Friday, January 19, 2018

Passing the Veils: its Historical Development and Symbolism


PETER JOHN MILLHEISER

2005 Grand Historian Lecture,
The Most Excellent Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Florida

      Some of the most fascinating changes that have occurred in the Royal Arch ritual have been those of the legends of the vault and the veils.  Philostorgius, the fourth century great historian, wrote that as the Roman Emperor Julian was attempting to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, a stone was dislodged revealing a hidden vault.  Workers were lowered into the vault, whose dimensions formed a perfect square.  One of the workers struck his foot against a column upon which was found a book wrapped in a fine linen cloth.  His companions outside the vault then pulled this worker up by a rope tied around his waist.  The book appeared new, and written in the book in large letters was the Gospel of John, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

    There were other variations of the vault legend.  In the Book of Enoch, Enoch had a vision from God of nine vaults and he proceeded to build a secret sanctuary based on the plan that had been revealed to him.  The vaults were built one under the other and in the ninth and lowest vault was a triangle of the purist gold upon which was inscribed the name of God.


    In the Bible, there are various references to the veil of the temple.  In Exodus 26:31 – 33, it was written:

     And thou shalt make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen of cunning work; with cherubim shall it be made:  And thou shall hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold . . . .  And thou shalt hang up the veil under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the veil the ark of the testimony; and the veil shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

   Flavius Josephus in the Antiquities of the Jews (3:7:7) described the veils of the tabernacle whose colors represented the four elements from which the earth was created.

    The veils, too, which were composed of four things, they declared the four elements; for the fine linen was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, because that color is dyed by the blood of a sea shell-fish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire.

   The symbolism of the veils was important in the New Testament.  In Matthew 27:51, it was written: “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent . . . .”  In Hebrews 10:19 – 20, the veil is referred to as the flesh of Jesus: “By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh . . . .”

    In late 18th century England, Chapter minutes, as well as various manuscripts, contain records of the of the working of the Passing of the Veils.  The Passing of the Veils was not a universal custom in the early English Chapter degrees and the ceremony fell into abeyance in the 19th century.  The Passing of the Veils was most commonly practiced in England in the period when the Royal Arch was still a Trinitarian Christian degree.  The degree was de-christianized, first with the union of the Grand Chapters of the Ancients and Moderns in 1813, and subsequently with a more extensive reworking of the Chapter degrees in 1834 – 35.

    Prior to this, there was a degree called the Excellent Master Degree, in which the Passing of the Veils took place.  This degree is not related to the present Most Excellent Master Degree.  The Excellent Master Degree was abandoned in England when the degrees were reworked and the ceremony of the Veils in England generally fell into disuse.  In the United States, the Excellent Master Degree was also dropped from the Chapter degrees in the revision of the degrees at the beginning of the formation of the General Grand Chapter in 1797.  Unlike England, the Passing of the Veils was incorporated into the Royal Arch Degree in the United States.

    However, the Passing of the Veils did not fully disappear in England.  Some English Chapters continued to work the ceremony as part of Royal Arch Masonry.  Utilizing the minutes and the treasurers’ books of some of the Yorkshire Chapters, such as the Chapter of Affability, it was found that the ceremony of the veils continued to be used until at least the 1860s.

    The Passing of the Veils in England, when practiced following the reforms of 1834–35, generally occurred with the Exaltation.  These two ceremonies were held on the same day and the Passing of the Veils preceded the Exaltation.  However, in a number of cases, the Exaltation preceded the Passing of the Veils by as much as four years.

     By the latter part of the 19th century, there is no evidence that the Veils ceremony was still being worked in England.  However, in 1899, Masons in Bristol, in the west of England, decided to research the Passing of the Veils and to reincorporate it into the Royal Arch Degree.  There was no information about the ceremony that they could find.  Ernest Henry Cook, who was the last surviving member of this group of Masons, some 30 years later described how they recreated the ritual.  Initially three veils were suspended in an anteroom adjoining the Chapter room.  A fourth veil was subsequently added.  It is unclear if the ceremony of the veils worked in the 19th century in England was the same as the pre-union workings of the 18th and very early 19th centuries.

    The ceremony that we can recreate from the 19th century consisted of the Junior Scribe conducting the candidate and giving four knocks at the door of the First Veil.  The High Priest read from the third chapter of Exodus, verse 1 through 6, concerning the Burning Bush, at which point the bandage was removed from the candidates eyes.  This was followed by the 13th and 14th verses of the same chapter.  At the Second Veil, the readings were of the serpent and of Aaron’s rod.    The passwords were Moses, Aaron, and Eleazer.  Within the Third Veil, the miracles of the leprous hand and the pouring of water on the dry land were discussed.  The candidate was then shown the various holy articles and was able to present himself as a Sojourner.

