Section 5

As the first illustration, let us select the Mysteries of
Osiris, as they were practised in Egypt, the birthplace
of all that is wonderful in the arts or sciences, or mys-
terious in the religion, of the ancient world.

It was on the Lake of Sais that the solemn cere-
monies of the Osirian initiation were performed. ''On
this lake,^^ says Herodotus, ''it is that the Egyptians
represent by night his sufferings whose name I refrain
from mentioning; and this representation they call
their Mysteries."^

Osiris, the husband of Isis, was an ancient king of the
Egyptians. Having been slain by Typhon, his body
was cut into pieces^ by his murderer, and the mangled

* Herodotus, "History," lib. iii. c. clxxi.

2 The legend says it was cut into fourteen pieces. Compare this
with the fourteen days of burial in the Masonic legend of the third

39

40 Symbolism of Freemasonry

remains cast upon the waters of the Nile, to be dis-
persed to the four winds of heaven. His wife, Isis,
mourning for the death and the mutilation of her
husband, for many days searched diligently with her
companions for the portions of the body, and having at
length found them, united them together, and bestowed
upon them decent interment. Osiris, thus restored,
became the chief deity of his subjects, and his worship
was united with that of Isis as the fecundating and
fertilizing powers of nature.

The candidate in these initiations was made to pass
through a mimic repetition of the conflict and destruc-
tion of Osiris, and his eventual recovery. The ex-
planations made to the candidate, after he had received
the full share of light to which the painful and solemn
ceremonies through which he had passed had entitled
him, constituted the secret doctrine of which we have
already spoken, as the object of all the Mysteries.

Osiris — a real and personal god to the people — to be
worshipped with fear and with trembling, and to be
propitiated with sacrifices and burnt offerings, became
to the initiate but a symbol of the

Great First Cause, least understood,

while his death, and the wailing of Isis, with the re-
covery of the body, his translation to the rank of a
celestial being, and the consequent rejoicing of his
spouse, were but a topical mode of teaching that after
death comes life eternal, and that though the body be
destroyed, the soul shall still live.

degree. Why the particular number in each? It has been thought
by some, that in the latter legend there was a reference to the half
of the moon's age, or its dark period, symbolic of the darkness of
death, followed by the fourteen days of bright moon, or restoration
to life.

i

Ancient Mysteries 41

"Can we doubt/' says the Baron Ste. Croix, "that
such ceremonies as those practised in the Mysteries of
Osiris had been originally instituted to impress more
profoundly on the mind the dogma of future rewards
and punishments?' '^

"The sufferings and death of Osiris/' says Wilkin-
son,^ "were the great Mystery of the Egyptian religion;
and some traces of it are perceptible among other
people of antiquity. His being the divine goodness and
the abstract idea of ^good,' his manifestation upon
earth (like an Indian god), his death and resurrection,
and his office as judge of the dead in a future state,
look like the early revelation of a future manifestation
of the deity converted into a mythological fable."

A similar legend and similar ceremonies, varied only
as to time, and place, and unimportant details, were to
be found in all the initiations of the ancient Mysteries.
The dogma was the same — future life — and the method
of teaching it was the same. The coincidences between
the design of these rites and that of Freemasonry,
which must already begin to appear, will enable us to
give its full value to the expression of Hutchinson, when
he says that "the Master Mason represents a man
under the Christian doctrine saved from the grave of
iniquity and raised to the faith of salvation." ^

In Phoenicia similar Mysteries were celebrated in
honor of Adonis, the favorite lover of Venus, who,

* "Mysteres du Paganisme," tome i. p. 6.

2 Notes to Rawlinson's "Herodotus," b. ii. ch. clxxi. Bryant ex-
presses the same opinion: "The principal rites in Egypt were
confessedly for a person lost and consigned for a time to darkness,
who was at last found. This person I have mentioned to have
been described under the character of Osiris." — "Analysis of Ancient
Mythology," vol. iii. p. 177.

3 "Spirit of Masonry," p. 100.

