Y
The twenty-fifth letter of the English alphabet derived from the Greek T. One of the symbols of Pythagoras was the Greek letter Upsilon, T. for which, on account of the similarity of shape, the Romans adopted the letter Y of their own alphabet. Pythagoras said that the two horns of the letter symbolized the two [...]
YAKSHA
The name of a class of demigods in Hindu mythology, whose care is to attend on Kuvera, the god of riches, and see to his garden and treasures.
YALLA
A word said to have been used by the Templars in the adoration of the Baphomet, and derived from the Saracens.
YAMA
The Sanskrit, Yama, meaning a twin. According to the Hindu mythology, the judge and ruler of the departed; the Hindu Pluto, or king of the infernal regions; originally conceived of as one of the first pair from whom the human race is descended, and the beneficent sovereign of his descendants in the abodes of the [...]
YARKER, JOHN
Born in Westmorland, England, April 17, 1833, died March 20, 1913, and was long identified actively with Freemasonry in Manchaster but connected with Masonic Bodies in all parts of the world. He was initiated on October 25, 1854, in Integrity Lodge No. 189, later No. 163, at twenty-one years of age. He contributed an article [...]
YATES, GILES FONDA
“The task of writing a sketch of the life of Giles Fonda Yates is accompanied with a feeling of melancholy,” says Doctor Mackey, ” because it brings to my mind the recollections of years, now passed forever, in which I enjoyed the intimate friendship of that amiable man and zealous Freemason and scholar. His gentle [...]
YAVERON HAMAIM
A significant word in the advanced Degrees. The French rituals explain it as meanings the passage of the River, and refer it to the crossing of the River Euphrates by the liberated Jewish captives on their return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple. It is, in its present form, a corruption of the [...]
YEAR
The same as the Year of the World, which see.
YEAR OF FREEMASONRY
Sometimes used as synonymous with Year of Light. In the eighteenth century, it was, in fact, the more frequent expression.
YEAR OF LIGHT
Anno Lewis, in the Year of Light, is the epoch used in Masonic documents of the Symbolic Degrees. This era is calculated from the creation of the world, and is obtained by adding four thousand to the current year, on the supposition that Christ was born four thousand years after the creation of the world. [...]
