What do Freemasons Imagine?

I grew up listening to the Beatles. John Lennon was one of my favorite musicians. Recently I was listening to his song “Imagine.” As music sometimes does, it triggered a whole chain reaction of questions.

What does it mean to imagine, really? How is imagination related to creativity? Does it guide the Freemason? Is there a masonic message underneath the song’s lyrics for those who have the “seeing eye”?

At first listen, it’s easy to think of the song “Imagine” as a simple tune: a ballad, a vision of peace, a piano-driven melody. But at second listen,  I began to wonder, deep down, if what Lennon describes will really happen. Will the world have a happy ending?  To imagine all people living in peace asks for the giving up of what we often cling to most frantically.

Consider the third verse:

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world…

Possible, really? Imagine a life without material possessions. What are possessions? Well, pretty much everything that we love and cherish and cannot do without. Can we imagine a life without our smart devices? Probably, we cannot. And that’s why John Lennon questions if we are capable of such a triumph.

Even so, I subscribe to the theory that we are poised for a great leap forward in our evolution as humans. This turning point in our history is propelled by technology which is fundamentally transforming not only how we live as a species, but also how we see ourselves at our core.

And, in order to journey into this uncharted new phase of human history, we need Freemasonry more than ever. Why? Because behind all the Masonic work and underlying all its rituals and symbolism there can be found the prophetic vision of a new world. It frames a code and system of moral imagination for those who know that their work and actions transform themselves, and their world.

Brother Foster Bailey writes in “Spirit of Masonry”:

“The prophet of old has told us that ‘where there is no vision the people perish.’ In Masonry the vision blazes forth in the East, and towards the materializing of that vision all good Masons work.”

This begs the question: how do all “good masons” work at imagining?

Imagination: From “Ideas” to “Ideals” to “Idols”

The scholar Wendy Wright describes the imagination as:

“the crucial capacity of the human person to create a world – either the familiar world of the everyday or a world not yet visible. Our relentless human search for new ways of being and relating, our dreams of beauty, our longings for mercy and justice.”

Wright claims that imagination is the heart of all creative work, allowing us to imagine the unseen and give form to the new. It is essential to all human activity. It gives us the power to recall the past, and to predict possibilities for the future.

Today, the job of remembering the past has been well documented by research scholars. In our schools and in our lodges, we study the traditional history as it has unfolded down the centuries. But do we spend as much time attempting to imagine a clear picture of the future? Is there a method whereby ideas can be developed?

In the writings of Brother Alice Bailey, she gives an outline broadly speaking of how ideas pass through three stages.

1. The idea – based on intuitive perception
2. The ideal – based on mental formulation and distribution.
3. The idol – based on the materializing tendency of physical manifestation. (This is when the sensed idea unfortunately becomes dogma).

Bailey says that “once an idea becomes an ideal, humanity can freely reject or accept it, but ideas come from a higher source and are imposed upon the racial mind, whether men want them or not.”

Interesting to consider? Not sure I agree with all of that sentence, especially the word “imposed,” but let us see how this method might work.

Imagine: “A Brotherhood of Man”

Take for example the idea of “brotherhood.” Most would say that in its pure state, the idea itself is from a higher source (Divine). In Early America, the impressed idea took flight as a radical thought movement in surprising ways. Brother George Washington and other early American Freemasons abandoned a European past in which an overbearing authority controlled the flow of ideas. A sense of something new was being imagined and being born in America.

The early masons “worked” to actualize this masonic ideal. They imagined a liberty from the imprisoning conditions of an oppressive class-ridden society. They imagined equality of society based upon universal education and combating ignorance. They imagined a fraternity, where all men are brothers.

Liberty! Equality! Fraternity! These three words were the outcry and ideals of the best minds of the time.

As such, through the imaginative process, the founders of America began to materialize a sensed idea of brotherhood, even if still a rough stone.

Brother Albert Pike writes in Morals and Dogma (1872):

“He who would become an accomplished Mason must not be content merely to hear, or even to understand, the lectures; he must, aided by them, and they having, as it were, marked out the way for him, study, interpret, and develop these symbols for himself.”

Pike stresses that the lectures and teachings must mark out a way. To develop the symbols is to “mark well,” making them manifest in the everyday world.

A case in point is The Great Seal, which was designed under the direction of accomplished masons such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. The Latin motto that is displayed on the unfinished pyramid — Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum — can be approximately, if poetically, translated as: “God Smiles on Our New Order of the Ages.” It expresses Masonic philosophy at its heart.

Thus, in the founding of America we see the three stages of the imagination process that Brother Alice Bailey describes.

And today? What do Freemasons imagine? Perhaps a better question is: How do Freemasons imagine? Sure, the world is not a Utopia yet.  But I have come to realize that the process of imagination can be a path to discovering what is good, true, and beautiful.  And in the words of John Lennon, “it’s easy if you try.” 

