THE BUILDER, SEPTEMBER 1918

FOR THE MONTHLY LODGE MEETING

CORRESPONDENCE CIRCLE BULLETIN -- No. 20

DEVOTED TO ORGANIZED MASONIC STUDY

Edited by Bro. H.L. Haywood

THE BULLETIN COURSE OF MASONIC STUDY
FOR MONTHLY LODGE MEETINGS AND STUDY CLUBS

FOUNDATION OF THE COURSE

THE Course of Study has for its foundation two sources of Masonic
information: THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. In another
paragraph is explained how the references to former issues of THE
BUILDER and to Mackey's Encyclopedia may be worked up as
supplemental papers to exactly fit into each installment of the
Course with the papers by Brother Haywood.

MAIN OUTLINE

The Course is divided into five principal divisions which are in
turn subdivided, as is shown below:

Division I. Ceremonial Masonry.
A. The Work of a Lodge. 
B. The Lodge and the Candidate. 
C. First steps. 
D. Second steps. 
E. Third steps.

Division II. Symbolical Masonry.
A. Clothing. 
B. Working Tools. 
C. Furniture. 
D. Architecture. 
E. Geometry. 
F. Signs. 
G. Words. 
H. Grips.

Division III. Philosophical Masonry.
A. Foundations. 
B. Virtues. 
C. Ethics. 
D. Religious Aspect. 
E. The Quest. 
F. Mysticism. 
G. The Secret Doctrine.

Division IV. Legislative Masonry.

A. The Grand Lodge.
1. Ancient Constitutions.
2. Codes of Law.
3. Grand Lodge Practices.
4. Relationship to Constituent Lodges.
5. Official Duties and Prerogatives. 
B. The Constituent Lodge.
1. Organization.
2. Qualifications of Candidates.
3. Initiation, Passing and Raising.
4. Visitation.
5. Change of Membership.

Division V. Historical Masonry.
A. The Mysteries--Earliest Masonic Light. 
B. Studies of Rites--Masonry in the Making. 
C. Contributions to Lodge Characteristics. 
D. National Masonry. 
E. Parallel Peculiarities in Lodge Study. 
F. Feminine Masonry.
G. Masonic Alphabets.
H. Historical Manuscripts of the Craft.
I. Biographical Masonry.
J. Philological Masonry--Study of Significant Words.   

THE MONTHLY INSTALLMENTS

Each month we are presenting a paper written by Brother Haywood,
who is following the foregoing outline. We are now in "First steps"
of Ceremonial Masonry. There will be twelve monthly papers under
this particular subdivision. On page two, preceding each
installment, will be given a list of questions to be used by the
chairman of the Committee during the study period which will bring
out every point touched upon in the paper.

Whenever possible we shall reprint in the Correspondence Circle
Bulletin articles from other sources which have a direct bearing
upon the particular subject covered by Brother Haywood in his
monthly paper. These articles should be used as supplemental papers
in addition to those prepared by the members from the monthly list
of references. Much valuable material that would otherwise possibly
never come to the attention of many of our members will thus be
presented.

The monthly installments of the Course appearing in the
Correspondence Circle Bulletin should be used one month later than
their appearance. If this is done the Committee will have
opportunity to arrange their programs several weeks in advance of
the meetings and the Brethren who are members of the National
Masonic Research Society will be better enabled to enter into the
discussions after they have read over and studied the installment
in THE BUILDER.

REFERENCES FOR SUPPLEMENTAL PAPERS

Immediately preceding each of Brother Haywood's monthly papers in
the Correspondence Circle Bulletin will be found a list of
references to THE BUILDER and Mackey's Encyclopedia. These
references are pertinent to the paper and will either enlarge upon
many of the points touched upon or bring out new points for reading
and discussion. They should be assigned by the Committee to
different Brethren who may compile papers of their own from the
material thus to be found, or in many instances the articles
themselves or extracts therefrom may be read directly from the
originals. The latter method may be followed when the members may
not feel able to compile original papers, or when the original may
be deemed appropriate without any alterations or additions.

HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR AND CONDUCT THE STUDY MEETINGS

The Lodge should select a "Research Committee" preferably of three
"live" members. The study meetings should be held once a month,
either at a special meeting of the Lodge called for the purpose, or
at a regular meeting at which no business (except the Lodge
routine) should be transacted--all possible time to be given to the
study period.

After the Lodge has been opened and all routine business disposed
of, the Master should turn the Lodge over to the Chairman of the
Research Committee. This Committee should be fully prepared in
advance on the subject for the evening. All members to whom
references for supplemental papers have been assigned should be
prepared with their papers and should also have a comprehensive
grasp of Brother Haywood's paper.

PROGRAM FOR STUDY MEETINGS

1. Reading of the first section of Brother Haywood's paper
and the supplemental papers thereto.
(Suggestion: While these papers are being read the members of the
Lodge should make notes of any points they may wish to discuss or
inquire into when the discussion is opened. Tabs or slips of paper
similar to those used in elections should be distributed among the
members for this purpose at the opening of the study period.)

2. Discussion of the above.

3. The subsequent sections of Brother Haywood's paper and the
supplemental papers should then be taken up, one at a time, and
disposed of in the same manner.

4. Question Box.

MAKE THE "QUESTION BOX" THE FEATURE OF YOUR MEETINGS

Invite questions from any and all Brethren present. Let them
understand that these meetings are for their particular benefit and
get them into the habit of asking all the questions they may think
of. Every one of the papers read will suggest questions as to facts
and meanings which may not perhaps be actually covered at all in
the paper. If at the time these questions are propounded no one can
answer them, SEND THEM IN TO US. All the reference material we have
will be gone through in an endeavor to supply a satisfactory
answer. In fact we are prepared to make special research when
called upon, and will usually be able to give answers within a day
or two. Please remember, too, that the great Library of the Grand
Lodge of Iowa is only a few miles away, and, by order of the
Trustees of the Grand Lodge, the Grand Secretary places it at our
disposal on any query raised by any member of the Society.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The foregoing information should enable local Committees to conduct
their Lodge study meetings with success. However, we shall welcome
all inquiries and communications from interested Brethren
concerning any phase of the plan that is not entirely clear to
them, and the services of our Study Club Department are at the
command of our members, Lodge and Study Club Committees at all
times.

QUESTIONS ON "THE LIGHTS"

I
Why do you suppose that the old operative Masons made use of the
"shock" in their ceremonies ? What is your theory as to why they
used it at the time of the candidate's entrance ? Why should the
"shock of enlightenment" be retained in our ritual ? Can you think
of some analogous ceremony used in every day life? Is our custom of
firing a volley over the grave of a soldier, or while raising or
lowering the flag like the "shock" as used in our ritual ? How did
the "shock" affect you during your initiation?

II
Of what is the hoodwink a symbol ? Was it used in ancient
fraternities ? In the Ancient Mysteries, for example ? If so, why
do you think they used it ? What does the removal of the hoodwink
signify? Why is it removed just when it is? Why is it not left on
until the end of the work in each degree? When is the school-boy's
hoodwink of ignorance removed ? Are you wearing any mental
hoodwinks? If so, how can you get them off? Do men wear political,
religious, social hoodwinks?

III
What is the meaning of "Light" in Masonry ? Are there any other
Lights in Masonry aside from the (Greater and the Lesser? What are
the Great Lights in politics? In business? How does a man or a
nation find "a place in the sun" ?

IV
Why is the Holy Bible called the V. S. L. ? To what extent are the
materials in our ritual drawn from it? In what sense is the Bible
true ? What constitutes its "unity" ? How many books in it? Can you
tell how these books came to be gathered together ? Can you tell
the difference between the canon (or "collection") of books used as
the Bible by the Greek Catholics, the Roman Catholics, and the
Protestants ? What is inspiration ? In what way is the Bible
inspired ?

