Hants And Isle Of Wight.

the great Centenary Festival of the Boys School—in which their own Province came out very well—and to the service at Salisbury Cathedral . — " Hampshire Independent . "

Freemasonry And Spiritualism.

FREEMASONRY AND SPIRITUALISM .

THE popular opinion with regard to Freemasonry is that it is a degenerate descendant from the old systems of initiation , and that whatever meaning it may have conveyed

to members of the Order in the past , has by this time utterly vanished , so that absolutely nothing remains but conviviality and feasting to serve' as the distinguishing badge of a Freemason . The occult student treats the Masonic initiations

with the utmost contempt , regarding them as the dead forms which the living spirit has abandoned long ago . It is rather a delicate question to handle , whether forms of initiation and elaborate ceremonials are in themselves of any value whatever . Elsewhere I have written that ' unless the

forms are continually vivified by the living will , they become useless , and in some respects evil . The present day initiations of the Freemasons and others are a case in point . . . . The Freemasonry of to-day is a huge skeleton without flesh and blood . Whether it will be possible to animate this

skeleton with the quickening life of will or spirit may become in the future an interesting question ; most certainly it will not be an impossible task , for the Freemasons inherit the traditions of the past , and they have means at their

disposal which they could turn to account , provided they can secure the sine qua , non—the living will . As they stand at present , the initiations are void of any reality whatever . I can speak quite freely , because I am not a "Mason . " "By their fruits ye shall know them . " '

Since writing ' Volo , ' I have blossomed out into a fullblown Freemason myself , and , without betraying any ' secrets of the Order , ' I consider myself perfectly at liberty to say that I still endorse my previous convictions . I believe that Freemasonry is destined to play in the future a far more

important part in the development of man than it has done in the past , for it has the unspeakable advantage of a splendid and magnificent organisation , which when saturated with the living Will or Spirit can be made to wield an incalculable influence on the social and political destinies of humanity .

In a letter to the Freemason' a few months ago I drew attention to the fact that Freemasonry , was meant to be something more than a charitable society , and that the time was ripe to emphasise its bearing on the development of the individual . From time to time I come across Masonic

Brethren who are serious thinkers , and perfectly cognisant of the potentialites of Masonry , and its relations to Occultism , Theosophy and Spiritualism , and it was with intense pleasure that I read an account in the 'Freemason , ' of 18 th June , of a paper read at the Quatuor Coronati Lodge , by

the Worshipful Master Bro . Sydney T . Klein . It is entitled 'Hidden Mystery , No . 3 , or , the Loves of the Atoms . ' I may say , en passant , that the Quatuor Coronati Lodge is very much above the intellectual level of most other Lodges in the Masonic world , but there are indications of a gradual

leavening of the whole mass with the Higher Doctrine , and the time may soon come when a Freemason may aspire to be in reality what he is now in semblance . Then , as in the

vision of Ezekiel , the dry bones will stand up bone to bone , beclothed with flesh , and live ! The following quotations from Bro . Klein ' s paper contain splendid teaching : —

"We are so accustomed to take everything for granted that it may , perhaps , startle some of you when I ask you to consider whether we can even assert that we have ever seen matter . Let us turn towards a common object in this room ; we catch in our eyes the multitudinous impulses which are

reflected from its surfaces under circumstances similar to those in which a cricketer " fields " a ball . He puts his hand in the way of the moving ball and catches it , and knowing the distance of the batsman , he recognises , by the hard impact of the ball , that the batsman has strong muscles , but

he can gain thereby no idea as to his character . So it is with objective intuition . We direct our eyes towards an object and catch thereby rays of light reflected from that object at different angles , and by combining all these directions we recognise form , and come to the conclusion that we are

looking at , say , a chair . The eye also tells us that rays are coming in greater quantity from some parts of it , and we know that those parts are polished ; the eye , again , catches rays giving higher or lower frequencies of vibration , and we call that colour ; our eyes also tell us that it intercepts certain rays reflected from other objects in the room , and we

