Newtonianism & Freemasonry - A Note to my Brother Fellow Crafts

Newtonianism & Freemasonry

So you have just been passed to the degree Fellow Craft and now can't wait to be raised to the degree of Master Mason. Instead of looking forward I suggest to stop, take a breath, and enjoy your introduction to Newtonianism, and the tradition that may have influenced its creation, Kabbalah, peppered with a bit of alchemy (of course this is just the authors personal opinion, and not necessarily that of Freemasonry).
For those brothers unfamiliar with the definition of Newtonianism, and the mystical tradition of Kabbalah, allow me to share a little light.
Newtonianism is a synthesis of natural philosophy and natural theology as put forth by Sir Isaac Newton with a little help from the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal and mysterious Ein Sof, the infinite, and the mortal and finite universe, his creation.
Right about now you might be questioning what this has to do with the Freemasonry, after all not once in the first two degrees of Freemasonry did you hear the name Newton or the word Kabbalah? The answer may be everything.

Newton's copy of the Zohar

Time to do a little traveling brother, back to a time known as the Revival of Freemasonry, the time where we find Freemasonry shifting from operative to a speculative tradition. This was a time before television, computers, and cell phones, a time when events of the day were discussed over a beer in a tavern with a circle of peers, and as history informs us many of these early ale drinking brothers were academics that had one thing in common their pursuit of knowledge.
Allow me to apologize now, we are about to discuss a subject most avoid in high school and only take when forced too in college, a subject that was very much on the mind of our early brothers, philosophy.
We do know for fact Freemasonry outed itself in the very early seventeen hundreds, a time when the most discussed philosophy of the time was called Cartesian, the name given to the philosophical doctrine of a Frenchman named René Descartes, mathematician, scientist and philosopher.
The defining idea of Cartesian philosophy is what has come to be called "mind-body dualism." Descartes insisted there was a clear distinction between mind and matter. Mind, or soul, and matter, or body, are according to Descartes, two essentially and radically different kinds of substance. Mind is unexpended, indivisible, simple thinking. Its modes or properties are particular ideas or thoughts including beliefs, volitions, sensations, and emotions. While matter, on the other hand, is nothing but extension or dimensional space and is therefore divisible, its modes being shape, size, and mobility. In this philosophy there is nothing materialistic about the mind and nothing mental or spiritual about the body.
I'm pretty sure Descartes would of been lost if he had bumped into today's quantum physicists where we learn "If thoughts equal energy and energy equals matter, than thoughts become matter."
Descartes also expounded the view that an animal was an automaton lacking both sensation and self-awareness, and that only man was endowed with a soul. I'm not sure PETA would have cared for Descartes.
Descartes believed that God created the universe as a perfect clockwork mechanism of vortical motion that functioned deterministically thereafter without intervention. During the sixteen hundreds this could easily be seen as dangerous thinking, the idea that God creates the universe and steps aside, no intervention, no miracles, no sin.
Even though Descartes avoided theological debate and aligned himself with Catholicism, knowing he would probably be suspected of atheism he covered his butt by living in Protestant Holland rather than in Catholic France.
As of late many have attempted to associate Descartes with Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry even though there is no factual proof. Even if the remotest possibility did exist, which I believe doesn’t, he died over fifty years before the first two degrees of Freemasonry were even created, a time when Isaac Newton arrives on the scene challenging much of his Cartesian philosophy.
Descartes’ separation of mind and matter was a crucial step in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, and laid the metaphysical foundations for the mechanical philosophy that dominated the period, that is until the arrival of Sir Isaac Newton, his inner circle, and possibly the Freemasons to follow.
Newton disagreed with Descartes as he believed that Descartes described the world as comprised totally of matter and thereby eliminated God from the equation. Newton, devoutly religious, believed that God did intervene from time to time to keep the great clock running, otherwise it would run down. He wrote several manuscripts on religious doctrine in which he seemed to indicate that science and religion were not necessarily inconsistent with one another. Tell that to today's scientists!
Newton sees God through a much bigger lens;
"He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not duration or space, but he endures and is present. He endures forever, and is everywhere present; and, by existing always and everywhere, he constitutes duration and space. Since every particle of space is always, and every indivisible moment of duration is everywhere, certainly the Maker and Lord of all things cannot be never and nowhere."...Isaac Newton, Principia
Now enter Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, the more often than not foe of Newton, who presented the view of the that universe is entirely nonphysical, immaterial simple substances with the properties only of mind, one of points within points, each point being of the same substance but of a different quality. Within the human, the dominant monad was the soul.
Leibniz conceived God to be the supreme monad, controlling all monads within, these being hierarchical in terms of intelligence or reason. His alliance was much closer to Cartesian than Newtonianism, yet we also find him, like Newton, familiar with the Kabbalah.
"Sir Isaac Newton and his followers have also a very odd opinion concerning the work of God. According to their doctrine, God Almighty wants to wind up his watch from time to time: otherwise it would cease to move. He had not, it seems, sufficient foresight to make it a perpetual motion.”...Leibniz in a letter to his friend Caroline of Ansbach
I wonder where Leibniz would of took his philosophy if he had known of the cyclic theory briefly considered by Albert Einstein that theorized a universe following an eternal series of oscillations, each beginning with a big bang and ending with a big crunch; in the interim, the universe would expand for a period of time before the gravitational attraction of matter causes it to collapse back in and undergo a bounce. Maybe Isaac had it right, God intervened periodically.
I particularly like the theory of Conformal Cyclic Cosmology, a general relativity based theory due to Roger Penrose in which the universe expands until all the matter decays and is turned to light, so there is nothing in the universe that has any time or distance scale associated with it. This permits it to become identical with the Big Bang, so starting the next cycle. If only Isaac was alive today what fun he would have with today's expansion of knowledge.
What I have presented to this point is rarely spoken off in Freemasonry today, yet during the inception of modern Freemasonry you can be sure the names Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, and their philosophies were discussed openly amongst academic circles and in the taverns frequented by our early brothers.
Now if we consider the three prevailing philosophies of Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz as openly discussed ideas during the inception of Freemasonry, what could the hidden philosophy in Freemasonry have in store for us, is it derived from any of these schools of thought, and why hide it?
For answers to this we need to look to Rev. Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers, philosopher, priest in the Church of England, and experimental assistant of Sir Isaac Newton, and considered to be the "Father of Speculative of Freemasonry".

Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers

In 1719 Desaguliers was elected Grand Master, it was during this time we find the first two rituals of Freemasonry arriving on the scene, incorporating what I believe Newtonianism and Kabbalah, and a unique experimental philosophy inspired from his mentor Newton. (The third degree, the Master Mason, would not arrive on the scene until 1730.)
Desaguliers was known to promote Newtonianism when ever possible, and what better way to promote it than incorporating it into a recently formed member’s only society. Here in this newly formed organization we find Desaguliers creating an allegorical play of sorts with a hidden philosophy where the perspective members embark on a journey through a mysterious world of symbolism, created to "enlighten" brothers on universal truths that have been hidden for centuries, including a particular one that his mentor Newton immersed himself into, Kabbalah.
Think of the rituals created by Desaguliers as a unique experiment where the initiates are given cryptic clues requiring the individual himself to unlock their meaning and thus revealing a philosophy that has the ability to alter one's perception, or to use the vernacular of today's mind science, consciousness.
In 1882 a very observant brother wrote a title named Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy: Or, The Origin and Meaning of Ancient and Modern Mysteries Explained, his name was Robert Hewitt Brown. In this rather small title Brother Brown puts forth the idea that the Lodge Room of the Masonic Temple and its many officers are actually symbolic various aspects of the zodiac, the planets, and the sun. In this now underground classic he successfully connects today's modern day religions to those of the Sun centered ancients. As to how this author ties into Newtonianism with out even realizing it, Brother Desaguliers, Newton's right hand man is credited with the creation of the planetarium; Brother Brown unknowingly was witnessing the work of Desaguliers hidden in the world of symbols.
I found it interesting when reading the story of Brother Brown, when he became convinced that Freemasonry at its core was a type of "Stellar Theology" he chose to remain silent, only after a period of serious contemplation did he publish his insightful observations, thus assisting numerous brothers on their journey to light.
"Philosophy is written in this grand book — I mean the universe — which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth."…Galileo
It is a known fact that Newton kept his religious beliefs to himself, preferring silence over outspoken ignorance. It should be remembered that during the inception of early Freemasonry the separation of church and state was a future fancy, it was wiser to appear to go with the flow than to speak out in opposition. The mystical Kabbalah could be seen as an affront to a church and state that often lived and breathed the literal interpretation of a personified god, not something Newton would have approved of.
One of the reasons this paper is addressed to the Fellow Craft and not to the Master Mason is because for over a decade the Master Mason degree did not exist in early Freemasonry, which means all the cryptic clues of the hidden philosophy of Freemasonry would have been presented upon completion of the Fellow Craft degree.
Aside from all the grandeur of the Master Mason degree, upon close inspection you'll find it a different story which at the same time seasons the first two degrees. You can be sure that in order to create continuity some of the Fellow Craft symbolism would find its way into the Master Mason degree.
Returning to the first two degrees, the Entered Apprentice and the Fellow Craft, to whom this article is addressed, we find the candidate exposed to an incredible amount of symbolism, with each degree concluded with a lecture.
Within the lectures we find various symbols explained aloud in a fashion that would appeal to the moral aspect of Freemasonry, yet in what wasn't presented aloud is a deeper allusion, an interpretation you would have to seek out yourself, and here's a little hint to where to look, Newton and his Kabbalah.

Freemasonry Does Have Secrets - You Just Don’t Know Them

What follows is intended for the brother who after finishing his Master Mason Degree finds himself sitting on the sideline silently wondering what the hoopla was all about?
Here you are a Master Mason, you asked for light, you were told of the importance of the lost word, and by now, you should be asking what is next?
Allow me to share a secret; ahead of you lies a fork in the road, a fork we have all faced, which direction you take will determine the outcome of your search for light. However, before we discuss this fork and its pitfalls allow me to share a little of my story and observations in sincerest hope you will also choose right direction.
Genius is the only adjective I can find to describe the brother, or brothers, that created the science of Freemasonry. Who or whom they were I have no clue, yet I do have my suspicions.
It is my belief that even though Freemasonry has morphed from its original intent, by retaining intact much its highly symbolic initiation ceremonies its message remains clear to those willing to look beyond the obvious, behind the veil.
Yet I have to admit I have not always felt that way. I like many other brothers experienced a profound letdown after the Master Mason Degree, a let down you may be experiencing your self. What were those deeply symbolic initiations about, boring business meetings, bad food? I didn't get it, and I like many other brothers before me sat quietly and questioned what the rituals had to do with what I was experiencing after being made a Master Mason.
Each brother enters Freemasonry through the same door for different reasons, mine was to explore the mystery I suspected, and rumor had it, Freemasonry contained.
As to how I assumed it contained a mystery came to my attention long before entering Freemasonry, at a time when I was working as a book scout.
For those unfamiliar with the book scout, think of an entrepreneur of sorts who buys and sells used books, picking up a title for near nothing only to turn around and sell it, hopefully making a substantial profit, a fairly lucrative business if you know your titles, and buyers.
I had learned early on the secret of book scouting success was specialization, choose just one genre, get to know the material, the authors, the demand, how many copies of the title were published and by who, what edition and how many runs to follow, leather or paper board bindings, I could go on and on, suffice to say specializing in more than one genre would greatly increases the odds of a bad deal, which means the book scout could get stuck with a title of little or no value, a loss you would have a hard time explaining to Uncle Sam.
I specialized in the occult, a surprisingly misunderstood genre with a discrete market of seekers.
Note to reader: If your interested in the occult genre, which means hidden knowledge, allow me to share with you a personal observation, most titles written in last fifty years are pretty much trash, offering little insight into to the hidden sciences of old. Most are just dumb downed knockoffs packaged under a generalized genre known as New Age.
So here I was spending my weekends traveling from used bookstore to used bookstore searching the shelves for overlooked treasures, only to return home, books in hand, to begin the research needed for the sale.
It was during this time I began to notice an odd coincidence, as I researched the bios of the authors I found many of them had the same thing in common, Freemasonry.
Even though the occult genre contains a multitude of sub-genres, astrology, magick, tarot, Kabbalah, divination, Tantra, etc., many of the authors themselves in these varying sub-genres I found to be Freemasons, and if that wasn't strange enough if it happened to be a female author with a little research I would often find a Masonic husband or collaborator behind the scenes. These early brothers were true seekers in the unknown.
It was not long before my curiosity got the best of me, I began seeking out and exploring various Masonic texts. Who were these gentlemen, and what was the driving force that caused them to explore what few understood?
It didn't take long before I noticed a strange shift in the substance enclosed within the titles, the meat and potatoes, the older titles from the eighteen hundreds through the very early nineteen hundreds definitely made for interesting reading, often focusing on the arcane, philosophy, mythology, and comparative religious thought, where the titles published in the mid-twentieth century, especially after WWII focused more on moral behavior, charity, and brotherhood, all laudable in their own right, yet a marked departure from the occult, philosophical, and mythically interested brothers of the past.
Even though I had sensed this shift, and yet still hoping to discover the past, I knocked on the door of Freemasonry.

"Not everything turns out the way we believe it should, but if we persevere it just might"...me

