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.He feels the touch of a sharp instrument; his flesh is pricked toremind him of the torture to which it may put him, and that he must neverthelesspersevere with the work to which he will dedicate himself.He is instructed in theconduct of life, always with his work as the end in view.He calls on God, his TriuneSelf, to witness his obligation and gives his pledge to preserve himself inviolate to thework.To continue his work he needs more light, and he declares that that which hemost desires is light.The symbolical hoodwink or blind is removed and he is broughtto light.At birth into the world the cord is severed.Likewise when the Apprentice isbrought to the light, which is the new tie, the cable-tow is removed.Then he is told that the Bible, the square and the compass, on which he has taken his obligation andto which he has dedicated himself, represent the three great Lights.The three lightedcandles, he is told, represent the three lesser lights: the sun, the moon and the Masterof the Lodge.If the Apprentice keeps his obligation, and does the work, he learns, by thesesymbols, as he advances, that he receives the Word of God, the Light of lights,through his knower.He learns that as the compass describes a line equally distantthroughout from the point around which it is drawn, so the mind, according to itslight, keeps the passions and desires in bounds which are measured by reason and areof equal distance from rightness, the center.He learns that as the square is used todraw and prove all straight lines, to make two lines at right angles to one another andto unite horizontals with perpendiculars, so by himself as the doer all feelings anddesires are made straight, are put in the right relation to each other and are united witheach other.He will learn, after he is raised, that the three great Lights are verily symbols ofthe three parts of his Triune Self; that the Bible, or sacred writings, which is symbolicof his knower, which is Gnosis, is the source through which he must get Light; andthat instead of the points of the compass being under the square they must be over itfor him to get that Light, that is to say, rightness, the right point, and reason, the leftpoint, of the compass, must set bounds to feeling, the right line, and to desire, the leftline of the square.He will learn that there are connected with him, at present, only two of the greatlights, the Bible and the Compass; that the points of the square are above the compass;that is to say, his feeling and desire are not controlled by his rightness and reason, andthat the third Light, the square, is dark, that is, the Light does not reach his feeling-and-desire.The third Light was shut out at the destruction of the first temple; it ispotential only and will not be an actual Light until the temple is rebuilt.The three lesser lights, the sun, the moon and the Master of the Lodge symbolizethe body, feeling-and-desire, and their minds.The lodge is the human body.The lightfor the body, that is nature, is the sun.The moon reflects sunlight.The moon isfeeling, on which are reflected the objects of nature by the body, which ispersonalized nature and is the servant of outside nature.The third light is the Master or desire, and he ought to endeavor to rule andgovern his lodge, that is, the body.The body-mind should be used to govern the bodyand its four senses; the feeling-mind should govern itself, and the desire-mind as theMaster should govern itself in the coordination of the feelings and the control of thebody.The Apprentice, as he advances, receives the signs, grips and words, by which hecan prove himself or another, in the light or in the dark, and among those not Masons,according to the degree of his light in Masonry.He learns to walk as a Mason should,on the square.He receives a lambskin, or white apron, a symbol of his physical body.He whowears the lambskin as a badge of a Mason is thereby continually reminded of thatpurity of life and conduct which is necessary.The apron clothes the pelvic region andis a symbol that that should be kept clean.It refers to sex and food.As he grows inknowledge he should preserve the body not in innocence, but in purity.When he isable to wear the apron as a Master Mason should, the flap which may be anequilateral or a right-angled triangle, hangs over the square with the corners down.The apron as a square symbolizes the four elements of nature working in the fourfoldbody through its four systems and the four senses.The triangular flap stands for thethree parts of the Triune Self, and the three minds as substitutes for the Triune Self. They are above the body or not entirely in the body in the case of the Apprentice, andwithin the body or fully embodied in the case of the Master.When asked to contribute to a worthy cause the Apprentice finds he is penniless,unable to do so, naked and an object of charity.This is a reminder to aid those whomhe finds in life and who are in need of help.The scene should make him feel that he isnothing more or less than what he is as a man; that he should be judged by what he isand not be valued in terms of dress, possessions, a title, or money.He is then allowed to reclothe himself; he puts on his apron and is taken beforethe Master of the Lodge who directs him to stand at his right hand and tells him thathe is now an upright man, a Mason, and charges him ever to walk and act as such.Asa Mason, he must have working tools.He is given the working tools of an Apprenticewhich are the twenty-four inch gauge and common gavel.The gauge is the symbol of masculinity.It has to do not only with the hours butwith the span of life.The gauge is the rule of life and the rule of right.The first thirdis for the Apprentice when he should, as the masonic ritual has it, remember hisCreator in the days of his youth.This is the service of God, by not wasting thecreative power.Thereby he fits himself to follow his masonic work in the seconddegree as a Fellow Craft.He then is rebuilding his body, the temple not made withhands.The last third is for the Master Mason who is refreshed by the conserved powerand is a master builder.The gavel is said to be an instrument which operative masons use to break off thesuperfluous corners of rough stones to fit them for the builder's use, but with thespeculative Mason the gavel stands for the force of desire which should be used withthe gauge, or rule of right, to remove inherited inclinations and vices, so that each lifeof the Mason may be shaped into and become a living stone, a perfect ashler, in thefinal temple of the Triune Self.His first life, that in which he becomes an Apprentice,is said to be a corner stone, from which a super-structure of an immortal physicalbody is expected to rise.The Apprentice declares that he has come into Masonry to learn to subdue hispassions and improve himself in Masonry.It is the profession of his purpose.He isasked how he will know himself to be or how he may be known to be a Mason, and hedeclares that he will do it by certain signs, a token, a word and the perfect points ofhis entrance.The signs, he says, are right angles, horizontals and perpendiculars, which mustbe parallel.These signs mean more than how he shall step or hold his hands or posehis body [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]