Post by staffs on Sept 23, 2006 7:17:12 GMT
by kind permission of Rowland Wood Regency Lodge no 6349
(Standing in the NE corner)
From the moment we first stood in the northeast corner of the lodge as Entered Apprentice Freemasons to the present day, we have been taught that it is necessary that there should be "wisdom to contrive, strength to support and beauty to adorn all great and important undertakings." These are the three great supports of masonry and are older than our rituals.
(Stand near the Bible)
Attempting, as we do, to convey an outline of Masonic wisdom in three degrees, conferred in three evenings, our work necessarily devotes but little time to any one of our great teachings. We give the hint, we refer the initiate to the Great Light (Point to the Bible), we abjure to study the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences, we instruct him to converse with well-informed Masons, and pass on to offer another outline of a great truth. But, do we really teach them anything in their early days as a freemason?
We know that wisdom represents the East and the Master of the Lodge and is symbolized by the Ionic column, represented by the Columns of the Canopy over the WM (or typically represented by the Candle Holder in other lodges) as it combines the beauty of the Corinthian with the strength of the Doric. From the Master Masons Certificate we are told of the wisdom of King Solomon, in building, completing and dedicating the Temple of Jerusalem to the service of the Great Architect. It would take pages, where here are but paragraphs, even to list the references to Wisdom in the Great Light (Point to the Bible); the word occurs in the Bible some two hundred and twenty-four times (Unless anyone can tell me otherewise!)
Solomon is represented in speculative masonry as the type, or representative of wisdom due to the character given him in the First Book of Kings (chapter four, verses 30 through 32). "Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman and Chacol and Darda, the sons of Mahol and his fame was in all the nations round about."
As might be expected of the man who was wiser than “all children of the East country,” Solomon esteemed wisdom greatly. In Proverbs he says: “Incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. For wisdom is better than rubies and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to it!”
It is easy, masonically, to confuse wisdom with knowledge as it is to do so in profane life. Pope is often misquoted: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.” What he really said was “a little ‘learning’ is a dangerous thing,” which is as different from knowledge as is wisdom. Knowledge is the cognizance of facts. Wisdom is the strength of mind to apply its knowledge. A Mason may know every word of our ritual from the beginning of the entered Apprentice Degree to the final words of the Sublime Degree of Master Mason and still have no wisdom, Masonic or otherwise. Many a great leader of the Craft has been a stumbling, halting ritualist; yet possessed in abundance a Masonic wisdom which made him a power for good among the brethren, by whom he was well beloved.
Knowledge comes from study; Wisdom from experience. Knowledge may be the possession of the criminal, the wastrel, the “irreligious libertine” and the atheist. Wisdom comes only to the wise, and the wise are ever good. Let’s put this more simpler. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is fruit, Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!
Surely the first of the three Grand Columns which support our Institution should be taken to heart by every Mason as a symbol of the real need of a brother to become wise with the goodness of Masonry, skilled in the arts of brotherhood, learned in the way to the hearts of his brethren. If he knew not, and asked “how may I gain Masonic Wisdom,” let him find the answer not in the ritual, important though it is; not in the form and ceremony, beautiful though they are, and not in themselves strong with the strength of repetition and age – but let him look to the Five Points of Fellowship, for there is the key to the real wisdom of the brotherhood of man. The connection between wisdom, strength and beauty is by no means confined to Masonry.
(Standing by the Senior Wardens Pedestal)
Strength is represented in the symbolic lodge by the Senior Warden and the Doric column represented by the Columns of the Canopy over the SW (or typically represented by the Candle Holder in other lodges) as it is the most massive column in all the orders of architecture. Hiram of Tyre becomes the Archetype for strength because of the assistance he rendered by providing the men and materials needed for constructing the temple.
Strength, the second of our Grand Columns, without which nothing endures, not even when contrived by wisdom and adorned with beauty; are known in two forms in our daily lives. First, the strength which lies in action; power, might, the strength of the arm, the engine, the army. Second, that other, subtler strength which is not less strong for being passive; the strength of the column which supports, the strength of the foundation which endures; the strength of the principles by which we live, individually, collectively, nationally – and here, within this gathering, Masonically.
