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Unio Mystica in the Dramatic Revelation of Masonic Secrecy?

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 Pázmány Papers in English and American Studies
Volume 4

“NOW YOU SEE IT, NOW YOU DON’T.”

H iding and R evealing in Text and in Perform ance

Edited by

Kathleen E. D ubs

Pázmány Péter Catholic University

Piliscsaba

2006
 U n ió M ystic a in the D ramatic R evelation
of M asonic Secrecy?

P éter Róbert
University of Szeged

iding and revealing different types of secrets are essential features of

H most religions and clandestine societies all over the world. I will
examine here some of the most frequently performed dramas, the
scripts of which were even memorised by such notables as Washington,
Goethe, Liszt, Wilde, and Márai. These distinguished intellectuals belonged to
the largest and oldest secretive fraternity of the world, namely, the Freemasons.
These days, week by week, approximately seven million people dress up in
strange regalia and, as amateur actors of the ritualistic dramas, play the roles of
characters dubbed “Worshipful Grand Master” or “Junior Wardens”. N o wonder
that until recently, Freemasonry mystified scholars o f every discipline. Faced
with an institution that conceals many o f its essential documents from the
outside world, especially in Britain, academics usually declined the challenge
of interpretation thus the study o f masonic fraternities was pursued by
enthusiastic but often uncritical antiquarians and conspiracy theorists.
As long as Freemasoniy has existed as a society with secrets, it has always
excited and will excite curiosity and questioning. But what can be known
about a secret society? If it is truly secret, the answer is next to nothing.
Fortunately, no world-wide organisation with such a huge membership can
expect to remain completely secret. From the beginning of Freemasonry in
Britain, during the 17th century, there have been disclosures o f masonic
documents. In 1730 Samuel Prichard, an ex-Mason, published Masonic
Dissected, which was the first widely circulated exposure of masonic rituals.1
Based upon these dramas this paper tries to classify the nature of masonic
secrecy.2 1 have used the plural since this exposure actually consists of three
different plays, each corresponding to a degree in the masonic hierarchy of

1They are reprinted in Douglas Knoop, G. P Jones and Douglas Hamer, The Early Masonic
Catechisms (London: Manchester University Press, 1963), 157-173.
2 For the reliability of Prichard’s exposure see Jan Snoek, “On the Creation of Masonic Degrees:
A Method and its Fruits,” In A. Faivre and W.J. Hanegraaff (eds.). Western Esotericism and the
Science o f Religions, Selected Papers presented at the 17th Congress of the International
Association for the History o f Religions, Mexico City 1995 (Leuven: Peeters, 1998), 155,175-77;
 Unió Mystica in the Dramatic Revelation of Masonic Secrecy? 167

rituals. It would be helpful to start with a brief summary of each ritual. During
the first degree, called the Entered Apprentice, the protagonist is initiated into
the fraternity and learns about man’s natural equality and dependence on
others, as well as his civil and moral duties. Passing to the degree of a Fellow
Craft, he is taught about the effects of nature and science and the rewards of
labour. And “raising as a Master mason” in the third play he contemplates on
the inevitability o f death, fidelity, and duty to the others. As for the first two
degrees, they are primarily concerned with morality. Their symbols, such as
the square and plumb-rule, the working tools of medieval stonemasons3, are
interpreted for the candidate in moral terms. When the candidate is asked,
“What do you learn by being a Gentleman-Mason”, he has to answer: “Secresy,
Morality, and Goodfellowship”4 Consequently, these ceremonies can be seen
as allegorical morality plays, stressing particular virtues.
Now the background has been prepared to precisely identify the purpose of
this paper. My contention in this essay is twofold. One goal is to identify the
different types of masonic secrets as they are revealed in texts and performance,
particularly in the ritualistic dramas of the eighteenth century. Prichard’s already
introduced exposure will serve as the major primary source. In my view, secrecy
can be classified according to the ways that secrets are revealed (explicit or
implicit in texts) as well as the types of their reception and their impact on the
candidate (cognitive or affective).5 A second objective is to interpret the
different modes of secrecy in the frameworks of esoteric and philosophical
studies. As for the former, I will employ György E. Szőnyi’s thesis of ‘exaltatio’
whereas the latter will be based on the ontology and systematic theology of Karl
Rahner, the exemplary Catholic philosopher-theologian.
The first type of secrecy represented in masonic texts is the common and
simple understanding of secrecy, which is concerned with the intentional
concealment of information. A passage from Prichard’s first degree ritual
illustrates this: “Q u estio n ]. What are the secrets of a Mason? A[nswer],

