Author

MasterMason

 

Adapted by V.W. Bro. Norman McEvoy from a paper by Freddy Berdach SLGR, PPSGW (Middx)

Preface:

This subject has been written and talked about for many years – and by many more eminent people than myself, but in this paper, I am hoping to show that speculative Freemasonry developed directly from the operative masons at a time when religious freedom was in danger.

I think the key question is why should members of the Upper Class join a group of men who are, after all, artisans?

I hope that through this paper, it can give a sound reason for this to have happened.

The fact that the operative masons needed men who were intelligent enough to be architects, quantity surveyors and mathematicians meant that they could only have come from the Upper Classes who had some education and that the tolerance of the guild of masons, banning religious prejudice, encouraged the aristocracy to join them to form speculative masonry, which developed over the centuries to what we know to-day.

Freemasonry is said to have been going ‘from time immemorial ‘.

But what does ‘from time immemorial’ really mean?

according to Bernard. E. Jones in Freemason’s Guide and Compendium, of 1950,

it is that time where the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.”

In this paper, I am going to show that Freemasonry evolved from operative masons to the speculative version we know to-day and will try to prove from various Manuscripts and historical records how this could have come about.

The Grand Lodge was formed in 1717, but we know that there were lodges, not only in London, but in various parts of the country long before then. One of the earliest records of a lodge was from the initiation of Elias Ashmole into a Warrington lodge in 1646.

Now Warrington was not a London, Birmingham or Manchester. It was a pleasant, small, dull country town. Therefore, lodges must have been in existence long before then and long before the FOUR London Lodges formed themselves into the ‘Grand Lodge’.

Operative Masons were building Gothic Cathedrals and castles in some parts of England from 1200 to 1500. The stonemasons of medieval times probably spent their entire working life on a few big sites.

On each site some kind of hut would be erected where masons could shelter in bad weather, store tools, organise work rotas and even sleep. The medieval word was ‘alogement’ from which the English word ‘Lodge’ is derived.

After the Black Death of 1348 –49, which killed as many as 1.5 million people in Britain, there was such a shortage of stonemasons that the survivors were able to bargain high wages through annual assemblies and when they met it was like the meeting place of a Guild and it is from the guilds that we get most of our officers’ names; Like Master, Wardens, Deacons, Scribe or secretary, Treasurer, Almoner and most important of all, Chaplain.

Through their ‘lodges’, the stonemasons protected themselves against a harsh and unforgiving world. They safeguarded their own jobs, and maintained work standards through a controlled rank structure and developed a system of mutual aid.

Like the city guilds of the day, they seem to have given charity to members in hard times. These Lodges were governed by Masters and there is even mention of Fellows of the Craft and Entered Apprentices (that is ‘entered on the books’) .

There is evidence that they were known to possess secrets related to the taking of oaths, and they probably ‘worked’ rituals in which initiates swore not to reveal the skills and trade secrets of their craft.

There must have been a secret understanding between masons in widely separated places which enabled them to recognise each other as such. The diary entries of Elias Ashmole illustrate the position as to modes of recognition because they show that Ashmole, who had been initiated in 1646 in Warrington, was acknowledged as a mason at another lodge in London some 35 years later.

The stonemasons were economically vulnerable because they did most of their work for one supremely rich patron – the Christian Church. At that time, there was only one Church in the West, headed by the Pope of Rome. The Church was the greatest employer of stonemasons as is evidenced by the building of the great churches of Westminster, Windsor and Cambridge during the sixteenth century.

John Harvey in his Gothic England shows to what extent church building was going on in England in the 1530’s which were at the expense of laymen, who were building in wood and mud.

The fabulous great fan vault of the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, built from 1512 to 1515, was regarded as a miracle of design and construction and the Chapel was one of the few Gothic buildings to be praised unstintingly when classical architecture was at the height of fashion.

To the same period belong King Henry Vll’s Chapel at Westminster Abbey, the magnificent tower of Canterbury Cathedral and many glorious parish churches of which Lavenham, Saffron Waldon, Cirencester, St. Mary’s Beverly and the spire at Louth are a few outstanding examples.

The magnificence of English and European cathedrals and the brilliance of the Master Builders and Craftsmen who designed and built them is for all to see. Cathedral building is a fusion of man’s greatest accomplishment in the arts, sciences and humanities over the centuries.

During the Middle Ages and the rise of Gothic architecture there were two distinct classes of Masons. The Guild Masons, who, like the Guild carpenters or weavers or merchants, were local in character and strictly regulated by law, and the Freemasons, who travelled about from city to city as their services were needed to design and erect those marvellous churches and cathedrals which still stand to-day.

The history of the Freemasons through the cathedral – building ages up to the Reformation and the gradual decline of the building art, needs volumes, where they are but pages. Freemasons were far more than architects and builders; they were artist, teachers, mathematicians and poets of their time.

There were some Stone Masons who could readily grasp the spatial concepts of geometry and conceive designs of structures not yet built.

The Regius and Cook manuscripts of 1390 have shown that masons aspired to a connection with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences, perhaps suggesting that master masons sought to be regarded as ‘scholars and gentlemen’.

