The Symbolism Of Freemasonry Part 26

THAMMUZ. A Syrian G.o.d, who was wors.h.i.+pped by those women of the Hebrews who had fallen into idolatry. The idol was the same as the Phoenician Adonis, and the Mysteries of the two were identical.

TRAVELLING FREEMASONS. See Freemasons, Travelling.

TRESTLE BOARD. The board or tablet on which the designs of the architect are inscribed. It is a symbol of the moral law as set forth in the revealed will of G.o.d.

Every man must have his trestle board, because it is the duty of every man to work out the task which G.o.d, the chief Architect, has a.s.signed to him.

TRIANGLE. A symbol of Deity.

This symbolism is found in many of the ancient religions.

Among the Egyptians it was a symbol of universal nature, or of the protection of the world by the male and female energies of creation.

TRIANGLE, RADIATED. A triangle placed within a circle of rays. In Christian art it is a symbol of G.o.d; then the rays are called a glory. When they surround the triangle in the form of a circle, the triangle is a symbol of the glory of G.o.d. When the rays emanate from the centre of the triangle, it is a symbol of divine light. This is the true form of the masonic radiated triangle.

TRILITERAL NAME. This is the word AUM, which is the ineffable name of G.o.d among the Hindoos, and symbolizes the three manifestations of the Brahminical supreme G.o.d, Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu. It was never to be p.r.o.nounced aloud, and was a.n.a.logous to the sacred tetragrammaton of the Jews.

TROWEL. One of the working tools of a Master Mason. It is a symbol of brotherly love.

TRUTH. It was not always taught publicly by the ancient philosophers to the people.

The search for it is the object of Freemasonry. It is never found on earth, but a subst.i.tute for it is provided.

TUAPHOLL. A term used by the Druids to designate an unhallowed circ.u.mambulation around the sacred cairn, or altar, the movement being against the sun, that is, from west to east by the north, the cairn being on the left hand of the circ.u.mambulator.

TUBAL CAIN. Of the various etymologies of this name, only one is given in the text; but most of the others in some way identify him with Vulcan. Wellsford (Mithridates Minor p. 4) gives a singular etymology, deriving the name of the Hebrew patriarch from the definite article ? converted into ?, or T and Baal, "Lord," with the Arabic kayn, "a blacksmith," so that the word would then signify "the lord of the blacksmiths." Masonic writers have, however, generally adopted the more usual derivation of Cain, from a word signifying possession; and Oliver descants on Tubal Cain as a symbol of worldly possessions. As to the ident.i.ty of Vulcan with Tubal Cain, we may learn something from the definition of the offices of the former, as given by Diodorus Siculus: "Vulcan was the first founder of works in iron, bra.s.s, gold, silver, and all fusible metals; and he taught the uses to which fire can be applied in the arts." See Genesis: "Tubal Cain, an instructor of every artificer in bra.s.s and iron."

TWENTY-FOUR INCH GAUGE. A two-foot rule. One of the working-tools of an Entered Apprentice, and a symbol of time well employed.

TYPHON. The brother and slayer of Osiris in the Egyptian mythology. As Osiris was a type or symbol of the sun, Typhon was the symbol of winter, when the vigor, heat, and, as it were, life of the sun are destroyed, and of darkness as opposed to light.

TYRE. A city of Phoenicia, the residence of King Hiram, the friend and ally of Solomon, whom he supplied with men and materials for the construction of the temple.

TYRIAN FREEMASONS. These were the members of the Society of Dionysiac Artificers, who at the time of the building of Solomon's temple flourished at Tyre. Many of them were sent to Jerusalem by Hiram, King of Tyre, to a.s.sist King Solomon in the construction of his temple. There, uniting with the Jews, who had only a knowledge of the speculative principles of Freemasonry, which had been transmitted to them from Noah, through the patriarchs, the Tyrian Freemasons organized that combined system of Operative and Speculative Masonry which continued for many centuries, until the beginning of the eighteenth, to characterize the inst.i.tution. See Dionysiac Artificers.

U

UNION. The union of the operative with the speculative element of Freemasonry took place at the building of King Solomon's temple.

UNITY OF G.o.d. This, as distinguished from the pagan doctrine of polytheism, or a mult.i.tude of G.o.ds, is one of the two religious truths taught in Speculative Masonry, the other being the immortality of the soul.

W

WEARY SOJOURNERS. The legend of the "three weary sojourners" in the Royal Arch degree is undoubtedly a philosophical myth, symbolizing the search after truth.

WHITE. A symbol of innocence and purity.

Among the Pythagoreans it was a symbol of the good principle in nature, equivalent to light.

WIDOW'S SON. An epithet bestowed upon the chief architect of the temple, because he was "a widow's son of the tribe of Naphthali." 1 Kings vii. 14.

WINDING STAIRS, LEGEND OF. A legend in the Fellow Craft's degree having no historical truth, but being simply a philosophical myth or legendary symbol intended to communicate a masonic dogma.

It is the symbol of an ascent from a lower to a higher sphere.

It commences at the porch of the temple, which is a symbol of the entrance into life.

The number of steps are always odd, because odd numbers are a symbol of perfection.

