john-r-bennett-the-origin-of-freemasonry-and-knights-templar

FREEMASONRY AND KNIGHTS TEMPLAR1of a speculative science, based on an operative art,but also very significantly exhibits itself as the symbolicexpression of a religious idea. In other andplainer words, we see in it the important lesson ofeternal life, taught by a legend which, whether trueor false, is used in Masonry as a symbol and allegory.But whence came this legend ? Did all linealsources have this legend? The evidence is thatthey did. Not indeed the same legend not the same;personage as its hero; not the same details; but alegend with the same spirit and design; a legendfunereal in character, celebrating death and resurrection,solemnized in lamentations and terminatingin joy.We can not correctly understand the history ofthe nations of antiquity, much less their theology,philosophy, science or ethics, without knowledge oftheir societies. Some of the grandest ideas, thosewhich have had the greatest influence on humanprogress, were born amid mystic symbols.*NOTE. The asterisk (*) refers to the Supplement for furtherinformation.Ancient Mysteries.Among the most important of the Ancient Mysterieswere the following: The Osiric in Egypt,the Adonisian in Syria, the Mithraic in Persia, theCabiric in Thrace, the Druidical among the Celts,the Scandinavian among the Gothic, the Dionysianand Eleusinian in Greece.Each of the Pagan gods had, beside the public,a secret worship paid him, to which none were ad-1 See Speculative Masonry in Supplement.3