Landmarks - In no Particular Order

[LorrB]

One landmark is the requirement that each lodge should have a Tyler and be 'close tyled'.

According to Foster Baily

The Tyler guards the outer door of the Temple. Our first landmark proclaimed the fact of God, Who guards the secrets of the universe. It is that aspect of His nature that the Tyler represents, and therefore without every Lodge we find a MM with a drawn sword, guarding the secrets of the Craft and protecting the Temple from violation and from the intrusion of the unready and the uninitiate. The Tyler stands, as did the Angel with the flaming sword before the gates of Paradise, to guard the secret portals. But he stands also to admit and to recognise; he stands also to protect the unready and the curious from the force and the blinding light which, symbolically, should flood each Lodge when assembled in due form, and whose members are alive to the inner significances fo their work.

[LorrB]

Bailey also makes this pertinent point...

It is necessary when defining a landmark to discriminate between a landmark and a symbol. One is basic and unchanging; the other is secondary and subject to modification according to race and time.

[paul]

>the blinding light which, symbolically, should flood each Lodge when assembled in due form

Occasionally the Light will enter the temple through the East wall - flowing on to the floor of the temple and gradually filling the room as a swimming pool is filled. Thus the sensation of the light starts at the feet and gradually ascends the legs.

[torence]

Dr. Anderson, IMHO, was purposefully vague when he wrote about the “Ancient Landmarks, usages and customs of the fraternity.” Puffing the club up was useful then to promote interest; and, I would imagine that those original officers would be astounded by the dimensions to which our generation has ascribed what was originally just an entertaining annual dinner club.

The nineteenth century authorities on Masonry, whose purpose was to promote their own grandiose Rites and indulgences, expanded the phrase to a lengthy list of conditions that never measures up to describing us. Ezra Pound got it more correct with a list of only seven items. IMHO, a Landmark has always referred to those conditions that existed in lodges before there was a grand this or that brother or club, among us. If Tylers were at the door before 1717, then their work is essential to what constitutes a lodge.

Unfortunately, here in the US, the role has been reduced considerably. What once was a Brother who controlled to outer door and was the care taker for a lodge hall that seated many bodies is now just a title awarded to men who have unfortunately been diminished by the circumstances of life.

You mention the term “Light” as a product of our work. Fortunately for us, our understanding of “Light” has grown considerably since our ForeBrothers used it to describe both its physical and spiritual manifestations. Before the start of the nineteenth century, a new entertainment was needed to promote interest. Religious meetings, revivals, masses etc. were readily available and not unusual enough to make up an interesting Lodge Program. Scientific lectures, however, were new, different and without the religious or political baggage that accompanied other types of gathering.

But the understanding of “Light,” then was shaped by a world of Geometric proportions, length, breadth and height. We can now describe our universe in eleven dimensions. Aside from the traditional three proportions we can describe Time as two additional dimensions. Time can be expressed as both a steady progression and in pulses, like a clock. The original three dimensions familiar to our ForeBrothers have another six qualities about them. They either radiate or absorb vibrations along their lines. All of these characteristics are ways to describe the manifestations of the Grand Design. As Masons we are taught to explore and speculate upon them; and by our understanding of them, we can better sense the presence of Deity.

Perhaps new lectures, being updated by what we have learned over the centuries, would be useful and a new entertainment for the Craft.

Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Secretary – Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 – Crete, Illinois
PM- Arcadia Lodge No. 1138 – Lansing, Illinois

[Henka]

Well said, Brother.

[paul]

>Fortunately for us, our understanding of “Light” has grown considerably

I am not sure the knowledge of the hidden mysteries of nature and science have really progressed so far - at least in the public domain.

[paul]

Why is 3 degrees a landmark when it was apparently unknown in 1717 to the new Grand Lodge in London?

