‘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!)

     

‘Scottish EA° Working Tools’

    

My lodge had the honor of initiating two candidates for the mysteries of Freemasonry Monday night. I’ve always enjoyed the variety shown in rituals around the Masonic world; the following example offers not only different language in defining the familiar Working Tools of the Entered Apprentice Mason, but also reveals a Working Tool unknown to lodges in the United States.

Under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, there is no single ritual promulgated by headquarters. Instead, lodges are free to customize the work. This doesn’t produce anarchy. Masons are responsible. It just means there isn’t a down-to-the-letter standardization of ritual.

What follows comes from The Scottish Ritual of the Three Degrees of St. John’s Masonry, printed by Lewis in London in 1895.

I now present to you the Working Tools of an Entered Apprentice Free Mason, which are, the Twenty-four inch Gauge, the Common Gavel, and the Chisel.

The Twenty-four inch Gauge is to measure our Work, the Common Gavel to knock off all superfluous knobs and excrescences, and the Chisel to further smooth and prepare the stone, and render it fit for the hands of the more expert Craftsman.

The Twenty-four inch Gauge is the first instrument placed in the hands of a workman, as it enables him to measure the work he is about to begin, so that he may estimate the time and labour it will cost.

The Gavel is an instrument of labour. Known to Artists under various appellations, it is still admitted by them all that no work of manual skill can be completed without its aid.

The Chisel is a small instrument, solid in its form, but of such exquisite sharpness as fully to compensate for the diminutiveness of its size. It is calculated to make impression on the hardest substances, and the loftiest structures are indebted to its aid.

But as we are not operative, but rather Free and Accepted, or Speculative Masons, we apply those Tools to our Morals.

In this sense the Twenty-four inch Gauge represents the twenty-four hours of the day,—part to be spent in Prayer to Almighty God; part in Labour, Refreshment, and Sleep; and part to serve a friend or Brother in time of need, that not being detrimental to ourselves or our connections.

The Common Gavel represents the force of conscience, which should keep down all vain and unbecoming thoughts, so that our words and actions may appear before the Throne of Grace pure and unpolluted.

The Chisel points out to us the advantages of Education and Perseverance, by which means alone we are rendered fit members of regularly organized Society. That the rude material can receive a fine polish from repeated efforts alone. From the whole we deduce this moral: That Knowledge, aided by Labour and prompted by Perseverance, will finally overcome all difficulties, raise ignorance from despair, and establish truth in the paths of Nature and Science.

I can’t locate this quotation, but it fits Aristotelian thought.