The Stone of Foundation constitutes one of the most important and abstruse
of all the symbols of Freemasonry. It is referred to in numerous legends
and traditions, not only of the Freemasons, but also of the Jewish
Rabbins, the Talmudic writers, and even the Mussulman doctors. Many of
these, it must be confessed, are apparently puerile and absurd; but some
of them, and especially the masonic ones, are deeply interesting in their
allegorical signification.
The Stone of Foundation is, properly speaking, a symbol of the higher
degrees. It makes its first appearance in the Royal Arch, and forms,
indeed, the most important symbol of that degree. But it is so intimately
connected, in its legendary history, with the construction of the
Solomonic temple, that it must be considered as a part of Ancient Craft
Masonry, although he who confines the range of his investigations to the
first three degrees, will have no means, within that narrow limit, of
properly appreciating the symbolism of the Stone of Foundation.
As preliminary to the inquiry which is about to be instituted, it is
necessary to distinguish the Stone of Foundation, both in its symbolism
and in its legendary history, from other stones which play an important
part in the masonic ritual, but which are entirely distinct from it. Such
are the _corner-stone_, which was always placed in the north-east corner
of the building about to be erected, and to which such a beautiful
reference is made in the ceremonies of the first degree; or the
_keystone_, which constitutes an interesting part of the Mark Master's
degree; or, lastly, the _cape-stone_, upon which all the ritual of the
Most Excellent Master's degree is founded. These are all, in their proper
places, highly interesting and instructive symbols, but have no connection
whatever with the Stone of Foundation or its symbolism. Nor, although the
Stone of Foundation is said, for peculiar reasons, to have been of a
cubical form, must it be confounded with that stone called by the
continental Masons the _cubical stone_--the _pierre cubique_ of the
French, and the _cubik stein_ of the German Masons, but which in the
English system is known as the _perfect ashlar_.
The Stone of Foundation has a legendary history and a symbolic
signification which are peculiar to itself, and which differ from the
history and meaning which belong to these other stones.
Let us first define this masonic Stone of Foundation, then collate the
legends which refer to it, and afterwards investigate its significance as
a symbol. To the Mason who takes a pleasure in the study of the mysteries
of his institution, the investigation cannot fail to be interesting, if it
is conducted with any ability.
But in the very beginning, as a necessary preliminary to any investigation
of this kind, it must be distinctly understood that all that is said of
this Stone of Foundation in Masonry is to be strictly taken in a mythical
or allegorical sense. Dr. Oliver, the most learned of our masonic writers,
while undoubtedly himself knowing that it was simply a symbol, has written
loosely of it, as though it were a substantial reality; and hence, if the
passages in his "Historical Landmarks," and in his other works which refer
to this celebrated stone are accepted by his readers in a literal sense,
they will present absurdities and puerilities which would not occur if the
Stone of Foundation was received, as it really is, as a philosophical
myth, conveying a most profound and beautiful symbolism. Read in this
spirit, as all the legends of Masonry should be read, the mythical story
of the Stone of Foundation becomes one of the most important and
interesting of all the masonic symbols.
The Stone of Foundation is supposed, by the theory which establishes it,
to have been a stone placed at one time within the foundations of the
temple of Solomon, and afterwards, during the building of the second
temple, transported to the Holy of Holies. It was in form a perfect cube,
and had inscribed upon its upper face, within a delta or triangle, the
sacred tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of God. Oliver, speaking with the
solemnity of an historian, says that Solomon thought that he had rendered
the house of God worthy, so far as human adornment could effect, for the
dwelling of God, "when he had placed the celebrated Stone of Foundation,
on which the sacred name was mystically engraven, with solemn ceremonies,
in that sacred depository on Mount Moriah, along with the foundations of
Dan and Asher, the centre of the Most Holy Place, where the ark was
overshadowed by the shekinah of God." [217] The Hebrew Talmudists, who
thought as much of this stone, and had as many legends concerning it as
the masonic Talmudists, called it _eben shatijah_[218] or "Stone of
Foundation," because, as they said, it had been laid by Jehovah as the
foundation of the world; and hence the apocryphal book of Enoch speaks of
the "stone which supports the corners of the earth."
