Section 19

The equilateral triangle appears to have been
adopted by nearly all the nations of antiquity as a
symbol of the Deity.

Among the Hebrews, it has already been stated that
this figure, with a yod in the centre, was used to repre-
sent the tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of God.

The Egyptians considered the equilateral triangle as
the most perfect of figures, and a representative of the

Ineffable Name 193

great principle of animated existence, each of its sides
referring to one of the three departments of creation —
the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral.

The symbol of universal nature among the Egyptians
was the right-angled triangle, of which the perpendic-
ular side represented Osiris, or the male principle;
the base, Isis, or the female principle; and the hypothe-
nuse, their offspring, Horus, or the world emanating
from the union of both principles.

All this, of course, is nothing more nor less than the
phallus and cteis, or lingam and yoni, under a different
form.

The symbol of the right-angled triangle was after-
wards adopted by Pythagoras when he visited the
banks of the Nile. The discovery which he is said to
have made in relation to the properties of this figure,
but which he really learned from the Egyptian priests,
is commemorated in Freemasonry by the introduction
of the forty-seventh problem of Euclid's First Book
among the symbols of the third degree.

Here the same mystical application is supplied as
in the Egyptian figure, namely, that the union of the
male and female, or active and passive principles of
nature, has produced the world. For the geometrical
proposition being that the squares of the perpendicular
and base are equal to the square of the hypothenuse,
they may be said to produce it in the same way as
Osiris and Isis are equal to, or produce, the world.

Thus the perpendicular — Osiris, or the active, male
principle — being represented by a line whose measure-
ment is 3; and the base — Isis, or the passive, female
principle — by a line whose measurement is 4; then
their union, or the addition of the squares of these
numbers, will produce a square whose root will be the

194 Symbolism of Freemasonry

hopothenuse, or a line whose measurement must be
5. For the square of 3 is 9, and the square of 4 is 16,
and the square of 5 is 25; but 9 added to 16 is equal to
25. Thus, out of the addition, or coming together, of
the squares of the perpendicular and base, arises the
square of the hypothenuse, just as, out of the coming
together, in the Egyptian system, of the active and
passive principles, arises or is generated the world.

In the mediaeval history of the Christian Church,
the great ignorance of the people, and their inclination
to a sort of materialism, led them to abandon the sym-
bolic representations of the Deity, and to depict the
Father with the form and lineaments of an aged man,
many of which irreverent paintings, as far back as the
twelfth century, are to be found in the religious books
and edifices of Europe.^

But, after the period of the renaissance, a better
spirit and a purer taste began to pervade the artists of
the church, and thenceforth the Supreme Being was
represented only by His name — the tetragrammaton —
inscribed within an equilateral triangle, and placed
within a circle of rays. Didron, in
his invaluable work on Christian
Iconography, gives one of these sym-
bols, which was carved on wood in
the seventeenth century, of which we
here show a copy.
But even in the earliest ages, when the Deity was
painted or sculptured as a personage, the nimbus, or

*Bro. Mackey possessed a rare copy of the Vulgate Bible, in
black letter, printed at Lyons, in 1522. The frontispiece is a coarsely
executed woodcut, divided into six compartments, and representing
the six days of the creation. The Father is, in each compartment,
pictured as an aged man engaged in His creative task.

Ineffable Name 195

glory, which surrounded the head of the Father, was
often made to assume a triangular form. Didron says
on this subject, ''A nimbus, of a triangular form, is thus
seen to be the exclusive attribute of the Deity, and
most frequently restricted to the Father Eternal. The
other persons of the trinity sometimes wear the tri-
angle, but only in representations of the trinity, and
because the Father is with them. Still, even then, be-
side the Father, who has a triangle, the Son and the
Holy Ghost are often drawn with a circular nimbus
only."i

The triangle has, in all ages and in all religions, been
deemed a symbol of Deity.

The Egyptians, the Greeks, and the other nations
of antiquity, considered this figure, with its three sides,
as a symbol of the creative energy displayed in the
active and passive, or male and female, principles, and
their product, the world; the Christians referred it to
their dogma of the trinity as a manifestation of the
Supreme God; and the Jews and the primitive Free-
masons to the three periods of existence included in
the signification of the tetragrammaton — ^the past, the
present, and the future.

In the higher degrees of Freemasonry, the triangle is
the most important of all symbols, and most generally
assumes the name of the "Delta,^' in allusion to the
fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, which is of the same
form and bears that appellation.

The Delta, or mystical triangle, is generally sur-
rounded by a circle of rays, called a ''glory." When
this glory is distinct from the figure, and surrounds
it in the. form of a circle (as in the example just given
from Didron), it is then an emblem of God's eternal

* "Christian Iconography," Millington's translation, vol. i. p. 59.

196 Symbolism of Freemasonry

glory. When, as is most usual in the Masonic symbol,
the rays emanate from the centre of the triangle, and,
as it were, enshroud it in their brilliancy, it is symboHc
of the Divine Light. The perverted ideas of the pagans
referred these rays of light to their Sun-god and their
Sabian worship.

