SALT
by Harold Meij
In Swiss Masonry, the Fellowcraft’s wages are corn, wine, oil and
salt. The purity of salt represents immortality. It was named after the
Roman goddess of health called Salus. Romans used to put salt on the lips
of newborns as a protection from danger. This is also referred to in the
Bible (Ezekiel 16:4) where salt is rubbed on new-born children, and again
in Mark 9:49-59 "for everyone shall be salted with fire and every
sacrifice shall be salted with salt".
Homer called salt “divine,” and it is extensively used in many
cultures for purification and cleansing ceremonies. In the Bible (Ezekiel
43) "And thou shalt offer them before the Lord, and the priests shall cast
salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offer unto the
Lord." In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ referred to his disciples as “the salt of the
earth” (Matthew
5:13). Salt also symbolizes incorruptibility. That is why “the covenant of salt” (Chronicles 13:5) denotes a
covenant that God cannot break. Salt also shows duality, in that it is a
preserver of foods, but can also act as a corrosive. The Romans sprinkled
salt over the sites of cities they razed to the ground to make permanently
barren the soil. More importantly, salt symbolized friendship and
hospitality because it is shared, and a symbol of a binding promise
because it is indestructible. The Greeks, Muslims and the Children of
Israel regarded eating bread and salt communally as a must. The same
significance recurs in the food eaten on the Sabbath by the Therapeutae, a
pre-Christian Jewish monastic community in Egypt, who consumed bread,
salt, hyssop (a plant used in purificatory sprinkling rites by the ancient
Hebrews) and water as part of their ritual. Salt is also sprinkled over
the foundation stone of a new lodge.
back to top |
