Conspiracy theories are popular on the internet. A simple web search on almost any government agency or religious organization is bound to turn up at least a few web sites dedicated to “exposing” some secret government agenda that’s all a part of the “illuminati” master plan.
A favored subject for these conspiracy enthusiasts involves a man and Freemason by the name of Albert Pike. The story goes; Albert Pike was the Head of Freemasonry in the 1800’s and that he wrote a book called Morals and Dogma which spells out the regulations of being a Freemason. There is a passage that is recited over and over by conspiracy enthusiasts that “reveals” that the god of Freemasonry is none other than Lucifer himself!
The quote goes;
“That which we must say to the world is that we worship a god, but it is the god that one adores without superstition. To you, Sovereign Grand Inspectors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees: The masonic Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the higher degrees, maintained in the Purity of the Luciferian doctrine. If Lucifer were not God, would Adonay and his priests calumniate him?
Yes, Lucifer is God, and unfortunately Adonay is also god. For the eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without ugliness, no white without black, for the absolute can only exist as two gods; darkness being necessary for light to serve as its foil as the pedestal is necessary to the statue, and the brake to the locomotive….
Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy, and the true and pure philosophical religion is the belief in Lucifer, the equal of Adonay; but Lucifer, God of Light and God of Good, is struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil.”
When I first found this quote was I intrigued by it and wanted to look it up for myself. Ever since my earliest college days I was taught to always double check my sources so this seemed natural to me. The first thing I noticed was that although I could find the “quote” referenced in numerous places on conspiracy sites, always attributed to Albert Pike and Morals and Dogma, never once could I find a page number listed on any of these sites. That’s because it’s not real.
Albert Pike was a Confederate General who led a brigade of Native American soldiers during the American Civil War. Despite his confederate ties, Pike was credited as a crusader for justice for Native Americans, a prominent Washington lawyer and a philosopher. He was also a Freemason. He was not the head of Freemasonry. For several years he was the head of one jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite, an organization subordinate to Freemasonry. This was the was the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite, which includes most of the western United States as well as the South. In 1871 he published a book called Morals and Dogma, in which he discussed a vast array of the worlds religions and tried to associate their mythic legends to the lessons taught in Freemasonry. This book was given as a gift to Scottish Rite Masons in the Southern Jurisdiction for nearly 60 years. It however, is not the “rule book” of Masonry as some people have claimed but rather the philosophical work of its author. The infamous “Luciferian Quote” does not exist between its covers.
The origin of this “quote” is from a book entitled Woman and Child in Universal Freemasonry published by Abel Clarin de la Rive. The “Luciferian Quote” in this book is credited in a foot note to a woman by the name of Diana Vaughan. Diana Vaughan was a character introduced in the writings of a man named Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès who wrote under the pen name Leo Taxil. For obvious reasons I shall use the pen name when referring to him from here on.
Taxil wrote what he called a history of Freemasonry, in four volumes which claimed to contain eye witness accounts of Masonic Satanic activity. Another book written in 1894 by Leo Taxil and “Dr. Karl Hacks” was titled the Devil in the Nineteenth Century. This is the book that introduced the character of Diana Vaughan who was supposed to have been involved in Satanic Masonry and an informant for Leo Taxil.
The “Luciferian” quote has ever since been repeated by anti-Masonic conspiracy enthusiasts even though its real creator Leo Taxil admitted his hoax. That’s right! On April 19, 1897 Leo Taxil called a press conference with the pretension of introducing Diana Vaughan to the public. When the press was assembled, Taxil began a speech in which he admitted that he had in fact been perpetrating a hoax and that all of his secret information about Freemasonry was a fabrication.
For rational people, this ended the concern over the “Luciferian Quote.” But the irrational and those who have a vested interest in hating Freemasonry still like to throw the quote around, attributing it to Albert Pike even though it is a well known fraud. The myth has been perpetuated by the preacher Pat Robertson, and it has been republished by Jack Chick in his Christian comic books since 1991. The quote can also be found splattered cross the internet on countless misinformed conspiracy sites.
