ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
FREEMASONRY
AND ITS KINDRED SCIENCES
by ALBERT C. MACKEY M. D.

Browse the Encyclopedia by clicking on any of the letters below.

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D

The fourth letter of the Phoenician, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Roman, and of nearly all alphabets. In Hebrew it is Daleth, signifying the door of life, a representation of which was probably its original hieroglyph, as in the illustration. Here
1 shows the approximation to the Hebrew Daleth;
2 the Greek Delta, resembling the opening of a tent.

The numerical value of Daleth is four; as a Roman numeral it stands for 500.

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DA COSTA, HIPPOLYTO JOSEPH

A native of Colonia-do-Sacramento, on the river La Plata. He was made a Freemason in Philadelphia in the United States and afterward settled in Lisbon. He was subsequently persecuted by the Inquisition, and was rescued only in time to save his life by the aid of English Brethren who got him under the protection of the British flag. He then passed over into England, where he lived for several years, becoming a zealous Freemason and devoting himself to Masonic literature. In 1811, he published in London a Narrative of his persecution in Lisbon, by the Inquisition, for the pretended crime of Freemasonry, in two volumes. He wrote also a History of the Dionysian Artificers, in which he attempts to connect Freemasonry with the Dionysian and other mysteries of the ancients. He begins with the Eleusinian mysteries, assuming that Dionysus, Bacchus, Adonis, Thammuz, and Apollo were ail various names for the Sun, Whose apparent movements are represented by the death and resurrection referred to in the ceremonies. But as the sun is typified as being dead or hidden for three months under the horizon, he thinks that the mysteries must have originated in a cold climate as far north as latitude 66 , or among a people living near the polar circle. He therefore attributes the invention of these mysteries to the ancient Scythians or Massagetae, of whom he confesses that we know nothing. He afterward gives the history of the Dionysiac or Orphic mysteries of El eusis, and draws a successful parallel between the initiation into these and the Masonic initiation. His disquisition's are marked by much learning, although his reasoning may not always carry conviction.

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DACTYLI

Priests of Cybele, in Phrygia, of whom there were five, which number could not be exceeded, and alluded to the salutation and blessing by the five fingers of the hand. The word is from the Greek daktylos, meaning a finger.

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DADUCHOS
A torch-bearer. The title given to an officer in the Eleusinian mysteries, who bore a torch in commemoration of the torch lit by Ceres at the fire of Mount Etna, and carried by her through the wood in her search for her daughter.

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DAEDALUS

A famous artist and mechanician, whose genealogy is traced in the Greek myths as having sprung from the old Athenian race of kings, the Erechtheidae. He is said to have executed the Cretan Labyrinth, the reservoir near Megaris in Sicily, the Temple of Apollo at Capua, and the celebrated altar sculptured with lions on the Libyan coast. He is said to be the inventor of a number of the working Tools used in the various degrees of Freemasonry, the plumb-line and the ax, most of the tools used in carpentry, and of glue. Of him is told the fable of his flying safely over the Aegean by means of wings made by himself. His nephew, Perdix, is the reputed inventor of the third Great Light in Freemasonry, the Compasses, which are dedicated to the Craft. Through envy Daedalus is said to have hurled his nephew, Perdix, from the Temple Athena.

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DAGGER

In the advanced Degrees a symbol of Masonic vengeance, or the punishment of crime (see Vengeance).

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DAGRAIN, LOUIS

A miter in the Amsterdam Journal of November 3, 1735, of an article on the subject of Freemasonry, which caused an edict from the States General forbidding Masonic gatherings throughout the country (see Thory, Acta Latomorum 11, 306).

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DAGRAN, LOUIS

President of a General Assembly of thirty Lodges, held on Saint John's Day, 1756, at the Hague, for the formation of the Grand Lodge of Holland. It was at this December meeting that Baron Van Aerssen Beyeren Van Hogerheide was appointed Grand Master (see Thory, Acta Latomorum 1, 72).

