One of the clearest definitions of Speculative Freemasonry is given to every newly-made Mason: “Freemasonry is a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols.” I realized, even then as a young Apprentice, that Freemasonry was full of symbols and practices meant to allude to greater meanings. Initially, I did not understand quite how pervasive symbolism was within the Craft. Studying the initiation ritual confronted me with words that were incomprehensible at first. The presence of such strange words suggested to me that every part of Freemasonry was purposefully selected and intended to convey meaning. One of these words that arrested my attention was CIRCUMAMBULATION.
My very elementary knowledge of Latin clued me into its definition right away. The word is derived from the Latin word circumambulatus, comprised of the prefix circum, “around,” and the verb ambulare, “to walk.” It seemed to me that perhaps the mere presence of such a precise word indicated the importance of the practice itself. So began my search to better understand that single word. It would eventually conclude with the realization of how truly universal and transformative our rituals can be.
Masonically, circumambulation is the process in which a degree candidate is guided around the temple in a circular, clockwise motion. Many sources hypothesize that this practice originated in the days of operative masonry, and was intended to allow the company to inspect the candidates in order to check for any physical inadequacy. This makes a certain logical sense, and could suggest a potential origin of the speculative practice; however, this pragmatic explanation is purely theoretical.
By contrast, the documented symbolic practice of circumambulation in the context
of human religion is far older and more complex. In The Symbolism of Freemasonry, Bro. Albert G. Mackey connects the Craft’s tradition of circumambulation with the ancient practice of a “religious rite in the ancient initiations which consisted in a formal procession around the altar, or other holy and consecrated object.”
ORIGINS: EMULATING THE SUN
The ancient rite of circumambulation predates most, if not all, of the current concepts of religion and appears to derive from a distant period wherein men worshiped the sun and other forces of nature. In his Introduction to Freemasonry, Bro. Carl H. Claudy, FPS, emphasizes the importance of nature in the religion of early man: “Among the first religions were sun and fire worship. Prehistoric man found God in nature. Worship of the sun in the sky was done symbolically by worship of fire upon piles of stones which were the first altars. Early man imitated the God he worshipped. Heat and light he could give by fire, so lighting the fire on the altar became an important religious ceremony. And early man could imitate the movements of his God.”
Supporting this theory is the fact that ritualistic circumambulation is almost universally performed in a clockwise fashion, from east to west by way of the south, following the movement of the sun across the sky from the perspective of observers in the northern hemisphere. This was not necessarily just a physical concept to the ancient mind; it also had mystical implications. Alluding to teachings that may be traced to the Pythagorean brotherhood, Bro. Mackey wrote that circumambulation “had a reference to the motion of the heavenly bodies, which, according to the ancient poets and philosophers, produced a
harmonious sound, inaudible to mortal ears, which was called ‘the music of the spheres.’
CIRCUMAMBULATION AS WORSHIP, PURIFICATION AND REFLECTION
It is obvious that prehistoric men who worshiped the sun and nature would strive to emulate their divinities. After the time of sun worship, the practice of circumambulation found its way into the religious practices of many cultures divided by time, geography, and language. As the worship of nature became supplanted by polytheism, henotheism and monotheism, the purpose of circumambulation necessarily changed. Slowly, the practice transformed from the mere emulation of the sun god to a practice of purification made possible through structured proximity with the holy. In ancient Greece, the priest would walk three times around the altar, always keeping it to the right, and sprinkling it with meal and holy water as a sacrifice to the gods. The Romans called this ritual dextroversum, “from the right to the left.” It was known as a ceremony of purification.
Circumambulation also holds a prominent place in the ceremonies of the three Abrahamic religions. In Islam, pilgrims circumambulate the ka’aba in Mecca, walking seven times in a counterclockwise direction while offering prayers. In Judaism, circumambulations, known in Hebrew as hakkafot, have a traditional origin in the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho. In some ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church, the priest circumambulates the altar, censing it with a thurible. Scattering incense at the altar in this way is an act of purification and sanctification.
A SYMBOLIC MEANING
Across the array of world religions, it is clear that circumambulation is a nearly
universal religious practice. Whether deriving from one common source, far back before recorded history, or born of man’s inherent connection with his environment, circumambulation is a powerful and easily understood symbolic method of conveying the universal ideas and lessons. The purposes of this ritualistic act are many: harmonious interaction with the universe by the ancients; veneration, worship, and purification by polytheists and monotheists. It can also be an act of introspection and contemplation, both in eastern and western practice.
The practice of circumambulation within the Masonic initiation may serve to incorporate each of these purposes and tap into primeval tradition. We emulate the ancients by moving from the west to the east as they once did. We seek to be in harmony with our surroundings. We also circle the altar to show our respect and veneration for the sacred objects placed thereupon. The entire process is meant to prepare and purify the uninitiated so that he might finally be prepared to receive the light we seek to emulate. We do so quietly and solemnly, after due introspection and as the first step in our pursuit of self-improvement through our movement ad lucem, toward the Light.
Article by James R. Craig who reflects on the meaning of an ancient practice still employed in our ceremonies today. Sourced from Philalethes Society, as a sample article dated 2014/03.
Slow Down
I’m presenting this paper to ask you to slow down.
The technology we enjoy today speeds up our lives in many ways. We have 24 hour news and constant contact with anyone we want through cell phones, email and texts. Facebook and Twitter accelerates the hustle. We see more people walking around looking down at their smartphones, searching Google, trading messages and posting selfies and other photos as if it cannot wait. Someone out there right now may be reading this and also looking at an incoming text in the lower right hand corner of their iPhone…
Our society has always been in a hurry. Technology available to us today simply contributes in accelerating it. We are an industrious and busy nation for sure, and our collective pursuit to keep up sometimes causes other things to fall to the way side. Freemasonry is not immune. When we take an honest look around, the results of the Craft and too many of its Craftsmen are in a hurry, as well.
Brethren, I am asking you to slow down.
We’ve all heard that we can’t compete as a fraternity with all of this fast paced societal evolution and technology that accompanies it. I disagree, we can, and we must. You may be a Master Mason, but are you a master of your Craft? Are you a master of yourself? We must begin teaching, mentoring, encouraging, and slowing down.
Masonry is called a journey for a reason. Think about why you knocked on that outer door. Remember why you wanted to become a Mason in the first place.
I’m sure some of you could not wait to become a Mason. What’s your hurry now that you’ve become one? Why are we rushing? When we remove obstacles or lessen standards to allow for an easier path for our initiates, what are we teaching? If we allow ourselves to compromise instead of challenge, to disengage instead of motivate, to just be “good enough” instead of excellent…what are we teaching? Slow down.
When we are in a rush to get men through our three degrees, we lose sight of what’s really important, the journey. It’s the effort –the work that makes it all worth it. My father, grandfather and great- grandfather were all Masons. Now, I would have probably become a Mason if all I had to do was show up and pay some dues. But I guarantee you it would not mean a fraction of what it means to me today if that were the case.
We cannot afford to relax in our responsibilities – the responsibilities we owe to interested young men. When we relax, lazy is not far behind, and when as Masons we become lazy, we contribute to the death of this fraternity.
We cannot assume that we will improve and expand the fraternity by making it easy by lowering or watering down standards. One of our axioms is that we must guard the West Gate, but by simplifying our most important traditions, by lessening experiences and putting an easy path in front of our newest members, we are not only cheating them, we are cheating the fraternity out of educated and experienced men to steadfastly carry on the principles and the fundamentals of our system for the benefit of future generations of Masons.
Slow down.
Making a man a Mason was never intended to be the end of his journey. It takes much longer than 30, 60 or 90 days. No one is finished when they are raised. That is just the beginning! It is the beginning to a process. The degrees provide you a passport through which to continue your learning and to practice a lifelong commitment in selfimprovement.
Regrettably, I’ve witnessed brothers giving back their proficiency and obligation as if the only goal was to memorize it. Worse yet is when they give it back poorly. I’ve heard brothers at Lodge say “Oh he’s just nervous. It was good enough, he will be a good Mason.” What organization in the world just wants to be “good enough?” What message does that send? “Good enough” is rarely all that good.
Let’s slow down.
