ANTI-MASON
In the publisher’s office in the town of Batavia, New York, there were fresh proofs of the most recent printing, an exposé on the secret rites and oaths of Freemasonry by William Morgan. The gang of masked men felt vindicated for the severe beating they delivered to the owner of the printing press, and the destruction of his equipment. It was a warning to all. Nine days later the author of the exposé, William Morgan, was himself abducted. Secretly transported to the town of Canandaigua, he was found guilty in a mock trial by members of the Batavian Masonic Lodge. Morgan never returned home. It was alleged that three fanatical Freemasons tossed the weighted body of Morgan over Niagara Falls on the evening of September 11, 1826, but this was never proven. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that Morgan was murdered by a nefarious network of Freemasons. His mysterious disappearance caused a great deal of public protest.[1] Anti-Masonry became a political crusade that swept Western New York and New England. Opponents of Masonry claimed that the Fraternity was a threat to free government; they portrayed Masons as a dangerous cabal intent on infiltrating the inner machinations of the Republic (with aims exerting a secret agenda.) President Andrew Jackson, a high-ranking Mason, added validity to their concerns. Critics of Jackson leaped at this opportunity and created America’s earliest third party, the “Anti-Masonic Party.”[2] By 1830 there were thirty-three Anti-Masons in the New York Assembly and eight in State Senate. In popularity, it was second only to Martin Van Buren’s political machine, “The Albany Regency.”[3]
The people of America were already somewhat familiar with the ideas of Masonry. Among the Masonic works circulating in the new Republic was Thomas Smith Webb’s Freemason’s Monitor. This work had a significant impact on the shaping of the Masonic Ritual in North America, specifically the high degree Masonry of the York Rite. His literature about these Lodges earned him the moniker “Founding Father of the York Rite.”[4] His description of the degree of the “Knights Of The Ninth Arch” even explained the Enochian myth to the rural peoples of the land.
Enoch, the son of Jared, was the sixth son in descent from Adam, and lived in the fear and love of his Maker. Enoch, being inspired by the Most High, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision, built a temple underground, and dedicated the same to God. Methuselah, the son of Enoch, constructed the building, without being acquainted with his father’s motives. This happened in the part of the world, which was afterwards called the land of Canaan, and since known by the name of the Holy Land. Enoch caused a triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; he enriched it with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate, of the same form. He then engraved upon it the ineffable characters, and placed it on a triangular pedestal of white marble which he deposited in the deepest arch. When Enoch’s temple was completed, he made a door of stone, and put a ring of iron therein, by which it might be occasionally raised; and placed it over the opening of the arch, that the matters enclosed therein might be preserved from the universal destruction impending. And none but Enoch knew of the treasure which the arches contained. And, behold, the wickedness of mankind increased more, and became grievous in the sight of the Lord, and God threatened to destroy the whole world. Enoch, perceiving that the knowledge of the arts was likely to be lost in the general destruction, and being desirous of preserving the principles of sciences, for the posterity of those whom God should be pleased to spare, built two great pillars on the top of the highest mountain, the one of brass to withstand water, the other of marble, to withstand fire; and he engraved on the pillar of brass the principles of the liberal arts, particularly of masonry.[5]
According to this tradition, after the burial of the plates, many centuries pass until they are re-discovered by Solomon’s Masons while work is being excavated for his Temple to God. Webb states:
The same divine history particularly informs us of the different movements of the Israelites, until they became possessed of the land of promise, and of the succeeding events until the Divine Providence was pleased to give the scepter to David; who, though fully determined to build a temple to the Most High, could never begin it; that honor being reserved for his son. Solomon, being the wisest of princes, had fully in remembrance of his promises of God to Moses, that some of his successors, in fullness of time, should discover his holy name; and his wisdom inspired him to believe, that this could not be accomplished until he erected and consecrated a temple to the living God, in which he might deposit the precious treasures. Accordingly, Solomon began to build, in the fourth year of his reign, agreeably a plan given to him by David his father, upon the ark of alliance. He chose a spot for this purpose, the most beautiful and healthy in all of Jerusalem. The number of the grand and sublime elected , were at first three, and now consisted of five; and continued so until the temple was completed and dedicated; when king Solomon, as a reward for their faithful services, admitted to this degree the twelve grandmasters, who had faithfully presided over the twelve tribes; also one other grand master architect. Nine ancient grand masters, eminent for their virtue, were chosen knights of the royal arch, and shortly afterwards were admitted to the sublime degree of perfection. You have been informed in what manner the number of the grand elect was augmented to twenty-seven, which is the cube of three: they consisted of two kings, three knights of the royal arch, twelve commanders of the twelve tribes, nine elected grandmasters, and one grand master architect. This lodge is closed by the mysterious number.[6]
