AMARANTH, ORDER OF THE.
An organization instituted by Queen Christina of Sweden in 1653 and numbering thirty-one members, there being fifteen knights and fifteen ladies, and the Queen officiating as Grand Mistress. The insignia consisted two letters A interlaced, one being inverted, within a laurel crown, and bearing the motto Dolce nella memoria, these Words being the Itaian for Sweet to the memory. The annual festival of this equestrian and chivalric Order was held at the Epiphany.
A society of a similar name was arranged by J. B. Taylor at Newark, New Jersey, and was developed by Robert Macoy of New York City in 1883. A Supreme Council was organized June 14, 1883 with Brother Robert Macoy as Supreme Patron and Dr. Rob Morris as Supreme Recorder. In 1887 he published the Rite of Adoption containing the standard ritual of Degrees of the Eastem Star, the Queen of the South, and the Amaranth. Brother Willis D. Engle, in his History of the Order of the Eastem Star (page 135), says that the Amaranth was intended by Brother Macoy as the Third and Highest Degree in his revised system of Adoptive Masonry.
The ritualistic ceremonies planned by Brother Macoy were changed in 1915. The work is military in character. The object of the instruction is charity.
The organization has been incorporated, owns its own ritual and emblem, and has Courts in the several States of the Union, and in Canada, British Columbia, and the Philippines. The membership comprises Master Masons and their Wives, Mothers, Sisters, Widows, and Daughters.
AMAR-JAH.
Hebrew ...., God spake; a significant word in the high degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Strong prefers the pronunciation am-ar-yaw- or am-ar-yaw-hoo for the expression in Hebrew of God has said.
AMEN.
Sometimes used as a response to a Masonnic prayer, though in England, as well as in the United States, The formula is so mote it be. The word Amen signifies in Hebrew verity, truty, certainty. "Its proper place," says Gesenius, "is where one person confirms the words of another, and adds his wish for succes to the other"s vows." It is evident, then, that it is the brethren of the Lodge, and not the Master or Chaplain, who should pronounce the word. Yet the custom in the United Sates is for the Master or Caplain to say "Amen " and the brethern respond, "So mote it be"It is a response to the prayer.
We note with interest that line 793 of the Regius Manuscript, that the ancient Masonic poem of about 1390 says: Amen, Amen! so mot hyt be!"
The word in old English manuscripts is spelled mot or mote and in each case means may or must, from the Anglo Saxon motan, meaning to be obliged or compelled. The Talmudists have many superstitious notions in respect to this word. thus in one trease (Uber musar) it is said that whosoever pronounces the word with fixed attention and devotion, to him the gates of Paradise will be opened ; and, again, Whosoever enunciates the Word rapidly, his days shall pass rapidly away, and whosoever dwells upon it, pronouncing it distinctiy and slowly, his life shall be prolonged.
AMENDMENT.
All amendments to the by-laws of a Lodge must be submitted to the Grand or Provincial or District Lodge for its approval.
An amendment to a motion pending before a Lodge takes precedence of the original motion, and the question must be put upon the amendment first. If the amendment be lost, then the question will be on the motion ; if the amendment be adopted, then the question will be on the original motion as so amended ; and if then this question be lost, the whole motion falls to the ground.
The principal parliamentary rules in relation to amendments which are applicable to the business of a Masonic Lodge are the following :
1. An amendment must be made in one of three ways: by adding or inserting certain words, by striking out certain words, or by striking out certain words and inserting others.
2. Every amendment is susceptible of an amendment of itself, but there can be no amendment of the amendment of an amendment ; such a piling of questions one upon another would tend to embarrass rather than to facilitate business. The object which is proposed to be effected by such a procceding must be sought by rejecting the amendment to the amendment, and then submitting the proposition in the form of an amendment of the first amendment in the form desired.
Luther S. Cushing (Lex parliamentaria Americana; elements of the law and practice of legislative assemblies in the United States) illustrates this as follows : ''If a proposition consists of AB, and it is proposed to amend by inserting CD, it may be moved to amend the amendment by inserting EF; but it cannot be moved to amend this amendment, as, for example, by inserting G. The only mode by which this can be reached is to reject the amendment in the form in which it is presented, namely, to insert EF, and to move it in the form in which it is desired to be amended, namely, to insert EFG."
