Section 24

One of these traditions is, that it was the burial-place
of Adam, in order, says the old legend, that where he
lay, who effected the ruin of mankind, there also might
the Savior of the world suffer, die, and be buried. Sir
R. Torkington, who published a pilgrimage to Jerusalem
in 1517, says that "under the Mount of Calvary is an-
other chapel of our Blessed Lady and St. John the
Evangelist, that was called Golgotha; and there, right
under the mortise of the cross, was found the head of
our forefather, Adam."^ Golgotha, it will be remem-
bered, means, in Hebrew, ''the place of a skull" ; and there
may be some connection between this tradition and the
name of Golgotha, by which the Evangelists inform us,
that in the time of Christ Mount Calvary was known.
Calvary, or Calvaria, has the same signification in Latin.

Another tradition states, that it was in the bowels of
Mount Calvary that Enoch erected his nine-arched
vault, and deposited on the foundation-stone of Free-
masonry that Ineffable Name, whose investigation, as
a symbol of divine truth, is the great object of Specula-
tive Freemasonry.

A third tradition details the subsequent discovery of
Enoch's deposit by King Solomon, whilst making exca-

* Quoted by Oliver, "Landmarks," vol. i. p. 587, note.

246 Symbolism of Freemasonry

vations in Mount Calvary, during the building of the
temple.

On this hallowed spot was Christ the Redeemer slain
and buried. It was there that, rising on the third day
from His sepulchre, He gave, by that act, the demonstra-
tive evidence of the resurrection of the body and the
immortality of the soul.

And it was on this spot that the same great lesson
was taught in Freemasonry — the same sublime truth —
the development of which evidently forms the design
of the third or Master Mason's degree.

There is in these analogies a sublime beauty as well
as a wonderful coincidence between the two systems of
Freemasonry and Christianity, that must, at an early
period, have attracted the attention of the Christian
Freemasons.

Mount Calvary is consecrated to the Christian as the

place where his crucified Lord gave the last great proof

of the second life, and fully established the doctrine

of the resurrection which He had come to teach. It was

the sepulchre of Him

Who captive led captivity,
Who robbed the grave of victory.
And took the sting from death.

It is consecrated to the Freemason, also, as the scene
of the euresis, the place of the discovery, where the
same consoling doctrines of the resurrection of the
body and the immortality of the soul are shadowed
forth in profoundly symbolic forms.

These great truths constitute the very essence of
Christianity, in which it differs from and excels all
religious systems that preceded it. They constitute,
also, the end, aim, and object of all Freemasonry, but
more especially that of the third degree, whose peculiar

Legend of the Third Degree 247

legend, symbolically considered, teaches nothing more
nor less than that there is an immortal and better part
within us, which as an emanation from that Divine Spirit
which pervades all nature can never die.

The identification of the spot on which this divine
truth was taught in both systems — the Christian and
the Masonic — affords an admirable illustration of the
readiness with which the religious spirit of the former
may be infused into the symbolism of the latter.
Hence, Hutchinson, thoroughly imbued with these
Christian views of Freemasonry, has called the Master
Mason's ceremony a Christian degree, and thus Chris-
tianizes the whole symbolism of its mythical history.

''The Great Father of all, commiserating the miseries
of the world, sent His only Son, who was innocence itself,
to teach the doctrine of salvation — by whom man was
raised from the death of sin unto the life of righteous-
ness— from the tomb of corruption unto the chamber
of hope — from the darkness of despair to the celestial
beams of faith; and not only working for us this re-
demption, but making with us the covenant of regen-
eration; whence we are become the children of the
Divinity, and inheritors of the realms of heaven.

''We, Freemasons, describing the deplorable estate
of religion under the Jewish law, speak in figures: 'Her
tomb was in the rubbish and filth cast forth of the
temple, and acacia wove its branches over her monu-
ments; akakia being the Greek word for innocence, or
being free from sin; implying that the sins and cor-
ruptions 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

248 Symbolism of Freemasonry

by our Acacy, or as true Acacians in our religious
faiths and tenets.

"The acquisition of the doctrine of redemption is
expressed in the typical character of Eureka (I have
found it. — Greek) y and by the applications of that name
with Freemasons, it is implied that we have discovered
the knowledge of God and His salvation, and have
been redeemed from the death of sin and the sepulchre
of pollution and unrighteousness.

