THE BUILDER APRIL 1929

Some Notes on Symbolism

By BRO. SILAS H. SHEPHERD, Wisconsin
(Concluded from March)

EVERY religious system has had a vast amount of symbolism in its
forms and ceremonies. Much that was taught by this method has been
lost to us. Such symbols as the lion for strength, the ox for
patience, the lily for purity, the plumb for rectitude, corn for
nourishment, wine for refreshment and oil for joy are easily traced
to quite a distant past; but there are many very important symbols
that are not so easily disposed of.

The original significance of such symbols as the Circle, Triangle,
Square, Swastika, Crux Ansata, Serpent, Lotus and many others is
more problematical.

Mackenzie, in his Migration of Symbols, has brought out a thought
in clear outline which is well worthy our attention:

The early thinkers had formulated definite ideas regarding the
world in which they lived long before they began to speculate
regarding origins; and when their minds soared into space they
carried into the other world the familiar objects of everyday life.
They did not imagine that the sun was carried across the sky in a
boat, like the Egyptian god Re, before boats were invented, or in
a chariot, like the Hindu god Surya, before chariots came into use
and horses were domesticated. Nor did they regard the heavens as
the roof of the world-house which had been fashioned by a divine
artisan before they had begun to build houses for themselves. The
idea that there was a gate or door in the sky did not have origin
until there were gates and doors on the earth.

It should not be assumed in this connections however, that the
"world-tree" of Egyptian, Hindu, Scandinavian and other mythologies
was necessarily earlier than the posts or pillars of the cardinal
points. The tree did not probably come into prominence before it
had been deified and connected with the sky-goddess Nut.

After the early artisans had constructed habitations for
themselves, they imagined that the sky roof was supported by posts
or pillars. The idea that there was but one pillar may go back to
the time when the earliest tents were in use; the two pillars may
have been first suggested by the fact that day has its entrance in
the east and exit in the west. The four pillars were not introduced
until man had discovered the four cardinal points.

In Egypt, as we have seen, natural phenomena suggested to man the
idea that certain influences emanated from the cardinal points. As
has been indicated, hot blistering winds blow for a period from the
south, and a cool reviving wind blows for a period from the north,
heralding and therefore, according to early belief, bringing the
inundation which ushers in the season of coolness and fruitfulness.
Certain deities were identified with these influences, and they
came to be regarded as controllers of them.

The early Egyptians saw Egypt in the sky. The "Milky Way" issuing
apparently from the region of the "imperishable stars" was the
Celestial Nile, and the source of their own Nile. It was the river
of night. The river of day flowed from east to west, and carried
upon its breast the boat of the sun; before it carried this boat,
it carried the earlier reed floats which were, according to Pyramid
Text 1026, bound together by the "four youths" of the horizon for
the sun-god Re and the dead Pharaoh.

The phenomena of nature were early associated with ideas of God and
a future life. In Egypt the two most prominent forces of nature
which the people observed by their beneficent effects on the crops
were the sun and the Nile and these were soon personified and
considered as gods. Late research seems to justify the charge that
we have misinterpreted the word "gods" and that it was not intended
to express the plurality of Deity. It is now thought that the
original belief of those people was in a Supreme Being and
intermediary beings, lesser than God, but greater than man. As
lesser dignitaries, the sun, moon and other planets, and the
characters of mythology which they later assumed, more nearly
correspond to the saints of the church in its most critical period.

Mythology and astrology are intimately connected with the
development of thought, and it is plausible to assume that much of
our symbolism had its origin in astrology.

To primitive man all existence was divided into two categories,
heaven over head and earth under foot, which is the foundation on
which all mythology and cosmogonies are built. To the Israelite
they appeared the works of Jehovah; to the Chinese they were the
father and mother of all things, the Yin and Yang. To the early
Greeks they were the first divine beings, Uranos and Gaea.

As man gradually advanced from his primitive condition other
aspects presented themselves to his mind, and he began to regard
their various aspects in more detail, heaven as functifying, lofty,
male and controlling the thunder and lightning; earth as prolific,
passive and female. In the old mythologies heaven and earth formed
a union and the sun, moon and stars were reputed as their children.
The sun soon took the place as the manifestation of the God of Day
and the moon as the God of Night, and in the fantasy which
symbolism and mythology built around the many diverse properties of
the sun and moon their different aspects took on additional
personification. The sun rising out of the ocean and again sinking
into it became neptune and the invisible sun which tarries in the
night in the underworld became Pluto and so with many other phases
of its manifestations. The waxing, waning, rising and setting of
the moon gave rise to groups of sisters; the graces, fates and
furies, and to many other forms of goddesses which are sad, chaste,
alluring, winsome; or the moon assumes the form of some fair
daughter of man, who being loved by some god, becomes the mother of
gods and heroes.

