


                  THE SYMBOLISM OF THE DEGREES

                Part One - The Entered Apprentice

                    By A. M. Mitchell P.G.M.



Introduction:

     Historical research has now practically proved that modern
Freemasonry is a direct descendant of the Craft Guilds of the
Continent and England and that the ceremonies of our degrees are
extensions and elaborations of what was originally the private bond
of an operative organization endeavouring at once to protect trade
secrets and to control the qualifications of its membership.

     So far as is known, the original ceremonies were somewhat bald
and included little more than the taking of an oath of secrecy, the
recitation of a legend and the communication of a "Mason's Word".

     Lodges differed in their ceremonial and its presentation and
there seemed little direct connection between them.  IT is now
agreed, however, that probably the ceremonies of the Irish Lodges
were most complete.

     In an Encyclopedia of Freemasonry edited by E. L. Hawkins
there appears a summarization of the hints appearing in the ancient
documents which presents a "picture" of an initiation in an old
Craft Guild.

     "The meeting was opened with prayer - the legendary history
of the Craft was then read - then the candidate was led forward and
instructed to place his hand on the Volume of the Sacred Law, which
was held by one of the 'Seniors', while the articles binding on all
Masons alike were read, at the conclusion of which a brief
obligation was imposed upon the candidate, all present joining it;
then followed the special charges for an apprentice, concluding
with a longer obligation by which the candidate specially bound
himself to secrecy with regard to what was about to be communicated
to him; then the secrets, whatever they were (modes of recognition)
were entrusted to him, and the proceedings terminated".

     Before being received, the young man had to show he was well
qualified, of lawful age, freeborn, of good habits and reputation
and sound in mind and limb.  The apprentice was a learner and had
to serve seven years before he could become a Fellow entitled to
begin his tour or journey as a skilled craftsman.

     With the revival of 1717 and the formation of the first Grand
Lodge of England, efforts at uniformity of ritual were begun andout of these efforts has grown the system of three degrees as we
know them.  The old ceremonies corresponding roughly to two
degrees, our first and third, were remodelled, the first being
divided into Apprentice and Fellowcraft and the Master Degree
remaining the third.  While the original significance remains to
a large extent, the ceremonies have been greatly simplified at the
hands of skilled craftsmen until they have come to us as a complete
system.  

     Let us follow, now, a petitioner as he approaches the portal.

     First, he must come "of his own free will and accord" and
without "solicitation".  His qualifications must be as they have
always been, except that belief in a particular creed is no longer
required so long as he admits faith in Deity.  Neither need he be
free of blemish in body or limb, for gradually it has been agreed,
as one Grand Master has aptly put it, "it is better to have a
candidate with a wooden leg that a wooden head".  The tendency
seems to be that so long as the candidate can comply with the
ceremonial requirements, artificial or missing members are no bar.

     There has been considerable controversy as to what constitutes
"solicitation".  The strict interpreters say that any attempt by
hint or suggestion designed to induce a man to seek initiation, is
"solicitation".  In other words, any implication to a profane that
he should be within the fold is "solicitation".

     Others again declare that should a profane ask questions about
the Order he should be answered as completely as possible with
necessary discretion but no suggestion of "joining the lodge"
should be offered.

     The latter course seems to be better for unless a man has had
considerable contact with Masons, known to him as such, he is
unlikely to have formed "a preconceived favourable opinion of the
Institution".  The point is that he must not be asked to join. 
This must come of his own accord, so that at the proper time he may
answer sincerely that he offers himself "of his own free will and
accord".

     The practice of having two sponsors is an ancient one, and in
our day is essential, for in spite of our well known methods of
investigating applicants, the average member must be a stranger to
a vast number of his fellows, and must depend almost entirely on
the knowledge and goodwill of sponsors known to him for information
about most of the applicants who come to his lodge.

     When the formalities of preparing and presenting the petition
have been complied with there remains one of the most important
safeguards of the Order - the Ballot.

