SOLSTICES
The days on which the sun reaches is greatest northern and southern declination, whic are June 21 and December 22. Near these days are those in which the Christian church commemorates Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, who have been selected as the patron saints of Freemasonry for reasons which are explained in the article on the Dedication of a Lodge, which see.
SOMALILAND.
Sometimes called the Eastern Horn of Africa, south of the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. Of the three districts, British, Italian, and French Somaliland, the last possesses a Lodge. It
was erected at Jibuti under the Grand Lodge of France
SONGS OF FREEMASONRY.
The song formed in early times a very striking feature in what may be called the domestic manners of the Masonic institution. Nor has the custom of festive entertainments been yet abandoned. In the beginning of the eighteenth century songs were deemed of so much importance that they were added to the Books of Constitutions in Great Britain and on the Continent, a custom which was followed in America, where all the early Monitors contain an abundant supply of lyrical poetry. In the Constitutions published in 1723, we find the well-known Entered Apprentice's song, written by Matthew Birkhead, which still retains its popularity among Freemasons, and has attained an elevation to which its intrinsic merits as a lyrical composition would hardly entitle it.
Songs appear to have been incorporated into the ceremonies of the Order at the revival of Freemasonry in 1717. At that time, to use the language of the venerable Doctor Oliver, "Labor and refreshment relieved each other like two loving Brothers, and the gravity of the former was rendered more engaging by the characteristic cheerfulness and jocund gayety of he latter."
In those days the word refreshment had a practical meaning, and the Lodge was often called from labor that the Brethren might indulge in innocent gaiety, of which the song formed an essential part. This was called harmony, and the Brethren who were blessed with talents for vocal music were often invited "to contribute to the harmony of the Lodge." Thus, in the Minute-Book of a Lodge at Lincoln, in England, in the year 1732, which is quoted by Doctor Oliver, the records show that the Master usually "gave an elegant Charge, also went through an Examination, and the Lodge was closed with song and decent merriment." In this custom of singing there was an established system. Each officer was furnished with a song appropriate to his office, and each Degree had a song for itself.
Thus, in the first edition of the Book of Constitutions, we have the Master's Song, which, says Doctor Anderson, the author, is "to be sung with a chorus— when the Master shall give leave—either one part only or all together, as he pleases"; the Warden's Song, which was "to be sung and played at the Quarterly Communication"; the Fellow Craft's Song, which was to be sung and played at the grand feast; and, lastly, the Entered 'Prentiss' Song, which was "to be sung when all grave business is over, and with the Master's leave."
In the second edition the number was greatly increased, and songs were appropriated to the Deputy Grand Master, the Secretary, the Treasurer, and other officers.. For all this provision was made in the Old Charges so that there should be no confusion between the hours of labor and refreshment; for while the Brethren were forbidden to behave "'ludicrously or jestingly while the Lodge is engaged in what is serious or solemn," they were permitted, when work was over, "to enjoy themselves with innocent mirth. "
The custom of singing songs peculiarly appropriate to the Craft at the Lodge meetings, when the grave business was over, was speedily introduced into France and Germany, in which countries a large number of Masonie songs were written and adopted, to be sung by the German and Freneh Freemasons at their Table Lodges, which corresponded to the refreshment of their English Brethren. The lyrical literature of Freemasonry has, in consequence of this custom, assumed no inconsiderable magnitude; as an evidence of which it may be stated that Kloss, in his Bibliography of Freemasonry, gives a catalogue—by no means a perfect one—of two hundred and thirteen Masonic song-books published between the years 1734 and 1837, in the English, German, Freneh, Danish, and Polish languages.
The Freemasons of the present day have not abandoned the usage of singing at their festive meetings after the Lodge is closed; but the old songs of Freemasonry are passing into oblivion, and we seldom hear any of them, except sometimes the never-to-be forgotten Apprentice's Song of Matthew Birkhead. Modern taste and culture reject the rude but hearty stanzas of the old song-makers, and the more artistic and pathetic productions of Mackay, and Cooke, and Morris, and Dibdin, and Wesley, and other writers of that class, have taken their place.
