Occult anatomy of Freemasonry

Many people discuss about separations and initiatory diversity. They forget that when these events occur in supposedly brotherly environment, it means that something is wrong. The initiatory principles that enlighten the spirit of Freemasonry can’t be responsible for the separation of some masons; therefore we must look for the reasons elsewhere. It could be due to human error or to exoterical conditions and rules. This problem doesn’t concern only Freemasonry, though.
The eagerness to deny oneself as a Brother involves the hierarchies of both sides of initiatory languages, that is mysteriosophical and mystical Systems. Their higher ranks place boundaries, excommunications and great walls between people belonging to the same initiatory ‘Path’.

We wonder what the purpose of separations is; the most likely answer is that sub-divisions create sub-jects.
That’s all.
I have been told that this attitude is driven by initiatory mediocrity; the latter is ‘a reflection of the contingent general status of the humankind’.
If this is the situation we won’t be dealing with initiates but with mediocre citizens. This would make sense, although the matter is more complex than that. If the subdivision was only of an initiatory nature, this would change the perspective and the matter wouldn’t only be a political one.
Here is a factor that helps changing perspective.
In the economy of the Corpus Massonicum, for example, like in any other ‘body’ not necessarily initiatory, the administrative part corresponds to the abdomen, which takes the nourishment; the political part is the intestine, which distributes the energy taken to guarantee the functions of the vital organs.
We must remember that every part contributes to the life of the ‘Body’: abdomen, limbs, ears and eyes are ‘entities’ at the service of brain and heart.
If we follow the principles of an occult but likely ‘anatomy’ we will find the head as the center of command, which judges, decides, acts, communicates but most of all produces thoughts.
The heart, on the other hand, is the center of feelings and therefore of the sense of balance and fairness. The head is then the seat of will, whilst the heart is the seat of the sense of fairness called love; only their interaction makes the will ‘wise’.
The stomach is the seat of emotions. In an esoterical sense it represents the person who feeds on visceral passion. It hosts drives and instincts not enlightened by intelligence, which ‘descends’ from the head. If we confuse the abdomen with the head, that is the brain with the stomach, we can be sure that there will be trouble when building a hierarchy.
Although at a first glance this might look like a paradox, such a choice could be the reason for so much initiatory confusion.

To acknowledge our limits is a deed of courage, to try and correct them is a matter of intelligence and to discuss common mistakes is a duty.
The man who acknowledges the mistakes that transformed the initiatory Systems (even Freemasonry) into many personal spaces keeps discussing them; profane reasons can’t be accepted out of principle.

The events must be followed without taking sides. All litigants are wrong, without extenuating or aggravating circumstances. We must not forget the ethical aspect, where to take sides means to accept divisions. It also means to be accomplices and partners in the will to divide what should not be separated in order to preserve the identity of an Order.
Otherwise we would follow a counter-initiatory behavior that must be rejected, because it harms the principle of universality of ideas such as the Communion of the initiatory Brotherhood.

On the subject of initiation, I believe that it is an inner conquest. It is the result of a consistent and intelligent work that smoothes out the roughness of the first stone (the physical self). For this reason I agree with the idea of initiation as an inner result.
A suitable education can help grow this result; an intellectual metamorphosis can accelerate its process.
What is completely useless is an administrative act, limited to a formal title only given under the payment of a substantial offer. It would be a mistake to believe or to be persuaded of the contrary.

Therefore there aren’t any complaints against the initiatory Institution, but many against the men who would like to conquer its ‘Body’.
They only want the ‘Body’ because they can’t understand its soul; this is more terrible than the act itself. It’s no consolation to know that ritual Mysteries are inviolable.

Freemasonry as well keeps and preserves parts of ‘ancient mysteries’ from profane eyes; they are only published in an exoterical form. The rest is re-veiled (veiled twice) in the invisible geometries of Temples, in inaudible sounds, steps, deeds and ritual words. It is not enough to be sitting on a high chair for its meanings to be ‘disclosed’.


This implies a distinction that goes beyond the obstacles between a brother and another.
It is made of three degrees, which are real like the ritual words.
The initiatory elevation is not a ceremony, but the inner acquisition of a spiritual conscience. Light is the higher conscience that enlightens the physical mind and produces abstract intelligence.
Through this measure we realize that the base of every initiatory Pyramid, without any difference between mystics and mysteriosophic, is made by those who still live in the shadow of an obscure and passional reason.
The central part is accessible to those who follow the guide of the half Light; that is those who let the wisdom of intelligence guide them.
The top, unperceivable because silent, belongs to those who have reached the full Light; it is made of those who have been able to conquer it and find the fullness of the subtle conscience.

The inner Light is not a metaphor; it exists and it can be reached by every postulant keen on leaving behind his metals (preconceptions).
The inner light is exoterically represented by a ‘bulb’ lit in the Lodge by the venerable master when he accepts a new apprentice.
The symbolic deed must not be considered literally, though.
It must remain a virtual representation of an unfinished reality; in order to fully realize it, we must add what the exoterical rite only suggests.
Every exoterical rite is the indication of a path, where the acceptance in the Order is the start and the inner Light marks the end of the material journey.

We must choose between an apparent and a real initiation. The first is simple, safe and useless; the other is hard, uncertain but real, although the goal is reached only in part. This is a delicate choice because it marks the future of the traveler; that is why it is left to everybody's judgment.

By Athos A. Altomonte