"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it."
Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850)

"...Veiled in Allegory and Illustrated by Symbols"

It may be asked why, if the emblems or symbols have a deeper meaning, that meaning is not clearly indicated in our ceremonies. One explanation of this, which I suggest, may be worthy of your consideration:
 Our Masonic Order is composed of men of widely different characteristics and temperaments; men of different degrees of intellectual development, education and culture; men of different degrees of spiritual enfoldment; men confronted by different degrees of problems in everyday life.

Freemasonry is a universal science; its message is such as to admit of some practical application to the life of its adherents. That message is embodied in symbol and allegory; and accordingly its symbols, its emblems and its allegories are of universal value. Some of their simpler interpretaions, those calculated to meet our deeper needs, must be interpreted by each according to the path - practical, intellectual or devotional - that he is following in the great evolutionary progression of the race, and according to the point to which he attained on that path. Thus, the interpretations may be varied, indeed may differ widely, but each may be perfectly valid according to the viewpoint of the craftsman, or group of craftsmen, seeking to interpret and apply the symbolism. In brief, our system of symbol and allegory is of universal application, but any particular interpretation of it may be of limited application; and accordingly to embody any such interpretation and application in our ritual would be to deprive our symbolism of its universal character, and so tend to defeat one of the principal objectives of the Craft, namely, to help ALL the Brethren, no matter what may be their type of temperament, their intellectual or spiritual qualifications, to grapple with the problems of Life just at the point where each finds himself.

W Bro C.A.A. Wild

 

"There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance."
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers

 

...Veiled in Allegory and Illustrated by Symbols" (Two)

Iamblichus (circa 200 AD), in his book on the "Mysteries", affirms that the Divine is present to whatever is adapted and in sympathy with God and His Celestial Hosts.

And it matters not how slightly may be the degree of sympathy and adaptation, it still may serve as a point of contact for supernatural influences.

A Sacred Symbol is a connecting or focussing point, the effectiveness of which increases with its continued proper use.

In the absolute sense, neither the divine influence, on the one hand, nor the human soul, on the other hand, is dependent upon any external symbol for the manifestation of sacred sympathy. Therefore, religious symbols are not absolutely necessary. But in the relative sense the Soul stands in need of an outer medium through which to actualise its inner relations with the Powers Above. Hence, in so far as Symbols serve this purpose, they are relative necessities.

Real Sacred Symbols are not merely arbitrary, accidental, and conventional, but they possess a universal and natural significance which is independent of any particular and artificial meaning arising from the association of time, and place, and circumstance. This is because such symbols are intrinsic as well as extrinsic.

A true Symbol is an extrinsic or representation of an intrinsic idea; using the word "idea" in its Platonic connotation, signifying a subjective, causal paradigm, type, or image. Hence to know this idea is to know the inherent meaning of a Symbol, and vice versa.

All things possessing real innate significance are Symbols. Thus, in a certain sense, every "thing" is a Symbol, and every Symbol is a "thing". But some things are natural symbols, whereas others are artificial. All Sacred Symbols fall into these two classes; the former being more intrinsic in value, while the latter are more extrinsic.

For instance, a Circle is not naturally and intrinsically a Symbol of Eternity; but artificially and extrinsically it is one of the most expressive that could be employed to denote the Beginningless and Endless.

We in Freemasonry are most fortunate, in most cases, to have "stumbled" upon a system which is inundated with both intrinsically, pregnant symbols. Symbols which can exercise our minds, bodies and souls in the discipline of our daily advancement which unfolds the interior nature of the Soul; arouses the dormant truth; brings into activity, the spiritual faculty; and enables us to peruse the Arcana of the higher life.

We can start with the 1st degree from the three distinct mysterious knocks which start our journey. Which allude to, seek and ye shall find; ask and ye shall have; knock, and it shall be opened unto you, through to the Charge after Initiation, when expertly delivered, especially by a Worshipful Brother who has immersed himself in its full meaning.

There is not finer example of virtues required to be absorbed and acquired by man to enable him to lead a just and virtuous life. "Let Prudence direct you, Temperance chasten you, Fortitude support you, and Justice be the guide of all your actions". The four cardinal Virtues which are the Bedrock of the Character of Virtuous Man.