“Printing Masonic Secrets - Oral and Written Transmission of the Masonic Tradition,” In Henrik
Bogdan (ed.) Alströmersymposiet 2003. Fördragsdokumentation (Göteborg: Frimureriska
Forskningsgruppen i Göteborg 2003), 46.
3 Neville Barker-Cry er, a masonic antiquarian and clergyman, attempts to reconstruct the
relationship of the medieval mystery plays and the practice of Freemasonry in Neville Barker-
Cryer, “Drama and Craft,” Ars Quatuor Coromtorum 87 ( 1974) : 74-105. For a scholarly analysis
of medieval Freemasonry see David Stevenson, The Origins o f Freemasonry: Scotland’s
Century, 1590-1710 (Cambridge: CUP, 1988).
* Knoop et al, 164.
5 1 am aware that such an artificial categorisation naturally leads to distortion of the complex
ontology of masonic secrecy since the experience of revealing and concealing secrets cannot
be explained away with dichotomies. A family resemblance of these four parameters would
provide us with a more authentic picture of the experience of secrecy.
168 Péter Róbert

Signs, Tokens and many Words.”6 As the ritual explains, the sign o f the first
degree is “extending the Four Fingers of the Right and drawing them cross his
Throat.”7 Thus, in this view, the secrets are the signs, tokens and words in
their concrete, material form. According to Marie Roberts, “what links the
epistemological concerns of masonic signs to the power dynamics implicated
in concealment and revelation is the way secret semantic signals are used in
such a manner as to alert outsiders to the existence of a secretive network from
which they are excluded.”8
As for the secret words, in the first degree they are the biblical names of
Jachin and Boaz9 (1 Kings 7:21), which refer to the two pillars of Solomon’s
Temple. Pillars are mentioned often in the Old Testament where they
represent the gate of heaven (Genesis 28:18) or were used to commemorate a
covenant made between, for instance, Jacob and Laban (Genesis 31:44-45).
But before the secret words are revealed to the candidate, he is obliged to
make an oath “in the Presence of Almighty God and the Right Worshipful
Assembly” 10:

I will Hail and Conceal, and never reveal the secrets or Secresy of
Masons and Masonry, that shall be revealed unto m e... I
furthermore Promise and Vow, that I will not Write them, Print
them, Mark them, Carve them or Engrave them, or cause them to
be Written... so as the Visible Character or Impression o f a Letter
my appear, whereby it may be unlawfully obtian’d... All this under
no less Penalty than to have my Throat cut out, my Tongue taken
from the Roof of my Mouth, my Heart pluck’d from under my Left
Breast, then to be buried in the Sands of the Sea... my Body to be
burnt to A shes... so that there shall be no more resemblance o f me
among Masons. So help me God.11

6 Knoop et al, 164. The most commonly used present-day Craft rituals have preserved almost
the same formulae. Emulation Lodge of Improvement, Emulation Ritual (London: Lewis
Masonic, 1995), 81.
7 Knoop at al, 164. The ritual goes on: “Q. Where do you keep those Secrets? A. Under my left
Breast. Q. Have you any key to those Secrets? A. Yes. Q. Where do you keep it? A. In a Bone
Box that neither opens nor shuts but with Ivory Keys” Of course this is a metaphor for the
tongue and mouth, which Prichard himself failed to keep shut. A false rumour spread that he
paid the full ritual price for his treachery by having his heart and tongue tom out.
8 Marie M. Roberts,, “Masonics, Metaphor and Misogyny: A Discourse of Marginality,” In
Peter Burke and Roy Porter (eds.) Languages and Jargons (Cambridge: Polity 1998), 140.
9 Knoop et al, 165.
10 Knoop et al, 161.
11 Knoop et al, 161. It may be noted that the wording of this oath is similar to the present-day
most common Craft ritual in Great Britain, that is, the Emulation ritual. Emulation, 80.
 Unió Mystica in the Dramatic Revelation of Masonic Secrecy? 169

