Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:01 am
take a look at a US dollar - it's loaded with Masonic symbols and imagery. The American Founding Fathers were mostly Freemasons, and Freemasonry played a huge role in the dissemination of ideas of independence and revolution in the Colonies.
Freemasons were almost certainly behind the murder of Roberto Calvi, *God's Banker,* under Blackfriars Bridge in Old London Town. The Bologna railway station bombing was carried out by right-wing terrorists with connections to the ultra-reactionary P2 Masonic Lodge. Freemasonry is still a powerful force in right-wing politics across Europe.
the only connection between Freemasons and the Baphomet is that (some) Masons claim to be the spiritual descendants of the medieval Knights Templar, who were accused of worshipping Satan in the form of the Baphomet. But that's another story altogether...
Masons do indeed worship (if you can call it that) *The Great Architect* (of the universe) which of course most folk take to mean *God* as He is popularly understood in the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. But actually, the GA isn't God at all, not the God of the monotheistic religions anyway. He's the Demiurge (a lesser emanation of the Supreme God, the One, the Ein-Sof of Jewish Kabbalah) and since the Demiurge is, by definition, imperfect, all he could create is this imperfect *reality* - and as such he is more akin to the role of Satan, who as you should know is *Lord of this World* But of course, quite distinct from Satan is that Demiurge can create, whereas Satan can create nothing.
It's this equation of the role of the Demiurge with that of Satan (erroneously) that contributes towards the perception that Masons are closet satanists. As to the Baphomet, well it gets even more confusing.
The Knights Templar were charged with the defence of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem from the armies of Islam during the Crusades. During their sojourn in the Holy land, the Templars became very wealthy and a political force in their own right due to their wealth and military prowess. Thus they began to treat with Muslim lords in their own right and not necessarily on the orders of their King, but more on that of their Grand Master. This meant that they became more closelt associated with the older and much more sophisticated Muslim culture, which to mem who'd known nothing better than draughty castles, dank wooden towns, and grimy peasant villages, must have been a revealtion. Remember that in Damascus at this time the streets were lit, there was proper drainage and night-time central heating. Muslim scholars had access to classical texts that Westerners beleived lost or were banned by the Church.
This dalliance with Muslim cultiure began to make the templars suspect, and their wealth and power aroused the jealousy of European rulers and prelates, especially when the Holy Land was finally lost for good and the Templars continued to amass wealth through finance and trade. Eventually a plot was cooked up by the King of France and supported by the Pope to bring the Templars down. Amongst the many things they were accused of was worshipping a Satanic figure called the Baphomet, but what this actually seems to be is a confusion between Mahomet (Mohammed) in reference to their links with the Islamic world, and a bearded gargoyle that they seem to have used as part of their initiation ceremonies. if you bear in mind that at this period Islam was viewed in the West as the work of the Devil and Mohammed (pbuh) as the Antichrist, then it wasn't much of a conceptual leap to beleive that the Templars were worshipping some sort of Islamic demon.
Where the connection to the Masons comes in, if you want to beleive it, is that on the night that the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was executed, a hay-wagon is supposed to have left for Scotland carrying the secrets of the templars and the surviving members of their inner circle, so that the Templars could be refounded as the Freemasons. There is no objective historical evidence for this at all. Now in many countries the Templars did survive, as not all rulers agreed with or obeyed the Edict by the Pope (but in actuality the work of the French King) to hand them over to the secular arm. In some countries they were token arrested then quickly let go, in others they weren't arrested at all but joined other orders such as the Teutonic Knights and the Knights Hospitaller, it was really only in France that they were made to suffer. Eventually even the Pope got embarassed and nervous about what was going on and offered the Templars a diplomatic escape route which they nobly refused. However after Jacques de Molay's death the persecution waned, as the King of France had got his hands on their gold and jewels and weapons and castles. With Louis' subsequent death shortly thereafter, all actions against the Templars ceased; as an order they ceased to exist but they were incorporated en masse into other orders in countries like Portugal where their wealth and knowledge may well have subsequently assisted men like Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama. Certainly their military abilities were well used by the Teutonic Knights in the conquest of the Baltic states.
Are Masons Templars? many people like to think so, including many Masons, but sadly the story of the hay-wain is just that, a subsequent embellishing of a sorry tale of betrayal and tragedy. There's a nice story that when the last King of France was executed, someone in the crowd shouted, *Jacques de Molay, you are avenged!* but again, it's just a story - there's no contemporary corroboration. the story of the hay-wain doesn't get any mention whatsoever until the 17th century (iirc) when Freemasonry is already well established in Scotland and it completely lacks any details.
