EL,
Hebrew, be. One of the Hebrew names of God, signifying the Mighty One. El, the first letter with a short sound, is the common pronunciation hut perhaps more correctly should be sounded as if spelled ale. It is the root of many of the other names of Deity, and also, therefore, of many of the sacred words in the high Degrees. Bryant (Ancient Mythology i, 16) says it was the true name of God, but transferred by the Sabians to the sun, whence the Greeks borrowed their helios. Here we may add that the speculations of Bryant are by a later generation deemed less valuable than formerly.
ELAI BENI ALMANAH,
Hebrew, xxw, Huc venite filii vidua. Associated with a Degree, the Third, of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
ELAI BENI EMETH,
Hebrew, Huc venite filii veritatis. Sometimes applied to the Twentysixth Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
ELCHANAN,
Hebrew, xxnds. God has graciously given. In the authorized version, it is improperly translated Elhanan. Jerome says that it meant David, because in second Samuel (xxi, 19), it is said that Elchanan slew Goliath. A significant word in the advanced Degrees, which has undergone much corruption and various changes of form. In the old rituals it is Eleharn. Lenning gives Elchanam, and incorrectly translates, mercy of God; Delaunay calls it Eliham, and translates it, God of the people, in which Pike concurs.
ELDERS.
This word is used in some of the old Constitutions to designate those Freemasons who, from their rank and age, were deputed to obligate Apprentices when admitted into the Craft. Thus in the Constitutions of Masonrie, preserved in the archives of the York Lodge, No. 236, York Roll No2. If with the date of 1704, we find this expression, Tum unus ex Senioribus Teneat librum, etc., which in another manuscript, dated 1693, preserved in the same archives, York Roll No.4, is thus translated: "Then one of the elders takeing the Booke, and that hee or shee that is to bee made Mason shall lay their hands thereon, and the charge shall be given." These old manuscripts have been published by Brother W. J. Hughan in Ancient Masonic Rolls of Constitutions, 1894.
ELECT.-.
ELECT BROTHER.
ELECT COHENS, ORDER OF.
ELECT COMMANDER.
ELECT, DEPOSITARY.
ELECT, GRAND.
ELECT, GRAND PRINCE OF THE THREE.
ELECT, IRISH.
ELECT LADY, SUBLIME.
ELECT, LITTLE ENGLISH
ELECT MASTER.
ELECT OF FIFTEEN.
ELECT OF LONDON.
ELECT OF NINE.
ELECT OF NINE AND FIFTEEN.
ELECT OF PERIGNAN.
ELECT OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
ELECT OF THE TWELVE TRIBES.
ELECT OF TRUTH, RITE OF.
ELECT OF TWELVE.
ELECT, PERFECT.
ELECT, PERFECT AND SUBLIME MASON.
ELECT PHILOSOPHER.
ELECT SECRET, SEVERE INSPECTOR.
ELECT, SOVEREIGN.
ELECT, SUBLIME.
ELECT, SUPREME.
ELECT, SYMBOLICAL.
ELECT. -.
See Elu.
ELECT BROTHER.
The Seventh Degree of the Rite of Zinnendorf and the National Grand Lodge of Berlin.
ELECT COHENS, ORDER OF.
See Paschalis, Martinez.
ELECT COMMANDER.
The French term is Ells Commandeur. A ceremony mentioned in Fustier's Nomenclature of Degrees.
ELECT, DEPOSITARY.
A Degree mentioned in Pyrons collection
ELECT, GRAND.
The French expression is Grand Elu. The Fourteenth Degree of the Chapter of the Emperors of the East and West. The same as the Grand Elect, Perfect and Sublime Mason of the Scottish Rite.
ELECT, GRAND PRINCE OF THE THREE.
A Degree mentioned in Pyron's collection.
ELECT, IRISH.
in French the term is Elu Irlandais. The first of the advanced grades of the Chapters of that name.
ELECT LADY, SUBLIME.
The French name is Dame, Elu Sublime. An androgynous Degree contained in the collection of Pyron.
ELECT, LITTLE ENGLISH
In French this is called the Petit Elu Anglais. The Little English Eled was a Degree of the Ancient Chapter of Clermont. The Degree is now extinct.
ELECT MASTER.
Named in French the Mattre Elu.
