The Fellow Craft. CompUed and Distributed by Committee on Masonic: Educ:ation BOOK NO. THREE. Authorized by Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M.

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1 The Fellow Craft Authorized by Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M. of Kansas CompUed and Distributed by Committee on Masonic: Educ:ation BOOK NO. THREE

2 Appreciation We express to the Committees on Masonic Education of the Grand Lodges of Iowa and Indiana. our grateful appreciation for permission to use most of the material in this series of Instruction Booklets. The idea was originated in Iowa but we have largely used the booklet as revised by the Indiana brethren for we feel that its wording is better adapted to the work in our Grand Jurisdiction. -Committee on Masonic Education Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Kansas. 1

3 The Fellow Craft Foreword It is hoped that being passed to the Fellow Craft degree you found in the ritual and lectures of this degree a further revelation of Masonry's character and purpose. The First Degree made its principal appeal to the conscience: Th~ Second addresses itself to the mind: It emphasized the philosophy of Masonry. its great teachings, and its profound concern for education, enlightenment and culture. In the following pages you will find added interpretation of its symbols. the derivation of the term "Fellow Craft", and your own newly achieved position in the Lodge helpfully discussed. 2 "Fellow Craft" is one of the large number of terms which have a technical meaning peculiar to Freemasonry and are seldom found elsewhere. In the period of Operative Masonry a "craft" was an organization of skilled workers in some trade or calling. A "fellow" meant one who held membership in such a craft. obligated to the same duties and allowed the same privileges as all other members. One of our present day defininons of "fellow" is: an equal. In Freemasonry the term "Fellow Craft" possesses two separate meanings. one of which we may call the Operative meaning. the other. the Speculative. Operative Fellow Crafts In the Operative period Freemasons were skilled workmen engaged as architects and builders. This is the time of the "Cathedral Builders" dealt with in THE ENTERED AP- PRENTICE. During this period skilled workmen were organized into a craft. the general form of which was called a "guild". This guild had officers. laws. rules. regulations and customs peculiar to it. and its regulations were binding on all members. The guild divided its membership into two grades. the lower of which. composed of ap- 3

4 prentices was explained to you in the preceding booklet. When an apprentice finished his long period of apprenticeship he stood an examination. If his record was good, and he could prove his proficiency under test, and the members voted in his favor, he was made a full member of the Craft. He then had the same duties, rights and privileges as all the others-he was their equal, and he was then called a "Fellow of the Craft." Speculative Fellow Crafts Now that the Craft is no longer Operative, the term possesses a very different meaning, although it is still used in its original sense in certain parts of the Ritual. Operative Freemasonry began to decline about the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century when lodges became few in number and small in membership. A few of the Lodges in England began to admit into membership men who had no intention of practicing Operative Masonry, but who were attracted to it by the Craft's antiquity or for social reasons. These men were called Speculative Masons. By the beginning of the eighteenth century these Speculative Masons had so increased in numbers that they were in the majority. Thus it was that during the first quarter of that century, the Craft was completely transformed into the Speculative Fraternity which we now have. 4 Although they adhered as closely as possible to the old customs which had prevailed in the Operative Craft, there were some radical changes made. One of the most important of these was to abandon the old rule of dividing the members into two grades or degrees and to adopt the new rule of dividing them into three. The second grade became known as the Fellow Craft Degree, and the third eventually became the Master Mason Degree. You are now known to us as a Fellow Craft. This term is also given as the name of the Second Degree, and refers to the ritualistic ceremonies and other content of that degree, to a member of it, and to a Lodge when opened on it. Since you have passed through these ceremonies and assumed the obligations therein contained and have been registered as a Fellow Craft upon the books of the Lodge, you have acquired certain rights and privileges. An explanation of some of these is the purpose of this booklet. Wages or Responsibilities One of the first privileges of the Operative Fellow Craft was to receive wages. As an apprentice he had been completely at the mercy and will of his Master. He did not work for a wage, nor did he need one. He worked to learn, and when he had finished his learning and graduated into an "equal" or a Fellow of the Craft, his whole outlook 5

