201 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
201 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI June, 1933 No.6
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THE LETTER “G”
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by: Unknown
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The Short Talk Bulletin of July, 1927, bears the title “G”. This
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popular exposition of the meaning and symbolism of the letter so
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precious to Freemasons is long out of print, although preserved in
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many sets of bound volumes and in libraries. This present paper is
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intended to be supplementary to, and not a recapitulation of, that
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printed as Number 7, of Volume V of these Bulletins.
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“It is merely an accident of the English language that God and
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Geometry begin with the same letter; no matter what the language or
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he ritual, the initial of the Ineffable Name and that of the first
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and noblest of sciences are Masonicaly the same.
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“But that is a secret! cries some newly made brother who has examined
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his printed monitor and finds that the ritual concerning the further
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significance of the letter “G” is represented only by stars. Aye,
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the “ritual” is secret, but the “fact,” is the most gloriously public
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that Freemasonry may herald to the world. One can no more keep
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secret the idea that God is the very warp and woof of Freemasonry
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than that he is the essence of all life. Take God out of
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Freemasonry, and there is, literally, nothing left; it is a pricked
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balloon, an empty vessel, a bubble which has burst.” (Introduction
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to Freemasonry.)
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That the Letter “G” is not a secret symbol is attested by hundreds of
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Masonic writers, each of whom has written of it from a different
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standpoint. Mackey has much to say of it - too much to quote at
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length, but space may be found for an extract:
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“G. The seventh letter of the English, Latin and Romanic alphabets.
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In the Greek and many other alphabets it is in third place; in the
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Russian, Wallachian, and some others, it is in fourth; in the Arabic
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the fifth, and in the Ethiopian the twentieth. In Hebrew it is
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called Gheemel, is of the numerical value of three, and its
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significance is “camel.” It is associated with the third sacred name
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of God, in Hebrew, Ghadol, or in Latin, Magnus, the Mighty. In
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Freemasonry it is given as the initial of the word God.”
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Hutchinson, in his Spirit of Masonry” (1776), says of the sacred
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letter:
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“It is now incumbent on me to demonstrate to you the great
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significance of the letter “G”, wherewith Lodges and the medals of
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Masons are ornamented. To apply its significance to the name of God
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only is depriving it of part of its Masonic import; although I have
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already shown that the symbols used in the Lodges are expressive of
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the Divinity’s being the great object of Masonry, as Architect of the
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World. This significant letter denotes Geometry, which, to
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artificers, is the science by which all their labours are calculated
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and formed; and to Masons, contains the determination, definition and
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proof of the order, beauty and wonderful wisdom of the power of God
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in His Creation.”
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Dr. Frederick Dalcho wrote (1801) as follows:
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“The Letter “G,” which ornaments the Mason’s Lodge, is not only
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expressive of the name of the Grand Architect of the Universe, but
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also denotes the science of Geometry, so necessary to artists. But
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the adoption of it by Masons implies no more than their respect for
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those inventions which demonstrate to the world the power, the wisdom
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and the beneficence of the Almighty Builder in the works of
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creation.”
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Various attempts have been made to place the date when the Letter “G”
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first came into the ritual of Speculative Freemasonry. Pichard’s
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expose, originally published in 1730, does not contain any reference
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to it. Later editions do include a curious doggerel which is worth
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repeating here. It is in the usual Question and Answer, or Examiner
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and Response, form so popular in all ritualistic work in the early
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days.:
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Resp. In the midst of Solomon’s Temple there stands a “G,” A letter
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for all to read and see; but few there be that understand what means
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the Letter “G.”
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Exam. My Friend, if you pretend to be of this Fraternity, you can
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forthwith and rightly tell, what means that Letter “G.”
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Resp. By sciences are brought to light, bodies of various kinds.
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Which do appear to perfect sight; but none but males shall know my
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mind.
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Exam. The Right shall.
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Resp. If Worshipful.
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Exam. Both Right and Worshipful I am, to hail you I have command,
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that you forthwith let me know, as I you may understand.
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Resp. By letters four and science five, this “G” aright doth stand,
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in due Art and Proportion; you have your answer friend.”
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While authorities differ as to just when the letter “G” came into the
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ritual, all are agreed that the date is not later than 1768; very
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probably it was earlier.
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Authorities are, however, by no means at one on the origin of the
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symbol then adopted into Speculative Masonry. The choice is wide and
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the fancy free; if we are willing to admit presumptive testimony,
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even if it will not satisfy a legal mind as evidence, then the
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introduction of the symbol into our system is as old as Speculative
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Masonry - however old that may be!
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The Letter “G” as we know it, the Roman “G”, is not a geometrical
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figure. It is part circle, part oval, part horizontal and vertical
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lines. It bears internal evidence of being a conventionalizing of a
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much more severe design.
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In the Greek, Gamma, or “G”, the third letter, is a square standing
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on end with the horizontal arm extending to the right, like a plain
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block letter “T,” with the left extension of the cross piece omitted.
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In Hebrew the “G” is a square with the right side omitted; two right
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angles joined, the horizontal arms extending to the right.
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Refer to the doggerel again;
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“By letter four and science five, this “G” aright doth stand.”
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“Letters four” properly refers to J H V H, the tetragrammaton or
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four-letter word, the Hebrew designation of deity, which we call
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Jehovah, for want of a more likely rendition of the vowels (omitted
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in early Hebrew writing).
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“Science Five,” of course, is Geometry.
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The Pythagoreans reverenced numbers as sacred; geometry was to them
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the sacred science. It initial letter, Gamma, a square, was
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especially revered. The Gamma looks like a square used by builders;
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it was the symbol of the actual, four-sided, or geometrical square,
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the first whole number square, and therefore, the representative of
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deity, the four-letter word, the tetragrammaton.
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Symbols are easily converted the one into the other and back again.
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If the Gamma, which appeared like a workman’s square, was a symbol of
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the geometrical square, which in turn was a symbol of Deity, then, by
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a simple reconversion looked like Gamma, which in one position looked
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like the square of the workman, soon came to symbolize the
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tetragrammaton or four-letter word.
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The Greek Gamma was rounded into the Latin “C.” For a while it stood
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for both the sounds of “g” and “k.” Later (third century B.C.), a
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slight change was made in the Latin “c” which stood for the soft, or
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“j” sound - and behold, our modern Roman “G.” Hence, by a path
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straight to any but mind demanding documentary proof, we place the
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origin of our “G,” as representing both God and Geometry, as far back
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as the Pyrhogoreans (sixth century, B.C.).
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Another interesting hypothesis - it is hardly more - calls attention
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to the fact that three geometrical forms appear in the Greek
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alphabet, as we have seen; Gamma (G) is a square standing on end, the
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horizontal arm extended to the right. Omicron (O) is a circle, Delta
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(D) is a triangle.
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Writing one letter on top of another to form a monogram is very old.
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The three Greek letters, Gamma, Omicron and Delta may be combined in
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a monogram to form a very fair conventionalizing of our letter “G”
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inside a triangle which looks not unlike our modern square and
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compasses!
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Here is further testimony that the letter “G” and the ancient square,
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the Greek Gamma, or the Greek monogram of Gamma, Omicron, and Delta,
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which make a conventional Roman “G” inside a triangle, were connected
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in ancient Masonic minds. This is credited in the “Bulletin” of the
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Grand Lodge of Iowa (September, 1932) to Brother John A. Cockburn,
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noted Masonic writer.
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“If further proof of the former identity of the letter “G” and the
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square were needed, it is to be found in the text of a ritual no
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longer in use among us. Therein it is recorded that in an attack on
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our Master a second blow was struck with a square across his breast,
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“and that on an exhumation a faint resemblance to the letter “G”
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marked on his left breast was discovered.” (Italics ours - Ed.)
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The combination of square and circle, or cross and circle (a cross
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forms two right angles, or squares) appears in a hundred guises in as
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many religious rites. The interested may recall the “hot cross bun”
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and the association of the egg, marked with crosses, with Easter; in
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Yorkshire, the brides cake at weddings was formerly cut into small
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squares and passed through a wedding ring, as a form of prayer for
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fertility; circle and square are combined in the wearing of a wedding
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ring on the fourth finger; the very number “4” itself was originally
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a circle, being changed to the present conventionalized square and
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upright after the fifteenth century; children still play the ancient
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game of noughts and crosses, or “tit-tat-toe,” a combination of
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circles and squares.
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That Freemasonry has in her letter “G” and its connotations a
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relationship with this ancient association of “letters four and
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science five -“ that is, of Deity and science or knowledge - is not
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remarkable - rather it would extraordinary if she had not. In all
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ages and all religions, man has interwoven together his thought of
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spirit and matter, his ideas of relative and absolute. Freemasonry’s
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“G” is but another of these conceptions, expressed in a symbol. If
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the symbol now used - a Roman “G” - is less fitting for an art
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concerned especially with squares than was the original Gamma, it at
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least should receive the reverence due a respectable age. Even those
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whose ideas of the fitness of things would be better satisfied if our
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“G” were Gamma, would hardly subscribe to an effort to change now.
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Mackey, the great Masonic authority, regretted that the Roman “g”
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ever found its way into our symbolism, and read the “G” as a
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substitute for the Hebrew Yod, which in turn is a symbol of the
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tetragrammaton, or four-letter word. Unquestionably the “Lost Word,”
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the very heart of the Masonic system, is represented by the Yod, but
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it is a far cry to include also Geometry in that representation. The
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Greek Gamma, (of which our roman “G” is a substitute) however, did
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represent both the ineffable Name and the greatest of the sciences.
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Three Greek letters which spell our name for Deity can be monogrammed
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to make a modern Roman “G” inside a square and compasses. However
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corrupt the geometrical form of the Roman “G”, and however much more
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illuminating it might have been had we continued to use the Greek
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Gamma of Pythagoras, what we have adopted and made so integral a part
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of our Masonry that it is in every English speaking Lodge in the
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world, is far to sacred and familiar ever to change.
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Of course Mackey is not lightly to be set aside, yet modern
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scholarship so differs with the great authority on this point that
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even those who revere him most, agree that here his genius led him
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astray.
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Sufficient has been said to indicate that the Letter “G” is far more
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than a mere letter. A symbol of Deity and His Own science, Geometry,
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it carries us back to the childhood of knowledge; it combines and
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associates other symbols from which it sprang and the ideas for which
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they stand. As a symbol “G” is particularly Freemasonry’s own. To
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the inquiring mind it calls insistently, if always softly, for better
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understanding and appreciation from Craftsmen.
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