“To preserve the reputation of the Fraternity unsullied must be your constant care.”
Every Master Mason is charged with that great duty. Obviously it means the reputation of the Fraternity before the non-Masonic world. That reputation is one of the greatest assets of Freemasonry; indeed, only by our reputation do we live and grow, since Masons are forbidden to proselyte. No real Mason ever asks a profane to join the Order; the man must seek the Light; not the Light seeking the man.
The reputation of Masonry in the world is that of an Order in which men bind themselves to secrecy; practice charity and brotherhood; do good without self advertising; choose wisely among our petitioners; work a gentle influence upon themselves and their fellows towards right conduct, clean thinking and fine citizenship. Freemasonry has certain contacts with the public; for instance, her Masonic Homes are public in the sense that they stand as monuments to Masonic Charity for all the world to see. The world at large observes us in funeral processions, burying our dead with reverence, honor and ceremonies strange to profane eyes. It watches our Grand Lodges lay the corner stones of public buildings, pouring the ancient sacrifices of corn, wine and oil; dedicating and consecrating (if it is a church) the building to its uses. It sees us occasionally attend Divine services in a body. It can obtain beautiful books about Freemasonry, from which it can learn of the fundamental principles which underlie the Order.
But “the secrets of Freemasonry are safely lodged in the repository of faithful breasts.”
Some Masons consider certain matters as “secrets” which are not so, in fact, even though they are not the subject of common talk or vain boast. It is no “secret” that Freemasonry teaches and inculcates, in so far as her power lies, those principles of law, order, morals, citizenship, fear and love of God which make for the highest type of manhood.
The non-secret teachings of the three degrees are briefly as follows:
In the Entered Apprentice Degree the initiate is taught the necessity of a belief in God; of charity towards all mankind, and especially a brother Mason; of secrecy; of the meaning of brotherly love; the reasons for relief; the greatness of truth; the advantages of temperance; the value of fortitude; the part played in Masonic life by prudence and the equality of strict justice. He is charged to inculcate the three great duties; to be reverent before God, to pray to Him for help, to venerate Him as the source of all that is good. He is exhorted to practice the Golden Rule and to avoid excesses of all kinds. He is admonished to be quiet and peaceable, not to countenance disloyalty and rebellion, to be true and just to government and country and to be cheerful under its laws. He is charged to come often to lodge but not to neglect his business, not to argue about Freemasonry with the ignorant but to learn Masonry from Masons, and once again, to be secret. Finally he is urged to present only such candidates as he is sure will agree to all that he has agreed to.
In the Fellowcraft Degree he argues that he will be secret regarding that which must be kept secret; that he will obey the by-laws of his own lodge; and the laws, rules, regulations and edicts of his Grand Lodge; to answer proper summons; is again reminded of his duty as a Mason in charity and relief. He agrees that a good Mason is an honest and upright man. He is taught the importance of the seventh day and the advantages of learning in general are placed before him, with especial reference to the science of geometry. Emphasis is again placed upon a reverent attitude before Deity. Then he is charged with the need for balanced judgment; is exhorted to study the seven liberal arts and is shown that geometry is not only a mathematical and Masonic science, but also a moral one. Regular behavior is impressed upon him, as well as “the practice of all commendable virtues.”
In the Master Mason Degree all that has gone before is again emphasized, and many additional duties and responsibilities are laid upon the initiate. Science, secrecy, fidelity to trust, courage, resignation and sacrifice are taught in the great drama. His obligations are extended; his brotherly relations with his fellows are more clearly and strictly defined. Her is taught the need for willing service; that prayer is not only for the petitioner; that he must be worthy of confidence; that his strength is not only for himself but for his falling brother; that wisdom in not only for the possessor but should be shared; that a brother has the right to know of approaching disaster.
He is charged to set a good example; to guard others, as well as himself from a breach of fidelity; he must preserve the ancient Landmarks and he must not countenance any changes in our established customs. Secrecy is again emphasized; the dignity of the character of a Master Mason is to be upheld; the faith and confidence of his fellows is put before him as the reward for fidelity and faith. Reducing these great teachings to the least possible number of words and avoiding duplications produces the following list of those matters which a Mason is taught, and to which he promises, either actually or by implication, complete agreement. On these rest the reputation of the Fraternity.
Belief in God, Charity, Secrecy, Brotherly Love Relief Truth, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Reverence, Prayer, Veneration, Golden Rule, Peaceableness, Good Citizenship, Obedience to Masonic Authority, Honesty, Observance of the Sabbath, Education, Judgment, Fidelity to Trust, Courage, Resignation, Self Sacrifice, Service to Others, Trustworthiness to Confidence, Sharing Strength and Wisdom, Setting a Good Example, Preservation of the Ancient Landmarks, Faith, and Dignity.
If “every” Freemason lived up to “all” these teachings, what an Utopia the world would be!
But what is remarkable is not how many Masons fail, but how many succeed! That they do succeed is evidenced by the reputation of the Fraternity in Non-Masonic circles. Were Masons as a class false to their teachings, lax in their conduct, forsworn as to their obligations; Freemasonry would not posses the fair reputation she has:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with every mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
If the Man of Galilee was content to reduce “all the law” to fifty-three words, surely Freemasonry might formulate an equally short statement of her aims and purposes. But while “all the law” may be put into a few words, many thousand words of New Testament are needed to explain the teachings of Christianity.
Men learn by repetition. They absorb that which is told to them, and retold, and told once more. Freemasonry but follows the ancient manner of teaching when she iterates and reiterates the duties of a Mason towards his God, his neighbor and himself. But because Freemasonry teaches by repetition, her detailed reiteration makes possible many ways in which a Mason may offend. If he does not actively break a rule, he may fail as a Mason merely by a negative attitude. To fail to do good is not necessarily to do evil, but neither is a failure to work mischief necessarily a doing of good works! It is expected of men that they will fail, otherwise they are not men, but Gods! If no man ever failed, Freemasonry would be unnecessary. When a building is completed, the workmen depart. When the House Not Made With Hands is perfectly erected, the Craft is no more use.
It is one thing to fail in any Masonic duty; it is another to fail so publicly that the reputation of the Fraternity is hurt - that reputation of which we are taught that its preservation is of vital importance. Occasionally, more’s the pity, it is necessary for a Masonic organization to take practical steps in regard to some brother who has failed to live up to the Masonic teachings. Masons are only men who have solemnly agreed to do certain things; sometimes they are foresworn. Sometimes our committees do not do their work aright and we are given cracked stones to work upon. Sometimes a good man changes as he grows older, and even the sweet and gentle influence of the Craft cannot hold him in the straight and narrow way.
The lodge in which someone holds membership may well be advised to do little rather than much. There are times when something must be done; when the reputation of which we think so much is hurt by failure to do. Then we have all the misery and pain of a Masonic trial; the sad washing of dirty linen in the lodge; the grief of seeing our good and great Order dragged to some extent into public notice; when ever a Mason receives the worst Masonic penalty - expulsion, or Masonic death - the world at large usually hears of it. Few are the Masons who have no friends! Hence a Masonic trial is very apt to create tense feelings in a lodge, if not worse, and the harmony which is “the strength and support of all well regulated institutions” is made into a discord.
However, it cannot always be helped! - “But in a great many cases it can be helped!”
It is human to want to “get even.” Our brother wrongs us; it is only natural to wish him taken before the bar of lodge opinion, and, perhaps, punish him for his infraction of his obligation. Brethren often see no further than the immediate present; the immediate wrong doing; the immediate lodge trial and its results. A word of wise caution may make him look further. No man, unless suffering wrong of the most grievous character, but may be caused to stop and think by reminding him of the many obligations and duties he assumed when he, too, became a Mason. Let all such be asked, gently, kindly, considerately but pointedly - “will this action you propose benefit you as much as it will injure the lodge and the Fraternity? Will the results, inevitably to some extent public, do more harm to that reputation which we cherish than they will good to you? Is it not possible that our erring brother may be brought to make amends by less drastic means than the sad lodge trial?
Let no brother retort “but it should not become public!” Agreed, a lodge trial should never be a public matter. But while we hold our own Mystic Tie, and the cord of secrecy is tight about our lips, we do not hold relations and friends in the same manner. John Smith is tried and suspended, perhaps expelled. He no longer goes to lodge. People want to know why. In self defense he says what he can - but what can he say? Inevitably the result of the trial becomes public. Then we suffer.
At times it is necessary to stand pain to get rid of a cancer. But the best surgeon does not use a knife until all other means fail. That lodge, that Master and those brethren who seek to compose differences, win the erring back to the path their feet should never have left, do a real service to their lodge, to their offended brother, to their erring brother and to the Fraternity whose reputation “should be our constant care.”
To whisper good counsel in the ear of an erring brother is sound Masonic teaching. To prevent tarnishing the reputation of the Fraternity we must not only endeavor to live up to the high level of our teachings, but strive to help our brethren do likewise. The best way, the brotherly way, the way of Freemasonry is by kindly caution, the friendly word of admonition, the hand stretched out to assist and save the worthy falling brother.
Only when these fail - and never then until after thinking first of the Order, next of the lodge and last of self - should we go to the court of last resort, prefer charges, have a trial and do ourselves the injury which comes always from the knife of publicity in the body of our Ancient Craft.
Freemasonry - so we truly believe - is one of God’s bright tools for shaping of the rough ashlars which we are.
“LET US STRIVE TO KEEP IT BRIGHT!”
From: SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.VIII April, 1930 No.4 [Author unknown]
Friday, August 23, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Brotherly Love
For many years Freemasons have followed three great principles:
Brotherly Love - Every true Freemason will show tolerance and respect for the opinions of others and behave with kindness and understanding to his fellow creatures.
Relief - Freemasons are taught to practise charity and to care, not only for their own, but also for the community as a whole, both by charitable giving, and by voluntary efforts and works as individuals.
Truth - Freemasons strive for truth, requiring high moral standards and aiming to achieve them in their own lives.
Freemasons believe that these principles represent a way of achieving higher standards in life.
It can be seen from the Grand Lodge’s own web site that the Principle of brotherly love cannot mean preferential or special treatment that one freemason must give to another.
Otherwise it would not state ‘tolerance and respect for the opinions of others and behave with kindness and understanding to his fellow creatures but would state tolerance and respect for the opinions of only its own members and behave with kindness and understanding to only fellow members.
