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Masonic Encyclopedia
s
The Hebrew letter is Samech. The nineteenth letter in the English alphabet. Its nulnerical value is 60. The sacred application to the Deity is in the name Somech,Upholder, the Latin Fulcteus or Firm...
saadh
One of a certain Indian sect, who have emigrated Christianity, and who in some remeets resemble the Quakers in their doctrine and mode of life. Sometimes written Saud.
sabaism
The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, the Tsaba Hashmaim, meaning the host of heaven. It was practised in Persia, Chaldea, India, and other Oriental Countries, at an early period a of the world&apo...
sabaoth
The Hebrew words pronounced Jehovah Tsabaoth, and meaning Jehovah of Costs, a very usual appellation for the Most High in the prophetical books, especially in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi,...
sabbal
Hebrew word, meaning the Burden, the Latin Onus. The name of the sixth step of the mystic ladder of Kadosh of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Sometimes spelled Sabael.
sabbath
In the lecture of the Second or Fellow Craft's Degree, it is said, In six days God created the heavens and the earth, and rested upon the seventh day; the seventh, therefore, our ancient Brethren...
sacellum
A availed enclosure without roof. An ornamental chapel Within a church.
*
SACKCLOTH
In the Rose Croix instructions, sackcloth is a symbol of grief and humiliation for the loss of that Which it is ...
sacred asylum of high masonry
In the Institutes, Statutes, and Regulations, signed by Adillgton, Chancellor, Which are given in the Rectueil des Actes du Suprme Consetl du France, or Collection of the Acts of the Supreme Council o...
sacred law
The first Tables of Stone, or Commandments, which were delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, are referred to in , preface to the Mashna, bearing this tradition: God not only delivered the Law to Moses on...
sacred lodge
In the lectures according to the English system, we find the following definition of the Sacred Lodge, the symbol has not been preserved in the American instructions: Over the Sacred Lodge presided So...
sacrificant
Tile French is Sacrifant. A Degree in the Archives of the Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis Runis (Saint Louis of the Reunited Friends) at Calais.
sacrificer
In French, the word is Sacrificateur. 1. A Degree in the Archives of the Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis Runis (Saint Louis of the Reunited Friends) at Calais. 2. A Degree in the collection of Pyron.
sadda
Persian Saddar, meaning the hundred gates. A work in the Persian tongue, being a summary of the Avesta, or sacred books.
sadducees
Sometimes Zedukim. A Sect called from its founder Sadoc, or Zadok (see Secund Samuel viii, 17, xv, 24; First Kings i, 34), who lived about 250 B.C. They denied the resurrection, a future state, and th...
sadler, henry
Born 1840, died 1911. One of the most painstaking, patient, and persevering of Masonic students. He was initiated in 1862 in the Lodge of Justice No. 147, being at the time an A. B. in the Mereantile ...
sagitta
The keystone of an arch. The abscissa of a curve.
sailors, and freemasonry
Much of the United States and Canada as well as Britain has been for a long time at sea. It is not difficult for Englishmen to think of themselves as a people partly afloat, nor the Norwegians, and st...
saint adhabell
Introduced into the Cooke Manuscript (line 603), where the allusion evidently is to Saint Amphibalus, which see.
saint alban
Saint Alban, or Albanus, the proto-martyr of England, was born in the third century, at Verulam, now St. Albans, in Hertfordshire.
In his youth he visited Rome, and served seven years as a soldier un...
saint alban's regulations
The regulations said to have been made by Saint Alban tor the government of the Craft are referred to by Doctor Anderson, in his second edition (page 57), and afterward by Brother Preston (see Saint A...
saint amphibalus
The ecclesiastical legend is that Saint Amphibalus came to England and converted Saint Alban, who was the great patron of Freemasonry. The Old Constitutions do not speak of him, except the Cooke Manus...
saint andrew
Brother of Saint Peter and one of the twelve Apostles. He is held in high reverence by the Scotch, Swedes, and Russians. Tradition says he was crucified on a cross shaped thus, X. Orders of knighthood...
saint andrew's day
November 30, was adopted by the Grand Lodge of Scotland as the day of its Annual Communication.
saint anthony
An Order taking its rise from the life and habits of Saint Anthony, the hermit, who died about 357. His disciples, called Anchorites, near Ethiopia, lived in austerity and solitariness in the desert, ...
saint augustine
Saint Augustine, or Saint Austin, was sent with forty monks into England, about the end of the sixth century, to evangelize the country Leaning says that, according to a tradition, he placed himself a...
saint bernard
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was one of the most eminent names of the Church in the Middle Ages. In 1128 he was present at the Council of Troyes, where, through his influence, the Order of Knights Templ...
saint clair, william
The Saint Clairs of Roslin, or, as it is often spelled, of Rosslyn, held for more than three hundred years an intimate connection with the history of Freemasonry in Scotland. William Saint Clair, Earl...
saint clair, william of roslin
First Grand Master Mason of Scotland, elected, in 1736 when the Grand Lodge of Scotland was formed, an office he held for one year only. A good deal of discussion has been had pro and con as to the va...
saint constantine, order of
Presumed to have been founded by the Emperor Isaac Angelus Comnenus, in 1190).
saint george's day
The twenty-third of April. Being the Patron Saint of England, his festival is celebrated by the Grand Lodge. The Constitution requires that "there shall be a Grand Masonic festi val annually on t...
saint germain, the count of
Also known as Count de Bellamura in Venice; as the Chevalier de Schning at Pisa; as Chevalier Well done at Milan; and at Genoa as Count Soltikow. authentic record of his origin. First heard of in Euro...
saint john the almoner
The son of the King of Cyprus, and born in that island in the sixth century He was fleeted Patriarch of Alexandria, and has been canonized by both the Greek and Roman churches, his festival among the ...
saint john the baptist
One of the Patron Saints of Freemasonry, and at one time, indeed, the only one, the name of Saint John the Evangelist having been introduced subsequent to the sixteenth century. His festival occurs on...
saint john the evangelist
One of the Patron Saints of Freemasonry, whose festival is celebrated on the 27th of December. His constant admonition, in his Epistles, to the cultivation of brotherly love, and the mystical nature o...
saint john's masonry
The Constitutions of the Grand Lodge of Scotland (184e,, chapter ii) declare that that Body "practises and recognizes no degrees of Masonry but those of Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason...
saint john's order
In a system of Freemasonry which Doctor Oliver says (Mirror for the Johannites, pa(re 58) was "used, as it is confidently affirmed, in the fourteenth century" (but it is doubtful if it could...
saint john, favorite brother of
The Eighth Degree of the Swedish Rite
*
SAINT JOHN, LODGE OF
See Lodge of Saint John
saint martin, louis claude
A mystical writer and Masonic leader of considerable reputation in the eighteenth century, and the founder of the Rite of Martinism. He w as born at Amboise, in France, on January 18, 1743, being desc...
saint nicaise
A considerable sensation was produced in Masonic circles by the appearance at Frankfort, in 1755, of a work entitled Saint Nicaise, oder eine Sammlung merkwrdiger Marerischer Briefe, fr Freimarer und ...
saint paul's church
As Saint Paul's, the Cathedral Church of London, was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren--who is called (in the Book of Constitutions, 1738, page 107) the Grand Master of Freemasons-- and some writer...
saint victor, louis guillemain de
A French Masonic writer, who published, in 1781, a work in Adonhiramite Masonry, entitled Receuil Prcieuz de la Maonnerie Adonhiramite, or Choice Collection of Adonhiramite Masonry. This volume contai...
sainte croix, emanuel joseph guil hem de clermont-lodeve de
A French antiquary, and member of the Institute, who was born at Mormoiron, in 1746, and died in 1809. His work, published in two volumes in 1784, and entitled Recherches Historiques et Critiques sur ...
saints john
The Holy Saints John, so frequently mentioned in the instructions of Symbolic Freemasonry, are Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, which see. The original dedication of Lodges.was to...
sakti
The female energy of Brahma, of Vishnu, or especially of Siva. This lascivious worship was inculcated in the Tantra meaning Instrument of Faith, a Sanskrit work, found under various forms, and regarde...
salaam
The name of the Arabic form of salutation, which is by bowing the head and bringing the extended arms forward from the sides until the thumbs touch, the palms being down.
saladim
More properly Salah-ed-din, Yussuf ibn Ayub, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, in the time of Richard Coeur-de Lion, and the founder of the Ayubite dynasty. As the great Moslem hero of the Third Crusade,...
salfi, francisco
An Italian philosopher and litterateur, who was born at Cozenza, in Calabria January 1, 1759, and died at Passy, near Paris, September, 1832. He was at one time Professor of history and Philosophy at ...
salix
A significant word in the advanced Degrees, invented, most probably, at first for the system of the Council of Emperors of the East and West, and transferred to the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite....
salle des pas perdus
A French expression meaning the Hall of the Lost Steps. The French thus call the anteroom in which visitors are placed before their admission into the Lodge. The Germans call it the Fore-Court, Vorhof...
salomonis sanctificatus illuminatus, magnus jehova
The elaborate title, somewhat extravagant as Sanctified, illuminated, of the reigning Master or third class of the Illuminated Chapter according to the Swedish system.
