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

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Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology
chalk, charcoal, and clay = freedom, fervency, and zeal
"Clay" in this context is synonymous with "earth," and Simons adds a
romantic and metaphorical passage on the zeal of Mother Earth, who alone has
never proved unfriendly to man, since when man is "called upon to pass through
the 'dark valley of the shadow of Death,' she once more receives us, and piously
covers our remains within her bosom; thus admonishing us that as from it we
came, so to it we must shortly return." 866 This phrase contains a lecture on death,
a constant reminder in the three degrees of Masonry, especially the third.
"Earthen Pan" is an old term once used for the last part of the triplet, denoting
earth: "In the lectures of the early part of the eighteenth century used as a symbol
of zeal, together with chalk and charcoal, which represented freedom and
fervency. In the modern lectures clay has been substituted for it. Pan once
signified hard earth, a meaning which is now obsolete [...]." 867
5. Cloudy
"Cloudy" is a negative term, not as hard as "dark" or "black," and employed
in Freemasonry to denote an unfavorable ballot, that means a candidate who has
applied for membership is blackballed. According to an English Masonic
cyclopedia, the use of this term is incorrect, and another word should be
substituted: "A word sometimes improperly used by the Wardens of a Lodge
when reporting an unfavorable result of the ballot. The proper word is foul." 868
However, the term "foul," meaning "wet and stormy," is also connected with the
weather and thus is taken from the same semantic field into Freemasonry.
866 Simons, p. 47.
867 EOF, p. 226. The same explanation is found in IFL, p. 393 ("harte, gebrannte Erde").
868 EOF, p. 157.