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  • The Masonic Magazine
  • May 1, 1878
  • Page 7
  • PAPERS ON THE GREAT PYRAMID.
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The Masonic Magazine, May 1, 1878: Page 7

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    Article PAPERS ON THE GREAT PYRAMID. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Page 7

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Papers On The Great Pyramid.

And , singularly enough , among the Mexicans a tradition still survives connecting the pyramidal sun temples Avith a " Golden Age " of peace , and a good Avhite man Avith a long beard , AVIIO taught them IIOAV to live and govern AVOII , but went aAvay Avhen Avars began . Under these circumstances Ave can easily understand that the figure of a four-square pyramid , ivith its peculiar geometrical properties , should have become to be regarded as the sjinbol of Divinity—or the Sacred Symbol ; for apart from a philosophical application

of its natural properties , those early builders Avould be sure to associate in their traditions their original unity on the centre Avith the great work of masonry they had reared . Nor , indeed , docs the Avhole range of myth present us Avith a more striking instance of the rapidity ivith Avhich the early knowledge Avas lost or obscured , than the degenerate orgies to Avhich , among the heathen , the memorial of that pure geometrical figure , the symbol of the source of energy and the creative principle , had given place .

Manetho and Herodotus give us distorted accounts of the invasion of Egypt by a Shepherd race from the East , Avho after occupying Egypt many years betook themselves to Palestine and built Jerusalem ; and RaAvlinson considers it very probable that it was the memory of this early invasion that prejudiced the Egyptians against those fohWing the occupation of Shepherds . Mr . Proctor sums up the evidence thus : — " It seems tolerably clear that certain Shepherd-chiefs , AVIIO came to Egypt during Cheops' reign ,

¦ were connected in some Avay Avith the designing of the Great Pyramid . It is clear , also , that they were men of a different religion from the Egyptians , and persuaded Cheops to abandon the religion of his people . " So far , then , as assigning the building of the Great Pyramid to a people or clan entering Egypt from the East , and of a different religion to the Egyptians , there is not much difference of opinion to meet .

On these grounds Mr . Taylor argued that since the Egyptians ivere confirmed idolaters , and their invaders closed the temples and prohibited their services , it was only reasonable to assume that the Shepherds Avere of a purer religion than the Egyptians , and Avere indeed Avorshippers of the One God . Thus he was led to look to the line of Shem for the builders of this monument , and to consider the hatred of the Egyptians as rather a testimony in their faA'Oiir than othenvise , and as Ave may see by the history of Masonry in all ages , it has frequently been the lot of its professors to have their principles misrepresented , and to have evil imputed . to them .

NOAV , ah the Pyramidalists , from the late Mr . Taylor doAvivwards , are inclined to look to Shem , or Melchisedek , as the Master-Builder , and so strongly does Bro . Cockburn Muir feel on this point , that he holds it to be of fundamental importance . And in this be is but logical ; nor do I see how any one holding in the main to Smyth ' s theory could look to any other than the chosen son of Noah as the Master-Builder . When , also , AVO regard it as a Masonic question , Ave are immediately reminded of the brotherhood existing betAveen tho Israelites and the SyriansAvhich

, Avas of such a nature as to permit of the latter assisting in the building of the House of God , Avhich Solomon the King did build in Jerusalem . Such a brotherhood naturally points to the earlier history of the Shemitic races for its ori gin , and the separate existence of Israel , cut off from the nations of its kindred ancl a stranger in the land of Egypt—requires that that origin must be found before the

¦ Hebrews became separated from tho Shemitic stock . In the master-builder Shem—by right of his headship of the human family , the representative of Man and the type of Him , AVIIO , as the first-born from the , 'dead , became the Second Adam—Ave see , indeed , the only one among his contemporaries entitled to assume the position to which he has "been assigned . Even Mr . Proctor considers that in coming to the conclusion that the Strangers from the EastAvhose coining into E t was so strangely connected With the building of the

, gyp Groat Pyramid , Avere of the Shemitic tribes—or , as he puts it , kinsmen of the patriarch Abraham—Ave do so upon "grounds sufficiently assured . " HOAV , then , does the era of the Great Pyramid accord ivith its assumed connection Avith the life of the patriarch Shem ? This Avas the question which presented itself to

