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CAABA or KAABAArabic word Ka'abah for cubic building. The square building or temple in Mecca. More especially the small cubical oratory within, held in adoration by the Mohammedans, as containing the black stone said to have been given by an angel to Abraham. The inner as well as the outer structure receives its name from Ka'ab, meaning cube (see Allah). |
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This word is frequently written Kabbala, which see.
The mystical philosophy or theosophy of the Jews is called the Cabala. The word is derived from the Hebrew Kabal, signifying to receive, because it is the doctrine received from the elders. It has sometimes been used in an enlarged sense, as comprehending all the explanations, maxims, and ceremonies which have been traditionally handed down to the Jews; but in that more limited acceptation, in which it is intimately connected with the symbolic science of Freemasonry, the Cabala may be defined to be a system of philosophy which embraces certain mystical interpretations of Scripture, and metaphysical and spiritual beings. In these interpretations and speculations, according to the Jewish doctors, were enveloped the most profound truths of religion, which, to be comprehended by finite beings, are obliged to be revealed through the medium of symbols and allegories.
Buxtorf (Lexicon of the Talmud) defines the Cabala to be a secret science, which treats in a mystical and enigmatical manner of things divine, angelical, theological, celestial, and metaphysical; the subjects being enveloped in striking symbols and secret modes of teaching. Much use is made of it in the advanced degrees, and entire Rites have been constructed on its principles. Hence it demands a place in any general work on Freemasonry.
In what estimation the Cabala is held by Jewish scholars, we may learn from the traditions which they teach, and which Doctor Ginsburg has given in his exhaustive work ( Kabbalah, page 84) in the following words:
The Cabalah was first taught by God himself to a select company of angels, who formed a theosophic school in Paradise. After the Fall, the angels most graciously communicated this heavenly doctrine to the disobedient child of earth, to furnish the protoplasts with the means of returning to their pristine nobility and felicity. From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their philosophical systems.
Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initiated into it in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. By the aid of this mysterious science, the lawgiver was enabled to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites, in spite of the pilgrimages, wars, and the frequent miseries of the nation. He covertly laid down the principles of this secret doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld them from Deuteronomy.
This constitutes the former the man, and the latter the woman. Moses also initiated the seventy elders into the secrets of this doctrine, and they again transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and Solomon were first initiated into the Cabalah. No one, however, dared to write it down till Simon ben Jochai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple. Having been condemned to death by Titus, Rabbi Simon managed to escape with his son, and concealed himself in a cavern, where he remained for twelve years. Here in this subterranean abode, he occupied himself entirely with the contemplation of the sublime Cabalah, and was constantly visited by the prophet Elias, who disclosed to him some of its secrets, which were still concealed from the theosophical Rabbi. Here, too, his disciples resorted to be indicated by their master into these divine mysteries, and here Simon ben Jochai expired with this heavenly doctrine in his mouth, whilst discoursing on it to his disciples. Scarcely had his spirit departed, when a dazzling light filled the cavern, so that no one could look at the Rabbi; whilst a burning fire appeared outside, forming as it were a sentinel at the entrance of the cave, and denying admittance to the neighbors. It was not till the light inside, and the fire outside, had disappeared, that the disciples perceived that the lamp of Israel was extinguished.
As they were preparing for his obsequies, a voice was heard from heaven, saying, "Come ye to the marriage of Simon ben Jochai; he is entering into peace, and shall rest in his chamber!" A flame preceded the coffin, which seemed enveloped by and burning like fire. And when the remains were deposited in the tomb, another voice was heard from heaven, saying, "This is he who caused the earth to quake and the kingdoms to shake!" His son, Rabbi Eliezer, and his secretary, Rabbi Abba, as well as his disciples, then collated Rabbi Simon ben Jochai's treatises, and out of these composed the celebrated work called Sohar, that is, Splendor, which is the grand storehouse of Cabalism.
The Cabala is divided into two kinds, the Practical and the Theoretieal. The Practical Cabala is occupied in instructions for the construction of talismans and amulets, and has no connection with Masonic science.
The Theoretical Cabala is again divided into the Dogmatic and the Literal. The Dogmatic Cabala is the summary of the rabbinical theosophy and philosophy.
The Literal Cabala is the science which teaches a mystical mode of explaining sacred things by a peculiar use of the letters of words, and a reference to their value. Each of these divisions demands a separate attention.
The origin of the Cabala has been placed by some scholars at a period posterior to the advent of Christianity, but it is evident, from the traces of it which are found in the Book of Daniel, that it arose at a much earlier day. It has been supposed to be derived originally from the system of Zoroaster, but whether its inventors were the contemporaries or the successors of that philosopher and reformer it is impossible to say. The doctrine of emanation is, says King (Gnostics, page 10), "the soul, the essential element of the Cabala; it is likewise the essential element of Zoroastrism". But as we advance in the study of each we will find important differences, showing that, while the idea of the Cabalistic theosophy was borrowed from the Zendavesta, the sacred book of the Persian sage, it was not a copy, but a development of it.
The Cabalistic teaching of emanation is best understood by an examination of the doctrine of the Sephiroth. The Supreme Being, say the Cabalists, is an absolute and inscrutable unity, having nothing without him and everything within him. He is called, En Soph, meaning the Infinite one. In this infinitude he cannot be comprehended by the intellect, nor described in words intelligible by human minds, so as to make his existence perceptible. It was necessary, therefore, that, to render himself comprehensible, the En Soph should make himself active and creative. But he could not become the direct creator; because, being infinite, he is without will, intention, thought, desire, or action, all of which are qualities of a finite being only. The En Soph, therefore, was compelled to create the world in an indirect manner, by ten emanations from the infinite light which he was and in which he dwelt.