salsette
An island in the Bay of Bombay, celebrated for stupendous caverns excavated artificially out of the solid rock, with a labor which must, says Grose, have been equal to that of erecting the Pyramids, a...
salt
In the Helvetian or Swiss instructions, salt is added to corn, wine, and oil as one of the elements of consecrations because it is a symbol of the wisdom and learning which should characterize a Freem...
salutation
Leaning says, that in accordance with the usage of the Operative Masons, it was formerly the custom for a strange Brother, when he visited a Lodge, to bring to it such a salutation as this: "From...
salute mason
Among the Stone-Masons of Germany, in the Middle Ages, a distinction was made between the Grussmaurer or Wortmaurer, the Salute Mason or Word Mason, and the Schriftmaurer or Letter Mason. The Salute M...
salutem
The Latin word for Health and used as a greeting. When the Romans wrote friendly Setters they prefixed the letter S as the initial of Salutem, or health, and thus the writer expressed a wish for the h...
samaria
A city situated near the center of Palestine, and built by Omri, King of Israel, about 925 B.C. It was the metropolis of the Kingdom of Israel, or of the Ten Tribes, and was, during the exile, peopled...
samaritans
The Samaritans were originally the descendants of the ten revolted tribes who had chosen Samaria for their metropolis. Subsequently, the Samaritans were conquered by the Assyrians under Shalmaneser, w...
samothracian mysteries
The Mysteries of the Cabiri are sometimes so called because the principal seat of their celebration was in the Island of Samothrace. "I ask," says Voltaire (Dictionary of Philosophy), "...
san graal
Derived, probably, from the old French, sang real, the true blood; although other etymologies have been proposed. The San Graal is represented, in legendary history, as being an emerald dish in which ...
san salvador
The capital of the Rcpublie of Salvador, Central America. Freemasonry was brought into this State quite early, but in 1882 it was suppressed. On March 5, 1882, Rafael Zaldwar, President of the Republi...
sanctuary
The Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon (see Holy of Holies).
sanctum sanctorum
Latin for Holy of Holies, which see.
sandalphon
In the Rabbinieal system of Angelology, one of the three angels who receive the prayers of the Israelites and weave crowns from them Longfellow used this idea in a most beautiful poem.
sandwich islands
Freemasonry was first introduced into those far islands of the Pacific by the Grand Orient of France, which issued a Dispensation for the establishment of a Lodge about 1848, or perhaps earlier; but i...
sanhedrim
The highest judicial tribunal among the Jews. It consisted of seventy-two persons besides the High Priest. It is supposed to have originated with Moses, who instituted a Council of Seventy on the occa...
sapicole, the
Thory (Acta Latomorum i, page 339) says that a Degree by this name is cited in the nomenclature of Fustier, and is also found in the collection of Viany.
sapphire
The Hebrew word, sometimes pronounced sap-peer. The second stone in the second row of the High Priest's breastplate, and was appropriated to the Tribe of Naphtali, The Chief Priest of the Egyptia...
saracens
Although originally only an Arab tribe, the word Saracens was afterward applied to all the Arabs who embraced the tenets of Mohammed. The Crusaders especially designated as Saracens those Mohammedans ...
sarajevo
An unfriendly fate dogs the steps of women who write about Freemasonry, and pro or con; if one of them makes up a book about it by rewriting some old volume too obscure for anybody ever to have heard ...
sardinia
Freemasonry was introduced into this kingdom in 1737 (Rebold, History of Three Grand Lodges, page 686).
sardius
Hebrew, Odem. The first stone in the first row of the High Priest's breastplate. It is a Species of carnelian of a blood-red color, and was appropriated to the Tribe of Reuben.
sarsena
A pretended exposition of Freemasonry, published at Baumberg, Germany, in 1816, under the title of Sarsena, or the Perfect Architect, created a great sensation at the time among the initiated and the ...
sash
An old regulation noted by Doctor Mackey on the subject of wearing sashes in a procession is in the following words: "None but officers, who must always be Master Masons, are permitted to wear sa...
saskatchewan (entry a)
has a Masonic Scholarship project suggestive of that true charity or brotherly love which Saint Paul mentions with such heartiness in First Corinthians (xiii, 1-8). The basic purpose of the plan is to...
saskatchewan (entry b)
The Brethren of the Province of Saskatehewan assembled at Regina on the 10th day of August, 1906, and formally resolved themselves into the Grand Lodge of Saskatehewan. Twenty-five Lodges out of twent...
sastra
One of the sacred books of the Hindu law.
sat b'hai, royal oriental order of the
Said to have originated in India, and so named after a bird held sacred by the Hindus, whose flight, invariably in sevens, has obtained for the Society the appellation of the Seven Brethren, hence the...
satrap
The title given by the Greek writers to the Persian Governors of Provinces before Alexander's conquest. It is from the Persian word Satrab. The authorized version calls them the Kings Lieutenants...
savalette de langes.
Founder of the Rite of Philalethes at Paris, in 1773. He was also the President and moving spirit of the Masonic Congress at Paris, which met in 1785 and 1787 for the purpose of discussing many import...
saxony
The first Masonic Lodge in Saxony appeared at Dresden, in 1738; within four years thereafter two others had been established in Leipzig and Altenburg. The Grand Lodge was formed in 1811.
sayer, anthony
At the Revival in 1717, "Mr. Antony Sayer, gentleman," was elected Grand Master (Constitutions, 1738, page 110). He was succeeded in the next year by George Payne, Esq. In 1719, he was appoi...
scald miserables
A name given to a set of persons who, in 1741, formed a mock procession in derision of the Freemasons. Sir John Hawkins, speaking (in his Life of Johnson, page 336) of Paul Whites head, says:
In conc...
scales, pair of
"Let me be weighed in an even balance," said Job, "that God may know mine integrity"; and Solomon says that "a false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is H...
scallop-shell
The scallo pushed, the staff, and sandals form a part of the costume of a Masonic Knight Templar in his character as a Pilgrim Penitent. Shakespeare makes Ophelia sing-- And how shall I my true love k...
scarab
From the Latin Scarabaeus, a beetle, the ancient Egyptian symbol usually combining representations of the sacred insect with a pellet suggesting the sun, the whole sacred to the sun-god. Sometimes the...
scenic representations
In the Ancient Mysteries scenic representations were employed to illustrate the doctrines of the resurrection, which it was their object to inculcate. Thus the allegory of the initiation has more deep...
scepter
An ensign of sovereign authority, and hence carried in several of the advanced Degrees by officers who represent kings.
schaw manuscript
This is a code of laws for the government of the Operative Seasons of Scotland, drawn up by William Schaw, the Master of the Work to James VI. It bears the following title: "The Statutis and Ordi...
schaw. william
A name which is intimately connected with the history of Freemasonry in Scotland. For the particulars of his life, we are principally indebted to the writer, said to have been Sir David Brewster, Lylo...
schismatic
Thory ( History of the Foundation of the Grand orient) thus calls the Brethren who, expelled by the Grand Lodge of France, had formed in the year 1772, a rival Body under the name of the National Asse...
schisms
This, which was originally an ecclesiastical term, and signifies, as Milton defines it, "a rent or division in the church when it comes to the separating of congregations," is unfortunately ...
schley, winfield scott
American Admiral, born October 9, 1839, and died in 1911. On July 3, 1898, Admiral Cervera's fleet was destroyed at Santiago by the American fleet under the command of Admiral Sampson and Admiral...
schneider, johann august
A zealous and learned Freemason of Altenburg, in Germany, where he was born May 22, 1755, and died August 13, 1816. Besides contributing many valuable articles to various Masonic journals, he was the ...
schools
None of the charities of Freemasonry have been more important or more worthy of approbation than those which have been directed to the establishment of schools for the education of the orphan children...
schools of the prophets
Doctor Oliver (Historical Landmarks ii, page 374) speaks of "the secret institution of the Naboom" as existing in the time of Solomon, and says they were established by Samuel "to count...
schrepfer, johann georg
The keeper of a coffee-house in Leipsic, where, having obtained a quantity of Masonic, Rosierucian, and magical books, he opened, in 1768, what he called a Scottish Lodge, and pretended that he had be...
schroeder, friedrich joseph wilhelm
A. Doctor and Professor of Pharmacology in Marburg; was born at Bielefeld, in Prussia, March 19, 1733, and died October 27, 1778. Of an infirm constitution from his youth, he still further impaired hi...
schroeder, friedrich ludwig
An actor and a dramatic and Masonic writer, born at Schwerin, November 3, 1744, and died near Hamburg, September 3, 1816. He commenced life as an actor at Vienna, and was so distinguished in his profe...
schultz, edward t
Born August 23, 1827; died March 11, 1913, at Baltimore, Maryland. Initiated on June 3, 1854, in Concordia Lodge No. 13, and for five years was elected Master. He became Senior Grand Warden of Marylan...
sciences
The unknown author (possibly William Preston), or authors who wrote the Dionitorial Lectures of the Fellowcraft Degree used the Liberal Arts and Sciences as a symbol of the kind of education which gro...
