189 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
189 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.X November, 1932 No.11
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SPRIG OF ACACIA
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by: Unknown
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Any discussion of the Acacia, important to Freemasonry as one of is
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fundamental and most beautiful symbols, should begin with clearing
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away a little of the “rubbish of the Temple” which results from the
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careless writing of unlearned men. So much has been published about
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the Acacia which simply is not so that it is no wonder that
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Freemasons are frequently confused as to what the plant really is,
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how it came to be a symbol of immortality, and what its true place in
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religious history may be.
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We cannot accurately denote a particular plant or tree as “the Acacia
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plant” or “the Acacia tree” for the same reason that we cannot
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accurately specify “the Rose bush” or “the pine tree.” There are too
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many varieties of roses, too many kinds of pine trees to distinguish
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one from the other merely by the definite article.
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As botanists know more than four hundred and fifty varieties of
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Acacia, “the acacia can be only the most general of terms, meaning
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them all.” So perhaps it is not to be wondered at that we find one
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Masonic writer speaking of the “spreading leaves of the Acacia tree”
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and another talking of “the low thorny shrub which is the Acacia.”
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We have no certainty that the trees and shrubs now growing in
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Palestine are the same as those which flowered in Solomon’s era. So
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that it is not impossible that “Acacia totilis (in Arabic, Es-sant)”
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and “Acacia Seyal (In Arabic Sayal)” grew to greater size three
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thousand years ago than they do now. But authorities doubt that the
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Acacia which grows low, as a bush, and which in all probability must
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have been the plant which one of the three plucked from the ground as
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the “Sprig of Acacia,” ever grew large enough to supply boards three
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feet wide. Wynn Westcott says: “The Acacia is the only tree of any
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size which grows in the deserts of Palestine, but it has been doubted
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that even it ever grew large enough to provide planks one and one-
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half cubits in width.”
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Scholars are united in saying the “Shittah Tree” of the Old Testament
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is an Acacia; and that “Shittim”, the plural, refers to Acacia. In
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Joel (3-18), one of the poetic and beautiful prophecies of the Old
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Testament, we read:
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“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop
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down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers
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of Judah shall flow with waters, a fountain shall come forth of the
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house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.”
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Commentators place the “valley of Shittim” as possibly the Kidron of
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Exekiel; but certainly as some dry, thirsty valley where the Acacia,
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which flourished where other plants perished from lack of water, was
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known to grow; another reason for thinking the original Acacia which
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Freemasons revere was the smaller shrub, rather than the large tree.
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Inasmuch as Akakia” in Greek signifies “Innocence,” it was wholly
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natural for Hutcheson (Spriti of Masonry, 1795) to connect the
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Masonic plant with the Greek definition. He said:
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“We Masons, describing the deplorable state of religion under the
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Jewish Law, speak in figures; “Her Tomb was in the rubbish and filth
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cast forth of the Temple, and Acacia wove its branches over her
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monument;” “akakia” being the Greek word for innocence, or being free
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from sin, implying that the sins and corruptions of the old law and
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devotees of the Jewish altar had hid religion from those who sought
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her, and she was only to be found where innocence survived under the
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banner of the Divine Lamb; and as to ourselves, professing that we
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were to be distinguished by our “Acacy,” or as true “Acacians,” in
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our religious faith and tenets.”
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It is now well understood that Hutcheson, great as is the debt we owe
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him, was too anxious to read a Christian interpretation into
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everything Masonic to be considered as infallible. While the
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coincidence of the Greek word our name for the Shittah-Tree is
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suggestive, it hardly seems sufficient to read “innocence” into the
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symbol when it already has so sublime a significance.
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Mackey considers the acacia also as a symbol of initiation, because
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sacred plants were symbolical of initiation in many of the Ancient
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Mysteries, from which Freemasonry derived so much. The modern
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Masonic scholar is rather apt to pass over this meaning, he is also
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thinking that a symbol already so rich needs no further meanings to
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make it important and beautiful.
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Apparently the beginning of the association of the acacia with
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immortality is in the legend of Isis and Osiris, one of the oldest
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myths of mankind, traced back into Egypt many thousands of years
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before the Christian era. Its beginnings, like those of all legends
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which have endured, are shrouded in the mist which draws a veil
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between us and the days before history.
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According to the legend, Osiris, who was at once both King and God of
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the Egyptians, and was tricked by his brother Typhon (who was very
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jealous of Osiris), during the King’s absence on a beneficent mission
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to his people. Later, at a feast provided for the King-God’s
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pleasure, Typhon brought a large chest, beautiful in workmanship,
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valuable in the extreme, and offered it as a gift to whoever
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possessed a body which best fitted the chest. When Osiris entered
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the box, Typhon caused the lid to shut and fastened; after which the
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whole was thrown into the Nile.
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Currents carried it to Byblos, Phoenicia, and cast it ashore at the
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foot of an acacia tree. The tree grew rapidly and soon encased the
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chest holding the body of Osiris.