The degrees were beautiful, what they meant at the time I had no idea, and no one attempted to explain them to my inquisitive mind.
The evening of my Master Mason dinner and Degree I felt a pride I had never experienced before, each and every brother graciously shook my hand, called me brother, congratulated me, and welcomed me to the lodge, a great night. I knew I was about to enter the mystery.
It did not happen.
Instead, I experienced a huge letdown. The monthly meetings I had so looked forward to attending were as boring as watching paint dry. Where were those gentlemen who wrote, spoke, and even practiced the hidden traditions? All I heard discussed was the cost of stamps, the problems printing the trestle board, and the status of our investments, which we rarely spent. Where was the education, the mystery, had anybody found the lost word?
Eventually there comes a time in Freemasonry when all brothers are confronted with the fork in the road moment, what I feel are the three choices
One: you do not get it, possibly feel let down, do not understand what the rituals have to do with the monthly meetings, pay your dues and with out asking questions slowly disappear from the sidelines. Often the next time we hear your name is years later when we drape the alter.
Two: you take a chair, become a very good ritualist, in many cases without ever realizing the ritual's underlying message, receive a bunch of titles, and embrace the fraternal aspects, become a good man, and keep your unanswered questions to a minimum, a journey half traveled.
Or three: you begin to sense that there's something bigger going on, you begin to question, if the whole purpose of Freemasonry is a monthly business meeting, an occasional dinner, and male bonding, what were the purpose of the rituals? It is here, at this juncture, without an answer you either slip to the first choice and disappear from the sidelines, settle for two, or with intuition in hand you begin internally questioning everything.
I choose the path of inquiry, I questioned everything, and I mean everything.
Choosing the later is where the possibility of our true journey begins.
Allow me to share with you the most misunderstood paragraph written by Brother Albert Pike, a favorite paragraph of the paranoid and conspiratorially challenged:
"The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them."
Not that I know the mind of Brother Pike but I think I know what he is referring too.
My realizations did not come over night, nor do I believe I now know everything there is to be known, but I do know Freemasonry purposely hides what I would call its "science of realization". When Brother Pike makes the statement that the initiate is intentionally misled he's referring to the way this science is purposely veiled, in allegory, where we find a fictional story of Hiram Abiff played out in the open, yet inside the ritual another story is being told, one that was carefully encoded in cryptic manner, not created to deceive, but purposely hidden awaiting your discovery.
Here is a little observation, maybe the reason we encrypt our ritual books is a hint, a cleaver way of telling you the ritual itself encrypted.
Brother Pike was not in any way suggesting a nefarious intent as the foolishly paranoid seem to think, he was hinting that the initiate had to look beyond the obvious. When he says "It is not intended that he shall understand them; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them." this separates the wheat from the chaff, the wheat will dig deep into the hidden, and the chaff will go through the motions without really getting it.
Brother Pike states it like it is: "Their true explication is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of Masonry." Rarely today in Freemasonry do we hear the word Adept referred to, according to the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry Adept comes from the Latin word Adeptus, meaning having obtained, the Adept claims to be in the possession of all the secrets of his peculiar mystery, Brother Pike is referring to those secrets hidden within the allegory. You become the true adept when you peer behind the veil.
In the last section of Brother Pike's often-misunderstood paragraph we find him revealing what he believed the essence of what is hidden in the allegory and language of the degrees:
"The whole body of the Royal and Sacerdotal Art was hidden so carefully, centuries since, in the High Degrees, as that it is even yet impossible to solve many of the enigmas which they contain."
I believe the Royal and Sacerdotal Arts Brother Pike refers to, the Royal Art, or Ars Regia, is none other than a type of alchemy, a symbolic journey of our transformation from the dark leaden physicality of earth bound consciousness to the refined gold of the spiritually illuminated being, and Sacerdotal in the sense our goal is salvation of the soul.
Brother Pike was certainly a lifelong student and scholar of comparative religion, thought, and myth. His "Morals and Dogma" is filled with ancient belief systems and philosophies rarely spoken of today. Even with his wealth of arcane knowledge he realized there were always questions to be had, with many unanswerable, the pursuit of wisdom is truly endless.
Now for a couple personal observations, although they may sound like I am criticizing I assure you I am not, by sharing these observations it is my hope that we may save one brother from choice number one, disappearing from the lodge, or two, prevent a brother from becoming a parrot mason.
A Gallup poll taken not so long ago found that 49% of all respondents with a High School education and below believed the bible to be a "literal" fact, compared with no more than 22% of respondents with at least some college education. By the time the college educated graduated the number drops to 15%. The numbers in no way imply that the belief in deity drops the more educated one becomes, I believe what is happening is the more one expands his or her awareness the more we begin to see and understand the symbolic, metaphoric, and allegorical, one of the reasons on one level we are directed to the seven liberal arts and sciences, to break the grip of ignorance.
Freemasonry may not be religious but I assure you at its root it spiritual, and with that in mind, I think the numbers above could easily be applied to Freemasonry.
Now if we look closely at today's Freemasonry and compare it with the late sixteen hundreds and early seventeen hundreds, when the rituals were created, we find the greater majority of early brothers were well educated, most with roots in the Royal Society and Invisible College, giants of their time, gentleman who intimately aware of symbolism and allegory. Today we are Joe the plumber, and all too often taking things literal.
I am not in any way implying that we don't have the ability to perceive or understand the symbolic, that which is veiled in Freemasonry, we might just have to work a little harder, and lets not forget we are not encumbered by elitism and inflation our early brothers often suffered from.
We all begin the journey on the same level. Our road may be a little tougher, few enter Freemasonry with a familiarity of alchemy, Hermeticism, philosophy, ancient myth, Rosicrucianism, and Kabbalah, all subjects that you might just find contained with the veiled truth of Freemasonry, but if you really want to get it you have no choice but to go there.
Here's a bit of advice for the new Master Mason, never believe those so called lodge spokesmen that tell you "the only secret about Freemasonry is there is no secret", what that really means is they don't know what they're talking about, clearly they weren't paying attention, in every single degree the word secret is present, there is even a degree in the Scottish Rite named the Secret Master and the Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret.
Not long ago I was involved in an investigation of a new brother, and during our conversation one of the other investigating brothers made the statement "there are no secrets here", referring to the temple and Freemasonry itself. It literally broke my heart. What are the odds that this new perspective brother will begin to look behind the veil after being told there is no veil? The simple answer is slim to none.
Why is it certain lodge spokesman issuing press releases announcing open houses make those statements that the "only secret is there is no secret" as if the idea of secret carries a stigma that hurts our reputation? The mystery has been the draw of Freemasonry for centuries, our numbers are not down because of secrets, our numbers are down because of changing society, television, the Internet, and assorted distractions that have captured the attention of a public that once found brotherhood in the fraternal organizations a rite of passage. The paradigm is shifting, and on a very positive note, fortunately the tide ebbs and flows, today many inquiring brothers are beginning to take a closer look at the sciences and traditions of the past for clues as to the underlying philosophy hidden within the ritual, allegory, and symbolism of Freemasonry. For the first time in a very long time Masonic authors are researching, discussing, and even publishing works on the very subjects that brothers of old spoke about behind closed doors. What I thought at one time was lost has now been found.
Many of these brothers are drawing brothers to the craft that want to look behind the veil, to unlock the mystery that I assure you is there, you just have to know where to look.

Allow me to off this prayer for all sentiment beings; May they attain full wisdom and enlightenment. May they be liberated from all suffering. In addition, may we all exit through the Gate of the Gods by the way of the Seven Spheres

Praesepe, Two Donkeys & A Masonic Manger

Not long ago I wrote an article for the Masonic Magazine "Living Stones" in which I addressed the underlying symbolism of the stewards and that of the Gate of Capricorn, known as the 'Gate of the Gods', which is symbolized by the position of the stewards in the Lodge Room of Freemasonry.

The one thing I dislike after writing an article or a blog entry is re-reading it, re-reading it brings to my awareness what I may have left out, and the abundance of my grammatical errors. Yet on the positive side it sometimes allows me to continue on down the rabbit hole of Masonic symbolism, a journey I rather enjoy, this is one of those entries.

Just after the article was published my Lodge performed an Entered Apprentice Degree ritual, during the slide show lecture, which replaced the tracing board of old, my mind was drawn to the illustration of the beehive, of which all candidates, (I prefer the word initiate) are told a very 'industrious' interpretation of.

Something struck me how simplistic the interpretation given was and low and behold my hunch was correct.

Little did I realize until I began my research I was about to continue with my investigation of the Gates, synchronicity was once again kicking in.

Now let's look at the symbolism of the 'beehive' on a very different level, we'll call it the inner level, one I assure you early modern Freemasonry knew perfectly well (considering the third Grand Master of Freemasonry John Theophilus Desaguliers is credited with the creation of the planetarium, and it's in this planetarium we will be ascending).

Up, up we go into the evening sky, up to what is called in Freemasonry the Royal Arch.

Sandwiched between the distinctive forms of Leo, the lion, and Gemini, the twins, lays the faint outline of the constellation Cancer, Latin for crab. The Tropic of Cancer, an imaginary line circling the globe at 23.5 ° north latitude, was given that name because that is where the Sun is directly overhead at the moment of the summer solstice, June 22, and 2,000 years ago (the line was named the Sun was in the constellation Cancer on that date).

