2009-04 Lodgeroom

Lodgeroom International Magazine
April 2009
Explanation of the Magazine on - Page 4
The Square - Masonic Magazine - with history
Between The Pillars

I may not agree with what you say,
but I will defend to the death your right to say it
Emerging Grand Lodges

I will start with the Grand Orient of the United States Grand Master Allen Peavey [December, 2007 - April 2008] - Term: 5 Months
Grand Master John Slifko [April, 2008 - December 2008] - Term: 7 Months
Grand Master Jeff Peace? [ Grand master at March 2009]
Masonic Info who are not fans of GO USA have a lot to say about this Grand
Lodge and the people involved in it.
http://www.masonicinfo.com/goofus.htm
This author can not verify any or all the information provided, you will have to
draw your own conclusions. I can only say that Bro. Ed King has, in this
commentators eyes the best interests of Freemasonry to the fore at all times. You
may not agree with what he says, but you can not disregard his dedication and
commitment to Freemasonry.
continued on next page
Letters to the Editor

Questions or Comments: admin@lodgeroomuk.com
Published by:
Senior Editor:
Willam McElligott, P.M. PZ,

United Grand Lodge of England
Giovanni Lombardo
Grande Oriente dItalia
Of This Take Due Notice, and Govern Yourselves Accordingly:

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FOR any Grand Lodge or official body. The material presented in this publication is intended
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authors, editors and publishers. This magazine may be redistributed freely, but may not be
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The staff at the Lodgeroom International

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Featured Articles
The Square Magazine .......................................................................................... 4
The Temple of Solomon ........................................................................................ 5
The Five Faces of Freemasonry by Theon Dunn ............................................... 7
Shakti and Shakta by Arthur Avalon ................................................................ 12
The Emblems belonging to the Third Degree by Gio Lombardo .................. 26
Some Thoughts on Fitches Philosophy by Vincent Lombardo ................... 33
The Lodgroom Contact Center .......................................................................... 37
Book on the Alter by Carl Claudy ..................................................................... 38
Regular Features
Between The Pillars .............................................................................................. 2
Book Review ............................................................................................. 42 to 45

Jokes and Humor .............................................................................................. 46
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Emerging Grand Lodges

So GO USA has 3 Grand masters in 2 years provided
the current Grand Master lasts until December.
Is this in itself a reason for any Freemason to worry or
be concerned, no of course not. There seems to be a
great deal of speculation on why, who, what and when,
but that is just us being nosey. I think that is the 43rd
Problem of Euclid and no one has ever solved that.
Masons are nosey.
This is the web site for GO USA :
http://www.gomasons.org/
Some of the previous sites are not now being used. but
here you can get a good idea of what GO USA is all
about.
So what does a Grand Lodge [Orient] do, what is its
purpose ?
With the established Grand Lodges it seems to be fairly
clear, they oversee the Lodges that work within the
parameters they have set. It is usually a geographic
area. But not always. So long as there is agreement
between the GLs in the same geographic area, GLs
outside will accept they both have a legitimate right of
recognition.
The Grand Orient of the United States does not seem to
wish to be a part of any Geographic autonomy.
Quoting from the GO USA website :
The Grand Orient of the United States of
America is a masculine Masonic fraternity that
works together with mixed-gender and female
Masonic organizations throughout the United
States and Europe. Together, these systems
represent the most progressive form of FreeMasonry in America where all people
regardless of race, creed, or gender can meet
together as equals.
for several hundreds of years abided by the sanctity

of Geographical Sovereignty.
I am told by members of GO USA that change is a
good thing and should be welcomed. my answer is
simple, you may change all you wish, but please do
not try to change me or my Lodge or my Grand
Lodge. I like my Freemasonry just the way it is.
Now let us move to look into the Principles as
described in the web site :
Our cause is the intellectual, spiritual and
social advancement of humanity. To
accomplish these aims we have established
the following guiding principles for FreeMasonry:
This is another area where I feel the GL is moving
away from Masonic Principle into the education of
the population of the planet.Toward political intent.
OK, maybe I am over reacting but I think that
Freemasonry has to look after Fremasonry, we elect
people to do the other things in the world. They may
not do such a good job, but they have been given the
job. The next item supports my concerns.
2. We believe in and support the separation
of religion and government, and promote
religious and spiritual tolerance among all
people.
3. We believe in and support the freedom of
the press as a necessary component of
maintaining the inalienable rights of all
human beings, and that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
4. We believe in and support the need for
higher education and life-long learning.
5. We believe in and support an impartial
judiciary system as essential to guaranteeing
the preservation of human rights.
So we see here that the concept of geographic

sovereignty plays no part in the thinking of either the
Grand Orients of France or of the United States. The
site continues:
You must go to the site and read for yourself, but to

me it reads like a political campaign.
Our aim is the brotherhood of all humanity

through a universal chain of union extending
around the globe. If you are already with us in
spirit then you are welcome to join with us in
Masonic lodges throughout the world.
In short I say this, if you are a good Freemason these

things will happen by those seeing who and what
you are and they will decide that your way is the
best way. As in the past I say again it is your choice
if you like what a New GL stands for then go for it.
Is there anything wrong with these concepts. Well there

is if you are among the thousands of Lodges that have
Just make sure you get the facts
Freemasonry: Its not about me changing them, its about me changing me.
THE SQUARE MAGAZINE :
The Square December 2008
Quarterly Magazine delivered to

your door. The re vamp has
increased the size of the Magazine
and being completely Indipendant it
can give a balanced view on many
Masonic subjects.
On Sale Now
The Masonic Lodge and Roman
Confraternity
Ancient religious and intellectual
influences on modern day
Freemasonry
Sporting Masons
British Olympic legend Harold
Abrahams
Remembering Lisa
Available from
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Store
The devastating story behind the

Lisa May Foundation
Back to Basics
The fourth in the series, looks at
lodge room candles, whether wax or
electric
Masonic Venues
THE SQUARE MAGAZINE :
Its what all Masons are talking

about! The Square magazine now
has a new look and is in a larger
format, bringing you more
interesting and thought provoking
So, why do lodges have banners and articles, from an independent point
of view.
where do they come from?
The West London Masonic Centre
celebrates its Silver Jubilee
Banners to the left, Banners to the
right
Plus, a chance for you to contribute

and see your lodge highlighted,
plenty of special features, a
humorous look at masonic life and
even a strip cartoon and a caption
competition, where YOU can win a
prize!
You can selecy the type of

subscription required
(i.e. Destination and Length)
just indicate in the when ordering
whether this is a new subscription
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The price will be amended to reflect
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The Temple of Solomon

It was King David who first proposed to substitute for
the nomadic tabernacle a permanent place of worship
for his people; but although he had made the
necessary arrangements, and even collected many of
the materials, he was not permitted to commence the
undertaking, and the execution of the task was left to
his son and successor, Solomon.
Accordingly, that monarch laid the foundations of the
edifice in the fourth year of his reign , 1012 BC, and,
with the assistance of his friend and ally, Hiram king
of Tyre, completed it in about seven and a half years,
dedicating it to the service of the Most High in the
year 1004 BC This was the year of the world 3000,
according to the Hebrew chronology; and although
there has been much difference among chronologist in
relation to the precise date, this is the one that has
been generally accepted, and it is therefore
adopted by masons in their calculations of different
epochs.
The Temple stood on Mount Moriah, one of the
eminence of the ridge which was known as mount
Zion, and which was originally the property of Ornan
the Jubusite, who used it as a threshing-floor, and
from whom it was purchased by David for the
purpose of
erecting an altar on it. The Temple retained its
original splendour for only thirty-three years. In the
year of the world 3033, Shishak, king of Egypt,
having made war upon Rehoboam, king of Judah,
took Jerusalem, and carried away the choicest
treasures. From that time to the period of its final
destruction, the history of the Temple is but a history
of alternate spoliations and repairs, of profanations to
idolatry and subsequent restorations to the purity of
worship. One hundred and thirteen years after the
conquest of Shishak, Joash, kin of Judah, collected
silver for the repairs of the Temple, and restored it to
its former condition in the year of the world 3148. In
the years that followed it was desecrated and restored
until the year of 3398.
In 3398, in the year of the reign of Jehoiakim,
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Chaldea, carried a part of
the sacred vessels to Babylon. seven years afterwards,
in the reign of Jechoniah he took away another

portion; and finally, in 3416, in the eleventh year of
the reign
of Zedekiah, he took the city of Jerusalem, and
entirely destroyed the temple, and carried many of the
inhabitants captives to Babylon.
The Temple was originally built on a very hard rock,
encompassed with frightful precipices. The
foundations were laid very deep, with immense labor
and expense. It was surrounded with a wall of great
height, exceeding in the lowest part four hundred and
fifty
feet, constructed entirely of white marble. The body
of the Temple was in size much less than many parish
church, for its length was but ninety feet, or including
the porch, one hundred and five, and its width but
thirty. It was its outer court, its numerous terraces,
and the magnificence of its external and internal
decorations, together with its elevated position above
the surrounding dwellings which produced the
splendour of appearances that attracted the
admiration of all who beheld it, and gives color to the
legend that tells us how the Queen of Shcba, when it
first broke upon her view, exclaimed in admiration,
A most excellent master must have done this!
The Temple itself, which consisted of the porch, the
sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies, was but a small
part of the edifice on Mount Moraffi. It was
surrounded with spacious courts, and the whole
structure occupied at least half a mile in
circumference. Upon passing
through the outer wall, you came to the first court,
called the court of the Gentiles, because the Gentiles
were admitted into it, but were prohibited from
passing father. It was surrounded by a range of
porticoes or cloisters, above which were galleries, or
apartments,
supported by pillars of white marble. Passing through
the court of the gentiles, you entered the court of the
children of Israel, which separated by a low stone
wall, and an ascent of fifteen steps, into two
divisions, the outer one being occupied by the
women, and the inner by the men. Here the Jews were
in the habit of resorting daily for the purpose of
prayer.
The Temple of Solomon

Within the court of the Israelites, and separated from it
by a wall one cubit in height, was the court of the
priests. In the centre of this court was the altar of burntofferings, to which the people brought their oblations
and sacrifices, none but the priests were permitted to
enter it. From this court, twelve steps ascended to the
Temple, strictly so called, which as I have already said,
was divided into three parts, the porch, the sanctuary,
and the Holy of Holies.
The PORCH of the Temple was twenty cubits in
length, and the same in breadth. at its entrance was a
gate made entirely of Corinthian brass, the most
precious metal known to the ancients. Beside this gate
there were the two pillars Jachin an Boaz, which had
been constructed by Hiram Abif, the architect whom
the King of Tyre had sent to Solomon. From the porch
you entered the SANCTUARY by a portal, which
instead of folding doors, was furnished with a
magnificent veil of the universe. The breath of the
sanctuary was twenty cubits, and its length forty, or just
twice that of the porch and Holy of Holies. It occupied,
therefore, one half of the body of the Temple. In the
sanctuary were placed the various utensils necessary
for the daily worship of the Temple, such as the altar of
incense, on which incense was daily burnt by the
officiating priest; the ten golden candlesticks; and the
ten tables on which the offerings were laid previous to
the sacrifice.
But the modern method of reading Masonic history

has swept away this edifice of imagination with as
unsparing hand, and as effectual a power, as those
with which the Babylonian king demolished the
structure upon which they are founded. No writer who
values his reputation as a critical historian would now
attempt to defend this theory. Yet it has done its work.
During the long period in which the hypothesis
was accepted as a fact , its influence was being
exerted in moulding the Masonic organizations into a
form closely connected with all the events and
characteristics of the Solomonic Temple. So that now
almost all the symbolism of Freemasonry rests upon
or is derived from the House of the Lord at
Jerusalem. So closely are the two connected, that to
attempt to separate the one from the other would be
fatal to the further existence of Masonry. Each Lodge
is and must be a symbol of the Jewish Temple; each
Master in the chair a representative of the Jewish
king; and every Mason a personating of the Jewish
workman. Thus must it ever be while Masonry
endures. We must receive the myths and legends that
connect it with the Temple, not indeed as historic
facts, but as allegories; not as events that have
transpired, but as symbols; and must accept these
allegories and these symbols
for what the inventors really meant that they should
be
the foundations of morality.
Information taken from the Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry
The Temple thus constructed, must have been one of

the most magnificent structures of the ancient world.
for its erection David had collected more than four
hundred thousand millions of dollars, and one hundred
and eighty-four thousand and six hundred men were
engaged in building it for more than seven years. In
Masonry, the temple of Solomon has played a most
important part. Time was when every Masonic writer
subscribed with unhesitating faith to the theory that
masonry was here first organized; and there Solomon,
Hiram of tyre, and Hiram Abif presided as grand
Masters over Lodges which they had established; that
here were symbolic degrees instituted and systems of
initiation were invented; and that from that period to
the present Masonry has passed in unbroken succession
and unaltered form.
The Five Faces of Freemasonry