These ten emanations are the ten Sephiroth, or Splendors of the Infinite One, and the way in which they were produced was thus:
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At first the En Soph sent forth into space one spiritual emanation. This first Sephirah is called
Kether, meaning the Crown, because it occupies the highest position. This first Sephirah contained within it the other nine, which
sprang forth in the following order: From the junction of Wisdom and Intelligence came the fourth Sephirah, called Chesed or Mercy. This was a male potency, and from it emanated the fifth Sephirah, named Giburah or Justice. The union of Mercy and Justice produced the sixth Sephirah, Tiphereth or Beauty; and these three constitute the second triad. From the sixth Sephirah came forth the seventh Sephirah, Nitzach or Firmness. This was a male potency, and produced the female potency named Hod or Splendor. From these two proceeded Isod or Foundation; and these three constituted the third triad of the Sephiroth. Lastly, from the Foundation came the tenth Sephirah, called Malcuth or Kingdom, which was at the foot of all, as the Crown was at the top. This division of the ten Sephiroth into three triads was arranged into a form called by the Cabalists the Cabalistic Tree or the Tree of Life, as shown in the diagram. In this diagram the vertical arrangement of the Sephiroth is called Pillars. Thus the four Sephiroth in the center are called the Middle Pillar; the three on the right, the Pillar of Mercy; and the three on the left, the Pillar of Justice. |
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They allude to these two qualities of God, of which the benignity of the one modifies the rigor of the other, so that the Divine Justice is always tempered by the Divine Mercy. C.W. King, in his Gnosties (page 12), refers the right-hand pillar to the pillar Jachin, and the left-hand pillar to the Pillar Boaz, which stood at the porch of the Temple; and "these two pillars", he says, "figure largely amongst all the secret societies of modem times, and naturally so for these Illuminati have borrowed, without understanding it, the phraseology of the Cabalists and the Valentinians". But an inspection of the arrangement of the Sephiroth will show, if he is correct in his general reference, that he has transposed the pillars. Firmness would more naturally symbolize Boaz or strength, as Splendor would Jachin or Establishment.
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These ten Sephiroth are collectively denominated the archetypal man, the Microcosm, as the Greek philosophers called it, and each of them refers to a particular part of the body. Thus the Crown is the head; Wisdom, the brain; and Intelligence, the heart,which was deemed the seat of understanding. These three represent the intellectual; and the first triad is therefore called the Intellectual World. Mercy is the right arm, and Justice the left arm, and Beauty is the chest. These three represent moral qualities; and hence the second triad is called the Moral World. Firmness is the right leg, Splendor the left leg, and Foundation the privates. These three represent power and stability; and hence the third triad is called the Material World. Lastly, Kingdom is the feet, the basis on which all stand, and represents the harmony of the whole archetypal man. Again, each of these Sephiroth was represented by a Divine name and by an Angelic name, which may be thus tabulated:
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These ten Sephiroth constitute in their totality the Atzilatic World or the World of Emanations, and from it proceeded three other worlds, each having also its ten Sephiroth, namely, the Briatic World or the World of Creation; the Jetziratic World or the World of Formation; and the Ashiatic World or the World of Action: each inhabited by a different order of beings.
But to enter fully upon the nature of these various worlds would carry us too far into the obscure mysticism of the Cabala. The ten Sephiroth, represented in their order of ascent from the lowest to the highest, from the Foundation to the Crown, forcibly remind us of the system of Mystical Ladders which pervaded all the ancient as well as the modern initiations; the Brahmanical Ladder of the Indian mysteries; the Ladder of Mithras, used in the Persian mysteries; the Scandinavian Ladder of the Gothic mysteries, and in the Masonic mysteries the Ladder of Kadosh; and lastly, the Theological Ladder of the Symbolical Degrees.
This division of the Cabala, being, as has already been said, occupied in the explanation of sacred words by the value of the letters of which they are composed, has been extensively used by the inventors of the advanced degrees in the symbolism of their significant words. It is divided into three species:
Gematria, Notaricon, and Temura.
The word, which is evidently a rabbinical corruption of the Greek geometric, is defined by Buxtorf to be "a species of the Cabala which collects the same sense of different words from their equal numerical value. "The Hebrews, like other ancient nations, having no figures in their language, made use of the letters of their alphabet instead of numbers, each having a numerical value. Gematria, is therefore, a mode of contemplating words according to the numerical value of their letters.
Any two words, the letters of which have the same numerical value, are mutually convertible, and each is supposed to contain the latent signification of the other.
Thus the words in Genesis xlix, 10, "Shiloh shall come", are supposed to contain a prophecy of the Messiah, because the letters of "Shiloh shall come", and of "Messiah", both have the numerical value of 358.
By Gematria, applied to the Greek language, we find the identity of Abraxas and Mithras, the letters of each word having in the Greek alphabet the equal value of 365. This is by far the most common mode of applying the literal Cabala.
is derived from the Latin notarius a shorthand writer or writer in cipher. The Roman Notarii were accustomed to use single letters, to signify whole words with other methods of abbreviation, by marks called notae. Hence, among the Cabalists, notaricon is a mode constructing one word out of the initials or finals of many, or a sentence out of the letters of a word, each letter being used as the initial of another word. Thus of the sentence in Deuteronomy xxx, 12, "Who shall go up for us to heaven?" in Hebrew, the initial letters of each word are taken to form the word circumcision, and the finals to form Jehovah; hence it is concluded that Jehovah hath shown circumcision to be the way to heaven.
Again: the six letters of the first word in Genesis, "in the beginning", are made use of to form the initials of six words which constitute a sentence signifying that "In the beginning God saw that Israel would accept the law".
is a rabbinical word which signifies permutation. Hence temura is a Cabalistic result produced by a change or permutation of the letters of a word.
