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

the
craftsmen, on their way to Joppa, discovered the evergreen acacia.
Having thus traced the analogy, let us look a little to the symbolism.
Mount Calvary has always retained an important place in the legendary
history of Freemasonry, and there are many traditions connected with it
that are highly interesting in their import.
One of these traditions is, that it was the burial-place of Adam, in
order, says the old legend, that where he lay, who effected the ruin of
mankind, there also might the Savior of the world suffer, die, and be
buried. Sir R. Torkington, who published a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in
1517, says that "under the Mount of Calvary is another chapel of our
Blessed Lady and St. John the Evangelist, that was called Golgotha; and
there, right under the mortise of the cross, was found the head of our
forefather, Adam." [176] Golgotha, it will be remembered, means, in
Hebrew, "the place of a skull;" and there may be some connection
between
this tradition and the name of Golgotha, by which the Evangelists
inform
us, that in the time of Christ Mount Calvary was known. Calvary, or
Calvaria, has the same signification in Latin.
Another tradition states, that it was in the bowels of Mount Calvary
that
Enoch erected his nine-arched vault, and deposited on the foundationstone
of Masonry that Ineffable Name, whose investigation, as a symbol of
divine
truth, is the great object of Speculative Masonry.
A third tradition details the subsequent discovery of Enoch's deposit
by
King Solomon, whilst making excavations in Mount Calvary, during the
building of the temple.
On this hallowed spot was Christ the Redeemer slain and buried. It was
there that, rising on the third day from his sepulchre, he gave, by
that
act, the demonstrative evidence of the resurrection of the body and the
immortality of the soul.
And it was on this spot that the same great lesson was taught in
Masonry--the same sublime truth--the development of which evidently
forms
the design of the Third or Master Mason's degree.
There is in these analogies a sublime beauty as well as a wonderful
coincidence between the two systems of Masonry and Christianity, that
must, at an early period, have attracted the attention of the Christian
Masons.
Mount Calvary is consecrated to the Christian as the place where his
crucified Lord gave the last great proof of the second life, and fully
established the doctrine of the resurrection which he had come to
teach.