Note: This material was scanned into text files for the sole purpose of convenient electronic research. This material is NOT intended as a reproduction of the original volumes. However close the material is to becoming a reproduced work, it should ONLY be regarded as a textual reference. Scanned at Phoenixmasonry by Ralph W. Omholt, PM in May 2007.
HISTORY
OF THE
ANCIENT AND HONORABLE FRATERNITY OF
FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS,
AND CONCORDANT ORDERS.
Illustrated.
WRITTEN BY A BOARD OF EDITORS:
HENRY LEONARD STILLSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
WILLIAM JAMES HUGHAN, EUROPEAN EDITOR.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK, U.S.A.:
THE FRATERNITY PUBLISHING COMPANY.
LONDON, ENGLAND:
GEORGE KENNING, 16 GREAT QUEEN STREET, EUROPEAN PUBLISHER,
1906
COPYRIGHT, 1890,
BY LEE C. HASCALL.
COPYRIGHT, REVISED EDITION, 1898,
BY LEE C. HASCALL.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION.
Northwood Press
J.S.Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
BOARD OF EDITORS.
HENRY LEONARD STILL.SON, P.M., EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
WILLIAM JAMES HUGHAN, P.S.G.D., EUROPEAN
WILLIAM R. SINGLETON, 33rd Degree, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.
WILLIAM STEVENS PERRY, 32nd Degree, D.D., Oxon., LL.D., D.C.L., Bishop of Iowa.
CHARLES E. MEYER, P.M., Melita Lodge, No. 295, of Pennsylvania.
SERENo D. NICKERSON, 33rd Degree, P.G.M., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
FREDERIC SPEED, 33rd Degree, P.G.M., Past Grand Commander, K.T., of Mississippi.
WILLIAM JAMES B. MACLEOD MOORE (Lieut.Col.), Supreme Grand Master ("Ad Vitam Sovereign Great Priory of Canada, etc.)
JOSIAH H. DRUMMOND, 33rd Degree, P.G.M., Maine.
ALFRED F. CHAPMAN, P.G.G.H.P. of G.G.C. of R.A. Masons, U.S.A 2
EUGENE GRISSOM, M.D.,LL.D., 33rd Degree, P.D.G.M., P.G.H.P., P.G.C., of North Carolina.
J. Ross ROBERTSON, Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Canada.
ADDITIONAL
MYLES JEFFERSON GREENE, M.D., P.G.M., P.G.H.P., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Alabama.$
GEORGE JAMES ROSKRUGE, 33rd Degree, Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Arizona
FAY HEMPSTEAD, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Arkansas.
HY. BROWN, P.G.M., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of British Columbia.
ALEXANDER GURDON ABELL, 33rd Degree, Grand Secretary; Grand Lodge of California
JOHN JAMES MASON, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Canada, Member-elect Supreme Council, 33rd Degree.
ED. C. PARMELEE, Grand Secretary and Grand Recorder, Masonic Grand Bodies in Colorado.
JOSEPH KELLOGG WHEELER, 33rd Degree, Grand Secretary and Grand Recorder, Masonic Grand Bodies in Connecticut
CHARLES T. MCCLENACHAN, 33rd Degree, Historian, Grand Lodge, State of New York
JOHN LANE, P.M., P.Z., Masonic Statistician, etc.
JOHN H. GRAHAM, LL.D., P.G.M., Granc Lodge of Quebec.
JESSE B. ANTHONY, 33rd Degree, P.G.M., of New York.
ALFRED A. HALL, P.G.M., etc., of Vermont.
CHARLES E. GILLETT, 33rd Degree, P.E.C., Commandery, No. r r, K.T., of California.
EDWIN A. $HERMAN, 33rd Degree, Hon. Ins. General of the Supreme Council, S.J., U.S.A., and Secretary of the Masonic Veteran Assoc., Pacific Coast, etc., etc.
EDWARD T. SCHULTZ, 32nd Degree, P.G.C.G., G.E., U.S.A., Historian, Grand Lodge of Mary land.
REV. WILLIS D. ENGLE, P.G.P., Past Gen. Grand Secretary, General Grand Chapter, Order Eastern Star.
CONTRIBUTORS.
W. H. HOLT, Secretary of Masonic Bodies in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
WILLIAM BLATT, 33rd Degree, P.G.M., of Dakota.
WILLIAM S. HAYES, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Delaware
GEORGE W. MARSHALL, Delaware. M.D., P.G.M., of
DEWITT C. DAWKINS, K.T., 33rd Degree, Grand Secretary and P.G.M., Grand Lodge of Florida.
ANDREW MARTEN WOLIHIN, 33rd Degree, Secretary, Grand Lodge of Georgia.
J. H. WICKERSHAM, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Idaho.
LOYAL L. MUNN, 33rd Degree, P.G. Com., P.G.H.P., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Illinois.
WILLIAM H. SMYTHE, 33rd Degree, Grand Secretary and Grand Recorder, Masonic Qrand Bodies in Indiana.
EDITOR.
Grand
t Deceased. Vide " Introduction," and " Publishers' Note," introductory to Division XVII.
2 Deceased since this volume went to press. Died March 2o, x891, IEt. 62. $ Deceased since this work was completed.
iv
.4DDITION4L CONTRIBUTORS.
WILLIAM HACKER, 33rd, P.G.M., of Indiana
T. S. MURROW, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of the Indian Territory.
T. S. PARVIN, P.G.M., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Iowa.
JOHN H. BROWN, 33rd, P.G.M., Grand Secretary and Grand Recorder, Masonic Grand Bodies in Kansas?
HENRY BANNISTER GRANT, 32nd, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Kentucky; Author K.T.'I'actics, U.S.A.
JAMES CUNNINGHAM BATCHELOR, M.D., 330. Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Louisiana.2
WILLIAM GEORGE SCOTT, P,D.G.M., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Manitoba.
J. H. MEDAIRY, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Maryland.
SERENO D. NICKERSON, 33rd, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, etc.
WILLIAM POWER INNES, 33rd, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Michigan.
THOMAS MONTGOMERY, P.G. Com., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Minnesota, Deputy Inspector-General, A.*. A.-. S.*. R.
A. T. C. PIERSON, 33rd, Masonic Author and Historian?
J. L. POWER, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Mississippi.
CORNELIUS HEDGES, P.G.M., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Montana.
ARTHUR HENRY BRAY, Grand Secretary, United Grand Lodge of New South Wales.
WILLIAM R. BRWEN, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Nebraska.
CHAUNCEY N. NOTEWARE, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Nevada.
EDWIN J. WETMORE, P.D.G.M., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of New Brunswick.
JOSEPH H. HOUGH, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of New Jersey.2
HENRY R. CANNON, P.G.M., of New Jersey. ALPHEUS A. KEEN, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of New Mexico.
EDWARD M. L. EHLERS, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of New York.
D. W. BAIN, 32nd, P.G. Com., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of North Carolina, etc.2
WILLIAM Ross, P.D.G.M., Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia.
Rev. DAVID C. MOORE, P.G.M., of Nova Scotia.
J. H. BROMWELL, 32nd, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Ohio.
F. J. BABCOCK, Past Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Oregon.
MICHAEL NISBET, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
B. WILSON HIGGS, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Prince Edward Island.
JOHN HELDER ISAACSON, 32nd, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Quebec.
EDWIN BAKER, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Rhode Island.
CHARLES INGLESBY, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of South Carolina.
JOHN FRIZZELL, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Tennessee.
W. F. SWAIN, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Texas.
CHRISTOPHER DIEHL, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Utah.
WARREN G. REYNOLDS, 33rd, Grand Secretary and Grand Recorder, Masonic Grand Bodies in Vermont.
Rev. S. F. CALHOUN, D.D., 32nd, Past Grand Chaplain ; Member Correspondence Circle, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076, England.
WILLIAM BRYAN ISAACS, P.G. Cam., Grand Recorder, Grand Encampment, K.T., U.S.A.
THOMAS MILBURNE REED, 33rd, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Washington.
JOHN W. LAFLIN, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Wisconsin
W. L. KUYKENDALL, Grand Secretary, Grand Lodge of Wyoming.
HENRY W. MORDHURST, 32nd, General Grand Recorder, General Grand Council, R. and S.M., U_S:A.
GEORGE P. CLEAVES, 33rd, Grand Secretary and Grand Recorder, Masonic Grand Bodies in New Hampshire.
t Deceased since this work was begun. Brother Pierson had consented to become the author of an important Division of this volume.
2 Deceased since this work was completed.
Dedication.
To the memory-of the long line of noble Brethren in the Grand Lodge
above, who handed down unimpaired the tenets of the Fraternity
of Ancient, Free, and Accepted Masons, and to the living
Craftsmen who are emulating their illustrious example
- all of whom posterity will rise up and call
blessed - this volume is Fraternally and
sincerely dedicated by the Board
of Editors and Publishers.
PREFACE.
THE purpose of this work is to furnish an outline History of Freemasonry, including many facts not before published. Our effort has been to make an attractive and comprehensive volume, presenting many practical matters not generally known to the Fraternity. While we have no desire to underestimate other historic works on Freemasonry, we still claim that there was need for an entirely new and popular work, which should strictly adhere to the well-known axiom: "In things essential, unity; in things doubtful, liberty; in all things, charity." The first step was to secure the services of well-known and acknowledged specialists, each of whom should give to his work the greatest care. This has been successfully accomplished, and the facsimile signatures of the leading writers bear testimony to their willingness to stand sponsors for the work which they have done.
We feel that the book merits the commendation received from a prominent American, who is himself a Masonic historian of eminence, and whose words we here quote; 111 am glad that you are about to furnish the Fraternity with a History of Freemasonry in one volume, the cost of which will enable a large number of the Craft to possess themselves of it. The old Histories, of any and everything save Masonry, = of the days of Anderson and Oliver, - have led the Brethren astray for, lo, these many years, and worked an infinite amount of harm." He then refers to a work in four volumes, and adds "This work is so high in price as to preclude the larger number of our Brethren from getting it. With the data now accessible and at hand, you may furnish, in a single octavo 'volume, the cream of history,-all that is needed by the majority." Brother William James Hughan, the eminent Masonic Historian of England, says that this book is °1 the American Masonic work of the nineteenth century." These quotations are simply types of many commendations which might be given.
It is not necessary to give any analysis accompanying Table of Contents will show how many and varied are the of the subjects treated, as the
Vlll
PREFACE.
topics discussed, and how thorough has been the work expended upon them Myth here gives up its underlying truth. Research clears away the rubbish, and discloses the sure foundations and majestic arches of a noble structure. In this work some idols are destroyed, but, in their destruction, nothing is lost but the fables with which degenerate men have sought to embellish a truth, the beauty of whose simplicity they could not discern. Under the leadership of these writers we ascend the rugged steeps, until we stand above all clouds and look forth upon a majestic landscape of history, whose varied lights and shades blend to make one grand picture of God-loving, man-serving fraternity.
The several writers have endeavored to make this book absolutely accurate in its statements. One of them, speaking of the " Capitular Rite," says: " 1 hold this, the second half of Division XIII., to be the foundation for an enlarged history of every Grand Chapter in the United States."' Another, writing of the Grand Lodge Divisions, remarks, "I have herein given you the best work of my life."
These words give expression to the motive actuating each one of the entire Board of Editors.
The numerous and beautiful engravings which adorn this work, and its mechanical excellence, bear testimony to the earnest desire of the Publishers to spare no effort or expense necessary to the production of a book which should prove in every way satisfactory to those interested in the subject treated.
It would be absurd to claim that the work is without faults; yet we believe that with this volume in hand, the Masonic student has at his command the best thoughts of the largest corps of contributors ever engaged upon such a work. He certainly has full Statistical Tables never before compiled. The book as a whole is a vast mine of information, indispensable to every Mason who desires to be well informed upon the history of this the oldest and most honorable of all secret fraternities, and the basis of all that have follgwed it.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION. SUPPLEMENTAL OF THE DIVISIONS IN THIS WORK................................... 15
PART I.
ANCIENT MASONRY.-THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES, COGNATE ORDERS OF CHIVALRY, AND THE "OLD CHARGES" OF FREEMASONS. (Introductory to the Perfected Organi zation of Modern Times.) Complete in three Divisions.
INTRODUCTION.
THE SIX THEORIES OF THE MYSTERIES ............................................... 37
DIVISION I.
THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
A Treatise on the Eastern European, African, and Asiatic Mysteries; the Occultism of the Orient; the Western European Architects and Operative Masons in Britain, commonly called the Antiquities and Legendary Traditions of the Craft to the close of the Operative Period in 1717.Complete in four chapters........................................... 41
DIVISION II.
THE COGNATE ORDERS.
A comprehensive History of the Knights Templars and the Crusades; their patronage by the,See of Rome and subsequent anathema; the connection of these, if any, with the present Degrees of Knights Templar in the United States and Great Britain; the Execution of Jacques de Molai, Grand Master, and Supplemental Historic Notes. Complete in two chapters..................................................................... 11g
DIVISION III.
THE DOCUMENTARY EARLY HISTORY OF THE FRATERNITY.
The Ancient British MSS,; Kalendar of " Old Charges," and comments thereon; the Regius MS., or Halliwell Poem; Legend of "The Four Crowned Martyrs"; the Cooke MS., as annotated by G. W. Speth ; the Grand Lodge MS. Of 1583, with various readings of "Old Charges"; the"Additional Articles,' etc. Complete in three chapters........... 157
PART II.
COSMOPOLITAN FREEMASONRY.-CRAFT, CAPITULAR, CRYPTIC. ("Masonry without Respect to Creed, Clime, or Color.") Complete in twelve Divisions.
INTRODUCTION.
THE AMERICAN RITE OF FREEMASONRY........ .................................. 197 ix
CONTENTS.
PAGE
DIVISION IV. NORTH, CENTRAL, AND SOUTH AMERICA. Lodges in America under the English Constitution, x733-1889. Complete in three chapters, 199
DIVISION V.
FIRST MERIDIAN.
History of the Colonial and Revolutionary Period and Atlantic Slope: The Grand Lodges of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Souih Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Complete in two chapters ........................................................................... 217
DIVISION VI.
SECOND MERIDIAN.
I. History of the Eastern Mississippi Valley and the Lakes: The Grand Lodges of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana................................................................... 307
II. History of the Western Mississippi Valley: The Grand Lodges of Texas, Arkansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Iowa, Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Indian Territory ... , ..... .. ............................................. 341
Each part complete in one chapter.
DIVISION VII.
THIRD MERIDIAN.
History of the Pacific Coast and Rocky Mountains to Mexico: The Grand Lodges of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico; Freemasonry in the Hawaiian Islands, Alaska, Mexico, and Central America. Complete in one chapter ........................................... 385
DIVISION VIII.
EARLY AMERICAN MASONIC HISTORY.
The First Glimpses of Freemasonry in North America. Complete in one chapter .......... 439
DIVISION IX. BRITISH AMERICA.
Outline history of the Grand Lodge of Canada, in the Province of Ontario. Freemasonry in the North,-the Grand Lodges of Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward
Island, Manitoba, and British Columbia. Complete in two chapters.................... 457
DIVISION X.
OTHER COUNTRIES.
Outline History of Freemasonry in Continental Europe. Freemasonry in Australasia and New Zealand,-Grand Lodges of the Southern Sun. Complete in two chapters.. ...... 489
DIVISION XI.
THE MORGAN EXCITEMENT.
An exhaustive Account of that Historic Affair in the United States, treating of its Civil, Social, Political, and Masonic Aspects, as well as of the Deportation of William Morgan ; written from a Masonic stand-point. Complete in two chapters ............................... 507
CONTENTS.
DIVISION XII.
MASONIC JURISPRUDENCE.
- A comprehensive History of the Origin and Development of Masonic Law: The relation of Governing Bodies to one another; the relation of Grand Lodges to their Constituent Lodges, and to individual members of the Craft; the relation of Lodges to one another, to their members, and of Masons to one another; the Origin and Use of public Masonic Forms and Ceremonies; and the customs and peculiarities of the Craft in general. Complete in one chapter............................................. . ................ 537
DIVISION XIII.
THE CAPITULAR DEGREES.
The Royal Arch as a Separate Degree in England and other parts of the British Empire. The Mark Master Mason's Degree as evolved in the United Kingdom. The several Grand Chapters, and the Royal Arch systems of England, Ireland, and Scotland, including Mark Masonry, Mason's Marks, and Past Master's Degree. The Grand Chapters of Canada, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and New Brunswick. The General Grand Royal Arch Chapter, its
origin, powers, and jurisdiction. State Grand Chapters, including the Independent Grand Chapters of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia; separately considered, and in alphabetical order, together with all Chapters holding charters from the General Grand Chapter. The Order of High Priesthood. Complete to three chapters................. 553
DIVISION XIV.
THE CRYPTIC DEGREES.
The Council of Royal, and Select, and Super-Excellent Masters; together with a comprehensive sketch of its rise and organization; Government by a General Grand Council, Grand Councils, and Councils; including the Independent Grand Councils, and those of Canada and England. Complete in two chapters..................................... 643
DIVISION XV.
EULOGIUM OF THE ANCIENT CRAFT.
The relation of the Symbolic, Capitular, and Cryptic Degrees to one another and to Ancient Craft Masonry; comprising the Foundation, the Superstructure, and Ornaments of the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons.
L The Physical, the Spiritual, the Celestial, these three intertwining, ever-blending in per
kct harmony.................................................................... 673 I3. Freemasonry, the Conservator o. Liberty and of the Universal Brotherhood of Man.. 692 Each part complete in one chapter.
PART III.
CONCORDANT ORDERS.-THE CHIVALRIC DEGREES.
Complete in two Divisions.
DIVISION XVI.
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR AND ALLIED ORDERS.
The Knights Templar of the United States of America, and Government by a Grand Encampment, Grand Commanderies, and Commanderies. The Ethics and Ritual of American Templary. Complete in three chapters; to which is added "In Memoriam," MacLeod Moore................................................................... 699
DIVISION XVII.
BRITISH TEMPLARY.
A history of the Modern or Masonic Templar Systems, with a Concise Account of the Origin of Speculative Freemasonry, and its Evolution since the Revival, A.D. 1717. Complete in seven chapters...................................................................... 741
PAGE,
CONTLN= PART IV.
PAGE
ANCIENT AND ACCEPTED SCOTTISH RITE OF FREEMASONRY, AND THE ROYAL ORDER OF SCOTLAND. Complete in two Divisions.
DIVISION XVIII.
SCOTTISH DEGREES, 4° TO 330, INCLUSIVE.
History of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry; its Government by Supreme Councils, Consistories, Chapters of Rose Croix, Councils of Princes of Jerusalem, and Lodges of Perfection. Complete in one chapter................................... 795
DIVISION XIX.
THE ROYAL ORDER OF SCOTLAND,
I. The History and Government of the Society in Europe and America; copies of Patents, and other particulars.. ... ..... ................................................. 829 II. The Royal Order of Heredom of Kilwinning ........................................ 85r Each part complete in one chapter.,
PART V.
MISCELLANEOUS RITES AND ORDERS, AND STATISTICAL DIVISION.
Complete in two Divisions.
DIVISION XX.
OTHER RITES AND ORDERS.
I. The Order of the Eastern Star, comprising a sketch of its origin, rise, teachings, and present condition................................................... ............. 8857
II. The Rosicrucian Society.......................................................... 9 Each part complete in one chapter.
III. Masonic Dates, and Abbreviations, used in this work................................ 874
DIVISION XXI.
STATISTICS OF FREEMASONRY.
These are shown in the Craft Department by tables, as full as it has been possible to compile them. In some cases the Gfand Lodge records have been lost by fire and war, and in
others the books were not kept with tables like these in view. The'Capitular Statistics are
all of late date, the records prior to r86o having been destroyed..... ; ................... 875
MASONIC RECORD .................................................................... 897
INDEX.................................. .. .......................................... 899
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
• PHIL& ISLANDS, EGYPT
TEMPLE OF KARNAK, THEBES, EGYPT
ILi.USTRATIONS OF THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES, PLATES I. AND II.
WINS OF THE TEMPLE OF ISIS AND OSIRIS
ORIGINAL SITE OF CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPT (Central Park, New York City, Obelisk)
ARMS OF NCIENTS," AND "MODERNS," GRAND-LODGE OF ENGLAND CIIRONOLOG L TABLE
MAP OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, FOLLOWING THE NOACHIAN PERIOD MONTAGUE CHARTER, A.D. 1732 .
RRGIUS MS., OR HALLIWELL POEM
HUGHAN'S ENGRAVED LIST OF LODGES, A.D. 1734
DERMOTT'S ROYAL ARCH . . 6LLECTION OF MASONS' MARKS
,C+RAND LODGE AND GRAND CHAPTER SEALS
,SCOTTISH RITE PATENT, A.D. 1789 (reduced fac-simile)
PATENT OF PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER, ROYAL ORDER OF SCOTLAND
61URCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE . CRUSADE TOWER, RAMLEH .
SAINT JEAN D'ACRE, LAST STRONGHOLD, KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN AND KNIGHTS TEMPLARS IN HOLY LAND .
SAINT LOUIS AT JERUSALEM
- CITY WALLS AND TOWERS, RHODES (erected by Knights of St. ,john, A.D. r3rorS23)
ENTRANCE TO "THE MURISTAN," A.D. 1892
T 4~IE MURISTAN : HOSPICE, KNIGHTS OF ST. JOHN, RHODES, AND MALTA
THE CHANCEL, MELROSE ABBEY, SCOTLAND SAINT PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON, ENGLAND, ARCHITECT
AND
SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN,
PAGE
Frontispiece
36 61
59-6o 118 167-173 211 • 557
569 672 719 847
51
519
125
129 137
355 777 856
141 153
Xiv
LIST OR ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
YORK MINSTER, YORK, ENGLAND 191
THE 'PRENTICE PILLAR, ROSLIN CHAPEL, SCOTLAND, A.D. 1895 . 321
ROSLIN CHAPEL, SCOTLAND 351
ROSLIN CHAPEL (Chancel View), EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND 797
MELROSE ABBEY (Exterior, showing, Chancel Window), MELROSE, SCOTLAND . 831
OLD "GREEN DRAGON" TAVERN, BOSTON, MASS. 245
MASONIC TEMPLE, NEW YORK, N.Y. . 263
MASONIC TEMPLE, PHILADELPHIA, PENN. . 279
MASONIC TEMPLE, DETROIT, MICH. . . 317
MASONIC TEMPLE, CHICAGO, ILL. 325
MASONIC TEMPLE, DENVER, COLO. 427
NEW MASONIC TEMPLE, BOSTON, MASS. 438
EGYPTIAN ROOM, MASONIC TEMPLE, PHILADELPHIA, PENN. • 287
FREEMASON' HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND . • 456
"GENIUS OF SNQUET ONRY" (by Bartolozzi), A.D. 1784-86 687
INTERIOR OF TEMPLE CHURCH, LONDON, ENGLAND . • 787
MASONIC HOME, UTICA, N.Y. 267
MASONIC HOME, SPRINGFIELD, OHIO . • 309
PIONEER MASONIC HOME, LOUISVILLE, KY. • 329
MASONIC LIBRARY, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . • 367
UNITED STATES CAPITOL 198
MOUNT VERNON: HOME OF PAST MASTER GEORGE WASHINGTON • 299
FORT MARION, ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA. . • 304
"THE HERMITAGE," NEAR NASHVILLE, TENN. • 333
INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, PENN. . 340
MOUNT DAVIDSON,,VIRGINIA CITY, NEY. 411
RICHARD I. (CMUR DE LION) AND GODFREY (DE BOUILLON) . 133
ANTONY SAYRE, GRAND MASTER, A.D. 1717 156
DANIEL COXE, PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER, A.D. 1730 219
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (" POOR RICHARD") 283
MARQUIS DE LAFAYET7TE (MAJOR-GENERAL) 361
HENRY PRICE, PROVINCIAL GRAND MASTER, A.D. 1733 451
COLONEL W. J. B. MACLEOD MOORE, G. C. T. 740
GENERAL ALBERT PIKE . . e 794
xv
INTRODUCTION.
THERE is no Society so widely known, and yet really so little known, as that of the Free and Accepted Masons. Even many of the members of that Ancient and Honorable Fraternity are strangely uninformed respecting its eventful past, and although proficiency is attained in regard to what may be termed the ritualistic portion of its deeply interesting ceremonies,‑nowhere more so than in the United States, ‑ yet, somehow or other, the actual history of the Craft, extending over a period of some six centuries, and that of its grand structures, which eloquently speak of its greatness during ages now fittingly described by the term 1| time immemorial," appears to have been relegated to a back seat, and frequently entirely overlooked.
