HOW DOES MASONRY WORK?
We have spoken a great deal about your study and assimilation of the teachings brought to you in the degrees. There is no better way for you to learn the Art of Masonry than by attending your Lodge meetings regularly. As you see the degrees conferred over and over again you will find more and more Freemasonry being unfolded to you. If so inclined, you might even go a step further and participate in the conferring of the degrees. In fact, you cannot find a better teacher than that of working in the degrees themselves. We mention this because while attendance at our communications is not compulsory, we do urge you to make every effort to attend. You will find it most worth-while.As part of the Work you will be required to demonstrate your knowledge of each of the three Degrees. This will be done through a series of questions and answers, taught you by a member designated by the Worshipful Master. It will then be necessary for you to stand a satisfactory examination in open Lodge on this memory work after each Degree.Don't be frightened by this requirement or doubt your capacity to learn; every member before you has had to do the very same thing. One of the purposes of learning these proficiencies is to enable you to visit other Lodges. You cannot attend another Lodge unless there is a Brother present who has sat in Lodge with you and therefore can vouch for you, or unless you stand a satisfactory examination on your Masonic knowledge before a committee. This examination is based on the memory work. After receiving the Third Degree, feeling you have reached the end, you might be inclined to neglect learning the Third Degree proficiency. This would be regrettable, first, because it would impair your ability to visit other Lodges and to converse intelligently with your Brethren. Secondly, you are required by law to learn it.
It might be well at this time to say a word about Freemasonry in regard to your family. The degrees you are about to receive are secret and naturally should not be discussed or talked about to anyone except to a true Brother Mason. However, what Freemasonry is and stands for, its aims, its purposes, are not secret and can and should be discussed. However, we believe it most essential that you refrain from such discussions until you become a Master Mason. By then, with diligent study and instruction, you will be qualified to discuss such matters intelligently. In the meantime, however, you are encouraged to let your family read any and all written material given to you by the Lodge.
You probably have heard mention of various other bodies or organizations in connection with Freemasonry. That you may be properly informed, we feel a brief explanation is in order. You are joining what is commonly known as the "Blue Lodge," which is the basis or foundation of all Freemasonry, It is also called the "Symbolic Lodge." It confers three Degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. From the "Blue Lodge" -- Symbolic Masonry or Ancient Craft Masonry -- emanates all of the other pendant or affiliated groups or organizations. And, although each of these bodies have their own leaders, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Texas -- the "Blue Lodge" -- is the final Masonic authority over every Mason in Texas.
Do not be misled by hearing some of these other Masonic organizations referred to as consisting of "higher degrees." There is no higher degree than that of Master Mason. Always bear in mind that the "Blue Lodge" is the basic, the primary, organization and embodies the framework of all Freemasonry.
Stemming from the "Blue Lodge" are two sets of degrees, commonly referred to as Rites. One of these is the York Rite, consisting of Royal Arch, Cryptic and Knight Templar Masonry. The other is the Scottish Rite, which confers from the Fourth to the Thirty-second Degree. Each of these Rites has oftentimes been alluded to as a college course in Masonry, as each expounds and elaborates on the basic doctrines of the Order and each is a recognized Masonic Body. There are many other organizations which are recognized by us. All of them predicate their membership on some form of Masonic membership, and all of them subscribe to some worth-while purpose. Some of the most commonly-known of these are the Shrine, Grotto, Eastern Star, DeMolay, Rainbow, etc. We most earnestly recommend that you acquire a thorough knowledge of our basic doctrines before becoming involved with any of the other groups.
Earlier, you were informed that Masonry would be presented to you symbolically. To close this discussion, we feel that an explanation of Symbolism would be of benefit to you; and because of his eminence in present-day Freemasonry, we would like to give you the interesting thoughts written some years ago by Brother H. L. Haywood.
"Masonry is a great teaching organization, but it differs from all other teaching institutions by the method it employs; indeed, it differs from them so radically that its method is unique. Where they use books, set statements, speeches, lectures or school-room methods, it uses symbolism. Consult your own experience: in school you studied text books; in the church you hear sermons, Scripture Readings, and recite creeds; in your political party you adopt platforms; almost everywhere you encounter such methods; but in Masonry you are not taught out of a book; you receive no course of lectures; there is no official statement or creed; everything is conveyed to you by symbols. Without these symbols Masonry is deprived of its voice and can say nothing, because it has no means to say it; can do nothing, because it is deprived of its only Working Tool. The soul of it, the mind of it, the heart of it and the message of it are all in its symbols. For this reason there is nothing else in Masonry, and there can be nothing else so important for you to understand as its symbolism.
