What The Hell Is Going On

Secret Combinations:
The Hermetic Influence on Mormon

Cosmology and Temple
Worship

By
Shawn Higgins
1
Table of Contents

Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Preface ..................................................................................................................................7
Chapter 1: Spiritual Antecedents of the Latter-day Saints in New England .......................9
Chapter 2: Royal Arch Freemasonry and the Continental Occult Revival........................15
Chapter 3: Golden Plates: Enoch in the Age of Reason....................................................22
Chapter 4: Book of Mormon: Anti-Mason Bible ..........................................................26
Chapter 5: Ye Shall go to the Ohio................................................................................33
Chapter 6: The Sublime Degree.........................................................................................40
Chapter 7: The Lodge and The Temple.............................................................................44
Chapter 8: Is There No Help For The Widows Son? ...................................................57
Chapter 9: I Discover A Disposition In The Sheep To Scatter .....................................61
Conclusion: Saints and Symbols in the Twentieth Century ..............................................66

2
Introduction

The influence that hermetic philosophy played in the construction and
development of the Mormon temple ceremony and cosmology will be the focus of this
thesis. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), otherwise known as the
Mormon Church, began in the early nineteenth century American frontier as a part of the
wider Christian restoration movement. Infused over time with hermetic philosophy the
Mormon church evolved into a complex and sophisticated temple cultus. Scholar James
E. Talmage in his 1912 work House of the Lord once described the role and efficacy of
the Mormon Temple Endowment ceremony this way:
The Temple Endowment, as administered in modern temples, comprises instruction
relating to the significance and sequence of past dispensations, and the importance of
the present as the greatest and grandest era in human history. This course of instruction
includes a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period, the condition of
our first parents in the Garden of Eden, their disobedience and consequent expulsion
from the blissful abode, their condition in the lone and dreary world when doomed to
live by labor and sweat, the plan of redemption by which the great transgression may be
atoned, the period of the great apostasy, the restoration of the Gospel with all its ancient
powers and privileges, the absolute and indispensable condition of personal purity and
devotion to the right in present life, and a strict compliance with Gospel requirements.
1

I will explore the trajectory of the Churchs history and some of the reasoning
behind its evolving practices. When confronting the meaning behind the Endowment
ceremony I am reminded of a passage from the prominent phenomonologist of religion
Mircea Eliades work Myth and Reality:
In one way or another one "lives" the myth, in the sense that one is seized by the sacred,
exalting power of the events recollected or re-enacted. "Living" a myth, then, implies a

1
James Edward Talmage, The House Of The Lord: A Study of Sanctuaries Ancient and Modern (Salt Lake
City, Utah. Deseret News,1912) 99-100

3
genuinely "religious" experience, since it differs from the ordinary experience of
everyday life. The "religiousness" of this experience is due to the fact that one re-enacts
fabulous, exalting, significant events, one again witnesses the creative deeds of the
Supernaturals; one ceases to exist in the everyday world and enters a transfigured,
auroral world impregnated with the Supernaturals' presence. What is involved is not a
commemoration of mythical events but a reiteration of them. The protagonists of the
myth are made present; one becomes their contemporary. This also implies that one is
no longer living in chronological time, but in the primordial Time, the Time when the
event first took place. This is why we can use the term the "strong time" of myth; it is
the prodigious, "sacred" time when something new, strong, and significant was
manifested. To re-experience that time, to re-enact it as often as possible, to witness
again the spectacle of the divine works, to meet with the Supernaturals and relearn their
creative lesson is the desire that runs like a pattern through all the ritual reiterations of
myths. In short, myths reveal that the World, man, and life have a supernatural origin
and history, and that this history is significant, precious, and exemplary.
2

Therefore, it is my aim with this thesis to take a phenomenological approach in
examining the tributaries of hermeticism that helped shape the early Mormon movement,
its development as a temple cultus, and its arrival into the twenty first century.
The complex cosmological system of Mormonism that developed in the early,
fragile, Jacksonian Democracy of the United States has as its tributaries several sources.
This senior thesis seeks to reassess the traditional narratives of the history of the Latter-
day Saints in favor of a more expansive historical understanding. The religious and
cultural antecedents of early Mormonism can be found in the perfectionist sentiments of
humanist philosophy during the hermetically rich Italian Rennaiasance. The impact of
hermeticism would reverberate well into seventeenth-century Europe and antebellum
America.
The occult revival of Continental Europe plays an important role in the evolution
of the Mormon praxis of worship. The Mormon Churchs early incarnation had, by the
time of Joseph Smiths martyrdom in 1844, developed into a fully elaborate temple

2
Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality (New York, New York. Harper Collins,1963)
4
apparatus; the infrastructure of which owes its genesis to the governing bodies of
Freemasonry, specifically the Royal Arch variant of the craft.
Central to the Royal Arch tradition is the preservation of mysteries with ties to the
prophet Enoch. Having received a vision, tradition holds, Enoch constructed a
subterranean temple whose architecture was comprised of nine superimposed arches.
These arches protected a triangular golden plate that was inscribed with the ineffable
characters he experienced in his vision. To preserve its secrets for future generations,
two pillars engraved with arcane knowledge were erected outside of the temple in
anticipation of the Flood. According to this tradition, millennia pass before King
Solomons architects, while building his temple, discovered and restored the secrets of
Enochs golden plates. Restoration is a cornerstone of Royal Arch Masonry, not only of
the ancient mysteries but also of the priestly office of the Melchizedek. These ideas,
popularized and further developed on the European Continent, would make their way to
colonial America.
I will discuss how Masonry provided an important institutionalized fraternal order
in the social and political landscape of colonial, revolutionary and early republican
periods. Historian Samuel Morris Brown has suggested that the fraternity provided
experimentation in solidarity and respite from sectarian strife and acted as an apparatus of
network building outside of established institutions
3
.
I will explore how Joseph Smith expanded his missionary efforts further west into
the American frontier in 1830. He found a community in Kirtland, Ohio who embraced
his teachings and offered a new home for his church away from New York. This small

3
Samuel Morris Brown, In Heaven as it is on Earth: Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of
Death (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) 172
5
city in the wilderness was to Joseph Smith the Zion he had been looking for. It was here
where his first temple was constructed and dedicated to God. This early temple worship
consisted of simple rituals such as the ceremonial washing and anointing of the body and
sealings and blessings patterned off of biblical rites. Building the temple left the church
in debt however, and after a fraudulent church sponsored banking scandal and circulating
rumors of Smiths sexual indiscretions, the Saints began looking for a new home. They
found it in the swampy woodlands of Nauvoo, Illinois.
The Mormon Church had its most theologically controversial
developments in its new home in Nauvoo, Illinois. The developmental doctrines of
polygamy, baptism for the dead, exaltation (apotheosis), and the Temple Endowment
Ceremony, coalesced into the religious transformation from church of restoration to that
of a locus of human transfiguration. I will discuss the ways Masonic rituals, at this time,
helped inform the prophet on sacred ordinances that would factor into the Mormon
Temple Endowment Ceremony. I will examine the parraelels in the use of symbolic
vocabulary (tokens, signs, penalties, creation narratives, ritual anointing) evident in both
the Mormon Temple Endowment and the Masonic Initiation ceremonies.

Many felt that the Masonic practices adopted in Nauvoo strayed too far from the
simple truth and allure of the original teachings in New York and Ohio. Smith began to
feel that some of his detractors were plotting against his life, and subsequently he had
them excommunicated. These excommunicated members, in conjunction with those
critical of the Church, published an unapologetic critique of Smith in the Nauvoo
Expositor. With Smiths blessing, the suppression and destruction of the Expositors
printing press was carried out. The backlash proved to be Smiths ultimate undoing.
6
Supporters and opponents of the prophet began to riot, prompting the arrest of Joseph
Smith. On June 27
th
1844, a mob stormed his cell and murdered Smith. It was circulated
that his final words were a Masonic distress call. Oh Lord, my God is there no help
for the widow's son?
Securing a successor to Smith during this time of anxiety proved to be
tumultuous. Many claimants to the title were vying for control over the destiny of the
Church. The group splintered into various factions, but the majority followed Brigham
Young as the next leader and prophet of the Mormon people. The work that had begun
with Smith was to be carried out and fulfilled by the successor. Young kept the basic
Masonic template of the temple ceremony and augmented it with revisions and
expansions as the Nauvoo Temple was nearing completion. The Mormons were not long
for Nauvoo, however, and once again the community had to flee further west for security.
The Mormons viewed this difficult period as their exodus and Brigham Young, their
leader, was their Moses. Those who reached Utah only had their belief fortified.
Construction on the Salt Lake temple would tell the story of these people, through
hermetically rich symbolism and ceremony.

7
Preface
Before exploring the hermetic origins of the Mormon faith I think it best to have a
basic framework of the orthodox beliefs for which to refer back to. The LDS Churchs
official website offers a succinct description of how they believe Joseph Smith came to
receive the Book of Mormon and the gift of prophecy. What follows is a reprint of their
history from the section Joseph Smith: A Prophet of God:
As a young man of fourteen years, Joseph already had a desire to find the truth. Like the
rest of his family, he was deeply religious, and when the time came for him to be
baptized, Joseph had to decide which of the many Christian denominations to join.
After careful study, he still felt confused. He later wrote:
So great were the confusion and strife among the different denominations, that it was
impossible for a person young as I was [ ] to come to any certain conclusion who
was right and who was wrong [ ] In the midst of this war of words and tumult of
opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right;
or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall
I know it?"
Joseph turned to the Bible for guidance. He read,"If any of you lack wisdom, let him
ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given
him" (James 1:5).
This verse deeply impressed him. He decided to pray about what he should do, with
simple faith that God would hear and answer him. In the spring of 1820, Joseph went to
a grove of trees near his home and knelt in prayer. He described his experience:
I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which
descended gradually until it fell upon me [ ] When the light rested upon me I saw
two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in
the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the
other-This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"
This vision of Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ was the beginning of Joseph
Smith's calling as a prophet of God. He was told that none of the churches on the earth
had the fullness of truth. Over time, Joseph Smith was chosen to establish Christ's
Church and restore the priesthood, or the authority to act in God's name. He was led by
God to an ancient record
4
and given the ability to translate it into English. This record is

4
The Book of Mormon is the word of God, like the Bible. It is Holy Scripture, with form and content
8
called the Book of Mormon. He continued to pray and receive revelation for the Church
throughout his life. These revelations were compiled into a book of scriptures referred
to as the Doctrine and Covenants and shows that God still leads His children today.
Joseph Smith formally organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on
April 6, 1830.
5

similar to that of the Bible. Both books contain God's guidance as revealed to prophets as well as religious
histories of different civilizations. While the Bible is written by and about the people in the land of Israel
and surrounding areas, and takes place from the creation of the world until shortly after the death of Jesus
Christ, the Book of Mormon contains the history and Gods dealings with the people who lived in the
Americas between approximately 600 BC and 400 AD. The prophets in the Book of Mormon recorded
God's dealings with His people, which were compiled by a prophet named Mormon onto gold plates.
Before these faithful Christians perished, their record was safely hidden away. Joseph Smith obtained these
ancient records in 1827, and with the gift and power of God Joseph was able to translate the ancient
writings into what we have today. The Book of Mormon, along with the Bible, testifies that Jesus Christ is
our divine Redeemer and that by living according to His gospel we can find peace in this life and eternal
happiness in the life to come. http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/book-of-mormon (4/13/14)
5
http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/joseph-smith (4/13/14)
9
Chapter 1
Spiritual Antecedents of the Latter-day Saints in New England

Two seminal and provocative works stand out when discussing the alternative
history and formation of the Mormon Church. Michael D. Quinns Early Mormonism and
the Magic World View, and John L. Brookes The Refiners Fire: The Making of Mormon
Cosmology 1644-1844. These controversial works focused on the role that the
supernatural, ritual, and folk magic of nineteenth century New England played in the
development of Joseph Smiths revelatory cosmology and The Book of Mormon.
In The Refiners Fire, Brooke, a professor at Tufts, finds convincing parallels
between ancient alchemical and hermetic traditions and Mormonism. He argues that these
traditions, which are thought by scholars to have originated in Greco-Roman Egypt,
blended with radical Christian sects during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and
later made their way to the New York frontier via New Englands sectarian emigrants.
He posits that the cosmology of Joseph Smiths Mormon religion can only be
understood when placed on a stage larger than Antebellum America. Brooke writes:
[at a] conjunction that reaches back not simply to a disorderly antebellum democracy or
even New England but to the extreme perfectionism forged in the Radical Reformation
from the fusion of Christianity with the ancient occult hermetic philosophy. The milieu
of antebellum American hinterlands can explain the context of the Mormon emergence
but not the content of its cosmology. For this content we need to look beyond milieu to
memory, to diffuse the divergent trails of cultural continuity that prepared certain
peoples-and aparticular young man-for the building of a religious tradition that drew
deeply from the most radical doctrines of early modern Europes religious crucible
6