What does "infallible" mean ? Is the Bible infallible as history ?
As a book of science ? In what way is it infallible ? If it is
infallible in any manner at all how can we prove it? How can its
teachings be verified? How are scientific teachings verified ?

Of what is the Bible a symbol ? What are the sacred hooks of other
races ? When, and for what reason, can those books be substituted
for the Bible on a Masonic altar ? In what manner can other sacred
books serve as a symbol of that of which the V. S. L. is the
symbol?

V
In how many ways is the Square used in our ritual ? Describe the
Square as it is used Masonically. Why did early peoples think that
the earth was cubical or square-shape ? How did the Square come to
have its present significance ? What is the Great Light of which it
is a symbol? Why do we say of an honest man "that he is square" ?
What do we mean by "the square deal" ? Why do we say that a
dishonest man is "crooked"? Is dishonesty ever justifiable? Is a
dishonest man like one who walks in the dark? Why?

VI
Why did ancient peoples believe the heavens to be circular? What
did the Compasses signify to them ? What do they signify to us ? Do
you believe that there is a divine element in you ? Is there a
divine element in a murderer ? How can we discover the divine in
others and in ourselves ? How can we learn to let it rule us ?
Explain the various positions of the Compasses with relationship to
the Square, and explain the reason for this.

VII
Who were the Hermeticists ? How did their symbols come to be
adopted by early Masons ? Are the Hermeticists still in existence
? Why is the sun an emblem of the male element in nature ? The moon
an emblem of the female ? Can you name some noted modern man in
whom the masculine predominates? In whom the feminine ? What is
meant by "balance" in life ? Why do you call some men "unbalanced"
? What are the penalties of being unbalanced? Is a fanatic
unbalanced? If so why? Who is the masterful man ? How does he
become masterful ? In what way is he a more valuable member of
society ? How does Masonry help us to become masterful ? Has it
really helped you ?

SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES

The articles in this issue, "The Three Lesser Lights," by Brother
Taylor, and "The Symbolic Lights," by Brother Atchison, should, if
time will permit, be read at the September study meeting before
Brother Haywood's paper is taken up. The reading of them will
prepare the brethren present for a more intelligent discussion of
the subject when the section in the study paper concerning the
Lesser Lights is reached.

THE BUILDER:

Bible in Masonry, The, vol. 1, p. 254; Great Light Symbolism,
(poem), vol. II, p. 273.

Mackey's Encyclopedia.

Bible, p. 104; Compasses, p. 173; Fixed Lights, p. 267; Lesser
Lights, p. 442; Light, p. 446; Lights, Greater, p. 447; Square, p.
708; Square and Compasses, p. 709.


FIRST STEPS

BY BRO. H.L. HAYWOOD, IOWA,

PART VIII-- THE LIGHTS

THE Shock of Enlightenment. In very early Masonic initiations it
seems that the shock, or battery, was employed twice during the
initiatory ceremonies; once while the candidate made his entrance
and again at the time that his hoodwink was removed. Why the use of
the shock in the former instance has been dropped we do not know,
but we may be glad that it has been retained in the latter
connection because it most certainly adds to the impressiveness of
the ceremony when the candidate is brought from darkness to light.
Moreover it enables the brethren to participate as well as the
Wardens, and it seems to emphasize the importance of the removal of
the hoodwink: whether or not it had some symbolic meaning of its
own among early Masons we have not learned.

II
Removal of Hoodwink. The hoodwink, all the way through, is a
symbol: its purpose is not to hide from the candidate what is going
on, but to remind him that until the lodge grants him light he
still walks in Masonic darkness. It signifies the inner darkness of
the uninitiated: not a darkness of bodily vision but an unillumined
state of the mind: the candidate has not yet found the Masonic
wisdom which lights the path of life. When the hoodwink is removed
it is not merely that he may see the Great Lights but to symbolize
the fact that his mind is now to be opened to that of which the
Great Lights are the symbols. The removal is as if the lodge said
to him, "Open now your mind, even as you have opened your eyes, and
you will see that which will light your way through life
henceforward."