[torence]

At about the time of the reunion, along with the introduction of the scientific lecture as popular entertainment, came the strong suggestion that young Masons should study in particular the “Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences.” The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences was originally the “Circle of Education” for Greek Freemen as opposed to the education fit for slaves. These “new” points proposed to replace the “old” points. They represented a major departure in thought from the wisdom of the Ancients largely contained in pages by the Book of Books. The “old” points described man in comprehensible dimension. They were for our Fore Brothers a source for speculation and intrigue as well as revelation; but for our club to advance, heavy religious or political programs had to give way for more acceptable entertainments.

For our time, Geometry, which deals in length (1-the primary and infinite point), breadth (2- the secondary axis at right angles to the point), and height (3-the tertiary expression of volume) has been expanded to include another eight dimensions. At the last century, science added Time (4-the fourth dimension) and described how time can vary relative to the Infinite Point or Points. But FreeMasonry has always included reminders about Time in our work. We have for us an explanation about Ringlet Counting and the knowledge that the number of our days are as blades of grass and we are as a singular flower in the field. We absorb His Grace (5-the movement of the primary) as symbolized by the Sun displayed in US jurisdictions on the Senior Deacon’s rod and nourished by the rain from the Crescent or Wet Moon on the Junior Deacon’s staff (6-movement of the secondary) to produce the wealth we find in our friendships (7-movement along the voluminous tertiary) as expressed by the Cornucopias displayed by the Stewards.

We irradiate Beauty for a moment (8-the pulse of time) as does the Junior Warden who keeps the hour to call the Craft from Labor to Refreshment and are brushed by the wind, His Breath, (9-energetic radiation/absorption along the primary), His Word as expressed by the Chaplain and the reminder of the Almighty Fiat (10-energetic radiation/absorption along the secondary) which all Great Masters know and must remind us that we must obey that as From Dust we were born to Dust we shall return; and all that will remain of us is Void (11-energetic radiation/absorption along the tertiary), the singular Master Mason assisted by the shadowy spirit (dark matter) and energy of relationships, God in Eleven Dimensions.

In our place, the Lodge Hall, we are all together and can explore these things andperhaps tough upon something of our own potential.
But in the final hour we will “find ourselves” alone before Him.

Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Secretary – Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 – Crete, Illinois
PM- Arcadia Lodge No. 1138 – Lansing, Illinois

[torence]

paul writes:
>Why is 3 degrees a landmark when it was apparently unknown in 1717 to the new Grand Lodge in London?

The Landmark list that is commonly employed was put together by Albert Pike. By the way this list was, IMHO, wrongly introduced into the Illinois Constitution in 2001. Before that, we had no list which will prove to be the better condition for the Craft.

Being put together by Pike, the common list of Landmarks (usually 25) is a Scottish Rite-Southern Jurisdiction concept. Every item on it was added to settle one political dispute or another and its use perpetuates anachronisms for us.

In the case of the 3 degree rule, Pike was attempting to decide for us that Craft Masonry does not include the Royal Arch. While the Lodge of Reconciliation (1813) picked up the Ancient’s work and for adoption, discarding most of the Modern’s influences, the Lodge of Promulgation (1815) could only exemplify so much work. The Royal Arch it was decided needed another administration and here in the US we had the York Rite and Scottish Rite organizations to house these degrees, the fourth, of course, being a continuation of the third degree.

Before the mid-1800s, in many of the US jurisdictions, the Royal Arch was done as part of the Craft Lodge experience. About 1840, the “passing of the chair” ceremony was used in many places as a “Past Master’s” degree to invest Brothers with the Past Master title who had no opportunity to govern in the small number of lodges that existed. Unfortunately in too many cases, Illinois included, the degree could be withheld by some wrong-headed Past Masters in some lodges and not bestowed on the elected Lodge Master if they were dissatisfied with his decisions or the results of an election. Because of this trouble, the Past Master’s degree which reinvests the lost word was made permanently a part of the two Rite systems.

