The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

124
HISTORY OF INITIATION.
The places
of initiation and worship were generally
either circular, because a circle was a significant emblem
of the universe, governed and preserved by an omnipresent
deity, who is described in the writings of Hermes
Trismegistus, as a circle4 * whose centre is every where,
and whose circumference is no where and ; pointed out
the unity of the godhead a doctrine ; distinctly asserted
by the Druids 41 or ; oval, 42 in allusion to the mundane
holy mountain was considered the sacred ascent to Elysium and the
;
cave or womb led downwards to Hades. The most ancient monument
of British antiquity at Abury, in Wiltshire, was constructed on
two eminences and to ; complete the allusion, a gigantic mound, called
Silbury hill, was thrown up, so as to form a triangle with the other
two, thus constituting the sacred three-peaked temple. The hill at
Karn-bre, in Cornwall, is furnished by Nature with three distinct and
beautiful peaks, and hence became an early object of superstitious
reverence, which the Druids appear to have exhausted all their ingenuity
in adorning with a profusion of sacred embellishments. Here
was a consecrated grove of oaks, furnished with solar temples, caverns
of initiation, thrones, phalli, altars, adyta, inclosures, rock basons for
the water of purification, and every requisite for public worship and
the celebration of the mysteries on a grand scale; for the
\yhole
extent of this magnificent establishment comprehended an area of more
than four miles in circumference. (Borl. Ant. Corn., p. 113.) It
may be here observed, that the grove was sacred to the celestial, the
altar to the terrestrial, and the cell to the infernal deities. (Maur.
Ind. Ant, vol. ii., p. 317.)
40 The usual appellation given by the bards to the sacred inclosure
and Faber says that the
of an open temple, was the mundane circle ;
Ark was called, the circle of the world it ; follows, therefore, the open
circular temple was a representation of the Ark.
41
Specimens of the circular temple are common in this country; but
the most stupendous specimen is exhibited at Stonehenge, on Salisbury
Plain, which was anciently denominated Caer Gaur, or the Great
Cathedral, or the mundane ark, and was intended probably as a place
of general assembly for the detached communities throughout the
kingdom at their grand triennial meetings. Surrounded by a deep
ditch and lofty mounds, the interior space was divided, like most other
edifices of peculiar sanctity, into three seperate inclosures an outer
;
and inner court, and an adytum the first for the ; people, the second
for the priests, and the third for the chief Druid alone. The entrance
to this wonderfuHemple was by an avenue towards the north-east,
which to this day is accurately defined by a bank of earth on each side
extending to a considerable distance from the temple, and forming at
the end a double avenue ; one branch of which communicated with
what is now termed the Cursus but I should think that this ; space is
probably the site of the sacred buildings. At a short distance from
the circle was a huge stone, sixteen feet in
height, which was doubtless
the presiding deity of the place a ; vestige of the Buddhic superstition
; (Hesych. Lex. apud. Fab. Pag. Idol., vol. ii.. p. 375,) and about