B
In Hebrew, Beth. A labial or lip-made consonant standing second in most alphabets, and in the Hebrew or Phoenician signifies house, probably from its form of a tent or shelter, as in the illustration, and finally the Hebrew z, having the numerical value two. When united with the leading letter of the alphabet, it signifies [...]
BAAL
Hebrew, He was the chief divinity among the Phoenicians, the Canaanites, and the Babylonians. The word signifies in Hebrew Lord or Master. It was among the Orientalists a comprehensive term, denoting divinity of any kind without reference to class or to sex. The Sabaists understood Baal as the sun, and Baalim, in the plural, were [...]
BABEL
In Hebrew, which the writer of Genesis connects with, balal, meaning to confound, in reference to the confusion of tongues; but the true derivation is probably from Bab-El, meaning the gate of Et or the gate of God, because perhaps a Temple was the first building raised by the primitive nomads. It is the name [...]
BABYLON
The ancient capital of Chaldea, situated of both sides of the Euphrates, and once the most magnificent city of the ancient world. It was here that upon the destruction of Solomon’s Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in the year of the world 3394 the Jews of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who were the inhabitants of [...]
BABYLON, RED CROSS OF
Another name for the degree of Babylonish Pass, which see.
BABYLONIAN RITE OF INITIATION
See Initiation, Babylonian Rite of
BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY
See Captivity
BABYLONISH PASS
A degree given in Scotland by the authority of the Supreme Grand Royal Arch Chapter. It is also called the Red Cross of Babylon, and is almost identical with the Knight of the Red Cross conferred in Commanderies of Knights Templar in America as a preparatory degree.
BACK
Freemasonry, borrowing its symbols from every source, has not neglected to make a selection of certain parts of the human body. From the back an important lesson is derived, which is fittingly developed in the Third Degree. Hence, in reference to this symbolism, 01iver says: “It is a duty incumbent on every Mason to support [...]
BACKHOUSE, WILLIAM
Kenning’s Cyclopaedia states that Backhouse reported to be an alchemist and astrologer and that Ashmole called him father. He published a Rosicrucian work, The Wise Man’s Croton, or Rosicrucian Physic, by Eugenius Theodidactus, in 1651at London. John Heydon published a book entitled William Backhouse’s Way to Bliss, but Ashmole claims it in his diary to [...]
