Leo Taxil and Anti-Masonry
by Wor. Bro. Dennis Stocks, Barron Barnett Lodge.
We must all be aware of the anti-Masonic trends in our society ...
especially from our friends in the Fundamentalist religions and others
such as A. James Wilson at Buderim, even from the misguided individual who
threw those litres of red paint through the grill and into the foyer of
Grand Lodge in early March 1993.
And when we think of anti-Masonic foci, the name of Stephen Knight is at
the forefront.
Knight's book on Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper - The Final Solution
(filmed as Murder by Decree) and his spin-off The Brotherhood have
promulgated the dark visions the cowans have of our fraternity. In fact,
when I once said that Knight had died of a brain tumour, one of the
people I was with remarked "How did the Masons organise THAT?"
We should not laugh; because Martin Short in a radio interview I heard in
November 1990 suggested we Masons had used an ultra sound death ray on
Knight to induce his brain tumour.
It is, of course, a "no-win" situation. It has been suggested that, when
the various official investigations into Freemasonry fail to uncover
anything overtly sinister, there follows an aggrieved sulkiness from the
media at somehow of being cheated and each future exposure is greeted with
an salacious eagerness usually reserved for Pop stars, bulimic Royalty or
the owners of multi-national corporations and brewing empires, failed
entrepreneurs with bad backs living in luxury in Majorca, or penis
amputees, or former sporting heroes now in trial for murder, film stars
caught performing "lewd acts" in cars or ex-Prime Ministers with new girl
friends.
To give an example: Knight's book The Brotherhood was issued in October
1983 and was withdrawn within hours of going on sale. When it appeared in
January 1984 all manner of stories began circulating as to why it had been
originally withdrawn including a story that a Masonic Hit Squad had broken
into the binders and muddled the pages before binding. It is important to
note that the work was originally published by Grenada, a publishing house
known for its pronounced and uncritical hostility to Freemasonry.
The simple truth was that the publishers and Knight himself had had to
withdraw the book and drastically revise one chapter for legal reasons.
Of course, this was not referred to in any subsequent media story.
And we, ourselves, are not immune. There is, in fact, a persistent rumour
among Freemasons dealing with this book. It claims that the Grand Lodge in
the UK had banned all brethren from buying and reading this book. Another
urban legend has it that the Grand Lodge forbade any bookseller who was a
Freemason from purchasing and selling this title.
The truth is that prior to 1984 the British Grand Lodge supported a policy
of silence on any criticism. This policy has unfortunately allowed
falsehoods to become established in the public consciousness as
uncontested facts.
In dealing with the public face of Freemasonry we must remember that we
are not dealing with realities, but with received impressions.
The intractable critics of Freemasonry have closed minds and will never be
persuaded that there is another opinion other than their own, let alone
that their views might be wrong. "Jack the Ripper" as a Freemason will
persist for some considerable time, despite the fact that Melvin Harris
has convincingly demolished Knight's researches and the conclusions drawn
therefrom.
Our concern should be with the middle ground public for whom Freemasonry
has no meaning or interest until the media forces the subject before their
eyes.
Brother J.M. Hamill in his presentation "The Sins of Our Masonic
Fathers..." has argued that the current problems with Freemasonry can be
broken down into three main areas:
-- Accusations of secrecy
-- Misunderstanding the relationship of Freemasonry to religion.
-- Insinuations of corruption, malpractice etc. through misuse of
membership by Freemasons.
Of course, these are a summation of our modern problems though it may be
said that they or something like them have been the basis of attacks on
Freemasonry in the past. Fortunately we are not confronted by attacks from
our civil authorities as our past Brethren in the 18th and 19th
centuries. The sheer violence and irrationality of the anti-Masonic lobby
in those centuries is almost beyond our understanding. Yet, in one case, an
enterprising con-man was able to capitalise on that irrationality.
In 1884 Pope Leo XIII issued the most damming and vitriolic of all papal
attacks on Freemasonry, Humanum Genus. John Hamill and R.A. Gilbert have
argued that such a response from the Vatican was almost inevitable. The
upsurge of anti-clericalism in the French Grand Orient leading to the 1877
constitutional change removing "God" from the first article of those
constitutions and from the first three Craft degree rituals, coupled with
the hostility to the church by Italian Freemasons, had sparked this latest
in Papal encyclicals against Freemasonry.
Pope Leo claimed all non-Catholics "followed the evil one" and Freemasons,
in particular, aimed to overthrow all Christian religious and social
orders. He urged civil rulers to resist Freemasonry's promotion of
democracy and secular education (from which "universal revolution and
subversion must come").
In the previous century, the Holy See had gradually been suffering
material losses. Gold and Silver mines, plantations, real estate and
millions of acres of farming land in South America and Mexico had been
lost when revolutions in those countries curtai led the flow of riches to
Rome. Indeed, even the Papal states had gone, and the pope was no more
than the bishop of Rome.
Pius IX (Leo XIII's immediate predecessor) had attempted to stem the tide
of rising secular power in 1870 by calling a Vatican council which
proclaimed papal infallibility. Now Leo clearly saw the Freemasons were
behind this rise in the power of vox populi. He was especially offended
by the Freemasons' democratic ideals:
(Freemasons taught) .....that men all have the same rights, and are
perfectly equal in condition; that every man is naturally independent...
that it is tyranny to keep men subject to any other authority than which
emanates from themselves. Hence, the peo ple are sovereign; those who
rule have no authority but by the commission and concession of the people;
so that they can be deposed, willing or unwilling, according to the wishes
of the people. the origin of all rights and civil duties is in the people
or in the State, which is ruled according to the new principles of
liberty.
As John Robinson writes, "It is perplexing to realise that the pope in
1884 was condemning the foregoing as satanic."
Leo called upon all Catholic bishops to teach the people, especially the
young, that Freemasonry was evil:
We entreat and pray you, venerable brethren, who co-operate with us, to
root out this poison, which spreads widely throughout the Nations... the
first thing to do is to strip from the Masonic sect its mask and show it
as it is, teaching orally and by past oral letters the people about the
frauds used by these societies to flatter and entice, the perversity of
its doctrines, and the dishonesty of its works.
Leo had not provided his bishops with much ammunition to use in carrying
out this exhortation, other than his claim that Freemasons were Satanists.
But, he had said the same about all non-Catholics.
But the Bull was followed a flood of articles, pamphlets, books and
exposures aligned for and against (mostly against) Freemasonry and
according to the allegiance of the author. But none were more strange or
exotic than the works of one Gabriel Jorgand-Pages ("Leo Taxil" to use his
pseudonym - "Leo" after his grandfather, and "Taxil" after a Hindu ally of
Alexander the Great). Robert Gilbert, commenting on Newman's The Church of
Rome and Freemasonry, has argued that one immediate effect of Humanum
Genus was to inspire Taxil to create an intricate and outstanding
anti-Masonic hoax.