Now this unfortunate result has been due as much to the lack of suitable material for study as to the absence of interest in the matter; for I am fully persuaded that a work brought down to the present time, dealing critically and impartially with the traditions, records, and degrees,‑not too bulky, and yet sufficiently large to treat of all subjects which would naturally be looked for in such a volume, ‑could not fail to be extensively read and become most useful to the Brotherhood.
Such a book is herewith available, through the spirited action of " The Fraternity Publishing Company"; for, in the following pages, our ideal of a handy, condensed history of the Society is fully realized, and all that any wishful Masonic student could reasonably desire in one volume, ‑ covering the whole period of Masonic activity,‑is amply, clearly, and accurately set forth, by eminent, zealous, and competent Craftsmen, who have signed the chapters for which they are alone responsible.
It has been their constant aim, as with the painstaking and indefatigable Editor‑in‑Chief, Brother H. L. Stillson, to secure accuracy, variety, and brevity, without sacrificing aught of general importance to the Fraternity, for whom they have all so ardently and so conscientiously labored. No work was so popular, 1772‑1846, as William Preston's "Illustrations of Masonry," because rigidly condensed and published in a handy form.
It is the confident anticipation of the Editors and Publishers of this, "The History of Freemasonry and Concordant Orders," that its reception by the Craft will be equally hearty, sustained, and still more wide‑spread; and its conspicuous merits, as they become known and appreciated, should make it the most popular book relating to the Craft throughout the continent.
Xvi
INTRODUCTION.
Neither is the work necessarily for Freemasons alone; for not a few of the chapters furnish excellent and suggestive reading for those who would like to know somewhat of the Brotherhood, either prior to seeking to join its ranks, or because of this eligible opportunity to peruse a reliable account of so venerable and preeminently respectable an Organization, whose name and fame have been the common property of all enlightened communities for so many generations.
It seems to me impossible for any one, free from prejudice, and possessing the necessary intelligence, to rise from the study of this volume without becoming desirous to still farther investigate the history of this wonderful Society, which has been so loved and cherished by millions of the human race, and which increases in vitality and usefulness, as the years come and go, throughout the civilized world.
Some, however, object to secret societies, and maintain that if they are what they claim to be, they should not thus be restricted as to membership and thus narrow their influence. At the outset, therefore, it is well to point out that the Masonic Fraternity is not, strictly speaking, a secret society, for it has neither secret aims nor constitutions. Everywhere its laws may be perused by " friend and foe " alike, and its objects are exclusively those which are, and always have been, published to. the world.
It is private rather than secret;*for, unless it be our esoteric customs, which relate, directly or indirectly, to our universal and special modes of recognition, we have no secrets, and even as to these needful ceremonies, all “good men and true" are welcome to participate in them, on petitioning for initiation, followed by an approved ballot.
But while a few object to the Fraternity wholly (and unreasonably), because of its secrecy, others deny its claim to antiquity, and assert that the Freemasons of to‑day date from the second decade of the last century, thus having no connection whatever with the old Society which was entirely Operative. This second objection, urged against the continuity of the Organization, particularly from the sixteenth, throughout, to early in the eighteenth century, is one that must be met by the production of facts which can be authenticated by competent critics, whether members of the "Mystic‑tie," or otherwise.
During the last twenty or thirty years, special attention has been directed to this point by a few of us, in Great Britain and Germany, particularly, the result being that we have accumulated an immense mass of evidence, which had hitherto either eluded detection or had not been investigated ; enabling us to demonstrate the continuity of the Fraternity, Speculative as well as Operative, throughout the period in question, and entirely overlapping what is known as the "Revival," or reconstruction period of A.D. 1717.
We can now take our stand on actual minutes of lodges, beginning as early as the year 1599, and presenting an unbroken series of records to the present year of Grace; supported on the one hand by copies of the 11 Old Charges,"
INTRODUCTION.
Xvii
and laws, dating from the fourteenth century, and on the other, by special regulations of the Craft of some two centuries later. Reproductions and fac‑similes of many of these invaluable and venerable documents will be found herewith, or in certain works specified in this volume, and which can be examined and tested by those interested in tracing the intimate connection existing between Operative and Speculative Freemasonry, especially during the seventeenth century, which has been the real crux to elucidate. Practically, therefore, our readers are placed in the same position, and share the advantages, of those of us who have seen and copied the precious originals, about which a few brief words will now be said, so far as the limited space will permit.
It will be no part of my duty to exhaustively treat of the "Ancient Mysteries," though Freemasonry, undoubtedly, has adopted and absorbed not a few of the usages and customs of antiquity. For this reason many have looked upon the two as continuous developments of one and the same society, but erroneously so.
Unless we are prepared to admit that imitation and adaptation necessarily involve continuity, it must be conceded that the ancient mysteries are so far removed in point of time from all that is known of Freemasonry, that it is simply impossible to construct or discover a bridge of history or theory that can unite the two.
Still, so much have they in common that Brother W. R. Singleton's ably condensed and, withal, exhaustive summary will be welcomed by all Masonic students, because containing all that is essential to the subject, culled from reliable sources and originally and carefully treated. His views as to degrees, however, may require some slight modification in view of recent pronouncements by some of the prominent Craftsmen alluded to, but substantially we are in full agreement with him as to their modern character, comparatively speaking.
As respects age and value, the most important documents relating to our Society are what are known by the title of the "Old Charges," ranging, as regards date, over some five centuries; and are peculiar to the Fraternity. For years they lay neglected in Masonic chests and muniment rooms, and it was only on the advent of the realistic school of Masonic investigators that they were brought out from their hiding‑places and their contents made public.
Thirty years ago not a dozen of these invaluable scrolls had been traced, so little had their evidence been esteemed; whereas now, over fifty are known, through the well‑directed efforts of diligent Craftsmen, and many of these have been published by myself and others.
Their testimony varies in regard to trivial matters, but the oldest version, of the fourteenth century, placed side by side with a roll used by a Lodge one hundred and fifty years ago, exhibit together so many points of resemblance as to demonstrate their common origin and purpose, and prove that they are practically one and the same.
INTRODUCTION.
I have fully explained my position in relation to these extraordinary MSS. in my '| Old Charges of the British Freemasons" (1872); and Brother H. L. Stillson has devoted so much time and attention to their careful study and description in Part I. (Division III.), that a very brief reference to them now is all that can be permitted. Brother Stillson's most interesting and accurate observations and particulars, so usefully abridged and epitomized from the latest works on the subject, cannot fail to prove exceedingly helpful to our readers, especially when it is noted that nothing of vital consequence to a right and comprehensive glance at the subject has been omitted by the indefatigable Editor‑in‑Chief; and the particulars given are down to date of publication.
Now, the precise value of these Rolls lies in the fact that they were employed, generally, by our Masonic ancestors of some two to five and more centuries ago, during the Ceremony of Initiation. In fact, their being read to the apprentices, together with what esoteric information may have been afforded, constituted then the whole ceremony of reception, which was simple though, withal, impressive in character. All known copies are directly or indirectly of English origin, even those used in Scotland apparently being derived from that source.
They are likewise of a markedly Christian type, and of themselves are powerful witnesses in favor of the earliest versions being derived from a prototype, arranged and promulgated under ecclesiastical supervision and composition.
As time went on, it will be seen that while the legendary portion was virtually fossilized, the part which recited the Rules for the government of the Fraternity was gradually added to, until, in like manner, the Regulations became fixed and practically traditional also. Then they were simply read as according to ancient usage, but not for present‑day practice; as, for example, in the lodges of early last century, whose members, while unable to accept these " Old Charges " as their every‑day guides, nevertheless, sought to understand their significance as moral standards, and " time immemorial " indications of the spirit which should animate them in all their transactions, as trade and fraternal organizations.
Their influence thus remained, even long after they ceased to provide the current laws and regulations of the Brotherhood.
They do not throw much light on the inner workings of the old lodges, but without their evidence, all would be veritable darkness down to the sixteenth century; and hence Brother Stillson has acted wisely in devoting so much space to their examination, and discreetly in choosing as aids such trusty authorities as Brothers Robert Freke Gould, George William Speth, and others.
It does not appear to me that the text of the oldest of these MSS. warrants the belief that, at the period of its usage, the Fraternity was in the habit of employing certain " signs, tokens, and words," such as was the custom later on, to secure due recognition as a body wherever its members might travel. It
INTRODUCTION.
XiX ,,
may have been so, but apprentices in any trade were just as much obligated o keep its mysteries, or privitfes, within their own circle, as was the Masonic ization. It is only as we come down to more modern times that we can itively affirm that esoteric privileges and customs were connected with Masonic initiation, wholly distinct and different from that of all other trades. The "Melrose MSS.," however, of A.D. 1581, or earlier (known to us in the transcript of 1674), contains clear intimation of secrets confined to the Free masons, such
as
"Ve privilegee
of
ye
compass, square, level', and
ye plum‑rule."
( Vide Kalendar of MSS., No. 17.) That the Lodge from the first was exclusively used by the brethren seems equally clear, and undoubtedly was kept sacred to the Fraternity, because all the members were bound to preserve the art of building as a monopoly among themselves. The secret then mainly, if not exclusively, was the way io build;' and the tyled lodges contributed to the preservation of such trade mysteries, while and wherever the monopolizing tendencies of the " Old Charges" were respected and followed. So long as their injunctions were obeyed, cowans were unknown; but, as the regulations became relaxed and less stringent laws were permitted, there gradually grew up, side by side with the regularly obligated Brotherhood, another body of operatives, who, in spite of bitter opposition and lack of prestige, without " Old Charges " or || Mason's Word," contrived to hold their own, and eventually broke down the monopoly, thus paving the way for the purely Speculative Society of modern days.
That Speculative Freemasonry existed as far back as the oldest "Charges" preserved, is abundantly confirmed by reference to their text, especially that of the second oldest MS. ; but it is not likely that the gentlemen and tradesmen who were initiated then, and subsequently, contributed to the overthrow of the Masonic monopoly. To my mind, they were among its strongest supporters, and became the means of providing funds for the promotion of strictly lodge work and customs, by payment of increased initiation fees.
Had it not been for the introduction of `| Speculative " membership, that is, the initiation of gentlemen and others who were not Freemasons, or those who had no intention of becoming such, as a means of livelihood, ‑during the seventeenth century, especially, ‑ it looks as if the Ancient Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons would have ceased to exist long ere this, and its tory, generally, would well‑nigh have been forgotten.
The preservation, therefore, of our time‑honored Institution, at a period r,‑when the " Old Charges " almost wholly ceased to be influential as trade rules and authoritative guides, is due more to the Speculative than to the Operative portion of the Fraternity, and proves the wisdom of our Masonic forefathers, in providing for the introduction of other elements than those 1 "We may conclude that the Craft or mystery of architects and Operative Masons was involved ht secrecy, by which a knowledge of their practice was carefully excluded from the acquirement of all whotvere not enrolled in their Fraternity,"‑Rev. Yames Dallaway, 1833.
XX INTROD UCTION.
originally contemplated, by which the permanency and continuity of the Fraternity have been secured to this day.
Unfortunately there are extant no records of actual lodge meetings prior to the year 1599, so that the exact proportion that the Speculative bore to the Operative element, in such assemblies, before that period, is more or less a matter of conjecture, though of its Speculative character, in part, there is no doubt.
It has long been the fashion the honor of designing works erected in England during the period under consideration, but that opinion has received its quietus from the hands of Mr. Wyatt Papworth, who, in his 1| Notes on the Superintendents of English Buildings in the Middle Ages" (1887), has demonstrated that "The Master Masons were, generally, the architects during the mediaeval period in England," and that it is to them we owe those noble structures which are the admiration of the world.
The Reverend James Dallaway enforced a similar view in 1833, in his remarkable "Historical Account of Master and Free Masons," wherein he notes that " The honor, due to the original founders of these edifices, is almost invariably transferred to the ecclesiastics, under whose patronage they rose, rather than to the skill and design of the Master Mason, or professional architect, because the only historians were monks." Any remarks of mine, about the importance and spread of Speculative Freemasonry, are not intended to detract in the slightest degree from the high estimation in which we should hold the original patrons and preservers of the art, while it was, to all intents and purposes, an exclusively operative combination of builders, composed of apprentices, journeymen (or Fellow Crafts), and Master Masons.
The name or title "FREE‑MASON" is met with so far back as the fourteenth century, its precise import at that period being a matter of discussion even at the present time. The original statute, of A.D. 135o, reads "Mestre de franche teer," and thus points to the conclusion that a Freemason then was one who worked in free‑stone, and assuredly a superior artisan to another class, who, as less skilled masons, were employed on rough work only.
It may fairly be assumed that such interpretation applied to the name at that period, whenever used, and soon became the favored term, in lieu of the older designations "cementarius," or "lathomus," etc.
During the following century the Freemasons are frequently referred to in contracts, statutes, *etc. ; and indeed, as Mr. Papworth states (who cites numerous instances), " No later examples need be given, for thereafter Mason and Freemason are terms in constant use down to the present time." The purely fanciful, though ingenious suggestion, that Free‑mason is derived from frere mason (i.e., Brother Mason), does not commend itself to my judgment, for there is not an old record or minute of any lodge which supports to credit certain Church dignitaries with INTRODUCTION.
XXi such a derivation or illustrates such a usage, and so it is wholly destitute of confirmation.
It will be manifest, as the evidence of the lodge‑records is unfolded, that though Freemason originally signified a worker on free‑stone, it became the custom, farther on, to apply the term to all Craftsmen who had obtained their freedom as Masons to work in lodges with the Fraternity, after due apprenticeship and passing as Fellow Crafts. "Cowans," no matter how skilful they may have become, were not Free‑masons, and the Scottish Crafts, especially, were most particular in defining the differences that existed between "freemen " and '| un‑freemen," in regard to all the trades then under stringent regulations.
The "Schaw Statutes," Scotland, of A.D. 1599, provided that "Na Cowains" work with the Masons; the Masters and Fellows being sworn, annually, to respect that exclusive rule. Many of the meetings of the old lodges, in the seventeenth century, were mostly taken up with resisting the gradual but persistent encroachments of these cowans, who, though the civil guilds and Masonic authorities were all in league against them, managed to live amid their foes, and, though not free‑Masons were still Masons.
The earliest known minute of the Lodge of Edinburgh notes an apology for employing a cowan (July 31, 1599) The merchant tailors of Exeter, A.D. 1466, had a regulation in force, that no one was to have a " board," or shop, unless free of the city, and in the ordinances they are called "Free Saweres," and, likewise, "free Brotherys." There were three classes, viz. : master tailors, free sewers (or journeymen), and apprentices.
The "Freemen of the Mystery of Carpenters," in the city of London obliged all non‑Freemen of their Craft to take up their freedom, or fines were imposed. On November 5, 1666, we meet with the suggestive term "Free Carpenters," and in 1651 "Free Sawiers," and, on June 24, 1668, a female was "made free" of the guild or mystery. On September 5, 1442, the " Unfree as ffreemen " were called upon to defend the || town of Aberdeen." The '| Seal of Cause " of the |` Hammermen " of the same city, April 12, 1496, recited that no one should "sett up Buth.to wyrk within the said Burgh quhill he be maid an Freeman thairof," and the " Chirurgeons " and other professions and trades "received frie‑men" as approved candidates, who were thus "Frie‑Burgesses " accordingly.
The venerable Melrose Lodge, in its first preserved minute, of December 28, 16 74, enacted: "yt wn ever a prentice is mad frie Mason he must pay four pund Scotts"; hence we subsequently frequently read in the records that various men were |` entered and received fr[free] to ye trade," and "past frie to ye trade," and similar entries.
No matter what the trade, provision was made in olden time " That every man that is to be made frie‑man be eitamined and provet on their Points," etc., as illustrated in the 11 Regius MS.," and other 11 Old Charges " re Masons.
Xxll
INTRODUCTION.
So that, whether they were the 11 Masownys of the luge " (as noted on June z 7, 1483, at Aberdeen), or members of other guilds, "the great aithe sworne" in those days induced them alike most carefully to provide that their Crafts be exclusively confined to free‑men and brothers, and "to be leile trew on all pontis" (Aberdeen, November
, 1498).
It would be tedious to detail at more length the available evidence respecting the application of the prefix free to the purposes aforesaid, but certainly the explanation offered as to free Mason' free Carpenter, free Sewer, etc., has the merit of being an easy and rational solution confirmed by ancient records. Suffice it to state that even down so late as the year 1763, the "Rules and Orders of the Lodge of Free‑Masons in the Town of Alnwick," provide that " if any Fellows of the Lodge shall, without the cognizance and approbation of the Master and Wardens, presume to hold private Lodges or Assemblies with an Intent to make any Person free of this honourable Lodge, they shall each forfets to the Box the sum of 3Z 6s. 8a:" This lodge, long extinct, has records preserved from the year 1701, and never joined the Grand Lodge of England. (Kalendar of MSS., No. a7.) From the year i6oo (June 8), when a non‑operative) or Speculative Freemason was present as a member, and attested the minutes of the meeting by his mark (as the operatives), the records are so voluminous and important of the " Lodge of Edinburgh " (Mary's Chapel), and of other old Ateliers in Scotland, that it is with extreme difficulty a brief selection can be made with any satisfaction, the wealth of minutes being quite embarrassing. Brother D. Murray Lyon's great work, and numerous volumes besides by other brethren,‑especially the Transactions of the "Quatuor Coronati" Lodge, London, ‑are brimful of invaluable and trustworthy accounts of the Fraternity, extending back nearly three centuries.
The Lodge of Edinburgh, No. 1, was regulated in part by the statutes of 1598, promulgated by William Schaw, " Principal Warden and Chief Master of Masons" to King James VI. of Scotland, who succeeded Sir Robert Drummond as Master of Works, in 1583, and died in 16oa. There are twenty‑two "Items" or clauses, and, being given in full by Brother Lyon, 187r, and |` Constitutions" Grand Lodge of 1848, mention now need only be made of one or two of the more remarkable.
The rules are based on the "Old Charges," but altered to suit that period. They were for all Scotland, and received the consent of the " Maisteris efter specifeit." Apprentices were to serve seven years at the least, and their being || maid fallows in Craft " was dependent on passing an examination as to their operative skill, and Masters were created in like manner, save as to honorary members. It was enacted: " That na maister or fallow of craft be ressauit nor admittit wtout the names of sex maisteris and twa enterit prenteissis, the wardene of that ludge being ane of the said sex, and that the day of 1 John Boswell, Esq., of Auchinleck.
% INTRODUCTION.
xxiii the ressavyng of the said fallow of craft or maister be orderlie buikit and his name and mark insert in the said buik wt the names of his sex admitteris and enterit prenteissis, and the names of the intendaris that salbe chosin." An " assay and sufficient tryall of skill " was a sine qua non of promotion; just as in modern days, the examinations in open lodge, preparatory to a higher degree being conferred, are obligatory, and are the counterparts of the operative essays of by‑gone days. The Masters were " sworne be thair grit aith " [great oath] to truly respect the statutes which were officially issued.
From 16oo to 1634, the records of No. i are silent as to the admission of speculatives, but contain entries of apprentices, and admissions of Fellow Crafts by the 11 friemen and burgesses " of the lodge.
Apprentices were members, and exercised their privileges as such, just as the Craftsmen and Masters; and even attested the elections of members, being present in lodge, and thus consenting to and acknowledging the receptions of Craftsmen and Masters. This proves that the passing to superior grades could not have required any esoteric ceremonies that apprentices were ineligible to witness.
Special care was exercised in registering the names of the proposers or "admitters," and of the "intendaris" or instructors.
An officer called "Eldest Entered Prentice," even officiated at the passing of Fellow Crafts.
The Deacon of the lodge was President (called "Preses," in 1710), and the Warden was Treasurer; but the officers were not uniform in lodges, as in some the Master is mentioned from 1670.
On July 3, 1634, the Right Honorable Lord Alexander was " admitit folowe off the Craft," and also Sir Alexander Strachan. On December 27, 1636, an apprentice was duly made, `| with the heall consent of the heall masters, frie mesones of Ednr"; there being but this one lodge in the city at that time.
Lord Alexander, Viscount Canada, so Brother Lyon tells us, "was a young man of great expectations; but he dissipated a fortune, and endured great personal hardships, in establishing a colony on the River St. Lawrence." He and his brother, admitted on the same day (July 3, 1634), were sons of the first Earl of Stirling; Sir Anthony Alexander being Master of Work to King Charles I., and so noted in the minutes.
Another brother, Henrie Alexander, was "admittet ane falowe" on February 16, 1638, and succeeded to the office of General Warden and Master of Work.
He became third Earl of Stirling in 1640, and died ten years later.
General Hamilton was initiated on May 20, 1640, as 1| fellow and Mr‑ off the forsed Craft," and Dr. William Maxwell was received July 27, 1647. A remarkable entry of March z, 1653, calls for mention, as it concerns the election of a '| Joining member." " The qlk day, in presence of Johne Milln deacon, Quentein Thomsone, wardeine, and remnant brethrene of maisones of the Lodge of Ednr., compeired James Neilsone, maister Sklaitter to his majestie, being entered and past in the Lodge of Linlithgow, the said James Neilsone humblie
xxiv INTRODUCTION.
desyring to be receiued in to be a member of our Lodg off Edn., which desire the wholl companie did grant and received him as brother and fellow of our companie ; in witness qrof we the wholl freemen have set our hands or marks." Doubtless this application was to enable Brother Neilsone to work for his living in the city, fortified with the good will and fellowship of the lodge.
Sir Patrick Hume, Bart., |` was admited in as fellow of craft (and Master) of this lodg," on December 27, 1667; and, three years later, the Right Honorable William Morray [Murray], Justice Depute of Scotland, Walter Pringle, Advocate, and Sir John Harper were admitted " Brothers and fellow crafts." The Scottish army, having defeated the Royalists at Newburn, in 1640, advanced and took possession of Newcastle (England), where it remained for some months, during the deliberations of the Commissioners. In the army were several members of this Lodge of Edinburgh, who, on May 20, 1641, convened an emergency meeting and admitted or initiated General Quartermaster Robert Moray [Murray]. On returning to the city some time afterward, the extraordinary circumstance was duly reported, and as duly entered on the records, being attested by General Hamilton aforesaid, James Hamilton, and "Johne Mylnn." The John Mylne thus noted represented a family of Craftsmen whose connection with this lodge extended over two hundred years. The third John Mylne (of Masonic fame), came to Edinburgh in 1616, and belonged to the lodge.
He was Master Mason to Charles I., and resigned that office in favor of his eldest son, John, who was || made a Fellow craft" in the lodge in October, r633, and was with the Scottish army 1640‑1641.
He was Deacon of the lodge, and Warden in 1636, and frequently reelected to the former office. His brother Alexander was "passed fellow craft " in 1635, and his nephew, Robert, was || entered prentice " to him December 27, 1653, and passed as a Fellow Craft on September 23, 166o.
Robert's eldest son, William, was a member from December 27, 1681, "passed" in 1685, and died in 1728. His eldest son, Thomas, was admitted an apprentice December 27, 1721, and was""crafted" in 1729, being the Master of No. i, on the formation of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, in 1736. William Mylne, second son of this brother, was "receaved and entred apprentice in the ordinary forme " on December 27, 175o, and was "passed and raised operative master," after exhibiting his due qualifications, on December 20, 1758.
He died in 1790.
Thomas, his brother and eldest son to the Thomas Mylne before noted, became an "apprentice as honorary member," on January 14, 1754. He died in 181 r, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, having been its surveyor for some fifty years.
Thus terminated that family's connection with this venerable lodge, which had extended through five generations, beginning early in the seventeenth century through the representative of the third generation of that famous family, whose distinguished Masonic career is recited in the Perth charter of A.D. 1658.
INTRODUCTION.
XXv
In1688 a schism occurred in No. 1, by a number of members starting a separate lodge for themselves in the ôCanongate and Leith," by which name since been known, and is now No. 5 on the Scottish Roll. The ôMother" was most indignant at such conduct, and tried every means in her power to thwart the movement, but in vain.
Another swarm, but involving much more serious consequences, occurred in .1709, and was still more objectionable to No. 1, because the seceders, generally, were not Masters, but "journeymen." This peculiarity led to the second offshoot being so named, now well known by that title, as No. 8 on the Register.
Two of its members were imprisoned (who had been admitted as apprentices in 1694), and all that officialism could do to crush the recalcitrants was cruelly employed, but utterly failed.