Many of the scholars and historians critical of Brookes work have contested that
there is not a strong enough argument for applying our modern understanding of the pre-

6
John L. Brooke, The Refiners Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844 (Cambridge, United
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1996) xvi
10
Adamic restoration prevalent in Hermetic thought, and the transmutations inherent of
alchemy to early frontier American communities. While I dont take issue with some
aspects of Brookes thesis, his work makes use of an exhaustive list of primary sources
that represent many voices and opinions regarding Smith and his followers.
In the fourteenth century humanism developed in Italy, in part, as a response to
questions surrounding the nature of government. A renewed interest and study in the
culture of Classical Greece and Rome galvanized intellectual life. Literary works that
were lying neglected in cathedrals and monastic libraries were engaged with a renewed
enthusiasm. This was a time when Ottoman conquests saw transferal of Greek
manuscripts to western cities. Scholars fleeing the destruction of the Christian
commonwealths in the east provided an opportunity for western scholasticism to
rediscover ancient texts. Historian Diarmaid MacCulloch places the advent of hermetic
scholarship during this time period:
7

Among the flood of new and strange material from the ancient world, which might or
might not be valuable if put to use, was the a set of writings about religion and
philosophy purporting to have been written by a divine figure from Egypt, Hermes
Trismegistus. In fact they had been compiled in the first to third centuries CE, at much
the same time as early Christianity was emerging. Some were then codified in Greek in
a work now known as the Corpus Hermeticum, and others later translated into Latin and
Arabic. Some dealt with forms of magic, medicine or astrology to sort out the problems
of everyday life; some appealed to the same fascination with secret wisdom about the
cosmos and the nature of knowledge which had created Gnostic Christianity and later
Manichaeism. So this hermetic literature chimed in with many traditional Christian
preoccupations, and it became newly accessible after the 1480s when the Medici in
Florence commissioned Marsilio Ficino to translate into Latin the available sections of
the Corpus Hermeticum. Humanists savoured the cheery prospect that with more
investigation, hard work and possibly supernatural aid, more ancient wisdom might be
more fully recovered. Equally exciting were the possibilities opened up by the
increasing attention that Christian scholars paid to Cabbala, the body of Jewish
literature which had started out as a commentary on the Tanakh, but which by the

7
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (New York, New York: Penguin
Books, 2011) 574-78

11
medieval period had created its own intricate network of theological speculation,
drawing on sub-Platonic mysticism like the gnostics or the hermeticistsThese themes
were to play a great part in intellectual life and discussion throughout sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
8

I place hermetic philosophy not in opposition to Christianity but rather in the
broader context of the faith. The cross-cultural transmission of ideas in Renaissance
Europes religiously diverse periods manifested in heterodox exegeses and practices of
the Christian faith, as seen in the experiments of the Radical Reformation. In the
Americas, whether conscious or not, these beliefs found vehicles in the folk magic of
lived religion.
The world that Joseph Smith grew up in was not adverse to magical practices. The
use of seer-stones , scrying for buried treasure, and beliefs in spirits were commonplace.
The young Joseph Smith was incontestably a treasure seeker, and the evidence of his
involvement in these practices is well documented. Quinn writes: Joseph Smith
(founding prophet and president of the new church) had unquestionably participated in
treasure-seeking and stone divination. Evidence indicates that he also used divining rods,
a talisman, and implements of ritual magic.He adds: "two-thirds of Mormonism's first
apostles had some affinity for folk magic
9

Smith came to know and practice this divining craft by the oral and written
traditions that were passed down through his family and his community. The years
predating the future Mormon prophets birth saw the compilation of an ever-growing
expanse of occult manuals and grimoires. The most notable of these works that were
likely found near the Smith residence in Palmyra/Manchester were Ebeneezer Siblys

8
Ibid
9
D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books,
1998) 240
12
New and Complete Illustration of the Occult (1784), Cornelius Agrippas pseudo-
epigraphic Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, Reginald Scots compilation of magic rites
The Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584), and Francis Barretts The Magus (1801).
10
Smith
would also have had readily available to him cheap paperbound books with guidelines
and illustrations explaining various magical rites.
The Smith family had in their possession religious artifacts and tools that were to be
used in ritual magic acts: a Jupiter talisman, and a dagger ornamented in planetary sigils
to be used in conjunction with The Magus, and small folded parchments used for magical
rituals called lamens
11
.
In Clay L. Chandlers essay, Scrying for the Lord: Magic, Mysticism, and the
Origins of the Book of Mormon, he remarks on the connections of these texts and their
relationship to the Smith household in particular. The divination and treasure seeking that
Smith was participating in is a belief system in which subterranean spirits guard precious
metals buried under the earth. Knowledgeable magicians can ascertain and retrieve the
spoils. Chandler cites the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy There are spirits of the
earth, which inhabit the groves, woods and wildernesses....and keep treasures, which
oftentimes they do transport from one place to another and The Discoverie of
Witchcrafts reference to a christall stone (seer-stone) used to discover the whereabouts
of these treasures.
12

Joseph Smith used seer-stones to aid in his treasure seeking and he likely

10
Ibid 100
11
Ibid 83-85, 98-116.
12
Chandler, Clay L. Scrying for the Lord: Magic, Mysticism, and the Origins of the Book of Mormon
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Vol. 36.4 (2003) 43-78 Print.
13
inherited this practice from his mother, Lucy Mack Smith.
13
If the Smith family did not
own these grimoires, they were at least aware of the information they contained.
Chandler makes an interesting observation regarding how and why Joseph Smith
emerged as a Prophet in that time and place. Using Robert R. Wilsons Prophecy and
Society in Ancient Israel he cites:
14

Intermediaries are often found in societies undergoing stress and rapid social change.
Sudden economic reversals, wars, natural disasters and cross cultural contact can all
lead to social instability. Under such conditions a society may seek to restore its
equilibrium by renewing its contacts with the supernatural world. Intermediaries may
have a role in this process.
15

Chandler follows with Jan Shipps insight on the political atmosphere:
16

The Situation throughout the union was unsettled and things
were extremely fluid in this period when all America seemed to be streaming westward
after the Revolution. A new physical universe was there to contend with. A new
somewhat uncertain political system existed and Americans had to operate within it.
The bases of social order were in disarray, and as a result of the nations having cut its
ties with England and her history, a clear lack of grounding in the past was evident
17

The hermetic tributaries that flowed into and through New England and the
American frontier exposed Joseph Smith to the larger matrix of Christian discourse. His
fluency and charismatic command of folk magic and Christian scripture made him an
ideal candidate for prophethood in the turbulent post-revolutionary years and the cautious

13
D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books,
1998) 42
14
15
Robert R. Wilson, Prophecy and Society in Ancient Israel (Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fortress Press,
1980) 31

16
17
Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana and Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 1987) 33-34.

14
optimism of Jacksonian democracy.

18

18
Seer stone apparently used by Joseph Smith. Smith's widow Emma passed it on to relatives of her second
husband, Lewis Bidamon. (Wilford Woodruff Museum)
15
Chapter 2
Royal Arch Freemasonry and the Continental Occult Revival

The Mormon constellation of hermetic philosophy and renewed
dispensationalism
19
that would take root and evolve, would not have happened without
the accumulated traditions and predispositions of the prepared people in the culture to
which Joseph was preaching . If folk magic in Smiths time was one vehicle for operating
and communicating with the unseen world outside of the parameters of orthodox
Christianity, then the organizational body known as Freemasonry was an equally
important tributary of hermetic philosophy to the community of New Yorks Burned-
over district.
20
In laying the groundwork for the Mormon/Mason connection, this chapter
will briefly explore the history of Freemasonry and its transmission to the Americas.
The origins of Freemasonry are shrouded in obscurity. It can best be described as
fraternal order whose ethical infrastructure is modeled on a set of rituals and symbols that
are connected to the imagined architecture of King Solomons Temple and its chief
architect, Hiram Abiff. This brotherhood, which also goes by the monikers Speculative
Masonry and The Craft, owe its origins to the guild systems of practical operative

19
Dispensationalism: is an evangelical, futurist, Biblical interpretation that understands God to have related
to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants in a series of "dispensations," or
periods in history.(wikipedia) April 27, 2014

20
The burned-over district refers to the western and central regions of New York in the early 19th century,
where religious revivals and the formation of new religious movements of the Second Great Awakening
took place.The term was coined by Charles Grandison Finney, who in his 1876 book Autobiography of
Charles G. Finney, referred to a "burnt district" to denote an area in central and western New York State
during the Second Great Awakening. He felt that the area had been so heavily evangelized as to have no
"fuel" (unconverted population) left over to "burn" (convert).In references where the religious revival is
related to reform movements of the period, such as abolition, women's rights, and utopian social
experiments, the region is expanded to include those areas of central New York that were important to
these movements. (Wikipedia) April 27, 2014

16
Masonry. Evidence of a cleavage between operative and speculative Masonry can be
found in the British Isles in the seventeenth-century, but there is uncertainty on how and
when this split actually occurred.
21

If we distance ourselves from Freemasonrys claim of an ancient lineage we can,
however, trace its origins back to the medieval guilds of the Stonemasons, whose
governing infrastructure of tiered hiearchy and reputation for preserving ancient secrets
began to arouse the interests of gentleman intellects throughout the seventeenth-century.
The lodges of speculative Freemasons, by the eighteenth-century, had supplanted their
operative counterpart, as a fraternal enlightenment institution. Brookes has argued that
the transformation process from operative Stonemasonry to speculative Freemasonry
owes its origins in the broader environment of late Renaissance hermeticism, the rumors
of a secret network of mystics and the Rosicrucian brotherhood.
22
Freemasonry fostered
an image of an elite brotherhood tasked with the preservation of occult secrets. For those
seeking the arcane ancient and mystical knowledge of antiquity, Freemasonry was seen to
be the answer.
23

By 1717 the first Grand Lodge was established in London, and with the arrival of
this governing body, organized Masonry was formally introduced to the world. At its

21
Christopher McIntosh, The Rose Cross and the Age of Reason: Eighteenth-Century Rosicrucianism in
Central Europe and its Relationship to the Enlightenmen (Albany, New York: SUNY Press. 2011) 39

22
Rosicrucian: member of a worldwide brotherhood claiming to possess esoteric wisdom handed down
from ancient times. The name derives from the orders symbol, a rose on a cross, which is similar to the
family coat of arms of Martin Luther. Rosicrucian teachings are a combination of occultism and other
religious beliefs and practices, including Hermeticism, Jewish mysticism, and Christian Gnosticism. The
central feature of Rosicrucianism is the belief that its members possess secret wisdom that was handed
down to them from ancient times.

