Print Edition | June 2022

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For centuries, Speculative Freemasonry has alluded to, highlighted, or even made direct claims that the practice of Masonic initiation directly harkens back to the ancient Mystery schools. Throughout every generation of Masonry, great writers such as Albert Mackey, Albert Pike, Manly P. Hall, W. L. Wilmshurst, and Joseph Fort Newton have made the argument, in one form or another, that the Degrees of Freemasonry seek to perpetuate or act, as the modern successor of the initiations that were carried out for millennia throughout the ancient Near East and the early Western world.

These ancient Mystery schools were designed as schools of philosophy, bridging the gaps between science and spirituality, and in many cases providing to their candidates an experiential journey through separation from their old lives, a time of waiting on the threshold between two worlds, and the culmination of the journey by being reborn to a new and more enlightened state of being. For thousands of years, the Mystery schools of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Judea sought to act as the gateway to a higher state of being for a select and chosen group of people. These ancient Mysteries were never for the masses and were only for the few. Similarities abound in the rites, rituals, and deeper meanings that were imparted in these schools, but many of the trappings and allegories took on local and more familiar forms.

This month’s issue of Fraternal Review focuses on only a few examples of these ancient Mysteries, taking us on a journey through Egypt, Greece, and Rome and their prominent schools of wisdom and learning. Pay close attention to both the similarities and differences between these schools of old and our modern Masonic system of education. Our goal is to highlight for you, the reader, the value of the lessons taught in ancient days and witness their application in our modern Mystery school: the Masonic Lodge. - Joe Martinez, Guest Editor

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In this Issue

Cover Story

Joe Martinez discusses the Eleusinian Mysteries, the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, and the symbolism of life, death, and rebirth.

Reference

Albert Mackey explores the cult of Dionysus in Greece, Rome, Syria, and Asia Minor, as well as the “mystic architects” that connect the “Dionysiacs with the Freemasons.”

The Mysteries of Isis and Osiris

Billy Hamilton looks at how pharaonic funerary rites evolved to become an annual, public festival that drew on the myth of Isis and Osiris.

Pop Culture

Orphism, Druids, Gnostics, and more in Manly P. Hall’s Ancient Mysteries & Secret Societies. Plus two Masonic podcasts talk about Mithraism.

The "So-Called" Pythagoreans

Christian Stebbins explores the evolution of the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece, their lives, and their distinction between esoteric and exoteric knowledge.

Final Word

Manly P. Hall reminds us that Freemasonry is “that long-lost thing which all peoples have sought in all ages.”