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Article THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON AS A SYMBOL OF FKE... ← Page 4 of 15 →
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The Temple Of Solomon As A Symbol Of Fke...
existence , land originating in the craving need of humanity to know something that is above and beyond the mere outward life that surrounds us with its gross atmosphere here below . Indeed , the only bond or link that unites speculative and operative Masonry , is the symbolism that belongs altogether to the former , but which , throughout its whole extent , is derived from the latter .
Our first inquiry , then , will be into the nature of the symbolism which operative gives to speculative Masonry ; and thoroughly to understand this ( to know its origin , and its necessity , ^ nd its mode of application ) , we must begin with a reference to the condition of a long past peridd of time .
Thousands of years ago , this science of symbolism was adopted by the sagacious priesthood of -Egypt to convey the lessons of worldly wisdom and religious knowledge which they thus communicated to their disciples . t Their science , their history , and their philosophy , were thus concealed beneath an impenetrable veil from
all the profane , and none but those who had passed through the severe ordeal of initiation were put in possession of the key which enabled them to decipher and read with ease tho . se mvstic lessons which we still see engraved upon the obelisks , the tombs and the sarcophagi , which lie scattered , to this day , in endless profusion along the banks of the Nile .
Prom the Egyptians the same method of symbolic instruction was diffused among all the pagan nations of antiquity , and was used in all the ancient mysteries , ^ as the medium of communicating to the initiated the esoteric and secret doctrines for whose preservation and promulgation those singular associations were formed .
Moses , who , as Holy Writ informs us , was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians , brought witli him from that cradle of the sciences a perfect knowledge of the science of symbolism as it . was taught by the priests of Isis and Osiris , and applied it to the ceremonies with which he invested the purer religion , of the people for whom lie had been appointed to legislate . §
* " By speculative Masonry we learn to subdue our passions , to act upon the square , to keep a tongue of good report , to maintain secrecy and practice charity . " —Ibidem . [ But this is but a meagre definition , unworthy of the place it occupies in the lecture of the second degree .
f Animal worship among the Egyptians was the natural and unavoidable consequence of the misconception by the vulgar of those emblematical figures invented by the priests to record their own philosophical conception of absurd ideas . As the pictures and effigies suspended in early Christian churches , to commemorate a person or an event , became in time objects of worship to the vulgar , so , in
Egypt , the esoteric or spiritual meaning of the emblems was lost in the gross materialism of the beholder . This esoteric and allegorical meaning was , however , preserved by the priests , and communicated in the mysteries alone to the initiated , while the uninstructed retained only the grosser conception .- —Gliddon , Ot / ia / ftgyptica , p . 04 .
X r I o perpetuate the esoteric signification of these symbols to the initiated , there were established the mysteries , of which institution we have still a trace in Freemasonry .- —Gliddon , Olia JHrjyptiaca , p . 95 . § Philo JudsBus says , that " Moses had been initiated by the Egyptians into the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics , as well as into the ritual of the holy
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Temple Of Solomon As A Symbol Of Fke...
existence , land originating in the craving need of humanity to know something that is above and beyond the mere outward life that surrounds us with its gross atmosphere here below . Indeed , the only bond or link that unites speculative and operative Masonry , is the symbolism that belongs altogether to the former , but which , throughout its whole extent , is derived from the latter .
Our first inquiry , then , will be into the nature of the symbolism which operative gives to speculative Masonry ; and thoroughly to understand this ( to know its origin , and its necessity , ^ nd its mode of application ) , we must begin with a reference to the condition of a long past peridd of time .
Thousands of years ago , this science of symbolism was adopted by the sagacious priesthood of -Egypt to convey the lessons of worldly wisdom and religious knowledge which they thus communicated to their disciples . t Their science , their history , and their philosophy , were thus concealed beneath an impenetrable veil from
all the profane , and none but those who had passed through the severe ordeal of initiation were put in possession of the key which enabled them to decipher and read with ease tho . se mvstic lessons which we still see engraved upon the obelisks , the tombs and the sarcophagi , which lie scattered , to this day , in endless profusion along the banks of the Nile .
Prom the Egyptians the same method of symbolic instruction was diffused among all the pagan nations of antiquity , and was used in all the ancient mysteries , ^ as the medium of communicating to the initiated the esoteric and secret doctrines for whose preservation and promulgation those singular associations were formed .
Moses , who , as Holy Writ informs us , was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians , brought witli him from that cradle of the sciences a perfect knowledge of the science of symbolism as it . was taught by the priests of Isis and Osiris , and applied it to the ceremonies with which he invested the purer religion , of the people for whom lie had been appointed to legislate . §
* " By speculative Masonry we learn to subdue our passions , to act upon the square , to keep a tongue of good report , to maintain secrecy and practice charity . " —Ibidem . [ But this is but a meagre definition , unworthy of the place it occupies in the lecture of the second degree .
f Animal worship among the Egyptians was the natural and unavoidable consequence of the misconception by the vulgar of those emblematical figures invented by the priests to record their own philosophical conception of absurd ideas . As the pictures and effigies suspended in early Christian churches , to commemorate a person or an event , became in time objects of worship to the vulgar , so , in
Egypt , the esoteric or spiritual meaning of the emblems was lost in the gross materialism of the beholder . This esoteric and allegorical meaning was , however , preserved by the priests , and communicated in the mysteries alone to the initiated , while the uninstructed retained only the grosser conception .- —Gliddon , Ot / ia / ftgyptica , p . 04 .
X r I o perpetuate the esoteric signification of these symbols to the initiated , there were established the mysteries , of which institution we have still a trace in Freemasonry .- —Gliddon , Olia JHrjyptiaca , p . 95 . § Philo JudsBus says , that " Moses had been initiated by the Egyptians into the philosophy of symbols and hieroglyphics , as well as into the ritual of the holy