This idea of a foundation stone of the world was most probably derived
from that magnificent passage of the book of Job, in which the Almighty
demands of the afflicted patriarch,--
"Where wast thou, when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Declare, since thou hast such knowledge!
Who fixed its dimensions, since thou knowest?
Or who stretched out the line upon it?
Upon what were its foundations fixed?
And who laid its corner-stone,
When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?" [219]
Noyes, whose beautiful translation I have adopted as not materially
differing from the common version, but which is far more poetical and more
in the strain of the original, thus explains the allusions to the
foundation-stone: "It was the custom to celebrate the laying of the
corner-stone of an important building with music, songs, shouting, &c.
Hence the morning stars are represented as celebrating the laying of the
corner-stone of the earth." [220]
Upon this meagre statement have been accumulated more traditions than
appertain to any other masonic symbol. The Rabbins, as has already been
intimated, divide the glory of these apocryphal histories with the Masons;
indeed, there is good reason for a suspicion that nearly all the masonic
legends owe their first existence to the imaginative genius of the writers
of the Jewish Talmud. But there is this difference between the Hebrew and
the masonic traditions, that the Talmudic scholar recited them as truthful
histories, and swallowed, in one gulp of faith, all their impossibilities
and anachronisms, while the masonic student has received them as
allegories, whose value is not in the facts, but in the sentiments which
they convey.
With this understanding of their meaning, let us proceed to a collation of
these legends.
In that blasphemous work, the "_Toldoth Jeshu_" or _Life of Jesus_,
written, it is supposed, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, we find
the following account of this wonderful stone:--
"At that time [the time of Jesus] there was in the House of the Sanctuary
[that is, the temple] a Stone of Foundation, which is the very stone that
our father Jacob anointed with oil, as it is described in the
twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Genesis. On that stone the letters of
the tetragrammaton were inscribed, and whosoever of the Israelites should
learn that name would be able to master the world. To prevent, therefore,
any one from learning these letters, two iron dogs were placed upon two
columns in front of the Sanctuary. If any person, having acquired the
knowledge of these letters, desired to depart from the Sanctuary, the
barking of the dogs, by magical power, inspired so much fear, that he
suddenly forgot what he had acquired."
This passage is cited by the learned Buxtorf, in his "_Lexicon
Talmudicum_;" [221] but in the copy of the "_Toldoth Jeshu_" which I have
the good fortune to possess (for it is among the rarest of books), I find
another passage which gives some additional particulars, in the following
words:--
"At that time there was in the temple the ineffable name of God, inscribed
upon the Stone of Foundation. For when King David was digging the
foundation for the temple, he found in the depths of the excavation a
certain stone, on which the name of God was inscribed. This stone he
removed, and deposited it in the Holy of Holies." [222]
The same puerile story of the barking dogs is repeated, still more at
length. It is not pertinent to the present inquiry, but it may be stated
as a mere matter of curious information, that this scandalous book, which
is throughout a blasphemous defamation of our Saviour, proceeds to say,
that he cunningly obtained a knowledge of the tetragrammaton from the
Stone of Foundation, and by its mystical influence was enabled to perform
his miracles.
The masonic legends of the Stone of Foundation, based on these and other
rabbinical reveries, are of the most extraordinary character, if they are
to be viewed as histories, but readily reconcilable with sound sense, if
looked at only in the light of allegories. They present an uninterrupted
succession of events, in which the Stone of Foundation takes a prominent
part, from Adam to Solomon, and from Solomon to Zerubbabel.
Thus the first of these legends, in order of time, relates that the Stone
of Foundation was possessed by Adam while in the garden of Eden; that he
used it as an altar, and so reverenced it, that, on his expulsion from
Paradise, he carried it with him into the world in which he and his
descendants were afterwards to earn their bread by the sweat of their
brow.