Freemasonry has stood the
test of time, and as we move
toward the end of the first
decade, admittedly two
years off, things are getting
better for our ancient and
honorable craft. The decline
in numbers is slowing or
turning into growth,
Masonic Education is again being implemented in

lodge, and changes are being implemented in most
jurisdictions to keep Masonry fresh and relevant to
todays masons.
So today, I wanted to take a look at the five faces of
Freemasonry and what they mean to our craft.
The First Face of Freemasonry: Younger Masons
More than ever before in the history of the craft, the
fraternity is appealing to younger men, so the first,
and most hopeful of the faces is the youthening of
the craft. Movies, books, educational specials,
newspapers, magazines, and word of mouth have
raised the visibility of the craft. Couple that with the
social vacuity, the internet, increased work and family
demands, and you have a population of men
seeking more.
Young men today are seeking more value, more real
and sincere fellowship, more social relevance, a sense
of belonging to something more important than
themselves. Politics is vacuous and worse, its
backbiting, self aggrandizing politics of personal
destruction, with no side seeming to offer anything of
great value but more bloviation, and the work
environment isnt much better.
Job security is non existent, and friendships and
connections made through work are tenuous and
fluid. Men want and need something stable in their

lives, something with meaning, something unchanging,
timeless and yes, spiritual All of these factors, and
many more have young men are flocking to the craft
seeking the meaning and the sense of belonging that is
missing in todays increasingly isolated society.
The Grand Lodge of California noted at a recent Junior
Wardens Retreat that since the formation of the Grand
Lodge of California in 1850, the average age at which a
man joins a lodge has been 47. This was unchanged for
155 years. However, in 2005, the Masonic code was
changed to allow men of at least 18 years to join, and
since then, the average age has dropped to 37.
Freemasonry recognizes that change and is making
adjustments which are overdue, to address the needs of
these, in most cases, well educated members. These are
men which have researched the craft before joining,
have often read books about it, and made an informed
decision and are truly seeking to better themselves and
society through freemasonry.
These men want the education, philosophy, history, and
in many cases, the esotericism which Freemasonry
holds out and lays claim to providing. They want more
than their fathers and grandfathers social and moral
club, they want it all. Morality, belonging, brotherhood,
spirituality, personal growth, social value, and
philosophy which brings us to Masonic Education.
The Second Face of Freemasonry: The Esoterics and
Education
Freemasonry in the 17th century was a philosophical/
social/moral support society. Freethinkers of the day
gathered to discuss the issues of the day, to share their
successes and failures, and to aid and support each
other. There have been esoterics in Freemasonry from
the beginning, though in recent decades, they have

taken a much smaller seat in the lodge in favor of simple brotherhood.
To a certain extent, the current flavor of freemasonry is more exoteric
than esoteric, to the point where the esoterically oriented mason can find
himself alone in lodge in his search for more light. We all search for light
in different ways, and for some brothers, exoteric Masonry, fellowship,
morality fulfills all their needs. This type of Masonry is often referred to
derogatorily as Fish Fry Masonry, which is unfair to our exoteric
brothers.
Freemasonry is about balance in all things. Too much esoteric or too much
exoteric and the purpose of Freemasonry is lost. Regardless, Freemasonry
teaches us tolerance, and of late, esotericism in Freemasonry is once more
growing and receiving the respect that it is due as a vital part of the craft.
A part of education is ritual, tradition, contemplation, majesty in a word
stateliness. We learn in a number of different ways, reading, watching,
listening, and participation. There are few teaching methodologies that
reach a man on all four levels, that reaches right into his psyche like ritual.
Some lodges treat ritual as a time for play, some for letter-of-the-law, and
some for an approach that is at once serious and overwhelming in its
grandeur.
The experience by the candidate in his degrees is a matter of how the ritual
is enacted, the mien that the officers and brethren bring to the lodge, how
the candidate is prepared, the education process after the degree, how the
candidate is treated by the brethren. It is the gestalt of the degrees and
education afterward.
In part, a response to this growing interest in esoteric and more
traditional style Masonry are the European Style Lodges being formed
across the United States. Though these European Style Lodges are not
exclusively esoteric in nature, they are given over to the philosophical
contemplation, study and discussions of issues Masonic.
This type of lodge is also called Traditional Observance Lodges. Whatever
they are called, these lodges are a growing phenomena, spreading across
the United States like a grass fire. More Grand Lodges not only allow, but
encourage it with each passing year. Currently, Colorado, Oregon,
Washington, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Arizona, Louisiana,
Virginia, Washington D.C., Maine, New York, and California have a
growing population of these European Style/Traditional Observance
lodges.
Parallel to these European Style Lodges are many grand lodges reengineering Masonic Formation, that is, holistic Masonic formation
programs. They are gathering together existing materials, expanding on
them, creating program and methodologies that lodges can use. Masonic
Formation is a resource to the lodges, providing materials, ideas, and
resources to assist them in educating and forming masons.
Yet, in all good, there is an admixture of bad. As young men are joining
freemasonry to receive the benefits and responsibilities of our ancient and
continued next page


honorable craft, we have a few, vocal, internet savvy
brothers who may not have clearly understood the
lessons they received in the first degree.
The Third Face of Freemasonry: Masonic Impatience
Freemasonry teaches us that Time, Patience and
Perseverance will accomplish all things, and that as
masons we should act with justice and temper our
actions with prudent judgment. There is a small
problem however, and in large part, I suspect this is due
to the internet.
Some few men, and its really a small number, have lost
track of the lessons of Freemasonry a less just
opinion would be that they did not learn the lesson in
the first place and set themselves up as judge, jury
and executioner of the fraternity they claim as their
own. Instead of working within the system, they decide
that their obligations do not obtain except where they
decide.
Of course, these men are not always wrong. There are
serious issues that need to be addressed by the
brethren. There are cases where, for example, a grand
master summarily ejects brothers from Freemasonry
entirely, without a trial, and a case recently where a
grand master set aside the legal vote of the brethren at
the grand communication, and then ejects brethren for
objecting to that action.
We all know Freemasons arent saints we are men,
good men for the most part, working hard for the
benefit of the craft. If you are reading these words, its
likely you have an internet connection, and have
followed the antics of certain brethren who have
decided that they know better what is good for
Freemasonry.
These are brothers who violate Masonic tradition by
agitating for political candidates as masons, who
defame every grand lodge officer at every turn, who
defame any mason who likes, admires and enjoys his
Freemasonry. Every group has them, malcontents and
agitators who do not work for the best interests of the
group, but only for their own selfish wants and needs.
These men do nothing to help, and are content to do
nothing but complain. They most often do this
complaining from behind shadowy aliases, then scream
like scalded cats when a brother dares to draw back the
sable curtain they hide behind, claiming the protection
of the obligation they revile at every turn.
The good news is this face of Freemasonry is only
We are able to ship most

items to most destinations
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internet based and their words are read by less than
1,000 men WORLDWIDE. They do no damage to
Freemasonry, and for the most part, are harmless
brothers with delusions of grandeur and power that is,
fortunately, well out of their reach.
The Fourth Face of Freemasonry: Non-Regular Masons
There are some who would argue that non regular
Masonic obediences ARENT Masonry at all. The
reality is that, as the saying goes, if it acts like a duck,
walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are,
its a duck.
The problem is, because these other obediences are not
regular, that is, part of the Grand Lodges in Amity with
each other, it is difficult to for the average mason to
separate the wheat from the chaff. Also, frankly, there
is little interest by most regular masons TO take the
time to separate the wheat from the chaff. Most regular
masons, and that is the majority by far of all masons in
the world, are satisfied to leave the whole issue to their
respective Grand Lodges.
Most regular masons know who the non regular
masons are. First of all, they are referred to officially
by all regular Grand Lodges as Clandestine and
Irregular. Primarily, they are the female only lodges,
co-ed lodges, and other Grand Lodges, like the
Grand Orient of the United States, the United Grand
Lodge of America, and the American Masonic
Federation.
Yet, these non regular masons are ALSO a face of
Freemasonry. The state of California alone has over 50
organizations that style themselves as Masonic, though
only two, the Grand Lodge of California F&AM and
the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of
California, Inc are considered regular. The others vary
in their practice from regular, other than that they admit
women, to wildly non Masonic.
This is not, however, a new phenomena. Breakaway
lodges without a warrant or charter and self forming
Grand Lodges open, and often as not, as quickly
close, and have done so ever since June 1717 when the
first regular grand lodge was formed at the Goose and
Gridiron by four extent lodges.
Regardless of the official position of any grand lodge,
and here is a good time to remind my readers that I am
NOT an official spokesman for any grand lodge, I
speak only for myself, there are non-regular
(clandestine to use the correct masonic word for it)
women only, male and female joint lodges, and of

course male only lodges. Most of these lodges can be
found only in very large cities.
The numbers I have indicate there are about 100,000
women masons worldwide, and perhaps that many
again that belong to co-ed Masonic lodges.
Throughout the world, there are about 3.5 million
regular masons, and perhaps another 1 million total
masons from the various other male only orients and
non regular grand lodges around the world. This
means there are about 5 million masons of all kinds,
who can be found in every country in the world.
The Fifth Face of Freemasonry: Men who are Happy
the way Masonry Is Today
Lest we forget, the last face of freemasonry is the
brothers who, for the most part, make up freemasonry
today. These are the brothers who make up the lodges
in great part, and are the backbone and support of the
craft.
These are the men who more often than not are the
officers in your lodge, they are the Lodge Secretaries,
the Tylers, the committee members, they are the men
who have kept freemasonry alive. More often than
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10

not, they are veterans, and they are happy with the craft
as it is today. They have attitudes and ideas from years
gone by, but those are ideas that have, for the most part,
worked for them.
We should ever remember and honor them. I mention
this as there is a tendency among some younger masons
to push the older men out of the way, to shunt them
aside. Not all that is new is good, and not all that is old
is bad. They are, after all, our brothers.
Conclusion
Masonry is a wide and varied initiatic society that, far
from declining, is actually restoring itself, as it always
has done. Time, patience and perseverance are the
watchwords of our ancient and honorable fraternity.
Like any mature organization that is spread all over the
world, Freemasonry presents a number of faces, all of
which reflect a part of the whole.
Its an awesome time to be a mason!
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May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all

regular masons. May brotherly love prevail, and
every moral and social virtue, cement us.
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11
Shakti and Shkta
ChapteSix
Part 1
Shakti who is in Herself pure blissful Consciousness

(Cidrupini) is also the Mother of Nature and is Nature
itself born of the creative play of Her thought. The
Shakta faith, or worship of Shakti, is I believe, in
some of its essential features one of the oldest and
most wide-spread religions in the world. Though very
ancient, it is yet, in its essentials, and in the developed
form in which we know it to-day, harmonious with
some of the teachings of modern philosophy and
science; not that this is necessarily a test of its truth. It
may be here noted that in the West, and in particular in
America and England, a large number of books are
now being published on "New Thought," "Will
Power," "Vitalism," "Creative Thought," "Right
Thought," "Self Unfoldment," "Secret of
Achievement," "Mental Therapeutics" and the like, the
principles of which are essentially those of some
forms of Shakti Sadhana both higher and lower. There
are books of disguised magic as how to control
(Vashikarana) by making them buy what they do not
want, how to secure "affection" and so forth which,
not-withstanding some hypocrisies, are in certain
respects on the same level as the Tantrik Shavara as a
low class of books on magic are called. Shavara or
Candala are amongst the lowest of men. The ancient
and at the same time distinguishing character of the
faith is instanced by temple worship (the old Vaidik
worship was generally in the home or in the open by
the river), the cult of images, of Linga and Yoni
(neither of which, it is said, were part of the original
Vaidik Practice), the worship of Devis and of the
Magna Mater (the great Vaidik Devata was the male
Indra) and other matters of both doctrine and practice.
Many years ago Edward Sellon, with the aid of a
learned Orientalist of the Madras Civil Service,
attempted to learn its mysteries, but for reasons, which
I need not here discuss, did not view them from the
right standpoint. He, however, compared the Shaktas
with the Greek Telestica or Dynamica, the Mysteries
of Dionysus "Fire born in the cave of initiation" with
the Shakti Puja, the Shakti Shodhana with the
purification shown in d'Hancarvilles' "Antique Greek
Vases"; and after referring to the frequent mention of
this ritual in the writings of the Jews and other ancient
authors, concluded that it was evident that we had still
Esoteric
surviving in India in the Shakta worship a very

ancient, if not the most ancient, form of Mysticism in
the whole world. Whatever be the value to be given to
any particular piece of evidence, he was right in his
general conclusion. For, when we throw our minds
back upon the history of this worship we see
stretching away into the remote and fading past the
figure of the Mighty Mother of Nature, most ancient
among the ancients; the Adya Shakti, the dusk
Divinity, many breasted, crowned with towers whose
veil is never lifted, Isis, "the one who is all that has
been, is and will be," Kali, Hathor, Cybele, the
Cowmother Goddess Ida, Tripurasundari, the Ionic
Mother, Tef the spouse of Shu by whom He effects
the birth of all things, Aphrodite, Astarte in whose
groves the Baalim were set, Babylonian Mylitta,
Buddhist Tara, the Mexican Ish, Hellenic Osia, the
consecrated, the free and pure, African Salambo who
like Parvati roamed the Mountains, Roman Juno,
Egyptian Bast the flaming Mistress of Life, of
Thought, of Love, whose festival was celebrated with
wanton Joy, the Assyrian Mother Succoth Benoth,
Northern Freia, Mulaprakriti, Semele, Maya, Ishtar,
Saitic Neith Mother of the Gods, eternal deepest
ground of all things, Kundali, Guhyamahabhairavi
and all the rest.
And yet there are people who allege the "Tantrik" cult
is modern. To deny this is not to say that there has
been or will be no change or development in it. As
man changes, so do the forms of his beliefs. An
ancient feature of this faith and one belonging to the
ancient Mysteries is the distinction which it draws
between the initiate whose Shakti is awake
(Prabuddha) and the Pashu the unillumined or
"animal," and, as the Gnostics called him, "material"
man. The Natural, which is the manifestation of the
Mother of Nature, and the Spiritual or the Mother as
She is in and by Herself are one, but the initiate alone
truly recognizes this unity. He knows himself in all
his natural functions as the one Consciousness
whether in enjoyment (Bhukti), or Liberation (Mukti).
It is an essential principle of Tantrik Sadhana that
man in general must rise through and by means of
12
Shakti and Shkta

