The Edge of The Universe

In Freemasonry, it explained that the “extent of a Lodge” covers the whole of existence, rising to the heavens, to the depths of the earth, east and west to each horizon, and north and south the same. This is the width, breadth, and depth of a Masonic Lodge. This is emblematical of the Temple of Humanity, but truly not just humanity. The Lodge is all of creation, edge to edge. If this is so, then the whole of the entire universe is a Lodge, and all of the entirety of the universe are its officers and workers.

Everything? So it would seem.

We also know that a Lodge is not a Temple. The Temple is the place where the Freemasons meet, to perform ritual, enjoy brotherhood, and revel in sacred space. The Lodge is the body of Freemasons that make up the Fraternity. Plainly, it would seem that the Lodge is not just Freemasons but truly all life, organic, inorganic, and all matter within the known universe. Is it any wonder that the Freemason creed is to study the hidden mysteries of nature and science? Hidden, it seems, is the operative word. No pun intended, I assure you.

Yet, I think Freemasons may rarely study either. Many are content to execute ritual with good friends, and for many, that is the whole of Freemasonry. Some are involved in activities outside themselves, such as service to their Order and to other non-profit organizations, which are necessary activities. New Masons may observe and listen; yet, there are steps to real study that need to be followed to find understanding. This study and exploration continues well beyond the Third Degree. This is not meant as a condemnation of those good works; it is but a passionate appeal to seek for more.

A Freemason’s study entails curiosity, reading, experimenting, testing, theorizing, and play. It requires creativity and intuition to explore that creativity, looking for new ways to be in and of nature. It involves art, engineering, science, and math. It involves all the liberal arts. There is so much depth the foundational principles of Freemasonry and we only have to delve further to decant vast pools of mystery where we can drink direct understanding.

Indeed, most humans rarely look beyond their own bodies, and sometimes not even then, to study nature and science. We are accustomed to people telling us what to see, hear, and do. This is not to say their input is incorrect or malicious. It is their opinion based on evidence to their eyes. It is based on their own perception of the universe. Every perception, including our own, is only a shadow of perhaps all there is, and we need to remember that when listening and observing. The ideas we come up with from observing how nature works, by the vehicle of science, is a far better path towards wisdom. This is why ancient philosophers are so fascinating. It the not-so-distant past of humanity, a mere two thousand years, we were focused on the union of these two methods – observing nature and theorizing on its state – to understand life. Philosophers would not have separated the two ideas; nature taught, philosophers sought to understand, test, and validate their findings.

They were a curious lot, and for hundreds of years helped humanity steer itself toward a union between itself and the rest of the universe. They were often wrong; yet, even today we find them often right. Democritus, “Father of the Atom,” understood that “the world is made of up of granular particles.” Today, his work has informed Einstein as well as many modern quantum physicists. We recognize that the world is made up of grains, atoms, and their constituents are also granular.

These great thinkers are not limited to just the well-known philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. In fact, I do not believe we can truly understand these three unless we take steps to understand their predecessors and successors. Zeno of Citium, in 300 B.C.E. taught that universal reason, logic, is the foundation of all goodness in life and that living a life of reason was humanity’s purpose. Epicurus, with his principles of pleasure and happiness informed Lucretius’ work On the Nature of Things, which has also informed many modern scientists. Three hundred years earlier, Anaximander, a student of Thales of Miletus, became what we now believe to be the “first” philosopher, as Thales’ writings have ceased to survive.

“Anaximander invented the idea of models, drew the first map of the world in Greece, and is said to have been the first to write a book of prose. He traveled extensively and was highly regarded by his contemporaries. Among his major contributions to philosophical thought was his claim that the ‘basic stuff’ of the universe was the apeiron, the infinite and boundless, a philosophical and theological claim which is still debated among scholars today and which, some argue, provided Plato with the basis for his cosmology.”¹

The past informs the future and sometimes, it informs the far future if we pay attention. Carlo Rovelli, in “Reality is Not What it Seems,” states:  “It is only in interactions that nature draws the world.” Or, “The world of quantum mechanics is not a world of objects: it is a world of events.” Rovelli sees the world as Anaximander did, as an eternal flow between events; these events may be the life of a human being or a rock, not as fleeting as that of the quantum processes of creation.

