On Paine of death

“An Essay on the Origin of Freemasonry” is a short article written by none other than Thomas Paine. It was probably written for the third part of “The Age of Reason” (1807), but was edited out at some point. The essay was posthumously published in 1810. Today, it's readily available on Kindle. I found it in a paperback, “The Druid Revival Reader” edited by John Michael Greer. Which brings me to its contents!

Paine, who wasn't a Freemason himself, argues that Masonry has a long and distinguished pedigree. Masonry, or the ideas purportedly associated with Masonry, are identical to those of the ancient Druids. Celtic Druidry, in turn, is a branch of a more universal pre-Christian sun cult. Solomon's Temple was really dedicated to solar and star worship, so when the Masons claim the Temple as their own, they are not far from the truth. Zoroastrianism was also a cult of the sun as it progresses through the zodiac, and the same is true of Pythagoreanism and Egyptian religion. By contrast, Judaism is based on a forged book “found” by king Josiah's priests, while Christianity is simply a mutant form of sun worship, with Christ being a personified version of the main luminary. The central role of the sun in Masonic symbolism is the main “evidence” Paine points to for his thesis.

The idea that all or most religions can be traced back to a single idea (such as sun worship, star worship, or even the worship of Noah's Ark) is discredited today, but during his lifetime, Paine's thesis probably wouldn't have raised that many eyebrows. “On the Origins of Freemasonry” was probably excluded from “The Age of Reason” due to space considerations only. Indeed, the idea that Masonry and Druidry were connected was relatively common at the time, and many Druid Revival groups were inspired by Masonic ritual, perhaps because they believed (or wanted to believe) that these rituals really were “Druid”.

I don't think Paine's essay is particularly interesting in and of itself. Its significance lay elsewhere, being another Deist-Enlightenment sign of the times (its own time). If modern interpretations of the Druids interest you, then Greer's aforementioned “The Druid Revival Reader” is an excellent resource. If you want to know the truth about the origins of Freemasonry, you have to look elsewhere.

On Paine of death, obviously. You know, Masonic secrecy and all that…