THE BUILDER JUNE 1917
THE CUBE

In his splendid article on The Perfect Ashlar, Brother Kingsbury
states that, although this symbol is dismissed with two or three
brief sentences in our monitorial lectures, it is in reality of
considerable importance and interest.

This fact is easily demonstrated by quotations from several
writers.

The first is Frank C. Higgins, who in a series of forty papers
brought together in a volume entitled "The Beginning of Masonry,"
makes a number of interesting references to this figure.

Among others we find:

"The cube itself was an age-old symbol of the spiritual man and
therefore we find the cube present in all the ancient mythologies,
which were but racial cloaks for one and the same wisdom religion,
understood by the priests of all countries as a symbol of the sixth
sign of the zodiac, the characters portraying the great Mother of
Wisdom and her divine son Man."

"As a cube possesses six sides, each of which is a perfect square,
a number of remarkable mathematical and geometrical symbols were
established upon the fact that all the numbers"-- of the edges--
"from one to 12 added together produce 78. This number is also the
sum of 3 times '26,' the numerical value of the great and sacred
name of Jehovah (JHVH)."

To understand this paragraph it is necessary to be acquainted with
the Gematria, the number-letter system of the Greeks and Hebrews
which Brother Higgins explains in one of the chapters of his book.
In this system the numerical value of J is 10; that of H, 5; that
of V, 6; and of H, 5 as before. Added together they total 26.

"David, having been a warlike monarch, was not permitted to achieve
that which he had begun and so bequeathed the cubical stone to his
son Solomon, who made use of it as the corner stone of the Temple.
The imagery of this is plain enough in the fact that, not in the
written or engraved inscription, but in the mathematical
proportions of the cube itself, was to be found that wonderful
Name, which is, as it were, the foundation of the universe, of
which man is a fleshly epitome and the Temple on Mt. Moriah a
symbolic one."

"The grand mystery name of our Creator, called the Tetragrammaton
(Greek for "four letter name"), has as its root the three letters
JHV which, as numbers were 10, 5 and 6, or 21, the sum of the added
numbers 1 to 6 represented a single cube. This was the form of the
"Holy of Holies," in the great Temple of Solomon, and the pious
Jew, to this day, employs the two symbolic cubes, in the form of
the Phylacteries."

Leaving Higgins, whom we by no means exhaust, let us note the
vertical cross section of the "Holy of Holies" as given in
McCarty's valuable book entitled "The Great Pyramid Jeezeh," as
well as his explanation of the kabbalistic matters connected with
the Temple description.

"The astronomical features about the temple were plain. The
entrance was toward the rising sun, or the vernal equinox. The
"holy of holies" was in the west of the structure, toward the place
of the setting sun, the autumnal equinox. The great quadrangular
was oriented and faced to the four winds, or N., E., S., and W. The
brazen sea had on its ledges the ox, the cherub or man, and the
lion. The lion was the sign of the summer, the man of the winter
and the ox of the spring. The sign of Autumn, or Dan, was left out-
-that worm all devouring, never dying, the scorpion. This has an
architectural parallel. Nork relates that the temple of Notre Dame,
in Paris, was formerly a temple of the goddess Isis, or the sign
Virgo. On this temple was sculptured the zodiac with its signs;
that of Virgo (Isis) was left out, because the whole temple was
dedicated to her. So with the temple of Solomon. The whole
religious cultus of the Israelites was located in the sign Dan, or
Scorpio, for it was here that 'I have waited for thy salvation, O
Lord (Jehovah).' Take the two squares of the zodiac, representing
two quarters, or quadrants, of the year; one lorded over by Leo,
the lion, next to the summer solstice, and then going west and
downward, the second quadrant is reached, extending to the winter
solstice, and lorded over by Dan, the scorpion, who holds the
entrance. This upper square, or cube, is golden, the male, full of
the fructifying power of the sun; the lower one is the female, and
black, the womb, the brazen part. Now it will be seen that Solomon,
the son of David, of the tribe of Judah, whose sign was the lion,
made all the gold work. But it was Huram that made the brazen sea
and all the brass work. Who was Huram? The son of a widow, a woman
of dark or black weeds, of the tribe of Dan, whose sign was the
Scorpion. He made the work pertaining to his portion of the zodiac-
-that is the place of Typhon, of winter, of darkness, of woman. So,
here is represented the western half, and the summer and winter
quarters of the celestial sphere, squared or cubed."

Here we note that McCarty claims that Hiram was the son of a widow
belonging to the tribe of Dan. Opposed to this we have Higgin's
statement "that the widow of Osiris and the mother of Horus, was of
the tribe of Naphtali." He is borne out in this by Pike--Morals and
Dogma, page 461--where he states that "Virgo, the domicile of
Mercury, is borne on the flag of Naphtali, whose eloquence and
agility Jacob magnifies, both of which are attributes of the
Courier of the Gods."

These conflicting statements may have their explanation in this
note by Stewart in his index to Morals and Dogma: "Originally only
ten signs were exoteric; two were secret. Libra conceals one, and
Virgo-Scorpio are now separated, but even this is a blind."