Just how important this day in June is to Freemasonry can't be underscored, know as Midsummer, the time centered upon the summer solstice, the exact dates vary between different cultures, yet in Freemasonry this is the time we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist, one of the two patron saints of Freemasonry.

For those that never got a chance to read my article in Living Stones I make the case that the three degrees of the Blue Lodge have hidden within their inner symbolism the Three Mothers, water, air, and fire. The Entered Apprentice Degree is all about Water and its underlying symbolism.

But what about the beehive, you may be asking?

Within water sign Cancer there is a star cluster named Praesepe (pronounced prē-sē’-pe) also known as the “Bee Hive.” Praesepe is an ‘open cluster’ which spreads out, similar to a swarm of bees over a large area of the sky, with more than forty stars visible to the eye as a cloudy patch at night.



As part of the constellation of the Crab (Cancer) Praesepe is said to be located in the gate of the emergence of life. Recognized by the Platonists of ancient Greece as the highest point of heaven, this was the known as the “Gate of Men” though which souls descended to earth from heaven. It is the opposite of the “Gate of the Gods” found in Capricorn, the subject of my article in Living Stones magazine, where souls of the departed ascended back to heaven.

The constellation of Cancer has few stars and was known as the “dark sign” The darkness of this sign or constellation was regarded as ‘feminine,’ representing the darkness of the womb which gave birth to human souls. Cancer is the symbol of generation, for it is the house of the Moon, the great Mother of all things and the patroness of the life forces of Nature. Diana, the moon goddess of the Greeks, is called the Mother of the World. Concerning the worship of the feminine or maternal principle, Richard Payne Knight writes:

"By attracting or heaving the waters of the ocean, she naturally appeared to be the sovereign of humidity; and by seeming to operate so powerfully upon the constitutions of women, she equally appeared to be the patroness and regulatress of nutrition and passive generation: whence she is said to have received her nymphs, or subordinate personifications, from the ocean; and is often represented by the symbol of the sea crab, an animal that has the property of spontaneously detaching from its own body any limb that has been hurt or mutilated, and reproducing another in its place."...The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.

One of the myths associated with Cancer that should be of interest to Christian brothers is the myth involves the two eyes of the crab, the stars Asellus Borealis, and Asellus Australis, Latin terms for the Northern Ass (donkey), and the Southern Ass.

In between the two donkeys is Praesepe, called by astronomers of old as the 'manger', from which the donkeys appear to be feeding. The beasts were put in the sky to honor the donkeys ridden by the gods in their great battle with the Titans. It is said the loud braying of the donkeys confused the Titans, who had never heard such a noise, and helped win the battle for the gods.

Within the basilica of St. Mary Major (Batilica di Santa Maria Maggiore), in Rome, it has in its center the smaller chapel of the Praesepe where is preserved the sacred crib or cradle, consisting of five boards of the manger in which the infant Jesus is said to have been deposited at his birth, enclosed in an urn of silver and crystal with a fine gilt figure of the child on the top.

The Sacra Culla, or Holy Crib, is reserved for veneration in a silver reliquary by Giuseppe Valladier in the crypt of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

This crib forms the subject of a solemn ceremony and procession on Christmas Eve, which actually falls six months later in the sign of Capricorn, the time of John the Evangelist. The reason I make note of this is: last year Pope Benedict insinuated that no animals were present as normally symbolized in the manger at the birth of the Christ, and they probably weren't, they were present in the constellation of Cancer.

"In Cancer, which had risen to the meridian at midnight, is the constellation of the Stable and of the Ass. The ancients called it Præsepe Jovis. In the north the stars of the Bear are seen, called by the Arabians Martha and Mary, and also the coffin of Lazarus."...Mankind Their Origin and Destiny.

Here we find another instance of ancient pagan myth embodied in Christianity, yet most followers have failed to see its esoteric meaning. Maybe, just maybe, the brothers of old realized much of Christianity was based on a solar myth of old.

Modern Masonic Tracing Board

Some say pictures speak louder than words. With that in mind I thought it would be interesting to update the Masonic Tracing Board. If you can understand the various symbols contained, and their placement, your journey has begun.

I Met A Fellow Craft Known As The Magician

Magi
Magi: a priestly caste in the East, constituting the "learned" class, the custodians of religion and the rites connected therewith, and who gave themselves up to the study of sciences of a recondite character, but with a human interest, such as astrology and magic, and who were held in great reverence by, and exercised a great influence over, the people.
Magi-cian: the art that purports to control or forecast natural events, effects, or forces by invoking the supernatural.
The practice of using rituals to attempt to produce supernatural effects or control events in nature.
You are that "Nature"!
I knew the moment the card was revealed I was looking at a brother Fellow Craft.
But how could that be, here in front of me sat a middle-aged woman, not normally associated with the Men's Club called Freemasonry, dealing cards from a deck called the Tarot, not a subject necessarily discussed within Masonic Temple walls, yet here in front of me this diviner was presenting me with a clear illustration of a Fellow Craft, an image on a card.
I wondered if she knew.

As she continued drawing and revealing the supposed future events of my life my mind drifted from what she was saying instead focusing on the Magician, the name of the card I was certain that contained the image of what I believed to be a brother Fellow Craft.
After leaving the reading my curiosity kicked in, the same curiosity that once drove me to knock on the door of Freemasonry many years before.
I drove directly to the local bookstore a bought a Tarot deck similar to the one used by the gypsy reader, the Rider-Waite deck.
How I knew this, I looked carefully at the weathered box she drew the deck from before leaving.
Come to find out that although the deck was illustrated by an artist named Pamela Colman Smith the symbolic structure was guided by A. E. Waite a brother Freemason, author, and mystic.
I quickly singled out the Magician from the deck. I needed to see if my suspicions were correct, what was Brother Waite sharing, was it the Fellow Craft?
There he stood behind a table in the shape of an alter giving what appeared to be a modified version of the due-guard of the Fellow Craft. Around his waist was what resembled a cable-toe, upon his forehead appeared to be a lifted blindfold, on and on the card kept opening up its symbolism to me, it was certainly a Fellow Craft.

What follows is the author's personal interpretation of Brother Waite's Magician, the Number One card of the Tarot, or in some decks called the Juggler, and how I have come to conclude the symbolism is that of the Fellow Craft.
The Magician card of the Tarot is named for the individual whose possesses the skill to control the elements, which on the card you will find symbolically placed on the table in front of him, in the form of the chalice, symbolic of water, the pentacle, symbolic of the earth, the sword, symbolic of fire, and the wand, symbolic of air, all items you will find physically contained within the many rituals of Freemasonry, with most included in the higher degrees of Freemasonry which are not necessarily within the scope of this paper.
As far as the elements themselves, the importance of water, earth, air, and fire, can't be understated. Physically water is essential for life, and the major component of our bodies and of the earth itself. Earth is the substance or physical body, and the food which is needed to maintain this existence. Respiration, breathing in an out, is another central condition of life, as is the warmth and light of the Sun. Although these elements are physical in nature they are also symbolic of the inner "us", it's these inner elements of our nature we seek to control as the Magician (Fellow Craft).
The same as the tightrope walker the strength of the Magician is his ability control the inner elements of his mind, distractions of any kind could spell disaster if he does not maintain a concentrated state.
If you take the four elements on the table in front of him literally you'll totally miss the point, each one of the symbolic elements pictured on the table represent an aspect of mind that the Magician must master in order to achieve a focused state.
As for these inner elements, Air itself symbolizes thought.
When we look closely at our everyday mind it's not hard to see why Air becomes symbolic of thought, that continually present air-like continuous movement of mind, a mind that continues morning through night, with thoughts often appearing as if out of nowhere.
In order to perform with the ease and ability of the Magician it is necessary to be calm and mindful, with a type of concentration where distractions don't exist, air-heads need not apply.
It's only we can successfully function from our higher mind, completely and totally without distraction can we achieve the focused mind of the Magician.
In many Masonic Temples of old an engraving was placed over the entrance to the lodge room, on it was an axiom "Know thyself", fitting advice, which has nothing to do with your image in the mirror. The Oracle was referring to mind. Knowledge of oneself is the only real knowledge. Hence, the Oracle of Delphi proclaiming to know thyself, for within each of us, all is contained, Air, Fire, Water, Earth.
When we look at the Fire element and how it relates to mind we find ourselves exploring our psychological temperature, and for those involved in the Great Work our spiritual temperature. When we learned to control our inner Fire and harness its energy we can allow the creative force of intuition to guide our spiritual progress.
Just as physical Air increases the heat of physical Fire, so does a clear uncluttered mind (Air) increase our ability to focus, by burning (Fire) away superfluous thought.

