ation of the eighth
key (see Fig. 3), a grave from which half emerges a man with upright body
and raised hands. [This reproduction and figure I owe to the kindness of
Dr. Ludwig Keller and the publications of the Comenius Society.] Two men
are shooting at the well known mark, [Symbol: Sol], here represented as a
target (a symbol much used in the old lodges), while a third is sowing.
(Parable of the sower and the seeds.) The sign is a clever adaptation of
the sulphur hieroglyph and is identical with the registry mark of the
third degree of the Grand Lodge Indissolubilis. The mark [Symbol: Half
circle] on the wall is also a symbol of the academy; it is the half
circle, man, to whom the light is imparted and means, when occurring
collectively, the fraternity. The evident idea is of representing the
exclusive society as enclosing wall. The angel with the trumpet is the
angel of the judgment day who awakes the dead. With respect to the birds I
refer to Matthew XIII, 4: "And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the
wayside and the fowls came and devoured them up." In the text of Basilius
Valentinus, the fourth key, there is mention of the rotting and falling to
pieces with which we are familiar. The idea of dismemberment is not
infrequently clearly expressed, more clearly than in our parable. Already
in the oldest alchemistic manuals one operation is called the grave of
Osiris. One of the manuscripts cited by Berthelot (Orig., p. 60) says:
"The dragon is the _guardian of the temple_, sacrifice him, _flay_ him,
cut his _flesh_ from his _bones_ and thou wilt find what thou seekest."
The dragon is also called Osiris, with whose _son_ Horus-Harpocrates, the
skillful Hermes, is also identified. (Do we need reference to requirements
in the 3d degree? J ... left his skin; ... B ... left his flesh...; M ...
B..., he lives in the Son.)

Here more clearly than anywhere else we see the masonic symbolism combined
with the myth of the first parents or creation myth. No matter where it
acts, the myth-making power never seems willing to belie its laws. Also
the tree growing out of the grave or the body of the dead ancestor is not
wanting. ("... at the graves of our fathers." "I was accused of a terrible
crime.") It is the acacia whose presence is rationalized apparently for
the purpose of forming a sign by which to find again the place of the
hastily buried.

An Egyptian fable tells of two brothers. The younger, Bata, was _falsely
accused_ by