The Hidden Secret of Our Masonic Ritual
Here’s another question that has recently come in:
I was Raised to Master Mason two weeks ago and wanting some books to read to gain further knowledge. I really don’t have any desire to learn positions in blue lodge as I rather gain a deep learning of all the symbols and lessons of blue lodge. Moreover I’d rather learn/ get the idea of things then memorize if that makes sense. I’ve read through freemasonry for dummies but I am wanting to read as much as I can. As an aside Iam joining York and Scottish soon.
What makes this question so great to discuss is that it highlights three key mistakes this Brother is making with his Masonic education, but also higlights that he also is missing a crucial secret of our ritual.
Let’s take a look at the first mistake, and it’s not reading Freemasonry for Dummies.
The first mistake this Brother is making is falling into the trap that most masons do, by believing that progressive office is just about learning to memorise the ritual and then perform it. But why is that actually a mistake?
Since our Brother is wanting to pursure the other orders of the York and Scottish Rite, there is one “degree” that this brother is missing that is important for him to have taken in order to get the most out of those other orders. Now, this degree isn’t really a degree, rather it’s more like half a degree, well technically it’s a third of a degree from when we used to have just apprentice and fellowcraft.
It’s called the “Inner Working” of the Third Degree, we know it as the Ceremony of Installation. This ceremony gives us a critical part of the story which allows a number of things in those other orders to actually make sense.
The only way to take this ceremony is to become the Master of your Lodge, and that’s going to require taking progressive office. But feeling like you have to do this can create another trap that many fall into. In the “York Rite”, known as Mark & Royal Arch in order to take the Chair and complete the story, you have to have be an Installed Master in the Craft. This now leads you to missing out on two key ceremonies that are critical to giving you the Masonic knowledge you are actually seeking to discover.
You may be inclined to make peace that it’s just two ceremonies or chairs that you will skip or get to later on. But, if you really want to gain a deep learning of all the symbols and lessons of the Craft, and I’m sure you will want to do the same for the York and Scottish Rites as well, then you need to avoid the second big mistake you are making.
Let’s deconstruct this question a little further.
Right now, you are feeling a little lost as to where to go and what Masonic knowledge should you start to get around the symbols— hence your open ended question around what books to read. If only there was only something to give you a structured and guided curriculm of what to study, and how to pursure that learning in a progressive manner, just as we are told that masonry is a progressive science.
Well that’s the mistake, thinking that such a curriculm doesn’t exist, because it does and it’s hiding in plain sight— this is what we called “veiled in allegory”.
The reason why it’s called progressive office, is because it’s progressive. Every office, just like each degree gives you a progressive and specific curriculm of symbols and allegories to study.
Indulge me for a moment, open your First degree book, and just read the Inner Guards work in the ceremony. Then, open your Second and Third degree books and do the same. Did you see what was hiding in plain sight?
Congratulations you have just read the entire curriculumn of the first year of a 6 year Masters Degree in the Symbolism and Allegories of Craft Freemasonry.
What.
Yes.
Here is how it works.
In the ceremony, you as the Inner Guard have just been given the first level of symbolism you need to understand. If you don’t go down the path of understanding this basic level of symbolism first, but rather take an unstructured approach, such as reading symbolism & allegories from all over the place, then you end up missing out on being able to connect and understand the relationships and meaning from each of the different symbols.
Here’s an example. Why are we First prepared to be made a Mason in our Heart? Well, if you don’t understand that, then things like the North East Charge, Sign of Fidelity, plus more, will just be surface level lessons.
What this all means is you won’t get the full picture of the symbols or the full story of the allegories; and you won’t discover the secrets & mysteries they are trying to teach, thus missing out you won’t end up with the deep learning that you want to get.
That’s the crucial secret of our ritual and ceremonies. They give you the instruction, the process and the warnings— but you just have to look at the ritual, and study it in order to discover this secret.
Now the only way have actually discovered that secret is to not make the third mistake, which is thinking progressive office or studying the ritual is just about memorisation.
In 1956, Educational Psychologist developed a system of congnitive learning which we know as Blooms Taxonomy. It’s the standard of how you learn and master anything, and I mean truly master anything.
The first level of Bloom’s taxonomy is knowledge. Being able to recall facts and basic concepts. You won’t understand what they mean, because you’ve just memorised them. This is why I can see your issue with Progressive Office, thinking its just memorisation, well, truth is, that’s the trap we’ve fallen into in Freemasonry and it’s what stops us from receiving the real Masonic light.
There are 6 levels of Blooms taxonomy and if you want to master anything and form a deep learning, then you need to go through all six of those levels. Kowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation.
But to achieve these 6 levels, you need to do it in a structured way, that’s where that curriculmn of progressive office I mentioned earlier comes in. You give yourself a year to develop all of those levels of learning for a limited number the symbols and allegories across each of the parts of the degree ceremonies your office performs.
And when you do this, and you actually follow the progressive way the ritual is structured, then as you progressive you will be able to connect the lessons from the symbols and allegories you’ve previously learned to enrich your learning of the ones you are then studying.
And that my brother is the hidden secret of our Masonic ritual. Veiled in the very allegory and symbolism of itself, and it’s why you should go through progressive office.
It’s how you avoid making those three mistakes, which are:
Missing out on two key ceremonies, the Installations, which are critical to the gaining the full light Craft and York Rites.
Not following a structured and progressive curriculmn which progressive office gives you,
Thinking that taking office is just about memorising and performing ritual—
Making these three mistakes will not only stop you from getting a deep learning of Craft Freemasonry, but also set’s you up to repeat the same mistakes when you do both the York Rite and Socttish Rite; and ultimately, you end up wasting all this time and effort that will leave you unfulfilled in your masonic knowledge.