textfiles/magazines/STB/stb-1925-03.txt

SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.III     March, 1925     No.3 

SYMBOLISM 

by: Unknown 
 
The subject of Symbolism is a peculiarly difficult and  immense 
topic.  In the usual amount of space devoted to our  lectures it is 
impossible to more than touch upon a very few  general points.  Many 
books, articles, lectures and even the  ritual of the lodge itself 
contain a very large and comprehensive  instruction on the symbols 
and emblems of Freemasonry.  The  presentation here, therefore, can 
only be an attempt to interest  you in a further study of the theme. 
Freemasonry has been defined as a beautiful system of  morality, 
veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.  The  first three 
degrees of our system are called symbolic degrees,  wherein both by 
symbols and lectures; and allegories, the  Freemason is admonished to 
study and acquire learning, and is  actually taught a complete system 
of organized knowledge. 

The word "Symbol" is derived from the Greek, meaning "To  Compare."  
A symbol is the expression of an idea by comparison.   
Symbolism is the science of symbols, or signs; the art of  
representing abstract truths and ideas by concrete things. 
An allegory is a story told to illustrate or convey some  truth.  
Some of the most important truths have been handed down  to us 
through allegories, that being one of the favorite methods  the 
Master used to convey His teachings.  It is one of the  peculiarities 
of an allegory that its message may not be  understood by all men.  
One must be prepared within his own mind  and heart to receive the 
truth or else he sees it not.  It is  only a few of all those who 
hear, who perceives the lesson  designed to be taught by the 
allegory.  The great majority,  having ears to hear, hear not; having 
eyes to see, see not the  beautiful lesson, but hear only a pretty 
story that interests  them for a short while and then is lost.  But 
the earnest seeker  for truth, he who is duly and truly prepared for 
its reception,  sees beyond the veil of the allegory and perceives 
the beautiful,  simple truth which it conceals from the multitude but 
reveals to  the chosen few. 

The origin of the symbol is Divinity itself, for when at the 
beginning of recorded time, Jehovah made a covenant with man,  
promising that never again would He send the waters to cover the face 
of the earth and destroy all flesh, He set the first symbol  the 
multi-hued arch of the rainbow - in the clouds as an emblem  of 
security and an assurance to all future generations of His  watchful 
care.  
 
Symbolical instruction is recommended by the constant and  uniform 
usage of antiquity; and it has retained its influence  throughout all 
ages, as a system of mysterious communication.   

Christ taught by symbols and parables.  The mysterious knowledge  of 
the Druids was embodied in signs and symbols.  The Mysteries  were a 
series of symbols; and what was spoken there consisted  wholly of 
accessory explanations of the act or image; sacred  allegories 
explanatory of established symbols. 

The picturesque and variegated maze of the early symbolism  of the 
human race we cannot study in detail, tempting as it is.   

Indeed, so luxuriant was that old picture language that we may  
easily miss our way and get lost in the labyrinth, unless we keep  to 
the right path.  First of all, let us keep ever in mind, a  very 
simple and obvious fact, although not less wonderful because  it is 
obvious.  Socrates made the discovery - perhaps the  greatest ever 
made - that human nature is universal.  Whether we  study the 
earliest groupings of the human mind, or set the  teachings of the 
sages side by side, we find, after comparison,  that the final 
conclusions of the wisest minds as to the meaning  of life and the 
world are harmonious, if not identical.  

Thus we begin to understand why the same signs, symbols and  emblems 
were used by all peoples to express their earliest  aspirations and 
thoughts.  We need not infer that one people  learned them from 
another, or that there existed a mystic,  universal Order which had 
them in keeping.  They simply betray  the unity of the human mind, 
and show how and why, at the same stage and culture, races far 
removed from each other came to the  same conclusions and used much 
the same symbols to body forth  their thought.  Illustrations are 
innumerable of this unity both  of idea and of emblem, and also as 
confirming the insight of the great Greek, that, however shallow 
minds may differ, in the end all  seekers after truth follow a common 
path, comrades in one great  quest. 

Symbols and symbolism are as old as man.  It is the  primeval, yet 
universal language of the world.  Symbols and  symbolism are not 
peculiar to any nation, peoples, secret  societies or brotherhoods; 
whether primitive, medieval or modern.  

