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THE great object of
Masonry is sometimes expressed as a search for that which
is lost and which by our own endeavors and the assistance
of the Master we hope to find. Coincident with this search
and an essential element in its success is the erection of
the temple of our soul of which the erection of King
Solomon's Temple is a symbol and the tools, implements and
methods of the operative Mason are symbols of the tools,
implements and methods we are to use in the erection of
our spiritual temple.
The Entered Apprentice Degree symbolizes the entrance of
man into the world where he is to labor in preparing
himself for his spiritual temple. He comes from the
darkness of the unknown and his first need is for light -
moral and intellectual light. He is given as working tools
the twenty-four- inch gauge of Time and is instructed in
the use of the common gavel of Self-restraint.
The Fellow Craft Degree symbolizes the school room of
practical work, in which man is to struggle for the
attainment of truth, both intellectual and moral. Here he
gets his first intimation of "the great object of
Masonic study" the search for Truth, which he later
finds is the great secret of Masonry. Here he finds he is
traveling upon the level of Time and must learn to use the
working tools of rectitude and virtue as represented by
the plumb and the square.
As a Master Mason he continues his quest for Divine Truth
and is told it can only be acquired by a proper use of the
trowel of true friendship with which he is to spread the
cement of brotherly love and affection. Here he meets with
a great disappointment. Sin has entered in and weakened
the structure of his temple, and the great secret he hoped
to find has been lost. However, all is not lost. Hope is
held out that it may yet be recovered and until that time
he is given a working substitute. He is not to give up the
search, and the substitute is to be used only until future
ages find out the right.
Wonderful teachings are there in the Craft Degrees, but
they are
incomplete: We must go forward to the Chapter and Council
for the
complete cycle of Masonic instruction, as taught in
"The legend of the Craft" in the Old Charges of
Masonry.
It is well known that in all times and places, legends and
symbols have been a very effective means of teaching moral
lessons and of this means Masonry has made good use. The
greatest of these legends deal with the loss of a great
blessing to man through sin, a blessing which in future
ages will be recovered. A similar story is told in the
Great Light of Masonry and Milton tells us that his great
epic "Paradise Lost" is about: man's first
disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death
into the world, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till
one greater Man
Restore us and regain the blissful seat.
Masonry also has its legends which teach similar lessons.
Of these
legends Companion George W. Warvelle in a report to the
Grand
Council of Illinois in 1892 said:
Possibly the most profound of all the mysteries of Masonry
is the origin of its legendary histories and esoteric
liturgies: that truly wonderful system of moral symbolism
and allegorical teaching which we now denominate as
degrees. We know but little concerning them prior to the
last half of the last century, and much of the knowledge
that has come down to us from that period is, at best, but
fragmentary tradition. The Masonic romancer has indeed
essayed to depict in glowing colors the scenes and
incidents that have marked the course of Masonry from
primeval man to the present time, but under the piercing
light of critical inquiry his pictures have dissolved like
frost before the morning sun. The
legend of the Craft, as preserved in the ancient charges,
is probably the only authentic information we now possess
which ante-dates the beginning of the year 1700, and this
but faintly outlines a very few of the many symbolic
allegories that vitalize the esoteric rituals of the
Masonry of today. Nor have these remarks special reference
to the high grades only; they apply to all alike, for the
system of speculative Freemasonry, as now practiced,
contemplates a progressive expansion of but one thought,
and that is the canctity and preservation of the Holy and
Ineffable Name. Towards this pivotal principle gravitate
all the degrees of Masonry of all rites and systems, and
to the elucidation of the mysteries which encompass the
subject are they all devoted. Inseparably connected by
continuity of thought and design they bear internal
evidence of a common origin, and from the meagre
historical data now at our command we are led to infer
that they assumed their present shape
about the middle of the last century.
At the time of the revival, in 1717, there is every reason
to believe that there existed no degrees, as that term is
now employed, and that the esoteric ceremonials were of
the most simple and informal character. The symbolism was
crude and undeveloped and the philosophical teachings
scarcely more than a suggestion. The fifty years that next
ensued were marked by a restless and ever increasing
activity. The schism of 1738 produced a keen rivalry that
soon begat competition. The Scottish lodges abandoning
their operative character entered the speculative field;
Ireland did the same; and soon five grand lodges struggled
for supremacy in the British Islands. Then it was that the
simple legends that formed the basis of the early
ceremonial were eagerly seized upon by the enthusiast, the
visionary and not infrequently by the schemer. Allegory
and symbol pieced out the fragmentary traditions of the
Ancient Craft, and imagination furnished historical data
where the facts were wanting. Beyond the seas rites and
systems arose
like the exhalations of magic, and the fundamental ideas
of primitive
Masonry were expanded to the last stage of attenuation
through the
extended scale of degrees which in many cases were
adopted. These years may well be called the period of the
Masonic renaissance. A new impulse was imparted to the
fraternity by the development and expansion of its old
legends; an impulse that in many cases was made to serve
the purposes of the charlatan and trickster, but in the
end was productive of the highest good, and from the
confused and ill-digested mass that marked this epoch has
been evolved the great rites that now dominate the Masonic
world.
