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Post by LorrB on Jun 28, 2011 16:06:26 GMT 9.5
Ever given any thought to the symbolism of what is worn by Brn in masonic ceremonies?
They range from very plain to most ornate. Perhaps we can share the bits n pieces we have collected on this subject.
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Post by LorrB on Jun 28, 2011 16:09:15 GMT 9.5
THE ROBE OF BLUE AND GOLD
Hidden in the depths of the unknown, three silent beings weave the endless thread of human fate. They are called the Sisters, known to mythology as the Norns or Fates who incessantly twist between their fingers a tiny cord, which one day is to be woven into a living garment - the coronation robe of the priest-king.
To the mystics and philosophers of the world this garment is known under many names. To some it is the simple yellow robe of Buddahood. By the ancient Jews it was symbolized as the robe of the high priest, the Garment of Glory unto the Lord. To the Masonic brethren, it is the robe of Blue and Gold - the Star of Bethlehem - the Wedding Garment of the Spirit.
Three Fates weave the threads of this living garment, and man himself is the creator of his Fates. The triple thread of thought, action, and desire binds him when he enters the sacred place or seeks admittance into the tiled lodge, but later this same cord is woven into a splendid garment whose purified folds clothe the sacred spark of his being.
en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Lost_Keys_of_Freemasonry/Addenda
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Post by LorrB on Jun 28, 2011 16:12:15 GMT 9.5
THE SEAMLESS GARMENT
There is another garment without a seam which we are told was often worn by the ancient brethren in the days of the Essenes, when the monastery of the lowly Nazarenes rose in silent grandeur from the steep sides of Mt. Tabor, to be reflected in the inscrutable waters of the Dead Sea. This one-piece garment is the spiral thread of human life which, when purified by right motive and right living, becomes a tiny thread of golden light, eternally weaving the purified garment of regenerated bodies. Like the white of the lambskin apron, it stands for the simple, the pure, and the harmless. These are the requirements of the Master Mason, who must renounce forever this world's pomp and vanity and seek to weave that simple one-piece robe of the soul which marks the Master, consecrated and consummated.
The Lost Keys of Freemasonry by Manly Palmer Hall
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Post by LorrB on Jun 29, 2011 9:03:25 GMT 9.5
THE GOLDEN WEDDING GARMENT
Christ told us that it is possible to take the kingdom of God by storm and attain to the consciousness and conditions there prevailing. But Paul informs us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; he states that we have a soul body (some psuchicon-1 Cor. 15: 44), and that we shall meet the Lord in the air when He comes. This soul body is therefore as necessary to entrance into the new age of the kingdom of God, as a body equipped with lungs was to the Atlanteans who desired to enter into the age in which we are now living. Therefore it is necessary that we make our calling and election sure by preparing the Golden Wedding Garment, the soul body, which alone can secure our admission to the mystic marriage.
… Each day must be filled as full as possible with kind and considerate deeds, for they are the warp and woof of which the golden wedding garment is woven. Without these "works" no amount of prayer, fasting, or other religious exercise will avail. It is useless to repair to the temple without this bread to shew that we have really worked in the Master's service.
www.rosicrucian.com/glm/glmeng08.htm
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Post by paul on Jun 29, 2011 9:23:13 GMT 9.5
The apron that is the symbol of innocence is placed so as to cover the least innocent part of humans.
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Post by LorrB on Jun 29, 2011 12:45:08 GMT 9.5
The Cathars believed that we should not bring children into this (wicked ? ) world. Or is the apron to remind us not to waste precious energies on physical rather than spiritual pursuits?
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Post by LorrB on Jun 29, 2011 12:59:08 GMT 9.5
Talking about Cathars and garments, they talk about the LIGHT VESTURE.
Will All Spirits Be Saved?
All of them! After countless series of ordeals and purifications, after the hard trials to reach Perfection, they will go back up into the Azure.
Look at this Ocean of Ether. It is sparkled with fire islands, archipelagos of light. They are the souls’ stations in the space, the many mansions Christ talks about, the Path of the Stars.
The souls will climb from star to star, from constellation to constellation up to God’s bosom.
During that process, the soul unties all its earthly links and puts on the ‘Light Vesture’ that it had to leave behind after the fall into the lower world.
Back in Heaven, Christ described to the Mother of the Cathar Church the soul’s journey through the six planets (the Gospel of Mary).
www.gadal-catharisme.org/will-all-spirits-saved_5_26_en.htm
Azure... blue apron ? Fire islands, archipelagos of light... the sun, the moon and the stars messengers of His Will ? The Path of the Stars... the path that the Principal Sojourner takes ? The souls will climb from star to star, from constellation to constellation up to God’s bosom... Jacob's Ladder with the Blazing Star atop ? The soul unties all its earthly links... (or unwinds) another part of Royal Arch (with its Zodiac)
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Post by paul on Jun 29, 2011 13:28:06 GMT 9.5
The apron is properly made of material that insulates energies - e.g. traditionally Indians meditated while sitting on an animal skin.
Thus the Masonic apron could be made from other hides e.g. kangaroo but not from vinyl as a vinyl apron does not insulate the temple from any lack of s_xual innocence of the brother.
