Posted by:
slskipper
(
)
Date: November 01, 2015 05:21AM
Let's start with the concept of "Satanic". Remember that there is no actual Satan. Throughout history, however, there have been plenty of people who have tried to convince other people that there is a real Satan, and (quite contrary to the teachings of some guy named Jesus) that the easiest way to access this supposed Satan is through ritual ceremonies. Partly, I suppose, they get this idea from the fact that the major Christian religions insist that the best way to access this guy named God is likewise via ritual ceremonies- again, exactly opposite to the teachings of some guy named Jesus. So yes, people who call themselves "Satanists" frequently do ritual ceremonies, and Mormons also do ritual ceremonies in their temples.
A lot of people do ritual ceremonies.
As for Freemasonry: the influence is a lot more evident. JS clearly wanted his temple ceremonies to look like Masonic ones. The parallels have been reported countless times, including on this website. But we must understand a few things about Freemasonry. First: it was rampant in American culture at the time of Joseph Smith. People (men) were considered unusual if they did not belong to at least one, and often several, fraternal orders, most of whom included ritual ceremonies that owe a great deal to "orthodox" Freemasonry (if one can even use such a word to describe the phenomenon). A better word is "consensus"- because of point number two. There are several things Freemasonry is not. It is not cosmic. It is not ancient. And it is not organized. Any group of men could, at the time of JS anyway, put together what they called a lodge, invent some ritual ceremony, and claim it was the original-true-really-really-ancient ceremony practiced by Adam or Noah or (here's a biggie) Solomon in the mists of time. And other people would believe them. Aren't people fascinating?
Now we come to the question of the origins of Freemasonry. It did not come from Solomon's temple. It did not come from Adam, and it certainly did not come from either God or Satan. It started with the Knights Templars after their betrayal, and for them their ritual ceremony comes under the general heading of Drama. Not an attempt to access Satan, or any other cosmic powers. It was a pageant,, meant to remind fellow travelers of their former glory and hoped-for return to social acceptance. And they also used secret passwords and handshakes and so on. Again, there was nothing cosmic about any of this. It was all incredibly mundane, as a means of mutual recognition by a group of people who were on the run for their lives.
There was also probably a healthy dose of input from the practices of medieval stonemason guilds. Historians can debate the relative importance of the various points of origin for what we now call Freemasonry. Medieval guilds certainly had their ritual ceremonies, like everybody else. And they were really big on Solomon's temple, because, after all, it was built my stonemasons, so they were really cool. The Templars also liked Solomon things, because their original headquarters were at the site of the ruins of said temple.
And now we come to the Mormon phenomenon. Did JS believe that Freemasonry really was able to tap into cosmic forces? Or did he merely take advantage of the fact (I use that word precisely) that plenty of his contemporaries believed the Freemasonry really did have cosmic potential? We will never know, of course. But there are some things that we do know. We know that Freemasonry does not in fact have cosmic potential. We know that Mormons are and were into trying to tap into cosmic stuff, like the Priesthood (TM). We also, sadly, know that the patterns of Freemasonry can be used by unscrupulous people to scare the living daylights out of initiates into their secret clubs. And so we end up with contemporary Mormonism- a religion which purports to originate in the atonement of Jesus Christ, but which also insists that you have to know special handshakes and wear special clothes to please God.
I hope this helps.