Masonic and Hermetic Parallels
From the general observations made thus far we return now to some strange parallels pointed out by Aroux [^12]:
Hell represents the profane world, Purgatory is the place of initiatic trials, and Heaven is the abode of the Perfect Ones, where we find intelligence and love combined and raised to their zenith... The celestial circle described by Dante [^13] begins at the alti Serafini, who are the Principi celesti, and ends at the lowest ranks of Heaven. Now, it so happens that some lower dignitaries of Scottish Masonry (which claims to go back to the Templars, and of which Zerbino, the Scottish prince, and Isabelle of Galicia's lover, is the personification in Ariosto's Orlando Furioso) are also called princes, Princes of Mercy; that their assembly or chapter is called the Third Heaven; that they have a Palladium-or statue of Truth-as their symbol, which, like Beatrice, is clad in the three colors green, white, and red [^14]; that their Worshipful Master (whose title is Most Excellent
Prince), carrying an arrow in his hand and a heart within a triangle on his chest [^15], is a personification of Love; and that the mysterious number nine, "by which Beatrice is especially loved"-Beatrice "who must be called Love", as Dante says in the Vita Nuova-is also assigned to this Worshipful Master, who is surrounded by nine columns and nine torches (each with nine branches and nine lights), and whose age, finally, is eighty one years, a multiple (or more precisely, the square) of nine-and Beatrice is supposed to die in the eighty-first year of the century. [^16]
This degree of Prince of Mercy, or Scottish Trinitarian, is the 26th of the Scottish Rite. Here is what the F.: Bouilly says about it in his Explication des douze écussons [the 19th to the 30th] qui représentent les emblèmes et les symboles des douze grades philosophiques du Rite Écossais dit Ancien et Accepté:
This degree is, in our opinion, the most inextricable of all those that compose this learned category: this is why it takes the appellation Scottish Trinitarian. [^17] Indeed, everything in this allegory offers the emblem of the Trinity: the tricolored background [green, white and red]; the representation of Truth at the bottom; and finally the indication everywhere of the Great Work of Nature [to the phases of which the three colors allude], of the elements constitutive of the metals [sulphur, mercury and salt] [^18], of their fusion and their separation
(solve et coagula); in a word, of the science of mineral chemistry [or rather alchemy], which was founded by Hermes among the Egyptians, and which gave such power and breadth to medicine [spagyric]. [^19] So true is it that the sciences constitutive of happiness and freedom succeed one another and are classified in this admirable order that it proves the Creator's provenance of all that can ease mankind's suffering and prolong its sojourn on earth. [^20] It is principally in the number three, so well represented by the three angles of the Delta (out of which the Christians have made the flamboyant symbol of Divinity and which goes back to the most remote times [^21] ), that the learned observer discovers the primeval source of everything that strikes the mind, enriches the imagination, and gives a fair appreciation of social equality... Therefore, noble Knights, let us not cease to remain Scottish Trinitarians, to maintain and honor the number three as the emblem of all that constitutes the duties of man, and that reminds us at the same time of the cherished Trinity of our Order that is engraved on the columns of our Temples: Faith, Hope, and Charity. [^22]
What we should retain above all from this passage is that the grade concerned, like nearly all those of the same class, presents a clearly Hermetic meaning [^23]-in this particular instance the relation of Hermeticism to the Orders of Chivalry. Here is not the place to investigate the historical origin of the high grades of Scottish Masonry, or to discuss the muchdebated theory of their descent from the Templars; but, whether there has been a real and direct filiation or only a reconstitution, it is nonetheless certain that most of these grades, and also some found in other rites, appear as vestiges of organisations that formerly existed independently [^24] : most notably the ancient Orders of Chivalry, whose foundation was bound up with the history of the Crusades-that is to say, with an epoch when there were not hostile relations only (as those who confine themselves to appearances believe), but also active intellectual exchanges between East and West, exchanges implemented above all through the mediation of these same Orders. Should we accept that the latter borrowed Hermetic material from the East and then assimilated it; or should we not rather think that they possessed from the outset an esoterism of this kind, and that it was their own initiation that qualified them to make contact with the Orientals in this domain? This again is a question we cannot claim to resolve; but the second hypothesis, though less often entertained than the first [^25], contains nothing implausible for those who recog-
nize the existence, throughout the Middle Ages, of a strictly Western initiatic tradition; and what could lead us further to accept it, is that Orders founded subsequently (and which never had dealings with the East) also possessed hermetic sym-
bolism-such as that of the Golden Fleece, whose name itself is the clearest possible allusion to this symbolism. However that may be, in Dante's time Hermeticism certainly existed in the Order of the Temple, as did knowledge of certain doc-
trines-most surely of Arab origin-that Dante himself seems not to have ignored either, and which were no doubt transmitted to him in this way also-a point we shall undertake to explain in due course.
