Roots

Lately I've been doing a little bit of reading and I just wanted to bring this up:

I have listened to a whole lot of babble by some so-called enlightened men claiming to be masons (they are, but they have any sense). Most of these men mostly babble about how freemasonry descended directly from the Egyptians.

These usually are black Americans who try to hold on strongly to some sort of history that binds them to Africa. As a result of laziness to research and truly study their own histories, they easily absorb the teachings of ignorant pedagogues who sell them the snake oil of "Moorish sciences" often as a result of sheer ignorance mixing up with the still enigmatic Kemetic sciences. Then they through their ignorance and lack of true knowledge want to tie it to freemasonry.

Here is the truth: granted the Egyptians had their mythology and their rites of passage into manhood and enlightenment that are almost similar to what is practiced in freemasonry; however, so did so many other cultures all over the world. For example, the Incas, the Celts, and of course the Persians. These three cultures had little or no interaction with each other in ancient times but they all had within their culture the linked enlightenment processes.

A study of most male initiation rites will show the same themes of transition from one state (darkness, childishness/youth, ignorance) into another state (light, maturity/manhood, enlightenment) usually through the overcoming of pain, fear by (mostly in more traditional or ancient cultures) by a near-fatal experience. This is the theme across the board across all cultures including freemasonry.

So let's the story as what it is and not for what it's not. Speculative freemasonry was organized in the British Isles, deal with it. If you choose to practice it and want to give it a twist of your culture, you are welcome to. Don't chop it up and skew it and remove the true root of speculative freemasonry to make it distorted to all those who truly seek enlightenment. If you have to, don't call it freemasonry and don't affiliate yourself with craft. More importantly, be honest about it. Do not ascribe to it a historic, ancient or mystical root it has nothing to do with.