One of the subjects of great interest to the Masonic student is that of Mason’s marks. These are found in great profusion both in the form of letters and geometrical designs, some of them apparently intended as proprietary marks, of the workmen who used them, and as symbolic marks. The first authentic documents on the regulation of marks are said to have been found in German ordnances in 1462. This does not prove, however, that there were not regulations preceding that date. One instance is known of a mark descended to the user from his father, who obtained it from the grandfather, “who received it from the Lodge.” It is an odd fact that there is no reference in the Old Constitutions of England to proprietary marks, and this phase of the subject is shrouded in uncertainty.

“The human race has two books, two registers, two testaments -- architecture and printing, the Bible of stone and the Bible of paper. Up to the time of Gutenberg architecture was the chief and universal mode of writing. In those days, if a man was born a poet he turned architect. Genius scattered among the masses, kept down on all sides by feudality, escaped by way of architecture, and its Iliads took the form of cathedrals. From the moment that printing was discovered, architecture gradually lost its virility, declined and became denuded. Being no longer looked upon as the one all-embracing sovereign and enslaving art, architecture lost its power of retaining others in its service. Carving became sculpture; imagery, painting; the canon, music. It was like the dismemberment of an empire on the death of its Alexander -- each province making itself a kingdom.” (Victor Hugo).

To the Masonic student reviewing changes which have taken place in forms and ceremonies during the past 200 years, the old tracing boards and charts furnish much that will repay scrutiny. The emblems of fidelity, and the sword pointing to a naked heart, are missing from the old tracing boards of the eighteenth century, and the number of steps of the winding stairs is seven in most cases. In some of the old tracing boards we find three windows as the three lights of a Lodge, and the “broached thurnel” as a substitute for the perfect ashlar. In the latter half of the 18th century the “ancients” displayed the operative tools on the floor of the Lodge; while the “moderns” used a drawing to illustrate them. The suspended key of the old tracing boards has no significance to the Mason unfamiliar with the ritual of the 18th century.

“It is singular that the philosophical historian, in tracing the progress of various peoples, and in noticing the institutions which served to develop their intellectual and moral capabilities, should have passed by, nearly, without note or comment, those remarkable associations, which, although working in silence and secrecy, achieved no mean or unimportant task, in the great work of human education, and social regeneration and advancement. The universal prevalence of the secret principle, in both ancient and modern times, is of itself a most significant fact, and of sufficient magnitude to arrest the attention of all earnest and intelligent minds. The secret institution could not have existed, as it has done, through all time, or at least since the dawn of civilization, enlisting the warmest sympathies of the purest and best of men -- the fathers of civilization, the chiefs of philosophy, and science, and art -- unless it had responded, in a degree at least to some of the most urgent and vital needs of humanity.” (Philosophical History of Freemasonry, Arnold).

Strong Man Lodge No.45 (constituted in 1733) owns a set of three valuable George II masonic chairs which have been in need of restoration after languishing in the Grand Lodge Museum for over 100 years, and since 1927 on the mezzanine floor of the present Library and Museum. They were inspected by furniture guru John Bly, of Antiques Roadshow fame, who pronounced them among the finest he had ever seen. After considerable discussion, the Lodge set aside £3500 for the restoration work. This protracted campaign was a cause célèbre for Lodge Historian WBro Bernard Williamson. Then WBro Michael Curtis undertook to find a suitable restorer and supervised the work. The chairs have now been beautifully restored by Oliver Manning Press of Canterbury, and they are back in the Museum for all to see, although they remain the Lodge's property. They were used at the Lodge's Installation meeting last year. WBro Peter Tydeman, Zetland Group Chairman, and WBro Michael Banfield, VGO, were present with many other brethren to admire them in actual use for the first time since the 1800s. The Lodge now intends to use them at every Installation meeting.

