The Symbolism Of Freemasonry Part 29

100. We owe this interesting discovery to F. Portal, who has given it in his elaborate work on Egyptian symbols as compared with those of the Hebrews. To those who cannot consult the original work in French, I can safely recommend the excellent translation by my esteemed friend, Bro. John W. Simons, of New York, and which will be found in the thirtieth volume of the "Universal Masonic Library."

101. "The most early defection to Idolatry," says Bryant, "consisted in the adoration of the sun and the wors.h.i.+p of demons, styled Baalim."-a.n.a.lysts of Anc. Mythol. vol. iii. p. 431.

102. The remarks of Mr. Duncan on this subject are well worth perusal. "Light has always formed one of the primary objects of heathen adoration. The glorious spectacle of animated nature would lose all its interest if man were deprived of vision, and light extinguished; for that which is unseen and unknown becomes, for all practical purposes, as valueless as if it were non-existent. Light is a source of positive happiness; without it, man could barely exist; and since all religious opinion is based on the ideas of pleasure and pain, and the corresponding sensations of hope and fear, it is not to be wondered if the heathen reverenced light. Darkness, on the contrary, by replunging nature, as it were, into a state of nothingness, and depriving man of the pleasurable emotions conveyed through the organ of sight, was ever held in abhorrence, as a source of misery and fear. The two opposite conditions in which man thus found himself placed, occasioned by the enjoyment or the banishment of light, induced him to imagine the existence of two antagonist principles in nature, to whose dominion he was alternately subject. Light multiplied his enjoyments, and darkness diminished them. The former, accordingly, became his friend, and the latter his enemy. The words 'light' and 'good,' and 'darkness' and 'evil,' conveyed similar ideas, and became, in sacred language, synonymous terms. But as good and evil were not supposed to flow from one and the same source, no more than light and darkness were supposed to have a common origin, two distinct and independent principles were established, totally different in their nature, of opposite characters, pursuing a conflicting line of action, and creating antagonistic effects. Such was the origin of this famous dogma, recognized by all the heathens, and incorporated with all the sacred fables, cosmogonies, and mysteries of antiquity."-The Religions of Profane Antiquity, p. 186.

103. See the "Bhagvat Geeta," one of the religious books of Brahminism. A writer in Blackwood, in an article on the "Castes and Creeds of India," vol. lx.x.xi. p. 316, thus accounts for the adoration of light by the early nations of the world: "Can we wonder at the wors.h.i.+p of light by those early nations? Carry our thoughts back to their remote times, and our only wonder would be if they did not so adore it. The sun is life as well as light to all that is on the earth-as we of the present day know even better than they of old. Moving in dazzling radiance or brilliant-hued pageantry through the sky, scanning in calm royalty all that pa.s.ses below, it seems the very G.o.d of this fair world, which lives and blooms but in his smile."

104. The Inst.i.tutes of Menu, which are the acknowledged code of the Brahmins, inform us that "the world was all darkness, undiscernible, undistinguishable altogether, as in a profound sleep, till the self-existent, invisible G.o.d, making it manifest with five elements and other glorious forms, perfectly dispelled the gloom."-Sir WILLIAM JONES, On the G.o.ds of Greece. Asiatic Researches, i. 244.

Among the Rosicrucians, who have, by some, been improperly confounded with the Freemasons, the word lux was used to signify a knowledge of the philosopher's stone, or the great desideratum of a universal elixir and a universal menstruum. This was their truth.

105. On Symbolic Colors, p. 23, Inman's translation.

106. Freemasonry having received the name of lux, or light, its disciples have, very appropriately, been called "the Sons of Light." Thus Burns, in his celebrated Farewell:-

"Oft have I met your social band, And spent the cheerful, festive night; Oft, honored with supreme command, Presided o'er the sons of light."

107. Thus defined: "The stone which lies at the corner of two walls, and unites them; the princ.i.p.al stone, and especially the stone which forms the corner of the foundation of an edifice."-Webster.

