Without individual initiation, Freemasonry is nothing. Each candidate for the mysteries of Freemasonry needs to be taken on that journey which the rituals provide in order that he might finally stand on the frontier where this world links with the next: a frontier brilliantly symbolized by the illustration of Jacob’s Ladder which stands at the heart of the tracing board displayed whenever any Lodge is first opened.
    The Cornerstone Society exists to provide some insights by which masons might continue their journey towards a deeper understanding of our ritual, passing beyond the surface appearances. Each year the Society holds two conferences, one in London in the early summer, and one in autumn in the north. They blend the inspirational, the philosophical, and the historical. For our journey towards a deeper understanding is better served by a multitude of perspectives, a point not lost on those attending this summer’s conference.

Is there a philosophy of Freemasonry?

The opening address came from the Grand Master of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy, Professor Fabio Venzi. He has a deep interest in the philosophical movements of the Renaissance and their effect on us today.
    At the heart of the Italian Renaissance was the idea that Christianity, Classical Platonism and Jewish Kabbalah could all work together in the search for a personal experience of Divinity. This teaching was driven by the monumental figures of Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Ficino translated Plato and the Neoplatonists such as Plotinus and Iamblichus. He also translated the crucial Corpus Hermeticum, the mystical works attributed to the legendary Hermes Trismegistus. Pico, who appeared a little later, drew Kabbalah into the equation and wrote the important ‘Oration on the Dignity of Man’ in which the image of Jacob’s Ladder holds an important place:

When we shall have been so prepared by the art of discourse or of reason, then, inspired by the spirit of the Cherubim, exercising philosophy through all the rungs of the ladder - that is, of nature - we shall penetrate being from its centre to its surface and from its surface to its centre.

This finds clear echoes in our Second and Third Degree rituals.
    Professor Venzi, in an investigation of the sources of the philosophy carried by masonic practice, pointed to the importance of this Renaissance thought and, crucially for Freemasonry, its continuation in England by a seventeenth century group of theologians known as the ‘Cambridge Platonists’ - of whom Benjamin Whichcote, Ralph Cudworth and Henry More were prominent.
    These men were writing at the very time that Freemasonry was beginning its ritual development which was to culminate in the ecumenical moral and spiritual three-degree system of the early eighteenth century. Professor Venzi stated that ‘It is my conviction that it is precisely in Cambridge Platonism that the peculiarities of masonic philosophy can be found.’ These Platonists opposed dogma for they felt that this stood in the way of any understanding of the Divine; they welcomed differences of religious doctrine because they saw this as a means of extending religious experience; and they held to a tolerance of opinion.
    ‘Nothing spoils human nature more than false zeal,’ wrote Whichcote, ‘Because I may be mistaken, I must not be dogmatic and confident, peremptory and imperious. I will not break the certain Laws of Charity for a doubtful doctrine or for an uncertain truth.’
    There are many connections to be found with Freemasonry: the connections between nature and science, a vision of experience which embraces both the natural and the spiritual - that the world, far from being part of a mechanical universe, is alive with spirit; like Freemasonry, the Cambridge Platonists held an ecumenical approach to religion and sought a philosophy which did not conflict with varied religious expression; and, crucially for the period, they maintained that morality was independent of religion and politics, that its source was a ‘moral consciousness’. ‘This,’ said Professor Venzi, ‘can only force us to make the connection with the cornerstone of the Anglo-Saxon masonic tradition, the exclusion from engaging in politics and religion.’
    He concluded with the thought that while ‘one cannot…speak of the existence of a “masonic philosophy”, as an organized system…one can still lay claim to the existence of a philosophical influence, of Neoplatonic origin, on the birth of modern Freemasonry.’

Masonic Signs and Passwords

The Reverend Neville Cryer has never failed to provide something new and thought-provoking. He began with the question, where did the use of allegory, the passwords, early catechisms and titles of various officers come from? And why were they drawn into Freemasonry? Why were these adapted and adopted?
    He revealed that the monks of many Orders used signs to communicate during their silent periods and meals which too were usually eaten in silence. Many of the signs commonly used were similar, or identical, to the signs used today in Freemasonry. This tradition was passed on within the monastic orders and, as seems evident, within Freemasonry. The early catechisms too seem to have had a similar monastic source since the teaching of novices used the same catechetical style. So too we can find allegorical interpretations of symbolism in ecclesiastical tradition, dating from very early times indeed. The important role of the monastic Orders in the formation of our Craft seems evident. However, Neville Cryer is cautious, stressing that, ‘Similarities are not sources.’

The Transcendence of Eternity

Professor John Grange gave an individual and personal talk, illustrated by photographs of extraordinarily beautiful astronomical phenomena which emphasised the point made in the explanation of the First Degree Tracing board, that ‘The Universe is the Temple of the Deity whom we serve.’
    He pointed out that ‘we increasingly see the cosmos as a holistic and interconnected entity and one in which our consciousness may have very widespread effects…and if the very matter that we are made of is thus interconnected, then is not our sense of separation illusory?’ And he referred to the long explanation of the Second Degree Working Tools, ‘The Level demonstrates that we are all sprung from the same stock, partakers of the same nature and sharers in the same hope.’
    ‘But our rituals are likewise full of windows to eternity, and are proper subjects for contemplative meditation… the Middle Chamber - that chamber with its ever-open door, emblematic of the heart in which we come face to face with the sacred name of God, symbolic of the very source and ground of our whole being.’
    ‘Thus, it is in the Middle Chamber, the centre of our true beings, that we receive our reward, the absolute and unconditional Love of our Great Architect, without scruple or diffidence. Without scruple, well knowing we are justly entitled to such love because of what we are…Without diffidence, because of the utter trust we place in Him.’ Professor Grange concluded:
    In fine, our Masonic Art and Craft can inspire us with a sense of the transcendence of eternity and give us glimpses of the real life in the spirit, for which our sojourn on earth is a mere preparation. At the same time, it reveals to us the immanence of eternity…As Dietrich Bonhoeffer remarked, ‘the Beyond is in the midst of our everyday lives.’

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