Freemasonry by Andreas ÖNnerfors

Author:Andreas ÖNnerfors
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192516107
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2017-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

From darkness to light

Live performance of ritual constitutes the centrepiece of activities in freemasonry and is one of the defining features that distinguish it from the majority of other associations. The rituals of freemasonry developed during the 18th and 19th centuries and have since remained unchanged in their general design. Masonic rituals take place inside (and partly outside) the lodge according to a more or less predefined script (the ritual text) as a dramatizing performance in ritual and real time—much like a musical score and a concert, or a play and its performance. Rituals fulfil three major functions: initiation (establishing a demarcation between the internal and external worlds), the transmission of further knowledge at higher or deeper levels in the insider’s community of knowledge (performing the emblematic function), and investiture in a particular office or status. The initiate or candidate and his experience is at the centre of ritual performance. In a Western context, ceremonies in freemasonry are one of the rare secular instances that involve the practice of rituals of initiation.

Ritual is an integral feature of human cultures across the globe. The most common understanding of ritual in cultural studies is that rituals are celebrated at the passing through or transition between significant stages in individual or collective life biographies, such as adolescence, marriage, and death. These rituals follow a common structure: in the first phase, the previous life stage or position is left behind (separation); in the second phase, a state of transition between the old and new states is established (liminal); and in the third and final phase, the integration into a new state (incorporation) as a form of re-birth is accomplished. In the liminal phase, the rules of ‘normality’ do not apply; the candidate—often in an altered state of consciousness—frequently encounters a surreal world that is turned upside down and in which his character is supposed to change.

However, a strong non-Western bias has existed in cultural studies, in that rituals of initiation (Figure 5) have long been associated with ‘traditional’ cultures. It is only comparatively recently that scholars have directed their attention towards Western esotericism and thus freemasonry and other initiatory societies. In short, Western esotericism circles around the individual effort to gain spiritual knowledge, confronting the individual with divine aspects of existence.

5. Initiation: the apprentice receives the light (end of 19th century).

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