Chaque version du rituel est donnée dans l'état de sa source, de la plus
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le REAA du 4e au 33e degré.
Les textes issus de numérisations anciennes ont été corrigés automatiquement
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Copie d'un officier du régiment de Foix en garnison à Saint-Domingue : le Rite de Perfection en 25 degrés, tel qu'arrêté au convent de Bordeaux. Cahier « Le sublime écossais, le dernier point de la perfection » (p. 150-152 de la transcription). Le texte suit la transcription d'Aeditimus : son apparat critique est repris ici, ainsi que les repères de folio du manuscrit.
La tenture doit être la même que dans la loge de perfection. Il y a de plus une voûte azurée parsemée d'étoiles d'or sur un fond. Le vénérable maître se nomme très puissant. Il doit être revêtu d'une robe blanche ainsi que tous les frères, qu'on nomme fidèles et véritables frères. Aussi, il n'y a qu'un surveillant qui tient en main une baguette d'or. Le très puissant est assis sur un trône bleu derrière lequel sont toutes les lumières qui éclairent la loge par un transparent. Il tient un sceptre en la main.
La loge représente une ville carrée ayant douze portes trois sur chaque face et au milieu un arbre ayant douze fruits différents. La loge se nomme conseil… Cette ville est élevée sur des nues et au-dessous on voit des édifices ruinés et renversés et un serpent à trois têtes enchaîné qui parait être écrasé par le poids des décombres de la ville ruinée. Une montagne parait sur un des côtés.
Le conseil s'ouvra par douze coups. Le très puissant demande au surveillant : Quelle heure est-il, vénérable frère ?
L'heure prédite, très puissant. – Alors il dit : Fidèles frères, le très puissant, l'alpha et l'oméga, Emmanuel, travaillons. Le surveillant dit à tous les frères : Fidèles et véritables frères, la loge de sublime écossais est ouverte.
Pour fermer la loge, le très puissant assis demande l'heure qu'il est. Tous les frères se lèvent et le surveillant répond : L'heure est accomplie.
Le très puissant dit : le Tout-Puissant est l'Alpha et l'Oméga. Il frappe douze coups qui sont répétés par le surveillant. La loge est fermée.
Pour une réception
Le récipiendaire décoré de tous les attributs des grades qu'il a déjà reçu. En entrant en loge il sera placé par le surveillant sur la montagne, et il lui demandera s'il ne déteste pas les traîtres et les perfides et s'il ne promet pas de rompre toute communication avec eux.
Le récip[iendaire] lève la main droite en signe de consentement. Ensuite le surveillant le laisse au sommet de la montagne et lui, la descendant en reculant, va mesurer la ville gravée et vient lui rapporter qu'elle a douze stades sur chaque face. Il le fait ensuite descendre en reculant et le place au pied du tracé ruiné, le fait avancer par trois pas en carré et lui fait avancer le pied gauche jusqu'au serpent, marcher ensuite sur les trois têtes en carré et lui fait avancer le pied gauche au bas de la ville, où il fait trois génuflexions du genou droit en tendant en même temps les mains vis-à-vis le très puissant. Le surveillant le conduit ensuite en marchant en reculant jusqu'au pied du tableau et lui donne les signes, attouchements et paroles de la manière qui suit, après lui avoir fait prêter son obligation en la manière accoutumée.
Le signe se fait en tenant le bras droit, l'étendre ensuite et baisser perpendiculairement les trois doigts du milieu en bas.
L'attouchement est de se passer réciproquement l'un à l'autre la paume de la main droite sur le front. Le premier surveillant les rend, le second surveillant reste assis et c'est lui, qui demande quelle heure est-il, etc.
Les paroles sont, le premier dit : Alléluya, le second répond : Louons le Seigneur. Le premier dit : Emmanuel, le second répond : Dieu le veuille. Ils disent ensemble après : Amen, amen, Dieu le veuille. – Autrement 17 – 7 – 17 : 7 Le cordon est un grand ruban large cramoisi bordé d'un petit filet blanc et parsemé de douze étoiles d'or, pendant de l'épaule droite à la hanche gauche. Le bijou, qui doit y être suspendu, est un carré en or dans lequel sont gravés ces caractères : Il est fait de même que le bijou écossais, excepté qu'il est couronné d'une rosette de diamants ou autres pierres précieuses.
Doctrine des sublimes écossais
D. Qui êtes-vous ?
R. Je suis sublime écossais à qui rien n'est inconnu.
D. Où avez-vous été reçu ?
R. Dans un lieu, qui n'a besoin ni du Soleil, ni de la Lune pour être éclairé. Je vous l'explique, de même, que la loge sublime écossais n'emprunte point de lumière artificielle pour être éclairée. De même, les fidèles et véritables frères écossais n'ont pas besoin de la richesse ni de la naissance pour être admis en loge, mais il doit faire preuve de son attachement à la Maçonnerie, de la fidélité à ses obligations et de son amitié envers les frères.
D. Que représente le tracé de la loge de sublime écossais ?
R. Une ville carrée en tout point, qui a douze portes, trois à chaque face, au milieu de la ville un arbre, qui porte douze fruits différents. Cette ville est portée sur des nues et vient remplacer des édifices ruinés par le serpent à trois têtes, enchaîné et écrasé. La ville carrée représente l'ancienne Maçonnerie sous le titre de sublime écossais, qui a remplacé l'ancien temple détruit, représenté par les édifices ruinés et le serpent à trois têtes, enchaîné et écrasé dans les ruines.
D. Comment la Maçonnerie est-elle tombée et ruinée, puisque les liens indissolubles et vos obligations ne sont rien moins qu'équivoques ?
R. Ceci avait été de tout temps, comme le témoigne Saint Jean, que nous connaissons pour le frère maçon sublime, qui a tenu la première loge de perfection.
D. Où est-ce que Saint Jean en a parlé ?
R. Dans son Apocalypse, lorsqu'il parle de Babylone et de la nouvelle Jérusalem.
D. Que signifie l'arbre qui est au milieu de la ville et qui porte douze fruits différents ?
R. C'est l'arbre de vie qui y est tracé pour faire comprendre que c'est dans nos loges qu'on trouve les douceurs de la vie et les douze fruits, que nous devons nous assembler tous les mois pour nous faire part mutuellement de nos lumières et nous soutenir contre nos ennemis.
D. Quelle propriété a le bandeau du récipiendaire et les douze étoiles, qui y sont brodées ?
R. Il procure l'entrée de nos loges comme il procurait l'entrée de Jérusalem à ceux, qui le portaient comme le dit Saint Jean dans l'Apocalypse.
D. Que signifient les douze étoiles au bandeau du récipiendaire, que nous portons tous en loge ?
R. Elles représentent les douze anges, qui gardaient les douze portes de la céleste Jérusalem.
D. Que signifie la tenture bleue et les étoiles appliquées dessus ?
R. Le bleu est ce symbole de la douceur qui doit être le partage de tous les fidèles frères et les étoiles représentent les maçons, qui, ayant donné des marques de leur attachement aux règles
D. Quel âge avez-vous ?
R. Je ne compte plus.
D. Comment vous appelez-vous ?
R. Fidèle et véritable frère.
D. Que vous reste-t-il à acquérir ?
R. La sublime vérité des grands élus chevaliers K[ados] et des souverains du royal secret, dit le nec plus ultra, dit le grade du sublime.
Tous les frères portent un bandeau de ruban cramoisi, bordé d'un petit filet blanc, sur lequel sont brodées douze étoiles en or.
[Signature]
Manuscrit Quesada 1804 (copie 1813-1821)
manuscrit · BNE Mss 7834 · 1 234 mots
Le manuscrit Quesada (Mss 7834 de la Bibliothèque Nationale d'Espagne) : copie (1813-1821) d'un état du Rite de 1804, voire antérieur, tel que pratiqué dans la mouvance du Suprême Conseil d'Amérique. Les didascalies du manuscrit sont en italique. Le texte est celui de l'édition Latomia, donnée en vis-à-vis du fac-similé du manuscrit : l'apparat critique de cette édition est repris ici, de même que les repères de folio du manuscrit.
Texte intégral sur ce site · transcription C. M. & P. T., Latomia / Chantier de fouilles maçonniques, d'après le Mss 7834 de la BNE
Folio 231 recto
dit de la Jérusalem Céleste 613
Décoration de la Loge
La tenture de cette L∴ doit être bleue parsemée d’étoiles d’or, le Me∴ de cette L∴ s’appelle 3 Fois Puissant ( Planche fig ) Il est revêtu d’une robe de satin blanc, il doit être assis dans un dais bleu sur un trône derrière lequel est un transparent dans une niche suffisamment allumée pour éclairer toute la L∴. Il tient un sceptre dans la main. Il n’y a qu’un Survt∴ qui est assis à l’Ouest à l’opposé du 3 Fois Puissant, il tient à sa main une étoffe 614 d’or tous les FF∴ sont aussi vêtus de robes blanches ils ont le titre de Fidèles et Vrais FF∴. Ils doivent tous avoir un bandeau de satin bleu autour de leur front, avec des étoiles brodées en or, le Tableau de la L∴ représente une ville carrée, ou la Jérusalem Céleste sur un nuage, descendant du ciel pour terrasser le reste de la terre de Jérusalem où un serpent à 3 têtes, ou une hydre enchaînée représentent la méchanceté des infidèles, cette Jérusalem Céleste a 12 portes, 3, à l’Est, 615 & dans le centre de la ville est un arbre qui porte 12 différentes feuilles, cette Jérusalem semble être renversée les têtes du serpent méchanceté semblent être écrasées par la Jérusalem Céleste, sur le côté du Tableau, on voit une haute montagne.
Folio 231 verso
Ouverture de la Loge
Le 3 Fois Puissant frappe 12 coups à égale distance, et fait les questions suivantes :
D∴ FF∴ quelle heure est-il ?
R∴ L’heure prédite. 616 Fidèles FF∴ tout est Alpha. Oméga
Emmanuel.
Travaillons :
Alors le Survt∴ frappe 12 coups & dit : Fidèles FF∴ la L∴ de Gd∴ Pontife est ouverte.
Forme de réception
Le Cand∴ doit être décoré du symbole de Chev∴ d’Orient et d’Occ∴ d’un bandeau de satin bleu parsemé d’étoiles en or, au nombre de 12, autour du front, avant d’entrer. Il est aussitôt introduit dans la L∴ ou le Survt∴
le place sur le sommet d’une montagne & lui demande F∴ détestez vous les perfides : promettez-vous de rompre toute communication avec eux
Le Récipre∴ répond : Je le promets & le jure, alors le Cand∴ reste sur la montagne et le Survt∴ en descend, à reculons, et va vers la ville céleste avec une chaîne d’arpenteur, mesure les 4 côtés de la ville ensuite il retourne au Cand∴ & lui dit : F∴ cette ville, ( en la lui montrant ) contient 1200 stades de chaque côté, il prend ensuite le Cand∴ par la main, et descendant ensemble à reculons il le conduit devant le Tableau qui fait en 617 face au 3 Fois Puissant à droite du Survt∴, après une minute de silence, il le fait aller par 3 pas en Équerre, au serpent enchaîné sur chacune de ses 3 têtes ensuite il le fait avancer vers la ville céleste, avançant par le pied gauche en rapprochant le droit, au talon gauche, à chaque pas alors, il s’agenouille 3 fois sur le genou droit tenant en même temps sa main droite horizontalement vers le Trois Fois Puissant. ( Na∴ Bé∴ ) C’est en celui 618 de cette obligation que le 3 Fois Pt∴ lui ordonne de reculer de 3 pas, qui le ramenant au bas du Tableau où le Survt lui donne le Signe l’Attouchement & le Mot.
Signe, C’est de tenir la main droite horizontalement les doigts étendus en laissant tomber 3 doigts perpendiculairement Attouchemt∴C’est de mettre réciproquemt la paume
Folio 232 recto
de la main droite sur le front l’un de l’autre Parole. L’un dit : Alleluia l’autre répond : Louons le Seigneur, le premier répète Emmanuel et l’autre : Dieu vous assiste. Bijou C’est un large ruban rouge parsemé
de 12 étoiles d’or. Auquel pend une Équerre d’or sur un côté est le mot. Alpha. Sur l’autre Oméga. Le cordon se porte de l’épaule
droite à la hanche gauche ( Pl∴fig∴)
Catéchisme
D∴ Qui êtes-vous ? Je suis Sublime Grand Élu. 619
R∴
D∴ Où avez-vous reçu ce grade ?
R∴ Dans un lieu qui n’est éclairé ni du Soleil ni de la Lune
D∴ Expliquez-moi cela ? Comme le Gd∴ Pontife ne veut jamais de lumières artificielles de R∴ même les fidèles et vrais FF∴ les Subl∴ G ds∴ Pontifes ne veulent ni richesses ni titres pour être admis dans les grades sublimes, ils le prouvent ainsi par leur attachement à la maçonnerie et leur fidélité dans leurs obligations, leurs vertus et leur sincère amitié pour leurs FF∴ en général
D∴ Que représente le Tableau de cette L∴ ?
R∴ Une ville carrée avec trois portes de chaque côté dans le milieu de laquelle est un arbre qui porte 12 différentes feuilles, cette ville est suspendue comme un nuage et semble écraser un serpent à 3 têtes.
D∴ Expliquez-moi cela ? R∴La ville carrée représente l’ancienne Maçonnerie sous le titre de Gd∴ Pontife qui descend du ciel pour rétablir l’ancien Temple détruit que le Gd∴ Pontife vient faire renaître ainsi qu’il est représenté par les ruines et les 3 têtes du serpent enchaîné dessous
D∴ Comment la Maçonnerie est-elle tombée au pouvoir des ruines puisque nous sommes liés et attachés indissolublement par notre obligation qui ne peut pas être équivoque ?
R∴ Cela fut ainsi décrété dans l’ancien temps comme nous l’apprenons par S t Jean qui comme nous le savons, fut le premier Maçon qui tint une Loge de Perfection. Où St∴ Jean dit-il cela ? D∴
R∴ Dans la Révélation, où il parla de Babylone et de la Jérusalem Céleste.
D∴ Que signifie l’arbre avec les 12 différentes feuilles qui est situé dans le centre du carré ?
Folio 232 verso
R∴ Cet arbre de vie y est placé pour nous faire entendre où l’on peut trouver les douceurs de la vie et 12 feuilles signifient que nous devons tous les mois nous instruire mutuellement et nous soutenir contre nos ennemis.
D∴ Que signifie le bandeau de satin dont le Cand∴ a les yeux couverts 620 et les 12 étoiles ?
R∴ Il procure à ceux qui le portent, l’entrée de notre L∴ comme il procure l’entrée de la Jérusalem Céleste à ceux qui le portent c’est ainsi que S t Jean s’explique.
D∴ Que signifient les 12 étoiles d’or sur le bandeau du Cand∴ et ceux des FF ?
R∴ Elles représentent les douze anges qui veillent aux 12 portes de la Jérusalem Céleste.