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark.... Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach."...Ayn Rand

As for the element of Water and how it pertains to mind (Air) Water relates to fluidity, the ability to be spiritually and psychologically fluid. The flexibility of water also has the ability to temper overly active passion (Fire). In the world of mind sciences Water is also symbolic of our subconscious, a place all seekers must journey eventually, the home of our emotions, shadow, and suppressed memories.
In the three degrees of Freemasonry, each is symbolic of a certain element, the Entered Apprentice is symbolic of Water, the Fellow Craft symbolic of Air, and the Master Mason symbolic of Fire, you we told this in a round about way through the penalties that weren't meant to warn but meant to inform.
I mention this because although we are discussing the Fellow Craft and how he relates to the Magician our actual journey in Freemasonry began with the allusion to Water, a cleansing of sort that prepared us for our journey.
Last but not least the element of Earth, our foundation, strength, and willpower, all important characteristics necessarily to still the over active tendency of what the Buddhists call the "monkey mind".
A note to those observant brothers that noticed the element Earth missing from the degree structure of Freemasonry, it's there, and at one time you even resided in it.
If we return to the image of the Magician standing behind the table with the elements of his trade, the intuitive brother should be able to visibly discern the penalty sign of the Fellow Craft within the position of the Magician's arms, one pointing skyward, the other towards the earth, symbolic of his consciousnesses ability to ascend to the realms of the divine, or descend to the earthly plane of matter, similar to that of Mercury the Roman god who had the ability at will to travel to the realms of the gods as well as descend to the world of men.
It's in this in-between state, Spirit and Matter, we have been given the opportunity to create, a very god-like gift.
If we look to the verse within the penalty portion of the Fellow Craft itself we hear "beasts of the field, and fowls of the air", we can easily make the case this refers to the position of the hands of the Magician, one hand pointing skyward, fowls of the air, the other to the earth, beasts of the field.
The more one researches and compares the symbolism of Tarot to that of Freemasonry the more one discovers the Kabbalah, a mystical science deeply entwined in both.
In Freemasonry we find the Kabbalah symbolically embedded within the rituals, symbols, and allegory of the tradition. For instance if we look at the Hebrew alphabet, of which the Kabbalah borrows freely, the first letter is Aleph, illustrated as a diagonal line with a Yod (which looks like an arm or hand) on each side, one above, one below, similar to the position of the hands of the Magician pictured on the card. This diagonal line is also drawn at the same angle as the penalty of the Fellow Craft. Coincidence? I think not.
If the Magician could speak I'm pretty sure he would be quoting from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes: "True, without falsehood, certain and most true, that which is above is the same as that which is below, and that which is below is the same as that which is above."
Without looking closely at the Kabbalah much of the hidden symbolism in Freemasonry will remain hidden, even to those who earnestly seek.
If we look in the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation, the earliest extant book on Jewish mysticism, we find Aleph called the King over Breath (Air), one of the three elements known as the "Three Mothers", along with letters Mem, symbolizing Water, and Shin, symbolizing Fire.

"Three mothers, Aleph, Mem, and Shin, in the Universe are Air, Water and Fire.

Heaven was created from Fire;

Earth was created from Water;

and Air, from Breath, decides between them."...Sefer Yetzirah

Without a clear understanding of the "Three Mothers" much of the penalty portions of the three degrees will be misunderstood, penalties that were not really meant to warn but to inform. So misunderstood are the penalties of the degrees various jurisdictions have wrongly removed them, believing that their presence in the rituals scared away potential initiates.
If we were to assign a certain card from the Tarot to the three degrees of Freemasonry we would find the Entered Apprentice symbolized by the Hanged Man (Water, Mem), the Fellow Craft symbolized by the Magician (Air, Aleph), and the Master Mason symbolized the Fool (Fire, Shin). It should be noted that other Tarot interpreters have named the "Fool" Aleph, instead of the Magician, and that's fine, just as long as it’s your personal interpretation and not that of another. The idea being to allow the cards to speak to you.
As for my reason for labeling the Magician Aleph, of you look above the image of the Magician you'll find the lemniscate, a very old symbol of "infinity". Another way of looking at the infinity sign is through the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph, which has a number value of One.
"the One has never known measure and stands outside of number, and so is under no limit either in regard to anything external or internal; for any such determination would bring something of the dual into it"...Plotinus

Kabbalah 101 and how it relates to Freemasonry
The Tree of Life is a symbol from the Kabbalah, which consists of ten spheres or energy centre’s, called Sephiroth (numbers), the 10 attributes or emanations through which Ein Sof, the Infinite, reveals himself and continuously creates both the physical realm and the chain of higher metaphysical realms.
These spheres are organized into three columns or pillars as they are called in Freemasonry. Upon these pillars you will find the ten Sephiroth (spheres) aligned in a descending zigzag ladder, symbolic of the Spirit descending into Matter, or reversed where Matter ascends to Spirit.
The sphere named Kether heads the central column, which is known metaphorically speaking as the "Pillar of Mildness" and is associated with Hebrew letter Aleph, "the breath", and the Air element. This pillar is considered the balance, or harmony, between the two opposing forces of black/white, male/female, water/fire, Matter/Spirit, etc… The opposing pillars are known as the Pillar of Severity on one side and the Pillar of Mercy on the other, with the Pillar of Mildness in the middle.
In Freemasonry we call these opposing pillars Jachin and Boaz.
Although you don't see them pictured on the card of the Magician you will find the pillars of Jachin and Boaz featured repeatedly in many of the cards of the tarot.
All of the ten spheres of the Kabbalah belong to one of the three pillars and share particular characteristics with the other spheres which belong to that Pillar. If we consider one side force and the other side form, force is a male trait, Spirit, form female, active/receptive, Matter, than the middle pillar represents harmony, Consciousness.