Arbitration eventually led to a 'suspension of hostilities, and on January 8, 1715, the " Decreet Arbitral " was made known and certified.
By this award the journeymen were empow.ered "to meet together by themselves as a society for giving the Mason's word"; and thus was forever broken down the monoply of the |1 Incorporation of Wrights and Masons " of Edinburgh, of A.D. 1475, origin, whose Master Masons had so long claimed the exclusive right to thus admit Apprentices, pass Fellow Crafts, and elect Masters in the ancient Lodge of that city.
"Mother Lodge Kilwinning, No. 0," is universally known and respected .throughout the Masonic world. Unfortunately its earliest records are lost, stud have been so for many years, the oldest preserved ranging from Decem ber 20, 1642, to December 5, 1758‑
Its meetings were held in Kilwinning, Scotland, the jurisdiction of the lodge extending even so far as Glasgow, in the year 1599.
(Kalendar of MSS., No. 14 .) Schaw's Supplementary Code of 1599 (only discovered in quite recent times), refers to three " heid Ludges " in Scotland, '| the first and principal " being that of Edinburgh, the second Kilwinning, and the third Stirling; so that notwithstanding the present position of 1| Mother Lodge Kilwinning " as head of the Scottish Roll as No. o, some three hundred years ago, it was the second as respects seniority, according to the decision of Schaw. Moreover, his official award is declared to have been based on evidence '| notourlie xanifest in our awld ancient writers." The Earl of Cassilis was Master of the Lodge of Kilwinning in 1670, though only an apprentice, and was succeeded by Sir Alexander Cunninghame. After him, the Earl of Eglintoune occupied the Chair, but was simply an apprenice, and, in 1678, Lord William Cochrane (son of the Earl of Dundonald), was a Warden.
No surprise need be felt at apprentices being thus raised to, the highest position in the lodge, seeing that members of the first grade had to be present at the passing or making of Craftsmen and Masters, a rule also enforced and minuted in this lodge December 20, 1643, when the brethren assembled "in the upper chamber of the dwelling house of Hugh Smithe." This most significant fact appears to me to be a permanent barrier against the
7CXV1 INTRODUCTION.
notion that there were separate and independent Masonic degrees in the seventeenth century, as there were, say, from A.D. 1717. Three grades or classes are clearly exhibited, just as with other trades, then and now, but not esoteric degrees at the reception of Craftsmen (or journeymen), and Masters, as some excellent authorities confidently claim.
The phraseology of the records of each lodge is peculiar to itself, though having much in common. Lodge No. o, for example, December ig, 1646, minute, states that certain Masons were accepted as 1| fellow‑brethren to ye said tred quha bes sworne to ye standart of the said ludge ad vitam."
The Warden is mentioned first on the list of officers present, and the Deacon next, whereas the reverse is the case in the records of No. 1.
Great care was exercised in the appointment of officers, and even the Clerk, in 1643, took his " oath of office," and others were obligated in like manner.
The popularity of this organization, designated "The Ancient Lodge of Scotland," in 1643, has been wide‑spread and continuous, consequent mainly upon its granting so many charters for subordinates. Its earliest child, still vigorous and healthy, is the |` Canongate Kilwinning," No. z, which originated from the permission given by the venerable parent, December zo, 1677, for certain of its members, resident in Edinburgh, "To enter recevve and pase any qualified persons that they think fitt in name and behalf of the Ludge of Kilwinning." According to custom, the pendicles of this old lodge in Ayrshire, generally added the name " Kilwinning " to their designations or titles, and hence the description " St. John's Kilwinning," which lodge was started by the same authority in 1678, and is now No. 6, " Old Kilwinning St. John," Inverness. The Hon. William McIntosh was the first Master, and the lodge, on December az, 1737, received a warrant of confirmation from the Grand Lodge of Scotland, in which it is asserted (respecting Master Masons), without any evidence whatever, that the members from 1678 "received and entered apprentices, past Fellow Crafts, and raised Master Masons." The petition of 1737 is extant, as agreed to by the lodge, and, I need scarcely state, no such preposterous claim was made by the brethren at that time, or since, for there was in 1678, no Third degree.
In 1737 there were some fifty members, mostly Speculative, so we are informed by Brother Alexander Ross, in 1877.
Brother Robert Wylie gives a list of the charters he has been able to trace (and copies thereof as far as possible), in his " History of Mother Kilwinning Lodge," some thirty‑five in number, ‑ without exhausting the roll, ‑ down to 1807 (for during a portion of its career my esteemed Scottish "Mother" acted as a Grand Lodge, and rival to that at Edinburgh), including Tap pahannock Kilwinning Lodge, Virginia (A.D. 1758), and Falmouth Kilwinning Lodge (A.D. 1775), Virginia, America; as also, the "High Knights Templars" Lodge, Dublin, A.D. 1779.1 1 Colonel Moore's remarks as to this Irish lodge (Division XVII.), should be carefully noted.
INTRODUCTION.
XXV11
Other Old Lodges in Scotland, all of pre‑Grand Lodge origin, that ought `to be noted are : ‑ (a) No‑ 3, " Scone and Perth " (its oldest preserved document being of date December 24, 1658, subscribed to by the |` Maisters, Friemen and Fellow Crafts off Perth, " the lodge being the " prin'e [principal] within the Shyre ") . (b) No‑ 3 bis, St. John's, Glasgow (which is noted in the Incorporation ‑ Records so early as 1613, but did not join the Grand Lodge until 1849‑1850), the lodge possibly being active in 1551 when no Craftsman was allowed to work in that city unless entered as a Burgess and Freeman, and membership of the lodge was conditional on entering the Incorporation, its exclusively Operative character remaining intact until some fifty years ago.
(c) No. 9, Dunblane, is credited with having originated in 1696, according to the Scottish Register, but it certainly existed prior to that year, though that is the date of its oldest minute preserved.. It was chiefly Speculative from the first. Viscount Strathalane was the Master in 1696, Alexander Drummond, Esq., was Warden; an |' Eldest Fellow Craft;" Clerk, Treasurer, and an " Officer ", were also elected.
(d) Some lodges lower down on the Scottish Roll go much farther back than No. 9 ; e.g., Haddington ("St. John's Kilwinning "), No. 5 7, dating from 1599, but the evidence for that claim is not apparent, the oldest MS. extant being of the year 1682, and another is of 1697, both referring to the lodge of that town.
(e) One of the most noteworthy and most ancient, with no lack of documentary testimony in its favor, is the old lodge at Aberdeen, No. 34, with its "Mark Book" of A.D. 167o, and a profusion of actual minutes and records from that year. Its comparatively low position on the register says more for the unselfish spirit of its members, last century, than for the justice of the authorities in settling the numeration.
Out of forty‑nine members, whose names are enrolled in the "Mark Book," only eight are known to have been Operative Masons, and for certain, the great majority were Speculative Freemasons.
Four noblemen and several clergymen and other gentlemen were members.
Harrie Elphingston, "Tutor," and a '| Collector of the King's Customs," was the Master when these extraordinary records were begun, and, save as to two, all have their marks regularly registered.'
The " names of the successors " are also duly noted, and a list of the "Entered Prenteises," with their marks, is also inserted, dating from 167o. The Earl of Errol, one of the members, died at an advanced age, in 1674.
The three classes of Apprentices, Fellow Crafts and Master Masons were recognized, the statutes of December 27, 167o, being compiled on the customary lines, only that the Code is more than usually comprehensive and interesting.
Provision was made for || Gentlemen 1Yleasions," as well as "Handie Craftes prenteises" being initiated, in these old 1 Vide plates of Marks from old lodge registers, etc.
XXV111 INTRODUCTION.
rules, and special care for the ,due communication of the "Mason‑word." "Fees of Honour," on the assumption of office, were also payable in some of the old lodges.
(f) "Peebles Kilwinning," No. 24, seems to have started on October 18, 1716, by its own act and deed, for, who was to say nay 7 The minute of the event begins with the declaration that, in consequence of the great loss `| the honorable company of Masons ... have hitherto sustained by the want of a lodge, and finding a sufficient number of brethren in this burgh, did this day erect a lodge among themselves." A Deacon, Warden, and other officers were then elected, and, on December 27, "afterprayer," the several members present were duly examined.
It was Speculative as well as Operative in its constitution.
(g) "Dumfries Kilwinning," No. 53, though only dated 1750, in the Official Register, possesses records back to 1687, and was not, even then, wholly Operative. Different fees were payable by mechanics, and by "no mechanicks," on initiation, in the seventeenth century.
A noteworthy title occurs in an "Indenture betwix Dunde and its 1Ylasoun," of the year 1536, which is the earliest known instance of a Scottish lodge being named after a Saint, viz. : || Our Lady [i.e., St. Mary's] Loge of Dunde." The document is exceedingly curious and valuable, as illustrating the "ald vss of our luge," and another of March i 1, 1659, is of still more interest, as it contains the rules then agreed to by the "Frie‑Masters" (with the concurrence of the town authorities), which are mostly in accordance with the older laws of the Craft, and framed with due regard to the privileges of the sons of Freemen.
(h) Other old lodges might be enumerated of the seventeenth century, such as Atcheson‑Haven, with its valuable MS. Of A.D. 1666. (Kalendar of MSS, No. 15 .) (i) Banf, with many important minutes of early last century.
(j) Brechin, with rules and records from 1714.
(No. 6 enacts that men not freemen, who desire to work in the lodge, shall pay a fee; No. 8 arranges for "joining members " ; No. 9, Marks to be registered; and " Frie‑Masters " are noted as well as free apprentices.)
These all (though of a most interesting character), must be passed over, but the following should be briefly described, because of their relevancy to the subject under consideration : (k) The Lodge of Kelso, No. 58, was resuscitated in 1878, after many years of dormancy. When it was originally formed cannot now be decided, but the earliest preserved minutes begin December 27, 17or, when "the Honorable Lodge assembled under the protection of Saint John."
The Master, in 1702, was George Faa, his death as such being then noted, who was succeeded by " Sir John Pringall," an ancestor of the present Sir Norman Pringle, Bart., who is a Past Master of No. 92, London.
Brother Vernon's History contains many gems well worth reproduction herein, if feasible, but not being practicable, I can only hope they will be care‑ INTRODUCTION.
Xxlx fully studied when opportunities arise. This lodge, Speculative as well as Operative from the year 1701, continued its eventful career down to some fifty years since, when it fell through for some time. The members obtained a charter from the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1754, in which year (June 18), it was discovered "That this lodge had attained only to the two degrees of Apprentice and Fellow Craft, and know nothing of the Master's part."
This defect was there and then remedied by the formation of a Master's lodge, but it is curious to note the fact.
(Z) The ancient lodges at Metrose and Haughfoot are the last of the Scottish series to be referred to now, the preserved records of the former dating from January j3, 167o ! The members have remained independent of the Grand Lodge of Scotland down to this year, but arrangements are in progress for its union with that body as No. 1 bis, being the third in reality, as it will be preceded by No. o, and No. 1, already described. This happy event was consummated February 225th, of this year (r8gr), the Grand Lodge ind the lodge being agreed.
In none of the records are there to be found any references to three ,degrees, until very recent times, the only secret ceremony being at the initiation. The lodge was chiefly, if not exclusively, Operative, and its records are mainly taken up with the entering of Apprentices, and "Receiving Free to the Tread" all eligible members accepted by the brethren.
(m) The lodge at Haughfoot described by the Provincial Grand Secretary (Brother R. Sanderson); though not of the age bf some of the previous lodges, possesses records
from
1'702, the first of which,
at page
r 1
of December 22, 1702, has given rise to much discussion.
It reads exactly as follows, so Brother Sanderson certifies to me : ‑ Of entrie as the apprentice did leaving out (the Common Judge).
Then they whisper the word as before, and the Master Mason grips his hand after the.ordinary way." I fail to find in this excerpt any proof that two or more degrees were worked at that time; and if the minute refers to the reception or "passing' of a Fellow Craft, or Master (then simply official or complimentary positions), assuredly Apprentices might have been and possibly were present, for the "entrie" was not ‑different to what theirs had been, the word being |` as before," and the grap was in the " ordinary way." On the same day Sir James Scott and five others were |' orderly admitted Apprentices and Fellow Craft," in what was termed " the said Society of Masons and Fellow Craft." No references occur to two or more degrees in any of the old records.
ENGLAND is far behind SCOTLAND as respects minutes of old lodges, and IRELAND possesses none before the last century, but the former country is very rich in its collection of the "Old Charges." Of actual lodges in South Britain, we have to come down to 1701 (save the one already noted at Newcastle of the former century), before we meet with XXX INTROD UCTION.
any minute‑books. We are not, however, without information concerning English lodge meetings so far back as 1646. Elias Ashmole "was made a Freemason at Warrington, in Lancashire, with Coll Henry Mainwaring, of Karnicham, in Cheshire," as he states in his Diary (on October 16, 1646), which was printed and published in 1717, and again in 1774.
Brother W. H. Rylands declares that, so far as he is able to judge, "there is not a scrap of evidence that there was a single Operative Mason present," and, after a thorough examination of the entry, that able writer considers " the whole of the evidence seems to point quite in the opposite direction." It is remarkable that the " Sloane MS. No. 3848 " (which is a copy of the || Old Charges "), bears the same date as this meeting, and it is just possible was used on that occasion. (Kalendar of MSS., No. lo.) On March io, 1682, Ashmole received '| a Sumons to app| at a Lodge to be held the next day, at Masons' Hall, London." This noted antiquary duly attended and witnessed the admission " into the Fellowship of Free Masons " of Sir William Wilson, Knt., and five other gentlemen.
He was the |` Senior Fellow among them," and they all |` dyned at the charge of the new‑accepted Masons." These are the only entries relating to the Craft in this gossipy journal, but they are of great value and interest, as will be seen.
In the " Harleian MS., No. 2054," which contains another copy of the "Old Charges" (at pp. 33‑34), is an extraordinary lodge entry (apparently) of 050 circa, beginning with "William Wade w` give for to be a free mason," and likewise, what is evidently a reproduction of the oath used at that period, to keep secret "the words and signes of a free mason." (No. q, in Kalendar.) Over a score of names are noted on one of these folios, and according to Brother Ryland's researches (confirmed by my own), it seems certain that very few of them were connected with the Craft as operatives, if any.
The papers on this subject (A.D. 1882), by the brother just mentioned, are of his best work in behalf of historical Freemasonry, and cannot be surpassed. Randle Holme (the third), was the author of the "Academie of Armory," 1688, and as a Herald, Deputy to Garter King of Arms for Chester, etc. His name is one of the twenty‑six noted in this unique MS.; and he (Brother Rylands points out for the first time), in the work aforesaid, speaks of the antiquity of " the Fellowship of the Masons," and acknowledged his member ship of the Society so late as 1688.
The references are too numerous to be mentioned now, but they are all of a.most important character.
Although Bacon (Lord Verulam), died in 1626, and Ashmole was not initiated until twenty years later, it has long been a favorite notion with many that to the "Rosicrucians" of 16r4, etc., and Bacon's "New Atlantis," the Freemasons are mainly indebted for many portions of their modern rituals. There is certainly much more to be said in support of this view than in regard to any connection with the Knights Templars down to the early part of last century.
The latter fancy is really not worth consideration; but two works by INTRODUCTION.
p:W. F. C. Wigston, published recently, on '1 Bacon, Shakespeare, and the tians," etc., and " Francis Bacon, Poet, Prophet, and Philosopher," a mass of facts and arguments, all tending in the direction of Rosi and Baconian ideas influencing the Masonic Revivalists of 1717.
The is not one that can be settled off‑hand, or in the limits of a few pages; it strikes me that there is still light to be thrown on the origin Of modern nic degrees, by a careful study of the evidence accumulated by such gent investigators as Mr. Wigston and others, whose labors surely need not discredited simply because of the Shakespearian controversy in relation to cis Bacon, about which there is, naturally, a difference of opinion.
An this point I have ventured so far as to declare that the || New 14tlantis Seems to be, and probably is, the key to the modern rituals of Freemasonry." ',:There for the present the question must be left, so far as the writer is concerned.
It opens up a very suggestive field of inquiry.
To whom we owe modern Freemasonry of |' three degrees " and their additlons, such as the Royal Arch, we know not. I am inclined to credit Drs. liers and Anderson with the honor of the first trio, but Brother Gould is not, and certainly evidence is lacking as to the point.
The transactions at the inauguration of the premier Grand Lodge of the rld, at London, in 1717, were not, unfortunately, duly recorded at the time, hence the "Book of Constitutions," A,D. 1723, and the earliest minutes the Grand Lodge of that year, with Anderson's account of the meeting in second edition of 1738, are practically all we have to guide us.
Your Old Lodges" for certain, and probably more, took part in the prods of that eventful gathering, and from that body, so formed, has ig, directly or indirectly, every Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted , working three degrees, in the universe.
When these lodges originated Aot known, but some of them, possibly, during the seventeenth century. were several other old lodges working, in their own prescriptive right, 'land during the second decade of last century, though they took no in the new organization at first.
Of these; one in particular may be noted, which assembled at Alnwick .an early date, and whose preserved rules and records begin 1701I gave a sketch of this ancient lodge in the Freemason (London), 21, 1871, as its regulations of 1701 are of considerable value, its copy "Old Charges" is still treasured, and its minutes were kept down to enth decade of last century, as already noted. (N0. 2 7, in Kalendar.) e Grand Lodge was also petitioned to constitute or regularize many in London and in the country, but as these all took date from their ition, we know lamentably little of their previous career.
The one at like its fellow at Alnwick, never joined the new body, but preferred ndence, even if it involved isolation.
The records of this old lodge m the year 1712, but a roll from 1705 was noted in the inventory of INTRODUCTION.
11779. When it was inaugurated it is impossible to say, but it maybe a descendant of the lodge which we know was active at York Minster in the fourteenth century.
The York brethren started a "Grand Lodge of all England," in 11725, and kept it alive for some twenty years.
After a short interval it was revived, in 117611, and continued to work until 11792, when it collapsed.
Prior to this date, several subordinates were chartered.
One, possibly, at Scarborough, of 11705, was held under its auspices, and much work was done, but all confined to England.
The serious error of calling the "Atholl" brethren of America " York Masons," has, it is to be hoped, long ceased to be used or tolerated in the United States.
‑ The Grand Lodge of Ireland, at Dublin, was formed 11728‑11729 ; but there was one held previously at Cork, as the " Grand Lodge for Munster," certainly as early as 11725. The Scottish brethren did not follow the example set by England until 11736, and then managed. to secure Brother William St. Clair, of Roslin, as their Grand Master, whose ancestors by deeds of A.D. 116oo‑11628 circa, had been patrons of the Craft but never Grand Masters, though that distinction has been long claimed as hereditary in that Masonic family. Brother E. Macbean is now writing as to these points.
From this Trio of Grand Lodges, situated in Great Britain, and Ireland, have sprung all the thousands of lodges, wherever distributed, throughout the "wide, wide world." Through their agency, and particularly that of the " Military lodges " of last century, the Craft has been planted far and wide. Though there is. evidence to prove that brethren assembled in America, and probably elsewhere, in lodges, prior to the formation of either of these Grand Lodges, or quite apart from such influence, as in Philadelphia in 117311, or earlier, and in New Hampshire, soon afterward (the latter apparently having their manuscript copy of the " Old Charges "), nothing has ever been discovered, to my knowledge, which connects such meetings with the working of the historic " three degrees" of last century origin, and post‑Grand Lodge era. There were, however, some connecting links between the old regime and the new, to enable visitations and reciprocal changes of membership to be indulged in.
Some seven years after the premier Grand Lodge was launched, authorities to constitute Lodges were issued for Bath and other cities and towns, and a few, later, for abroad ; especially through the medium of Provincial Grand Masters, first appointed in 11725 circa, as at Boston, Massachusetts, in the year 11733ò On this most interesting topic, as respects America, I dare not dwell, and am unable to offer any opinion on the manner in which it is treated (owing to the exigencies of printing), by doubtless most competent Craftsmen, in Divisions V. to X.
My able coadjutor, Brother John Lane, the authority on all such matters, has, in Division IV., presented an excellent summary and table of all the INTRODUCTION.
XXX111 ges constituted in America, by either the regular Grand Lodge of England sometimes known as the " Moderns "), or the rival Grand Lodge, also held in London (of 1751 origin, and frequently but absurdly styled " Ancients "), From 1733 to the formation of the United Grand Lodge, in December, 1813, from that period down to the year 1889. The Grand Lodges of Ireland d Scotland likewise participated in the honor of making Freemasonry known bn the great continent of America, but only slightly so compared with either of the two rival Grand Lodges in England.
The cosmopolitan basis of the Society thus inaugurated in 1717 does not appear to have wholly satisfied the Brotherhood. Initiation and membership, without regard to creed, color, or clime, was an extraordinary departure from the previous Christian foundation of the Society.
Even at the present time some Grand Lodges select all their members from professing Christians only (though no such condition was laid down on their origin), and many are the differences between the several governing bodies, while they have sufficient in common to permit of reciprocal visitation.
I am very much oú the opinion of Brother E. T. Carson (of Cincinnati), that to the dislike of the unsectarian character of the Fraternity from 1717, is due the origination and spread of Masonic degrees for professing Christians pnly, from about 1735, or before. The Knights Templars, the "Royal Order of Scotland," and some of the degrees of the " Ancient and Accepted Rite," owe much of their vitality to their rituals being wholly based on the New Testament, and thus exclusively Christian.
I regret my inability, from the cause previously mentioned, to offer at this time any opinion on Divisions XII. to XV., but the names of the writers are a complete guarantee of their excellence, value, and reliability.
The comprehensive " History of the Knights Templars and the Crusades," by Bishop Perry, will be eagerly welcomed by the many thousands of brethren who patronize the "additional degrees," and forms a most attractive feature of Division II. His deliverance respecting the connection existing between the modern and ancient Knights Templars should be carefully studied by those who, like myself, believe it is impossible to bridge over the `| Interregnum " referred to.
Division XVIL, by my lamented friend, Colonel McLeod Moore (his last essay and his best), is an able treatise on |1 British Templary," by a brother whose knowledge of Chivalric Masonry was unsurpassed; and, with the preceding division by Brother Frederic Speed, is of absorbing interest to the tens of thousands of Masonic Knights Templars in the United States and Canada, where that degree is so extremely popular.
So far as my experience has gone, I have not found that the attention paid to these extra degrees has, in any way, diminished the interest taken in the foundation‑ceremonies of the Craft ; but, on the contrary, the most zealous in the one class is generally seen to be the most devoted in the other; though xxxiv
INTRODUCTION.
I much wish the number of degrees was lessened, and the cost of the special regalia and jewels considerably reduced in price. How far it has been desirable to add to the number of Masonic degrees (so‑called) of late years, opens up a most important question, and one about which some of us hold very strong opinions.
The Editor‑in‑Chief has thought it necessary to admit a chapter on "The Eastern Star."
Assuredly if this Order is admitted it is in safe hands when entrusted to Brother Willis D. Engle ; and so also as to the article on "The Rosicrucian Society," by the gifted writer, Brother McClenachan, which is found in rather strange company (Division XX.).
The " Cryptic Degrees " (Division XIV.), by Dr. E. Grissom, has been perused by me with considerable pleasure, and of that treatise, as with the others, generally, I can affirm without hesitation that the most reliable authorities have been consulted, the result being the presentation of able digests, written with great pains and scrupulous fidelity, relating to the Fraternity in one form or other, ‑ legendary, ritualistic, historic, ‑ which cannot fail to be invaluable to the American Brotherhood in particular, and wherever the Society is rightly appreciated and duly valued.
Not the least important contributions to the tout ensemble, are Brother Stillson's preliminary observations to many of the Divisions, which should be diligently perused, as effective introductions and aids to their critical study.
Three questions naturally fall to be answered by inquirers anxious to know somewhat of our great beneficent Society.
r. Whence came Freemasonry? z. What is it?
3. What is it doing?
This splendid volume furnishes replies to the first and second of these queries, but the third must be laved to be effective.
Theories prevail, more or less, as to the first two, but in relation to the last of the trio, right or wrong conduct is involved; and according to the one or the other, the world will judge as to what Freemasonry is, and care much or little as to its origin.
If the votaries of the Craft seek to become living, loving, and loyal embodiments of the humanly perfect Ideal set before them, and each individual member acts as if the honor of the Fraternity was specially entrusted to his keeping, the continued prosperity of our Brotherhood is assured, and wide‑spread and popular as are its influence and philanthropic work of to‑day, we are as yet far from reaching the limits of this organization, either as respects numbers or usefulness.
