The Rhetoric and Death of U.S. Freemasonry In this essay I argue ...

Death of Freemasonry 0 

The Rhetoric and Death of U.S. Freemasonry 

In this essay I argue that the rhetorical response of U.S. Freemasons to recent, positive 

publicity has been to divest the fraternity of mystery in favor of transparency. The 

result, I suggest, is an abandonment of centuries of Masonic philosophy in favor of 

stressing the Order's social function and charity work. To this end I explain what 

Freemasonry is by describing its organizational structure, allegorical ritual, and basic 

teachings. Then, I detail the rhetorical practice internal to the Craft and explain how 

the fraternity's strange symbolism is thought to encourage spiritual insight. Finally, I 

show how a number of recent publicity campaigns and Masonic publications intended 

for a wider audience downplay or dismiss the occult rhetoric of Masonry's past. I 

conclude by arguing the decline of U.S. Freemasonry should be read a symptom of 

changing modes of publicity and civic engagement. 

KEY WORKS: civic engagement, Freemasonry, occultism, republicanism, symbolism


The Rhetoric and Death of U.S. Freemasonry 

"These two pillars are the most duplicated architectural structures in 

history. Replicas exist all over the world. . . . [They] are exact replicas of 

the two pillars that stood at the head of Solomon's Temple." Langdon 

pointed to the pillar on the left. "That's called Boaz--or the Mason's 

Pillar. The other is called Jachin--or the Apprentice Pillar." He paused. 

"In fact, virtually every Masonic temple in the world has two pillars like 

these." 

--Robert Landon in The Da Vinci Code 1 

At the conclusion of Dan Brown's wildly successful novel, The Da Vinci Code 

(2003), Professor Robert Langdon and his younger companion Sophie Neveu arrive at 

the famous Rosslyn Chapel in Edinbrugh, Scotland on their quest for the Holy Grail. 

Brown's use of Masonic symbolism in the novel is frequently inaccurate, such as in 

Langdon and Sophie's discussion of Boaz and Jachin while standing in the sanctuary 

(see fig. 1). Although it remains the oldest and most well known occult organization in 

the world, contemplative or "speculative" Freemasonry--that is, a fraternity that is not 

actually made up of "operative" masons--most likely originated in the early eighteenth 

century in England. 2 

The allegorical and symbolic teachings of the fraternity orbit the 

stories surrounding the building of King Solomon's temple and are drawn from what is 

thought to be the practice of masonic guilds in the Middle Ages, however, the 

suggestion that the markings and architecture of Rosslyn Chapel are directly related to 

contemporary Freemasonry is misleading. Speculative Freemasonry has retroactively 

claimed the symbolism of Rosslyn, 3 but, just like the


Fig. 1. A collection of Masonic symbols; Boaz and Jachin are numbered "1."


pyramid and the all Seeing Eye on the back of the U.S. dollar bill, Rosslyn's 

architectural symbolism existed long before the Order was established. 4 

Owing to the centrality of its strange symbolism and secrecy (see fig. 2), 

Freemasonry has often been the topic of many misleading associations and cultural 

fantasies that have made the fraternity and its teachings an interesting topic for 

conspiracy theorists, mystery novel writers, and Hollywood filmmakers. 5 Historically, 

most of the fantasies about Masonry have been negative and hostile, frequently 

involving the fraternity's allegiance to Satan or various projects to establish a "New 

World Order." Although there are only a few references to Freemasonry The Da Vinci 

Code, these references are largely positive, however, and because the book has been 

so widely read (at the time of this writing, there are over 65 million copies in print), it 

has helped to generate a less hostile, worldwide interest in the fraternity, spawning a 

flood of "knock-off" novels, films, and television documentaries related to the 

Masons. 6 

In connection with the 2006 release of the film version of The Da Vinci 

Code--which curiously only has one, very brief mention of Masonry--the ABC show 

Good Morning America broadcast live from the Scottish Rite Temple in Washington 

D.C. 7 Perhaps because Masonry seemed to pique the interest of so many, Brown has 

announced that his sequel to The Da Vinci Code, titled The Solomon Key, concerns 

early U.S. Freemasons, many of whom were among the "founding fathers" of the United 

States of America, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. 

The recent media attention of the past few years has been a mixed blessing for 

U.S. Freemasons. On the one hand, although the renewed exposure in the mass media 

is mostly positive, this publicity has nevertheless resurfaced many of the myths and 

conspiratorial fantasies that have plagued the fraternity since its inception. 8 

On the 

other hand, however, media exposure is seen as an opportunity to "revive"


Freemasonry and increase its membership, which has declined more than fifty percent 

in the latter half of the twentieth century. 9 

Seizing this opportunity, a number of 

Masonic leaders have been appearing on television and publishing essays and books to 

ensure that the popular media spin remains positive. In keeping with the rhetorical 

response of Masons to anti-Masonic movements for hundreds of years, these newer 

efforts to popularize Freemasonry remain silent about the Ancient Mysteries and occult 

traditions central to the philosophical teachings of its past. 

In this essay I argue that the recent rhetorical response of Masons to public 

scrutiny has been to deemphasize, and sometimes disown, the fundamentally Platonic 

function of Masonic symbolism and ritual in favor of stressing the social and charitable 

missions of the fraternity. Combined with technological and cultural changes that have 

been documented as causes for the decline of participation in social and civic groups 

(e.g., the arrival and dominance of television, interactive video gaming, and the 

Internet as stationary, in-home mediums of stranger socialibility), 10 the rhetorical 

strategy of divesting Freemasonry of its deeply imaginative and symbolic rites of 

contemplation erodes the "social capital" of Masonic membership, paradoxically further 

contributing to the fraternity's decline. 11 

At least in part, what is appealing about 

Freemasonry to the Entering Apprentice Mason and non-Mason alike is precisely the 

mystery that surrounds its teachings, the mystery that Dan Brown hijacks to sell 

millions of his best-selling novels. After describing the rhetorical function of Masonic 

mystery, I conclude by arguing that the moves to explain it away in order to promote 

the fraternity as a charitable social club with a colorful occult past are not only 

detrimental to the present occult center of the Craft, but also an index of the way 

shifts in rhetorics of secrecy to transparency can be read as symptoms of the 

transformation of civic engagement in the United States.


To this end, this essay begins by describing Freemasonry, outlining a number of 

its divisions and explaining the conditions of membership. Second, I demonstrate how 

the complex symbolism and allegories of Masonry have long been taught as an occult 

rhetoric designed to encourage a "brother" to spiritual apprehensions beyond the 

realm of human representation. This occult rhetoric to a great degree centers on the 

fraternity's central allegory, the legend of Hirim Abif and the building of King 

Solomon's Temple. Third, I trace the relationship between the fraternity's response to 

anti-Masonic attacks in the nineteenth century and the more positive media exposure 

of recent years. Finally, conclude by expanding the discussion to civic engagement 

and changing modes of publicity today. 

What is Freemasonry? 

Freemasonry is a beautiful and profound system of morality, veiled in 

allegory and illustrated by symbols. The design of the Masonic 

Institution is to make its members wiser, better, and consequently 

happier. This is accomplished by means of a series of moral instructions 

taught according to ancient usage, by types, symbols, allegorical figures, 

and lectures. The forms and ceremonies of this institution have come 

down through a succession of ages and are all designed to impress upon 

the mind significant and solemn truths. 

--"Lecture in Preparation Room" to an Entering Apprentice candidate 12 

Upon entering a Masonic lodge for the first time, every candidate that petitions 

the fraternity is told to strip (excepting undergarments) and to remove his shoes. He is 

blindfolded or "hoodwinked" and dressed in a symbolic manner: he is told to put on 

some loose-fitting rags and to place a slipper on one foot; the left leg and breast are


exposed, and a noose or "cable-tow" is placed around his neck. In this or a similar 

"destitute" condition he represents a poor "widow's son" trapped in the darkness of 

ignorance. Once the lodge door is ceremonially opened to him, each candidate will 

enter in pursuit of "more light," participating in a lengthy, complicated, highly symbolic 

(and initially confusing) ritual that is at least 250 years old. Although space and the 

author's respect for the Craft prevent any thorough account of the rituals, most of 

them consist of "circumambulating" the lodge and a lot of kneeling, praying, and 

repeating of strange words and phrases (much of the ritual--and the mundane 

business in Masonic lodges--has a close resemblance to Parliamentary procedure). 

The rituals draw heavily from passages and stories of the Old Testament of the King 

James bible, which culminate in an extended allegory, the "Hiramic Legend," which is 

based on two short passages from the bible (Kings 7: 13-14; 2 Chronicles 2:13-14). 

