Freemasonry and Judaism - Leon de Poncins |
We now come to the great point: Anglo-Saxon and specially English masonry.
"One quite understands the difficulty which the normal Englishman feels in crediting the reality of the revolutionary and anti-religious tendencies with which Continental Freemasonry stands charged. All or nearly all the masons whom he has personally known have been law abiding citizens, often church goers, often conspicuously charitable and in general pillars of respectability. Speaking of the vast majority of the lodge-members, there is nothing with which they are less in sympathy than subversion of the existing social order, or hostility to any form of sincere religion."
Most of the members and the official heads are above suspicion but we would say this:
"Not only are secret societies dangerous, but all societies whose object is mysterious. The whole history of man is proof of this position. In no age or country, has there ever appeared a mysterious association which did not in time become a public nuisance.
The advantages to be derived from Freemasonry are not clearly conspicuous whilst the dangers are obvious, one never knows where it tends to and who are the effective leaders. The masonic oath is immoral in principle:
"It is imposed by an authority which has no adequate sanction, differing in that respect from the oath exacted for example, by a magistrate, a judge, or an ecclesiastical superior who are in their varying degrees the representatives of the commonwealth or of God. Again, the scope of the oath regards either secrets that are nowadays no secrets at all or else secrets which are criminal and contrary to public polity. Thirdly the manner of the oath taking is irreverent and, in the extravagance of the penalties invoked, it borders on the blasphemous. Fourthly, by the form used the mason may be said to pledge himself blindly to anything and everything, he knows not rightly what, he signs a blank cheque which is left for others to fill in, and though the English apprentice is told beforehand that nothing will be required of him contrary to his allegiance, his country or his conscience, such assurance is worth little when if comes from those whose views on moral questions may be very different from his own."
On the other hand we can now speak with the authority of experience; the process has been identical in each country of Europe, one after the other: First of all Freemasonry was loyal, conservative and not anti-religious. Behind that veil, the revolutionary anti-Monarchical and anti-Christian work was being carried on in the inner circles, by and by permeating all Freemasonry and the outside world. It was thus in France before 1789, in Portugal before 1905, in central Europe before 1918. The masonic documents published Buda-Pesth are proof of it. What happened in all Europe may possibly befall England too. Would it be an exaggeration to say that this process is now going on in this country?
Charles Rouse writes in The Nameless Beast:
"There is a hidden power behind that "Nameless Beast" (the revolutionary spirit) which is the secret of his amazing achievements; but it is the very power that the average Englishman refuses to take into account. There are elaborate organisations all over the country for dealing with the red peril, but which of these show a vision sufficiently clear to detect the force behind it, or if detecting the courage to fight it? Yet so long as this question is evaded, so long will the Beast continue to march forward and triumph.
"From time immemorial the cabalistic Jews have had their great adepts, who have succeeded in their quest for hidden knowledge and mastered certain secrets of nature; and who, having thus acquired occult powers, have used those, powers for the furtherance, of their own political aims. These, aims were carried out in the lodges of continental masonry and other secret societies, and we have it on the authority of Disraeli himself that these Jews were found at the head every one of these.
"Now as we have already seen, these occult powers were undoubtedly behind the illuminised Grand Orient and the French Revolution; also behind Babeuf and his direct successors the Bolsheviks.
"The existence of these powers has never been questioned on the continent: The Catholic church has always recognized the fact and therefore has forbidden her children under pain of excommunication, to belong to any order of Freemasonry or to any other secret society.
"But here in England, men are apt to treat the whole thing with contempt, and remind us that, by our own showing, English masonry is a totally different thing from the continental in so far as it taboos the discussion of religion and politics in its lodges.
"That is perfectly true, and no English mason is permitted to attend a meeting of the Grand Orient, or of any other irregular masonry. But it is none the less true that Thomas Paine, who was in Paris at the time of the revolution, and played an active part in it, returned to this country and established eight lodges of the Grand Orient and other revolutionary societies
"But that is not all. There are occult societies flourishing in England today, such as the Theosophical socieiy, under Mrs. Besant, with its order of the Star in the East, and order of the Round Table. Both the latter are under the leadership of Krihnamurti, vehicles for the manifestation of their Messiah, or World Teacher. These are associated with continental masons, and claim to be under the direct influence of the Grand Masters, or the great white Lodge — Jewish Cabalists.
