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The Symbolism of Freemasonry by Albert G. Mackey
page 86 of 371 (23%)

Thus, in one of the Orphic Hymns, we find this line:--

"Ζεὺς ἄρσην γένετο, Ζεὺς ἄμβροτος ἔπλετο νύμφη."

Jove was created a male and an unspotted virgin.

And Plutarch, in his tract "On Isis and Osiris," says, "God, who is a male
and female intelligence, being both life and light, brought forth another
intelligence, the Creator of the World."

Now, this hermaphrodism of the Supreme Divinity was again supposed to be
represented by the sun, which was the male generative energy, and by
nature, or the universe, which was the female prolific principle.[81] And
this union was symbolized in different ways, but principally by _the
point within the circle_, the point indicating the sun, and the circle the
universe, invigorated and fertilized by his generative rays. And in some
of the Indian cave-temples, this allusion was made more manifest by the
inscription of the signs of the zodiac on the circle.

So far, then, we arrive at the true interpretation of the masonic
symbolism of the point within the circle. It is the same thing, but under
a different form, as the Master and Wardens of a lodge. The Master and
Wardens are symbols of the sun, the lodge of the universe, or world, just
as the point is the symbol of the same sun, and the surrounding circle of
the universe.

But the two perpendicular parallel lines remain to be explained. Every one
is familiar with the very recent interpretation, that they represent the
two Saints John, the Baptist and the Evangelist. But this modern
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