Freemasonry, advancement in rank, and invisible power: why this topic is crucial

Some books don't just ask to be read: they ask to be carefully examined. The series In the Footsteps of the Freemason is one of them.

Not because they offer a pacified explanation of the world, but because they claim to overturn the categories with which the reader interprets reality.

We start with an apparently technical question - "based on what rules does one advance in rank in Freemasonry?" - to transform it into a much broader reflection on the relationship between knowledge, power, manipulation, obedience, and social control.

The initial hook is built through an effective rhetorical device.
The author first presents a reassuring answer: in Freemasonry, one advances in rank thanks to personal virtues, self-improvement, philanthropy, and positive contributions to humanity.

Immediately after, however, he radically refutes this reconstruction.
It's a deliberately destabilizing opening: the reader is first led into an idealized vision, then forced to acknowledge that this vision is merely a facade.

The core of the entire discourse

From here, the core of the entire discourse takes shape: the distance between what an institution publicly displays and what it keeps in its private dimension.

Throughout the entire literary series, a fundamental distinction is emphasized from the very first pages: the exoteric and esoteric faces of Freemasonry.
The first is public, visible, presentable to society: an image made of noble ideals, brotherhood, moral growth, philanthropy, and individual perfection.
The second, however, is internal, initiatory, reserved for those who progress along the ladder of degrees.

It is precisely in this second dimension that the true meaning of the Masonic structure lies. The main thesis is clear:

to understand Freemasonry, one must not limit oneself to what it claims to be, but must inquire into what it does not show.

From this premise stems one of the central statements of the series: limited knowledge makes an individual vulnerable.

Those with little information are more likely to believe representations crafted by others. Ignorance, from this perspective, is not merely a cultural deficiency: it is a condition of exposure to control.

The text then connects knowledge and freedom, ignorance and manipulation.
The Ojibwa prayer recalled by the author - "the more you know, the less you have to fear" - becomes an interpretative key for the entire literary journey. Knowing means fearing less because it allows one to recognize the hidden dynamics behind appearances.

The argumentative progression then leads to a broader theme:
contemporary society is an inverted reality.

This is not random disorder, but the outcome of a long, subterranean, and deliberate process.
According to available literature, Freemasonry has always played a decisive role in the great historical transformations of recent centuries, a force capable of influencing revolutions, cultural changes, and social structures.

The volumes therefore do not merely discuss the criteria for advancement in initiatic degrees: they use that question as a gateway to a comprehensive vision of power.

One of the most relevant passages concerns how initiation is interpreted. Entry into Freemasonry is not a mere symbolic or associative act. Rather, it is the beginning of a gradual transformation of the individual.

The candidate, or "inquirer," symbolically dies to profane life and is reborn to initiatic life. This language does not only have ritual value: it indicates a true progressive replacement of previous mental patterns with new archetypes of thought.

Here the concept of metamorphosis comes into play.
The adept is not transformed suddenly, but slowly, degree after degree.
The initiatic ladder serves precisely this purpose: to measure obedience, verify reliability, evaluate predisposition to silence and internal discipline.
The lower degrees are a kind of antechamber, comparable to a normal associative club.

Only later, beyond the first three degrees and with adherence to specific rites, does the initiate enter a deeper path in which the ability to penetrate symbols, interest in esoteric disciplines, the study of Kabbalah, the desire for enlightenment, and the pursuit of power become important.

The function of the symbol occupies a central position: Freemasonry communicates with its initiates through symbols, which become language, code, and a tool for understanding. Each adept internalizes these symbols according to a personal interpretation, but within an initiatic framework that guides their meaning.

This mechanism makes the journey seductive and at the same time ambiguous: the initiate is attracted by the promise of accessing superior "knowledge" and "higher goals," while those who remain outside are implicitly placed in a condition of inferiority or unworthiness.

It is here that the "great deception" takes shape: the appeal to a reserved, superior knowledge, inaccessible to profanes.

The promise of knowledge becomes a tool of attraction. The adept accepts silence, obedience, and gradualness because they believe they are part of a privileged path.

Trust is fueled by ambition, the allure of mystery, and the desire to rise above the masses.

The author uses an effective comparison: it would be like entrusting a substantial sum of money to any tour operator, without knowing the itinerary, destination, and travel conditions, agreeing to discover everything day by day.
This representation serves to show the element of risk: the initiate entrusts themselves to a structure that, at first, they do not truly know.

Another pillar is the inversion of values.
What is considered a fault in the profane world can become a virtue in the initiatic world.
In particular, falsehood is described as a functional tool for the protection of the institution.
Silence, obedience, and secrecy are not merely organizational rules, but formative elements intended to forge the adept's psyche.
The prohibition of speech in the early years of ritual Agapes is a subtle form of coercion: the initiate must listen, be silent, absorb, adapt.

This interpretation leads to two "fixed points" that the series proposes as interpretative rules.
The first: nothing is ever what it seems. The second: those who operate in the shadows, with rare exceptions, do not act for good.

From this arises a provocative question: how can an organization claim to work for the collective good if, in most cases, its members are unwilling to disclose their affiliation?
It's a question designed to challenge the philanthropic and progressive image of Freemasonry, contrasting it with the suspicion of secrecy.