''Thus the Master Mason represents a man, under the
Christian doctrine, saved from the grave of iniquity
and raised to the faith of salvation."

It is in this way that Freemasonry has, by a sort of
inevitable process (when we look to the religious senti-
ment of the interpreters), been Christianized by some
of the most illustrious and learned writers on Masonic
science — by such able men as Hutchinson and Oliver
in England, and by Harris, by Scott, by Salem Towne,
and by several others in this country.

We do not object to the system when the interpre-
tation is not strained, but is plausible, consistent, and
productive of the same results as in the instance of
Mount Calvary: all that we contend for is, that such
interpretations are modern, and that they do not be-
long to, although they may often be deduced from, the
ancient system.

But the true ancient interpretation of the legend, —
the universal Masonic one, — for all countries and all
ages, undoubtedly was, that the fate of the temple
builder is but figurative of the pilgrimage of man on
earth, through trials and temptations, through sin and
sorrow, until his eventual fall beneath the blow of
death and his final and glorious resurrection to another
and an eternal life.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Sprig of Acacia

INTIMATELY connected with the legend of the
third degree is the mythical history of the Sprig
of Acacia, which we are now to consider. There
is no symbol more interesting to the Masonic student
than the Sprig of Acacia, not only on account of its
own peculiar import, but also because it introduces us
to an extensive and delightful field of research; that,
namely, which embraces the symbolism of sacred plants.

In all the ancient systems of religion, and Mysteries
of initiation, there was always some one plant conse-
crated, in the minds of the worshippers and partici-
pants, by a peculiar symbolism, and therefore held in
extraordinary veneration as a sacred emblem. Thus
the ivy was used in the Mysteries of Dionysus, the
myrtle in those of Ceres, the erica in the Osirian, and
the lettuce in the Adonisian. But to this subject we
shall have occasion to refer more fully in a subsequent
part of the present investigation .

Before entering upon an examination of the sym-
bolism of the Acacia, it will be, perhaps, as well to
identify the true plant which occupies so important a
place in the ritual of Freemasonry.

Here, in passing, we may be permitted to say that it
is a very great error to designate the symbolic plant of

249

250 Symbolism of Freemasonry

Freemasonry by the name of "Cassia" — an error which
undoubtedly arose, originally, from the very common
habit among illiterate people of sinking the sound of
the letter a in the pronunciation of any word of which
it constitutes the initial syllable. Oliver's idea^ that
cassia has, since the year 1730, been corrupted into
acacia, is contrary to all etymological experience.
Words are corrupted, not by lengthening, but by ab-
breviating them. The uneducated and the careless
are always prone to cut off a syllable, not to add a
new one.

Just, for instance, as we constantly hear, in the con-
versation of the uneducated, the words pothecary and
prentice for apothecary and apprentice^ shall we also find
cassia used for acacia.

Unfortunately, however, this corruption of acacia
into cassia has not always been confined to the illit-
erate: but the long employment of the corrupted form
has at length introduced it, in some instances, among a
few of our writers. Even the venerable Oliver, although
well acquainted with the symbolism of the acacia, and
having written most learnedly upon it, has, at times,
allowed himself to use the objectionable corruption,
unwittingly influenced, in all probability, by the too
frequent adoption of the latter word in the English
Lodges.

In America, but few Freemasons fall into the error
of speaking of the Cassia. The proper teaching of the
Acacia is here well understood. But Bro. Mackey
records his surprise at seeing, once or twice, the word
"Cassia" adopted as the name of a Lodge, and he says
that "Cinnamon" or "sandal wood" would have been
as appropriate, for any Masonic meaning or symbolism.

1 "Landmarks," ii. 149.

Spkig of Acacia 251

The cassia of the ancients was, in fact, an ignoble
plant, having no mystic meaning and no sacred char-
acter, and was never elevated to a higher function
than that of being united, as Virgil informs us, with
other odorous herbs in the formation of a garland:

Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens,
Narcissum et florem jungit bend olentis anethi:
Turn casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis,
Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha.

violets pale,
The poppy's flush, and dill which scents the gale,
Cassia, and hyacinth, and daffodil,
With yellow marigold the chaplet fill.^

Alston says that the "Cassia lignea of the ancients
was the larger branches of the cinnamon tree, cut
off with their bark and sent together to the drug-
gists; their Cassia fistula, or Syrinx, was the same
cinnamon in the bark only." But Ruseus says
that it also sometimes denoted the lavender, and some-
times the rosemary.