23
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 94

17
inception, only two degrees of initiation were offered: Entered Apprentice and Fellow
Craft. The degree of Master Mason was incorporated not long after, rounding out
what would be known as the craft degrees. This tri-gradal system offered the initiates,
in each successive degree, instructions in morals and Masonic symbolism; incorporating
an extensive choreography of passwords, handshakes, secret signs and penalties for
revealing its secrets to non-Masons.
24

Around 1730 the movement was adopted by the French educated classes, which
contributed to Masonrys continental foothold and expansion. In that same decade Paris
had erected its own Grand Lodge that in 1773 was christened the Grand Orient de
France. In France, Masonry would continue to develop in ways that deviated from its
sister lodge across the channel. The inclusion of mystical and chivalric elements to the
rituals significantly altered the egalitarian tone and style of craft masonry.
25

The roots of these conflicting interpretations are in the inherent contradiction of
the craft itself. The organization is egalitarian in the sense that its members are equal and
united in their reverence for the Great Architect of the Universe, abandoning sectarian
and dogmatic strife in favor of creating a fraternity where all men are brothers. The other
side of Masonry, however, is an organization with a highly elaborate system of secret
rites and ritual symbolism of ancient gnosis that are revealed in a gradation of degrees to
be protected from the profane. As Christopher McIntosh states in: The Rose Cross and
the Age of Reason This dichotomy in Masonry was both a strength and a weakness: a

24
Matthew Bowman, The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith (New York, New York:
Random House, 2012) 46

25
Central Europe and its Relationship to the Enlightenment (Albany, New York: SUNY Press. 2011) 40

18
strength because it meant that Masonry could appeal to a wide spectrum of opinion; a
weakness because the two approaches were bound to come into conflict.
26

The Scottish migr Andrew Michael Ramsay, a member of the household of the
Stuart pretender, published a speech in 1737 that tied Masonrys origins to the Crusades.
This etiology contributed to the chivalric developments in Masonry, conjuring up a
knightly mythic past where Freemasonry had been created and transmitted by the Knights
Templar.
27
According to Ramsay the sacred information the Templar Order was thought
to have discovered in the Holy Lands was preserved and passed down to Scottish
Lodges. Masonry in France and the rest of Europe continued to branch out and develop
into competing institutions with divergent views. After Ramsays death in 1743, the
lodges that believed the legend of Scotlands role in providing refuge for the medieval
Templars were broadly denominated as the Scottish Rite of Masonry.
28
Scottish Rite
came to represent the mystically charged rituals that extended past the three tiered craft
degrees. The lodges that offered degrees past master mason were referred to as red
Masonry, the craft degrees were known as blue Masonry.
29
Throughout the rest of the

26
Ibid 40
27
Templar: also called Knight Templar, member of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of
Solomon, a religious military order of knighthood established at the time of the Crusades that became a
model and inspiration for other military orders. Originally founded to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy
Land, the order assumed greater military duties during the 12th century. Its prominence and growing
wealth, however, provoked opposition from rival orders. Falsely accused of blasphemy and blamed for
Crusader failures in the Holy Land, the order was destroyed by King Philip IV of France. (Encyclopedia
Brittanica) April 27, 2014

28

29
Central Europe and its Relationship to the Enlightenment (Albany, New York: SUNY Press. 2011) 40
19
eighteenth-century, red masonry continued to incorporate hermetic and millenarian
philosophies.
The critical role of Ramsay cannot be underestimated as the chief architect who
infused the earlier modes of hermetic philosophy to Masonry and, as Ill explain in later
chapters, by extension to the later developments of LDS temple worship. Ramsay had
traversed and experimented with different schools of Protestant thought, including a brief
membership in the Philadelphian Society, before eventually converting to Catholicism in
1715. It was in Holland in 1710 that he was introduced to Catholic quietism
30
, and
recognized in this movement the universal and mystical practices that prior generations
saw in Familism
31
and Rosicrucianism. Through the vehicle of Freemasonry he found a
home for his new hermetic religion, one that fused elements of the Rosicrucian corpus
and quietist mysticism.
32
It was the work of Ramsay that not only changed the
possibilities of Masonry, but also helped pave the way for the greater European occult
revival.

30
Quietism : a doctrine of Christian spirituality that, in general, holds that perfection consists in passivity
(quiet) of the soul, in the suppression of human effort so that divine action may have full play. Quietistic
elements have been discerned in several religious movements, both Christian and non-Christian, through
the centuries; but the term is usually identified with the doctrine of Miguel de Molinos, a Spanish priest
who became an esteemed spiritual director in Rome during the latter half of the 17th century and whose
teachings were condemned as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. (Enyclopedia Brittanica) April 27,
2014

31
Familist: member of Family of Love, religious sect of Dutch origin, followers of Hendrik Niclaes, a
16th-century Dutch merchant. Niclaes main activity was in Emden, East Friesland (154060). In his
Evangelium regni, issued in England as A Joyfyl Message of the Kingdom, he invited all lovers of truth,
of what nation and religion soever they be, Christian, Jews, Mahomites, or Turks, and heathen, to join in a
great fellowship of peace, the Family of Love, giving up all contention over dogma and seeking to be
incorporated into the body of Christ. (Enyclopedia Brittanica) April 27, 2014

32

20
Colonial American Freemasonry was originally established under the patronage
of the London Grand Lodge and took their cue from their parent body overseas.
Therefore the rites and culture in these branches reflected the enlightenment disposition
of their English founders. Prior to the American Revolution these outposts were limited
to the few coastal towns of New England and the Tidewater. During the Revolution,
Masonry spread among the officers of the Continental army, but it was not until the
1790s that the movement became truly widespread.
The trans-Atlantic and trans-national movement of people during and after the
American Revolutionary war likely contributed to the exposure of the European occult
revival to the American colonies. The Hessian mercenaries that aided the British and the
French allies of the Americans would have brought with them the Red Masonry of the
Continent and shared it with their colonial counterparts. Whether directly inspired by
Masonry or not, what is evident is the rapid influx of hermetic literature being published
in the early republic in the last two decades of the eighteenth-century.
33

33
Ibid pp. 98
21
34

34
The veils in the Royal Arch degree. Homer, Michael W. Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry: The
Relationship Between Freemasonry and Mormonism. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Vol.27.3
(1994) 1-116 Print

22
Chapter 3
Golden Plates: Enoch in the Age of Reason

Joseph Smiths discovery of the Golden Plates buried beneath the Hill
Cumorah is crucial to the canon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Believers claim that Smith was divinely guided to recover an ancient and holy record that
was lost to time. The story is a unique addition to Christian discourse but not to Masonic
tradition. The Enochian myth in the Royal Arch tradition predates Smiths discovery
and the thematic structure of the two accounts bear a striking resemblance to one another.
At least since the 1820s and possibly even earlier, The Smith household had
realized in Masonic mythology a means to unlocking the ancient order of things, a
history of a lost sacred message that had been corrupted over the passage of time.
35
Born
into a family with a long history of experiments that embraced antimonian sentiments
36
,
Joseph was from an early age exposed to a constellation of theologies that would inform
his career as a prophet.
Among the Masonic works that were circulating in the new Republic was
Thomas Smith Webbs Freemasons Monitor or Illustrations of Masonry. This work had a
significant impact on the shaping of the Masonic Ritual in North America specifically the
high degree Masonry of the York Rite.
His work in promoting these lodges earned him the moniker Founding Father

35

36
Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York, New York: Random
House, 1971) 3
23
of the York Rite.
37
It is his description of the degree of the Knights of the Ninth Arch
that shows what The Enoch myth would have looked like in the time of the Smiths.
It is my intention at this time to give you a clearer account than you have yet been
acquainted with, masonry; of which at present you barely know the elements.In doing
this it will be necessary to explain to you some circumstances of very remote antiquity.
Enoch, the son of Jared, was the sixth son in descent from Adam, and lived in the fear
and love of his Maker.Enoch, being inspired by the Most High, and in commemoration
of a wonderful vision, built a temple under ground, and dedicated the same to God.
Methuselah, the son of Enoch, constructed the building, without being acquainted with
his fathers motives.This happened in the part of the world, which was afterwards called
he land of Canaan, and since known by the name of the Holy Land.Enoch caused a
triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; he enriched it
with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate, of the same
form. He then engraved upon it the ineffable characters, and placed it on a triangular
pedestal of white marble which he deposited in the deepest arch.When Enochs temple
was completed, he made a door of stone, and put a ring of iron therein, by which it
might be occasionally raised; and placed it over the opening of the arch, that the matters
enclosed therein might be preserved from the universal destruction impending. And
none but Enoch knew of the treasure which the arches contained.And, behold, the
wickedness of mankind increased more, and became grievous in the sight of the Lord,
and God threatened to destroy the whole world. Enoch, perceiving that the knowledge
of the arts was likely to be lost in the general destruction, and being desirous of
preserving the principles of sciences, for the posterity of those whom God should be
pleased to spare, built two great pillars on the top of the highest mountain, the one of
brass to withstand water, the other of marble, to withstand fire; and he engraved on the
pillar of brass the principles of the liberal arts, particularly of masonry.
According to this tradition, after the burial of the plates, many centuries pass until
they are re-discovered by Solomons Masons while work is being excavated for his
Temple to God.
The same divine history particularly informs us of the different movements of the
Israelites, until they became possessed of the land of promise, and of the succeeding
events until the Divine Providence was pleased to give the scepter to David; who,
though fully determined to build a temple to the Most High, could never begin it; that
honor being reserved for his son.Solomon, being the wisest of princes, had fully in
remembrance of his promises of God to Moses, that some of his successors, in fullness
of time, should discover his holy name; and his wisdom inspired him to believe, that
this could not be accomplished until he erected and consecrated a temple to the living

37
Abbot Jr., Norris G. Founding Father of the York Rite. Northern Light, January (1971) Vol. 2 No. 1.
Lexington, Massachussetts.

24
God, in which he might deposit the precious treasures.Accordingly, Solomon began to
build, in the fourth year of his reign, agreeably a plan given to him by David his father,
upon the ark of alliance. He chose a spot for this purpose, the most beautiful and healthy
in all of Jerusalem. The number of the grand and sublime elected , were at first three,
and now consisted of five; and continued so until the temple was completed and
dedicated; when king Solomon, as a reward for their faithful services, admitted to this
degree the twelve grandmasters, who had faithfully presided over the twelve tribes; also
one other grand master architect. Nine ancient grand masters, eminent for their virtue,
were chosen knights of the royal arch, and shortly afterwards were admitted to to the
sublime degree of perfection.You have been informed in what manner the number of
the grand elect was augmented to twenty-seven, which is the cube of three: they
consisted of two kings, three knights of the royal arch, twelve commanders of the
twelve tribes, nine elected grandmasters, and one grand master architect.This lodge is
closed by the mysterious number.
38

The network of Royal Arch lodges that existed in America can help explain the
Masonic symbolism that is prevalent with Smiths discovery of the Golden Plates. The
accounts of their discovery in a hollowed out stone chamber; submerged beneath a hilltop
has striking similarities to the Enochian myth of the penultimate degree of the York
Rite.
39

The intricate dialogue between the Masonic tradition and what would eventually
become the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony probably laid down its roots in the
mid 1820s given that Josephs brother Hyrum had successfully petitioned for initiation
into the York Rite between 1825 and 1827.
The York Rite of Masonry that Hyrum was exposed to would have had three
distinct levels: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason and would
have included the requisite instructions in morals and symbolism, secret signs,
passwords, handgrips, and penalties for revealing secrets. Though the exact level of

38
Thomas Smith Webb The Freemasons Monitor. (Cushing & Appleton. Salem, Massachusetts,
1808) 283-289
39
John L. Brooke The Refiners Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644-1844 (Cambridge, United

25
Hyrums involvement is unknown, it appears that it was a favorable experience that was
more than likely related to Joseph.
40

40
David J. Buerger The Development of Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony. Dialogue: A Journal
of Mormon Thought. Vol. 20.4 (1984) 75-122 Print.

26
Chapter 4
Book of Mormon: Anti-Mason Bible

Freemasonry in the generation of the American Revolution was largely a para-
civic social club for white male property owners. The fraternity provided an important
meeting space outside of church for solidarity and networking amongst upwardly mobile
men, providing respite from the sectarian political and religious landscape.
41

By the 1820s American Masonry was in the process of a complex transition; one
that saw an evolution into an exceedingly more populist and spiritual brotherhood. This
stems, in large part, from the fissure that had already occurred between the red and blue
factions of Masonry.
Masonry, did, at times, meet with suspicion and hostility. Nativists, evangelicals,
and a growing segment of the population were becoming weary of the potential threat of
extra-democratic power and secret combinations they saw in this group.
42
The anxieties
and tensions orbiting American Freemasonry were about to intensify as a result of a chain
of events.
By 1827 America no longer had the looming threat of European monarchists
encroaching on her borders, but a fear of the Republics demise was, nevertheless, on the
rise. The uneasiness began in the frontier of Western New York, in September 1826, at

41

42
Ibid pp.172
Michael D. Quinn offers this insight into the meaning of secret combination: For two years from 1827
until Joseph Smith began dictating the currently published translation secret combination was widely
used in New York state a synonym for conspiracy.- Early Mormonism and the Magic World pp.203
27
the same time and place where the seed that would become The Book of Mormon was just
beginning to germinate.
43

In the town of Batavia, New York, a printing press had been razed and its owner
had been found severely beaten by a gang of masked men. In the publishers office were
fresh proofs of what had most recently been printed, William Morgans expose on the
secret rites and oathes of Freemasonry.
Nine days later Morgan was abducted and secretly transported to the town of
Canandaigua. In Fort Niagara, Morgan was rumored to have been placed on a mock trial
by members of the Batavian Masonic Lodge on trumped-up charges of theft. After the
trial Morgan mysteriously vanished and it was believed he was murdered by a nefarious
network of Freemasons.
44

In January of 1827 five prominent Masons in Canandaigua were put on trial for
Morgans murder. The whole region was captivated by the Masonic intrigue at the center
mysterious disapearance. The public fascination turned to anger, however, when three of
the accused Masons were acquitted and the remaining two served out a sentence of less
than twelve months.
45

Further trials were held the next month and with each acquital, anti-Masonic
sentiments grew ever stronger. Morgan and the Masons became the topic of the time.
Wild speculations and conspiracies were focused around the brotherhood, ancient
murders and mysteries were attributed to the supposed design of a ruthless, sinister and
international secret fraternity.