108. Among the ancients the corner-stone of important edifices was laid with impressive ceremonies. These are well described by Tacitus, in his history of the rebuilding of the Capitol. After detailing the preliminary ceremonies which consisted in a procession of vestals, who with chaplets of flowers encompa.s.sed the ground and consecrated it by libations of living water, he adds that, after solemn prayer, Helvidius, to whom the care of rebuilding the Capitol had been committed, "laid his hand upon the fillets that adorned the foundation stone, and also the cords by which it was to be drawn to its place. In that instant the magistrates, the priests, the senators, the Roman knights, and a number of citizens, all acting with one effort and general demonstrations of joy, laid hold of the ropes and dragged the ponderous load to its destined spot. They then threw in ingots of gold and silver, and other metals, which had never been melted in the furnace, but still retained, untouched by human art, their first formation in the bowels of the earth."-Tac. Hist., 1. iv. c. 53, Murphy's transl.

109. As, for instance, in Psalm cxviii. 22, "The stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the corner," which, Clarke says, "seems to have been originally spoken of David, who was at first rejected by the Jewish rulers, but was afterwards chosen by the Lord to be the great ruler of his people in Israel;" and in Isaiah xxviii. 16, "Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation," which clearly refers to the promised Messiah.

110. In the ritual "observed at laying the foundation-stone of public structures," it is said, "The princ.i.p.al architect then presents the working tools to the Grand Master, who applies the plumb, square, and level to the stone, in their proper positions, and p.r.o.nounces it to be well-formed, true, and trusty."-WEBB'S Monitor, p. 120.

111. "The square teaches us to regulate our conduct by the principles of morality and virtue."-Ritual of the E. A. Degree.-The old York lectures define the square thus: "The square is the theory of universal duty, and consisteth in two right lines, forming an angle of perfect sincerity, or ninety degrees; the longest side is the sum of the lengths of the several duties which we owe to all men. And every man should be agreeable to this square, when perfectly finished."

112. Aristotle.

113. "The cube is a symbol of truth, of wisdom, and moral perfection. The new Jerusalem, promised in the Apocalypse, is equal in length, breadth, and height. The Mystical city ought to be considered as a new church, where divine wisdom will reign."-OLIVER'S Landmarks, ii. p. 357.-And he might have added, where eternal truth will be present.

114. In the most primitive times, all the G.o.ds appear to have been represented by cubical blocks of stone; and Pausanias says that he saw thirty of these stones in the city of Pharae, which represented as many deities. The first of the kind, it is probable, were dedicated to Hermes, whence they derived their name of "Hermae."

115. "Give unto Jehovah the glory due unto His name; wors.h.i.+p Jehovah in the beauty of holiness."-Psalm xxix. 2.

116. It is at least a singular coincidence that in the Brahminical religion great respect was paid to the north-east point of the heavens. Thus it is said in the Inst.i.tutes of Menu, "If he has any incurable disease, let him advance in a straight path towards the invincible north-east point, feeding on water and air till his mortal frame totally decay, and his soul become united with the Supreme."

117. This symbolism of the double position of the corner-stone has not escaped the attention of the religious symbologists. Etsius, an early commentator, in 1682, referring to the pa.s.sage in Ephesians ii. 20, says, "That is called the corner-stone, or chief corner-stone, which is placed in the extreme angle of a foundation, conjoining and holding together two walls of the pile, meeting from different quarters. And the apostle not only would be understood by this metaphor that Christ is the princ.i.p.al foundation of the whole church, but also that in him, as in a corner-stone, the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, are conjoined, and so conjoined as to rise together into one edifice, and become one church." And Julius Firmicius, who wrote in the sixteenth century, says that Christ is called the corner-stone, because, being placed in the angle of the two walls, which are the Old and the New Testament, he collects the nations into one fold. "Lapis sanctus, i.e. Christus, aut fidei fundamenta sustentat aut in angulo positus duorum parietum membra aequata moderatione conjungit, i.e., Veteris et Novi Testamenti in unum colligit gentes."-De Errore profan. Religionum, chap. xxi.

