First, for readers who are newcomers to my blogs, I make no claim to be able to prove that Freemasonry dates from this or that time or place. What seems far more reasonable and to an extent demonstrable (after you've read a great deal), is that operative lodges (real stone masons) gradually evolved into the masonic bodies we have today. It coalesced slowly, absorbing bits and pieces of ancient lore, practices, symbolism and by a process of accretion, attached these iconographical, moral and philosophical elements into guild rituals, some of which were "native" to the Craft.
The period of greatest evolution was the 17th century and the place was, loosely, the British Isles. Whether Scotland first, or England, this was the geographical area where the social, cultural, intellectual and spiritual conditions were ripe for it to become what it finally emerged as in 1717.
One of the major figures in the development of Western civilizations is Pythagoras. Recently, a wonderful book called Measuring Heaven was published that makes the following observation, which is useful in understanding something not only about Pythagoras but about the nature of masonic history and its legends; namely, that the historical personage about whom we know very little with certainty is far less important than the history and impact of what is believed about him. I had some e-mail exchanges with the author, Dr. Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, a retired professor of Art History. She was intrigued to learn that a very great number of the names in her index were Masons.
The role of Pythagoras, or more properly, Pythagoreanism, in the development of science is very great. The use of geometry in harmonics, music and astronomy and a sense of awe, if not "holiness" or "mystery" through the ages is still percolating through our culture and is quite present, explicitly, in Freemasonry's symbols and ritual.
In a similar way, Freemasonry does not assert its origins in the building of King Solomon's Temple. True, in more historically naïve times, most Masons did believe that; many masonic traditions also traced its origins to the Tower of Babel (which would be more fascinating, in fact, in terms of the mysteries about something that has been "lost" and about the role of language in the Craft).
The two columns found in Masonry were actually imbued with some myths by the Jewish historian Josephus in the time of Nero. He wrote in his Antiquities of the Jews that these columns had been crafted before the Flood by the sons of Lamech and that in them the secrets of the arts and sciences had been hidden. After the Flood, only one was found. How fascinating, positive and how irresistible to conscious fabricators of myth!
I highly recommend these three books to all serious students of history, the classics and of course, Freemasonry. Take them seriously or take them as quaint, they will encourage you to think about the present world in a different way.
