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

• the grips and signs,
• the wording and ritual,
• the tools, jewels, and other symbols,
• the customs,
• the spiritual conception,
• the system as a whole:
the rites, higher degrees and side degrees.
10.1 The Grips and Signs
Chapter 10 - Conclusion 825
In his oration delivered before the M. W. Grand Lodge of Kansas in February
1918, the Grand Orator Austin McCreary Keene states about Masonry that "[i]ts
language is universal. It is spoken at the equator and answered in the frozen
north, the land of the midnight sun. It is spoken in the Occident and answered in
the Orient, and the same hand-grasp goes around the globe." 2004 The orator
uses the antitheses of "equator" versus "frozen north, land of midnight sun," and
"Occident" versus "Orient" in order to underline the universality of the
handshake of recognition. However, as the author has been told by a Mason, the
grips vary a little from one order to the other, for example a member of the
Eastern Star will recognize another Freemason at his handshake, although this
will seem somehow different to him, let us say like a "dialect." There are also
other, more or less minor deviations of the grips to be found, for example as far
as the "Sign or Signal of Distress," also called "Grand Hailing Sign" is
concerned: "Nonwithstanding the supposed universality of Freemasonry, this
sign is not the same in America as it is in Britain or Europe. How or why the two
became different is unknown. The British and European sign is defensive in
character as if to ward off an attack." 2005
In his Practical Masonic Lectures, Lawrence cites a comment by the
philosopher John Locke on the universal language of Freemasonry, who
compares it with the pantomimes of the ancient Romans, if it be true that the
Freemasons had this secret language, of which he is not quite convinced:
An universal language has been much desired by the learned of many
ages. It is a thing rather to be wished than hoped for. But it seems the
Masons pretend to have such a thing among them. If it be true, I guess it
must be something like the language of the Pantomimes among the
ancient Romans, who are said to be able, by signs only, to express and
deliver any oration intelligibly to men of all nations and languages. A
man who has all these arts and advantages is certainly in a condition to
2004 Myler (compiler), Jewels of Masonic Oratory, p. 607; bold print added.
2005 CME, p. 621.