But the true Masonic idea of this glory is, that it
symbolizes that Eternal Light of Wisdom which sur-
rounds the Supreme Architect as with a sea of glory,
and from Him, as a common centre, emanates to the
universe of His creation, and to which the prophet
Ezekiel alludes in his eloquent description of Jehovah:
"And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of
fire round about within it, from the appearance of his
loins even upward, and from his loins even downward,
I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and it had
brightness round about." (Chap, i, ver. 27.)

Dante has also beautifully described this circum-

fused light of Deity: —

There is in heaven a light whose goodly shine
Makes the Creator visible to all
Created, that in seeing Him, alone
Have peace; and in a circle spreads so far,
That the circumference were too loose a zone
To girdle in the sun.

A very apt and Masonically striking reference is also to

be found in Book VII of John Milton's Paradise Lost: —

In his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This universe, and all created things;
One foot he centered, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, "Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, O World,"
Thus God the heaven created, thus the world.

Ineffable Name 197

This poetical allusion to the Almighty as the Omni-
potent Architect and Geometer of the Universe has
been employed freely by other writers, as for example
Voltaire, himself a Freemason.

The triangle, or delta, is the symbol of Deity for this
reason. In geometry a single line cannot represent a
perfect figure; neither can two lines; three lines, how-
ever, constitute the triangle or first perfect and de-
monstrable figure. Hence this figure symbolizes the
Eternal God, infinitely perfect in His nature. But the
triangle properly refers to God only in His quality as
an Eternal Being, its three sides representing the Past,
the Present, and the Future. Some Christian symbolo-
gists have made the three sides represent the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost; but they evidently thereby de-
stroy the divine unity, making a trinity of Gods in the
unity of a Godhead.

The Gnostic trinity of Manes consisted of one God
and two principles, one of good and the other of evil.
The Indian trinity, symbolized also by the triangle,
consisted of Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, the Creator,
Preserver, and Destroyer, represented by Earth, Water,
and Air.

This symbolism of the Eternal God by the triangle
is the reason why a trinitarian scheme has been so
prevalent in all religions — the three sides naturally
suggesting the three divisions of the Godhead. But
in the Pagan and Oriental religions this trinity was
nothing else but a tritheism.

On a recapitulation, then, of the views that have
been advanced in relation to these three symbols of
the Deity which are to be found in the Masonic system,
we may say that each one expresses a different
attribute.

198 Symbolism of Freemasonry

The letter "G" is the symbol of the self-existent
Jehovah.

The "All-Seeing Eye'' is the symbol of the omni-
present God.

The "triangle" is the symbol of the Supreme Archi-
tect of the Universe — the Creator; and when sur-
rounded by rays of glory, it becomes a symbol of the
Architect and Bestower of Light.

And now, after all, is there not in this whole prev-
alence of the name of God, in so many different sym-
bols, throughout the Masonic system, something more
than a mere evidence of the religious proclivities of the
institution? Is there not behind this a more profound
symbolism, which constitutes, in fact, the very essence
of Freemasonry?

"The names of God," says a learned theologian,
"were intended to communicate the knowledge of God
Himself. By these, men were enabled to receive some
scanty ideas of His essential majesty, goodness, and
power, and to know both Whom we are to believe,
and what we are to believe of Him."

And this train of thought is eminently applicable to
the admission of the names into the system of Free-
masonry. With us, the name of God, however ex-
pressed, is a symbol of Divine Truth, which it should
be the incessant labor of a Freemason to seek.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Legends of Freemasonry

THE compound character of a speculative science
and an operative art, which the Masonic in-
stitution assumed at the building of King
Solomon^s temple, in consequence of the union, at that
era, of the Pure Freemasonry of the Noachidae with the
Spurious Freemasonry of the Tyrian workmen, has
supplied it with two distinct kinds of symbols — the
mythical, or legendary, and the material.

By the Noachidae, or Noachites, we refer to the
descendants of Noah. This patriarch having alone
preserved the true name and worship of God amid a
race of impious idolaters, the Freemasons may justly
claim to be his descendants in a symbolic sense, because
they continue to uphold that pure religion which dis-
tinguished this second father of the human race from
the rest of the world.

The Tyrian workmen at the temple of Solomon were
the descendants of that other division of the race who
fell off, at Shinar, from the true worship, and repudi-
ated the principles of Noah. The Tyrians, however,
like many other ancient mystics, had recovered some
portion of the lost light, and the complete repossession
was finally achieved by their union with the Jewish
workmen, who were Noachidae.

199

200 Symbolism of Freemasonry

But these legendary and material symbols we have
just mentioned are so thoroughly united in object and
design, that it is impossible to appreciate the one
without an investigation of the other.

Thus, by way of illustration, it may be observed,
that the temple itself has been adopted as a material
symbol of the world (as we have already shown in
former articles), while the legendary history of the fate
of its builder is a mythical symbol of man^s destiny
in the world.

