Freemasonry Book Reviews

THE FOLLOWING IS THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE AUDIO FILE ABOVE)

This is a remarkable book because, as the author Jessica Harland-Jacobs states, it is the only book ever written about the relationship of Freemasonry to building of the British Empire! Harland-Jacobs states and shows unequivocally that Freemasonry was essential to the building of the Empire.

Perhaps careful listeners to the podcast will have noticed that I have given the building of the English Empire as THE ACTUAL REASON for the creation of modern Freemasonry. patting self on back OUCH sprained my arm

The creation and maintenance of the British Empire is the single biggest story of global historical importance for the last 400 years. The key to the present condition of the world is also fully explained by the actions of the British (and now the American's) in maintaining Empire's global hegemony. So it is ASTOUNDING that this is the first book ever written on the relationship of Masonry to Empire, since thousands of books have been written on the Empire and thousands of books have been written on Freemasonry. The hidden life is best.

So to repeat: I believe that Francis Bacon created the modern Freemasons specifically for the creation of the English Empire. There is much evidence for this that I am now compiling, but I gotta slog thru a lot of books to make my case. Today we’ll take a look at Jessica Harlan-Jacobs and other books but I want to emphasize that Bacon created Freemasonry specifically not only for Empire but also for the creation of Scientism, the worlds fasted growing and most dangerous religion- the handmaiden and at present the single greatest tool of Empire and of tyranny.

This relationship between Freemasonry and Scientism might seem a leap since Freemasonry consists of bizarre initiation rituals with occult esoteric and religious symbolism that foster fraternity via meetings in clubhouses that Masons call Lodges.

meanwhile, Scientism consists in the belief that only scientific methods can fruitfully be used in the pursuit of knowledge. In other words, scientism is the idea that science is the ultimate path to knowledge and wisdom, and that the spiritual realm is a mirage. CS Lewis (Narnia, That Hideous Strength) argued that this approach reduces complex issues to simplistic scientific explanations, ignoring the nuances and complexities of human experience.

CS LEWIS ON SCIENTISM (link)

The relationship of Masonry and Scientism is clear however, in the prophecy of Francis Bacon’s book New Atlantis, sometimes actually subtitled “The Land Of The Rosicrucians”. The Rosicrucians are a crucial aspect of early Freemasonry. The two are absolutely linked. Rosicrucianism happens to be the beginning of both Scientism and modern Freemasonry (though alchemy and gnosticism are both earlier and also serve as a 'foundational' beginning, if that makes sense) . This is an idea I will be developing in full very soon.

A central motif of New Atlantis is “Light”. Freemasons call themselves “Sons Of Light”. The last sentence of a speech given by the head scientist of the utopian island portrayed in New Atlantis is “But thus you see we maintain a trade, not for gold, silver, or jewels; nor for silks; nor for spices; nor any other commodity of matter; but only for God’s first creature, which was Light: to have light, I say, of the growth of all parts of the world.”

The world's first scientific body- the Royal Society- formed in 1660 just after the end of the English civil war and with the blessing and sponsorship of the reinstalled monarchy (King Charles II) and most of the Royal Society’s first members were Freemasons, a fact that’s only fairly recently come to light, since Freemasonry was not officially announced as an organization until 1717. Before that it was a true secret society.

So Freemasonry was with modern science from it’s very state-sponsored beginnings in the Royal Society and it theoretical beginnings in the Rosicrucian Manifestos and Bacon’s New Atlantis. A sustained argument has not yet been made for all the obvious connections between Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism and Francis Bacon's acknowledged, public scientific and philosophical writings. The close associations and near-identical phrasings and sentiments between the three are numerous.

The fact that they also exist in the Shakespeare plays is icing in the cake as it were. I’ve much work ahead me hearties!!

Builders Of Empire is not a conspiracy book at all…Harlan-Jacobs states that she became fascinated by the relationship of Empire to Masonry because Freemasonry kept coming up in her studies as a historian. She is a professor of history at University Of Florida.

She states that there are five big themes to her book and the first theme is…globalization. Huh? No kidding!

In fact chapter one is entitled “A Vast Chain Extending Round The Globe”.

Quote: “This book tells the story of British imperial Freemasonry and, in the process, offers some new ways to think about the history of imperialism.”