Masons stress the allegorical and symbolic significance of the legend, as few 

believe the story is true: Hiram Abif, a "widow's son" and the architect of King 

Solomon's temple, is a Master Mason possessing many secrets of his craft (basically, 

mathematical formulas, building techniques, and passwords needed to receive 

payment for labor). Ancient Masons worked on a degreed, apprentice system, and on 

each level a student mason would learn more about their trade. The legend goes that 

Hiram Abif was the most wise and knowledgeable of Masons, and that that three 

Fellows of the Craft demanded all his secrets from him or they would kill him. Abif 

elects to keep the secrets he had promised to protect and is killed. The murderers 

bury the slain architect and attempt to escape. The legend concludes when the killers 

are caught and punished, and a monument is erected to honor Hiram Abif's moral 

character. While receiving the degrees of Freemasonry, the entered apprentice


represents a poor "widow's son" like Hiram Abif, but is only told this allegory directly in 

the third and final degree. 13 

There are three basic ceremonies in which various parts or aspects of this 

legend are introduced and elaborated, each of which are symbolic of degrees: the 

Entering Apprentice Degree (1°), the Fellowcraft Degree (2°), and the Master Mason 

degree (3°). At the conclusion of each ceremony, the candidate kneels before "The 

Book of the Law" (a Bible in the West, but theoretically this can be any holy book that is 

dominant in a region) and is asked to take an oath not to reveal the secrets of 

Freemasonry under penalty of gruesome consequences that get worse with each 

degree. Of course, the obligations and the consequences for violating them are 

symbolic: although there are a few historical exceptions, today no one will die or be 

disemboweled if he reveals the "secrets" of Freemasonry--but he may get kicked out. 14 

After the performance of each degree, the candidate works with a "coach" to memorize 

a catechism based on the performance, including a series of questions and answers 

that are designed to encourage reflection on the meaning of Masonic symbolism. 

Nothing of these catechisms is written down, and their contents and meaning can only 

be discussed in speech among Masons of the same degree. 

Contrary to what is often reported in the popular press (e.g., in Dan Brown's The 

Da Vinci Code), there are only three degrees in Masonry proper, and once one has 

received the degree of Master Mason, he can go no "higher" in the fraternity. Arturo de 

Hoyos and S. Brent Morris explain: 

To say that someone is a Mason means that he has passed through the 

Degrees of Blue Lodge or Ancient Craft Masonry, under the authority of a 

Grand Lodge. Grand Lodges normally operate exclusively within a 

geographic jurisdiction, usually a state. Grand Lodges attend to the


administrative affairs . . . and charter local lodges, which 'make Masons' 

by conferring the three degrees. . . . Grand Lodges exercise the 

executive administrative power to determine which organizations may be 

considered "Masonic" in their jurisdiction, and they reserve the right to 

prohibit their members from joining any organization which [sic] requires 

Masonic membership. All other Masonic organizations are said to be 

"appendant" to a Grand Lodge. 15 

As Freemasonry evolved since the 1700s, a number of "appendant bodies" have 

developed that significantly complicate the Masonic organizational structure, leading 

to confusion about degrees both inside and outside the fraternity. Some appendant 

bodies are not recognized by all the Grand Lodges of the world, but there are a 

number that are. De Hoyos and Morris explain that the largest and most universally 

recognized by the Grand Lodges in the U.S. is the Scottish Rite, a complex system that 

expands Masonic ritual by 29 degrees to the 32°. There is a 33°, however, it is 

typically only conferred by the governing "Supreme Council" of the Scottish Rite to 

longstanding Masons with an outstanding, lifetime record of service to Masonry or 

humanity. Nevertheless, Scottish Rite Masonry is often confused with the Blue Lodge: 

if a given Mason is said to be of the 33°, he is also a Mason of the Blue Lodge, but a 

Master Mason is not necessarily a 33° (and most likely is not, since only one to two 

percent of 32° Masons are currently recognized with the honorary 33°). 

Like the degrees in the Blue Lodge, the Scottish Rite degrees are represented by 

rituals that are performed for initiates. The principle difference, however, is that after 

the degrees were re-written by Albert Pike in the nineteenth century, a majority of 

them were transformed into less-Parliamentary-style "plays," which are presented in a 

theatre (hence, many older Scottish Rite temples have or are theatres). Other famous


Masonic bodies and systems include: The York Rite, the higher degrees of which 

require a belief in the divinity of Jesus; the Order of the Eastern Star, which is open to 

and largely administered by women; and the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic 

Shrine, or the "Shriners," most known for their charity work with children, which 

explains why they are often remembered for their fez hats, public clowning, and those 

teensy go-carts that they drive around in at local parades to help promote their charity 

work. 

Masons claim that only men of sound mind, good health, moral conviction, and 

excellent reputation are eligible for membership, and these qualities are assessed by 

an "investigation" committee that spends weeks--sometimes months--discussing an 

individual's character with his colleagues, friends, and family. Masons must also 

profess a belief in deity, although they are not required to detail or elaborate their 

particular beliefs about "God." Once the investigation committee is satisfied of the 

moral character and spiritual faith of a petitioner, they offer a recommendation to the 

lodge members to accept or reject the petition. Then, the members of a lodge vote by 

secret ballot to allow a man "receive the degrees" and join their lodge. This is done by 

having each member place either a single white ("yes") or black ("no") marble or die 

into a covered wooden box. If there are more than one black marble cast during a 

balloting, that candidate is "black balled" and cannot receive the degrees. 

To date, Freemasons are predominately white, and in the United States the issue 

of minority membership remains quite controversial among them. Masonry developed 

in this country concurrently with the union, and consequently, its history has a 

segregated, colonial past that is reflected in the establishment of Prince Hall Masonry, 

an African American fraternity that dates back to the American revolution. Prince Hall, 

the "Father of Black Masonry" in the United States, was granted a charter for a lodge by


the Grand Lodge of England in 1787. In the eighteenth century, and even shortly after 

the War of Independence, the Grand Lodge of England emerged (after many squabbles 

with others) as the supreme authority of Freemasonry and approved charters for Grand 

Lodges in other parts of the world, who would then oversee local lodges in their 

geographical territory. Since the North American colonies were not yet united as an 

autonomous sovereign, states began establishing their own Grand Lodges (and 

sometimes without approval from the Brits). 16 

Consequently, some Grand Lodges 

recognize Prince Hall Masonry (e.g., California) and allow any man to petition a lodge 

for membership--at least in theory--while others at present do not (e.g., Louisiana). 

The states of the failed confederacy remain those whose members seem the most 

reluctant to recognize Prince Hall Masonry, although this situation continues to change 

rapidly as older, more bigoted generations of Masons pass away. 17 

The politics of membership in a Masonic body also concerns religion, although 

this politics is largely a consequence of its long association with popular democracy. It 

is sometimes erroneously reported, for example, that Masonry is a "religion," or that 

Masonry discriminates against Catholics and Jews, or that it is part of a conspiracy to 

take over governments--all of which Masons deny. The fraternity was and remains, 

however, a strong proponent of republicanism and democracy, and maintains a 

principled commitment to the separation of church and state, which drew fire from the 

Roman Catholic church. Margaret C. Jacob explains that in 

1738 the Papacy condemned [F]reemasonry, partly in response to the 

popularity of the lodge in Rome, and Catholic apologists who 

promulgated the Papal Bull explicated its logic in detail. At the top of 

their list of [M]asonic offenses was republicanism. The ingenuity of the 

English nation, they explained, has revived the purity of [F]reemasonry,


and this "society . . . imitates an aspect of the government of Republics. 

Its leaders are chosen, or dismissed, at its will." . . . Catholic opponents 

of the fraternity fixated on its custom of holding elections. 18 

It is probable that from this hundred-years-old antipathy in Europe comes the oft-told 

observation that Catholics "hate" Masons and vice-versa. There is ample, extant 

writings by Masons to demonstrate a decidedly "anti-Catholic" attitude in the United 

States up until at least the 1930s. 19 

It is also true that Masonry adheres to a 

characteristically Protestant understanding of biblical exegesis and the ability humans 

to intuit the spiritual and divine without an intercessor, which obviously creates some 

tension with the Holy See. Nevertheless, contemporary Masonry is not hostile to 

Catholics, as a number are members of the fraternity in the United States. It is not 

clear among ecclesiastical scholars, however, whether the Vatican presently forbids 

membership. 20 

It is frequently said by Masons that the strength of its brotherhood is partially 

derived from a self-imposed censorship: the two topics that are presumably banned 

from discussion in a Masonic lodge are those also banned from many family dinner 

tables: politics and religion. The supposed ban on these topics in the lodge, however, 

only reflects a very narrow construal of the terms: one is not to discuss party politics in 

a lodge, nor is he to discuss the merits or problems with specific, organized religion, 

and this is because brethren from across the political and religious spectrum are 

welcomed. Politics more broadly conceived as the relationship of individuals to the 

state and state power, and religion more broadly conceived as any discourse about 

deity, however, implicates Masonry as one of the most famous theo-political 

organizations in the country. Politically and religiously, one of the rationales for 

secrecy was ensure the a lodge was a forum where one speak freely about matters of


philosophy, science, politics, and religion, without fear of persecution from the church 

or the state; the Masonic lodge was, in other words, a product of civil society and the 

