Menyingkap Gerakan Freemason di Philadelphia 6

Sambungan cerita tahun lepas tak habis hahaha... KLIK

Untuk entri kali ini, saya lebihkan gambar di dalam bangunan tersebut. Sila buat andaian dan teori konspirasi sendiri.

Seperti yang dinyatakan sebelum ini, interior design bangunan memang tahap istana. Anda boleh habiskan masa berjam-jam berdiri dalam satu ruang dan menikmati detail bilik tersebut.

 Angels or devils in disguise?

 We looked in awe.

 Berjalan di tengah dua tangga cantik melepasi gerbang...

 If you look up too much, you will drool without noticing.

 Saya dah cakap. Memang orang akan mendongak punya.

Kalau ini tidak menakjubkan, apa lagi?

Menyingkap Gerakan Freemason di Philadelphia 5

Jangan terkejut, ini adalah sambungan kisah-kisah yang lepas.

Bilik pertama yang kami masuk adalah Oriental Hall.

Siapa yang bawa beg galas belakang, kena galas ke hadapan. Sebabnya, saya tak tanya. Saya suspek atas alasan sekuriti tetapi saya tak nampak rasionalnya. Anda ada idea lain?

Ruang menunggu.

"The chandeliers (nampak?) are the original gas fixtures converted from gas  to electric in the year 1889.  This is one of the first buildings in Philadelphia to have electric lights.

"Oriental Hall was decorated in 1896, in the Moorish, or Saracenic, style. The colors and decorations were copied from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, a 13th Century castle. 

Tidak dibenarkan duduk. Hanya ahli-ahli Freemasons saja yang dibenarkan.

"Above the wall panels are a succession of small arches  with a delicate embellishment  of intricate lacy design."

Altar ini ada pada setiap bilik. Apa kegunaannya?

Today, the Masonic altar, within the Masonic Lodge, upon which resides the Holy Book(s), is a symbol of our place of communion with the Supreme Architect of the Universe.  

However, in ancient times, they were a place of sacrifice,...atonement,...and communion with the Supreme Architect.  

Today, as then, ...each of us must sacrifice ourselves up to the Great Architect, atone for our sins and only then, may we commune with Him.

Altars are usually found in sacred places such as shrines, temples and churches.  All major religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, etc. have altars.  Even the pagans built altars to their gods.

ISLAM TAKDE YE! Please take note.

More reading HERE.

"The ceiling  is divided into seven thousand panels of various shapes, copied from the Hall of the Ambassadors. The border (shown right) surrounding the ceiling, is a pattern of the lotus flower copied from the Salon of the Tribunals. 

Saja tayang muka. Proof that I was there ;)

Sesi Q & A.

Kisah Penjara AL CAPONE Part 2

Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world, but stands today in ruin, a haunting world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers. 

Known for its grand architecture and strict discipline, this was the world’s first true “penitentiary,” a prison designed to inspire penitence, or true regret, in the hearts of convicts.

Its vaulted, sky-lit cells once held many of America’s most notorious criminals, including bank robber “Slick Willie” Sutton and Al Capone. 

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Maksud penitentiary ialah tidak menghukum, sebaliknya mengurung dengan sebab agar banduan dapat reflek kembali apa telah dibuat (jenayah), memikirkannya kembali dan menyesal. Dengan lain perkataan, pusat pemulihan.

Masalahnya, ilmu tentang psikologi ketika itu tidaklah sehebat mana. Tidak menghukum jadi menghukum. Idea bagus tapi perlaksanaan tak begitu.

Prison = penjara
Penitentiary = pusat pemulihan

Tapi bila kita tour tempat ni takde beza nampaknya antara penitentiary dan prison.

But someone has to start somewhere right? Itulah idea Dr. Benjamin Rush pada tahun 1787 yang akhirnya menyebabkan terbinanya penitentiary ini pada tahun 1821. Penitentiary ini menjadi model kepada 300 penjara seluruh dunia.

Branding bukan bermaksud memberi jenama. Tetapi mengecop ke tubuh badan manusia dengan menggunakan besi panas.

