Freemasonry works with a system of degrees, which represent stages of personal development. There are different systems in use in the various rites of freemasonry, such as the York Rite, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Rectified Scottish Rite, Modern French Rite, and Mexican Rite, etc. ... . The number of degrees ranges from 7 degrees in the York Rite and the Modern French Rite, 33 in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and even 100 degrees in the Rite of Memphis-Misraim. The concept of 33 degrees or a 33-fold classification system seems widespread in Indo-European and Semitic culture. Both an Indo-European and Semitic intepretation is possible. The 33 degrees of the Scottish Rite are equal to the years of life of Jesus of Nazareth (7-2 BCE to 30-33 CE) in the Bible of Christianity and Jesus performed 33 recorded miracles. This came to represent the highest meaning of the number '33', which is that it represents the highest spiritual consciousness to which man can attain. In the Old Testament in 1 Chronicles 29:26-27 we find "Now David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. The period which he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned in Hebron seven years and in Jerusalem thirty-three years". The Kabalistic Tree of Life (עץ החיים) contains 33 permutations of consciousness - 22 paths, 10 known/drawn sephiroth (סְפִירוֹת), and an 11th hidden sephiroth left undrawn in most renditions. Da'ath, the 11th, is the hidden secret of the void, or the abyss. Da'ath as such is not a sephirah, but rather is all ten sephirot united as one. Da'ath relates to the Divine Light which is always shining, but not all humans can see it. Without Da'ath there are only 10 sephiroth drawn and only 32 permutations of consciousness. The number 33 also plays a role in Greek mathematical philosophy such as with Pythagoras (ca. 570-ca. 490 BCE) and Plato (424/423-348/347 BCE). The Pythagoreans evolved their philosophy from the science of numbers. For Pythagoras 33 was the most important of the master numbers (11, 22, 33, 44) Some sources say that there were 33 Egyptian mysteries (see Churchward, 1913). Christian Gnostics taught that the emanations from the Deity were all summed up in one absolute Unity, 33 in all (see G.R.S. Mead, 1908). According to the Persian Muslim scholar Al-Ghazali (ca. 1058-1111 CE) the dwellers of Heaven will exist eternally in a state of being age 33. Islamic misbaḥah (prayer beads) are generally arranged in sets of 33 in order to keep track in Tasbih, which involves the repetitive utterances of short sentences glorifying Allah. In the Vedic Religion there are thirty-three gods or Tridasha. Tridasha generally includes a set of 31 deities consisting of 12 Ādityas, 11 Rudras, and 8 Vasus. The identity of the other two deities that fill out the 33 varies. In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, it speaks of the thirty-three heavens ruled over by Indra and the thirty-three ruled over by Mara. There is also the legend of the meaning of the 33rd Parallel, which is popular in conspiracy theories on freemasonry. Another set of myths connects the human vertebral column and freemasonry with the Tree of Life and the Biblical Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע) and the serpent in the Biblical Garden of Eden. A normal human spine has 33 vertebrae when the bones that form the coccyx are counted individually. The 33 vertebrae and the 33 degrees of freemasonry can be linked to the symbol of the serpent in the Biblical Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-20) and the fall of man as follows (FWIW). In ancient Kundalini Yoga, the Kundalini serpent-energy is said to rise from the root chakra, coiling up and around the spine until illuminating the crown chakra of spiritual enlightenment. Inside the Kabalistic Tree of Life in some myths there resides a sacred serpent which somehow connects Kabbalah to Kundalini Yoga. A Tree of Life is often related to physical life and the serpent to the added meaning of spiritual life. In Greek mythology we also find some serpents entwining a rod or tree. The winged messenger (nuntium volucrem) Hermes, the Greek god of transitions and boundaries, carries the caduceus (κηρύκειον). The caduceus is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. Hermes is related to the myth of Hermes Trismegistus and Hermeticism. There is also the Staff of Asclepius a (single) serpent-entwined rod wielded by the god Asklēpiós, a Greek associated with healing and medicine. The story of the (ascending) serpent is sometimes linked to the myth of the garden of