p. 47Signs, Symbols and Ceremonies

In the Voice of Masonry for 1883, we find: “Freemasonry is a science of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. … A symbol may be defined as a pictorial expression of a thought, or of an emotion … the leading and most valuable symbols of Freemasonry have descended to the present from the remotest past; they are the same that were exhibited to the Neophyte on his journey through the ceremonies attending his initiation into the ancient religious mysteries.” In the same magazine, on page 891, we read: “The secret meanings of Masonic symbols are not to be found in the printed monitors or manuals or in the so-called ‘Lecture’ explanatory of the ceremonial of the lodge; they are only revealed by hints, and these hints often carefully concealed under many thick veils.”

Says Husenbeth: “Freemasonry being confessedly an allegorical system, all its points, parts and secrets must partake in common of its emblematic construction. Every doctrine and ceremony has its mystical reference; every landmark its legitimate explanation. But there are often more important antitypes than those which are commonly assigned, and, though they do not appear on the surface, are nevertheless worthy of our most serious consideration.” (Cyclopædia of Freemasonry.)

“Freemasons ever endeavor to act up to the principles of the ancient secret societies, and, if they differ in some points from the practice of those ancient worthies, it is in having improved upon their leading principles, by spreading the truth more extensively over the globe.” The institution of the mysteries was the most sacred part of pagan religion and artfully framed to strike deeply and forcibly into the minds and imagination of the people.

Says William Hutchinson: “As we derived many of our mysteries and moral principles from the doctrine of Pythagoras, who had acquired his learning in Egypt, and others from the Phœnicians, who had received the Egyptian theology in an early age, it is not to be wondered at that we should adopt Egyptian symbols.” (Spirit of Masonry, London, 1802.)

Masonry is the mother of all other secret societies as well in fact as in name. Consequently the mysteries of the ancients serve as a foundation for all the signs, symbols, rites and ceremonies used in secret societies. Now, as Masons deny the supernatural and place the natural order supreme, the symbols are taken from the natural order of things and a nature-worship and naturalism established.

The sun, moon, signs of the zodiac, the blazing star and other astronomical symbols as found in the lodge-rooms are taken from the ancient mysteries. Geometrical figures and lines of architecture are borrowed from the same source. The rest of the symbols are an imitation of the present religious symbols as found in modern religions. Whenever these symbols are mentioned as referring to the Deity or Supreme Architect that being is not the God which Jesus Christ has taught us—not the God of the Christians—Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In the “Humanitarian” for March, 1897, we read of the annual meeting of an Astronomical society, and a Mr. Alan Leo gave an address in which he said that “astrology was built upon a beautiful symbology, the symbols of which were the same today as at the beginning. The circle which represents the sun; the half-circle the moon, and the cross representing the earth. A cross over the circle is Mars or War; a cross under the circle Venus or Love. The Sun, Mars and Venus represent the Spirit. In the half-circle are all the planets referring to the mind. A cross over the half-circle is Saturn or the devil. The half-circle over the cross is Jupiter or Jehovah, the Higher Mind. Every person is born under some influence, and the study of astrology enables people correctly to see the qualities that are in them. The speaker challenged every man to show that astrology is not true; sooner or later it will become,” he said, “the religion of the world.” (C. W. Heckethorn—Secret Societies, etc., page 328.)