It must be noted that eighteenth-century songs by Freemasons testify that they

boasted about these secrets, of course, without revealing anything about their
meanings or contents.12 This attitude was mocked in several theatrical
epilogues and pamphlets by the outside world in the century of Lights. This is
nicely illustrated by Prichard’s concluding remarks to the exposed dramas:
“O f all the Impositions that have appear’d amongst Mankind, none are so
ridiculous as the Mystery of Masonry, which has amus’d the World, and
caused various Constructions and these Pretences of Secrecy, invalid, has
(tho’ not perfectly) been revealed...”13
Although the secrets mentioned here differ on the basis of their form and
the mechanism of their concealing and revealing, they have certain crucial
commonalties. It can be argued that these secrets are explicit and cognitive.
They are explicit in the sense that these secrets are explained in a clear-cut
way in the rituals - the candidate does not have to make an effort to grasp their
meaning or the mechanism. We can also say that this type of secrecy is
cognitive in nature, as it is based on the possession and memorising of a
particular piece of information or the repetition of a physical movement.
Secrets of the first type have been disclosed many times by non-Masons or
enemies of the fraternity. It may be noted that this is the only aspect of
secrecy, that is, the traditional words and signs of recognition, which is
acknowledged by the present-day United Grand Lodge o f England.14 It is not
difficult to observe that the central body contradicts itself when it claims that
Freemasonry is not a secret society.15
Even if secrets have been exposed, the secret should remain a secret if its
understanding is secret by definition.16 If an outside observer has access to the

12 For instance, the second song of the first-degree Masons cited in Anderson’s Constitutions of
1723 is “The World is in pain / Our Secrets to gain, / And still let them wonder and gaze on; /
They ne’er can divine / The Word or the Sign / Of a Free and an Accepted MASON”. “ Who can
unfold the Royal Art?/ Or Sing its Secrets in a Song? / They’re safely kept in Mason’s HEART,
/ And to the ancient Lodge belong." I preserved the original punctuation. James Anderson, The
Constitutions o f Free-Masons. Containing the History, the Charges, Regulations, &c. ofthat
most Ancient and Right Worshipful Fraternity (London: Printed by William Hunter, 1723), 84
[Library and Museum of Freemasons’ Hall, London].
13 Knoop et al, 170.
14 United Grand Lodge of England (hereafter: UGLE), Your Questions Answered (London:
UGLE, 1999), 1.
15 UGLE, 2. Cf. footnote 18.
16 Alexander Piatigorsky, Who’s afraid o f Freemasons? The Phenomenon o f Freemasonry
(London: Harvill Press, 1997), 4. It must be noted that this work is perhaps the one and the
only extensive scholarly work on the religious aspects of English Freemasonry in the Anglo-
Saxon world. I am grateful to Prof. Piatigorsky for supporting my research project with his
valuable comments.
170 Péter Róbert

texts of the ritual, it only enables such non-initiates to gather certain information,
but he will not be able to reconstruct the experience of initiation or that of
fellowship, which the participants have in a proper ritual.17 In this context, my
description and decoding of masonic dramas do not amount to revealing
masonic secrets - because this second type of secrecy does not reside in the
possession of factual information about the words and handshakes - but it
resides in the shared experience of the Masons, which cannot be transmitted
since, in the act o f transmission, it is betrayed due to its nature.18 Even if
written accounts had existed about this experience, still it would be difficult to
study them, as they are bound by the limits of expression. We all know that
language can never substitute for experience.19 Thus even if an initiate like
Prichard turns out to be an enemy of his fraternity, he will not be able to reveal
this communal experience in its totality because it is ineffable and therefore
would remain incomprehensible to a non-initiate. In this view of masonic
secrecy, the performance of the dramas and their theatricality cannot be
separated from secrecy because it is in the very act o f dramatic performance
that the individual experiences secrecy. Masonic secrecy, in this respect, has no
meaning outside the lodge; therefore, the full understanding of the meaning of
their secrecy is open only to the admitted members. It follows from the above
that this second type of secrecy is implicit and mostly affective by nature.
However, it cannot be emphasised too strongly that this experience is far
from being unique. For example, every detail of the Catholic Eucharist is made
public together with numerous commentaries, so it is by nature exoteric, but
the full understanding of its meaning is only available to those who experience