An elaborate hoax, even when its creator confesses his misdeed carries on down through the generations by liars and imbeciles who’d rather believe in fantasy than take the time to investigate the facts. It is no wonder they are so quick to condemn the hearts of others whom they don’t understand when they know full well the amount of deceit in which they themselves willingly participate.
It is important to remember that facts are things, things that are REAL. They can be analyzed, scrutinized and proven. They exist because they do, not because you want them to or because you believe they do. So no matter how much they choose to believe otherwise and ignore the facts and the confession of Taxil, the infamous “Luciferian Quote”—often falsely attributed to Albert Pike is simply a fantasy.
UPDATE:
The image below was added in response to a commenter who claimed the quote exists on page 321 of Morals and Dogma. As the reader can see, it does not.
Page 817 is offered too, because that was his initial (though admittedly wrong) page assertion.
The quote can be found in the page 817.
Sorry, it is the page 321. The rest of mentions to Lucifer are there too.
No it’s not.
A piece of advice to you; it’s generally a good idea to actually get a copy of the book and read it and see the words for yourself before stating that a quote actually does or does not exist on a particular page.
Refer back to the article and see that I have added a photograph of page 321 from Morals and Dogma and the quote as cited in this article does not exist on that page.
Though you follow up this post with a “correction,” I offered page 817 in the article above for future readers to see that the quote does not exist on this page either.
Albert Pike does not represent in anything he had written or spoken truth of Jesus the Christ.it is true the quote is not in Morals & Dogma.
You say this authoritatively as if you would know. Morals and Dogma alone contains numerous references to Jesus as the Word incarnate, his teachings and why they are superior to other forms of worship. You would know this if you had actually read Pike’s work.
So, here you are on the internet acting as if you have actually read something that you know you have not. That means you are being deceptive. You are being dishonest and hoping you can get away with it. That is behavior that Jesus would not approve of, especially in His name. But it’s also just par for the course with conspiracy enthusiasts.
It also means that it is impossible to engage in an honest discussion with you on the subject, so I won’t bother.
In the future I suggest you actually read something before claiming to know what it does or does not say.
One thing is sure regardless of the origin or existence of quote of Pike’s,Pike does not in anything he says or quotes or represents excuse in anyway the teachings of Jesus the Christ!!
It is not Morals and Dogma, this is the citation:
Albert Pike, “Instructions to the 23 Supreme Councils of the World” (July 14, 1889), as recorded by Abel Clarin de La Rive, La Femme et l’Enfant dans la Franc-maçonnerie Universelle (1894): 588.
The article you’re responding to clearly states the origin of the fabricated quote is “Woman and Child in Universal Freemasonry” by Abel Clarin de la Rive (did you even read the article?). The point is that it is not found anywhere that can be attributed to Pike, and that it is a well known and established fabrication. You genuinely just repeated information that is in the article and is evidence to the fact of its false attribution.
Thanks for playing.
Sovereign Grand Commander Albert Pike 33°
Letter to Italian Grand Master Guiseppie Mazzini 33°
15 August 1871
Archives British Museum, London*
“We shall unleash the Nihilists and Atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effects of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will be from that moment without compass, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view, a manifestation which will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.”
So, your approach to proving that a specific fraudulent quote from a specific resource is real is to cite a different “quote” from a different “resource.” Brilliant. Is this dishonesty or simple ignorance? After dealing with conspiracy enthusiasts for the past several years I’m inclined to say its dishonesty.
This quote you reference here is not real. It was not written by Pike, it was written by William Guy Carr more than half a century after Pike’s death. Even he admits that the so-called letter which he initially claimed was kept in the British Museum Library, is in fact not there at all.
For further reading on this particular fraud go to:
https://wideshut.co.uk/albert-pikes-3-world-wars-letter-hoax-wideshut-webcast/
So morals and dogma a fake book? I know that leo taxil states he slandered the freemasons but was not the author of the book, pike was
—
Author’s response:
Yes there is a book entitled “Morals and Dogma” written by Albert Pike. However, the quote referenced in this article does not exist between its covers or any other writings by Pike nor does any quote by him of a similar nature.