118. This permanence of position was also attributed to those cubical stones among the Romans which represented the statues of the G.o.d Terminus. They could never lawfully be removed from the spot which they occupied. Hence, when Tarquin was about to build the temple of Jupiter, on the Capitoline Hill, all the shrines and statues of the other G.o.ds were removed from the eminence to make way for the new edifice, except that of Terminus, represented by a stone. This remained untouched, and was enclosed within the temple, to show, says Dudley, "that the stone, having been a personification of the G.o.d Supreme, could not be reasonably required to yield to Jupiter himself in dignity and power."-DUDLEY'S Naology, p 145.

119. Dudley's Naology, p. 476.

120. Masonic Discourses, Dis. iv. p. 81.

121. "The act of consecration chiefly consisted in the unction, which was a ceremony derived from the most primitive antiquity. The sacred tabernacle, with all the vessels and utensils, as also the altar and the priests themselves, were consecrated in this manner by Moses, at the divine command. It is well known that the Jewish kings and prophets were admitted to their several offices by unction. The patriarch Jacob, by the same right, consecrated the altars which he made use of; in doing which it is more probable that he followed the tradition of his forefathers, than that he was the author of this custom. The same, or something like it, was also continued down to the times of Christianity."-POTTER'S Archaeologia Graeca, b. ii. p. 176.

122. From the Greek tet???, four, and ???a, letter, because it is composed of four Hebrew letters. Brande thus defines it: "Among several ancient nations, the name of the mystic number four, which was often symbolized to represent the Deity, whose name was expressed by four letters." But this definition is incorrect. The tetragrammaton is not the name of the number four, but the word which expresses the name of G.o.d in four letters, and is always applied to the Hebrew word only.

123. Exod. iii. 15. In our common version of the Bible, the word "Lord" is subst.i.tuted for "Jehovah," whence the true import of the original is lost.

124. Exod. vi. 2. 3.

125. "The Jews have many superst.i.tious stories and opinions relative to this name, which, because they were forbidden to mention in vain, they would not mention at all. They subst.i.tuted Adonai, &c., in its room, whenever it occurred to them in reading or speaking, or else simply and emphatically styled it ??? the Name. Some of them attributed to a certain repet.i.tion of this name the virtue of a charm, and others have had the boldness to a.s.sert that our blessed Savior wrought all his miracles (for they do not deny them to be such) by that mystical use of this venerable name. See the Toldoth Jeschu, an infamously scurrilous life of Jesus, written by a Jew not later than the thirteenth century. On p. 7, edition of Wagenseilius, 1681, is a succinct detail of the manner in which our Savior is said to have entered the temple and obtained possession of the Holy Name. Leusden says that he had offered to give a sum of money to a very poor Jew at Amsterdam, if he would only once deliberately p.r.o.nounce the name Jehovah; but he refused it by saying that he did not dare."-Horae Solitariae, vol. i. p. 3.-"A Brahmin will not p.r.o.nounce the name of the Almighty, without drawing down his sleeve and placing it on his mouth with fear and trembling."-MURRAY, Truth of Revelation, p. 321.

126. The same scrupulous avoidance of a strict translation has been pursued in other versions. For Jehovah, the Septuagint subst.i.tutes "??????," the Vulgate "Dominus," and the German "der Herr," all equivalent to "the Lord." The French version uses the t.i.tle "l'Eternel." But, with a better comprehension of the value of the word, Lowth in his "Isaiah," the Swedenborgian version of the Psalms, and some other recent versions, have restored the original name.

127. In the Talmudical treatise, Majan Hachochima, quoted by Stephelin (Rabbinical Literature, i. p. 131), we are informed that rightly to understand the shem hamphorash is a key to the unlocking of all mysteries. "There," says the treatise, "shalt thou understand the words of men, the words of cattle, the singing of birds, the language of beasts, the barking of dogs, the language of devils, the language of ministering angels, the language of date-trees, the motion of the sea, the unity of hearts, and the murmuring of the tongue-nay, even the thoughts of the reins."

128. The gamma, G, or Greek letter G, is said to have been sacred among the Pythagoreans as the initial of Ge?e???a or Geometry.