This is further reinforced by the following statement from Grand Lodge:
Q. Are Freemasons expected to prefer fellow Masons at the expense of others in giving jobs, promotions, contracts and the like?
A. Absolutely not. That would be a misuse of membership and subject to Masonic discipline. On his entry into Freemasonry each candidate states unequivocally that he expects no material gain from his membership. At various stages during the three ceremonies of his admission and when he is presented with a certificate from Grand Lodge that the admission ceremonies have been completed, he is forcefully reminded that attempts to gain preferment or material gain for himself or others is a misuse of membership which will not be tolerated. The Book of Constitutions, which every candidate receives, contains strict rules governing abuse of membership which can result in penalties varying from temporary suspension to expulsion.
Q. Isn't it true that Freemasons only look after each other?
A. No. From its earliest days, Freemasonry has been involved in charitable activities. Since its inception, Freemasonry has provided support not only for widows and orphans of Freemasons but also for many others within the community. Whilst some Masonic charities cater specifically but not exclusively for Masons or their dependents, others make significant grants to non-Masonic organisations. On a local level, lodges give substantial support to local causes.
Surely, it cannot be that we should give each other special treatment because we are brothers of the fraternity? In this regards, I reproduce another page from the web-page of Grand Lodge:
The principles of Freemasonry do not in any way conflict with its members' duties as citizens, whether at work or at home or in public life, but on the contrary should strengthen them in fulfilling their public and private responsibilities. Thus there is no conflict of interest between a Freemason's obligation and his public duty.
If an actual or potential conflict of duties or interests is known to exist or is foreseen, a declaration to that effect should be made.
It may on occasions be prudent to disclose membership to avoid what others mistakenly imagine to be a potential conflict or bias, but this must be a matter for individual judgement.
A Freemason must not use his membership to promote his own or anyone else's business, professional or personal interests. This is made clear directly or by inference several times during a Freemason's early career so that no Freemason can pretend to be ignorant of it. A Freemason who transgresses this rule may be suspended from Masonic activities or even expelled.
Therefore, ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ cannot mean that we should forgive a brother who has acted wrongly if in the same circumstances, we would not forgive a non-brother nor does it mean we should give a business deal to a brother where in the same circumstances, we would not have given it to a non-bother, i.e., NO PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT.
WHAT DOES ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ MEAN?
The word ‘BROTHERLY’ is defined:
‘Characteristic of or befitting brother; fraternal’
So taken in context, the phrase ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ would mean the love of the ‘characteristic of or befitting brother’. This ‘characteristic of or befitting brother’ only arises by virtue of Freemasonry which creates the brotherhood or the fraternity.
This is supported by the ceremony of initiation when the candidate is told that the fraternity is honourable, brethren should respect, honour and obey the fraternity, brethren should place the interests of the fraternity above those of himself.
Taken in this context, the meaning of ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ means, that we are taught to love ‘Freemasonry’ which has as its precepts moral and social virtues.
Freemasons are taught as one of the Grand Principles to love all moral and social virtues which include
‘show tolerance and respect for the opinions of others and behave with kindness and understanding to his fellow creatures.’
Which is why during his initiation he is asked;
Does the candidate has a ‘favourable opinion pre-conceived of the Institution? (BROTHERLY LOVE)
Does the candidate have a general desire of knowledge? (TRUTH)
Does the candidate have a sincere wish to render service to fellow creatures? (RELIEF).
------------------------------------ Source: Excerpts from a Paper Presented in Lodge St. Michael No. 2933
by W Bro Christopher Bridges,
P.M. Lodge St. Patrick No. 765 I.C.
Junior Warden The Lodge St. Michael No. 2933
Brotherly Love - Every true Freemason will show tolerance and respect for the opinions of others and behave with kindness and understanding to his fellow creatures.
Relief - Freemasons are taught to practise charity and to care, not only for their own, but also for the community as a whole, both by charitable giving, and by voluntary efforts and works as individuals.
Truth - Freemasons strive for truth, requiring high moral standards and aiming to achieve them in their own lives.
Freemasons believe that these principles represent a way of achieving higher standards in life.
It can be seen from the Grand Lodge’s own web site that the Principle of brotherly love cannot mean preferential or special treatment that one freemason must give to another.
Otherwise it would not state ‘tolerance and respect for the opinions of others and behave with kindness and understanding to his fellow creatures but would state tolerance and respect for the opinions of only its own members and behave with kindness and understanding to only fellow members.
This is further reinforced by the following statement from Grand Lodge:
Q. Are Freemasons expected to prefer fellow Masons at the expense of others in giving jobs, promotions, contracts and the like?
A. Absolutely not. That would be a misuse of membership and subject to Masonic discipline. On his entry into Freemasonry each candidate states unequivocally that he expects no material gain from his membership. At various stages during the three ceremonies of his admission and when he is presented with a certificate from Grand Lodge that the admission ceremonies have been completed, he is forcefully reminded that attempts to gain preferment or material gain for himself or others is a misuse of membership which will not be tolerated. The Book of Constitutions, which every candidate receives, contains strict rules governing abuse of membership which can result in penalties varying from temporary suspension to expulsion.
Q. Isn't it true that Freemasons only look after each other?
A. No. From its earliest days, Freemasonry has been involved in charitable activities. Since its inception, Freemasonry has provided support not only for widows and orphans of Freemasons but also for many others within the community. Whilst some Masonic charities cater specifically but not exclusively for Masons or their dependents, others make significant grants to non-Masonic organisations. On a local level, lodges give substantial support to local causes.
Surely, it cannot be that we should give each other special treatment because we are brothers of the fraternity? In this regards, I reproduce another page from the web-page of Grand Lodge:
The principles of Freemasonry do not in any way conflict with its members' duties as citizens, whether at work or at home or in public life, but on the contrary should strengthen them in fulfilling their public and private responsibilities. Thus there is no conflict of interest between a Freemason's obligation and his public duty.
If an actual or potential conflict of duties or interests is known to exist or is foreseen, a declaration to that effect should be made.
It may on occasions be prudent to disclose membership to avoid what others mistakenly imagine to be a potential conflict or bias, but this must be a matter for individual judgement.
A Freemason must not use his membership to promote his own or anyone else's business, professional or personal interests. This is made clear directly or by inference several times during a Freemason's early career so that no Freemason can pretend to be ignorant of it. A Freemason who transgresses this rule may be suspended from Masonic activities or even expelled.
Therefore, ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ cannot mean that we should forgive a brother who has acted wrongly if in the same circumstances, we would not forgive a non-brother nor does it mean we should give a business deal to a brother where in the same circumstances, we would not have given it to a non-bother, i.e., NO PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT.
WHAT DOES ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ MEAN?
The word ‘BROTHERLY’ is defined:
‘Characteristic of or befitting brother; fraternal’
So taken in context, the phrase ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ would mean the love of the ‘characteristic of or befitting brother’. This ‘characteristic of or befitting brother’ only arises by virtue of Freemasonry which creates the brotherhood or the fraternity.
This is supported by the ceremony of initiation when the candidate is told that the fraternity is honourable, brethren should respect, honour and obey the fraternity, brethren should place the interests of the fraternity above those of himself.
Taken in this context, the meaning of ‘BROTHERLY LOVE’ means, that we are taught to love ‘Freemasonry’ which has as its precepts moral and social virtues.
Freemasons are taught as one of the Grand Principles to love all moral and social virtues which include
‘show tolerance and respect for the opinions of others and behave with kindness and understanding to his fellow creatures.’
Which is why during his initiation he is asked;
Does the candidate has a ‘favourable opinion pre-conceived of the Institution? (BROTHERLY LOVE)
Does the candidate have a general desire of knowledge? (TRUTH)
Does the candidate have a sincere wish to render service to fellow creatures? (RELIEF).
------------------------------------ Source: Excerpts from a Paper Presented in Lodge St. Michael No. 2933
by W Bro Christopher Bridges,
P.M. Lodge St. Patrick No. 765 I.C.
Junior Warden The Lodge St. Michael No. 2933
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
The Five Points of Fellowship by Rev G Oliver
The five points of fellowship were thus illustrated in the lectures used by the Athol Masons of the last century:
1. When the necessities of a brother call for my support, I will be ever ready to lend him a helping hand to save him from sinking, if I find him worthy thereof.
2. Indolence shall not cause my footsteps to halt, nor wrath to turn them aside; but, forgetting every selfish consideration, I will be ever swift of foot to save, help, and execute benevolence to a fellow-creature in distress, but more particularly to a brother Mason.
3. When I offer up my ejaculations to Almighty God, I will remember my brother's welfare, even as my own; for as the voice of babes and sucklings ascends to the throne of grace, so, most assuredly, will the breathings of a fervent heart ascend to the mansions of bliss.
4. A brother's secret, delivered to me as such, I will keep as I would my own, because, if I betray the trust which has been reposed in me, I might do him an irreparable injury; it would be like the villany of an assassin, who lurks in darkness to stab his adversary when unarmed and least prepared to meet an enemy.
5. A brother's character I will support in his absence, as I would in his presence. I will not revile him myself, nor suffer it to be done by others, if it is in my power to prevent it.
Thus, by the five points of fellowship, we are linked together in one indivisible chain of sincere affection, brotherly love, relief, and truth.
1. When the necessities of a brother call for my support, I will be ever ready to lend him a helping hand to save him from sinking, if I find him worthy thereof.
2. Indolence shall not cause my footsteps to halt, nor wrath to turn them aside; but, forgetting every selfish consideration, I will be ever swift of foot to save, help, and execute benevolence to a fellow-creature in distress, but more particularly to a brother Mason.
3. When I offer up my ejaculations to Almighty God, I will remember my brother's welfare, even as my own; for as the voice of babes and sucklings ascends to the throne of grace, so, most assuredly, will the breathings of a fervent heart ascend to the mansions of bliss.
4. A brother's secret, delivered to me as such, I will keep as I would my own, because, if I betray the trust which has been reposed in me, I might do him an irreparable injury; it would be like the villany of an assassin, who lurks in darkness to stab his adversary when unarmed and least prepared to meet an enemy.
5. A brother's character I will support in his absence, as I would in his presence. I will not revile him myself, nor suffer it to be done by others, if it is in my power to prevent it.
Thus, by the five points of fellowship, we are linked together in one indivisible chain of sincere affection, brotherly love, relief, and truth.
Monday, July 22, 2013
The Lost Keys of Freemasonry
Freemasonry, though not a religion, is essentially religious. Most of its legends and allegories are of a sacred nature; much of it is woven into the structure of Christianity.
