ADELPH.
From the Greek ......., meaning a brother. The first degree of the Order of the Palladium.
Reghellini says that there exists in the archives of Douai the ritual of a Masonic Society, called Adelphs, which has been communicated to the Grand Orient, but which he thinks is the same as the Primitive Rite of Narbonne.
ADEPT.
One fully skilled or well versed in any art; from the Latin word Adeptus, meaning having obtained, because the Adept claimed to be in the possession of all the secrets of his peculiar mystery.
The Alchemists or Hermetic philosophers assumed the titel of Adepts (see Alchemy). Of the Hermetic Adepts, who were also sometimes called Rosicruzians, Spence thus writes, in 1740, to his Mother: "Have you ever heard of the people called Adepts? They are a set of philosophers superior to whatever appeared among the Greeks and Romans. The three great points they drive at, are, to be free from poverty, distempers, and death; and, if you believe them, they have found out one secret that is capable of freeing them from all three. There are never more than twelve of these men in the whole world at a time ; and we have the happiness of having one of the twelve at this time in Turin.
I am very well acquainted with him, and have often talked with him of their secrets, as far as he is allowed to talk to a common mortal of them" (Spence's Letter to his Mother, in Singer's Anecdotes, page 403).
In a similar allusion to the possession of abstruse knowledge, the word is applied to some of the advanced degrees of Freemasonry.
ADEPT, PRINCE.
One of the names of the Twenty-eighth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (see Knight of the Sun). It was the Twenty-third Degree of the System of the Chapter of Emperors of the East and West of Clermont.
ADEPT, THE.
A Hermetic Degree of the collection of A. Viany. It is also the Fourth Degree of the Rite of Relaxed Observance, and first of the advanced degrees of the Rite of Elects of Truth. "It has much analogy, " says Thory, "with the degree of Knight of the Sun." It is also called Chaos Disemangled.
ADEPTUS ADOPTATUS.
The Seventh Degree of the Rite of Zinnendorf, consisting of a kind of chemical and pharmaceutical instruction.
ADEPTUS CORONATUS.
Called a1so Templar Master of the Key. The Seventh Degree of the Swedish Rite.
ADEPTUS EXEMPTUS.
The Seventh Degree of the system adopted by those German Rosicrucians who were known as the Gold und Rosenkreutzer, or the Gold and Rosy Cross, and whom Lenning supposes to have been the first who engrafted Rosicrucianism on Freemasonry.
ADHERING MASON.
Those Freemasons who, during the anti-Masonic excitement in America, ou account of the supposed abduction of Morgan, refused to leave their Lodges and renounce Freemawnry, were so called. They embraced among their number some of the wisest, best, and most influential men of the country.
ADHUC STAT.
Latin phrase meaning It yet stands or She yet stands and frequently found on Masonic medals (see Mossdorf's Denkmūnzen). Probably originally used by the Strict Observance and then refers to the preservation of Templary.
ADJOURNMENT.
C. W. Moore (Freemasons Magazine xii, page 290) says: "We suppose it to be generally conceded that Lodges cannot properly, be adjourned. It has been so decided by, a large proportion of the Grand Lodges in America, and tacitly, at least, concurred in by all. We are not aware that there is a dissenting voice among them. It is, therefore, safe to assume that the settled policy is against adjournment."
The reason which he assigns for this rule, is that adjournment is a method used only in deliberative bodies, such as legislatures and courts, aud as Lodges do not partake of the character of either of thess, adjournments are not applicable to them. The rule which Brother Moore lays down is undoubtedly correct, but the reason which he assigns for it is uot sufficient. If a Lodge were permitted to adjourn by the vote of a majority of its members, the control of the labor would be placed in their hands. But according to the whole spirit of the Masonic system, the Master alone controls and directs the hours of labor.
In the fifth of the Old Charges, approved in 1722, it is declared that "All Masons shall meekly receive their Wages without murmuring or mutiny, and not desert the Master till the Lord's work is finish'd." Now as the Master alone can know when "the work is finished," the selection of the time of closing must be vested in him. He is the sole judge of the proper period at which the labors of the Lodge should be terminated, and he may suspend business even in the middle of a debate, if he supposes that it is expedient to close the Lodge. Hence no motion for adjournment can ever be admitted in a Masonic Lodge. Such a motion would be an interference with the prerogative of the Master, and could not therefore be entertained.