We do not yet exhaust McCarty on the subject of the cube, for in
his discussion of the Quadrature of the Circle, by Parker, he
writes:
"The cube unfolded, becomes, in superficial display, a cross
proper, or of the tau form, and the attachment of the circle to the
last gives the ansated cross of the Egyptians, with its obvious
meaning of the origin of measures. Because, also, this kind of
measure was made to co-ordinate with the origin of human life, it
was secondarily made to assume the type of the pudenda
hermaphrodite, and, in fact, it is placed by representation to
cover this part of the human person in the Hindu form. It is very
observable that, while there are but six faces to a cube, the
representation of the cross as the cube unfolded, as to the cross
bars, displays one face of the cube as common to two bars, counted
as belonging to either; then while the faces originally represented
are but six, the use of the two bars counts the square as four for
the upright and three for the cross-bar, making seven in all. Here
we have the famous 4 and 3 and 7. But what is very much to the
purpose here, is that the golden candlestick in the temple was so
composed that, counting on either side, there are four
candle-sockets; while, at the apex, there being one in common to
both sides, there were in fact three to be counted on one side and
four on the other, making in all the number seven, upon the self
same idea of one in common with the cross display. . . . The same
idea is conveyed in the six days of the week in Genesis, crowned by
the seventh, which was used by itself as a base of circular
measure.

"The ansated cross, being surmounted by the circle, roughly
represents the figure of a man, with arms extended. The attachment
of a man to the cross symbolizes the welding of astronomical and
circular values. In fact, this is a plainer and more perfect
symbolism of the ancient use than any other. It was one made use of
in this form of display by the Hindus. In fact, the Old Testament
is rabbinically and kabbalistically familiar with the expression of
crucifying a man, or men before the Lord and the sun. In symbol,
the nails of the cross have for the shape of the heads thereof a
solid pyramid, and a tapering square obeliscal shaft, for the nail.
Taking the position of the three nails in the man's extremities,
and on the cross, they form or mark a triangle in shape, one nail
being at each corner of the triangle. The wounds, or stigmata, in
the extremities are necessarily four, distinctive of the square;
and, as in the candlestick, there have been two used as one, or
rather one used as two, in the connection of the three nails with
the four extremities. The three nails with the three wounds are in
number 6, which denotes the six faces of the cube unfolded, on
which the man is placed; and this in turn points to the circular
measure transferred on to the edges of the cube. The one wound of
the feet separates into two when the feet are separated, making
three together for all, and four when separated, or seven in all--
another and most holy feminine base number."

Now let us turn to the 16th verse of the 21st chapter of
Revelations. There we read "and the city lieth foursquare, and the
length is as large as the breadth; and he measured the city with
the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal."

Here we have a description of a cube. But let us quote Pryse's
translation and his explanation of the figure as given in the
introduction to his volume, "The Initiation of Ioannes."

"The deathless solar vesture of the Conqueror is symbolized as a
city which comes down out of the sky, enveloped in the radiance of
the God, and it is portrayed with poetic imagery of exquisite
beauty. The description, with its wealth of detail, should be
enough to show clearly what the city really is; but Ioannes has
supplied conclusive proof of the true meaning by inserting in the
description a puzzle which reads as follows:

"The Divinity who was talking with me had for a measure a golden
reed, to measure the city, its gateways, and its wall. The city
lies foursquare, and its length is as great as the width. He
measured the city with the reed, by stadia, twelve thousand; its
length, width and height are equal. And he measured its wall, one
hundred and forty-four cubits, (including) the measure of a man,
that is, of a Divinity.

"As the expression "by stadia" (epi stadion) shows that the
measurement should not be taken in stadia, it naturally follows
that it should be reduced to miles. Therefore, dividing 12,000 by
7 1/2, the number of stadia to the Jewish mile, the quotient is
1,600, and this is the numerical value of the words to heliakon
soma, "the solar body." (The number 1,600 is found also in chapter
xiv:20, where it has the same significance). In the authorized
version the preposition epi, "by," is not translated, being omitted
as redundant--which merely shows the untrustworthiness of an
empirical translation. That version also reads, "a hundred and
forty and four cubits, (according to) the measure of a man, that
is, of an angel," the inserted words making the passage
meaningless. The "wall" of the solar body is its aura, or
"radiance," he doxa; but the letters of that name amount to only
143. As a puzzle, that number would be too transparent, nor would
it harmonize with the other numbers given in relation to the city
as the twelve thousand stadia, twelve gateways, twelve foundations,
etc., all of which have a real or an apparent reference to the
zodiac. Therefore Ionnes increased it to 144, the square of twelve,
by adding another alpha, (a) which he calls "the measure of a man,
that is, of a Divinity." In the formula, "I am the Alpha and the O
(mega), the first and the last," alpha is the symbol of the divine
man, or Divinity, before his fall into matter; and O mega is the
symbol of the perfected man, who has passed through the cycle of
reincarnation and regained the spiritual consciousness.

"The city is described as having the form of a cube. To solve this
element of the puzzle it is only necessary to unfold the cube,
thereby disclosing a cross, which represents the human form--a man
with outstretched arms."

Thus we find the symbolism of the cube in connection with the
religious systems of antiquity as well as in our great Masonic
Light and monitorial lectures. It is, indeed, a symbol of
considerable importance and interest.

John G. Keplinger, Springfield, Ill.

