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

E
E . (Heb., "I .) The fifth letter in the
English and in the Graeco-Roman alphabets .
In form the Hebrew M is quite similar to Cheth,
r , which has a numerical value of eight, while
that of He is five. The signification is window,
and in the Egyptian hieroglyphs- is represented
by a hand extending the thumb and
two fingers. It also represents the fifth name
of God, 1111 (Hadur), Formosus, Majestuosus.
Eagle. The eagle, as a symbol, is of great
antiquity. In Egypt, Greece, and Persia,
this bird was sacred to the sun . Among the
Pagans it was an emblem of Jupiter, and with
the Druids it was a symbol of their supreme
god . In the Scriptures, a distinguished reference
is in many instances made to the eagle ;
especially do we find Moses (Exod . xix. 4)
representing Jehovah as saying, in allusion to
the belief that this bird assists its feeble young
in their flight by bearing them upon its own
pinions, "Ye have seen what I did unto the
EFyptians and how I bare you on a les'
wings and brought you unto myself ." Not
less elevated was the symbolism of the eagle
among the Pagans. Thus, Cicero, speaking
of the myth of Ganymede carried up to Jove
on an eagle's back, says that it teaches us that
the truly wise, irradiated by the shining
light of virtue, become more and more like
God, until by wisdom they are borne aloft and
soar to Him . The heralds explain the eagle as
signifying the same thing among birds as the
lion does among quadrupeds . It is, they say
the most swift, strong, laborious, generous, and
bold of all birds, and for this reason it has
been made, both by ancients and moderns,
the R0,:Tbol of majesty . In the jewel of the
oix Degree is found an eagle displayed
at the foot of the cross ; and it is there very
appropriately selected as a symbol of Christ,
in His Divine character, bearing the children
of His adoption on his wings, teaching them
with unequaled love and tenderness to poise
their unfledged wings and soar from the dull
corruptions of earth to a higher and holier
sphere. And for this reason the eagle in the
jewel of that degree is very significantly represented
as having the wings displayed as if
in the very act of flight .
Eagle and Pelican, Knight of the . See
Knight of the Eagle and Pelican .
Eagle, Double-Headed . The eagle displayed,
that is, with extended wings, as if in
the act of flying, has always, from the majestic
character of the bird, been deemed an
emblem of imperial power . Marius, the consul,
first consecrated the eagle, about eight
years n .c ., to be the sole Roman standard at
the head of every legion, and hence it became
the standard of the Roman Empire ever afterward
. As the single-headed eagle was thus
adopted as the symbol of imperial power, the
double-headed eagle naturally became the representative
of a double empire ; and on the
division of the Roman dominions into the
eastern and western empire, which were after-
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ward consolidated by the Carlovingian race
into what was ever after called the Holy
Roman Empire, the double-headed eagle was
assumed as the emblem of this double empire ;
one head looking, as it were, to the West, or
Rome, and the other to the East, or Byzantium
. Hence the escutcheons of many persons
now living, the descendants of the princes
and counts of the Holy Roman Empire, are
placed upon the breast of a double-headed
eagle . Upon the dissolution of that empire,
the emperors of Germany, who claimed their
empire to be the representative of ancient
Rome, assumed the double-headed eagle as
their symbol, and placed it in their arms,
which were blazoned thus : Or, an eagle displayed
sable, having two heads, each enclosed
within an amulet, or beaked and armed gales,
holding in his right claw a sword and scepter
or, and in his left the imperial mound . Russia
also bears the double-headed eagle, having
added, says Brewer, that of Poland to her
own, and thus denoting a double empire. It
is, however, probable that the double-headed
eagle of Russia is to be traced to some assumed
representation of the Holy Roman Empire
based upon the claim of Russia to Byzantium ;
for Constantine, the Byzantine emperor, is
said to have been the first who assumed this
device to intimate the division of the empire
into East and West .
The statement of Millington (Heraldry in
History, Poetry, and Romance, p . 290) is
doubtful that "the double-headed eagle of
the Austrian and Russian empires was first
assumed during the Second Crusade and typified
the great alliance formed by the Christian
sovereigns of Greece and Germany against the
enemy of their common faith, and it is retained
by Russia and Austria as representations of
those empires ." The theory is more probable
as well as more generally accepted which connects
the symbol with the eastern and western
empires of Rome . It is, however, agreed by
all that while the single-headed eagle denotes
imperial dignity, the extension and multiplication
of that dignity is symbolized by the two
heads.
The double-headed eagle was probably first
introduced as a symbol into Masonry in the