O
The fifteenth letter in the English and in most of the Western alphabets The corresponding letter in the Hebrew and Phenician alphabets was called lye, that is, eye; the primitive form of the Phenieian letter being the rough picture of an eye, or a circle With a dot in the center. This dot will he [...]
OAK APPLE, SOCIETY OF THE
Instituted about 1658, and lapsed under the disturbances in England during the reign of James II, but it lingered among the Stuart adherents for many years.
OANNES
The earliest instructor of man in letters sciences, and arts, especially in architecture, geometry, botany. and agriculture, and in all other useful Knowledge, was the fish-god Oannes, according to ancient mythology. This universal teacher, according to Berossus, appeared in the Persian Gulf, bordering on Babylonia, and, although an animal, was endowed with reason and great [...]
OATH
In the year 1738. Clement XII, at that time Pope of Rome, issued a Bull of Excommunication against the Freemasons, and assigned, as the reason of his condemnation, that the Institution confederated persons of all religions and sects in a mysterious bond of union, and compelled them to secrecy by an oath taken on the [...]
OATH, CORPORAL
The modern form of taking an oath is by placing the hands on the Gospels or on the Bible. The corporate, or corporal both, is the name of the linen cloth on which, in the Roman Catholic Church, the sacred elements consecrated as “the body of our Lord” are placed. Hence the expression corporal oath [...]
OATH OF ALLEGIANCE
See Flag Ceremony
OATH OF THE GILD
The Oath that was administered in the English Freemasons Gild of the Middle Ages is first met with in the Harleian Manuscript, No. 1945, written about the year 1670. The 31st Article prescribes: “That no person shall bee accepted a Free Mason, or know the secrets of the said Society, until hee hath first taken [...]
OATH, TILER’S
Before any strange and unknown visitor can gain admission into a Masonic Lodge, he is required in the United States of America to take the following oath: I, A. B., do hereby and hereon solemnly and sincerely swear that I have been regularly initiated, passed, and raised to the sublime Degree of a Master Mason [...]
OB
A Masonic abbreviation of the word Obligation, sometimes written O. B.
OBED
The Hebrew word meaning serving One of nine favored officials, selected by Solomon after the death of Hiram Abiff.
