The Temple Legend
In his lecture cycle "The Temple Legend - Freemasonry
& Related Occult Movements" given in Berlin between
23rd May 1904 and the 2nd January 1906 (GA 93), Rudolf Steiner
gives a synopsis of the myth in Lecture 5, entitled "The
Mystery Known to Rosicrucians."
Below is a synopsis of the legend as given by Steiner
in the lecture, followed by a more detailed version provided
by the publishers (Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1985).
Synopsis:
There was a time when one of the Elohim
created a human being whom he called Eve. That Elohim united
himself with Eve and she gave birth to Cain. After this, another
Elohim, named Yahveh, created Adam. Adam also united himself
with Eve and from this union came Abel.
Thus we see that Cain is a direct descendant
of the gods, but Abel is a descendant of Adam and Eve who are
human. Now the myth proceeds:
The sacrifices which Abel made to Yahveh
were pleasing to him, but the sacrifices brought by Cain did
not please him because the birth of Cain was not ordained by
him. The result was that Cain committed fratricide. He killed
Abel and for this he was excluded from communion with Yahveh.
He went away into distant lands and founded his own race there.
Adam again united himself with Eve and
from this union came Seth, also mentioned in the Bible, who took
over the role of Abel. Thus we have two generations of mankind;
the race of Cain, who was a descentant of Eve and one of the
Elohim, and the other race which had human parentage and was
brought into existence at the commad of Yahveh.
Among the descentants of Cain are all
those who have been creators of art and science, as, for instance,
Methuselah, the inventor of the Tau script, and Tubal-Cain, who
taught the use and working of metal ores and iron. In this line
of descent, stemming from the Elohim, were all those who trained
themselves in the arts and sciences.
Hiram also descended from the race of
Cain, and he was the inheritor of all that had been learned by
the others of his line in technology and art. He was the most
significant architect we can imagine.
Out of Seth's line came Solomon, who
excelled in everything which cam from Yahveh. He was endowed
with the wisdom of the world and all the attributes of calm,
clear, objective wisdom. This wisdom can be expressed in words
which go straight to the human heart and can uplift a person,
but is unable to produce anything tangible of a technical nature,
in art or science. It is a wisdom which is a directly inspired
gift of God and not attained from below through human passions
welling up from the human will - that would be the wisdom pertaining
to the sons of Cain, a legacy of the other Elohim, not Yahveh.
They are the hardworking industriuous ones who seek to accomplish
everything through their own efforts.
Solomon now decides to build a temple
and calls upon Hiram, the descendant of Cain, to be his master
builder. It was at the time when Balkis, the Queen of Sheba,
was visiting Jerusalem because she had heard of the wisdom of
Solomon. And she was certainly impressed and charmed by the exalted
and clear wisdom and beauty of the King when she first arrived,
and when he made love to her she consented to be his bride. Now
she heard about the temple which was being built and she desired
to make the acquaintance of the master builder, Hiram. When she
first met him she was captivated merely by his glance. As a result,
a certain mood of jealousy arose between Hiram and Solomon and
the latter wished to do something or other against Hiram, but
he was dependent upon him for the completion of the temple.
Now came the following: The temple was
almost complete. Only one thing was still lacking, which was
to have been Hiram's masterpiece; that was the Molten Sea, which
was to represent the ocean cast in bronze and was to have adorned
the temple. All the necessary mixtures of ores had been prepared
by Hiram in a most wonderful manner, ready to be cast. Now, however,
three apprentices got to work, whom Hiram had found so lacking
in skill that he had been unable to promote them to become masters.
They had therefore sworn to be revenged on him and desired to
prevent the casting of the Molten Sea. A friend of Hiram, who
got to know about these plans, confided them to Solomon, so that
he should prevent their realization. But Solomon, through jealousy,
did nothing to stop them, because he wished to destroy Hiram.
