POT OF INCENSE
Just when the pot of incense became an emblem of the third section of
the Sublime Degree can not be stated with certainty. It is,
apparently, and American invention or addition; both McKensie and
Kenning say that it is not used in the English work. The Monitor of
Thomas Smith Webb, who worked such ingenious and cunning changes in
the Prestonian work, gives the commonly accepted wording:
“The Pot of Incense is an emblem of a pure heart; this is always an
acceptable sacrifice to the Deity; and as this glows with fervent
heat, so should our hearts continually glow with gratitude to the
great and beneficent author of our existence for the manifold
blessings and comforts we enjoy.”
Jeremy Cross prints it among the delightfully quaint illustrations in
the “True Masonic Chart” - illustrations which were from the not
altogether uninspired pencil of one Amos Doolittle, of New Haven.
However the Pot of Incense came into American rituals, it is present
in nearly all, and in substantially the same form, both pictorially
and monetarily. If the incense has no great antiquity in the Masonic
system, its use dates from the earliest, and clings to it from later,
Biblical times, and in Egypt and India it has an even greater
antiquity.
In the very early days, as chronicled in the Bible, incense was
associated more with idolatry than with true worship; for instance:
Because they have forsaken men and have burned incense unto other
Gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their
hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and
shall not be quenched. (II Chronicles, 25-34).
To what purpose cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet
cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor
your sacrifices sweet unto me. (Jeremiah 6-20).
Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the Lord, him that
offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his
Gods. (Jeremiah 35-48).
However, when the worship of JHVH (Which we call Jehova) was
thoroughly established, burning incense changed from a heathenish,
idolatrous custom to a great respectability and a place in the Holy
of Holies. Leviticus 12-16, 13 sounds this keynote:
And he take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar
before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small,
and bring it within the vail:
And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the
cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony,
that he dieth not.
Later, incense was associated with wealth and luxurious living, as in
the Song of Solomon:
Who is it that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of the
merchant? (3-6)
Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the
mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense. (406).
Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are
under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of
Lebanon. Spikenard and saffron; caslamus and cinnamon, with all trees
of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. (4-14).
In ancient Egypt incense was much used; sculptures and monuments of
remote dynasties bear testimony to its popularity. Many a Pharaoh is
depicted with censor in one hand, the other casting into it the
oastils or osselets of incense. In embalming the Egyptians used all
the various gums and spices “except” frankincense, which was set
apart and especially consecrated to the worship of the Gods.
In India incense has always been a part of the worship of the
thousands of Gods and Goddesses of that strange land. Buddhism has
continued its use to this day as a part of the ceremonies of worship
- as, indeed, have some Christian churches - and in Nepal, Tibet,
Ceylon, Burma, China and Japan it is a commonplace in many temples.
The list of materials which can be incorporated into incense is very
long; the incense of the Bible is of more than one variety, there
being a distinction between incense and frankincense , although a
casual reading of these two terms in many Biblical references makes
them seem to be any sacrificial smoke of a pleasant odor. Ordinarily
it was made of various vegetable substances of high pungency;
opobalsamun, onycha, galbanum and sometimes pure frankincense also,
mixed in equal proportion with some salt. Frankincense, a rare gum,
is often coupled with myrrh as an expensive and therefore highly
admiring and complimentary gift; recall the Wise Men before the
infant Jesus:
“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child
with Mary his Mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when
they opened their treasures, they presented him gifts; gold, and
frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2-11).”
Where or how the use of incense arose, of course is a sealed mystery
as far as evidence goes. Modern science, however, enables a
reasonable guess to be made.
Of the five senses, smell is the most closely associated with memory
and mood. To neither sight nor sound does the emotional part of
personality respond as it does to odor. The scent of certain flowers
so surely spells grief to many that they will leave a room in which
tube roses or lilies fill the air with scent. Certain odors are so
intimately identified with certain experiences that they become for
all time pleasant, or the reverse; few who have smelled ether or
iodoform from personal experience in hospitals enjoy these, in
themselves not unpleasant smells; any man who has loved outdoor life
and camping cannot smell wood smoke without being homesick for the
streams and fields; he who made love to his lady in lilac time is
always sentimental when he again sniffs that perfume, and the high
church votary is uplifted by the smell of incense.
In the ceremonials of ancient Israel doubtless the first use of
incense was protections against unpleasant odors associated with the
slaughtering of cattle and scorching of flesh in the burnt offering.
At first, but an insurance against discomfort, incense speedily
became associated with religious rites. Today men neither kill nor
offer flesh at an altar, but only the perfume of “frankincense and
myrrh.”
The Masonic pot of incense is intimately associated with prayer, but
its symbolic significance is not a Masonic invention.
Psalms 141-2 reads: “Let my prayer be set forth before thee as
incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.”
Revelations 8-3 reads: “And another angel came and stood at the
altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much
incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne.”
The association of a sweet smell in the air, which scattered after it
gave pleasure with prayers to an Unseen Presence is easy to
understand, even that it arose in primitive minds. Prayer was
offered and rose on high - so its utterers hoped. It was never seen
of men. It returned not. Its very giving gave pleasure. These
statements are as true of burning incense as of prayer.
