THE BUILDER SEPTEMBER, 1927

Beyond the Limit

By BRO. JOSE D'ARIMATHEA, Mexico

THE theme of this article has been studied by Masonic writers from
divers points of view; none of them, however, have arrived at
definite conclusions that might guide our brothers to correctly
discriminate the enormous, mass of contradictory opinions, ideas
and interpretations that are prevalent in Masonic writings. The
fear of hurting the religious feelings of most of our Anglo-Saxon
brothers; the ideological chaos that exists in Masonry that has
rendered it almost impossible to know what is what in Masonry; the
lack of adequate scientific training of some writers who, it seems,
believe that Masonry is a subject that can be treated calamo
currente, and finally too much living in the dead past, have
prevented the clarification of various questions that daily arise
in the minds of Masons who earnestly endeavor to penetrate into the
secrets of Freemasonry.

The misunderstanding and confusion have reached such proportions
like these: a great majority of Anglo-Saxon Masons firmly believe
that Freemasonry is a religion; others maintain that Freemasonry is
a splendid preparation for religion, and others, the indifferents,
think that religion blends perfectly well with the principles of
Freemasonry, while our Latin brothers believe that Freemasonry is
purposely and specifically directed against religion. Dangerous
extremes that go beyond the limit of the jurisdiction of
Freemasonry.

A free mind, not constrained by fear, prejudices or any other
consideration, is necessary to study Masonry because it is founded
on scientific principles and it is not, as it is generally
believed, merely a literary subject. I believe that I possess such
a mind, and I feel that I can think and write freely under my own
inspiration, using clarity and precision of expression to the best
of my ability, without sugar-coated words that are entirely out of
place in the process of ratiocination.

THE TOLERANCE OF FREEMASONRY

Freemasonry has no point of contact with religion, politics and
racial prejudices; had not the Old Charges, Landmarks and Masonic
Constitutions said anything about these limitations of Masonic
activities, they would nevertheless be natural limitations,
considering the peculiar characteristic of Freemasonry of being an
all-inclusive institution within which all men can get together
without friction, no matter what their beliefs, opinions and ideas
may be, and no matter to what race they may belong. If this
assumption of inclusiveness and universality is generally accepted
by all Masons as something fundamental of Freemasonry, as I believe
it is, then it is a logical consequence to keep Freemasonry from
any contact with those matters that divide men into groups of
enemies. Religion, politics and racial prejudices are the three
most  efficient agents for promoting discord, bitterness and
unhappiness in mankind. Just try to contradict your best and
closest friend on any of those subjects and instantly he will take
the shape and appearance of an enraged gorilla.

Notwithstanding any interpretation that might be given to the Old
Charges, Landmarks and Masonic Constitutions in reference to
religion, politics and racial prejudices, these emotional negative
aspects of human life have no place within the great constructive
conception of Freemasonry. They are emotional negative attitudes in
relation to Universal Brotherhood; they constitute our inheritance
from our primitive ancestors and they are a serious obstacle to the
progress of mankind.

It does not make any difference what is your conception of the
brotherhood of man; it may be a Utopian conception or just a dream;
it may be so only in our historic moment, or it may be a reality
now or in the future; the point of view of the observer does not
matter in the least. The important thing is the inner knowledge
that Universal Brotherhood, be it considered just as a Masonic
dream or as a Masonic idea without contact with reality, is an ally
of progress because, being as it is, a cardinal emotion that
attracts and builds up, it is a process of elevation and of harmony
and through this process humanity evolved from the cave man. As
religion, politics and racial prejudices, three capital enemies of
the unity of mankind, are opposed to the cardinal emotion of
brotherhood of man, hence the necessity of placing religion,
politics and the race beyond the limit of Freemasonry.

