Daily Mason

Du Cange, Slossarzum, defines Macio, Mario, or Machio, on the authority of Isidore, as Maçon, latomus, a mason, a constructor of walls, from machina, the machines on which they stood to work on account of the height of the walls.

He gives Maço also.

Initiated in Concordia Lodge No. 67 at Philadelphia, 1869; was Worshipful Master in 1874; accepted position of Secretary in 1876 and served twelve years. Brother MacCalla was elected Junior Grand Warden of Pennsylvania in 1882, Senior Grand Warden in 1884, Deputy Grand Master in 1886 and Grand Master in 1888. For many years he was Editor of the Reystone, a Masonic journal. He wrote a historical sketch of Concordia Lodge in Philadelphia, a Life of Daniel Coxe and many essays on Freemasonry in America. He discovered the Secretary’s ledger of Saint John’s Lodge dating from June 24, 1731, to June, 1738 (see Transactions, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, volume iii, page 134).

This word is capable of at least two interpretations.

1. A significant word in the Third Degree according to the French Rite and some other Rituals (see Mac).

2. In the Order of the Beneficent Knights of the Holy City, the Recipiendary, or Novice, is called Macbenac.

MAC

Masonic writers have generally given to this word the meaning of “is smitten,” deriving it probably from the Hebrew verb macha, to smite. Others, again, think it is the word mak, rottenness, and suppose that it means “he is rotten.” Both derivations are, in Brother Mackey’s opinion, incorrect. Mac is a constituent part of the word macbenac, which is the substitute Master’s Word in the French Rite, and which is interpreted by the French ritualists as meaning “he lives in the son.” But such a derivation can find no support in any known Hebrew root.

Another interpretation must be sought. Doctor Mackey believed there is evidence, circumstantial at least, to show that the word was, if not an invention of the Sentient or Dermott Freemasons, at least adopted by them in distinction from the one used by the Moderns, which latter is the word now in use in the United States of America.

Brother Mackey was disposed to attribute the introduction of the word into Freemasonry to the adherents of the House of Stuart, who sought in every way to make the Institution of Freemasonry a political instrument in their schemes for the restoration of their exiled monarch. Thus the old phrase, “the Widow’s Son,” was applied by them to James II, who was the son of Henrietta Maria, the widow of Charles I. So, instead of the old Master’s word which had hitherto been used, they invented macbenac out of the Gaelie, which to them was, on recount of their Highland supporters, almost a sacred language in the place of Hebrew. Now, in Gaelic, Mac is son, and benach is blessed, from the active verb oeannaichy to bless.

The latest dictionary pushed by the Highland Society give this example: “Benach De Righ Albane, Alexander, Mac Alexander,” etc., that is, Bless the King of Scotland, Alexander, son of Alexander, etc. Therefore we find, without any of those distortions to which etymologists so often recur, that macbenac means in Gaelic the blessed son. This word the Stuart Freemasons applied to their idol, the Pretender, the son of Charles I.

mem

The Hebrew is pronounced, Mem, which signifies water

in motion, having for its hieroglyph a waving line,

referring to the surface of the water. As a numeral, M

stands for 1000. In Hebrew its numerical value is 40. The

sacred name of Deity, applied to this letter, is Meborach,

and in Latin Benedictus, meaning that Blessed One.

MAACHA

In the Tenth Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite we are instructed that certain traitors fled to “Maacha, King of Cheth,” by whom they were delivered up to King Solomon on his sending for them. In First Kings ii, 39, we find it recorded that two of the servants of Shimei fled from Jerusalem to “Achish, son of Maachah king of Gath.” There can be little doubt that the carelessness of the early copyists of the Ritual led to the double error of putting Cheth for Gath and of supposing that Maacha was its king instead of its king’s father.

The manuscripts of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, too often copied by unlearned persons, show many such corruptions of Hebrew names, which modern researches must eventually correct. Delaunay, in his Thuileur, 1813, makes him King of Tyre, calls him Mahakah, and adds a Latin word, Compressus, as further explanation, the meaning evidently being to bring together.

From the

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FREEMASONRY AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES

by ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.

M

The Hebrew is pronounced, Mem, which signifies water in motion, having for its hieroglyph a waving line, referring to the surface of the water. As a numeral, M stands for 1000. In Hebrew its numerical value is 40. The sacred name of Deity, applied to this letter, is Meborach, and in Latin Benedictus, meaning that Blessed One.