Pyramids, Freemasonry, and The Lost Symbol

[Photo by Nina Aldin Thune.]

In The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown repeatedly brings up pyramid symbolism in connection with Freemasonry. This would seem to be a mistake, because the pyramid is not a Masonic symbol -- right?

Well -- it's not quite so clear cut.

Oh, I can hear the groans from here. Yes, I know: the various authors in our day who connect Freemasonry with pyramids are considered more than a little out on the fringe, especially by the more responsible Masonic historians of the so-called realistic school of Masonic history. It certainly is the case that, in the year 2009, Masonic ritual, symbolism, and mythic stories all have nothing to do with pyramids.

However, what is true of the early 21st century was not true of earlier days of Masonry, centuries ago.

The fact of the matter is that, at least as early as the 14th century, Masonic literature explicitly connected the Fraternity with Egypt, and (no later than the 18th century) even with the pyramids themselves. Controversial offshoots of Freemasonry in the 19th century associated Masonry with Egyptian initiatory practices.

Finally, the literature of the wilder regions of the conspiracy theory community connects Freemasonry with a very famous pyramid, a reproduction of which exists in virtually every home in America, and this connection should also be addressed when discussing pyramids and Freemasonry.

So, let's have at it.

Freemasonry and Egypt in
the Regius Manuscript

The Grand Lodge style of Freemasonry was established in London in 1717, with the founding of the premier Grand Lodge of England. However, Freemasonry existed before that time, in individual lodges scattered across Scotland, England, and Ireland, at the least -- perhaps for centuries. One of the earliest Masonic manuscripts in existence, the Regius (or Halliwell) Manuscript, dates from about 1390, and specifically draws a connection between Masonry and Egypt when describing the mythic history of Masonry -- in verse, no less. Beginning at line 55, the manuscript states:

The Clerk [i.e., cleric] Euclid in this wise founded
This Craft of geometry in Egyptian land,
In Egypt he taught it full wide,
In diverse lands on every side.

(This excerpt is taken from p. 293 of Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, rev. ed., 1995. The entire poem is available in a modern translation in Christopher Hodapp's excellent book, Freemasons for Dummies, Appendix A.)

So, Masons of over 600 years ago thought that the Greek mathematician Euclid was an ancient member of their fraternity, and taught geometry in Egypt. Being a Mason, of course, Euclid would have been busy building things. I don't think these would have been shopping malls or amusement parks, either. Thus, at least by implication, the Regius Manuscript leaves open the possibility of Freemasons being involved with pyramids.

Freemasonry and Pyramids in
Anderson's Constitutions

The Grand Lodge era of Freemasonry begins in 1717. The most authoritative document we have of that era is James Anderson's The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (original London edition 1723, republished in the United States by Benjamin Franklin himself in 1734). Anderson's Constitutions include a traditional history of Freemasonry, stretching back to Adam, the first man, as described in the Bible. In this traditional history, Anderson mentions the following, referring to biblical events after the Flood of Noah and the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel (Ben Franklin's edition, pages 10-11, modernizing the text a bit, omitting a footnote):

And, no doubt, the Royal Art [i.e., Freemasonry] was brought down to Egypt by Mitzraim, the second son of Ham [i.e., Ham being Noah's second son], about six years after the Confusion at Babel, and after the Flood 160 years, when he led thither his colony (for "Egypt" is Mitzraim in Hebrew); because we find the River Nile's overflowing of its banks soon caused an improvement in geometry, which consequently brought Masonry to be much in demand. For the ancient noble cities, with the other magnificent edifices of that country, and particularly the famous pyramids, demonstrate the early taste and genius of that ancient kingdom. Nay, one of those ancient Egyptian pyramids is reckoned the first of the Seven Wonders of the World, the account of which, by historians and travellers, is almost incredible.

Anderson, of course, was drawing on other source material concerning the mythic background of Freemasonry -- the legendary and hypothetical "Anderson Manuscript" -- of unknown age, and that is now lost to us. All we can tell for sure is that at least as far back as nearly 300 years ago, and possibly much earlier, Freemasons mentioned Freemasonry and the ancient Egyptian pyramids in the same breath.

(Incidentally, what did Anderson mean when he said that "we find the River Nile's overflowing of its banks soon caused an improvement in geometry"? The annual flood of the Nile washed away landmarks, and the land on both sides of the banks, for many miles, had to be resurveyed -- through the use of geometry, of course.)

