The Acacia

Acacia is not to be confused with Cassia - which is a rude preparation of cinnamon.

At one time there was a debate as to whether or not acacia was found in Jerusalem. It was argued that the plant was not found north of Judah, but several ancient scholars, as well as a Lieutenant Lynch in his book the Expedition to the Dead Sea, noted Acacia grew in great abundance at Jericho, and still farther north. And today, there is an abundance of Acacia trees throughout Jerusalem.

The acacia, in scripture is always called shittah, and the plural shittim was esteemed as a sacred wood, among the Hebrews. Moses was ordered to make the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the table for the showbread, as well as the rest of the sacred furniture for the tabernacle, out of Shittim wood.

The acacia symbolically represent three ideas

1. Immortality the soul
2. Innocence and
3. Initiation

Immortality of the soul:

In regard to the funeral service for masons the evergreen is an emblem of our faith in the immortality of the soul. By this we are reminded that we have an immortal part within us, which shall survive the grave, and which shall never, never, never die. And again in the closing sentences of the monitorial lecture of the third degree, the same sentiment is repeated, and we are told that by the "evergreen and ever living sprig" the Freemason is strengthened "with confidence and composure to look forward to a blessed immortality." According to Dalcho, a historian, the Hebrews always planted a sprig of acacia at the head of the grave of a departed friend. "This custom among the Hebrews arose from this cirumstant. Agreeable to their laws, no dead bodies were allowed to be interred within the walls of the city as the Cohen's, or Priests, were prohibited from crossing a grave, it was necessary to place marks thereon, that they might avoid them. For this purpose the acacia was used: The sprig of acacia, then in its most ordinary signification, presents itself to the master mason as a symbol of the immortality of the soul being intended to remind him, by its evergreen and unchanging nature, of that better and spiritual part within us, which as an emanation from the grand architect of the Universe, can never die.

Innocence:

In Greece, the word Akakia, signifies both the plant as well as the moral quality of innocence or purity of life. Among the nations of antiquity, it was common to symbolize the virtues and other qualities of the mind as common plants. i.e.: the olive was adopted as the symbol of peace the quince was the symbol of love and happiness the palm was the symbol of victory the rosemary the symbol of remembrance etc.

Initiation

All ancient initiations and religious mysteries have plants peculiar to each, and occupy an important position in the celebration of their various rites.

In Egypt the Erica, or heath is a sacred plant. In the mysteries of Osiris, there is the story of Isis, when in search of the body of her murdered husband (Osiris), discovered it interred at the brow of a hill, near which an Erica, or heath plant grew; and hence, after the recover of the body and the resurrection of the god, when she established the mysteries to commemorate her loss and her recover, she adopted the Erica as a sacred plant, in memory of this having pointed out the spot where the remains of Osiris were concealed. This is similar to our legend, yet the acacia was substituted for the Erica, and Osiris was substituted for Hiram abiff.