Nature, and not by an ascetic rejection of Her. A
profoundly true principle is here involved whatever has
been said of certain applications of it. When Orpheus
transformed the old Bacchic cult, it was the purified
who in the beautiful words of Euripides "went dancing
over the hills with the daughters of Iacchos". I cannot,
however, go into this matter in this paper which is
concerned with some general subjects and the ordinary
ritual. But the evidence is not limited to mysteries of
the Shakti Puja. There are features in the ordinary outer
worship which are very old and widespread, as are also
other parts of the esoteric teaching. In this connection, a
curious instance of the existence, beyond India, of
Tantrik doctrine and practice is here given. The
American Indian Maya Scripture of the Zunis called the
Popul Vuh speaks of Hurakan or Lightning, that is (I
am told) Kundalishakti; of the "air tube" or
"Whitecord" or the Sushumna Nadi; of the "two-fold air
tube" that is Ida and Pingala; and of various bodily
centers which are marked by animal glyphs.
Perhaps the Pacatattva Ritual followed by some of the
adherents of the Tantras is one of the main causes
which have operated in some quarters against
acceptance of the authority of these Scriptures and as
such responsible for the notion that the worship is
modern. On the contrary, the usage of wine, meat, and
so forth is itself very old. There are people who talk of
these rites as though they were some entirely new and
comparatively modern invention of' the "Tantra,"
wholly alien to the spirit and practice of the early times.
If the subject be studied it will, I think. be found that in
this matter those worshippers who practice these rites
are (except possibly as to Maithuna) the continuators of
very ancient practices which had their counterparts in
the earlier Vaidikacara, but were subsequently
abandoned. possibly under the influence of Jainism and
Buddhism. I say "counterpart," for I do not mean to
suggest that in every respect the rites were the same. In
details and as regards, I think, some objects in view,
they differed. Thus we find in this Pacatattva Ritual a
counterpart to the Vaidik usage of wine and animal
food. As regards wine, we have the partaking of Soma;
meat was offered in Mamsashtaka Shraddha; fish in the
Ashtakashraddha and Pretashraddha; and Maithuna as a
recognized rite will be found in the Vamadevya Vrata
and Maravrata of universally recognized Vaidik texts,
apart from the alleged, and generally unknown,
Esoteric
Saubhagykanda of the Atharvaveda to which the
Kalikopanishad and other "Tantrik" Upanishads are
said to belong. Possibly, however, this element of
Maithuna may be foreign and imported by Cinacara
(see Ch. V). So again, as that distinguished scholar
Professor Ramendra Sundara Trivedi has pointed out
in his Vicitraprasanga, the Mudra of Pacatattva
corresponds with the Purodasa cake of the Soma and
other Yagas. The present rule of abstinence from
wine, and in some cases, meat is due, I believe, to the
original Buddhism. It is so-called "Tantriks," who
follow (in and for their ritual only) the earlier
practice. It is true that the Samhita of Ushanah says,
"Wine is not to be drunk, given or taken (Madyam
apeyam adeyam agrahyam)" but the yet greater Manu
states, "There is no wrong in the eating of meat or the
drinking of wine (Na mamsabakshane dosho na
madye)" though he rightly adds, as many now do, that
abstention therefrom is productive of great fruit
(Nivrittistu mahaphala). The Tantrik practice does not
allow extra-ritual or "useless" drinking (Vrithapana).
Further, it is a common error to confound two distinct
things, namely, belief and practice and the written
records of it. These latter may be comparatively
recent, whilst that of which they speak may be most
ancient. When I speak of the ancient past of this faith
I am not referring merely to the writings which exist
today which are called Tantras. These are composed
generally in a simple Sanskrit by men whose object it
was to be understood rather than to show skill in
literary ornament. This simplicity is a sign of age. But
at the same time it is Laukika and not Arsha Sanskrit.
Moreover, there are statements in them which (unless
interpolations) fix the limits of their age. I am not
speaking of the writings themselves but of what they
say. The faith that they embody, or at least its earlier
forms, may have existed for many ages before it was
reduced to writing amongst the Kulas or family folk,
who received it as handed down by tradition
(Paramparyya) just as did the Vaidik Gotras. That
such beliefs and practices, like all other things, have
had their development in course of time is also a
likely hypothesis.
Continued on next page
13
Shakti and Shkta
Esoteric
A vast number of Tantras have disappeared probably for

Lancelin La Uie Posthume.) Age,
ever. Of those which survive a large number are
however, is not wholly without its
unknown. Most of those which are available are of
uses: because one of the things to
fragmentary character. Even if these did appear later
which men look to see in a Shastra
than some other Shastras, this would not, on Indian
is whether it has been accepted or
principles, affect their authority. According to such
quoted in works of recognized
principles the authority of a Scripture is not determined
authority. Such a test of authenticity
by its date; and this is sense. Why, it is asked, should
can, of course, only be afforded
something said 1,000 years ago be on that account only
after the lapse of considerable time.
truer than what was said 100 years ago? It is held that
But it does not follow that a
whilst the teaching of the Agama is ever existent,
statement is in fact without value
particular Tantras are constantly being revealed and
because, owing to its having been
withdrawn. There is no objection against a Tantra
made recently, it is not possible to
merely because it was revealed to-day. When it is said
subject it to such a test. This is the
that Shiva spoke the Tantras, or Brahma wrote the
way in which this question of age
celebrated Vaishnava poem called the Brahmasamhita,
and authority is looked at on Indian
it is not meant that Shiva and Brahma materialized and
principles.
took a reed and wrote on birch bark or leaf, but that the
Divine Consciousness to which men gave these and
other names inspired a particular man to teach, or to
Lodgeroom Store
write, a particular doctrine or work touching the
A wide survey of what is called orthodox "Hinduism"
eternally existing truth. This again does not mean that
today (whatever be its origins) will disclose the
there was any one whispering in his ear, but that these
following results: Vedanta in the sense of Upanishad
things arose in his consciousness. What is done in this
as its common doctrinal basis, though variously
world is done through man. There is a profounder
interpreted, and a great number of differing
wisdom than is generally acknowledged in the saying
disciplines or modes of practice by which the Vedanta
"God helps those who help themselves". Inspiration too doctrines are realized in actual fact. We must carefully
never ceases. But how, it may be asked, are we to know distinguish these two. Thus the Vedanta says
that what is said is right and true? The answer is "by its
"So'ham"; which is Hamsha. "Hakara is one wing;
fruits." The authority of a Shastra is determined by the
Sakara is the other. When stripped of both wings She,
question whether Siddhi is gained through its
Tara, is Kamakala." (Tantraraja Tantra.) The Acaras
provisions or not. It is not enough that "Shiva uvaca"
set forth the means by which "So'ham" is to be
(Shiva says) is writ in it. The test is that of Ayurveda. A
translated into actual fact for the particular Sadhaka.
medicine is a true one if it cures. The Indian test for
Sadhana comes from the root "Sadh" which means
everything is actual experience. It is from Samadhi that
effort or striving or accomplishment. Effort for and
the ultimate proof of Advaitavada is sought. How is the
towards what? The answer for those who desire it is
existence of Kalpas known? It is said they have been
liberation from every form in the hierarchy of forms,
remembered, as by the Buddha who is recorded as
which exist as such, because consciousness has so
having called to mind 91 past Kalpas. There are
limited itself as to obscure the Reality which it is, and
arguments in favor of rebirth but that which is tendered
which "So'ham" or "Shivo'ham" affirms. And why
as real proof is both the facts of ordinary daily
should man liberate himself from material forms?
experience which can, it is said, be explained only on
Because it is said, that way only lasting happiness
the hypothesis of pre-existence; as also actual
lies: though a passing, yet fruitful bliss may be had
recollection by self-developed individuals of their
here by those who identify themselves with active
previous lives. Modern Western methods operate
Brahman (Shakti). It is the actual experience of this
through magnetic sleep producing "regression of
memory". (See A. de Rochas Les Vies Successives and
continued next page
14
Shakti and Shkta
Esoteric
declaration of 'So'ham" which in its fundamental aspect

is Veda: knowledge (Vid) or actual Spiritual
Experience, for in the monistic sense to truly know
anything is to be that thing. This Veda or experience is
not to be had sitting down thinking vaguely on the
Great Ether and doing nothing. Man must transform
himself, that is, act in order to know. Therefore, the
watchword of the Tantras is Kriya or action.
Devatas (Surya, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti) and

of any of the various Sampradayas worshipping that
Devata with varying doctrine and practice. The term
is a confusing one, though common practice compels
its use. So far as I know, those who are named,
"Tantrics" do not themselves generally use this term
but call themselves Shaktas, Salvias and the like, of
whatever Sampradaya they happen to be.
The next question is what Kriya should be adopted

towards this end of Jana. "Tanyate, vistaryate janam
anena iti Tantram." According to this derivation of the
word Tantra from the root "Tan" "to spread," it is
defined as the Shastra, by which knowledge (Jana) is
spread. Mark the word Jana. The end of the practical
methods which these Shastras employ is to spread
Vedantic Jana. It is here we find that variety which is
so puzzling to those who have not gone to the root of
the religious life of India. The end is substantially one.
The means to that end necessarily vary according to
knowledge, capacity, and temperament. But here again
we may analyze the means into two main divisions,
namely, Vaidik and Tantrik, to which may be added a
third or the mixed (Mishra). The one body of Hinduism
reveals as it were, a double framework represented by
the Vaidik and Tantrik Acaras, which have in certain
instances been mingled.
Again Tantra is the name of only one class of

Scripture followed by "Tantrics". There are others,
namely, Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas, Damaras,
Uddishas, Kakshaputas and so forth. None of these
names are used to describe the adherents of these
Shastras except, so far as I am aware, Agama in the
use of the term Agamavadin, and Agamanta in the
descriptive name of Agamanta Shaiva. I give later a
list of these Scriptures as contained in the various
Agamas. If we summarize them shortly under the
term Tantra Shastra, or preferably Agama, then we
have four main classes of Indian Scripture, namely,
Veda (Samhita, Brahmana, Upanishad), Agama or
Tantra Shastra, Purana, Smriti. Of these Shastras the
authority of the Agama or Tantra Shastra has been
denied in modern times. This view may be shown to
be erroneous by reference to Shastras of admitted
authority. It is spoken of as the Fifth Veda. Kulluka
Bhatta, the celebrated commentator on Manu, says:
"Shruti is twofold, Vaidik and Tantrik (Vaidiki tantriki
caiva dvividha srutih lurtita)". This refers to the
Mantra portion of the Agamas. In the Great Vaishnava
Shastra, the Srimad Bhagavata, Bhagavan says: "My
worship is of the three kinds -- Vaidik, Tantrik and
Mixed (Mishra)" and that, in Kaliyuga, "Keshava is to
be worshipped according to the injunction of Tantra."
The Devibhagavata speaks of the Tantra Shastra as a
Vedanga. It is cited as authority in the Ashtavimshati
Tattva of Raghunandana who prescribes for the
worship of Durga as before him had done Shridatta,
Harinatha, Vidyadhara and many others. Some of
these and other references are given in
Mahamahopadhyaya Yadaveshvara Tarkaratna's
Tantrer Pracinatva in the Sahitpa Samhita of Aswin
1317. The Tarapradipa and other Tantrik works say
that in the Kali-yuga the Tantrika and not the Vaidika
The word "Tantra" by itself simply means as I have

already said "treatise" and not necessarily a religious
scripture. When it has the latter significance, it may
mean the Scripture of several divisions of worshippers
who vary in doctrine and practice. Thus there are
Tantras of Salvias, Vaishnavas, and Shaktas and of
various sub-divisions of these. So amongst the Salvias
there are the Salvias of the Shaiva
Siddhanta, the Advaita Shaiva of the
Kashmir School, Pashupatas and a
multitude of other sects which have
their Tantras. If "Tantric" be used as
meaning an adherent of the Tantra
Shastra, then the word, in any
particular case, is without definite
meaning. A man to whom the
application is given may be a
worshipper of any of the Five
Lodgeroom Auctions
15
Shakti and Shkta

Dharma is to be followed. This objection about the late
character and therefore unauthoritativeness of the
Tantra Shastras generally (I do not speak of any
particular form of it) has been taken by Indians from
their European Gurus.
Esoteric
Brahmayamalasambhutam samaveda-matam shive
Rudrayamalasamjata rigvedo paramo mahan
Vishnuyamalasambhuto yajurvedah kuleshvari
According to the Shakta Scriptures, Veda in its wide

sense does not only mean Rig, Yajus, Sama, Atharva as
now published but comprises these together with the
generally unknown and unpublished Uttara Kanda of
the Atharva Veda, called Saubhagya, with the
Upanishads attached to this. Sayana's Commentary is
written on the Purva Kanda. These are said (though I
have not yet verified she fact) to be 64 in number.
Some of these, such as Advaitabhava, Kaula, Kalika,
Tripura, Tara, Aruna Upanishads and
Bahvricopanishad, Bhavanopanishad, I have published
as the XI volume of Tantrik "texts. Aruna means "She
who is red". Redness ( (Lauhityam) is Vimarsha. (See
Vol. XI, Tantrik Texts. Ed. A. Avalon.) I may also here
refer my reader to the Kaulacarya Satyananda's
Commentary on the great Isha Upanishad. Included
also in "Veda" (according to the same view) are the
Nigamas, Agamas, Yamalas and Tantras. From these all
other Shastras which explain the meaning (Artha) of
Veda such as Purana and Smriti, also Itihasa and so
forth are derived. All these Shastras constitute what is
called a "Many millioned" (Shatakoti) Samhita which
are developed, the one from the other as it were an
unfolding series. In the Tantrik Sangraha called
Sarvollasa by the Sarvavidyasiddha Sarvanandanatha
the latter cites authority (Narayani Tantra) to show that
from Nigama came Agama. Here I pause to note that
the Sammohana says that Kerala Sampradaya is
Dakshina and follows Veda (Vedamargastha), whilst
Gauda (to which Sarvanandanatha belonged) is Vama
and follows Nigama. Hence apparently the preeminence given to Nigama. He then says from Agama
came Yamala, from Yamala the four Vedas, from Vedas
the Puranas, from Puranas Smriti, and from Smriti all
other Shastras. There are, he says, five Nigamas and 64
Agamas. Four Yamalas are mentioned, which are said
to give the gross form (Sthularupa). As some may be
surprised to learn that the four Vedas came from the
Yamalas (i.e. were Antargata of the Yamalas) which
literally means what is uniting or comprehensive, I
subjoin the Sanskrit verse from Narayani Tantra.
Shaktiyamalasambhutam atharva paramam mahat.