17 This is perfectly exemplified by the repeated stanza in the Master’s masons’ song “ Who can
unfold the Royal Art?/ Or Sing its Secrets in a Song? / They're safely kept in Mason’s
HEART, / And to the ancient Lodge belong.” Anderson, 75-78. Cf. Richard Tydeman, ‘‘That
the world may know” in Grand Lodge News [United Grand Lodge of England], 2 (11
December, 1996). I thank John Hamill, Director of Communications of the United Grand
Lodge of England, for supplying me with a copy of this newsletter.
18 Unlike their English brethren, most Continental Freemasons hold to this understanding of
secrecy rather than the first, material one. This explains the fact that researchers are allowed
and encouraged to study masonic rituals in French and Dutch archives, which would shock
British and Swedish Masons. In this light, John Hamill’s argument that “Freemasonry is
neither a secret society, nor... a ‘society with secrets’” is, to say the least, contradictory to
the policy and practice of the UGLE, in the library of which non-masonic scholars are not
allowed to consult about rituals or other things. John Hamill, The History o f English
Freemasonry (Lewis Masonic, 1994), 158. Furthermore, the UGLE still claims that there
exist no printed texts of the rituals, which is simply not true. One can purchase certain rituals
in the masonic shops just in front of the main building of the UGLE in Great Queen Street,
London. Cf. Jan Snoek, “Printing Masonic Secrets...”, 40, 52.
19 Cf. Don Cupitt, Mysticism After Modernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), 12-29. Michel de
Certeau. The Mystic Fable (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 94-100.
 Unio Mystica in the Dramatic Revelation o f Masonic Secrecy? 171

the reception of the Holy Communion.20 Secondly, secrecy with theatricality is

an essential feature of almost all transitional rituals or rites of passage.21
The masonic experience of fellowship has pragmatic, social aspects as well.
In the rituals the fellow-Masons promise to help and support each other in need
and the masonic actors will remember their promise outside the lodge, too. So
possessing the secrets and sharing this communal experience invest power in
the individual, from which he can gain various benefits. In this sense, secrecy
can be viewed as a social power and authority rather than as certain tangible
signs or hidden symbolic content that are intentionally withheld.22
Now let us turn to the last and most complex type of masonic secrecy,
which might be interpreted as a combination of the first two. To understand
its nature and essence, we need to be aware of the general ritual context,
namely the M aster’s degree drama, in which it occurs.23
According to Jan Snoek’s analysis, the Master degree ritual shows the
well-known pattern characteristic of many initiations: “the candidate is
identified with a hero, who turns out to be the divinity, ergo, the candidate is
identified with the divinity. The culmination and essence o f such a ritual is the
ritual Unio Mystica”24 Prichard’s M aster degree ceremony illustrates this well,
where the protagonist turns out to be Hiram Abiff. The divinity in this ritual
is also explicitly designated as the “Great Architect and Contriver o f the
Universe.”25 Therefore, the candidate is identified with Hiram, who turns out
to be the divinity, that is, the Great Architect of the Universe. This second, in
my view, implicit identification of Hiram with the divinity needs further
explanation, though it must have been obvious for most Freemasons in

20 Piatigorsky, 5.
21 Piatigorsky, 299. It can be argued that the essential message of the second type of masonic
secrecy might lie in the experience of communitas as it is understood by Victor Turner in his
analyses of transitional rites. For Turner, the transitional-beings of an initiation rite, being a
typical rite de passage, experience comradeship and an essential human bond in and out of
secular social structure. He describes this communitas as undifferentiated, equalitarian,
nonrational and existential. Cf. Victor Turner. The Ritual Process (Hawthrone, NY: Aldine de
Gruyter, 1969).
22 Cf. H. Urban, “The Torment of Secrecy: Ethical and Epistemological Problems in the Study
of Esoteric Traditions,” History o f Religions 37 (1998) : 209-248.
25 This following paragraph is built on Jan Snoek’s findings on the Unio Mystica in masonic
rituals. I am grateful to Dr Snoek for supplying me with several of his related papers. Jan
Snoek, ‘The Evolution of the Hiramic Legend from Prichard’s Masonry Dissected to the
Emulation Ritual, in England and France,” ARIES 1999 (Symboles et Mythes dans les
mouvements initiatiques et ésotériques (XVIIe-XXe siècles): Filiations et emprunts), 59-92;
’’Retracing the lost secret of a master mason” in Acta Macionica 4 (1994) : 5-53
24 Snoek, “On the Creation...”, 151.
25 Knoop et al., 166.
172 Péter Robert

