A Lexicon of Freemasonry

AARON. In Hebrew “nfli*- Tne brother of Moses, and the first high priest under the Mosaic dispensation. He is referred to in the English ritual of the second degree, and in the Royal Arch of the American Rite. He is also represented by the presiding officer in the 23d degree of the Ancient and Accepted Rite.

ABACUS. A table used for facilitating arithmetical calculations ) or, in architecture, the crowning plate of a column and its capital. The Templars, in this country, misled by a slip of Sir Walter Scott’s pen, have most erroneously given this name to the Staff of the Grand Master of the Knights Templars. Macoy, in his “Cyclopedia of Freemasonry,” has unfortunately sought to perpetuate the error by defining the Abacus as “ the name of the Grand Master’s Staff of Office.” That instrument is by all competent authorities called a “ baculus.” See that word.

ABBREVIATIONS. Abbreviations are much more in use among French than among English or American Masons. An alphabetical list, however, of those principally employed, is appended for the benefit of such as may be engaged in the examination of masonic writings. It must be observed, that a masonic abbreviation is generally distinguished by three points in a triangular form (thus, .-.) following the letter: various attempts have been made to explain the origin of these dots, but if they have any allusion at all, we presume it to be to the three lesser lights placed in a triangular form around the altar, or, as they were first introduced by our French brethren, they may refer to the situation of the three principal officers of the lodge in the French rite, where the Master sits in the east and the two Wardens in the west. Ragon says that the three points were first used on the 12th of August, 1774, by the Grand Orient of France in an address to its subordinates.