Some of these songs cannot be strictly called Masonic, yet the covert allusions here and there of their authors, whether intentional or accidental, have caused them to be adopted by the Craft and placed among their minstrelsy. Thus the well-known ballad of Tubal Cain, by Charles Mackay, always has an inspiring effect when sung at a Lodge banquet, because of the reference to this old worker in metals, whom the Freemasons fondly consider as one or the mythical founders of their Order; although the song itself has in its words or its ideas no connection whatever with Freemasonry. The first two verses are as follows:
- Old Tubal Cain was a man of might,
- In the days when the earth whas young;
- By the fierce red light of his furnace bright
- The strokes of his hammer rung;
- And he lifted high his brawny hand
- On the iron glowing clear.
- Till the sparks rushed out in scarlet showers,
- As he fashioned the sword and spear
- And he sang, " Hurrah for my handiwork
- Hurrah for the spear and sword!
- Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well,
- For he shall be king and lord !
- To Tubal Cain came many a one,
- As he wrought by his roaring fire,
- And each one prayed for a strong steel blade,
- As the crown of his desire;
- And he made them weapons sharp and strong,
- Till they shouted loud for glee
- And gave him gifts of pearl and gold,
- And spoils of the forest free;
- And they sang, ' Hurrah for Tuhal Cain,
- Who hath given us strength anew!
- Hurrah for the smith! Hurrah for the fire!
- And hurrah for the metal true!"
Brother Burns's Auld Lang Syne is another produetion not verbally Masonic, which has met with the universal favor of the Craft, because the warm fraternal spirit that it breathes is in every way Masonic, and hence it has almost become a rule of obligation that every festive party of Freemasons should Close with the great Scotchman's invocation to part in love and kindness. But Robert Burns has also supplied the Craft with several purely Masonic songs, and nis farewell to the Brethren of Tarbolton Lodge, beginning,
Adieu! a hear1,warm, fond adieu,
Dear Brothers of the mystic tie,
is often sung with fine effect at the Table Lodges of the Order.
As already observed, we have many productions of our Masonic poëts which are talking the place of the older and coarser songs of our predecessors. It would be tedious to name all who have successfully invoked the Masonic muse. Masonic songs—that is to say, songs whose themes are Masonic incidents, whose language refers to the technical language of Freemasonry, and whose spirit breathes its spirit and its teachings—are now a well-settled part of the literary curriculum of the Institution. At first they were all festive in character and often coarse in style, with little or no pretension to poetic excellence. Now they are festive, but refined; or sacred, and used on occasions of public solemnity; or mythical, and constituting a part of the ceremonies of the different Degrees. But they all have a character of poetic art which is far above the mediocrity so emphatically condemned by Horace (see Poetry of Freemasonry).
SON OF A FREEMASON.
The son of a Freemason is called a Louveteau, and is entitled to certain privileges, for wnich see Louveteau and Lewis.
SON OF HIRAM.
A mixed tradition states that Aynon was a son of Hiram Abif, and was appointed master of the workmen who hewed the cedars and shaped the timber for the temple, and was recognized for his geometrical knowledge and skill as an engraver (see Aynon).
SONS OF LIGHT.
The science of Freemasonry often has received the title of Lux, or Light, to inclicate that mental and moral illumination is the object of the Institution. Hence Freemasons are often called Sons of light.
SONS OF THE PROPHETS
we repeatedly meet in the Old Testament with references to the Beni Hanebiian, or Sons of the Prophets. These were the disciples of the prophets, or wise men of Israel who underwent a course of esoteric instruction in the secret institutions of the Nabiim, or prophets, just as the disciples of the Magi did in Persia, or of Pythagoras in Greece. "These sons of the prophets,;' says Stehelin (Rabbinical Literature i, page 16), "were their disciples, brought up under their tuition and care, and therefore their masters or instructors were called their fathers."
SONS OF THE WIDOW.