It was during this public conversation on Masonry that a young man in his early twenties, Joseph Smith, was composing The Book Of Mormon in Western New York. Though born in Vermont, Smith and his family moved to Palmyra, New York, in 1816. At the time there were “wise men” and “cunning persons” engaged in the “supernatural economy” that was popular in that region during this time. Men and women who used divination and occult practices to find lost and stolen objects.[7] The use of seer-stones, scrying for buried treasure, and belief in spirits were commonplace. Among the religious artifacts in the possession of the Smith family were tools to be used in ritual magic acts, like lamens (small, folded parchments used for magical rituals,) a Jupiter talisman, and a dagger ornamented in planetary sigils. The young Joseph Smith was among these practitioners (and something of a treasure seeker.)[8] Smith was reportedly visited by God and Jesus in 1820 and an angel named Moroni in 1823. The latter was a prophet-warrior from an ancient people called the Nephites, a nation that once peopled the Americas according to Moroni. The full history of the Nephites, and other lost stories, were written down on buried Golden Plates. Smith, under the direction of Moroni, retrieved these Golden Plates and, using his seer stones, was able to translate the text into English which he published in 1830 under the title, The Book Of Mormon. The contents of this lost Scripture, if true, revealed (among other things) a history of Jesus in America, and the existence of people known as Nephites and Lamanites (connected to the Lost Tribes of Israel.) This was of particular interest to Americans at the time. As the contemporary chronicler John L. Stephens noted, questions were being asked about the “first peopling of America.” Some said the Native Americans were a separate race, “not descended from the same common father with the rest of mankind.” Others ascribed their origin to “some remnant of the antediluvian inhabitants of the earth who survived the deluge which swept away the greatest part of the human species in the days of Noah.” (In 1807 Alexander Von Humboldt published his theory that South America and Africa were once connected.)[9] Stephens, alluding to Smith, adds: “An enterprising American has turned the tables on the Old World and planted the ark itself within the State of New York.”[10]
While Joseph Smith was visited by the celestial messengers, his brother, Hyrum, had successfully petitioned for initiation into York Rite Masonry. He would have been exposed to a system that included three distinct levels: “Entered Apprentice,” “Fellow Craft,” and “Master Mason.” Each stage included the requisite instructions in morals and symbolism, and secret signs, passwords, handgrips, with penalties for revealing secrets.[11] Still, some saw allusions to Anti-Masonry in The Book Of Mormon, particularly the references to the Gadianton Robbers, a secret society bound by a sacred oath to the protection of their fraternity (with the avowed goal of overthrowing the democratic Nephite Government.)[12] The Gadianton Robbers grew so powerful that they ultimately orchestrated the events that culminated in the genocide of Moroni and the Nephite people. According to The Book Of Mormon, Moroni issued this grave warning to the people of the 1830s before burying the “Golden Plates” on the Hill Cumorah. “And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations to get power and gain, until they shall be spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed.”[13]
OHIO
After The Book of Mormon was published, Smith began to re-evaluate his own role and purpose. People began to accept the revelations contained within Smith’s “Golden Bible” as the divine word of God. A small following of neighbors (mostly farmers and teachers,) began to coalesce. Smith developed an expanded sense of what this revelation could be. It was not merely a revealed book, this was a new church. On April 6, 1830, “The Church Of Christ” was established. As Smith’s followers delved into the mysteries of this new tome from God, questions arose regarding a passage in which Christ, upon his arrival in the Americas, gave his Nephite apostles the authority to baptize. The congregants of The Church Of Christ asked whether or not the authority to baptize others still held true. Smith soon received a message from John the Baptist stating that he was to reinstate the ancient “priesthood of Aaron.” Poor farmers were elevated into priests, elders, and teachers, and their mission was to seek out others to join them In 1830, Smith and a handful of missionaries, early converts to his restorationist church, went West to preach to the Native Americans, believing them to be the descendants of the Nephites and Lamanites. He planned on rebuilding the city of Zion, a city that was crucial in heralding Christ’s return. The return of the Native Americans back into the fold would offer critical aid in the construction of the New Jerusalem. The Mormon missionaries encountered a minister named Sidney Rigdon, an imposing orator and well-educated theologian. Impressed by The Book Of Mormon, he and several others in his congregation were baptized in this new faith. These new converts formed the core of a new Mormon community in Kirtland, Ohio. The following January, Smith and his followers decided to relocate to Ohio.[14]
Though The Book of Mormon was the most important text, it was not the only work Smith produced. Between 1831 and 1844, several editions of revelations (dutifully recorded by scribes) were published under the title Doctrine And Covenants. During these years Smith tasked himself with producing new translations of the Bible and revealing lost works of ancient prophets. What emerged thematically in these works was an emphasis on Zion, a perfect and harmonious society living in accordance with the commandments of God. Smith’s Scriptures were divided into two categories: “Revelation” and “Commandment.” Both were decreed from heaven (and most often in the voice of God.) These instructions typically addressed the immediate circumstances that the Mormon community had encountered. Sometimes they were addressed directly to particular individuals, while at other times they were an extended theological discourse of a cosmological nature (the authority of priesthood, eschatology, the afterlife, etc.)
