Thus, in one of the Orphic Hymns, we find this line:—­

    [Greek:  Zey\s a)/rsen ge/neto, Zey\s a)/mbrotos e)/Pleto ny/mphe]
    Jove was created a male and an unspotted virgin.

And Plutarch, in his tract “On Isis and Osiris,” says, “God, who is a male and female intelligence, being both life and light, brought forth another intelligence, the Creator of the World.”

Now, this hermaphrodism of the Supreme Divinity was again supposed to be represented by the sun, which was the male generative energy, and by nature, or the universe, which was the female prolific principle.[81] And this union was symbolized in different ways, but principally by the point within the circle, the point indicating the sun, and the circle the universe, invigorated and fertilized by his generative rays.  And in some of the Indian cave-temples, this allusion was made more manifest by the inscription of the signs of the zodiac on the circle.

So far, then, we arrive at the true interpretation of the masonic symbolism of the point within the circle.  It is the same thing, but under a different form, as the Master and Wardens of a lodge.  The Master and Wardens are symbols of the sun, the lodge of the universe, or world, just as the point is the symbol of the same sun, and the surrounding circle of the universe.

But the two perpendicular parallel lines remain to be explained.  Every one is familiar with the very recent interpretation, that they represent the two Saints John, the Baptist and the Evangelist.  But this modern exposition must be abandoned, if we desire to obtain the true ancient signification.

In the first place, we must call to mind the fact that, at two particular points of his course, the sun is found in the zodiacal signs of Cancer and Capricorn.  These points are astronomically distinguished as the summer and winter solstice.  When the sun is in these points, he has reached his greatest northern and southern declination, and produces the most evident effects on the temperature of the seasons, and on the length of the days and nights.  These points, if we suppose the circle to represent the sun’s apparent course, will be indicated by the points where the parallel lines touch the circle, or, in other words, the parallels will indicate the limits of the sun’s extreme northern and southern declination, when he arrives at the solstitial points of Cancer and Capricorn.

But the days when the sun reaches these points are, respectively, the 21st of June and the 22d of December, and this will account for their subsequent application to the two Saints John, whose anniversaries have been placed by the church near those days.

XVI.

The Covering of the Lodge.