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Remember talks here about Bears yesterday. I came across this page (VERY INFORMATIVE) but couldn't tie in the bear.
Animals have played an important part in symbolism from its very beginning; perhaps because man preferred to symbolize life by the living; perhaps because he found such strong analogies between the characteristics of, or the virtues he ascribed to animals, birds and other forms of life and the truths he desired to express in symbols. A lamb is actually no more “innocent” than a lion or a dog. “Innocence” is defined as the state of being free of evil, or from that which corrupts or taints; purity. One animal is on par with another in these respects; neither lion nor lamb, jackal nor wolf is “corrupted” or “tainted.”
But the quality of innocence is often associated in our minds with ignorance; often it means a weakness to resist, as when we speak of an “innocent child.” The lamb is weak; the lamb is meek; the lamb is white and white is spotless, without soil or blemish; the lamb requires care and guardianship, as does the child or the young girl - therefore it is the weak lamb, and not the strong, predatory, courageous and snarling lion which “in all ages” has been the symbol of innocence.
“In all ages” is a pleasant figure of speech which makes up in roundness what it lacks in definiteness. Throughout the Old Testament are references to lambs, often in connection with sacrifices, frequently used in a sense symbolic of innocence, purity, gentleness and weakness. It is probably from both the Old and New Testaments use of a lamb that “in all ages” it has been a symbol for innocence, a matter aided by the color, which we unconsciously associate with purity, probably because of the hue of snow. It is not a universal association though; the Chinese, for instance, so often diametrically opposite the Occidentals in their thinking, associate white with death.
The lion is one of Freemasonry’s most powerful and potent symbols;
“The Lion of the Tribe of Judah” is so prominent in the ritual as to be most familiar and the Masonic world needs no instruction as to the significance of the paw of the lion. Yet both are often less fully comprehended than their importance warrants. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah has had various interpretations, some of them rather unfair in their attempt to prove a point. No well-informed Freemason thinks that Freemasonry is a Christian organization, any more than it is Jewish or Mohammedan; albeit there are more Christian Masons than Jewish or Mohammedan Masons. To deny that the Lion of the Tribe of Judah refers to Christ, that it means “only” a probable redeemer who would spring from the Tribe of Judah; to try to read into the expression “only” a reference to King Solomon, is to disregard the undoubted fact that in its early stages in England, Freemasonry was not only Christian, but allied to the Church.
The First of the Old Charges makes this very plain:
“But though in Ancient Times Masons were charged in every Country to be of the religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet ‘tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves; that it, to be good men and true, or Men of Honor and Honesty by whatever Denominations or persuasions they may be Distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes a Center of Union and the Means of conciliating true friendship among persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance.”
Prior to this broad-minded inclusion of men of all religions in Freemasonry, operative Masons were “of the religion of the country, whatever it was.” This was predominately Christian, in England, France and Germany.
Judah was symbolized as a lion in his father’s death bed blessing. The lion was upon the standard of the large and powerful tribe of Judah. “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” was one of Solomon’s titles. But Christian interpretation of the phrase springs from Revelations (V. 5(, “Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof.”
The idea of a resurrection is curiously interwoven with the lion “in all ages” to quote the familiar phrase. In the twelfth century one Philip de Thaun states: “Know that the lioness, if she bring forth a dead cub, she holds her cub and the lion arrives; he goes about and cries, till it revives on the third day.” The rest of the quotation ascribes a wholly Christian interpretation to the ancient legend.
Another writer of the middle ages has it:
Thus the strong lion of Judah The gates of cruel death being broken Arose on the third day At the loud sounding voice of the father.
more
https://www.masonicworld.com/education/files/artoct02/menagerie_of_masonry.htm