1. The Thirteenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
2. The Fifth Degree of the Rite of Zinnendorf.
ELECT OF FIFTEEN.
The French expression is Elu des Quinze. The Tenth Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The place of meeting is called a Chapter; the emblematic color is black, strewed with tears; and the principal officers are a Thri e Illustrious Master and two Inspectors. The history of this Degree develops the continuation and conclusion of the punishment inflicted on three traitors who, just before the conclusion of the Temple, had committed a crime of the most atrocious character. The Degree is now more commonly called Illustrious Elu of the Fiflieen. The same Degree is found in the Chapter of Emperors of the East and West, and in the Rite of Mizraim.
ELECT OF LONDON.
Named in French Elus des Londres. The Seventieth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
ELECT OF NINE.
The French name is Elu des Neuf. The Ninth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. In the old books there were two officers who represented Solomon and Stolkin. But in one leading Jurisdiction, the principal officers are a Master and two Inspectors. The meetings are called Chapters. The Degree details the mode in which certain traitors, who, just before the completion of the Temple, had been engaged in an execrable deed of villany, received their punishment. The symbolic colors are red, white, and black; the white emblematic of the purity of the knights; the red, of the crime which was committed; and the black, of grief. This is the first of theElu Degrees, and the one on which the whole Elu system has been founded.
ELECT OF NINE AND FIFTEEN.
The German expression is Auserwahlte der Neun und der Funfzehn. The first and second points of the Fourth Degree of the old system of the Royal York Lodge of Berlin.
ELECT OF PERIGNAN.
In French the name is Elu de Perignan. A Degree illustrative of the punishment inflicted upon certain criminals whose exploits constitute a portion of the legend of Symbolic Freemasonry. The substance of this Degree is to be found in the Elect of Wine and Elect of Fifteen in the Scottish Rite, with both of which it is closely connected. It is the Sixth Degree of the Adonhiramite Rite (see Perignan).
ELECT OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
Formerly the Eighth and last of the advanced Degrees of the Grand Chapter of Berlin.
ELECT OF THE TWELVE TRIBES.
Called in French the Elu des douze Tribus. The Seventeenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
ELECT OF TRUTH, RITE OF.
The French name is Rite des Elus de la Vérité. This Rite was instituted in 1776, by the Lodge of Perfect Union, at Rennes, in France. A few Lodges in the interior of France adopted this system; but notwithstanding its philosophical character, it never became popular, and finally, about the end of the eighteenth century fell into disuse. It consisted of twelve Degrees divided into two classes, as follows.
Knights Adept.
- 1. Apprentice;
- 2. Fellow Craft;
- 3. Master;
- 4. Perfect Master.
Elects of Truth.
- 5. Elect of Nine;
- 6. Elect of Fifteen;
- 7. Master Elect;
- 8. Architect;
- 9. Second Architect;
- 10. Grand Architect;
- 11. Knight of the East;
- 12. Prince of Rose Croix.
ELECT OF TWELVE.
See Rnight Elect of Twelve.
ELECT, PERFECT.
Named in French the Parfait Elu. The Twelfth Degree of the Metropolitan Chapter of France, and also of the Rite of Mizraim.
ELECT, PERFECT AND SUBLIME MASON.
See Perfection, Lodge of.
ELECT PHILOSOPHER.
A Degree under this name is found in the instructions of the Philosophic Scottish Rite, and in the collection of Viany.
ELECT SECRET, SEVERE INSPECTOR.
The French name is Elu Secret, Sésbre Inspedeur. The Fourteenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
ELECT, SOVEREIGN.
The name in French is Elu Souverain. The Fifty-ninth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
ELECT, SUBLIME.
Expressed in French as Elu Sublime. The Fifteenth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France.
ELECT, SUPREME.
Named in French Elu Sue preme. The Seventy-fourth Degree of the collection of the Metropolitan Chapter of France. It is also a Degree in the collection of M. Pyron, and, under the name of Tabernacle of Perfect Elect, is contained in the archives of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophic Rite.
ELECT, SYMBOLICAL.
Fifth Degree of the Reformed Rite of Baron Von Tschoudy.
ELECTA.
Fifth Degree in the American Adoptive System of the Order of the Eastern Star. So named from the lady, whose real name is unknown, to whom the Second Epistle of Saint John is addressed! and who, according to tradition, "joyfully rendered up home, husband, children, good name and life. that she might testify to her Christian love by a martyr's death."
