April 30, 2008
King Solomon and His Followers — A Valuable Aid to the Memory
A few years ago, a then-girlfriend gifted me this genuine Masonic handbook, printed in 1920, as a Christmas present. (I wish everyone had such a good understanding of my tastes.) The entirety of the manual is written in nigh-impenetrable code and shorthand, save passages like that in the middle of the left-hand page, quoting from Genesis.
From what I’ve read, Freemasons technically are disallowed from using printed guides like these, for the exact reason of dissemination by persons like myself. Seeing as it was published prior to 1923, it’s all public domain under U.S. copyright law anyhow. But even so, leafing through something so painstakingly shrouded in secrecy is still mildly creepy.
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23 Responses to “King Solomon and His Followers — A Valuable Aid to the Memory”
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A friend’s father owned a one-volume encyclopedia of Freemasonry, a compendium not of secret lore but simply of Masonic history written by Masons for Masons. Still, there was an aura of taboo about that book, and when we were eight or so years old, my friend and I liked to page through it surreptitiously and frighten ourselves out of all proportion in response to perfectly benign illustrations of people and places.
This Walken is one of mine — I treasure this little curio so much because I suppose someone probably put it to practical use, which fuels the imagination. And I wish that somewhere it bore the mark of its former owner, but I’d guess even Masons who stoop to picking up the Cliff’s Notes have the good sense not to put a “This Book Belongs To:” plate inside the front cover.
Maybe the former owner wrote marginalia in disappearing ink.
I own a similar book — old Masonic books were often written in “pseudocode” to sustain the aura of mysticism. Your book above looks like a lot of the ‘keys’ — there’s not a direct one-to-one for characters; one or more may translate to a word (often it’s the first letter of the word or ‘looks’ like the word) , but the word is often only gained through context and different codes for the same words in different sentences — meaning you already need to have a good idea of what the phrase is before you can read it. OMG LOL those wacky freemasons
! I’m impressed with your book’s use of non-characters; the typesetter must have been a master.
Wonderful little volume. I am a mason and my father gave me his “code books” for all three degrees and I love them. The idea is that the “code” are actually prompts for material that is meant to be memorized “mouth to ear”. It’s not so much that its super secret stuff, its helping to enforce the oral tradition in masonry as well as the old fashioned art of memorization and oratory. Anyway even the “real” secret stuff isn’t written in code it is represented by blanks “______”.
You’re right — “code” is a definite misnomer here; it’s shorthand through and through. Exceptionally complicated, befuddling (to the uninitiated) shorthand, but that label still fits better than “code”.
I have the 21st century equivalent from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts sitting here on my desk. Once you start actually looking into what the Masons are all about, all the secret decoder ring stuff ceases to be sinister/creepy, (but no less time-honored/vaguely mystical.
)
It looks a lot like the “Ecce Orienti” cipher books published by Redding in the late 19th-early 20th century. Some grand lodges allowed them, others did not. (Although GL of Pennsylvania forbade these books, they sold like hotcakes, anyway.)
The last time I saw one of those, it had regular text at the front about some nonsense ritual to make it look non-masonic.
Nice gift!
What a great thread this has turned out to be.
Tell me about it, Sheila.
What are Free Mason’s all about?
Well, I could tell you but its a secret!
Thank you all. Got here by Googling because I just wanted to know what I have, and now I know. Mine is a 1943 copy with copyright dates on the following page of 1907 by J. A Gavitt and 1913, 1914, and 1942 by Allen Publishing Co. I am not a Mason, but I was a DeMolay. Now, what do I do with this thing?
Allo –
What great stories have been posted herein…!
Having translated bits and pieces of my own copy, I can say that the “cypher” is actually a fairly simple combination of word abbreviations and symbol-for-letter substitutions. Once you have the hang of the thing, you can read it at a pretty fair clip. Although your comprehension will be vastly aided by knowing certain common Freemasonry concepts and words, this is certainly not necessary. One has to admire the dedication of the cypher master, here–it’s surprisingly uniform, for such a relatively long work. The use of symbols that resemble letters, however, is surprisingly simpleminded. (Once you understand this, you’re halfway there, already.)