We have learned to consider our own religion as the only inspired one, and this probably accounts for much of the misunderstanding in the world today concerning the place occupied by Freemasonry in the spiritual ethics of our race.
A religion is a divinely inspired code of morals. A religious person is one inspired to nobler living by this code. He is identified by the code which is his source of illumination. Thus we may say that a Christian is one who receives his spiritual ideals of right and wrong from the message of the Christ, while a Buddhist is one who molds his life into the archetype of morality given by the great Gautama, or one of the other Buddhas.
All doctrines which seek to unfold and preserve that invisible spark in man named Spirit, are said to be spiritual. Those which ignore this invisible element and concent rate entirely upon the visible are said to be material.
There is in religion - a wonderful point of balance, where the materialist and spiritist meet on the plane of logic and reason. Science and theology are two ends of a single truth, but the world will never receive the full benefit of their investigations until they have made peace with each other, and labor hand in hand for the accomplishment of the great work – the liberation of spirit and intelligence from the three-dimensional prison-house of ignorance, superstition, and fear.
That which gives man a knowledge of himself can be inspired only by the Self – and God is the Self in all things. In truth, He is the inspiration and the thing inspired. It has been stated in Scripture that God was the Word and that the Word was made flesh. Man’s task now is to make flesh reflect the glory of that Word, which is within the soul of himself. It is this task which has created the need of religion – not one faith alone but many creeds, each searching in its own way, each meeting the needs of individual people, each emphasizing one point above all the others.
http://www.manlyphall.org/text/the-lost-keys-of-freemasonry/
A Foreword to The Lost Keys of Freemasonry
A FOREWORD
By REYNOLD E. BLIGHT, 33 degree, K. T.
Reality forever eludes us. Infinity mocks our puny efforts to imprison it in definition and dogma. Our most splendid realizations are only adumbrations of the Light. In his endeavors, man is but a mollusk seeking to encompass the ocean.
Yet man may not cease his struggle to find God. There is a yearning in his soul that will not let him rest, an urge that compels him to attempt the impossible, to attain the unattainable. He lifts feeble hands to grasp the stars and despite a million years of failure and millenniums of disappointment, the soul of man springs heavenward with even greater avidity than when the race was young.
He pursues, even though the flying ideal eternally slips from his embrace. Even though he never clasps the goddess of his dreams, he refuses to believe that she is a phantom. To him she is the only reality. He reaches upward and will not be content until the sword of Orion is in his hands, and glorious Arcturus glearns from his breast.
Man is Parsifal searching for the Sacred Cup; Sir Launfal adventuring for the Holy Grail. Life is a divine adventure, a splendid quest.
Language falls. Words are mere cyphers, and who can read the riddle? These words we use, what are they but vain shadows of form and sense? We strive to clothe our highest thought with verbal trappings that our brother may see and understand; and when we would describe a saint he sees a demon; and when we would present a wise man he beholds a fool. “Fie upon you,” he cries; “thou, too, art a fool.” So wisdom drapes her truth with symbolism, and covers her insight with allegory. Creeds, rituals, poems are parables and symbols. The ignorant take them literally and build for themselves prison houses of words and with bitter speech and bitterer taunt denounce those who will not join them in the dungeon. Before the rapt vision of the seer, dogma and ceremony, legend and trope dissolve and fade, and he sees behind the fact the truth, behind the symbol the Reality.
Through the shadow shines ever the Perfect Light.
What is a Mason? He is a man who in his heart has been duly and truly prepared, has been found worthy and well qualified, has been admitted to the fraternity of builders, been invested with certain passwords and signs by which he may be enabled to work and receive wages as a Master Mason, and travel in foreign lands in search of that which was lost – The Word.
Down through the misty vistas of the ages rings a clarion declaration and although the very heavens echo to the reverberations, but few hear and fewer understand: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
Here then is the eternal paradox. The Word is lost yet it is ever with us. The light that illumines the distant horizon shines in our hearts. “Thou wouldist not seek me hadst thou not found me.” We travel afar only to find that which we hunger for at home.
And as Victor Hugo says: “The thirst for the Infinite proves infinity.”
That which we seek lives in our souls.
This, the unspeakable truth, the unutterable perfection, the author has set before us in these pages. Not a Mason himself, he has read the deeper meaning of the ritual. Not having assumed the formal obligations, he calls upon all mankind to enter into the holy of holies. Not initiated into the physical craft, he declares the secret doctrine that all may hear. With vivid allegory and profound philosophical disquisition he expounds the sublime teachings of Freemasonry, older than all religions, as universal as human aspiration.
It is well. Blessed are the eyes that see, and the ears that hear, and the heart that understands.
http://www.manlyphall.org/text/the-lost-keys-of-freemasonry/
By REYNOLD E. BLIGHT, 33 degree, K. T.
Reality forever eludes us. Infinity mocks our puny efforts to imprison it in definition and dogma. Our most splendid realizations are only adumbrations of the Light. In his endeavors, man is but a mollusk seeking to encompass the ocean.
Yet man may not cease his struggle to find God. There is a yearning in his soul that will not let him rest, an urge that compels him to attempt the impossible, to attain the unattainable. He lifts feeble hands to grasp the stars and despite a million years of failure and millenniums of disappointment, the soul of man springs heavenward with even greater avidity than when the race was young.
He pursues, even though the flying ideal eternally slips from his embrace. Even though he never clasps the goddess of his dreams, he refuses to believe that she is a phantom. To him she is the only reality. He reaches upward and will not be content until the sword of Orion is in his hands, and glorious Arcturus glearns from his breast.
Man is Parsifal searching for the Sacred Cup; Sir Launfal adventuring for the Holy Grail. Life is a divine adventure, a splendid quest.
Language falls. Words are mere cyphers, and who can read the riddle? These words we use, what are they but vain shadows of form and sense? We strive to clothe our highest thought with verbal trappings that our brother may see and understand; and when we would describe a saint he sees a demon; and when we would present a wise man he beholds a fool. “Fie upon you,” he cries; “thou, too, art a fool.” So wisdom drapes her truth with symbolism, and covers her insight with allegory. Creeds, rituals, poems are parables and symbols. The ignorant take them literally and build for themselves prison houses of words and with bitter speech and bitterer taunt denounce those who will not join them in the dungeon. Before the rapt vision of the seer, dogma and ceremony, legend and trope dissolve and fade, and he sees behind the fact the truth, behind the symbol the Reality.
Through the shadow shines ever the Perfect Light.
What is a Mason? He is a man who in his heart has been duly and truly prepared, has been found worthy and well qualified, has been admitted to the fraternity of builders, been invested with certain passwords and signs by which he may be enabled to work and receive wages as a Master Mason, and travel in foreign lands in search of that which was lost – The Word.
Down through the misty vistas of the ages rings a clarion declaration and although the very heavens echo to the reverberations, but few hear and fewer understand: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
Here then is the eternal paradox. The Word is lost yet it is ever with us. The light that illumines the distant horizon shines in our hearts. “Thou wouldist not seek me hadst thou not found me.” We travel afar only to find that which we hunger for at home.
And as Victor Hugo says: “The thirst for the Infinite proves infinity.”
That which we seek lives in our souls.
This, the unspeakable truth, the unutterable perfection, the author has set before us in these pages. Not a Mason himself, he has read the deeper meaning of the ritual. Not having assumed the formal obligations, he calls upon all mankind to enter into the holy of holies. Not initiated into the physical craft, he declares the secret doctrine that all may hear. With vivid allegory and profound philosophical disquisition he expounds the sublime teachings of Freemasonry, older than all religions, as universal as human aspiration.
It is well. Blessed are the eyes that see, and the ears that hear, and the heart that understands.
http://www.manlyphall.org/text/the-lost-keys-of-freemasonry/
Monday, June 3, 2013
Light
Light is an important word in the Masonic system. It conveys a far more recondite meaning than it is believed to possess by the generality of readers. It is in fact the first of all the symbols presented to the neophyte, and continues to be presented to him in various modifications throughout all his future progress in his Masonic career. It does not simply mean, as might be supposed, truth or Sodom, but it contains within itself a far more abstruse allusion to the very essence of Speculative Freemasonry, and embraces within its capacious signification all the other symbols of the Order. Freemasons are emphatically called the Sons of Light, because they are, or at least are entitled to be, in possession of the true meaning of the symbol; while the profane or uninitiated who have not received this knowledge are, by a parity of expression, said to be in darkness.
In 100 Words In Masonry: “A candidate is “brought to light.” “Let there be light” is the motto of the Craft. It is one of the key words of Masonry. It is very ancient, harking back to the Sanskrit ruc, meaning shine. The Greeks had luk, preserved in many English words, especially such as have leuco in their make-up, as in “leucocyte,” a white blood corpuscle. The Latins had luc or lux in various forms, whence our light, lucid, luminous, illumine, lunar, lightning, etc. The word means bright, clear, shining, and is associated in its use with the sun, moon, fire, etc. By an inevitable association the word came into metaphorical use to mean the coming of truth and knowledge into the mind. ‘When a candidate ceases to be ignorant of Masonry, when through initiation the truths of Masonry have found entrance into his mind, he is said to be “enlightened” in the Masonic sense.”
The connection of material light with this emblematic and mental illumination, was prominently exhibited in all the ancient systems of religion and esoteric mysteries. Among the Egyptians, the hare was the hieroglyphic of eyes that are open, because that animal was supposed to have his eyes always open.
The priests afterward adopted the hare as the symbol of the moral illumination revealed to the neophytes in the contemplation of the Divine Truth, and hence, according to Champollion, it was also the symbol of Osiris, their principal divinity, and the chief object of their mystic rites thus showing the intimate connection that they maintained in their symbolic language between the process of initiation and the contemplation of divinity. On this subject a remarkable coincidence has been pointed out by Baron Portal (Les Symboles des Egyptiens, 69) in the Hebrew language. There the word for hare is arnebet, which seems to be compounded of aur, tight, and nabat, to see; so that the word which among the Egyptians was used to designate an initiation, among the Hebrews meant to see the light.
If we proceed to an examination of the other systems of religion which were practiced by the nations of antiquity, we shall find that light always constituted a principal object of adoration, as the primordial source of knowledge and goodness, and that darkness was with them synonymous with ignorance and evil.
