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Post by ptbojim on Sept 7, 2006 1:35:25 GMT
Can someone enlighten me on the esoteric significace of counterclockwise motion within masonic ritual and symbolism. For example, in the 2nd degree the fellowcraft ascends the winding staircase in a counterclockwise motion and in a masonic funeral rite the acacia is placed on the coffin of the deceased by the bretheren attending in a counterclockwise motion. Note that in the 2nd degree the candidate is recieved on the right breast. His first step when ascending the winding staircase is with his right foot and the pillar of attention is the right one. So why does the staircase wind to the left?
I have done some googling and have come up with insights of returning to ones source and of counterclockwise motion being attributed to the feminine aspect of duality. I have not however, come across any masonic authors who have directly addressed this symbolism. Tarot has offered some insight and I have a hunch that astronomy/astrology may aslo have something to offer.
Can anyone help me discover the esoteric significance?
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Post by hollandr on Sept 7, 2006 3:02:55 GMT
PT
You can try an experiment to investigate the clockwise and counter clockwise.
Sit quietly and put a hand out in front of your solar plexus. Then move your hand as if stirring a bucket. Do it clockwise for 30 seconds and then counter clockwise.
Do you feel that one direction is a little uplifting and the other a little depressing?
Which is which?
Welcome to the hidden mysteries of nature and science
Cheers
Russell
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imakegarb
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One wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie
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Post by imakegarb on Sept 7, 2006 5:54:22 GMT
Edited
I'm sorry, y'all. I forgot this forum isn't tyled and I'm still too new to know, at times, what I can and cannot write about.
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Post by ptbojim on Sept 7, 2006 12:04:38 GMT
I'm instinctively viewing a counterclockwise motion not as a negative force. This is in part due to the fact that the winding staircase is symbolic of elevating ones knowledge. As a symbol of the feminine joining itself with the masculin for unification of polar forces it makes sense - in a kind of symbol of the material or earthly man rising to divine consciousness and unifying with it. I'm going to spend sometime reflecting on this anomaly within the ritual.
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Post by ptbojim on Sept 7, 2006 16:26:27 GMT
I have come across a theosophical source that provides a Kabbalistic interpretation which I think is relevant. Basically, the symbol is "the essence of cosmic electricity, the ever-present electrical energy and ceaseless formative and destructive power in the universe, the propelling, vital force whose symbol is the svastika [an ancient eastern or Native American glyph, with arms that rotate counterclockwise—the arms of the Nazi symbol rotate clockwise. In Kether (“The Crown,” the first Sephira or emanation of Deity of the kabbalistic sephirothal tree which gives birth to the nine others) are thus said to be the beginnings of the whirls, the first stirrings of the divine creative essence. One of the chief duties of the members of this angelic hierarchy is to receive this essence in Kether and carry it to the succeeding hierarchy, the Auphanim or “Wheels,” associated with the second Sephira." www.theosophical.org/theosophy/books/hiddenwisdom2/ch5.htmlCan we therefore, using this explanation, view the counterclockwise ascent as a reunion with the essence and power of the universe? I find it interesting to note that as the stairs wind to the left they approach the boaz or strength side of symbolism as well.
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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 Sept 7, 2006 22:01:52 GMT
Can we therefore, using this explanation, view the counterclockwise ascent as a reunion with the essence and power of the universe?
Listen, first of all, the word is anticlockwise or widdershins.
Second, there's no Masonic consensus about going widdershins: some do, some don't. Usually, whenever I've walked widdershins around the carpet, it's because otherwise I would have to have gone the whole way around in the other direction, a clumsy and time-consuming adherence to practice for its own sake.
Clockwise (or deosil) is the direction of the sun; anticlockwise commonly held to be inauspicious and unnatural. Sometimes the observed motion of the planets in their wandering orbits is against that of solar progress.
Any other (ahem) spin you may put on this by way of interpretation is a case of putting in content that was never intended.
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Post by hollandr on Sept 7, 2006 22:51:50 GMT
>Sit quietly and put a hand out in front of your solar plexus. Then move your hand as if stirring a bucket. Do it clockwise for 30 seconds and then counter clockwise.
ptj
How have you gone with the experiment?
Once we can distinguish the effects of clockwise and counterclockwise we are ready to investigate the effects in the lodge and investigate the hidden mysteries of nature and science
Or are you a speculative Mason?