Atlas, who had seven (or 4) daughters called the Hesperides (seven daughters linked to the 7 chakras) who guard the Tree of Life (cfr. spinal column) and its golden apples of immortality. They were assisted by a serpent-like dragon called Ladon entwined around the three. The myth of the Garden of the Hesperides is then linked to the myth of Atlantis which links freemasonry to the myths and secrets of Atlantis and the Atlantean conspiracy. This serpentine labyrinth of myths and an example of syncretism is believed to link the serpent in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3) to the 33 (vertebral) degrees of freemasonry. Logic is powerless when the 'principia neutra' or first principles are wrong from the start, because 'Contra principia negantem non est disputandum' (see also The Lost Language of Symbolism, Harold Bayley, Dover Publications, 2006, p. 364 The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, Albert Churchward, G. Allen & Company, 1913, p. 117, 177 and The Wedding-song of Wisdom, George Robert Stow Mead, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1908, p. 36 and The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth, Rachel Pollack, Llewellyn Worldwide, 2004, p. 8 and The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Or The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane, W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. xxxvii and The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy, Volume 1, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Theosophical University Press, 1963, p. 93 and The Green Serpent and the Tree: Kabbala and Kundalini Yoga, James N. Judd, MS.D.,D.D., Xlibris Corporation, 1999, p. 107 and An Essay on the mythological significance of Tree and Serpent Worship, etc., Thomas Scott, 1870, p. 19 and The Nature of the Archons: A Study in the Soteriology of a Gnostic Treatise from Nag Hammadi (CGII, 4), Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1985, p. 66 and Atlantis in Wisconsin: New Revelations about the Lost Sunken City, Frank Joseph, Galde Press, Inc., 1995, p. 52 and The Atlantean Conspiracy (Final Edition), Eric Dubay, Lulu.com, 2013, p. 195 and Masonic rituals and degrees and Entered Apprentice Ritual - Emulation and Fellow Craft Ritual - Emulation and Master Mason Ritual - Emulation and Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (AASR) and Cérémonie d'Initiation - Rite Français and Cérémonie de Passage - Rite Français and Cérémonie d'Elévation - Rite Français)
In the field of Numerology, many systems hold 33 as the highest of the "Master Numbers." It symbolizes "Christ Consciousness", or the ultimate attainment of consciousness or perfection (see also the Allegory of the Platonic Cave). Numerology reduces all multi-digit numbers to the single-digit numbers 1 through 9 with the exception of the three Master numbers 11, 22 and 33. Master Numbers are digits that are not "reduced" in some numerological traditions, such as 11, 22 and 33 (33 is not reduced to a "6", as is 42, for example). The number 11 represents the vision, while the number 22 combines vision with action and the number 33 offers guidance to the world. The essence of 33 in numerology is the final word in spiritual evolution; the 'Master Teacher'. Numerological 33 is characterized by a highly developed internal ethics and life should be marked by working for humanity. The Master Numbers 11, 22, and 33 are also believed to represent a triangle, a triangle of Enlightenment. The number 33 is the largest positive integer that cannot be expressed as a sum of different triangular numbers. The others are 2, 5, 8, 12, and 23. The number 33is also the smallest odd repdigit (natural number composed of repeated instances of the same digit) that is not a prime number (see also Numerology: The Power in Numbers, Ruth Drayer, Square One Publishers, Inc., 2003, p. 92).
Reaching the highest degree in freemasonry, means reaching "excellentia" or "perfectio", thereby comprising the paradox of perfection-that imperfection is perfect. The oldest definition of what is "perfection", goes back to Aristotle (384 BC-322 BCE) (Book Delta of the Metaphysics). Also in Aristotle's astronomy, presented in his Metaphysics, Physics and De Caelo (On the Heavens), there were 33 celestial spheres and he thereby followed Callippus (ca. 370-ca. 300 BCE) who had postulated 33 celestial spheres in all, 4 each for Saturn and Jupiter, 5 each for Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Sun and the Moon (see also Cosmology: The Science of the Universe, Edward Harrison, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 31).