PART I.
ANCIENT MASONRY. ‑THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES, COGNATE ORDERS OF CHIVALRY, AND THE "OLD CHARGES" OF FREEMASONS.
(Introductory to the Perfected Organization of Modern Times.) INTRODUCTION.
THE SIX THEORIES OF 11 THE MYSTERIES." PROFESSOR FISHER, of Yale University, says : '1 The subject of history is man. History has for its object to record his doings and experiences. It ‑may then be concisely defined as a narrative of past events in which men have been concerned. . . .
History has been called ` the biography of a society.'
Biography has to do with the career of an individual.
History is concerned with the successive actions and fortunes of a community; in its broadest extent, with the experiences of the human family.
It is only when men are connected by the social bond, and remain so united for a greater or less period, that there is room for history." This is emphatically true of Freemasonry, defined by Brother Rudolph Seydel (quoted by Findel), as a union of all unions, an association of men, bound together in their struggles to attain all that is noble, who desire only what is true and beautiful, who love and practise virtue for its own sake, this is Freemasonry, the most comprehensive of all human confederacies. From whence came this unique society? It is one of the purposes of this work to give an intelligent reply to the question ; and yet the way is beset with difficulty, because the truth of its history, the story of its growth to the present acknowledged grand proportions, is so mixed with legend, with dubious and contradictory statements, that even Chevalier de Bonneville contended that the lives of ten men were none too long a period in which to accomplish the undertaking.
The labors of many talented authors, to which reference is made in the body of this book, have now paved the way so that in this evening of the nineteenth century it is possible to give a reasonable assurance of the truth of the facts quoted; in other words, the rich materials 37 38 ANCIENT MASONRY.
accumulated by the earlier historians of Freemasonry have been so reduced to order as to bear the test of sound and sober criticism.
The relation which the Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons bears to the Ancient Mysteries has been classified by Dr: Mackey, in his Encyclopaedia, into five principal theories, viz. : ‑ " The
first
[to quote his words] is that embraced and taught by Dr. Oliver, that they are but derivations from that common source, both of them and of Freemasonry, the Patriarchal mode of worship established by God himself.
With this pure system of truth, he supposes the science of Freemasonry to have been coeval and identified.
But the truths thus revealed by divinity came at length to be doubted or rejected through the imperfection of human reason ; and, though the visible symbols were retained in the mysteries of the Pagan world, their true interpretation was lost.
"There is a second theory, which, leaving the origin of the mysteries to be sought in the patriarchal doctrines, where Oliver has placed it, finds the connection between them and Freemasonry commencing at the building of King Solomon's Temple.
Over the construction of this building, Hiram, the architect of Tyre, presided.
At Tyre the mysteries of Bacchus had been introduced by the Dionysian Artificers, and into their fraternity, Hiram, in all probability, had, it is necessarily suggested, been admitted.
Freemasonry, whose tenets had always existed in purity among the immediate descendants of the Patriarchs, added now to its doctrines the guard of secrecy, which, as Dr. Oliver remarks, was necessary to preserve them from perversion or pollution.
"A third theory has been advanced by the Abb6 Robin, in which he connects Freemasonry indirectly with the mysteries, through the intervention of the Crusaders. In the work already cited, he attempts to deduce, from the ancient initiations, the orders of chivalry, whose branches, he says, produced the institution of Freemasonry.
"A fourth theory, and this has been recently [1873] advanced by the Rev. Mr. King in his treatise ` On the Agnostics,' is that as some of them, especially those of Mythras, were extended beyond the advent of Christianity, and even to the commencement of the Middle Ages, they were seized upon by the secret societies of that period as a model for their organization, and that through these latter they are to be traced to Freemasonry.
"But perhaps," continues Dr. Mackey, " after all, the truest theory is that which would discard all successive links in a supposed chain of descent from the mysteries to Freemasonry, and would attribute their close resemblance to a natural coincidence of human thought. The legend of the Third degree, and the legends of the Eleusinian, the Cabiric, the Dionysian, the Adonic, and all the other mysteries, are identical in their object to teach the reality of a future life ; and this lesson is taught in all by the use of the same symbolism, and substantially the same scenic representation. And this, not because INTRODUCTION.
39 Masonic Rites are a lineal succession from the Ancient Mysteries, but se there has been at all times a proneness of the human heart to nourish belief in a future life, and the proneness of the human mind is to clothe this ief in a symbolic dress.
And if there is any other more direct connection between them, it must be sought for in the Roman Colleges of Artificers, who did, most probably, exercise some influence over the rising Freemasons of the early ages, and who, as the contemporaries of the mysteries, were, we may well suppose,_imbued with something of their organization." To these five theories we would add a sixth, unless, indeed, it may be said that ours is but an enlargement of Dr. Mackey's.
Concisely stated it is this The fundamental principle of Freemasonry is a belief in God.
Those who believe in the Supreme Architect of heaven and earth, the Dispenser of all good gifts, and the judge of the quick and the dead (as denominated in Masonic Monitors), trace, from the creation, a Divine Providence directing the destiny of man, both in the spiritual and secular domain.
From a study of history, written as well as legendary, we are led to believe that in the latter, taking on the form of fraternity, this agency has exercised a most potent influence‑following in temporal matters the guidance of the divine government in the spiritual affairs of the universe.
The changes that have taken ;place since the creation of the world, whether we reckon time by the eras iarchal, the Jewish and the Christian, or by periods Prehistoric, Ancient, e Medimval and Modern, have all been under the direction of a Divine ispensation working out for humanity its noblest attainments, as well for "the life that now is, as for that which is to come."
This great conservational force is well expressed as a recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.
It was not the sole motive of mail, in ages past, to seek the future life ; there was brotherhood here, whether it existed as mysteries," "societies," or, as later, fraternal organizations among men.
In support of this theory, the late Dean Stanley said : " Whatever tended to break down the barriers of national and race antipathy, and to produce unity, snd a sense of unity among men, paved the way for a just appreciation of ightened civilization, and a highly cultured state of society, when they uld appear, and would serve to help on their progress." It is evident, erefore, that in some form the fundamentals which we call fraternity have ‑ays existed in a more or less imperative organism.
If this is true, we account for or explain the theories of Anderson, Oliver, other early historians, who claim Freemasonry to have been coeval with lion, and afford at the same time a reconciliatory foundation upon which plant the Fraternity of modern times ; for, this principle once admitted, evolution of degrees in the English, American, Scottish, and other rites, es that the mind of the Craft was in a transitionary stage until a very late tie. Transitional, indeed, but natural and following the Divine impulse; to repeat, the Ancient Mysteries were aids to progress and civilization, 40 ANCIENT MASONRY.
and sources of moral life.'
The ideal became actual, and, in process of time, the inception of the equality of man, his dignity and destiny, became incarnate and fixed and permanent institutions. The social idea, connected with religious ideas, became embodied in organisms, established for human instruction, for growth and development.
The governments of nations have passed through all these phases until we now possess the English Constitutional Monarchy (placed first, because the oldest), and the American Republic, as examples of the most advanced and beneficent systems.
An ethnological point of view will divide this subject into " Eastern " and '| Western," ‑ the Orient and the Occident, ‑ and the chronological arrangement will coincide with the epochs when extraordinary changes took place, by turning‑points in the course of events, rather than to any definite quantities of time, to determine the dividing lines.
THE EDTTOR‑IN‑CHIEF.
1 It will be seen that many of their customs are ours to‑day in Church, State, and society.
DIVISION L THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES A Treatise on the Eastern European, African, and Asiatic Mysteries; the Occultism of the Orient; the Western European Architects and Operative Masons in Britain, commonly called the Antiquities, and Legendary Tradiions of the Craft to the Close of the Operative Period in z7z7.
BY WM. R. SINGLETON, 330, Grand Secretary, M.‑. W.‑. Grand Lodge, District of Columbia.
CHAPTER I.
THE DIvm PLAN. ‑ MYTHOLOGY.
Preface. ‑ The compiler of the following pages on the 11 Mysteries " has made free use of notes accumulated by him in the past twenty‑five years, in connection with extracts from such authors as were within his reach for the last four months. Many extracts from his notes are not credited to their proper authors, because the writers consulted had neglected to mention the original authors, and, in many instances, their information had been derived from very ancient sources.
There is, therefore, no claim made for originality in these chapters ; for, as has been well said by another, in archaeology, `| what is new is not true, and what is true is not new." The compiler has endeavored to condense as much as possible all that is essential in the treatment of this subject, and yet he has far exceeded the limit assigned to him, and much valuable matter had to be omitted.
Our main purpose in complying with the invitation to write on the subject of the Ancient Mysteries has been to communicate such information as the writer had accumulated for himself, in the many years which he had devoted to this study; and to collate, as it were, the thoughts and conclusions of those who were best qualified to write upon the subject, and who had published many volumes, which are to be found in all of our public libraries.
41 42 The Divine Plan. ‑ ANCIENT MASONRY.
"A survey of Nature, and the observation of her beautiful proportions, first determined man to imitate the Divine plan and study symmetry and order. This gave rise to societies, and birth to every useful art."‑Masonic Monitor.
The survey or observation of Nature shows us that all objocts within our immediate knowledge belong to one or other of the three natural hingdoms, ‑ mineral, vegetable, and animal.
When, in the beginning, by the fiat of the great Creator, matter was called into existence, the elements of these three kingdoms were then created, or they had existed from all eternity.
To us it is evident that they do exist now.
The student "may curiously trace Nature through her various windings to her most concealed recesses, and may discover the power, the wisdom, and the beneficence (wisdom, power, and harmony), of the Grand Artificer of the Universe, and view with delight the proportions which connect this vast machine ; he may demonstrate how the planets move in their different orbits and perform their various revolutions."
All those worlds around us which can be seen by the naked eye, as also the myriads of others only to be discovered by the most powerful telescopes, " were framed by the same Divine Artist, which roll through the vast expanse, and are all conducted by the same unerring law of Nature." By the revelations of science, the student has learned that the bodies which give us their light are composed of the same primitive elements as the one on which we dwell, the component parts of which can be subjected to analysis, and by which we have been enabled to reduce all known matter to about sixty‑four elementary substances.
These, when thus reduced, belong to the mineral kingdom, and are inert of themselves. From them are derived all the varieties of the vegetable kingdom by the forces of natural laws operating upon them.
From the substances thus produced in the vegetable kingdom are derived all those elements that enter into the matter which constitutes the animal kingdom.
These substances,‑viz.: the mineral, vegetable, and animal,‑when in a primary condition, are all inert matter, and can be acted upon integrally by forces differing from themselves in very essential particulars.
To certain, if not all, mineral substances the laws of affinity and repulsion can be applied, whereby the very nature of each can be diametrically altered. An acid substance and an alkali, when combined, at cnce change their conditions and form a third substance differing from either; and so on in all chemical analyses and syntheses.
In the vegetable world there is a force of Nature by vyhich the mineral substances are converted into vegetable fibre.
The substances which constitute animal tissues would never be thus converted without the force of vitality.
THE DIVINE PLAN.
43 The vegetable product, after living and growing, ceases to grow and to live when the vital force decays and leaves it, and it becomes resolved into its original mineral element.
The body of an animal when deprived of its vitality soon dissolves, becomes disintegrated, and these particles pass into the air or earth, and as minerals enter into new combinations.
Has any scientist ever discovered the uliima ratio of the chemical law of affinity in the mineral, or of the law of vitality in the vegetable and animal worlds? Yet they are there, acting, and have been ever since these several substances were created or existed.
Man belongs to the animal kingdom; is said to be at the summit of that kingdom, and the most perfect in his structure of all created or existing things.
A. He is composed of a series of dualisms:a. He is an organized being.
b. He has vitaliti, whereby his organisms may perform their proper functions, and without which they could not.
B.
a. He is a being having vital organs in full operation. b. He has a spiritual nature.
C. His spiritual nature is divided into:a. Reason.
b. Sentiment.
a. He has reasoning faculties whereby he is able to judge as to facts, and draw legitimate conclusions therefrom for his guidance in all matters of moment to his e::istence. b. He has an instinctive sense of social relations, whereby he manifests certain qualities distinct from his reason, which govern him in his conduct toward his fellows, and also in regard to himself, which all writers on ethics divide into 1 r'r. To his Creator. Duties:‑{ 2. To his neighbor. 11ll 3. To himself.
It is a self‑evident proposition, that within man there are two positive forces stimulating him to action, viz.: the physical and the spiritual. The spiritual is manifestly separable into intellectual or reasoning faculties, and the moral or sentimental faculties.
If we admit, as we most certainly must, that there was a Creator of all things, that Creator must be the governor of all, and consequently infinite in all the attributes necessary for the administration of his government. This implies his spirituality, and with it the supervision of both branches of the spirituality of man, ‑ his reason and his sentiment.
Consequently, we have no right to atrophy either one of these.
In the exercise of our faculties we are naturally obligated to conserve the one as well as the other.
When we consider the laws by which each set of these is governed, we discover them to be opposite to each other, or antinomian in character, yet not necessarily antagonistic. They appertain to the same axis, but are at opposite poles; so that when any one shall attempt to occupy his mind upon 44 spiritual matters, and confine himself to the purely argumentative questions, and deny every proposition, unless logically proven, he atrophies all the sentimental or moral phases, which necessarily must enter into every spiritual question. On the other hand, this is also true of those who confine their examination entirely to the sentimental or moral end of such investigation.
The following arrangement will demonstrate more clearly what has just been stated as a proposition: ‑
MAN To Acknowledge GOD an Act of WILL
I
To Love GOD an Act of SENTIMENT All of these ANTINOMIES are Conciliated The different positions of Points of Compasses give LIGHT, MORE LIGHT, PERFECT LIGHT. UNION of the Compasses of FAITH, above the Square of REASON, on the HOLY BIBLE, GENERATES ANCIENT MASONRY.
ANTINOMIES OF THE SPIRITUALITY OF MAN.
IN IN Square of REASON and Virtue LIBERTY GOD ABSOLUTE Immutable, Immultipliable UNITY Invariable, not Engendered JUSTICE REASON MONAD Integrity The Compasses of Mercy above SQUARE of JUSTICE FAITH Controlled by AUTHORITY MAN CONTINGENT DIVERSITY VARIABILITY Expansion Engendered Compasses of MERCY and FAITH GOOD, BEAUTIFUL, TRUE, represent GOD Who is the FOCUS of ALL PERFECTIONS.
DEDUCTIVE The junction of the MONAD with the DUAD
constitutes UNION, and GENERATION results.
INDUCTIVE Demonstrate The Promises of GOD to all who TRUST in HIM.
REASON
SENTIMENT
WISDOM
SUPERSTITION
PHILOSOPHY
RELIGION
POWER
SERVITUDE DEMONSTRATION
SUPERNATURAL
HARMONY
DIVERSITY
FINITE
INDEFINITE
INFINITE THE DIVINE PLAN.
be not Codrdinated AGNOSTICISM or { Superstition 45 The Square, Compasses, and the Holy Bible may be said to represent the Three Revelacions, viz.: of Nature, of the Old Dispensation, and of the New. The Square indicates the religion of Nature, wherein the justice of the Almighty Creator, without respect of persons, required the fulfilment of every duty, and is represented by the Square covering the Compasses, and indicates the natural law. The Square covering only one point shows the Mosaic dispensation, wherein the law given at Sinai provided for a partial atonement; whereas, the two points being above the Square, indicates that the Compasses of Mercy have been extended to the perfect angle; and by the revelation in full, contained in the Bible, we discover perfect light, in the great ATONEMENT made for all MANKIND, and the MERCY of GOD prevailing over and satisfying his JUSTICE, indicates the full accomplishment of his promises to ADAM.
The following sentiments from J. B. Gould have been arranged in a tabular form for convenience: ‑
RELIGION, SYNTHESIS OF THOUGHT AND SENTIMENT.
Representation of a Philosophic Idea; Reposes on some Hypothesis First, full of vigor, and is on the alert to win converts.
The Hypothesis is acquiesced in, and received as final. The signification evaporates. Priests were anciently Philosophers; Philosophy alone is not Religion; Sentiment alone is not Religion. Religion is based on intelligible principle. It teaches that principle as Dogma, and exhibits it in Worship, applies it in Discipline: MIND SPIRIT BODY OF RELIGION.
The Philosophers were not always capable of preserving their intellectual superiority; their doctrine became meaningless and a pure speculation, which gradually cut its way out of religion and left it an empty shell of ritual observances, void of vital principles.
RELIGION.
"Expression of an idea"; "Notion of a great cause." Man conceives an IDEAL, which becomes an object of devotion; hence, Originally El‑Elohim, GOD, Javeh or Jehovah.
If REASON (Thought) and AFFECTION (Sentiment) RELIGION becomes PHILOSOPHY or MYSTICISM (Speculation) or Emotionalism Sentimentalism sometimes Extravagant Mysticism or Abject Terrorism when all reason is atrophied Idealism Positivism Any other Ism to atrophy personal responsibility The Aspirations of the HEART must be controlled by Reason and Intelligence HUMANIZED by the Affections.
ANCIENT MASONRY.
From the known history of mankind, extending back into the earliest ages, when man was yet in a semi‑barbarous state, there are evidences that he was constantly reaching out of himself, if happily he could find a SOMEWHAT upon which he could rely, to relieve him of the oppressive load he was constantly bearing in this life, however happily situated he might be in his worldly and social relations. From the daily observation of himself and his fellow‑man he was confident that there must be somewhere some one, or a something, vastly superior in all particulars to himself or his race.
Primal man formed an idolon, predicated upon the best qualities of mankind as demonstrated to him, and magnified those qualities to the pith power, and then he made a god and bowed down to him or to it This was fetishism‑a very natural religion. It prevails extensively at the present day throughout the world ; and, in the Christian church now, in the nineteenth century, Christians are constantly engaged in fetish worship, unwittingly indeed, but nevertheless too true. It is not confined to any one church, as it was at one time, but its influence has so spread abroad that every church is more or less tinctured with it.
Accepting the " Great Light," which all Masons do, as the revealed will of God to man, and his INESTIMABLE gift, it i,, a legitimate reference, in any history which may be written, to trace the connection of the Masonic Association of the modern era with those institutions from the earliest ages, which were of a secret character, and which were designed, as modern Masonry is, not only for the benefit of the immediate members thereof, but mediately for all mankind.
Therefore, considering the first five books of the Old Testament as having been written by the authority of the G.‑.A.‑.0.‑.T.‑.U.‑., the account therein given of the disobedience of the first pair, commonly known as the parents of the human race, must be received as correct. This disobedience was brought about at the solicitation of the serpent, as it is translated in all the versions of the Bible.
The curse, so‑called, against all parties was then pronounced, as found in Genesis, chapter iii., verses 14 to rq, inclusive.
In the fifteenth verse God said: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; IT shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." From the incidents thus graphically, though briefly, stated in chapter iii. of Genesis have sprung all the religions and mysteries of the world; and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and also the Tree of Life, with the Serpent, have been the foundation of the Tree and Serpent worship which have prevailed more extensively over every part of the world than any other form of false worship.
The fall of man and his reinstatement are the germs of all the religious THE DIVINE PLAN.
47 superstitions in every part of the earth, and the object of this treatise is to demonstrate the following propositions: ‑ FIRST. " Man lost his first estate, and it was necessary that a Divine Mediator and Saviour should come on earth, and, by his death, restore man to his pristine condition, and reconcile him to his Creator." SECOND. No other possible plan could reconcile man to God than by a Mediator of DIVINE AND HUMAN NATURE COMBINED, who is represented in all the ancient religious rites, as well as in Christianity, by the name of Christos, the Anointed One, in some form or other.
From the genealogy of the fifth chapter of Genesis we learn the following emphatic statement in the Hebrew names of the first ten patriarchs, whose names we translate into English.
Adam ............................. Man Seth ............................... Placed Enos................ (in a)......... Wretched Cainan ............................. Condition Ma‑ha‑la‑le‑el......... (the)......... Blessed God Jared ............ (descending or).... Fhall descend Enoch............................. Teaching Methuselah .......... (that)......... His death produces Lamech............. (to the)........ Poor, debased or stricken Noah ............................. Rest and c...solation.
It will be our effort to demonstrate the above two propositions from the history of initiation of all the ancient nations in every part of the world, and that Christianity, established by the coming of Christ, his death, and his resurrection, were the perfection of the Divine Plan, an!. culmination of all the mysteries which had preceded the ADVENT, DEATH, and RESTORATION of the PERFECT CHRISTOS, promised in the Garden of Eden, and which had been attempted to be represented in all of those preceding mysteries; and which, in the case of the true CHRISTOS, was a fulfilment of the promise, and a verification of the successive names of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah.
The arrange ment of these names we dare not consider as being fortuitous. Max Muffler in his '| Chips" says (VOL II. PP. 4, 5) : ‑ " What then gives life to the study of antiquity?
What compels men, in the midst of these busy times, to sacrifice their leisure to studies apparently so unattractive and useless, if not the conviction that in order to obey t'3e Delphic commandment (know thyself), in order to know what man is, we ought to know what man has been? "This is a view as foreign to the mind of Socrates as any of the principles of inductive philosophy by which men like Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci, Copernicus, Kepler, Bacon, and Gallileo regenerated and invigorated the intellectual life of modern Europe. If we grant to Socrates, that the chizf object of philosophy is, that man should know himself, we should hardly consider his means of arriving at this knowledge adequate to so high an aim.
To his mind, man was preeminently the individual, without any reference to its being but one manifestation of a power, or as he might have s. "d, of an idea, realized in, and through, an endless variety of human souls.
"He is ever seeking to solve the history of human nature by brooding over his own mind, by watching the secret.workings of the soul, by analyzing the organs of knowledge, and by trying to determine their proper li‑nits; and, thus the last result of his philosophy was, that he knew but one thing, and this was, that he knew nothing. To us man is no longer this solitary being, complete in itself and self‑sufficient; man, to us, is a brother among brothers, a member of a class, of a genus, or a kind, and therefore intelligible only with reference to his equals.
"Where the Greek saw barbarians, we see brethren; where the Greek saw heroes and demigods, we see our parents and ancestors; where the Greek saw nations (Ov l), we see mankind, 48 ANCIENT MASONRY.
toiling and suffering, separated by oceans, divided by language, and severed by natural enmity,‑yet evermore tending, under a divine control, towards the fulfilment of that inscrutable purpose for which the world was created, and man placed in it, bearing the image of GOD. History, therefore, with its dusty and moldering pages, is to us as sacred a volume as the book of nature. In both we read, or we try to read, the reflex of the laws and thoughts of a Divine Wisdom:' According to Wilkinson, th Monad or Single Deity was placed above and apart from the Triads, and the great gods of the Egyptian Pantheon were the deified attributes of the " ONE." The same idea of a Monad, even of a triple Deity, was admitted by some of the Greeks into their system of philosophy; and Amelius says: The Demiurge (or Creator), is triple, and the three || Intellects " are the three kings ; he who exists, he who possesses, and he who beholds. These three Intellects, therefore, he supposes to be the Demiurge, the same with the three kings of Plato, and with the three whom Orpheus celebrates under the names of Phanes, Ouranus, and Cronus, though according to him the Demiurge is more particularly Phanes.
The Orphic trinity consisted of Metis, Phanes or Eros, Ericapwus. Life
Will or
Light or Life Giving
Counsel
Love From Acusilaus, Metis
Eros
Ether From Hesiod, Earth
Eros
Tartarus From Pherecydes of Lyros, Fire
Water
Spirit or air From Sidonians, Cronus
Love
Cloudy‑darkness From Phoenicians, Ulomus
Chusorus
The Egg From Chaldean and Persian,‑Oracles of Zoroaster, Fire
Sun
Ether Fire
Light
Ether From Later Platonists, Power
Intellect
Father, Soul, or Spirit By ancient theologists, according to Macrobius, the sun was invoked in the mysteries as Power of
Light of
Spirit of the World
the World
the World And to this may be added, from Sanconiatho, the three sons of
Fire Light
Flame Plutarch gives
Kosmos, Beauty, Order, or World
Intelligence Matter
The FIRST being the same as Plato's
SECOND THIRD
IDEA
Mother
Exemplar
Nurse Offspring
or
Receptacle of Production
Father
Generation THE DIVINE PLAN.
49 Of these three, Intelligence, Matter, and Kosmos, he says: Universal nature may be considered to be made up, and there is reason to conclude that the Egyptians were wont to liken this nature to what they called the most beautiful and perfect triangle,
the same as Plato himself does in the nuptial diagram he has intro‑
duced into his `1 Commonwealth." Now in this triangle, which is
s
rectangular, the perpendicular is imagined equal to 4, the base to
s
be 3, and hypothenuse to be 5. In which scheme the perpendicular represents the masculine nature, the base the feminine, and the hypothenuse the offspring of both.