Cheers
Russell
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Post by ptbojim on Sept 8, 2006 0:25:01 GMT
I truely enjoy a good pun!
May I ask how you are certain that there is no significance in the use of anticlockwise movement, to use your term, in esoteric symbology. I have done a brief google search and have managed to find a few traditions that make reference to a symbolic interpretation of counterclockwise motion.
Also, I'm curious to know if you would consider the steps to the alter in each of the degrees as symbolic? In the 1st and 3rd the candidate in my district approaches from west to east in a particular fashion, which i believe has a much deeper meaning than the most basic exoteric interpretaton. The 2nd is unique in the sense that the candidate starts in the north and turns to the east. The winding staircase is depicted in the FC TB in my district as starting between B & J inside the west door since B is on the north side and J on the south side. Since the J pillar is the one of interest in the 2nd would it not be logical to have the candidate begin in the south and wind to the east? (I personally see the significance of the candidate approaching from the north from an esoteric standpoint, just as it is appropriate to have the EA placed at the NE angle of the lodge.)
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Post by ptbojim on Sept 8, 2006 0:27:13 GMT
Sorry Russell but I'm just not in tune with the manner of experiment you have suggested. I just don't get it I'm afraid.
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Post by hollandr on Sept 8, 2006 1:57:50 GMT
>I just don't get it I'm afraid.
So what happened when you tried the simple hand movements? Did you feel anything?
Once you can feel these things you are ready to investigate a working lodge
Cheers
Russell
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Post by ptbojim on Sept 9, 2006 16:42:53 GMT
Just a quick point of interest with regard to counterclockwise motion. In the northern hemisphere almost all tornadoes rotate in this direction. What, if any impact that natural phenomenon may have had in the development of ancient symbolism makes me go Hmmm. From an esoteric standpoint air is equivalent with the spirit and when applied to the incredible strength of this nature force lifting matter up into the sky it could have certainly had some type of symbolic impact.
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Post by sid on Sept 9, 2006 20:17:40 GMT
Hi Russel, PT You can try an experiment to investigate the clockwise and counter clockwise. Sit quietly and put a hand out in front of your solar plexus. Then move your hand as if stirring a bucket. Do it clockwise for 30 seconds and then counter clockwise. Do you feel that one direction is a little uplifting and the other a little depressing? Which is which? Welcome to the hidden mysteries of nature and science Cheers Russell Interesting, thanks. As the symbols of the 4 beasts are represented by the symbols of Homo, Bos, Aguiela and Leo as in the heraldic shield of Masonry, and as they also represent the greater Cosmic Cross, I would like to as you the meaning of the anticlockwise movement of the signs of the Zodiac. Correct me if this is wrong, please. Can you tell me if a set of 'numbers' within a circle that move in an anticlockwise direction are 'positive' or 'negative'? Thanks. Regards, Sid
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jmd
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Post by jmd on Sept 10, 2006 12:01:36 GMT
In the northern hemisphere in sub-tropical latitudes, the zodiac also moves clockwise by observation (ie, it seemingly moves clockwise as a consequence of the Earth's spin).
Where I am, of course, in these sub-tropical southern latitudes, the Sun and the zodiac appear in an anticlockwise direction, which for us is therefore deosil.
In masonry, and whether or not the particular Lodge or constitution makes much of only walking (on the square) in a clockwise manner, there is an implied clockwise officer location (unless working in European Lodges with both Wardens situated on either side of the door in the West): the implied clockwise movement is represented by the Master, the Junior Warden with the Sun at its meridian, and the Senior Warden with the setting Sun.
For those of us in much more southern latitudes, it is such an obvious and clear northern hemisphere construct as to even be 'strange' (after all, for us, the midday Sun is North, and heat is toward the north!).
Still, forgetting for a while this antipodean strangeness, I do think there can be significance attached to the anticlockwise movement in the second degree. More importantly, however, is the movement of the candidate: from place of relative darkness (north), and hence also, by completion of the Sun's motion, midnight, toward an ASCENT toward dawn and the light of the East. From this position, and despite the Sun's own clockwise direction (in the northern hemisphere), the candidate moves from North to East by heading toward the centre, thus requiring an anti-clockwise ascent.
From a pragmatic and symbolic level, the candidate always faces the East and/or the centre of the Lodge, and if one reflects on the relative positions of the candidate in the three consecutive degrees, there is a natural sequence that results.