This is a title often given to Freemasons in allusion to Hiram the Builder, who was "a widow's son, of the tribe of Naphtali '" By the advocates of the theory that Freemasonry originated with the exiled House of Stuart, and was Organized as a secret institution for the purpose of reestablishing that house on the throne of Great Britain, the phrase has been applied as if referring to the adherents of Queen Henrietta, the widow of Charles 1. The name is also applied to a society of the third century (see Widow, Sons of the, also Widow's Son).
SOPHISIENS, SACRED ORDER OF.
Founded at Paris, early nineteenth century, by Cavalier de Trie, Master of the Lodge Freres Artistes and had three Degrees and a short life.
SORBONNE.
A college of theological professors in Paris, who exercised a great influence over religious opinion in France during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and greater part of the eighteenth centuries. The bigotry and intolerance for which they were remarkable made them the untiring persecutors of Freemasonry. In the year 1748 they published a Letter and Consultation on the Society of Freemasons, in which they declared that it was an illegal association, and that the meetings of its members should be prohibited. This was republished in 1764, at Paris, by the Freemasons, with a reply, in the form of an appendix, by De la Tierce, and again in 1766, at Berlin, with another reply by a writer under the assumed name of Jarhetti.
SORROW LODGE.
It is the custom among Freemasons on the Continent of Europe to hold special Lodges at stated periods, for the purpose of commemorating the virtues and deploring the less of their departed members, and other distinguished worthies of the Fraternity who have died. These are called Funeral or Sorrow Lodges. In Germany they are held annually; in France at longer intervals. In the United States of America the custom has been introduced by the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, whose Sorrow Lodge Ritual is peculiarly beautiful and impressive, and the usage has been adopted by many Lodges of the American Rite. On these oceasions the Lodge is clothed in the habiliments of mourning and decorated with the emblems of death, solemn music is played, funercal dirges are chanted, and eulogies on the life, character, and Masonic virtues of the dead are delivered.
SOTER.
A Greek appellation implying Savior
SOUL OF NATURE
A platonic expression, more properly the Anima Mundi, that has been adopted into the English Royal Arch system to designate the hundred Delta, or Triangle, which Dunckerley, in his lecture, considered as the symbol of the Trinity. "So highly," says the modern lecture, "indeed did the ancients esteem the figure, that it, became among them an object of worship as the great principle of mated existence, to which they gave the name of God because it represented the animal, mineral, and vegetable creation They also distinguished it by an appellation which, in the Egyptian language, signifies the Soul of Nature." Doctor Oliver (Jurisprudence, page 446) warmly protests against the introduction of this expression as an unwarrantable innovations borrowed most probably from the Rite of the Philalethes. It has not been introduced into the American system
SOUTH
SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
SOUTH DAKOTA.
When the sun is at his meridian height, his invigorating rays are darted from the south. When the sun rises in the East, we are called to labor; when he sets in the West, our daily toil is over; but when he reaches the South, the hour is high twelve, and we are summoned to refreshment. In Freemasonry, the South is represented by the Junior Warden and by the Corinthian column, because it is said to be the place of beauty.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA.
A state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Friendship Lodge at Adelaide introduced Freemasonry to South Australia in 1834. The ceremony, at which the President of the Legislative Council and the Chief Justice of the Colony were initiated, was held in London.
In 1844 the first Scotch Lodge was opened and eleven years later an Irish Body was chartered. Provincial Grand Lodges were formed by Scotland in 1846, England 1848, and Ireland 1860.
In 1883 it was feared that a few of the Lodges were about to annex authority over the rest. Brother H. M. Addison thereupon called a Convention which met April 16, 1884. Twenty-eight Lodges sent delegates and the Grand Lodge of South Australia was opened in due form, with Chief Justice the Hon. S. J. Way as Grand Master. Almost all the Brethren supported the new Grand Lodge, indeed only one Lodge, the Duke of Leicester No. 363 remained wholeheartedly faithful to its early authority (see Grand Lodge).
