The Teachings of Freemasonry

by H. L. Haywood
Edited by Michael R. Poll

iii
 The Teachings of Freemasonry

A Cornerstone Book
Published by Cornerstone Book Publishers
Copyright © 2008 by Cornerstone Book Publishers

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American

Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any
manner without permission in writing from the copyright holder, except by a
reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Cornerstone Book Publishers

New Orleans, LA

Cover art: “The Catechism” by Sam Brown

Print available at: www.lostword.com

First Cornerstone Edition - 2008

www.cornerstonepublishers.com

ISBN: 1-887560-92-0
ISBN 13: 978-1-887560-92-4

MADE IN THE USA

 Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1

THE MASONIC CONCEPTION OF HUMAN NATURE ............................ 7

THE IDEA OF TRUTH IN FREEMASONRY ................................................. 13

THE MASONIC CONCEPTION OF EDUCATION ...................................... 19

RITUALISM AND SYMBOLISM ..................................................................... 26

INITIATION AND SECRECY .......................................................................... 35

MASONIC ETHICS ........................................................................................... 42

EQUALITY ......................................................................................................... 50

LIBERTY ............................................................................................................. 59

DEMOCRACY ................................................................................................... 69

MASONRY AND INDUSTRY ......................................................................... 76

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN .................................................................... 84

FREEMASONRY AND RELIGION ................................................................ 92

UNIVERSALITY ................................................................................................ 100

THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD ........................................................................ 110

ENDLESS LIFE .................................................................................................. 115

BROTHERLY AID ............................................................................................. 121

SCHOOLS OF MASONIC PHILOSOPHY ..................................................... 126

v
vi
The Teachings of Freemasonry

vii
PART I
INTRODUCTION

WHAT is this all about? This is a question I asked myself many

times during my initiation experiences. It is a question, brother, which
you doubtless asked yourself, and so has every other man who has
forged on to the end of the Third degree. The language of the ritual,
stately and beautiful as it usually is, is to most of us a mystifying
speech; and the stations and stages of the dramatic actions are equal-
ly bewildering to the novice. Therefore is it that we ask the question,
“What is it all about?”

After we have become familiarized with the ritual, and have

learned something of its drift and its meaning, we discover that the
Fraternity itself, as a whole, and apart from any mystery in any one
part or detail, is something almost too complex to grasp. A member
grows so accustomed to the goings on of his home lodge, that he los-
es his first sense of strangeness, but even so he hears ever and anon
such things of the antiquity, the universality, and the profundity of
Freemasonry as it exists in history and in the great world, as to make
him feel that for all his familiarity with one Masonic lodge he is very
much in the dark about the Masonic Fraternity in its entirety.

What is Freemasonry? What is it trying to do? How did it come

to be? What are its central and permanent teachings? It is to answer
these questions - and they are such questions as visit the mind of
almost every Mason, however indifferent he may be - that the philos-
ophy of Masonry exists. To learn “what it is all about,” in the whole
more especially than in the part, it is for this that we philosophize
about our mysteries.

“How would you answer the newly-initiated brother who asks

the question, “What is this all about?” Did you ask yourself that ques-

1
 H. L. Haywood

tion? How did you answer it? What advantage is there in trying to
learn what Freemasonry means in the largest sense? What is meant
by “the philosophy of Masonry”?

Why do we philosophize about it? How many reasons can you

give for the necessity of philosophizing about it? Have you ever read
a book explaining Freemasonry?”

The individual who secures membership in a Masonic lodge be-

comes thereby the heir to a rich tradition; that to which initiation gives
him access is not something put together in a day, and it will profit
him little if he makes no attempt to enter into his patrimony. He must
learn something of the history of Masonry; of its achievements in the
great nations; of its outstanding teachers, and what they have taught,
of its ideas, principles, spirit. Initiation alone does not confer this
knowledge (and could not): the man must himself strive to make his
own the inexhaustible riches of the Order. He must be taught the
larger purposes of the Fraternity to which he belongs.

There is no authorized interpretation of Freemasonry. The new-

ly initiated brother does not find waiting for him a ready-made Ma-
sonic creed, or a ready-made explanation of the ritual - he must think
Masonry out for himself. But to think Masonry out for one’s self is no
easy task. It requires that one can see it in its own large perspectives;
that one knows the main outlines of its history; that one knows it as it
actually is, and what it is doing; and that one knows it as it has been
understood by its own authentic interpreters and prophets. It is not
easy to do this without guidance and help, and it is to give this guid-
ance and help that such studies exist as this new series on which we
are now embarking.

“What is the reason for the study of the teachings of Freemason-

ry? How much of Freemasonry can a man learn from initiation? How
else can he learn? What would you give as “the larger purposes of the
Fraternity”?

