Stone masons have existed since the dawn of civilization, constructing some of the most long lasting ancient monuments, artifacts and cities. Perhaps one of the most famous stone masons is the famous artist, sculptor, architect, Michaelangelo Buonarroti. Although many of his sculptures are famous, some of the most popular would include La Pietà which is situated at the Vatican Museums, and his sculpture of David in the Accademia Gallery in Florence. Some of the most awe-inspiring stone masonry would include the Easter Island statues, the Egyptian Py ...

Read more here: » Stone mason: Encyclopedia - Stone mason

Freemasonry

The world's largest and best-known secret society, with its greatest numbers in Britain and North America. The first formal organization was the chartering of the Grand Lodge (London) in 1714, The organization is loosely based on associations or guilds of stone cutters ( masons).

To become a Mason one does not have to be a Christian but must acknowledge belief in a supreme being and in the immortal soul. Masons advance through a complex system of degrees correlated to a symbolic spiritual initiation advancing from darkness to full consciousness.

Since 1738, Roman Catholicism has officially condemned Freemasonry as do many Protestant denominations. It is outlawed in several countries, and anti-Masonic sentiments have played an important role in American religious history. Freemasonry claims to have its roots in the builders of Solomon's Temple.

(1000BC) Freemasonry (“speculative” masons) sought to give philosophical, moral, or spiritual meaning to the lodge, tools, and oaths of the stone cutters. Most modern adherents maintain that the organization is not a religion but a fraternity.

(See also: Freemasonry, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Stone Mason

• To see stone masons at work while dreaming, foretells disappointment.
• To dream that you are a stone mason, portends that your labors will be unfruitful, and your companions will be dull and uncongenial.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Stone Mason, Meaning of Dreams about Stone Mason, Dream Interpretation Stone Mason)

A Josiah Clowes was appointed chief engineer, but died in 1795 part way through the project. He was succeeded by Thomas Telford, then just establishing himself as Shropshire's County Surveyor and already engaged on the Ellesmere Canal slightly further north. One of Telford's first tasks was to rebuild a stone aqueduct over the River Tern at Longdon-on-Tern which had been swept away by floods in February 1795. Telford's stone-mason instincts initially led him to consider replacing the original structure by another stone-built aqueduct, ...

See also:

Shrewsbury Canal, Shrewsbury Canal - Route, Shrewsbury Canal - Construction, Shrewsbury Canal - Expansion, Shrewsbury Canal - Decline

Read more here: » Shrewsbury Canal: Encyclopedia II - Shrewsbury Canal - Construction

The Brookmans Park Hotel is a privately owned hotel situated in the centre of the village, with a pub and restaurant popular with local residents. The hotel was built in the 1930s in a Mason's style with high pitched ceilings, skylights, wood panelling, carved Mason symbols and a large stone fireplace. The hotel is often used for wedding banquets and other local functions. It has six hotel rooms ava ...

See also:

Brookmans Park, Brookmans Park - A short history of Brookmans Park, Brookmans Park - The home of Miss Muffet, Brookmans Park - Brookmans Park Transmitting Station, Brookmans Park - Gobions Open Space, Brookmans Park - Brookmans Park School and Chancellors' School, Brookmans Park - Brookmans Park Hotel, Brookmans Park - Brookmans Park Golf Club and Lawn Tennis Club

Read more here: » Brookmans Park: Encyclopedia II - Brookmans Park - Brookmans Park Hotel

Freemasonry

The world's largest and best-known secret society, with its greatest numbers in Britain and North America. The first formal organization was the chartering of the Grand Lodge (London) in 1714, The organization is loosely based on associations or guilds of stone cutters ( masons).

To become a Mason one does not have to be a Christian but must acknowledge belief in a supreme being and in the immortal soul. Masons advance through a complex system of degrees correlated to a symbolic spiritual initiation advancing from darkness to full consciousness.

Since 1738, Roman Catholicism has officially condemned Freemasonry as do many Protestant denominations. It is outlawed in several countries, and anti-Masonic sentiments have played an important role in American religious history. Freemasonry claims to have its roots in the builders of Solomon's Temple.

(1000BC) Freemasonry (ÒspeculativeÓ masons) sought to give philosophical, moral, or spiritual meaning to the lodge, tools, and oaths of the stone cutters. Most modern adherents maintain that the organization is not a religion but a fraternity.