Although the son of a Freemason, Taxil had been raised as a Roman Catholic
-- the Archbishop of Lyons had even officiated at his confirmation. At
school he read the Revue des Deux Mondes ("The Review of the Two Worlds")
by Lord Bishop de Segur which claim ed that the 1.6 million Freemasons in
France celebrated the Devil's Mass. The dichotomy of what he read about
Freemasons' devilish practices in the Catholic books and pamphlets and
what he knew about his father could not be reconciled. One had to be
wrong.
He ran away from school, only to be brought back by the police and sent to
the Mettray reformatory colony. There Taxil wrote his first anti-clerical
tract, The Psalms of Vengeance and privately took an oath of hate against
Catholicism.
Over the next few years, Taxil was the source of a number of elaborate
hoax's which tapped human credulity and presaged things to come. For
example:
Fake reports of shark attacks were received from areas ranging from the
Catamans to the beach at the Prado. These inspired an expedition of one
hundred fully-armed men to put to sea from Marseilles, naturally, without
encountering anything like to number of viscous man-eaters reported to be
cruising the area.
Having fled to Switzerland, Taxil reported the existence of an entire
Roman town at the bottom of a lake between Nyon and Coppet. With a clear
resonance of what was to happen later, people not only believed him, but
claimed themselves to have seen parts of a road and remains of a forum. A
Polish archaeologist wrote that he had seen what was probably the remains
of a statue of a horse.
As "Jean-Pierre", Taxil wrote several articles for the magazine, The
Battle, claiming to be the secretary of the Archbishopric of Paris who was
obliged to go into hiding. The articles were concerned with fictitious
political manoeuvrings within the Church to ensure the succession of the
Archbishop and to the Church's response should the legitimate monarchy of
France be restored. All of which was totally believed and dutifully
published.
In 1879, Taxil (then aged 26) was prosecuted but acquitted on publishing a
pamphlet Down with the Clergy which had had a circulation of 130,000 and
was denounced in parliament. He had been arrested under the provisions of
an old law of 17 May 1819 which proscribed "Outrage against a religion
recognised by the state." His defence lawyer successfully argued that
Taxil had not published an "Outrage", but an "Attack". The predominantly
Voltairian jury agreed.
This was the second time Taxil had appeared in court - called to account
for one of his published tracts. Some years earlier he had been found
guilty of plagiarism of the poet Auguste Roussel's work The Sermons of My
Parish Priest). Roussel's widow complained before a civilian Court of
Justice, in this case the Tribunal of the Seine. Taxil was fined 1000
francs and 2000 francs damages for the benefit of the widow. The Court of
Appeal later raised the latter figure to 4000 francs.
But, for all his brushes with the law on his writings, he was a regular
contributor to The Lantern and The Southern Republican as well as editing
his own magazine, The Anti-Clerical. two years later he was again
prosecuted when he wrote and published the salacious Secret Love Life of
Pope Pius IX. The Pope's nephew, Count Masta complained and the Court of
Montpellier condemned the work as obscene.
Even the Freemasons felt he had gone too far this time. On 1 August 1881,
Worshipful Brother Esprit Eugene Hubert (who, in 'civilian' life, was
Counsellor to the Prefecture of Police and editor of the magazine The
Chain of Union) presided over a Fraternal jury to consider Taxil's future.
On a vote to 20 to 12, Taxil was permanently expelled from his lodge, Les
Amis de l'Honneur Francais. He was still an Entered Apprentice.
His anger at his expulsion was further inflamed when his donation of 100
francs to the charity box was refused. One can only wonder at the
psychological tensions established by all this. On one hand he loves his
father, but the Church tells him his parent is a member of a Satanic
organisation. Apparently coming to an accommodation with this, he joins
that organisation and attacks the attacker, only to be rejected by the
very organisation he is attempting to help in his peculiarly unique
manner.
In using pornography against the Church, Taxil was not unique Based in
Paris, a flourishing anti-clerical publishing industry was churning out
titles such as The Priest's Testicles, The Whores of the Third Estate and
the Solicitors of the Fourth, Extraordinary Correspondence of the
Ecclesiastical F**ckers and so on.
But after his expulsion from Freemasonry Taxil formed the Anti-Clerical
League in September 1881 and remained an active and productive member for
three years.
In reality, the anti-clerical business was becoming less and less
remunerative for Taxil and even some of his fellow travellers were
beginning to shun his company. One way to fame and glory was to stage a
dramatic and public conversion which would be taken as a special miracle
of grace. Taxil was expelled from the Anti-Clerical League on 27 July
1885, but reminded its members that, while they did not understand his
motives at that time, they would later.
Following the release of Humanum Genus in 1884, increasingly shunned by
other members of the League for his outrageous attacks on the Church and
realising he was at a dead end, Taxil decided yet another grand gesture
was necessary. He arranged the sale of his entire stock of pornographic
and anti-clerical books etc and stage-managed his own conversion to
Catholicism and reconciliation with the Church to the shock of the League.
He apparently turned his literary talents against Freemasonry and in 1886
he produced five exposures and eight bitter attacks against the Craft.
These included The Three-Point Brothers (or The Brethren of the Three
Points), The Cultus of the Great Architect, Sister Masons (published in
1886), Freemasonry Unveiled and Explained, The Vatican and the Masons, The
Anti-Christ and the Origin of Masonry, The Masonic Assassins and The
Legend of Pope Pius IX as a Mason. Later, as Paul Rosen, he published The
Social Enemy and Satan and Company. This last work was dedicated to Leo
XIII and purported to be all the secrets of Freemasonry as revealed by a
"M.Ill. S.G.I.G. of the 33rd and Last Degree of Freemasonry." A
presumably satisfied Leo XIII granted him a private audience in 1887.
Between 1846 and 1878, Pope Pius IX had issued 145 pontifical
condemnations against Freemasonry. Leo XIII carried on this tradition,
issuing 228 between 1878 and 1903.
At this time in France, people had never talked so much about the Devil.
Numerous books, plays and songs all dealing with Satan were flooding the
market such as Abbe Decanu's History of Satan, and Meyerbeer's Robert the
Devil. It may be argued that this was coupled to the coming new century
lurking on the temporal horizon. For Taxil not to involve Satan in his
works would have appeared to make him ill-informed.
In 1891, Taxil expanded on an earlier work on Adoptive Masonry (Les Soeurs
Maconnes - "Sister Masons") and published Are There Women in Freemasonry?
(Y a-t-il des femmes dans la Franc-Maconnerie?) Answering his own
question, Taxil proceeded to reveal intimate (in every sense of that
word) details of an androgynous rite called the "New and Reformed
Palladium" which was directed from Charleston by one Albert Pike, the
"Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite". This presumed Satanic
rite had been imported into France by one Phileas Walder who founded the
Mother-Lodge of the Lotus with the aid of the occultist Eliphas Levi who
claimed to have, on 24 July 1854, raised the spirit of Apollonius of Tyre.
Beyond the first three degrees are two virulently an ti-Christian grades
which involve the initiate in blasphemy, sacrilege and - in the
Temple-Mistress Grade - ritualised sex to show "that the sacred act of
physical generation is the key to the mystery of being".
