The Port Adelaide Masonic Centre 1928
         If there was ever any doubt that Freemasonry is the child of the Ancient Egyptians it is dispelled at the Port Adelaide Freemasonic Centre for it is here that the Number Two Lodge of South Australia is built in the form of an Egyptian Temple!
         Until only a few years ago in South Australia the Freemasonic Lodge Room was called the Temple.

         The side of the Egyptian Temple faces the main road while the front faces a side street. The shadowed area under the verandah is a group of shops.

         Excepting the shop fronts, the front of the Temple is not unlike the side in design. So realistic is the Temple that with the Australian Summer Sun burning down and the vividly blue sky a person could imagine having been transported to Egypt.

Hieroglyph for "Temple"
         The overall shape of the Temple is of paramount importance as it is an Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph meaning "temple"!

         In Part 9 it was discovered that when the hieroglyph appeared on the Narmer Plate in 4468 BCE it not only represented a temple it also represented Dawn, the Dawn of the Age of Taurus in the Precession of the Equinoxes.

Hieroglyph for "Heaven"
         Below the eaves of the Masonic Temple and directly above the main entrance is to be found yet another Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph, this time denoting "heaven". It is pure and unspoilt.

         A similar hieroglyph is to be found in a similar position on the side of the Temple. Crafted into this hieroglyph for "heaven" is what appears to be further Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs together with Freemasonic emblems of for example, the Level, and the Square and Compasses.

         Upon closer inspection however it is discovered that they are Anglicized hieroglyphs. The inscription reads "Masonic Building"! The architect had a sense of humour.

The Four World Pillars
         In Ancient Egyptian mythology the Four World Pillars held up the heavens and represented the four cardinal points of NSEW. The Four Pillars of Heaven are clearly visible on both the side and the front of the Masonic Temple.

 

The Fifth World Pillar
         The Fifth, and most important World Pillar was the Axis Munde around which the heavens appear to revolve. The Axis Munde represented the Fifth Cardinal Point. (See Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.)
         This Fifth Pillar is to be found engraved into each tower, one on each side of the main window. It is not immediately recognizable as a Pillar however, as it is the form of yet another Ancient Egyptian hieroglyph! It is the hieroglyph for "plant" and is composed of the three sacred lotus lilies, meaning "Tree of Life"

         The lotus flower was used in Ancient Egypt to represent Life and Resurrection. (See Part 6) In ancient Egyptian texts it is written of the Tree of Life, "I am the plant which comes from Nu." The Tree of Life grew out of the Sacred Mound, the branches reaching out and supporting the star and planet studded sky, while the roots reached down into the watery abyss of the Netherworld.

         It was the trunk of the Tree of Life which represented the World Pillar or Axis Munde (literally "Axis of the Mound") around which the heavens appeared to revolve. The World Pillar was the centre of the universe. It was Osiris as the Djed Pillar, the Pillar of Stability and it was the Great Pyramid of Egypt. (See Part 6 and Part 7)
         On the engraving there are fifteen layers to the Sacred Mound, and the Sacred Waters of Nun are at level five from the top. The number 15 is important in terms of Precession as the celestial lines of longitude are placed at 15 degree intervals.

         Furthermore the Sacred Waters are represented swirling around both the side and front of the building, on a level with the tops of the windows. (See picture below.) The fresco is an integral part of the decoration encoding Ancient Egyptian mythology concerning not only the watery abyss of the Netherworld but also the Great Flood (See Part 10) the River Nile and the Milky Way. The Milky Way also known as the Celestial River Nile. (See Part 2 and Part 3)

 

The Winged Disk
         Directly below the two central Pillars on the front of the Temple is the Winged Disk in full flight.

         In Ancient Egypt the Winged Disk was a combined emblem of the Sun, a double-headed cobra and eagle or vulture wings. Moreover it is an alternative form of the "temple" hieroglyph. (See Part 17) The Cobra and the Vulture represented Upper and Lower Egypt … not just in the geographical sense but also in the sense of a Celestial Egypt and a Terrestrial Egypt. The "as above so below" concept. (See Part 3) The combined emblem represents the Sun passing through the centre of the Winged Disk, the Sacred Gateway, into the next Age of the Zodiac. (See Part 3 and Part 17)

 

         For confirmation of this esoteric meaning let us take a closer look at the engraving of the Winged Disk on the Masonic Building. Within the Sacred Gateway is to be found the emblem of the Royal Arch Chapter: the Triple Tau within a triangle, within a circle.

         In Part 10 it was discovered that from the Tau hieroglyph in the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead it is clear that "Tau" means "holy or sacred gate" or "holy or sacred opening". The five-pointed star denotes the word "sacred".

         The Double and Triple Tau represent the plural form of Tau. Visually, when the Taus are joined together horizontally, they represent a temple. Two examples of this are: the hieroglyph between the Taurus Bulls' heads on each side of the Narmer Plate, and also Stone Henge. The vertical trunks of the Taus represent the columns of the Temple. In the Osiris Legend, Osiris was encased in a tree trunk, which was later utilized as a pillar. The pillar of a temple represents Osiris … who has already been evidenced as the Axis Munde in the Djed Pillar; the Pillar of Stability. (See Part 4 and Part 6) Since a Tau is a "sacred gateway, opening or portal", and multiple Taus form a Temple, it follows that a Temple is a gateway, opening or portal: a portal to the Netherworld through which the Sun rises at the Dawn of a New Age of the Zodiac.
         The Triple Tau represents the Temple of Jerusalem. Another name for the Temple of Jerusalem is "Templum Hierosolma", which translates as "Temple on a Sacred Mound". Since a Tau represents a Gateway, opening or portal then the Temple of Jerusalem follows suit … complete with Osirian Pillars! It is through this portal that the Sun rises at the Dawn of a New Age of the Zodiac.
         As discussed earlier in Part 7, the Great Pyramid is also built on a Sacred Mound and, like the Osirian Pillar, it represents the Axis Munde. The Temple of Jerusalem as the Triple Tau, secured within the triangle of the Great Pyramid, is displayed on the Collar pictured below. The Great Pyramid and the Temple of Jerusalem are symbolic of the Sacred Summit, the Axis Munde, and the concept of Precession.

