So, I do read classics from time to time and recently have started to notice how awfully lot of them were freemasons.
-
Bram Stoker, author of Dracula - Buckingham and Chandos Lodge No. 1150.
-
Mark Twain, author of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and many more - Grand Lodge of Ohio.
-
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of those cozy Sherlock Holmes mysteries - Phoenix Lodge No. 257 in Southsea.
-
Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book - Hope and Perseverance Lodge, No. 782, in Lahore.
-
Sir Walter Scott, author of numerous historical novels, including Ivanhoe, Rob Roy and many more - Lodge St David, No. 36 in Edinburgh.
You get the idea. A lot of classic authors were freemasons. Now, even if we discount all the theories about masonry etc, it's still a lot. No, really! Why almost all of our historical, adventure and other classics were written by freemasons? Would those books even be considered classics, if not for the mason membership of those authors? Hell, maybe those books were written with a specific purpose and were made into "famous" classics deliberately, precisely because of freemasonry of their respective authors?
Back then book reading was kind of like Hollywood and Netflix of today and we all know how much propaganda and ridiculous lies are in movies these days... So, seems to me a lot of our history and general worldview might have been created deliberately... and we might be living in an essentially manufactured world, where everything we think we know, might actually be not what it seems to be...
So, what are your thoughts? Does anyone know any more famous freemasons?
Haha, of course I know that Russia is a European country. I just assumed for some reason that you meant Western Europe. Like France, Germany and such...
Didn't know such details about Russian masonry. Interesting stuff. I've heard of Griboedov, but haven't read him...
Interesting detail. You might be right about him not being in the club.
No need for English. I read them in Russian ;) I'm from post-soviet country :) Anyway, yes, I've read Methuselah's Lamp. That was some while ago, but I remember liking it. It's probably not the best of his, but a good one nevertheless.
Almost all of his books are highly relevant to actual real world happenings. Take iPhuck 10, for example. Or SNUFF, for that matter... which almost seems like some kind of prophesy or something...
I like his more spiritual texts as well. Like Yellow Arrow and the Fuji novel.
All in all I'm too a constant reader of his stuff :)
Yes, I do not really believe that Tedros or Klaus are actually deciding anything. Most probably those are just figureheads, who do what they're told... just like everyone else... In short, it's a question of levels. Is the publicly visible layer (with all the presidents, heads of various agencies etc) the very top level or is there some level(s) above it? I think it's the latter.
Masonry came to Russian Empire from Western Europe, mostly from France and gain some popularity among Russian elite for a while. Russian aristocracy borrow a lot from the West. However, this borrowing was mostly superficial, like f.e. uniform of army was borrowed to some extent, but military strategy and tactics was homegrown. Same with masonry. It was not able to overcome deep orthodox background, so it mutated into specific Russian variant.
If you read Russian, and really interested in history of masonry, then you have access to large library of Russian literature about masonry. Again, I'm not sure it is strictly relevant for Western masonry, but it still could give some hints and clues. There is even some new book in two volumes, I didn't read yet, published in 2021 - "Системы и ритуалы российского масонства XVIII–XIX вв."
Yep, I can imagine cultural borrowing being only on superficial level, while deeper levels remain significantly different from the original meaning. That book seems interesting. I might look into it. Thanks.