Symbols and symbolism are not bound down by rules; hence a man  with 
a symbol can have the satisfaction that, as a free moral  agent, he 
can see in it, and through it, more things in Heaven  and earth than 
are dreamed by common mortals.  

When the savage began to emerge from his isolation and took  his 
first steps toward becoming a social creature, profiting by  
association and cooperation with fellow human beings, one of the  
first needs was a sign or symbol whereby he could distinguish,  
during primitive battles, between creatures of his own tribe or  
family and those of the enemy tribes.  A peculiar type of club, a  
splotch of colored clay on the body of the warrior, and later  some 
rude device on his clumsy shield served for a time the  purpose of 
insignia.  Eventually these bits of wood, bodily  ornamentation and 
shield signs were replaced by the skins of  animals attached to poles 
so that they might be held high in the  air and recognized at a 
distance.  From such crude beginnings it  is easy to trace the 
evolution of the flags of civilized man. 

Today these emblems of armies and navies have a deep and  noble 
significance far removed from their use in leading men to  battle.  
In reality, flags are the symbols of idealism. 

The first learning in the world consisted chiefly of symbols.  The 
wisdom of all the ancients that has come to our hand is symbolic.  It 
was the mode of the ancient philosophers to represent truth by 
certain symbols and hidden images.  These ancient symbols and 
allegories always had more than one  interpretation.  They always had 
a double meaning, and sometimes more than two, one serving as the 
envelope of the other.

The human mind speculates upon the great mysteries of Nature  and 
finds its ideas anticipated by the ancients, whose  profoundest 
thoughts are to be looked for, not in their  philosophies, but in 
their symbols, by which they endeavored to  express the great ideas 
that vainly struggled for utterance in  words, as they viewed the 
great circles of phenomena - Birth,  Life, Death and New Life out of 
Death - to them the greatest of  mysteries.  Remember, while you 
study their symbols, that they  had a profounder sense of these 
wonders than we have. 

To them the transformation of the worm to the butterfly were  a 
greater wonder than the stars; and hence the poor, dumb  scarabs, or 
beetle, was sacred to them.  Thus their faiths are  condensed into 
symbols or expanded into allegories, which they  understood, but were 
not always able to explain in language; for  there are thoughts and 
ideas which no language ever spoken by man  has words to express. 
The Zodiac was known in India and Egypt for incalculable  ages.  
Ancient temples were often marked with a carved zodiac, by  which the 
date of the building could be determined by reckoning  the difference 
between the position of the signs of the zodiac as  depicted 
somewhere in the temple, often in the ceiling, and their  actual 
position in the Heavens, at any given time of observation.  
We moderns use a cornerstone for the same purpose. 

The wise men of ancient time, who knew the secret wisdom  religion, 
monumented in the stupendous conception of the zodiac,  which was a 
pictorial design for the common people, the ideas  comprehended under 
the term "Evolution," to which they were able  to give a much wider 
interpretation than modern science has yet  been willing to accord to 
the wisdom of the ancients.  Originally  only ten of the signs were 
of a meaning generally known to the  uninitiated public; two were 
secret. 

The two most famous divisions of the Heavens, by seven,  which is 
that of the planets, and by twelve, which is that of the  zodiacal 
signs, are found on the religious monuments of all  people of the 
ancient world.  In many other ways the system of  numbers was closely 
connected with ancient forms of worship, and  has come down to us in 
Freemasonry; though the secret meaning  with which the numbers used 
by us are filled, is unknown to the  vast majority of those who use 
them. 

The three scared numbers; three, five and seven, consecrated  in 
Freemasonry, always appear together in the stars of the  Heavens; in 
the three "Kings of Orio," near the five stars of the  Hyades, and 
close by the seven of the Pleiades.  The veneration  paid to these 
numbers had its source in the stars, where the  ancient astronomers 
saw all the symbols of Freemasonry. 

A language of hieroglyphics was adapted to the celebrations  of the 
Sacred Mysteries of ancient Egypt, unknown to any but  those who had 
received the Highest Degree.  And to them  ultimately were confined 
the learning, the morality and the  political power of every people 
among which the mysteries were  practiced.  So effectually was the 
knowledge of the hieroglyphics  of the highest degrees hidden from 
all but a favored few, that in  process of the time their meaning was 
entirely lost, and none  could interpret them. 

