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A
AA - ACA
ABBREVIATIONS
ACC - ADONI
ADONIS - AHIAH
AHIM - ALLE
ALLI - AMER
AMERICAN (MILITARY) UNION LODGE
AMET - ANDRE
ANDREA - ANTOI
ANTON - ARCHIT
ARCHIV - ASHLAR
ASHM - AZ
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A. A. O. N. M. S.
These letters are the initials of the words Ancient Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shrine (see shrine).. They may be rearranged to spell out the words A Mason. The claim has been made in all sincerity that this peculiarity was prearranged and is not at all accidental. Such a probability is not as rare as in type as may at first be imagined.
For instance the York Roll No. 1, about 1600 A.D., starts out quaintly with such an endeavour in the form of an anagram, the letters of words or phrases transposed to make different words or phrases, thus:
An Anagraimee upon the name of Masonrie
William Kay to his friend Robert Preston
upon his Art of Masonrie as Followeth :
Much might be said of the O noble Artt
A Craft that'a worth estieming in each part
Sundry Nations Noobles & their Kings also
Oh how they fought its worth to know
Nimrod & Solomon the wisest of all men
Reason saw to love this Science then
Ile say noe more lest by my shallow verses I
Endeavoring to praise should blemish Masonrie.
AARON
Hebrew, A-har-ohne, a word of doubtful etymology, but generally supposed to signify a mountaineer. Mackenzie says the name means the illuminated. He was the brother of Moses, and the first High Priest under the Mosaic dispensation, whence the priesthood established by that lawgiver is known as the Masonic. He is mentioned in the English lectures of the Second Degree, in reference to a certain sign which is said to have taken its origin from the fact that Aaron and Hur were present on the hill from which Moses surveyed the battle which Joshua was waging with the Amalekites, when these two supported the weary arms of Moses in an upright posture, because upon his uplifted hands the fate of the battle depended (see Exodus xvii, 10-12). Aaron is also referred to in the latter section of the Royal Arch Degree in connection with the memorials that were deposited in the Ark of the Covenant. In the Degree or Grade of Chief of the Tabernacle, which is the Twenty-third of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the presiding officer represents Aaron, and is styled Most Excellent High Priest. In the Twenty-fourth Degree of the same Rite, or Prince of the Tabernacle, the second officer or Senior Warden also personates Aaron.
AARON'S BAND
A Degree instituted in 1824, in New York City, mainly for social purposes, and conferred in an independent body. Its ceremonies were similar to those of the Order of High Priesthood, which caused the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the State to take offence, and the small gathering dispersed in 1825.
AARON'S ROD
The method by which Moses caused a miraculous judgment as to which tribe should be invested with the priesthood, is detailed in the Book of Numbers (chapter xvii). He directed that twelve rods should be laid up in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, one for each tribe; that of Aaron, of course, represented the tribe of Levi. On the next day these rods were brought out and exhibited to the people, and while all the rest remained dry and withered, that of Aaron alone budded and blossomed and yielded fruit. There is no mention in the Pentateuch of this rod having been placed in the ark, but only that it was put before it. But as Saint Paul, or the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews ix, 4), asserts that the rod and the pot of manna were both within the ark, Royal Arch Masons have followed this later authority. Hence the rod of Aaron is found in the ark; but its import is only historical, as if to identify the substitute ark as a true copy of the original, which had been lost. No symbolical instruction accompanies its discovery.
AB
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ABACISCUS The diminutive of Abacus- and, in architecture, refers to the squares of the tessellated pavement or checkered surface of the ground floor of King Solomon's Temple. |
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ABACUS A term which has been erroneously used to designate the official staff of the Grand Master of the Templars. The word has no such meaning ; for an abacus is either a table used for facilitating arithmetical calculations, or is in architecture the crowning plate of a column and its capital. The Grand Master's staff was a baculus, which see. |
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ABADDON
A Hebrew word ab-ad-done, signifying destruction. By the Rabbis it is interpreted as the place of destruction, and is the second
of the seven names given by them to the region of the dead.
In the Apocalypse (Revelation ix, 11) it is rendered by the Greek word Apollyon, and means the destroyer. In this sense it is used as
a significant word in the high degrees.
ABAZAR
Probably from the Hebrew word ab-ee-ay-zer, meaning helpful. The title given to the Master of Ceremonies in the Sixth Degree of the Modern French Rite.
ABBREVIATIONS
See ABBREVIATIONS in the menu on the left
Due to its excessive length this topic has a page of its own.
ABDA
A word used in some of the high degrees. He was the father of Adoniram (see First Kings iv, 6). Lenning in the Encyclopaedia der Freimaurerei is wrong in saying that he is represented by one of the officers in the degree of Master in Israel. He has confounded Abda with his son.
ABDAMON
The name of the Orator in the Fourteenth Degree of the Rite of Perfection, or the Sacred Vault of James VI. The word means a servant, from abed, to serve, although somewhat corrupted in its transmission into the rituals. Lenning says it is the Hebrew Habdamon, meaning a servant; but there is no such word in Hebrew.
ABDIEL
A Hebrew word meaning servant of God. The name of an angel mentioned by the Jewish Cabalists. He is represented in Milton's Paradise Lost, Book V, lines 894-7, as one of the seraphim, who, when Satan tried to stir up a revolt among the angels subordinate to his authority, alone and boldly withstood his traitorous designs:
Among the faithless, faithful only he,
Among innumerable false, unmoved,
unshaken un-seduced, un-terrified,
His loyalty be kept, his love, his zeal.
The name Abdiel became the synonym of honor and faithfulness.
