Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The First Point In The Pythagorean Triangle Explained.
implies something lost ; and our ancient brethren , the early Christians , after they had lost , by an untimely death , their Lord and Master , remembered that while assembled in lodge here below , he had promised that where two or three were gathered together in his name , he would be in the midst of them ; and cheered by the recollection , they were naturally led to hope that he would always be found in the centre of their circlewhenever assembled together in a just and perfect lodge
, , dedicated to God and holy St . John . In like manner we are reminded by that sacred symbol that He is always in the midst of us ; that His all-seeing eye is always upon us , and therefore exhorted to discharge our duty towards Him and our fellow-creatures with freedom , fervency , and zeal . "
The monad was anciently a symbol of the hermaphrodite deity , or junction of the sexes , because it partakes of two natures . * In a mysterious passage of the Yajur Veda , Brahma is spoken of , after his emanation from the golden egg , as experiencing fear at being alone in the universe ; he therefore willed the existence of another , and instantly became masculo-feminine . The two sexes thus existing in one God , were immediatelyby another act of volitiondivided in twainand became man
, , , and wife . This tradition seems to have found its way into Greece ; for the Androgyne of Plato is but another version of this oriental mythus . t If the monad be added to an odd number , it makes it even , and if to an even number it makes it odd . Hence it was called Jupiter , because it stands at the head of number , as Jupiter is at the head of gods and men ; and also Vesta , or Fire , because , like the point within a circle , it is seated in the midst of the world . It was also called the Throne of
Jupiter , from the great power which the centre h * in the universe , being able to restrain its general circular motion , as if the custody of the Maker of all things were constituted therein . J Plutarch tells us that Numa built a temple in a circular form , for the preservation of the sacred fire ; intending , by the fashion of the edifice , to shadow out , not so much the earth as the whole universe , in the centre of which the Pythagoreans placed fire , which they called Vesta and Unity . The Persians worshipped the circumferencebut it could only refer to
, the course of the sun in the firmament , for the real circumference is far beyond the comprehension of finite man . And the sun , under the symbol of a point within a circle , was the great object of worship amongst the Dionysian artists , who built the temple of Solomon . On this interesting subject a learned and intelligent brother offers the following opinion , in a letter to the author : — " The more I study the subject of Masonry , the more I am convinced that the mysteries were
unknown in Jerusalem till introduced by the Dionysian artificers , § and that the ceremonies were astronomical , mixed with paganism and sunworship . I believe , also , that Solomon divested them of their evil tendency , and created a new legend ; but that the main object was an astronomical emblem . The Jews did not require Masonry to keep them religious ; for their religion was open to all , whereas that of the Dionysians was known only to the initiated . Masonry could not then be for a religious purpose among the Jews , although the ceremonial may have been adapted at that time to both Jew and Gentile ; so that the Diony-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The First Point In The Pythagorean Triangle Explained.
implies something lost ; and our ancient brethren , the early Christians , after they had lost , by an untimely death , their Lord and Master , remembered that while assembled in lodge here below , he had promised that where two or three were gathered together in his name , he would be in the midst of them ; and cheered by the recollection , they were naturally led to hope that he would always be found in the centre of their circlewhenever assembled together in a just and perfect lodge
, , dedicated to God and holy St . John . In like manner we are reminded by that sacred symbol that He is always in the midst of us ; that His all-seeing eye is always upon us , and therefore exhorted to discharge our duty towards Him and our fellow-creatures with freedom , fervency , and zeal . "
The monad was anciently a symbol of the hermaphrodite deity , or junction of the sexes , because it partakes of two natures . * In a mysterious passage of the Yajur Veda , Brahma is spoken of , after his emanation from the golden egg , as experiencing fear at being alone in the universe ; he therefore willed the existence of another , and instantly became masculo-feminine . The two sexes thus existing in one God , were immediatelyby another act of volitiondivided in twainand became man
, , , and wife . This tradition seems to have found its way into Greece ; for the Androgyne of Plato is but another version of this oriental mythus . t If the monad be added to an odd number , it makes it even , and if to an even number it makes it odd . Hence it was called Jupiter , because it stands at the head of number , as Jupiter is at the head of gods and men ; and also Vesta , or Fire , because , like the point within a circle , it is seated in the midst of the world . It was also called the Throne of
Jupiter , from the great power which the centre h * in the universe , being able to restrain its general circular motion , as if the custody of the Maker of all things were constituted therein . J Plutarch tells us that Numa built a temple in a circular form , for the preservation of the sacred fire ; intending , by the fashion of the edifice , to shadow out , not so much the earth as the whole universe , in the centre of which the Pythagoreans placed fire , which they called Vesta and Unity . The Persians worshipped the circumferencebut it could only refer to
, the course of the sun in the firmament , for the real circumference is far beyond the comprehension of finite man . And the sun , under the symbol of a point within a circle , was the great object of worship amongst the Dionysian artists , who built the temple of Solomon . On this interesting subject a learned and intelligent brother offers the following opinion , in a letter to the author : — " The more I study the subject of Masonry , the more I am convinced that the mysteries were
unknown in Jerusalem till introduced by the Dionysian artificers , § and that the ceremonies were astronomical , mixed with paganism and sunworship . I believe , also , that Solomon divested them of their evil tendency , and created a new legend ; but that the main object was an astronomical emblem . The Jews did not require Masonry to keep them religious ; for their religion was open to all , whereas that of the Dionysians was known only to the initiated . Masonry could not then be for a religious purpose among the Jews , although the ceremonial may have been adapted at that time to both Jew and Gentile ; so that the Diony-