Accordingly the first will apply to OSIRIS, or prime cause; the second to Isis, the receptive power; and the last to ORUS, or effect
f the other two.
For three is the base number composed of even and odd; four is a square, whose side is equal to the even number two; but five, being generated as it were out of both the preceding numbers, two and three, may be said to bear an equal relation to both, as to its common parents.
So again, the mere word which signifies the "Universe of Being" is f a similar sound with this number, 7rav7a, 7rEvTE, as to count five is made use of for counting in general.
Hence the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the others added together.
The word " ae,uaaa‑aQ9at " is taken for counting by the five fingers.
The Egyptians sometimes represented the number five by a star having five rays, because Horopollo pretends that it is the number of the planets.
This star represents GOD, all that is pure, virtuous, and good, when represented with one point upward: but when turned with one point down it represents EviL, all that is opposed to the good, pure, and virtuous; in fine, it represents the GOAT of MENDFS.
Philosophy and Religion.‑The belief in a Supreme Power is inherent in every human being; and, so thoroughly interwoven with our nature is this sentiment, that it is impossible for any one, at any period of life, wholly to divest himself of it.
When the reflecting man looks around upon all the objects about him, the question naturally arises: "What has called this world into existence? Why does it exist, and what is its ultimate destiny? Nay, why do I exist, and what will become of me after death?" The answers to these questions, if possible, can only be given by, and through, a long course of philosophical investigation. These questions have been the study of the ablest men from the earliest ages, and have given rise to all the various systems of philosophy and religion, which have prevailed in all time, beginning with the first man, and coming down to our own day and generation.
As soon as mankind recognized the relations between themselves and a Systems of 50 ANCIENT MASONRY.
Creator, and acknowledged moral responsibility to a Supreme Moral Governor, then Religion became a pertinent fact, and systems of religion were introduced, whereby, in an objective form, their subjectivity could be outwardly made manifest.
These systems are divided into Monotheism and Polytheism: the latter includes Dualism and Tritheism. The.lowest grade of Polytheism is Fetichism, or idolatry, which teaches the worship of inanimate nature, stocks and stones, and the work of the hands of men.
Next is Pyrolatry, or worship of fire; and Sabxism, or worship of the stars and other heavenly bodies.
The first step of the legislator would be to pretend a mission and revelation from some God: thus ‑Amasis and Mneves, lawgivers of the Egyptians, pretended to receive their laws from Mercury (Thoth) ; Zoroaster of the Bactrians, and Zamolxis, lawgiver of the Getes, from Vesta ; Zathraustes of the Aramaspi, from a good Spirit or Genius : and all propagated the doctrine of future rewards and punishments.
Rhadamanthus and Minos, Lawgivers of Crete, and Lycaoa of Arcadia, pretended to an intercourse with Jupiter ; Triptolemus of Athens affected to be inspired by Ceres ; Pythagoras and Zaleucus, for the Crotonians and Locrians, ascribed their institutions to Minerva; Lycurgus of Sparta acted by direction of Apollo; and Romulus and Numa of Rome put themselves under the guidance of Consus and the goddess Egeria. The same method was followed in' the great outlying empires.
The first of the Chinese monarchs was called " Fag‑Four " ‑" The Son of Heaven." The Royal Commentaries of Peru inform us that the founders of that empire were Manco Copac and his wife and sister, " Coya Mama," who proclaimed themselves to be the son and daughter of the Sun, sent to, reduce mankind from their savage and bestial life to one of order and society.
(How like the myths of Osiris and Isis‑Sun and Moon.)
Tuesco, the founder of the German nations, pretended to be sent upon the same message, as appears from his name, which signifies the "interpreter of the gods."
Thor and Odin, the lawgivers' of the Western Goths, laid claim to inspiration and even to divinity, and they have given the names to two of the days of the week.
The revelations of Mahomet are well known.
The race of inspired lawgivers seems to have ended with Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mogul Empire, until, in our day, the Nauvoo prophet, Joseph Smith, found his plates and started the Latter Day Saints.' Such was the universal custom of the ancient world, ‑ to make prophets, arid then gods, of their first leaders.
Plato makes legislation to have been derived from God; and the constant epithets to kings in Homer are Diogeneis, "born of the gods," and Diotrepheis, " bred or tutored by the gods." 1 It may be of interest in a work on the history of Masonry to state that he became a Mason, and with others obtained a charter from the Grand Lodge of Illinois, and at Nauvoo initiated nearly all of the Mormons;‑ and it became necessary for the Grand Lodge to arrest the charter in consequence of the great irregularities in that lodge.
THE DIVINE PLAN.
SI Plutarch, in '| Isis and Osiris," says: || It was a most ancient opinion, derived as well by lawgivers as divines, that the world was not made by chance, neither did one cause govern all things without opposition." This was the doctrine of Zoroaster, in which were taught the two opposite principles by which the world was governed. In the " Oriental Religions," by Samuel Johnson, volume devoted to Persia, the author gives a thorough examination of this particular subject.
Zeleucus of Locria says, in the preface to his laws, that " Every one should be firmly persuaded of the being and existence of the gods, which he will be readily induced to entertain when he contemplates the heavens, regards the world, and observes the disposition, order, and harmony of the universe, which can neither be the work of blind chance or man; and these gods are to be worshipped as the cause of all the real good we enjoy." Charondas, Plato, and Cicero introduced their laws with the sanction of religion.
The Ancient Sages, as well as lawgivers, were unanimous that the doctrine of rewards and punishments was necessary to the well‑being of society.
The Atheists, from the vastness of the social use of religion, concluded it to be an invention of State ; and the Theist, from that confessed utility, labored to prove it of divine origin.
"To give a detail of the discourses would be to transcribe antiquity; for with this begins and ends everything they teach and explain, of morals, government, human nature, and civil policy." It is supposed by most authors that the First and Original Mysteries were those of Isis and Osiris in Egypt. Zoroaster brought them into Persia; Cadmus and Inachus, into Greece at large; Orpheus, into Thrace ; Melampsus, into Athens.
As these Mysteries were to Isis and Osiris in Egypt, so they were to Mythras in Asia ; in Samothrace, to the Mother of the Gods ; in Beeotia to Bacchus ; in Cyprus to Venus ; in Crete to Jupiter; in Athens to Ceres and Proserpine ; in Amphura to Castor and Pollux ; in Lemnos to Vulcan, etc.
The most noted were the Orphic, Bacchic, Eleusinian, Samothracian, Cabiric, and Mithriac.
It was agreed by Origen and Celsus that the Mysteries taught the future life, as also the Christian doctrine of the eternal punishment of the wicked.
It was taught that the initiated would be happier than other mortals.
Their souls winged their flight directly to the happy islands and the habitations of the gods.
This doctrine was necessary for the support of the Mysteries, as they were for the doctrine.
Plato says it was the design of initiation to restore the soul to that state from whence all fell, as from its native seat of perfection.
Epictetus said: "Thus the Mysteries become useful; thus we seize the true spirit of them, when we begin to apprehend that everything therein was instituted by the ancients for instruction and amendment of life." 52 ANCIENT MASONRY.
All persons who were candidates for initiation into any of these Mysteries were required to produce evidence of their fitness by due inquiry into their previous life and character, the same as the Roman Catholic Confessional, which was derived from it.
The Eleusinian stood open to none who did not approach the gods with a pure and holy worship, which was originally an indispensable condition observed in common by all the Mysteries, and instituted by Bacchus or Osiris, himself the inventor of them, who initiated none but virtuous and pious men; and it was required to have a prepared purity of mind and disposition, as previously ordered in the sacrifices, or in prayers, in approaching the Mysteries.
Proclus says that " The Mysteries drew the souls from a sensual life, and joined thetas in communion with the gods." Pythagoras had been initiated into the Cretan Mysteries ued in the "Idean cave three times nine days." material and and had contin " The wisest and best of the Pagan world invariably held that the Mysteries were instituted pure, and proposed the noblest end by the worthiest means." We now refer to Isaiah xlv. 15 : "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour." This was said with great propriety of the Creator of the Universe, the subject of the Aporrheta or " Secret " in all the Mysteries throughout the Gentile world, and particularly of those of Mythras in that country which was the scene of the prophecy.
God addresses himself to the Jewish people: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain." He was taught among them in a different manner from participation of his nature to a few select Gentiles, in the Mysteries celebrated in secret and dark subterranean places.
Eusebius says that for the Hebrew people alone was reserved the honor of being initiated into the knowledge of God, the Creator of all things, and of being instructed in the practice of true piety towards him.
This leads to the explanation of those oracles of Apollo, quoted by Eusebius from Porphyry: "The way to the knowledge of the Divine Nature is extremely rugged, and of difficult ascent; the entrance is secured by brazen gates, opening to the adventurer, and the winding roads to be passed through, impossible to be described.
These to the vast benefit of mankind were first marked out by the Egyptians."
(We here discover the rough and rugged road of the R. A.) The Second: True Wisdom was the lot of the Chaldeans and Hebrews, who worshipped the Governor of the World, the self‑existent Deity, with pure and holy rites. He who proclaims himself to be " Existence Absolute," which is the Infinite itself, is incomprehensible to the finite mind.
THE TxtrrH : 11 Truth and general Utility coincide; i.e., Truth is productive MYTHOLOGY.
53 of Utility, and Utility is indicative of Truth, and this from the nature of the case. The observing of Truth is acting as things are; disappointments proceed from acting as things are not. Whenever we find general Utility, we may know it for the product of Truth, which it indicates.
The consequence is that Religion, or the idea of relation between the Creature and the Creator, is true." "There is in heaven a light Whose goodly shine makes the Creator visible to all created, That in seeing him alone Have peace; and in a circle Spread so far that the Circumference were too loose A zone to girdle in the Sun." ‑DANTE.
Advent of Mythology.‑In the earliest ages, men were accustomed to speak of the phenomena of nature as they appeared to them; and, as their language in common conversation was almost invariably tropical,' the figures used by them, having a well‑known allusion to common events, in process of time became the myths and fables which prevailed among all the peoples who derived their descent from the original stock, and finally spread over the whole race of man.
We are indebted to the students of philology and ethnology for present knowledge of the philosophy in the mythologies of all the Eastern nations of antiquity; and, from the great originals in the countries which were occupied by the descendants of the three sons of Noah, we have been enabled to explain most of the myths which 'gave rise to the names so well known and recognized in classic Greece and Rome. Nearly all. of the principal names can be traced back, philologically, to the first inhabitants of that country, now designated as Arya Varta, and which has given rise to the term Aryan as applied to one of the three principal races into which ethnologists now divide all the descendants of Noah.
At the present day we say the sun rises and the sun sets, although we well know that these are terms only and not true. Those ancient men said, " Our friend the sun is dead ; will he come back again? " and when the next day they saw him, "they rejoiced because he brought back their light and their life with him."
Knowing very little about themselves, and nothing at all of the things which they saw in the world around, them, they fancied that everything had the same kind of life which they had themselves.
In this way they came to think that the sun and stars, the rivers and streams, could see and feel and think, and that they shone and moved of their own accord.
Hence, everything around them was alive, and instead of saying, "The morning comes before the rising of the sun ; and evening twilight follows sunset ; " they said, "The sun is the lover of the dawn, and was longing to overtake her; and is killing her with his bright rays, which shone like spears." Tropos, a figure.
our 54 ANCIENT MASONRY.
Of the clouds, which move along the sky, they said "they were the cows of the sun, which were driven by the children every morning to their pastures in the blue fields of heaven." At sunset they said " the dawn, with its soft and tender light, had come to soothe her son, or her husband, in his dying hour."
The sun to them " was the child of darkness, and in the morning he wove for his bride in the heavens a fairy net‑work of clouds, which reappeared when she came back to him in the evening."
They spoke of him as a " friend of man," when he shone with a pleasant warmth ; when, by his great heat, he brought a drought, " the sun was slaying his children," or that some one else "was driving his chariot."
When dark clouds rested over the earth without giving rain, the terrible being called " the serpent or dragon was confining the waters in a prison house."
When they heard the thunder roll, this "hateful monster was uttering his hard riddles" ; and when the rain came, the bright sun had slain his enemy, and brought a stream of life for the thirsty earth. For the purpose of illustrating what we have above written, a few examples will be produced.
.
Mythology. ‑ A collection of the various tales, referred to gods, heroes, demons, and other beings down from generation to generation, and passed called mythology.
Every nation has had its myths and legends, even down to the present day in various parts of the earth, and a very close resemblance is found among them in their principal gods and heroes. As.stated above, our best scholars have traced out by philology the principal names in all of these myths, and have located their origin in the land where the various nations of Europe, the North of Africa, and Western, Middle, and Southern Asia, were once congregated under the roof‑trees in Arya Varta, and from which centre the various waves of emigration started to people all those countries.
It is not surprising, therefore, that even in the nineteenth century and in America we find in our English and other modern languages the identical household words which were used in that distant land thousands of years ago. Max Muller tells us in his Preface to the Lectures on the Vedas: ‑ or properly legends, which whose names were handed from tribes to nations, is " In the language of mankind, in which everything new is old, and everything old is new, an inexhaustible mine has been discovered for researches of this kind. Language still bears the impress of the earliest thoughts of man; obliterated, it may be, buried under new thoughts, yet here and there still recoverable in their sharp original outline.
The growth of language is continuous, and by continuing our researches backward from the most modern to the most ancient strata, the very elements and roots of human speech have been reached, and with them the elements and roots of human thought. What lies beyond the beginnings of language, however interesting it may be to the physiologist, does not yet belong to the history of man, in the true and original sense of that word.
MAN means the thinker, and the first manifestation of thought is speech.
"But more surprising than the continuity of the growth of language is the continuity in the growth of religion. Of religion, too, as of language, it may be said that in it everything new is old, and everything old is new, and that there has been no entirely new religion since the beginning of the world.
The elements and roots of religion were there as far back as we can trace the history MYTHOLOGY.
55 of man; and the history of religion, like the history of language, shows us throughout a succession of new combinations of the same radical elements. An intuition of God, a sense of human weakness and dependence, a belief in the divine government of the world, a distinction between good and evil, and a hope of a better life,‑these are some of the radical elements of all religions. Though sometimes hidden, they rise again and again to the surface.
Though frequently distorted, they tend again and again to their perfect form." St. Augustine himself, in accordance with this idea, said: '.'What is now called the Christian religion has existed among the ancients, and was not absent from the beginning of the human race, until Christ came in the flesh ; from which time the true religion, which existed already, began to be called Christian."
[August. Retr. r. r3.] Christ himself said to the Centurion of Capernaum : "Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven." By the recovery of the canonical books of three of the principal religions of the ancient world‑vii. : the Veda, the Zend‑Avesta, and Tripitika‑access has been gained to the most authentic documents, whereby to study the religions of the Brahmans, Zoroastrians, and Buddhists, and a discovery made of the real origin of the Greek, Roman, Teutonic, Slavonic, and Celtic mythology ; and, as Muller says, " It has become possible to separate the truly religious elements in the sacred traditions of these nations from the mythological crust by which they are surrounded, and thus to gain a clearer insight into the real faith of the Aryan world." In the proper study of comparative mythology we are forcibly impressed with the close resemblance, in all the most important features, in the various nations of Greece, Rome, India, Persia, Scandinavia, Germany, etc., and we must conclude that they were derived from one common, original source, and that it was their habit of speaking of all the natural phenomena in the words and phrases used by these ancient tribes ; and, in course of time, from generation' to generation, the meanings of these words and phrases which were common nouns being entirely lost, they came to represent persons supposed to have existed and acted as described, and this has been proved by the fact that many names in Greek and Latin have no meaning, but are perfectly intelligible in the languages originally used. Such names as Argynnis, Phoroneus, Erinys, have no meaning in Greek. In India they are explained: Erinys means the dawn as it creeps along the sky; Argynnis, the morning brilliance; and Phoroneus, the god of fire, Bhuranyu.
In the myth where Selene visits Endymion, Selene is the moon, which appears in the west just at sunset, Endymion being the name of the sun as he plunges into the sea. It was said Endymion was a young man on whom the moon looked down lovingly.
Phcebus is lord of h,‑ht or of life; Delos, where he is said to have been born, means the brzghtland. He is called Lykegenes, sprungfrom light. His mother was Leto, which means the night, from which the sun appears to come as it rises.
Endymion, setting sun, sleeps in Latmos, the land of forgetfulness. Telephassa, mother of Cadmus and Europa, means she who shines from far. Telephus is a child of Auge, the light.
Europa, Eurytus, Eurymedon, Euryanassa, Euryphassa, with many others, all denote a broad, spreading light, like the dawn as it spreads across the morning sky.
In a large number of legends the incidents resemble each other as closely as the names, as in the cases of Perseus, (Edipus, Cyrus, Romulus, Paris. The parents of these having been warned that they will be destroyed by their sons, expose them, and they are saved by wild beasts, and are discovered by the dignity of their bearing and splendor of their countenances.
"Perseus kills Acrisius, (Edipus kills Laios, Cyrus slays Astyages, Romulus kills Amulius and Paris brings about the ruin of Priam and the city of Troy." These heroes have a short but brilliant life, and have to labor for others, not for themselves. Hercules is a slave to F.urystheus ; Achilles goes to Troy for no quarrel of his own ; and Perseus has to toil at the bidding of Polydectes.
They are all of them slayers of monsters, and in other ways help men. Bellerophon kills Belleros and Chimxra; Perseus destroys the Gorgon Medusa; Theseus kills the Minotaur; tEdipus slays the Sphinx; and Phoebus Apollo, the serpent Python. "In other countries these stories are repeated.
In the Indian tales, Indra kills the dragon Vritra; and in the Old Norse legend, Sigurd kills the great snake Fafnir.
In the Persian story, Rustem is as brave and mighty as Hercules, and his exploits are of the same kind. All of them have invisible spears or swords, and can be wounded only in one spot, or by one kind of weapon. They all have fair faces, and golden locks flowing over their shoulders; they all sacrifice their own ease for the good of others, and, yet are all tempted to forsake or leave the brides of their youth.
Hercules goes away from Iol8; Paris forsakes tEnone; Theseus leaves Ariadne; and Sigurd deserts Brynhild." The Ancient Mysteries. ‑ It is to be presumed that, when the minds of men were directed to the subject of the mysterious things of nature which they could not apprehend, they were forced to conceal their ignorance of the ultimate causes for all the phenomena by which they were constantly surrounded, and as constantly called upon to explain, that then, as well as at present, their inventive talents were exercised to conceal their ignorance by systems of terminology : all the writers upon this subject concur in the opinion that wherever and whenever the first ceremonies were introduced, they were very few and unostentatious.
It has been conceded that the rites and ceremonies were originally of a pure character and had a tendency to impress the minds of the initiates with a suitable feeling of awe and reverence for the society, and to benefit their lives in all particulars.
It is impossible to definitely assert in what country the Mysteries were first introduced. Authors differ very materially upon that question. It is, however, very certain that while there are various changes to be found in the Mysteries of the different nations of the Orient, it is also as certain that there was a great similarity in them all; so much so that we may conclude that either they were all independent copies from a great original system, or that ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
57 they were propagated one from another, until they were spread over the whole of Asia, Europe, and that part of Africa peopled from Asia and in constant intercourse therewith.
For a proper review of this important subject we must refer to the spread of that branch of the human race descended from Japheth, from the great centre, after the Noachian flood, when it became necessary for the numerous population to find subsistence for themselves, owing to the fact that they were increasing so rapidly that they could not find the necessary food for so great a multitude.
The first wave from that region, now known as Arya Varta, was to the south‑east, and across the great rivers, and into that part of India where they found a people descended from the Turanian families, who had come from the north and north‑east. We are informed that, where the Aryans entered the country of India, they carried with them their traditions, manners, and customs, and religious ideas, which differed very materially from those possessed by the first inhabitants, who were, no doubt, of Turanian descent.
We are not to suppose that mankind at that remote period of time was by any means in a savage or a barbarous stage. While there are no positive remains of an advanced state of civilization, yet we are confidently advised, by our best and most impartial investigators, that the works which are extant, and which can be traced back to a very remote period prior to the commencement of the Christian era, give evidence of a perfect language, older than the Sanskrit, in which those works were written; which original language is the mother of nearly all that we should call. grammatical languages, and which have been known to scholars familiar with the science of phirology, by which the important science of ethnology has been so improved that, with almost certainty, the various nationalities and their intimate relationships have been traced out, and their emigrations from certain countries, and immigrations into others, have been clearly defined.
From the various authors, who have pursued these subjects in a scientific manner, we are enabled to give a map showing the movements of the various emigrations, and also a chronological table to indicate approximately the synchronism of all the principal nations of antiquity, and trace them down to the present century.
Those writers who very recently have undertaken to prove the development of the human race from the ape, and claim that when the ape became man the man was a savage, and has gradually developed into a high state of civilization, have been completely answered by reference to the intellectual development of mankind in the very remotest period prior to written history, as shown in the remains of those ancient days, which our limits do not permit us to specify. "The Origin of Nations," a recent work by George Rawlinson, M.A., will answer all arguments, or assertions rather, as to the original savagery of prehistoric man.
By reference, first, to the map of the ancient world from the 78th meridian 58 ANCIENT MASONRY.
east of London to the Atlantic io| west, and from the 25th parallel to the 58th north, we have the ancient world, which was supposed to be all there was of it, and was calculated to have been east and west, just double the distance north and south, and in accordance with the Ptolemaic system.
The great diversity of authorities in chronology is such that the student of history finds himself in doubt, in the centuries beyond 1500 B.C., and when he endeavors to trace the history of any nation prior to 2000 B.C., he is entirely lost in the mists of legends and myths. Hence, in the accompanying chronological table, we have not gone beyond 2300 B.C.
EXPLANATION OF THE MAP.
The map shows the distribution of the descendants of Noah as they have been located by recent authors, and as being in strict accord with the various passages of Scripture in which reference is made to them, and which will demonstrate the ethnic affinities of the human races. The genealogies of Scripture are not only of "great importance historically, as marking strongly the vital truth that the entire framework and narrative of Scripture is in every case real, not ideal; plain and simple matter of fact, not fanciful allegory evolved out of the author's consciousness"; but, in the tenth chapter of Genesis, we find the object of the author was to give, "not a personal genealogy, but a sketch of the interconnection of races.
Shem, Ham, Japheth, are no doubt persons, the actual sons of the patriarch Noah; but it may be doubted whether there is another name in the series which is other than ethnic.
The document is in fact the earliest ethnographical essay that has come down to our time." The marks beneath the names in the map denote the family to which the same belong: ‑ SHEM‑‑‑‑‑ JAPHETH Lud ..................... Mesopotamia. Asshur.................. Assyria. Elam ...................Persia. Eber.................... Amalekites (Egypt). Huz.................... Arabia (Deserta). Jerah................... South‑cast Arabia. Hazarmaveth............ S. Arabia Felix. Sheleph................. South‑West Arabia. Uzal.................... South‑west Arabia. Ophir................... South‑west Arabia.
HAM ‑‑‑‑ Hamath ................ Ccelesyria. Sidon................... Sidon, N. Canaan ................. Palestina. Philistim................ Palestina, S.W. Nimrod................. Chaldea. Lehabim ................ Libya, N. Africa. Naphtuhim ............. Mareotic Nome. Mizraim ................Goshen. Caphtorim .............. Middle Egypt. Pathrusim............... Memphis. Ludim Phut Seba ............. ~ Upper Egypt.
t Meroe Ethiopia.
Sabtah.................. S. Arabia Sea‑coast. Sabtechah ..............S.E.
Dedan .................. Havilah on Per. Gulf.
Gomer ....... Western Scythia, spread
over Northern Europe and Isles of Britain.
Magog....... Eastern Scythia, Georgia, and Circassia.
Tiras ........Thracia, Bithynia. Iavan........ Macedonia, Asia Minor. Elishah ...... Greece and Isles. Rodanim .....Isles of Greece. Tarshish ..... Cilicia.
Kittim ....... Cypress. Tubal ....... Pontus.
P shkenaz .... Cappadocia. Togarmah ... Armenia. Madai ....... Media.
MIXED‑ JAPHETH AND SHEM.
Meshech..... Bithynia, Paplagonia, Galatia MIXED ‑SHEM AND HAM.
Havilah ...... N.W. part of Yemen, Arab. Felix. Sheba .......
,S.E. Arabia, on the coast.