“Why should one try to think Masonry out? Could you, unaided
by books or another person, write an intelligent and intelligible an-
swer to the question, “What is the meaning of Masonry?”-

2
The Teachings of Freemasonry

There is still another reason for a study of philosophy, or as we

here more familiarly describe it the teachings of Masonry. Our Fra-
ternity is a world-wide organization with Grand Lodges in every State
and practically every, Nation. In this country alone it is a vast affair
of millions of members and many separate and independent Grand
Lodges. To sustain and manage and foster such a society costs the
world untold sums of money and human effort. How can Masonry
justify its existence? What does it do to repay the world for its own
cost? In one form or another these questions are asked of almost ev-
ery member, and every member should be ready to give a true and
adequate answer. But to give such an answer requires that he shall
have grasped the large principles and be familiar with the outlines of
the achievements of the Craft, and this again is one of the purposes of
our philosophizing on Masonry.

How can we arrive at a philosophy of Masonry? How are we to

learn the authentic interpretation of the teachings of Masonry? What
is the method of procedure whereby one who is neither a general
scholar nor a Masonic specialist may gain some such comprehensive
understanding of Masonry as has been called for in the preceding
paragraphs? In short, how may a man “get at it?”

One way to “get at it” is to read one or two good Masonic histo-
ries. There is no need to go into detail or to read up on the various
side issues of merely antiquarian interest; that is for the professional
student. There is only need to get the general drift of the story and to
catch the outstanding events. To learn what Masonry has actually
accomplished in the world is to gain an insight into its purposes and
principles, for, like every other organization, it has revealed its spirit
through its actions. From a knowledge of what the Order has been
and what it has done in the past one can easily comprehend its own
present nature and principles, for Masonry has never had a need to
break with its own past! The Masonry of today does not make war on
the Masonry of yesterday. Its character emerges clearly from its own
history as a mountain stands out above a fog; and what it has ever
been - at least in a large way - it is now, and doubtless always will be.

This same history forges ceaselessly on evermore renewing and

making itself. It is going on today and the process is one that keeps

3
 H. L. Haywood

publishing itself to the seeing eye, for, after all, there is not much that
is secret about the rich and tireless life of the Fraternity: indeed, this
life is constantly revealing itself everywhere. Grand Lodges publish
their Proceedings; men engaged in the active duties of Masonic offic-
es make reports of their functionings; students of the Craft write arti-
cles and publish books; Masonic orators deliver countless speeches;
special Masonic conferences, whatever be their nature, make known
their business; most of the more important events get into the daily
papers; there are scores and scores of Masonic papers, bulletins and
journals, weekly, monthly and bi-monthly, and there are many librar-
ies, study clubs and learned societies everywhere endeavoring with
tireless zeal to make clear to members and profane “what it is all
about.” So it turns out that to learn this for one’s self one does not
need to take any one man’s word for it; he can look about, and listen,
and read up a little, and thereby form his own conclusions. It is amaz-
ing, when one looks into it how much of the labor going on in the
Craft is designed to make clear, and to propagate and enforce the
principles and teachings and spirit of our great Order. To learn what
are these teachings asks of us no rare talents, no “inside knowledge,”
but only a little effort, a little time.

What would be your estimate of the monetary cost of Freema-

sonry to the United States? to the world? How many Masons are there
in the United States? in the world? How many lodges are there in the
United States? What does Masonry give in return for its cost?

How many Masonic histories can you name? Whose is generally

considered the best? What advantage does a Mason derive from read-
ing such a history? Would a knowledge of Freemasonry’s own past
be of any help to a lodge worker in present day affairs and problems?
What is the character of Freemasonry as it “emerges from its own
history”? What is there secret about the Order? If a man were to ask,
How can I find out what is going on in American Freemasonry? how
would you answer him? Can you name half a dozen Masonic period-
icals? Have you ever read the Proceedings of your own Grand Lodge?
How many can you name of the “few great ideas” about which Ma-
sonry constantly revolves? What is the difference between an “idea”
and an “ideal”? How can a member learn what are these “great ideas”?

4
The Teachings of Freemasonry

Where and how are they taught? Did your initiation cause you to
think about life differently?

To the novice the Masonic world seems very confusing, it is so

many-sided, so far-flung, so clamorous with voices and the din of
action; but this, after all, need not frighten us away from an attempt
to grasp that world with a comprehensive understanding, for all of
Masonry constantly revolves about a few great ideas. These ideas
confront one at every turn - what becomes more familiar to an active
Mason than such words as “Brotherhood,” “Equality,” “Toleration,”
etc., etc. - so that the youngest Entered Apprentice need have no dif-
ficulty in getting at them. If he does get at them, and if he learns to
understand them as Masons understand them, they will help him
greatly to gain that comprehensive and inclusive understanding which
we have been calling the philosophy of Masonry.

Nothing has been said as yet of the great teachers of Freemason-

ry.
In the older days there were Anderson, Oliver, Preston,
Hutchinson, etc.; then came the philosophers of the middle years, Pike,
Krause, Mackey, Drummond, Parvin, Gould; Speth, and others, and
in our own day Waite, Pound, Newton, etc, etc. In the writings of
these men the great and simple ideas of Freemasonry become lumi-
nous and intelligible, so that he who runs may read.