Prichard’s time. First, in the ritual Hiram is explicitly referred to as the

architect of the temple of King Solomon. Secondly, the Bible makes it clear
that it is God who designed that temple.26 This clearly explains how Hiram
Abbiff, the architect of the temple, turns out to be God.27 This identification
with the divinity (Unio Mystica) forms the third type of secrecy, the
interpretation o f which is highly problematic. Before we move on, it may be
noted that this identification occurs in other masonic rituals of the eighteenth
century as well. For instance, in the so-called Rose Croix degree the candidate
is explicitly identified with the protagonist (Jesus o f Nazareth), who turns out
to be the divinity (Christ). This is a Unio Mystica with Christ.28
The question immediately arises: what did the authors of these didactic and
allegorical dramas want to teach with this identification? O f course we cannot
find the answer to this crucial problem in the dramas. Then how should we
interpret this mystical union? In my view, this is the central question regarding
the ultimate purpose of many masonic rituals.
The first reading of these dramas reveals that the rituals intend to help the
brethren to lead a more ethical life. So were these masonic ceremonies only
designed to inculcate moral messages in the candidate? O r were they paths of
attaining an organic and mystical unity with God as in spiritual alchemy? Do
masonic rituals go as far as that? Certainly such offspring of Freemasonry as
the Martinist Order or the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn are known to
seek this Unio Mystica but it may be argued that the masonic founding-fathers
of these movements broke away from regular Freemasonry. Due to a lack of
evidence concerning the impact of the rituals on the candidates, it is impossible
today to give precise answers to the above questions. Though I have not found
any documents which exclude the interpretation that the candidate intended to
achieve a mystical union with the Source of Life during these rituals, there
exist several eighteenth-century accounts which emphasise that these dramas
primarily intend to teach fundamental moral lessons. Thus one may argue that
the absence of proof is the proof of absence here. In other words, the lack of
such testimonies about the experience of mystical union underlines that the
Unio Mystica proper was unlikely to take place during masonic ceremonies.

26 cf. 1 Chron 28,11-13,19.

27 Snoek adds another point, which clearly underlines this reading of the ritual. The basic
conflict in the Master degree ritual is that Hiram does not reveal the secret, “the Master’s
Word of him” to three fellow Masons. As a result, in the climax of the ritual, he is murdered.
Then the story continues with the quest for him, the finding of his body, and his rising from
death. Then it finishes with the following dialogue: “Where was Hiram inter’d? In the
Sanctum Sanctorum.” Snoek claims that this is straightforward since human beings cannot be
buried in the Sanctum Sanctorum. Snoek, “On the Creation”, 151-52.
28 Snoek, 174.
 Unio Mystica in the Dramatic Revelation of Masonic Secrecy? 173

Still, let us suppose for a moment that for some brethren the ultimate -
conscious or unconscious - goal of participation in masonic rituals was to
achieve an ontological unity with the Great Architect o f the Universe. In what
follows I will examine this unorthodox process of deification along with its
accompanied worldview. In this process György E. Szőnyi’s works are of
great assistance since in several publications he has analysed how heterodox
minds such as kabbalists and magicians sought to attain the unio mystica,
which he calls exaltatio.29
In Szőnyi’s view, exaltatio describes a special program of deification,
according to which man, who is endowed with godlike faculties, tries to
elevate him self to the supernatural spheres with the help of certain techniques
including magic. To achieve this, the adept needs hermetic or occult
know ledge, that is, a secret learning which is the privilege o f the
hypersensitive elect. O f course, this view o f deification assumes that the
universe and the nature o f man are essentially dualist in the sense that man has
to leave his body and his place in the Chain of Being to seek the company of
the deity and recreate the lost unity in the split, dualist existence. As for the
philosophical anthropology of the elect, they are mostly dignified and all-
powerful humans with hybris and conceit, who consider themselves G od’s
almost equal partners. Thus, exaltatio denotes a change o f status or condition
the opposite of which is humility. Therefore, the elevation of the soul can
happen as a reward for human excellence rather than through the grace of
God. It is not difficult to imagine that Freemasons who were desirous of Unio
Mystica must have had similar convictions in mind.
Before we contrast the idea of exaltatio with Rahner’s concept of
deification, let us compare the Unio Mystica, as it could be expressed in
masonic rituals, with the experience of Christian mystics.30 In a nutshell it can
be said that all monotheistic religions aim at some union with God. For
ordinary people, this union is a spiritual or moral ideal. For mystics, reality
remains incomplete until it becomes reunited with its Source. The Christian
Unio Mystica refers to an exceptional religious experience or to a state of
being that lies beyond consciousness altogether, which mystics sometimes
describe as “spiritual marriage.” As it is impossible to say whether this final
union is cognitive or affective in nature, this distinction loses much of its
meaning. To describe it as cognitive or affective is to treat an essentially

