More mangled Hebrew

I just found a perfect example of the type of Pseudo-Hebrew writing I wrote about a while ago. This was in the form of the Past High Priest's jewel (in York Rite).

First, here's how it's supposed to look:



And, here is the version that I found. Remember, all three words are supposed to say the same thing!

Geometry

I discovered this while doodling deliriously late at night. I was trying to come up with a system that used shapes instead of numbers. Let's go through the steps together.

What would a no sided polygon be? A dot is the closest thing that we can come to.

Now what shape has only one side? A circle, of course.

Next comes two sides. This would necessarily be two points with lines between them in a curve. This could be a football shape, or a crescent moon. We will go with the football shape, as it is symmetrical.

Next, a three sided polygon - a triangle, of course.

If you don't see where I'm going with this yet, hang on. What if we draw these together one at a time?
the point:

within a circle,

bordered by two lines (although turned from their usual position)

placed in a triangle,

thus creating the eye of God through Geometry.

Seven years in only one day!

Back when lodges were operational, it may have taken a candidate seven years to move from an Entered Apprentice to Fellowcraft, and some never reached the status of Master or beyond.

Today, things (usually) move much quicker. For one, the candidate no longer needs to know how to actually build things out of stone. But, sometimes we might go a little too fast. How fast is too fast?

Below I have included some clips from Danny Kaye's 'The Court Jester' for your enjoyment.



What is the purpose of the 'tests' or other requirements that the candidate presented with? While we might not want to wait seven years before receiving our second degree, is a few minutes, or even an hour enough time to reflect on something that really only happens once?

2B1ASK1 taken to a different plane

What if the masonic practice of refusing to ask anyone to be a mason, whether friend, neighbor or passing stranger was applied to other areas of life?

On my other blog, I wrote a lengthy musing on the topic of the right of a child to be able to choose their path for life without pressure from parents to be just like they are.

What if as a parent, you could not even hint at requesting or expecting your child to belong to the same church or other organizations that you do? I wish I knew the answer to that. I personally think less of your children would do what you do, but they would be more dedicated to it. Perhaps about the same as the sons of masons who join the lodge.

What would happen if it were switched around, and your children were all 'forced' to join DeMolay and Job's Daughters? And then when they were older, they were mightily expected to join the Lodge / Eastern Star. What would that do to the Lodge? Is it similar to how your church is currently running?

These are all interesting questions.

oh ... just for the record, I think the 2B1ASK1 thing is dorky :-)

Pseudo Hebrew

I was looking at the coin of this year's Grand What-cha-ma-call-it of Royal Arch, and thought .. huh, this would make a great post.

Perhaps I'll get a photo of the coin up sometime, until then, you all can use your imagination. In the center of the coin, was an Ark of the Covenant, and inscribed on it were some squiggles. I think they were supposed to be the hebrew letters for the name of God, or YHVH. Well, even if you don't know how to read the hebrew alphabet, you would be able to tell that they were really just squiggles in the general shape of the letters.

This phenomenon is fairly widespread in Freemasonry, below is an example from a Knights Kadosh Hieroglyph and the emblem for the 25th degree.





Generally, the Scottish Rite regalia isn't as divergent as the K.K. hieroglyph. But unfortunately, the hieroglyphic example is a much better representation of what the hebrew letters turn into after a few renditions. Here's a comparison between a line in the hieroglyph and what they were copying:



To give you a better idea of what I am talking about, following example is of my name written in a style typical of hebrew (or other) characters written by someone who does not know and use the alphabet.



And, this is the equivalent of what was written on the Grand Archer's coin:



As you can see, if you really squint and strain your eyes, you can tell that the last example says Sophia, but probably not at first glance.

Now, before all you gentlemen are saddened or offended (I hope not!) that I am insulting those who founded modern masonry because they had little knowledge in the forming of hebrew characters: let me assure you, they were hardly alone! Judaism, along with the Greeks and other ancient civilizations have been quite the fad with the type of people who would form masonry off and on throughout the centuries.

The Alchemists, the whole of renaissance magic, Masonry, Mormonism, 19th century Protestants and so on. They all created artifacts with hebrew characters on them with more or less accuracy (usually less).

Discrepancies creep in when one person copies genuine characters, and another copies that and another copies that until the text is unreadable.

My point though is this, If the craft is to be preserved, fidelity to the meaning must be maintained. You are using words and symbols which were (hopefully) carefully chosen for their symbolic meaning. If, over the years you allow these words to become distorted, then what will there be for the younger generation to learn? The secrets of many ancient cultures were lost this way, through the slow corruption of well meaning adherents who did not understand what they had, or what they stood for.

The Ashlar's Wife

As a follow up to the Broken Ashlar post, what do you do if the wife of a mason, otherwise a great man happens to be ... less than desirable?

Perhaps you all know of a woman who came in and cheated, stole, lied and generally killed off all of the appendant bodies that she was allowed into? If you do not, let me inform you, they do exist!

I would like to exhort all of the existing members of appendant bodies to examine and inquire into the morality and character of the wives of masons (or children) before letting them join. I fear that these organizations are so starved for members that they are willing to lower their standards in order to fill the ranks.

Of course, I have my own opinion on that! I believe that these groups should be open to all woman, girls and boys of good moral standing, regardless of the random chance that they would be related to a mason. If the Lodge is suffering from a lack of new members, these other bodies are doubly so, as they have a much smaller pool to dip from. Many wonderful candidates are being left out in the cold only because of the chance of birth. This seems to be contrary to the stated ideals of universal brotherhood.

Woman Fellowcrafts

Renaissance Adventures recently posed a question about the gender of a couple fellowcrafts [here]. I answered it, and it was reposted on the said blog.

Check it out!