HIRAM THE BUILDER.  An epithet of Hiram Abif.  For the full significance of the term, see the word Builder.

HO-HI.  A cabalistic pronunciation of the tetragrammaton, or ineffable name of God; it is most probably the true one; and as it literally means HE-SHE, it is supposed to denote the hermaphroditic essence of Jehovah, as containing within himself the male and the female principle,—­the generative and the prolific energy of creation.

HO.  The sacred name of God among the Druids.  Bryant supposes that by it they intended the Great Father Noah; but it is very possible that it was a modification of the Hebrew tetragrammaton, being the last syllable read cabalistically (see ho-hi); if so, it signified the great male principle of nature.  But HU is claimed by Talmudic writers to be one of the names of God; and the passage in Isaiah xlii. 8, in the original ani Jehovah, Hu shemi, which is in the common version “I am the LORD; that is my name,” they interpret, “I am Jehovah; my name is Hu.”

HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM.  A distinguished masonic writer of England, who lived in the eighteenth century.  He is the author of “The Spirit of Masonry,” published in 1775.  This was the first English work of any importance that sought to give a scientific interpretation of the symbols of Freemasonry; it is, in fact, the earliest attempt of any kind to treat Freemasonry as a science of symbolism.  Hutchinson, however, has to some extent impaired the value of his labors by contending that the institution is exclusively Christian in its character and design.

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IH-HO.  See Ho-hi.

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.  This is one of the two religious dogmas which have always been taught in Speculative Masonry.

It was also taught in all the Rites and Mysteries of antiquity.

The doctrine was taught as an abstract proposition by the ancient priesthood of the Pure or Primitive Freemasonry of antiquity, but was conveyed to the mind of the initiate, and impressed upon him by a scenic representation in the ancient Mysteries, or the Spurious Freemasonry of the ancients.

INCOMMUNICABLE NAME.  The tetragrammaton, so called because it was not common to, and could not be bestowed upon, nor shared by, any other being.  It was proper to the true God alone.  Thus Drusius (Tetragrammaton, sive de Nomine Dei proprio, p. 108) says, “Nomen quatuor literarum proprie et absolute non tribui nisi Deo vero.  Unde doctores catholici dicunt incommunicabile [not common] esse creaturae.”

INEFFABLE NAME.  The tetragrammaton.  So called because it is ineffabile, or unpronounceable.  See Tetragrammaton.

INTRUSTING, RITE OF.  That part of the ceremony of initiation which consists in communicating to the aspirant or candidate the aporrheta, or secrets of the mystery.

INUNCTION.  The act of anointing.  This was a religious ceremony practised from the earliest times.  By the pouring on of oil, persons and things were consecrated to sacred purposes.