Scottish Rite Masonry Illustrated - The Masonic Trowel

898 SUELTh!E PRINCE OF THE ROYAL SECRET.
perhaps see that whatever in Masonry seems arbitrary
incongruous; mere empty words, and idle images and
pictures, has in reality a profound meaning; that a great
idea is embodied in this degree, of which its organization,
and the d~isposition and details of the camp are the
utterances, scientifically and skillfully arranged, and•
that in every thing it proceeds with precision and order
to develop the idea, and insure the success of the noble
and holy cause for which it is armed and organized.
The external lines of the camp form a nonagon, or a
figure o f geometry
‘with nine equal sides.
You perceive that on
each side of the nonagon
is a tent, with a
flag and pennon that
each flag and its pennon
are of a different
color from the others,
and that each tent is
designated by a letter.
E a c h represents a
x 8 -‘ camp, and the several
sides of the nonagon are thus assigned by our rituals, to
the Masons of the different degrees, from the first to the
eighteenth, of which each Commander in turn will give
you an explanation.
Master of Ceremonies—Illustrious Commander Ezra,
be pleased to communicate to our brother, the esoteric
explanation of the tent No. 9.
Ezra.—You are now at the ninth tent, the letter of
which is I.~. Its flag and pennon are blue, and here are
said to be encamped the Apprentices, Fellows Crafts and
Masters of the Blue or Symbolic degrees, and the volunteem.
The commanding officer represents Ezra.
I
INITIATION.
399
-THE FIRST DEGREE :—ShOwS you man, such as nature
has made him, with no other resources than his physical
strength. But each symbol and ceremony of Masonry,
has more than one meaning; one enveloped as it were,
within the other, and all not developed or made known
at once. The inmost meaning of the first degree is man
subjugated and struggling toward freedom, blinded by
superstition, destitute of knowledge, defenceless, and
with the chains of despotism round him.
He knocks timidly at the door of Masonry, is received,
sworn to secrecy and made to stand upright in the middie
of the lodge, as a man; as a man!
It is his first lesson. Before then he was half naked,
and half clad, neither barefoot nor shod, half freeman
and half serf.
THE SECOND DEGREE :—.Shows the necessity and holiness
of labor, and consequently of knowledge. Man
perceives here that to supply his physical wants, his
orgar~s are but the instruments of intellect, the expansion
of which, or knowledge can alone constitute him a
freeman and a king over creation.
THE THIRD DEGREE :—Teaches us that our inviolable
destiny is death, but at the same time, in the ceremony
and in the very name of Hiram it shadows forth the great
doctrine of another life, and the immortality of the soul.
The word Hiram’” in Hebrew, means, “He who was, or
shall be raised alive or lifted up,” and it also symbolizes
Not. 875.—”Ehrsm Abif. ‘There is no character in the annals of
Freemasonry whose life is so dependent on tradition as the celebrated
architect of King Solomon’s Temple. Profane history is entirely silent
in respect to hi. career, and the sacred records supply us with only very
unimportant items. To Oil up the apace between his life and hIs death.
we are necessarily compelled to resort to those oral legends which have
been handed down trom the ancient Masons to their successors, Yet.
looking to their character. I should he unwilling to vouch for the suthen.
ticity of all; most of them were prohably at first symbolical In their
character; the symbol In the lapse of time haying been converted into
a myth, and the myth, by constant repetition, havIng assumed the formal
~a
rance of a trnthful narraiive. Such has been ibe ease in the history
nations. —Msok.ra Ennyolopasdia of Yre.rnsomy, Mticle Xlxm