Post by Zadkiel on Jan 12, 2016 23:31:03 GMT
Ramsey's Oration confirms what many already knew at the time: That the freemasons are the Knights Templar's heirs. The secret esoteric and mystical tradition that the knights had found in the Middle East and brought to Europe continued in an enclosed lodge system when the Temple Order was disbanded and forced to go underground. This relationship is partly reflected in tombstones where both Templar and Masonic symbols are carved, in the symbolism found in Rosslyn Chapel, in the rituals of freemasonry and in other similarities between the two organizations. The system of masonic degrees, however, changed beyond recognition and twenty-four of them now have only a formal significance, in that apprentices are promoted to them without having gone through an initiation ritual first. These changes were made by men that did not understand the original meaning of freemasonry and they have led to the fact that the secret messages that the barons of Roslin and the descendants of the Scottish Templars baked into the Scottish masonic tradition are now gone.
