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the number five in symbolism
CHAPTER XXVII
part II - Symbolism and the Teachings of Freemasonry
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
W.
M. Don Falconer PM, PDGDC
From ancient times the five physical elements have represented the
five active planes of life.
Most nations in antiquity considered five to be a mystical number.
This belief seems to have been prevalent long before the advent of
writing, so that the original reasons for its existence are not
known. One of the earliest written references to five appears in the
ancient Hindu scriptures, which were written in Sanskrit from the
Vedas onwards. Sanskrit is the oldest known branch of the
Indo-European family of languages and is the sacred language of
India. Hindu is a Persian word derived from the Sanskrit
sindhu meaning a river, especially the
Indus River. A fundamental aspect of Hinduism is known as
sanatana dharma, Sanskrit words respectively meaning
eternal and law, which refer to the
absolute and eternal nature of God. The Upanishads are the divisions
of Vedic literature that set out the philosophical and metaphysical
treatises of Hinduism. In the Svetasvatara Upanishad, VI. 2, is a
fundamental declaration that God created the universe from the
Ultimate Reality of Himself, given in the following
words:
“It is God’s command that this work (that is the creation) unfolds
itself, which is called earth, water, fire, air and ether”.
From ancient times five planes of activity have been recognised in
our present cycle of life, from the outermost or physical plane to
the innermost or spiritual plane. When the two higher planes of our
future existence are added, called the latent planes, the material
nature of the universe is represented by seven planes. The five
planes of activity in our present cycle of life are represented by
five physical elements, which are earth, water, fire, air and ether.
We can discern these five physical elements with our five senses,
which are sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Of these five
elements earth represents the physical plane, which is basic to our
present cycle of life. Water represents the subconscious plane that
is between the physical and mental planes, reacting with each of
them. Fire represents the emotional plane, which is the seat of
desire and passion and energises the subconscious plane. Air
represents the mental plane and ether represents the plane of light,
or heaven. The two latent planes of our future spiritual existence
relate to the human soul and its spirit. The reaction of the latent
planes to the Voice of God and the immanence of the
Divine Reality is reflected in Revelations 3:20-21 of
the New English Bible:
“Here I stand knocking at the door; if anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in and sit down to supper with him and
he with me. To him who is victorious I will grant a place on my
throne . . . .”
Buddhism is an offspring of Hinduism that originated in India about
600 years before the birth of Christ. Buddha is not a
name, but a title that was especially applied to Siddhartha Gautama,
who founded the religion after he had achieved enlightenment for
himself. Buddha signifies the “Enlightened One”,
or the “Awakened One”. In Buddhist scriptures the
words that traditionally were spoken by Buddha are called
Sutras, the Sanskrit word sutra meaning
a thread, which in the course of time also came to mean
a rule. The Hindu beliefs that relate to the five elements
are also important tenets of Buddhism, in relation to which one of
the Sutras says:
“Know that when in the beginning all was perfect void and the five
elements were not, then Adi-Buddha, the stainless, was revealed in
the form of Flame and Light”.
Sikhism is another offspring of Hinduism, which was founded in
northern India by the Guru Nanak (1469-1539). Nanak taught a strict
and unambiguous form of monotheism and he endeavoured to harmonise
the
Sufi traditions of Islam with the Bhakti
traditions of Hinduism. Both of these traditions are based on a
close, direct and personal experience of God, which is very similar
in nature to the ideology of protestant Christianity. The five
elements of the Hindus and the Buddhists are also referred to in the
Adi-Granth, the sacred book of the Sikhs, in which it is written
that:
“God pervadeth the five elements, the three worlds, the nine regions
and the four quarters of the universe. The Almighty supporteth the
earth and the heavens”.
In this context the three worlds relate to the body, the mind and
the spirit, whilst the nine regions relate to the emotional,
subconscious and mental planes that play an active role in each of
those worlds.
From ancient times the Chinese sages also maintained that there are
five original elements. Arranged in the sequence in which the sages
said that they came into existence, which is in their descending
order of importance, those elements are water, fire, wood, metal and
earth. Although there is no simple definition of the meanings and
interactions of these five elements, they may be explained by saying
that water represents the spiritual plane, fire represents the
emotional plane, wood represents the intellectual plane, metal
represents the mental plane and earth represents the physical plane.
