In the 33°, Albert Pike—speaking of Masonry in general and the Rite in particular—asks the candidate if he has not lost the key to understanding, “that you do not wander with perplexed heart up and down this stately palace which contains the treasures of the wisdom of all the ages, but of which every goodlier room is closed against you…?”

I have often felt like one wandering those halls, but now, one of those goodlier rooms has been opened.

Ill. Arturo de Hoyos, 33°. Editor. Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry: Albert Pike’s Esoterika. Washington, D.C.: The Scottish Rite Research Society, 2005, hardcover, index, illustrations, 501 pages. Introduction by Sovereign Grand Commander Ronald A. Seale, 33°. Cover price $50.00.

For the last 43 years, I have wanted almost desperately to ask questions of Albert Pike—to get his “take” on questions of symbolism. Now I have had my chance. Pike’s voice comes through clearly in the book, but it is not the voice of Morals and Dogma, it is the quicker, lighter voice he uses in the speeches he gave in celebration of Sts. John Days or cornerstone levelings.

This is a priceless work, and Ill. Brother de Hoyos and the Scottish Rite Research Society have given us a great gift. Many Brethren have written or e-mailed me, asking for ideas on how to start reading Pike. I have always given two suggestions: read out loud, not silently, because Pike’s style was a verbal style. And, second, have a copy of Ill. Dr. Hutchens’ Glossary to Morals and Dogma at hand. Now there will be a third suggestion: read Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry first.

So, what treasures does this goodlier room contain?

After some helpful excerpts and a beautiful introduction, Pike discusses the compasses and the square; the weapons and blows of the assassins; the three grips; the substitute for the Master’s Word; and the 47th problem of Euclid. And then he touches on some additional topics: Truth; the Cable-Tow; Corner Stones, the Ladder of Jacob; Tubal Cane; Shibboleth; and Solomon and Hiram.

But the best way to share this book is to let Pike speak for himself.

First, in the “Introductory,” Pike openly sneers at those who think that the ritual gives you everything you need to grow and understand. He insists that you must know the history of a symbol, how it was used in the past, and what associations it brought with it into the fraternity. Examples:

The three lesser lights are “the sun,” “the moon” and “the Master of the Lodge” represented by the three altar lights. When these lights were three times three, in the Master’s Lodge, though only three in the Lodge of Apprentices, and two in that of the Fellowcrafts, did the nine by threes still represent the sun, moon and Master of the Lodge? And if so, how are the three triads of lights appropriate? Is the sun properly represented by a triad? or the moon? or the Master?

The “explanation” given in the Lodge, explaining nothing, is, “As the sun rules the day and the moon governs the night, so ought the Master to rule and govern his Lodge with equal regularity.” Does this show how the sun or moon is a light of the Lodge? The sun never shines into it: the moon can only do so occasionally. Neither of them lights it. The explanation, expressed in other words, is that the Master ought to be a light of his Lodge, ruling and governing it with regularity, as the sun and moon are lights, not of the Lodge, but of the outside World. Does that make them Lights of the Lodge?

No one can have a very exalted opinion of the symbolism of Masonry, who hears it repeated to a man of thought and a scholar, a wise statesman, a learned Judge or an eminent divine, that from time immemorial there have been represented in every well-governed Lodge, a point within a circle: that the point represents an individual Brother, and the circle, the limits of his duty to God and Man “beyond which he is never to encroach on any occasion”; that “this Circle is bordered by two parallel and perpendicular lines emblematical” (how?) “of the two Saints John” and that “on the vertex rests the Holy Bible”; wherefore, in going around the Circle, a Mason will not be able to deviate materially from the rules of moral rectitude.

Why are the two columns surmounted by a terrestrial and celestial Globe? To teach what lesson? To be symbolical of what? How can they be the appropriate furniture of a room “representing the middle chamber of King Solomon’s temple” when it was not imagined by any one in the time of Solomon, that the earth was a sphere, or that there was under the earth a sky, like that over it, the two forming a hollow sphere? It would not be more anachronistic to ornament the hall with pictures of steam-ships and railway cars, and style these emblematical.

Ouch! But what then happens when Pike sets out to trace the meaning of a symbol? See, for example:

The compasses, which are a fit symbol of the heavens, are also a fit symbol of all that is heavenly and spiritual; the square which is a fit symbol of the earth is also a fit symbol of all that is earthly and material, in nature and man.

In every human being that lives, there are four forces, each always acting, and two of them apparently antagonistic to the other two. Two of these belong to the animal, earthly, material nature of man, the animal or sensual appetites and the passions. Both of these, man has in common with the animals; and so far as these rule him, he is but an animal. The other two belong to his intellectual and spiritual nature. One of them is the Moral Sense, whose conclusions are as absolute and infallible as those of the mathematics; by means of which Moral Sense, given in a greater or less degree to every man, he knows what is right and what is wrong for him to do.

The other is the Reason, which teaches man what is the wisest and best for him to do for his own good, and this also belongs in a greater or less degree to every man.

Pike then illustrates examples of the square and compasses in Alchemy and suggests ways in which the meanings of the symbols were transferred forward. This is a great book and I very highly recommend it!

Jim Tresner, Valley of Guthrie, Oklahoma, is the Director of the Masonic Leadership Institute; Editor of The Oklahoma Mason, Member of the Steering Committee, Masonic Information Center; Director of Work in Guthrie; and author, among other books, of Albert Pike: The Man Beyond the Monument and Vested in Glory: The Regalia of the Scottish Rite. Contacts: Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, P.O. Box 1019, Guthrie OK 73044; Tel. 405-282-3212; Fax 405-282-3244; okmasonmag@hotmail.com