In Lucretius’ discussion about the existence and composition of space, he poses what we now know as the Javelin Argument:

“For whatever bounds it, that thing must itself be bounded likewise; and to this bounding thing there must be a bound again, and so on for ever and ever throughout all immensity. Suppose, however, for a moment, all existing space to be bounded, and that a man runs forward to the uttermost borders, and stands upon the last verge of things, and then hurls forward a winged javelin,— suppose you that the dart, when hurled by the vivid force, shall take its way to the point the darter aimed at, or that something will take its stand in the path of its flight, and arrest it? For one or other of these things must happen. There is a dilemma here that you never can escape from… Lastly, before our eyes one thing is seen to bound another; air is as a wall between the hills, and mountains between tracts of air, land bounds the sea, and again sea bounds all lands; yet the universe in truth there is nothing to limit outside.”²

We now theorize that with Loop Quantum Gravity, a form of quantum theory about how the universe is constructed at the quantum level, spacetime is a network that creates itself, as the universe is expanding. While we may believe there is an edge to the universe, it is at the quantum level unbounded in that it has a constant creation. According to Claudia de Rham, theoretical physicist at Imperial College, “General relativity yields the predictions of black holes and the Big Bang at the origin of our universe. Yet the “singularities” in these places, mysterious points where the curvature of space-time seems to become infinite, act as flags that signal the breakdown of general relativity.”

Courtesy of NASA

Additionally, Juan Maldacena, a quantum gravity theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, has said, “In quantum gravity, space-time itself behaves in novel ways. Instead of the creation of particles, we have the creation of universes.”

If the foundation stones of Freemasonry are these ancient philosophers, it behooves us to understand them so we have a foundation to understand the nature of humanity in order to perfect it. In fact, we require their knowledge to understand the nature of all things, so that we may remember whence we came and that of which we are made. To understand a thing is to know it. Can we understand ourselves if we do not understand nature? We do not stand apart. We are the universe in all things. As NASA has said,

“The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Elements like phosphorus and copper are present in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life,”

and have come from exploding white dwarfs and massive stars.³

To the Freemason, then, there are ever things to explore and understand. In fact, we might even say that we are co-creators in the universe, as it constantly growing and developing. The breadth, depth, and width of our “Lodge” is on the move, and we have the past and the future to explore. Spacetime is inconstant, creative, and evolving, and there is a wonderful eternal now from which to draw our study of nature and science. Perhaps that is a subject for another time. Again.

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Notes:
1 – August 21, 2020, https://www.ancient.eu/Anaximander/
2 – August 22, 2020, https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/carus-on-the-nature-of-things/simple#lf1496_endnote_nt239
3 – August 09, 2020, NASA https://ift.tt/2DCCwin

Masonic Ritual: The Foundation [Part II]

PART II: THE FOUNDATION – BUBBLES AND THOUGHT FORMS

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By Very Ills.^..^.. Bro.^.. Kristine Wilson-Slack 33^o

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Here the author explores the foundation of Masonic Ritual as influenced, shaped, and formed by the thoughts and mindset of the Brothers of the Lodge. Part I can be found here.

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A bubble is a self-organized structure that is the result of a new thermodynamic phase of matter; that is, when matter organizes itself differently from its surroundings as a result of applied energy, a bubble is formed. Bubbles are a low-energy state of matter; in that they take little energy to form and little energy to dissipate. Compare soap bubbles to a cardboard box; both contain air but the structures holding them together require little and much energy, respectively.

Bubbles are formed by energy and force; it is the result of one type of matter suspended or held energetically within another. Without going into the science too deeply, there have been experiments and theories regarding the idea that knowledge, information, and/or thoughts have substance – mass. Between Maxwell’s Demon and Einstein’s general relativity theory, people are quick to either propose or dismiss thoughts having energy, and thereby mass. It seems logical that at some level, by the creation of thoughts, the brain has expended energy, and therefore it is possible that thoughts have a very minute mass.