Earth was envisaged as being at the centre of a circle formed by the
other four elements, which was intended to indicate that the
physical existence is only a temporary centre for the soul on its
journey towards the eternal light of heaven.
An interesting corollary to this perception of the five elements is
the belief that the Yang and the Yin,
which are the male and female components of spirit and matter,
contain the five elements in embryonic form. Also that, from the
time when the
Yang and the Yin were united and the
five elements were intermingled in the centre of the universe,
moisture and heat operated on each other and produced an intelligent
being. Another corollary to the interaction of the five elements is
an ancient Taoist philosophy, which seeks to explain the eternal
cycle of creation, destruction and resurrection. It teaches that
earth generates metal and overcomes water; that metal generates
water and overcomes wood; that water generates wood and overcomes
fire; and that wood generates fire and overcomes earth.
Although the images associated with the iconography of Egypt’s
ancient religion are often grotesque or demoniac and seem to have
been used to represent countless gods and goddesses, nevertheless
the fundamental beliefs were monotheistic. In fact the ancient
religion was one of profound hope, coupled with a belief in the
resurrection of the soul to an eternal life. The cosmogony of
ancient Egypt and the beliefs concerning death and resurrection are
closely interwoven in processes that involve five distinct elements.
The first element concerned the beginning of creation and was a
belief that, before time began, Ra was the
Absolute Spirit or Light and Conscience
of the universe diffused in the primordial Chaos. It
was believed that the second element came into existence at the
beginning of time, when Ra became aware of himself in
the Great Silence and called up his own image,
Amon, to be the spirit of the universe. This call was the
Word or creative power that activated the
third element and resulted in the materialisation of Shu
and
Tefnut, which respectively were
space-air and movement-fire. They in
turn generated and separated the earth Geb from the
sky Nut, thus ending Chaos and
establishing equilibrium in the universe. The fourth element was the
introduction of the fertilising force of Osiris and
the procreative power of Isis as a life bearing
couple, which established and nourished terrestrial and celestial
life. The fifth and final element of creation was the introduction
of the forces of evil in the form of Seth and
Nephthys, who were a destroying couple. Nevertheless,
the destroying couple were destined forever to succumb to the life
bearing couple, thereby inducing eternal rebirth.
The various passages and chambers in the Great Pyramid of Khufu
illustrate the five elements in the ancient Egyptian beliefs
concerning death and resurrection. As there are no hieroglyphic
inscriptions in this pyramid that are equivalent to the
Pyramid Texts of Unas, we cannot be sure that its passages
and chambers were intended only to be used during the burial of a
pharaoh, or if they were also used in ceremonial rites similar to
those of the Eleusinian Mysteries. It seems most
likely that their intended use was for both of those rites of
passage. The materials and colours used in constructing the passages
and chambers of the Great Pyramid of Khufu are of special
significance. The first element of the rite of passage would have
taken place in the subterranean compartment called the Chamber
of Ordeal, which could be regarded as a counterpart of the
dark pit of nothingness that is the Jewish
Sheol, or the Roman Catholic Purgatory
where it is believed that souls after death are purified from
unforgiven venial sins. The Chamber of Ordeal is
excavated some 25 metres deep in the bedrock under the pyramid and
is accessed by a narrow, steeply descending passage.
The second element of the rite takes place in a Grotto,
which also is excavated in the bedrock just under the base of the
pyramid. It represents the Well of Life and is
accessed by ascending a very steep shaft. All of these passages,
shafts and chambers were left rough and unadorned in the same state
as they were excavated, symbolising the original and final states of
human existence, which calls to mind the preacher’s words in
Ecclesiastes 12:7, which say:
“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it.”
The third element of the rite takes place in a chamber of glistening
white limestone, emblematic of truth and regeneration, which has
been described as the Queen’s Chamber, but in reality
it is the Chamber of Regeneration and
Rebirth. The fourth element takes place in the
Hall of Truth in Darkness, through which a soul reborn
must pass in humility before its resurrection. This hall is called
the Grand Gallery and is constructed of polished black
granite, symbolic of the Inscrutable Source of all
things. To the Egyptians darkness was the mystery of all mysteries.
