Who made up all the stories?

JamestheJust said:

Aspects of Masonic ritual can be found in some of the earliest human records and in native rituals across the world - including those of the Australian aboriginal.

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OR... aspects and bits and pieces of Rituals found around the world and throughout recorded time have been taken and used to fabricate what is now viewed to be "Freemasonic" Ritual.

JamestheJust said:

Take for example the often recounted story of an Englishman being shipwrecked on the Australian coast in the 18th century and being captured by hostile natives. For lack of any other action he used a Masonic distress sign that was immediately recognized and he was passed from tribe to tribe along the coast until he was returned to the settlement at Botany Bay (Sydney).

I am sure similar stories exist in other countries.

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I love stories! They tug at my heart strings. Was it a Freemasonic sign that they recognized OR was it that these natives were not as hostile as was so dramatically conveyed and they simply recognized the poor shipwrecked bloke was unarmed and in need of some help?

That razor is so simple to apply. Yet, so few apply to the fat that needs trimming and apply it to the very things that needs to be cut.

JamestheJust said:

This is a very interesting point as it seems to me that Sumerian and Egyptian elements appear in Masonic ritual before European translation of hieroglyphs and cuneiform. If that did occur then that might indicate a hidden stream of teaching. Such a hidden stream (invisible college?) might well have continued into the 18th century, providing, for example, the new ancient landmark of the 3rd degree in 1725, and indeed the impulse for at least some of the higher degrees.

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I know that this is often used to justify the conclusions that Freemasonry is a continuation of such things. An equally valid conclusion is that the Rituals created using a wide array of elements are still just that and that anything that might be used as justification are mere coincidences, lucky guesses, or simply loose elements that were strategically added to allow for just enough traction with the conspiracy nuts to give them false hope.

JamestheJust said:

It is likely that quite a lot of the many higher degrees in the 18th century were artificial composites, ...

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Likely?!?! LOL!

JamestheJust said:

... but that does not prove that they all were.

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Hey, I won't try to shatter your illusion. We all deserve our dreams.

JamestheJust said:

Rituals that are compilations may still be sufficiently isomorphic to Reality to allow some energy flows to occur so that the presence of inner plane events during ritual performance does not constitute evidence for their antiquity.

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Be careful. If you hook up the isomorphic rectifier so that the polarity is reversed the energy flow converts from really blowing to truly sucking. On one plane that's a lot of fun, but on another plane it's just a bloody mess.

JamestheJust said:

On the other hand rituals preserve content that does not relate easily to Masonic (or Christian) legend, the 18th degree is particularly obvious in this regard.

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Interesting... Freemasonic Ritual not relating to Masonic legend. Darn those Craft writers!

JamestheJust said:

Personally, I find the investigation of these quite rewarding in an inner sense, but I can see that not all are interested in such investigations.

So I would restate the title of the thread as: Where did these stories come from and why were they placed in Masonry?

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From: Imagination
Why: Entertainment.

Are we all acquainted with the degrees of the Northern Jurisdiction? If so, we can more easily understand that the degrees are, and were, meant to be parables teaching moral values. Though some detest the thought of changing the original degrees (which we have done at least four times since their inceptions) the work of the Northern Jurisdiction leaves no doubt: it's the moral, not the lore.

Oh, by the way. I learned from one of the authors, that the Southern Jurisdiction has rewritten the 29 degrees of the Scottish Rite. Several years ago, in fact. They still have not been published. Nothing major I think. If anyone knows where to get a preview please PM me.

Great discussion brethren. I'm enjoying this immensely.