It speaks of meeting in ‘Logge’, calls the regulations ‘Constitutions’, enjoins secrecy, exacts an oath of obedience, forbids the slandering of a brother and requires that the local gentry be allowed to participate in the assembly.

To these skilled artisans with their secrets and modes of recognition came Masters and architects who were not necessarily artisans or craftsmen.

Work for the operative masons did not only deal with church building.

There was also work to be done in building large country houses, mainly for the new aristocracy. Such work must have involved private transactions often of a modest nature compared to the building of castles and the great churches.

Work on country estates may not have involved the general public with the masons’ craft as much as church work did, but this type of work surely brought the operative masons into closer contact with the learned gentry, property owners of the Middle Class, who were more likely to become involved with speculative masonry.

This would have involved groups of masons, nobles, gentlemen and even monks.

This inspired the public financing of parish churches to a remarkable extent.

Parish church maintenance was a divided responsibility, the chancel being at the expense of the rector and the naïve/main hall at the expense of the parishioners.

In the same way, a lord of the manor or a rich merchant would sometimes pay for an entire manor house building.

This was the reason for bringing together masons and non-masons with some degree of permanency.

It gives a very good reasons for the gentry to be interested in the operative mason’s lodges – the practical working out of the commission to build a parish church, with donors and builders working together to guarantee a successful outcome.

It would seem to me that craftsmen would probably have admitted architects, planners and administrators such as chaplains, treasurers and those responsible for the highly complicated logistics with their operation.

Hence, the entry of non-operatives into their lodges, who they called Accepted Masons.

Some evidence as to the possible existence of non-operative Masons earlier than that of 1646 relates to the London Company of Masons, whose earliest surviving records commence

in 1621 and show payments for ‘making masons’ which include names of men who were already members of that Company.

From an entry of 1631 it refers to ‘Masons that were to be ‘accepted’, and from subsequent entries it is clear that non-operative masons were being ‘accepted’ into the company, this being the same expression as that used to describe non-operative masons in the latter part of the seventeenth century.

A Grant of Arms to the London Company of Masons has been traced back to 1472 and its existence to 1356.

Through the years, particularly those which saw the decline of great building and the coming of the Reformation, more and more men became Accepted Masons and less and less the operative building Freemasons.

In 1482, in Scotland, during James ll reign a stone mason by the name of Cochrane, who had been the architect of the Great Hall in Stirling Castle, became so popular with the king that he made him an Earl and so moved him into the upper class of society.

The office of Warden General and Master of Work is known to have existed as early as 1539. Sir Alexander Strachan was made a member of a Lodge as early as 1600 as were Lord Alexander, Sir Anthony Alexander, John Boswell and the Laird of Auchinleck.

The records of the Lodge of Aberdeen at their commencement in 1670 show that of the forty-nine fellow crafts or master masons who were then members of the lodge, only ten were operative masons. The other thirty nine consisted of four noblemen, three gentlemen, eight professional men, nine merchants and fifteen tradesmen, indicating that Freemasonry, more or less as we know it, could have started in Scotland.

The concept that it could have originated in two adjoining countries, quite independently, is most unlikely.

It is clearly shown that persons of nobility, high birth or rank, good social position were actually members of Freemasonry, which was an institution where men of very different walks of life could meet in brotherhood.

Sir John Savile, Warden of Merton College Oxford (1619), invited the mason families of Akroyd and Bentley to Oxford to stay with him to extend Merton College Fellows’ Quadrangle and the Bodleian library.

This is the kind of association that may have developed into something resembling the ‘fellowship’ that Robert Plot describes in his book ‘The Natural History of Staffordshire’.

We can no longer be in any doubt that the Freemasons’ Lodges which arose in 1717 were nothing else but a new sort of club. It stated that the newly initiated found in the Lodge a safe and pleasant relaxation from intense study or hurry of business, without politics or party.

Yet those Lodges had ceremonies which were a connecting link with the older Freemasonry.

In the early years from and before 1717 the Craft Lodges were purely convivial societies and nothing more.

All the same, the new Masonry had its roots in a certain amount of mystic ceremonies which had been handed down and providing them to be a survival of something else.

Hughan, in his ‘Origin of the English Rite’, points out the importance of this by remarking: “Freemasonry has a history based upon veritable documents, such as the ‘Old Charges’ dating back some five hundred years and actual records from the sixteenth century.

The “Old Charges” may be claimed by the Craft Masons, but in them there occur certain Hebrew pseudonyms and other features indicating the existence side by side with the Building Guilds of secret societies of a Speculative character.

Freemasonry in the seventeenth century related to Lords, gentlemen, merchants and professional men at one end of the social scale, and employers of labour and self employed tradesmen, at the other.

Something must have attracted and retained the members of the nobility and gentry to non-operative masonry. Whatever the attraction was, it must have been very strong indeed.

Even the skilled mason was still a member of the labouring class, the lowest of the four main classes of society identifiable at that time, so it is difficult to visualise the upper classes descending the social ladder to associate with the operative craft, but we know that this is what they did.

Masonry was spread – more or less – all over the Nation.

The Lodge at Warrington of 1646 could be the only piece of surviving evidence that provincial Freemasonry was fairly widespread.

