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MAGIC.
MAGIAN SOCIETY.
MAGICIANS, SOCIETY OF THE.
MAGIC SQUARES.
MAGISTER CAEMENTARIORUM.
MAGISTER HOSPITALIS.
MAGISTER LAPIDUM.
MAGISTER MILITIAE CHRISTI.
MAGISTER PERRERIUS.
MAGISTER TEMPLI.
MAGISTRI COMACINI.
MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRAEVALEBIT.
MAGNAN, B. P.
MAGNANIMOUS.
MAGNETIC FREEMASONRY.
MAGUS.
MAH.
MAHABHARATA.
MAHADEVA.
MAHAKASYAPA.
MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ.
MAIER, MICHAEL.
MAINE.
MAINWARING, COLONEL.
MAISTRE, JOSEPH DE.
MAITRE.
MAITRE MAÇON.
MAITRESSE AGISSANTE.
MAITRESSE MAÇON.
MAITRISE.
MAJOR.
MAJOR ILLUMINATE.
MAGIC.
figuur:
The idea that any connection exists between Freemasonry and magic is to be attributed to the French writers, especially to Ragon, who gives many pages of his Masonic Orthodozy to the subject of Masonic magic; and still more to Alphonse Louis Constant, who hass written three large volumes on the History of Magic, on the Ritual and Dogma of the Higher Magic, and on the Key of the Grand Mysteries, in all of which he seeks to trace an intimate connection between the Masonic mysteries and the science of magic (see Levi, Eliphas). Ragon designates this sort of Freemasonry by the name of Occult Freemasonry But he loosely confounds magic with the magism of the ancient Persians, the medieval philosophy and modern magnetism, all of which, as identical sciences, were engagedin the investigation of the nature of man. the mechanism of his thoughts, the faculties of his soul, his power over nature, and the essence of the occult virtues of all things.
Magism, he says, is to be found in the Sentences of Zoroaster, in the Hymns of Orpheus, in the Invocations of the Hierophants, and in the Symbols of Pythagoras; it is reproduced in the Philosophy of Agrippa and of Cardan, and is recognized under the name of Magic in the marvelous results of magnetism. Cagliostro, it is well known, mingled with his Spurious Freemasonry the Superstitions of Magic and the Operations of Animal Magnetism. But the writers who have sought to establish a scheme of Magical Freemasonry refer almost altogether to the supposed power of mystical names or words, which they say is common to both Freemasonry and magic. It is certain that onomatology, or the science of names, forms a very interesting part of the investigations of the higher Freemasonry, and it is only in this way that any connection can be created between the two sciences. Much light, it must be confessed, is thrown on many of the mystical names in the advanced Degrees by the dogmas of magic; and hence magic furnishes a curious and interesting study for the Freemason (see Magic Squares and Alchemy).
MAGIAN SOCIETY.
Founded in New York City on September 29, 1913, by Brother Frank C. Higgins, for the study of Masonic symbolism (see American Freemason, November, 1913, and Miscellanea Latomorum, volume i, pages 63 and 128, new series).
MAGICIANS, SOCIETY OF THE.
A society founded at Florence, which became a division of the Brothers of Rose Croix. They wore in their Chapters the habit of members of the Inquisition. This must not be confused with a society of the same na ne but not claiming to be exclusively Masonic in the United States.
MAGIC SQUARES.
A magic square is a series of numbers arranged in an equal number of cells constituting a square figure, the enumeration of all of whose columns, vertically, horizontally and diagonally, wilt give the same sum. The Oriental philosophers, and especially the Jewish Talmudists, have indulged in many fanciful speculations in reference to these magic squares, many of which were considered as talismans. The accompanying figure of nine squares containing the nine digits so arranged as to make fifteen when counted in every way, was of peculiar import.
There was no talisman more sacred than this among the Orientalists, when arranged as in Figure 1-6
Thus designed, they called it by the name of the planet Saturn, ZaHaL, because the sum of the 9 digits in the square was equal to 45 (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 +g) which is the numerical value of the letters in the word ZaHaL, in the Arabic alphabet. The talmudists also esteemed it as a sacred talisman because 15 is the numerical value of the letters of the word JaH, which is one of the forms of the Tetragrammaton.
