SOME FURTHER NOTES ON CRAFT SYMBOLISM

by

W.Bro.R.A.L. HARLAND, P.M., Lodge No. 1679, President of the
Circle.

"As a Craftsman,in our private assemblies you may offer your
sentiments and opinions on such subjects as are regularly 
introduced in the Lecture, under the superintendence of an 
experienced Master, who will guard the Landmarks against
encroachment."

(Charge after  Passing).


In the two previous Papers of this series ("SOME PRELIMINARY NOTES
ON CRAFT SYMBOLISM" and " SOME NOTES ON CRAFT SYMBOLISM "), an
outline of the scientific or philosophic aspect of the Craft system
is sketched for the guidance of students.  The further Notes now
prepared will deal with a few of our chief and most familiar
symbols, the deep and extended interpretation of which is not fully
disclosed in the official teaching.  These are symbols to which
every Brother is introduced at the outset of his Masonic career; he
is purposely told little about them, and only sufficient is said in
the Lodge to arrest his attention and set him off thinking and
searching.  Indeed, the approved Ritual instruction is
intentionally meagre and superficial; it is, so to speak, a shell,
but it hides valuable kernels within.  If, then, we content
ourselves with the shell, and with the practice of merely
memorising and repeating the letter of the Ritual and Lectures, we
shall know next to nothing of actual Masonic doctrine.

We are sometimes asked: Why use symbols at all? Why cannot Masonic
doctrine be imparted in simple, clear, verbal statement? The answer
is, of course, that Masonic science is by no means a simple
subject, but one, like every other branch of scientific knowledge,
to be acquired only by patient effort and persevering thought. 
Moreover, as those who compiled our system were well aware,
Freemasonry is a science best taught by symbols for, among others,
the following valid reasons:-

(a) Symbols are compendiums of many ideas in one, and accordingly
express to the mind far more than can be conveyed by words.

(b) Symbols are enduring; like music, symbolism is a form of
universal speech reaching minds of whatever race, language, or
creed.

(c) The interpretation of symbols is a profitable mental exercise,
and a great stimulus to reflective thought.

The science of which Freemasonry treats is the science of
ourselves.  We learn from the central legend of the Craft that we
are in search of something in ourselves which, owing to a certain
"heavy calamity," we have lost, but which, "when time and
circumstances permit," it will be possible to regain "with the
Centre." Our teaching recommends, therefore, the knowledge of
ourselves as the "most interesting of all human studies," so that
we may first truly comprehend in what respect we have sustained a
loss, then understand what it is we hope to find, and finally take
up the task of recovering "that which is lost." Over the portals of
ancient temples there was inscribed the maxim "Man know thyself,"
and with precisely the same end in view symbols are provided for
the single purpose of instructing our modern candidates in
self-knowledge.  From this standpoint we now proceed to interpret
symbols prominent in our Lodges.today.

THE TWO PILLARS.

Standing impliedly at the threshold of every Lodge are two pillars,
as they are said to have stood " in the porchway or entrance of
King Solomon's Temple." We know from the full description given in
the Lecture on the Tracing Board of the Second Degree that these
are not ordinary architectural pillars; they are in fact ornamental
columns, without any structural significance or use in practical
building work.  Their value is purely symbolic, and they are
examples of emblematic imagery; firstly, of metaphysical
principles; secondly, of ourselves in whom those metaphysical
principles are reflected and embodied.  The pillars are twin;
traditionally one is black and the other white, thereby
corresponding with the chequered flooring of the Lodge; one pillar
is likewise associated with the left hand, and one with the right.
Interpreted in the terminology of the sciences of metaphysics, the
symbolism of the twin pillars proclaims that the ultimate substance
of the Universe is a Unity which, in the manifested world, is
observed by us as splitting up into a Duality; into such "pairs of
opposites" as Spirit and Matter, positive and negative, male and
female.  Everything in Nature, including ourselves, has two sides;
a spiritual and a physical side an active objective side and a
passive subjective side a good side and a bad side.

Modern physics recognises that the visible world and everything it
comprises is composed of positive and negative electrical forces in
a state of balance; nothing would or could exist without these two
forces; it is their union and equilibrium that holds things
together and makes them "stand firm." Humanity divides into two
sexes with opposite characteristics and functions.  Electric light
is the result of two currents of positive and negative energy
conducted through separate wires until they meet and generate light
by their union.  This principle of dual-forces in balance, only
comparatively recently acknowledged by modern science, has been
known and acted upon by Initiates from the most ancient times, and
the fact of it has always been proclaimed by two symbolic pillars;
one representing the active, positive, centrifugal energy (called
Boaz in the Craft system); the other representing the passive,
negative, centripetal force (called Jachin in the Craft system). 
In our Ritual (following the marginal interpretation given in the
Bible) Boaz is defined as "in strength;" the modern, and more
expressive, term would be "force," signifying primordial dynamic
electrical energy, of which lightning-fire is an example.  The full
meaning of the word Boaz, from the ancient Hebrew, is "fiery energy
in a state of intense activity"; whilst Jachin, which we explain to
mean "to establish," denotes passive or static force, signified by
"inertia," the resistance necessary to check the positive force and
"establish" it in objective concrete form and "stability."

