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w (entry a)

The twenty-third letter of the English alphabet, which originated in the Middle Ages, is a double V, and is peculiar to the English, German, and Dutch alphabets.

w (entry b)

An abbreviation of Worshipful, of Wrest, of Warden, and of Wisdom .

waechter, eberhard, baron von

Lord of the Chamber to the King of Denmark, and Danish Ambassador at Ratisbon; was born in 1747. He was at one time a very active member of the Rite of Strict Observance, where he bore the characteris...

wages

The whole period of the Middle Ages in England was in one aspect of it a struggle of barbarism against civilization, but on the question of wages it would be paying them a tribute to describe them as ...

wages of operative masons

In all the Old Constitutions praise is given to Saint Alban because he raised the wages of the Freemasons. Thus the Edinburgh-Kilwinning Manuscript says: "Saint Albans loved Masons well and cheri...

wages of the workmen at the temple

Neither the Seriptures, nor Josephus, give us any definite statement of the amount of wages paid, nor the manner in which they were paid, to the workmen who were engaged in the erection of King Solomo...

wahabites

A Mohammedan sect, established about 1740, dominant through the greater part of Arabia. Their doctrine was reformatory, to bring back the observances of Islam to the literal precepts of the Koran. Mec...

waite, arthur edward

Arthur Edward Waite: A Check list of his Writings, by Harold V. B. Voorhis, privately printed; Red Bank, New Jersey; 1932, is an exhaustive but not wholly complete list of works possessed by Voorhis o...

wales

The earliest Lodges in Wales were two at Chester and one at Congelton, all three established in 1724, and Doctor Anderson records that Grand Master Inchiquin granted a Deputation, May 10, 1727, to Hug...

wales, princes of

From 1737 no less than nineteen princes of Great Britain and Ireland have been admitted as Freemasons, four being Princes of Wales: Frederick Lewis, 20th Prince of Wales, was initiated at the Palace ...

wallace keaton manuscript

Brother Wallace Keaton of London in 1926 discovered this manuscript, of the period from 1695 to 1715, which bears his name and is now possessed by the Grand Lodge of England. A description of it by br...

wallace, general lewis

American writer and soldier in the Mexican and Civil Wars. Corn April 10, 1827; died February 15, 1905. Member of Montgomery Lodge No. 50, Crawfordsville, Indiana (see New Age Magazine, February,1924)...

wallers as masons

Operative Freemasonry had in the large a uniform system of organization, grades, customs, but this is a generalization against which must be charged a long list of exceptions or provisoes, and it is n...

wanamaker, john

Famous American merchant, giving employment in two stores to more than 12,000 people. Born July 11, 1838; died December 12, 1922. U. S. Postmaster-General, 1889-93. He was made a Freemason "at si...

wandering scholars, minstrels, etc.

Even as early as the Twelfth Century there were a few universities in Europe, and by the Thirteenth these had grown to such a number, including Oxford and Cambridge in England, and also in size (one o...

wands

Doctor Oliver, under this title in his Dictionary, refers to the three scepters which, in the Royal Arch system of England, are placed in a triangular form beneath the canopy in the East, and which, b...

war and freemasonry

In the Middle Ages a "war" was a personal or family quarrel, with small forces officered by a few knights and composed of retainers and peasants. In the period of the Renaissance, armies wer...

war ii, world, and freemasonry in europe

After he declared a world-wide war on Freemasonry Pope Leo XIII set up the headquarters of his international anti-Masonic bureaus in France, in 1896, as described on another page of this Supplement in...

war relief association, masonic

An early organized Body inspired by Brother William B. Melish, Cincinnati, Ohio, who during the World War, November 14, 1914, to June 1, 1920, collected $140,011 29 for the relief of widows and orphan...

war, freemasonry in

The question how Freemasons should conduct themselves in time of war, when their own country is one of the belligerents, is an important one. Of the political Course of a Freemason in his individual a...

wardens

In every Symbolic Lodge, there are three principal officers, namely, a Master, a Senior Warden, and a Junior Warden. This rule has existed ever since the revival, and for some time previous to that ev...

warder

The literal meaning of Warder is one who keeps watch and ward. In the Middle Ages, the Warder was stationed at the gate or on the battlements of the castle, and with his trumpet sounded alarms and ann...

