THE BUILDER APRIL 1916

SOME DEEPER ASPECTS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM

by Bro. ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE, ENGLAND

PART I

The subject which I am about to approach is one having certain
obvious difficulties, because it is outside the usual horizon of
Masonic literature, and requires, therefore, to be put with
considerable care, as well as with reasonable prudence. Moreover,
it is not easy to do it full justice within the limits of a single
lecture. I must ask my Brethren to make allowance beforehand for
the fact that I am speaking in good faith, and where the evidence
for what I shall affirm does not appear in its fullness, and
sometimes scarcely at all, they must believe that I can produce it
at need, should the opportunity occur. As a matter of fact, some
part of it has appeared in my published writings.

I will introduce the question in hand by a citation which is
familiar to us all, as it so happens that it forms a good point of
departure:--"But as we are not all operative Masons, but rather
Free and Accepted or speculative, we apply these tools to our
morals." With certain variations, these words occur in each of the
Craft Degrees, and their analogies are to be found in a few
subsidiary Degrees which may be said to arise out of the Craft--
as, for example, the Honorable Degree of Mark Master Mason. That
which is applied more specially to the working implements of
Masonry belongs to our entire building symbolism, whether it is
concerned with the erection by the Candidate in his own personality
of an edifice or "superstructure perfect in its parts and honorable
to the builder," or, in the Mark Degree, with a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens, or again with Solomon's Temple
spiritualized in the Legend of the Master Degree.

A SYSTEM OF MORALITY

It comes about in this manner that Masonry is described elsewhere
as "a peculiar system of morality, enveiled in allegory and
illustrated by symbols." I want to tell you, among other things
which call for consideration, something about the nature of the
building, as this is presented to my mind, and about the way in
which allegory, symbols and drama all hang together and make for
one meaning. It is my design also to show that Craft Masonry-
incorporates three less or more distinct elements which have been
curiously interlinked under the device of symbolical architecture.
That interlinking is to some extent artificial, and yet it arises
logically, so far as the relation of ideas is concerned.

There is, firstly, the Candidate's own work, wherein he is taught
how he should build himself. The method of instruction is practical
within its own measures, but as it is so familiar and open, it is
not, properly speaking, the subject-matter of a Secret Order. There
is, secondly, a building myth, and the manner in which it is put
forward involves the Candidate taking part in a dramatic scene,
wherein he represents the master-builder of Masonry. There is,
thirdly, a Masonic quest, connected with the notion of a Secret
Word communicated as an essential part of the Master Degree in
building. This is perhaps the most important and strangest of the
three elements; but the quest after the Word is not finished in the
Third Degree.

THE FIRST DEGREE

Let us look for a moment at the Degree of Entered Apprentice, and
how things stand with the Candidate when he first comes within the
precincts of the Lodge. He comes as one who is "worthy and well
recommended," as if he contained within himself certain elements or
materials which are adaptable to a specific purpose. He is
described by his conductor as a person who is "properly prepared."
The fitness implied by the recommendation has reference to
something which is within him, but not of necessity obvious or
visible on his surface personality. It is not that he is merely a
deserving member of society at large. He is this, of course, by the
fact that he is admitted; but he is very much more, because Masonry
has an object in view respecting his personality--something that
can be accomplished in him as a result of his fellowship in the
Brotherhood, and by himself. As a matter of truth, it is by both.
The "prepared" state is, however, only external, and all of us know
in what precisely it consists.

Now the manner of his preparation for entrance to the Lodge
typifies a state which is peculiar to his ward position as a person
who has not been initiated. There are other particulars into which
I need not enter, but it should be remarked that in respect of his
preparation he learns only the meaning of the state of darkness,
namely, that he has not yet received the light communicated in
Masonry. The significance of those hindrances which place him at a
disadvantage, impede his movements, and render him in fact
helpless, is much deeper than this. They constitute together an
image coming out from some old condition by being unclothed
therefrom--partially at least--and thereafter of entering into a
condition that is new and different, in which another kind of light
is communicated, and another vesture is to be assumed, and,
ultimately, another life entered.

THE MEANING OF INITIATION

In the first Degree the Candidate's eyes are opened into the
representation of a new world, for you must know, of course, that
the Lodge itself is a symbol of the world, extending to the four
corners, having the height heaven above and the great depth
beneath. The Candidate may think naturally that light has been
taken away from him for the purpose of his initiation, has been
thereafter restored automatically, when he has gone through a part
of the ceremony, and that hence he is only returned to his previous
position. Not so. In reality, the light is restored to him in
another place; he has put aside old things, has come into things
that are new; and he will never pass out of the Lodge as quite the
same man that he entered. There is a very true sense in which the
particulars of his initiation are in analogy with the process of
birth into the physical world. The imputed darkness of his previous
existence, amidst the life of the uninitiated world, and the yoke
which is placed about him is unquestionably in correspondence with
the umbilical cord. You will remember the point at which he is
released therefrom--in our English ritual, I mean. I do not wish to
press this view, because it belongs of right, in the main, to
another region of symbolism, and the procedure in the later Degrees
confuses an issue which might be called clear otherwise in the
Degree of Entered Apprentice. It is preferable to say that a new
light--being that of Masonry--illuminates the world of the Lodge in
the midst of which the Candidate is placed; he is penetrated by a
fresh experience; and he sees things as they have never been
presented to him before. When he retires subsequently for a period,
this is like his restoration to light; in the literal sense he
resumes that which he set aside, as he is restored to the old
light; but in the symbolism it is another environment, a new body
of motive, experience, and sphere of duty attached thereto. He
assumes a new vocation in the world.