Enlightenment. 21 

Moreover, the close, trusting bonds between men promoted by 

Masonry "played an important role in building the camaraderie necessary for the 

survival of the [early American] army--and thus the American Republic," argues Steven 

C. Bullock. 22 Masonic fraternities are linked to American revolutionary activities (e.g., 

the Boston Tea Party), 23 and lodges were places where the merits and virtues of 

constitutional societies were discussed and debated. 24 

Unlike the protections on free 

speech that we have today, as late as the early twentieth century the clandestine 

character of the Masonry helped to protect and promote the political and religious 

ideas of revolutionaries in Europe and in the United States that had yet to find 

widespread support. 25 

As republicanism was eventually--and violently--instituted in the United States, 

the stress on the clandestine nature of the fraternity's governance and teachings has 

gradually weakened. The characteristically tight-lipped grandfather or uncle who 

refused to say anything about Masonry to family members and friends is partly a 

consequence of revolutionary ferment, then, but is also simply a misunderstanding 

about what Masons are allowed to say about themselves to non-Masons, which has 

changed over time. 26 

In fact, most of the so-called secrets of the Craft are well known 

and widely published, such as its ceremonies and the over-loaded significations of 

many of its symbols. The actual secrets of the Craft concern certain parts and aspects 

of the ceremonies, and a number of secret "words" (such as the "Master Mason's 

word"), passwords, and handshakes. 27 

These secrets, however, are also not difficult to 

find in a number of books and by a simple Google search of the Internet. Today, there


Fig. 2. The square and compasses of Freemasonry 

are two primary reasons Masons do not talk about these not-so-secret secrets: first, as 

S. Brent Morris explains, the value of secrets to Masons is "as symbols of fidelity and 

advancement within the fraternity. Masons make a solemn promise not to reveal the 

secrets to anyone. It doesn't matter to him that you can find the secrets in print; what 

matters . . . is that he keeps his promise." 28 Second, it simply spoils the fun for new 

Masons receiving their degrees; learning a "secret handshake" is much less enjoyable, 

perhaps even boring, when you already know what it is. 29


Aside from its remarkable ability to raise money for charity, however, the real 

secret of Masonry has always been in plain sight. 30 For example, if one starts looking 

for the principal symbol of Freemasonry in one's community, which is the square and 

compasses encircling a capital "G" (see fig. 2), she will start to notice it is everywhere-- 

on buildings, on car bumpers, in books and frequently in films, on the rings and 

jewelry of passers-by, and so on. The secret of Masonry lies in the effects of this 

symbol on the viewer, not necessarily the meaning it signifies. The function of secrecy 

in Masonry concerns this symbol's seemingly recalcitrant strangeness, its 

enthymematic mystery, which is thought to provoke curiosity. 31 

Masonry purports to 

have a route to Enlightenment, moral uplift, and spiritual awareness that is rooted in 

the mystery-effects of odd or strange language and symbols, a privileged practice and 

teaching that can be described as a Platonic or occult rhetorical theory. 

"Veiled in Allegory and Illustrated by Symbols": Masonic Rhetoric Explained 

It is by Rhetoric that the art of speaking eloquently is acquired. To be an 

eloquent speaker, in the proper sense of the word, is far from being 

either a common or easy attainment; it is the art of being persuasive and 

commanding, the art, not only of pleasing fancy, but of speaking both to 

the understanding and to the heart. 

--Lecture on "The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences" 

to the Fellow Craft candidate 32 

Although "Rhetoric" has fallen from institutional prominence in colleges and 

universities, because Masonic ritual and symbolism is hundreds of years old, one can 

understand why the Masons continue to "lecture" candidates on rhetoric. The ritual, 

liturgy, and catechism of the Blue Lodge have changed very little in the past 250 years.


If we understand the domain of rhetoric as having grown since the eighteenth century 

to include the broad study of persuasive (conscious) and suasvie (unconscious) 

processes in culture, however, one can characterize the whole of Masonic teaching, or 

what Masons term their "philosophy," as a particular kind or type of rhetoric that has a 

deep affinity with the occult rhetoric of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 33 

Masonic Rhetoric as Occultism 

In his book length study of occult rhetoric, Joshua Gunn argues that we can 

define the occult as the study of secrets, and more specifically, as the study of secrets 

as they pertain to magic and mysticism. 34 

Central to all occult rhetoric is the pride of 

place established for secrets and their telling, as well as the characteristically Platonic 

emphasis on spiritual truths that cannot be communicated in human language or 

representation. 35 Occult practices that attempt to change the world or reality by 

supernatural means concern magic (often of the ceremonial variety), whereas those 

concerned with contemplation, reflection, and the intuition of trans-symbolic truths 

are understood as coming from the traditions of hermeticism and mysticism. 

Freemasonry is in the second, hermetic camp and, protests to the contrary by some 

Masonic apologists, the fraternity is unquestionably an occult organization. 36 

Central to most modern occult practices is a genre of rhetoric that obscures 

spiritual teachings in strange and often deliberately ironic prose and symbols. The 

rationale behind using deliberately recalcitrant prose and symbols was both social and 

spiritual. First, difficult language is discriminatory, marking off insiders and outsiders, 

and, as the Masons help to illustrate, this contributes to a sense of belonging for the 

insiders. 37 

Yet, it can often lead to dismissal or persecution by outsiders. In fact, the 

discriminatory function of occult rhetoric parallels the function of irony in discourse


generally, which many rhetorical theorists since antiquity have noted can bond an 

audience as well as alienate one--and often at the same time. 38 

Second, although 

speaking an occult language can invite persecution, it can also (ironically) help to 

protect a group of like-minded people from persecution, as was the case, for example, 

with the alchemists. 

Understood as both the proto-scientific quest to turn baser metals into gold, as 

well as a spiritual quest to improve one's soul, alchemy was practiced since antiquity 

well into the eighteenth century. 39 For fear of persecution by religious and state 

authorities, alchemists recorded their studies and teachings in the "language of the 

birds" or the "green language," a difficult cipher of symbolism, character, and codes. 

For example, Charles Walker reports that 

The thirteenth-century occultist Michael Scot once insisted that honey falls from 

the air into flowers, whence it is collected by the bees. To us, the idea is 

fanciful, yet Scot was versed in the secret arts, and he knew that the bee is an 

ancient symbol for the human soul, while honey is the thing which [sic] feeds 

the soul. 40 

Yet there is also a certain poetic element to Scot's writing of bees, flowers, and honey 

that is not merely cipher; there is a sense in which the symbolism of bees is mysterious 

because, when one first confronts it, she is not quite certain what it means. 

In this respect, secrecy is about more than protecting one's thought from persecution 

or discriminating between insiders and outsiders; it is about the third function of 

occult rhetoric, the fetish character and mystery-effects of occult symbols. 

Gunn suggests that within the modern occult tradition, evocative, exotic, or 

otherwise bizarre representations functioned enthymetatically to encourage the 

aspirant or "reader" into higher states of spiritual consciousness and intuition. 41


Masons encourage this practice because of their professed faith in the ability of 

symbolism, coupled with an individual's reason, to intuit spiritual knowledge beyond 

the realm of signification. In her study of contemporary ceremonial magic, T.M. 

Luhrman explains the enthymematic function of occult language and symbol is 

premised consciously on a understanding of the contingency and limits of language: 

Magicians are explicitly told [by mentors] of the ambiguity of language, 

and different magicians use different words and images in different ways 

to characterize the same event. In discussion of magical ideas, and 

descriptions of magical practice, the specific words seem almost 

irrelevant: it is as if the word-value dwindles to its phatic importance, so 

that magicians use their descriptions of the ritual to signal a sense of 

involvement and commitment instead of as a means to convey 

information. 42 

Although Freemasonry does not claim supernatural forces are at work during their 

rituals, Masons nevertheless use Masonic language and symbols similarly. There are 

large numbers of encyclopedias and dictionaries devoted to explaining the etymologies 

and complex meanings of the thousands upon thousands of occult symbols and 

strange words; only a handful of extremely learned Masons could specify the multiple 

meanings of all the words and Masonic symbols used or referred to in a given degree. 

