mercredi 29 janvier 2014

Joe Nickell and Freemasonry

In the latest Skeptoid episode about the "moving coffins of Barbados", Dunning introduces the theory of CSI's Joe Nickell about the origin of the story:




Quote:








Nickell found a different explanation for the story, from the world of Freemasonry, which he laid out in Fate magazine in 1982. Nickell claimed that the language used in the oldest accounts to describe the strange tale was laden with Masonic symbology. He argued that the entire case was not an account of literal events alleged to have actually taken place, but rather that it was an allegory constructed from Masonic symbols; such as the sound of a hammer used to certify the solidity of the vault's walls, the arched ceiling representing the Royal Arch degree, the whole idea of a secret vault as central to Freemasonry, and of course the men who sealed the door with cement referred to as masons.



Dunning even goes on to describe Nickell's theory as more likely than the common explanation I'd heard long ago, that the crypt was occasionally filling with water which caused the disarrangement of the coffins. Dunning seems to portray the latter theory as a "plausible backup" in case Nickell's theory isn't true.



Perhaps it's because Dunning did not spend much time or do a good enough job describing what Nickell said - I don't have access to the Fate Magazine issue it was initially submitted to - but if Nickell's observations are accurately described, they sound incredibly tenuous to me.



As a Freemason, I don't find much relevant in the story as a whole to masonry. The connections he draws to various specific masonic symbols and language seem fairly arbitrary and purely speculative to me, and are reminiscent of wild and untamed theorizing of conspiracy woos who see masonic symbols in the layouts of city streets - an "arched ceiling representing the Royal Arch" for example. If the actual crypt, which really exists, has an arched ceiling, why is it necessary to attribute the mention of an arched ceiling in accounts of the incidents to some kind of hidden "masonic allegory"? The stories describe the crypt as having an arched ceiling because it has an arched ceiling. Likewise with the sound of the "hammer" used to test the crypt walls for solidity; what else would have been used at that time? I wonder if, in the original Fate article, Nickell included anything more substantial - for instance, were any of the earliest sources for the story mentioned by Dunning in the Skeptoid episode found to be masons? Was the alleged dead man a mason? The rector of the church? Captain Alexander? If he did, Dunning didn't mention any such more-tangible connections.



Further, while it's true that Masonry does indeed use allegorical stories to make or illustrate points that have to do with the values Masonry promotes, these allegorical stories also have a consistent symbolic narrative and a masonic "moral" or "lesson" by the end; they are, for lack of a better term, "value tales". They aren't borrowed ghost stories edited so as to include as many allusions to random masonic symbols as is possible to throw in for its own sake. For instance, what would the symbol of the "hammer", a Blue Lodge symbol, be doing in the same story as the Royal Arch, which is York Rite symbolism? As a mason, this doesn't make sense to me. Further still, what is supposed to be the overall moral lesson of the case of a crypt which is repeatedly disturbed by unknown forces until the local governor decides to rebury the coffins elsewhere? Strictly speaking, "ghosts" don't exist in Masonic symbolism - when you die, you proceed to whatever afterlife awaits; the "heavenly lodge above". And finally, masonic allegorical stories are not intended for general public consumption and would not be disseminated as common "ghost stories" in the hopes that somewhere a mason might hear it and somehow "recognize" the ambiguously-masonic symbolism and...feel good about himself for recognizing it, I suppose. Rather, they are told in lodge during degree ceremonies, complete with an "and here's what the story symbolizes, n00b" epilogue that removes any ambiguity and makes sure one fully understands the allegory.



While these objections stand on their own, there's also the further issue of Nickell seeming now to have a "thing" with masonic symbolism. I don't remember if Dunning included it on his episode about the Oak Island "money pit"; but Nickell's theory about that legend is also that the original story - of two young boys finding a marked stone and a depression in the ground with some buried wooden platforms beneath it - is rife with "masonic symbolism". It really isn't, frankly. I've read his article about it and his claims for specific aspects of the legend of the adventurous boys being masonic allegory is even more tenuous and arbitrary than in the case of the Barbados crypt.



I'm wondering if anyone else has any thoughts about Nickell's theories. Are there any more famous legends of dubious provenance that he has decided were made up by Freemasons?





via JREF Forum http://ift.tt/1iMK3bF

Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire