‘Use Mallet, Chisel, Level, Plumb, and Square’

    

Go, work with utmost skill and loving care,

The Temple needs thy work, do all you can:

Use Mallet, Chisel, Level, Plumb, and Square,

And shape Earth’s dust to Heaven’s eternal plan.

“The Working Tools,” as found in the book Speculative Masonry by Andrew S. MacBride

My thanks to Eureka Chapter 7 in Orlando, Florida for hosting me last night via Zoom for a discussion titled “A Scottish Rite: The Mark Man, Mark Master, and Mark Master Mason Degrees.”

I received the MMM° in 1999 and am embarrassed to admit I hadn’t truly collated my perceptions, knowledge, opinions, speculations, etc. on this complicated ritual until I began preparing for this speaking engagement last year. Don’t get me wrong. Always loved the degree, but its origin and evolution, its symbols, and the ritual’s many moving parts have been compartmentalized in my mind all this time. If nothing else, I now possess a linear understanding of it. This is, after all, an elaborate degree. In my homework, I was reminded of important aspects I’d forgotten and I learned things too. Mark Man was conferred in a lodge of Fellow Crafts on Fellow Crafts. Mark Master was conferred on Master Masons. A Mark Man’s earnings were noticeably less than a Mark Master’s. Is that the source of the friction in the current ritual’s lesson on wages?

Excellent Franklin Suco and the companions at Eureka Chapter are kind to me. They flew me down for a talk on the RAM Degree two years ago and, despite that, they welcomed me back last night for this Zoom meeting. The Q&A was very brief, which could indicate I was making no sense.

Anyway, I tried to keep it all about Scotland. I began with the Schaw Statutes with their item on the book of marks; segued into the Mark Man and Mark Master degrees and what differentiated them; discussed Scottish ritual; contrasted the MMM Working Tools against Scottish EA Working Tools; examined the current MMM and FC obligations; and closed with a call for Florida Royal Arch Masons to charter their own lodges of Mark Master Masons. (I think that suggestion took root.) For context, I visited England by noting something is missing from the 1813 UGLE Articles of Union, but credited the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England and Wales; explained why so little is known of the early rituals; shared a little New Jersey history regarding Mark lodges in 1811; and occasionally got long-winded.

It may be reasonable to view the Mark Master Mason Degree as a basic working man’s degree—and I think Mark Man was—but, in its details, the MMM° is a refinement of important aspects of Craft Masonry theory. American Masons ought not think of it as a speed bump on the road toward Royal Arch. It is the entry point of what used to be called Keystone Masonry. We ought to resurrect that name.

I’ve never spoken so much on a Sunday night in my life. My voice actually grew hoarse.

(Joel, if you see this, I apologize. You had asked me to prepare something on the Mark Degree several years ago, but I couldn’t get it done at that time. If you need me, just let me know. And happy birthday!)

     

‘A Missouri compromise in Royal Arch’

    

Shop at Freemason’s Hall

Mark Master Mason jewel.

The new issue of The Royal Arch Mason Magazine tells of an innovation in membership development in Missouri that sounds promising.

Kyle R. Palacios

The reporter, none other than MEGHP Kyle Palacios, explains how the Grand Chapter, with help from the Grand Lodge, enticed Master Masons with Capitular Masonry by conferring on them the Mark Master and the Virtual Past Master degrees. No joining fees.

On fifteen occasions spanning three months, eighty-five Masons received the degrees. Another forty-four were still in waiting. Those interested in continuing through to the Royal Arch Degree were steered to their local chapters.

This provokes much thought. I believe the long-standing structure of most chapters in this country needs rehabilitation. For starters, that VPM Degree should be retired. It no longer serves the original purpose we’ve all read about, namely that it qualifies one for the Royal Arch Degree. That isn’t necessary anymore, if it ever was. Not every grand chapter includes it among the body of degrees. If I’m not mistaken, neither Pennsylvania nor New Hampshire works it (maybe others too). Outside the country, Canada and England get by without it. Retiring this degree would ease the ritual burden borne by Royal Arch chapters, allowing them to concentrate on the necessary work: conferring the RAM Degree and educating the companions on the meaning of it all.

And the Mark Master Mason Degree? Maybe this could be the start of the degree’s return to the Craft lodge, where long ago it had been a side degree. I attach much importance to the MMM Degree, so I personally would prefer a proliferation of Mark lodges that would confer it on Master Masons. Such lodges are rare in the United States. Ohio has them. New Jersey has a few. I don’t think the Masonic family tree needs expansion, but maybe General Grand Chapter could make itself useful by showing a way to reorganize the system and create a distinct Mark fraternity (again, as in England, etc.). Or perhaps chapters could become the venues where only MMM and RAM may be received.

And the Most Excellent Master Degree? Maybe that could become a special degree for chapter, the way Super Excellent Master is for the Cryptic council. Or possibly a degree reserved for certain deserving companions, such as past HPs. I can’t think of everything, you know.

What I do realize is the time for rethinking and restructuring our Capitular Rite is upon us—has been for a long time, actually. It seems to me that about ten percent of Master Masons in America are Royal Arch Masons. I’m not against exclusivity in certain areas, but what we really are seeing here is negligence. The MMM and the RAM degrees are essential to Freemasonry. New, or old, or other jurisdictions’ ideas are needed to press these tools into the hands of our lodge brethren.

The Grand Chapter of Missouri seems to be reconnoitering for a way forward, and I’m interested in hearing more about its progress, and other ideas that may be germinating elsewhere.