The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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4.7.2 Passwords
Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols
A password in Masonry is, like a military countersign, a means to prove the
friendly nature of him who gives it, and it functions as a test of his right to pass
or be admitted into a certain place. Thus, the passwords do not serve for
instruction, but for recognition. Nevertheless, they convey a symbolic meaning.
Let us inspect the passwords of the three degrees as they existed in the 1880s.
According to Duncan's description, in the first three degrees, the passwords
accompany the "real grips" and the "pass grips." They are the "names" of these
grips, and refer to a certain symbolic teaching of the degree. For example, in the
Fellow Craft degree, according to Duncan, the name of the pass grip is
"Shibboleth," 688 which has been explained in Section 4.6.6 as an emblem of
plenty, illustrated by ears of corn hanging over a water-ford or waterfall. Other
passwords as described in Duncan's Ritual and Monitor are Jachin and Boaz, the
names of the two columns on the porch of King Solomon's temple. 689
As Coil puts it, passwords were used in earlier times in Freemasonry when
the members of the first two degrees outnumbered the Master Masons of the
Third Degree. 690 He states in his Masonic cyclopedia that today, in the United
States Entered Apprentices and Fellow Crafts have no passwords or modes of
recognition, since they have no rights of visitation unless accompanied and
vouched for by a Master Mason, in lodges of their respective degrees. 691
Whereas in other jurisdictions, such as in England, business is also conducted in
an Entered Apprentice's lodge, and not only in lodges opened in the Third
Degree. Therefore, in England members of the two first degrees have the right to
be present at all meetings of Entered Apprentice lodges, and, consequently, must
possess modes of recognition when visiting.
In addition to passwords, there also exist test words or temporary test words.
They are not universal but a local peculiarity. Temporary test words can be
distinguished into annual, semi-annual, and semester words ("mots de semestre"
in French Masonry). The latter were wide-spread in France, being adopted by the
Grand Orient in 1773. 692 Such local words of short qualities were a sure
indication that the secret modes of recognition had been discovered and needed
to be changed, in order to keep out "cowans."
688 Cf. Duncan, p. 16.
689 Cf. ibid, p. 37; 67.
690 Cf. CME, p. 690.
691 Ibid. The revised edition of CME dates from 1996.
692 Cf. ibid.