Doctor Beard (Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature), attributes this view of the Divine origin of light among the Eastern nations, to the fact that:
Light in the East has a clearness and brilliancy, is accompanied by an intensity of heat, and is followed in its influence by a largeness of good, of which the inhabitants of less genial climates have no conception.
Light easily and naturally became, in consequence, with Orientals, a representative of the highest human good. All the more joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations of the frame all the happy hours of domestic intercourse, were described under imagery derived from light. The transition was natural from earthly to heavenly, from corporeal to spiritual things; and so light came to typify true religion and the felicity which it imparts. But as light not only came from God but also makes man's way clear before him, so it was employed to signify moral truth and pre-eminently that divine system of truth which is set forth in the Bible, from its earliest gleamings onward to the perfect day of the Great Sun of Righteousness.
As light was thus adored as the source of goodness, darkness, which is the negation of light, was abhorred as the cause of evil, and hence arose that doctrine which prevailed among the ancients, that there were two antagonistic principles continually contending for the government of the world. Duncan (Religion of Profane Antiquity, page 187) says:
Light is a source of positive happiness: without it man could barely exist. And since all religious opinion is based on the ideas of pleasure and pain, and the corresponding sensations of hope and fear, it is not to be wondered if the heathen reverenced light. Darkness, on the contrary, by re-plunging nature, as it were, into a state of nothingness, and depriving man of the pleasurable emotions conveyed through the organ of sight, was ever held in abhorrence, as a source of misery and fear. The two opposite conditions in which man thus found himself placed, occasioned by the enjoyment or the banishment of light, induced him to imagine the existence of two antagonistic principles in nature, to whose dominion he was alternately subjected.
Such was the dogma of Zoroaster, the great Persian philosopher, who, under the names of Ormuzd and Ahriman, symbolized these two principles of light and darkness. Such was also the doctrine, though somewhat modified, of Manes, the founder of the sect of Manichees, who describes God the Father as ruling over the kingdom of light and contending with the powers of darkness. Pythagoras also maintained his doctrine of two antagonistic principles. He called the one, unity, light, the right hand, equality, stability, and a straight line; the other he named binary, darkness, the left hand, inequality, instability, and a curved line. Of the colors, he attributed white to the good principle, and black to the evil one.
The Jewish Cabalists believed that, before the creation of the world, all space was filled with the Infinite Intellectual Light, which afterward withdrew itself to an equal distance from a central point in space, and afterward by its emanation produced future worlds. The first emanation of this surrounding light into the abyss of darkness produced what they called the Adam Kadmon, the first man, or the first production of the Divine energy.
In the Bhagavad-Gita the Book of Devotion, a work purporting to be a dialogue between Krishna, Lord of Devotion, and Arjuna, Prince of India, and one of the religious books of the Brahmans, it is said:
Light and darkness are esteemed the world's eternal ways; he who walketh in the former path returneth not that is, he goeth immediately to bliss; whilst he who walketh in the latter cometh back again upon the earth.
In fact, in all the ancient systems, this reverence for light, as an emblematic representation of the Eternal Principle of Good, is predominant. In the Mysteries, the candidate passed, during his initiation, through scenes of utter darkness, and at length terminated his trials by an admission to the splendidly illuminated sacellurn, [1] the Holy of Holies, where he was said to have attained pure and perfect light, and where he received the necessary instructions which were to invest him with that knowledge of the Divine Truth which had been the object of all his labors.
- Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
1 In ancient Roman religion, a sacellum is a small shrine. The word is a diminutive from sacer ("belonging to a God"). An unroofed space consecrated to a divinity.
In 100 Words In Masonry: “A candidate is “brought to light.” “Let there be light” is the motto of the Craft. It is one of the key words of Masonry. It is very ancient, harking back to the Sanskrit ruc, meaning shine. The Greeks had luk, preserved in many English words, especially such as have leuco in their make-up, as in “leucocyte,” a white blood corpuscle. The Latins had luc or lux in various forms, whence our light, lucid, luminous, illumine, lunar, lightning, etc. The word means bright, clear, shining, and is associated in its use with the sun, moon, fire, etc. By an inevitable association the word came into metaphorical use to mean the coming of truth and knowledge into the mind. ‘When a candidate ceases to be ignorant of Masonry, when through initiation the truths of Masonry have found entrance into his mind, he is said to be “enlightened” in the Masonic sense.”
The connection of material light with this emblematic and mental illumination, was prominently exhibited in all the ancient systems of religion and esoteric mysteries. Among the Egyptians, the hare was the hieroglyphic of eyes that are open, because that animal was supposed to have his eyes always open.
The priests afterward adopted the hare as the symbol of the moral illumination revealed to the neophytes in the contemplation of the Divine Truth, and hence, according to Champollion, it was also the symbol of Osiris, their principal divinity, and the chief object of their mystic rites thus showing the intimate connection that they maintained in their symbolic language between the process of initiation and the contemplation of divinity. On this subject a remarkable coincidence has been pointed out by Baron Portal (Les Symboles des Egyptiens, 69) in the Hebrew language. There the word for hare is arnebet, which seems to be compounded of aur, tight, and nabat, to see; so that the word which among the Egyptians was used to designate an initiation, among the Hebrews meant to see the light.
If we proceed to an examination of the other systems of religion which were practiced by the nations of antiquity, we shall find that light always constituted a principal object of adoration, as the primordial source of knowledge and goodness, and that darkness was with them synonymous with ignorance and evil.
Doctor Beard (Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature), attributes this view of the Divine origin of light among the Eastern nations, to the fact that:
Light in the East has a clearness and brilliancy, is accompanied by an intensity of heat, and is followed in its influence by a largeness of good, of which the inhabitants of less genial climates have no conception.
Light easily and naturally became, in consequence, with Orientals, a representative of the highest human good. All the more joyous emotions of the mind, all the pleasing sensations of the frame all the happy hours of domestic intercourse, were described under imagery derived from light. The transition was natural from earthly to heavenly, from corporeal to spiritual things; and so light came to typify true religion and the felicity which it imparts. But as light not only came from God but also makes man's way clear before him, so it was employed to signify moral truth and pre-eminently that divine system of truth which is set forth in the Bible, from its earliest gleamings onward to the perfect day of the Great Sun of Righteousness.
As light was thus adored as the source of goodness, darkness, which is the negation of light, was abhorred as the cause of evil, and hence arose that doctrine which prevailed among the ancients, that there were two antagonistic principles continually contending for the government of the world. Duncan (Religion of Profane Antiquity, page 187) says:
Light is a source of positive happiness: without it man could barely exist. And since all religious opinion is based on the ideas of pleasure and pain, and the corresponding sensations of hope and fear, it is not to be wondered if the heathen reverenced light. Darkness, on the contrary, by re-plunging nature, as it were, into a state of nothingness, and depriving man of the pleasurable emotions conveyed through the organ of sight, was ever held in abhorrence, as a source of misery and fear. The two opposite conditions in which man thus found himself placed, occasioned by the enjoyment or the banishment of light, induced him to imagine the existence of two antagonistic principles in nature, to whose dominion he was alternately subjected.
Such was the dogma of Zoroaster, the great Persian philosopher, who, under the names of Ormuzd and Ahriman, symbolized these two principles of light and darkness. Such was also the doctrine, though somewhat modified, of Manes, the founder of the sect of Manichees, who describes God the Father as ruling over the kingdom of light and contending with the powers of darkness. Pythagoras also maintained his doctrine of two antagonistic principles. He called the one, unity, light, the right hand, equality, stability, and a straight line; the other he named binary, darkness, the left hand, inequality, instability, and a curved line. Of the colors, he attributed white to the good principle, and black to the evil one.
The Jewish Cabalists believed that, before the creation of the world, all space was filled with the Infinite Intellectual Light, which afterward withdrew itself to an equal distance from a central point in space, and afterward by its emanation produced future worlds. The first emanation of this surrounding light into the abyss of darkness produced what they called the Adam Kadmon, the first man, or the first production of the Divine energy.
In the Bhagavad-Gita the Book of Devotion, a work purporting to be a dialogue between Krishna, Lord of Devotion, and Arjuna, Prince of India, and one of the religious books of the Brahmans, it is said:
Light and darkness are esteemed the world's eternal ways; he who walketh in the former path returneth not that is, he goeth immediately to bliss; whilst he who walketh in the latter cometh back again upon the earth.
In fact, in all the ancient systems, this reverence for light, as an emblematic representation of the Eternal Principle of Good, is predominant. In the Mysteries, the candidate passed, during his initiation, through scenes of utter darkness, and at length terminated his trials by an admission to the splendidly illuminated sacellurn, [1] the Holy of Holies, where he was said to have attained pure and perfect light, and where he received the necessary instructions which were to invest him with that knowledge of the Divine Truth which had been the object of all his labors.
- Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
1 In ancient Roman religion, a sacellum is a small shrine. The word is a diminutive from sacer ("belonging to a God"). An unroofed space consecrated to a divinity.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Masonic Admonition
According to the ethics of Freemasonry, it is made a duty obligatory upon every member of the Order to conceal the faults of a Brother; that is, not to blazon forth his errors and infirmities, to let them be learned by the world from some other tongue than his, and to admonish him of them in private. So there is another but a like duty or obligation, which instincts him to whisper good counsel in his Brother's ear and to warn him of approaching danger. This refers not more to the danger that is without and around him than to that which is within him; not more to the peril that springs from the concealed foe who would waylay him and covertly injure him, than to that deeper peril of those faults and infirmities which lie within his own heart, and which, if not timely crushed by good and earnest resolution of amendment, will, like the ungrateful serpent in the fable, become warm with life only to sting the bosom that has nourished them.
Admonition of a Brother's fault is, then, the duty of every Freemason, and no true one will, for either fear or favor, neglect its performance. But as the duty is Masonic, so is there a Masonic way in which that duty should be discharged. We must admonish not with self-sufficient pride in our own reputed goodness - not in imperious tones, as though we looked down in scorn upon the degree offender ---not in language that, by its hardness, will wound rather than win, will irritate more than it will reform; but with that persuasive gentleness that gains the heart- with the all-subduing influences of "mercy unrestrained"-with the magic' might of love --- with the language and the accents of affection, which mingle grave displeasure for the offense with grief and pity for the offender.
This, and this alone is Masonic admonition. I am not to rebuke my Brother in anger, for I, too, have my faults, and I dare not draw around me the folds of my garment lest they should be polluted by my neighbor's touch; but I am to admonish in private, not before the world, for that would degrade him; and I am to warn him, perhaps from my own example, how vice ever should be followed by sorrow, for that goodly sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance to amendment, and amendment to joy.
