Regarding Freemasonry: Everything You Wanted to Know About Masonic Conspiracies, (2 page)

At some point, this enormous man looked down at what I was doing from high up on the ladder.  All I remember is looking back up at him and seeing his amazed, wide-eyed expression, to which I dutifully responded, “Your mud is almost ready, sir!”

And that was how my career as an Operative Mason began and ended.  I picked up my schoolbag and went inside to set about doing what I’d wanted to do in the first place.  It was not until my father came home that I was finally told that “mud” meant concrete to
some
people.  Luckily, the mason was not interested in my returning to his worksite and opted to forge ahead without me.

***

History: Quick and Dirty

 More than anything else, the Masonic connection to the Knights Templar has always fascinated me and drawn me to learning more about it.  Freemasonry has an ancillary body that calls itself the Knights Templar, and even though they deny any historical ancestry, the evidence suggests otherwise. 

 The first thing we should do is get our historical understanding straight.  Sit up, class.  Get your pencils ready.  

 Since the dawn of time, people have sought to build things.  They needed good, solid structures for government buildings, statues, temples, residences, and fortifications.  It probably seemed like a good idea that if you were building a house, you’d want the people putting it together to have some idea about what they’re doing.  In those days before Better Business Bureaus, they needed a way to ensure that trained personnel were up to the task they were being paid for. 

 Kind of like the guy that shows up offering to repave your driveway. 

 It is up to you to decide if he is from a reputable asphalt company or a gypsy scam artist.  I’m thinking that the station wagon with two buckets of Home Depot driveway sealer in the back are a pretty good indicator, but far be it from me to get involved with your business. 

 Anyway, the creation of a guild of Masons. 

 Given that the privilege of reading and writing was not available to much of the public, other ways were developed of ensuring that if a person said they were a member of the Mason’s Guild, it could be proven.  Secret words, handshakes, signs and many other forms of recognition were created to enable a Mason to travel around the country freely.  They were a way of identifying yourself as a trained craftsman to others.  A kind of primitive business card, if you will, but one that was only handed out to deserving recipients.  

***

Severe punishments awaited those who somehow learned the secret ways of identifying themselves as Masons under false pretenses.  These were unforgiving, hardened men who knew how to use the power tools of their times.  Not people to be taken lightly, for sure. 

***

 One benefit of being an Operative Mason during this time was that Masons were one of the only classes of people allowed to travel freely from city to city.  By virtue of the need to have them working at any given job site at any given time, the rulers of the kingdoms didn't want them tied up at the gatehouse. 

 This plays a very significant part in our story.

 Over time, during the 16th or 17th Century, arose what we now call Speculative Freemasonry.  It was a group of men who adopted the system created by their Operative brethren, but instead of physically building temples for kings, the idea was to erect a “temple” within each individual member.

 There is no definitive answer as to why so many Freemasons abandoned the practical application of their trades and began focusing instead on character-development and solidarity.  Historians can only guess as to how and why this occurred. 

 From what I’ve read, the answers can be found in the history of the Knights Templar. 

***

 After Jerusalem was captured during the First Crusade, many Christians wanted to make pilgrimages to the Holy Lands that so many had died to secure.  Getting there was a harrowing task, and many of the pilgrims were robbed or killed while travelling there. 

 In the early 1100’s a group of Knights were established to protect these travelling Christians and took on the name Knights Templar.  The Catholic Church bestowed an official endorsement on them and the Templars began expanding rapidly.  Many charities were directed toward the Order, and in 1139, the Pope declared that they were exempt from paying taxes. 

 And then, the Knights Templar had a moment of pure genius.  They erected temples all along the path to Jerusalem, which were actually secret banking locations.  Travelers were able to deposit money at one temple and withdraw it at any other temple along the way.  For a small fee. 

This early foray into franchise banking worked well.  Staggeringly well. 

It worked too damn well. 

 The Knights Templar amassed SO much money that King Philip the IV of France had to borrow from them to finance his war with the English.  The problem was, the Knights Templar actually expected to be paid back.  There are, of course, certain risks associated with having a King owe you more money than he is interested in repaying.   