62 ANCIENT MASONRY.
From all that we can gather, the " Iranic civilization, or that of the Medes, the Persians (perhaps we should add the Bactrians), is supposed by some moderns to have originated as early as B.C. 3784. Others assign it to the comparatively modern date of B.C. z6oo‑2500. . . . Dr. Martin Haug does not think it necessary to postulate for the Iranians nearly so great an antiquity.
Haug suggests the fifteenth century B.C. as that of the most primitive Iranic compositions, which form the chief, if not the sole, evidence of Iranic cultivation prior to B.C. 700 " The question is one rather of linguistic criticism than of historic testimony.
The historic statements that have come down to us on the subject of the age of Zoroaster, with whose name the origin of Iranic cultivation is by general consent regarded as intimately connected, are so absolutely conflicting that they must be pronounced valueless.
I:udoxns and Aristotle said that Zoroaster lived six thousand years before the death of Plato, or B.C. 6348.
Hermippus placed him five thousand years before the Trojan war, or B.C. 6184.
Berosus declared of him that he reigned at Babylon towards the beginning of the twenty‑third century B.C., having ascended the throne, according to his chronological views, about B.C. 2286.
Xanthus Lydus, contemporary of Herodotus, and the first Greek writer who treats of the subject, made him live six hundred years only before the invasion of Greece by Xerxes, B.C. 1o8o.
The later Greeks and Romans declared that he was contemporary with Darius Hystaspis, B.C. 520‑485. Between the earliest and the latest dates assigned by these authorities the difference is nearly six thousand years." Modern criticism doubts whether Zoroaster ever lived at all, and regards his name as designating a period rather than a person. We have been thus particular in copying the above statements from Rawlinson's " Origin of Nations," because we wish to trace " Zoroastrianism " from the great centre was in our opinion the starting‑point and period of the of civilization, as it Ancient Mysteries.
When we refer to the mysteries of India, we find that after the initiate had passed through all the trials, dangers, lustrations by fire, water, air, and earth, he was accepted as being worthy of the completion of these ceremonies, which was accomplished by the Hierophant himself communicating to him, in a mysterious manner, the letters A. U. M., which, we are informed by the best scholars, was pronounced otn. Several explanations have bean advanced to give an idea of the meaning of this which is not a word, but more than a word.
Whatever meaning may be now given to it, we must conclude that it was a very important secret, and not to be communicated to every one of those initiated, but was a subject of deep contemplation to all those who were entitled to be put in possession thereof.
In the mysteries of Egypt, the word otn held the same relation thereto, and was as sacred to the Egyptian priests. Passage after passage of the Jewish Scriptures indicate that a " name " of God, very peculiar in itself, was placed first in the "Tabernacle of Congregating," and afterward in the Temple at Jerusalem. God said in various passages that he would "place his name there." To Moses he communicated his "name " at the Burning Bush, as he who had sent him to the children of Israel as I AM; and again when Moses told him that Pharaoh would not let the children of Israel go, he declares that by his "name"
JEId0VAH he was not known, but by his name "God Almighty" [El‑shadai] was he known.
PRIMITIVE RITES.
63 We, of course, have no certain data whereby we may be guided as to these peculiar "names," which were held so sacred. We must only conjecture that, as in all these Sacred Mysteries, the final rite was to communicate a particular word, and as that word in Hebrew was the "name" given by the Lord Almighty to Moses, the word must have been, in all cases, such a sacred word as to command the reverence and respect of all; and we have always interpreted the third commandment, "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," to refer to the "Tetragrammaton," because the Jews became so much afraid of violating that commandment that none but the high priest ever dared to use it, until at last the very pronunciation became unknown to all except the high priest, and he only used it once in each year, when, on the day of expiation, he entered the Sanctum Sanctorum, and there . pronounced it aloud, to keep it in his memory.
We think, therefore, that all the Mysteries led up to, and were completed in learning the "name," which became to each postulant a "sacred treasure." We shall next enter into a history of each of the prominent characters who formed the bases of all the primitive rites.
CHAPTER II.
PERSONAL AND NATIONAL.
Ormuzd (Ahura‑Mazda).‑The supreme deity of the ancient Persians. He is the god of the firmament; the representative of goodness and truth, and the creator of the universe and of the beneficent spirits who have charge of the well‑being of man and all created things. According to Zoroaster an incomprehensible being called Zeruane Akerene (or Zrvan Akarana), existed from all eternity.
From him emanated primal light, and from the latter sprung Ordauzd and Ahriman.
Ahriman became jealous of his elder brother, and was condemned by the eternal one to pass three thousand years in a region of utter darkness.
On his release, he created a number of evil spirits to oppose the spirits created by Ormuzd ; and when the latter made an egg containing good genii, Ahriman produced another, full of evil demons, and broke the two together; so that good and evil'became mixed in the new creation.
The two great opposing principles are called the " King of Light " and the " Prince of Darkness."
Ormuzd is described as " sitting on the throne of the good and the perfect, in the regions of pure light," or as a venerable man seated on a bull, the emblem of creation.
A later doctrine, still professed by the Guebres and Parsees, reduces Ormuzd from a great creator to a mere demiurge, or organizer of a universe previously created.
ANCIENT MASONRY.
Syrian Ashtaroth. ‑ No. 6 shows this goddess with the long cross in her hand, and the sacred calathus, or bushel, on her head.
Astarte was the same as Venus.
This is a medal of Sidon, the antiquity of which city is well known, and it agrees well with the antiquity and history attributed to Askelon it agrees also with the opinion of St. Ambrose, who said that Venus is the Mitram of Persia.
Although worshipped under different names, she is constantly the same power.
Venus and her dove have been referred to Askelon, and yet in No. 5 we have a proof that Egypt had her Venus and dove. This medal was from Tentyra in Egypt. Strabo mentions a temple of Venus at Tentyra. This is a reverse of a medal of Adrian; it represents Venus holding the dove in one hand and a staff in the other.
Venus is represented, on various medals, in a car or chariot, drawn by tritons, one male, the other female : the male holds a branch of palm, perhaps, in one hand; with the other he embraces his consort, who returns the embrace with one arm: in the other she holds a pipe, which she sounds in honor of the goddess. The goddess herself is in the attitude of triumph, and holds in her hand the famous apple which she won from her rivals on Mount Ida,‑a story which has not been interpreted according to what perhaps is its true signification. All these instances strongly connect the goddess with maritime affairs:
These are Corinthian medals, and show that the idea of Derketos was not abandoned when her worship was transferred from Syria into Greece.
Astarte or Ashtaroth (Aural).‑In Scripture this word is often plural, which signifies flocks of sheep or goats (Deut. xii. 13) ; sometimes Asera, the grove, Aseroth or Aserim, woods, because she was goddess of woods and groves ; where, in her temples in groves, consecrated to her, such lasciviousness was committed as rendered her worship infamous. She was also called " queen of heaven," and sometimes her worship is described by that of the " host of heaven."
She is almost always joined with Baal, and is called "gods " ; Scripture having no particular word for expressing "goddess."
It is believed that the moon was thus adored.
Her temples generally accompanied those of the sun; and while bloody sacrifices and human victims were offered to Baal, bread, liquors, and perfumes were presented to Astarte.
Tables were prepared for her on the flat terrace roofs of houses, near gates, in porches, and at cross‑ways, on the first day of every month, which the Greeks called " Hecate's supper." St. Jerome translates the name Astarte by Priapus, as if to denote the licentiousness committed in her groves. The Eastern people, in many places, worshipped the moon as a god, representing its figure with a beard and in armor.
The statue in the temple at Heliopolis, in Syria, was that of a woman clothed like a man (Plin. lib. v. cap. z3).
Solomon introduced her worship in Israel; but Jezebel, daughter of the king of Tyre, wife to Ahab, principally established her worship.
PRIMITIVE RITES.
65 St. Austin assures us that the Africans (descendants from the Phoenicians), maintained Astarte to be Juno ; but Herodian says the Carthaginians call the heavenly goddess, the moon, Astroarche (Chief Star).
The Phoenicians asserted confidently, says Cicero, that their Astarte was the Syrian Venus, born at Tyre, and wife to Adonis; very different from the Venus of Cyprus. Lucian, who wrote particularly concerning the goddess of Syria (Astarte), says expressly that she is the moon, and no other ; and it is indubitable that this luminary was worshipped under different names in the East.
On the medals she is sometimes represented in a long habit; at other times in a short habit; sometimes holding a long staff with a cross on its top (No. 6) ; sometimes she has a crown of rays; sometimes she is crowned with battlements, or by a Victory. In a medal of Cxsarea Palestinae she is in a short dress, crowned with battlements, with a man's head in her right hand, and a staff in her left.
This is believed to be the man's head mentioned by Lucian, which was every year brought from Egypt to Byblus, a city of Phoenicia. [We refer to our comments on Adonis in connection with this.] Sanconiathon says she was represented with a cow's head, the horns describing royalty, and the lunar rays.
Maerobius says the moon was both male and female; and adds one particular from Philocurus, that the male sex sacrificed to him in the female habit, and the female sex in the male habit. Though Spartian speaks of Carhm as a place famous for the worship of Lunus, the worship was not confined to that place and to Mesopotamia, for it was spread over all the East. The god Malach‑belus is represented on a marble, with all the marks of the god Lunus, so as to make it appear unquestionable that it is Lunus (No. 3).
Baal. ‑ As this personage is so often mentioned in Scripture, and the name, as a part of compound names, is so repeatedly used, we must give some account of him as one of the principal gods in the western part of Asia, accompanied by representations of him copied from ancient medals.
The word Baal or Bel, in Hebrew, means he that rules and subdues; master, lord, or husband (governor, ruler).
As before stated, Baal and Ashtaroth being commonly mentioned together, and as it is believed Ashtaroth denotes the moon, it is concluded that Baal represents the sun (see Nos. r and z). The name Baal is generically used for the superior god of the Phoenicians, Chaldeans, Moabites, and other parts of Western Asia.
No doubt, under the different names peculiar to their different languages, as for instance, Chamosh or Shemesh (Heb.), for the sun in the immediate neighborhood of Jerusalem and elsewhere in Palestine, Baal is certainly the most ancient god of ‑the Canaanites, and perhaps of the East.
It has been asserted by some learned men that Baal was the Saturn of Greece and Rome; and there was a great conformity between the rites and sacrifices offered to Saturn and what the Scriptures relate of the sacrifices offered to Baal.
66 ANCIENT MASONRY.
Others are of the opinion that he corresponded with Hercules, who was an original god of Phoenicia. Now, when at this day we fully comprehend why certain names were given to certain gods, ‑ and in changing the countries where they were worshipped they were considered different individualities,‑just so many more gods were added as so many countries adopted the worship.
Also the name was compounded with other names and constituted thereby other gods, but evidently the one only, in fact: as Baal‑Peor, Baal‑Zebub, Baal‑Gad, Baal‑Zephon, Baal‑Berith ; and the Hebrews called the sun Baal‑Shemesh (Baal the Sun).
The Persian Mithra was the same as Baal.
The Scriptures call the temples of the sun Chamanim.
They were places enclosed with walls, wherein a perpetual fire was maintained.
They were frequent all over the East, particularly in that region afterwards called Persia :
the Greeks called them pyreia, or pyralheia, from pyr, fire, or pyra, a funeral pile. Strabo mentions them as having in them an altar, abundance of ashes, and a perpetual fire.
From this, no doubt, arises the fire‑worship of the Parsecs, which continues to the present day.
Adonis.‑In connection with the worship and mysteries of Venus we must refer to those of Adonis. From Ezekiel viii. 14 we learn that that prophet saw women sitting in the temple weeping for Adonis; but the Hebrew reads for Tammuz, or the hidden one.
In Egypt, Adonis was called Osiris.
The Greeks worshipped Isis and Osiris under other names, viz. : under that of Bacchus : the Arabians called him Adonis.
Ogygia me Bacchum canit ; Osyrin EEgyptus vocat; Arabicus gens, Adoneum.
He was called Ammuz, or Tammuz, the concealed, to denote the manner of his death or place of burial. The Hebrews sometimes, in derision, called him the dead, because they wept for him and represented him as dead in his coffin; sometimes they call him the image of ftalousy, because he was the object of the jealousy of the god Mars. The Syrians, Phoenicians, and Cyprians called him Adonis.
In Ammon and Moab he was np doubt called Baal‑Peor.
The Mysteries of Adonis were no doubt derived from the East. The Rabbins say that Tammuz was an idolatrous prophet.
He having been put to death by the king of Babylon, all the idols of the country flocked together about a statue of the sun, which this prophet, who was a magician, had suspended between heaven and earth; there they deplored his death; for which reason a festival was instituted every year to renew the memory of this ceremony, at the beginning of the month Tammuz.
In this temple a statue was erected to Tammuz.
The statue was hollow, the eyes were of lead.
Below, a gentle fire was kindled, which insensibly heated the statue, melted the lead, and caused the people to believe that the idol wept. During all this time the Babylonish women who were in the temple fell shrieking, and made strange lamentations.
PRIMITIVE RITES.
67 Adonis is said to have been born at Byblus in Phoenicia, and is supposed to have been killed by a wild boar in the mountains of Libanus, from which the river Adonis descends.
This river once a year changes the color of its waters, and appears as red as blood.
At this signal the feasts of Adonia commenced, and imitated all the ceremonies of a most serious mourning for a dead person.
The next day it was reported that Adonis was alive and had ascended into the air.
To show the connection of Adonis with Osiris we have this account: ‑ The common people were persuaded to believe that the Egyptians at the feast of Adonis sent by sea a box made of rushes and fashioned in the form of a figure, in which a letter was inclosed, informing the inhabitants of Byblus that their god Adonis, whom they apprehended to be lost, had been discovered. The vessel always arrived safe at Byblus at the end of seven days.
Lucian says he was a witness of this event.
It is thought by some of the Ancient Fathers that this is referred to by Isaiah xviii. r : "Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the river of Ethiopia, that sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even vessels of bulrushes upon the waters."
Some, as Bochart, translate `| that sendeth images or idols by sea," but the Hebrew signifies properly ambassadors.
The question has been asked, To what did this worship of Adonis refer? Various opinions have been given. Many have supposed that the death of Adonis referred to the diminution of the solar influence during the winter months ; but as the time of the year, viz. : August and September, i.e., fifth day of the sixth month, is not remarkable for any lessening of the solar light and warmth, this cannot be the reason.
Second, the worship of the sun was accidental and not primary.
Third, other ceremonies may give light on this subject, and lead to a different opinion.
Julius Firmicus tells us that on a certain night, while the solemnity in honor of Adonis lasted, an image was laid in a bed or on a bier, as if it were a dead body, and great lamentation was made over it; but after a time a light was brought in, and the priests anointed the mouths of the assistants, whispered to them in a soft voice, 1| Trust ye in God ; for out of pain [distress] we have received salvation [deliverance]." These rites appear to be the same as those described in the Orphic Argonautica, where it is said that these awful meetings began first of all by an oath of secrecy, administered to all who were to be initiated. Then the ceremonies commenced by a description of the Chaos, or Abyss, and the attending confusion. The poet describes a person as a man of justice, and mentions the orgies, or funeral lamentations on account of this just person, and those of Arkite Athene, i.e., Divine Providence. These were celebrated by night. After the attendants had for a long while bewailed the 'death of this just person, he was at length understood to be restored to life, to have experi enced a resurrection, signified by a readmission of light.
On this, the priest 68 ANCIENT MASONRY.
addressed the company, saying, `| Comfort yourselves, all ye who have been partakers of the Mysteries of the Deity thus preserved, for we shall now enjoy some respite from our labors."
To which were added these words, " I have escaped a sad calamity, and my lot is greatly mended."
The people answered, " Hail to the Dove ! Restorer of light ! " Let us now consider what character of ancient times would answer to the "just and upright person" (Gen. vi. q), and "who shall comfort us concerning our work, and the toil of our hands " (Gen. v. 2q), and "who was entombed for a time." We shall find Noah to have been that person, who was restored from a bad to a better condition; to life and light, from his floating grave; and a " dove " appears in his history as a restorer of hope and expectation of returning prosperity.
Noah, therefore, must have been the original of all these ceremonials, in which the person dies; mourning and lamentations for his death follow, and upon his restoration follow their rejoicings.
IVdithras. ‑The highest of the twenty‑eight second‑class divinities of the Ancient Persian Pantheon, the Izea (Zend. Yazata), or genius of the sun and ruler of the universe. Protector and supporter of this life, he watches over his soul in the next, defending it against the impure spirits, and transferring it into the realms of eternal bliss.
He is all‑seeing and all‑hearing, and, armed with a club, his weapon against Ahriman and the evil Devs, he unceasingly "runs his course " between heaven and earth. The ancient monuments represent him as a be
youth dressed in Phrygian garb, kneeling upon an ox, into whose neck he plunges a knife; several varying minor allegorical emblems of the sun and his course surrounding the group.
At times, he is also represented as a lion or the head of a lion.
The most important of his many festivals was his birthday, celebrated on the 25th of December, the day subsequently fixed ‑ against all evidence ‑ as the birthday of Christ.
The worship of Mithras (Hierocoracica, Coracica, Sacra), which fell in the spring equinox, was famous even among the many Roman festivals.
The ceremonies observed in the initiation to these 'mysteries ‑ symbolical of the struggle between Ahriman and Ormuzd (the Good and the Evil) ‑ were of the most extraordinary, and to a certain degree, even dangerous character.
Baptism and the partaking of a mystical liquid, consisting of flour and water, to be drank with the utterance of sacred formulas, were among the inaugurative acts. The seven degrees ‑according to the number of the planets‑were: r. Soldiers; 2. Lions (in the case of men), or Hyenas (in that of women) ; 3. Ravens; 4. Degree of Perses; 5. of Oromios; 6. of Helios; q. of Fathers,‑the highest,‑who were also called Eagles and Hawks. At first, of a merry character, ‑ thus the king of Persia was allowed to get drunk only on the Feast of the Mysteries, ‑the solemnities gradually assumed a severe and rigorous aspect.
From Persia, the cultus of Mithras and the Mysteries were imported into Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, etc., and it is not unlikely that in some parts human sacrifices were connected with this worship.
PRIMITIVE RITES.
69 Through Rome, where this worship was finally suppressed, A.D. 3 78, it may be presumed it found its way into the West and North of Europe; and many tokens of its former existence in Germany, for instance, are still to be found, such as the monuments at Hedernheim, near Frankfort‑on‑the‑Main, and at other places. Among the chief authorities on this subject are Anquetil du Perron, Creuzer, Silvestre de Sacy, Lajard, O. Miiller.
Osiris, Asiris, or Hysiris (Many‑eyed).‑The worship of Osiris was universal throughout Egypt. This name appears as early as the fourth dynasty, in the hieroglyphic texts, and is expressed by a throne and an eye. At a later period (nineteenth), a palanquin is substituted for the throne; and under the Romans the pupil of the eye, for the eye itself. In the ritual and other inscriptions he is said to be the son of Seb, or Saturn, and Nu, or Rhea ; to be the father of Horns by Isis, who is also called sister of Osiris. The mystic notions connected with Osiris seem to connect him with Bacchus, or they both were derived from some original god, who benefited mankind by travelling over the various countries and teaching them the arts of life.
Osiris was said to be the son of Ra (the sun), or of Atum (the setting sun), and the Bennu or Phcenix; also to be uncreated or self‑engendered, and is sometimes identified with the sun, or the creator, and Pluto, or judge of hades. When born, Chronos (Saturn) gave him in charge to Pamyles. When he became king of Egypt, he is said to have civilized the Egyptians, and to have taught them agriculture, the cultivation of the vine, and the art of making beer. He afterwards travelled over the earth, and, by his persuasion, overcame the people everywhere and induced them to practise agriculture. Compare this with the sketch of Bacchus.
The myth of his destruction by his brother, Typhon, ii so well known that we will not repeat it here. Typhon and Osiris represent the evil and good principles by which mankind are governed, and correspond with Ahriman and Ormuzd of the Persian system,‑with the two principles in India.
The pentalpha, or five‑pointed star, with the one point upward, and in its middle the face of the sun or an eye, represents Osiris.
There existed amongst the ancients great diversity of opinion as to the real intention or meaning of the myth of Osiris. Plutarch says he represented the inundation of the Nile ; Isis, the irrigated land ; Horus, the vapors ; Buto, the marshes; Nephthys, the edge of the desert; Anubis, the barren soil; Typhon was the sea; the conspirators, the drought; the chest, the bank of the river. The Tanaitic branch of the river was the one, which overflowed unprofitably; the twenty‑eight years, the number of cubits which the Nile rose at Elephantine ; Harpocrates, the first shootings of the corn.
Such were the interpretations of Plutarch.
There appear, however, to be in it the dualistic principles of good and evil, represented by the benefits derived from the influence of the daily sun, and the opposition, by night, which hides the sun.
This, as it is said by some, no doubt was the original significance of the myth; but time 70
ANCIENT MASONRY.
caused additions to the first elements, and hence the blending of Osiris with other deities, especially Ptah‑Socharis, the pigmy of Memphis, and the bull Hapis, or Apis, the Aratar of Plato. Osiris was the head of a tetrad of deities, whose local worship was at Abydos, where his coffin floated and was recovered.
In form, Osiris is represented swathed, in allusion to his embalmment ; a net‑work, suggestive of the net by which his remains were fished out of the Nile, covers this dress ; on his head he wears the cap, Alf, having at each side the feathers of truth, of which he was the lord.
This is placed on the horns of a goat.
His hands hold the crook and whip, to indicate his governing power; and his feet are based on the cubit of truth.
A panther's skin on a pole is often placed before him, and festoons of grapes hang over his shrine, connecting him with Dionysos.
He wears the white or upper crown as the `| good being," or Ounophris, the meek‑hearted, the celestial king.
His worship extended over Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome, and at an early day had penetrated into Phoenicia, traces of it being found on coins of Malta and other places.
Orpheus. ‑ Supposed to be the Vedic Ribhu, or Arbhu, an epithet both of Indra and the Sun. This is a semi‑mythic name, of frequent occurrence in ancient Greek lore.
The early legends call him a Oleagrus and Clio or Polymnia. different localities were pointed of Olympus and Pangracus, the river Erupeus, the promontory of Serrhium, and several cities. Apollo bestows upon him the lyre which Hermes invented, and by its aid Orpheus moves men and beasts, the birds in the air, the fishes in the deep, the trees and the rocks.
He accompanies the Argonauts in their expedition, and the power of his music wards off all mishaps and disasters, rocking monsters to sleep, and stopping cliffs in their downward rush.
His wife, Eurydice (? = Sanskrit Uru, Dawn), is bitten by a serpent ( ? = night) and dies.
Orpheus follows her into the infernal regions, and so powerful are his "golden tones " that even stern Pluto and Proserpina are moved to pity, while Tantalus forgets his thirst, Ixion's wheel ceases to revolve, and the Danaides stop in their wearisome task.
He is allowed to take her back into the " light of heaven," but he must not look around while they ascend.
Love, or doubt, however, draw his eyes towards her, and she is lost to him forever (? = first rays of the sun gleaming at the dawn makes it disappear or melt into day). His death is sudden and violent. According to some accounts, it is the thunderbolt of Zeus that cuts him off, because he reveals the Divine Mysteries; according to others, it is Dionysus, who, angry at his refusing to worship him, causes the Menades to tear him to pieces, which pieces are collected and buried by the Muses in tearful piety at Leibethra, at the foot of Mount Olympus, where a nightingale sings over his grave.
Others, again, make the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, or of His native country is Thracia, where many out as his birthplace, ‑such as the mounts PRIMITIVE RITES.
71 Thracian women divide his limbs between them, either from excessive madness of unrequited love, or from anger at his drawing their husbands away from them.
The faint glimmer of historic truth hidden beneath these myths becomes clearer in those records which speak of Orpheus as a divine bard or priest in the service of Zagreus, the Thracian Dionysus, and founder of the Mysteries. As the first musician, he was the inaugurator of the rites of expiation and of the mantic art, the inventor of letters and the heroic metre, of everything, in fact, that was supposed to have contributed to the civilization and initiation into a more humane worship of the deity among the primitive inhabitants of Thracia and all Greece,‑ a task to which he was supposed to have devoted his life after his return with the Argonauts. A kind of monastic order sprang up in later times, calling itself after him, which combined a sort of enthusiastic creed about the migration of souls and other mystic doctrines with a semi‑ascetic life. Abstinence from meat (not from wine), frequent purifications, the wearing of white garments and similar things,‑not unlike some of the Essenic manners and customs, ‑ were among their fundamental rules and ceremonies.
