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On the other hand, it is now very generally recognized
that the
machinery of the earlier romances - the Fisher king, sick,
wounded or in extreme old age, whose incapacity entails
disastrous consequences upon his land and folk, both alike
ceasing to be fruitful; the quester, whose task is to heal
the king, and restore fruitfulness to the land - bear a
striking resemblance to the cults associated with such
deities as Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, the object of which
was the renewal of vegetation and the preservation of
life. Further, we now know that a certain early Christian
sect, the Naassenes, identified the Logos of the Christian
worship with these earlier deities, practised a triple
initiation into the sources of life, physical and
spiritual, and boldly proclaimed themselves to be
"alone the true Christians, accomplishing the mystery
at the Third Gate:" The evidence for the connection
between Christianity and the Attis cult in particular is
clear, and have been commented upon
by A. B. Cook in the second volume of his monumental work
on Zeus. Scholarly opinion is steadily coming round to the
view that the only interpretation of the obscurities and
apparent contradictions of the Grail story is to regard it
as the confused record of a form of worship, semi-
Christian, semi-Pagan, at one time practised in these
islands, the central object of which was initiation into
the sources of life, physical and spiritual. This, and
this alone, will account for the diverse forms assumed by
the Grail, the symbol of that source. Thus it may be the
dish from which the worshippers partook of the communal
feast; it may be the cup in juxtaposition with the lance,
symbols of the male and female energies, source of
physical life, and well known phallic emblems. It may be
the "Holy" Grail, source of spiritual life, the
form of which is not defined, and which is wrought of no
material substance - " 'twas not of wood, nor of
any manner of metal, nor was it in any wise of stone, nor
of horn, nor of bone"; it is a spiritual object, to
be spiritually discerned, but always, and under any form,
a source of life. Thus Wolfram's stone, the mere sight of
which preserves all inhabitants of the Grail castle, not
only in life, but in youth, is what is popularly known as
"the philosopher's stone," that stone of the
alchemist which was the source of all life. Even the
bleeding head of Peredur may be interpreted on the same
lines. A passage in the York Breviary, for the Feast of
the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, states "Caput
Johannis in disco signat Corpus Christi quo pascimur in
sancto
alteri." When the Grail had once been elevated to the
purely Christian orthodox plane, as was done by Borron,
and became the source, no longer of physical, but of
spiritual life, such a substitution, by one familiar
source, or one before him, had introduced the alchemical
stone. As the record of the perennial, too often
unsuccessful, quest for the source of life, all the
puzzling features of the Grail story are capable of
satisfactory explanation. There is no other clue to the
maze.
Note the reference to initiation into the sources of life
and
accomplishment of the mysteries at the Third Gate.
While the legends deal with British (not English) heroes,
they come
principly from French sources, and the Masonic degrees of
the Round Table are probably also of French origin.
Order of the Garter
The date of the founding of the Order of the Garter is
uncertain. The
dates assigned vary from 1344 to 1357, the latter date
according to the records of Columbian Council, having been
selected by the inventor of the Masonic degree of that
name. It superseded the Order of the Round Table in the
Fourteenth Century, but Masonic degrees of both Orders
were worked contemporaneously in Columbian Council.
The Order of the Round Table consisted of twenty-four
knights with the King at their head; the Order of the
Garter of twenty-four knights with the king and the Black
Prince or twenty-six in all. Possibly this is the origin
of the number twenty-seven which could not be increased,
the three Grand Masters taking the place of the king, or
the king and prince.
In this connection the robes of the Order are of interest
to Masons
because they were embordered with garters with a star on
the left
shoulder. The expression "the star and garter"
referred to this Order in much the same way as "the
square and compasses" refer to the Masonic Order.
There are many stories told as to the origin of the Order
of the Garter, the best known being that the Countess of
Salisbury dropt her garter while dancing with the king who
picked it up. The courtiers passed some indelicate jokes
about it and the king angrily said, "Shame to him who
evil thinks," and added he would make the garter so
glorious that all would desire it. The story has no
foundation in fact. According to the American Encyclopedia
it had its beginning in a society called "the company
of St. George" instituted by King Edward III
"with the design of furnishing soldiers of fortune to
assist King Edward in asserting his claim to the crown of
France." We here have a parallel of the later
attempts of the exiled Stuarts to use Masonry as a means
of recovering the throne of England, and it is significant
that the "Old Pretender" took the name of St.
George.