Sometimes the letters are transposed to form another word, as in the modern anagram; and sometimes the letters are changed for others, according to certain fixed rules of alphabetical permutation, the first letter being placed for the twenty-second the second for the twenty-first, the third for the twentieth, and so on. It is in this way that Babel, is made out of Sheshach, and hence the Cabalists say that when Jeremiah used the word Sheshach, xxv, 26, he referred to Babel.
A degree found in the archives of the Mother Lodge of the Philosophical Rite of France.
A group of minor Greek, deities (the name signifying great Gods) having the protection of sailors and vessels at sea. Worshipped at Lemnos, Samothrace, Thessalia, Bocotia, etc., as early as the fifth century. Initiation into their mysteries portrayed passage through death to a higher life. Many of the ancient deities believed to have been members of the Cabiri such as Pluto, proserpine, Mercury, the sons of Vulcan, the sons of Jupiter, etc. (see An Encyclopedia of occultism, Lewis Spence, New York, 1920, page 83).
The Cabiri were gods who's worship was first established in the island of Samothrace, where the Cabiric Mysteries were practiced. The gods called the Cabiri were originally two, and afterward four, in number, and are supposed by Bryant (Analysis of Ancient Mythology, iii, 342) to have referred to Noah and his three sons, the Cabiric Mysteries being a modification of the arkite worship.
In these mysteries there was a ceremony called the "Cabiric Death", in which was represented amid the groans and tears and subsequent rejoicing of the initiates, the death and restoration to life of Cadmillus, the youngest of the Cabiri. The legend recorded that he was slain by his three Brethren, who afterward fled with his virile parts in a mystic basket. His body was crowned with flowers, and was buried at the foot of Mount Olympus. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the legend as the sacred mystery of a brother slain by his brethren, or in the original as frater trucidatus à fratribus.
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There is much perplexity connected with the subject of these mysteries, but it is generally supposed that they were instituted in honor of Atys, the son of Cybele or Demeter, of whom Cadmillus was but another name. According to Macrobius, Atys was one of the appellations of the sun, and we know that the mysteries were celebrated at the vernal equinox. They lasted three days, during which they represented in the person of Atys, or Cadmillus, the enigmatical death of the sun in winter, and his regeneration in the spring. In all probability, in the initiation, the candidate passed through a drama, the subject of which, was the violent death of Atys. The Cabiric Death was, in fact, a type of the Hiramic, and the legend, so far as it can be understood from the faint allusions of ancient authors, was very analogous in spirit and design to that of the Third Degree of Freemasonry. Many persons annually resorted to Samothrace to be initiated into the celebrated mysteries, among whom are mentioned Cadmus, Orpheus, Hercules, and Ulysses. Jamblichus says, in his Life of Pythagoras, that from those of Lemnos that sage derived much of his wisdom. The mysteries of the Cabiri were much respected among the common people, and great care was taken in their concealment. The priests made use of a language peculiar to the Rites. The mysteries were in existence at Samothrace as late as the eighteenth year of the Christian era, at which time the Emperor Germanicus embarked for that island, to be initiated, but was prevented from accomplishing his purpose by adverse winds. |
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The word tow signifies, properly, a line wherewith to draw. Richardson (Dictionary) defines it as "The word is purely Masonic, and in some writings of the early part of the eighteenth century we find the expression cable rope". Prichard so uses it in 1730. The German word for a cable or rope is kabeltauw, and thence our cable tow is probably derived.
In its first inception, the cable tow seems to have been used only as a physical means of controlling the candidate, and such an interpretation is still given in the Entered Apprentice's Degree. But in the Second and Third Degrees a more modern symbolism has been introduced, and the cable tow is in these grades supposed to symbolize the covenant by which all Freemasons are tied, thus reminding us of the passage in Hosea (xi, 4), "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love".
Gädieke says that, "according to the ancient laws of Freemasonry, every brother must attend his Lodge if he is within the length of his cable tow". The old writers define the length of a cable tow, which they sometimes called a cable's length, to be three miles for an Entered Apprentice. But the expression is really symbolic, and as it was defined by the Baltimore Convention in 1842, means the scope of a man's reasonable ability.
A district containing twenty cities which Solomon gave to Hiram, King of Tyre, for his assistance in the construction of the Temple. Clark (Commentary and Critical Notes) thinks it likely that they were not given to Hiram so that they should be annexed to his Tyrian dominions, but rather to be held as security for the money which he had advanced.
This, however, is merely conjectural. The district containing them is placed by Josephus in the northwest part of Galilee, adjacent to Tyre. Hiram does not appear to have been satisfied with the gift; why, is uncertain. Kitto thinks because they were not situated on the coast. A Masonic legend says because they were ruined and dilapidated villages, and in token of his dissatisfaction, Hiram called the district Cabul. The meaning of this word is not known. Josephus, probably by conjecture from the context, says it means unpleasing. Hiller and, after him, Bates (Dictionary) suppose that the name is derived from a combination of letters meaning as and nothing. The Talmudic derivation from "tied with fetters", is described by Brother Mackey as Talmudically childish. The dissatisfaction of Hiram and its results constitute the subject of the legend of the Degree of Intimate Secretary in the Scottish Rite.
The author of the celebrated work entitled Le Tombeau de Jacques de Molay, which was published at Paris, in 1796, and in which he attempted, like Barmel and Robison, to show that Freemasonry was the source and instigator of all the political revolutions which at that time were convulsing Europe. Cadet-Gassicourt was himself the victim of political persecution, and, erroneously attributing his sufferings to the influences of the Masonic Lodges in France, became incensed against the Order, and this gave birth to his libelous book. But subsequent reflection led him to change his views, and he became an ardent admirer of the Institution which he had formerly maligned. He sought initiation into Freemasonry, and in 1805 was elected as Master of the Lodge l'Abeille in Paris. He was born at Paris. January 23, 1769, and died in the same city November 21, 1821.