A member of our fraternity who does not complete his proficiency in accordance to our Constitution, is not a Mason. When that happens, we end up with just another member – a “member” who will represent us all and this honourable institution to the outside world and other Masons. Should we not want – no, demand, that he learn each word of the catechisms? Should we not demand our instructors instruct? Should we not want brother to understand and capable of explaining what the words and phrases in our rituals mean? Should he not fully embrace and totally grasp the lessons and meaning of each degree? He can. All we have to do is slow down and teach - and assure those called upon and give their time to teach are suitably qualified to do so. If our instructors are less than qualified, how can we expect our candidates to achieve genuine proficiency?
The Word is Not the Only Thing We’ve Lost
I’m going to give you an example of something that we are coming close to losing in Masonry: the shear reverence of one the most important things we do. Some believe it’s already lost, but I disagree.
The loss of reverence does, however, come from that mindset that we have to speed everything up, faster meetings to get home to watch the football or other sport. Faster lectures, faster degrees, faster education conferences, faster Provincial meetings. In accepting this attitude, we become increasingly casual in what we do and pass off as Freemasonry.
I want to give you some homework; homework designed to make you think about how casual you may have become.
Go home and give the three signs of Masonry in the mirror. Do it just like you would in the Lodge. What will you see?
I’ve been Master of a Lodge. Some of you that have not had that opportunity may not fully appreciate the outlandish things we see from the East as the signs are given.
There are brothers, who think they are giving the signs, who look like they are waving in a plane, directing traffic at a busy intersection or working the floor at a livestock auction all at the same time.
Slow down.
I belong to a Lodge that receives a lot of out-of-state guests. You should see them try and keep up with what I call the “Kentucky Speed Salute.”
The habit of being casual and thoughtless when giving the signs didn’t start just a few years ago. It’s been around for some time and left uncorrected.
Nonchalance has clearly crept into our Masonic protocol and etiquette.
Nonetheless, it can be corrected, but it’s up to each individual Mason to do so, and Masters of our Lodges to assure it is corrected consistently.
Here’s how it can be fixed. Consider it your homework.
As Masons, we all know there a numbers which are significant in our degree and structure. Those numbers are, 3, 5, 7, 9, 32, 33 etc. When the Master asks for the three signs of Masonry, he says, “Together my Brothers, with the signs”.
Count to three as each sign is given and watch what happens. I’m only asking for 9 seconds of your life to give the proper sign and due guard - 9 seconds. Hold each sign for a count of three. Do it every time and watch what happens.
Our due guards and signs are one of the most significant things that separate us from the rest of the world. One of the things that separate us from being just another civic group or organization. It’s part of who we are as Freemasons. It deserves – no, it demands the respect to our fraternity by taking a mere 9 seconds out of our meetings and devoting it solely to one purpose: the proper salute of a Mason.
When you brothers who sit on the sidelines want to speak in Lodge, do so by standing up. Give the proper sign, if you hold it for three seconds you will have the attention of everyone in the room – and you will be the example for others to do the same.
I’m asking you to slow down.
Return the signs as they deserve to be given – set the example and whisper wise counsel in the ear of a brother who is not doing the same. Ask him to apply the 9 second approach instead of the “Kentucky Speed Salute.”
If we don’t give the due guard and penal sign its due respect and reverence what are we teaching?
How many veterans are here today? Just raise your hand, thank you Brothers for your service to our country.
How many of you have ever just waved at a superior officer instead of delivering the respectful salute you were trained and instructed to give? Did you ever just give him a thumbs up or a sloppy upward gesture as a substitute? Is that acceptable in the service? Of course not, but it seems many think it is ok to do it in our lodge halls. No, Masonry is not the military, but the point is very clear.
The signs are one of the simplest, yet most important things we do. Our casual and sloppy gestures that to often pass as signs can be corrected, but as previously stated, it’s up to each individual Mason to do so, and for the Master of every lodge to assure continuity and conformity.
Go on... stand facing the mirror and count to three on each sign, see what happens. We are an institution with many purposes – one of which is self-improvement. Improving the delivery of the signs is a step in the right direction.
Brethren… isn’t it time we slowed down?
A Presentation in 2014 by Cameron C. Poe. Sourced from the William Ware Lodge of Research.
BEING FREE
Let us spend a few moments in clarifying to ourselves what freedom really is. We call ourselves "Freemasons." In what way are we free? Is this freedom important? Why do we demand that those seeking admission are free men? Furthermore, upon our entry we take certain commitments. Do these make us less free? It seems that we should try to define the meanings more clearly.
Some would, most probably, say: free in Freemasons is connected to the history of our order, and its development from a craftguild. Since craftsmen were "free men," as opposed to vassals of the Middle-Ages, an order which developed from a guild of free men has retained their (historic) status in its name. Let us refrain from discussing this explanation, since it is not the intention of this paper to deal with historical theories concerning our order.
We say that Freemasonry is "a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory." The three words "system of morality" seem to me to be the core of our subject. They are the reason why brethren should join with complete freedom and that this freedom is a condition essential for joining an order based on morality.
The freedom of someone who seeks entry is important not only because of the obvious need, that he does so from his own free will and accord and not due to coercion or solicitation. The more important aspect lies in the meaning of being a Freemason, in his basic attitudes as a man: free from prejudices, ready to judge all attitudes –including his own – with an intellectual integrity and even more important, his readiness to make a moral judgment and to defend it even when he is in minority or under strain for holding such a view.
It is quite possible that some readers will be reminded of the discussion between Socrates and his friends in Plato's "Crito," in which Socrates explains why one should not change one's views just because the majority thinks he is wrong, and why he should not escape prison and death, in spite of being convinced that the penalty is unjust. Socrates showed his pupils – in his unique method – that if he escapes prison and death he would betray the principles he holds true. Hence, he should remain true to himself and bear the consequences. I am sure every Master Mason would recognize this argumentation as a vital part of the legend of the third degree.
Let us go back to the meaning of morality. It seems that to be moral, to act in accordance with moral values, demands an ability and readiness to judge between right and wrong; between what is in conformity with prevailing norms and what is not. It seems that there are two necessary pre-conditions to any moral behaviour: firstly, a moral choice can exist only if it rests on choosing between possible alternatives, and secondly: that this is a choice made with complete freedom and with no coercion of any kind.
Why are these two pre-conditions necessary? If there are no alternatives to choose from, there was no moral choice made and we are unable to say whether that individual is moral or not. His morality was not put to test. On the other hand, if that choice was made under coercion, there is absolutely no moral value in this choice. A moral judgment can be tested only when there was a choice between alternatives and the individual chose the one which conforms to those values and principles which are considered to be in conformity with moral norms at this time and society. Since moral norms do change, it would be wrong to judge moral choice made in a different society, basing it on our own present norms.
An example will help to understand this statement: ownership of human beings –slavery – does not conform with our presentday moral norms. It would therefore be unjust to judge acts of a slave-owner towards his legal human "property" except according to the norms prevailing at that time and place.
The freedom of a new candidate when he is obligated is important. We want to be sure that he does so on a moral basis and that he will stand by his undertakings as a Freemason. One should be aware of a difficulty which exists here: the candidate undertakes to abide by his obligation before he could make a free moral choice.
Being aware of this difficulty, we promise the candidate that there is nothing in what he will undertake which is not in conformity with morality.
However, the candidate himself has to take our word for it, and one could not say that he made a moral choice between alternatives, based on his complete freedom of choice.
It is interesting to note, that this very point was raised in the United Grand Lodge of England by claiming that we promise the candidate that there is nothing in the obligation he is going to undertake which is contrary to his civil, moral or religious duties and beliefs, but he then undertakes bodily punishments which may be not in conformity with these duties and beliefs. As a result, the United Grand lodge of England took a stand and changed the wording of the obligation. Do we need to say more?
We have stressed the need of freedom for making a moral stand. We also said, right at the beginning, that we expect brethren to be free from prejudices and from attitudes which are not based on self examination. We
expect brethren to exercise their freedom of thought every time they are required to form their opinion. To my best judgment, this demand is a pre-condition for morality in every democratic society. I do not mean only freedom as opposed to coercion, but more to a perpetual readiness to re-evaluate matters as a constant attitude without prejudices.
A truly democratic way of life is based on moral behaviour and on constant awareness of the limits of one's own freedom vis-à-vis the other man's right to his freedom; on awareness of the thin line dividing one's obligations and rights; on self-censoring of one's freedom as a result of recognizing the other man's right to his freedom. On free discussions void of fear from expressing one's views publicly. On the majority recognizing the minority's right to its view and on the minority accepting the right of the majority to bind all by its decisions.
In other words, to be a Freemason means to have a basic moral attitude based on constant valuation and re-valuation of every aspect of one's life, both in one's private life as well as in the society in general, and to take a moral stand based on liberty--to be democratic.
