The Lost Keys of Masonry - The Legend of Hiram Abiff by Manly P Hall 2nd ed (1924).pdf - Manly P Hall - morefaya2006

The Lost Keys of Masonry

The Legend of Hiram Abif

---By

Manly Hall

Author oj UccuLt Masmw~, The Sacred

Magic of the Qabbalalz, Initiates

of the l?Zame, The Wups of the

Lonely Ones, Etc.

Proem by Reynold E. Blight, 33”

Illustrated by J. Augustus Knapp, 32”

SECOND

EDITION

Hall Publishing

Company

Los Angeles

1924

By Manly Hall

For permission to copy or

translate, address the author

C. RAYMOND

BROWN PRINTING

COMPANY

Dedicated to

The Ancient Order of Free and

Accepted Masons

PROEM

By Reynold E. Blight

33"K.T.

lion years of failure and millenniums of disap-

pointment, ’ the soul of man springs heavenward

with even greater avidity than when the race was

young.

He pursues, even though the flying ideal eter-

nally slips from his embrace. Even though he

never clasps the goddess of his dreams, he refuses

to believe that she is a phantom. To him she is

the only reality. He reaches upward and will not

be content until the sword of Orion is in his

hands, and glorious Arcturus gleams from his

breast.

Reality forever eludes us. Infinity mocks our

puny efforts to imprison it in definition and dogma.

Our most splendid realizations are only adumbra-

tions of the Light. In his endeavors, man is but

a mollusk seeking to encompass the ocean.

Yet man may not cease his struggle to find God.

There is a yearning at the soul of him that will not

let him rest, an urge that compels him to attempt

the impossible, to attain the unattainable. He lifts

feeble hands to grasp the stars and despite a mil-

Man is Parsifal searching for the’ Sacred Cup ;

Sir Launfal adventuring for the Holy Grail. Life

is a divine adventure, a splendid quest.

Language fails. Words are mere cyphers, and

who can read the riddle? These words we use,

what are they but vain shadows of form and sense?

We strive to clothe our highest thought with verbal

trappings that our brother may see and under-

stand; and when we would describe a saint he

sees a demon; when we would present a wise man

he beholds a fool. “‘Fie upon you,” he cries; ?hOu,

too, art a fool.”

So wisdom drapes her truth with symbolism,

and covers her insight with allegory. Creeds,

rituals, poems are parables and symbols. The

ignorant take them literally and build for them-

selves prison houses of words and with bitter

speech and bitterer taunt denounce those who will

not join them in the dungeon. Before the rapt

vision of the seer, dogma and ceremony, legend

and trope dissolve and fade, and he sees behind

the fact the truth, behind the symbol the Reality.

Through the shadow shines ever the Perfect

Light.

What is a Mason ? He is a man who in his heart

has been duly and truly prepared, has been found

worthy and well qualified, has been admitted to

the fraternity of builders, been invested with cer-

tain passwords and signs by which he may be en-

The Lost Keys of Masonry - The Legend of Hiram Abiff by Manly P Hall 2nd ed (1924).pdf

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