| Episode number | MB22 (Part 22 of 42) |
|---|---|
| Original air date | May 18, 1993 |
| Broadcast | Hour of the Time, WWCR shortwave |
| Chapter title | William Morgan Interview, Part III |
| Format | Live interview with closing text reading |
| Guest | “William Morgan” (pseudonym), CAJI member and 32nd-degree Scottish Rite Freemason |
| Primary text read on air | The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries, Charles William Heckethorn (1965 University Books edition) |
| Listen | Stream the series on archive.org |
Episode Summary
Episode 22 aired on May 18, 1993, the day after part two, and concludes the three-part interview. The internal broadcast notation labels this as episode 21 in the series, reflecting a numbering inconsistency Cooper acknowledges on air; the manifest number is 22. Cooper opens with a commercial break and then introduces the session’s announced topic: the symbols, handshakes, foot positions, hand signals, and password phrases by which Freemasons identify one another in public settings.
Morgan describes the handshake first, which he calls the most widely used recognition signal. In the third degree, the thumb of the greeting Mason presses onto the third knuckle of the person’s right hand; the first degree uses the first knuckle and the second degree the second. The combined grip, when both parties are Masons of the same degree, results in both thumbs pressing simultaneously on each other’s third knuckles. Morgan says the grip is unmistakable when you know what to feel for, describing it as somewhat loose and finger-focused rather than a full palm clasp.
The foot position follows. A Master Mason stands with heels together and feet forming a precise right angle, which Morgan calls the step of a Master Mason. This stance is uncomfortable and unnatural, he says, making it a deliberate signal to other lodge brothers who will recognize it instantly while most observers dismiss the person as eccentric. The first-degree step forms a T with heel to arch, and the second degree inverts the third. Cooper notes that someone raising their right arm to the square, a gesture he says he has heard made publicly and which he invites listeners to identify for themselves, is a further lodge recognition signal.
Hand signals occupy the next portion. The first-degree signal places the left hand palm-up near the waist with the right hand palm-down above it, forming a rough Q shape. The associated penal sign is a slashing motion across the throat, referring to the oath’s death penalty of having the throat cut from ear to ear. The second-degree sign raises the right forearm at a right angle with palm forward, and its penal sign draws a clawing motion across the chest, referencing the penalty of having the breast torn open and the heart removed. The third degree extends both hands palms-down at waist level and draws them from left to right, referencing the penalty of having the body torn in two, with parts carried north and south.
Password phrases receive attention in the episode’s middle section. The phrase traveling man, Morgan explains, identifies a Mason as one traveling from west to east, with the east representing the source of illumination and the rising sun. Cooper connects this to sun worship as the original religion and notes that identical passwords were used by the Communist International, which he says the FBI’s own files document. He argues that Freemasonry, the Knights of Malta, Rosicrucians, and international Socialism are all the same organization operating under different names, quoting Adam Weishaupt’s statement that the strength of the Order lies in its concealment.
Morgan also describes the five points of fellowship, the ceremonial embrace in which two Masons stand foot-to-foot, knee-to-knee, hand-to-back, and mouth-to-ear to whisper the secret word, which he identifies as Marhaba and traces to ancient Hindu religious origins. He discusses the Hiram Abiff figure used as a lodge greeting: two Masons may identify each other by invoking the name Hiram Abiff or the initials H. Abiff in conversation. The Masonic ring is described as a signet ring with a square and compass set in an A shape at the top; Masons who wear the device facing outward are signaling their identity to other craft members.
Cooper closes the interview with a reading from Charles William Heckethorn’s The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries, volume two, page 14, paragraph 391, on Masonic customs. He emphasizes the passage about sons of Masons, called Lewis in England or Louveteau in France, and traces the wolf symbolism through the mysteries of Isis, noting that in those mysteries the candidate wore a wolf mask and that wolves and candidates were synonymous. The closing musical selection, Werewolf by Five Man Electrical Band, is presented as a deliberate commentary on this wolf-and-sheep symbolism, and Cooper closes by warning listeners that those who fail to resist are the cattle and sheeple the secret societies intend to slaughter.
Key Claims Made in This Episode
- Cooper claims the Master Mason handshake consists of pressing the thumb onto the third knuckle of the right hand during a deliberately loose grip, and that Masons use variations of this across the first three degrees as mutual identification signals.
- Cooper claims Masons stand heel-to-heel with feet at a right angle as the step of a Master Mason, an intentionally uncomfortable and unnatural stance that functions as a silent public identification signal visible to any fellow lodge brother.
- Cooper claims the death penalties written into Masonic oaths for revealing secrets include having the throat cut from ear to ear for the first degree, the breast torn open and the heart removed for the second, and the body torn in two with parts carried north and south for the third.
- Cooper claims the password phrase traveling man, meaning one traveling from west to east toward the source of illumination and the rising sun, links modern Freemasonry directly to the ancient sun-worship religion and is the same password used by Communist International cells to identify each other, as documented in FBI investigative files.