The youngest of the Cabiri, and as he is slain in the Cabiric Mysteries, he becomes the analogue or representative of the Builder in the legend of Freemasonry.
The Caduceus was the magic wand of the god Hermes. It was an olive staff twined with fillets, which were gradually converted to wings and serpents. Hermes, or Mercury, was the messenger of Jove. Among his numerous attributes, one of the most important was that of conducting disembodied spirits to the other world, and, on necessary occasions, of bringing them back. He was the guide of souls, and the restorer of the dead to life.
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Thus, Horace, in addressing him, says:
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And Statius, imitating this passage, makes the same allusion in his Thebaid (1, 314), thus translated by Lewis:
He grasps the wand which draws from hollow graves,
Or drives the trembling shades to Stygian waves;
With magic power seals the watchful eye
In slumbers soft or causes sleep to fly.
The history of this Caduceus, or magic wand, will lead us to its symbolism. Mercury, who had invented the lyre, making it out of the shell of the tortoise, exchanged it with Apollo for the latter's magical wand. This wand was simply an olive branch around which were placed two fillets of ribbon. Afterward, when Mercury was in Arcadia, he encountered two serpents engaged in deadly combat. These he separated with his wand; hence the olive wand became the symbol of peace, and the two fillets were replaced by the two serpents, thus giving to the Caduceus its well-known form of a staff, around which two serpents are entwined.
Such is the legend; but we may readily see that in the olive, as the symbol of immortality, borne as the attribute of Mercury, the giver of life to the dead, we have a more ancient and profounder symbolism. The serpents, symbols also of immortality, are appropriately united with the olive wand. The legend also accounts for a later and secondary symbolism - that of peace.
The Caduceus then - the original meaning of which word is a herald's staff - as the attribute of a life-restoring God, is in its primary meaning the symbol of immortality; so in Freemasonry the rod of the Senior Deacon, or the Master of Ceremonies, is but an analogue or representation of the Hermean Caduceus. This officer, as leading the aspirant through the forms of initiation into his new birth or Masonic regeneration, and teaching him in the solemn ceremonies of the Third Degree the lesson of eternal life, may well use the magic wand as a representation of it, which was the attribute of that ancient deity who brought the dead into life.
Latin. A builder of walls, a mason, from caemantum, a rough, unhewn stone as it comes from the quarry. In medieval Latin, the word is used to designate an Operative Mason.
Du Cange cites Magister Caementariorum as used to designate him who presided over the building of edifices, that is, the Master of the works. It has been adopted by some modern writers as a translation of the word Freemason. Its employment for that purpose is perhaps more correct than that of the more usual word latomus, which owes its use to the authority of Thory.
Of all the Masonic persons of romantic celebrity who flourished in the eighteenth century the Count Cagliostro was most prominent, whether we consider the ingenuity of his schemes, the extensive field of his operations through almost every country of Europe, or the distinguished character and station of many of those whose credulity made them his enthusiastic supporters.
The history of Freemasonry in that century would not be complete without a reference to this personage. To write the history of Freemasonry in the eighteenth century and to leave out Cagliostro, would be like enacting the play of Hamlet and leaving out the part of the Prince of Denmark. And yet Carlyle has had occasion to complain of the paucity of materials for such a work.
Indeed, of one so well known as Cagliostro comparatively little is to be found in print. Doctor Mackey held that there was sufficient published to prove him to be a "charlatan" and a "prince of Masonic impostors".
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The authorities on which Brother Mackey rested his belief are mentioned in his following sentence. The only works upon which he who would write his life must depend are a Life of him published in London, 1787; Memoirs, in Paris, 1786; and Memoirs Authentiques, Strasbourg, 1786; a Life, in Germany, published at Berlin, 1787; another in Italian, published at Rome in 1791; and a few fugitive pieces, consisting chiefly of manifestoes of himself and his disciples. The widest differences exist among writers as to Cagliostro's true standing, the majority following the lead of Doctor Mackey, whose account is appended. Joseph Balsamo, subsequently known as Count Cagliostro, was the son of Peter Balsamo and Felicia Braconieri, both of mean extraction, and was born on the 8th of June, 1743, in the city of Palermo. Upon the death of his father, he was taken under the protection of his maternal uncles, who caused him to be instructed in the elements of religion and learning, by both of which he profited so little that he eloped several times from the Seminary of St. Roch, near Palermo, where he had been placed for his instruction. |
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At the age of thirteen he was carried to the Convent of the Good Brotherhood at Castiglione. There, having assumed the habit of a novice, he was placed under the tuition of the apothecary, from whom he learned the principles of chemistry and medicine. His brief residence at the convent was marked by violations of many of its rules; and finally, abandoning it altogether, he returned to Palermo. There he continued his vicious courses, and was frequently seized and imprisoned for infractions of the law. At length, having cheated a goldsmith, named Marano, of a large amount of gold, he was compelled to flee from his native country.
He then repaired to Messina, where he became acquainted with one Altotas, who pretended to be a great chemist. Together they proceeded to Alexandria in Egypt, where, by means of certain chemical, or perhaps rather by financial, operations, they succeeded in collecting a considerable amount of money.
In 1776 Cagliostro appeared in London. During this visit, Cagliostro become connected with the Order of Freemasonry. In the month of April he received the degrees in Esperance Lodge, No. 289, which then met at the King's Head Tavern. Cagliostro did not join the Order with disinterested motives, or at least he determined in a very short period after his initiation to use the Institution as an instrument for the advancement of his personal interests. Here he is said to have invented, in 1777, that grand scheme of imposture under the name of Egyptian Freemasonry, by the propagation of which he subsequently became so famous as the great Masonic charlatan of his age.