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When Isis, faithful queen, learned of the fate of her husband she set
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out in search of the body. Meanwhile the King of the Land where the
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acacia concealed the body, admiring the tree’s beauty, cut it down
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and made of its trunk, a column. Learning this, Isis became nurse to
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the King’s children and received the column as her pay. In the tree
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trunk, preserved, was the body of Osiris.
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During their long captivity at the hands of the Egyptians; what more
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natural than that the Israelites should take for their own a symbol
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already old, and make of the “Shittah-Tree” a symbol of immortality,
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just as had been done in Egypt?
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It is perhaps to much to say that Israelites were the first to plant
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a sprig of acacia at the had of a grave as a symbol of immortality.
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But that they did so in ancient times is stated by many historians.
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Dalcho assigns a novel reason for this practice; that as the Codens,
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or Priests, were forbidden to step upon or over a grave, it was
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necessary that spots of internment be marked, and, the acacia being
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common, it was elected for the purpose.
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Mackey disagrees with Dalcho as to these reasons for marking a grave
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with a living plant. Perhaps the origin of the custom is not
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important; certain it is that all peoples in almost all ages have
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planted or laid flowers on the graves of those they love, as a symbol
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of the resurrection and a future life. The lily of the modern
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church, the rosemary which is for remembrance, the sprig of acacia of
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the ancient Israelites and the modern Mason, have all the same
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meaning upon a grave - the visual expression of the dearest hope of
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all mankind.
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It is both curious and interesting to learn that many trees, in many
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climes, have been symbols of immortality. India gave to Egypt the
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lotus, long a sacred plant; the Greeks thought the myrtle the tree of
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immortal life, and the mistletoe, which survives in our lives merely
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as a pleasant diversion at Christmas, was held by the Scandavavians
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and the Druids as sacred as we consider the acacia.
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Association of a plant and immortality is emphasized in the New
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Testament - see John 12:24:
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“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the
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ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth
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much fruit.”
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Also familiar passages from St. Paul (First Corinthians 15:36,37)
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used so much in funeral services:
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“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die;
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and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be,
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but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain . . .”
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Finally we find in our own stately prayer in the Master’s Degree,
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such a coupling up of a tree and life immortal; “For there is hope of
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a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the
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tender branches thereof will not cease.” - which of course, is taken
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from Job 14:7.
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Thus there is ample historical recognition of the connection between
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that which grows and dies and grows again, and the idea of
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immortality; we do not have to consider the undoubted fact that
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“shittah-trees” cut to form beams of house, often sprouted branches
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even when they had no roots, nor our own thought of almost any
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variety of pine as “the evergreen, or ever living” tree, to see that
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there is much background behind the symbol.
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It is one of the glories of Freemasonry that so much has been made of
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the symbol, so dear and deep a meaning vested in it, that it has
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almost equaled the square as Freemasonry’s nearest and dearest.
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All that was mortal on Tyrian lay murdered in a grave “dug six feet
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due east and west.” The genius of the Temple was no more. No more
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designs upon the trestleboard; no more glorious architecture to come
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from that mighty brain; no more holding of meetings with Solomon and
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Hiram in the Sanctum Sanctorum - the Widow’s Son was dead!
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Of those who search one finds a sprig of acacia. Oh, immortal story;
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thrice immortal ritual makers, who coupled together a resurrection
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and a sprig of green! True, he whose mother was of the Tribe of
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Naphtali was destroyed, but his genius lived, his spirit marched on,
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his virtues were recorded in stone and in the hearts of those who
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built on Mt. Moriah’s heights.
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For at least two hundred years and probably much longer the sprig of
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acacia has held Freemasonry’s premier teaching. The grave is not the
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end. Bodies die and decay, but something “which bears the nearest
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affinity to that which pervades all nature and which never, never,
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dies,” rises from the grave to become one of that vast throng which
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has preceded us. Error can slay, as can evil and selfish greed, but
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not permanently. That which is true and fair and fine cannot be
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destroyed. Its body may be murdered, its disappearance may be
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effected, the rubbish of the Temple and a temporary grave may conceal
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it for a time, but where is interred that which is mortal, there
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grows an evergreen or ever living sprig of acacia - acacia none the
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less that it may be a spiritual sprig, a plant not of the earth,
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earthly.
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When he who was weary, plucked at a sprig of acacia, he had “evidence
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of things not seen.” When we toss the little sprig of evergreen
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which is our usual cemetery “sprig of acacia” into the open grave of
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one of our brethren who has stepped ahead upon the path we all must
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tread, we give evidence of belief in a “thing not seen.”
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For never a man has seen the spirit of one who has gone, or visioned
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the land where no shadows are. If we see it in our dreams, we see by
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faith, not eyes. But we can see the acacia - we can look back
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through the dragging years to the legend of Osiris and think that
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even as the acacia grew about his body to protect it until Isis might
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find it, so does the acacia of Freemasonry bloom above the casket
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from which, in the solemn words of Ecclesiastes “the spirit shall
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return unto God who gave it.”
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