By the way–these volumes are not universally “illlegal” for brethren to own. This is rather interesting:
http://bessel.org/writrits.htm
Also–keep in mind that most of this stuff is merely mundane order-of-business stuff, rather than timeless prose and high ritual. Imagine Robert’s Rules of Order crossed with the Rituale Romanum, you’ll not be too far off….
Regards,
WTT
These books are meant to help keep the rituals true and exact. The reader knows the text by memorization from mouth to ear. The printed text serves a a reminder in case of memory lapse so that the rituals never change over time. Without having gone through the ritual you would nveer figure out this entire book. it takes recognition of words you have already heard as much as knowing how to cipher the code. If you are that interested why not petition a local lodge and find out the entire thing? I have one and can read every word!!
These ritual books vary by jurisdiction. I’m curious as to what state or jurisdiction W.D. refers to?
Not so much secret code, merely a prompt (highly effective one at that). Some ritual books will only create a prompt for the important phrases and words. The idea is that the candidate or speaker will actually learn and understand what is being said. In this day and age of instant gratification this isn’t always such a popular concept.
I found this thread while looking up info on this little book I have. “Ecce
Orienti” National Series, Ninth Edition 1894. The cover and back are separated but with the book.
Anyone interested in it can email me at pumpkincake@sbcglobal.net
Thanks
While sorting through some old books in our family estate, we found an 1899 copy of “Ecce Orienti”. I can remember my father memorizing passages in a book during WW2 when he was working his way up through the various stages of the Scottish Rite lodge on the Panama Canal Zone. I to am curious about the interesting prompts in the volume, particularly those comments by WTT.
I also have an edition of ” KING SOLOMON ND HIS FOLLOWERS IOWA…….
would love to be able to read it. Can anyone help ?
I, too, have a copy of King Solomon and his Followers, Iowa.
Copyright 1898 C. Gavitt, 1915, 1951 by Allen Publishing Co.
Small book – about 6 x 4″. Mine is blue, snap-close, with a tiny rose embroidered in the top middle. Page edges are a light red, almost pink…
I’ve started deciphering it on my own. You, friends, are right – word abbreviations and symbol substitutions are the rote of this pseudocode.
The symbols, typeface and letter-stuttering in my copy are exactly the same
as in the book pictured above, and I’m presuming it, too, is by Allen Publishing Co.
It is the rituals/ceremonies for giving the first three blue degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, as well as lectures and narrative on various other things Masonry thinks virtuous.
Some paragraphs in my copy are plain English, smaller typeface.
Russel, since both of our copies are Iowan, maybe we could compare,
or I might be able to help you with some translation.
belacobros@yahoo.com
I have about 25% figured out so far (keep putting it down for other projects!).
Thanks for the info, everybody!
Glad I found this place.
yes i have the same book, my grandpa was a mason and he left it after he died. i cant find the symbols anywhere on the enternet its like a secret font they have. its nothing a keyboard can type so it must be a type writer the only thing on it from a key board could be @ % stuff like that but ive been trying to decode it and nothing is helping. perhaps we could work together someway to decode it
As Richard points out above, the easiest way to decode the cipher (misnomer, I know) would be to contact your local Lodge and meet with one of us to talk about what we do (I had my 1st meeting in a bar; we’re hardly all that formal anymore!). Most state Grand Lodges have a Lodge Locator on their main website. Whether or not you should want to petition for membership, I can guarantee you an interesting conversation.
Bro. B. Etchieson
L.E.O.
Montgomery Lodge #258, A.F. & A.M.
St. Paul, MN
I picked this little book up at an antique store last week while looking for some old books. My grandfather in law is a mason and so are some of our friends. I have a question about the stamp in this book. My husband said his grandfather has one like it but I have never seen it. But this one has been well used and and even has the stress marks of being held and used a lot. There is a stamp in the front which may just be on all of them but I dont know. The stamp is deep purple on the first page. It says
“Huelen” Lodge.
A.’.F.’. & A.’.M.’.
CASILLA 3776
SANTIAGO
(these characters after the letters are actually a triangle of dots I cant reproduce on this keyboard) Its identical to the one above and copywright is 1910 by J.A. Gavitt / Allen Publishing 1936
Anyone have any idea? Thank you
Wendy