Section 23

Here, then, in Freemasonry, is what was called the
aphanism^ in the ancient Mysteries. The bitter but
necessary lesson of death has been imparted. The
living soul, with the lifeless body which encased it, has
disappeared, and can nowhere be found. All is darkness
— confusion — despair. Divine truth — the Word — for
a time is lost, and the Master Mason may now say, in
the language of Hutchinson, '*I prepare my sepulchre.
I make my grave in the pollution of the earth. I am
under the shadow of death."

But if the mythic symbolism ended here, with this
lesson of death, then were the lesson incomplete. That
teaching would be vain and idle — nay, more, it would
be corrupt and pernicious — which should stop short of
the conscious and innate instinct for another existence.
Therefore the succeeding portions of the legend are
intended to convey the sublime symbolism of a resur-

^"A(t>avL(xn6s, disappearance, destruction, a perishing, death,
from a<f>avL^co, to remov from one's view, to conceal," etc. — SchreveL
^'Lexikon."

236 Symbolism of Freemasonry

rection from the grave and a new birth into a future
life. The discovery of the body, which, in the initia-
tions of the ancient Mysteries, was called the euresiSj^
and its removal, from the polluted grave into which it
had been cast, to an honored and sacred place within
the precincts of the temple, are all profoundly and
beautifully symbolic of that great truth, the discovery
of which was the object of all the ancient initiations, as
it is almost the whole design of Freemasonry.

This truth is that when man shall have passed the
gates of life and have yielded to the inexorable fiat of
death, he shall then (not in the pictured ritual of an
earthly Lodge, but in the realities of that eternal one,
of which the former is but a type) be raised, at the
omnific word of the Grand Master of the Universe, from
time to eternity; from the tomb of corruption to the
chambers of hope; from the darkness of death to the
celestial beams of life; and that his disembodied spirit
shall be conveyed as near to the holy of holies of the
divine presence as humanity can ever approach to Deity.

Such we conceive to be the true interpretation of the
symbolism of the legend of the third degree.

We have said that this mythical history of the temple
builder was universal in all nations and all rites, and
that in no place and at no time had it by alteration,
diminution, or addition, acquired any essentially new
or different form: the mjrth has always remained the
same.

But it is not so with its interpretation. That which
we have just given, and which we conceive to be the
correct one, has been very generally adopted by the
Freemasons of this country. But elsewhere, and by
various writers, other interpretations have been made,

^ "EvpeaLSj a finding, invention, discovery." — Schrevel. "Lexikon."

Legend of the Third Degree 237

very different in their character, although always agree-
ing in retaining the general idea of a resurrection or
regeneration, or a restoration of something from an
inferior to a higher sphere or function.

Thus some of the earlier continental writers have sup-
posed the myth to have been a symbol of the destruc-
tion of the Order of the Templars, looking upon its
restoration to its original wealth and dignities as being
prophetically symbolized.

In some of the high philosophical degrees it is taught
that the whole legend refers to the sufferings and death,
with the subsequent resurrection, of Christ.

A French writer of the eighteenth century, speaking
of the degree of "Tres Parfait Maitre," says, ''C'est
ici qu'on voit reellement qu'Hiram n'a ete que le type
de Jesus Christ, que le temple et les autres symboles
ma^onniques sont des allegories relatives k TEglise, a
la Foi, et aux bonnes moeurs." Thus we see that in
reality Hiram is but a type or symbol of Jesus Christ,
that the temple and the other Masonic symbols are
allegorical references to the Church, the Faith, and to
good morals.*

Hutchinson, who has the honor of being the earliest
philosophical writer on Freemasonry in England, sup-
poses it to have been intended to embody the idea of
the decadence of the Jewish religion, and the substi-
tution of the Christian in its place and on its ruins.
Hutchinson says, "This our Order is a positive contra-
diction to the* Judaic blindness and infidelity, and testifies
our faith concerning the resurrection of the body." ^

* "Origine et Objet de la Franche-ma^onnerie," par le F. B. Paris,
1774.

^ Hutchinson, "Spirit of Masonry," lect. ix. p. 101. The whole
lecture is occupied in advancing and supporting his peculiar theory.

238

Symbolism of Freemasonry

Dr. Oliver — ''clarum et venerabile nomen," stainless
and revered name — thinks that it is typical of the
murder of Abel by Cain, and that it symbolically refers
to the universal death of our race through Adam, and
its restoration to life in the Redeemer, according to the
expression of the Apostle, "As in Adam we all died,
so in Christ we all live.'*

''Thus, then, it appears that the historical reference
of the legend of Speculative Freemasonry, in all ages of
the world, was to our death in Adam and life in Christ.
What, then, was the origin of our tradition? Or, in
other words, to what particular incident did the legend
of initiation refer before the flood? I conceive it to
have been the offering and assassination of Abel by his
brother Cain; the escape of the murderer; the discovery
of the body by his disconsolate parents, and its subse-
quent interment, under a certain belief of its final
resurrection from the dead, and of the detection and
punishment of Cain by divine vengeance."^

Ragon makes Hiram a symbol of the sun shorn of its
vivifying rays and fructifying power by the three winter
months, and its restoration to generative heat by the
season of spring. ^

Finally, Des Etangs, adopting, in part, the inter-
pretation of Ragon, adds to it another, which he calls
the moral symbolism of the legend, and supposes that
Hiram is no other than eternal reason, whose enemies
are the vices that deprave and destroy humanity.^

^ Oliver, "Historical Landmarks of Freemasonry," vol. ii. p. 171.