It is this second form of strength with which the Speculative Mason is concerned. Freemasons build no temporal building. True, we do lay the cornerstone of the public building in the northeast corner, but the building is symbolic, not practical. The operative Mason who sets the stone for the Grand Master would place it as strongly in the building without our ceremony as with it. Our building is with the strength which endures in hearts and minds rather than that which makes the sun-dry materials of which an edifice is composed to do man’s will. The Freemason constructs only the spiritual building; his stone is his mind; mentally, not physically, chipped by the common gavel to a perfect ashlar. The strength by which he establishes his kingdom is not a strength of iron but a strength of will; his pillars support not a wall to keep out the cowans and eavesdroppers, but a character, proof against the intrusion of the vices and superfluities of life.
The lesson of the second column is made plain in the second degree. The “promise of God unto David” may be found by any who will read in Samuel II “And when thy days shall be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house in my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
He, who reads not merely the promise, but the reason for it, will understand that when David wished to build a house for the Lord, the Prophet Nathan brought him a message of the Lord, that he, not David, will build a “house not made with hands” in the form of sons and their sons forever.
Later, in the Great Light, we learn that the house which is “the Temple of the Holy Spirit” is man. If we follow our Masonic teachings, and believe that “the inestimable gift of God to man for the rule and guide of his faith” holds a true interpretation of the Mason’s conception of life and living, the “strength” which Masons should strive to acquire is that which will establish our sovereignty over ourselves that our kingdom of character may endure.
(Standing by the Junior Wardens Pedestal)
Beauty we are told is represented by the Junior Warden as he symbolizes the meridian sun, "the most beautiful object in the heavens", and by the Corinthian column represented by the Columns of the Canopy over the JW (or typically represented by the Candle Holder in other lodges) as it is the most beautiful of the ancient orders of architecture. The archetype becomes Hiram Abiff, the widow's son; due to the great debt owed him for his skill in decorating the temple.
We are taught that it is as necessary that beauty adorn all great and important undertakings as that wisdom contrives and strength supports them. In the story of Solomon’s Temple in the Great Light we find detailed descriptions of what was evidently, to those who went into details of its construction; the most beautiful building possible for the engineering skill, the wealth and the conception of the people of Israel of that day.
Artists have disputed and philosophers have differed about what is beauty. All of us have our individual conceptions of what constitutes it. That the beauty is largely in the mind of the beholder is demonstrated vividly to every traveller! The Turk thinks Ruben’s women are beautiful; while the American admires the pulchritude of the slender woman. Doubtless the pyramids were beautiful to the Egyptians, but modern architecture finds them too plain, too severe for beauty. Harmonies which the trained musical ear enjoys are but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal to the radio devotee, who finds in the spontaneity of a jazz orchestra something to which his conception of musical beauty responds to. The man who finds pleasure in Edgar Guest gets none from Swinburne, or the sonnets to the Portuguese; he who finds beauty in a diatom or bacteria under a microscope will see none in a tiger or a rose.
Obviously then, the beauty of which Masons are taught is that variety which, like the “natural religion” of the Old Charges, is one “in which all men agree.”
But, as no two men are agreed as to what is beautiful in a material sense, the Masonic conception of beauty cannot be of a material beauty. It’s the symbol of beauty - the sun at its Meridian - is actually blinding to see.
If we think the sun is beautiful, it is, for what it does for us rather than for what it is.
The Masonic Pillar of Beauty then, must be the symbol of an inward loveliness; a beauty of the mind, of the heart; a beauty of idea and ideal; a beauty of the spirit. Our Corinthian Column is to us not merely the support of the building, but that which upholds a character. Our Junior Warden represents not only the beauty of the sun at its Meridian, but the illumination by which a life is made beautiful. Hiram Abif is to us not only an exemplary character but an ideal to follow, a tradition to be preserved, a glory for which we may strive.