Some Tantras are called by opposing sects Vedaviruddhani (opposed to Veda), which of course those who
accept them deny, just as the Commentary of the
Nityashodashikarnava speaks of the Pacaratrin as
Vedabhrashta. That some sects were originally
Avaidika is probable, but in process of time various
amalgamations of scriptural authority, belief and
practice took place.
Whether we accept or not this theory, according to
which the Agamas and kindred Shastras are given
authority with the four Vedas we have to accept the
facts. What are these?
As I have said, on examination the one body of
Hinduism reveals as it were a double framework. I am
now looking at the matter from an outside point of
view which is not that of the Shakta worshipper. We
find on the one hand the four Vedas with their
Samhitas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads and on the
other what has been called the "Fifth Veda," that is
Lodgeroom
Store
Nigama, Agama and kindred

Shastras and certain especially
"Tantrik" Upanishads attached to
the Saubhagya Kanda of the
Atharvaveda. There are Vaidik and
Tantrik Kalpa Sutras and Suktas
such as the Tantrika Devi and
Matsya Suktas. As a counterpart of
the Brahma-sutras, we have the
Shakti Sutras of Agastya. Then there
is both Vaidik and "Tantrik" ritual
such as (he ten Vaidik Samskaras
and the Tantrik Samskaras, such as
Abhisheka; Vaidik and Tantrik
initiation (Upanayana and Diksha);
Vaidik and Tantrik Gayatri; the
16
Shakti and Shkta

Vaidik Om, the so-called "Tantrik" Bijas such as Hring;
Vaidika. Guru and Deshika Guru and so forth. This
dualism may be found carried into other matters as
well, such as medicine, law, writing. So, whilst the
Vaidik Ayurveda employed generally vegetable drugs,
the "Tantriks" used metallic substances. A counterpart
of the Vaidika Dharmapatni was the Shaiva wife; that
is, she who is given by desire (Kama). I have already
pointed out the counterparts of the Pacatattva in the
Vedas. Some allege a special form of Tantrik script at
any rate in Gauda Desha and so forth.
What is the meaning of all this? It is not at present
possible to give a certain answer. The subject has been
so neglected and is so little known. Before tendering
any conclusions with any certainty of their correctness,
we must examine the Tantrik Texts which time has
spared. It will be readily perceived, however, that if
there be such a double frame as I suggest, it indicates
that there were originally two sources of religion one of
which (possibly in some respects the older)
incorporated parts of, and in time largely superseded
the other. And this is what the "Tantriks" impliedly
allege in their views as to the relation of the four Vedas
and Agamas. If they are not both of authority, why
should such reverence be given to the Deshika Gurus
and to Tantrik Diksha?
Probably, there were many Avaidika cults, not without
a deep and ancient wisdom of their own, that is, cults
outside the Vaidik religion (Vedabahya) which in the
course of time adopted certain Vaidik rites such as
Homa: the Vaidikas, in their own turn, taking up some
of the Avaidika practices. It may be that some
Brahmanas joined these so-called Anarya Sampradayas
just as we find to-day Brahmanas officiating for low
castes and being called by their name. At length the
Shastras of the two cults were given at least equal
authority. The Vaidik practice then largely disappeared,
surviving chiefly both in the Smarta rites of to-day and
as embedded in the ritual of the Agamas. These are
speculations to which I do not definitely commit
myself. They are merely suggestions which may be
worth consideration when search is made for the origin
of the Agamas. If they be correct, then in this, as in
other cases, the beliefs and practices of the Soil have
been upheld until to-day against the incoming cults of
Esoteric
those "Aryas" who followed the Vaidik rites and who
in their turn influenced the various religious
communities without the Vaidik fold.
The Smartas of to-day represent what is generally
called the Srauta side, though in these rites there are
mingled many Pauranic ingredients. The Arya Samaja
is another present-day representative of the old
Vaidika Acara, mingled as it seems to me with a
modernism, which is puritan and otherwise. The
other, or Tantrik side, is represented by the general
body of present-day Hinduism, and in particular by
the various sectarian divisions of Salvias, Shaktas,
Vaishnavas and so forth which go to its making.
Each sect of worshippers has its own Tantras. In a
previous chapter I have shortly referred to the Tantras
of the Shaivasiddhanta, of the Pacaratra Agama, and
of the Northern Saivaism of which the Malinivijapa
Tantra sets the type. The old fivefold division of
worshippers was, according to the Pacopasana,
Saura, Ganapatya, Vaishnava, Shaiva, and Shakta
whose Mula Devatas were Surya, Ganapati, Vishnu,
Shiva and Shakti respectively. At the present time the
three-fold division, Vaishnava, Shaiva, Shakta, is of
more practical importance, as the other two survive
only to a limited extent to-day. In parts of Western
India the worship of Ganesha is still popular and I
believe some Sauras or traces of Sauras here and there
exist, especially in Sind.
Six Amnayas are mentioned in the Tantras.
(Shadamnayah). These are the six Faces of Shiva,
looking East (Purvamnaya), South (Dakshinamnaya),
West (Pashcim amnaya), North (Uttaramnaya), Upper
(Urddhvamnaya), Lower and concealed (Adhamnaya).
The six Amnayas are thus so called according to the
order of their origin. They are thus described in the
Devyagama cited in the Tantrarahasya (see also, with
some variation probably due to corrupt text, Patala II
of Samayacara Tantra): "(1) The face in the East (that
is in front) is of pearl-like luster with three eyes and
crowned by the crescent moon. By this face I (Shiva)
revealed (the Devis) Shri Bhuvaneshvari, Triputa,
Lalita, Padma, Shulini, Sarasvati, Tvarita, Nitya,
17
Shakti and Shkta

Vajraprastarim, Annapurna, Mahalakshmi, Lakshmi,
Vagvadini with all their rites and Mantras. (2) The
Southern face is of a yellow color with three eyes. By
this face I revealed Prasadasadashiva,
Mahaprasadamantra, Dakshinamurti, Vatuka,
Majughosha, Bhairava, Mritasanjivanividya,
Mrityunjaya with their rites and Mantras. (3) The face in
the West (that is at the back) is of the color of a freshly
formed cloud. By this face I revealed Gopala, Krishna,
Narayana, Vasudeva, Nrishimha, Vamana, Varaha,
Ramacandra, Vishnu, Harihara, Ganesha, Agni, Yama,
Surya, Vidhu (Candra) and other planets, Garuda,
Dikpalas, Hanuman and other Suras, their rites and
Mantras. (4) The face in the North is blue in color and
with three eyes. By this face, I revealed the Devis,
Dakshinakalika, Mahakali, Guhyakah, Smashanakalika,
Bhadrakali, Ekajata, Ugratara, Taritni, Katyayani,
Chhinnamasta, Nilasarasvati, Durga, Jayadurga,
Navadurga, Vashuli, Dhumavati, Vishalakshi, Gauri,
Bagalamukhi, Pratyangira, Matangi, Mahishamardini,
their rites and Mantras. (5) The Upper face is white. By
this face I revealed Shrimattripurasundari, Tripureshi,
Bhairavi, Tripurabhairavi, Smashanabhairavi,
Bhuvaneshibhairavi, Shatkutabhairavi,
Annapurnabhairavi, Pacami, Shodashi, Malini,
Valavala, with their rites and Mantras. (6) The sixth face
(Below) is lustrous of many colors and concealed. It is by
this mouth that I spoke of Devatasthana, Asana, Yantra,
Mala, Naivedya, Balidana, Sadhana, Purashcarana,
Mantrasiddhi. It is called "Ishanamnaya." The
Samayacara Tantra (Ch. 2) says that whilst the first four
Esoteric
Lodgeroom
Store
18
Shakti and Shkta

Amnayas are for the Caturvarga or Dharma, Artha,
Kama, Moksha, the upper (Urddhvamnaya) and lower
(Adhamnaya) are for liberation only. The Sammohana
Tantra (Ch. V) first explains Purvamnaya,
Dakshinamnaya, Pashcimamnaya, Uttaramnaya,
Urdhvamnaya according to what is called
Deshaparyyaya. I am informed that no Puja of
Adhamnaya is generally done but that Shadanvaya
Shambhavas, very high Sadhakas, at the door of
Liberation do Nyasa with this sixth concealed Face. It
is said that Patala Amnaya is Sam-bhogayoga. The
Nishkala aspect in Shaktikrama is for Purva, Tripura;
for Dakshina, Saura, Ganapatya and Vaishnava; for
Pashcima, Raudra, Bhairava; for Uttara, Ugra,
Apattarini. In Shaivakarma the same aspect is for the
first, Sampatprada and Mahesha; for the second,
Aghora, Kalika and Vaishnava darshana; for the third,
Raudra, Bhairava, Shaiva; for the fourth, Kubera,
Bhairava, Saudrashaka; and for Urddhvamnaya,
Ardhanarisha and Pranava. Niruttara Tantra says that
the first two Amnayas contain rites for the Pashu
Sadhaka (see as to the meaning of this and the other
classes of Sadhakas, the Chapter on Pacatattva ritual
Purvamnayoditam karma Pashavam kathitam priye,
and so with the next). The third or Pashcimamnaya is
a combination of Pashu and Vira (Pashcimamnayajam
karma Pashu-virasamashritam). Uttaramnaya is for
Vira and Divya (Uttaramnayajam karma divpavirashritam priye). The upper Amnaya is for the
Divya (Urdhvamnayoditam karma divyabhavashritam
priye). It adds that even the Divya does Sadhana in
the cremation ground in Virabhava (that is, heroic
frame: of mind and disposition) but he does such
worship without Virasana. The Sammohana also
gives a classification of Tantras according to the
Amnayas as also special classifications, such as the
Tantras of the six Amnayas according to
Vatukamnaya. As only one Text of the Sammohana is
available whilst I write, it is not possible to speak
with certainty of accuracy as regards all these details.
Each of these divisions of worshippers have their
own Tantras, as also had the Jainas and Bauddhas.
Different sects had their own particular subdivisions
and Tantras of which there are various classifications
according to Krantas, Deshaparyaya, Kalaparyaya and
so forth.
Esoteric
The Sammohana Tantra mentions 22 different
Agamas including Cinagama (a Shakta form),
Pashupata (a Shaiva form), Pacaratra (a Vaishnava
form), Kapalika, Bhairava, Aghora, Jaina, Bauddha;
each of which is said there to contain a certain
number of Tantras and Upatantras.
According to the Sammohana Tantra, the Tantras
according to Kalaparyaya are the 64 Shakta Tantras,
with 327 Upatantras, 8 Yamalas, 4 Damaras, 2
Kalpalatas and several Samhitas, Cudamanis (100)
Arnavas, Puranas, Upavedas, Kakshaputas,
Vimarshini and Cintamanis. The Shaiva class
contains 32 Tantras with its own Yamalas, Damaras
and so forth. The Vaishnava class contains 75 Tantras
with the same, including Kalpas and other Shastras.
The Saura class has Tantras with its own Yamalas,
Uddishas and other works. And the Ganapatya class
contains 30 Tantras with Upatantras, Kalpas and
other Shastras, including one Damara and one
Yamala. The Bauddha class contains Kalpadrumas,
Kamadhenus, Suktas, Kramas, Ambaras, Puranas
and other Shastras.
According to the Kularnava and Janadipa Tantras
there are seven Acaras of which the first four, Veda,
Vaishnava, Shaiva and Dakshina belong to
Pashvacara; then comes Vama, followed by
Siddhanta, in which gradual approach is made to
Kaulacara the reputed highest. Elsewhere six and
nine Acaras are spoken of and different kinds of
Bhavas, Sabhava, Vibhava and Dehabhava and so
forth which are referred to in Bhavacudamani.
An account of the Acaras is given in the
Haratattvadidhiti [pp. 339-342. See in particular
Vishvasara Tantra (Ch. 24) and Nitya Tantra and
Pranatoshini. The first is the best account].
Vedacara is the lowest and Kaulacara the highest.
(Kularnava Tantra II). Their characteristics are given
in the 24th Patala of Vishvasara Tantra. The first four
belong to Pashvacara (see Chapter on Shakta
Sadhana) and the last three are for Vira and Divya
19
Shakti and Shkta

Sadhakas. Summarizing the points of the Vishvasara: a
Sadhaka in Vedacara should carry out the prescriptions
of the Veda, should not cohabit with his wife except in
the period following the courses. He should not eat fish
and meat on the Parva days. He should not worship the
Deva at night. In Vaishnavacara he follows injunctions
(Niyama) of Vedacara. He must give up eating of flesh
(Nitya Tantra says he must not kill animals), avoid
sexual intercourse and even the talk of it. This
doubtless means a negation of the Vira ritual. He
should worship Vishnu. This Acara is distinguished
from the last by the great endurance of Tapas and the
contemplation of the Supreme everywhere. In
Shaivacara, Vedacara is prescribed with this difference
that there must be no slaughter of animals and
meditation is on Shiva. Dakshinacara is said to have
been practiced by Rishi Dakshinamurti and is therefore
so called. This Acara is preparatory for the Vira and
Divya Bhavas. Meditation is on the Supreme Ishvari
after taking Vijaya (Hemp). Japa of Mantra is done at
night. Siddhi is attained by using a rosary of human
bone (Mahshankha) at certain places including a
Shaktipitha. Vamacara is approved for Viras and
Divyas. One should be continent (Brahmacari) at day
and worship with the Pacatattva at night.
("Pacatattvakramenaiva ratrau devim prapujayet").
The statement of Nitya (Pacatattvanukalpena ratrau
deving prapujayet) is, if correctly reported, I think
incorrect. This is Vira Sadhana and the Vira should
generally only use substitutes when the real Tattvas
cannot be found. Cakra worship is done. Siddhi is
destroyed by revelation thereof; therefore the Vama
path is hidden. The Siddhantacari is superior to the last
by his knowledge "hidden in the Vedas, Shastras and
Puranas like fire in wood, by his freedom from fear of
the Pashu, by his adherence to the truth, and by his
open performance of the Pacatattva ritual. Open and
frank, he cares not what is said." He offers the
Pancatattvas openly. Then follows a notable passage.
"Just as it is not blameable to drink openly in the
Sautramani Yaja (Vaidik rite), so in Siddhantacara
wine is drunk openly. As it is not blameable to kill
horses in the Ashvamedha Yaja (Vaidik rite), so no
offense is committed in killing animals in this
Dharma." Nitya Tantra says that an article, be it pure or
impure, becomes pure by purification. Holding a cup
made of human skull, and wearing the Rudraksha, the
Esoteric
Siddhantacari moves on earth in the form of
Bhairava Himself. The knowledge of the last Acara,
that of the Kaula, makes one Shiva. Just as the
footprint of every animal disappears in that of the
elephant, so every Dharma is lost in the greatness of
Kuladharma. Here there are no injunctions or
prohibitions, no restriction as to time or place, in
fact no rule at all. A Kaula is himself Guru and
Sadashiva and none are superior to him. Kaulas are
of three classes, inferior (the ordinary or Prakrita
Kaula), who is ever engaged in ritual such as Japa,
Homa, Puja, follows Viracara (with Pacatattva)
and strives to attain the highland of knowledge;
middling is the Kaula who does Sadhana with
Pacatattva, is deeply immersed in meditation
(Dhyana) and Samadhi; superior, the Kaula who
"Oh Mistress of the Kaulas sees the imperishable,
and all-pervading Self in all things and all things in
the Self." He is a good Kaula who makes no
distinction between mud and sandalpaste, gold and
straw, a home and the cremation ground. He is a
superior Kaula who meditates on the Self with the
self, who has equal regard for all, who is full of
contentment, forgiveness and compassion. Nitya
Tantra (Patala III) says that Kaulas move about in
various shapes, now as an ordinary man of the
world adhering to social rules (Shishta), at other
times as one who has fallen therefrom (Bhrashta).
At other times, he seems to be as weird and
unearthly as a ghost (Bhuta). Kaulacara is, it says,
the essence which is obtained from the ocean of
Veda and Agama after churning it with the staff' of
knowledge.
In a modern account of the Acaras (see Sanatana -sadhana-Tattva or Tantra-rahashya by Saccidananda
Svami) it is said that some speak of Aghoracara and
Yogacara as two further divisions between the last
but one and last. However this may be, the Aghoras
of to-day are a separate sect who, it is alleged, have
degenerated into mere eaters of corpses, though
Aghora is said to only mean one who is liberated
from the terrible (Ghora ) Samsara. In Yogacara was
learnt the upper heights of Sadhana and the
mysteries of Yoga such as the movements of the
20
Shakti and Shkta