5 on life changed. He grew up. His labor entitled him to a wage, and since he was to receive wages and become self reliant, he had to assume responsibilities. So it is with you as a Speculative Fellow Craft. You were told that Masonry is a progressive science, and that as you advanced or progressed, your duties and obligations would correspondingly increase. Isn't that true of life? As a child, you had no worries, few responsibilities and not too much was expected of you. Your mistakes were quickly excused because you didn't know better. Then as you grew in years and wisdom, you gradually assumed increased responsibilities and a great deal more was expected of you. Think back now upon your obligations as an Entered Apprentice and then as a Fellow Craft. Do you not see that a great deal more is expected of you? Again how true this is of life! Man seems to grow in stature according to the responsibilities which he assumes, and as he becomes more mature in his habits and thinking he develops a philosophy by which he lives. If his pattern of living is what it should be, he will endear himself to his associates and his fellows. The 6 wages of life are allegorical and sometimes difficult to define, but the esteem of one's brother is sometimes more valuable than any earthly wage that might be received. An Interpretation of the Ritual of the Second Oeg ree As a Fellow Craft you stand as one in the prime of life. No doubt you are familiar with the three stages of manhood: youth, adulthood or manhood, and age. The three degrees of Ancient Craft Masonry symbolize these three stations in the life span of man. The Entered Apprentice represents youth standing at the portals of life, his eyes on the rising sun. The Master Mason is the man of years, already on the further slope of the hill with the setting sun in his eyes. The Fellow Craft is a man in the prime of lifeexperienced, strong, resourceful, able to bear the heat and burden of the day. The man in his middle years carries maximum responsibilities. It is he upon whom a family depends for support. He is the Atlas on whose shoulders rest the burdens of business. By his skill and experience the arts are sustained. To his keeping are entrusted the destinies of state. It is said that in the building of his Temple, King Solomon employed eighty thousand Fellow Crafts or hewers on the mountains and in the quarries. The description is sug- 7

6 gestive. for it is by men in the Fellow Craft period that the hewing is done on the mountains or in the quarries of life.. The Fellow Craft walks in the full, uncolored light of noon. Everything stands starkly before him in its most uncompromising reality. If he were elated by boyish illusions of the ease of life and the sufficiency of his strength a little while ago, those illusions have now vanished in the heat of the day. After a few more years he will become mellow and resigned. But at high noon, this time has not yet come. It is for him to bend his back and bear the load. What does the Second Degree say to the Fellow Craft. whether in Masonry or in the world at large? The answer brings us to a second great idea, namely that the Fellow Craft must so equip himself that he will prove equal to the tasks which will be laid upon him. What is that equipment? The degree gives us at least three answers. Equipment of a Fellow Craft 1. Experience The first is that the Fellow Craft must gain experience from contact with the realities of life. You will recall what was stated about the Five Senses. Needless to say. that portion of the Middle Chamber Lecture was not 8 j ) } intended as a dissertation on either physiology or phychology. It is symbolic and repsents what a man learns through seeing. touching. tasting, hearing and smelling-in short, immediate experience. A man garners such experience only with the passage of time. Each day he comes into contact with facts. What he learns one day must be added to the next. and so on from year to year, until at last, through his senses, he comes to understand the world in which he lives, how to deal with it, how to master it. 2. EducatIon The second answer is the necessity of education. An individual's possible experience is limited. Could we learn of life only that which comes by our senses, we would be poorly equipped to deal with its complexities and responsibilities! To our store of hard-won experience we add the experience of others. We extend our own by the information of countless men brought to us through many channels. Our own knowledge must be supplemented by the knowledge of mankind. In the days when Masons were actual builders of great and costly structures, the Apprentice was a mere boy, ten to fifteen years of age, scarcely knowing one tool from another, ignorant of the secrets and arts of the builders. Yet, after seven years he was 9

7 able to produce his "master piece" and perform any task to which the Master might appoint him. How was this miracle accomplished? Not by his unaided efforts, but by the wise and patient guidance of accomplished Masons, and their imparting to him what they had been years in acquiring. Such is education, symbolized in the Second Degree, by the Liberal Arts and Sciences. Perhaps you were somewhat nonplussed to hear what was said about Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. Perhaps you wondered what such schoolroom topics had to do with Masonry. Now you begin to see the connection. The explanation of these subjects was not intended as an academic lecture. IJke so much else in the degree, these matters are symbols, signifying all that is meant by education-our training by others in skill and knowledge to perform or to understand certain tasks. 3. Wisdom The third answer suggested here is of more importance than either of the others. It may be expressed by the word wisdom. Wisdom goes beyond knowledge. The latter 10 gives us awareness of the world at points of immediate contact and competence for special tasks in the arts, protesstons, callings, and vocations. But a man's life is not confined to these considerations. He is not by day and night engaged in the same task; life is richer than that! It is compounded of all manner of things: a great variety of experiences; a constant succession of situations; a never-ending list of problems. The highway is crowded with people of varied reactions, emotions, characteristics, and behavior. The world is infinitely greater than what each of us now sees, hears, or feels; it is far more complex than our daily tasks. The Middle Chamber, which is so conspicuous in the Second Degree, has many meanings. Among others, it is a symbol of wisdom. By the experience of the Five Senses, through the knowledge gained of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, the candidate is called to advance, as on Winding Stairs, to that balanced wisdom of life in which the senses, emotions, intellect, character, work, deeds, habits, and the soul of a man are knit together in unity, balance, and poise. Symbols and Allegories The most outstanding symbol in the Degree of Fellow Craft is the Flight of Winding Stairs. In the Book of Kings we read: "They went up with winding stairs into the middle 11