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Solomon's Lodge was warranted in 1735 by the Grand Master of England and organized at Charleston on October 28, the following year. John Hammerton was appointed Provineial Grand Master by the Earl of Loudoun in 1736, but no further facts about the establishment of a Grand Lodge are available until there appeared a notice in the South Carolina Gazette of January 1, 1754, of the formation of a Provincial Grand Lodge on December 27, 1753. On March 30, 1754, a Deputation was signed in London and given to Chief Justice Leigh by the Marquis of Carnarvon which resulted in the reorganization of the Provincial Grand Lodge. According to Doctor Mackey this Grand Lodge became independent in 1777 and Barnard Elliott was the first Grand Master of the "Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons." The Athol or Antient Freemasons appeared in the State as early as 1783, and in 1787 there were five Lodges of the Antients in existence. On March 24 of that year they held a meeting and organized the "Grand Lodge of Antient Yorl; Masons 29 In 1808 a temporary union between the two Grand Lodges took place but not until 1817 were they united under the name "Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons . "
On February 1, 1803, the Grand Chapter of Ncw York granted a Warrant to Carolina Chapter at Charleston. The Grand Chapter for South Carolina was instituted May 29, 1812, and was represented at the Convocations of the General Grand Chapter held in 1826, 1829, 1844, and 1859. The Grand Chapter has always paid allegiance to the General Grand Chapter and has firmly resisted any suggestion that it should be independent.
Nine Councils of Royal and Select Masons were established by Charters from the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, during the years 1858-9. In 1860 the Supreme Council relinquished its authority and a Grand Council was constituted on February 15. In 1880 the Degrees reverted to the Supreme Council but in 1881 the Grand Council was reorganized and duly became a constituent of the General Grand Council.
A Certifieate of Membership still in existence, dated March 3, 1782, proves that South Carolina Commandery, No. 1, of Charleston was constituted at an early date. The first Warrant was destroyed by fire in 1843 and the Eneampment petitioned for renewed authority. A Dispensation was therefore issued by the Grand Encampment on May 17, 1843. South Carolina, No. 1; Columbia, No. 2, and Lafayette, No. 3, formed a Grand Encampment in 1826 which was represented the same year in the General Grand Encampment. In 1830 Templarism had died down to such an extent that for over eleven years no work was done. It revived in 1841, but owing to the Civil War relapsed again until December, 1865, when Sir Albert G Mackey became eminent Commander Encampments at Columbia, Georetown and Baufort had dissappeard for the time being, but after a time enthusiasm awakened and on March 25 , l 907 representatives of South Carolina, No. l; Columbia, No. 2; Spartanbury, No. 3, and Greenville, No. 4, met and instituted the Grand Commandery of South Carolina according to a Warrant issued on March 15, 1907.
In the City of Charleston Delta Lodge of Perfection, No. 1, was granted a Charter by the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, March 23, 1868; Buist Chapter of Rose Croix on May 10, 1871; Bethlehem Council of Kadosh on February 20, 1907, and Dalcho Consistory, No. l, on June 9, l911.
SOUTH DAKOTA.
When the Territory was divided in 1890 the Grand Lodge of Dakota became known as the Grand Lodge of South Dakota, and among its Lodges was the one which had been the first to be formed in Dakotan namely, Saint John's Lodge, chartered on June 3, 1863.
In the same way it was decided to organize two Grand Chapters, one for North and one for South Dakota. All the Chapters treated in the latter State met on January 6, 1890, at Yankton to discuss the question, and the Grand Chapter of South Dakota was constituted in Ample Form. Representatives from Yankton, No. 1; Aberdeen, No. 14; Mitchell, No. 16; Brookings, No. 18; Orient, No. 19, and Rabboni, No. 23, were present at this meeting.
On April 11, 1891, the Officers of the General Grand Council granted a Dispensation to Alpha, No. 1, at Sioux Falls, and a Charter was issued on July 21, 1891. A meeting of representatives of the chartered Councils in South Dakota was hel(l OI1 June 9, 1916, at which Companion Andrew P. Ssvanstrom, Past General Grand Master, presided. Officers were installed and the new Grand Council constituted.