43
Fawn M. Brodie No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York, New York: Random
House, 1971) 63

44
Ibid.
45
Ibid
28
Anti-Jackson politicians saw in this fervor the making of a new political party,
The Anti-Mason party. Opponents of Masonry claimed that the fraternity was a threat to
free government. They portrayed Freemasonry as a dangerous cabal intent on infiltrating
the inner machinzations of the Republic with aims exerting a secret agenda. The fact that
a high ranking Mason, Andrew Jackson, was president, added validity to their concerns.
It was in the thick of this event, centered in the Western New York wilderness,
that Joseph Smith was composing The Book of Mormon. This backwoods frontier was
thrust into the center of American geo-political intrigue. Some claim that Joseph Smith
included veiled anti-Masonic rhetoric in The Book of Mormon as a response to the events
that were unfolding around his community. The Book of Mormon references a group
known as the Gadianton Robbers, a secret society bound by sacred oathes and rites to the
protection of their fraternity, with the avowed goal of overthrowing the democratic
Nephite Government.
46
Those who claim that Smith intended the The Book of Mormon to
reflect an anti-Masonic sentiment most often cite this passage from The Book of
Mormons Helaman 2
47

And when the servant of Helaman had known all the heart of Kishkumen, and how that
it was his object to murder, and also that it was the object of all those who belonged to
his band to murder, and to rob, and to gain power, (and this was their secret plan, and
their combination) the servant of Helaman said unto Kishkumen: Let us go forth unto
the judgment-seat. Now this did please Kishkumen exceedingly, for he did suppose that
he should accomplish his design; but behold, the servant of Helaman, as they were
going forth unto the judgment-seat, did stab Kishkumen even to the heart, that he fell
dead without a groan. And he ran and told Helaman all the things which he had seen,
and heard, and done. And it came to pass that Helaman did send forth to take this band

46
Ibid pp. 64-65
47
The Book of Helaman is one of the books that make up the Book of Mormon. The book continues the
history of the Nephites and the Lamanites "according to the records of Helaman, who was the son of
Helaman, and also according to the records of his sons, even down to the coming of Christ" (The Book of
Helaman, preface). According to footnotes, the book covers the time period between ca 52 BCE and 1
BCE. (Wikipedia)

29
of robbers and secret murderers, that they might be executed according to the law. But
behold, when Gadianton had found that Kishkumen did not return he feared lest that he
should be destroyed; therefore he caused that his band should follow him. And they
took their flight out of the land, by a secret way, into the wilderness; and thus when
Helaman sent forth to take them they could nowhere be found.
48

In The Book of Mormon the Gadianton Robbers become so powerful that they
ultimately orchestrate the events that culminate in the genocide of Moroni and the
Nephite people. According to The Book of Mormon, Moroni issued this grave warning to
the people of the 1830s before burying the Golden Plates on the Hill Cumorah:
And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations to get power and gain,
until they shall be spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed, for the Lord
will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall cry unto
him from the ground for vengeance upon them, and yet he avengeth them not;
wherefore, O ye Gentiles, it is wisdom in God that these things should be shewn unto
you, that thereby ye may repent of your sins and suffer not that these murderous
combinations shall get above you.
49

Although The doctrinal emphasis in The Book of Mormon is on Jesus
Christ, one of its chief social commentaries centers around the notion of secret
combinations. Twentieth century writers, such as Fawn Brodie, in their exegesis of The
Book of Mormon, have interpreted these passages as referring specifically to the Anti-
Masonic fever pitch that blanketed America during the 1820s. Michael D. Quinn,
however, has noted that Palmyra newspapers in 1828 printed anti-Masonic publications
that described Freemasonry as a secret combination. Quinn has argued that this term
soon gained traction in the popular lexicon of the region to refer to situations that had

48
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Book of Mormon. (1989) Salt Lake City: The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Helaman 2 2:8-11)

49
Ibid (Ether 8:22-23)
30
nothing to do with Masonry. Whether one believes as Martin Harris
50
claimed, The
Golden Bible is the Anti-masonick Bible or not , his views may not have wholly
reflected Smiths own. The Book of Mormon as anti-Masonic appears to reflect the
currents of these passages in only a superficial capacity.
51

In any case, Masonry proved difficult to fully dismantle. After staying out of the
limelight in the decade following the Morgan incident, Masons began to slowly
reassemble in the 1830s, with a renewed focus on the higher degrees. By the 1840s
Freemasonry had reclaimed a degree of popularity, along with a cache of pseudo-
Masonic Fraternities, which would last until the last decades of the nineteenth-century
52
.
Joseph Smiths actual membership will be explored in later chapters, but the
controversies surrounding the fraternity during the composition of The Book of Mormon
must be recognized. While not a member himself at the time, his exposure to the
fraternity must be acknowledged. Masonry was present in the Smith home when his older
brother joined the Mount Moriah Lodge No. 112 of Palmyra, New York
53
during the

50
Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 July 10, 1875) was an early convert to the Latter Day Saint movement
who guaranteed the first printing of the Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who
testified that they had seen the golden plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been
translated. (Wikipedia)

51
D. Michael. Quinn Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature
Books, 1998) 202

52

53
Reed C. Durham Jr., Is There No Help For The Widows Son?. Presidential Address Delivered At The
Mormon History Association Convention. April 20
th
, 1974.

31
zenith of the Morgan/Mason drama. Whatever his views on the craft may have been in
the 1820s, what is certain is that by the 1840s in Nauvoo Illinois, Mormonism would be
referred to by some as Celestial Masonry.
54

David Holland, in his book Sacred Borders, offers what is perhaps the best
summary:
While sleuthing historians have made a cottage industry out of finding half-buried clues
of antebellum class anger, racism, nationalism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Calvinism, anti-
Masonry, or anti-Universalism woven into the subplots of the book, the text itself is
preoccupied with two overarching themes: the divinity of an atoning Christ and Gods
revelatory abundance.
55

That revelatory abundance is precisely what will inform the next phase of Mormon
development, as Smith and his followers venture further into the American frontier and
encounter an ever expansive range of concepts and ideas.

54
Ibid
55
David Holland, Sacred Borders: Continuing Revelation and Canonical Restraint in Early America. (New
York, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2011) 46

32
56

56
An illustration from the anti-Masonic Almanac published in 1831.
33

Chapter 5
Ye Shall go to the Ohio

The whole process of publishing The Book of Mormon broadened Smiths
religious imagination, causing him to reevaluate his own role and purpose. He began to
develop an expanding sense of what this revelation could be, not merely a revealed book,
but a new church. As more people began to accept Josephs Golden Bible and
revelations as the divine word of God, a small following of neighbors, mostly farmers
and teachers, began to coalesce. On April 6
th
, 1830 The Church of Christ had been
established.
57

Soon his followers began to delve into the mysteries of this new tome from God.
Questions began to arise pertaining to a particular passage in which Christ, upon his
arrival in the Americas, gave his Nephite apostles the authority to baptize
58
. They
questioned whether or not the authority to baptize others still held true. In response,
Smith received a message from John the Baptist; he was to re-instate the ancient
priesthood of Aaron. Poor farmers were elevated into priests, elders and teachers, and

57
Random House, 2012) 28-31
58
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Book of Mormon. (1989) Salt Lake City: The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
And it came to pass that he spake unto Nephi (for Nephi was among the multitude) and he commanded
him that he should come forth.And Nephi arose and went forth, and bowed himself before the Lord and did
kiss his feet.And the Lord commanded him that he should arise. And he arose and stood before him. And
the Lord said unto him: I give unto you power that ye shall baptize this people when I am again ascended
into heaven.And again the Lord called others, and said unto them likewise; and he gave unto them power to
baptize. And he said unto them: On this wise shall ye baptize; and there shall be no disputations among
you.(3 Nephi 11:18-22)

34
their mission was to seek out others to join them.
59

By September of 1830, Smith had sent a handful of missionaries further west to
preach to the Native Americans. Smith believed that the natives were the descendants of
the Nephites and Lamanites
60
, themselves descendents of the house of Israel. His plan
was to rebuild the city of Zion, a city that was crucial in heralding Christs return. The
return of the Native Americans back into the fold would offer critical aid in the
construction of the New Jerusalem.
61

Soon came word from Ohio, the missionaries had encountered a minister named
Sidney Rigdon, an imposing orator and well educated theologian. Impressed by The Book
of Mormon, he and several others in his congregation were baptized in this new faith.
These new converts formed the core of a new Mormon community in Kirtland, Ohio. The
following January, Smith and his followers in New York made the decision to relocate to
Ohio. Smith had found his Zion.
62

The dream of a New Jerusalem was, at the heart, the promise of Joseph Smiths
new scripture. The Book of Mormon, though his most pivotal, was not his only divine
work produced. In 1831, 1835, and 1844 several editions of revelations, dutifully
recorded by faithful, eager scribes were published under the title Doctrine and
Covenants. During these years he tasked himself to producing new translations of the

59

60
Lamanites, Nephites, Jaredites, and Mulekites comprise the four groups believed to have settled in the
ancient Americas according to the religious traditions of the Latter Day Saint movement. (Wikipedia)

61
62
Ibid
35
Bible, clarifying, rewording and substituting texts from the King James Bible as well as
revealing lost tomes of ancient prophets. Thematically, what was emerging in these
varied revelations and reworked texts, was the emphasis on Zion, a perfect and
harmonious society living in bliss and in accordance with the commandments of God.
63

Smiths scriptures were divided into two fields, revelation and
commandment; both decreed from heaven, and most often in the voice of God.
Typically these instructions confronted immediate circumstances that the fledgling
Mormon community had encountered. At times they were addressed directly to particular
individuals, and at other times they were an extended theological discourse of a
cosmological nature, the authority of priesthood, eschatology, and the afterlife.
The continued revelations from God offered an evolving religious tradition.
February 16
th
of 1832, a dramatic revelation was received by Smith and Rigdon when the
two men, together contemplated the verse from John 5:29.
64
And shall come forth; they
that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation.
While pondering the verses meaning, they received what Mormon
publications later termed The Vision. The two men were allowed to peer into heaven
and witness the throne of God, the throngs of the faithful, and the casting out of Satan
from heaven.
The Vision offered insight on the St. Pauls degrees of glory for the
resurrected bodies, such as the sun, the moon, and the stars, and affixed to them the three

63
Ibid 32-33

64
KJV
36
levels of heaven: the Celestial, the Terrestrial and the Telestial. Each of these heavens
would serve as host to the degrees of saved individuals.
The highest heaven (Celestial) was reserved for those Christians who had fully
received the ordinances of the gospel; the second tier (Terrestrial) was for those
honorable men of the earth who were not Christian; and the last tier (Telestial) was
filled by the wicked, the liars and sorcerers and adulterers.
All but the sons of perdition who denied Christ to his face would receive
nothing at all. This meant that all would receive a degree of salvation that was worthy of
ones merit. Heaven was now realm of salvation for communities of similar thinking
individuals. Mormonism had adopted one of its most salient theological developments; -
salvation in communal terms, and the optimism of humanitys potential to gain it.
65

Smiths further exegesis into the Christian scriptures revealed new meanings
wrestled from its terse, and at times esoteric, narratives. Delving into subtlety and
ambiguity of the Bible, he amended, clarified, and augmented the Holy Book until he
declared Many important points touching the salvation of man, had been taken from the
Bible, or lost before it was compiled.
66

These projects in translations, which complimented The Book of Mormon, were
called the Book of Moses. This work included the Book of Abraham and the Vision of
Enoch. The emphasis, again, in all these works is the communal utopia of Zion. The
prophet Enoch oversees the construction of Zion in The Book of Moses and says: The

65
66
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (1989). The Doctrine and covenants of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Pearl of great price. Salt Lake City, UT: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
Day Saints. Section 76
37
Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in
righteousness; and there was no poor among them.
67

In Kirtland, Smith was going to repair the commandments that had been victim of
apostasy; he was going to recreate the ancient society of Zion by rebuilding its walls, its
temples, and its priesthood. As the Mormon prophet matured into his role, his attention
was focused on revolutionizing the social order. Therefore it was unsurprising that
challenges to his authority were beginning to arise.
68

In an atmosphere that fostered personal revelations it was natural that many
people began to receive their own divine messages, some that ran counter to Smiths
message. To consolidate his authority as prophet he had to impose a system of order.
Smith created a hierarchy that expanded and categorized different priestly offices.
69
There
was the lower priesthood that had previously been revealed, Aaronic, and the higher
priesthood the Melchizedek.
70
He also experienced a vision of the prophet Elijah, who

67
Day Saints. Moses 7:18-19

68
69
Ibid
70
The Old Testament Priesthood of the Melchizedic, endowed with great magus-like powers and identified
with Christ in the Book of Hebrews, was not unique to the emerging Mormon theology. Ninety years before
the high priesthood ceremony in Kirtland in 1831, the celibate choirs at Ephrata sang of the restoration of
MelchizedicBut the Most widely diffused use of the Melchizedic was in the ritual of Royal Arch
Freemasonry, which, as we have already seen, was of great significance in the framing of early
Mormonism. In the ceremonies installing the High Priests of the Royal Arch, the Masonic manuals
uniformly borrowed from Hebrews 5:6 to tell the candidate that thou art a Priest forever, after the order
of Melchizedic.