All about us, among our neighbours, are examples of what we term “a beautiful life.” Such beauty is almost wholly composed of unselfishness. He who walks in beauty thinks of others before himself, of stretching forth his hand, not for personal gain, but to help, aid and assist the poor and the unfortunate. Such a conception of the third Grand Column is foreshadowed in our teaching that “the greatest of these is charity” - charity of thought, of action, of understanding as well as of alms and of giving. Masonic beauty was wholly an operative matters in the days when the Gothic Cathedrals first lifted their arches and spires to heaven. Today, when Masonry is purely speculative, Masonic beauty must be considered only as a beauty of the spirit.
It cannot be had by wishing. It is not painted by the brush of desire. No musician may compose it upon any material piano. The poet may write about it, but he cannot phrase it. For it is of the inward essence which marks the difference between the “real good man” and he who only outwardly conforms to the laws and customs of society.
A man may keep every law, go to church three times on Sunday, belong to our Order and subscribe to every charity; and still be mean of spirit, unhappy to live with, selfish, inconsiderate, and disagreeable. Such a one has not learned the inward meaning of the Pillar of Beauty. He has never stood, symbolically in the South. For him, the sun at its Meridian is but the orb of the day at high noon and nothing more.
But for us, the real Mason, the brother who takes the lessons of the three Grand Columns to heart, Beauty is as much a lamp to live by as are Wisdom and Strength. He finds beauty in his fellow-man because his inner self is beautiful. His “house not made with hands” is glorious before heaven, not because, in imitation of Solomon, he “overlaid also the house, the beams, the post and the walls thereof and doors thereof with gold” but because it is made of those stones which endureth before the Great Architect - unselfishness, and kindness, and consideration, and charity, and a giving spirit - in other words, of brotherhood genuine because it springs from the heart.
For these things endure. Material things pass away. The Temple of Solomon is but a memory. Scattered are the stones, stolen is the gold and silver, destroyed are the lovely vessels cast by Hiram Abif. But the memory, like the history of the beauty and the glory which was Solomon, abide into this day. So shall it be with our “house not built with hands,” so be it if we build with the Beauty which Masons teach.
(Standing by the Masters Pedestal)
The understanding of the three great supports of masonry is essential to the lectures of the symbolic lodge and is repeated in each of the degrees. This repetition is done to impress upon us the importance of these attributes, but is there a deeper meaning?
(Ask WM, SW & JW to be upstanding)
We can extrapolate from our experience that in a "Blue Lodge" the Master, Senior and Junior Wardens are the triumvirate powers that must always be present to operate the lodge and that the Master "thinks", the Senior Warden "acts" and the Junior Warden "keeps the peace and harmony".
These duties are spelled out in the powers given to each of the officers by the constitutions and by-laws of the Grand Lodge and whereby the Master is the undisputed ruler of his lodge and subject only to masonic rules and regulations and the Grand Master or Grand Lodge, and he rules and governs with absolute authority reflecting the wisdom which shines from the "volume of Sacred Law" placed upon the masonic alter.
The Junior Warden takes charge of the Craft during refreshments and during masonic trials where he acts as the lodge prosecutor. He governs the festivities of the lodge when it is free from labour so that the preservation of harmony and order may be secured, thus creating the beauty of the masonic society.
The jewels worn by the principal officers in the lodge and their stations in the lodge illustrate wisdom, strength and beauty. (Ask each to show jewel)The square of morality in the east, the level of equality in the in the west and the plumb of rectitude in the south, denote the close relationships of this triangle of leadership. However if we again look more closely we find even more of the mystery unfolding. (Seated)
The ancients who began this system knew that the strongest structural design was based in the triangle. It has the greatest of strength due to the sum of its three sides. They were also deeply aware of its mystical powers from the number three.
By placing this perspective in our symbolic lodge, we see the Master, Senior and Junior Wardens as one units; each supported by the others in their respective duties. It is essential that they react and interact with each other constantly as friends and brothers linked together by their commitment to the lodge and their offices. They are not separate, but a trinity of leadership and this brings us to the final esoteric understanding of wisdom, strength and beauty, for if we search the words themselves we see a pattern form which is quite unexpected and uniquely spiritual.
The Hebrew word DABAR means wisdom, the Hebrew word OZ means strength and the Hebrew word GOMOR means beauty.
The Hebrews gave great significance not only to their words but also to the letters that formed them.