Those readers who know the Ancient Scottish Rite may remember that at the opening of the lodge in the first degree the orator says that Freemasonry is an institution seeking human happiness through tolerance and love, self-perfection, glorifying justice, truth and equality, fighting tyranny, ignorance and prejudices. Should one say more than that?
Furthermore, we give the apprentice tools with which he is expected to perfect himself in order to become fit for a moral temple. Those who may claim that we are all the product of the circumstance we grow in, and
that one cannot tear oneself from the roots he was raised on, will have to agree that by using his tools, of his free will and accord, a Freemason is at least approaching free objectivity in his moral choices.
Last but not least: normally we think of freedom only in the sense of free from restrictions or limitations. However, this is perhaps the lesser freedom. The freedom to act in accordance with our freely-made moral choices and convictions makes us true Freemasons.
Are we less free as a result of undertaking commitments as brethren? On the contrary: we have chosen of our free will and accord to be committed to certain moral values. Isn't this a true expression of being free?
Well, I freely recommend that we all think about it.
“Being Free” by the late Bro. Dan Doran GDC, PGDS, PM, Reuven Lodge #1, GL of the State of Israel. Lecture sourced from ‘The Sunday Masonic Paper.’ with thanks.
DID YOU KNOW?
Question: What is “just and legally (or lawfully) constituted”?
Answer: A Lodge is “just” meaning complete, properly organized, legally entitled to conduct Masonic business when the statutory number of Brethren is present, when it has the proper furniture (the Great Lights), when its Charter is present, and when it has been opened by the Master, or, in his absence, by the proper Warden. A Lodge is “legally constituted” when it has been “constituted, consecrated and
dedicated” by a recognized and Masonically legal Grand Lodge; also, when it has been opened after notice to the Brethren, if a Special, and according to the by-laws, if a Stated, communication.
Some Lodges occasionally are neither just nor legally constituted. Opening without the lawful number of Brethren present, opening without a Charter in the room, or with the Great Lights absent, makes a Lodge other than “just.” Clandestine Lodges are never legally constituted. That which has no real existence cannot give real existence to its offspring.
Question: Why is a Lodge meeting called a “communication”?
Answer: In Old English “communication” was “to common” to share with others. In the church “communion” is the common partaking of a sacrament. In a Masonic Lodge “communion” “to common” is to gather in a “communication,” signifying not just a meeting of men to legislate, but a gathering of men with a common purpose, governed by a common idea, believing in a common ideal. It is one of the precious and delightful ways in which Masonry keeps alive an old, old idea in the words of long ago.
Question: Why is a Masonic Lodge called a “blue lodge”?
Answer: Schools of thought give different answers. Some authorities think that as blue has from ancient Biblical times been associated with truth, with Deity, with Wisdom and Hope; that as Mackey taught, the blue of the Old Testament is a translation of the Hebrew tekelet, which is derived from a root meaning perfection, blue came into Masonry as its colour by a natural association. Others believe that as our ancient Brethren met on hills and in vales,
over which the blue vault of heaven is a ceiling; that as Jacob in his vision saw the ladder ascending from earth to Heaven; that the covering of a Lodge is the clouded canopy of starry decked heaven, these allusions seem to connote that blue, the colour of sky, is that of all celestial attributes for which Masons strive.
Man’s earliest god was the sun. The sun rose, travelled, and set in a realm of blue; to associate the colour with Deity was inevitable. Blue also is the colour of the ocean, of mountain streams, of lakes of good drinking water that blue should also become emblematic of purity is equally natural.
The Grand Lodge of England in 1731 changed from a previous determination that white was the Masonic colour and denominated blue as the hue. A noted English Masonic student, Fred J. W. Crowe wrote:
1. that the Order of the Garter was the most famous Order of Knighthood in existence;
2. that Freemasons, in adopting the colour (Garter blue) attempted to add to their dignity and the growing prestige of Grand Lodge officers;
The two theories which find the most believers are:
1. the adoption of the colour by early operative Freemasons because of an age-old association of blue with those virtues which are peculiarly Masonic.
2. the adoption of the colour by the early Grand Lodge in imitation of the nobility and the fame of the colour of the most famous Order of Knighthood in the world.
The Questions and answers from ‘Did you Know’ were collected from various constitutions across the world, and in no way reflect the views or thoughts of the editor and or his Lodge or Mother Constitution.
Boring Our Members to Death
The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to one. He advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape.
"Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point," said Scrooge, "answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?"
Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it stood.
"Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead," said Scrooge. "But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is thus with what you show me."
The Spirit was immovable as ever.
- Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Sit down and chat for about ten minutes with an insurance agent, and let him quote you chapter and verse about the death rate among the World War II generation. Okay, I'll grant you, there's a certain ghoulish aspect to it. I'm bringing it up because, like Scrooge's portentous Spectre, Freemasons have spent the last fifteen years pointing an empty sleeve at the grave, and blaming our declining membership numbers on the fourmillion Masons who were members during our boom years, who have had the very bad timing to pass on to the Celestial Lodge Above in record waves over the last dozen or so years.
Once you're sufficiently bored by your insurance guy, give your Grand Secretary a call and ask him how the numbers compare
between the death rate of members every year, versus the losses from demits and nonpayment of dues. Prepare yourself for a shock. In most jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada, the losses of members from deaths has been statistically tapering off, while the losses due to Freemasons walking away from the fraternity have been rising at an alarming rate…......….
“we're initiating a very healthy dose of new Masons every year all right. But men whom we have initiated, passed and raised are deciding in increasing numbers to say no thanks to what their local lodge offers. Masonic membership rolls are still dropping, but not from natural causes. The truth is, we are boring our members to death.”
It has long been understood that the Baby Boom generation didn't join the Masons. As a result, there is a five-decade difference between the generation of men who kept Freemasonry alive for us and the men who are now moving into leadership positions throughout the fraternity. At any other time in the history of Freemasonry, each succeeding generation came along approximately in twenty-five year intervals, making changes in their lodges, and in Freemasonry as a whole, to reflect their needs and desires. Masonry has always adapted to serve the societies in which it resided, until recently. Now, instead of a twenty-five year adjustment in direction, Freemasonry is suffering from fifty years of habit and hardening of the arteries.
Not long ago, I visited a lodge that had fallen on hard times - very hard times indeed. At one time, their rolls held the names of more than 1800 members. Today, they are down to 200. That's not an unusual state of affairs for a fraternity that artificially swelled in size after World War II, but for men who see success and failure only in the
narrow terms of numerical statistics, it is an emergency of epic proportions. There were members in that lodge who remember those heady days like they were yesterday. They remember the degree nights with 150 Masons on the sidelines. They remember the dances, and the Christmas parties, and the big group trips. They remember the dinners when the dining hall was packed to the rafters, with their kids running up and down the room, while some successful member from the civic or business world tried to give a speech. They look on those days fondly, and are bewildered by the fact that no more than eight members show up for the average meeting today. They'd had no candidates in four years, and they literally begged their members to come and participate. No one did.
The men who kept that lodge barely alive tried to do things the way they have been done when most of them joined a half century ago. The same eight men met for a meager meal before their monthly meeting. They opened lodge with perfect ritual. They read the minutes and the bills. There was rarely any business, new or old. They closed and fled the building, and were home by 7:30, before prime-time network programming got started for the night. Over the last five years, the same eight members have been trading officers' positions, and they just got tired. They were fed up. So, they decided to merge with another lodge and be done with it.
As with any turning point of this magnitude, all 200-plus members had to be notified of the meeting. Only twelve cared enough to show up to vote to euthanise their lodge. They had no fight in them to save their lodge. They wanted to simply slip into the ranks of another, give up their charter and their 140-year history, and vanish from memory. They had killed their own lodge with their own failure to embrace any
change, and in fact, many of them were enraged that some brethren from outside of their lodge had come in to try to resurrect them at the eleventh hour and interfere with their plans for a quiet suicide.
They didn't do anything to appeal to new members. But neither were they serving their existing ones. They weren't broke. These were children of the Depression. They had almost $200,000 in the bank. So why did they do nothing to interest their aging members? Bus trips to Branson. $100 cruises to the Caribbean. Casino boat trips. Tours to Masonic sites in Britain. Trips to the Holy Land. Catered dinners. Sponsored movie nights. Loads of public awards. Medicare drug program presentations. Estate planning seminars. Computers at lodge to send emails to the grand kids. Power-chair races in the halls. In short, give their existing members a reason to keep coming to lodge, to keep enjoying it, to love it.
