TREE-WORSHIP ing how early that worship was introduced, and how pre-eminent it was among the Buddhists af those days””; and says J. G. R. Forlong, in his Rivers oj Life, or Faiths of Man, “before Vedic days; and can be found in almost every cave md temple allied to the Phallic faith as cor- isinly as can be found ever standing at the entrance of these “Houses of God’ the Phallic pillar or pillars, It is the old story whether We turn to Solomon's temple, 1000 B. c., or to PALM-TREE WITH CROSS. the Karli Buddhist temples, which gaze down won us from Bombay to Poona, and which date from about the Christian era.’ The Bael tree, as a representative of. the triad and monad, was always offered at Lin- gam worship, and the god was commonly to be found under an umbrageous Bael. All nations, Aryans in particular, consid- ered tree-planting a sacred duty. The grand old trees became centers of life and of gre tmditions, and the character of the foliage had its symbolic meanings, At the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, at the aut harvest, Jews are ordered to hang boughs of trees, laden with fruit, round the borders of their beoths, also boughs of barren trees. The worshipers go to the synagogue carrying in their right hand one palm-branch, three myrtles, and two willows, all tied to- gether; and in the left hand a citron branch with fruit on it. These they make touch each other, and wave to the east, then south, then vest, and then north: this is termed Hosana. On the seventh day of the Feast, all save the willow bough must be laid aside. ‘The Palm, as a tree, yields more to man than any other class of trees. Nineveh shows the Palm surrounded by winged deities holding the pine-cone—symbol of life, which there 797 takes the place of the Crux Ansata. The Phenix resting on the Palm signifies “Resur- rection to eternal life.” ‘The four evangelists are depicted in “an evangelum,” in the li- brary of the British Museum, as all looking up to the Palm-tree. Christians, for a similar ideal, erected a cross-bar, and placed an Alpha and an Omega on it. At Najran, in Yemen, Arabia, Sir William Ouseley ‘describes the mogt perfect tree- worship as still existing close to the city. The tree is the Palm or Sacred date. The Palm has always borne a most important part in all the faiths of the world down to the present day. The Jews gave the Palm a distin; ae place in architecture. The tree and its lotus top, says Kitto, took the place of the Egyptian column on Solomon’s famous phalli, the Jachin and Boaz. The two trees in Genesis were those of Life and Knowledge, and were probably drawn from the Egyptian and Zoroastrian stories. But no further reference is taken in the Bible of the “Tree of Knowledge” after Genesis, but to that of Life, or the “Tree which gives Life,” as in the Apoca- lypse ii. 7, This is also the Eastern name and significance of the Lingam or Pillar; and when covered with carved inscriptions, the Toth or Pillar in Egypt became known as the “Tree of Knowk Trestle-Board. The trestle-board is de- fined to be the board upon which the Master inscribes the designs by which the Craft are to be directed in their labors. The French and German Masons have con- founded the _trestle-board with the tracing- board; and Dr. Oliver (Landm., i., 132) has not avoided the error. The two things are entirely different. The trestle is a framework for a table—in Scotch, ‘rest; TRESTLE-BOARD the tresl-board ig the board placed for con- venience of drawing on that frame. It con- tains nothing but a few diagrams, usually geometrical fi The tracing-board is. icture formerly drawn on the floor of the ge, whence it was called a floor-cloth or carpet. It contains a delineation of the symbols of the degree to which it, belon ‘The trestle-board is to be found only in, the Entered Apprentice’s Degree. There is a lan tracing-board in Ty degree, from the first to the highest. And, lastly, the ¢restle-board is a symbol; the tracing-board is a piece of furniture or picture containing the repre- sentation of many symbol It is probable that the ‘eeatlohoard, from798 | TRESTLE-BOARD its necessary use in Operative Masonry te nee of the earliest symbols introduced into the Speculative system. It is not, however, mentioned in the Grand Mystery, published in 1724. But Prichard, who wrote only six years afterward, describes it, under the corrupted name of trasel- board, as one of the immovable jewels of an Apprentice’s Lodge. Browne, in 1880, following Preston, fell into the error of calling it a, tracing-board, and gives from the Prestonian lecture what he terms “a beautiful degree of comparison,” in which the Bible is compared to a, tracing-board. But the Bible is not a collection of symbols, which a tracing-board is, but a trestle~ board that contains the plan for the con- struction of a spiritual temple. Webb, however, whea he arranged his system of lectures,’ took the proper view, and restored the true word, trestle-board. Notwithstanding these changes in the name, trestleboard, trasel-board, tracing- board, and trestle-board again, the defini- tion has continued from the earliest part of the last century to the present day the same. It hss always been enumerated among the jewels of the Lodge, although the English ‘system says that it is immov- able and the American movable; and it has always been defined as “a board for the master workman to draw his designs