
PERFECT POINTS OF ENTRANCE
and it is from the Winter 1989 Missouri Freemason:

THE PERFECT POINTS OF ENTRANCE

By R. W. Bro. Ray Hilton Past Secretary, Gate of the Temple Lodge
No. 422, Springfield, Missouri

You may have noticed that there are parts of our ritual which are
not readily understood and are never explained, yet we commit them
to memory and at appropriate times recite them without question.
One particularly confusing phrase is "The Perfect Points of
Entrance." noes this have any special meaning and when and how did
it become a part of our ritual?

In the Entered Apprentice lecture we learn that there are four
Perfect Points of Entrance: The Guttural, Pectoral, Manual and
Pedal, which are illustrated by signs and exemplified by the four
Cardinal Virtues: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice.
After a short lecture on each of these Cardinal Virtues, we are
treated to a demonstration of the sign for each of the points of
entrance, with a reference to its origin, but at no time are the
points or cardinal virtues associated with entrance. Thus we are
left with three separate and seemingly unrelated subjects. The only
other reference to the Perfect Points of Entrance occurs in the
dialogue between the Worshipful Master and the Senior Warden during
the opening and closing of the lodge on the Entered Apprentice
degree, but again the Points of Entrance are not defined.

Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia offers this definition: "The four
Perfect Points of Entrance constitute the esoteric closing of each
of the lectures on Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice, to
which they respectively do not apply, illustrate, or in any way
belong, so that the esoteric portions of the four lectures have to
be somewhat manipulated to make a connection with them. Moreover,
Point of entrance is somewhat Cabalistic, since it does not
disclose what the entrance is into. does it mean entrance of the
candidate into something, or of something into the candidate?

Whether the architects of our ritual had something specific in mind
when they designed this particular part of the work is unclear.
Perhaps it is one of those things that is intended to excite our
curiosity and leave each of us to draw our own conclusions.

When and how did this become a part of our ritual? There is no
ready answer to thls question because so much of our ritual is
esoteric and is handed down from mouth to ear, making it almost
impossible to determine the exact origin of any part of it. There
is a distinct possibility that the roots of this particular part of
the lecture date back beyond the establishment of Symbolic Masonry.
Since the conferral of the Entered Apprentice degree, in which
these points occur, deals with the subject of entrance; the
entrance of the Entered Apprentice into the lodge, and the entering
of his name on the rolls of the lodge, it seems logical to conclude
that they were points of instruction relating to the candidate's
entrance.

There is some evidence in the Old Manuscripts that there may have
been only one point originally, with the three others added and
attached to the lectures on the Cardinal Virtues during the 18th
century. None of the early exposed rituals had anything to say
about Guttural, Pectoral, Manual or Pedal until 1724, at which
time they were mentioned as Freemason's signs, and were not
connected in any way with the subject of entry. Later exposures,
while making reference to the points of entrance, did not associate
them with the signs of Guttural, Pectoral, Manual or Pedal, and as
late as 1740 there had been no mention of the Cardinal Virtues.

Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia gives this theory on the evolution of
the Perfect Points of Entrance in our ritual: "Modern rituals on
this subject, in a portion of the Entered Apprentice lecture,
combine in a single treatment of three different things, as
follows: 1. Entry on entrance, the points at which there were
secrets and penalties; 2. Certain signs classed as Guttural,
Pectoral, Manual and Pedal; and 3. Cardinal Virtues, Temperance,
Fortitude, Prudence and Justice. In the earliest rituals, they were
entirely dissociated. At least up to 1750, points of entry were no
more than secrets, signs, tokens, etc., but undefined. These were
certain signs classified as guttural, pectoral, manual and pedal,
not further defined, but seeming to have no connection with
entrance. Evidently, cardinal virtues did not enter the ritual
until after the middle of the 18th century when they were taken
from the Christian church, which derived them from Plato... So the
four cardinal virtues were imposed on the four signs; guttural,
pectoral, manual and pedal, and the whole merged with the points of
entry, with the result that three matters of doubt and uncertainty,
which the ritualists were unable to rationalize were consolidated
into one incongruous mass of verbiage. The only part which has any
virtue or value is that of the Cardinal Virtues which, however,
could stand on their own merits, needing no assistance from the
other enigmatic parts."

The Cardinal Virtues aside then, we might consider the Perfect
Points of Entrance, not necessarily in the order in which they are
listed, as: the reception upon the point of a shart instrument, the
due guard, the penal sign, and the position in the northeast corner
of the lodge upon the first step of Freemasonry, which allude to
obligations, penalties, and moral responsibilities. These would
seem to be the principal points of a candidates's entry into the
loclge, and would explain, and perhaps justify, the retention of
"The Perfect Points of Entrance" in our ritual.
