THE BUILDER DECEMBER 1915

SYMBOLISM IN MYTHOLOGY

BY BRO. C. T. SEGO, GEORGIA

MOST boys at some time come to the age when nothing pleases them so
much as do stories of the exaggerated deeds of some far off hero.
As William Tell they shoot arrows from their imaginary sons' heads;
as Jack-the-Giant-Killer they wage their mimic warfare on grosser
foes; as Princes Charming they break into enchanted castles and
kiss away the dreams from the eyes of Sleeping Beauty. But real as
these heroes are to boyish minds, the student learns that maturer
years render still more real the characters of his childhood
stories. William Tell still has an unerring aim with his arrows;
Jack-the-Giant-Killer still defeats his foes; and the Sleeping
Beauty of flower and field wakes to new life each year under the
ardent vernal kiss of the personified prince who shines as one of
the lesser lights of Freemasonry. Many fairy tales are the folklore
of yesterday, and this folklore was the highly symbolic philosophy
and religion of the ancients. The minds of men in general do not
readily grasp an abstraction. That is one of the reasons why we use
symbols. We do not cheer firesides, and homes, and fields; nor
thoughts, and hopes, and aspirations; we cheer the flag which
symbolizes all those things. When only the ruins of a one time
civilization mark the sites of New York and San Francisco, the
eager archaeologist from Asia will discover pictures and statues of
Uncle Sam and will believe that we present day Americans worshipped
Uncle Sam as our tutelary god, our patron saint, and that we prayed
to him for help in times of need.

There is a psychological need for symbols, a real demand for
stories, which man has ever supplied. By descent through the ages
these stories became legends and fairy tales. When they are
employed for pastime purposes only, these stories become corrupted
by recital and changed so as to be almost unrecognizable. The story
of Sleeping Beauty illustrates this. Not at first does one
recognize in the sleeping princess the glory of the springtime
flower and the promise of autumn fruit. Equally changed is the
prince, really the sun, who breaks through the confining walls of
winter's cold earth and claims his promised bride.

But when these legends are told not for amusement only but in order
to secure a definite result, then their teachings never change. The
effect must be always procured, and it can be procured only by
following the prescribed formula. So the legend of the third
degree, introduced into our body I do not know when, is the same
today as it was when we first learned it. The Ancient Mysteries had
many things similar to our teachings and classical mythology
personified thoughts that are eternal.

The Sleeping Beauty falls into slumber after having received a
prick from a distaff. In Grecian mythology the distaff is a boar's
tooth. The legend tells us that Adonis while hunting was killed by
a savage boar. After the death of Adonis his soul went to Hades,
which is here merely an underworld, a place of gloom and not a
place of torment. But the goddess of love descended into Hades and
prevailed upon Proserpine, its mistress, to allow Adonis to return
to the earth for a certain time each year. This story is more
readily understood than is the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. The
youthful Adonis is the vegetative spirit of nature. The boar is
winter, harsh, rough, and bristly. The goddess of love is the
warmth of springtime which coaxes the vegetation to leave Hades.

These annual returns of Adonis were made the occasions of much
symbolic ceremony. The god was mourned as dead; women went wailing
through the streets in utter disregard of their usual care for
their attire. The ordinary social conventions were broken down and
unrestrained sex license prevailed among the celebrants. In later
days the celebration was given over chiefly to courtesans. For into
this celebration, as in many others, in time there came more or
less phallic worship. The pomegranate was worshiped as a symbol of
plenty, and so was corn. Enormous images of the male generative
organs were carried in public processions and set up and worshiped
as superhuman. Our maypole is a survival of those days, and our
architecture is filled with many similar reminders.

Adonis is the Grecian form of the Hebrew word, Adonai, signifying
Lord. In Babylonia, Phoenicia, and Canaan, Adonis was known as
Tammuz. Ezekiel, the prophet, reproaches the Hebrew women for
indulging in the celebration I have just spoken of. The name of the
god is fixed today in the Jewish month Tammuz. Tammuz or Adonis
afterwards became identified with the Egyptian Osiris of whom I
shall speak later.

The worship of Dionysus, or Bacchus, or Orpheus, was of a nature
like to that of Adonis with the difference that it is Orpheus'
wife, Eurydice, who dies and Orpheus who descends into Hades in
search for her. By the magic of his music Orpheus induces Hades to
consent that Eurydice may return to earth if Orpheus does not look
back. But the eagerness of Orpheus to see his wife causes him to
break his promise and he looks back only to see Eurydice return to
Hades just as she had arrived at its exit. The same teaching is
given here. Eurydice is flowers and vegetation; Hades is the death
of winter; and Orpheus' lute is the magic music of the springtime
sun whose appeal nothing can resist. The story is a look beyond
death to the resurrection and eternal life.