In the Lodge itself these two aspects of metaphysical force or
energy are further exemplified by the pillars (described as
"columns") being exhibited on the Wardens' pedestals, where they
are placed in opposite positions.  One of them stands erect, while
the other lies horizontal; their polarity changes depending upon
whether the Lodge is at labour ("active") or  "called off" at
refreshment ("passive"). We are intended to apply this symbolism to
ourselves, for like the columns on the pedestals we are beings with
opposite aspects.  We have an outward and active nature, and an
inward and passive nature.  Our physical body reveals a similar
dualism ; every organ in our body is duplicated; two limbs, two
eyes, two ears, two lungs; two brains (the cerebellum and
cerebrum), one positive by which we act consciously and
voluntarily, and the other negative which is unconscious and
controls the involuntary sympathetic system.  The purpose of the
symbolic columns is to emphasise the dualism of our constitution,
and likewise to inculcate the necessity of bringing the two
opposite sides of our unstable natures into equilibrium.  We should
observe that the columns are not in evidence on the Master's
pedestal; this is because the Master is deemed to transcend the
Wardens, thereby combining their united forces in himself.  It is
instructive to reflect that were the pillars shown on the Master's
pedestal, they would have to be exhibited in their combined form of
the Cross (the plus symbol).  As a matter of fact, this symbol is
actually displayed upon the person of the Master in the LEVEL
(properly the TAU, the Hebrew form of the Cross) of the Apron which
he wears as an Installed Master; hence "PER SIGNUM TAU," the
ancient formula.

We would next briefly refer to the great antiquity of the symbolism
of twin pillars.  In ancient Greece we find that Homer mentions
them in the ILIAD (XXIV 527), as two vessels, or jars, standing at
the gate of heaven, one filled with good and one with evil, a blend
of which is poured into each man's life at birth.  The old Chinese
philosophy describes them as the YIN and the YANG; and ages ago in
Egypt there was held twice in every year the Festival called the
"setting up of the Pillars." Finally, we have the ancient Zodiacal
sign of GEMINI, traditionally known as "The house of the Twins."
Originally this house was symbolised by two kids, for which the
Greeks substituted twin children, the sons of Jupiter, represented
by two bright stars Castor and Pollux.  Gemini is also symbolised
by two pillars joined at the top and base, which is a diagrammatic
representation of the twins seated side by side with embracing
arms. In mythology these "sons of the All-Father" were designated
as the "Great Twin Brethren"; one of them was mortal, the other
immortal.  On the death of the mortal, it is related, he became
united to his Brother and the two were translated to heaven; in
sign whereof the constellation of the Twins has since shone in the
night sky, where these "two witnesses" testify prophetically to the
redemption of the body of man, his reunion with "the companion of
his former toils" (his own higher-self), and the salvation and
immortality of both.

From the Lecture on the Tracing Board of the Second Degree we learn
that the symbolic pillars are both alike in form, as follows:-

1. Square base, or cubical pediment, resting on the ground.

2. Rising out of the base is a shaft, or column, resembling the
trunk of a tree.

3. At the top of the column there is a capital, or chapiter,
garnished with flowers and fruit, and surmounted by a circle, or
globe, over which is thrown a veil or net-work.

In the description of these two pillars we are invited to see an
image of ourselves, and their interpretation as symbols is the
Craft method of providing, at the very entrance to the Lodge, our
first lesson in the science of self-knowledge.  This lesson is
likewise threefold :-

1. The square base is a figure of our normal personality; the
bodily man, sprung from, and resting upon, the earth.

2. Within the earthly square of our mortal person dwells an energy,
or Life-force, called the soul.  This is denoted by the ascending
shaft of the pillar.  Like a tree trunk springing from the soil in
which it is rooted, and from which it draws nourishment, so the
human soul grows upwards out of the personal patch of Mother-Earth
forming the physical body, and is developed by earthly experience,
ever building something new into itself by daily activities of
thought, conduct and aspiration.  And as the sap, or life-force, of
a tree ultimately breaks into leaf, flower and fruit, so here at
the capital of the pillar, the energies of the soul are shown as
manifesting in analogous results (the graces and fruits of the
spirit), and finally shaping themselves into a circle, or rounded
whole.


3. The highest part of ourselves, our spiritual summit, is always
beyond the sight of the eye and the ken of the mind.  This is why,
in the pillar, it is exhibited covered with a veil, or network.  We
see not what we build into ourselves from day to day, but as the
pillar indicates, the essence of our bodily activities is conserved
and comes to bloom in our superphysical part.  Note especially in
this pillar imagery the contrast between the base, which is a
square, or cube, and the summit, which is a circle, or globe.  The
square is the ancient geometrical symbol for what has physical
form, whereas the circle is the traditional symbol of what is
spiritual and formless.  In the old Chinese cosmogonies we find the
adage: "Heaven is round; earth is square." The veiled globe, or
circle, at the top of the pillar, therefore, is an emblem of man's
spiritual pole; it is the sphere into which the seeds, or essence,
of his bodily activities come to final fruition.  These seeds are
described emblematically by the many-seeded pomegranate fruit with
which the chapiter is surrounded, whilst the globe itself is
otherwise spoken of as the "golden bowl." In the poem, " The
Testament of Beauty," our Masonic chapiter is referred to as :-

"The full circle where the spirit of man, Escaping from the bondage
of physical law, Re-entereth eternity."

which immediately calls to mind the admonition given to the
Craftsman, " in all his pursuits to have eternity in view."

The derivation of the names of the two pillars has been widely
discussed by scholars, but it is significant to note that in the
Eleusinian Mysteries the name of the Sun God was "IACCHUS," while
"BOHU" represented the Earth.  The names have, of course, become
transposed. In the Craft system the first pillar, surmounted by the
celestial globe, is in charge of the Junior Warden, who marks the
Sun at the Meridian.  The second pillar, representing Earth, is
surmounted by the terrestrial globe, and is in charge of the Senior
Warden, who marks the Setting Sun. There is a sense in which the
pillars themselves may be said to represent Heaven and Earth, and,
remembering the theory of their Reconciliation, the meanings
attributed to the "separate" pillars are barren of result while
they remain isolated.  In other words, "stability" can only be
attained by the significance of the pillars when "conjoined," thus
symbolising the consummation of the At-onement of God and Man.