Considering the zigzag path of the Sephiroth we then see the middle pillar of consciousness generating the male pillar of force and force generating the female pillar of form. For those philosophically minded individuals this brings up a conundrum discussed for centuries in the East, what if consciousness creates reality by producing energy, which creates matter, this reverses all that we have known about sensory reality, something to think about.
Returning to the pillars: the Pillar of Mercy in the Kabbalah, which could be associated with the Pillar of Jachin in Freemasonry, is found on the right hand side of diagrams of what the Kabbalist call the Tree of Life, and is associated with the left hand side of the body and right-brain functions. It represents the male side of man, light, motion, and activity. It is composed of the following spheres in descending order, Chokmah at the top, followed by Chesed than Netzach.
The Pillar of Severity, which could be associated with the Pillar of Boaz in Freemasonry, lies on the left hand side of the Tree of Life as you look at it as a diagram drawn on a piece of paper, but on the right hand side of the body. It is associated with ‘left brain’ functions, darkness, passivity, receptivity, and silence. This represents the female side of man. It is composed of the following spheres Binah at the top, followed by Geburah than Hod.
The Pillar of Balance is the ‘middle pillar’ which runs up the centre of the Tree. It is associated with balance, holism and integration. It represents the balance between the male and female pillars. It is composed of the following spheres, Kether at the top, followed by Tifaret, Yesod, and Malkuth.
During the Fellow Craft degree the candidate is guided through the Pillars of Boaz and Jachin, when passing through he symbolizes Harmony, at that moment the Middle Pillar.
It should be noted that often times you will find these pillars reversed by different artists, a common mistake for those that fail to realize that looking at the "Tree of Life" is like looking at a mirror image, your left becomes the right, and subsequently the right the left, another allusion to what the Tree is also symbolic of, you.
Returning to Aleph, the One, as a symbol represents unity, origin, power, continuity and stability, as unity contains in itself duality, as it is also seen in its form. It links the primeval source with everything that emanates from it.

"In the beginning was (Aleph) the Word, and (Aleph) the Word was with God, and (Aleph) the Word was God." - John 1: 1

On the human level Aleph represents Divine Man.
Carl Jung described the First Principle of the “Magickian” with his archetype of “the self”, and also the “artist”, the Creator.
Now let’s look at the Magician card and see if further allusions can be made to that of the tradition of Freemasonry.
In the Rider-Waite Deck the Magician is dressed in white, symbolizing purity and innocence, the same allusion as the "lambskin" worn by Freemasons. In Freemasonry the Fellow Craft wears one corner of his apron tucked up, pointing up to the triangle of Spirit (the flap turned up).
Around his waist we see a cord in the image of a snake eating its own tail. All brothers are familiar with the cable-tow which binds us, but what of the snake eating its own tail, a very old Masonic symbol, the Ouroboros. Here we find an allusion symbolizing the cycle of life, death and rebirth, bound to what the Buddhists call the wheel. It is also said to symbolize the circle in the two part symbol "the point within the circle", the point then alluding to the One, the Monad of Pythagoras, and a name very familiar to Freemasonry. If we consider the Ouroboros the circle, the Magician inside of it becomes symbolic himself as the "point within the circle".
The red robe, more commonly seen in the higher degrees of Freemasonry, is symbolic of the color of blood is naturally connected with the idea of sacrifice. It is also symbolic of charity, the theme of the verse read aloud by the Chaplin as the Fellow Craft circumambulates the altar during the ritual, 1 Corinthians 13. Those brothers in the higher degrees of Freemasonry should recall the image of the pelican that feeds its progeny with its own blood, an alchemical reference to the reddening phase
Upon the forehead of the Magician we see a headband, which could just as well be a blindfold lifted, symbolic of a man brought into the light.
The color behind the Magician is bright Yellow, the color used symbolically to identify the element Air, the color of the sky when the sun is at its meridian height, the second phase of the sun. We find this further elaborated on by Brother Manly P. Hall: "The origin of the Trinity is obvious to anyone who will observe the daily manifestations of the sun. This orb, being the symbol of all Light, has three distinct phases: rising, midday, and setting. The philosophers therefore divided the life of all things into three distinct parts: growth, maturity, and decay. Between the twilight of dawn and the twilight of evening is the high noon of resplendent glory. God the Father, the Creator of the world, is symbolized by the dawn. His color is blue, because the sun rising in the morning is veiled in blue mist. God the Son he Illuminating One sent to bear witness of His Father before all the worlds, is the celestial globe at noonday, radiant and magnificent, the maned Lion of Judah, the Golden-haired Savior of the World. Yellow is His color and His power is without end. God the Holy Ghost is the sunset phase, when the orb of day, robed in flaming red, rests for a moment upon the horizon line and then vanishes into the darkness of the night to wandering the lower worlds and later rise again triumphant from the embrace of darkness."
Notice how the Magician holds his rod, upright, symbolic of Spirit, the same way as the Junior Warden in the south holds his rod when addressing the Lodge.
In front of the Magician the Rider-Waite deck shows a table, on older decks a cube was often depicted instead of a table, which makes more sense from a Masonic perspective. Why Brother Waite decided to make this change I have no idea, the cube on the other hand used in the older decks, in the language of symbolism, denotes truth.

"By perfecting his conduct, by struggles against his own natural propensities, the candidate is working the rough ashlar of his own nature into the perfect cube, and I would ask you to observe also that the cube itself contains a secret, for unfolded, it itself denotes and takes the form of the cross."...Brother W.L. Wilmshurst, The Meaning of Masonry

You should also notice another symbol discussed within the ritual of the Fellow Craft, the White Lilly, which you were shown were placed upon the pillars, and told they symbolized Peace. Yet when looked at dispersed with the red roses we begin to see a different allusion, the rose and lily together symbolize the balance of thought and desire, the balance of the head and the heart.
I'm fairly sure I have missed some of the hidden symbolism on the Magician card, maybe accidentally on purpose, leaving further exploration to the Fellow Craft himself.

The Floor We Walk Upon - Masonic Immortality

“The separation of Spirit from Matter was a mystery and the union of Spirit with Matter was a mystery also.”...Brother Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

More than once I have visited Masonic Temples and found many symbols of our tradition either missing or altered, the lodge room of my own temple is no exception.
Not long ago I was approached by the youngest brother in the lodge and asked why our temple was missing the black and white checkered floor he had seen pictured in various Masonic Temples online.



Was it coincidence or synchronicity, either way I found myself at one time asking the very same question when I first entered the lodge room of the temple years before?
Never given a satisfactory answer I personally gave up asking, and now years later I found myself in the odd predicament of being asked the very same question.
Instead of sharing what I had learnt, nothing, I decided play Perry Mason and seek out the answer to my brother's inquiry.
Before proceeding it should be noted that the author, myself, sees the symbols of Freemasonry as a language that contains an outer, inner, and secret meaning, triadic in structure, a common language found in most mystery schools. What will be presented here will be all three levels, some familiar, others not.
According to the Masonic Encyclopedia, Brother Mackey informs us; "By a little torsion of historical accuracy, the Masons have asserted that the ground floor of the Temple was a mosaic pavement, and hence, as the Lodge is a representation of the Temple, that the floor of the Lodge should also be of the same pattern (black and white)."
Even though Brother Mackey makes the case that the lodge room is a symbolic representation of the ground floor of the Temple (of Solomon) and should be designed as such, I can see why this is not always practical. In many cases Masonic Lodges rent space in buildings often occupied by other non-Masonic tenants, and in these situations it's understandable why many find the need to allude to the mosaic floor on the trestle board during the lecture of the Entered Apprentice Degree, I'm not sure a landlord would appreciate a black and white floor with a huge blazing star in the middle.
With that said I do believe if the Lodge owns the building, or rents it from a Masonic Building Association, as does mine, they should seriously consider the placement of the highly symbolic black and white checkered floor. The more you display a symbol to the initiate, and brothers, the more the symbol itself will slowly unlock its many levels of interpretation.

Entry (Outer) Level Teaching
Q. What are the ornaments of a Lodge?
A. The mosaic pavement, the indented tessel, and the blazing star.
Q. What are they?
A. The mosaic pavement is a representation of the Ground Floor of King Solomon's Temple, with a blazing star in the centre; the indented tessel, that beautiful tessellated border which surrounds it.
Q. Of what are they emblematical?
A. The mosaic pavement represents this world, which, though checkered over with good and evil, yet brethren may walk to-ether thereon, and not stumble.

