Question to masons...or anyone who knows the answer.

I have an honest question for all masonic brothers on this forum. I do not intend to step on the toes of your craft, but i am having trouble understanding a commonly used phrase in masonic history.

The phrase is as follows:

"IS THERE NO HELP FOR THE WIDOW'S SON?"

or

"is there no relief for the widow's son?"

The reason I have come upon this phrase was not researching masonry per se, My last name is Harris. Most of my family is mormon. I would be considered a "jack mormon" seeing as how I was raised catholic by my mother. There is connection between Joseph Smith's masonic activity, and the founding of the mormon church.


I have been told that the phrase above has to do with masonic legend. I cannot figure out if it ties to Egyptian theology, or other religious symbolism. The pharonic priest kings being born of a virgin, or the story of Isis and horus. I think that the phrase has to do with the story of Hiram Abiff, the son of the widow. He was the supposed architect and builder of solomons temple. This would make sense considering masonic connection to solomon's temple. I have also been told that the phrase above is a masonic distress sign. And that any mason hearing this phrase must help thier brother at all costs.


www.xmission.com...

If anybody can help me understand the legend of Abiff more clearly that would be excellent.

Also if anyone can identify where this phrase ties in with Joseph Smith, the Harris family, and mormonism, or anywhere else in history; that would be very helpful.

thank you.

[edit on 17-5-2007 by Eyeofhorus]

Smith was a Mason and from what I have read there are or were many similarities between the endowment ritual and Masonic rituals.

The legend of Hiram Abiff and all of the Masonic rituals are out there on the internet but I wont speak of them due to my oaths and obligations.

Thank you for the direction, I will check that out. No need to violate ritual oaths, I am simply looking for direction. Information sought on one's own is more rewarding anyways.

You are on the right road to finding the information you seek.

The masonic oath is something sacred to those who take it.

Some later on simply lose their personal perspective of what the oath stands for, and leave the masonic lodge.

I am and shall remain until death a Master Mason, though I will not know all the truths or ledgends affiliated with the order.

If you truly want to know masonry, seek out a lodge near you, or a mason and ask receive a petition to join. You might find that there is something there for you to last a life time.

Good luck in your research.

You want conspiracy, lets talk about sifting through absolute crap resources on the internet. Some of these sites seem ok but I can never really tell. As far as I can tell, Hiram Abiff, is a metophor for an ancient belief, in the Isis, Osiris, Horus legend. That is the only connection to the widow's son I can see. Did Abiff even exist?

For those of you who are uninitiated; Hiram Abiff is a symbolic character in Masonry. In the degree work, he is a Master of his craft. He is said to be the architect of Solomon's Temple. These skills were considered 'secret' and sacred because they were given to man by a God that loved mankind and wanted him to be able to take care of his family. The skills provided income as they still do today. The workers had different classes or grades of skill. A beginner was called an Apprentice. The next level was called Fellowcraft. And finally the highest level of a Master.

The 'operiative' craft no longer exists because the ancient skills are taught to thousands in universities and trade schools. The ritual now has become 'speculative'. It teaches how a man can also be shaped and moulded by the tools of his craft to become a better man or a Master.
In the ritual Hiram is murdered for not revealing the secrets of his craft. The ritual is also symbolic. After he is killed, the Master is 'raised' by the secret way of his fellow Masters.

-www.mastermason.com...

In 1 Kings 7:13-45, the Bible tells that Hiram, King of Tyre, sent Solomon a man named Hiram who was highly skilled in bronze work to make all the pillars, vessels, and other decorations necessary for the temple, which he accomplished. The account is repeated in 2 Chronicles 2:13, but Hiram's tablets are here expanded to include work In gold, silver, iron, wood, engraving, and fabrics. The biblical references to Hiram end here, but the Freemasons have Hiram murdered at the hands of three of his workmen when he would not reveal the secret Word of God hidden in the temple structure. In ritual Masons "die" as Hiram Abiff died, and are reborn in the spiritual bonds of Freemasonry.

Philosopher Manly P. Hall compared the Hiramic legend to the worship of Isis and Osiris in the ancient Egyptian mystery schools, another reputed source for Freemasonry. Osiris also fell victim to ruffians, and the resurrection of his body minus his phallus - and Isis's search for it - seems symbolically similar to the quest for the Lost Word of God. Followers of the Isis cult were known as "widow's sons," after the murder of her husband/brother Osiris, and Masons also are called "sons of the widow."

www.gaiaguys.net...

Hmm. I cannot seem to find a source I can deem as wholeheartedly credible. This all sounds a little odd to me.