Each symbolic degree is enacted within a masonic temple and a specific ritual which reminds of the classical Ars Memorativa (E: Art of Memory) (see also "Enactment theory" in Sensemaking in organizations, K. E. Weick, Sage, 1995). The "Ars Memorativa" was a specific technique for memorizing things, which has its origins in Greece. Originally, the intent of the art of memory was to greatly increase the natural capacity of the human memory. The practitioners of the art of memory tried to find ways of retaining, retrieving and using vast amounts of information. In late Medieval and Renaissance times, the art of memory gradually became highly symbolic. Neoplatonists and Hermeticists gradually adapted it to develop it into a special way of knowing, a special way of relating to the universe. Renaissance Hermeticists reasoned that if human memory could be reorganized in the image of the universe, memory became a reflection of the entire realm of Platonic Ideas, and therefore the key to universal knowledge. The microcosm of the memory would reflect the macrocosm of the universe. Images placed in a building need not be used to associate and recall arbitrary external ideas. The images might themselves be used to remind the observer of certain ideas. The emphasis shifted from the expansion of memory to the search for a universal language of symbols. The memory temple for them not only was a method for remembering speeches, but a tool for teaching. A masonic temple can be seen as a building specifically to be used for the art of memory, to embody all human knowledge. In this view each Lodge is, in fact, a Memory Temple, designed to elicit specific effects through the recollection of its images and symbols and physical motions as freemasons proceed through the Lodge (see also Ars Memorativa: An Introduction to the Hermetic Art of Memory, John Michael Greer, Caduceus and The Art of Memory, Frances A. Yates, University Of Chicago Press, 2001 and The art of memory and masonry, Clarence A. Anderson).
- The Pythagorean Tetractys -
Top row: The One
Second row: Sun and moon
Third row: Sulphur, salt, mercury
Bottom row: Fire, air, earth, water
These 33 degrees are divided to seven classes (Scottish Rite). The first class (Blue Lodges) comprises the three traditional symbolic or craft degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master Mason. Both the first and the third degree use the concept of spiritual death and resurrection. The first degree of 'Entered Apprentice' can be seen as the transition from the bottom row of the Pythagorean Tetractys to the second level, where man has to liberate hiself from his material or wordly chains. The second degree of 'Fellow-Craft' symbolizes the transition from the second level to the third level and the third degree of 'Master Mason' symbolizes the final step towards union with the Seelenfünklein or 'scintilla animae' within man. The concept of developing higher consciousness (e.g. Fichte's 'höhere Bewusstsein') can also be found in German Idealism and is "the part of the human being that is capable of transcending animal instincts" (see also Scintilla animae, Hans Hof, Gleerup, 1952 and Scintilla Animae: Eine Studie zu einem Grundbegriff in Meister Eckharts Philosophie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Verhältnisses der Eckhartschen Philosophie zur neuplatonischen und thomistischen Anschauung by Hans Hof, Kurt F. Reinhardt, Speculum, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1955), pp. 474-476 and The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism, Karl Ameriks, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 263).
The ascent of a Freemason through the various degrees can be considered a spiritual or mystical journey. In mystical traditions a distinction is being made between theistic experiences, which are purportedly of God, and non-theistic ones. Theistic experience can be found in Hinduism, Sufism, Kabbalah, Christian mysticism and Pantheism, etc. ... . Non-theistic mysticism can be found in Taoism, Buddhism and secular or atheist mysticism. A few liberal Christian theologians, define a "nontheistic God" as "the ground of all being" rather than as a personal divine being. Non-theistic experiences can be allegedly of an ultimate reality other than God or of no reality at all. Spiritual Atheists believe that the entire universe is, in some way, connected; even if only by the mysterious flow of cause and effect at every scale (see also Mysticism in the World's Religions, Geoffrey Parrinder, Oneworld Publications, 1995 and Atheïstische spiritualiteit, Leo Apostel, VUBPress, 1998 and The Book of Atheist Spirituality, Andre Comte-Sponville, Random House, 2010 and Synchronicity: Nature and Psyche in an Interconnected Universe, Joseph Cambray, Texas A&M University Press, 2009, p. 24 and Synchronicity, Science and Soul-Making: Understanding Jungian Synchronicity Through Physics, Buddhism, and Philosophy, Victor Mansfield, Open Court Publishing, 1995, p. 77 and A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born, John Shelby Spong, HarperOne, 2002).