warlike instrument

In the ancient initiations, the aspirant was never permitted to enter on the threshold of the Temple in which the Ceremonies were conducted until, by the most solemn warning, he had been impressed wit...

warrant of constitution

The Document which authorizes or gives a Warrant to certain persons therein named to organize and constitute a Lodge, Chapter, or other Masonic Body, and which ends usually with the formula, "for...

warren, general joseph

Grand Master of Massachusetts from December 27, 1759, to June 17, 1775, a statesmen of foresight and judgment, President of the Provincial Congress and Major General in the Revolutionary War. Born Jun...

washington

Washington was separated from Oregon by Act of Congress on March 2, 1853. There were at the time four chartered Lodges in the new Territory, all of which gave allegiance to Oregon, namely, Olympia, No...

washington at charles town

To the data in the article on George Washington beginning at page 1093 should be added the tradition that he once attended and presided over Lodge meetings held in a cavern at Charles Town, W. Va. Thi...

washington memorial

The full name is The George Washington Masonic National Memorial and this is also the title of a pamphlet by Brother Louis Arthur Watres, Past Grand Master of Pennsylvania, and President of the George...

washington, a mark mason

Norton Sketch of the Lodge of Antiquity, A. F. V. A. M., I. G. R. C., by J. Beamish Saul, Past Master, Past D. D. G. M. (Montreal, 1903), quotes on page 8 a letter from Lieutenant Colonel W. Lacy, who...

washington, congress of

A Congress of American Freemasons was convoked at the City of Washington, in the year 1822, at the call of several Grand Lodge, for the purpose of recommending the establishment of a General Grand Lod...

washington, george.

Born at Bridges Creek, Westmorland County, Virginia, February 22, 1732, of the present calendar, but February 11, 1731/2 of the birth record and on December 14, 1799, he died at Mount Vernon, Fairfax ...

watchwords

Used in the Thirty-second Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite because that Degree has a military form, but not found in other Degrees of Freemasonry.

waterfall

Used in the Fellow Craft's Degree as a symbol of plenty, for which Doctor Mackey held the word waterford is sometimes improperly substituted (see Shibboleth). * WAYFARING MAN A term used in t...

wayne, general anthony

Born at East town, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1745, died at Erie, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1796. A surveyor in native State and in Nova Scotia, he recruited and led a Pennsylvanian regiment in the Ame...

weary

in toasts in Masonic Lodges in the East at that time. There is a monument over his grave, placed there by the Grand Lodge."

weary sojourners

Spoken of in the American legend of the Royal Arch as three of the captives who had been restored to liberty by Cyrus, and, after sojourning or remaining longer in Babylon than the main body of their ...

webb, thomas smith

No name in Freemasonry is more familiar to the American Freemason than that of Webb, who is generally credited with being really the inventor and founder of the system sf work which, under the appropr...

webb-preston work

The title given by Doctor Rob Morris to a system of lectures which he proposed to introduce, in 1859, into the Lodges of the United States, and in which he was partly successful. He gave this name to ...

wedekind george christian gottlieb baron von

A German physician and Professor of Medicine at Metz, and a medical writer of reputation. He was born at Gttingen, January 8, 1761. As a Freemason, he was distinguished as a member of the Eclectic Uni...

weeping virgin

The Weeping Virgin with disheveled hair, in the Monument of the Third Degree used in the American Rite, is interpreted as a symbol of grief for the unfinished state of the Temple. Jeremy Cross, who is...

weishaupt, adam

He is celebrated in the history of Freemasonry as the founder of the Order of Illuminati of Bavaria, among whom he adopted the characteristic or Order name of Spartacus. He was born in February 6, 174...

welcome

In the American instructions, it is said to be the duty of the Senior Deacon "to welcome and clothe all visiting Brethren." That is to say, he is to receive them at the door with all courtes...

well formed, true, and trusty

A formula used by the Grand Master at the laying of a Corner-stone. Having applied the Square, Level, and Plumb to its different surfaces and angles, he declares it to be "well formed, true, and ...

wellington, duke of

The Hero of Waterloo, and the renowned, General, was initiated in Lodge No. 494, Ireland, about December, 1790. Brother Hedley Williams, of Hastings (England), has just presented to the Wellington Lod...

