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

378 KABBALISTIC
KADOSH
templatin words according to the numerical
value of heir letters .
Any two words, the letters of which have
the same numerical value, are mutually convertible,
and each is supposed to contain the
latent signification of the other . Thus the
words in Genesis xlix . 10, "Shiloh shall
come," are supposed to contain a prophecy of
the Messiah, because the letters of "Shiloh
shall come," r15`ttJk:`, and of "Messiah," '1`27 110,
both have the numerical value of 358, according
to the above table . By Gematria, applied
to the Greek language, we find the identity of
Abraxas and Mithras, the letters of each
word having in the Greek alphabet the equal
value of 365 . This is by far the most common
mode of applying the literal Kabbala .
2. Notaricon is derived from the Latin notarius,
a shorthand writer or writer in cipher .
The Roman Notarii were accustomed to use
single letters, to signify whole words with
other methods of abbreviation, by marks
called "note ." Hence, among the Kabbalists,
notaricon is a mode of constructing one
word out of the initials or finals of many, or a
sentence out of the letters of a word, each letter
being used as the initial of another word .
Thus of the sentence in Deuteronomy xxx .12,
"Who shall go up for us to heaven?" in He-
word 0`tp is Hebrew, and signifies Tale or corer
secrated and is thus intended to denote the
elevated character of the degree and the sublimity
of the truths which distinguish it and
its possessors from the other degrees . Pluche
says that in the East, a person preferred to
honors bore a scepter, and sometimes a plate
of gold on the forehead, called a Kadosh, to
apprise the people that the bearer of this
mark or rod was a public person, who possessed
the privilege of entering into hostile
camps without the fear of losing his personal
liberty .
The degree of Kadosh, though found in
many of the Rites and in various countries,
seems, in all of them, to have been more or less
connected with the Knights Templar . In
some of the Rites it was placed at the head of
the list, and was then dignified as the ne plus
ultra of Masonry .
It was sometimes given as a separate order
or Rite within itself, and then it was divided
into the three degrees of Illustrious Knight of
the Temple, Knight of the Black Eagle, and
Grand Elect .
Oliver enumerates five degrees of Kadosh :
the Knight Kadosh ; Kadosh of the Chapter
of Clermont ; Philosophical Kadosh ; Kadosh
Prince of Death ; and Kadosh of the Ancient
brew . Z7`7 71 1:5 1 I `n, the initial letters of and Accepted Scottish Rite .'
The French rituals speak of seven : Kadosh
each word are taken to form the word 15`n,
of the Hebrews ; Kadosh of the first Christians
; Kadosh of the Crusades ; Kadosh of the
"circumcision," and the finals to form 11,x`,
"Jehovah" ; hence it is concluded that Jehovah
Templars ; Kadosh of Cromwell or the Puritans
; Kadosh of the Jesuits ; and the True
hath shown circumcision to be the way to
heaven . Again : the six letters of the first
word in Genesis, i1, V1-) : "in the beginning,"
Kadosh . But the correctness of this enumeration
is doubtful, for it cannot be sustained by
are made use of to form the initials of six
words which constitute a sentence signifying
documentary evidence. In all of these Kadoshes
the doctrine and the modes of recog-
that "In the beginning God saw that Israel
nition are substantially the same, though in
would accept the law," 11in ~?rlv *Zrr
most of them the ceremonies of initiation
=n5K r r, mrK7 : .
differ .
3 . Temura is a rabbinical word which signifies
permutation . Hence temura is a Kabba-
Ragon mentions a Kadosh which is said to
have been established at Jerusalem in 1118 ;
listic result produced by a change or permutation
of the letters of a word . Sometimes the
but here he undoubtedly refers to the Order of
Knights Templar. He gives also in his Tuileur
General the nomenclature of no less than
letters are transposed to form another word,
as in the modern anagram ; and sometimes
fourteen Kadosh degrees .
the letters are changed for others, according
The doctrine of the Kadosh system is that
to certain fixed rules of alphabetical permutation,
the 1st letter being placed for the 22d,
the persecutions of the Knights Templar by
Philip the Fair of France, and Pope Clement
the 2d for the 21st, the 3d for the 20th, and so
V ., however cruel and sanguinary in its results,
did not extinguish the Order, but it con-
on . It is in this way that Babel, 5 ::, is made
out of Sheshach, JV1V, and hence the Kabbalists
tinued to exist under the forms of Freemasonry.
say that when Jeremiah used the word
Sheshach (xxv . 26), he referred to Babel . That the ancient Templars are the
modern Kadoshes, and that the builder at the
Kabbalistie Companion . A degree found Temple of Solomon is now replaced by James
in the archives of the Mother Lodge of the
Philosophical Rite of France .
de Molay, the martyred Grand Master of the
Templars, the assassins being represented by
Kadiri, Order of. A secret society existing
the King of France, the Pope, and Naffodei
in Arabia, which so much resembles Free-
masonry in its object and forms, that Lieut .
Burton, who succeeded in obtaining initiation
into it, calls the members "Oriental Freemasons
the informer against the Order ; or, it is sometimes
said, by the three informers, Squin de
Florian, Naffodei, and the Prior of Montfauccon
.
." Burton gives a very interesting As to the history of the Kadosh degree, it is
account of the Order in his Pilgrimage to El said to have been first invented at Lyons, in
Medinah and Mecca .
France, in 1743, where it appeared under the
Kadosh . The name of a very important name of the Petit Elu . This degree, which is
degree in many of the Masonic Rites. The said to have been based upon the Templar doe-