Not something I spend a lot of time talking about really, since I believe the spiritual aspect of a person isn’t something which needs to be blarted about all over the place.
My beliefs are my beliefs and your beliefs are yours, to inflict mine onto you or vice versa would be to express a lack of respect in each others most personal thought processes.
Anyway, I’m not pushing anything here, simply expressing my pride and pleasure in what is to me both an achievement and a challenge for the year ahead. You see, last month, the new Master of Hextoldsham Freemasons Lodge, No. 5577, of which I am an active member, asked me to take on the role of Junior Warden of the lodge.
My new occasional chair within the lodge. Surprisingly, it isn't as comfortable as it looks.
For the non-freemason, there are three secondary officers within a freemasons lodge and three principal officers. There is also another official position which curiously, is generally occupied by a freemason who is not a member of the lodge in question.
That curious position is known as the Tyler, or Outer Guard.
The three secondary officers of the lodge are – in order of rank – Inner Guard, Junior Deacon and Senior Deacon.
The three principal officers are – again, in ascending order of rank – Junior Warden, Senior Warden and Master of the Lodge.
Taking a position as one of the principal officers in the lodge is a fairly important step for any freemason, since it places him within two years of becoming Master himself.
It’s known as the promotion ladder. As soon as you take up a position in the lodge, you have your feet on it, but when you get to one of the Warden’s seats, you are starting to get to the pointy end.
The Junior and Senior Deacons have fairly active roles within the temple itself, leading candidates around on a prescribed course, assisting the candidate with various parts of ritual and ensuring the candidate doesn’t trip over himself. More to it than that of course, but thats a rough description.
The Wardens on the other hand have been through the Deacon’s positions and are expected to be able to perform large tracts of sometimes complex ritual from memory, delivering it in a confident manner and ensuring everyone in the room can hear it.
The Master however has the most difficult and complex pieces of ritual to learn. A lot of it doesn’t flow particularly well, either on the page or off the tongue and can be a real challenge to commit to memory.
When it all comes together though, the various degrees and the rituals which surround them can come together in a very thought provoking way, which is in its most concentrated form, the essence of what freemasonry is all about.
You might hear people describing freemasonry as a religion. It very definitely is not. I would have great difficulty in subscribing to it if it were.
Freemasonry doesn’t distinguish between any of the world’s organised religions when it comes to membership. I have a running debate between myself and some other freemasons as to whether followers of some of the animistic religions would be permitted entry, but on the whole, the consensus even to that question is “Yes, they would”. The reason they would is because most belief structures have at their heart a central creator being of one type or another. That is all freemasonry requires.
Does that make me a creationist?
No, it doesn’t, I’m an amateur astronomer/scientist. For me to be a creationist would be ridiculous.
I can’t really express how I’ve managed to square this aspect of myself away with my passionate belief in the scientific process, except to say that I have and I’m honest enough within myself to be happy with it.
The best I can do is to say this: I believe Mankind (and that includes Womankind as well) cannot exist on a purely physical level. There has to be a spiritual level to him as well. That spiritual level most certainly does not have to be dictated by any of the myriad of organised religions such as the Roman Catholic, Protestant or Islamic organisations out there. Equally certainly, it is not subject to having the belief structure imposed on it by some frothing fanatic who bullies a person on the street or even worse, a persons front door.
To me, the spiritual aspect defines how a person works within his conscience. It defines the sense of right and wrong as well as when the rights and wants of an individual must bow to the rights, wants and needs of the society the individual exists within.
On Wednesday night, I will be taking part in a First Degree ceremony, where our lodge initiates a new member into its ranks. Taken as a whole, the ritual is demanding, complicated and thought provoking. My part of it as Junior Warden will partly be to deliver the following small piece of ritual, which serves well to state what freemasonry stands for on a personal level.
I’m not giving up any secrets by posting this. It is called the Working Tools of an Entered Apprentice Freemason.
I now present to you the working tools of an entered apprentice freemason. They are, the 24 inch gauge, the common gavel and the chisel.
The 24 inch gauge is to measure our work, the commen gavel to knock off all superfluous knobs and excrescences and the chisel to further render it fit for the hands of the more expert craftsman.
But, as we are not all operative masons, but rather free and accepted or speculative, we apply these tools to our morals.
In this sense, the 24 inch gauge represents the 24 hours of the day, part to be spent in prayer to the almighty god, part in labour and refreshment and part in serving a friend or a brother in time of need, without detriment to ourselves or our connections.
The common gavel represents the force of conscience, which should keep down all vain and unbecoming thoughts which might obtrude during any of the aforementioned periods so that our words and actions may ascend unpolluted to the throne of grace.
The chisel points out to us the advantages of education, by which means we are rendered fit members of regularly organised society.
Freemasonry is really a personal journey, taken in the company of people you are happy to call your brothers.
He frightens me at times.