These continual revelations from God produced a dynamic and evolving religious tradition. On February 16, 1832, for example, Smith and Rigdon received a dramatic revelation when contemplating John 5:29: “And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” They received what Mormon publications later termed “The Vision.” Smith and Rigdon were allowed to peer into heaven and witness the throne of God, the throngs of the faithful, and the casting out of Satan from heaven. “The Vision” offered further insight into the nature of the degrees of glory for the resurrected bodies as explained by St. Paul. They learned that heaven was three-tiered (Celestial, Terrestrial, and Telestial,) each of which served as a host for saved individuals, but corresponding to their level of salvific exaltation. The highest heaven (Celestial) was reserved for Christians who had fully received the ordinances of the gospel. The second tier (Terrestrial) was for “honorable men of the earth” who were not Christian. The last tier (Telestial) was filled by the wicked, “the liars and sorcerers and adulterers.” Everyone except those who denied Christ to his face (“sons of perdition”) received some reward in the afterlife. Mormonism adopted one of its most salient theological developments—salvation in communal terms (and an optimism in humanity’s potential to gain it.)[15]
As Smith matured into his role as prophet, his attention was focused on revolutionizing the social order. Challenges to his authority, however, began to arise. In an atmosphere that fostered personal revelations, it was natural that many people began to receive their own divine messages. Some of these revelations ran counter to Smith’s message. To consolidate his authority as prophet was compelled to establish a system of order. This resulted in a hierarchy that expanded and categorized different priestly offices. There was the lower priesthood that had previously been revealed, “Aaronic,” and the higher priesthood of “Melchizedek.” Smith also experienced a vision of the prophet Elijah, who granted him the secret “keys of dispensation” that he promised to reveal to his followers when they were more fully prepared for its meaning. Offices such as “Deacon,” “Elder,” and “Seventy” were grouped into one of these priesthoods. They were then ordained and organized into “Quorums” that were led by a president. Smith, the President of the whole church, took two counselors to form the “First Presidency” under which these Quorums convened. Mormonism was now a sacramental religion. Salvation was acquired through sacerdotal rites administered through an officially recognized priesthood. (Believers held that the priesthood office enabled one to access the powers of God to cast out demons, heal, bless, and consecrate.) By institutionalizing access to God, Smith alleviated the problem of the excessive charismatic tendencies that could potentially rival his authority. It also created an infrastructure that provided stability and survival for the church after his death.[16]
POLYGAMY
It was around this time that the controversial practice of polygamy began seeping into Mormon praxis. This practice, however, was not without precedent in America. The previous century saw several experiments in the institution of marriage. At the end of the 1740s, a group of dissenting Congregationalist (Puritan) Christians split off on their own, believing that the established churches they once belonged to could not be reformed from within. They called themselves “Come-Outers” or “Separates,” from 2 Corinthian 6:17: “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” From this schism came the Blackstone Valley Immortalists. (This appellation came from their exegesis of John 11:25-26: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”)[17] We find members of their congregation practicing unorthodox marriage rites. In 1749 a woman named Molly Ward left her husband for her “spiritual husband,” a man named Solomon Finney. As one of their divines stated in 1751: “Christians ought to marry in the church without any regard to Babylon, as he called rulers in the State.” The doctrine that would later be known as “spiritual wifery” spread among the Immortalists of the Blackstone Valley and even among the Separate and Baptist churches.[18] It was analogous to the conception of a “Twin Flames” (though that word did not come about until Marie Corelli’s 1886 novel, A Romance Of Two Worlds.)[19] The radical reinterpretation would be further explored in the 1750s with the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg who suggested the idea of a “soul mate” in the afterlife.[20] Swedenborg’s conception of marriage was multi-dimensional, declaring that humans would be partnered with their true spiritual mates in heaven.[21] The idea of plural wives was, perhaps, introduced to the Mormons by their missionary encounter with Jacob Cochran, a preacher who was born in Enfield, New Hampshire on July 9, 1782.[22] As early as 1817 he and his followers in Maine practiced both “spiritual wifery” and polygamy (citing passages in the Bible that supported this practice.)[23] “Jake Cochran was a John the Baptist for the Mormon apostles, who appeared on his battleground and gathered up the spoils,” it was said. “The Cochran craze paved the way for a Mormon invasion in the Saco Valley.”[24]
TEMPLE CULTUS
After establishing his priestly hierarchy, Sith was now able to begin building his temple for the rites to be performed. In January 1833, Smith received a revelation that commanded him to build a temple to the Most High in Kirtland, Ohio. Before the Kirtland Temple was dedicated (March 27, 1836,) Smith introduced to his priests the ordinances that can be considered the proto-endowment ritual. These ceremonies were in preparation for the coming spiritual gifts that would be received in the House of the Lord. It was a simple, staged ceremony comprised of the washing and anointing of the body, and of sealings and blessings. This ritual was patterned after similar descriptions found in the Bible (Lev. 8; Mark 6:13; Luke 4:18, 7:38, 44; John 13:16, Tim. 5:10; James 5:14.) After washing and perfuming each other in an adjacent building, Smith and his associates entered the unfinished temple. Here the office of the First Presidency consecrated oil and laid hands on each other’s heads, and they proceeded to bless and anoint one another to their respective offices. The prolific developments in doctrinal revelation from Smith, as well as the evolving sacramental praxis of worship that occurred in Kirtland, were instrumental in the transformation of Mormonism. This was now a church that was unique among the restoration sects that peppered the geography of the early American Republic. Fortune turned against Smith and his followers. Driven away from Ohio by violent mobs, they were forced to abandon Zion for a new promised land. In 1837 the Church began its journey further west to Nauvoo, Illinois.[25]