Another legend informs us that from Adam the Stone of Foundation descended
to Seth. From Seth it passed by regular succession to Noah, who took it
with him into the ark, and after the subsidence of the deluge, made on it
his first thank-offering. Noah left it on Mount Ararat, where it was
subsequently found by Abraham, who removed it, and consequently used it as
an altar of sacrifice. His grandson Jacob took it with him when he fled to
his uncle Laban in Mesopotamia, and used it as a pillow when, in the
vicinity of Luz, he had his celebrated vision.
Here there is a sudden interruption in the legendary history of the
stane, and we have no means of conjecturing how it passed from the
possession of Jacob into that of Solomon. Moses, it is true, is said to
have taken it with him out of Egypt at the time of the exodus, and thus it
may have finally reached Jerusalem. Dr. Adam Clarke[223] repeats what he
very properly calls "a foolish tradition," that the stone on which Jacob
rested his head was afterwards brought to Jerusalem, thence carried after
a long lapse of time to Spain, from Spain to Ireland, and from Ireland to
Scotland, where it was used as a seat on which the kings of Scotland sat
to be crowned. Edward I., we know, brought a stone, to which this legend
is attached, from Scotland to Westminster Abbey, where, under the name of
Jacob's Pillow, it still remains, and is always placed under the chair
upon which the British sovereign sits to be crowned, because there is an
old distich which declares that wherever this stone is found the Scottish
kings shall reign.[224]
But this Scottish tradition would take the Stone of Foundation away from
all its masonic connections, and therefore it is rejected as a masonic
legend.
The legends just related are in many respects contradictory and
unsatisfactory, and another series, equally as old, are now very generally
adopted by masonic scholars, as much better suited to the symbolism by
which all these legends are explained.
This series of legends commences with the patriarch Enoch, who is supposed
to have been the first consecrator of the Stone of Foundation. The legend
of Enoch is so interesting and important in masonic science as to excuse
something more than a brief reference to the incidents which it details.
The legend in full is as follows: Enoch, under the inspiration of the Most
High, and in obedience to the instructions which he had received in a
vision, built a temple under ground on Mount Moriah, and dedicated it to
God. His son, Methuselah, constructed the building, although he was not
acquainted with his father's motives for the erection. This temple
consisted of nine vaults, situated perpendicularly beneath each other, and
communicating by apertures left in each vault.
Enoch then caused a triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of
which was a cubit long; he enriched it with the most precious stones, and
encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate of the same form. On the plate
he engraved the true name of God, or the tetragrammaton, and placing it
on a cubical stone, known thereafter as the Stone of Foundation, he
deposited the whole within the lowest arch.
When this subterranean building was completed, he made a door of stone,
and attaching to it a ring of iron, by which it might be occasionally
raised, he placed it over the opening of the uppermost arch, and so
covered it that the aperture could not be discovered. Enoch himself was
not permitted to enter it but once a year, and after the days of Enoch,
Methuselah, and Lamech, and the destruction of the world by the deluge,
all knowledge of the vault or subterranean temple, and of the Stone of
Foundation, with the sacred and ineffable name inscribed upon it, was lost
for ages to the world.
At the building of the first temple of Jerusalem, the Stone of Foundation
again makes its appearance. Reference has already been made to the Jewish
tradition that David, when digging the foundations of the temple, found in
the excavation which he was making a certain stone, on which the ineffable
name of God was inscribed, and which stone he is said to have removed and
deposited in the Holy of Holies. That King David laid the foundations of
the temple upon which the superstructure was subsequently erected by
Solomon, is a favorite theory of the legend-mongers of the Talmud.
The masonic tradition is substantiallv the same as the Jewish, but it
substitutes Solomon for David, thereby giving a greater air of probability
to the narrative; and it supposes that the stone thus discovered by
Solomon was the identical one that had been deposited in his secret vault
by Enoch. This Stone of Foundation, the tradition states, was subsequently
removed by King Solomon, and, for wise purposes, deposited in a secret and
safer place.
