divested of all metals...

[stepnwolf]

Many years ago we were practicing for an Initiation when we came to the part of the ritual, which describes how the candidate was to be prepared. Most of us felt this part of the preparation, divested of all metallic substances..., was a preliminary to the passage where the new B. was asked to contribute to charity.

One of the elder BB disagreed, quoting the part of the ritual which says that if the candidate had been discovered to have metals about him, the ceremony up to this point would have to be repeated. She mentioned occult forces that would have been short-circuited in the presence of metals. It was her view that the metal in false teeth invalidated the Initiation.

The RWM simply couldn't ask educated applicants to remove their false teeth in the presence of a room of strangers. None of us had the ability to verify her assertion about occult forces one way or the other and those who were blessed with false teeth had never been asked to remove them.

So we forgot about the false teeth. My question is, were we wrong to consider the candidate's feelings in the matter. Is the testimony of one psychic Bro. sufficient to change custom?

[LorrB]

I would be interested to hear more on this subject. I have some fillings, and I most certainly felt what I thought was an electric current in my finger tips. Up till now I always thought of that as a positive I might just have been short circuiting!

Ego in check ;D

[paul]

The god of the Kenites (Cainites) was Tubal Cain whom they considered to be goat-footed.

TC taught the use of cosmetics and metals - particularly for weapons and thereby to achieve power in the world.

We must pass by the desire for worldly possessions before we are ready for genuine initiation.

The absence of metals maybe confounded with the absence of valuables but it is not a fundamental problem as the first was used to obtain the second.

[LorrB]

Any other references to goat footed gods in sacred lore?

The requirement for the absence of metals could mean the willingness to give up the need or desire to control?

[paul]

>The requirement for the absence of metals could mean the willingness to give up the need or desire to control?

Quite so. TC was apparently arming and training humans in warfare.

[boreades]

This is connected to another part of ritual all Freemasons should know by heart (but their minds may not have penetrated deeply enough).

Master of the lodge : Brother Junior Warden – What is the situation of the Outer Guard or Tyler?
Junior Warden : Without the entrance of the Lodge.
Master of the lodge: What is his duty?
Junior Warden : Being armed with a drawn sword, to keep off all cowans and intruders on Masonry and to see that the candidates are properly prepared.

If you ask "What is a Cowan?", you might discover that it first appears (in English) in Schaw's Statutes. He writes: “That no master nor fellowcraft receive any Cowens to work in his society or company, nor send none of his servant to work with Cowens.”

It is first introduced into English Freemasonry in James Anderson’s book of Constitutions published in 1738 at the request of the Grand Lodge of England. James Anderson was a Scottish Mason and a member of the Lodge of Aberdeen so perhaps he knew all about Cowans : “but free and Accepted Masons shall not allow Cowans to work with them, nor shall they be employed by Cowans without an urgent necessity and even in that case shall not teach Cowans but must have a separate communication.” 

My understanding is that John Jamieson and James Anderson were both Lowland Scots who knew not the Highland Gaelic. But the Gaelic version is Gaiwan or Gowan.

Recorded in many forms including: Gow, Gowan, Gowans, Gowanson, Guan, and Going, as well as dialectals such as Quogan, Quoane, Quonne, logic would suggest that this surname should be the most popular in Scotland and Ireland since it means "smith". However it is much rarer than its meaning might suggest that it should be. It derives from the Gaelic "gobha", meaning an iron worker.

Which means it's entirely possible that Cowan is a lowland Scottish mispronunciation (in English) of the Gaelic Gowan.

Gaiwan (of course) famously appears in the Arthurian legend "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". The Green Knight enters the Court of King Arthur and challenges anyone to chop off his head. Gawain takes up the challenge (wielding a metal axe). The rest is classic (and wonderful) Arthurian legend. Gawain must lose his head as the green knight did. He doesn't of course but then the world doesn't end at the new year, it is reborn. Gawain is reborn a sadder and wiser man. He has died and come back to life.

Notice the Third Degree similarities?

In the poem, the tenets of Gawain are described as : friendship, fraternity, purity, politeness and pity.
Which compare nicely with our own tenets : Brotherly Love, Relief (charity) and Truth.

From Schaw's Statutes, via Anderson's Constitutions, Gaiwan / Gowan / Cowan becomes anglicised and part of UGLE foundation myths. Which leads on to English Stone Masons (with their white aprons) disapproving of Blacksmiths and metal workers with dirty aprons. With no thanks to whomever made the sword for the Tyler!

There's more on the topic here: grael.uk/gawain