upon.”” ‘Tn Operative Masonry, the trestle-board is of vast importance. It was on such an implement that the genius of the ancient masters worked out those problems of architecture that have reflected an unfad- ing luster on their skill. The trestle-board was the cradle that nursed the infancy of such mighty monuments as the cathedrals ‘of Strasburg and Cologne; and as they ad- Yanced in stature, the trestle-board became the guardian spirit that directed their growth. Osi haye those old builders pondered b the midnight lamp upon their trestle-board, working out its designs with consummate taste and knowledge—here springing an arch, and turing an angle there, until, the embryo edifice stood forth in all the wisdom, strength, and beauty of the Master’s art. What, then, is its true symbolism in Speculative Masonry? To construct his earthly temple, the Op- erative Mason followed the architectural designs laid down on the trestle-board, or book of plans of thearchitect. By these he hewed and squared his materials; by these he raised his walls; by these he constructed his arches; and by these strength and dura- bility, combined with grace and beauty, were bestowed upon the edifice which he was constructing. Tn the Masonic ritual, the Speculative Mason is reminded that,’ as the Operative artist erects his temporal building in ac- cordance with the rules and designs laid Jown on the trestle-board of the master workman, so should he erect that spiritual TRIAD building, of which the material is a type, in obedience to the rules and designs, the pre- cepts and commands, laid down by the Great Architect of the Universe in those great books of nature and revelation which constitute the spiritual trestle-board of every Freemason. The trestle-board is then the symbol of the natural and moral law, Like every other symbol of the Order, it is universal and tolerant in its application; and while, a8 Christian Masons, we cling’ with unfal- tering integrity to the explanation which makes the Scriptures of both dispensations our trestle-board, we permit, our Jewish and Mohammedan brethren to content them- selves with the books of the Old Testament or Korat. Masonry does not, interfere with the peculiar form ‘or development of any one’s religious faith. All that it, asks is that the interpretation of the symbol shall be according to what each one supposes to be the revealed will of his Creator. But so rigidly exacting is it that, the symbol shall be preserved and, in some ratio way, interpreted, that it peremptorily ex- cludes the atheist from its communion, be- cause, believing in no Supreme Being—no Divine Architect—he must necessarily be without a spiritual trestle-board on which the designs of that Being may be inscribed for his direction. ‘Triad. In ail the ancient mythologies there were triads, which consisted of a mys- terious union of three deities. Each triad was generally explained as consisting of a creator, a preserver, and a destroyer. The principal heathen triads were as follows: the eyptian, Osiris, Isis, and Horus; the Orphic, Phanes, Uranus, ‘and Kronos; the Zoroastic, Ormuzd, Mithras, and Ahriman; the Indian, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; the Cabiric, Axercos, Axdokersa, and Axiokersos; the Pheenician, Ashtaroth, Milcom, and Che- mosh; the Tyrian, Belus, Venus, and Tham- muz; the Grecian, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades; the Roman,’ Jupiter, Neptune, ani Pluto: the Eleusinian, Lacchus, Persephone, and Demeter; the Platonic, Tagathon, Nous and Psyche; the Celtic, Hu, Ceridwen, and Greirwy; the ‘Teutonic, Fenris, Midgan\ and Hea; the Gothic, Woden, Friga, and Thor; and the Scandinavians, Odin, Vile, and Ve, Even the Mexicans had their ti ads, which were Vitzliputeli, Kaloc, and ‘Tescalipuca. This system of triads has, indeed, been so predominant in all the old’ religions, 2s to @ invested with a mystical idea; and hence it has become the type in Masonry of the triad of three governing officers, who are to Le found in almost every degree. The Master and the two Wardens in the ive tise to the Priest, the King, and the ribe in the Royal Arch; to the Commander Tee Goneralissinvo, and the Captain-General in Templarism; and in most of the high degrees to a triad who preside und:r various names,A NEW AND REVISED EDITION AN ENCYCLOPADIA PREEMASONRY ITS KINDRED SCIENCES COMPRISING THE WHOLE RANGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND LITERATURE AS CONNECTED WITH THE INSTITUTION BY ALBERT G. MACKEY, M.D., 33° AUTHOR OF “THE HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY,” “LEXICON OF FREEMASONRY.” “A TEXT-ROOK OF MAZONIC JURISPRUDENCE,” “SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY,” ETC, ETC. THIS NEW AND REVISED EDITION PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION, AND WITH THE ASSISTANCE, OF THE LATE WILLIAM J. HUGHAN, 32° PAST GRAND DEACON (ENGLAND), PAST GRAND WARDEN (EGYPT), PAST GRAXD wanDEN (iowa), Past + ASSISTANT GRAND SOJOURNER (ENGLAND), ONE OF THE FOUNDERS QUATUOR conoware ones (LoNDOX); AUTHOR oF “ENGLISH MASONIC RITE," “OLD CHARGES,” ETO. BY EDWARD L. HAWKINS, M.A., 30° PROV. §. G. W. (SUSSEX), P. PROV. 5. G. W. (OXFORDSHIRE), MEMBEW QUATUOR CORONATI LopGE (LoxDON), AUTHOR OF “CONCISE CYCLOPEDIA OF FREZUASONRY™ PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED VOLUME It PUBLISHED BY THE MASONIC HISTORY COMPANY CHICAGO NEWYORK LONDON 1924