Created
Nov 06
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Manly P. Hall, 33rd degree Freemason, on the Direct Descent of the Esoteric Schools
"The direct descent of the essential program of the Esoteric Schools was entrusted to groups already well-conditioned for the work. The guilds, trade unions, and similar protective and benevolent Societies had been internally strengthened by the introduction of a new learning. The advancement of the plan required the enlargement of the boundaries of the philosophic overstate. A World Fraternity was needed, sustained by a deep and broad program of education according to the "method"." ...
"While it is difficult to trace the elements of a pattern never intended to be obvious, the broad shape of the design is dimly apparent. The Invisible Empire, integrated and ensouled by Bacon and his so-called literary group, was the archetype of those democratic Societies which directly and indirectly precipitated the era of revolution." ... "There can be no enduring freedom for those who cannot protect liberty with intelligence." ..."It was inevitable that the Orders of Fraternity should sponsor world education." ... "The program included a systematic expansion of existing institutions and the enlargement of their spheres of influence.
Slowly, the Orders of Universal Reformation faded from public attention, and in their place appeared the Orders of World Brotherhood. Everything possible was done to prevent the transitions from being obvious. Even history was falsified to make certain sequences of activity unrecognizable. The shift of emphasis never gave the impression of abruptness, and the motion appeared as a dawning of social consciousness. The most obvious clues to the secret activity have been the prevailing silence about the origin and the impossibility of filling the lacunae in the records of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century fraternal Orders.
It is usual to consider fraternal Orders as merely Societies of good fellowship, but fraternity actually implies much more. The brotherhood of man must become a social reality before the New Atlantis can exist as an ideal commonwealth in this world." ...
"The Orders of Fraternity were attached by slender and almost invisible threads to the parent project. Like earlier Schools of the Mysteries, these Fraternities were not in themselves actual embodiments of the esoteric associations, but rather instruments to advance certain objectives of the divine plan, especially the accomplishment by man of such self-improvement as was immediately necessary. In spite of every adversity and impediment, the advance of the human estate was inevitable. It was, indeed, the way of heaven unfolding in the sphere of human society through the machinery of the Mysteries and their adepts.
The era of exploration revealed a vast continent in the Western Hemisphere suitable for colonization and ideal for the political experiment of democracy. By circumstances which appear more than fortuitous, Lord Bacon was a member of the Virginia Company, which included several illustrious names associated with the Baconian literary group. His lordship was also an organizing spirit in the whole English colonization scheme. It is evident from his writings that he regarded America as an ideal location for his Philosophic Commonwealth." ...
"During the formative period of Colonial growth, numerous Baconian landmarks were set up as monuments of enterprise. Even through the Revolutionary period, American patriots worked hand in hand with members of English and European Secret Societies. It may require an extensive research to reveal the details of the well-laid plan, but the general workings of the design are reasonably obvious. Bacon carefully prepared a model for those who succeeded him, bestowing upon them not only a legacy of learning, but also a code of procedure."
- Manly P. Hall, from the Foreward of Masonic Orders of Fraternity
