Mother principle

Use in the book

Clymer invokes it when discussing the fraternity's recognition of women and again when joining Vishnu, Isis, the Holy Ghost, and Madonna imagery. The generative-symbolism discussion later pairs male and female principles and cites heaven and earth as parents.

Places to read

1. Original Introduction · Block 29… “nearly all other churches combined. They recognize the Mother principle in Deity and know that man and woman, the twain are one.”
2. Masonic Symbolism · Block 15… “Roman Catholic Church, by the Madonna, is the Mother Principle of every living thing in the universe, and, when a man or woman has their spiritual mind awakened they have a” …
3. Masonic Symbolism · Block 133… “the active, or male, and the passive, or female. Hence the gods were always arranged in pairs, as Jupiter and Juno, Bacchus and Venus, Osiris and Isis,”
4. Masonic Symbolism · Block 139… “have two primeval ancestors, a father and a mother. They are Rangi and Papa, heaven and earth. The earth, out of which all things are produced, is our mother; the protecting” …

In this edition

Mother principle is an interpretive phrase in the book. Ordinary references to a mother are included only as separate lexical forms.

Reading the argument

The synthesis should be attributed to Clymer and the writers he quotes. Shared imagery of maternity does not make the named figures doctrinally identical. Nor does praise of a cosmic Mother remove the institution's ceremonial exclusion of women.

Mother Principle

“Mother Principle” — 2 occurrences in 2 text blocks: I.29; S.15.

mother

“mother” — 9 occurrences in 8 text blocks: I.27, 29; F.49, 109; S.15, 28, 121, 139.

female

“female” — 8 occurrences in 7 text blocks: M.55, 57; S.132–133, 136, 140–141.