On the basis of this absurd misinformation, Bishop Fava, the impetuous
Bishop of Grenoble, published a booklet in which he stated that women's
lodges constituted a sort of harem for the men's lodges.
Taxil claimed that the virulently anti-Christian and satanic Palladium had
been brought to France by Phileas Walder with the aid of occultist
disciples. The Palladium ritual involved blasphemy, sacrilege and
ritualised sex. However absurd this was, the Catholic hierarchy took it
seriously and it led to another surge of anti-Masonic books. Other
authors such as Adolphe Ricoux confirmed the existence of the Palladium
and expanded on Taxil's background. Ricoux went on to described Pike as
the "Pope of the Freemasons" sending secret messages to his followers.
Other anti.Masonic authors, such as Father Leon Meurin, a Jesuit bishop
who had come from Mauritius, began seeking Taxil out to confirm their
theories as to the satanic nature of Freemasonry. In his book Freemasonry,
the Synagogue of Satan, the pious Bishop Meurin, who was an erudite
Orientalist, was quite sure Freemasons worshipped the Devil, having
discovered satanic allusions in everything pertaining the Freemasonry:
passwords, aprons, collars etc. Taxil gave him everything he wanted. As
late as 1957, this work was still being published in Spanish translation.
Of course there was no primary source material to support all this. There
never could be since the whole thing was a premeditated and carefully
planned hoax on the part of Taxil.
You may wonder at the ready acceptance by the French of this somewhat
strange Masonic order. However, recall that, following Andrew Ramsay's
Oration on 24th March 1737, there arose over 1100 different Masonic
degrees forming part of more than 100 different rites were
compiled/created before the end of the eighteenth century, and a further
300 in the first half of the nineteenth. Many were little more than
variations of one another, so that often almost identical ceremonies might
be worked under different names. The reverse is also true and it is
often difficult to distinguish between quite different degrees of the same
name. For example, there was the "Red Cross of Babylon", the "Red Cross
of Jerusalem", the "Red Cross of Patmos", the "Red Cross of Rome", the
"Red Cross of Palestine", the "Red Cross of Daniel", the "Red Cross of
Constantine" etc. etc. So when you read in one of the old rituals that
the opening ceremony was performed "in the Red Cross", to what is being
referred?
Many of these 1100 degrees were mercifully short-lived. Most of the
remainder were preserved, temporarily, by being organised into Rites, some
of which in turn became extinct.
As the anti-Masonic fervour rose, not to be left behind by the movement
his brainchild had created, in 1891 Taxil collaborated with Doctor Charles
Hacks and produced another sensational expose The Devil in the Nineteenth
Century or the Mysteries of Spiritualism, in other words Luciferian
Freemasonry. They wrote under the collective pseudonym of "Doctor
Bataille" -- who had supposedly entered the Palladium and seen its wonders.
And what wonders there were. There are wonderful elements of Jules Verne
and H.G. Wells in Bataille's work.
"In his house, Gallatin Mackey once showed me that Arcula Mystica (the
Mystic Box), of which there are only seven examples in existence, at
Charleston, Rome, Berlin, Washington, Monte Video (sic), Naples and
Calcutta.
"The exterior of this small box resembles a liqueurs receptacle. A spring
catch opens simultaneously its two doors and lid. Inside, in the middle,
stands a telephone mouthpiece in silver, which, at first sight one would
take for a very small trumpet or hunting horn. At the left is a little
rope made of twisted silver threads, one end of which is attached to the
machine while the other extremity ends in a kind of little bell which one
hold to one's ear to hear the voice of the person with whom one is s
peaking, just like the telephone of today. At the right is a toad, in
silver, with its mouth open. Placed around the opening of the
mouth-piece, stand seven statuettes in gold, each on a small separate
silver pedestal symbolically the seven cardinal virtues of the Palladian
Ladder.
"Each of these seven statuettes designates one of the Directories. The
statuette Ignis (sacred fire) divine endeavour, stands for the Supreme
Dogmatic Directory of Charleston: Ratio (Reason, triumphant over
superstition), the Sovereign Executive Director y of Rome; Labor (Labour)
the Sovereign Administrative Directory of Berlin; Ubertas (fecundity);
Caritas (Masonic Charity), Emancipatio (the emancipation of Humanity,
shedding the yoke of all despotisms) and Felicitas (Happiness derived from
virtuous prac tices) representing the four Grand Central Directories of
Washington, Naples, Monte Video and Calcutta.
"When the Supreme Dogmatical chief wishes to communicate, for example,
with the head of political action, he presses his finger on the Statuette
Ignis and on the Statuette Ratio: these sink into their sockets and at the
same instant, a strong whistling is heard in Rome, in the office where
Lemmi keeps his Arcula Mystica; Lemmi opens his box and sees the
statuettes of Ignis sunk, while tiny, harmless flames issue from the
throat of the silver toad. then he knows that the Sovereign Pontiff of
Charleston wi shes to speak to him. He presses down the statuette of Ratio
in his box and from then on, the conversation between the two chiefs
proceeds, each speaking directly into the mouthpiece described above,
while at the same time holding to his ear the small silver bell.
"At the end of the conversation, each chief replaces the golden statuettes
by pulling them up by the head.
" Every Sovereign Grand Master of a Directory travels with his Arcula
Mystics. This box is personally confided to him...."
They wrote that the control of the Palladium in France had shifted to
Sophie Walder, daughter of its founder in France, lover of the demon Bitru
and great grandmother of the Anti-Christ (!). Dr Bataille's revelations
were published in 240 parts, issued over the space of a year. The public
were told of satanic rituals, Masonic murders, a visit from the demon
Asmodes and the appearance at a Masonic meeting of a demonic, winged
crocodile who later entertained the members by playing the piano while
perving at the ladies present (!). Readers were told how Pike had regular
Friday afternoon discussions with his own personal demon who had been sent
as a liaison contact by Satan.
"At St Louis, we operated the grand rites, and through Sister Ingersoll,
who is a first class medium, received astonishing revelations during a
solemn Palladian session at which I presided, assisted by Brother Friedman
and Sister Warnburn. Without putting Sister Ingersoll to sleep, we
saturated her with the spirit of Ariel himself, but Ariel took possession
of her with 329 more spirits of fire and the seance from then on was
marvellous. Sister Ingersoll, lifted into space, floated over the
assembly and her garments were suddenly devoured by a flame which
enfolded, without burning her. We saw her thus in a state of nudity for
over ten minutes. Flitting above our heads, as though borne by an
invisible cloud, or upheld by beneficent spirits, she answered
all questions put to her. We thus soon had the latest news of our very
illustrious brother himself, flying beside our medium and holding her
hand. He breathed upon her and her clothes, returning from nowhere clothed
her again. Finally, Astaroth vanished and our sister fell gently on to
a chair where, with her head thrown back she gave up Ariel and the 329
spirits who had accompanied him. We counted 330 exhalations in all at the
end of this most successful experiment"
Taxil and Hacks (predominantly Taxil) embellished their creation with
lurid illustrations showing not only fictitious Palladists in their full
Luciferian glory, but provide their public with portraits of real, living
Freemasons together with a fine collection of both true and invented
Masonic documents. No bureaucratic detail was omitted with the Palladium
reported to have seven organisational centres - Berlin, Rome, Washington,
Monte Video (sic), Naples, Calcutta and Charleston. (Note that Waite in
his encyclopedia's citation on the Palladium adds Port Louis in Mauritius
for African control).
