Pillars of the Portico

BFW

The 10 Sephiroth illuminate the darkness. Depending from the divine realm, they span, like a series of shelves, the spheres of the heavens. They depend from everlasting light into the darkness, that removed space where Deity wrought the creation in apparent duality.

The lowest Sephiroth is called Malkuth, the “Kingdom”. It is here the terrestrial world exists, and the perception of the pleroma reveals the majesty of the Form of the Glory of the Formless.

As above, so below. There is light even in shadow.

Malkuth has a gematria of 496. Nines are invisible in the practice of reduction, and the sum of the number of the world is 10. 10, the second set of the first. The number 1 wrought after the nine cleansings of the soul.

The decad is made in 4. Pythagoras well knew, and illuminated the principle of the emanation of the four worlds into being – the ten spheres within the 4.

The Hebrew word for “world” is Olam. The gematria of Olam is 706, which is reduced to 13, and thus to 4. Four worlds within the world.

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed by Thy Name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For Thine is the Kingdom
And the Power and the Glory
Forever and ever
Amen

The angel of the Earth is Sandalphon. The gematria of Sandalphon is 930, a number reduced to 12. 12 are the Ages under Heaven, and 12 is the revolution of the year. 12 comprises a 1 and a 2 – the unity wrought in the dual plane of Above and Below. 10 is the decad of the world, to which duality is added, and the ages of the precession mark out the bounds of eternity. The world is the axis, and the Ages are wrought from it’s turning. To the day, the world turns. To the night, the world turns.

Above it all, the Quire shines.

The Quire of the Holy Ones with dominion of the Earth are the Issim – the ascended ones. Those who, through the Mercy of God, are left ever loving Him, He who came that we may know. He who came to seek His own name. He who from His own love sprung. To Adam, the gift of speech. To the world, Adam Kadmon. To the Ages, the world must come. The gematria of Issim is 911, 9 perferctions of the soul, unity through duality. 11, the magical number – Above and Below united in the Kingdom.

The second letter int he word Issim, Shin, is the divine fire. The primordial element alive in the spirit, beholden in the lamp of the body – enclosed lest the wind of life snuff out the flame. Alef, the Ruach, that breath of life, Shin the illuminated spirit, Yod the creative power, and Mem, the waters of creation. All is in man.

To cross the water ford, the Fellow Craft must pronounce the word. The letter Shin has a double pronunciation – “shin”, the shhhh sound, and “sin” the sss sound. Those unable to frame the word aright, who said the word wrong and revealed themselves as imposters, were slain upon the banks of the Jordan.

This letter has three vertical uprights, three Yods descending into the line of the world. Three creative influxes, the Trinity descending to complete the creation. Only those whose righteous path illuminates the Path of the Saints – that Divine flashing Sword at the entrance to the Garden of Eden – may wield the sword and re-enter Paradise. Those descending through the left hand column – that piller of the left hand path – are unfledged, and remain, ever subject to the passions and the desires. They cannot cross the abyssal Jordan, and their blood flows through the river of time.

Compass thyself! Behold –
The Beauty of the Ages!
Advance thy soul to heaven in stages!
Grant in Holiness to the Holy!
Across the ground, behold the Glory!
All things in time, returning slowly
Whence they came.
All power to Thy Holy Name!
For God is Good.
Only Good remains.
All else slipshod
Pitiful
& subject to the times.

I’m here in the nation’s capital, or nearby really, as 300 Americans get ready to revel in the end of another calendar year.  And I can’t help but think to myself, what are we really celebrating?  The new year, in its modern incarnation, is really an arbitrary calendar designation.  There is nothing distinct about the time to mark a position around the Sun as a starting place – in fact the position of the Sun in the Zodiac varies by about 5 degrees depending on the year.

In astronomical terms, even while 365 days have passed since last year, the Earth was not in the same position relative the Sun this time in 2010.  That’s the secret of leap years.