It seems most probable that a few astrological symbols, originally
very simple, gradually developed into the very complex system known
as Greek Mythology. As centuries passed the true sense and original
meaning of these myths and symbols, transmitted from father to son,
was lost, and the whole was taken to be an actual fact.

It seems probable that the earliest astrologers were shepherds, and
that they discovered the most prominent phenomena of the heavenly
bodies, among which was the fixed position of the pole-star and the
apparent revolutions of Ursa Major around it, from which it is
supposed we have one of the oldest symbols, the swastika. The "All-
Seeing Eye," "The Rite of Circumambulation," the "Covering of the
Lodge," and the Ladder, orientation, or the situation of lodges due
east and west, and the emblems in the rods of the Deacons, and the
"point within a circle" are among symbols and symbolic ceremonies
which may be illustrative of the probable origin of some of the
Masonic symbolism. To place a proper estimate on the significance
which these and many other symbols held in the religious thought of
the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Phoenicians and other races it is
necessary to acquire at least an elementary knowledge of their
religious systems. A survey to this end would be far beyond the
scope of the present outline. Reference to several Masonic writers
and other generally accepted authorities will be made. There is no
brief account by which we may hope to obtain a comprehensive idea
of thoughts of philosophic minds from those of the earliest man who
tried to realize the attributes of Deity by His physical
manifestations, to the twentieth century student who expresses
ideas about God in terms which clearly prove the limitations of
finite minds to comprehend Deity. The pure religion which may have
been the origin of the later phallic worship was quite probably an
endeavor to express belief in Deity through the manifestations of
the male principle of the sun and the female principle of the
earth.

As society became organized religious systems were founded. All
religious systems have been to a great extent agents in both the
development and the transmission of symbolism; yet in some ways
they have been a cause of the loss of the original meanings
attached to those Symbols.

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES

The Ancient Mysteries (1) were originally pure and taught the great
basic principles of true religion, but they eventually degenerated
into gross perversions of the original purpose. In their purest
state the Mysteries taught by symbols and allegories (which are
dramatic symbols), the great truth of the immortality of the soul
and the perfectibility of man's nature by the conquest of the
physical nature by the spiritual. The fragments we possess of the
judgment of the soul in the Book of the Dead and the very veiled
allusions to the ceremonies of initiation warrant a belief that the
truths taught were of first importance to man's spiritual growth.

The Ancient Mysteries were widely diffused over Asia, Africa and
Europe from the earliest known period until the fifth century of
our era. They were practiced with a variation of details but with
a similarity of purpose and design. The Mystery of Osiris and Isis,
which is generally considered as the most ancient, was produced in
Egypt as far back as we can trace authentic history, and
inferentially much further. Even with this record of its very great
antiquity, some oriental scholars think it had an origin in India
and was borrowed by the Egyptians.

Arthur E. Waite finds that part of the Book of the Dead (the name
given by Prof. Karl Richard Lepsius to a collection of 166 texts or
chapters of sacred writings of the earliest Egyptian literature
found on the walls or tombs and scrolls of papyrus), described
ceremonies which he believes were a rite of initiation and
advancement, rather than the after-death experiences of the soul in
the judgment halls, an opinion held by many scholars. Albert G.
Mackey divides the Egyptian Mysteries into the three degrees of
Isis, Serapis and Osiris, which was the consummation. The legend of
Osiris' murder and the loss of his body; the search and recovery;
its final burial; and the account given of its resurrection
comprise one version of an allegory which was the principal feature
of all the mysteries.

Osiris, a king of Ancient Egypt, after having taught many arts and
sciences to his people, resolved to extend his benefactions still
further and travel in foreign countries and educate humanity. He
left his kingdom in charge of his queen, Isis, and for three years
devoted himself to the task he had entered. In the absence Typhon,
his brother, had conspired to usurp the throne, and at a banquet
given in honor of Osiris' return brought a beautiful chest which he
announced would be given to the one whose body it most nearly
fitted. Osiris laid down in the chest to try it and Typhon closed
the lid and securely fastened it and threw it into the Nile.

