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Mario Guarnera
In the elegant room of the Hotel Nettuno in Catania, the presentation of Guido Rallo’s latest book was held on 15 June 2024: “I Due Pilastri. Tablets on Hermeticism. Blue Freemasonry and the Scottish Rite.” (BastogiLibri, 2024). The Author, in addition to working as a surgeon at the Garibaldi hospital in Catania, as an affiliate of the Grand Orient of Italy of Palazzo Giustiniani, has dedicated himself with passion and scrupulousness to the in-depth study of the complex hermetic themes typical of the tradition of Freemasonry. The presentation of the text, easy to read despite the continuous references to philosophical, scientific and literary currents, saw the presence of numerous scholars who provided personal readings of the text, always highlighting its humanistic inspiration which sees the centrality of Man and of its freedom as a guiding principle of Masonic spirituality, a feeling that gives meaning to the rituals for which Freemasonry is known to the layman. The title already recalls mythological elements that are lost in the mists of time while remaining universal archetypes, becoming precious reflections for an ethics of the present that aspires to possess a certain foundation: The Two Pillars are a myth, they represent the salvation of eternal values through resistance of the Pillars in which these values were engraved, preserving them from the destructive actions of time. Here is how Guido Rallo, in the introduction to his book, describes the influence of this myth:
> (page 11)
The co-presence of legendary figures such as Hermes Trimegistus (wise master of letters and sciences) with real-life philosophers such as Pythagoras and Plato, makes us understand the dense interweaving of influences and cultural references that have always inspired Freemasonry, and for this reason the presentation, moderated by Roberto Crimì (Pres. Cons. of the MM.VV. Or. of Catania) made use of various specialists, each of whom undertook detailed analyzes to reconstruct these intellectual paths. The first talk was given by Cettina Laudani, professor of History of Political Doctrine at the University of Catania, who delved into a detailed historical-literary analysis of the inspiring motifs of the humanism that inspired the Masonic currents, therefore with references to Italian Renaissance and in particular to the Prince of Niccolò Machiavelli, to the Reformation of Martin Luther and John Calvin in Christian Europe, to the Rosicrucian Manifestos of the seventeenth century, up to the Leviathan of the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. These great cultural and religious revolutions, the scholar underlines, also allowed the rebirth of initiatory and hermetic currents with the aim of preserving the purity of ideals that the world continued to corrupt through the arrogance of power, that is, the defense of an initiatory regeneration interior that is at the basis of the Masonic brotherhoods.
The speech by Franco Favarò, scholar of esoteric sciences, was also full of references to the great moments of spiritual culture, in particular to the Kabbalah, to Dante and to the philosopher and theologian Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, underlining how there is an evolutionary process that from Matter leads in the direction of Spirit, as the final identity of both of these eternal realities.
Also interesting is the Author’s choice to use, during the presentation, the projection of a video, created by Stefano Tirendi and accompanied by Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack, to illustrate through slides some themes relating to the origin of the Universe and Energy which guides him in an almost infinite process of perfection, and which finds its maximum expression in Man. Concepts reiterated by the physicist Maurizio Re, who combined Masonic ethics with the most recent hypotheses of quantum mechanics, referring to the refined order that lies at the origin of everything that exists: admitting how everything in the Universe happens for a superior purpose , targeted action can follow from this faith, ideally guided by respect for the beauty inherent in Nature. In this regard, here is how Guido Rallo describes this beauty in his book:
> (page 186)
In conclusion, Guido Rallo’s book is a very rich and detailed analysis of the various Masonic traditions traced back to their constitutive genesis and their original meaning, from whose understanding it is possible to develop, in practice, an enlightenment that becomes the founding element of free will. of every human being, who is such > (p. 171)
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