ASTROLOGY.
A wience demanding the respect of the scholar, notwithstanding its designation as a black art, and, in a reflective sense, an occult science; a system of divination foretelling results by the relative positions of the planets and other heavenly bodies toward the earth. Men of eminence have adhered to the doctrines of astrology as a science.
It is a study well considered in, and forming an important part of, the ceremonies of the Philosophus, or fourth grade of the First Order of the Society of Rosicrucians. Astrology has been deemed the twin science of astronomy, grasping knowledge from the heavenly bodies, and granting a proper understanding of many of the startling forces in nature. It is claimed that the constellations of the zodiac govem the earthly animals, and that every star has its peculiar nature, property, and function, the seal and character of which it impresses through its rays upon plants, minerals, and animal life. This science was known to the ancients as the divine art (see Magic).
ASTRONOMY.
The science which instructs us in the laws that govern the heavenly bodies. Its origin is lost in the mists of antiquity ; for the earliest inhabitants of the earth must have been attracted by the splendor of the glorious firmament above them, and would have sought in the motions of its luminaries for the readiest and most certain method of measuring time. With astronomy the system of Freemasonry is intimately connected. From that science many of our most significant emblems are borrowed. The Lodge itself is a representation of the world; it is adomed with the images of the sun and moon, whose regularity and precision furnish a lesson of wisdom and prudence; its pillars of strength and establishment bave been compared to the two columns which the ancients placed at the equinocial points as supporters of the arch of heaven; the blazing star which was among the Egyptians a symbol of Anubis, or the dog-star, which sitting foretold the overflowing of the Nile, shines in the East; while the clouded canopy is decorated with the beautiful Pleiades, a group of stars in the constellation Taurus, or the Bull, about seven of which are visible to the naked eye. The connection between our Order and astronomy is still more manifest in the .spurious Freemasonry of antiquity, where, the pure principles of our system being lost, the symbolic instruction of the heavenly bodies gave place to the corrupt Sabean worship of the sun, and moon, and stars-a worship whose influences are seen in all the mysteries of Paganism.
ASYLUM.
During the session of a Commandery of Knights Templar, a part of the premises is called the asylum; the word has been been adopted, by the figure in rhetoric synecdoche, in which the whole may be represented by a part, to signify the place of meeting of a Commandery.
ASYLUM FOR AGED FREEMASONS.
The Asylum for Aged and Decayed Freemasons is a magnificent edifice at Croydon in Surrey, England. The charity was established by Doctor Crucefix, after sixteen years of herculean toil, auch as few men but himself could have sustained. He did not live to see it in full operation, but breathed his last at the very time when the capstone was placed on the building (see Annuities).
ATELIER.
The French thus call the place where the Lodge meets, or the Lodge-room. The word signifies a workshop or place where several workmen are assembled under the same master. The word is applied in French Freemasonry not only to the place of meeting of a Lodge, but also to that of a Chapter, Council, or any other Masonic body. Bazot says in the Manual du Franc-Maçon (page 65) that atelier is more particularly applied to the Table Lodge, or Lodge when at banquet, but that the word is also used to designate any reunion of the Lodge.
ATHEIST.
One who does not believe in the existence of God. Such a state of mind can only arise from the ignorance of stupidity or a corruption of principle, since the whole universe is filled with the moral and physical proofs of a Creator. He who does not look to a superior and superintending power as his maker and his judge, is without that coercive principle of salutary fear which should prompt him to do good and to eschew evil, and his oath can, of necessity, be no stronger than his word. Freemasons, looking to the dangerous tendency of such a tenet, have wisely discouraged it, by declaring that no atheist can be admitted to participate in their Fraternity; and the better to carry this law into effect, every candidate, before passing through any of the ceremonies of initiation, is required, publicly and solemnly, to declare his trust in God.
ATHELSTAN.