From Mackey's Encylopedia of Freemasonry
http://encyclopediaoffreemasonry.com/a/admonition/
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
The Rite of Discalceation
"A candidate for initiation into a Masonic Lodge often finds odd those requirements which he must fulfill in order to do as have all good brothers and fellows who have gone this way before. Indeed, that preparation often remains a puzzle to him, since the ritualistic explanation is only partial. Not only does the newly made brother, bewildered by the new world into which he is thrust, investigate further to ascertain if all was told him which might have been; to learn a still further meaning to the ceremony and symbol which the passage in Ruth purports to make plain.
Those who read the fourth chapter of the immortal Book of Ruth will note especially the seventh and eight verses:
“Now this was the manner in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was a testimony in Israel.
“Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for Thee. So he drew off his shoe.”
“Redeeming” here means the taking back or recovery of land or property pledged for a debt; “changing” refers to the transfer of ownership. As both were then, as now, matters of importance, it is evident that the plucking off of the shoe, as a pledge of honor and fair dealing, was of equal importance, comparable with our swearing to our signatures to documents before a Notary Public, Note that “to confirm all things a man plucked off his shoe. . .” not his “shoes.”
Taking off one and handing it to him with whom a covenant was made was a symbol of sincerity. Removing “both” shoes signified quite another thought.
These are separate and distinct symbols - in Freemasonry both are used - and it is wise to distinguish between the two, not to miss the beautiful implications of entering that place which is holy with both feet bare.
The Rite of Discalceation - from the Latin, “discalceatus,” meaning “unshod” - is worldwide. Freemasonry’s ritual of the entered Apprentice Degree refers to the passage in Ruth. In the Master’s Degree the reference is not verbal but an act which differs in meaning from that in the first degree.
In all probability Freemasonry takes this symbol from other sources than the Old Testament; obviously any system of teaching which is the result of the coming together of a thousand faiths, philosophies, rites, religions, guilds and associations, must have received so common a symbol from more than one source, although the Great Light does contain it. In the Old Testament are several passages which make removal of shoes quite a different gesture than that described in the passage from Ruth.
Exodus (III:5) states: “Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
In Joshua (V:15) we find: “And the Captain of the Lord’s Host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.”
Ecclesiastes (V:1) reads: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.”
The association of the removal of footwear when treading holy ground is a fairly obvious symbol. Sandals or other footgear were used to protect, not the ground, but the feet, both from injury and from filth. To wear such protections in holy places, by inference stated that the holy place was harmful to feet, or was dirty! It is similar in thought-content to the world wide custom of men removing the hat in church. The Knight removed his helmet in the presence of those he did not fear. He was safe in church; the removal of his protection against a blow was his acknowledgment that in a sanctuary not even an enemy would assail him.
We know the custom was wide spread, not confined to Israel; from many sources. Thus, Pythagoras instructed his disciples to “offer sacrifices with thy shoes off.” In all the eastern religious edifices the worshipper removes his shoes in order not to defile the temple with that which touches the profane earth. Maimonides, expounder of ancient Jewish law, says: “It was not lawful for a man to come into the mountain of God’s home with his shoes on his feet, or with his staff, or in his working garments, or with dust on his feet.”
The custom was found in Ethiopia, ancient Peru, the England of the Druids. Adam Clark thought the custom so general in the nations of antiquity that he quoted it as one of the thirteen proofs that the whole human race descended from one family. The Rite of Discalceation becomes the more beautiful as we progress through the degrees. At first it is only a voluntary testimony of sincere and truthful intentions; later it is an act of humility, signifying that he who removes his shoes knows that he enters that which must not be defiled by anything unworthy.
The word “humility” must be strictly construed that it be not confused with its derivative, “humiliation.” He who is “humble” but acknowledges supremacy in another, or the greatness of a power or principle; he who is “humiliated” is made to feel unworthy, not in reverence to that which is greater than he, but for the personal aggrandizement of the humiliator. A man removes his hat upon entering a home, in the presence of women, or in a church, not as a symbol of humility, but of reverence. The worshipper removes his shoes on entering a holy place for the same reason. He who walks “neither barefoot nor shod” offers mute testimony - even though, as yet uninstructed, he knows it not - that he is sincere. Who walks with both feet bare, signifies that he treads upon that which is hallowed.
Freemasonry does not stress in words this meaning of the Rite of Discalceation for very good reasons; throughout our system the explanation of our rites concerns always the simplest aspect. The fathers of our ritual were far too wise in the ways of the hearts of men to teach the abstruse first, and go then to the east. Rather did they begin with that which is elementary; then, very often , our ritual leaves the initiate to search further for himself, if he will. It is Freemasonry’s recognition that man values most that for which he has to labor.
But it is the less stressed meaning of the Rite which is of the greater importance. He is the better Freemason and the happier who digs for himself in the “rubbish of the Temple” to uncover that which is gloriously buried there.
Is proof necessary, that behind the tiled door of any open Lodge is a holy place? Here it is!
Freemasons teach that the Great Light is “dedicated to God, as the inestimable gift of God to men for the rule and guide of his faith . . .”
In the Great Light we read (Matthew XVIII:20) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Every Masonic Lodge is opened and closed in the name of God. According to his promise, therefore, no Lodge meets without the Great Architect being “in the midst of them.”
Consequently, the Lodge is Holy Ground.
This being so, it may well be asked why all Freemasons do to remove their shoes when entering Lodge?
“Once a Freemason, always a Freemason.” No Lodge member is required to repeat the obligations he once assumed, on every occasion at which he is present when a degree is being conferred. But it is well understood that the obligation is binding upon him for life. Every time he follows the old, old words in his mind, he re-obligates himself. Whenever he sees a candidate initiated, consciously or unconsciously he himself is again initiated. Having once been taught that a candidate is prepared in a certain way because of a certain meaning in that preparation, it is unnecessary to inconvenience him every time he comes to Lodge. If he is again so prepared, in his heart, he fulfills all the outward requirements. While the promise and the fulfillment “makes” the Lodge holy ground, it is “kept” holy only if those who form it and conduct it, so revere it. Stone Masons erect a Temple to God, ministers dedicate it and worshippers consecrate it; but a desecrating hand, as in war, may unroof it, use it as stables, or make of it a shambles. Mackey beautifully put the thought of the consecration holiness of a lodge:
“The Rite of Discalceation is a symbol of reverence. It signifies, in the language of symbolism, that the spot which is about to be approached in this humble and reverential manner is consecrated to some holy purpose. Of all the degrees of Freemasonry, the third degree is the most important and sublime. The solemn lessons which it teaches, the sacred scene which it represents, and the impressive ceremonies with which it is conducted, are all calculated to inspire the mind with feelings of awe and reverence. Into the holy of holies of the Temple, when the Ark of the Covenant had been deposited in its appropriate place, and the Shekinah was hovering over it, the high priest alone, and on only one day in the whole year, was permitted, after the most careful purification, to enter with bare feet and to pronounce, with fearful veneration, the tetragammaton or omnific word.
“And into the Master Mason’s Lodge - this holy of holies of the Masonic Temple, where the solemn truths of death and immortality are inculcated - the aspirant on entering should purify his heart from every contamination, and remember, with a due sense of their symbolic application, those words that once broke upon the astonished ears of the old patriarch: ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.’” Holiness is not a thing, but an idea. So far as we know, the beasts of the field reverence no place as holy, for they have no consciousness of God. The sacred words of the Great Light are holy to us for what they teach and mean; because of whence they came. The paper, the leather and the ink which form a Bible are no more holy than the same materials formed into a telephone directory. The stones of which a church is built, the wood from which the pulpit is carved, the metal from which the cross is made are only the familiar stones, trees and minerals used by men for a thousand purposes. The cotton and the dye which form the Star and Stripes are but the fruit of plants.
Book, Temple and Flag are holy to us because of our reverence for the ideas for which they stand. They are holy to us because we make them holy, keep them holy, think of them as holy and cherish them as holy. So must it be with our Lodges. What is a Lodge? A certain number of brethren; a charter or warrant; the Three Great Lights - and an underlying idea, a faith, a belief, a Mystic Tie never seen of men but the stronger for its intangibility. To many the Lodge is the room in the Temple in which brethren meet; walls of stone or wood or plaster; floor of carpet or linoleum; some seats; an Altar . . .and yet, by common consent of all who believe in the power of the spirit which consecrates when the Lodge is formed, holy because of what it means.
The worshipper in eastern lands removes his shoes before he enters his temple as a symbol that he knows his flesh needs no protection from that which it will there touch; a symbol that he brings not within its precincts any filth which might defile it. The Master Mason, symbolically removing his shoes before entering his Lodge, knows that here he will find that holiness which is in the promise of God unto David, the holiness of the Book on the Altar, the very presence of the Great Architect, through whom the Lodge receives the greatest of His Blessing to man - friendship. But also does he symbolically remove his shoes that he may carry nothing “of mineral or metallic nature” (earth is mineral) into the Lodge to defile it, Men can - and some do - defile their Lodges. He who brings within evil or contentious thoughts of his brethren, defiles it. In more than one Jurisdiction in the world the brethren are asked at every meeting if there be any not at peace with their brethren. If such there are, they are required to retire and return not, until their differences are reconciled, literally carrying out the instructions:
“Therefore if thou brings thy gift to the Altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
“Leave there thy gift before the Altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come offer thy gift.: (Matthew V:23-24)
The Mason who comes to Lodge to get something from it, rather than to give something to it, may defile it by that selfish attitude. Men get from Freemasonry by giving.
He who brings pride of place and power to his Lodge, and serves only for the empty honor of title or jewel, defiles that which is holy as surely as did those money changers whom the Great Teacher drove from the Temple.
He who assumes to work in his Lodge, but labors carelessly, in a slovenly manner, to the desecration of ceremonies ancient when his ancestors were not yet born, defiles his Lodge by his tacit assumptions that his convenience is of greater importance than the teachings of Freemasonry.
Alas, that so many symbolically wear shoes in the holy place, by the simple process of thinking little of it, attending it seldom, regarding it but as a club or association of men who meet together to pass the time away! Such brethren may indeed have been entered, passed and raised; but, uninspired, uninterested and unhelped, they leave, seldom or never to return. To such as these the Lodge cannot be holy; therefore charitable thought would argue that their failures cannot defile.