ELECTION OF OFFICERS.
The election of the officers of a Lodge is generally held on the meeting which precedes the festival of Saint John the Evangeliot and sometimes on that festival itself. Should a Lodge fail to make the election at that time, no election can be subsequently held except by Dispensation; and it is now very generally admitted, that should any one of the officers die or remove from the Jurisdiction during the period for which he was elected, no election can take place to supply the vacancy, but the office must be filled temporarily until the next election. If it be the Master, the Senior Warden succeeds to the office. For the full exposition of the law on this subject, see Vacancies in Office.
ELECTIVE OFFICERS.
In the United States of America, nearly all the offices of a Symbolic Lodge are elected by the members of the Lodge. Such is the general practice though the several Jurisdictions have no uniform custom. In England, the rule is different. There the Master, Treasurer, and Tiler only are elected; the other officers are appointed by the Master.
ELEHAM.
See Elchanan.
ELEMENTS.
It was the doctrine of the old philosophers, sustained by the authority of Aristotle that there were four principles of matter—fire, air, earth, and water—which they called elements. Modern science has shown the fallacy of the theory. But it was also taught by the Cabalists, and afterward by the Rosicrucians, who, according to the Abbé de Pillars, sometimes known as Le Comte de Gabalis, peopled them with supernatural beings called, in the fire, Salamanders; in the air, Sylphs; in the earth, Gnomes; and in the water, Undines. From the Rosicrucians and the Cabalists, the doctrine passed over into some of the advanced Degrees of Freemnonry, and is especially referred to in the Ecossais or Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew, which has so often been claimed as an invention of the Chevalier Ramsay. In this Degree we find the four angels of the four elements described as Andarel, the angel of fire; Casmaran, of air; Talliad, of water; and Furlac, of earth; and the signs refer to the same elements.
ELEMENTS, TEST OF THE.
A ceremonial in the First and Twenty-fourth Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
ELEPHANTA.
The Cavern of Elephanta, situated on the island of Gharipour, in the Gulf of Bombay, is the most ancient temple in the world, and was the principal place for the celebration of the Mysteries of India. It is one hundred and thirty-five feet square and eighteen feet high, supported by four nassive pillars, and its walls covered on all sides with statues and carved decorations. Its adytum at the western extremity, which was accessible only to he initiated, was dedicated to the Phallic Worship. On each side were cells and passages for the purpose of initiation, and a sacred orifice for the mystical representation of thse doctrine of regeneration (see Maurice's Indian Antiquities for a full description of this ancient scene of initiation).
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES.
Of all the Mysteries of the ancient religions, those celebrated at the Village of Eleusis, near the City of Athens, were the most splendid and the most popular. To them men came, says Cicero, from the remotest regions to be initiated They were also the most ancient, if we may believe Epiphanius, who traces them to the reign of Inachus, more than eighteen hundred years before the Christian era. They were dedicated to the goddess Demeter, the Ceres of the Romans, who was worshipped by the Greeks as the symbol of the prolific earth; and in them severe scenically represented the loss and the recovery of Persephone, and the doctrines of the unity of God and the immortality of the soul were esoterically taught.
The learned Faber believed that there was an intimate connection between the Arkite Worship and the Mysteries of Eleusis; but Faber's theory was that the Arkite Rites, which he traced to almost all the nations of antiquity, symbolized, in the escape of Noah and the renovation of the earth, the doctrines of the resurrection and the immortal life. Plutarch (De Isis et Osiris) says that the travels of Isis in search of Osiris were not different from those of Demeter in search of Persephone; and this view has been adopted by Saint Croix (Mysteres du Paganisme) and by Creuzer (Symbolik und Arkaologie); and hence we may well suppose that the recovery of the former at Byblos, and of the latter in Hades, were both intended to symbolize the restoration of the soul after death to eternal life. The learned have generally admitted that when Virgil, in the sixth book of his Aeneid, depicted the descent of Aeneas into hell, he intended to give a representation of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
The Mysteries were divided into two classes, the lesser and the greater. The lesser Mysteries were celebrated on the banks of the Ilissus, whose waters supplied the means of purification of the aspirants. The greater Mysteries were celebrated in the temple at Eleusis. An interval of six months occurred between them, the former taking place in March and the latter in September; which has led some writers to suppose that there was some mystical reference to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, March 21 and September 22 when the nights and days are equal all over the world. But, considering the character of Demeter as the goddess of Agriculture, it might be imagined, although this is a mere conjecture, that the reference was to seed-time and harvest. A year, however, was required to elapse before the initiate into the lesser Mysteries was granted admission into the greater.