The setting of the fifth and final element of the rite is the
highest chamber in the pyramid, constructed of polished red granite,
emblematic of fire and purification. It is the Chamber of
Resurrection, called the King’s Chamber.
Not long after Cyrus the Great had founded the Persian Empire, he
defeated the King of Lydia in 545 BCE and annexed his extensive
territories. As a result the neighbouring Greeks, living in the
Ionian colonies of the eastern Aegean, came into contact with the
Persians for the first time. From that time onwards the early Greek
philosophers travelled widely throughout Egypt and the countries of
the Near East. They studied, absorbed and disseminated the knowledge
accumulated by the ancient civilisations of these regions, which
profoundly influenced the development of modern concepts. The
Persian influence dominated the political development of Greece and
Asia Minor for more than two hundred years, until 331 BCE when
Alexander the Great of Macedonia inflicted his third and final
defeat of the Persian king, Darius III surnamed Codomannus, at
Gaugamela also known as Arbela. During his flight Darius was
treacherously slain by Artaterxes, one of his satraps. Alexander
then occupied Persepolis, the capital of Persia. It was during this
tumultuous period that the earliest of the Greek philosophers were
born in Ionia. They learnt to make abstract generalisations and
developed conceptual thinking into a practical and useful art.
Pythagoras was one of the most celebrated of those philosophers. He
was born at Samos in about 582 BCE, more than a century before
Socrates became eminent. Pythagoras was educated as an athlete, but
he abandoned it as a profession and devoted himself to the study of
philosophy, travelling widely throughout Egypt, Chaldea and Asia
Minor. During his travels, Pythagoras is reputed to have undergone
several initiations in his search for knowledge. In about 529 BCE
Pythagoras settled in Crotona, a Greek colony in southern Italy,
where he established a religious community. His celebrated
institution was often referred to as the Italic School,
which soon acquired so good a reputation that adherents flocked
there from all parts of Greece and Italy. As the early Greek
philosophers were living in the eastern Mediterranean, they had
ready access to all the knowledge accumulated over many centuries by
the Babylonian and Egyptian mathematicians and astronomers. Some of
them even studied under Egyptian teachers. Thus the early Greek
philosophers were able to take full advantage of the considerable
achievements of their counterparts in nearby countries.
Pythagoras and the other philosophers who preceded Socrates
(c.460-399 BCE) were not as concerned as he was with the usual
subjects of epistemology, ethics and morality, but concentrated
their efforts on formulating rational laws for mathematics, the
physical sciences and astronomy. Pythagoras’s system had a profound
influence on the work of Plato and the later philosophers,
astronomers and mathematicians. The originality of the philosophers
who preceded Socrates is reflected in their attempts to arrange all
the knowledge they had accumulated from Babylon and Egypt into
universal theories, whilst at the same time formulating principles
to integrate and explain all the facts on which their theories were
based. Thales (c.624-545 BCE), who was born in Miletus, was the
traditional founder of Greek philosophy, but he left no writings of
his own. Several centuries later Plutarch (c.46-120 CE), the
renowned Greek historian, biographer and philosopher who was born in
Chaeroneia, said in his Biographies that it was a
profound desire to formulate general principles which had led Thales
to ask: “What is the basic substance of the universe?”.
Many theories were advanced concerning the nature of matter or
being, but water, fire, air, earth and ether usually were named as
the main elements. Some of the early philosophers declared that
matter is always changing, whilst others maintained that it is
static. Nevertheless it was Homer, the Greek epic poet who probably
lived in the second half of the eighth century BCE and is renowned
for writing the Iliad and the Odyssey,
who is reputed to have been the first to divide the world into five
portions. He said that Earth and Olympus
are the two extremes, which respectively represent the physical and
heavenly attributes of nature. Homer assigned three gods to the
intervening portions, of which Hera signified fire and
represented perception, Hermes signified air and
represented the mind and Hades signified water and
represented desire. In another of Plutarch’s well-known works,
Morals, it is recorded that when addressing an
assembly at Delphi he had referred to the five elements in the
following terms:
“The world may in a certain sense be considered as composed
and compacted out of five other worlds; for example, the one is of
earth, the other of water, the third of fire, the fourth of air; the
fifth element some call heaven, some light, others æther”.