Let us return however to the Masonic similarities mentioned by the commentator Aroux, only a few of which we have so far mentioned. There are several degrees of Scottish Masonry where Aroux believes he can see a perfect similarity to the nine heavens traversed by Dante and Beatrice. Here are the correspondences that he gives for the seven planetary heavens: to the Moon corresponds the uninitiated, to Mercury the Knight of the Sun (28th), to Venus the Prince of Mercy (26th; green, white, and red), to the Sun the Great Architect (12th) or the Noachite (21st), to Mars the Great Scot of the Order of Saint Andrew or Patriarch of the Crusades (29th; red with a white cross), to Jupiter the Knight of the White and Black Eagle or Kadosch (30th), and to Saturn the Golden Ladder of the same Kadosch. In fact, some of these attributions seem doubtful to us, especially that of the first heaven as the abode of the uninitiated, for their place can only be in the
'outer darkness'. Have we not already seen that it is in fact Hell that represents the profane world, while the different heavens (including that of the Moon) can be reached only after undergoing the initiatic trials of Purgatory? It is well known also that the Sphere of the Moon has a special relationship to Limbo; but this is an altogether different aspect of its symbolism and must not be confused with that under which it is represented as the first heaven. In fact, the Moon is at once Janua Coeli and Janua Inferni, Diana and Hecate. [^26] The ancients knew this very well, as did Dante, who could not have been so mistaken as to accord a celestial abode-even the very low-est-to non-initiates.
Far less subject to question is the identification of the symbolic figures Dante saw: the cross in the heaven of Mars, the eagle in that of Jupiter, and the ladder in that of Saturn. The cross is evidently related to that which, after having been the distinctive sign of the Orders of Chivalry, still serves as the emblem of several Masonic grades; and if it is placed in the sphere of Mars, is this not through an allusion to the military character of these Orders-their apparent justification-and to the role they played externally in the war-like expeditions of the Crusades? [^27] As for the other two symbols, it is impossible not to recognize in them the Kadosch Templar and the eagle (classical antiquity attributed the eagle to Jupiter, as did the Hindus to Vishnu [^28]). It was the emblem of the ancient Roman Empire (reminiscent of the presence of Trajan [^29] in the eye of
that eagle), and has remained that of the Holy Empire. The heaven of Jupiter is the abode of the 'wise and just princes' (Diligite justitiam, qui judicatis terram [^30]), a correspondence that, like all those Dante gave to the heavens, is fully explicable in astrological terms; and the Hebrew name for the planet Jupiter is Tsedek, meaning 'just'. Of the ladder of the Kadosch we have already spoken: since the sphere of Saturn is situated immediately above that of Jupiter, we reach the foot of this ladder by Justice (Tsedakab), and its summit by Faith (Emounab). This symbol of the ladder seems to be of Chaldean origin and also to have been brought to the West with the Mithraic mysteries: at that time it had seven rungs, each fashioned of a different metal according to the correspondence of the metals to the planets. In biblical symbolism one finds Jacob's ladder joining the earth to the heavens, which presents an identical meaning. [^31]
"According to Dante, the eighth heaven of Paradise, the star-studded heaven (or the heaven of the fixed stars), is the beaven of the Rosicrucians: the Perfect Ones, clad in white, dwell
there, displaying a symbolism similar to that of the Knights of Heredom [^32] and professing the 'evangelical doctrine'-the very one of Luther-in opposition to Roman Catholic doctrine." Aroux's interpretation here testifies to his frequent confusion of the domains of esoterism and exoterism: true esoterism must lie beyond oppositions expressed in outer movements that disturb the profane world; and if such movements are occasionally created, or invisibly directed, by powerful initiatic organisations, one can say that the latter dominate these movements without being part of them, in such a way as to exercise their influence equally upon each of the opposing terms. It is true that the Protestants, and more particularly the Lutherans, often use the word 'evangelical' to describe their own doctrine; and we know also that Luther's seal bore a cross in the center of a rose and that the Rosicrucian organisation, which revealed itself to the public in 1604 (and which Descartes sought without success to contact), declared itself 'antipapist'. It must be said however that at the beginning of the 17th century the Rosicrucians were already working quite openly-a far cry from the original and genuine Rosicrucians, who never constituted an organisation in the real sense of the word. As for Luther, he seems to have been only a kind of subordinate agent, no doubt scarcely conscious of the role he had to play. These various points, moreover, have never been completely explained.