Vayu in the bodily microcosm (Kshudravrahmanda),
the regulation of which controls the inclinations and
propensities (Vritti), Yogacara is entered by Yogadiksha and achievement in Ashtangayoga qualifies for
Kaulacara. Whether there were such further divisions I
cannot at present say. I prefer for the time being to
follow the Kularnava. The Svami's account of these is
as follows: Vedacara which consists in the daily
practice of the Vaidik rites (with, I may add, some
Tantrik observances) is the gross body (Sthula-deha)
which comprises within it all the other Acaras, which
are as it were its subtle body (Sukshma-deha) of
various degrees. The worship is largely of an external
character, the object of which is to strengthen Dharma.
This is the path of action (Kriyamarga). This and some
other observations may be a modern reading of the old
facts but are on the whole, I think, justified. The second
stage of Vaishnavacara is the path of devotion
(Bhaktimarga) and the aim is union of devotion with
faith previously acquired. The worshipper passes from
blind faith to an understanding of the supreme
protecting Energy of the Brahman, towards which his
devotion goes forth. With an increasing determination
to uphold Dharma and to destroy Adharma, the
Sadhaka passes into the third stage or Shaivacara
which the author cited calls the militant (Kshattriya)
stage, wherein to love and mercy are added strenuous
striving and the cultivation of power. There is union of
faith, devotion, and inward determination
(Antarlaksha). Entrance is here made upon the path of
knowledge (Janamarga). Following this is the fourth
stage or Dakshinacara, which originally and in Tantra
Shastra does not mean "right-hand worship" but
according to the author cited is the Acara "favorable" to
the accomplishment of the higher Sadhana of which
Dakshina-Kalika is Devi. (The Vishvasara already cited
derives the word from Dakshinamurthi muni, but
Dakshina in either case has the same meaning.
Daksinakali is a Devi of Uttaramnaya and approach is
here made to Vira rituals.) This stage commences when
the worshipper can make Dhyana and Dharana of the
threefold Shakti of the Brahman (Iccha, Kriya, Jana)
and understands the mutual connection of the three and
of their expression as the Gunas, and until he receives
the rite of initiation called Purnabhisheka. At this stage
the Sadhaka is Shakta and qualified for the worship of
the threefold Shakti of Brahman (Brahma, Vishnu,
Esoteric
Maheshvara). He worships the Adya-Shakti as
Dakshina-Kalika in whom are united the three
Shaktis. The aim of this stage is the union of faith,
devotion, and determination with a knowledge of
the threefold energies. (Passage is thus made from
the Deva-aspect to the Deva-whole.) Up to this
stage the Sadhaka has followed Pravritti Marga, or
the outgoing path, the path of worldly enjoyment,
albeit curbed by Dharma. The Sadhaka now, upon
the exhaustion of the forces of the outward current,
makes entry on the path of return (Nivritti-Marga).
As this change is one of primary importance, some
have divided the Acaras into the two broad
divisions of Dakshinacara (including the first four)
and Vamacara (including the last three). Strictly,
however, the first three can only be thus included in
the sense that they are preparatory to Dakshinacara
proper and are all in the Pravritti Marga and are not
Vamacara. It is thus said that men are born into
Dakshinacara but are received by initiation into
Vamacara. As Dakshinacara does not mean "righthand worship" so Vamacara does not mean, as is
vulgarly supposed, "left-hand worship". "Lefthand" in English has a bad sense and it is not sense
to suppose that the Shastra, which prescribes this
Acara, itself gives it a bad name. Vama is variously
interpreted. Some say it is the worship in which
woman (Vama) enters, that is Lata-sadhana. Vama,
this author says, means "adverse" that is the stage
adverse to the Pravritti, which governs in varying
degrees the previous Acaras. For, entry is here made
on the Nivritti path of return to the Source of
outgoing. (In this Acara also there is worship of the
Vama Devi.) In Vamacara the Sadhaka commences
to directly destroy Pravritti and, with the help of the
Guru, to cultivate Nivritti. The help of the Guru
throughout is necessary. It is comparatively easy to
lay down rules for the Pravritti Marga but nothing
can be achieved in Vama-cara without the Guru's
help. Some of the disciplines are admittedly
dangerous and, if entered upon without authority
and discretion, will probably lead to abuse. The
method of the Guru at this stage is to use the forces
of Pravritti in such a way as to render them selfdestructive. The passions which bind (notably the
21
Shakti and Shkta
Esoteric
fundamental instincts for food, drink, and sexual satisfaction) may be it is

said so employed as to act as forces whereby the particular life, of which
they are the strongest physical manifestation, is raised to the universal life.
Passion which has hitherto run downward and outwards (often to waste) is
directed inwards and upwards and transformed to power. But it is not only
the lower physical desires of eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse
which must be subjugated. The Sadhaka must at this stage commence (the
process continues until the fruit of Kaulacara is obtained) to cut off all the
eight bonds (Pasha) which have made him a Pashu, for up to and including
Dakshinacara is Pashu worship. These Pasha, bonds or "afflictions", are
variously enumerated but the more numerous classifications are merely
elaborations of the smaller divisions. Thus, according to the DeviBhagavata, Moha is ignorance or bewilderment, and Mahamoha is the
desire for worldly pleasure which flows from it. The Kularnava Tantra
mentions eight primary bonds, Daya (that is pity as the feeling which
binds as opposed to divine compassion or Karuna), Moha (ignorance),
Lajja (shame, which does not mean that a man is to be a shameless sinner
but weak worldly shame of being looked down upon, of infringing
conventions and so forth), Family (Kula, which ceases to be a tie), Shila
(here usage, convention) and Varna (caste; for the enlightened is beyond
all its distinctions). When, to take the Svami's example, Shri Krishna stole
the clothes of the bathing Gopis or milkmaids and cowherds and made
them approach Him naked, He removed the artificial coverings which are
imposed on man in the Samsara. The Gopis were eight, as are the Bonds,
and the errors by which the Jiva is misled are the clothes which Krishna
stole. Freed of these the Jiva is liberated from all bonds arising from his
desires, family and society. Formerly it was sufficient to live in worldly
fashion according to the morality governing life in the world. Now the
Sadhaka must go further and transcend the world, or rather seek to do so.
He rises by those things which are commonly the cause of fall. When he
has completely achieved his purpose and liberated himself from all bonds,
he reaches the stage of Shiva (Shivatva). It is the aim of the Nivritti
Sadhana to liberate man from the bonds which bind him to the Samsara,
and to qualify the Vira Sadhaka, through Rajasika Upasana (see Chapter
on Pacatattva) of the highest grades of Sadhana in which the Sattvika
Guna predominates. He is then Divya or divine. To the truly Sattvik, there
is neither attachment, fear nor disgust (Ghrina). What is thus commenced
in Vamacara, is gradually completed by the rituals of Siddhantacara and
Kaulacara. In the last three Acaras the Sadhaka becomes more and more
freed from the darkness of Samsara and is attached to nothing, hates
nothing, is ashamed of nothing (really shameful acts being ex hypothesi
below his acquired stage), and has freed himself of the artificial bonds of
family, caste, and society. He becomes an Avadhuta, that is, one who has
"washed off" everything and has relinquished the world. Of these, as
stated later, there are several classes. For him there is no rule of time or

22
Shakti and Shkta

place. He becomes, like Shiva himself, a dweller in the
cremation ground (Smashana). He attains Brahmajana
or the Gnosis in perfect form. On receiving
Mahapurnadiksha, he performs his own funeral rites
and is dead to the Samsara. Seated alone in some quiet
place, he remains in constant Samadhi (ecstasy), and
attains it in its highest or Nirvikalpa form. The Great
Mother, the Supreme Prakriti, Mahashakti dwells in his
heart which is now the inner cremation ground wherein
all passions have been burnt away. He becomes a
Paramahamsa who is liberated whilst yet living
(Jivanmukta).
From the above it will be seen that the Acaras are not
various sects in the European sense, but stages in a
continuous process through which the Sadhaka must
pass before he reaches the supreme state of the highest
Kaula (for the Kaulas are of differing degrees). Passing
from the gross outer body of Vedacara, he learns its
innermost core of doctrine, not expressed but latent in
it. These stages need not be and are not ordinarily
passed through by each Jiva in the course of a single
life. On the contrary they are as a rule traversed in the
course of a multitude of births, in which case the
weaving of the spiritual garment is recommenced
where, in a previous birth, it was dropped on death. In
one life the Sadhaka may commence at any stage. If he
is a true Kaula now it is because in previous births he
has by Sadhana in the preliminary stages won his
entrance into it. Knowledge of Shakti is, as the
Niruttara Tantra says, acquired after many births; and
according to the Mahanirvana Tantra it is by merit
acquired in previous births that the mind is inclined to
Kaulacara.
Kauladharma is in no wise sectarian but on the contrary
claims to be the head of all sects. It is said "at heart a
Shakta, outwardly a. Shaiva, in gatherings a Vaishnava
(who are wont to gather together for worship in praise
of Hari) in thus many a guise the Kaulas wander on
earth."
Antah-shaktah bahih-shaivah sabhayam vaishnava
matah
Nana-rupadharah Kaulah vicaranti mahitale.
Esoteric
The saying has been said to be an expression of this
claim which is I think involved in it. It does however
also I think indicate secrecy, and adaptability to
sectarian form, of him who has pierced to the core of
that which all sects in varying, though partial, ways
present. A Kaula is one who has passed through these
and other stages, which have as their own inmost
doctrine (whether these worshippers know it or not)
that of Kaulacara. It is indifferent what the Kaula's
apparent sect may be. The form is nothing and
everything. It is nothing in the sense that it has no
power to narrow the Kaula's inner life. It is everything
in the sense that knowledge may infuse its apparent
limitations with an universal meaning. A man may
thus live in all sects, without their form being ever to
him a bond.
In Vaidik times there were four Ashramas, that is,
states and stages in the life of the Arya, namely (in
their order) that of the chaste student (Brahmacarya),
secular life as a married house-holder (Grihastha), the
life of the forest recluse with his wife in retirement
from the world (Vanaprastha), lastly that of the beggar
(Bhikshu or Avadhuta), wholly detached from the
world, spending his time in meditation on the
Supreme Brahman in preparation for shortly coming
death. All these four were for the Brahmana caste, the
first three for the Kshattriya, the first two for the
Vaishya and for the Shudra the second only
(Yogayajavalkpa, Ch. I). As neither the conditions of
life nor the character, capacity and powers of the
people of this age allow of the first and third
Ashrama, the Mahanirvana Tantra states (VIII. 8) that
in the Kali age there are only two Ashramas, namely,
the second and last, and these are open to all castes
indiscriminately (ib. 12). The same Tantra (XIV. 141
et seq.) speaks of four classes of Kulayogis or
Avadhutas namely the Shaivavadhuta and
Brahmavadhuta, which are of two kinds, imperfect
(Apurna) and perfect (Purna). The first three have
enjoyment and practice Yoga. The fourth or
Paramahamsa should be absolutely chaste and should
not touch metal. He is beyond all household duties
and caste, and ritual, such as the offering of food and
drink to Devata. The Bhairavadamara classes the
23
Shakti and Shkta

Avadhuta into (a) Kulavadhuta, (b) Shaivavadhuta, (c)
Brahmavadhuta, (d) Hamsavadhuta. Some speak of
three divisions of each of the classes Shaivavadhuta
and Brahmavadhuta (see pp. 32-33 of Introduction to
Tantra Shastra). The Shaivavadhutas are not, either,
from a Western or Shastric standpoint, as high as the
Brahmavadhuta. The lowest of the last class can have
intercourse only with the own wife (Shvakiya Shakti as
opposed to the Shaiva Shakti); the middling has
ordinarily nothing to do with any Shakti, and the
highest must under no circumstance touch a woman or
metal, nor does he practice any rites or keep any
observances.
The main divisions here are Vedacara, Dakshinacara
and Vamacara. Vedacara is not Vaidikacara, that is, in
the Srauta sense, for the Srauta Vaidikacara appears to
be outside this sevenfold Tantrik division of which
Vedacara is the Tantrik counterpart. For it is Tantrik
Upasana with Vaidik rites and mantras, with (I have
been told) Agni as Devata. As a speculation we may
suggest that this Acara was for those not Adhikari for
what is called the Srauta Vaidikacara. The second and
third belong and lead up to the completed
Dakshinacara. This is Pashvacara. Vama-cara
commences the other mode of worship, leading up to
the completed Kaula, the Kaulavadhuta, Avadhuta, and
Divya. Here, with the attainment of Brahmajana, we
reach the region which is beyond all Acaras which is
known as Sveccacara. All that those belonging to this
state do or touch is pure. In and after Vamacara there is
eating and drinking in, and as part of, worship and
Maithuna. After the Pashu there is the Vira and then the
Divya. Pashu is the starting point, Vira is on the way
and Divya is the goal. Each of the sects has a Dakshina
and Vama division. It is commonly thought that this is
peculiar to Shaktas: but this is not so. Thus there are
Vama, Ganapatyas and Vaishnavas and so forth. Again
Vamacara is itself divided again into a right and left
side. In the former wine is taken in a cup of stone or
other substance, and worship is with the SvakiyaShakti or Sadhaka's own wife; in the latter and more
advanced stage drinking is done from a skull and
worship may be with Parastri, that is, some other
Shakti. In the case however of some sects which
belong to the Vama-cara division, whilst there is meat
and wine, there is, I am told, no Shakti for the members
Esoteric
are chaste (Brahmacari). So far as I can ascertain
these sects which are mentioned later seem to belong
to the Shaiva as opposed to the Shakta group.
The Tantrik Samgraha called Shaktanandatarangini by
Brahmananda Svami says (Ch. 2) that Agama is both
Sadagama and Asadagama and that the former alone
is Agama according to the primary meaning of the
word (Sadagama eva agamashabdasya mukhyatvat).
He then says that Shiva in the Agama Samhita
condemns the Asadagama saying "Oh Deveshi, men
in the Kali age are generally of a Rajasik and Tamasik
disposition and being addicted to forbidden ways
deceive many others. Oh Sureshvari, those who in
disregard of their Varnashrama Dharma offer to us
flesh, blood and wine become Bhutas, Pretas, and
Brahmarakshasas," that is, various forms of evil
spirits. This prohibits such worship as is opposed to
Varnashramadharma. It is said, however, by the
Vamacaris, who take consecrated wine and flesh as a
Yaja, not to cover their case.
It is not uncommonly thought that Vamacara is that
Acara into which Vama or woman enters. This is true
only to a, certain extent: that is, it is a true definition
of those Sadhakas who do worship with Shakti
according to Vamacara rites. But it seems to be
incorrect, in so far as there are, I am told, worshippers
of the Vamacara division who are chaste
(Brahmacari). Vamacara means literally "left" way,
not "left-handed" in the English sense which means
what is bad. As the name is given to these Sadhakas
by themselves it is not likely that they would adopt a
title which condemns them. What they mean is that
this Acara is the opposite of Dakshinacara.
Philosophically it is more monistic. It is said that even
in the highest Siddhi of a Dakshinacari "there is
always some One above him"; but the fruit of
Vamacara and its subsequent and highest stages is that
the Sadhaka "becomes the Emperor Himself". The
Bhava differs, and the power of its method compared
with Dakshinacara is said to be that between milk and
wine.
Moreover it is to be noted that the Devi whom they
24
Shakti and Shkta
Esoteric
worship is on the left of Shiva. In Vamacara we find