The existence of non-operative Masonry in the early seventeenth century in places as divergent as London, Warrington and Scotland, as well as the development of the difference in form as between English and Scottish lodges, suggest that the origins of the movement could well have been in an era before 1600 and possibly considerably before that.

The age of medieval church building came to an end abruptly.

There were cross currents in religious feeling.

The strong support for parish church building seems to have been based on prosperity, local pride and a spirit of material disinterestedness, combined with the idea of providing for the life to come.

At the same time, there was a growing disenchantment with the worldliness of the monks and the clergy, and a distaste for a rule involving both Church and State, and in particular for Cardinal Wolsey, and a hatred of the financial exactions of the Roman Church.

In 1534 it all changed. Henry VIII broke with Rome, denied the authority of the Pope, became an Anglican and threw England into the Reformation.

In a few years he seized the Roman Church’s wealth, dissolved and dispossessed the monasteries and brought ecclesiastical building to a halt.

Suddenly the number of stonemasons far exceeded demand. They lost their bargaining power, their lodges decayed, and their assets, if any, were looted by the State.

In 1545, Henry desperately needed money for the maintenance of the war with France.

This gave him an excuse to confiscate the assets of all ‘Fraternities’ and Guilds which were Roman Catholic institutions which he considered as ‘fair game’.

By 1600 most of these had disappeared along with their records, which is why the true history of the stonemasons lodges are lost.

The breach with Rome opened the floodgates for Royal domination of the Church & for the dissolution of the monasteries.

Equally important was the printing of the English Bible which gave literate men the capability of forming their own views on religion. The old enthusiasm for church building was continuing in some places while roofs were being pulled off monastic churches in others.

But soon it was evident that the country as a whole had become full of parish church building.

The groups of operative masons who, it is suggested, had obtained continuous employment at one place or another, found suddenly that the pattern of demand for their services had greatly altered, partly due to the use of bricks in building rather than stone.

Severe trauma arose from religion in the reign of Edward VI, with the extreme austere Puritanism and the destruction of much that was beautiful in churches.

There were horrific burnings in the name of Roman Catholicism in the reign of Mary.

Elizabeth attempted a compromise which did not satisfy many of her subjects.

The Roman Catholic Mary Queen of Scots as heiress to the English throne, or, according to one view, the rightful sovereign, represented a threat to Protestant England.

If operative masons lodges existed during this period with “accepted” brethren who were not operative masons and who had never worked a stone in their life, the disintegration of the operative side of the lodges’ activities due to the cessation of church building could well have been the reason why non-operatives such as merchants, landed gentlemen and aristocrats would have continued and might well have become a well established entity.

Plot’s History of 1586 coincided with a period when the study of architecture was a gentleman’s pastime. If non-operative masonry existed with harmony between brethren as one of the precepts, the prohibition of religious and political disputes would have been a step which would have preserved the movement, and would have provided a basis for the future extension of its popularity among the moderate men of differing shades of opinion during a period of religious and political turmoil.

A requirement that the religion of freemasons should be ‘that religion in which all men agree’ was another way of saying the same thing.

Secrecy of what they were doing in their Lodges would have been another enormous incentive.

It must be borne in mind that the political and religious unrest had existed for a lengthy period of time.

Starting with the disestablishment of the Catholic Church and the destruction of the monasteries under Henry Vlll;

The death of Charles lst.; Cromwell; the Duke of Monmouth’s rebellion 1685; the flight of James ll in 1688; a new regime under William and Mary, the Union of England and Scotland in 1707; and another new regime when George lst, came to the throne in 1714; and finally the intrigues of the Stuart pretenders; all must have played their part in affecting the secret Fraternity.

Such people were not only attracted by the quaint customs of this workmen’s self-defence organization, they also had the money to revive it. Within decades the landowners and merchants had appropriated an originally Roman Catholic labour union and turned it into a predominantly Protestant gentlemen’s club. The name ‘lodge’ was retained – rather as a façade of an old building is preserved to maintain a historic appearance.

Behind it, the old structure had been demolished and a new one was rising in its place.

The fact the ‘secrecy’ was part of their ceremonies only enhanced their desire to take part.

The Constitution of 1723 suggests the existence of regulations which excluded religious differences and stopped religious and political quarrels.

It was the Toleration Act of 1689 which granted religious freedom to all save Roman Catholics and Unitarians and was a concession secured only under the direst necessity of forming a united front of Tories and Whigs to eject/remove James II.

By putting an end to religious persecution, an immense amount of pressure was released which previous Freemasons were under, presented a challenge to provide members with a refuge from religious and political strife and the violence that sometimes followed.

It provided something of an escape by enabling men of different faiths to meet in harmony, freed from the stress which separated Whig from Tory and in a previous generation,

The involvement in Freemasonry in both sides in the Civil War is shown by Elias Ashmole’s initiation at Warrington in October 1646.

Ashmole was a Royalist, but his co-initiate, Col. Henry Mainwaring, who was his brother-in-law, was a Parliamentarian and, since they were on opposite sides of the early Civil Wars, who would have cheerfully killed each other only a few months earlier.

Ashmole, though a Royalist, joined what was, in effect, a Lodge of Roundheads, whilst staying with his Parliamentarian in-laws, showing that Freemasonry had something both could accept without quarrelling.