 In 1306 King Philip went to Pope Clement V and arranged to have the Templars outlawed and branded heretics.  This left all of the Templars vast resources to be divvied up between the Church and State, because after all, why should a group of Satan worshippers be allowed to live, let alone have any money?

 Pretty convenient, eh?

 The Templar’s Grand Master Jacques de Molay was arrested and tortured, until he gave a forced "confession" against the Order, and the witch hunt began.  From May Tenth to May Twelfth, 1310, fifty four Templar Knights were burned at the stake. 

On March Eighteenth, 1314, Jacques de Molay and another high-ranking Knight were the final imprisoned Templars to be executed via burning.  According to legend, just prior to being burned, De Molay recanted his confession and declared the innocence of his brothers.  He laid a curse upon the King and his all his descendants.  He then ordered that both King Philip and Pope Clement V appear before God to answer for their crimes before the year was out.

Oddly enough, both the King and Pope were dead before the end of 1314.  Stranger still, King Philip’s House of Capet, which had ruled strong for 300 years, collapsed shortly thereafter.

***

 Interestingly enough, the Freemasons youth chapter is called the Order of Demolay.  Bill Clinton was a member, although he never pursued becoming a Freemason as an adult.  This is often the source of confusion with Clinton being associated with the fraternity.  Actually, he’s a member of the Illuminati and a reptilian replacement from aliens seeking to overthrow the planet.

***

Oh, you think that’s funny?

Just wait until we get into the discussion about conspiracy theories. 

***

No one truly knows how many Templar Knights escaped persecution.  What is certain is that they needed a way to escape the long-reaching arm of the church and state and flee as quickly and quietly as possible.  In my opinion, there would have been no better way than by infiltrating and posing as Operative Masons.

***

By the mid-1700's, Speculative Freemasonry began incorporating the symbols and traditions of the Knights Templar.  Whether this is by the design of self-aggrandizing members of the fraternity who wanted to pose as mystical descendants from a famous secret society, or it is by the merging of the two entities, none can say. 

Mysteries abound about the history of Freemasonry as a whole, even from the members within it.  However, the history of individual lodges, and the members that belonged to it, is expertly documented.  My lodge has photographs of every Worshipful Master who has sat in the East since we were first chartered.  Various ledgers of the Blue Lodge and the different bodies contain records, seals, and documentation about every individual member.

Someday, my descendants will be able to research my activity in the Lodge and see things written in my own hand.  It is the chance to be a part of something that will remain. 

***

 For the record, I am also a Royal Arch Mason and a Knight Templar.  I am a York Rite Mason, and have not considered the Scottish Rite as of yet.  The Scottish Rite have a rarely given (or at least, more rarely given than all the other degrees) 33
^rd
Degree that is supposed to be reserved for special members. 

 Of course, this has led to an entire new branch of conspiracy theorists who claim that while the rest of Freemasonry might just be a bunch of old guys sitting around wearing aprons, its these sinister 33
^rd
Degrees who are really up to no good. 

 I have no idea, but if I were to eventually pursue the Scottish Rite with the goal in mind of reaching the 33
^rd
Degree then…then you will all quake in fear at the mention of my very name and bow to my iron will…bwah ha ha…bwah hahahahahahahahahaha. 

 But in all likelihood, it’s just more spaghetti dinners to organize. 

 Sigh.  This ruling the world by being a part of an all-powerful multi-national conspiracy that secretly controls the planet is a bummer sometimes.  

Chapter 2: Proof of a Conspiracy!  Or, Something Close to It

 Let’s talk money, baby.  Dollars and cents.  Euros.  Paper bills etched with secret codes and meanings familiar only to the Masonic eye that only a few bold outsiders were wise enough to unravel. 

 We’ll start with the American dollar bill.

***

The All-Seeing Eye

 The pyramid with an eye positioned on top of it is one of the most familiar symbols of Freemasonry as it is associated with its pervasive influence over the United States.  “Ah ha!” they say.  “There it is, evidence of a conspiracy.”