The reflection then expands to contemporary society.
Many inconsistencies of the present - what appears illogical, absurd, inverted - are the result of the infiltration of initiatic principles and logics into the profane dimension.
Eliminating the obvious serves to introduce the absurd.
Many, undeniably, are the absurdities of the present age that ordinary people cannot explain.

The common citizen thus finds themselves living in a world where the most important decisions take place far from visible institutional spaces, within places and networks that do not directly answer to democratic control.

This part of the text is highly polemical.
The author attributes to Freemasonry and what we know as the "deep state" a role of occult direction in the transformation of society. Chaos, in this view, is not an accident: it IS a strategy. It IS the goal.
This attribution, however, is not unique to the author, as the emblem of the 33rd degree of Scottish Rite Freemasonry is quite eloquent: Ordo ab Chao, order (new) comes from chaos.

In Volume 1, the author uses the image of renovating a house:

to build a new order, one must first demolish the old one, produce rubble, break down walls, remove systems.
Transferred to society, this metaphor suggests that cultural, political, and social disorder is functional to the establishment of a new social order.

The text connects this process to the concept of the "New World Order" and the "Magnum Opus," an expression used to denote a grand transformation project.

Some contemporary issues - digital transition, ecological transition, Agenda 2030, and various social and cultural changes - must be read within this long-term logic.
The point to preserve, without amplifying its most problematic passages, is that social transformations need to be reinterpreted as tools for the disintegration of the previous order.

Particularly interesting is the proposed computer analogy. The author compares Freemasonry to a proxy server.
In computer language, a proxy can interpose itself between a client and a server, screening activities, identities, and information flows.
Transposed to the social plane, the metaphor suggests that Freemasonry would act as an intermediate structure: not the ultimate center of power, but a screening device, a channel through which the "server side" - identified with the deep state - would act on the "client side," meaning the people.

The image is effective because it makes a complex thesis more understandable: power does not always manifest directly, but through interfaces, intermediate levels, and networks of concealment.

Repeatedly throughout the entire work, another decisive theme emerges: indifference.
For the author, the worst outcome of manipulation is not just error, but the refusal to understand.

When informational chaos becomes excessive, the individual stops seeking answers. Doubts accumulate, motivation wanes, disinterest becomes a psychological defense. A way of life.

This passage is perhaps one of the strongest, because it shifts the question from the plane of occult structures to that of individual responsibility.
The author does not describe the reader as a passive victim, but as someone who can still choose whether to delve deeper or remain on the surface.

Knowledge, therefore, returns to being the true axis of the learning path.
The proposed content does not present advancement in rank in Freemasonry as a meritocratic mechanism based on moral virtues, but as a selective process founded on obedience, silence, reliability, symbolic and esoteric predisposition, and the ability to adapt to the group's internal logic.

Advancement would not coincide with ethical growth, but with a progressive conformity to the initiatic structure. The degree, from this perspective, would not necessarily certify human improvement, but rather the adept's suitability to sustain increasing levels of discretion, discipline, and involvement.

The final message is structured as an invitation to vigilance. According to the author, the reader does not necessarily have to reconstruct the entire system of connections on their own, because this work has already been done by the author through study, personal experience, and factual comparison.
However, the reader must at least choose to learn.
Passivity is presented as the real danger:

whoever does not understand, suffers;
whoever refuses to question, accepts conditions decided by others.

In summary, the topic of advancement in rank in Freemasonry is proposed as a starting point for a much broader critique of modernity and its power structures.

The initial question - "how does one advance in rank?" - receives an answer that goes beyond the organizational dimension: one advances, according to the author, not because one is better, more philanthropic, or more virtuous, but because one demonstrates compatibility with an initiatic system founded on secrecy, obedience, symbolism, and progressive inner transformation.

The heart of the work, therefore, is this:

behind every public facade, a private logic can exist;
behind every promise of elevation, a form of subordination can be hidden;
behind every apparent order, a design that the common citizen does not see can be at work.

Whether one agrees with the author's conclusions or not, the text invites one not to stop at the surface of institutions, languages, and dominant narratives.
Its objective is to push the reader to question power, to distrust overly perfect representations, and to recognize that awareness never arises from passive acceptance, but from a continuous exercise of discernment.

Why a structured path is needed

The main difficulty is that:
there is a thick shroud of fog surrounding the topic of Freemasonry;
the information is fragmented.

Therefore, it is necessary to:

• Build foundations in order.
• Discern carefully.
• Progressively deepen understanding.
• Organize the facts.
• Progression.
• Method.
• A reliable support structure.

It is precisely with this objective that the series In the Footsteps of the Freemason was created.

A multi-volume journey that addresses the topic in a progressive, reasoned, comparative, and multidisciplinary way, allowing the reader to develop a broader and more structured personal vision. But not a vision influenced for convenience, rather a coherent vision drawing from extensive, still available literature.

Conclusion

Freemasonry is not a simple topic to investigate.

It is a complex phenomenon that requires:

• Time.
• Determination.
• Desire for knowledge.
  
• Analytical skills.

Again,
those who seek quick answers will find confusion.
Those who accept a path of understanding will find structure.

The difference lies not in the quantity of information acquired, but in how it is approached and analyzed.