Part 58 (1/2)

_Qu_ What is the meaning of the square?

_Ans_ It is the symbol of the four elements contained in the triangle, or the emblem of the three chemical principles: these things united form absolute unity in the primal matter.

_Qu_ What is the meaning of the centre of the circ.u.mference?

_Ans_ It signifies the universal spirit, vivifying centre of nature.

_Qu_ What do you mean by the quadrature of the circle?

_Ans_ The investigation of the quadrature of the circle indicates the knowledge of the four vulgar elements, which are themselves composed of elementary spirits or chief principles; as the circle, though round, is composed of lines, which escape the sight, and are seen only by the mind.

_Qu_ What is the profoundest meaning of the figure 3?

_Ans_ The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From the action of these three results the triangle within the square; and from the seven angles, the decade or perfect number.

_Qu_ Which is the most confused figure?

_Ans_ Zero,--the emblem of chaos, formless mixture of the elements.

_Qu_ What do the four devices of the Degree signify?

_Ans_ That we are to hear, see, be silent, and enjoy our happiness.

The _unit_ is the symbol of ident.i.ty, equality, existence, conservation, and general harmony; the Central Fire, the Point within the Circle.

_Two_, or the _duad_, is the symbol of diversity, inequality, division, separation, and vicissitudes.

The figure 1 signifies the living man [a body standing upright]; man being the only living being possessed of this faculty. Adding to it a head, we have the letter P, the sign of Paternity, Creative Power; and with a further addition, R, signifying man in motion, going, _Iens_, _Iturus_.

The Duad is the origin of contrasts. It is the imperfect condition into which, according to the Pythagoreans, a being falls, when he detaches himself from the Monad, or G.o.d. Spiritual beings, emanating from G.o.d, are enveloped in the duad, and therefore receive only illusory impressions.

As formerly the number ONE designated harmony, order, or the Good Principle (the ONE and ONLY G.o.d, expressed in Latin by _Solus_, whence the words _Sol_, _Soleil_, symbol of this G.o.d), the number Two expressed the contrary idea. There commenced the fatal knowledge of good and evil.

Everything double, false, opposed to the single and sole reality, was expressed by the Binary number. It expressed also that state of contrariety in which nature exists, where everything is double; night and day, light and darkness, cold and heat, wet and dry, health and sickness, error and truth, one and the other s.e.x, etc. Hence the Romans dedicated the second month in the year to Pluto, the G.o.d of h.e.l.l, and the second day of that month to the _manes_ of the dead.

The number _One_, with the Chinese, signified unity, harmony, order, the Good Principle, or G.o.d; _Two_, disorder, duplicity, falsehood. That people, in the earliest ages, based their whole philosophical system on the two primary figures or lines, one straight and unbroken, and the other broken or divided into two; doubling which, by placing one under the other, and trebling by placing three under each other, they made the four symbols and eight _Koua_; which referred to the natural elements, and the primary principles of all things, and served symbolically or scientifically to express them. Plato terms unity and duality the original elements of nature, and first principles of all existence: and the oldest sacred book of the Chinese says: ”The Great First Principle has produced two equations and differences, or primary rules of existence; but the two primary rules or two oppositions, namely YN and YANG, or repose and motion, have produced four signs or symbols, and the four symbols have produced the eight KOUA or further combinations.”

The interpretation of the Hermetic fables shows, among every ancient people, in their princ.i.p.al G.o.ds, first, 1, the Creating Monad, then 3, then 3 times 3, 3 times 9, and 3 times 27. This triple progression has for its foundation the three ages of Nature, the Past, the Present, and the Future; or the three degrees of universal generation ... Birth, Life, Death ... Beginning, middle, end.

The Monad was male, because its action produces no change _in_ itself, but only _out_ of itself. It represented the creative principle.

The Duad, for a contrary reason, was female, ever changing by addition, subtraction, or multiplication. It represents matter capable of form.

The union of the Monad and Duad produces the Triad, signifying the world formed by the creative principle out of matter. Pythagoras represented the world by the right-angled triangle, in which the squares of the two shortest sides are equal, added together, to the square of the longest one; as the world, as formed, is equal to the creative cause, and matter clothed with form.

The ternary is the first of the unequal numbers. The Triad, mysterious number, which plays so great a part in the traditions of Asia and the philosophy of Plato, image of the Supreme Being, includes in itself the properties of the first two numbers. It was, to the Philosophers, the most excellent and favorite number: a mysterious type, revered by all antiquity, and consecrated in the Mysteries; wherefore there are but three essential Degrees among Masons; who venerate, in the triangle, the most august mystery, that of the Sacred Triad, object of their homage and study.

In geometry, a line cannot represent a body absolutely perfect. As little do two lines const.i.tute a figure demonstratively perfect. But three lines form, by their junction, the TRIANGLE, or the first figure regularly perfect; and this is why it has served and still serves to characterize The Eternal; Who, infinitely perfect in His nature, is, as Universal Creator, the first Being, and consequently the first Perfection.

The Quadrangle or Square, perfect as it appears, being but the second perfection, can in no wise represent G.o.d; Who is the first. It is to be noted that the name of G.o.d in Latin and French (Deus, Dieu), has for its initial the Delta or Greek Triangle. Such is the reason, among ancients and moderns, for the consecration of the Triangle, whose three sides are emblems of the three Kingdoms, or Nature, or G.o.d. In the centre is the Hebrew JOD (initial of ????), the Animating Spirit of Fire, the generative principle, represented by the letter G., initial of the name of Deity in the languages of the North, and the meaning whereof is Generation.