THE KEY.

The symbolic key figured in the Craft system alludes to the safe
keeping of secrets.  Accordingly, the First Section of the First
Lecture leads up to the affirmation that Freemasonry contains
secrets; and the catechetical instruction then proceeds, as
follows:-

Q. Have Freemasons secrets ?
A. They have, many and invaluable ones.

Q. Where do they keep them ?
A. In their hearts.

Q. To whom do they reveal them ?
A. To Freemasons and to Freemasons only.

Q. How do they reveal them ?
A. By Sns., Ts., and particular Ws.

Q. As Freemasons, how do we hope to arrive at them ?
A. By the assistance of a key.
Q. The position of that key ?
A. It hangs.

Q. Why is the preference given to hanging ?
A. It should always hang in a Brother's defence and never lie to
his prejudice.

Q. What does it hang by ?
A. The thread of life, in the passage of utterance between Guttural
and Pectoral.

Q. Why so nearly connected with the heart ?
A. That, being an index of the mind, it should utter nothing but
what the heart truly dictates.

Q. It is a curious key, will you inform me of what metal it is
composed ?

A. Of no manner of metal; it is the tongue of good report


In many of the early Tracing Boards we also find that the key is
prominently displayed, sometimes standing by itself, sometimes
hanging from a cloud, and sometimes suspended from Jacob's ladder. 
What is the nature of the secrets to which the key refers? We are
here concerned with what may be termed primarily the physiological
aspect of the Craft teaching.  The earnest Brother will soon
discover that the real secrets of Freemasonry are not to be
acquired from anything that can be ocularly or orally imparted to
him in the Lodge, but arise from the gradual digestion of ideas and
their proper coordination by his own mind.  It is essential,
therefore, that his mental energies should  be carefully conserved.
To make use of an electrical analogy, he must become in effect an
"accumulator," receiving impressions and allowing them to revolve
within the closed circuit of his mind, where they will be
marshalled and their final value extracted.  In the affairs of the
popular world an appalling waste of energy occurs daily in the
amount of idle gossip and  needless discussion; the way of the
inner life, however, as taught in the Lodge, leads by the "deep and
still waters" of knowledge, and calls for strict silence and
economy of speech.  Silence generates the power needed for speaking
with authority when the time for such speech comes; hence the
admonition: "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak "
(Ecclesiastes 3, verse 7).  It is not generally recognised that
peril attaches to premature and unwise speech no less than to more
flagrant violations of secrecy; a peril pointed to in the penalty
of the Obligation of the First Degree.  This penalty, when we
discern the spiritual intention behind the literal expression,
implies that he who is unfaithful to his duty of silence and
secrecy may, by frittering away energies which should be conserved,
automatically render himself spiritually unvocal.

There is a further good reason for secrecy regarding the technique
of spiritual development.  It is always very dangerous to tamper
with the mechanism of life ignorantly, and without full knowledge
of what is involved; thus abuse of spiritual powers may entail both
physical and mental damage. The dormant energies of the soul cannot
be set in motion without inducing results of some kind; and here,
as elsewhere, action and reaction are equal and opposite; if they
do not act creatively and constructively, they react destructively
and like a boomerang.  This will explain why, in the cryptic
language of the Lecture, it is said that the symbolic key "should
always hang in a Brother's defence and never lie to his prejudice."
The significance of the expression "the tongue of good report,"
which concludes the catechism, will become apparent when considered
from the standpoint of an apocryphal story taken from Hebrew
literature.  It is related that Rabbi Gamaliel ordered his servant
Tobi to bring him something good from the market, and he brought a
tongue.  At another time he told him to bring something bad, and he
also returned with a tongue.  "Why did you on each occasion fetch
a tongue?" the Rabbi asked. "It is the source of good and evil,"
Tobi replied.  "If it is good, there is nothing better; if it is
bad, there is nothing worse." In this sense the key,  Masonically
interpreted, is the symbol of safety; a wise old counsel says :-

Word is thrall, but Thought makes free 
Hold thy speech, I counsel thee."

We are also reminded of the final admonition when the Lodge is
closed: "Nothing now remains, but according to ancient custom, to
lock up our secrets in the safe and sacred repository of our
hearts."

We are all familiar with the fact that the symbolic key again
appears in the form of the jewel worn by the Treasurer, although
the connection with the Craft doctrine is today not generally
recognised.  Actually, however, the key is the emblem appropriate
to the Office of Treasurer, and is directly associated with the
catechetical instruction.  It is written: "For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6, verse 21). The place
of the Treasurer, therefore, is traditionally on the heart-side of
the body of the Lodge, and his function, like that of the heart, is
to receive, conserve, and distribute for the well-being of the
whole body.  Ostensibly, the Treasurer is an Officer chosen by the
members to administer the material wealth of the Lodge, but his
work also symbolises the teaching of the Craft that, whilst we are
engaged in discharging the duties of temporal necessity, we are
otherwise called upon to turn our hearts from the lures of worldly
treasure and concern ourselves rather with spiritual riches.  This
higher service is signified by the Master confirming the choice of
the Brethren and investing the Treasurer with the Collar of Office
from which, thereby illustrating the verbal instruction given in
the Lecture, is seen to "hang" the symbolic key.  The same key, we
learn from the catechism, which locks the heart to the treasure of
the world without, opens it to the knowledge of the riches of the
kingdom within; hence the scriptural admonition: "Keep thy heart
with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life "
(Proverbs 4, verse 23).
CHARGE.

