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

Chapter 7 - Rituals 399
Mason with a drawn sword, and the Senior Warden repeats his explanations why
and where he was made a Master Mason. The officers again define their stations
and duties. Different is the closing formula: the Worshipful Master asks the
Senior Warden, how Masons should meet, to which the answer is, "on the
Level." Then he asks, how they should act, to which the Junior Warden replies,
"by the Plumb." The Master states the final part of the triplet himself: "and part
upon the Square." (cf. p. 21). Hereafter, the Chaplain offers a prayer, and the
Worshipful Master says a benediction which ends with the metaphor: "[m]ay [...]
every moral and social virtue cement us" (p. 21). This reminds us of the Masonic
image that the cement of brotherly love, distributed by the trowel, binds the
members. Then, the Worshipful Master asks the Senior Deacon to "close the
great light in Masonry," i.e. he closes the Bible. The Worshipful Master declares
the lodge duly closed, and the Junior Deacon, giving three raps on the door,
informs the Tyler thereof.
7.1.1.1 First, or Entered Apprentice Degree
According to Simons's Standard Masonic Monitor, the First Degree of Craft
Masonry is symbolically intended to represent the entrance of man into the
world:
Coming from the ignorance and darkness of the outer world, his first
craving is for light - not that physical light which springs from the great
orb of days [...], but that moral and intellectual light which emanates
from the primal Source of all things - from the Grand Architect of the
Universe [...]. Hence the great, the primary object of the first degree, is
to symbolize that birth of intellectual light into the mind; and the
Entered Apprentice is the type of unregenerate man, groping in moral
and mental darkness, and seeking for the light which is to guide his
steps and point him to the path which leads to duty and to Him who
gives to duty its reward. 1270
In the First Degree, the candidate is symbolically travelling from the West to
the East, in the search of light, and he is confronted with certain "obstructions,"
i.e. the Wardens who represent the guards placed at the South, West, and East
gates of King Solomon's temple. Since the candidate is in the dark, and there
might be dangers awaiting him, he has to have confidence in the fidelity of his
conductor. The "dangers," in the figurative sense, are his own unruled passions.
The moral he draws out of these lessons is that it is important to hew and smooth
one's character, but that it is equally of importance to have brethren who can
guide and help. This can be supported by Psalms 133, the page at which the
1270 Simons, p. 48.