38
granted him the secret keys of dispensation which he promised to reveal to his flock
when they were more fully prepared for its meaning.
71

Offices such as Deacon, Elder, Seventy were grouped into one of these
priesthoods. These men were ordained and organized into Quorums that were led by a
president. Smith was president of the whole church, and he took two counselors to form
the First Presidency of the church under which these quorums convened. This turned
Mormonism into a sacramental religion; salvation was acquired through rites that the
priesthood was required and empowered to administer. Believers held that the priesthood
office enabled one to access the powers of God to cast out demons, heal, bless, and
consecrate. Smith, by institutionalizing access to God, had alleviated the problem of
excessive charismatic tendencies that might potentially rival his authority, while at the
same time, inadvertently created an infrastructure that would provide stability and
survival after his assassination.
After establishing his priestly hierarchy, he was now able to begin the process of
building his temple for the rites to be performed. In January 1833 Smith received a
revelation
72
that commanded him to build a temple to the Most High in Kirtland, Ohio.
73

Before the Kirtland Temple was dedicated on March 27
th
1836, Smith introduced to his
priests the ordinances that can be considered the proto-endowment ritual. These
ceremonies were in preparation for the coming spiritual gifts that would be received in

71
72
Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a bhouse, even a house of prayer, a
house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of
God(Doctrine and Covenants 88:119)

73
Homer, Michael W. Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry: The Relationship Between Freemasonry and
Mormonism. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Vol.27.3 (1994) 1-116 Print

39
the House of the Lord. It was a simple, staged ceremony comprised of the washing and
anointing of the body, and of sealings and blessings. This ritual was patterned after
similar descriptions found in the Bible (Lev.8; Mark 6:13; Luke 4:18,7:38,44; John 13:16
Tim. 5:10; James 5:14). After washing and perfuming each other in an adjacent building,
Smith and his associates entered the unfinished temple. Here the office of the First
Presidency consecrated oil and laid hands on each others heads, and they proceeded to
bless and anoint one another to their respective offices.
74

The prolific developments in doctrinal revelation from Smith, as well as the
evolving sacramental praxis of worship that occurred in Kirtland, was instrumental in the
transformation of Mormonism. This was now a church that was distinctly unique amidst
the rival restoration sects that peppered the geography of the early republic. As the
fortunes turned against Smith and his followers in Ohio, he was forced to abandon his
Zion for a new promised land. The Churchs journey further into the west would yield
even more provocative doctrine.

74
David J. Buerger, The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship (Salt Lake City,
Utah: Signature Books, 2002) 10-12

40
Chapter 6
The Sublime Degree

Joseph Smiths early exposure to Freemasonry has already been discussed,
Therefore I will now turn my attention to the events that led to his consideration and
eventual endorsement of the fraternity in Nauvoo. We cannot be entirely sure of his
motivations for joining Freemasonry, but we can observe some factors that would have
made the prospect an appealing one.
Ever since fleeing the heated political atmosphere in Kirtland, and narrow run ins
with adversaries both inside and outside the church, his ever present fear of enemies may
have convinced him that aligning himself with an oath-bound fraternity dedicated to
morality would offer an extra buffer of protection for him and his Church members. The
secrecy demanded from all Masonic initiates may have, in his mind, reinforced the
secrecy of the endowment oaths of the Church, especially to those familiar with both.
It is also possible that Smiths growing pre-occupation and fascination with
translations and re-interpretations of ancient texts, specifically his Book of Abraham in
the spring of 1842, inspired him to explore the possibilities of tapping into the mysteries
to which Freemasonry claimed to have access.
75

The influence from close personal acquaintances, no doubt, offered some measure
of inspiration for seeking out the fraternity as well. It was in Joseph Smiths brief stay in
Far West, Missouri, in the interim period between his resettlement from Kirtland to
Nauvoo, that he met George and Lucinda Harris. Lucinda, who had first been married to
William Morgan, became very close to Smith, eventually becoming one of his first plural

75
Buerger, David J. The Development of Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony. Dialogue: A Journal
41
wives. His relationship with the wife of the man whose mysterious disappearance was
linked to the publishing of Masonrys secrets would certainly have provided yet another
layer of insight in the craft.
76

Other notable Mormons, all of whom had prior membership in Masonry before
accepting the Church, included Deputy Grand Master of Illinois James Adams, Heber C.
Kimball, Brigham Young, and John C. Bennett. Of these men, it was Bennett who most
likely accelerated Smiths adoption of Freemasonry as a means to end persecution against
the Church. These former Masons petitioned the Illinois Grand Lodge in the Summer of
1841 for the right to establish a lodge in Nauvoo. Authority was granted by a Grand
Master who had the hopes of Mormon support in an upcoming election.
77

Joseph Smiths first official experience with Freemasonry occurred five months
before the first Nauvoo incarnation of the Temple Endowment Ceremony, when on the
30
th
of December 1841 he petitioned for membership in the Nauvoo Masonic Lodge. The
lodges investigation proved favorable and he was formally initiated as an Entered
Apprentice Mason on the 15
th
of March 1842. The next day he and Sidney Rigdon, by a
special dispensation from the Grand Master, were advanced at sight through the three
several degrees of the Ancient York Masonry.
78
Smith had achieved the rank of Fellow
Craft and Master Mason. His elevation to the sublime degree, without his having any
prior participation in the fraternity and without the customary thirty-day waiting period

76
Ibid
77

78
Ibid
42
between degrees, is highly unusual.
79
Smiths rapid ascension to Master Mason was likely
a political manuever orchestrated by the the Grand Master who sought Mormon support.
Within a few months the Nauvoo lodge had nearly three hundred members, exceeding in
rank more than all of the other lodges in Illinois combined. The Mormon enthusiasm for
Masonry however began to raise the suspicion of the Illinois Grand Lodge who feared
that Nauvoos brand of the craft diluted Masonrys ancient landmarks
80
by admitting so
many applicants too quickly.
Smith had his own designs for the Masonry, and it mattered little that it alienated
the Grand Lodge. The day after he was elevated to Master Mason, he met with his wife,
Emma, and nineteen other women to establish an order called the Female Relief Society.
Founded as a charitable association with express purpose of providing aid to the poor,
Masonic terminology was often employed when Smith referred to the society. He
expressed his wish that these women be sufficiently skilld in Masonry to keep a
secret.
81

Over the next several weeks , Joseph participated in other lodge meetings,
witnessing, studying and dissecting the Entered Apprentice initiation five times, the
Fellow Craft initiation three times, and the Master Mason initiation five times. By the
Spring of 1842 Smiths language began to incorporate a distinctly Masonic vernacular.
On May 1
st
he described the keys of the Kingdom. :
Certain signs and words by which false spirits and personages may be detected from
true, which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completedThe devil

79

80
81
Ibid
43
knows many signs but does not know the sign of the Son of Man, or Jesus. No one can
truly say he knows God until he has handled something, and this can only be the Holiest
of Holies.
82

The keys of the Kingdom would be revealed in a language reminiscent of Masonic
meaning. The key, a symbol of Masonic secrecy, was populated with a vocabulary of
signs, tokens and handgrips designed to protect its secrets. The same would be true of
Mormon temple ritual:
The keys are certain signs and words,,which cannot be revealedtill the Temple is
completed-The rich can only get them in the TempleThere are signs in heaven, earth
and hell, the Elders must know them all to be endowed with power..
83

The full power of the priesthood could now be revealed. Its articulation was aided
by augmenting the Masonic vocabulary that Smith had been scrupulously dissecting.

82
Ibid
83
44

Chapter 7
The Lodge and The Temple

On May 4
th
and 5
th
, 1842 not even two months after his Masonic initiation,
Joseph Smith revealed the Nauvoo Temple Endowment Ceremony to his trusted
confidantes in the upper story of the Red Brick Store
84
house as the temple was being
prepared for construction. What follows is a brief synthesis of the Mormon endowment
ceremony and the Masonic parallels that helped define its infrastructure.
In the beginning of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony the initiates
prepare their bodies by ritual washing, this is followed by anointing themselves with holy
oil. This is meant to ritually remove the sins of the world and begin the transition into the
Celestial Kingdom.
85
Joseph Smith first introduced this initiatory rite in October 1835
back in Kirtland, Ohio. After being forced to leave Kirtland, Joseph Smith received a
revelation on January 19
th
, 1841, regarding this rite in the temple ceremony:
And again, verily I say unto you, how shall your washings be acceptable unto me,
except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name? For, for this cause
I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with
them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those
ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was.Therefore,
verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for
the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the
sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive
conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of the revelations and
foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are

84
The Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois, was a building that was constructed and owned by Joseph
Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Smith constructed the Red Brick Store in 1841.
The building became a center of economic, political, religious, and social activity among the Latter Day
Saints. In addition to being a mercantile store, the second floor of the building also served as the
headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for a period of time. Members would visit
the store to pay their tithing and other offerings to the church.(Wikipedia)

85
45
ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded
to build unto my holy name.
86

The washing and annointing reflected the earlier Kirtland incarnation. Joseph
Smith described the rite this way: "[we] proceeded to cleanse our faces and our feet, and
then proceeded to wash one another's feet." According to Mormon Scholar Boyd K.
Packer this rite is mostly symbolic in nature, but promising definite, immediate
blessings as well as future blessings.
87

The initiate is, next, clothed in rituals garments to participate in the miracle play
of the Temple Endowment Ceremony. According to Packer the garment represents sacred
covenents. It fosters modesty and becomes a shield and protection to the wearer
88
he
adds In the temple you will be officially clothed in the garment and promised marvelous
blessings in connection with it.
89

Next the initiate receives the new name they will use in the Celestial Kingdom.
On April 2, 1843, Joseph Smith provided instructions
90
concerning a white stone
mentioned in Revelation 2:17: And a white stone is given to each of those who come
into the celestial kingdom, whereon is a new name written, which no man knoweth save

86
Day Saints. (section 124:37-39) Section 88:74 of D&C also remarks on ritual washing And I give unto
you, who are the first laborers in this last kingdom, a commandment that you assemble yourselves together,
and organize yourselves, and prepare yourselves, and sanctify yourselves; yea, purify your hearts, and
cleanse your hands and your feet before me, that I may make you clean..

87
Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple (Salt Lake City, Utah. Bookcraft, 1980) 154

88
Ibid pp. 75
89
Ibid pp.155
90

46
that he receiveth it. The new name is the key-word.
91

Throughout the ceremony, the initiate (who is referred to as Adam for the
remainder of the ceremony) is taken through a dramatization of the history of the world.
92

The Masonic elements echoed in this phase can be seen in the conferral of the new name
and the donning of the white apron. The original apron used in the Mormon Temple
Endowment ceremony utilized a white apron with a green fig leaf sewn to it
93
, as well as
Masonic square and compass.
94

The miracle plays are continued in the next phase of the ceremony. The sacred
dramaturgy re-enacts the Creation and the Fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of
Eden. The scenes included three Creation gods: Elohim, Jehovah, and Michael. The
initiate, as the surrogate Adam, experiences the fallen condition and the redemptive
powers of the Mormon priesthood.
95

In the third phase of the ceremony, initiates have revealed to them the First and
Second Tokens of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods. Handgrips, signs, and
coded passwords are taught to the initiate before they finally reach the goal of the veil
that separates the temporal world from celestial kingdom.

