Ordo ab Chao: Volume Two: The Grand Lodge

660 Pages·6.007 MB·English

by  David Livingstone

Ordo ab Chao
Volume Two: The Grand Lodge
David Livingstone
Sabilillah Publications
Copyright © 2021 David Livingstone
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real
persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without express written permission of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents

Title Page
Copyright
1. Elizabethan Age
2. The Great Conjunction
3. The Alchemical Wedding
4. The Rosicrucian Furore
5. The Invisible College
6. 1666
7. The Royal Society
8. America
9. Redemption Through Sin
10. Oriental Kabbalah
11. The Grand Lodge
12. The Illuminati
13. The Asiatic Brethren
14. American Revolution
15. Haskalah
16. The Aryan Myth
17. The Carbonari
18. American Civil War
19. God is Dead
20. Theosophy
21. Shambhala
1. Elizabethan Age
Faerie Queene
As demonstrated by Frances Yates in The Occult of the
Elizabethan Age, Giorgi’s De harmonia mundi exercised a very great
influence on the era of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603),
which was “was populated, not only by tough seamen, hard-headed
politicians, serious theologians. It was a world of spirits, good and
bad, fairies, demons, witches, ghosts, conjurors.”[1] Elizabeth was
the daughter of Henry VIII—a knight of the Order of the Golden
Fleece—and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who provided the
occasion for Henry VIII to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon
and declare the independence of the Church of England from the
Catholic Church. Henry VIII famously had Anne beheaded for
treason when Elizabeth was two years old. Anne’s marriage to Henry
VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. In 1544,
when she was eleven, Elizabeth gave her step-mother Catherine
Parr, a manuscript book titled The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful
Soul. Elizabeth translated the poem into English from the French
work Miroir de l'âme pécheresse by Marguerite de Navarre, the
sister of Francis I of France, wrote the manuscript with her own
hand, dedicating it with the words, “From Assherige, the last daye of
the yeare of our Lord God 1544… To our most noble and vertuous
Quene Katherin, Elizabeth her humble daughter wisheth perpetuall
felicitie and everlasting joye.”
Catherine Parr, was the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII,
and the final queen consort of the House of Tudor, when she
assumed the role of Elizabeth’s guardian following the king’s death.
Catherine’s mother was a close friend and attendant of Catherine of
Aragon, her godmother, after whom she was named.[2] Catherine
was influential in Henry VIII’s passing of the Third Succession Act in
1543, which superseded the First Succession Act (1533) and the
Second Succession Act (1536), which declared Henry’s daughters
Mary and Elizabeth illegitimate and to remove them from succession
to the throne. This third act returned both Mary and Elizabeth to the
line of succession behind their brother Edward (1537 – 1553), his
children and any potential children of Henry VIII by Catherine Parr, or
any future wife he might have. Edward reigned as Edward VI until his
death, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the
claims of his two half-sisters, the Roman Catholic Mary, infamous of
“Bloody Mary,” and the young Elizabeth, in spite of statute law to the
contrary. Edward’s will was set aside and Mary became queen,
deposing Lady Jane Grey.