In this long ago, before the age of books, man also  expressed 
himself in architecture through the use of various  symbols; such as 
the Swastika of the Chaldees, the Triangle of  the Egyptians, the 
Triple Tau of the Herbews, the Cross of the  Christians, the Square, 
Compasses, Plumb, Level and Circle of the  Architects; blood brothers 
of the Accepted Masons. 
 
The knowledge now imparted by books and letters was of old  conveyed 
by symbols; and the priests invented or perpetuated a  display of 
rites and exhibitions which were not only more  attractive to the eye 
than words, but often more suggestive and  richer with meaning to the 
mind. 

Freemasonry, successor of the Mysteries, still follows the  ancient 
manner of teachings.  Her ceremonies are like the ancient  mystic 
shows - not the reading of an essay, but the opening of a  problem 
requiring research and explanation.  Her symbols are the  
instructions she gives.  The Lectures are endeavors, often  partial 
and one-sided, to interpret these symbols.  He who would  become an 
accomplished Freemason must not be content merely to  hear, to even 
to understand the lectures; he must, aided by them  and having as it 
were, the way marked out for him; study,  interpret and develop these 
symbols for himself. 

The more important Masonic symbols are very ancient, and  their true 
meanings can only be found by tracing them back into  the past.  This 
will be found to be particularly the case with the  Third degree; its 
true meaning can only be realized by the study  of similar rites 
which appear to go far back into the history of  our race. 

When the great obelisk called Cleopatra's Needle was lifted  from its 
resting place in Alexandria, Egypt, for the purpose of  moving it to 
the United States; many Masonic symbols were found.  

These included a rough ashlar, a perfect ashlar, a square, a  trowel, 
a plummet and a white stone.  When the Obelisk was placed  in 
position in Central park, New York City, where it now stands,  the 
emblems were replaced exactly as they had been found at  Alexandria. 
In a brief lecture like this one it is hopeless to attempt  to deal 
at all adequately with such deficiencies as there may be  in our 
knowledge of the Masonic system to which we belong.  The  most we can 
hope to do is to offer a few hints or clues, which  those who do so 
desire, may develop for themselves in the privacy  of their own 
thoughts. 

For, in the last resource no one can communicate the deeper  things 
in Freemasonry to another.  Every man must discover and  learn for 
himself; although, a friend or brother may be able to  conduct him a 
certain distance on the path of understanding. 

We know that even the elementary and superficial secrets of  our 
Order must not be communicated to unqualified persons, and  the 
reason for this injunction is not so much because those  secrets have 
any special value, but because that silence is  intended to be 
symbolical of that which applies to the greater,  deeper secrets, 
some of which, for appropriate reasons, must not  be communicated, 
and some of which, indeed, are not communicable  at all because they 
transcend the power of communication. 

So my Brethren, Freemasonry teaches by allegory and symbol,  and it 
is your part to extract from them the truths that will be  of service 
to you in the building of an upright Masonic  character.  If you see 
only the stories that Freemasonry  presents, and do not perceive what 
they are designed to teach,  you are missing the best part of 
Freemasonry, yet you may comfort  yourself with the thought that by 
far the greater majority of  Freemasons are no wiser than yourself. 
 
 A single example of the symbolism of words will indicate to  you one 
branch of Masonic study.  We find at one point a certain  phrase "I 
will always hail, ever conceal, and never reveal," and  in the 
catechism, these:	 

Q.  "I Hail," 
A.  "I conceal," 

and ignorance, misunderstanding the word "Hail," considers it as  
"From whence do you Hail?" 

But the word is really "hele" from the Anglo-Saxon verb  "helan," to 
cover, hide, or conceal. 

Wherefore to "hele" means the same thing as "Tile" - itself  
symbolic, as meaning primarily to cover a house with tiles.  Thus  
language itself is symbolism, and words are as much misunderstood  
and misused as more material symbols are. 

