Megalithic masons

[Boreades]

In a lot of the other threads we been touching on a few masonic themes, more by coincidence than design. I thought it might be fun to address some of the Megalithic and Masonic connections more directly.

As Oakey Dokey pointed out: "For an example, different types of Masonic practice believe that it is founded from the builders of the second Solomon temple, ..."

There are plenty of books and websites that address more recent history from the Crusades onwards, when Middle Eastern skills with megaliths came back to Britain and France. But perhaps we're interested in where the Middle Eastern megalithic skills came from in the first place.

[url=http://sightseeinginisrael.com/gezer-megaliths-lods-medieval-bridge/
]Tel Gezer[/url] has a 3500-year-old "Canaanite" temple of standing stones. But that's not as old as Stonehenge and Avebury is it? So is it reasonable to assume the skills travelled West to East in the first place?

As before, I'd suggest Hiram of Tyre as a useful reference point. It was from Tyre that King Solomon is said to have got the megalithic engineering skills to build his temple. Tyre was an important Phoenician city, and a hub of their trading empire.

Then there's the Phoenician Temple of Gadir. Gadir is situated on the Atlantic coast of Spain, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar. From its description of two inscribed pillars it sounds very masonic...."we have several descriptions from ancient authors. All of them mention two gigantic pillars inside the temple, which matches what we know of Phoenician temples."
http://riversfromeden.wordpress.com/201 ... -of-gadir/

So the Phoenicians weren't just traders, they took or used stone and metal working skills which were the most advanced of their time.

A building with two pillars is still the most basic description of a masonic lodge.

[Johnny Attero]

It would be difficult to accept a West to East direction of building techniques since there are so few sites in North America that can predate those in Eurasia and Africa. Egypt in particular has such a long history of masonry that to wave away the evidence of Middle Eastern origins for some hypothetical Atlantis seems unreasonable at best.

The easiest answer from the data available is East to West, though it could have been a very old transaction. The Egyptians themselves claim that a group known as the Akeru (Shining Ones) that taught the arts of civilization including masonry and mathematics. The name comes from the god Aker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akeru), one of the earliest known deities of Ancient Egypt.

[Johnny Attero]

That being said, ties to Megalithia and Masonry seem too obvious to ignore.

The rituals, purposes, and goals of both are nearly identical. Could it be possible that Masonry arose as a Middle Age construct of Megalithia, a kind of active arm of the society, or a way to hide in plain sight?

[Boreades]

The Shining Ones, and The Watchers are descriptions that seem to occur in many places in many guises. The place that catches my eye is the Bhavagad Gita. "They who long after success in action on earth, worship the Shining Ones." (Bhavagad Gita, IV, 12.)

The Book of Enoch mentions the Shining Ones

Uriel's Machine: The Ancient Origins of Science (by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas) covers this in a very readable way.

A masonic friend in Australia has told me that Urial's Machine is recommended reading there for new masons keen to explore the hidden mysteries of nature and science. The mysteries are only hidden from those that don't look for them!

[Johnny Attero]

Funny that you mention Knight and Lomas.

I befriended a Mason while living in New York City. He invited me and my then girlfriend to a few black tie events, and it was during the second that I realized they were trying to invite me to join. I told them that it was interesting for sure, but that I didn't really know what Masonry was about.

"Read the Hiram Key," they told me. "Masonry is the worst kept secret in the world."
http://www.knight-lomas.com/hiramkey.html

I don't have the book now, though I have read it. I'd love to reread it and look for all of the Megalithic references, of which I now suspect there are many.

[Johnny Attero]

Reading up on the Book of Enoch, it strikes me how the "Shining Ones" of the Middle East differ in one great aspect from the Megalithics in the British Isles: The Shining Ones always teach writing.

The Half-Fish "god" Eanna in ancient Sumer brought the arts of civilization, including literacy but especially masonry, when he waddled ashore. Likewise the ancient Egyptians Thoth, discussed in great length in The Megalithic Empire, gave writing to the people (well, the rich powerful people).

I wonder why in the East the bringers of knowledge, particularly masonry, could read and write, while the ones in Britain could not?