91
Day Saints. (section 130:11)

92
of Mormon Thought. Vol. 20.4 (1984) 75-122 Print

93
Ibid
94

95

47
On their path to their destination, the veil, the initiate witnesses more ritual re-
enactments. Here they experience an encounter between Adam, Satan, and an assortment
of sectarian preachers representing the apostasy of the Christian church. The initiate is
then robed in priestly garments whereupon they form a prayer circle and chant in the pure
Adamic language.
96
In the Masonic counterpart of the Mormon Temple Endowment
Ceremony, the initiates encircle an altar, place their left hand around their neighbor, join
hands and repeat the words of the presiding master.
97

Likewise, the lecture at the veil
98
was not unlike the explanatory lecture that
followed the conferral of degrees in the Royal Arch tradition.
99
The language used in the
tokens
100
and penalties
101
of the Mormon priesthood had exact parallels in Freemasonry
102
,

96
Ibid

97
Ibid

98
Adam was an immortal being when he came. on this earth he had lived on an earth similar to ours
and had begotten all the spirit that was to come to this earth. and Eve our common Mother who is the
mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world. Father Adams oldest son (Jesus the Saviour)
who is the heir of the family is Father Adams first begotten in the spirit World. who according to the flesh
is the only begotten as it is written. In his divinity he having gone back into the spirit World. and come in
the spirit [glory] to Mary and she conceived for when Adam and Eve got through with their Work in this
earth. they did not lay their bodies down in the dust, but returned to the spirit World from whence they
came. (Journal of L. John Nuttall, personal secretary of Brigham Young, February 7, 1877 in BYU Special
Collections).

99

100
On May 1, 1842, Joseph Smith taught that there are certain signs and words by which false sprits and
personages may be detected from true, which cannot be revealed to the elders till the Temple is
completedThe Elders must know them all to be endowed with powerNo one can truly say he knows
God until he has handled something, and this can only be in the Holiest of Holies. Homer, Michael W.
Similarity of Priesthood in Masonry: The Relationship Between Freemasonry and Mormonism.
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Vol.27.3 (1994) 1-116 Print

48
progressing in the first three degrees to the higher degrees of the Royal Arch. The penalty
for disclosing secrets, the priestly handgrip and bodily signs, all had Masonic
antecedents.
103
Parallels with Royal Arch extended to the use of the temple veil as a locus
for ritual catechisms as well as the employment of ritual actors representing God.
The similarities between the ritual drama of Creation in the Mormon Temple
Endowment Ceremony and its Masonic counterpart were more fully realized in the higher
Masonic degrees. The seventh degree of the Royal Arch addressed the initiate on the
Creation and Fall in Eden. In this narrative, a scroll taken from a golden box, is given to
Adam and past down several generations until it is received by King Solomon who
eventually buries this encrypted knowledge in a vaulted arch. In the twenty-eighth degree
of the Scottish Rite, an actor representing Adam guides the candidate through the ritual
and engages in a discourse on the quintessence of the Elements the fire of
Philosophers and the Philosophers Stone. Here seven cherubim, including Michael,
are present with Adam at the Creation, reminiscent of the plurality of the three Mormon
creation gods.
104

101
In 1865 Brigham Young explained: A great many of you have had your endowments, and you know
what a vote with uplifted hands means. It is a sign which you make in token of your covenant with God and
with one another, and it is for you to perform your vows. When you raise your hands to heaven and let
them fall and then pass on with your covenants unfulfilled, you will be cursed. (Journal of Discourses
3:332)
102
th
, 1974.

103

104
Ibid 249-250
49
Since the beginning of the formation of his church, Smith had been promising to
fully reveal the keys of dispensation and immortal perfectibility. The advent of the
Temple Endowment Ceremony in Nauvoo began to realize that promise. The surrogate
Adam of the Mormon ritual dramaturgy could experience the cosmic history and gain the
promised keys of admission into the celestial kingdom.
105

Those faithful who participated in the Temple Endowment Ceremony were
rewarded with the divination in the highest level of heaven. For believers, this was an
apotheosis in a cosmos that rejected creation ex nihilo, where matter and spirit have
existed for eternity and are integrally connected.
106

The Temple Endowment Ceremony continued to develop as more secret and
controversial doctrines were adopted. In the spring of 1843, Smith revealed that only
through a special sealing ritual could a marriage on earth be guaranteed to last through
eternity in the heavens.
The three degrees of heavenly glory in the celestial kingdom were linked to three
degrees of marriage. Only those who had been sealed in the new and everlasting
covenant of celestial marriage would have the opportunity for exaltation in the celestial
kingdom.
Celestial marriage would help realize the promise of apotheosis, having a plurality
of wives and their multitude of children would increase the familial kingdom and
transfigure the dutiful Mormon patriarch into higher degrees of glory.
With the expanse of the endowment ceremony through continuing revelation,

105
Ibid

106
Ibid 253
50
there came with it an expansion of the hierarchy of priesthood authority. As I have
previously discussed the Melchizedek priesthood was granted the authority to seal up
the Saints to eternal life. The keys of dispensation that were promised in Kirtland were
finally divulged in the autumn of 1843 with the inauguration of the ritual of the second
anointing.
107
The second annointing
108
would be the the fulness or the highest conferred
blessing of priesthood offices . (The Aaronic Priesthood ,The Melchizedek Priesthood)
On August 27
th
1843, Smith gave a lecture on the orders of the priesthood. The
Aaronic Priesthood maintained the power of ministering ordinances and the patriarchal
power of Abraham, The Melchizedek Priesthood installed in 1831, granted the Saints
the kingly powers to administer endless lives to the sons and daughters of Adam.
The ultimate priesthood of the second anointing was the realization of the fullness of the
priesthood.
The ultimate priesthood power the spirit power and calling of Elijah,
109
enabled
the Melchizedek access to the Keys to the Kingdom of God. Giving these priests the
authority to perform all the ordinances belonging to the Kingdom of God. First
announced in Kirtland in 1836, and elaborated upon in 1842 with the revelation of the

107
Ibid 250-256
108
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the second anointing, also known historically and in Latter Day Saint
scripture as the fulness of the priesthood, is an obscure and relatively rare ordinance usually conducted in
temples as extension of the Nauvoo Endowment ceremony. Founder Joseph Smith, Jr. cited the "fulness of
the priesthood" as one of the reasons for building the Nauvoo Temple.In the ordinance, a participant is
anointed as a "priest and king" or a "priestess and queen", and is sealed to the highest degree of salvation
available in Mormon theology. Those who participate in this ordinance are said to have their "calling and
election made sure", and their celestial marriage "sealed by the holy spirit of promise". They are said to
have received the "more sure word of prophecy". (Wikipedia) April 27, 2014

109
He was often identified with other heroes of the Jewish legend to whom immortality was attributed
such a Melchizedek , who had no father or mother, and Enoch-Metatron..( Yalk. Reubeni, Bereshit, 27a
and 9d) (JewishEncyclopedia.com) April 27, 2014

51
provocative doctrine of baptism for the dead, the most powerful of these ordinances
110

was the ability to perform a sealing [of] the hearts of the fathers unto the children and
the hearts of the children unto the fathers [,] even those who are in heaven.
111

The powerful reward that came with the blessing of the priesthood of the second
anointing was the nearly uncompromised ability of achieving godhood in the highest
degree of the celestial heaven by being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. In a
sermon regarding his penultimate revelation, Smith all but assured those who were sealed
in the temple by the ordinance of celestial marriage and received the second anointing

110

111
The spirit, power, and calling of Elijah is, that ye have power to hold the key of the revelation,
ordinances, oracles, powers and endowments of the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and of the
kingdom of God on the earth; and to receive, obtain, and perform all the ordinances belonging to the
kingdom of God, even unto the turning of the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the hearts of the
children unto the fathers, even those who are in heaven. Malachi says, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Now,
what I am after is the knowledge of God, and I take my own course to obtain it.What are we to understand
by this in the last days? In the days of Noah, God destroyed the world by a flood, and He has promised to
destroy it by fire in the last days: but before it should take place, Elijah should first come and turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children, etc.Now comes the point. What is this office and work of Elijah? It is
one of the greatest and most important subjects that God has revealed. He should send Elijah to seal the
children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children.Now was this merely confined to the living, to settle
difficulties with families on earth? By no means. It was a far greater work. Elijah! what would you do if
you were here? Would you confine your work to the living alone? No: I would refer you to the Scriptures,
where the subject is manifest: that is, without us, they could not be made perfect, nor we without them; the
fathers without the children, nor the children without the fathers [see Hebrews 11:40].I wish you to
understand this subject, for it is important; and if you will receive it, this is the spirit of Elijah, that we
redeem our dead, and connect ourselves with our fathers which are in heaven, and seal up our dead to come
forth in the first resurrection; and here we want the power of Elijah to seal those who dwell on earth to
those who dwell in heaven. This is the power of Elijah and the keys of the kingdom of Jehovah. Again:
The doctrine or sealing power of Elijah is as follows:If you have power to seal on earth and in heaven,
then we should be wise. The first thing you do, go and seal on earth your sons and daughters unto yourself,
and yourself unto your fathers in eternal glory. :History of the Church, 6:25153; spelling modernized;
from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on Mar. 10, 1844, in Nauvoo, Illinois; reported by Wilford
Woodruff.

52
would be guaranteed divinity in the celestial kingdom:
Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from
everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because
all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have call power,
and the angels are subject unto them.Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my
law ye cannot attain to this glory.
112

Joseph Smith had triumphantly claimed the powers to unite the living with dead
in one singular sacred universe of apotheotic soteriology. Smith had unlocked and
fulfilled the cryptic passages of the Books of Malachi
113
and Revelation
114
in a theology
of ordinances fused to his temple cultus. The Mormon temple allowed the individual to
experience a ritual transfiguration that restated the tenets of a hermetic tradition.
115

112
Day Saints. (section 132)

113
Malachi: is the last book of the Neviim contained in the Tanakh, the last of the twelve minor prophets
(canonically) and the final book of the Neviim. In the Christian ordering, the grouping of the Prophetic
Books is the last section of the Old Testament, making Malachi the last book before the New Testament.
(Wikipedia) April 27, 2014

114
The Book of Revelation: often known simply as Revelation or the Apocalypse,is the final book of the
New Testament and occupies a central place in Christian eschatology. Written in Koine Greek, its title is
derived from the first word of the text, apokalypsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation." The author of the
work identifies himself in the text as "John" and says that he was on Patmos, an island in the Aegean, when
he was instructed by a heavenly figure to write down the contents of a vision. This John is traditionally
supposed to be John the Apostle, although some historical-critical scholarship reject this view. Recent
scholarship has suggested other possibilities including a putative figure given the name John of Patmos.
Most modern scholars believe it was written around AD 95, with some believing it dates from around AD
60. (Wikipedia) April 27, 2014

115

53
The concept alchemical marriage popularized in the medieval Rosicrucian text,
The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz,
116
had encouraged varied
interpretations of sexual and marital unions. Rosicrucianism, which greatly influenced the
institutions of speculative Freemasonry,
117
provides another connection of hermetic
tradition to the Mormon Temple Endowment. At least one Masonic text, the lecture on
the philosophical lodge in the rite of the Knight of the Sun, espoused an alchemical
theory of elemental marriage that would have been available in Nauvoo in 1840.
118

Joseph Smith had, towards the end of his life, gravitated towards an ancient
understanding of a dual-gendered divinity that lay at the heart of hermetic theology, and
he had purportedly spoken of a vision of The Father seated upon a throne and the
mother also
119

116
The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz: (Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno
1459) was edited in 1616 in Strasbourg, and its anonymous authorship is attributed to Johann Valentin
Andreae. The Chymical Wedding is often described as the third of the original manifestos of the mysterious
"Fraternity of the Rose Cross" (Rosicrucians), although it is markedly different from the Fama Fraternitatis
and Confessio Fraternitatis in style and in subject matter.It is an allegoric romance (story) divided into
Seven Days, or Seven Journeys, like Genesis, and tells us about the way Christian Rosenkreuz was invited
to go to a wonderful castle full of miracles, in order to assist the Chymical Wedding of the king and the
queen, that is, the husband and the bride.(Wikipedia) April 27, 2014