Not satisfied with having regained the pinnacle of the anti-Masonic
crescendo, Taxil now introduced to the world his most complicated and
ingenious deception -- a reformed and repentant ex-Palladist who would
reveal the full depths of wickedness, depravity and perversions practised
by the Freemasons.
This quisling, Miss Diana Vaughan, was "born" in July 1895 and her story
appeared in twenty-four monthly issues of "her" Memoirs of an
Ex-Palladist. The story recounted how, on Albert Pike's death, control of
the Palladium and the position as the Supreme Dogmatic Director of
Universal Freemasonry had passed to Adriano Lemmi, the first
post-revolutionary Italian Grand Master in Rome -- which came, no doubt as
a surprise to that worthy Brother! After a quarrel with Sophie Walder,
Miss Vaughan had gone her own way, forming her own "Free and Regenerated
Palladium" before being, finally, converted to Catholicism.
Her revelations did not match the satanic wonders of "Dr Bataille", but
she clearly outdid him in libelling living English Freemasons. Many
harmless Freemasons were implicated during the course of her revelations
including Dr William Wynn Westcott, the head of the English Rosicrucian
Society and John Yarker, who controlled the Antient and Primitive Rite.
Westcott was accused of being "the actual chief of the English
Luciferians" and the "actual custodian of the diabolical rituals of Nick
Stone; it is he who is the Supreme Magus of the Socinian Rose-Cross for
England." Diana Vaughan claimed to have visited Westcott's home and made
copies of the rituals.
The attack on Yarker was a rather inspired touch on Taxil's part, for the
Rites of Memphis and Misraim was thoroughly disliked by the Grand Orient.
The Rite of Memphis had strong links to the Ancient and Accepted Rite. In
1880, the mainly Scottish Rite Supreme Council (formed in 1804 largely in
competition with the Grand Orient) had sponsored the Grand Lodge of France
which, itself, was spawned out of disagreements within the Grand Orient.
Nonetheless, it retained the agnostic tendencies of the older body.
You will recall that, by the end of the eighteenth century, when the
uncontrolled creation of "higher" degrees began to correct itself, many of
the "add-ons" were ephemeral and ceased to be a problem. Others were
recognised to a varying extent by official Freemasonry as part of the
overall fabric of Freemasonry. Yet others formed governing bodies of
their own, controlling a series of several degrees, the most exotic of
which being the Rite of Memphis and Misraim. The rite derived its name
from the form er royal city of Egypt. It was instituted in France in
1814, its principal promoter being Gabriel Mathieu Marconis, known as "de
Negre" from his dark complexion. The original 91 degrees were increased
to 92 in 1849 and to 97 in 1856, although the number was reduced to 96 a
few year later, perhaps to evenly organise the Rite into three "series"
containing seven "classes." Some extraordinary titles were invented for
most of the degrees, although the names of the first thirty-three are
generally recognisable atop those acquainted with the degrees of the
Ancient and Accepted Rite. The Rite of Memphis was legally terminated in
France by government decree and was at the same time declared Masonically
spurious by established authority. The son of Marconis then
took the Rite to America where it became the Antient and Primitive Rite.
In 1859 a warning was sent to all craft lodges by the Grand Secretary
warning of the arrival in England of the irregular group "The Reformed
Masonic Order of Memphis, or Rite of the Grand Lodge of Philadelphes."
As for Taxil's creation: the New Illustrated Larousse encyclopedia even
carried a two-column entry on Palladism and the Palladium. In Italy, some
thirty-third degree Freemasons actually wanted to become Palladists
-- which probably tells us something about Italian Freemasonry at that time!
Imitators abounded. It seemed Taxil's spark would ignite the world into
an anti-Masonic conflagration. To keep the "pot boiling", in 1896 Taxil
produced (as Diana Vaughan), The Restoration of Palladism, a Transition De
creed by the Sanctum Regnum to Prepare the Public Cult of Lucifer, a Book
Reserved for Ecclesiastics. Taking advantage of the anti-British climate
aroused by the eviction of the French explorer, General Marchand, from
Fashoda, Taxil combined his attacks on Freemasonry with one against
Satan, by claiming that the Devil had his earthly headquarters within the
deep caves of the Rock of Gibraltar.
But, by 1896, the more rational members of the Church were becoming
disturbed by the extraordinary and unsupported stories. Taxil's greatest
threat was an Austrian Jesuit named Father Gruber who wrote saying that he
believed Walder, Vaughan and the Palladists all did not exist and never
had.
On 7 December 1895 and again on 4 January, 8 March and 6 June 1896, the
Spiritualist journal Light published in its correspondence columns a
series of detailed rebuttals to the Palladium by A.E. Waite. Waite
analysed the whole literature about the palla dium in his book, Devil
Worship in France, or the Question of Lucifer: A record Record of Things
Seen and Heard in the Secret Societies According to the Evidence of
Initiates (Redwing, 1896), which was a devastating expose of the whole
Palladium affair, d emonstrating conclusively that it was fiction pure and
simple - an "extraordinary literary swindle" in his own words - and he
took justifiable pride in having "unveiled the mass of fraud, falsehood
and forgery contained in their depositions, and placed the position of
the Roman Catholic Church in regard to the whole conspiracy in an
unenviable light".
Others felt Miss Vaughan should be canonised. The Roman Catholic Bishop
at Charleston even visited Rome to assure the Church authorities that the
Charleston Freemasons were not as Taxil had described them and were, in
fact, honourable, peaceful and harmless Protestants.
Waite was 39 at the time and a lapsed Roman-Catholic who had turned via
Spiritualism to the Theosophical Society which fascinated him, although he
disliked Blavatsky's anti-Christian bias. At the time of his attack on
Taxil's credibility, he was not a Freemason. Indeed, he had an uneasy
love-hate relationship with Freemasonry. His interest in occultism had
motivated him to publish as anthology of the writings of Eliphas Levi in
1886 - The Mystery of Magic - A Digest of the Writings of Eliphas Levi.
Via these writings, he developed an interest in Rosicrucianism and
freemasonry, although his attitude to the Craft was one of distain.
Originally an association for the diffusion of natural morality,
[Freemasonry] is now simply a benefit society. The improvement of mankind
and the encouragement of philanthropy were and are its ostensible objects,
and these also were the dream of the Rosicrucianian but, on the other
hand, it has never aimed at a reformation in the arts and sciences, for it
was never at any period a learned society, and a large proportion of its
members have been chosen from illiterate classes. It is free alike from
the
enthusiasm and the errors of the elder Order... it has been singularly
devoid of prejudices and singularly unaffected by the crazes of the
time.... It preaches a natural morality, and has so little interest in
mysticism that it daily misinterprets and practically despises its own
mystic symbols.
