Section 11

THE three principal officers of a Lodge are, it is
needless to say, situated in the east, the west,
and the south. Now, bearing in mind that the
Lodge is a symbol of the world, or the universe, the
reference of these three officers to the sun at its rising,
its setting, and its meridian height, must at once sug-
gest itself.

This is the iBrst development of the symbol, and a
very brief inquiry will furnish ample evidence of its
antiquity and its universality.

In the Brahminical initiations of Hindostan, which
are among the earliest that have been transmitted to
us, and may almost be considered as the cradle of all
the others of subsequent ages and various countries, the
ceremonies were performed in vast caverns. The re-
mains of some of these remarkably excavated halls, at
Salsette, Elephanta, and a few other places, will give
the spectator but a very inadequate idea of the extent
and splendor of these ancient Indian temples.

''These rocky shrines, the formation of which Grose
supposes to have been a labor equal to that of erecting
the Pyramids of Egypt, are of various height, extent,
and depth. They are partitioned out, by the labor of
the hammer and the chisel, into many separate cham-

106

Officers of a Lodge 107

bers, and the roof, which in the pagoda of Elephanta is
flat, but in that of Salsette is arched, is supported by
rows of pillars of great thickness, and arranged with
much regularity. The walls are crowded with gigantic
figures of men and women, engaged in various actions,
and portrayed in various whimsical attitudes; and they
are adorned with several evident symbols of the reli-
gion now prevailing in India. Above, as in a sky, once
probably adorned with gold and azure, in the same
manner as Savary lately observed in the ruinous re-
mains of some ancient Egyptian temples, are seen float-
ing the children of imagination, genii and dewtahs, in
multitudes, and along the cornice, in high relief, are
the figures of elephants, horses, and lions, executed with
great accuracy. Two of the principal figures at Sal-
sette are twenty-seven feet in height, and of propor-
tionate magnitude; the very bust only of the triple-
headed deity in the grand pagoda of Elephanta meas-
ures fifteen feet from the base to the top of the cap,
while the face of another, if Grose, who measured it,
may be credited, is above five feet in length, and of
corresponding breadth."^

More imperfect remains than these are still to be
found in great numbers throughout Hindostan and
Cashmere.

Their form was sometimes that of a cross, emblematic
of the four elements of which the earth is composed —
fire, water, air, and earth — but more generally an oval,
as a representation of the mundane egg, which, in the
ancient systems was a symbol of the world. ^

* Maurice, "Indian Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 135.

2 According to Faber, the egg was a symbol of the world or meg-
acosm, and also of the ark, or microcosm, as the lunette or crescent
was a symbol of the Great Father, the egg and lunette — which was

108 Symbolism of Freemasonry

The interior of the cavern of initiation was lighted by-
innumerable lamps, and there sat in the east, the west,
and the south the principal Hierophants, or explainers
of the Mysteries, as the representatives of Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva. Brahma was the supreme deity of
the Hindoos, borrowed or derived from the Sun-god of
their Sabean ancestors, and Vishnu and Siva were but
manifestations of his attributes. We learn from the
Indian Pantheon that "when the sun rises in the east,
he is Brahma; when he gains his meridian in the
south, he is Siva; and when he sets in the west, he is
Vishnu.'^

Again, in the Zoroasteric mysteries of Persia, the
temple of initiation was circular, being made so to
represent the universe ; and the sun in the east, with the
surrounding zodiac, formed an indispensable part of
the ceremony of reception.

Zoroaster taught that the sun was the most perfect
fire of God, the throne of His glory, and the residence
of His divine presence, and he therefore instructed his
disciples *'to direct all their worship to God first to-
wards the sun (which they called Mithras), and next
towards their sacred fires, as being the things in which
God chiefly dwelt; and their ordinary way of worship
was to do so towards both. For when they came be-
fore these fires to worship, they always approached them
on the west side, that, having their faces towards them
and also towards the rising sun at the same time, they
might direct their worship to both. And in this posture
they always performed every act of their worship."^

the hieroglyphic of the god Lunus, at Heliopolis — was a symbol of
the world proceeding from the Great Father. — "Pagan Idolatry,"
vol. i. b. i. ch. iv.

^ Prideaux, "Connection of Sacred and Profane History," i. 216.

Officers of a Lodge 109

In the Egyptian mysteries of Osiris, the same refer-
ence to the sun is contained. Herodotus, who was him-
self an initiate, intimates that the ceremonies con-
sisted in the representation of a Sun-god, who had been
incarnate, that is, had appeared upon earth, or rose,
and who was at length put to death by Typhon, the
symbol of darkness, typical of the sun's setting.

In the great mysteries of Eleusis,^ which were cele-
brated at Athens, we learn from St. Chrysostom, as well
as other authorities, that the temple of initiation was
symbolic of the universe, and we know that one of the
officers represented the sun.^

In the Celtic mysteries of the Druids, the temple of
initiation was either oval, to represent the mundane egg
— a symbol, as has already been said, of the world; or
circular, because the circle was a symbol of the universe;
or cruciform, in allusion to the four elements, or con-
stituents of the universe.

