The Old Past Master
by Carl Claudy- 1924
THOSE SYMBOLS
"I
think I shall have to take an evening off and read a book about
symbols!" said the Very New Master Mason to the Old Past Master at
refreshment. "I find I don't know all about them."
"When
you find the book which teaches you all about them, lend it to
me, won't you?" asked the Old Past Master.
"Why,
I'm sure there must be such a book," answered the very new
Master Mason, surprised. "And I know you know all about symbols,
anyway."
"I have never
read a book which even attempted to tell 'all about
symbols" answered the Old Past Master. "I never knew the Mason who was
willing
to admit he knew all about them. And I never thought I knew very much
about them, although I have studied them for forty years!"
"Why,
you amaze me! There are only half a dozen symbols in the lodge; surely
they cannot have so many meanings. The tools, the apron, I suppose the
pillars on the porch; that's about all, isn't it?
The
Old Past Master turned and looked curiously at his questioner.
Satisfied that he was serious, the Old Past Master explained, gently,
as to a child.
"I
doubt very much that any one has ever had the temerity even to
count the Masonic symbols," he began. "Certainly I have not. But there
are
enough to keep a great many Masonic scholars and antiquarians busy for
a great many years to come, as they have in past, trying to dig out of
literature, history, archeology, sacred writings, religion, philosophy,
and kindred branches of study, a few of the more important meanings of
our symbols. Your innocent little catalog of lodge symbols would be
pathetic if it wasn't funny, and humorous if it wasn't sad!
"Certainly
you could not have meant to overlook the Great Light as a symbol,
and...."
"Oh,
but I don't understand that as a symbol," interrupted the
Very New Master Mason. "That's the Bible, the Book. I thought a symbol
was
something that meant something else!"
"It
is true that in our American and in British Lodges the Great Light
is the Holy Scriptures," agreed the Old Past Master. "But in another
lodge, in another country, some other sacred Book may lie on the altar.
The important thing is not what book there lies open, but that it be
the book which the Masons who kneel before it, venerate as the earthly
repository of spiritual knowledge. Thus, to our Jewish brethren, the
New Testament in our Great Light is not a Sacred writing as is their
Old Testament. Yet our Book contains both.
"But
the Book of the Law when used in Masonry is more than a
repository of Divine Will and Knowledge. It is a symbol of the fountain
head of all learning, and a symbol of a Mason's belief in Deity. It is
also a symbol of many other things, of which you will find in the books
you will read, but in none of them will you find it all.
"Did
you ever stop to ask yourself why Masons circumambulate in the
lodge? Or why they perform this rite at various times and in
various
ways? Or why that rite in a Blue Lodge is always done in one direction?
That is a symbol, my brother, and a very beautiful one. It is a
connection, tenuous, but very direct, with those far progenitors of
Masonry who lived thousands of years ago and worshipped the Sun as the
only god they knew.
"It
is human to be like those we strive to admire. The small boy plays
at being a soldier or a fireman, and struts with a small cane to be
like his father. Imitating, we feel that we are like that which we
imitate. Our savage forefathers had this same bit of humanness. They
believed that when they imitated that which was powerful, they in turn
received power. They worshipped the Sun. The Sun, to them, travelled
always from the East to the West, swinging north in the summer and
south in the winter. Therefore they believed that if they, in their
simple prayers and rites, imitated the course of the sun, they, too,
would become godlike and have power. Many religions, rites and
ceremonies of a spiritual significance have followed in the footsteps
of these early men, and thought to find in circumambulation a power
which comes from the Divine Something they
worship.
"Of course
there are other meanings of circumambulation; these, too,
you will discover in the books you will read.
"Not
all our symbols are so ancient, although some are even further
back in time. You are familiar, of course, with the 'certain point
within a circle.' That is a symbol and a great one. It has many
meanings; meanings not attributed to it haphazard, but meanings born in
it, as you might say. A Mason may not materially err if he circumscribe
his passions within that circle, not because the ritual says so, but
because our ancient brethren, who actually built Temples and
Cathedrals, found that the point, or center in the circle, and another
dot or two, were their easiest means of making their squares perfect,
and absolutely at right angles. This is a little problem in geometry
with which you are doubtless familiar; if not, the books you will read
will explain it to you.
"Get
out of your mind, my brother, the idea that any symbols in
Masonry are arbitrary; that some man said, for instance 'here is an
oblong square; I will make it into a symbol which means the lodge, just
because I like the shape!'
"The
'oblong square' my brother, was the shape which our ancient
brethren conceived the world to be. We use it as the 'shape of the
lodge' because the lodge itself is a symbol of the world, and thus of
our life in it.
"My
brother, symbolism in general, and Masonic symbolism in
particular, is a life-time study. It is ever new, never ending. The
more you read and study, the more you understand and enjoy this Masonry
of ours. But you will learn it not in one evening or two; not even in
many shall you learn it
all."
"Unless
I spend them talking to you," smiled the Very New Master
Mason.