ABDITORIUM
A secret place for the deposit of records
ABELITES
A secret Order which existed about the middle of the eighteenth century in Germany, called also the Order of Abel. The organization was in possession of peculiar signs, words, and ceremonies of initiation, but, according to Gadicke, Freimaurer Lexicon, it had no connection with Freemasonry. According to Clavel the order was founded at Griefswald in 1745.
ABERCORN, DUKE OF
Grand Master of Ireland 1874 to 1885.
ABERCORN, EARL OF
James Hamilton, Lord Paisley, was named Grand Master of England by the retiring Grand Master, the Duke of Richmond, in 1725. He was at that time the Master of a Lodge, and had served on the Committee of Charity during that year. He succeeded his father as Earl of Abercorn in 1734.
ABERDOUR, LORD
Grand Master of Scotland, 1755 to 1756. Also of England 1757 to 1761.
ABIB
The original name of the Hebrew month Nisan, nearly corresponding to the month of March, the first of the ecclesiastical year. Abib is frequently mentioned in the sacred scriptures, and signifies green ears of com or fresh fruits.
ABIBALE
The name of the first Assassin in the Elu of the Modem French Rite. The word is derived most probably from the Hebrew abi and balah, which mean father of destruction, though it is said to mean le Meurtrier du Pere, this phrase meaning in French the Murder of the Father.
ABIDE BY
See stand to and abide by.
ABIF (or ABIFF, or perhaps more correctly ABIV).
A name appeared in scripture to that celebrated builder who was sent to Jerusalem by King Hiram, of Tyre, to superintend the construction of the Temple. The word, which in the original Hebrew is ...and which may be pronounced Abiv or Abif, is compounded of the noun in the construct-state ....Abi, meaning father, and the pronominal suffix i, which, with the preceding vowel sound, is to be sounded as iv or if, and which means his; so that the word thus compounded Abif literally and grammatically signifies his father. The word is found in second Chronicles iv, 16, in the following sentence:
The pots also, and the shovels, and the flesh hooks, and all their instruments, did Hiram his father make to King Solomon.
The latter part of this verse is in the original as follows: shelomoh lamelech Abif Huram gnasah
Luther has been more literal in his version of this passage than the English translators, and appearing to suppose that the word Abif is to be considered simply as an appellative or surname, he preserves the Hebrew form, his translation being as follows: "Machte Hiram Abif dem Konige Salomo." The Swedish version is equally exact, and, instead of "Hiram his father," gives us Hiram Abiv. In the Latin Vulgate, as in the English version, the words are rendered Hiram pater ejus. We have little doubt that Luther and the Swedish translator were correct in treating the word Abif as a surname.
In Hebrew, the word ab, or father, is often used as a title of respect, and may then signify friend, counsellor, wise man, or something else of equivalent character.
Thus, Doctor Clarke, commenting on the word abrech, in Genesis XLI, 43, says:
Father seems to have been a name of office, and probably father of the king or father of Pharaoh might signify the same as the king's
minister among us.
And on the very passage in which this word Abif is used, he says:
Father, is often used in Hebrew to signify master, inventor, chief operator.
Gesenius, the distinguished Hebrew lexicographer, gives to this word similar significations, such as benefactor, master, teacher, and says that in the Arabic and the Ethiopia it is spoken of one who excels in anything.
This idiomatic custom was pursued by the later Hebrews, for Buxtor tells us, in his Talmudic Lexicon, that "among the Talmudists abba, father, was always a title of honour, " and he quotes the following remarks from a treatise of the celebrated Maimonides, who, when speaking of the grades or ranks into which the Rabbinical doctors were divided, says:
Again, in Second Chronicles II, 13, Hiram, the King of Tyre, referring to the same Hiram, the widow's son, who is spoken of subsequently in reference to King Solomon as his father, or Abif in the passage already cited, writes to Solomon: "And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father's". The only difficulty in this sentence is to be found in the prefixing of the letter lamed, before Huram, which has caused our translators, by a strange blunder, to render the words Huram abi, as meaning of Huram my father's, instead of Huram my father. Brother Mackey remarked that Huram my father's could not be the true meaning, for the father of King Hiram was not another Hiram, but Abibal.
Luther has again taken the correct view of this subject, and translates the word as a surname: "So sende ich nun einen weisen Mann, der Berstand hat, Huram Abif"; that is, "So now I send you a wise man who has understanding, Huram Abif." The truth, we suspect, is, although it has escaped all the commentators, that the lamed in this passage is a Chaldaism which is sometimes used by the later Hebrew writers, who incorrectly employ, the sign of the dative for the accusative after transitive verbs.
Thus, in Jeremiah XL 2, we have such a construction, vayikach rab tabachim l Yremyahu; that is, literally, "and the captain of
the guards took for Jeremiah",
Where the l, or for, is a Chaldaism and redundant, the true rendering being, "and the captain of the guards took Jeremiah". Other
similar passages are to be found in Lamentations IV, 5; Job V, 2, etc.
In like manner we suppose the .. before Huram which the English translators have rendered by the preposition of, to be redundant
and a Chaldaic form.
The sentence should be read thus :
"I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, Huram my father"; Or, if considered as a surname, as it should be, Huram Abi.
From all this we conclude that the word Ab, with its different suffixes is always used in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, in reference to Hiram the Builder, as a title of respect. When King Hiram speaks of him he calls him "my father Hiram", Hiram Abi and when the writer of the Book of Chronicles is speaking of him and King Solomon in the same passage, he calls him "Solomon's father, his father", Hiram Abif. The only distinction is made by the different appellation of the pronouns my and his in Hebrew. To both the kings of Tyre and of Judah he bore the honourable relation of Ab, or father, equivalent to friend, counsellor, or minister. He was Father Hiram.