The long search for the body by Isis was finally rewarded, and it
was found in a tamarisk tree which had grown up and encased it
after it had been washed ashore in Phoenicia. Isis returned to
Egypt with the body, but before it could be buried Typhon again
seized it and cut it into fourteen pieces, which he scattered in
many places. Isis resumed her search and was again rewarded, but
one part, the phallus, was never found. The body was embalmed and
it was announced that Osiris had risen and resumed his place among
the gods. (Several variations of detail are given in the many
versions of this legend, but the loss, recovery and resurrection
are essentially the same in all.)

The Mysteries of Mithras are supposed to have been instituted by
Zarathustra (Zoroaster), but Bactrian chronology is as difficult to
determine as ancient Egyptian, consequently this period may have
been anywhere from 1,500 to 5,000 years before the Christian era,
according to the different systems of computation. The Mithraic
rites, although differing in dramatic details, teach the same
symbolic lessons of life and immortality as those of Osiris, and
are full of astronomical allusions. Mithras was worshipped as the
God of Light, and the initiation into this ancient society was
accompanied with extremely severe tests through seven grades or
degrees. Although originating in Persia, it was afterward extended
over most of Asia and Europe, and many of its monuments are
preserved in European museums.

The Cabiric Mysteries were first practiced on the island of
Samothrace, and are sometimes called the Samothracian Mysteries.
Little is known about them, but they are generally supposed to have
been instituted in honor of Atys, a form of the sun god. The
principal feasts and rites were held at the vernal equinox and it
is probable that the legend of death and immortality was taught by
an astronomical allegory.

The Mysteries of Adonis were practiced at Byblos, the home of the
Giblites, who were the supposed "stone-squarers" at the building of
King Solomon's Temple; and if any historical importance may be
attached to traditions relating to the building of that Temple
there may be found in this connection a source of a well known
Masonic legend.

The Dionysian Mysteries, instituted in honor of Dionysius, who is
more usually called Bacchus, gave an allegory of immortality in a
varied form. The rites of Dionysius are supposed by scholars to
have given rise to the Greek drama.

The Eleusinian Mysteries, celebrated at Eleusis, a village near
Athens, were probably conducted on a larger scale than any of the
others and have become the most widely known of all. They are
divided into the lesser and the greater, requiring a probationary
period of one year before the candidate could advance. In the
Greater Mysteries an elaborate procession was made in the day time,
and the initiations were conducted at night. The legend of the
abduction of Pereephone by Pluto, and the search and recovery for
half of each year by Demeter, her mother, was exemplified in
dramatic manner and is supposed to have an astronomical origin.

Cicero says:

Much that is excellent and divine does Athens seem to me to have
produced and added to our life, but nothing better than those
Mysteries by which we are formed and moulded from a rude and savage
state of humanity; and indeed, in the Mysteries we perceive the
real principles of life, and learn not only to live happily, but to
die with a fairer hope.

Bro. Oliver Day Street, after treating of the Mysteries, says: Thus
did ancient societies seek by means of dramatic presentation of a
legend to teach the great Masonic doctrine of the resurrection and
the life after death.


The Scandinavian and Druidical Mysteries are only variations of the
others and have the same objects. Very little is known about them,
though traces of initiatory rites are to be discovered in the
Younger Edda.

The Ancient Mysteries are fascinating to those who delight in the
obscure and complex portions of history; but, notwithstanding what
many Masonic authors have written about the subject, they should be
studied with great care and discrimination. What it is possible to
verify of the belief and thought and the rites and ceremonies of
those ancient societies is pieced together from fragments. These
fragments are sufficient, however, to justify conceding that the
Ancient Mysteries taught moral instruction by symbolic methods.
Many of the forms and ceremonies and signs and symbols seem to have
been either transmitted to Freemasonry or borrowed from them. It is
impossible to find any direct chain of transmission, and it is also
impossible to find any authentic account of such symbolic teaching
being incorporated into the Masonic system at airy given period.
Many writers on Freemasonry have compared the symbolism of
Freemasonry with what is known of the Ancient Mysteries. Every one
admits the similarity, but some doubt any transmission from them to
Freemasonry as we know it.

