Symbolism Of Words

Morals & Dogma

“A single example of the symbolism of words will indicate to you one branch of Masonic study. We find in the English Rite this phrase: ‘I will always hail, ever conceal, and never reveal;’ and in the Catechism, these:

Q: ‘I hail.’

A: ‘I Conceal.’

and ignorance, misunderstanding the word ‘hail,’ has interpolated the phrase, ‘From whence do you hail?’

But the word is really ‘hele,’ from the Anglo-Saxon verb elan, helan, to cover, hide, or conceal. And this word is rendered by the Latin verb tegere, to cover or roof over. ‘That ye fro me no thynge woll hele,’ says Gower. ‘They hele fro me no priuyte,’ says the Romaunt of the Rose. ‘To heal a house,’ is a common phrase in Sussex; and in the west of England, he that covers a house with slates is called a Healer. Wherefore, to heal means the same thing as to ‘tile’ - itself symbolic, as meaning, primarily, to cover a house with tiles, - and means to cover, hide, or conceal. Thus language too is symbolism, and words are as much misunderstood and misused as more material symbols are.”

-Albert Pike

Daily Pike is brought to you by Emeth: