Presented by Charles J Meek on November 11, 1983
The Degrees in all rites of Freemasonry are full of symbolism. In fact, Masonry has been defined as "a science of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols". Masonry symbols become the key to the correct understanding of the esoteric work of our craft.
Let us develop the meaning of one of our important symbols - THE LION. In earliest antiquity, primitive peoples were found worshipping the Lion. In ancient India, the Lion represented "the divine spirit in man." To the ancient Babylonians, the Lion was a symbol of strength, sovereignty and power.
Early Egyptians used the Lion as the symbol of the life-giving power of the sun because of the sun's ability to bring about the resurrection of vegetation in the springtime. The Lion symbol was used extensively in their monuments, temples and sphinxes. Early Egyptian sculpture, illustrating the rites of the Egyptian Mysteries, shows the candidate lying on a couch shaped like a Lion from which he is about to be raised from the dead level to the living perpendicular.
With the Jews, we find 125 passages in their sacred writings referring to the Lion. As an example, in the book of Samuel, we find these passages: "David said moreover, the Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lion ... He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine" and again "He also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a Lion." In Proverbs we find: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as the Lion."
And in the Apocalypse, we find the passage: "And one of the elders saith unto
me, Weep not: behold the
The Comacine Masters, the link between the Roman Artificers and the early Freemasons, who were the great Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages, habitually used the Lion in their sculptures. In their Romanesque architecture, we find the Lion placed between the columns and later, in the Italian Gothic, the Lion is placed beneath the column, signifying Christ as the door of the church: Christ as the pillar of Faith, springing from the Tribe of Judah.
The mythology of the Cathedral Building Period records the belief that the whelps of the lioness were born dead and that, at the end of three days, the Lion would howl above them until they were awakened into life. They saw this as a symbol of Christ's resurrection from the tomb. So the early Freemasons also read Christ and His resurrection into the symbols as they used it. Freemasonry was strictly Christian in belief until the 18th century Grand Lodge era. The Lion's symbolic interpretation is probably one of the few Christian symbols remaining in our Lodge rituals.
Let us analyze it now. Hiram was murdered and buried. A sprig of Acacia marked the grave. (From time immemorial, the Acacia has, itself, been considered as emblem of resurrection and immortality.) The body was found in a dead level in a grave. The Junior Warden tried to raise the body by the grip of the Entered Apprentice representing the grip of "morality." The body could not be raised. They next tried the grip of "philosophy" represented by the grip of the Fellow Craft. Again, it could not be raised. Yet in other degrees of Freemasonry, these two grips are said to represent Science which cannot prove, and Logic which cannot demonstrate, the immortality of the soul, or even its existence.
However interpreted, you will recall that upon consultation, they decided to try the Strong Grip of the Lion's Paw which signifies the grip of "Righteousness" or "Faith" and, behold, Hiram was raised to a living perpendicular.
Pike, in his "Morals and Dogma", gives this interpretation of our legend, saying "The Lion of the House of Judah is the strong grip, never to be broken, with which Christ of the Royal Line of that House, has clasped to Himself the whole human race and embraces them in His wide arms as closely and affectionately as Brethren embrace each other on the five points of fellowship."
Applying this symbolism to the candidate, it means that he entered the Lodge as a natural man, lost in sin and spiritually buried. By the strong Grip of the Lion's Paw, he is raised again to a new life, or born again to spiritual righteousness, standing, again in a living perpendicular with a purified inner self accomplished through the direct action of the Redeemer, who was the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
Its connection in the legend of Masonry is that, as Solomon was the Chief of the Tribe of Judah, the symbolism of the Lion represents the achievement of that Tribe in producing the Christ who brought all of us the promise of light and the immortality of our soul.
Just as Solomon built the beautiful Temple unto the Lord, so the candidate is raised to the living perpendicular of righteousness by the Lion's Grip. Symbolically he has been resurrected by restoring the purity of his soul. The candidate now bears the responsibility of building his spiritual temple here on earth which will be worthy of eternal life.
It is a lesson to each of us to so live our lives here on earth that, as Mackey said, "when man shall have passed the gates of life and have yielded to the inexorable fiat of death, he shall be raised, at the omnific Word of the Grand Master of the Universe, from time to eternity; from the tomb of corruption to the chambers of hope? From the darkness of death to the celestial beams of life; and that his disembodied spirit shall be conveyed as near to the Holy of Holies of the Divine Presence as humanity can never approach to Deity."