Lawatan dimulakan dari Cellblock 1.

Pintu kayu memberi elemen mistik.

Siapakah mereka yang pernah berjiran ini?

Ruang penjara yang usang dimamah zaman.

Masa itu seseorang telahpun merekabentuk penitentiary untuk keselesaan banduan. Implementasi agak sukar sebabnya bentuk pun dah macam rumah biasa as shown in the model above.

Siling di ruang jalan.

Apa yang dilakukan oleh banduan di dalam penitentiary ini? Banyak. Antaranya, menjahit pakaian.

There's light at the end of the tunnel (cellblock)

Re-model kembali bilik tahanan ketika itu.

Mangkuk tandas.

Cahaya dari siling di dalam bilik tahanan.

Berhantu?

Memang dikatakan berhantu. Diakui sendiri oleh warga penitentiary ini (banduan  dan juga pak gad). Mungkin betul mungkin tidak. Yang pasti, hantu juga ada daya penariknya yang tersendiri menyebabkan ramai yang melawat.

Rotunda

The Penitentiary’s Rotunda is the physical and symbolic center the prison. This distinctive architectural feature--designed for surveillance into the radiating cellblocks--was copied in hundreds of prisons during the 19th century, and provides one of the most powerful visitor experiences today. The seven original cellblocks and the South Corridor, can be seen through the eight arched doors around the room.

Model Eastern State Penitentiary yang mempunyai 7 cellblocks. Kenapa ada tujuh cellblocks? Simbol Freemason? Anda bagitahu saya.

BERSAMBUNG...

Menyingkap Gerakan Freemason di Philadelphia 4

Kami dibawa ke ruang "muzium dan perpustakaan" sementara menunggu jam 10am untuk sesi tour bermula. Apa yang ada di dalamnya?

The Museum, founded in 1908, has one of the finest collections of Masonic treasures in the world. Some of these include: Bro. George Washington's Masonic Apron, once thought to have been embroidered by Madame Lafayette, but which is now believed to have been made in China, and which was presented to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1829 by the Washington Benevolent Society; two letters in Washington's own hand addressed to his Masonic Brethren; Brother Benjamin Franklin's Masonic Sash, worn in 1782, when he was Venerable (Worshipful Master) of the Loge des Neuf Soeurs (Lodge of the Nine Sisters or Muses) in Paris, and when he Guided Brother Voltaire. One of the Library's prize possessions is an incunabulum, or book printed before 1501, this one done in Basel in 1489. It is really two books bound together, one by St. Augustine on the Trinity, and the other by Robert Holkot on the Apocryphal Book The Wisdom of Solomon.


The architecture and decorations of the Museum Room are intricate Byzantine. Virtues obtained from education are illustrated by the inscriptions on the frieze and by the twenty allegorical figures. Those Latin inscriptions are: "Quodcumque facere potest manus tua, instanter operare; quia nec opus, nec ratio, nec sapientia, nec scientia erunt apud inferos, quo tu properas. Ecclesiastes Cap. IX 10" (Whatsoever, thy hand findest to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest.-Ecclesiastes, 9 : 10). "Sola perpetuo manent, subjecta nulli, mentis atque animi bona. Seneca. Oct. 548." (The virtues of the mind and soul, subject to no one, alone remain forever. --Seneca, Octavia, 548). "Viamque insiste domandi, dum faciles animi juvenum, dum mobilis aetas. Virgilius G. III.164" (Begin early the course of education, while the mind is pliant and age is flexible.--Vergil, Georgics, 3, 164).

Dewan yang sederhana besar menempatkan pelbagai paraphernalia golongan Freemason ini yang kadang-kadang berusia ratusan tahun.

Masjid? Makam?

Oleh kerana ahli Freemason mengutamakan "ilmu", maka memang banyak buku-buku di dalam perpustakaan ini tetapi buku-buku ini lebih kepada dogma Freemason.

Apa kandungannya? Tidak tahu. Semuanya dipamer dalam kotak kaca.

