries, its allegories, its handshakes, its secret words and past words that all Masons go through. Now, when you go into the Blue Lodge, you go through the 32 degrees, then you can become a Shriner, part of the ancient and Arabic order of nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

You may be familiar with seeing Shriners wearing their fez, their caps. This happens to be from the Shrine Temple in Minneapolis. We see this on men and we think, well, it's just a nice maternal organization.

Well, tonight we're going to see what all of this means with its Egyptian-Arabic markings and what Albert Pike, the leading authority, says about this. Now understand that what I'm going to say tonight is not from anti-Masonic writings.

I have spent two years, almost full time, researching Freemasonry and the Masonic Lodge. What we're going to be sharing tonight is from the authoritative works of Masons themselves. When it comes to the authority of Freemasonry, the number one authority which all Masons look to is Albert Pike, who for 35 years was the supreme commander of all of world Freemasonry.

His book, Morals and Dogma, which was published in 1871, last time published in 1966, is the Bible of the Masons. And as I said, you receive this book after you have gone through the 32 degrees. It's over 1 ,000 pages long and most Masons, sadly to say, have never read what they're involved in.

Tonight we're going to look at that. We're also going to quote from the authorities Albert Mackey, who was the leading historian for Masonry, as well as other leading Masonic writers. Now when you go into Masonry, you must be invited by two other friends.

And then to go into the Masonic Lodge, you first enter into the Blue Lodge. Now when you enter into the Blue Lodge, these first three degrees, all Masons go through an initiation ceremony. And this initiation ceremony is virtually the same around the world.

And all Masons have gone through this first initiation ceremony. Let me describe for you, read for you, what goes on in this ceremony. And I have interviewed hundreds of Masons who have gone through this ceremony.

And just to give you an idea of what these men have gone through. The typical initiation ceremony combines a variety of features. The candidate is divested of his jacket and his collar and tie, and also of any money or metal articles.

His left trouser leg is rolled up above the knee. His shirt is open to expose his left breast. And his right shoe is removed and replaced by a slipper. He is also blindfolded, in Masonic parlance is called hoodwinked, to demonstrate his state of darkness.

And a running noose or cable toe is placed around his neck. After the lodge has been formally opened, he is led to the outer door by the Tyler, a doorkeeper. At the threshold, he is confronted by the inner guard who holds the point of a dagger to his bare breast, barring his way.

He is then led before the Worshipful Master, the Chief Officer of the Lodge. The Worshipful Master recites a prayer to the Supreme Governor of the Universe and puts a series of ritual questions to the candidate who is required to answer according to a prescribed formula without a slip of the tongue.

Kneeling in front of the Worshipful Master's pedestal, with his right foot formed in a square, and the point of a pair of compasses touching his breast, the candidate then swears not to reveal any of the secrets of Freemasonry.

Now, when you go into this initiation ceremony, you are blindfolded, hoodwinked, you have a noose put around your neck, then you come and bow before a man who you call the Worshipful Master. Now, understand that our churches across this country, many of the mainline churches are filled with members who have gone through these ceremonies that I'm going to describe tonight.

Forty percent of Southern Baptist pastors in this country are Freemasons. Norman Vincent Peale is a 33rd degree Mason. Two months ago, in an interview, he said Masonry is the most important thing in his life and has done more for him than anything else.

Gerald Ford, our past president, is the second in command, the second highest in this country, next to Henry Claussen. And Masonry spreads throughout. Now, these men have gone into this initiation ceremony being blindfolded, a noose around their neck, they bow before a man they call the Worshipful Master, and then they cry out, I'm lost in darkness, I'm lost in darkness, I need the light of Freemasonry.

Now, for any Christian to go through a ceremony like this, to begin with, you would have to start questioning, what am I doing bowing before a man I call the Worshipful Master and crying out, I'm lost in darkness?

If you have the light of Jesus Christ living in your life, you should begin to question at that point. But then you are required to take a variety of oaths, blood oaths, and every Mason has taken these.