The main way that Freemasonry spread was via the British Army and the regimental lodges. By the early 1800’s every single British regiment contained at least one masonic lodge that accompanied it on its missions, planting permanent lodges in civilian populations in colonies of all types. Mason’s, or brothers as they call themselves (which gives a hint of the familial undertone to masonry) had a key, quoting a reverend giving a St. John’s Day address: “you have a key that would give you admittance to brotherhood anywhere on the world, were the providence of God to cast you onto unknown shores, were you to travel through any distant country, though ignorant of it’s language, ignorant of it’s inhabitants, ignorant of it’s customs, the key would open the treasures of it’s charity. ”

This is quite a benefit, especially in the pre-electronic age. This sense of belonging and solidarity and brotherhood was baked into Freemasonry by master psychologist Bacon himself, and it came with tangible real world benefits. Bacon knew what people wanted and needed. In my opinion it’s why he wrote the plays..in order to ‘scientifically’ study human psychology while creating new myths for the all important Theater Of Empire.

People are born with a need for belonging. While Christianity is based around the family, Freemasonry is for males alone. Children and women are almost never seen in a lodge.

A Masonic global presence occurred by the early 1700’s about 100 years after Bacon’s death and had grown exponentially by 1800. Harland-Jacobs claims that this is the very beginning globalization - that it precedes modernity and that it has been missed by almost all scholars that study globalization. (Which seems a wee bit bizarre, but flying under the radar is a characteristic of both the Brits and the Masons, and Bacon, but I repeat myself because the hidden life is best)

This era is also when the very first world wars occurred, the Seven Years War and the Napoleonic Wars, both of which ended hugely in England’s favor as did, strangely enough, WW1 and WW2, (by which time the French were no longer enemies of the Brits but fighting alongside them) Go figure.

But I digress…

Jacobs makes little mention of Freemasonry being a religion as this would have angered her subject, Freemasonry itself, which vehemently claims to not be a religion. But from the loyalty alone that Masonry inspires in it’s members, which is typically only found in and characterized by ethnic group loyalty, nation or religious loyalty, Freemasonry can be only one of those (with the sense of family as already mentioned). Freemasonry is a religion- it fulfills every definition of religion, while encompassing and accepting all religions. Again, these is another genius characteristic supplied by the master psychologist Verulam Bacon

Freemasonry perhaps also fulfill the definition of nationality while encompassing all of them as that is theme number two of the book; Supranationalism

"A supranational identity results when people define a community of belonging that extends beyond their national place of origin. Supranational identities may be ideological (e.g., Communism), religious (e.g., Catholicism), or political (e.g., Pan-Africanism). They take other forms, such as the ones investigated here: universalism, fraternalism, cosmopolitanism, and imperial citizenship. Supranational identities do not necessarily supersede or conflict with national identities. Rather, they interact in complex ways with national identities, and can often serve to solidify them, particularly when intimately connected with an imperial mission.

Third, I use the history of this brotherhood to explore the complex dynamics of Power in Britain and the empire. We still have much to learn about the varied forms and faces of imperial power, about the ways colonizers deployed their power and how subject populations responded to it. As Dane Kennedy explains, “While imperial historians have attended to the issue of power since the inception of their field of study, and while their inquiries have given rise to a sophisticated body of work that traces the exercise of power from coercion to collaboration, the fact remains that the circumstances that allowed relatively small contingents of Europeans to acquire and maintain authority over vastly larger numbers of Asians, Africans, and others represent one of the most persistent conundrums to arise from the study of Western imperialism.”....The Masonic hall was at times the first and only community structure in new settlements on the empire’s frontiers. As the settlement colonies matured, the brotherhood continued to solidify the empire by assisting rising men in their bids to become local power brokers, thereby helping to constitute colonial elites in the mid-nineteenth century. And during the age of high imperialism, from the 1870s through the First World War, the institution encouraged its members to give their energy, money, and even their lives to uphold the imperial power and prestige of the “motherland.”

Examining Masonry enables us to explore another dimension of British overseas power: the use of ritual, ceremony, and symbolism to project the impression of invincibility and permanence. "

The fourth theme is masculinity and the fifth is ceremony

"Freemasonry was understood as a kind of family, but it differed significantly from traditional families. As a sex-specific family, it excluded two groups usually seen as critical, if subordinate, members of the family: women and children. For the entire period covered here, British Freemasons consistently and unequivocally maintained that their fraternal family had no need of women. The brotherhood also excluded men under the age of twenty-one. Members of this fraternal family were thus connected to one another on the basis of their shared values, interests, and ideology, rather than on the basis of shared blood.