Looking into one of the most celebrated Masonic encyclopedias provides a good 

example of the mystery-function of the fraternity's symbolism. Owing to its occult 

roots, it is not surprising that we find bees and the beehive are important symbols to 

Masons:


Fig. 3. A Masonic representation of the beehive 

On old jewels . . . lodge furniture, banners, summonses, certificates, etc., 

the beehive with its flying bees is often a prominent symbol, and in at 

least one case is to be found in a lodge seal. Carved models of beehives, 

a few inches high, have a place in one or two old lodges. As far back as 

1724-27, a Masonic pamphlet, often attributed to Jonathan Swift . . . 

speaks at length of the bee and the beehive as a symbol, and apparently 

our seventeenth century brethren were taught that the beehive is "an 

emblem of industry recommending the practice of that virtue to all 

created things, from the highest seraph in heaven to the lowest reptile in 

the dust." 43 

For the Masonic candidate, the beehive's significations--the human soul as well as the 

industry and the product of its labor (honey)--are not "revealed" until the Master 

Mason's degree--if at all. Henry Wilson Coil reports that mention of the beehive is


omitted in the lectures of the degree today, although the symbol is ubiquitous in 

Masonic literature and in the decorations, furniture, and architecture of lodges across 

the United States (see fig 3). What is important about the beehive, however, is not its 

basic meaning to Masons as "industry." What is important is what the aspirant himself 

makes of it, or how the image causes him to reflect on the mysteries of Masonry; or 

the complexities of human industry and social organization; or the role of the feminine 

in structuring society; or the division of labor in contemporary basic arrangements of 

the world; or the mysteries of an ordered universe and its relation to his own 

spirituality; and so on. In short: the symbol of the beehive is a kind of enthymematic 

ruse. 

That the beehive is a symbol that is discussed less and less by Masons points us 

the fourth function of difficult language: catalyzing curiosity by means of mystery. 

Unlike Lurhman's magicians, the "specific words" and symbols of Masonic ritual are 

nevertheless very important to a number of Masons because they pique curiosity and 

encourage further study. Termed "symbolism" or "symbology" in Masonic philosophy, 

the study of the symbolic relationships and meanings of Masonry's accrual of all things 

occult and religious in the past 250 years is often touted as the central, scholarly 

component of its philosophy. In many Masonic lodges, and especially those that are 

designated "research" lodges, it is common to have a member or guest speaker "give a 

talk" on his interpretation of a Masonic symbol, such as the beehive, or on a particular 

aspect of Masonic history, and so on (sometimes these orations are collected into 

books, which are then repackaged as scholarly examinations or reflections on the 

Craft; many of the most cherished books of Masonic philosophy were originally 

orations and speeches given at a lodge meeting). 44 

Such study combines with the 

discriminatory, protective, and enthymematic functions of difficult rhetoric to


encourage further spiritual insight, or "more light," by the student Mason. The 

Masonic scholar Rex R. Hutches explains that in Freemasonry, symbols are thought to 

be instructive. They 

may clothe instruction for several reasons: first, the ideas taught cannot be 

expressed readily in ordinary language, such as descriptions of Deity; second, 

symbols can provide metaphorical garment by which ideas are presented on 

several levels . . . third, symbols provide ready mnemonics by which instruction 

may be remembered. . . . To study a symbol is to reflect on and explore it in the 

context of its history, allowing our minds to be led beyond the grasp of 

reason. 45 

Although Freemasonry is not a religion, an attention to the way Masons speak about 

symbolism indicates the fraternity is an occult organization dedicated to both charity 

and spiritual contemplation, civic action as well as the scholarly study and mystical 

reflection. The unique contribution of Masonry to the tradition of modern occult 

rhetoric, however, is the way in which these two missions are united in the drama of 

the Mysteries. 

Masonic Rhetoric and The Mysteries 

When understood in relation to the ceremonial and ritual performance that 

occurs in Masonic lodges, the four functions of occult rhetoric exemplified by Masonry 

are unquestionably Platonic, and by extension, mark Freemasonry as the modern 

counterpart to the Ancient Mysteries. In the Cratylus, the Phaedrus, and the Republic, 

Plato argued that language taken literally could not express universal, spiritual truths. 

Only indirect allegory (mythoi) and dialectical speech--in other words, talking aloud to 

others back-and-forth and indirectly through myth--could ever inspire one to intuit


ultimately reality (and even then, only partially). 46 From this perspective, the "esoteric 

work" of oral memorization to learn the Masonic catechism of each degree is not only a 

device for secrecy, but a practice wedded to a faith in the spirituality of presentism. 47 

The Platonic belief that speech presences thought and is therefore closer to 

spiritual truth bespeaks the centrality of drama, or the physical interaction of people in 

a staged ritual or performance. For these reasons, many prominent Masons have 

argued that the teachings of the Craft are derived from "The Mysteries," which are 

either a descendant of Platonism or at least originally based on the same ideas Plato 

harbored about the divine and our access to it. 48 

Hutchens explains that 

The Ancient Mysteries were secret ceremonies which used drama, 

symbolism, and mythology to transmit religious and philosophical 

knowledge to selected initiates. . . . The parallels between Freemasonry 

and the Ancient Mysteries are evidenced by their similar objectives and 

methods. Through symbolism, mythology and drama, the Mysteries 

taught that man's soul was immortal and that virtue, not vice, provides 

the hope of immortality. 49 

Whether or not one can trace Freemasonry as a direct descendent of The Mysteries is 

not as important as reckoning with their common cause in the important function of 

secrecy/mystery as a route to spiritual knowledge. In one of the largest and most 

difficult works of Masonic philosophy, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted 

Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which is a collection of "lectures" about both the Blue 

Lodge and Scottish Rite degrees, Albert Pike stresses the function of secrecy in the 

Mysteries was to create spiritual and intellectual curiosity, as well as respect for the 

teachings of the organization:


Curiosity was excited by secrecy, by the difficulty experienced in gaining 

admission, and by the test to be undergone. The candidate was amused 

by the variety of the scenery, the pomp and decorations . . . . Respect was 

inspired by the gravity and dignity of the actors and the majesty of the 

ceremonial; and fear and hope, sadness and delight, were in turns 

excited. 50 

In rewriting the Scottish Rite degrees--and by literally moving a number of them 

to the theatre stage--Pike yoked secrecy to the spiritual import of drama, a point 

Kenneth Burke repeatedly stressed was foundational to understanding rhetoric. Pike 

and Burke's views on ritual drama as both a reflection of social order as well as a 

reaction to the recalcitrance of brute reality and the mysteries of the universe are 

remarkably similar. "We propose to take ritual drama as the Ur-form, the 'hub'" of a 

rhetorical theory of drama, says Burke, 

with all other aspects of human action treated as spokes radiating from 

this hub. That is, the social sphere is considered in terms of situations 

and acts, in contrast with the physical sphere, which is considered in 

mechanistic terms . . . . Ritual drama is considered as the culminating 

from, from this point of view, and any other form is to be considered as 

the 'efficient' overstressing of one or another of the ingredients found in 

ritual drama. An essayistic treatise of scientific cast, for instance, would 

be viewed as a kind of Hamletic soliloquy, its rhythm slowed down to a 

snail's pace . . . and the dramatic situation of which it is part usually being 

unmentioned. 51 

Pike's refiguring of the Scottish Rite degrees, which are presently taught, studied, and 

practiced, comprise a masterful illustration of Burke's social theory of "dramatism" (and


it should be said Burke's thinking here is very much in sympathy with the mysteries; if 

he is not an occultist proper, Burke certainly thought like one). For both Burke and 

Pike, the precondition of drama is mystery or uncertainty about others and the 

unknown. 52 

Consequently, for Pike the secrets of Freemasonry were functionally 

fundamental to the fraternity's philosophical teachings; curiosity in this respect is not 

merely intellectual, but performative. 

Finally, Pike's belief that the structure of the Mysteries informing Masonic 

degree work inspired "respect" is in keeping with Burke's observation that "once a 

believer is brought to accept mysteries, he will be better minded to take orders without 

question from those persons whom he considers authoritative." 53 Such is the relation 

between teacher and pupil, preacher and parishioner, Master Mason and Apprentice-- 

and as Burke would have it, God and Satan. Like Pike, Burke suggests that "mystery is 

inescapable" because "symbol-systems are necessarily inadequate for the ab intra 

description of the non-symbolic." 54 

Pike, however, failed to reckon with the point that 

Burke's dialectical thinking on the drama of mystery quickly led him to, a point that a 

number of Masons throughout history have had difficulty estimating: inasmuch as 

mystery can command respect and curiosity, it will also--and necessarily so--inspire 

distrust and a fear of subjection. Mystery inspires fantasies of conspiracy that only 

intensify scrutiny when coupled with the ideal of publicity. 

The Perils of Publicity, or, Dumbing Down the Mystery 

The conflict between secrecy and democracy would appear to be a 

recurrent phenomenon in our national history. Indeed, since the 

flowering of the modern secret society in the eighteenth century,


antisecretism as a state of mind has been an enduring fiber in the patter 

of Western culture. 