Neither did they do anything to attract new members. They rent the lodge room in the big downtown Temple building, so like most tenant/landlord relationships; they figured they didn't have to put a dime into the place if they didn't own it. That's somebody else's job. Really? If only they had tried investing in their lodge. Put in new lighting so members could see three feet in front of them. Upholster the sad looking chairs and benches that have the original leather from World War I on them. Tear up the worn and mouldy carpet and replace it - maybe with one of the only black and white checked carpets in the U.S. that we talk about in our ritual but almost nobody seems to have. In short, make it look like something worth coming to. Make it look like something worth joining.
Then start kicking the members into participating in lodge - not worrying about who was going to be what officer or
memorize which part of the ritual. Actually talk about Freemasonry, its history, its symbolism, its philosophy. Actively visit other lodges and help with their degrees. Get members interested in other activities in the building, or volunteering to help some of the community groups that have been meeting there with greater frequency. We talk a big line about charity and helping the community, so let's start giving time, and not just chequebook generosity. And if they still didn't have a full lineup of guys willing to be officers, just sideliners, it wouldn't matter.
Because, once the place looked like living inhabitants occasionally might be in the place, and that it was actually a vibrant, active lodge, maybe, just maybe, some of their grandkids might get interested in Freemasonry, because they were seeing Freemasonry in action, instead of Freemasonry inaction. The business author James O'Toole says, "People who do not think well of themselves do not act to change their condition." Even a lodge that only has eight regular attendees has within its active ranks the resources to wake itself up, to do things that make them truly happy to be there, and sometimes to even surprise themselves.
Leadership has no age, and there are no limits on imagination. But a lodge has to mean something to its members. It has to remain part of their lives, every day, every week, every month. Because once it's more fun, or less hassle, to stay squeezed comfortably on the couch, curled up with a remote control, than it is to go to lodge, we have lost them. No one would ever voluntarily join a memorization club, and no one wants to join the oldest, greatest, most legendary fraternal organization in the world, only to be sentenced to a lifetime of cold cut sandwiches made with suspicious meat, generic cola, and monthly meetings of
nothing but minute-reading, bill-paying and petulant snivelling over why no one comes to meetings anymore.
“Be honest with yourself. What rational human being seriously wants to go to the trouble of leaving home to go and listen to someone spend twenty minutes reporting that nothing happened at last month's meeting either?”
It will be the lodges that provide programming for their active memberswhatever their age may be - that will survive and prosper into the future. But those that stubbornly cling to the notion that lodge is no event, that lodge is just one more meeting to be borne, that lodge is that most terrible of things, Ordinary - those are the lodges that will literally bore themselves to death.
Those are the lodges that will slip silently away in the night. And the shadows of things that Might Be will have faded into the concrete Reality of a deserted lodge room.
"Ghost of the Future!" Scrooge exclaimed, "I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear your company, and do it with a thankful heart."
This is from our Regular feature of articles under the title, “Reflections.” Articles from all around the world from a variety of Constitutions and authors and adapted to use in SRA76. This excellent article is by Bro. Christopher Hodapp, author of “Freemasonry for Dummies”, first published in 2006.
THE MYSTIC SEVEN IN MASONIC SYMBOLOGY
As in all mystic traditions, ancient and modern, numbers play a key role in helping us reach the deeper understanding and numbers hold the keys to esoteric thought. And it is no different in Speculative Freemasonry. Since the beginning of time, adepts of the hidden mysteries have found mystic truths by their understanding of numbers and their significance to the unfolding of the universe. Indeed, it can be said that the science of numbers is the very formula with which God created the visible universe. Within the catechism of Speculative Masonry, there are a variety of numbers that hold a deeper spiritual value. This piece will focus in on one particular number, the number seven. As stated in Albert Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry:
“In every system of antiquity there is a frequent reference to this number, showing that the veneration for it proceeded from some common cause. It is equally a sacred number in the Gentile as in the Christian religion. Doctor Oliver says that this can scarcely be ascribed to any event, except it be the institution of the Sabbath. Godfrey Higgins thinks that the peculiar circumstance, perhaps accidental, of the number of the days of the week coinciding exactly with the number of the planetary bodies probably procured for it its character of sanctity. The Pythagoreans called it a perfect number, because it was made up of three and four, the triangle and the square, which are the two perfect figures. They called it also a virgin number, and without mother, comparing it to Minerva, who was a motherless virgin, because it cannot by Multiplication produce any number within ten, as twice two does four, and three times
three does nine; nor can any two numbers, by their multiplication, produce it.”
The number seven was considered sacred not only by all the ancient nations of antiquity from the East, but was as well held in the greatest reverence by later nations of the West. Consisting of a union between the number three (the symbol of the Divine Trinity and the three elements that make up matter) and of four (the symbol of the cosmic forces or elements), the number seven points out symbolically to the union of the Deity with the universe. This number, which also represents the triumph of the Spirit over Matter and the fullness of Divine Mysteries, corresponds to the Hebrew letter Zain. The number seven is universal, like Zain which is considered to be the Letter of the Universe.
The Pythagoreans considered the figure seven as the image and model of the divine order and harmony in nature. From them, the astronomical origin of this number is established beyond any doubt. Man, feeling himself dependent upon the heavenly powers, looked to the heavens for understanding and spiritual clarity. In studying the firmament, ancient astrologers understood the seven planets remained at an equal distance from each other, and rotating in the same path. Hence, the idea suggested by this motion is that of the eternal harmony of the universe. The largest and brightest of the luminaries thus became the symbol of the most important and highest of powers; incorporated with the planets the whole antiquity numbered as seven. In this connection the number seven became especially sacred with them, and ever preserved its importance with the astrologers. In the course of time these were transformed into seven deities. The Egyptians had seven original and higher gods; the Phœnicians seven kabiris; the Persians, seven sacred horses of Mithra; the
Parsees, seven angels opposed by seven demons, and seven celestial abodes paralleled by seven lower regions. To represent the more clearly this idea in its concrete form, the seven gods were often represented as one seven-headed deity. The whole heaven was subjected to the seven planets; hence, in nearly all the religious systems we find seven heavens. Some philosophers have said that our souls have 7 foci in the material body; the five senses, the voice, and the generative power.
The body has seven obvious parts, the head, chest, abdomen, two legs and two arms. There are seven internal organs, stomach, liver, heart, lungs, spleen and two kidneys. The ruling part, the head, has seven parts for external use, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and a mouth. There are seven things seen, body, interval, magnitude, colour, motion and permanency. There are seven inflections of the voice, the acute, grave, circumflex, rough, smooth, the long and the short sounds. The hand makes seven motions; up and down, to the right and left, before and behind, and circular. There are seven evacuations; tears from the eyes, mucus of the nostrils, the saliva, the semen, two excretions and the perspiration. Modern medical knowledge corroborates the ancient dictum that in the seventh month the human offspring becomes viable. Menstruation tends to occur in series of four times seven days, and is certainly related to Luna in an occult manner.
The Golden Candlestick of Seven Branches was a notable emblematic ornament of the Tabernacle of Moses, Exodus 25:31. Note the seven years for Repentance; seven churches of Asia, seven Angels with Trumpets, seven candlesticks of the Holy Places, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven kings, seven thousand slain, seven vials of wrath to be poured out, pace the
Apocalypse. There are countless instances where the number seven holds significant value throughout the history of human thought and introspection. This number in particular held a special value due to it being directly related to the understanding of our Divine nature and harmony with the Diety. This numeric idea was applied by the Christians - (especially during the Middle Ages) - by largely using the number seven in the symbolism of their sacred architecture. So, for instance, the famous Cathedral of Cologne and the Dominican Church at Regensburg display this number in the smallest architectural details. We can also make analogy between many biblical references of the number seven to Freemasonry. For instance, the story of Solomon building the temple in which King Solomon completed the Temple in seven years. (1 Kings 5:13; 2 Chronicles 2:2). According to 1 Kings 6:38, the work of the temple took seven years saying:
“And in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts, and according to all its specifications. He was seven years in building it.”