29 Cf. e.g Gyögy E. Szőnyi, Magical Exaltation Through Powerful Signs. The Ideology and
Iconography o f John Dee’s Occultism (New York: State University of New York Press, 2004);
Gli Angeli di John Dee (Roma: Tre Editori, 2004); “Exaltatio ” és hatalom. Keresztény mágia
és okkult szimbolizmus egy angol mágus műveiben. (Szeged: JATEPress, 1998). I thank Dr.
Szőnyi for allowing me to use the manuscript of the first book before its publication.
30 My understanding of Unio Mystica was influenced by Louis Dupré’s writings on this theme.
174 Péter Róbert

unified and unifying consciousness as a divided, oppositional one. In my

opinion, although the idea o f the Unio Mystica is implicitly expressed in
Prichard’s ritualistic dramas, British Freemasons could hardly experience this
unitive ecstasy because the com m unal rituals o f eighteenth-century
Freemasons were inappropriate means to achieve the mystical union proper.
The fixed texts and performance o f these dramas do not enable the candidate
to achieve a direct experience of transcendence since in the European Judo-
Christian context - in which the worldview o f Freemasonry is firmly rooted -
such experience is essentially private and individualistic.3' In the regalia of
Hiram Abiff, Freemasons could identify themselves with the divinities of
Jehovah or Christ but they could hardly unite with the Holy Other during the
allegorical ceremonies. That is why I render the third type o f masonic secrecy
as cognitive rather than affective in nature since the identification with the
divine was realised by the participants but unlikely to be experienced as an
ontological return to the presence of God. Thus, this argument reinforces the
earlier point that the lack of Unio Mystica personal testim onies by
Freemasons can be seen as the proof of its non-existence.
In this last section I wish to compare the Rahnerian and the occult
understanding o f the exaltatio and secrecy. And to avoid confusion and
misunderstanding I need first to contrast the basic concepts o f the two
worldviews.3132

1. As for the understanding of the nature of existence, the practitioners of

exaltatio spoke about a split and dualistic universe. For Rahner, the
polarity between transcendence and immanence was false. The dilemma of
the immanence and transcendence of God must be overcome without
sacrificing one another. It may be noted that in Christian mysticism the
Unio Mystica proper also overcomes the separation between God and the
creature. In mystical unitive experience, God is not opposed to anything,
since He integrates all things in his divine Being. For the Christian mystics,
transcendence ceases to consist in a negation of the finite. Instead, God
appears as the ultimate dimension of the finite, the inaccessible within the
accessible.

2. The human being, understood as spirit in the world, both transcendent and
immanent, is characterised by Rahner as “the being o f the holy mystery.”

31 In his The Varieties o f Religious Experience (1902) William James showed that mystical
experience is intentionally unique.
32 Cf. Karl Rahner, Geist in Welt (München: Kösel, 1957); Hörer des Wortes (Freiburg: Herder,
1971); Foundations o f Christian Faith (New York: Seabury, 1978).
 Unió Mystica in the Dramatic Revelation o f Masonic Secrecy? 175

Humans by nature are open to the permanent self-revelation o f this silent,

infinite and ineffable mystery.

