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BACK NEXT Summer 2008 Issue 45 Letter from the Editor Grand Lodge News News and Views On The Level International News Beyond the Craft Perambulating the Lodge Masonic Dining and Celebration Interview: The Grand Chancellor The Orator Walking the Way of Saint James Abd el-Kader: Algerian Nationalist and Freemason Province of Cambridgeshire Library & Museum Brother Lightfoote's Journal Review: Committed to the Flames Review: The Mythology of Secret Societies Review: The Dawn of Astrology Letters to the Editor Internet Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge Quarterly Communication Convocation of Supreme Grand Chapter RMBI Masonic Samaritan Fund Grand Charity RMTGB Canon Richard Tydeman: Looking unto the Rock Copyright 1997-2008 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Masonic Ritual Perambulating the Lodge For the candidate, the perambulations may seem like a baffling obstacle course, and for some of the older brethren, they may no longer hold much interest; but for me, they are among the most moving parts of our whole body of ritual, and a very real reminder of what life is all about. If, in my present role as senior warden, I may seem to be in a daze when a deacon presents me with the candidate, it is not because I have forgotten the words - honest! - but because I am so lost in meditation about what I have just been watching. To my mind, the perambulations represent the ways we experience time, and each degree illustrates a different kind, which we might label specific, general, and ... The Distinguishing Badge of a Mason Probably the most well-known fact about Freemasons for the general public is that they wear aprons for our ceremonies. What is less well known, even amongst members of the Craft itself, is the vast range of apron designs which exist. Today we have settled upon standardised designs: the Craft, the Royal Arch, each Order and Chapter beyond the Craft have their distinctive aprons. The Craft begins with a very basic example and as ... Seeking the Light: Freemasonry and Initiatic Traditions The first weekend in November saw the Canonbury Masonic Research Centre hold its seventh international conference – an event that drew speakers and delegates from as far afield as Finland, Italy, Poland, Romania and the United States. The North London based centre was established in 1999 to help facilitate scholarship on matters relating to Freemasonry, and the theme of this year’s conference, ‘Seeking the Light: Freemasonry and initiatic traditions’, focused on the heart of the matter – on Freemasonry’s role as an initiatory society ... Step Off With the Left Wheel You can't do the work of a lodge officer involved in ritual from a wheelchair, can you? Wrong! Jeremy Miller was Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies in the Province of Cambridgeshire when he was paralysed from mid-chest down by a virus disease. John Scott was six months into his year as Master of Old Leysian Lodge No. 4520 when he was forced by spinal stenosis to take to a wheelchair for all distances of more than a few yards. There are some who are disabled who might baulk at taking on official duties in lodge, and even some able-bodies members who might not feel that disabled brethren are "up to the task" ... Preceptor or Coach? What is a preceptor? Does he need to know the ritual? Lodges tend to select their best ritualist when it comes to the election of a new preceptor. My experience in sport and freemasonry tells me that this is not the best way forward. At some time or another we have all suffered from the brilliant mathematician who could not teach maths. The ability to do something well has little or no relevance to the ability to help others reach the same standard. It could even be argued that the person who has the greatest difficulty in learning and retaining ritual ... The Revolutionary Charge of the Third Degree The rituals of Craft Freemasonry involve a symbolic journey over three symbolic days; in other words, a pilgrimage, a quest. The work for the initiate is his own quest, one revealed as the search for the Lost Word. It is not fully resolved until the 3rd Degree is completed in the Royal Arch. The peak moment of this mysterious journey comes in the Third Degree with the Charge. I would like now to take a closer look at it and try to seek its meaning. What vision is seeking expression in the words? We can divide this charge into 3 sections ... The Central Importance of the Second Degree The Second Degree is regarded as the easiest degree; it is also the shortest and the least dramatic. The candidate, having proven some understanding of his initiation and of Freemasonry, is simply passed into the secrets of the Second Degree without any real explanation of what is so special about being made a Fellowcraft. But the clues are there. The Master tells him that “as a Craftsman, you are expected to make the liberal Arts and Sciences your future study, that you may the better be enabled to discharge your duties as a Mason and estimate the wonderful works of the Almighty ...” The First Degree Tracing Board It is only in the last hundred years or so that Tracing Boards, pre-prepared and increasingly standardised, have become commonplace. In operative masonry, the tracing board is not a diagram but a plain board for the master to lay lines and draw designs upon - in other words, to depict the detail of the intended structure. The earliest reference to the use of a Tracing Board as a symbol of the Lodge appears in the Carmick Manuscript of 1727, where “this figure represents the Lodge”. However, common practice appears to have been for the Master or Tyler to draw the design appropriate ... The Secret of the 47th Proposition One of the origins of modern Freemasonry is so-called ‘operative masonry’. Anyone who has seen a cathedral knows what I am referring to and to whom: the master masons of freestone. Documents which have survived these original lodges reveal the one secret which is the ultimate trade secret. For example, the Regensburg Document of 1459 describes the unification of nearly all German lodges, including those of Switzerland and Alsace, and was confirmed by the Emperor Maximilian I in 1498. This document contains the instruction that “..no workman, nor master ... Masonic Music Many brethren would testify to the way in which music can add to the dignity and significance of masonic ritual. From the earliest days of Freemasonry music has played an important role and many distinguished musicians and composers have been members of the Craft. Mozart, who was initiated into the lodge Zur Wohlthatigheit in Vienna in 1784, is of course the most famous musical mason. He wrote a considerable amount of masonic music, including choral and instrumental pieces. I always use The Priests’ March from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute for the entry of the Master and his Wardens. Other masonic musicians include Haydn, Franz Liszt, Arthur Sullivan and ... Enlightenment from Ritual The Ceremony of Passing. The Worshipful Master faces the candidate: ... as in the previous Degree you made yourself acquainted with the principles of Moral Truth and Virtue, you are now permitted to extend your researches into the hidden mysteries of Nature and Science. (Emulation Ritual. Lewis Masonic; London, 1991.p.137). The Ceremony of Raising. The Worshipful Master speaks: ... Proceeding onwards, still guiding your progress by the principles of moral truth, you were led in the Second Degree to contemplate the intellectual faculty ...   Masonic Ritual © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2008