Although the exact origins of Freemasonry are certainly not clearly defined, I find it difficult to believe that Ashmole and Mainwaring would have ridden over to Warrington to join a society which required them to hobnob with members of the working class.

On the one hand, I have tried to show that speculative Freemasonry grew out of Operative masons, via non-operative masons, who joined the band of craftsmen, firstly so as to supervise the work on buildings, then perhaps to pay for their construction, to becoming architects in their own right and finally to find a group of men, who behaved honourably, had laws of conduct and behaved in a general moral sense.

With the increase in wealth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the political and religious turmoil that raged, quite a number of Lords of the manor, gentlemen and merchants found refuge in the society of masons who barred religious and political discussions.

Lodges became more and more intertwined between operative and non-operative masons and to lend distinction and honour to them, some nobility and gentry were asked to become their leaders. On the other hand, I have tried to give some idea of a time-scale when all this could have started. As we know, written records are rare and therefore we can only try to put some logicality to it.

In Gould’s History of Freemasonry, certain copies of the Old Charges shed a light on Masonic activities, both operative and non-operative and we now come to the question of whether versions of the Old Charges might have been adopted by non-operative masons to provide a background of antiquity and honour for what was mainly, a new idea, namely the requirement that members were to be ‘of that Religion in which all men agree’ – new in the sense that such a provision must be post-Reformation.

Entry to a lodge was, and is, opposed by a guard wearing a duelling sword and a poniard, normal dress of the early 17th Century middle class male.

Before 1600, naval swords, cutlass like, predominated.

After 1640, pistols and cavalry swords were the normal protection weaponry.

Elizabeth’s reign may seem a period when non-operative Masonry might have originated because it is sufficiently previous to the earliest known existence of the “Acceptance” in the London Company of Masons and Ashmole’s initiation in 1646 to be possible.

The superficial historical character of speculative Masonry, whilst having extensive reference to parts of the Old Testament and references to the Classical Orders of Architecture, has no language indicative of medieval Christianity – normally a sign of being medieval, and there are no obvious features in speculative Masonry, either verbal or visual, suggestive of Gothic architecture.

A time of the Renaissance: a time of fierce intellectual strife and conflict between old hallowed ideas and emerging new visions; a time of social, spiritual and moral dimension in all aspects of human existence.

It was a time to offer safe havens for those honestly searching for wisdom and truth. It is therefore quite possible that the origins of what we are looking at now, is on the one hand pre seventeenth century and on the other, post-medieval, a requirement suggesting Queen Elizabeth’s reign.

The most probable dates for the commencement of Speculative Freemasonry would seem to be between 1563 and 1612.

The ancient sources upon which every such paper as this has to be based, are tantalizingly fragmentary, intractable and enigmatic. Yet although I realize all too well how inadequate my story is, I believe that the evidence is at least sufficiently extensive and varied to justify this further attempt to describe that part of our history, and to show how Freemasonry could have evolved.

Bibliography:

Constitution of the Free-Masons James Anderson (reprint 1976)

Freemasons Guide and Compendium E. Jones (1956)

Gothic England – John Harvey (1947)

Plot’s History of 1686

Comment

This paper has sat on my desk for a number of years as I felt it to be much too lengthy

for the majority of readers

Now with a great many of us being somewhat slowed down due to the Covid Virus,

I feel there is a very good chance that we may now have a little more time to look

back and get a deeper understanding of where our Craft could have had its beginnings.

Personally I believe this is an excellent basis to work from as I was NOT THERE

Have a wonderful Day & God Bless

Norm

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The Old Fisherman

by MasterMason

origin unknown; shared by V.W.Bro.Norman McEvoy

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore . We lived downstairs & rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the Clinic.

One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man.

‘Why, he’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old,’  I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body.

But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red & raw. Yet, his voice was pleasant as he said ,’Good evening.

I’ve come to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, & there’s no bus ’till morning.’

He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no success; no one seemed to have a room.

‘I guess it’s my face. I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments…’

For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me,
‘I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning.’

I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside & finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us.  “No thank you. I have plenty'” And he held up a brown paper bag.

When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn’t take a long time to see that this old man had an over sized heart crowded into that tiny body.

He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children & her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.

He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer.

He was thankful for the strength to keep going.

At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children’s room for him.
When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded, & the little man was out on the porch.

He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favour, he said,

‘Could I please come back & stay the next time I have a treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair.’

He paused a moment & then added,

‘Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don’t seem to mind.’

I told him he was welcome to come again.

On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish & a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen.

He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they’d be nice & fresh. I knew his bus left at 4 a.m., & I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.

In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.

Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish & oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these & knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.

When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbour made after he left that first morning.

‘Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!’

Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice But, oh if only they could have known him, perhaps their illness would have been easier to bear.

I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint & the good with gratitude.

Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself,

‘If this were my plant, I’d put it in the loveliest container I had!’

My friend changed my mind. ‘I ran short of pots,’ she explained, ‘and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn’t mind starting out in this old pail. It’s just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden.’

She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. There’s an especially beautiful one,’ God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman.

‘He won’t mind starting in this small body.’

All this happened long ago — and now, in God’s garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand..