After fleeing the heated political atmosphere in Kirtland, and narrow run-ins with adversaries (both inside and outside the church,) Smith developed an ever-present fear of enemies. He was convinced that by aligning with an oath-bound fraternity, he and his church would be afforded an extra layer of protection. The secrecy demanded from all Masonic initiates may have, in his mind, reinforced the secrecy of the endowment oaths of the Church, especially to those familiar with both institutions. It is also possible that Smith’s growing preoccupation with translations and re-interpretations of ancient texts (specifically his Book Of Abraham in the Spring of 1842) inspired him to explore the possibilities of tapping into the mysteries that Freemasonry claimed access to. (His spiritual lexicon already showed hints of shared hierophonies with Freemasonry.) By officially joining the Masons, Smith would also have a reference on which to model his sacred re-enactments. En route to Nauvoo, Smith briefly stayed in Far West, Missouri. There he met George and Lucinda Harris. Lucinda, the widow of William Morgan, became very close to Smith (eventually becoming one of his first plural wives.) His relationship with the wife of the man whose mysterious disappearance was linked to the publishing of Masonry’s secrets certainly provided another layer of insight into the Craft.[26] Other notable Mormons (all of whom had prior membership in Masonry before accepting the Church) included James Adams (Deputy Grand Master of Illinois,) Heber C. Kimball, Brigham Young, and John C. Bennett (who likely accelerated Smith’s adoption of Freemasonry as a means to end persecution against the Church.) These Masons petitioned the Illinois Grand Lodge in the Summer of 1841 for the right to establish a Masonic Lodge in Nauvoo. Authority was granted by a Grand Master who had the hopes of Mormon support in an upcoming election. Smith’s first official experience with Freemasonry occurred five months before the first Nauvoo incarnation of the Temple Endowment Ceremony. On December 30, 1841, he petitioned for membership in the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge. The lodge’s investigation proved favorable, and he was formally initiated as an Entered Apprentice Mason on March 15, 1842. The following day he and Rigdon, by a special dispensation from the Grand Master, were advanced at sight through “the three several degrees of the Ancient York Masonry.”[27]
Having achieved the rank of Fellow Craft and Master Mason, Smith’s elevation to the Sublime Degree without having any prior participation in the Fraternity, and without the customary thirty-day waiting period between degrees, was highly atypical. (This rapid ascension to Master Mason was likely a political maneuver orchestrated by the Grand Master who sought Mormon support.) Within a few months, the Nauvoo Lodge had nearly three hundred members, exceeding in rank more than all of the other Lodges in Illinois combined. Mormon enthusiasm for Masonry, however, raised the suspicion of the Illinois Grand Lodge. They feared that Nauvoo’s brand of the Craft diluted Masonry’s “ancient landmarks,” by admitting so many applicants too quickly.[28] Smith had his own designs for Masonry, and it mattered little if it alienated the Grand Lodge. The day after he was elevated to Master Mason, Smith and his wife, Emma, along with nineteen other women, established an order called the Female Relief Society. Founded as a charitable association with the express purpose of providing aid to the poor, Masonic terminology was often employed when Smith referred to the society. He expressed his wish that these women be “sufficiently skill’d in Masonry to keep a secret.”[29] Over the next several weeks, Smith would participate in other Lodge meetings; witnessing, studying, and dissecting the Entered Apprentice initiation five times, the Fellow Craft initiation three times, and the Master Mason initiation five times, by the Spring of 1842 his language had a distinctly Masonic flavor.[30] His discourse on the “keys of the Kingdom” in particular used language pregnant with Masonic meaning. The key, a symbol of Masonic secrecy, was populated with a vocabulary of signs, tokens, and handgrips designed to protect its secrets. The same would be true of the Mormon Temple Ritual: “The keys are certain signs and words, which cannot be revealed […] till the Temple is completed. The rich can only get them in the Temple […]There are signs in heaven, earth and hell, the Elders must know them all to be endowed with power.”[31]
Two months after his Masonic initiation, Smith revealed the Nauvoo Temple Endowment Ceremony to his trusted confidantes in the upper story of a house adjacent to the Temple that was being built. Smith told them that the initiates would prepare their bodies by ritual ablution. This would be followed by self-anointing with holy oil. This symbolic act would ritually remove the sins of the world and begin the transition into the Celestial Kingdom.[32] The initiate would next be clothed in ritual garments to participate in the miracle play of the Temple Endowment Ceremony. The initiate then received a new name that they would use in the Celestial Kingdom. On April 2, 1843, Smith provided instructions concerning a “white stone” mentioned in Revelation 2:17.[33] “And a white stone is given to each of those who come into the celestial kingdom, whereon is a new name written, which no man knoweth save that he receiveth it. The new name is the keyword.”[34] Throughout the ceremony, the initiate (who is referred to as Adam for the remainder of the ceremony) would be taken through a dramatization of the history of the world. The Masonic elements echoed in this phase can be seen in the conferral of the new name and the donning of the white apron. The original apron used in the Mormon Temple Endowment ceremony utilized a white apron with a green fig leaf sewn to it, as well as the Masonic square and compass. The miracle plays are continued in the next phase of the ceremony. The sacred dramaturgy re-enacts the Creation and the Fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The scenes included three Creation gods: Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael. The initiate, as the surrogate Adam, experiences the fallen condition and the redemptive powers of the Mormon priesthood. In the third phase of the ceremony, the initiates would be given the First and Second Tokens of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods. Handgrips, signs, and coded passwords would be taught to the initiate before they finally reach the goal of the veil that separates the temporal world from the celestial kingdom. On their path to the veil, the initiate would witness further ritual re-enactments. (Here they would experience an encounter between Adam, Satan, and an assortment of sectarian preachers representing the apostasy of the Christian church.) The initiate would then be robed in priestly garments whereupon they would form a prayer circle and chant in the pure Adamic language. In the Masonic counterpart of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony, the initiates encircle an altar, place their left hand around their neighbor, join hands, and repeat the words of the presiding masters. The Mormon “lecture at the veil” was analogous to the explanatory lecture that followed the conferral of degrees in the Royal Arch tradition. The language used in the tokens and penalties of the Mormon priesthood had exact parallels in Freemasonry, progressing in the first three degrees to the higher degrees of the Royal Arch. The penalty for disclosing secrets, the priestly handgrip, and bodily signs, all had Masonic antecedents. Parallels with the Royal Arch extended to the use of the temple veil as a locus for ritual catechisms as well as the employment of ritual actors representing God. The similarities between the ritual drama of creation in the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony and its Masonic counterpart were more fully realized in the higher Masonic degrees. The seventh degree of the Royal Arch addressed the initiate on the Creation and Fall in Eden. In this narrative, a scroll is taken from a golden box, given to Adam, and passed down several generations until it is received by King Solomon who eventually buries this encrypted knowledge in a vaulted arch. In the twenty-eighth degree of the Scottish Rite, an actor representing Adam guides the candidate through the ritual and engages in a discourse on the “quintessence of the Elements,” “the fire of Philosophers” and the “Philosopher’s Stone.” Here, seven cherubim, including Michael, are present with Adam at the Creation, reminiscent of the plurality of the three Mormon creation gods.[35]
Since the beginning of the formation of his church, Smith had promised to fully reveal the keys of dispensation and immortal perfectibility. The advent of the Temple Endowment Ceremony in Nauvoo was a realization of that promise. The surrogate Adam of the Mormon ritual dramaturgy could experience cosmic history and gain the promised keys of admission into the celestial kingdom. Those faithful who participated in the Temple Endowment Ceremony were rewarded with the highest level of heaven. For believers, this was an apotheosis in a cosmos that rejected creation ex nihilo, where matter and spirit have existed for eternity and are integrally connected. The Temple Endowment Ceremony continued to develop as more secret and controversial doctrines were adopted. In the spring of 1843, Smith revealed that only through a special “sealing” ritual could a marriage on earth be guaranteed to last through eternity in the heavens. The three degrees of heavenly glory in the celestial kingdom were linked to three degrees of marriage. Only those who had been sealed in the “new and everlasting covenant” of celestial marriage would have the opportunity for exaltation in the celestial kingdom. Celestial marriage would help realize the promise of apotheosis, having a plurality of wives and their multitude of children would increase the familial kingdom and transfigure the dutiful Mormon patriarch into higher degrees of glory. With the expanse of the endowment ceremony through continuing revelation, there came with it an expansion of the hierarchy of priesthood authority. The Melchizedek priesthood, as mentioned, was granted the authority to “seal up the Saints to eternal life.”[36]
The keys of dispensation that were promised in Kirtland were finally divulged in the autumn of 1843 with the inauguration of the ritual of the Second Anointing, The second the fullness or the highest conferred blessing of priesthood offices (the Aaronic Priesthood and the Melchizedek Priesthood.) On August 27, 1843, Smith gave a lecture on the orders of the priesthood. The Aaronic Priesthood maintained the power of ministering ordinances and the “patriarchal power” of Abraham. The Melchizedek Priesthood granted the Saints the “kingly powers” to “administer […] endless lives to the sons and daughters of Adam.” The ultimate priesthood of the second anointing was the realization of the fullness of the priesthood. The ultimate priesthood power “the spirit power and calling of Elijah,” enabled the Melchizedek access to the “Keys to the Kingdom of God.” Giving these priests the authority to “perform all the ordinances belonging to the Kingdom of God.” First announced in Kirtland in 1836, and elaborated upon in 1842 with the revelation of the provocative doctrine of baptism for the dead, the most powerful of these ordinances was the ability to perform a “sealing [of] the hearts of the fathers unto the children and the hearts of the children unto the fathers [,] even those who are in heaven.” The powerful reward that came with the blessing of the priesthood of the Second Anointing was the nearly uncompromised ability to achieve godhood in the highest degree of the celestial heaven by being “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” In a sermon regarding his penultimate revelation, Smith all but guaranteed divinity in the celestial kingdom to those who were sealed in the temple by the ordinance of celestial marriage and received the Second Anointing. Smith states:
Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have call power, and the angels are subject unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my law ye cannot attain to this glory.[37]
Smith triumphantly claimed the power to unite the living with dead, in one singular sacred universe of apotheotic soteriology. He had unlocked and fulfilled the cryptic passages of the books of Malachi and Revelation in a theology of ordinances fused to his temple cultus. The Mormon temple allowed the individual to experience a ritual transfiguration that restated the tenets of a hermetic tradition. The concept of alchemical marriage, popularized in the medieval Rosicrucian text, The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz, had encouraged varied interpretations of sexual and marital unions. Rosicrucianism, which greatly influenced the institutions of speculative Freemasonry, provides another connection of Hermetic tradition to the Mormon Temple Endowment. At least one Masonic text that espoused an alchemical theory of elemental marriage (and would have been available in Nauvoo in 1840,) was the lecture on the Philosophical Lodge in the rite of the Knight Of The Sun.[38] Towards the end of his life, Smith gravitated towards an ancient understanding of a dual-gendered divinity that lay at the heart of Hermetic theology, and it was said that he spoke of a vision of “the Father seated upon a throne” and “the Mother also.”[39] In the sacred dramaturgy enacted within the Mormon Temple Complex, the surrogate Adam experiences the Creation, the Fall, the redemption, and the admittance into the Celestial Kingdom by the authority of its priesthood. The expansion of ordinances later included the sealing of Celestial Marriage. The Alchemical tradition centered on experiments intended to distill the prima materia from corrupted elements, replicated Creation, and dissolved said corruption resulting from the Fall, with hopes of a material redemption. The marriage of the elements of mercury and sulphur (the Hermetic Sun King and Moon Queen) would fuse in sexual union, and the seed that was produced would experience its own sequence of tiered exaltation. The seed of the alchemical marriage would die, decay, and be washed before achieving its final state of quintessence, the corporeal manifestation of immortal perfection otherwise known as the Philosopher’s Stone, or in Hermetic parlance, the Primal Adam. In both the Mormon endowment ceremony and alchemical philosophy the corrupting outcome of the Fall is overcome, and divine perfection was realized. Within these new revelations of Mormon theology, divine grace was only what opened the universal door to salvation. Individual merit and obedience to the laws determined the exact positioning of divine exaltation in the afterlife. The Mormon priesthood held the sole authority to administer the ordinances granting entry into eternal life. The sacred powers of this ecclesiastical class transcended the earth and heavens; by sealing souls to the celestial kingdom, they commanded God to save and exalt the Mormon faithful. The priestly powers of the ordinance, like the alchemist, channeled and manipulated the magical currents that ran through the visible and invisible worlds. Though divine in origin, this power could be siphoned and controlled by the proper authority. To Smith and the Mormons, this authority was granted to the office of the priesthood of the Second Anointing. Salvation and apotheosis were not subject to the doctrine of grace alone. Rather, salvation came through humble servitude to a sacred ordinance resulting in a new sin-free dispensation. Mormons, if they followed the authority of their prophet, were inherently perfectible.
Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, George Miller, and Willard Richards At Order Lodge.[40]
Smith undeniably utilized Masonry in the Endowment Ceremony. Just as he had translated and re-interpreted Scripture to restore what he understood to be the lost Christian truth, so, too, would he restore Freemasonry to its “uncorrupted truth.” Masonry, as the Mormons performed it, became increasingly more unorthodox in contrast to the Illinois Lodge’s traditional practice. Smith, it would seem, initially embraced Masonry before subsequently altering it in a process that modified, expanded, and amplified it by the authority of his continuing revelation.[41] Early Mormon leaders understood Freemasonry to have originated in Solomon’s Temple, but it was corrupted by the same Great Apostasy that destroyed the Church. Smith’s expansion and revisions of Masonic rituals were thus understood to be another example of the Prophet’s miracle of restoration.[42] According to Mormons, the pure Masonry of Adam, Enoch, and their descendants had been corrupted by Cainite usurpers. Smith, as Prophet, had uncovered and restored the Adamic keys in their original authoritative form. Smith declared that the true heir of Adam’s paradisial powers was the Mormon priesthood, not the Freemasons.
THE WIDOW’S SON
To the Mormons, the true extent of Masonic corruption was made fully manifest in their Prophet’s martyrdom in Carthage jail. As was the case in Kirtland, where the Mormon settlement collapsed under the stress of economic tensions and dissenting opinions, Nauvoo faced a similar fate. Rising gentile (non-Mormon) hostility, economic depression, and the emergence of influential dissenters rallied against the authoritarian hierarchy of the Mormon church. Charges of polygamy (which had been leveled against the church hierarchy since Kirtland) became the focus of a newspaper campaign against Smith. The Nauvoo Expositor, a paper created by these dissenters, published an attack on Smith on June 7, 1844. Three days later, its office was destroyed by the orders of the city council. This act of aggression on Smith’s part was instrumental in galvanizing his detractors to take action against him. Illinois Governor, Thomas Ford, threatened to raise a large militia if Smith refused to surrender. Initially fleeing across the Mississippi in hopes of reaching the safety of the Rocky Mountains, Smith had a change of heart and returned to Illinois, resigned to meet his fate.