There is also the view that in fact Masons are atheists and don't beleive in any religion at all, and that the vague Great Architect esotericism is just a mechanism to rid initiates of any lingering allegiances to traditional Christianity. However in Italy, and to a lesser extent France, Spain, and Portugal, there have been and still are close ties between ultra-reactionary Catholic organisations, Italian fascists, the Mafia, and right-wing Freemasons and their associates. The Vatican Bank was riddled with Masonic and Mafia connections right up to the top, hence why i mentioned Roberto Calvi earlier, head of Banco Ambrosiana in milan which was used by the Vatican for its foreign currency transactions and investements, and turned out to be using Vatican money to launder criminal funds and fund right-wing terrorism. Calvi's body was found under Blackfriars Bridge in London and upo investigation *appeared* to have killed according to Masonic ritual punishment for betrayal. However the Catholic Church still formally forbids any of its priests to be or continue to be Freemasons (Cardinal Ratzinger 1981)
I persoanlly know several Masons and they're all upstanding respectable businessmen and members of the community, apart from one or two bighead coppers. In reality i think Masons are and can be all theses things - whilst the majority use it like any fraternal society for mutual assitance and work in the community, there is an esoteric element that appeals to the mystical and those with a fondness for secret societies. Particularly in the 19th C, many Victorian gentlemen were Masons and pursued interests in speculative history, the occult, spiritualism and theosophy.
Famously, Benjamin Franklin, talented man of many parts and spiritual father of the American Revolution, was Grand Master of the Pennsylvania Lodge (he also became US Ambassador to revolutionary France, where many of the bourgeois revolutionaries were themselves Freemasons) Both George Washington and John Hancock were active Masons. I think something like over a 1/3 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were Freemasons, a much higher ratio than that of Masons to the general population anyway, and almost half of Washington's generals in the Continental Army were Freemasons. Now that is disproportionate!
Masonic symbolism abounds on the US currency, and the US Constitution's clear disestablismentary distinction between State and religion means that in the entire document you can find very little direct reference to God. What you actually get is phrases like *Creator* and *Nature's God* which everyone assumes is the same as the Christian God but actually isn't, it's the Demiurge, Creator of Matter as I've discussed above. The Masonic symbols of the Pyramid, dividers and the All-Seeing Eye on the dollar bill give the lie to that assumption - the Founding Fathers were actually referring to the Great Architect. The only direct reference I can find in American governmental symbolism is *In God We Trust* - I always find it rather ironic when certain Americans claim that they live in a Christian country, when they actually don't! And this is one of the reasons why America is often referred to by its enemies as the Great Satan, because the God that the Founding Fathers refer to is a lesser being responsible only for our world of matter and its woes.
Incidentally Hitler and his Nazis hated Freemasons and there was a special section of the SicherHeitsDienst tasked with rounding them up. However since Freemasons weren't Jews they had the honour of building Himmler's mad SS castle, the Wewelsburg because they weren't racially polluted.
yes I know its bizarre stuff but it all checks out. I haven't made a single word of it up.
Edited by - Tawakalna on 4/4/2006 4:14:19 AM
Freemasons were almost certainly behind the murder of Roberto Calvi, *God's Banker,* under Blackfriars Bridge in Old London Town. The Bologna railway station bombing was carried out by right-wing terrorists with connections to the ultra-reactionary P2 Masonic Lodge. Freemasonry is still a powerful force in right-wing politics across Europe.
the only connection between Freemasons and the Baphomet is that (some) Masons claim to be the spiritual descendants of the medieval Knights Templar, who were accused of worshipping Satan in the form of the Baphomet. But that's another story altogether...
Masons do indeed worship (if you can call it that) *The Great Architect* (of the universe) which of course most folk take to mean *God* as He is popularly understood in the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. But actually, the GA isn't God at all, not the God of the monotheistic religions anyway. He's the Demiurge (a lesser emanation of the Supreme God, the One, the Ein-Sof of Jewish Kabbalah) and since the Demiurge is, by definition, imperfect, all he could create is this imperfect *reality* - and as such he is more akin to the role of Satan, who as you should know is *Lord of this World* But of course, quite distinct from Satan is that Demiurge can create, whereas Satan can create nothing.
It's this equation of the role of the Demiurge with that of Satan (erroneously) that contributes towards the perception that Masons are closet satanists. As to the Baphomet, well it gets even more confusing.
The Knights Templar were charged with the defence of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem from the armies of Islam during the Crusades. During their sojourn in the Holy land, the Templars became very wealthy and a political force in their own right due to their wealth and military prowess. Thus they began to treat with Muslim lords in their own right and not necessarily on the orders of their King, but more on that of their Grand Master. This meant that they became more closelt associated with the older and much more sophisticated Muslim culture, which to mem who'd known nothing better than draughty castles, dank wooden towns, and grimy peasant villages, must have been a revealtion. Remember that in Damascus at this time the streets were lit, there was proper drainage and night-time central heating. Muslim scholars had access to classical texts that Westerners beleived lost or were banned by the Church.
This dalliance with Muslim cultiure began to make the templars suspect, and their wealth and power aroused the jealousy of European rulers and prelates, especially when the Holy Land was finally lost for good and the Templars continued to amass wealth through finance and trade. Eventually a plot was cooked up by the King of France and supported by the Pope to bring the Templars down. Amongst the many things they were accused of was worshipping a Satanic figure called the Baphomet, but what this actually seems to be is a confusion between Mahomet (Mohammed) in reference to their links with the Islamic world, and a bearded gargoyle that they seem to have used as part of their initiation ceremonies. if you bear in mind that at this period Islam was viewed in the West as the work of the Devil and Mohammed (pbuh) as the Antichrist, then it wasn't much of a conceptual leap to beleive that the Templars were worshipping some sort of Islamic demon.
