Good day Worthy Knights

In this part 15, you view the symbolism of the Equilateral Triangle 1 of 2                                                               (Wikipedia, Anthony Wilson).

The Equilateral Triangle is presented on the candidate left breast.

There is no symbol more important in its significance, more various in its application, or more generally diffused throughout the whole system of Freemasonry, than the
triangle.

A three sided polygon, being the first enclosed shape possible with straight lines. The Triangle is important in Masonry due to its connection to the sacred number three and also because it has long represented the concept of the Deity in geometrical form.

The equilateral triangle appears to have been adopted by nearly all the nations of antiquity as a symbol of the Deity, in some of his forms or emanations, and hence, probably, the prevailing influence of this symbol was carried into the Jewish system, where the Yod within the triangle was made to represent the Tetragrammaton, or sacred name of God.

The Tetragrammaton meaning “consisting of four letters” is the Hebrew theonym יהוה, commonly transliterated into Latin letters as YHWH. It is one of the names of God. The name may be derived from a verb that means “to be”, “to exist”, “to cause to become”, or “to come to pass”.

The equilateral triangle, says Brother D. W. Nash (Freemasons Magazine iv, page 294), “viewed in the light of the doctrines of those who gave it currency as a divine symbol, represents the Great First Cause, the Creator and Container of all things, as one and indivisible, manifesting Himself in an infinity of forms and attributes in this visible universe.”

The equilateral triangle has been considered as the most perfect of figures, and a  representative of the great principle of animated existence, each of its sides referring
to one of the three departments of creation, the animal, vegetable, and mineral.

The equilateral triangle is to be found scattered throughout the Masonic system.

It forms in the Royal Arch the figure within which the jewels of the officers are suspended.

It is in the Ineffable Degrees the sacred Delta, everywhere presenting itself as the symbol of the Grand Architect of the Universe.

In Ancient Craft Masonry, it is constantly exhibited as the element of important ceremonies. The seats of the principal officers are arranged in a triangular form, the three Lesser Lights have the same situation, and the Square and Compasses form, by their union on the greater light, two triangles meeting at their bases. In short, the equilateral triangle may be considered as one of the most constant forms of Masonic symbolism.

The Triangle appears in Masonry in two forms, the Right Triangle, i.e., that Triangle which has one of its angles a right angle, ninety degrees, or the one-fourth part of a Circle, and the Equilateral Triangle, i.e., that Triangle which has all its sides equal, each to the other, and, of course, has each of its angles equal to sixty degrees.

Although these two Triangles have, symbolically and historically, certain features in common, for example, both were used as symbols by the Egyptians and both present the significant number Three, yet their symbolic suggestions are in many respects so different that they may, not improperly, be considered as distinct symbols.

Among the Egyptians, the darkness through which the candidate for initiation was made to pass was symbolized by the trowel, an important Masonic implement, which, in their system of hieroglyphics, has the form of a triangle.

It was also for them, the symbol of universal nature; the base representing Osiris, or the male principle; the perpendicular, Isis, or the female principle; and the hypotenuse, Horus, their son, or the product of the male and female principle.

The Osiris myth is the most elaborate and influential story in ancient Egyptian mythology. It concerns the murder of the god Osiris, a primeval king of Egypt, and its consequences. Osiris’s murderer, his brother Set, usurps his throne.

Meanwhile, Osiris’s wife Isis restores her husband’s body, allowing him to posthumously conceive their son, Horus. The remainder of the story focuses on Horus, the product of the union of Isis and Osiris, who is at first a vulnerable child, protected by his mother and then becomes Set’s rival for the throne.

Their often violent conflict ends with Horus’s triumph, which restores Maat (cosmic and social order) to Egypt after Set’s unrighteous reign and completes the process of Osiris’s resurrection.

 

To be continued.