D∴ Que signifie la tenture bleue et les 12 étoiles qui y sont parsemées
R∴ Le bleu est le symbole de la modération, de la félicité et de la douceur, qui doivent être le partage des fidèles & vrais FF∴ et les étoiles représentent les Maç∴ qui y ont donné lieu de preuves de leur attachement aux Statuts et Règlements de l’Ordre et qui enfin les rendent dignes d’entrer dans la Jérusalem Céleste
Le « Thuileur des trente-trois degrés de l'Écossisme » de Delaulnaye (Paris, 1813), premier tuileur imprimé du REAA constitué : mots, signes, décors et remarques du grade. Texte relu mot à mot sur le fac-similé, mots hébreux restitués. Pages 146-150 de l'édition originale.
Un seul fort transparent, placé derrière le dais sous lequel est assis le Maître, peut éclairer toute la Loge.
Titres.
Le Maître se nomme Trois fois Puissant. Il n'y a qu'un seul Surveillant à l'Occident. Tous les Frères sont appelés Fidèles et vrais Frères.
[p. 147]
Signe.
Lever la main droite horizontalement, les doigts tendus ; puis en baisser perpendiculairement trois.
Attouchement.
Se mettre réciproquement la paume de la main droite sur le front : le premier dit Alleluia ; le second répond : louez le Seigneur ; le premier dit Emmanuel, le second Dieu vous assiste ; tous deux ensemble, Amen אָמֵן, Dieu le veuille.
Batterie.
Douze Coups égaux.
○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
Mot Sacré.
Alleluia, en hébreu HALLELOUIAH, חַלְלוּיָה.
(dominum laudate.)
Les Kamtschadales disent Alkalalai, cri de joie dans lequel on trouve quelque analogie avec l'Alleluia des Hébreux.
[p. 148]
Mot de Passe.
Emmanuel.
Heure.
Pour ouvrir ; l'Heure prédite.
Pour fermer ; l'Heure est accomplie.
Habit.
Le Vénérable est vêtu d'une robe de satin Blanc ; tous les Frères ont une robe blanche, et, sur le front, un bandeau de satin bleu, sur lequel sont brodées en or douze étoiles.
Cordon.
Cramoisi (Écossois), liséré de blanc, parsemé de douze étoiles d'or ; placé de gauche à droite. On y brode l'Alpha et l'Omega.
Bijou.
Un carré long, sur lequel sont gravés, d'un côté un Alpha de l'autre un Omega.
[p. 149]
Ce grade a pour objet la nouvelle Jérusalem, c'est-à-dire la Maçonnerie Régénérée, écrasant le serpent à trois têtes (la fausse et vaine Maçonnerie).
[p. 150]
Vuillaume 1820
tuileur imprimé · 311 mots
Le tuileur de Claude-André Vuillaume, « Manuel maçonnique, ou Tuileur de tous les rites de maçonnerie pratiqués en France » (Paris, Delaunay et Hubert, 1820) : décoration, titres, signes, attouchement, marche, batterie, âge, mots, habillement du grade, avec l'étymologie et l'interprétation des mots hébreux. Texte établi sur le fac-similé et relu mot à mot sur les images : océrisation à 600 dpi du volume numérisé, fusion avec la couche texte de la numérisation Gallica, puis relecture page par page. Orthographe de 1820 conservée, hébreu et grec restitués, batteries rendues comme l'imprimé les note, pagination de l'original. Pages 142 à 144.
La loge n'est éclairée que par la lumière qui pénètre à travers un transparent qui est au fond du dais, sous lequel est placé le président.
TITRES.
Le maître ou président se nomme Trois fois puissant. Il n'y a qu'un seul surveillant, qui se place à l'ouest. Tous les membres sont nommés fidèles et vrais frères.
[p. 143]
SIGNE.
Etendre le bras droit horizontalement, la main également étendue; abaisser perpendiculairement les trois derniers doitgs.
ATTOUCHEMENT.
Se mettre réciproquement la paume de la main droite sur le front; le premier dit : alleluia; le second répond : louez le Seigneur; le premier réplique : Emmanuel; et le second : Dieu vous assiste; tous deux ensemble : amen (héb. אמן firmum sit. Saint-Math., chap. 21, vers. 21 et 31; Tobie, chap. 9, vers. 12; et Judith, chap. 10, vers. 9).
BATTERIE.
Douze coups égaux.
HEURES DU TRAVAIL.
A l'ouverture. — Il est l'heure prédite.
A la clôture. — L'heure est accomplie.
HABILLEMENT.
Le maître est vêtu d'une longue robe de satin blanc; les autres membres sont également en robe blanche, mais en lin. Tous ont le front ceint d'un bandeau de couleur bleu- [p. 144] céleste, sur lequel sont brodées en or, douze étoiles.
Par-dessus cet habit, un cordon cramoisi écossais, liséré de blanc, ayant douze étoiles brodées en or sur le devant. Vers le haut, est aussi brodé un A (alpha), et vers le bas, un Ω (omega), qui sont les deux extrémités de l'alphabet grec. Ce cordon se porte de gauche à droite.
Le bijou est suspendu au cordon; c'est une plaque d'or en forme de carré long, sur laquelle sont gravés d'un côté un A, et de l'autre un Ω.
« The Magnum Opus or Great Work » (1857) : le premier corps complet de rituels révisés par Albert Pike pour la Juridiction Sud des États-Unis. Texte en anglais, établi par reconnaissance optique corrigée : des coquilles subsistent.
D'après la réimpression Kessinger de l'édition de 1857 (numérisation archive.org)
THE LODGE ROOM, AND ITS DECORATIONS.
The hangings are blue, sprinkled with stars of gold. The whole Lodge is lighted by one large spherical
transparency, behind the Master's seat in the East.
In the East is a throne, and over it a blue canopy.
Around the room are twelve columns, two in the East, [one on each side of the Master], two in the West,
{one on each side of the Warden), four on the North side, and four on the South side, of the Lodge; on their capitals are the English initials of the names of the Twelve Tribes, in the following order, beginning with the -eoloma on the right hand of the Master, and going round by the North, West and South: ... Ephraim .. « Benjamin ... Issachar... Judah... Naphtali... Asher... Dan... Manasseh ... Zebulon. .
Reuben ... Simeon... Gad. Under these, in the same order, are the zodiacal signs... Y..-I.-- BeoeQece Meee teeeeMeors Lf ie swe — a, Se ie and under these, again, in
the-same order, the following names and titles of the Deity: ... DN... WN. - e $p2... FD. SS ee ee ee > I
On the base of each column is the initial, in the same order, of the name of one of the Apostles of Christ: John... Peter... Andrew... James... Philip ... Bartholomew... Thomas... Matthew...
Jomes, son of Alpheus . . . Lebbeus, surnames Thaddeus . . . Simon the Canaanite... and Matthias.
DRAVCUT OR TRACING BOARD.
The Tracing Board has 5 mountain in the foreground. A city, foursquare, appears descending from the sky ; (in which are neither sun, moon, stars nor clouds, but only the azure vault on which the light from the city reflects). Below is « representation of Jerusalem overturned and in ruing. Around the descending city is a wall of jasper, the foundation of which is laid with the precious stones of twelve different kinds and colours, that appear on the Pontiffs breast plate. All the buildings are of gold. The architecture of the city is oriental, and there is no Temple. There are twelve gates of pearl, three on each side. <A great glory in
the centre gives it light.
On the six gates that show in the painting are the first three and the last three initials of the names of
the Tribes, and the first and last three names of Deity given above: and on the foundation under those gates,
the Initials of the first three and Inst three names of the Apostles.
A sparkling river runs through the city ; and upon it, in the centre of the city, stands 2 tree, loaded with
fruits, leaves and blossoms. Its roots are on each side of the stream.
Beneath the ruins of the overturned city lies writhing serpent with three heads, bound with brazen chains.
OFFICERS, DRESS, ETC.
The Master is styled Th.°. Puissant, Io wears a white satin robe, and holds a sceptre in his hand. On his breast is the Jewish High Priest's breast plate, or the Purim and Thummim. _ There is but one Warden; who sits in the West, opposite the Th.*. P.*, holding a gilded rod. There are also an Orator, two Deacons, and a Master of Ceremonies. All the members, except the Th.°. P.*. wear robes of white linen; and ao fillet of sky-blue satin round the forehead, with twelve stars embroidered on it in gold. . The cordon is crimson, bordered with white, worn from left to right. On it are twelve stars embroil-
ered in gold, and the lettersad..Q..
The jewel is an oblong square, with the letter 8 engraved on one side, and 1 on the other.
The battery is , ? at equal intervals.
TO OPEN.
_ The, PB». Brethren, Gr.*. Pontiffs, Sub.-. Scottish Masons, I propose to open this Lodge. Aid me to do go. Bro.*. Jun.*. Deacon, see that we are properly tyled. . [The Jun.-. Deacon goes out, returns, gives the battery of , ? equal raps, which is answered from without returns te his place, and says]:
J.-D... Th.°, Puissant, we are properly tiled.
Th. P.. How?
J:. D.. By a Sublime Scottish Mason without, armed and vigilant.
Th. P.*. Its well. Bro.*. Warden, what is the hour?
WV... The time foretold to all nations. 'The Sun of Truth has risen over the Desert. The last struggle
between Good and Evil, Light and Darkness, commences. The cubical Stone has become a mystic Rose, and
the lost Word is recovered. 7
The. P.». Be grateful to God; my Brethren! And let us proceed to open this Lodge, that we may labour together for His glory and the improvement of mankind. Together, my Brethren! [All give the sign. Then the Th.'. P.". raps ,— the Warden ,— and so on alternately to ,2—- Then the' Brethren all clap ,? with their hands, and cry ; times Tloscuzan!]. . . Th. P. The sun is up, and this Lodge is open.
RECEPTION.
The Candidate is clothed in the dress, jewel and ornaments of a Kt.-. Rose +h, received by the M.*. of Ceremonies, and conducted to the door of the Lodge. The B.°. Her., raps , ? — and the door is slightly opened by the J.°. D.:., and the following conversation ensues:
Jo. D. Who hails?
Mf. Her. A Knight of the Rose E, who desires to attain the degree of Gr.-. Pontiff,
J.D... Tlow long hath he serred ?
M:. Her... Three years.
Qu... Where?
Ans, In the ranks of Truth.
- Qu... How armed?
- dass. With Charity, Hope and Faith.
Qu.. Against what enemies?
Ans... Intolerance and Oppression.
Qu... Why doth be now desire to attain the degree of Sublime Ecossais?
Ans." That he may be the better qualified to serve the cause of Truth and Light.
Qu... What other weapon docs he need, than Charity, Hope and Faith?
Ans. Patience: to he content to wait.
-- J. Ds, Then let him take his first lesson now; and wait with patience until the Th.*. Puissant is informed of his request and his will ascertained.
[The J.*. D.-. closes the door, returns to the Lodge, and reports to the Th.*. P.-.; the same questions being asked, and answers remel as at the door; except the Inst order of the J.°. D.*. to be patient and wait: instead of which the Th.-. P... says]: .
fhe. P.. Since his aaites o are so commendable, Bro.-. J.*. Deacon, you will permit him to enter.
[The door is opened, and the candidate enters, conducted by the M., of Ceremonies. As he enters, the
organ plays, and the Brethren sing the following ode, all standing up] : ODE.
Truth dawns upon the human soul,
And Error disappears:
No longer darkness hath control,
From Heaven's blue face the storm-clouds roll, And all the glittering years
No longer for men's sorrow groan, Their sin, their shame, their tears; _ But still and stately, past God's Throne, March onward, where Love'reigns alone.
That Sun is risen, is Here; that Day Is Now, to Gov... We walt...
The world and stars wait... The array Of ages stretching far away,
The Angels at God's gate,
And ancient Time ... all wait the Light, Sure as God's Truth, though late; When sin no more the world shall blight, But endless day dethrone-the night.
[When the ode is concluded, the candidate is led 12 times around the Lodge, halting at one of the columns at each circuit, and his attention being directed to the Initials upon its capital and base; the M.>. of Ceremonies *gaying at each respectively as follows] :
At the 4th Column: Judah shall return again to his first estate, when the Empire of Evil ends, Light and 'not darkness is eternal: Troth and not Error is immortal.
Fee: Ai the 83d Column: Issachar shall once more be free, when Sin and Suffering are known no longer. . Far in the Future unto us, that day of Light is now to God. Time is s succession of points, each in the centre of 'Eternity. Evil lasts only during Time. The reign of God is measured by Eternity.
& 20 At the 0h Column: ... Zebulon shall find peace; as ships that come out of great storms, and furl their 'sails and let drop their anchors in quiet harbours. For Peace shall be the Universal Law to all the children
not common Father.
At the 10th Culumu: .. . Reuben, like all mankind, has wandered far into the darkness. The steps of the Ages ring in their stately march, down the long slopes of Time; and ever the Dawn draws nearer. * Ben are God's instruments to accelerate its coming. Work then, my Brother, bo patient, wait! | . wo
At the 11th Column: . . . Simeon shall be reconciled to God ; when Intolerance no longer persecutes, and Bigotry no longer hates: when man, brother of man, shall no longer be his torturer, his dread, his Fate. The waves of Eternity roll ever nearer to us, on the narrow sands of Life, that crumble under our weary feet. Those on whose ears the roar of the same surges smites, and whom the next wave will engulf together, should have in their hearts a prayer to God, and not hatred for their brother.
At the 12th Column: . . . Gad shall overcome at lust; though s troop of Evils long overcome Aim, as they overcome us all, The Serpent is still unchained. The Giants still assail the battlements of Heaven, and scarce recoil before its lightnings. Syphon and Ahriman march with the port of conquerors. But with them march the Ages, majestic in their silence, and calm as fate. . Centuries are the moments of Truth's twilight.
At the lst Column: ... Ephraim hath strayed from home, Ie shall return, in tears and penitent, and find eternal rest. From God all souls have emanated, and to him all return. The wandering of none can be eternal; fur then would Evil be immortal and 9 God; and pain and sorrow, misery and crime would have seized upon and hold in fee a portion of God's Sovereignty.
A the 8th Column: ... Manasseh shall be restored to sight. We are all blind swimmers in the currents of a mighty sea that hath no shore. We see asin o dream, the effects, and not the causes. The simplest things are miracles to us. We do not,see the flower that is within the seed, nor the towering oak enveloped in the acorn, nor the smells and colours in the tasteless, colourless, invisible sir and limpid water and rank dark earth, from which the seed extracts them, by its mysterious chemistry. When the Divine Light comets, we shall see and know. ,
Ai the 2d Column: ... Benjamin shall be redeemed, and come back from exile and captivity. For
they, like pain ond poverty and sorrow, are blessings. Without them, there would be scant excellence in human nature ;—neither fortitude nor self-denial, nor industry nor patience,.nor charity nor tolerance, magnanimity nor generosity, heroism nor gratitude. Our exile from the presence of the Deity, our captivity by Sin and Sorrow, are the means, offered us by God, to purify the heart and ennoble the soul.
At the Tth Column: ... Dan shall obey the new Law,—the law of Love. . Le prayeth best that loveth best all things, both great and small; for the great God that loreth us, Ie made and loreth all, All things, all souls are but the tones of one great harmony, in which sin and pain, and sorrow mingle as its discords, that but add grandeur to the anthem; they and the concords leading by infinite modulations to the grand, final, perfect chord, that ie to resound through all the infinities of space, forever.
