 |
|
Title: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry/Pamphlets
ISBN: 1564592758
Author:
Albert Pike
Publicate Date: 1992-03
Publish: 1992-03
List Price: $45.00
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Paperback
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $50.00
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Morals and Dogma
Product arrived on time; as agreed.
Book, reprint, is excellent. One does not need to be a Freemason to read this. The lessons contained in the variouis degrees is applicable to everyone. A timeless classic.
|
2: Give me a break. This teaches almost nothing about Freemasonry.
Albert Pike was a brilliant scholar. Morals and Dogma is brilliant scholarship which is so esoteric that it's nearly useless. (Exception: Explaining the Scottish Rite doctrine rejecting temporal and religious tyranny in the 30th degree, Knight Kadosh.) Pike writes with unexplained Latin and Greek passages, and strange references to Egyptian mythology. (He later explained that he used Egyptian examples because he figured that wouldn't offend any of the modern religions.)
If you're looking to learn about Freemasonry, this ain't the book for you. In fact, no book will tell you very much about Freemasonry. I could write about skydiving, describe the rush of the air into the plane, the hesitation stepping out, the freedom of free-fall, and so forth, but unless I've done it, I have no way to REALLY understand it. If you want to understand it, you really have to go through the experience. To be a Mason, ask a Mason.
RC
|
3: There's a mystery here
I first looked Albert Pike up on the Internet, because my friend, Andrew, told me that as the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, he was the most evil American. Many sources claim that Pike espoused slavery in 1857 while practicing law in Arkansas. And it's easy to find references to him all over the Internet saying that he worshipped Lucifer and had demonic intentions of bringing the world under the totalitarian control of the Illuminati in an apocalyptic Third World War; that he could even see far enough ahead to help engineer the modern conflict between the West and Islam and so on and so forth.
He's born and raised in Boston, considered a Founding Father. And prior to the Civil War he was firmly against secession, but he nonetheless joined the Confederate Army and was put in charge of working with the Indians, because he got along with them so well. And then he did a terrible job as a General and was even arrested on counts of insubordination and treason. And he's the only Confederate soldier who has a statue in Washington. Hmmm...
Of course, in past times, I wouldn't have been allowed to read his book, not only because I'm not an Nth degree Freemason, but because I'm just a girl. So, of course, I bought the book about a year ago, and I've been reading it slowly every evening, and then rereading passages that I felt didn't quite sink in.
Every page is infused with such heart, and such depth of wisdom and such unbelievable erudition.
And there's just no way the author of this book sought the downfall of Christianity or Islam or Buddhism or any other religion. And there's no way he regarded other races and peoples as inferior... you don't write 850 pages quoting extensively and respectfully from the best writings of the Western and Eastern and African traditions if you think they are in some way inferior to your own. And he didn't believe in slavery. I could quote 1000 passages (without exaggeration) which are irreconcilable with a belief in any of this, but let me pull out a few here... Hmmm... Lessee...
*********************
"Christianity taught the doctrine of Fraternity; but repudiated that of political Equality... Masonry was the first apostle of Equality. In the monastery there is Fraternity and Equality, but no Liberty. Masonry added that also, and claimed for man a three-fold heritage, Liberty, Equality and Fraternity... Man has a natural empire over all institutions. This seems a simple truth... But once it was a great new Truth... Once revealed, it imposed new duties on men. Man owed it to himself to be free. He owed it to his country to seek to giver her freedom, or to maintain her in that possession. It made Tyranny and Usurpation the enemies of the Human Race. It created a general outlawry of Despots and Depotisms, temporal and spiritual... Patriotism had, henceforth, a new and wider meaning. Free Government, Free Thought, Free Conscience, Free Speech! All these came to be inalienable rights, which those who had parted with them or been robbed of them, or whose ancestors had lost them, had the right summarily to retake."
"Masonry teaches that all power is delegated for the good, and not for the injury of the People; and that, when it is perverted from the original purpose, the compact is broken and the right ought to be resumed; that resistance to power usurped is not merely a duty which man owes to himself and his neighbor, but a duty which he owes to his God... This principle neither the rudeness of ignorance can stifle nor the enervation of refinement extinguish... The wise Mason will not fail to be a votary of Liberty and Justice."
"He has already lived too long who has survived the ruin of his country; and he who can enjoy life after such an event deserves not to have lived at all. Nor does he any more deserve to live who looks contentedly upon abuses that disgrace and cruelties that dishonor, and scenes of misery and destitution and brutalization that disfigure his country."