scientific masonic association
The German title is Scientifischer Freimaurer Bund. A society founded in 1803 by Fessler, Mossdorf, Fischer, and other distinguished Freemasons, the object being, by the united efforts of its members,...
scor-laban
The Hebrew , the Latin Albus Bos, meaning White ox, or morally, Innocence or Candor. Sometimes written, as in the old French manuscripts, Charlaban. The name of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
...
scorpion
A genus of Arachnida, of numerous species, with an elongated body, but no marked division between the thorax and abdomen. Those of the south of Europe and on the borders of the Mediterranean have six ...
scotland
The tradition of the Scotch Freemasons is that Freemasonry was introduced into Scotland by the architects who built the Abbey of Kil winning; and the village of that name bears, therefore, the same re...
scott, captain robert falcon
Explorer, born 1868 at Outlands, Devenport, England. Initiated into Freemasonry at the beginning of the twentieth century in Drury Lane Lodge, No. 2127, London, England, and received his Master Mason ...
scott, charles
American author of The Analogy of Ancient Craft Masonry to Natural and Revealed Religion, 1850, and The Keystone of the Masonic Arch; a Commentary on the Universal Laws and Principles of Ancient Mason...
scott, jonathan
Published Pocket Companion and History of Freemasonry, 1754, London.
scott, walter
Famous novelist and poet. Initiated at thirty years of age. Born at the College Wynd, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 15, 1771, and educated at the High School. Previous to entering the University in Nove...
scottish
We are accustomed to use indiscriminately the word Scotch or Scottish to signify something relating to Scotland. Thus we say the Scotch Rite or the Scottish Rite; the latter is, how ever, more frequen...
scottish degrees
The advanced Degrees so frequently credited to Ramsay, under the name of the Irish Degrees, were subsequently called Scottish Degrees in reference to that theory of the promulgation of Freemasonry der...
scottish prov. c. l's
The history of the Scottish Provincial Grand Lodge constituted in Boston with Joseph Warren as first Grand Masterand of his jurisdiction over certain Lodges in and around Boston for 100 miles, has bee...
scottish rite (entry a)
Some authorities call this the Ancient and Accepted Rite, but as the Latin Constitutions of the Order designate it as the Antiquus Scoticus Ritus Acceptus, or the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, t...
scottish rite (entry b)
At the annual Meeting at Boston, 1921, of the Supreme Council, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, United States of America, the sum of $50,000 was set apart "from ...
scribe
The Scribe is the third officer in a Royal Arch Chapters according to the American system and is the representative of Haggai. The Sofer, or Seribe in the earlier Scriptures, was a kind of military se...
scriptures, belief in the
The Grand Lodge of Ohio resolved in 1820, that "in the first degrees of Masonry religious tests shall not be a barrier to the admission or advancement of applicants, provided they profess a belie...
scriptures, reading of the
By an ancient usage of the Craft, the Book of the Law is always spread open in the Lodge. There is in this, as in everything else that is Masonic, an appropriate symbolism. The Book of the Law is the ...
scroll
The written portion of the Jewish Law read at stated periods before the congregation, and preserved in the Synagogue Witty great security.
scythe
In the classic mythology, the scythe was one of the attributes of Saturn, the god of time because that deity is said to have taught men the use of the implement in agriculture. But Saturn was also the...
sea and field lodges
The Grand Lodge of England has warranted three Naval Lodges as follows: One on board His Majesty's ship the Vanguard. This Lodge was warranted in 1760 and is now known as the London dodge No. 108...
seafaring masons
That seafaring man who appears in one of the Degrees, and who as a character is of Shakespearean brevity and poetic power, was always followed by eager interest and applause in the Eighteenth Century ...
seal
A stamp on which letters and a device are carved for the purpose of making an impression, and also the wax or paper on which the impression is made. Lord Coke defines a seal to be an impression on wax...
seal of solomon
The Seal of Solomon or the Shield of David, for under both names the same thing was denoted, is a hexagonal figure consisting of two interlaced triangles, thus forming the outlines of six-pointed star...
seal, the great
On the reverse of the silver certificate for one dollar ("dollar bill") issued by the Treasury Department of the United States is a symbolic design representing a truncated pyramid on a shie...
seals, book of the seven
"And I saw," says Saint John (Apocalypse or Revelation v, 1), "in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back side, sealed with seven seals."...
seals, keeper of the
An officer who has charge of the seal or seals of the Lodge. It is found in some of the advanced Degrees and in Continental Lodges, but not recognized in the York or American Rites. In German Lodges h...
search for truth
This is the object of all Freemasonry and it is pursued from the first to the last step of initiation. The Apprentice begins it seeking for the light which is symbolized by the WORD, itself only a sym...
seceders
During the anti-Masonic excitement in the United States of America, which gave rise to the Anti-Masonic Party, many Freemasons, fearing the loss of popularity, or governed by an erroneous view of the ...
secrecy and silence
These virtues constitute the very essence of all Masonic character; they are the safeguard of the Institution, giving to it all its security and perpetuity, and are enforced by frequent admonitions in...
secrecy, silence, circumspection
In his article on this subject on page 920 Albert G. Mackey followed the clues of the Ancient Mysteries. The use of such clues has a value even if a student is unable to find any historical connection...
secret doctrine
The secret doctrine of the Jews was, according to Steinschneider, nothing else than a system of metaphysics founded on the Commentaries on the Law and the legends of the Talmudists. Of this secret doc...
secret master
The Fourth Degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the first of what are called the Ineffable Degrees. It refers to those circumstances which occurred at the Temple when Solomon repaired ...
secret monitor
An honorary or side Degree once commonly conferred in the United States. The communication of it was not accompanied, it is true, with any impressive ceremonies, but it inculates a lesson of unfalteri...
secret of the secrets, the
A Degree cited in the nomenclature of Fustier
secret societies
Secret societies may be divided into two classes: First, those whose secrecy consists in nothing more than methods by which the members are enabled to recognize each other; and in certain doctrines, s...
secretary
The recording and corresponding officer of a Lodge. It is his duty to keep a just and true record of all things proper to be written, to receive all moneys that are due the Lodge, and to pay them over...
secretary-general of the holy empire
The title given to the Secretary of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
sectarianism
Freemasonry repudiates all sectarianism, and recognizes the tenets of no sect as preferable to those of any other, requiring in its followers assent only to those dogmas of the universal religion whic...
secular lodges
The epithet Secular has sometimes, but very incorrectly, been applied t o Subordinate Lodges to distinguish them from Grand Lodges. In such a connection the word is unmeaning, or, what is worse, is a ...
sedition act
On July 12, 1799, the British Parliament alarmed at the progress of revolutionary principles enacted a law commonly known as the Sedition Act, for the suppression of secret societies. But the true pri...
seeing
One of the five human senses, whose importance is treated of in the Fellow Craft's Degree. By sight, things at a distance are, as it were, brought near, and obstacles of space overcome. So in Fre...
seekers
The French word is Chercheurs. The First Degree of the Order of Initiated Knights and Brothers of Asia.
sefidd schamagan
A secret Moslem society, called also the Candidati, from being clothed in white. They taught that the wicked would he transformed, after death, into beasts, while the good would ho reabsorbed into the...
sejjin
The Arabic register of all the wicked, also the title of the residence of Eblis.
selamu aleikum, es
The Arabic salutation of Peace be with you; which meets with the response Aleikum es Salaam. These expressions are prominently in use by ancient Arabic Associations (see Salaam) .
select master
The Ninth Degree in the American Rite, and the last of the two conferred in a Council of Royal and Select Masters. Its officers are a Thrice Illustrious Grand Master, Illustrious Hiram of Tyre, Princi...
semelius
An officer in the Sixth Degree of the Modern French Rite, known as the strand Master of Despatches.
semester
The mot de semestre, or semi-annual word, is used only in France. Every six months a secret word is communicated by the Grand Orient to all the Lodges under its jurisdiction. This custom was introduce...
senatorial chamber
When the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite meets in the Thirty- third Degree, it is said to meet in its Senatorial Chamber.
seneschal
An officer found in some of the higher Degrees, as in the Thirty-second of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, where his duties are similar to those of a Warden of a Lodge, he acting as the deputy...
senior entered apprentice
In the ritual of the early part of the eighteenth century the Senior and Junior Entered Apprentices acted in the place of the Deacons, which offices were then unknown. The Senior Entered Apprentice wa...
senior warden
The second officer in a Symbolic Lodge. He presides over the Craft during the hours of labor, as the Junior does during the hours of refreshment, and in the absence of the Master he performs the duty ...
sentinel
An officer in a Royal Arch Chapter, in a council of Knights of the Red Cross, and in a Commandery of Knights Templar, whose duties are similar to those of a Tiler in a Symbolic Lodge. In some Bodies t...
sephiroth
The Hebrew word is a plural noun, the singular being Sephira. Buxtorf (Talmudic Lexicon) says the word means numerations, from Saphar, to number; but the Cabalistic writers generally give it the signi...
sephora
Wife of Moses, and daughter of Raguel or Jethro, Priest of Midian. Mentioned in the Fourth Degree of the French Rite of Adoption.
septenary
The number Seven, which see.