Al the 6th Column: ... Asher shall pluck the fruit of the Tree of Life, that towers above the golden spires, and overlooks the jasper walls of the new Jerusalem. For he and all men shall learn to know the true God, the Infinity of Infinite attributes; not angry and jealous, nor implacable and vindictive ; but kind' and indulgent to human feebleness and frailty; loving and forgiving ;'a benefactor, a friend, o father. -
At the Sth Column: ... Naphtali believes, hopes waits and is patient. _ Believes that all death is new, life ; all destruction and dissolution, recombination dad reproduction ; and all evil nod affliction but the modes of this great genesis, that shall not be eternal. Hopes for the time when this incessant flux and change shall cease, and the new Law of Love and Light rule in all spheres and over all existences; and waits with patience
'the fulélment of the inviolable promises of God.
(At this moment a thick cloth is flung over the Candidate's head; and he is immediately seized by several brothers, and hurried into a small room that is perfectly dark. Leaving the cloth so that he ean remove it at pleasure, they place him, sitting on the floor, in the middle of the room, and retire. This room should have no furniture, and be entirely hung with black. Apertures must be so arranged, that, without admitting the least light, the voice of one speaking outside may be heard. It must also be so arranged, that, by means of
'electricity or otherwise, sudden and momentary flashes of light may Le produced, succeeded by intense dark-
less.
The candidate is left for five minutes in entire solitude and perfect silence. Then ao Bro.*. says, in his hearing]:
Six... 5
lst Bro. All who will not worship the Beast with seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and the mysterious name upon his forehead, shall be slain. All men, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, freemen and slaves, shall receive upon their right hand, or on their forehead, his mark, his name, and the number of his name, which is six hundred threescore and six; or they shall neither buy nor sell ; for his is power, dominion, and the authority of the great dragon. Man, helpless and in darkness, wilt thoa receive his mark, that thou gayest emerge to light?
2d Brother .. . Fear God; and give glory to Him; for the hour of his judgment is come! And worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the springs of waters; for He alone hath the True sign. If any man worship the Beast and his image, and receive his mark on his forehead or in his hand, he shall drink the wine of God's indignation, and be banished from the presence of the Holy Angels and of the Word that in the Redeemer. Remorse shall torture them, and they shall have no rest, who worship the Beast and his image, and receive the mark of his name.
3d Brother . . . Have patience, oh! thou, who, though in darkness, art still our brother! Keep the commandments of God, and thy faith in His justice and infinite goodness! Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. They rest from their labours, and their influences live after them.
. [There is silence again for little while; and then the Brethren on the outside proceed]:
-. 1st Bro. The first Angel hath poured his vial on the earth; and a foul and horrible plague hath fallen on all who wear the mark of the Beast, and have worshipped his image. [Light flashes into the room]. - - 24 Bros, The second Angel hath poured his vial upon the sea; and it hath become like the blood of o dead man; and everything therein hath died. [Flash].
. ° 84 Bros. The third Angel hath poured his vial upon the rivers, the brooks, and the living springs; and they have become blood. [Flash]. -
Thou art just and righteous, O God, the Infinite and Eternal, in all Thyjadgments! For Thou bast given to them blood to drink, who have persecuted their Brethren for their faith, and usurped Thy power and Prero- 'gative 'of judgment, and shed the blood of the virtuous and good.
"Ist Bro. The fourth Angel hath poured his vial upon the sun; and the wicked are "scorched with great neat; and yet will not repent. [Flash].
2d¢ Bro..." The fifth Angel hath poured his vial upon those who worship the Beast. His kingdom is shrouded in darkness; and his-followers howl for pain and terror, and blaspheme, and still do not Repent.
hes]. -
ar Bro.*. The sixth Angel hath poured out his vial upon the great rivers of the Orient, and they are dried up: and the spirits of Falsehood, Fraud and Evil marshal their armies for the great battle, to be fought on the 'great day of. the Almighty God. ' Unexpectedly, before men see its dawn, that day will come. See that ye be 'not found unprepared ; but wear evermore the armour of Charity, Hope and Faith; lest it come suddenly and find-you naked and defenceless! [Flash].
"st Broo. The seventh Angel hath poured his vial into the air. Its done! [Upon this, thunder is heard 'wituont, and frequent flashes light the cell. Then there she loud noises, voices, and o crash representing" a city destroyed by an earthquake}.
'lat Bro. The cities of the nations have fallen; and Intolerance, that Great Babylon, is no more. The -chains imposed by fraud upon the human mind, the manacles and fetters fastened by force upon Free Thought 'have fallen.' The towers and battlements, the bastions and the ramparts, that Power, and Fraud and False- 'hood thought impregnable, have fallen; and they shall no longer be drunk with the blood of the Saints and Martyrs of the Truth.
2d'Bro.. Salvation, glory, honour and power to the Eternal God and Infinite Father! True and righteous are His judgments. Let all His creatures, and the great voices of the ocean and His thunders cry rejoicingly ; The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and Sin and Evil are dethroned | Blessed are they that obey his law, and trust in his goodness, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Brother, who art in darkness, wilt thou obey that low, and trust in that Infinite Goodness, and be patient, though the appointed time may seem to draw no nearer during thy life, nor thy labours and exertions
to produce any fruit?
Cand.*. I will.
2¢ Bro'. Wilt thou be neither weary nor discouraged ; satisfied to sow the seed, and that those who come after thee may reap, if God so wills it?
Cand,. I will.
1st Brow. Come, then, with us to the abode of Light!
[The door is opened, and the Candidate received by several brethren, and conducted into the Ledge. The draft or tracing-board is seen displayed; and after he enters, the officers read as follows] :
Orator : Tr saw a new Heaven and a new Earth: for the first heaven and the first earth 7 were passed away, and there was no more sen. I saw the holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven. Henceforth Ie will dwell with men, and be their Father, and they his obedient loving children. He will wipe the tears from all eyes: and there shall be n0 more death, nor fraud nor falsehood. There shall be no more sin and shame, nor remorse nor affliction; nor sickness and death any more: for the ancient wrong and evil have passed away forever.
TPard.*. Ie that sits upon the Throne saith ; I make all things new. Write! for these words are true. To him that thirsts I give freely the waters of the Spring of Life. IZe that overcometh shall inherit all things. Will be his Father, and will love my child.
Th. P.. In the Heavenly City there shall be no Temple: for the Lord God Almighty and the Redeemer are its Temple Nor sun nor moon shall be needed there:.for the Primitive Light shall shine therein and give it light. In that light shall all nations walk; and there shall all the splendour of the Universe have their spring and centre. Therein shall be no night, nor wickedness nor falsehood: but the light and everlast-
ing Life and Truth of God shall reign there forever. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the First and the Last; from whom all things come, and to whom all return. .
My Brother, if you believe in these promises, go now to the Holy Altar, and there assume the obligations -
of this Degree.
{The Candidate kneels at the Altar and, with his hands upon the Iuly Bible, assumes the following
OBLIGATION.
I, A...+3B....+., in the presence of Almighty God, and believing in his Justice and Mercy, do - hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, that I will never reveal any of the secrets of this degree to any person in the world, except to him to whom the same may lawfully belong, and then only when Iam duly authorized and empowered so to do.
I furthermore promise and swear, that I will obey the bylaws, rules and regulations of any Lodge of this degree to which I may belong; and the Edicts, laws and mandates of the Consistory of Sub.". Princes of the Royal Secret under whose jurisdiction it may be holden, as well as those of-the Sup.' Council of the 33d Degree within whose jurisdiction I may reside, so far as the same may come to my knowledge: and that I will always recognize the Sup.". Council of the 33d Degree of Charleston os the only true and legitimate Supreme Body for the Southern jurisdiction of the United States, of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Masonry, and bear to it true faith and due allegiance, so far os its mandates and edicts conform to the ancient constitutions and the Landmarks of Masonry. .
_ I furthermore promise and swear, That I will devote myself, my heart, my hand, my speech and my intellect, to the cause of Justice, Truth and Toleration ; and will endeavour to do something for the benefit of my Country and the world, that shall live after I am dead: and that I will henceforward consider only what its right and just, and noble and generous for me to do; and not whether any benefit to myself or mine will result therefrom ; or whether I shall receive therefore thanks or ingratitude.
All of which I do most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, binding myself under no less a penalty than that of being held false Knight and faithless Soldier, by every true Knight and honest man in Christendom. So help me God! and keep me steadfast in the due and punctual performance of the same!
Th". P. Malki-Teedek, King of Salem, whose name signifies Just and Equitable King, was the Priest of the Most High God. Ie met Abraham returning from the alaying of the Kings, sad blessed him: and Abraham gave unto him the tenth of the spoils.
(He anoints the Candidate with a little oil, on the crown of the head, and says] :
Th. £. Be thou a Priest forever, after the order of Malki-Tsedek, virtuous, sincere, equitable, true, Minister of Justice and Priest of Toleration! Be faithful to God, thy duty, and thyself; and thus deserve the title of Sublime Pontiff or Scottish Mason, which you are henceforward entitled to wear. Rise now, my Brother, and receive the Sign, Token and Words of this Degree.
Straw: Raise the To eTikOxe1I to aEBSTOMYSYOT §¥29 PO YX, the WOAL Cid extended;
and then drop the; fO27313 ¥ SL Cte perpendicularly.
TOXIN:.. Place reciprocally the {Q {25 of the $}&O<"rr on the WYtC& COT of the other. . .
The fret soya &QHCHZ-RO&'. . . The second, MOPACIRCEVECH GIO. . . The first,
OG5-Of-. . . The second, ORIG S OIOAsenYIsb=s.. . . And both say, OSCar-.
(Every brother then advances in turn to the Candidate, and gives him the Token: and the Th.°. P.:. then invests him with the insignia of the degree; saying, as he does so] :
The robe of white linen, with which I now invest you, is emblematical of that equity and purity which should characterize one who is consecrated to the service of Truth; and reminds us also of the vesture of the one bandied and forty-four thousand who refused to wear the mark of the beast upon their foreheads.
This cordon of crimson, bordered with white, teaches you that the zeal and ardour of a Knight and Pontif ought to be set off by the greatest purity of morals and perfect charity and beneficence. The twelve stars upon it and upon the fillet allude to the twelve gates of the New City, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the twelve fruits of the Tree of Life, the twelve Tribes of Jerael and the twelve Apostles ;. the initials of whose Dames appear upon the gates and foundations of the New City, and on the twelve columns of the Lodge.
This lille is the peculiar emblem of your Pontificate. And as the slightest contact with earth will soil its spotless purity, remember that so the least indiscretion will soil the exalted character that you have now voluntarily assumed,
Receive this sewel: and let the letters upon it and the cordon, the first and last of the Greek and Hebrew Alphabets, ever remind you of the love and veneration which you owe to that Great Being, the source of all existence, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last; on whose promises we rely with perfect confidence, in whose mercy and goodness wa implicitly trust, and for the fulfilment of whose wise purposes we are content to wait.
[The Warden now displays to the Candidate the Tracing Board ; and the Th.°. P.. continues]:
+P. My Brother, after the ceremonies of this degree, this painting needs but little explanation; and most of that may be found in the closing chapters of the Apocalypse.
To as 06 Masons, the City overturned represents the Empire of Evil, finally overwhelmed and destroyed in the last great conflict between the Principles of Light and Darkness: which event mankind has in all ages expected, and the Holy Books of every Ancient Nation have foretold. The City descending from Heaven is the New Empire of Light and Truth, for which we wait and hope. The Tree of Life is emblematical of Truth, the basis of all the virtues represented by its fruits. The buildings of gold and walls of precious stones, and gates of pearl, are symbols of the glory that shall invest and make magnificent the Universe, when sickness and sin and pain and sorrow and guilt and evil shall disappear forever, and leave the world again s paradise, the splendid Temple of a God of Mercy and Beneficence. The River, to the dwellers in Eastern Deserts, was
the symbol of purity, of generosity, of plenty: the tree, with its leaves and flowers and fruits, of Nature, who bestows her bounties and her many blessings, without waiting for men's thanks. :
The twelve Tribes, whose initials adorn the columns, and are seen on the pearl gates of the City,-are emblematical of the human race: and the twelve Apostles, whose initials are also on the bases of the columns, and on the foundations of the City, are to us the type of all those who hare Isboured to reform, instruct and elevate mankind. 3
The signs of the Zodiac, upon the columns, accompany the initials of those Tribes, respectively, to which they were. assigned among the Hebrews: . . The Lion, to Judah . - Cancer, formerly the Asses, to Issachar . . Capricorn, to Zebulon . . Aquarius, to Reuben . . Pisces, to Simeon . . Aries, to Gad . . Taurus, to Ephraim . . Sagittarius, to Manasseh . . Gemini, | to Benjamin » Scorpio, once the Eagle, to Dan a7 Libra, to Asher . . and Virgo, to Naphtali. ~ -
The Serpent, writhing in chains, has to us a peculiar signification. It was promised that the offspring of the woman should bruise the Serpent's head. Fulfil thou the prophecy | !
(The candidate is caused to step in succession on the three heads: and as he does so, the Th.. P., says, at each step respectively]: . .
So shall the foot of Trauma crush Error!
So Honesty and Wonocr trample on Fatsenoop!
So Cuarity tread in the dust Intolerance !
Th.'. P.. The Hebrew characters upon the twelve columns are the twelve Great Names and Titles of Deity, upon the breast-plate of the High Priest. Beginning with the column of Judah, and in the order given above, they are: Mrrec; King or Sovereign: . . Geuzn; Dispenser of Rewards and Punishments: .. Apar; Fire or Splendour: .. Arum; the Adored: . . Ary; the Eye, or All-Seeing: . . Au-But; the Living God, or Life: . . Anni; the Creative Deities, or the Aggregate of the Forces of Nature: ..Ax; the Ancient Semitic Nature-God; the Elevated: .. In; Lifo:.. Arsa-Gesaa; Majesty of Firo:...Avonat; Lords: Sovereign:... and Imus; Abstract Existence; The Self-Existent.
Go now, my Brother, and listen to the Lecture of this Degree.
LECTURE.
My Brother, the true Mason labours for the benefit of those that are to come after him, and for the advancement and improvement of his race. Thatis a poor ambition which contents itself within the limits of a single life. ' All men who deserve to live, desire to survive their funerals, and to live afterwards in the good that they have done mankind, rather than in the marble of men's memories, Most men desire to leave some work behind them that may outlast their own day and brief generation. That is an instinctive impulse, given by God, and often found in the rudest human heart; the surest proof of the soul's immortality, and of the fundamental difference between man and the wisest brutes. To plant the trees that after we are dead shall shelter our children, is as natural as to love the shade of those our fathers planted. The rudest unlettered, husbandman, painfully conscious of his own inferiority, the poorest widowed mother, giving her life-blood to those who pay only for the work of her needle, will toil and stint themselves to educate their child, that he may take o higher station in the world than they; and of such children are the world's greatest benefactors.
