Masonic & Occult Symbols Illustrate

are all T crosses and combine in one symbol the hammer, the sign of rule, and the T cross, the symbol of the male or creative side of the Deity; and, lest there should be any mistake, the T is placed on the apron of the Master of the Lodge, though placed [upside down], so as to give also the symbol of the square, and also to emphasise its PHALLIC meaning.” “The Tau, T, is the emblem of Mercury, of Hermes. It is the crux ansata, and the crux Hermis. It was the last letter of the ancient alphabets, the end of boundary, whence it came to be used as a terminus to districts; but the crux Tau was also the emblem of the generative power, of eternal transmigrating life [reincarnation], and thus was used indiscriminately with the Phallus. It was, in fact, the phallus. ” [Emphasis in the original] The ankh (or crux ansata) is a symbol of life. A Dictionary of Mysticism explains the ankh as the “Egyptian cross, shaped like a capital T with an oval loop on the top, symbol of life in occult tradition.” It was “used by the gods as an instrument for awakening the dead to a new life.” One Masonic book relates: “The Crux Ansata, so frequently observed in the hands of the statues of the old kings and gods of Egypt, was evidently both solar and Phallic in signification, and represented a combination of the male and female principles in,” nature.