It is not the only piece of evidence that a Renaissance, Hermetic environment was present in Freemasonic societies. The central figure in Masonic rituals, Hiram Abiff, has been the cause of great speculation. According to Masonic legends, Hiram Abiff was the architect of the Temple of Solomon. Architect – Abiff being an architect – as a science was largely absent in Europe, apart from two instances: the Florentine Renaissance and with John Dee, who believed that architecture was Hermetic. John Dee furthermore mentioned Plato’s reference to the “Great Architect of the Universe”, stating he was “Master over All”. Masonic historians have concluded that Abiff is a mixture of the Egyptian god Osiris and Hermes Trismegistus, or Thoth. Can one get more Hermetic than this?
Finally, Freemasonry was a secret society, revealed for the first time to the world in 1717, though known to have existed in England for approximately one century before – and thus dating back to the 1600 attempted revolution that set to occur in that very country and which involved a “secret cabal” around John Dee. Several authors, like Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh in The Temple and the Lodge, have argued that Freemasonry was introduced into England from Scotland, when James I became king of England in 1603. This at first seems logical, as it would explain why it was only then, with the Stuarts attaining the English throne, that there are more and more references to Freemasonry discovered in England. But we note that 1600 was also the watershed event that signalled the end of the third great attempt; was Freemasonry the secret continuation of these conspirators for social reform? Was the Royal Society one public statement, followed in 1717 by the public revelation of the Freemasonic tradition?
Modern researchers, like Brigid Brophy, have also come to the conclusion that Freemasonry was based on the rituals of the mysteries. She points out that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was a Mason, used this time in his highly Masonic opera, The Magic Flute, where one of the musical numbers is actually titled Isis and Osiris.
It could thus be argued that the Freemasons adapted an Old Testament story of the Temple of Solomon to make their doctrine look Christian, introduced the fictional character of Hiram Abiff and gave him attributes that cast him in the role of Osiris. Should their rituals be discovered, this would allow them to claim they were, after all, Christian, not heretical – which is exactly the tactic they used. As their rituals, however, lost meaning, it seems that the Masons themselves forgot the true origins of this ploy, having fallen victim to it themselves.
In the 17th and 18th century, though, this was not the case. When the first explorers set sail to Egypt, to unearth the mysterious remains of ancient Egypt, most of those “explorers” were Freemasons. It is also a historic fact that they had been inspired by their Masonic background. Egypt, however, would not become the promised land of Freemasonry; that role would go to the United States of America… as Europe was obviously not prone to social reform according to the Hermetic model, the American continent was looked towards as virgin soil where a Hermetic society, a “Heliopolis”, a City of God, could be established more easily.

www.philipcoppens.com...

Originally posted by Eyeofhorus
You want conspiracy, lets talk about sifting through absolute crap resources on the internet. Some of these sites seem ok but I can never really tell. As far as I can tell, Hiram Abiff, is a metophor for an ancient belief, in the Isis, Osiris, Horus legend. That is the only connection to the widow's son I can see. Did Abiff even exist?

According to I Kings and II Chronicles, Hiram Abiff was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali. Most see this as meaning that his father had been a Hebrew, although he himself was a Phoenician citizen.

Anti-Masonic author Martin Wagner, in his book "Freemasonry Interpreted", claims that there is a rabbinic legend that at the completion of the Temple all the workers were executed so that they would not build another temple dedicated to idolatry, while Hiram was raised to heaven like Enoch; Wagner then claims that this legend of Hiram's raising influenced Freemasonry.

I suppose that's possible, although I've never verified that Wagner's tale of a rabbinic legend is valid.

Others have claimed that Hiram represented Jacques DeMolay or Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender. Still others have seen the story as an allegory of Christ, or a modern spin on the Osirian-Mithraic sun myths.

My personal interpretation of the story is sort of archaic, and probably will not mean much to most people, but it is my belief that the legend is an alchemical allegory, and that Hiram represents a certain energy or force known by the Hindus as "kundalini" and by the Theosophists as "fohat".

I believe that Brother Manly P. Hall shared this view through his insinuations, although I don't think he ever actually came out and said it.

[edit on 22-5-2007 by Masonic Light]

i don't think anyone has truly come out and said anything definitive about Hiram Abiff, however it's quite clear (to me at least) that not only does Hiram not represent an actual person, but the entire temple building is yet another allegory for the building of the inner self.

the Meaning of Masonry explains this to a great deal, somewhat of a mix of esoteric knowledge, and jungian archetypes.

Originally posted by Masonic Light
My personal interpretation of the story is sort of archaic, and probably will not mean much to most people, but it is my belief that the legend is an alchemical allegory, and that Hiram represents a certain energy or force known by the Hindus as "kundalini" and by the Theosophists as "fohat".

I believe that Brother Manly P. Hall shared this view through his insinuations, although I don't think he ever actually came out and said it.