If we take the first letter of each of the former words we find that the Hebrew letter "D" in DABAR, corresponding to the fourth letter of the western alphabet, signifying the door of life. The representation of this in its original hieroglyph was probably typified by the Greeks as the opening of a tent.
The letter "O" from OZ corresponds with the fifteenth letter of the {western} alphabet and was called by the Hebrews and the Phoenicians "AYN” that is "eye" and was illustrated in the primitive form of the Phoenician letter as a rough picture of an eye or a circle with a dot in the centre. The Hebrew letter represents "O" and is the hieroglyph of a plant (one might conjecture a sprig of acacia, owing to its abundance in that area.) as well as at times, the circle of an eye.
The letter "G" in the Hebrew word GOMER corresponds to the 7th letter of {our western} alphabet and is associated with the third sacred name of God in Hebrew, "GHADOL" or in Latin, "magnus" or mighty.
If we take the words Wisdom, Strength and Beauty in Hebrew and use
the first letter of each we have:
D = DABAR = Wisdom
O = OZ = Strength
G = Gomer = Beauty
If we look closely we can see how "masonry conceals her secrets from those not yet ready to receive them" for by reversing the order of the letters we find the name of the Supreme Architect of the Universe.
According to our ideas, Hebrew is read backwards. The initials of these three Old Testament words, read backwards, produce our name for Deity! Surely it is the Great Architect, of whom they speak to the Mason who hath ears to hear, to whom we must look for the inner and spiritual meaning of the three Grand Columns which support our Institution!
We have now unearthed the true understanding that the metaphorical supports of Freemasonry, represented by the Hebrew letters signifying the "three names of God", the "all seeing eye" or evergreen sprig (sprig of acacia, if you will) and the "door to life" is in reality the Deity Himself and to truly succeed in our labours in the lodge and also when in the world we must have His wisdom to contrive, His strength to support us and His beauty to enable us to adorn all great and important undertakings.
(Move to Bible side of pedestal)
The display of the three Greater Lights (Volume of the sacred law, Square and Compasses) and the three lesser lights (Master, Senior and Junior Wardens) are central rituals for the opening and closing of the Lodge. As the furniture of the Lodge, they separately are symbols with meanings and lessons, but the fact that they are grouped into threes or Triads is not accidental.
Triads appear in many ancient systems of thought. In numerology, triads are seen as the combination of odd (1) and even (2) that sums to three. Three becomes a symbol of perfection in many ancient cultures and mystic philosophies. Threes also appear very early in geography and in geometry. We can find any location on a plane by reference to three points. Even anthropological artefacts reflect triads. From the union of marriage comes a child. The complication of three elements is needed to provide sufficient complexity to achieve an idealized perfection.
Triads are also prominently employed in Lodges and Masonic writings. Threes appear prominently in the lecture of the winding stairs as we are shown the first three steps. They remind Fellowcrafts of the three degrees of Masonry and the three principal officers of the Worshipful Master, Senior, and Junior Wardens. We learn that a Lodge is not singular. A Lodge is not dual. It is plural with a minimum of three.
The three degrees emphasize three stages of life. Our youth and adolescence are emphasized in our training as Entered Apprentices; our manhood and useful work are keys to the Fellowcraft degree; and contemplating our own mortality is vividly illustrated in the Hiramic story for Master Masons.
The posting monitors used by all three degrees today begin with three grand principles of brotherly love, relief and truth. Meetings in Lodge are designed to reinforce these three principles as we practice fraternity, charity, and virtue − our three moral guides.
Triads are used by Lodges to train our minds. As we grow in understanding we will tend to use more and richer triads. Intelligence, force, and harmony provide elegant synonyms uses today for wisdom, strength, and beauty. Likewise, religion, law, and morals are pillars of Masonic teaching. By religious study and contemplation we search out wisdom. By the force and rule of law, we establish a strong and orderly society. And by inculcation of personal morality, we strive for beauty in our private and public lives.
The lesson for us is that the triads used in our rituals and in our lectures are purposeful and helpful to us. The three lesser lights are named wisdom, strength, and beauty. They are said to help make Masons better men. Naturally, we could have added other virtues to the list: patience, fortitude, or peace making, but the fact that there is but three draws your attention.