"That excellent key a Freemasons tongue which should always speak
well of a Brother, absent or present, but when that cannot be done
with honour and propriety, let us adopt that excellent virtue of
the Craft, silence."

(First Lecture, First Section).

REGULAR STEPS.

These steps are illustrated in the Lodge by taking certain literal
steps with the feet; steps which have no value in themselves, but
which are invested with symbolic significance.  What is a step? It
is a progressive action, and may be described as a forward movement
towards some objective or ideal; each time we take one of our
symbolic steps we would do well to remind ourselves that it has a
special meaning.  We ought, indeed, to know both why and how the
step should be taken; the Masonic step is quite distinctive, and
very different from an ordinary step.  The step, when given
correctly, consists of dual movements; one involving motion
forwards (in a "bee line"), the other a "check" or arrest of that
motion.  The first movement is positive, the second negative; they
correspond with the twin pillars, and are in exact conformity with
the positions of the columns on the Wardens' pedestals; one is
vertical, the other is horizontal.  The . . . foot moves first
("step off with the . . . foot"), and is pointed straight forward;
the other foot is then placed in the prescribed position. 
Traditionally, the . . . foot is associated with the heart (or
intuition), which always impels prompt action direct towards the
goal; hence the propriety of the "bee-line" direction forward
instead of the oblique taken in the normal walking step.  The other
foot, on the contrary, is associated with the head (or conscious
rational mind), which often has to act as a brake upon the ardent
impulses of the heart, otherwise we may "rashly attempt to rush
forward." This will explain why the other foot, when correctly
placed in position, forms a deadlock; movement forward is
impossible until both feet have been released.  Observe also
another significant fact about the ceremonial step; due to the
strain imposed upon the leg muscles slight pain, together with an
acute sense of "lameness," is felt in the other leg; indeed, the
other leg actually feels shorter because of the eversion (turning
outwards) of that foot.

The sense of "lameness" induced by the posture assumed on taking
the step has a definite purpose in Craft symbolism.  We find on
investigation that throughout the ages there has been a consistent
tradition of "lameness" in connection with religious and
philosophical systems.  Our remote ancestors had, it transpires, a
god called PTAH by the Egyptians, HEPHAISTOS by the Greeks, and
VULCAN by the Romans, who was known as the "lame god." Figures of
this god depict him with one leg shorter than the other, standing
in the position of our Masonic step.  The Egyptologist, Sir E. W.
Budge, writes of him, as follows:-

"The texts of all periods make it plain that he was the chief god
of all handicraftsmen and of all workers in metal and stone.  At a
very early period he was identified with one of the primeval gods
who came into being in the earliest time, 'the father of fathers,
power of powers, father of beginnings'; he was the great artificer
in metals, at once smelter, caster and sculptor, as well as the
master architect and designer of everything in the world."

("Gods of the ancient Egyptians")

In mythology the "lame god" is often spoken of as the "Blacksmith
of the gods," who forged armour for them; and who taught humanity
how to work, like himself, in metals.  It is not very difficult to
trace the devolution of this conception to that of TUBALCAIN
(Hebrew variant of VULCAN), who reappears in our Masonic system as
"the first artificer in metals," thereby identifying the modern
Craftsman with the ancient tradition.  What, then, is the truth
lying behind the venerable myth?

According to Plato, voicing the teaching of the Mysteries ("The
Republic," bk. VII), the soul is, so to speak severity "lamed" by
the process of coming to birth in this world, and by confinement in
the material body.  The body is an obstruction to the free action
of the spirit; yet that resistance and opposition are essential to
the growth of the soul.  Man, the Mysteries proclaim, is a divine
being "crippled" by the limitations of the flesh; he has, it is
affirmed, "fallen" from high estate and his destiny is to "return 
whence he came"; but in every age the effort demanded proves too
much for the vast majority.  We are assured, however, that man has
never been left without guidance; there is a long line of "cunning
workers in metals," great souls who have achieved the alchemical
MAGNUM OPUS of transmuting their "base metals" into the "gold" of
spirituality; and of these TUBALCAIN was the "first artificer -
because "in the earliest times" he served as the exemplar for the
"instruction of the brethren in the inferior degrees." The allusion
is to a primeval epoch in evolution when our planet, and the life
upon it, were condensing from ethereal conditions into solid
physical form; human souls had to be trained by the guardians of
the race to adjust themselves to the material embodiment in which
henceforth they were required to work out their spiritual
salvation.  This reference to TUBALCAIN should not, therefore, be
interpreted as relating to someone who first discovered metals and
forged them into serviceable implements; indeed, "the import of the
word" has deep significance.  It remains to be said that the
"metals" in which men were "first" taught to be "artificers" were
not those now in general use; they were the elements of that
corruptible physical matter of which the body of mortality is
composed, and by which the soul originally was made captive.  So
with us in the Craft today, each may still think of himself as an
"artificer in metals" in the sense that, whilst in the body, he is
learning "to bring rude matter into due form." We are, as the
ceremonial step is designed to illustrate, still "lamed" owing to
our present restricted powers, but each may look forward to
ultimate liberation from the "cramped" position; in the words of
the Hebrew prophet: "Then shall the lame man leap as an hart"
(Isaiah, chapter 35, verse 6).

