The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

584
Chapter 7 - Rituals
Good Fellowship is the ideal for which the M. O. V. P. E. R. stands.
That ideal breathed the breath of life into the Order; that ideal gave it a
mission and a purpose which makes it worthy of continued life [...]. The
Shrine of the Glowing Heart of Good Fellowship is an instrumentality
through which we are enabled to beautifully and impressively exalt this
life-giving ideal in the climax which closes our grand ceremonial.
(p. 108)
The ritual states that its drama is not based on a myth or legend, but on the
actual early history of Persia and on a romantic character, Mokanna, whose real
name was Hakem ben Haschem, and who lived between the seventh and eight
centuries during the Caliph's dynasty. Through dissention, the second dynasty
had come into power, controlled by the Sassanian Kings under Chosroes II.
Many strange fire-worshipper cults had evolved in Persia, one of these with a
large number of faithful being that of the Prophet Mokanna. As a rebel and
dissenter from the Islamic faith, Mokanna had raised his revolutionary religious
standard in the city of Merou, surrounding himself with a crowd of discontented
peoples who suffered under the caliph's yoke. He proclaimed himself as the only
true successor of Mohammed, announced freedom to all the world, and preached
the victory of mind over matter which would finally bring the Golden Age or socalled
earthly millennium to his faithful. Mokanna had received this name
because of the veil of silver gauze under which he hid his features from the
public, apparently because it was too dangerous for unpurified humans to gaze
upon his radiant face and into his dazzling eyes, but in truth because he had been
afflicted with the black small pox.
The purpose of the drama is initiation. From the group of candidates seated in
the front row of the audience, one is chosen to play the part of the neophyte who
travels into the underworld on the quest for the "Priceless Jewel of the Enchanted
Realm." His name is taken from an urn. The others follow the initiation
ceremonial as spectators. The stage directions suggest special dramatic effects
for the finding of the candidate by producing a little explosion of black powder
with a cloud of smoke rising from an iron kettle, and pretending to read the name
of the elected in the smoke. The pilgrim on the quest can either be a cast
candidate or a real neophyte; in the latter case, another cast member answers for
him in the third person, so that he only has to act, not to talk.
There is an option to employ a narrator, who explains the happenings to the
audience once in the beginning, or a character called Goodfellow, who phantomlike
appears and vanishes several times, especially during the scene changes to
fill in the gap, in the center of a green spot-light to make his comments. The
ritual gives alternative texts for each; in the following, the Goodfellow version
has been chosen. This character is described thus:
This Goodfellow should be a rather tall fellow if possible, and dressed
as DANTE – a long, greenish robe which covers the feet. There should
be a hood on the robe with a slight peak in the rear and the front should