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DAIS

From the French word dais, meaning a canopy. The raised floor at, the head of a banqueting room, or any ceremonial chamber or hall, designed for guests of distinction ; so called because it used to be decorated with a canopy. In Masonic language, the dais is the elevated portion of the eastern part of the lodge-room, which is occupied by Past Masters and the dignitaries of the Order. This should be elevated three steps above the floor. This station of the Junior Warden is raised one step, and that. of the Senior two.

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DAKOTA

Saint .John's Lodge was the first Lodge in Dakota. It received a Dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Iowa, December 5, 1862, and a Charter on June 3, 1863. Representatives of this Lodge and of Incense. Elk Point, Minnehaha, and Silver Star Lodges held a Convention on June 21, 1875, to consider the formation of a Grand Lodge.

Members of Mount Zion Lodge, U. D., were present but, owing to the fact that they had no Charter, did not take part, in the proceedings. A Constitution was adopted and Grand Officers; who were installed at another meeting on July 21, were elected. When in 1999 the territory of Dakota was divided by Act of Congress into North Dakota and South Dakota the Grand Lodge of Dakota became the Grand Lodge of South Dakota and certain Lodges in North Dakota were permitted to organize a Grand Lodge of North Dakota.

The General Grand Chapter of the United States chartered eight Chapters in Dakota, the first of which was Yankton, No. 1, at. Yankton, chartered on August 24, 1885. On February. 25, 1885, the Grand Chapter was organized by the following Chapters: Yankton, No. 1; Sioux Falls, No. 2; Dakota, No. 3; Siroc, No. 4; Casselton, No. 7; Cheyenne, No. 9, U. D. Huron, No. 10, U. D.; Keystone, No. 11, U. D.; Watertown, No. 12, U. D.; Jamestown, No, 13, U. D.; Aberdeen, No. 14, U. D. The first Annual Convocation was held June 8, 1885. When the division of the Territory took place the Grand Chapter of Dakota gave permission to the Lodges located in South Dakota to organize a Grand Chapter of South Dakota, under the Constitution of the General Grand Chapter. This was done on January 6, 1890. The Grand Chapter of North Dakota was organized three days later.

The first Council in Dakota, Fargo, No.1, was chartered by the General Grand Council on November 19, 1889. This Council was located in North Dakota and, therefore, after 1889, was considered the first. Council of that State. There was no Grand Council in Dakota until after the division of the Territory.

The Grand Commandery was organized at Sioux Falls on May 14, 1884, by representant of the four Commanderies. Dakota. No1; Cyrene, No. 2; De Molay; No. 3, and Fargo, No. 5. On June 16, 1890 the representatives of Tancered. No 4: Fargo, No. 5; Grand Forks, No. 8, and Wi-ha-ha, No . 12, organized the Grand Commandery of North Dakota. The Grand Commandery of North Dakota. The Grand Commandery of Dakota then changed its name to that of Grand Commandery of South Dakota.

A Consistory of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite was chartered at Fargo, on May 26, 1886, as Dakota, No. 1; a Council of Kadosh, Fargo, No. 1, on December 8, 1883; a Chapter of Rosy Croix, Mackey, No.1, on February 27, 1882, and a Lodge of Perfection, Alpha, No. 1, on February 8, 1882.