The Freemasons are therefore perfectly correct in refusing to adopt the translation of the English version, and in preserving, after the example of Luther, the word Abif as an appellative, surname, or title of honour and distinction bestowed upon the relief builder of the Temple, as Dr. James Anderson suggests in his note on the subject in the first edition (1723) of the Constitutions of the Freemasons.
ABIRAM
One of the traitorous craftsmen, whose act of perfidy forms so important a part of the Third Degree, receives in some of the high degrees the name of Abiram Akirop. These words certainly have a Hebrew look; but the significant words of Freemasonry have, in the lapse of time and in their transmission through ignorant teachers, become so corrupted in form that it is almost impossible to trace them to any intelligible root. They may be Hebrew or they may be anagrammatized (see Anagram); but it is only chance that can give us the true meaning which the two words in combination undoubtedly possess. The word Abiram means father of loftiness, and may have been chosen as the name of the traitorous craftsman with allusion to the Biblical story of Korah, Dathan and Abiram who conspired against Moses and Aaron. Numbers xvi. In the French ritual of the Second Elu it is said to mean murderer or assassin, but this would not seem to be correct etymologically. Brother Mackenzie suggests that Akirop may be from, Karab, the Hebrew meaning to join battle. He also offers Abi-ramah, to mean in Hebrew destroyer of the father.
ABLE
There is an old use of the word able to signify suitable. Thus, Chaucer says of a monk that "he was able to ben an abbot", that is, suitable to be an abbot. In this sense the old manuscript Constitutions constantly employ the word, as when they say, in the Lansdowne Manuscript, that the apprentice should be "able of Birth that is free borne," the ff then meaning F.
ABLUTION
A ceremonial purification by washing, much used in the Ancient Mysteries and under the Mosaic Dispensation. It is also employed in some of the advanced degrees of Freemasonry. The better technical term for this ceremony is lustration, which see.
ABNET
The band or apron, made of fine linen, variously wrought, and worn by the Jewish priesthood. It seems to have been borrowed directly from the Egyptians, upon the representations of all of whose gods is to be found a similar girdle. Like the zennaar, or sacred cord of the Brahmans, and the white shield of the Scandinavians, it is the analogue of tho Masonic apron.
ABOMINABLES, LES
Terms of contempt used in some of the foreign rites, referring more particularly to Philippe le Bel and Bertrand de Got, persecutors of the Knights Templar.
ABORIGINES
A secret society which existed in England about the year 1783, and of whose ceremony of initiation the following account is contained in the British Magazine of that date. The presiding officer, who was styled the Original, thus addressed the candidate:
Which done, the Crier of the Court commanded silence, and the new member, being uncovered, and dropping on his right knee, had the following oath administered to him by the Servant, the new member laying his right hand on the Cap of Honour, and Nimrod holding a staff over his head:
Then rising, with the staff resting on his head he received a copy of the laws from the hands of the Grand Original, with these words, "Enjoy the benefits hereof".
He then delivered the copy of the laws to the care of the servant, after which the word was given by the secretary to the new member, namely: Eden, signifying the garden where ADAM, the great aboriginal, was formed.
Then the secretary invested him with the sign, namely: resting his right hand on his left side, signifying the first conjunction of harmony.
This organization had no connection with Freemasonry, but was simply one of those numerous imitative societies to which that Institution has given rise.
ABOYNE, GEORGE, EARL OF
From 1802 to 1803 Grand Master of Scotland.
ABRAC
In the Leland Manuscript it is said that the Masons conceal "the wey of wynninge the facultye of Abrac". John Locke (though it is doubtful if it was he who wrote a commentary on the manuscript) is quoted as saying: "Here I am utterly in the dark". However, it means simply the way of acquiring the science of Abrac. The science of Abrac is the knowledge of the power and use of the mystical abraxas, which see; or very likely Abrac is merely an abbreviation of Abracadabra.
ABRACADABRA
A term of incantation or magic which was formerly worn about the neck as an amulet or protection against various diseases, especially the tertian ague. It was to be written on a triangular piece of parchment in either of the forms here illustrated:
ABRACADABRA |
ABRACADABRA |
The word may be written or read either way, and the triangles can point up or down, with no alteration of the efficiency according to believers in the value of the idea. The word occurs in the Carmen de Morbis et Remediis of Q. Serenus Sammonicus, a favorite of the Emperor Severus in the second and third centuries, and is generally supposed to be derived from the word abraxas. That the letters contain a hidden spiritual or mystical meaning is doubtless true. Hoefer in his Chemistry, among other curious lore, points out that the first three letters are the initials in Hebrew representative of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and that the C. A. D. are the Greek letters also indicative of the 'Trinity'. Hoefer doubtless had in mind the Ab, Ben, Ruach, Acadosch, Hebrew for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The reader will note these four initials as well as the first four letters of the last word. Much speculation has been expended on the word and the supposition that it comprises the initials of several sacred words is as reasonable as any other.
Godfrey Higgins, (Celtic Druids, page 246), gets the word Abracadabra not from the Latin but from the Erse language, the tongue of the Gaels of Scotland and the Celts of Ireland. Deriving the word from Abra, meaning God, and Cad, meaning holy, Higgins obtains a combination signifying the holy God.
ABRAHAM
The founder of the Hebrew nation. The patriarch Abraham is personated in the Degree or Order of High Priesthood, which refers in some of its ceremonies to an interesting incident in his life. After the friendly separation of Lot and Abraham, when the former was dwelling in the plain in which Sodom and its neighboring towns were situated, and the latter in the valley of Mamre near Hebron, a king from beyond the Euphrates, whose name was Chedorlaomer, invaded lower Palestine and brought several of the smaller states into a tributary condition.
