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

DEDICATION
DEDICATION 201
the one or the other, or both, of these worthy
and worshipful men ."
There is another old lecture, adopted into
the Prestonian system, which still further
developed these reasons for the Johannite dedication,
but with slight variations in some of
the details .
"From the building of the first Temple at
Jerusalem to the Babylonish captivity, Freemasons'
Lodges were dedicated to King Solomon
; from thence to the coming of the Messiah,
they were dedicated to Zerubbabel, the
builder of the second Temple ; and from that
time to the final destruction of the Temple by
Titus, in the reign of Vespasian, they were
dedicated to St . John the Baptist ; but owing
to the many massacres and disorders which
attended that memorable event, Freemasonry
sunk very much into decay ; many Lodges
were entirely broken up, and but few could
meet in sufficient numbers to constitute their
legality ; and at a general meeting of the
Craft, held in the city of Benjamin, it was observed
that the principal reason for the decline
of Masonry was the want of a Grand
Master to patronize it . They therefore deputed
seven of their most eminent members to
wait upon St . John the Evangelist, who was
at that time Bishop of Ephesus, requesting
him to take the office of Grand Master . He
returned for answer, that though well stricken
in years (being upwards of ninety), yet having
been initiated into Masonry in the early part
of his life, he would take upon himself that
office . He thereby completed by his learning
what the other St . John effected by his zeal,
and thus drew what Freemasons term a `line
parallel' ; ever since which time Freemasons'
Lodges, in all Christian countries, have been
dedicated both to St . John the Baptist and St .
John the Evangelist ."
So runs the tradition, but, as it lacks every
claim to authenticity, a more philosophical
reason may be assigned for this dedication to
the two Saints John.
One of the earliest deviations from the pure
religion of the Noachidx was distinguished by
the introduction of sun worship . The sun, in
the Egyptian mysteries, was symbolized by
Osiris, the principal object of their rites, whose
name, according to Plutarch and Macrobius,
signified the prince and leader, the soul of the
universe and the governor of the stars . Macrobius
(Saturn., 1 . i ., c . 18) says that the
Egyptians worshiped the sun as the only
divinity ; and they represented him under
different forms, according to the different
phases, of his infancy at the winter solstice in
December, his adolescence at the vernal equinox
in March, his manhood at the summer
solstice in June, and his old age at the autumnal
equinox in September .
Among the Phoenicians, the sun was adored
under the name of Adonis, and in Persia,
under that of Mithras . In the Grecian mysteries,
the orb of day was represented by one of
the officers who superintended the ceremony of
initiation ; and in the Druidical rites his worship
was introduced as the visible representa-
tive of the invisible, creative, and preservative
principle of nature . In short, wherever
the spurious Freemasonry existed, the adoration
of, or, at least, a high respect for, the solar
orb constituted a part of its system .
In Freemasonry, the sun is still retained as
an important symbol . This fact must be familiar
to every Freemason of any intelligence .
It occupies, indeed, its appropriate position,
simply as a symbol, but, nevertheless, it constitutes
an essential part of the system . "As
an emblem of God's power," says Hutchinson
(Sp. of Mas ., Lect. IV., p. 86), `his goodness,
omnipresence, and eternity, the Lodge is
adorned with the image of the sun, which he
ordained to arise from the east and open the
day ; thereby calling forth the people of the
earth to their worship and exercise in the
walks of virtue ."
"The government of a Mason's Lodge,"
says Oliver (Signs and Sym ., p. 204), "is
vested in three superior officers, who are
seated in the East, West, and South, to re eresent
the rising, setting, and meridian sun .'
The sun, obedient to the all-seeing eye, is an
emblem in the ritual of the Third Degree, and
the sun displayed within an extended compass
constitutes the jewel of the Past Master in the
American system, and that of the Grand
Master in the English .
But it is a needless task to cite authorities
or multiply instances to prove how intimately
the sun, as a symbol, is connected with the
whole system of Freemasonry .
It is then evident that the sun, either as an
object of worship, or of symbolization, has
always formed an important part of what has
been called the two systems of Freemasonry,
the Spurious and the Pure .
To the ancient sun worshipers, the movements
of the heavenly bodies must have been
something more than mere astronomical phenomena
; they were the actions of the deities
whom they adored, and hence were invested
with the solemnity of a religious character .
But, above all, the particular periods when
the sun reached his greatest northern and
southern declination, at the winter and summer
solstices, by entering the zodiacal signs of
Cancer and Capricorn, marked as they would
be by the most evident effects on the seasons,
and on the length of the days and nights,
could not have passed unobserved, but, on the
contrary, must have occupied an important
place in their ritual . Now these important
days fall respectively on the 21st of June and
the 21st of December . Hence, these solstitial
periods were among the principal festivals
observed by the Pagan nations . Du Pauw
(Diss . on Egyp . and Chinese, ii ., 159) remarks
of the Egyptians, that "they had a fixed festival
at each new moon ; one at the summer,
and one at the winter solstice, as well as the
vernal and autumnal equinoxes ."
The Druids always observed the festivals of
midsummer and midwinter in June and December.
The former for a long time was celebrated
by the Christian descendants of the
Druids . "The eve of St . John the Baptist,"