Freemasonry and Egypt in
the Forbidden Rite of Memphis

The basic form of Freemasonry is a system of three degrees, or rituals of initiation. However, over the last three centuries or so, several systems of 'high degrees' have emerged, which offer additional sequences of degrees. In Masonic parlance, a system of degrees is called a Rite (as opposed to the common meaning of a "rite" as a specific ceremony). There are several such Rites in existence today.

In the United States, the main such systems are the Scottish Rite (which offers a system of numbered degrees up to the 33rd) and the York Rite (which offers about 10 degrees in a specific but unnumbered sequence). The York and Scottish Rites and a few other invitational organizations are each accepted by the Grand Lodge authorities in almost all of the 52 sovereign Masonic jurisdictions in the United States (comprising one Grand Lodge in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico).

But there are other Rites in Masonry -- literally forbidden Rites.

(Cue the creepy trumpet or organ music: DAA-DA-Da-dahhhhhhhhh.)

Over the last three centuries, many different systems of degrees have been put forth to Freemasons, some for the sake of propounding some esoteric knowledge, some for the sake of gathering initiation fees from gullible Masons. At present, in the United States, many Rites have been banned by the various Grand Lodges, although several such Rites have continued to exist on the fringes of Freemasonry for centuries. One such is the Rite of Memphis, originally established in Paris in 1814, a system of up to 100 degrees that has undergone many changes of name and administration and many incarnations over the last two centuries. Although condemned by American Grand Lodges, the Rite of Memphis is active in several parts of the United States today. (No, I am not a member.)

Even the name, "Rite of Memphis," shows some affinity for Egypt. Beyond that, the literature of the Rite of Memphis explicitly connects Freemasonry to Egypt and its wisdom. For example, in a lecture for one incarnation of the Rite, known as the "Antient and Primitive Rite," we find the following in the instruction for members between the 27th and 30th degrees, as published in London in 1882:

Q. What relation does Masonry hold to Egypt?

A. Masonry, considered as a secret society with peculiar ceremonies, having for its aim the conservation of knowledge, truth, and their laws, was received and perpetuated in Egypt by the Sages, who concealed attainments from the vulgar by clothing them in ingenious emblems; from the banks of the Nile the system was carried to the Greeks, Romans, and other ancient nations, where it more or less lost its character and primitive [i.e., original] aim. All the old operative constitutions of the Freemasons trace their origin to Egypt .... The wisdom of Egypt became the proverb of all nations. (Collectanea, 2000, vol. 17, part 2, pp. 85-86; published by the Grand College of Rites of the United States of America.)

A different group derived from the Rite of Memphis, Calvin C. Burt's Egyptian Masonic Rite of Memphis, similarly celebrated the connection between ancient Freemasonry and Egyptian wisdom. This is shown in a handbook published in Chicago in 1867, a portion of which focused in detail on supposed ceremonies of initiation in ancient Egypt, which the author considered Masonic in origin; the author then claimed that his own Rite was founded in France in 1694. (See pp. ix-xiii in Collectanea, 2001, vol. 17, part 3.)

The point here is that traditions on the outskirts or fringes of Freemasonry have connected Masonic initiation with the wisdom of Egypt.

Freemasonry and
the Pyramid
in Your Pocket

Things are so much simpler for the wild-eyed, undisciplined sector of the conspiracy theory community.* There is no need to consult ancient manuscripts, or the handbooks of off-ramp, qwinky forms of Freemasonry: one just needs to look at the paper money in one's wallet or purse, and that settles the matter. In the Anything Goes region of the conspiracy theory community, it is an article of faith that the pyramid shown on the back of the $1 bill, one side of the Grand Seal of the United States, is a Masonic symbol.

The fact of the matter is that this is simply untrue; I state the facts in my comments regarding Clue #35. However, the fact that the conspiracy community believes that the pyramid is a Masonic symbol may simply be enough for Dan Brown.