(See also: Freemasonry, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

The London Guild of Masons was formed in 1356, considerably later than most of the other guilds. There was in Saxon England almost no tradition of building in stone. Following the Norman Conquest the many building projects the invaders initiated would necessarily have been directed by master masons from the Continent. We know the names of a few of them, such as William of Sens who was appointed to oversee the rebuilding of Canterbury Cathedral following a disastrous fire in 1174. He had previously been Master of Works at Saint-Etienne ...

See also:

Stonemason, Stonemason - Origins of the guilds and possibly of Freemasonry, Stonemason - Stonemasonry processes, Stonemason - Stonemasonry tools

Read more here: » Stonemason: Encyclopedia II - Stonemason - Origins of the guilds and possibly of Freemasonry

Freemasonic Ritual uses the architectural symbolism of the medieval operative Masons who actually worked in stone. One of the principal symbols is the square and compasses, the tools of the trade. As Freemasonry is non-dogmatic, there is no general interpretation for any of these symbols. The square is sometimes speculatively said to represent matter, and the compasses spirit or mind. Alternatively, the square may speculatively represent the world of the concrete, or the measure of objective reality, while the compasses represent ...

See also:

Freemasonry, Freemasonry - Organizational structure, Freemasonry - Prince Hall Freemasonry, Freemasonry - The Masonic Lodge, Freemasonry - Other degrees orders and bodies, Freemasonry - Membership requirements, Freemasonry - Membership and religion, Freemasonry - General requirements, Freemasonry - Women and Freemasonry, Freemasonry - Principles and activities, Freemasonry - Ritual and symbolism, Freemasonry - Degrees, Freemasonry - Landmarks, Freemasonry - History of Freemasonry, Freemasonry - From Foundation to 1717, Freemasonry - The two great schisms of Freemasonry 1753 and 1877, Freemasonry - Criticism persecution and prosecution, Freemasonry - Contemporary challenges, Freemasonry - Cultural references, Freemasonry - Notes, Freemasonry - Appendant bodies, Freemasonry - Organizations with Masonic affiliations

Read more here: » Freemasonry: Encyclopedia II - Freemasonry - Ritual and symbolism

The new house — the current building — was built in 1775. The cellar of the original priory still survives below and in it the great stones of the mediaeval masons are seen, along with some iron fittings which have perhaps inevitably gained the reputation of being the remains of mediaeval prisoners' restraints — although there is no evidence to support such a tale. Other older parts are incorporated into the building &mds ...

See also:

Spinney Abbey, Spinney Abbey - Monastic origins, Spinney Abbey - Decline and dissolution of the Priory, Spinney Abbey - Henry Cromwell, Spinney Abbey - The New House, Spinney Abbey - The Fuller family, Spinney Abbey - Other associations

Read more here: » Spinney Abbey: Encyclopedia II - Spinney Abbey - The New House

The Freemasons rely heavily on the architectural symbolism of the medieval operative Masons who actually worked in stone. One of their principal symbols is the square and compasses, tools of the trade, so arranged as to form a quadrilateral. The square is sometimes said to represent matter, and the compasses spirit or mind. Alternatively, the square might be said to represent the world of the concrete, or the measure of objective reality, while the compasses represent abstraction, or subjective judgment, and so forth (Freemason ...

See also:

Freemasonry, Freemasonry - Organisational structure, Freemasonry - Lodges, Freemasonry - Concordant and Appendant Bodies Other Degrees and Orders, Freemasonry - Membership Requirements, Freemasonry - Women in Freemasonry, Freemasonry - Prince Hall Masonry, Freemasonry - Principles and activities, Freemasonry - Ritual and symbols, Freemasonry - Degrees, Freemasonry - Landmarks, Freemasonry - History of Freemasonry, Freemasonry - The two great schisms of Freemasonry 1753 and 1877, Freemasonry - Criticism persecution and prosecution, Freemasonry - Contemporary challenges, Freemasonry - Cultural references, Freemasonry - Notes, Freemasonry - Appendant bodies, Freemasonry - Organizations with Masonic affiliations

Read more here: » Freemasonry: Encyclopedia II - Freemasonry - Ritual and symbols

The residence was built in 1838 to house Scottish stone mason Thomas McKay and his family, who occupied the residence until 1855. After Queen Victoria chose Ottawa in 1858 as the new capital of the Province of Canada, in 1864 Rideau Hall became the residence of the governor general of British North America, Lord Monck. In 1867 Lord Monck became the first governor general of the Dominion of Canada, and Rideau Hall has continued as the residence of his successors. Initially rented and seen as a temporary accommodation, the house has sin ...

