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

Death of Freemasonry 21
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: