Introducing Letters from Hiram Abiff

Hiram Abiff is a serious character from Masonic Lore. He's worth thinking about....

Hiram Abiff is used by detractors of Freemasonry as some sort of sacrilegious version of Jesus. These are often the same types who cite Pike's "Morals and Dogma" as the "Masonic Bible" and apparently every Freemason has Pike's book under his pillow to read while he falls asleep following an unholy day job of conquering the world... *sigh*. It's a book I've not entirely read (I tried, too dull for me, and frankly it was all pretty irrelevant). Pike projects his views of Freemasonry, some quite fanciable, and added no value to my masonic progress. I gave up after the first four chapters and a flip over some of the following deciding there was better ways to spend my time. And trust

1 Kings 7:13-14

King Solomon sent to Tyre and brought Huram, whose mother was a widow from the tribe of Naphtali and whose father was a man of Tyre and a craftsman in bronze. Huram was highly skilled and experienced in all kinds of bronze work. He came to King Solomon and did all the work assigned to him."

There is a Huram in the bible that might have provided the inspiration for the figure Hiram Abbiff who appears in Masonic lore and some ceremonies throughout the world.

me, I "get" exactly what he is doing. There is value in training Freemasons to build upon what they experience in degrees and daily life through speculation - but I can do that without Pike who is far from the absolute authority on such things. In my two Craft Lodges - I am one of three who have attempted the book, none of us though it deserved 5% of the attention it gets, and one holding such opinions is a whacky Rosicrucian who probably tries to make lead into gold on the weekends (joke, it's a joke). He said "Pike is a load of grandiose rubbish". The average Australian Master Mason has never heard of Pike, and I would not recommend him. *End Rant*

So, back to Hiram.... he appears strongly in Masonic Lore as an example of many things - most obviously fidelity and honour.

Sadly, Hiram Abiff was murdered by some unsavory underlings whose ambition causes the loss of the very thing they seek. In the tradition history (read "myth") of Freemasonry he was the principle architect of the King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and died just before it's completion circa 832B.C. 

It's actually hard to write of Hiram Abiff flippantly because what he represents is serious stuff, but Freemasonry is not a religion and while I respect and love it, there is nothing sacrosanct about Hiram and hence "he" has sent some letters in for Devotion News. They appear on the sub-pages.

Cheers, Webmaster