The result was that Hiram had to look on while the whole casting
disintegrated due to the addition of a wrong ingredient in the
mixture by the three apprentices. He tried to quench the bursting
flames by pouring water over them, but this only made matters
worse. Just as he was on the point of despairing about the work
ever being completed, Tubal-Cain, his ancestor, appeared to him
and told him that he should not hesitate to cast himself into
the fire, as he was invulnerable to the flames. Hiram did as
he was advised and came to the center of the earth. He was led
by Tubal-Cain to Cain, who there resided in a condition of pristine
divinity. Hiram was thus initiated into the Mystery of Fire and
into the secret of bronze casting, receiving from Tubal-Cain
a hammer and a Golden Triangle which he was able to carry with
him as a pendant round his neck. Then he returned and was able
to complete the casting of the Molten Sea and to put everything
in order again.
Hereupon the Queen of Sheba consented
to become Hiram's bride. He, however, was set upon by the three
apprentices and murdered. But before he died, Hiram managed to
throw the Golden Triangle into a well. As no one knew where he
had disappeared, a search was made. Even Solomon was afraid and
was anxious to find out what had happened. It was thought that
the ancient Master Word could be betrayed by the apprentices,
and therefore another one was devised. The first word to be spoken
when Hiram was discovered should be the new Master Word. At last
Hiram was found and was able to utter a few last words. He said:
"Tubal-Cain had promised me that I shall have a son who
will be the father of many descendants who will people the earth
and bring my work - the building of the Temple - to completion.
Then he pointed to the place where the Golden Triangle was to
be found. This was then collected and brought to the Molten Sea
and both were preserved together in the Holy of Holies. They
are only to be discovered by those who can understand the meaning
of the legend of the Temple of Solomon and its Master Builder
Hiram.
What follows is a somewhat expanded version
of the Temple Legend, with more detail:
THE LEGEND OF THE TEMPLE
Ancestry of Hiram Abiff.
Solomon, having determined on the erection
of the Temple, collected artificers, divided them into companies,
and put them under the command of Adoniram or Hiram Abiff, the
architect sent to him by his friend and ally Hiram, King of Tyre.
According to mythical tradition, the ancestry of the builders
of the mystical temple was as follows: One of the Elohim, or
primitive genii, married Eve and had a son called Cain; whilst
Jehovah or Adonai, another of the Elohim, created Adam and united
him with Eve to bring forth the family of Abel, to whom were
subjected the sons of Cain, as a punishment for the transgression
of Eve. Cain, though industriously cultivating the soil, yet
derived little produce from it, whilst Abel leisurely tended
his flocks. Adonai rejected the gifts and sacrifices of Cain,
and stirred up strife between the sons of the Elohim, generated
out of fire, and the sons formed out of the earth only. Cain
killed Abel, and Adonai pursuing his sons, subjected to the sons
of Abel the noble family that invented the arts and diffused
science. Enoch, a son of Cain, taught men to hew stones, construct
edifices and form civil societies. Irad and Mehujael, his son
and grandson, set boundaries to the waters and fashioned cedars
into beams. Methusael, another of his descendants, invented the
sacred characters, the books of Tau and the symbolic T, by which
the workers descended from the genii of fire recognized each
other. Lamech, whose prophesies are inexplicable to the profane,
was the father of Jabal, who first taught men how to dress camels'
skins; of Jubal, who discovered the harp; of Naanah, who discovered
the arts of spinning and weaving; of Tubal-Cain, who first constructed
a furnace, worked in metals, and dug subterranean caves in the
mountains to save his race during the deluge; but it perished
nevertheless, and only Tubal-Cain and his son, the sole survivors
of the glorious and gigantic family, came out alive. The wife
of Ham, second son of Noah, thought the son of Tubal-Cain handsomer
than the sons of men, and he became progenitor of Nimrod, who
taught his brethren the art of hunting, and founded Babylon.
Adoniram, the descendant of Tubal-Cain, seemed called by God
to lead the militia of the free men, connecting the sons of fire
with the sons of thought, progress, and truth.
