Building the Ideal Temple

But can such ideal temples ever be realized, given that at first sight the word “ideal” seems to be synonymous with perfection?

The answer may be both no and yes.

∴ No, because my perception of what perfection means may differ from yours, just as your perception of perfection may differ from someone else’s.

The problem with perfection is its very subjectivity. Each man perceives it in his own way, and an attempt to impose the perception of an individual or a small group of individuals on a multitude would lead slowly but surely to tyranny.

We can observe how over the centuries the most odious forms of government and political regimes have arisen from the transposition of subjective perfections onto a general plane.

Surely all who have attempted or would attempt to build such a temple have done and would do nothing but plunge humanity into the darkness of their own light.

∴ Yes, because on closer inspection, “ideal” may not imply perfection in a universally accepted sense, but harmony between all notions of perfection.

We must realize that we are all actors in this show called life, and each of us plays a role, which must not interfere in any way with the roles of our fellow human beings.

In our perfect imperfections we can therefore all agree on one thing: such a Temple must have at its base the highest of all possible aspirations: Freedom. 

But Freedom has no foundation and the idea of the need to build an ideal Temple implies the prior existence of a “non-ideal” temple.

The paradox of the construction towards which we tend is that it can only be achieved by destruction: by demolishing any form that confines light to a fixed point. 

The Destruction of the Tower of Babel, from “Liber Genesis” 1612 – Crispijn de Passe the Elder (Netherlandish, Arnemuiden 1564–1637 Utrecht)

IMAGE LINKED:  Met Museum OA/PD, https://www.metmuseum.org Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

We can very well observe how in our Lodges we have a set of working tools that can acquire two distinct uses: that of creating and that of destroying. 

But how many Freemasons have destroyed their own limitative beliefs instead of strengthening them, and how many have destroyed the basic meanings of Freemasonry instead of absorbing them so that they can see that to create is to destroy and that to destroy is actually to create or to purify? 

From destruction to purity – the process of spiritual alchemy from Nigrido, Albedo and Rubido.
Image: from Pretiosissimum Donum Dei, published by Georges Aurach in 1475

IMAGE LINKED:  wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

When we lay the cornerstone of an edifice and when we use the trowel to cement further bricks in order to create it, that unity becomes the opposite of the pure unity that we find around the edifice. Only if we destroy that impure temple, we can create the Temple of ideal unity, namely that of Freedom. 

In order to achieve this desideratum of Freemasonry, I would say that we must therefore become a bit heretical.

We should think outside the box and from a “fraternity of builders” we ought to transform into a “fraternity of demolishers” which removes the cornerstones of all the temples of impure unity, so that real unity may arise. 

Within Egyptian Rite Freemasonry we can find three great prompts of creative destruction, in order to oppose the pharaohs of past and present times and their dazzling constructions:

∴ Educate the ignorant!
∴ Unmask the hypocrite!
∴ Knock down the proud!

But in order to achieve a macro-level creative destruction, we must start from a micro-level.
We cannot oppose any pharaohs if we ourselves are the pharaohs and we cannot demolish their constructions if we isolate ourselves in pharaonic constructions.

Thus, the first task is to remove from ourselves the cornerstones of ignorance, hypocrisy and pride.

The second one is to start removing them from our Lodges, Grand Lodges and we will surely be able to remove them from society, by the power of our own example, not by forcing anyone to do so.

The builders of the Great Pyramids, “The Seven Wonders of the World”, Joseph Boggs Beale (1841-1926)

IMAGE LINKED:  wikimedia Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

We ought to remove the cornerstones of all dogmas, of all personal limitations that blind and divide, of the idea that we are somehow superior to our fellows.

The cornerstones of all our mysteries, and ultimately, one day, the very cornerstone of our own Fraternity so that Harmony and Truth may prevail everywhere and we may all as humans be truly united in Freedom, in the true brotherhood of a true Temple which doesn’t require any cornerstone.