8 chamber." We go up "with winding stairs" into "The Middle Chamber of King Solomon's Temple." Also we travel up the winding stairs of life and arrive, if we climb steadfastly, at the middle chamber of existence, which is removed from infancy and youth by the steps of knowledge and experience. There is a symbolism in the fact that the stairway winds. The Winding Stairs The winding stairway is one which tries a man's soul. He must approach it with faith. Nothing is clear before him but the next step. He must believe that there is a top; that if he but climb long enough he will reach a Middle Chamber, a goal, a place of light. Thus the Winding Stair and the Middle Chamber are symbols of life and manhood. No man can see what he will become. As a boy he may have a goal, but he may arrive at other Middle Chambers than the one he visualized when he started the ascent. A man cannot know whether he will ever live to climb all the stairs. The Angel of Death may stand but around the corner of the next step. Yet in spite of a lack of knowledge of what is at the top; in spite of the: fact that a Flaming Sword may bar his ascent, man keeps on climbing. He climbs in confidence that there is a goal, and that he shall reach 12 it. And if perchance he does not, a Mason has faith that if he never sees the glory of the Middle Chamber in this life, a lamp is set to guide him to one beyond his mortal gaze, to the one set in the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We are taught that we should use the five senses that God has given us to climb the seven steps of the stairway which we designate as the seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. When we rise by Grammar and Rhetoric, we must consider that they mean not only language, but all methods of communication. The step of Logic means a knowledge not only of all methods of reasoning, but of all reasoning which logicians have accomplished. When we ascend by Arithmetic and Geometry, we must visualize all science. The step denominated Music means not only sweet and harmonious sounds, but all beauty, poetry, art, nature and loveliness of whatever kind. As for the seventh step of Astronomy, surely it not only suggests the study of the solar system and the stars, but that they symbolize a supreme creative power and wisdom, without which the universe could not exist. You recall the prominence which was giv- 13

9 en the Letter G. It may be considered as having a double interpretation: (1) as being the first letter of our name tor the Deity in whose existence all Masons have professed belief. the continued expression of which is symbolized by the presence of the Volume of the Sacred Law upon the altar; (2) as being the initial of Geometry. regarded as the basic science of Operative Masonry. now symbolizing to Speculative Masons the unchanging natural laws which govern the whole material universe. Together they symbolize that attribute of God revealed to us through Geometry: God as the great Intelligence of the Universe. This is consistent as the entire degree makes its appeal to the intellect. Fellow Craft Represents Manhood Again the Fellow Craft represents manhood in its most splendid conception and its greatest responsibility. The days of his disillusionment are past; he faces facts. not fancies. He understands the immensity of the tasks before him and approaches them with the joy of one who is competent and resolved to conquer. His family depends upon him for support. The business world looks to him for judgment and guidance. The community needs his aid and advice in promoting the moral and spiritual welfare of its people. He is a patron of the arts and sciences. He has faith in God and believes that "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.. He is untiring in his zeal to promote 14 religion. freedom. and justice. There stands the Fellow Craft strong in body, soul, and spirit. and competent to cope with all of life's realities. Masonry's Methods While you, as a Fellow Craft, have yet to reach the climax of your journey in SymboliC Masonry, you have perhaps discovered that Freemasonry has a certain method of teaching that is its very own. It is totally unlike the system employed in the schools, for instead of using teachers and text books and lessons, and endeavoring to expound its teachings directly. Freemasonry teaches with ritual, symbols and allegory. This method is not so easy as that of the school room, but it has certain definite advantages. It makes a Mason study and learn for himself. It forces him to search out the truth, and compels him to take the initiative so that the very act of learning is of educational value. The purpose of secrecy is not to keep a candidate in the dark. but to stimulate him to see the Light, or Truth. The symbols and emblems do not conceal the teaching; they reveal it but in such a manner that a man must find it for himself. Only when a man finds truth for himself is he likely to 'keep it as a permanent possession. Duties of a Fellow Craft Freemasonry is too extensive to be exempli- 15

10 fied in a ritual or to be presented in one evening. It is not expected that one can learn Freemasonry in many evenings. One degree follows another. and the memo bers of each degree stand on a different level of rights and duties. This does not mean the Masonry presented in the First. or in the Second Degrees. so far as its nature and teachings are concerned. is less important or less binding than that presented in the Third Degree. All that is taught in the F)rst and Second Degrees belong as vitally to Freemasonry as that which is taught in the Third. While there is a subordination in the grades of membership. there certainly is no subordinate of the Masonry presented in each grade or degree. As a Fellow Craft you can sit in either a Lodge of Entered Apprentices or of. a Fellow Crafts. but not of Master Masons. Do not let this restriction cause you to look upon the Fellow Craft Degree as a mere stepping stone to the Third. Freemasonry gave to you one part of its teachings in the First. another in the Second. and in the Third it will give you yet another. but it is always Freemasonry. Therefore, we urge upon you the same studious attention to your duties and responsibilities while you are a Fellow Craft that you doubtless expect to give when you are a Master Mason. Remember that to these duties you are bound by the most sacred ties. 16