The Symbolism of Freemasonry by Albert G. Mackey

by Albert G. Mackey

  CABALIST. A Jewish philosopher. One who understands and teaches the doctrines of the Cabala, or the Jewish philosophy.

  CABIRI. Certain gods, whose worship was first established in the Island of Samothrace, where the Cabiric Mysteries were practised until the beginning of the Christian era. They were four in number, and by some are supposed to have referred to Noah and his three sons. In the Mysteries there was a legend of the death and restoration to life of Atys, the son of Cybele.

  The candidate represented Cadmillus, the youngest of the Cabiri, who was slain by his three brethren. The legend of the Cabiric Mysteries, as far as it can be understood from the faint allusions of ancient authors, was in spirit and design very analogous to that of the third degree of Masonry.

  CADMILLUS. One of the gods of the Cabiri, who was slain by his brothers, on which circumstance the legend of the Cabiric or Samothracian Mysteries is founded. He is the analogue of the Builder in the Hiramic legend of Freemasonry. 256

  CAIRNS. Heaps of stones of a conical form, erected by the Druids. Some suppose them to have been sepulchral monuments, others altars. They were undoubtedly of a religious character, since sacrificial fires were lighted upon them, and processions were made around them. These processions were analogous to the circumambulations in Masonry, and were conducted like them with reference to the apparent course of the sun.

  CASSIA. A gross corruption of Acacia. The cassia is an aromatic plant, but it has no mystical or symbolic character.

  CELTIC MYSTERIES. The religious rites of ancient Gaul and Britain, more familiarly known as Druidism, which see.. 109

  CEREMONIES. The outer garments which cover and adorn Freemasonry as clothing does the human body.

  Although ceremonies give neither life nor truth to doctrines or principles, yet they have an admirable influence, since by their use certain things are made to acquire a sacred character which they would not otherwise have had; and hence Lord Coke has most wisely said that "prudent antiquity did, for more solemnity and better memory and observation of that which is to be done, express substances under ceremonies.".

  CERES. Among the Romans the goddess of agriculture; but among the more poetic Greeks she became, as Demeter, the symbol of the prolific earth.

  See Demeter.

  CHARTER OF COLOGNE. A masonic document of great celebrity, but not of unquestioned authenticity. It is a declaration or affirmation of the design and principles of Freemasonry, issued in the year 1535, by a convention of masons who had assembled in the city of Cologne. The original is in the Latin language. The assertors of the authenticity of the document claim that it was found in the chest of a lodge at Amsterdam in 1637, and afterwards regularly transmitted from hand to hand until the year 1816, when it was presented to Prince Frederick of Nassau, through whom it was at that time made known to the masonic world. Others assert that it is a forgery, which was perpetrated about the year 1816. Like the Leland manuscript, it is one of those vexed questions of masonic literary history over which so much doubt has been thrown, that it will probably never be satisfactorily solved. For a translation of the charter, and copious explanatory notes, by the author of this work, the reader is referred to the "American Quarterly Review of Freemasonry," vol. ii. p.

  52.

  CHRISTIANIZATION OF FREEMASONRY. The interpretation of its symbols from a Christian point of view. This is an error into which Hutchinson and Oliver in England, and Scott and one or two others of less celebrity in this country, have fallen. It is impossible to derive Freemasonry from Christianity, because the former, in point of time, preceded the latter.

  In fact, the symbols of Freemasonry are Solomonic, and its religion was derived from the ancient priesthood.

  The infusion of the Christian element was, however, a natural result of surrounding circumstances; yet to sustain it would be fatal to the cosmopolitan character of the institution.

  Such interpretation is therefore modern, and does not belong to the ancient system.

  CIRCULAR TEMPLES. These were used in the initiations of the religion of Zoroaster. Like the square temples of Masonry, and the other Mysteries, they were symbolic of the world, and the symbol was completed by making the circumference of the circle a representation of the zodiac.

  CIRCUMAMBULATION. The ceremony of perambulating the lodge, or going in procession around the altar, which was universally practised in the ancient initiations and other religious ceremonies, and was always performed so that the persons moving should have the altar on their right hand. The rite was symbolic of the apparent daily course of the sun from the east to the west by the way of the south, and was undoubtedly derived from the ancient sun-worship.

  CIVILIZATION. Freemasonry is a result of civilization, for it exists in no savage or barbarous state of society; and in return it has proved, by its social and moral principles, a means of extending and elevating the civilization which gave it birth.

  Freemasonry is therefore a type of civilization, bearing the same relation to the profane world that civilization does to the savage state.

  COLLEGES OF ARTIFICERS. The Collegia Fabrorum, or Workmen's Colleges, were established in Rome by Numa, who for this purpose distributed all the artisans of the city into companies, or colleges, according to their arts and trades. They resembled the modern corporations, or guilds, which sprang up in the middle ages. The rule established by their founder, that not less than three could constitute a college,--"tres faciunt collegium,"--has been retained in the regulations of the third degree of masonry, to a lodge of which these colleges bore other analogies.

  COLOGNE, CHARTER OF. See Charter of Cologne.