In his influences that survive him, man becomes immortal, before the general resurrection. The Spartan mother, that, giving her son his shield, said, "With it, or upon itl'? afterwards shared the government of Lacedemon with the legislation of Lycurgus; for she too made a Jaw, that lived after her; and she led the Spartan soldiers that afterwards demolished the walls of Athens, and aided Alexander to conquer the Orient, The widow that gave Marion the fiery arrows,to burn her own house, that it might no longer shelter the enemies of her infant country, the house where she had lain upon her husband's bosom, and where her children had been born, legislated more effectually for her State than Locke or Shaftesbury, or than many a Legislature has done, since that State won her freedom.
It was of slight importance to the Kings of Egypt and the Monarchs of Assyria and Phoenicia, that the son of a Jewish woman, a foundling, adopted by the daughter of Sesostris Ramses, slew an Egyptian that oppressed a Hebrew slave, and fled into the desert, to remain there forty years. But Moses, who might otherwise have become Regent of Lower Egypt, known to us only by o tablet on a tomb or monument, became the deliverer of the Jews, and led them forth from Egypt to the frontiers of Palestine, and made for them a law, out of which grew the Christian faith; and so has shaped the destinies of the world. Ie and the old Roman lawyers, with Alfred of England, the Saxon Thanes and Norman Barons, the old judges and. chancellors, and the makers of the canons, lost in the mists and shadows of the Past,—these are our legislators ; and we obey the laws that they enacted.
Napoleon died upon the barren rock of his exile. His bones, borne to France by the son of a King, rest in the Wépital does Invalided, in the great city on the Seine. His Thoughts still govern France. He, and not' the People, dethroned the Bourbon, and drove the last King of the House of Orleans into exile. He, in his coffin, and not the People, voted the crown to the Third Napoleon; and he, and not the Generals of France and England, led their united forces against the grin Northern Despotism.
- Mahomet announced to the Arabian idolaters the new creed, There is but one God, and Malone, like Moses and Christ, is his apostle, For many years unaided, then with the help of his family and a few friends, then with many disciples, and last of all with an army, he taught and preached the Koran. The religion of the wild Arabian enthusiast converting the fiery Tribes of the Great Desert, spread over Asia, built up the Saraeenic dynasties, conquered Persia and India, the Greek Empire, Northern Africa and Spain, and dashed the surges of its fierce soldiers against the battlements of Northern Christendom. The law of Mahomet still governs a fourth of the human; race; and Turk and Arab, Moor and Persian, still obey the Prophet, and pray with their faces turned towards Mecca; and he, and not the living, rules and reigns in the fairest portions of. the Orient. .
Confucius still enacts the law for China; and the thoughts of Peter the Great govern Russia. Plato and - the other great Sages of Antiquity still reign as the Kings of Philosophy, and have dominion over the human intellect. The great Statesmen of the Past still preside i in the Councils of Nations. Burke still lingers in the House of Commons, and Webster's grave accents yet ring in the American Senate.
: Washington sleeps calmly in his tomb at Mount Vernon; which has become the Mecca, and the Potomac the highway, of the Pilgrims of Freedom. But his influences still live, and rule in the hearts of twenty-three millions of people; sway and direct the Councils of a great Nation; determine its foreign policy; and sanction or condemn its diplomacy and legislation. Ie has truer and more absolute veto than the President; for he exercises his power through the People, who are Supreme, and who decide as he directs.
Jt has been well said, that when Tamerlane had builder his pyramid of fifty thousand human skulls, and wheeled away with his vast armies from the gates of Damascus, to find new conquests, and build other pyramids, o little boy was playing in the streets of Mentz, son of a poor artisan, whose apparent importance in the scale of beings was, compared with that of Tamerlane, as that of a grain of sand to the giant bulk of the earth: but Tamerlane and all his shaggy legions, that swept over the East like a hurricane, have passed away, and become shadows; while the wonderful invention of John Faust the boy of Mentz, has exerted a greater influence on man's destinies and overturned more thrones and dynasties than all the victories of all the bloodstained conquerors that from Nimrod downward have afflicted God's fair world.
- Long ages ago, the Temple built by Solomon and our Ancient Brethren sank into ruin, when the
Assyrian Armies sacked Jerusalem. The Holy City is a mass of hovels cowering under the dominion of the Crescent; and the Holy Land a desert. The Kings of Egypt and Assyria, who were contemporaries of Solomon, sre forgotten, and their histories mere fables. The Ancient Orient is shattered wreck bleaching on the shores of Time. The Wolf and the Jackal howl among the ruins of Thebes and of Tyre, and the sculptured images of the Temples and Palaces of Babylon are dug from their ruins and carried into strange lands. But the quiet and peaceful Order, of which the Son of a poor Phaxnician Widow was one of the Grand Masters, with the Kings of Israel and Tyre, has continued to increase in stature and influence, defying the angry waves of time and the storms of persecution. Age has not weakened its wide foundations, nor shattered its columns, nor marred the beauty of its harmonious proportions. Where rude barbarians, in the time of Solomon,
peopled inhospitable howling wildernesses, in France and Britain, and in that New World, not known to Jew or Gentile, until the glories of the Orient had faded, that Order has builder new Temples, and teaches to its million of Initiates those lessons of pence, good-will, and toleration, of reliance on God and confidence in man, which it learned when [Hebrew and Giblemite worked side by side on the slopes of Lebanon; and the Servant of Jehovah and the Pheenician Worshipper of Be sat with the humbly artisan in Council at Jerusalem.
It is the Dead, that govern. The Living only obey, And if the Soul sees, after death, what passes on this earth, and watches over the welfare uf those it loves; then must its greatest happiness consist in seeing the current of its beneficent influences widening out from age to age, as rivulets widen into rivers, and aiding to shape the destinies of individuals, families, States, the World: and its bitterest punishment, in seeing its evil influences causing mischief and misery, and cursing and afflicting men, long after the frame it dwelt in has become dust, and: when both name and memory are forgotten.
We know not who among the Dead control our destinies." The universal human race is linked and bound together by those influences, "which in the truest sense do make men's fates. Humanity is the unit, of which man is but a fraction. What other men in the Past have done, enid, thought, makes the great iron network of circumstance that environs and controls us all. We take our faith on trust. We think and believe as the Old Lords of Thought command us; and Reason is powerless before Authority.
' We would make or annul a particular contract; but the Thoughts of the dead Judges of England, living when their ashes have been cold for centuries, stand between us and that which we 'would do, and utterly forbid it. We would settle our estate in a particular way; but the prohibition of the English Parliament, its uttered Thought when the first or second Edward reigned, comes echoing down the long avenues of time, and tells us we shall not exercise the power of disposition 1s we wish. We would gain a particular advantage of another; and the thought of the old Roman lawyer who died before Justinian, or that of Rome's great orator Cicero, annihilates the act, or makes the intention ineffectual. This act, Moses forbids; that, Alfred. We would sell our land; but certain marks on a 'perishable paper tell us that our father or remote ancestor ordered otherwise: and the arm of the dead, emerging from the grave, with peremptory gesture prohibits the alienation. About to sin or err, the thought or wish of our mother, told us when we were children, by words that died upon the airing the utterance, "and many a long year were forgotten, flashes on our memory, and holds us back with a power that is resistless.
Thus we obey the dead: and thus shall the living, when we are dead, for weal or wo obey us. The
Thoughts of the Past are the Jaws of the Present and the Future. That which we say and do, if its effects Inst not beyond our lives, is unimportant. That which shall live when we are dead, as part of the great body of In enacted by the dead, is the only act worth doing, the only Thought worth speaking. The desire to do something that shall benefit the world, when neither praise nor obloquy will reach us where we sleep soundly i in the grave, is the noblest ambition entertained by man. -
Tt is the ambition of a true and genuine Mason. Knowing the slow processes by which the Deity brings about great results, he does not expect to reap as well as sow, in a single lifetime. It is the inflexible fate and noblest destiny, with rare exceptions, of the great and good, to work, and let others reap the harvest of their labours. He who does good, only to be repaid in kind, or in thanks and gratitude, or in reputation and the world's praise, is like him who loans his money, that he may, after certain months, receive the principal back with interest. To be repaid fur eminent services with slander, obloquy or ridicule, or at best with stupid indifference or cold ingratitude, as it is common, ao it is no misfortune, except to those who lack the wit to see or sense to appreciate, or the nobility of soul to thank and reward with eulogy, the benefactor of his kind. Lis influences live, and the great Future will obey; whether it recognize or disown the lawgiver.
Miltiades was fortunate that he was exiled; and Aristides that he was ostracized, because men wearied of hearing him called The Just. Not the Redeemer was unfortunate; but those only who repaid him for the inestimable gift he offered them, and fur a life passed in toiling for their good, by nailing him upon the cross, as though he had been a slave or malefactor. The persecutor dics and rots, and Posterity utters his name with ¢ exeeration: but his victim's memory he has unintention#tily made glorious and immortal.
If not fur slander and persecution, the Mason who would benefit hia race must look for apathy and cold indifference in those whose good he seeks, in those who ought to seek the good of others. Except when the
sluggish depths of the Human Mind are broken up and tossed as with a storm, when at the appointed time a great Reformer comes, and a new Faith springs up and grows with supernatural energy, the progress of Truth is slower than the growth of oaks; and he who plants need not expect to gather. The Redeemer, at his death, had twelve disciples, and one betrayed and one deserted and denied him. It in enough for us to know that the fruit will come in its due season. When; or who shall gather it, it does not in the least concern us to know. I¢ is our business to plant the seed. It is God's right to give the fruit to whom he pleases; and if not to us, then is our action by so much the more noble.
To sow, that others may reap; to work and plant for those that are to occupy the earth when we are dead ; to project our influences far into the future, and live beyond our time; to rule as the Kings of Thought, over men who are yet unborn; to bless with the glorious gifts of Truth and Light and Liberty those who will neither know the name of the giver, nor care in what grave his unregarded ashes repose, is the true office of a Mason and the proudest destiny of a man.
All the great and beneficent operations of Nature are produced by slow and often imperceptible decrees. The work of destruction and devastation only is-violent and rapid. The Volcano and the Earthquake, the Tornado and the Avalanche leap suddenly into full life and fearful energy, and smite with an unexpected blow. Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in a night; and Lisbon fell prostrate before God in a breath, when the earth rocked and shuddered: the Alpine village vanishes and is erased at one bound of the avalanche; and the ancient forests fall like grass before the mower, when the mad tornado is hurled upon them. Grim Pestilence slays its thousands in a day, and the storm in a night strews the sand with shattered navies. . -°
',« The Gourd of the Prophet Jonah grew up, and was withered, in « night. But many years ago, before the Norman Conqueror stamped his mailed foot on the neck of prostrate Saxon England, some wandering barbarian, of the continent then unknown to the world, in mere idleness, with hand or foot, covered an acorn 'with « little earth, and passed on regardless, on his journey to the dim Past. He died and was forgotten; but | the acorn lay there still, the mighty force within it acting in the darkness. A tender shoot stole gently 'Up; ' and fed by the light and air and frequent dews, put forth its little leaves, and lived, because the elk or
-buffalo chanced not to place his foot upon and crush it. The years marched onward, and the shoot became sapling, and its green leaves went and came with Spring and Autumn. And still the years came and passed 'away again, and William the Norman Bastard parcelled England out among his Barons, and. still the sapling Brew), "and the daws fed its leaves, and the birds builder their nests among its small limbs for many genera- 'tions. And still the years came and went, and the Indian hunter slept in the shade of the sapling, and Richard Lion-Heart fought st Acre and Ascalon, and John's bold Barons wrested from him the Great Charter; 'and lot the sapling had become a tree; and still it grew, and thrust its great arms wider abroad, and lifted its head still higher towards the. Heavens: strong-rooted, and defiant of the storms that roared and eddied through its branches: and when Columbus ploughed with his keels the Western Ocean, and Cortez and: Pizarro bathed the cross in the blood of many thousand Mexican and Peruvian hearts; and when the
"Puritan, the Huguenot, the Cavalier and the follower of Penn sought a refuge and a resting-place beyond the ocean, the Great Oak still stood, firm-rooted, vigorous, stately, haughtily domineering over all the forest, heedless of all the centuries that had hurried past since the wild Indian planted the little acorn in the 'forest ;—a stout and hale old tree, with wide circumference shading many a rood of ground ; and fit to furnish timbers for a ship, to carry the thunders of the Great Republic's guns around the world. And yet,if one «| had sat and watched it every instant, from the moment when the feeble shoot first pushed its way to the Hens until the eagles built among its branches, he would never have seen the tree or sapling grow.
; Many long centuries ago, before the Chaldean Shepherds watched the Stars or Khufu built the Pyramids, one could have sailed in seventy-four where now a thousand islands gem the surface of the Indian Ocean ; and the deep sea lead would no where have found any bottom. But below those waves were myriads upon myriads, beyond the power of Arithmetic to number, of little minute existences, each a perfect living creature, made by the Almighty Creator, and fashioned by Him for the work it had todo. There they toiled beneath. the waters, each doing its allotted work, and wholly ignorant of the result which God intended. They lived and died, incalculable in numbers and almost infinite in the succession of their generations, each adding his
mite to the gigantic work that went on there under God's direction. Thus hath Io chosen to create great Continents and Islands; and still the coral-insects live and work, as when they made the rocks that underlie the valley of the Ohio. . .
Thus God hath chosen to create. Where now is firm land, once chafed and thundered the great primeval ocean. For ages upon ages the minute shields of infinite myriads of infusoria, and the stony stems of encrinites sunk into its depths, and there, under the vast pressure of its waters, hardened into limestone. Raised slowly from the Profound by ILis hand, its quarries underlie the soil of all the continents, hundreds of feet in thickness ; and we, of these remains of the countless dead, build tombs and palaces, as the Egyptians, whom we call ancient, built their pyramids. .
On all the brond Inked and oceans the Great Sun looks earnestly and lovingly, and the invisible vapors rise ever up to meet him. No eye but God's beholds them as they rise. There, in the upper atmosphere, they are condensed to mist, and gather into clouds, and float and swim around in the ambient air.. They sail with its currents, and hover over the ocean, and roll in huge masses round the stony shoulders of great mountains.
"Condensed still more by change of temperature, they drop upon the thirsty earth in gentle showers, or pour upon it in heavy rains, or storm against its bosom at the angry Equinoctial. The shower, the rain and the storm pass away, the clouds vanish, and the bright stars again shine clearly upon the glad earth. The raindrops sink into the ground, and gather in subterranean reservoirs, and run in subterranean channels, and bubble up in springs and fountains; ond from the mountain-sides and heads of valleys the silver threads of water begin their long journey to the ocean. Uniting, they widen into brooks and rivulets, then into streams and rivers; and, at last, a Nile, a Ganges, an Amazon, cr a Mississippi rolls between its banks, mighty, majestic and resistless, creating vast alluvial valleys to be the granaries of the world, ploughed by the thousand - keels of 'commerce and serving as great highways, and as the impassable boundaries of rival nations; ever returning to the ocean the drops that rose from it in vapor, and descended in rain and snow and hail upon the level plains and lofty mountains; and causing him to recoil for many o mile before the headlong rush of their great tide. .