129. Vide Oliver, Hist. Init. p. 68, note.

130. Jamblichus says that Pythagoras pa.s.sed over from Miletus to Sidon, thinking that he could thence go more easily into Egypt, and that while there he caused himself to be initiated into all the mysteries of Byblos and Tyre, and those which were practised in many parts of Syria, not because he was under the influence of any superst.i.tious motives, but from the fear that if he were not to avail himself of these opportunities, he might neglect to acquire some knowledge in those rites which was worthy of observation. But as these mysteries were originally received by the Phoenicians from Egypt, he pa.s.sed over into that country, where he remained twenty-two years, occupying himself in the study of geometry, astronomy, and all the initiations of the G.o.ds (p?sa? ?e?? te?et??), until he was carried a captive into Babylon by the soldiers of Cambyses, and that twelve years afterwards he returned to Samos at the age of sixty years.-Vit. Pythag, cap. iii., iv.

131. "The sacred words were intrusted to him, of which the Ineffable Tetractys, or name of G.o.d, was the chief."-OLIVER, Hist. Init. p. 109.

132. "Hu, the mighty, whose history as a patriarch is precisely that of Noah, was promoted to the rank of the princ.i.p.al demon-G.o.d among the Britons; and, as his chariot was composed of rays of the sun, it may be presumed that he was wors.h.i.+pped in conjunction with that luminary, and to the same superst.i.tion we may refer what is said of his light and swift course."-DAVIES, Mythol. and Rites of the Brit. Druids, p. 110.

133. "All the male G.o.ds (of the ancients) may be reduced to one, the generative energy; and all the female to one, the prolific principle. In fact, they may all be included in the one great Hermaphrodite, the ???e??????? who combines in his nature all the elements of production, and who continues to support the vast creation which originally proceeded from his will."-RUSSELL'S Connection, i. p. 402.

134. It is a tradition that it was p.r.o.nounced in the following seven different ways by the patriarchs, from Methuselah to David, viz.: Juha, Jeva, Jova, Jevo, Jeveh, Johe, and Jehovah. In all these words the j is to be p.r.o.nounced as y, the a as ah, the e as a, and the v as w.

135. The i is to be p.r.o.nounced as e, and the whole word as if spelled in English ho-he.

136. In the apocryphal "Book of the Conversation of G.o.d with Moses on Mount Sinai," translated by the Rev. W. Cureton from an Arabic MS. of the fifteenth century, and published by the Philobiblon Society of London, the idea of the eternal watchfulness of G.o.d is thus beautifully allegorized:-

"Then Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, dost thou sleep or not? The Lord said unto Moses, I never sleep: but take a cup and fill it with water. Then Moses took a cup and filled it with water, as the Lord commanded him. Then the Lord cast into the heart of Moses the breath of slumber; so he slept, and the cup fell from his hand, and the water which was therein was spilled. Then Moses awoke from his sleep. Then said G.o.d to Moses, I declare by my power, and by my glory, that if I were to withdraw my providence from the heavens and the earth for no longer a s.p.a.ce of time than thou hast slept, they would at once fall to ruin and confusion, like as the cup fell from thy hand."

137. I have in my possession a rare copy of the Vulgate Bible, in black letter, printed at Lyons, in 1522. The frontispiece is a coa.r.s.ely executed wood cut, divided into six compartments, and representing the six days of the creation. The Father is, in each compartment, pictured as an aged man engaged in his creative task.

138. Christian Iconography, Millington's trans., vol. i. p. 59.

139. The triangle, or delta, is the symbol of Deity for this reason. In geometry a single line cannot represent a perfect figure; neither can two lines; three lines, however, const.i.tute the triangle or first perfect and demonstrable figure. Hence this figure symbolizes the Eternal G.o.d, infinitely perfect in his nature. But the triangle properly refers to G.o.d only in his quality as an Eternal Being, its three sides representing the Past, the Present, and the Future. Some Christian symbologists have made the three sides represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; but they evidently thereby destroy the divine unity, making a trinity of G.o.ds in the unity of a G.o.dhead. The Gnostic trinity of Manes consisted of one G.o.d and two principles, one of good and the other of evil. The Indian trinity, symbolized also by the triangle, consisted of Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, represented by Earth, Water, and Air. This symbolism of the Eternal G.o.d by the triangle is the reason why a trinitarian scheme has been so prevalent in all religions-the three sides naturally suggesting the three divisions of the G.o.dhead. But in the Pagan and Oriental religions this trinity was nothing else but a tritheism.

