Theurgic Foundations of Freemasonry: Part 3

Posted on 21 Feb 2024 by Kristine Wilson-Slack

The second aim of Esoteric Freemasonry is to guide the neophyte to understand the cycle of life and death, and the physical/spiritual path we are all destined to take. This is achieved through what the Pre-Socratic philosophers called katabasis. The meaning of this word is to “march in descent.” The analogy used was the descent into the underworld, to gain knowledge, understanding, or a desired personal result. Many of the ancient mystery initiations were built on the myth of a human, demi-god, or god descending to the underworld to converse with Hades, for example. For Empedocles, his death in the crater of a volcano was indicative of his descent into Hades and was thereafter esoterically represented by a mixing vessel (krater), where the components of earthy and spiritual matter were separated. Like Freemasonry, these initiations were allegorical, with each aspect representative of a greater concept.

Katabasis is evoked in the pre-ritual ceremony for the Masonic neophyte. In many Masonic organizations, they use a chamber where the candidate must reflect on his life, and this chamber is symbolic of an underground cave. He must descend to commune with the spiritual voice inside. He is given instructions on what to do with materials that lay before him, and he is told “To Separate and Unite are the great processes of the universe.” Here the neophyte is surrounded by the reminders of his earthly life. Here he contemplates the ceremony he is about to undertake, his Initiation into Freemasonry. Figuratively, he descended into matter to achieve something beyond himself, to create something that is part of a whole. What that is of his own mind and making.

This descent into the bowels of the earth is found not just in the Orphic and Pythagorean mystery initiations but also in the Eleusinian and Dionysian mysteries. In each of these, the human or god must descend to find life once more. We can conceive of these like the Hero’s Journey, as outlined by Joseph Campbell. However, it’s not the singular journey of the earthly man’s heroics, but the heroism of becoming incarnate to further the evolution of humanity. The idea is not to reside forever in the earth, or on it, but to move through the necessary stages to the next level.

The neophyte continues his katabasis when he is asked to prepare himself for induction. This is reminiscent of the pools of Lethe and Mnemosyne, forgetfulness and memory, respectively. To drink from the pool of Lethe (lee-thee), forgetfulness, is to forget past lives, lessons learned, and our divine nature. In the Orphic or Pythagorean mysteries, the neophytes were directed to drink from the cup of Mnemosyne (neh-mow-zeen), or memory, so they may be able to get off the “wheel of reincarnation into matter” and commune with the gods. This direction to drink, in these ancient ceremonies, comes after the neophyte declares that “I am a child of the earth and starry heaven, but the heaven is my birth.” This is answered with the following dialogue, “…when you have drunk, traverse the holy path which other initiates and bacchants tread in glory. After that, you will rule amongst the other heroes.” Here, in Freemasonry, our neophyte is given a similar challenge: to fall not in the struggle but to conquer.

The would-be Freemason must continue this katabasis until he reaches the point where he has given up his physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual substance and become his pure self. This process is enacted by the entirety of the officers and Lodge for all initiations and the divine magic, theurgy, is guiding the candidate. In this instance, the officers are the theourgoi, those that perform the divine magic in the vehicle of the entire ritual. Why can’t one simply experience katabasis on their own? We in fact do experience it on our own, if we see that we enter this Earthly life alone. We remove ourselves from the entirety of consciousness, a veritable pool of thought, to become singular and individual. This is the human experience, after all. However, to remember our ancestor’s words, our “heavenly birth,” we need to remember what it is like to work together with all consciousness. We require others who have traveled the path, remember, and are trained in the ways of communing with divinity, via theurgy, to help us along the way. While we may be a world of individuals, we are not seeking to stay here. We’re seeking to achieve henosis, which we will discuss in Part Four.