But after a brief duration, the brotherhood having first, during the last days of the Roman Empire, passed through the stage of conscious and very profitable jugglery, sank into oblivion, together with their Orpheotelistic formulas and sacrifices, and together with the joys of the upper, and the never‑ending punishments of the infernal regions, which they held out to their rich dupes, according to the sums they grudged or bestowed upon them.
The Orphic literature and mysteries are derived from Orpheus, the real origin of which, however, according to O. Muller, is like his own history, " unquestionably the darkest point in the entire history of early Greek poetry." Orpheus is supposed to have been the pupil of Apollo, as was Olen, Linus, Philammon, Eumolpus, Musaeus, and other legendary singers of prehistoric Greece, and to have composed certain hymns and songs used in the worship of a Dionysus, dwelling in the infernal regions, and in the initiations into the Eleusinian Mysteries.
He was placed anterior to Homer and Hesiod.
Herodotus and Aristotle combated the supposed antiquity of the so‑called Orphic myths and songs of their day, yet the entire, enormous Orphic literature, which had resulted from them, retained its ancient authority, not only with both the Hellenists and the Church Fathers of the third and fourth centuries A.D. (who for their individual, albeit opposite purposes, referred to it as the most authentic primitive source of Greek religion, from which Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Plato, had drawn their theological philosophy), but down almost to'the last generation, when it is irrefutably proved to be in its main bulk, as far as it has survived the production of those very centuries, raised upon a few scanty primitive snatches. The theogony is mainly based upon that of Hesiod, with allegorizing and symbolizing tendencies, and to simplify the Olympic population by compressing several deities into a single one.
72 ANCIENT MASONR Y.
Bacchus. ‑The God of wine; ‑in Greek Bakchos, Dionysos; and in the Mysteries, Iakchos, the son of Zeus and Semele.
When young he was carried to Nysa in Thrace, and given in charge to the Nymphs.
Here he taught the cultivation of the vine and other products of horticulture.
Intoxicating drinks are attributed to his invention.
In consequence of being smitten with madness by Here, he wandered through many countries attended by the Nymphs, who were crowned with ivy and vine leaves and bore in their hands the thyrsus, a pole bound round with leaves and fruit.
Wherever he came, in his wide progress, there is a Nysa.
His worship, coming originally from the East, was introduced into Greece by Malampus, and spread over the whole known earth, and was modified by each people, among whom it was practised, to suit, perhaps, their own former ideas of religious rites and mysteries ; consequently he received a great many surnames.
He was called Lenxos, from the wine‑vat, lenos; Bromius, from the shouting in his worship, bromos; Euios (Latin Eviais), from the exclamation Euoi, etc.
The worship of Bacchus was accompanied with noisy rites, games, and dramatic entertainments, wherein there were excessive, joyful manifestations and merriment; in fact, they degenerated in time into noisy, drunken orgies of the most extravagant character. The festivals deserving notice were : i. The Attic Dionysia ; the Minor or Country Dionysia were celebrated in the coun try, in the month Poseideon, at the time of the grape‑gathering.
This was followed, in the month Gametion, by the Lenaea, which was peculiar to Athens. After the Lenwa came the Anthesterion, when the new wine was first drunk. Last came the Great Dionysia, which were celebrated in the month Elaphebolion. 2. The Triateric Dionysia‑celebrated every third year in midwinter. These were celebrated by women and girls, and the orgies were held at night on the mountains, with torches and wildest enthusiasm.
This mystic solem nity came from Thrace, and its institution is referred to Orpheus.
It cannot be determined when it was adopted in Greece.
3. The Bacchanalia, whose foundation was laid in Athens, during the Peloponnesian War, by the introduction of foreign rites.
From Greece they went to Italy.
As early as 496 B.C. the Greek worship of Bacchus was carried to Rome with that of Ceres ; Ceres, Liber, and Libera were worshipped in the same temple. The Liberalia were celebrated on the 1 7th of March, and were of a simpler and ruder kind than the Dionysia of Athens.
These rites finally were accompanied with such licentiousness as to threaten the destruction of morality, and even of society itself. Celebrated at firstly women only, men were afterward admitted, and were made the occasion of most unnatural excesses.
About B.C. 186, the government instituted an inquiry into these rites, and finally suppressed the Bacchanalia.
After the vintage a poem was acted at the festival of Bacchus, to whom a goat was then sacrificed as being the destroyer of the vines, and therefore it was called tragodia, the goat's song (Serv. ad Verg. G. II. 381). Hence the derivation of "tragedy" : tragos, a goat; and oda, song.
HISTORY OF INITIATION.
CHAPTER III.
HISTORY OF INITIATION BY COUNTRIES AND SYSTEMS.
Origin of Initiation. ‑Dr. Oliver, in his history of initiation, says: ‑ "The universal deluge would produce a tremendous effect on the minds of the survivors, and, as a knowledge of this terrible event was propagated amongst their posterity, it would naturally be accompanied by a veneration for the piety, and afterward for the persons of the favored few who were preserved from destruction by the visible interference of the Divinity. This veneration increasing with the march of time, and with the increasing oblivion of the peculiar manner in which their salvation was accomplished, at length assumed the form of an idolatrous worship, and Nimrod, the first open apostate, instituted a service of divine honors to Noah and his triple offspring, who were identified with the Sabian worship and gave the original impulse to the helioarkite superstition.
"Hence the sun and Noah were worshipped in conjunction with the moon and the ark, which latter subsequently represented the female principle, and was acknowledged in different nations, under the various appellations of Isis, Venus, Astarte, Ceres, Proserpine, Rhea, Sita, Ceridwen, Frea, etc.; while the former, or male principle, assumed the name of Osiris, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Bacchus, Adonis, Hu, Brahma, Odin, etc., which by degrees introduced the abominations of the phallic worship. When Venus represented the ark itself, Minerva the divine Wisdom and justice, which produced the deluge and preserved the ark upon its waters, Iris was the rainbow, and Juno the arkite dove.
"On these rude beginnings the whole complicated machinery of the Mysteries was formed, which completely banished, from the political horizon of idolatry, the true knowledge of God and of a superintending providence. Each of these deities had legitimate and appropriate symbols which ultimately became substituted for the antitype, and introduced among mankind the worship of animals and the inanimate objects of creation." Faber said: "The ancient mythologists considered the whole frame of the heavens in the light of an enormous shi~. In it they placed the sun, as the fountain of light and heat, and assigned to him, as the acknowledged representative of the Great Father, the office of pilot" (Pag. Idol., Vol. I. 36).
In the several systems of initiation there were involved all the confused and complicated mechanism of their mythologies. After the candidate had passed through all preliminary rites and ceremonies, he was subjected to a representation of a mystical death ; thereby signifying an oblivion of all the stains and imperfections of a corrupted and an evil life ; as also a descent into hades, where every pollution was to be purged by the lustrations, by purifications of fire, water, and air, after which the Epopt, considered to have been regenerated, or new born, was restored to a renovated existence of life, light, and purity, and placed under divine protection.
The intelligent Mason will, from this, discover the origin of the rites in the 3d degree of Symbolic Masonry, and the 5th and 3rst degrees, A.‑.A.‑.S.‑.R.‑. The ceremony of the Taurobolium and Criobolium, or the bloody baptism of the Bull and Ram, are said to have originated from this regeneration.
The Mysteries, in all their forms, were funereal.
They celebrated the 73 74 ANCIENT MASONRY.
mystical death and revivification of some individual, by the use of emblems, symbols, and allegorical representations.
It is said by some that the original legend of initiation was as follows Osiris, who was the king of Egypt, left the government of his kingdom to his wife Isis, while he travelled among the nations around him, to confer benefits upon then by instructing them in the arts and agriculture. Upon his return he was invited to a grand entertainment given by his brother Typhon, in November, when the sun appears in Scorpio.
Typhon produced a valuable chest inlaid with gold, and promised it to any one present whose body it would most conveniently contain. Osiris was induced to get into it, and immediately the cover was closed, and he was fastened in it, and it was thrown into the river.
This represented the Aphanisna of the Mysteries.
The chest containing the body of Osiris floated into the sea and was carried to Byblus, in Phoenicia, and was cast up at the foot of a tamarind tree.
[The tamarind tree is a species of acacia, and hence the use of the acacia in the burial of a Mason.] Isis, going in search of Osiris, passed through many adventures, which are very much varied by different authors, succeeded in obtaining the body of Osiris, and returned to Egypt, designing to give it a splendid interment. Typhon, however, again got possession of it, and severed it into fourteen parts and secreted them in as many different parts of the country. Isis again set out in search of these several parts, and succeeded in finding the scattered fragments, and buried them in the places where they were found, except one part.
It was then, proclaimed that Osiris was risen from the dead;
this was the Eui esis.
These rites were celebrated in Greece, in honor of Bacchus and Rhea; at Byblus, of Adonis and Venus; in India, of Mahadeva and Sita; in Britain, of Hu and Ceridwen ; in Scandinavia, of Woden and Frea ; etc.
In every moon, the sources of light instance, these and heat.
Bryant describes the emblems by which Rhea was designated as follows: ‑ divinities represented the sun and " She is figured as a beautiful female personage, and has a chaplet, in which are seen ears of corn, like rays.
Her right hand reclines on a pillar of stone, in her left are spikes of corn, and on each side a pomegranate.
Close by her side stands the beehive, out of the top of which there arise corn and flowers, to denote the renewal of seasons and promise of plenty.
In the centre of these fruits the favorite emblem, the pomegranate, appears again, and crowns the whole." COUNTRIES.
Hindoostan. ‑It is perhaps possible that in this very ancient country may be found the origin of these religious rites which spread far and wide among all the nations of the Orient.
From the annals of India we learn that it was derived from the seven Rishis, or "penitents," whose virtues raised them to the heavens and placed them where they have ever since represented the constellation of the Great Bear, two of which seven stars constantly point to the North Star.
HINDOOSTAN.
75 The word " Rishis " means the "Shiners," and it also means a Bear, because his coat of hair shines.
These seven are supposed to represent the seven sons of Japheth.
From Maurice, Hist. Hind. (Vol. II. P. 45), we learn " It is related in Padmapooraun that Satyavrata, whose miraculous preservation from a general deluge is told at large in the Matsya, had three sons, the eldest of whom was named Jyapeti, or Lord of the Earth; the others were Charma and Sharma, which last words are in the vulgar dialects usually pronounced Cham and Sham, as we frequently hear Kishn for Chrisna. The royal patriarch‑for such is his character in the Pooraun‑was particularly fond of Jyapeti, to whom he gave all the regions to the north of Himalaya, or the snowy mountains, which extend from sea to sea, and of which Caucasus is a part; to Sharma he allotted the countries to the south of these mountains; but he cursed Charma, because when the old monarch was accidentally inebriated with strong liquor made of fermented rice, Charma laughed; and it was in consequence of his father's execration that he became a slave to the slaves of his brothers." It is supposed that originally the primitive inhabitants practised a patriarchal religion; i.e., the patriarch or chief of a family or tribe was king, priest, and prophet.
He ruled the commune, offered all the sacriXces, and instructed his people in all religious matters.
Subsequently, when conquered by the Cuthites under Rama, the son of Cush, referred to in Genesis x. z, q,1 the Mysteries of the deluge were introduced. The worship soon became divided into two sects. We are not fully apprised when was first introduced the Bramanic system, ‑composed of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, constituting the Trimurti, ‑nor do our limits permit us to elaborate on this point; hence we simply introduce this feature to show that, in the division referred to above, one branch was mild and benevolent, and addressed to Vishnu, the second person of the "Trinity," who was represented in the system as the " Preserver," and who appeared on earth in the flesh‑and is supposed to have, in the nine successive "Avatars," represented that number of animal forms, and accomplished as many miraculous events for the benefit of mankind.
Compare this feature with the subsequent acts of all the heroes, represented in all the myths as the sun.
The other system proclaimed the superiority of Siva, whe was called the " Destroyer," and the representative of terror and penance: barbarity and blood; in Egypt, represented by Typhon.
These Mysteries, whatever may have been their origin, or for what purposes they were then instituted, were certainly a corruption of the original worship of the one Deity. They bore a direct reference to the happiness of Man in Paradise, where he was first placed; his subsequent deviations and transgressions, and the destruction of the race by the general deluge. They used subterranean caverns and grottos, formed in the solid rocks or in secret 1 "And the sons of Cush, Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha; and the sons of Raamah, Theba, and Dedan."
(See Explanation of Map.) 76
' ANCIENT MASONRY.
recesses of their structures, erected for the purpose.
The most of these Mysteries are unknown to us.
Bryant says that the earliest religious dance was a wild and frantic movement, accompanied with the clashing of swords and shields, and called Bertarmus, symbolic of the confusion which occurred when the Noachian family left the ark. The great cavern of Elephanta, perhaps the most ancient temple in the world made by man, in which these rites were performed, and remaining to the present day, is an evidence of the magnitude of that system. This cavern, cut out of the solid rock, is one hundred and thirty‑five feet square and eighteen feet high, and is supported by four massive columns. The walls are covered with statues and emblems. Maurice (Ind. Ant.), says: ‑ "Some of the figures have on their heads a kind of helmet of a pyramidal form; others wear crowns, rich with devices, and splendidly decorated with jewels; while others display only large bushy ringlets of curled or flowing hair. Many of them have four hands, many have six, and in these hands they grasp sceptres and shields, the symbols of justice and ensigns of religion, the weapons of war and trophies of peace." The caverns of Salsette, of which there are three hundred, all have within them carved and emblematic characters. The different ranges of apartments are connected by open galleries, and only by private entrances could the most secret caverns, which contained the ineffable symbols, be approached, and so curiously contrived as to give the highest effect upon the neophytes when in the ceremonial of initiation.
A cubical cista, used for the periodical sepulture of the aspirant, was located in the most secret recesses of the cavern.
The consecrated water of absolution was held in a carved basin in every cavern, and on the surface floated the flowers of the lotus.
The Linga or Phallus appeared everywhere most conspicuous, and oftentimes in situations too disgusting to be mentioned.
Dr. Buchanan (Res. in Asia), says, "The tower of juggernaut is covered with indecent emblems, which are newly painted when it is exhibited in public, and are objects of sensual gaze by both sexes." The increase and decrease of the moon were the periods by which initiations were governed. The Mysteries were divided into four degrees. The Hitopadesa says, " Let even the wretched man practise virtue whenever he enjoys one of the three or four religious degrees: let him be even‑minded with all created things, and that disposition will be the source of virtue." Candidates were admitted to the lesser Mysteries at the early age of eight years. This consisted in the investiture of the Zennar, a sacred cord of three threads, supposed to'refer to the three modes of purification; viz. : earth, fire, and air: water with them was air in a condensed form.
Sacrifices to the sun, to the planets, and to household gods, were made, accompanied with ablutions of water, purifications with dung and urine of the cow. This last was because the dung was the medium by which the soil was made fertile, and reminded them of the doctrine of " corruption and reproduction" taught in the worship of Siva, that it was necessary for man to die, HINDOOST.4N.
77 his body to suffer corruption before it could be clothed with immortality by a resurrection. It is possible that their observation of nature taught them that the seed must die or suffer fermentation in the ground before the plant could be produced.
Christ said the same to his disciples : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." After the completion of the ceremonies, a lecture was given‑much too difficult for the juvenile comprehension‑which principally related to the Unity and Trinity of the Godhead, the manner of using the consecrated fire, and the rites of morning, noon, and evening. A linen garment without seam was put on him, a cord put over the right ear as a means of purification, and he was then placed in charge of a Brahmin to be instructed for advancement. After enduring many hardships, trials, and rigid penances, restricted from all indulgences, he passed his time mostly in prayer and ablutions until the age of twenty.
He was to preserve the purity of his body, which was termed the city with nine gates, in which his soul was a prisoner; he must eat properly; was instructed in all the minute ceremonies which were adapted to every act of his future life, and by which he was to be distinguished from the uninitiated. He was to study the sacred books, that he might have a competent knowledge of the institution, ceremonies, and traditions of religion, which would qualify him for the next degree.
Having attained the suitable age, if, upon due examination, he was found to be qualified by proper progress in all the essentials of the first degree, he was permitted to enter upon the probationary ceremonies of the second.
His austerities were increased.
He supported himself by begging charity.
Prayer, ablutions, and sacrifices occupied his days, and the study of the heavens his nights; and, for the necessary rest and repose from his arduous and almost exhausting duties, the first tree afforded him shelter; and, after a short sleep, he arose to contemplate the constellations in the skies, which were thought to resemble various monsters.
Sir William Jones in his works tells us " In the hot season he sat exposed to five fires, four blazing around him, with the sun above ; in the rain he stood uncovered, without even a mantle, when the clouds poured the heaviest showers ; in the cold season he wore wet clothing, and went on increasing by degrees the austerity of his devotion." Having finished this probation, he was initiated into the privileges of the Mysteries.
The cross was marked on every part of his body, and he passed the probation of the Pastos or Coffin, ‑ which was called the door of Patala or hell, ‑the Tartarus of the Grecian Mysteries.
Having finished all his purifications, at the dead hour of night he was conducted to the mysterious cavern of gloom, duly prepared for his reception, which shone with. light almost equal to that of the sun, proceeding from an immense number of lamps. In rich and costly robes, the three hierophants occupied the east, west, and south, representing Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
78 ANCIENT MASONRY.
When the sun rises in the east, he is called Brahma; when in the meridian, he is Vishnu; and at his setting, he is Siva. The Mystagogues were seated around. The aspirant was conducted to the centre of this august assembly. An anthem was sung to the God of Nature, as the Creator, Preserver, or Destroyer, and an apostrophe was addressed to the sun, viz. : ‑ " O mighty being, greater than Brahma, we bow down before thee as the prime Creator! Eternal God of gods!
The world's mansion!
Thou art the uncorruptible Being, distinct from all things transient!
Thou art before all gods, the ancient Pooroosh, and the supreme supporter of the universe!
Thou art the supreme mansion 1
And by thee, O infinite form, the universe was spread abroad!" The aspirant is then called upon to declare that he will be obedient to his superiors, that he will keep his body pure, keep a tongue of good report, passively obey and receive the doctrines and traditions, and maintain the strictest secrecy as to the abstruse Mysteries. Having assented to this declaration, he was sprinkled with water, an incantation was pronounced over him or whispered in his right ear, he was then divested of his shoes and was made to circumambulate the cavern three times, and was made to exclaim, || I copy the example of the sun, and follow his benevolent course." He was again placed in the centre, and enjoined to practise the religious austerities, to prepare his soul for ultimate absorption.
He was informed that the merit of such works deserved a splendor which makes man superior to the gods, and renders them subservient to his wishes.
He was then given in charge to a spiritual guide, and required to maintain a profound silence during the succeeding ceremonies, and should he violate this injunction the presiding Brahmin could instantly strike him dead.
The bewailings for the loss of Sita then began.
The aspirant was conducted through seven rafiges of gloomy caverns, amidst the dismal lamentations, cries, and shrieks, to represent the bewailings of Mahadeva, who, it is said, circumambulated the world seven times, carrying the remains of his murdered consort upon his shoulders.
To show the coincidences between this rite of India and Egypt, we give another account, which states that when Mahadeva received the curse of some devotees, whom he had disturbed at their devotions, he was deprived of his lingam, which in the end proved fatal to his life.
His consort wandered over the earth and filled the world with her bewailings.
Mahadeva was at length restored under the form of Iswara, and united once more to his beloved Sita.
Amidst all the confusion a sudden explosion was heard, which was followed by a dead silence. Flashes of brilliant light were succeeded by darkness. Phantoms and shadows of various forms, surrounded by rays of light, flitted across the gloom.
Some with many hands, arms, and legs ; others without them; sometimes a shapeless trunk, then a human body with the head of a bird, or beast, or a fish; all manner of incongruous forms and bodies were seen, and all calculated to excite terror in the mind of the postulant.
HIA'DOOSTAN.
Among these he saw a terrible figure who had "A gorgeous appearance, with unnumbered heads, each having a crown set with resplendent jewels, one of which excelled the others; his eyes gleamed like flaming torches, but his neck, his tongues, and his body were black; the skirts of his garments were yellow, and sparkling jewels hung in all of his cars; his arms were extended, and adorned with bracelets, and his hands bore the holy shell, the radiated weapon, the war mace, and the sacred lotus. This image represented Mahadeva himself, in his character of the Destroyer.
"It is said in explanation, that these appearances were designed as a type of the original generation of the gods; for it was figured, that as Sita was carried by Mahadeva, her body burst open, and the gods contained in her womb were scattered over the whole earth, and the places where they fell were called sacred.
"In the legend of Osiris, when his body had been cut in pieces, and afterward each part buried where found by Isis, that particular locality was deemed sacred. The introduction of the lingam, in each of these legends, no doubt refers to the same original myth.
"Succeeding to this, the candidate was made to represent the god Vishnu, and imitate his several Avatars; and, following Dr. Oliver's conjecture, he was first plunged into the waters to represent the fish‑god, who descended to the bottom of the ocean to recover the stolen Vedas. This was called the Matse Avatar, and gives an account of the general deluge. The Vedas were stolen by the demon Hayagriva, who swallowed them, and retired to a secret place at the bottom of the sea; these books being lost, mankind fell into vice and wickedness, the world was destroyed by a flood of waters, except a pious monarch with his family of seven persons, who were preserved in a vessel built under the direction of Vishnu.
"When the waters had attained their greatest elevation this god plunged into the ocean, attacked and slew the giant, who was the cause of this great calamity, and recovered three of the books from the monster's abdomen, the fourth having been digested. Then emerging from the waves, half man, half fish, he presented the Vedas to Brahma; and the earth, resuming its former state, was repeopled by the eight persons who had been miraculously preserved."
(Maur., Ind. Ant., Vol. II., p. 353.)
(Fig 7.) "Another Avatar was also a figurative account of the deluge.
Satyavrata, a king of India, was instructed by a fish, that in seven days the world would be inundated; but that a ship would be sent in which himself and seven holy companions would be preserved.
These persons entered the vessel, and the waters prevailed so extensively as to destroy all created matter.
The Soors then held a consultation on the summit of Mount Mera to discover the Amreeta, or water of immortality, allusive to the reanimation of nature; and learned that it could be produced only by the violent revolution of the Mountain Mandar, which the Dewtahs found themselves unable to move.
In despair, they solicited the aid of Brahma and Vishnu, who instructed them how to proceed; the Serpent Vasooke wound the folds of his enormous body round the mountain like a cable, and Vishnu becoming incarnate in the form of a tortoise, took the mountain on his back. Thus loosened from its foundation, Indra began to whirl the mountain about with incessant motion with the assistance of the Assoors, who were employed at the serpent's head, and the Soors who were at the tail (see Fig. r7).
Soon the violence of the motion produced a stream of smoke, fire, and wind, which ascending in thick clouds, replete with lightning, it began to rain furiously, while the roaring of the Ocean was tremendous.
The various productions of the waters were torn to pieces; the fi uits of the earth were annihilated, and a raging fire spread destruction all around. At length a stream of the concocted juice of the dissolved matter ran down the mountain mixed with molten gold, from whence the Soors obtained the water of immortality, or, in other words, the restoration of nature from the power of the triumphant waters."
(Maur., Ind. Ant., Vol. II., P. 343.) "Then the Soors and Assoors commenced a dreadful battle for the possession of this glorious water, which at length was decided in favor of the Seers, and their opponents fled; some rushing headlong into the ocean, and others hiding themselves in the bowels of the earth. The Mountain Mander was then carefully replaced in its former station and the waters restored to their primitive caverns and recesses.
"The candidate was directed to descend into a lower cavern on hands and feet, through a passage barely large enough to admit him.
Here he met an antagonist, and a mimic battle 79 80 ANCIENT MASONRY.
followed, and the aspirant was victorious.
Elated with his conquest, the gigantic monster attacked him and he was again the conqueror.
He was then taught to take three steps at right angles, which referred to the fifth manifestation [which are now used in 3d degree, French rite].
As a diminutive Brahmin, Vishnu demanded of the impious tyrant Bali as much ground for sacrifice as would suffice to place three feet upon.
The tyrant granted this.
Vishnu, resuming his own form, with one foot covered the earth, with the other he filled all space between earth and heaven, and with a third, which sprang from his belly, he crushed the monsters head, and hurled him down to the infernal regions.
"In the remaining Avatars he passed through a series of furious conflicts, not without wounds and bruises.
In the sixth Avatar, in the human form, Vishnu encountered and overcame hosts of giants and tyrants.
The seventh Avatar is a complete and voluminous romance; under the name of Rama, he is represented as a valiant and successful warrior.
