Regularity, Freemasonry and utopia

by Athos A. Altomonte

When I read the question: “what does initiatory regularity mean?” something inside me answers that from an esoteric point of view, initiatory regularity is not recognition on paper, but the adherence to universal principles. Even more so because a license or a decree is a political and administrative act that doesn't give any quality. Perhaps it is utopia to expect that internationalism is not confused with universalism.

To become an international association doesn't have anything to do with initiatory regularity; on the contrary to adhere to the principle of universality does. It starts by abandoning patriotic principles and becoming super-national entities; abandoning hymns and nationalist flags, political and religious ideas that divide and make men different or even enemies.

I have been taught that the initiate is the equal citizen of the world, where equal stands for initiatorily uniform, not homologated by cultures, creeds and habits. The initiate is a true cosmopolite and he respects laws, habits and customs of the part of the world where he lives, knowing that exclusive principles prevent us from being in communion with the world.

I realize that I have expressed quite a strong idea and that it can be opposed by many rules written on paper. But rules, despite being necessary for a civil life, have the characteristic of being exclusive and therefore they are far away from the inclusiveness that is the fundament of universality.

Rules are the cure for chaos; like any other medicine, there are side effects. The soul is by nature free and omni-comprehensive and regularity can kill it. The only way out of the limits of exterior rules is to reach the balance of the Free Will, which is the true antidote to chaos. First, though, we should avoid mistaking it for the ‘freedom of choice', which is something else. Indeed, too often free choice is a cause of emotional (astral) chaos.