The grandson of the great Alfred ascended the throne of England in 924, and died in 940. The Old
Constitutions describe him as a great patron of Freemasonry. Thus, one of them, the Robera Manuscript, printed in 1722, and claiming to be five hundred years old, says: "He began to build many Abbeys,Monasteries, and other relligious houses, as also castles and divers Fortresses for
defense of his realm. He loved Masons more than his father; he greatly study'd Geometry, and sent into many lands for men expert in the science. He gave them a very large charter to hold a yearly assembly, and power to correct offenders in the said science; and the king himself caused a General Assembly of all Masons in his realm, at York, and there made many Masons, and gave them a deep charge for observation of all such articles as belonged unto Masonry, and delivered them the said Charter to keep.''
ATHOLL MASONS.
The Ancient Freemasons are sometimes called Atholl Freemasons, because they were presided over by the Third Duke of Atholl as their Grand Master from 1771 to 1774, and by the Fourth Duke from 1775 to 1781, and also from 1791 to 1813 (see Antient Preemasons).
ATOSSA.
The daughter of King Cyrus of Persia, queen of Cambyses, and afterward of Darius Hystaspes, to whom she bore Xerxes. Referred to in the degree of Prince of Jerusalem, the Sixteenth of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
ATTENDANCE.
See Absence.
ATTOUCHEMENT.
The name given by the French Freemasons to what the English brethren call the grip.
ATTRIBUTES.
The collar and jewel appropriate to an officer are called his attributes. The working tools and implements of Freemasonry are also called its attributes. The word in these senses is much more used by French than by English Freemasons.
ATWOOD, HENRY C.
At one time of considerable prominence in the Masonic history of New York.
He was born in Connecticut about the beginning of the nineteenth century, and removed to the city of New York about 1825, in which year he organized a Lodge for the purpose of introducing the system taught by Jeremy L. Cross, of whom Atwood was a pupil. This system met with great opposition from some of the most distinguished Freemasons of the State, who favored the ancient ritual, whith had existed before the system of Webb had been invented, from whom Cross received his lectures. Atwood, by great diplomacy and untiring energy, succeeded in a making the system which he taught eventually popular. He took great interest in Freemasonry, and being intellectually clever, although not learned, he collected a great number of admirers, while the tenacity with which he maintained his opinions, however unpopular they might be, secured for him as many enemies. He was greatly instrumental in establishing, in 1837, the independent body known as the St. John's Grand Lodge, and was its Grand Master at the time of its union, in 1850, with the legitimate Grand Lodge of New York. Atwood edited a small periodical called The Sentinel, which was remarkable for the Virulent and unmasonic tone of its articles. He was also the author of a Masonic Monitor of some pretensions. He died in 1860.
ATYS.
The Mysteries of Atys in Phrygia, and those of Cybele his mistres, like their worship, much resembled those of Adonis and Bacchus, Osiris and Isis. Their Asiatic origin is universally admitted, and was with great plausibility claimed by Phrygia, which contested the palm of antiquity with Egypt. They, more than any other people, mingled allegory with their religious worship, and were great inventors of fables; and their sacred traditions as to Cybele and Atys, whom all admit to be Phrygian gods, were very various. In all, as we learn from Julius Firmicus, they represented by allegory the phenomena of natura and the succession of physical facts under the veil of a marvelous history. Their feasts occurred at the equinoxes, commencing with lamentation, mourning, groans, and pitiful cries for the death of Atys, and ending with rejoicings at his restoration to life.
AUDI, VIDE, TACE.
Latin, meaning Hear, see, and be silent. A motto frequently found on Masonic medals, and often appropriately used in the documents of the Craft. It was adopted as its motto by the United Grand Lodge of England at the union between the Antients
and the Moderns in 1813.
AUDITOR.
An officer in the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for
the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. His duty is, with the Committee
on Finance, to examine and report on the accounts of the Inspector and other
officers. This duty of auditing the accounts of the Secretary and Treasurer is
generally entrusted, in Masonic bodies, to a special committee appointed for the
purpose. In the Grand Lodge of England, the accounts are examined and reported
upon annually by a professional auditor, who must be a Master Mason.
AUDITORS.
The first class of the secret system adopted by the Christians in their early days. The second class were Catechumens, and the third were The Faithful.
