From the book
Ancient Mystic Oriental Masonry
R. Swinburne Clymer · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordA legend is a transmitted narrative that gives an institution or symbol a meaningful past.
- In Ancient Mystic Oriental MasonryThe book uses legends to connect Hiram, Egyptian Mysteries, Templars, and later fraternities.
- In this editionTradition is broader than legend and can refer to practices or teaching as well as a story.
- A place to readM.71: “70. " Hiram Abiff is dramatically represented to have lost his life when the temple was” …
Meaning
A legend is a transmitted narrative that gives an institution or symbol a meaningful past. Its value as instruction and its reliability as history are separate questions.
Use in the book
The book uses legends to connect Hiram, Egyptian Mysteries, Templars, and later fraternities. Some passages assert their continuity with confidence. Others openly say that the Hiram account is unsupported by history or that its literal truth is not being asserted.
Places to read
- Mystic Masonry · Block 71“70. " Hiram Abiff is dramatically represented to have lost his life when the temple was near completion, and yet it is recorded that after the completion of the temple he” …
- Foundations of Mystic Masonry · Block 50“99. This secret legend is the same as that of the Carpocratians, which is that Jesus chose some of the Apostles and confided to them a Secret Science, which was transmitted” …
- Masonic Symbolism · Block 40“246. "We do not assert that the legend of Hiram Abif is true. We only know that it has come to us by tradition. At what time the legend of the” …
- Masonic Symbolism · Block 41“247. "The Masonic legend stands by itself, unsupported by history or other than its own traditions; yet we readily recognize in Hiram Abif, one of the Grand Masters of Freemasons, the” …
In this edition
Tradition is broader than legend and can refer to practices or teaching as well as a story. The concordance preserves the different forms.
Reading the argument
Keep these qualifications beside the stronger assertions. A legend can establish what an order teaches about itself; additional evidence is required to establish every event it narrates. The author's compilation supplies both attitudes rather than consistently resolving them.
legend
“legend” — 13 occurrences in 10 text blocks: M.62; F.50, 137–138; S.28, 39–41, 45–46.
legends
“legends” — 4 occurrences in 4 text blocks: F.84; S.28, 35, 40.
traditions
“traditions” — 30 occurrences in 28 text blocks: I.10–11; M.11, 47, 51, 62; F.41, 69, 75–76, 130, 144; S.16, 39, 41, 47; N.129, 135, 138, 141, 143, 147–148, 155, 157–158, 161, 163.
traditional
“traditional” — 2 occurrences in 2 text blocks: M.53; S.28.