The Real History of the Rosicrucians, founded on their own Manifestos and
on Facts and Documents collected from the Writings of Initiated Brethren
(Redway, 1889) pp.403-4, cited by R.A.Gilbert, "The Masonic Career...,"
p.89
In this work Waite also printed the complete Rosicrucian Rules and
Ordinances. The Secretary-General of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia,
Dr William Wynn Westcott, threatened Waite with legal action. Waite
apologised and withdrew the offending text from subsequent editions and he
joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - a society of would-be
magicians founded by Westcott in 1887. Waite, himself, was now attacked by
the more rabid of the Roman-Catholic anti-Masons who saw him as a prime
mover of the Satanic conspiracy. Other reviews were positive, although
some felt he had taken a sledge-hammer to crack a nut (no pun intended!).
But now even Hacks believed the hoax had run its course. It was
discovered that Hacks had cut himself adrift from the conspiracy, had
married and set up as a medical practitioner in a handsome suite of rooms
in Paris. He explained frankly that when he was a bachelor, doing
press-work on the Petit-Journal, he was invited to join a number of other
journalists in the production of Le Diable au Dix-Neuvieme Siecle and was
glad to secure the unusual remuneration offered. His involvement,
however, was confined to the first volume.
At the International Anti-Masonic Congress of Trent (then in Austria),
begun on 26 September 1896, open doubt was expressed that Miss Vaughan
actually existed. The President of the Congress was Count Felippe de
Consolate, Chamberlain to His Majesty the Emperor of Austria. The
discussions were to be held under four main headings: Masonic Doctrine,
Masonic Actions, Prayer and Anti-Masonic Action. Bishop of Malaga
presented a document containing more than 100,000 signatures condemning
Freemasonry as a "dark and diabolical sect, the enemy of God, the Throne
and our Fatherland (ie Spain)."
When the Catholic newspaper Univers demanded Dianna Vaughan appear, Hacks
immediately wrote with the information he had previously supplied: that he
had collaborated on the first volume only and that he knew nothing about
Diana Vaughan. He later wrote much the same to La Libre Parole, but
included a blatent solicitation for his a la carte restaurant which he had
recently opened when he found the medical profession was not patronised
sufficiently. (He also claimed that, prior to being a ship's doctor, he
had been a clown!). He further explained that since the appearance of
the Humanum Genus Encyclical, he had concluded that there was money to be
made out of the "known credulity and unknown idiocy of the Catholics."
However, this did not explain why he had waited six years (between the
Encyclical of 1886 and his exploitation of the Catholics in 1892).
Strangely, Hacks' confessions did little to discourage the anti-Masons who
believed he had been bought by the Freemasons to spread these stories that
the whole thing was a hoax. Even more turmoil began when Domenico
Margiotta, an Italian ex-Mason, wrote that Dianna Vaughan had remained an
unrepentant Palladist, her conversion to Catholicism had not happened, and
the "memoirs" were those of a false Dianna. The "real" Dianna Vaughan
continued to diabolise more than ever in the Triangles (the
Palladium's name for their Lodges) and had made her peace with Lemmi.
To the doubts expressed at the Congress that Diana Vaughan existed, Taxil
counter-claimed that Miss Vaughan was in hiding to avoid assassination by
furious Palladists. Demands were made for her certificate of birth, the
name of the priest who baptised her and the bishop who authorised her
First Communion. Taxil, via the continuing publication of Diana Vaughan's
adventures, claimed that the laws of birth registration were exceedingly
loose in America and loose above all others in Kentucky. (Unfortunately
someone remembered Diana Vaughan had been "born" in Paris according to
her curriculum vitae derived from the publication of her memoirs). He
further claimed that, to publish the names of the priest by whom she was
reconciled to Catholicism and of the bishop referred to would
consequently also reveal the name of the convent into which she proposed
to retire when her revelations were complete and this would endanger her
life.
The Congress concluded that there was no evidence either way in support or
against the writings (even the actual existence) of Diana Vaughan.
Strangely, the Jesuits from Rome utterly believed Diana Vaughan existed,
while the French and German Jesuits were not so sure.
But the dream run was over. On 19 April 1897 when Diana Vaughan was
scheduled to present an address at the Paris Geographical Society, Taxil
appeared alone on stage (after ensuring his audience had all left their
sticks and umbrellas in the cloakroom) and explained how he had been
hoaxing the intolerant world for twelve years!; how his sole purpose had
been to discomfort the Roman Catholic Church by confronting and feeding it
with its own intolerance.
Taxil left the stage under police protection with the words "The Palladium
exist no more. I was it creator and I have destroyed it. You have
nothing more to fear from its sinister influence". His words to the
Anti-clerical League on his expulsion were now plain. Le Frondeur
published his confession in full six days later and it was later
published, in Spanish, as a thirty-three-page booklet in Madrid. The
confession had curtailed another book by A.E.Waite, intended as a sequel
to his Devil Worship, name ly Diana Vaughan and the Question of Modern
Palladism.
As a penultimate twist to his hoax, before his on-stage confession, Taxil
conducted a "lucky-door-prize"-type draw where the one and only prize was
a superb typewriter imported from the United States. This must have been
Taxil's ironic sense of humour at
play, for reasons which will become apparent.
You see Diana Vaughan actually did exist. She had visited Taxil in her
role as a sales representative for Remington typewriters. After her sales
trip to Europe and return to America, Taxil had merely "stolen" her name.
Alec Mellor in his Strange Masonic Stories claims she was aware of Taxil's
plans although she took no overt or covert role in them. You may thus see
the underlying message in Taxil's raffle of a typewriter prior to his
denouement.
And Albert Pike also did exist, although he really was a Freemason but one
with some ill-formed and almost incoherent ideas concerning comparative
religions which left him peculiarly vulnerable to accusations of being a
Satanist which was fully exploited and corrupted by Taxil. In reality,
Albert Pike is regarded by Masonic researchers as a regular Freemason, and
any accusation that he officially taught Satanism is untrue. He was head
of the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of the Scottish Rite
from 1859 until his death 1891. During that period, he revised its
ceremonial and gave it much of its present character. Christopher
Haffner, in his book Workman Unashamed writes that "like many of the
subsequent holders of that office, (Pike's) position as Grand Commander
of 'the Mother Supreme Council of the World' led to a degree of
megalomania".
Pike reconstruction the American Scottish Rite ceremonies was, in part,
inspired by the publication of David Bernard's Light on Masonry (1829).
This work contained not only the rituals of the Craft degrees, but the
entire sequence of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Although this
re-writing would probably have been undertaken by Pike in any case since
he was intrinsically unhappy with the existing rituals.
Pike had an outstanding intellect - albeit marred by a lack of academic
discipline and fine critical judgement, consequent upon the abrupt
curtailment (for financial reasons) of his formal education after one year
at Harvard. Born in 1809 in Boston, he later settled in Little Rock,
Arkansas where he built himself a highly successful legal practice and
where, in 1850, he was initiated into Freemasonry. He later turned to
publishing and, in 1861, the Confederacy commissioned him a
brigadier-general and appointed him its agent to deal with the Indians of
Northern Texas and Okalahoma.