Luckily for us all, the majority of Freemasons who are constant attendants at Lodge - the brethren who do the work, carry the load, attend to the charity, form the committees, put on the degrees, go on foot and out of their way to help, aid and assist - the brethren, in other words, who work for and are content with a Master’s Wages - these “do” keep the Lodge holy; these “do” think of the Three Great Lights upon the Altar as the Sanctum Sanctorum; these “do,” indeed, put off their shoes from off their feet, in humble and thankful knowledge that the place in which they stand in holy ground."
Source: SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI April, 1933 No.4 Author unknown
Those who read the fourth chapter of the immortal Book of Ruth will note especially the seventh and eight verses:
“Now this was the manner in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was a testimony in Israel.
“Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for Thee. So he drew off his shoe.”
“Redeeming” here means the taking back or recovery of land or property pledged for a debt; “changing” refers to the transfer of ownership. As both were then, as now, matters of importance, it is evident that the plucking off of the shoe, as a pledge of honor and fair dealing, was of equal importance, comparable with our swearing to our signatures to documents before a Notary Public, Note that “to confirm all things a man plucked off his shoe. . .” not his “shoes.”
Taking off one and handing it to him with whom a covenant was made was a symbol of sincerity. Removing “both” shoes signified quite another thought.
These are separate and distinct symbols - in Freemasonry both are used - and it is wise to distinguish between the two, not to miss the beautiful implications of entering that place which is holy with both feet bare.
The Rite of Discalceation - from the Latin, “discalceatus,” meaning “unshod” - is worldwide. Freemasonry’s ritual of the entered Apprentice Degree refers to the passage in Ruth. In the Master’s Degree the reference is not verbal but an act which differs in meaning from that in the first degree.
In all probability Freemasonry takes this symbol from other sources than the Old Testament; obviously any system of teaching which is the result of the coming together of a thousand faiths, philosophies, rites, religions, guilds and associations, must have received so common a symbol from more than one source, although the Great Light does contain it. In the Old Testament are several passages which make removal of shoes quite a different gesture than that described in the passage from Ruth.
Exodus (III:5) states: “Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
In Joshua (V:15) we find: “And the Captain of the Lord’s Host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.”
Ecclesiastes (V:1) reads: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.”
The association of the removal of footwear when treading holy ground is a fairly obvious symbol. Sandals or other footgear were used to protect, not the ground, but the feet, both from injury and from filth. To wear such protections in holy places, by inference stated that the holy place was harmful to feet, or was dirty! It is similar in thought-content to the world wide custom of men removing the hat in church. The Knight removed his helmet in the presence of those he did not fear. He was safe in church; the removal of his protection against a blow was his acknowledgment that in a sanctuary not even an enemy would assail him.
We know the custom was wide spread, not confined to Israel; from many sources. Thus, Pythagoras instructed his disciples to “offer sacrifices with thy shoes off.” In all the eastern religious edifices the worshipper removes his shoes in order not to defile the temple with that which touches the profane earth. Maimonides, expounder of ancient Jewish law, says: “It was not lawful for a man to come into the mountain of God’s home with his shoes on his feet, or with his staff, or in his working garments, or with dust on his feet.”
The custom was found in Ethiopia, ancient Peru, the England of the Druids. Adam Clark thought the custom so general in the nations of antiquity that he quoted it as one of the thirteen proofs that the whole human race descended from one family. The Rite of Discalceation becomes the more beautiful as we progress through the degrees. At first it is only a voluntary testimony of sincere and truthful intentions; later it is an act of humility, signifying that he who removes his shoes knows that he enters that which must not be defiled by anything unworthy.
The word “humility” must be strictly construed that it be not confused with its derivative, “humiliation.” He who is “humble” but acknowledges supremacy in another, or the greatness of a power or principle; he who is “humiliated” is made to feel unworthy, not in reverence to that which is greater than he, but for the personal aggrandizement of the humiliator. A man removes his hat upon entering a home, in the presence of women, or in a church, not as a symbol of humility, but of reverence. The worshipper removes his shoes on entering a holy place for the same reason. He who walks “neither barefoot nor shod” offers mute testimony - even though, as yet uninstructed, he knows it not - that he is sincere. Who walks with both feet bare, signifies that he treads upon that which is hallowed.
Freemasonry does not stress in words this meaning of the Rite of Discalceation for very good reasons; throughout our system the explanation of our rites concerns always the simplest aspect. The fathers of our ritual were far too wise in the ways of the hearts of men to teach the abstruse first, and go then to the east. Rather did they begin with that which is elementary; then, very often , our ritual leaves the initiate to search further for himself, if he will. It is Freemasonry’s recognition that man values most that for which he has to labor.
But it is the less stressed meaning of the Rite which is of the greater importance. He is the better Freemason and the happier who digs for himself in the “rubbish of the Temple” to uncover that which is gloriously buried there.
Is proof necessary, that behind the tiled door of any open Lodge is a holy place? Here it is!
Freemasons teach that the Great Light is “dedicated to God, as the inestimable gift of God to men for the rule and guide of his faith . . .”
In the Great Light we read (Matthew XVIII:20) “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” Every Masonic Lodge is opened and closed in the name of God. According to his promise, therefore, no Lodge meets without the Great Architect being “in the midst of them.”
Consequently, the Lodge is Holy Ground.
This being so, it may well be asked why all Freemasons do to remove their shoes when entering Lodge?
“Once a Freemason, always a Freemason.” No Lodge member is required to repeat the obligations he once assumed, on every occasion at which he is present when a degree is being conferred. But it is well understood that the obligation is binding upon him for life. Every time he follows the old, old words in his mind, he re-obligates himself. Whenever he sees a candidate initiated, consciously or unconsciously he himself is again initiated. Having once been taught that a candidate is prepared in a certain way because of a certain meaning in that preparation, it is unnecessary to inconvenience him every time he comes to Lodge. If he is again so prepared, in his heart, he fulfills all the outward requirements. While the promise and the fulfillment “makes” the Lodge holy ground, it is “kept” holy only if those who form it and conduct it, so revere it. Stone Masons erect a Temple to God, ministers dedicate it and worshippers consecrate it; but a desecrating hand, as in war, may unroof it, use it as stables, or make of it a shambles. Mackey beautifully put the thought of the consecration holiness of a lodge:
“The Rite of Discalceation is a symbol of reverence. It signifies, in the language of symbolism, that the spot which is about to be approached in this humble and reverential manner is consecrated to some holy purpose. Of all the degrees of Freemasonry, the third degree is the most important and sublime. The solemn lessons which it teaches, the sacred scene which it represents, and the impressive ceremonies with which it is conducted, are all calculated to inspire the mind with feelings of awe and reverence. Into the holy of holies of the Temple, when the Ark of the Covenant had been deposited in its appropriate place, and the Shekinah was hovering over it, the high priest alone, and on only one day in the whole year, was permitted, after the most careful purification, to enter with bare feet and to pronounce, with fearful veneration, the tetragammaton or omnific word.
“And into the Master Mason’s Lodge - this holy of holies of the Masonic Temple, where the solemn truths of death and immortality are inculcated - the aspirant on entering should purify his heart from every contamination, and remember, with a due sense of their symbolic application, those words that once broke upon the astonished ears of the old patriarch: ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.’” Holiness is not a thing, but an idea. So far as we know, the beasts of the field reverence no place as holy, for they have no consciousness of God. The sacred words of the Great Light are holy to us for what they teach and mean; because of whence they came. The paper, the leather and the ink which form a Bible are no more holy than the same materials formed into a telephone directory. The stones of which a church is built, the wood from which the pulpit is carved, the metal from which the cross is made are only the familiar stones, trees and minerals used by men for a thousand purposes. The cotton and the dye which form the Star and Stripes are but the fruit of plants.
Book, Temple and Flag are holy to us because of our reverence for the ideas for which they stand. They are holy to us because we make them holy, keep them holy, think of them as holy and cherish them as holy. So must it be with our Lodges. What is a Lodge? A certain number of brethren; a charter or warrant; the Three Great Lights - and an underlying idea, a faith, a belief, a Mystic Tie never seen of men but the stronger for its intangibility. To many the Lodge is the room in the Temple in which brethren meet; walls of stone or wood or plaster; floor of carpet or linoleum; some seats; an Altar . . .and yet, by common consent of all who believe in the power of the spirit which consecrates when the Lodge is formed, holy because of what it means.
The worshipper in eastern lands removes his shoes before he enters his temple as a symbol that he knows his flesh needs no protection from that which it will there touch; a symbol that he brings not within its precincts any filth which might defile it. The Master Mason, symbolically removing his shoes before entering his Lodge, knows that here he will find that holiness which is in the promise of God unto David, the holiness of the Book on the Altar, the very presence of the Great Architect, through whom the Lodge receives the greatest of His Blessing to man - friendship. But also does he symbolically remove his shoes that he may carry nothing “of mineral or metallic nature” (earth is mineral) into the Lodge to defile it, Men can - and some do - defile their Lodges. He who brings within evil or contentious thoughts of his brethren, defiles it. In more than one Jurisdiction in the world the brethren are asked at every meeting if there be any not at peace with their brethren. If such there are, they are required to retire and return not, until their differences are reconciled, literally carrying out the instructions:
“Therefore if thou brings thy gift to the Altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
“Leave there thy gift before the Altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come offer thy gift.: (Matthew V:23-24)
The Mason who comes to Lodge to get something from it, rather than to give something to it, may defile it by that selfish attitude. Men get from Freemasonry by giving.
He who brings pride of place and power to his Lodge, and serves only for the empty honor of title or jewel, defiles that which is holy as surely as did those money changers whom the Great Teacher drove from the Temple.
He who assumes to work in his Lodge, but labors carelessly, in a slovenly manner, to the desecration of ceremonies ancient when his ancestors were not yet born, defiles his Lodge by his tacit assumptions that his convenience is of greater importance than the teachings of Freemasonry.
Alas, that so many symbolically wear shoes in the holy place, by the simple process of thinking little of it, attending it seldom, regarding it but as a club or association of men who meet together to pass the time away! Such brethren may indeed have been entered, passed and raised; but, uninspired, uninterested and unhelped, they leave, seldom or never to return. To such as these the Lodge cannot be holy; therefore charitable thought would argue that their failures cannot defile.