The Hermetic Philosophers called these magic squares Tables of the Planets, and attributed to them many occult virtues. The Table of Saturn consisted of 9 squares, and has Just been given. The Table of Jupiter consisted of 16 squares of numbers, whose total value is 136, and the sum of them added, horizontally, perpendicularly, and diagonally, in rows, is always 34; as in Figure 3.
So the Table of Mars consists of 25 squares, of the Sun of 36, of Venus of 49, of Mercury of 64, and of the Moon of 81. These magic squares and their values have been used in the symbolism of numbers in some of the advanced Degrees of Freemasonry.
This subject should not be dismissed as a purely imaginative study. The matter has for many years engaged the attention of mathematicians of the highest quality. The Magic Square has been worn as an emblem or talisman insuring good luck to the posses sor and evidently it formed an essential part in the early symbolism connected with the Craft. That singular picture by Albrecht Durer of the sixteenth century, Malancolia, shows a Magic Square with many other symbols easily recognized by members of the Masonic institution. The history of the Magie Square goes back hundreds of years and there has been undoubtedly through this period a superstitious, as vrell as a scientific, esteem for this device. They have not been worked out to their present perfection in any other than by systematic methods. The earliest known writer on the subject was a Greek, Emanuel Moscopulus, who flourished in the fourth or fifth century. Since that time there have been many laborer ers upon this work.
One of the very interesting of these Magic Squares is referred to above by Doctor Mackey. This occurs in a book by Agrippa (De Occulta Philosophie, logo) and is quoted on page 279 of George Falkener's Gaines Ancient arid Moderns By first arrangement the numerals from 1 to 16 in four rows as in Figure 4 it will be seen that by leaving the numerals unchanged at each corner of the large square, namely 1, 4, 16, and 13, and also at the inner square of 6, 7, 10, and 11, and substituting the other pairs of numerals, reversing them at the time, we have in Figure 5, this remarkable Magic Square reversed, which Brotber Mackey has called the Table of Jupiter. The combinations of this figure are surprising, amounting to fifty-six arrangements, each totaling thirty-four. The four horizontals, as 1+15+14+4=34, 12+6+7+9=34, etc; and the four perpendicular columns, as 1+12+8+13 = 34, and 15+6+10+3=34, etc.; the diagonals,1+6+11+16= 34, and4+7+10+13=34; the diamonds, 1+7+16+ 10=34, and 4+11+13+6=34; the squares, 1+4+ 16+13=34, and 6+7+11+10=34; the oblongs, 15+ 14+2+3 =34, 12+9+5+8=34, and the romboids, 1+15+16+2=34, and 4+9+13+8=34, etc.
The method of working out a Magic Square with an uneven number of cells was suggested by De la Loubere. The several steps may be considered as follows: In assigning consecutive numbers, proceed in an oblique direction up and to the right as 4, 5, 6, as in Figure 6. When this would carry a number out of the Magic Square, write that number in the cell at the opposite end of the column or row, as shown by the numbers in the margin of Figure 6. When the application of the first of these rules in the present paragraph would place a number in a cell already occupied, write the new number in the cell beneath the one last filled. For instance, the cell above and to the right of 3 being occupied, 4 is written under 3. Treat the marginal square at the upper nght-hand corner marked x as an occupied cell and apply the rule given
in the last sentence. Begin by putting 1 in the top cell of the middle column. A comparison of Figure 6 will show that it is a reflection of Figure 1 given by Doctor Mackey.
One of the most successful of all students of the subject unquestionably was Brother Benjamin Franklin. Two of his efforts, an 8xS and a 16x16, are today unsurpassed as purely remarkably successful attempts at the making of Magic Squares. A communication to an English friend by Brother Franklin appears in the work entitled Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects by Benjamin Franklin, printed in 1769. This letter is in part as follows:
According to your request I now send you the arithmetical curiosity of which this is the history. Being one day in the country at the house of our common friend, the late learned Mr. Logan, he showed me a folio French book filled with magic squares, wrote, if I forget not by one Mr. Frenicle, in which he said the author had discovered great ingenuity and dexterity in the management of numbers; and though several other foreigners had distinguished themselves in the same way, he did not recollect that any one Englishman had done anything of the kind remarkable.
