Index: Fundamental axiom – The initiatory praxis – Lights and shadows of the Masonic Institution – White Freemasonry
Fundamental axiom
In its initiatory meaning White Freemasonry is not only the circumscribed and exoteric associative expression with which it is usually represented. In actual fact, to reach white initiation means to touch an apex of omni-comprehensive, therefore universal, thought whose content annuls any conceptual disparity of form 
and expression.
Therefore initiation is a synthesis of undifferentiated consciousness that arises from a more advanced model of conscience, able to tone down the multitude of mental images used to represent a reality.
Mental images can homogeneously perceive a reality through a sequence of single visions. On the contrary, if the visions are taken individually, they fragment the meaning of its flow in a mass of subjective interpretations and criteria, which give continuity to the chaos of imaginary criteria.
The mixture of archetypal meanings of the humankind is expressed in principles where the sense of life, together with the wider sense of existence, are subjected to the limits of a mind that ends up veiling the reality in the features of a thousand masks, covering it with imaginary, hypothetical or fictitious aspects.
The initiate is able to discern, in the fragments of lesser realities, the substance of a greater reality so big that it would be otherwise unperceivable; he discriminates real contents from the dreams they are wrapped into because of fear or unconsciousness.
Therefore initiation is the viaticum to resolve the phenomenon of intellectual refraction whose psychical dazzles can blind ordinary intelligence.
Leaving aside the disorder of an intelligent but discontinuous mental activity, the conscience of the initiate reaches a point of synthesis, which seals the physical mind to the metaphysical conscience. It is a joining point where the opposites are united in a conceptual balance that, by itself, can annul the perennial conflict of duality that sees thesis and antithesis opposing each other. It joins top and bottom, left and right, masculine and feminine, black and white and east and west. All these terms are examples of the division that opposes the inside to the outside, making reality appear separated in two parts, an introflexed and an extroflexed one, which view each other as extraneous and incompatible. But inside and outside (which many people confuse with bottom and top ) are two ways of perceiving the same reality. An indivisible unity made of essence (inside) and formal aspect (outside), which designate the incorporeal and material nature of any principle of life. When the uniqueness of vital principle is not recognized, every reality is divided by a vision of absolute materiality.
The disunion among opposites distinguishes the substance of the eastern adept from that of the western one.
The strong intimist connotation that characterizes the eastern adept originates from the attitude that he has towards the use of the right hemisphere of his brain (the so-called feminine). Because of this mental ‘specialization', the eastern personality is pushed to find refuge into its interiority, with a result that looks like substantial inaction from the outside. On the contrary, the western adept has it in his nature to focus his physical conscience on the left hemisphere (the so-called masculine); therefore he falls into excesses of mobility, escapes deep reflection and makes choices rarely made. In his exuberance the western adept prefers action over the depth of inner research. This leads to a loss of incisiveness in his action.
The eastern man, on the contrary, deep down in his meditative trance ends up not acting at all, preventing the concretization of the result of his meditations.
These bipartitions can only be resolved with the re-focusing of mental habits, because conscience in the whole sums up the opposites without being one or the other. Therefore the individual at the center of conscience is above parts. Since he is free from the influence of the opposites he can transform them from conflicting to complementary, gaining back a detached and objective view that he couldn't conceive before and that he can use to place reality back into its true dimension. This is how objective reality and individual comprehension can match perfectly.
(Objective) reality and (subjective) comprehension are the supporting pillars of a dual and alienated conception that will be rejoined in a strong-willed mental vision that participates with balance to the activity of both cerebral hemispheres.
The predominance of one of the two hemispheres amplifies the sense of division, or duality, which must be replaced with a univocal vision at the center of the two hemispheres. This univocacy is the allegory of the third eye that offers a central vision, elaborated through a super partes thought that is not dominated by any of the two complements. It is a vision that, despite being the sum of the dynamic (masculine) and perceptive (feminine) activities of the psyche, is neither one nor the other.