* "Le grade de Maitre va done nous retracer allegoriquement
la mort du dieu-lumiere — mourant en hiver pour reparaitre et
ressusciter au printemps." — Ragon," Cours Philosophique," p. 158.

'"Dans Tordre moral, Hiram n'est autre chose que la raison
6ternelle, par qui tout est pondere, regie, conserve." — Des Etangs,
"(Euvres Magonniques," p. 90.

Legend of the Third Degree 239

To each of these interpretations it seems to me that
there are important objections, though perhaps to some
less so than to others.

As to those who seek for an astronomical interpreta-
tion of the legend, in which the annual changes of the
sun are symbolized, while the ingenuity with which
they press their argument cannot but be admired, it is
evident that, by such an interpretation, they yield all
that Freemasonry has gained of religious development
in past ages, and fall back upon that corruption and
perversion of Sabianism from which it was the object,
even of the Spurious Freemasonry of antiquity, to
rescue its disciples.

The Templar interpretation of the myth must at
once be discarded if we would avoid the difficulties of
anachronism, unless we deny that the legend existed
before the abolition of the Order of Knights Templar,
and such denial would be fatal to the antiquity of Free-
masonry.^

And as to the adoption of the Christian reference,
Hutchinson, and after him Oliver, profoundly philo-
sophical as are the Masonic speculations of both, have,
we are constrained to believe, fallen into a great error
in calling the Master Mason's degree a Christian in-
stitution. It is true that it embraces within its scheme
the great truths of Christianity upon the subject of the
immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the
body; but this was to be presumed, because Free-
masonry is truth, and Christianity is truth, and all
truth must be identical.

* With the same argument would Bro. Mackey meet the hypothe-
sis that Hiram was the representative of Charles I of England — a
hypothesis now so generally abandoned, that he had not thought
it worth noticing in the text.

240 Symbolism of Freemasonry

But the origin of each is different; their histories are
dissimilar. The institution of Freemasonry preceded
the advent of Christianity. Its symbols and its legends
are derived from the Solomonic temple, and from the
people even anterior to that. Its religion comes from
the ancient priesthood. Its faith was that primitive
one of Noah and his immediate descendants. If Free-
masonry were simply a Christian institution, the Jew
and the Moslem, the Brahmin and the Buddhist, could
not conscientiously partake of its illumination; but its
universality is its boast. In its language citizens of
every nation may converse; at its altar men of all
religions may kneel; to its creed disciples of every
faith may subscribe.

Yet it cannot be denied, that since the advent of
Christianity an element from it has been almost im-
perceptibly infused into the Masonic system, at least
among Freemasons of that faith. This has been a neces-
sity; for it is the tendency of every predominant re-
ligion to pervade with its influences all that surrounds
it, or is about it, whether religious, political, or social.
This arises from a need of the human heart. To the
man deeply imbued with the spirit of his religion there
is an almost unconscious desire to accommodate and
adapt all the business and the amusements of life, the
labors and the employments of his every-day existence,
to the indwelling faith of his soul.

The Christian Freemason, therefore, while acknowl-
edging and justly appreciating the great doctrines taught
in Freemasonry, and while grateful that these doctrines
were preserved in the bosom of his ancient Order at a
time when they were unknown to the multitudes of the
surrounding nations, is still anxious to give to them a
Christian character, to invest them, in some measure.

Legend of the Third Degree 241

with the peculiarities of his own creed, and to bring the
interpretation of their symboHsm more nearly home to
his own religious sentiments.

The feeling is an instinctive one, belonging to the
noblest aspirations of our human nature. Therefore we
find Christian Masonic writers indulging in it almost to
an unwarrantable excess, and by the extent of their
sectarian interpretations materially affecting the cos-
mopolitan character of the institution.

This tendency to Christianization has, in some in-
stances, been so universal, and has prevailed for so long
a period, that certain symbols and myths have been,
in this way, so deeply and thoroughly imbued with the
Christian element as to leave those who have not pene-
trated into the cause of this peculiarity, in doubt whether
they should attribute to the symbol an ancient or a
modern and Christian origin.

As an illustration of the idea here advanced, and as a
remarkable example of the result of a gradually Chris-
tianized interpretation of a Masonic symbol, we will
refer to the subordinate myth (subordinate, we mean,
to the great legend of the Builder), which relates the
circumstances connected with the grave upon *Hhe brow
of a small hill near Mount Moriah.'*

Now, the myth or legend of a grave is a legitimate
deduction from the symbolism of the ancient Spurious
Masonry. It is the analogue of the Pastos, Couch, or
Coffin, which was to be found in the ritual of all the
pagan Mysteries. In all these initiations, the aspirant
was placed in a cell or upon a couch, in darkness, and
for a period varying, in the different rites, from the
three days of the Grecian Mysteries to the fifty of the
Persian. This cell or couch, technically called the
''pastos,'* was adopted as a symbol of the being whose

242 Symbolism of Freemasonry

death and resurrection or apotheosis, was represented
in the legend.

