The So-Called Grand Lodges Of Victoria And New South Wales.

alone , are the true exponents of the wishes of the English , Irish , and Scotch brethren dwelling within their borders . It is impossible to read a line of the first report issued by the Grand Lodge of South Australia , and recording the circumstances attending its formation , without being struck with the evident desire on the part of the South Australian Masons to effect a just and honourable , and—as we have said , so far as there is any known law or usage governing these matters—a strictly constitutional separation from the parent stock . On

the other hand , it is impossible to read a line of what is advanced by or on behalf of that small minority of lodges in New South Wales and Victoria , which , for some few years past , has missed no opportunity of violating the accepted canons of propriety in their conduct towards the Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland , without arriving deliberately at the conclusion that its principal , if not its only , ambition , is to destroy the long-established harmony existing between the latter and their respective daughter lodges in those parts .

It may sound harsh to employ this kind of language in describing the position of certain Masonic lodges towards other Masonic lodges . Unfortunately , there is no other kind of language which will serve to convey our meaning with equal force and accuracy . On the one hand , we see some So English lodges in Victoria and some 60 in New South Wales—without reckoning those of Irish and Scotch constitution—the bulk , if not the whole ,

of which are as resolute as ever in their determination to remain in allegiance to their parent Grand Lodges . No despotic authority is used in retaining them in that allegiance , for with the example of what has just been done in South Australia , it is absurd to suppose that if the members were bent on having independent Grand Lodges of their own , any edict of non-intercourse with the usurping minority would have the effect of restraining them

from their purpose . And not only do they insist on maintaining their old relations with the United Kingdom , but every now and then—for the latest instances see Grand Lodge Agenda for this week—warrants for the constitution of new lodges are applied for and obtained from the parent Grand Lodges . This is one side of the picture ; from the other side we gather that there is a small and—using the word in a Masonic sense , as Mr .

Pickwick used his strong adjectives in a Pickwickian sense—irrepressible minority which has determinedly set up for itself the right to ignore its more numerous opponents , who will have nothing to do with it , and even to deprive them of their ancient privileges and prerogatives as part and parcel of the still more ancient Grand Lodges of England , Ireland , and Scotland . This , we repeat , is the present position of affairs in Victoria , and New South

Wales is in precisely similar circumstances . On this side , the old organisations which only desire to remain as they are ; on that side , an unscrupulous and ambitious minority which cares little so long as it sees , or thinks it sees , its way to gaining the ends it has in view . Our Victorian contemporary may rest assured of this , that the United Grand Lodge of England will not be deterred from doing the thing that is right by the machinations of a

small minority of ambitious Masons . It has loyally accorded recognition to the Grand Lodge of South Australia , because such recognition was called for in the name of Justice ; it withholds recognition from the pseudo-Grand Lodges of Victoria and New South Wales because Justice requires that it should maintain at all hazards the privileges and prerogatives of its daughter lodges in those two colonies . This is clear , and for the present enough . We may have something to add to these remarks on some future occasion .

The Six-Pointed And The Five-Pointed Stars.

THE SIX-POINTED AND THE FIVE-POINTED STARS .

BY BRO . L . HESPIRADOUX , P . M . 244 . Every Masonic student must have read the brief paper on the above subject by Bro . S . Liddell Mathers in the columns of the Freemason of the 15 th inst . with great interest . With your permission , Bro . Editor , I would like to add a few words to what Bro . Mathers has already advanced .