What is less obvious, although the ritual is plain enough on the
subject, is that it is not only incense, but a “pot” which is the
Masonic symbol. If the sweet savor of incense is like unto a prayer,
so is the pot from which it comes like unto the human heart which
prays.
Now prayer may come from an impure as well as from a pure heart. But
incense is invariably sweet in smell, and so the pot from which it
comes is an emblem of a heart pure, sweet and unsullied.
Just what “purity” is as applied to a heart is a moot question. Very
unfortunately the word “pure” has been debased - the word is used
advisedly - in certain dogmas to mean “ignorant” - as a “pure” young
girl; a “pure” woman. According to this definition a female may be a
virago, a cheat, a liar, slander her neighbors, steal, even commit a
murder; but, if she is a virgin, she is “pure.”
Masonically, the word means nothing of the kind. In 1921 M.W. George
H. Dern, Past Grand Master of Utah (Now Secretary of War) contributed
some thoughts on “Monitorial Symbolism of the Third Degree and Its
Application to Everyday Life” to columns of “The Builder.”
Originally written for the Committee on Masonic Education of the
Grand Lodge of Utah, these paragraphs were at once so practical and
so pungent that the (then) great Masonic Journal gave them wider
circulation.
Quoting the Ritual about the Pot of Incense, M.W. Brother Dern said:
“A sentiment so lofty is not easily applied to the practical, prosaic
events of a busy day. To have a pure heart is to be true to
yourself, true to your best ideals, and honest with your thoughts.
“To Thine Own Self Be True. . . Thou Canst Not Then Be False To Any
Man.” Living a life of deceit and double-dealing never made anyone
happy. Riches or pleasures acquired in that way bring only remorse,
and eventually the soul cries out in anguish for that peace of mind
which is man’s most precious possession,. and which is the companion
of a pure heart.
“Purity of heart means conscientiousness, and that means sincerity.
Without sincerity there can be no real character. But sincerity
alone is not enough. There must go with it a proper degree of
intelligence and love of one’s fellows. For example, a man may
believe that the emotion of pity and the desire to relieve the
necessities of others is intrinsically noble and elevating, and he
indulges in indiscriminate giving, without realizing the evil
consequences, in the way of fraud, laziness and inefficiency and
habitual dependence that his ill considered acts produce upon those
whom he intends to benefit. Again, a man may be perfectly sincere in
talking about the shortcomings of another, and he may justify himself
by saying that he is telling nothing but the truth. But, merely
because they are true is no reason why unpleasant and harmful things
should be told. To destroy a reputation is no way to aid a brother
who has erred. Better far overlook his mistakes, and extend him a
helping hand.
“Without multiplying examples, let it be understood that the truly
conscientious man must not simply be sincere, but he must have high
ideals and standards, and moreover, he must not be satisfied with
those standards. Rather he must revise them from time to time, and
that means self-examination, to see if he possesses the love and
courage that must go with sincerity in order to make progress in
building character. For in this direction again there must be
constant progress. To be content with what we have accomplished is
fatal. As James A. Garfield once said, “I must do something to keep
my thoughts fresh and growing. I dread nothing so much as falling
into a rut and feeling myself becoming a fossil.”
Many words in the ritual have changed meanings since they were first
used. The Masonic term “profane,” for instance, originally meant
“without the temple” - one not initiated, not of the craft. Today it
means blasphemous, which is no part of the Masonic definition of the
word. “Sacrifice” in our Monitor seems to come under this
classification.
In the Old Testament, a sacrifice before the altar was the offering
of something - burned flesh, burning incense, pure oil or wine -
which involved the sacrificer giving something valuable to him; the
sacrifice was an evidence before all men that the sacrificer valued
his kinship with the Most High more than his possession of that which
he offered.
In our ritual the word has lost this significance. The pot of
incense as an emblem of a pure heart “which is always an acceptable
sacrifice to the Deity” can hardly connote the idea that a Mason
desires to keep his “pure heart” for himself, but because of love of
God is willing to give it up. Rather does it denote that he who
gives up worldly pleasures, mundane ideas and selfish cravings which
may interfere with “purity of life and conduct” as set forth in other
parts of the ritual, does that which is acceptable to the Great
Architect.
Masonically, “pure” seems to mean honest, sincere, genuine, real,
without pretense and “sacrifice” to denote that which is pleasing to
the most high.
So read, the Masonic pot of incense becomes an integral part of the
philosophy of Freemasonry, and not a mere moral interjection in the
emblems of the third degree. For all of the magnificent body of
teaching which is self revealed, half concealed in the symbolism of
Freemasonry, nothing stands out more plainly, or calls with a louder
voice, than her insistence on these simple yet profound virtues of
the human heart lumped together in one phrase as “a man of higher
character” . . .in other words, one with a “pure heart,” “pure”
meaning undefiled by the faults and frailties of so many of the
children of men.
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