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SECRET TEACHINGS - 14. HIRAMIC LEGEND: From Solomon's Temple to the Pineal Eye and Cleopatra's Needle - Manly P. Hall
Published 2 years, 6 months ago
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Chapter 14. THE HIRAMIC LEGEND: The building of Solomon's Temple - The murder of CHiram Abiff - The martyrdom of Jacques de Molay - The spirit fire and the pineal gland - The wanderings of the astronomical CHiram - Cleopatra's Needle and Masons' marks.
THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES - An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy: Interpretation of the Secret Teachings concealed within the Rituals, Allegories, and Mysteries of all Ages - By Manly P. Hall (1928) - HQ Full Book.
In Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928), Chapter 14 explores the Hiramic Legend as Freemasonry’s most profound allegory. Far beyond a simple Masonic ritual or biblical tale, Hall transforms the story of CHiram Abiff—the master architect of Solomon’s Temple—into a universal symbol of cosmic sacrifice, spiritual regeneration, and the triumph of light over ignorance. The chapter traces the legend’s layers: the symbolic construction of Solomon’s Temple as the perfected human soul; the murder of CHiram by three ruffians, representing the crucifixion of divine wisdom by ignorance; parallels with the martyrdom of Jacques de Molay and ancient solar myths; the kundalini-like “spirit fire” rising through the spine to awaken the pineal gland; astronomical cycles of the sun’s “death” and resurrection; and enduring monuments like Cleopatra’s Needle bearing Masonic marks. At its heart, the “Lost Word” is the awakened divine fire within. Hall masterfully weaves Masonic ritual, Qabbalah, alchemy, Templar history, and mysticism to reveal CHiram as the eternal Spirit of Good and inner architect of every seeker’s resurrection.
The Building of Solomon's Temple
This opening section paints the grandeur of Solomon’s Temple as the archetypal “Everlasting House” erected on Mount Moriah. Solomon, the beloved of God and Grand Master of the Lodge of Jerusalem, receives aid from Hiram, King of Tyre, who dispatches both cedar and the supreme craftsman CHiram Abiff—a Tyrian of Israelitish descent, “a second Bezaleel,” titled “Father” by his king. Hall meticulously reconstructs the labor force: 3,600 Master Masons directing 80,000 Fellow-Craftsmen and 70,000 laborers, plus 30,000 from Lebanon. Stones are quarried beneath the mount, shaped in perfect silence, and fitted without hammer or axe—an emblem of divine harmony and the ideal of a temple built in peace. The Holy of Holies forms a perfect cube, its walls plated in gold and jewels, its columns and pilasters numbering in the thousands. Yet Hall swiftly pivots from physical architecture to metaphysics. The material edifice is merely the outer shell; the true Temple is the perfected human soul, and CHiram Abiff is its divine architect, the Master Builder who fashions immortality from the rough ashlar of mortality. This section establishes the foundational symbolism that every subsequent revelation will deepen.
The Murder of CHiram Abiff
The murder scene forms the dramatic heart of the legend and the chapter. CHiram divides his workmen into Entered Apprentices, Fellow-Craftsmen, and Master Masons, granting each level its signs and words. Three dissatisfied Fellow-Craftsmen—Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum—ambush him at the three gates of the unfinished sanctuary at high noon. Jubela demands the Master’s Word and strikes the throat with a 24-inch gauge when refused. Jubelo, armed with the square, wounds the breast at the west gate. Finally, Jubelum’s maul crashes between the eyes at the east gate, felling the Master. The body is hastily buried on Mount Moriah beneath an acacia sprig. The assassins attempt flight but are captured and executed. Solomon sends search parties; the grave is discovered, and after failed attempts by lower degrees, the Master Mason raises CHiram with the “strong grip of the Lion’s Paw.” Hall insists this sequence is no mere morality
THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES - An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic, and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy: Interpretation of the Secret Teachings concealed within the Rituals, Allegories, and Mysteries of all Ages - By Manly P. Hall (1928) - HQ Full Book.
In Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928), Chapter 14 explores the Hiramic Legend as Freemasonry’s most profound allegory. Far beyond a simple Masonic ritual or biblical tale, Hall transforms the story of CHiram Abiff—the master architect of Solomon’s Temple—into a universal symbol of cosmic sacrifice, spiritual regeneration, and the triumph of light over ignorance. The chapter traces the legend’s layers: the symbolic construction of Solomon’s Temple as the perfected human soul; the murder of CHiram by three ruffians, representing the crucifixion of divine wisdom by ignorance; parallels with the martyrdom of Jacques de Molay and ancient solar myths; the kundalini-like “spirit fire” rising through the spine to awaken the pineal gland; astronomical cycles of the sun’s “death” and resurrection; and enduring monuments like Cleopatra’s Needle bearing Masonic marks. At its heart, the “Lost Word” is the awakened divine fire within. Hall masterfully weaves Masonic ritual, Qabbalah, alchemy, Templar history, and mysticism to reveal CHiram as the eternal Spirit of Good and inner architect of every seeker’s resurrection.
The Building of Solomon's Temple
This opening section paints the grandeur of Solomon’s Temple as the archetypal “Everlasting House” erected on Mount Moriah. Solomon, the beloved of God and Grand Master of the Lodge of Jerusalem, receives aid from Hiram, King of Tyre, who dispatches both cedar and the supreme craftsman CHiram Abiff—a Tyrian of Israelitish descent, “a second Bezaleel,” titled “Father” by his king. Hall meticulously reconstructs the labor force: 3,600 Master Masons directing 80,000 Fellow-Craftsmen and 70,000 laborers, plus 30,000 from Lebanon. Stones are quarried beneath the mount, shaped in perfect silence, and fitted without hammer or axe—an emblem of divine harmony and the ideal of a temple built in peace. The Holy of Holies forms a perfect cube, its walls plated in gold and jewels, its columns and pilasters numbering in the thousands. Yet Hall swiftly pivots from physical architecture to metaphysics. The material edifice is merely the outer shell; the true Temple is the perfected human soul, and CHiram Abiff is its divine architect, the Master Builder who fashions immortality from the rough ashlar of mortality. This section establishes the foundational symbolism that every subsequent revelation will deepen.
The Murder of CHiram Abiff
The murder scene forms the dramatic heart of the legend and the chapter. CHiram divides his workmen into Entered Apprentices, Fellow-Craftsmen, and Master Masons, granting each level its signs and words. Three dissatisfied Fellow-Craftsmen—Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum—ambush him at the three gates of the unfinished sanctuary at high noon. Jubela demands the Master’s Word and strikes the throat with a 24-inch gauge when refused. Jubelo, armed with the square, wounds the breast at the west gate. Finally, Jubelum’s maul crashes between the eyes at the east gate, felling the Master. The body is hastily buried on Mount Moriah beneath an acacia sprig. The assassins attempt flight but are captured and executed. Solomon sends search parties; the grave is discovered, and after failed attempts by lower degrees, the Master Mason raises CHiram with the “strong grip of the Lion’s Paw.” Hall insists this sequence is no mere morality