The LORD does not look at the things man looks at.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’

Friends are very special. They make you smile & encourage you to succeed.  They lend an ear & they share a word of praise. Show your friends how much you care.  Pass this on and brighten someone’s day.
Nothing will happen if you do not decide to pass it along.
The only thing that will happen though, is that someone might smile because of you!

 

Never look down on anybody, unless you are helping them up.
 “Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil –  it has no point.”
 WISHING YOU LOVE IN YOUR HEART…PEACE IN YOUR SOUL..AND JOY IN YOUR LIFE…..ALWAYS…
Norm

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The Square – 2021

by MasterMason

By: W. Bro. R.E. Salmon; January, 1987. Grand Lodge of Saskatchewan (Canada)

Albert Mackey discusses the square as “one of the most important and significant symbols in Freemasonry

The French Masons have almost universally presented it with one leg longer than the other, thus making it a carpenter’s square. The American Masons have, while generally preserving the equality of length in the legs, unnecessarily marked its surface with inches, thus making it an instrument for measuring length and breadth, which it is not. It is simply the ‘trying square’ of a stonemason, and has a plain surface; the sides or legs embracing an angle of ninety degrees, and it is intended only to test the accuracy of the sides of a stone, and to see that its edges subtend the same angle.

In looking around at a few examples, if we see that the symbol of the square and compasses on our monthly summons is correct; the square is plain. However, some lodges are apparently in error in having the square (on the cover) graduated in inches.

The Book of Constitution correctly has a plain un-graduated square. Nevertheless, the symbol on the doors at the Grand Lodge office in Regina has a graduated square.

This is a small point, and one evidently not widely recognized. Nor is it one that will be readily corrected. However, it is desirable that the true form of so important a symbol be preserved, and it doesn’t hurt to be aware of the correct expression of the Masonic Square.

Candidates for the F.C. degree hope to obtain the privileges of the degree by “the assistance of the square”. The Lodge, in the F.C. degree, is duly opened on the square.

Note Candidates are obligated within the square. Masons move on the square in the course of their Masonic duties.

The square has been used symbolically for thousands of years by non-Masons as well as by members of the Craft.

The ancient Egyptians word for “square” was used as meaning “just” and “proper”.

To the non-Masonic public today, a transaction is noted to be “on the square” when it is honest and above board.

As a Masonic symbol, the square is very ancient and was familiar to the operative Masons.

In 1830, workmen rebuilding a bridge near Limerick, Ireland, found and old corroded brass square, inscribed with the words

“I WILL STRIVE TO LIVE WITH LOVE AND CARE UPON THE LEVEL – BY THE SQUARE”, and dated 1517.

I spoke earlier about the true form of the Masonic square. It is an error to give it one leg longer than the other, making it a carpenter’s square. It is also wrong to mark its surface in inches (or even centimeters). This makes it an instrument for measuring length and breadth, which it is not. It is the simple trying square of the stonemason, intended only to test the accuracy of the sides of a stone.

But however drawn, the square remains a symbol of morality, of truthfulness, of honesty, as it has been recognized as such, both within and outside Masonry for many centuries.

 

Comment
I have found it amazing that so many of us simply take the Square for granted and do not
(until now) know its full meaning and correctness.

Have a wonderful Day & God Bless
Norm

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The Sprig of Acacia

by MasterMason

by R. W. Bro. J. H. Young, 1975

From the first moment when the elected candidate enters the ante room and is required to profess his belief in a Supreme Being, and all other subsequent questions as a condition of his being initiated, up to that instant when he is raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason, the candidate is marching steadily forward to a greater light and the great secret of Masonry.

Moreover, the candidate is assured that in all that follows in respect to his vows, “there is nothing inconsistent with one’s civil, moral or religious views”.

It is the GREAT secret and yet it is no secret in the sense that it cannot be told. Because the Bible, the Church and Freemasonry the world over herald its message to all men – the truth of immortality and a life beyond.

If the All Seeing Eye is the most ancient in the ritual of Masonry, then the grandest of emblems and symbols of the Master Mason’s Degree, the Sprig of Acacia, holds the greatest of comfort.

As a symbol of hope, this sprig of evergreen marks the temporary resting place of the illustrious dead, for is it not the whole drama of the Master Mason’s degree, one which teaches in most simple terms the immortality of the soul?

The Sprig of Acacia, in its most ordinary signification, presents itself to the Master Mason as a symbol of the immortality of the soul, being intended to remind him by its evergreen and unchanging nature of a better and a spiritual part within us, which is an emanation from the G.A.O.T.U., & can never die.

The acacia tree grows abundantly in many parts of Eastern lands and more especially in the Holy Land. It attains a great height and is among the hardest of wood. It is one of the evergreens and in contrast to other varieties of trees which shed their leaves, the Acacia is a perpetual reminder of life.

Among the Jews it was held in great reverence and was used in building the Tabernacle and its furniture.

Tradition loves to claim Christ’s crown of thorns was from this particular tree.

The Acacia has other peculiar characteristics in that its life seems so tenacious that it is said on authority that if a cut off portion happens to come into contact with the ground it will begin to grow again. From it a very fine species of Arabic gum is secured. The Arabs as well as the Jews hold it in high esteem.

