INTRODUCTION:
It seems strange to me sometimes the way I do things. I picked the title of this workshop first, wrote the workshop second, and did the Introduction last.
I guess it is like they say hind sight is 20/20. As I wrote this I realized that I made a lot of decisions as to what I wanted out of Masonry and Life as a man, that I did not realize I was making.
Even though, I was led by a conductor physically, mentally the path I traveled and what I learned was left up to me.
The ritual is a way of bringing candidates into the order and Masonry is a way of life, and there is a world of difference between the two.
The secrets of Masonry are in the Individuals and not in the rituals.
It is hoped that this workshop will help give you some idea of what the Fellow craft degree alludes to, to me.
To the Fellow craft, it is just a rope about his right arm, which he imagines can be used for a number of bad things. In most lodges he is told that if any Brother knows anything bad about him and sees him during initiation, he will he dragged out by it.
Very few Lodges if any tell the Fellow craft that the cable tow may be used to assist him on his way.
We as a people seem to always stress the negative points in Masonry and forget about the positive points.
In old days it was generally considered to be three miles; that a Brother was expected to travel to attend lodge meeting whether he wanted to or not.
Traveling the length of ones cable tow is the only real secret in Masonry. Far no one can see into the heart of another Brother and tell how far he will go to the aid of the Order or another Brother.
The working tools of a Fellow craft are the Plumb, the Square, and the LEVEL.
As we all know the Plumb is an instrument made use by Operative Masons to raise Perpendiculars; the sure to, square their work; and the level to lay horizontals; but we, as Prince Hall Masons, are taught to make use of them for more noble and glorious purposes.
The Plumb admonishes us to walk uprightly in our several stations before God and man, squaring our actions by the square of virtue, and remembering that we are traveling upon the Level of Time to that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.
Knowing what the books say doesn't always tell us what they mean or should mean to us.
The Plumb means that we should live By the rules the God we profess to believe in. We should obey the laws of the Country in which we live. And lastly walk upright and proud, because we should be living the best life we can, no mater what our position in society is.
The square means that we should treat our fellow man as we want our fellow man to treat us. This claim extends even further to our fellow Brothers.
The level means that no mater what level our walk in life is, all men are bought to the same level in death. All men have three things in common:
1. All men are born of a woman
2. All men live for awhile
3. All men will die
Death does away with all big I's and all little you's, all ranks and titles. No mater what race, creed, or color, death is dead for everybody.
The wages of a fellow craft which are, the corn of nourishment, the wine of refreshment, and the oil of joy, which denote, peace, harmony, and strength.
These are the promised rewards of a faithful and diligent performance of duty.
As most fellow crafts already know what their wages are, let us now, go into uncharted waters and see what we as Masons are supposed to do with them.
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man's heart.
Psalm 104:15
You should share your corn to feed the hungry, share your wine to cheer the sorrowful and share your oil of consolation with your fellow man.
In the world today a man gets paid for a job well done. A man's standing in life usually depends on how well a man spends his wages. In the language of scripture we will go into wages well spent.
Corn is an emblem of the resurrection.
1 Corinthians Chapter 15, verses 35 to 38.
But some men will say, How are the dead raised up?
And with what body do they come?
Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
But God givest it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
To me that every seed I sow to help somebody will grow into something good. I must point out here that the good does not always come back to the person who sow it, but it is good anyway.
If when this body is planted, if it is planted in goodness, believe God will raise it up in goodness.
And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple; and he set up the right pillar; and called the name thereof Jachin; and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. 1 Kings 7:21
In the Fellow craft degree it is told that the one on the right is called Jachin, and denotes establishment; and the one on the left hand is called Boaz, denotes strength. Wisdom and power is another translation.
The translation of the meaning of the names of pillars is not of importance at this time. The important factor at this time is not even mentioned.
The important factor and only secret is in the heart of each candidate. He has to decide for himself if he wants to go to the right and gain nothing but wisdom, or if he wants to go to the left and gain nothing but power, or if he wants to go through the middle and gain an equal amount of both.
Everything God has given to man is natural. It is left up to man, if he wants to use it for good or evil. All the wisdom in the world is useless without the power to use it. Like a book full of wisdom does not have the power to open itself, so it is useless by itself.
Power is like a loaded gun is neutral until it is used. Used wisely it can be used for good; to get food to eat, to keep peace, to protect what is yours.
The Fellow craft that walks through the center not only gets power but he also gets the wisdom to use that power for the good of the order and himself.
Even through the scriptural account of the Temple states that there were actually winding stairs, it does not state how many.
Only in this country have the stairs 15 steps. In older days the stairs had but 5, and sometimes 7 steps. Preston had 36 steps in his stairs, in a series of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. But this violated a Pythagorean principle and Freemasonry has adopted much in its system from the science of numbers as exemplified by Pythagoras.
The English system later eliminated the number 11 from Preston's 36 making 25 steps in all. In this country the first step and the 9 steps were eliminated from the English system making 15 steps in all.
As you can see 21 points of knowledge have been dropped from the winding stairs.
You will notice that I said dropped and not lost.
The main point here is that the stairs as a whole are a representation of life; not the physical life of eating, drinking, sleeping and working, but the mental and spiritual life, of both the lodge and the world without.
What the Fellow craft does with his life depends on what path he took through the two pillars on the porch of King Solomon's Temple.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. St. John 1:1
All in all that is all there is to the letter G. But I have found that if you make things to simple people tend to take them as unimportant.
I have not been able to determine when the letter G was introduced into Speculative Masonry as a symbol.
The letter G is not derived from the Operative Masons of the Middle Ages, and formed no part of the architectural decoration of old cathedrals.
Whether it entered the symbolism under the influence of those Rosicrucians and Qabalists who joined the Order during the last half of the 17th century, or whether it was introduced at some time subsequent to 1717, when the first Grand Lodge was established at the Apple-tree Tavern in London, is impossible to tell.
The letter G is the initial of Geometry. This makes it a symbolic summary of the entire Masonic system. The heart of Freemasonry is a doctrine founded on the science of geometry. In the old Masonic Constitutions it is specifically stated that Masonry and Geometry are one and the same.
It is no secret that the letter G is a symbol for the Deity. It so happens that God is the English name of the Grand Architect of the Universe. The fact that G is the first letter of God is not the only connection between the symbol and the Deity.
Its Greek equivalent is the initial of Gaia, the earth Mother, eldest born of Chases, whose name is the root of the noun geometria, geometry.
Gimel, the Hebrew correspondence to G, is the initial of gadol, majesty, and of gebur, strong, words used to designate the Deity throughout the Hebrew sacred writings. Gimel itself is regarded by the wise men of Israel as being the alphabetical sign of the sacred wisdom which is founded on the science of geometry.
So basically we are back to St. John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In the First Degree you entered into Masonry as a child and you were taught right from wrong.
In the Second Degree you passed on to the Porch of King Solomon Temple. There laid before you many paths to the winding stairs ahead and you were left to pick the path you wanted to travel.
As a man you had to decide what you wanted. Power on one side, wisdom on the other, and a combination of the two down the middle, and only you could tell which you had picked at that time. This is the real secret in the Fellow craft degree, the road you picked to manhood.
In closing I will tell you where my road led me too and that was the 23rd Psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:
For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runeth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.