The conclusions reached by some of the greatest students are that
the most important lesson of the Mysteries was the Osirian legend.
Mackey says in his Manual of the Lodge:

It was the single object of all the ancient rites and mysteries
practiced in the very bosom of pagan darkness, shining as a
solitary beacon in all the surrounding gloom, and cheering the
philosopher in his weary pilgrimage of life, to teach the
immortality of the soul. This is still the great design of the
Third Degree of Masonry.

While Albert Pike expressed the opinion in regard to Freemasonry,
that

. . . those who framed its degrees adopted the most sacred and
Significant symbols of a very remote antiquity used many centuries
before Solomon built the Temple, to express to those who understood
them and to conceal from the profane, the most recondite doctrines
in regard to God, the universe and man.

Let us, however, carefully consider whether the degrees of
Freemasonry were framed, and whether men of a comparatively recent
date adopted some of its most significant symbols. The brethren of
the period of the formation of the Grand Lodge of England did not
have access to the records of Ancient Egypt. Champollion announced
his discovery of the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone as the key
to reading Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1822, and any knowledge
Freemasons had of the Ancient Mysteries must have been through some
transmission.

The Mysteries of Osiris-and Isis are known to have been celebrated
on the island of Philae as late as 453 A. D., and the most
prominent of the Mysteries that influenced European thought at the
commencement of the Christian era were those of Mithras.

The study of the deeper significance of Masonic symbolism will be
greatly helped by the realization that most of the symbolism used
at present has been transmitted through channels which sometimes
perverted the original meaning, or at least obscured it; and if the
student begins at the basic principle he must consider the most
probable origin and original meaning of symbols. We believe that
the important symbols are but few and simple, but their migrations
and interfusion has brought them down to us so that we must trace
them back to origins as far as possible.

It will be impossible to limit a study of symbolism to strictly
historical or archaeological lines, although we must use them both
as far as they can give us facts before entering upon speculation.
The records we possess clearly show that the first serious
contemplations which man indulged in regarding things not
pertaining to his immediate physical necessities, were regarding
Light and Life. The East as a place from which the orb of light
appeared to come was one of the first things that started the human
mind on its endless journey of inquiry into the reasons thereof,
and eventually developed the present knowledge of the universe and
its laws which still remains one of the profoundest subjects we may
study. Life, or the reproductive principle, was also a cause of
making man think and reason.

We must bear in mind that before the primitive man could develop,
he must have experiences and that it was only such things as he
experienced that could influence his mental Process.

NOTE.

(1) By mysteries the educated reader will not understand merely
doctrines or symbols, or even secrets as such, but a system of
discipline and instruction in esoteric learning which was deemed
too sacred and recondite for those who had not complied with the
essential conditions. Every ancient country had its sacerdotal
order, the members of which had been initiated into the mysteries-
and even Jesus defended His practice of discoursing in parables or
allegories, because that only to His disciples was it given to
understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God, whereas to the
multitude it was not given. The priests of Egypt, the Magians of
the ancient countries beyond the river Euphrates, the priests of
Phoenicia and the other countries of Western Asia, were all members
of sacerdotal colleges that might not divulge the esoteric
knowledge to the uninitiated. Even the Brahmins of India are said
to have also their mysteries at the present time; and the late
Godfrey Higgins relates that a Mr. Ellis was enabled, by aid of the
Masonic tokens, to enter the penetralia of a temple in the
presidency of Madras. That there is some such "freemasonry"
existing in many of the countries which we denominate uncivilized
and pagan, is probable. The early Christians and heretical sects
had also their signs of recognition, and were distinguished like
the initiates of the older worships, according to their grade, as
neophytes (1 Timothy, iii, 6), spiritual, and perfect. The
mysteries most familiar to classical readers are the Eleusinia,
which appear to have descended from the prehistoric periods.
Pocoeke declares them to have been of Tartar origin, which is
certainly plausible, and to have combined Brahminical and
Buddhistical ideas. Those admitted only to the Lesser Mysteries
were denominated Mystae, or veiled- those initiated into the
Greater Mysteries were epoptai, or seers. Socrates was not
initiated, yet after drinking the hemlock he addresses Crito: "We
owe a cock to Aeseulapius." This was the peculiar offering made by
initiates on the eve of the last day, and he thus sublimely
asserted that he was about to receive the great apocalypse.