LUCIFER, the
Light
–
bearer! Strange and
mysterious name to
give to the Spirit
of Darknesss! Lucifer, the Son
of the Morning! Is it he who
bears the Light, and with
its splendors intolera
ble blinds feeble,
sensual or selfish Souls ? Doubt it not!
and —
he difines it as “satatn” too ..
It is WISDOM that, in the Kaba
listic Books of t
he Proverbs and
Ecclesiasticus, is the Creative A
gent of God. El
sewhere in the
Hebrew writings it is Deba
r Iahavah, the Word of God.
It is by His uttered Word th
at God reveals Himself to us;
alone in the visible an
d invisible but intell
ectual creation, but
in our convictions, consciousness,
and instincts. H
ence it is that!
certain beliefs are univ
ersal. The conviction
of all men that God
is good led to a
belief in a Devil,
the fallen Lu
cifer or Light-
bearer, Shaitan the Ad
versary, Ahriman and
Tuphon, as an at-
tempt to explain the existence of
Evil, and make it consistent with
the Infinite Power, Wisdom
, and Benevole
nce of God.
Nothing surpasses and nothing e
quals, as a Summary of all the
doctrines of the Old World,
those brief words engraven by
HERMES on a Stone, and
known under the nam
e of “The Tablet
of Emerald:” the Unity of Bei
ng and the Unity of the Harmonies,
ascending and descending, t
he progressive
and proportional
scale of the Word; the immutabl
e law of the Equilibrium, and
the proportioned progre
ss of the universal an
alogies; the relation
of the Idea to the Word, giving
the measure of
the relation be-
tween the Creator
and the Created, the nec
essary mathematics of
the Infinite, proved by
the measures of a si
ngle corner of the
Finite ;–all this is expressed by
this single pr
oposition of the
Great Egyptian Hierophant:
“What is Superior is as that
which is Inferi
or, and what is
Below is as that which is Abov
e, to form the Marvels of the
Unity.
That’s the actual one … from morals and dogma — the pages are different depending on which version you find on the web .. scanned or ocr .. etc — . Your welcome.
That’s a different quote. It doesn’t even resemble the quote the article is referencing.
It’s not like we don’t know there are actual words and sentences in the book. The point is whether or not the specific quote as mentioned in the article is real, which it is not.
You conspiracy nuts are so committed to your fantasy and so dishonest about your tactics that you actually try to pass off a different quote that says something entirely different as some kind of evidence that the fraudulent quote is real.
All you have proven is your dishonesty and that you can’t find the actual quote I referenced either. It’s almost funny.
Dude. We get it. You love secret societies. You hate “conspiracy enthusiasts.” I’m glad it makes you feel good to defend organizations that are used as fronts to protect child molesters. Nobody gives a shit about your intellectual bullshit. At the end of the day you are defending an organization that hides a lot of secrets. Keep telling yourself that all the secrecy is “tradition” and that it’s “just a Good Ole Boy’s club.” The outer circle of Masonry is full of useful idiots like you, running around defending them to anyone who dares point out anything negative about Masonry. The inner circle of Masonry is just like that of Scientology, a bunch of sick fucks, criminals, scumbags.
Thanks for playing.
Fag.
And here we have a perfect example of the typical intellectual acumen, capacity for reason, and class of our average conspiracy enthusiast.
Thank you, Jimmy for serving as such an exquisite example for the world to see.
Good luck with your sad, paranoid life. God bless …
LUCIFER, the
Light bearer! Strange and
mysterious name to
give to the Spirit
of Darknesss! Lucifer, the Son
of the Morning! Is it he who
bears the Light, and with
its splendors intolera
ble blinds feeble,
sensual or selfish Souls ? Doubt it not!
That’s from morals and dogma … so his interpretation that lucifer is “satan” or shaitan . from the same book — is self explanatory..