This new intellectual faculty lies between the two cerebral characterizations and it is called the Middle Way . Freemasonry preserves its teaching in the symbol of the Plumb line .
The Plumb Line is the symbolic formulation of the vertical way , which joins with a bridge of conscience the physical fraction of human nature (represented by the plumb) to its metaphysical counterpart. This alignment between physical mind and metaphysical conscience (the line) is known as the Middle Way and it is the white path of the initiate . It is an inner journey whose start is made of an apex of non-conflicting culture , which overcomes the tentacular multiformity of imperfect exoteric representations. Here the continuous changes of ideologies hide the mental vortex with which the humankind represents and interprets the phenomena it is involved in.
By interpreting life, the world of ideas is wrapped up in a melting pot of criteria with different tendencies and often with opposite substance. For this reason, to renounce the egocentric part of our opinion and share a mental synthesis where differences are annulled is the action that seals the soul of initiates in every corner of the planet, despite the division of races, languages, habits and popular beliefs. Mental synthesis is therefore the threshold of white Brotherhood.
Initiatory praxis
Aurobindo (philosopher) says that books must be read and then burnt . This postulate is shared by all scholars of esoteric hermeneutics, because, despite sciolism doesn't produce true knowledge, it can be considered an essential supporting element to address our research.
A popular adage says that it is not enough to look, but we must understand . Indeed between theoretical knowledge and direct knowledge there is room for opinions (debatable views), interpretations, differentiated criteria, ideological codes and habits which in appearance hide the objective affirmation of any reality. But every reality, although denied, remains intangibly true. It won't be dialectics or erudite rhetoric to make inalienable the imaginary concepts and hypothetical covers that cloud the truths.
Furthermore, dialecticians and polemicists are the interpreters of ‘quotation' sciolism; it is the culture of those who repeat concepts stating their contents without cognition of the facts or certainty.
Hypothesis is the characteristic that discloses the exoteric thought based on sciolism, even encyclopedic, which lacks the vital contribution of experience.
On the contrary, esoteric research tries to enliven knowledge reaching the direct cognition of the idea . Therefore initiatory knowledge , on the contrary of exoteric sciolism , is live knowledge because it makes ideas able to change and enrich the soul of the person who is touched by it. In particular circumstances the human soul can be moved by an idea, but it won't be permanently impressed by the formal sense of a notion or writing, because they are both dead elements.
Whilst the physical personality is impressed by direct experience, especially when the mind is able to remember and to elaborate a good synthesis of its own experiences.
An initiatory axiom states that once overcome the physical limits, the mind continues its inner growth through the contact that has been established, thanks to the effect of an intuition more and more stable and less and less intermittent, with its immaterial alter Ego.
In actual fact every initiatory repartition, both mystic and mysteriosophic, keeps the idea of an inner revelation that introduces the adept to the occult stage of his education. This contact occurs in the conscience of the advanced aspirant, in the ‘dialogue' established between the individual thought of the mind and the archetype of ideas (Platonic hyperuranium).
But to a sleepy conscience the difference between knowledge and didactics is unknown. So much so that for the aspirant the ethics of the divulger, the morality of his intentions and his real ability and competence will be the only guarantee he can rely on during the most delicate moments of his education. Therefore a divulger must be credible to himself before he is to others, because prior to any expression he must have recognized in himself all the signs of an extraordinary thoroughness on the topics he's dealing with.
The maturity of intellect reflects to the outside the inner depth of the initiate and they are both the result, although imperfect, of a personal and direct analysis. From this we can draw that each candidate will have to mature a non casual choice on who will guide him in the search for himself and his initiation. Indeed, for each candidate it is essential to recognize himself as physical and metaphysical essence: this is the keystone of initiation.
For the initiate the praxis to transmit to the neophyte must have the certainty of a reasoned accomplishment, a synthesis drawn from a complex of exact experiences that have considered several initiatory or alleged initiatory methods. In fact, every esoteric, exoteric or commercial interpretation of this inner maturation, which is commonly called the initiatory path, can attract the interest and curiosity of the initiate, even unsuitably, influencing his development of the first speculative processes.