The Earl of Zetland, when Grand Master of England, ruled on November 19, 1856, that a Lodge has no power to adjourn except to the next reguar day of meeting. He said: "I may. . . say that Private Lodges are governed by much the same laws as Grand Lodges, and that no meeting of a Private Lodge can be adjourned; but the Master of a Private Lodge may, and does, convene Lodges of Emergency. "
This is in the Freemasons Magazine (1856, page 848) .
This prerogative of opening and closing his Lodge is necessarily vested in the Master, because, by the nature of our Institution, he is responsible to the Grand Lodge for the good conduct of the body over whith he presides. He is charged, in those questions to which he is required to give his assent at his installation, to hold the Landmarks inveneration, and to conform to every edict of the Grand Lodge ; and for any violation of the one or disobedience of the other by the Lodge, in his presence, he would be answerable to the supreme Masonic authority. Hence the necessity that an arbitrary power should be couferred upon him, by the exercise of which he may at any time be enabled to prevent the adoption of resolutions, or the commission of any act which would be subversive of, or contrary to, those ancient laws and usages which he has swom to maintain and preserve.
ADMIRATION, SIGN OF.
A mode of recognition alluded to in the Most Excellent Master's Degree, or the Sixth of the American Rite. Its introduction in that place is referred to a Masonic legend in connection with the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Kings Solomon, which states that, moved by the widespread reputation of the Israelitish monarch, she had repaired to Jerusalem to inspect the magnificent works of which she had heard so many encomiums.
Upon arriving there, and beholding for the first time the Temple, which glittered with gold, and which was so accurate1y adjusted in all its parts as to seem to be composed of but a single piece of marble, she raised her hands and eyes to heaven in an attitude of admiration, and at the same time exclaimed, Rabboni! equivalent to saying A most excellent master hath done this! This actions has sonce been perpetuated in the ceremonies of the Degree of Most Excellent Master. The legend is, however, of doubtful authority, and is really to be considered only as allegorical, like so many other of the legends of Freemasonry (see Sheba, Qween of).
ADMISSION.
Although the Old Charges, approved in 1722, use the word admitted as applicable to those who are initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry, yet the General Regulations of 1721 employ the term admissian in a sense different from that of initiation. By the word making they imply the reception of a profane into the Order, but by admissi'on they designate the election of a Freemason into a Lodge. Thus we find such expressions as these clearly indicating a difference in the meaning of the two words. In Regulation v-"No man can be made or admitted a member of a particular Lodge." In Regulation vi-"But no man can be entered a Brother in any particular Lodge, or admitted to be a member thereof." And more distinctly in Regulation viii-"No set or number of Brethren shall withdraw or separate themselves from the Lodge in which they were made Brethren or were afterwards admitted members." This distinction has not always been rigidly preserved by recent writers; but it is evident that, correctly speaking, we should always say of a profane who has been initiated that he has been made a Freemason, and of a Freemason who has been affiliated with a Lodge, that he has been admitted a member. The true definition of admission is, then, the reception of an unaffiliated Brother into membership
(see A filiated Freemmon).
ADMONITION.
According to the ethics of Freemasonry, it is made a duty obligatory upon every member of the Order to conceal the faults of a Brother; that is, not to blazon forth his errors and infirmities, to let them be learned by the world from some other tongue than his, and to admonish him of them in private. So there is another but a like duty or obligation, which instincts him to whisper good counsel in his Brother's ear and to warn him of approaching danger. This refers not more to the danger that is without and around him than to that which is within him ; not more to the peril that springs from the concealed foe who would waylay him and covertly injure him, than to that deeper peril of those faults and infirmities which lie within his own heart, and which, if not timely crushed by good and eamest resolution of amendment, will, like the ungrateful serpent in the fable, become warm with life only to sting the bosom that has nourished them.
