The Two-Horned Beast

Freemasonry traces its origins back to its loose organizational form during the late medieval Stonemasonry period. Freemason history encompasses three phases, including the emergence of operative lodges during the Middle Ages, the acceptance of speculative Freemasons, and the gradual growth of speculative lodges under the Grand Lodges that govern them. In 1717, the formation of the first Grand Lodge occurred in London. Due to the scarcity of written material, historians face difficulties in uncovering information about this fraternal organization. In fact, scholars from all over the world struggle with waning through a plethora of misinformation generated by Freemasons and non-Freemasons alike. As a result, the summation of the history of freemasonry requires years of research and resources to create a comprehensive outline of notable events and developments surrounding Freemason history. The information below traces the development of freemasonry starting with its organized bodies of operative stonemasons to the speculative lodges and Grand Lodges of today.

The earliest masonic texts contain segments of information about the craft and mystery of freemasonry. According to The Halliwell Manuscript or Regius Poem created between 1390 and 1425, masonic craft began with Euclid in Egypt. The Cooke Manuscript foretells how masonry stems from Jabal, son of Lamech, in Genesis 4:20-22. It also explains how it came to Euclid and then to the Children of Israel in Egypt before eventually finding its way to England during the reign of King Athelstan. This myth gave birth to subsequent manuscript constitutions that all trace Freemason history back to biblical times.

James Anderson of the Premier Grand Lodge of England created a palatable, modern form of these constitutions. His version traces freemasonry back to its biblical roots with Euclid as a pivotal point during its evolution. According to Anderson, the first grand assembly occurs with the English Masons at York under Edwin Athelstan, son of King Athelstan. Anderson expanded and revised his version of the “Gothic Constitutions” in 1738, whereby he listed the Grand Masters since Augustine of Canterbury. William Preston authored the Illustrations of Freemasonry, a text that expounded on this masonic creation myth. In 1737, a French lecturer by the name of Chevalier Ramsay added the crusaders to the lineage. Ramsay stated that the crusaders revived the craft by uncovering secrets in the Holy Land. At this point, the history of freemasonry emerged from its roots established in England.

Anderson’s histories coupled with Ramsay’s romanticism and the internal allegory of masonic ritual with King Solomon’s Temple as the framework, paves the road for further speculation. Hiram Abiff is credited as the architect of King Solomon’s Temple where the earliest known ritual took place. From there, masonic ritual made its way to Euclid, Pythagoras, Moses, the Essenes, and finally the Culdees.

Further developments in the myths of freemasonry took place when the Knights Templar became involved as cited in Karl Gotthelf von Hund’s Rite of Strict Observance, a text that also made connections with the exiled House of Stuart.

Recent writings have connected the Knights Templar to freemasonry through a series of images depicted in the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

Henry Price, the Provincial Grand Master of North America for the Grand Lodge of England, allowed a group of Boston Freemasons to form the Saint John’s Lodge in 1733. This became the first lodge formed in the United States of America. Shortly afterward, Grand Lodges began to appear in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina. This led to a rapid expansion of practicing freemasons in the United States. By the 18^th century, the United States had many independent lodges, including self-starters that applied for Grand Lodge authorization only when they knew they would survive. The Lodge of Saint Andrews in Boston, also known as the first chartered Scottish lodge, hosted many known public figures, such as Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, and the Boston Tea Party. While still holding true to British, Scottish, and Irish Grand Lodges, America had spawned one group of fifteen rejected masons that changed the face of the fraternal order by forming what is now known as Prince Hall masonry.

The history of Freemasonry has impacted the way the fraternal organization operates today. Modern freemasonry has spread throughout the world, with many lodges belonging to local areas. Each lodge elects officials to govern its members, such as the Worshipful Master and the Tiler, and to carry out masonic functions. Freemasonry consists of three degrees or levels, including the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason. The Entered Apprentice title is given to an individual being initiated into the Masonic Order. The Fellow Craft title is given to members learning about the process. A Master Mason title signifies that the initiate has earned the highest level in freemasonry.

Freemasonry saw an explosion in popularity after the Second World War.

From the video:

From the very beginning, that which is called Illuminati, those who believe they are enlightened, passed the baton from one organization to another up until today. We look at the ancient world, the world of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, all of those philosophers just injected poison into people to believe that actually the true god is the one who revealed the secret, not the one who kept them away; the one who told them to eat from the tree, not the one who told them to stay away from the tree; the one who told them they can be like God. And that’s whom they adore.