My thinking is that as we go forward into this century, the Royal Arch should be returned to the home where it was first incubated, the Craft Lodge. Do we have any modern need for the additional York and Scottish Rite administrations? Or would it be more prudent to reincorporate the work back into the Symbolic Lodges?

Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Secretary – Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 – Crete, Illinois
PM –Arcadia Lodge No. 1138 – Lansing, Illinois

[paul]

Is the use of the broken pillar and the woman to illustrate Time peculiar to North America?

We do not use it in Australia as far as I know. It is an interesting moral adaptation of the legend of the widow Isis but may serve to veil the original.

[LorrB]

From Foster Bailey... and his book The Spirit of Masonry

The legend expressed through the Third Degree, is itself a landmark. Though it has come to us in the form of a very beautiful Jewish story, yet down the ages the general theme and outline of the presented truth, has remained unchanged – a theme of responsibility taken, of service rendered, of a choice made, a death undergone, and a final resurrection. The details of the story may vary, and the picturing of the death and its accompanying legends may, and do, alter according to age, and country and race, but the main outlines remain unchanged and the basic facts unaltered. There is no Masonic work without this third Degree. For it, the two other Degrees are preparatory, and the so-called higher Degrees are only decorative, and expansions of the symbology. The death unto life is found in some form in all the ancient Mysteries…

...

The three Degrees of the Blue Lodge also constitute a most important landmark, indicating as they do the three stages of man’s unfoldment, as well s the many triplicities to which both Masonry and the many world religions bear witness. There is something that should be remembered by all Masonry, whether of the Grand Lodges of or belonging to the A & A Scottish Rite. In both great groups the three Degrees of the EA or FC and of MM are the same; their rituals are similar except for certain unimportant verbal differences, and their procedures are identical. But differences do emerge in relation to the HRA and the Mark degree. These two degrees are not universally worked, though HRA Chapters are found all over the world. In the working of these two degrees universally there will come a closer merging and integration in the Masonic field. It should be recognised that the Mark Degree is an extension of and completes the FC degree and should be worked in conjunction with it, and that the HRA degree serves the MM degree win a similar way, completing it and carrying it forward to its logical conclusion. When this desired completion of these two degrees of the Blue Lodge is carried out everywhere, it will be seen to symbolise the integration of the two great aspects of truth, the seen and the unseen. Neither the Mark Degree nor the HRA are landmarks of the Blue Lodge.

Highlighting my contribution.

[LorrB]

The woman and the broken pillar has some wonderful symbolism... it symbolises the idea of reincarnation for me... each positive life contributing to the height of the pillar, until at last we complete it and it becomes a strong pillar of the temple (in the Heavens) and "will go out not more".

I have always thought of acacia in the same light, each small golden bauble of flower representing an individual lifetime. The trunk of the tree itself (in which Osiris was was said to have been bound) being the Soul, in which Spirit is incarcerated.

Will see if I can find an image. Would be worth a thread of it's own, I think.

[LorrB]

Bailey says that "The third Landmark is the Masonic belief in immortality, and the realization that Masons must rise into a new life and another sphere of being and of work. Through death, they can arrive at the assurance that there is no death, but only life eternal. This belief in immortality runs through the entire Masonic tradition, and finds its culmination in that mysterious and sublime Third Degree, wherein the truth as to life and death is preserved.

[paul]

>belief in immortality runs through the entire Masonic tradition, and finds its culmination in that mysterious and sublime Third Degree,

Hence it is very strange that the 3rd degree was unknown to London Masons in 1717

[LorrB]

Those who formed the Grand Lodge might have thought it prudent to introduce their members to the mysteries and priviledges of the Jewish mystical system, Kabbalah, slowly and without openly identifying the source.

Wisdom, Strength, Beauty, Three Pillars, Advancing, etc are all there and have been there for Ages.

[LorrB]

books.google.com.au/books?id=qIwM1FN24A4C&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87&dq=degrees+prior+%2B1717&source=bl&ots=JnMnmD_3wY&sig=nzOiQT55wk14isathzBxveMtu1k&hl=en&ei=cjfSTKfOCYykvgOJmaiBDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDIQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

If you are interested in this subject this book might be just what you need in your library.