London did not fail to furnish him with a fertile field for his impositions, and the English Freemasons seemed no way reluctant to become his dupes; but, being ambitious for the extension of his Rite, and anxious for the greater income which it promised, he again passed over to the Continent, where he justly anticipated abundant success in its propagation. This Egypt Freemasonry constituted the great pursuit of the rest of his life, and was the instrument which he used for many years to make dupes of thousands of credulous persons.
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During Cagliostro's residence in England, on his last visit, he was attacked by the editor Morand, in the Courier de l'Europe, in a series of abusive articles, to which Cagliostro replied in a letter to the English people. But, although he had a few Egyptian Lodges in London under his government, he appears, perhaps from Morand's revelations of his character and life, to have lost his popularity, and he left England permanently in May, 1787. He went to Savoy, Sardinia, and other places in the south of Europe, and at last, in May, 1789, by an act of rash temerity, proceeded to Rome, where he organized an Egyptian Lodge under the very shadow of, the Vatican. But this was more than the Church, which had been excommunicating Freemasons for fifty years, was willing to endure. On the 27th of December of that year, on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, to whom he had dedicated his Lodges, the Holy Inquisition arrested him, and locked him up in the castle of San Angelo. |
There, after such a trial as the Inquisition is wont to give to the accused - in which his wife is said to have been the principal witness against him - he was convicted of having formed "societies and conventicles of Freemasonry". His manuscript entitled Maçonnerie Egyptienne was ordered to be burned by the public executioner, and he himself was condemned to death; a sentence which the Pope subsequently commuted for that of perpetual imprisonment. Cagliostro appealed to the French Constituent Assembly, but of course in vain.
Thenceforth no more is seen of him. For four years this adventurer, who had filled during his life so large a space in the world's history - the associate of princes, prelates, and philosophers; the inventor of a spurious Rite, which had, however, its thousands of disciples - languished within the gloomy walls of the prison of St. Leo, in the Duchy of Urbino, and at length, in the year 1795, in a fit of apoplexy, bade the world adieu. But there is another side to the foregoing account by Doctor Mackey. Some more recent writers have seriously questioned the identity of Cagliostro and Balsamo.
Both Trowbridge and Spence deem the later evidence to have proven that Cagliostro was not Balsamo. Lewis Spenee sums up the situation thus in his Encyclopedia of Occultism after a lengthy review of the various assertions of the authorities and the test of them by the ascertained facts:
"It is distinctly no easy matter to get at the bedrock truth regarding Cagliostro or to form any just estimate of his true character. That he was vain, naturally pompous, fond of theatrical mystery, and of the popular side of occultism, is most probable.
Another circumstance which stands out in relation to his personality is that he was vastly desirous of gaining cheap popularity. He was probably a little mad. On the other hand he was beneficent, and felt it his mission in the then king-ridden state of Europe to found Egyptian Masonry for the protection of society in general, and the middle and lower classes in particular. A born adventurer, he was by no means a rogue, as his lack of shrewdness has been proved on many occasions. There is small question either that the various Masonic lodges which he founded and which were patronized by persons of ample means, provided him with extensive funds and it is a known fact that he was subsidized by several extremely wealthy men, who, themselves dissatisfied by the state of affairs in Europe, did not hesitate to place their riches at his disposal for the purpose of undermining the tyrannic powers which then wielded sway.
There is reason to believe that he had in some way and at some period of his life acquired a certain working knowledge of practical occultism, and that he possessed certain elementary psychic powers of hypnotism and telepathy. His absurd account of his childhood is almost undoubtedly a plagiarism of that stated in the first manifesto to the public of the mysterious Rosicrucian Brotherhood, as containing an account of the childhood of their Chief. But on the whole he is a mystery, and in all likelihood the clouds which surround his origin and earlier years will never be dispersed. It is probably better that this should be so, as although Cagliostro was by no means an exalted character, he was yet one of the most picturesque figures in the later history of Europe; and assuredly not the least aid to his picturesqueness is the obscurity in which his origin is involved."
For further reading on the career of Cagliostro, a showing to the effect that if he was not of unalloyed honor, he was not
altogether an impostor and scoundrel, consult Cagliostro:
The Splendor and Mystery of a Master of Magic by W.R.H. Trowbridge,
and An Encyclopedia of Occukism by Lewis Spence.
Other books of reference are Cagliostro and Company, by Franz Funck-Brentano, and the Life of Joseph Balsamo, published at Dublin in 1792, the latter being translated from the original proceedings published at Rome by order of the Apostolic Chamber and therefore of especial interest as the Roman Catholic argument against one condemned by the Inquisition for being a Freemason. This report (page 239), asserts that the judgment entirely accords with justice, equity, prudence, religion, and public tranquillity.
It then runs thus:
"Joseph Balsamo, attainted and convected of many crimes, and having incurred the censures and penalties pronounced against formal heretics, dogmatists, heresiarchs, and propagators of magic and superstition, has been found guilty, and condemned to the censures and penalties denounced as well by the apostolic laws of Clement XII and of Benedict XIV against those who in any manner whatever favor or form societies and conventicles of Freemasons, as by the edict of the Council of State against those who are guilty of this crime at Rome, or any other place under the dominion of the Pope.
Notwithstanding this, by way of special grace and favor, this crime, the expiation of which demands the delivery of the culprit over to the secular arm, to be by it punished with death, is hereby changed and commuted into perpetual imprisonment, in a fortress where the culprit is to be strictly guarded, without any hope of pardon whatever".
This order was carried into effect as was also the burning by "the hand of the hangman" of Cagliostro's manuscript on Egyptian Freemasonry as were all his other books, instruments, symbols, etc., relating thereto. The order also confirmed and renewed the laws of the Roman Catholic Church prohibiting societies and conventicles of Freemasons, and winds up by declaring "We shall enact the most grievous corporal punishments, and principally those provided for heresies, against whosoever shall associate, hold communication with, or protect, these societies".
