Investiture

Use in the book

The book compares consecrated girdles, Christian garments, and the Masonic apron. Clothing becomes an external language of purity, renewal, and obligation. The descriptions also connect garments with protection and the remembrance of divine principles. Their comparative purpose is to locate a common significance across visibly different ceremonies.

Places to read

1. Masonic Symbolism · Block 90“294. "The Rite of Investiture, called, in the colloqually technical language of the order, the Ceremony of Clothing, brings us at once to the consideration of that well-known symbol of Freemasonry,” …
2. Masonic Symbolism · Block 91“295. " This Rite of Investiture, or the placing upon the aspirant some garment, as an indication of his appropriate preparation for the ceremonies in which he was about to engage,” …
3. Masonic Symbolism · Block 94… “initiations practiced in Hindustan, in the ceremony of investiture was substituted the sash, or sacred zennaar, consisting of a cord, composed of nine threads twisted into a knot at the end,” …
4. Masonic Symbolism · Block 101… “mysteries, he was esteemed regenerate; and he was invested with a white garment and apron as a symbol of his newly attained purity.”

In this edition

Investiture is retained as the ceremonial term. Ordinary mentions of clothing are counted as lexical parallels, not as a single technical usage.

Reading the argument

The same interpretive limit applies as with other rites: the garment represents a condition without proving that the wearer possesses it. Read the account against the introduction’s demand for character and actual inward work.

investiture

“investiture” — 4 occurrences in 4 text blocks: S.90–92, 94.

invested

“invested” — 4 occurrences in 4 text blocks: F.159; S.59, 93, 101.

clothing

“clothing” — 1 occurrence in 1 text block: S.90.