APHANISM

In the Ancient Mysteries there was always a legend of the death or disappearance of some hero god, and the subsequent discovery of the body and its resurrection.

The concealment of this body by those who had slain it was called the aphanism, from the Greek, abavatw, to conceal. As these Mysteries may be considered as a type of Freemasonry, as some suppose, and as, according to others, both the Mysteries and Freemasonry are derived from one common and ancient type, the aphanism, or concealing of the body, is of course to be found in the Third Degree. Indeed, the purest kind of Masonic aphanism is the loss or concealment of the word (see Mysteries, and Euresis).