Part 18 (2/2)

The Hebrew word, in the old Hebrew and Samaritan character, suspended in the East, over the five columns, is ADONA, one of the names of G.o.d, usually translated Lord; and which the Hebrews, in reading, always subst.i.tute for the True Name, which is for them ineffable.

The five columns, in the five different orders of architecture, are emblematical to us of the five princ.i.p.al divisions of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite:

1.--The _Tuscan_, of the three blue Degrees, or the primitive Masonry.

2.--The _Doric_, of the ineffable Degrees, from the fourth to the fourteenth, inclusive.

3.--The _Ionic_, of the fifteenth and sixteenth, or second temple Degrees.

4.--The _Corinthian_, of the seventeenth and eighteenth Degrees, or those of the new law.

5.--The _Composite_, of the philosophical and chivalric Degrees intermingled, from the nineteenth to the thirty-second, inclusive.

The North Star, always fixed and immutable for us, represents the point in the centre of the circle, or the Deity in the centre of the Universe.

It is the especial symbol of duty and of faith. To it, and the seven that continually revolve around it, mystical meanings are attached, which you will learn hereafter, if you should be permitted to advance, when you are made acquainted with the philosophical doctrines of the Hebrews.

The Morning Star, rising in the East, Jupiter, called by the Hebrews Tsadoc or Tsydyk, _Just_, is an emblem to us of the ever-approaching dawn of perfection and Masonic light.

The three great lights of the Lodge are symbols to us of the Power, Wisdom, and Beneficence of the Deity. They are also symbols of the first three _Sephiroth_, or Emanations of the Deity, according to the Kabalah, _Kether_, the omnipotent divine _will_; _Chochmah_, the divine intellectual _power_ to _generate_ thought, and _Binah_, the divine intellectual _capacity_ to _produce_ it--the two latter, usually translated _Wisdom_ and _Understanding_, being the _active_ and the _pa.s.sive_, the _positive_ and the _negative_, which we do not yet endeavor to explain to you. They are the columns Jachin and Boaz, that stand at the entrance to the Masonic Temple.

In another aspect of this Degree, the Chief of the Architects [[Hebrew: ?? ????], Rab Banaim,] symbolizes the const.i.tutional executive head and chief of a free government; and the Degree teaches us that no free government can long endure, when the people cease to select for their magistrates the best and the wisest of their statesmen; when, pa.s.sing these by, they permit factions or sordid interests to select for them the small, the low, the ign.o.ble, and the obscure, and into such hands commit the country's destinies. There is, after all, a ”divine right” to govern; and it is vested in the ablest, wisest, best, of every nation.

”Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding: I am power: by me kings do reign, and princes decree justice; by me princes rule, and n.o.bles, even all the magistrates of the earth.”

For the present, my Brother, let this suffice. We welcome you among us, to this peaceful retreat of virtue, to a partic.i.p.ation in our privileges, to a share in our joys and our sorrows.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

XIII.

ROYAL ARCH OF SOLOMON.

Whether the legend and history of this Degree are historically true, or but an allegory, containing in itself a deeper truth and a profounder meaning, we shall not now debate. If it be but a legendary myth, you must find out for yourself what it means. It is certain that the word which the Hebrews are not now permitted to p.r.o.nounce was in common use by Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob, Laban, Rebecca, and even among tribes foreign to the Hebrews, before the time of Moses; and that it recurs a hundred times in the lyrical effusions of David and other Hebrew poets.

We know that for many centuries the Hebrews have been forbidden to p.r.o.nounce the Sacred Name; that wherever it occurs, they have for ages read the word _Adona_ instead; and that under it, when the masoretic points, which represent the vowels, came to be used, they placed those which belonged to the latter word. The possession of the true p.r.o.nunciation was deemed to confer on him who had it extraordinary and supernatural powers; and the Word itself, worn upon the person, was regarded as an amulet, a protection against personal danger, sickness, and evil spirits. We know that all this was a vain superst.i.tion, natural to a rude people, necessarily disappearing as the intellect of man became enlightened; and wholly unworthy of a Mason.

It is noticeable that this notion of the sanct.i.ty of the Divine Name or Creative Word was common to all the ancient nations. The Sacred Word HOM was supposed by the ancient Persians (who were among the earliest emigrants from Northern India) to be pregnant with a mysterious power; and they taught that by its utterance the world was created. In India it was forbidden to p.r.o.nounce the word AUM or OM, the Sacred Name of the One Deity, manifested as Brahma, Vishna, and Seeva.

These superst.i.tious notions in regard to the efficacy of the Word, and the prohibition against p.r.o.nouncing it, could, being errors, have formed no part of the pure primitive religion, or of the esoteric doctrine taught by Moses, and the full knowledge of which was confined to the Initiates; unless the whole was but an ingenious invention for the concealment of some other Name or truth, the interpretation and meaning whereof was made known only to the _select few_. If so, the common notions in regard to the Word grew up in the minds of the people, like other errors and fables among all the ancient nations, out of original truths and symbols and allegories misunderstood. So it has always been that allegories, intended as vehicles of truth, to be understood by the sages, have become or bred errors, by being literally accepted.

It is true, that before the masoretic points were invented (which was after the beginning of the Christian era), the p.r.o.nunciation of a word in the Hebrew language could not be known from the characters in which it was written. It was, therefore, _possible_ for that of the name of the Deity to have been forgotten and lost. It is certain that its true p.r.o.nunciation is not that represented by the word Jehovah; and therefore that _that_ is not the true name of Deity, nor the Ineffable Word.

The ancient symbols and allegories always had more than one interpretation. They always had a _double_ meaning, and sometimes _more_ than two, one serving as the envelope of the other. Thus the _p.r.o.nunciation_ of the word was a symbol; and that p.r.o.nunciation and the word itself were lost, when the knowledge of the true nature and attributes of G.o.d faded out of the minds of the Jewish people. That is _one_ interpretation--_true, but not the inner and profoundest one_.

Men were figuratively said to forget the _name_ of G.o.d, when they lost that _knowledge_, and wors.h.i.+pped the heathen deities, and burned incense to them on the high places, and pa.s.sed their children through the fire to Moloch.

Thus the attempts of the ancient Israelites and of the Initiates to ascertain the True Name of the Deity, and its p.r.o.nunciation, and the loss of the True Word, are an allegory, in which are represented the general ignorance of the true nature and attributes of G.o.d, the p.r.o.neness of the people of Judah and Israel to wors.h.i.+p other deities, and the low and erroneous and dishonoring notions of the Grand Architect of the Universe, which all shared except a few favored persons; for even Solomon built altars and sacrificed to Astarat, the G.o.ddess of the Tsidunim, and Malc.u.m, the Aamunite G.o.d, and built high places for Kamus, the Moabite deity, and Malec the G.o.d of the Beni-Aamun. The true nature of G.o.d was unknown to them, like His name; and they wors.h.i.+pped the calves of Jeroboam, as in the desert they did that made for them by Aarun.

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