A better demarkation for the orbit of the Earth around the Sun is a certain astronomical point.  In early times, and in most calendars, the year begins as the Sun ascends across the plane of the Ecliptic, whereafter the days lengthen relative the nights and life returns to the northern hemisphere.  The Vernal Equinox.

There have been many calendars employed by the human race, throughout times, and  many have coexisted simultaneously even within the same culture.  The earlier Jewish calendar, a lunar based calendar, began it’s spiritual calendar with the Vernal Equinox and its civic calendar at the Autumnal Equinox.  Over time, the civic calendar has become more well known.  And the earlier, more spiritually relevant calenndar has dropped from common usage.

But who can deny the impact of the present calendar, with its arbitrary new year, on most people?  It’s interesting to consider the Mayan calendar, with 2012 around the corner in a similar light.  The Long Count ends Deecember 21, 2012 – the Winter Solstice when the galactic center in Sagittarius aligns with the Sun.

This has got all sorts of people worried.  There have even been movies made to capitalize on the idea that the world will end simply because the “mayan calendar” ends.  But this is only one of 3 mayan calendars, and is not, strictly speaking, the “spiritual calendar” of the Mayans.

The Mayans kept 3 calendars synchronously.  A civic calendar for administering across city states coordinated the larger society.  It was started and finished annually, with reference to the Sun.  The spiritual calendar, the Tzolkin, used a numerical overlapping system of base 13 and base 22, and gave rise to the auspicious days and innauspicous days for various activities.  The Long Count was sidereally coordinated to descirbe the passing of long times (hence the long count), Ages and Aeons.

The end of the 13th baktun, then, is the “end of the Mayan calendar” as popularized to  day.  This is not as arbitrary an ending as, say, December 31, 2011; it draws a specific reference point in space wherein the movement of relative celestial bodies best demarks the passage of time.  (In fact, this is time – the distance between two events such as the Sun’s journey through the Zodiac in the Great Year of precession.)  But it is not the end of the calendar per se, rather an ending of the cycle of baktuns.  We will, next year, begin at the first baktun (the Mayans had no zero) again.

The Mayans didn’t predict the end of the world in 2012.  They merely ran out of numbers.

That said, the ending of the cycle of Baktuns is no small thing.  The long count was well correlated with the precessional cycle and, as every astral phenomena such as the passage of the lunar month or the solar year are profoundly integrated with human behavior, such a cycle is closely aligned with human growth and diminution.  There is no doubt that a great age is coming to an end.  Nor that another great age is about to begin.  Much is accelarating human dominion over the elements.  But, as is always the case, human error – the gross trapppings of ego, lust, envy, and the base ambitions – still stifle human development and make our many victories (and increasing technology) increasingly dangerous..

There is no doubt a change is coming.  Change always comes.  But the Mayan calendar does not predict the end of the world.  Only the restarting of a great cycle.  As 2011 closes in this our calendar’s stream of days, disconnected from the true astronomical year, and 2012 begins, it is a good idea to bare this fact in mind.  When one calendar closes, another one opens.  And the great dance of human error continues, with new ttrappings to exemplify its lusts and ignorances.  From the circle of the human dance, with error repeated through mortal desire, true awakening occurs and the Great Source of All the Is is witnessed, realized, and, finally, known.

(excerpts from upcoming education booklet Novo Ordo Seculoum from the MWGL of CO) by WB Ben Williams

Masonry is an ordering force for the direction of manifold wills behind a singular purpose.  Masonry is also an ordering force for the process of deliberation and the self-government of a group of men.

Masonry is united behind a common pursuit of knowledge, the ritual used to make Masons, the common experience of graduated degrees and initiation, the opening, closing, and governing of the Lodge.  Masonry represents a constant within humanity – the ability to strive to be better; the desire for understanding; the longing to be complete in God.

