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
In the mutual appeal of nations to God, there is the acknowledgment of
His might. It lights the beacons of Faith and Freedom, and heats the
furnace through which the earnest and loyal pass to immortal glory.
There is in war the doom of defeat, the quenchless sense of Duty, the
stirring sense of Honor, the measureless solemn sacrifice of
devotedness, and the incense of success. Even in the flame and smoke of
battle, the Mason discovers his brother, and fulfills the sacred
obligations of Fraternity.
Two, or the Duad, is the symbol of Antagonism; of Good and Evil, Light
and Darkness. It is Cain and Abel, Eve and Lilith, Jachin and Boaz,
Ormuzd and Ahriman, Osiris and Typhon.
Three, or the Triad, is most significantly expressed by the equilateral
and the right-angled triangles. There are _three_ principal colors or
rays in the rainbow, which by intermixture make _seven_. The three are
the _blue_, the _yellow_, and the _red_. The Trinity of the Deity, in
one mode or other, has been an article in all creeds. He creates,
preserves, and destroys. He is the generative _power_, the productive
_capacity_, and the _result_. The immaterial man, according to the
Kabalah, is composed of _vitality_, or _life_, the breath of life; of
_soul_ or _mind_, and _spirit_. Salt, sulphur, and mercury are the great
symbols of the alchemists. To them man was body, soul, and spirit.
Four is expressed by the square, or four-sided right-angled figure. Out
of the symbolic Garden of Eden flowed a river, dividing into _four_
streams,--PISON, which flows around the land of gold, or light; GIHON,
which flows around the land of Ethiopia or Darkness; HIDDEKEL, running
eastward to Assyria; and the EUPHRATES. Zechariah saw _four_ chariots
coming out from between two mountains of bronze, in the first of which
were _red_ horses; in the second, _black_; in the third, _white_; and in
the fourth, _grizzled_: "and these were the four winds of the heavens,
that go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth." Ezekiel
saw the _four_ living creatures, each with _four_ faces and _four_
wings, the faces of a _man_ and a _lion_, an _ox_ and an _eagle_; and
the _four_ wheels going upon their _four_ sides; and Saint John beheld
the _four_ beasts, full of eyes before and behind, the LION, the young
OX, the MAN, and the flying EAGLE. _Four_ was the signature of the
Earth. Therefore, in the 148th Psalm, of those who must praise the Lord
on the land, there are _four_ times _four_, and _four_ in particular of
living creatures. Visible nature is described as the _four_ quarters of
the world, and the _four_ corners of the earth. "There are _four_," says
the old Jewish saying, "which take the first place in this world: _man_,
among the creatures; the _eagle_ among birds; the _ox_ among cattle; and
the _lion_ among wild beasts." Daniel saw _four_ great beasts come up
from the sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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