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

is
the thing adopted as a symbol, whence the symbolic idea is derived.
Thus
we say the temple is the archetype of the lodge, because the former is
the
symbol whence all the temple symbolism of the latter is derived.
ARCHITECTURE. The art which teaches the proper method of constructing
public and private edifices. It is to Freemasonry the "ars artium," the
art of arts, because to it the institution is indebted for its origin
in
its present organization. The architecture of Freemasonry is altogether
related to the construction of public edifices, and principally sacred
or
religious ones,--such as temples, cathedrals, churches,--and of these,
masonically, the temple of Solomon is the archetype. Much of the
symbolism
of Freemasonry is drawn from the art of architecture. While the
improvements of Greek and Roman architecture are recognized in
Freemasonry, the three ancient orders, the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
are alone symbolized. No symbolism attaches to the Tuscan and
Composite.
ARK OF THE COVENANT. One of the most sacred objects among the
Israelites.
It was a chest made of shittim wood, or acacia, richly decorated,
forty-five inches long, and eighteen inches wide, and contained the two
tables of stone on which the ten commandments were engraved, the golden
pot that held manna, and Aaron's rod. It was placed in the holy of
holies,
first of the tabernacle, and then of the temple. Such is its masonic
and
scriptural history. The idea of this ark was evidently borrowed from
the
Egyptians, in whose religious rites a similar chest or coffer is to be
found. Herodotus mentions several instances. Speaking of the festival
of
Papremis, he says (ii. 63) that the image of the god was kept in a
small
wooden shrine covered with plates of gold, which shrine was conveyed in
a
procession of the priests and people from the temple into a second
sacred
building. Among the sculptures are to be found bass reliefs of the ark
of
Isis. The greatest of the religious ceremonies of the Egyptians was the
procession of the shrines mentioned in the Rosetta stone, and which is
often found depicted on the sculptures. These shrines were of two
kinds,
one a canopy, but the other, called the great shrine, was an ark or
sacred
boat. It was borne on the shoulders of priests by means of staves
passing
through rings in its sides, and was taken into the temple and deposited
on
a stand. Some of these arks contained, says Wilkinson (_Notes to
Herod._