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Lynn Brunet |Ripping back the veil on Masonic abuse
In The Spire, Golding’s references to Masonic rituals
appear to be very consciously inserted. Initial research
into his novel Rites of Passage (1980) suggests that he
has used another Masonic ritual, the Royal Ark Mariner
degree, dealing with Noah and the Ark, in a similar
encoded manner to that used in The Spire. Golding
may have worked out the source of his trauma, but this
effort would not necessarily relieve the excruciating
effects of the internalised terrors imprinted on the
psyche in childhood. The creative process can only go
so far in this regard.
Conclusion
In The Varieties of Religious Experience, William
James discusses the notion of the sick soul, applying
the term ‘twice born’ to those he saw as the product
of groups that practise initiation rites. These twice
born individuals are described as ‘acutely aware of
the darker aspects of the universe, the evil it contains,
and the human propensities that contribute to sorrow,
suffering, sin, and corruption’ (Smith, 1985, p. xxiv).
Each of the five creative thinkers cited here could well
be classed in this category, as what they reveal in their
work appears to entail all manner of evil that is done
to the young in ritual abuse. However, the term twice
born fails to capture the multiple assaults, physical,
mental and spiritual, that this practice entails. These
individuals are many times born.
Each of these men attained worldly recognition in their
respective fields, but this did not necessarily relieve
their inner turmoil. Two of them, Samuel Beckett and
William Golding, were Nobel laureates. For Beckett,
this recognition was very distressing as it invaded the
privacy and solitude that were imperative for his work
as well as emotional survival. Refusing to speak to
journalists, he gave a mute interview, did not attend the
ceremony and gave away the money, much of it to Trinity
College, Dublin (‘The Nobel and the ignoble’, 1998).
Golding’s reaction to winning was more mixed: on the
one hand, he yearned for such recognition, but there
must have been internal conflict accompanying this,
because when he won the Booker Prize in 1980, he was
so drunk that he fell flat on his face in the toilets during
the reception (Carey, 2012). For those creative figures
who did seem to be working out the source of their
depression, nightmares and fantasies, there would have
been a decision to be made about how open they could
be about their discoveries. Golding states the problem
quite plainly in one of his novels, Darkness Visible
(1979). One of the characters says, ‘Look Edwin, this
is fantastic nonsense already! It’s masonic stuff, inner
circle stuff, conspiratorial—don’t you understand?’ To
advertise this, he says, would only brand the person as
a conspiracy theorist. ‘No one, but no one, would give
a damn!’ (Golding, 2022, p. 26). In this exchange, the
reader can hear the novelist thinking: What would this
mean for his career as a lauded writer? Perhaps now,
with the mounting evidence of the cruelty of these
practices towards children, this fear of being labelled
and ostracised can be dispelled.
Lynn Brunet |Ripping back the veil on Masonic abuse
In The Spire, Golding’s references to Masonic rituals
appear to be very consciously inserted. Initial research
into his novel Rites of Passage (1980) suggests that he
has used another Masonic ritual, the Royal Ark Mariner
degree, dealing with Noah and the Ark, in a similar
encoded manner to that used in The Spire. Golding
may have worked out the source of his trauma, but this
effort would not necessarily relieve the excruciating
effects of the internalised terrors imprinted on the
psyche in childhood. The creative process can only go
so far in this regard.
Conclusion
In The Varieties of Religious Experience, William
James discusses the notion of the sick soul, applying
the term ‘twice born’ to those he saw as the product
of groups that practise initiation rites. These twice
born individuals are described as ‘acutely aware of
the darker aspects of the universe, the evil it contains,
and the human propensities that contribute to sorrow,
suffering, sin, and corruption’ (Smith, 1985, p. xxiv).
Each of the five creative thinkers cited here could well
be classed in this category, as what they reveal in their
work appears to entail all manner of evil that is done
to the young in ritual abuse. However, the term twice
born fails to capture the multiple assaults, physical,
mental and spiritual, that this practice entails. These
individuals are many times born.
Each of these men attained worldly recognition in their
respective fields, but this did not necessarily relieve
their inner turmoil. Two of them, Samuel Beckett and
William Golding, were Nobel laureates. For Beckett,
this recognition was very distressing as it invaded the
privacy and solitude that were imperative for his work
as well as emotional survival. Refusing to speak to
journalists, he gave a mute interview, did not attend the
ceremony and gave away the money, much of it to Trinity
College, Dublin (‘The Nobel and the ignoble’, 1998).
Golding’s reaction to winning was more mixed: on the
one hand, he yearned for such recognition, but there
must have been internal conflict accompanying this,
because when he won the Booker Prize in 1980, he was
so drunk that he fell flat on his face in the toilets during
the reception (Carey, 2012). For those creative figures
who did seem to be working out the source of their
depression, nightmares and fantasies, there would have
been a decision to be made about how open they could
be about their discoveries. Golding states the problem
quite plainly in one of his novels, Darkness Visible
(1979). One of the characters says, ‘Look Edwin, this
is fantastic nonsense already! It’s masonic stuff, inner
circle stuff, conspiratorial—don’t you understand?’ To
advertise this, he says, would only brand the person as
a conspiracy theorist. ‘No one, but no one, would give
a damn!’ (Golding, 2022, p. 26). In this exchange, the
reader can hear the novelist thinking: What would this
mean for his career as a lauded writer? Perhaps now,
with the mounting evidence of the cruelty of these
practices towards children, this fear of being labelled
and ostracised can be dispelled.