In this the masonic tradition again agrees with the Jewish, for we find in
the third chapter of the "_Treatise on the Temple_" written by the
celebrated Maimonides, the following narrative--
"There was a stone in the Holy of Holies, on its west side, on which was
placed the ark of the covenant, and before it the pot of manna and Aaron's
rod. But when Solomon had built the temple, and foresaw that it was, at
some future time, to be destroyed, he constructed a deep and winding vault
under ground, for the purpose of concealing the ark, wherein Josiah
afterwards, as we learn in the Second Book of Chronicles, xxxv. 3,
deposited it, with the pot of manna, the rod of Aaron, and the oil of
anointing."
The Talmudical book "_Yoma_" gives the same tradition, and says that "the
ark of the covenant was placed in the centre of the Holy of Holies, upon a
stone rising three fingers' breadth above the floor, to be, as it were, a
pedestal for it." "This stone," says Prideaux,[225] "the Rabbins call the
Stone of Foundation, and give us a great deal of trash about it."
There is much controversy as to the question of the existence of any ark
in the second temple. Some of the Jewish writers assert that a new one was
made; others, that the old one was found where it had been concealed by
Solomon; and others again contend that there was no ark at all in the
temple of Zerubbabel, but that its place was supplied by the Stone of
Foundation on which it had originally rested.
Royal Arch Masons well know how all these traditions are sought to be
reconciled by the masonic legend, in which the substitute ark and the
Stone of Foundation play so important a part.
In the thirteenth degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite, the Stone of
Foundation is conspicuous as the resting-place of the sacred delta.
In the Royal Arch and Select Master's degrees of the Americanized York
Rite, the Stone of Foundation constitutes the most important part of the
ritual. In both of these it is the receptacle of the ark, on which the
ineffable name is inscribed.
Lee, in his "_Temple of Solomon_", has devoted a chapter to this Stone of
Foundation, and thus recapitulates the Talmudic and Rabbinical traditions
on the subject:--
"Vain and futilous are the feverish dreams of the ancient Rabbins
concerning the Foundation Stone of the temple. Some assert that God placed
this stone in the centre of the world, for a future basis and settled
consistency for the earth to rest upon. Others held this stone to be the
first matter, out of which all the beautiful visible beings of the world
have been hewn forth and produced to light. Others relate that this was
the very same stone laid by Jacob for a pillow under his head, in that
night when he dreamed of an angelic vision at Bethel, and afterwards
anointed and consecrated it to God. Which when Solomon had found (no doubt
by forged revelation, or some tedious search, like another Rabbi Selemoh),
he durst not but lay it sure, as the principal foundation stone of the
temple. Nay, they say further, he caused to be engraved upon it the
tetragrammaton, or the ineffable name of Jehovah." [226]
It will be seen that the masonic traditions on the subject of the Stone of
Foundation do not differ very materially from these Rabbinical ones,
although they give a few additional circumstances.
In the masonic legend, the Foundation Stone first makes its appearance, as
I have already said, in the days of Enoch, who placed it in the bowels of
Mount Moriah. There it was subsequently discovered by King Solomon, who
deposited it in a crypt of the first temple, where it remained concealed
until the foundations of the second temple were laid, when it was
discovered and removed to the Holy of Holies. But the most important point
of the legend of the Stone of Foundation is its intimate and constant
connection with the tetragrammaton, or ineffable name. It is this name,
inscribed upon it, within the sacred and symbolic delta, that gives to the
stone all its masonic value and significance. It is upon this fact, that
it was so inscribed, that its whole symbolism depends.
Looking at these traditions in anything like the light of historical
narratives, we are compelled to consider them, to use the plain language
of Lee, "but as so many idle and absurd conceits." We must go behind the
legend, viewing it only as an allegory, and study its symbolism.
The symbolism of the Foundation Stone of Masonry is therefore the next
subject of investigation.
In approaching this, the most abstruse, and one of the most important,
symbols of the Order, we are at once impressed with its apparent
connection with the ancient doctrine of stone worship. Some brief
consideration of this species of religious culture is therefore necessary
for a proper understanding of the real symbolism of the Stone of
Foundation.
The worship of stones is a kind of fetichism, which in the very infancy
of religion prevailed, perhaps, more extensively than any other form of
religious culture. Lord Kames explains the fact by supposing that stones
erected as monuments of the dead became the place where posterity paid
their veneration to the memory of the deceased, and that at length the
people, losing sight of the emblematical signification, which was not
readily understood, these monumental stones became objects of worship.