wesley, reverend john

On many occasions the claim has been made that John Wesley, born June 17, 1703, died March 2, 1791, founder of Methodism, was a member of a Lodge at Downpatrick, Ireland. These assertions were careful...

wesley, samuel

At one time the most distinguished organist of England, and called by Mendelssohn "the father of English organ-playing." He was initiated as a Freemason on December 17, 1788, and in 1812, th...

west

Although the West, as one of the four Cardinal Points, holds an honorable position as the station of the Senior Warden, and of the pillar of Strength that supports the Lodge, yet, being the place of t...

west australia

A state of the Commonwealth of Australia. Saint John Lodge, No. 712, was established at Perth in 1842. In all eight Hodges were formed of which only one became extinct. They reported direct to the Gra...

west indies, the

When George III was confronted by the possibility of rebellion in his Thirteen American Colonies he was for a long time undecided whether to let those Colonies go by default in order to maintain hold ...

westcott, william wynn

Born on December 17, 1848, he was an orphan at ten years of age, trained by a bachelor uncle, a surgeon. He obtained the diplomas of the College of Surgeons and of the Society of Apothecaries at twent...

westminster and keyston

The name of the third of the three oldest warranted Lodges in England, having been chartered in 1722. The first is Friendship, No. 6, and the second the British, No. 8. Those assembling without Warran...

westphalia, secret tribunals of

The Vehmgerichte, or Fehmgerichte, were secret criminal Courts of Westphalia in the Middle Ages. The origin of this institution, like that of Freemasonry has been involved in uncertainty. The true mea...

wheat

An emblem of plenty under the name of Corn (see Corn, Wine, and Oil).

white

White is one of the most ancient as well as most extensively diffused of the symbolic colors. It is to be found in all the ancient Mysteries, where it constituted, as it does in Freemasonry, the inves...

white ball

In Freemasonry, equivalent to a favorable or affirmative vote. The custom of using white and black balls seems to have been derived from the Romans, who in the earlier days of the Republic used white ...

white cross knights

A title sometimes applied to the Knights Hospitaler of Saint John, from the color of their cross. Porter (History of the Knighis of Malta i, page 166) says: "Villiers hastily assembled a troop of...

white mantle, order of the

The Teutonic Knights were so denominated in allusion to the color of their cloaks, on which they bore a black cross.

white masonry

The French term is Manonnerie blanches A title given by French writers to Female Freemasonry, or the Freemasonry of Adoption.

white shrine of jerusalem, order of

Founded by Charles D. Magee, at Chicago, Illinois, in 1894. The Order comprises both men and women, who must be members in good standing of the Order of the Eastern Star. The White Shrine was not reco...

white stone

A symbol in the Mark Degree referring to the passage in the Apocalypse (ii 17) "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a ...

white, william

Father of William Henry White, which see. He was Grand Secretary of the Moderns, with James Heseltine, from November 1, 1780, and was sole Grand Secretary for many years following 1784. May 9, 1810, h...

white, william henry

Distinguished for his services to the Craft of England, whom he served as Grand Seeretary for the long period of forty-seven years. He was the son of William White, who was also Grand Secretary of the...

widow's son

In Ancient Craft Masonry, the title applied to Hiram, the architect of the Temple, because he is said, in the first Book of Kings (vu, 14) to have been "a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtal...

widow, sons of the

A Society founded in the third century, by a Persian slave, Manes, who had been purchased and adopted by a widow. It consisted of two Degrees, Auditor and Elut. The expression is also frequent in some...

wilhelmsbad, congress of

At Wilhelmsbad, near the city of Hanau in Hesse-Cassel, was held the most important Masonic Gongress of the eighteenth century. It was convoked by Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, Grand Master of the Ord...

will

In some of the Continental Rites, and in certain advanced Degrees, it is a custom to require the recipiendary to make, before his initiation, a will and testament, exhibiting what are his desires as t...

william i, emperor of germany

Born 1797, died 1888. An honorary member of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and Protector of Freemasonry in Germany, his son, the Crown Prince, later Emperor Frederick III, being Deputy-Protector.

william iv, king of england

Raised a Freemason on March 9, 1786, in Lodge No. 86, Plymouth, England (see New Age, March, 1925).