The Acacia has been consecrated from among the trees by virtue of the sacred purposes to which it is used. Masons have appropriated this hallowed and sacred tree to equally sacred purposes of a symbol that teaches this basic truth of the soul.

It is incorporated into the funeral service in such words as “this evergreen is an emblem of our faith by which we are reminded that we have an immortal part which shall survive the grave and which shall never die.”

It is one of the oldest landmarks of Masonry wherein the Sprig of Acacia symbolizes everlastingness of the soul in which is embedded that boundless certainty of spiritual revival, but it also implies and takes for granted a large measure of faith.

It is not only the emblem of a future state but of faith itself.

This, then, is what appears to be the hidden meaning of the symbol of the Sprig of Acacia.

It is the emblem, not only of immortality, but of faith and of a belief in that which cannot be seen; in that which cannot be demonstrated and in that which cannot be shown as evidence.

The Sprig of Acacia is all of a promise but it is far more than that; it is a symbol of that which alone can bring peace and happiness to the human spirit.

 

Comment
This paper has offered me an answer as to WHY at a Masonic Funeral it is very common to see Brethren laying a sprig of Acacia on the altar or other significant table etc.

It proves, once again, that it is never too late for everyone to be made aware of WHY we do what we do.

Have a Wonderful Day & God Bless
Norm

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Symbolism and Freemasonry

by MasterMason

by R.W. Bro. Garnet E. Schenk and modified by V.W. Bro. Norman McEvoy

The first symbols that catch the eye of the candidate when he is restored to light are the three great thought emblematic lights of Masonry.  They are the V.O.S.L., the square and the compasses.

The reference to the V.O.S.L., the square and the compasses as furniture of the lodge has a special meaning; it is intended to remind us that the lodge is not furnished or complete unless those three items are present, in place and treated with the utmost respect.

The heart will not have the necessary understanding without the lessons, the philosophy and the teachings of the three great lights. The three great lights are the central point in a lodge and often are referred to as the point within a circle. The three great lights represent the essential elements of the Masonic system. They involve virtue, moral conduct toward fellowmen and reverence to God.

The V.O.S.L. is God’s gift to man and that within its pages can be found the wisdom and the truth that all Freemasons seek. The V.O.S.L. tracing board on which lines and designs are laid out for the guidance of each member. It is important for all Masons to understand and recognize that the V.O.S.L. proves the Masonic claim that men of all faiths, creeds and races may travel the Masonic road together in harmony.

The candidate is taught that the square symbolizes morality and righteousness. It is intended to keep us in touch with God; morality and righteousness cannot be separated. It is God, morality and righteousness that set the standard for the Order and to regulate our life actions.

The third of the three Great Lights, the compasses symbolizes spirituality. The compasses remind the candidate to
“circumscribe your desires and keep your passions within due bounds”.

The Entered Apprentice is taught that those duties are not reserved for the brethren alone but must be exercised toward all men.

The three lesser lights are represented by the sun, the moon and the Master of the Lodge. Without the sun and the moon there would be no planet called “earth” and without the Worshipful Master there would be no Masonic Lodge.

Symbolically the covering of a Masonic lodge is the “Clouded Canopy or Starry Decked Heavens”

and is symbolically shown in some way in most every lodge. It represents that heavenly abode toward which the visionary ladder of Jacob intends to lead us. The Freemason learns of three principal rounds in the ladder; Faith, Hope and Charity.

Masonic charity is in reality love and extends beyond money to the giving of self in caring for the widow, the orphan and those in need. Masonic charity symbolizes the heart of man.

It is implied that the ladder of Jacob has other rounds and that without them the principal ones would be of little use in the heavenward journey. Among them are; brotherly love, relief and truth the tenets of Masonry. To those rounds we can add
temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice. Taken together these rounds symbolize perfection, something every Mason should strive to reach.

It should be noted that fortitude for a Mason symbolizes more than physical courage; it refers to moral courage. It is the maintaining of high principles at all times. Temperance symbolizes restraint. Prudence symbolizes wisdom and justice as practiced by the Mason symbolizes equality.

The words of the Junior Warden’s lecture contain a hidden Truth for those who wish to seek for it. If it is true that Masonry is a progressive science, there is no better symbol of progress than a ladder. Jacob’s ladder represents the intellectual communication between earth and heaven.

The lesson is that the progress made up and down the ladder is meant to teach everyone to descend to the level of his fellowmen in order to fulfill the duty placed up him in the lecture of the north-east angle.

Success in climbing Jacob’s ladder is not found in reaching a specific destination but a continuous step by step journey until he figuratively reaches the top of the ladder resting against the covering of the lodge which is symbolic of Heaven itself.

The candidate is presented with a pure white apron (lambskin) and informed that it will only be honourable if worn worthily by the the candidate. The mason must continue to prove himself worthy of wearing the lambskin by putting into practice the lessons, teachings and philosophy of the Order.

The apron is a symbol of innocence, purity and honour.

 

Comment
I feel honoured & delighted to be able to share this paper with you
Have a wonderful Day & God Bless
Norm

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Why Masonry Lives

by MasterMason

by a Past Grand Master – Masonic Square, Vancouver, Oct. 1921

Permanency and vitality are not necessarily characteristics of the good. Bad institutions have survived the wreck of empires, while the shores of Time are blackened with the ruins of what were once esteemed benevolent and philanthropic enterprises.

