Page 35 - MML - Journal - Centenary Edition - Vol. 01 / 2023

universal application to persons of all religions.
2. A Brief Overview of the Main Theme of
the Third Degree
Resurrection and immortality of the soul are not restricted to Christian Doctrines alone. The Holy Quran proclaims in the second Chapter "O Lord Thou shall surely gather mankind together unto a day of resurrection". There are also 40 verses in the Surah on resurrection. The other older major religions namely Hinduism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism also proclaim resurrection. All the moral teachings of the Third Degree are of universal application to all professing any religion.
Thus, the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason had evolved ushering in universality of Freemasonry and the moral teachings of the Degree, if followed, will secure to persons of all religious beliefs, a realization of the vital and immortal principle in us that will safely help us to pass through the valley of shadow of death, trampling the king of terrors beneath our feet. Even though we had been told that merit had been our title to the Masonic privileges, it should be our constant endeavour to continuously prove ourselves worthy of the same.
The Myth of Osiris could be considered as a prototype of Hiram Abif. After death, every Egyptian was at this period identified with Osiris; he even adopted his name in order to assume his attributes. By this expedient be was enabled to defeat the evil powers which sought to bar his entrance into, and passage through, Amenta, the Abode of the Dead. Hence, in the mysteries, which were a dramatic representation of the soul's passage through Amenta, the initiate was made to enact the death and resurrection of Osiris; we have an account of these in the “Book of the Dead”.
The Grecian Gods Bacchus and Adonis were originally identical with Osiris, just as Demeter and Persephone correspond to Isis, the Egyptian Corn-Mother. It could be inferred that the allegory of the ancient Mysteries was essentially an agricultural one, representing the three phases of planting, harvest and fallow, each Degree presided over by an officer personating one of the seasons of the year. This hypothesis would involve an annual cycle instead of the later, daily one, and to account for the positions of the three principal officers in this cult; therefore, we must look for a heavenly body which would be in the East, West and South at these seasons, which was known to primitive peoples and was used by them as a calendar. Such is the constellation known as the Pleiades. This marks the beginning of the planting season by its rising in the East at sunset, the harvest by its setting in the West in the evening, and the fallow resting season by its disappearance from the night sky and later by its position on the meridian at sunset. These would be appropriately indicated by placing the Worshipful Master in the East as representing the early growth (raising) of the corn or the planting (burial) of the seed; the Senior Warden in the West as personifying the harvest which "sees that every Brother has had his due," and the Junior Warden in the South (or below the horizon) at the period of refreshment after labour (after the harvest) or of the summons from refreshment to labour at the beginning of the planting season.
These positions of the Pleiades would be correct for North Africa in antiquity, though slightly different there now owing to the precession of the equinoxes. Further, not only do we know that the ancient Egyptians did make this use of the Pleiades - they called it Maia, whence our month of May – but it is so used to this day by primitive peoples all over the world. Every savage tribe, in both hemispheres, whether they have named other stars or not, has a name for this
Madras Masonic Journal Vol. 01 / 2023 - Centenary Year Edition
A Publication of Madras Masters Lodge No. 103, GLI 34