Among the early Greek philosophers, two others also deserve special
mention. The first was Leucippus, who was born at Miletus in about
490 BCE. He was the originator of atomic cosmology and the first to
suggest that all matter is composed of atoms that are indivisible
units. Democritus (c.460-370 BCE), who was born in Abdera, was the
second. He adopted and developed Leucippus’s theory and proposed
that all matter in the world consists of an infinite number of
minute particles, the various combinations of which account for the
different properties and qualities of matter.
Among the many other classical philosophers who established the
foundations from which modern philosophy developed, three should be
mentioned. Of them the first was Socrates (469-399 BCE), who was
born in Athens and played a pivotal role in the development of Greek
philosophy. Socrates was responsible for bringing about decisive
changes in philosophical emphasis. His work ranged from speculation
about the natural world and cosmology to a focus on ethics and
conceptual analysis. The second was Plato (c.428-348 BCE), who
probably was born in Athens. As a pupil of Socrates and later his
close associate, Plato became one of the most important and
influential philosophers of all time. The third was Aristotle
(384-322 BCE), a Macedonian who was born in Stagira. He went to
Athens as a pupil of Plato and later became a teacher at Plato’s
academy. Aristotle wrote prodigiously and covered the whole field of
knowledge at that time. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are revered as
three of the greatest figures in Greek philosophy. They established
principles that shaped the development of progressive thought for
centuries after their own time. Their methods exerted a powerful
influence on the conduct of transactions in later learned societies
and the founders of modern speculative freemasonry also adopted
their systems.
The schools established by Pythagoras at Cretona and elsewhere have
been cited by many masonic scholars as the models on which
speculative lodges of freemasonry were established. Whilst there is
no doubt that Pythagora’s schools provided a pattern that influenced
the form of monastic institutions established during the first
century of Christianity, no evidence has been found that proves a
direct connection between the schools and freemasonry. Nevertheless,
nearly all lodges of operative freemasons in Britain were intimately
associated with monastic institutions, from when the first Christian
church in England was established by Saint Joseph of Arimathea in
63 CE, reputedly at Glastonbury, then throughout the Middle Ages. It
is to be expected, therefore, that lodges of operative freemasons
would have assimilated by association the influence of the
Pythagorean schools on the monastic institutions. Pythagoras adopted
the mode of instruction practised by the Egyptian priests, also
dividing his scholars into Exoterics and
Esoterics as the Egyptians had done before him. The
Exoteric scholars only attended public assemblies, where
general ethical instruction was given, but the true school comprised
only the
Esoteric scholars, whom Pythagoras referred to as his
“companions and friends”.
A candidate’s life and character
were investigated rigorously before admission to the privileges of a
Pythagorean school as an Esoteric scholar. If accepted
the candidate was sworn to secrecy during an initiation ceremony and
was required to submit to the severest trials of fortitude and
self-discipline. The conduct, clothing and meals within the school
were regulated with frugality and with the severity prevailing in
the strictest monastic institutions. Pythagoras instructed his
Esoteric scholars in the usual arts and sciences, as well as
on his interior or hidden doctrines, which he explained by means of
symbols. Within his system of instruction there were three degrees.
The first degree was
Mathematici, which covered the study of the exact
sciences. The second degree was Theoretici, which
taught an understanding of God and theorised on the future state of
man. The third or highest degree was only communicated to a select
few who were intellectually capable of grasping the full meaning of
the Pythagorean philosophy, which was based on the doctrine of
numbers as symbols. Pythagoras had studied the doctrine of numbers
in Egypt and the Near East, where numerical symbolism had prevailed
from the earliest times in recorded history.