sepulcher
The spirit of gratitude has from the earliest period led men to venerate the tombs in which have been deposited the remains of their bene. factors In all of the ancient religions there were sacred tom...
seraphim
The Hebrew word is the singular form of the word is Seraph, signifying burning, fiery. Celestial beings in attendance upon Jehovah, mentioned by Isaiah (vi, 2-7). Similar to the Cherubim, having the h...
seraphim, order of
A Swedish Rite, instituted in 1334, revived in 1748. The number of knights, exclusive of the royal family, was twenty-four.
sermons, masonic
Sermons on Maconic subjects, and delivered in churches before Masonic Bodies or on Masonic festivals, are peculiar to the British and the American Freemasons. Neither the French nor German, nor, indee...
serpent
As a symbol, the serpent obtained a prominent place in all the ancient initiations and religions Among the Egyptians it was the symbol of Divine Wisdom when extended at length, and the serpent with hi...
serpent and cross
A symbol used in the Degrees of Knights Templar and Knight of the Brazen Serpent. The cross is a tau cross T. and the serpent is twined around. Its origin is found in Numbers xxi, 9, where it is said,...
serpent worship
In ancient times, the serpent was an object of adoration in almost all nations. It was, in fact, one of the earliest deviations from the true system, and in almost all the ancient rites we find some a...
servia or serbia
Formerly a kingdom of the Balkan Peninsula, in southeastern Europe, now combined with Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Slovenia, and Voyvodina to form Jugoslavia (see Aust...
serving brethren
Freemasons whose duty it is to serve the Lodge as Tilers, waiters at the Lodge table, and to perform other menial services, are called in European Lodges Serving Brethren. They are not known in the Un...
seth
It is a theory of some Masonic writers that the principles of t he Pure or Primitive Freemasonry were preserved in the race of Seth, which had always kept separate from that of Cain, but that after th...
setting-maul
A wooden hammer used by Operative Masons to set the stones in their proper positions. It is in Speculative Freemasonry a symbol, in the Third Degree, reminding us of the death of the builder of the Te...
seven
In every system of antiquity there is a frequent reference to this number, showing that the veneration for it proceeded from some common cause. It is equally a sacred number in the Gentile as in the C...
seven stars
In the Tracing-Board of the Seventeenth Degree, or Knight of the East and West, is the representation of a man clothed in a white robe, with a golden girdle round his waist, his right hand extended, a...
seventy years of captivity
This period must be computed from the defeat of the Egyptians at Carchemish, in the same year that the prophecy was given, when Nebuchadnezzar reduced the neighboring nations of Syria and Palestine, a...
shaddai, el
One of the names of God in Hebrew. In Exodus vi, 3, the word translated God Almighty is, in the original, Shaddai, me; it is there fore the name by which he was known to the Israel ites before he comm...
shakespeare, william
Famous playwright and poet, born at Stratford-on-Avon, England, on April 22 or 23,1564; died, April 23, 1616, at Stratford. Brother Henry F. Evans has in the Rob Morris Bulletin of Denver, March, 1918...
shalal shalom abi
A Hebrew phrase, Diripuit pacem patri. A covered word in the Fifteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
shalash esrim
A Hebrew expression, Derby tit, meaning twenty-three, and refers to a day in the month Adar, noted in the Sixteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
shamir
King Solomon is said, in a Rabbinical legend, to have used the worm Shamir as an instrument for building the Temple. The legend is that Moses engraved the names of the twelve tribes on the stones of...
sharp instrument 1
The emblematic use of a sharp instrument, as indicated in the instructions of the First Degree, is intended to be represented by a warlike weapon, the old rituals call it "a warlike instrumented ...
sharp instrument 2
The Minutes of the Lodge of Antiquity (one of "the Four Old Lodges") record that on March 26, 1834 "a poignard for the I. G. was given by Bro. R. W. Jennings . . . " Prior to the U...
shaster
Hindu word meaning instruction. Any book held more or less sacred among the Hindus, whether included in the Sruti or not. The Great Shasters comprise the Vedas, the Upavedas, and the Vedangas, with th...
shastras
The sacred book of the Hindus, which contains the dogmas of their religion and the ceremonies of their worship. It is a commentary on the Vedas, and consists of three parts: the moral law, the rites a...
sheba, queen of
In the Books of Kings and Chronicles (see First Kings x, 1-13, and Second Chrolliele3 ix, 1- 12), we are told that "when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon coneerning the name of the...
shebat
The Hebrew word The fifth month of the Hebrew civil year, and corresponding with the months January and February, beginning with the new moon of the former.
shekel
In the Fourth or Mark Master's Degree, it is said that the value of a Mark is "a Jewish half- shekel of silver, or twenty-five cents in the curreney of this country." The shekel of silv...
shekinah
The Hebrew word brad, derived from Shakan, meaning to dwell. A term applied by the Jews, especially in the Targums, to the divine glory which dwelt in the tabernacle and the Temple, and which was mani...
shelum lecka
The password of the Order of Felicity. It is of Arabic root, signifying, Peace be with you! (see Selamu Aleikum).
*
SHEM
The Name. The Jews in their sacred rites often designated God by the word N...
shem hamphorasch
A Hebrew expression, meaning the Separated Name. The Tetragrammaton is so called because, as Maimonides, in the More Nebukim, Guide of the Perplexed, says, all the names of God are derived from his wo...
shem, ham, japheth
The three sons of Noah, who assisted him in the construction of the Ark of Safety, and henee they became significant words in the Royal Arch Degree according to the American system. The interpolation ...
shemitic
One of the three historical divisions of religion--the other two being the Turanian and the Aryan--and embraces Mosaism, Christianity, the Eddaic Code, and Moslemism.
sheriff
According to Brother Preston, the sheriff of a County possessed, before the Revival of 1717, a power later confined to Grand Masters. He says (Illustrations, page 182) that "A sufficient number o...
sherman, roger
One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, born at Newton, Massachusetts, April 19, 1721; died in New Haven, Connecticut, July 23, 1793. Was Judge, Superior Court, Connecticut, 1766; Treas...
shesha
The seven-headed serpent floating in the eosmical ocean, upon which the throne of Brahrna rested.
shewbread
The twelve loaves which were placed upon a table in the sanctuary of the Temple, and which were called the shewbread or bread of the presence, are represented among the paraphernalia of a Lodge of Per...
shibboleth
The Hebrew word neat The word which the Gileadites under Jephthah made use of as a test at the passages of the river Jordan after a victory over the Ephraimites. The word has two meanings in Hebrew: F...
shield
The shape of the shield worn by the knight in the Middle Ages varied according to the caprice of the wearer, but generally it was large at the top and gradually diminished to a point, being made of wo...
shield of david
Two interlaced triangles, more commonly known as the Seal of Solomon, and considered by the ancient Je vs as a talisman of great efficacy (see Seal of Solomon). Because the shield was, in battle a pro...
shinto
The national worship of the Japanese, and the word signifies the path of the gods. I t is ancient and is analogous to nature worship with ancestor worship.
shintoism
From Shin, meaning god or gods, and to, the way. The ancient religion of Japan, and founded on the worship of ancestors and nature. It acknowledges a Supreme Creator and numerous subordinate gods call...
shock
A striking of hands and feet, so as to produce a sudden noise. There is a ceremony called the shock, which was in use in the reception of an Apprentice in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and ...
shock of enlightenment
A ceremony used in all the Degrees of Symbolic Freemasonry. By it we seek to symbolize the idea of the birth of material light, by the representation of the circumstances that accompanied it, and thei...
shock of entrance
A ceremony formerly used on the admission of an Entered Apprentice, but becoming obsolete. In the old initiations, the same word signified to die and to be initiated, because, in the initiation, the l...
shoe
Among the ancient Israelites, the shoe was made use of in several significant ways. To put off the shoes, imported reverence, and was done in the presence of God, or on entering the dwelling of a Supe...
shoulkain
A Hebrew compound word, meaning close-guarded captive. Stolkin, mentioned in the Ninth and other Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
shovel
An instrument used to remove rubbish. It is one of the avorking-tools of a Royal Arch Mason, and symbolically teaches him to remove the rubbish of passions and prejudices, that he may be fitted, when ...
shrine
Doctor Oliver says that the shrine is the place where the secrets of the Royal Arch are deposited. The word is not so used in the United States of America, nor does it seem properly applicable accordi...
shryock, thomas j.