Kapalikas, Kalamukhas, Pashupatas, Bhandikeras,
Digambaras, Aghoras, followers of Cinacara and
Kaulas generally who are initiated. In some cases, as in
that of the advanced division of Kaulas, worship is
with all five Tattvas (Pacatattvas). In some cases there
is Brahmacarya as in the case of Aghora and Pashupata,
though these drink wine and eat flesh food. Some
Vamacaris, I am informed, never cease to be chaste
(Brahmacari), such as Oghada Sadhus worshippers of
Batuka Bhairava, Kanthadhari and followers of
Gorakshanatha, Sitanatha and Matsyendranatha. In
Nilakrama there is no Maithuna. In some sects there
are differing practices. Thus, I am told, amongst the
Kalamukhas, the Kalaviras only worship Kumaris up to
the age of nine, whereas the Kamamohanas worship
with adult Shaktis.
Some advanced members of this (in its general sense)
Vamacara division do not, I am informed, even take
wine and meat. It is said that the great Vamacari
Sadhaka Raja Krishnacandra of Nadia, Upasaka of the
Chinnamasta Murti, did not take wine. Such and
similar Sadhakas have passed beyond the preliminary
stage of Vamacara, and indeed (in its special sense)
Vamacara itself. They may be Brahma Kaulas. As
regards Sadhakas generally it is well to remember what
the Mahakala Samhita, the great Shastra of the
Madhyastha Kaulas, says in the 11th Ullasa called
Sharira-yoga-kathanam: "Some Kaulas there are who
seek the good of this world (Aihikarthadhritatmanah).
So also the Vaidikas enjoy what is here (Aihikartham
kamayante: as do, I may interpose, the vast bulk of
present humanity) and are not seekers of liberation
(Amrite ratim na kurvanti). Only by Nishkamasadhana
is liberation attained."
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25
The Emblems Belonging to the Third degree
Esoteric
By Giovanni Lombardo
The Emblems Belonging to the Third Degree
It has been said that the purpose of Masonry is the improvement of the world, one man
at a time. A great part of this work is enabled by expressive symbolism. Of the
interpretation of symbols, there is no ending. This is a good thing! On the one hand, it
means there is no end to our capacity to grow in knowledge and improve ourselves in
Masonry. On the other hand, it means that no man knows all there is to know about
Masonry, and no man or body of men is the final arbiter of what it is and can be.
Of the interpretation of symbols, there is no ending. This is because symbols and
emblems provoke thought, evoke ideas, and suggest insights. They also shed light on
each other, especially when they are interrelated within certain organizational
frameworks that exist for that purpose. In this essay, we will explore all three of thesethe evocative and
suggestive power of symbols, their mutual illumination of one another, and one particular organizing framework
that has been universally used for millennia. We will apply these principles to the emblems belonging to the
Third Degree.
Until a scant dozen or two generations ago, it was mostly through stories, pictures, and symbols that learning
was preserved and taught. Thus have ancient symbol-systems ever been preserved through the generations. Our
Masonic brethren in earlier times were more conversant with these than are we today. The modern spread of
literacy through all classes of people has diminished the esteem in which symbols are held today, and the tricks
of advertising and propaganda have exploited and debauched their potency. Symbols and emblems can
nevertheless still communicate wise and serious truths when we are willing to work with them. From a simple
hint, matters of weight and consequence may yet unfold to the attentive mind.
The emblems which we encounter near the close of our Third Degree ritual seem at first to have been selected at
random, but on reflection we can discover evidences of purposeful choice and arrangement.
To begin with, they are exactly 12 in number. This can hardly be accidental. The number 12 recurs with symbolic
significance throughout history. The Greeks hailed 12 gods on Mount Olympus, Norsemen the 12 sons of Odin,
Israel its 12 tribes, each descended from one of the 12 sons of Jacob. So important was it to the apostles of Jesus
that, after the disgrace of Judas Iscariot, the remaining eleven added Matthias to restore their number. Revelation
describes 12 gates of Jerusalem, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12
stars on her head, and in many other places gives peculiar emphasis to 12 or a multiple thereof. A Jewish girl
comes of age and celebrates her bat mitzvah at age 12. The number 12 figures in many folk tales, as when 12
brothers are turned into wild geese and restored to human form by the heartbreaking labors of their young sister.
The number of labors that Hercules had to performed was 12. There are 12 days of Christmas. King Arthura
solar king with 12 knights at his round tablesubdued 12 rebel princes and won 12 great battles against the
Saxon invaders. There are 12 hues in the color wheel, 12 inches in a foot, and in civilizations ancient and
modern 12 is the number of months in a year and hours in a day. In short, there are dozens and dozens of special
symbolic uses of this specific number that are deeply embedded in our history and culture. Are the 12 emblems
of our third degree likely to be an exception?
[* | In-line.WMF *]There are other reasons to suppose that our forefathers in Masonry had some design on their
trestleboard when they formulated this part of our ritual. Recall that the basis of the entire superstructure of
Masonry is Geometry. Since before the time of our ancient friend and brother, the great Pythagoras, the wise
have taken note of special mathematical and geometrical properties of the number 12, springing from its
26

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divisibility by five of the singledigit numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, and 6). For
example, a circle inscribed with the
Seal of Solomon or Star of David is
implicitly divided into twelve equal
parts.
The last section of the Third Degree
ritual gives us an account of our 12
emblems that suggests the
archetypal cycle of birth, growth,
death, and renewal. The simplest
image for it is a circle in which the
ending point is also the beginning.
This image is found in one form or
another cross-culturally in all times
and places, not least in the teachings
of our ancient writers and
philosophers. This cycle of life is
sometimes represented as
Ourobouros, the world-serpent
swallowing its own tail.
Another and more obvious
association with a cycle of twelve
phases is the ancient folk science of
astrology. Representations of the
12-part division of the heavens
pervade our history and culture.
Countless writings and works of art
and architecture of earlier ages
incorporate or refer to astrological
imagery, and to the arcana of
alchemy that are so closely
intertwined with it. Although it is
often the butt of scientistic derision
today, and routinely dismissed as
pseudo-science, astrology has been
until quite recent times understood
to be inseparable from astronomy,
in fact the interpretive branch of
that science. Our erudite 18th
century Brethren who formulated
the particular forms of ritual which
we now enjoy can hardly have
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27

avoided being conversant with this symbol-language. It is irrelevant here whether we believe in astrology or
not, whatever that might mean, or even whether or not they did. This discussion depends not at all upon
character analysis or predictions of the future, which are, after all, what the skeptics dispute. Rather, it depends
upon that familiarity which our predecessors in Masonry had with astrological symbolism, a part of the context
of their efforts to transmit, unimpaired, the most valued tenets of our Fraternity.
Most readers know at least a little about the signs of the zodiac, if only from newspaper astrology. It is less well
known that the symbolism of astrology has its roots in geometry, and in the number symbolism of our ancient
friend and brother, Pythagoras.
The zodiac is a division of the heavens into twelve equal parts, based upon the equinoxes and solstices. About
2000 years BC, the Vernal Equinox (the point where the Sun is on the first day of Spring) coincided with the
constellation named Aries, the ram. At that time, according to a tradition with which I am familiar, the names
were assigned to those constellations as a teaching device. Since that time, because the earth wobbles very
slowly, like a huge top in its spinning about its poles, the equinoctial point has shifted all the way through the
constellation Pisces to the constellation Aquarius. For this reason, the twelve phases of the earths year (which
may be thought of as an energy field around the earth) no longer align with the constellations bearing their
symbolic names.
A single line between the equinoxes divides the circle of the year into a summer half and a winter half. Likewise,
a survey of our twelve emblems quickly discloses that the descriptions in the ritual fall naturally into a waxing
half and a waning half. The descriptions of the first six emblemsthe pot of incense, beehive, Book of
Constitutions guarded by the Tylers sword, sword
pointing to a naked heart, anchor and ark, and 47th
problem of Euclidemphasize our involvement with the
business of life, while the Hourglass, Scythe, Gavel,
Spade, Coffin, and Sprig of Acacia all refer to the
relentless passage of time toward death and that which
comes after.
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An obvious example of the cycle of

life is our experience of the four
seasons. New life emerges in the
Spring, blossoms in summer, goes
to fruit and seed in the Autumn, so
that in the fallow time of Winter
what has been produced can sustain
our preparation for a new cycle. The
solstices and equinoxes divide the
circle of the year into four
quadrants. From time immemorial,
these four quadrants have been
associated with the four elemental
qualities that our forbears named
Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.1 The
Fire of Spring is symbolically
represented by an upward pointing
triangle
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. In psychological
terms, this represents Will, the

inspiration and initiative to get
things started. But just as the heady
onrush of Spring subsequently
slows and spreads in the lazy reestablishment of Summer, even so,
at the beginning of the second
quadrant our ancient teachers saw
the Water element
symbolized by a downward
pointing triangle, checking and
tempering the Fire element. This
continued next page

29

elemental quality represents Mind or memory, the matrix of eternal patterns or archetypes of things as they are,
always have been, and ever will be. The third quadrant corresponds to the busyness of the Fall harvest time.
Here, the Air element
denotes those processes and activities by which the purposes of the first quadrant
and the available resources of the second are wrought into useful form, the art of the possible. At the beginning
of the fourth quadrant, where tangible results are stored up for Winter, the Earth element
represents
Matter, physical embodiment. To the sages of old, these were the four stages of any creative process: the
inspiration of what is desired, the perception of what exists, the processes to reduce the difference between them,
and the tangible result. All four are necessary. The symbolism of the Seal of Solomon is related to this.
We may also draw an analogy to the three principle stages of human life that are delineated in the Lecture. The
first quadrant may be thought of as youth, and the fourth or last as age. The intervening stage of manhood, being
generally the greatest in extent of years, extends through two quadrants. Thus, in the more youthful portion of
manhood, our lifes direction is still emerging, and the second half, after about age 28 or 29, is a period of greater
maturity and effectiveness.
According to this analogy, in youth, we establish the fundamental tone and quality of our life (the Fire quadrant).
As we enter early manhood (the Water quadrant), we encounter more and more fully the limitations of the world
as it is, and such as it has been made by our ancestors. Then in growing interdependence with our peers we work
out ways more or less to thrive in this world (the Air quadrant). In age (the Earth quadrant), we survey the fruits
of our labors, enjoy the benefits of whatever station we have attained, and reconcile the various accommodations
that we have made to the inevitable conflicts and contradictions of life. Thus, as Oliver Wendell Holmes
observed, The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions. Or to quote the physicist
Werner Heisenberg, an expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his field,
and how to avoid them. It is by learning from mistakes, both our own and those of others, that we grow in
wisdom during the phase of manhood, represented by the third and fourth quadrants of our cycle diagram.
The number 12 is of course the product of multiplying 3 times 4, and, as the geometry of the Seal of Solomon
suggests, we arrive at 12 phases in our cycle by dividing each of the four quadrants into three parts. In astrology,
these are traditionally termed cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Here we find another and more subtle analogy to the
three principle phases of life. The cardinal phase (youth) says I want this, and the fixed phase (manhood) says
This is the way things are, the immovable object confronting the irresistible force. Then the third or mutable
phase (age) says we can make this work. Thesis and antithesis are reconciled in a new synthesis, out of which
emerges the thesis of the next quadrant.
.....................
For example, the first quadrant begins with cardinal Fire, the most ebullient and zealous mode of this elemental
quality. Following the cyclical pattern that you can see in every quadrant, the second or manhood phase is the
fixed mode of that elemental qualityEarth, in this casewhich was in the cardinal mode at the beginning of
the previous quadrant. According to our analogy, this represents the challenges and opportunities of manhood.
30

Here in the first quadrant, the zeal of cardinal Fire must express itself through the Earth element is in its frozen
and most resistant mode. Working to reconcile these with the wisdom of age is the Air element, which is all
about process and manipulation and making connections. Here in the first quadrant the Air element is in its most
adaptable and conciliatory form, the mutable mode.
The second quadrant begins with Cardinal Water, the third with Cardinal Air, and the fourth quadrant begins with
Cardinal Earth.
This wheel of twelve interlinked phases is an ancient framework for symbolic interpretation. Let us look now at
what light it may shed on our 12 symbols. Other aspects of its geometry will come to our attention as we
progress.
The First Quadrant Spring (Youth)
The three emblems in the first quadrant are the pot of incense, beehive, and Book of Constitutions guarded by
the Tylers sword. How are these related to the qualities attributed to this quadrant, qualities that are brought to
mind when we think of springtime, birth, and youth?
The pot of incense with its glowing coal is obviously a fiery symbol. This
first phase of the cycle of life is that of self expression. The essential
quality of successful self expression is joy. As a workman under the
Supreme Architect you have the task and privilege of discovering your
individual contribution to the building of the Temple. The wonderful thing
is that it turns out to be your hearts desire. That which is the greatest
possible source of joy and personal fulfillment that you might discover in
the course of your life just happens to be the Will of the Supreme Architect
for your particular part of the Work. Then, even as the fragrance of incense
fills the room, so does the joy of our hearts overflow to those around us.
The affiliation of this symbol, then, with youth, and indeed with the joy of
childhood, is obvious.
Joy is often confused with enjoyment (and its destitute cousin, entertainment). A Benedictine monk once
commented that we usually expect gratitude to follow after our enjoyment of some experience. He observed that
it really is the other way around: it is after we express gratitude that an experience of real joy follows. And so it
is that, even as the incense burns with a fervent flame, sending its fragrant vapor toward heaven, just so should
our hearts continually glow with fervent gratitude to the great and beneficent author of our existence.
................
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The ritual says a pure heart is always an acceptable sacrifice to Deity. What is a pure heart? And is that what is
sacrificed? One wise philosopher, Sren Kiekegaard, said purity of heart is to will one thing. What is sacrificed
is whatever is unnecessary to that one thing. The task of this first phase for each man is to identify the true
purpose of his life, which marvelously turns out to be his innermost hearts desire. The man who knows that one
thing for himself willingly and joyfully sacrifices anything lesser that comes in the way. But as we know (and as
we shall see presently) the world offers a lot of competition for our attention.
In order for even our most fervent hearts desire to be anything more than
dreamy vapor, like the smoke of incense, we must be industrious in
applying our knowledge and skills to the materials that life brings to hand.
In the second phase of the cycle, fixed Earth, we are concerned with our
material environment and the personal resources at our disposal, where the
manifold blessings and comforts that surround us are most immediate and
tangible. It is out of this store of personal resources that we are able to
relieve the distress of a friend or worthy Brother in want with little or no
inconvenience to ourselves.
We think of these as our possessionsmy house, my car, my bank accountseldom remembering how much
they are the product of mutual aid. Even if you built your house yourself, and all the furniture in it, you did so
with tools manufactured by others, purchased from stores run by others, the very energy of your labor fueled by
food grown, harvested, packed, shipped, and displayed for sale by others, each participant in the interdependent
chain drawing on a common stock of knowledge and understanding of how to do their part. The preparation of
timber is very different from the quarrying of stone, and even within these distinct crafts each quality and grade
of wood and stone has its characteristic affordances and resistances. It might have pleased the Great Creator of
heaven and earth to have made man independent; but as dependence is one of the strongest bonds of society,
mankind were made dependent on each other. Our ignorance of our place in the hive of nature, whether
real or willful, cannot weaken our actual bonds of mutual aid, nor diminish our obligation industriously to add to
the common stock of knowledge and understanding.
1 These are qualities found in all phenomena, and bear no slightest comparison with the elements identified in
modern physics and chemistry, such as oxygen and cobalt. The sequence of phases in this diagram runs
counter-clockwise (widdershins in archaic language) because that is how the Moon and planets progress
through the heavens as the days, weeks, and months pass. The point of view is looking south toward where
the Sun stands at high twelve.
32
SOME THOUGHTS ON FICHTES

