The Symbolism of Freemasonry

by Albert G. MacKey

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Genres: Occult, Nonfiction, Reference, Philosophy, History, Amazon, Classics

318 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

About the author

Albert Gallatin Mackey was a medical doctor and Freemason who served as Grand Lecturer and Grand Secretary of The Grand Lodge of South Carolina, as well as Secretary General of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States.

Reviews

[Chuck Springer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many years ago, I was introduced to Freemasonry. The symbology and the teachings fascinated me as a technique to teach simple to complicated ideas and principles. Several years have passed and I've read a little here and a little there more on Freemasonry. I found that this book gives good background for many of the basics of modern day ritual and procedures. It was also easy to see where some have attempted to incorporate these principles into their own lives or religions.

The author's presentation is easily readable and provides adequate background information all along the way to guide the reader through the maze of sometimes conflicting ideas and opinions. I would recommend this book to anyone who truly wishes to obtain a better understanding of the nature of Freemasonry. This work is well worth the time needed to read through it!

[Harriet Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Symbolism of Freemasonry

The Symbolism of Freemasonry is
A fairly interesting book but I wonder how accurate it is . It uses some terminology that educated people would never use, such as "Jewish Church" and misspelled the word "Hindu".
Also, how would he know this?

I don't know if I can recommend this book.

[Tom Hinkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very technical book. I liked how he traces the origins of Freemasonry. I think it provides an excellent foundation to help one's understanding of how Freemasonry got to where it is today.

[Richard Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Freemason book that's very cryptic and had to follow unless you are one. Would recommend it unless your one

[Cidney · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book mysteriously appeared amongst my purchase of books from a trip round the charity shops, so after thinking about putting it in the recycling I decided to give it a go. It is very long. And it did not have a book cover so do not know which version it is so just guessed this one as it looked old. It tells me that freemasonry has been around since time began, (in the time of Adam and Eve), predating reading and writing, and legends and symbols were used to pass on their preaching. To animals? They might have had a bit of a wait for humans. It says in the book that "a legend is without documentary evidence of authenticity, it is a legend because it rests on no documentary evidence". It also says that they used symbols to communicate. They had no proper paper to write on, they hadn't yet learnt how to make it.

Then there was a sea change in the reign of Queen Anne who said that "privileges of freemasonry should no longer be restricted to operative freemasons but to men of various professions too", bet this went down well. Then there was the legend of Adonis (have no idea how he came into the book) who was slain by a wild boar and laid down on a bed of lettuce. I had this sudden vision of Adonis being killed by a wild boar and then falling down on a bed of lettuce, turning green in lettuce juice. (Well I thought it was funny).

I don't know anything really about the freemasons even though I had read the book nearly to the end, the only thing which I can remember was working for a group of scholars a decade ago and one of them saying that "the freemasons are just a cult of bad jugglers and dancers who become masons because they have no real meaning in their lives" or words very near to that effect. Maybe they didn't accept him into their cult.

Then one of the friends I had asked about their thoughts on freemasonry came up to me yesterday and said "when you asked about the freemasons the other day I didn't like to admit something", yes, "my father-in-law belongs to a cult", which one, "the freemasons, he dresses in weird clothing and wears funny hats"?? What sort of funny hats? She didn't know as she hadn't seen him, but her husband had. Had this sudden vision of a man rushing out of a house in white clothing wearing a clown hat. I gave up on the book as I was at the role call of people's names now etc, and went to tackle my ironing pile which was calling out to me (in my head, not out loud). I have put this book into the pile of boxes I will take down to a random charity shop in a few weeks. I am now wondering if the box will end up in the same shop as the one I bought it from, whichever one that was. Now that would be weird!

[Freda Minton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I REALLY liked this book!

Written in the late 1800’s, it is still easy enough to read if you have a decent vocabulary.

What is so interesting is that it isn’t just about Freemasonry symbolism, but traces the symbolism back even further to some societies and shows how it could have evolved through history.

I’m not sure if it would be a spoiler for EA & FC - it doesn’t go into detail of ritual, etc. But it might be best to wait until a person is a MM as ones head is spinning enough anyway at the start.

As to the accuracy? I really wouldn’t know as I’m not knowledgable enough. However, there are many references and endnotes, so I think it is.

[Garvin Timmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sabbatean Frankists / Freemasonry is the connection

https://www.printernational.co.uk/tim...

[Ronald Zarach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was informative. I was hard to follow. I had to start it three times before I got all the way through.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

More basic than what I was hoping for.