In article <May.11.02.36.29.1993.28068@athos.rutgers.edu> ptrei@bistromath.mitre.org (Peter Trei) writes: >In article <May.9.05.38.49.1993.27375@athos.rutgers.edu> REXLEX@fnal.fnal.gov writes: >[much deleted]  >>point today might be the Masons.  (Just a note, that they too worshipped  >>Osiris in Egypt...) >[much deleted]  > >     It bugs me when I see this kind of nonsense. > >     First, there is no reasonable evidence linking Masonry to ancient >Egypt, or even that it existed prior to the late 14th century (and >there's nothing definitive before the 17th).  My wifes uncle was a 30+ level mason.  He let me look at some of the books (which after his death his "brothers" came over and took from his greiving widow before his body had even cooled).  Don't tell me you don't worship Osiris.  You must not be past your 20th level.  You should read Wilkinson's Egyptians and how he shows this Egyptian religion paralleling his own British Masonry.  There is a man here at this laboratory who is a 33 degree black mason.  I've talked with him, though much he likes to hide ("mystery").  Special handshakes and all.  When he first started trying to "evangelize" me, he told me all kinds on special this, and special that.  Here is truely a "mystery" religion.  THere is the public side with motorcyle mania and childrens hospitals and then there is the priviate side that only the highest degree mason every learns of. > >     Second, worship of Osiris is not, nor has it ever been, a part of >Masonic practice (we are strictly non-denominational). > I haven't read it, but the literature that is offered by the silver haired apologist (can't remember his name) on TV, didn't exactly come to this same conclusion.    "Khons, the son of the great goddess-mother, seems to have been gernaerally represented as a full-grown god. The Babylonian divinity was also represented very frequently in Egupt in the very same wayas in the land of his nativity -i.e. as a child in his mother's arems.  THis was the way in which Osiris, 'the son, the husband of his mother,' was often exhibited, and what we learn of this god, equally as in the case of Khonso, shows that in his original he was none other than Nimrod.  It is admitted that the secret system of Free Masonry was originally founded on the Mysteries of the Egyptian Isis, the goddess-mother, or wife of Osiris.  But what could have led to the union of a Masonic body with these Mysteries, had they not had particular reference to architecture, and had the god who was worshipped in them not been celebrated for his success in perfecting the arts of fortification and building?  Now, if such were the case, considering the relation in which, as we have already seen, Egypt stood to Babylon, who would naturally be liiked up to there as the great patron of the Masonic art?  The strong presumption is, that Nimrod must have been the man.  He was the first that gained faim in this way.  As the child of the Babylonian goddess-mother, he was worshipped in the character of Ala mahozim, 'The God of Fortification.'  Osiris, the child of the Egyptian Modonna, was equally celebrated as 'the strong chief of the buildings.'  THis strong chief of the buildings was origninally worshipped in Egypt with every physicall characteristic of Nimrod.  I have already noticed the fact that Nimrod, as the son of Cush, was a negro.  Now, there was a tradition in Egypt, recorded by Plutarch, that 'Osiris was black'......."  Hislop  It was like a cold slap to my face, when my wifes uncle brought out his cerimonial dress and it was leopard skin.  I mean real leopard skin.   He told me that only the highest of degrees wore the leopard skin.  (The reason that he started telling me all this was that he had just been given a couple of months to live and my wife had led him to a saving faith in Christ and he immediately repented from 'mysteries' of the lodge!)  Nimr-rod from Nimr, a "leopard," and rada or rad "To subdue."  It is a universal principle in all idolatries, that the high priest wears the insignia of the god he serves.  Any representation of Osiris usually show the wearing of some leopard.  It is interesting that the Druids of Britian also show, or should I say hide, this representation.  They, however, worshipped the "spotted cow".  I'll stand by my statements.  Masonry is of the "mystery" religions that all find their source in Babylon, the great harlot. Sorry Peter,  I do not mean to be a "cold slap to the face" but there is to much evidence to the contrary that Masonry doesn't find its origins in Egypt.  Of the Masons I have personally talked to, all refered to Egypt as their origin.  Why are you now separating yourself from this which not many years ago, was freely admitted?