RETRACING THE KNOWN ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY AND ITS IMPACT IN THE PHILIPPINES...
by Brother Geminiano V. Galarosa, Jr., Quezon City Lodge No. 122

Compared to organized religions, the originators and the date of Freemasonry’s inception cannot be determined with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Thus, we know that Judaism is said to have been established by Moses, the patriarch who was largely responsible for putting the Pentateuch or the Old Testament into print;

Zoroastrianism was created by Zoroaster or Zarathustra, an Iranian prophet who was born at about 610 BC and to whose name the principle of dualism is credited; Buddhism was established by Siddartha Gautama who was born in Nepal in 563 BC and who is now more popularly known as Buddha; Jesus Christ authored Christianity whose birth-date was made the basis for reckoning the world’s present day calendar; and that Mohammed established Islam in AD 570.

Some of us are wont to believe that Masonry’s roots can be traced back to the hands of time when King Solomon still ruled Israel, for after all, he is the principal figure in the conferral of the Craft’s three degrees. Masonic tradition has it that he was ably supported by the two Hirams, the King of Tyre and the widow’s son, who played second and third fiddles, respectively, to the multi-talented, divinely gifted and lucky monarch who appropriated for himself more than a thousand wives and concubines that, no doubt, would be the envy of every man. Or trace Freemasonry’s origin back to the ancient Egyptians who built the imposing pyramids and who till today, have maintained their imposing structures for posterity to behold. Or, for all one cares, trace it farther back even to the time of Adam when Cain and Abel jockeyed for position to earn Yahweh’s favor only to end in the untimely demise of one. This line of thought, of course, can never be given credence as it would be downright foolish and absurd to think that a brotherhood, adored by many, could have been inspired by a murderous idiot!

But here’s a scholarly data to start with.

In Chapter One of the monumental Masonic book titled "Votaries of Honor", MW Reynold S. Fajardo, Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Philippines in 1986, and the much-revered Masonic historian the country ever had, said in the opening paragraph, to which this writer quotes in full:

"It is difficult to say when Masonry actually begun. According to the mythology of the ancient Lodges, its origins may be attributed to the time of Solomon, Noah, or even Adam. Some writers believe the Order arose from among the ancient Egyptians, Chaldees, Hindus, Greeks or Hebrews, or that its symbols may be traced back to primitive societies. Other writers adopt the more realistic view that its origins may be found in the Roman Collegia, the Comacine masters, the German Steinmetzen, the French compagnonage or some other similar secret Orders. But whether Masonry began with Adam, an ancient civilization, or a medieval secret Order, the fact is that at the start of the eighteenth century, there already existed in Great Britain and Ireland, numerous Masonic Lodges. In 1717, on the occasion of the feast of St. John the Baptist, four of these pre-existing lodges organized the first Grand Lodge of the world in England."

So now we have a starting point. Which gives the clue that the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England simply signified that Freemasonry has surfaced from its underground existence and does not necessarily mean its actual start for, indeed, Lodges were already known to have been organized ages before that time. A written transcript or "A Constitutional Roll" of the Ancient Charges and History of Freemasonry that is one of the most cherished properties of the Grand Lodge of England is said to have been written as far back as December 23, 1583, and spelled in a manner that is radically different from the Shakespearean or modern usage. Its opening paragraph, when translated to current English says:

"The mighty Father of Heaven, and the wisdom of the glorious Son, through the grace and goodness of the Holy Ghost, it being three persons in one God, be with us at our beginning and give us grace so to govern us here in our living that we may come to his bless that never shall have an ending. Amen."

This transcript or roll is a lengthy piece of Masonic document that narrates the basic teachings of the Craft, citing in detail the seven liberal arts and sciences, also retracing Masonic footsteps to the time of Lamech in the fourth Chapter of Genesis. It also went as far down to the time Abraham met Sarah when they went to Egypt and even mentioned the 47th problem of Euclid. But so much for this antiquated and archaic manuscript. Only the gullible and the unsuspecting will believe the recitation in its entirety anyway.

The earliest recorded existence of the more known branch of Freemasonry however, is no doubt, traceable to the Knights Templar, an organization of warrior-monks said to have been established in 1118 by Hughes the Payens, a nobleman from Champagne in France and vassal of the Count of Champagne. The overt objective of the Order was to guard the road between Jerusalem and Acre, an important port city in the Mediterranean Sea during that time to protect the pilgrims who troop to the Holy Land. So worthy was this objective that this Order would later participate in the Crusades against the Saracens and earned for itself a distinctive badge for valor and heroism. Its titular head was called Grand Master and for almost two centuries ruled from the sidelines, at times virtually reducing the powers of reigning monarchs to mediocrity as many of those kings became heavily indebted to them. Soon, the Templars were able to control the economies of mediaeval Europe and therefore earned the inimical hatred and contemptuous scorn of both the reigning monarchs and the vicars of the Roman Church who, as we all know, not only controlled the souls of our forefathers by the strings tied to their cassocks but also their mortal lives as well.

Thus it was that during the term of Jacques DeMolay as Grand Master of the Knights Templars at the turn of the 14th century, Pope Clement V and King Philip le Bel of France connived and persecuted the Knights Templars on false charges for one sole purpose --- to confiscate the enormous wealth that they were able to amass, and defang the venomous powers that were already being wielded by these Knights.

The combined strength of the Pope and Philip le Bel succeeded in herding Jacques DeMolay and his henchmen to the dungeons. The Templars residing in France were seized and placed under arrest by the King’s men at dawn of Friday, October 13, 1307, and their perceptories placed under sequestration. Among the false charges include the accusation that the Templars denied Christ, had trampled upon and spat on the cross and that they worshipped the devil called Baphomet. Jacques DeMolay was later burned at the stake together with Guy de Euvergne on March 1314 but only after the aging Grand Master, and this is according to Albert Pyke in his book Morals and Dogma, was able to successfully organize four metropolitan lodges that afterwards were to be called the forerunners of the Occult, Hermetic and Scottish Rite Masonry. Those four lodges were strategically located at, the first at Naples in Spain; the second at Edinburgh in England; the third at Stockholm, Norway, in the north; and the last at Paris in France at the southern backdoor. These secret but otherwise solidly organized and well-funded lodges served as combined safe-house and refugee centers for any Templar about to be incarcerated and persecuted by the King’s men and the Cardinal’s guards. These were said to have adopted the legend of Osiris and the resurrection of Khurum, or Khairom, which we otherwise call Hiram Abif. Rites were woven and became indispensable tools in communicating secret passwords in identifying a brother and have thus become the most cogent forerunner of the modern rituals of Freemasonry that was handed down orally from generation to generation. Brotherhood, fidelity to obligations and the primacy of truth and conscience, have prophesied the restoration to life of a buried association whose secret passwords and symbols became the guidelines in knowing a brother "whether in the light or in the dark."

To add more mystic to this secret organization, oral tradition claimed that Jacques DeMolay called his prosecutors at the stake to join him and account for their deeds before the court of the ever-living God within the year. Within a month, Pope Clement V was found dead supposedly from a sudden attack of dysentery while King Philip died of mysterious causes that remained obscure and was never resolved in any of the pages of the entire world’s history. That the Templars possessed intricate knowledge in the use of poison plus the fact that they had the utmost facility in traveling incognito, and with many sympathizers of the Order freely mingling both in the King’s court and the Church corridors, exacting appropriate vengeance woven under the dying oath of Jacques DeMolay was allowed to float without debunking the apparent hint of supernatural causes which the Templars were allegedly famous for.

The procedure for the flight of a Templar refugee who is compelled to elude arrest from the King’s men or the Cardinal’s guards is simple. A Templar fleeing the clutches of the pursuing accusers will seek shelter in the lodge using secret passwords and coded signs that they alone understand. Once his identity is ascertained, the Templar host would take the refugee under his roof until the apparent hazard subsides. When danger has already passed, the unnamed visitor would be aided to escape still farther away with the host providing him both monetary and food provisions, thus enabling his visitor to reach his intended destination safely or at least, up to the next haven where he can later confidently seek refuge. Thus was the oath of secrecy, helping one brother in times of need, distress, danger or persecution and the attendant oath which obligates one brother "provided there be greater probability of saving his life than of losing one’s own" translated into reality making it a mandatory obligation for all regularly raised Master Masons.

In fine, also the skulls and crossbones became the standard banner of the marauding buccaneers, which the controversial book titled "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" authored by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln claimed, were in reality, Templars who sailed the highs seas and dared opposed the might of the ruling kings and monarchs. These marauding brigands became dreaded nemesis of many a vastly superior naval might, and have earned for that branch of rebels its dreaded reputation and notoriety during their colorful, albeit adventurous years while sailing the rough and stormy seas.

The Templars, many of them astute businessmen whose skills as backroom strategists, the wheeler-dealers they have at their disposal, and with many of their sympathizers and lackeys still beholden to wielders of their vast financial empires that lay hidden from the clutches of the Church and the ruling monarchs, were able to recoup the losses that King Philip le Bel and Company were able to confiscate from them. Their lodges which they maintained underground grew and expanded throughout Europe, with some of the ruling monarchs, among them Frederick the Great of Prussia, the Duke of Wharton and many other notables in England, later joining its mysteries. It also gained adherents not only from the stonemasons and the cathedral builders who were privileged to travel through continental Europe without having to present a national identity and thus effectively camouflaged their existence when traveling. They were also able to attract the speculative masons whose fame and services the secretive Templars also exploited to the hilt.

It’s not all eluding their pursuers, though. By the middle of the 18th century, some of the Templars that were raised in the tradition of Edinburgh and Stockholm, sought shelter in what was then called the uncharted New World in search for that inalienable right to freedom of conscience and religion. In this new habitat, many of its adherents established their lodges and propagated the Craft. The rest is now engraved in the history of the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America.

Curiously, Masonry in the Americas was already alive when the first Grand Lodge of England was organized in 1717. John Skeene who was made a Mason in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1684, migrated to New Jersey thereafter and all through his life stayed there and is therefore recorded as the first Mason to have resided in the new colony. John Belcher, a famous lawyer of both New Jersey and Massachusetts who was made a Mason in 1704 is known to be the first man from America to join Masonry.