“The heart of human identity is the capacity and desire for birthing. To be is to become creative and bring forth the beautiful.” — John O’Donohue

The Power of the Spoken Word in Freemasonry

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”  — Lao Tzu 

According to Tzu, the very essence of what it means to become a consciously creative person begins with examining the content of thoughts and words. How does speech have the power to shape our inner and outer universe? How is the spoken word significant to a Freemason?

In the ancient mystery schools, speech and sound were considered divine energy in motion and a type of vibration that could be harnessed in creative work. The entire Universe was understood to be under the control of men and gods who knew the power of sacred speech and how to harmonize the ideal and the material worlds in accordance with the divine plan.

Somewhere along the way the teaching about the magical force of words has been lost. And yes, we have been lost ever since.

It was felt in those earlier times that it was the initiates’ duty to restore the lost language. Just as Masons are in search of the “Lost Word” and have found it not, initiates also used a substitute language, until this inner Word could be reestablished. It may well be said that the knowledge of words, of speech and of sound is perhaps the most carefully guarded secrets of all the ancient mysteries.

Do words have a far greater implication than normally conceived?

A Perspective from Albert Pike

In Albert Pike’s, Morals and Dogma, he has volumes to say on this subject. There is no doubt the book is dense with wisdom; so much so, I find myself studying a paragraph for hours on end to fully grasp it. It’s almost as if you have to look at Pike’s writings as if the ancients looked upon cryptic messages. 

Recently, I read a chapter where Bro. Pike was examining the following passage from scripture:

“In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”  — John 1:1-3 (KJV)

I realized how casually I had looked at this well-known Bible verse before and how much more could be revealed. Looking beyond the religious overtones, there is a great mystery of “the WORD” (all caps) that Pike explains. It’s something out of a deep esoteric playbook. “The WORD” did not cease at the single act of Creation but set in motion the absolute potential for man to become a divine creator in his own life circumstances. Could this passage be a formula for creative work? 

Pike says:

“The WORD conducts and controls the Universe, all spheres, all worlds, all actions of mankind, and of every animate and inanimate creature.”

In short, the goal of “the WORD” is to “become flesh and dwell among men.” God and “the WORD” are one and the same. They are WITH each other. All good stuff.

Now, I realized that the theological distinction between “the WORD” and “a word” had always escaped me. The words we speak are not “the WORD.” But it is possible that EVERY word spoken has the potential to align with “the WORD.” Speech carries intention, force and information. We long for words like Love, Truth, Beauty, Strength and Justice to become flesh and dwell among us. Words and speech are the initiating forces behind all things. What can a Freemason learn from this idea? How are words and action related?

A Freemason Suits Action to Word

In Masonic circles, we hear the phrase “suiting action to word” which can mean that a person will do what he claims and deliver on his promises and obligations. Masons are charged to make a conscious effort to integrate masonic philosophies into daily behavior, appearance, and words to others.

In the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, “Right Speech” appears in third place preceded only by “Right Belief” and “Right Intentions,” and immediately followed by “Right Actions.” Thus, the way we speak is of vital importance, not just for moral reasons, but also because communication is one of the most powerful means whereby we can intelligently change the world around us.

Spoken words are especially significant to anyone who has undergone a ceremony blindfolded.  For me, it was only through intense listening to the words of the masonic officers that I knew what was happening.  Even decades after some degree work, entire lines from the ritual are still memorable.  I remember vividly the sacredness of words that have been laid upon my heart.  

Right speech, when properly executed, is one of the most powerful and mysterious activities.

An example of what it can mean to “suit action to word” can be seen in the life of the immortal Goethe: poet and Freemason.   He changed inquiring minds around him by breathing enlightened ideas into many of his writings. With his last breath, Bro. Goethe cried the immortal phrase:

“Light, more Light!”

These words for a Freemason are powerful!  Worthy of opening and inspiring a life as well as closing it in death.  There is no doubt to me that beyond the confines of his dark room his invocation was answered and there showered upon him a brilliance of light such as no mortal could see.  Some accounts of Goethe’s last moments say that when he spoke his last words a ray of light shot through the shutters of the window.  

“Light!” Goethe’s spoken word of power and His service to mankind. In the end, light was all he craved, symbolically, the highest of blessings. Not money or fame, but a glimpse of the treasures of eternity. 

Maybe the real secret of right speech is to truly recognize and respect the authority that words carry. As we have seen with the writings of Pike, there is more to language than meets the eye, or ear. To delve into its mysteries just might reveal some extraordinary truths about the world we live in.

“Here Masonry pauses and leaves its initiates to carry out and develop these great Truths in such manner as to each may seem most accordant with reason, philosophy, truth, and his religious faith.”  — Albert Pike