Indeed.


You can read the quote from Manly P. Hall right here:



Thread:


Moorish Science Temple

Interesting topic even though I thing we moved away from the original question about the Widow's Son

There is both the saying and the actual person that are both explained in the degrees which we shall not talk about since it would ruin it for you if you ever decide to be a mason.

Hiram Abiff I read could be seen as Hiram a Biff which would mean it's a title and not neccessarily his name. I'm not scholarily enough to know if he was real or not but I'm intersted in finding out

Originally posted by corsig


Hiram Abiff I read could be seen as Hiram a Biff which would mean it's a title and not neccessarily his name. I'm not scholarily enough to know if he was real or not but I'm intersted in finding out

You are correct in that "Abiv" can be translated as "his father's son", which in itself seems to contain several esoteric allusions.

I still retain the notion that Hiram represents the kundalini force. Hall hints at this in "Lost Keys of Freemasonry" when he describes the ruffians, and most importantly, the purpose of mastering the emotions. Hiram's raising can thus be seen as symbolic of the raising of kundalini which opens the All Seeing Eye, the Sahasrara Chakra.

Albert Pike also considered this. Beginning on p. 734 of Morals and Dogma, Pike (in paraphrasing Levi) writes of kundalini:

There is in nature one most potent force, by means whereof a single man, who could possess himself of it, and should know how to direct it, could revolutionize and change the face of the world.

This force was known to the ancients. It is a universal agent, whose Supreme law is equilibrium; and whereby, if science can but learn how to control it, it will be possible to change the order of the Seasons, to produce in night the phenomena of day, to send a thought in an instant round the world, to heal or slay at a distance, to give our words universal success, and make them reverberate everywhere.

This agent, partially revealed by the blind guesses of the disciples of Mesmer, is precisely what the Adepts of the middle ages called the elementary matter of the great work. The Gnostics held that it composed the igneous body of the Holy Spirit; and it was adored in the secret rites of the Sabbat or the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the hermaphroditic goat of Mendes.

There is a Life-Principle of the world, a universal agent, wherein are two natures and a double current, of love and wrath. This ambient fluid penetrates everything. It is a ray detached from the glory of the Sun, and fixed by the weight of the atmosphere and the central attraction. It is the body of the Holy Spirit, the universal Agent, the Serpent devouring his own tail. With this electro-magnetic ether, this vital and luminous caloric, the ancients and the alchemists were familiar. Of this agent, that phase of modern ignorance termed physical science talks incoherently, knowing naught of it save its effects; and theology might apply to it all its pretended definitions of spirit. Quiescent, it is appreciable by no human sense; disturbed or in movement, none can explain its mode of action; and to term it a "fluid," and speak of its "currents," is but to veil a profound ignorance under a cloud of words.

Force attracts force, life attracts life, health attracts health. It is a law of nature.

Furthermore, again paraphrasing Levi on p. 102, Pike says the following about kundalini:

The true name of Satan, the Kabalists say, is that of Yahveh reversed; for Satan is not a black god, but the negation of God. The Devil is the personification of Atheism or Idolatry.

For the Initiates, this is not a Person, but a Force, created for good, but which may serve for evil. It is the instrument of Liberty or Free Will. They represent this Force, which presides over the physical generation, under the mythologic and horned form of the God PAN; thence came the he-goat of the Sabbat, brother of the Ancient Serpent, and the Light-bearer or Phosphor, of which the poets have made the false Lucifer of the legend.

Also see Aleister Crowley's Book of the Heart Girt With A Serpent

Concerning, "the widow's son"...and..."Hiram Abiff"

This refers to a primordial belief in the dying godmythos.
Many belief systems have used their particular hero or savior
to communicate the idea, Hiram Abiff being one used by
some masons. Many mystics believe this relates back to
worship of Sol and other heavenly bodies, not as the actual
god, but as a physical focal point in which to direct thier
communion.

[edit on 23-5-2007 by Stewart Lewis]

I was going to mention the "A" Biff as a title much like in Jesus Christ the "Christ" is not his last name but a title also but then people would take that as I'm comparing us to him but I'm not so I can't win (that rhymed).

They also compare the resurrection of Christ to Hiram but H.A. did not rise again he was mearly moved from one location to another.

The Esoteric nature of Masonry is boundless

Originally posted by corsig
The Esoteric nature of Masonry is boundless

...it is all things to all Masons

[edit on 23-5-2007 by RWPBR]

Is there no help for Hiram as he lay dieing.

Some have read a Widow's Son as a son with no father or without God. Now at face value people read this as many are without God, some on the other hand understand this as learning such severe concepts as they understand God more and more there is less to none in that person's life.