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DALCHO, FREDERICK

One of the founders of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. He was born in the City of London in the year 1770, of Prussian parents. His father had been a distinguished officer under Frederick the Great and, having been severely wounded, was permitted to retire to England for his health. He was a very earnest Freemason, and transmitted his sentiments to his son. At his death, this son was sent for by een uncle, who had a few years before emigrated to Baltimore. Here he obtained a good classical education, after which he devoted himself successfully to the study of medicine, including a more extensive course of botany than has been common in medical course. Having received his degree of Doctor of Medicine, he took a commission in the medical department of the American army. With his division of the army he came to South Carolina, and was stationed at Fort Johnson, in Charleston harbor. Here some diviculty arose between Doctor Dalcho and his brother officers, in consequence of which he resigned his place in the army in 1799. He then removed to Charleston, where he formed a partnership in the practice of physic with Isaac Auld, and he became a member of the Medical Society, and a trustee of the Botanic Garden, established through its influence, On the 12th of June, 1818, Doctor Dalcho was admitted to the priesthood of the Protestant Èpiscopal Church. On the 23d of February, he was elected assistant minister of Saint Michael's Church, in Charleston. He died on the 24d of November, 1836, in the sixty- seventh year of his age, and the seventeenth of his ministry in Saint Michael's Church. The principal published work of Doctor Dalcho is "An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina. He also published a work entitled " The Evidence from Prophecy for the Truth of Christianity and the Divining of Christ : besides several sermons and essays, some of which were the result of considerable labor and research. He was also the projector, and for a long time the principal conductor, of the Gospel Messenger, then the leading organ of the Episcopal Church in South Caroline.

The Masonic career of Doctor Dalcho closely connects him with a York Freemasonry in South Carolina, and the Scottish Rite throughout. the United States.

He was initiated in a York or Athol Lodge at the time when the Jurisdiction of South Carolina was divided by the existence and the dissension's of two Grand Lodges, the one deriving its authority from the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of England, and the other from the rival Atholl Grand Lodge.

His constant desire appears, however, to have been to unit these discordant elements, and to uproot the evil spirit of Masonic rivalry and contention which at that time prevailed -a wish which was happily gratified, at length, by the union of the two Grand Lodges of South Carolina in 1817, a consummation to which he himself greatly contributed.

In 1801 Doctor Dalcho received the Thirty.-third and ultimate Degree of Sovereign Grand Inspector of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite ; and May 31, 1801 he became instrumental in the establishment at Charleston of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, of which Body he was appointed Grand Secretary, and afterward Grand commander; which latter position he occupied until 1823, when he resigned. September 23, 1801, he delivered an oration before the Sublime Grand Body in Charleston. This and another delivered March 21, 1803, before the same Body, accompanied by a learned historical appendix, were published in the latter year under the general name of Dalcho's Orations. The work was soon after republished in Dublin by the Grand Council of Heredom or Prince Masons of that city; and McCosh says that there were other editions issued in Europe, which, however, Brother Mackey had never seen.

The oration of 1803 and the appendix furnish the best information that up to that day, and for many years afterward. was accessible to the Craft in relation to the history of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in this country.

In 1807. at the request of the Grand Lodge of York Masons of South Carolina, he published an Ahiman Rezon, which was adopted as the code for the government of the Lodges under the jurisdiction of that Body. This work, as was to be expected from the character of the Grand Lodge which it represented, was based on the previous book of Laurence Dermott.

In 1808 he was elected Corresponding Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons, and from that time directed the influences of his high position to the reconciliation of the Masonic difficulties in South Carolina.

In 1817 the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons and that of Ancient York Masons of South Carolina became united under the name of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Freemasons of South Carolina. Doctor Dalcho took a very active part in this reunion, and at the first annual communication he was elected Grand Chaplain. The duties of this office he faithfully performed. and for many years delivered a public address or sermon on the Festival of Saint John the Evangelist.
In 1822 he prepared a second edition of the Ahiman Rezon which was published the following year, enriched with many notes. Some of these notes he would have hardly written, with the enlarged experience of the present day; but on the whole the second edition was an improvement on the first. Although retaining the peculiar title which had been introduced by Dermott it ceased in a great measure to follow the principles of the "'Ancient Masons."' In 1822 Dalcho became involved in an unpleasant controversy with some of his Masonic associates, in consequence of difficulties and dissension's which at that time existed in the Scottish Rite; and his feelings were so wounded by the un-masonic spirit which seemed to actuate his antagonists and former friends, that he resigned the office of Grand Chaplain, and retired for the remainder of his life from all participation in the active duties of Freemasonry.