In between the Old Testament and the New Testament eras a new movement was born, a movement whose object was to somehow penetrate into Israel, and that movement was called the Kabbalah (mystic doctrine concerning God and the universe, asserted to have come down as a revelation to elect saints from a remote past, and preserved only by a privileged few). It was one of the most horrific things that started in the 5th century BC, and was probably the basis of every secret society since, they all originate themselves from that time.

Gnostic in Greek means enlightenment, knowledge. They were the biggest enemies of the gospel in the 2nd century. Gnosticism taught:

• god, the supreme father, had two sons, the elder son is called Satanio and the younger Jesus.
• To Satanio who sat on the right-hand of god, belonged the right of governing the celestial world, but filled with pride he rebelled against his father and fell from heaven and aided by his companions of his fall, he created the visible world. The image of the celestial having the son, the moon, and the stars, and last he created man, and the serpent which became his minister.
• Later Christ came to earth in order to show men the way to heaven, but his death was ineffectual for even by descending into hell he could not rest the power from Satanio. This belief in the impotence of Christ and the necessity therefore for placating Satan, not only the prince of the world but its creator lead to the further doctrine that Satan being all powerful should be adored.

There is a group of about thirteen families that control 40% of the world’s financial system.

The Illuminati has formed itself into a cartel of international bankers and industrialists based mostly in Western Europe and North America. The names of certain families persist over long periods of time. Some of the most important names are Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan, Lazard, Warburg, Schroder, and Schiff.

They began forming councils in the twentieth century:

Washington while still in the field sketched the idea of the stars and stripes on the back of an envelope. It was a Mason—Bro. Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who really designed what the legendary Betsy Ross then cut and sewed into America’s first flag. The following year, on June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Stars and Stripes as a symbol of our new freedom and independence. The thirteen stars on a blue field defiantly replaced the British flag. After that Masonic glory accompanied the stars and stripes on America’s journey to growth and glory.

Admiral and Brother John Paul Jones, “Father of our Navy” in France achieved international prestige for our Navy and our country during a historic ceremony at Quiberon Bay on February 13, 1778. There the French Fleet gave our flag our first national salute, the first time America was acknowledged as a sovereign nation. For most of a century— Sag Harbor whaling men—Masons all—showed the stars and stripes to the four corners of the world for the first time. Soon followed many memorable occasions when we were to see Masons and our flag honored around the world as well as in outer space—at the North Pole thanks to Admiral and Brother Byrd, the South Pole, thanks to Admiral and Brother Amundson, and Scott, and on the moon, thanks to Brothers “Buzz” Aldrin, and John Glenn. ln 1803, Admiral and Brother George Prebble’s Squadron was fighting against the Barbary pirates who were then infesting the Mediterranean Sea. On February 16, 1804, Commodore and Brother Stephen Decatur took the USS Intrepid into Tripoli Harbor under the guns of the fort and fleet, to bum the USS Philadelphia that had been captured after having accidentally run aground and the crew inhumanely tortured. In 1814, the nation’s Capitol was burned by the British during the War of 1812. On Lake Erie, Commodore and Brother O. H. Perry flew a flag that read: “Don’t Give Up The Ship,” and after the battle reported, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” On September 14, 1814, Brother Francis Scott Key, prisoner aboard a British man-of-war shelling Fort McHenry, wrote on the back of an envelope what was to become our national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. In 1831, Captain and Brother Thomas Driver of the SS Charles Daggett received a delegation of ladies aboard ship who presented him with a new flag they had just made. He immediately ordered the new colors run up the mast and as he saluted declared, “l name thee Old Glory.” The name stuck. Bro. Driver was to carry “Old Glory’’ twice around the world. The year 1861 saw our nation tested as to whether it could survive as a nation united. Civil War. We were to suffer 650,000 casualties, more than for all wars combined until World War 11. And Brother James Gilmore wrote: “When. Johnny comes marching’ home…” It was during those terrible times that Brother elect (but never initiated) Abraham Lincoln described America as “a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…a nation under God that shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth….” In 1892, Brother James P. Upham, publisher of Youths Companion Magazine, advanced the idea of a flag raising ceremony in all schools in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Sir Knight Christopher Columbus. Patriotic fervor swept the country. For an appropriate prayer filled with reverence, patriotism and love of country, for occasions such as these, the Rev. and Brother Francis J. Bellamy created America’s Pledge of Allegiance. Bro. Bellamy’s pledge was first used on Columbus Day, October 12, 1892 and was officially adopted on June 22, 1942, “under God” was added June 14,1954. And all through the terrible World War One we “kept our eye on that Grand Old Flag” as instructed by Bro. Geoge M. Cohan in his “ Grand Old Flag” rouser.