--Leland M. Griffin 55 

In his classic study of the rhetorical structure of the Anti-Masonic movement, 

Leland Griffin carefully traces how the murder of an anti-Mason, allegedly committed 

by a gang of Masons (which is known in the Masonic literature as the "Morgan Affair)," 

sparked an anti-Masonic social movement that culminated in the development of a 

political party and "the first Antimasonic candidate for the Presidency" in 1831. 56 

According to Griffin's account, 

in the fall of 1826 rumor was circulated among Freemasons of western 

New York to the effect that a former member of the lodge at Batavia, a 

bricklayer named William Morgan, was planning to publish the secret 

signs, grips, passwords, and ritual of Ancient Craft [Blue Lodge] Masonry. 

The anger of the Masons was soon translated into those actions that were 

to initiate the [Antimasonic] movement. . . . Morgan . . . was imprisoned 

on a false charge and shortly thereafter, abducted from his cell by a small 

band of Masons and driven in a closed carriage more than one hundred 

miles to Rochester; from there he was taken to the abandoned fort above 

Niagara Falls. . . . Morgan was locked in the castle of the fort--where, 

from that moment, all historical trace of him vanishes. 57 

After Mogan's death, his book was published and became an instant bestseller, and an 

Anti-Masonic uproar led to twenty-one indictments and a trial for six, none of whom 

were charged with murder (it turns out the prosecutor and a number of jurors were 

Freemasons). After the trial, over a hundred Anti-Masonic newspapers sprung up and, 

as Hodapp puts it, helped to generate a "hysteria" that was "so bad that for nearly two


decades, a toddler couldn't get sick in the United States without someone claiming the 

Masons had poisoned the kid's porridge." 58 

From a rhetorical vantage, what is particularly interesting to Griffin is the way in 

which the Anti-Masons created a "fund" of public argument via various channels of 

media circulation (newspapers, tracts, public lectures, sermons, and so on), and the 

rhetorical strategies of Masons in response to the many accusations against them: it 

was claimed that the Masons killed Morgan as a part of their bloodthirsty rituals; that 

they were conspiring to take over the newly established and united republic; that the 

Masons were in cahoots with the Devil, and so on. 

The first strategy the Masons used, which Griffin speculates may in part rely on 

common beliefs about persuasion at the time (e.g., the work of George Campbell), was 

to counter-attack: "The character and motives of Antimasons . . . . [Masons] charged 

that [Antimasons] were merely trying to 'raise an excitement,'" reports Griffin, "and 

declared that the 'blessed spirit' [viz., grace claimed by Anti-Masons] was rather an 

inquisitorial spirit, a product of delusion as the Salem witchcraft trials had been." 59 

Apparently the counter-attack strategy was a disaster. Griffin argues that it led the 

Anti-Mason's to extend their agenda to the complete destruction of Freemasonry itself, 

and later, "the destruction of all secret orders then existing in the country." 60 

Griffin argues that the second rhetorical response of Masons was no more 

effective, at least for the next decade as Masonic supporters or "Mason Jacks" stopped 

defending the fraternity. In 1830, under the "tacit leadership of President Jackson" 

(also a Mason), the Secretary of State Edward Livingston gave a speech to a number of 

Masons in which he urged "'dignified silence' in the face of the opposition's attack." 61 

After this talk was circulated among Masons, Griffin notes that "the Masons became, in 

fact, virtually mute." 62 

Meanwhile,


States began to pass laws against extrajuridical oaths, legislation which was 

intended to emasculate the secret order; lodge charters were surrendered, 

sometimes under legal compulsion but often voluntarily; Phi Beta Kappa 

abandoned its oaths of secrecy; Masonic and Odd Fellows' lodges began to file 

bankruptcy petitions; and membership rolls in the various orders began to 

dwindle to the vanishing point. 63 

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the fraternity began to recover and slowly 

increased in numbers. Membership steadily increased for decade after decade until it 

ballooned to four million members in the modern heyday of contemporary civic 

engagement in the post World War II United States. 64 

Nevertheless, the rhetorical 

strategy of absolute silence in response to questions regarding Masonry--and 

especially in response to attacks--would persist until relatively recently. Hence, the 

tight-lipped response of an uncle or grandfather when questioned about the teachings 

of Freemasonry are not only a consequence of misunderstanding (e.g., that there really 

are no secrets anymore) or the consequence of revolutionary politics, but also a 

defensive impulse rooted in the fraternity's response to the Anti-Masonic crisis of the 

1830s. 

Because of its commitment to tradition and ritual precedent, as well as the 

emphasis placed on scholarship and the study of its symbols and history, many 

Freemasons are aware of the history of Anti-Masonry and at least tacitly inculcated 

with the rhetorical habits of the fraternity; shaking the defensive "silent" response of 

the past when confronting popular publicity has been a long process. Because of the 

recent, positive portrayals of the fraternity in contemporary popular media, however, a 

number of prominent Masonic leaders have adopted a different strategy: (seemingly) a 

complete openness about the fraternity, its histories, its rituals, and its symbols. As


the membership numbers plummeted in the mid-nineteenth century, which effectively 

threatened the survival of the fraternity, the Masons chose to continue their charity and 

ritual work behind the closed doors of the lodge without a word. Today, as the 

fraternity faces a similar, though less dramatic, decline, a number of Masonic leaders 

have chosen to embrace recent publicity as an opportunity to stress the nonmysterious 

aspects of the Order. 

One reason that contemporary Masons have decided to appear more open to 

public curiosity is the recognition that publics--and their habits of information 

gathering--have changed dramatically in the twentieth century. 65 

Pierre G. Normand, 

editor of Plumbline, the newsletter of one of the largest Masonic scholarly societies, 

the Scottish Rite Research Society , writes: 

I suppose the big news in the Masonic world of late is the onslaught of 

mixed blessings attendant to the release of The Da Vinci Code movie. [It] 

. . . mentions Freemasonry, however briefly and inaccurately, and, as a 

result, everyone's interested in the fraternity again. . . . We live in a 

world of tabloid journalism and conspiracy theories where the average 

American learns everything, not in the history section of the local library 

or bookshop, but at the checkout counter of the local grocery story [sic], 

or the movie theatre. 66 

Apparently mindful of this attitude, Masonic officials made a number of strategic 

choices when ABC television network approached the Scottish Rite headquarters and 

requested a live broadcast last spring. Decisions were made to downplay the mysteryeffects 

of Masonic symbolism as well as the spiritual teaching occult practices of 

Masonry. "Secrecy" was deliberately re-coded as "private," disarticulating the fraternity 

from the long history of clandestine clubs in the language of publicity (e.g., the right to


keep some "private" things from public scrutiny). For example, when Richard E. 

Fletcher, Executive Secretary of the dominant Masonic PR association, spoke with the 

reporter Charles Gibson on national television, he flatly denied the label "secret 

society": 

Charles Gibson: . . . Do you accept this idea [that] it's [Freemasonry is] a secret 

society? 

Richard E. Fletcher: No, sir. 

Gibson: Not secret? 

Fletcher: It isn't. 

Gibson: Then why the secret handshakes and the secret rites, etcetera, that go 

on? 

Fletcher: Well, the handshakes--if you want to go in that direction--the 

handshakes are a throwback to our early days when Freemasonry was related to 

the actual builders in stone. 

Fletcher then explains the function of handshakes and passwords in medieval masonic 

guilds, but Gibson was determined: 

Gibson: But you know secret societies today raise suspicions. Now, you 

say it's not secret. But there are parts about it that we don’t know. 

Fletcher: There are parts that are private. Now, if you're talking about 

what goes on behind closed doors and all those secret things. They're 

not secret. They're private. What we are doing is taking an individual 

man, bringing him into the fraternity through a series of degrees, and in 

those degrees, he is going to be challenged to look at such things as 

honesty, honor, integrity, how to make oneself a better person . . . . 67


The mere fact that the top leaders of the Scottish Rite allowed a popular morning news 

program to film inside the House of the Temple in Washington D.C., of course, 

betokens a very different approach to and attitude toward publicity than in its almost 

three-hundred year history. 

So, too, is "privacy" the replacement of "secrecy" in a number of the books 

written for the express purpose of popularizing the fraternity since the Da Vinci Code 

catalyzed popular curiosity. "Masons like to say that Freemasonry is not a secret 

society," reports Christopher Hodapp in his Freemasons for Dummies, "rather, it is a 

society with secrets. A better way to put this is that what goes on in a lodge room 

during its ceremonies is private." 68 Like Fletcher, Hodapp similarly downplays the 

centrality and function of mystery central to Masonic philosophy: although "it is 

tempting to believe that there are hidden mysteries and even magic contained in" 

Masonic symbols, "in fact, they're used to simply imprint on the mind the lessons of 

the fraternity." 69 

In the same spirit of simplicity, Hodapp not only downplays the drama 

of Masonic ritual as a "throwback," but--and surprisingly so--dismisses the entire 

body of modern Masonic philosophy. In an offset blurb box titled "Mysticism, magic, 

and Masonic mumbo-jumbo," Hodepp writes: 

If you read enough about Freemasonry, you'll soon come across the 

writings of Albert Mackey, Manley Hall, Arthur Edward Waite, and Albert 

Pike. These men and many others have filled reams of paper with 

scholarly observations of Freemasonry. They eloquently linked the Craft 

to the ancient Mystery Schools of Egypt and elsewhere. They wrote that 

Masonry was directly descended from pagan rites and ancient religions. . 

