Daily Mason

The importance that has for many years been given to the military element in the Order of Masonic Knights Templar in America has made it necessary that special manuals should be prepared for the instruction of Knights in the elementary principles of military movements.

Popular works of this kind have been:

1. Knights Templar Tactics and Drill for the use of Commanderies, and the Burial Service of the Orders of Masonic Knighthood, prepared by Sir Orrin Welsh, Past Grand Commander, State of New York.

2. Knights Templar, Tactics and Drill, with the Working, Tezt, and Burial Service of the Orders of Knighthood, as adopted by the Grand Commandery of the State of Michigan by Ellery Irving Garfield, E. G. C. G. Grand Commandery of Michigan.

3. Tactics for Knights Templar, and Appendant Orders, prepared by E. Sir Knight George Wingate Chase, of Massachusetts.

4. Knights Templar tactics, by Henry B. Grant, Grand Secretary, Kentucky. These works contain the necessary instructions in the School of the Knight, or the proper method of marching, halting, saluting, handling the sword, etc., and the School of the Commandery, or directions for properly performing the evolutions on a public parade. Books of this kind have now become as necessary and as common to the Knights Templar as Monitors are to the Master Mason.

Tile French is Sacrifant. A Degree in the Archives of the Lodge of Saint Louis des Amis Réunis (Saint Louis of the Reunited Friends) at Calais.

RAISED

When a candidate has received the Third Degree, he is said to have been raised to the sublime Degree of a Master Mason. The expression refers, materially, to a portion of the ceremony of initiation, but symbolically, to the resurrection, which it is the object of the Degree to exemplify.

A curious sidelight upon the use of the expression is that obtained by considering the word as also meaning the acceptance or adoption of the candidate officially by the Fraternity. There is an ancient and striking parallel for this understanding. Among the Roman customs connected with the birth of children that was the most remarkable which left it to the arbitrary will of the father whether his new-born child should be preserved or left to perish. The midwife always placed the child on the ground. If the father wished to preserve its life he raised it from the ground and this was said to be tollere infantem, the raising of the child. This was an intimation of his purpose to acknowledge and educate it as his own If the father did not choose to do this, he left the child on the ground, and thus expressed his wish to expose or abandon it, exponere. This exposing of a newborn child was an unnatural custom borrowed from the Greeks by which children were left in the streets and abandoned to their fate (see Fiske’s Classical Antiquities, page 287). Some highly significant pictorial instances of resurrection are found in old churches. The altar picture from Holyrood at Edinburgh, Scotland (see illustration), is a good example. Here the First Person of the Trinity supports or raises the Son. Usually the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, is also represented symbolically in such cases, the dove being as a rule selected to indicate the complete threefold unity of the Godhead. The altar symbolism from Holyrood is therefore a typical specimen of the Trinity portrayal and of the resurrection occurrence.

Brother J. E. Barton discusses the symbolism of the other illustration, the Trinity Boss in the West Porch of Peterborough Cathedral in England. This porch is from architectural details dated about 1375. Old writers would call the porch a “Galilee,” a ritualistic provision for such occasions as Palm Sunday, and for processions generally on the Sabbath. The promise to the disciples, that the risen Christ should go before them into Galilee, is no doubt the origin of the name; for the chief ecclesiastical dignitary, who brought up the rear of the procession, here went first, and entered the porch through the ranks of his subordinates, as a Master in taking his seat in the Lodge.

Three probabilities are to be taken into account in considering this boss. It is the central ornament of a porch having special reference to the feast of the Resurrection. It was designed by a Gild—itself probably dedicated to the Holy Trinity, as at the Newark Parish Church, which would naturally wish the porch dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Its designers were inspired by a desire to connect, in a manner not unnatural to Freemasons with their own grades and ritual, the two ideas of the Holy Trinity and of the Resurrection.

Presumably the Masonic Gild, perhaps the chief Gild in Peterborough, was about to vault the porch it had given, and looked about for a suitable composition for its main boss. The first and inevitable suggestion was a Trinity subject, so common in sculptures stained glass, and on monumental brasses The usual Trinity is a design of God the Father sups porting the Son upon the Cross, with the Holy Spirit added in the form of a Dove. Next it was suggested that the Trinity should here be modified in form, so as to deplete a Risen, not a Crucified Lord, as being suitable to a Galilee Porch.

