Manly Palmer Hall

The rise of the Christian Church broke up the intellectual pattern of the classical pagan world. By persecution of this pattern’s ideologies it drove the secret societies into greater secrecy; the pagan intellectuals then reclothed their original ideas in a garment of Christian phraseology, but bestowed the keys of the symbolism only upon those duly initiated and bound to secrecy by their vows.

The Dionysian movement migrated eastward to build the empire of Islam with each stone in mosque and palace bearing the mark of the master masons. Later the migration continued as far as India, where these same marks are to be seen on the monuments of the Mogul dynasty.<br />

Rosicrucians in their hidden houses used the Rose of Sharon as the symbol of brotherly love, a simple rearrangement of the letters r-o-s-e becoming e-r-o-s, the Greek God of love, Eros.

All these groups [Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Knights of the Holy Grail, Alchemists, Dionysians] belong to what is called The Order of the Quest. All were searching for one and the same thing under a variety of rituals and symbols. That one thing was a perfected social order, Plato’s commonwealth, the government of the philosopher-king. To this end each consecrated its life and knowledge, exploring ever further into the secrets of Nature to discover the greatest secret of all--the secret of human happiness.<br />

In early development of Europe the Dionysians became the guild of the cathedral builders. They signed each stone with the secret symbols of their cult, and into the intricate carvings of church and chapel they worked the old pagan figures and designs.<br />

For more than three thousand years, secret societies have labored to create the background of knowledge necessary to the establishment of an enlightened democracy among the nations of the world. ... Secret societies still exist, and regardless of the intemperance of the times, they will continue to flourish until the Quest is complete.

All the petty princes of Europe in medieval times had their Merlins, wise old men who in many instances were the actual rulers of the State. It is obvious that if these counselors Were bound together by some common purpose their collective power would be considerable. And they were bound together, in the secret society of unknown philosophers, moving the crowns of Europe as on a mighty chess board. Men of this calibre bring about the mutations of empire. It is the general opinion that revolutions begin with the common people, but this is not true; the benevolently informed always guide and direct public opinion.

When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy.

A hundred religions have brought their gifts of wisdom to its [freemasonry’s] altar.

It [Freemasonry] is a shadow of the great Atlantean Mystery School, which stood with all its splendor in the ancient City of the Golden Gates, where now the turbulent Atlantic rolls in unbroken sweep.

In the footsteps of the demigods, man follows in his search for truth and illumination. The Christian follows the gentle Nazarene up the winding slopes of Calvary. The Buddhist follows his great emancipator through his wanderings in the wilderness. The Mohammedan makes his pilgrimage across the desert sands to the black tent at Mecca. <strong>Truth leads, and ignorance follows in his train.</strong>

He [man] realizes that he best serves God when he joins with the Great Architect in building more noble structures in <strong>the universe below</strong>

Freemasonry is a philosophy which is essentially creedless. It is the truer for it. <strong>Its brothers bow to truth regardless of the bearer; they serve light, instead of wangling over the one who brings it [Lucifer is the light bearer].</strong>

In Freemasonry is concealed the mystery of creation, the answer to the problem of existence, and the path the student must tread in order to <strong>join those who are really the living powers behind the thrones of modern national and international affairs.</strong>

The Masonic order is not a mere social organization, but <strong>is composed of all those who have banded themselves together to learn and apply the principles of mysticism and the occult rites.</strong>

Those who follow the path of faith or the heart, use water, and are known as the Sons of Seth, While <strong>those who follow the path of the mind and action are the Children of Cain, who was the son of Samael [Devil/Satan/Lucifer], the Spirit of Fire. Today we find the latter among the alchemists, the hermetic philosophers, the Rosicrucians, and the Freemasons.</strong>

The Holy Grail, or the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and which was said to have caught his blood when he was dying upon the cross. Ancient legends tell us that this cup was made from a sacred stone which had been the crown jewel of Lucifer, the dynamic energy of the universe. It was said that the green stone had been struck from the crown of Lucifer by the archangel Michael during the famous battle in heaven.

There is only one real pyramid in all the world. Even the others in Egypt are but copies of the Great Pyramid, and were used as tombs for the Pharaohs, but nobody was ever found in Cheops, nor were there ever any signs that it had been so used.

This stone [the pyramid capstone] is the spirit in man, which fell from its high position, and has been lost beneath the rubbish of the lower man. This is the true cap stone that is now hidden in the pit of man’s temple, and which he must exhume and place again as the true crown of his spiritual pyramid.<br /> <br /> He can only do this when he calls the thousands of workmen within himself together and binds them to the service of the higher man. There must be no traitors to murder the builder this time. And <strong>Lucifer, the one rejected by man as the devil, is the one who must through the planet Mars send man the dynamic energy which man himself must transmute from the fire of passion to the flame of spirit.</strong> He then must take the tools of the craft and cut and polish his own being into the cap stone of the Universal Temple.

America can not refuse the challenge of leadership in the postwar world. Mere physical reconstruction of ravaged countries and the reorganization of political, economic, and social systems is the lesser task we will face. The large problem and the great challenge is in how to set up a new order of world ethics firmly established on a foundation of democratic idealism.

Those who attempt to resist this motion [towards a democratic new world order] destroy themselves. To cooperate with this motion, and to assist Nature in every possible way to the accomplishment of its inevitable purpose, is to survive.