Luckily for us all, the majority of Freemasons who are constant attendants at Lodge - the brethren who do the work, carry the load, attend to the charity, form the committees, put on the degrees, go on foot and out of their way to help, aid and assist - the brethren, in other words, who work for and are content with a Master’s Wages - these “do” keep the Lodge holy; these “do” think of the Three Great Lights upon the Altar as the Sanctum Sanctorum; these “do,” indeed, put off their shoes from off their feet, in humble and thankful knowledge that the place in which they stand in holy ground."
Source: SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI April, 1933 No.4 Author unknown
Monday, March 11, 2013
The Working Tools of an Old York Master
By W. Bro. W. L. Wilmshurst
"In certain Lodges in Yorkshire and elsewhere, where the impressive "Old York working" three other Working Tools are known besides those allotted to the Three Degrees. They formerly belonged to the Past Master's Degree or Degree of Installed Master and were presented and explained to a new Master of a Lodge on his installation, Brethren below that rank remaining ignorant of them.
After the union of the two rival Grand Lodges in 1813 the Constitutions provided that only the three Degrees of Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (plus the Royal Arch) were to be recognised. The Degree of Installed Master was therefore unfortunately dropped and the enthronement of a Master of a Lodge now takes place in the Third Degree, though in the presence of a "Board" of Past Masters only, the working of such "Board" being the emasculated remains of the old Degree of Installed Master.
Notwithstanding the abandonment of the latter Degree, many old pre-Union Lodges, jealous of their traditional ritual and unwilling to accept abridged modern standardisations such as the "Emulation" working, stubbornly clung to some valuable pieces of traditional teaching and brought them over into what is now the Installation Ceremony, where they are still worked (not always with the approval of critical but not well-enlightened formalists of to-day). One of these is the three Working Tools of an Installed Master; tools specially associated with the office of a Brother called to undertake the responsible office of Master of a Lodge and to serve as a Ruler in the Craft.
The first of these tools is a Plumb-line, a cord depending from the fingers, with a plummet at the lower end, to enable the Master to determine the uprightness of a given stone or building. (On the walls of the old Lodge-room at York, where once the Grand Lodge of England met, may still be seen the biblical reference to the use of the Plumb-line in Amos 7, 7-8. Similar references are to be found in Zech. 4, io; Isaiah 28, 17; whilst Rev. 21, r5-17 is of similar moment).
The second is a Trowel, an implement for spreading mortar, with which (in its moral sense) the Master is to spread the cement of love among his Brethren and bind the living stones of his Lodge into unity.
The third (and most significant) is a Plan, containing secret designs to which an Installed Master must work; it is, as it were, a symbolical blue-print of the Great Architect's plan for building the Temple of a perfected Humanity, a plan of such privacy that it is entrusted only to those qualified to know it and to co-operate in its execution.
Note here that the first of these tools (the Plumb-line) forms a vertical line; the second (the Trowel) involves a lateral horizontal spreading movement; and that these two in combination make a Cross. Of this Cross we will say more presently.
The rich significance and deep propriety of these three supreme Tools needs no emphasis here. It is a thousand pities that this luminous piece of Masonic tradition has passed out of general use and that these tools and their implications are now largely unknown among Masons. For are they not emblems giving completeness and final point to the whole series of Working Tools from the First Degree upwards; adding crowning dignity and beauty to the entire structure of Craft symbolism, and throwing a strong illuminating beam of light upon the purpose of Initiation and upon the goal to which it leads men, first from darkness to light, and then from light to active collaboration with Deity in the creative work of building new heavens and a new earth? Masonry being "a progressive science" must needs involve the use of progressive Working Tools, of which these three are the most advanced.
There is another reason for regretting their disuse. Were they known and their significance taught and appreciated, the knowledge would go far to counteract the utterly false and unworthy notion that installation in the Throne of Wisdom is a personal compliment to the new Master or that the office is due to him by virtue of seniority or routine or popularity, or because he has been an efficient officer or is good at ritual. The prospective occupant of the Chair would learn, on the contrary, that he is placed in it not for his own or his Lodge's glory or to make a great feast for himself and his friends, but to advance the glory of God and the cosmic work of building the world into the divine image.
For consider. By being entrusted with the Plumb-line he is impliedly delegated to be the skilled tester and rectifier of the souls of those committed to his charge. How shall he be qualified to use it if he himself cannot pass the test of that Tool or be unconscious of his own soul ending as a "silver cord" from the fingers of the Almighty and in direct communion with Him?
As to the Trowel, how shall he be able to use it or hope to spread the cement of love among his Brethren unless his own soul has become a burning centre of love whose radiance subtly welds them into unity, knitting their separated persons into an inseparable group-soul and "making them to be of one mind in an house?"
Lastly, but chief of all-the Plan. How can a man of any imagination or spiritual sensitiveness think of himself being made privy to the secret counsels of the Almighty and permitted to become a co-worker with the Most High and His heavenly hierarchy, without the deepest sense of awe, unworthiness, and self-abasement?
But apart from this general sense the Tools signify much besides. Tools not merely express abstract ideas; they are implements with which some practical work must be done. How, then, does an Installed Master use these tools? What sort of work does he perform with them? Well, here we get to secrets; those "secrets of the Master's Chair" which every new W.M. is sworn to preserve but of the nature of which he is usually completely ignorant. Can any P.M. who reads this say what those secrets are, Save for certain formal ones, pretty certainly he will have to say ''no.''
They cannot, of course, be discussed here but one hint can be given. It was said above that the vertical Plumb-line and the horizontal line of motion of the Trowel combine to form a Cross, thus + or the Hebrew Tau-Cross T. The latter form is displayed on every P.M.'s apron; it appears on the badge with which every newly installed Master is invested, and implies that he knows its meaning and is expected to make use of it. Moreover its component lines are exhibited separately in the two columns on the Wardens' pedestals, one of which is always erect and the other horizontal. No column appears on the Master's pedestal. Why? Because he is the synthesis of the Wardens' columns, combining their properties in himself. The Master is a Cross, a living Cross, and therefore wears the sign of the Cross upon his clothing. The profound implications of this must he left to personal reflection.
We refrain here from religious discussion and from reference to Christian associations. We are dealing with the Cross as a philosophical conception long antedating Christianity and taught in the mysteries of both the East and the West through the ages and perpetuated in our system. As Plato and others voicing the ancient secret doctrine taught, the world itself is built upon the principle of the Cross, and is a manifestation resulting from the conflict of two opposed principles (spiritual and material) which have to be resolved into a unity transcending the dualism (just as the W.M. absorbs the functions of his two subordinate Wardens and transcends them). To "take up one's Cross" is deliberately to engage in the work of resolving the crux of life by reducing the spiritual and the non-spiritual elements in oneself into balance and harmony. That is the "Great Work,'' it is Masonic "labour" in its highest sense; in proportion as one achieves it in oneself one becomes qualified and able to help in the task of world-building. Moreover, a Master of the secret science employs the sign of the Cross for many purposes; "Per Signum Tau" is an ancient formula used in connection with constructive and beneficent work done by such a man, unknown to his less advanced fellows.
It may be useful to sum up about the Working Tools generally as follows :
1. The use of the Tools is to effect the conquest of one's lower nature and will by the powers of one's higher nature and the spiritual will. One who is not master of himself and of his lower faculties cannot function on loftier levels or understand the nature of cosmic work. "He who is faithful in small things shall become ruler over great things."
2. The understanding and the use of the Tools are progressive and become disclosed more and more as one advances. It is hopeless to understand the more advanced Tools (those of the Third Degree and of an Installed Master) until the use of the First and Second Degree Tools has become the habit of one's life.
3. The First Degree Tools provide a rule for outward objective conduct; the Second Degree Tools a rule for the mental subjective life and include all forms of abstract thought (not necessarily religious), meditation, prayer, and mind-control, leading to perception of supra-mental truth and illumination of the lower mind. The Third Degree Tools are only for those whose consciousness has become "raised" above the life of common reason and every-day events; and these, in turn, open the way to the ''secrets of the Master's Chair" and to knowledge of "The Plan," that Divine Building Scheme at furthering which labour principalities and Powers, Angels and advanced men. Hence the Plan is the supreme Working Tool of our system and the last to be communicated ceremonially, since it is the final all-sufficing revelation to flood the intelligence of the aspiring Mason. When one knows that Plan, knows oneself to be part of it and as called to collaborate with it, and sees everything around one as moving gradually though unconsciously to its fulfillment, one's life-difficulties are at an end. The rest is easy, for, vast as still remains the unfinished work, that work is frictionless and joyous because it is identified and in harmony with the Almighty Will that steers the universe to its consummation.
Let me finish with a story illustrative of the use of the Tools. A man seen loitering and apparently idle in a lonely district was asked what he was doing there. He replied that he was building, a temple at a city many leagues away. "Do you think it necessary" (he said) "for me to be there in person and working physically? Others are doing that who know nothing of me, but who are unconsciously influenced by the directive control of my thought and will.'' That man was a Master Mason.
Now it will be real and useful Masonic exercise (1) to think out clearly and in detail how that man made use of the Third Degree Working Tools, and (2) to realise that the Great Architect has built and sustains the universe upon the same principle and by like methods. You are unlikely to reach a solution all at once, but careful persistent thought upon such a subject opens out the mind and enables the inward Teacher to reveal things one has hitherto thought impossible and inconceivable.
Treat the story as fanciful and incredible if you will, but reflect that a few years ago any form of telekinesis (action at a distance) was so deemed; yet to-day telegraphy, telephony, "wireless,'' and telepathy, are commonplace facts. Now if by his merely natural will and surface-wits man has produced these mechanical marvels, what greater miracles must be possible to him when the higher creative potencies dormant in his soul are awakened and he becomes able to wield his spiritual will and faculties, to manipulate cosmic energy and to mould it into building new heavens and a new earth and a new social order. It is certain we are left to do these things for ourselves; we should never appreciate them if they be done for us. But the Power with which to do them will always be provided and available to us.
"Coming events cast their shadows before.'' "First the natural; afterwards the spiritual.'' Evolution is being speeded up at the present time. The scientific mechanical inventions of our day are shadow's and advance-omens of greater truths yet to be learned and practised upon a higher level by the still latent supermechanical faculties in us. Is there not an old promise: ''Greater things than these shall ye do'' . For this reason Masonic "science" and the understanding of spiritual building-principle, and working tools are to-day of momentous value and privilege to Masons individually and, through them, to the world at large."