[paul]

>Those who formed the Grand Lodge might have thought it prudent to introduce their members to the mysteries and priviledges of the Jewish mystical system, Kabbalah, slowly

Arguably the new Grand Lodge was actually losing knowledge. See for example the rapid decline in references to the Blazing Star.

[torence]

Fundamental to comprehending 18th Century Craft Lodge degree development is that for the Ancients (for our discussion, I am referring to the Provincial rather than the London Lodges) the understanding of the whole of man (the individual) and men (their interaction with others) was contained in the Book of Books.

Dermott’s study was wholly in the Old Testament as he laid out for the Provincial Craft a legend that Masons were Noachims, descendents of Noah. While Anderson and Desauglier worked at removing overtly Christian elements in the 1720’s and 1730’s, New Testament influences were retained in the London work up until the death of the Duke of Cumberland and the work of the Earl of Moria when politically that generation of Londoners, reacting to the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799 gave-in somewhat to the persistent influence of “The Enlightenment.”

The Old Points of the Book of Books described the degree formula in context of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. As the candidate makes his progress, he represents at different stages varying types of man. These were replaced by the New Points based upon the study of the Greek Circle of Education, Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. Unfortunately for us, our propensity for rigid execution caused us to impose restrictions on further development and those of us who are interested, like us participants here, have been left to develop the gist of these original authors on our own. Sometimes we get it right and at other times we falter.

We have been writing of pillars, whole and broken, their values and the intentions of authorship. Much information has been lost by the rewrites that have been done over the years by well intentioned Brothers who did not have the benefit of study or the original notes of the dramatists.

Here in the US, we encounter the name of the pillar that denotes “Strength” in the first degree. We also hear of a certain Brother in the Book of Ruth who plucks off his shoe and gives it to his neighbor. But the candidate meets the arresting pillars on his passage to the middle chamber in the second. It wouldn’t take CSI to figure out that some important connection has been lost to bad edits. This “Pillar of Strength” was named by Solomon for first great-great-great-great-great grandfather whose story in Ruth concludes the experience of Elemelich and Naomi. Our affection for widows and orphans is also explained in that tale. The message was commonly shared at the establishment of the first Boy’s and Girl’s Schools but is generally unknown within the Craft today.

Fraternally,
Torence Evans Ake
Secretary – Auburn Park Lodge No. 789 – Crete, Illinois
PM – Arcadia Lodge No. 1138 – Lansing, Illinois

[LorrB]

Nov 4, 2010 21:46:56 GMT 9.5 torence said:

The Old Points of the Book of Books described the degree formula in context of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. As the candidate makes his progress, he represents at different stages varying types of man. These were replaced by the New Points based upon the study of the Greek Circle of Education, Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences.

I read once that Freemasonry was formulated to gently lead man from the things of the outer world to those of the inner or spiritual realms; that nothing of a spiritual nature can be forced, one needs to learn life's lessons, apply what is learned and then be rewarded by greater insight/s.

Those Brn who are not interested in symbolism, inner worlds, etc. but who find their challenge in memorization of ritual and the perfect execution thereof, are just where they need to be at this point in their journey. The memory work, when done with right motive, is actually programming their subconscious which will facilitate more speedy 'advancement' imo (illustrated by the method of advancing in that early degree)

For those who are interested in symbolism - a study of the Twelve Tribes (and their attributes) and the Twelve Zodiacal Signs (and their attribules) and the Twelve Labours of Hercules might surprise you, or maybe not. The Brn move first to the Tribes and then to the Zodiac. As Above, so Below (illustrated by the method of advancing later?) Each is telling the same story but at a different level.

[paul]

Does the presence of the zodiacal signs in HRA tell us more about the temple(s) in the heavens than about the traditional history of the Jewish peoples?