ARE YOU A MASON?

Evening Star, Issue 19614, 21 July 1927, Page 16

ARE YOU A MASON?

FACTS ABOUT OLDEST SECRET SOCIETY Freemasonry is not a secret society in the ordinary sense of the words. Rather (says a writer in 1 John o’ London’s) it is, as one Masonic writer puts it, “a society possessing secrets,” Freemasons'are usually known as such to their relatives and friends, and there is no mystery about .the identity of the higher officers of the order. It is well known, for example, that H.R.H. the Duke of .Connaught is tho present Grand Master. There is no concealment of the whereabouts of Masonic lodges, although the secrets of their contents and the mysteries “ worked ” within them are jealously guarded. OLDEST SECRET SOCIETY.

What, then, m» there secret about Freemasonry What are its mysteries? Or has it no secrets, only secrecy; no mysteries, only, mystification? To answer these questions it is necessary to review briefly the history of the cult. There is little doubt that Freemasonry is the oldest society of its kind. The Authentic School of Masonic Research traces the relationship of Freemasonry with the. Collegia Artificuin, Roman corporations of craftsmen instituted in 7U n.c., basing its claim on the fact that their initiation ceremony had a strong resemblance to that in presentday symbolic Masonry. In an interesting booklet on ‘Freemasonry: its Derivation and Development,’ R. C. Davies follows up these traces of a secret society akin to. if not identical with, Freemasonry through the Steinmetzen of Germany and Compagnonnago of France, those medieval builders" of the great cathedrals, such as Strasbourg, Cologne, and Melrose Abbey, in Scotland, to modern speculative or symbolic Freemasonry, which has no connection, except in its symbolism, with stone-working. In 1714 marks the period when speculative Freemasonry finally overpowered Operative Freemasonry—i.c,. the craft guild pure and simple. THE ACT OE UNION. It is in this country that speculative or symbolic Freemasonry made its greatest strides, and the Grand Lodge of England still holds unassaihubly the premier position among sovereign Grand Lodges, of which there are Ml throughout the world. In the eighteenth century there were two main branches of English Freemasonry, called the “Autients ” and the “Moderns,” who differed slightly in the number of their grades and in their rituals. Undoubtedly the most important date in Masonic history is 181.'}, when these two were united by the lemons Act ot Union. From this point the history of the craft is a record of simple development and expansion throughout the world. A modern definition of Freemasonry is “ a secret brotherhood existing throughout the world, with _ a peculiar system ol moral and social ethics veiled in allegory ami illustrated by symbols founded on the principles of geometry.” •Thus, it is .seen from this brief history that Freemasonry is in one sense the'sublimation of a trade union. How. then, did the secrets enter into its structure? They wore there the earliest beginnings of Operative Freemasonry. A. E. White,'in his ‘ New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry ’ (Rider and Son, 2 vols., £2 2s), says; “The Masons’ secrets were operative secrets, and could be no otherwise in the nature of things. It has been well argued that they were practical applications ol geometrical science.” That is, the working of set-square, compasses, ami other tools vsed by stonemasons were kept secret from the public just as some industries to-day preserve their manufacturing secrets. FREEMASONS’ SECRETS. Needless to say, tho secrets of Operative Masons arc not those ol Freemasons. But just as Freemasons took the tools and in some cases the language of tho stonemasons, and endowed them with an involved symbolism, so they evolved their own symbolic secrets.

