Browne’s Master Key is another piece of encrypted Freemasonry, once again uncovered by Klaus Schmeh… and once again, here’s my partial decryption of it.
This time, though, all it took was a quick web search that revealed a page describing broadly how Browne’s Master Key works, and the rest was just a load of head-scratching to prise the bones from their cryptographic coffin:-
In Browne’s Master Key, the cypher was as follows: Substitute the vowels a e i o u y with the letters of Browne’s name; precede most words by meaningless capital letters, and then substitute letters including c for e, and then substitute the words Brethren or Masons with exclamation marks and then run the words together indiscriminately and do not use punctuation.
So, it’s an ambiguous cipher, very much along the lines of the medieval “magical cipher” (where you replace each vowel with the letter immediately after it in the alphabet, thpvgh jt’s npt fxbctlz vfrz sfcvrf), so arguably a little closer to steganography than to cryptography. Let’s look at the first page:-
After the “SIT LUX, ET LUX FUIT” heading (“There is light and there was light”, apparently the magical motto of Adolphus Frederick Alexander Woodford of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn), the ciphertext begins like this:-
Splrbsrtwbs Sostmronwprnongthrlwdgr – Brwthr Rsrn owrwbidrn vhb Tosthrfo Rstcbr Rbrfwr Rthrmbstr RowcrRdstw wprnhoslwdgr – Brwth Rrjnnowrwidrnplrbsrtwsr Rthbtdntedwnr – WwisHo Pfnlsrnowrwbrdrnwhrnewnwbsmbdrb rhr Rrstw wd thrmbstrr – – Hosbnsonrssthr Rr – Brwthr Rsonthinbmrwfthrgrbnd – Brwthr Rspllrbst Wbchbrgrd – Brwthr Rsplrbsrtwat Trndth rchbrgr – Tlrko Ngbndthrc Rbftwoth ***
…which I (partially) decrypt as…
[Mason]s please to assist me in opening the lodge – brother senior (wbidrn) what is the first call before the master (ow) needs to open his lodge – brother junior (widrn) please to see that duty done – (ooishopfNl) senior warden when you was made at here stood the master – his business there – brothers in the name of the grand – brothers (pllrbst Wbchbrgad) – brothers please to attend the charge – (tlrkO ng bUdthEN Ebftwoth ***)
Perhaps a kind reader with a stronger stomach than me for this kind of faffy Freemasonic folderol will feel inspired to decrypt some more – frankly, a paragraph is pretty much my limit. 🙁
“sit” is subjunctive, so more like “let there be…” – cf Genesis 1.3, though this isn’t the Vulgate Latin (“Fiat lux et facta est lux”). The Vulgate uses a verb that can be translated as “make”, and the verb here is the verb “to be”. Is there a Masonic doctrine lurking in this heterodox form? God didn’t create the light, he just found it?
John: very probably, anything viewed through the distorting lens of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is going to come out somewhat askew. 😐
Thanks for the decryption, much appreciated. I will add a link to my Encrypted Book List (http://scienceblogs.de/klausis-krypto-kolumne/klaus-schmehs-list-of-encrypted-books/).
“Let there be light and there was light” from Genesis, a Masonic motto.
“wbidrn” and “widrn” should both be “warden”. “call” should be “care”. “here” should be “where”
Clay: thanks very much! I’m planning to do an update post on this (including a revised version of the text) in a few days’ time, I’ll add your changes in there then.
Gentlemen,
I’d like to refer you to a NON-fiction book written (1997) by a leading Freemason Robert Lomas (London-based) and co-author Christopher Knight: “The Second Messiah”. Please do not be put off by the title of the book. Quite a bit about Templar Knights and their comings, goings, and the brutal ending of their lives (burned alive at the order of King Philip the ‘Fair’). The Knight-Lomas team also relates the first appearance of the “Shroud of Turin” to the torture and death imposed on them.
Knight-Lomas’s book also has an impressive bibliography and an equally interesting discussion of the chemistry of the sweat produced by victims of torture.
I won’t bore you with the chemistry of the Krebs cycle.
‘-)
bdid1dr: you’ll have to do better than that to get me to read a book about the chemistry of sweat. 😉
Well, on other of your pages I’ve mentioned the same book as referring to a small church in Scotland. Also there is a ciphered Charter (and master key) discussed on pages 191-196.
Fascinating! 😉
Nick, have you had the opportunity to check on the master key which appears in the book which we’ve been discussing? Robert Lomas may still be alive (in London?)
🙂
It has been deciphered a number of times, the most accessible version being that by Dr E. H. Cartwright in 1931. I have a copy of this and have compared it with Cartwright’s hand written notes, which included the deciphered text, at the Library in Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London. There are transcription errors from Cartwright’s hand written note to the published translation, such as Cartwright’s “o” being written as an “a” and vice versa. I have deciphered Browne’s Master-Key myself, both the 1798 and the 1802 editions and have found some errors in Cartwright’s deciphering. I am at present in the process of writing a paper on this, which should be finished by the end of this month, May 2015.