So it is with the aggregate of Human endeavour. As the invisible particles of vapour combine and
coalesce to form the mists and clouds that fall in rain on thirsty continents, and bless the great green forests and wide grassy prairies, the waving meadows and the fields by which men live; as the infinite. myriads of
'drops that the glad earth drinks are gathered into springs and rivulets and rivers, to sid in levelling the 'mountains and elevating the plains, and to feed the large lakes and restless oceans; so all Human Thought, and Speech and Action, all that ie done and said and thought and suffered upon the Earth combines together, and flows onward in one broad resistless current towards those great results to which they are determined by the will of God.
"We build slowly and destroy swiftly. Our Ancient Brethren who built the Temples at Jerusalem, with many myriad blows felled, hewed, and squared the cedars, and quarried the stones, and carved the intricate _ ornaments, which were to be the Temples. Stone after stone, by the combined effort and long toil of Apprentice,
Fellow-Craft and Muster, the walls arose; slowly the roof was 'framed and fashioned ; and many years elapsed, before, at length, the [Houses stood finished, all fit and ready for the Worship of God, gorgeous in the sunny splendour of the atmosphere of Palestine. So they were built. A. single motion of the arm of a rude,
barbarous Assyrian: Spearman, or drunken Roman or Gothic Legionary of Titus, moved by senseless impulse
of the brutal will, flung in the blazing brand; and, with no further human agency, a few short hours sufficed to consume and melt the Temple to a smoking mass of black unsightly ruin.
Be patient, therefore, my Brother, and wait!
The issues are with God: To do,
Of right belongs to us.
Therefore faint not, my Brother, nor be weary in well doing. Be not discouraged at men's apathy, nor disgusted with their follies, nor tired of their indifference. Care not for returns and results; but see only what there is tado, and do it, leaving the results to God. Soldier of the Cross! Swora Knight of Justice,
Truth, and Toleration! Good Knight and True! be patient and work!
TO CLOSE.
_ The. Po. Brow. Warden, what is the hour?
We. Th.. P.. the hour is necomplished.
Th... P.. What thea reracins to be done?
-W-. To work, to wait, and to be patient.
Th. Po. Work then, my Brethren, while it is yet Day; for. the night comets in which no man can work, For what do we wait, Bro.'. Warden? -
. We. For the Light of Noon-day. .
The. P.. Let us then close this Lodge, and be patient. Bro.*. Warden, inform the Knights and Pontiffs, that I am about to close this Lodge, if they consent; in order that each may go forth into'the world, and do his duty as Soldier and Priest of Truth, Light and Toleration. : We... Brother Knights and Pontiffs, the Th.', Puissant Master is about to close this-Lodge, if you consent, that we may ail go forth into the world and labour to elevate and ennoble humanity, aa true Soldiers and Priests of Light, Trath ard Toleration. If you consent, give me the sign! [All give the sign. The Th.*. P.. and W.. rep , ? asin opening. Then all the Brethren clap , ?, with their hands, and cry ; times Hoscnzaq !}
Th.*. P:. The Sun climbs towards the Zenith; and this Lodge is closed.
FINIS.
Ragon 1861
tuileur imprimé · 424 mots
Le « Tuileur général de la Franc-Maçonnerie ou Manuel de l'initié » de Jean-Marie Ragon (Paris, 1861), dernier grand tuileur français du siècle : décoration, titres, ordre, signes, mots, marche, âge, batterie et décors du grade, avec les notes critiques de Ragon sur les mots altérés par la tradition. Pages 139-141 de l'édition originale.
La Loge n'est éclairée que par la lumière qui pénètre à travers [p. 140] un transparent qui est au fond du dais, sous lequel est placé le président.
Titres.
Le Maître ou président, se nomme Trois fois puissant ; les autres frères sont appelés Fidèles et vrais frères. Il n'y a qu'un seul Surveillant qui se place à l'ouest.
Ordre.
Point.
Signe.
Étendre le bras droit horizontalement, la main également étendue ; abaisser perpendiculairement les trois derniers doigts.
Attouchement.
S'appliquer réciproquement la paume de la main droite sur le front, en disant, le premier : Alleluia ! le second : Louons le Seigneur. Le premier réplique : Emmanuel, et le second : Dieu nous assiste ! Tous deux ensemble : Amen (firmum sit).
Mot de passe.
EMMANUEL.
Mot sacré.
ALLELUIA (en hébr. Hall'lou-iah, signifiant Dominum laudate).
Âge.
Point.
Marche.
Point.
Batterie.
12 coups égaux : ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○¹ !
Heures du travail.
A l'ouverture. Il est l'heure prédite.
A la clôture. L'heure est accomplie.
Questions d'ordre.
D. Qui êtes-vous ?
R. Sublime-Écossais, à qui rien n'est inconnu.
D. Où avez-vous été reçu ?
R. Dans un lieu qui n'a besoin ni du soleil ni de la lune pour être éclairé.
D. Quel est votre âge ?
1 VARIANTES. — SIGNE. Lever le bras droit, les trois doigts du milieu pointés vers le ciel, les deux autres fermés.
ATTOUCHEMENT. Se mettre mutuellement la paume de la main droite sur le front.
MOT DE PASSE.
DIEU.
MOT SACRÉ.
MORALE.
BATTERIE. 11 coups, plus 1 : ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ! d'autres 4 fois. 2 et 1.
[p. 141]
R. Je ne compte plus.
D. Quelle heure est-il ?
R. L'heure prédite.
D. A quelle heure nous séparons-nous ?
R. Quand l'heure est accomplie.
Décors.
TABLIER. Point.
Le Maître est revêtu d'une longue robe de satin blanc ; les autres membres sont également en robe blanche, mais en lin. Tous ont le front ceint d'un bandeau couleur bleu-céleste, sur lequel sont brodées en or, douze étoiles.
Cordon.
Ruban cramoisi, liseré de blanc, orné de 12 étoiles dor ; vers le haut est brodé un A (alpha), et vers le bas, un Ω (oméga), qui sont les deux extrémités de l'alphabet grec. Ce cordon, auquel est suspendu le bijou, se porte de gauche à droite par-dessus la robe.
Bijou.
Une plaque d'or en forme de carré long, sur laquelle sont gravés d'un côté un A, et de l'autre un Ω.
Au banquet, on boit de la main gauche, faisant le signe de la droite.
Pike 1884
rituel définitif · en anglais · 11 298 mots
Le rituel définitif d'Albert Pike tel que pratiqué par la Juridiction Sud des États-Unis (état final des révisions, v. 1884 ; recomposition numérique de 2020). Texte en anglais, établi directement sur la composition d'origine : ligatures rétablies, italiques de l'imprimé conservées, hébreu, phénicien et samaritain rendus dans leur écriture, pagination de l'original. Les partitions musicales, les plans d'atelier et les planches de décors sont reproduits en fac-similé à leur place dans le texte. Pages 530 à 546 de l'édition.
Ritual of the Scottish Rite, Supreme Council, S. J. (recomposition 2020), p. 530-546
[p. 530]
Planche [p. 530]
[p. 531]
The Chapter and its Decorations.
The hangings are blue, sprinkled with stars of gold. The whole Lodge is lighted by one large spherical transparency, behind the Venerable’s seat in the East.
In the East is a throne, and over it a blue canopy. Around the room are twelve columns, two in the East, [one on each side of the Master], two in the West, [one on each side of the Warden], four on the North side, and four on the South side, of the Lodge; on their capitals are the English initials of the names of the Twelve Tribes, in the following order, beginning with the column on the right hand of the Master, and going round by the North, West, and South: … Ephraim … Benjamin … Issachar … Judah … Naphtali … Asher … Dan … Manasseh … Zebulon … Reuben … Simeon … Gad. Under these, in the same order, are the zodiacal signs … ♉ … ♊ … ♋ … ♌ … ♍ … ♎ … ♏ … ♐ … ♑ … ♒ … ♓ …♈; and under these, again, in the same order, the following names and titles of the Deity:
The Tracing Board has a mountain in the foreground. A city, foursquare, appears descending from the sky; (in which are neither sun, moon, stars nor clouds, but only the azure vault on which the light from the city reflects). Below is a representation of Jerusalem overturned and in ruins. Around the descending city is a wall of jasper, the foundation of which is laid with the precious stones of twelve different kinds and colors that appear on the Pontiff ’s breastplate. All the buildings are of gold. The architecture of the city is oriental, and there is no Temple. There are twelve gates of pearl, three on each side. A great glory in the center gives it light.
On the six gates that show in the painting are the first three and the last three initials of the names of the Tribes, and the first and last three names of Deity given above.
A sparkling river runs through the city; and upon it, in the center of the city, stands a tree, loaded with fruits, leaves and blossoms. Its roots are on each side of the stream.
Beneath the ruins of the overturned city lies writhing a serpent with three heads, bound with brazen chains.
Officers, Dress, etc.
The Master is styled Venerable Pontiff . He wears a white satin robe, and holds a scepter in his hand. On his breast is the Jewish High Priest’s breastplate, or the Aurim and Themim.
There is but one Warden; who sits in the West, holding a gilded rod. He is styled Venerable. The other Brethren are styled Brother.
All the members, except the Venerable, wear robes of white linen; and a fillet of sky-blue satin round the forehead, with twelve stars embroidered on it in gold.
The Cordon is crimson, bordered with white, and worn from left to right. On it are twelve stars embroidered in gold, and the letters A. Ω., where it crosses the breast.
The Jewel is an oblong square, with the letter [ 𐤀 Aleph] engraved on one side, and [ 𐤕 Tau] on the other. The battery is ••• ••• ••• [3 × 3].
[p. 532]
Plan de l’atelier [p. 532]
J
Z
׀
M
N
Plan de l’atelier [p. 532]
[p. 533]
To Open.
VP—Brethren, Pontiffs, I propose to open this Chapter. Aid me to do so. Brother Assistant Expert, see that we are properly tiled.
The Assistant Expert goes out, returns, gives the battery of ••• ••• •••, which is answered from without, returns to his place, and says:
AE—Venerable Pontiff , we are properly tiled.
VP—How?
AE—By a Pontiffwithout, armed and vigilant.
VP—It is well. Venerable Brother Warden, what is the hour?
W—The time foretold to all nations. The Sun of Truth has risen over the Desert. The last struggle between Light and Darkness, Good and Evil, Truth and Error commences. The cubical Stone has become a mystic Rose, and the Lost Word is recovered.
VP—Be grateful to God; my Brethren! And, that we may labor together for His glory and the improvement of mankind, let us proceed to open this Lodge. Together, Brethren!
All give the sign. Then the Venerable Pontiffraps •••, the Warden •••, [the Junior Warden •••]. Then the Brethren all clap 3 × 3 with their hands, and cry three times Hoscheah! VP—The sun is up. Under the auspices of the Supreme Council of the Thirty-third Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, whose See is at Charleston, in the State of South Carolina, and by virtue of my authority as Venerable of this Chapter, I declare it to be duly opened and its labors resumed.
Reception.
The Candidate is clothed in the dress, jewel and ornaments of a Knight Rose Croix, received by the Master of Ceremonies, and conducted to the door of the Chapter. The Master of Ceremonies raps •••••• • and the door is slightly opened by the Assistant Expert, and the following conversation ensues:
AE—Who hails?
MC—A Knight of the Rose Croix, who desires to attain the degree of Pontiff .
AE—How long has he served?
MC—Three years.
AE—Where?
MC—In the ranks of Truth.
AE—How armed?
MC—With Faith, Hope and Charity.
AE—Against what enemies?
MC—Intolerance and Oppression.
AE—Why doth he now desire to attain the degree of Pontiff ?
MC—That he may be the better qualified to serve the cause of Truth and Light.
AE—What other weapon does he need, than Charity, Hope and Faith?
MC—Patience:—to be content to wait.
AE—Then let him take his first lesson now; and wait with patience until the Venerable Pontiffis informed of his request, and his will ascertained.
The Assistant Expert closes the door, returns to the Lodge, and reports to the Venerable Pontiff . VP—Who hails?
AE—A Knight of the Rose Croix, who desires to attain the degree of Grand Pontiff .
VP—How long has he served?
AE—Three years.
VP—Where?
AE—In the ranks of Truth.
VP—How armed?
AE—With Faith, Hope and Charity.
VP—Against what enemies?
AE—Intolerance and Oppression.
VP—Why doth he now desire to attain the degree of Pontiff ?
AE—That he may be the better qualified to serve the cause of Truth and Light.
VP—What other weapon does he need, than Charity, Hope and Faith?
[p. 534]
AE—Patience: to be content to wait.
VP—Since his desires are so commendable, Brother Assistant Expert, you will permit him to enter. The door is opened, and the candidate enters, conducted by the Master of Ceremonies. As he enters, the organ plays, and the Brethren sing the following ode, all standing up:
Partition musicale [p. 534]
[p. 535]
Partition musicale [p. 535]
When the ode is concluded, the candidate is led twelve times around the Hall. After the first circuit, they halt at the fourth column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Judah shall return again to his first estate, when the Empire of Evil ends. Light and not darkness is eternal: Truth and not Error is immortal.
They make the second circuit. They halt at the third column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
[p. 536]
MC—Issachar shall once more be free, when Sin and Suffering are known no longer. Far in the Future unto us, that day of Light is now to God. Time is a succession of points, each in the center of Eternity. Evil lasts only during Time. The reign of God is measured by Eternity.
They make the third circuit. They halt at the ninth column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Zebulon shall find peace; as ships that come out of great storms, and furl their sails, and let drop their anchors in quiet harbors. For Peace shall be the Universal Law to all the children of a common Father.
They make the fourth circuit. They halt at the tenth column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Reuben, like all mankind, has wandered far into the darkness. The steps of the Ages ring in their stately march, down the long slopes of Time; and ever the Dawn draws nearer. Men are God’s instruments to accelerate its coming. Work then, my Brother!—be patient, wait!
They make the fifth circuit. They halt at the eleventh column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Simeon shall be reconciled to God; when intolerance no longer persecutes, and Bigotry no longer hates: when man, brother of man, shall no longer be his torturer, his dread, his Fate. The waves of Eternity roll ever nearer to us, on the narrow sands of Life, that crumble under our weary feet. Those on whose ears the roar of the same surges smites, and whom the next wave will engulf together, should have in their hearts a prayer to God, and not hatred for their brother.
They make the sixth circuit. They halt at the twelfth column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Gad shall overcome at last; though a troop of Evils long overcome him, as they overcome us all. The Serpent is still unchained. The Giants still assail the battlements of Heaven, and scarce recoil before its lightning. Typhon and Ahriman march with the port of conquerors. But with them march the Ages, majestic in their silence, and calm as fate. Centuries are the moments of Truth’s twilight.
They make the seventh circuit. They halt at the first column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Ephraim hath strayed from home. He shall return, in tears and penitent, and find eternal rest. From God all souls have emanated, and to him all return. The wanderings of none can be eternal; for then would Evil be immortal and a God; and pain and sorrow, misery and crime would have seized upon and hold in fee a portion of God’s Sovereignty.
They make the eighth circuit. They halt at the eighth column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Manasseh shall be restored to sight. We are all blind swimmers in the currents of a mighty sea that hath no shore. We see as in a dream, the effects, and not the causes. The simplest things are miracles to us. We do not see the flower that is within the seed, nor the towering oak enveloped in the acorn, nor the smells and colors in the tasteless, colorless, invisible air and limpid water and rank earth, from which the seed extracts them, by its mysterious chemistry. When the Divine Light cometh, we shall see and know.