Freemasonry And Spiritualism.

know that it is not transparent to light , and those are our conceptions of a wooden chair . We may go a little further by " pushing , " when we know by the amount of resistance , compared with the power exerted , what force of gravity is being exerted by and on that chair , and we declare it heavy

or light , but we get no nearer to the knowledge of what matter really is . By tests and re-agents , we can resolve wood into other forms which we call carbon , oxygen , h y drogen , nitrogen , & c , which , because we cannot divide them into any other known substance , we call "elements" : but we

can only look at these in the same way as we are looking at the chair . Chemists , however , carry us a little further and show us that the elementary substances have not only their likes and dislikes , but their passionate desire and lukewarmness towards others of their ilk , and when opportunity offers

they break up with great violence any ordinary friendship existing between their neighbours , and seize on their coveted prey with a strength of will surpassing anything experienced in the organic world . This association they maintain until they , in their turn , are either dispossessed , or they encounter

another substance of still greater attraction , when they leave their first love and take up new connections . . . . This passionate desire , if we may use the term metaphorically , is not confined to one side only—it is reciprocal , and is between the ultimate particles of matter called " atoms , " and we now

come to the very root of the question as to what matter is , viz ., What are these atoms ? We know with great precision their relative weights and the force exerted in their combinations . We know that they vibrate ever quicker and quicker as their temperature rises , and , as the quicker they vibrate the

less cohesion they have , so matter passes from the solid into the liquid , and thence into the gaseous state , as the temperature is raised , but this does not touch the mystery of what an atom really consists . Our greatest physicists are ever working on this subject , and the theory which explains the

most and seems to fulfil the conditions under which these atoms act , points to each of these being a vortex in the ether , that subtle medium which , having the properties of a solid of almost infinite elasticity , we know to be universally present , as it is by means of that wonderful elasticity that we are able

to receive the light from stars sunk far away in the depths of space . Do we not , then , seem to find in this an explanation of how matter was brought into existence and how some day it will vanish away ? God is omnipresent , and it would seem that the fiat of His will , which went forth when these worlds

were made , was the indestructible force which set these vortices in motion , and these will remain in motion until that fiat is recalled ; we rinay , in fact , look upon all creation as being the materialisation of the thoughts of the Deity , and when volition is withdrawn , matter will return again into the ethereal . Let us think what it will mean for us when all

matter ceases to exist ; only the innermost self , or spiritual part of us , will be left ; our corporeal senses and all our affections set on material objects will be as naught ; we shall then see clearly that from the beginning of time the only reality is and has been the spiritual ; the material body is but

the shadow which attends it during its pilgrimage through this passing life ; it has no real existence , except to our corporeal senses ; it is but a movement in the ether , which , in the fulfilment of time , will cease to exist . The philosopher Paul seems to have had this in mind when , in the first century of our era , he wrote : "Behold I show you a mystery , we shall

not all sleep , but we shall all be changed , in a moment , in the twinkling of an eye , at the last trump . " ' On all sides he that hath eyes to see can perceive the awakening of spiritual life , not only in individuals , but in societies and associations long regarded- as empty forms devoid of vitality . ' The great problem now for advanced thinkers and workers is to transcend the differences of names

and camps , ancl hold a firm grip on the reality within , which is steadily pushing out for material expression . Science is step by step unfolding a gross physical world which is the outcome of , and subject to , a finer world of mind and thought . Mind and thought are ultimately reduced under

the sway of the Ego , consequently the Ego holds direct control of the material realm over which it presides . That being so , what becomes of disease , sorrow , wretchedness ? They will vanish like the darkness of night at the approach of the sun . Listen to the prophetic voice of Shelley : —

Spirit , behold Thy glorious destiny 1 Earth was no longer hell ; Love freedom , health had given

Their ripeness to the manhood of its prime ; And all its pulses beat Symphonious to thc planetary spheres . ARTHUR LOVELL , in " Light . "