Endowment

A ritual instituted by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois that was later finalized by Brigham Young. It presents a symbolic account of the creation of the world, including Adam and Eve. The ritual uses Adam and Eve to portray the mortal experience of every man and woman. The ritual takes initiates to converse with the Lord through a veil, preliminary to entering into His presence. The Lord questions the initiates to determine if they obeyed, sacrificed, were chaste, and consecrated their lives. After appropriate answers are given to the Lord, they are permitted to enter into His presence. A reduced version of the ceremony is still presented in LDS temples.¹ The ceremonial ritual was to be housed in a temple still under construction at the time Joseph Smith was killed. The temple rites he restored in Nauvoo, Illinois reaffirmed that God is accessible. The rites claimed that by obedience to God’s commandments, every man and woman could receive further light and knowledge by conversing directly with the Lord through the veil. Joseph wanted God to be at the center of every Christian’s faith. The temple ceremony explained that man could approach God directly and, thereby, avoid being “darkened in their minds by depending” on another man.² Just prior to the crucifixion and after the resurrection, the Lord taught the mysteries of the endowment to his disciples. “The Last Supper was at the Passover, and Jesus associated his doings there with the rites of the temple. ‘Since I am going to prepare a place for you,’ he told the disciples, ‘it is proper for me to tell you about it. In my Father’s House (the temple) are many monai (places where one stops on passing through, the hekhalot of the temple or chambers of the temple). And having prepared a place for you, I will come back and be your paralemptor (the technical term for one who guides one through the mysteries — a prompter at the veil [the Keeper of the Gate]), so that you can be where I am, you know the path I am taking.’”³ “The best account of the endowment is found in the Joseph Smith Papyrus XI, the Book of Breathings. The key to the endowment is the eternal progression of the pilgrim from one state of blessedness to another. As you approach the camp surrounding the temple, you signify your intent with a reassuring sign, a signum, visible from a distance, calling attention to yourself as Adam does in his prayer and demonstrating your peaceful intent. Upon reaching the gate, you present your token, a tangible object… or a solid handclasp). This serves as a tessera hospitalis [a token of mutual hospitality], admitting one to a closed group or a party….It is presented to the doorkeeper, a herald trained in such matters: ‘The Holy One of Israel is the Keeper of the Gate, and he employs no servant there!’ Most important, ‘he cannot be deceived.’ The token recognized, you pronounce your name to the doorkeeper in a low voice, a whisper, for it is a special name agreed on between you and your host and should not be picked up and used by anyone else. There is a famous Egyptian story about how Isis tried to get her true name from Re so that she could give it to her son [Horus] along with the priesthood. So, we have names, signs, and penalties introducing us to the ancient rites of hospitality in the mysteries. But to be at the temple one must first get there. Essential to every endowment is the journey or pilgrimage to reach the place. Moreover, once one has arrived the traveling continues, for the passage through the temple from room to room, level to level, and ordinance to ordinance is a true rite of passage. Throughout the world the candidate begins on his arrival by removing his dusty clothes, and is bathed, anointed, and dressed in white robes and slippers. Then he receives a new name and proceeds from chamber to chamber of the temple.”⁴See also NAMES, SIGNS, TOKENS.