42 Symbolism of Freemasonry

having, while hunting, been slain by a wild boar on
Mount Lebanon, was restored to life by Proserpine.
The mythological story is familiar to every classical
scholar. In the popular theology, Adonis was the son
of Cinyras, king of Cyrus, whose untimely death was
wept by Venus and her attendant nymphs: in the
physical theology of the philosophers,^ he was a symbol
of the sun, alternately present to and absent from the
earth; but in the initiation into the Mysteries of his
worship, his resurrection and return from Hades were
adopted as a type of the immortality of the soul.

The ceremonies of initiation in the Adonia began
with lamentation for his loss, — or, as the prophet
Ezekiel expresses it, '* Behold, there sat women weeping
for Thammuz," — for such was the name under which
his worship was introduced among the Jews; and they
ended with the most extravagant demonstrations of
joy at the representation of his return to life,^ while
the hierophant exclaimed, in a congratulatory strain-
Trust, ye initiates; the god is safe,
And from our grief salvation shall arise.

Before proceeding to an examination of those Mys-
teries which are the most closely connected with the

*Varro, according to St. Augustine ("De Civ. Dei," vi. 5), says
that among the ancients there were three kinds of theology — a
mythical, which was used by the poets; a physical, by the philoso-
phers, and a civil, by the people.

' "Tous les ans pendant les jours consacres au souvenir de sa mort,
tout ^tait plong^ dans la tristesse; on ne cessait de pousser des
gemissements; on allait m^me jusqu'^ se flageller et a se donner des
coups. Le dernier jour de ce deuil, on faisait des sacrifices funebres
en I'honneur de ce dieu. Le jour suivant, on recevait la nouvelle au'
Adonis venait d'etre rappel^ k la vie, ce qui mettait fin au deuil."—
"Recherches sur les Mysteries du Paganisme," tome ii. p. 105.

Ancient Mysteries 43

Masonic institution, it will be as well to take a brief
view of their general organization.

The secret worship, or Mysteries, of the ancients
were always divided into the lesser and the greater;
the former being intended only to awaken curiosity,
to test the capacity and disposition of the candidate,
and by symbolical purifications to prepare him for his
introduction into the greater Mysteries.

The candidate was at first called an aspirant, or
seeker of the truth, and the initial ceremony which he
underwent was a lustration or purification by water.
In this condition he may be compared to the Entered
Apprentice of the Masonic rites, and it is here worth
adverting to the fact (which will be hereafter more
fully developed) that all the ceremonies in the first
degree of Freemasonry are symbolic of an internal
purification.

In the lesser Mysteries^ the candidate took an oath
of secrecy, which was administered to him by the mys-
tagogue, or conductor, and then received a preparatory
instruction, 2 which enabled him afterwards to under-
stand the developments of the higher and subsequent
division. He was now called a Mystes, or initiate,
and may be compared to the Fellow Craft of Free-
masonry.

* Clement of Alexandria calls them nvarrjpLa to, irpd /jlvctttjpLov,
"the mysteries before the mysteries."

* "Les petits mysteres ne consistaient qu'en c^r^monies pr^para-
toires." — Sainte Croix, i. 297. — As to the oath of secrecy, Bryant
says, "The first thing at these awful meetings was to offer an oath
of secrecy to all who were to be initiated, after which they proceeded
to the ceremonies." — Analysis of Ancient Mythology, voL iii. p.
174 — The "Orphic Argonautics" allude to the oath: nera 5' SpKia
M6(7Tats, K. T. X., "after the oath was administered to the Mystes,"
&c.— "Orph. Argon.," v. 11.

44 Symbolism op Freemasonry

In the greater Mysteries the whole knowledge of the
divine truths, which was the object of initiation, was
communicated. Here we find, among the various cere-
monies which connect these rites to Freemasonry, the
aphanism, which was the disappearance or death; the
pastoSy the couch, coffin, or grave; the euresis, or the
discovery of the body; and the autopsy, or full sight of
everything, that is, the complete communication of the
secrets. The candidate was here called an Epopt, or
eye-witness, because nothing was now hidden from
him; and hence he may be compared to the Master
Mason, of whom Hutchinson says that "he has dis-
covered the knowledge of God and his salvation, and
been redeemed from the death of sin and the sepulchre
of pollution and unrighteousness."

