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

Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology 321
The Lewis on the English Entered Apprentice Carpet 981
If the "lewis" should ever become an orphan, he is entitled to receive
financial support and education by the Masons. There exist special ceremonies
for the baptizing of a "lewis," performed in the lodge of which his father is a
member: "The infant, soon after birth, is taken to the lodge-room, where he
receives a Masonic name, differing from that which he bears in the world; he is
formally adopted by the lodge as one of its children [...]." 982 In Masonic Baptism.
Reception of a Louveteau and Adoption, Albert Pike laid down ceremonies for
baptizing children of both sexes in the second half of the 19 th century (here, a
boy has to be at least twelve years old, and a girl, eighteen; a boy over the age of
twelve can be baptized only if he is afterward received a "Louveteau"). Pike
explains that Masonry "does not imitate a religious rite of any church" 983 when
performing this ceremony, since this rite of purification by water is not the
exclusive property of any religion but was already practiced in the distant past.
Masonic baptism is not a secret ceremony but open to anyone who wants to
witness it, and father and mother, as well as godmother and godfather of the
children are present. As in Craft Masonry, and to a certain extent in the Order of
the Rainbow for Girls, the child is invested by his or her godfather with a small
981 Anonymous ("Compiled by a member of the Craft."), The Text Book of Freemasonry, 1881,
printed in London, first page. For a colored illustration, cf. the carpet of the First Degree as
depicted in the Emulation working; reproduced in Section 4.1.2.1.
982 MD, p. 329/330.
983 Pike, Masonic Baptism, p. 13.