The Rite of Intrusting, and the Symbolism of Light.
The _rite of intrusting_, to which we are now to direct our attention,
will supply us with many important and interesting symbols.
There is an important period in the ceremony of masonic initiation, when
the candidate is about to receive a full communication of the mysteries
through which he has passed, and to which the trials and labors which he
has undergone can only entitle him. This ceremony is technically called
the "_rite of intrusting_," because it is then that the aspirant begins to
be intrusted with that for the possession of which he was seeking.[95]
It is equivalent to what, in the ancient Mysteries, was called the
"autopsy," [96] or the seeing of what only the initiated were permitted to
behold.
This _rite of intrusting_ is, of course, divided into several parts or
periods; for the _aporreta_, or secret things of Masonry, are not to be
given at once, but in gradual progression. It begins, however, with the
communication of LIGHT, which, although but a preparation for the
development of the mysteries which are to follow, must be considered as
one of the most important symbols in the whole science of masonic
symbolism. So important, indeed, is it, and so much does it pervade with
its influence and its relations the whole masonic system, that Freemasonry
itself anciently received, among other appellations, that of Lux, or
Light, to signify that it is to be regarded as that sublime doctrine of
Divine Truth by which the path of him who has attained it is to be
illuminated in his pilgrimage of life.
The Hebrew cosmogonist commences his description of the creation by the
declaration that "God said, Let there be light, and there was light"--a
phrase which, in the more emphatic form that it has received in the
original language of "Be light, and light was," [97] is said to have won
the praise, for its sublimity, of the greatest of Grecian critics. "The
singularly emphatic summons," says a profound modern writer,[98] "by which
light is called into existence, is probably owing to the preëminent
utility and glory of that element, together with its mysterious nature,
which made it seem as
'The God of this new world,'
and won for it the earliest adoration of mankind."
Light was, in accordance with this old religious sentiment, the great
object of attainment in all the ancient religious Mysteries. It was there,
as it is now, in Masonry, made the symbol of _truth_ and _knowledge_. This
was always its ancient symbolism, and we must never lose sight of this
emblematic meaning, when we are considering the nature and signification
of masonic light. When the candidate makes a demand for light, it is not
merely for that material light which is to remove a physical darkness;
that is only the outward form, which conceals the inward symbolism. He
craves an intellectual illumination which will dispel the darkness of
mental and moral ignorance, and bring to his view, as an eye-witness, the
sublime truths of religion, philosophy, and science, which it is the great
design of Freemasonry to teach.
In all the ancient systems this reverence for light, as the symbol of
truth, was predominant. In the Mysteries of every nation, the candidate
was made to pass, during his initiation, through scenes of utter darkness,
and at length terminated his trials by an admission to the
splendidly-illuminated sacellum, or sanctuary, where he was said to have
attained pure and perfect light, and where he received the necessary
instructions which were to invest him with that knowledge of the divine
truth which it had been the object of all his labors to gain, and the
design of the institution, into which he had been initiated, to bestow.
_Light_, therefore, became synonymous with truth and knowledge, and
_darkness_ with falsehood and ignorance. We shall find this symbolism
pervading not only the institutions, but the very languages, of antiquity.