The Square and Compasses
         Directly below the Winged Disk and above the entrance to the Temple are carved the Square and Compasses. Today a pair of compasses like these would be called "dividers". Without these instruments it would have been impossible for the Remote Ancient Egyptians to measure the rate of Precession accurately. Furthermore without the Plumb Rule used in conjunction with the Plumb Line they would have been unable to measure the positions of stars and their corresponding positions on the ground. The Constellation of Monoceros forms the Square and Compasses, Canis Minor is a Plumb Rule. (See Part 5)

         On the diagram for "The Royal Arch of the Ages of the Zodiac" in Part 5 each Zodiacal Season comprises a 90 degree right-angle … like a set-square. Each Zodiacal Season is a one fourth part of a circle and is standing on the square.

The Sacred Gateway
         The main entrance into the Masonic Egyptian Temple is perhaps the most startling in what it reveals about Freemasonry as a legacy of the Ancient Egyptians. It is immediately recognizable as a Sacred Gateway, the Gateway of the Sun in the Precession of the Ages of the Zodiac. (See Part 10 to Part 13)

The All-seeing Eye of Ra
         Within the porchway, above the double doors is the all-seeing Eye of Ra. Uncharacteristically it is not like its Egyptian counterpart. Rather, like the hieroglyphs on the side of the building, it has been Anglicized so that it appears complete with bushy eyebrow!

         The Eye of Ra took on several guises in Ancient Egypt:
a) As the "Ouadjit" it was a form of measurement. It is comprised of six hieroglyphs, each representing a different fraction. The sum of the hieroglyphs is 63/64. The absolute is unobtainable. This concept is related in the myth of Osiris. After he is cut up into fourteen pieces by his jealous brother Set, Osiris' sister/wife Isis can only find thirteen pieces of his dismembered body. The phallus remains lost for ever. Osiris was considered to be the Absolute, the First God. He was perfection. Others can only aim for the absolute, they will never achieve it.
 

         Note: This myth does not take into account the true Absolute, the true Self-existent, the true First Cause … The Celestial Sphinx. (See Part 2 and Part 3) Osiris usurped the position and title of the Celestial Sphinx "Giver of Life in the Beginning".
         (The "ouija board", derived from the Ancient Egyptian "Ouadjit", is the modern day equivalent of the All-seeing Eye of Ra.)

b) As the Sun, the Eye of Ra was denoted by the hieroglyph of a "dot within a circle" as well as the Ouadjit. Even today the Sun is sometimes referred to as "the eye of the day".

c) As a "dot within a circle" the All-seeing Eye of Ra is a symbol of Precession. The "dot within a circle" is the pole of the ecliptic, the central point of the revolution of the Signs of the Zodiac and the Ages of the Zodiac around the heavens, and as such is the Fifth Cardinal Point. (See Part 5)
 

d) Finally, as a Watchful Eye the All-seeing Eye is considered in terms of humanity being under the complete surveillance of a Supreme Being. (See Part 3) The Celestial Sphinx was the Supreme Being in the heavens in 14000BCE.

The Two Pillars
         The porchway of the Port Adelaide Masonic Building is flanked by two pillars, each of which support a different version of the Celestial Globe. In this capacity the Pillars are representative of the Fifth World Pillar, the Axis Munde. As previously mentioned the Axis Munde represented the Fifth Cardinal Point.
         The First Pillar, which is on the right-hand side of a person facing the entrance, is indisputably supporting the Celestial Globe. It is covered in large and small five-pointed stars, apparently randomly spaced, and also a crescent moon. Unfortunately the crescent moon is not visible on the photograph as it is up near the top left-hand side in the shadow.

         The Second Pillar could possibly appear to the untrained eye to be a rendition of Planet Earth, complete with lines of latitude and longitude but no land masses.
         In reality these are celestial lines of latitude and longitude, symbolising Precession. (See Part 5) There are twelve celestial lines of longitude set at 30 degree intervals to accommodate the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac.

         When these grid lines, or reference points, are superimposed on the star-studded celestial globe a picture is produced not too unlike the one below, which is a computer simulation of the night sky.

         The spots represent major stars from which the remote Ancient Egyptians mapped the constellations. The "lines of longitude" are equally spaced at 15 degrees to facilitate ease of calculations of the apparent movement of the stars over thousands of years. The rate of Precession was calculated at one degree every 72 years which means that it takes 25,920 years to complete one cycle. (See Part 4)
         The remote Ancient Egyptians divided the sky into 12 equal 30 degree segments, each of which contains one Sign of the Zodiac. Every 2160 years (72 years x 30 degrees) the Sun moves through the Sacred Gateway into a new Age of the Zodiac. On December 21st 2012 the Sun will pass through the "Gateway of the Sun" and rise in the new Age of Aquarius. (See Part 16)

17th century Freemasonic headstone
         I could not help but compare the Port Adelaide Masonic Building in the form of an Ancient Egyptian Temple with this 17th century Freemasonic headstone. As with the Ancient Egyptian Temple the Sacred Knowledge of Precession is crafted into it.

 

Task: To find as many symbols of Precession as you can …
 

• Find three Sacred Gateways of the Sun
• Find two Winged Disks
• Find two Pillars
• Find a Double Tau (the pi symbol)
• Find at least two Temples
• Find two symbols of Precession in addition to those already mentioned