The Symbolism Of Freemasonry Part 22

The symbolism has been Christianized by some masonic writers, and the grave has thus been referred to the sepulchre of Christ.

GRIPS AND SIGNS. They are valuable only for social purposes as modes of recognition.

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HAND. The hand is a symbol of human actions; pure hands symbolize pure actions, and impure or unclean hands symbolize impure actions.

HARE. Among the Egyptians the hare was a hieroglyphic of eyes that are open, and was the symbol of initiation into the Mysteries of Osiris. The Hebrew word for hare is arnabet, and this is compounded of two words that signify to behold the light. The connection of ideas is apparent.

h.e.l.lENISM. The religion of the h.e.l.les, or ancient Greeks who immediately succeeded the Pelasgians in the settlement of that country. It was, in consequence of the introduction of the poetic element, more refined than the old Pelasgic worship for which it was subst.i.tuted. Its myths were more philosophical and less gross than those of the religion to which it succeeded.

HERMAE. Stones of a cubical form, which were originally unhewn, by which the Greeks at first represented all their deities. They came in the progress of time to be especially dedicated by the Greeks to the G.o.d Hermes, whence the name, and by the Romans to the G.o.d Terminus, who presided over landmarks.

HERO WORSHIP. The worship of men deified after death. It is a theory of some, both ancient and modern writers, that all the pagan G.o.ds were once human beings, and that the legends and traditions of mythology are mere embellishments of the acts of these personages when alive. It was the doctrine taught by Euhemerus among the ancients, and has been maintained among the moderns by such distinguished authorities as Bochart, Bryant, Voss, and Banier.

HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY. The system of the Alchemists, the Adepts, or seekers of the philosopher's stone. No system has been more misunderstood than this. It was secret, esoteric, and highly symbolical. No one has so well revealed its true design as E.A. Hitchc.o.c.k, who, in his delightful work ent.i.tled "Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists," says, "The genuine Alchemists were religious men, who pa.s.sed their time in legitimate pursuits, earning an honest subsistence, and in religious contemplation, studying how to realize in themselves the union of the divine and human nature, expressed in man by an enlightened submission to G.o.d's will; and they thought out and published, after a manner of their own, a method of attaining or entering upon this state, as the only rest of the soul." There is a very great similarity between their doctrines and those of the Freemasons; so much so that the two a.s.sociations have sometimes been confounded.

HIEROPHANT. (From the Greek ?e???, holy, sacred, and fa??? to show.) One who instructs in sacred things; the explainer of the aporrheta, or secret doctrines, to the initiates in the ancient Mysteries. He was the presiding officer, and his rank and duties were a.n.a.logous to those of the master of a masonic lodge.

HIRAM ABIF. The architect of Solomon's temple. The word "Abif" signifies in Hebrew "his father," and is used by the writer of Second Chronicles (iv. 16) when he says, "These things did Hiram his father [in the original Hiram Abif ] do for King Solomon.".

The legend relating to him is of no value as a mere narrative, but of vast importance in a symbolical point of view, as ill.u.s.trating a great philosophical and religious truth; namely, the dogma of the immortality of the soul.

Hence, Hiram Abif is the symbol of man in the abstract sense, or human nature, as developed in the life here and in the life to come.

HIRAM OF TYRE. The king of Tyre, the friend and ally of King Solomon, whom he supplied with men and materials for building the temple. In the recent, or what I am inclined to call the grand lecturer's symbolism of Masonry (a sort of symbolism for which I have very little veneration), Hiram of Tyre is styled the symbol of strength, as Hiram Abif is of beauty. But I doubt the antiquity or authenticity of any such symbolism. Hiram of Tyre can only be considered, historically, as being necessary to complete the myth and symbolism of Hiram Abif. The king of Tyre is an historical personage, and there is no necessity for transforming him into a symbol, while his historical character lends credit and validity to the philosophical myth of the third degree of Masonry.

HIRAM THE BUILDER. An epithet of Hiram Abif. For the full significance of the term, see the word Builder.

HO-HI. A cabalistic p.r.o.nunciation of the tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of G.o.d; it is most probably the true one; and as it literally means HE-SHE, it is supposed to denote the hermaphroditic essence of Jehovah, as containing within himself the male and the female principle,-the generative and the prolific energy of creation.

HO The sacred name of G.o.d among the Druids. Bryant supposes that by it they intended the Great Father Noah; but it is very possible that it was a modification of the Hebrew tetragrammaton, being the last syllable read cabalistically (see ho-hi); if so, it signified the great male principle of nature. But HU, in Hebrew ???, is claimed by Talmudic writers to be one of the names of G.o.d; and the pa.s.sage in Isaiah xlii. 8, in the original ani Jehovah, Hu shemi, which is in the common version "I am the LORD; that is my name," they interpret, "I am Jehovah; my name is Hu."

HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM. A distinguished masonic writer of England, who lived in the eighteenth century. He is the author of "The Spirit of Masonry," published in 1775. This was the first English work of any importance that sought to give a scientific interpretation of the symbols of Freemasonry; it is, in fact, the earliest attempt of any kind to treat Freemasonry as a science of symbolism. Hutchinson, however, has to some extent impaired the value of his labors by contending that the inst.i.tution is exclusively Christian in its character and design.

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IH-HO. See Ho-hi.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. This is one of the two religious dogmas which have always been taught in Speculative Masonry.

