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

Chapter 7 - Rituals 487
"Mistress of myself, the ill-nature of others shall not provoke me to retaliation by
censure or sarcasm [...]," etc. (III., p. 81). If the candidate refuses to sign this
paper, she is not allowed to go farther. When she has signed it, the Introducer
tells her the password for the veil of Mercury, which is the Hebrew word
denoting "magnanimity," or "nobleness of mind": RAMANOTH RUACH (cf.
"The 'Arcana'," p. 9). She is led again to "enter the place of Light" (III., p. 32),
and gives the password to the guard of the green veil, which is drawn apart. She
passes through, and the guard immediately extinguishes his lights, so that there
are only the transparencies illuminated. Overhead glows the letter I:: in the east,
and the five-pointed Star in front of the Master and the Mistress, below. The
symbols of the Sun, the Moon, and the five planets are illuminated as well.
While soft music plays, the candidate is led round the extremity of the white
curtain and seated in front of the transparencies between the two columns, facing
the east. The Most Venerable Master explains to her the symbolic significance of
the four gates and their guards, and why they have been chosen as a component
of the third degree:
[...] you have passed the four Veils, and the way to the Place of Light is
open to you. The Veils represent four of the seven planetary spheres or
gates, through which, according to the old Oriental faith, the soul had to
pass in reascending to its original home, the place of its birth or source,
above the stars; and at each of which it was purified of some alloy of
earthly vice or passion.
These Archangels, Michael, Gabriel, Auriel, and Raphael, of the South,
North, East, and West, also represented the four elements, Water, Fire,
Air, and Earth, and the four letters of the sacred Hebrew name of the
Deity. To these also were assigned, in the same order, the four symbolic
animals of Ezekiel's vision and the Apocalypse, the Lion, the Ox, the
Eagle, and the Man, borne on the respective standards of the Tribes of
Judah, Ephraim, Dan, and Reuben. To each Planet was assigned the
color of its veil [...]; and upon each veil you saw the symbolic character
of its Planet. (III., p. 34)
In the following, the Most Venerable Master recites the Biblical account of
how Sarah caused her husband Abraham to expel her slave-woman Hagar and
the latter's son Ishmael into the desert, and how God created a well to prevent
that they died of thirst, because he wanted to create from Ishmael a great nation.
Next, the Master relates the tale how the Pharao's daughter found little Moses in
an ark on the river, and after that he quotes the fate of Lot's wife who looked
back at the destruction of Sodom, undoubtedly sighing "at parting with the
amusements and gaieties, the pleasures and frivolities, the scandal and gossip,
and perhaps the vices of the city" (III., p. 39). From all these recitals, the future
Mistress Masoness is to tear her lesson and example. Then, the Master speaks
about how Joshua took his shoes off, when he was standing on holy ground,