The question of certain things of a metallic kind, the absence of
which plays an important part, is a little difficult from any point
of view, though several explanations have been given. The better
way toward their understanding is to put aside what is conventional
and arbitrary--as, for example, the poverty of spirit and the
denuded state of those who have not yet been enriched by the secret
knowledge of the Royal and Holy Art. It goes deeper than this and
represents the ordinary status of the world, when separated from
any higher motive--the world-spirit, the extrinsic titles of
recognition, the material standards. The Candidate is now to learn
that there is another standard of values, and when he comes again
into possession of the old tokens, he is to realize that their most
important use is in the cause of others. You know under what
striking circumstances this point is brought home to him.

ENTERED, PASSED, RAISED

The Candidate is, however, subjected to like personal experience in
each of the Craft Degrees, and it calls to be understood thus. In
the Entered Apprentice Degree it is because of a new life which he
is to lead henceforth. In the Fellowcraft, it is as if the mind
were to be renewed, for the prosecution of research into the hidden
mysteries of nature, science, and art. But in the sublime Degree of
Master Mason it is in order that he may enter fully into the
mystery of death and of that which follows thereafter, being the
great mystery of the Raising. The three technical and official
words corresponding to the successive experiences are Entered,
Passed, and Raised, their Craft-equivalents being Apprentice,
Craftsman and Master--or he who has undertaken to acquire the
symbolical and spiritualized art of building the house of another
life; he who has passed therein to a certain point of proficiency,
and in fine, he who has attained the whole mystery. If I may use
for a moment the imagery of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, he has
learned how to effectuate in his own personality "a new birth in
time," to wear a new body of desire, intention and purpose; he has
fitted to that body a new mind, and other objects of research. In
fine, he has been taught how to lay it aside, and yet again he has
been taught how to take it up after a different manner, in the
midst of a very strange symbolism.

IMPERFECT SYMBOLISM

Now, it may be observed that in delineating these intimations of
our symbolism, I seem already to have departed from the mystery of
building with which I opened the conference; but I have been
actually considering various sidelights thereon. It may be
understood, further, that I am not claiming to deal with a
symbolism that is perfect in all its parts, however honorable it
may be otherwise to the builder. In the course of such researches
as I have been enabled to make into the Instituted Mysteries of
different ages and countries, I have never met with one which was
in entire harmony with itself. We must he content with what we
have, just as it is necessary to tolerate the peculiar conventions
of language under which the Craft Degrees have passed into
expression, artificial and sometimes commonplace as they are. Will
you observe once again at this stage how it is only in the first
Degree that the Candidate is instructed to build upon his own part
a superstructure which is somehow himself? This symbolism is lost
completely in the ceremony of the Fellowcraft Degree, which,
roughly speaking, is something of a Degree of Life; the symbols
being more especially those of conduct and purpose, while in the
Third Degree, they speak of direct relations between man and his
Creator, giving intimation of judgment to come.

THE THIRD DEGREE

I have said, and you know, that the Master Degree is one of death
and resurrection of a certain kind, and among its remarkable
characteristics there is a return to building symbolism, but this
time in the form of a legend. It is no longer an erection of the
Candidate's own house--house of the body, house of the mind, and
house of the moral law. We are taken to the Temple of Solomon and
are told how the Master-Builder suffered martyrdom rather than
betray the mysteries which had been placed in his keeping.
Manifestly the lesson which is drawn in the Degree is a veil of
something much deeper, and about which there is no real intimation.
It is assuredly an instruction for the Candidates that they must
keep the secrets of the Masonic Order secretly, but such a covenant
has reference only to the official and external side. The bare
recitation of the legend would have been sufficient to enforce
this; but observe that the Candidate assumes the part of the
Master-Builder and suffers within or in him--as a testimony of
personal faith and honor in respect to his engagements. But
thereafter he rises, and it is this which gives a peculiar
characteristic to the descriptive title of the Degree. It is one of
raising and of reunion with companions--almost as if he had been
released from earthly life and had entered into the true Land of
the Living. The keynote is therefore not one of dying but one of
resurrection; and yet it is not said in the legend that the Master
rose. The point seems to me one of considerable importance, and yet
I know not of a single place in our literature wherein it has
received consideration. I will leave it, however, for the moment,
but with the intention of returning to it.