. . The works of these men were filled with fabulous tales and beliefs and


cultures and cryptic theories of the deepest and earliest origins of 

Freemasonry. In short, they wrote a lot of crap. 70 

Hodapp continues by denying Masonry has any relation to the occult, and that writers 

like "Pike, Mackey, and Hall" wrote "big, thick books" that created all sorts of problems 

since "Freemasons [now] have to explain all over again to their relatives and ministers 

that, no, they aren't . . . making pagan sacrifices to Lucifer." Hodapp concludes, "let's 

just say their [Pike et al.] vision of the history of modern-day Freemasonry is not 

accurate and leave it at that." 71 Either Hodapp does not understand the internal 

function of Masonic rhetoric, or he has deliberately chosen to mischaracterize the 

fraternity. 

That Hodapp can be so dismissive of Masonic philosophy is, in fact, protected 

by the organizational structure of the fraternity. As previously discussed, all Masonic 

authority is invested in a given region's Grand Lodge, and lodge officials are the ones 

who determine what is and is not properly "Masonic." Combined with the general 

commitment to the right of each individual to interpret Masonic symbolism for himself, 

the tribal structure of Masonic authority has contributed to a general tolerance of 

freethinking and polite disagreement among Masons in the United States. 

Unquestionably, that a Master Mason from a California jurisdiction could publish 

something titled Freemasons for Dummies is a testament to this ideology. 

Although decidedly more serious and less anti-intellectual, a number of recent 

Masonic publications reflect a downplaying of the mystical and occult teachings of the 

Craft. For example, Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris' Is it True What They Say About 

Freemasonry? downplays Pike's Morals and Dogma as a product of its time: "Just 

because Albert Pike was a brilliant ritualist, an able administrator, and a well-respected 

Mason doesn’t mean all his opinions are right in light of today's knowledge." 72 

Such an


observation is certainly true, however, it is made in the absence of any explanation of 

Pike's commitment to the Ancient Mysteries and the central function of Masonic 

symbolism, which comprised Pike's fundamental teaching in Morals and Dogma. 

Despite the fact that each is hundreds of pages long, similar publications like Morris' 

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry and The Everything Freemasonry Book (the 

latter by non-Masons) also downplay the occult origins of the fraternity and as well as 

the dramatic and mysterious aspects. Although the tone of these books is much more 

respectful of Masonic tradition and philosophy than Hodapp's, they join Freemasonry 

for Dummies in presenting the fraternity as the antithesis of the mystery-effect of the 

strange symbol. As Walter Benjamin might say, each book attempts to evaporate the 

aura of mystery that surrounds the Craft in the language of transparency and 

contemporary argot. 73 

Given the Anti-Masonic movements of the past, it is 

understandable why this third strategy of publicity was adopted. And yet, when viewed 

from the perspective of ritual drama and mystery-effect, this rhetorical trend is 

ironically deceptive: not only does it seem to divest the fraternity--at least for the 

outsider--of one of its two major practices (no one disowns charity, of course), the 

strategy is more commonly known as "lying." In our age of surveillance and publicity, 

lying may prove to be the absolute worst strategy of all. 

Concluding Remarks: Is There No Help for the Widow's Son? 

The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is a school of instruction [and] its 

subjects are morality and philosophy. The moral domain is composed of 

both precept and example . . . knowledge and action. . . . The 

accomplishment of the second half of the educational mission of the Rite, 

however, has received little emphasis . . . . like a river seeking the


smoothest route, the Rite has steadily moved away from instruction on 

philosophy and continued to place a greater emphasis on its charitable 

endeavors. 

--Rex R. Hutchens, 33° 74 

Hutchens' observation that Scottish Rite Masonry has gradually moved away 

from its rhetorical theory or "philosophy" is frequently the beginning premise of much 

Masonic scholarship of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 75 

Many of Albert Pike's 

scholarly works, for example, begin in an elitist tone: "The highest claim of 

Freemasonry to consideration is that it is a philosophical truth, concealed from the 

masses and taught to adepts by symbols," argues Pike. And yet, "every intelligent 

Mason knows that of every hundred of the Brethren . . . not more than two or three 

regard the symbolism of Freemasonry as of any real value, or care to study it." 76 

Pike 

hoped that his efforts to enhance and amplify the mystery of Masonry by re-writing 

and rendering more dramatic the Scottish Rite degrees would inspire the intellectual 

and spiritual curiosity that he saw lacking among the Masons of his time. His worry 

was that the philosophical mission of Freemasonry was increasingly eclipsed by 

Masonic sociability and charity. In this essay, I have argued that Pike's fears have been 

realized: if the recent rhetorical efforts of Masons to publicize the fraternity are any 

measure, then Masonry is giving up on its theory of rhetoric and the centrality of 

mystery to that theory. To this end I first described what the fraternity is and does in 

very general terms, and then moved on to specify a Masonic rhetoric: like most modern 

occult rhetoric, Masonic discourse (1) is socially discriminatory; (2) historically helped 

to create a safe space for free discussion; (3) functions enthymematically and 

phatically; and (4) is deliberately mysterious in order to inspire curiosity, respect, and


so on. After revisiting Griffin's description of the failed rhetorical responses of the 

fraternity to negative publicity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, I then 

showed how the most recent Masonic strategy has been to divest Masonry of its 

symbolic philosophy in favor of stressing the civic, social, and charitable mission of the 

Order. In short, at least in the popular press, Masons are deliberately dismantling the 

mystery or fetish character of their Order. 

Owing to the introductory and descriptive mission of the present essay, space 

prevents any thorough discussion of the wider, cultural meaning of the Masons' 

rhetorical response to recent publicity. Nevertheless, I want to close by arguing that 

continued study of the Fraternity can fruitfully contribute to discussions about issues 

that are important to rhetorical scholars, most especially those concerning the 

transformation of publics in our time and the relationship of this transformation to a 

decline in civic engagement. For example, during their interview on Good Morning 

America at the Scottish Rite Temple in Washington, D.C., Charles Gibson and S. Brent 

Morris linked civic engagement directly with the clandestine character of Masonry: 

Gibson: . . . one of the things that struck me, you've all talked about the 

fact you do good works, very supportive of one another, but membership 

is diminishing in the Freemasons. 

Morris: Indeed it is. Membership has diminished in the Freemasons since 

1960. But it's also diminished in virtually every voluntary organization in 

the United States. It's a mystery for sociologists. 

Gibson: Why? Private societies, secret societies, whichever word you want 

to use, raise suspicions. Are some of those suspicions the reason you 

think that membership declines? 77


Morris responds that "you can't point to just the Masons' traditions," implying that the 

mystery of the fraternity is not the issue. I think Morris is wrong. 

As the widely read scholarship of Robert D. Putnam has shown, Morris is correct 

to diagnose a general decline in the participation in civic groups. The reasons behind 

this decline, however, are not a mystery: Putnam locates the decline in the 

complexities of major social changes including urbanization, the erosion of the nuclear 

family (e.g., divorce rates), the move of women into the workplace, and most especially 

the arrival of mass media entertainment technologies: 

First, news and entertainment have become increasingly individualized. 

No longer must we coordinate our tastes and timing with others in order 

to enjoy the rarest culture or most esoteric information . . . . with my hi-fi 

Walkman CD [player] . . . I can listen to precisely what I want to when I 

want and where I want. . . . Second, electronic technology allows us to 

consume this hand-tailored entertainment in private, even utterly alone. 78 

To put it in the language of Dummies and Idiots, television killed the secret 

handshake. 

What both Morris and Putnam fail to discuss, however, is the centrality of 

secrecy to notions of the public and civic engagement and where the site of secrecy 

has shifted. Following the work of Reinhart Koselleck, Jürgen Habermas traces the 

emergence of the ideal of the public sphere to the interplay of publicity and secrecy; 

eighteenth century coffee house meetings, reading groups, and Masonic lodges are 

described as nascent publics. For Habermas, 

The decisive element [of lodges] was not so much the political equality of 

the members but their exclusiveness in relation to the political realm of 

absolutism as such: social equality was possible at first only as an


equality outside the state. The coming together of people into a public 

was therefore anticipated in secret, as a public sphere existing largely 

behind closed doors. 79 

And it was behind the lodge doors, guarded with passwords and handshakes, that the 

"rational faculty" was protected from the counter-secret machinations and "chanceries 

of the prince." 80 

For both the state and the lodge, Habermas argues, publicity had to 

"rely on secrecy" until methods of rational deliberation and judgment in private helped 

to topple the secrecy of the state in demands for transparency. Nevertheless, the 

unforeseen consequence Masonry's promotion of democracy and social equality, 

suggests Habermas, is that the fraternity "fell pray to its own ideology" as other publics 

began to demand transparency for counterpublics of all sorts, which is precisely what 

the U.S. Anti-Masonic movement illustrates. 81 

The decline of Freemasonry is 

paradoxically symptomatic of the realization of republican ideals. 

