Traditions of Freemasonry and Its Coincidences with the Ancient Mysteries

ALBERT PIKE

MORALS AND DOGMA

MONUMENT TO THE BUILDER

ANOTHER INTERPRETATION

The hieroglyphical figure

Within the last fifty years there has been added to the American emblems of Freemasonry that which is sometimes termed a "hieroglyphical figure"—a female weeping over a broken column, a book open before her; in her right hand a sprig, in her left an urn; Time standing behind her with his fingures infolded in the ringlets of her hair. This figure was designed by the Rev. Jonathan Nye [(1783-1843] for the Hieroglyphic Monitor, published by Jeremy L. Cross in 1819. The idea, doubtless, was derived from the legend of Isis weeping at Byblos over the column torn from the palace of the king, which contained the body of Osiris, while Horus, the god of time, pours ambrosia on her hair.
The tradition above quoted from the Ancient and Accepted Rite may be of comparative modern origin; admitting that it is at least a century older than the hieroglyphical figure depicted first in Cross' chart, and copied from him by all those who have used embellishments in the making up of instruction books or monitors.

Traditions of Freemasonry and Its Coincidences with the Ancient Mysteries. A[zariah].T.C. Pierson (1815-1889), New York : Macoy & Sickels & Pierson, 1865. pp. 220-21. [Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Minnesota, 1855-1865]

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