Theistic mystical traditions speak about the 'journey in God' - of the intense longing for God and devotion of the soul to God - of surrender and purification, of renunciation and abandonment resolved through the union in Love. It has been said that all mystics recognize one another because they come from the same country. Yet behind the multiplicity of religious forms, ideas and expressions of that journey, there is but one 'God' and but one 'journey in God'. In Vedic-Hindu metaphysics this stage would symbolize the mystical union between Atman ~ being the "Self" ~ and Brahman ~ being the "World Soul". Some Buddhist traditions refer to Nirvana, while other refer to an experience of "unconstructed awareness" involving an awareness of the world on an absolutely or relatively non- conceptual level. The Mystical Union is also prevalent in Sufism, the mystical strain in Islam. Sufism developed religious practices focusing on strict self-control that enable both psychological and mystical insights as well as a loss of self, with the ultimate goal of mystical union with God. In the Sufi book Nawadir, a compilation of stories and religious thoughts attributed to Ahmad al-Qalyubi, there are seven castles, each one inside the other. In this text, the soul which aspires to contemplation is conceived as moving or evolving through seven degrees of perfection, which are like concentric castles of mansions, and in the seventh and innermost lives God where ecstatic union is achieved. The ecstatic tradition of Jewish Kabbalah strives to achieve a mystical union with God. In Kabbalah the mystic goes through seven heavenly halls act as a kind of bridge between the forces of emanation and the material cosmos. The ideal condition sought by the Jewish mystic is a loving union or communion with the Deity, a blending into a harmonious whole of the human and Divine wills, issuing in ecstasy and symbolized by the 'Kiss of Love'. This 'Kiss', which unites the soul to God, is usually ascribed to the seventh palace and is said to be of such intensity that it may draw the soul out of the body to God, even causing physical death. In European Alchemy, after nigredo follow the stages of albedo (Purgative Way, Moon), citrinitas (Illuminative Way, Sun) and finally rubedo (Unitive Way). The ultimate goal of the alchemists was transmutation into spiritual 'Gold' or the 'lapis philosophorum', which was achieved through seven operations or stages (Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation and Coagulation). These seven sequential steps created a pathway to union with the Divine self or higher consciousness. Finding the 'lapis philosophorum' meant finding one's true Self, the divine spark or 'scintilla animae' within (see also The Truth Within: A History of Inwardness in Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, Gavin Flood, Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 95 and Oriental Thought: An Introduction to the Philosophical and Religious Thought of Asia, Yong Choon Kim, David H. Freeman, Rowman & Littlefield, 1981, p. 16 and Islamic Mysticism: A Short History, Alexander Knysh, BRILL, 2010, Chapter Ten and Introduction to Sufism: The Inner Path of Islam, Eric Geoffroy, Roger Gaetani, World Wisdom, Inc, 2010, p. 14 and Kabbalah: An Introduction to Jewish Mysticism, Byron L. Sherwin, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006, p. 86 and Commentarium in Ezechielem, Hieronymus, I 7 in Patrologia Latina, vol. 25, col. 22 b and The Great German Mystics: Eckhart, Tauler and Suso, James M. Clark, Courier Corporation, 2013, p. 19 and The Collected Works of C. G. Jung: Mysterium coniunctionis, an inquiry into the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy, Carl Gustav Jung, Herbert Read, Michael Scott Montague Fordham, Gerhard Adler, Pantheon Books, 1970, p. 493 and The Role of Revelation in the World's Religions, Beverly Moon, McFarland, 2010, p. 156 and Spring, Analytical Psychology Club of New York., 1975, p. 191).