In 1941 we were again called upon to defend our freedom and that of weaker nations subjugated by power hungry dictators. We marched to Brother John Philip Sousa’s Semper Fidelis March, The National Emblem March and, of course, Stars and Stripes Forever. And, with the poetic genius of Brother Irving Berlin, we all asked “God to Bless America “

On August 3, 1949 a Master Mason and Knight Templar 80 years old and in failing health, came to Washington from Yeadon. Pa., to witness U.S. President and Brother Harry S Truman sign The Flag Day Act into law. Bro. William T. Kerr had, with other Masons, for more than a half century, appealed to every United States President from McKinley to Truman. He lead rallies and continually promoted the idea of a special day to honor “Old Glory.” Kerr died in 1953 but left his brethren this legacy, now the law of the land.

Among American Freemasons there are two festivals in the Masonic calendar. The Feast of St. John, the Baptist, is celebrated on June 24th and the Feast of St. John, the Evangelist, on December 27th.

The two dates fall at the time of the summer and winter when the sun attains its greatest north or south declination when it apparently stands still for a short time before turning in its course. These are known as the summer and winter solstices.

Why is it that Masonry has chosen these two men as patrons? Why are Masonic lodges dedicated to them? Why do Masons hold celebrations in their honor each year? Were the Saints John Freemasons?

Before answering these questions, let us review a bit of ancient history. Before the days of Christianity the early Greeks and Romans dedicated their temples and sacred things to some god. To the ancients the sun was the source of power. They observed the course of the sun through the year and knew that at one period the sun brought them warmth, new vegetation, bountiful crops and with it all, a new source of energy and hope.

Then the sun, after a fruitful season, left them and they felt the cold, the grains in the field failed to flourish, and all nature seemed to sleep. The ancients knew that, after due time, the friendly sun in its cycle would come back to them bringing again light, warmth, food and hope. Is it any wonder that these people worshipped the sun as a god? Even today people the world over, revere the sun and welcome its warmth, and even travel to follow it during the cold and dark winter months.

It is significant to note that the two festival days of the Saints John fall at these two seasons – first when the sun is nearest, and second, when the sun has reached its northern-most summit and again turns toward the south.

People in the early ancient days had their organizations and guilds even as we do today and dedicated them to a pagan god for protection. The worshipping of the sun or other deities had so permeated mankind that when Christianity was introduced to the world the church found it was impossible to stop the people from such pagan celebrations. It was natural to feel the need for adopting some patron for protection.

The church therefore consecrated its churches to God and wisely substituted the names of its saints as patrons. Other societies and organizations followed the same practice.

St. John, the Baptist

Why did the Freemasons choose St. John, the Baptist, as patron? One would suppose that they would name some outstanding person. But, St. John, the Baptist, was a humble man, a plain man who held, above all, his obligations to God and, with almost unbelievable steadfastness, met martyrdom. He continually preached repentance – and virtue – and humiliation.

Yes, the early freemasons chose well in selecting such a man as St. John, the Baptist, as a patron of Freemasonry!

St. John, the Evangelist

For a long period only St. John, the Baptist, was patron saint of Freemasonry. It was not until after the 16th century that St John, the Evangelist, was also adopted as a patron. The “Old Charges” of Freemasonry speak of St. John, the Evangelist, as a “Saint of the Craft.” He was constantly admonishing the cultivation of brotherly love. Of all the gospels, The Gospel of St. John is the most Masonic for the central theme is LIGHT. It portrays God as “the Light of the World.”

Lodges Dedicated to the Holy Saints John

Lodges then came to be dedicated to the Holy Saints John and it is interesting to note that the early Masons were called “St. John’s Masons” or “St. John’s Men.”

It matters not whether the two Saints John were actually members of the Masonic fraternity. But they have been called the patrons of the fraternity down through the ages because they have exemplified the principles of Freemasonry in their daily lives by their deeds and their words. These two humble men did not engage in any of the pomp and glory of the world.

It is because Masonry regards the character and internal qualifications of a man – not the exterior appearances – that these two men are fittingly called the patrons of this great fraternity. They possessed those internal qualifications that made the TRUE MAN. Masonry honors them above all others for they were the living examples of the Golden Rule, the practice of virtue, love for their fellow-men and love for their God.