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

equilateral
triangle, and the All-Seeing Eye.
Of the letter _G_ I have already spoken. A letter of the English
alphabet
can scarcely be considered an appropriate symbol of an institution
which
dates its organization and refers its primitive history to a period
long
anterior to the origin of that language. Such a symbol is deficient in
the
two elements of antiquity and universality which should characterize
every
masonic symbol. There can, therefore, be no doubt that, in its present
form, it is a corruption of the old Hebrew symbol, the letter _yod_, by
which the sacred name was often expressed. This letter is the initial
of
the word _Jehovah_, or _Ihoh_, as I have already stated, and is
constantly
to be met with in Hebrew writings as the symbol or abbreviature of
_Jehovah_, which word, it will be remembered, is never written at
length.
But because _G_ is, in like manner, the initial of _God_, the
equivalent
of _Jehovah_, this letter has been incorrectly, and, I cannot refrain
from
again saying, most injudiciously, selected to supply, in modern lodges,
the place of the Hebrew symbol.
Having, then, the same meaning and force as the Hebrew _yod_, the
letter
_G_ must be considered, like its prototype, as the symbol of the
life-giving and life-sustaining power of God, as manifested in the
meaning
of the word Jehovah, or Ihoh, the generative and prolific energy of the
Creator.
The _All-Seeing Eye_ is another, and a still more important, symbol of
the
same great Being. Both the Hebrews and the Egyptians appear to have
derived its use from that natural inclination of figurative minds to
select an organ as the symbol of the function which it is intended
peculiarly to discharge. Thus the foot was often adopted as the symbol
of
swiftness, the arm of strength, and the hand of fidelity. On the same
principle, the open eye was selected as the symbol of watchfulness, and
the eye of God as the symbol of divine watchfulness and care of the
universe. The use of the symbol in this sense is repeatedly to be found
in
the Hebrew writers. Thus the Psalmist says (Ps. xxxiv. 15), "The eyes
of
the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry,"
which explains a subsequent passage (Ps. cxxi. 4), in which it is said,
"Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." [136]
On the same principle, the Egyptians represented Osiris, their chief
deity, by the symbol of an open eye, and placed this hieroglyphic of