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

Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature 729
many unpleasant things. A conspiracy theory implies that a minority has the
power to manipulate the majority and to change the course of history decisively.
Therefore, this minority must possess superhuman forces. According to
Reinalter, this over-estimation of the Masonic abilities results in a demonizing of
the Craft, whose destruction seems to be the only way to heal the social
organism. 1795
Anti-Masonic attacks are carried out against different characteristics of the
Craft, for example against its ritualistic practices or its alleged dark deeds. Since
this is a linguistic dissertation, the attacks against its "words" will be examined.
Freemasonry is an easy prey to conspiracy theories because of its language. Its
ambiguous symbols are wittingly misinterpreted by anti-Masons who attribute to
them a meaning of their liking, for example a sexual, a political, or a religious
one. In history, these attacks went so far that the Freemasons even modified their
language, to change the name of their institution, and to ban all "Jewish" terms,
as was the case with the "Christian Orders" in Germany during the Nazi regime.
The following sections will analyze the strategies of anti-Masons, based on
several textual examples. The first example deals with interpreting Freemasonry
as a fertility cult. Object of analysis is the technical term, "word." It has been
shown that the "word" in Freemasonry acquires an important symbolic meaning.
Thus, Section 8.1.1.3 on the Master Mason's Degree and Section 8.1.3 on the
Royal Arch Degree explain that in the Third Degree of Masonry, the "word" is
lost and replaced by a substitute, and in the Seventh Degree, it is restored. This
word - as called in the ritual, the "Grand Omnific or Royal Arch word" -
symbolizes the "Divine name," the "Ineffable Name." There are critics of
Freemasonry like Martin Wagner who appoint a sexual significance to
everything mysterious in Freemasonry, and thus also to the "word":
In this cult the term "The Word" or the "Word of God", does not denote
the revelation of God, neither its content, nor the form, nor the person of
Jesus Christ. The term is a glyph or veil or mask for something else.
Pike says: "The Universe is the only uttered word of God." Mackey
says: "The word itself is but a symbol for divine truth." In Freemasonry
the 'word' denotes the seminal principle disseminated throughout the
world. It is the 'life fire' of the generative principle, the vital force in its
several aspects, inhering in nature. It is that in which the life essence is
sent forth into new forms or living entities, containing also within itself
the originating and destroying forces. Its several aspects then are viewed
and conceived of in Freemasonry as the lost word, the omnific word,
and the ineffable name. 1796
These interesting findings allow Wagner to argue that the "lost word" in
Freemasonry is not the lost pronunciation of the name Jehovah, but the "lost
generative power of the architect of the temple, Hiram Abiff. It conceals this
1795 Cf. Reinalter, p. 126/127.
1796 Wagner, p. 418/419.