Here is the penultimate lesson from Willermoz to his students of esoteric and spiritual Freemasonry. It is humbling to realize these letters were written by him exactly 200 years ago this year.
This is a brief blog since I am at the Texas Masonicon, about to attend talks before giving mine this afternoon.
However, I can’t resist one comment about this text. Again, Willermoz focuses on the fall of Lucifer, but goes further in identifying him as Satan. Once again, this is disappointing, but not surprising given the times in which he lived. Some Gnostics have pointed out that, given the argument that Judas was in fact Jesus’ closest disciple, and the only one he could entrust with the miserable task of betraying him, a task necessary that the death for which He came to Earth could be accomplished; so, Lucifer was also indirectly an instrument of God, for the Temptation in the desert was a necessary event to demonstrate that the man in Jesus was also firm and resolute in his decision to turn from things of the Earth and focus on the spiritual.
However, I didn’t exactly choose the best time to translate this passage. I was on the flight from Newark to Dallas-Fort Worth, and translating passages about Lucifer falling with all his followers from heaven. When I explain that the French word for ‘heaven’, ciel, is also the word for ‘sky’, I think you’ll see why this made for unsettling reading on my flight!
The next and final lesson contains much of interest, since it clarifies a number of points in Pasqually’s Treatise.
For now, Lesson 8 is here:
