INDIAN AND MASONIC FAMILIARITIES

Being that the Grand Lodge of Ohio was established in the year 1808, I wanted to determine if any Native Americans played a part in Freemasonry during that period. I found there were some Native Americans who were made Masons during this period.

There is little information regarding Native Americans and Freemasonry, but fortunately, there was enough for me to make some comparisons between Native American traditions and Freemasonry. I made a comparison between the Tribal Medicine Man and the Senior Deacon. A Medicine man is not an intermediary between others and the Divine, but rather his authority derives from his “own mystic spiritual experience.” The medicine referred to is the process of spiritual awakening that may be necessary to cure mental or physical disease, gain wisdom, strength or spiritual insight, and acceptance of Divine cosmic unity. In this way, the Medicine Man, having himself already walked the path, serves as a guide to his community, those preparing for the vision quest, and those about to be initiated into the tribe’s mysteries.

In ancient Roman mystery schools, a similar function in providing guidance to initiates was fulfilled by the “Conductor of the Soul.” This “conductor,” would usually meet the candidate at the entrance to the Temple or cave where the rites would be performed, and guide him through as needed. In Freemasonry, the Senior Deacon fulfills the role of “Medicine Man,” or “Conductor of the Soul.”

Among many Native American tribes the bat serves as a symbol for the Medicine Man because it is symbolic of rebirth. The bat lives in a cave, representative of the womb, and sleeps upside down, in a position reflective of a child just prior to birth. In this sense, the role of Medicine Man is more particularly viewed as a guide, in the initiate’s rebirth, his emergence from darkness into light. In the Fellowcraft Degree, the Senior Deacon leads the candidate up the winding staircase, showing him firsthand the path by which the lower passions are transcended. Once the candidate has symbolically mastered his intellectual faculties, represented by the seven liberal arts and sciences, he arrives at the middle-chamber of the temple, finally prepared to move from the outer to the inner, from the circumference to his own inner spiritual corner, his heart.

In conclusion, the similarities between Freemasonry and Native American tradition, and the comfortable initiation of many Native Americans and tribal chiefs into the Masonic order over the last two hundred years, are a testament to the traditional character of Freemasonry. Native American culture as a whole is traditional because all rites are viewed as a natural aspect of a divinely maintained communal existence, and not somehow separate as religion is often viewed in the modern world.

Freemasonry bears a certain affinity to this understanding because it is one of the last remaining institutions of the Western world to preserve and practice traditional forms.
All traditional societies and institutions are founded upon a common human spirituality that seeks to return man to the center of his spiritual existence. The purpose of initiation is to move man from the circumference to the center, from the outer to the inner, in order to fulfill his function of “unmoved mover” in relation to the world that is his. For the man able to achieve this it can be said, that he no longer belongs to this world, but on the contrary, this world belongs to him. Black Elk, a Medicine Man of the Sioux, wrote the following:

“I am blind and do not see the things of the world; but when the Light comes from above, it enlightens my heart, and I can see, for the Eye of my heart sees everything. The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit, by which He sees all things, and through which we see Him. If the heart is not pure, the Great Spirit cannot be seen. If you should die in this ignorance, your soul cannot return immediately to the Great Spirit. It must be purified by wandering about the world. In order to know the center of the heart where the Great Spirit dwells, you must be pure and good, and live in the manner that the Great Spirit has taught us. The man, who is thus pure, contains the Universe in the pocket of his heart.”

Hiram Abiff
The Widow’s Son

"No man has ever knelt at our altar of Obligation an arose the same man."
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