Why, then, has Freemasonry outlived almost every other organization contemporaneous with its beginning?

To those who have never crossed the threshold of the Freemasons’ Temple, and who, therefore, are unacquainted with its principles, and the method by which they are taught, this must, indeed, seem a mystery.

They observe that the Order does not go out into the highways and byways of life to gather in converts & swell its numbers;
that its members do not proclaim its principles from the housetops, however zealous and enthusiastic they may be; that it rarely seeks aid outside the mystic circle of its own members; that it looks not for the praise or applause of men, but relies upon its record of good deeds quietly and without fanfare..

Freemasonry seeks not the “boast of heraldry or the pomp of power” to gather the fleeting fancy and attract the eye of the multitude. Yet, today, Freemasonry is a strong living body & moral power exercising an influence for good over the whole world, wherever there are intelligent minds to comprehend its beautiful principles. In view of its organization and mode of growth, that it should be so widespread and progressive, almost surpasses human comprehension.

Freemasonry, pursuing the even manner of its way, exists the same today as it did nearly two centuries ago, in all its essential principles. It has witnessed the rise, decay and fall of other institutions, professedly originated for the benefit of men, without a single shock to itself.

Governments, societies, doctrines and isms, have come and gone, and Freemasonry has survived them, still with ess and a youthful vigour, as if yet in the budding manhood of its existence.

This wonderful vitality is the natural result of the moral and national principles which form the underlying base of its magnificent superstructure.

Freemasonry is founded upon the moral law, not upon a morality with a local habitation and a name, but upon principles everywhere self evident-the natural formulas and responses of human nature – so that among all good men of whatever nationality or clime, of whatever political or religious opinion, it may grow and flourish, a beautiful plant in the garden of the human soul.

This moral law, written in the hearts of men, upon which our institution is founded, is even more permanent than human nature itself.

History teaches us that gradually, through the ages, human nature has progressed, through the savage, the barbarous and civilized up to the enlightened state.

But the moral law, which is changeless as eternity itself, is the same for the wild bushman of Australia as for the learned Professor. Not that these men understand it the same way but that does not change the law. The moral law is the immutable & unchangeable in human nature.

It is not a codified law, hut those natural impulses which direct virtuous conduct.

Of this law, Cicero said: “It was not only older than nations and cities, but co-existent with that Divine Being, who sees and rules both Heaven and Earth.”

For the principle or law which impels to right conduct, springs out of the nature of things, and began to be law, not when it was first written, but when it originated.” Right and wrong are as eternal as the Deity”

They are not created existences, but the moral quality of created existences, and Freemasonry is the great interpreter of this law, for upon its immutable and universal basis, she has chosen to lay her corner-stone.

And she exerts her influence by example rather than by talk.

It is a maxim statement that deeds speak louder than words.
The force of example is not open to the charge of hypocrisy.
Words may be false, but deeds speak the truth.

Good deeds need no other praise than the acts themselves. It has been said that no good act should remain unpublished to the world. But it has also been said that every good deed has for itself a golden tongue, a language sweeter and more forcible than the silvery speech of a gifted orator.

Whether mankind be depraved or not!!!!
Freemasonry recognizes enough of a natural goodness in the human ruins upon which to build a noble superstructure.

She finds this remnant, this germ of immortality, in the longing of the human heart for a higher and a nobler existence, leaving the speculative question of depravity to the philosophers.

Freemasonry recognizes the fact that:

There is an unseen battlefield in every human breast,
Where two opposing forces meet, but where they seldom rest

It is this personal desire to be good that invokes virtue in a continual warfare against vice. There is no silence, no position of rest, except in the cowardly surrender of all that is manly, good and true. It is this desire for happiness, this longing for a beautiful life, that plunges human nature into the sea of unrest.

Human nature is ever seeking a higher plane of existence.
Nature itself has made it delightful to man to be good, and not so happy to him who is not wholly so.

It remains, even after the moral life has been wrecked upon the shoals of vice, sometimes to re-assert itself in the stings and pangs of self-accusing conscience.

Who would not rejoice with ineffable joy if he could this moment shake off the infirmities of his nature and rise at once to the true dignity of ideal manhood, erect and proud in the consciousness of perfect purity and uprightness of character?

Ideal manhood is the goal of Freemasonry.

It is the star of our hope, the beacon light upon the shore, to the mariner Mason tossed hither and thither upon the ocean of life.

But while the principles of our Institution are founded upon the immutable moral law, and the aspirations of our natures reach out toward this grand ideality of perfect manhood, our philosophy and history teach us that we have a rough and rugged road to travel, beset with many trials and difficulties, and experience and observation have shown us that many go faint and weary by the way.

Recognizing, as Freemasonry does, the natural infirmities of man and the mutual dependence of one upon the other, through the varying vicissitudes of life, for all the kind offices, which justice and mercy, require its members aid, sustain and uplift each other by their mutual pursuit of this ideal manhood.

In this pursuit by Freemasons, nothing should distract their attention from the common goal.