In Scripture the cassia is only three times mentioned,^
twice as the translation of the Hebrew word kiddahj
and once as the rendering of ketzioth, but always as
referring to an aromatic plant which formed a constitu-
ent portion of some perfume. There is, indeed, strong
reason for believing that the cassia is only another
name for a coarser preparation of cinnamon, and it is
also to be remarked that it did not grow in Palestine,
but was imported from the East.

The acacia, on the contrary, was esteemed a sacred
tree. It is the acacia vera of Tournefort, and the mimosa

1 "Eclogue," ii. 49.

* Exodus XXX. 24, Ezekiel xxvii. 9, and Psalm xlv. 8.

252 Symbolism of Freemasonry

nilotica of Linnaeus. It grew abundantly in the vicinity
of Jerusalem, where it is still to be found, and is familiar
to us all, in its modern uses at least, as the tree from
which the gum arabic of commerce is obtained.

Oliver, it is true, says, that ' 'there is not the smallest
trace of any tree of the kind growing so far north as
Jerusalem";^ but this statement is refuted by the au-
thority of Lieutenant Lynch, who saw it growing in
great abundance at Jericho, and still farther north.^

The Rabbi Joseph Schwarz, who is excellent authori-
ty, says, ''The Acacia (Shittim) Tree, Al Sunt, is found
in Palestine of different varieties; it looks like the Mul-
berry tree, attains a great height, and has a hard
wood. The gum which is obtained from it is the gum
arabic' '^

Schwarz was for sixteen years a resident of Palestine,
and wrote from personal observation. The testimony
of Lynch and Schwarz should, therefore, for ever settle
the question of the existence of the acacia in Palestine.

The acacia, which, in Scripture, is always called
shittah,'^ and in the plural shittim, was esteemed a sacred
wood among the Hebrews. Of it Moses was ordered
to make the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant, the
table for the showbread, and the rest of the sacred
furniture. Isaiah, in recounting the promises of God's
mercy to the Israelites on their return from the captiv-
ity, tells them, that, among other things, he will plant in

1 "Landmarks," ii. 136.

2 Lynch, "Expedition to the Dead Sea," p. 262.

3 Schwarz, "Descriptive Geography and Historical Sketch of
Palestine," p. 308. Leeser's translation. Philadelphia, 1850

^Calmet, Parkhurst, Gesenius, Clarke, Shaw, and all the best
authorities, concur in saying that the otzi shittim, or shittim wood of
Exodus, was the common acacia or mimosa nilotica of Linnseus.

Spkig of Acacia 253

the wilderness, for their reHef and refreshment, the ce-
dar, 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.

First. The acacia, in the mythic system of Free-
masonry, is preeminently the symbol of the immortal-
ity 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 renovation 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 cor-
ruptible companionship of the body, shall enjoy an
eternal spring and an immortal youth.

In the impressive funeral service of our Order, it is
said, *'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

254 Symbolism of Freemasonry

die/* And again, in the closing sentences of the moni-
torial lecture of the third degree, the same sentiment
is repeated, and we are told that by ''the ever green
and ever living sprig'' 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. It 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 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.

* * This custom among the Hebrews arose from this cir-
cumstance. 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."^

Bro. Mackey objected to the reason assigned by
Dalcho; but of the existence of the custom there can
be no question, notwithstanding the denial or doubt
of Dr. Oliver.

Blount 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

1 Dalcho, "Oration," p. 27.

Sprig of Acacia 255

body, and is carefully watched."^ Hasselquist confirms
his testimony. 2

Bro. Mackey relied upon the citations from Brown ^
but personally verified the reference to Hasselquist.
The work of Blount he was not enabled to consult.

Potter tells us that the ancient Greeks ''had a cus-
tom 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
archaeologists have generally 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 in-
corruptible, and not liable to injury from the attacks
of any kind of insect or other animal — ^thus symboliz-
ing the incorruptible nature of the soul.

Hence we see the propriety of placing the sprig of
acacia, as an emblem of immortality, among the sym-
bols of that degree, all of whose ceremonies are intended
to teach us the great truth, that "the life of man, regu-
lated by morality, faith, and justice, will be rewarded
at its closing hour by the prospect of eternal bliss." ^
So, therefore, says Dr. Oliver, when the Master Mason
exclaims, "My name is Acacia," it is equivalent to say-
ing, "I have been in the grave, — I have triumphed