Hermes padre

 

HERMES FATHER OF THE MASONERÏA (part 1 of 2)
Victor. A. Cabello. Reyes

'In all ancient manuscript records containing the Legend of the Guild, mention is made of Hermes, as one of the Founders of Freemasonry'. 

(A.G. Mackey, Great Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, Volume II, pp. 710-711) (1)

Hermes the Father and Founder of Freemasonry, his attributes were the helmet with wings, winged sandals and the powerful rod or serpentine caduceus. 

Trismegisto = ''Three times big''. 

Mythical creator of civilization as responsible for the medicine of Royal Art and Philosopher's Stone, which according to Zosimus of Panópolis: 'it is stone but it is not stone, a valuable thing that has no value, something that acquires many forms that have no form, it is unknown but it is known by all'. (2) 

An ancient initiatory school of spiritual-esoteric line is planted here, whose roots extend to ancient and dusty antipodes. Consequently, it is nourished through millennia of solid 'currents and lines' of cults and between constant alchemical-solar meanings millenary, coming from a tradition of initiatory Mysterica.

 'Since the appearance of Freemasonry's Higher Grades, around 1740, and up to this day, the rites borrowing from this myth draw from alchemical symbology, and the Lodges practise those rites appeal to people fond of alchemy.' (3) 

Exclusive and refined Order in constant search of a high ritual theurgy of the Thoison d'Or. As we can see, the Freemasons were known in Antiquity under the name of = 'The Sons of Hermes'.

Undoubtedly, originally Freemasonry was an oral construction tradition that passed from mouth to ear through an arduous process of selective memorization. 

It is thanks to this valuable tradition, that Hermes=(lat. Mercurius) winged messenger and connoisseur of the Alchemical-Healing Royal Art presides over sacred science and is the one who grants Wisdom. 

He was traditionally revered as the glorious guide of souls and the Three Times Great, who possessed the wisdom and full knowledge of the three kingdoms, the mineral, vegetable and animal. 

Its millenary nature and essential historical origin goes back to the god Thoth the Egyptian bird Ibis. 

Faithfully assimilating to Thoth-Hermes as god of the Mystical Wisdom of writing and of a priestly practice of high theurgy. (4)

This noble and millenary tradition manages to go back, similar to strong Golden Chain, centuries before the development of Hermetics or literature inspired through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. 

Originally Freemasonry is derived from that same lapidary and constructive tradition; strictly oral. And it is thanks to a rigorous and strict memorization = Oral Tradition, that valuable and ancient knowledge is preserved and maintained-in perfect link between the operative and speculative and a tradition of ancestral wisdom. 

Subsequently, this written tradition collects the valuable legacy and assimilates the incomparable ANTEDILUVIAN tradition of construction of the Masonic Pillars. 

Referring to this A.G. Mackey, states: 'We are forced to resort to Oral Legends'. 

That tradition (Prisca Sapientia) manages to remain untouched through the preservation of the Primordial Tradition, which was never lost, and resurfaces from representative and iconographic pagan elements related -strongly- with antecedents in the Mysteries. (5) 

The Masonic scholar confirms: 'It is interesting to note that the Eighteenth-century Freemasons had lost all memory of this origin and meaning.' 

(E. Mazet, 2000)

 In any case, the old and wise Hermes, was excluded from the Constitutions 1723-1738. 

But, it is mentioned in the Ancient Duties and in the Cooke Manuscript in relation to the preservation of ancient wisdom and tradition within the 'Pillars of Marble and Laterus'.

 "And as the Polychron says, a great doctor named Pythagoras found one, and Hermes, the philosopher, found the other, and they taught the sciences which they found written in them." 

(Ms.Cooke)

On the other hand, there are first-rate documentary sources that look at the seminal importance of venerable Bede, a notable medieval sage, among ideological clues to valuable primary documents.

Now, these medieval documents manifest in general lines a solid direct contribution of the wisdom of the Monasteries in the Masonic Order and in the main figures among the educated Benedictine monks. 

For example, The monk Venerable Bede (672-735), and the renowned author of the Polychron the sage Ranulf Higden (1280-1364). 

Both mentioned in the Cooke Manuscript. Hermes, is the foundation of The Royal Art-Ars Regia or Sacred Science associated with alchemy and the Unique Primordial Tradition. (6) 

The hermetic tradition of Hermes' legacy reclaims to be an initiatory priestly vision that unites the spirit of secret teaching of alchemical transmutation of the apprentice; making it symbolically like a "brute stone". 

In this same sense, that traditional sapiential nature has as its center the sun, within the cyclical zodiac of the temple in projection and image of a cosmos on a micro-cosmic scale. 

Interestingly, neither the sun, the moon, the 12 pilasters or, zodiacal columns, Minerva, Hercules or Venus Citérea. 

Neither the 5 columns and other formative elements of the Masonic temple belong to the temple of the Hebrews. 

What's more, not even the same 'Phoenician Hiram King of Tyre'. 

The first circumstantial reference to Solomon's Temple is de=(c.1410). 

In the Cooke Manuscript, it reappears -later-, in the newly discovered Manuscript-Beswicke-Royds Ms. Of the sixteenth century-. 

So there is no reference to Solomon's Temple in the Regius Manuscript or Halliwell Poem (c.1390). 

