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

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Chapter 7 - Rituals
maul. If they approved of it, the stone received the Mark Master's Mark and was
brought to the temple, otherwise it was rejected, and two or more Fellow Crafts
took it between them and heaved it over among the rubbish.
Once in every six working days, the Mark Masters used to receive the
working plans and the instructions for the execution from the Grand Master
Hiram Abiff, but a part of these plans apparently had got lost. An ingenious
Fellow Craft perceived that a very particular stone was needed for the design and
began to block it out, making his mark upon it. After the examination of the
working plans, however, his stone did not fit in and was ordered to be thrown on
the rubbish by two Fellow Crafts who were quite pleased to humiliate their vain
brother. Then the time came when the keystone for the arch 1304 of the temple was
needed. The workmen searched for it, but they could not find any stone of the
requisite form. The work came to a standstill, and Hiram Abiff reproached the
Mark Master to whom he had given the lost plan with the exact description of the
required stone. Suddenly, this Mark Master remembered having seen such a
stone made by one of his workmen, but not being able to find it on his working
plan, he had refused to stamp it with his mark and rejected it. They soon found
the stone still intact among the rubbish. Hiram Abiff rewarded the ingenious
Fellow Craft with the immediate advancement to the honorable degree of Mark
Master. He also was allowed to cut the Mark Master's Mark of approval on the
stone around his own mark, writing eight letters outside of it, which were
H.T.W.S.S.T.K.S., which are the initials of:
"Hiram, Tyrian Widow's Son, Sent to King Solomon" 1305 .
In conformity with the conception of the Craft ritual, which picks out as a
central theme the building of the temple of humanity and the quest for the lost
word, the spiritual meaning of the Mark ritual - though veiled by operative
Masonic role-play - comprises the construction of a symbolical edifice and the
mystery of a divine name:
1304 According to CME (p. 345), the arch and keystone are anachronistic with regard to Solomon's
Temple, because these have been introduced into buildings at a much later date; there is no ancient
building with a free arch. A keystone is the top stone of an arch uniting the two arcs of stone which
rise from the springers; it enables the arch to support itself upon the removal of the template.
1305 Cf. Richardson, p. 48, and Duncan, p. 170.