But the fifteen steps in the American system are a symbol of the name of G.o.d, Jah.

WINE. An element of masonic consecration, and, as a symbol of the inward refreshment of a good conscience, is intended under the name of the "wine of refreshment," to remind us of the eternal refreshments which the good are to receive in the future life for the faithful performance of duty in the present.

WORD. In Freemasonry this is a technical and symbolic term, and signifies divine truth. The search after this word const.i.tutes the whole system of speculative masonry.

WORD, LOST. See Lost Word.

WORD, SUBSt.i.tUTE. See Subst.i.tute Word.

WORK. In Freemasonry the initiation of a candidate is called work. It is suggestive of the doctrine that labor is a masonic duty.

Y

YGGDRASIL. The sacred ash tree in the Scandinavian Mysteries. Dr. Oliver propounds the theory that it is the a.n.a.logue of the theological ladder in the Masonic Mysteries. But it is doubtful whether this theory is tenable.

YOD. A Hebrew letter, in form thus ?, and about equivalent to the English I or Y. It is the initial letter of the tetragrammaton, and is often used, especially enclosed within a triangle, as a subst.i.tute for, or an abridgement of, that sacred word.

It is a symbol of the life-giving and sustaining power of G.o.d.

YONI. Among the nations and religions of India the yoni was the representation of the female organ of generation, and was the symbol of the prolific power of nature. It is the same as the cteis among the Occidental nations.

Z

ZENNAAR. The sacred girdle of the Hindoos. It is supposed to be the a.n.a.logue of the masonic ap.r.o.n.

ZOROASTER. A distinguished philosopher and reformer, whose doctrines were professed by the ancient Persians. The religion of Zoroaster was a dualism, in which the two antagonizing principles were Ormuzd and Abriman, symbols of Light and Darkness. It was a modification and purification of the old fire-wors.h.i.+p, in which the fire became a symbol of the sun, so that it was really a species of sun-wors.h.i.+p. Mithras, representing the sun, becomes the mediator between Ormuzd, or the principle of Darkness, and the world.

Footnotes

1. "The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, if it is a real advantage, follows unavoidably from the idea of G.o.d. The best Being, he must will the best of good things; the wisest, he must devise plans for that effect; the most powerful, he must bring it about. None can deny this."-THEO. PARKER, Discourse of Matters pertaining to Religion, b. ii. ch. viii. p. 205.

2. "This inst.i.tution of religion, like society, friends.h.i.+p, and marriage, comes out of a principle, deep and permanent in the heart: as humble, and transient, and partial inst.i.tutions come out of humble, transient, and partial wants, and are to be traced to the senses and the phenomena of life, so this sublime, permanent, and useful inst.i.tution came out from sublime, permanent, and universal wants, and must be referred to the soul, and the unchanging realities of life."-PARKER, Discourse of Religion, b. i. ch. i. p. 14.

3. "The sages of all nations, ages, and religions had some ideas of these sublime doctrines, though more or less degraded, adulterated and obscured; and these scattered hints and vestiges of the most sacred and exalted truths were originally rays and emanations of ancient and primitive traditions, handed down from, generation to generation, since the beginning of the world, or at least since the fall of man, to all mankind."-CHEV. RAMSAY, Philos. Princ. of Nat. and Rev. Relig., vol ii. p. 8.

4. "In this form, not only the common objects above enumerated, but gems, metals, stones that fell from heaven, images, carved bits of wood, stuffed skins of beasts, like the medicine-bags of the North American Indians, are reckoned as divinities, and so become objects of adoration. But in this case, the visible object, is idealized; not wors.h.i.+pped as the brute thing really is, but as the type and symbol of G.o.d."-PARKER, Disc. of Relig. b. i. ch. v. p. 50.

5. A recent writer thus eloquently refers to the universality, in ancient times, of sun-wors.h.i.+p: "Sabaism, the wors.h.i.+p of light, prevailed amongst all the leading nations of the early world. By the rivers of India, on the mountains of Persia, in the plains of a.s.syria, early mankind thus adored, the higher spirits in each country rising in spiritual thought from the solar orb up to Him whose vicegerent it seems-to the Sun of all being, whose divine light irradiates and purifies the world of soul, as the solar radiance does the world of sense. Egypt, too, though its faith be but dimly known to us, joined in this wors.h.i.+p; Syria raised her grand temples to the sun; the joyous Greeks sported with the thought while feeling it, almost hiding it under the mythic individuality which their lively fancy superimposed upon it. Even prosaic China makes offerings to the yellow orb of day; the wandering Celts and Teutons held feasts to it, amidst the primeval forests of Northern Europe; and, with a savagery characteristic of the American aborigines, the sun temples of Mexico streamed with human blood in honor of the beneficent orb."-The Castes and Creeds of India, Blackw. Mag., vol. lx.x.xi. p. 317.-"There is no people whose religion is known to us," says the Abbe Banier, "neither in our own continent nor in that of America, that has not paid the sun a religious wors.h.i.+p, if we except some inhabitants of the torrid zone, who are continually cursing the sun for scorching them with his beams."-Mythology, lib. iii. ch. iii.-Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, undertakes to prove that all the G.o.ds of Paganism may be reduced to the sun.