Coupled with Putnam's technological explanation for the decline in civic 

enjoyment in the United States, Habermas' analysis would support the argument I have 

advanced in this essay: Freemasonry is on the decline because it has no secrets and 

because its leaders do not seem to morn the loss of the drama and inspiration of 

mystery so central to its tradition. Furthermore, if the formation of a given public is 

discerned rhetorically at the sites of discrimination, if, as Jodi Dean argues, the 

constitutive limit of publicity is the site of secrecy, then the true public of Masonry has 

shifted to the popular imaginary of enter/infotainment. 82 

This would imply, of course, 

that the drama of secrecy on the page and screen has analogously become the scene 

of spiritual insight as much as it has become the locus of public debate (or rather, the 

place where talking heads debate for us so that we are relieved of the burden). 83 

Insofar as Masonic leaders are "giving it up" in the hip-hop argot of contemporary


accessibility, 84 Masonry will never exist as an important, civic public again. 

Increasingly, Masonry's public exists in the imaginary networks created by the 

circulation of mysterious fiction, such as with the readership of Dan Brown's 

forthcoming novel, The Solomon Key. An analysis of current Masonic rhetoric tells us 

that the contemporary techno-logics of publics and democracy have put Freemasonry 

to death.


Notes 

1 Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 436. 

2 The consensus among Masons and historians is that the present form of Masonry as it is now 

practiced can be traced back to a 1717 formation in London. See Steven C. Bullock, 

Revolutionary Brotherhood: Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 

1730-1840 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), esp. 9-49; Margaret C. 

Jacob, Living in the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Europe (New 

York: Oxford University Press, 1991), esp. 23-51; and W. Kirk MacNulty, The Way of the 

Craftsman: A Search for the Spiritual Essence of Craft Freemasonry (London: Central Regalia 

Ltd., 2002), esp. 3-12. 

3 See Illustrated Guide to Rosslyn Chapel, ed. Robert L.D. Cooper (New York: Masonic Publishing 

Company, 2003). 

4 See W. Kirk MacNulty, Freemasonry: A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol (London: Thames 

and Hudson, 1991). It should be noted that in this essay, in the tradition of Masonry, I will refer 

to "Freemasonry," "Masonry," "the Craft," "the fraternity," "the organization," and "the Order" 

interchangeably. 

5 In addition to the film version of The Da Vinci Code, see From Hell (2001), National Treasure 

(2004), and Rosewood (1997). For more examples, see "Freemasonry in Culture: Movies, TV, 

Books & Other Entertainment," Masonic Leadership Center, available: 

http://www.bessel.org/culture.htm accessed 7 August 2006. 

6 For example, The History Channel's series History's Mysteries devoted a number of 2006 

programs to the Freemasons and associated secret societies, such as, "Secret Brotherhood of 

Freemasons" and "Secret Societies," and "Knights Templar." 

7 "Secrets of the Freemasons: Do They Control the Government? abcnews.com 19 April 2006; 

available at http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1859087&page=1 accessed 7 August 2006. 

A full transcript of the broadcast is in S. Brent Morris, "Good Morning, America Broadcasts Live 

from the House of the Temple." Scottish Rite Journal (July/August 2006): available


http://www.srmason-sj.org/web/journal-files/Issues/jul-aug06/MorrisGMA.html accessed 7 

August 2006. 

8 There are hundreds of anti-Masonic books that locate the fraternity in Satanic conspiracy; for 

examples, see Cathy Burns, Hidden Secrets of Freemasonry (Mt. Carmel, PA: Sharing Press, 

1990); and William Schnoebelenn, Masonry: Beyond the Light (Ontario, CA: Chick Publications, 

1991). For a book length rebuttal of these and similar fantasies, see Arturo de Hoyos and S. 

Brent Morris, Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? The Methods of Anti-Masons, rev. 

ed. (New York: M. Evans and Company, Inc., 2004) 

9 W. Kirk MacNulty, "Freemasonry for Bobos." Heredom 13 (2005): 27. 

10 See Robert D. Putnam. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New 

York: Simon & Shuster, 2000). 

11 According to Putnam, "the core idea of social capital theory is that social networks have 

value"; Putnam, Bowling Alone, 18-19. 

12 

The Louisiana Masonic Monitor, ed. G.C. Huckaby (Kenner, LA: River Parishes Printing/The 

Grand Lodge of the State of Louisiana, 1988), 20. Every state in the country has its own 

"monitor," which contains the ceremonial and procedural rules for running a lodge, a number of 

public ceremonies (such as the Masonic funeral ceremony), and various "lectures" that are often 

memorized and repeated during "degree work," or during initiation ceremonies. No two 

monitors are alike, and therefore, the selection from the lecture here may differ significantly 

from that of another state. 

13 For an excellent elaboration of the legend and its related symbolism, see Albert Pike, 

Symbolism of the Blue Degrees of Freemasonry: Albert Pike's "Esoterika," ed. Arturo de Hoyos 

(Washington, D.C.: Scottish Rite Research Society, 2005). 

14 I discussion one of the exceptions, "The Morgan Affair," later in the essay. I recognize that at 

this point some readers may be wondering if the author is a Master Mason, and if so, worry that 

I am disclosing or about to disclose some of the fraternity's secrets. I am a Mason, however, as 

I explain below, the secrets I have sworn not to disclose concern ways to recognize a fellow


Mason; the meanings of the rituals, allegories, and symbols of Freemasonry have been widely 

published and discussed. 

15 De Hoyos and Morris, Is It True, 18-19. 

16 Henry Wilson Coil, Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, eds. William Moseley Brown, 

William L. Cummings, Harold Van Buren Voorhis, and Allen E. Roberts (Richmond VA: Macoy 

Publishing, 1996), s.v. "Grand Lodge." 

17 In the popular imagination Masonry is sometimes erroneously associated with the Ku Klux 

Klan, which Freemasons strenuously deny (this does not preclude the possibility that men could 

have belonged to both groups). The association probably related to the dubious claim that 

Albert Pike, a famous and well-respected Confederate officer, public intellectual, and long-time 

leader of the Scottish Rite, was a "high ranking" official of the Ku Klux Klan. There is no 

historical evidence to support this claim. In one newspaper report Pike argues for a reformed 

secret society like the Klan, because "the disfranchised people of the South, robbed of all the 

guarantees of the Constitution . . . can find no protection for property, liberty or life, except in 

secret association. Not in such association to commit follies and outrages; but for mutual, 

lawful , self-defence." This is hardly an endorsement of racist violence. See Walter Lee Brown, A 

Life of Albert Pike (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1997), 439. For summary of all 

the claims, see "Discredited Histories of the Ku Klux Klan," Grand Lodge of British Columbia and 

Yukon, available http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/discredited.html accessed 8 August 

2006. 

18 Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, 23. 

19 See Lynn Dumenil, "'The Insatiable Maw of Bureaucracy'": Antistatism and Education Reform in 

the 1920s." The Journal of American History 77 (1990): 499-524. 

20 Joel Schorn, "What is the Catholic View of Freemasonry?" U.S. Catholic (May 2005): 43. 

21 Freemasonry and related secret societies have received much attention in public sphere 

circles. See especially Reinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the 

Pathogenesis of Modern Society (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998); Jürgen Habermas. The Structural


Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society, trans. 

Thomas Burger and Frederick Lawrence (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000), 31-38; and Margaret C. 

Jacob, Living the Enlightenment, esp. 3-51. Habermas argues, for example, that Masonry was 

essentially a proto-public, a point to which I will return in my concluding remarks. 

22 Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 110. 

23 Bullock, Revolutionary Brotherhood, 113. 

24 The important--if not central--role of Masonry in the emerging republic as a scene of 

debate, discussion, and reflection on republicanism has yet to be explored by rhetorical 

scholars, and perhaps fruitfully complicates the contest between Federalists and Anti- 

Federalists over publics and publicity. Although Bullock has shown that Masonry began in the 

United States as a meeting of elites, the commitment of the Fraternity to egalitarianism and 

balloting exemplify Habermas' argument that the bourgeoisie ideal of the public sphere 

eventually worked too well: Freemasons are to disregard class allegiance in the lodge and "meet 

on the level." In addition to an elite and a "vernacular republican rhetoric," then, we must add 

an occult rhetoric that mediates the two, I project I hope to work on in the near future. See 

James Arnt Aune, "Tales of the Text: Originalism, Theism, and the History of the U. S. 