The sordid passions of unworthy ambition, hatred and revenge, should find no place for existence or growth in our Order. Masonic soil should afford no fertility for such passions; they are the greatest infirmities of our nature.

Freemasonry, recognizing this fact, has, by most impressive symbolic lessons, taught the Mason to keep his passions within due bounds. This lesson does not mean that the passions are to be destroyed, because they are as essential to human happiness as the nerves, veins and arteries are essential to life.
As has been beautifully said,

“The passions are the gales that swell our mental bark as it sails over the sea of life.
Like the wind itself, they are engines of high importance and mighty power.”

Kept within due bounds, they are the fountains of benevolence, the springs of joy and life,

“left loose and at random, they distract and ruin us.”

It is this injunction concerning the control of the passions and the unity of Masonic aspiration, which keeps discord out of the beautiful Temple of Masonry.

Here, then, is the strength of our Fraternity.

The man who enters the portals of the Masonic Temple, has a right to expect that he is seeking a place where he will be free from the dissentions and the wrangles of life, begotten by uncontrolled passions. Here let him find that freedom, beneath the shelter of an Institution that has been the shadow of rest to many of earth’s noblest minds.
Here let him find a home for the soul free from the factious opposition of the world, where no contention should exist, “but rather a nobler emulation of who best can work and best agree.”
It is thus that men are brought together by Freemasonry, in to the closest and holiest bonds of friendship – a friendship stripped of the false coverings of flattery, disrobed of the cloak of hypocrisy.

Wealth, station and rank yet rule the world.
For this reason, Freemasonry creates a secret, sacred and holy friendship of its own, controlled and directed by the moral law, which is written on the tablets of eternity. In Freemasonry, friendship is world wide. It knows no nationality, no clime, no creed, no profession and no belief, except in God, and the immortality of the soul.

Cicero, in speaking of friendship, said,

“What can be more delightful than to have one to whom you can speak on all subjects, just as to yourself.”

How aptly this language describes Masonic intercourse!

Man naturally longs for a closer union with his fellow than that which could be called ordinary and creates a more permanent identity of interest and a more intense reciprocation of feeling.

Temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice, these principles should ever he kept in view in the daily transactions of life.
They lead to happiness and usefulness, here & now, and to a bright immortality hereafter.

No man can lay up a store of happiness and utility here or hereafter without adhering to these principles. It is for these reasons that Freemasonry has had such an extended influence in the world. It must necessarily have had a wonderful effect upon the organization and reformation of society. Born in the past, when caste and rank marked the divisions among men, its work was to cause them to meet upon the common level of true manhood and to eradicate from their hearts the warring, envy, jealousy and strife of creed and clan.

But we should all have more Masonic education;

Its cardinal principals, in all their bearings, should be better understood and more thoroughly impressed. In order to properly appreciate our noble Institution, and to awaken within ourselves that enthusiasm it deserves, there must be thorough education, not only in its ritual, but in its philosophy and history.
Some one has said that Masonic intelligence is the key to the prosperity and perpetuity of Freemasonry.
It has also been said by another, that,

“the character of the Institution is elevated in the mind of every Mason just in proportion to the amount of his knowledge of its ritual and symbolism, philosophy and history.”

Masonry declares truth to be a Divine attribute, and the foundation of every virtue.

But how find it unless we educate ourselves?
And what a noble pursuit is this search after truth!
There is none greater. It lies just before our vision, awaiting discovery; but it will not reveal itself without an effort on our part.
This effort should be to us our highest pleasure. ‘
Ye are taught to work faithfully in the quarries of truth and knowledge, but this implies that we have the tools whereby we can work.
Education is the skill of the craftsman.

“As our information increases, the sphere of our mental and moral vision enlarges.”

Knowledge furnishes eyes to the understanding, and enables us to comprehend the mystic meaning of Masonic symbolism.
This, understood, points to the life everlasting, and enables the Mason to lift the veil of the future and behold the haven of rest and peace, which lies beyond.
With our minds awakened by a Masonic education to an intelligent appreciation of the great principles on which Freemasonry is founded, we need have no fear of its perpetuity or prosperity.
Then, I say, let in some masonic light!
It will not engender strife or contention, for Freemasonry has no war to make on other institutions.

Freemasonry has lived through the ages past, because it is founded upon the moral law, embodying those eternal principles of right and wrong. It lives in the present, because human hearts everywhere enthusiastically respond, as with an electric touch, to its beautiful lessons on human life.
Teaching by example rather than by precept, it has a vital power far greater than any mere professions of creeds and doctrines.
Silent and unseen, the stream of Masonic influence flows down the channels of Time into the great ocean of Eternity.
It flows because friendship is its object, true manhood its goal, mutual assistance its inculcated duty, brotherly love its ruling passion, temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice its cardinal principles.

Thus founded, it will continue to live and grow until the end of earthly existence, when, as a result of its sublime teachings, it is to be hoped it will have done its proportionate share in regenerating humanity, and will present to the Great Architect of the Universe its full measure of fashioned materials, polished and fitted for their appropriate positions in the Eternal Temple.

 

Comment
This paper is a little longer that what I usually share (2200 words), however, I believe the message being shared is excellent, and as applicable today as when it was written.

Have a wonderful Day & God Bless
Norm

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