The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

152 HISTORY OF INITIATION.
west by the south, 9
accompanied
all their rites whether
10
civil or religious, and nothing was accounted sanctified
11
without the performance of this preliminary ceremony.
They
entertained a similar veneration for the number
taught that the upper regions of the air contained
seven; 12
seven heavens and ; gave to man seven external senses,
appetite and aversion being added to hearing, seeing,
feeling, tasting, and smelling. The combinations of
seven and three were hence, in all their forms, esteemed
sacred. Thus their great period of thirty years was pro-
duced by the sum of seven and three multiplied by
three and we have ;
already seen that the magical number
one hundred and forty-seven was so much esteemed
because it proceeded from the square of 7x3. Several
Druid monuments are still in existence, consisting of
2
nineteen upright stones (7-J-3+3 in allusion to the
),
cycle of the sun and moon, commonly called the Metonic
13
cycle, which was familiar to the Druids of Britain.
9 This custom might probably have been adopted from the Pytha-
gorean philosophy, which represented Light by the circular motion
from east to west, and Darkness by the contrary course. Thus
Timoeus the Locrian says, in a disquisition on the science of astronomy,
"The sun maketh day in performing his course from east to west,
and night by motion from west to east."
10 Jamieson. Scot. Diet, in vo. Widdersinnis.
11
It may be added that this number was invested with peculiar
properties, by every nation under heaven, some referring its origin to
the three great circles in the heavens, two of which the sun touches
in his annual course, and the third he passes over; and others to
some ancient, though mutilated tradition of either the Trinity, or the
arkite triad.
12 Vide ut supra, Lect. 7 in nota.
5
13 Diod. Sic.,-1.
c. 6. A xii., striking monument of Druidism, both
with respect to form and situation,
still exists near Keswick, which
contains an adytum in complete preservation, and has been constructed
with a due regard to the sacred numbers. It is called Carles or
Castle Rigg, and is about thirty paces (7-|-3x3) from east to west,
and twenty-one (3x7) from north to south. The adytum is situated
at the eastern extremity, and consists of a quadrangular inclosure
seven paces by three. At about three paces without the inclosure on
the west, stood a single upright stone which is now broken, so that
the primitive elevation cannot be ascertained. It was a representative
of the deity. From this august temple a view was presented to
the eye of the superstitions Briton, calculated to awaken all his ener-
gies, and rouse the latent sparks of devotion. The holy mountain of
Carrick
Skiddaw, with its single elevated peak soaring up to heaven ;
Heigh with its two peaks and ; Saddleback, or more properly, Blenc-
Arthur, with its perfect character of three distinct peaks, were all