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Post by Stash on Nov 17, 2004 6:59:33 GMT
I forget who, but at some point someone posted somwhere a little tease that the letter G doesn't just stand for things cause of it's use in language, but also because of it's actual shape, and that's all he said.
Now, it got me thinking to what he meant and this is what I came up with. Since G is shaped as it is, it almost seems as thought it is a small take on the Point Within a circle which obviously represents the perspective and the entire universe itself.
So, in my opinion, the G seems to symbolize a better traverse around the universe before "finding yourselF"** in the middle, since the G just looks like someone going in a circle then stopping and saying "hey, i'm going to the middle"
**Define "finding yourself" however you want....I guess you can think of it as "Having the ultimate amount of light shone down upon you"
Am I even close??
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Agent J
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On a Mission from God...
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Post by Agent J on Nov 17, 2004 9:39:38 GMT
I've heard the opinion that the Saxon "G" is the equivalent of the Hebrew "Yod" and the Greek "Tau", representing the Deity in all three cases. But I think I'll wait for a more experienced Brother to step in at this point...!
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Post by Stash on Nov 17, 2004 18:19:31 GMT
The Yod/Tau/God connection with G is obvious, and stated everywhere, but it doesnt' take a rocket scientist to realize it stands for much, much more than that!!
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Post by offramp on Nov 18, 2004 12:58:15 GMT
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Post by Stash on Nov 18, 2004 23:10:41 GMT
I have seen Gs shaped like that in quite a few locations actually, sometimes in clipart even....
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Post by Stash on Nov 18, 2004 23:14:53 GMT
Also: Crowley's handwriting resembles mine when I was about 5 yrs old!!
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ruffashlar
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Lodge Milncroft No. 1515 (GLoS), Govanhill Royal Arch Chapter 523 (S.G.R.A.C.S.)
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Post by ruffashlar on Nov 19, 2004 6:01:56 GMT
The Greek letter G, as in "geometria", the Gamma, looks like an inverted letter L, which is a Masonic Square in shape. It also resembles the jutting lip of the Roman G, which letter is thus made up of three quarters of a circle plus a Square ("an angle of 90 degrees, or the fourth part of a circle"), the extreme angle of which also indicates the centre of that circle. The G within an Equilateral Triangle is generally to be found over the Centre of a lodge.
The G stands for Geometry, as originally (it is said) the terms Geometry and Masonry were synonymous; but it also is the initial of God, and reduplicates the Yod initial of Jehovah; and also of Jehoshuah (=Jesus), which is spelled YHShWH, with the letter Shin (a tooth, or tongue of flame) which in shape consists of three letters Yod branching out of an elongated fourth.
BTW, although the Greek "theos" (God) begins with a T in English, in Greek the initial is a Theta, written like an O spanned diametrically by a horizontal line. This is also the initial of "thanatos" (death), and was treated like the number 13, as a symbol of evil omen.
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Post by leonardo on Nov 19, 2004 15:12:05 GMT
It is also said that the "G" can be looked at in the sense of the Compas and the Square. Look closely at the G, you will see it is made up of the letter C + a small square. Does anyone else know of this interpetation?
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Post by Stash on Nov 19, 2004 16:28:13 GMT
the C + Right-Angle is just the standard Roman formation of that latter, and how it was officially shaped, as far as I know
EDIT: I forget if i'm talking about Greek or Roman,
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Post by HelenaHandbasket on Nov 20, 2004 5:41:06 GMT
"]Crowley often used a strangely stylised letter G."
+++++++
If that's really the guy's handwriting, I already know more about him than I care to... What a graphological mishmosh.
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Post by taylorsman on Nov 20, 2004 8:56:41 GMT
Whilst I personally do not believe in Graphology as a credible science, and I type everything I send to anyone, I did see a certain similarity in Crowley's writing to that of Hitler and some other disturbed people who's scripts have been published on the web and in books.
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ruffashlar
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Lodge Milncroft No. 1515 (GLoS), Govanhill Royal Arch Chapter 523 (S.G.R.A.C.S.)
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Post by ruffashlar on Nov 21, 2004 11:49:30 GMT
That's probably accidental, and more to do with Crowley's dizzy script than anything else. You see, German handwriting is styled after the letterforms of the Blackletter (so-called Gothic) alphabet, which was standard from about 1850. English cursive, and most other European hands, are based on the Italic of the Renaissance. Compare the "Mein Kampf" autograph to the rather strange, very un-Roman loops of the Blackletter (the capital S, for example, looks more like a G) and you begin to see why German handwriting looks so strange to us.
There is enough to Graphology to make it a compelling science of criminological detection, determining if two sample idiographs are by the same author. Bumps on one's Zed are however about as likely to disclose one's personality as bumps on one's head.
Returning to the Roman G, this letter has only had its current standardised form since about the time of Garamond, the Renaissance printer and font-maker. Roman inscriptions consistently demonstrate the G to have the same form as the C but with a long tail the approximate shape as a quarter-circle extending from the lower lip downwards and to the left. It thus dropped below the register, in a manner similar to that (albeit in the opposite direction) in which the Roman Q did and still does, though it shows less of a swoop in modern fonts.
