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

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Chapter 7 - Rituals
drink on her table and to sleep on her cot. After she thus has extended hospitality
to the stranger, he reveals to her the password of the veil of Jupiter, which is the
Hebrew word meaning "hospitality": NA-DAI-BOTH (cf. "The 'Arcana'," p. 9).
With this word, she is allowed to pass the guard and approach the orange veil.
The guard of the "orange-colored gate of Mars" is the Archangel Auriel, who
rises, holding a naked sword in his left hand, and a trowel in his right. The
candidate being without the password and hoping to be allowed to pass him, is
thus rejected: "She hoped in vain: neither gold nor beauty can tempt me. I am a
Mason. She must return." (III., p. 25). This remark contains a touch of selfimportance
of the incorruptible Mason. The Orator in the south of the Lodge
recites the Biblical passage from Gen. 45, in which Joseph 1429 forgives his
brothers who have sold him to Egypt into slavery, and saves their lives by a great
deliverance. The candidate has to seek the society of her Sisters, in order to
practice forgiveness. Thus, she is conducted into the preparation room, where
several of the Brethren and Sisters are conversing, when one Sister approaches
her and admits that she has wantonly done her an injury. She makes up
something to provoke and exasperate the candidate, and begs her to forgive her.
When, sooner or later, the candidate is willing to forgive her Sister, the latter
gives her the password of the veil of Mars, which is the Hebrew word for
"forgiveness of injuries": KAPARAH (cf. "The 'Arcana'," p. 9). Invested with
this password, she is allowed to pass the orange veil, and approaches the last one.
In front of the green veil, which represents the "green gate of Mercury," sits
the Archangel Raphael, who rises and lays his right hand on the square, compass,
and other tools on his table. He tells the candidate that she cannot pass him
without the password, for "[d]uty is inexorable as fate, and the Mason is the
soldier of Duty. Neither persuasions nor the promises of reward can tempt me;
nor the smiles and blandishments, nor even the tears, of beauty." (III., p. 28).
Instead, she is sent to acquire the password as others have done before her. From
the far east of the Lodge, the Inspector now recites Biblical passages, e.g. the one
in which Haman, who hated Mordecai the Jew, exclaimed: "Yea, Esther, the
queen 1430 , did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet [...] but myself
[...]. Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at
the king's gate." (III., p. 30). The Introducer and the Introductress admonish the
candidate to seek the silence and solitude of her chamber, in order to reflect and
interrogate herself. They lead her into a small room which contains only a chair
and a small table, on which lie pens, ink, and a paper with the title "Profession of
Faith, and Resolves." The candidate is left alone to read this paper, which
contains her future moral code, like "A Mistress of the Light should be
magnanimous and possessed of true nobility of soul [...]," "Serene and selfpossessed,
she will be neither elated by prosperity nor depressed by adversity,"
1429 This is the legend enacted by the Junior Lodge of Odd Fellows, who likewise draw on that
symbolism of forgiveness. (This is no Masonic institution!)
1430 Esther the Queen, who has saved her people from destruction by endangering her own life in
front of her husband, is one of the officers and the third degree of the Eastern Star. There, she has a
distinguished function, whereas she is only hinted at without further relevance in the Masonry of
Adoption.