The Golden Fleece

 

(Extract from GOLD, ALCHEMY AND FREEMASONRY

by Michael J Noakes, P.M. Lodge Kensington No. 270)

From the earliest moment in our Masonic career when, as a newly initiated Entered Apprentice Freemason, we are invested with our first apron, we are told that it is the distinguishing badge of a Mason and that it is “…..more ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle…..”. What on Earth has this got to do with Freemasonry we might ask?

Golden Fleece

Assuming that the Golden Fleece we are referring to in our EAF ritual is one and the same as that stolen by Jason and the Argonauts from Colchis on the Black Sea we can refer to one of the oldest books on mining published in 1556 by the alchemist Georgius Agricola[i], “De Re Metallica” translated from Latin by Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover (yes that is the same Herbert Hoover who discovered The Sons of Gwalia (Wales) Gold Mine in Western Australia and who later became the President of the United States).

Agricola says: “The Colchians placed the skins of animals in the pools of springs and since many particles of gold had clung to them when they were removed, the poets invented the “Golden Fleece” of the Colchians.” (see Figure 1).

Dating the adventures of Jason and his Argonauts can be traced to around the 5^th century BC so we must assume that the reference to our EAF apron dates to before this since it is “more ancient” than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle. Colchis, the traditional land of the Golden Fleece, lies between the Caucasus on the north, Armenia on the south and the Black sea on the west.

Of course the objective of Jason’s raiding party was not a single Golden Fleece but rather the entire production of the “Colchis Mining Co Ltd’s” operations and its theft would have fetched a tidy sum back home. Hardly an honorable association for our EAF apron but, then again, I am not sure quite how honorable the Roman Eagle is either.

 

Metallurgy of the Golden Fleece

The method of gold recovery using the Golden Fleece closely resembles the modern method of gold recovery generally referred to as gravity gold concentration. The gold bearing rock or river gravel is pulverised to a size similar to beach sand and mixed with water to form a “mineral slurry.” If the slurry is passed over say a sheep’s fleece or in today’s world a ribbed corduroy cloth, the heavier gold particles sink into the wool of the sheep’s skin (or corduroy ribs) while the lighter waste particles pass over the top and are thrown away as “tailings”. Periodically the cloths or skins are washed to recover a “gold concentrate”. In the days of the “Colchis Mining Co Ltd” the fleeces would probably have been burned to remove the gold into a gold product.

Until recently “Corduroy Tables” were being used extensively for gold recovery in for example South Africa and South America and may well still be in use today. I personally witnessed the operation of these tables in South Africa in the 1960’s and the Philippines in the 1990’s.

The Order of the Golden Fleece

There is another reference[ii] to the source of the Golden Fleece. The “Order of the Golden Fleece” was modelled on the English Order of the Garter (which is also mentioned in our EAF ritual), dedicated to Saint Andrew and founded in 1430 by Duke Philip III of Burgundy. It was intended as a knightly brotherhood and a friendly alliance of noblemen.

Membership was originally intended to be limited to 31 although various subsequent Dukes of Burgundy increased that number to 51 and eventually to 70. Requirements included that the nominees be noblemen "in name and arms" and 'truly devoted' to the sovereign of the Order, the respective bearer of the title Duke of Burgundy. (It is noted without comment that The Knights Templars[iii] were an offshoot of a little understood monastic brotherhood, the Cistercians, who themselves danced to the tune of an extremely powerful group of noblemen living in Burgundy and Flanders).

The principal aims of the Order were to promote the glory of God and to defend the Christian faith. The order was explicitly denied to "heretics", and so became an exclusively Catholic award during the Reformation, though the choice of the pagan Golden Fleece of Colchis as the symbol of a Christian order caused some controversy.

Conclusion

So what has the Golden Fleece go to do with Freemasonry? In my view it is telling the newly initiated EAF that Masonry is based on very ancient legend that will later lead him via the transmutation of rough rock into gold through to (hermetic) alchemy as an allegory for the transmutation of darkness into light.

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[i]               “De Re Metalica” by Georgius Agricola, Translated from the First Latin Addition of 1556 by Herbert Clark Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1950.

[ii]              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece

[iii]             www.templarhistory.com/revealed.html