What was Albert Pike's view of Masonic philosophy?

Pike viewed Freemasonry as possessing a "Masonry of the MIND" that required a sound philosophical foundation to be valid anywhere else 1. He insisted that the symbols and ceremonies of the order must teach grand, ancient truths rather than mere astronomical explanations or numerical freaks 1.

At the center of Pike's metaphysics was a specific concept of the Divine: he rejected the idea that God is purely Divinity for theological doctrines and churches, maintaining instead that God is Deity—the actual Ground and Source of matter, life, space, time, and the cosmos 1. Because of this, he held that God must be pursued through intellect as well as heart-felt worship 1.

His philosophical framework drew heavily from "old religions and old philosophers," focusing particularly on Iranian and Indian sages, the Zend-Avesta, and the Vedas 1. Although later scholars like A. V. W. Jackson noted that Pike relied on discarded nineteenth-century authorities and lacked modern archaeological insights 1, his work sought to strip noble conceptions from all creeds of superstition and idolatry 1.

In his symbolic mathematics, Pike illustrated human nature through the right triangle: * The base represents the Divine; * The perpendicular represents the Material and Human; * The hypotenuse represents the Soul and Body produced by their union 2.

For Pike, a man achieves his purpose only when these divine and human elements exist in equilibrium, creating a harmony analogous to the great harmonies of the cosmos 2. He defined this state of balance as the true Royal Secret that enables the realization of a universal Masonic Brotherhood, and summed up his practical philosophy in his final address by describing Freemasonry as "the apotheosis of labor" 12.

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Albert Pike wrote extensively on Freemasonry. His principal work, *Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry*, was published in 1871 by direction of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, for which he served as Grand Commander 2. He was both author and compiler of the work, extracting half its contents from other thinkers and contributing the remainder himself to create a compendium of doctrine and instruction for the Scottish Rite 2.

In addition to *Morals and Dogma*, Pike revised and gave modern form to the rituals and lectures of the Scottish Rite 1. He also authored *Monitor of the Rite* (1871) 1, *Irano-Aryan Faith and Doctrine* (1824) 1, and left behind numerous manuscripts, including a study on the symbolism of the Craft degrees 1. Toward the end of his life, he began an unpublished treatise offering a new commentary on the symbols and ceremonies of Craft Masonry, though he died before completing a comprehensive philosophical work for those first three degrees 1.

Regarding the most famous Freemasons, the supplied sources do not provide a list or ranking of the top five.