During Mary’s reign, Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year
on suspicion of supporting Protestant rebels. Upon Mary’s death in
1558, Elizabeth succeeded to the throne. One of her first actions as
queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church. This
Elizabethan Religious Settlement, that brought the English
Reformation to a conclusion, would evolve into the Church of
England. The Act of Supremacy of 1558 re-established the Church
of England’s independence from Rome, and Parliament conferred on
Elizabeth the title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
The royal astrologer to Elizabeth was the infamous sorcerer
John Dee, who possessed copies of Francesco Giorgi’s work.[3]
According to Yates, Giorgi’s influence might have had its roots when
he was consulted along with the Jewish Rabbis of Venice by Richard
Croke, in support of Henry VIII’s divorce of Catherine of Aragon,
daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, an affair that ultimately led to the
English Reformation and the establishment of the Church England,
which separated itself from the Catholic Church in Rome. As Yates
suggests, “Queen Elizabeth I might have been favorably disposed
towards the philosophy of Francesco Giorgi if she knew that the Friar
of Venice had supported her father's divorce, to which she owed her
own existence.”[4]
Under Elizabeth’s successor, James VI of Scotland (1512 –
1542), later King James I of England, the “Golden Age” of
Elizabethan literature and drama continued, with writers such as
William Shakespeare, John Donne, Ben Jonson, and Sir Francis
Bacon contributing to a flourishing literary culture, who laid the
groundwork for the advent of Freemasonry. Elizabeth was the
daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who
was executed two-and-a-half years after Elizabeth’s birth. When
Elizabeth succeeded to the throne in 1558, there was a great revival
of the Order of the Garter, including its ceremonies, processions and
ethos, which she regarded as a means of drawing the nobles
together in common service to the Crown.[5] As she grew older,
Elizabeth became celebrated for her virginity. Sometimes called The
Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last
of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor. A cult grew around her
which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, and literature of the
day. Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history,
representing the height of the English Renaissance with the
flowering of poetry, music and literature.[6]
The occult philosophy was the dominant influence of the
Elizabethan Age.[7] As Yates has indicated, “Giorgi’s De harmonia
mundi, with its ‘Judaising’ tendency, might have provided a bridge to
conversion for the English Marrano.”[8] There is little evidence for the
existence of Marranos in England during the reign of Elizabeth I.
However, as elsewhere, their surreptitious presence was felt through
the influence of the Christian Kabbalah. Christopher Marlowe wrote
Doctor Faustus, a play developed from the Faust legend in which a
man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge. Marlowe’s
Faustus says, possibly referring to Giorgi, as Yates suggests, “Go
and returne an old Franciscan Frier; That holy shape becomes a
devill best.” After the appearance of the diabolical Franciscan Friar,
Faustus rejects Christ and the Trinity, as Mephistopheles has
demanded.
The period is famous for the flourishing of English drama, led by
playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe,
Ben Jonson and Edmund Spenser, who was heavily influenced by
Giorgi.[9] Spenser inherited not only Neoplatonic influence from
Ficino and Pico, but the Christian Kabbalism of Reuchlin, Giorgi,
Agrippa.[10] As Elizabeth aged her image gradually changed, and
she was portrayed as characters from Spenser’s magical and
Neoplatonic poem The Faerie Queene, including Belphoebe or
Astraea, and after the Armada, as Gloriana, the eternally youthful
Faerie Queene. Spenser’s poem and his Neoplatonic hymns in
Elizabeth’s honor, published in the 1590’s, were a direct challenge to
the Counter Reformation and their attitude to Renaissance
philosophy. The poem, inspired by the Order of the Garter, describes
the allegorical presentation of virtues through Arthurian knights in the
mythical “Faerieland,” and follows several knights, like the
Redcrosse Knight, the hero of Book One who bears the emblem of
Saint George.
Spenser was in contact with Philip Sidney and Edward Dyer,
pupils of Queen Elizabeth I’s royal astrologer, the infamous sorcerer
John Dee. Dee and his pupil Edward Kelley’s acquaintances
included the famous alchemist Michael Sendivogius, a friend of the
Scottish alchemist Alexander Seton, who was closely associated
with William Schaw, King James’ Master of Works, an important
figure in the development of Freemasonry in Scotland as the author
of the Schaw Statutes of the Mother Lodge of Kilwinning.
In his own time, Dee was one of England’s most sought-after
scholars, recognized for his opinions on a wide range of topics. Dee
was influenced not only by Giorgi but also by Lull, Pico, Reuchlin and
Agrippa. immersed himself in the worlds of magic, astrology and
Hermeticism, and believed that he found the secret of conjuring
angels by numerical configurations in the tradition of the Kabbalah.
In 1588, in his capacity as royal astrologer, he was asked to choose
the most favorable date for the coronation of Elizabeth, and
subsequently tutored the new queen in the understanding of his
mystical writings. Dee believed that he found the secret of conjuring
angels by numerical configurations in the tradition of the Kabbalah.
