The Equinox (Volume I, Number X)

THE EQUINOX Honorary Fellow of The Society of Science, Letters, and Arts, 1882. Served five years on the Council. Gold medal granted 1887 (Sir Henry Valentine Gould, Baronet, President). Docteur en Science Hermetiques. Conferred October roth, 1899, by the Free University of Paris. Nischal al Iftikhar, or Order of Glory. Founded in one Class by Sultan Mahmoud II in 1831. Granted by Sultan Abdul Hamid, June 13th, 1905. Honorary Fellow of the Theosophical Society 1879—presented with a com- plimentary Jewel of the Society. Early in his career V..... Illust. .... Br... .“. John Yarker turned his attention to literature. He was a prolific writer on many subjects other than Masonic. In 1869 he compiled “Notes on the Temple and Hospital, and the Jerusalem Encampment, Manchester ”—the Provincial Grand Conclave appreciated this work and complimented the author. Two years later saw an interesting work from his pen, Wotes on the Scientific and Religious Mysteries of Antiquity; the Gnosis and Secret Schools of the Middle Ages, Modern Rosicrucianism; and the various Rites and Degrees of Free and Accepted Masonry, a book which has been exceedingly well reviewed. A little later, but about the same date, the “Egyptian Ritual of the Book of Dead,” another paper on the Old Rosicrucian Doctrines and one on Astrology, made their appearance, All this time articles were being written for the Masonic perodicals, and from 1855 up to the present time the best journals considered it an honour to publish his writings. These therefore can be found in the Freemason’s Magazine, Free- mason, Freemason’s Chronicle, Kneph (which he edited from 1885), the Transactions of Quatuor Coronati Research Lodge, and latterly in this maga- zine. Being much interested in Heraldry and Genealogical studies, he compiled in 1881 a book on the pedigree of the House of Yarker, containing much interesting information in regard to the origin, name and allied families in York, Westmorland and Lancashire. In 1909 the Arcane Schools, an epoch-making book, was produced. It is the flower of his devotion to the Craft, and the crown of all his labours, so in accord with his family motto, “the end crowns the work!” The data for this book took years to collect, and the result is monumental—an immense array of facts, systematically arranged, which form a valuable reference book. In it he traces the sources of the teaching of the philosophy and rites of the Craft, right back into the night of time—before the Aryan civilization. The mystery tradition was the sole survivor in the West, and in the Operative Guilds a genuine mystery tradition was preserved and handed down to modern times. This splendid book carries conviction in every line, and all brethren who take a serious interest in Masonry should study it. xxii