Not A Religion

We meet for the purpose of admitting members to our fellowship, to instruct them in the lessons and principles (of Masonry) and to strengthen each other in adherence thereto, said George W. Speth, in a public lecture in 1892. We meet to hand down to succeeding generations the knowledge and practice of certain ceremonies, which we have ourselves inherited from our Masonic ancestors, and the analogues of which can be traced in the remotest antiquity... Lastly we meet to practice our three grand principles of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.

“Thales of Miletus had been the first of the philosophers, the first to tread the ground of the interpretation of nature in principles of the understanding. He and the others of that early school though to find the elemental principle, one in air, another in water, another in fire, another in chaotic primeval matter. Then came Pythagoras with his teaching that number was the essence of all things. He and his school said that as the forms and proportions of all things are referred at last to number, so number is necessarily the principle of things. Not only, said they, is 1 the point, 2 the line, 3 the plane, and 4 the solid, but quality is 5, justice is 9, temperance but a number, fortitude a number, prudence a number. ‘Their error lay in mistaking the symbol for the essence’ “ (M.W.G.M. Melvin M. Johnson, Roxbury, Mass., 1916).

Early Chinese Philosophy

An Old Landmark

An Early Speculative Mason

The earliest record of a “speculative Mason” being admitted to a lodge is the record of the Lodge of Edinburgh, June 8, 1600, when John Boswell, the Laird of Auchenleck, attested his presence with his mark.

The 1723 Constitution

In 1723 Brother James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Freemasons appeared. It was purported to have been compiled from old Manuscripts and Records, many of which have doubtless been lost. Brother R.F. Gould calls attention to “three striking innovations” in the 1723 Constitutions, to-wit: “It discards Christianity as the (only) religion of masonry, forbids the working of the Master’s part in private lodges, and arbitrarily imposes on the English craft the use of two compound words, Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft, which had no previous existence in its terminology.” Brother Gould believed that at the formation of the grand lodge in 1717 it inherited from the time immemorial Masons only two degrees, and that the fellow Craft and Master Mason were one.

Symbols in Egypt

Ancient Egypt has ever been of interest to the student of Masonry. In ancient Egypt we find the building of temples and the teaching of character building by the use of symbols at an early period. We also find a legend that is of the most fascinating interest to every Mason. Our ancient brother, the great Pythagoras, is reputed to have receive the degrees of Masonry in Egypt. The Greeks borrowed freely from the Egyptians, and the Eleusinian mysteries contain the same allegory of the resurrection to a future life as those of Persia and Egypt, with modified detail. In the foundation of Cleopatra’s Needle in 1879 were found a rough ashlar, a perfect ashlar, a square, a trowel, a trestle-board and a hieroglyph (meaning temple), all placed in such position as to show that they were used as symbols.

The Mason’s Character

An Ancient Document

The question of what is Freemasonry is one for individual interpretation, and calls forth earnest endeavor to construe the lessons taught in each degree. The question of whence it originated must necessarily be answered by facts, and as such are limited, it cannot be fully answered until more historical truths have been recovered. The various theories which have been advanced in regard to its probable origin are of value as they induce the student to verify the data on which they are founded, so as to maintain an intelligent theory of his own.

Age No Bar : The oldest Mason to be :

Hoshang Burjorji Desai, age 74 years, retired, former Managing Director of General Insurance Corporation, was initiated on 27th June 2005 in Lodge Cyrus No.1359: (B & N.I) by WM, W.Bro. N.F.Randeria.