3. Transcendental experience. Rahner argues that ordinary human existence

is unintelligible unless it is interpreted in the light o f the transcendent
mystery of the “S e in /’ For him, the human experience o f subjectivity and
ordinary empirical experience point toward a transcendental horizon,
without which they are ultimately unintelligible. This transcendental
experience is always unthematic, unreflective and meta-empirical in the
sense that it always remains in the background o f ordinary empirical
experience.

4. According to Rahner, hum ans transcend them selves in every act of

questioning and thinking, by which they dem onstrate them selves to be
part o f the natural world and yet sim ultaneously oriented tow ards the
m ysterious horizon o f Being. He argues that hum ans are able to reach
out beyond them selves and their finite w orld tow ards an infinite
horizon o f hope and love. For this reason, hum ans possess a unique
ability to discern the transcendent elem ent o f their situation. Thus there
is an always im plicit, unthem atic and unreflective know ledge o f God
latent w ithin humanity, which it is the function o f transcendental
reflection to identify.

Thus the difference between the mystical experience of the Unio Mystica and
R ahner’s transcendental experience is that the latter is an everyday
experience regardless o f whether we are aware of it or not. Transcendental
experience is neither cognitive nor affective. It rarely goes with an ecstatic
religious experience, so it does not require a special state o f consciousness
which is incompatible with ordinary states of mind. In a certain way one can
foretaste the “content” o f transcendental experience in the unconditional and
personal act o f love and forgiveness day by day33, whereas magicians and
members o f certain esoteric orders sought the exaltation outside everyday
experience. For instance, according to his own account, John Dee, the

33 Cf. Karl Rahner, Schriften zur Theologie (Zürich: Benziger, 1954-84) Vol. IX, 169. Of
course, in the Newtonian-Kantian understanding of experience we are unable to come to an
explicit experience of God. If we had such an experience, nobody would deny the existence
of God. However, in a sense we can experience God through what is given implicitly by the
transcendental experience de facto in the background. This is identified with the personal and
unconditional reality being distinct from the world, since we experience reality in its totality
in the transcendental experience. Cf. Béla Weissmahr, Isten léte és mivolta [The existence
and nature of God] (Szeged, 1998), 25-30.
176 Péter Róbert

Renaissance polymath, was the first man since Adam and Enoch who had
managed to reconstruct and learn the m ost ancient language - in his words,
the lingua adamica - with the help of angels in order to return to the
transcendental reality. Although at first sight Rahner’s understanding of
secrecy might seem to be complicated, its central message is m uch simpler
than any other notions of secrecy.

5. Visio beatifica and exaltatio. The parallel concept of alchemical exaltatio in

Rahnerian theology is visio beatifica. The basis of both is deification but
understood differently. For Rahner, the human being, elevated by grace, is
ontologically oriented towards the visio beatifica, which is the culmination
o f (self-transcending) human existence. This human participation in the
substance o f God is a gift of the Holy Mystery. But even in this direct
relationship God still remains incomprehensible. But, as we have seen, the
elevation of the soul in occult thought is aided by certain techniques
including magic, rather than by grace.

Finally, by summarising the Rahnerian understanding of secrecy I wish to

highlight the contrast between the masonic views of secrecy and those o f
Rahner. In the original German article Rahner uses the term “secret”
(Geheimniss) rather than “mystery”, as it is translated into English.34 As I will
quote from the English translations, I will follow their terminology and render
secrecy and mystery interchangeably.
Rahner addresses the traditional philosophical problem of the one and the
many when he examines the possibility of one central mystery and the
plurality of mysteries. He declares that there is only one central mystery and
through this criticises elementary dogmatics which, when it speaks about the
plurality of secrets which are incorrectly understood, put very simply, is what
surpasses human reason.35 For Rahner, a statement cannot be regarded as a
secret if the concepts o f this statement are incompatible with their contents.
According to Rahner, theology must not understand itself as “that science
which develops itself more and more in a systematic drawing o f distinctions
down to the last possible detail.” On the contrary, it has to be understood as
“that human activity in which man, even at the level of conscious thought,

34 Karl Rahner, “Über den Begriff des Geheimnisses in der katholischen Theologie” in K.
Rahner, Schriften zur Theologie (Zürich: Benziger, 1954—84) Vol. IV, 51-99.
35 It was the English deists of the early eighteenth century that for the first time harshly
criticised that theological view of mystery according to which we should “adore what we
cannot comprehend” but Christian divines began to take this critique of the gap-filling notion
of God seriously only in two centuries. John Toland, Christianity not Mysterious (1696) in
Peter Gay, Deism: An Anthology (New York: Van Nostrand, 1968), 54, 71.
 Unió Mystica in the Dramatic Revelation o f Masonic Secrecy? 177

relates the multiplicity of the realities, experiences, and ideas in his life to that
mystery, ineffable and obscure, which we call God.”36
Rahner continues by establishing the philosophical basis of this central
secrecy, which can be summarised in three points.