3. An amendment once rejected cannot be again proposed.
4. An amendment to strike out certain words having prevailed, a subsequent motion to restore them is out of order.
5. An amendment may be proposed which will entirely change the character and substance of the original motion. The inconsistency or incompatibility of a proposed amendment with the proposition to be amended, though an argument, perhaps, for its rejection by the Lodge, is no reason for its suppression by the presiding officer.
Of course an amendment is not in order if it fails to relate to the question to be amended; if it is merely equal to the negative of the original question ; if it is identieal with a question previously decided; if it only changes one form of amendment or motion to another form.
6. An amendment, before it has been proposed to the body for discussion, may be withdrawn by the mover; but after it has once been in possession of the Lodge, it can only be withdrawn by leave of the Lodge. In the Congress of the United States, leave must be obtained by unanimous consent but the usage in Masonic bodies is to require only a majority vote. .,
7. An amendment having been withdrawn by the mover, may be again proposed by another member.
8. Several amendments may be proposed to a motion or several amendments to an amendment, and the question will be put on them in the order of their presentation. But as an amendment takes precedence of a motion, so an amendment to an amendment takes precedence of the original amendment.
9. An amendment does not require a seconder, although an original motion always does.
There are many other rules relative to amendments which prevail in parliamentary bodies, and are discussed in detail in General Henry M. Robert's Rules of Order Revised (page 134, edition 1921), but these appear to be the principal ones which regulate this subject in Masonic assemblies.
AMENTI.
See Book of the Dead.
AMERICAN BRETHREN.
See Free and Accepted Americans.
AMERICAN MASONIC FEDERATION.
See Clandestine.
AMERICAN MYSTERIES.
Among the many evidences of a former state of civilization among the aborigines of America which seem to prove their origin from the races that inhabit the Eastern hemisphere, not the least remarkable is the existence of Fraternities bound by mystic ties, and claiming, like the Freemasons, to possess an esoteric knowledge, which they carefully conceal from all but the initiated.
De Witt Clinton relates, on the authority of a respectable native minister, who had received the signs, the existence of such a society among the Iroquois. The number of the members was limited to fifteen, of whom six were to be of the Seneca tribe, five of the Oneidas, two of the Cayugas, and two of the St. Regis. They claimed that their institution had existed from the era of the creation. The times of their meeting they kept secret, and threw much mystery over all their proceedings.
Brinton tells us in his interesting and instructive work on The Myths of the New World (page 285), that among the red race of America "the priests formed societies of different grades of illumination, only to be entered by those willing to undergo trying ordeals, whose secrets were not to be revealed under the severest penalties. The Algonkins had three such grades-the waubeno, the meda, and the jossakeed, the last being the highest. To this no white man was ever admitted. All tribes appear to have been controlled by these secret societies. Alexander von Humboldt mentions one, called that of the Botuto, or Holy Trumpet, among the Indians of the Orinoco, whose members must vow celibacy, and submit to severe scourgings and fasts. The Collahuayas of Peru were a gild of itinerant quacks and magicians, who never remained permanently in one spot."
Brother Robert C. Wright has, in a later work (Indian Masonry, 1907, Ann Arbor, Michigan), made a collection of information on this subject enriched with many shrewd and helpful comments by way of comparison and appraisal of Freemasonry among the aboriginal races of the new world and those who practise the rites from other lands. Brother Wright cherishes no illusions and in regard to claims that Masonic signs have been observed among Indians says:
"Masonic signs, which are simply gestures given to convey ideas, no doubt have taken their origin from the same signs or like signs now corrupted but which meant something different in the beginning. Were we able to trace these signs we would then at once jump to the conclusion that the people who used them were Freemasons the same as we ourselves.
The signs which have just been mentioned as given by the Indians could easily be mistaken for Masonic signs by an enthusiastic Freemason, more anxious to find what he thinks is in them than to indulge in sober analysis of the sign and its meaning."
Brother Wright shows clearly how the like sentiments and aspirations among mankind are exhibited in signs and ceremonies and his book is a mine of useful information.
Another instructive work of great value is that by Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, The Fundamental Principles of Old and New Wortd Civilizations, 1901, published by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is a comparative research based on a study of the ancient Mexican religions, sociological and calendrical systems. The work is elaborate and leads to the conclusion that the Men of Tyre, the Phoenicians, had a greater part in the civilization of the world than has been supposed and that they even established colonies in America.