(Information, courtesy : "The Mason", the official News Magazine of the District Grand Lodge of Bombay and Northern India, Bombay)

Joint Meetings of Lodges - A different Experience:

Joint meetings are when two lodges decide to hold their meetings together on the same day as that of one of them. They are two separate meetings with two separate agendas. One lodge has to take a dispensation to hold its meeting on the day of the other lodge meeting. Brethren of one lodge sit as visitors during the meeting of the other lodge and vice versa. After both the meetings, the brethren of these lodges adjourn to the banqueting table for an exchange of humour and bonhomie and a sumptuous dinner. Lodge Universal Brotherhood No.3835 has an ongoing programme of one meeting a year as a joint meeting with another Lodge in the District. Last year, brethren of the Lodge went to Kirkee for a joint meeting with Lodge Burnett was a new and exciting experience. In reciprocation, Lodge Universal Brotherhood invited Lodge Silvery Dawn to its next meeting, which has been accepted. Lodge Silvery Dawn will be passing a candidate at that meeting, with joint sharing of Rituals.

{Courtesy : "The Mason", June 2005}

Proper Clothing:

When we enter a lodge we are expected to be properly clothed. This does not mean just be smartly dressed. It means that we should be in the regalia of the rank we hold. I have visited a number of lodges and I find that Past District Grand Officers and, at times, even Past Grand Officers do not wear the regalia of their appropriate rank. The common excuse is that regalia are not easily available or that they are too expensive.

Brethren, ranks are given to brethren who have performed well in the past and are not only rewards for the work done but also as an encouragement to continue doing the good work. One should wear the regalia with pride, no matter the cost. Besides, the regalia show your rank and, when visiting a lodge, you will be seated according to the rank shown on your regalia. 

[Extracted from the Message of R.W. The District Grand Master of Bomby and Northern India, R.W. Bro. Dorab C. Bajan in "The Mason", June 2005 issue.] 

Tradition 

One Version of Freemasonry 

The church building Freemasons, being a national organization whose members travelled throughout the length and breadth of the land, wherever employment was obtainable, ofttimes found it impracticable to refer to their late employers for their character and qualifications. Hence arose the necessity for sign, token and word, with which our ancient brethren went to and fro. Whence came this sign, token and word? We do not know. We read of an assembly at York, 926 A.D., of which, however, no record remains. But there must have been a meeting held somewhere, at which regulations were adopted, which served to bind the brotherhood together for many generations (John A. Thorp, P.A. Gr. D.E., England).

Faith is the foundation of justice, the bond of amity and chief support of society; we live and walk by faith. By it we have an acknowledgment of a superior being, have access to the throne of grace, are justified, accepted and finally received. A true faith is the evidence of things  not seen, the substance of things we hoped for: this well maintained and well answered by walking according to our masonic profession, will turn faith into a vision and bring us to that blessed mansion above, where the just exist in perfect bliss to all eternity where we shall be eternally happy with God, the Grand Geometrician of the Universe.

(Anonymous : Courtesy : Lodge Harp of Erin, No. 567 Ir.C, Chennai)

The origin of Masons wearing gloves at their meetings, like much else in Freemasonry, is open to various interpretations. As to symbolism, gloves came into speculative usage, like aprons, as a direct heritage from operative practice, both aprons and gloves being essential items in a Mason's working apparel. This would suggest that the prime symbolism of gloves (and aprons) is to emphasise the operative origins of speculative masonry.

Gloves have had a wide ranging symbolism since the middle ages, in legal, military and litergical use. Our custom of wearing white gloves, as with our aprons of white lambskin, is probably associated with the idea of purity. Gloves were clearly part of an operative mason's job. In 1322, at Ely, the sacristy bought gloves for the masons engaged on 'new work'.

In their Lodges, from 1599 onwards, Masons had to provide a pair of gloves on the day they entered the lodge as part of their entrance fee. A Masonic exposure  entitled ' A Mason's Examination' published in 1723 in a London newspaper "The Flying Post"  stated : " When a Free-Mason is enter'd, after having given to all present of the Fraternity a pair of Men and Women's Gloves and Leather Apron...."

'The Herault Letter', the earliest known French exposure of Freemasonry, published in 1737, records an apprentice receiving a pair of gloves for himself and a pair of ladies' gloves 'for her whom he esteems the most'.

(Courtesy : V.W. Bro. A.P. Datar, Secretary, Lodge Harp of Erin)