Others have sought to find the origin of stone-worship in the stone that
was set up and anointed by Jacob at Bethel, and the tradition of which had
extended into the heathen nations and become corrupted. It is certain that
the Phoenicians worshipped sacred stones under the name of _Baetylia_,
which word is evidently derived from the Hebrew _Bethel_; and this
undoubtedly gives some appearance of plausibility to the theory.
But a third theory supposes that the worship of stones was derived from
the unskilfulness of the primitive sculptors, who, unable to frame, by
their meagre principles of plastic art, a true image of the God whom they
adored, were content to substitute in its place a rude or scarcely
polished stone. Hence the Greeks, according to Pausanias, originally used
unhewn stones to represent their deities, thirty of which that historian
says he saw in the city of Pharas. These stones were of a cubical form,
and as the greater number of them were dedicated to the god Hermes, or
Mercury, they received the generic name of _Hermaa_. Subsequently, with
the improvement of the plastic art, the head was added.[227]
One of these consecrated stones was placed before the door of almost every
house in Athens. They were also placed in front of the temples, in the
gymnasia or schools, in libraries, and at the corners of streets, and in
the roads. When dedicated to the god Terminus they were used as landmarks,
and placed as such upon the concurrent lines of neighboring possessions.
The Thebans worshipped Bacchus under the form of a rude, square stone.
Arnobius[228] says that Cybele was represented by a small stone of a
black color. Eusebius cites Porphyry as saying that the ancients
represented the deity by a black stone, because his nature is obscure and
inscrutable. The reader will here be reminded of the black stone _Hadsjar
el Aswad_, placed in the south-west corner of the Kaaba at Mecca, which
was worshipped by the ancient Arabians, and is still treated with
religious veneration by the modern Mohammedans. The Mussulman priests,
however, say that it was originally white, and of such surprising splendor
that it could be seen at the distance of four days' journey, but that it
has been blackened by the tears of pilgrims.
The Druids, it is well known, had no other images of their gods but
cubical, or sometimes columnar, stones, of which Toland gives several
instances.
The Chaldeans had a sacred stone, which they held in great veneration,
under the name of _Mnizuris_, and to which they sacrificed for the purpose
of evoking the Good Demon.
Stone-worship existed among the early American races. Squier quotes
Skinner as asserting that the Peruvians used to set up rough stones in
their fields and plantations, which were worshipped as protectors of their
crops. And Gam a says that in Mexico the presiding god of the spring was
often represented without a human body, and in place thereof a pilaster or
square column, whose pedestal was covered with various sculptures.
Indeed, so universal was this stone-worship, that Higgins, in his
"_Celtic Druids_," says that, "throughout the world the first object of
idolatry seems to have been a plain, unwrought stone, placed in the
ground, as an emblem of the generative or procreative powers of nature."
And the learned Bryant, in his "_Analysis of Ancient Mythology_," asserts
that "there is in every oracular temple some legend about a stone."
Without further citations of examples from the religious usages of other
countries, it will, I think, be conceded that the cubical stone formed an
important part of the religious worship of primitive nations. But
Cudworth, Bryant, Faber, and all other distinguished writers who have
treated the subject, have long since established the theory that the pagan
religions were eminently symbolic. Thus, to use the language of Dudley,
the pillar or stone "was adopted as a symbol of strength and firmness,--a
symbol, also, of the divine power, and, by a ready inference, a symbol or
idol of the Deity himself." [229] And this symbolism is confirmed by
Cornutus, who says that the god Hermes was represented without hands or
feet, being a cubical stone, because the cubical figure betokened his
solidity and stability.[230]
Thus, then, the following facts have been established, but not precisely
in this order: First, that there was a very general prevalence among the
earliest nations of antiquity of the worship of stones as the
representatives of Deity; secondly, that in almost every ancient temple
there was a legend of a sacred or mystical stone; thirdly, that this
legend is found in the masonic system; and lastly, that the mystical stone
there has received the name of the "Stone of Foundation."