"Observing the annual return of the rising of the Nile was always accompanied by the appearance of a beautiful Star... The Ethiopian compared this act of that Star to that of the Animal, which barking gives warning of danger and styled it the Dog (Sirius)."
"We do not undervalue the importance of any Truth. We utter no word that can be deemed irreverent by any one of any faith. We do not tell the Moslem that it is only important for him to believe that there is but one God and wholly unessential whether Mahomet was his prophet... And as little do we tell the sincere Christian that Jesus of Nazereth was a man like us, or His history but the unreal revival of an older legend. To do either is beyond our jurisdiction. Masonry, of no one age, belongs to all time; of no one religion, it finds its great truths in all."
"Thus Masonry disbelieves no truth and teaches unbelief in no creed... It draws no sword to compel others to adopt its belief."
"And be Charitable as God is, toward the unfaith, the errors, the follies, and the faults of men: for all make one great brotherhood."
"The immutable law of God requires, that besides respecting the absolute rights of others, and being merely just, we should do good, be charitable, and obey the dictates of the generous and noble sentiments of the soul. Charity is law, because our conscience is not satisfied nor at ease if we have not relieved the suffering, the distressed and the destitute."
********************
I mean, c'mon guys. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I say that he was either sent by the Union Army, or himself decided to infiltrate the Confederate Army, and try to contribute to its defeat. And for the sake of the stability of the Union, he consented to live on in ignominy.
|
4: The Enduring Philosophies Endure Through Great Systems and Great Men
The Great Albert Pike's literary tour de force; his magnum opus. Morals and Dogma is by no means, your typical Freemason's monitor. It is a Freemason's cardinal esoteric challenge--an erudite gauntlet for those who truly endeavor to be ambassadors of the institution. It is not something to be merely read; it's something to be lived! Its lessons are not intended to be fully comprehended by the intellect, but by the heart; the veritable object of Masonic instruction. (If you can stand it, read and devote deep contemplation to what Pike writes about Force and Intellect in the book.) And any Freemason with a heart will surely embrace the palpitant moral plasma the book's lessons will cause to course throughout his entire being.
To pike's credit and literary genius, Morals and Dogma, ironically, often provokes a posture of deference in even non-masons (called the profane by Freemasons, for having never cast a shadow in a lodge). And as expected, it provokes a similarity in Freemasons because it is preceded by its reputation worldwide. So often do Freemason and profane alike obtain a copy of the book only to glean the first ten pages, maybe, and then rest it on the shelf to collect dust, or place it in the sitting room as a centerpiece, where it does the same. And they'll boast about their copy to audiences who don't really care (or know to) one way or another.
This is not an easy read. In fact, it is a difficult one. Not for everybody.
I'm not kidding, when I say that this book is a Freemason's convention in parchment, a marvelous aggregate of the world's finest teachers on pure morality in one tome. The "philosophies" of all the great classical masters from Hermes and Quetzalcoatl, to Buddha and Zoroaster, to Christ and Muhammad, etc., are eloquently canonized here. And I am of the firm opinion that Albert Pike intended this work to smudge the illusionary lines between the ancient system of moral philosophy and contemporary Freemasonic philosophy, and thereby, supplement the sacred mores he developed in his revision of the Scottish Rite ritual.
Morals and Dogma is no mere book; it is a beast of books. And beasts must be conquered for heroes to emerge. Albert Pike was well versed in mythology, and he knew what he was doing when he penned this one! To be sure, there won't be another; this is the one.
And finally, a direct salute to the man: Not only was Albert Pike a physical giant in his day (standing nearly six-five and weighing over three hundred pounds), but more significantly, he was a literary and moral giant as well. And he is still a giant today, for after all; his work still towers above the rest.
|
5: The Mysteries explored step-by-step & degree-by-degree
This is it, the definitive volume on Scottish Rite Masonry. Here, each degree is laid out revealing their charges, lectures and secrets, from the first degree of Apprentice, to the thirty-second degree or "Master of the Royal Secret" (The thirty-third degree is simply an "amplification" of the thirty-second.)
The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry embodies a great number of other Masonic traditions including the all-pervading "Blue Lodge". This is also the source for those seeking the "lost word", as there is an equation which works out this mystery, all one needs to do is solve it!
|
|
|
|
|