"The very fact that elsewhere you do not receive your ideas in symbolical form may lead you to onsider Masonry in general and - the he Ritual in particular as a queer, strange, unprecedented kind of thing. Its peculiarity may be your greatest obstacle in understanding it. Your mind is not in the habit of thinking by means of symbols, and it is difficult to form a new habit. And since you are accustomed to receive all authoritative utterances in the form of words or plain commands, you may be tempted to feel that our symbols are not quite as binding on you and not to be taken quite as seriously as a statement in plain words. All such considerations prove how important is the present subject.
"What is a symbol? First, a symbol is itself a thing which is used in some literal way. A carpenter's try-square, rule, plumb or hammer, a letter out of the alphabet, a geometrician's circle, square, angle or straight line, a coffin, a setting maul, an hourglass, a beehive, a book, a hand extended; each of these is a thing like any other and has its own direct, immediate uses. But in the second place, the principle, or use of any one of these things, is found in operation in many different forms and under many other conditions. A carpenter's rule, for example, is an instance of the principle of measurement. This principle may operate in countless forms: music may be measured by beats, a liquid can be measured in a cup, time can be measured by a clock and so on. The moment any such thing as a rule is not used for its first, immediate and usual purpose but is made to stand for a general purpose, or use, or idea, it becomes a symbol. When the carpenter uses his rule to measure a board, the rule is not a symbol; but when the same rule is hung on the wall to represent all kinds of measurements, the very idea or principle of measurement itself, then it becomes a symbol. The rule as a symbol is not less real than the rule as a tool, but more so; is not less definite in its measurement, but more definite; expresses not a smaller truth, but a larger one; does not make less demands on the mind, but more. It is a mistake, therefore, to suppose that symbols are vague, uncertain, indefinite as compared with things in their familiar use; the exact opposite is the truth.
"When, therefore, you encounter a Masonic Symbol, such as the Square, the Compass, the letter G, etc., you are not to suppose that it is a hazy, vague thing that may mean anything or nothing and that you can be indifferent to it; on the contrary, its meaning is perfectly definite, and that meaning is quite as binding on you as a Mason as if it had been expressed in a written statement.
"The old notion that Masonry hides, or disguises, or conceals its plain teachings behind symbols is the exact opposite of the truth. Symbols do not conceal the meaning of Freemasonry; they reveal it. Symbols do not obscure the teachings; they make them perfectly clear. If our Craft were to write down officially all its teachings in the form of words, those teachings would not be one bit clearer or more definite or more understandable than they are now. Men differ about the meaning of symbols, you may say; yes, they do, but men also differ about the meaning of words. It is hard, you may argue, to understand an allegory or a ritual; it is also hard to understand a book or a creed or a lecture.
"Perhaps you will say to yourself, 'This is doubtless all true; but after all, it doesn't tell me how to go about studying these symbols for myself; it is very well for Masonry to use symbols, but why doesn't it go on to explain them afterwards?'
"The answer to that question leads us to one of the central secrets in the whole art of Masonry, and that secret is so vital to you that we may be pardoned if we urge you to use all your power to grasp it firmly with every faculty at your command: One of the greatest purposes of Masonry is to set a man to the task of understanding these symbols for himself.
"We talk much about the art of Masonry. What do we mean by that art? We talk much about the Masonic life. What comprises that life? One of the principal things in that art or life is just this task of understanding these symbols. You have a whole lifetime in which to do it, but that isn't too much time. You must think for yourself; that will make your mind grow. You must overcome many difficulties; that will sharpen your intelligence. You must conduct your own search; that will develop your understanding. You must translate these symbols into practice; that will strengthen your character. You must exercise patience, use imagination, have insight. All these will cause your soul to grow and your spirit to develop. In the very process of understanding the symbols of Masonry you will develop into Masonic manhood.
"Others will assist you. You can read books, you can use your own powers of observation. Watch, reflect, think, follow the clues; note how one symbol helps to explain the other. See how each one is the part of the larger system and helps to explain another. Do all this, and in good time the whole, great, profound, inexhaustible, incalculably-valuable wisdom of Masonry will dawn on you like the sunrise and open out for you the day."