199 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
199 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.IX June, 1931 No.6
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THE MENAGERIE OF MASONRY
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by: Unknown
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Animals have played an important part in symbolism from its very
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beginning; perhaps because man preferred to symbolize life by the
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living; perhaps because he found such strong analogies between the
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characteristics of, or the virtues he ascribed to animals, birds and
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other forms of life and the truths he desired to express in symbols.
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A lamb is actually no more “innocent” than a lion or a dog.
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“Innocence” is defined as the state of being free of evil, or from
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that which corrupts or taints; purity. One animal is on par with
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another in these respects; neither lion nor lamb, jackal nor wolf is
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“corrupted” or “tainted.”
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But the quality of innocence is often associated in our minds with
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ignorance; often it means a weakness to resist, as when we speak of
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an “innocent child.” The lamb is weak; the lamb is meek; the lamb is
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white and white is spotless, without soil or blemish; the lamb
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requires care and guardianship, as does the child or the young girl -
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therefore it is the weak lamb, and not the strong, predatory,
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courageous and snarling lion which “in all ages” has been the symbol
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of innocence.
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“In all ages” is a pleasant figure of speech which makes up in
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roundness what it lacks in definiteness. Throughout the Old
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Testament are references to lambs, often in connection with
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sacrifices, frequently used in a sense symbolic of innocence, purity,
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gentleness and weakness. It is probably from both the Old and New
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Testaments use of a lamb that “in all ages” it has been a symbol for
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innocence, a matter aided by the color, which we unconsciously
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associate with purity, probably because of the hue of snow. It is
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not a universal association though; the Chinese, for instance, so
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often diametrically opposite the Occidentals in their thinking,
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associate white with death.
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The lion is one of Freemasonry’s most powerful and potent symbols;
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“The Lion of the Tribe of Judah” is so prominent in the ritual as to
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be most familiar and the Masonic world needs no instruction as to the
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significance of the paw of the lion. Yet both are often less fully
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comprehended than their importance warrants.
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The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has had various interpretations, some
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of them rather unfair in their attempt to prove a point. No well-
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informed Freemason thinks that Freemasonry is a Christian
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organization, any more than it is Jewish or Mohammedan; albeit there
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are more Christian Masons than Jewish or Mohammedan Masons. To deny
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that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah refers to Christ, that it means
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“only” a probable redeemer who would spring from the Tribe of Judah;
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to try to read into the expression “only” a reference to King
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Solomon, is to disregard the undoubted fact that in its early stages
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in England, Freemasonry was not only Christian, but allied to the
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Church.
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The First of the Old Charges makes this very plain:
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“But though in Ancient Times Masons were charged in every Country to
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be of the religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet
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`tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion
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in which all Men agree, leaving their particular opinions to
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themselves; that it, to be good men and true, or Men of Honor and
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Honesty by whatever Denominations or persuasions they may be
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Distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes a Center of Union and the
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Means of conciliating true friendship among persons that must have
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remained at a perpetual distance.”
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Prior to this broad-minded inclusion of men of all religions in
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Freemasonry, operative Masons were “of the religion of the country,
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whatever it was.” This was predominately Christian, in England,
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France and Germany.
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Judah was symbolized as a lion in his father’s death bed blessing.
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The lion was upon the standard of the large and powerful tribe of
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Judah. “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” was one of Solomon’s titles.
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But Christian interpretation of the phrase springs from Revelations
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(V. 5(, “Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David,
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hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals
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thereof.”
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The idea of a resurrection is curiously interwoven with the lion “in
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all ages” to quote the familiar phrase. In the twelfth century one
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Philip de Thaun states: “Know that the lioness, if she bring forth a
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dead cub, she holds her cub and the lion arrives; he goes about and
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cries, till it revives on the third day.” The rest of the quotation
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ascribes a wholly Christian interpretation to the ancient legend.
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Another writer of the middle ages has it:
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Thus the strong lion of Judah The gates of cruel death being
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broken Arose on the third day At the loud sounding voice of the
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father.
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The lion was connected with resurrection long before the Man of
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Galilee walked upon the earth. In ancient Egypt, as we learn from
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the stone carvings on the ruins of Temples, a lion raised Osiris from
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a dead level to a living perpendicular by a grip of his paw; the
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carvings show a figure standing behind the Altar, observing the
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raising of the dead, with its left arm raised, forming the angle of a
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square.
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The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, considered as signifying a coming
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redeemer who would spring from the tribe, or meaning the King of
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Israel who built the Temple, or symbolizing the Christ, must not be
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confused with the mode of recognition so inextricably mingled with
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the Sublime Degree, teaching of a resurrection and a future life.
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A curious inversion of the idea of the lion’s paw as a symbol of life
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is found in I Samuel, XVII 34:37. David tells Saul of rescuing a
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lamb from a lion and a bear, and slaying both. Then (37) “David said
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moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion . . .
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he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”
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Unquestionably the Israelites absorbed much of Egyptian beliefs
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during the captivity, which may account both for the Lion of the
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Tribe of Judah, and our own use of the paw.
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But read the symbolism how we will, or by whatever light we please,
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the lion has a Masonic significance of tremendous importance and
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hoary antiquity; one which bears deep study without revealing all its
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secrets.