THE APRON

The Apron is the Masonic symbol of the corporeal vesture and
condition of the soul.  This is an important symbol from the
metaphysical aspect of our work, because neither in the natural nor
the ultra-natural order is consciousness conceivable apart from a
vehicle for it.  The problem, however, that has engaged the
scientific mind in regard to posthumous survival, namely how can
consciousness exist without a body, never arises in the case of the
Craft system as the teaching is implicit that it does not so exist,
and that the subjective always possesses an objective side.  Even
of the uncreated Essence and formless Source of All Life this is
held to be true; God is indeed Spirit, but the Universe, of which
only a small fraction is sensuously perceptible, is still His
vesture; and man, analogously, a spirit made in the Divine image,
is never vestureless, although his vesture will needs vary with his
state and place of advancement in the Cosmos for the time being. 
It follows, therefore, that the Freemason who seriously yields
himself to the discipline of our system is not merely improving his
character and chastening his thoughts and desires.  He is, at the
same time, consciously or unconsciously, building up an inner
ethereal body which will form his clothing when his transitory
outer body shall have passed away.  That the soul becomes
self-clothed as it advances is covertly intimated to the candidate
in the three Degrees, and in order that the meaning and
significance of the Apron marking his progress may be studied, we
now summarise the salient features, as follows :-

1. The Apron is the symbol of the corporeal vesture of the soul. 
This does not refer so much to the temporal physical body, as to
its permanent invisible corporeity which will survive the death of
the mortal part.  The physical matter of which our mortal bodies
are composed is but corruptible impermanent stuff which merely
forms a temporary encasement of the imperishable substance of our
souls, and enables them to enter into sense-relations with the
physical world.  The distinction here made must be clearly grasped
and kept in mind, because Freemasonry has to deal not so much with
the transient outward body as with the eternal inward being of man,
although the outward body is temporarily involved with the latter.
It is the immortal soul of man which is the ruined temple and needs
to be rebuilt upon the principles of spiritual science.  Actually,
the mortal body with its unruly wills and affections, stands in the
way of that achievement, and it is therefore the "rubble" which has
to be cleared away before the new foundations can be set and the
new structure reared.  Yet even rubble can be made to serve useful
purposes, and be re-arranged and worked into the new erection;
accordingly, man's outer temporal nature can be disciplined and
utilised in the reconstruction of himself.

2. The investiture of the candidate with the Apron in each Degree
by the Senior Warden as the Master's delegate for that purpose is
meant to inculcate the truth that the soul fabricates its own body
or "apron" by its own desires and thoughts; for the Senior Warden
represents the soul which, in accordance with its own spirituality,
automatically clothes itself with its own self-made vesture in a
way that marks its own progress or regress.  Mind moulds body; it
can dominate and suffuse the animal tendencies of the flesh, or be
smothered by them.  The fleshly clothing, therefore, can become
sublimated and transfigured by the wisdom, strength and beauty of
the soul within, or, if that soul be itself impure and sensual, its
defects will display themselves in the outward body.

For of the soul the body form doth take, For soul is form and doth
the body make."

(Edmund Spenser).

3. The unadorned white Apron of the First Degree indicates the
purity of soul contemplated as being the eventual attainment of the
aspirant on completing the work of that Degree.

4. The pale blue rosettes added to the Apron in the Second Degree
indicate that progress is being made in the science of
regeneration, and that the candidate's spirituality is beginning to
develop.  Blue, the colour of the sky, is traditionally associated
with devotion to spiritual concerns.

5. In the Third Degree still further progress is denoted by
increased blue adornments.  Why are the borders and rosettes of the
Apron blue? Blue is the "highest" colour in Nature, and at  the
summit of the spectrum of light.  Moreover, when the visible Sun at
the centre of our solar system shines through massed unclouded air,
we see the heights as blue sky; and, in like manner, when the
invisible Sun at the Centre of each of us shines through the
purified personality, the mind is raised to the highest power and
becomes illumined with the azure light of "the place of sapphires"
(Job 28, 6).  It should also be noted that in the First and Second
Degrees no metal is allowed to appear upon the Apron.  This is
because as an Apprentice and Fellow the candidate is deemed to be
engaged in the work of divesting himself of all "base metals," and,
by an alchemical process, transmuting them into "silver and gold,"
emblems of spiritual riches.  With Mastership, however, he attains
an influx of those riches under the emblem of the tassels of
silver.  Silver, a colourless precious metal, is always associated
with the soul; gold, the metal of supreme value and warm colour, is
likewise associated with Spirit.  The silver serpent fastening the
Apron is the emblem of Divine Wisdom knitting the soul's new-made
vesture together.

6. From the foregoing it follows that it is the personal soul of
the candidate himself which is the "artificer in metals" referred
to by the title of admission for the Third Degree.  Desire for
"worldly possessions," for sensation and experience in this outward
world of good and evil, brought the soul into the world, and during
the whole of its physical existence it has been engaged in
trafficking with "metals," every desire and thought being an
"artificer" adding something to or modifying its natural
encasement.  If, then, desire for physical experience and material
things brought the soul into material conditions, the relinquishing
of that desire is the first necessary step to ensure its return to
the condition whence it emanated.  The First and Second Degrees of
our Craft system imply that the candidate has undergone a lengthy
discipline in the renunciation of external things and the
cultivation of desire for those that are within.  But,
notwithstanding that he has passed through the discipline of those
Degree, he is represented at the end of them as being still in
"worldly possessions" in the sense that a residue of attraction by
them lingers in his heart.  The ingrained defects and tendencies of
the soul as the result of past habits and experiences are not
easily eliminated.  Hence it is that the candidate is entrusted
with a title that designates himself at this stage, and which
indicates also that some residue of the spirit of this world
lingers in him which it is necessary to expunge from his nature
before he can be raised to the "sublime degree of Master."