wilson manuscript

In the marginal notes to the ManiJesto of the Lodge of Antiquity, published in 1778, there is reference to an "O. (probably meaning old or original) Manuscript in the hands of Mr. Wilson of Broom...

wilson, gavin

Poet, published some Masonic songs in 1788

wilson, stephen barton

Masonic Ritualist. Head of Emulation Lodge of Improvement, London, thirty years; Junior Grand Deacon in 1857; died, 1866.

wind, mason's

Among the Masonic tests of the eighteenth century was the question, "How blows a Mason's wind?" and the answer was, "Due East and West." Browne gives the question and answer m...

winding stairs

In the First Book of Kings (vi, 8) it is said: "The door for the Middle Chamber was in the right side of the house; and they went up with winding stairs into the Middle Chamber, and out of the mi...

winding stairs, legend of the

Doctor Mackey says that he formerly so fully investigated the true menmllg of the Legend of the Winding Stairs, as taught in the Degree of Fellow Craft, that he could later find nothing to add to what...

window

A piece of furniture in the Mark Degree. It is a mere symbol, having no foundation in truth, as of record there was no such appendage to the Temple. Of course windows are mentioned in the Bible as in ...

wings of the cherubim, extended

The candidate in the Degree of Royal Master of the American Rite is said to be received "beneath the extended wings of the cherubim." The expression is derived from the passage in the First ...

wisconsin

From a speech made by Henry S. Baird on December 17, 1854, it is known that a meeting was held December 27, 1823, to organize a Lodge at Green Bay, then in Michigan. In response to a petition the Gran...

wisdom

In Ancient Craft Masonry, Wisdom is symbolized by the East, the place of light, being represented by the pillar that there supports the Lodge and by the Worshipful Master. It is also referred to King ...

withdrawal of petition

It is a law of Freemasonry in the United States of America that a petition for initiation having been once presented to a Lodge, cannot be withdrawn. It must be subjected to a ballot. It must be submi...

wolf

In the Egyptian Mysteries, the candidate represented a wolf and wore a wolf's skin, because 08iris once assumed the form of that animal in his contests with Typhon. In the Greek mythology, the wo...

wolfenbuttel, congress of

A city of Lower Saxony, in the principality of Wolfenbuttel, and formerly a possession of the Duke of Brunswick. In 1778 Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, convoked a Masonic Congress there, with a view of...

wolfgang, albert, prince of lippeschaumberg

Born in 1699, died in 1748. One of the Masonic circle whom Frederick the Great favored and sought at times to meet.

woman

The law which excludes women from initiation into Freemasonry is not contained in the precise words in any of the Old Constitutions, although it is continually implied, as when it is said in the Lansd...

woodford manuscript

A manuscript formerly in the possession of one of England's most esteemed Freemasons, Rev. A. F. A. Woodford, editor of Kenning's Cyclopedia of Freemasonry. Brother Hughan says it is almost ...

woodford, adolphus frederick alexander

The oldest son of Field Marshal Sir Alexander Woodford, born on July 9, 1821. He became a Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, and three years later studied for the Church at Durham University, was or...

woof, richard

Wrote Sketch of the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, wilh Notes on the Masonic Templars, London, 1865, and was Provincial Senior Grand Warden of Worcestershire...

woog, carl christian

Born at Dresden in 1713, and died at Leipsic, April 24, 1771. Mossdorf says that he was, in 1740 a resident of London, and that there he was initiated into Ancient Craft Masonry, and also into the Sco...

wooster, major general david

Born at Stratford, Connecticut, March 2, 1710. Aide to George Washington in the American Revolution and a Freemason, having joined the Fraternity in 1745. He was founder and first Master of Hiram Lodg...

word

When emphatically used, the expression, the Word, is in Freemasonry always referred to the Third Degree, although there must be a word in each Degree. In this latter and general sense, the Word is cal...

word, mason

In the minutes and documents of the Lodges of Scotland during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, the expression Mason word is constantly used. This continuous use would indicate tha...

word, sacred

A term applied to the chief or most prominent word of a Degree, to indicate its peculiarly sacred character, in contradistinction to a password, which is simply intended as a mode of recognition. It i...

word, true

Used as the contradistinction to Lost Word and the Substitute Word. To find it, is the object of all Masonic search and labor. For as one Lost Word is the symbol of death, the True Word is the symbol ...

