As the Entered Apprentice Degree as a whole is symbolic of
infancy and youth, a period of learning fundamentals, a beginning, so the Fellowcraft
Degree is emblematic of manhood. But it is a manhood of continued schooling;
of renewed research; of further instruction. The Fellowcraft has passed his early
Masonic youth, but he lacks the wisdom of age which he can attain only by use of the
teachings of his first Degree, broadened, strengthened, added to,
by those experiences which come to men.
Of the many symbols of this degree three stand out beyond
all others as most beautiful and most important. They are the brazen Pillars; the
Flight of Winding Stairs as a means of reaching the Middle Chamber by the teachings of the
three, the five, and the seven steps; and the Letter "G" and all that it means
to the Freemason. The Fellowcraft Degree is a call to learning. For while the
Degree contains moral teaching and a spiritual content only surpassed by that of the
Sublime Degree, as a whole it is a call to books and study. If the Fellowcraft
takes that to mean Masonic books and Masonic study he will find in this degree the
touchstone to make all three degrees a never ending happiness for their fortunate
possessor.
Certain differences between this and the preceding degree are at once apparent. The
Entered Apprentice about to be passed is no longer a candidate - he is a brother. In
the first degree the candidate is received with a warning; in the second, the brother
passed is received with an instruction. The circumambulation of the
Fellowcraft is longer than that of the Apprentice: journey through manhood is longer than
through youth. The obligation in the Entered Apprentice Degree stresses almost
entirely the necessity for secrecy; in the Fellowcraft Degree secrecy is indeed enjoined
upon the brother who kneels at the altar, but be also assumes duties toward his fellows
and takes upon himself sacred obligations not entrusted to an Entered Apprentice.
He learns of the slowly opening door which eventually will
let in the whole Light of the East, typified by the position of the Square and Compasses
upon the Volume of the Sacred Law. A degree to muse upon and to study; one to
see many times and still not come to the end of the great teachings here exemplified.
It is the Stepping stone between the solemnities of the Entered Apprentice
Degree and the glories of the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason. You must look
behind its Pillars. visualize climbing the Winding Stairs as the pilgrimage we all must
make.
WORKING TOOLS:
The working tools of a Fellowcraft are the Plumb, the Square, and the Level. The Entered
Apprentice has learned of them as the Immovable Jewels, but in the Fellowcraft's Degree
they have a double significance. They are still the Jewels of the three Principal
officers, still immovably fixed in the East, the West, and the South, but they are also
given into the hands of the Fellowcraft with instructions as to their usage, the more
impressive for their brevity. The tools represent an advance in
knowledge. The Entered Apprentice received a Twenty-four Inch Gauge and a
Common Gavel and the Chisel with which to measure and lay out a rough ashlar and chip
off its edges to fit a stone ready for the builders' use. But that is all he may do.
He is still but a beginner,
a student.
The Fellowcraft uses the Plumb, the Square, and the Level. With the
Square he tests the work of the Apprentice; with the Level he lays the courses of the wall
he builds; with the Plumb he raises perpendicular columns. If he uses his
tools right he demonstrates that he is worthy to be a Fellow of the
Craft. Hence the symbolism of the three tools as taught in the monitorial
work. The Plumb admonishes us to walk uprightly; straight and square with the base of life
on which we tread. We are to square our actions by the Square of Virtue.
Therefore it behooves the Fellowcraft to build on his level of time with a
true Plumb and a right Square.
In its interweaving of emblem with emblem, teaching with teaching, symbol
with symbol, Freemasonry is like the latticework atop the Pillars in the Porch of King
Solomon's Temple, the several parts of which are so connected as to denote unity.
Here the Plumb as a Jewel, the Plumb as a working tool of the Fellowcraft,
and the Heavenly Plumb in the hand of Jehovah, as told in Amos vii, are so inextricably
mingled that while there are many references to them in different parts of the degree,
they must symbolically be considered together. The Fellowcraft learns to judge
his work by his own plumb line, not by another's; if he erects that which is good work,
true work, square work by his own working tools - in other words, by his own standards -
he does well. Only when a Fellowcraft is false to his own conscience is he building
other than fair and straight.
THE TWO PILLARS
It is said "And King Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was a
widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass;
and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass.
And he came to King Solomon, and wrought all his work.
For he cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece; and a
line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. And he set up the
pillars in the porch of the temple; and he set up the right pillar, and the left pillar.
It is not necessary to speak on the Pillars at length, since the explanation
of the S.D. lecture is quite satisfyingly explicit regarding their ancient use and
purpose. However, their inner symbolic significance is not touched upon
in the ritual; it is one of the hidden beauties of Freemasonry left for each brother to
hunt down for himself.
THE WINDING STAIRS
The great philosopher Pythagoras taught that odd numbers were more perfect than even;
indeed, the temple builders who wrought long before Pythagoras always built their stairs
with an odd number of steps, so that, starting with the right foot at the bottom the
climber might enter the sacred place at the top with the same foot. The stairs as a
whole are a representation of life; not the physical life of eating, drinking, sleeping
and working, but the mental and spiritual life, of both the lodge and the world without;
of learning, studying, enlarging mental horizons, increasing the spiritual
outlook. Finally consider the implications of the winding stairs, as opposed to
those which are straight. The one virtue which most distinguishes man is
courage. It requires more courage to face the unknown than the known.
A straight stair or ladder hides neither secret nor mystery at its top.
But the stairs which wind hide each step from the climber, what is just around the
corner is unknown. The winding stairs of life lead us to we know not what.
For some, a Middle Chamber of fame and fortune; for others, one of pain and
frustration. The Angel of Death may stand with drawn sword on the very next step for
any of us.
There is a Middle Chamber.
There are wages of the Fellowcraft to be earned.
So believing, unafraid, climbing, the Fellowcraft may hope at the top of his
winding stairs to reach a Middle Chamber, and see a new sign in the East. That of
the letter "G"
Carmel
Lodge No. 680 F.&A.M.