David Slater: please let me know when your paper gets published, I’d very much like to read it. 🙂
The paper will not be sent for publication until the middle of 1916 but I am happy to provide copies of the deciphered text to interested Freemasons. I have also deciphered Finch’s works, including the 14 question and answers that Gary Heinmiller was not able to reset from Alexander Horne’s work because of a missing page.
David Slater: I presume you mean 2016? 🙂 Where will you be publishing it?
Faffy Freemasonic folderol! What a strange description!
Thanks for the partial de-encryp.
I think you cannot be a mason otherwise you would appreciate just how important this text is to masonry.
As you may know, there is quite a lot of wording (ritual) associated with the practice of freemasonry. John Browne’s work of 1798 is a very valuable record of the way that the ritual was developing towards what we do today!!!
I have an encrypted copy and would be happy to pass to him for de-cryp. if he wants to do it.
pip pip Martin
David Slater.
Very interested in any material relating to Browne and Finch.
I have access to Calcott, Preston and Hutchinson and would be delighted to receive anything on the other two. How can you get them to ‘interested freemasons’?
I am happy to have my e-mail within the text if this helps.
pip pip
Martin
Yes, of course I meant 2016 (thanks for picking up on that). The date has changed to 2017. I am submitting it as a paper for AQC, but I now have a website with both Browne and Finch’s works deciphered (although a few of Finch’s blanks escape me). The URL of the website is http://browneandfinch.slaters.id.au/ Contact me through that website and I can gsend you the password.
Another update, by JUne this year, 2018. Life has interferred with my palnned schedule but I will submit it by 1 June 2018. I also have a website covering John Browne and William Finch. It needs some work and corrections which I am now working on. I’ll list the URL here when that is finished. Sorry for the delays.
Another update, by June this year, 2018. Life has interferred with my planned schedule but I will submit my paper by 1 June 2018. I also have a website covering John Browne and William Finch. It needs some work and corrections which I am now working on. I’ll list the URL here when that is finished. Sorry for the delays.
Browne’s 1802 Master-Key is ready to be read. The URL is https://browneandfinch.slaters.id.au/. If you log on to that website and ask me for the password I can send it to you. I am half way through checking Finch’s 1802 Masonic Treatise to minimise any errors and will then check Browne’s 1798 Master-Key. I am giving a paper at Quatuor Coronati today, Although there are typos in it, which I intend to correct before AQC is published, it does have deciphered text of Browne’s four quarto pages, which accompanied his Tracing Boards, as the appendix. This can be downloaded from https://www.quatuorcoronati.com/meetings/next-meeting/ at present, but may well not be there after my talk. I have a copy of it so, if you contact me through my website, I can send it to you. I will be leaving London tomorrow for a two week intensive Dutch language course, then to the ICOM Conference in Bordeaux on 8-9 June and the World Conference on Fraternalism, Social Capital, and Civil Society in Paris from 13 to 15 June, before returning to Australia on 30 June. If any of you are attending those conferences, it would be good to meet you there. Fraternal regards, David Slater
try using a batch file decrypt script replacing aeiouy with browne works for me everytime.
Here is a link to my code to encrypt and decrypt brownes based on the edition year of the key
https://github.com/codercoins/BROWNE-SCIPHERENCRYPTER-DECRYPTER
@gh0st
Your py code doesn’t work I tried pasting the cypher he decrypted in and it said invalid cypher. I removed the symbols and left it plain text and it still said invalid cypher.
Any tips?
Sit Lux, Et Lux Fuit is a Latin motto that means “Let there be light, and there was light”. It is a reference to the biblical account of creation in Genesis 1:3, where God spoke these words and created light. The motto is frequently used in Freemasonry, as a symbol of the enlightenment and illumination that the fraternity seeks to impart to its members. The motto is also inscribed on some Masonic objects, such as pendants and snuffboxes, along with other symbols and phrases. You can learn more about the meaning and history of this motto from these web sources: Masonic Encylopedia Entry On Sit Lux Et Lux Fuit, Pendant with Masonic symbols, Mottos of the Craft, and Masonic Encylopedia Entry On True Light. I hope this helps you understand the significance of this motto. 😊
I think I have it cracked. I have a py code to crack it also:
Masons please to assist me in opening the lodge – Brethren senior warden what is the first care before the master needs to open his lodge – Brethren junior warden please to see that duty done – Worshipful senior warden when you was made at here stood the master – his business there – Brethren in the name of the grand – Brethren please to attend the charge – Brethren please to assist at Grand the archer – Clerk of Grand the fifth oath
Damn I think the AI failed. I tried to get it to learn it and write then code the python. I think it halucinated the decryption example because the same cypher run on the python didn’t’ work.