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

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7.1 Male Masonic Rituals
Chapter 7 - Rituals
The central theme of male Freemasonry - in contrast to the flowery symbols
of mainly beneficent female "Masonry" - is the quest for the lost word. What is
this word? Why was it lost? How can it be found - is it by means of selfimprovement?
Is it a word at all - or is it a truth? As Mackey states in a lecture
on the legend of the winding stairs of the Second Degree, the Mason is above all
a seeker for truth:
In the investigation of the true meaning of every Masonic symbol and
allegory, we must be governed by the single principle that the whole
design of Freemasonry as a speculative science is the investigation
of DIVINE TRUTH. To this great object everything is subsidiary. The
Mason is, from the moment of his initiation as an Entered Apprentice to
the time at which he receives the full fruition of Masonic light, an
investigator - a laborer in the quarry and the Temple - whose reward is
to be TRUTH. All the ceremonies and traditions of the Order tend to
this ultimate design. Is there light to be asked for? It is the intellectual
light of wisdom and truth. Is there a word to be sought? That word is
the symbol of truth. Is there a loss of something that had been
promised? That loss is typical of the failure of man, in the infirmity of
his nature, to discover Divine truth. Is there a substitute to be appointed
for that loss? It is an allegory which teaches us that in this world man
can approximate only to the full conception of truth. 1260
We will begin the following contemplation with "true" Masonry, that is with
the first three Degrees of Craft Masonry, or Blue Masonry, as it is also termed.
Then, we will describe an intermediate Degree, that of Mark Master, because of
its beautiful symbolism. Thereafter, we shall proceed to Red Masonry, the
continuing of the quest story anticipated in the Third Degree of Blue Masonry.
Thus, the whole circle can be observed, from losing the sacred word, to
providing a substitute for it, to finding it again: "King Solomon is said to have
substituted, in place of the lost one, the word now used in the Master Masons'
Degree, viz.: Mah-Hah-Bone which is given on the five points of fellowship, and
in low breath. The missing was found, after four hundred and seventy years, and
was then, and still is, used in the Royal Arch Degree [...]." 1261 It will be an
interesting story, full of symbolic "dangerous travels," and containing many
philosophical thoughts and moral teachings.
We will then briefly analyze the Emulation Working, which is a ritual that
abolished and replaced the "cruel oaths" due to which so many enemies of the
fraternity were born. Finally, we shall treat a Masonic and Military order, the
1260 Taken from the "Lecture on the Legend of the Winding Stairs" by Albert G. Mackey, M.D.,
quoted in Sickels, p. 159/160. Bold print added.
1261 Duncan, p. 142.