CHAPTER SEVEN
DioNYsiAc Artificers

A FTER this general view of the religious Myste-
l\ ries of the ancient world, let us now proceed to
-^ -^ a closer examination of those which are more
intimately connected with the history of Freemasonry,
and whose influence is to this day most evidently felt
in its organization.

The satirical pen of Aristophanes has not spared the
Dionysiac festivals. But the raillery and sarcasm of
a comic writer must always be received with many
grains of allowance. He has, at least, been candid
enough to confess that no one could be initiated who
had been guilty of any crime against his country or
the public security.^

Euripides makes the Chorus in his Bacchoe proclaim
that the Mysteries were practised only for virtuous
purposes.

In Rome, however, there can be little doubt that the
initiations partook at length of a licentious character.
''On ne peut douter," says Ste. Croix, "que Tintro-
duction des fetes de Bacchus en Italie n'ait accelere les
progres du libertinage et de la debauche dans cette
contree." ^

1 "Rana," V. 360-365.

2 "Mysteres du Paganisme," tome ii. p. 91.

45

46 Symbolism op Freemasonry

St. Augustine inveighs against the impurity of the
ceremonies in Italy of the sacred rites of Bacchus.
But even he does not deny that the motive with which
they were performed was of a rehgious, or at least
superstitious nature — *'Sic videlicet liber deus pla-
candus fuerat."^ The propitiation of a deity was
certainly a religious act.

Of all the pagan Mysteries instituted by the ancients
none were more extensively diffused than those of the
Grecian god Dionysus. They were established in
Greece, Rome, Syria, and all Asia Minor. Among the
Greeks, and still more among the Romans, the rites
celebrated on the Dionysiac festival were, it must be
confessed, of a dissolute and licentious character.
But in Asia they assumed a different form. There, as
elsewhere, the legend (for it has already been said that
each Mystery had its legend) recounted, and the cere-
monies represented, the murder of Dionysus by the
Titans.

The secret doctrine, too, among the Asiatics, was not
different from that among the western nations, but
there was something peculiar in the organization of the
system. The Mysteries of Dionysus in Syria, more
especially, were not simply of a theological character.
There the disciples joined to the indulgence in their
speculative and secret opinions as to the unity of God
and the immortality of the soul, which were common
to all the Mysteries, the practice of an operative and
architectural art, and occupied themselves as well in
the construction of temples and public buildings as in
the pursuit of divine truth.

We can account for the greater purity of these Syrian
rites only by adopting the ingenious theory of Thir-

» "De Civ. Dei," lib. vii. c. xxi.

DiONYSiAC Artificers 47

wall/ that all the Mysteries ''were the remains of a
worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic my-
thology, and its attendant rites, grounded on a view of
nature less fanciful, more earnest, and better fitted to
awaken both philosophical thought and religious feel-
ing,^' and by supposing that the Asiatics, not being,
from their geographical position, so early imbued with
the errors of Hellenism,' had been better able to pre-
serve the purity and philosophy of the old Pelasgic'
faith, which, itself, was undoubtedly a direct emana-
tion from the patriarchal religion, or, as it has been
called, the Pure Freemasonry of the antediluvian world.

Be this, however, as it may, we know that "the Dio-
nysiacs of Asia Minor were undoubtedly an association
of architects and engineers, who had the exclusive privi-
lege of building temples, stadia, and theatres, under the
mysterious tutelage of Bacchus, and were distinguished
from the uninitiated or profane inhabitants by the
science which they possessed, and by many private
signs and tokens by which they recognized each other." *

This speculative and operative society^ — speculative

* "History of Greece," vol. ii. p. 140.

^Mackey uses the word in a less complimentary sense than
Matthew Arnold who says: "To get rid of one's ignorance, to see
things as they are in their beauty, is the simple and attractive ideal
that Hellenism holds out."

'A term applied to the primitive dwellers in Greece and the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

^This language is quoted from Robison ("Proofs of a Con-
spiracy," p. 20, London edition 1797), whom none will suspect or
accuse of an undue veneration for the antiquity or the morality of
the Masonic order.