[Boreades]

Reading up on the Book of Enoch, it strikes me how the "Shining Ones" of the Middle East differ in one great aspect from the Megalithics in the British Isles: The Shining Ones always teach writing.

The Half-Fish "god" Eanna in ancient Sumer brought the arts of civilization, including literacy but especially masonry, when he waddled ashore. Likewise the ancient Egyptians Thoth, discussed in great length in The Megalithic Empire, gave writing to the people (well, the rich powerful people).

I wonder why in the East the bringers of knowledge, particularly masonry, could read and write, while the ones in Britain could not?

That's a very good question!

Off the top of my head, I can't remember the names, but there's a piece of Greek legend, of two Greek Gods discussing the invention of writing. One is boasting how clever he is to have invented writing. The other is full of woe, saying it's not good, it will lead to a loss of knowledge as people stop using their memories.

There we have one of the significant similarities between Druidry and Masonry, as both put great emphasis on memorised ritual.

I've just realised the irony - I'm trying to give an example of the effect of writing on memory, and I can't remember what it is. (blush) Excuse me while I walk to the top of the stairs and forget why I did that as well.

Have I missed the blindingly obvious?
The Shining Ones (East) <> The Shining Ones (West)

Maybe there's nothing new under the sun as we're now giving up even more of our memory by resorting to Google Search for everything.

[Boreades]

Found it! It was in Plato's "Phaedrus", as a discussion between Socrates and Phaedrus, supposedly set around the period when Greek writing was invented.


Soc. At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth (Thoth); the bird which is called the Ibis is sacred to him, and he was the inventor of many arts, such as arithmetic and calculation and geometry and astronomy and draughts and dice, but his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt; and he dwelt in that great city of Upper Egypt which the Hellenes call Egyptian Thebes, and the god himself is called by them Ammon. To him came Theuth and showed his inventions, desiring that the other Egyptians might be allowed to have the benefit of them; he enumerated them, and Thamus enquired about their several uses, and praised some of them and censured others, as he approved or disapproved of them. It would take a long time to repeat all that Thamus said to Theuth in praise or blame of the various arts. But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.

Phaedr. Yes, Socrates, you can easily invent tales of Egypt, or of any other country.

Soc. There was a tradition in the temple of Dodona that oaks first gave prophetic utterances. The men of old, unlike in their simplicity to young philosophy, deemed that if they heard the truth even from "oak or rock," it was enough for them; whereas you seem to consider not whether a thing is or is not true, but who the speaker is and from what country the tale comes.

[Boreades]

"Read the Hiram Key," they told me. "Masonry is the worst kept secret in the world."
http://www.knight-lomas.com/hiramkey.html

It's a funny thing that masons outside the UK are a lot more up-front and willing to talk about masonry than masons in the UK. Even though there are two masonic lodges in my nearest town, it wasn't until we hosted some visitors from Australia (one of whom is a mason) that I became aware of these lodges. Maybe Brits are just too shy and retiring. :-)

But Masonic knowledge has a habit of travelling long distances.

We know from many other posts here that Turkey and Cyprus were the original sources of tin and copper for the Bronze Age. But after those places became depleted of raw materials (mostly it seems because of deforestation for fuel to refine the metals), the Phoenicians expanded their search for new sources up the Atlantic coast, and found them (directly or indirectly) in Spain, Brittany, Cornwall, Wales and Ireland. Archeologists have found Phoenician trade goods in several UK coastal locations in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset.

So there's plenty of solid evidence that the skills and knowledge from Tyre that built King Solomon's temple could have come to Britain in pre-Roman times.

Were Hiram Abif's ancestors working metal and stone in Britain, even before Joseph of Arimathea? Did some masonic ritual come with them as well?

[Ajai]

So there's plenty of solid evidence that the skills and knowledge from Tyre that built King Solomon's temple could have come to Britain in pre-Roman times.

Were Hiram Abif's ancestors working metal and stone in Britain, even before Joseph of Arimathea? Did some masonic ritual come with them as well?

The only connection with Phoenician-style building in pre-Roman Britain that springs to mind is the offshore island-causeway but even that is tenuous. They probably weren't much good at building on land, being a maritime culture by all accounts.