They make the ninth circuit. They halt at the second column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Benjamin shall be redeemed, and come back from exile and captivity. For they, like pain and poverty and sorrow, are blessings. Without them, there would be scant excellence in human nature; neither fortitude nor selfdenial, nor industry nor patience, nor charity nor tolerance, magnanimity nor generosity, heroism nor gratitude. Our exile from the presence of the Deity, our captivity by Sin and Sorrow, are the means, offered us by God, to purify the heart and ennoble the soul.
They make the tenth circuit. They halt at the seventh column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Dan shall obey the new Law,—the law of Love. He prayeth best that loveth best all things, both great and small; for the great God that loveth us, He made and loveth all. All things, all souls are but the tones of one great harmony, in which sin and pain, and sorrow mingle as its discords, that but add grandeur to the anthem; they and the concords leading by infinite modulations to the grand, final, perfect chord, that is to resound through all the infinities of space, forever.
They make the eleventh circuit. They halt at the sixth column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Asher shall pluck the fruit of the Tree of Life, that towers above the golden spires, and overlooks the jasper walls of the new Jerusalem. For he and all men shall learn to know the true God, the Infinity of Infinite attributes;
[p. 537]
not angry and jealous, nor implacable and vindictive; but kind and indulgent to human feebleness and frailty; loving and forgiving; a benefactor, a friend, a father.
They make the twelfth circuit. They halt at the fifth column, and the Master of Ceremonies directs the Aspirant’s attention to the initial upon its capital.
MC—Naphtali believes, hopes, waits and is patient. Believes that all death is new life; all destruction and dissolution, recombination and reproduction; and all evil and affliction but the modes of this great genesis, that shall not be eternal. Hopes for the time when this incessant flux and change shall cease, and the new Law of Love and Light rule in all spheres and over all existences; and waits with patience the fulfilment of the inviolable promises of God.
At this moment a thick cloth is flung over the Candidate’s head; and he is immediately seized by several brethren, and hurried into a small room that is perfectly dark. Leaving the cloth so that he can remove it at pleasure, they place him sitting on the floor, in the middle of the room, and retire. This room should have no furniture, and be entirely hung with black. Apertures must be so arranged, that, without admitting the least light, the voice of one speaking outside may be heard. It must also be so arranged, that, by means of electricity or otherwise, sudden and momentary flashes of light may be produced, succeeded by intense darkness. The candidate is left for five minutes in entire solitude and perfect silence. Then a Brother says, in his hearing:
B1—All who will not worship the Beast with seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and the mysterious name upon his forehead, shall be slain. All men, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, freemen and slaves, shall receive upon their right hand, or on their forehead, his mark, his name, and the number of his name, which is six hundred threescore and six; or they shall neither buy nor sell; for his is power, dominion, and the authority of the great dragon. Man, helpless and in darkness, wilt thou receive his mark, that thou mayest emerge to light?
B2—Fear God; and give glory to Him; for the hour of his judgment is come! And worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the springs of waters; for He alone hath the True sign. If any man worship the Beast and his image, and receive his mark on his forehead or in his hand, he shall drink the wine of God’s indignation, and be banished from the presence of the Holy Angels and of the Word that is the Redeemer. Remorse shall torture them, and they shall have no rest, who worship the Beast and his image, and receive the mark of his name.
B3—Have patience, oh! thou, who, though in darkness, art still our brother! Keep the commandments of God, and thy faith in His justice and infinite goodness! Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. They rest from their labors, and their influences live after them.
There is silence again for a little while; and then the Brethren on the outside proceed. B1—The first Angel hath poured his vial on the earth; and a foul plague hath fallen on all who wear the mark of the Beast, and have worshipped his image.
Light flashes into the room. B2—The second Angel hath poured his vial upon the sea; and it hath become like the blood of a dead man; and everything therein hath died.
Light flashes into the room. B3—The third Angel hath poured his vial upon the rivers, the brooks, and the living springs; and they have become blood.
Light flashes into the room. B3—Thou art just and righteous, O God, in all Thy judgments! For Thou hast given to them blood to drink, who have persecuted their Brethren for their faith, and usurped Thy power and prerogative of judgment, and shed the blood of the good.
B1—The fourth Angel hath poured his vial upon the sun; and the wicked are scorched with great heat, and yet will not repent.
Light flashes into the room. B2—The fifth Angel hath poured his vial upon those who worship the Beast. His kingdom is in darkness; and his followers howl for pain and terror, and blaspheme, and still do not repent.
Light flashes into the room. B3—The sixth Angel hath poured out his vial upon the great rivers of the Orient, and they are dried up: and the spirits of Falsehood, Fraud, and Evil marshal their armies for the great battle, to be fought on the great day of the Almighty God. Unexpectedly, before men see its dawn, that day will come. See that ye be not found unprepared; but wear evermore the armor of Charity, Hope, and Faith; lest it come suddenly and find you naked and defenseless!
Light flashes into the room. B1—The seventh Angel hath poured his vial into the air. It is done! Upon this, thunder is heard without, and frequent flashes light the cell. Then there are loud noises, voices, and a crash representing a city destroyed by an earthquake.
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B1—The cities of the nations have fallen; and Intolerance, that Great Babylon, is no more. The chains imposed by fraud upon the human mind, the manacles and fetters fastened by force upon Free Thought, have fallen. The towers and ramparts, that Power and Fraud and Falsehood thought impregnable, have fallen; and these shall no longer be drunk with the blood of the Saints and Martyrs of the Truth.
B2—Salvation, glory, honor and power to the Eternal God and Infinite Father! Let all His creatures, and the great voices of the ocean and His thunders cry rejoicingly; The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and Sin and Evil are dethroned! Blessed are they that obey his law, and trust in his goodness, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Brother, who art in darkness, wilt thou obey that law, and trust in that Infinite Goodness, and be patient, though the appointed time may seem to draw no nearer during thy life, nor thy labors and exertions to produce any fruit?
A—I will. B2—Wilt thou be neither weary nor discouraged; satisfied to sow the seed, and that those who come after thee may reap, if God so wills it?
A—I will. B1—Come, then, with us to the abode of Light! The door is opened, and the Candidate received by several brethren, and conducted into the Chapter. The draught or tracing board is seen displayed; and after he enters, the officers read as follows:
O—I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. I saw the holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven. Henceforth He will dwell with men, and be their Father, and they his obedient loving children. He will wipe the tears from all eyes: and there shall be no more death, nor fraud, nor falsehood. There shall be no more sin and shame, nor remorse nor affliction; nor sickness and death any more: for the ancient wrong and evil have passed away forever.
W—He that sits upon the Throne saith; I make all things new. Write! for these words are true. To him that thirsts I give freely the waters of the Spring of Life. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. I will be his father, and will love my child.
VP—In the Heavenly City there shall be no Temple: for the Lord God Almighty and the Redeemer are its Temple. Nor sun nor moon shall be needed there: for the Primitive Light shall shine therein and give it light. In that light shall all nations walk; and there shall all the splendors of the Universe have their spring and center. Therein shall be no night, nor wickedness nor falsehood: but the light and everlasting Life and Truth of God shall reign there forever. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the First and the Last; from whom all things come, and to whom all return.
My Brother, if you believe in these promises, go now to the Holy Altar, and there assume the obligations of this Degree.
The Candidate kneels at the Altar and, with his hands upon the Holy Bible, assumes the following
Obligation.
I, A. B., in the presence of Almighty God, and believing in his Justice and Mercy, do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and vow, that I will never reveal any of the secrets of this degree to any person in the world, except to him to whom the same may lawfully belong, and then only when I am duly authorized and empowered so to do.
I furthermore promise and vow, that I will devote myself, my heart, my hand, my speech and my intellect, to the cause of Justice, Truth and Toleration; and will endeavor to do something for the benefit of my country and the world, that shall live after I am dead: and that I will henceforward consider only what it is right and just, and noble and generous for me to do; and not whether any benefit to myself or mine will result therefrom; or whether I shall receive thanks or ingratitude therefor.
All which I do most solemnly and sincerely promise and vow, binding myself under no less a penalty than that of being held false and faithless by every true Knight and honest man in Christendom. So help me God! and keep me steadfast in the due and punctual performance of the same!
VP—Malki-Tsadōk, King of Salem, whose name signifies The Just King, was the Priest of the Most High God. He met Abraham returning from the slaying of the Kings, and blessed him: and Abraham gave unto him the tenth of the spoils.
He anoints the Aspirant with a little oil, on the crown of the head, and says VP—Be thou a Priest forever, after the order of Malki-Tsadok, virtuous, sincere, equitable, true, Minister of Justice and Priest of Toleration! Be faithful to God, thy duty, and thyself; and thus deserve the title of Pontiff , apostle of all truth, which you are henceforward entitled to wear. Rise now, my Brother, and receive the Sign, Token and Words of this Degree.
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The Sign is to raise the right hand to a horizontal position, the fingers extended; and then drop the three last fingers perpendicularly.
The Token is to place reciprocally the palm of the right hand on the forehead of the other. The first says “HalleluYah” the Second, “Praise the Lord!” The first, “Emanu-Al,” the second, “May God assist us.” And both say, “Amen.”
Password: Emmanuel. Sacred Word: Halalu-Yah. Every brother then advances in turn to the Aspirant, and gives him the Token. The Venerable Pontiffthen invests him with the insignia of the degree; saying, as he does so,
The Robe of white linen, with which I now invest you, is emblematical of that equity and purity which should characterize one who is consecrated to the service of Truth; and reminds us also of the vesture of the one hundred and forty-four thousand who refused to wear the mark of the beast upon their foreheads.
This Cordon of crimson, bordered with white, teaches you that the zeal and ardor of a Grand Pontiffought to be set offby the greatest purity of morals and perfect charity and beneficence. The twelve stars upon it and upon the fillet allude to the twelve gates of the New City, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the twelve fruits of the Tree of Life, the twelve Tribes of Israel and the twelve Apostles; the initials of whose names appear upon the gates and foundations of the New City, and on the twelve columns of the Lodge.
This Fillet is the peculiar emblem of your Pontificate. And as the slightest contact with earth will soil its spotless purity, remember that so the least indiscretion will soil the exalted character that you have now voluntarily assumed.
Receive this Jewel; and let the letters upon it and the cordon, the first and last of the Greek and Hebrew Alphabets, ever remind you of the love and veneration which you owe to that Great Being, the source of all existence, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last; on whose promises we rely with perfect confidence, in whose mercy and goodness we implicitly trust, and for the fulfilment of whose wise purposes we are content to wait.
The Warden now displays to the Candidate the Tracing Board; and the Venerable Pontiffcontinues My Brother, after the ceremonies of this degree, this painting needs but little explanation; and most of that may be found in the closing chapters of the Apocalypse.
To us as Masons, the City overturned represents the Empire of Evil, finally overwhelmed and destroyed in the last great conflict between the Principles of Light and Darkness: which event mankind has in all ages expected, and the Holy Books of every Ancient Nation have foretold. The City descending from Heaven is the New Empire of Light and Truth, for which we wait and hope. The Tree of Life is emblematical of Truth, the basis of all the virtues represented by its fruits. The buildings of gold and walls of precious stones, and gates of pearl, are symbols of the glory that shall invest and make magnificent the Universe, when sickness and sin and pain and sorrow and guilt and evil shall disappear forever, and leave the world again a paradise, the splendid Temple of a God of Mercy and Beneficence. The River, to the dwellers in Eastern Deserts, was the symbol of purity, of generosity, of plenty: the tree, with its leaves and flowers and fruits, of Nature, who bestows her bounties and her many blessings, without waiting for men’s thanks.
The twelve Tribes, whose initials adorn the columns, and are seen on the pearl gates of the City, are emblematical of the human race: and the twelve Apostles, whose initials are also on the bases of the columns, and on the foundations of the City, are to us the type of all those who have labored to reform, instruct and elevate mankind.
The signs of the Zodiac, upon the columns, accompany the initials of those Tribes, respectively, to which they were assigned among the Hebrews: … The Lion, to Judah … Cancer, formerly the Asses, to Issachar … Capricorn, to Zebulon … Aquarius, to Reuben … Pisces, to Simeon … Aries, to Gad … Taurus, to Ephraim … Sagittarius, to Manasseh … Gemini, to Benjamin … Scorpio, once the Eagle, to Dan … Libra, to Asher … and Virgo, to Naphtali.
The Serpent, writhing in chains, has to us a peculiar signification. It was promised that the offspring of the woman should bruise the Serpent’s head. Fulfil thou the prophecy!
The Candidate is caused to step in succession on the three heads; and as he does so, the Venerable says, at each step respectively:
VP—So shall the foot of Truth crush Error!
VP—So Honesty and Honor trample on Falsehood!
VP—So Charity tread in the dust Intolerance! He continues: VP—The Hebrew characters upon the twelve columns are the twelve Great Names and Titles of Deity, upon the breastplate of the High Priest. Beginning with the column of Judah, and in the order given above, they are: Malek; King or Sovereign: … Gamel; Dispenser of Rewards and Punishments: … Adar; Fire or Splendor: … Aloh; the Adored One: … Ayen; the Eye, or All-Seeing: … Al-Khi; the Living God, or Life: … Alohim; the Creative Deities, or
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the personified Potencies of Yehuah: … Al; the Ancient Semitic Nature-God; the Elevated: … Yehu; Life: … AishGebah; Majesty of Fire: … Adoni; Lord, Sovereign: … and Yehuah; Abstract Existence; the Self-Existent.
Go now, my Brother, and listen to the Lecture of this degree.
Lecture.
My Brother, the true Mason labors for the benefit of those that are to come after him, and for the advancement and improvement of his race. That is a poor ambition which contents itself within the limits of a single life. All men who deserve to live, desire to survive their funerals, and to live afterwards in the good that they have done mankind, rather than in the marble of men’s memories. Most men desire to leave some work behind them that may outlast their own day and brief generation. That is an instinctive impulse, given by God, and often found in the rudest human heart; the surest proof of the soul’s immortality, and of the fundamental difference between man and the wisest brutes. To plant the trees that after we are dead shall shelter our children, is as natural as to love the shade of those our fathers planted. The rudest unlett ered husbandman, painfully conscious of his own inferiority, the poorest widowed mother, giving her life-blood to those who pay only for the work of her needle, will toil and stint themselves to educate their child, that he may take a higher station in the world than they;—and of such children are the world’s greatest benefactors.
In his influences that survive him, man becomes immortal, before the general resurrection. The Spartan mother, that, giving her son his shield, said, “With it, or upon it!” afterwards shared the government of Lacedæmon with the legislation of Lycurgus; for she too made a law, that lived after her; and she led the Spartan soldiery that afterwards demolished the walls of Athens, and aided Alexander to conquer the Orient. The widow that gave Marion the fiery arrows to burn her own house, that it might no longer shelter the enemies of her infant country, the house where she had lain upon her husband’s bosom, and where her children had been born, legislated more effectually for her State than Locke or Shaftesbury, or than many a Legislature has done, since that State won her freedom.
