THE WORD

by Arthur Edward Waite

From "A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry"

THE WORD

Language is the outer vesture or symbol of thought within: I conceive that this is a commonplace, though it is not after all of very usual and practical realisation. It has been said also that words hide thought, and they do so after two manners: (1) when there is a design of concealment in order to confuse issues, but this occasional characteristic of minds is without philosophical importance or indeed interest; (2) when -- all our effort nothwithstanding -- thought passes into expression with difficulty, owing to abstruse subject-matter and not to want of clearness -- which again is of no interest or importance for our Masonic purpose. At its best language is in a working sacramental analogy with the concepts of mind and communicates from mind to mind within those measures. When we hear of an Incommunicable Word we know that qua "word" nonsense is being talked, for that which exceeds communication exceeds also expression. If therefore the illuminated Councillor von Eckartshausen undertook a considerable journey to impart the Incommunicable Word to Baron von Liebistorf, both persons being serious, we know that the subject of communication was not a word at all and that the term incommunicable was used by way of subterfuge. So also when we hear of a Lost Word in Masonry and the collateral Rites, it is necessary to pause and consider. In the traditional history of the THIRD DEGREE that Word which passes into concealment is not by the hypothesis a thing of mystery, grace or power, but a conventional secret reserved to a certain rank. As such, it was of similar value to our old friend ABRACADABRA. But when, as Masters, we testify through all the years of our Masonic life that we are following the quest of this Word it assumes of necessity another aspect: it is no longer a conventional secret denoting a given status, no longer a literal word -- unless indeed we are content, like De Quincey to believe that Emblematic Freemasonry is the great imposture of the modern world. This being so, what is the position of those Degrees -- very high and important in Masonry -- which exist for the purpose of communicating the Lost Word in the form of a verbal convention? They appear stultified by the very fact: such, however, is not the case. The Degrees in question are simply remaining as they must within the measures of Masonic sacrament and symbol. While it is essential, to justify Masonry, that its quest must end in attainment, it can end only as it began, namely, as a system veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. But we have a right to expect that the meaning behind the allegory and the grace behind the symbols should be of such kind that we are not unwarranted in having followed the long quest through many Rites and Grades. No, albeit on account of certain covenants I am limited to a simple affirmative, I place on record here, as one who has followed the quest and has reached its term in symbolism, that it is amply warranted by that infinite realm of grace and truth in God which opens out, for those who can discern it, beyond the scheme of the Grades as displayed in their Ritual procedure. I speak of the THIRD DEGREE, the HOLY ROYAL ARCH and certain Christian Orders in Masonry.

WORD AND LIFE

It follows that when the lost arcanum is restored -- within or without Masonry -- it can only pass into expression as a word or words which will convey nothing to the uninitiated, nor does the bare fact of its communications within the Mysteries of a particular Fraternity signify anything of vital import to a member not otherwise prepared for the reception of real knowledge. The outer form is, so to speak, the vehicle or body of the grace, independently of which the latter cannot be conveyed, any more than the soul of a human being can function in the material world apart from a physical body as the means of communicating with that world. It may be that this is only an elaborate way of affirming that all the great things of life are outside evidence and that their appeal -- in the last resource -- is scarcely to the logical understanding, though I incline to think that something of the best and highest is reflected therein and is also represented thereby after its own manner. That Word, with the mystery of which I am dealing only so far as it is expressed in Masonic symbolism, is imparted -- as we have seen -- to the adept at one or another epoch of his advancement; but its meaning is not imparted, except by secret communication between his own soul and the truth which is behind the symbol. Explicitly or implicitly, it stands always for a Word of Life. It may act on those who can receive it as an awakening of the soul's consciousness in the direction of things that are Divine and the first participation of human in Divine Nature. Here is the sense in which man is saved by the power of the Name YEHESHUAH; this is the abiding presence signified by that of IMMANUEL, the grace from everlasting to everlasting in the mystic cipher I.N.R.I., and the eternal mercy which is JEHOVAH. But in the Lodges of Mount Sinai and the Chapters of Holy Sanctuary the Words and Names are recited as things spoken with the lips and received into physical ears: except to the very few they do not stand for life. There is no translation of symbols so that allegories testify full of meaning from within and that pageants move not only in ordered sequence but in the grace of God and His power. It comes about therefore that the Word is lost even in its recovery. Peace has departed from the Tabedrnacles and light out of the Holy Places, the Sacred Cities remain unfinished, and the Sanctuary can be erected only in the heart of the elect because the Word of Life is lost.

WORD IN KABALISM

The Most Holy and Eternal Logos of the Fourth Gospel has its analogue in Kabalism, and indeed the intimations thereon of this Secret Tradition in later Israel are very often of the nature of root-identity rather than of simple correspondence. In view of the fact that there is a quest pursued in Masonry, which is concerned with the loss and recovery of a Word, it is desirable to indicate briefly that there are other and not less pregnant aspects of the subject than have been dealt with already in my consideration of the Sacred Name Jehovah. According to the ZOHAR, when Scripture says that the Lord shewed Himself to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, that which manifested was the Word. The reference is to GENESIS XVIII I. I believe that there are certain side-issues of Christian theology, according to which He Who is the Word appears as the self-revealing mode of Deity, in what I may call the personal manifestations of the Divine throughout the Old Testament. He it was therefore -- on this understanding -- Who walked with Adam in the cool of the evening, Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, Who delivered the Law on Mount Sinai, Who spoke in the darkness to Samuel. In consonance herewith the momentous paraphrase of Onkelos substitutes Memrah = Word in place of Jehovah. So also the Targum of Jonathan translates Bereshith -- the first word in GENESIS -- as Wisdom, which is wholly in consonance with the Secret Tradition, and Wisdom in this case is a synonym of the Word, considered as the Divine Seed which -- according to the ZOHAR -- brought forth the whole creation: "in the beginning" -- which is the Wisdom of the Word -- "God created the heaven and the earth."

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