Back to Naples in the east and Paris in the south, their adherents also energetically planted the seeds of brotherhood, of equality and fraternity. Freemasonry resurfaced in France in 1718, in 1726 it appeared in the Austrian empire and, two years later, it bubbled in Spain. In like manner, lodges were established in the Northern Hemisphere by their English counterparts, which produced the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin. The Masons from France also planted their Masonic seeds in neighboring Canada as the Spanish conquistadors planted theirs in the southern American backdoor almost at the same time. Revolts in the Southern Hemisphere led by Simon Bolivar who joined Masonry in Cadiz, Spain, and Miguel Hidalgo, the celebrated priest who led the Mexican rebellion in 1810 also untied the respective loyalties of the inhabitants of these Spanish colonies from their Mother countries. Guisseppi Garibaldi, that colorful Frenchman who was born on July 4, 1807 at Nice, France, leapfrogged to Uruguay, Sicily, London and Italy, planting the seeds of democracy during his time and was allegedly even offered by President Abraham Lincoln a command in the U. S. Civil War. In addition, he is also fondly remembered as the George Washington of Italy. Not only that, Dr, Serafin Quiazon, head of the National Historical Institute of the Republic of the Philippines, while researching in London on the British Trade with the Philippines stumbled upon a piece of historical data which revealed that Garibaldi captained a vessel that anchored in Manila Bay sometime in the middle of the nineteenth century. It’s no wonder then that the tenets of the Craft also ultimately landed in the sandy beaches of the Philippine Islands whose patriots and heroes would later enlist as members of this august fraternity.

The initial entry of Masonry in the Philippines could hardly be rated epochal. In 1856, Jose Malcampo y Monge established in the Philippines the first Masonic lodge and named it Primera Luz Filipina. According to MW Reynold S. Fajardo, PGM, this lodge was created primarily to soften the impact of the hostilities between the Spanish Navy that ply to Manila and the English Navy that was based in Hongkong. With the founding of the Primera Luz Filipina, the hostilities between the two naval forces subsided. Another naval officer by the name of Jose Casto Mendez Nunez arrived in 1859 and helped Malcampo propagate Masonry in the islands.

With the advent of Masonic growth in Europe gaining its momentum, Freemasonry likewise gained several adherents in the country in addition to the Lodge established by Malcampo. The first lodge in Manila was founded by the German Consul whose secretary was Jacobo Zobel y Zangronis, a person born in the island of German father and a Spanish mother. Zobel was a very famous Mason who, though born of foreign lineage, was nonetheless dubbed as the first Filipino Mason initiated in the islands. There was also the lodge in Nagtahan and another at Pandacan that were established in the country but with mostly foreigners enrolled in their respective rosters.

The unprecedented growth of Masonry in the islands is traceable largely to the influx of the students who pursued higher studies in Europe, among them, Marcelo H. del Pilar from Bulacan, Graceano Lopez Jaena from Iloilo, the Luna brothers from Ilocos, Galicano Apacible from Batangas, Domingo Panganiban from Camarines Norte, Jose Alejandrino from Pampanga, Tomas Arejola from Camarines Sur, Ariston Bautista from Manila, Julio Llorente from Cebu, and the country’s foremost hero, Jose Rizal from Laguna, making it a conglomeration of patriots from the entire archipelago. They joined Lodge Solidaridad 53 in Spain and, thus exposed to the tenets of the Fraternity, established local lodges upon their return to the islands. For the first time, the citizenry became aware that they are one people, no longer a pack of regional dreamers of independence whose labels as Tagalogs, Kapampangans, Ilokanos, Bulakenos, Bikolanos and other regionalistic affiliations gave way to the more generic word, "Filipinos."

Led by Nilad Lodge, these patriots fanned the already-to-explode discontent that the inhabitants of the islands had been suppressing for many centuries and was said to be largely responsible for the birth of the Katipunan, the organization that was to bear the burden of pursuing the armed struggle of the oppressed people. From Europe, they returned to the country and planted the seeds of Masonry with grim determination and soon, the country’s intellectuals, among them, Numeriano Adriano, Deodato Arellano, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo and Apolinario Mabini, became its most adherent recruits.

Andres Bonifacio went a step further. Inspired by the book on French Revolution, he, together with Teodoro Plata and Deodato Arellano, formed a triumvirate and established the Katipunan using the signs and symbols of Masonry as models.

Thus it was the Masonry’s tenets sparked the conflagration of the Philippine Revolution that ultimately untied the umbilical cord and wrote finis to the rule of the Spanish Cortez on the long-enslaved Filipinos enabling it to establish their own nation!


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Votaries of Honor - MW Reynold S. Fajardo, PGM
Born in Blood -James J. Robinson
Masonic Facts & Fictions - Henry Sadler
Morals and Dogma - Albert Pike
Notable American Freemasons- David J. Roads
Far Eastern Freemason -
April- June 1993 Issue
July-September 1993 Issue
Holy Blood, Holy Grail -
Michael Baigent
Richard Leighand
Henry Lincoln









- posted by Kherwal @ 2:02 PM