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To the world at large the best known animal in the Masonic Menagerie
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is the goat! Alas, that goat! What harm has he not done to our
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gentle Fraternity! Could the brother who jokes to the prospective
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initiate about the terrors of “riding the goat” and the severe
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treatment he may expect when the aprochryphal animal is let loose
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upon him, but learn how the idea originated, he would never more soil
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the most magnificent symbol of the mightiest of man’s hopes with so
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shocking and debasing an idea.
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The great God Pan has been sung and storied since the birth of
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mythology. Originally he was anything but terrifying; a gentle,
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rather whimsical God with a sense of humor. He was that Arcadian God
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of the shepherds, chief of the inferior deities, generally considered
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to be the child of Mercury and Penelope. Pan possessed long ears and
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horns; the lower half of his body was that of a goat. He invented
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Pan’s Pipes, or “syrinx.” From him we have the word “panic,” the
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state into which the Gauls were thrown on invading ancient Greece and
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seeing Pan!
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Myths and legends undergo strange transformations.
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When the early Christian drew upon mythology they modified and
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changed it; gentle Pan became Satan! To the common mind, Satan, or
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the devil, was a he-goat. Thus the devil came into possession of
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horns and a tail, and the familiar cloven hoof. Later, in the Middle
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Ages, the devil took a more dignified form, in keeping with his
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supposed power. But the people would not wholly give up the goat,
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therefore their devil was supposed to appear riding on a goat.
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Witches were credited with performing fearful ceremonies in which
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they raised the devil in order to do homage to him and his goat.
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In the early days of Masonry in London, the enemies of the Fraternity
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employed the weapon of ridicule; processions of Mock Masons, the
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Gormogons and or other organizations made all manner of fun of the
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secrecy and the ceremonies of Freemasonry. Some of this fun was a
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bitter and venomous jest; jealousy and ill-will of the excluded
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circulated stories that Freemasons and witchcraft were allied. that
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Freemasons were accustomed to raise the devil in their lodges - and,
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of course, he appeared riding on his goat!
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Gradually in common minds the belief came into being that Freemasons
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“rode the goat.” We still have the expression, though not the
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belief. Yet the coarse-minded and the unthinking still torment the
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petitioner with tales of riding and being butted by the goat. They
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pretend - or perhaps the just pretend to pretend - that the
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initiative ceremonies are terrifying.
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Brethren who thus regularly - albeit often innocently - tell tales of
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the Masonic goat to initiates or the profane, carry forward a
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ridicule and enmity of the Order begun more than two hundred years
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ago. In peopling our lodge rooms with goats they perpetuate am
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ignorant superstition and slander the fair fame of the Institution by
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indicating that its practices are anti-religious and blasphemous.
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Let him who has the good of the order in his heart cast from his mind
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and eliminate from his speech all references to a Masonic goat, which
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came from ridicule, which descended from the idea of the devil, which
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in its turn came from the frolicsome half-goat, half-man God Pan.
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No Masonic Menagerie would be complete which did not include the
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beasts of the field and the birds of the air; here the influence of
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the Old Testament is strongly felt. In I Samuel (XVII 41) we read:
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“And the Philistine said unto David, Come to me and I will give thy
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flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field.”
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“Beasts of the field” is an expression which denotes more than one
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variety of animal. In the Old Testament the term beasts denotes any
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brute, as distinguished from man; a quadruped as distinguished from
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other living creatures; a wild animal as distinguished from a
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domesticated one, and the apocalyptic symbol of brute force as the
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opposite of Divine power.
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Obviously it is not the domesticated cattle, the asses and goats and
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the sheep, from the attacks of which human infant is unable to guard
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himself, as in the phrases from the explanation of the Bee Hive.
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Nor did the Philistine imagine, if he gave David’s flesh to cattle,
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that they would eat it! His “Beasts of the Field” are the wild
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beasts - the beasts of Leviticus (XXVI 22): “I will also send wild
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beasts among you,” etc. These wild beasts are bears, wild bulls,
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hyenas. jackals, leopards and wolves; all Old Testament animals. It
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is these which must be visualized when Freemasons use the word, not
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horses, cows, dogs, sheep and asses.
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The vultures of the Old Testament are typified by those spoken of in
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Isaiah XXXIV, in which the desolation of the enemies of God are
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described. The land is to be burned and to lie waste and “none shall
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pass through it for ever and ever.” Thorns and nettles and brambles
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are to grow upon it; the wild beasts shall inhabit it and (15) “There
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shall the great owl make her nest and lay and hatch and gather under
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her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with
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her mate.”
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It is unnecessary more than to mention the symbolism of the bees in
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the hive. As an emblem of industry they are sufficiently explained
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in the ritual; moreover, bees are hardly to be considered as parts of
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a menagerie!
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If small, the Masonic Menagerie is select and exclusive; its symbols
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are plain for all to read; yet they have deeper and more spiritual
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meanings for those who are willing to look below the surface and see
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in lion and lamb - and even goat - as well as the beasts of the field
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and birds of the air, a gentle teaching of man’s hope of immortality,
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at once touching and comforting.
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