140. Noachidae, or Noachites, the descendants of Noah. This patriarch having alone preserved the true name and wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d amid a race of impious idolaters, the Freemasons claim to be his descendants, because they preserve that pure religion which distinguished this second father of the human race from the rest of the world. (See the author's Lexicon of Freemasonry.) The Tyrian workmen at the temple of Solomon were the descendants of that other division of the race who fell off, at s.h.i.+nar, from the true wors.h.i.+p, and repudiated the principles of Noah. The Tyrians, however, like many other ancient mystics, had recovered some portion of the lost light, and the complete repossession was finally achieved by their union with the Jewish masons, who were Noachidae.

141. "A mythis omnis priscorum hominum tum historia tum philosophia procedit."-Ad Apollod. Athen. Biblioth. not. f. p. 3.-And Faber says, "Allegory and personification were peculiarly agreeable to the genius of antiquity; and the simplicity of truth was continually sacrificed at the shrine of poetical decoration."-On the Cabiri.

142. See Grote, History of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 479, whence this definition has been substantially derived. The definitions of Creuzer, Hermann, b.u.t.tmann, Heyne, Welcker, Voss, and Muller are none of them Better, and some of them not as good.

143. Hist. of Greece, vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 579. The idea of the existence of an enlightened people, who lived at a remote era, and came from the East, was a very prevalent notion among the ancient traditions. It is corroborative of this that the Hebrew word ?????, kedem, signifies, in respect to place, the east, and, in respect to time, olden time, ancient days. The phrase in Isaiah xix. 11, which reads, "I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings," might just as well have been translated "the son of kings of the East." In a note to the pa.s.sage Ezek. xliii. 2, "the glory of the G.o.d of Israel came from the way of the East," Adam Clarke says, "All knowledge, all religion, and all arts and sciences, have travelled, according to the course of the sun, FROM EAST TO WEST!" Bazot tells us (in his Manuel du Franc-macon, p. 154) that "the veneration which masons entertain for the east confirms an opinion previously announced, that the religious system of Masonry came from the east, and has reference to the primitive religion, whose first corruption was the wors.h.i.+p of the sun." And lastly, the masonic reader will recollect the answer given in the Leland MS. to the question respecting the origin of Masonry, namely, "It did begin" (I modernize the orthography) "with the first men in the east, which were before the first men of the west; and coming westerly, it hath brought herewith all comforts to the wild and comfortless." Locke's commentary on this answer may conclude this note: "It should seem, by this, that masons believe there were men in the east before Adam, who is called the 'first man of the west,' and that arts and sciences began in the east. Some authors, of great note for learning, have been of the same opinion; and it is certain that Europe and Africa (which, in respect to Asia, may be called western countries) were wild and savage long after arts and politeness of manners were in great perfection in China and the Indies." The Talmudists make the same allusions to the superiority of the east. Thus, Rabbi Bechai says, "Adam was created with his face towards the east that he might behold the light and the rising sun, whence the east was to him the anterior part of the world."

144. Strauss makes a division of myths into historical, philosophical, and poetical.-Leben Jesu.-His poetical myth agrees with my first division, his philosophical with my second, and his historical with my third. But I object to the word poetical, as a distinctive term, because all myths have their foundation in the poetic idea.

145. Ulmann, for instance, distinguishes between a myth and a legend-the former containing, to a great degree, fiction combined with history, and the latter having but a few faint echoes of mythical history.

146. In his "Prolegomena zu einer wissenshaftlichen Mythologie," cap. iv. This valuable work was translated in 1844, by Mr. John Leitch.