In fact with a little research we find "(Solomon) lined its interior walls with cedar boards, paneling them from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and covered the floor of the temple with planks of juniper."...1 Kings 6:15
If we look back to the time when the degrees were created we find many of the brothers were actually theologians, brothers that would have surely been familiar with the verse above, so why create a mystery?
Maybe the answer can be found on a different level.

Time to enter the rabbit hole brother. What follows is a level of interpretation that may shed light as to why I believe we should actually be walking on the black and white checkered floor and not a rug.
First a little myth, a subject that plays prominently in the esoteric aspects of Freemasonry.
The myth begins with a Primordial Unity, the Monad, often symbolized as the "point within the circle", which is sometimes called Aiôn, eternity.
According to Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher all brothers are introduced to at the beginning of their journey, this ineffable deity Aiôn is outside of time and transcends all dualities even that of being and non-being, Aiôn is unity, male and female.

Aiôn 

 Aiôn gives birth by dividing into two Gods, the First Polarity. These Gods, known as Kronos and Rhea, govern the primary dualities, unity/multiplicity, father/mother, male/female, etc. Among these dualities, Kronos and Rhea rule the Light and the Dark (black and white), and by their cyclic alternation create time as we know it, Kronos is the abiding, but Rhea is the proceeding, who by her power to change causes Kronos to become Khronos, time.

Kronos and Rhea

Now if we return briefly to the black and white checkered floor, and its hidden symbolism, we can easily make the case Kronos and Rhea, and time, is symbolized by the dualistic floor, with the Monad symbolized by the Volume of Sacred Law. It's upon this floor of "time" we find ourselves "traveling".
There is no doubt that even on the most basic level Freemasonry is designed around the triad, with the placement of the Volume of Sacred Law (Monad) minus the black and white floor (the Dyad of Pythagoras) we have an incomplete symbol, the rug doesn't cut it.
Often times when researching a certain symbol in Freemasonry I am given clues into unlocking another. Such was the case here, while researching the Rhea and Kronos I couldn't help but see the similarities with the illustration of the "weeping virgin".

Weeping Virgin

During the history portion of the third degree we are shown an illustration of the "weeping virgin" and at the same time given a very exoteric and allegorical story created around our fictional brother Hiram Abiff. Yet when one really digs into the illustration it’s easy to see the correlation between the weeping virgin and Father Time to that of Rhea and Kronos. As for the broken pillar, let’s go deeper into the rabbit hole of Masonic symbolism, to a tradition that certainly influenced the structure of Freemasonry, the Kabbalah.

As alluded to previously most Masonic symbolism can be interpreted three ways, outer, inner, and secret. Up to this point we have briefly explored the outer, where the black and white floor symbolized good and evil, and the inner, where we were introduced to myth, Pythagoras, Rhea, and Kronos, unity and duality. Now we will touch on the secret, the Kabbalah (oh yes brothers we are going there).
In the tradition of the Kabbalah, and similar to the Aiôn, we find the Kether, timelessness.
The Kether is symbolic of pure consciousness, beyond all categories, a point that crystallizes out of the Ein Soph, the divine origin of all created existence. The Kether is the first manifestation, the original unity from which all else unfolds.
Known as the "crown" the Kether is the first and highest of the Sephiroth, the ten divine emanations from God, of the Kabbalah Tree of Life and the highest Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar.
For those unfamiliar the Sephiroth, and the Kabbalah Tree of Life, think of the ladder of the Jacob where the angels (us) travel from the physical reality to the spiritual, the Kether is at the top, the spiritual.
Similar to the Aiôn the Kether divides into Chokmah (the male principle) and Binah (the feminine principle) symbolic of Wisdom and Understanding.
Each one of these three Sephiroth sit upon the head of a pillar, the Kether atop the middle Pillar of Mildness, or Equilibrium (consciousness), the Chokmah atop the Pillar of Mercy (force) to the right, and Binah atop the Pillar of Severity (form) to the left, forming a triangle.
The Right-hand Pillar of Mercy is symbolic of active male, where the Left-hand Pillar of Judgment is symbolic of the passive, female, or receptive pillar.

Q. "What, then, are the stages of manifestation?"
A. "The first stage is the appearance of the potential point in the circle —the un-manifested Logos. The second stage is the shooting forth of the Ray from the potential white point, producing the first point, which is' called, in the Zohar, Kether or Sephira. The third stage is the production from Kether of Chokmah, and Binah, thus constituting the first triangle, which is the Third or manifested Logos—in other words, the subjective and objective Universe.".. Helena Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

When looked at closely the similarity between the myth of Aiôn, Kronos and Rhea and that of Kether, Chokmah, and Binah is easily seen.
I would not be the first to put forth that the pillars of Freemasonry, Boaz and Jachin actually represent the left and right Pillars of Mercy and Severity (judgment). During the ritual of the second degree the candidate is directed between the two pillars, it's at this time, physically, the candidate himself symbolizes the third pillar, the Pillar of Mildness (Equilibrium).
In many lodges the pillar Boaz is black and pillar Jachin is white, symbolic of duality.
Remember that illustration discussed earlier, that of the weeping virgin, the broken pillar may just be symbolic of you and your woeful condition upon entering Freemasonry, separated from the "one", unity.
And what does this have to do with the black and white checkered floor you may be asking?
Simplified the black and white floor symbolizes our present condition, black symbolizes Matter, while white symbolizes Spirit, it's in these two seemingly opposite dualities our present consciousness finds itself.
At the present moment we are bodies (Matter) that have the ability to realize its divinity (Spirit), and at various times we may find ourselves walking in either Spirit consciousness, or that of Matter.
It's also walking on this floor we learn of Masonic immortality:
"There is a conflict between Spirit and Matter. The Matter absorbs the Spirit in order to exist, and the Spirit assimilates Matter, for it is its own property. The whole of manifestation may thus be regarded as continual conflict between Spirit and Matter; the Spirit developing into Matter on the one hand and Spirit assimilating Matter on the other; the former being called activity and the latter silence, or construction and destruction, or life and death. When one realizes that the source of both Spirit and Matter is life, then one will see that there is no such thing as death; but this one can only recognize when knows the distinction between the life which may be called the source and the life which is momentary, the life which Matter shows by absorbing Spirit."...Hazrat Inayat Khan