Thus, among the Hebrews, the word AUR, in the singular, signified
_light_, but in the plural, AURIM, it denoted the revelation of the divine
will; and the _aurim _ and _thummim_, literally the _lights_ and _truths_,
constituted a part of the breastplate whence the high priest obtained
oracular responses to the questions which he proposed.[99]
There is a peculiarity about the word "light," in the old Egyptian
language, which is well worth consideration in this connection. Among the
Egyptians, the _hare_ was the hieroglyphic of _eyes that are open_; and it
was adopted because that timid animal was supposed never to close his
organs of vision, being always on the watch for his enemies. The hare was
afterwards adopted by the priests as a symbol of the mental illumination
or mystic light which was revealed to the neophytes, in the contemplation
of divine truth, during the progress of their initiation; and hence,
according to Champollion, the hare was also the symbol of Osiris, their
chief god; thus showing the intimate connection which they believed to
exist between the process of initiation into their sacred rites and the
contemplation of the divine nature. But the Hebrew word for hare is
ARNaBeT. Now, this is compounded of the two words AUR, _light_, and NaBaT,
_to behold_, and therefore the word which in the Egyptian denoted
_initiation_, in the Hebrew signified _to behold the light_. In two
nations so intimately connected in history as the Hebrew and the Egyptian,
such a coincidence could not have been accidental. It shows the prevalence
of the sentiment, at that period, that the communication of light was the
prominent design of the Mysteries--so prominent that the one was made the
synonyme of the other.[100]
The worship of light, either in its pure essence or in the forms of
sun-worship and fire-worship, because the sun and the fire were causes of
light, was among the earliest and most universal superstitions of the
world. Light was considered as the primordial source of all that was holy
and intelligent; and darkness, as its opposite, was viewed as but another
name for evil and ignorance. Dr. Beard, in an article on this subject, in
Kitto's Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature, attributes this view of the
divine nature of light, which was entertained by the nations of the East,
to the fact that, in that part of the world, light "has a clearness and
brilliancy, is accompanied by an intensity of heat, and is followed in its
influence by a largeness of good, of which the inhabitants of less genial
climates have no conception. Light easily and naturally became, in
consequence, with Orientals, a representative of the highest human good.
All the more joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations of
the frame, all the happy hours of domestic intercourse, were described
under imagery derived from light. The transition was natural--from earthly
to heavenly, from corporeal to spiritual things; and so light came to
typify true religion and the felicity which it imparts. But as light not
only came from God, but also makes man's way clear before him, so it was
employed to signify moral truth, and preëminently that divine system of
truth which is set forth in the Bible, from its earliest gleamings onward
to the perfect day of the Great Sun of Righteousness."
I am inclined to believe that in this passage the learned author has
erred, not in the definition of the symbol, but in his deduction of its
origin. Light became the object of religious veneration, not because of
the brilliancy and clearness of a particular sky, nor the warmth and
genial influence of a particular climate,--for the worship was universal,
in Scandinavia as in India,--but because it was the natural and inevitable
result of the worship of the sun, the chief deity of Sabianism--a faith
which pervaded to an extraordinary extent the whole religious sentiment of
antiquity.[101]
Light was venerated because it was an emanation from the sun, and, in the
materialism of the ancient faith, _light_ and _darkness_ were both
personified as positive existences, the one being the enemy of the other.
Two principles were thus supposed to reign over the world, antagonistic to
each other, and each alternately presiding over the destinies of
mankind.[102]
The contests between the good and evil principle, symbolized by light and
darkness, composed a very large part of the ancient mythology in all
countries.
Among the Egyptians, Osiris was light, or the sun; and his arch-enemy,
Typhon, who ultimately destroyed him, was the representative of darkness.
Zoroaster, the father of the ancient Persian religion, taught the same
doctrine, and called the principle of light, or good, Ormuzd, and the
principle of darkness, or evil, Ahriman. The former, born of the purest
light, and the latter, sprung from utter darkness, are, in this mythology,
continually making war on each other.
Manes, or Manichaeus, the founder of the sect of Manichees, in the third
century, taught that there are two principles from which all things
proceed; the one is a pure and subtile matter, called Light, and the other
a gross and corrupt substance, called Darkness. Each of these is subject
to the dominion of a superintending being, whose existence is from all
eternity. The being who presides over the light is called _God_; he that
rules over the darkness is called _Hyle_, or _Demon_. The ruler of the
light is supremely happy, good, and benevolent, while the ruler over
darkness is unhappy, evil, and malignant.
Pythagoras also maintained this doctrine of two antagonistic principles.
He called the one, unity, _light_, the right hand, equality, stability,
and a straight line; the other he named binary, _darkness_, the left hand,
inequality, instability, and a curved line. Of the colors, he attributed
white to the good principle, and black to the evil one.
