Hiram or Hiram, King of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff, the craftsman whom that King had sent to Solomon for the beautification of the Great Temple. Hiram, the architect, was the son of a woman from the tribe of Dan and a Tyrian man named Ur, which means “iron forger”, according to the biblical account in II Chronicles, 10; or the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, as reported in I Kings, 7:13. The name Hiram can be translated as “High Life”.
Widow’s son is a nickname commonly applied to Freemasons. In this case, the widow is Freemasonry itself, as an institution, since its founder, Hiram Abiff, was murdered. Thus, his Freemason sons would be fatherless. This, of course, is an allegory, and it is not the only inspiration for this curious expression.
In fact, this expression is quite old. It was already used in ancient Initiations, especially in the Egyptian Mysteries. Children of the Widow were all those who were initiated into the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris, because Isis was the widowed wife of the god Osiris, killed by his envious brother Seth.
In the Gnostic tradition, however, there is a legend originating from the Cainite sect, according to which the famous Queen of Sheba, Barcis, when she visited the kingdom of Israel, at the time of Solomon, did not fall in love with the famous and wise king, as tradition claims, but rather with the architect of the Temple, Hiram Abiff. The romance between the two resulted in a son. This boy was born after the murder of the master by the Jubelos, which is why this son of the greatest Freemason in the world was called “the widow’s son”. This legend was even the subject of an opera composed by Gerard de Nerval, which apparently was never performed.
The expression allows for the development of a symbolism rich in meaning and spiritualist Freemasons knew how to use it very well. In the tradition of Freemasonry, the Widow’s Son serves both to designate the “orphaned” Templars in relation to the extinction of their Order and the death of their “father”, Grand Master Jacques de Molay, and to the supporters of the Stuarts in relation to the death of their King Charles I, beheaded by order of the English Parliament.
The king’s widow is said to have organized the resistance, with the majority of her supporters being Freemasons. Incidentally, it was the Stuartists who had taken refuge in France who developed most of the degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Therefore, Widow’s Son is a nickname commonly applied to Freemasons. Widow, in this case it is Freemasonry itself, as an institution, since its founder, Hiram Abiff was murdered. In this way, its children, Freemasons would be fatherless. This, of course, is an allegory, and it is not the only inspiration for this curious expression.
