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

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Death of Freemasonry 41 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).
Death of Freemasonry 42 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.
Page 1 and 2: Death of Freemasonry 0 The Rhetoric
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