7. Finally, the pale blue and silver of the Master's Apron become
intensified in the deep blue and gold ornamentation worn by the
Provincial and Grand Lodge Officers, who in theory have evolved to
still deeper spirituality and transmuted themselves from silver
into fine gold.  The symbolic clothing worn by Provincial and Grand
Lodge Officers is the Masonic equivalent of the aureole, and its
colour, deep blue heavily fringed with gold, is in correspondence
with the deep blue centre and luminous circumference of flame: "His
ministers are flames of fire." Provincial and Grand Lodge Officers
are drawn from those who are Past Masters in the Craft; that is,
from those who theoretically have attained Mastership and thus have
become joined to the Grand Lodge Above, where they "shine as the
stars for ever and ever."


It is written that no man may enter heaven without being clothed in
a "wedding garment," the vesture qualifying him for union with the
life celestial; and, in like manner, no Freemason may enter a Lodge
without wearing the Apron that proclaims his fellowship with the
Craft.  We need not, however, restrict our thought and use of the
Apron to wearing it in Lodge ; indeed, it is helpful to consider
that we are clothed Masonically at all times, whether we are
actually wearing the Apron or not.  There are some Brethren who,
loyal to the principles of the Craft during their lifetime, elect
still to wear the Apron in the grave.


THE EAR OF CORN.

In the Craft system the symbol of "an ear of corn" growing "near a
fall of water" is of extreme importance.  Corn is found prominently
associated with the Ancient Mysteries where, as also in our
Scriptures, it is always the emblem of the "seed," or principle of
immortal being, sown by the Almighty in the soil of our mortal
bodies, these constituting the "earth" given to each of us so to
cultivate that what is planted in it may spring up into everlasting
life.  At Eleusis, the supreme degree of the Mysteries of Ceres
(whence our word "cereal") was signified by the symbol of "an ear
of corn"; and in the Egyptian system the candidate, holding "an ear
of corn" which was fertilised by the sacred water of the Nile,
declared "I am a germ of eternity," and at his death grains of corn
were buried with him as emblems of immortality.  By entrusting the
Masonic candidate with "an ear of corn" symbol at a certain stage
of his progress the Craft is perpetuating a practice of great
antiquity deserving of prolonged reflection.  With it may be read
the scriptural passage which contains a direct allusion to the
soul-growth of the righteous man: "And he shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in
his season" (Psalm 1, 3).  Note the proviso "in his season"; not
immediately or instantly; the growth of spiritual consciousness is
gradual, corresponding with our Craft three Degrees; "first the
blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear" (Mark 4,
28).  It is for this reason that many of the Psalms of David, which
were the Temple hymns of the Hebrews, as the Orphic Hymns were
those of the Greek Mysteries, are called "Songs of Degrees,"
marking the grades of "progress in the science."

Why, then, is corn used in preference to any other symbol of
growth? Because traditionally corn is a "sacred plant." The source
of corn has always puzzled botanists; it is not indigenous to this
world; it is never found, like other cereals and seeded grasses, in
a wild state, from which growth has been stimulated by intensive
culture.  This golden, graceful, prolific and needful plant, the
ancient doctrine teaches, was a gift of "the Gods" who in the dawn
of time transported it to our world from another planet, with the
double purpose of providing the staple food of humanity and of
giving man an emblem of the latest potentialities of his own soul. 
The tradition of antiquity is repeated by the Psalmist: "and had
given them of the corn of heaven.  Man did eat angels' food" (Psalm
78, 24-25).  So, too, with the human soul.  Like the corn, it is
not indigenous to this time-world but is a native of eternity,
whence it has become transported and sown as bare grain in the
individualised patch of earth constituting the human body.  There,
like a seed of natural corn, it is subjected to the opposing forces
of Nature; to the painful process of disintegration; dying and
rising again, multiplied exceedingly as the result of the
experience.  Once again the Psalmist confirms the ancient doctrine:
"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him
" (Psalm 126, 6).  Even our old English ballad of "John
Barleycorn," the "hero bold," still perpetuates in popular parable
the mystery of the immortal principle in man which, however often
cut down and threshed, will aye spring up again."

At the Consecration of every Masonic Lodge, "grains of corn are
scattered to the four quarters of space next, the Tracing Board of
the Second Degree displays a stalk of "growing" corn, with which
candidates for the Degree are identified; finally, the "full corn
in the ear" is exhibited in gold embroidery on the dress collars of
Grand Lodge Officers, signifying thereby that what had once been
sown in them as "bare grain" has at last ripened to prolific
fruitage. When, in Founding a Lodge, the Consecrating Officer
scatters corn, he is performing a profoundly sacramental act; he
is, indeed, emulating in miniature the work of the Great Sower of
the Universe, who continually goes forth sowing souls in space,
like grain, which fall into natural bodies that they may be raised
therefrom as spiritual bodies.  We can now perceive why, in
connection with the symbol of "an ear of corn," we use the term
"plenty"; this expression is the equivalent of the Greek "pleroma."
and means "fullness" or "abundance." It alludes to the concentrated
spiritual powers within that minute individualisation of the Divine
Substance sown in us as "seed," which are capable of liberation and
active function when we furnish the conditions necessary for their
emergence and growth.  What better counsel, then, can be offered to
the aspirant for higher knowledge than to instruct him, as we do at
the threshold of the Second Degree, concerning the potentialities
of his own nature; he can think of himself as a growing ear of
wheat destined to ripen in due time into abundant corn that will
sustain not only himself but, haply, serve as bread of life to
others.