(Standing in the NE corner)
From the moment we first stood in the northeast corner of the lodge as Entered Apprentice Freemasons to the present day, we have been taught that it is necessary that there should be "wisdom to contrive, strength to support and beauty to adorn all great and important undertakings." These are the three great supports of masonry and are older than our rituals.
(Stand near the Bible)
Attempting, as we do, to convey an outline of Masonic wisdom in three degrees, conferred in three evenings, our work necessarily devotes but little time to any one of our great teachings. We give the hint, we refer the initiate to the Great Light (Point to the Bible), we abjure to study the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences, we instruct him to converse with well-informed Masons, and pass on to offer another outline of a great truth. But, do we really teach them anything in their early days as a freemason?
We know that wisdom represents the East and the Master of the Lodge and is symbolized by the Ionic column, represented by the Columns of the Canopy over the WM (or typically represented by the Candle Holder in other lodges) as it combines the beauty of the Corinthian with the strength of the Doric. From the Master Masons Certificate we are told of the wisdom of King Solomon, in building, completing and dedicating the Temple of Jerusalem to the service of the Great Architect. It would take pages, where here are but paragraphs, even to list the references to Wisdom in the Great Light (Point to the Bible); the word occurs in the Bible some two hundred and twenty-four times (Unless anyone can tell me otherewise!)
Solomon is represented in speculative masonry as the type, or representative of wisdom due to the character given him in the First Book of Kings (chapter four, verses 30 through 32). "Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country and all the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman and Chacol and Darda, the sons of Mahol and his fame was in all the nations round about."
As might be expected of the man who was wiser than “all children of the East country,” Solomon esteemed wisdom greatly. In Proverbs he says: “Incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to understanding. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold. For wisdom is better than rubies and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to it!”
It is easy, masonically, to confuse wisdom with knowledge as it is to do so in profane life. Pope is often misquoted: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.” What he really said was “a little ‘learning’ is a dangerous thing,” which is as different from knowledge as is wisdom. Knowledge is the cognizance of facts. Wisdom is the strength of mind to apply its knowledge. A Mason may know every word of our ritual from the beginning of the entered Apprentice Degree to the final words of the Sublime Degree of Master Mason and still have no wisdom, Masonic or otherwise. Many a great leader of the Craft has been a stumbling, halting ritualist; yet possessed in abundance a Masonic wisdom which made him a power for good among the brethren, by whom he was well beloved.
Knowledge comes from study; Wisdom from experience. Knowledge may be the possession of the criminal, the wastrel, the “irreligious libertine” and the atheist. Wisdom comes only to the wise, and the wise are ever good. Let’s put this more simpler. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is fruit, Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad!
Surely the first of the three Grand Columns which support our Institution should be taken to heart by every Mason as a symbol of the real need of a brother to become wise with the goodness of Masonry, skilled in the arts of brotherhood, learned in the way to the hearts of his brethren. If he knew not, and asked “how may I gain Masonic Wisdom,” let him find the answer not in the ritual, important though it is; not in the form and ceremony, beautiful though they are, and not in themselves strong with the strength of repetition and age – but let him look to the Five Points of Fellowship, for there is the key to the real wisdom of the brotherhood of man. The connection between wisdom, strength and beauty is by no means confined to Masonry.
(Standing by the Senior Wardens Pedestal)
Strength is represented in the symbolic lodge by the Senior Warden and the Doric column represented by the Columns of the Canopy over the SW (or typically represented by the Candle Holder in other lodges) as it is the most massive column in all the orders of architecture. Hiram of Tyre becomes the Archetype for strength because of the assistance he rendered by providing the men and materials needed for constructing the temple.
Strength, the second of our Grand Columns, without which nothing endures, not even when contrived by wisdom and adorned with beauty; are known in two forms in our daily lives. First, the strength which lies in action; power, might, the strength of the arm, the engine, the army. Second, that other, subtler strength which is not less strong for being passive; the strength of the column which supports, the strength of the foundation which endures; the strength of the principles by which we live, individually, collectively, nationally – and here, within this gathering, Masonically.