In the absence of blood ties, Masons and other fraternal groups used rituals to create a sense of community and mutual obligation. ...The Craft degrees culminated in the ritual of the Master Mason, which reenacted the murder scene of Hiram Abiff, the master builder of Solomon’s Temple, said to have sacrificed his life to protect the secret knowledge of his craft brotherhood.

These allegorical rituals had several functions. They performed a pedagogical role by conveying Masonic principles to initiates and members. Over time, they also combined with an elaborate system of handgrips, passwords, and symbols to develop into a lingua franca for Freemasons throughout the world to identify and communicate with one another. Most important for the purposes of family building, they created fraternal bonds among the brethren. Masonic ceremonies functioned like a marriage ceremony, another form of ritual that sought to create permanent bonds where blood ties did not exist. As in the exchange of marriage vows, the initial ceremony impressed upon the Entered Apprentice the idea that he was entering into a new set of relationships that demanded a lifelong commitment. By undergoing the subsequent rituals of Fellow Craft and Master Mason, the new member completed the necessary steps in becoming a full-fledged, equal member of a sworn brotherhood. He was now bound to a group of men—his brethren—who pledged to respect, help, and love each other through all circumstances. Speaking before an audience of Freemasons in 1799, the Reverend Joseph Inwood exhorted: “To you my brethren, who have attached yourselves to each other, in the grand and royal order of Masonry, besides these various bonds of union with which all men are united as brethren, I address myself to reminding you of the solemn obligations and engagements with which we have entered into the union of brotherhood, before God and our brethren.”

But just how far were British Freemasons willing to take their fraternalism? Brotherhood in Masonry was envisioned as a subset of a wider fraternalism that Masons like to refer to as “the common fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.”

As you can see, this is absolutley incredible stuff when looked at psychologically from a uman needs standpoint- and it explains freemasonry’s incredible success- the fulfillment of psychological needs. Emotional, spiritual, intellectual and even physical tangible components of the human male. Absolutely incredible. This is what Shakespeare led too, and was co-created with.

Kudos to Jessica Harlan-Jacobs- for remarkable, original and important work that clearly took a loads of sweat and dedication.

Born In Blood completely settles the issue and exposes the truth of the Templars morphing into the Freemasons. Again, not a conspiracy book. Mr Robinson seems to have a lot of affection for Masons yet never explains the continuing need and ultimate success of the secret society. He nails however, the early need for intense secrecy and how that came about because of the brutal suppressions of the Templars by the Church and the French King Phillip in 1307. Scotland by the way never arrested the Templars and England did so a full 3 months after the Vatican and the French King did, giving the waelthy and powerful Knights plenty of time to make their way to Scotland, from where multiple and plenteous scholarly sources agree is from where the early Masons emerged . Robinson explains the means, the motive and the opportunity, and and an early result: The fascinating story of the the Peasants’ Rebellion, also known as the Great Rising or Wat Tyler’s Rebellion, which was a major uprising that took place in England in 1381. This rebellion actually took over the Tower of London and lopped off the head of the Archbishop of Canterbury. They had the young English King Edward but allowed him to escape. Their wrath was directed primarily against the Church.

Robinson not only keys in on Francis Bacon as an early influential Mason but he explains the cover story that the medieval guild of stonemasons supplied for the Templars. With very little on their occult beliefs and practices, this is mainstream history. Yet it confidently opens doors few others have, tying Masonry to The Reformation and the earlier protests against the Church, specifically the Lollard movement led by Priest John Wycliffe

This is a really interesting and original book- it should be better known. One of the best for providing unusual and convincing evidence for the early Freemasons coming out of Scotland. It has the goods on the Brit elite obsession with the ancient Jews (as well as the Trojans and The Romans🤣) It does in fact make the case that London existed prior to the first Roman invasion (by Julius Caesar!) of the island in BC 43, and may have once been called New Troy.