It's Raining Fire - The Dew of Hermon

"To him that overcometh will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it."...St. John the Evangelist
"His name is called the Word of God." Each and every brother is told of the importance of the search for the lost word.
I remember the evening well, the night of my Entered Apprentice Degree, as I was being guided blindly in what seemed like a rather a large circle, I heard a deep baritone voice proclaim as of from atop a mountain: "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord Commanded the Blessing, even life for evermore."
As the chaplain of my lodge I have since read the scripture quoted above numerous times, Psalms 133.
One evening while practicing my memorization my attention was drawn to the "dew of Hermon", a symbol I was unfamiliar with.
I had long ago realized that nothing was arbitrarily placed within the highly symbolic rituals of Freemasonry, and as I was to find out the "dew of Hermon" was another good example of the genius of Freemasonry.
For those unfamiliar with my Masonic writings please allow me to share a little of my personal belief as to the highly and little understood symbolic structure of Freemasonry. It is my contention that in order to understand the higher purpose of Freemasonry you have to go beyond face value and literal interpretation of the many symbols contained within the tradition, and only then will you understand the higher level of "Unity" the psalmist was referring too.
History has revealed that the rituals and symbols of our tradition arrived on the scene during the late sixteen and early seventeen hundreds, a time aptly known as the Age of Enlightenment, a period of history that experienced an occult revival of sorts, a reaction to mainstream religion gone bad with its oppressive and overly judgmental dogma.
Amongst the many subjects our learned brothers found interesting at the time were Alchemy, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, and Kabbalah, all very old traditions that used a highly symbolic language as a mode of transmission, all subjects the religiously controlled state would prefer be avoided.
The God of old no longer made sense, centuries of suppression and inquisition had taken their toll, the cultural and intellectual elite decided to rewind, looking again at the past and at the same time taking a closer look at nature and its reality for the real God.
The church saw this exploration as an affront to its authority, which caused many to discuss their findings privately, away from prying ears. What better way to transmit their findings than to create rituals drawn from the wisdom of the past and harmonize it with the science of the present, teachings the literalists would never get.
What many of these brothers began to perceive is that much of the Bible could only be understood through the highly complex language of symbolism, the very same symbolism found in Alchemy, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, and Kabbalah.
The question then becomes, why include the "dew of Hermon" in the Entered Apprentice Degree of Freemasonry?
I assure you that if research the 133rd Psalm in context to the Masonic usage you'll find simplified reasons as to its inclusion in the Entered Apprentice Degree, brotherhood, unity of brotherhood, even references to the rainy season in Palestine, all interesting, yet probably off the mark, all literal.
Let’s look to the past, the time when men spoke the language of symbolism.
"The dew of Hermon, the Holy Spirit, descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there *I.A.O. commanded the blessing, life for evermore..." Psalm cxxxiii.
This dew was also Hermes, the Sixth Messenger or Teacher of Truth and Morality to men.
The ancient significance of "dew" is that of teaching or instruction. This idea is represented in the hieroglyphs of the Egyptians by wavy lines in the form of a double arch. In Hebrew the word (ire) signifies drops of water and likewise to teach. The idea in a symbolic sense is that of instruction which prepares man for the gaining of wisdom, and rain which prepares the earth for bearing crops.
This same symbolism runs back through the ages and shows again the link connecting all the religions with a Secret Teaching given to each Messenger and he in turn transmits it to the people of his generation in a manner best suited for their intellectual development."...Brother Thomas Milton Stewart, Symbolic Teaching: Or, Masonry and Its Message, 1914
(I.A.O. is the principal and most characteristic formula of Osiris, of the Redemption of Mankind. "I" is Isis, Nature, ruined by "A", Apep the Destroyer (Apep was thought to live in the underworld, he was sometimes thought of as an Eater-up of Souls and usually symbolized as a snake) and restored to life by the Redeemer Osiris.)
As we can see in the paragraph above Brother Stewart clearly believed the meaning of the "dew" could be found in Hermeticism, the science of Hermes.
"The teachings of Hermes -- the Hermetic tradition -- is one of the oldest spiritual traditions in the world, and while no direct evidence links the Emerald Tablet to Eastern religions, it shares uncanny similarities in concepts and terminology with Taoism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. In the West, the tablet found a home not only in the pagan tradition but also in all three of the orthodox Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and many of the most heretical beliefs of the Gnostics are also openly expressed in it."...Dennis William Hauck, A Hyper-History of the Emerald Tablet
In the Emerald Tablet referred to above we find a passage I believe significant to the "dew" and it's placement in the symbolism of Freemasonry.
"It ascends from the earth to the heaven. It extracts the lights from the heights and descends to the earth containing the power of the above and the below for it is with the light of the lights. Therefore the darkness flees from it."
If we look closely at the sciences known as Alchemy, Hermeticism, Gnosticism, and Kabbalah we find a similar esoteric allusion, the process of the divine Spirit descending down into Matter, called involution, followed by the process by which the divine ascends back upwards out of Matter to Spirit, called evolution. When we once again look at Psalms 133 we see this involution when the "dew" descends upon the mountain, only to be followed by the evolution when the heat of the day draws the dew “back to whence it came”. Talk about the Yin and Yang.
While researching Hermes I came upon an interesting passage from A General History of Freemasonry: Based Upon Ancient Documents by Emmanuel Rebold
"The Egyptian priests inform us that Hermes, in dying, said: "Until now I have been exiled from my true country, to which I am about to return. Shed no tears for me. I return to that celestial country whither all must repair in their turn. There is God. This life is but a death."
I was struck by the similarity of a verse found in the Fellow Craft Degree: "remembering that we are traveling upon the Level of Time to that undiscovered country from whose borne no traveler returns." Coincidence? I think not, it's not above the original brothers to give subtle hints as to where to look for the keys required to unlock the mystery.
Now let’s look to the science of Alchemy (a metaphoric science very much entwined with Hermeticism), where the heavenly dew is considered the universal solvent, the liquid form of the Stone which dissolves all old forms, the self-organizing matrix for the rebirth of new forms, symbolic of ego death and re-creation.
"The truth, symbolized by some alchemists as dew from heaven, had descended into their hearts, and they had all gathered it upon the tops of mountains, after having spread clean linen cloths to receive it; and thus, in one sense, they had secured each for himself, and in his own way, the universal solvent."...
What a beautiful passage highlighted by "truth" and "clean linen cloths". Each Freemason seeks 'light', symbolic of truth, as for clean linen clothes, you can't but help think of the white lamb skins worn by all brothers, symbolic of purity.
Dew in the magical world of Alchemy is also symbolic of divine incarnation or manifestation from Above. Alchemists believed natural dew contained the divine Salt, thoughts of the One Mind, which could transform the Sulfur and Mercury of the First Matter. In many ways, dew represented the Elixir or contents of the cup of God, the Holy Grail.
To this point we have seen how the dew may be interpreted in the traditions of Hermeticism and Alchemy, lets now look toward the Kabbalah, which I believe offers the deepest insight.
Two things you should know before we begin 'Mem' is actually a letter from the Hebrew alphabet, which is symbolic of water, and given the numerical value of 40, a symbolic number that is mentioned one hundred and forty times in the bible.
Nun is also a letter found in the Hebrew alphabet, in Aramaic, Nun means "fish", and the last letter you need to be acquainted with is Shin, symbolic of fire and oil.
The Mem, the waters of the sea, which is alluded to in the penalty portion of the Entered Apprentice Degree, is the natural medium of the Nun, the fish. The Nun "swims" in the Mem, covered by the waters of the "hidden world." The simple fact is that the fish doesn't even realize it’s in the water. If you tried to explain it to, the fish, they'd probably say, “Water? What's water?”
They're so surrounded by it, that it's impossible to see, that is until they get outside of it.
We are told in the Old Testament that the nation of Israel was in the wilderness for forty years, which relates to numeric value of Mem. It was during this time God sustained the people by providing them with manna, which is usually translated as a “bread,” a type of food.
The manna is said to come down from shamayim.
Shamayim literally means “*fiery waters,” but is usually translated as “heaven.”
Shamayim is a “dew, or moisture.” and Manna is spelled Mem-Nun (MAN). Mem is water--that is the dew from heaven--and the Nun relates to a fish, symbolizes a fish, but is much more than that.
"I am the moisture which preserves everything in nature and makes it live, I pass from the upper to the lower planes; I am the heavenly dew and the fat of the land; I am the fiery water and the watery fire; nothing may live without me in time; I am close to all things yea; in and through all things, nevertheless unknown."...author unknown, Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucian’s of the 16th and 17th Centuries
So the Manna is that sustenance that the Initiates receive from God, to help their passing through their trials and ordeals. We need that Manna in order to survive our wilderness. We need more than just the water, the Mem; we also need what is in the water: the Nun, and that Nun is life. It is a type of primordial wisdom within the water.
If we look once more at Psalm 133 we find an ointment (oil) anointing the head, beard, and the garment of Aaron, here we find Shin, symbolic of fire or spirit, descending into Mem, water of matter, the involution, promise of a spiritual illumination to come, you just have to do the work.