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

BUSINESS
CABIRIC 125
he was unfortunately addicted, at the festive
meetings of the Masonic Lodges, has been triumphantly
refuted by a writer in the London
Freemasons' Magazine (vol . v ., 1? . 291), and by
the positive declarations of his brother Gilbert,
who asserts that these habits were the
result of his introduction, several years after
his attendance on the Lodges, to the hospitable
literary society of the Scottish metropolis .
Burns consecrated some portion of his wonderful
poetic talent to the service of the Masonic
Order, to which he appears always to
have been greatly attached . Among his Masonic
poetic effusions every Mason is familiar
with that noble farewell to his Brethren of
Tarbolton Lodge, commencing,
"Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu!
Dear brothers of the mystic tie! "
On the 25th of January, 1820, a monument
was erected to his memory, by public subscription,
at his birthplace ; the corner-stone
of which was laid with appropriate Masonic
honors b the Deputy Grand Master of the
Ancient Mother Lodge Kilwinning, assisted
by all the Masonic Lodges in Ayrshire .
Business. Everything that is done in a
Masonic Lodge, relating to the initiation of
candidates into the several degrees, is called
its work or labor ; all other transactions such as
are common to other associations come under
the head of business, and they are governed
with some peculiar differences by rules of
order, as in other societies. (See Order, Rules
of.)
Byblos. An ancient city of Phoenicia, celebrated
for the mystical worship of Adonis,
who was slain by a wild boar . It was situated
on a river of the same name, whose waters,
becoming red at a certain season of the year by
the admixture of the clay which is at its source,
were said by the celebrants of the mysteries of
Adonis to be tinged with the blood of that
t
od . This city, so distinguished for the celeration
of these mysteries, was the Gebal of
the Hebrews, the birthplace of the Giblemites,
or stone-squarers, who wrought at the building
of King Solomon's Temple ; and thus those
who have advanced the theory that Freemasonry
is the successor of the Ancient Mysteries,
think that they find in this identity of
Byblos and Gebal another point of connection
between these Institutions .
By-Laws. Every subordinate Lodge is
permitted to make its own by-laws, provided
they do not conflict with the regulations of
the Grand Lodge, nor with the ancient usages
of the Fraternity . But of this, the Grand
Lodge is the only judge, and therefore the
original by-laws of every Lodge, as well as all
subsequent alterations of them, must be submitted
to the Grand Lodge for approval and
confirmation before they can become valid,
having under the English Constitution previously
been approved by the Provincial or
District Grand Master .
C . The third letter of the English alphabet,
which was not known in the Hebrew,
Phoenician, or early Aryan languages .
Caaba or Kaaba . (Arabic, Ka'abah, cubic
building .) The square building or temple in
Mecca . More especially the small cubical
oratory within, held in adoration by the Mohammedans,
as containing the black stone
said to have been given by an angel to Abraham
. (See Allah .)
The inner as well as the outer structure receives
its name from Ka'ab, cube .
Cabala. Now more correctly and generally
written Kabbala, which see .
Cabirlc Mysteries . The Cabiri were gods
whose worship was first established in the
island of Samothrace, where the Cabiric Mysteries
were practised . The gods called the Cabiri
were originally two, and afterward four,
in number, and are supposed by Bryant (Anal .
Ant. Myth., iii ., 342) to have referred to Noah
and his three sons, the Cabiric Mysteries
being a modification of the arkite worship .
In these mysteries there was a ceremony called
the "Cabiric Death," in which was represented
amid the groans and tears and subsequent
rejoicings of the initiates, the death and
C
restoration to life of Cadmillus, the youngest
of the Cabiri . The legend recorded that he
was slain by his three brethren, who afterward
fled with his virile parts in a mystic
basket. His body was crowned with flowers,
and was buried at the foot of Mount Olympus .
Clement of Alexandria speaks of the legend as
the sacred mystery of a brother slain by his
brethren, "frater trucidatus A fratribus ."
There is much perplexity connected with the
subject of these mysteries, but it is generally
supposed that they were instituted in honor
of Atys, the son of Cybele or Demeter, of
whom Cadmillus was but another name . According
to Macrobius, Atys was one of the
appellations of the sun, and we know that the
mysteries were celebrated at the vernal equinox.
They lasted three days, during which
they represented in the person of Atys, or
Cadmillus, the enigmatical death of the sun
in winter, and his regeneration in the spring .
In all probability, in the initiation, the candidate
passed through a drama, the subject of
which was the violent death of Atys . The
"Cabiric Death " was, in fact, a type of the
Hiramic, and the legend, so far as it can be
understood from the faint allusions of ancient