From: shava@hermes.oit.unc.edu (Shava Nerad Averett)
Newsgroups: alt.magick
Subject: masonic morals & dogma
Date: 9 Apr 92 22:48:01 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

I have access to a book which I am not supposed to have access to.  Although
the book says: "This book is to be returned to the mother lodge upon the
descease of the member who has custody of it." (or somesuch), I have a copy
of a morals and dogma manual for the southern (US) scottish rite masons.
Obscure used book stores in tiny little towns are wonderful things...

The book doesn't have any of what I think of as the technical secrets of
the craft, which would be grips and passwords and suchlike stuff, nor the
rituals/psychodramas of the degrees themselves.  However for each degree,
there is a wealth of expository material having to do with each degree of
the scottish rite.

This manual was put together by a Mr. Pike, in the mid-1800's, although my
copy is a printing from about 35 years ago.  It is a marvelous book,
comprising a reasonable primer in qaballah, history of religious ideas
(accurate enough for its time, and extremely thorough at that!), the
foundation ideas behind ritual (well put considering the lack of what
I think of as a more rich philosophical/psychological/... vocabulary 
today), and is generally up to the standard of any of the magickal
primers of any sort I have ever read.  It startles me to think that this
sort of education has been available through masonic sources for this
long -- and probably longer, in various other forms.

It also makes me understand much better the origin of the GD & OTO in
their masonic roots.

One thing that I went through this book with a fairly fine comb to find,
is to try to clue out the foundation of the idea of excluding women
(along with idiots and drunks and suchlike riffraff incompetants).  I
poured through the document looking for references that indicated a
disqualification of women.

What I found, to the contrary, was a low-key but definite philosophy
that promoted the idea of the resolution of opposites, with gender 
definitely being included.  The extrapolation of the isis/osiris/horus
myths was full of strong female symbols, and at one point the author
expounded upon the doctrine of the Fall in judeochristian tradition,
pointing out that persons are always interested in blaming someone
else for their troubles, and since men were writing down the story,
and it was men that they knew were reading it, surely it was easy
to lay blame on women. (He also made some very nice points about the
identification of woman and serpent in the bible and made parallels
between this and the serpents of the oracles in greece and such...).

No where in the very thick volume (over 800 pages, as I remember) 
does the author have a word to say against women, or women's competance.
He says some things in favor of the idea that a dichotomy of the sexes
is an issue of Maya, but he never addresses in any direct or indirect
way the moral or religious (or any) competancy of women.

It is material like this which causes me to believe that the masons
should not be viewed as being sexist in priciple, but only in practice.

One suspects that this is a major reason for the various schizmatic
organizations, such as the IMORC, GD, OTO and so on.  You will also
notice that the scions of masonry are almost universally more openly
magickal lodges, while also admitting women.  I think this is an issue
of the limitations of the current structure of "traditional" AF&AM
(and A&FM or whatever) masonry, and also perhaps an issue of the
persons interested in serious magick being winnowed out from the 
main line.  (I almost said more conservative mainline, but decided 
that wasn't necessarily appropriate...)

Let's see if that starts some juices flowing...

-- 
Shava Nerad Averett				shava_averett@unc.edu
/*  all materials (c)1992, Shava Nerad Averett, and have nothing significant
    to do with the University of North Carolina, a mostly owned subsidiary 
    of the NC Legislature, a mostly owned subsidiary of the DOT.      */
Newsgroups: alt.magick