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

e considered as the symbolization of the male or generative principle
in
nature--a sort of modification of the system of Phallic worship.
This sacred name among the Druids reminds me of what is the latest, and
undoubtedly the most philosophical, speculation on the true meaning, as
well as pronunciation, of the ineffable tetragrammaton. It is from the
ingenious mind of the celebrated Lanci; and I have already, in another
work, given it to the public as I received it from his pupil, and my
friend, Mr. Gliddon, the distinguished archaeologist. But the results
are
too curious to be omitted whenever the tetragrammaton is discussed.
Elsewhere I have very fully alluded to the prevailing sentiment among
the
ancients, that the Supreme Deity was bisexual, or hermaphrodite,
including
in the essence of his being the male and female principles, the
generative
and prolific powers of nature. This was the universal doctrine in all
the
ancient religions, and was very naturally developed in the symbol of
the
_phallus_ and _cteis_ among the Greeks, and in the corresponding one of
the _lingam_ and _yoni_ among the Orientalists; from which symbols the
masonic _point within a circle_ is a legitimate derivation. They all
taught that God, the Creator, was both male and female.
Now, this theory is undoubtedly unobjectionable on the score of
orthodoxy,
if we view it in the spiritual sense, in which its first propounders
must
necessarily have intended it to be presented to the mind, and not in
the
gross, sensual meaning in which it was subsequently received. For,
taking
the word _sex_, not in its ordinary and colloquial signification, as
denoting the indication of a particular physical organization, but in
that
purely philosophical one which alone can be used in such a connection,
and
which simply signifies the mere manifestation of a power, it is not to
be
denied that the Supreme Being must possess in himself, and in himself
alone, both a generative and a prolific power. This idea, which was so
extensively prevalent among all the nations of antiquity,[133] has also
been traced in the tetragrammaton, or name of Jehovah, with singular
ingenuity, by Lanci; and, what is almost equally as interesting, he
has,
by this discovery, been enabled to demonstrate what was, in all
probability, the true pronunciation of the word.
In giving the details of this philological discovery, I will endeavor
to
make it as comprehensible as it can be made to those who are not
critically acquainted with the construction of the Hebrew language;
those