In March 1853 he had received the degrees 4th to 32nd at Charleston. Four
years later he received the 33rd degree. But he openly expressed his
profound disappointment in these rituals and from 1855 to 1868 effectively
rewrote the entire rituals and liturgy.
On 14 July 1889, Pike, as "Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry" (a
position that did not, and does not exist), allegedly issued the following
instructions to twenty-three Scottish Rite Supreme Confederated Councils
(a body that did not, and does no t exist) throughout the world:
"That which we must say to the crowd is - we worship God, but it is
the God that one adores without superstition. To you, Sovereign Grand
Inspectors general, we say this, that you may repeat it to the brethren of
the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees - the Masonic Religion should be, by all
of us initiates of the higher degrees, maintained in the purity of the
Luciferian Doctrine.
"If Lucifer were not God would Adonay (The God of the Christians)
whose deeds prove his cruelty, perfidy and hatred of man, barbarism and
repulsion for science, would Adonay and his priests, calumniate him?
"Yes Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also God. For the
eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without
ugliness, no white without black, for the absolute can only exist as two
gods: darkness being necessary for light
to serve as its foil as the pedestal is necessary to the statue and the
brake to the locomotive.
"Thus the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy; and the true and pure
philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay; but
Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good is struggling for humanity against
Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil."
The statement was attributed to Pike five years after its alleged
circulation by Abbe Clarin de la Rive in his anti-Masonic tract La femme
et l'enfant dans la franc-maconnerie universelle ("The Woman and Child in
Universal Freemasonry"). At the time of the testament's revelation to an
increasingly anti-Masonic world, Pike had been dead for three years. The
Supreme Council has no record of any circular/letter/missive. According
to Dr and Bro. Brent Morris, 40% of the 2.5 million American Freemasons
have the 32o. With a missive such as this, you may reasonably expect
mass resignations, but these simply did not occur. Further, it is doubtful
that even the "great" Albert Pike would have presumed to tell other,
independent Sovereign bodies what to do and it is highly likely that the
whole thing was a product of de la Rive's hatred of Freemasonry influenced
by Taxil.
A clue to this comes in de la Rive's footnote, which says that Pike had
charged "Sister Diana Vaughan" with carrying his (Pike's) encyclical to
Paris during the Universal Exposition. And, as we have seen, Miss Vaughan
was nothing more than a matchless fiction.
But Albert Pike was a many-sided character. On one hand he is justly
praised for his part in the development of the Southern Jurisdiction; yet
he is despised by the Negro brethren of the irregular Prince Hall
Freemasonry for his racist statements in connection with his own devotion
to the Craft. As for his Satanist leanings, Haffner has studied Pike's
work Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of
Freemasonry, an 861-page book first published in 1871, a copy of which
until about 1980 was given to every new member. In spite of its turgidity
and woolliness, Pike's work argues that "the conviction of all men that
God is good led to the belief in the Devil, a fallen Lucifer, or
Light-bearer... as an attempt to explain the existence of Evil, and make
it consistent with the Infinite Power".
Haffner concludes, "His extensive knowledge of comparative religion, if
undisciplined, may have led him to seek for a common ground in all
religions, but Pike clearly did not advocate the worship or 'doctrine' of
Satan".
Pike was so wrapped up in his knowledge of ancient faiths and philosophic
systems that he tended to make the background of Freemasonry far more
complex and esoteric than it was ever meant to be. He was a man with an
extraordinary breadth of knowledge he wished to share. But he had
difficulty in communication. This may have required explanations of his
terms and curbing his vocabularial excess. When he spoke of the
"Luciferian Path" or the "energies of Lucifer" he was simply referring to
the morning star, the light bearer, the search for light; the very
antithesis of dark, satanic evil. "Light" for Pike meant education.
Robinson in his work A Pilgrim's Progress has spent a deal of effort in
explaining that the Classical Roman word "Lucifer" has been badly (even
deliberately) mistranslated in the King James 1611 version of the Bible
and become associated with Satan. In fact, Lucifer is the morning star -
the light bringer - of which, in Revelation 22:16, Jesus says, "I am the
root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."
John Hamill and R.A. Gilbert, in World Freemasonry: An Illustrated
History, write that "Pike's rituals are...colourful, dramatic and
well-structured, however syncretistic they may be... His principal
failings... are an inability to treat comparative religions in an
objective manner and an overriding conviction that all belief systems,
however incompatible they may be with one another, are somehow reducible
to a common denominator in Freemasonry".
The fate of one other of the "key players" is also worthy of attention.
A.E. Waite, who had so devastatingly attacked Taxil finally joined
Freemasonry. On 19 September 1901, at the age of 43, he was initiated in
Runnymede Lodge #2430EC at Wraysbury in Buckinghamshire. But his
interests lay with the higher orders. Take 1902 for example:
10 February -- raised as a Master Mason
10 April --
joins the SRIA
1 May -- joins Metropolitan Chapter #1507
(becoming First Principal in 1913)
8 May -- becomes a Knight
Templar in King Edward VII Preceptory
9 May -- joins the Order
of Malta, in St George's Priory #6
30 August -- joins the
Swedenborgian Rite, Hermes Lodge and temple #8
As for Taxil, the hoaxer by vocation, he retired and produced a cook book
(Good Family Cooking), a guide for housewives (The Art of Good Buying) and
a book on Monaco. He later returned to pornography and produced a revised
edition of his Secret Love Life ... (even more vulgar than the original)
and died on 5 May 1907. He was fifty-three.
The targets of his hoax were especially vulnerable.
The Catholic world lived isolated from the ordinary world. Sheltered
behind specially edited newspapers with a style all of their own, careful
not to read books that were not endorsed or recommended, kept in almost
complete ignorance of the mechanism of their society, they were ready made
for the deception in that their means of verification of Taxil's claims
were almost entirely absent.
If one considers the years of work devoted by Taxil to the creation of his
deception, motives of commercial profit are inadequate to account for it.
In fact, Taxil never made a fortune out of his scheme. Was it vanity? In
one sense that is true, but Taxil's deceptions border on aggression, both
unethical and anti-social. You may recall my earlier comments highlighting
the conflicting psychological tensions occasioned by his earlier life and
his earlier minor-in-comparison hoaxes.
It would be satisfying to say that Taxil's plan had sufficiently
embarrassed the anti-Masonic lobby into their downfall. But we all know
life is not like that.
The supreme ambition of Leo Taxil had been to stultify the whole Catholic
Church and to obtain from that assembly a judgement in favour of his
revelations. These had been planned thoughtfully to supply the one thing
wanting to complete the case of the Church against Masonry. Rome would
have given, so to speak, the third part of the triple crown of Peter to
find Satanism flourishing in the Lodges......
