ADONIA.  The Mysteries of Adonis, principally celebrated in Phoenicia and Syria.  They lasted for two days, and were commemorative of the death and restoration of Adonis.  The ceremonies of the first day were funereal in their character, and consisted in the lamentations of the initiates for the death of Adonis, whose picture or image was carried in procession.  The second day was devoted to mirth and joy for the return of Adonis to life.  In their spirit and their mystical design, these Mysteries bore a very great resemblance to the third degree of Masonry, and they are quoted to show the striking analogy between the ancient and the modern initiations.

ADONIS.  In mythology, the son of Cinyras and Myrrha, who was greatly beloved by Venus, or Aphrodite.  He was slain by a wild boar, and having descended into the realm of Pluto, Persephone became enamoured of him.  This led to a contest for him between Venus and Persephone, which was finally settled by his restoration to life upon the condition that he should spend six months upon earth, and six months in the inferior regions.  In the mythology of the philosophers, Adonis was a symbol of the sun; but his death by violence, and his subsequent restoration to life, make him the analogue of Hiram Abif in the masonic system, and identify the spirit of the initiation in his Mysteries, which was to teach the second life with that of the third degree of Freemasonry.

AHRIMAN, or ARIMANES.  In the religious system of Zoroaster, the principle of evil, or darkness, which was perpetually opposing Ormuzd, the principle of good, or light.  See Zoroaster.

ALFADER.  The father of all, or the universal Father.  The principal deity of the Scandinavian mythology.

The Edda gives twelve names of God, of which Alfader is the first and most ancient, and is the one most generally used.

ALGABIL.  One of the names of the Supreme Being among the Cabalists.  It signifies “the Master Builder,” and is equivalent to the masonic epithet of “Grand Architect of the Universe.”

ALLEGORY.  A discourse or narrative, in which there is a literal and a figurative sense, a patent and a concealed meaning; the literal or patent sense being intended by analogy or comparison to indicate the figurative or concealed one.  Its derivation from the Greek [Greek:  a)llos] and [Greek:  a)gorein], to say something different, that is, to say something where the language is one thing, and the true meaning different, exactly expresses the character of an allegory.  It has been said in the text that there is no essential difference between an allegory and a symbol.  There is not in design, but there is this in their character:  An allegory may be interpreted without any previous conventional agreement, but a symbol cannot.  Thus the legend of the third degree is an allegory evidently to be interpreted as teaching a restoration to life; and this we learn from the legend itself,