The Island of Lewis, in Scotland, has one combining
the cruciform and circular form. There is a circle,
consisting of twelve stones, while three more are placed
in the east, and as many in the west and south, and
thirty-eight, in two parallel lines, in the north, forming
an avenue to the circular temple. In the centre of the
circle is the image of the god.

During the initiations into these rites, the solar deity
performed an important part, and the celebrations
commenced at daybreak, when the sun was hailed on
his appearance above the horizon as "the god of

^ "The mysteries of Ceres (or Eleusis) are principally distinguished
from all others as having been the depositories of certain traditions
coeval with the world." — Ouvaroff, "Essay on the Mysteries of
Eleusis," p. 6.

* The Dadouchus, or torch-bearer, carried a symbol of the sun.

110 Symbolism of Freemasonry

victory the king who rises in light and ascends the
sky."

But we need not multiply these instances of sun-
worship. Every country and religion of the ancient
world would afford one.^ Sufficient has been cited to
show the complete coincidence, in reference to the sun,
between the symbolism of Freemasonry and that of the
ancient rites and Mysteries, and to suggest for them a
common origin, the sun being always in the former
system, from the earliest times of the primitive or
patriarchal Freemasonry, considered simply as a mani-
festation of the Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty of the
Divine Architect, visibly represented by the position of
the three principal officers of a Lodge, while by the
followers of the Mysteries, in their degeneration from,
and corruption of the true Noachic faith, it was adopted
as the special object of adoration.

1 "Indeed, the most ancient superstition of all nations," says
Maurice, "has been the worship of the sun, as the lord of heaven
and the governor of the world; and in particular it prevailed in
Phoenicia, Chaldaea, Egypt, and from later information we may
add, Peru and Mexico, represented in a variety of ways, and con-
cealed under a multitude of fanciful names. Through all the revolu-
tions of time the great luminary of heaven hath exacted from the
generations of men the tribute of devotion." — "Indian Antiquities,"
vol. ii. p. 91.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Point Within a Circle

THE Point within a Circle is another symbol of
great importance in Freemasonry, and commands
peculiar attention in this connection with the
ancient symbolism of the universe and the solar orb.
Everybody who has read a Masonic Monitor is well
acquainted with the usual explanation of this symbol.
We are told that the point represents an individual
brother, the circle shows the boundary line of his duty
to God and man, and the two perpendicular parallel
lines indicate the patron saints of the Order — St. John
the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.

Now, this monitorial explanation, trite and meagre as
it is, may do very well for the exoteric teaching of the
Order. But the question at this time is, not how it
has been explained by modern lecturers and Masonic
system-makers, but what was the ancient interpreta-
tion of the symbol, and how should it be read as a
sacred hieroglyphic in reference to the true philosophic
system which constitutes the real essence and character
of Freemasonry?

Perfectly to understand this symbol, we must refer,
as a preliminary matter, to the worship of the Phallus^
a peculiar modification of sun-worship, which prevailed
to a great extent among the nations of antiquity.

Ill

112 Symbolism op Freemasonry

The Phallus was a sculptured representation of the
memhrum virile, or male organ of generation. The wor-
ship of the Phallus is said to have originated in Egypt,
where, after the murder of Osiris by Typhon, which is
symboHcally to be explained as the destruction or
deprivation of the sun's light by night, Isis, his wife, or
the symbol of nature, in the search for his mutilated
body, is said to have found all the parts except the
organs of generation, which myth is simply symbolic
of the fact, that the sun having set, its fecundating and
invigorating power had ceased.

The exhibition of these images in a colossal form,
before the gates of ancient temples, was common.
Lucian tells us of two colossal Phalli, each one hundred
and eighty feet high, which stood in the fore court of
the temple at Hierapolis.

Muller, in his Ancient Art and its Remains, mentions,
on the authority of Leake, the fact that a colossal
Phallus, which once stood on the top of the tomb of the
Lydian king Halyattes, is now lying near the same
spot; it is not an entire Phallus, but only the head of
one; it is twelve feet in diameter below and nine feet
over the glands.

The Phallus has even been found, so universal was
this worship, among the savages of America. Dr.
Arthaut discovered, in the year 1790, a marble Phallic
image in a cave on the island of St. Domingo.^

The Phallus, therefore, as the symbol of the male
generative principle, was very universally venerated
among the ancients, and that too as a religious rite,
without the slightest reference to any impure or las-
civious application. 2 He is supposed by some com-

*Clavel, "Histoire Pittoresque des Religions," p. 9.

^Sonnerat ("Voyage aux Indes Oriental," i. p. 118) observes, that

Point Within a Circle 113

mentators to be the god mentioned under the name of
Baal-peor, in the Book of Numbers^ as having been wor-
shipped by the idolatrous Moabites. Among the
eastern nations of India the same symbol was prevalent,
under the name of *'Lingam/'

But the Phallus or Lingam was a representation of
the male principle only. To perfect the circle of gener-
ation it is necessary to advance one step farther. Ac-
cordingly we find in the Cteis of the Greeks, and the
Yoni of the Indians, a symbol of the female generative
principle, of co-extensive prevalence with the Phallus.
The Cteis was a circular and concave pedestal, or recep-
tacle, on which the Phallus or column rested, and from
the centre of which it sprang.

