The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols 133
mythological figure sets limits and helps people to cross them. The bread alludes
to the vital transformation from the raw to the cooked, and the water is a symbol
of fertility. Salt and sulfur are an image of ambivalence representing life and
death. According to Béresniak 366 , "[f]or Masons, the sojourn in the Chamber of
Reflection is the 'trial and proof of earth'." The first lesson the candidate has to
learn is that nothing is intrinsically good or bad, but depends on how it is
employed. The people, as builders, have the power to make things good or bad,
according to how they use them.
The hourglass, which came into the lectures in the late 18 th century as one of
the eight hieroglyphic emblems, is a symbol of the passage of time or the brevity
of life, being more effective than a clock, because one can observe the sand
slowly but steadily wasting away. Coupled with the scythe it alludes to the
certainty of death. Thus, Sickels writes in his General Ahiman Rezon, dated
1885: "Behold! How swiftly the sands run, and how rapidly our lives are
drawing to a close!" And he says with regard to the scythe: "[it] cuts the brittle
thread of life, and launches us into eternity. Behold! What havoc the scythe of
Time makes among the human race!" 367 The scythe is said to be more commonly
used in Ireland than in England. 368
366
Béresniak, p. 22.
367
Sickels, p. 213/214.
368
Cf. Scottish Rite Masonic Museum of Our National Heritage, Bespangled Painted &
Embroidered, p. 120.