Beginning on page 170 is down in more than needed volume the wretched story of Cagliostro, and now that this glossy charlatan, the gold frogs on his clothes and the self-invented title on his visiting card , has become a ghost in which no living interest remains there would be no warrant to add further facts to a surfeit of facts were it not that the article on page 170 does not contain one fact which was not available before Bros. Rylands and Firebrace published their great two-volume history of the Lodge of Antiquity.
This fact is important, and is here emphasized as such, because it sets the records straight as regards what regular Freemasonry felt about Cagliostro when Cagliastro was bodily present.
Because he had been made a Mason in a French speaking Lodge in London (see page 170) Cagliostro felt he had the right to visit Antiquity, and did so on the night of Nov. 1, 1786. This year fell in that (for Antiquity ) unhappy period when there were two Antiquity Lodges; one under the leadership of William Preston and comprising the larger and most solid portion of the membership and which was acting as head of the Grand Lodge of all England South of the River Trent; the other "the Northouck Lodge", so-called from the leader who had occasioned the division. Cagliostro was accompanied by a train of his friends, some of them, had only the Brethren known it at the time, not regular Masons but members of Cagliostro's Clandestine Egyptian Rite, which he had invented as a scheme for exploiting Masons, and made, up, as were his other claims and titles, out of his own head. A newspaper reported the meeting, in substance, thus:
A few at least among "Northouck's members" resented the charlatan's presence, and one of them, Bro. Marsh, found ingenious means of saving his Lodge from a compromising and embarrassing contretemps.
Bro. Marsh, called upon for a song, with a devilishly witty ingenuity substituted an act, which portrayed a "traveling physician" (a quack) and played it out at Cagliostro's elbow. The effect was devastating; the audience (except for the visitors) was in an uproar of laughter. Cagliostro withdrew.
This was a cartoon in prose, and the Lodge passed a formal Resolution to condemn it as a misrepresentation. What actually occurred in the Meeting the Minums do not tell, but whatever it was the "Count's" prestige, gold frogs and all, was ruined Masonically.
(The Trowbridge book referred to on page 171 continues to be among the best-read, but to it may be added other titles: Romantic Rascals, by Charles J. Finger; MacBride; New York. Count Cagliostro, by Constantin Photiades; Rider & Co.; 1932. Le Matre Inconnu Cagliostro, by Dr. Marc Haven; Dorbon-Aire; Paris; a very elaborate bibliography. See Vol. II, by Firebrace, in Records of the Lodge of Anliquily.)
Aside from manufacturing his spurious Egyptian Rite, Cagliostro had no part in regular Freemasonry except to join a French-speaking London Lodge. What the Inquisition found out about him nobody knows, but the trial itself shocked France by exposing the sinister methods still in use by the Roman hierarchy, and in its total effects, and as precipitating a nation-wide social crisis, ranks with the Dreyfus, Rasputin (Russian), and Taxil cases. Dumas wrote a novel about Cagliostro in The Diamond Necklace; and Frank King collects a number of illuminating facts in The Last of the Sorcerers. To a Masonic community as far from Paris as is American Masonry there is not much of either profit or comfort in the case, unless it be that at this distance it lays a red underline beneath the danger confronting any Masonic Jurisdictions which permit degree making and degree mongering, disguised as Masonry, to go unchecked or unchallenged. Bro. Marsh's performance was a commentary not altogether malapropos.
French. A number of sheets of parchment or paper fastened together at one end. The word is used by French Freemasons to designate a small book printed, or in manuscript, containing the ritual of a Degree. The word has been borrowed from French history, where it denotes the reports and proceedings of certain assemblies, such as the clergy, the States-General, etc.
Derived from the Gaelic can, meaning a mound, and applied thus to heaps of stones of a conical form erected by the Druids. Some suppose them to have been sepulchral monuments, others altars. They were undoubtedly of a religious character, since sacrificial fires were lighted upon them, and processions were made around them.
These processions were analogous to the circumambulations in Freemasonry, and were conducted, like them, with reference to the apparent course of the sun. Thus, Toland, in his Letters on the Celtic Religion, II, xvii, says of these mystical processions, that the people of the Scottish islands "never come to the ancient sacrificing and fire-hallowing Cams but they walk three times round them from east to west, according to the course of the sun. This sanctified tour, or round by the south, is called Deaseal, as the unhallowed contrary one by the north, Tuapholl"; and he says that Deaseal is derived from "Deas, the right (understanding hand), and soil, one of the ancient names of the sun, the right hand in this round being ever next the heap". In all this the Freemason will be reminded of the Masonic ceremony of circumambulation around the altar and the rules which govern it.
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Instituted 1158, during the reign of Sancho III, King of Castile, who conquered and gave the Castle of Calatrava, an important fortress of the Moors of Andalusia, to the Knights Templar, who subsequently relinquished their possession of it to the king. The king, being disappointed in the ability of the Templars to retain it, then offered the defense of the place to Don Raymond of Navarre, Abbot of St. Mary of Hitero, a Cistercian convent, who accepted it. Don Raymond being successful, the king gave the place to him and his companions, and instituted the Order of Calatrava. A Grand Master was appointed and approved of by the Pope, Alexander III, 1164, which was confirmed by Innocent III in 1198. The knights had been granted the power of electing their own Grand Master; but on the death of Don Gareias Lopez de Pardella, 1489, Ferdinand and Isabella annexed the Grand Mastership to the Crown of Castile, which was sanctioned by Pope Innocent VIII. |
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A distinguished Masonic writer of the eighteenth century, and the author of a work published in 1769, under the title of A Candid Disquisition of the Principles and Practices of the Most Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons; together with some Strictures on the Origin, Nature, and Design of that Institution, in which he has traced Freemasonry from its origin, explained its symbols and hieroglyphics, its social virtues and advantages, suggested the propriety of building halls for the peculiar and exclusive practice of Freemasonry and reprehended its slanderers with great but judicious severity.
