This article is taken from the July 2022 issue of Fraternal Review titled, "MOBY DICK AND FREEMASONRY - OUR CONNECTION TO THE CLASSIC NOVEL"
When we look closely at the work of Herman Melville, it becomes clear that he was well-versed in esotericism. In his book The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance, Arthur Versluis says that, “In his fiction, in his poems, and in his letters, we find Melville alluding or referring to such traditions as Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Neoplatonism, and perhaps most notably of all, Gnosticism.” (Versluis, 2001)
Similarly, in “Melville’s Masonic Secrets,” Hennig Cohen states that, “Allusions to Freemasonry appear throughout the Melville corpus, many of them obvious.” (Cohen, 1997) He includes, among others, Typee, Mardi, Redburn, White-Jacket, Pierre, and The Confidence-Man, as Melville works that reference Freemasonry.
Connected to Freemasonry at different times, Rosicrucianism is another theme that appears in Melville’s work, most obviously in his poems, “The New Rosicrucians” and “Rose Window.” The first poem begins,
“To us, disciples of the Order
Whose rose-vine twines the cross,
Who have drained the rose’s chalice.”
“Rose Window” begins,
“The preacher took from Solomon’s Song
Four words for text with mystery rife—
The Rose of Sharon,—figuring Him
The Resurrection and the Life.”
It is likely that at least some of Melville’s esoteric leanings were influenced by his involvement with the Young Americans Club (initially known as “the Tetractys”), which was led by his lifelong friend and literary mentor Evert Augustus Duyckinck. This club was the center of a cultural movement which attempted to forge an identity for America separate from its European influences. The literary works of Herman Melville, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, and others were instrumental in creating that culture.
Melanie May Bloodgood says that, “…it seems clear enough to me that the Tetractys or Young Americans Club was a semi-masonic group whose members were affected by the view that Gnosticism subsumed the truths of all other religions and/or represented a higher form of Christianity.” (Bloodgood, 1984) She summarizes the words of Perry Miller, in his book, The Raven and the Whale, by saying, “He describes the club in semi-masonic terms and notes that Duyckinck wanted writers to form a ‘fraternity.’”
She continues, “… besides literature, the club members were interested in metaphysics, politics, economics, and theology; that they enjoyed coarse humor and defended ‘rudeness’ as a cure for the genteel conventionality of their era; that they indulged in and justified ‘Rabalaisian’ sensuality; and that they formed long-lasting, intense friendships.” Perhaps, unsurprisingly, then, “Melville's Christian gnostic world view promotes freedom, equality, and the ‘ideal of a balanced society’,” (Bloodgood, 1984) and is critical of Christian fundamentalism.
Ultimately, from Gnosticism to Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry, the esoteric influences on Melville were essential to formulating the great American literary canon, of which Moby-Dick is one of the early, great exemplars.
Works Cited:
Bloodgood, M. M. (1984). The Gnostic Nature of the World View. Thesis, Oklahoma State University.
Cohen, H. (1997, March). “Melville’s Masonic Secrets.” Melville Society Extracts, Number 108, pp. 3-17.
Versluis, A. (2001). The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance. Oxford University Press.
Written by R.W. Bro. Michael Jarzabek