Mackey A G - Encylopedia of Freemasonry - The Grand Masonic ...

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BEAUTY
BEEHIVE 101
tuo da gloriam . It is frequently, says Barrington
(Intro . to Her ., p . 121), introduced among
the decorations in the Temple Church, and on
one of the paintings on the wall, Henry I . is
represented with this banner in his hand . As
to the derivation of the word, there is some
doubt among writers . Bauseant or Bausant
was, in old French, a piebald or party-colored
horse ; and the word Bawseant is used in the
Scottish dialect with a similar reference to two
colors . Thus, Burns says :
"His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face,"
where Dr. Currie, in his Glossary of Burns, explains
bawsent as meaning " having a white
stripe down the face ." It is also supposed by
some that the word bauseant may be only a
form, in the older language, of the modern
French word biensfant which signifies something
decorous or handsome ; but the former
derivation is preferable, in which beauseant
would signify simply a party-colored banner .
With regard to the double signification of the
white and black banner, the Orientalists have
a legend of Alexander the Great, which may be
appropriately quoted on the present occasion,
as given by Weil in his Biblical Legends
(p . 70) .
Alexander was the lord of light and darkness
: when he went out with his army the
light was before him, and behind him was the
darkness, so that he was secure against all
uscadesiilack
standard he had also the
and by means of a miraculous
white and
power to transform the clearest day into midnight
and darkness, or black night into noonday,
just as he unfurled the one or the other .
Thus he was unconquerable, since he rendered
his troops invisible at his pleasure, and came
down suddenly upon his foes . Might there not
have been some connection between the mythical
white and black standard of Alexander
and the Beauseant of the Templars? We know
that the latter were familiar with Oriental
symbolism .
Beauseant was also the war-cry of the Ancient
Templars .
Beauty. Said to be symbolically one of
the three supports of a Lodge. It is represented
by the Corinthian column, because the
Corinthian is the most beautiful of the ancient
orders of Architecture ; and by the Junior
Warden, because he symbolizes the meridian
sun-the most beautiful object in the heavens .
Hiram Abif is also said to be represented by
the Column of Beauty because the Temple
was indebted to his skip for its splendid decorations
. The idea of Beauty as one of the supports
of the Lodge is found in the earliest rituals
of the eighteenth century, as well as the
symbolism which refers it to the Corinthian
column and the Junior Warden . Preston first
introduced the reference to the Corinthian
column and to Hiram Abif. Beauty, 111KD21,
tiphiret, was the sixth of the Kabbalistic Sephiroth,
and, with Justice and Mercy, formed the
second Sephirotic triad ; and from the Kabbalists
the Masons most probably derived the
symbol. (See Supports of theLodge .)
Beauty and Bands . The names of the
two rods spoken of by the prophet Zechariah
as symbolic of his pastoral office . This expression
was in use in portions of the old Masonic
ritual in England ; but in the system of Dr .
Hemming, which was adopted at the union of
the two Grand Lodges in 1813, this symbol,
with all reference to it, was expunged, and, as
Dr . Oliver says (Sym . Dic .), "it is nearly forgotten,
except by a few old Masons, who may
perhaps recollect the illustration as an incidental
subject of remark among the Fraternity
of that period ."
Becker. See Johnson .
Becker, Rudolph Zacharias . A very
zealous Mason of Gotha, who published, in
1786, an historical essay on the Bavarian Illuminati
under the title of Grundsatze Verfassung
and Schicksale des Illuminatens Order in
Baiern . He was a very popular writer on educational
subjects ; his Instructive Tales of Joy
and Sorrow was so highly esteemed, that a
half million copies were printed in German
and other languages . He died in 1802 .
B6darride, The Brothers . The Brothers
Marc, Michel, and Joseph Bedarride were
Masonic charlatans, notorious for their propagation
of the Rite of Mizraim, having established
in 1813, at Paris, under the partly real
and partly pretended authority of Lechangeur,
the inventor of the Rite, a upreme Puissance
for France, and organized a large number
of Lodges. Of these three brothers, who
were Israelites, Michel, who assumed the most
prominent position in the numerous controversies
which arose in French Masonry on
account of their Rite died February 16, 1856 .
Marc died ten years iefore, in April, 1846 . Of
Joseph, who was never very prominent, we
have no record as to the time of his death .
(See Mizraim, Rite of.)
Beehive . The bee was among the Egyptians
the symbol of an obedient peoplebecause,
says Horapollo, of all insects, the bee
alone had a king . Hence, looking at the regulated
labor of these insects when congregated
in their hive, it is not surprising that a
beehive should have been deemed an appropriate
emblem of systematized industry. Freemasonry
has therefore adopted the beehive as
a symbol of industry, a virtue taught in the
ritual which says that a Master Mason
"works that he may receive wages, the better
to support himself and family, and contribute
to the relief of a worthy, distressed brother
his widow and orphans " ; and in the Old
Charges, which tell us that "all Masons shall
work honestly on working days, that they
may live creditably on holidays ." There
seems, however, to be a more recondite meaning
connected with this symbol . The ark has
already been shown to have been an emblem
common to Freemasonry and theAncient Mysteries,
as a symbol of regeneration-of the
second birth from death to life . Now in the
Mysteries, a hive was the type of the ark .
"Hence," says Faber (Orig. of Pag. Idol ., vol .
ii ., 133), "both the diluvian priestesses and
the regenerated souls were called bees ; hence,