When Thomas J. Shryock died on February 3, 1918, he was in the midst of his thirty-second year as Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Maryland--almost twice the length of office held by any predecessor in hi...
side degrees
There are certain Masonic Degrees, which, not being placed in the regular routine of the acknowledged Degrees, are not recognized as a part of Ancient Freemasonry, but receive the name of Honorary or ...
sierra leone
The Grand Lodges of England and Scotland each have three Lodges in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa.
sight, making masons at
The prerogative of the Grand Master to make Freemasons at sight is described as the eighth landmark of the Order. It is a technical term, which may be defined to be the power to initiate, pass, and ra...
sign
Signs constitute that universal language of which the commentator on the Leland Manuscript was that "it is a thing rather to be wished than hoped for." It is evident, however, that such a su...
sign of assent
Brother Henry F. Berry M. A., of the Public Record Office in Ireland, discovered among the papers of Archbishop Ussher preserved in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin a complete Code of manual sig...
sign of distress
This is probably one of the original modes of recognition adopted at the revival period, if not before. It is to be found in the earliest ceremonies extant of the eighteenth century, and its connectio...
signature
Every Freemason who receives a Certificate or Diploma from a Grand Lodge is required to affix his signature in the margin, for a reason which is given under the words We Varietur, which see.
signet
A ring on which there is an impression of a device is called a signet. They were far more common among the ancients than they are among the moderns, although they are still used by many persons. Forme...
signet of zerubbabel
This is used in the American instructions of the Royal Arch Degree. It refers to a passage of Haggai (ii, 23) where God has promised that he will make Zerubbabel His signet. It has the same symbolic m...
significant word
Significant is malting a sign, from two Latin words meaning respectively make and sign. A significant word is a sign-making word, or a word that is equivalent to a sign; so the secret words used in th...
signs, universality of
Churchward, Yarker, Ward, Cockburn, and a number of other Masonic writers of their way of thinking, have made much of the fact, or at least have tried to, that "Masonic Signs" have been enco...
sijel, al
The Recording Angel of Islam
silent brotherhood
Dwellers in the Priories of Cluny and Hirsan in the eleventh century were placed under rigid discipline as to speech. Those of Cluny were the first to adopt the system of signs for daily intercommunic...
siloam inscription
An inscription accidentally discovered in 1880 by a native pupil of Schick, a German architect, who had long settled in Jerusalem. is chiseled in the rock that forms the southern wall at the channel w...
silver and gold
When Saint Peter healed the lame man whom he met at the gate Beautiful of the Temple, he said to him "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee" (Acts iii, 6); and he besto...
silver cord
In the beautiful and affecting description of the body of man suffering under the infirmities of old age given in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes, we find the expression "or ever the silver c...
simon greenleaf
"The first Brother elected an Honorary Member of the Lodge, was the distinguished jurist, SIMON GREENLEAF.
"He was born in Newburyport, Mass., December 5, 1783, and was educated at the Acad...
simonis, john w.
A tactful and native factor in the Saint Johns Grand Lodge of the Most Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons in the State of New York independently formed about 1837, and headed...
simorgh
A monstrous griffin, guardian of the Persian mysteries.
sinai
A mountain of Arabia between the horns of the Red Sea. It is the place where Moses received the Law from Jehovah, and where he was directed to construct the Tabernacle. Hence, says Lenning, the Scotti...
singapore, the founder of
With the same suddenness in which it began, the war with Japan in 1941 filled American papers, movies, and magazines with a continuing food of discussions and descriptions of islands, nations, cities,...
sir
this is the distinctive title given to the possessors of the Degrees of Masonic Knighthood, and is borrowed from the heraldic usage. The word knight is sometimes interposed between the title and the p...
siroc
The Hebrew word n . A Significant word, formerly used in the Order of High Priesthood in the United States of America. It signifies a shoelatchet, and refers to the declaration of Abraham to Melchized...
sister lodges
Lodges are so called which are in the same Masonic Jurisdiction, and owe obedience to the same Grand Lodge.
sisters by adoption
In the Lodges of the French Adoptive Rite this is the title by which the female members are designated. The female members of all androgynous, both sexes, Degrees are Sisters, as the male members are ...
sisters of the gild
The attempt of some writers to maintain that women were admitted into the Medieval Confraternities of Freemasons fails to be substantiated for want of sufficient proof. The entire spirit of the Old Co...
sit lux et lux fuit
A motto frequently used in Freemasonry, although sometimes written, Luz ftat et Luz flit, signifying Let there be light, and there was light (Genesis i, 3); the strict translation from the Hebrew cont...
situation of the lodges
A Lodge is, or ought to be, always situated due East and West, for reasons which are detailed in the articles on East and Orientation, which see.
sivan
The Hebrew word ll'D. The ninth month of the Hebrew civil year, corresponding with the months May and June, beginning with the new moon of the former.
six lights
The six lights of Symbolic Freemasonry are divided into the Greater and Lesser Lights, which see. In the American system of the Royal Arch there is no symbol of the kind, but in the English system the...
six periods
The Grand Architects' Six Period's constituted a part of the old Prestonian lecture in the Fellow Craft's Degree. It referred to the six days of creation, the six periods being the six ...
skeleton
A symbol of death. The ancient Egyptians often introduced a skeleton in their feasts to remind the revelers of the transitory nature of their enjoyments, and to teach them that in the midst of life we...
skirret
In the English system the Skirret is one of the working-tools of a Master Mason. It is an implement which acts on a center-pin, whence a line is drawn, chalked, and struck to mark out the ground for t...
skull
The skull as a symbol is not used in Freemasonry except in Masonic Templarism, where it is a symbol of mortality. Among the Articles of Accusation sent by the Pope to the Bishops and Papal Commissarie...
skull and cross-bones
They are a symbol of mortality and death, and are so used by heralds in funeral achievements. As the means of inciting the mind to the contemplation of the most solemn subjects, the skull and cross-bo...
slade, alexander
On the title page of a 32-page pamphlet, The Free Mason Examined, published at London, England, 1754, the author is given as "Alexander Slade, Late Master of Three Regular Constituted Lodges, In ...
slander
Inwood, in his sermon on Union Amongst Masons, says: "To defame our Brother, of suffer him to be defamed, without interesting ourselves for the preservation of his name and character there is sca...
slip
This technical expression in American Freemasonry, but commonly confined to the Western States, and not generally used, is of comparatively recent origin; and both the action and the word probably spr...
sloane manuscripts
There are three copies of the Old Constitutions which bear this name. All of them were found in the British Museum among the heterogeneous collection of papers which were once the property of Sir Hans...
smaragdine, tablet of hermes
The foundation of Hermetic knowledge, by an unknown author. Translated in the Oedipus Aegyptiacus.
smith, george
Captain George Smith was a Freemason of some distinction during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Although born in England, he at an early age entered the military service of Prussia, being c...
smith, william
Brother Smith published The Freemasons Pocket Companion, 1736, at London, England.
smith, wm.; his constitutions
When the Modern (first) Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania dedicated its Lodge house (Americans first Masonic building), and called "The Freemasons' Lodge," the dedication sermon was preached ...
smitten builder
The old lectures used to say "The veil of the Temple is rent, the builder is smitten, and we are raised from the tomb of transgression." Brother Hutchinson, and after him Doctor Oliver, appl...
snow, john
A distinguished lecturer on Freemasonry, who was principally instrumental in introducing the system of Webb, of whom he was a pupil, into the Lodges of the Western States. He was also a Grand Master o...
so help me god
The usual observation or imprecation affixed in modern times to oaths, and meaning, May God so help me as I keep this vow.
soane, geo., his rosicrucian theory
In his Curiosities of Literature; and Book of the Months (London; 1849), Vol. II., page 35, George Soane, a non-Mason, published one of the earliest essays in the attempt to prove that Freemasonry ori...
social character of freemasonry
Freemasonry attracts our attention as a great social Institution. Laying aside for the time those artificial distinctions of rank and wealth, which, however, are necessary in the world to the regular ...
social status of masons
The damage done by the barbarians when they devastated France and Italy in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries was in the long run not as great as was the consequence of the caste system which they rooted ...
sociology and freemasonry
In the eyes of sociology a people consists of institutions, cultural agencies, established groups, organized societies, living traditions, mores, etc. These the sociologists study, classify, and descr...
socius
The Sixth Degree of the Order of Strict Observance
sodalities
From the Latin word meaning Companion. Societies or companies of friends or companions assembled together for a special purpose. Such confraternities, under the name of Sodalitia, were established in ...
sofism
The Sofis were a mystical sect which greatly prevailed in Eastern countries, and especially in Persia, whose religious faith was supposed by most writers to embody the secret doctrine of Mohammedanism...
softas
Students in the universities of Islam
sojourners' club, the national
According to data in its own publications the National Sojourners' Club, like the Masonic Fraternity itself, is unable to put its finger on the exact place and date of its origin. More or less te...
soldiers of christ
Milites Christi is the title by which Saint Bernard addressed his exhortations to the Knights Templar. They are also called by a more complete Latin title in some of the old documents, Militia Templi ...
soli sanctissimo sacrum
Latin, meaning Sacred to the most holy Sun. Mentioned in the Twenty-eighth Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
solomon
In writing the life of King Solomon from a Masonic point of view, it is impossible to omit a reference to the legends which have been preserved in the Masonic system.
But the writer, who, with this p...
solomon's temple, builders of
In the Cooke MS, written between 1410-1450, is imbedded the oldest Masonic tradition about Solomon's Temple, w hereby is meant the oldest adopted by Masons, because the unknown author of the docu...
solomon, house of
Lord Bacon composed, in his New Atlantis, an apologue, in which he describes the Island of Bensalem--that is, Island of the Sons of Peace--and on it an edifice called the House of Solomon where there ...
solstices
The days on which the sun reaches is greatest northern and southern declination, which are June 21 and December 22. Near these days are those in which the Christian church commemorates Saint John the ...