Admonition of a Brother's fault is, then, the duty of every Freemason, and no true one will, for either fear or favor, neglect its performance. But as the duty is Masonic, so is there a Masonic way in which that duty should be discharged. We must admonish not with self-sufficient pride in our own reputed goodness-not in imperious tones, as though we looked down in scorn upon the degreed offender---not in language that, by its harsness, wil1 wound rather than win, wil1 irritate more than it willreform; but with that persuasive gentleness that gains the heart- with the a1l-subduing influences of "mercy unrestrained"-with the magic'might of love---with the language and the accents of affection, which mingle grave displeasure for the offense with grief and pity for the offender.
This, and this alone is Masonic admonition. I am not to rebuke my Brother in anger, for I, too, have my fauts, and I dare not draw around me the folds of my garment lest they should be polluted by my neighbor's touch; but I am to admonish in private, not before the world, for that would degrade him; and I am to warn him, perhaps from my own example, how vice ever should be followed by sorrow, for that goodly sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance to amendment, and amendment to joy.
ADONAI.
In Hebrew, ....., pronounced ad-o-noy, being the plural of excellence for Aden, meaning to rule, and signifying the Lord. The Jews, who reverently avoided the pronunciation of the sacred name JEHOVAH, were accustomed, whenever that name occurred, to substitute for it the word Adonai in reading. As to the use of the plural form instead of the singular, the Rabbis say, "Every word indicative of dominion, though singular in meaning, is made plural in form." This is called the pluralis excellentiae. The Talmudists also say, as in Joannes Buxtorfius, Lexicon Chaldaicum, Talmudicum et Rabbinicum, that the Tetragrammaton is called Shem hamphorash, the name that is separated or explained, because it is explained, uttered, and set forth by the word Adonai (see Jehovah and Shem Hamphorasch).
Adonai is used as a significant word in several of the advanced degrees of Freemasonry, and may almost always be considered as allusive to or symbolic of the True Word.
ADONHIRAM.
This has been adopted by the disciples of Adonhiramite Freemasonry as the spelling of the name of the person known in Scripture and in other Masonic systems as Adoniram (which see).
They correctly derive the word from the Hebrew Adon and hiram, signifying the master who is exalted, which is the true meaning of Adoniram, the ..or h being omitted in the Hebrew by the union of the two words. Hiram Abif has also sometimes been called Adonhiram, the Adon having been bestowed on him by Solomon, it is said, as a title of honor.
ADONIS, MYSTERIES OF.
An investigation of the Mysteries of Adonis peculiarly claims the attention of the Masonic student. First, because, in their symbolism and in their esoteric doctrine, the religious object for which they were instituted, and the mode in which that object is attained, they bear a nearer analogical resemblance to the Institution of Freemasonry than do any of the other mysteries or systems of initiation of the ancient world. Secondly, because their chief locality brings them into a very close connection with the early history and reputed origin of Freemasonry. These ceremonies were principally celebrated at Byblos, a city of Phoenicia, whose Scriptural name was Gebal, and whose inhabitants were the Giblites or Gebalites, who are referred to in the First Book of Kings (v; 18), as being the stone-squarers employed by King Solomon in buildig the Temple (see Gebal and Giblim). Hence there must have evidently been a very intimate connection, or at least certainly a very frequent intercommunication, between the workmen of the first Temple and the inhabitants of Byblos, the seat of the Adonisian Mysteries, and the place whence the worshipers of that Rite were spread over other regions of country.
These historical circumstances invite us to an examinatiou of the system of initiation which was practised at Byblos, because we may find in it something that was probably suggestive of the symbolic system of instruction which was subsequently so prominent a feature in the system of Freemasonry.
Let us first examine the myth on which the Adonisiac initiation was founded. The mythological legend of Adonis is that he was the son of Myrrha and Cinyras, King of Cyprus. Adonis was possessed of such surpassing beauty, that Venus became enamored of him, and adopted him as her favorite. Subsequently Adonis, who was a great hunter, died from a wound inflicted by a wild boar on Mount Lebanon. Venus flew to the succor of her favorite, but she came too late. Adonis was dead. On his descent to the infernal regions, Proserpine became, like Venus, so attracted by his beauty, that, notwithstanding the entreaties of the goddess of love she refused to restore him to earth At length the prayers of the desponding Venus were listened to with favor by Jupiter, who reconciled the dispute between the two goddesses, and by whose decree Proserpine was compelled to consent that Adonis should spend six months of each year alternately with herself and Venus.