These two old Orders unknown to modern Masons are of
interest as
having had a connection with Masonry and as illustrating
the search for the source of real life and the yielding up
of life rather than forfeit
integrity.
In our modern Masonic degrees we are told that there was
an agreement among our three Most Excellent Grand Masters
that the Word would not be communicated until the Temple
was completed and then only in the presence of all three.
We are also told how the Word was lost, but later
recovered because of certain efforts which had been made
for its preservation. In all this we find the real
symbolism of the York Rite degrees and its relation to the
Masonic system of instruction. In the Symbolic Degrees, we
have an account of the loss of the Word with a promise of
its recovery; in the Chapter we search and find it, while
full enlightenment is found only in the explanation of the
Cryptic Degrees. In the Lodge we search but do not find;
in the Chapter, while engaged in the faithful discharge of
our dark task we find it, but do not learn the
significance of what we find; while in the Council we
learn how the Word was preserved and what it means. In the
Royal Degree we learn that whatever may be the
uncertainties of life, to the faithful Craftsman the
reward is sere; in the Select Degree we are taught that
the Word is to be preserved in the Secret Vault of the
Soul and we learn why, when not looking for it, but while
engaged in the performance of our daily duties we
found it; while in the Super-Excellent Degree we find that
catastrophe overtakes the unfaithful whether he be prince
or pauper, and that without fidelity success is
impossible.
Mackey says the Word symbolizes Divine Truth, but we
believe it is more than that. It symbolizes all the
attributes of Deity, yea even God himself, the knowledge
of Whom makes the possessor divine. It is the Word as
defined by St. John. "In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
"All things were made by him: and without him was not
anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life
was the light of Men. And the light shineth in darkness:
and the darkness comprehended it not."
Compare this with another passage of Scripture we as
Masons so often hear: "In the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters: And God said, Let there be light; and there was
light." "This is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God." (Jno. 17:3.)
As, at the voice of God, from the formless void came forth
light, so from the darkness of an unformed character, at
the command of the Master, will emerge the light of truth,
by which the Mason may see the way he must go in his
search for more light, and the work he must do in the
uprearing of his spiritual temple, that house not made
with hands eternal in the heavens. Yet the Word, the
complete knowledge of God, can only be his when his temple
is completed and he has passed through the gate of death
to the place of wages, refreshment and rest. Even then it
can only be communicated to him if his temple of the
present life has been properly constructed, well
proportioned and erected on the eternal foundation of
truth and right.
We have been told that the Word could only be communicated
in the
presence of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, and in the
absence of one of these the Word was lost. Here we have a
symbol of one of the greatest truths in human life, namely
that a partial development is a one sided development and
produces a deformed, not a perfect character. The Pillars
of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty represent the three phases
of a man's character, his intellect, his will and his
feeling or sensibilities. The Word symbolizing perfection
cannot be attained if Wisdom, Strength and Beauty are not
all present and in perfect accord. Though a man may have a
will strong enough to resist all inducements to swerve
from the course he has marked out and though his finer
sensibilities may be fully developed, yet if he have not
wisdom to choose the proper course it profiteth him
nothing; though he may have the Wisdom of Solomon and lack
strength of will he is as a reed shaken by the wind and he
can accomplish nothing; and though he may be all wise and
have the
strength of the Almighty, if he lack the ability to
appreciate goodness, beauty, holiness, love, service, in
short the enobling qualities of the soul he may become a
very devil.
The tragedies of character building center around the men
who insist on developing one or two of these phases of
character at the expense of the others or the other. The
man who takes this course cannot see that by so doing he
fails to properly develop the very quality in which he
takes so much pride. He is not truly wise who fails to
realize that a one sided development is not perfection. He
who prides himself on his strength of will may be but a
stubborn fool. Even when directed by an intelligent mind
he should know that pride of either intellect or will may
be a stain on an otherwise lovely character. But the
greatest tragedy and the one most frequently experienced
is the demand of the Word from the Pillar of Beauty; the
demand that life's development shall be through fertile
meads and pleasant valleys, that we shall lie on downy
beds of ease and that life's harsher and soul
strengthening experiences shall pass us by.
This experience comes to us in many ways and in various
guises. It is seen in the struggle for reputation
regardless of character, in the school boy who centers his
efforts on getting a passing grade rather than a mastery
of his course, in the man who will cheat if he thinks he
will not be found out, and in the many ways that we demand
that life shall yield to us the things we desire rather
than those we need.