Constitution." Rhetoric and Public Affairs 1 (1998): 257-279; Bullock, Revolutionary 

Brotherhood, 56-108; Stephen John Hartnett, "'Has Your Courage Rusted': National Security and 

the Contested Rhetorical Norms of Republicanism in Post-Revolutionary America, 1798-1801." 

Rhetoric and Public Affairs 9 (2006): 79-112; and Jennifer R. Mercieca and James Arnt Aune, "A 

Vernacular Republican Rhetoric: William Manning's Key of Liberty." Quarterly Journal of Speech 

91 (2005): 119-143. 

25 Freemasonry has also been linked to the English and French revolutions; see Jacob, Living the 

Enlightenment. 

26 See Hodapp, Dummies, 17-18. 

27 See Hodapp, Dummies, 17-18.


28 S. Brent Morris, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry (New York: Alpha Books/Penguin, 

2006), 10. 

29 See Hodapp, Dummies, 18. 

30 One secret of Masonry is really no secret at all: they are fundamentally a charitable 

organization, frequently raising money for children in need, to the tune of hundreds of millions 

of dollars a year. Based on figures compiled by the Masonic Service Association of North 

America, in 1995 Masons contributed $750 million dollars to charity. See S. Brent Morris, 

Masonic Philanthropies: A Tradition of Caring (Lexington, MA: The Supreme Council, 33, 1997), 

esp. 18-21. 

31 Welcome, curious reader, to that subterranean textuality wherein at least half of the occultic- 

-and therefore political--work of the academy is done: the footnotes. You didn't think I would 

tease the more curious of you and then not say something of the meaning of this symbol, did 

you? I like readers like you (I scour the footnotes too). First, as I will make clearer below, the 

meaning of these strange symbols is actually secondary to their primary function as mysterycreating 

or fetishizing agents; there is usually a basic meaning to a Masonic symbol, but in part 

Masonic mysticism involves making your own, idiosyncratic meaning of symbol. Nevertheless, 

histories of this symbol are numerous and many Masons have speculated about its meaning. 

The most basic meaning that is communicated to beginning Masons is that the compasses 

serve as a reminder to "circumscribe" one's desires and to "keep one's passions in due bounds"; 

the square is a reminder to Masons to always square their behavior by the "square of virtue." In 

the nineteenth century, the "G" started appearing in the symbol and was said to represent both 

"geometry," that "magical" science the ancient masons relied on to build and "God," who is the 

measure of all things (all that are, that they are, and all that are not, that they are not). Also see 

Pike, Symbolism, 93-106. 

32 

Louisiana Masonic Monitor, 102. 

33 For an overview of this rhetoric, see Joshua Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric: Mass Media and 

the Drama of Secrecy in the United States (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005).


34 See Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric, xxii. 

35 See Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric, 35-52; and Joshua Gunn, "An Occult Poetics, or, the 

Secret Rhetoric of Religion." Rhetoric Society Quarterly 34 (2004): 29-54. 

36 Hodapp explicitly denies Freemasonry is an occult organization; Dummies, 61. 

37 Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric, 143-171. 

38 Irony is, I agree with C. Jan Swearingen, the occult core of the rhetorical tradition. See C. Jan 

Swearingen, Rhetoric and Irony: Western Literacy and Western Lies (New York: Oxford University 

Press, 1991). Or as Kenneth Burke once put it, irony always requires the fool--a figure of 

immense significance in the modern occult tradition. See Kenneth Burke, "Four Master Tropes," 

in his A Grammar of Motives (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969), 503-517. Also see 

Linda Hutcheon, Irony's Edge: The Theory and Politics of Irony (New York: Routledge, 1995). 

39 For a lucid account of the spiritual project of alchemy, see C. J. Jung, Jung on Alchemy, edited 

by Nathan Schwartz-Salant (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), esp. Schartz-Salant's 

excellent introduction. 

40 Charles Walker, The Encyclopedia of the Occult (New York: Crescent Books, 1995), 7. 

41 Gunn, Modern Occult Rhetoric, 75; also see see T. M. Luhrmann, Persuasions of the Witches 

Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), esp. 

214-220. 

42 Luhrmann, Persuasions, 215. 

43 Benard E. Jones, Freemason's Guide and Compendium (London: Eric Dobby Publishing, 2003), 

408; also see Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, sv. "Beehive." 

44 See for example Thomas D. Worrel, "The Symbolism of the Beehive and the Bee," Mill Valley 

Masonic Lodge Website; available http://mill-valley.freemasonry.biz/worrel/beehive.htm 

accessed 8 August 2006. 

45 Rex R. Hutchens, Pillars of Wisdom: The Writings of Albert Pike (Washington, DC: The 

Supreme Council, 33°), 57.


46 Plato, Cratylus, translated by D. D. C. Reeve, in Plato: Complete Works, edited by John M. 

Cooper (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997), sec. 439; Plato, The Republic of 

Plato, edited and translated by Francis MacDonald Cornford (New York: Oxford University Press, 

1945), secs. 514-21; Plato, Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII, edited and translated by Walter 

Hamilton (New York: Penguin Books, 1973), secs. 244-258. 

47 Jacques Derrida had a lot to say about this, of course, an assumption that he termed 

"logocentrism," a faith in speech that presumed a "metaphysics of presence." See Jacques 

Derrida, "Plato's Pharmacy," translated by Barbara Johnson. A Derrida Reader: Between the 

Blinds, edited by Peggy Kamuf, 114-39. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991. 

48 This is thesis of perhaps the most famous work of Masonic scholarship in the world: Albert 

Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (Charleston: 

Supreme Council, 33°, 1871). Unfortunately space limits any discussion, but W. Kirk MacNulty 

has offered a persuasive, well-researched psychoanalytic account of Masonic ritual as a Mystery 

rite. See W. Kirk MacNulty, The Way of the Craftsman (London: Central Regalia Ltd., 2002) 

49 Hutchens, Pillars of Wisdom, 102. 

50 Pike, Morals and Dogma, 383. 

51 Kenneth Burke, Philosophy of Literary Form, 3rd ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 

1973), 103. 

52 Such is the mystery of love and social class; see Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives 

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962), 114-123. 

53 Kenneth Burke, Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology (Berkeley: University of California 

Press, 1970), 307. 

54 Burke, Rhetoric of Religion, 308. Burke's imagined dialogue between "The Lord" and "Satan" 

on the topic of mystery is fascinating, as it resembles in many respects a Masonic catechism. 

55 Leland M. Griffin, "The Rhetorical Structure of the Antimasonic Movement." Readings in 

Rhetorical Criticism, ed. Carl R. Burgchardt (State College, PA: Strata Publishing, 1995), 371. 

56 

Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, sv. "Morgan Affair."


57 Griffin, "Antimasonic Movement," 373. Of course, many Masons have disputed this account 

stressing that no one knows what really happened to Morgon; see Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, 

s.v. "Morgan Affair," as well as Hodapp, Dummies, 45-47. 

58 Hodapp, Dummies, 46. 

59 Griffin, "Antimasonic Movement," 374. 




63 Griffin, "Antimasonic Movement," 377-378. 

64 Holly Lebowitz Rossi, "Masonic Membership is Declining." Detroit Free Press (15 July 2006): 

available 

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060715/FEATURES01/607150329/1026 

accessed 10 August 2006. 

65 See Jodi Dean. Publicity's Secret: How Technoculture Capitalizes on Democracy (New York: 

Cornell University Press, 2002). 

66 Pierre G. "Pete" Normand, "SRRS Bulletin Notes." The Plumbline: The Quarterly Bulletin of the 

Scottish Rite Research Society 14 (2006): 2. 

67 Cited in Morris, "Good Morning, America, paras. 7-15. 





72 De Hoyos and Morris, Is it True, 26. 

73 See Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility," second 

version. Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 3, 1935-1938, trans. Edmund Jephcott, 

Howard Eiland, and Others (Cambridge: Belknap/Harvard University Press, 2002), 101-133. 

74 Hutchens, Pillars of Wisdom, 1.


75 I would argue, in fact, that such an assumption helped to generate the explosion of 

speculative work and analysis on Freemasonry that occurred in the mid- and late nineteenth 

centuries in the first place! 

76 Pike, Symbolism, 75. 

77 Morris, "Good Morning," paras. 36-39. 

78 Putnam, Bowling Alone, 216-217. 

79 Habermas, Structural Transformation, 35. 



82 Jodi Dean, "Publicity's Secret." Political Theory 29 (2001): 624-650. Her book of the same title 

expands this argument in relationship to mass media technology. 

83 Dean, "Publicity's Secret," 628. 

84 Despite what I think is an anti-intellectual tone, Hodapp's humorous language in 

Freemasonry for Dummies is enjoyable. His description of "all those aprons, pins, and medals" 

is titled "Masonic bling-bling." See Hodapp, Dummies, 109.

The Rhetoric and Death of U.S. Freemasonry In this essay I argue ...

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