Likewise the Greek Persephone playing in the flowers is surprised
by Pluto and carried to the infernal regions. Ceres, the mother of
Persephone, seeks her until she finds her by the aid of the all
seeing Helios (sun). Ceres asks the aid of the other gods, and
after all their persuasion Pluto consents that Persephone shall
stay on earth a part of the year, and with him in Hades for the
remainder. Here again we have the death, the search, and the
resurrection annually recurring.

These myths were not confined to Asia and southern Europe. In one
form or another they have been found all over the world. One
illustration suffices. In Scandinavian mythology Balder the
Beautiful is the god of spring, light, gladness. Blind Hoder, his
very opposite, is the god of the dark and gloomy winter. Loki, the
mischief maker, inspires Hoder to cast at Balder a dart of
mistletoe, a winter plant. Balder falls dead, but the promise is
given that he shall return and bring with him perpetual spring.

To the Mason, however, the most interesting mythological tales come
from ancient Egypt. There Osiris, son of the earth and sky, brother
and husband of Isis, was early identified with the setting sun and
became the god of the dead. Osiris traveled in many foreign
countries spreading the light of civilization. His wicked brother,
Set, god of the desert, evil, and darkness, planned to take the
life of Osiris. So Set made a chest the exact size of Osiris and
offered to give the chest to whomever it would fit. When Osiris
entered the chest, Set and his confederates closed the lid and cast
the chest into the Nile, on whose water it was borne to the sea.
The chest drifted ashore near the Phoenician coast and became
imbedded in the trunk of a great tree which finally enclosed it.
The king of the country, ignorant of this fact, caused the tree to
be cut down and made into pillars for his house. But after long
search Isis found the chest in the pillar, obtained permission from
the king to remove it, and carried the body to Egypt. After burying
the body she went to visit her son Horus, the rising sun, the
resurrected Osiris. While she was away Set found the body, tore it
into fragments, and scattered them abroad. Isis again searched for
the body, and found and buried its scattered parts. Horus, however,
did not mourn, but rose and took vengeance on his father's
murderers.

In this legend we find Osiris doing good in the world. He is
murdered and his body concealed. There is mourning and a search for
his corpse. The body is found, raised, and carried to Egypt for
more decent interment; and the murderers apprehended and punished
by Horus, the god who rises in the east to open and govern the day.
Every evening the murder is committed; every night the body of
Osiris, the setting sun, is cut into fragments, or stars, and these
stars or fragments of Osiris, scattered to the four quarters of
heaven. Every morning Isis collects the fragments and they rise as
Horus, the morning sun, or the resurrection of Osiris.

There are those who pretend to see all this in our mighty drama.
The twelve fellowcrafts are the twelve signs of the zodiac which
the sun occupies during the twelve parts of the year. The three
fellowcrafts are the three winter months. Fell and cruel they raise
their impious hands to destroy all the beauty of spring, the
promise of summer, and the fruit of autumn. Then all the
constructive work of creation is stopped; for there is no agency
active that knows the designs of nature. The vegetative principles
of nature cannot be lifted to life by the chilly snow or the steely
stare of the stars; their grip is too insecure. No movement on the
dead earth answers the like efforts of the pale moon; its forces
are too feeble. It is only when the lord of the day comes in the
vernal warmth of his love that the mysteries of life overcome the
thralls of death, and foliage and flower and fruit are lifted into
life by the strong grip of the mightiest force of nature.

This fancy may please those who like it. There is no harm gotten by
believing it. But I am thinking that something is hidden here, even
as there was something hidden in the Ancient Mysteries. The
uninformed and thoughtless and careless found and still find ample
satisfaction in the apparent, external teaching of these schools.
They little thought and little think that these teachings are
carefully arranged systems of morality veiled in allegory, and that
the purpose of it all is to enable those who are duly and truly
prepared, worthy and well qualified, to advance, of their own
volition, of their own free will and accord, without either passive
submission on one part or repressing dominance on the other, into
a state of real mastery, a state of conscious unity with the mighty
constructive forces of the Grand Architect of the Universe. And
when this state is attained, then all things shall be seen in true
perspective; many things now thought of first shall be thought of
last; the small shall be magnified and the great reduced; and this
life shall not seem an end in itself but merely a part of the life
of the immortal soul of man.



ECCLESIASTES XII

Remember thy Creator
While the pulse of youth beats high,
While the evil days come not,
Nor the weary years draw nigh,
When man can find no pleasure
In the hollow things of earth,
And the heart turns sick and sad
From the jarring sound of mirth.

Ere the light of stars is darkened,
Ere the glorious sun grows dim,
And the bitter sup of sorrow
Is filling to the brim;
When the grinder's song is low,
And the wailing mourners come
Marching in the death-procession,
As man goeth to his home.

Ere the golden bowl be broken,
Or the silver cord unwound,
The pitcher shattered at the well,
The broken wheel be found.
In the days when keepers tremble,
And the strong men bow the knee,
Then shall dust to dust return,
And to God the spirit flee.
--Bro. O. B. Slane