Conclusion

It is not entirely off-base for Dan Brown to connect Freemasonry with pyramids. In the 21st century, Masonry is not connected with pyramids. However, most of the association between Masonry and pyramids that is portrayed in The Lost Symbol is associated with events supposedly occuring during the days of the American Founding Fathers, roughly the 1770s to the 1790s or so. This was an era only about 60 years separated from the days of Anderson's Constitutions, the original publication of which was still (barely) in living memory. In that era, a connection between Freemasonry and pyramids seemed a bit more plausible.

Of course, it is entirely possible that Dan Brown is merely following the lead of the wilder regions of the conspiracy theory community, in attributing a connection between Freemasonry and pyramids.

I shall have more to say about Freemasonry and its symbolism, as well as the whole issue of pyramids, in my forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: The Mind of Dan Brown, the Truth About the Freemasons, and the Idea that We Can Become Gods. (Agents' and publishers' inquiries are welcome. Please contact me through the e-mail portal on my Web Page: see my Blogger profile.)

I remind you that comments are welcome. Feel free to become a Follower of this blog, to forward posts by e-mail, and to subscribe to the RSS feed.

My thanks to an Anonymous commentor on an earlier post, who raised this question.

[The image of the Great Pyramid is Copyright 2005 Nina Aldin Thune. The image was obtained from the Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia, and appears under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.]

*I recognize that there are rational, responsible, careful conspiracy theory researchers. I admire them greatly. However, I find it necessary to take their wild-eyed relatives to task at every turn.

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)

Clue #36: Alexander Hamilton -- and a Hint of Cryptography

The 36th Twitter clue, posted at about 7:00 a.m. PDT, Thurs., July 9th:

Near the buttonwood's accord lies a field of Christ. His marker there would make even Khafra smile.

The solution to the fundamental elements of this clue was announced on Dan Brown's Facebook fan page by Cheryl Lynn Helm, about 30 minutes after the clue was posted. Good for you, Cheryl!

"Buttonwood's accord" is a reference to the Buttonwood Agreement of May 17, 1792, which established the New York Stock & Exchange Board (later known as the New York Stock Exchange, now the NYSE Group). The agreement was signed by 24 stockbrokers under a buttonwood (i.e., sycamore) tree outside 68 Wall Street in lower Manhattan, New York City. Of course, the New York Stock Exchange was and remains fundamental to the development of American-style capitalism.

"Field of Christ" is a reference to a cemetery. U.S. Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, is buried in the Trinity Churchyard Cemetery, perhaps a 5-minute walk or so from the location of the Buttonwood Agreement. His grave marker (the "marker" of the clue, of course, shown above) is in the form of a pyramid with a flat apex.

Khafra, or Khafre (also known as Khephren) is the Egyptian pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty (2650-2480 BC) who built the second largest of the 3 famous pyramids of Giza. In one of his best-known representations, he is represented as smiling. The author of the clue is remarking on how Khafra would be pleased to see a pyramid on Hamilton's grave.

The Next Level

One thing that has consistently shown up in the Twitter clues about this novel is that many clues are very subtle: the same word is meant to be taken in more than one way, and a seemingly off-the-cuff reference may actually be crucial to the novel. Such is the case here. For we must ask: what put Alexander Hamilton's body under that pyramidal grave marker -- that is, what killed him? And why even bring up Khafra, rather than half a dozen other pharaohs?

Warning: no matter how weird things get in this section of the post, I want you to remember: everything in "The Next Level" actually happened in real life.

Alexander Hamilton (b. 1755 or 1757--d. 1804) is on everyone's list of U.S. Founding Fathers. Like many of them, he was a Freemason. He was the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and as such ties into the financial theme that runs through this clue. However, it gets murkier than that, and intensely conspiratorial, in real life, very quickly.

Hamilton was mortally wounded by Aaron Burr, in a duel in Weehawken, NJ, just across the river from Manhattan Island. At the time, Burr was serving as the Vice-President of the United States, under Thomas Jefferson in Jefferson's first term as President. Burr came under intense criticism, especially among Northern voters, for killing Hamilton. Burr left the Vice Presidency at the end of his term (Jefferson entering a second term as President with a different VP), and then things really got weird.

Burr moved into what was then the West of the territories of the U.S., and apparently came up with a scheme that, if successful, would have left him as essentially the king of a separate nation, incorporating much of what is now Texas, northern Mexico, and nearby areas. (I should point out that these were the very areas later focused on by the Knights of the Golden Circle, or KGC, whom we met in Clue #34; see this article with its provocative map).