Among these were the five cities of the plain, to which Lot had retired. As the yoke was borne with impatience by these cities Chedorlaomer, accompanied by four other kings, who were probably his tributaries, attacked and defeated the kings of the plain, plundered their towns, and carried their people away as slaves.
Among those who suffered on this occasion was Lot. As soon as Abraham heard of these events, he armed three hundred and eighteen of his slaves, and, with the assistance of Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, three Amoritish chiefs, he pursued the retiring invaders, and having attacked them near the Jordan, put them to flight, and then returned with all the men and goods that had been recovered from the enemy. On his way back he was met by the King of Sodom, and also by Melchizedek, King of Salem, who was, like Abraham, a worshiper of the true God. Melchizedek refreshed Abraham and his people with bread and wine, and blessed him. The King of Sodom wished Abraham to give up the persons, but retain the goods that he had recovered; however, Abraham positively refused to retain any of the spoils, although, by the customs of the age, he was entitled to them, and declared that he had sworn that he would not take "from a thread even to a shoelatchet" (Genesis XIV). Although the conduct of Abraham in this whole transaction was of the most honorable and conscientious character, the incidents do not appear to have been introduced into the ritual of the High Priesthood for any other reason except that of their connection with Melchizedek, who was the founder of an Order of Priesthood.
ABRAHAM, ANTOINE FIRMIN
A Freemason who made himself notorious at Paris, in the beginning of the nineteenth century, by the manufacture and sale of false Masonic diplomas and by trading in the higher degrees, from which traffic he reaped for some time a plentiful harvest. The Supreme Council of France declared, in 1811, all his diplomas and charters void and deceptive. He is the author of L'Art du Tuileur, dédié à tous les Maçons des deux hémisphéres, French for The Art of the Tiler, dedicated to all the Freemason of the two hemispheres, a small volume of 20 pages, octavo, printed at Paris in 1804, and he published from 1800 to 1808 a periodical entitled Le Miroir de la vérité, dédié à tous les Maçons, French for The Mirror of Truth, dedicated to all the Freemasom, 3 volumes, octavo. This contains many interesting details concerning the history of Freemasonry in France. In 1811 there was published at Paris a Circulaire du Conseil Supréme du 33e degré, etc., relative à la vente, par le Sieur Abraham de grades et cahiers Maçonniques; French, meaning. A Circular from the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree, etc., relative to the sale by the Mr. Abraham of Masonic information in books and grades. This announcement, in octavo, sixteen pages, shows that Abraham was nothing else but a Masonic fraud.
ABRAXAS
Basilides, the head of the Egyptian sect of Gnosties, taught that there were seven outflowings, emanations, or aeons, from the Supreme God ; that these emanations engendered the angels of the highest order; that these angels formed a heaven for their habitation, and brought forth other angels of a nature inferior to their own ; that in time other heavens were formed and other angels created, until the whole number of angels and their respective heavens amounted to 365, which were thus equal to the number of days in a year; and, finally, that over all these an omnipotent Lord—inferior, however, to the Supreme God—presided, whose name was Abraxas. Now this word Abraxas, in the numerical force of its letters when written in Greek, ABPAZAE, amounts to 365 the number of worlds in the Basilidean system, as well as the number of days in the year thus A-1 + B-2 + P-100 + A-1 + Z-60 + A-1 + E-200 = 365. The god Abraxas was therefore a type or symbol of the year, or of the revolution of the earth around the sun. This mystical reference of the name of a god to the annual period was familiar to the ancients, and is to be found in at least two other instances. Thus, among the Persians the letters of the name of the god Mithras, and of Belenus along the Gauls, amounted each to 365.
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M = 40 E = 5 I = 10 O = 9 P =100 A = 1 Z = 200 = 365 |
B = 2 H= 8 A = 30 E = 5 N = 50 O = 70 Z = 200 = 365 |
The word Abrazas, therefore, from this mystical value of the letters of which it was composed, became talismanic or magical. This was frequently inscribed, sometimes with and sometimes without other superstitious inscriptions, on stones or gems as amulets. Many of these have been preserved or are continually being discovered, and are to be found in the cabinets of the curious.
There have been many guesses and beliefs among the learned as to the source of the word Abrazas.
Beausobre, in his History of Manicheism, volume 2, derives it from the Greek, A., signifying the magnificent Savior, He who heals and preserves.
Bellermann, Essay on the Gems of the Ancients, supposed it to be compounded of three Coptic words signifying the holy word of bliss. Pignorius and Vandelin think it is composed of four Hebrew and three Greek letters, whose numerical value is 365, and which are the initials of the sentence: saving man by wood, that is, the Cross.
ABRAXAS STONES
Stones on which the word Abrazas and other devices are engraved, and which were used by the Egyptian Gnosties as amulets.
ABSENCE
Attendance on the communications of his Lodge, on all convenient occasions, is considered as one of the duties of every Freemason, and hence the Old Charges of 1722 say that "in ancient Times no Master or Fellow could be absent from it [the Lodge] especially when warned to appear at it, without incurring a severe censure, until it appeared to the Master and Wardens that pure necessity hindered him".
At one time it was usual to enforce attendance by fines, and the By-Laws of the early Lodges contain lists of fines to be imposed for absence, swearing and drunkenness, but that usage is now discontinued, so that attendance on ordinary communications is no longer enforced by any sanction of law.
Attendance is a duty the discharge of which must be left to the conscientious convictions of every Freemason. In the case, however, of a positive summons for any express purpose, such as to stand trial, to show cause, etc., the neglect or refusal to attend might be construed into a contempt, to be dealt with according to its magnitude or character in each particular case.
