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

the same relative sense in which the word _layman_ is used in the
professions of law and divinity.
PURE FREEMASONRY OF ANTIQUITY. The same as Primitive Freemasonry,-which
see.
PURIFICATION. A religious rite practised by the ancients, and which was
performed before any act of devotion. It consisted in washing the
hands,
and sometimes the whole body, in lustral or consecrated water. It was
intended as a symbol of the internal purification of the heart. It was
a
ceremony preparatory to initiation in all the ancient Mysteries.
PYTHAGORAS. A Grecian philosopher, supposed to have been born in the
island of Samos, about 584 B.C. He travelled extensively for the
purpose
of acquiring knowledge. In Egypt he was initiated in the Mysteries of
that
country by the priests. He also repaired to Babylon, where he became
acquainted with the mystical learning of the Chaldeans, and had, no
doubt,
much communication with the Israelitish captives who had been exiled
from
Jerusalem, and were then dwelling in Babylon. On his return to Europe
he
established a school, which in its organization, as well as its
doctrines,
bore considerable resemblance to Speculative Masonry; for which reason
he
has been claimed as "an ancient friend and brother" by the modern
Freemasons.
R
RESURRECTION. This doctrine was taught in the ancient Mysteries, as it
is
in Freemasonry, by a scenic representation. The initiation was death,
the
autopsy was resurrection. Freemasonry does not interest itself with the
precise mode of the resurrection, or whether the body buried and the
body
raised are in all their parts identical. Satisfied with the general
teaching of St. Paul, concerning the resurrection that "it is sown a
natural body, it is raised a spiritual body," Freemasonry inculcates by
its doctrine of the resurrection the simple fact of a progressive
advancement from a lower to a higher sphere, and the raising of the
soul
from the bondage of death to its inheritance of eternal life.
RITUAL. The forms and ceremonies used in conferring the degrees, or in
conducting the labors, of a lodge are called the ritual. There are many
rites of Freemasonry, which differ from each other in the number and