1. The communication of the ultimate secrecy can only happen through grace,
thus it demands a subject who is deified by grace.

2. The holy secret reveals itself only in the subjective transcendental

experience and never in the categorical, empirical experience. Even if this
holy secrecy reveals itself to the finite human beings it continues to be
secrecy by its very nature since it can never be defined or objectised.
However, the first type of masonic secrecy as a concealm ent of
information ceases to be secrecy when it is revealed. W hen the followers
o f esoteric schools talk about their desire to achieve a direct experience
with the divinity, they seem to count with the objectivable empirical
experience.

3. Human beings, always and everywhere, nourish from the permanent Holy
Mystery, even if we are not aware of this.

According to Rahner.

We live by the holy mystery all the time, even where and when we
are unaware of this. The lucidity of [our] consciousness derives
from the incomprehensibility of this mystery. The freedom of our
mastery o f things comes from [our] being mastered by the Holy
which is itself unmastered.37

Establishing the ontological basis of this Holy Mystery, he argues that

specifically Christian mysteries can only be considered as the derivatives of
this ancient secrecy. So the central mystery is reflected in three fundamental
Christian mysteries, namely, the secrets of the Trinity, the unio hypostatica
and the visio beatifica. But this is not the place to discuss how the specific
mysteries relate to the one ultimate secrecy.

36 There may be some justification, Rahner concedes, for concerning theology on the model of
“a logically developing system in which ever finer distinctions are drawn.” Perhaps that was,
to some extent, Thomas Aquinas’ ideal; perhaps it is almost two thousand years old. Now,
Rahner thinks, it is drawing to its close. Fergus Kerr, Immortal Longings: Version of
Transcending Humanity (London: SPCK, 1997), 184.
37 Kerr, 184.
 178 Péter Róbert

In closing, I hope, in recollecting the theme of the conference, to have

clarified the distinctions between the different types o f masonic secrecy in a
wider context that hasn’t been seen before.
Although the approach of my paper hardly resembles any of the other
presentations, it might show that hiding and revealing in text and performance
may also relate to such fundamental human desires as the unio mystica, which
traditional literary histories rarely touch upon. The findings o f this paper
might be more interesting to students o f theology or religious history,
especially if w e consider the fact that churches that condemned Freemasonry
over the last three hundred years never made a serious effort to examine
masonic ritualistic dramas. This is perfectly exemplified by the fact that apart
from three doctoral theses, one of them written in Afrikaans,38 no Ph.D.
dissertation has ever been written on the religious aspects o f Freemasonry; yet
several kings, bishops, presidents and intellectual pillars o f the modem world
have worshipped at the altar of the Great Architect o f the Universe and learnt
the secrets of this Royal Art by heart.

38 ProQuest Digital Dissertations Database, access at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

4 March 2005. The database contains bibliographical citations and abstracts in the Humanities
and Social Sciences for doctoral dissertations and master’s theses completed over 1000
accredited colleges and universities world-wide. It dates back to 1861 with abstracts includ­
ed from 1980 forward. According to this database, out of the seventy dissertations and the­
ses (almost sixty percent of them submitted after 1990) there are only three unpublished
works, which directly address the relationship between church and freemasonry. The details
of the former works are: Don C. Markham, Freemasonry and the Churches Unpublished the­
sis (Dmin), Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall/Crozer Theological Seminary,
1982; Theunis Frederik Jacobus Dreyer. Freemasonry as a Group in, Next to and Against the
Church (Afrikaans Text), Unpublished thesis (Dd), University of Pretoria (South Africa),
1983. Sister M. Crescentia Thorton, The Church and Freemasonry in Brazil, 1827-1875: A
Study in Regalism (The Catholic University of America, 1948).

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