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

288
Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology
the transcendental teachings that - together with mysticism and mythology -
invaded the Masonic language and lecture system.
Thus, in Christian lodges, the Bible on the altar of Masonry is opened at
different chapters in the three Craft degrees. The verses on which the Bible is
opened have a certain relation to the corresponding degree in which they are read
aloud. In the First Degree, these are Psalms 133, in the Second Degree, Amos 7:
7-8, and in the Third Degree, Ecclesiastes 12. Christian Freemasonry even
created a peculiar Masonic office with regard to the Bible: some American
Grand Lodges and the Grand Lodge of Scotland have an officer called "Bible
Bearer," who carries the Bible, generally on a velvet cushion, at Masonic
processions, such as the laying of corner-stones. 841 Since most of the technical
terms in the previous chart are self-explanatory, only point 9 will be discussed
(see also Section 6.16.2) - the metaphor "foreign countries," meaning "death." A
Masonic Bible offers the following explanation:
This expression which is employed of the travels of Master Masons of
the operative class following the completion of the Temple in search of
labor and for the wages to be secured is correctly understood by few
who hear it. In its symbolic meaning, it does not refer to the activities of
those who have completed the Master Degree in this life. In the
symbolisms of Freemasonry, this life terminates with the Master
Degree; hence, heaven is the "foreign country" into which Master
Masons travel, where the true word, not given in this life, is to be
received, and where the Master Mason is to receive his wages, or
rewards. 842
5.4 Books
N° Word Meaning
1 Ahiman Rezon a book of constitutions of the
Ancients in opposition to
Anderson's Constitutions 843
2 Book of Gold in the Ancient and Accepted
Scottish Rite, the book in
which the transactions, statutes,
decrees, balusters, and
protocols of the Supreme
841 Cf. CME, p. 97.
842 The New Standard Alphabetical Indexed Bible, p. 29.
843 Cf. IFL, p. 29/30. Cf. also MD, p. 91.