The result was mischievous to the Church, whose case against Freemasonry
was, as it remains now, peculiarly difficult to sustain before the
tribunal of universal opinion, and the worst thing which could befall it
was a connection - however unintentional -
with ridiculous accusations and proved imposture. In fine, therefore,
one would think that the insensate credulity of certain Catholics had been
taught a wholesome lesson, and that there was no need for Masons on their
won part to enforce it further. But the lessons which the Church was
prepared to learn were of another order.
In the years that have elapsed the old polemics have continued in
precisely the old manner. No charge has been too ridiculous, no argument
too banal... It is abundantly evident that if the legislative centre of
the Latin Church does not happen to have been deceived completely by an
impudent imposture it has been deceived always by its own uncritical
spirit. A.E. Waite
Without evidence, primary sources, witnesses or logic, Freemasonry
continued to be attacked. An ecclesiastic in England continued to expect
that Diana Vaughan would justify herself, and was reported to have placed
his presbytery at her disposal on the occ asion of her promised visit to
London.. As late as 1928, Palladium-look-alikes could be found in the
anti.Masonic literature. The director of The International Review of
Secret Societies claimed he had evidence from a certain Countess of
Coutanceau of the existence of Luciferian lodges. Abbe Paul Boulain
produced a Diana Vaughan clone in one Clotilde Bersone who claimed in the
work The Elect of the Dragon that Satan was the true political leader of
France and ruled through the Freemasons' lodges. In 1908, one prominent
French anti-Mason, M. Copin-Albancelli, argued that Satanism still held
sway in Masonic circles, albeit "not in the sense that the devil comes to
preside at their meetings, as that romancer of a Leo Taxil pretended,
but in that their initiates profess the cult of Lucifer".
Recall that Taxil's confession was published at least twice. But in 1938,
in Paris, it was claimed that his confession was forced upon him by
threats from the Freemasons.
The upheavals of the First World War and the political chaos that followed
the Russian Revolution all added fuel to the anti-Masonic fire. To the
worship of Satan was now added the charge of a Judaeo-Masonic conspiracy
aimed at overthrowing Christian civilisation and promoting atheistic
Communism. Those who propagated such views - and they were prominent in
England as well and in France - built on the older fantasies and fancies
of rabid anti-Semites, some of whom were also anti-Masons; as, for example
in Emil Eckert's The Real Purpose of Freemasonry (Der Friemaurer-Orden in
seiner wahren Bedeutung, 1852) in which the author argued that the Jews
and Freemasons were working together to destroy the existing, patriarchal
social order.
The trend continued. Claims that Freemasonry was Satanic appeared in:
-- Nesta Webster's 1922 pseudo-scholarly conspiracy works such as
Secret Societies and Subversive Movements.
-- 1929: Rev'd E. Cahill, a particularly nauseous Jesuit professor of
history, Freemasonry and the Anti-Christian Movement.
-- The 1930 paranoid ravings of Miss C.M. Stoddart, Light-Bearers of
Darkness, and
-- Occult Theocracy, published posthumously in 1933 by Lady
Queenborough (Edith Starr Miller) who managed to believe implicitly every
word of Leo Taxil's fictions, to see every social, political or religious
society that might be in any way be construed as promoting democracy as an
agent of the Jewish plot, and to see the whole conspiracy as
"Jesuit-Judaic-Masonic-Gnostic-Brahman-Illuminati" inspired. (There are
some interesting 'bedfellows' in that list, and it is somewhat odd in view
of the eclecticism of
her dislikes that she should extravagantly praise the Italian Fascists.)
In these pages, we learn that the Palladium was founded in 1730 and soon
thereafter introduced in Charleston where it remained inactive until 1886.
The work cites the Cyclopedia of Fraternities by Stevens who adds that the
Palladium is "little known as the number of its members is strictly
limited and the deepest secrecy surrounds all its deliberations" (Any
wonder, the only information was coming direct from the fertile mind of
Taxil and Hacks). We also find that the whole thing had been cooked up by
Giuseppe Mazzini and Albert Pike when they reached an agreement in 1870 to
create the Supreme Rite as an efficient organisation to abolish the
temporal power of the Pope and to rule the world from the sidelines. "The
act of creation is dated 20 September 1870, the day upon which the army of
invasion, commanded by the Freemason, General Cadorna, entered the Eternal
City. The two founders divided their power according to the following
plan. To Pike was given dogmatic authority and the title of Sovereign
Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry, while Mazzini held the executive
authority with the title of Sovereign Chief of Political Action". ah
well....
Later in this diatribe Karl Marx appears Stage Left and the "link" is made
between proto-Communism at the meeting of the Internationale on 28
September 1864 and Mazzini's secret order within Freemasonry. Also
appearing in the cast is De La Rive and the translation of Pike's
Luciferian doctrines already discussed in this paper. To make their point,
the author claims that the great Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry was not
written by Albert George Mackey, but by Gallatin Mackey who was a friend
and confident of Pike's. William Morgan is also invoked to remind the
readers just what personal fates have been braved by the various authors
in order to reveal the "truth" to the unsuspecting world....especially in
these "modern" times when "the victim of their vengeance, swallowing some
disease germ, meets a fate that none can prove to have been artificially
contrived." (This has elements of the 'death ray' that was claimed to
have been used by Freemasons against Stephen Knight to induce his brain
tumour).
The author points out that Masonic Centres are used for other purposes
other than Masonic meetings/Ritual. Members of the "profane public" may
enter to be taught accounting, stenography etc. So the entry of women
passes unnoticed. But once in side the building, certain women ("Pink
Serpents" - wouldn't Freud have a field day with that title?) know where
to go, and they sneak off to their androgynous rites in hidden rooms
within the Centres.
And the "links" between Freemasonry and the Occult remain firmly embedded
in the minds of certain authors. For example, in 1968 W.B. Crow published
his A History of Witchcraft and Occultism. Chapter 29 of this work
considers, in part, the Craft. But the title of the work implies that
everything mentioned between its covers is concerned with at least one of
the three parts of the book's title. You may best see this in the summary
of Chapter 29 given on page 8:
Freemasonry - Templar Revivals - Ancient and Accepted (Scottish
Rite - Order of the Palladium - The Illuminati - A Mysterious Character -
Cagliostro's Egyptian Masonry - Ancient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and
Mizraim (sic) - The Golden Dawn - Order of
the Temple of the Orient - A Theurgic Rite - Martinism.
Note that Taxil's Palladium was still prevalent.
On 28 September 1995, I chanced to see a television program ("Reach out
for Christ") broadcast by BRIZ-31 (a community free-to-air television
station broadcasting in Brisbane) during which a Christian Fundamentalist
seriously told the viewing audience tha t the Palladium continued to exist
and, along with the Secret Masters of the Illuminati who were influencing
world events to bring on the New World Order, were creating all the drug
problems, civil unrest, lawlessness etc to cause the collapse of
civilisation as we know it.