It was of slight importance to the Kings of Egypt and the Monarchs of Assyria and Phoenicia, that the son of a Jewish woman, a foundling, adopted by the daughter of Sesostris Ramses, slew an Egyptian that oppressed a Hebrew slave, and fled into the desert, to remain there forty years. But Moses, who might otherwise have become Regent of Lower Egypt, known to us only by a tablet on a tomb or monument, became the deliverer of the Jews, and led them forth from Egypt to the frontiers of Palestine, and made for them a law, out of which grew the Christian faith; and so has shaped the destinies of the world. He and the old Roman lawyers, with Alfred of England, the Saxon Thanes and Norman Barons, the old judges and chancellors, and the makers of the canons, lost in the mists and shadows of the Past,—these are our legislators; and we obey the laws that they enacted.
Napoleon died upon the barren rock of his exile. His bones, borne to France by the son of a King, rest in the Hôpital des Invalides, in the great city on the Seine. His Thoughts still govern France. He, and not the People, dethroned the Bourbon, and drove the last King of the House of Orleans into exile. He, in his coffin, and not the People, voted the crown to the Third Napoleon; and he, and not the Generals of France and England, led their united forces against the grim Northern Despotism.
Mahomet announced to the Arabian idolaters the new creed, “There is but one God, and Mahomet, like Moses and Christ, is his apostle.” For many years unaided, then with the help of his family and a few friends, then with many disciples, and last of all with an army, he taught and preached the Koran. The religion of the wild Arabian enthusiast converting the fiery Tribes of the Great Desert, spread over Asia, built up the Saracenic dynasties, conquered Persia and India, the Greek Empire, Northern Africa, and Spain, and dashed the surges of its fierce soldiery against the battlements of Northern Christendom. The law of Muhammad still governs a fourth of the human race; and Turk and Arab, Moor and Persian, still obey the Prophet, and pray with their faces turned towards Mecca; and he, and not the living, rules and reigns in the fairest portions of the Orient.
Confucius still enacts the law for China; and the thoughts and ideas of Peter the Great govern Russia. Plato and the other great Sages of Antiquity still reign as the Kings of Philosophy, and have dominion over the human intellect. The great Statesmen of the Past still preside in the Councils of Nations. Burke still lingers in the House of Commons; and Berryer’s sonorous tones will long ring in the Legislative Chambers of France. The influences of Webster and Calhoun, conflicting, rent asunder the American States, and the doctrine of each is the law and the oracle speaking from the Holy of Holies for his own State and all consociated with it: a faith preached and proclaimed by each at the cannon’s mouth and consecrated by rivers of blood.
It has been well said, that when Tamerlane had builded his pyramid of fifty thousand human skulls, and wheeled away with his vast armies from the gates of Damascus, to find new conquests, and build other pyramids, a little boy was playing in the streets of Mentz , son of a poor artisan, whose apparent importance in the scale of beings was, compared with that of Tamerlane, as that of a grain of sand to the giant bulk of the earth; but Tamerlane and all his shaggy legions, that swept over the East like a hurricane, have passed away, and become shadows; while printing,
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the wonderful invention of John Faust, the boy of Mentz , has exerted a greater influence on man’s destinies and overturned more thrones and dynasties than all the victories of all the blood-stained conquerors from Nimrod to Napoleon.
Long ages ago, the Temple built by Solomon and our Ancient Brethren sank into ruin, when the Assyrian Armies sacked Jerusalem. The Holy City is a mass of hovels cowering under the dominion of the Crescent; and the Holy Land is a desert. The Kings of Egypt and Assyria, who were contemporaries of Solomon, are forgotten, and their histories mere fables. The Ancient Orient is a shattered wreck, bleaching on the shores of Time. The Wolf and the Jackal howl among the ruins of Thebes and of Tyre, and the sculptured images of the Temples and Palaces of Babylon and Nineveh are dug from their ruins and carried into strange lands. But the quiet and peaceful Order, of which the Son of a poor Phœnician Widow was one of the Grand Masters, with the Kings of Israel and Tyre, has continued to increase in stature and influence, defying the angry waves of time and the storms of persecution. Age has not weakened its wide foundations, nor shattered its columns, nor marred the beauty of its harmonious proportions. Where rude barbarians, in the time of Solomon, peopled inhospitable howling wildernesses, in France and Britain, and in that New World, not known to Jew or Gentile, until the glories of the Orient had faded, that Order has builded new Temples, and teaches to its millions of Initiates those lessons of peace, good-will, and toleration, of reliance on God and confidence in man, which it learned when Hebrew and Giblemite worked side by side on the slopes of Lebanon, and the Servant of Jehovah and the Phœnician Worshipper of Bel sat with the humble artisan in Council at Jerusalem.
It is the Dead that govern. The Living only obey. And if the Soul sees, after death, what passes on this earth, and watches over the welfare of those it loves, then must its greatest happiness consist in seeing the current of its beneficent influences widening out from age to age, as rivulets widen into rivers, and aiding to shape the destinies of individuals, families, States, the World; and its bitterest punishment, in seeing its evil influences causing mischief and misery, and cursing and afflicting men, long after the frame it dwelt in has become dust, and when both name and memory are forgotten.
We know not who among the Dead control our destinies. The universal human race is linked and bound together by those influences and sympathies, which in the truest sense do make men’s fates. Humanity is the unit, of which the man is but a fraction. What other men in the Past have done, said, thought, makes the great iron network of circumstance that environs and controls us all. We take our faith on trust. We think and believe as the Old Lords of Thought command us; and Reason is powerless before Authority.
We would make or annul a particular contract; but the Thoughts of the dead Judges of England, living when their ashes have been cold for centuries, stand between us and that which we would do, and utterly forbid it. We would settle our estate in a particular way; but the prohibition of the English Parliament, its uttered Thought when the first or second Edward reigned, comes echoing down the long avenues of time, and tells us we shall not exercise the power .of disposition as we wish. We would gain a particular advantage of another; and the thought of the old Roman lawyer who died before Justinian, or that of Rome’s great orator Cicero, annihilates the act, or makes the intention ineffectual. This act, Moses forbids; that, Alfred. We would sell our land; but certain marks on a perishable paper tell us that our father or remote ancestor ordered otherwise; and the arm of the dead, emerging from the grave, with peremptory gesture prohibits the alienation. About to sin or err, the thought or wish of our dead mother, told us when we were children, by words that died upon the air in the utterance, and many a long year were forgotten, flashes on our memory, and holds us back with a power that is resistless.
Thus we obey the dead; and thus shall the living, when we are dead, for weal or woe, obey us. The Thoughts of the Past are the Laws of the Present and the Future. That which we say and do, if its effects last not beyond our lives, is unimportant. That which shall live when we are dead, as part of the great body of law enacted by the dead, is the only act worth doing, the only Thought worth speaking. The desire to do something that shall benefit the world, when neither praise nor obloquy will reach us where we sleep soundly in the grave, is the noblest ambition entertained by man.
It is the ambition of a true and genuine Mason. Knowing the slow processes by which the Deity brings about great results, he does not expect to reap as well as sow, in a single lifetime. It is the inflexible fate and noblest destiny, with rare exceptions, of the great and good, to work, and let others reap the harvest of their labors. He who does good, only to be repaid in kind, or in thanks and gratitude, or in reputation and the world’s praise, is like him who loans his money, that he may, after certain months, receive it back with interest. To be repaid for eminent services with slander, obloquy, or ridicule, or at best with stupid indifference or cold ingratitude, as it is common, so it is no misfortune, except to those who lack the wit to see or sense to appreciate the service, or the nobility of soul to thank and reward with eulogy, the benefactor of his kind. His influences live, and the great Future will obey; whether it recognize or disown the lawgiver.
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Miltiades was fortunate that he was exiled; and Aristides that he was ostracized, because men wearied of hearing him called “The Just.” Not the Redeemer was unfortunate; but those only who repaid Him for the inestimable gift He offered them, and for a life passed in toiling for their good, by nailing Him upon the cross, as though He had been a slave or malefactor. The persecutor dies and rots, and Posterity utters his name with execration: but his victim’s memory he has unintentionally made glorious and immortal.
If not for slander and persecution, the Mason who would benefit his race must look for apathy and cold indifference in those whose good he seeks, in those who ought to seek the good of others. Except when the sluggish depths of the Human Mind are broken up and tossed as with a storm, when at the appointed time a great Reformer comes, and a new Faith springs up and grows with supernatural energy, the progress of Truth is slower than the growth of oaks; and he who plants need not expect to gather. The Redeemer, at His death, had twelve disciples, and one betrayed and one deserted and denied Him. It is enough for us to know that the fruit will come in its due season. When, or who shall gather it, it does not in the least concern us to know. It is our business to plant the seed. It is God’s right to give the fruit to whom He pleases; and if not to us, then is our action by so much the more noble.
To sow, that others may reap; to work and plant for those who are to occupy the earth when we are dead; to project our influences far into the future, and live beyond our time; to rule as the Kings of Thought, over men who are yet unborn; to bless with the glorious gifts of Truth and Light and Liberty those who will neither know the name of the giver, nor care in what grave his unregarded ashes repose, is the true office of a Mason and the proudest destiny of a man.
All the great and beneficent operations of Nature are produced by slow and often imperceptible degrees. The work of destruction and devastation only is violent and rapid. The Volcano and the Earthquake, the Tornado and the Avalanche, leap suddenly into full life and fearful energy, and smite with an unexpected blow. Vesuvius buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in a night; and Lisbon fell prostrate before God in a breath, when the earth rocked and shuddered; the Alpine village vanishes and is erased at one bound of the avalanche; and the ancient forests fall like grass before the mower, when the tornado leaps upon them. Pestilence slays its thousands in a day; and the storm in a night strews the sand with shattered navies.
The Gourd of the Prophet Jonah grew up, and was withered, in a night. But many years ago, before the Norman Conqueror stamped his mailed foot on the neck of prostrate Saxon England, some wandering barbarian, of the continent then unknown to the world, in mere idleness, with hand or foot, covered an acorn with a little earth, and passed on regardless, on his journey to the dim Past. He died and was forgotten; but the acorn lay there still, the mighty force within it acting in the darkness. A tender shoot stole gently up; and fed by the light and air and frequent dews, put forth its little leaves, and lived, because the elk or buffalo chanced not to place his foot upon and crush it. The years marched onward, and the shoot became a sapling, and its green leaves went and came with Spring and Autumn. And still the years came and passed away again, and William, the Norman Bastard, parcelled England out among his Barons, and still the sapling grew, and the dews fed its leaves, and the birds builded their nests among its small limbs for many generations. And still the years came and went, and the Indian hunter slept in the shade of the sapling, and Richard Lion-Heart fought at Acre and Ascalon, and John’s bold Barons wrested from him the Great Charter; and to! the sapling had become a tree; and still it grew, and thrust its great arms wider abroad, and lifted its head still higher toward the Heavens; strong-rooted, and defiant of the storms that roared and eddied through its branches; and when Columbus ploughed with his keels the unknown Western Atlantic, and Cortez and Pizarro bathed the cross in blood; and the Puritan, the Huguenot, the Cavalier, and the follower of Penn sought a refuge and a resting-place beyond the ocean, the Great Oak still stood, firm-rooted, vigorous, stately, haughtily domineering over all the forest, heedless of all the centuries that had hurried past since the wild Indian planted the little acorn in the forest;—a stout and hale old tree, with wide circumference shading many a rood of ground; and fit to furnish timbers for a ship, to carry the thunders of the Great Republic’s guns around the world. And yet, if one had sat and watched it every instant, from the moment when the feeble shoot first pushed its way to the light until the eagles built among its branches, he would never have seen the tree or sapling grow.
Many long centuries ago, before the Chaldæan Shepherds watched the Stars, or Shufu built the Pyramids, one could have sailed in a seventy-four where now a thousand islands gem the surface of the Indian Ocean; and the deep-sea lead would nowhere have found any bottom. But below these waves were myriads upon myriads, beyond the power of Arithmetic to number, of minute existences, each a perfect living creature, made by the Almighty Creator, and fashioned by Him for the work it had to do. There they toiled beneath the waters, each doing its allotted work, and wholly ignorant of the result which God intended. They lived and died, incalculable in numbers and almost infinite in the succession of their generations, each adding his mite to the gigantic work that went on there under God’s direction. Thus hath He chosen to create great Continents and Islands; and still the coral-insects live and work, as when they made the rocks that underlie the valley of the Ohio.
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Thus God hath chosen to create. Where now is firm land, once chafed and thundered the great primeval ocean. For ages upon ages the minute shields of infinite myriads of infusoria, and the stony stems of encrinites sunk into its depths, and there, under the vast pressure of its waters, hardened into limestone. Raised slowly from the Profound by His hand, its quarries underlie the soil of all the continents, hundreds of feet in thickness; and we, of these remains of the countless dead, build tombs and palaces, as the Egyptians, whom we call ancient, built their pyramids.
On all the broad lakes and oceans the Great Sun looks earnestly and lovingly, and the invisible vapors rise ever up to meet him. No eye but God’s beholds them as they rise. There, in the upper atmosphere, they are condensed to mist, and gather into clouds, and float and swim around in the ambient air. They sail with its currents, and hover over the ocean, and roll in huge masses round the stony shoulders of great mountains. Condensed still more by change of temperature, they drop upon the thirsty earth in gentle showers, or pour upon it in heavy rains, or storm against its bosom at the angry Equinoctial. The shower, the rain, and the storm pass away, the clouds vanish, and the bright stars again shine clearly upon the glad earth. The rain-drops sink into the ground, and gather in subterranean reservoirs, and run in subterranean channels, and bubble up in springs and fountains; and from the mountainsides and heads of valleys the silver threads of water begin their long journey to the ocean. Uniting, they widen into brooks and rivulets, then into streams and rivers; and, at last, a Nile, a Ganges, a Danube, an Amazon, or a Mississippi rolls between its banks, mighty, majestic, and resistless, creating vast alluvial valleys to be the granaries of the world, ploughed by the thousand keels of commerce and serving as great highways, and as the impassable boundaries of rival nations; ever returning to the ocean the drops that rose from it in vapor, and descended in rain and snow and hail upon the level plains and lofty mountains; and causing him to recoil for many a mile before the head-long rush of their great tide.
So it is with the aggregate of Human endeavor. As the invisible particles of vapor combine and coalesce to form the mists and clouds that fall in rain on thirsty continents, and bless the great green forests and wide grassy prairies, the waving meadows and the fields by which men live; as the infinite myriads of drops that the glad earth drinks are gathered into springs and rivulets and rivers, to aid in levelling the mountains and elevating the plains, and to feed the large lakes and restless oceans; so all Human Thought, and Speech and Action, all that is done and said and thought and suffered upon the Earth combine together, and flow onward in one broad resistless current toward those great results to which they are determined by the will of God.
We build slowly and destroy swiftly. Our Ancient Brethren who built the Temples at Jerusalem, with many myriad blows felled, hewed, and squared the cedars, and quarried the stones, and carved the intricate ornaments, which were to be the Temples. Stone after stone, by the combined effort and long toil of Apprentice, Fellow-Craft, and Master, the walls arose; slowly the roof was framed and fashioned; and many years elapsed before, at length, the Houses stood finished, all fit and ready for the Worship of God, gorgeous in the sunny splendors of the atmosphere of Palestine. So they were built. A single motion of the arm of a rude, barbarous Assyrian Spearman, or drunken Roman or Gothic Legionary of Titus, moved by a senseless impulse of the brutal will, flung in the blazing brand; and, with no further human agency, a few short hours sufficed to consume and melt each Temple to a smoking mass of black unsightly ruin.