Burr was arrested and put on trial for treason, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. The team for the prosecution included the young William Wirt, whom we met in Clue #6. (You will recall Wirt as the Freemason who later abandoned the Masons, and ran against Jackson for the Presidency on the Anti-Masonic Party ticket; after his death, Wirt's corpse was beheaded, and his skull was stolen right out of his crypt in the Congressional Cemetery.)

(Incidentally, Burr was not a Mason. However, his defense attorney, the young Henry Clay -- distant relative of my wife, Kathleen -- was a very prominent Mason later in his life.)

Which leaves us with Khafra. I find it interesting that the alternate spelling of his name, Khafre, is also the name of a sophisticated block cipher developed 20 years ago. The publication of the cipher was originally blocked by the National Security Agency, but through a variety of mishaps it came to public attention anyway.

So there we have it: Founding Fathers, a fatal duel, a conspiracy to rule a chunk of North America, pyramids galore, and a code scheme so threatening that the NSA wanted to block its publication -- and all in real life. What's not for Dan Brown to love?

Potential Relevance to The Lost Symbol

So where might Brown be going with all this? A couple of things come to mind.

You can't have a good conspiracy without a hefty amount of cash. The clue points in passing at one of the most massive wealth-engines in human history, the New York Stock Exchange, founded in the earliest days of the American Republic -- hey, Washington was still in his first term. Perhaps the conspiracy that Dan Brown depicts in his novel has something to do with the NYSE. (Of course, the Confederate gold mentioned in Clue #34 might work in here, too.)

My guess is that, in the novel, Burr somehow has connections with the KGC, connections that somehow reverberate down to our own day. (Thus, the KGC would be the "bad guy" secret society in the novel. Would the Freemasons be the "good guys"?)

In the world of the novel, Hamilton's flat-topped pyramid may resonate with the unfinished pyramid of the Great Seal of the U.S., discussed in relation to Clue #35.

The Khafre cipher can encrypt small amounts of data very quickly, which, in Dan Brown's universe, could come in mighty handy . . .

Clue #9: Albrecht Durer

The 9th Twitter clue, posted 2:15 p.m. PDT on Thurs., June 25th:

Albrecht Durer, whose father was a goldsmith,
was trained as a metalworker at a young age.

.

The clue refers to one of the great artists of the Renaissance in Northern Europe, the German, Albrecht Durer (1471-1528). (We meet him again in Clue #22.) Although Durer is known primarily for his prints made from woodcuts and, especially, his engravings on metal, the tweet mentions his early training as a metalworker. The content reads like a sentence out of an art history text, nothing really provocative.

This, however, is Dan Brown -- a man in whose novels many a famed artist is a member of some centuries-spanning conspiracy. And, as it happens, Durer actually has long been rumored to have been a member of a centuries-spanning secret society. This is because Durer has been rumored for years to have been some sort of a Freemason from the pre-Grand Lodge era.

The basis of this rumor is the fact that some of Durer's pieces contain depictions of objects that have either real or reputed symbolic significance to Freemasons. The most prominent example of this is his piece shown above, Melencolia I, a copper engraving dating from 1514 (background here). (If you are using Microsoft Explorer as your browser, I suggest that you go to the File menu, select "New Window," and on the second window of this post, click on the image above to view a much larger image of the artwork as you read the description that follows.)

Masonic Symbols in Durer's Melencolia I

In this piece, an adult-sized female angel sits in thought, holding, for no obvious reason, a set of compasses such as might be used by a stonemason, carpenter, or architect. (Of course, the Compasses are well-known to be an important symbol in Freemasonry.)

Although the bottom of the etching shows the tools of a carpenter (a reference to Jesus, the carpenter's son?), the most prominent finished products appear to be stone, including a sphere in the lower left-hand corner, and a polyhedral prism (the thing shaped like the Superman logo) just above the dog, next to the hammer. The polyhedral prism and the sphere are both portrayed as exquisitely finished pieces of work, smooth pieces of worked and polished stone that call to mind the smooth or polished ashlar that represents, in Masonic symbolism, the individual Mason after he has worked to perfect his character. (I have seen actual stones exemplifying the rough ashlar -- unworked stone -- and the smooth ashlar -- smoothly polished stone -- in every Masonic lodge that I have ever visited.)

