Freemasons

Guenon on the Free Masons

The free masons hold high importance to both science and metaphysics. The free masons are related to carpentry and stone-cutting.¹ Masonic initiation is divided into three successive phases: apprentice, fellow, And master.² There are two types of masons: operative and speculative. The operative masons are workers and artisans and the speculative masons are related to philosophy, but this is hermetic philosophy and not profane philosophy. The free masons craft metaphysical symbolism into their works- be it architecture or something else.³ The free masons tend to hold no dogmatic assertions- either scientific or metaphysical. However, Guenon believes true metaphysics, which is suprarational contains nothing that could offend them. There is really according to Guenon no contradiction or incompatibility between science and religion.⁴

Guenon believes the Freemasons, to a certain extent like all traditions, alludes to something that has been lost. However, freemasonry- being the last of the traditions to come about, represents one of the most degraded forms of tradition. Throughout history, information has been lost constituting substitution, and more information has been lost constituting further substitutions. Freemasonry- being the last tradition to develop has the most substitutions ion place. Thus, freemasonry is simply a “corpse of the original tradition. This tradition has been distorted in do many ways to the point of becoming unrecognizable. The different grades of mastership do not in any way relate to how things were in their primordial state. There should really be no distinction between the different grades of mastership if things were the way they should be. These high grades are in reality far removed from the original tradition.⁵

Analysis

I am aware that the Freemasons are an esoteric organization, but I am also aware that they share some enlightenment ideals. That being said, I am only concerned with Freemasonry to the extent that it remains traditional. I’m not a free mason that has a slight interest in traditionalism, I am a traditionalist that has a slight interest in freemasonry. What I am interested in is tradition and traditional activities. Freemasonry is an interesting way to express these ideas. That being said, freemasonry constitutes a valid activity and can lead to some interesting results. A society without freemasonry can be boring and it should be retained at least in the West.

The metaphysical heritage of tradition has a greater variety and has a higher quality than anything that can be invented in contemporary times. There have been many religions invented in history and further esoteric traditions documented in the west: magic, alchemy, astrology.  Nothing today is as interesting as these ideas and it would take years to develop a new esoteric tradition at the same level as what came in the past. There has been invented for example, the idea that we live in a computer simulation as invented by the Swedish philosopher, but this is a lesser form of metaphysics having been developed over less time and leads to paradoxical consequences. Additionally, it can be further argued that the esoteric traditions are the only traditions that constitute a true facet of our reality. These traditions have been received through divine revelation and have been handed down throughout history. Additionally, the moral principles involved in moving out of tradition can be seen as a degeneration. The moral principles of tradition are far superior to anything that has come since. One should retain proper male female relations and proper familial relations by relying on tradition. The relationless monism of Bradley and Atkinson’s law of attraction can get out of hand if pushed to the extreme. These ideas should be retained but handled with caution while remaining in a traditional framework.