Dakota, No. 1, was the first Commandery to be established in Dakota. It may also be considered the first Commandery in South Dakota, since it was located in that District. With Cyrene, No. 2; De Molay, No. 3, and Fargo, No. 5. Dakota, No. 1, organized on May 14, 1884, the Grand Commandery of Dakota, whieh later changed its name to that of Grand Commandery of South Dakota.
A Consistory of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, was established at Yankton by Charter dated December 22, 1888. Robert de Bruce, No. 1, a Council of Kadosh, was chartered on March 10, 1887; Mackey, No. 1, a Chapter of Rose Croix, on February 27, 1882, and Alpha, No. 1, a Lodge of Perfection, on February 8, 1882.
SOVEREIGN.
SOVEREIGN COMMANDER OF THE TEMPLE.
SOVEREIGN GRAND INSPECTOR- GENERAL.
SOVEREIGN MASTER.
SOVEREIGN OF MASONRY.
SOVEREIGN OF SOVEREIGNS.
SOVEREIGN PRINCE MASON.
SOVEREIGN PRINCE OF ROSE CROIX.
An epithet applied to certain Degrees which were invested with supreme power over inferior ones; as, Sovereign Prince of Rose Croix, whieh is the highest Degree of the French Rite and of some other Rites, and Sovereign InspectorGeneral, which is the controlling Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Some Degrees, originally Sovereign in the Rites in which they were first established, in being transferred to other Rites, have lost their sovereign character, but still improperly retain the name.
Thus the Rose Croix Degree of the Scottish Rite, which is there only the Eighteenth, and subordinate to the Thirty-third of Supreme Council, still retains everywhere, except in the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, the title of Sovereign Prince of Rose Croix. The expression Sovereign of Sovereigns was a title once used for the presiding officer of a Consistory (see Doctor Mackey's revised History of Freemasonry, page 1891) and a similar title was also applied to members of Supreme Councils, Sovereigns of Masonry, in the circular letter sent out by the Supreme Council at Charleston, December 4, 1802 (reprinted fully in above History, pages 1871-5).
SOVEREIGN COMMANDER OF THE TEMPLE.
The French expression is Souverain Commandeur du Temple. Styled in the more recent instructions of the Southern Supreme Council Knight Commander of the Temple. This is the Twenty-seventh Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite The presiding officer is styled Most Illustrious and Most Valiant, the Wardens are called Most Sovereign Commanders, and the Knights Sovereisn Commanders The place of meeting is called a Court. The apron is flesh-colored, lined and edged with black, with a Teutonic cross encircled by a wreath of laurel and a key beneath, all inseriloell in black upon the Hap The scarf is red bordered with black, hanging from the right shoulder to the left hip, and suspending a Teutonic cross in enameled gold. The jewel is a triangle of gold, on which is engraved the Ineffable Name in Hebrew. It is suspended from a white collar bound with red and embroidered with four Teutonic crosses.
Vassal, Ragon, and Clavel are mistaken in connecting this Degree with the Knights Templar, with which Order its own ritual deelares that it is not to be confounded. It is without a lecture. Vassal expresses the following opinion of this Degree: "The twenty-seventh degree does not deserve to be classed in the Scottish Rite as a degree, since it contains neither symbols nor allegories that connect it with initiation. It deserves still less to be ranked among the philosophic degrees. I imagine that it has been intercalated only to supply an hiatus, and as a memorial of an Order once justly celebrated." It is also the Forty-fourth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
SOVEREIGN GRAND INSPECTOR- GENERAL.
