Albert Pike And Lucifer:
The Lie That Will Not Die

S. Brent Morris, P.M.

    Brent Morris is a member and Past Master of Patmos
Lodge #70, Ellicott City, Maryland. He is the author of
"Masonic Philanthropies" published jointly by the North-
ern and Southern Jurisdictions, Scottish Rite. An extract
from this book was the May, 1991 STB "And the Greatest
of These is Charity".
    Dr. and Bro. Morris is a well known and highly
respected Masonic Author

         Editor

    Have you heard the sad story about the dog
that someone tried to dry off in a microwave
oven? What about the one where a jealous
husband poured concrete into a new convert-
ible, not realizing it was a surprise anniversary
gift from his wife? Or maybe you've read
about Albert Pike's so-called "Luciferian Doc-
trine," which teaches Masons that Lucifer is
God?
    These stories have one thing in common:
they're all false. The first two are harmless
"urban myths," innocently retold as caution-
ary tales. The story about Albert Pike and
Lucifer, however, is a lie that will not die.
Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pages (writing as Leo
Taxil) conceived the hoax and designed it to
slander Freemasonry and to embarrass the
Catholic Church. It has been repeated for a
century by anti-Masons who accept with child-
like eagerness any slur against our gentle
craft.
    No other lie has captured the imagination of
anti-Masons quite like this Leo Taxil hoax
(just one of many he perpetrated against Free-
masonry and the Catholic Church). Once our
critics have twisted logic to convince them-
selves that Freemasonry is the work of Satan,
they are ready to accept this perversion. It
usually comes in the form of a quotation that
starts,
    "On July 14, 1889, Albert Pike, Sovereign
Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry, addressed
to the 23 Supreme Confederated Councils of
the world the following Instructions..."
    That's all you need to read to know the
author has fallen prey to this infamous hoax.
    It's not entirely certain when the quote was
fabricated nor where it was first published. We
can, however, trace its modern appearances to
Edith Starr Miller who wrote Occult Theoc-
rasy in 1933 under the pen name "Lady
Queenborough." Her work is excerpted and
treated as the gospel truth, usually without
attribution. Such practices are known as pla-
giarism in other disciplines, but neither seri-
ous research nor intellectual integrity stand in
the way of the headlong rush to slander Free-
masonry.
    Ms. Miller found her quote in the 1894 book
by Abbe Clarin de la Rive, La Femtne et
L'Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie Univer-
selie (Woman and Child in Universal Free-
masonry). Abbe de la Rive, like Ms. Miller,
was duped by the hoax; they are guilty only of
incompetent research and an eager willing-
ness to believe the worst about Freemasonry.
The ultimate source was the pornographer,
anti-Mason, and anti-Catholic Leo Taxil
(Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pages). Taxil pub-
licly confessed his deception in 1897; his story
is widely available for anyone willing to look
for the truth. Just a few of the many references
are listed below.

. R. Limouzin-Lamothe. The New Catho-
  lic Encyclopedia, s.v. Taxil, Leo.

. Henry W. Coil. et al., Coil's Masonic
  Encyclopedia (Richmond, Va.: Macoy
  Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., 1961 ),
  s.v. Taxil, Leo.

. Great Soviet Encyclopedia. 3rd ed., s.v.
  Taxil, Leo.

. Arthur E. Waite, A New Encyclopedia of
  Freemasonry, new & rev. ed. (New York:
  Weathervane Books, 1970), s.v. Palladian
  Freemasonry.

. Alec Mellor, "A Hoaxer of Genius--Leo
  Taxil." Our Separated Brethren, the Free-
  masons, translated by A.W. Barnett and
  C.N. Batham (Richmond, Va., Macoy
  Publishing & Masonic Supply Co., 1964),
  pp. 149-155.

    The entire passage from Ms. Miller is not
worth quoting, though we will give the portion
most repeated.

The Bogus "Luciferian Doctrine" of
Albert Pike

from Edith Starr Miller (Lady Queenborough)
Occult Theocrasy. 2 vols, 1933. Reprint. Hawthorne,
Calif.: The Christian Book Club of America, 1980.

    "(p. 233) In La Femme et l'Enfant dans la
Franc -Maconnierie Universelle page 578, A.C.
De La Rive states that on July 14, 1889, Albert
Pike, Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Free-
masonry, addressed to the 23 Supreme Con-
federated Councils of the world the following
instructions, which we quote herewith in part.
    (p. 220) That which we must say to the
crowd is;--We worship a God, but it is the God
that one adores without superstition.
    To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors Gen-
eral, we say this, that you may repeat it to the
Brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees--
The Masonic religion should be, by all of its
initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the
purity of the Luciferian doctrine. If Lucifer
were not God, would Adonay (The God of the
Christians) whose deeds prove his cruelty,
perfidy, and hatred of man, barbarism and
repulsion for science, would Adonay and his
priests calumniate him?

    Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy;
and the true and pure philosophic religion is
the belief in Lucifer the equal of Adonay: but
Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is
struggling for humanity against Adonay, the
God of Darkness and Evil."
    There are several problems with this quota-
tion, some obvious and some subtle. To start
with, about 1,000,000 out of 2,500,000 Ameri-
can Masons have the 32 in the Scottish Rite,
including ministers, rabbis, bishops, and other
devout worshippcrs of God. It is inconceiv-
able that there would not be mass resignations
if these men were taught this disgusting
"Luciferian doctrine." Is it believable that the
millions of Scottish Rite Masons during the
last two centuries could be cowed into such
total silence?
    The quote is fiddled with logical inconsis-
tencies. There is no position of "Sovereign
Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry." There is
no "Confederation of Supreme Councils." In
the United States virtually all Scottish Rite
Masons receive the 32, so why would Albert
Pike suggest special treatment for 30, 31,
and 32nd Masons, when that would have in-
cluded everyone?
    The real evidence of a hoax comes in De La
Rive's footnote. which neither Ms. Miller nor
anyone else bothers to quote. It refers to Diana
Vaughan, the matchless creation of Leo Taxil's
twisted mind. The footnote (and a translation)
are printed below.
 "Ce fur la Soeur Diana Vaughan a'Albert
 Pike.--afin de lui donner la plus grande
 marque de confiance,--chargea d' apporter
 son encyclique luciferiene, a Paris, pen-
 dante l' Exposition Universelle.

 Abbe Clarin de la Rive, La Fernroe et
 L'Enfant dans la Franc-Maconnerie
 Universelle. Paris: Delhomme & Briquet,
 Editeurs, 1894, p. 589.

 It was the Sister Diana Vaughan that Albert
 Pike,--in order to give her the greatest
 mark of confidence, chargcd to carry his
 luciferjan encyclical, to Paris, during the
 Universal Exposition."

    The Diana Vaughan hoax is well known and
has been explained time and time again for
nearly a century. Here's what the New Catho-
lic Encyclopedia (R. Limouzin-Lamothe, s.v.
Taxil, Leo) says about Leo Taxil.

  Taxil purported to reveal the existence of
  "Palladium," the most secret Masonic or-
  der, which practiced devil-worship. He re-
  counted the story of its high priestess Diana
  Vaughan; and ended by publishing the
  Memoires d'une ex-Palladiste after her con-
  version to Catholicism. When doubts began
  to spread, Taxil realized the time had come
  to end the deceit. In a conference in Paris
  (April 19, 1897), he cynically admitted his
  hoax, whose aim, he said, was to hold up
  Catholicism to derision.

    After Taxil's public confession, Abbe de la
Rive expressed his disgust and recanted his
writings on Diana Vaughan in the April 1897
issue of Freemasonry Disclosed, a magazine
devoted to the destruction of the Craft. As
much as he hated Freemasonry, de la Rive had
the integrity to admit Taxil's hoax.

 With frightening cynicism the miserable
 person we shall not name here (Taxil) de-
 clared before an assembly especially con-
 vened for him that for twelve years he had
 prepared and carried out to the end the most
 extraordinary and most sacrilegious of
 hoaxes. We have always been careful to
 publish special articles concerning Palla-
 dism and Diana Vaughan. We are now giv-
 ing in this issue a complete list of these
 articles. which can now be considered as
 not having existed.

 Quoted in Alec Mellor, Strange Masonic
 Stories (Richmond. Va.: Macoy Publishing
 & Masonic Supply Co., Inc., 1982), p. 151.

    Anyone interested in the plain truth can
easily discover the story of Leo Taxil. Recent
critics of Masonry, however, are not interested
in simple facts. These detractors have con-
vinced themselves that Freemasonry is the
work of the devil. Thus they apparently justify
their perversions with the thought that they are
doing the Lord's work--saving an unsuspect-
ing world from Satan. No misquotation, no
distortion, no lie is too great if it accomplishes
what they perceive as their holy mission. This
includes gleefully perpetuating the bogus
"Luciferian Doctrine" of Albert Pike. All this
is done in the name of Him who said, "I am the
way, the truth, and the life."
    Freemasonry teaches its members tolerance,
even of its assailants. If you are presented with
the story of Pike and Lucifer, quietly but
firmly state, "It's a lie." Don't let it pass
without comment, but don't provoke an argu-
ment. The truth is on our side.
    But remember the words attributed to
Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for
the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing."

