Beneath all these occult sects one common source of inspiration is to be found--the perverted and magical Cabala of the Jews, that conglomeration of wild theosophical imaginings and barbaric superstitions founded on ancient pagan cults and added to throughout seventeen centuries by succeeding generations of Jewish occultists.[429] This influence is particularly to be detected in the various forms of the Rose-Croix degree, which in nearly all these associations forms the highest and most secret degree. The ritual of "the eminent Order of the Knights of the Black Eagle or Sovereigns of the Rose-Croix," a secret and unpublished document of the eighteenth century, which differs entirely from the published rituals, explains that no one can attain to knowledge of the higher sciences without the "Clavicules de Salomon," of which the real secrets were never committed to print and which is said to contain the whole of Cabalistic science.[430] The catechism of this same degree deals mainly with the transmutation of metals, the Philosopher's Stone, etc.
In the Rite of Perfection as worked in France and America this Cabalistic influence is shown in those degrees known under the name of the "Ineffable Degrees," derived from the Jewish belief in the mystery that surrounds the Ineflable Name of God. According to the custom of the Jews, the sacred name Jehovah or Jah-ve, composed of the four letters yod, he, vau, he, which formed the Tetragrammaton, was never to be pronounced by the profane, who were obliged to substitute for it the word "Adonai." The Tetragrammaton might only be uttered once a year on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies amid the sound of trumpets and cymbals, which prevented the people from hearing it. It is said that in consequence of the people thus refraining from its utterance, the true pronunciation of the name was at last lost. The Jews further believed that the Tetragrammaton was possessed of unbounded powers. "He who pronounces it shakes heaven and earth and inspires the very angels with astonishment and terror."[431] The Ineffable Name thus conferred miraculous gifts; it was engraved on the rod of Moses and enabled him to perform wonders, just as, according to the Toledot Yeshu, it conferred the same powers on Christ.
This superstition was clearly a part of Rosicrucian tradition, for the symbol of the Tetragrammaton within a triangle, adopted by the masonic lodges, figures in Fludd's Cabalistic system.[432] In the "Ineffable degrees" it was invested with all the mystic awe by which it is surrounded in Jewish theology, and, according to early American working: "Brothers and Companions of these degrees received the name of God as it was revealed to Enoch and were sworn to pronounce it but once in their lives."
In the alchemical version of the Rose-Croix degree referred to above the Ineffable Name is actually invested with magical powers as in the Jewish Cabala. Ragon, after describing the Jewish ceremony when the word Jehovah was pronounced by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies, goes on to say that "Schem-hamm-phorasch," another term for the Tetragrammaton, forms the sacred word of a Scotch degree, and that this belief in its mystic properties "will be found at the head of the instructions for the third degree of the Knight of the Black Eagle, called Rose-Croix," thus:
Q. What is the most powerful name of God on the pentaculum?
A. Adonai.
Q. What is its power?
A. To move the Universe.
That one of the Knights who had the good fortune to pronounce it cabalistically would have at his disposal the powers that inhabit the four elements and the celestial spirits, and would possess all the virtues possible to man.[433]
That this form of the Rose-Croix was of purely Jewish origin is thus clearly evident. In the address to the candidate for initiation into the Rose-Croix degree at the Lodge of the "Contrat Social" it is stated:
This degree, which includes an Order of Perfect Masons, was brought to light by Brother R., who took it from the Kabbalistic treasure of the Doctor and Rabbi Néamuth, chief of the synagogue of Leyden in Holland, who had preserved its precious secrets and its costume, both of which we shall see in the same order in which he placed them in his mysterious Talmud.[434]
Now, we know that in the eighteenth century a society of Rosicrucian magicians had been instituted in Florence which was believed to date back to the fifteenth century and to have been partly, if not wholly composed of Orientals, as we shall see in the next chapter; but it seems probable that this sect, whilst secretly inspiring the Rose-Croix masons, was itself either nameless or concealed under a disguise. Thus in 1782 an English Freemason writes: "I have found some rather curious MSS. in Algiers in Hebrew relating to the society of the Rosicrucians, which exists at present under another name with the same forms. I hope, moreover to be admitted to their knowledge."[435]
It has frequently been argued that Jews can have played no part in Freemasonry at this period since they themselves were not admitted to the lodges. But this is by no means certain; in the article from The Gentleman's Magazine already quoted it is stated that Jews are admitted; de Luchet further quotes the instance of David Moses Hertz received in a London lodge in 1787; and the author of Les Franc-Masons écrasés, published in 1746, states that he has seen three Jews received into a lodge at Amsterdam. In the "Melchisedeck Lodges" of the Continent non-Christians were openly admitted, and here again the Rose-Croix degree occupies the most important place. The highest degrees of this rite were the Initiated Brothers of Asia, the Masters of the Wise, and the Royal Priests, otherwise known as the degree of Melchisedeck or the true Brothers of the Rose-Croix.