The choice of his guide has an extraordinary importance for the candidate, because it involves the direction that his education will take. The effectiveness or vacuity of the work of a lifetime depends on the direction of one's education.
Curiosity and interest are two fundamental elements to stimulate and develop the speculative activity of the neophyte. But a young mind is also unable to discriminate the truth from artifice; this can make him easy prey of the many parasites that thrive in the initiatory shadow world.
This conceptual area can't be avoided; in this dark and tentacular shadow world we find the lowest threshold that introduces the ordinary aspirant to the initiatory path.
The threshold of mental physicalness is admirably described in the Divine Comedy . Dante's ‘forest dark' is the representation of the physical life of every person, full of passion, which can be lived as a ‘comedy', where everyone tries to play a more or less pleasant role.
The other option is to accept it for what it really is: the test field of individual progress. And in this field it is expected of the candidate to show the qualities and the instinct of initiatory re-orientation in the best direction without giving in to mirages that are offered to the wanderers.
The best image to represent this condition is Ulysses who, linked to the thread of his consistency, doesn't fall in the waters of passion where the sirens' song would like to attract him. This is one of the most effective allegorical forms to describe the temptations on the path of every sailor who wants to overcome the narrow passage of his physical nature (masculine and feminine at the same time) crossing the rocks of Scilla and Cariddi unharmed.
Intellectual parasitism, though, is also an intelligent form of life. The great illusionists of transcendence are also the great manipulators of the forms used to cover themselves and the expressions they use to imitate initiatory sacredness. Appearance immediately impresses the imagination of unprepared people, arousing their exaltation and wonder. Therefore before assimilating any notion it is necessary to analyze its exterior aspect, each meaning and each gestural or verbal expression used to spread it. Particular attention must be given to what is transmitted through unverified and unverifiable scriptures; we must mistrust any mythical or legendary form and be suspicious of any cause or means that can produce astonishment and surprise in the people.
In order not to get lost in the maze of ideological parasitism, the researcher must rummage in the deep tangle of interpretative formulas where the fundaments of initiation have been hidden. For example the immateriality of the purpose can be considered the faithful characteristic of any esoteric teaching. Based on this supposition, primates of religious and Gnostic organizations, hermetic and mysteriosophic orders, devotees and contemplators from the East and the West become the subjects of a research aimed at finding the fragment of spirituality that in each of them interprets and administers in his own way.
At a first stage the theoretical praxis determines the priorities of research, which must reach the apogee of every theorem and doctrine without lingering on marginal details. The analysis of the researcher must penetrate the heart of every teaching and violate it. This won't be a sacrilege, like many people believe, but it is the liberating action that will allow the reminiscence of the thought buried in the exoteric form from its sacredness. The resurrection of a fragment of initiatory science allows to deal with its topics on the grounds of certain cognitions, avoiding the use of often misleading suppositions, didactic propositions and improbable abstruseness.
The range of subject to re-compose is relevant, because the essence of the initiatory process has been fragmented in a sequel of interpretations that, if accepted individually, are inadequate to realize the purpose idealized in them. Therefore no doctrine or theorem can be considered prevalent on any other. Every interpretation is only a small instrument of truth; who participates to a single theorem or doctrine must not make the mistake of the musician who thinks that the sound of his instrument is more important than the others, forgetting that the musical sense of the whole orchestra prevails on individual virtuosity.
Despite the legendary and mythical covers, every kind of exoteric tradition can be somehow linked to the initiatory science, whose main function has always been to back up human progress. Initiatory science is the link where there is the annulment of the opposite interpretations of a unique principle, common Welfare, although it has been often transformed into the search for individual welfare. A model of excessive individualism characterizes this part of civilization, which instead of serving the development of the human being is subjected to the interests of a civilization that ends up upsetting any natural sense, even death.