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 ...
son of a freemason
The son of a Freemason is called a Louveteau, and is entitled to certain privileges, for which 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 k...
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 be...
sons of light
The science of Freemasonry often has received the title of Lux, or Light, to inculcate that mental and moral illumination is the object of the Institution. Hence Freemasons are often called Sons of li...
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 esoter...
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 orig...
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 bigo...
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, an...
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...
south
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 w...
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 ...
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 Provincial Grand Master by the Ear...
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 name...
sovereign
An epithet applied to certain Degrees which were invested with supreme power over inferior ones; as, Sovereign Prince of Rose Croix, which is the highest Degree of the French Rite and of some other Ri...
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...
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 S...
sovereign master
This title has two references. 1. The presiding officer in a Council of Companions of the Red Cross. He represents Darius, King of Persia. 2. The Sixtieth Degree of the Rite of Mizraim.
sovereign prince mason
A title first conferred on its members by the Council of Emperors of the East and West.
spain
Anderson says (see Constitutions, second edition, page 194) that a Deputation was granted by Lord Coleraine, Grand Master, in 1728, for constituting a Lodge at Madrid; another in 1731, by Lord Lovell,...
spartacus
The characteristic name assumed by Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Order of the Illuminati.
speakers bureau
The Educational Committees of American Grand Lodges which maintain Speakers Bureaus for convenience of their Lodges employ such methods as their needs require or their circumstances allow, methods the...
speculative freemasonry
The lectures of the Symbolic Degrees instruct the neophyte in the difference between the Operative and the Speculative divisions of Freemasonry. They tell him that "we work in Speculative Masonry...
speculative masonry, early
The Masonic Fraternity writes its own history as it goes along in the form of Minutes and Proceedings. Unfortunately, it is not an easy history to read, nor convenient, nor is it furnished with an ind...
speculative-2
The word Speculative is used by Freemasons in its primary sense as symbolic, or theoretical, when opposed to Operative. The Matthew Cooke Manuscript transcribed about 1400 A. D. from an earlier origin...
spencer manuscript
A manuscript copy of the Old Charges of the date of 1726, which belonged to the late Brother Richard Spencer and was sold in 1875 to Enoch T. Carson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and with his library, after B...
spes mea in deo est
A Latin motto meaning: My hope is in God. The motto of the Thirty-second Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
speth, george william
English Freemason, a founder of Quatuor Coronati Lodge and the first Secretary. He originated the Correspondence Circle of that Lodge. This eminent Brother was born in 1847, was initiated in the Lodge...
spire, congress of
Spire is a city in Bavaria, on the banks of the Rhine, and the seat of a Cathedral which was erected in the eleventh century A Masonic Congress was convoked there in 1469 by the Grand Lodge of Strasbu...
spiritual temple
The French Freemasons say: "We erect temples for virtue and dungeons for vice"; thus referring to the great Masonic doctrine of a spiritual temple. There is no symbolism of the Order more su...
spiritualizing
In the early lectures of the eighteenth century, this word was used to express the method of Symbolic instruction applied to the impalements of Operative Masonry. In a ritual of 1725, it is said: &quo...
spratt, edward
Editor of an Irish edition of Anderson's Constitutions of 1738, published at Dublin, 1751. He was Grand Secretary to the Grand Lodge of Ireland.
spreading the ballot
Taking the vote on the application of a candidate for initiation or admission. It is an Americanism, principally developed in the Western States. Thus: "The ballot may be spread a second time in ...
sprengseisen, christian friedrich kessler von
An ardent adherent of Von Hund and admirer of his Templar system, in defense of which, and against the Spiritual Templarism of Starck, he wrote, in 1786, the book, now very rare, entitled Anti Saint N...
spurious freemasonry
For this term, and for the theory connected with it, we are indebted to Doctor Oliver, whose speculations led him to the conclusion that in the earliest ages of the world there were two systems of Fre...
spurs
In the Orders of Chivalry, the slurs had a Symbolic meaning as important as their practical use was necessary. "To win one's spurs" was a phrase which meant "to win one's righ...
square
This is one of the most important and significant Symbols in Freemasonry. As such, it is proper that its true form should be preserved. French Freemasons have almost universally given it with one leg ...
square and compass fraternity
A college fraternity of Masons with less rigid requirements than its sister fraternity, The Acacia, the Square and Compass began as a college club in Washington and Lee University; after its transform...
square and compasses
These two symbols have been so long and so universally combined-- to teach us, as says an early instruction, "to square our actions and to keep them within due bounds," they are so seldom ...
square, triangle and circle
Visitors to English Chapters of the Royal Arch will recall that there is a peculiar use of these geometrical figures in "firing," the ceremonious unity of all present in recognizing a toast ...
squaremen
The Companies of Wrights, Slaters, etc, in Scotland, in the seventeenth century, were called squaremen They had ceremonies of initiation and a word, sign, and grip, like the Freemasons. Brother Lyon (...
squaremen, corporation of
The Corporation of Squaremen was originally an Operative Lodge held in Ayr and formed one of the number which constituted the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Minutes were kept but the Minute-Book was lost wh...
squin de flexian
A recreant Templar, to whom with Noffodei and, as some say, another unknown person, is attributed the invention of the false accusations upon which were based the persecutions and the downfall of the ...
sruti
A Hindu word meaning Revelation. A collective name of those Sanskrit writings supposed by the Hindus to have been revealed by a deity, and applied at first only to the Vedic Mantras and Brahmanas, but...
st. albans, earl of
Anderson (Constitutions, 1738, page 101) says, and, after him, Preston, that a General Assembly of the Craft was held on December 27, 1663, by Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, Grand Master, who appoi...
st. clair of rosslyn
One of the most curious episodes in the history of Freemasonry occurred at the time of the founding of the Grand Lodge of Scotland in 1736 when William St. Clair of Rosslyn (or Rossline, or Roslin) te...
st. domingo
Sato Domingo. One of the principal islands of the West Indies. Freemasonry was taken there at an early period in the eighteenth century.
Rebold ( History of Three Grants Lodgers, page 687) said in 17...
st. germain
A town in France, about ten miles from Paris, where James II established his Court after his expulsion from England, and where he died. Doctor Oliver says (Historical Landmarks ii, page 28), and the s...
st. helena
An island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Lodges have been chartered from time to time by English authority at James Town, St. Helena. Several-early ones became extinct and the first to be successful was...
st. johns' and york masons
In England, Scotland, and Ireland at the beginning of the first Grand Lodge in 1717 there was an unknown but comparatively large number of Lodges and Masons called generally St. Johns'. St. Johns...
staff
A white staff is the proper insignia of a Treasurer. In the order of Profession for laying a foundation-stone as given by brother Preston (Illustrations, 1792 editions page lll), we find "Grand t...
stamps, masonic postage
In the early days of governmental and other mail delivery systems postmasters (note the master in that word !) used whatever cancellation device they might personally devise, one of the commonest bein...
stand to and abide by
Tile Covenant of Freemasonry requires every Freemason "to stand to and abide by" the Laws and Regulations of the Order, whether expressed in the Edicts of the Grand Lodge, the By- laws of hi...
standard
An ensign in war, being that under which the soldiers stand or to which they rally it's the fight. It is sometimes used in the higher Degrees, in connection with the word Bearer, to denote a part...
standard-bearer
An Cheer in a Commandery of Knights Templar, whose duty it is to carry and protect the Standard of the Order. A similar officer exists in Several of the higher Degrees.
star
In the French and Scottish Rites lighted candles or torches are called stars when used in some of the ceremonies, especially in the reception of distinguished visitors, where the number of lights or s...
star and garter
The reference in the Ritual to "golden fleece" and to "the Roman eagle" continues to be a puzzle in the archeology of words.
Lionel Vibert, with whom most will agree, wrote that &...
star in the east
The Blazing Star is thus called by those who entertain the theory that there is "an intimate and necessary connection between Masonry and Christianity." This doctrine, which Doctor Oliver th...
star of jerusalema
Degree cited in the nomenclature of Fustier
star of the syrian knight
In French, Etoile des Chevaliers Syriens. The Order of Syrian Knights of the Star is contained in the collection of Pyron. It is divided into three Degrees--Novice, Professed, and Grand Patriarch.
starck, johann august von
J. A. von Starck, whose life is closely connected with the history of German Freemasonry, and especially with that of the Rite of Strict Observance, was born at Schwerin, October 29, 1741. He studied ...
stare super vias anti quas
Latin expression, meaning To stand on the ancient paths. An adage, appropriately applied as a Masonic motto to inculcate the duty of adhering to the ancient landmarks.
state
The political divisions of the United States have been called States and Territories. In every State and in every populous Territory there was established a Grand Lodge and a Grand Chapter, each of wh...
stations
The positions occupied by the subordinate officers of a Lodge are called Places, as "the Junior Deacon's place in the Lodge." But the positions occupied by the Master and Wardens are ca...
statutes
The permanent rules by which a subordinate Lodge is governed are called its By-Laws; the regulations of a Grand Lodge are called its Constitution: but the laws enacted for the government of a Supreme ...