“I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summer’s morning,” he reportedly told a band of loyal militia men before turning himself. “I have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men. If they take my life I shall die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall be said of me ‘He was murdered in cold blood!’”[43]
On June 27, 1844, while he awaited his trial in a Carthage jailhouse, an armed mob stormed his cell and opened fire. Smith attempted an escape through a window before the fatal shot found him. His last words were reportedly an attempted Masonic distress call: “O Lord My God, Is there no help for the widow’s son.” Among the possessions found on his body was an alchemical Jupiter Talisman engraved with Hermetic sigils.[44]
SOURCES:
[1] Brodie, Fawn M. No Man Knows My History: The Life Of Joseph Smith. Random House. New York, New York. (1971): 63.
[2] Kutolowski, Kathleen Smith. “Freemasonry And Community In The Early Republic: The Case For Antimasonic Anxieties.” American Quarterly. Vol. XXXIV, No. 5 (Winter 1982): 543-561.
[3] Baldasty, Gerald J. “The New York State Political Press And Antimasonry.” New York History. Vol. LXIV, No. 3 (July 1983): 260-279.
[4] Abbot Jr., Norris G. “Founding Father Of The York Rite.” Northern Light. Vol. II No.1 (1971.)
[5] Webb, Thomas Smith. The Freemason’s Monitor. Cushing & Appleton. Salem, Massachusetts. (1808): 283-289.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Butler, Jon. “Magic, Astrology, And The Early American Religious Heritage, 1600-1760.” The American Historical Review. Vol. LXXXIV, No. 2 (April 1979): 317-346; Taylor, Alan. “The Early Republic’s Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking In The American Northeast, 1780-1830.” American Quarterly. Vol. XXXVIII, No. 1 (Spring 1986): 6-34.
[8] Quinn, Dennis Michael. Early Mormonism And The Magic World View. Signature Books. Salt Lake City, Utah. (1998): 240.
[9] Harvey, Eleanor Jones. Alexander Von Humboldt And The United States: Art, Nature, And Culture. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey. (2020): 27.
[10] Stephens, John L. Incidents Of Travel In Central America, Chiapas, And Yucatan: Vol. I. Harper & Brothers. New York, New York. (1841): 96.
[11] Buerger, David J. “The Development Of The Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony.” Dialogue: A Journal Of Mormon Thought. Vol. XX, No. 4 (Winter 1987): 33-76.
[12] The Book of Helaman is one of the books that make up The Book of Mormon. It is the history of the Nephites and the Lamanites covering the time period between 52 BCE and 1 BCE. 2 Helaman 2:8-11 in The Book Of Mormon states: “And when the servant of Helaman had known all the heart of Kishkumen, and how that it was his object to murder, and also that it was the object of all those who belonged to his band to murder, and to rob, and to gain power, (and this was their secret plan, and their combination) the servant of Helaman said unto Kishkumen: Let us go forth unto the judgment-seat. Now this did please Kishkumen exceedingly, for he did suppose that he should accomplish his design; but behold, the servant of Helaman, as they were going forth unto the judgment-seat, did stab Kishkumen even to the heart, that he fell dead without a groan. And he ran and told Helaman all the things which he had seen, and heard, and done. And it came to pass that Helaman did send forth to take this band of robbers and secret murderers, that they might be executed according to the law. But behold, when Gadianton had found that Kishkumen did not return he feared lest that he should be destroyed; therefore he caused that his band should follow him. And they took their flight out of the land, by a secret way, into the wilderness; and thus when Helaman sent forth to take them they could nowhere be found.”
[13] (Book Of Mormon, 2 Helaman 2:8-11.)
[14] Bowman, Matthew. The Mormon People: The Making Of An American Faith. Random House. New York, New York. (2012): 28-31.
[15] Bowman, Matthew. The Mormon People: The Making Of An American Faith. Random House. New York, New York. (2012): 32-33.
[16] Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 194, 256; Bowman, Matthew. The Mormon People: The Making Of An American Faith. Random House. New York, New York. (2012): 45-47.
[17] McLoughlin, William G. “Free Love, Immortalism, And Perfectionism In Cumberland, Rhode Island 1748-1768.” Rhode Island History. Vol. XXXIII, Nos. 3 & 4 (August & November 1974): 66-85.
[18] Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 56.
[19] “There are people, however, who do care, and who never find their Twin-Flame or companion Spirit at all on earth, and never will find it […] No doubt you think I am talking very wildly about Twin-Flames and Spiritual Affinities that live for us in another sphere. You do not believe, perhaps, in the existence of beings in the very air that surrounds us invisible to ordinary human eyes, yet actually akin to us, with a closer relationship than any tie of blood known on earth?” [Corelli, Marie. A Romance Of Two Worlds. George M. Hill. Chicago, Illinois. (1898): 171.]
