The Masonic Emperor's Oath

Notes on the oath sworn by the Masonic Emperors in Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota

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We do not know what the Masonic Emperor’s Oath comprises. Of it, very little is said, but there is this:

Cornel MASON would never expose the Oath, but in those first months after his initiation into this most ancient rite, I know he talked in abstracts with his dear Apollo, and [that uber-Utopian] told me once that MASON said that, if Apollo heard the Oath, he would be happy.

If Apollo Mojave, the most Utopian of Utopians, would not be discomfited by the Masonic Emperors’ Oath, then perhaps it is a forward-looking Oath. On the other hand, MASON’s answer to Apollo’s question, “Would you destroy a better world to save this one?” is agreement, while Apollo’s is disagreement. And MASON would not let someone who had not taken the Oath change the Empire.

We do know that each Emperor is commanded by the past Emperors to add or change three words in this Most Ancient Oath, ensuring it changes, hopefully with the times, but the Imperator Destinatus must accept the Oath sight unseen:

Nescias. Scientia Imperi ipsius utere, ullum iusiurandum conscriptum ab antecessoribus prudens confide. (You cannot know. You must use your knowledge of the Empire itself, and trust that any oath authored by your predecessors is a wise one.

And that is the most frightful thing, for one who would keep their word.