Masonry takes as its royal lie the allegory of the death of the Grand Master Hiram Abiff.  This collective mythos is a ready metaphor with a twofold consequence.  Firstly, it defines a common fabric for the weaving of understanding.  Secondly, it provides a common memory and binds men by common experience.

Masonry divides a society into distinct, representative, actionable sectors, able to govern themselves and unite men seeking knowledge.  We mustn’t forget, too, that Masonry is a system of improvement leading to a deeper and more profound understanding of God.  In this light, then, Masonry can be thought of as a microcosmic representation of various Divine laws operative in the world.  Masonry is governed, in its archetypal vision, by the forces and attributes of God.

It is no accident, therefore, that the Lodge is due East and West, that the principal officers take stations aligned with the passage of the solar orb – that representation of the form of the Glory of the Formless – in its course through the day and the year, nor that the Sun and Moon are mentioned in our work.  Cosmos is a shining manifestation of the Glory of God, and the Lodge aligns with this to enact and synchronize Divine operation.

The allegory of King Solomon’s Temple provides distinct archetypal allegories to understand the powers of Deity operative through creation.  A ready example is the unfinished Sanctum Sanctorum and the slaying of GM Hiram.  This says much about the state of the human soul within the bounds of creation.  A further example is the symbolic representation of the various tools of the craftsman, each, when properly applied, able to better fit us as living stones in that building not made by human hands, eternal in the heavens.

Masonry is a democratic andocracy, a small republic within the whole.  Our common need is the need for spiritual development, our enforcement is a ready obedience to God’s moral law, and our common good is the Lodge.

Our Leadership is the Worshipful Master, our legislature the Lodge under deliberation, our productivity charity and relief.  Our officers divide the brethren into workable units, and a chain of command manifests the expedient and efficient dispatch of such business as regularly comes before the Lodge.

As an organizing force, Masonry has a tremendous power.  To enable men of various faiths and perceptions to deliberate in full tolerance under the Masonic Law – which law is closely allied to the Moral Law – is indeed a potent and powerful thing.  In the wrong hands such power could be considered dangerous; and yet, unlike the powers of the State, Masonry itself checks ambition and power within her kind and gentle ways.  Masonry corrects such aberration in the human soul by virtue of her work.  Ascendancy in Masonry is rewarded only in greater service to the Brethren; our leaders remain our servants.

It is this philosophical underpinning that informs all Masonic endeavor that ultimately allies masonry with the enlightened Republic of Plato.  For Masonry is also a meritocracy, and the Brethren will choose for themselves the best, ablest men to lead them towards the perfection of their own soul.

The work of the Mason is self-improvement, true improvement is effectuated with the knowledge of God.  The knowledge of God unites men as Masons.  This is the purpose of the Lodge and, indeed, the reason for creation itself.

I was divorced at my first beginning
Broken into halves
Pressed up against the precipice
Shattered into selves
And blinded with desire.
My love is a longing fire
Devouring distance
Insatiable, empowering
The will to the Great I AM
Instant
I AM THE LIGHT
And I am man
Across the bridge in my own heart
A unity is waiting
The will of God is watching
Shadows merge in Light
At any moment
We’ve never been apart
Time is illusory
Like a crumbling wall
My return is a force to be
Nothing
Nothing, at All.

Dust upon ashes
Ashes upon stars
Throughout the endless
Forever turning
Dust alights

Ashes from sparks
Roots upon seeds
Throughout the endless
The breast is swollen
And the child delights

Growth & diminution
All things fall
Beneath the Moon
All things work
Their own solution –
From whence they came
There they return

Wheels within wheels
There’s ghosts in the forms
Shells within shells
With shadows and bells
All born of the womb

Shadows and dust
Dust upon thought
The endless streams
Inward involution
Flowering dreams
And oscitant consciousness
Dreams within dreams.

Last night at Telluride Council No. 10, a companion brought up a shocking reality. Brothers are being forgotten in their old age, and only contacted once lapsed in their dues. He raised the point that, as Masons, we should be in touch with our Brethren before they lapse.