Jesus was called “Lucifere” in the early latin roman empire, because he IS the one who brings light.
Jay moody — You decided to say the “quote” (by pike) in your comment before your last response.. was not the quote in the article — yet that quote in the article … has the same meaning .. (their just words)
Satan = Lucifer … and that “names” place of worship (thats what ..the.. adversary… means) … thats what pike was referring to.
And to you my friend — the people who are “nuts” ….. are the conspirators .. people like you (and the people moving along with it) — it’s just a witchcraft trip …by a bunch of people getting lied to… by groups called “imperial cults” – it’s the same as it was in ancient rome.. they want to ruin your day.
.. and those are just “words” .. and you did not post my other message.. why? probably because it made more sense.
They’re different quotes with entirely different meanings. One (the fake) says Lucifer is the god of Freemasonry. The other says Lucifer is a deceiver. Those are not the same messages. A bit of reading comprehension would do you well here.
As far as you posting another message that makes more sense; that would be awesome. I’d like it if you posted something that actually made sense and was based on sound reason.
See the last three comments above…. (I am the same commentator.. and I am explaining it)
Read the link below… and come back here.. Get it ? — It’s an imperial cult — they lie about everything they do — and they tell you they do .. while changing the names and definitions .. anytime they wish .. depending on the group.. and – it’s a feeder group… also consisting of other groups who change definitions..
Read —
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2lni4a/who_was_diana_lucifera_in_roman_mythology/
Make sense ?
One of their tricks .. spiritually speaking .. was to “ruin” it for everyone — by working spiritual worship(or various cults) back to “devil” or satanic worship…. why ? because it ruins peoples day .. thats my take on it..
It was competitive in ancient rome .. and it is today … they did a roman transplant, when they started this country … with the financial “hidden hand” .. the success of whoever they wanted ..
They do it with a bunch of cults … Masons have come forward and said — they requested my worship change to lucifer (now pike connects the dots .. lucifer is satan) ….
Get it ?
Even that translation — From “Masonic” King James .. and William Schaw .. his right hand man .. his “master of the works” … might of been bogus….
See the apotheosis of George Washington … What cult did those deities come from ?
I looked at the reddit thread and found it irrelevant to the subject of this article.
It’s no great revelation that early Christians conflated the Lucifer myth with their idea of Satan. That does not make ‘Lucifer is a deceiver who blinds the foolish and selfish’ synonymous with ‘Lucifer is the true god of Freemasonry.’ It certainly does not change the Taxil Hoax from being a hoax.
You’ve shown me nothing new. I’m well aware of the various hypotheses circulated by conspiracy enthusiasts. It was my initial belief in some of these conspiracy hypotheses that led me to doing the research on this subject in the first place. There certainly is a lot of evil in the world, but in this case you’re tilting at windmills.
“Morals and Dogma” is little more than an antiquated book of comparative religion intended to explore and possibly explain the origins of religion and morality from an academic perspective at a time when such endeavors were relatively new, novel and undeveloped. It’s something along the lines of “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” by Joseph Campbell, but written specifically for the Scottish Rite, a benevolent and otherwise mostly irrelevant classic fraternity. It does contain the words “Lucifer,” “Satan,” and “God” in places, but not in any syntactic order that supports your assertion.
Simply explaining the origins and evolution of the Lucifer myth is not the same as advocating for Satan any more than a medical book that mentions the variables in developing cancer is advocating for cancer. It’s sad, truly sad that this needs to be explained.
It’s almost like you didn’t actually read “Morals and Dogma.” It’s almost like you found an internet version, did a quick scan for the word “Lucifer,” found it in a paragraph that you thought you could misinterpret to fit your agenda in a conscious and transparent attempt at confirmation bias, and didn’t bother to read any more.