117
D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature
Books, 1998) 206

118

119
One day the Prophet Joseph asked him [Coltrin] and Sidney Rigdon to accompany him into the woods
to pray. When they had reached a secluded spot Joseph laid down on his back and stretched out his arms.
He told the brethren to lie one on each arm, and then shut their eyes. After they had prayed he told them to
open their eyes. They did so and saw a brilliant light surrounding a pedestal which seemed to rest on the
54
Celestial marriage, it can be argued, mirrored alchemical marriage. Mormon
cosmology, by this point, had developed clear parallels to hermetic cosmology. The
radical developments of the Nauvoo Temple Endowment Ceremony, and the alchemical
work of transmutation both focused on the issue of Creation and Redemption.
In the sacred dramaturgy enacted within the Mormon temple complex, the
surrogate Adam experiences the Creation, the Fall, redemption and admittance into the
Celestial Kingdom by the authority of its priesthood. As we have seen, the expansion of
ordinances later included the sealing of celestial marriage. The Alchemical tradition
centered on experiments intended to distill the prima materia from corrupted elements,
replicated Creation and dissolved the said corruption that resulted from the Fall in hopes
of a material redemption. The marriage of the elements of mercury and sulphur (the
hermetic Sun King and Moon Queen) would fuse in sexual union, and the seed that was
produced would experience its own sequence of tiered exaltation. The seed of the
alchemical marriage would die, decay, and be washed before achieving its final state of
quintessence, the corporeal manifestation of immortal perfection otherwise known as the
philosophers stone, or in hermetic parlance, the primal Adam. We see in both the
Mormon endowment ceremony and alchemical theology the corrupting outcome of the

earth. They closed their eyes and again prayed. They then saw, on opening them, the Father seated upon a
throne; they prayed again and on looking saw the Mother also; after praying and looking the fourth time
they saw the Savior added to the group. : Linda P. Wilcox"The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven",
in Maureen Ursenbach Beecher; Lavina Fielding Anderson, Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical
and Cultural Perspective (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987) 6477.

55
Fall being overcome and divine perfection being realized.
120

The Alchemical ability of achieving salvation without the means of grace was
ascribed to Freemasonry, as seen in the Locke-Leland letter that was affixed to many
Masonic manuals. This informed the public on the many secrets what the Masons
purportedly kept. Among other things, Masonry preserved the universal language the
way of winning the faculty of magic and the ability to conceal the art of transmutation
of metals.[and] the skill of becoming good and perfect without the helpings of fear and
hope.
121

Within these new revelations of Mormon theology, divine grace was only what
opened the universal door to salvation, but it was individual merit and obedience to the
laws that determined the exact positioning of divine exaltation that one would receive in
the afterlife. The Mormon priesthood held the sole authority to minister the ordinances to
grant entry into eternal life and exaltation. The sacred powers of this ecclesiastical class
transcended the earth and heavens; by sealing souls to the celestial kingdom, they
commanded God to save and exalt the Mormon faithful.
The priestly powers of the ordinance, like the alchemist, channeled and
manipulated the magical currents that ran through the visible and invisible worlds.
Though divine in origin, this power could be siphoned and controlled by the proper
authority. To Joseph Smith and the Mormons, this authority was granted to the office of

120
Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1996) 257-259
121
Ibid
56
the priesthood of the second anointing. Salvation and apotheosis was not subject to the
doctrine of grace alone; rather it came through humble servitude to a sacred ordinance
resulting in a new, sin-free dispensation. Mormons, if they followed the authority of their
prophet, were inherently perfectible.
122

123

122
Ibid 261
123
An illustration of Order Lodge which appeared in John C. Bennetts History of the Saints in 1842
57
Chapter 8
Is There No Help For The Widows Son?

Joseph Smith unabashedly utilized Masonry in the Endowment Ceremony. Just as
he had translated and re-interpreted scripture to restore what he understood to be the lost
Christian truth, so, too, would he restore Freemasonry to its uncorrupted truth. Masonry,
as the Mormons performed it, was becoming increasingly more unorthodox in contrast to
the Illinois Lodges traditional practice. Smith, it would seem, initially embraced
Masonry before subsequently altering it in a process that modified, expanded, and
amplified it by the authority of his continuing revelation.
124

Early Mormon leaders understood Freemasonry to have originated in Solomons
temple and had, alongside the Church, been corrupted by the Great Apostasy. Joseph
Smiths expansion and revisions of Masonic rituals was thus understood to be another
example of the Prophets miracle of restoration.
125

An excerpt from a letter written by Heber C. Kimball to Parley Pratt, two
prominent Mormon apostles, provides insight into the connection:
We have organized a lodge here of Masons since we obtained a Charter. That was in
March, since that there has near two thousand been made masons. Brother Joseph and
Sidney was the first that was received into the Lodge. All of the twelve have become
members except Orson Phe hangs back. He will wake up soon, there is a similarity of
priesthood in masonry. Brother Joseph says Masonry was taken from priesthood but has
become degenerated. But many things are perfect. We have procession on the 24
th
of
June, which is called by Masons St. Johns day in this country. I think it will result in
good. The Lord is with us and we are prospered
126
.

I have suggested that the culture of Masonic hermeticism helped shape the story

124
th
, 1974.
125
126
Heber C..Kimball to Parley Pratt, 17 June 1842, LDS archives
58
of the discovery of the Golden Plates, the Book of Mormons structural narrative and
Smiths early experiments in translation and prophecy. The Nauvoo endowment and its
elaborate temple complex, was Smiths victory over the corruptions of contemporary
Freemasonry.
Mormonism and Freemasonry shared a common lineage in the priestly
genealogies that preserved the hermetic keys to mysteries that they claimed had been
handed down since Creation. The pure Masonry of Adam, Enoch and their descendants
had been corrupted by Cainite usurpers. Joseph Smith, as prophet, had uncovered and
restored the Adamic keys in their original authoritative form. The true heir of Adams
paradisial powers was the Mormon priesthood, not the Freemasons. To the Mormons the
true extent of Masonic corruption was made fully manifest in Smiths martyrdom in his
Carthage jail.
127

As had happened in Kirtland , where the Mormon settlement had collapsed under
the stress of economic tensions and dissenting opinions, Nauvoo was approaching a
similar fate. Rising gentile hostility, economic depression, and the emergence of
influential dissenters rallying against the authoritarian hierarchy of the church. Charges of
polygamy, which had been leveled against the church hierarchy since Kirtland, became
the focus of a newspaper campaign against Smith. The Nauvoo Expositor, a paper
created by these dissenters , published an attack on Smith on June 7
th
, 1844. Three days
later, its office was destroyed by the orders of the city council.
128

This act of aggression on Smiths part was instrumental in galvanizing his

127

128
Ibid
59
detractors to take action against him. Illinois Governor Thomas Ford, threatened to raise
a large militia if Smith refused to turn himself in. Initially fleeing across the Mississippi
in hopes of reaching the safety of the Rocky Mountains, Joseph had a change of heart and
returned to Illinois prepared to meet his fate. He reportedly said the following to a band
of loyal militia men before turning himself in:
I am going like a lamb to the slaughter, but I am calm as a summers morning. I have a
conscience void of offense toward God and toward all men. If they take my life I shall
die an innocent man, and my blood shall cry from the ground for vengeance, and it shall
be said of me He was murdered in cold blood!
129

On June 27
th
, 1844, while he awaited his trial in a Carthage jailhouse an armed
mob stormed his cell and opened fire. Joseph attempted an escape through a window
before the fatal shot found the Mormon prophet. His last words were reportedly an
attempted Masonic distress call: O Lord My God, Is there no help for the widows
son
130
Among the possessions found on the martyred prophets body was an alchemical
Jupiter Talisman engraved with hermetic sigils.
131

129
Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols., ed. B.H. Roberts,
2d ed. Rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973), 6:555
130

131
th
, 1974.
60

132

132
Joseph Smiths Jupiter Talisman
61

Chapter 9
I Discover A Disposition In The Sheep To Scatter

LDS church leaders teach that Joseph Smith himself organized every
endowment in our church and revealed the same to the Church, however it is now
generally agreed by most observers and scholars that notable changes and revisions have
been introduced during the past 150 years.
133
Changes to the endowment ceremony in fact
took place almost immediately after the prophets death.
In the turmoil that followed Smiths assasination, very little ordinance
134
work
was done for over a year. Rival claimants clamored to fill the role of spiritual heir to the
prophet and lead the church. From the moment Brigham Young asumed leadership in
1844 he kept the construction of the temple before the Saints and used the promise of its
completion as a catalyst for galvanizing the church and keeping them together:
I discover disposition in the sheep to scatter, now the shepherd is taken away. I do not
say that it will never be right for this people to go from herebut I do say wait
untilyou are counseled to do so.stay here in Nauvoo, and build the temple and get
your endowments; do not scatter; united we stand divided we fall. It has been
whispered about all who go into the wilderness with [Lyman] Wight and [George]
Millerwill get there endowments, but they cannot give an endowment in the wilderness.
If we do not carruy out the plan Joseph has laid down and the pattern he has given for
us to work by, we cannot get any further endowmentNorth and South America is
Zion and as soon as the Temple is done and you get your endowments you can go and

133

134
Ordinance: In the Church, an ordinance is a sacred, formal act performed by the authority of the
priesthood. Some ordinances are essential to our exaltation. These ordinances are called saving ordinances.
They include baptism, confirmation, ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood (for men), the temple
endowment, and the marriage sealing. With each of these ordinances, we enter into solemn covenants with
the Lord. (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints official website 4/23/2014)
https://www.lds.org/topics/ordinances?lang=eng

62
build up stakes, but do not be in haste, wait until the Lord says go.
135

Before his death Joseph Smith instructed Brigham Young to develop the
ceremony after its initial introduction in the red brick store in Nauvoo :
Brother Joseph turned to me [Brigham Young] and said: Brother Brigham this is not
arranged right, but we have done the best we could under the circumstances in which
we are placed, and I wish you to take this matter in hand and organize and systematize
all these ceremonies with the signs, tokens, penalties and key words. I did so and each
time I got something more; so that when we went through the Temple at Nauvoo, I
understood and knew how to place the there. We had our ceremonies pretty correct.
136

Young and the other apostles could sense an impending defection from the temple
and its ordinances and issued a warning as to what was at stake:
[Emmett] has led you forth from our midst and seperated you from the body and like a
branch severed from a tree you must and will perish together with your posterity and
your progenitors unless you are engrafted again thereon before you wither and die
137

In response to the warnings, the Saints donated time, money, art, furnishings and
other materials to make the temple attic ready for use. In 1845, the leaders in the church
hiearchy began to administer the endowment to the general membership and the first of
these ceremonies were performed in the Nauvoo temple on December 10
th
.
138

We have documentation of these early ceremonies from the diaries of Heber
Kimball and William Clayton who chronicled the ordinances. Claytons records describe
the annointing and prepatory ritual for the endowment, the temple arrangements, Youngs
personal presiding over the ordinances, group inititaion, impressions of the dramaturgy of
the endowment journey, weddings, the spontaneous innovation of dancing, and the

135
2d ed. Rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973), 7:253-55
136
L.John Nuttall Journal, 7 Feb.1877, Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young
University, Provo, Utah.
137
2d ed. Rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1973), 7:378

138
Utah: Signature Books, 2002) 71
63
second annointing.
Heber Kimballs diary entry about the endowment ceremony focuses primarily on
the way the particpants embody Adam that anticipates a sacerdotal chain of being:
The ideas advanced by brother Lyman are good and true. We have been taken as it were
from the earth, and have traveled until we have entered the the Celestial Kingdom and
what is it for, it is to personify Adam. And you discover that our God is like one of us,
for he created us in his own image. Every man that ever came upon this earth, or any
other earth will take the course we have taken. Another thing, it is to bring us into an
organization, and just as quick as we can get into that order and government, we have
the Celestial Kingdom here. You have got to honor and reverence your brethren, for if
you do not you never can honor God. The man was created, and God gave him
dominion over the whole earth, but he saw that he never could multiply and replenish
the whole earth, without a woman. And he made one and gave her to him. He did not
make man for the woman; but the woman for the man, and it is unlawful for you to rise
up and rebel against your husband, as it would be for man to rebel against God. When
the man came to the vail, God gave the key word to the man, and the man gave it to the
woman. But if a man dont use a woman well and take good care of her, God will take
her away from him, and give her to another. Perfect order and consistency makes
heaven but we are now deranged, and the tail has become the head. We have now come
to this place, and all your former covenants are of no account, and here is the place
where we have to enter into a new covenant, and be sealed, and have it recorded. One
reason we bring our wives with us , is, that they make a covenant with us to keep these
things sacred. You have been anointed to be kings and priests, but you have not been
ordained to it yet, and you have got to get it by being faithful. You cant sin so cheap
now as you could before you came to this order. It is not for you to reproach the Lords
anointed nor to speak evil of him. You have covenanted not to do it.
139

