October 2020

Presented by R.W. Bro. Ken Overy G.L. of BC & Yukon (Canada)

Tonight you were introduced to the Winding Staircase that is the central part of the Fellowcraft degree.

It shows a typical example of how the early writer of the Charges and rituals of the craft took an insignificant item, not actually a part of historical accuracy, and used it for dramatic effect to the candidate.

The first book of Kings, Chapter 6 Verse 8, in the 1611 King James Bible, is the only translation that mentioned a winding staircase.

This version states:
The door for the middle Chamber was in the right side of the house; and went up with a winding staircase into the middle chamber and out of the middle into the third.

There is one concept that the staircase was not in the temple proper but in the rooms that were attached to the outside and were possibly used as storerooms or dressing rooms.

Today most historians consider that the winding staircase mentioned in the 1611 bible held no importance whatsoever or the details of the temple construction would have devoted more space to it.

Scholars and Archaeologists differ as to the interpretation on both the historical and archaeological evidence and it is almost certain that both would not take much notice of the specific statements made in the Masonic Ritual of the Second Degree that we used this evening.

Also there is no indication of the stairway being divided into three sections of three, five and seven steps only it gave access to three floors. All earlier copies of the bible do not mention a winding stair and one even mentions a trap door with a basket that is drawn up like an elevator and as it passes the windows on the most Holy Place or inner chamber the passengers must hide their eyes.

Unfortunately successive conquerors of Jerusalem made a thorough job of the destruction of the temple so there is no part of the first temple remaining.

In your degree you were told how a Fellowcraft passed through to the middle chamber to receive his wages.

Even the bible did not come up with that one. There were about 80,000 masons working on the temple and it would have taken weeks to pass out the wine oil and corn to the Fellowcraft Freemasons alone.

So we must let the experts look after the answer because it is of little value to us as Freemasons today anyway.

Our Masonic view was almost certainly taken from the 1611 King James Version of the Old Testament. The original ritualists who in the 1720’s composed the lecture on the second degree, where every Fellowcraft must ascend the winding staircase in order to make his advancement in that degree, used this as a symbolic gesture,

We show it being made up of three divisions of three, five and seven steps leading to the Sanctuary of truth and it demands that the Masonic course of the candidate be clockwise and ascending to the East.

This clockwise ascendancy was accurate at least, as that was a defence system that in medieval times the spiral stairway wound in a clockwise direction to place the right handed attacking swordsmen at a disadvantage.

The mason is from the moment of his initiation as an Entered Apprentice to the time at which he receives the full fruition as a Master Mason is an investigator whose reward is truth and all the ceremonies and traditions of our fraternity lead us to this ultimate goal.
My interpretation on this is the Entered Apprentice Degree is your Birth into Freemasonry and your Master Mason degree is your eventual Death and both are very symbolic degrees.

The Fellowcraft degree you have just taken is different as the symbolism directs your working life. This part I call the nuts and bolts of your Masonic Life. A time when you are maturing that is shown by your advances up the stairway and you are invited to think and use your human senses, as these are the channels through which we receive our ideas of perception and which constitute the most important sources of our knowledge.

We see ourselves ascending the winding staircase with enquiring minds, discovering new ideas while the unseen reward of truth awaits us at the top.

We learn that the winding staircase represents the self-improvement of our intellect and moral character and this is the important issue to us.
It is your guide to a Mature Life that although is symbolic in its explanation is passing to you the advice on how you should advance as a man in the world.

It represents your personal self improvement and points to the practical side of Freemasonry. How you to lead your life and interact with your community. !!!

Many of the people you meet as you pass through this, your mature life, will not be Freemasons. That should not prevent you from passing a helping hand when you feel it is needed.
To offer comfort at a time of sadness. Not with the thought that you will be rewarded but because you are acting as a Freemason,

Thank you brethren and may your God go with you.

Comment
Brethren, this paper, in my opinion, describes and teaches the message of the Fellowcraft Degree which, in my opinion, outlines & explains, for the benefit of each and every Mason, the direction he has committed himself for follow.

Have a Wonderful Day & God Bless
Norm

By Bro.N.M.Spratt Hiram Lodge #14

Members of the Order of Ancient Freemasonry are ever on the search, guided by truth which is veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.

For what are they seeking???

They are seeking and searching for a something they can never fully discover, for just as they solve one problem they will always find another awaiting them.

What then is the use of this constant search?

Just this, that in the process they are evolving higher and higher in their labour of building the Temple.