One example he gave was a member of our Consistory who is 90+ years old, still able to drive (even at night), and financially sound. He applied for a demit not for any of the usually reasons, but because his wife had passed away two months ago, and no Brother Mason contacted him with sympathies. He feels disconnected from the Fraternity and no longer sees the point of being a Mason.  It’s sad.  But we just didn’t know.

But, Brothers, we should have known. There are other Brothers our Companion mentioned who are demitting because of their inability to attend meetings due to the frailties of age. But they shouldn’t feel compelled to demit, and we shouldn’t simply expect their dues, either, in lieu of their participation. We should make a concerted effort to include these Brothers. We should visit them in their homes and spend time with them. Masonry is about fellowship. Not about dues.

I get reminded of this in almost every Masonic magazine I receive. There’s always earnest solicitations for donations to the various foundations our Masonic families support, all of which are great and important charities. But I can’t help feeling that raising money has become more important to the Fraternity than its very members. Space is short in any magazine, and these solicitations are relentless. They crowd out other important communications that include the Brethren on the periphery, Brethren we may be forgetting about. This saddens me.

The amount a Brother can give should never be a caveat for his acceptance and honor in the Fraternity, let alone being remembered. Indeed, charity includes supporting our aged members who may feel they no longer know or recognize anyone at the various meetings they used to attend. Its incumbent on us, not them, to exercise charity, and bring Masonry to them. That’s real charity, and it should come first.  The rest is great, but we used to do all that and more without the need to spatter it across every magazine we print.  And we used to be there for each other.

I encourage you to pick up the phone and call some of your absent members.  Get in the car and stop by for a cup of coffee.  It makes a world of difference, especially this time of year.

by Rodney Johnson 33º, Commander
Gunnison Council of Kadosh
Orient of Colorado, Valley of Grand Junction

This year I have been entrusted with the duties of Commander, Gunnison Council of Kadosh.  This Council encompasses the 19^th through the 30^th degrees, the largest number of degrees assigned to any of the four bodies.

For understanding any of our Scottish Rite degrees, you must look in all places that are open to you.  In our on-going quest for more light we should all do our best to:

-       regularly attend reunions

-       read & study Morals & Dogma

-       read & study Clausen’s Commentary on Morals & Dogma (1974)

-       read & study Hutchen’s A Bridge to Light

We’ve all heard the comments of how difficult it can be to understand the writings within Morals & Dogma, but when studied together with the other sources mentioned above, the light will be forthcoming.  Try all of the methods above and then bring your remaining questions to one of our Scottish Rite meetings on the 3^rd Monday, or if you cannot make that next meeting pass your written question(s) to a brother who will be attending.

One immediate reaction might be that such an endeavor is a daunting task that might never be achieved, but as with any personal endeavor, you set the pace… try one or two degrees per month and you will surprise yourself!  Allow me to provide you, from my notes, some of my recollections of the Council’s assigned degrees.  Then determine if you recall similar items.  Let’s discuss it sometime.  Of course the notes are not intended to be all inclusive, but rather a poignant recollection and connection for the next time I find myself contemplating that degree.

19^th.  Work not only for yourself, but for others.  Do that which will live on for the benefit of others.  The word immortality -  one may immediately think of as physically, life eternal.  But, there is more than one way “not to die.”  If you but make life better for the next person, perhaps your next of kin, perhaps your whole family, perhaps your whole community, you have given or passed on a part of yourself, a part that lives on, and thus you have gained a bit of immortality. Use today to create a better tomorrow for those who follow.

20^th.  In Bridge to Light Hutchens suggests that the Master of the symbolic lodge (and certainly the presider of any Masonic entity) is to be a leader and a teacher.  His life should exemplify the path of Masonic virtue.  He states, “We should be leaders in the lodge and in the world, dispensing light & knowledge by the best method of instruction known – example.”