Whatever is visible or tangible to the senses in our
types and emblems — such as the implements of opera-
tive labor, the furniture and ornaments of a Lodge,
or the ladder of seven steps — is a material symbol.
Whatever derives its existence from tradition, and
presents itself in the form of an allegory or legend, is
a mythical symbol.

Hiram the Builder, therefore, and all that refers to
the legend of his connection with the temple, and his
fate — such as the sprig of acacia, the hill near Mount
Moriah, and the lost word — are to be considered as
belonging to the class of mythical or legendary sym-
bols.

This division is not arbitrary, but depends on the
nature of the types and the aspect in which they pre-
sent themselves to our view.

Thus the sprig of acacia, although it is material,
visible, and tangible, is, nevertheless, not to be treated
as a material symbol; for as it derives all its signifi-
cance from its intimate connection with the legend of
Hiram Abif, which is a mythical symbol, it cannot
without a violent and inexpedient disruption be sepa-
rated from the same class. For the same reason, the
small hill near Mount Moriah, the search of the twelve

Legends of Freemasonry 201

Fellow Crafts, and the whole train of circumstances
connected with the Lost Word, are to be viewed simply
as mythical or legendary, and not as material symbols.

These legends of Freemasonry constitute a consider-
able and a very important part of its ritual. Without
them, the most valuable portions of the Masonic as a
scientific system would cease to exist. It is, in fact,
in the traditions and legends of Freemasonry, more,
even, than in its material symbols, that we are to find
the deep religious instruction which the institution is
intended to inculcate.

It must be remembered that Freemasonry has been
defined to be "si system of morality, veiled in allegory
and illustrated by symbols." Symbols, then, alone,
do not constitute the whole of the system: allegory
comes in for its share; and this allegory, which veils
the divine truths of Freemasonry, is presented to the
neophyte in the various legends which have been
traditionally preserved in the Order.

The close connection, at least in design and method
of execution, between the institution of Freemasonry
and the ancient Mysteries, which were largely imbued
with the mythical character of the ancient religions
led, undoubtedly, to the introduction of the same
mythical character into the Masonic system.

So general, indeed, was the diffusion of the myth or
legend among the philosophical, historical, and relig-
ious systems of antiquity, that Heyne remarks on
this subject, that all the history and philosophy of the
ancients proceeded from myths. ^

Faber says, '* Allegory and personification were
peculiarly agreeable to the genius of antiquity; and

*"A mythis omnis priscoriim hominum turn historia turn phi-
losophia procedit."— "Ad Apollod, Athen. Biblioth. not." f. p. 3.

202 Symbolism of Freemasonry

the simplicity of truth was continually sacrificed at
the shrine of poetical decoration."^

The word myth, from the Greek iivdos, a story, in its
original acceptation, signified simply a statement or
narrative of an event, without any necessary implica-
tion of truth or falsehood; but, as the word is now
used, it conveys the idea of a personal narrative of re-
mote date, which, although not necessarily untrue,
is certified only by the internal evidence of the tradi-
tion itself.*

Creuzer, in his Symholik, says that myths and sym-
bols were derived, on the one hand, from the helpless
condition and the poor and scanty beginnings of relig-
ious knowledge among the ancient peoples, and on
the other, from the benevolent designs of the priests
educated in the East, or of Eastern origin, to form
them to a purer and higher knowledge.

But the observations of that profoundly philosophical
historian, Grote, give so correct a view of the proba-
ble origin of this universality of the mythical element in
all the ancient religions, and are, withal, so appropriate
to the subject of Masonic legends which we are now
about to discuss, that we cannot justly refrain from a
liberal quotation of his remarks.

**The allegorical interpretation of the myths," he
says, ''has been, by several learned investigators, es-
pecially by Creuzer, connected with the hypothesis of
an ancient and highly-instructed body of priests, having
their origin either in Egypt or the East, and communi-

1 Faber, "On the Cabiri."

* See Grote, "History of Greece," vol. i. ch. xvi. p. 479, whence
this definition has been substantially derived. The definitions of
Creuzer, Hermann, Buttmann, Heyne, Welcker, Voss, and M tiller
are none of them better, and some of them not as good.

Legends of Freemasonry 203

eating to the rude and barbarous Greeks religious,
physical, and historical knowledge, under the veil of
symbols. At a time (we are told) when language was
yet in its infancy, visible symbols were the most vivid
means of acting upon the minds of ignorant hearers.
The next step was to pass to symbolical language and
expressions; for a plain and literal exposition, even if
understood at all, would at least have been listened to
with indifference, as not corresponding with any mental
demand.

"In such allegorizing way, then, the early priests
set forth their doctrines respecting God, nature, and
humanity — a refined monotheism and theological
philosophy — and to this purpose the earliest myths
were turned. But another class of myths, more popular
and more captivating, grew up under the hands of
the poets — myths purely epical, and descriptive of
real or supposed past events.