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Secret Sects of Syria and the Lebanon SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON BERNARD H. SPRINGETT SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA AND THE LEBANON • a CONSIDERATION OF THEIR ORIGIN, CREEDS AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES, AND THEIR CONNECTION WITH AND IN- FLUENCE UPON MODERN FREEMASONRY By BERNARD H. SPRINGETT, P.M..P.Z. LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1 INTRODUCTION A surprising amount of scorn and ridicule has been the reception accorded by Freemasons, both in Great Britain and in America, to previous attempts to place on record some very plain proofs that we are justified in saying in our Masonic Ritual that " we came from the East and proceeded to the West." The plain fact that much of what we now look upon almost entirely as Freemasonry has been practised as part and parcel of the religions of the Middle East for many thousands of years, lies open for anyone who cares to stop and read, instead of running by. But it is frequently and scornfully rejected by the average Masonic student, and this seems to betoken an unwillingness to credit Masonry with an existence of more than two or three hundred years at most. It is painful to those who, like myself, take a justifiable pride in the antiquity of Masonry, far exceeding that of any other religion in the world known to mankind, to hear it so frequently condemned as completely legendary. In the following pages I have attempted to bring together, from a very large number of sources, reliable evidence as to the prevalence amongst the inhabitants, ancient and modern, of Syria in general and the mountains of the Lebanon in particular, of various ceremonial rites, manners and customs. These, with the accompanying initiations, signs, pass-words and grips, together with the allegorical and symbolical language employed, seem to me to point to an extremely remote origin, and I hope some of my readers, at least, may be equally convinced. So far, as some writers would like us to believe, from the Templars who took part in the Crusades leaving behind them among the Arabian and Syrian tribes they came in contact with some traces of Masonry, we can see, plainly enough, that they, on the contrary, found their 788:120 6 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA own Masonic knowledge strengthened considerably by what they came in touch with in the East. Thus, on their return to their native land, a natural result would be some develop- ment of the extremely ancient ritual of the Druids, remnants of that Stellar Cult which seems to be the true source of Freemasonry, which extended by the influencing visits of Phoenician merchants, had been carefully preserved and added to by the loving care of Alfred and Athelstan, as proved by reliable documents in the Bodleian Library and the British Museum. Still further revised and modernized, altered in certain attributes of the symbolism, altered, very materially of course, in language, Freemasonry in its present form has preserved for us unchanged, as being unchangeable, the Ancient Landmarks, for some of which Enoch might even have been responsible, as claimed by our traditions. The late Mr. A. L. Rawson, the American artist who illustrated several books on classical mythology for J. W. Bouton, the New York publisher of Isis Unveiled, wrote for Madam Blavatsky a long description, which will be found further on in this present work, of his initiation into the Druse sect, which gave me my first incentive to research into Syrian Masonry. Mr. Rawson was very enthusiastic indeed on the resemblances he found in the Druse system with that of Freemasonry, but his views met with such ridicule among American Masons that he considered it would be a thankless and hopeless task to publish anything further on the subject with a view to educating them. The Rev. Haskett Smith, when reading a similarly interesting and carefully prepared paper before the learned " Ars Ouatuor Coronatorum ' met with equal coldness. It will be seen from the note on the subject in the Appendix that while only one learned Brother could praise the author, and he only because he had introduced a fresh line of research, several were prompt enough to ridicule his propositions ! Lyde, Taylor, and Von Hammer, in the innumerable traces their very interesting works have supplied me with of a connection between Syrian religions and Masonry, have themselves only found therein occasions for pouring contempt on the practices of Freemasonry, as imitating the debasing customs INTRODUCTION 7 of the Syrian tribes—as it appeared to their non-Masonic souls that all initiatory customs were only a prelude to debauchery and excess. How much more we might have gathered with regard to the subject of our inquiry, the prevalence of Masonic rites amongst these tribes, had these