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

370
Chapter 6 - Peculiarities of Masonic Language
virtues, the four sides of the lodge, etc. 1177 Long essays can be found in Masonic
literature with regard to any number employed. For example, a French Masonic
dictionary gives an explanation of the number seven. Its compiler states that this
symbolism is not peculiar to Freemasonry but also has its place in Christianity:
En gnose numérale, l'étude du nombre Sept se rattache aux conceptions
initiatiques de la Maîtrise. Les trois rosettes du tablier du Maître,
entrelacées, forment un ensemble septénaire. Sept maçons sont
nécessaires pour que la loge soit juste et parfaite. Sept étoiles sont
parfois le symbole d'un atelier, par exemple de la loge Le Septentrion
[...], dont la devise est en outre 'Septem perficiunt'. Cette excellence du
nombre Sept se retrouve d'ailleurs en dehors de la Franc-Maçonnerie.
La symbolique chrétienne le connaît, et il se rencontre dans les
catacombes, où signifiant l'universalité, sept étoiles symbolisent dans
certaines représentations l'Église universelle et triomphante, ou les sept
'anges' dont parle l'Apocalypse, c'est-à-dire les pasteurs des sept Églises
auxquelles s'adresse saint Jean. 1178
According to the quotation above, the number seven symbolizes mastership
and perfection. In Christianity, it is even a symbol of universality, illustrated by
seven stars which allude to the triumphant universal church. In Freemasonry,
many explications of this kind, especially those enthusiastic ones of the 19 th
century, seem mythologically over-loaded and over-interpreted, and reminiscent
of the pseudo-Hebraic words in Freemasonry, whose origins are equally
unknown and unverified. Presumably, as is the case in many non-Masonic
fraternal orders, some pseudo-mythological numerical symbolism is employed in
order to make the ceremony appear more interesting, solemn, dignified,
mysterious, and frightening. This numerology seems to be a remnant of the past
where incantations and witchery played an important role among the
superstitious population, who practiced many other forms of divination, sorcery,
and mummery. Certainly, a ceremony where the candidate has to walk three
times around a coffin makes more impression on his mind than if a dry passage
from a ritual is recited to him. The Freemasons have not taken over numerology
from the operative stonemasons, since these were too practical as to be entangled
in Rosicrucianism and other occultist forms. As Coil states in his Masonic
encyclopedia,
1177 Cf. CME, p. 451.
1178 DFM, p. 202.
[t]hose who try to make out that Freemasonry is a sort of number
superstition derived from Pythagoras, not only do not understand
Freemasonry but do not even understand Pythagoras. It is not even true