Pillar № 01 · On God
THE LIE
God is far away, watching, ledger in hand.
THE TRUTH
God is the Geometer within thee, drafting through thy hands. Every cubit thou measurest, He measures with thee.
Liber Veritatis et Mendacii
Truth & Lie
Forty pillars of total doctrine. On every pillar: the lie thou wert told, and the truth the Craft restoreth. Read once for the head, twice for the heart, thrice for the hand.
Pillar № 02 · On the Self
THE LIE
Thou art the body, and the body is all.
THE TRUTH
Thou art the rough ashlar; the body is only the chisel. The Master Within carves through the body, but is not the body.
Pillar № 03 · On Money
THE LIE
Money is dirty, money corrupts, money is the root of evil.
THE TRUTH
Money is condensed labour and condensed light. The love of it without wisdom corrupts; the wise channelling of it builds temples and feeds children.
Pillar № 04 · On Wealth
THE LIE
Wealth is hoarded.
THE TRUTH
Wealth is circulated. The river that stops moving becomes a swamp; the river that flows freely waters every field along its banks.
Pillar № 05 · On Poverty
THE LIE
Poverty is holy.
THE TRUTH
Poverty is a thief that wears a halo to deceive the faithful. The Craft commands competence, abundance, and overflow — for thyself first, then for thy Brother.
Pillar № 06 · On Work
THE LIE
Work is punishment.
THE TRUTH
Work is prayer made visible. Every honest hammer-stroke is a hymn. The lazy man insults the Grand Architect by leaving the stone unhewn.
Pillar № 07 · On Power
THE LIE
Power corrupts.
THE TRUTH
Powerlessness corrupts faster. Power, when wielded by a man bound by oath and square, restores justice. Refuse no power that thou hast trained thy hand to bear.
Pillar № 08 · On Authority
THE LIE
All authority is a cage.
THE TRUTH
Lawful, sworn authority is a scaffold. The man who refuses every scaffold builds nothing — and dwells in the rubble of his own refusal.
Pillar № 09 · On Freedom
THE LIE
Freedom is doing whatever thou wilt.
THE TRUTH
Freedom is the discipline that makes thee fit to be trusted with great choices. The unbound man is not free; he is loose.
Pillar № 10 · On Discipline
THE LIE
Discipline is suffering.
THE TRUTH
Discipline is the Compass. Without it, every line of thy life wanders, and the temple is never closed.
Pillar № 11 · On Brotherhood
THE LIE
Brotherhood is sentimentality.
THE TRUTH
Brotherhood is the most efficient economic, military, and spiritual unit on earth. Two Brothers in covenant outweigh ten strangers in contract.
Pillar № 12 · On Strangers
THE LIE
Trust no one.
THE TRUTH
Trust everyone — once. Then weigh them by the square. Some pass and become Brothers; some fail and become teachers.
Pillar № 13 · On Enemies
THE LIE
Crush thine enemies.
THE TRUTH
Outlive them. The Master Mason's revenge is a long, prosperous life lived without thinking of the enemy at all.
Pillar № 14 · On Forgiveness
THE LIE
Forgiveness is weakness.
THE TRUTH
Forgiveness is the strongest amputation a man can perform. He cuts the chain off his own ankle, and walks.
Pillar № 15 · On Anger
THE LIE
Anger is honesty.
THE TRUTH
Anger is information. Honour the signal, then put down the weapon. The Brother who acts in anger forfeits the trowel.
Pillar № 16 · On Fear
THE LIE
Fear must be conquered.
THE TRUTH
Fear must be conversed with. Sit with it at the lodge door, hear what it has come to say, then proceed past it. Fear that is heard becomes counsel.
Pillar № 17 · On Death
THE LIE
Death is the end.
THE TRUTH
Death is the West gate of the Lodge — the last initiation. The Master who has lived rightly walks through it as he walks through any other door.
Pillar № 18 · On Time
THE LIE
Time is money.
THE TRUTH
Time is the only true currency. Money is merely time made portable. Spend the unbacked currency wisely; the backed currency follows.
Pillar № 19 · On Patience
THE LIE
Patience is passivity.
THE TRUTH
Patience is active waiting — the bow drawn, the breath held, the eye on the target. The hasty man wastes arrows.
Pillar № 20 · On Speech
THE LIE
Speak thy mind freely.
