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Albert Pike: More harm than good?

Is Albert Pike more harm than good?

  • Good

    Votes: 11 44.0%
  • Harmful

    Votes: 6 24.0%
  • Some good, some bad.

    Votes: 8 32.0%

  • Total voters
    25
  • Poll closed .

cacarter

Premium Member
Today, in 1891, Albert Pike passed away. Which made me start thinking, when considering Pike today is he more of a patron or a hindrance to freemasonry?
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
He acts as a lightning rod for lunatics. Once they start in on his material they are the more easily identified and their stances discarded.
 

jjjjjggggg

Premium Member
I'm reading Morals and Dogma now. Though he's very wordy, I haven't ran across anything that has set off my BS detector. In fact, it's been an enjoyable read so far. So I guess I just haven't made it to the nut job fodder yet, whatever it may be.


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marty15chris

Premium Member
The only problem I see with Pike's writings is it's too easy for the crazies to quote them out of context to make some out of this world claim.


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nfasson

Registered User
The only problem I see with Pike's writings is it's too easy for the crazies to quote them out of context to make some out of this world claim.


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Like Masons worshipping Lucifer. Did Baphomet come from Pike?

What was the purpose of Morals and Dogma?
 
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Companion Joe

Premium Member
I'm personally more of an Albert Mackey guy myself.

As noted, the biggest problem with Pike is his stuff is so over the head of most folks, the nuts have a field day picking bits and pieces to use as ammo.
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
Pike can easily be taken out of context if one chooses. His work is no disgrace among masons. In fact, masons should never apologize for Pike's work.

Taking things out of context is a favorite pastime these days. Crazies thrill at the opportunity.

I'm kind of proud to be on the opposite side of the Crazies. The only alternative is to have them on my side. Which would be most disturbing.

Rejoice that they don't like us Brethren. It's really an honor!
 

JJones

Moderator
I think Pike was a very smart man who was very knowledgeable about Freemasonry. That being said, a lot of his ideas and quotes have been misunderstood and taken out of context in a way that does more harm than good for the fraternity...then again he might not have intended for outsiders to read his books at all.

Nonmasons act as though he was the foremost authority on Freemasonry when really he was just another brother who happened to be very influential. I'm not sure he would recognize the Freemasonry that is being practiced in many lodges today.

Anyhow, he's an interesting figure but with his writings in the hands of the ignorant I think he does more harm than good.
 

MarkR

Premium Member
Like Masons worshipping Lucifer. Did Baphomet come from Pike?

What was the purpose of Morals and Dogma?
No, the whole Baphomet thing came from the Taxil hoax. The purpose of M&D was Pike lecturing on his thoughts and readings that informed the degrees.
 

rebis

Premium Member
M&D was my inspiration in seeking the higher degrees. Mason or profane, anybody would greatly benefit from reading but one paragraph out of it. It will lift your understanding and intellect to stellar heights. I particularly recommend it to the virtuous and philosophical brothers. I read it cover to cover and I also read out of it at our stated meetings as chaplain.

Albert Pike was a genius and is the first person I would meet should I ever time travel.


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Mike Martin

Eternal Apprentice
Premium Member
I find it sad that many who read M&D do not bother to read the Preface by the Supreme Council which puts the book exactly into the correct context for anybody (Mason or not) who reads it. Just for clarity I have reproduced it below and emboldened the most important elements that are totally ignored by many readers of the book.

PREFACE.

THE following work has been prepared by authority of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, by the Grand Commander, and is now published by its direction. It contains the Lectures of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in that jurisdiction, and is specially intended to be read and studied by the Brethren of that obedience, in connection with the Rituals of the Degrees. It is hoped and expected that each will furnish himself with a copy, and make himself familiar with it; for which purpose, as the cost of the work consists entirely in the printing and binding, it will be furnished at a price as moderate as possible. No individual will receive pecuniary profit from it, except the agents for its sale.

It has been copyrighted, to prevent its republication elsewhere, and the copyright, like those of all the other works prepared for the Supreme Council, has been assigned to Trustees for that Body. Whatever profits may accrue from it will be devoted to purposes of charity.