If thoughts have mass, can thoughts create bubbles?

In the latter part of the 19th C to the early 20th C, Bros. Annie Besant, C.W. Leadbeater, and A.P. Sinnett wrote extensively on the idea of thought forms.

From a letter to A.P. Sinnett, the Master Kuthumi stated that “Thoughts are things — have tenacity, coherence, and life, — that they are real entities.”

Leadbeater and Besant wrote an entire book on thought forms, published by the Theosophical Society in 1905. In it, they state “each definite thought produces a double effect — a radiating vibration and a floating form.” The radiating vibration “conveys the character of the thought, but not its subject.”

The floating form is a strong and definite thought that has attracted energies from the mental and astral planes, and has become, for a time, a kind of independent living being. We have seen this when we walk into a room and “feel tension” or we pick up, empathically or sympathetically, the thoughts of intense feelings emanating from others. Whether or not we see these forms is another matter. 

Theology and Thought Forms

Various religions have also expounded on the notion of thought forms. The Indian and Tibetan Buddhism traditions had the idea of emanation bodies. One early Buddhist text, the Samaññaphala Sutta, lists the ability to create a “mind-made body” (manomayakaya) as one of the “fruits of the contemplative life.” In other words, the mind can create a “body” with which one can travel and experience other places both in the physical world and the ethereal one.

This body is a thought form of the self, whatever we define the self to be. It requires the ability to perceive ideal material, or beauty, the will to expend the energy to create, and the wisdom to understand the limits of the self. It also implies a supreme command of physical, emotional, and mental energies. In essence. The idea that thought forms can be made “material” came from these ancient texts. 

Other early 20th century theosophists took these ideas and expanded upon them. French explorer and theosophist Alexandra David-Néel wrote of “Tulpas” as “magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought.” She further wrote:

The power of producing magic formations, tulkus or less lasting and materialized tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings [Bodhisattvas]. Any human, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself.

According to modern philosophers, “thoughts are a living reality” and thoughts are “ideas on steroids.” All said, we know if nothing else, that thoughts affect our behaviors and that may influence other living creatures around us. Psychologists have made their living on this science. Let us for now say that thoughts have the ability to coalesce and take on some kind of form – scientifically, religiously, or theosophically – and that these forms are created by the thinker, the creator if you will, and are wholly dependent upon his mindset. 

Meditation, Thought, and Masonic Ritual

When one meditates, one creates specific thought forms based on our ability to focus and settle the mind. Likewise, the act of ritual provides us a different opportunity to focus the mind and also create thought forms. Where meditation and some rituals may be done solitarily, Freemasonic ritual is an elaborate weave of motion, word, music, scent, and thought that creates something that may be more impactful.

Like any ritual or meditation, the onus is on the participants to provide the impetus behind what is created. The mindset of all is critical to the final results. These thought forms, created in Masonic Ritual, create at least three different bubbles where their effects are contained, to be released at later time to achieve a desired effect.

In Freemasonic ritual, there appear to be three energetic bubbles created with four “layers” associated with each. A thought form created has an effect on each of the layers, with the ultimate results being dependent upon the focus created inside the Masonic Temple. The Temple itself is a material manifestation of the ideals of the Order, creating a lens and atmosphere that lend guidance to the mindset of the members.

These bubbles are the result of layers within a Freemasonic ritual, based on the flow of the ritual:

1. Intention (Exoteric),
2. Gathering (Esoteric Profane),
3. Inception (Ritual Perfection), and
4. Ceremony (Eternal Divine Ideal).

All of them are released by the unwinding or release of these same forms once the work of the day is complete. Each of the layers creates the bubble “inside” it, thus creating the next inner layer, until the Eternal Divine Layer is achieved and the core work of the Masonic Lodge is completed.  

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This is Part II of a five part series, “The Effects of Masonic Ritual.” You can find the previous installment Here.