But not everyone is enticed by the stereotypes of common life; many people abandon them and look for a goal that in time they will find out to be themselves. They rerun beaten tracks and, among all the possible paths, exoteric ones are certainly the most visible, closer and more accessible than esoteric and truly initiatory ones. But only the latter reveal in their folds the processes that drive individual progress as well as a people's progress. When certain inner processes are cyclically broken, the drive to progress grinds to a halt and the part of humankind that remains involved declines and its civilization as well is lost, replaced by a new one, stronger and fuller of energy.
Exoteric traditions are journeys connected to lesser interpretations, whose theorems are often repetitive and undefined; only a thorough exegesis can give them back their sense hidden in the promiscuity of formal aspects. Therefore it is important to acquire the ability to reinterpret the formal aspects of those traditions, because they are the cause of the proliferation of interpretative differences. It remains to be decided how to face so many differences. A solution offered to the researcher is the most radical.
Going back to the psychological synthesis that is at the origin of languages , and skimming the sense that should be communicated from the formal aspect (interpretation), the scholar will see the appearance of the common denominator that links the origin of every thought to the same root. By recognizing the root of human thought his destiny is revealed; from a common point of conscience, it involves in its inalienable trajectory the sense of its development and any possible goal.
The progress of human thought is linked to the evolution of psychic sensitivity. This development, in synthesis, becomes a precious instrument against any kind of division that prevents the re-unification of initiatory systems, seduced by the eagerness to stand out. But who has interests in separating will avoid indicating the path of reunification; indeed, he will strongly oppose it. The power that bases its strength on giving and taking pos-session (*) uses the hostility and fear of the defenseless in order to give them the feeling that any new and different idea can destabilize their destiny. Novelties and differences become the enemy to fight.
(*) Note: In Italian the word possesso (possession) is made of pos- and –sesso (sex), meaning that sex is included in the concept of possession
In actual fact the hostility and fear that can be felt for the unknown is only the consequence of insecurity. What strikes the most is the insecurity that can be felt for the hidden part of ourselves and for that part of the universe hidden in the individual and group unconsciousness. The universe inside us is certainly the less known and most feared vital habitat. Perhaps because it hides the mystery of life and death which some people love and many fear. For the latter death is not only a moment of transformation, but the most feared element of life, removed and hidden by their imagination. But in its maturity the mind discovers the logic that accompanies the genesis of any living expression; this turns the fear for death in the sense of intelligent acceptance that will resolve many taboos.
A common descent joins the multiplicity of universes and brings together every life contained in them.
An ancient representation of Hebrew mysticism shows the origin of every universe in the image of an upside Tree. This is the Sephirotic Tree or Tree of life. It is a tree with branches and fruits directed towards the ground, whilst its roots stretch in the sky. It is a very sensible representation that shows how the roots of life are in the sky rather than in the ground. In the ground we can find its fruits, which only if they are well cared for will generate wisdom and illumination in the being. Therefore in order to bring ‘to life' any initiatory system it is necessary to regenerate the metaphysics of its roots, making it flow from transcendence, where there can't be any difference.
‘Ubi maior minor cessat' , remembering that between wisdom and modesty in the presence of a greater element any prerogative of the lesser element ceases; it is clear, then, that initiation is not made to measure for man, but it is man who has to make himself to measure for initiation . But to introduce oneself to the sense of initiation avoiding any convenient reduction is a long and complex work.
Therefore it might be useful to introduce oneself to a first general view of the ideals that it contains. For example, a postulate resumes the first principles of initiatory thought: ‘there is only one human type and, like all his similes, he goes towards a unique initiation, a unique religion, a unique morale and a unique philosophy: all of them with an immaterial character. This generates uniform ethics, where everyone is considered for his spirit and the mind that is his formal expression. The body and its sexual aspects are only the tangible expression of its vital processes.' It follows that for the initiate the reasons that divide the initiatory praxis in a hail of doctrinal languages don't have any fundament. Indeed, there can't be divergence in those who consider as surreal the thousand interpretations that make the meaning of praxis with universal contents impenetrable. Neither there can be conflict in those who tend to the unique source of every religion. There can't be a feeling of separation in those who know that there aren't eastern or western initiations, but a unique initiation that involves the whole human being. It involves his higher and lower, his left and right, his masculine and feminine, his spirit and body, his mind and feeling. This postulate represents for every system the threshold of universality, to which the color white is appointed.
