Friday, July 17, 2009

Fiji Masons Arrested for Sorcery

There are certain parts of the world where it's a lot more difficult to be a Mason than it is in the United States. One of the things you learn when you get involved with Masonry is the extent to which the founding fathers tried to build our nation on Masonic ideals. In the early days of the United States Masonry took on many of the functions that had been performed by state churches in Europe, such as the consecration of buildings and other public works projects. Many other countries don't have this sort of history, however, and in some of those places being a Mason can get you into trouble with both your neighbors and the local authorities.

Apparently, one of those places is the island nation of Fiji, where 14 members of a Masonic Lodge were recently arrested on suspicion of practicing sorcery.

A New Zealand man spent a "wretched" night in a Fiji jail after police raided his Freemasons meeting when frightened residents suspected witchcraft, according to the New Zealand Herald.

The man, who did not wish to be identified, blamed "dopey village people" for the raid on the island of Denerau in which 14 members of the Freemasons Lodge of Lautoka were herded into police cars and jailed for the night.

Police also seized lodge paraphernalia, including wands, compasses and a skull.

The man told the Herald that Tuesday night's meeting was "interrupted by a banging on the door and there were these village people and the police demanding to be let in".

One of the hazards of being involved in a tradition with elements that are kept secret is that people outside the group are left to wonder what you are up to and why you have to keep your activity secret. I once knew someone who got involved in Masonry and after finding out what we actually did went around trying to find out how he could get involved in the "secret higher degree rituals" that he was convinced had to be going on. He eventually wound up quitting the fraternity because it wasn't nearly as exciting as those Jack Chick pamphlets implied. I think that since I and a number of my friends were members of the lodge and also practiced magick, he was of the opinion that there had to be more explicit magical work going on there. That was what the local police were thinking as well.

Police director of operations Waisea Tabakau told Legend FM News in Fiji that the group were being investigated for "allegedly practicing sorcery", the Fiji Village website reported.

The 14 Masons were released the next day by order of the Prime Minister, but nonetheless had to spend the night in in a Fiji jail, which sounds other than fun. It just goes to show that superstition can be a powerful and dangerous motivator, though in this case the Masons escaped criminal charges and further injury. Many people accused of sorcery or witchcraft in that part of the world have not been so lucky.

Naturally, I think the story would be a lot more interesting if it turned out that they actually were practicing sorcery. Many of the elements of the Masonic initiation rituals have practical magical applications and when done properly I find those initiations to be quite magical, though they are more works of illumination than works of sorcery. If somebody really was out there practicing Masonic sorcery, I would be very interested in finding out what exactly they did and how well it worked.

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9 comments:

Rob said...

The freemasons ceased to be a gnostic group decades ago. The group decided that it was best to ditch the spiritual aspects and instead become a men's club that was involved with charities and community events. A lot of masons were very upset by this when it happened.

Scott Stenwick said...

As a Mason I'm not sure that I agree with that 100%, in that there are components of the Masonic initiatory structure that I would still describe as gnostic, in that they can be useful in facilitating personal gnosis. However, you are correct that there used to be a more Rosicrucian and esoteric elements found in Masonry, and this was one of the reasons that the fraternity attracted a lot of occultists around the turn of the last century.

Today many of those Rosicrucian elements have been picked up by Societas Rosicruciana. The original founders of the Hermentic Order of the Golden Dawn met through that organization, so it also has some significance to the history of modern occultism. Unfortunately, the organization is only open to Christian Masons, so as a Thelemite I can't join it myself.

Anonymous said...

hmm....well I know you masons have been gettin alot of flack and people hating you for these conspricies....
and I believe most of em...
And as a Reiki practioner myself a practicer of "magick" I gotta say
them masons prolly deserved it

Im sorry but you masons have helped f up alot in this country
yea I know you do alot of good...on the outside and lower levels of organiztion...but damn Do you freemasons really believe that you dont have someone at the top whos corruptible and evil and puppet mmastering people?

Jesus I call out the fakers and practioners using it for only their gain and not for the people in my area of work..but no masons will ever admit or acknowledge the common destruction modern day Scottish Rite asonry has brought
i dont mean to attack but you people have done uch more harm than good

Rob said...