In the first degree, the entered apprentice degree, you must put your thumb to your throat and make the motion across your throat and take this oath. Binding myself under no less a penalty than having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots and buried in the rough sand of the sea.

In the second degree, you must then take this oath. Binding myself under no less a penalty than that of having my left breast torn open, my heart plucked out and given to the prey of the beast of the field and the fowls of the air.

And then in the Master Mason, the third degree of the Blue Lodge, every Mason has said, Binding myself under no less a penalty than that of having my body severed in twain, my bowels taken from thence and burned in ashes and given to the field.

Now, every Mason has taken these blood oaths not to reveal any of the secrets of Freemasonry. And that's why it's such a secretive thing. Tonight, we want to expose these secrets. Now, for a Christian, you have no business taking these blood oaths to begin with.

If you have your Bibles, you might turn with me to see what Jesus says about this in Matthew chapter 5, verses 34 to 37. Jesus says, But I say to you, Make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

But let your statement be yes, yes, or no, no, and anything beyond this is of evil. Jesus said you're not to take any oath at all. It's interesting that even the United States Constitution and the Supreme Court recognizes this.

And in a court of law, you are not required to take an oath, but you can simply make an affirmation to tell the truth. If you turn over with me to James chapter 5, we see what God says, again, concerning this.

James chapter 5, verse 12. But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes, your no be no, so that you may not fall under the judgment.

God says we are not to be taking oaths, especially blood oaths, and yet every mason, five million of them, have gone through this contrary to what God says. Well, what are the secrets that they are sworn to keep?

Now, I said when I began that most masons do not understand what they're involved in. That is because masons today are being consciously misled and deceived by their leaders as to the true nature of masonry.

Albert Pike, in his book, Morals and Dogma, and tonight when I quote a page number, I will be quoting it from the authoritative work of all free masonry, that of Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma. Which every 32nd degree mason has a copy of.

If I quote from another book, I'll mention that. But let me read for you, if you're a mason here and you've gone through the Blue Lodge, you need to understand that you have been consciously deceived by your brothers in the lodge so that you do not understand what is going on.

Let me read Albert Pike, beginning on page 104. Masonry, or let me begin on page 819. The blue degrees of the Blue Lodge are but the outer court or portico of the temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations.

It is not intended that he shall understand them, but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them. Their true explanation is reserved only for the adepts, the princes of free masonry. The whole body of the royal sacerdotal art was hidden so carefully centuries ago in the high degrees of free masonry.

It is well enough for the mass of those so-called masons to imagine that all is contained in the blue degrees. The rites of initiation, in page 359, he says the rites of initiation became progressively more complicated.

Signs and tokens were invented, which they go through. You learn certain handshakes, different masonic handshakes, passwords, signs, different degrees were invented as the number of initiates increased in order that there might be in the inner court of the temple a favored few to whom alone belongs the valuable secrets of free masonry.

All persons were initiated into the lesser mysteries, but only a few attained the greater in which the true knowledge and most of the secret doctrines are hidden. The veil of secrecy was impenetrable, sealed by oaths and penalties the most tremendous and appalling.

So Albert Pike says that if you are a mason and you have gone through the Blue Lodge, that you are consciously being misled as to the true nature of masonry because they do not want you to understand what is going on.

And as we go on tonight, you're going to understand why they don't want you to understand what's going on, because it becomes very occultic in its nature. Let me read what Albert Pike says, page 545, concerning revealing any of the secrets.

Quote, all the mysteries should be kept concealed, guarded by faithful silence, lest it should be inconsiderately divulged to the ears of the profane. He sins against God who divulges to the unworthy the mysteries confided to him.

The danger is not merely in violating the truth, but in telling the truth. Albert Pike says it is a sin to divulge the truth. Now, how different this is from what we read in God's Word. Jesus says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Jesus said, I am the truth. He said, go into all the world and proclaim this good news. But the Masons say, no, it is a sin for you to reveal truth. Albert Pike goes on, page 383. He says, the history of Freemasonry has covered their ceremonies in the veil of secrecy.