This, I personally consider, is of greater import than the resulting anticlockwise motion, though this latter can subsequently also be considered for its symbolic and esoteric value.
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Post by taylorsman on Sept 10, 2006 12:17:41 GMT
Bro JMD. Do you amend the appropriate words of your Rituals to reflect the actual situation. e.g. in the Antipodes do you say that the JW's position is in the NORTH to mark the sun at its meridian or do you stick to the Traditional words and say the South even if this is factually incorrect in your part of the Globe?
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jmd
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Post by jmd on Sept 10, 2006 12:25:20 GMT
No - the rituals are all 'northern', mainly, I would suggest, out of traditional connection. I would also suggest that some have argued, in any case, that clockwise motion has a 'supra-mundane' aspect not connected to apparent motion of the Sun - whether one agrees with this or not, I really do think that it arises out of a historical setting that transposes untouched (at least initially) rituals as brought from European soil.
This applies to all Masonic constitutions that I am aware of in the Southern hemisphere, including South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, and all states of Australia, both Male Craft in 'amity' with UGLE, Co-Masonic and women only (whether LDH or not).
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ruffashlar
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Post by ruffashlar on Sept 10, 2006 14:40:29 GMT
May I ask how you are certain that there is no significance in the use of anticlockwise movement, to use your term, in esoteric symbology
I've no doubt it has; and if it hadn't, you could always make something up by looking hard enough. There is a wellspring of creativity deep within us all: sometimes it produces art, sometimes comedy, sometimes absolute junk. The Esoteric Tradition is a vagabond hawker, trawling each of these piles, as likely to find gold in one as in another. As its touchstone is entirely subjective, what one calls gold another will find to be junk; and vice versa.
However, you did not ask if it had significance in esoteric symbology generally, but in Masonic ritual and symbolism. To the best of my knowledge and awareness, it has none whatever. Nor will it acquire Masonic significance by simply rummaging through a ragbag of nonsense like the human mind.
Objective versus subjective: learn the difference.
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Post by hollandr on Sept 10, 2006 22:53:27 GMT
You may find the anticlockwise implicit in the five pointed blazing star - if you have one in your lodge
cheers
Russell
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Post by ptbojim on Sept 11, 2006 1:36:34 GMT
LMAO! I have to respectfully disagree. While there may not be a direct reference, either symbolically or ritually, of anti cockwise motion, the uderlying hermetic philosophy does imply an inherent duality within nature, thus if we use clockwise circumambulation as a symbol it would logically imply a significance to its polar opposite. "Jung writes: All projections are unconscious identifications with the object. Every projection is simply there as an uncriticized datum of experience, and is recognized for what it is only very much later, if ever. Everything that we today would call "mind" and "insight" was, in earlier centuries, projected into things, and even today individual idiosyncrasies are presupposed by many people to be generally valid (Jung 1989: 488)." ed5015.tripod.com/PaAlchemyPhilosophy65.htm
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Post by hollandr on Sept 11, 2006 2:47:15 GMT
> you could always make something up by looking hard enough. ................. its touchstone is entirely subjective
If only there were some sort of Masonic Science that could take us past speculation.
Surely there is a plumbline with which we can test our hypotheses?
Is there no square to be borrowed from the Temple in the Heavens that can allow us to prove our speculations?
Does the ascension of Jacob's Ladder bring us to that lodge where we can tell the Real from the Unreal?
Or is it all arbitrary speculation for yet another lifetime?
Cheers
Russell
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ruffashlar
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Post by ruffashlar on Sept 11, 2006 3:52:51 GMT
the underlying hermetic philosophy does imply an inherent duality within nature
Nothing Hermetic about it, mate. What you're talking about is old-fashioned Classical philosophy: dichotomy-crazed, seeing twofold divisions in everything, taking as its basis the twofold division of mankind into two sexes. (Obviously these Classical philosophers didn't get out much.)
The work of Helene Cixous (particularly The Laugh of the Medusa), aided by Derrida's and Lacan's reading of Freud, examines the myth of binary opposites in Nature to expose Phallogocentrism, the grand unifying concept of masculine superiority in the cosmos.
An essentially similar process informs the white/black dichotomy in language. A similar unconscious manufacture of heterosexual privilege is yet another dichotomy inherent in our culture and language.
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