For this reason it is the color of light and the symbol of truth. White is the synthesis of all energy, the apex of every feeling and the accomplishment of every reality.
Lights and shadows of the Masonic Institution
Primitive Freemasonry was the refuge of many illuminated spirits, whose minds enriched its essence adding a vision of noble spirituality to the original requirement of solidarity and mutual aid that connected the people belonging to the craftsmen's guilds. But where light appears, shadow appears as well.
During its long process of assimilation and maturation, the Corporation of Freemasons was subjected to the penetration of ideas that sometimes had an opposite direction to its industrious and bourgeois nature. These ideas were bearers of class differences imported by opportunists and residue of aristocracy.
The two main currents of thought joined any lesser variant that ended up disappearing. The part that kept the initiatory originality was accompanied by a second part of a simpler, more practical and essentially exoterical kind.
The initiatory current reflected its joining principle in the ideal of a universal brotherhood made of a Chain of hearts united by the love for truth, altruism and tolerance. It was a link made of equals, whose hierarchy was recognized only in inalienable and immaterial values, building a model of relations that agreed to the principle of primus inter pares (first among equals). Here there wasn't lower or higher, but only a different proportion of rights and duties. This unifying drive, though, was opposed by the supporters of the principle of differentiation made by those who, whilst on the outside opposed Freemasonry, in the inside worked to weaken its initiatory credibility, reducing its ethical values and the freedom in spiritual research.
What was left of the unifying principle was the word ‘Brother', still used by Freemasons. But the good word wasn't followed by the necessary spiritual brotherhood; indeed, the desire to differentiate each other translated into a plethora of titles and honors that were extraordinarily similar to patents of nobility. If the creation of titles of rank stirred the wish for ostentation of many Freemasons, the most relevant fact was that they brought back into Freemasonry a condition that used to be exclusive of the clerical and aristocratic class-consciousness.
The search for spiritual nobility was left pending, to be replaced by a simpler nobility of title. Therefore classes, which were a characteristic of aristocracy and had been thrown out of the door of revolution, came back through the window of bourgeois vanity. Still today those who side with the principle of egalitarian, fraternal and universal unity are the protagonists of an unusual choice which is often shared only in appearance.
White Freemasonry
‘Initiatory morale can reach the splendor of spirituality'.
Freemasonry is a museum; in its shop-windows are often shown old remains of the human thought. They can be looked at in many ways, with the superficial and hurried eye of the incompetent, with the thorough eye of the scholar or with the analytical eye of the hermeneutist. Especially in the latter instance, the shop-windows can be the map of an initiatory journey.
The Corporation of Freemasons has been developed in the speculative model that we know today as Freemasonry, divided into blue, red, black and white Freemasonry. These colors express a ritual pyramid that, like the Scottish one, is made of a series of symbolical containers used to represent the different ways to experiment the initiatory path. They are different attempts with different formulas that have given different results, sometimes good ones, sometimes bad ones. But they all deserve to be considered and studied thoroughly. Indeed, if it is true that we learn from good things, it is also true that we learn more from mistakes. If the study of other people's mistakes helps us not to repeat them, it means that the error hasn't been in vain. Therefore the person who made the mistake is the master of all those who will do their best not to imitate him.
To interpret a Rite is not as easy as it looks.
The difficulty of the Scottish rite, for example, is not only to reach a correct exegesis of its meanings, but to rebuild the configuration that annuls the disarticulated vision that has replaced the correct succession of its representative pictures.