See also:

Rideau Hall, Rideau Hall - History, Rideau Hall - Other Canadian official residences

Read more here: » Rideau Hall: Encyclopedia II - Rideau Hall - History

The theory is based on old graveyards in Nova Scotia which use an ancient measuring system of Rods and which contain grave stones which incorporate Masonic devices such as Crusader Crosses and Pentagrams. The name Nova Scotia is Latin for New Scotland; this is significant because Scotland is believed to have been a hiding place of some Templars who escaped the Purge of their order by Philip the Fair (Philippe le Bel, 1307). The Templar fleet should have left La Rochelle for America with the Venetian sailor Antonio Zeno a ...

See also:

La Merika, La Merika - Evidence for the Theory, La Merika - Criticisms of this Theory

Read more here: » La Merika: Encyclopedia II - La Merika - Evidence for the Theory

In 1783, Pulteney began working with Thomas Telford, later the most eminent civil engineer of his day. When Pulteney first met him, Telford was a young stone-mason from the same parish of Westerkirk in Dumfries, who had travelled to London to seek work. In 1787, Pulteney commissioned Telford to design and supervise works at Shrewsbury Castle, and helped his appointment as Surveyor of Public Works for Shropshire. Later, as Governor of the British Fisheries Society, Pulteney appointed Telford to design the world’s then largest herring fishing port, at Wick in Caithness. The village was named Pultene ...

See also:

William Johnstone Pulteney, William Johnstone Pulteney - Early life, William Johnstone Pulteney - Pulteney name change, William Johnstone Pulteney - Pulteney Bridge, William Johnstone Pulteney - Parliamentarian, William Johnstone Pulteney - US landowner, William Johnstone Pulteney - Patron of Thomas Telford, William Johnstone Pulteney - Family legacy

Read more here: » William Johnstone Pulteney: Encyclopedia II - William Johnstone Pulteney - Patron of Thomas Telford

Freemasonry

The world's largest and best-known secret society, with its greatest numbers in Britain and North America. The first formal organization was the chartering of the Grand Lodge (London) in 1714, The organization is loosely based on associations or guilds of stone cutters ( masons).

To become a Mason one does not have to be a Christian but must acknowledge belief in a supreme being and in the immortal soul. Masons advance through a complex system of degrees correlated to a symbolic spiritual initiation advancing from darkness to full consciousness.

Since 1738, Roman Catholicism has officially condemned Freemasonry as do many Protestant denominations. It is outlawed in several countries, and anti-Masonic sentiments have played an important role in American religious history. Freemasonry claims to have its roots in the builders of Solomon's Temple.

(1000BC) Freemasonry (ÒspeculativeÓ masons) sought to give philosophical, moral, or spiritual meaning to the lodge, tools, and oaths of the stone cutters. Most modern adherents maintain that the organization is not a religion but a fraternity.

(See also: Freemasonry, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

QA'ABA

Possibly of Bedouin origin or an archetype of the Lapis. Cognate of cube. The Kaaba is the four-square temple of Mecca. The "blackstone" (hajarel aswad or hajarel fehm -- stone of wisdom), which is a meteorite stolen from an Egyptian pyramid, is set in a corner and is the Kaaba Stone (Masonic "Cornerstone"). This is also the stone of the Coalmen (Fehm, "Perceivers") and the secret Italian Society "Carbonari" -- also Scotland's "Scottish Rite."

(See also: QA'ABA, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

COWAN - Used in Wicca & Witchcraft to mean a non-Wiccan/Witch in much the same way gentile is used by Jew to designate a non-jew. Adapted from a Masonic term that means someone who doesn't mortar between their stones/bricks.

(See also: COWAN, Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Cowan

Used in Wicca and Witchcraft to mean a non-Wiccan/Witch in much the same way Gentile is used by Jew to designate a non-Jew. Adapted from a Masonic term that means someone who doesn't mortar between their stones/bricks.

(See also: Cowan, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Cremer, John. An eminent scholar who for over thirty years studied Hermetic philosophy in pursuance of its practical secrets, while he was at the same time Abbot of Westminster While on a voyage to Italy, he met the famous Raymond Lully whom he induced to return with him to England.

Lully divulged to Cremer the secrets of the stone, for which service the monastery offered daily prayers for him. Cremer, says the Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, "having obtained a profound knowledge of the secrets of Alchemy, became a most celebrated and learned adept in occult philosophy . . . lived to a good old age, and died in the reign of King Edward III."

