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

590
Chapter 7 - Rituals
institution is a science of symbols, conveying by striking emblems the most
interesting and exalted truths." 1538
The layout of the rituals is very similar. As we will see in the detailed
description of the I.O.O.F. ritual, the brethren have adopted almost a true copy of
the Masonic Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and of several phrases and
expressions, such as the address for God, or the metaphor for heaven (e.g.
"Grand Lodge Celestial", p. 136). The lecture of death, conferred in the third
degree of Masonry through the character of Hiram Abiff, is taught in Odd
Fellowship in the coffin scene of the first degree.
The administrative features almost correspond to each other, i.e. the
hierarchical subdivision into Subordinate Lodge, Grand Lodge, Supreme Grand
Lodge, etc., as well as the judicial ones, such as the laws of admission (e.g. the
belief in one Supreme Being) and the exclusion of certain people (handicapped
men, colored men, women, etc.).
There is also a certain conformity of technical vocabulary (such as the verbs
of admission), and certain formulas are but slightly different (e.g. the Masonic
"so mote it be" shifts to "so be it"). Even the nicknames of the two orders bear a
certain resemblance; the Masons are called "Three Point Brothers" due to their
custom to make three points as a sign of abbreviation, and the Odd Fellows are
named "Three Link-Fraternity" for illustrating their three tenets, Friendship,
Love, and Truth, by three connected links from a metal chain.
The ritualistic procedures, for example the travels through the lodge room,
are a close imitation, as well as the spiritual aims of the order, for the candidates
in the Odd Fellows also seek the "truth," are blindfolded and put in chains, to be
finally "restored to light" just like the Masonic candidates. As the execution of
the ceremonies is concerned, both orders repeatedly assure the candidate that
nothing dangerous will happen to him, that the solemn ceremonies are no horseplay,
and they forbid the officers to handle the candidate roughly.
Furthermore, the heatedly discussed procedure of "making Masons at sight"
has a parallel in Odd Fellowship where "[t]he right of a lodge to grant two or
more degrees to a brother at the same time is left for local legislation" (p. 77). It
seems as if in Odd Fellowship it were no problem at all to advance the
candidates faster in the higher degrees, without a proper time to elapse between
acquiring the different ranks, whereas in Masonry this idea was viewed
skeptically, mostly being applied when the initiates were of royalty or grand
reputation, so as to be an additional advertisement for the order.
The addition of high degrees that crown the fundamental degrees and
promise the discovery of even more "truth" is a further parallel development, and
as in Freemasonry, the colored people who were by law excluded from the
lodges founded their own order, taking out a charter for a Grand Lodge of
I.O.O.F.A.D. (The Independent Order of Odd-fellows of African Descent) in the
1880s. Another resemblance is the invention of female degrees. Both male
institutions repeat over and over again that there is no place for women in their
orders, but that they had to do something to ensure that their female relatives
1538 Revised Oddfellowship Illustrated, p. 177.