The absence of an officer is a far more important matter and it is now generally held in the case of the absence of the Worshipful Master or Wardens the inferior officer assumes the duties of the office that is vacant The Wardens, as well as the Master, are entrusted with the government of the Lodge and in the case of the absence of the Master at the time of opening, the Senior Warden, if present and, if not, then the Junior Warden may open the Lodge and the business transacted will be, regular and legal.
While this is the practice in the United States of America, the same rule is not followed under the Grand Lodge of England, where it is provided in Rule 141 of the Book of Constitutions that in the absence of the Worshipful Master the Immediate Past Master shall take the chair. In the event that the Immediate Past Master is not present, then the Senior Past Master of the Lodge or, if no Past Masters of the Lodge are in attendance, the Senior Past Master who is a subscribing member of the Lodge shall officiate. But failing all of these, then we have the Senior Warden or, in his absence, the Junior Warden shall rule and govern the Lodge, but shall not occupy the Master's chair and no degree can be conferred unless a Master or Past Master in the Craft presides at the ceremony.
Thus it will be seen that the general rule does not apply to both countries in the same way.
ABSENCE OF WORSHIPFUL MASTER
Rule 141 of the English Book of Constitutions states that the Immediate Past Master or in his absence the Senior Past Master of the Lodge, or, if no Past Master of the Lodge be present, the Senior Past Master who is a subscribing member of the Lodge shall take the chair. Failing all of these the Senior Warden, or, if he is absent, the Junior Warden, is to rule the Lodge, but without occupying the Master's chair. No initiation is to take place or Degree be conferred unless a Master or Past Master in the Craft occupies the chair. In the United States, however, especially where many Candidates await their Degrees, the custom has developed for the Worshipful Master at his pleasure to place in the chair temporarily any Brother in his judgment competent to properly give the ritualistic work.
ABYSSINIA
A Lodge at Adis-Ababa was constituted by the 'Grand Orient of France on October 20, 1909.
ABERDEEN ALTER, THE LODGE
The second quarter of the Twentieth century in the 'Literature of Freemasonry' was characterized above everything else by the publication (in some twenty languages) of Lodge histories. Taken collectively, and in their impact as a single body of writings, these histories have worked some two, or possibly three, fundamental changes in the older conception of the history of the Fraternity, and their data have caused the revisions of many details - this last applying particularly to the work of the pioneers of modern historical scholarship, Gould, Hughan, Crawley, Lane, Sadler, etc., and Gould especially. Of the Lodge histories some five or six are indubitable masterpieces, both in their literary form and in their scholarship.
Among the more slender books of the last named class is 'Notes on the Early History and Records of The Lodge, Aberdeen, No. Alter', by A. L. Miller, a Past Master of it; Aberdeen; University Press; 1919.
It is written modestly, with a fine spirit, and with a just sense of proportion ; it is a model for Lodge historians everywhere to pattern on; moreover it contains the clearest of pictures of a Lodge of the Transition Period, as it was and as it worked, a century before the first Grand Lodge of 1717.
Only three Lodges take precedence of it on the rolls of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, Mother Kilwinning, Mary's Chapel, and Melrose St. John.
There is a written record of a Mason in Aberdeen in 1264, a Provost. In 1357 Andrew Scott came with other Masons from Melrose to rebuild the Cathedral. The records of the Burgh of Aberdeen, unbroken since 1398, contain many references to Masons. Masons came from everywhere to build King's College. In those same records is a reference to the Mason "Lodge" (a building) in 1483. In the Burgh minutes of 1483 is the wording of an oath taken by the masonry of the luge; offenders were to be "excluded" (expelled). In 1486 the Burgh adopted rules governing Masons. In 1493 three Masons were permanently employed by the Burgh (now called "town"). A record of 1544 refers to the Lodge building, which was a permanent Masonic headquarters.
In 1527 the Masons were incorporated (by a Seal of Cause) and given disciplinary powers over their own members.
A Warden over the Masons was appointed in 1590. Masons, unlike most workers, could work inside or away from the town; they were "free". An early Masons' Lodge "supposed to have been situated on the southern slope near the top of St. Katharine's Hill, was built of Wood and was burned by enemies of the Craft, who were said to have been numerous, and to have included the clergy (From Wycliff Down "the clergy have been the hardest workers in it". The Roman Church has been officially against it ever since the General Council of Afignon, when all secret societies were condemned). Another Lodge was afterwards built near where Aberdeen's St. Paul's now stands, but was burned down, and many old records with it, probably by the Marquis of Huntly when be ravaged Aberdeen with 2000 soldiers.
In 1700 the members built yet another Lodge, out upon the links, well apart; the father of the famous architect James Gibbs lived in part of it.
Thus the written records prove a continuing existence of Masonry in Aberdeen from 1264, and doubtless Aberdeen is in a direct and unbroken line of descent from the Thirteenth Century. It is probable that the Masons have had a separate and organized society, self-governing, since at least as early as 1541, which was in the earliest period of Protestantism.
The Work Book written in 1670 contains pictures of Working Tools. Of the members at that date ten of the forty-nine were Operative Masons; among the non-operatives were four noblemen. The oldest known written record of a non-Operative in Scotland is 1600.
In Aberdeen records mention is made of "the Mason Word": of "the oaths we received". The Officers in 1670 were a Master, Warden, Boxmaster, Clerk and Officer (Tiler). Masons' sons (the "Lewis") received special privileges. Until 1754 "intrants" (apprentices) made presents of aprons and gloves; they were trained by "Intenders." A permanent Charity Fund (in the "Box") was set up in 1670.