Last came the unifying suggestion that by the use Of a Masonic symbol the Resurrection of Christ, in the Trinity subject, should be marked at the point where Our Lord is about to be raised to Heaven by the hands of the Father; one hand gripping, and the other blessing. Hence the Second Person in the Trinity, who has already passed from the earthly Incarnation, is here at a singular position. His pierced hands show Him already crucified and rising from the grave, with the attitude common to medieval paintings of the Resurrection and the loin cloths still about Him. He is about to be raised to the sublime Degree, and God the Father, in order more expressly to note the Masonic idea, is figured like the Sun at its meridian.

What more appropriate than two figures typical of the Elect, redeemed by Christ, and raised and crowned with Him? Hence the two crowned figures, one apparently an ecclesiastic with an amice, whose diadems have the Trinity symbol of the trefoil, like the Father’s crown in the Chester boss. In this Peterborough boss, indeed, each foil of the trefoil is itself trefoiled, as if to insist on the threefold notion.

An altar-cloth, also a canopy borne over the head of royalty in Oriental lands.

The doctrine of obedience to constituted authority is strongly inculcated in all the Old Constitutions as necessary to the preservation of the Association.

In them it is directed that ”every” Mason shall prefer his elder and put him to worship.” Thus the Master Mason obeys the order of his Lodge, the Lodge obeys the mandates of the Grand Lodge, and the Grand Lodge submits to the Landmarks and the old Regulations.”

The doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance in polities, however much it may be supposed to be inimical to the progress of free institutions constitutes undoubtedly the great principle of Masonic government. Such a principle would undoubtedly lead to an unbearable despotism, were it not admirably modified and controlled by the compensating principle of appeal. The first duty of every Freemason is to obey the mandate of the Master. But if that mandate should have been unlawful or Oppressive! he will find his redress in the Grand Lodge, which will review the case and render justice. This spirit of instant obedience and submission to authority constitutes the great safeguard of the institution Freemasonry more resembles a military than a political organization. The order must at once be obeyed; its character and its consequences may be matters of subsequent inquiry.

The Masonic rule of obedience is like the nautical, imperative: “Obey orders, even if you break owners.”

In the earliest catechisms of the eighteenth century it is said that “the three particular points that pertain to a Mason are Fraternity, Fidelity, and Taciturnity,” and that they “represent Love, Relief, and Truth among all Right Masons.”

The symbol became obsolete.

In the lectures according to the English system, we find the following definition of the Sacred Lodge, the symbol has not been preserved in the American instructions: Over the Sacred Lodge presided Solomon, the greatest of kings, and the wisest of men; Hiram, the great and learned King of Tyre; and Hiram Abif, the widow’s son, of the tribe of Naphtali. It was held in the bowels of the sacred Mount Moriah, under the part whereon was erected the Holy of Holies. On this mount it was where Abraham confirmed his faith by his readiness to offer up his only son, Isaae. Here it was where David offered that acceptable sacrifice on the threshing-floor of Araunah by which the anger of the Lord was appeased, and the plague stayed from his people. Here it was where the Lord delivered to David, in a dream, the plan of the glorious Temple, afterward erected by our noble Grand Master, King Solomon. And lastly, here it was where he declared he would establish his sacred name and word, which should never pass away- and for these reasons this was justly styled the Sacred Lodge.

It was a custom among the English Freemasons of the middle of the eighteenth century, when conversing together on Freemasonry, to announce the appearance of a profane by the warning expression It rains.

The custom was adopted by the German and French Freemasons, with the equivalent expression, Es regnet and II pluie. Baron Tschoudy, who condemns the usage, says that the latter refined upon it by designating the approach of a female by II neige, the French for It snows.

Doctor Oliver says (Revelations of a Square, page 142) that the phrase It rains, to indicate that a Cowan is present and the proceedings must be suspended, is derived from the ancient punishment of an eavesdropper, which was to place him under the eaves of a house in rainy weather, and to retain him there till the droppings of water ran in at the collar of his coat and out at his shoes.