One of the greatest emblems of our Order is the Bible, which  is used 
among Freemasons as the symbol of the Will of God,  however it may be 
expressed.  And therefore whatever, to any  people, expresses that 
Will may be used as a substitute for the  Bible in an American 
Masonic Lodge.  Thus in a body consisting  entirely of Jews the Old 
Testament alone may be placed upon the  Altar; and Turkish Freemasons 
may make use of the Koran.  Whether  it be the Gospels to the 
Christian, the Pentateuch to the  Israelite, the Koran to the Muslim, 
or the Vedas to the  Brahman; it everywhere Masonically conveys the 
same idea - that  of symbolism of the Divine Will revealed to man. 
The Square is a right angle, and belongs only to geometry -  earth-
measurements - that trigonometry, which deals only with  planes and 
with the earth, which the ancients supposed to be a  plane. 

The compass describes circles, and deals with spherical  
trigonometry, the science of the spheres and heavens. 
The square therefore is a symbol of what concerns the earth  and the 
body; the compass of what concerns the heavens and the  soul. 
Upon the Altar you see these tools and you remember how they  were 
arranged in each degree.  For the Apprentice, the points of  the 
compass are beneath the square.  For the Fellowcraft, one is  above 
and one beneath.  For the Master, both are dominant and  have the 
rule, control and empire over the symbol of the earthly  and the 
material.  Thus, as the heavens are higher than the  earth, so should 
the spiritual in man rise above the material and  dominate all his 
thoughts and actions. 

Our own bodies are but symbols of the Soul within, and as  each 
spirit has in it the more of heavenly light, so it is  reflected in a 
fairer body symbol.  Here we find ourselves in a  Holy place, as we 
stand before the Secret of the World, where  Being passes into 
Appearance. 

The sun is the ancient symbol of the life-giving and  generative 
power of the Deity. 
The Moon was the symbol of the passive capacity of nature to  produce 
- the female, of which the life-giving power was the  male. 

The "Master of Life" was the supreme Deity, above both. 
The "Master of Life," the Sun and Moon, are symbolized in  every 
Lodge by the Master and Wardens. 

The Cross has been a sacred symbol from earliest antiquity..  
It is found upon all the enduring monuments of the world; in  Egypt, 
Assyria, India, Persia and on the Buddhist Towers of  Ireland.  
Pointing to the four quarters of the world it was the  symbol of 
universal Nature. 

The Perfect Ashlar is a symbol of faith and permanency in  the Lodge.  
Stone, the material of which it is made, was  considered of great 
importance in many of the ancient religions,  and in some was 
worshipped. 

The Temple of Solomon presented a symbolic image of the  Universe; 
and resembled in its arrangements and furniture, all  the temples of 
the ancient nations that practiced the Mysteries. 

The Cosmos is a beautiful flower without much fragrance.   
Its eight petals are mostly pink and white.  In the heart of the  
flower we find clustered pistils and five pointed stamens which  are 
its male and female reproductive organs.  The name of the  flower - 
Cosmos - is significant and signifies law, order,  harmony and truth 
combined within the Universe. 

Thousands of year ago the spiritual leaders of the Chaldeans studied 
the Universe and symbolized their findings in hieroglyphics which are 
as full of meaning for us as they were to them.  Thus we find that 
long before the time of Moses they represented the name of Jehovah by 
the eight-pointed star -  because to them, as to us, He is ever the 
same.  Let us fix this symbol in our minds.  Take the calendar pad of 
any month in which the first day falls on any one of the first five 
days of the week  draw a line through 1, 9 and 17.  Do the same 
through 2,9 and  16; 3,8 and 15; and 8, 9 and 10.  The sum of each 
line is 27.   

The resulting eight-pointed figure is a mathematical  demonstration 
of the meaning of this age-old symbol of Jehovah;  for, take it in 
any direction, and we find that, like Him, it  represents, it is ever 
the same.  

The five-pointed star - point up - is a very ancient symbol  of man, 
and was used by the old sages to designate the absolute  sign of 
human intelligence.  It refers to the spiritual element  predominant 
in man, while the same figure with two points up  refers to the Goat 
of Mendes - or that the beast is in the  ascendant. 

If we apply this symbolism to our Cosmos blossom we may draw  near to 
God as did those reverent and understanding men of old.   