I said it was perhaps a mark of the good sense of our mathematicians that they would not spend their time in things that were merely domiciles novae, incapable of any useful application. He answered that many of the arithmetical or mathematical questions publicly proposed in England were equally trifling and useless. Perhaps the considering and answering such questions, I replied, may not be altogether useless if it produces by practice an habitual readiness and exactness in mathematical disquisitions, which readiness may, on many occasions be of real use. In the same way, says he, may the making of these squares be of use. I then confessed to him that in my younger days, having onee some leisure (which I still think I might have employed more usefully)
I had amused myself in making this kind of magic squares, and, at length had acquired such a knack at it, that I could fill the cells of any magic square of reasonable size with a series of numbers as fast as I could write them, disposed in such a manner that the sums of every row, horizontal, perpendicular, or diagonal, should be equal; but not being satisfied with these, which I looked on as common and easy things, I had imposed on myself more difficult tasks, and succeeded in making other magic squares with a varietal of properties, and much more curious. He then showed me several in the same book of an uncommon and more curious kind, but as I thought none of them equal to some I remembered to have made, he desired me to let him see them; and accordingly the next time I visited him, I carried him a square of 8 which I found among my old papers, and which I will now give you with an account of its properties Figure 7-9
. The properties are:
1. That every straight rov., horizontal or vertical, of 8 numbers added together, make 260, and half of each row, half of 260.
2. That the bent row of 8 numbers ascending and descending diagonally, viz., from 16 ascending to 10 and from 23 descending to 17 and every one of its parallel bent rows of 8 numbers make 260, etc., etc. And lastly the four corner numbers with the four middle numbers
make 260. So this magical square seems perfect in its kind, but these are not all its properties, there are five other curious ones which at some time I will explain to you.
This Magic Square by Franklin is given here as Figure 7.
Brother Paul Carus has investigated the means by which Brother Franklin may have worked out his system of Magic Squares but it is really somewhat a question even now with all the later studies that have been given to the subject whether any one has perfected an ability capable of preparing a means of produeing these designs with the facility that Brother Franklin mentions. Those who wish to examine the subject further will find it discussed in the Encyclg paedia Britannica, in Magic Squares and Cubes, by W. S. Andrews, containing chapters by Brother Paul Carus and others, and in a Scrap Book of Elementary Mathematics by William F. White, as well as in Mathernatical Recreations by Professor W. W. R. Ball.
This subject is somewhat allied as a mathematical curiosity with two other figures which come down to us through the Middle Ages, the Magic Pentagon or the Five Pointed Star, as a symbol of the School of Pythagoras, as in Figure 8, and the Magic Hexagram, Figure 9, commonly called the Shield of David and frequently used on synagogues, as Brother Carus points out. these two designs, Figures 8 and 9, have a peculiarity that is not perhaps noticed at the first glance- They can be drawn by one stroke of the pencil, beginning at any point. If they be compared in this respect with any square having two diagonals the difference can soon be tested as the square is not capable of being drawn as a complete figure, including the two diagonals, with one stroke. In order to better illustrate the operation of drawing Figures 8 and 9, numerals have been attached to illustrate the movement of the pencil in tracing them out. Of course, they can be begun at any place in any one of the lines composing the figures.
MAGISTER CAEMENTARIORUM.
A title applied in the Middle Ages to one who presided over the building of edifices, and means Master of the Masons.
MAGISTER HOSPITALIS.
See Master of the Hospital.
MAGISTER LAPIDUM.
Du Cange (Glossiarum) defines this as Master Meson; and he cites the statutes of Marseilles as saying: "Tres Magistros Lapidis bonos et legates, " that is, three good and lawful Master Masons "shall be selected to decide on all questions about water in the city."
MAGISTER MILITIAE CHRISTI.
Latin, meaning Master of the Chivalry or Knight of Christ which see under this title.
MAGISTER PERRERIUS.
A name given in the Middle Ages to a Mason; literally, a Master of Stones, from the French pierre, a stone.
MAGISTER TEMPLI.
See Master of the Temple.
MAGISTRI COMACINI.
SeeComacxneMasters; bo Como.
MAGNA EST VERITAS ET PRAEVALEBIT.
Istin, meaning The Truth is mighty, and will prevail. The motto of the Red Cross Degree, or Knights of the Red Cross.