Sad indeed is the truth that he who persists in demanding
that life shall bring to him only pleasures, by that very
course, destroys the only means by which happiness can be
attained. He who seeks pleasure alone can never enjoy the
pleasures of life. This is well illustrated in George
Eliott's novel Romola in which there is a character very
loving and very desirous of giving pleasure, but
determined to avoid all the disagreeable phases of life.
The result was catastrophe and ruin. The closing chapter
of this story relates a conversation between that man's
little son Lillo and Romola. In response to his question
"What am I to be?" Romola replies:
"What should you like to be, Lillo? You might be a
scholar. My father was a scholar, you know, and taught me
a great deal. That is the reason why I can teach
you."
"Yes," said Lillo, rather hesitatingly.
"But he is old and blind in the
picture. Did he have a great deal of glory?"
"Not much, Lillo. The world was not always very kind
to him, and he saw meaner men than himself put into higher
places, because they could flatter and say what was false.
And then, his dear son thought it right to leave him and
become a monk; and after that, my father, being blind and
lonely, felt unable to do the things that would have made
his learning of greater use to men, so that he might have
still lived in his works after he was in his grave."
"I should not like that sort of life," said
Lillo. "I should like to be
something that would make me a great man, and very happy
besides -something that would not hinder me from having a
good deal of pleasure."
"That is not easy, my Lillo. It is only a poor sort
of happiness that could ever come by caring very much
about our own narrow pleasures. We can only have the
highest happiness, such as goes along with being a great
man, by having wide thoughts, and much feeling for the
rest of the world as well as ourselves; and this sort of
happiness often brings so much pain with it, that we can
only tell it from pain by its being what we would choose
before everything else, because our souls see it is
good.
There are so many things wrong and difficult in the world,
that no man can be great - he can hardly keep himself from
wickedness - unless he gives up thinking much about
pleasure or rewards, and gets strength to endure what is
hard and painful. My father had the greatness that belongs
to integrity; he chose poverty and obscurity rather than
falsehood. And there was Fra Giroloma - you know why I
keep tomorrow sacred; he had the greatness which belongs
to a life spent in struggling against powerful wrongs, and
in trying to raise men to the highest deeds they are
capable of. And so, my Lillo, if you mean to act nobly and
seek to know the best things God has put within reach of
men, you must learn to fix your mind on that end, and not
on what will happen to you because of it. And remember, if
you were to choose something lower, and make it the rule
of your life to seek your own pleasure and escape from
what is disagreeable, calamity might come just the same;
and it would be
calamity falling on a base mind, which is the one form of
sorrow that has no balm in it, and that may well make a
man say 'It would have been better for me if I had
never been born."'
But it is not only the loss of the Word through the sin of
the unfaithful craftsmen, seeking to obtain the Word in
illegitimate ways that is symbolized by the Legend of our
Secret Vault. It seemed that the Word was lost in the
destruction of the Pillar of Beauty, but such loss was
only temporary. To him, who feared such a catastrophe
would occur, the Master said a way would be provided, and
so to the faithful workman seeking the Word in a lawful
manner and fearful that death will intervene before it can
be imparted, the promise is given that the reward is
sure.
Death indeed may intervene, since all must die; we may not
live to see our temple completed; but if that happens the
Word, preserved, through burial in the secret vault of the
soul, will in due time be obtained. The strong hand of
death can only reduce us to the level of the grave, but
the Almighty Master will raise us and exalt us to the
companionship of just men made perfect. There the temple
will be seen completed; there the scales of doubt and
darkness will fall from our eyes; there we shall receive
the Word and there we shall be like Him for we shall see
Him as He is.
In order that it may not be forever lost, the Word is
preserved in the ark of God's promises and hidden in the
inmost recesses of the heart. As the Psalmist says:
"Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin
against Thee." That we may know the Word when we find
it, we must search the Great Light of Masonry which
contains the key to its proper understanding, and then the
light will shine, the truth be revealed and though now we
know in part, then we shall know even as also we are
known.
May the Master's Word be known, may certainty be attained?
Yes indeed for thus do we find it written in Masonry's
Great Light:
Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house
of Judah-I will put my law in their inward parts, and in
their hearts will I write it: and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people, - for they shall all know me,
from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith
Jehovah. (Jer. 31: 31-34.)
Freemasonry is an institution calculated to benefit
mankind
- Andrew Jackson
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