The Cabalists gave a prominent place to light in their system of
cosmogony. They taught that, before the creation of the world, all space
was filled with what they called _Aur en soph_, or the _Eternal Light_,
and that when the Divine Mind determined or willed the production of
Nature, the Eternal Light withdrew to a central point, leaving around it
an empty space, in which the process of creation went on by means of
emanations from the central mass of light. It is unnecessary to enter into
the Cabalistic account of creation; it is sufficient here to remark that
all was done through the mediate influence of the _Aur en soph_, or
eternal light, which produces coarse matter, but one degree above
nonentity, only when it becomes so attenuated as to be lost in darkness.
The Brahminical doctrine was, that "light and darkness are esteemed the
world's eternal ways; he who walketh in the former returneth not; that is
to say, he goeth to eternal bliss; whilst he who walketh in the latter
cometh back again upon earth," and is thus destined to pass through
further transmigrations, until his soul is perfectly purified by
light.[103]
In all the ancient systems of initiation the candidate was shrouded in
darkness, as a preparation for the reception of light. The duration varied
in the different rites. In the Celtic Mysteries of Druidism, the period in
which the aspirant was immersed in darkness was nine days and nights;
among the Greeks, at Eleusis, it was three times as long; and in the still
severer rites of Mithras, in Persia, fifty days of darkness, solitude, and
fasting were imposed upon the adventurous neophyte, who, by these
excessive trials, was at length entitled to the full communication of the
light of knowledge.
Thus it will be perceived that the religious sentiment of a good and an
evil principle gave to darkness, in the ancient symbolism, a place equally
as prominent as that of light.
The same religious sentiment of the ancients, modified, however, in its
details, by our better knowledge of divine things, has supplied
Freemasonry with a double symbolism--that of _Light_ and _Darkness_.
Darkness is the symbol of initiation. It is intended to remind the
candidate of his ignorance, which Masonry is to enlighten; of his evil
nature, which Masonry is to purify; of the world, in whose obscurity he
has been wandering, and from which Masonry is to rescue him.
Light, on the other hand, is the symbol of the autopsy, the sight of the
mysteries, the intrusting, the full fruition of masonic truth and
knowledge.
Initiation precedes the communication of knowledge in Masonry, as darkness
preceded light in the old cosmogonies. Thus, in Genesis, we see that in
the beginning "the world was without form, and void, and darkness was on
the face of the deep." The Chaldean cosmogony taught that in the beginning
"all was darkness and water." The Phoenicians supposed that "the beginning
of all things was a wind of black air, and a chaos dark as Erebus." [104]
But out of all this darkness sprang forth light, at the divine command,
and the sublime phrase, "Let there be light," is repeated, in some
substantially identical form, in all the ancient histories of creation.
So, too, out of the mysterious darkness of Masonry comes the full blaze of
masonic light. One must precede the other, as the evening preceded the
morning. "So the evening and the morning were the first day."
This thought is preserved in the great motto of the Order, "_Lux e
tenebris_"--Light out of darkness. It is equivalent to this other
sentence: Truth out of initiation. _Lux_, or light, is truth; _tenebrae_,
or darkness, is initiation.
It is a beautiful and instructive portion of our symbolism, this
connection of darkness and light, and well deserves a further
investigation.
"Genesis and the cosmogonies," says Portal, "mention the antagonism of
light and darkness. The form of this fable varies according to each
nation, but the foundation is everywhere the same. Under the symbol of the
creation of the world it presents the picture of regeneration and
initiation." [105]
Plutarch says that to die is to be initiated into the greater Mysteries;
and the Greek word τελευτᾷν, which signifies _to die_, means also _to be
initiated_. But black, which is the symbolic color of darkness, is also
the symbol of death. And hence, again, darkness, like death, is the symbol
of initiation. It was for this reason that all the ancient initiations
were performed at night. The celebration of the Mysteries was always
nocturnal. The same custom prevails in Freemasonry, and the explanation is
the same. Death and the resurrection were taught in the Mysteries, as
they are in Freemasonry. The initiation was the lesson of death. The full
fruition or autopsy, the reception of light, was the lesson of
regeneration or resurrection.
Light is, therefore, a fundamental symbol in Freemasonry. It is, in fact,
the first important symbol that is presented to the neophyte in his
instructions, and contains within itself the very essence of Speculative
Masonry, which is nothing more than the contemplation of intellectual
light or truth.[106]