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

CIPHER
CIRCLES 151
ible things, and therefore delivered their great
mysteries in sacred letters, and explained them
by symbolical representations. Porphyry here
undoubtedly, referred to the invention and
use of hieroglyphics by the Egyptian priests ;
but these hieroglyphic characters were in fact
nothing else but a form of cipher intended to
conceal their instructions from the uninitiated
profane .
Peter Aponas, an astrological writer of the
thirteenth century, gives us some of the old
ciphers which were used by the Kabbalists,
and among others one alphabet called "the
passing of the river," which is referred to in
some of the high degrees of Masonry .
But we obtain from Agrippa one alphabet
in cipher which is of interest to Masons, and
which he says was once in great esteem among
the Kabbahsts, but which has now, he adds,
become so common as to be placed among
profane things . He describes this cipher as
follows (Philos . Occult., lib. iii ., cap . 3) : The
twenty-seven characters (including the finals)
of the Hebrew alphabet were divided into
three classes of nine in each, and these were
distributed into nine squares, made by the intersection
of two horizontal and two vertical
lines, forming the following figure :
6 15 14
9 18 17
In each of these compartments three letters
were placed - as, for instance, in the first compartment,
tie first, tenth, and nineteenth letters
of the alphabet ; in the second compartment,
the second, eleventh, and twentieth,
and so on. The three letters in each compartment
were distingut'shed from each other by
dots or accents . Thus, the first compartment,
or L, represented the first letter or K ; the
same compartment with a dot, thus, L, represented
the tenth letter, or :) ; or with two
dots, thus, L, it represented the nineteenth
letter, or 7 ; and so with the other compartments
; the ninth or last representing the
ninth, eighteenth, and twenty-seventh letters,
to, 2, or y, accordingly as it was figured ,, 1
or '.1, without a dot in the center or with one
or two.
About the middle of the last century, the
French Masons adopted a cipher similar to
this in principle, but varied in the details,
among which was the addition of four compartments,
made by the oblique intersection
of two lines in the form of a St . Andrew's
Cross. This cipher was never officially adopted
by the Masons of any other country, but was
at one time assumed by the American Royal
Arch ; although it is now becoming obsolete
there . It is, however, still recognized in all the
"Tuilleurs" of the French Rite . It has become
so common as to be placed, as Agrippa
said of the original scheme, "among profane
things ." Its use would certainly no longer
subserve any purpose of concealment . Rockwell
openly printed it in his Ahiman Rezon
of Georgia; and it is often used by those who
are not initiated, as a means of amusement .
There is, therefore, really no recognized
cipher in use in Ancient Craft Masonry .
Browne and Finch, who printed rituals intended
only for the use of Masons, and not as
expositions, invented ciphers for their own
use, and supplied their initiated readers with
the key. Without a key, their works are unintelligible,
except by the art of the decipherer.
Although not used in symbolic Masonry,
the cipher is common in the high degrees, of
which there is scarcely one which has not its
peculiar cipher . But for the purposes of concealment,
the cipher is no longer of 'any practical
use . The art of deciphering has been
brought to so great a state of perfection that
there is no cipher so complicated as to bid
defiance for many hours to the penetrating
skill of the experienced decipherer . Hence, the
cipher has gone out of use in Masonry as it
has among diplomatists, who are compelled to
communicate with their respective countries
by methods more secret than any that can be
supplied by a dispatch written in cipher .
Edgar A . Poe has justly said, in his story of
The Gold Bug, that "it may well be doubted
whether human ingenuity can construct an
enigma of the kind, which human ingenuity
may not, by proper application resolve ."
Cipriani, Jean Baptiste. 1727--85 .) A
famous Florentine artist, who came to England
in 1755, and cooperated with Bartolozzi
in the production of the frontispiece of the
1784 Edition of the Book of Constitutions.
Circle. The circle being a figure which
returns into itself, and having therefore
neither beginning nor end, has been adopted
in the symbology of all countries and times as
a symbol sometimes of the universe and sometimes
of eternity . With this idea in the Zoroastrian
mysteries of Persia, and frequently in
the Celtic mysteries of Druidism, the temple
of initiation was circular . In the obsolete lectures
of the old English system, it was said
that "the circle has ever been considered symbolical
of the Deity ; for as a circle appears to
have neither beginning nor end, it may be
justly considered a type of God, without
either beginning of days or ending of years .
It also reminds us of a future state, where we
hope to enjoy everlasting happiness and joy ."
But whatever refers especially to the Masonic
symbolism of the circle will be more appropriately
contained in the article on the Point
within a Circle .
Circles (Kranzchen) . There are in Germany
many small Masonic clubs, or Circles,
which are formed in subordination to some
Lodge which exercises a supervision over them
and is responsible for their good behavior to
the Grand Lodge, by whose permission they
have been established . The members devote