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H
HAND. The hand is a symbol of human actions; pure hands symbolize pure actions, and impure or unclean hands symbolize impure actions.
HARE. Among the Egyptians the hare was a hieroglyphic of eyes that are open , and was the symbol of initiation into the Mysteries of Osiris. The Hebrew word for hare is arnabet , and this is compounded of two words that signify to behold the light . The connection of ideas is apparent.
HELLENISM. The religion of the Helles, or ancient Greeks who immediately succeeded the Pelasgians in the settlement of that country. It was, in consequence of the introduction of the poetic element, more refined than the old Pelasgic worship for which it was substituted. Its myths were more philosophical and less gross than those of the religion to which it succeeded.
HERMAE. Stones of a cubical form, which were originally unhewn, by which the Greeks at first represented all their deities. They came in the progress of time to be especially dedicated by the Greeks to the god Hermes, whence the name, and by the Romans to the god Terminus, who presided over landmarks.
HERO WORSHIP. The worship of men deified after death. It is a theory of some, both ancient and modern writers, that all the pagan gods were once human beings, and that the legends and traditions of mythology are mere embellishments of the acts of these personages when alive. It was the doctrine taught by Euhemerus among the ancients, and has been maintained among the moderns by such distinguished authorities as Bochart, Bryant, Voss, and Banier.
HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY. The system of the Alchemists, the Adepts, or seekers of the philosopher's stone. No system has been more misunderstood than this. It was secret, esoteric, and highly symbolical. No one has so well revealed its true design as E.A. Hitchcock, who, in his delightful work entitled “Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists,” says, “The genuine Alchemists were religious men, who passed their time in legitimate pursuits, earning an honest subsistence, and in religious contemplation, studying how to realize in themselves the union of the divine and human nature, expressed in man by an enlightened submission to God's will; and they thought out and published, after a manner of their own, a method of attaining or entering upon this state, as the only rest of the soul.” There is a very great similarity between their doctrines and those of the Freemasons; so much so that the two associations have sometimes been confounded.
HIEROPHANT. (From the Greek Greek: i(ero\s, holy, sacred , and Greek: phai/nô to show .) One who instructs in sacred things; the explainer of the aporrheta, or secret doctrines, to the initiates in the ancient Mysteries. He was the presiding officer, and his rank and duties were analogous to those of the master of a masonic lodge.
HIRAM ABIF. The architect of Solomon's temple. The word “Abif” signifies in Hebrew “his father,” and is used by the writer of Second Chronicles (iv. 16) when he says, “These things did Hiram his father in the original Hiram Abif do for King Solomon.”.
The legend relating to him is of no value as a mere narrative, but of vast importance in a symbolical point of view, as illustrating a great philosophical and religious truth; namely, the dogma of the immortality of the soul.
Hence, Hiram Abif is the symbol of man in the abstract sense, or human nature, as developed in the life here and in the life to come.
HIRAM OF TYRE. The king of Tyre, the friend and ally of King Solomon, whom he supplied with men and materials for building the temple. In the recent, or what I am inclined to call the grand lecturer's symbolism of Masonry (a sort of symbolism for which I have very little veneration), Hiram of Tyre is styled the symbol of strength, as Hiram Abif is of beauty. But I doubt the antiquity or authenticity of any such symbolism. Hiram of Tyre can only be considered, historically, as being necessary to complete the myth and symbolism of Hiram Abif. The king of Tyre is an historical personage, and there is no necessity for transforming him into a symbol, while his historical character lends credit and validity to the philosophical myth of the third degree of Masonry.
HIRAM THE BUILDER. An epithet of Hiram Abif. For the full significance of the term, see the word Builder .
HO-HI. A cabalistic pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of God; it is most probably the true one; and as it literally means HE-SHE, it is supposed to denote the hermaphroditic essence of Jehovah, as containing within himself the male and the female principle,—the generative and the prolific energy of creation.
HO. The sacred name of God among the Druids. Bryant supposes that by it they intended the Great Father Noah; but it is very possible that it was a modification of the Hebrew tetragrammaton, being the last syllable read cabalistically (see ho-hi ); if so, it signified the great male principle of nature. But HU is claimed by Talmudic writers to be one of the names of God; and the passage in Isaiah xlii. 8, in the original ani Jehovah, Hu shemi , which is in the common version “I am the LORD; that is my name,” they interpret, “I am Jehovah; my name is Hu.”
HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM. A distinguished masonic writer of England, who lived in the eighteenth century. He is the author of “The Spirit of Masonry,” published in 1775. This was the first English work of any importance that sought to give a scientific interpretation of the symbols of Freemasonry; it is, in fact, the earliest attempt of any kind to treat Freemasonry as a science of symbolism. Hutchinson, however, has to some extent impaired the value of his labors by contending that the institution is exclusively Christian in its character and design.
I
IH-HO. See Ho-hi .
IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. This is one of the two religious dogmas which have always been taught in Speculative Masonry.
It was also taught in all the Rites and Mysteries of antiquity.
The doctrine was taught as an abstract proposition by the ancient priesthood of the Pure or Primitive Freemasonry of antiquity, but was conveyed to the mind of the initiate, and impressed upon him by a scenic representation in the ancient Mysteries, or the Spurious Freemasonry of the ancients.
INCOMMUNICABLE NAME. The tetragrammaton, so called because it was not common to, and could not be bestowed upon, nor shared by, any other being. It was proper to the true God alone. Thus Drusius (Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine Dei proprio, p. 108) says, “Nomen quatuor literarum proprie et absolute non tribui nisi Deo vero. Unde doctores catholici dicunt incommunicabile not common esse creaturae.”
INEFFABLE NAME. The tetragrammaton. So called because it is ineffabile , or unpronounceable. See Tetragrammaton .
INTRUSTING, RITE OF. That part of the ceremony of initiation which consists in communicating to the aspirant or candidate the aporrheta, or secrets of the mystery.
INUNCTION. The act of anointing. This was a religious ceremony practised from the earliest times. By the pouring on of oil, persons and things were consecrated to sacred purposes.
INVESTITURE, RITE OF. That part of the ceremony of initiation which consists of clothing the candidate masonically. It is a symbol of purity.
ISH CHOTZEB. Hebrew, hewers of stones . The Fellow Crafts at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.).
ISH SABAL. Hebrew, bearers of burdens . The Apprentices at the temple of Solomon. (2 Chron. ii. 2.).
J
JAH. It is in Hebrew Hebrew: yod-heh whence Maimonides calls it “the two-lettered name,” and derives it from the tetragrammaton, of which it is an abbreviation. Others have denied this, and assert that Jah is a name independent of Jehovah, but expressing the same idea of the divine essenee. See Gataker, De Nom. Tetrag. .
JEHOVAH. The incommunicable, ineffable name of God, in Hebrew Hebrew: yod-heh-vau-heh, and called, from the four letters of which it consists, the tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name.