21^st.  In the words of Clausen, “Arrogance is a crime and humility is a virtue.  Modesty with our superiors is a duty; with our equals, a courtesy; and with our subordinates, nobility.”  Arrogance is often found in publicly proclaiming the errors and fault of others, etc.  This is most prevalent during our normal cycles of political campaigning, but it can be found during any day’s conversation.  Care should be taken to state only truths, especially in written works, which by their nature have a longer life.  This degree displays a trial between good and evil and suggests that we should trust in God to insure that good will eventually triumph over evil.

22^nd.  Hutchens indicates that Pike’s Morals & Dogma “…teaches that work is the mission of man, not a curse, but the fulfillment of life’s purpose.”  This degree uses as example the tall cedars of Lebanon and how they were harvested and for what purpose.

23^rd.  This degree introduces what is known as the ‘lesser mysteries’ with a setting in the wilderness at an encampment of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.  These mysteries were only revealed to one who was deemed worthy and well qualified.  The entrant learns that only through earnest meditation and study can he be rewarded with true enlightenment.

24^th.  In this, the first degree of the greater mysteries, we encounter the deities from the most advanced cultures and countries of the past.  It is learned that the initiation process is not only to reveal great truths but also to develop in the candidate certain desired qualities.  The degree relates the temporary victory of darkness over light, but through faith is the ultimate victory of light.  The five pointed star, with one point up, symbolizes man and the divine

25^th.  Clausen tells us that this degree, the Knight of the Brazen Serpent deals with the soul of man, the purity of which, is dependant upon repentance.  In his words, “The relentless hand that smites us is our own… he who wrongs another only, in fact, injures himself.”  We are not to be content with what we have learned or we stand to lose that which we have gained.

26^th.  This degree, The Prince of Mercy, admonishes us to respect all religion, to be tolerant of another’s beliefs.  There are great truths to be recognized as universal.  While most faiths claim theirs to be the exclusive truth, Masonry claims there to be but one universal God responsible for all things.

27^th.  Here the Knight Constans demonstrates the true attributes of chivalry by abandoning his ambitions to fly to the relief of his people when in danger.  This degree impresses on us honor, loyalty and duty.

28^th.  This degree’s setting is in the greatest of antiquity.  It indicates mans struggle in ancient times to learn and deal with philosophy and religion.  It indicates how man has always built upon the struggles of those who came before.  The exploration in Morals & Dogma is the largest of all the degrees.

29^th.  This, The Scottish Knight of Saint Andrew, is set in the day of the Knights Templar.  St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. In the words of Hutchens, “The final oratory, in addition to the associated legend, is a series of inspiring quotes from historic figures and some of the most eloquent and poetic analogies between nature, virtue and honor in any of the degrees of the Rite.”

30^th.  Clausen says, “One of the most important of the great Degrees…”  The candidate, in honoring the memory of the last Grand Master of Knights Templar, Jacques DeMolay, vows to oppose spiritual despotism and political tyranny.  The candidate is advised, “Thou holdest thy fate in thine own hands.”  Hutchens admonishes, “The great truth expressed in [this] degree is that individuals are supreme over institutions; thus this degree teaches the political truth of Masonry.  This truth… …is constitutional government which, by its checks and balances, protects the individual from the tendency of despotism inherent in all political systems.”

Remember that the notes you have just read concerning the degrees of the Council of Kadosh are my own.  They are a recollection… and right for me, unless and until I revise them due to some further enlightenment in the future.  Even the quotes from the authors are subject to our interpretation.  Perhaps down the road, a discussion with you will cause me to revise some aspect of my notes and both you and I will be better off for having had such a discussion… that is once you have developed some notes of your own.

So consider taking a little time to explore and further enlighten yourself and possibly help someone else.  And reserve in your calendar the dates of our next reunion, May 5^th-7^th, 2011.  Plan on staying for as much of it as you can (and bring your notepad).

