Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

346 GRAND INSPECTOR CNQUI5ITOR COMMANDER. iNITIATION. 347
Brabama”’ Osiris,”’ Apollo, Bel”’ and the Deity himself.
Thus too, we form twelve still smaller triangles,
three times three of which compose the Tetractys itself.
I refrain from enumerating all the figures that you
may trace within it; but one may not be passed~unnoticed.
The Hexagon itself faintly images to use a cube,
not visible at the first glance, and therefore the fit emblem
of that faith in things, which, though invisible are
nevertheless real, and the existence of which may be
proved by reason and logic. The first perfect solid and
reminding you of the Cubical Stone”’ that sweated
Note 868.—”In the vedic hymns all the powers of natnre are per.
sonifled, and become the objecta of worship thus leading to an ap~ar•
eat polytheism. But. as Mr. J. Ic. clarke (t’On Great Relicuons, ii ).
remarks, ‘behind this incipient polytheism lurks the original monotheism;
for each of these gods, in turn, becomes the Supreme Being. And Max
Moiler says (Chaps. I. I), Ihat ~ wouid be easy to find in the numerous
hymns of the veda passages in which almost every imporiant deity is
represented as supreme and ahsolute.~ This moat ancient retiglon—
hetieved in by one-se,enth of the worid’s population, that fountain from
which has flowed so much of Ihe stream of modern reilgious thought.
abounding in mystical ceremonies and ritual preacriptions. worahipping.
as the Lord of ail ‘the sonice of golden light,~ having its ineffabie name.
its sotemo methods of initiation, sad its symbolic rites—is weti worth
the aerions study of the Masonic scholar, because in it he will find much
that will be snggestive to him in the investigations of the dogmas of his
Order. —Mackeys Enoyclopadia of Ereemasonry. Article Brahman,sm.
lots 867.—”The Osirian mysteries consisted in a scenic representation
of the murder of Osiris by Typhon. the subsequent r~eovery of his
mutilated body by Isis. and his deification, or restoration to immortal
itfe. Julius Firmicue. in his treaties On the Eataity of the Pagan Religions,
thus describes the object of the Osirian mysteries ‘But in those
funerals and lamentations which are cannusily celebrated in honor of
Osiris. the defender. of the Pagan rites pretend a pbyalcai reason They
cail the seeds of fruit. Osiris; the earth. Isis; the natural heat. Typhon:
and because the fruits are ripened by the natural heat and collected for
the life of man, and are separated from their natural tie to the earib.
and are sown again when winter appioschea. ibis they consider is the
death of Osiris. but when the fruits, by the genial fostering of the
earth, begin again to be generated by a new pr~reation. this is the
finding of Osiris.~ This eipisnation does rot essentially differ from that
already given in the article Egyptian Mysteries. The symbolism is indeed
precisely the same—that of a restoration or resurrection from death
to life. “—Meokey’s Ea~oiopadl5. of Ereemasonry. Artiste Osiris. Mysteries
of.
Note 861.—”Rel, is the contracted form of Deal, and was worshiped
by the Babylonians as their chief deity. The Greeks and Romans so considered
and translated the word by Zeus and Jupiter. it has. with lab
and On, been introduced into the Royal Arch system as a representative
of the Tetragrammaton, which it and the accompanying words have
s..,metimes ignorantly been made to displsce “—Maoks~’a Encyololiadia of
Wreems.sonry. Article DeL
Note 86S.—”Every stone of the temple was formed into a equan. containing
five equilateral triangles, each equilateral triangle being equal to
a cube, and each aide and hams of the triangles being equsi to a p lomb
line. ‘—Maceye Esayelop die aM Dictionary of Ereemasonry, Article
OuMeal Stabs.
blood, and of that deposited by Enoch, it teaches justice,
accuracy and consistency.
The infinite divisibility of the triangle, tcachcs the
infinity of the universe, of time, of space and of the
Deity, as do the lines that diverging from the common
centre ever increase their distance from each other, as
they are infinitcly prolonged.
As they may be infinite in number, so are the attributes
of Deity, infinite and as they emanate from one
centre and are projected into space, so the whole universe
has emanated from God.
Remember also, my brother, that you have other duties
to perform than those of a judge. You are to inquire
into and scrutintze carefully the work of the
subordinate bodies in Masonry.
You are to see that recipients of the higher degrees
are not unnecessarily multiplied; that improper persons
are carefully excluded from mcmbership, and that in
their life and conversation, Masons bcar testimony to
the excellence of our doctrines, and the incalculable
value of the institution itself.
You are to inquire also into your own heart and conduct,
and keep careful watch over yourself that you go
not astray. If you harbor ill-will and jealousy; if you
are hospitable to intolerance and bigotry, and churlish
to gentlcness and kind affections, opening wide your
heart to one, and closing its portals to the other, it is
time for you to set in order your own temple, or else
you wear in vain the name and insignia of a Mason,
while yet uninvested with the Masonic naturc.
Everywhere in the world there is a natural law, that
is, a constant model of action, which seems to belong to
the nature of things; to the constitution of the universe.
This fact is universal. In different departments we call