In conducting the Mysteries, there were four officers, namely:
1. The Hierophant, or explainer of the sacred things. As the pontifex maximus in Rome, so he was the chief priest of Attica; he presided over the ceremonies and explained the nature of the Mysteries to the initiated.
2. The Dadouchus, or torch-bearer, who appears to have acted as the immediate assistant of the Hierophant.
3. The Hieroceryx, or sacred herald, who had the general care of the Temple, guarded it from the profanation of the uninitiated, and took charge of the aspirant during the trials of initiation.
4. The Epibomus, or altar-server, who conducted the sacrifices.
The ceremonies of initiation into the lesser Mom teries were altogether purificatory, and intended to prepare the neophyte for his reception into the more sublime rites of the greater Mysteries. This, an ancient poet, quoted by Plutarch, illustrates by saying that sleep is the lesser Mysteries of the death. The candidate who desired to pass through this initiation entered the modest Temple, erected for that purpose on the borders of the Ilissus, and there submitted to the required ablutions, typical of moral purification. The Dadouchus then placed his feet upon the skins of the victims which had been immolated to Jupiter. Hebsychius says that only the left foot was placed on the skins. In this position he was asked if he had eaten bread, and if he was pure; and his replies being satisfactory, he passed through other symbolic ceremonies, the mystical signification of which was given to him, an oath of secrecy having been previously administered. The initiate into the lesser Mysteries was called a mystes, a title which, being derived from a Greek word meaning to shut the eyes, signified that he was yet blind as to the greater truths thereafter to be revealed.
The greater Mysteries lasted for nine days, and were celebrated partly on the Thriasian plain, which surrounded the temple, and partly in the Temple of Eleusis itself. Of this Temple, one of the most magnificent and the largest in Greece, not a vestige is now left. Its antiquity was very great, having been in existence, according to Aristides the rhetorician, when the Dorians marched against Athens. It was burned by the retreating Persians under Xerxes, but immediately rebuilt, and finally destroyed with the city by Alaric, "the Scourge of God," and all that is now left at Eleusis and its spacious Temple is the mere site occupied by the insignificant Greek Village of Lepsina, an evident corruption of the ancient name.
The public processions on the plain and on the sacred way from Athens to Eleusis were made in honor of Demeter and Persephone, and made mystical allusions to events in the life of both, and of the infant Iacchus. These processions were made in the daytime, but the initiation was nocturnal, and was reserved for the nights of the sixth and seventh days.
The herald opened the ceremonies of initiation into the greater Mysteries by the proclamation, xxx, FKaSS Ea7f meaning "Begone, begone, O ye profane. " The old meaning, and of course the Masonic one, of profane is of a person not yet received within the temple, from the words pro meaning before, and fanum, ternple. Thus were the sacred precincts tiled.
The aspirant was clothed with the skin of a calf. An oath of secrecy was administered, and he was then asked, "Have you eaten bread?" The reply to which was, "I have fasted; I have drunk the sacred mixture; I have taken it out of the chest; I have spun; I have placed it in the basket, and from the basket laid it in the chest." By this reply, the aspirant showed that he had been duly prepared by initiation into the lesser Mysteries; for Clement of Alexandria says that this formula was a shibboleth, or password, by which the mustae, or initiates, into the lesser Mysteries were known as such, and admitted to the epopteia or greater initiation. The gesture of spinning wool, in imitation of what Demeter did in the time of her affliction, seemed also to be used as a sign of recognition. The aspirant was now clothed in the sacred tunic, and awaited in the vestibule the opening of the doors of the sanctuary.
What subsequently took place must be left in great part to conjecture, although modern writers have availed themselves of all the allusions that are to be found in the ancients. The Temple consisted of three parts: the megaton, or sanctuary, corresponding to the holy place of the Temple of Solomon; the anactoron, or holy of holies, and a subterranean apartment beneath the temple. Each of these was probably occupied at a different portion of the initiation.