Intrigued by these suggestions I wrote to the Reach Out For Christ group,
pointing out that I believed the Palladium was a hoax and it had ceased to
exist in 1897 when Leo Taxil declared his creation's demise. I eventually
received a reply from the Intern ational Support Ministries of the Pacific
assuring me that the Palladium is "still most definitely functioning -
albeit in a very secretive fashion".
I was provided with evidence (sic) that the Palladium sits between the
Ordo Templi Orients (OTO) and the Illuminati in the hierarchy of control
over humanity. (Should you be interested, Blue Lodge Masonry is the
lowest of the 13 rung hierarchy, while "TG AOTU (Ain Soph Aur)" is at the
top of pyramid.) We are told that in this hierarchy "the lower levels
essentially leech off the lower levels"). I was even provided with a
number of photocopied pages from Occult Theocrasy (see earlier) which, I
was absolu tely delighted to find, is continued to be used by the
Fundamentalists. It cites Dr Bataille (Le Diable au XIXe Siecle) as if
everything he said about the Palladium was true and not the hoax dreamed
up by Taxil and Hacks in 1891 as recounted earlier. I must say, though,
on page 226 of this book, the author points out that some "discredit has
been cast upon Bataille's writings" (ahem!).
But this link of Freemasonry to the Supernatural's: The Occult in
Australia by Nevill Drury and Gregory Tillett - works which intimately
link Freemasonry by clear association with the subject(s) of their titles.
It must be said, however, that in defence of Drury and Tillett, there were
some pretty strange characters lurking on the fringes of Freemasonry in
Australia such as Frank Bennett, Vyvyan Deacon, Jiddhu Krishnamurti and
others.
The psychological inadequacies of those behind these and modern hysterical
attacks on Freemasonry can only be wondered at. Freemasonry has never, in
all its history, persecuted or unjustly condemned anyone whether for his
religious, political or any other beliefs. It is obvious that simply
saying nothing and relying on the common sense of the public to see how
unjust and ludicrous these fantasies and perjured arguments are does not
work.
The story of Taxil's deceptions belong to the history of Anti-Masonry and
therefore Freemasonry itself and in the minds of some misguided people,
the devil will always be associated with the Craft.
A refreshing wind of change is moving through the Craft. No longer can
opponents claim that the Craft is a "Secret Society" hiding itself from
public view. Of course there was nothing to hide, but our opponents would
have the public believe otherwise.
I, personally, would not mind so much these diatribes against Freemasonry
providing their scholarship was not so questionable. Take, for example,
Brother Jack the Ripper. A recent book by Melvyn Fairclough, The Ripper
and the Royals, contains so much rubbish in respect to Jack the Ripper
being a Freemason that is it almost beyond belief.
For example, Catherine Eddows' body was found in Mitre Square.
Fairclough finds this proof positive that the Freemasons were involved
because "the mitre and the square are the tools of the stone masons and
potent emblems of Freemasonry". He also finds this proof to be found in
the fact that Quatour Coronati Lodge had its installation ceremony on the
night of 8 November 1888; the night when the last of the Ripper victims,
Mary Kelly, was slaughtered.
Oh dear! You can do almost anything you wish with these "facts". I hereby
offer one for our opponents:
As each candidate for the Fellow Craft Degree recites, our Lodges usually
meet at night. Dracula, as is well known, comes out at night: therefore
Dracula is a Freemason. With his sartorial preference for Dinner suits,
he is also obviously a member of Grand Lodge!
To return to Jack the Ripper briefly, as this is a classic example of
tunnel vision by the uninformed and an excellent example of the
willingness to believe that was so aptly tapped by Leo Taxil.
If Jack does prove to be a lowly labourer or fish porter then nobody is
going to take a blind bit of notice, but if we can come up with a belted
Earl or something similar and weave a complete and utter fantasy around
him with the required amount of gore, sex and violence thrown in, then we
can sit back and bathe in the glory of yet another "final solution".
A recent book by Dr David Abrahamsen on Jack the Ripper also shows
elements of Taxil's techniques. Abrahamsen's book (Murder and Madness:
The Secret Life of Jack the Ripper) has Prince Albert Victor Edward and
his tutor, J.K. Stephen, running around Whit echapel in drag taking out
their sexual resentments against prostitutes by ripping them to pieces.
Unlike Taxil who invented or manipulated his evidence, Abrahamsen does not
produce any evidence at all. Court circulars of the time clearly indicate
that the Prince was no where near London on every single occasion the
Ripper struck.
As Joseph Goebbels may have said, "If you are going to lie, tell BIG
lies!" Look at the attraction and furore over the so.called Hitler Diaries
and the more recent elaborate hoax attempt to produce the diary of James
Maybrick, proving him to be Jack the Ripper! No one was at all
interested, I am unhappy to report, in the Dennis Stocks diaries. Perhaps
one prerequisite is to be a mass murderer?
There seems to be a human willingness to suspend the critical functions
and wallow in the dangerous morass of misinformation that supports our
deeper prejudices.
With opponents now unable to make spurious capital from the penalty
clauses of the "ancient" Craft obligations, they have turned their
attention to the so-called additional degrees -- seeking sinister
machinations and a malevolent controlling junta operating as a secret
inner cabal. Yoshio Washizu has pointed out that, in Japan, Freemasonry
has been blamed for everything from UFOs to being a Jewish secret society
responsible for the spread of AIDS as a microbial secret weapon.
Mind you, the attacks are not always in the one direction. John Robinson
in A Pilgrim's Path, raises the claims of one Tony Alamo - "World Pastor,
Evangelist, Author and renowned expert on Catholic Cults." Alamo claims
that Pope John Paul II is identified as a former salesman for the I.G.
Farben Chemical Company, in which capacity he reportedly sold cyanide gas
to the Nazis for use at Auschwitz.
Sometimes the crazies take over the asylum.
Robert Anton Wilson is an author who has made quite a business of the
Illuminati and has produced a plethora of books (mostly fiction) on the
subject. As an example of how fiction can catch up with fact and be
totally accepted, consider this statement by Wilson in Fortean Times #79:
Later in Dublin I met somebody who told me - on the basis of God knows
what authority besides his own imagination - that above the 33rd degree of
Masonry unknown to the world there is actually an illuminated inner circle
which is touch with (the star) Sirius. I thought I'd invented that
myself, but this guy is telling me this like it's an inner secret of
Masonry! But maybe that's what Hugh Kenner calls an "Irish fact," which is
quite unlike an English fact, an American fact, or a French fact, and has
no connection with a scientific fact. An Irish fact has the wonderful
Daliesque fluidity of a melting clock and the Joycean uncertainty of a
rubber inch.
You will also have noticed how Knight, Short and others have painted the
exclusively Craft Freemason as a poor dupe of the higher orders -- much to
the astonishment of the members of those orders who know there is nothing
incompatible or inimical to Christianity or any other religion therein.
But this internal certainty is no longer enough. We have nothing but
honesty and truth and no need to emulate the moral turpitude of our
opponents.
Let me close with a quotation from Dr Samuel Johnson:
The Craft can be in no danger due to a decline in numbers, neither need it
fear external enemies; provided its members do not lose sight of its true
nature or its ancient ideals.
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