The Trestle Board

From the West
This Month from the WEST is a small Blurb on
THE LEGEND of HIRAM ABIF
In taking the Third Degree, which is so well named the Sublime Degree of Masonry, you were
doubtless impressed by the Tragedy of Hiram Abiff above and beyond all other features of its
extraordinarily impressive ceremonies. As the Degree itself is the climax of initiation, so is that
Tragedy the climax of the Degree. To know and to understand it and to appreciate at the full
its profound richness of meaning will be a possession to you as long as you live. To assist you
to that end I shall make a number of suggestions and call to your attention certain important
facts about it.
It is first of all important to understand that the Drama of Hiram Abiff is a ritualistic
drama. We all know what a drama is, a conflict between a man and other men or between him
and other forces, resulting in a crisis in which his fate or fortune lies at stake; the crisis, or
problem, is followed by a resolution or solution; if it turns out in favor of the man the drama is
a comedy, in the true and original meaning of that word as a happy ending; if it turns against
him, and as a result he becomes a victim or a sufferer, it means that the drama is a tragedy.
By drama in either sense it does not refer to plays as they are acted on the stage, which are
not dramas at all but representations of dramas: it refers to drama as it occurs in our own
lives, to each of us, and in our daily experience. The only reason for our interest in reading or
seeing stage plays is because they mirror the dramas in real life in which we ourselves are the
actors.
But the ceremony of Hiram Abiff is not only a drama, it is a ritualistic drama, and the
major emphasis should be placed on that word. What is a ritual? It is a set of fixed ceremonies
which address themselves to the human spirit solely through the imagination. A play in the
theatre may be built around some historical figure or some historical event as is the case in
Shakespeare's plays about the English Kings and about Julius Caesar; and if the figures and
events are not actually historical, they are supposed, or feigned, to be, so that the facts of
time, place, and individual identity are of necessary importance to it. A ritualistic drama on the
other hand does not pay any heed to historical individuals, times or places but moves wholly
in the realms of the spirit, where time, space and particular individuals are ignored; the clash
of forces, the crisis and fates of the human spirit alone enter into it, and they hold true of all
men everywhere and always, regardless of who they are, or where and when they are.
Since the Drama of Hiram Abiff is ritualistic, it is a mistake to accept it as history.
There was a Hiram Abiff in history, but our Third Degree is not interested in him; its sole
concern is with a Hiram Abiff who is a symbol of the human soul, that is, its own Hiram Abiff.
If therefore you have been troubled with the thought that some of the events of this Drama
could not possibly have ever happened you can cease to be troubled; it is not meant that they
ever happened in ancient history but that they are symbols of what is happening in the life of
every man.
For the same reason it is an inexcusable blunder to treat it as a mere mock tragedy, a
serio-comedy; savage peoples employ initiation ceremonies as an ordeal to test the nerve and
courage of their young men, but Freemasonry is not savage. Boys in school often employ
hazing, which is a horseplay caricature of the savage ceremonial ordeals, but Freemasonry is
not juvenile. The exemplification of our ritualistic drama is as sincere, as solemn, as earnest
as a prayer before the altar of a church; he who takes it trivially or even with a perverted
humor, betrays a shallowness of soul which makes him unfit ever to have become a Mason.
Hiram Abiff is the acted symbol of the human soul, yours, mine, any man's. The work
he was engaged to supervise is the symbol of the work you and I have in the supervision,
organization and direction of our lives from birth to death. The enemies he met are nothing
other than the symbols of those lusts and passions which in our own breasts, or in the breasts
of others, make war on our characters and our lives. His doom is the same doom that befalls
every man who becomes a victim to those enemies, to be interrupted in one's work, to be
made outcast from the lordship (or mastership) over one's own self, and, at the end, to
become buried under all manner of rubbish—which means ill fame, defeat, demoralization,
disgrace, weakness, misery, evil habits and scorn. The manner in which he was raised from
that dead level to that living perpendicular again is the same manner by which any man, if it
happens at all, rises from self-defeat to self-mastery. And John the MacDonald Sovereign - S.W. Grand Architect, by
From the South
It is hard to believe that it has already been a year since I moved to the Junior
Warden’s post in the south. The past year has been eventful for me for many reasons.
I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to serve my brothers. I would once again like to
thank everyone that helped me with my duties of the Junior Warden when the need
arose. I look forward to the new year and continuing to learn, grow and become more
proficient in Masonic ritual and to becoming a better man and Mason. It was great to
see a good crowd for our last degree, this is important to show support for our newly
raised Brothers.
What Makes A Man A Mason?
by George M. Free
What makes a man a Mason, O brother of mine?
It isn’t the due guard, nor is it the sign,
It isn’t the jewel which hangs on your breast
It isn’t the apron in which you are dressed
It isn’t the step, nor the token, nor the grip,
Nor lectures that fluently flow from the lip,
Nor yet the possession of that mystic word
On five points of fellowship duly conferred.
Though these are essential, desirable, fine,
They don’t make a Mason, O brother of mine.
That you to your sworn obligation are true
'Tis that, brother mine, makes a Mason of you.
Secure in your heart you must safeguard and trust,
With lodge and with brother be honest and just,
Assist the deserving who cry in their need,
Be chaste in your thought, in your word and your deed.
Support he who falters, with hope banish fear,
And whisper advice in an erring one’s ear.
Then will the Great Lights on your path brightly shine,
And you’ll be a Mason, O brother of mine.
Your use of life’s hours by the gauge you must try,
The gavel of vices with courage apply;
Your walk must be upright, as shown by the plumb,
On the level, to bourn whence no travelers come,
The Book of your faith be the rule and the guide,
The compass your passions shut safely inside;
The stone which the Architect placed in your care
Must pass the strict test of His unerring square.
And then you will meet
with approval divine,
And you’ll be a Mason,
O brother of mine.