Freemasonry is mystical and esoteric by virtue that it teaches a system of morality that it veils in allegory and illustrates by symbols. The symbols and allegories are revealed in the process of initiation for the three degrees. In the journey, an initiate proceeds through the stages of Apprentice Mason to Fellow Craft Mason and finally to Master Mason. All Masons pass through these three degrees, although the different rites have advanced degrees that can range in number from the York Rite to 33 for the Scottish Rite. The path through the various degrees is seen as a movement toward the light and enlightenment. Along the way the candidate is made aware of the symbols of each degree and the stories or allegories containing valuable lessons for a virtuous life.
Brown describes portions of the initial three-stage ritual Mal’akh undergoes in the Prologue: the right sleeve and left pants leg rolled up, a rope noose around the neck, the “cable-tow” (3). All are “real” according to Brown. But the most striking is yet to come. To take the final oath he drinks wine from a skull and pronounces: “May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me … should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath.” Langdon actually tells us upon viewing a video of the ritual that this is “The Fifth Libation,” described by John Quincy Adams in his Letters on the Masonic Institution (437). On the Brown website, he maintains that the ritual is still performed today. But is this, perhaps the most controversial, ceremony “real”? He was asked this directly in the NBC interview:
Matt Lauer: One character is being elevated to the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite. It’s a rather intense ritual. He, he drinks wine, which is to represent blood out of a skull. How much of that is fact and how much of that is fiction?
Dan Brown: Well, this is a real ceremony. The ceremony is described accurately. The fiction comes in as to whether or not it still happens at this moment in history in this room.
Arturo de Hoyos, the Grand Archivist and Grand Historian of the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite and himself a 33rd-degree Mason, categorically denied the “facts.”
Arturo de Hoyos: One of the things that’s wrong is on the very first page. We don’t perform the 33rd Degree in this building. We don’t confer it at night. The candidates to the members are dressed wrong. And the ceremony’s wrong.
Brown draws on a ceremony described in the past to create a modern-day fiction. The 33rd degree in the Scottish Rite is an honorary degree. It is generally bestowed in recognition of great service or extraordinary philanthropy. But there is no such “skull and blood” ceremony practiced by the Scottish Rite today, according to a Mason who shed much light on the novel in his blog, Mark Rivera-Koltko. Anti-Masons will continue to republish, often as if it were new, the very accounts of “The Fifth Libation” described almost two hundred years ago.
Brown does, however, open our eyes to the phrases and symbols used. He himself has said he had recourse to the Albert Mackey study of Freemasonry. Other sources could have included the famous Morals and Dogma, by Albert Pike. One can only hope that like a good teacher, Brown has inspired his readers to explore on their own some of the voluminous literature available.
There are literally dozens of symbols that inform Freemasonry, and here we can barely mention a few that are central to the novel. Several symbols of the Masons and their rituals are richly represented in the Chamber of Reflection that is attached to each lodge, although there is not one in the subbasement of the Capitol. Elements and symbols of alchemy, reminders of our mortality, a human skull and bones and the abbreviation V.I.T.R.I.O.L. are all precisely described by Brown. He also mentions the tracing boards that contain in symbols the story of the three degrees.
Scottish Rite symbol
The dustcover for the English-language edition in Europe bears the Masonic symbol, the square and compass, and the letter G. The square and compass are, of course, tools of the original operative Masons. But they also relate to elements of the first degree, Apprentice Mason. That ritual explains that “The three great lights in Masonry are the Holy Bible, Square and Compass. The Holy Bible is given to us as a rule and guide for our faith and practice; the Square, to square our actions, and the Compass to keep us in due bounds with all mankind, but more especially with the brethren. The “G” stands for God, the Deity, and Geometry, the most important of all sciences.”
Peter Solomon’s right hand bears the ring of the 33rd degree Mason. The elaborate seal of the Scottish Rite is pressed in wax on the American dustcover and portrays a double-headed eagle and crown, a triangle with the number 33, and the phrase ordo ab chao (order out of chaos). The Double-Headed Eagle of Lagash was also used in the Byzantine, Holy Roman, and Russian empires and still marks the official coat-of-arms for the Russian Federation, as well as many other nations. The triangle is key to geometry but it also is key to the pyramid that connects back to Egypt, the home of the ancient mysticism presumed to have been passed along to Solomon.
The numbers 3, 13, and 33 are all significant in the Masonic realm. One god, 3 persons, the Trinity. There are 3 initial rites of Masonry. There are three sides to a triangle. The 13 American colonies and 13 original states are well represented on the Great Seal of the United States. There are 13 leaves in the olive branch, 13 bars and stripes in the shield, 13 arrows in the right claw, 13 letters in E Pluribus Unum, 13 stars in the green crest above, 13 levels in the pyramid, and 13 letters in Annuit Coeptis (“He has favored our undertakings”). There are also 13 letters in The Lost Symbol. The Eagle has 33 feathers in its left wing. The Scottish Rite has 33 degrees. The Temple has 33 pillars, and they are 33 feet tall. Christ was crucified at the age 33. The human spine has 33 vertebrae. The book was published on 09/15/09 = 33. The Prologue begins at 33 minutes after the hour, The Lost Symbol has 133 chapters. “In the days of Pythagoras … the tradition of numerology hailed the number 33 as the highest of all the Master Numbers. It was the most sacred figure, symbolizing divine truth” (332). “‘Thirty three” Katherine said, ‘is a sacred number in many mystical traditions’”(333). How did Brown get that on page 333? H’mm, that’s why this book has 33 Keys and 133 Links!
LITERATURE ON THE FIFTH LIBATION
www.indianafreemasons.com/imoanti/isittrue/chap5.htm
MEMENTO-MORI
www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/skull-bones.html
33RD DEGREE INITIATION
www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/33rd_Initiation.htm
ALBERT MACKEY, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FREEMASONRY
www.phoenixmasonry.org/mackeys_encyclopedia
ALBERT PIKE, MORALS AND DOGMA
www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/apikefr.html
TRACING BOARDS
www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/TBs.html
MARK KOLTKO-RIVERA, DISCOVERING THE LOST SYMBOL BLOG
lostsymboltweets.blogspot.com