The number seven holds significant mystical value in Freemasonry as well. Again referencing Mackey:
“Seven is a sacred number in Masonic symbolism. It has always been so. In the earliest instructions of the eighteenth century it was said that a Lodge required seven to make it perfect; but the only explanation to be found in any of those ceremonies of the sacredness of the number is the seven liberal arts and sciences, which, according to the old Legend of the Craft, were the foundation of Freemasonry. In modern ritualism the symbolism of seven has been transferred from the First to the
Second Degree, and there it is made to refer only to the seven steps of the Winding Stairs; but the symbolic seven is to be found diffused in a hundred ways over the whole Masonic system.”
Seven brethren are required to open a perfect lodge: The Worshipful Master, two Wardens, two Deacons, the Treasurer and Secretary (five are only needed to work). The seven officers represent how human consciousness works as expressions of the Ever-prevading Source of all being. They represent the co-ordinated parts connecting Man's outer nature with his inermost Divine Principle. They provide the necessary channels for the various spiritual and material levels to maintain perfect harmony. As the ritual states, “Harmony being the support of all institutions, especially this of ours”.
The number seven is said to be a “perfect” number because it contained the numbers three and four. In geometry, the basis of freemasonry, the triangle and the square are the “perfect figures”, and is itself indivisible and can not be created by multiplication.
This understanding is best displayed in the badge of a Mason: The Apron.
The apron is made of three parts: a triangular flap, number three, and a square base, number four. Their sum is the number seven. As alluded to earlier, the square symbolizes the 4 elements: earth (minerals of the skeleton, bones, physical conscience ), water (physical fluids, emotional conscience), air (mind, abstract thought), fire (energy, spiritual conscience). The triangle symbolizes the trinity of being, the three aspects of God or three greater lights, and the three phases of human existence (body, mind, spirit, as expressed by traversing the three degrees of blue lodge
masonry) or the three lesser lights, exemplified by the three principal officers of a lodge. Symbolically also representing the three kabalistic pillars with which the sephirot emminate from. Together, the base square and the triangle of the flap represent the seven levels of conscience which can be accessed through the seven Liberal arts and sciences: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. The apron or the Mason’s “badge of innocence” thus becomes a symbol of man’s sincere labour towards the perfection of the material elements to temperament under the guidance of the Divine qualities. In this perfected state he may meet his maker, becoming consciously one with The ALL.
It is obvious that on the surface there is minimal reference to the number seven in the particular sense, but its symbolism is deeply rooted with the entire Masonic emblematic structure. There is much information that must be sought out by the Mason as he journeys through the degree work. It is assumed few would have studied these esoteric truths prior to entering the craft, and even fewer committed them to memory. I believe it was the plan that the Mason would seek the hidden mysteries beyond their degree explanation to educate and enlighten himself to a deeper and somewhat mystical understanding.
The lessons in three degrees is an offering of the keys to unlock the doors leading to the cosmic enlightenment with which is the goal and duty of every Mason to “keep and conceal, and never reveal”. To cherish, preserve, and exemplify to the universe by our thoughts, words, and actions.
The Fellowcraft Degree is the most involved degree for study, from the suggestion of the Three Great Lights and three principal officers of the lodge as influencing the
mason to the study of the Kabbalah and Jacob’s latter, to the understanding of the pillars, our senses and their physical and spiritual meaning, and to the study of alchemy and the astrological significance of the seven planets and how we are affected by them physically as their position in the heavens influence us spiritually. Here, “As above, so below” holds no greater significance. By earnestly going deeper within, we gain deeper understanding of the universe without, and bring to union the carnal and divine natures within, thus becoming the number seven. The perfection of man embodied in a deific life.
Article sourced from https://www.academia.edu/
Famous Freemasons
George Bancroft
“Movie ‘Villain’ and ‘Heavy.’”
The chances are that most of you reading this, will recognise the face from movies but not the name of George Bancroft, nor any of
the names of the films he appeared in. However, he was in many of the more famous movies of the 1930’s and 40’s and starred alongside many of Hollywood’s most famous actors, and received an Oscar nomination.
George Bancroft was born in Philadelphia in 1882 and attended high school at Tomes Institute (Philadelphia). He won an impressive appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and graduated as a commissioned officer. He served in the Navy for the prescribed period of required service but no more. After working on merchant marine vessels at age 14, Bancroft was an apprentice on USS Constellation and later served on USS Essex and West Indies. Additionally, during the Battle of Manila Bay (1898), he was a gunner on USS Baltimore. In 1900, he swam underneath the hull of the battleship USS Oregon to check the extent of the damage after it struck a rock off the coast of China. For this, he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis but found it too restrictive for his tastes and left to pursue a theatrical career. During his days in the Navy, he had staged plays aboard ship.
He decided to turn to show business, first as a theatre manager. He worked in the old and fading minstrel show variety format into the 1920s but then decided to try his hand at acting. By 1923, he was good enough for Broadway and spent about a year there doing two plays. But he was already good enough for some early camera work for by 1921, and made his first appearance in the silent movie medium. Being a big man with dark features, he was a natural for heavies. And it seemed that early Westerns were an easy fit as well after his first four films. Through 1924 and into 1925, he did four, culminating with pay dirt in his appealing performance as rogue Jack Slade in the Western, The Pony Express (1925). With
him was another up-and-coming character actor, Wallace Beery. Bancroft's acting made Paramount Pictures take a look at him as star material. His roles as tough guy took on more flesh into the later 1920s, especially in association with director Josef von Sternberg and his well-honed gangster films that started with Underworld (1927). Their work culminated with Sternberg's Thunderbolt (1929) for which Bancroft received an Oscar nomination. He was tops at the box office.
Bancroft's various on-screen personas as bigger-than-life strong man was not far from his off-screen character as Hollywood notability got to him. It was recalled that he became more difficult to deal with as his ego grew. At one point, he refused to obey a director's order that he fall down after being shot by the villain. Bancroft declared, "One bullet can't kill Bancroft!" Although he stayed busy through the 1930s, he was older and stouter -- the stuff of featured characters. And Bancroft was also getting a lot of competition from younger character actors. In the early '30s, his roles continued to typecast him as lead heavies, but increasingly, he was cast as second tier -- if with more variety -- in later roles. He was the paper editor in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936); a doctor in A Doctor's Diary (1937); a few sea captains along the way; ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’ (1938) with James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and most memorably, Marshal Curly Wilcox in the John Ford Western (his first with sound) Stagecoach (1939). Here he is particularly engaging tough lawman but with a big heart. Into the 1940s, he only did a handful of films. But he again had a rogue's spotlight with another name director -- Cecil B. DeMille -- in one of his always epic yarns. This time it was a Texas Ranger chasing a murderer over the Canadian border in North West Mounted Police (1940) with a stellar
cast including Gary Cooper, everybody's favourite blond Madeleine Carroll, and Paulette Goddard as fleeing criminal, Jacques Corbeau's (Bancroft) daughter. By 1942, Bancroft had decided to move on, retiring with the intention of becoming a Southern California rancher. He quietly assumed this new role for a long run of 14 years before his passing. He died October 2nd 1956.
Bancroft first married actress Edna Brothers. Three years later, he married musical comedy star Octavia Broske. In 1934, Edna Brothers sued him, claiming they had never divorced. Two years later, the case was settled, and Brothers obtained a divorce.
George Bancroft was a member of Hollenbeck Lodge No. 319, Los Angeles, Calif. and Al Malaikah Temple of Los Angeles.
Sources IMDB Wikipedia
The picture of George Bancroft used is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
This picture below is a scene from Angels with Dirty Faces, a still from the movies, showing George Bancroft between James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
"Foreign Countries"
OUR ancient operative brethren desired to become Masters so that, when they travelled in foreign countries, they could still practice their craft. Speculative Freemasons still desire to "travel in foreign countries" and study their craft that they may receive such instruction as will enable them to do so, and when so travelling, to receive a Master's Wages.
But the "foreign countries" do not mean to us the various geographical and political divisions of the Old World, nor do we use the Word we learn as a means of identification to enable us to build material temples and receive coin of the realm for our labour. "Foreign countries" is to us a symbol.
Like all the rest of the symbols, it has more than one interpretation; but, unlike many, none of these is very difficult to trace or understand.
Freemasonry itself is the first "foreign country" in which the initiate will travel; a world as different from the familiar workaday world, as France is different from England, or Belgium from Greece. Everything is different in the Masonic world; the standards are different, the "money" is different, the ideas are different. In the familiar world, money, place and
power are the standards by which we judge our fellows.. In the fraternity all are on a level, and there are neither rich nor poor. In the world outside there are laws 145 to prevent, and police and penalties to enforce obedience; in the fraternity the laws are not "thou shalt not" but "thou shalt" and the fundamental of them all is the golden rule, the law of brotherly love. Men conform to the laws of Freemasonry not because they must but because they will. Surely such a land is a "foreign country" to the stranger within its borders; and the visitor must study it, learn its language and its customs, if he is to enjoy it.
