Post by whistler on Aug 17, 2005 9:11:06 GMT
"We are about to approach those ancient Religions which once ruled the minds of men and whose ruins encumber the plains of the Great Past, as the broken columns of Palmyra and Tadmor lie bleaching on the sands of the desert. They rise before us, those old strange mysterious creeds and faiths, shrouded in the mists of antiquity, and stalk dimly and undefined along the line which divides the Time from eternity.
The religion taught by Moses, which like the laws of Egypt, enunciated the principle of exclusion, borrowed at every period of its existence, from all the creeds it came in contact with. While by the studies of the learned and wise, it enriched itself with the most admirable principles of the religions of Egypt and Asia, it was changed in the wanderings of the people, by everything that was most impure or seductive in the pagan manners and superstitions. It was one thing in the times of Aaron another in those of Solomon, and still another in those of Daniel and Plato.
At the Time when John the Baptist made his appearance in the desert, near the shores of the Dead Sea, all the old philosophical and religious systems were approximating to wards each other A general lassitude inclined the minds of all to wards the quietude of the amalgamation of doctrines for which the expeditions of Alexander and the more peaceful occurrences that followed, with the establishment in Asia and Africa of many Grecian dynastics and a great number of Grecian colonies, had prepared the way. After the intermingling the doctrines of Greece, Egypt, Persia and of India met and intermingled everywhere. All the barriers that had formerly kept those nations apart were thrown down; while the people of the west readily connected their faith with those of Egypt, the people of the Orient hastened to learn the traditions of Greece and the legends of Athens. While the philosophers of Greece all (except the Epicurus), more or less Platonicians, seized eagerly upon the beliefs and doctrines of the East; the Jews and Egyptians."
And
"To Philo, the Supreme Being was the primitive Light, or the Archetype of Light. "He is without beginning and Lives in the prototype of Time"
And
" The Apocalypse or Revelations, by whomever written, belongs to the Orient and to extreme antiquity. It paints with the strongest colours that the Oriental genius ever employed." the closing scenes of the great struggle of Light, and Truth, and Good, against Darkness, Error and Evil; personified in that between the New Religion on one side and Paganism and Judaism on the the other"
And
"those Old Controversies have died away and the old faiths have faded into oblivion. But Masonry still survives, vigorous and strong as when philosophy was taught in the schools of Alexandria and under the Portico; Teaching the same old Truths as the Essenes taught by the shores of the Red sea, and as John the Baptist preached in the desert: truths imperishable as the Deity, and undeniable as light. Those truths were gathered by the Essenes from the doctrines of the Orient, and the Occident, from the Zend-Avesta and the Veda, from Plato and Pythagoras, from India, Phoenicia and Syria, from Greece and Egypt and from the holy book of the Jews. From their doctrines the wheat sifted from the chaff, the Truth separated from Error, Masonry has garnered up in her heart of hearts, and delivers them to those who are ready to listen"
Those are a few extracts from the Masonic writings of Albert Pike - Notice how many of our forums topics he touches upon .
In the above he moves beyond the symbols and invites us to think on things we see every day..
Read the above, then look at the local Church, Mosque and Synagog.. Look at those who proclaim a Religious Supremacy. Even those who claim Freemasonry is a Religion.
In fact so much more to think about .
Who can ever say Freemasonry is Dull
The religion taught by Moses, which like the laws of Egypt, enunciated the principle of exclusion, borrowed at every period of its existence, from all the creeds it came in contact with. While by the studies of the learned and wise, it enriched itself with the most admirable principles of the religions of Egypt and Asia, it was changed in the wanderings of the people, by everything that was most impure or seductive in the pagan manners and superstitions. It was one thing in the times of Aaron another in those of Solomon, and still another in those of Daniel and Plato.
At the Time when John the Baptist made his appearance in the desert, near the shores of the Dead Sea, all the old philosophical and religious systems were approximating to wards each other A general lassitude inclined the minds of all to wards the quietude of the amalgamation of doctrines for which the expeditions of Alexander and the more peaceful occurrences that followed, with the establishment in Asia and Africa of many Grecian dynastics and a great number of Grecian colonies, had prepared the way. After the intermingling the doctrines of Greece, Egypt, Persia and of India met and intermingled everywhere. All the barriers that had formerly kept those nations apart were thrown down; while the people of the west readily connected their faith with those of Egypt, the people of the Orient hastened to learn the traditions of Greece and the legends of Athens. While the philosophers of Greece all (except the Epicurus), more or less Platonicians, seized eagerly upon the beliefs and doctrines of the East; the Jews and Egyptians."
And
"To Philo, the Supreme Being was the primitive Light, or the Archetype of Light. "He is without beginning and Lives in the prototype of Time"
And
" The Apocalypse or Revelations, by whomever written, belongs to the Orient and to extreme antiquity. It paints with the strongest colours that the Oriental genius ever employed." the closing scenes of the great struggle of Light, and Truth, and Good, against Darkness, Error and Evil; personified in that between the New Religion on one side and Paganism and Judaism on the the other"
And
"those Old Controversies have died away and the old faiths have faded into oblivion. But Masonry still survives, vigorous and strong as when philosophy was taught in the schools of Alexandria and under the Portico; Teaching the same old Truths as the Essenes taught by the shores of the Red sea, and as John the Baptist preached in the desert: truths imperishable as the Deity, and undeniable as light. Those truths were gathered by the Essenes from the doctrines of the Orient, and the Occident, from the Zend-Avesta and the Veda, from Plato and Pythagoras, from India, Phoenicia and Syria, from Greece and Egypt and from the holy book of the Jews. From their doctrines the wheat sifted from the chaff, the Truth separated from Error, Masonry has garnered up in her heart of hearts, and delivers them to those who are ready to listen"
Those are a few extracts from the Masonic writings of Albert Pike - Notice how many of our forums topics he touches upon .
In the above he moves beyond the symbols and invites us to think on things we see every day..
Read the above, then look at the local Church, Mosque and Synagog.. Look at those who proclaim a Religious Supremacy. Even those who claim Freemasonry is a Religion.
In fact so much more to think about .
Who can ever say Freemasonry is Dull