work, master of the

An architect or superintendent of the building of an edifice. Du Cange Glossarium, thus defines it: "Magister operis vet operarum outgo, mattre de l'oeurre, cui operibus publicis vacare incu...

working-tools

In each of the Degrees of Freemasonry, certain implements of the Operative Art are consecrated to the Speculative Science, and adopted to teach as symbols lessons of morality. With these the Speculati...

workmen at the temple

We have no historical book, except the meager details in the Books of Kings and Chronicles, of the number or classification of the workmen at the Temple of Solomon. The subject has, however, afforded ...

works, grand superintendent of

A Grand Lodge Officer, an architect by profession, entrusted with the duties to report "on the state of repair of the edifices of the Grand Lodge and make such further reports from time to time a...

workshop

The French Freemasons call a Lodge an atelier, literally, a workshop, or as Boiste defines it, "a place where Craftsmen work under the same Master."

world

The Lodge is said to be a symbol of the world. Its form--an oblong square, whose greatest length is from east to west--represents the shape of the inhabited world according to the theory of the ancien...

worldly possessions

In the English lectures of Doctor Hemming, the name 'Tubal Cain is said "to denote worldly possessions," and hence Tubal Cain is adopted in that system as the symbol of worldly possessi...

worldly wealth

Partial clothing is, in Freemasonry, a symbol teaching the aspirant that freemasonry regards no man on account of his worldly wealth or honors; and that it looks not to his outward clothing, but to hi...

worship

Originally, the term "to worship" meant to pay that honor and reverence which are due to one who is worthy. Thus, where our authorized version translates Matthew xix, 19, "Honor thy fat...

worshipful

A title applied to a Symbolic Lodge and to its Master. The Germans sometimes use the title Hochwurdig. The French style the Worshipful Master Venerable, and the Lodge, Respectable. In the seventeenth ...

worshipful master, death of

When the Master dies, the Senior Warden, or in his absence the Junior Warden, acts as Master in summoning the Lodge. The Senior Warden presides if present and, if not, then the Junior Warden. In Engla...

worshipful, most

The prevailing title of a Grand Master and of a Grand Lodge.

worshipful, right

The prevailing title of the elective officers of a Grand Lodge below the Grand Master. * WORSHIPFUL, VERY A title used by certain of the Grand Officers of the Grand Lodge of England.

wound, mason's

Nicolai, in the appendix to his Essay on the Accusations against the Templars, says that in a small dictionary, published at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the following definition is to be ...

wren's manuscript

On the Brotttne's Manuscript, owned by Brother W. J. Hughan, there is an endorsement stating that the original was found amongst the papers of Sir Christopher Ntren. Brother Hughan has tried to t...

wren, sir christopher

One of the most distinguished architects of England was the son of Dr. Christopher Wren, Rector of East Knoyle in Wiltshire, and was born there October 20, 1632. He was entered as a Gentleman Commoner...

wrestle

A Degree sometimes called the Mark a Link, or Wrestle. It was formerly connected with the Mark Degree in England. Its ceremonies were founded on the passage in Genesis xxxii,

wright, rev. james, d.d.

Grand Chaplain of ,Scotland, author of 21 Recommendation of Brotherly Love, 1786.

writing

The law Which forbids a Freemason to commit to writing the esoteric parts of the ritual has been exemplified in some English and American Lodges by a peculiar ceremony; but the usage is not universal....

wyclif as anti-mason

John Wyclif was born in 1320, and died in 1384. His name is spelled in a score of forms; the one here used was adopted by the Wyelif Society. He was a power in his own day and has been famous since, b...

wykeham, william of

Bishop of Winchester. Born at Wykeham, in Hampshire, in 1324, and died in 1404. He was eminent both as an ecclesiastic and statesman. In 1359, before he reached the episcopate, Edward III appointed hi...

wyoming

The first Masonic meeting held in Wyoming was of an informal nature and took place on the top of Independence Roek, Natrona County, on July 4,1862, at sunset. Several trains of immigrants had arrived ...

wyseacre

The Leland Manuscript, referring to Pythagoras, says that "wynnynge entraunee yn al Lodges of Maconnes, he lerned muche and retournedde and woned yn Grecia Magna wachsynge, and beeommynge a might...
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