Many learn but a few phrases and only enough of its customs to conform. There are thousands of Americans who went all over France during the war with a pack of cigarettes, a friendly smile and "no compreeee!" as their sole knowledge of the language; but did they learn to know France? A lodge member may know the words of the opening and closing and how to act in a lodge, learn to call his fellows "brother" and pay his dues; but will that get for him all there is in the foreign country in which he finds himself?
America north and south is a mighty continent ... it has many countries. To know one is not to know all. The man at home in Mexico will find Newfoundland strange and the Canadian will not feel at home in Chile if he knows nothing of that country.
So it is with the vast continent of Freemasonry. It has many "foreign countries" within it; and he is the wise and happy Freemason who works patiently at the pleasant task of visiting and studying them. There are the foreign countries of philosophy, of jurisprudence, of history. No Freemason is really worthy of the name who does not understand something of how his new land is governed, of what it stands for and why.
And there is the foreign country of Symbolism, of which this little book is far less guide than gateway.
As Master Mason, a man has the right to travel in all the foreign countries of Freemasonry. There is none to say him nay. If he will but "learn the work" and keep himself in good standing, he may visit where he will. But it is not within the doors of other lodges than his own that he will find the boundary line and the guide posts of those truly Masonic "foreign countries" to which he has been given the passport by his brethren. He will find the gateways to those lands in the library, in the study club, in books and magazines, and, most and best of all, in the quiet hour alone, when what he has read and learned comes back to him to be pondered over and thought through.
The "foreign country" of symbolism has engaged the thoughtful and serious consideration of hundreds of able Masonic students, as has that of the history of our Order. Not to visit them both; aye, not to make oneself a citizen of them both, is to refuse the privileges one has sought and labored to obtain. One asks for a petition, prays one's friend to take it to his lodge, knocks on the door, takes obligations, works to learn and finally receives the Master's Degree. One receives it, struggles for it, hopes for it ... why? That one may travel in the far lands and receive the reward there awaiting....
Then why hesitate? Why wait? Why put off? Why allow others to pass on and gain, while one stands, the gate open, the new land beckoning, and all the Masonic world to see?
That is the symbolism of the "foreign countries"... that is the meaning of the phrase which once meant, to operative masons, exactly what it says. To the
Freemason who reads it aright it is a clarion call to action, to study, to an earnest pressing forward on the new highway. For time is short and the night cometh when no man can work!
To the young Freemason, particularly, is the symbol a ringing appeal. To those who are old in the Craft, who have set their pace, determined their course and become satisfied with all that they' have managed to learn of the fraternity, with what little they have been able to take from it, "foreign countries" means countries which are foreign, and nothing more. But to the young man just starting out as a Freemason ... Oh, my brother, heed you the symbolism of the phrase and make your entry through the gateway, your limbs strong to travel, your mind open to learn. For if you truly travel in the Masonic foreign countries, you will receive Master's wages beyond your greatest expectations. The way is open to the Freemason; not an easy way, perhaps, or a short way, but a clear way. Not for the old Mason, the man set in his ways, the man content with the literal meaning of the words, the "book Mason," the pin-wearer; not for them the foreign country of symbolism, and Masonic knowledge.
But you, you who are new, you to whom Freemasonry is yet a wonder and a vision, a mystery and a glory... for you is the gate wide, for you is the path clear; for you the foreign countries beckon ... hang you not back!
For at the end of the journey, when the last foreign country of Freemasonry has been travelled and learned and loved, you shall come to a new gate, above which there is a new name written... and when you have read it you will know the True Word of a Master Mason.
This is the Thirtieth and final article in our regular feature, ‘Foreign Countries,’ by Carl Claudy.
WAGES OF A MASON
In my Mother Lodge at the opening of Lodge when the Worshipful Master asks the Senior Warden why he became a Mason he answers ‘that I might work and travel in foreign countries, receive a master’s wage and there by better support my family.” And at the closing when asked his final duty of the evening he answers “to pay the Master’s Wages if any be due.”
So what are these Master’s wages? As Speculative Masons we content ourselves with intangible wages - and occasionally some are hard pressed to explain to the wondering initiate just what, in this practical age, a Master’s Wages really are.
The wages of a Master may be classified under two heads; first, those inalienable rights which every Freemason enjoys as a result of fees, initiation and the payment of annual dues to his Lodge; second, those more precious privileges which are his if he will but stretch out his hand to take.
The first time a newly initiated Brother attends lodge and mingles with his new brethren this is so new and exciting to him, these are his wages. He will learn that he also has the right of visitation in other Lodges.
This right of visiting other Lodges is a very real part of what may be termed his concrete Master’s Wages, and many are the Freemasons who find in it a sure cure for loneliness in strange places; who think of the opportunity to find welcome and friends where otherwise they would be alone, as wages of substantial character.
The opportunities to see and hear the beautiful ceremonies of Freemasonry, to
take from them again and again a new thought, are wages not to be lightly received. For him with the open ears and the inquiring mind, the degrees lead to a new world, since familiarity with ritual provides the key by which he may read an endless stream of books about Freemasonry.
The Craft has a glorious history; and symbolism, the study of which is endless; a curious legal structure of which law-minded men never tire’ is so interwoven with the story of many great nations as to make the thoughtful thrill; joins hands with religion in the secret places of the heart in a manner both tender and touching. These “foreign countries” have neither gate nor guard at the frontier . . . the Brother Mason may cross and enter at his will, sure of wages wherever he wanders within their borders.
No honest man becomes a Freemason thinking to ask the Craft for relief.
Freemasonry is not, “Per se,” a relief organization. It does not exist merely for the purpose of dispensing charity. Nor has it great funds with which to work its gentle ministrations to the poor. Fees are modest; dues are often too small rather than too large. Yet, for the brother down and out, who has no fuel to heat his home, no food for his hungry child, whom sudden disaster threatens, the strong arm of the Fraternity stretches forth to push back the danger. The cold are warmed, the hungry fed, the naked clothed, the jobless given work, the discouraged heartened.
Master’s Wages, in many cases, are far greater than the effort put forth to earn them. Stranded in a strange place, no Freemason worries about getting aid. In all large centers there are Masons that will hear his story, investigate his credentials and start the machinery by which a Lodge may help him. In smaller places is almost invariably a
Lodge with brethren glad to give a sympathetic hearing to his troubles. To the brother in difficulty in what to him is a “foreign country,” ability to prove himself a Freemason is Master’s Wages, indeed.
Freemasonry is strong in defence of the helpless. The Widow and the orphan need ask but once to receive bounty. All brethren hope to support their own, provide for their loved ones, but misfortune comes to the just and unjust alike. To be one of a worldwide brotherhood on which widow and child may call is of untold comfort, Master’s Wages more precious than the coin of gold.
To some the practical wages briefly mentioned above are the important payments for a Freemason’s work. To others, the more intangible but none the less beloved opportunities to give, rather than get, are the Master’s Wages which count them.
Great among these is the Craft’s opportunity for service. The world is full of chances to do for others, and no man need apply to a Masonic Lodge only because he wants a chance to “do unto others as he would others do unto him.” But Freemasonry offer peculiar opportunities to unusual talents which are not always easily found in the outside world.
There is always something to do in a Lodge. There are always committees to be servedand committee work is usually thankless work. He who cannot find his payment in his satisfaction of a task well done will receive no Master’s Wages for his labours on Lodge committees.
There are brethren to be taught. Learning all the “work” is a man’s task, not to be accomplished in a hurry. Yet it is worth the doing, and in instructing officers and candidates many a Mason has found a quiet
joy which is Master’s Wages pressed down and running over.
Service leads to the possibility of appointment or election to the line of officers. There is little to speak of the Master’s Wages this opportunity pays, because only those who have occupied the Oriental Chair know what they are. The outer evidence of the experience may be told, but the inner spiritual experience is untellable because the words have not been invented.
But Past Masters know! To them is issued a special coinage of Master’s Wages which only a Worshipful Master may earn. Ask any of them if they do not pay well for the labour.