  COMMON GAVEL. See Gavel.

  CONSECRATION. The appropriating or dedicating, with certain ceremonies, anything to sacred purposes or offices, by separating it from common use.

  Masonic lodges, like ancient temples and modern churches, have always been consecrated. Hobbes, in his Leviathan (p. iv. c. 44), gives the best definition of this ceremony. "To consecrate is in Scripture to offer, give, or dedicate, in pious and decent language and gesture, a man, or any other thing, to God, by separating it from common use.".

  CONSECRATION, ELEMENTS OF. Those things, the use of which in the ceremony as constituent and elementary parts of it, are necessary to the perfecting and legalizing of the act of consecration. In Freemasonry, these elements of consecration are corn, wine, and oil,--which see.

  CORN. One of the three elements of masonic consecration, and as a symbol of plenty it is intended, under the name of the "corn of nourishment," to remind us of those temporal blessings of life, support, and nourishment which we receive from the Giver of all good.

  CORNER STONE. The most important stone in the edifice, and in its symbolism referring to an impressive ceremony in the first degree of Masonry.

  The ancients laid it with peculiar ceremonies, and among the Oriental nations it was the symbol of a prince, or chief.

  It is one of the most impressive symbols of Masonry.

  It is a symbol of the candidate on his initiation.

  As a symbol it is exclusively masonic, and confined to a temple origin.

  COVERING OF THE LODGE. Under the technical name of the "clouded canopy or starry-decked heavens," it is a symbol of the future world,--of the celestial lodge above, where the G.A.O.T.U. forever presides, and which constitutes the "foreign country" which every mason hopes to reach.

  CREUZER. George Frederick Creuzer, who was born in Germany in 1771, and was a professor at the University of Heidelberg, devoted himself to the study of the ancient religions, and with profound learning, established a peculiar system on the subject. Many of his views have been adopted in the text of the present work. His theory was, that the religion and mythology of the ancient Greeks were borrowed from a far more ancient people,--a body of priests coming from the East,--who received them as a revelation.

  The myths and traditions of this ancient people were adopted by Hesiod, Homer, and the later poets, although not without some misunderstan
ding of them, and they were finally preserved in the Mysteries, and became subjects of investigation for the philosophers. This theory Creuzer has developed in his most important work, entitled "Symbolik und Mythologie der alten Völker, besonders der Greichen," which was published at Leipsic in 1819. There is no translation of this work into English, but Guigniaut published at Paris, in 1824, a paraphrastic translation of it, under the title of "Religions de l'Antiquité considérées principalement dans leur Formes Symboliques et Mythologiques." Creuzer's views throw much light on the symbolic history of Freemasonry.

  CROSS. No symbol was so universally diffused at an early period as the cross. It was, says Faber (Cabir. ii. 390), a symbol throughout the pagan world long previous to its becoming an object of veneration to Christians.

  In ancient symbology it was a symbol of eternal life. M. de Mortillet, who in 1866 published a work entitled "Le Signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme," found in the very earliest epochs three principal symbols of universal occurrences; viz., the circle, the pyramid, and the cross. Leslie (Man's Origin and Destiny, p. 312), quoting from him in reference to the ancient worship of the cross, says "It seems to have been a worship of such a peculiar nature as to exclude the worship of idols." This sacredness of the crucial symbol may be one reason why its form was often adopted, especially by the Celts in the construction of their temples, though I have admitted in the text the commonly received opinion that in cross-shaped temples the four limbs of the cross referred to the four elements. But in a very interesting work lately published--"The Myths of the New World" (N.Y., 1863)--Mr. Brinton assigns another symbolism.

  "The symbol," says this writer, "that beyond all others has fascinated the human mind, THE CROSS, finds here its source and meaning. Scholars have pointed out its sacredness in many natural religions, and have reverently accepted it as a mystery, or offered scores of conflicting, and often debasing, interpretations. It is but another symbol of the four cardinal points, the four winds of heaven. This will luminously appear by a study of its use and meaning in America." (p. 95.) And Mr. Brinton gives many instances of the religious use of the cross by several of the aboriginal tribes of this continent, where the allusion, it must be confessed, seems evidently to be to the four cardinal points, or the four winds, or four spirits, of the earth. If this be so, and if it is probable that a similar reference was adopted by the Celtic and other ancient peoples, then we would have in the cruciform temple as much a symbolism of the world, of which the four cardinal points constitute the boundaries, as we have in the square, the cubical, and the circular.

  CTEIS. A representation of the female generative organ. It was, as a symbol, always accompanied by the phallus, and, like that symbol, was extensively venerated by the nations of antiquity. It was a symbol of the prolific powers of nature. See Phallus.

  CUBE. A geometrical figure, consisting of six equal sides and six equal angles. It is the square solidified, and was among the ancients a symbol of truth. The same symbolism is recognized in Freemasonry.

  D

  DARKNESS. It denotes falsehood and ignorance, and was a very universal symbol among the nations of antiquity.

  In all the ancient initiations, the aspirant was placed in darkness for a period differing in each,--among the Druids for three days, among the Greeks for twenty-seven, and in the Mysteries of Mithras for fifty.