^ ^ As regards the Six-pointed Star , I would call Bro . Mathers'attention . ^ LX . . to the fact that the Seal or Signet of Solomon , was right enough , a ^ \ Pentalpha or endless triangle , but not a Six-pointed Star , as he says . Again , that it was within a circle , and had the name of God engraved thereon . The Signet was of stone , for seals or signets were originall y engraved altogether upon stone , "and , according to Pliny , metal

ones did not come into use until the time of Claudius Ca ; sar . It is also true that the double triangle is described by some writers , but I say erroneously , as identical with the Pentalpha of Pythagoras or Pentangle of Solomon . This , however , I distinctly assert is not the case . The Pentalpha has five lines and five angles , and the double triangle has six lines and six angles . The former was among the Pythagoreans an emblem of health , and among

Masonsit is the outline or origin of the Five-pointed Star , the emblem of fellowshi p ; the latter is a symbol of Deity . In the Christian churches the double triangle is used as a symbol of the twofold nature of Christ . A The Equilateral Triangle , as the most perfect of figures , was adapted by all the ancient nations as a symbol of the Deity . It still retains that allusion as an emblem of Freemasonry . Among the Hebrews , a jod in the centre of

an Equilateral Triangle was one of the emblems of Jehovah . In the system of Pythagoras the obligation was administered to the candidates on Tetractys , which was expressed by ten jods arranged in the form of a triangle , which with them was the symbol of Deity , as embracing in himself the three stages of him—past , present , and future ; he was , he is , and he shall be . Among the Hebrews , a god in the centre of a triangle was one

of the modes of expressing the incommunicable name of Jehovah , and was supposed by some authors to refer to the triune God . This allusion to the Deity it still preserves in the Masonic ritual . V The triple triangle is another of the numerous forms in which the VV triangle is arranged , and , like all the others , it is used as a symbol of Deity , though perhaps it is here made to assume a still more sacred

character from its triple form . As such , it has been adapted as the most impropriate jewel of the Illustrious Prelate in an encampment of Knights Templars . I have previously mentioned the Tetractys , andthatit was a sacred symbol among the Pythagoreans , which was expressed by ten jods disposed in the » form of a triangle , each side containing four , as in the annexed > » figure . This may be explained as follows : The one point re-> > j presented the Monad , or active principle 5 the two points , the » . . > > , Duad , or passive principle ; the three , the Triad , or world arising from their union 5 the four , the Quaternary , or the liberal sciences . Un this figure I have already stated the oath was propounded to the aspirant

The Six-Pointed And The Five-Pointed Stars.

in the esoteric school of Pythagoras . I read in Jamblichus , in his " Life of Pythagoras , " this oath given as follows : Ou fia afiereprj yevei ] , TrapaSovra TerpaKrvv , TJcvyav aeevaov ( pucrecof , pi . £ co { iciT ' eyovcrav , and of which the translation reads

" By that pure quadrilit ' ral name on high , Nature ' s eternal fountain and supply , The parent of all souls that living be , By it , with faithful oath , I swear to thee . "

I he Tetractys was undoubtedly borrowed by Pythatroras from the tetragrammaton of the Jews when he visited Babylon , and was instructed by Ezekiel in the Jewish mysteries . I think there is no doubt of this , as the most learned writers have generally agreed in the opinion of that beiii" - the case . Tetractys is a Greek word , and means four { rerpaKTv ; ) &

A . The Pentalpha is a geometrical figure representing an endless ' ^ oP' triangle with five points . It was used by the Pythagoreans as an iS % . emblem of health and bodily strength . ' 1 he Pentalpha is also sometimes called the Pen tangle of Solomon , and is said to have constituted the signet or seal of ourancient Grand Master and to have been inscribed on the foundation stone of Masonry . The Orientalists attributed many virtues to this seal , and the Talmudists say that it was inscribed on the foundation-stone of

the Temple . And Richardson , in his Persian and Arabic Dictionary , says , that the muchra Salimani , or Seal of Solomon , was two triangles interlaced , and this is what the archaeologists generally think . The following will be of some interest to your readers : With Pythagoras the right angle was an emblem of morality and justice ; the Equilateral Triangle represented the essence of Light and Truth .

The star with five points , which is found among the emblems of Master ' s Degree , is an allusion to the five points of fellowship , or summary of a Mason ' s duty to his brother . While on the subject of the star with five points I cannot refrain from recording an historical document , for which , by the by , I am indebted to the work in which this emblem is denounced as unmasonic ( Boston Freemason ) .