    The working of the Passing of the Veils is still performed in other countries.  The Irish ceremony seems to be the one most closely related to the American ceremony, both of which use four veils.  The veils ceremony is also worked in Scotland, and in parts of Canada and Australia.  In Queensland, Australia, the signs of the veils are similar to the American signs, but the ceremony is enacted in the Excellent Master Degree, which has been retained.  The candidate is taught the grips, which accompany the signs of the three veils.  The candidate, however, does not pass through the white veil.

    In the United States, Royal Arch Masonry made an early appearance.  The first recorded minutes of a Royal Arch Exaltation in the world were in the lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 22, 1753, when Daniel Campbell, Robert Hatherston, and Alexander Wodrons were raised to the degree of Royal Arch Mason.  This was the same lodge in which George Washington was initiated on November 4, 1753.  A Royal Arch Chapter was also held in Philadelphia in 1758.  St. Andrews Royal Arch Chapter in Massachusetts, in the 18th century, originally worked four degrees:  the Excellent, Super-Excellent, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar degrees.  These degrees were all given in one night.

    In 1797, plans were made to form the General Grand Chapter, which then proceeded to reconcile the differences existing in the rituals used in the various American Chapters.  Under the leadership of Thomas Smith Webb, the Chapter ritual was standardized to the format of the four degrees used today.

    The symbolism of the veils is complex.  Second Chronicles 3:14 describes how Solomon made the veil of the temple of fine linen in blue, purple, and crimson.  The same colors used in the veils were also worked into the robes of the High Priest.  The passage through the veils is a passage to the sacred place (the Holiest of Holies) to receive spiritual illumination.  Passing through the veils is a symbol of the trials and difficulties that are encountered in the search for Truth.  As the veils separated the Holy places from the Holiest of Holies, which was regarded as a heaven peculiar to God, so the veil screening the Holiest of Holies was also the boundary between earth and heaven.

    Blue is the symbol of friendship and benevolence, which is the first step in the search for Truth.  As the blue of the sky represents the threshold of heaven, so the blue veil is the threshold of the mystical passageway through the veils to illumination.

   Purple, the symbol of union of the colors blue and red, refers to the connection of Craft and Royal Arch Masonry.  This is the color of the intermediate degrees.

    The scarlet veil, which is the symbol of fervency and zeal, shows that the candidate has advanced and will be successful in his journey from darkness to light.  Red is the basic symbol of strength, vitality, and power of life.  The name Adam in Hebrew [adam] is closely related to the Hebrew word for red [adom] and so red is symbolic of the vitality of Adam, which has continued throughout time.

    White is the universal symbol of purity and teaches the candidate that only by purity of life can he expect to be worthy of receiving Divine Truth.  To Plato, white as the color of the gods.  At the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, his clothes became dazzling white.  The word candidate means one dressed in white and white is the color of initiation.  In Hebrew, the word for white is related to the word for perfection.

    Only after going through the illumination of the veils, is one entitled to receive the Signet of Truth, enabling him to pass through the final veil separating the Holy from the Holiest of Holies.  The Passing of the Veils symbolizes the mystical journey to illumination and enlightenment.  An old Lancastershire English Craft Lecture from about 1800 noted that the veil of the Temple signified Jesus hanging upon the altar of the cross as the true veil between God and man, shadowing man with his wounds and blood.

    “Taking the Veil” has also been a symbol of separating a life with God from that of the outside world, as when a nun “takes the veil.”  In Islam, the veil divides the damned from the chosen.  The Sufi Muslims state that a person is veiled when he cannot perceive the Divine Light in his heart.  In Buddhism, there is a veil, Maya, which conceals the ultimate reality.  The veil is also protective, as the unscreened Light of Truth could be blinding.  Moses covered his face at the burning bush to shade his eyes.  To the Muslims, the face of God is veiled by 70 thousand curtains of light and darkness without which everything God gazed upon would be burned up.  The veil can also be seen as a method of communication as it only partially conceals, permitting some light to penetrate the veil.  Another interpretation is that the veils represented the sufferings of the Jewish people in returning from Babylonian exile.

    Illumination from within, based on the passing through the veils, is an alchemical interpretation.  The object of the alchemical art is the uncovering of the inner faculty of wisdom, removing the veils, which separate the mind from its hidden divine root.

    The Passing of the Veils ceremony is therefore an intense, religiously inspired allegory, which is of major importance in understanding the Royal Arch Degree.  The Passing of the Veils symbolizes the power and glory of the spiritual insights of the Royal Arch Degree.  As the Blue Lodge stresses man’s relationship to man, so the Chapter Degrees emphasize man’s relationship to Diety.  This is a profound and significant difference.

   (Adapted from an article from The Royal Arch Mason, Volume 23, Number 2, Summer 2005, pages 41 - 45)

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