The Winding Staircase Lecture that you were witness to explains that the columns at the outer porch of King Solomon’s temple were 18 cubits in height, 12 in circumference and 4 in diameter. I got to playing with these numbers one day and I multiplied 18 times 12 and came up with the answer of 216. Well, just for kicks and giggles, I asked myself the question, “What is the square root of 216?” Turns out to be 14.7. This gave me pause, because I recognized this number but I couldn’t place it. The more I thought about it the more I knew this number to be something important. Then it came to me, it is atmospheric pressure at sea level, PSIG! (Pounds per square inch/gauge) I quickly dismissed this as a fluke, just a coincidence. I thought to myself that there is no way that these people could have known this in such a distant past, particularly when they didn’t even have gauges to measure it by.

Now, to finish the equation I multiplied 18X12X4 and came up with the number of 864. Then, using my calculator again, I calculated the square root of 864. I knew that the answer wouldn’t be anything close to the square root of 216 but when I got my answer I was flabbergasted to find that it was indeed EXACTLY the same answer but expressed in a different way. That answer is 29.39 which is barometric pressure at sea level (as expressed in inches of water column). I sat in stunned silence for several minutes as the import of this settled in on me. DID they know this that long ago or were they just parroting these numbers furnished to them by some, as yet, unknown intelligence? Don’t know. That question still remains unanswered and in all probability will forever remain so. But it doesn’t matter, the numbers are there and have been there for at least 2000 years and possibly much, much longer. It is my humble opinion that somebody in the distant past knew something that we have just recently rediscovered. (Within the past 300 years.)

Taking a page out of Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma, we learn that the emblem of perfection chosen by the Masonic Order is the cube, partly because it is equal on all sides. But it is infinitely more complex than that. The stones you find located at the stations of the Worshipful Master, the Senior Warden and the Junior Warden are designated as Perfect Ashlars and are generally not cubes but should be. The cube represents Jehovah in a numerical sense. Jehovah is the Hebrew name for God. From them we learn that they assigned numbers to the letters of their alphabet and they spelled Jehovah as JHVH. The numbers associated with these letters are 10, 5, 6, 5. The sum of these numbers equal 26. Numerically speaking the cube has 12 edges, 8 corners and 6 sides also totaling 26. And from here on, it gets a lot more interesting.

At each corner of the cube we find 3 ninety degree angles totaling 270 degrees which just happens, by some marvelous "coincidence", to equal the same number of days of human gestation, 9 months. There are 8 corners on the cube. If you multiply the number of degrees you find at each corner of the cube times 8 corners: 270X8 equals 2,160 degrees. Is this number significant? Yes, it is. This number, by another strange and marvelous “coincidence,” just happens to be the diameter of the moon as measured in miles. It is also 216 with a 0 added to the end. It is also the same number of years it takes for the sun to rise in each consecutive solar house while the earth’s pole recesses as it moves along the plane of its ecliptic through the Zodiac. It takes 2160 years to go through each solar house from Taurus to Aries to Pisces to Aquarius etc all the way through the Zodiac.

In the Zodiac there are 12 solar houses. 12X2160 equals 25, 920 years. This is equal to one complete equinoctial precession. This is the process of the Earth’s polar wobble from start to finish to re-starting and known as the precession of the equinoxes.

Brethren, astrology precedes astronomy by many hundreds of years until the science of astronomy was developed and put an end to the wild and, more often than not, erroneous prophecies created by the soothsayers of yesteryear and has since been generally regarded as useless by the scientific community. But is it? As you have just seen, it does bear some significance to the planetary system and remarkably, the yearly calendar. For without this knowledge, our calendar year would not be as accurate as it is. Since astrology, as it relates to propechy and and prediction such as astrological charts and which is followed by many people, it is too general in its propechy to be anything but random guessing. It does, however, have a PROFOUND effect on the various religions of the world. But, that it is another article for another time and then only IF I can put it into acceptable language because it is such a delicate subject.

Now, let us revisit the number 864. If you multiply it by 1000 you get 864,000 which just happens, by yet another strange and marvelous “coincidence,” to equal the diameter of the SUN as measured in miles! Somehow, the ancients figured out the diameter of the earth to be 8000 miles, roughly. Now divide 864,000 by 8,000 and you get the answer of 108. Now, multiply the figure of 864,000 times the figure of 108 and you come up with the answer of 93,312,000 miles—the distance from the earth to the sun!

FACINATING!!!!!

I have written this extended lecture of the Fellowcraft Degree in the hope that I have whet your appetite for more knowledge. Hopefully you will at least be interested enough to make a study of the science of geometry so that you may gain more insight into why it is the basis of Freemasonry. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. There is an infinite depth of knowledge waiting for you to explore, should you so desire. Just be careful as to what you study because there is a host of misinformation available to you that may take you down the wrong path.

Bill Edwards
Past Master
Riverdale Lodge #709