MAGNAN, B. P.
A Marshal of France, nominated by Napoleon III, Emperor, as Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France, in 1862, and, though not a member of the great Fraternity at the time, was initiated and installed Grand Master, February 8, 1862, and so remained until May 29, 1865.
MAGNANIMOUS.
The title applied in modern usage to the Order of Knights Templar. Well does John Ruskin say (sesame and Lilies, 1865, page 65), "Mighty of heart, mighty of mind -magnanimous to be this, is indeed to be great in life." The word is compounded from the Latin magnus, great, and animus, soul, signifying Great of Soul.
MAGNETIC FREEMASONRY.
This is a form of Freemasonry which, although long ago practised by Cagliostro as a species of charlatanism, in the opinion of Brother Mackey was first introduced to notice as a philosophic system by Ragon in his treatise on ,Uafonnerie Occulte.
"The occult sciences," says this writer, "reveal to man the mysteries of his nature, the secrets of his organization, the means of attaining perfection and happiness; and, in short, the decree of his destiny. Their study was that of the high initiationrs of the Egyptians; it is time that they should become the study of modern Masons." And again he Id "A Masonic society which should establish in its bosom a magnetic academy would soon find the reward of its labors in the good that it would do, and the happiness which it would create." There can be no doubt that the Masonic investigator has a right to search everywhere for the means of moral, intellectual, and religious perfection; and if he can find anything in magnetism which would aid him in the search, it is his duty and wisest policy to avail himself of it. But, nevertheless, Magnetic Freemasonry, as a special regime, or Rite, will hardly ever be adopted by the Fraternity.
MAGUS.
This word has at least two important references.
1. The Fourteenth Degree, and the first of the Greater Mysteries of the system of Illuminism.
2. The Ninth and last Degree of the German Rosicrucians. It is the singular of Magi, which see.
MAH.
The Hebrew interrogative pronoun me, signifying What? It is a component part of a significant word in Freemasonry. The combination Mahhah, literally "Thatt the," is equivalent, according to the Hebrew method of ellipsis, to the question, "What! is this the ?"
MAHABHARATA.
Mahabharata
A Sanskrit poem, recounting the rivalries of the descendants of King Bharata, and occupying a place among the Shasters of the Hindus. It contains many thousand verses, written at various unknown periods since the completion of the Ramayana.
MAHADEVA.
Meaning the great god. one of the common names by which the Hindu god Siva is called. His consort, Durga, is similarly styled MahAdevi, the great goddess. In Buddhistic history, Mahadeva, who lived two hundred years after the death of the Buddha Sakyamuni, or 343, is a renowned teacher who caused a schism in the Buddhistic Church.
MAHAKASYAPA.
The renowned disciple of Buddha Sakyamuni, who arranged the metaphysical portion of the sacred writings called Abhidharma.
MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ.
Hebrew. Four Hebrew words which the prophet Isaiah was ordered to write upon a tablet, and which were afterward to be the name of his son. They signify, "make haste to the prey, fall upon the spoil," and were prognostic of the sudden attack of the Assyrians. They may be said, in their Masonic use, to be symbolic of the readiness for action which should distinguish a warrior, and are therefore of significant service in the system of Masonic Templarism.
MAIER, MICHAEL.
A celebrated Rosicrucian and interpreter and defender of Rosicrueianism. He was born at Resinsburg, in Holstein, in 1568, and died at Magdeburg in 1620, Spence says 1622 (EncycZopsedia of Occultism, 1920) though the former figure is usually given. He is said to have been the first to introduce Rosicrucianism into England. He wrote many works on the system, among which the most noted are Atlanta Fugiens, 1618; Septimana Philosophica, 1620; De Fraternitate Rosoe Crucis, 1618; and Lusus Serius, 1617. Some of his contemporaries having denied the existence of the Rosicrucian Order, Maier in his writings has refuted the calumny and warmly defended the Society, of which, in one of his works, he speaks thus: "Like the Pythagoreans and Fgyptians, the Rosicrucians exact vows of silence and secrecy. Ignorant men have treated the whole as a fiction; but this has arisen from the five years probation to which they subject even well-qualified novices before they se admitted to the higher mysteries, and within this period they are to learn how to govern their own tongues."
MAINE.