It is this second form of strength with which the Speculative Mason is concerned. Freemasons build no temporal building. True, we do lay the cornerstone of the public building in the northeast corner, but the building is symbolic, not practical. The operative Mason who sets the stone for the Grand Master would place it as strongly in the building without our ceremony as with it. Our building is with the strength which endures in hearts and minds rather than that which makes the sun-dry materials of which an edifice is composed to do man’s will. The Freemason constructs only the spiritual building; his stone is his mind; mentally, not physically, chipped by the common gavel to a perfect ashlar. The strength by which he establishes his kingdom is not a strength of iron but a strength of will; his pillars support not a wall to keep out the cowans and eavesdroppers, but a character, proof against the intrusion of the vices and superfluities of life.
The lesson of the second column is made plain in the second degree. The “promise of God unto David” may be found by any who will read in Samuel II “And when thy days shall be fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee which shall proceed out of thy bowels and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house in my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
He, who reads not merely the promise, but the reason for it, will understand that when David wished to build a house for the Lord, the Prophet Nathan brought him a message of the Lord, that he, not David, will build a “house not made with hands” in the form of sons and their sons forever.
Later, in the Great Light, we learn that the house which is “the Temple of the Holy Spirit” is man. If we follow our Masonic teachings, and believe that “the inestimable gift of God to man for the rule and guide of his faith” holds a true interpretation of the Mason’s conception of life and living, the “strength” which Masons should strive to acquire is that which will establish our sovereignty over ourselves that our kingdom of character may endure.
(Standing by the Junior Wardens Pedestal)
Beauty we are told is represented by the Junior Warden as he symbolizes the meridian sun, "the most beautiful object in the heavens", and by the Corinthian column represented by the Columns of the Canopy over the JW (or typically represented by the Candle Holder in other lodges) as it is the most beautiful of the ancient orders of architecture. The archetype becomes Hiram Abiff, the widow's son; due to the great debt owed him for his skill in decorating the temple.
We are taught that it is as necessary that beauty adorn all great and important undertakings as that wisdom contrives and strength supports them. In the story of Solomon’s Temple in the Great Light we find detailed descriptions of what was evidently, to those who went into details of its construction; the most beautiful building possible for the engineering skill, the wealth and the conception of the people of Israel of that day.
Artists have disputed and philosophers have differed about what is beauty. All of us have our individual conceptions of what constitutes it. That the beauty is largely in the mind of the beholder is demonstrated vividly to every traveller! The Turk thinks Ruben’s women are beautiful; while the American admires the pulchritude of the slender woman. Doubtless the pyramids were beautiful to the Egyptians, but modern architecture finds them too plain, too severe for beauty. Harmonies which the trained musical ear enjoys are but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal to the radio devotee, who finds in the spontaneity of a jazz orchestra something to which his conception of musical beauty responds to. The man who finds pleasure in Edgar Guest gets none from Swinburne, or the sonnets to the Portuguese; he who finds beauty in a diatom or bacteria under a microscope will see none in a tiger or a rose.
Obviously then, the beauty of which Masons are taught is that variety which, like the “natural religion” of the Old Charges, is one “in which all men agree.”
But, as no two men are agreed as to what is beautiful in a material sense, the Masonic conception of beauty cannot be of a material beauty. It’s the symbol of beauty - the sun at its Meridian - is actually blinding to see.
If we think the sun is beautiful, it is, for what it does for us rather than for what it is.
The Masonic Pillar of Beauty then, must be the symbol of an inward loveliness; a beauty of the mind, of the heart; a beauty of idea and ideal; a beauty of the spirit. Our Corinthian Column is to us not merely the support of the building, but that which upholds a character. Our Junior Warden represents not only the beauty of the sun at its Meridian, but the illumination by which a life is made beautiful. Hiram Abif is to us not only an exemplary character but an ideal to follow, a tradition to be preserved, a glory for which we may strive.