They prefer to do their ceremonies at night to cover them with darkness. The very word mystery was a metaphorical expression that denoted the secret awe which darkness and gloom inspired. Mysteries were celebrated at night because there is at night something aghast and imposing.

And so, he says, we are to do these at night in the darkness to keep them secret. It's interesting what we read in 1 John 1, verses 5 and 6 concerning this. 1 John 1, verses 5 and 6. And this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Truth is not concealed by darkness or blood oaths. We are to freely proclaim the truth. And yet, Albert Pike says it is a sin to reveal the truth.

What are the secrets that they're trying to keep from the public? If you talk to a Mason, they will tell you that Freemasonry is not a religion. They will tell you it has nothing to do with religion. But when they tell you that, they are either ignorant or they are blatantly lying to you.

Let me read their authority, Albert Pike in Morals and Dogma, as to what he tells is the true nature of Freemasonry and the Masonic Lodge. And if there are any Masons here and you question what I'm saying, I say take the page numbers down, go home, look it up in your own authoritative books.

Page 213, Albert Pike says, quote, Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion and its teachings are instruction in religion. Page 210, Masonry is from the earliest times, the custodian and depositor of the great religious truths unknown to the world at large and handed down from age to age by an unbroken current of tradition, embodied in symbols, emblems and allegories.

Page 219, Masonry is a worship. Masonry is the universal religion in the heart of universal humanity. The ministers of this religion are all Masons. Its sacrifices to God are good works and perpetual efforts to attain to all the moral perfection of which man is capable.

So says Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma. So here we have the groundwork. Understand tonight that Masonry is a religion. That every Mason is a minister of this religion. What kind of religion? He says it is a universal religion.

We'll look at that in a moment. Its sacrifices to God are good works and perpetual efforts to achieve moral perfection. A universal religion of morality. What is this universal religion that Masons are ministers of?

I quote Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, page 311. In all religions, there is a basis of truth. In all, there is pure morality. All teachers and reformers of mankind we admire and revere. Masonry has her mission to perform.

She invites all men of all religions to enlist under her banner. Page 226. Listen to this. Masonry, around whose altars the Hebrew, the Christian, the Muslim, the Brahman, the Buddhist, the followers of Confucius and Zoroaster can assemble as brethren and unite in prayer.

Page 276. In no other way could Masonry possess its character of universality, which enables two kings, worshippers of different deities, to sit together as master Masons and to sit in the same lodge as brethren.

Page 525. Masonry reverences all the great reformers. It sees in Moses, the lawgiver, in Confucius and Zoroaster, in Buddha, in Jesus of Nazareth, and in the Arabian iconoclasts, great teachers of morality.

Thus, Masonry disbelieves no truth and teaches all religion. Masonry is a worship, but one in which all men can unite. So here we have the nature of Masonry. It is a religion that teaches a universalism of morality, a syncretism of all religions.

Albert Pike says it doesn't matter whether you're a Hindu or a Buddhist or a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew, you can all unite as brethren at the altar of free Masonry. He says that Jesus is simply one of many moral reformers.

Masons, as we're going to see tonight, put Jesus in the same category as Buddha and Muhammad and Confucius and Zoroaster. Nothing more than a moral reformer. We'll get into that further in a moment. Page 277.

Albert Pike says, The first Masonic legislator whose memory is preserved to us by history was Buddha. He called to the priesthood all men without distinction of religion. Page 166. Masonry wisely requires no more than a belief in one great, all-powerful deity, preserver of the universe.

Therefore, it teaches that toleration is one of the chief duties, for in every faith there are excellent moral precepts. So Masonry is a religion. Its Masonic temple is a place of worship, where all religions can gather.

A universalism, a syncretism. There's no difference between Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam. They're all one and the same. But it's interesting that as you go into this, you discover what the true religion of Masonry is.