The most interesting among the records are these two:
The principal point made by the members when they wrote the Work Book of 1670 was that they were making sure that old customs were to be continued.
The first Freemason to come to America was John Skene, in 1684, of which the record was discovered by Bro. David McGregor. John Skene was a member of the Aberdeen Lodge. The first name in the list of members in the Work Book of 1670 was Harrie Elphingston, the Master; he was the booking agent who arranged passage on the vessel Henry and Francis on which a number of Aberdeenians emigrated to New Jersey, in America. The arrangement was made under the patronage of the Earl of Perth, one of the chief proprietors of New Jersey, also a Freemason, Robert Gordon, George Alexander, John Forles, also on the same list of members, purchased an interest in New Jersey. John Forbes came to East Jersey in 1684, then returned to Scotland. John Skene settled at Burlington, capital of East Jersey, and was Deputy Governor from 1685 until his death in 1690.
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ACACIA An interesting and important symbol in Freemasonry. Botanically, it is the acacia vera of Tournefort, and the mimosa nilotica of Linnaeus, called babul tree in India. The acacia arabica grew abundantly in the vicinity of Jerusalem, where it is still to be found, and is familiar in its modern use at the tree from which the gum arabic of commerce is derived. Oliver, it is true, says that "there is not the smallest trace of any tree of the kind growing so far north as Jerusalem" (Landmarks, volume 2, page 1490). But this statement is refuted by the authority of Lieutenant Lynch, who saw it growing in great abundance in Jericho, and still farther north (Expedition to the Dead Sea, page 262). |
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The Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, who is excellent authority, says: "The Acacia (Shittim) tree, Al Sunt, is found in Palestine of different varieties, it looks like the Mulberry tree, attains a great height, and has a hard wood. The gum which is obtained from it is the gum arabic" (Descriptive Geography and Historical Sketch of Palestine, page 308, Leeser's translation, Philadelphia, 1850). Schwarz was for sixteen years a resident of Palestine, and wrote from personal observation. The testimony of Lynch and Schwarz should, therefore, forever settle the question of the existence of the acacia in Palestine.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, page 51, states that the acacia seyal and the acacia tortilis are plentiful around the Dead Sea.
The acacia is called in the Bible Shittim, which is really the plural of Shittah, which last form occurs once only, in Isaiah XLI, 19. It was esteemed a sacred wood among the Hebrews, and of it Moses was ordered to make the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the table for the shewbread, and the rest of the sacred furniture (Exodus xxv-xxvii).
Isaiah (XLI, 19), in recounting the promises of God's mercy to the Israelites on their return from the captivity, tells them that, among other things, he will plant in the wilderness, for their relief and refreshment, the cedar, the acacia, (or, as it is rendered in our common version, the shittah), the fir, and other trees.
The first thing, then, that we notice in this symbol of the acacia, is that it had been always consecrated from among the other trees of the forest by the sacred purposes to which it was devoted. By the Jew, the tree from whose wood the sanctuary of the tabernacle and the holy ark had been constructed would ever be viewed as more sacred than ordinary trees. The early Freemasons, therefore, very naturally appropriated this hallowed plant to the equally sacred purpose of a symbol, which was to teach an important divine truth in all ages to come.
Having thus briefly disposed of the natural history of this plant, we may now proceed to examine it in its symbolic relations.
...the acacia, in the mythic system of Freemasonry, is pre-eminently the symbol of the IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL--that important doctrine which it is the great design of the Institution to teach. As the evanescent nature of the flower, which "cometh forth and is cut down," reminds us of the transitory nature of human life, so the perpetual renewal of the evergreen plant, which uninterruptedly presents the appearance of youth and vigor, is aptly compared to that spiritual life in which the soul, freed from the corruptible companionship of the body, shall enjoy an eternal spring and an immortal youth. Hence, in the impressive funeral service of our Order, it is said that "this evergreen is an emblem of our faith in the immortality of the soul. By this we are reminded that we have an immortal part within us, which shall survive the grave, and which shall never, never, never die". And again, in the closing sentences of the monitorial lecture of the Third Degree, the same sentiment is repeated, and we are told that by "the evergreen and ever-living emblem of immortality, the acacia" the Freemason is strengthened "with confidence and composure to look forward to a blessed immortality." Such an interpretation of the symbol is an easy and a natural one; it suggests itself at once to the least reflective mind; and consequently, in some one form or another, is to be found existing in all ages and nations.
There was an ancient custom-which is not, even now, altogether disused-for mourners to carry in their hands at funerals a sprig of some evergreen, generally the cedar or box, or the cypress, and to deposit it in the grave of the deceased.
According to Dalcho, the Hebrews always planted a sprig of the acacia at the head of the grave of a departed friend.
Dalcho says, in his Second Oration (page 23),
"This custom among the Hebrews arose from this circumstance. Agreeably to their laws, no dead bodies were allowed to be interred within
the walls of the City; and as the Cohens, or Priests, were prohibited from crossing a grave, it was necessary to place marks thereon,
that they might avoid them. For this purpose the Acacia was used".
Brother Mackey could not agree to the reason assigned by Dalcho, but of the existence of the custom there can be no question,
notwithstanding the denial or doubt of Doctor Oliver Blount, Travels in the Levant (page 197), says, speaking of the Jewish burial
customs,
"those who bestow a marble stone over any [grave) have a hole a yard long and a foot broad, in which they plant an evergreen,
which seems to grow from the body and is carefully watched".
Hasselquist, Travels (page 28), confirms his testimony. We borrow the citations from Brown, Antiquities of the Jews (volume 2, page 356), but have verified the reference to Hasselquist. Potter, Antiquities of Greece (page 569), tells us that the ancient Greeks "had a custom of bedecking tombs with herbs and flowers". All sorts of purple and white flowers were acceptable to the dead, but principally the amaranth and the myrtle.