learned authors been themselves Freemasons ! Nor have later writers on Masonry developed this connection with Syria as they might have been expected to do. Yarker has given only certain references where one might have expected him to go thoroughly into the subject. Waite, the great writer on mystic Masonry, with probably the profoundest knowledge of ritual and tradition possessed by anyone, would seem to have carefully avoided any endeavour to confirm traditions, but rather to have discussed resemblances, and explained symbolisms, on a groundwork of mediaeval institution. Dr. Oliver refers to traditions as if he believed in them, and took them as having, at least, a vestige of foundation in fact. But most modern Masonic authors treat him as visionary. Churchward went at length, in his Arcana of Freemasonry, into the undoubted antiquity of the signs, tokens and words used in modern Masonry, and traced back their connection through all the ages. with the Stellar Cult of antediluvian times. But one may well ask: "Who has believed his report?" On the contrary, the average Freemason, at any rate in this country, seems quite willing to be told that all the ancient allusions in our rituals are purely traditional, have no actual foundation in fact or history, and are all due to the imagination of those who compiled our present rituals and constitutions, some- where in the eighteenth century. Take, for instance, the Rosicrucians. One would have thought that either Waite or Wynn Westcott, while clearly showing the influence of the Arabian alchemists on the writings and researches of European disciples, would have associated the establishment by Christian Rosen- Kreutz of a House of the Holy Spirit," on his return from his sojourn in the East, as a very natural result of his becoming acquainted, while passing through Egypt (the only available route for " him from Damascus to Fez), with the " House of Wisdom at Cairo. There can be little doubt in the minds of those ; 8 SECRET SECTS OF SYRIA who study intelligently the Rosicrucian rituals, and reflect thereon, that the close connection between Freemasonry and Alchemy which they find revealed is due to the teaching he received, during his Eastern wanderings, from Arabian Freemasons, still holding to their Masonic tenets, even if the " House " itself had been ruthlessly destroyed some hundred years earlier. I am dealing with this question more fully in a subsequent chapter, as I am convinced that herein we find a very strong corroboration of my contentions that to Asia in general and to Syria in particular, we must look for the source of Masonic tradition and ritual. It is a vast subject, and has involved research in the works of a large number of writers, as will be seen from the Bibliography I include in the present volume. It has been necessary, as a background, to survey the ancient Magian schools, an inheritance from the earliest prehistoric times, and to trace their influence, in Arabia, Persia and Egypt ; on the early Syrian Gnostics, and on the Jews during their Babylonian captivity, whence they evidently derived their Kabalistic philosophy. We shall have to glance, if only cursorily, at the doctrines and practices of sects which, at first sight, may appear to have so little in common. These include the Druids, the Manicheans and Gnostics, with all their developments traceable through to the Pythagorean Nazarenes, system : the Templars ; the Essenes, Therapeutse, and their modern representatives, the Mandaites, or Christians Samaritans of St. John ; the Sabeans, Nabatheans and the Sufeites, and the various Dervish Orders ; the secret sects of Islam, the Ismaeli, Batenians, Karmatians, and Assassins, Metawileh ; the Lodge of Wisdom at Cairo, the the Nusairis, and the Druses. The links in each case have lain ready to hand throughout the ages. All that was needed was some loving and careful hand to attempt to weld them into an homogeneous chain, strong enough to bear the strain of keen criticism from the majority of my Masonic brethren which I am willing and prepared to brave, in the hopes that some, perchance, may be strengthened in their own convictions by the perusal of these pages. It has been largely a task of collating the writings of INTRODUCTION 9 others, putting them, as it were, in a fresh setting with the points of view of other authors. There should be a gain in lucidity and value, when a comparison is presented, or a condensation made, of that which has been noticed and described by men thoroughly engrossed in the subject they have written about, in the majority of cases, from a non- Masonic view-point. In order to ascertain more clearly the reasons for many points of ritual in which will be found the connections with modern Freemasonry, it has been necessary to deal at some length with the Creeds of Mohammedans, Nusairis, and Druses.
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