"THE THREE ENTRANCES OF THE TEMPLE"


Exoterically, the reference in the Ritual is to the three main
entrances of King Solomon's Temple, which figure in the Craft
central legend.  We are, however, expected to read behind the
allegory, which conceals an allusion to the make-up of the human
personality.  Why, then, has the symbolic Temple of the Craft
system three principal entrances? And in what sense are they deemed
to be present in the person of each of us? The answer to these
questions involves the study of certain facts relating to the
evolution of our racial consciousness.  Does not the Ritual itself
assert that before "the secrets of nature and the principles of
intellectual truth" can be "unveiled to your view" you must be
"led, in the Second Degree, to contemplate the intellectual
faculties," and "to trace them in their development?" So few
Brethren ever do "contemplate," or even give a thought to
considering how they have become intellectual beings at all; yet
the understanding of this subject is an integral part of our
Masonic education.

Man consists, we are taught, of an enduring soul manifesting in a
transient body.  During the period of earthly life the soul
suffuses the entire body; but there are "points" (or regions of the
body) at which the union of soul and body is specially intimate,
and where it is evidenced by well-defined physiological mechanism
(or major nerve-centres).  These "points" are known as the "points
of entrance," where the soul most deeply enters the body and finds
anchorage; in other words, they are "entrances of the temple" (and
also serve as exits from it).  Spiritual science affirms that the
three main entrances, or "points of entrance," in the temple of the
body are located in the region of the navel, the heart and the
head.  This is also testified to in the penal signs of our three
Degrees.  Moreover, the "three entrances" have become built
gradually in the course of racial evolution, and, as the Wheel of
the Great Potter turned in the making of man, our race has
undergone progressive changes of consciousness.  Ages went to the
shaping of "Homo animal"; animal man was but a sensual, mindless,
emotionless creature living upon his sense-reactions; his main
centre of consciousness was (as it still is with some animals) at
a plexus in the region of his navel.  Nutrition and reproduction
were the ends of his existence; the sole purpose of his life being
the satisfaction of merely animal functions; it was necessary that
a strong and self-reproductive physical body should be built up as
the preliminary to greater achievements.  The cyclic Wheel of life
turned, and there was evolved another centre of consciousness in
the region of the heart; the emotional nature of man developed and
became grafted upon his sensual nature.  At this stage man was
first actuated by passion, desire, and the aspirations and
affections of the heart; he experienced the emotions of love and
hate, and began to exercise choice and will.  Once again the Wheel
turned, and man became "Homo sapiens"; upon his sensual and
emotional natures was now grafted the high faculty of mind;
consciousness mounted to his head.  Man was a self-conscious moral
being; although his sensual and emotional centres still remained
active in him their functions became subservient to the superior
gifts of intelligence and reason.  In the person of the average man
today is summed up the entire past history of humanity.  Man is
destined to evolve to even higher modes of consciousness, but at
present his consciousness is generated from the three regions of
the body, the navel, the heart and the head, in conjunction with
corresponding centres in the brain.

The facts of the evolution of our racial consciousness are thrice
alluded to in the Craft system.  Firstly, they are indicated by the
penal signs of the three Degrees, as we have already mentioned. 
Secondly, they are allegorized by the three "entrances" of the
Temple, out of each of which in turn the Master sought to retreat
when attacked, as narrated in the Craft central legend.  Thirdly,
they are dramatically illustrated by the three "violent" blows on
the head in the Third Degree, which are given at three different
places upon the skull, namely on the three bones protecting those
parts of the brain which relate to our unconscious, subconscious
and foreconscious activities.  We are thereby intended to recognise
that we have been slowly "built up" to our present self-conscious
status through abysmal ages. We are called upon to realise that our
human status has been attained in the arena of fierce and
relentless opposition from "ruffian" forces which, nevertheless,
have served only to advance our growth; there is no growth in
Nature except by opposition.  Finally, we are led to perceive that
each stage of our consciousness preludes the attainment of a
higher, but that the higher is not possible until we have
relinquished most of what has preceded it.  Thus, animal man had to
surrender the greater part of his sensuality when he became
emotional man; speaking figuratively, we might say that he was
struck a "violent blow" upon a posterior point of his head and, as
it were, brought to the ground upon one knee.  Similarly, emotional
man had to sacrifice much in order to become "Homo sapiens"; he
likewise was struck upon another posterior part of his head, and
humiliated for the second time.  What, then, of "Homo sapiens," the
present man of intellect and moral sense? He too, we are taught,
must die also if he is to transcend his present self; and the final
"knock-out blow" upon the centre of the forehead (the region of the
frontal brain and the foreconsciousness) signifies that if we are
to become conscious "in the spirit" we must first die wholly to the
consciousness of the flesh.

We read in the writings of the late Wor.Bro.A.E. Waite ("Steps to
the Crown") the curious statement that "the tools which slew the
Master were the three dimensions of space." This interpreted means
in effect that our physical body constitutes itself the tomb of the
spiritual consciousness; indeed, God Himself, the Grand Master,
insofar as He is immanent in the world, lies, as it were, slain and
buried in the world; and, therefore, in each of us, who are parts
of the world.  We are, each of us, a "grave" wherein the Master
lies buried, awaiting resurrection in our personal "raising" of
consciousness; and this entombment is sacramentally registered in
our physical body by the closing up of the three cranial bones, and
the consequent temporary inhibition of our spiritual awareness.  It
is for this reason that it is upon those three bones every member
of the Craft when "representative of our Master" is ceremonially
smitten.  Truly great, therefore, is the mysterium of our foremost
emblem of mortality, the skull; it was always taught in the Ancient
Mysteries, and has become perpetuated in the modern Craft under
veils of allegory which few Brethren can penetrate without proper
instruction.  The basis of this teaching is psychological,
involving a study of our consciousness and organic interior
development.  It follows, then, that an Initiate "becomes"; he
cannot be manufactured.  He attains his rank as the result of
inward growth; he cannot be "made" by any ceremony, external
process, or learning; although, of course, these are meant to help
him on his way.  He is one who has outstripped his neighbours as
far as they have outstripped the brute creation in the evolutionary
scale; indeed, it is as impracticable for the uninitiated to
understand the consciousness and capabilities of the Initiate as it
is for the sheep to realise those of the shepherd who tends them.