The weeks following the first endowment ceremonies, the men who made up the
top tiers of the Church hiearchy and their wives received their second annointing. The
leading brethren began performing adoption sealings that tied men of lower priesthood
rank to the men of higher ranking priesthoods, as well as children to parents. By the
time the temple was closed on February 7
th
1846 over 2,000 couples had been sealed for
time and eternity. A few women were sealed to their current husband for time but chose
for their celestial husband a deceased man, typically Joseph Smith himself. This time

139
George D. Smith, ed An intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton (Salt Lake City, Utah:
Signature Books, 1991) 226-67
64
also saw the sealings of several polygamous marriages.
140

The brief tenure with Nauvoo temple demonstrates the Saints emphasis on the
second annointing during this time period. Though the endowment was sporadically
performed after the Saints migrated further westward; anticipating a time when another
edifice would be dedicated, no record exists of the second annointing for the following
two decades as the Mormon exodus to Utah was underway.
141

On July 7
th
1852, the endowment ordinances were performed in the Old Council
House, the first permanent public building erected in Salt Lake City. On May 5
th
1855 a
new building called the Endowment House was constructed for the sole purpose of
administering the ordinances until church leaders decided to have it razed on October 16
th

1884. No endowments or second annointings for the dead were performed in the
Endowment House.
Endowment for the dead was first introduced in Nauvoo by Joseph Smith, and
Brigham Young increased its public discussion in Utah. The first recorded endowments
for the dead occurred January 11
th
1877, eleven days after the Salt Lake temples
dedication. Young restricted the conferral of these ceremonies to Utah temples believing
that it would otherwise destroy the object of the gathering.
142
The only LDS temples at
this time were situated in Utah. The Kirtland temple had been disowned by the Father
and the Son.
143
and the Nauvoo Temple had burned to the ground.
The St. George Temple endowment included an expanded lecture at the veil
with an explanatory summary of theological concepts taught in the endowment and
references to the Adam-God doctrine. Young taught in this lecture that Adam:
Had begotten all the spirits that was to come to this earth, and Eve our common Mother
who is the mother of all living bore those spirits in the celestial world[They]

140
Utah: Signature Books, 2002) 90-91
141
Ibid
142
Woodruff, Wilford Woodruffs Journal, 6:307-8
143
Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (1854-86)Liverpool, England. Latter-day Saints Booksellers Depot.
2:32
65
consequently came to this earth and commenced the great work of forming tabernacles
for those spirits to dwell in.
144

The origin of the Adam-God doctrine can reliably be traced to Brigham Young in
Utah, and it seems unlikely that that similar ideas were present in Nauvoo.
145
Though
some innovations like this did occur, the endowment ceremony underwent only minimal
structural change from its introduction in Nauvoo through the end of the nineteenth-
century.
146

By the time the Saints reached Utah and began to prepare the Salt Lake City
temple, Masonrys allure to Young and the Church hiearchy were beginning to wane.
Symbolism continued in Utah through the efforts of Brigham Young who caused its
usage to expand-both as to variety and frequency. While Young had been a Mason and
personally owned Masonic handbooks, after Nauvoo troubles with gentile Masons
(including their probable participationin the Martyrdom and subsequent persecution and
expulsion of the Saints), he had no love for the group. Yet the ornamental trappings
planned for the Salt Lake Temple (originally extensive but much diluted after his death
in 1877) demonstrated a continuing implementation of Josephs selected Masonic
symbols.
147

The dismantling of Masonic influence began with Joseph Smiths death. It would
be a trend that continued with each succesive generation . Joseph Smith died believing he
restored the apostacy of Masonry; his repairs can still be seen in the temple worship of
the global Latter-day Saints community.

144
L. John Nuttall, Memoranda, For Presidents W. Woodward, Geo. Q. Cannon, and Jos. F. Smith, 3
June 1892, Nuttall Papers, Special Collectioms, Lee Library
145

146
Ibid
147
Roberts, Allen D. Where Are the All-Seeing Eyes?: The origin, Use and Decline of Early Mormon
Symbolism. Sunstone Magazine. Issue 49. May (1985) pp 26-48

66
Conclusion
Saints and Symbols in the Twentieth Century

After the death of their beloved Prophet in 1844, many Latter-day Saints harbored
hostile feelings towards their persecutors and hoped to avenge their fallen leader. While
still in Nauvoo Brigham Young amended the endowment ceremony to include an oath of
vengeance:
You and each of you do covenant and promise that you will pray and never cease to
pray to Almighty God to avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation, and that you
will teach the same to your children and to your children's children unto the third and
fourth generation.
148

This blood oath became a major point of contention to both Mormons and The
United States government in the early parts of the twentienth century. The controversy
centers around the election of apostle Reed Smoot to the 58
th
Congress of the United
States on January 20
th
, 1903 as a Republican Senator representing the state of Utah. A
United States subcommittee conducted a series of hearings from 1904-1906 to decide
whether or not Smoot should be allowed serve. The committee was concerned with
whether the Mormon covenant of obediance would conflict with Smoots oath of loyalty
to the United States Constitution.
The negative press surrounding these hearings led to the deemphasis of this oath
in the endowment ceremony, and by 1912, David H. Cannon described a new
interpretation of the law of retribution:
To Pray the Father to avenge the blood of the prophets and righteous men that has been
shed, etc. In the endowment house this was given but as persons went there only once, it
was not so strongly impressed upon their minds, but in setting in order [of] the

148
Smoot Hearing, (1906)Proceedings Before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the United
States Senate in the Matter of the Protests Against the Right of Hon. Reed Smoot, A Senator from the State
of Utah, to Hold His Seat, 4 vols. Washington: Government Printing Office
67
endowment for the dead it was given as it is written in 9 Chapter of Revelations and in
the language we importune our Father, not that we may, but He, our Father, will avenge
the blood of martyrs shed for the testimony of Jesus.
149

In 1919, at the beginning of his administration, LDS president Heber J. Grant
created an apostolic committee charged with the task to change the emphasis on the law
of retribution as well as revising many other procedures linked with endowment ritual
and temple clothing. The committee codified and simplified the temple endowment
ceremony that was originally drafted in 1877. One major reason for this reform was to
ensure that the ceremony was identicle in all temples. By 1927 this LDS perestroika
elimated the oath of vengeance, drastically reduced the length of the ceremony, modified
the torturous Masonic penalties of disclosure, altered temple garments and strict
adherence to the Word of Wisdom
150
became a pre-requisite for temple admission.
151

Throughout the rest of the twentieth century modern technology was implemented
to streamline and augment the endowment. The ritual dramaturgy evolved into a filmed
affair as such the temple architecture itself began to adapt to facilitate the wide-screen
concept of 1960s American movie theatres.
152
Technological advances in computer

149
St. George Temple Minutes K9369R, 22 Feb. 1912 in Confidential Research Files, 110.
150
The "Word of Wisdom" is the common name of a section of the Doctrine and Covenants, a book
considered by many churches within the Latter Day Saint movement to consist of revelations from God. It
is also the name of a health code based on this scripture, practiced most strictly by The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and Mormon fundamentalists, and to a lesser extent, some other
Latter Day Saint denominations. In the LDS Church, compliance with the Word of Wisdom is currently a
prerequisite for baptism, service in full-time missionary work, attendance at church schools, and entry into
the church's temples; however, violation of the code is not considered to be grounds for excommunication
or other disciplinary action. (Wikipedia) April 27, 2014

151

152
The wide-screen concept introduced in early-1960s American movies influenced Church architect
Harold Burton in designing the Oakland Temples two endowment rooms. He planned huge projection
68
science enabled Saints to effeciently categorize research for the Genealogical Society
153

for their work in ancestral sealing.
154

Declining rates in attendance since the 1970s may suggest that many Latter-day
Saints do not participate extensively in endowment rituals for the living or the dead.
Confronting the possibility of economic issues associated with long distance travel being
the cause for lowered attendance, the LDS church has responded with the strategic
construction of numerous scaled-down temples in areas of high member density.
155

Another possibility for declining attendance may lie in the appeal of the ceremony
itself to twenty-first century Saints. The symbolism that was critical in the evolution of
endowment ceremony may have a different meaning to modern members of the Church.
The decline in architectural symbolism in modern temples suggests that modern Saints
feel a discomfort with their use. Perhaps a lack of fluency in the symbolic vocabulary that
their nineteenth century counterparts used can be attributed to the efforts of the Church
hiearchy itself . Some modern Church leaders look back upon the symbolism utilized by

areas that required the use of 35mm film, although curtains reduced the total screen size. After the temple
was dedicated in 1964, 4x5 slide projectors were used to produce photo murals depicting room changes
found in live endowment presentation. Buerger, David J. The Development of Mormon Temple
Endowment Ceremony. Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Vol. 20.4 (1984) 75-122 Print.

153
The Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), established in 1894, does business as FamilySearch
International, which is the genealogical arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (LDS
Church)Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that tracing family lineage is
essential for special religious ceremonies that seal family units together for eternity. According to
Mormons, this fulfills a Biblical prophecy stating that the prophet Elijah would return to "turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers."(Wikipedia) April 27, 2014

154

155
Ibid
69
earlier generations with embarrasment and even suspicion as the push for greater
integration into normative American society took precedence. As Allen D. Roberts states
in his essay Where Are the All-Seeing Eyes? from Sunstone Magazine:
The Salt Lake Temple, depicted either in elevation or perspective, is the most prominent
image identified with Mormonism. Along with the trumpteting Angel Moroni, mini-
models of the temple have found their way into stationary, Church pamphlets,
Christmas cards, retail packaging, and ties tacks. The bas-relief worlds on mammoth
Church Office Building may also be considered symbols of the burgeoning international
Church.All of these symbols, however, seem intentionally nave, safe, and lack depth
and vitality when compared to the theologically provocative all-seeing eye, clasped
hands, and sun, moon, and stars, all of which, scripturally founded, beckon us to search
for truth and to improve the quality of our lives. Our symbols of today are not intended
to remind fellow Saints of our common worship and heritage as much as display a
particular image to those outside the faith. Our particular art, music, architecture,
graphics, books, periodicals, advertisements, and television spots are programmatically
designed to put forth a corporate imageof Mormonism as clean, happy, unique,
suuperlative, all-American yet worldwide. The attempt is to underscore Mormon
orthodoxy and inspire conformity. Saints of 1979 have needs quite different from those
of a struggling colony of kingdom builders.
156

On April 5
th
2014 The LDS Church addressed 20,000 Latter-day Saints in its 184
th

General Conference. Jeffrey R. Holland, of the churchs Quorum of Twelve Apostles,
said in the opening session addressing both internal and external protestations of Church
policy:
(LDS leaders) know full well that the road leading to the Promised Land, flowing
with milk and honey, of necessity runs by way of Mount Sinai, flowing with thou
shalts and thou shalt nots, Unfortunately, messengers of divinely mandated
commandments are often no more popular today than they were anciently,"
Because some view their policies as harsh or anachronistic, LDS leaders are
accused of being provincial, patriarchal, bigoted, unkind, narrow, outmoded and
elderly. Holland continued:
If people want any gods at all, they want them to be gods who do not demand much,

156
Roberts, Allen D. Where Are the All-Seeing Eyes?: The origin, Use and Decline of Early Mormon
Symbolism. Sunstone Magazine. Issue 49. May (1985) 26-48
70
comfortable gods, who not only dont rock the boat but dont even row it, gods who pat
us on the head, make us giggle, then tell us to run along and pick marigoldstalk about
man creating God in his own image.

The LDS church has evolved, changed and most importantly survived to be the
global faith that it is today; and since its early incarnation in Kirtland, the Temple has
been a crucial element of salvation.Though no new temples were announced at the
session, LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson stated that when all the previously
announced temples are completed there would be 170 temples worldwide. Their seems
no doubt as to the fate of these sacred edifices, as Monson himself declared:"We are a
temple-building and a temple-attending people."
157

157
Stack, Peggy Fletcher. Message to Mormons: Prophets not always popular. The Salt Lake Tribune.
April 5
th
2014 (online)

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