Received knowledge informs us that the Four Cardinal Virtues were illustrated in our Lodges by a golden coloured rope worked into the tessellated border of the flooring of the Lodge, in which small squares made up of triangles bordered the Square Pavement of the Lodge, the golden rope was incorporated into the border terminating in a tassel at each corner, the tassels representing the four Cardinal Virtues. The Symbolic representation of the border is in complete accord and correspondence with the Symbolic representation of the Squared Pavement. Whilst "Working" in the Lodge one is on the floor representing, among other things, the Law of Universal Opposites, encompassed by the golden rope of the Cardinal Virtues and hopefully the work is being influenced by them.

Alas, we have lost this symbol in most Lodge rooms, and left only with a representation on the 1st Degree tracing board.

J.S.M. Ward writes on the carpet or flooring, and on the four tassels traditionally shown at its corners and which also appear at the corners of the first degree tracing board: "The inner meaning of this carpet is the chequered way of life - the alternations of joy and sorrow, of good and evil, of day and night which we all experience in the course of our lives. Indeed, it may be said to stand for all the opposites".

But what probably strikes the initiate more than anything else about this carpet are the four tassels which are woven into the pattern at the four corners. We are told that these represent the four cardinal virtues, but this is a late gloss, probably invented towards the close of the eighteenth century, and there seems no particular reason why they should represent the four cardinal virtues any more than the four elements, or any other particular four. We find the true origin of these tassels, as of many more obscure points of our ritual, if we study the mediaeval methods employed by the Operative masons when laying out the ground plan of a new building. The master mason, or architect, as we should call him today, commenced his work by striking the centre of the piece of ground on which the building was to be erected, and from it plotted out the square or rectangle on which the containing walls were subsequently to rise. To do so, he extended ropes from the centre pin to the four angles, and pegged these down at the corners of the building; by the simple use of square and triangle he was able to check the four corners and ascertain if they were true. As the walls rose, from time to time a piece of wood was extended from the corner inwards, and a plumb line dropped down to make sure that the walls were perpendicular and the angle as true on its upper tiers as it was at the base. A dim remembrance of these corner plumb lines lingered on well into the middle of the nineteenth century in Speculative Masonry, for I have met several old provincial Brethren who remember seeing, not merely woven tassels on the carpet, but actual tassels hanging in the four corners of the Lodge Room; and in the ritual used in the old days it is these hanging tassels to which the four cardinal virtues were attached - implying of course, that the four cardinal virtues were guides to enable a man to maintain an upright life. Like many other old and interesting customs, these tassels seem to have disappeared, and we are left with a symbolic representation of the four ends of the ropes which crossed the ground plan of the building. It is important that we retain the knowledge and history of these symbols.

Here are the thoughts of The Four Cardinal Virtues from the writings of some of the Great Thinkers:

"Wisdom is the chief and leader, next follows Temperance; and from the union of these two with Courage springs Justice. These four virtues take precedence in the class of Divine Goods.". (Plato, Laws Bk 1 631)

"If a man love righteousness, her labours are virtues: for she teaches Temperance and Prudence, Justice and Fortitude: which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in their life." (Wisdom of Solomon VIII, 7)

"I would not hesitate to define these four virtues, which make such an impression upon our minds that they are in every man's mouth: Temperance as love surrendering itself wholly to Him Who is its object; Courage as love bearing all things gladly for the sake of Him Who is its object; Justice as love serving Him Who is its object, and therefore rightly ruling. Prudence as love making wise distinction between what hinders and what helps itself." (St. Augustine)

"When Zoroaster's scholars asked him what they should do to get winged souls such as might soar aloft into the bright beams of divine truth, he bid them bathe themselves in the waters of life: they asking what they were, he tells them the Four Cardinal Virtues, which are the four rivers of Paradise." (John Smith - Cambridge Platoist)

"The Contemplative is truly a King, yes a fourfold King; King of the world through voluntary poverty, King of the flesh through Temperance and Prudence, King of the Devil through humble Patience, King of Heaven through Perfect Love." (Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole)

(To be continued)

W Bro C.A.A. Wild

 

"If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is not a barking dog, to be tethered on a ten-foot chain."
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965), speech at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, October 8, 1952