He claimed to have gained contact with “good angels from whom he
learned an angelic language composed of non-English letters he
called Enochian. It has been suggested that Dee used Enochian as
a code to transmit messages from overseas to Queen Elizabeth in
his alleged capacity as a founding member of the English secret
service. Dee was among the first to merge his career as a sorcerer
with that of a spy, a tendency that would then come characterize
almost all leading occultists ever since. As such, Dee was the
inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond character. Dee would sign
his letters to Elizabeth with 00 and an elongated 7, to signify they
were for her eyes only.
Lord Bacon
As Elizabeth did not marry, and as she had no direct heir she was
therefore succeeded by King James IV of Scotland (1473 – 1513),
who became King James I of England in 1603, who brought the
Scottish heritage of Freemasonry to his new kingdom. King James
continued to reign in all three kingdoms for twenty-two years, a
period known after him as the Jacobean era, until his death in 1625.
James’ Daemonologie is believed to be one of the main sources
used by Shakespeare’s Macbeth.[11] Shakespeare attributed many
quotes and rituals found within the book directly to the Weird Sisters,
yet also attributed the Scottish themes and settings referenced from
the trials in which King James was involved. A commentary on
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice by Daniel Banes, published
in 1975–6, suggests the play was written with full knowledge of
Giorgi’s De harmonia mundi and other Kabbalistic works.[12] Occult
tradition firmly believes that Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) was the
real author of Shakespeare’s plays, but the original father of
Rosicrucianism, and by extension, of Freemasonry.
Francis Bacon is typically celebrated by Masonic historians as
having been a Rosicrucian. As early as 1638 a hint as to a
connection between Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, was
published, with the earliest known reference to the “Mason Word”
published in a poem at Edinburgh in 1638:
For what we do presage is not in grosse,
For we be brethren of the Rosie Crosse:
We have the Mason word and second sight,
Things for to come we can foretell aright…[13]
Bacon was the first recipient of the Elizabeth’s counsel
designation, which was conferred in 1597 when she reserved Bacon
as her legal advisor. There are also theories that Bacon was the
illegitimate son of Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley, the First Earl of
Leicester, a Knight of the Garter.[14] Bacon is considered the father of
modern science, having emphasized the importance of
experimentation in his landmark work, The Advancement of
Learning. However, recent scholarship has shown that he was
committed to the Renaissance occult tradition, and his survey of
science included a review of magic, astrology, and a reformed
version of alchemy.[15] Bacon would later become chancellor of
England in the reign of King James, and supervised the translation of
the King James Bible. It was the King James Bible which translated
the verse from the Song of Solomon as the “rose of Sharon”
although previous translations had rendered it simply as “the flower
of the field.” Bacon was also suspected of being the true author of
Shakespeare’s plays.
Bacon was elected to Parliament in 1581. In 1597 Bacon
became the first Queen’s Counsel designate, when Queen Elizabeth
reserved him as her legal counsel. After the accession of King
James in 1603, Bacon was knighted. In 1613, he was finally
appointed attorney general, after advising the king to shuffle judicial
appointments. Bacon continued to use his influence with the king to
mediate between the throne and Parliament, and in this capacity he
was further elevated in the same peerage, as Viscount St Alban, on
27 January 1621. Bacon’s public career ended in disgrace in 1621.
After he fell into debt, a parliamentary committee on the
administration of the law charged him with 23 separate counts of
corruption.
Bacon did not marry until the late age of forty-eight, and
contemporary accounts claim that he was a homosexual. John
Aubrey in his Brief Lives asserted that Bacon “He was a Pederast.
His Ganimeds and Favourites tooke Bribes.”[16] In Greek mythology,
Zeus falls in love with Ganymede’s beauty and abducts him to serve
as cup-bearer in Olympus. In poetry, Ganymede thus became a
symbol for the beautiful young male who attracted homosexual
desire and love. King James and his lover the Duke of Buckingham
were referred to in similar terms in anonymously authored street
pamphlets: “The world is chang’d I know not how, For men Kiss Men,
not Women now;… Of J. the First and Buckingham: He, true it is, his
Wives Embraces fled, To slabber his lov’d Ganimede.”[17]
The Jacobean antiquarian Sir Simonds D’Ewes, Bacon’s fellow
Member of Parliament, in his Autobiography and Correspondence
discusses Bacon’s love of his Welsh male servants, stating that