PREJUDICE AND PERSECUTION

The intolerant maxim, "He who is not with me is against me," is
exactly applicable to religion as well as to politics and racial
matters; it is a satanic anti-social maxim that engenders hatred
and, therefore, it is contrary to brotherhood of man. It is not
possible to uproot by a stroke of force religion, politics and
racial prejudices from the soul and the mentality of mankind;
should Freemasonry engage in this task it would mean war on
humanity at large and the end of brotherhood of man. You cannot
change the mental attitude of man, nor wipe out of his subconscious
mind by violence, the stored impressions and superstitions of past
experiences; on the contrary, you vigorize them in proportion to
the intensity of the violence. For these reasons Freemasonry must
be absolutely neutral on these matters; it does not either attack
or defend the crumbling institutions of religion, politics and the
race; it only attacks in self-defense by virtue of the law of self-
preservation, when its fundamental principles are violated by any
man, group of men or institution of any kind, and even in this
case, it does not go beyond the limit, it does not invade
prohibited ground; it stands within its own boundaries.
The emotions capable of producing tremendous conflicts and horrible
massacres like those produced by religion, politics and racial
prejudices, have not, cannot, nor ought to have any point of
contact with the soul of Freemasonry, which essentially is a force
of attraction and union. When we succeed in uprooting from the
subconscious mind the roots of religion, which are ignorance and
fear, and the soul be free by the light of knowledge, transforming
into a science what is still today an emotion of primitive man;
when politics is no longer the instrument of oppression to satisfy
personal ambitions and is transformed into the science of
government; when the racial prejudices be blotted out from the
conscience by means of brotherhood of man; when these three capital
enemies be controlled and transformed by science into allies of
progress, then, and only then, Freemasonry will extend its
jurisdiction beyond the actual limit.

Science has never divided men into antagonistic groups for mutual
destruction; science is the only means to conquer liberty; science
is the liberation from ignorance, from prejudice, from the past,
from fear. Science, united with the virtue of fraternal sentiment,
Scientia et virtus, is the instrument of Freemasonry for the
accomplishment of universal brotherhood of man; Utopia, dream or
reality, Freemasonry lives only for this ideal; it is its life and
its object and it shall continue to live powerful and fruitful only
for the brotherhood of man. "Man standing by man, never man against
man" is the motto of Freemasonry that elevates it to a higher plane
than those of religion, politics and the race. Religion, politics
and racial questions have plunged humanity into a fratricidal war
since fear, engendered by ignorance, grasped the soul of man. You
cannot dissipate ignorance by violence, therefore you cannot
liberate man from fear by violence; the only means is knowledge,
and knowledge cannot be acquired without the assistance of science,
and science cannot help humanity without virtue. This is the great
constructive task of Freemasonry.

THE FRATERNITY IDEAL.

It should be recognized by all means that it is an organic
necessity of Freemasonry to safeguard this ideal of brotherhood of
man in its purity and integrity, therefore, it is imperative to
completely and absolutely separate the Masonic field from those of
religion, politics and racial prejudices.

I say emphatically organic necessity, because I intend to convey
the idea that brotherhood is the medulla of Freemasonry, therefore,
Freemasonry can never perform any functions contrary to its very
existence, and if it does, it commits suicide, its medulla becomes
dead matter.

It does not matter what was the efficient cause of Masonry; it does
not make any difference what is the Masonic tradition from 1717 up
to these very days; it does not matter what is the historic
interpretation of Masonic evolution; it has no bearing in the case
whether or not Masonry was religious in certain stages of its
evolution; at all events, it seems quite evident that it is not
possible to use now the criterion of 1717 to appraise the values of
ideas and things of 1927, nor is it possible to trace through the
Masonic tradition what is the essential element, the true spirit of
Freemasonry. We have created, developed and sublimated the
sentiment of brotherhood and we have arrived at the corresponding
mental conception by evolution; the sentiment and the conception of
brotherhood today are not the sentiment and the conception of 1717;
we find ourselves at an enormous distance from the starting point
in that which relates to this sentiment and this conception; in
other words, there is no relation whatsoever between the efficient
cause and the teleological one, so that it is not necessary to know
the efficient cause in order to determine the nature and the modus
operandi of the teleological cause. Freemasonry knows now with
scientific knowledge that which it did not know in 1717, that, by
means of psychology, it has the power to develop within man the
germ of brotherhood to the point of blossoming and fructification,
and it even has the power to sow the seed to cause it to germinate
in case man does not carry it within. Through this knowledge,
Freemasonry has directed its life toward universal confraternity as
the object of its existence.