Now, as in all the other systems the stone is admitted to be symbolic,
and the tradition connected with it mystical, we are compelled to assume
the same predicates of the masonic stone. It, too, is symbolic, and its
legend a myth or an allegory.
Of the fable, myth, or allegory, Bailly has said that, "subordinate to
history and philosophy, it only deceives that it may the better instruct
us. Faithful in preserving the realities which are confided to it, it
covers with its seductive envelope the lessons of the one and the truths
of the other." [231] It is from this stand-point that we are to view the
allegory of the Stone of Foundation, as developed in one of the most
interesting and important symbols of Masonry.
The fact that the mystical stone in all the ancient religions was a symbol
of the Deity, leads us necessarily to the conclusion that the Stone of
Foundation was also a symbol of Deity. And this symbolic idea is
strengthened by the tetragrammaton, or sacred name of God, that was
inscribed upon it. This ineffable name sanctifies the stone upon which it
is engraved as the symbol of the Grand Architect. It takes from it its
heathen signification as an idol, and consecrates it to the worship of the
true God.
The predominant idea of the Deity, in the masonic system, connects him
with his creative and formative power. God is, to the Freemason, _Al
Gabil_, as the Arabians called him, that is, _The Builder_; or, as
expressed in his masonic title, the _Grand Architect of the Universe_, by
common consent abbreviated in the formula G.A.O.T.U. Now, it is evident
that no symbol could so appropriately suit him in this character as the
Stone of Foundation, upon which he is allegorically supposed to have
erected his world. Such a symbol closely connects the creative work of
God, as a pattern and exemplar, with the workman's erection of his
temporal building on a similar foundation stone.
But this masonic idea is still further to be extended. The great object of
all Masonic labor is _divine truth_. The search for the _lost word_ is the
search for truth. But divine truth is a term synonymous with God. The
ineffable name is a symbol of truth, because God, and God alone, is truth.
It is properly a scriptural idea. The Book of Psalms abounds with this
sentiment. Thus it is said that the truth of the Lord "reacheth unto the
clouds," and that "his truth endureth unto all generations." If, then, God
is truth, and the Stone of Foundation is the masonic symbol of God, it
follows that it must also be the symbol of divine truth.
When we have arrived at this point in our speculations, we are ready to
show how all the myths and legends of the Stone of Foundation may be
rationally explained as parts of that beautiful "science of morality,
veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols," which is the acknowledged
definition of Freemasonry.
In the masonic system there are two temples; the first temple, in which
the degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry are concerned, and the second temple,
with which the higher degrees, and especially the Royal Arch, are related.
The first temple is symbolic of the present life; the second temple is
symbolic of the life to come. The first temple, the present life, must be
destroyed; on its foundations the second temple, the life eternal, must be
built.
But the mystical stone was placed by King Solomon in the foundations of
the first temple. That is to say, the first temple of our present life
must be built on the sure foundation of divine truth, "for other
foundation can no man lay."
But although the present life is necessarily built upon the foundation of
truth, yet we never thoroughly attain it in this sublunary sphere. The
Foundation Stone is concealed in the first temple, and the Master Mason
knows it not. He has not the true word. He receives only a substitute.
But in the second temple of the future life, we have passed from the
grave, which had been the end of our labors in the first. We have removed
the rubbish, and have found that Stone of Foundation which had been
hitherto concealed from our eyes. We now throw aside the substitute for
truth which had contented us in the former temple, and the brilliant
effulgence of the tetragrammaton and the Stone of Foundation are
discovered, and thenceforth we are the possessors of the true word--of
divine truth. And in this way, the Stone of Foundation, or divine truth,
concealed in the first temple, but discovered and brought to light in the
second, will explain that passage of the apostle, "For now we see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall
I know even as also I am known."
And so, the result of this inquiry is, that the masonic Stone of
Foundation is a symbol of divine truth, upon which all Speculative Masonry
is built, and the legends and traditions which refer to it are intended to
describe, in an allegorical way, the progress of truth in the soul, the
search for which is a Mason's labor, and the discovery of which is his
reward.