  In all of these, as well as in Freemasonry, darkness is the symbol of initiation not complete.

  DEATH. Because it was believed to be the entrance to a better and eternal life, which was the dogma of the Mysteries, death became the symbol of initiation; and hence among the Greeks the same word signified to die, and to be initiated. In the British Mysteries, says Davies (Mythol. of the British Druids), the novitiate passed the river of death in the boat of Garanhir, the Charon of the Greeks; and before he could be admitted to this privilege, it was requisite that he should have been mystically buried, as well as mystically dead.

  DEFINITION OF FREEMASONRY. The definition quoted in the text, that it is a science of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols, is the one which is given in the English lectures.

  But a more comprehensive and exact definition is, that it is a science which is engaged in the search after divine truth.

  DELTA. In the higher degrees of Masonry, the triangle is so called because the Greek letter of that name is of a triangular form.

  It is a symbol of Deity, because it is the first perfect figure in geometry; it is the first figure in which space is enclosed by lines.

  DEMETER. Worshipped by the Greeks as the symbol of the prolific earth. She was the Ceres of the Romans. To her is attributed the institution of the Eleusinian Mysteries in Greece, the most popular of all the ancient initiations.

  DESIGN OF FREEMASONRY. It is not charity or alms-giving.

  Nor the cultivation of the social sentiment; for both of these are merely incidental to its organization.

  But it is the search after truth, and that truth is the unity of God, and the immortality of the soul.

  DIESEAL. A term used by the Druids to designate the circumambulation around the sacred cairns, and is derived from two words signifying "on the right of the sun," because the circumambulation was always in imitation of the course of the sun, with the right hand next to the cairn or altar.

  DIONYSIAC ARTIFICERS. An association of architects who possessed the exclusive privilege of erecting temples and other public buildings in Asia Minor. The members were distinguished from the uninitiated inhabitants by the possession of peculiar marks of recognition, and by the secret character of their association. They were intimately connected with the Dionysiac Mysteries, and are supposed to have furnished the builders for the construction of the temple of Solomon.

  DIONYSIAC MYSTERIES. In addition to what is said in the text, I add the following, slightly condensed, from the pen of that accomplished writer, Albert Pike: "The initiates in these Mysteries had preserved the ritual and ceremonies that accorded with the simplicity of the earliest ages, and the manners of the first men. The rules of Pythagoras were followed there.

  Like the Egyptians, who held wool unclean, they buried no initiate in woollen garments. They abstained from bloody sacrifices, and lived on fruits or vegetables. They imitated the life of the contemplative sects of the Orient. One of the most precious advantages promised by their initiation was to put man in communion with the gods by purifying his soul of all the passions that interfere with that enjoyment, and dim the rays of divine light that are communicated to every soul capable of receiving them. The sacred gates of the temple, where the ceremonies of initiation were performed, were opened but once in each year, and no stranger was allowed to enter. Night threw her veil over these august Mysteries. There the sufferings of Dionysus were represented, who, like Osiris, died, descended to hell, and rose to life again; and raw flesh was distributed to the initiates, which each ate in memory of the death of the deity torn in pieces by the Titans."

  DIONYSUS. Or Bacchus; mythologically said to be the son of Zeus and Semele. In his Mysteries he was identified with Osiris, and regarded as the sun. His Mysteries prevailed in Greece, Rome, and Asia, and were celebrated by the Dionysiac artificers--those builders who united with the Jews in the construction of King Solomon's temple. Hence, of all the ancient Mysteries, they are the most interesting to the masonic student.

  DISSEVERANCE. The disseverance of the operative from the speculative element of Freemasonry occurred at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

  DISCALCEATION, RITE OF. The ceremony of uncovering the feet, or taking off the shoes; from the Latin discalceare. It is a symbol of reverence. See Bare Feet.

  DRUIDICAL MYSTERIES. The Celtic Mysteries celebrated in Britain and Gaul.

  They resembled, in all material points, the other mysteries of antiquity, and had the same design. The aspirant was subjected to severe trials, underwent a mystical death and burial in imitation of the death of the god Hu, and was eventually enlightened by the
communication to him of the great truths of God and immortality, which it was the object of all the Mysteries to teach.

  DUALISM. A mythological and philosophical doctrine, which supposes the world to have been always governed by two antagonistic principles, distinguished as the good and the evil principle. This doctrine pervaded all the Oriental religions, and its influences are to be seen in the system of Speculative Masonry, where it is developed in the symbolism of Light and Darkness.

  E

  EAST. That part of the heavens where the sun rises; and as the source of material light to which we figuratively apply the idea of intellectual light, it has been adopted as a symbol of the Order of Freemasonry. And this symbolism is strengthened by the fact that the earliest learning and the earliest religion came from the east, and have ever been travelling to the west.

  In Freemasonry, the east has always been considered the most sacred of the cardinal points, because it is the place where light issues; and it was originally referred to the primitive religion, or sun-worship. But in Freemasonry it refers especially to that east whence an ancient priesthood first disseminated truth to enlighten the world; wherefore the east is masonically called "the place of light."