Jeremy Gridley, Provincial Grand Master for Massachusetts, granted authority to Alexander Ross to constitute the first Lodge in Maine at Falmouth, afterwards Portland. Ross died November 24, 1768, and a petition signed by eleven Brethren was sent to John Rowe who succeeded Gridley. On March 30, 1769, he granted a new Charter, deputizing William Tyng to act as Master. In 1772 this Lodge resolved, as there was some dispute about the matter, to use the Antient and Modern Rituals on alternate evenings. Maine was admitted into the Union of the States in 1819, at which time there were thirty-one Lodges in the new State. Twenty-nine of these at a meeting called by Simon Greenleaf agreed to constitute a Grand Lodge. On June 1, 1820, twenty-four Bodies were represented and chose their Grand Officers.. William King, Governor of the State, was elected the first Grand Master. The disappearance of Morgan in 1826 and the consequent anti-Masonic feeling caused a great number of the Lodges in Maine as in New York and Pennsylvania to cease work for a considerable period. In 1870, however, the Craft had grown so strong again that there were one hundred and fifty-four Lodges at work in the State.
The Grand Chapter of Massachusetts granted a Warrant to organize a Chapter in Portland, February 13, 1805, as Mount Vernon Chapter. Montgomery, New Jerusalem, Jerusalem and Mount Vernon Chapters met in CODventiOn at Portland on February 7, 1821, and adopted provisionally the Constitution of the Grand Chapter of Massachusetts. Companion Charles Fox of Portland lvas elected Grand High Priest and Companion James Lorin Child of Augusta, Grand Secretary. The Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Maine, thus constituted, was incorporated by special Act of the State Legislature, approved by the Governor, January 22, 1822.
In the early days of Select Freemasonry in Maine a Council was organized, and worked under the General Grand Chapter. Later, when the General Grand Chapter gave up control of the Degrees, the Brethren organized three Councils King Solomon, Mount Vernon and Jerusalem all chartered by the Grand Council of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Three representatives of each of these Councils with twenty other Companions met in Convention at Portland, May 3, 1855, to organize a Grand Council. Companion Robert P. Dunlap of Brunswick was chosen chairman and elected Grand Puissant.
The date of Maine Commandery, No. 1, at Gardiner, is recorded in the Proceedings of 1856 as March 17, 1827, but in the Proceedings of 1916 it appears as May 14, 1821. Maine, No. 1; Portland, No. 2, and Saint John's, No. 3, met in Convention and constituted on May 5, 1852, the Grand Commandery of Maine.
Portland saw the first introduction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite to the State. On May 14, 1857, were chartered the Yates Lodge of Perfection, the Portland Council of Princes of Jerusalem. and the Dunlap Chapter of Rose Croix. The Maine Consistory, PortlandF was chartered May 22, 1862.
MAINWARING, COLONEL.
Initiated into Freeze masonry at Warrington, 1646, with his brother-inlaw, Elias Ashmole.
MAISTRE, JOSEPH DE.
Born at Chamberg, France, April 1, 1754; died February 2Gr 1821. Diplomat and man of letters. A Roman Catholic of orthodox extremes against the Revolution in France and supporting the infallibility of the Pope. He is mentioned in Albert Lantoine's Histoire de la FrancMagonnerie, 1925, as a Freemason (see page 179 and other references in above work; also Joseph de Maistre, franc-mason, Paul Vulliaud, Paris, 1926).
MAITRE.
The French word meaning Master and freely used as a part of many names of Degrees (see Master) .
MAITRE MAÇON.
The name of the Third Degree in French.
MAITRESSE AGISSANTE.
French, meaning Ading Mistress. The title of the presiding officer of a female Lodge in the Egyptian Rite of Cagliostro.
MAITRESSE MAÇON.
The Third Degree of the French Rite of Adoption. We have no equivalent word in English. It signifies a Mistress in Freemasonry.
MAÎTRISE
Lennhoff
This expressive word wants an equivalent in English, Preeman's Right and Mastership come nearest. The French use La Maîtrise to designate the Third or Master's Degree.
MAJOR.
The Sixth Degree of the German Rose Croix.
MAJOR ILLUMINATE.
The Latin term is IUuminatus Major. The Eighth Degree of the Illuminati of Bavaria.