It may be that a heavy silk would work equally as well as hide.
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Post by paul on Jun 29, 2011 13:35:46 GMT 9.5
....the soul’s journey through the six planets In the Mithraic mysteries the ladder has 7 rungs each of which is associated with a planet.
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Post by Henka on Jun 30, 2011 2:25:28 GMT 9.5
These are metaphors, not actual journeys through space...
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Post by paul on Jun 30, 2011 5:42:16 GMT 9.5
How do we know that? By not travelling?
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Post by Henka on Jun 30, 2011 7:40:27 GMT 9.5
I'm pretty sure you don't take a physical journey through the solar system.
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Post by paul on Jun 30, 2011 7:57:30 GMT 9.5
How about etheric journeys? Or astral? Mental perhaps?
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Post by LorrB on Jun 30, 2011 9:21:00 GMT 9.5
How about etheric journeys? Or astral? Mental perhaps? Mental journeys are common... day dreams? The absent minded professor thingy? I have taken a walk round the house a few times, not realising I was sleeping. I am guessing that that was an etheric journey.
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Post by paul on Jun 30, 2011 9:26:52 GMT 9.5
In etheric journeys the familiar local features of the dense physical world are very clear.
The environs of astral journeys often bear little resemblance to the local physical environment.
Mental journeys may jump time paths rather easily.
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Post by LorrB on Jun 30, 2011 9:53:56 GMT 9.5
Here is what W L Wilmshurst has to say about our favourite garment, the Apron. by W.L. Wilmshurst
THE MASONIC APRON
From what has been said in these pages the full significance of the Apron will now be perceived and may be summarized thus:-
1. The Apron is the symbol of the corporeal vesture and condition of the soul (not so much of the temporal physical body, as of its permanent invisible corporeity which will survive the death of the mortal part).
2. The soul fabricates its own body or " apron " by its own desires and thoughts (see Genesis III, 7, " they made themselves aprons ") and as these are pure or impure so will that body be correspondingly transparent and white, or dense and opaque.
3. The investiture of the candidate with the Apron in each Degree by the Senior Warden as the Master's delegate for that purpose is meant to inculcate this truth; for the Senior Warden represents the soul which, in accordance with its own spirituality, automatically clothes itself with its own self- made vesture in a way that marks its own progress or regress.
4. The unadorned white Apron of the First Degree indicates the purity of soul contemplated as being attained in that Degree.
5. The pale blue rosettes added to the Apron in the Second Degree indicate that progress is being made in the science of regeneration and that the candidate's spirituality is beginning to develop and bud through. Blue, the colour of the sky, is traditionally associated with devotion to spiritual concerns.
6. In the Third Degree still further progress is emblematized by the increased blue adornments of the Apron, as also by its silver tassels and the silver serpent used to fasten the apron-strings. In the First and Second Degrees no metal has appeared upon the Apron. The candidate has been theoretically divesting himself of all base metals and transmuting them into spiritual riches. With Mastership he has attained an influx of those riches under the emblem of the tassels of silver, a colourless precious metal always associated with the soul, as gold by reason of its supreme value and warm colour is associated with Spirit. The silver serpent is the emblem of Divine Wisdom knitting the soul's new- made vesture together. 7. The pale blue and silver of the Master Mason's Apron become intensified in the deep blue and gold ornamentation worn by the Grand Lodge Officers, who in theory have evolved to still deeper spirituality and transmuted themselves from silver into fine gold. " The king's daughter (the soul) is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold," i.e., wrought or fabricated by her own spiritual energies.
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Post by LorrB on Jun 30, 2011 10:16:36 GMT 9.5
I'm pretty sure you don't take a physical journey through the solar system. Physical laws would indicate that. But what about 'sacred' law (aka VSL)? Christ told us that it is possible to take the kingdom of God by storm and attain to the consciousness and conditions there prevailing. But Paul informs us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; he states that we have a soul body (some psuchicon-1 Cor. 15: 44), and that we shall meet the Lord in the air when He comes. This soul body is therefore as necessary to entrance into the new age of the kingdom of God, as a body equipped with lungs was to the Atlanteans who desired to enter into the age in which we are now living. Therefore it is necessary that we make our calling and election sure by preparing the Golden Wedding Garment, the soul body, which alone can secure our admission to the mystic marriage.
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Post by paul on Jun 30, 2011 10:16:50 GMT 9.5
Wilmhurst seems to me to make lots of guesses some of which are useful.
The deep blue and gold colours relate to the "pavement" of the local temple in the heavens (this solar system) and hence may be applied aspirationally to GL regalia.
The apron itself however seems to me to be not symbolic but is energetically functional - to reduce the effect of lack of innocence in the brother's lower chakras.
The optional decoration of the apron is however symbolic.
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Post by Henka on Jun 30, 2011 10:32:42 GMT 9.5
How about etheric journeys? Or astral? Mental perhaps? Those are more like it.
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Post by LorrB on Jun 30, 2011 10:39:38 GMT 9.5
Wilmhurst seems to me to make lots of guesses some of which are useful. I find him most useful, I really like him. (plus, he came to the same conclusions I did ) I guess no author, or person of any kind, is 100% correct on every subject. That's what makes forums fun (for the most part)
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