Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of FreemasonryPike, Albert
Religion
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Pike, Albert
Freemasons
"Thy sun," says ISAIAH to Jerusalem, "shall no more go down, neither
shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the LORD shall be thine everlasting
light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also
shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land forever." Such is
the type of a free people.
Our northern ancestors worshipped this triune Deity; ODIN, the Almighty
FATHER; FREA, his wife, emblem of universal matter; and THOR, his son,
the mediator. But above all these was the Supreme God, "the author of
everything that existeth, the Eternal, the Ancient, the Living and Awful
Being, the Searcher into concealed things, the Being that never
changeth." In the Temple of Eleusis (a sanctuary lighted only by a
window in the roof, and representing the Universe), the images of the
Sun, Moon, and Mercury, were represented.
"The Sun and Moon," says the learned Bro.'. DELAUNAY, "represent the two
grand principles of all generations, the active and passive, the male
and the female. The Sun represents the actual light. He pours upon the
Moon his fecundating rays; both shed their light upon their offspring,
the Blazing Star, or HORUS, and the three form the great Equilateral
Triangle, in the centre of which is the omnific letter of the Kabalah,
by which creation is said to have been effected."
The ORNAMENTS of a Lodge are said to be "the Mosaic Pavement, the
Indented Tessel, and the Blazing Star." The Mosaic Pavement, chequered
in squares or lozenges, is said to represent the ground-floor of King
Solomon's Temple; and the Indented Tessel "that beautiful tesselated
border which surrounded it." The Blazing Star in the centre is said to
be "an emblem of Divine Providence, and commemorative of the star which
appeared to guide the wise men of the East to the place of our Saviour's
nativity." But "there was no stone seen" within the Temple. The walls
were covered with planks of cedar, and the floor was covered with planks
of fir. There is no evidence that there was such a pavement or floor in
the Temple, or such a bordering. In England, anciently, the
Tracing-Board was surrounded with an indented border; and it is only in
America that such a border is put around the Mosaic pavement. The
tesseræ, indeed, are the squares or lozenges of the pavement. In
England, also, "the indented or denticulated border" is called
"tesselated," because it has four "tassels," said to represent
Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice. It was termed the Indented
Trassel; but this is a misuse of words. It is a _tesserated_ pavement,
with an indented border round it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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