This was the first extended effort to illustrate philosophically the science of Freemasonry, and was followed, a few years after, by Hutchinson's admirable work; so that Oliver justly says that "Calcott opened the mine of Freemasonry, and Hutchinson worked it".
See Oceania
Freemasons, in affixing dates to their official documents, never make use of the Common Epoch or Vulgar Era, but have one peculiar to themselves, which, however, varies in the different rites. Era and epoch are, in this sense, synonymous.
Strictly, the epoch is an important point in history beginning a period termed an era, as the epoch of the Crucifixion followed by the Christian Era.
Freemasons of the York, American, and French Rites, that is to say, the Freemasons of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, and America, date from the creation of the world, calling it Anno Lucis, which they abbreviate A.L. , signifying in the Year of Light. Thus with them the year 1872 is A.'. L.'. 5872. This they do, not because they believe Freemasonry to be coeval with the Creation, but with a symbolic reference to the light of Freemasonry.
In the Scottish Rite, the epoch also begins from the date of the creation, but Freemasons of that Rite, using the Jewish chronology, would call the year 1872 A.'. M.'. or Anno Mundi meaning in the Year of the World, 5632. They sometimes use the initials A.'. H. '., signifying Anno Hebraico, or, in the Hebrew year.
They have also adopted the Hebrew months, and the year, therefore, begins with them in the middle of September (see Months, Hebrew).
Freemasons of the York and American Rites begin the year on the 1st of January, but in the French Rite it commences on the 1st of March, and instead of the months receiving their usual names, they are designated numerically, as first, second, third, etc. Thus, the 1st of January, 1872, would be styled, in a French Masonic document, the 1st day of the 11th Masonic month, Anno Lucis, 5872. The French sometimes, instead of the initials A.'. L.'., use L'an de la V.'. L. '., or Vraie Lumiére, that is, Year of True Light.
Royal Arch Masons commence their epoch with the year in which Zerubbabel began to build the second Temple, which was 530 years before Christ.
Their style for the year 1872 is, therefore, A.'. Inv.'., that is, Anno Inventionis, or, in the Year of the Discovery, 2402.
Royal and Select Masters very often make use of the common Masonic date, Anno Lucis, but properly they should date from the year in which Solomon's Temple was completed; and their style would then be, Anna Depositionis, or, in the Year of the Deposit, and they would date the year 1872 as 2872.
Knights Templar use the epoch of the organization of their Order in 1118. Their style for the year 1872 is A.'. O.'., Anno 0rdinis, or, in the Year of the 0rder, 754.
We subjoin, for the convenience of reference, the rules for discovering these different dates.
The following will show, in one view, the date of the year 1872 in all the branches of the Order:
The calendars given on page 172 ff. are in use by modern bodies of Speculative Freemasonry, and the datings are self-confessedly of modern origin. They are based on the date of the Creation as 4004 B.C. as written into the margin of the Authorized Version of the Bible by Archbishop Usher in 1611. This date had been nowhere in general use prior to that time, and afterwards was never accepted by many chronologists. A work of encyclopedic informativeness on the calendars in use during the whole of the Operative and the Transition Periods of Freemasonry is Mediaeval Kalendarium, by R.F. Hampton, two volumes; London; 1841. It covers the Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries. In a period before calendars and almanacs came into general use it was widely employed as a handbook on matters of many kinds which have to do with the calendar. It contains much folklore; many pages on the Sts. John, lists of Saints' Days; and, as illustrative of what was said above, gives in one chapter a long list of the estimates of the date of Creation as computed by authorities at different times, among them being:
Scaliger, 3950 B.C.;
Petavius, 3984 B.C.;
Ricciola, 4063 B.C.;
Eusebius, 5200 B.C.;
Alphonsine Tables, 6934 B.C.
There is no evidence to show that Operative Masons ever adopted a given date, or ever found use for one; moreover they had scarcely any conception of such a thing as a calendar, but fixed dates by reference to Saints' Days, Church festivals, the reign of Kings, and memorable local events-a flood, a fire, a battle, etc.
When gold was discovered in California many Masonic Brethren were among the crowds that poured into the district and several Lodges began work in the early part of the year 1848. Soon the question of establishing a Grand Lodge arose. A Convention met on April 18, 1850, of which Brother Charles Gilman of San Francisco was the Chairman and Brother Benjamin D. Hyam of Benicia was Secretary. The Lodges represented were:
Brother Benjamin D. Hyam presented credentials from Benicia Lodge, at Benicia, but, as no Masonic information of the existence of such a Lodge could be discovered, it was not recognized. On April 19, a Constitution was adopted and Grand Officers duly elected and installed. |
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The first Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, namely, San Francisco, No. l, was organized by Dispensation dated May 9, 1850, and a Charter was granted to it, September 13, in the same year. Three Chapters, San Francisco, No. l, Sonora, No. 2, and Sacramento, No. 3, sent delegates to a Convention held on May 6, 1854, at Sacramento for the purpose of organizing a Grand Chapter. The meeting was adjourned, after three days' session, and met again at San Francisco, July 18, 1854. A Constitution was adopted and the Grand Lodge opened. Companion Charles M. Radeliff, of Sonora Chapter, No. 2, was the first Grand High Priest; Companion John D. Creigh, of San Francisco, No. l, Deputy Grand High Priest, and Companion Townsend A. Thomas, of Sacramento Chapter, No. 3, Grand Secretary.
