Tolkien the freemason/ Priory of Sionist/Gnostic?

[PrinceOfTheHalflings]

Originally Posted by garm

"I've been doing a good spot of research on this--have wondered about it for awhile. There is a story that both Tolkien and CS Lewis were briefly members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, but were kicked out for being inept. "

Don't keep us in suspense - - where does this information come from?

As for the Priory of Sion - there was a TV programme on Channel 4 a few years ago, when the movie of Dan Brown's first book came out (blessed if I can remember the name now). The whole Priory of Sion thing was shown to be a hoax, perpetrated by some guys in France. It's all rubbish, really.

Right. Thanks for pointing that out so that I didn't have to! The Prieuré de Sion or Priory of Sion was invented in the 1950s by a chap called Pierre Plantard who fabricated a nine hundred year history for his phony organisation.

The notion that both Tolkien and Lewis were members of the Order of the Golden Dawn seems a bit far-fetched. Lewis I can imagine might have been interested during his agnostic/aetheist phase, but Tolkien? Charles Williams, who was also a member of the Inklings, is really the most likely suspect.

On the other hand, Tolkien does seem to have considered some beliefs that seem to have been of a Gnostic nature. The basis of The Lost Road and The Notion Club Papers is the idea that ancient memories can be retrieved by modern people - in this case memories of Numenor. Tolkien himself seems to have believed that his own Middle Earth writings were in some way a recollection or reconstruction of actual events.

However, it is one thing to dabble in Pagan or Gnostic traditions in order to write a work of fantasy but it is quite another thing to practise such traditions in your day to day life! Tolkien was a practising Catholic and this would be quite incompatible with him actually being a Gnostic, a Witch, a Master of the Occult, a Satanist or whatever else he is being accused of.

Note that the accusation comes from people who believe that The Lord Of The Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia are occult books! An example of this sort of thing can be found here, if you can bear to read it:

http://www.tldm.org/News8/JRRTolkien...wis.Narnia.htm

Note that there is no actual proof, just suppositions and circular reasoning. Tolkien wrote many letters, a selection of which have been published, and there is nothing in them to indicate anything other than normal Catholic practise. The logic seems to be "Tolkien wrote an occult book (LOTR) and he spent a lot of time on it so therefore he was an occultist". The reasoning fails if you don't accept the initial premise, for which there is no proof.

Also the article I've linked to has numerous factual errors, such as:

"Tolkiens [sic] occult stories were first published in the 1950's. It is interesting to note that Tolkien took 12 years to write his occult stories and he released them in the 13th year. He was a true occultist and the devil was pleased and blessed his work!"

Although it did take Tolkien approximately 12 years to write The Lord of The Rings, it most certainly wasn't published in the "13th year"! It took about four years for the book to be published once it was completed. Besides, there is no significance to the timing since Tolkien had already published The Hobbit and had expended decades trying to bring The Silmarillion into a publishable form.

Also the claim (in that article) that "a Witch" revealed the information that Lewis and Tolkien were members of the Golden Dawn is hard to believe. Where did this Witch obtain the information? The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was disbanded in 1970 and all of the members are probably dead - so how could anyone now have detailed credible knowledge of such a secret society?

Incidentally, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was an offshoot of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia, which most certainly does still exist and even has a website:

http://sria.info/index.php?option=co...=42&Itemid=238

The notion that such groups (related to Freemasonry) engage in occult activities is largely held by the kinds of Christians who believe that every word of the Bible is literally true, and that it contains all the knowledge that you actually need. Such people are dedicated to attacking any work of fiction with spiritual themes that has a large following.

[Eönwë]

In my defence, I was only 13 and had just read the Da Vinci Code when I made this thread...

That being said, it's probably not unlikely that Tolkien at least considered some Gnostic beliefs while writing his mythology- whether or not they manifested themselves in some way, I'm not sure.