“The Masonic Magazine: 1878-05-01, Page 7” Masonic Periodicals Online, Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 6 June 2025, django:8000/periodicals/mmg/issues/mmg_01051878/page/7/.
  • List
  • Grid
Title Category Page
In Memoriam. Article 1
"HIS END WAS PEACE." Article 1
AN HERMETIC WORK. Article 2
A BRIEFE OF THE GOLDEN CALF OR THEWORLDS IDOL. Article 4
THE EPISTLE OF W. C. TO THE READER. Article 4
PAPERS ON THE GREAT PYRAMID. Article 6
THE ADVENTURES OF DON PASQUALE. Article 9
BIDE A WEE, AND DINNA FRET. Article 11
THE WORK OF NATURE IN THE MONTHS. Article 12
AMABEL VAUGHAN. Article 18
MASONIC HYMN. Article 21
DE. MOON'S WORKS FOE THE BLIND. Article 22
IS IT A PROMISE, OR A DECLARATION ? Article 24
THE SCOT ABROAD. Article 26
"HAIL AND FAEEWELL." Article 28
THE OTIGIN AND REFERENCES OF THE HERMESIAN SPURIOUS FREEMASONRY. Article 29
ON THE TESTING AND STRENGTH OF RAILWAY MATERIALS, &c Article 32
A FAREWELL ADDRESS Article 36
DISCOVERY OF ROMAN REMAINS AT TEMPLEBOROUGH. Article 37
I WISH HE WOULD MAKE UP HIS MIND. Article 39
LOST AND SAVED ; OR NELLIE POWERS THE MISSIONARY'S DAUGHTER. Article 40
PRAYER ON THE SEA. Article 46
NOTES ON LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. Article 46
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

Papers On The Great Pyramid.

And , singularly enough , among the Mexicans a tradition still survives connecting the pyramidal sun temples Avith a " Golden Age " of peace , and a good Avhite man Avith a long beard , AVIIO taught them IIOAV to live and govern AVOII , but went aAvay Avhen Avars began . Under these circumstances Ave can easily understand that the figure of a four-square pyramid , ivith its peculiar geometrical properties , should have become to be regarded as the sjinbol of Divinity—or the Sacred Symbol ; for apart from a philosophical application

of its natural properties , those early builders Avould be sure to associate in their traditions their original unity on the centre Avith the great work of masonry they had reared . Nor , indeed , docs the Avhole range of myth present us Avith a more striking instance of the rapidity ivith Avhich the early knowledge Avas lost or obscured , than the degenerate orgies to Avhich , among the heathen , the memorial of that pure geometrical figure , the symbol of the source of energy and the creative principle , had given place .

Manetho and Herodotus give us distorted accounts of the invasion of Egypt by a Shepherd race from the East , Avho after occupying Egypt many years betook themselves to Palestine and built Jerusalem ; and RaAvlinson considers it very probable that it was the memory of this early invasion that prejudiced the Egyptians against those fohWing the occupation of Shepherds . Mr . Proctor sums up the evidence thus : — " It seems tolerably clear that certain Shepherd-chiefs , AVIIO came to Egypt during Cheops' reign ,

¦ were connected in some Avay Avith the designing of the Great Pyramid . It is clear , also , that they were men of a different religion from the Egyptians , and persuaded Cheops to abandon the religion of his people . " So far , then , as assigning the building of the Great Pyramid to a people or clan entering Egypt from the East , and of a different religion to the Egyptians , there is not much difference of opinion to meet .

On these grounds Mr . Taylor argued that since the Egyptians ivere confirmed idolaters , and their invaders closed the temples and prohibited their services , it was only reasonable to assume that the Shepherds Avere of a purer religion than the Egyptians , and Avere indeed Avorshippers of the One God . Thus he was led to look to the line of Shem for the builders of this monument , and to consider the hatred of the Egyptians as rather a testimony in their faA'Oiir than othenvise , and as Ave may see by the history of Masonry in all ages , it has frequently been the lot of its professors to have their principles misrepresented , and to have evil imputed . to them .

NOAV , ah the Pyramidalists , from the late Mr . Taylor doAvivwards , are inclined to look to Shem , or Melchisedek , as the Master-Builder , and so strongly does Bro . Cockburn Muir feel on this point , that he holds it to be of fundamental importance . And in this be is but logical ; nor do I see how any one holding in the main to Smyth ' s theory could look to any other than the chosen son of Noah as the Master-Builder . When , also , AVO regard it as a Masonic question , Ave are immediately reminded of the brotherhood existing betAveen tho Israelites and the SyriansAvhich

, Avas of such a nature as to permit of the latter assisting in the building of the House of God , Avhich Solomon the King did build in Jerusalem . Such a brotherhood naturally points to the earlier history of the Shemitic races for its ori gin , and the separate existence of Israel , cut off from the nations of its kindred ancl a stranger in the land of Egypt—requires that that origin must be found before the

¦ Hebrews became separated from tho Shemitic stock . In the master-builder Shem—by right of his headship of the human family , the representative of Man and the type of Him , AVIIO , as the first-born from the , 'dead , became the Second Adam—Ave see , indeed , the only one among his contemporaries entitled to assume the position to which he has "been assigned . Even Mr . Proctor considers that in coming to the conclusion that the Strangers from the EastAvhose coining into E t was so strangely connected With the building of the

, gyp Groat Pyramid , Avere of the Shemitic tribes—or , as he puts it , kinsmen of the patriarch Abraham—Ave do so upon "grounds sufficiently assured . " HOAV , then , does the era of the Great Pyramid accord ivith its assumed connection Avith the life of the patriarch Shem ? This Avas the question which presented itself to

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