Be that as it may, the white robes of the Chosen Ones, or the Perfect Ones, though clearly reminiscent of certain apocalyptic texts [^33], appear to allude above all to the dress of the Templars; and in this respect the following passage is particularly significant:
Qual è colui che tace e dicer vuole,
Mi trasse Beatrice, e disse: mira
Quanto è il convento delle bianche stole! [^34]
This interpretation moreover makes it possible to give a very precise meaning to the expression 'the holy militia' that we find in some verses a little further on, and that seems even to hint at the transformation of Templarism, after its apparent destruction, into Rosicrucianism. [^35]
In forma dunque di candida rosa
Mi si mostrava la milizia santa,
Che nel suo sangue Cristo fece sposa.
To make better understood the symbolism involved in Aroux's last quotation, here is the description of the Celestial Jerusalem as it appears in the Chapter of the Sovereign Princes Rosicrucian, of the Order of Heredom of Kilwinning or the Royal Order of Scotland, also named Knights of the Eagle and
the Pelican: "At the back (of the last room) there is a picture showing a mountain whence flows a river by whose edge grows a tree bearing twelve kinds of fruit. On the top of the mountain stands a plinth made of twelve precious stones laid in twelve tiers. On top of this plinth is a golden square, and on the face of each side are three angels, each angel bearing the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In this square is a cross, at whose center lies a lamb. [^36] This of course is apocalyptic symbolism, and we shall later show to what extent the cyclical ideas to which it refers are intimately linked to the very plan of Dante's work.
"In cantos XXIV and XXV of Paradiso, we find the triple kiss of the Rosicrucian Prince, the pelican, the white gowns (the same as those of the elders in the Apocalypse), the sticks of sealing wax, and the three theological virtues of the Masonic Chapters (Faith, Hope and Charity). [^37] The symbolic flower of the Rosicrucians (the Rosa candida of cantos XXX and XXXI) has been adopted by the Church of Rome as the symbol of the Mother of the Saviour (Rosa mystica of the litanies), and by that of Toulouse (the Albigenses) as the mysterious emblem of the general assembly of the Fedeli d'Amore. These metaphors were already employed by the Paulicians, predecessors of the Cathars in the Xth and XIth centuries."
We have thought it useful to reproduce all these parallels, which are interesting and could no doubt be easily multiplied;
however, one should not, except perhaps in the cases of the Templars and the original Rosicrucians, claim to draw overly firm conclusions with regard to a direct filiation of the different initiatic forms among which we find common symbols. In fact it is not only the common basis underlying the doctrines that is always the same, but (which may seem more surprizing at first sight) the particular forms of expression often present a striking similarity also-and this for traditions too remote in time or space to make plausible any immediate influence on each other. To find an effective link in such cases it would no doubt be necessary to go much further back in time than recorded history allows.
Some commentators who have studied the symbolism of Dante's work, such as Rossetti and Aroux, confine themselves to an aspect that we would qualify as external; they have stopped at what could readily be called ritualistic formsforms, that is to say, which, for those who are incapable of going further, conceal rather than express their profounder meaning. As has justifiably been said, "it is natural that this be the case, for to grasp and understand the allusions and the conventional or allegorical references, one must know the object of the allusion or allegory; in the present case this means an apprehension of the mystical experiences through which true initiation causes the myste and the épopte to pass. For anyone with some experience of this kind there can be no doubt about the existence in the Divine Comedy, and the Aeneid, of a meta-
physical-esoteric allegory that simultaneously veils and unveils the successive phases of through with the consciousness of the initiate passes in order to reach immortality. [^38]