A nature religion based upon pantheism, which does not need any revelation from God. In page 226, Albert Pike says,. The Mason considers that if there were no written revelation, if there is no Bible, he could safely rest the hopes that animate him and the principles that guide him on the deductions of reason and the convictions of instinct and consciousness.

He can find a sure foundation for his religious belief in these deductions of the intellect and convictions of the heart. So Mason say, we do not need a special revelation from God. We have our own intellect and our own heart to guide us in the truth.

Well, they should read what scripture says about this in Jeremiah 17, verse 3, where God says that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Yet, Mason say, we don't need a revelation from God.

We can rely on our own intellect and our own heart. What is this nature worship that we're going to look at in a moment? Albert Pike on page 714 and 715 says,. Listen to this. Beautiful above the great wide chaos of human errors shines the calm clear light of natural human religion, revealing to us God as the infinite parent of all.

Beautiful around stretches off every way the universe, the great Bible of God. Material nature is its Old Testament. Human nature is the New Testament. Everything is a thought of the infinite God. Nature is his prose and man is his poetry.

So here we see a pantheistic philosophy that is going to be taught now as the Masonic religion that everything is merely a thought of God. This comes right out of Hinduism. And that everything being a thought of God, we are all part of nature, that the material world of nature is the Old Testament.

Human nature is the New Testament, the universe, which encompasses everything is what they call God. As we're going to see tonight, when you get into this nature worship that Masons are involved in, as we saw last night, God speaks about this in Romans 1, verses 22 and 25, where he says,.

Professing to be wise, men have become fools. They've exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for a lie and have worshipped and followed the creation rather than the creator who is blessed forever.

And this is what Masons have done, as we're going to see. They've exchanged the truth of God for a lie, verse 25 says of Romans 1, and have followed after the creation rather than the creator. What is this nature worship that Masons are following?

Where did it come from? Albert Pike, page 352 says,. Among most of the ancient nations there was, in addition to their public worship, a private one styled the mysteries, to which those only were admitted who had been prepared by certain ceremonies called initiation.

Where the mysteries originated is not fully known. It is supposed that they came from India by way of Chaldea into Egypt and thence were carried to Greece. They were practiced among all the ancient nations.

Masonry, page 22 of Albert Pike, Masonry, successor of the ancient mysteries, the mystery religions from India, Persia, Egypt. Masonry, successor of the mysteries, still follows the ancient manner of teaching.

Masonry is identical with the ancient mystery religions. After leaving Egypt, the mysteries were modified by the habits of different nations among whom they were introduced. The powers revealed in the mysteries were all in reality nature gods.

The mysteries taught the doctrine of divine oneness. So Albert Pike tells us that Masonry is identical to the mystery religions coming out of India, Egypt, Persia, and Greece. The mystery religions of ancient civilization which taught the worship of nature gods, the worship of creation, and the oneness of all things, basic Hindu pantheism coming from India, as Albert Pike says.

And he says that Masonry is identical with these mystery religions. Page 207, Morals and Dogma, he says, Zoroaster, Menuh, Confucius, Buddha, Socrates, and Plato taught their esoteric doctrines. They did not communicate them to the people at large, but only to a favored few.

And as they were communicated in Egypt and India and Persia and Phoenicia and Greece to only the initiates. The communication of this knowledge of the ancient mysteries and secrets constituted under other names what we now call Masonry or Free Masonry, unquote.

Page 207. So Albert Pike says that what you are seeing in Masonry in the Masonic Lodge is the revival of the ancient mystery religions of Egypt and Persia and India holding to the worship of creation and a pantheistic philosophy of the divine oneness of all.

Page 356, he says, quote, The ancient mysteries, like the symbols of Masonry, were but an image of nature. The mysteries embrace the three great doctrines of ancient theosophy. They treated of God, man, and nature in symbolic forms, the mysteries exhibited by the universal one.