If practical Master’s Wages are acquaintances in Lodge, the enjoyment of fellowship, merged into friendship, is the same payment in larger form. Difficult to describe, the sense of being one of a group, the solidarity of the circle which is the Lodge, provides a satisfaction and pleasure impossible to describe as it is clearly to be felt. It is interesting to meet many men of many walks of life; it is heart- warming continually to meet the same group, always with the same feeling of equality. High and low, rich and poor, merchant and moneychanger, banker and broom-maker, doctor and ditch-digger all meet on the level, and find it happy - Master’s Wages, value untranslatable into money.
Finally - and best - is the making of many friends.
Thousands of brethren count their nearest and their dearest friends on the rolls of the Lodge they love and serve. The Mystic Tie makes for friendship It attracts man to man and often draws together “those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance.”
The teachings of brotherly love, relief and truth; of temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice; the inculcation of patriotism and love of country, are everyday experiences in a Masonic Lodge. When men speak freely those thoughts which, in the world without, they keep silent, friendships are formed.
Count gain for work well done in what coin seems most valuable; the dearest of the intangibles which come to any Master Mason are those Masonic friendships than which there “are” no greater Master’s Wages.
This is from our Regular feature of articles under the title, “Reflections.” Articles from all around the world from a variety of Constitutions and authors and adapted to use in SRA76. This excellent article is by Bro. Samuel T. Atkinson. PM , Virginia, first published in 2008.
The Moon
THE QUARRIES OF KING SOLOMON
Just under the walls of the old city of Jerusalem, between the Damascus Gate and King Herod's Gate is a cavern which leads the visitor to one of the few areas in the Old City which has remained largely untouched by the passage of two or more millennia. It is known as Me'arat Tzedkiyahu or Cave of Zedekiah, the more common name given it, is King Solomon's Quarry.
Jackie Hosking
Before being rediscovered in 1854, the cavern remained hidden under debris and centuries of refuse thrown over the walls. Legend had not forgotten it, but man had lost the location. The builders of the walls which surround the old city today must have known about it's existence, perhaps it was they who covered over the entrance. Those architects of Suleiman the Magnificent who constructed the walls in the 1500's knew that those walls would not stand before a determined enemy, even though Suleiman was undisputed master of the Middle East and his holdings were highly unlikely to be attacked. No, these were not intended to be defensive against a foe with cannon and destructive 16th century weapons. What the walls did, was to maintain the integrity of the old city and in a sense make it easier to control and police from within. It may have offended their military sensibilities, however, to leave a tunnel entrance without the walls which undermined the city, and since it had not been in use for centuries, simply filled it in. On the other hand, it may have been hidden long before that, little mention is made of it even from the time of the Crusades. As a side note to the construction of the walls, Suleiman had those same architects executed for neglecting to also include the surrounds of
Mt. Sion within the enclosure, this area directly outside the Sion (Zion) Gate is best known for King David's Tomb and the Upper Room of the Last Supper.
The visitor enters the cave or quarry from an opening directly beneath the walls of the Old City, pays a small fee, and descends a gravel ramp to the floor of the quarry. The way is indirectly lighted, which gives the impression of being in a place indifferent to the passage of time. Soot streaked, areas are reminders that the ancients did not enjoy so clean a convenience as electricity. The atmosphere is noticeably very humid, in the winter it seems warm and sultry, while in the hot months the drafts convey cold and clammy. The cavern continues for some 200 meters in a generally Southern direction underneath the Arab quarter of the city and in the approximate direction of Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount. The term cave or cavern does not describe it well, it is instead, a series of very large chambers separated by pillars left to support the ceiling, which in contrast to the vein of brilliant white stone being quarried, appears to be of the reddish-brown streaked variety of stone common on the surface. One of these chambers has a sign which identifies it as "Freemasons Hall" in three languages. Although hidden for those many centuries, in 1868, within 14 years of the rediscovery of the cavern, an American Mason, MW Bro. Robert Morris, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky, gathered a few local Masons and members of British military lodges, and presented a degree of the Secret Monitor one evening in the quarry. With the exception of some of the war years in the 1950's & 60"s, Masonic degree work continued to be done there, the quarry is closed to the public once or twice a year for Masonic communications by the Grand Lodge of Israel or the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Israel. The degree most
often worked is that of Mark Master and is often presented in English for visiting brethren, and is said to be a deeply moving Masonic experience. The acoustics in this chamber are excellent, and even the most determined side-liner will have trouble finding a location where he cannot hear well. Although other varieties are present, the stone most associated with these quarries is called malake or melech, and is a pure white, unstriated stone. While it is softer that some other varieties of limestone, the lack of defects means that it can be quarried in very large ashlars, as evident by some remaining examples in the quarry, and it is prized for resistance to weathering and erosion. A structure constructed of malake would be stunning in the purity of it's material and dazzling in its whiteness. In many areas of the cavern, the quarrying of smaller pieces was also evident, as was the technique the quarrymen utilized. A deep cut was made in the cavern wall around the desired size and shape of the stone, those I observed appeared to be about 12" x 12" x 40" (this was not measured and may have been as much as one cubit or 18" wide and thick), wooden wedges were either driven into this slot until the block broke out or water was applied to cause the wood to swell causing the same.
By tradition and as written in I Kings 6, verse 7 "When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry; so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple, while it was being built." This means that the building blocks of the Temple could have been quarried and dressed very close to the site (beneath it) without the sound of tools. The materials from these quarries are also conspicuous in their absence. Almost all of modern Jerusalem is built of the iron bearing tan to brown veined limestone, the best grades coming from gigantic, hill consuming
quarries near Nazareth with lesser grades from Bethlehem. At only a few locations was the more gray variety used, and the pure white (malake) limestone I found (by appearance identification) only at ruins, mostly from Herod the Greats time. If it is unknown with certainty that specifically the type of limestone from this underground quarry was used in the construction of King Solomon's Temple, it is certain that at some time in ancient history, quarrymen plied their trade deep under Jerusalem and the blocks which they excavated had to have been used somewhere. An amazing amount of material was removed from here, with more difficulty than surface quarrying and therefore must have been used for some specialized purpose. Tradition has it used in the construction of a temple on the Temple Mount, the great one being from King Solomon's time, although possibly it was quarried for the Second Temple or even Herod's.
It is often said that no building materials exist from King Solomon's Temple, I think that this fits under the natural law that states that matter can be altered but not destroyed. Suitable stone would be reused in subsequent reconstruction's until finally reduced to rubble, that rubble from Jerusalem's many destructions (scholarly estimates range from 16 to 27 separate occasions) is in some places 12 or more meters deep. The softer white malake from the underground stant to erosion, but blocks of it also would have been much more seriously damaged when the building was demolished. In terms of recycling, the visitor will be very surprised to see mismatched pairs of columns used in and around what is undoubtedly the premiere structure in the city, the Muslim mosque, "Dome of the Rock." Obviously many sets were reused from former structures when this mosque was built some 1300 years ago, and possibly
a considerable number of the building stones in it were reused or recut ones which have had many "lives. " I have heard that the Israeli passion for archaeology extends within the Temple Mount, behind what we refer to as the West Wall, and that amazing things are being found. To most scholars, it seems agreeable that the West Wall is probably a retaining wall built in Herod's time (1st century BCE) to enlarge the Temple Mount for his grand temple. Certainly the southern end of the mount is filled since earthquakes shake the daylights out of the El Aksa Mosque on that end and affect the Dome of the Rock (on bedrock) not at all. This West Wall with its gigantic ashlars continues down for at least another 10 meters below current grade, as shafts bored next to it reveal. This is far more than would be needed for a foundation, and with that much more elevation to the mount must have been very impressive. With analysis of the materials found behind The Wall, many questions regarding the construction of the temples may be answered.
The face of Freemasonry would change not one iota regardless of the finds made at Jerusalem. The building of the Temple gives us the opportunity for an allegory of brotherhood and sanctions that personal project which needs to be completed within the heart of every Mason. But even if we need no physical temple of antiquity and reality as a basis for our fraternity, it is fascinating to know that the skilled hands of an ancient fraternity of craftsman created stunning works, erected to God, from the simple stone of the Judean hills.
Article by Bro. John Worlein, and sourced from the Sunday Masonic Paper, to whom our thanks go.
MASONIC MYTHS
PART 1
Masonic myths and outright falsehoods have been spread concerning Freemasonry for hundreds of years. Throughout the centuries Freemasonry has taught its valuable lessons through allegory and symbols. Many historians and Masonic speakers use anecdotes to illustrate the points they want to make. These methods emphasize the search for truth in an interesting and factual manner.