Be patient, therefore, my Brother, and wait!
The issues are with God: To do, Of right belongs to us. Therefore faint not, my Brother, nor be weary in well doing. Be not discouraged at men’s apathy, nor disgusted with their follies, nor tired of their indifference. Care not for returns and results; but see only what there is to do, and do it, leaving the results to God. Soldier of the Cross! Sworn Knight of Justice, Truth, and Toleration! Good Knight and True! be patient and work!
The Apocalypse, that sublime Kabalistic and prophetic Summary of all the occult figures, divides its images into three Septenaries, after each of which there is silence in Heaven. There are Seven Seals to be opened, that is to say, Seven mysteries to know, and Seven difficulties to overcome, Seven trumpets to sound, and Seven cups to empty.
The Apocalypse is, to those who receive the nineteenth degree, the Apotheosis of that Sublime Faith which aspires to God alone, and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer. Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not! for traditions are full of Divine Revelations and Inspirations: and Inspiration is not of one Age nor of one Creed. Plato and Philo, also, were inspired.
The Apocalypse, indeed, is a book as obscure as the Sohar. It is written hieroglyphically with numbers and images; and the Apostle often appeals to the intelligence of the Initiated. “Let him who hath knowledge, understand! let him who understands, calculate!” he often says, after an allegory or the mention of a number. Saint John, the favorite Apostle, and the Depositary of all the Secrets of the Savior, therefore did not write to be understood by the multitude.
[p. 544]
The Sephar Yezirah, the Sohar, and the Apocalypse are the completest embodiments of Occultism. They contain more meanings than words; their expressions are figurative as poetry and exact as numbers. The Apocalypse sums up, completes, and surpasses all the Science of Abraham and of Solomon. The visions of Ezekiel, by the river Chebar, and of the new Symbolic Temple, are equally mysterious expressions, veiled by figures of the enigmatic dogmas of the Kabalah, and their symbols are as little understood by the Commentators, as those of Free Masonry.
The Septenary is the Crown of the Numbers, because it unites the Triangle of the Idea to the Square of the Form. The more the great Hierophants were at pains to conceal their absolute Science, the more they sought to add grandeur to and multiply its symbols. The huge pyramids, with their triangular sides of elevation and square bases, represented their Metaphysics, founded upon the knowledge of Nature. That knowledge of Nature had for its symbolic key the gigantic form of that huge Sphinx, which has hollowed its deep bed in the sand, while keeping watch at the feet of the Pyramids. The Seven grand monuments called the Wonders of the World, were the magnificent Commentaries on the Seven lines that composed the Pyramids, and on the Seven mystic gates of Thebes.
The Septenary philosophy of Initiation among the Ancients may be summed up thus: Three Absolute Principles which are but One Principle: four elementary forms which are but one; all forming a Single Whole, compounded of the Idea and the Form.
The three Principles were these: 1°. Being is Being. In Philosophy, identity of the Idea and of Being or Verity; in Religion, the first Principle, the Father. 2°. Being is Real. In Philosophy, identity of Knowing and of Being or Reality; in Religion, the Logos of Plato, the Demiourgos, the Word.
3°. Being is Logic. In Philosophy, identity of the Reason and Reality; in Religion, Providence, the Divine Action that makes real the Good, that which in Christianity we call the Holy Spirit.
The union of all the Seven colors is the White, the analogous symbol of the Good: the absence of all is the Black, the analogous symbol of the Evil. There are three primary colors, Red, Yellow, and Blue; and four secondary, Orange, Green, Indigo, and Violet; and all these God displays to man in the rainbow; and they have their analogies also in the moral and intellectual world. The same number, Seven, continually reappears in the Apocalypse, compounded of three and four; and these numbers relate to the last Seven of the Sephiroth, three answering to Benignity or Mercy, Severity or Justice, and Beauty or Harmony; and four to Netz ach, Hōd, Yesōd, and Malakoth, Victory, Glory, Stability, and Domination. The same numbers also represent the first three Sephiroth, Kether, Khokmah, and Bainah, or Will, Wisdom, and Understanding, which, with Daath or Intellection or Thought, are also four, Daath not being regarded as a Sephirah, not as the Deity acting, or as a potency, energy, or attribute, but as the Divine Action.
The Sephiroth are commonly figured in the Kabalah as constituting a human form, the Adam Kadman or Macrocosm. Thus arranged, the universal law of Equipoise is three times exemplified. From that of the Divine Intellectual, Active, Masculine Energy, and the Passive Capacity to produce Thought, the action of Thinking results. From that of Benignity and Severity, Harmony flows; and from that of Victory or an Infinite overcoming, and Glory, which, being Infinite, would seem to forbid the existence of obstacles or opposition, results Stability or Permanence, which is the perfect Dominion of the Infinite Will.
The last nine Sephiroth are included in, at the same time that they have flowed forth from, the first of all, Kether, or the Crown. Each also, in succession flowed from, and yet still remains included in, the one preceding it. The Will of God includes His Wisdom, and His Wisdom is His Will specially developed and acting. This Wisdom is the Logos that creates, mistaken and personified by Simon Magus and the succeeding Gnostics. By means of its utterance, the letter YŌd, it creates the worlds, first in the Divine Intellect as an Idea, which invested with form became the fabricated World, the Universe of material reality. YŌd and He, two letters of the Ineffable Name of the Manifested Deity, represent the Male and the Female, the Active and the Passive in Equilibrium, and the Vav completes the Trinity and the Triliteral Name ו, הי the Divine Triangle, which with the repetition of the He becomes the Tetragrammaton.
Thus the ten Sephiroth contain all the Sacred Numbers, three, five, seven, and nine, and the perfect Number Ten, and correspond with the Tetractys of Pythagoras.
Being is Being, Ahayah Asar Ahayah [ .]היהא רשא היהא This is the Principle, the “Beginning.” In the Beginning was, that is to say, IS, WAS, and WILL BE, the Word, that is to say, the Reason that Speaks. Εν αρχῃ ην Ὁ Λογος! The Word is the reason of belief, and in it also is the expression of the Faith which makes science a living thing. The Word, Λογος, is the Source of Logic. Jesus is the Word Incarnate. The accord of the Reason with Faith, of Knowledge with Belief, of Authority, with Liberty, has become in modern times the veritable enigma of the Sphinx.
[p. 545]
It is Wisdom that, in the Kabalistic Books of the Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus, is the Creative Agent of God. Elsewhere in the Hebrew writings it is רבד הוהי, Debar Iahavah, the Word of God. It is by His uttered Word that God reveals Himself to us; not alone in the visible and invisible but intellectual creation, but also in our convictions, consciousness, and instincts. Hence it is that certain beliefs are universal. The conviction of all men that God is good led to a belief in a Devil, the fallen Lucifer or Light-bearer, Shaitan the Adversary, Ahriman and Tuphōn, as an attempt to explain the existence of Evil, and make it consistent with the Infinite Power, Wisdom, and Benevolence of God.
Nothing surpasses and nothing equals, as a Summary of all the doctrines of the Old World, those brief words engraven by Hermes on a Stone, and known under the name of “The Tablet of Emerald:” the Unity of Being and the Unity of the Harmonies, ascending and descending, the progressive and proportional scale of the Word; the immutable law of the Equilibrium, and the proportioned progress of the universal analogies; the relation of the Idea to the Word, giving the measure of the relation between the Creator and the Created, the necessary mathematics of the Infinite, proved by the measures of a single corner of the Finite;—all this is expressed by this single proposition of the Great Egyptian Hierophant:
“What is Superior is as that which is Inferior, and what is Below is as that which is Above, to form the Marvels of the Unity.”
Legenda.
Masonry has and always had a religious creed. It teaches what it deems to be the truth in respect to the nature and attributes of God, as the loving and beneficent Father of all mankind, as a Supreme and Perfect Intelligence, as not in anywise the gigantic and distorted image of a man reflected upon the clouds. It no more tolerates false ideas of the Deity and accepts them as God, than images of Him carved of wood or stone. To believe and teach the immortality of the soul, it must of necessity have some not wholly erroneous idea of the nature of the soul, or else its belief is but an idle formula of empty words.
If this were not so, if it were only necessary to believe in and fear a Something eternal and omnipotent, called God, Masonry might again with propriety become Paganism, accepting as Initiates the bloody worshipers of Baal and Moloch, consenting that the scaffold should again be the supplement of the altar, and the Executioner the appendix of the Priest. For all religious mysteries have been also mysteries of blood, and there have been no worships without the sacrifice.
Charity and loving-kindness are two words that comprehend the whole political and religious creed of Freemasonry. The law of charity cannot have been enacted by, the spirit of loving-kindness cannot have emanated from, a cruel or ferocious God. It is the expression of the Divine will because it is of the Divine nature. A cruel God arms cruelty and persecution with the sanction of Divine authority. Idolatry is but the worship of an arbitrary despotism; and the kings of the world and the chiefs of republics are made after the image of the Gods whom the world or the republic adores. A cruel and vindictive God permits bloody revenges to be preached in His churches and authorizes all the barbarities of autocrats. When men shall conceive of a just God, charity and loving-kindness will be preached in His Temples, and there will be equitable kings and merciful and generous popular chiefs. Beliefs make opinion; and opinion consecrates powers. The Divine right of the Tudors perfectly corresponded with the God of Laud and Pole, the extermination of the Aztec and Peruvian races, the Eve of St. Bartholomew, Alva’s rule in the Netherlands, and the slaughtering of Covenanters and Albigenses, with the God of Dominic and Pius V., the murder of Servetus with the God of Calvin, and the hanging of Quakers with the savage God of the Puritans. A people’s idea of God is its God; and therefore it is true to say that as man makes progress, the excellence of his God increases; as Humanity elevates itself, its God becomes greater and more exalted. Then the ideal which the world forms of God for itself reacts upon the world. The Divine ideal is a mirror from which the rays of human thought are reflected to humanity. This reflection from the ideal world becomes the light of the real one; manners and habits form themselves in accordance with creeds; and political principles are the result of these manners and habits.
Degrees, if worthy to be called such, are so many steps of the mystic ladder, by which we ascend to the knowledge of the True Word, to the Knowledge of God and of Nature, which is His Revelation. They are, therefore, instructions, by symbols and their interpretations in political, philosophical and religious knowledge. If not this, they are nothing or merely vain and empty ceremonies. Masonry must teach the truth or die. It lives only by teaching the truth. God, being infinite, is known to us only by His finite manifestations; the Known leading us, by necessary or reasonable hypothesis, to divine the relative Unknown; and the Wisdom of God, by which everything begins and ends, the principle of all that eternally exists, consists in the spirit of loving-kindness or charity. It created the universe, and it preserves it, and by it dissolution is regeneration. To it alone the soul owes its immortality; and whatsoever, in Masonry or in political conductor in religion, is contrary to this spirit and this Supreme Wisdom, is false.
[p. 546]
To Close.
VP—Brother Warden, have you anything that you desire to offer for the benefit of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or of this Chapter of Pontiffs?
W—Nothing, Venerable Pontiff .
VP—Brother Warden, make known to the Brethren in the North and South, that if anyone has anything that he desires to offer for the benefit of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or of this Chapter of Pontiffs, the floor is now tendered to him.
W—Brethren in the North and South, the Venerable Pontiffinforms you, that if anyone has anything that he desires to offer for the benefit of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, or of this Chapter of Pontiffs, the floor is now tendered to him. (When no one desires to speak) Venerable Pontiff , silence prevails in both Valleys.
VP—Brother Warden, inform the brethren in both Valleys that the Box of Fraternal Assistance is about to be presented to them.
W—Brethren in the North and South, the Venerable Pontiffinforms you that the Box of Fraternal Assistance is about to be presented to you.
VP—Brother Master of Ceremonies, present to each the Box of Fraternal Assistance. It is passed around. After the collection, the Venerable Pontiffsays— VP—Brother Warden, what is the hour?
W—Venerable Pontiff , the hour is accomplished.
VP—What then remains to be done?
W—To work, to wait, and to be patient.
VP—Work then, my Brethren, while it is yet Day; for the night cometh in which no man can work. For what do we wait, Brother Warden?
W—For the Light of Noon-day.
VP—Let us then close this Lodge, and be patient. Brother Warden, inform the Faithful and True Brethren, that I am about to close this Chapter, if they consent; in order that each may go forth into the world, and do his duty as Soldier and Priest of Light, Truth, and Toleration.
W—Brethren, the Venerable Pontiffis about to close this Chapter, if you consent, that we may all go forth into the world and labor to elevate and ennoble humanity, as true Soldiers and Priests of Light, Truth, and Toleration. If you consent, give me the sign!
All give the sign. The Venerable Pontiffand Warden rap 3×3 as in opening. Then all the Brethren clap 3×3 with their hands, and cry three times “Hoscheah!”
VP—The Sun ascends toward the Zenith; and this Chapter is closed. But before we separate, let each vow not to reveal anything whatever that has here been said or done.
The Venerable Pontiffdescends from his seat, draws his sword, and holds the hilt out in front of him. The brethren all pass by him, from north to south, each as he passes laying his hand on the hilt of the sword, and saying, “I vow.” Once this is concluded:
VP—This Chapter is closed. My brethren, depart in peace!
Rosen 1886
tuileur imprimé · 166 mots
Le Tuileur des trente-trois grades du Rite Écossais Ancien et Accepté arrêté par le Convent universel de Lausanne et certifié le 1er juillet 1876 par le Suprême Conseil de Suisse, publié en 1886 par Paul Rosen dans sa « Maçonnerie pratique ». Décoration, titres, signes, attouchement, marche, batterie, âge, mots, tablier, cordon et bijou du grade. Les mots y sont imprimés en caractères de convention : leur déchiffrement est ajouté en fin de fiche. Le chiffre est un Vigenère sur un alphabet de vingt-cinq lettres, sans W, avec un mot-clef par groupe de degrés. Pages 378-379 de l'édition originale.
La loge n'est éclairée que par un transparent, placé à l'Orient.
Titres.
Le Maître se nomme Trois Fois Puissant. Il n'y a qu'un seul Surveillant, à l'Occident. Tous les FF∴ sont appelés Fidèles et Vrais Frères.
Signe.
Lever la main droite horizontalement, les doigts tendus, puis en baisser perpendiculairement les trois derniers.
Attouchement.
Se mettre réciproquement la paume de la main droite sur le front. Le premier dit GZAXTNON, le second répond RCJXHEKGSBOGKIG, le premier dit KABSVNKZ ; le second, JVSNEHBGOLBBZHS ; tous ensemble, GASG.
Batterie.
Douze coups égaux : ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
Mot Sacré.
GZAXTNON.
[p. 379]
Mot de Passe.
KABSVNKZ.
Cordon.
Cramoisi, liseré de blanc, parsemé de douze étoiles d'or, placé de gauche à droite. On y brode l'Alpha et l'Oméga.
Bijou.
Un carré long, sur lequel sont gravés, d'un côté un Alpha, de l'autre un Oméga.