PHILOSOPHY OF FREEMASONRY
As you know, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, in London, a Society surfaced into public notice, but
about which no one knew where it came from, what it was, and what it sought. It spread, with inconceivable
rapidity over France and Germany, into all states of Christian Europe, and even to the Americas. Though not
overtly, it claimed to have been in existence from time immemorial.
Records show that during the past three centuries men of all ranks, races, members of the nobility, the learned,
artists, men of business, entered it; Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists and men of all religious beliefs were initiated
into this society, and all called one another Brother.
For such an uncommon assembly of men, the common ground was as it is today the primordial desires of all
Humanity: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and the inextinguishable hunger for knowledge.
To review the causes that brought about the unbridled profession of brotherhood practiced in this society, let me
quote the words of one of our brightest thinkers:
In the year 1803 our brother and philosopher, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, starts with the urgent concrete problems of
society in his time. It appeared to be hopelessly divided into perennial conflicts among states, cities, religious
denominations, classes, professions, races, and any other form of association one can think of.
Hence, according to Fichte, it was necessary to go back to first principles and determine what our Society could
be and what it ought to be. The few old records available and the mythical history of the transmission of
civilization did not help. It was necessary to resort to reason.
What in reason was there to be done which an immemorial universal brotherhood could do and should be doing?
In answering this question Fichte had before him the social, political, and economic condition of Europe, and in
particular of Germany in his time, and the problem thus presented to the philosopher an ideal of human
perfection or, if you will, civilization.
What impressed him as a child was the gulf between the cultivated, professional man, the less cultivated
practical man of business, and the uncultivated man in the humbler walks of life, each, however wise in his
calling and however virtuous, suspicious of the others, unappreciative of the others purposes, and very likely
intolerant of the others plans and proposals.
When Fichte wrote, the wars of the French Revolution and empire were still waging. Society in Western Europe
seemed hopelessly divided into states unable to work together except in fluctuating alliances and then not toward
any common goal of humanity or of civilization but only toward political self-aggrandizement.
A like phenomenon was appearing in the economic order. The more or less organized society of the Middle Ages
had broken down. The French Revolution had put an end to feudal society in France and it was spreading in
central Europe.
States, classes, professions, and walks of life alike were suspicious of each other, prejudiced against each other,
intolerant of each other. Society in Europe, which was culturally a unit and had inherited a universal tradition
from the Middle Ages, was internally chaotic, and in a condition of internal strife and conflict which stood in the
way of the progress of civilization. Even the unity of the church, which had held men together to some extent
during the Middle Ages, had disappeared at the Reformation, and sects and denominations were suspicious,
prejudiced and intolerant among themselves.

33

Thus Fichte looked at these problems as part of a problem of all humanity, along with one of social, political,
economic, and religious organization of mankind, and sought a solution that would enable our society to meet or
help meet a great need of mankind.
As it was, each man was trained or trained himself for some profession or vocation or walk of life and as he
perfected himself for the purposes of that profession or vocation or walk of life he narrowed his outlook upon the
world and came to look upon it and upon his fellow men as it were through the spectacles of that calling.
Looking at other callings through these spectacles, he became suspicious, prejudiced, and intolerant and so
largely incapable of assisting in the maintaining and furthering of civilization.
There was need, therefore, of our organization in which men were to be given or led to an all-round
development, instead of the one-sided vocational development which they acquired in a society based on
division of labor. While in society at large they were adequately trained toward effective division of labor, in our
society they must be adequately trained for effective cooperation toward the highest human development or, in
other words, toward a complete social harmony.
The purpose, then, must be an all-round development of men as men; not merely as fellows in a calling, citizens
of a state, members of a class or adherents of a denomination, but as men fully competent and attentive to their
duties as members of a profession, as citizens, as churchmen, and yet conscious also of duties as men to rise
above suspicion, prejudice, and intolerance, and appreciate and work sympathetically with their fellows in every
walk of life, of every political allegiance, and of every creed.
As to the relation of our society to the church, we must remember that down to the Reformation and in parts of
Europe much later, and down to the French Revolution, the church had vigorously repressed freedom of thought
and free science and had by no means made for the development of mans personality to its highest unfolding.
The church, says Fichte, cannot make men devout. The man who is devout from fear or from hope of reward
only professes devoutness. Devoutness is an internal condition, an enduring frame of mind, not a temporary
product of coercion or cupidity of reward or emotional excitement. Like or along with the state, the church may
be a wholesome agency of social control in restraining mens instinct of aggressive self-assertion.
As to morality, it will be remembered that Krause considered that the purpose of our society was to put an
organization behind morals as the church was an organization behind religion and government or the state an
organization behind law. Fichte holds that morality means the doing of ones well understood duty with absolute
inner freedom, without any outside incentive, simply because it is his duty. Hence, we dont promote any specific
morality and hence also morality needs no special organization behind it
Men of every walk of life, meeting in equality and associating in a common course of instruction can, by hearing
the oral lectures over and over, by listening to and enacting the myths and symbols, divest themselves of the onesidedness they have received in the training for their special calling and become the all-round men demanded for
civilized society.
In our society men of all walks of life come freely together and bring into a hoard what each, according to his
individual character, have been able to acquire in his calling. Each brings and gives what he has: the thinking
man definite and clear conceptions, the man of business readiness and ease in the art of living, the religious man
his religious sense, the artist his virtuous enthusiasm.

34

But none imparts it in the same way in which he received it in his calling
and would propagate it in his calling. Each one, as it were, leaves behind
the individual and special and shows what it has worked out within him as
a result. He strives so to give his contribution that he can reach every
member of society, and the whole society exerts itself to assist this
endeavor and in this way to give his former one-sided training a general
usefulness and all-sidedness. In this union each receives in the same
measure as he gives.
According to Fichte, this is the picture of the ripe, developed man:
His mind is free from prejudices of every sort. He is master in the realm of
ideas and looks out over the region of human truth as widely as possible.
But truth is for him only onea single indivisible whole, and he puts no
side of it before another.
To him, development of the spirit is only a part of the whole development,
and it does not come into his mind to have entirely completed it, even so
little as it comes into his mind to wish to be deprived of it.
He sees very well and does not hesitate to acknowledge how much others
in this respect behind him are backward, but he is not overzealous about
this since he knows also how much that depends upon luck.
He obtrudes his light, and much less the full shine of his light, upon no
one, while yet he is ever ready to give to anyone who asks it so much as he
can carry, and to give it to him in such fashion as is most agreeable to him,
and does not mind if no one asks enlightenment of him.
He is righteous throughout, scrupulous, strict against himself within
himself, without externally making the least fuss about his virtue and
obtruding it upon others through assertion of his integrity through great
conspicuous sacrifices, or affectation of high seriousness.
His virtue is as natural and modest as his wisdom; his feeling as to the
weaknesses of his fellow men is good-hearted pity; not angry indignation.
He lives in faith of a better world already here below, and this faith in his
eyes gives value, meaning and beauty to his life in this world; but he does
not press this faith upon others. Instead, he carries it within himself as a
private treasure.
This is the picture of the perfected man; this is our ideal. He will not ask
nor boast a higher perfection than mankind everywhere can attain. His
perfection can be no other than a human and the human perfection. Each
man must be busied continually in approximation to this goal. If the order
has any efficacy, every member must visibly and consciously occupy
himself with this approximation. He must keep this picture before his
mind as an ideal set up and lay next to his heart. It must be, as it were, the
nature in which he lives and breathes.

35

Our institution trains men, it directly trains the most serviceable members
of the greater society the amiable and popular, the learned and wise, not
only the skillful but also the men of affairs possessed of judgment,
humane warriors, good heads of households, and good bringers-up of
children. Whatever human relation one may think of, the Institution has
the most advantageous influence upon it.
Brethren, I hope this brief explanation answer the question I have posed at
the beginning: What brings this unlimited fraternal predisposition among
strangers even to the point of putting ones own life in the hands of
strangers?
It is very likely that not all, yes perhaps no one, of our members will reach
this perfection.
But who has ever measured the goodness of an ideal or only an institution
by what individuals actually attain? It depends on what they can attain
under the given circumstances.
Fichte exhorts us:
One, who in viewing the deficiency in human relations, the perverseness,
the corruption among men, drops his hands complains of evil times, is no
man. Just in this that you are capable of seeing men as deficient, lies upon
you a holy calling to make them better.
If everything was already what it ought to be, there would be no need of
you in the world and you would as well have remained in the womb of
nothing.
Rejoice that all is not yet as it ought to be, so that you may find work and
can be useful toward something.
Bro. Vincent Lombardo
I.P.M. Quinte St. Albans Lodge No. 620 G.R.C.
36
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37
Book On the Altar

by Carl Claudy
I heard the most curious tale, began the New Brother
seating himself beside the Old tiler during refreshment.
Shoot! commanded the Old Tiler. Friend of mine
belongs to a midwest lodge. Seems they elected a chap
to become a member but when he took the degree he
stopped the work to ask for the Koran in place of the
Bible on the Altar. Said he wanted to the holy book of
his faith, and the bible wasnt it!
Yes, go on, prompted the Old Tiler. What did they
do? The officers held a pow-wow and the Master
finally decided that as the ritual demanded the Holy
Bible, Square and Compasses as furniture for the
lodge, the applicant was wrong and that hed have to
use the Bible or not take his degree.
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And the funny part was that the initiate was satisfied
and took his degree with the Bible on the Altar. Im
glad they have him, and not this lodge.
Why?
Why, a chap who backs down that way cant have
very much courage; Id have had more respect for him
if hed insisted and if he couldnt have his way, refused
to go on with the degree. All wrong, brother, all
wrong! commented the Old Tiler. The Mohammedan
initiate wasnt concerned about himself but about the
lodge. He showed a high degree of Masonic principle
in asking for his own holy book, and a great
consideration for the lodge. This man isnt a Christian.
He doesnt believe in Christ. He believes in Allah, and
Mohammed his prophet. The Bible, to you a holy book,
is to him no more than the Koran is to you. You
wouldnt regard an obligation taken on a dictionary or a
cook book or a Koran as binding, in the same
degree that you would one taken on the Bible.
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Thats the way this chap felt. He wanted to take his

obligation so that it would bind his conscience. The
Master would not let him, because he slavishly
followed the words of the ritual instead of the spirit of
Masonry.
38
Book On the Altar

Whats the law got to do with it?
Just nothing at all, which is the
point I make. In England and
America, Canada and South
America, Australia, and part of the
Continent, the bible is universally
used.
by Carl Claudy
Masonry does not limit an
applicant to his choice of a name for
a Supreme Being. I can believe in
Allah, or Buddha, or Confucius, or
Mithra, or Christ, or Siva, or
Brahma, or Jehovah, and be a
good Mason. If I believe in a Great
Architect that is all Masonry
demands; my brethren do not care
what I name him.
Then you think this chap isnt
really obligated? I must write my
friend and warn him-
Softly, softly! Any man with
enough reverence for Masonry, in
advance of knowledge of it, to want
his own holy book on which to take
an obligation would feel himself
morally obligated to keep his word,
whether there was his, anothers
or no holy book at all, on the Altar.
An oath is not really binding
because of the book beneath you
hand. It is the spirit with which you
assume an obligation which makes
it binding.
The book is but a symbol that you
make your promise in the presence
of the God you revere. The cement
of brotherly love which we spread is
not material the working tools of a
Master Mason are not used upon
stone but upon human hearts. Your
brother did his best to conform to
the spirit of our usages in asking for
the book he had been taught to
revere. Failing in that through no
fault of his own, doubtless he took
his obligation with a sincere belief
in its sacredness. Legally he would
not be considered to commit perjury
if he asked for his own book and
was forced to use another.
In Scottish Rite bodies you will find

many holy books; but let me ask
you this; when our ancient brethren
met on hills and in valleys, long
before Christ, did they use the New
Testament on their Altars? Of
course not; there was none. You can
say that they used the Old
Testament and I can say they used
the Talmud and someone else can
say they used none at all, and all of
us are right as the other. But they
used a reverence for sacred things.
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If you write you friend, you might

tell him that the ritual which
permits a man to name his God
as he pleases, but demands that a
book which reveres one particular
God be used, is faulty. The ritual of
Masonry is faulty; it was made by
man.
But the spirit of Masonry is divine;
it comes from mens hearts. If ,
obligation and books and names
of the Deity are matters of the spirit,
every condition is satisfied.
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39
Book On the Altar

by Carl Claudy
If I were Master and an applicant demanded any one or any six books on which to lay his hand while he pledges
himself to us,m Id get them if they were to be had, and Id tell my lodge what a reverent Masonic spirit was in
the man who asked.
Seems to me you believe in a lot of funny things; how many gods do you believe in?
There is but one, was the Old Tilers answer,
Call Him what you will. Let me repeat a little bit of verse for you:
At the Muezzins call for prayer The kneeling faithful thronged the square;
Amid a monasterys weeds, An old Franciscan told his beads,
While on Pushkaras lofty height. A dark priest chanted Brahmas might,
While to the synagogue there came A Jew, to praise Jehovahs Name.
The One Great God looked down and smiled And counted each His loving child;
For Turk and Brahmin, monk and Jew Has reached Him through the gods they knew.
If we reach Him in Masonry, it makes little difference by what sacred name we arrive, finished the Old Tiler,
reverently. You reached me, anyhow, said the New Brother, shaking hands as if he meant it.
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40
THE SQUARE MAGAZINE
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Will get you a years Free
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The Square Magazine.
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41
New
Release
Invisibles the True