In Pythagorean symbolism the number one was set aside to represent
the unity of the godhead, which was the most important secret
imparted in the ancient mysteries. The number five was considered to
be a mystical number, because it is the sum of the first even and
first odd numbers except the one representing the godhead. The
number five was regarded as a symbol of the opposites represented by
the mixed conditions of order and disorder, happiness and
misfortune, life and death. This combination of odd and even numbers
also represented the union of the male and female elements and
symbolised marriage. Among the Greeks the number five was a symbol
of the world, said to represent the elements of earth, water, fire,
air and ether. Pythagoras used the pentagram to
illustrate the symbolism of the number five, for which reason it is
also called the
Pentalpha of Pythagoras. In the classical era the
pentagram was so revered that it also became known as
the Sacred Pentagram.
The pentagram is an open five pointed star formed by
drawing a continuous series of interlaced straight lines. Commencing
from any one of five points equally spaced on the circumference of a
circle, the line proceeds in a clockwise direction to every second
point on the circle until returning to the first point. The
interlaced legs of the
pentagram thus also form a pentagon in
the centre of the star. Pentalpha is derived from the
Greek words pente and alpha meaning
five and the letter A. This is because
the figure has the appearance of five letters A
interlaced cyclically, so that the two legs of an A
with its apex at one point on the circumscribing circle are
coincident with one leg from each of two As that have
their apexes at two points on the opposite side of the circle.
Pentagram and pentagon are also derived
from the Greek using the words gramma and
gonia, respectively meaning letter and
angle. Pentacle comes from the Latin
word pentaculum, which means to hang.
The Latin word is descended from the Greek pentakt, a
compound word derived from pente and
aktis, respectively meaning five and
rays. The Pythagoreans called the sacred symbol
a pentacle, by which name it frequently appears in
Hermetic formulae. The sacred symbol in the form of a
pentagram is also called the Pentacle of Solomon,
which differs from and must not be confused with the Seal of
Solomon. The Seal of Solomon comprises two
open equilateral triangles interlaced to produce an open six-pointed
star, which is also called the Shield of David.
From the dawn of history the pentagram has been used
throughout the East as a talisman or amulet to charm away evil
spirits. It is also said to have been the star of the Magians, the
ancient Persian priests referred to in the scriptures as the
“Wise Men of the East” who followed the star to
Bethlehem. The Druids, or holy men of the Celts, are reputed to have
worn the pentagram on their sandals as a symbol of the
Deity. In German the symbol is called a druttenfuss,
which originally meant Druid’s foot, but has become
corrupted to mean witch’s foot. In the Middle Ages the
symbol was used as a door mark to keep out witches. In medieval
times the operative freemasons regarded the pentagram
as a symbol of deep wisdom, in deference to Pythagoras their
“ancient friend and brother”. The
pentagram was used as an ornament in the decoration of
most ecclesiastical buildings erected during the Middle Ages. The
pentagram was also used in early lodges of speculative
freemasons as a Talisman representing the
Morning Star, suspended from the ceiling in the centre
of the building, directly over a point within a circle marked on the
floor. In those days the name of the one true God in Hebrew, the
Tetragrammaton, was depicted in the centre of the
Talisman.
Nowadays, in lodges of speculative freemasonry held under most
constitutions, the letter G has replaced the
Talisman and is called the Sacred Symbol,
which in many rituals is referred to during the closing of the
Second Degree. It is also mentioned in most lectures on the tracing
board of the Second Degree, which say that it was drawn to the
attention of every Fellowcraft when entering the middle chamber to
receive his wages. The pentagram also alludes to the trials and
tribulations that must be overcome, with the help of God, when
ascending the winding staircase of this earthly life. Finally, the
pentagram should remind us of the five points of fellowship derived
from the customs of operative freemasons, which every Master Mason
should practise throughout his mortal life.
In ancient times, when the centre of a sacred building had been
established on the site, the orientation of the building was
determined, the diagonals were laid out and the corners were fixed
on the ground. After a sacrificial offering had been made at the
centre of the building site, a centre stone was bedded down to
signify the foundation of the building and then the centre point was
struck. Sacrificial offerings were then made in succession at the
four corners of the building, commencing at the northeast, after
each of which a corner stone was bedded down. In operative lodges
and in modern lodges of speculative craft freemasons working under
the Scottish and many other constitutions, the candidate is
obligated in the centre of the mosaic pavement, representing the
foundation stone of the spiritual structure he is beginning to
erect. He is then at the centre of the five points of fellowship,
the other four points being the four corner stones which, in modern
lodges of speculative freemasons, are usually represented by squares
or tassels at the four corners of the mosaic pavement.