These pictures, placed asymmetrically, don't allow to visualize the real correlation of their meanings.
For all those who are not used to recognized its continuum , this sequence will appear as an unconnected dialogue, like a Book made of individual images that don't allow to grasp the meaning of the whole, but only give a view of single fragments.
Furthermore, each single image is presented in the form of a cryptic allegory that appears as a biblical fable, a mysterious legend or a chivalrous myth. It is impenetrable in the forms and shape that only through a thorough symbolic (and heraldic) analysis will lead the researcher to the threshold of the ‘real secret'.
Although the initiatory secret lies wrapped into the exoteric representations of Freemasonry, it has remained such because it has never been delegated to the will of administrative top ranks. This explains the Masonic dichotomy, where the heirs of operative tradition preserve and delegate the practical and exoteric ideal of the Freemasons, whilst the proselytes of a principle that reaches the metaphysics of any real conception keep passing to each other the ability to read in the appearance of forms in order to draw from common symbols the teaching that would otherwise remain silent.
But the initiatory secret is not held in the benchmarks of ancient memories. One can be guided to them, but the secret remains because it is not transmissible exteriorly. This secret, on the contrary, shows itself to the mind of the initiate only through his conscience. The latter reveals to itself the reality and origin of its metaphysical and universal nature. In order to reach the communion between mind and spirit it is necessary to accomplish a work of inner construction, a reform that reconstitutes the individuality of the candidate giving it new references, more advanced than those allowed by simple sciolism.
The initiatory sense ingrained in the term of White Freemasonry is the metamorphosis of the adept, which doesn't determine a degree, but indicates the accomplishment of a state of mind, or rather of spirit.
Despite the sense of all this is known, for bureaucrats, followers of the exoteric sense of the operating praxis, the degrees of White Freemasonry are only the coveted classification of a militant seniority. It is the accomplishment of a vertex that administrates common goods, who rules the form and preserves the integrity of ritual etiquette not always at the top level.
The acknowledgment of the initiatory soul of Freemasonry drives the adept to stream from practical and exoteric praxis and converge in a main swirl where there won't be any interpretative reduction of symbols, which will be exposed to his eyes in their real meanings. From that moment on, the latter will not be veiled in a symbolic form any more and their last defense will be only the ‘discretion' of the initiate.
The Sacred book of the initiate is not made of paper but of stone.
The Sacred book of the initiate is carved in the geometries of the Temple , in its forms and symbols. Its comprehension is assigned to the geometrical correlations that intertwine on the floor and between the latter and the vault above it. It is in the signs of the perambulations carried out on it (see The 4 Journeys of initiation ) and in the meanings of the third spiritual pillar that crosses the axis of the Temple invisible to the physical eyes.
The real secret is the knowledge of the metaphysical universe contained in the space of the Temple , whose synthesis is the expression of the silent sound called Eggregore. All the cyclicity of this universe is represented in the sky of its vault which, like in cathedrals, is the inner space of the dome that contains the sonorous theory hidden in the correlation of the stars , in the cadences of the celestial cycles and in the rhythms of its revolutions. The starry vault of the Temple , like the top of any other inner sky, included man's, hides the meaning of the divine conscience that has been fragmented inside any single member of the humankind. The divine Monad is the esoteric sense of astronomy (see Plato) directed to the interaction (as above as below, by Hermes Trismegistus) between the exterior macrocosm and its reflection, which is mirrored in the inner microcosm of every individual, so that everybody learns that individual and cosmos are parts of the same Unity.
Freemasonry is an initiatory complex made of three parts, which are considered the three stages of initiation. At the basis there is Ars Muratoria , an exoteric compound between ethics and morale. At the top there is Ars Pontificia that introduces to the third and last true initiation of Freemasonry. Between these two we find Ars Regia , which is directly addressed to the development of the faculties of the psyche of the adept.
The development of intellect, not only connected to memory, presumes a radical change in the individual soul. Usually personality involves the attention of one's conscience in the horizontal psychism, viz. in sensations that converge on the topics of materiality.