AUDLEY, LORD JOHN TOUCHET.
Anderson gives him as Grand Master of England, 154O -8, a patron of the building art in Magdalen College.
AUFSEHER.
The German name for the Warden of a Lodge. The Senior Warden is called Erste Aufseher, and the Junior Warden, Zweite Aufseher.
The word literally means an overseer. Its Masonic application is technical.
AUGER.
An implement used as a symbol in the Ark Mariners Degree.
AUGUSTINE, ST.
See Saint Augustine.
AUGUSTUS WILLIAM, PRINCE OF PRUSSIA.
Born in1722, died in 1758. Brother of Frederick the Great, and father of King Frederick William II. A member of Lodge Drei WeltkugeIn, or Three Globes, Berlin.
AUM.
A mystic syllable among the Hindus, signifying the Supreme God of Gods, which the Brahmans, from its awful and sacred meaning, hesitate to pronounce aloud, and in doing so place one of their hands before the mouth so as to deaden the sound.
This triliteral name of God, which is as sacred among the Hindus as the Tetragrammaton is among the Jews, is composed of three Sanskrit letters, sounding Aum. The first letter, A, stands for the Creator; the second, U, for the Preserver; and the third, M, for the Destroyer, or Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
Benfey, in his Sanskrit English Dictionary, defines the word as "a particle of reminiscence" ; and this may explain the Brahmanical saying, that a Brahman beginning or ending the reading of a part of the Veda or Secred Books, must always pronounce, to himself, the syllable Aum; for unles that syllable precede, his 1earning will slip away from him, and unless it follow, nothing will be long retained. An old passage in the Parana says, "All the rites ordained in the Vedas, the sacrifices to fire, and all sacred purifications, shall pass away, but the word Aum shall never pass away, for it is the symbol of the Lord of all things. "
The word has been indifferently spelled, O'm, Aom, and Aum; but the last is evidently the most proper, as the second letter is Oo= U in the Sanskrit alpbabet
(see On).
AUMONT.
Said to bave been the succesor of Molay as Grand Master, and hence called the Restorer of the Order of the Templars. There is a tradition, altogether fabulous, however, which states that he, with seven other Templars, fled, after the dissolution of the Order, into Scotland, disguised as Operative Freemasons, and there secretly and under another name founded a new Order ; and to preserve as much as possible the ancient name of Templars, as well as to retain the remembrance of the clothing of Freemasons, in which disguise they had fled, they chose the name of Freemasons, and thus founded Freemasonry. The society thus formed, instead of conquering or rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem, was to erect symbolical temples. This is one of the forms of the Templar theory of the origin of Freemasonry.
AURORA.
In Hebrew the light is called Aur, and in its dual capacity Aurim. Hence Urim, lights-as, Thme, Thummim, perfections. Ra is the sun, the symbolic god of the Egyptians, and Ouro, royalty. Hence we have Aur, Ouro, Ra, which is the double symbolic capacity of Light. Referring to the Urim and Thummim, Re is physical and intellectual light, while Thme is the divinity of truth and justice.
Aurora is the color of the baldric worn by the Brethren in the Sixteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, which in the legend is said to have been presented by King Darius to the captive Zerubbabel on presentation of his liberty, and that of all his people, who had been slaves in Babylon for seventy years.
AUSERWAHLTEN.
German for Elu or Elect.
AUSTIN.
See Saint Augustine.
AUSTRALASIA.
The first Masonic Lodge in this region was held in 1803 at Sydney, but was suppressed by the Governor, and it was not until the year 1820 that the parent Lodge of Australasia was warranted to meet at Sydney by the Grand Lodge of Ireland; it is now No. l on the New South Wales register and named the Australian Social Mother Lodge. After that many Lodges were warranted under the three Constitutions of England, Scotland and Ireland, out of which in course of time no less than six independent Grand Lodges have been formed, viz., South Australia founded in 1884, New South Wales 1888; Victoria, 1889 ; Tasmania, 1890; New Zealand, 1890, and Western Australia, 1900.
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