In Antique Latin, the C and G were not distinguished, and C covered both sounds. This usage persisted into Classical times in the old abbreviations for the male praenomines Gaius (C) and Gnaeus (CN). The letter C comes from the G of the Phoenician alphabet, and it looked quite like /_ .It was of course from the same origin as the Greek Gamma.
In connection with the G inside a conjoined Square and Compasses: let the Compasses be the ascendants of an A, and the Square the crossbar, if not of a Roman A then of a Greek Alpha, which is often styled with a V-shaped crossbar. The arrangement inevitably suggests the letters G and A, as for Great Architect, or God Almighty. Equally, if the G is for Geometry, the A might illustrate another of the Liberal arts, Astronomy: as above, so below. Earthly order is an expression of the divine harmony.
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Post by ingo on Nov 23, 2004 7:16:51 GMT
G can also stand for the greek word "Gäa", which is the name of a ancient mother goddess....
Square and compass in this direction also form the sign of the mother goddess Ishtar from Babylon....a mandorla, which is a sign for the female sexual organ
I am sorry if someone's getting tired or upset on this explanation again, but I found it in a book of the german orientalist Prof. Lüling (a non-mason) where he explained the symbols. This book is really hard to read because he wrote in a academic language where even, if compared, the books of the philosopher Kant are easy prose...
The freemasons also speak about her "mother lodge". Isn't that funny? I always wondered about that. Why is it not the "fathers lodge"?
Maybe there are remnants of losts meanings in our symbols.. we still use the words but do not remember the ancient meaning.
Think about the words which are spoken in the 3rd degree to the candidate after his raising!!! But this is a new topic....
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ruffashlar
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Lodge Milncroft No. 1515 (GLoS), Govanhill Royal Arch Chapter 523 (S.G.R.A.C.S.)
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Post by ruffashlar on Nov 23, 2004 23:03:17 GMT
G can also stand for the greek word "Gäa"
It does: Gaia is the antique form of ge, the earth. Coupled with metria from metrein, to measure, we get geometria, "measuring the earth".
Square and compass in this direction also form...a mandorla, which is a sign for the female sexual organ
There is a variety of church window design called a vesica piscis. It is drawn thus: two quarter-circumferences placed with cut ends together, and a line passing from the interior of one of the resultant right-angles to its opposite forms a perpendicular. This design is thought to be an unconscious echo of the vulva of the Goddess in the church-building masons' pictorial vocabulary; it is often found in the crests of Masonic Lodges.
where even, if compared, the books of the philosopher Kant are easy prose
I once heard my Philosophy tutor say that, in the dialect of his home region, Kant's own surname was pronounced something like "Koent", which is very suggestive to the English-speaking student.
The freemasons also speak about her 'mother lodge'. Isn't that funny? I always wondered about that. Why is it not the 'fathers lodge'?
The father is dead, because we are each of us symbolically Hiram Abiff ourselves, and he was the son of a widow. The lodge then becomes our mother, the better to cement us individually with the primacy of her needs.
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Post by Stash on Nov 24, 2004 0:40:02 GMT
The father is dead, because we are each of us symbolically Hiram Abiff ourselves, and he was the son of a widow. The lodge then becomes our mother, the better to cement us individually with the primacy of her needs. Thanks for that Ruff. I feel like my daily knowledge advancement is taken care of just with that.
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Post by taylorsman on Nov 24, 2004 5:37:30 GMT
I suppose it could also be argued that in the Ceremony of Initiation we are symbolically reborn, hence the Lodge is our Mother.
In biological terms the role of the male is finished at conception, forgeting all the societal and moral customs for him to stick around . There is the old joke about the lad who goes down the pub when his wife is in the labour ward. A "Modern Man" upbrades him for not following the modern practice of being with his wife at this time, He retorts, "Listen pal, I was there for the Conception wasn't I?"
Seriously, the Mother in our society at least still has the greater role in the nurture of the infant, both in the physical side such as feeding, and in the emotional and psychological aspects. Most children are more attached to their Mother than their Father, I certainly was.
There is also the use of the phrase Alma Mater , (more common in the USA) for one's school or college, and some religions refer to their "Mother Church".
It is no real surprise to me that Freemasonry refers therefore to the Lodge as the female parent rather than the male, indeed in Scots Freemasonry and those Rituals derived from it there is or was an old Question, "What did you pay for Freemasonry ?" the answer being "A old shoe of my Mother" as the Candidate hands over one of his slipshods.
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Post by Stash on Nov 24, 2004 6:03:04 GMT
Alma Mater is really common here too, and I never understood where that came from.
Actually, nobody here does, cause i've asked a good 5-10 people and everybody just says "no idea"
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Post by ingo on Nov 24, 2004 12:28:00 GMT
so why became one part of freemasonry a mother goddess cult without women? By the way Kants ancestors came from Scotland...
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Post by atarnaris on Dec 2, 2004 12:37:57 GMT
G as a shape resembles the Fibonacci spiral, doesn' it? This being a constant prevalent in Nature and creation represents God as a Geometer/Mathematician
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Post by Stash on Dec 2, 2004 13:39:32 GMT
Hmm, i've never heards of anybody refer to it as the Fibonnaci spiral before. I've always heard it termed the "'PHI spiral
yes yes i know the fib is just a series approximating phi anyway, so it's the same thing, but just commenting on how i've never heard it termed that way
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