ing of the holy precinct,
house, temple. In masonry, [Symbol: square] is well known as the lodge.
The rectangle is related to the cube. I mention therefore in this place
the cubic stone, the mighty masonic symbol, whose equivalent in alchemy
will be discussed.

By a commonly used change of significance the number 5 is symbolized by
5-leaved plants (rose, lily, vine). "The flowers, however, and the garden
in which they grow, early served as symbols of the Fields of the Blessed
or the 'better country' in which dwell the souls passing through death to
life; in antithesis to the terrestrial house of God, the temple built with
hands, which was represented by the rectangle [Symbol: rectangle], the
holy number 5 denoted the celestial abodes of the souls that had attained
perfection, and therefore represented both the House of Eternity or the
City of God and the Heavenly Jerusalem. The holy pentagram in the form of
the rose, not only in the ancient but in the early Christian world,
decorated the graves of the dead, that in their turn symbolized the
gardens of the blessed. And the significance that the academies and loggia
attributed to the pentagram placed in the rose is explained by the fact
that their religious festival was closely connected with this emblem.
Already in the ancient world at the festival of St. John, the rose feast
or rhodismus or Rosalia was celebrated, at which the participants adorned
themselves with roses and held religious feasts." (Keller, 1. c., p. 21.)

As already mentioned, the cross, i.e., the Greek cross with its four equal
arms, expresses the number five. It is interesting that already in the
ancient number symbolism, rose and cross appear united, a fact which I
mention here in view of the later connection of these two objects.

The semicircle or moon is an emblem of borrowed light. Besides the circles
or spheres, the symbols of eons (divine beings, powers) that are enthroned
in the ether as eternal beings, the human soul--the psyche or anima, which
does not coincide with reason or the purified soul--appears as a broken
circle. As the sun and its symbol, the ragged circle, symbolize the
eternal light, the half circle is, as it were, the symbol of that spark of
light that slumbers in the soul of man, or, as the alchemists often say,
the hidden fire that is to be awakened by the process. If we reflect that
in this symbolism the cross expresses a penetration, the alchemic symbol
[Symbol: mercury] is