The union of the Phallus and Cteis, or the Lingam
and Yoni, in one compound figure, as an object of ador-
ation, was the most usual mode of representation. This
was in strict accordance with the whole system of

the professors of this worship were of the purest principles and
most umblemished conduct, and it seems never to have entered
into the heads of the Indian legislator and people that anything
natural could be grossly obscene. Sir William Jones remarks
("Asiatic Researches," i. 254), that from the earliest periods the
women of Asia, Greece, and Italy wore this symbol as a jewel, and
Clavel tells us that a similar usage prevails at this day among the
women in some of the villages of Brittany. Seely tells us that the
Lingam, or Indian Phallus, is an emblem as frequently met with
in Hindostan as the cross is in Catholic countries. — "Wonders of
Elora," p. 278.

* Numbers xxv. 1-3. See also Psalm cvi. 28: "They joined
themselves also unto Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead."
This last expression, according to Russel, has a distinct reference
to the physical qualities of matter, and to the time when death, by
the winter absence of the solar heat, gets, as it were, possession
of the earth. Baal-peor was, he says, the sun exercising his powers
of fecundity. — "Connection of Sacred and Profane History."

114 Symbolism of Freemasonry

ancient mythology, which was founded upon a worship
of the proUfic powers of nature.

All the deities of pagan antiquity, however numerous
they may be, can always be reduced to the two different
forms of the generative principle — the active, or male,
and the passive, or female. Hence the gods were al-
ways arranged in pairs, as Jupiter and Juno, Bacchus
and Venus, Osiris and Isis.

But the ancients went farther. Believing that the
procreative and productive powers of nature might be
conceived to exist in the same individual, they made
the older of their deities hermaphrodite, and used the
term appepoOeKvSf or man-virgin^ to denote the union
of the two sexes in the same divine person.^

Thus, in one of the Orphic Hymns, we find this line:

Jove was created a male and an unspotted virgin.

Plutarch, in his discourse On Isis and Osiris, says,
''God, who is a male and female intelligence, being both
life and light, brought forth another intelligence, the
Creator of the World."

Now, this hermaphrodism of the Supreme Divinity
was again supposed to be represented by the sun, which
was the male generative energy, and by nature, or the
universe, which was the female prolific principle.

The world being animated by God, says Creuzer, in his
learned work on Symbolism, received from Him the two
sexes, represented by heaven and the earth. Heaven,

^Is there not a seeming reference to this thought of divine
hermaphrodism in the well-known passage of Genesis? "So God
created man in His own image, in the image of God created He
him: male and female created He them," And being created "male
and female," they were "in the image of God."

Point Within a Circle 115

as the fecundating principle, was male, and the
source of fire; the earth, as the fecundated, was female,
and the source of humidity. All things issued from
the alliance of these two principles. The vivifying
powers of the heavens are concentrated in the sun, and
the earth, eternally fixed in the place which it occupies,
receives the emanations from the sun, through the
medium of the moon, which sheds upon the earth the
germs which the sun had deposited in its fertile bosom.
The Lingam is at once the symbol and the mystery
of this religious idea.

And this union was symbolized in different ways, but
principally by the point within the circle, the point in-
dicating the sun, and the circle the universe, invigorated
and fertilized by his generative rays. And in some of
the Indian cave-temples, this allusion was made more
manifest by the inscription of the signs of the zodiac
on the circle.

So far, then, we arrive at the true interpretation of
the Masonic symbolism of the point within the circle.
It is the same thing, but under a different form, as the
Master and Wardens of a Lodge. The Master and
Wardens are symbols of the sun, the Lodge of the
universe, or world, just as the point is the symbol of
the same sun, and the surrounding circle of the universe.

But the two perpendicular parallel lines remain to be
explained. Every one is familiar with the very recent
interpretation, that they represent the two Saints John,
the Baptist and the Evangelist. But this modern ex-
position must be abandoned, if we desire to obtain the
true ancient signification.

In the first place, we must call to mind the fact that,
at two particular points of his course, the sun is found
in the zodiacal signs of Cancer and Capricorn. These

116 Symbolism of Freemasonry

points are astronomically distinguished as the summer
and winter solstice. When the sun is in these points,
he has reached his greatest northern and southern
declination, and produces the most evident effects on
the temperature of the seasons, and on the length of
the days and nights.

These points, if we suppose the circle to represent
the sun's apparent course, will be indicated by the
points where the parallel lines touch the circle, or, in
other words, the parallels will indicate the limits of the
sun's extreme northern and southern declination, when
he arrives at the solstitial points of Cancer and Capri-
corn.

But the days when the sun reaches these points are,
respectively, the 21st of June and the 22d of December,
and this will account for their subsequent application
to the two Saints John, whose anniversaries have been
placed by the church near those days.