The representation of the infernal regions and the punishment of the uninitiated impious was appropriated to the subterranean apartment, and was, as Sylvestre de Sacy says ( Notes to Crozz i, 360) an episode of the drama which represented the adventures of Isis, Osiris, and Typhon, or of Demeter, Persephone, and Pluto. This drama, the same author thinks, represented the carrying away of Persephone, the travels of Demeter in search of her lost daughter her descent into hell; the union of Pluto with Persephone, and was terminated by the return of Demeter into the upper world and the light of day.
The representation of this drama commenced immediately after the profane had been sent from the Temple. And it is easy to understand how the groans and wailings with which the Temple at one time resounded might symbolize the sufferings and the death of man, and the subsequent rejoicings at the return of the goddess might be typical of the joy for the restoration of the soul to eternal life. Others have conjectured that the drama of the Mysteries represented, in the deportation of Persephone to Hades by Pluto, the departure, as it were, of the sun, or the deprivation of its vivific power during the winter months, and her reappearance on earth, the restoration of the prolific sun in summer. Others again tell us that the last act of the Mysteries represented the restoration to life of the murdered Zagreus, or Dionysus, by Demeter. Diodorus says that the members of the Body of Zagreus lacerated by the Titans was represented in the ceremonies of Mysteries, as well as in the Orphic hymns; but he prudently adds that he was not allowed to reveal the details to the uninitiated.
Whatever was the precise method of symbolism, it is evident that the true interpretation was the restoration from death to eternal life, and that the funereal part of the initiation referred to a 1088, and the exultation afterward to a recovery. Hence it was folly to deny the coincidence that exists between this Eleusinian drama and that enacted in the Third Degree of Freemasonry. It is not clatmed that the one was the uninterrupted successor of the other, but there must have been a common ideal source for the origin of both. The lesson, the dogma the symbol, and the method of instruction are the same. Waving now, as Pindar says, "descended beneath the hollow earth, and beheld those Mysteries," the initiate ceased to be a mystes, or blind man, and was thenceforth called an epopt, a word signifying he who beholds.
The Eleusinian Mysteries, which, by their splendor, surpassed all contemporary institutions of the kind, were deemed of so much importance as to be taken under the special protection of the state, and to the council of five hundred were entrusted the observance of the ordinances which regulated them. By a law of Solon, the magistrates met every year at the close of the festival, to pass sentence upon any who had violated or transgressed any of the rules which governed the administration of the sacred rites. Any attempt to disclose the esoteric ceremonies of initiation was punished with death. Plutarch tells us (Life of Alctotades) that the votary of pleasure was indicted for sacrilege, because he had imitated the mysteries, and shown them to his companions in the same dress as that worn by the Hierophant; and we get from Livy (xxxi, 14), the following relation:
Two Acarnanian youths, who had not been initiated, accidentally entered the Temple of Demeter during the celebration of the Mysteries. They were soon detected by their absurd questions, and being carried to the managers of the Temple, although it was evident that their intrusion was accidental, they were put to death for so horrible a crime. It is not, therefore, surprising that, in the account of them, we should find such uncertain and even conflicting assertions of the ancient writers, who hesitated to diseuss publicly so forbidden a subject.
The qualifications for initiation were maturity of age and purity of life. Such was the theory, although in practice these qualifications were not always rigidly reboarded. But the early doctrine was that none but the pure, morally and ceremonially, could be admitted to initiation. At first, too, the right of admission was restricted to natives of Greece; but even in the time of IIerodotus this law was dispensed with, and the citizens of all countries were considered eligible. So in time these Mysteries were extended beyond the limits of Greece, and in the days of the Empire they were introduced into Rome, where they became exceedingly popular.
The scenic representations, the participation in secret signs and words of recognition, the instruction in a peculiar dogma, and the establishment of a hidden bond of fraternity, gave attraction to these Mysteries, which lasted until the very fall of the Roman Empire, and exerted a powerful influence on the mystical associations of the Middle Ages. The bond of union which connects them with the modern initiations of Freemasonry is evident in the common thought which pervades and identifies both, though it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to trace all the connecting links of the historic chain. We see the beginning and we see the end of one pervading idea.
For a general discussion and study of theory consult Brother Goblet d'Alviella's Eleusinia.
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