The Brethren of the Rite in the United States and Canada will be afforded the opportunity to purchase it, nor is it forbidden that other Masons shall; but they will not be solicited to do so.

In preparing this work, the Grand Commander has been about equally Author and Compiler; since he has extracted quite half its contents from the works of the best writers and most philosophic or eloquent thinkers. Perhaps it would have been better and more acceptable if he had extracted more and written less.

Still, perhaps half of it is his own; and, in incorporating here the thoughts and words of others, he has continually changed and added to the language, often intermingling, in the same sentences, his own words with theirs. It not being intended for the world at large, he has felt at liberty to make, from all accessible sources, a Compendium of the Morals and Dogma of the Rite, to re-mould sentences, change and add to words and phrases, combine them with his own, and use them as if they were his own, to be dealt with at his pleasure and so availed of as to make the whole most valuable for the purposes intended. He claims, therefore, little of the merit of authorship, and has not cared to distinguish his own from that which he has taken from other sources, being quite willing that every portion of the book, in turn, may be regarded as borrowed from some old and better writer.

The teachings or these Readings are not sacramental, so far as they go beyond the realm of Morality into those of other domains of Thought and Truth. The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite uses the word "Dogma" in its true sense, of doctrine, or teaching; and is not dogmatic in the odious sense of that term. Every one is entirely free to reject and dissent from whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound. It is only required of him that he shall weigh what is taught, and give it fair hearing and unprejudiced judgment. Of course, the ancient theosophic and philosophic speculations arc not embodied as part of the doctrines of the Rite; but because it is of interest and profit to know what the Ancient Intellect thought upon these subjects, and because nothing so conclusively proves the radical difference between our human and the animal nature, as the capacity of the human mind to entertain such speculations in regard to Itself and the Deity. But as to these opinions themselves, we may say, in the words of the learned Canonist, Ludovicus Gomez: "Opiniones secundum vanetatem temporum senescant et infermoriantur, aliccque diversce vcl prioribus contraries renascantur et delude pubescant."
 
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rebis

Premium Member
True, he did compile a lot of if from previous works, but none the less, he had the intellect and genius to put it all together where otherwise such works would've been scattered and hard to come by.


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jvarnell

Premium Member
Pike was a man that would look at all things and try to pull them together into one writing for better understanding. When you read Morals and Dogma you need to have had a history lession on what was going on in politics and society and how grammer was used at the time. What he wrote if read using the twisted meaning of today may sound odd. This is just like all works when you have to understand the meanings of words at the time they are writen.
 

JohnnyFlotsam

Premium Member
I'm reading Morals and Dogma now. Though he's very wordy, I haven't ran across anything that has set off my BS detector. In fact, it's been an enjoyable read so far. So I guess I just haven't made it to the nut job fodder yet, whatever it may be.
If you are literate (as in "well read") enough, you're likely to blow right past it. :001_smile:
 

Brother_Steve

Premium Member
It is the mark of an educated man to entertain a thought without having to accept it. - Aristotle.

Read the books. Form your own opinion, if any is needed. You do not need to conform to his views on Masonry.

Having said that, I think Pike is a double edged sword.

He did well by Masons but not so well by arming the profane.

A little bit of knowledge can be very dangerous.

 

cacarter

Premium Member
I have no doubt that Albert Pike was a genius in compiling and writing Morals & Dogma. Like it has been mentioned already, many of his writings are now taken out of context by nut jobs looking to showcase the Craft as the work of the devil, Lucifer, or whatever other evil spirit we supposedly worship.

I've seen other instances where detractors will use Pike's own life against him--and by extension attack Freemasonry, because they mistakenly think that Pike is the end all, be all, patron saint and prophet of Freemasonry. The two biggest instances I can think of are his service as a brigadier general in the Confederate army and his alleged membership (and possible leadership role) in the KKK. I'm a firm believer that a man should only be judged under the context of his own time in history, but those who are looking for any ammunition to attack the fraternity likely do not care.
 
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