But if there is a smooth ashlar, where is the rough? There is no rough ashlar visible in the etching, although there is, in a way, a cowan. The derivation of this peculiarly Masonic word -- used to describe a non-Mason who tries to sneak into a Masonic meeting -- is uncertain. However, it has been related to the Gothic word choin and the Greek word kuon, which each mean the same thing: a dog. Of course, a dog is prominently visible in the etching, perhaps significantly, right between the two polished stones mentioned above.

Above the adult angel's right wing (the viewer's left) is an hourglass, recalling to mind the hourglass mentioned in a lecture accompanying one of the three basic Masonic degrees, or rituals of initiation. This symbolizes the brevity of life, the realization of which should encourage us to use our time well while we have it. (The Masonic scholar Coil states that this symbol came into the Masonic lectures late in the 18th century, but seeing it here raises questions about that dating; the hourglass does seem a timeless symbol of the quickness with which our lives pass.)

Next to the adult angel sits a cherub on what appears to be a somewhat worn mill wheel. Directly above the cherub is a pair of scales, calling to mind Justice, one of the Four Cardinal Virtues, which also occur as symbols in one of the Masonic degree lectures (the others being Temperance, Fortitude, and Prudence).

To the left of the cherub one sees a ladder. Jacob's ladder (see Genesis 28:10-22) is a symbol used in the lecture of the first degree of Freemasonry. A ladder with symbolic significance also appears in the degrees of the Scottish Rite, which are based on 'high degree' rituals, some of which date back at least to the earliest days of Grand Lodge Freemasonry, and perhaps earlier.

Other Masonic Symbolism in Durer's Art

There are other pieces by Durer that show what could be Masonic symbolism. His 1504 title page for Messahalah, De scientia motus orbis (an illustration also known as "Astronomer") shows a man holding a set of compasses; he appears to be measuring distances on a globe, however. His 1506 portrait of an architect shows a man holding a square, such as might normally be used by an architect or a stonemason or a carpenter. Neither of these pieces is really compelling as a Masonic reference; one expects an astronomer to use a set of compasses, and an architect to use a square.

Melencolia I, however, is another matter altogether.

Is 16th Century Durer Plausible as a Mason?

Of course, one of the major objections to considering Durer as some sort of secret Freemason is the fact that he died in 1528, almost two full centuries before the formation of the premier Grand Lodge of England in 1717. The earliest record of Masonic initiation in England occurs in 1641 (the initiation of Robert Moray into a traveling Scottish military lodge), although David Stevenson convincingly has shown that Freemason's lodges were formed in Scotland as early as 1599 (see his books The Origins of Freemasons and The First Freemasons). However, Scotland in 1599 was a long way in both time and space from Germany in 1528. How could Durer plausibly have been a Freemason, or a member of some sort of proto-Masonic group?

Maybe the same way that Bosch was.

The late historian of Freemasonry, John J. Robinson, presents a convincing case for the idea that Durer's contemporary, the Flemish artist Hieronymous Bosch (about 1450-1516) hid Masonic symbolism in at least one of his paintings, The Wayfarer (background here). (See Chapter 11, pp. 118-119 of Robinson's 1993 book, A Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right.) In Bosch's painting, Robinson finds references to Masonic initiatory ritual, as well as other Masonic symbols. I find Robinson's argument quite intriguing.

If Bosch, as a Flemish painter in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, somehow had access to Masonic initiatory symbols, then perhaps Durer did as well in the Germany of that period, or during his travels. (His whereabouts during his 4-year Wanderjahre -- quite the 'gap year'! -- are poorly known.) I don't know how it could have happened. However, the enigmatic evidence in Bosch's The Wayfarer and Durer's Melencolia I makes at least a plausible case for these artists being some kind of Masonic initiates.

Durer and The Lost Symbol

It's not hard to see where this could go, as far as The Lost Symbol is concerned. Some artwork of Durer on display in Washington, DC, has some clue for Robert Langdon to follow -- a clue regarding some Masonic conspiracy.

Sounds good to me.

[The image of Durer's Melencolia I, above, was obtained from the Wikimedia Commons through Wikipedia. The artwork and its reproduction are in the public domain.]

(Copyright 2009 Mark E. Koltko-Rivera. All Rights Reserved.)