The very name of the former of these plants, which signifies never fading, would seem to indicate the true symbolic meaning of the usage, although archeologists have general supposed it to be simply an exhibition of love on the part of the survivors. Ragon says that the ancients substituted the acacia for all other plants because they believed it to be incorruptible, and not liable to injury from the attacks of any kind of insect or other animal thus symbolizing the incorruptible nature of the soul.
Hence we see the propriety of placing the sprig of acacia, as an emblem of immortality, among the symbols of that degree, all of whose ceremonies are Intended to teach us the great truth that "the life of man, regulated by morality, faith, and justice, will be rewarded at its closing hour by the prospect of Eternal Bliss" as in the manuscript of Doctor Crucefix quoted by Brother Oliver in his Landmarks (11, 20). So, therefore, says Doctor Oliver, when the Master Mason exclaims, "My name is Acacia," it is equivalent to saying, "I have been in the grave, I have triumphed over it by rising from the dead, and being regenerated in the process, I have a claim to life everlasting" (see Landmarks 11, 151, note 27).
The sprig of acacia, then, in its most ordinary signification, presents itself to the Master Mason as a symbol of the immortality of the soul, being intended to remind him, by its ever-green and unchanging nature, of that better and spiritual part within us, which, as an emanation from the Great Architect of the Universe, can never die. And as this is the most ordinary, the most generally accepted signification, so also is it the most important; for thus, as the peculiar symbol of immortality, it becomes the most appropriate to an Order all of whose teachings are intended to inculcate the great lesson that "life rises out of the grave". But incidental to this the acacia has two other interpretations which are well worthy of investigation.
...the acacia is a symbol of INNOCENCE.
The symbolism here is of a peculiar and unusual character, depending not on any real analogy in the form or use of the symbol to the idea symbolized, but simply on a double or compound meaning of the word.
For, in the Greek language, signifies both the plant in question and the moral quality of innocence or purity of life. In this sense the symbol refers, primarily, to him over whose solitary grave the acacia was planted, and whose virtuous conduct, whose integrity of life and fidelity to his trusts have ever been presented as patterns to the craft, and consequently to all Master Masons, who, by this interpretation of the symbol, are invited to emulate his example.
Hutchinson, indulging in his favorite theory of Christianizing Freemasonry, when he comes to this signification of the symbol,
thus enlarges on the interpretation. We Masons, describing the deplorable estate of religion under the Jewish law, speak in figures.
Her tomb was in the rubbish and filth east forth of the temple, and ACACIA wove its branches over her monument, acacia being the Greek
word for innocence, or being free from sin, implying that the sins and corruptions of the old law, and devotees of the Jewish altar,
had hid religion from those who sought her, and she was only to be found where INNOCENCE survived, and under the banner of the divine
Lamb; and as to ourselves professing that we were to be distinguished by our ACACY, or as true ACACIANS in our religious faith and
tenets" (see Hutehinson's Spirit of Masonry, Lecture IX, page 160, edition of 1775).
...the acacia is to be considered as the symbol of INITIATION. This is by far the most interesting of its interpretations, and was, we have every reason to believe, the primary and original; the others being but incidental. It leads us at once to the investigation of the significant fact that in all the ancient initiations and religious mysteries there was some plant peculiar to each, which was consecrated by its own esoteric meaning, and which occupied an important position in the celebration of the rites. Thus it was that the plant, whatever it might be, from its constant and prominent use in the ceremonies of initiation, came at length to be adopted as the symbol of that initiation.
Thus, the lettuce was the sacred plant which assumed the place of the acacia the mysteries of Adonis (see Lettuce). The lotus was that of the Brahmanical rites of India, and from them adopted by the Egyptians (see Lotus). The Egyptians also revered the erica or heath; and the mistletoe was a mystical plant among the Druids (see Erica and Mistletoe). And, lastly, the myrtle performed the same office of symbolism in the mysteries of Greece that the lotus did in Egypt or the mistletoe among the Druids (see Myrtle).
In all of these ancient mysteries, while the sacred plant was a symbol of initiation, the initiation itself was symbolic of the resurrection to a future life, and of the immortality of the soul. In this view, Freemasonry is to us now in the place of the ancient initiations, and the acacia is substituted for the lotus, the erica, the ivy, the mistletoe, and the myrtle. The lesson of wisdom is the same-the medium of imparting it is all that has been changed.
Returning, then, to the acacia, we find that it is capable of three explanations. It is a symbol of immortality, of innocence, and of initiation. But these three significations are closely connected, and that connection must be observed, if we desire to obtain a just interpretation of the symbol. Thus, in this one symbol, we are taught that in the initiation of life, of which the initiation in the Third Degree is simply emblematic, innocence must for a time lie in the grave, at length, however, to be called, by the word of the Great Master of the Universe, to a blissful immortality.
Combine with this instruction the recollection of the place where the sprig of acacia was planted - Mount Calvary - the place of sepulture of Him who "brought life and immortality to light," and Who, in Christian Freemasonry, is designated, as He is in Scripture, as the lion of the tribe of Judah; and remember, too, that in the mystery of His death, the wood of the cross takes the place of the acacia.
Therefore, in this little and apparently insignificant symbol, but which is really and truly the most important and significant one in Masonic science, we have a beautiful suggestion of all the mysteries of life and death, of time and eternity, of the present and of the future.