The threefold path of mystical ascent has a parallel in the Hindu Triple Path to Liberation of Karma Marga ("path of ritual action" or "path of duties"), Jnana Marga ("path of knowledge") and Bhakti Marga ("path of devotion") of oriental mysticism. Hindu's can chose to follow one or more of these paths according to their talents. The paths form the mukti marga or the Way of Liberation which is the triple path of purification, illumination, and union. In Hinduism, the ultimate goal for human beings is Moksha or Mukti, meaning liberation. In Hinduism liberation means liberation of the individual soul from Saṃsāra or the cycle of births and deaths, from the sense of duality and separation, and union with Brahman, the Supreme Soul or 'unio mystica'. Liberation means when a soul is released from its involvement with Prakriti or nature, which uses its instruments of delusion, attachment and egoism to subject the souls to their physical existence and the cycle of births and deaths. When the individual souls become aware of their true nature and transcend their limitations, they gain freedom and become one with the divine. In the Chandogya Upanishad (6.8.7) we find the concept of "तत्त्वमसि" (Tat Tvam Asi) as one of four Mahāvākyas (Grand Pronouncements), which according to Advaita means absolute equality of 'tat', the Ultimate Reality, Brahman, and 'tvam', the Self, Atman. The Self in its original, pure, primordial state is wholly or partially identifiable or identical with the Ultimate Reality that is the ground and origin of all phenomena (see also the Bhagavad Gita, ca. 100 CE and Early Buddhism and the Bhagavadgita, Kashi Nath Upadhyaya, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1997, p. 466 and Gandhian Alternative (vol. 3 : Socio-Political Thoughts), Anil Dutt Misra And Sushma Yadav, Concept Publishing Company, 2005, p. 117 and A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Klaus K. Klostermaier, Oneworld Publications, 2014 and Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization, Heinrich Robert Zimmer, Princeton University Press, 2015, p. 27 and New Perspectives on Advaita Vedānta: Essays in Commemoration of Professor Richard De Smet, S.J., Richard V. De Smet, Bradley J. Malkovsky, BRILL, 2000, p. 55).
The ascent through the three degrees of Freemasonry also has a similar structure as the spiritual ascent in Jewish Kabbalah, where the ascent is an opportunity given from Above to man to create in himself the desire necessary for spiritual growth, demonstrating through spiritual ascents and declines that the spiritual Light is pleasure and its absence is suffering. This path is known as "the path of the Kabbalah", or the path of the Light. The most characteristic and recognizable symbol of the Kabbalah is that of the ten sephirot. The sephirot contain many elements derived directly from Neoplatonic theologies and cosmologies, such as the metaphor of radiating light emanating from a blinding Godhead. There is also The 32 paths of wisdom, which is often included in the Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Formation). The 32 Paths of Wisdom refer to the 32 times that the name "Elohim" is mentioned in Genesis (Beresheet), Chapter One. The Sepher Yetzirah incorporates and seeks to explain these 32 Paths of Genesis. The Sepher Yetzirah reduces all of creation down to the 10 base numbers (sephirot) and 22 letters. it begins by stating that God created the universe through lamed-bet netivot, "thirty-two paths" of creation. The Sepher Yetzirah breaks down the Hebrew alphabet into three groups: the “mothers”, the “doubles”, and the “elementals”. The 32 paths are embedded into the Etz Chaim, the “Tree of Life”. The 10 circles on the “Tree of Life” correspond to the 10 sephirot, wich are interconnected by 22 lines, corresponding to the 22 letters. We can see that there is some resemblance to the degrees and symbolism of freemasonry, without going into detail (see also Sefer Yetzirah and The Path of Kabbalah, Michael Laitman, Ph.D., Rav Michael Laitman, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2005, p. 47 and Basic Concepts in Kabbalah, Michael Laitman, Laitman Kabbalah Publishers, 2006, p. 17 and Neoplatonism and Jewish Thought, Lenn E. Goodman, SUNY Press, 2012, p. 331 and Judaism and Enlightenment, Adam Sutcliffe, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 148 and The 32 Paths of Wisdom, Rawn Clark, Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, No. 3, Vol 1. Autumnal Equinox 2002 and Sefer Yetzirah and the 32 Paths of Creation).