Freemasonry is primarily interested in man individually as a
spiritual unit to make him free in order to live the true life;
secondly, it is interested in man as a social unit, to teach him
how to live without conflicts within the social conglomeration of
human beings. Freemasonry is not interested in man as a cosmic unit
in his relations to Divinity, therefore, it does not intend to
teach him the nature of Deity, nor the laws governing cosmic
relationship. It is quite comprehensible why, in 1717, Masonry was
interested in the cosmic tie that, it was supposed, united man to
Divinity, for it was life in the eternal Orient that absorbed the
whole interest of man, consequently, it was considered important
and fundamental that a Mason should believe in the unique living
anthropomorphic God that dwelled in the consciousness of man in
those nefarious epochs; but it is inconceivable that in 1927, when
the dynamic of liberty has transformed primitive Masonry into Free-
masonry, Freemasonry should breath the spirit of religious
intolerance that characterized the Middle Ages, endeavoring to
impose upon its adepts the belief in a personal God that nobody has
been able to define and the adoration of a book that a great many,
especially the Latin brothers, do not know even by its binding.

The "Great Architect of the Universe" is a scientific formula
discovered by a profound thinker as a conciliatory means of
transition from the personal god of the dark ages to the various
gods formed by the fear and the imigination of man; it is not a
religious formula, it is strictly a scientific postulate of a
philosophy that comprehends all and every conceivable forms of god
that mankind can possibly imagine, thus enabling man to meet his
brother on the level under a universal formula of brotherhood.

THE QUESTION OF RELIGION

There is no religious element in Freemasonry; there might have been
some in primitive Masonry. (In making this emphatic statement I am
perfectly aware of the protests and disapproval of my brethren, e
pur si muove. When a Mason or group of Masons introduce this
element in Masonic matters, liberty disappears, harmony ceases,
passional disputes arise and the sect surges with all the
characteristic of intolerance and ferocity of the primitive man.
Precisely, in order to avoid the cruel reminiscences of the savage
man, the formula of the "Great Architect of the Universe," which by
itself defines nothing and explains nothing, thus leaving everybody
free to find out the incognita, was wisely created.

It is true that the formula, "Great Architect of the Universe,"
seems to strongly appeal to the soul of men that suffer from the
"fear of God complex" (timor Dei complexus); but it is equally true
that the same formula appeals to the liberal mind of the free
thinker as an expression of a broadminded philosophy that includes
every possible conception of God; therefore, there is no compulsory
meaning attached to the formula, on the contrary, it means absolute
freedom of conscience in regard to the conception of Deity, be it
religious, philosophical, purely scientific or otherwise.

We know that this broadmindedness of criterion is not acceptable to
religious men who profess to be Freemasons; but we also know that
broadmindedness and Freemasonry are synonymous, consequently, the
man that cannot detach himself from the religious complex in regard
to Masonic matters cannot be a Freemason; he may be a Mason of
1717, but never a Freemason. A true Freemason looks toward
universal brotherhood unprejudiced and unhandicapped by the
narrowness of the religious complex, no matter what it costs; to
the Freemason no price is too high, even the sacrifice of life, to
crystallize into a reality the highest ideal that a man can cherish
in his heart, "Man standing by man, never man against man."

As an illustration of the consequences of the religious mental
attitude applied to Masonic matters, I refer the reader to the
articles, "The Basis of Masonic Unity," published by THE BUILDER
June, 1924, and "Why the Grand Lodge of New York withdrew from the
Masonic International Association," March, 1925.

In conclusion: Freemasonry is not a church, nor a political club,
nor an organization for promoting racial hatred, nor something
relating to or representing "VIOLENCE." Freemasonry is an
institution where man tastes the flavor of liberty and once tasted
he becomes a unit of the "Universal Society of Freemasons,"
notwithstanding any religious, political and racial prejudices.
Free-masons means "free from the slavery of all kinds of
prejudices, religious, political, racial or otherwise."

MAN STANDING BY MAN, NEVER MAN AGAINST MAN !


MASONIC CONSTITUTIONS

It has been found necessary and expedient for the preservation and
good government of the Masonic family, in all countries where
Masonry has existed, to form a Constitution and to frame laws and
regulations, for the promotion of peace and harmony among the
Fraternity to bind the several members, whether as individuals or
lodges, in one bond of fellowship and to produce a concentration of
all their exertions in one general endeavor to spread the divine
principles of Masonry throughout their own native country, and
throughout the world; for Masonic charity and benevolence are not
confined within the narrow boundaries that limit Nations, Kingdoms
or states, but rejoices in that universal philanthropy, which,
spreading its broad pinions, soars over and around the terrestial
globe, and: with a confiding eye, looks up to the celestial abodes
for the consummation of all its hopes--the happiness of fellow-man.
--Freemason's Magazine, December, 1841.