statutes relating to freemasons
The laws of England have never contained more than a few references to the Masonic Order. It has been assumed that a Statute of 1425 (3 Henry VI, chapter i) referred to Freemasons. This Statute forbid...
steinmetz
German, meaning a stone-mason. For an account of the German Fraternity of Steinmetzen (see Stone-Masons of the Middle Ages).
stellato sedet solo
Latin, meaning He sits on his starry throne. A symbolic expression in the Twenty-eighth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
step
The Step can hardly be called a mode of recognition, although Apuleius informs us that there was a peculiar step in the Osiriac initiation which was deemed a sign (see Sign). It is in Freemasonry rath...
steps on the master's carpet
The three steps delineated on the Master's Carpet, as one of the symbols of the Third Degree, refer to the three steps or stages of human life--youth, manhood, and old age. This symbol is one of ...
sterkin
One of the three Assassins, according to the Hiramic legend of some of the advanced Degrees. Lenning says the word means vengeance, but does not state his authority. Str are the letters of the Chaldai...
stewards
The officers in a Symbolic Lodge, whose duties are, to assist in the collection of dues and subscriptions; to provide the necessary refreshments, and make a regular report to the Treasurer; and genera...
stewards' lodge
The Maryland Constitution of 1794 provided for a committee of five Brethren, one the Grand Master, to be Stewards of the Grand Charity Fund. Regulations adopted in 1799 gave this committee, or Steward...
stirling
A city in Scotland which was the seat of a Lodge called the Stirling Ancient Lodge, which the author of the introduction to the General Regulations of the Supreme Grand Chapter of Scotland says confer...
stockings
In the eighteenth century, when krlee-breeches constituted a portion of the eostulne of gentlemen, Freemasons were required, by a ritualistic regulation, to wear white Stockings. The fashion having ex...
stone
The stone, on account of its hardness has been from the most ancient times a symbol of strength, fortitude, and a firm foundation. The Hebrew word Eben, which signifies a stone, is derived, by Geseniu...
stone manuscript
This manuscript is no longer in existence, having been one of those which was destroyed, in 1720, by some too scrupulous Brethren. Brother Preston (1792 edition, page 167), described it as "an ol...
stone of foundation
The Stone of foundation constitutes one of the most important and abstruse of all the symbols of Freemasonry. It is referred to in numerous legends and traditions not only of the Freemasons, but also ...
stone pavement
Doctor Oliver says that, in the English system, "the stone pavement is a figurative appendage to a Master Masons' Lodge, and, like that of the Most Holy Place in the Temple, is for the High ...
stone, annapolis the
Dr. Charles T. Jackson, Boston, a geologist, discovered this stone in 182T, on the Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia. It was a slab of trap-rock, and was inscribed with the Square and Compasses and the dat...
stone, rejected
Saint Matthew records (xxi, 42) that our Lord said to the Chief Priests and Elders, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the...
stone, white
Among the ancient Greeks and Romans, sentence was given in courts of judicature by white and black stones or pebbles. Those who were in favor of acquittal cast a white stone, and those who were for co...
stone, william leete
An American journalist and writer, who was born in the State of New York in 1792, and died in 1844. He was the author of several literary works, generally of a biographical character. But his largest ...
stone-masons of the middle ages
The history of the origin and progress of the Brotherhood of Stone Masons in Europe, during the Middle Ages, is of great importance, as a study, to the Masonic scholar, because of the intimate connect...
stonsworship
This was, perhaps, the earliest form of fetishism. Before the discovery of metals, men were accustomed to worship unhewn stones. From China, whom Sanchoniathan calls the first Phenician, the Canaanite...
straits settlements
A crown colony of Great Britain, situated in the East Indies, on anel off the Malay Peninsula, comprising Singapore, Labuan, Penang, the Dindings, Province Wellesley, Malacea, and a number of small is...
strasburg, cathedral of
This has always been considered as one of the finest Gothic buildings in Europe. The original cathedral was founded in 504, but in 1007 it was almost completely destroyed by lightning. The present edi...
strasburg, congresses of
Two important Masonic Congresses have been held at Strasburg. First Congress of Strasburg. This was convoked in 1275 by Erwin von Steinbach. The object was the establishment of a Brotherhood for the c...
strasburg, constitutions of
On April 25, 1459, nineteen Bauhtten, or Lodges, in Southern and Central Germany met at Ratisbon, and adopted regulations for the government of the German Stone-Masons. Another meeting was held shortl...
strength
This is said to be one of the three principal supports of a Lodge, as the representative of the whole Institution, because it is necessary that where should be Strength to support and maintain every g...
strict observance, rite of
The Rite of Strict Observance was a modification of Freemasonry based on the Order of Knights Templar, and introduced into Germany in 1754 by its founder, the Baron von Hund. It was divided into the f...
striking off
Striking off a Lodge from the Registry of the Grand Lodge is a phrase of English Freemasonry, equivalent to what in the United States of America is called a Forfeiture of Charter. It is now more commo...
stuart masonry
This title is given by Masonic historians to that system of Freemasonry Which is supposed to have been invented by the adherents of the exiled House of Stuart for the purpose of being used as a politi...
students and librarians, conferences of
The Grand Lodge Commission in Edueation, Grand Lodge of Michigan, M.-. W.. Frank Lodge, P. G. M., Chairman, held a discussion conference at Detroit, Mich., of Masonic students, authors, and Librarians...
stukely, doctor
In accordance with the Doctor's diary, he "was made a Mason, January 6, 1721, at the Salutation Tavern, Tavistock street, London, with Mr. Collins and Captain Rowe, who made the famous divin...
subject-matter, and masonic history
Subject-matter is itself a subject, profound and profoundly interesting, and it is hard to guess why philosophers, literary critics, art critics, and historians have so seldom analyzed and examined it...
sublime
The word is from the Latin Sublimis, meaning lofty, an allusion properly expressive of the teaching in the final symbolic ceremony of our ancient Craft. The Third Degree is called the Sublime Degree o...
sublime degrees
The eleven Degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, from the Fourth to the Fourteenth inclusive, are so called. Thus Dalcho (Report of Committee, 1802) says: "Although many of the Subli...
sublime grand lodge
A title formerly given in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite to what is now simply called a Lodge of Perfection. Thus, in 1801, Doctor Dalcho delivered in Charleston, South Carolina, an address wh...
sublime knight elected
The French expression is Sublime Chevalier lu. Called also Sublime Knight Elected of the twelve. The Eleventh Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Its legend is that it was instituted by ...
sublime masons
The initiates into the Fourteenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite are so called. Thus Dalcho in his Oration (page 27) says: "The Sublime Masons view the symbolic system with reve...
sublime prince of the royal secret
This is the Thirty-second Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. There is abundant internal evidence, derived from the ritual and from some historical facts, that the Degree of Sublime Prin...
sublime solomon
The French name is Salomon Sublime. A Degree in the manuscript collection of Peuvret.
sublimes. the
The French name is Les Sublimes One of the Degrees of the Ancient Chapter of Clermont.
submission
Submission to the mediatorial offices of his Brethren in the ease of a dispute is a virtue recommended to the Freemason, but not necessarily to be enforced. In the Charges of a Freemason (Constitution...
subordinate lodge
So called to indicate its subordination to the Grand Lodge as a supreme, superintending power (see Lodge) .
subordinate officers
In a Grand Lodge, all the officers below the Grand Master, and in a Lodge, all those below the Worshipful Master, are styled Subordinate Officers. So, too, in all the other branches of the Order, the ...
subordination
Although it is the theory of Freemasonry that all the Brethren are on a level of equality, yet in the practical working of the Institution a subordination of rank has been always rigorously observed. ...
substitute candidate
An arrangement resorted to in the Royal Arch Degree of the American system, so as to comply preform, as a matter of form, with the requisitions of the ritual. In the English, Scotch, and Irish systems...
substitute grand master
The third officer in the Grand Lodge of Scotland. He presides over the Craft in the absence of the Grand and Deputy Grand Masters. The office was created in the year 1738, He is appointed by the Grand...
substitute word
This is an expression of very significant suggestion to the thoughtful Master Mason. If the Word is, in Freemasonry, a symbol of Divine Truth; if the search for the Word is a symbol of the search for ...
succession to the chair
The regulations adopted in 1721 by the Grand Lodge of England have been generally esteemed as setting forth the ancient landmarks of the Order But certain regulations, which were adopted on the 25th o...
succoth
An ancient city of Palestine, about forty-five miles northeast of Jerusalem, and the site of which is now occupied by the village of Seikoot. lt is the place near which Hiram Abif cast the sacred vess...
sufferer
In French, Souffrant. The Second Degree of the Order of Initiated Knights and Brothers of Asia.
suger, the abbot
Though he held the title of Abbot, Suger was scarcely to be called a monk but like so many prelates in his period, and because almost the only means for an education were controlled by the church, was...
sullivan, john
General under Washington in the Revolutionary War. Born February 18, 1740, died January 23, 1795. Lawyer by profession, delegate to Continental Congress, 1774, also in 1780; attorney general of New Ha...
sullivan, sir arthur seymour
An English composer and Freemason. Born May 13 1842, in Condone and died November 22, 1900, in the same city. brother Sullivan studied in the London Royal Academy of Music and the Leipsig Conservatory...