If I was to pick one, this is the book to read. I need to reread it frankly. I've learned so much since I first read it that reading it again would be more than just a review. Author Adrian Gilbert nails the origins of modern science as based in alchemy and Rosicrucianism and the Royal Society and nails Bacon as heavily involved, of course. No brainer. He even though, mentions that Bacon may have written the Shakespeare plays and then drops it. He almost gets there!

Gilbert is very weak discussing the first Temple of Solomon. The first Temple of Solomon, central to Freemasonic 3rd degree initiation ritual, NEVER ACTUALLY EXISTED. (👈link) There is not single shred of archeological evidence for it. There is not a single mention of this supposedly gargantuan, grand structure outside of the Bible. No other group in the region such as the Egyptians or the Assyrians mention it. The second Temple of Solomon was built when the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon in 538 BC. This "second temple" was then enlarged by King Herod in the time of Jesus and destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. The remains of this destroyed 2nd Temple is the one the the Templars lived on in the 1000's RIGHT after the 1st crusade captured jerusalem and this is why they are called Templars.

Full name: The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Jerusalem . That entirely fictional first Temple is the setting for the participatory theater ritual of third degree of Freemasonry with Hiram Abiff. If one takes the initiation ritual at face value Hiram Abiff the master craftsman from Tyre, meaning he was a pagan Cannanite Phoenecian (keep that in mind) and is the spiritual head of Freemasonry, being murdered, means the Temple was never finished. So the Freemasons aim to finish it according to some theorists. Which is where Gilbert whiffs because his book is about how they made London the New Jerusalam. London itself is the rebuilt temple. However some say the English created Israel so they could actually build the first Temple on the site of the ruins of the second temple where two Mosques today stand. Either way these people are full blown wack jobs. Which is not a professional sort of comment to make. Excuuuuse me! Every Freemason lodge is supposed to represent a mini Temple Of Solomon by the way. O brother.

All of this is a lead up to Chapter Twelve and Gilbert's central idea of the book that after the great fire of 1666 that destroyed London, the city was rebuilt by architect and Freemason and founder of The Royal Society Christopher Wren as The New Jerusalem. Great stuff. This book has all the founding myths of England as well as solid proof that the Masons came out of Scotland and Francis Bacon was involved in turning them into the world wide synagogue of satan. PSYCHE. Adrian Gibert doesn't say that last part. I forget who said that synagogue of satan stuff. Gnostics don't believe in Satan so it wasn't me! But I'm hot on the trail of whoever would call Freemasonry the Synagogue of Satan, again is was not me, but I will have it sourced soon. The world wide synagogue of Satan. Who would say such a thing?

David Harrison's "The Transformation Of Freemasonry" (sub titled THE REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD) is the only scholarly book I can find that details to some degree Freemasonry's extensive involvement in the trans-atlantic slave trade. Did I say Synagogue of Satan? No I did not. That was someone else said that, but it bears repeating because one could forgive someone for saying such a thing. A lot of the lodges involved in the slave trade were in Liverpool, and some of them mysteriously burned down and so did their records! Also, a fraternal organization publicly committed to "making good men better" and devoted to practicing charity as the foremost aspect of their mission, why oh why would it promote and encourage and profit from the sale of human beings from one continent to another because solely on their skin color? Would did not have publicly condemned such activity? Oh the humanity.

Harrison has written a few books on Masonry. I'll be reporting back on some of the others. He, as does Harlan-Jacobs, details how Freemasonry adapts to conflicts such as when members are on opposite sides of of a war, for instance, as happened in The War Of Independence here in the States, or how guidelines that initially prohibited discussion of politics might and were actually altered to encourage discussion of politics. The Grand Lodge of England always has a grand master who is of Royal blood. So while Freemasonry appears to be, and is somewhat locally and regionally organized, it is able to police itself to some degree from a central command structure, that has it's roots and head in the British monarchy. Enough said.

We need a book on Freemasonry's ties to the media- do we not? Brave researcher's a call is made- if you are looking for a project...that would be a cool one!) Freemasonry's ties to higher education and jusrisprudence would be awesome.

REVIEWS COMING SOON FOR: (some I have already finished reading)

This looks juicy👇🏻 will read first

This book 👇🏻has some details on Bacon and Masonry that very interesting

Espionage and Masonry. No kidding??

Scotland via the Templars. 👇Lot's of evidence though these clowns pawned off the Jesus came to France theory 🙄. Lotta bad cover stories out there...

Just the rituals, in detail 👇