Initial letters of names were secreted in architectural arches and spans. A notable example of this practice is found on the title page of Montaigue’s Essays, third edition, where an initial B is formed by two arches and an F by a broken arch. Pictorial cryptograms are sometimes accompanied by the key necessary for their decipherment. A figure may point toward the starting point of the cipher or carry in its hand some implement disclosing the system of measurement used. There are also frequent instances in which the cryptographer purposely distorted or improperly clothed some figure in his drawing by placing the hat on backwards, the sword on the wrong side, or the shield on the wrong arm, or by employing some similar artifice. The much-discussed fifth finger on the Pope’s hand in Raphael’s Sistine Madonna and the sixth toe on Joseph’s foot in the same artist’s Marriage of the Virgin are cunningly concealed cryptograms.

3. The acroamatic cipher. The religious and philosophical writings of all nations abound with acroamatic cryptograms, that is, parables and allegories. The acroamatic is unique in that the document containing it may be translated or reprinted without affecting the cryptogram. Parables and allegories have been used since remote antiquity to present moral truths in an attractive and understandable manner. The acroamatic cryptogram is a pictorial cipher drawn in words and its symbolism must be so interpreted. The Old and New Testaments of the Jews, the writings of Plato and Aristotle, Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, Virgil’s Æneid, The Metamorphosis of Apuleius, and Æsop’s Fables are outstanding examples of acroamatic cryptography in which are concealed the deepest and most sublime truths of ancient mystical philosophy.

The acroamatic cipher is the most subtle of all, for the parable or allegory is susceptible of several interpretations. Bible students for centuries have been confronted by this difficultly. They are satisfied with the moral interpretation of the parable and forget that each parable and allegory is capable of seven interpretations, of which the seventh–the highest–is complete and all-inclusive, whereas the other six (and lesser) interpretations are fragmentary, revealing but part of the mystery. The creation myths of the world are acroamatic cryptograms, and the deities of the various pantheons are only cryptic characters which, if properly understood, become the constituents of a divine alphabet. The initiated few comprehend the true nature of this alphabet, but the uninitiated many worship the letters of it as gods.

AN ALCHEMICAL CRYPTOGRAM.

From Brown’s History of Chemistry. James Campbell Brown reprints a curious cipher from Kircher. The capital letters of the seven words in the outer circle read clockwise, form the word SVLPHVR. From the words in the second circle, when read in a similar manner, is derived FIXVM. The capitals of the six words in the inner circle, when properly arranged, also read ESTSOL. The following cipher is thus extracted: “Sulphur Fixum Est Sol,” which when translated is: “Fixed sulphur is gold.”

AN ALCHEMICAL CRYPTOGRAM.

From Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer. Beginning with the word VISITA and reading clockwise, the seven initial letters of the seven words inscribed in the outer circle read: VITRIOL. This is a very simple alchemical enigma, but is a reminder that those studying works on Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, and Freemasonry should always be on the lookout for concealed meanings hidden either in Parables and allegories or in cryptic arrangements of numbers, letters, and words.

A CRYPTIC DEPICTION OF DIVINE AND NATURAL JUSTICE.

From Selenus’ Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiæ. The first circle portrays the divine antecedents of justice, the second the universal scope of justice, and the third the results of human application of justice. Hence, the first circle deals with divine principles, the second circle with mundane affairs, and the third circle with man. On the at the top of the picture sits Themis, the presiding spirit of law, and at her feet three other queens–Juno, Minerva, and Venus–their robes ornamented with geometric figures. The axis of law connects the throne, of divine justice above with the throne of human judgment at the bottom of the picture. Upon the latter throne is seated a queen with a scepter in her hand, before whom stands the winged goddess Nemesis–the angel of judgment.

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