The fact that the germ of all the degrees of the Lodge,
Chapter and
Council are formed in the Old Charges of Masonry has been
generally overlooked by Masonic writers. Anderson page 111
in the second or 1738 edition of his "Book of
Constitutions" says that in the year 1719, "at
some private lodges several very valuable manuscripts
concerning the Fraternity, their lodges, Regulations,
Charges, Secrets, and Usages, were too hastily burnt by
scrupulous brothers, that these papers might not fall into
strange hands." This statement of Anderson has been
denied by some writers, but even if true, a large number
of such manuscripts have since been discovered so that to
a great extent it is possible to reconstruct the so-called
"Legend of the Craft" which is probably the
origin of our modern ritual. We are told that this
"Legend" was read to the candidate as part of
his initiation ceremony and the possession of a copy was a
necessary part of a lodge's equipment.
This is not the place to discuss the question as to
whether originally
there was more than one degree. It is sufficient to say
that after the
formation of the Grand Lodge at London in 1717 and
possibly before, there was a tendency to elaborate the
initiatory ceremonies and we soon find two and then three
degrees mentioned. When we compare the "Old
Charges" with the modern ritual we find simple
statements in the former have developed into an elaborate
ceremony in the latter, while on the other hand extended
accounts in the former are entirely omitted or receive but
a bare mention in the Ritual of the three Craft Degrees.
However, some of these. are elaborated in the so-called
"High Degrees" of the Chapter, Council and the
Scottish Rite. For instance, in the Old Charges there are
accounts of some valuable Masonic secrets which were lost
for a time, but were later recovered. The account of the
loss appears in the Craft Degrees, but not the recovery.
The means by which they were preserved is told in the Old
Charges, but not in the present
Craft Ritual. The present so-called higher degrees give an
account of the means of preservation and the subsequent
recovery. The various Masonic Rites have greatly
elaborated and modified the statements as given in the Old
Charges, but to no greater extent than the Craft
Ceremonies elaborate and modify the account of the loss.
I have defined Freemasonry as "an organized society
of men
symbolically applying the principles of operative Masonry
and
architecture to the science and art of character
building." In making this application there is a
legend which in some form appears in all Masonic Rites.
This legend has to do with certain secrets of the Craft
which were deposited in a place deemed to be secure in
order that they might be preserved from an impending
catastrophe. The catastrophe came and for a time the
secrets were lost, but were later; recovered. The Old
Charges read or recited to the Apprentice as part of his
initiation ceremony contained this legend in some form and
they also appear in both the Scottish and York Rites in
this country, but in no one Body of the Rite does it
appear in its complete form. In the so-called York or
American Rite, the loss is exemplified in the first
degrees, the steps for preservation in the Cryptic and the
recovery in the Capitular Degrees. In the Scottish Rate
all these elements appear in some form, not once but many
times.
The legend of the search for the Holy Grail, best known in
connection with King Arthur and his Round Table, is
similar in teaching to the search for the Lost Word and it
formed the basis for some of the Masonic High Degrees
which sprang up in France following Ramsay's oration in
1737.
The "Order of the Round Table" gave place about
135? A. D. to the
"Order of the Garter" or as it was sometimes
called, the "Order of St.
George." There were two Masonic degrees of the same
name which
were conferred in this country in Columbian Council of New
York City from 1810 to 1818 A. D. For this reason we
believe Capitular and Cryptic Masons will be interested in
a short account of these two Orders.
Order of the Round Table
Mackey's Encyclopedia under the heading "Round Table,
King Arthur's," says: The old English legends,
derived from the celebrated chronicle of the twelfth
century known as the Brut of England, say that the
mythical King Arthur, who died in 542, of a wound received
in battle, instituted a company of twenty-four, or,
according to some, twelve, of his principal knights, bound
to appear at his court on certain solemn days, and meet
around a circular table, whence they were called Knights
of the Round Table. Arthur is said to have been the
institutor of those military and religious orders of
chivalry which afterward became so common in the Middle
Ages. Into the Order which he established none were
admitted but those who had given proofs of their valor;
and the knights were bound to defend widows, maidens, and
children; to relieve the distressed, maintain the
Christian religion, contribute to the support of the
church, protect pilgrims, advance honor, and suppress
vice. They
were to administer to the care of soldiers wounded in the
service of their country, and bury those who died, to
ransom captives, deliver prisoners, and record all noble
enterprises for the honor and renown of the noble Order.