Where the connection to the Masons comes in, if you want to beleive it, is that on the night that the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, was executed, a hay-wagon is supposed to have left for Scotland carrying the secrets of the templars and the surviving members of their inner circle, so that the Templars could be refounded as the Freemasons. There is no objective historical evidence for this at all. Now in many countries the Templars did survive, as not all rulers agreed with or obeyed the Edict by the Pope (but in actuality the work of the French King) to hand them over to the secular arm. In some countries they were token arrested then quickly let go, in others they weren't arrested at all but joined other orders such as the Teutonic Knights and the Knights Hospitaller, it was really only in France that they were made to suffer. Eventually even the Pope got embarassed and nervous about what was going on and offered the Templars a diplomatic escape route which they nobly refused. However after Jacques de Molay's death the persecution waned, as the King of France had got his hands on their gold and jewels and weapons and castles. With Louis' subsequent death shortly thereafter, all actions against the Templars ceased; as an order they ceased to exist but they were incorporated en masse into other orders in countries like Portugal where their wealth and knowledge may well have subsequently assisted men like Henry the Navigator and Vasco da Gama. Certainly their military abilities were well used by the Teutonic Knights in the conquest of the Baltic states.
Are Masons Templars? many people like to think so, including many Masons, but sadly the story of the hay-wain is just that, a subsequent embellishing of a sorry tale of betrayal and tragedy. There's a nice story that when the last King of France was executed, someone in the crowd shouted, *Jacques de Molay, you are avenged!* but again, it's just a story - there's no contemporary corroboration. the story of the hay-wain doesn't get any mention whatsoever until the 17th century (iirc) when Freemasonry is already well established in Scotland and it completely lacks any details.
There is also the view that in fact Masons are atheists and don't beleive in any religion at all, and that the vague Great Architect esotericism is just a mechanism to rid initiates of any lingering allegiances to traditional Christianity. However in Italy, and to a lesser extent France, Spain, and Portugal, there have been and still are close ties between ultra-reactionary Catholic organisations, Italian fascists, the Mafia, and right-wing Freemasons and their associates. The Vatican Bank was riddled with Masonic and Mafia connections right up to the top, hence why i mentioned Roberto Calvi earlier, head of Banco Ambrosiana in milan which was used by the Vatican for its foreign currency transactions and investements, and turned out to be using Vatican money to launder criminal funds and fund right-wing terrorism. Calvi's body was found under Blackfriars Bridge in London and upo investigation *appeared* to have killed according to Masonic ritual punishment for betrayal. However the Catholic Church still formally forbids any of its priests to be or continue to be Freemasons (Cardinal Ratzinger 1981)
I persoanlly know several Masons and they're all upstanding respectable businessmen and members of the community, apart from one or two bighead coppers. In reality i think Masons are and can be all theses things - whilst the majority use it like any fraternal society for mutual assitance and work in the community, there is an esoteric element that appeals to the mystical and those with a fondness for secret societies. Particularly in the 19th C, many Victorian gentlemen were Masons and pursued interests in speculative history, the occult, spiritualism and theosophy.
Famously, Benjamin Franklin, talented man of many parts and spiritual father of the American Revolution, was Grand Master of the Pennsylvania Lodge (he also became US Ambassador to revolutionary France, where many of the bourgeois revolutionaries were themselves Freemasons) Both George Washington and John Hancock were active Masons. I think something like over a 1/3 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were Freemasons, a much higher ratio than that of Masons to the general population anyway, and almost half of Washington's generals in the Continental Army were Freemasons. Now that is disproportionate!
Masonic symbolism abounds on the US currency, and the US Constitution's clear disestablismentary distinction between State and religion means that in the entire document you can find very little direct reference to God. What you actually get is phrases like *Creator* and *Nature's God* which everyone assumes is the same as the Christian God but actually isn't, it's the Demiurge, Creator of Matter as I've discussed above. The Masonic symbols of the Pyramid, dividers and the All-Seeing Eye on the dollar bill give the lie to that assumption - the Founding Fathers were actually referring to the Great Architect. The only direct reference I can find in American governmental symbolism is *In God We Trust* - I always find it rather ironic when certain Americans claim that they live in a Christian country, when they actually don't! And this is one of the reasons why America is often referred to by its enemies as the Great Satan, because the God that the Founding Fathers refer to is a lesser being responsible only for our world of matter and its woes.
Incidentally Hitler and his Nazis hated Freemasons and there was a special section of the SicherHeitsDienst tasked with rounding them up. However since Freemasons weren't Jews they had the honour of building Himmler's mad SS castle, the Wewelsburg because they weren't racially polluted.
yes I know its bizarre stuff but it all checks out. I haven't made a single word of it up.
Edited by - Tawakalna on 4/4/2006 4:14:19 AM