History of the
Rosicrusians
Invisibles : The True

History of the
Rosicrucians
by: Tobias Churton
Publisher: Lewis
Masonic
Product code: L3099
ISBN:
9780853183099
Direct to Purchase
400 years ago a document was published by an order

calling themselves the Rosicrucians. A secret society of
Christians who claimed to know the true teachings of
Christ and that through this knowledge they had
become immortal and gained divine powers. Jesus told
his disciples that with faith they should be able to work
miracles greater than him.
Since then, incredible myths and stories have been
woven about the invisible Brothers of the Rose Cross,
the so-called Rosicrucians. The men who know what
it truly means to be a Christian. Indeed, in 1623,
philosopher Ren Descartes was accused in Paris of
being a Rosicrucian. How can that be possible?
replied Descartes. Everyone knows... they are
invisible.
It has been said that Rosicrucians possess the secrets

of Man, God and Nature, that they can turn lead into
gold, that they govern Europe in secret, that they
enjoy the elixir of life, that theirs is the true
philosophy of Freemasonry, that they can save or
destroy the world.
Most amazing of all perhaps is the Rosicrucian vision
of an invisible, inviolable and utterly secret body the
Hidden Guardians of the planet. This is the secret
society behind all mystical and magical secret
societies. Only they, it is alleged, possess the true key
to understanding the spiritual and material essence of
all religion.
The story of how a young German nobleman,
Christian Rosycross, escaped his boring cloister and
sped to the east in search of wisdom about a century
before Columbus sailed west, has been told many
times since it first appeared in a booklet in 1614. For
much of the time between that date and today, the
story of the genesis of the Rosicrucian movement the founding of the invisible fraternity and the
discovery of the founders extraordinary tomb in
1604 - has been taken literally in many quarters. The
Fama Fraternitatis, the document in which the story
first appeared, has been taken for historical fact and
even more than that.
From the dreams of a brilliant young student at
Germanys university of Tbingen to the accidental
publication of the Rosicrucian manifestos in 1614
the greatest publicity stunt of all time the story
takes us on to the creation of real Rosicrucian
brotherhoods in Europe in the 18th century. These
brotherhoods changed history.
Never was there a story more controversial or more
mysterious to tell. At last, the whole story can be told
the true history.
42
Building Hiram - Uncommon

Catechism for Uncommon
Masonic Education
by Dr. John S. Nagy
A review : by Karen Kidd

Building HIram, a catechism for the new Master
Mason
By Karen Kidd
The Word before you is what I wish I had been given
when I was Raised. Dr. John S. Nagy, Building
Hiram Volume I, page iv.
This is how Bro. Dr. John S Nagy begins the Preface in
the first of what is expected to be a number of volumes
of his Building Hiram series, released in March.
Filled with cipher, verse and images, Building Hiram
strives to make the connections that many mentors in
the Craft seem to lack. Freemasonry, Nagy explains, is
not one disjointed teaching after another but is, instead,
a fully interconnected science of much more, In fact,
Nagy writes, further Masonic Benefit occurs only by
considering the interconnections between the symbols,
the overlap of themes and
the rhythm of the patterns continually played out from
beginning to end.
The Word before you is a look at some
of these interconnections. It presents an
overlapping of themes and reveals many
rich patterns that can Benefit all Master
Masons should they venture forth and
seek the Light.
Direct link to Store

As I explored, I asked simple questions
like, what do the Orders of Architecture
have to do with my life now and in this
society?, what is the significance of
this Lost Word that Masons speak of?,
what are the Masters Wages that are
referred to in Ritual? and why did the
Lost Masters Word require the Presence
of the Three to be revealed? I took these
simple questions and thoroughly
searched Masonic Rituals and Lectures
to find any clue as to what might shed
further Light upon their answers.
That wasnt how it seemed when he first was Raised,

Nagy recalled. He was frustrated by the lack of
connections between the knowledge I was receiving
from the Masons who were mentoring me left me
without what I desired most connections that pulled it I came to find that one question led to another and
all together so it made sense to me; I wanted more!
Publisher: Promethean Genesis Publishing
PO Box 636, Lutz FL 33548-0636
So he set off on his own personal exploration to find
that interconnectedness and quickly discovered he
Book available at: www.coach.net,
wasnt the only Brother looking for it. And he soon
www.provokingsuccess.com, LRUS, LRUK, LRI
formulated questions to mark his exploration. He
wrote:
43
Building Hiram - Uncommon Catechism for

Uncommon Masonic Education
another in a very interesting way. Ultimately,
there cascaded into being a series of responses to each
of my questions that created a clearly
interconnected picture of the First Three Degrees.
None of this would have been possible had I not had a
burning desire for even more Light.
For Bro. Nagy, the journey is still far from over but
what hes found, combined with the knowledge others
are looking for it, too, prompted him to release
Volume 1 of Building Hiram in March. He starts with
what any well schooled Master Mason will recognize
as familiar ground. It takes on the form of a catechism.
In this case, its a catechism about catechism.
Catechism Primer
cat.e.chism (k t -k z m) n.
I: What is Catechism?
R: A word whose first recorded use was in 1502,
rooted in French by way of Latin and
originating in Late Greek with the following
meaning: to teach by word of mouth.
I: What is its use?
R: It is primarily oral instruction.
I: What else?
R: It is a book or manual of basic instruction
giving a brief summary of the basic principles of
a subject, usually by means of rote, formulaic
statement or repetition in question and answer
form.
I: Whats more?
R: A close questioning or examination, as of a
political figure, student or a person wishing to
show their proficiency of a topic or subject.
I: Whats further?
R: A body of Work expressing fundamental
principles or beliefs, especially when accepted
uncritically.
I: How may it be so presented?
R: As a series of searching Inquiries and
Responses on any targeted subject of interest.
I: What is its purpose?
R: To share Light with those so interested.
Book Review
the timid and the intruder. In particular, he cautions,

This writing makes no reference to any present day
Ritual; there are no secrets revealed within this book
nor does it point to anything that is not already
known to all who seek Light. In other words, if you
are looking to find secrets, Masonic or otherwise,
there are none herein to find, whatsoever.
The true seeker that can make it past that soon finds
a series of chapters and related catechisms on topics
that include the Ashl*rs, the tools of stone builders,
the orders of architecture, the staircase, the four
(yes, four) ruffians, the ancient p*nalties, the 3-4-5
Triangle, the L*st W*rd and the Masters Wages.
I found all these catechisms insightful and thought
provoking. I suppose my favorite is The Staircase
Unwound, a chapter that explains the 3-5-7 of that
degree Nestled within these numbers are the
echoes of years past when members of humankind
made effort to raise each
other above the common threads that held back
humanity. Nagy writes in that chapter.
The various explanations though pale in
significance to any study a Mason may endeavor to
partake of in their Journey toward Perfection. The
Staircase is symbolic of life within and without.
Traveling it to and from the Middle Chamber or
Heart of the Temple, one is prepared for the mental
and spiritual demands life offers. In years past, the
Perfecting process was a valid investment and made
for Master Masons beyond compare. Today the
Raising of Masons not yet
making the true and authentic Masonic Journey up
and down the Staircase leaves it but a symbolic relic
of the past honored for its Wisdom but not well
understood much less Traveled by the masses.
Nagy provides what he calls Precursory Notes,

which amount to words or warning to the unschooled,
44
Building Hiram - Uncommon Catechism for

Uncommon Masonic Education
Phrases
To Bandy Words
A portion of the catechism that follows this chapter

reads:
I: Are you a Mason?
R: Indeed I am.
I: How may I know that you are such?
R: I have Traveled the Masonic Winding Staircase to
and fro.
I: What is the Masonic Staircase?
R: A Staircase consisting of Three, Five and Seven
steps.
I: Where is this Staircase found?
R: Within the Unified structure of the Temple of
Solomon.
I: Where else?
R: Within the heart of every Master Mason.
Bro. Nagy is not a new author. author. Hes better know
outside the Masonic community for his self-help
books, including [url=http://www.amazon.com/
Emotional-Awareness-Made-Easy-Uncommon/dp/
0979307015]Emotional Awareness Made Easy:
Uncommon Sense about Everyday Feelings[/url]
which was released earlier this year. These books,
along with his coaching and counseling, form the basis
of his day job. But as a Brother in the Craft who also
is a writer, it was only a matter of time before he turned
his scrivening to Freemasonry.
He penned a chapter in [url=http://
lodgeroomstore.com//
product_info.php?currency=USD&products_id=741}Lifting
the Veil - Esoteric Masonic Thought[/url], published
earlier this week by the books compiler, Giovanni
Lombado, and dedicated to the memory of the late Bro.
Theron Dunn, to whom Bro. Nagy was very close.
More information about the release of Building
Hiram is available at Bro. Nagys blog here:
http://buildinghiram.blogspot.com/
Meaning
To argue persistently.
Origin
To bandy is to exchange, to
toss to and fro. This is the source
of the name of the game bandy - a
ferocious ball game similar to ice
hockey.
The word was in use in English by
the 16th century and had
counterparts in both French
(bander) and Spanish (bandear),
although which of these came first
is uncertain. The sport originally
associated with bandying wasnt
bandy itself, but tennis. Raphael
Holinsheds The firste volume of
the chronicles of England,
Scotlande, and Irelande, 1577,
includes:
Kingdoms... be no balles
for me to bandie.
He was probably referring there to
tennis balles and tennis was
mentioned explicitly in Randle
Cotgraves A Dictionarie of the
French and English Tongues,
1611. Cotgrave translated the
French verb bander as the
English bandie and gave an
example of its use as to bandie at
Tennis. The 16th century was
well before the development of
lawn tennis and the game being
referred to was what we now call
real tennis (or in some countries
court tennis) - which may be a
corruption of royal tennis. This
was an indoor game in which the
walls form part of the court. The
best known court, which is still in
use, was built at Hampton Court
Palace by Henry VIII in 1530.
45
Phrases
Baby boomer
The Back of Beyond
Meaning
A person born during the temporary
peak in the birth-rate that occurred
several countries following WWII,
notably the USA and the UK.
Origin
A baby boom is any temporary
increase in the birth-rate and that
term was in use some time before
WWII. A baby boom was reported
in various newspapers in England
in the 1920s. For example, this
piece, reprinted in The Coshocton
Tribune, April 1920:
Meaning
A lonely forsaken place.
Origin
The inland desert region of
Australia that is otherwise known
as the Never-never is also
sometimes called the Back of
Beyond.
The term is more generally used to
refer to any real or imagined remote
region. It was first put into print by
Sir Walter Scott in his novel The
Antiquary, 1816:
Badgered to death
Bakers Dozen
Meaning
Thirteen or, more rarely, fourteen.
Origin
Its widely believed that this phrase
originated from the practice of
medieval English bakers giving an
extra loaf when selling a dozen in
order to avoid being penalized for
selling short weight. This is an
attractive story and, unlike many
that inhabit the folk memory, it
appears to be substantially true. We
can say a little more to flesh out
that derivation though.
http://lodgeroomuk.net.wwwebserver.net/
catalogue.php?shop=1
You... whirled them to the

back of beyont to look at
the auld Roman camp.
Meaning
Harried and persecuted.
Origin
The allusion is to badger-baiting.
As Bald as a
Badgering has been used as a verb
Meaning
to denote persecution for some
time. Heres an example from 1794, Completely bald.
as here in J. Wolcotts Rowl. for
Origin
Oliver:
Therefore I tremble for his
badgerd bacon.
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Coot
Coots are water birds whose heads

have the appearance of baldness.
This doesnt refer to the lack of
feathers on the birds head, but to
their white markings. Bald has
several meanings, one of which is
streaked or marked with white.
Thats the meaning here, as in piebald.
The phrase is very old and is
referred to in John Lydgates
Chronicle of Troy, 1430:
And yet he was as balde as
is a coote.
46

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Lodgeroom International Magazine

Explanation of the Magazine on - Page 4

The Square - Masonic Magazine - with history

Between The Pillars

Emerging Grand Lodges

continued on next page

Letters to the Editor

Willam McElligott, P.M. PZ,

Of This Take Due Notice, and Govern Yourselves Accordingly:

The staff at the Lodgeroom International

Book Review ............................................................................................. 42 to 45

Emerging Grand Lodges

for several hundreds of years abided by the sanctity

So we see here that the concept of geographic

You must go to the site and read for yourself, but to

Our aim is the brotherhood of all humanity

In short I say this, if you are a good Freemason these

Is there anything wrong with these concepts. Well there

Just make sure you get the facts

THE SQUARE MAGAZINE :

The Square December 2008

Quarterly Magazine delivered to

The devastating story behind the

THE SQUARE MAGAZINE :

Its what all Masons are talking

Plus, a chance for you to contribute

You can selecy the type of

The Temple of Solomon

in the reign of Jechoniah he took away another

continued on next page

The Temple of Solomon

But the modern method of reading Masonic history

The Temple thus constructed, must have been one of

The Five Faces of Freemasonry

Masonic Education is again being implemented in

fluid. Men want and need something stable in their

The Five Faces of Freemasonry

continued next page

The Five Faces of Freemasonry

We are able to ship most

The Five Faces of Freemasonry

women only, male and female joint lodges, and of

The Five Faces of Freemasonry

May the blessing of heaven rest upon us and all

Shakti and Shkta

Shakti who is in Herself pure blissful Consciousness

surviving in India in the Shakta worship a very

Shakti and Shkta

Continued on next page

Shakti and Shkta

A vast number of Tantras have disappeared probably for

Shakti and Shkta

declaration of 'So'ham" which in its fundamental aspect

Devatas (Surya, Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti) and

The next question is what Kriya should be adopted

Again Tantra is the name of only one class of

The word "Tantra" by itself simply means as I have

continued on next page

Shakti and Shkta

According to the Shakta Scriptures, Veda in its wide

Shaktiyamalasambhutam atharva paramam mahat.

Nigama, Agama and kindred

Shakti and Shkta

Shakti and Shkta