King Arthur and his knights have been very generally
considered by scholars as mythical; notwithstanding that,
many yearn ago Whittaker, in his History of Manchester.
attempted to establish the fact of his existence, and to
separate the true from the fabulous in his history. The
legend has been used by some of the fabricators of
irregular Degrees in Freemasonry.
"The fabricators of irregular Degrees in
Freemasonry" to whom Mackey refers were probably
French as there is no indication that any such degrees
originated in England and it is possible that Columbian
Council adopted one of these degrees. In order to
understand the Masonic significance it is necessary to
consider the legends to which Mackey refers.
King Arthur was a traditional British King about whom some
marvelous tales were told one of which is that at the
battle of Mount Badon, 516 A. D., he single-handed
vanquished 960 men. The many legends in which he is a
central figure were popular all over Europe. The
Encyclopedia Britannica says:
That stories of Arthur and his knights had, before this,
travelled as far afield as Italy is proved by the
Arthurian carvings on the north doorway of Modena
Cathedral (early 12th century) and the fact that Signor
Rajna has discovered the names of Arthur and Gawain as
witnesses to deeds belonging to the first quarter of the
12th century. It is clear from the character of the
documents that the persons attesting could not have been
born later than 1080, which would argue a popular
knowledge of Arthurian tradition in the 11th century.
Merlin, a magician of half demon, half human parentage, is
a central
figure of many of the Arthurian legends. One of these
stories about his revealing the insecure foundations of
Vortigern's tower is based on a similar story of the demon
Asmodens and King Solomon.
However, the stories which most prominently connect the
legends of King Arthur's Court with Freemasonry are those
which deal with the search for the Holy Grail. Mackey says
on this subject:
Derived, probably, from the old French, sang real, the
true blood;
although other etymologies have been proposed. The San
Graal is
represented, in legendary history, as being an emerald
dish in which our Lord had partaken of the last supper.
Joseph of Arimathea, having further sanctified it by
receiving into it the blood issuing from the five wounds,
afterward carried it to England. Subsequently, it
disappeared in consequence of the sins of the land, and
was long lost sight of. When Merlin established the
Knights of the Round Table, he told them that the San
Graal should be discovered by one of them, but that he
only could see it who was without sin. One day, when
Arthur wad-holding a high feast with his Knights of the
Round Table, the San Graal suddenly appeared to him 'and
to all his chivalry, and then as suddenly disappeared. The
consequence was that all the knights took upon them a
solemn vow to seek the Holy Dish. The Quest of the San
Graal became one of the most prominent myths of what has
been called the Arthuric Cycle. The old French romance of
the Morte d' Arthur, or Death of Arthur, which was
Published by Carton in 1485, contains the adventures of
Sir Galahad in search of the San Graal.
There are several other romances of which this wonderful
vessel,
invested with the most marvelous properties, is the
subject. The Quest of the San Graal very forcibly reminds
us of the Search for the Lost Word. The symbolism is
precisely the same - the loss and the recovery being but
the lesson of death and eternal life - so that the San
Graal in the Arthurian Myth, and the Lost Word in the
Masonic Legend, seem to be identical in object and design.
Hence it is not surprising that a French writer, De
Caumont, should have said (Bulletin Monument, page 129)
that "The poets of the twelfth and fourteenth
centuries, who composed the romances of the Round Table,
made Joseph of Arimathea the chief of a military and
religious Freemasonry."
The account given in the Encyclopedia Britannica is not
written from a Masonic standpoint and therefore the
allusions which Masons will
recognize are the more striking. We quote as follows:
Grail, The Holy, the famous talisman romance, the object
of quest on the
part of the knights of the Round Table. It is mainly, if
not wholly, known to English readers through the medium of
Malory's translation of the French Quete del Saint Graal,
where it is the cup or chalice of the Last Supper, in
which the blood which flowed from the wounds of the
crucified Saviour has been miraculously preserved.
Students of the original romances are aware that there is
in these texts an extraordinary diversity of statement as
to the origin and nature of the Grail, and that it is
extremely difficult to determine the precise value of the
differing versions.
After briefly citing several versions and refusing to
accept the theory of the Christian origin of the legend
the writer says: Freemasonry is an institution calculated
to benefit mankind - Andrew Jackson
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