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

240 EMANATION
EMERGENCY
The symbolism of these Flu degrees has been
greatly mistaken and perverted by anti-
Masonic writers, who have thus attributed to
Masonry a spirit of vengeance which is not its
characteristic. They must be looked upon as
conveying only a symbolic meaning. Those
higher degrees, in which the object of the election
is changed and connected with Templarism,
are more properly called Kadoshes. Thory
says that all the Elus are derived from the degree
of Kadosh, which preceded them . Thereverse,
we think, is the truth . The Elu system
sprang naturally from the Master's Degree,
and was only applied to Templarism when De
Molay was substituted for Hiram the Builder .
Emanation . Literally, "a flowing forth ."
The doctrine of emanations was a theory predominant
in many of the Oriental religions,
such ,especially, as Brahmanism and Paraeeism,
and subsequently adopted by the Kabbalists
and the Gnostics, and taught by Philo
and Plato . It assumed that all things emanated
flowed forth (which is the literal meaning
of the word), or were developed and descended
by degrees from the Supreme Being .
Thus, in the ancient religion of India, the
anima mundi, or soul of the word, the mysterious
source of all life, was identified with
Brahma, the Supreme God . The doctrine of
Gnosticism was that all beings emanated from
the Deity ; that there was a progressive degeneration
of these beings from the highest to
the lowest emanation, and a final redemption
and return of all to the purity of the Creator .
Philo taught that the Supreme Being was the
Primitive Light or the Archetype of Light,
whose rays illuminate, as from a common
source, all souls. The theory of emanations is
interesting to the Mason, because of the reference
in many of the higher degrees to the
doctrines of Philo, the Gnostics, and the Kabbalists.
Emanuel. A sacred word in some of the
high degrees, being one of the names applied
in Scripture to the Lord Jesus Christ . It is a
Greek form from the Hebrew, Immanuel,
~~t1]T]y, and signifies "God is with us ."
Embassy. The embassy of Zerubbabel
and four other Jewish chiefs to the court of
Darius, to obtain the protection of that monarch
from the encroachments of the Samaritans,
who interrupted the labors in the reconstruction
of the Temple, constitutes the
legend of the Sixteenth Degree of the Ancient
and Accepted Scottish Rite, and also of the
Red Cross Degree of the American Rite, which
is surely borrowed from the former . The history
of this embassy is found in the eleventh
book of the Antiquities of Josephus, whence
the Masonic ritualists have undoubtedly taken
it. The only authority of Josephus is the apocryphal
record of Esdras, and the authenticity
of the whole transaction is doubted or denied
by modem historians .
Emblem. The emblem is an occult representation
of something unknown or concealed
by a sign or thing that is known . Thus,
a square is in Freemasonry an emblem of
morality ; a plumb line, of rectitude of con-
duct ; and a level, of equality of human con .
ditions . Emblem is very generally used as
synonymous with symbol, although the two
words do not express exactly the same meaning
. An emblem is properly a representation
of an idea by a visible object, as in the examples
quoted above; but a symbol is more extensive
in its application, includes every representation
of an idea by an image whether
that image is presented immediately to the
senses as a visible and tangible substance, or
only brought before the mind by words .
Hence an action or event as described, a myth
or 1egend, may be a symbol ; and hence, too,
it follows that while all emblems are sym bols,
all symbols are not emblems . (See Symbol .)
Emerald. In Hebrew, JDn, caphak . It was
the first stone in the first row of the high
priest's breastplate, and was referred to Levi .
Adam Clarke says it is the same stone as the
smaragdus, and is of a bright green color .
Josephus, the Septuagint, and the Jerusalem
Targum understood by the Hebrew word the
carbuncle, which is red . The modern emerald,
as everybody knows, is green .
Emergency. The general law of Masonry
requires a month to elapse between the time
of receiving a petition for initiation and that
of balloting for the candidate, and also that
there shall be an interval of one month between
the reception of each of the degrees of
Craft Masonry . Cases sometimes occur when
a Lodge desires this probationary period to be
dispensed with, so that the candidate's petition
may be received and balloted for at the
same communication, or so that the degrees
may be conferred at much shorter intervals .
As some reason must be assigned for the application
to the Grand Master for the dispensation,
such reason is generally stated to be that
the candidate is about to go on a long journey
or some other equally valid. Cases of this kind
are called, in the technical language of Mar
It is evident that
the emergency is made for the sake of the candidate,
and not for that of the Lodge or of
Masonry. The too frequent occurrence of
applications for dispensations in cases of
emergency have been a fruitful source of evil,
as thereby unworthy persons, escaping the
ordeal of an investigation into character have
been introduced into the Order ; and even
where the candidates have been worthy, the
rapid passing through the degrees prevents a
due impression from being made on the mind,
and the candidate fails to justly appreciate the
beauties and merits of the Masonic system .
Hence, these cases of emergency have been
very unpopular with the most distinguished
members of the Fraternity . In the olden time
the Master and Wardens of the Lodge were
vested with the prerogative of deciding what
was a case of emergency ; but modem law
and usage (in America, at least) make the
Grand Master the sole judge of what constitutes
a case of emergency. [Under the English
Constitution the emergency must be real
in the opinion of the Master of the Lodge concerned.
(Rule 185.)]
sonry, cases of emergency .