In addition to all this the member may take advantage of those

interpretative devices which are a part of the Craft itself, the lectures
and monitorial explanations built into the ritual of all the rites and
degrees. None of these are infallible - nor are any of them made com-
pulsory to believe but even when they stray farthest from the original
meaning of our symbols they are always valuable in reviewing the
ideas and ideals of multitudes who have originated or used them.

Thus much to show why we should strive to make for our own
mind a philosophy of Masonry, and in how many ways one may ar-
rive at that philosophy. There remains only one word in caution. A
study of the philosophy of Masonry is not a study of Philosophy; the
Masonic student as such may have little interest in Plato and Aristotle,
in Neo-Platonism, Mysticism, Scholasticism, Rationalism, Idealism,

5
 H. L. Haywood

Pragmatism, Naturalism, etc. Masonry touches upon the circumfer-

ence of each of these and the other major philosophical systems, no
doubt, but there is no such thing as a Masonic philosophy any more
than there is such a thing as a Masonic religion. We speak of a philos-
ophy of Masonry in the sense that we speak of a philosophy of gov-
ernment, or industry, or art, or science. We mean that one studies
Masonry in the same large, informed inclusive and critical way in
which a political economist studies government or an astronomer
studies the stars. It would be a blessed thing if more of our members
were to lift up their eyes from the immediate and often petty affairs
of their own lodge room in order to gaze more often on those pro-
found and wise principles which are to our Fraternity what the laws
of nature are the universe.

Can you name a great Masonic teacher not mentioned in section?

Whom do you consider the greatest interpreter of Masonry? Can you
tell the differences between the groups mentioned? What is idea at
the bottom of present-day Masonic thinking? In way does the ritual
explain itself? What is a “philosophy”? What does the word mean?
What means the phrase, “A Philosophy of Freemasonry”?

6
PART II
THE MASONIC CONCEPTION OF HUMAN NATURE

IF A MAN wishes to develop a swift race horse he must first

understand much about the nature of horses; if he would build a pow-
erful engine he must needs understand something of mechanics; if he
would build a house he must have at least a working knowledge of
building materials, of proportion, of stresses and strains, and what
not. Similarly, he who undertakes to work with men must, unless he
wishes to invite certain failure, understand something of human na-
ture, which is to say, what kind of a being man is, what can be done
with him, what one may hope from him. It is safe to say that the
largest number of attempts to reform and improve man fail because
of ignorance concerning human nature.

The science which deals with human nature, which asks what
man is, how he came to be, what his destiny is, is known as Anthro-
pology.

There is such a thing as a Masonic Anthropology, or Science of

man. Masonry deals with men: it is trying to do certain things with
men, to shape them in a certain way, by certain means. Unless Ma-
sonry understands the nature of men, and is able to deal successfully
with that nature, it will as surely fail as the man fails who tries to
operate a farm without any knowledge of agriculture.

What kind of a being is man, as Masonry understands him? It is

quite impossible to give any adequate answer to this question inside
the limits of so brief a work as this. It is quite impossible even barely
to mention all of the most elementary features of such an answer. We
are compelled to deal in generalities, and very briefly at that.

7
 H. L. Haywood

We may say, first of all, that to Masonry man is a being that can
be educated. This is implied in the Masonic ritual from end to end,
and it is taken for granted in every phase of Masonic teachings. The
candidate comes in the dark, ignorant, a child, needing to be led about
by a guide, and cared for by patent guardians. At the end of initia-
tion he stands on his own feet, he sees the light, he has in him a new
vision, a new nature. Under the veil of symbolism the novice is pre-
sented as a shapeless stone, or Rough Ashlar, fresh from the quarry.
When the “work” is done he is a Perfect Ashlar, a stone hewn and
finished, ready for its place in the wall. If this can happen to a man
inside the lodge from it can happen outside; if a man can be born
again under Masonic influences, he can also be born again under oth-
er equally powerful influences. To Masonry man is not a static being:
he is educable, and by educable is meant, not that every man can be
given a school training, but that man, by his nature, is capable of
growth, of improvement, of development.

How would you define “anthropology”? How would you go

about the scientific study of human nature? What would such a study
include? Of what value is it to us in our every day life? Why do we
have a “Masonic Anthropology”? How would you answer the ques-
tion, What does Masonry teach concerning the nature of man?

This view of human nature is optimistic, and it is therefore un-

fortunate that all cannot hold it. But such is the case, for there are
many who cling to some form of fatalism about man. These may not
believe that man’s life is fixed by the stars, as the astrologers once
believed, but it amounts to the same thing. They may believe that
before man was created God preordained all the details of his life; or
they may with certain scientists, hold that man’s life is wholly shaped
by environment; or they may think that accident or luck shapes all. In
any event these persons hold that man is a being helpless to change
himself: if he is strong he can never become weak; if he is weak he can
never become strong. Man is a static being, of a fixed and unchange-
able nature; what he is, that he had to be, and will ever remain.

To the Mason this is a cardinal error. He is under no illusions

about human nature. He knows how weak we all are; how much vi-
ciousness remains in the most saintly nature; how ignorant the aver-