Freemasonry and other secret societies have a negative connotation. The fact is that many of these societies are originally rooted in goodwill and service to humanity. But something happened…
In modern day pop culture, it seems to be heavily associated with evil, darkness, and an elite group of people or a cabal that has a major influence on how we live as individuals and as a collective.
I believe this interpretation stems from a lack of study, and our increasing inability to dive deep into a particular subject matter with the use of proper sources.
Sometimes I feel the collective, generation after generation, may be losing its intelligence. Then again, sometimes I feel the complete opposite is occurring.
The negative connotation often associated with freemasonry doesn’t paint a full picture, according to experts in the field of philosophy who have dedicated their lives to this particular subject area.
One of them is Manly P. Hall.
Hall has been recognized as one of the world’s leading scholars in the fields of religion, mythology, mysticism, philosophy and the occult (1901-1990). He was the founder of the Philosophical Research Society (1934). Many great minds have been attracted to his work, including the late Carl Jung. When Jung was writing his Psychology and Alchemy, he borrowed material from Hall’s private collection.
47 years after writing The Secret Teachings of All Ages, Hall was recognized as a 33rd-degree Mason, the highest honour conferred by the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite.
Over 70 years he delivered approximately 8,000 lectures in the United States and abroad. He also authored more than 150 books and essays as well as countless magazine articles.
He explains (quote taken from the video below),
“From the beginning of time, Freemasonry has been punished for its love of truth, and out if its punishment came the United States. We were founded by Masonic pressures, we were founded by Masons, we were founded by some of the best minds of our time. . . We were founded by people who sacrificed much, and also gave their lives in many cases. But we came through, we came through because of a definite determination, that the way of light shall prevail. Therefore it is very important to us to make sure that this light does prevail, that it goes on, to help us with all the things that are necessary for us to do.”
The Secret Teachings of All Ages explains how secret societies have existed for thousands of years. It explains how information, knowledge, and “magic” have been in the hands of people who have hijacked these teachings and used them to steer the will of their desire for power, control and selfish gain.
Hall suggests that the “white hats” of these and other secret societies have been very busy trying to combat this rise of the use of “magic” for “evil” purposes, control, and world dominance.
He explains (quote take from The Secret Teachings of All Ages),
“The masses, deprived of their birthright of understanding and grovelling in ignorance, eventually became the abject slaves of the spiritual impostors. Superstition universally prevailed and the black magicians completely dominated national affairs, with the result that humanity still suffers from the sophistries of the priest-crafts of Atlantis and Egypt.”
“They mutilated the rituals of the Mysteries while professing to preserve them, so that even though the neophyte passed through the degrees (Freemasonry) he could not secure the knowledge to which he was entitled. Idolatry was introduced by encouraging the worship of the images which in the beginning the wise had erected solely as symbols for study and meditation. False interpretations were given to the emblems and figures of the Mysteries, and elaborate theologies were created to confuse the minds of their devotees.”
The main takeaway from his book should perhaps be the fact that many ancient (and current) secret societies are rooted in goodwill and have the desire to bring abundance to all life on the planet, and to protect it.
“Almost all of the secret societies of the past, have been dedicated to clean up jobs. They’ve all come like the Knights Templars to take care of the corruptions of various beliefs and doctrines. They came to take the place of political corruption that was behind hope. Everyday, in every-way, the brothers were at work. Sometimes secretly but always continuously.”
– Manly P. Hall (Quote taken from the video below)
Today, especially in popular culture, secret societies have a bad reputation. As explained earlier, many have taken ancient concepts, ceremonial magic and sorcery, and completely perverted it. By doing so they have created a form of black magic in the process – driven by the same greed and ego that, Hall says, brought down the great city of Atlantis.
So, it’s important to recognize the origin of these secret societies, and the desire to do good and protect the collective from harm. Perhaps the perversion that occurred in the past contributes to the one sided negative connotation associated with secret societies today.
Below is a video of Hall’s last public lecture, given at the Scottish Rites Masonic Temple in L.A., where he has some very important words for humanity.
“The coming years are going to be of the greatest importance to the Masonic Order…The situation is serious…everyday the water is worse, the Earth is more polluted, the air is more tainted, the destruction of natural resources, the continuance of war, the development of destructive weaponry, all these things go on, and if they go on long enough something is going to happen…Something is going to remind us that man does not have the right to destroy that which he did not create, he has not the right to take a beautiful world, with all of its privileges and opportunities, and turn it into a purgatory”
– Manly P. Hall (Quote taken from the video below)