CHARGE

"To him who did the Temple rear,
Who lived and died within the Square,
And now lies buried, none know where,
Save we who Master Masons are."
(Third Lecture, First Section).

THE LADDER.

This is the Masonic symbol of the cosmic scheme of involution and
evolution.  We are apt to regard the theory of evolution as a
discovery of modern science, but it was well known to antiquity and
was a feature of the teaching curriculum of the Mystery schools. 
The ancients, however, taught that there can be no evolution
without previous involution ; to quote the scriptural formula: "no
man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven"
(John 3, 13).  Translated into Masonic imagery this great truth is
represented by the simple symbol of a Ladder ("in scripture, called
Jacob's ladder") resting on the Volume of the Sacred Law and
mounting upwards.  We may tabulate the teaching illustrated by the
Ladder symbol, as follows :-

1. The two sides of the Ladder ("two grand parallel lines") are the
equivalent of the two Pillars; they denote the dual basic
principles of positive and negative power which run through all
planes of the Universe and give it structural support

2. The transverse rungs ("staves or rounds") of the Ladder,
connecting the two sides and harmonising the two opposed
principles, signify ascending grades of life through the kingdoms
of Nature, and the progressive conscious states emerging as the
ascent proceeds.  Each rung, therefore, represents the degree of
evolution attained by a class of beings, or any individual being,
ascending the ladder.

3. Between the rungs are gaps to be passed as the Ladder is
climbed; these represent the phases of unmanifested life which
alternate with our periods of active embodied existence.  Birth and
death; waking and sleeping; every creature oscillates between these
two states of being, each of which is as essential to progress as
the other; in brief, the gaps are just as important as the rungs.

4. The whole process rests upon the foundation of immutable Divine
Law, and this is signified by the Ladder resting on the Sacred
Volume representing that Law.  All life has come down the Ladder
(involution); all life must again ascend the same "narrow way," by
the dual stages of objective and subjective experience, at each
stage finding the gate to fuller life (evolution).

Such is the recondite symbolism of the Ladder in the Craft system.
Where, then, does man today stand upon the cosmic Ladder? The
answer is: Some way up from the foot, but still a long way from the
summit.  Below him lie the kingdoms of Nature through which he has
already passed; elements of which he has incorporated into, and now
conserves, in his organism.  The mineral kingdom survives in his
bones; the vegetable in his tissues; the animal in his appetites
and brute instincts.  Man is a microcosm; a synthesis of all below
him.  The long journey of man, in the terms of the Ladder
symbolism, is given expression by the great Sufi sage, Jallalu'ddin
Rumi, who writes :-

From the moment I came into the world of existence
A ladder was placed before me that I might escape;
I died as a mineral and became a plant ;
I died as a plant and became an animal;
I died as an animal and became a man;
When did I ever grow less by dying?
I shall die as a man to become an angel,
I shall die from angelhood to enter the Ocean of Being I came from,
If my body has aged, what matter? For the soul is eternally young."

Birth and death, to open vision, are seen to be dual aspects of a
single process, the alternating swings of a pendulum.  Masonically,
they are the summons to "labour" and calling-off to "refreshment."
We may observe in visible Nature four kingdoms, three subhuman, and
the human; and, since it is unthinkable that the evolutionary urge
stops and comes to a "cul de sac" in man, we visualise ahead of us
a fifth kingdom.  It is this kingdom, "the Kingdom of God," that
the Craft invites us first to contemplate and then enter.  We are
to ascend the Ladder to the fifth kingdom by way of five steps;
that is why five upward steps lead from the First to the Second
Degree; that is why, in the Third Degree, we are exhorted to "lift
our eyes" to a five-pointed star" whose rising brings peace and
salvation to the faithful and obedient of the human race,"
following upon the dramatic exposition of the "five points of
fellowship"; and that is why the number five recurs so prominently
in our Masonic system.  We may observe that all things in Nature
shape towards a fifth kingdom, but we note also that every kingdom
is self-contained; no leap from a lower to a higher kingdom is
possible save on one condition; a previous "death" to the kingdom
below.  No biologist can trace the point where decaying rock gives
way to the minute lichen springing from it; or the point where
vegetable produce becomes animal tissue; nor where sensory tissues
permit the miraculous birth of human intelligence.  Indeed, not
being a physical change, the transition is not physically capable
of demonstration; it occurs on subjective levels, at the interval
or gap between the rungs of our symbolic Ladder.  We know,
nevertheless, that the transmutation does occur; that a death of
something precedes every new and higher begetting.  So it is when
a man aspires to pass from the human to the Initiate degree of
life; a death is involved, the "death" signified by our Third
Degree.  We cannot claim expert knowledge of that which is heavily
veiled; we can only add that it is a mystical dying that results in
a man being "raised" to the Kingdom, and transforms him into a
citizen thereof.  "Thy Kingdom come" is the petition on behalf of
those who would scale the Ladder to the summit.

CHARGE.

May every Freemason attain the summit of his
profession, where the just may rest assured they will
meet their due reward."
(First Lecture, Fourth Section).

SO MOTE IT BE.

"To heaven's high Architect all praise
All gratitude be given,
Who deign'd the human soul to raise,
By secrets sprung from heaven."

(Anthem sung on the occasion of the laying of the Foundation stone
of Freemasons' Hall, Great Queen Street, London, May Day A.D.
1775.)