Before any strange and unknown visitor can gain admission into a Masonic Lodge, he is required in the United States of America to take the following oath: I, A. B., do hereby and hereon solemnly and sincerely swear that I have been regularly initiated, passed, and raised to the sublime Degree of a Master Mason in a just and legally constituted Lodge of such; that I do not now stand suspended or expelled; and know of no reason why I should not hold Masonic communication with my Brethren.

It is called the Tiler’s Oath, because it is usually taken in the Tiler’s room, and was formerly administered by that officer, whose duty it is to protect the Lodge from the approach of unauthorized visitors. It is now administered by the Committee of Examination, and not only he to whom it is administered, but he who administers it, and all who are present, must take it at the same time. It is a process of purgation, and each one present, the visitor as well as the members of the Lodge, is entitled to know that all the others are legally qualified to be present at the esoteric examination which is about to take place. This custom is unknown in English Freemasonry.

In the Mysteries of Brahma we find the same reference to the ladder of seven steps. The names of these were not different, and there was the same allusion to the symbol of the universe. The seven steps were emblematical of the seven worlds which constituted the Indian universe. The lowest was the Earth; the second, the World of Preexistence; the third, Heaven; the fourth, the Middle World, or intermediate region between the lower and upper worlds; the fifth, the World of Births, in which souls are again born; the sixth, the Mansion of the Blessed; and the seventh, or topmost round, the Sphere of Truth, and the abode of Brahma.  Doctor Oliver thinks that in the Scandinavian mysteries the tree Yggrasil was the representative of the mystical ladder. But although the ascent of the tree, like the ascent of the ladder, was a change from a lower to a higher sphere—from time to eternity, and from death to life—yet the unimaginative genius of the North seems to have shorn the symbolism of many of its more salient features.

Among the Cabalists, the ladder was represented by the ten Sephiroths, which, commencing from the bottom, were the Kingdom, Foundation, Splendor, Firmness, Beauty, Justice, Mercy, Intelligence, Wisdom, and the Crown, by which we arrive at the En Soph, or the Infinite. In the advanced Freemasonry we find the Ladder of Kadosh, which consists of seven steps, thus commencing from the bottom: Justice, Equity, Kindness, Good Faith, Labor, Patience, and Intelligence.

The arrangement of these steps, for which we are indebted to modern ritualism, does not seem to be perfect; but yet the idea of intellectual progress to perfection is carried out by making the topmost round represent Wisdom or Understanding.

The Masonic Ladder which is presented in the symbolism of the First Degree ought really to consist not of three but seven steps, which thus ascend: Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Justice, Faith, Hope, and Charity; but the earliest examples present it only with three, referring to the three theological virtues, whence it is called the theological ladder. It seems, therefore, to have been settled by general usage that the Masonic Ladder has but three steps. As a symbol of progress, Jacob’s ladder was early recognized. Picus of Mirandola, who wrote in the sixteenth century, in his oration, De Hominis Dignitate, says that Jacob’s ladder is a symbol of the progressive scale of intellectual communication betwixt earth and heaven; and upon the ladder, as it were, step by step, man is permitted with the angels to ascend and descend until the mind finds blissful and complete b repose in the bosom of divinity. The highest step he defines to be theology, or the study and contemplation of the Deity in His own abstract and exalted nature. Other interpretations have, however, been given to it. The Jewish writers differ very much in their expositions of it. Thus, a writer of one of the Midrashes or Commentaries, finding that the Hebrew words for ladder and Sinai have each the same numerical value of Setters, expounds the ladder as typifying the giving of the law on that mount. Aben Ezra thought that it was a symbol of the human mind, and that the angels represented the sublime meditations of man.

Maimonides supposed the ladder to symbolize nature in its operations; and, citing the authority of a Midrash which gives to it four steps, says that they represent the four elements; the two heavier, earth and water, descending by their specific gravity, and the two lighter, fire and air, ascending from the same cause. Abarbanel, assuming the Talmudic theory that Luz, where Jacob slept, was Mount Moriah, supposes that the ladder, resting on the spot which afterward became the holy of holies, was a prophetic symbol of the building of the Temple.

