Chapter Penny

Source: Phoenixmasonry

This wonderful Chapter Penny pictures our namesake at Phoenixmasonry, that of the "Rising Phoenix". The old mythological legend of the Phoenix is a familiar one. The bird was described as of the size of an eagle, with a head finely crested, a body covered with beautiful plumage, and eyes sparkling like stars.

She was said to live six hundred years in the wilderness, when she built for herself a funeral pile of aromatic woods, which she ignited with the fanning of her wings, and emerged from the flames with a new life. Hence the phoenix has been adopted universally as a symbol of immortality. Higgins (Anacalypsis, ii., 441) says that the phoenix is the symbol of an ever-revolving solar cycle of six hundred and eight years, and refers to the Phoenician word phen, which signifies a cycle. Aumont, the first Grand Master of the Templars after the martyrdom of DeMolay, and called the "Restorer of the Order," took, it is said, for his seal, a phoenix brooding on the flames, with the motto, "Ardet ut vivat" - She burns that she may live. The phoenix was adopted at a very early period as a Christian symbol, and several representations of it have been found in the catacombs. Its ancient legend, doubtless, caused it to be accepted as a symbol of Jesus Christ's resurrection and immortality.

Here at Phoenixmasonry, we believe that each of us has had the feeling of being consumed by fire. That the problems of our lives have left us in the pit of despair, the ashes of destruction, although it may not have been the fire that creates those ashes. Adversity and the overcoming of it makes us stronger. Just as the beautiful Temple of King Solomon rose from the rubbish and ashes of barbarous forces to become an even more magnificent and resplendent structure, our belief and faith in the principles of Freemasonry allows us to rise up from the ashes to become stronger and better Phoenixmasons.

Obverse: THEY RECEIVED EVERY MAN A PENNY / (York Rite Triple Tau/Keystone/Triangle) / ONE PENNY

Reverse: OSWEGO RIVER CHAPTER No. 270 R.A.M. / (Rising Phoenix) / CHARTERED / FEB.4.1874 / PHOENIX, N.Y.

SIZE/CONDITION/ETC: 34mm. AU. NOTICE: To convert millimeters to inches, 25.4mm equals one inch.