*We must not confound these Asiatic builders with the play-
actors, who were subsequently called by the Greeks, as we learn
from Aulus Gellius (hb. xx. cap. 4), "artificers of Dionysus" —
AiovvciaKOL rexvcrai.

48 Symbolism op Freemasonry

in the esoteric and theologic lessons which were taught
in its initiations, and operative in the labors of its
members as architects — was distinguished by many
peculiarities that closely assimilate it to the institution
of Freemasonry. In the practice of charity, the more
opulent were bound to relieve the wants and contribute
to the support of the poorer brethren. They were
divided, for the conveniences of labor and the advan-
tages of government, into smaller bodies, which, like
our Lodges, were directed by superintending officers.
They employed, in their ceremonial observances, many
of the implements of operative workmen, and used
like the Freemasons, a universal language, and conven-
tional modes of recognition, by which one brother might
know another in the dark as well as the light, and which
served to unite the whole body, wheresoever they might
be dispersed, in one common brotherhood.

There is abundant evidence, among ancient authors,
of the existence of signs and passwords in the Mysteries.
Thus Apuleius, in his Apology, says ^'Si qui forte adest
eorundem Solemnium mihi particeps, signum dato,"
etc.; that is, ^*If any one happens to be present who
has been initiated into the same rites as myself, if he
will give me the sign, he shall then be at liberty to hear
what it is that I keep with so much care."

Plautus also alludes to this usage, when, in his Miles
Gloriosus, act iv. sc. 2, he makes Milphidippa say to
Pyrogopolonices, "Cedo signum, si harunc Baccharum
es; " i. e., **Give the sign if you are one of these Bacchse,"
or initiates into the Mysteries of Bacchus. Clemens
Alexandrinus calls these modes of recognition aoi drj/xaiaj
as if means of safety.

Apuleius elsewhere uses memoracula, probably to
denote passwords, when he says, ''sanctissime sacrorum

DiONYSiAC Artificers 49

signa et memoracula custodire," which Bro. Mackey
was inclined to translate, ''most scrupulously to pre-
serve the signs and passwords of the sacred rites."

We have said that in the mysteries of Dionysus the
legend recounted the death of that hero-god, and the
subsequent discovery of his body. Some further details
of the nature of the Dionysiac ritual are therefore
necessary for a thorough appreciation of the facts.

In these mystic rites, the aspirant was made to repre-
sent, symbolically and in a dramatic form, the events
connected with the slaying of the god from whom the
Mysteries derived their name. After a variety of
preparatory ceremonies, intended to call forth all his
courage and fortitude, the aphanism or mystical death
of Dionysus was figured out in the ceremonies, and the
shrieks and lamentations of the initiates, with the
confinement or burial of the candidate on the pastos,
couch, or coffin, constituted the first part of the cere-
mony of initiation. Then began the search of Rhea
for the remains of Dionysus, which was continued amid
scenes of the greatest confusion and tumult. At last, the
search having been successful, the mourning was turned
into joy, light succeeded to darkness, and the candidate
was invested with the knowledge of the secret doctrine of
the Mysteries — the belief in the existence of one God,
and of a future state of rewards and punishments.^

* The Baron de Sainte Croix gives this brief view of the cere-
monies: " In these Mysteries they employed, in order to fill the soul
with the impress of a holy horror, the same means as at Eleusis.
The appearance of ghostly beings and of other objects intended to
affright the beholder, were disposed to render the mind credulous.
They were without doubt necessary to add to the hearers' faith in
all the explanations of the mystagues or initiators; they revolved
about the assassination of Bacchus by the Titans," etc. — "Recher-
ches sur les Myst^res du Paganisme," tome ii. sect. vii. art. iii. p. 89.

50 Symbolism of Freemasonry

Such were the mysteries that were practised by the
architects — the Freemasons, so to speak — of Asia
Minor. At Tyre, the richest and most important city
of that region, a city memorable for the splendor and
magnificence of the buildings with which it was dec-
orated, there were colonies or lodges of these mystic
architects; and this fact we request that you will bear
in mind, as it forms an important link in the chain that
connects the Dionysiacs with the Freemasons.