[Llew]

I just joined the forum after coming quite accidently upon the topic, kind of a stumble in the dark so to speak. If Tolkien had been a member of some secret society, whether he was Catholic or not, by the very definition of secret, I highly doubt that he would have expressed this publicly. Now we cannot assume that simply because he was a Christian, he would have denounced all occult sciences. And in speaking of Williams, perhaps we have here the counter-point of Saruman and Gandalf: one absorbed in the intricasies of ritual and deeply entrenched in dubious and captivating Arts, and the other a patient elementalist, close to nature, and being wise enough to know that delving too deep can waken things undesirable from the depths of the Id. Perhaps the Good Professor and his 4 fellow " Inklings" , discussed magic and mystery at great lengths, and it would behoove anyone to think that there could not have been an influence one way or the other. These 5 'wizards' of the literary world were clearly Gnostic even perhaps without intending to be. And clearly, whether any human intends it or not, we are all Gnostic by our very nature; as Bilbo grows from his child-like innocence to progress thru the story, so do we all, and along the way gaining 'gnosis" of our potential.
Hehe...Hobbits really are amazing creatures....


'A little red wine for me please..and just bring out the cold chicken and pickles"

[dreeness]

Not the wandering wizard that gave Old Took a pair of magic diamond studs that fastened themselves and never came undone till ordered? Not the fellow who used to tell such wonderful tales at parties, about dragons and goblins and giants and the rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows' sons?

"Widows' Sons" is a cryptic Masonic phrase.


It means "Freemasons".

[jallanite]

Originally Posted by dreeness

"Widows' Sons" is a cryptic Masonic phrase.
It means "Freemasons".

Yes, and it also means simply “widows’ sons”.

It is very common in folk tales that a male protagonist is the son of a widow. That is ostensibly what Tolkien is having Bilbo refer to.

I first came across this supposed connection in Jesse L. Weston’s From Ritual to Romance originally published in 1920. In chapter XIV she writes:

Once started on a definitely romantic career, the Grail story rapidly became a complex of originally divergent themes, the most important stage in its development being the incorporation of the popular tale of the Widow’s Son, brought up in the wilderness, and launched into the world in a condition of absolute ignorance of men, and manners. The Perceval story is a charming story, but it has originally nothing whatever to do with the Grail. The original tale, now best represented by our English Syr Percyvelle of Galles, has no trace of Mystery element; it is Folk-lore, pure and simple. I believe the connection with the Grail legend to be purely fortuitous, and due to the fact that the hero of the Folk-tale was known as ‘The Widow’s Son,’ which he actually was, while this title represented in Mystery terminology a certain grade of Initiation, and as such is preserved to-day in Masonic ritual.

Jesse L. Weston’s beliefs are now hardly accepted by anyone. But even in Weston’s idiosyncratic belief Sir Perceval was originally called a widow’s son because he was literally a widow’s son. T. H. Eilot’s poem The Wasteland was indeed inspired by crank Arthurian commentary.

As I understand it, the claim is that because Tolkien once mentioned in his writing something that means something different according to secret Masonic allegory, he must have been a secret Mason.

If the supposed phrase is widow’s sons then it is hardly a Masonic secret that one of the Masonic Degrees is Widow’s Son and hundreds of writers have written about widow’s sons without meaning anything esoteric. Just look up son of the widow folklore in Google and you will find thousands of tales among irrelevant sites.

In any case, no evidence beyond a single phrase in all his writing, a phrase that also has a common meaning, comes down to no evidence.

[Morthoron]

Jack the Giant-killer, he who climbed the beanstalk, was a widow's son; ergo he was obviously a Freemason and perhaps a member of the Illuminati and a bastard son of a Templar knight.

Or perhaps, as Jallanite inferred, the "luck of widows' sons" is such a well-known motif in folktales that it has become stereotypical. Hence, Tolkien references it because it is a touchstone in folklore, as is the mention of "the rescue of princesses".

[dreeness]

Or perhaps Tolkien was slightly just taking the mick out of Freemasons in general, with a knowing wink to adult readers who would recognize the reference.