TRAPPED IN A MASONIC WORLD

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that instantaneously to the initiated into the craft would at once feel welcomed and at home in. To James
II, Christopher Wren, John Evelyn, Nicholas Hawksmoor [all Freemasons], and the other builders of the
―New London‖, England, the city was to be the ―New Jerusalem‖. [8] Rome was the flagship for
Catholics, so London must accomplish being the capital of the ―true faith‖. This was reinforced by a
popular belief that the ―English‖ were the true descendants of the Lost Tribe of Israel. [a belief, that must
of course still exist in many quarters], artists and composer William Blake, loved to include Masonic
imagery and was simply echoing this thought when he wrote the hymn ―Jerusalem‖, and being ―builded
here‖ decades later. [8]
This belief was a help to those who believed that Britain should be a global empire, a true successor to
Rome, with a temporal and religious capital to match it. [9] The Freemasons had come about at just the
right time [I believe the fire was a deliberate act of arson, indirectly involving James II and the
Freemason], for the colossal rebuilding project subsequent to the Great Fire in 1666. Following in the
footsteps of the ‗Invisible College‘ of the Rosicrucians, the Royal Society an extension of the Invisible
College, was founded in1660 as the ‗Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural
Knowledge‘, it originally dealt as much with alchemy and astrology, as other forms of science, with many
members of the Royal Society, also being Freemasons and members of even more secretive esoteric
groups such as the Cabala Club. John Byrom [1692-1763] an English poet and student of religious
mysticism, wrote in his journal ―that he told the Sun Club he was going to establish a Cabala Club‖. [10]
Sir Christopher Wren, apart from being an architect, was an astronomer, geometer, Royal Society
founder member and MP. He appears to have been a Freemason, as on the 18th May 1691, the antiquary
and biographer John Aubrey noted: ―This day… is a great convention at St Paul‘s Church of the fraternity
of the masons, where Sir Christopher Wren is to be adopted a brother…‖ [8] The theory is supported by an
old tradition in the Masonic Lodge of Antiquity No 2 that Wren was Master of the Lodge, and to many
Freemasons his membership of the Craft is obvious in his works, particularly in his greatest monument –
St Paul‘s Cathedral. It was during this great building project of London, that sacred geometry, numerology
and astrology were just as respectable as astronomy and chemistry. The quest was on to find the keys to
the Universe, and in those days [as today], the occult held an equal attraction for men of learning, and this
is something we can see reflected in many of their works.
Various concepts were put forward for the new London street plan and layout. The objective was to rid
the warren of tiny streets and alleys and enforce some form of regularity. Such as the plans put forward by
cartographer Richard Newcourt, showed simple grid patterns like that of today‘s New York. Though Wren
and Evelyn had more ambitious and intricate ideas as it‘s been suggested that Evelyn‘s plan bears an
uncanny resemblance to the Sephiroth or Tree of Life from the mystic Cabala/kabbalah ―the best
hieroglyph of the known and unknown universe‖. [8] Cabalism was a popular topic among esoteric
philosophers of the day, with its mathematical and geometric approach, some of which was assimilated
into Freemasonry, and as I‘ve said before a favourite of Madge‘s, [singer Madonna], and George Bush and
Co. Evelyn had written about sacred geometry, and how a careful arrangement of the environment could:
―Influence the soule and spirits of man, and prepare them for converse with good Angells‖. [8]
In cabalism, angels are the messengers between the physical and metaphysical worlds. In the end it was
impossible to alter the whole of London, as it was mainly the East section most badly burnt down, so while
they couldn‘t entirely re-arrange the street layouts, the architects of London did rearrange various places of
worship according to their plan. Wren realigned the axis of St Paul‘s so it stood 2,000 cubits [914m, or
3,000ft] from Temple Bar to the west and the same distance from St Dunstan-in-the-East in the other
direction. Hawksmoor‘s St George-in-the-East is 2,000 cubits from the London Wall, St John
Horselydown was placed 2,000 cubits from the Monument and Hawksmoor‘s St Mary Woolnoth is the
same distance from his Christ Church Spitalfields. The measure of 2,000 cubits is used in the biblical
Book of Numbers in its rules for city planning: ―Measure from without the city on the east side 2,000
cubits.‖ It had featured in modern studies of sacred geometry since 1662. John Wilkins, vicar of St
Lawrence Jewry and the first secretary of the Royal Society had converted it into modern measures,
creating the essential yardstick for a ―New Jerusalem‖. Wrens assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor, aka ―the
Devils architect‖, is revered in occult circles thanks to his 12 churches that broke away from the traditional
Gothic style and introduced a new and ―foreign‖ geometric vocabulary of obelisks, pyramids and cubes.
His alleged morbid interest in all things pagan and pre-Christian worship helped darken his reputation.
Hawksmoor‘s churches were based on a layout of intersecting axes and rectangles, [the same layout of a
Masonic Grand Lodge, representing the shape of the old world], which he described as being based on the
―rules of the Ancients‖. His work borrows from Egypt, Greece and Rome, again all revered by the
Freemasons. The nave of St George‘s Bloomsbury church is a perfect cube, with a tower in the shape of a