The initiation and ascent from 'Entered Apprentice' to 'Master Mason' can also be compared to the scala amoris of the priestess Diotima of Mantinea in Plato's Symposium. The scala amoris describes the journey from the stage in life at which man can appreciate only particular or singular, deficient instances of beauty up to the point where man can view a plethora of beautiful objects, and finally divine Beauty itself. The ladder of love teaches man that the spiritual ranks higher than the physical, and the universal ranks above the particular. The ascent develops into a deepening and widening experience of beauty. He uses the metaphor of a staircase (ἐπαναβαθμοῖς) or ladder of ascent (Symp. 211c). Diotima explains the journey in Symp. 211c and 211d : "Beginning from obvious beauties he must for the sake of that highest beauty be ever climbing aloft, as on the rungs of a ladder, from one to two, and from two to all beautiful bodies; from personal beauty he proceeds to beautiful observances, from observance to beautiful learning, and from learning at last to that particular study which is concerned with the beautiful itself and that alone; so that in the end he comes to know the very essence of beauty. In that state of life above all others, my dear Socrates,' said the Mantinean woman, 'a man finds it truly worth while to live, as he contemplates essential beauty.". According to Diotima the true meaning of Love (Eros) is an aspiration for self-immortalization and for everlasting ownership of the Good and Beautiful. At the top of the ladder one is capable to see the Beautiful itself, absolute, untainted, genuine, untouched by any nonsense of humanity. In general four phases are being distinguished in the spiritual ascent alon the 'scala amoris'. At the first stage man learns to love the beauty of one body as a necessary stage to begin the ascent. In the Ode an die Freude we find the words 'Wem der große Wurf gelungen, Eines Freundes Freund zu sein, Wer ein holdes Weib errungen, Mische seinen Jubel ein!', which can for the sake of simplicity be considered as the prerequisite for the entry point of the ascent. This stage is the stage before the initiation as 'Entered Apprentice'. The second stage brings man to love of the beauty of the soul as part of the introspection of the 'Entered Apprentice'. The third stage brings man to the love of the beauty of the sciences or artes liberales which is the stage of the 'Fellow-Craft' degree. The fourth stage is the vision of Beauty itself at the stage of the 'Master Mason'. This stage involves the ascent form observance to beautiful learning to the science of nothing other than beauty itself or 'αὐτοῦ ἐκείνου τοῦ καλοῦ μάθημα' (autou ekeinou tou kalou mathêma) 'or science of beauty' (Symp. 211d). The true final stage of the journey, the vision of 'The Good' happens suddenly, which in Greek is called ἐξαίφνης (exaiphnés), meaning a radical conversion of mind or 'sudden seeing'. This final stage is being prepared for by the previous stages, but it does not follow automatically. In Christian theology this stage would be the 'visio beatifica'. The Symposium also inspired Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499 CE) to the De Amore and the Neoplatonic concept of amor platonicus as a kind of love which Ficino defines as a personal ability to guides one's soul towards cosmic processes and lofty spiritual goals and heavenly ideas (see also Plato on Love, Plato, C. D. C. Reeve, Hackett Publishing, 2006, p. xxxii and Eros en de filosofie: Plato's symposium : analyse en interpretatie, Rudi A. te Velde, Damon, 2006, p. 124 and Die Renaissance als erste Aufklärung, Volume 2, Mohr Siebeck, 1998, p. 50 and Studies on Plato, Aristotle and Proclus: The Collected Essays on Ancient Philosophy of John Cleary, John J. Cleary, BRILL, 2013, p. 65).
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