[20] Albanese, Catherine L. “On The Matter Of Spirit: Andrew Jackson Davis And The Marriage Of God And Nature.” Journal Of The American Academy Of Religion. Vol. LX, No. 1 (Spring 1992): 1-17.
[21] Swedenborg, Emanuel. Heaven And Hell. Massachusetts New-Church Union. Boston, Massachusetts. (1889): 225-238; Swedenborg, Emanuel. The Delights Of Wisdom Pertaining To Conjugial Love. American Swedenborg Printing And Publishing Society. New York, New York. (1899): 53-55.
[22] Ridlon, Sr., G.T. Saco Valley Settlements And Families. G.T. Ridlon, Sr. Portland, Maine. (1895): 269-280 [“The Cochran Delusion.”]
[23] “A Watchman.” Cochranism Delineated. Hews & Goss. Boston, Massachusetts. (1819): 6.
[24] Ridlon, Sr., G.T. Saco Valley Settlements And Families. G.T. Ridlon, Sr. Portland, Maine. (1895): 281-285. [“The Mormon Invasion.”]
[25] Homer, Michael W. “Similarity Of Priesthood In Masonry: The Relationship Between Freemasonry And Mormonism.” Dialogue: A Journal Of Mormon Thought. Vol. XXVII, No. 3 (Fall 1994): 1-113; Buerger, David J. The Mysteries Of Godliness: A History Of Mormon Temple Worship. Signature Books. Salt Lake City, Utah. (2002): 10-12.
[26] Buerger, David J. The Mysteries Of Godliness: A History Of Mormon Temple Worship. Signature Books. Salt Lake City, Utah. (2002): 87.
[27] Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 246.
[28] Buerger, David J. The Mysteries Of Godliness: A History Of Mormon Temple Worship. Signature Books. Salt Lake City, Utah. (2002): 90.
[29] Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 247.
[30] In May of that year he described the “keys of the Kingdom” like this: “Certain signs and words by which false spirits and personages may be detected from true, which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed…The devil knows many signs but does not know the sign of the Son of Man, or Jesus. No one can truly say he knows God until he has handled something, and this can only be the Holiest of Holies.” [Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 246. ]
[31] Buerger, David J. The Mysteries Of Godliness: A History Of Mormon Temple Worship. Signature Books. Salt Lake City, Utah. (2002): 89.
[32] Packer, Boyd K. The Holy Temple. Bookcraft. Salt Lake City, Utah. (1980): 75, 154-155.]
[33] Homer, Michael W. “Similarity Of Priesthood In Masonry: The Relationship Between Freemasonry And Mormonism.” Dialogue: A Journal Of Mormon Thought. Vol. XXVII, No. 3 (Fall 1994): 1-113.
[34] D&C 130:11.
[35] Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 249-250; Buerger, David J. The Mysteries Of Godliness: A History Of Mormon Temple Worship. Signature Books. Salt Lake City, Utah. (2002): 91-94.
[36] Roberts, B.H. A Comprehensive History Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints: Vol. VI. Brigham Young University Press. Provo, Utah. (1976): 251–53; Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 250-253.
[37] D&C 132.
[38] Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 256-258; Quinn, Dennis Michael. Early Mormonism And The Magic World View. Signature Books. Salt Lake City, Utah. (1998): 206.
[39] Wilcox, Linda P. “The Mormon Concept Of A Mother In Heaven.” (eds.) Anderson, Lavina Fielding; and Beecher, Maureen Ursenbach. Sisters In Spirit: Mormon Women In Historical And Cultural Perspective. University Of Illinois Press. Urbana, Illinois. (1987): 64–77.
[40] An illustration of Order Lodge which appeared in John C. Bennett’s History Of The Saints.
[41] Durham Jr., Reed C. “Is There No Help For The Widow’s Son?” (Presidential Address Delivered At The Mormon History Association Convention, April 20, 1974.)
[42] [Homer, Michael W. “Similarity Of Priesthood In Masonry: The Relationship Between Freemasonry And Mormonism.” Dialogue: A Journal Of Mormon Thought. Vol. XXVII, No. 3 (Fall 1994): 1-113.] An excerpt from a letter written by Heber C. Kimball to Parley Pratt, two prominent Mormon apostles, provides insight into the connection: “We have organized a lodge here of Masons since we obtained a Charter. That was in March, since that there has near two thousand been made masons. Brother Joseph and Sidney was the first that was received into the Lodge. All of the twelve have become members except Orson P…he hangs back. He will wake up soon, there is a similarity of priesthood in masonry. Brother Joseph says Masonry was taken from priesthood but has become degenerated. But many things are perfect. We have procession on the 24th of June, which is called by Masons St. John’s day in this country. I think it will result in good. The Lord is with us and we are prospered.” [Heber C. Kimball to Parley Pratt, 17 June 1842, LDS archives.]
[43] Roberts, B.H. A Comprehensive History Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints: Vol. VI. Brigham Young University Press. Provo, Utah. (1976): 251–53; Brooke, John L. The Refiner’s Fire: The Making Of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, England. (1996): 555.
[44] Durham Jr., Reed C. “Is There No Help For The Widow’s Son?” (Presidential Address Delivered At The Mormon History Association Convention, April 20, 1974.)
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