This is the story on which the Greek poet Bion founded his exquisite idyll entitled the Epilaph of Adonis, the beginning of which has been thus rather inefficiently "done into English" :
I and the Loves Adonis dead deplore:
The beautiful Adonis is indeed
Departed, parted from us. Sleep no more
In purple, Cyprisi but in watchet weed,
All wretched! beat thy breast and all aread-
" Adonis is no more." The Loves and I
Lament him. " Oh her grief to see him bleed,
Smitten by white tooth on whiter thigh,
Out-breathing life's faint sigh upon the mountain high."
It is evident that Bion referred the contest of Venus and Proserpine for Adonis to a period subsequent to his death, from the concludig lines, in which he says:
"The Muses, too, lament the son of Cinyras, and invoke him in their song; but he does not heed them, not because he does not wish, but because Proserpine will not release him." This was, indeed, the favorite form of the myth, and on it was framed the symbolism of the ancient mystery.
But there are other Grecian mythologues that relate the tale of Adonis differently. According to these, he was the product of the incestuous connection of Cinyras and his daughter Myrrha.
Cinyras subsequently, on discovering the crime of his daughter, pursued her with a drawn sword, intending to kill her.
Myrrha entreated the gods to make her invisible, and they changed her into a myrrh tree. Ten months after the myrrh tree opened, and the young Adonis was born. This is the form of the myth that has been adopted by the poet Ovid, who gives it with a1l its moral horrors in the Tenth Book (lines 29s-559) of his Melamrphoses .
Venus, who was delighted with the extraordiary beauty of the boy, put him in a coffer or chest, unknown to all the gods, and gave him to Proserpine to keep and to nurture in the under world. But Proserpine had no sooner beheld him than she became enamored of him and refused, when Venus applied for him, to surrender him to her rival. The subject was then referred to Jupiter, who decreed that Adonis should have one-third of the year to himself, should be another third with Venus, and the remainder of the time with Proserpine. Adonis gave his own portion to Venus, and lived happily with her till, having offended Diana, he was killed by a wild boar.
The mythographer Pharnutus gives a still different story, and says that Adonis was the grandson of Cinyras, aud fled with his father, Ammon, into Egypt, whose people he civilized, taught them agriculture, and enacted many wise laws for their govetnment. He subsequently passed over into Syria, and was wounded in the thigh by a wild boar while hunting on Mount Lebanon. His wife, Isis, or Astarte, and the people of Phoenicia and Egypt, supposing that the wound was mortal, profoundly deplored his death. But he afterward recovered, and their grief was replaced by transports of joy.
All the myths, it willbe seen, agree in his actual or supposed death by violence, in the grief for his loss in his recovery or restoration to life, and in the consequent joy thereon. On these facts are founded the Adonisian mysteries which were established in hģs honor.
While, therefore, we may grant the possibility that there was originally some connection between the Sabean worship of the sun and the celebration of the Adonisian festival, we cannot forget that these mysteries, in common with all the other sacred initiations of the ancient world, had been originally established to promulgate among the initiates the onee hidden doctrine of a future life.
The myth of Adonis in Syria, like that of Osiris in Egypt, of Atys in Samothrace, or of Dionysus in Greece, presented, symbolically, the two great ideas of decay and restoration. This doctrine sometimes figured as darkness and light, sometimes as winter and summer, sometimes as death and life, but always maintaining, no matter what was the framework of the allegory, the inseparable ideas of something that was lost and afterward recovered, as its interpretation, and so teaching, as does Freemasonry at this day, by a similar system of allegorizing, that after the death of the body comes the eternal life of the soul. The inquiring Freemason will thus readily see the analogy in the symbolism that exists between Adonis in the Mysteries of the Gebalites at Byblos and Hiram the Builder in his own Institution.
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