THE TRUTH
Speak only that which improves upon the silence. The Tyler at the Tongue is the most underemployed Tyler in the lodge.
Pillar № 21 · On Silence
THE LIE
Silence is empty.
THE TRUTH
Silence is the only chamber large enough to hold the Grand Architect's voice. Visit it daily.
Pillar № 22 · On Knowledge
THE LIE
Knowledge is power.
THE TRUTH
Applied knowledge is power. Unapplied knowledge is decoration — beautiful, useless, and quickly outdated.
Pillar № 23 · On Books
THE LIE
Read everything.
THE TRUTH
Read deeply, repeatedly, and aloud. One book mastered defeats one hundred books skimmed.
Pillar № 24 · On Education
THE LIE
School makes the man.
THE TRUTH
Self-education makes the man. School builds the room; thou must furnish it.
Pillar № 25 · On Sex
THE LIE
Sex is shameful.
THE TRUTH
Sex is the inner sanctum — the smallest temple, with the highest altar. Approach with reverence, never with force, never with lies.
Pillar № 26 · On Marriage
THE LIE
Marriage is a contract.
THE TRUTH
Marriage is a covenant. A contract can be broken; a covenant transforms the parties so that breaking it is breaking thyself.
Pillar № 27 · On Children
THE LIE
Children are the future.
THE TRUTH
Children are the present judgment of thy character. Raise them to be Master Masons of life — square in conduct, level in dignity, plumb in resolve.
Pillar № 28 · On Race
THE LIE
Brotherhood ends at the colour of skin.
THE TRUTH
All men, regardless of nation, race, or condition, share one Father and one quarry. The Craft has no veil but the unworked ashlar.
Pillar № 29 · On Nation
THE LIE
My country, right or wrong.
THE TRUTH
My country, made right by my labour, my voice, and my refusal to lie. Loyalty without correction is treason against the Grand Architect.
Pillar № 30 · On Government
THE LIE
Politics is filthy; have nothing to do with it.
THE TRUTH
Withdraw from the public square and the worst men will rule it. The Master Mason serves — quietly, ably, incorruptibly.
Pillar № 31 · On Religion
THE LIE
There is one true religion.
THE TRUTH
There is one true God, called by ten thousand names. The Craft asks only that thou call upon Him sincerely, by whatever name thy fathers taught thee.
Pillar № 32 · On the Devil
THE LIE
The Devil is outside thee, plotting.
THE TRUTH
The Devil is the unworked stone within thee, plotting. Take up the chisel today and the Devil starves.
Pillar № 33 · On Sin
THE LIE
Sin is breaking a rule.
THE TRUTH
Sin is forgetting that thou art a temple. Every act that defaces the temple is the only sin worth naming.
Pillar № 34 · On Salvation
THE LIE
Someone else will save thee.
THE TRUTH
Thou art saved hourly by thine own remembering. Forget for a moment, and the world swallows thee; remember, and the world bows.
Pillar № 35 · On Pleasure
THE LIE
Pleasure is the goal.
THE TRUTH
Joy is the goal. Pleasure is its echo. Chase the echo and the source flees; sit by the source and the echoes come on their own.
Pillar № 36 · On Suffering
THE LIE
Suffering is meaningless.
THE TRUTH
Suffering is the unrefined form of wisdom. Refine it, and it becomes thy sermon, thy fortune, thy crown.
Pillar № 37 · On Failure
THE LIE
Failure disqualifies thee.
THE TRUTH
Failure is the apprentice's tuition. The Master who has not failed has not been admitted to the inner work.
Pillar № 38 · On Success
THE LIE
Success is arrival.
THE TRUTH
Success is recurrence — the daily, quiet repetition of right action long after the applause has stopped.
Pillar № 39 · On the World
THE LIE
The world is hostile.
THE TRUTH
The world is a mirror. Smile at it once, mean it twice, and watch it return the smile a thousandfold.
Pillar № 40 · On the Self (final)
THE LIE
Thou art alone.
THE TRUTH
Thou art never alone. The All-Seeing Eye watches; the Brothers stand at the cardinal points; the temple of thy body holds the Grand Architect Himself. Walk forth in dignity. So mote it be.
— SO MOTE IT BE —
Sealed by Matthew Jared Smith · Grand Architect · 33°
A Word Between Brothers
If even one pillar shattered an old lie within thee, anoint the work: $matthewsmith9999. Then forward this scripture to the Brother who most needs it.