ACACIAN
A word introduced by Hutchinson, in his book, The Spirit of Masonry, to designate a Freemason in reference te the akakia, or innocence with which he was to be distinguished, from the Greek word axaxia (see the preceding article on the Acacia). The Acacians constituted a heretical seat in the primitive Christian Church, who derived their name from Acacius, Bishop of Caesarea from 340 to 365. The doctrine of these Acacians was that Christ is not of the same substance as God, but merely resembles Him. There was subsequently another sect of the same name under Acacius, who was Patriarch of Constantinople from 471. He died in the year 489. But it is needless to say that the Hutchinsonian application of the word Acacian to signify a Freemason has nothing to do with the theological reference of the term.
ACADEMIE DES IILLUMINES D'AVIGNON
Meaning, literally, the School of the Enlightened Ones at Avignon. The words Illumines and Illuminati have been used by various religious sects and secret societies in their names. A Hermetic system of philosophy created in 1785, and making some use of the doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg.
ACADEMY
The Fourth Degree of the Rectified Rose Croix of Schroeder who founded a Rite by this name.
ACADEMY OF ANCIENTS OR OF SECRETS
The French name is Académie des Secrets. A society instituted at Warsaw, in 1767, by M. Thoim de Salverte, and founded on the principles of another which bore the same name, and which is said to have been established at Rome, about the end of the sixteenth century, by John Baptiste Porta. The object of the institution was the advancement of the natural sciences and their application to the occult philosophy.
ACADEMY OF SAGES
An order which existed in Sweden in 1770, deriving its origin from one credited with being founded in London by Elias Ashmole, on the doctrines of the New Atlantis of Bacon. A few similar societies were subsequently founded in Russia and France, one especially noted by Thory in his book, Acta Latomorum, as having been established in 1776 by the Mother Lodge of Avignon.
ACADEMY OF SECRETS
See Academy of Ancients
ACADEMY OF SUBLIME MASTERS OF THE LUMINOUS RING
The French name of this society is Académie des Sublimes Maîtres de l'Anneau Lumineux. Founded in France, in 1780, by Baron Blaerfindy, one of the Grand Officers of the Philosophy Scotch Rite. The Academy of the Luminous Ring was dedicated to the philosophy of Pythagoras, and was divided into three Degrees.
The first and second were principally occupied with the history of Freemasonry, and the last with the dogmas of the Pythagorean school, and their application to the highest grades of science. The historical hypothesis which was sought to be developed in this Academy was that Pythagoras was the founder of Freemasonry.
ACADEMY OF TRUE MASONS
The French name of the society is Académie des Vraies Maçons. Founded at Montpelier, in France, by Dom Pernetty in 1778, and occupied with instructions in Hermetic Science, which were developed in six Degrees, namely:
The Degrees thus conferred constituted the Philosophic Scotch Rite, which was the system adopted by the Academy. It afterward changed its name to that of Russo-Swedish Academy, which circumstance leads Thory to believe that it was connected with the Alchemical Chapters which at that time existed in Russia and Sweden. The entirely Hermetic character of the Academy of True Masons may readily be perceived in a few paragraphs cited by Clavel (page 172, third edition, 1s44), from a discourse by Goyer de Jumilly at the; installation of an Academy in Martinique. "To seize," says the orator, "the graver of Hermes to engrave the doctrines of natural philosophy on your columns; to call Flamel the Philalete, the Cosmopolite, and our other masters to my aid for the purpose of unveiling the mysterious principles of the occult sciences,-these, Illustrious Knights, appear to be the duties imposed on me by the ceremony of your installation. The fountain of count Trevisan, the pontifical water, the peacock's tail, are phenomena with which you are familiar".
ACADEMY, PLATONIC
Founded in 1480 by Marsilius Ficinus, at Florence, under the patronage of Lorenzo de Medicis. This organization is said by the Freemasons of Tuscany to have been a secret society, and is supposed to have had a Masonic character, because in the hall where its members held their meetings, and which Doctor Mackey reported was remaining in his time, many Masonic symbols are to be found. Clavel (page 65, third edition, 1844) supposes it to have been a society founded by some of the honorary members and patrons of the Fraternity of Freemasons who existed in the Middle Ages, and who, having abandoned the material design of the Institution, confined themselves to its mystic character. If his suggestion be correct, this is one of the earliest instances of the separation of Speculative from Operative Masonry.
ACANTHUS
A plant, described by Dioseorides, a Greek physician and botanist of the first century, with broad, flexible, prickly leaves, which perish in the winter and sprout again at the return of spring. Found in the Grecian islands on the borders of cultivated fields or gardens, it is common in moist, rocky situations. It is memorable for the tradition which assigns to it the origin of the foliage carved on the capitals or upper parts of Corinthian and Composite columns. Hence, in architecture, that part of the Corinthian capital is called the Acanthus which is situated below the abacus or slab at the top, and which, having the form of a vase or bell, is surrounded by two rows of leaves of the acanthus plant.
Callimachus, who invented this ornament, is said to have had the idea suggested to him by the following incident:
A Corinthian maiden who was betrothed, fell ill, and died just before the appointed time of her marriage. Her faithful and grieving
nurse placed on her tomb a basket containing many of her toys and jewels, and covered it with a flat tile. It so happened that the
basket was placed immediately over an acanthus root, which afterward grew up around the basket and curled under the weighty resistance
of the tile, thus exhibiting a form of foliage which was, on its being seen by the architect, adopted as a model for the capital of a
new order; so that the story of affection was perpetuated in marble.
Dudley ( Naology, page 164) thinks the tale puerile, and supposes that the acanthus is really the lotus of the Indians and Egyptians, and is symbolic of laborious but effectual effort applied to the support of the world.
With him, the symbolism of the acanthus and the lotus are identical (see Lotus).
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