Hiram, Solomon, and the
Queen of Sheba
By Hiram was erected a marvellous building,
the Temple of Solomon. He raised the golden throne of Solomon,
most beautifully wrought, and built many other
glorious edifices. But, melancholy amidst all his greatness,
he lived alone, understood and loved by few, hated by many, and
among others by Solomon, envious of his genius and glory. Now
the fame of the wisdom of Solomon spread to the remotest ends
of the earth; and Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, came to Jerusalem,
to greet the great king and behold the marvels of his reign.
She found Solomon seated on a throne of gilt cedar wood, arrayed
in cloth of gold, so that at first she seemed to behold a statue
of gold with hands of ivory. Solomon received her with every
kind of festive preparation, and led her to behold his palace
and then the grand works of the temple; and the queen was lost
in admiration. The king was captivated by her beauty, and in
a short time offered her his hand, which the queen, pleased at
having conquered his proud heart, accepted. But on again visiting
the temple, she repeatedly desired to see the architect who had
wrought such wondrous things. Solomon delayed as long as possible
presenting Hiram Abiff to the queen, but at last he ws obliged
to do so. The mysterious artificer was brought before her, and
cast on the queen a look that penetrated her very heart. Having
recovered her composure, she questioned and defended him against
the illwill and rising jealousy of the king. When she wished
to see the countless host of workmen that wrought at the temple,
Solomon protestd the impossibility of assembling them all at
once; but Hiram, leaping on a stone to be better seen, with his
right hand described in the air the symbolical Tau, and immediately
the men hastened from all parts of the works into the presence
of their master; at this the queen wonderd greatly, and secretly
repnted of the promise she had given the king, for she felt herself
in love with the mighty architect. Solomon set himself to destroy
this affection, and to prepare his rival's humiliation and ruin.
for this purpose, he employed three fellow-craftsmen, envious
of Hiram, because he had refused to raise them to the degree
of masters, on account of their want of knowledge and their idleness.
They were Fanor, a Syrian and a mason; Amru, a Phoenician and
a carpenter, and Metusael, a Hebrew and a miner. The black envy
of these three projected that the casting of the brazen sea,
which was to raise the glory of Hiram to its utmost height, should
turn out a failure. A young workman, Benoni, discovered the plot
and revealed it to Solomon, thinking that sufficient. The day
for the casting arrived, and Balkis was present. The doors that
restrained the molten metal were opened, and torrents of liquid
poured into the vast mould wherein the brazen sea was to assume
its form. But the burning mass ran over the edges of the mould,
and flowed like lava over the adjacent places. The terrified
crowd fled from the advancing stram of fire. Hiram, calm, like
a god, endavored to arrest its advance with ponderous columns
of water, but without success. The water and the fire mixed,
and the struggle was terrible; the water rose in dense steam
and fell down in the shape of fiery rain, spreading terror and
death. The dishonored artificer needed the sympathy of a faithful
heart; he sought Benoni, but in vain; the proud youth perished
in endeavoring to prevent the horrible catastrophe hen he found
that Solomon had done nothing to hinder it.
Hiram could not withdraw himself from
the scene of his discomfiture. Oppressed with grief, he heeded
not the danger, he remembered not that this ocean of fire might
speedily engulf him; he thought of the Queen of Sheba, who came
to admire and congratulate him on a great triumph, and who saw
nothing but a terrible disaster. Suddenly he heard a strange
voice coming from above, and crying, "Hiram, Hiram, Hiram!"
He raised his eyes and beheld a gigantic human figure. The apparition
continued: "Come, my son, be without fear, I have rendered
thee incombustible; cast thyself into the flames." Hirm
threw himself into the furnac, and where others would have found
death, he tasted ineffable delights; nor could he, drawn by an
irresistible force, leave it, and asked him that drew him into
the abyss: "Whither do you take me?" "Into the
center of the earth, into the soul of the world, into the kingdom
of the great Cain, where liberty reigns with him. There the tyrannous
envy of Adonai ceases; there can we, despising his anger, taste
the fruit of the tree of knowledge; there is the home of my fathers."
"Who then am I, and who art thou?" "I am the father
of thy fathers, I am the son of Lamech, I am Tubal-Cain."