'... Freemasonry, whose Hermetic origin-based from the beginning on the almost assimilation of the name of Hiram with Hermes, HRM being the common root -, astrological Kabbalistics, Pythagorean, constructive and alchemical is indisputable since it is present in its symbols and rite forming its own scaffolding, and even the whole of its building'. (6) 

We can still add that in the Sloane Manuscript Ms.3848 dated October 1646, two PILLARS stand out. (7) 

They are the Pillars of HERMES. 

One found by Hermenes=Hermes. 

'The masonic tradition is clear that the earliest knowledge of science-including geometry-was to be found on THESE PILLARS'. (8) 

The original legends and old manuscripts focus their attention directly on Hermes, Pythagoras and Euclid. (Problem 47-fortieth–seventh) Consequently following the Original Tradition of wisdom hidden in the two Pillars. 

The later legendary tradition of the Masonic and Solomonic relationship was elaborated from Cooke Ms., suppressing Dr. Anderson to Hermes. 

That of the temple and the two columns J.B. is born and develops from the rabbinical tradition assimilated in the order. 

Hermes is mentions in the Manuscript Iñigo Jones: Article VII and in the Grand Lodge No.1 of 1583 it is known as The "Great Hermarines". (9) 

At first Hermes is the Father of Freemasonry. 

Hiram is belatedly assimilated into Freemasonry... it comes later. (10)

'The first official elaboration into a connected account of the Salomonic Temple Legend in our Masonic Tradition-with names, places, and dates; numbers of workmen and conditions of work; and incidents of one kind or another associated with the erection of such an importance edifice-can no doubt be credited to our redoubtable Dr. Anderson'. (11)

By studying the edition of 1723, specifically that of 1738, one can verify the inclusion of new elements and the strengthening of the very new 'Solomonic Legend'. (12) 

Evident the existence of scattered elements mentioned in the Ancient Documents, old catechisms and Records, but the Solomonic Legend is another late addition in the history of the Masonic order. (13)

 '... is the well-known fact that the name of Hiram or Hiram Abiff is not openly mentioned in any of the earliest Old Charges or Manuscript Constitutions...' 

(Horne) 287. 

In it we can distinguish, the rooted Tradition that is deposited among some of the oldest, most valuable and diverse literary lines and Masonic rituals. 

In addition, widely documented among old archives or Masonic Records, Old Charges and Old Duties. 

In a way, it is fundamental to reconsider and establish the transmission of the solid and cultured Way of Hermes in the esoteric and occult oral tradition of the Order. 

Fully documented and verifiable subject present within numerous traditional and historical Masonic currents. And in the meantime, let us remember that within Freemasonry movement must be and try to start from the Point or from the superficial to the cube. 

'However, Freemasonry is a born survivor, since it has safeguarded a large part of the ancient legacy, so that today it is one of the great heirs of the ancient sciences, typical of pre-modern humanism, such as kabbalah, alchemy or sacred geometry: sciences of man and for man, genuine representatives of ancient humanism'. (14)

On the other hand and slight modifications, it is appropriate to study rigorously the Old Registers. They comment on the Sons of the "Cleric Euclid" with their Science and Wisdom. 

(Ms.Cooke)

 Presenting the Hermes Tradition between the lines, wisely veiled in allegories and illustrated by symbols. From the spiritual point of view, the noble sense and constant and courageous Tradition inherited only or One Truth remains and endures in them. "And they brought their sons before Euclid... and he taught them this ART, FREEMASONRY...'' 

(Ms. Cooke) 

Meanwhile, there is no doubt that Euclid, Pythagoras and Hermes are as valuable and pedagogically useful as those elements coming directly from the mysteries assimilated in the ritual theurgical practice of degrees. 

Which suggests is Ancestral Higher Hermetic Tradition or Perennial Sacred Science that we should look for within constant symbolic allegories in Ancient Masonic Records. 

As we can see, the Freemasons were known in Antiquity as the name of 'The Sons of Hermes'. 

No doubt that Originally Freemasonry was entirely an oral Tradition that passes from mouth to ear through an arduous process of selective memorization of the millenary Tradition of the Sons of Hermes.

 Hermes Father of Freemasonry (1 of 2)

 Victor. A. Cabello. Reyes.

 Bibliography:

1. Albert Gallatin Mackey, Volume III, p.p. 710-711.

2. Zosimus of Panopolis, Encyclopedia, 8 Books. 

3. Antoine Faivre, The Golden Fleece and Alchemy, p.52. 

4. Pierre Chauvin, A Chronicle of the Last Pagans, Harvard: 1990. 

5. P. Chauvin, 95. 

6. Federico González, Hermeticism and Freemasonry, p. 40. Also:

 A. Faivre, The Eternal Hermes, 1995.

7. Manuscript Sloane Ms.3848 dated October 1646.

8. Tobias Churton, Freemasonry the Reality, 157. 

9. Manuscript Iñigo Jones: Article VII and in the Gran Lodge No.1 of 1583. 

10. Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Quatuor Coronati Lodge –AQC-Research, vol. VII, number 2. And, see: Knoop, Jones, and Hamer, "Introduction", The Two Earliest Masonic MSS, Manchester: 1938. 

11. Alexander Horne, King Salomon's Temple in The Masonic Tradition, London, 1988, 32. 

12. Dr. Anderson, The New Book of Constitutions, 1738. 

13. Beswicke-Royds Ms.,Edinburgh Register House Ms.1696, Dumfries No.4.1710. 

14. Pere Sánchez Ferre, La Iconografía masonica y sus fuentes, REHMLAC Vol.6, Numero 1, Mayo-Diciembre, 2014,56.