Charters were granted by the Grand Council of Alabama to two Councils in California. One was chartered by the Grand Council of Tennessee and one by the Grand Council of Texas. By representatives of these four Councils the Grand Council of California was organized on June 26, 1860.
A Commandery of Knights Templar, San Francisco, No. l, was formed on November 10, 1852, and was chartered on November 1, 1853. Under the Warrant of Sir William Hubbard, who was then Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States, the Grand Commandery of California was established, August 10 and 11, 1858, in the Asylum of San Francisco Commandery, No. 1.
A Lodge of Perfection, King Solomon, No. 3, was established by a Charter dated January 3, 1866;
Robert Bruce, No. 3, a Chapter of Rose Croix, January 13, 1886;
Hugues de Payens, Council of Kadosh, No. 3, January 7, 1886,
and Los Angeles Consistory, No. 3, October 22, 1888.
These four Bodies of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite labored in South California. In North California a Chapter of Rose Croix
and a Lodge of Perfection, both by name San Francisco, No. l, were chartered in 1868, the first on June 15, the second on July 13. A
Council of Kadosh and a Consistory, also of the same name, were granted Charters on September 17, 1868, and June 30, 1897,
respectively.
CALIPH OF BAGDAD, THEThis most widely-read of Masonic novels was written by Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. He was born at Waterville, Maine (the native State of a score of eminent Masons), June 5, 1823, the first of nine children. He moved to Malden, Mass., where his father was Universalist pastor, and a friend of Bro. Hosea Ballou, and lived there ten years; in 1838 he moved to Waltham, Mass., from which, in 1841, he joined the Navy. Returned, he took up journalism, and for forty years was on the staff of the New York Ledger, an old-fashioned newspaper which published stories and essays. He was made a Mason in Oxford Lodge, Norway, Me., in 1854, and was its Worshipful Master five times. He was exalted in 1859; Knighted in Boston in 1872, and in 1874 was made 32 in the same city. He published three Masonic stories in the New York Ledger in 1858-1874. Sea stories, Oriental stories, Masonic stories, and religious stories were his forte. A new edition of the Caliph of Bagdad was published by Geo. H. Doran; New York. |
 Sylvanus Cobb, Jr. (1823-1887) |
A technical term in Freemasonry which signifies the temporary suspension of labor in a Lodge without passing through the formal ceremony of closing. The full form of the expression is to call from labor to refreshment, and it took its rise from the former custom of dividing the time spent in the Lodge between the work of Freemasonry and the moderate enjoyment of the banquet. The banquet formed in the eighteenth century an indispensable part of the arrangements of a Lodge Communication. "At a certain hour of the evening", says Brother Oliver, "with certain ceremonies, the Lodge was called from labor to refreshment, when the Brethren enjoyed themselves with decent merriment". That custom no longer exists; and although in England almost always, and in the United States occasionally, the labors of the Lodge are concluded with a banquet; yet the Lodge is formally closed before the Brethren proceed to the table of refreshment.
Calling off in American Lodges is now only used, in a certain ceremony of the Third Degree, when it is desired to have another meeting at a short interval, and the Master desires to avoid the tediousness of closing and opening the Lodge.
Thus, if the business of the Lodge at its regular meeting has so accumulated that it cannot be transacted in one evening, it has become the custom to call off until a subsequent evening, when the Lodge, instead of being opened with the usual ceremony, is simply "called on", and the latter meeting is considered as only a continuation of the former.
This custom is very generally adopted in Grand Lodges at their Annual Communications, which are opened at the beginning of the session, called off from day to day, and finally closed at its end. We do not know that any objection has ever been advanced against this usage in Grand Lodges, because it seems necessary as a substitute for the adjournment, which is resorted to in other legislative bodies, but which is not admitted in Freemasonry. But much discussion has taken place in reference to the practice of calling off in Lodges, some authorities sustaining and others condemning it. Thus, many years ago, the Committee of Correspondence of the Grand Lodge of Mississippi proposed this question:
"In case of excess of business, cannot the unfinished be laid over until the next or another day, and must the Lodge be closed in form, and opened the next, or the day designated for the transaction of that business?"
To this question some authorities, and among others Brother C.W. Moore (Freemasons Monthly Magazine, volume xii, No,10), reply in the negative, while other equally good jurists differ from them in opinion.
The difficulty seems to be in this, that if the regular meeting of the Lodge is closed in form, the subsequent meeting becomes a special one, and many things which could be done at a regular communication cease to be admissible. The recommendation, therefore, of Brother Moore, that the Lodge should be closed, and, if the business be unfinished, that the Master shall call a special meeting to complete it, does not meet the difficulty, because it is a well settled principle of Masonic law that a special meeting cannot interfere with the business of a preceding regular one. As, then, the mode of briefly closing by adjournment is contrary to Masonic law and usage, and cannot, therefore, be resorted to, as there is no other way except by calling off to continue the character of a regular meeting, and as, during the period that the Lodge is called off, it is under the government of the Junior Warden, and Masonic discipline is thus continued, Doctor Mackey, for the reasons cited by him in regard to Brother Moore, was clearly of opinion that calling off from day to day for the purpose of continuing work or business is, as a matter of convenience, admissible.
The practice may indeed be abused. But there is a well-known legal maxim which says, Ez abusu non arguitur in usum. "No argument can be drawn from the abuse of a thing against its use". Thus, a Lodge cannot be called off except for continuance of work and business, nor to an indefinite day, for there must be a good reason for the exercise of the practice, and the Brethren present must be notified before dispersing of the time of reassembling; nor can a Lodge at one regular meeting be called off until the next, for no regular meeting of a Lodge is permitted to run into another, but each must be closed before its successor can be opened.
When a Lodge that is called off at a subsequent time resumes work or business, it is said to be called on. The full expression is called on from refreshment to labor.
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