All about us, among our neighbours, are examples of what we term “a beautiful life.” Such beauty is almost wholly composed of unselfishness. He who walks in beauty thinks of others before himself, of stretching forth his hand, not for personal gain, but to help, aid and assist the poor and the unfortunate. Such a conception of the third Grand Column is foreshadowed in our teaching that “the greatest of these is charity” - charity of thought, of action, of understanding as well as of alms and of giving. Masonic beauty was wholly an operative matters in the days when the Gothic Cathedrals first lifted their arches and spires to heaven. Today, when Masonry is purely speculative, Masonic beauty must be considered only as a beauty of the spirit.
It cannot be had by wishing. It is not painted by the brush of desire. No musician may compose it upon any material piano. The poet may write about it, but he cannot phrase it. For it is of the inward essence which marks the difference between the “real good man” and he who only outwardly conforms to the laws and customs of society.
A man may keep every law, go to church three times on Sunday, belong to our Order and subscribe to every charity; and still be mean of spirit, unhappy to live with, selfish, inconsiderate, and disagreeable. Such a one has not learned the inward meaning of the Pillar of Beauty. He has never stood, symbolically in the South. For him, the sun at its Meridian is but the orb of the day at high noon and nothing more.
But for us, the real Mason, the brother who takes the lessons of the three Grand Columns to heart, Beauty is as much a lamp to live by as are Wisdom and Strength. He finds beauty in his fellow-man because his inner self is beautiful. His “house not made with hands” is glorious before heaven, not because, in imitation of Solomon, he “overlaid also the house, the beams, the post and the walls thereof and doors thereof with gold” but because it is made of those stones which endureth before the Great Architect - unselfishness, and kindness, and consideration, and charity, and a giving spirit - in other words, of brotherhood genuine because it springs from the heart.
For these things endure. Material things pass away. The Temple of Solomon is but a memory. Scattered are the stones, stolen is the gold and silver, destroyed are the lovely vessels cast by Hiram Abif. But the memory, like the history of the beauty and the glory which was Solomon, abide into this day. So shall it be with our “house not built with hands,” so be it if we build with the Beauty which Masons teach.
(Standing by the Masters Pedestal)
The understanding of the three great supports of masonry is essential to the lectures of the symbolic lodge and is repeated in each of the degrees. This repetition is done to impress upon us the importance of these attributes, but is there a deeper meaning?
(Ask WM, SW & JW to be upstanding)
We can extrapolate from our experience that in a "Blue Lodge" the Master, Senior and Junior Wardens are the triumvirate powers that must always be present to operate the lodge and that the Master "thinks", the Senior Warden "acts" and the Junior Warden "keeps the peace and harmony".
These duties are spelled out in the powers given to each of the officers by the constitutions and by-laws of the Grand Lodge and whereby the Master is the undisputed ruler of his lodge and subject only to masonic rules and regulations and the Grand Master or Grand Lodge, and he rules and governs with absolute authority reflecting the wisdom which shines from the "volume of Sacred Law" placed upon the masonic alter.
The Junior Warden takes charge of the Craft during refreshments and during masonic trials where he acts as the lodge prosecutor. He governs the festivities of the lodge when it is free from labour so that the preservation of harmony and order may be secured, thus creating the beauty of the masonic society.
The jewels worn by the principal officers in the lodge and their stations in the lodge illustrate wisdom, strength and beauty. (Ask each to show jewel)The square of morality in the east, the level of equality in the in the west and the plumb of rectitude in the south, denote the close relationships of this triangle of leadership. However if we again look more closely we find even more of the mystery unfolding. (Seated)
The ancients who began this system knew that the strongest structural design was based in the triangle. It has the greatest of strength due to the sum of its three sides. They were also deeply aware of its mystical powers from the number three.
By placing this perspective in our symbolic lodge, we see the Master, Senior and Junior Wardens as one units; each supported by the others in their respective duties. It is essential that they react and interact with each other constantly as friends and brothers linked together by their commitment to the lodge and their offices. They are not separate, but a trinity of leadership and this brings us to the final esoteric understanding of wisdom, strength and beauty, for if we search the words themselves we see a pattern form which is quite unexpected and uniquely spiritual.
The Hebrew word DABAR means wisdom, the Hebrew word OZ means strength and the Hebrew word GOMOR means beauty.
The Hebrews gave great significance not only to their words but also to the letters that formed them.