III
The Great Lights. We must remember that when the Great Lights are
disclosed to the candidate they are not to be considered as things
in themselves but as symbols, and it is that which they symbolize
that is the real illumination of the Masonic pathway. What are the
mental, or spiritual realities, of which the V. S. L., the Square,
and the Compasses are the symbols?

IV
The V. S. L. In American Masonry no lodge can receive or initiate
candidates except while the Book lies upon its altar. So much of
the material of our ritual is drawn from the Holy Bible that
students have traced to it more than seventy-five references;
almost every name used throughout the ceremonies are drawn from it,
and the teachings of the Craft are built upon it as a house is
built upon the ground: for this we may all be very grateful
because, in spite of all that critics and skeptics have said, the
volume remains the most remarkable book in existence. A library of
sixty-six books of the most diverse character, and drawn from many
peoples and conditions, there is all through it a marvelous unity,
as if its hundreds of chapters had been strung, like pearls, on one
golden wire. For two thousand years it has remained as fresh and
new as when written, and today it is being printed in more than
five hundred languages or dialects. To make such an appeal, to
manifest such a life, it must, in some real sense, be inspired; and
not only inspired but inspiring, fol there is no other writing
which so stirs the depths of our souls. As Coleridge said, "It
speaks to the deeps in us."

Masonry does not attempt to define its inspiration, least of all to
formulate any dogma as to its infallibility: but it may be noted,
in this present connection, that for strictly Masonic purposes it
is really infallible, if we will carefully note the accurate
meaning of that abused term. "Infallible" means "that which will
not fall down, that which will not fail." The Bible makes no claim
to be a text-book on history or on science but offers itself as a
revelation to us of the Mind and Will of God and when so used it
will never fail us, as millions could testify, millions, even, of
Masons, for the Book has been one of our Great Lights these many
centuries.

Nevertheless, to Masons the Book is after all a symbol of something
that lies behind the Book. It stands for the Mind of God as we have
come to know that Mind, and it is this Mind which is our real
guide. If Masons in other lands find that Mind revealed to them in
some other book we are contented to permit them to substitute their
own sacred book for ours, as when Jewish lodges use the Old
Testament, Mohammedans use the Koran, Hindus the Bhagavad-Gita or
the Vedas, or when Parsees use the Zend-Avesta. The point is that
no lodge is properly furnished unless it have to its altar some
book to symbolize the Faith which is the guide and rule of the life
Masonic.

In placing the V. S. L. upon its altar the lodge says, in effect,
"In this dark world, where every pathway lies in shadow, your
feeble human mind cannot guide you to your goal; you need the
assistance of the Mind that made the world, and that Mind will be
revealed to you if you seek to have it. While following that Kindly
Light you will not go astray, even in your attempt to thread the
labyrinth of this existence where the wisest is as a child that
cries in the dark, and with no language but a cry." In sum, we may
say that the Mind and Will of God, as we know it, is the first
Great Light of Masonry, and that the V. S. L. is the symbol
thereof.

V
The Square. In the Blue Lodge ritual the Square has three distinct
and separate uses. It serves as an emblem of the Worshipful Master,
as a working tool of the Fellow Craft, and as one of the Great
Lights; it is important that its symbolism in the last named
connection should not be confused with its other symbolical
purposes.

Primitive people thought of the earth as being a kind of oblong
square or cube: in consequence thereof all emblems of square shape
were thought to have some reference to the earth, and since the
try-square was used to measure angles it was held to be a symbol of
that which is mundane or earthly, as opposed to the Divine. But as
it was used to prove that angles were right it came to have the
further significance of a true character, a character in conformity
with righteousness. Such seems to be its meaning when used as one
of our Great Lights: it symbolizes our right earthly relationships;
in other words, our relationships with our fellows.

Consequently, in placing the Square before the candidate it is as
if the lodge said to him, "Here is another guide for you to use
throughout your earthly pilgrimage: deal with your fellows
squarely; do to them as you would that they should do to you. Any
other conduct brings us into social and moral darkness." A
perfected earthly nature, that is the thing of which the Square is
the symbol.