That which they seek will ever recede as they advance toward it, this is what makes for progress, for as they reach one objective it brings with it the incentive to reach out further. If it were not for this we should be satisfied with our present position or condition. Satisfaction in this instance is Stagnation. Change is the law of Nature. Nothing stands still, everything is on the move, vibrating, pulsating, living. The moment we cease to go forward we are on our way back.

While we are thus seeking and searching let us always remember this;

“That which new are seeking is already seeking us” The Ancient Landmarks of the Order are inviolable. They are signposts of truth pointing the way, so that we find for ourselves the purpose of life and our relationship with the G.A.O.T.U. but that is all they can do.

We each have our own path to tread as we travel through on our journey through life. No one can travel that path for us. The most any teacher can do is point the way, so as to awaken the knowledge which is already within us awaiting for expression.

WE BUILD THE PATH; WE TREAD THE PATH; FOR WE ARE THE PATH

THE BUILDER == THE BUILDING == AND THE BUILDING ARE ONE.

A brother may study the Masonic Lore, become letter perfect in the ritual and make an impression with his able delivery, he may attend every convocation and answer and obey all summonses, and while this is commendable it does not mean that he is a True Mason.

It is the application of all the principles, tenets and symbols to ourselves so that they become a part of us that makes the Mason. It is the finding of the working tools within us, so that we are able to study the truth within each symbol and the meaning behind the allegory that we discover that the building to be built is

“WE OURSELVES”

that we are the rough stone, and we are the Mason who must labor to make that stone fit to become a part of the Temple.

“The Body is the Temple of the Living God”

No one can be initiated into the Order, he alone initiates himself.
He can go through the ceremony of initiation, a mere form of Ritual –an outer Ceremony with an inward spiritual meaning –

The TRUE INITIATION comes from within ourselves.

As the oak tree is potentially within the acorn, even so are we all the materials as symbolized in Masonry within us, all having innate possibilities though we may not yet be conscious of them. They are ready for us to be so awakened that we may use them, for every symbol in our order has its counterpart in us and teaches that we must apply them to ourselves.

Masonry portrays the way of life from the crossing of the threshold to the time we reach the end and shed all that is mortal, so that we may advance to “that sublunary abode the Grand Lodge above” where nothing mortal can enter, with the full assurance of immortality.

We cross the threshold to this physical plane “by the help of GOD” and are received in helpless condition by those who stand ready to help and guide us until such time as we are able to help ourselves. We are educated, serve our apprenticeship, and begin to find out that life is not a playground, nor an empty dream, but each has a definite part to play.

It was Longfellow who said:-

Tell me not in mournful numbers

Life is but an empty dream

And the soul is dead that slumbers

And things are not what they seem

Life is REAL. Life is earnest

And the grave is not it’s goal;

Dust thou art to dust returnest

Was not spoken of the Soul

We learn that there is a great deal more to life than we can see on the surface, that we are indeed living here on three different planes of being.

Spiritual ; Mental and Physical

And that each has its counterpart interwoven with the other so that whichever we do is registered on each plane.

We learn to stand apart from ourselves and find out that it is not our eyes that see, nor our ears that hear, but that we SEE with our eyes and HEAR with our ears. The physical organs are but the working tools we use to express ourselves on the material plane of being. We advance slowly step by step through experience and trial, with an abounding faith that there are no secrets in nature which cannot be discovered in due time, though there are many things, though there are many things beyond our KEN at this moment.

Our horizons widen as we climb to higher ground and understand more of natures laws.

All is vibration and the rate of our own vibration decides the extent of our discovery as we unlock the door to knowledge through one step at a time. Sometimes we are so steeped in materialism that we are in a state of darkness And can see no one to guide. This is the time to “Be still and know” and then on the darkness can be seen an inner light making the darkness visible that we may see beyond the veil. At this point if we will only:-

arise above mortal fear and sense, awaken to our spiritual selves and dare to follow that light

it will lead us to an understanding we little dream of. We literally lose ourselves to find ourselves, and that part of us which is Immortal.

Spirit never dies==it was==it is==and it shall be.
Everything goes back to what which it was= ashes to ashes= dust to dust & Spirit to Spirit.
To the true Mason death has no terrors, he has learned how to live and is prepared to meet a natural condition whereby he sheds his outer garments to live on. He has been conditioned to that plane of existence where he has all that is necessary to carry on and continue his JOURNEY.

There is no death, tis but re-birth

The sun goes on to another day

And so must I work take up.

Where I left off to come this way

And so may I as I take my leave

To Journey on toward the Light

Reflections leave to rainbow tints

And Like the SUN , bid you good-night.

Have a Wonderful Day & God Bless

Norm