Tubal-Cain introduced Hiram into the
sanctuary of fire, where he expounded to him the weakness of
Adonai and the base position of that god, the enemy of his own
creature whom he condemned to the inexorable law of death, to
avenge the benefits the genii of fire had bestowed on him. Hiram
was led into the presence of the author of his race, Cain. The
angel of light that begat Cain was reflected in the beauty of
this son of love, whose noble and generous mind roused the envy
of Adonai. Cain related to Hiram his experiences, sufferings,
and misfortunes, brought upon him by the implacable Adonai. Presently
he heard the voice of him who was the offspring of Tubal-Cain
and his sister Naamah: "A son shall born unto thee whom
thou shalt indeed not see, but whose numerous descendants shall
perpetuate thy race, which, superior to that of Adam, shall acquire
the empire of the world; for many centuries they shall consecrate
their courage and genius to the service of the ever ungrateful
race of Adam, but at last the best shall become the strongest,
and restore on the earth the worship of fire. Thy sons, invincible
in thy name, shall destroy the power of kings, the ministers
of the Adonai's tyranny. Go, my son, the genii of fire are with
thee!" Hiram was restored to the earth. Tubal-Cain before
quitting him gave him the hammer with which he himself had wrought
great things, and said to him: "Thanks to this hammer and
the help of the genii of fire, thou shalt speedily accomplish
the work left unfinished through man's stupidity and malignity."
Hiram did not hesitate to test the wonderful efficacy of the
precious instrument, and the dawn saw the great mass of bronze
cast. The artist felt the most lively joy, the queen exulted.
The people came running up, astounded at his secret power which
in one night had repaired everything.
One day the queen, accompanied by her
maids, went beyond Jerusalem, and there encountered Hiram, alone
and thoughtful. The encounter was decisive, they mutually confessed
their love. Had-Had, the bird who filled with the queen the office
of messenger of the genii of fire, seeing Hiram in the air make
the sign of the mystic T, flew around his head and settled on
his wrist. At this Sarahil, the nurse of the queen, exclaimed:
"The orcle is fulfilled. Had-Had recognizes the husband
which the genii of fire destined for Balkis, whose love alone
she dare accept!" They hesitated no longer, but mutually
pledged their vows, and deliberated how Balkis could retract
the promise given to the king. Hiram was to be the first to quit
Jerusalem; the queen, impatient to rejoin him in Arabia, was
to elude the vigilance of the king, which she accomplished by
withdrawing from his finger, while he was overcome with wine,
the ring wherewith she had plighted her troth to him. Solomon
hinted to the fellow-craftsmen that the removal of his rival,
who refused to give them the master's word, would be acceptable
unto himself; so when the architect came into the temple he was
assailed and slain by them. Before his death, however, he had
time to throw the golden triangle which he wore round his neck,
and on which was engraven the master's word, into a deep well.
They wrapped up his body, carried it to a solitary hill and buried
it, planting over the grave a sprig of acacia.
Hiram not having made his appearance
for seven days, Solomon, against his inclination, but to satisfy
the clamor of the people, was forced to have him searched for.
The body as found by three masters, and they, suspecting that
he had been slin by the three fellow-craftsmen for refusing them
the master's word, determined nevertheless for greater security
to change the word, and that the first word accidentally uttered
on raising the body should henceforth be the word. In the act
of raising it, the skin came off the body, so that one of the
masters exclaimed "Macbenach!" (the flesh is off the
bones!) and this word became the sacred word of the master's
degree. The three fellow-craftsmen were traced, but rather than
fall into the hands of their pursuers, they committed suicide
ad their heads were brought to Solomon. The triangle not having
been found on the body of Hiram it was sought for and at last
discovered in the well into which the architect had cast it.
The king caused it to be placed on a triangular altar erected
in a secret vault, built under the most retired part of the temple.
The triangle was further concealed by a cubical stone, on which
had been inscribed the sacred law. The vault, the existence of
which was only known to the twenty-seven elect, was then walled
up.
Click to subscribe to anthroposophy_tomorrow
Children
of Lucifer
Uncle Taz
Home Page 3