VI
The Compasses. In this connection we must again remember that the
present symbol is elsewhere used in the initiatory ceremony; much
confusion will be avoided if this is kept in mind. The people of
old days, as has already been said, thought of the earth as square
shape: by token of the same reasoning they thought of the skies, or
the heavens, as being circular. Was not the sky itself a dome? Did
not the stars and planets move in curved tracks ? Was not an
astronomical chart an assemblage of curves and spirals ? By an
inevitable association of ideas the compasses, which were used to
test or to draw circles and spirals, came to stand for the heavenly
in man, the divine. Such has been the significance of the compasses
in many forms of ceremonies, and such remains its meaning when used
as one of our Great Lights.

In other words, there is in each of us a spark, or echo, of the
divine, one may call it what he will: at least there is a capacity
for communing with the divine, else all religions are utterly vain.
Accordingly, our symbolism says to us that the God-like elements in
our nature constitute another guiding principle in life, and that
if we will always yield ourselves to such Goodness, Truth and
Beauty as is given us to know we will be safely led through life.

It may be noted just here that in the First degree the compasses
are placed in a certain position relative to the Square, that they
are changed in the Second degree, and still again in the Third. A
careful study of these three positions will disclose to us a
beautiful symbolism of progress in the Masonic life. In the first
degree the candidate's divine nature is supposed to lie entirely
underneath his earthly self; in the Second, which stands midway in
the Masonic life, the divine nature is partly disengaged from the
earthly; in the last degree the divine nature is in the ascendant,
and properly keeps the earthly beneath itself.

VII
The Lesser Lights. The Sun, Moon and Master compose a symbolism
which we have received from the Hermeticists, a group of occultists
very influential in Europe two or three hundred years ago. Some
scholars have sought to trace this symbolism to another source but
the balance of evidence is in favor of the Hermeticists.

The Sun. According to the Hermeticists the Sun, which hurls out
light and heat from itself, is the emblem of the active, or male
element in nature: that this was not very far-fetched is proved by
the fact that we still commonly speak of the sun as "he" or "him."

The Moon. By virtue of a similar reasoning the Hermeticists made
the moon to stand for the passive, or female, element in nature:
and here again the interpretation is in harmony with our customary
practices because we all speak of the moon as "she" or "her." This
is appropriate because the moon emits no light of her own but
merely reflects such light as she receives from the sun.

The Master. In our Masonic usage we make this refer to the Master
of the lodge, not as an actual officer, but in a symbolical sense:
the Master is to us the type of the perfect, the masterful man, the
complete man. Again, we may note that this is in consonance with
the Hermeticists for their "Master" typified the same thing. Who is
the masterful man? According to this symbolism he is the one in
whom the male and the female are symmetrically blended. Nietzsche,
to give an example, was all for masculinity: he taught that the
more womanly virtues are weak signs of degeneration: if we were all
like Nietzsche, or like Nietzsche's ideal of a man, the world would
be peopled with blond beasts. John Woolman, on the other hand, was
so feminine that he wept over the death of a robin which he killed
as a boy; if the world were peopled with Woolmans it may be feared
that the human race would become ill-fitted to wrestle with the
hard gray realities of life. The ideal man, the Master, is one in
whom the male and the female, the active and the passive, the
gentle and the aggressive, are balanced. Such was Horus, in the old
Egyptian mythology, who combined the masculinity of Osiris with the
femininity of Isis: such was Jesus in real life, of whom Tennyson
justly says that he was "man-woman."

Thus it is that the Three Lesser Lights teach us the old doctrine
of balance, while the Lesser and Greater Lights as a whole teach us
the ideal of the symmetrical life: when, through our knowledge of
the Mind and Will of the S.G.A.O.T.U., we learn to perfect our
earthly nature by giving to the divine in us its proper
sovereignty; and when, again, these elements of life are kept in
poise, neither one over-riding the other, we have reached the
Masonic ideal of life as disclosed to us in this wonderful
symbolism of the Lights.