If we take the first letter of each of the former words we find that the Hebrew letter "D" in DABAR, corresponding to the fourth letter of the western alphabet, signifying the door of life. The representation of this in its original hieroglyph was probably typified by the Greeks as the opening of a tent.
The letter "O" from OZ corresponds with the fifteenth letter of the {western} alphabet and was called by the Hebrews and the Phoenicians "AYN” that is "eye" and was illustrated in the primitive form of the Phoenician letter as a rough picture of an eye or a circle with a dot in the centre. The Hebrew letter represents "O" and is the hieroglyph of a plant (one might conjecture a sprig of acacia, owing to its abundance in that area.) as well as at times, the circle of an eye.
The letter "G" in the Hebrew word GOMER corresponds to the 7th letter of {our western} alphabet and is associated with the third sacred name of God in Hebrew, "GHADOL" or in Latin, "magnus" or mighty.
If we take the words Wisdom, Strength and Beauty in Hebrew and use
the first letter of each we have:
D = DABAR = Wisdom
O = OZ = Strength
G = Gomer = Beauty
If we look closely we can see how "masonry conceals her secrets from those not yet ready to receive them" for by reversing the order of the letters we find the name of the Supreme Architect of the Universe.
According to our ideas, Hebrew is read backwards. The initials of these three Old Testament words, read backwards, produce our name for Deity! Surely it is the Great Architect, of whom they speak to the Mason who hath ears to hear, to whom we must look for the inner and spiritual meaning of the three Grand Columns which support our Institution!
We have now unearthed the true understanding that the metaphorical supports of Freemasonry, represented by the Hebrew letters signifying the "three names of God", the "all seeing eye" or evergreen sprig (sprig of acacia, if you will) and the "door to life" is in reality the Deity Himself and to truly succeed in our labours in the lodge and also when in the world we must have His wisdom to contrive, His strength to support us and His beauty to enable us to adorn all great and important undertakings.
(Move to Bible side of pedestal)
The display of the three Greater Lights (Volume of the sacred law, Square and Compasses) and the three lesser lights (Master, Senior and Junior Wardens) are central rituals for the opening and closing of the Lodge. As the furniture of the Lodge, they separately are symbols with meanings and lessons, but the fact that they are grouped into threes or Triads is not accidental.
Triads appear in many ancient systems of thought. In numerology, triads are seen as the combination of odd (1) and even (2) that sums to three. Three becomes a symbol of perfection in many ancient cultures and mystic philosophies. Threes also appear very early in geography and in geometry. We can find any location on a plane by reference to three points. Even anthropological artefacts reflect triads. From the union of marriage comes a child. The complication of three elements is needed to provide sufficient complexity to achieve an idealized perfection.
Triads are also prominently employed in Lodges and Masonic writings. Threes appear prominently in the lecture of the winding stairs as we are shown the first three steps. They remind Fellowcrafts of the three degrees of Masonry and the three principal officers of the Worshipful Master, Senior, and Junior Wardens. We learn that a Lodge is not singular. A Lodge is not dual. It is plural with a minimum of three.
The three degrees emphasize three stages of life. Our youth and adolescence are emphasized in our training as Entered Apprentices; our manhood and useful work are keys to the Fellowcraft degree; and contemplating our own mortality is vividly illustrated in the Hiramic story for Master Masons.
The posting monitors used by all three degrees today begin with three grand principles of brotherly love, relief and truth. Meetings in Lodge are designed to reinforce these three principles as we practice fraternity, charity, and virtue − our three moral guides.
Triads are used by Lodges to train our minds. As we grow in understanding we will tend to use more and richer triads. Intelligence, force, and harmony provide elegant synonyms uses today for wisdom, strength, and beauty. Likewise, religion, law, and morals are pillars of Masonic teaching. By religious study and contemplation we search out wisdom. By the force and rule of law, we establish a strong and orderly society. And by inculcation of personal morality, we strive for beauty in our private and public lives.
The lesson for us is that the triads used in our rituals and in our lectures are purposeful and helpful to us. The three lesser lights are named wisdom, strength, and beauty. They are said to help make Masons better men. Naturally, we could have added other virtues to the list: patience, fortitude, or peace making, but the fact that there is but three draws your attention.