(See also: Cremer, John, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Masonry Operative masonry, the art of building in stone; speculative and emblematic Freemasonry, called such since 1717 when four English Lodges of operative masons established the Grand Lodge of England of Speculative and Emblematic Freemasonry, so called because building materials, tools, and instruments are symbolically and analogically used in the building of the universe and of man as a temple enshrining a god.

Originally, however, among the ancient Masons, and today throughout the Orient "wherever magic and the wisdom-religion are studied, its practitioners and students are known among their craft as Builders -- for they build the temple of knowledge, of secret science. Those of the adepts who are active, are styled practical or operative Builders, while the students, or neophytes are classed as speculative or theoretical. The former exemplify in works their control over the forces of inanimate as well as animate nature; the latter are but perfecting themselves in the rudiments of the sacred science" (IU 2:392).

Modern Freemasonry includes many Rites and Degrees, all the so-called higher degrees being based upon the three fundamental craft degrees -- 1) Entered Apprentice; 2) Fellow Craft; and 3) Master Mason -- which degrees alone comprise true Masonic secrets and have any valid claim to descent from ancient Masonry. The lessons or keynotes of these three degrees are respectively 1) ethical, to subdue the passions; 2) intellectual, the training of the mind, the seven liberal arts and sciences, and the mounting of the stairway of wisdom; and 3) spiritual, the conquest of death. The lessons in each degree are enforced and illustrated by appropriate symbols and allegories. The central theme of modern Masonry is the building of King Solomon's Temple; the death of Hiram Abif and the consequent loss of the Word; the raising of Hiram Abif, and the communication of a Substitute Word.

"Modern Masonry is undeniably the dim and hazy reflection of primeval Occult Masonry, of the teaching of those divine Masons who established the Mysteries of the prehistoric and prediluvian Temples and Initiation, raised by truly superhuman Builders" (SD III 165).

"The Temple was the last European secret organization which, as a body, had in its possession some of the mysteries of the East. True, there were in the past century (and perhaps still are) isolated 'Brothers' faithfully and secretly working under the direction of Eastern Brotherhoods. But these, when they did belong to European societies, invariably joined them for objects unknown to the Fraternity, though at the same time for the benefit of the latter. It is through them that modern Masons have all they know of importance; and the similarity now found between the Speculative Rites of antiquity, the mysteries of the Essences, Gnostics, and the Hindus, and the highest and oldest of the Masonic degrees well prove the fact. . . .

"Freedom of intellectual thought and the restoration of one and universal religion was their secret object" (IU 2:380, 382).

"The simple truth is that modern Masonry is a sadly different thing from what the once universal secret fraternity was . . ." and "the time has come to remodel Masonry and restore those ancient landmarks, borrowed from the early sodalities, which the eighteenth century founders of speculative Freemasonry meant to have incorporated in the fraternity" (IU 2:387, 377).

Freemasonry in fact was started as a minor theosophical movement as also were the original Order of the Temple, and the Rosicrucian Order, each of which was designed with the purpose of keeping alive in the outer world as far as the times permitted a knowledge of the ancient wisdom-teachings.

(See also: Masonry, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Tiahuanaco A region near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca on the borders of Peru and Bolivia, the site of cyclopean ruins of vast edifices whose age is unknown. The lake is 12,500 feet above sea level, and owing to its altitude the district is capable of sustaining only a scanty population, yet it was evidently the seat of a great civilization in prehistoric times when the climate appears to have been far milder. Within a comparatively recent period, geologically speaking, the Andes have risen to their present height.

Opinions are sharply divided as to the age of the monuments, ten to fifty thousand years having been suggested. Blavatsky inclines to a greater age, suggesting that these remarkable works were erected by people of Lemurian stock, but who actually then were of Atlantean racial connection, and who had inherited at least fragments of the pre-Atlantean-Lemurian tradition.

Three main types of pre-Inca constructions exist: the buildings made of enormous polygonal stones, the Tiahuanaco style, and the pre-Inca roads and aqueducts. Markham, in The Incas of Peru, speaking of Tiahuanaco, writes: "The city covered a large area, built by highly skilled masons, and with the use of enormous stones. One 36 ft. by 7 ft. weighs 170 tons, another is 26 ft. by 16 by 6. Apart from the monoliths of ancient Egypt, there is nothing to equal this in any other part of the world . . . The point next in interest to the enormous size of the stones is the excellence of the workmanship. The lines are accurately straight, the angles correctly drawn, the surfaces true planes . . . Not less striking are the statues with heads adorned with curiously shaped head-dresses . . . There is ample proof of the very advanced stage reached by the builders in architectural art."

(See also: Tiahuanaco, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)