Anyone who has actually read the book can’t avoid noticing the constant reiteration of advice on loving the good, doing good, being charitable and helping to improve society by lifting up your fellow man, avoiding vice, and opposing evil and oppression. But that all conflicts with your agenda to portray Pike’s message as really being a sinister plot to “ruin your day” or whatever, so you’ll pretend what’s actually in the book isn’t there and what is not in the book is canon. It’s dishonest. You do not discuss or debate in good faith. That makes further discussion with you pointless.
You’ve made multiple posts under changing fake names (more evidence of a deceptive personality) and not one of them has any merit or relevance to the subject. That’s aside from the atrocious syntax and grammar that makes trying to decipher your messages an effort in itself. I really hope English is not your first language.
I wish you well in your future endeavors. I hope you eventually find peace. Good-bye and God bless …
Do you suppose that any of these people could understand Morals and Dogma if they had the time or care to read it. It is some very deep subject matter that immediately befuddles many people until you finally realize what Pike is trying to tell us. I’ve read it, and thought about it a lot. The Masonic Lodge is non denominational. It is non religious in so far as Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc. But all members must acknowledge their own personal belief in God. So, as I read it, Morals and Dogma sets out to illustrate to us that we have no cause for assuming a position of superiority based on our belief system vs. that of our fellow man, if he is a believer. He compares beliefs and their teachings, shows how similar they are, and suggests that we should be more accepting of other men’s religious beliefs as opposed to seeing them as reasons to hate and fight with each other. Many people, similarly inclined to those arguing here, see every difference of opinion as a damning thing and accordingly hate many of their fellow man just for having different beliefs. Men who never harmed them, men who they don’t even know, but hate them none the less for being from a different religion. Unfortunately, many ministers plant these seeds of hatred in the minds of men today, just as they have for many centuries. And it happens in most religions in varying degrees. Today we see the Mohammedans wanting to destroy others as infidels. IN years gone by, Catholics murdered many men for heresy. This may never end, and if it doesn’t, it will be because there will never be a shortage of small minded men with large egos and plenty of greed.
Thank you Jay Moody for your demonstrating that the quote in question is a fabrication. Indeed a lot of folks don’t know about Taxil’s (aka Jogand-Pagès) admission that he intentionally wrote deceptively about Freemasonry. It is no doubt irritating to know this and share this and still be met with an endless barrage of counter arguments arguments. However, I should like to remind you that the modern focus on conspiracy is a natural product of the genuine prevalent existence of conspiracy (i.e. secret societies with nefarious agendas). Although fantasies are created and embellished, conspiracy itself is not a fantasy but a reality and secret societies and the fact conspiracy is intimately tied to/born of secret occult societies is inherently self evidenced but this is only apparent to one who is not blinded by materialism nor deceived by naïve rationalism. People’s interest is not for occultism but for conspiracy. People’s passion for conspiracy can create both an indolence when it comes to identifying sources and some confirmation bias in people’s attempt to identify wrongdoers. Yet, what you are engaging through diatribe is a twofold problem: It is BOTH genuine conspiracy AND the modern ignorance of occultism which creates erroneous finger pointing and fantasy. Pike was an occultist not an academic and thus his work was NOT an “academic” polemic nor comparative religion but an esoteric work.
Perhaps more for the commenters/readers than Jay Moody: The modern understanding/perception of Lucifer is extremely one dimensional and incomplete. It is not so simple as “Lucifer is evil”. What is very integral to understand is that to Western Esotericism (which Pike was an author of) Lucifer is NOT himself evil. Lucifer brings evil because evil is necessarily a part of what Lucifer endowed the human with: intellect/wisdom. But wisdom without love is invariably evil. Because the human can choose between good or evil the human is free. Thus, without evil, without choice, there can be no freedom. When Pike speaks of Lucifer he is NOT worshipping Lucifer as the highest god yet he is characterizing Lucifer’s true nature as a necessary part of the human being and the evolutionary process. Some left-hand/dark occult orders DO worship Lucifer which is to say they worship the evil which comes with Lucifer. It is simply not known whether Pike himself was a part of the left hand/dark brotherhoods or the right-hand/white brotherhoods or whether he was more so independent of both.