     Probably no single one of our forms and ceremonies has beendiscussed more than this.  That it has been abused on occasion for
petty reasons or personal spite and animosity there can be no
doubt, but on the whole most men realize that in casting the ballot
they are acting as the Lodge in judgement upon one who is to be
accepted or rejected for all its privileges and the ballot is cast
accordingly.  It there is doubt of the petitioner's qualifications
the Lodge should have the benefit of that doubt; if there is no
doubt, then black or white should be cast without rancour or spite
when "nay", and with the sense of welcome to a fellow sojourner,
in the quest for light if "Aye" is the verdict.

     "Aye" is the verdict, and so the pilgrimage begins.  

     To spin idle yarns to the candidate who comes to our doors for
the first time is merely stupid.  To require that he must first be
prepared in his own heart implies that he should at least have a
sense of peace of mind to listen to and absorb all he hears and
sees, and to disturb this sense of peace by foolish suggestions of
horse play is the part of one who has neither reverence in his own
heart nor appreciation of its place in the heart of another.

     First impressions are always most lasting, so the candidate
should be impressed at once with the dignity and solemnity of the
proceedings.

     He is hoodwinked as "a symbol of secrecy, silence, darkness,
in which the mysteries of our Art should be preserved from the
unhallowed gaze of the profane".(Mackey)

     The hoodwink may be a reminder of the caves and dark places
used by ancient secret societies as places of initiation, but in
Freemasonry it has a much deeper meaning.  Truly it conceals by
covering the eyes, but it also typifies the mental and spiritual
darkness before the light of revelation.  The real blindfold which
Freemasonry professes to remove is that of ignorance and prejudice,
selfishness and self-interest, false pride and anti-social habits.

     In many of the Ancient Mysteries the candidate was led to
initiation at the end of a rope.  Of its origin in Freemasonry
little more is known.  Albert Pike suggests its derivation in the
Hebrew work "Khabel", meaning "a rope attached to an anchor" or "to
bind as with a pledge".

     One writer has subtly suggested its symbolism to us as the
negative restraint "Thou shalt not", removed when voluntary pledges
replace it with the more positive philosophy of "I will".

     The "length of one's Cable-tow" has been variously explained
but the most acceptable seems to be "within the scope of a man's
reasonable ability".

     Here now we find him knocking at the door.  His position canbe no better described than it is in an essay published by one of
Freemasonry's most charming students, Dr. J. D. Buck, in the (New
Age' (Vol. VII, Page 161)).

     "Reflect a moment on the condition of the candidate on first
entering the lodge room.  He is not only in darkness, going he
knows not where, to meet, he knows not what, --- but he bears the
mark of abject slavery.  He is spared the shame of nakedness and
the pride of apparel, and his feet are neither shod nor bare.  He
is poor and penniless, no external thing to help or recommend him. 
The old life with all its accessories has dropped from him as
completely as though he were dead.  He is to enter on a new life
in a new world.  His intrinsic character alone is to determine his
progress and his future status.  If he is worthy and well
qualified, and duly and truly prepared for this, and, if he
understands and appreciated what follows in symbols, ceremonies and
instructions, the old life in him will be dead for ever".

     For every work preparation is essential, often long and
arduous.  The knocking at the door is a hint of that preparation
for entrance to a system which points the steps in the quest for
the Divine.

     A sharp instrument, peculiarly applied, is an ancient
survival.  It appeared in the Mysteries of Mithras.  To Freemasons
it signifies the only real penalty of the Order.  Remember the
explanation accompanying its application.

     To pray is the duty of every spiritual seeker.  To learn to
pray is the first symbol in the Lodge.  The Apprentice prayer is
probably the direct survival of the old custom of Invocation
preceding the Ancient Charges.  "So for as we know, man is the only
being on our planet that pauses to pray, and the wonder of his
worship is at once a revelation and a prophecy". (Haywood)

          "He seems to hear a Heavenly Friend,
          And through thick walls to apprehend
          A labour working toward an end."

     Circumambulation, the journey around, is probably one of our
most ancient survivals.  In most ancient religions we find the
imitation of the passage of the sun god in his daily round.  The
Freemason's journey about the Lodge more than hints at the survival
of the custom.  Add to this the reference to orientation and
Mackey's suggestion of the analogy between our reading from the
scriptures during the journey in our Lodges and the practice of the
Greeks in chanting a sacred chorus divided into three parts, and
we must believe that here is an echo of our long, long, past.

