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

LEGEND OF THE ROYAL ARCH DEGREE. Much of this legend is a mythical
history; but some portion of it is undoubtedly a philosophical myth.
The
destruction and the reedification of the temple, the captivity and the
return of the captives, are matters of history; but many of the details
have been invented and introduced for the purpose of giving form to a
symbolic idea.
LEGEND OF THE THIRD DEGREE. In all probability this legend is a
mythical
history, in which truth is very largely and preponderatingly mixed with
fiction.
It is the most important and significant of the legendary symbols of
Freemasonry.
Has descended from age to age by oral tradition, and has been preserved
in
every masonic rite.
No essential alteration of it has ever been made in any masonic system,
but the interpretations of it have been various; the most general one
is,
that it is a symbol of the resurrection and the immortality of the
soul.
Some continental writers have supposed that it was a symbol of the
downfall of the Order of Templars, and its hoped-for restoration. In
some
of the high philosophical degrees it is supposed to be a symbol of the
sufferings, death, and resurrection Christ. Hutchinson thought it a
symbol
of the decadence of the Jewish religion, and the rise of the Christian
on
its ruins. Oliver says that it symbolically refers to the murder of
Abel,
the death of our race through Adam, and its restoration through Christ.
Ragon thinks that it is a symbol of the sun shorn of its vigor by the
three winter months, and restored to generative power by the spring.
And
lastly, Des Etangs says that it is a symbol of eternal reason, whose
enemies are the vices that deprave and finally destroy humanity.
But none of these interpretations, except the first, can be sustained.
LETTUCE. The sacred plant of the Mysteries of Adonis; a symbol of
immortality, and the analogue of the acacia.
LEVEL. One of the working tools of a Fellow Craft. It is a symbol of
the
equality of station of all men before God.
LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES. In the seventh century, all learning was
limited to the seven liberal arts and sciences; their introduction into
Freemasonry, referring to this theory, is a symbol of the completion of