It was also taught in all the Rites and Mysteries of antiquity.

The doctrine was taught as an abstract proposition by the ancient priesthood of the Pure or Primitive Freemasonry of antiquity, but was conveyed to the mind of the initiate, and impressed upon him by a scenic representation in the ancient Mysteries, or the Spurious Freemasonry of the ancients.

INCOMMUNICABLE NAME. The tetragrammaton, so called because it was not common to, and could not be bestowed upon, nor shared by, any other being. It was proper to the true G.o.d alone. Thus Drusius (Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine Dei proprio, p. 108) says, "Nomen quatuor literarum proprie et absolute non tribui nisi Deo vero. Unde doctores catholici dic.u.n.t incommunicabile [not common] esse creaturae."

INEFFABLE NAME. The tetragrammaton. So called because it is ineffabile, or unp.r.o.nounceable. See Tetragrammaton.

INTRUSTING, RITE OF. That part of the ceremony of initiation which consists in communicating to the aspirant or candidate the aporrheta, or secrets of the mystery.

INUNCTION. The act of anointing. This was a religious ceremony practised from the earliest times. By the pouring on of oil, persons and things were consecrated to sacred purposes.

INVESt.i.tURE, RITE OF. That part of the ceremony of initiation which consists of clothing the candidate masonically. It is a symbol of purity.

ISH CHOTZEB. Hebrew ??? ???, hewers of stones. The Fellow Crafts at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.).

ISH SABAL. Hebrew ??? ???, bearers of burdens. The Apprentices at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.).

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JAH. It is in Hebrew ?? whence Maimonides calls it "the two-lettered name," and derives it from the tetragrammaton, of which it is an abbreviation. Others have denied this, and a.s.sert that Jah is a name independent of Jehovah, but expressing the same idea of the divine essenee. See Gataker, De Nom. Tetrag..

JEHOVAH. The incommunicable, ineffable name of G.o.d, in Hebrew ????, and called, from the four letters of which it consists, the tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name.

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LABOR. Since the article on the Symbolism of Labor was written, I have met with an address delivered in 1868 by brother Troue, before St. Peter's Lodge in Martinico, which contains sentiments on the relation of Masonry to labor which are well worth a translation from the original French. See Bulletin du Grand Orient de France, December, 1868.

"Our name of Mason, and our emblems, distinctly announce that our object is the elevation of labor.

"We do not, as masons, consider labor as a punishment inflicted on man; but on the contrary, we elevate it in our thought to the height of a religious act, which is the most acceptable to G.o.d because it is the most useful to man and to society.

"We decorate ourselves with the emblems of labor to affirm that our doctrine is an incessant protest against the stigma branded on the law of labor, and which an error of apprehension, proceeding from the ignorance of men in primitive times has erected into a dogma; an error that has resulted in the production of this anti-social phenomenon which we meet with every day; namely, that the degradation of the workman is the greater as his labor is more severe, and the elevation of the idler is higher as his idleness is more complete. But the study of the laws which maintain order in nature, released from the fetters of preconceived ideas, has led the Freemasons to that doctrine, far more moral than the contrary belief, that labor is not an expiation, but a law of harmony, from the subjection to which man cannot be released without impairing his own happiness, and deranging the order of creation. The design of Freemasons is, then, the rehabilitation of labor, which is indicated by the ap.r.o.n which we wear, and the gavel, the trowel, and the level, which are found among our symbols."

Hence the doctrine of this work is, that Freemasonry teaches not only the necessity, but the n.o.bility, of labor.

And that labor is the proper worship due by man to G.o.d.

LADDER. A symbol of progressive advancement from a lower to a higher sphere, which is common to Masonry, and to many, if not all, of the ancient Mysteries.

LADDER, BRAHMINICAL. The symbolic ladder used in the Mysteries of Brahma. It had seven steps, symbolic of the seven worlds of the Indian universe.

LADDER, MITHRAITIC. The symbolic ladder used in the Persian Mysteries of Mithras. It had seven steps, symbolic of the seven planets and the seven metals.

LADDER, SCANDINAVIAN. The symbolic ladder used in the Gothic Mysteries. Dr. Oliver refers it to the Yggrasil, or sacred ash tree. But the symbolism is either very abstruse or very doubtful.

LADDER, THEOLOGICAL. The symbolic ladder of the masonic Mysteries. It refers to the ladder seen by Jacob in his vision, and consists, like all symbolical ladders, of seven rounds, alluding to the four cardinal and the three theological virtues.

LAMB. A symbol of innocence. A very ancient symbol.

LAMB, PASCHAL. See Paschal Lamb.

LAMBSKIN Ap.r.o.n. See Ap.r.o.n.

LAW, ORAL. See Oral Law.

LEGEND. A narrative, whether true or false, that has been traditionally preserved from the time of its first oral communication. Such is the definition of a masonic legend. The authors of the Conversations-Lexicon, referring to the monkish Lives of the Saints which originated in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, say that the t.i.tle legend was given to all fictions which make pretensions to truth. Such a remark, however correct it may be in reference to these monkish narratives, which were often invented as ecclesiastical exercises, is by no means applicable to the legends of Freemasonry. These are not necessarily fict.i.tious, but are either based on actual and historical facts which have been but slightly modificd, or they are the offspring and expansion of some symbolic idea in which latter respect they differ entirely from the monastic legends, which often have only the fertile imagination of some studious monk for the basis of their construction.