Insect Shermah

[letterorhalveit3]

I attempted a search within this forum to make sure I wasnt duplicating a thread, but finding none, offer the following for pondering and musing:

In looking at the heirlook Bible given to me on the night of my raising, I find that it has a rather extensive and esoteric question and answer section. One of the questions is "what is insect shermah?" The answer given is that it is a type of worm that was used to cut and polish the stones used to build Solomon's Temple.

I dont recall hearing of this in the lectures at my raising, but do recall that one of the reasons for the rite of destitution (being divested of all metals and then being asked to produce one) discussing that the sounds of metal on stone were never heard and the building of the Temple as the stones were quarried and shaped some distance away. Now with this "insect shermah" idea, it would seem that, since the Bible I was given is accepted by my Grand Lodge that they go along with the slight more esoteric insect shermah theory.

I would really love to hear what anyone thinks or knows about this idea and if there are any AFAM Masons out there, how do we justify this explanation of how the stones were cut with the explanation given in the Enetered Apprentice lectures.

Thanks.

[lauderdale]

I can remember a reference to this is a paper presented to a Lodge many years ago.

I found this via Google

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SHAMIR

King Solomon is said, in a Rabbinical legend, to have used the worm Shamir as an instrument for building the Temple. The legend is that Moses engraved the names of the twelve tribes on the stones of the breastplate by means of the blood of the worm Shamir, whose solvent power was so great that it could corrode the hardest substances. When Solomon was about to build the Temple of stones without the use of any metallic implement, he was desirous of obtaining this potent blood; but the knowledge of the source whence Moses had derived it had been lost by the lapse of time.

Solomon enclosed the chick of a bird, either an ostrich or a hoopoe, in a crystal vessel, and placed a sentinel to watch it. The parent bird, finding it impossible to break the vessel with her bill so as to gain access to the young one, flew to the desert, and returned with the miraculous worm, which, by means of its blood, soon penetrated the prison of glass, and liberated the chick. By a repetition of the process, the King of Israel at length acquired a sufficiency of the dissolving blood to enable him to work upon the stones of the Temple.

It is supposed that the legend is based on a corruption of the word Smiris, the Greek for emery, which was used by the antique engravers in their works and medallions, and that the name Shamir is merely the Hebrew form of the Greek word.

[methuselah]

lauderdale's posting pretty much covered the legend. Yes, it's tied- in with the idea of no metals being used in the building of KST, and our Rite of Destitution. The legend goes all over the place, though, as does it's interpretation, from a worm that essentially shoots stone- cutting lasars out of it's eyes, to some sort of radioactive bit of something that cuts and etches stone. The rabbinical legend mentions that the Shamir was created on the last day of creation, which is what makes it supposedly magical.
Ya got me. What I consider interesting is that it's pointed out in an heirloom Masonic Bible. Anybody know if mention of this was made in any of the MS, or might this be something we picked up later?

[letterorhalveit3]

Interestingly, the heirloom Bible I was given has a whole concordance of esoteric Masonic terms and explanations along with Biblical references where they exist. As a Buddhist Mason, I expected to cherish the Bible as a momento of my raising and place it in a prominant location in my book collection. But Ive found over the last few days that Ive been glued to this part of and have spent a good deal of time looking up the various terms and concepts. Ive really learned a great deal in a place I didnt expect. I expected Biblical foundations for our ritual, etc, but not the esoterica. Quite a nice surprise.

[methuselah]

Nov 9, 2009 20:58:38 GMT letterorhalveit3 said:

I expected Biblical foundations for our ritual, etc, but not the esoterica. Quite a nice surprise.

Indeed. See why we use that bad boy as our VSL?