 Except it actually isn’t. 

 Americans can find the eye on top of the pyramid on our one-dollar bills as well as the reverse side of the United States Seal, but it appears in various other mediums, including Renaissance art and Egyptian mythology.  It gets labeled as everything from the “Eye of God” to the “Evil Eye.”

 The reverse side of the United States Seal bears the words
Annuit Cœptis
on either side of the eye, which translates as: "He approves our undertakings."  The script along the bottom of the pyramid reading
Novus Ordo Seclorum
means: “New Order of the Ages.” 

 Incidentally, as I’m sure you’re wondering, “New Order of the Ages” is not a cute way of saying “New World Order.”  It’s a quote from Virgil’s poem “Eclogue IV.” 

 The pyramid is composed of thirteen steps, which represent the thirteen original states, with the base level bearing Roman Numerals for 1776. 

 It is, for all intents and purposes, an artistic interpretation of the then-fledgling nation to grow and prosper with the hope that God was looking down over them. 

 Until you see the upside down pentagram it
clearly
is meant to depict. 

***

The Upside Down Goathead Pentagram of EVIL

 Follow me on this one.  If you take the first letter of “Anno” and the last letter of “Coeptis” as it appears on the US Seal, then connect the first letter of “Novus,” the last letter of “Ordo,” and the last letter of “Seclorum,” and you’ve got an upside down pentagram. 

 Even more sinister, those letters spell out the word M-A-S-O-N.

 Well…not exactly.  If you go left to right, they actually spell A-S-N-O-M.  They also spell out:  AMSON, MANSO, SAMON, NOMSA, etc. 

 But still this damning evidence is irrefutable by everyone on the planet, excepting those with more than a half-dozen synapses firing in their brain at any given time. 

***

Eagles and Owls on Our Dollars, Oh My
!

 Talk about jumping on the bandwagon.  The Grand Lodge of Texas Freemasons published an article in 1955 that claimed the eagle on the dollar bill had clear significance to Masonic Lore.  They said that since the Eagle’s wings had thirty-two feathers on one side, thirty-three on the other side and nine tail feathers, it was clear that they meant the 32 Degrees of Scottish Rite Freemasonry, the ever secretive 33
^rd
Degree of Scottish Rite, and 9 Degrees for all of the ones found in the York Rite. 

 We’re going to get into the various degrees later on, but follow me on this one.  The nine degrees in York Rite Masonry are completely different and exist within absolutely separate bodies.  Nothing like the lazy Scottish Rite Masons who go for a weekend and come back with thirty-two Degrees in their cap.

 Yes, I’m taking a playful shot at my Scottish Rite Masonic brothers, because in York Rite you actually have to participate in all of the degrees your receive, one at a time. 

Sissies. 

Just kidding. 

Doesn’t make it any less true though.

***

 But anyway, thanks a bunch 1955 Texas Grand Lodge for heaping more speculative logs on the fire.  They even went further to say that all the feathers put together totaled sixty-five, which is CLEARLY meant to signify a Hebrew phrase (“Yam Yawchod”) which is CLEARLY a reference to the First Degree. 

 I think I’d like to speak for everyone present when I say: Seriously, guys, WTF?

***

 The owl that can only be seen if you know to look for it appears in the upper right hand corner of the 1’s that appear surrounding George Washington on the dollar bill.

 Does the owl have any special significance to Freemasonry?

 Nope.

 But apparently the owl’s status as an object of the occult (You know, Merlin had an owl, Harry Potter had an owl…we’re talking about witchcraft folks.  Evil, dark, sinister witchcraft.  Hide your kids, hide your wife, etc etc) it somehow gets lumped in as further evidence of the Mason’s involvement with the secret underpinnings of the American government. 

***

 In actuality, the all-seeing eye was designed by a non-mason named Pierre Du Simitiere.  The only actual Freemason on the original committee that designed the United States seal was Benjamin Franklin.  Franklin’s proposal did not have an eye on it, and the others rejected it.