When Pythagoras visited the valley of the Nile River, he learned
that for thousands of years the Egyptians had utilised a triangle in
the ratios 3:4:5 to produce a right angle, which they put to
practical use when constructing the many pyramids, temples and other
stately edifices for which they are famous. The Egyptians held the
right-angled triangle, with sides in the proportions 3:4:5, in the
highest regard and called it the “triangle of the Deity”.
It was their symbol of eternal nature, wherein the female principal
Isis was represented by the side of three units, the male
principal Osiris was represented by the side of four
units and their offspring Horus was represented by the
hypotenuse of five units, which signified the Deity’s procreative
attributes. This symbolism is very significant, because three, four
and five are all regarded as sacred numbers. Among the ancients
three was one of the most sacred numbers and frequently used in
relation to the Deity. Four is the tetrad or quaternary of the
Pythagoreans, who called it a perfect number. The name of the Deity
frequently consists of four letters, like Adad of the Assyrians,
Amon of the Egyptians, Oeos of the Greeks, Deus of the Romans and
the Tetragrammaton of the Hebrews.
Pythagoras especially appreciated the Egyptian symbolism of
universal nature, because it was his doctrine that all things
proceeded from numbers. It was Pythagoras who first produced a
mathematical proof that the sum of the squares of the base and the
perpendicular of a right angled triangle equals the square of the
hypotenuse, thus formulating the universal solution that later
became the theorem proved by Euclid in his forty-seventh
proposition. Pythagoras adopted the diagram of the forty-seventh
proposition as a symbol of his school, in addition to the sacred
pentagram, which he had used for that purpose from a very early
date. Pythagoras taught the mystical power of numbers in conjunction
with metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls, which were
principal doctrines of his philosophy.
Pythagoras also was proficient in music and he is said to have
invented a number of musical instruments, as well as having
demonstrated the mathematical relationships of musical intervals.
When the Reverend Dr James Anderson wrote the Constitutions for the
original Grand Lodge of England in 1723, he included in the
frontispiece a diagram of Euclid’s forty-seventh proposition, with
the Greek word Eureka below it. Eureka signifies
“I have found it!” Dr Anderson mistakenly thought that
Pythagoras had exclaimed Eureka when he solved the
forty-seventh proposition, but reliable sources attribute it to
Archimedes, another Greek mathematician born in Syracuse about
287 BCE, when he discovered how to test the amount of alloy in a
gold crown.
Another aspect of the masonic symbolism of five that receives little
or no explanation, except in some of the Scottish tracing boards,
relates to the middle section of the winding stair that represents
the journey of life. The winding stair has fifteen steps in sections
of three, five and seven steps. The five steps of the middle section
relate to the physical aspects of life. In one sense they symbolise
the five states of matter in our environment, which are earth,
water, fire, air and ether or light. In a complementary sense they
symbolise the five human senses whereby the environment can be
comprehended and appreciated, which are touching, tasting, smelling
hearing and seeing. The number ten was a mystical symbol in ancient
times, which numerologists considered to be the source of all
things, being twice the value of five and equal to the sum of the
first two even and first two odd numbers. Ten and one were both used
to signify the godhead.
The number ten was represented symbolically by the
Tetractys of Pythagoras, an equilateral triangle
composed of ten dots arranged in four rows, with one dot at the
apex, then two, then three and then four dots forming the base. The
Tetractys was the equivalent of another ancient symbol
of the deity, the Yod in the centre of an equilateral
triangle. The Talmudists considered the Yod to be
extraordinarily sacred, because in Hebrew it has a numerical value
of ten and also is the initial letter of the
Tetragrammaton, the Ineffable Name that
is spelt Yod He Waw He. The character
Waw is also called Vau and may be
pronounced either as a W or as a V,
according to the structure of the word. These four Hebrew characters
are variously transcribed in English as YHWH and
JHVH, which respectively are translated as
Yahweh and Jehovah.
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