Source: http://www.rgle.org.uk/RGLE_Mother_Grand_Lodge_York.htm
Note: In some Jurisdictions, like my own [Grand Lodge of the Philippines], the Plumb-line, the Trowel & the Plan or Trestle Board symbolisms are used; including the Beehive, which my present Jurisdiction [United Grand Lodge of NSW & ACT] does not discuss in the Craft Degrees.
"In certain Lodges in Yorkshire and elsewhere, where the impressive "Old York working" three other Working Tools are known besides those allotted to the Three Degrees. They formerly belonged to the Past Master's Degree or Degree of Installed Master and were presented and explained to a new Master of a Lodge on his installation, Brethren below that rank remaining ignorant of them.
After the union of the two rival Grand Lodges in 1813 the Constitutions provided that only the three Degrees of Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason (plus the Royal Arch) were to be recognised. The Degree of Installed Master was therefore unfortunately dropped and the enthronement of a Master of a Lodge now takes place in the Third Degree, though in the presence of a "Board" of Past Masters only, the working of such "Board" being the emasculated remains of the old Degree of Installed Master.
Notwithstanding the abandonment of the latter Degree, many old pre-Union Lodges, jealous of their traditional ritual and unwilling to accept abridged modern standardisations such as the "Emulation" working, stubbornly clung to some valuable pieces of traditional teaching and brought them over into what is now the Installation Ceremony, where they are still worked (not always with the approval of critical but not well-enlightened formalists of to-day). One of these is the three Working Tools of an Installed Master; tools specially associated with the office of a Brother called to undertake the responsible office of Master of a Lodge and to serve as a Ruler in the Craft.
The first of these tools is a Plumb-line, a cord depending from the fingers, with a plummet at the lower end, to enable the Master to determine the uprightness of a given stone or building. (On the walls of the old Lodge-room at York, where once the Grand Lodge of England met, may still be seen the biblical reference to the use of the Plumb-line in Amos 7, 7-8. Similar references are to be found in Zech. 4, io; Isaiah 28, 17; whilst Rev. 21, r5-17 is of similar moment).
The second is a Trowel, an implement for spreading mortar, with which (in its moral sense) the Master is to spread the cement of love among his Brethren and bind the living stones of his Lodge into unity.
The third (and most significant) is a Plan, containing secret designs to which an Installed Master must work; it is, as it were, a symbolical blue-print of the Great Architect's plan for building the Temple of a perfected Humanity, a plan of such privacy that it is entrusted only to those qualified to know it and to co-operate in its execution.
Note here that the first of these tools (the Plumb-line) forms a vertical line; the second (the Trowel) involves a lateral horizontal spreading movement; and that these two in combination make a Cross. Of this Cross we will say more presently.
The rich significance and deep propriety of these three supreme Tools needs no emphasis here. It is a thousand pities that this luminous piece of Masonic tradition has passed out of general use and that these tools and their implications are now largely unknown among Masons. For are they not emblems giving completeness and final point to the whole series of Working Tools from the First Degree upwards; adding crowning dignity and beauty to the entire structure of Craft symbolism, and throwing a strong illuminating beam of light upon the purpose of Initiation and upon the goal to which it leads men, first from darkness to light, and then from light to active collaboration with Deity in the creative work of building new heavens and a new earth? Masonry being "a progressive science" must needs involve the use of progressive Working Tools, of which these three are the most advanced.
There is another reason for regretting their disuse. Were they known and their significance taught and appreciated, the knowledge would go far to counteract the utterly false and unworthy notion that installation in the Throne of Wisdom is a personal compliment to the new Master or that the office is due to him by virtue of seniority or routine or popularity, or because he has been an efficient officer or is good at ritual. The prospective occupant of the Chair would learn, on the contrary, that he is placed in it not for his own or his Lodge's glory or to make a great feast for himself and his friends, but to advance the glory of God and the cosmic work of building the world into the divine image.
For consider. By being entrusted with the Plumb-line he is impliedly delegated to be the skilled tester and rectifier of the souls of those committed to his charge. How shall he be qualified to use it if he himself cannot pass the test of that Tool or be unconscious of his own soul ending as a "silver cord" from the fingers of the Almighty and in direct communion with Him?
As to the Trowel, how shall he be able to use it or hope to spread the cement of love among his Brethren unless his own soul has become a burning centre of love whose radiance subtly welds them into unity, knitting their separated persons into an inseparable group-soul and "making them to be of one mind in an house?"
Lastly, but chief of all-the Plan. How can a man of any imagination or spiritual sensitiveness think of himself being made privy to the secret counsels of the Almighty and permitted to become a co-worker with the Most High and His heavenly hierarchy, without the deepest sense of awe, unworthiness, and self-abasement?
But apart from this general sense the Tools signify much besides. Tools not merely express abstract ideas; they are implements with which some practical work must be done. How, then, does an Installed Master use these tools? What sort of work does he perform with them? Well, here we get to secrets; those "secrets of the Master's Chair" which every new W.M. is sworn to preserve but of the nature of which he is usually completely ignorant. Can any P.M. who reads this say what those secrets are, Save for certain formal ones, pretty certainly he will have to say ''no.''
They cannot, of course, be discussed here but one hint can be given. It was said above that the vertical Plumb-line and the horizontal line of motion of the Trowel combine to form a Cross, thus + or the Hebrew Tau-Cross T. The latter form is displayed on every P.M.'s apron; it appears on the badge with which every newly installed Master is invested, and implies that he knows its meaning and is expected to make use of it. Moreover its component lines are exhibited separately in the two columns on the Wardens' pedestals, one of which is always erect and the other horizontal. No column appears on the Master's pedestal. Why? Because he is the synthesis of the Wardens' columns, combining their properties in himself. The Master is a Cross, a living Cross, and therefore wears the sign of the Cross upon his clothing. The profound implications of this must he left to personal reflection.
We refrain here from religious discussion and from reference to Christian associations. We are dealing with the Cross as a philosophical conception long antedating Christianity and taught in the mysteries of both the East and the West through the ages and perpetuated in our system. As Plato and others voicing the ancient secret doctrine taught, the world itself is built upon the principle of the Cross, and is a manifestation resulting from the conflict of two opposed principles (spiritual and material) which have to be resolved into a unity transcending the dualism (just as the W.M. absorbs the functions of his two subordinate Wardens and transcends them). To "take up one's Cross" is deliberately to engage in the work of resolving the crux of life by reducing the spiritual and the non-spiritual elements in oneself into balance and harmony. That is the "Great Work,'' it is Masonic "labour" in its highest sense; in proportion as one achieves it in oneself one becomes qualified and able to help in the task of world-building. Moreover, a Master of the secret science employs the sign of the Cross for many purposes; "Per Signum Tau" is an ancient formula used in connection with constructive and beneficent work done by such a man, unknown to his less advanced fellows.
It may be useful to sum up about the Working Tools generally as follows :
1. The use of the Tools is to effect the conquest of one's lower nature and will by the powers of one's higher nature and the spiritual will. One who is not master of himself and of his lower faculties cannot function on loftier levels or understand the nature of cosmic work. "He who is faithful in small things shall become ruler over great things."
2. The understanding and the use of the Tools are progressive and become disclosed more and more as one advances. It is hopeless to understand the more advanced Tools (those of the Third Degree and of an Installed Master) until the use of the First and Second Degree Tools has become the habit of one's life.
3. The First Degree Tools provide a rule for outward objective conduct; the Second Degree Tools a rule for the mental subjective life and include all forms of abstract thought (not necessarily religious), meditation, prayer, and mind-control, leading to perception of supra-mental truth and illumination of the lower mind. The Third Degree Tools are only for those whose consciousness has become "raised" above the life of common reason and every-day events; and these, in turn, open the way to the ''secrets of the Master's Chair" and to knowledge of "The Plan," that Divine Building Scheme at furthering which labour principalities and Powers, Angels and advanced men. Hence the Plan is the supreme Working Tool of our system and the last to be communicated ceremonially, since it is the final all-sufficing revelation to flood the intelligence of the aspiring Mason. When one knows that Plan, knows oneself to be part of it and as called to collaborate with it, and sees everything around one as moving gradually though unconsciously to its fulfillment, one's life-difficulties are at an end. The rest is easy, for, vast as still remains the unfinished work, that work is frictionless and joyous because it is identified and in harmony with the Almighty Will that steers the universe to its consummation.
Let me finish with a story illustrative of the use of the Tools. A man seen loitering and apparently idle in a lonely district was asked what he was doing there. He replied that he was building, a temple at a city many leagues away. "Do you think it necessary" (he said) "for me to be there in person and working physically? Others are doing that who know nothing of me, but who are unconsciously influenced by the directive control of my thought and will.'' That man was a Master Mason.
Now it will be real and useful Masonic exercise (1) to think out clearly and in detail how that man made use of the Third Degree Working Tools, and (2) to realise that the Great Architect has built and sustains the universe upon the same principle and by like methods. You are unlikely to reach a solution all at once, but careful persistent thought upon such a subject opens out the mind and enables the inward Teacher to reveal things one has hitherto thought impossible and inconceivable.
Treat the story as fanciful and incredible if you will, but reflect that a few years ago any form of telekinesis (action at a distance) was so deemed; yet to-day telegraphy, telephony, "wireless,'' and telepathy, are commonplace facts. Now if by his merely natural will and surface-wits man has produced these mechanical marvels, what greater miracles must be possible to him when the higher creative potencies dormant in his soul are awakened and he becomes able to wield his spiritual will and faculties, to manipulate cosmic energy and to mould it into building new heavens and a new earth and a new social order. It is certain we are left to do these things for ourselves; we should never appreciate them if they be done for us. But the Power with which to do them will always be provided and available to us.
"Coming events cast their shadows before.'' "First the natural; afterwards the spiritual.'' Evolution is being speeded up at the present time. The scientific mechanical inventions of our day are shadow's and advance-omens of greater truths yet to be learned and practised upon a higher level by the still latent supermechanical faculties in us. Is there not an old promise: ''Greater things than these shall ye do'' . For this reason Masonic "science" and the understanding of spiritual building-principle, and working tools are to-day of momentous value and privilege to Masons individually and, through them, to the world at large."
Source: http://www.rgle.org.uk/RGLE_Mother_Grand_Lodge_York.htm
Note: In some Jurisdictions, like my own [Grand Lodge of the Philippines], the Plumb-line, the Trowel & the Plan or Trestle Board symbolisms are used; including the Beehive, which my present Jurisdiction [United Grand Lodge of NSW & ACT] does not discuss in the Craft Degrees.
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