And, lastly, Raphael interprets the ladder, and the ascent and the descent of the angels, as the prayers of man and the answering inspiration of God. Fludd, the Hermetic philosopher, in his Philosophia Mosaica of 1638, calls the ladder the symbol of the triple world, moral, physical, and intellectual; and Nicolai says that the ladder with three steps was, among the Rosicrucian Freemasons in the seventeenth century, a symbol of the knowledge of nature. Finally, Krause says, in his drei altesten Kunsturkunden (ii, page 481), that a Brother Keher of Edinburgh, whom he describes as a skillful and truthful Freemason, had in 1802 assured the members of a Lodge at Altenberg that originally only one Scottish Degree existed, whose object was the restoration of James II to the throne of England, and that of that restoration Jacob’s ladder had been adopted by them as a symbol. Of this fact he further said that an authentic narrative was contained in the Archives of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. Notwithstanding Lawrie’s silence on the subject, Krause is inclined to believe the story, nor is it in all its parts altogether without probability.

The old writers believed it is more than likely that the Chevalier Ramsay, who was a warm adherent of the Stuarts, transferred the Symbol of the mystical ladder from the Mithraic Mysteries, with which he was very familiar, into his Scottish Degrees, and that thus it became a part of the symbolism of the Kadosh system. But as regards the later conception of Brother Ramsey’s connection with Degrees see the article herein about him. In some of the political lodges instituted under the influence of the ,Stuarts to assist in the restoration of their house, the philosophical interpretation of the symbol may have been perverted to a political meaning, and to these Lodges it is to be supposed that Keher alluded; but that the Grand Lodge of Scotland had made any official recognition of the fact is not to be believed. Lawrie’s silence seems to be conclusive.

In the Ancient Craft Degrees of the York Rite, Jacob’s ladder was not an original symbol. It is said to have been introduced by Dunckerley when he reformed the lectures. This is confirmed by the fact that it is not mentioned in any of the early rituals of the eighteenth century, nor by Hutchinson, who had an excellent opportunity of doing so in his lecture on the Nature of the Lodge, where he speaks of the Covering of the Lodge, but says nothing of the means of reaching it, which he would have done, had he been acquainted with the ladder as a symbol. Its first appearance is in a Tracing Board, on which the date of 1776 is inscribed, which very well agrees with the date of Dunckerley’s improvements. In this Tracing Board, the ladder has but three rounds; a change from the old seven-stepped ladder of the mysteries; which, however, Preston corrected when he described it as having many rounds, but three principal ones.

As to the modern Masonic symbolism of the ladder, it is, as Brother Mackey has already said, a symbol of progress, such as it is in all the old initiations. Its three principal rounds, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, present us with the means of advancing from earth to heaven, from death to life—from the mortal to immortality. Hence its foot is placed on the ground floor of the Lodge, which is typical of the world, and its top rests on the covering of the Lodge, which is symbolic of heaven.

In the Prestonian lecture, which Brother Mackey believed was elaborated out of Dunckerley’s system, the ladder is said to rest on the Holy Bible, and to reach to the heavens. This symbolism is thus explained: By the doctrines contained in the Holy Bible we are taught to believe in the Divine dispensation of Providence, which belief strengthens our Faith, and enables us to ascend the first step. That Fasth naturally creates in us a Hope of becoming partakers ot some of the blessed promises therein recorded. which Hope enables us to as send the second step. But the third and last being Charity comprehends the whole, and he who is possessed of this virtue in its ample sense, is said to have ample that the summit of his profession. or, more metaphorically into an ethereal mansion sealed from the mortal eye by the starry firmament.

In the modern lectures, the language is materially changed, but the idea and the symbolism are retained unaltered. The delineation of the ladder with three steps only on the Tracing Board of 1776, which is a small one, may be attributed to notions of convenience. But the Masonic ladder should properly have seven steps, which represent the four cardinal and the three theological virtues.