- Cooper claims Freemasonry, the Knights of Malta, the Rose and Cross, and international Socialism are all the same organization operating under different names, following Adam Weishaupt’s stated principle that the strength of the Order lies in its concealment.
- Cooper claims the secret word Marhaba, exchanged in the five-points-of-fellowship ceremony, derives from the ancient Hindu religion and that many other Masonic passwords have the same origin, linking the craft to paganism’s oldest surviving tradition.
- Cooper claims the sons of Masons, called Lewis in England and Louveteau in France, are initiated into lodges at eighteen rather than twenty-one and trace through the mysteries of Isis, in which the candidate wore a wolf mask and wolves and candidates were synonymous terms.
- Cooper claims that the philosophy underlying all secret societies is that Lucifer liberated humanity from an unjust God in the Garden of Eden by giving the gift of knowledge, and that the promise made to Eve was the template for the Luciferian worldview: by eating of the fruit, mankind would become gods.
Primary Sources Cited in This Episode
| Source | Status | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Charles William Heckethorn, The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries, 2 vols. (University Books, 1965; Library of Congress 65-22572) | Original 1875 edition public domain; 1965 edition not public domain | Search archive.org for 1875 edition |
| Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma (1871) | Public domain | Search archive.org scans |
| William Cooper, Behold a Pale Horse (1991), Chapter 1 (Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars) | Not public domain; referenced on air | Library copies; see our sources hub |
| William Morgan, Illustrations of Masonry (1826) | Public domain | Search archive.org scans |
Notable Quotes
“If you are not one of us, you are nothing.” Cooper quoting a Masonic father explaining to his non-Mason son why lodge brothers were destroying a family business.
Cooper, MB22, May 18, 1993
“A nation or world of people who will not use their intelligence are no better than animals who do not have intelligence. Such people are beasts of burden and steaks on the table by choice and consent.”
Cooper reading from Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars, MB22, May 18, 1993
Historians’ View
The handshakes, foot positions, and hand signals described in this episode broadly correspond to information published in nineteenth-century Masonic exposures and in more recent scholarly accounts of lodge ritual, making this segment broadly consistent with what historians of Freemasonry have documented from primary sources including Morgan’s own Illustrations of Masonry (1826). The claim that Communist International cells used the phrase traveling man as a recognition signal is not corroborated in published scholarship on Soviet or Comintern tradecraft; FBI investigative files from the period have been heavily studied by historians without confirming this overlap. The Heckethorn text Cooper reads from, in its original 1875 form, is a genuine Victorian-era survey of secret societies, though it mixes documented history with sensational claims. The theological claim that the Eden narrative is the founding document of Luciferianism is a recurring interpretive move in anti-Masonic literature; academic religious historians treat it as a polemical reading rather than a historical description of any documented tradition. We record all claims as broadcast; we do not endorse them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Mystery Babylon episode 22 about?
Episode 22 concludes the three-part William Morgan interview with a detailed account of Masonic recognition signals: the degree-specific handshake, the foot-position step, hand signals and their associated death-penalty penal signs, the traveling man password and its claimed link to Communism, the five-points-of-fellowship ceremony, and the Hiram Abiff greeting. Cooper closes with a reading from Heckethorn on Masonic customs including the son-of-a-Mason initiation and its wolf symbolism from the mysteries of Isis. See the full Freemasonry hub for context across the series.
Who was William Morgan the historical figure?
William Morgan (c. 1774-1826?) was a resident of Batavia, New York, who published Illustrations of Masonry in 1826, one of the earliest detailed accounts of Blue Lodge ritual. He disappeared in September 1826, and the case became a national scandal that generated the Anti-Masonic Party. His book is in the public domain and available on archive.org. Cooper uses the name as a pseudonym for his CAJI guest throughout episodes 20, 21, and 22.
What is the five points of fellowship in Freemasonry?
Morgan describes it in this episode as a ceremonial embrace between two Masons standing foot-to-foot, knee-to-knee, with one hand on the other’s back and mouth to ear to whisper a secret word. It is associated with the third degree, the Master Mason raising ceremony. Morgan identifies the secret word exchanged as Marhaba and traces its origins to ancient Hindu ritual. Historians of Freemasonry note that the five points of fellowship and associated symbolism are well-attested in lodge ritual from the early eighteenth century onward.
Where can I listen to episode 22?
The complete series is preserved at archive.org. We never host or distribute the audio; see our content policy.
Continue the Series
- Previous: MB21: William Morgan Interview Pt 2
- Next: MB23: Jordan Maxwell Interview
- Topic hub: Freemasonry in the Mystery Babylon Series
- Related hub: Secret Societies
- Every dated claim from this episode appears on the series timeline
- Full index: Mystery Babylon Complete Episode Guide
- Sources cited: Sources and Bibliography