The Thirty-third and Last Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The Latin Constitutions of 1786 call it Tertius et trigesimus et sublimissimus gradus, that is, the Thirty-third and Most Sublime Deqree; and it is staled the Protector and Conservator of the Order. The same Constitutions, in Articles I and II, say:
The Thirty-third degree confers on those Freemasons who are legitimately invested with it, the quality, title, privilege, and authority of Sovereign, Supremorum, Grand Inspectors-General of the Order. The peculiar duty of their mission is to teach and enlighten the Brethren; to preserve charity, union, and fraternal love among them; to maintain regularity in the works of each Degree and to take care that it is preserved by others, to cause the dogmas, doctrines, institutes, constitutions statutes and regulations of the Order to be reverently regarded, and to preserve and defend them on every oeeasion; and, finally, everywhere to occupy themselves in works of peace and mercy.
The Body in which the members of this Degree assemble is called a Supreme Council. The symbolic color of the Degree is white, denoting purity. The distinctive insignia are a sash, collar, jewel, Teutonic cross, decoration, and ring.
The sash is a broad, white watered ribbon, bordered with gold, bearing on the front a triangle of gold glittering with rays of gold, which has in the center the numerals 33, with a Sword of silver, directed from above, on each side of the triangles pointing to its center. The sash, worn from the right shoulder to the left hip, ends in a point, and is fringed with gold, having at the junction a circular band of scarlet and green containing the jewel of the Order.
The collar is of white watered ribbon fringed with gold, having the rayed triangle at its point and the swords at the sides. By a regulation of the Southern Supreme Council of the United States, the collar has been worn by the active, and the sash by the honorary, members of the Council.
The emblem is a black double-headed eagle, with golden beaks and talons, holding in the latter a sword of gold, and crowned with the golden crown of Prussia.
The red Teutonic cross is affixed to the left side of the breast.
The decoration rests upon a Teutonic cross. It is a nine-pointed star, namely, one formed by three triangles of gold one upon the other, and interlaced from the lower part of the left side to the upper part of the right a sword extends, and in the opposite direction is a hand of, as it is called, Justice. In the center is the shield of the Order, azure (blue), charged with an eagle like that on the banner, having on the dexter (right) side a Balance or (gold), and on the sinister (left) side a Compass of the second, united with a Square of the second. Around the whole shield runs a band of the first, with the Latin inscription, of the second, Ordo ab Chao, meaning Order out of Disorder, which band is enclosed by two circles, formed by two Serpents of the second, each biting his own tail. Of the smaller triangles that are formed by the intersection of the greater ones, those nine that are nearest the band are of crimson color, and each of them has one of the letters that compose the Word S. A. P. I. E. N. T. I. A., or Wisdom.
The ring is a triple one, like three small rings, each one-eighth of an inch wide, side by side, and having on the inside a delta surrounding the figures 33, and inscribed with the wearer's name, the letters S..G.. I..G.., and the motto of the Order, Deus meumque Jus, meaning God and my right. It has been worn on the fourth finger of the right hand but in 1923 provision was made that the Thirty-third Degree ring should be worn on the little finger of the left hand in ache Southern Jurisdietion. The ring is worn on the third finger of the left hand in the Northern Jurisdietion of the United States of America (see Ring).
Until the year 1801, the Thirty-third Degree was unknown. Until then the highest Degree of the Rite, introduced into America by Stephen Morin, was the Sublime Prinee of the Royal Secret, or the Twentyfifth of the Rite established by the Emperors of the East and West. The administrative heads of the Order were styled Grand Inspectors-General and Deputy Inspectors-General; but these were titles of official rank and not of Degree. Even as late as May 24, 1801, John Mitchell signs himself as Kadosh, Prince of the Royal Secret and Deputy InspectorGeneral
The document thus signed is a Patent which certifiess that Frederick Dalcho is a Kadosh, and Prince of the Royal Secret, and which creates him a Deputy Inspector-General. But on May 31, 1801, the Supreme Council was created at Charleston, and from that time we hearof a Rite of thirty-three Degrees, eight having been added to the twenty-five introduced by Morin, and the last being called Sovereign Grand InspectorGeneral.
The Degree being thus legitimately established by a Body which, in creating a Rite, possessed the prerogative of establishing its classes, its Degrees and its nomenclature revere accepted unhesitatingly by all subsequently created Supreme Councils; and it continues to be the administrative head of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
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