What those secrets arc oven Masonic writers cannot agree. While tho Rev. J. T. Lawrence, in his ‘ Sidelights on .Freemasonry’ (Lewis, 6s), says “Hie secrets aro only modes of recognition; in themselves they aro hut ot Httlc importance,” the same A. IT. White remarks:—

“The concealed part of Masonry, the things by which its members are known to one another and distinguished from the rest of the world, are ton often supposed to consist in certain external conventions which arc a ready means of recognition, and in what is termed the arrangement of interiors, meaning decorations of lodge or chapter. ITo goes on to say that some interpreters' assert that “certain keys are put into the hands of the brethren, as each initiative in his turn passes through the successive grades, and it. is for him—if he is able—to open tho temple into which they do or may give entrance.” COEVAL WITH CREATION. I 'the Rev. Dr Dodd, in a well-known ‘Oration on Freemasonry,’ said: “'Die art itself is coeval with creation, when tho Sovereign _ Architect raised on Masonic principles this ' beauteous globe, and commanded that master science, geometry, to lay the rule to tho planetary world and In regulate by its laws tho whole stupendous system in just, unerring proportions, rolling round the central .sun.” In (lies© words is to lio found the core of Freemasonry—not tho blasphemous implication which the profane may find in tho words that the Creator is a Freemason, but tho basic principle that Freemasons, if not actually in possession of, aro at least, on the track of tho secret to the universe. In ■White’s words: “Our hidden, mysteries are those of our relations to God, man, and the universe, that wo may bo enabled to fulfil by Masonry tho higher law ot our being.” It is significant in this connection to discover that no foreign brother may be received in any English lodge unless he professes his belief that an acknowledgment of T.G.A.0.T.1T. (Tho Groat Architect of the Universe—i.e., the Deity) is a. lamdrnark of the order. (A landmark is one of the principles of Freemasonry regarded as irremovable and unalterable.)

THE “WORKING” OF RITES. What arc the mysterious ceremonies performed behind closed doors, when the lodge is properly “ tyled,” or, in ordinary language, when tho Tyler or guard is posted without and the Imner Guard within to ensure the ex-clusion of uninitiates and the profane, or, to use the Masonic word, “cowans” (derived from the ’ Greek word meaning “dog”)? These are the “working” of the riles connected with the various degrees, each 'with its elaborate and symbolic tracing hoard lecture by the Master amd catechism of the candidate.

The second of the famous Articles of Union of 1813 roads:— “It,is declared and pronounced that pure Ancient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more—viz., those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, iucludimg the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch. But this article is not intended to prevent any lodge or chanter from holding a meeting in any of the degrees of‘the Orde rof Chivalry, according-to the constitutions of the said orders/’ The candidate is “ initiated ” into the first degree, Entered Apprentice; “passed” to the second, Fellow Craft; and “ raised ” ' to the third, Master Mason. The other degrees—those mentioned in Article 11. as of the Orders of Chivalry—are thirty-three in number, although in this country only fire as a general rule are given. These hare

some beautifully extravagant titles: Eighteenth degree, Knight of the Eagle and Pelican and Sovereign Prince Rose Croix of H.R.D.M. (llereclom) ■; thirtieth degree, Grand Elected Knight K.H. Knight of the Black and White Eagle; thirty-first degree. Grand Inspector [inquisitor Commander; thirtysecond degree, Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret; and, highest of all, thirty-third degree, Sovereign Grand Inspector-Genera I. ADVANTAGES OF FREEMASONRY. Freemasonry, then, possesses the same characteristics which are found in all the most successful societies of the kind—a promise of secrets to be revealed; high-sounding titles and impressive ritual; a letter of credit, as it were, to all other Freemasons throughout the world; and mot least, it offers to the candidate membership of a carefully .selected class of the community, whose collective censure or otherwise is worth considering. It is this last which perhaps accounts for the remarkably small number of Freemasons who have broken their vows, thrown over their allegiance, and revealed the secrets—to say nothing of the fact that these renegade Freemasons by their actions proclaim themselves to be men whose word is not tm be. trusted, sine© they have broken the most solemn vow it us possible to make. And now it may be asked what use is Freemasonry. The Rev. J. T. Lawrence answers this question fully in a chapter of his ‘ Sidelights on Free--masonry ’ with a description ■of the value it has been to himself—notably on a globe-trotting tour, when he discovered in a remote colony brethren who, on the strength of Ins membership alone, at once made him at home and did all in their power to make hiholiday a pleasant onet Finally, li© explains* that its greatest benefit is the influence jt has on a man’s conduct.