**The initiation into the Mysteries scenically repre-
sented the mythic descent into Hades and the return
from thence to the Hght of day; by which was meant
the entrance into the Ark and the subsequent Uberation
from its dark enclosure. Such Mysteries were estab-
lished in almost every part of the pagan world; and
those of Ceres were substantially the same as the Orgies
of Adonis, Osiris, Hu, Mithras, and the Cabiri. They
all equally related to the allegorical disappearance, or
death, or descent of the great father at their commence-
ment, and to his invention, or revival, or return from
Hades, at their conclusion."^ But this Arkite theory,
as it is called, has not met with the general approbation
of subsequent writers.

The learned Faber says as will be noted that this
ceremony was doubtless the same as the descent into
Hades, and that, when the aspirant entered into the
mystic cell, he was directed to lay himself down upon
the bed which shadowed out the tomb of the Great
Father, or Noah, to whom, it will be recollected, that
Faber refers all the ancient rites. ''While stretched
upon the holy couch," he continues to remark, ''in
imitation of his figurative deceased prototype, he was
said to be wrapped in the deep sleep of death. His
resurrection from the bed was his restoration to life or
his regeneration into a new world."

Now, it is easy to see how readily such a symbolism
would be seized by the Temple Freemasons, and appro-
priated at once to the grave at the hrow of the hill. At first,
the interpretation, like that from which it had been de-

* Faber, "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," vol. iv. b. iv. ch. v. p.
384.

Legend of the Third Degree 243

rived, would be cosmopolitan; it would fit exactly to
the general dogmas of the resurrection of the body and
the immortality of the soul.

But on the advent of Christianity, the spirit of the
new religion being infused into the old Masonic system,
the whole symbolism of the grave was affected by it.
The same interpretation of a resurrection or restoration
to life, derived from the ancient pastos, was, it is true,
preserved; but the facts that Christ Himself had come
to teach the multitudes the same consoling dogma, and
that Mount Calvary, ^'the place of a skull," was the
spot where the Redeemer, by His own death and resur-
rection, had testified the truth of the doctrine, at once
suggested to the old Christian Freemasons the idea of
Christianizing the ancient symbol.

Let us now examine briefly how that idea has been at
length developed.

In the first place, it is necessary to identify the spot
where the '^newly-made grave'' was discovered with
Mount Calvary, the place of the sepulchre of Christ.
This can easily be done by a very few but striking anal-
ogies, which will, we conceive, carry conviction to any
thinking mind.

1. Mount Calvary was a small hill.

Mount Calvary is a small hill or eminence, situated
in a westerly direction from that Mount Moriah on
which the temple of Solomon was built. It was
originally a hillock of notable eminence, but has, in
modern times, been greatly reduced by the excava-
tions made in it for the construction of the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre.

''The present rock, called Calvary, and enclosed
within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, bears marks,
in every part that is naked, of its having been a round

244 Symbolism of Freemasonry

nodule of rock standing above the common level of
the surface."^

2. It was situated in a westward direction from the
temple, and near Mount Moriah.

3. It was on the direct road from Jerusalem to Joppa,
and is thus the very spot where a weary brother, travel-
ing on that road, would find it convenient to sit down
to rest and refresh himself.

Dr. Beard reasons in a similar method as to the place of
the crucifixion, and supposing that the soldiers, from the
fear of a popular tumult, would hurry Jesus to the most
convenient spot for execution, says, ^'Then the road to
Joppa or Damascus would be most convenient, and no spot
in the vicinity would probably be so suitable as the slight
rounded elevation which bore the name of Calvary." ^

4. It was outside the gate of the temple.

5. It has at least one cleft in the rock, or cave, which
was the place which subsequently became the sepulchre
of our Lord. But this coincidence needs scarcely to be
insisted on, since the whole neighborhood abounds in
rocky clefts, which meet at once the conditions of the
Masonic legend.

But to bring this analogical reasoning before the mind
in a more expressive mode, it may be observed that if a
party of persons were to start forth from the temple at
Jerusalem, and travel in a westward direction towards
the port of Joppa, Mount Calvary would be the first hill
met with; and as it may possibly have been used as a
place of sepulchre, which its name of Golgotha^ seems

» Buckingham, "Palestine," p. 283.

2 Dr. Beard, in article on "Golgotha," in Kitto's "Encyclopaedia
of Biblical Literature."

3 Some have supposed that it was so called because it was the
place of public execution. Gulgoleth in Hebrew, or gogultho in
Syriac, means a shull.

Legend of the Third Degree 245

to import, we may suppose it to have been the very
spot alluded to in the third degree, as the place where
the craftsmen, on their way to Joppa, discovered the
evergreen acacia.

Having thus traced the analogy, let us look a little
to the symbolism.

Mount Calvary has always retained an important
place in the legendary history of Freemasonry, and
there are many traditions connected with it that are
highly interesting in their import.