The petals of the flower are in the exact form of the figure you  
have drawn on your calendar pad, and in the heart of the flower  is 
the ancient symbol of man - "male and female created He them. 
Square, triangle, cross, circle - oldest symbols of  humanity, all of 
them eloquent, each of them pointing beyond  itself, as symbols 
always do, while giving form to the invisible  truth which they 
invoke and seek to embody.  They are beautiful  if we have eyes to 
see, serving not merely as chance figures of  fancy, but as forms of 
reality as it revealed itself to the mind  of man. 
 
Sometimes we find them united, the Square within  the  Circle, and 
within that the Triangle, and at the center the  Cross.  Earliest of 
emblems, as they show us hints and foregleams  of the highest faith 
and philosophy, betraying not only the unity  of the human mind but 
its kinship with the Eternal - the fact  which lies at the root of 
every religion, and is the basis of  each. 

Freemasonry conceals its secrets from all except the Adept  and 
Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and  
misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve  only 
to be misled; to conceal the truth from them , and to draw  them away 
from it.  Truth is not for those who are unworthy or  unable to 
receive it, or would pervert it.  So God Himself  incapacitates many 
men, by color-blindness, to distinguish  colors, and leads masses 
away from the highest Truth, giving them  the power to attain only so 
much of it as is profitable to them  to know.  

So Freemasonry jealously conceals its secrets, and  intentionally 
leads conceited interpreters astray. 

Albert Pike, one of the deepest students of the symbols of  
Freemasonry, has this to say of one of the well-known  hieroglyphics: 
"To the circle enclosing the central point and itself traced  between 
two parallel lines, a figure purely Kabalisitc, have been  added the 
superimposed Bible, and reared on that the ladder with  three or nine 
rounds, a vapid interpretation then being given of  the whole so 
profoundly absurd as actually to excite admiration." 

It may be asserted in the broadest terms that the Freemason  who 
knows nothing of our symbolism knows little of Freemasonry.   
He may be able to repeat every line of the ritual without an  error, 
and yet, if he does not understand the meaning of the  ceremonies, 
the signs, the words, the emblems and the figures he  is a Masonic 
ignoramus.  It is distressing to notice how much  time and labor is 
spent in memorizing "the work" and how little  in ascertaining what 
it all means.  Thousands of Freemasons hear  the beautiful truths 
concealed in the symbolism of our ritual but  in the language of the 
Bible "They have eyes and they see not;  they have ears and they hear 
not." 

In the ceremonies of making a Freemason, we do not attempt  to do 
more than to indicate the pathway to Masonic Knowledge, to  lay the 
foundation for the Masonic edifice; the brother must  pursue the 
journey or complete the structure for himself by  reading and 
reflection.  Our symbolism is as flexible as it is  suggestive, and 
may be interpreted in many ways by each  initiate or student 
according to his light, "Each sees what he  carries in his heart" we 
read in the Prologue of Faust. 

The blossom in your hand - that grasspear nodding at your  feet - 
those mysterious trees which fling their posturing arms to  every 
wind that blows - all are symbolic of an unseen power. 

That water lily yonder, which bends to see its reflected  image, the 
bee that dives into its chalice, the waves that lap  against the 
lily-fronds - these too point to an invisible  thinker. 

The broad-bosomed sea with its lurking depths and myriad  life- 
forms, speaks eloquently of a Master Craftsman.  And that  purple 
mountain yonder holds Divine Revelation in its clasp of  snow.  
Behold the scripture of stars - Mars, blinking redly in the  southern 
heavens - Jupiter, trailing like a silver scarab toward  the peaks 
which claimed the setting sun.  The Milky way, with its  sweep of 
fiery worlds - that shooting star - our glorious sun -  all creation 
points with an unerring finger to the stupendous  Mathematician 
concealed eternally behind the drapes of Nature. 

Mouse and elephant, wren and eagle, minnow and whale - 
MAN -  

all carry mutely, surely, a message couched in terms of universal  
understanding. 

God reveals himself today, as in the beginning, through the  visible 
universe around us - His only written word.  He speaks to  us today 
as in the far past, through the unchanging language of  Nature.  His 
diary is written in the gnawed-out hills, in the  Eternal Truths 
"which lie undiscovered around us." 

The Trestleboard of Nature shows 
A vast array of symbols rare, 
While all her elements disclose 
Unchanging truths designed with care, 
Impressed more deeply in the heart 
While craftsmen diligently strive 
To gather from symbolic art 
The truth that through its power survive.