He goes on page 304. The Masonry of the Blue Lodge, the Blue Lodge, the first three degrees, which all Masons go through. The Masonry of the Blue Lodge finds symbolic meaning within the temple and the whole structure which was intended to represent the universe.

The key to the true meaning is not undiscoverable. The perfect and eternal distinction of the two primitive terms of creative syllogism in order to attain the demonstration of their harmony, the grand principle of the occult philosophy veiled under the name Kabbalah and indicated by all the sacred hieroglyphs of the ancient sanctuaries and of the sacred rites, so little understood by the mass of the initiates of the ancient and modern Freemasonry.

This is getting a little heavy, but let me just clarify what he's saying. Page 304, he says that Masonry takes its teachings from, he says, the occult philosophy of the Kabbalah. The Kabbalah was an occult philosophy of a certain Jewish group in Judaism which was teaching occultic nature worship.

And he says Masonry holds to this occult philosophy. Now, what is this occult philosophy? And hang with me, some of this might get a little complicated, but I'll clarify it for you in a moment. But you need to understand what Albert Pike is teaching, that Freemasonry claims to be a religion, that its temple, its lodge is a temple of worship, that every Mason, he says, is a minister of this religion.

And when you go in and are initiated into the secrets of the Blue Lodge, you are initiated as a minister of the Masonic religion, which is a revival of the ancient mystery religions based upon the occult philosophy of the Kabbalah, based upon Hindu pantheism and nature worship that we're going to see in a moment.

Now, they like to trace their origin, Masons do, back to the building of Solomon's temple and the losing of the sacred word of God by Hiram Abiff. And they have all their allegories that they go through in teaching these things.

But here's what they say about the symbolism of the temple. The temple presented a symbolic image of the universe. The system of numbers was intimately connected with their religions and worship and has come down to us in Freemasonry through the esoteric meaning with which the numbers used are pregnant with meaning.

And then they go through this. And so, in our day, every Masonic lodge represents the universe. In it are represented the sun, moon and stars, three great torches of the east, west and south, forming a triangle, give it light.

These three great lights also represent the great mysteries of the three principles of creation, destruction and reproduction or regeneration. Now, in the mystery religions, based upon this nature religion, they saw three basic principles of life, that of creation, destruction and regeneration occurring in nature.

And Masonry now, they say, has adopted this as their basic philosophy. Page 235, he goes into the temple representing the zodiac, the signs of the zodiac. The 12 pillars representing astrological symbols.

We don't have time to go into all that tonight. Page 486, the ancient astronomers saw all the great symbols of Masonry in the stars. The sun is still symbolized by the point within a circle. And with the moon and mercury into three great lights of the lodge, the veneration paid to the numbers in Masonry had its source there.

Astrology, page 463, astrology was practiced among all the ancient mystery religions. In Egypt, in China, in Arabia, it was practiced in the Passover when the lamb was slain and eaten among the Jews. Universal adoration was paid the stars in astrology in the Hebrew camp, represented by the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 signs of the zodiac in astrology were seen in the 12 sons of Jacob and on and on.

So, and I don't have time to go into it all, but let me just say that Mason, you'll go into their lodges and that you'll see sun, moon, the stars. Albert Pike, they incorporate in the occult philosophy, astrology, numerology, nature worship is all mixed in with this religion of Freemasonry that we see today.

And then they go into the teaching of the universal soul or pantheism, that we are all part of the universe. The universal soul of the world exercises its creative energy chiefly through the medium of the sun, page 474, all through the great body of the world are disseminated portions of the universal soul.

All soul is part of the universal soul. The human soul itself is a God within the mind, capable through its own power of making itself mortal by the practice of the good. Now, Masons believe that we are all part of a universal soul, that everything is God.

God is an impersonal it, the grand architect of the universe, they call it. And this grand architect of the universe, this universal soul we are part of, and we can achieve our immortality through our own good effort and practice of the good.

Page 393, man descended from the elemental forces who fed on the body of the pantheistic deity, creating the universe. Death is the inseparable and antecedent of life. The seed dies in order to produce the plant.

