Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

90 Mystic Masonry.
Kabalah. The Anathemas threatened for him who
should alter, by a single letter or "Yod," the outer
text, had therefore a deeper meaning. The priests
of many nations of antiquity were initiates in the
Mysteries, and as such they were Monotheists, while
the ignorant masses were idolaters. The monotheism
of the Jews was of a robust character, and their
priests and prophets had a hard time to preserve
their people from the seductive polytheism and
abominations of surrounding nations. The Ineffable
Name was not only concealed, but "terrible as an
army with banners." Jehovah was jealous, revengeful,
vindictive toward the evil-doer, and tolerated no
rival in the broad expanse of Cosmos. In no religion
of antiquity is the anthropomorphic image of
Deity so strongly defined, and the Creator of man
and worlds made so exceedingly human.
The Kabalah, on the contrary, embodying considerable
of the true and ancient Secret Doctrine,
held a different idea of Divinity. While carrying
the tradition, therefore, of the lost v/ord as the Ineffable
Name of Deity, the symbolism was taken as
literal fact, and the people who were commanded to
"make no graven image" ended by making a
gigantic idol, half Moloch and half Man. Amid
such contradictions, the symbolism adopted from the