"Co-masonry is another branch of Mrs. Besant's Theosophical society, and in February 1922, the alliance between this and the Grand Orient was celebrated at the grand Temple of the Droit Humain in Paris.
"Also the Steinerites' "Anthroposophical Society" [followers of Rudolf Steiner, founder of 'Waldorf Schools'], which is Rosicrucian and links with continental masonry. Both this and Mrs. Besant groups aim at the Grand Orient "United States of Europe".
"But there is another secret society linked to Dr. Steiner's movement which claims our attention here: The Stella Matutina. This is a Rosicrucian order of masonry passing as a "high and holy order for spiritual development and the service of humanity", but in reality a "Political psuedo-religious society of occultists studying the highest practical magic."
"For all this and much more we refer the reader to the series of articles by Inquire within which have appeared in the Patriot.
"And who are those who belong to this Stella Matutina? English clergymen! church dignitaries! one at least of the above named Red Clergy! clerical members of a religious community where young men are being trained for the ministry! The English clergymen and others are doubtless themselves dupes of a directing power, unknown to them, as are its ultimate aims. The Stella Matutina had amongst its members the notorious Aleister Crowley, who, however was expelled from the London order. He is an adept and practises magic in its vilest form, he has an order the O. T. O. which is at the present time luring many to perdition. The Sunday Express and other papers have exposed this unblushing villainy.
"Then there is another interesting fact which shows the connection between occultism and communism. In July 1889 the International Worker's Congress was held in Paris, Mrs. Besant being one of the delegates. Concurrently, the Marxists held their International Congress and Mrs. Besant moved, amid great applause, for amalgamation with them. And yet another International Congress was then being held in Paris, to wit, that of the Spiritists. The delegates of these occultists were the guests of the Grand Orient, whose headquarters they occupied at 16, rue Cadet. The president of the Spiritualists was Denis, and he has made it quite clear that the three congresses there came to a mutual understanding, for, in a speech which he afterwards delivered, he said:
"The occult Powers are at work among men. Spiritism is a powerful germ which will develop and bring about transformation of laws, ideas and of social forces. It will show its powerful influence on social economy and public life."
All this tends to prove that relations between Continental Freemasonry and English secret societies including Freemasonry are more intimate and extensive than it appears at first.
In an article published in the January-February number of the Bulletin de la Grande Loge de France concerning the French edition of this book, a well known Freemason, Albert Lantoine, mentioning my opinion on this subject added:
"The English brothers, and the nation by the way, are shut off from Continental influences, but it will probably be through the Lodges that the penetration of our ideas will be more easily accomplished. Will it be for good? Will it be for evil? On this point our opinion differs from that of the author, but for the present it is the fact itself, indicated by Mr. de Poncins, which is worth our meditation."
On the other hand what applies to England is not so true for America. We have quoted page 70 the article from the Latomia showing the intervention of the United States government in favor of Hungarian Freemasonry.
It is commonly reported in central Europe that English masonry made then a move in the same sense. One of the following numbers of the same masonic paper accounts of a German Freemason who declared that he had benefited from special treatment once he had made known that he was a mason, when he was prisoner of war in the American army. Similar instances could certainly be multiplied.
"When we look back upon some dark page of history, some grave crisis which left its legacy of shame and trouble for long years after, we marvel at the blindness and apathy of the people of that day, at their criminal shirking of a grave responsibility to posterity. Could not they see what was taking place around them? Could not they realise that nothing short of heroic effort and self-sacrifice could save the situation and avert catastrophe?
"But instead of indulging in useless retrospect, suppose we open our eyes to current events, and, noting the danger ahead, stir ourselves to action lest those who came after us shall have cause to marvel, in their turn, that we could amuse ourselves with fiddling while Rome was burning — and so leave them to inherit but the ruins of a once glorious Empire.