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

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Chapter 9 - Masonic and Anti-Masonic Literature
down again, and finally suspending him over "a deep and yawning chasm." 1924
This "test" is certainly a form of the "feeling to hang or stand over a deep abyss"
which is sometimes invoked in the candidates of secret orders. Of course it is no
real elephant but some device which the blindfolded candidate cannot see.
Bricktop mentions that this strange ceremony takes place in a sort of theater, the
galleries of which are occupied by dead-heads. This accounts for the dim and
scary furniture and equipment of some secret orders, who like to employ coffins,
skulls, and corpses.
Now, Damon (from the legend of Damon and Pythias) rises to action for the
first time - he restores the candidate. The last test consists in a blindfolded
juggler throwing knives and axes at Bricktop.
Hereafter, a bit of the original legend is played: the candidate is taken to the
prison cell of Damon, the Syracusian Senator, where he is to replace him. The
candidate assumes the role of the true friend Pythias and is locked in Damon's
chains, while the latter says: "Good-bye, young fellow, I am only going out for a
moment. Ta, ta!" 1925 This jolly behavior somehow fails to come to Bricktop's
ideal of how Damon should have acted under these circumstances. Another
strange thing happens - a lot of reporters and artists for illustrated papers, from
the Sun and the World, etc., enter the cell and interview the unhappy candidate.
Then, since Damon does not turn up again, the candidate alias Pythias is led for
his execution into another apartment, where a band of Knights await him with a
coffin, a wheelbarrow, and cross-cut saws, battle-axes, spears, swords, and
pruning-hooks. The candidate is mounted on the "funeral car", the organ plays a
dirge, and the candidate is wheeled in the wheelbarrow to a dissection table,
where a surgeon is to administer to him chloroform, that the pain of parting with
his head may not be so acute. The candidate is laid upon the table, the sharp teeth
of the cross-cut saw are applied to his throat, and the chloroform sends him to
Lethe.
When Bricktop, the unhappy candidate, returns to consciousness, he finds
himself in a brightly-lit lodge room where he is congratulated by the Worthy
Grand Commander on his initiation. Last thing to do is to take the great oath.
Thus, the candidate is mounted on a barrel marked "powder", at the side of
which stands a member with a lighted candle. The candidate has to hold a
tremendous spoon, to gaze solemnly at this "emblem" and to "swear by the Great
Horn Spoon" 1926 that he will never reveal the roughness of his initiation and
always look serious when talking about the order. Finally, the candidate has to
kiss the spoon (just as the candidate in Masonry has to kiss the Bible). Then, the
initiation is over, the Knights are "proceeding from labor to refreshment," and a
big banquet is going to follow.
All in all, besides a few recognizable ceremonies also mentioned in the real
ritual of the K.O.P. as described in our corresponding chapter, this whole text is
a satire, using all the clichés of a rough initiation. The meaningful and
1924 Bricktop, p. 50.
1925 Bricktop, p. 58.
1926 Bricktop, p. 63.