Medal dan simbol. Di mana anda pernah meilhatnya? Di kaki lima? Di bangunan lama? Di sekolah missionary?

Lagi medal dan simbol.

Dan lagi. Freemason agak obses dengan medal dan simbol. Maksudnya tidak dapat dipastikan tetapi ia menambahkan elemen misteri dan mistik terhadap pergerakan ini.

Juga lukisan yang pelik-pelik dan selalu tidak masuk akal.

Mereka juga obses dengan King Solomon's Temple.

Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple, was the main temple in ancient Jerusalem, on the Temple Mount (also known as Mount Zion), before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 BC.


According to the Hebrew Bible, the temple was constructed under Solomon, king of the Israelites. This would date its construction to the 10th century BC, but it is possible that the temple continued an earlier Jebusite sanctuary predating the Israelite conquest of Jerusalem. During the kingdom of Judah, the temple was dedicated to Yahweh, the God of Israel and housed the Ark of the Covenant.


Because of the religious sensitivities involved, and the politically volatile situation in East Jerusalem, only limited archaeological surveys of the Temple Mount have been conducted. There is no archaeological evidence for the existence of Solomon's Temple nor mention of it in contemporary extra-biblical literature. There were some failed archaeological attempts to prove the existence of the temple, such as revealing the Ivory pomegranate, which turned out to be a hoax.


Rabbinic sources state that the First Temple stood for 410 years and, based on the 2nd-century work Seder Olam Rabbah, place construction in 832 BC and destruction in 422 BC (3338 AM), 165 years later than secular estimates. [LINK]

Model King Solomon's Temple yang disebut-sebut tadi.

Moral dan dogma. Apa maksud dogma?

Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or by extension by some other group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers. The term derives from Greek δόγμα "that which seems to one, opinion or belief" and that from δοκέω (dokeo), "to think, to suppose, to imagine". Dogma came to signify laws or ordinances adjudged and imposed upon others by the First Century. The plural is either dogmas or dogmata , from Greek δόγματα. Today, It is sometimes used as a synonym for systematic theology.

Apa simbol Freemason yang anda perhatikan dari piano ini? Atau mungkin mereka saja-saja mau mengetawakan kita di belakang tabir tatkala kita sibuk "menterjemah" piano ini?

Juga obses dengan kunci. Kunci syurga?

Ini sahih ukiran yang berbentuk Islamik hanya dengan melihatnya saja.

Jenis apa batu cincin anda? Ini adalah Aaron's (Nabi Harun) breastplate. Ada ceritanya pada golongan Kristian dan Yahudi.

The Breastplate of Aaron is of interest to gem lovers because it is an early accounting of the use of gemstones as both decoration and symbol. Aaron is the brother to Moses and the leader of the tribe which is appointed as high priests. 

The breastplate is described (Exodus 28:15-20) as the "Breastplate of Judgement" or "Breastplate of Decision" (dependent on the biblical translation) and is adorned with twelve gems -- one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel. The gemstones were to be attached in four rows of three and each gem was to have the name of a tribe inscribed upon it. 


Unfortunately, it is difficult for contemporary translators to determine a certain or absolute interpretation of which modern gemstone names equate to the ancient biblical descriptions of the stones of the high priest's breastplate. Therefore, the list of gems used varies dependent on the translation which is cited.[LINK]

Sila terjemah (atau tafsir).

Sebenarnya bermaksud "Thy Will Be Done"

Peminat filem The Mummy (Brandon Fraser) pasti akan melompat melihat ini. Scarab!

Ancient Egyptian scarabs were popular amulets in ancient Egypt. According to ancient Egyptian myths, the sun (Ra) rolls across the sky each day and transforms bodies and souls. Modeled upon the Scarabaeidae family dung beetle, which rolls dung into a ball for the purposes of eating and laying eggs that are later transformed into larva, the scarab was seen as an earthly symbol of this heavenly cycle. This came to be iconographic, and ideological symbols were incorporated into Ancient Egyptian society. [LINK]

Elemen mistik, spiritual dan misteri menyelubungi dunia Freemason.

BERSAMBUNG...