nt
forms of what he calls the "Mysterious Figure," used in the most
noted Gothic buildings: he says, "I would in nowise indulge in
conjectures as to the reference these figures might possibly have to
the most sacred mysteries of religion; independently of any such
allusion, their properties are of themselves sufficiently
extraordinary to have struck all who have observed them."

From earliest Christian times the principal _doctrine_ based upon the
Mysticism of the Neo-platonists and the Kabalists was what was called
the [Greek: Gnosis], the Knowledge of the All, and the fundamental
basis of this, as of all esoteric teaching from the beginning of
History, was _Procreation_. From the first dawn of civilisation the
"Great One" always had an enemy with whom he had to fight; having
conquered, he married that enemy, and their offspring was Life or
Duration. In the oldest forms, as in Persia and ancient Egypt, it was
Light and Darkness, "Ormuz and Ahriman," "Osiris and Isis," the Light
conquering Darkness, the Day conquering Night, resulting in Time and
duration. In the Eleusinian Mysteries it was the "Sun and Earth"
producing Vegetable Life, and in the [Greek: Gnosis] it was the
"Ainsoph and Ignorance," resulting in True Knowledge or Everlasting
Life.

In the Vesica Piscis (_vide_ frontispiece) we see two Equilateral
Triangles formed on the same base, similar to what we found in the
ground-plan of Chartres and other Gothic Cathedrals; these two
triangles symbolised to the Mediaeval Builders the Divine and Human
Natures of the Logos, the Word, the Creator; they are both procreated
and enclosed in the Vesica; the one having the Apex pointed upwards,
represented Divine or Spiritual Life, and in that I have placed the
"Tetragrammaton," the Word or name of God (Jehovah), which, throughout
the Jewish race for thousands of years, was held to be so sacred that
they did not dare to utter it aloud. It was, at this time, depicted in
the Equilateral Triangle, the symbol of the Logos, becoming thus the
Masonic Word of the Middle Ages, and was probably used, exoterically,
for purposes of recognition among members of the Great Building
Societies, with the introduction of Gothic Architecture; but the
_esoteric_ teaching, which was known only to the elite of the Craft
and not by the Ordinary Operatives, was the mystical _procreation_ of
that triangle, the doctrine of Spiritual or New Birth, symbolised by
that mysterious figure which we hav