At a celebration of the Festival of St . John the Baptist ( 24 th June ) in 1 S 44 , at Portland , Maine , U . S ., R . W . Bro . Tenlow , a member of the Grand Lodge of Texas , in reply to a toast complimentary to the Masons of that Republic , observed , "Texas is emphatically a Masonic country : all our Presidents and Vice-Presidents , and four-fifths of our State officers , were and are Masons ; our national emblem , the * lone star , ' was chosen from among the emblems selected by Freemasonry to illustrate the moral virtues

—it is a Five-pointed Star , and alludes to the five points of fellowship . " The star of five points , so far as my opportunities reach , and I travelled much and visited many a lodge in the United States , has been adopted in all American and English lodges , and if no explanation of it is given in our lodges its manifest allusion is well understood . It is therefore as much a Masonic emblem as the Equilateral Triangle , which has the same universal acceptation among the Fraternity without receiving any notice in our lectures .

The Ancient Mysteries.

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES .

The earliest mysteries of the ancient so-called religions , were those celebrated at the village oi Eieusis , near the city of Athens , known as the Eleusinian Mysteries , which are traced to the reign of Inachus , more than eighteen hundred years before the Christian era , and dedicated to the heathen worship of the Romans . The doctrines and ceremonies were similar to the mysteries of Isis and Osiris of Egypt , which has been considered the

birthplace of all the ancient mysteries . It is a noted fact that in all the early religious faiths , their dogmas were imparted under symbolic forms , disseminating some important truth in the shape of allegory , or speaking to the intelligence of man through nature and her works . We find this illustrated not only in the history of all idolatrous nations , but during the palmiest days ol the Israelites , in the writings of Moses and the prophets , the

antiquities of the Jews by Josephus , and even later in the parables of Christ . In fact , all language was expressed in symbols , existing to-day in a modified form . It may be probable , or even possible , that some of these symbols which have been incorporated into the Masonic system have been borrowed from the ancient mysteries , but not for the purpose of disseminating the same system of philosophy .

By them the letter G would symbolise a Diety to be found only in nature and her works , and represented by some monstrous idol ; while by the Masonic system it would represent an altogether different being—a personal God , or intelligence , existing above and beyond the works of nature , so forcibly expressed in the Hebrew tetragraminaton , or four-lettered name ; an independent being that was , and is , and is to be , without beginning and without end . So with all Masonic symbols . They have a meaning to

comport with our times , and the more Christian character of the people , and if ever used in ancient philosophy , have been divested of so much as may be regarded in the light of ignorance and superstitution , and are used solely to stimulate the practice of a high standard of morality . It therefore seems inconsistent to undertake the tracing of Freemasonry back into the dark days of idolatrous worship , or pretend that there is any resemblance of the sentiments inculcated , except those relating to the doctrince of the resurrection and immortality . —Bro . Joseph K . Wheeler . —Keystone .

INTOLERANCE . —A grave vice always opposed to the true genius and real teaching of Freemasonry . Intolerance is not confined to any one age or sect , and seems to be , alas ! the common heritage of us all alike . As Freemasons we should always be above intolerance , and learn to be tolerant in word and deed and thought . Freemasonry has often to contend with the intolerance of a pseudo-religionism , which seems to think

that orthodoxy and the true faith are best shown forth by cursing and anathematising those who differ from us—that awful mistake which has led to so much suffering , sorrow , cruelty , persecution , and bloodshed in the world . The Roman Catholic Church has always been very intolerant against Freemasonry , and some minor Protestants sects have followed suit . The Masonic Bod y in England has always boasted of its great teaching of Toleration as the key-note of all its public professions

and practice , as well as of its inner code of ethics ; and we trust that nothing will ever induce it to become insensible to the ceaseless duty of a kindly and tolerant treatment of all men . There is a tendency in the age to revive intolerance in its most mournful guise , persecution for conscience sake especially on the part of the Ultramontanes and other insignificant bodies ; but as Freemasons we can never allow the word Toleration to be erased from our banners . —Kenning ' s Cydoptvdia ,