Hence the significance of the phallic symbol, the male organ, or its inoffensive substitute, the obelisk rising as an emblem of resurrection. In Masonic lodges, you'll see unfinished columns, pillars, representing, well, we'll see in just a moment, generating principle of life.

Masons see themselves as part of a universal soul. And the way that you obtain immortality or eternal life in the Masonic lodge is by the generating process of life. Now, what is this generating process of life, in which life continues on and on in the universe?

Albert Pike, page 13. The sun is the ancient symbol of the life-giving and generative power of the deity. The moon was the symbol of the passive capacity of nature to produce, the female, of which the life-giving power and energy was the male.

The sun and moon represent the two grand principles of all generation, the active and passive, the male and female. Both shed their light upon their offspring, bringing forth a new generation. Page 15.

In the east of the lodge, over the master mason, enclosed in the triangle, is the Hebrew letter Yod. In the English and American lodges, the letter G is substituted for this as the initial of the word God.

Now, if you drive down 41 here, just past Shawnell Avenue and look off to the right, you'll see on the Masonic lodge, the square encompassed with a G in the center. That G is their symbol for God. But who is their God?

The G, as we're going to see, stands for the generating principle of life. Let me read. In the Kabbalah, the occult philosophy that masons are based upon, in the Kabbalist, page 305, I'm reading from Albert Pike, The sun and the moon are emblems of the two divine sexes and the two creative forces of nature.

In the mysteries was also taught the division of the universal cause into the active and passive cause, of which two, Osiris and Isis, the heaven and the earth, were symbols. Now, one of the prominent allegories in Freemasonry is that of Osiris and Isis, an Egyptian allegory, which we don't have time to go into tonight.

If you have questions about it, we can ask. But on page 401, he tells us what is happening. Page 401, Albert Pike. Listen carefully. These two divinities, male and female, the active and passive principles of the universe, were commonly symbolized by the generative parts of the man and woman, to which in remote ages, no idea of indecency was attached.

The male and female sex organs, emblems of generation and production, and which as such appear in the mysteries, the Masonic point within a circle expresses the philosophical idea as the union of the two great causes of nature.

They were male and female, of which the phallic or male organ was the generating organ of life. Page 407. The ancients had their religious initiations into the worship of the sun god represented by Osiris, one of the principal ceremonies of which consisted in closing the initiate with the skin of a white lamb.

And in this, we see the origin of the nature worship, where what produces immortality is the generating principle of life, this G. And the generating principle of life is the male organ, and that Masons are given the white lambskin apron as a covering of the Masonic deity, which is the male sex organ.

Now let me read for you Albert Mackey, History of Freemasonry. Albert Mackey is the second leading authority next to Albert Pike. In his book Symbolism of Freemasonry, page 353, the point within a circle, which is another common symbol within the Masonic lodge, a point within a circle, is derived from sun worship and is in reality a phallic origin.

It is the symbol of the universe, the sun being represented by the point, while the circumference is the universe. The point within a circle is an interesting and important symbol today in Freemasonry, but it has been debased in its interpretation of it in the modern lectures, that the sooner that interpretation is forgotten by the Masonic students, the better it will be.

This symbol in reality is a beautiful but somewhat of truth allusion to the old sun worship, which introduces us for the first time into the ancient worship of the phallic symbol, the male organ. You see, this is why ladies are not allowed to be Masons.

No woman can become a Mason because she does not possess the generating principle of life, the male organ, which is the God of Masonry. Let me read further. Albert Mackey, Symbolism of Freemasonry, page 352.

Phallic representation of the viral member, the male organ, which was venerated as a religious symbol. The Masonic point within a circle is undoubtedly a phallic origin. The phallus was an imitation of the male generative organ.

The union of the phallus with the female, which is represented by the point within a circle, was intended by the ancients as a type of prolific powers of nature, which they worshiped under the united form, the active or male principle or the passive or female.