Myths on the other hand, can be innocent or dangerous. They can be outright lies or the continuation of distortions handed down through the generations. Many of these were invented by Masonic writers and speakers to enhance the image of Freemasonry. Some of these corruptions have caused the Craft problems with creditable historians because they were just plain outrageous lies.
Myth: Freemasonry is a religion.
Fact: Absolutely false. This is one of several arguments employed by certain religious fanatics in publications and on web sites in an attempt to discredit Freemasonry. They quote Albert Pike and Henry Wilson Coil, among others, neither of whom was a man of the cloth, to "prove" their statements. Most of the hundreds of thousands of words they wrote came from their own mind, or the minds of others with whom they agreed. Coil wrote millions of words about Freemasonry, and he was a lawyer and an excellent Masonic researcher. Most of the time the words of these and other writers are taken out of context to "prove" the thesis of the anti-Masons. Freemasonry's enemies conveniently ignore the thousands of Christian ministers, and Rabbis, who prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that
Freemasonry, although religious is far from being a religion. Here are just three of these Doctors of Divinity who have proven the critics in error: Joseph Fort Newton, Norman Vincent Peale and Forrest D. Haggard.
Myth: Freemasons are Satanists, because in their Lodges they do not pray to Jesus Christ, but to a generic God.
Fact: What rubbish, Freemasonry encompasses all religions. Just because we do not pray to one specific being does not make us satanic. If you follow their logic that we Masons are Satanist because we do not pray to Jesus then all Canadians must be Satanist because their National Anthem, which in itself is a prayer has the words, "God keep our Land," not Jesus keep our Land. All Americans who sing "God Bless America" which also in itself is a prayer would be satanic because they do not sing Jesus Bless America, even all Englishmen, must be satanic because they sing "God Save the Queen," not Jesus save the Queen. Anyone who has been a witness in court and who has sworn to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, "So help me God" must also be satanic, because they do not say So help me Jesus. To say Masons are satanic is pure rubbish.
Myth
:
Freemasonry is a secret society.
Fact: Unequivocally false. This is widely stated and believed, even by some Freemasons. Many older Masons believe this so strongly they won't even talk to their wives and families about the Craft. Many writers of yesteryear helped promote this error. Sometimes even our ritualists have added to the belief. The critics of Freemasonry want the world to believe in this secrecy because they have little else on which to stand. Yet by no stretch of the imagination can Masonry be termed a secret
organization. If it was, no outsiders would even know it exists. Anything that is known is not secret. Without question there are many secret organizations throughout the world, but only men and women within those circles are familiar with them. Most, if not all, ritualistic religions have conclaves (literally: rooms locked with a key from outsiders). Should these be condemned along with Freemasonry? Secret means: "Kept from general knowledge or view; kept hidden; operating in a clandestine manner"; and on and on. Secret groups meet in places known only to the few. Freemasons meet in places clearly and proudly marked for the public to see. Secret organizations never record anything that might become public property.
Members of secret organizations never advertise their affiliation; Freemasons proudly wear the Square and Compasses and other emblems. So let us dispel the myth that Freemasonry is a "secret Organization." It isn't. It never has been.
… #80 in a series of nuggets from the Quarry of Freemasonry, Douglas M. Messimer, PM, LEO Tuckahoe Lodge 347 03/16. Part Two of Masonic Myths will appear in the April 25 issue of SRA76.
The Second Degree
‘You are now permitted to extend your researches into the hidden mysteries of nature and science.’
Like the middle child, The Second Degree is sometimes passed over lightly, and considered merely a stepping stone from the First to the Third Degree. While it may lack the excitement of Initiation and the drama of Raising, it is highly significant in its own
right. Of the Three Degrees it is the shortest, yet there is much contained within it. If we consider the philosophy of the three degrees of Craft Masonry to represent the three principal stages of human existence – birth, life, and death – then the Second Degree takes on a new perspective, teaching the important lessons of life as we ascend the winding stair. Learning is symbolized by reference to the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Fellowcraft is presented with the Square of morality and virtue, the Level of equality, and the Plumb Rule of integrity – tools of testing – to prove the accuracy and veracity of his practice of Moral Geometry. These are also the Moveable Jewels that designate the three principal officers of the Lodge.
When the first Grand Lodge came into being in 1717, some Masonic historians suggest that the ritual consisted of only one degree, from which the Fellowcraft was formed by 1720 and the Master Mason by 1723. Others maintain that in 1717 there were two Degrees, corresponding to our first and third, and that the first was divided up to make the first and second. Some validation of this theory may be found in our present Rites. The first two Degrees are very similar in structure, while the Third is quite different in form. Both schools of though agree that by 1723 there were three degrees.
Much of our knowledge of the verbal content of these degrees comes from the several ‘exposures’ published in the eighteenth century, the best known of which was Samuel Pritchard’s Masonry Dissected published in 1730. The opening and closing dialogue for the three degrees in our ritual retains the form of the early catechisms is use at the time.
It is worth noting that in our jurisdiction, although all business of the Lodge is
conducted in the First Degree, including the Election of Officers, the wording of the Installation Ceremony states that the Worshipful Master was “elected by the Master, Wardens, and Fellows in open lodge assembled.” In the ceremonies compiled by M.W. Bro. Otto Klotz for Dedicating a Lodge Hall and Consecrating a New Lodge by the Grand Master and Grand Lodge, the Lodge is opened and the ceremonies are conducted in the Second Degree.
It might also be mentioned that the Aprons of the two senior officers of Grand Lodge, the Grand Master and the Deputy Grand Master, are embroidered with symbols mentioned in the Lecture given by the Senior Warden in the Second Degree: the pomegranates, the lotus flowers, and seveneared wheat. Such is the importance of the Second Degree.
The term Fellow is an honorific indicating training and experience, skill and ability in the Craft. It is a designation also found in the academic world, where certain professional Colleges confer diplomas in three grades: Associate, Licentiate, and Fellow.
In the Charge to the Newly Initiated Candidate given at the end of the First Degree, he is admonished “to make a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge.” Because we learn best that which we discover for ourselves, Masonry requires us to reflect and consider what is implied in the rites and ceremonies – to read between the lines and think of many things. As Speculative or thinking Masons, we must always look below the surface and seek an inner depth and more profound meaning for its symbols and allegories. As the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche wrote: “A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions – as attempts to
find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.” Nothing focuses our attention better than a question.
Man is a meaning seeking creature; we are by nature inquisitive. Dr. Samuel Johnson identified this human trait: “Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.” He went further to state: “Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.” Perhaps the most important question in Freemasonry is, ‘WHY?’
Although he was not a Freemason, Albert Einstein, the renowned physicist of the twentieth century, expressed it thus: “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
There are many incisive questions that are posed by the Second Degree, principal among which are: Where does the Winding Stair really lead? Why does it turn inward? Where is the Middle Chamber? The correct answer to these questions encapsulates the essence of the whole philosophy of Freemasonry. Therefore, properly considered, the Second Degree takes on great significance and heightened importance. It is at the very heart of Freemasonry.
Article sourced from ‘A Masonic Minute’ in the Hamiltondistricttmasons website. RSJD 2014.
THE BACK PAGE
SLIPSHOD
Within the workings of our ritual the commonplace word ‘slipshod’ is understood. The dictionary definition is interesting and worth reproducing –“may imply an acceptance of the shabby, worn out, and imperfect. Something unsound inexact that had the conscientious craftsman’s contempt.”
If that is the case - then the term and practice is singularly inappropriate.
Actually, the terminology is at fault here. In many constitutions the term used is ‘the rite of discalceation’ from the Latin discalceatus, meaning “unshod” or “barefooted.” A candidate for Initiation into a Freemasons Lodge often finds odd those requirements that he must fulfil in order to do as all good brethren have before him. Indeed, that preparation may often remain a puzzle to him.
Not always does the new-made brother, bewildered by the new world into which he is thrust, investigate further to learn a deeper meaning to the ceremony through which he has just passed. In our ritual we quote from the 3rd chapter of Exodus, “put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place wheron thou standest is Holy Ground.”
“Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: Therefore, the kinsman said unto Boaz, buy it for thee. - So he drew off his shoe.”
‘Redeeming’ here means the taking back or the recovery of land or property pledged as a debt. ‘Charging’ refers to the transfer of ownership.
As both were then, as now, matters of importance, it is evident that the act of plucking off a shoe was a pledge of honour and fair dealing, was of equal importance, compared with our practice today with our swearing to our signature to documents before a Commissioner for Oaths.
