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

immortal life.
OVAL TEMPLES. Temples of an oval form were representations of the
mundane
egg, a symbol of the world.
P
PALM TREE. In its secondary sense the palm tree is a symbol of victory;
but in its primary signification it is a symbol of the victory over
death,
that is, immortality.
PARABLE. A narrative in which one thing is compared with another. It is
in
principle the same as a symbol or an allegory.
PARALLEL LINES. The lines touching the circle in the symbol of the
point
within a circle. They are said to represent St. John the Baptist and
St.
John the Evangelist; but they really refer to the solstitial points
Cancer
and Capricorn, in the zodiac.
PASTOS. (From the Greek [Greek: pasto\s], _a nuptial couch_.) The
coffin
or grave which contained the body of the god or hero whose death was
scenically represented in the ancient Mysteries.
It is the analogue of the grave in the third degree of Masonry.
PELASGIAN RELIGION. The Pelasgians were the oldest if not the
aboriginal
inhabitants of Greece. Their religion differed from that of the
Hellenes
who succeeded them in being less poetical, less mythical, and more
abstract. We know little of their religious worship, except by
conjecture;
but we may suppose it resembled in some respects the doctrines of the
Primitive Freemasonry. Creuzer thinks that the Pelasgians were either a
nation of priests or a nation ruled by priests.
PHALLUS. A representation of the virile member, which was venerated as
a
religious symbol very universally, and without the slightest
lasciviousness, by the ancients. It was one of the modifications of sun
worship, and was a symbol of the fecundating power of that luminary.
The
masonic point within a circle is undoubtedly of phallic origin.
PHILOSOPHY OF FREEMASONRY. The dogmas taught in the masonic system
constitute its philosophy. These consist in the contemplation of God as
one and eternal, and of man as immortal. In other words, the philosophy