With a vast army of monkeys and satyrs, in battle array, he accomplished many wonderful adventures.
In the eighth Avatar he slew a host of giants, armed only with an enormous serpent, and in the ninth he transformed himself into a tree to gratify a criminal passion for a king's daughter.
The Hindoos still expect the tenth Avatar with the same impatience which the Jews manifest for their Messiah. Sir William Jones says, that in this Avatar 'lie is expected to appear mounted (like the crowned conquerors in the Apocalypse), on a white horse, with a cimeter, blazing like a comet, to cut down all incorrigible and impenitent offenders who shall then be on the earth."'
(Asiatic Rev., Vol. I., p. 236.) It was necessary that the candidate should undergo all these dangers and trials to make him equal to the gods.
Having passed through the seven mystic caverns, a cheerful sound of bells was heard, which he was told would expel the evil demons who might be inclined to disturb the sacred ceremonies in which they were engaged.
Prior to his introduction into the presence of the holy altar, he was informed that " whatever is performed without faith, whatever it might be, is not for this world, or that which is above." IIe was admonished not to commit five crimes, under heavy penalties in this life, and to be punished with eternal vengeance in the next. These particulars formed a part of the oath under which he was now solemnly bound, and he sealed it by a ablution.
The seven caverns bore seven places of reward and into their creeds.
The crisis of the ceremony of initiation summit of interest; the Mystical conch was sounded, the folding doors were thrown open, and the candidate was ushered into Callasa or Paradise (this was the actual name of one of the grottos in the subterranean temple of Elora, and Faber supposed it to have been the illuminated sacellum into which the aspirants were introduced).
This spacious apartment was lighted by a thousand brilliant lamps.
It was ornamented with statues and emblems, scented with the rich fragrance of odorous flowers, aromatics, and drugs, decorated profusely with valuable gems and jewels. The figures of the inhabitants of unknown worlds were carved in the ceiling; and the splendid sacellum thronged with priests, arrayed in gorgeous vestments and crowned with mitres and tiaras of burnished gold. He was taught to expect the sacred an allusion to the metempsychosis as well as to the punishment which different nations have admitted had now arrived,‑and reached the HINDOOSTAN.
gI descent of the deity in the bright pyramids of fire that blazed upon the altar, to which he was to direct his eyes.
, " The sudden sound` of the shell or trumpet, the expansion of the folding doors, the brilliant display, the instantaneous prostration of the priests, and the profound silence which ensued, were designed to fill the mind of the aspirant with admiration, and inspire him with the holy fervor of adoration; and, in the enthusiasm which followed, he could almost persuade himself that he saw the great Brahma seated on the lotus, with his four heads, and having in his hands the emblems of eternity and omnipotence, the circle and fire." The circle or ring is the symbol of the Ark; and as the great Father was hidden within its enclosure during the flood of waters, many fables sprang out of this connection; one of which was the " Ring of Gyges," which was reputed to render the wearer invisible.
"Gyges," Said Plato, " found a brazen horse in a cavern.
Within the horse was hid the body of a man of gigantic stature, having a brazen ring on his finger.
This ring Gyges took, and found that it rendered him invisible."
The cavern, the ring, and the giant show pretty evidently whence this fable originated. The mare was a form of Ceres or Hippa, the Mystic nurse of the ark‑exposed Bacchus or Noah. The man, therefore, was the ark; the dead giant was the gigantic Buddha, or the great Father, during the period of his death‑like slumber while enclosed witYiin the ark; and the cavern was one of those sacred grottos, within which the Mysteries were perpetually celebrated; and from which both he and his initiated votaries were feigned to be born again.
(Fab., Pag. Idol.).
We cannot see clearly the above explanation, but give it as we find it in Faber's " Pagan Idolatry." No explanation is given of the ring. The mystery connected with its power of concealment is not explained; yet the ring appears in the legends and myths of various countries, and is constantly used in the A.‑. A.‑. S.‑. R.‑., and no doubt was derived from the " Ring of Gyges," when first adopted in the rite.
In reference to the fire, we find in "Asia. Res." Vol. II, 355, that '| Suddenly a golden temple appeared, containing a chain of wrought gold.
On the summit of the temple Brahma alighted, and held a canopy over the head of Sacya; while Indra, with a fan in his hand, Naga, prince of serpents, and the four tutelary deities of the four corners of the universe, attended to do him reverence and service." The aspirant, who had become fatigued by all of these tedious ceremonies, was then given a potation of fermented liquor, from a human skull.' Being a regenerated being, a new name was bestowed upon him, which indicated his then purity, and was presented to the Chief Brahmin, and was received by him as a brother and companion.
He was then invested with a white robe and tiara, placed in an elevated seat, and instructed in the various tokens and signs, and also in the explanations of the Mysteries.
A cross, the sectarial mark called Tiluka, was placed on his forehead, and explained to be the symbol of the four cardinal points of the world.
The tau cross or inverted level was inscribed on his breast, the badge of innocence and the symbol of eternal life, to indicate his newly acquired dignity, which advanced him to the superior order of priesthood.
The sacred sash or belt was presented and placed upon him.
This cord could be woven only by a Brahmin, and by him with the utmost solemnity and by many mystic rites.
Three threads, each measuring ninety‑sir, hands, are first twisted together, then they are folded into three and 1 Old Simon.
twisted again, making nine, or three times three threads; this is folded again into three, but not twisted, and each end is secured by a knot. This is the Zennar, which is placed on the left shoulder, passes to the right side, and hangs down as low as the fingers can reach (Ind. Ant., Vol. IV. p. 740).
In addition, he has the consecrated chaplet, the Kowsteke‑Men or Kowstooble, and the talismanic tablet for the left arm. An amulet was given to him, which was the '| Salagram " or magical black‑stone, which insured the protection of Vishnu, whose various forms he had represented emblematically. The serpent‑stone, as an antidote against the bite of serpents, which is an amulet similar to the anguinum of the Druids, was also given to him.
He was instructed in the art of composing amulets for his own safety, and incantations to injure, torture, or destroy his enemies, and finally, when all other things had been completed, he was solemnly and in a mysterious manner intrusted with the sublime NAME, known only to those initiated into the higher Mysteries. The NAME was pronounced OM, and was expressed by the letters A. U. M. Niebuhr, cited by Southey, Thalaba, says: "The Mahommedans, in common with the Jews and idolaters, attach to the knowledge of this Sacred Name the most wonderful powers.
They pretend that God is the Lock of Islam Allah, or science of the name of God, and Mohammed the King; that consequently none but Mohammedans can attain to it; that it discovers what passes in distant countries ; that it familiarizes the possessors with the genii, who are at the command of the initiated, and who instruct them ; that it places the winds and the seasons at their disposal ; that it heals the bite of serpents, the lame, the maimed, and the blind."
In the oracles ascribed to Zoroaster is a passage which pronounces the sacred Names used in the Mysteries to be ineffable, and not to be changed, because revealed by himself.
Wilkins, in his notes on Bhagvad‑Glta, says: "This mystic emblem of the deity, ' OM,' is forbidden to be pronounced but in silence."
The first letter stands for the Creator, the second for the Preserver, and the third for the Destroyer.
Maurice, || Indian Antiquities," says, || The perfections of God are thus described in the last book of the Ramayan, translated by Sir William Jones, ` Vishnu is the being of beings ; one substance in three forms ; without mode, without quality, without passion; immense, incomprehensible, infinite, indivisible, immutable, incorporeal, irre sistible.
His operations no mind can conceive, and his will moves all the inhabitants of the universe as puppets are moved by strings.'"
Mr. Faber says that this cypher graphically exhibits the divine triad, Batrama, Subhadra, and Jagannath.
In an old Purana, as we learn from the Abbe du Bois, the following passage is found, which shows the veneration displayed by the ancient Indians for this tremendous word : " All the rights ordained in the Vedas, the sacrifices to the fire, and all other solemn purifications shall pass away, but that which shall never pass away is the word OM, for it is the symbol of the Lord of all things."
After the communication of this word, the aspirant, now a priest, was instructed that he must meditate upon it, " with the following HINDOOST.4N.
83 associations, which are the mysterious names of the seven worlds, or manifestations of the power of OM, the solar fire. OM ! earth, sky, heaven, middle region, place of births, mansion of the blessed, abode Of TRUTH." The various emblems were then explained to him by the Chief Brahmin, with the arcana of the hidden science enfolded under the holy gloom of their mysterious veil, the names and attributes of all the deities whose symbols were sculptured on the walls, and the mythological figures were elucidated." The system of symbolic instruction used in the Mysteries was very extensive and highly philosophic, and none but the initiated could comprehend them.
Stukely says the first learning in the world consisted chiefly in symbols. The wisdom of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Jews, of Zoroaster, Sanconiathon, Pherecydes, Syrus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, of all the ancients that is come to our hand, is symbolic. "It was the mode," says Sacranus on Plato's symposium, "of the ancient philosophers to represent truth by certain symbols and hidden images." In the method explaining the various symbols, religion and philosophy were veiled in allegoric representations. To the profane unintelligible, and which were calculated to lead them erroneously, these symbols were displayed openly in the temples; and to the profane altogether obscure, but streaming with beams of light to the initiated.
The principles, taught in the lecture to the initiated, were : ‑ " The first element and cause of all things was water, which existed amidst primordial darkness.
Brahma was the creator of this globe, and by his spirit invigorates the seventy‑four powers of nature; but the universe is without beginning and without end.
He is the being who was, and is, and is to come; and his emblem was a perfect sphere, endowed with the attributes of omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, and was designated; 'The great God, the great Omnipotent and Omniscient ONE; the greatest in the world, the LORD.'" Captain Seely, " Wonders of Elora," says "there is no idol in front of the great altar in the temple of Ekverah, or at Elora; the umbrella covering rises from a wooden pedestal out of the convexity of the altar. A Brahmin, whom I questioned on the subject of the altar, exclaimed, in nearly the words of our own poet, `Him first, Hint last, Him midst, Him without egad.' "
In alluding to the Almighty, he nearly spoke as above described, placing his hand on this circular solid mass.
He rejected all idea of assimilating Buddha or Brahma with the eternal God, who, he said, was One alone, from beginning to end; and that the circular altar was his emblem.
Colebrooke, " Asiatic Researches," tells us this Being was identified with LIGHT; for the Brahmins say: " Because the Being who shines with seven rays, assuming the forms of time and fire, matures productions, is resplendent, illuminates, and finally destroys the universe, therefore he who shines naturally with seven rays is called Light, or the effulgent power."
Thus Brahm is Light; and light is the principle of life in every created thing.
11 Light and darkness 84 ANCIENT MASONRY.
are esteemed the world's eternal ways.
He who walketh in the former path returneth not; i.e., he goeth immediately to bliss; while he who walketh in the latter cometh back again upon the earth." We have devoted much space to Hindooism because, in the country of India, the ideas concerning the creation of all things, the deity, and religious observances, originated; and from these the Mysteries sprang which were disseminated throughout the entire world. The coincidences are so manifest that we must conclude that from these Hindoo Mysteries were propagated all those in China and Persia, and that they spread towards the west of Asia, and were carried into Egypt, and from thence, as the Mysteries of Osiris and Isis, were imported into Greece.
A few facts of great prominence may be adduced as sufficient to prove that, in those several countries, the rites were derived from the same original sources.
Avatars of Vishnu.‑First. Matsaya‑which is fabled to have assumed the form of a fish, to restore the lost Veda which had been stolen from Brahma in his sleep by the demon Hayagriva. This, and the second and third Avatars, seem to refer to the universal deluge; and the present would appear as the announcement of it to a pious king, Satyavrata, who is considered by some to have been Noah. He appeared first in the shape of a minute fish to the devout monarch to try his piety and benevolence, then gradually expanding himself he became one of immense magnitude. He subsequently disclosed himself and finally announced the flood.
"In seven days from the present time the three worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death; but, in the midst of the destroying waves, a large vessel sent by me for thy use shall stand before thee.
Then shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all variety of seeds, and accompanied by seven saints, encircled by pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the spacious ark, and continue in it, secure from the flood, on an immense ocean, without light, except the radiance of thy holy companions.
When the ship shall be agitated by an impetuous wind thou shalt fasten it with a large sea‑serpent to myòhorn, for I will be near thee, drawing the vessel with thee and thy attendants.
I will remain on the ocean until a day of Brahma [a year] shall be completely ended." (Maurice).
When the deluge was abated and mankind destroyed, except Satyavrata and his companions, Vishnu slew the demon Hayagriva and recovered the lost Veda, or in other words, when the wicked were destroyed by the deluge, sin no longer prevailed, and virtue was restored to the world.
Second. Vishnu assumed the form of an immense tortoise, to support the earth while the gods and genii churned with it the ocean. He is represented as a tortoise, sustaining a circular pillar which is crowned by the lotus throne, on which sits the semblance of Vishnu in all his attributes. A huge serpent encircles the pillar, one end is held by the gods and the other by the daityas or demons.
By this churning the sea was converted into milk, and then into butter, from which, among other things, was produced the Antrita or water of life drank by the Immortals.
An extraordinary belief prevailed among the Iroquois Indians, in which the tortoise is imagined to have acted an equally important part in the formation of the globe. They believed that before that period there were six male beings who existed in the regions of the air, but were nevertheless subjected to mortality.
Among them there was no female to perpetuate their race, but they learned that there was one in heaven, and it was agreed that one of them should undertake the dangerous task of endeavoring to bring her away.
The difficulty was how he should get there; for although he floated in oether, it appears he could not soar to the celestial realms.
A bird, therefore (but whether the eagle of Jove, or the Garuda of Vishnu, or of what other kind we are not told), became his vehicle, and conveyed him thither on his back.
He saw the female and seduced her by (what too many ladies at the present day are led astray by), flattery and presents, but of what kind we are also unfortunately left in ignorance.
The Supreme Deity knowing what had taken place immediately turned her, like another Eve, out of Paradise, and she was received by a tortoise on its back, when the otter (a most important party in North American legends), and the fishes disturbed the mud at the bottom of the ocean, and drawing it up around the tortoise, formed a small island, which gradually increasing became the earth. The female had, at first, two sons (one of whom slew the other), and afterwards, several children from whom sprung the rest of mankind.
China. ‑ In Maurice, " Indian Antiquities," we learn that " the Chinese practised Buddhism in its simple form, and worshipped an invisible God, until a few centuries B.c., after which visible objects were adored. 600 B.c. a system was introduced similar to that of Epicurus, and its followers were called `Immortals'; while the Chinese were materialists, they were nevertheless worshippers of idols. In a very short period of time the Chinese became as noted for the multiplicity of the objects of adoration as any other nation." Confucius endeavored to introduce a reformation of the abuses ; licentiousness however, long continued, would not submit to his system of mortifications and an austere virtue. His admonitions were not regarded; he was despised by the Mandarins for instituting a reformation in their Mysteries, which were then, as practised, the main source of all their wealth and of their power; and an attempt was made to put him out of the way, and he was forced to flee from their society to avoid their machinations to destroy him.
He then, in his retirement, organized a school of philosophy ; and all who were in any manner inspired with a love of virtue and science, were induced to follow him. The effects of his system were reserved for posterity.
He made a prediction on his death‑bed that there would come in the West a GREAT PROPHET, who should deliver mankind from the bondage of error and superstition, and set up an universal religion to be ultimately embraced by all the nations of . the earth.
His followers supposed that this was no other than Buddha or Fo himself, and he was accordingly, with solemn pomp, installed into their temples as the chief deity of the Chinese empire : ‑ "Other idolatrous customs were introduced, and ideal objects of worship, attended with indecent and unnatural rites, accumulated so rapidly that China soon became celebrated for the practice of every impurity and abomination.
"The initiations were performed in a cavern; after which, processions were made around the Tan or altar, and sacrifices made to the celestial gods. The chief end of initiation was a fictitious immortality or absorption into the Deity; and, to secure this admirable state of supreme and never changing felicity, amulets were as usual delivered to the initiates, accompanied by the magic words, O‑MI‑To Fo, which denoted the omnipotence of the divinity, and was considered as a most complete purification and remission of every sin.
Sir William Jones says, ' Omito was derived from the Sanskrit Armida, immeasurable, and Fo was a name for Buddha.' " Much merit was attached to the possession of a consecrated symbol representing the great triad of the Gentile world.
This was an equilateral triangle, said to afford protection in all cases of personal danger and adversity.
The mystical symbol Y was also much esteemed from its allusion to the same Triune‑God, the three distinct lines of which it is composed forming one, and the one is three.
This was in effect the ineffable name of the deity, the Tetractys 'of Pythagoras, and the Tetragrammaton of the Jews.
"A ring, supported by two serpents, was emblematic of the world protected by the wisdom and power of the Creator, and referred to the diluvian patriarch and his symbolic consort, the ark; and the ark itself was represented by a boat, a mouth, and number $. 'Tao, or reason, has produced one; one hath produced two; two hath produced three; and three hath produced all things."' 86
ANCIENT MASONRY.
There was a superstition for odd numbers as containing divine properties. Thus, while the sum of the even numbers, a + 4 ‑h 6 + 8 ‑f‑ 10 = 30, the number of earth, the sum of the odd numbers, r ‑}‑ 3 + 5 + 7 ‑{‑ 9 = 25, was called the number of heaven.
This we presume gave rise to the name of "mystic" to the odd numbers. The rainbow was the universal symbol in all the systems of which we have any knowledge, and demonstrates that these Mysteries must have referred to the deluge. The aspirant represented Noah; the ark, which was called his mother, as well as his wife, was surrounded by a rainbow at the time of his deliverance or new birth; hence he was figuratively said to be the offspring of the rainbow.
Japan.‑"The Japanese believed that the world was enclosed in an egg before the creation, which floated on the surface of the waters. At this period a prickle appeared among the waves which became spirit, from which sprang six other spirits, who, with their wives, were the parents of a race of heroes, from whom proceeded the original inhabitants of Japan.
They worshipped a deity who was styled the son of the unknown god, and considered as the creator of the two great lights of heaven.
"The egg was always esteemed an emblem of the earth.
"There is a pagoda at Micoa consecrated to a hieroglyphic bull, which is placed on a large square altar and composed of solid gold. His neck is adorned with a very costly collar. The most remarkable thing is the egg, which he pushes with his horns, and he grips it with his forefeet. This bull is placed on the summit of a rock, and the egg floats in water which is enclosed in a hollow space in it.
The egg represents the chaos; and what follows is the illustration which the doctors of Japan have given of this hieroglyphic.
The whole world at the time of the chaos was enclosed within this egg, which floated on the surface of the waters.
The moon, by virtue of her light and other influences, attracted from the bottom of these waters a terrestrial substance which was insensibly converted into a rock, and by that means the egg rested upon it.
The bull observing this egg, broke the shell of it by goring it with his horns, and so created the world, and by his breath formed the human species." This fable may in some measure be reconciled with truth, by supposing that an ancient tradition had preserved among the Japanese some idea of the world, but that being led into an error, in process of time, by an ambiguous meaning of the name of the bull, which in the Hebrew language is attributed to the Deity, they ascribed the creation of the world, to this animal and not to the Supreme Being.
To the prickle among the waves " May be referred the Gothic idol Seater, which is thus described by Verstegan from Johannes Pomarius ('Restitution of Decayed Intelligence').
First on a pillar was placed a perch on the sharp prickled back whereofstood this idol.
He was lean of visage, having long hair and a long beard, and was bare‑headed and bare‑footed.
In his left hand he held up a wheel; and in his right he carried a pail of water, wherein were flowers and fruits.
His long coat was girded on him with a towel of white linen.
His standing on the sharp fins of this fish was to signify that the Saxons, for serving him, should pass steadfastly and without harm in dangerous and difficult places.
"The caverns of initiation were in the immediate vicinity of the temples, and generally in the midst of a grove, and near a stream of water. They had mirrors, which were to signify that the imperfections of the heart were as plainly displayed to the sight of the gods, as the worshippers behold their own image in the mirror.
Hence it became a significant emblem of the all‑observing eye of the god, Tensio Dai Sin.
"The term of probation for the highest degrees was twenty years;
and even the hierophant was not competent to perform the ceremony until he himself had been initiated the same period; and his five assistants must have had ten years' experience from the date of their admission before they were considered competent to take this subordinate part of initiation. The aspirant was taught to subdue his passions, and devote himself to the practice of austerities, and studiously abstain from every carnal indulgence.
"In the closing ceremony of preparation, ha was entombed within the pastas, or place of penance, the door of which was said to be guarded by a terrible divinity, armed with a drawn‑sword, as the vindictive fury or god of punishment. During the course of his probation the aspirant sometimes acquired such a high degree of enthusiasm as induced him to refuse to quit his confinement in the pastos; and to remain there until he literally perished with famine. To this voluntary martyrdom was attached a promise of never‑ending happiness in the paradise of Amidas. Indeed, the merit of such a sacrifice was boundless. His memory was celebrated with unusual rejoicings.
The initiations, however, were dignified with an assurance of a happy immortality to all, who passed through the rites honorably and with becoming fortitude.
"Rings or circles of gold as amulets were worn as emblems of eternity, virtually consecrated, and were supposed to convey the blessing of a long and prosperous life; and a chaplet of consecrated flowers or sacred plants and boughs of trees, which, being suspended about the doors o. their apartments, prevented the ingress of impure spirits; and hence their dwellings were exempted from the visitations of disease or calamity." Persia. ‑To Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, were the mysteries of Persia indebted for their celebrity.
Hyde and Prideaux, in this connection, state that Zoro aster was of Jewish birth.
Such a person did live in Persia some time about the latter end of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon.
The period is very uncertain, but all authorities agree as to the fact of his existence in that region of the East, and his great work in the 1| reformation," or change made in the religious worship of the people in and around Persia.
Sir John Malcolm, "History of Persia," says: ‑ " A Persian author has declared that the religious among the followers of Zoroaster believed that the soul of that holy person was created by God, and hung upon that tree from which all that is celestial has been produced. . . . I have heard the wise and holy Mobud Seeroosh declare that the father of Zoroaster had a cow, which after tasting some withered leaves that had fallen from the tree, never ate of any other; these leaves being her sole food, all the milk she pro duced was from them.
The father of Zoroaster (Poorshasp) was entirely supported by this milk; and to it, in consequence, they refer the pregnancy of his mother, whose name was Daghda." Another account is that the cow ate the soul of Zoroaster as it hung on the tree, and that it passed through her milk to the father of that prophet. The apparent object of this statement is to prove that Zoroaster was born in innocence, and that not even vegetable life was destroyed to give him existence.
When he was born he burst into a loud laugh, like the prince of necromancers, Merlin, and such a light shone from his body as illumined the whole room.
Pliny mentions this ancient tradition respecting Zoroaster.
It is said by some that, being a Jew, he was educated in the elements of the true worship among his countrymen in Babylon, and afterwards became an attendant upon the prophet Daniel, and received from him initiation into all the mysteries of the Jewish doctrine and practice.
He also studied magic under the Chaldean philosophers, who initiated him into their mysteries.
This account is from Hyde and Prideaux, but Dr. Oliver expresses much doubt as to its probability.
Indeed, from the great uncertainty as to the date of his $$
ANCIENT MASONRY.
appearance among men, some authors placed him as a contemporary with Abraham, and others again made him to appear long after the captivity had ceased. With this uncertainty as to Zoroaster's true date, we must receive all accounts of his marvellous acts, or matters connected with him, with many grains, if not ounces, of allowance.
He is after this found at Ecbatana, and, making himself appear as a prophet, set about the task of reforming the religion of Persia, which, like all other religions, had become subverted from the original object, and by a series of gradual and imperceptible changes its character had degenerated from the Magian form to the Sabian system.
As a professed Magian, he was soon surrounded by followers of every rank, who joined with him and gave support to all his designs of reformation. Darius Hystaspis accompanied hire into Cashmere, to aid in completing his preparatory studies, by instruction from the Brahmins, from whom he had received the rites of initiation.
Cashmere has been called the terrestrial para dise and the holy land of superstition.
In the Ayeen Akbery forty‑five places are said to be dedicated to Mahadeo; sixty‑four to Vishnu; twenty‑two to Durga; and only three to Brahma (Maur. Ind. Ant.).
Before the time of Zoroaster the Persians, like the early Egyptians, worshipped in the open air, long after other nations had constructed temples, as they considered the broad expanse of heaven as the sublime covering of temples devoted to the worship of Deity. Their places of sacrifice were much like those of the northern nations of Europe, composed of circles of upright stones, rough and unhewn. They abominated images, and worshipped the Sun and Fire, as representatives of the omnipresent Deity.
