THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

mystic ladder in the sacred tree _Ydrasil;_[83] but here the reference
to
the septenary division is so imperfect, or at least abstruse, that I am
unwilling to press it into our catalogue of coincidences, although
there
is no doubt that we shall find in this sacred tree the same allusion as
in
the ladder of Jacob, to an ascent from earth, where its roots were
planted, to heaven, where its branches expanded, which ascent being but
a
change from mortality to immortality, from time to eternity, was the
doctrine taught in all the initiations. The ascent of the ladder or of
the
tree was the ascent from life here to life hereafter--from earth to
heaven.
It is unnecessary to carry these parallelisms any farther. Any one can,
however, see in them an undoubted reference to that septenary division
which so universally prevailed throughout the ancient world, and the
influence of which is still felt even in the common day life and
observances of our time. Seven was, among the Hebrews, their perfect
number; and hence we see it continually recurring in all their sacred
rites. The creation was perfected in seven days; seven priests, with
seven trumpets, encompassed the walls of Jericho for seven days; Noah
received seven days' notice of the commencement of the deluge, and
seven
persons accompanied him into the ark, which rested on Mount Ararat on
the
seventh month; Solomon was seven years in building the temple: and
there
are hundreds of other instances of the prominence of this talismanic
number, if there were either time or necessity to cite them.
Among the Gentiles the same number was equally sacred. Pythagoras
called
it a "venerable number." The septenary division of time into weeks of
seven days, although not universal, as has been generally supposed, was
sufficiently so to indicate the influence of the number. And it is
remarkable, as perhaps in some way referring to the seven-stepped
ladder
which we have been considering, that in the ancient Mysteries, as
Apuleius
informs us, the candidate was seven times washed in the consecrated
waters
of ablution.
There is, then, an anomaly in giving to the mystical ladder of Masonry
only _three_ rounds. It is an anomaly, however, with which Masonry has
had
nothing to do. The error arose from the ignorance of those inventors
who
first engraved the masonic symbols for our monitors. The ladder of
Masonry, like the equipollent ladders of its kindred institutions,
always
had seven steps, although in modern times the three principal or upper
ones are alone alluded to. These rounds, beginning at the lowest, are
_Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Faith, Hope,_ and _Charity_.