When personality is led through a series of crises and overcomes them, these trials of life determine the gradual expansion of conscience of the candidate. This is vertical psychism, viz. the expansion corresponding to the widening of the mental vision. Its width and increased intellectual ability is symbolized in Freemasonry by the gradual opening of the compass.
In a previous work we have dealt with the esoteric meaning of the three Masonic degrees. For simplicity we propose its synthesis here.
For those who tend to a realization that is deeper than that marked by cloaks, decorations and titles, the ‘ Steps of the Work ' are hidden in the alchemic meanings of its colors.
It will be necessary to recognize the seven stages of the alchemic Work implied in the esoteric meaning of blue, red, black and white Freemasonry . The seven stages of transmutation resumed in the formula of solvi et coagula are:
- Calcination,
- Putrefaction,
- Solution,
- Distillation.
They are the prelude to the last stage of metamorphosis of the conscience, which involves sublimation, unity and fixation and indicates the exponential growth of the physical conscience up to reaching the unification with its metaphysical counterpart, through the sublimation of the natural sub-stantia , obtaining the spiritual fixation.
The classification of the Tree Masonic Arts can be illustrated as follows: from the drawing of the lesser mysteries to the plane of the greater mysteries through 3 initiatory ‘Steps' .
Ars Muratoria. Water Element (plane of emotional reason); edifying and vivifying work of the physical personality, whose moral fundaments are summarily shared with the symbolic journey.
Ars Regia. Air Element (plane of super-rational reason and intellect): work where every principle of materialistic egocentrism will be annihilated and ‘putrefied', re-establishing the power of the mind in the action of initiatory will.
Ars Pontificia. Fire Element (ascetic plane of intuitive comprehension and inner revelation): work of sublimation of the mental substance of the physical personality (material sub-stantia ) in the unification with the metaphysical essence that joins the material and spiritual intentions of the initiate. This is the work of the pontifex, the builder of bridges of conscience that places himself between his own inner ‘sky and earth' and joins them in a unique domain.
The initiate blends in himself the five kingdoms of nature (mineral-vegetable-animal-human and spiritual) becoming himself a first unique Kingdom where the animal-man blends with the spiritual-man through the psychic-man forming again a unique soul.
Freemasonry has become a depositary of many initiatory memories. They are all experiments which, although not completely conclusive, must be questioned, remembering that the common denominator of all eastern and western experiences is related to the principle of metamorphosis.
The ancient knowledge of initiatory metamorphosis has been transfused in spiritual alchemy, which is not the common chimia of minerals or the science of metals, but the search for inner depth. Alchemic or metallic (*) transmutation are symbolical terms used to show knowledge and transformation of unconsciousness. The adept descends in the hell of his soul to rectify any aberration. A search for mutation, optimization and psychical evolution and conscience expansion, which used to find its instruments in the raja yoga (in the East), in spiritual alchemy (in the West) and in depth psychology in the present times.
(*) Metals – in the hermetic symbolism ‘metal' is a passion, emotion, a thought or an idea. These, depending on their substance, can be vulgar, ordinary or precious. To transmute a common or vulgar metal means to refine it until it becomes as ‘fine' as gold. This is the allegory of the inner work that the adept does on himself. Refining and transforming his own characteristics in order to turn them from common to precious.
This is the spiritual metamorphosis that, after so much work, will allow the initiate to appear.
The initiatory method involves mutation, optimization, evolution and expansion of the being, but it also goes further. True white initiation is meant to generate a pontifex , viz. an initiate who has been able to build an inner bridge to join the sky to the earth of his own being. In other words, the initiate is the man who sums in his conscience the spiritual reality with the reality of his physical personality. Therefore, by linking mind and spirit, the white initiation is meant to turn every human being into a complete conscience in every physical, mental and spiritual attribute.
Here is that, as the secret science states, the three goes back to being One. 