summons
A warning to appear at the meeting of a Lodge or other Masonic body. The custom of summoning the members of a Lodge to every Communication, although now often neglected, is of very ancient Aaron and w...
sun
Hardly any of the symbols of Freemasonry are more important in their signification or more extensive in their application than the sun. As the source of material light, it reminds the Freemason of tha...
sun of mercy, society of the
Of this Society little is known, but Antoine Joseph Pernetty, the presumed author of the Twenty-eighth Degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, became a devotee to it, and induced Swedenborg to bec...
sun, moon, and stars
The plates prefixed to the Hieroglyphic Chart of Brother Jeremy Cross contain a page on which are delineated a sun, moon, seven stars, and a comet, which has been copied into the later illustrated edi...
sun-worship
Sir William Jones has remarked that two of the principal sources of mythology were a wild admiration of the heavenly bodies, particularly the sun, and an inordinate respect paid to the memory of power...
super-excellent masons
Doctor Oliver devotes the fifteenth lecture of his Historical Landmarks (volume I, pages 401 to 438) to an essay "On the number and classification of the Workmen at the building of King Solomon&a...
super-excellent master
A Degree which was originally an honorary or side Degree conferred by the Inspectors- General of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Charleston. It has since been introduced into some of the Roy...
super-masonic
Ragon (Ortodoxie Maonique, page 73) calls the advanced Degrees, as being beyond Ancient Craft Masonry, Grades Super Maonniques
superintendent of works, grand
An officer of the Grand Lodge of England, who is appointed annually by the grants Master. He should be well skilled in geometry and architecture His duty is to advise with the Board of General Purpose...
superior
The Sixth and last Degree of the German Union of the Twenty-two
supplanting
All the Old Constitutions, without exception, contain a charge against one Fellow supplanting another in his work. Thus, for instance, the third Charge in the Harleian Manuscript, number 1054, says: &...
supports of the lodgers
The symbolism connected with the Supports of the lodge is one of the earliest and most extensively prevalent in the Order One of the Catechisms of the eighteenth century gives it in these words:
What...
supreme authority
The supreme authority in Freemasonry is that dogmatic power from whose decisions there is no appeal. At the head of every Rite there is a supreme authority which controls and directs the acts of all s...
supreme commander of the stars
The title in French is Supreme Commardeur des Astres. A Degree said to have been invented at Geneva in 1779, and found in the collection of M. A. Viany.
supreme consistory
In French, the title is Supreme Cosisistore. The title of some of the highest Bodies in the Rite of Mizraim. In the original construction of the Rite at Naples the meanders of the Ninetieth Degree met...
supreme council
The Supreme Masonic authority of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is called a Supreme Council. A Supreme Council claims to derive the authority for its existence from the Constitutions of 1786. ...
supreme councils, ancient and agcepted scottish rite
These Councils are organized in almost every country of the world, a number being under royal patronage, and in some nations are the governing power over all existing Freemasonry. A synoptical history...
surinam or dutch guiana
A country in South America. In 1767 or 1769 there was a Lodge La Vertueuse at Batavia where also was instituted La Fidele Sincrit in 1771. La Vertueuse flourished long as No. 8, De Ster in het Oosten,...
suspension
This is a Masonic punishment, which consists of a temporary deprivation of all the rights and privileges of Freemasonry. There are two kinds, delfrlite and indefinite; but the effect of the penalty, f...
sussex, duke of
The Duke of Sussex is entitled to a place in Masonic biography, not only because, of all the Grand Masters on record, he held the office the longest--the Duke of Leinster, of Ireland, alone excepted--...
swastika, the
The swastika easily is the most universal and also the most ancient of symbolic devices. In form it has been of so many types that no line can be drawn between the swastika properly so called and what...
sweden
Freemasonry was first introduced to Sweden in the year 1735, when Count Axel Eric Wrede Sparre, who had been initiated in Paris, established a Lodge at Stockholm. Of this Lodge scarcely anything is kn...
swedenborg
Emanuel Swedenborg, a distinguished theologian of his age, and the founder of a sect which still exists, has been always mythically connected with Freemasonry. The eagerness is indeed extraordinary wi...
swedenborg, rite of
The so-called Rite of Swedenborg, the history of whose foundation has been given in the preceding article, consists of six Degrees:
1. Apprentice. 2. Fellow Craft. 3. Master Neophyte. 4. Illuminated ...
swedish rite
The Swedish Rite was established about the year 1777, and is indebted for its existence to the exertions and influence of King Gustavus III. It is a mixture of the pure Rite of York, the high Degrees ...
sword
The sword is in chivalry the ensign or symbol of knighthood. Thus Monstrelet says: "The sons of the Kings of France are knights at the font of baptism, being regarded as the chiefs of Knighthood ...
sword of state
Among the ancient Romans, on all public occasions, a Lictor, one of the guards or officers attending the chief Roman Magistrates, carried a bundle of rods, sometimes with an ax inserted among them, be...
sword pointing to the naked heart
Thomas Smith Webb says that "the sword pointing to the naked heart demonstrates that justice will, sooner or later, overtake US." The symbol is a modern one; but its adoption was probably su...
sword, templar's
According to the regulations of the Grand Encampment of the United States the sword to be worn by the Knight Templar must have a helmet head or pommel a cross handle, and a metall scabbart. The length...
sword, tiler's
In modern times the implement used by the Tiler is a sword of the ordinary form. This is incorrect. Formerly, and indeed up to a comparatively recent period, the Tiler's sword was wavy in shape, ...
sword-bearer
An officer in a Commandery of Knights Templar. His station is in the West, on the right of the Standard-Bearer, and when the knights are in line, on the right of the second division. His duty is to re...
sword-bearer, grand
Subordinate officer, who is found in many Grand Lodges. Doctor Anderson says, in the second edition of the Constitutions (page 127), that in 1731 the Duke of Norfolk, being then Grand Master, presente...
sworn brothers
In Latin, Fratres jurati. It was the custom in the Middelle Ages for Soldiers, and especially knights, when going into battle, to engage each other by reciprocal oaths to share the rewards of victory ...
syllable
To pronounce the syllables, or only one of the syllables, of a Sacred Word, such as a name of God, was among the Orientalists considered far more reverent than to give to it in all its Syllables a ful...
symbol
A symbol is defined to be a visible sign with which a spiritual feeling, emotion, or idea is connected. It was in this sense that the early Christians gave the name of symbols to all rites, ceremonies...
symbol of glory
In the old lectures of the eighteenth century, the Blazing Star was called "the glory in the center" because it was placed in the centre of the Floor-Cloth or Tracing-Board, and represented ...
symbol, compound
In Doctor Mackey's work on the symbolism of Freemasonry, he has given this name to a species of symbol that is not unusual in Freemasonry, where the symbol is to be taken in a double sense, meani...
symbolic degrees
The first three Degrees of Freemasonry, namely, those of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, are known, by way of distinction, as the Symbolic Degrees. This term is never applied to th...
symbolic freemasonry
The Freemasonry that is concerned with the first three Degrees in all the Rites. This is the technical meaning. But in a more general sense, Symbolic Freemasonry is that Masonry, wherever it may be fo...
symbolic ladder of mithras
In the Mysteries of Brahma we find the same reference to the ladder of seven steps. The names of these were not different, and there was the same allusion to the symbol of the universe. The seven step...
symbolic lectures
The lectures appropriated to the First, Second, and Third Degrees are sometimes called Symbolic Lectures; but the term is more properly applied to any lecture which treats of the meaning of Masonic sy...
symbolic lodge
A Lodge of Master Masons, with the Fellow Craft and Apprentice Lodge worked under its Constitution, is called a Symbolic Lodge, because in it the Symbolie Degrees are conferred (see Symbolic Degrees)....
symbolic machinery
Machinery is a term employed in epic and dramatic poetry to denote some agency introduced by the poet to serve some purpose or accomplish some event. Faber, in treating of the Apocalypse, speaks of &q...
symbols, masonic
A symbol is some object, design, device, etc., which signifies or suggests some truth, idea, cause, ideal, etc.; what it is in itself is unimportant, because it is not used to call attention to itself...
syndication of lodges
A term used in France, in 1773, by the Schismatic Grand Orient during its contests with the Grand Lodge, to denote the fusion of several Lodges into one. The word was never introduced into English Fre...
synod of scotland
In 1757, the Associate Synod of Seceders of Scotland adopted an Act, concerning what they called the Mason Oath, in which it is declared, that all persons who shall refuse to make such revelations as ...
syria
A country of Asia Minor lying on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. To the Freemason, it is associated with the legendary history of his Order in several interesting points, especially in refere...
syrian rite
A religious seet which had its origin in Syria, and which was anciently comprehended in the Patriarchates of Antioch and of Jerusalem. It was an exceedingly flourishing system. Before the end of the f...
system
Lenning defines a system of Freemasonry to be the doctrine of Freemasonry as exhibited in the Lodge government and Lodge work or ritual. The definition is not, perhaps, satisfactory. In Freemasonry, a...
systyle
An arrangement of columns in which the intercolumniation or separation is equal to the diameter of the column.
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