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Post by area51 on Mar 8, 2014 17:14:46 GMT -5
Yes. A lot of masons don't join for the esoterica (which the OP is a typical example of) but for the friends & beer fellowship, the social charity aspect or with the idea of networking. Masons more interested in esoterica eventually move on to various side-degrees in masonry.
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Post by BlackHawk on Mar 8, 2014 18:00:22 GMT -5
Very interesting thread. Looking more at Claude Nicolas Ledoux, he was a very unique person and had many interests. I had not heard of him before, so thank you for the knowledge.
I think the confusion is that masonry defines his accomplishments. While he was a Freemason, and he used masonic symbolism in his designs, he had many interests, alchemy and hermetic teachings being some of them. I think there is a misconception that they are all synonymous, but they are different. (to a point) Some masonic side orders teach parts of alchemy as well as other esoteric interests, but as a whole, masonry isn't about that at all. (IMHO)
None of that takes away from the accomplishments of Ledoux, or the merits of this thread. Fantastic job.
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Post by ispyi on Mar 8, 2014 18:15:59 GMT -5
The last woodcut image you have is interesting. At the left there is a web with a spider in the center placed above a flowering plant. The bee represents a person who seeks light and the flower with its nectar represents the true R+C whilst the web with its spider represents those schools who offer the false hope of light but instead entangle the seeker in degrees and dues which serves only to waist their time and money.
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Post by ikillosama on Mar 8, 2014 18:20:47 GMT -5
In masonic teachings, the Bee, or Bee Hive represents industry.
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Post by maddog on Mar 8, 2014 18:33:24 GMT -5
The beehive represents the school The work which goes on in the beehive represents industry The Bee represents the initiate The work the bee is involved in is transforming pollen into golden honey The spider and the web are those who would stop the bee from completing his work Honey is the goal, the alchemical gold, consolidated sunlight!
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TheMarkFrost
Administrator
Uncovering The Inconvenient Truth
Posts: 241
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Post by TheMarkFrost on Mar 8, 2014 18:59:58 GMT -5
Thanks, he was a true visionary in that he saw the design as not only extending across the globe but even throughout the Solar System, and created an ariel elevation drawing from outer space. Yes those are intriguing, considerations of idealized forms, here's one Ledoux designed somewhat later. Here's another version of that woodcut with subtle differences, maybe like in the move The Ninth Gate they mean something... Arachne perceived the illuminated web.
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Post by Olivia on Mar 8, 2014 19:06:02 GMT -5
"a small room adjoining the Lodge, in which, preparatory to initiation, the candidate is enclosed for the purpose of indulging in those serious meditations which its sombre appearance and the gloomy emblems with which it is furnished are calculated to produce. It is also used in some of the advanced degrees for a similar purpose. This small room or chamber, which does not necessarily adjoins the Lodge room, is dark, with the walls painted black, or, as in one case I saw, imitating a rocky underground cave. It contains the following: a simple rough wooden table on which we find: a human skull, usually on two crossbones, a chunk of bread, a pitcher with water, a cup with salt, a cup with sulphur, a lighted candle or lantern, an hourglass, paper, ink and pen, a wooden stool or chair painted on the wall: a rooster, a sickle, the acronym V.IT.R.I.O.L.(U.M.) and various sayings." Candle flame is that what illuminates, dispels darkness Cross bones represent Death The hour glass represents time Bread represents manna Water (the living mercury) Sulfur and salt are the ingredients to produce the stone Sickle also represents death and Saturn, lead or the rough substance to be worked In other words, time is slipping, death is near, there is work still to be completed! The cock announces the break of a new day Original masons would have understood this but yes they have become lazy
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Post by nikita on Mar 8, 2014 19:22:08 GMT -5
Yes in this one the spider has became fat (the bee in its stomach), the rose has wilted and the lady hangs...ie the spider has won, the dream of honey gone, the initiate dies before achieving his goal!
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Post by fr33dom on Mar 8, 2014 19:42:23 GMT -5
This is a practice in the side order of craft masonry called York Rite. If a mason chooses to join this side order, then he learns the things taught to him by this side order.
The fact that you keep lumping everything into on big basket, only shows a bit of laziness on your part. There is a lot to it and you have to understand the core to even try to comprehend the fruit.
For someone who thinks they know so much about masonry, you should join and teach all those silly masons what they forgot.
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Post by superxsoldier on Mar 9, 2014 1:47:13 GMT -5
I do not separate the branches from the tree, I understand they are connected and once (operative masonry) they were whole Its not my job to remind them, from my interaction with them they quite enjoy the sleep anyway, so sleep they shall!
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