Joyce and the Twoheaded Octopus of judeo-maconnerie

Abstract

While previous studies of Leopold Bloom’s relationship with Freemasonry have approached the topic quite generally, this article examines Joyce’s precise deployment of Masonic terminology, with particular reference to the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the higher or additional degrees and orders of Irish Freemasonry affiliated to it. It also considers the portrayal of Bloom in the light of judeo-maconnerie, reanimated in fin-de-siecle France by Leo Taxil, albeit culminating in the Affaire des Fiches of 1904–1905. Joyce depicts Bloom as an erstwhile Freemason, employing disguised symbolism to suggest he remains faithful to the fraternal ideal of Freemasonry, and its charitable traditions, in spite of the social hierarchies of contemporary Irish Freemasonry and his unaffiliated status. That Bloom is no longer affiliated to a lodge does not ameliorate the hostility directed toward him as a Jewish Freemason, indicative of the pernicious influence of judeo-maconnerie, not only in France, but also in contemporary Ireland. Subsequent to the publication of Victor Hugo’s Les travailleurs de la mer in 1866, the principal symbol of this putative alliance between Jews and Freemasons is a monstrous, blood-sucking octopus, sometimes envisioned with two heads. Although Bloom does not comprehend AE’s cryptic allusion to this symbol, ironically, he remains the living embodiment of judeo-maconnerie as far as some of his fellow Irishmen are concerned.