FREEMASONS THE WORLD-HISTORIC CARTEL J. VOLKER 2 CONTENTS Introduction: Why Study Freemasons? ...................................................................................... 6 I. A Brief History of Freemasonry .......................................................................................... 9 According to the Non-Masons ............................................................................................... 9 According to the Masons ..................................................................................................... 14 II. The Form and Essence of Masonry ................................................................................ 18 The Vanguard of the Enlightenment .................................................................................... 18 Builders of a New Rome ...................................................................................................... 21 The Masonic God and Theology .......................................................................................... 32 World Colonization and the “Civilizing Mission” ............................................................... 38 Secrecy and Fraternal Unity ................................................................................................. 49 III. Appendages of Freemasonry .......................................................................................... 53 Subgroups, i.e. “Appendant Bodies”.................................................................................... 53 Colleges and College Fraternities ........................................................................................ 59 Youth Organizations: Order of DeMolay and the Boy Scouts of America ......................... 67 Museums .............................................................................................................................. 72 IV. Prominent Masonic Lodges and Societies ..................................................................... 76 The Prince Hall Lodge and Black Freemasonry .................................................................. 76 The Propaganda Due (P2) Lodge ........................................................................................ 80 The Society of the Cincinnati: Secret American Nobles ..................................................... 87 The Mormon Church ............................................................................................................ 92 The Theosophist Society: Aryanism and Nazism ................................................................ 98 V. Appraisal of Freemasonry ............................................................................................ 107 Tying Some Threads .......................................................................................................... 107 ‘Judeo-Masonic’ Conspiracy Theories At Their Essence .................................................. 111 Conclusions: What Must Become of the Freemasons? ...................................................... 117 Appendices ............................................................................................................................. 120 Freemasonry and the JFK Assassination............................................................................ 120 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................... 129 3 4 5 INTRODUCTION: WHY STUDY FREEMASONS? “I read an article about Masons, their role and charter. I hadn’t paid much attention to them before. Not only do they exist, they are very dangerous. We pay no attention to them and they grow stronger. They have long existed in intelligentsia circles under various names. They sink rather deep roots among the masses of philistines, and pull them into their ranks... they operate quite flexible, and are very malicious... But they keep a low profile, otherwise it would be dangerous for them. Much about them is enigmatic.” [Interviewer:] “People say you can even find Masons in the Soviet Union.” “You sure can. Underground.” – Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov (1) The Freemasons are a beloved subject of conspiracy theorists; beyond that, most do not pay much mind to them. They seem irrelevant, or at any rate harmless. The majority of people, when asked, could not tell you what a Freemason is. So, it is understandable that when the Freemasons are brought up, the question likely to be asked is: Why care about the Freemasons? The importance of the Freemasons is that they play such an influential role in history that they can’t be ignored; they must be pointed to and studied. These facts remain for all to see, and if an honest study is not made of Freemasonry, a dishonest one will be made (again). While entertaining, such things are not generally useful for understanding our real, living world. Thus, we concern ourselves with certain indisputable facts which come primarily from the Masons themselves. What indisputable facts do we speak of? That, for instance, many modern states were formed by Freemasons: the United States (George Washington), Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama (all by Simon Bolivar), Turkey (Mustafa Ataturk), the United Kingdom (Robert Walpole), Albania (Ismail Qemali), Chile (Bernardo O’Higgins), France (Georges Danton and Jean-Paul Marat), Italy (Giuseppe Garibaldi), and so on. And that further, the practice of Masonry extended into royalty: Gustav III of Sweden, Alexander I of Russia, Friedrich II of Prussia, Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire, Marquis de Lafayette, Sultan Murad V of the Ottoman Empire, etc. As for monopolists, there is Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild. (2) And the influence of Masonry is not only seen throughout the whole world, but even beyond it: the Freemasons were the first ones to land on the moon, when Buzz 6 Aldrin not only took some of the first steps upon the lunar surface, but brought with him the flag of the Supreme Council Scottish Rite Masonic Temple1. These facts are indisputable, and if the reader wishes to look further into them, they may: there is a host of documentation both from these men and from liberal biographers, which openly elaborate their extensive ties to Masonry. There are even plenty of photographs of people such as Roosevelt, King George, and so on in their Masonic garb at their Masonic lodges. The Masons are themselves very proud to display these ties, and celebrations this or that “Brother” are easy to find. What we concern ourselves with is what the Masons are, what their purpose is. And this, certainly, is a harder task. The general nature of the Freemasons leaves fertile soil for hypotheses alleging plots of a New World Order, a global cabal, and so on. It can be easy to dismiss these as paranoid ravings, but if the Masonic texts are anything to go by, then the Freemasons apparently believe similar things about themselves as well. Therefore, it’s necessary to study the question in detail. What are the Freemasons? The common (non-conspiracy) response given is: “They are something of a strange fraternity, and they get together every week and sort of... stand there.” Yes, they are a strange fraternity. But they do not just stand there and clink wine glasses, as many seem to think. Wherever you live (particularly in the West or in Westernized countries2), you likely have come into contact with Freemasonry without realizing it. Not necessarily Freemasons, i.e. people who believe in Freemasonry (though, you have probably stumbled across a couple of these too). We talk here of coming into contact with Freemasonry itself, with its principles and ideology, which permeate to a surprisingly far-reaching extent throughout Western society. The Masonic ideology is one of world-embracing cosmopolitanism, of putting aside all differences between men and fighting for a single world-people who obey one strictly practical and materialistic economic organism united under a common ideal. This ideal is vague, but it generally manifests itself in a reincarnation of Ancient Rome led by a deistic God who grants every individual the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. However, the religion and culture of Masonry are just the “playthings”, the “puppets”, which form its outward appearance. Internally, under this façade, are the real principles of the Masons: liberalism and global market integration. In short, the assertion we seek to prove is that the Freemasons are a cult of liberalism. 1 As understandably far-fetched as the reader might find this, they may read about it more in the chapter World Colonization and the “Civilizing Mission”. 2 As we shall later see, Freemasonry is close to the very root of the thing we call “the West”, “Western culture”, etc; if not the root. 7 Still, we will not be making ‘conspiracy theories’. When writing about Masons, it is all too easy for one to fall into paranoid speculation; we will attempt to avoid this, and analyze the Freemasons as a living body of real, conscious people, not as an abstract clique of conniving world-dominators. For this reason, the vast majority of information, data, and so forth comes from either the Freemasons themselves, or from inarguably objective sources such as national archives and university libraries. We will avoid making a photo gallery of important men photographed in Masonic dress, symbolism and aesthetic plays an important role in understanding Masonry, so some illustrations and photographs