{"collection":"Freemasonry","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_mas_syma_syma53_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_mas_syma_syma53_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_mas_syma_syma53_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/mas/syma/syma53.htm","summary":"This is an excerpt from a 1923 work of Masonic scholarship, specifically a chapter exploring the origins and symbolic meaning of the \"Lion's Paw\" \u2014 a gesture used in Freemasonry's Third Degree ritual. Haywood traces the lion symbol across multiple ancient traditions: in Egyptian religion it represented solar life-giving power and resurrection (with candidates ritually raised from a lion-shaped couch), while among medieval Jews and Christians it signified the Messiah springing from the Tribe of Judah. He argues that the Comacine cathedral builders of the Middle Ages \u2014 probable ancestors of Freemasons \u2014 inherited this Judaic/Christian lion symbolism and embedded it structurally in Romanesque and Gothic architecture. A parallel thread traces the Lion's Paw to the Egyptian *crux ansata* (Nile-measuring staff that became a symbol of life), a connection advanced by Albert Pike. Haywood's central claim is that despite their different cultural origins, both the Egyptian and Christian traditions converge on the same core meaning \u2014 life-giving, resurrection power \u2014 making them mutually reinforcing rather than contradictory interpretations of the same Masonic symbol.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Symbolical Masonry: Part Three: The Third Step: Chapter X...","tradition":"Freemasonry","translated_text":null,"word_count":1117}