Much that has long been mysterious in the prehistoric remains discovered in America is given light by this book. That there were analogies and resemblances of old and new world civilizations has often been claimed but the work in question does pioneer service in showing how the American continent could have become an area of preservation of primitive forms of civilization, religious cults, symbolism and industries, drawn at different epochs, from the centers or the outposts of old world culture.
AMERICAN RECTIFIED MARTINIST ORDER.
This Body was organized at Cleveland, Ohio, at a General Convocation held on June 2, 1902. The Martinist Body from which this American organization obtained its powers was established at Paris in 1887, and traces its ancestry to Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, who initiated M. de Chaptal and the Dr. Gerard Encausse, best known under his pen name as Papus. The organizer in America was Dr. Edouard Blitz. The American Body separated from the Supreme Martinist Council of France, and among other difierences of action restricted itself to admitting Freemasons exclusively. A manifesto explaining the attitude of the American organization was issued under the direction of the Brethren who met at Cleveland on the above date. An Independent and Rectified Rite of Martinism was constituted in England the same year, 1902, but while in sympathy with the American project was not restricted to Freemasons. See also a paper, Martinisine, by Brother N. Choumitsky, of Saint Claudius Lodge No. 21, Paris, June 4, 1926, where the author discusses the periods of Dom Martines de Pasqualiy (1767-74) ; J. B. Villermo (1752-80) ; Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1805), and their successors, Doctors Encausse ( Papus), M. Detre (Jeder) and others.
Martinism has three principal degrees :
Associate, Initiate, and secret Superior. Members in session wear red cloaks and masks. To elevate the soul toward heaven, to labor for the good of humanity, and all to the glory of the Grand Architect of the Universe, were the avowed purposes of the Order.
AMERICAN RITE.
The argument for the use of this term is given by Doctor Mackey thus:
"it has been proposed, and I think with propriety, to give this name to the series of degrees conferred in the United States. The York Rite, which is the name by which they are usually designated, is certainly a misnomer, for the York Rite properly consists of only the degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, including in the last degree the Holy Royal Arch. This was the Freemasonry that existed in England at the time of the revival of the Grand Lodge in 1717.
The abstraction of the Royal Arch from the Master's Degree, and its location as a separate degree, produced that modification of the york Rite which now exists in England, and which should properly be called the Modern York Rite, to distinguish it from the Ancient York Rite, which consisted of only three degrees. But in the United States still greater additions have been made to the Rite, through the labors of Webb and other lecturers, and the influence insensibly exerted on the Order by the introduction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite into the United States. The American modification of the York Rite, or the American Rite, consists of nine degrees, namely:
1. Entered Apprentice.
2. Fellow Craft.
3. Master Mason.
Given in Symbolic Lodges, and under the control of Grand Lodges.
4. Mark Master.
5. Past Master.
6. Most Excellent Master.
7. Holy Royal Arch.
Given in Chapters, and under the control of Grand Chapters.
8. Royal Master.
9. Select Master.
Given in Councils, and under the control of Grand Councils.
"A tenth degree, called Super-Excellent Master, is conferred in some Councils as an honorary rather than as a regular degree ; but even as such it has been repudiated by many Grand Councils. To these, perhaps, should be added three more degrees, namely, Knight of the Red Cross, Knight of Malta, and Knight Templar, or Order of the Temple, which are given in Commanderies, and are under the control of Grand Commanderies, or, as they are sometimes called, Grand Encampments. But the degrees of the Commandery, which are also known as the Degrees of Chivalry, can hardly be called a part of the American Rite. The possession of the Eighth and Ninth Degrees is not considered a necessary qualification for receiving them. The true American Rite consists only of the nine degrees above enumerated.
"There is, or may be, a Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, Grand Council, Grand Commandery in each State, whose jurisdiction is distinct and sovereign within its own territory. There has been no General Grand Lodge, or Grand Lodge of the United States, though several eofforts have been made to form one (see General Grand Lodge). There is a General Grand Chapter, but all Grand Chapters have not been subject to it, and a Grand Encampment to which Grand commanderies of the States are subject." |