     The Form of the Lodge and the approach to the East are again
ancient survivals.

     In the East, the sun, source of all light, rises; in the South
he is at his meridian; in the West he sets.  Even in his summer
journey he never passes north of 23 degrees 28 minutes and, as
Mackey points out, would leave the northern side of a wall, built
above this latitude, in complete shadow.  The north is, therefore,
"a place of darkness".

     In the ancient religions, temples were dedicated to the rising
sun.  The temples were so situated that on a certain day of the
year the light would pass through the entrance and fall upon the
Altar at the sun's rising.  This meant that the altar would be
situated in the West.  During the development of the Christian
churches the setting was reversed, the altar being in the East, and
from this it is likely that the Christian Operative Masons derived
their practice of placing the Master's station in the East.

     And now, after journeying, our candidate approaches the Altar,
symbol of giving, of sanctuary, and of sacrifice.  He gives
himself, at the sanctuary of peace and sacrifices before the East
all that is base.

     Here he accepts his "binding to" the obligation of his rank
and duties.  Modern Freemasonry has been attacked for the ferocity
of the penalties and the impossibility of carrying them out.  They,
too, are a survival of ancient days and may not be removed without
loss.  As is done in New York State, a brief explanatory clause
might be added, but otherwise, it seems, they must remain until
Freemasonry is ready to change other considerations depending upon
them as part of the ceremonies.

     Revelation discloses Three Great Lights.  Here upon the Book,
which is really a library of sixty books, the candidate pledges his
now life.  As Fort Newton says - "No other book is so honest with
us, so mercilessly merciful, so austere and yet so tender, piercing
the heart, yet healing the deep wounds of sin and sorrow".

     We must not forget, however, that the Book is but a symbol of
something greater, even "the will of God as man has learned it in
the midst of years".  And so Freemasonry permits the use of the
Great Light, sacred to the land of its use; the Old Testament if
the Jew; the Koran of the Mohammedan; the Zend-Avesta of the
Parsoe; the Bhagavad-Gita and the Veda of the Brahmin and the
Hindu.

     The ancients believed the earth square or an oblong square,
and the Chinese called a man of integrity a "square man".  The
ancients, too, observed the heavens as a dome, the sun and the moon
as discs, and the planets moving in curves and circles.  The circle
therefore became associated with divinity.  Coupled in the Great
Lights the square and compassed in this degree seem to suggest
earthly nature yet uppermost but with spiritual nature ready to
come to the surface as education draws it upward and outward.

     The lesser lights are probably an allusion to the Hermetic
philosophy of the Sun representing the male principle, the Moon the
female principle and the fruit of their union the Master,
representation of the Complete man.

     Signs and Tokens were the invariable complement of membership
in a secret society.  They cannot be lost so long as memory is
retained, and speak a universal language.  To us they are the
infallible means of recognition and serve when even words fail.

     Benjamin Franklin once wrote of our signs: - "The great
effects which they have produced are established by the most
incontestable facts of history.  They have stayed the uplifted
hands of the destroyer; they have softened the asperities of the
tyrant; they have mitigated the horrors of captivity; they have
subdued the rancour of malevolence; and broken down the banners of
political animosity and sectarian alienation".

     The Apron, as the emblem of Innocence and the Badge of a
Mason, is a survival of the protective clothing of the Operative
Mason.  Naturally enough speculative instruction has been built
upon it, but as full explanations of the Apron and of the Ceremony
of the North-East Corner appear in special papers issued by your
Association, they need not be enlarged upon here.

     As a final incident in his instruction our Apprentice is
presented with the tools of his trade and taught their speculative
use.

     And so he has passed the First Step, learned the first and
perhaps the greatest of all lessons, is ready to ponder his
adventure in the realm of the spirit and prepare for more Light
that he may continue his journey.

     (N.B. Most of the material for this paper has been taken from
H.L. Haywood's splendid work "Symbolical Masonry")