You would probably know more about their current status than me. Most of what I know has been gotten second hand from people who either left the Freemasons after they made the change or people who joined the Freemasons expecting it to be more than it actually was.

Scott Stenwick said...

Do you freemasons really believe that you dont have someone at the top whos corruptible and evil and puppet mmastering people?

To do what? Masonry is not a monolith and there isn't any one "Grand Master" at the top running everything. All of the Grand Lodges are independent from each other and have their own leadership, generally by state.

Before the 1830's Masonry was heavily embedded in the US government, but the rise of the anti-Masonic movement limited their influence after that. People talk about how many Presidents have been Masons, but in the modern era the last one was Gerald Ford - not exactly a "puppet master" in my opinion.

no masons will ever admit or acknowledge the common destruction modern day Scottish Rite asonry has brought.

I'm not a member of the Scottish Rite so I can't say much about what might or might be going on there. I'm curious what you might have heard, though - personally I would be surprised to find the Scottish Rite much different than my own lodge, which isn't "puppet-mastering" anything that I can think of.

Rob said...

no masons will ever admit or acknowledge the common destruction modern day Scottish Rite asonry has brought.

I'm not a member of the Scottish Rite so I can't say much about what might or might be going on there. I'm curious what you might have heard, though - personally I would be surprised to find the Scottish Rite much different than my own lodge, which isn't "puppet-mastering" anything that I can think of.


So you aren't admitting or acknowledging anything? It looks as if taprootedpunk71 is right about everything.

Suecae Sounds said...

I don't quite understand that Freemasonry has such a bad reputation. I don't think they have anyway near the amount of power that some people would like to believe.

All I think conspiracy theories does is to provide a very easy and not necessarily right explanation as to why there are so many things wrong with the world. There exists class divisions, power-structures and corrupt governments, but I have a hard time believing that it is the work of Masons.

Scott Stenwick said...

So you aren't admitting or acknowledging anything? It looks as if taprootedpunk71 is right about everything.

Hey, what do you expect from someone like me who so clearly is plugged into the conspiracy?

I don't quite understand that Freemasonry has such a bad reputation. I don't think they have anyway near the amount of power that some people would like to believe.

I think there are just a lot of people who think any organization that keeps secrets must be up to no good. The idea of a mystery tradition is totally lost on such folks.

ChandraNova said...

Two things, then I promise I'll stop spammin' ya! ;)

1. Masons get a real world bad rep because they will often protect their own, and regardless of the fact we all tend to do that, when you do get a bad apple he drags the others down with him.

I've seen this first hand affecting someone close to me, and the pull this guy had (and has) with the legal profession was crass and unpleasant to see.

But for someone to apply that to ALL Masons is IMO like lumping every Reiki healer in with those fake witch-doctor guys murdering kids in Africa... only mentioning it because I've seen it up close affecting people I love, and so can understand how people form that opinion about Masons as a group.

Fact is, in most small towns folks tend to know who is and isn't a Mason, but they don't tend to know who is and isn't doing some other equally secretive stuff (witches, shamans, furries etc)...

2. I also am:

i. English, and therefore part of the British banking conspiracy (I mean, I have a bank account, it sometimes pays me interest)

ii. like butterflies quite a lot, and (most damningly of all!!)

iii. a former rock singer/fetish-wear model, thus by this guy's lights a surefire graduate of the Monarch program.

That I hardly ever even went to school (thus avoiding even minimal brainwashing - and some may say, basic social skills) and spent my entire childhood obsessing over ancient Egypt, mummyfing my dolls, and trying to cast the spells I found in kid's books, is no excuse!

I should have been strapped to a bed being brainwashed to be promiscuous, coz y'know, women never actually WANT mindless shallow sex with hot men, in this era of equal rights and contraception...

Therefore taking your lead, like a good obedient little woman, I also plan to invoice my reptilian overlords asap - or it's crocodile handbags time!

...All kidding aside, that website IS very convincing at first glance: except a few lines in I always realise the enemy is - well, me, and most of my compadrés...

... and that the life they imply non-MK'ed ladies should lead, in their earnest un-Illumined world, would be one of modesty, feminine mystique, and focus on Biblical values and family - in other words identical to the absolutely Hellish world described in Atwood's book, "The Handmaid's Tale."

And they believe they're on the side of the angels...