We should never forget that Masonry is not simply a Fraternity of like minded men who like to hang out together.  It is also much more than a charitable organization.  Masonry is a verb – it is a process of coming to know oneself and the Creator more intimately.  It is a place to grow as a man, and penetrate the mysteries of philosophy to come to a higher understanding of the natural (and supernatural) laws that bind the universe together.  Then Charity is an indissoluble effect of our own studies.  Charity is not an activity of Freemasonry.  It is a result of it.

When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said. Numbers 30: 2

When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it; for He has no pleasure in fools.  Fulfill your vow.  It is better not to vow than to make a vow and not fulfill it.  Ecclesiastes 5:  4-5

These are strong words by Moses (Numbers 20: 2) and our Grand Master Solomon (Ecclesiastes 5: 4-5).  It is better not to make a vow, than to make a vow and break it.

Think about the vows you made at the altar of Freemasonry, before God and your Brethren.  Can you honestly say you have not broken even one part of any one of your obligations?  Can you even remember them enough to be sure?  True, each has an escape clause.  But as we advance in Masonry, so our responsibilities and obligations become more and more extensive.  It becomes easier to miss something, something we might not have noticed, but something we have sworn to.  A man is as good as his word.  And whether you use an escape clause or not, you know in your heart if you have bent the rules just a little to accommodate some peccadillo on your part, some laziness or inconstancy. In many ways, becoming a Mason is a vow to be a better person.

You know the context of the obligations, what they drive at, even if you twist the wording a little to excuse a minor shortcoming.

If you are a good man, then denial displaces guilt.  But this guilt redoubles unchecked, like a current gaining momentum under ice.  And your resentment at yourself exacerbates the shortcoming:  You begin to do less in service of Masonry because then Masonry reminds you of your failure.  Plenty of excuses come you your aid to help hide this fact.

If you are a bad man, you have no guilt, or fail to notice it, and the obligation you took was empty and void of purpose.  You should not have knelt before God, and, despite the ritual, your hoodwink has never been removed.  You wander in your own darkness.

This might seem a little strong, even hyperbolic.  But let’s look at some examples.  A simple, and common example, is aspersing a Brother’s good name.  The Fellow Craft obligation necessitates our fealty to one another, and speaking badly about a brother is a supplanting of his laudable undertakings.  It seems slight.  And perhaps to you his undertakings aren’t all that laudable.  Perhaps he’s slightly kooky, or can’t get the opening right no matter how hard he tries.  Nonetheless, he remains a Brother.  Once a Mason always a Mason.  To be a Mason is to want only the best for your Brothers.  To want more for them than you want for yourself.

Once a Mason, always a Mason.  Think about what that means.  If a Brother violates the law, he is still a Mason until he is expelled from the Institution.  This means visiting him in prison, if necessary, caring for his estate and family in his absence.  This means going the extra mile, in snow and hail, lightning and thunder, to meet him.  Isn’t this the context of Innocent until proven Guilty, that Masonic tenet our Forefathers (or, perhaps better put, Forebrothers) wrote into the constitution of this great country?

The effects of this are important.  Guard the West Gate.  Because any man you are not willing to stand in defense of, whose honor you would not protect at the expense of your own or, perhaps, even your very life, should not be joined with you by the vows of Brotherhood.

Masonry is a type of marriage:  A ceremony, with vows of service and fealty.  You wouldn’t marry a woman you didn’t love.  Then why make a man a Mason who you cannot honor?

Another easy thing to overlook, and perhaps the most common violation of our obligations in my experience, is slack attendance at meetings.  Of course, Masonry is not meant to interfere with our necessary vocations.  And there are indubitably times when absence is understandable. But that doesn’t mean Masonry shouldn’t remain a priority.  The choice between staying at home and drinking vodka to unwind in front of the TV after a hard day’s work, or heading out to Lodge for a long meeting into the night, is no choice at all. If the chilled bottle of Grey Goose in your freezer is more appealing to you than kindling the light of Masonry with your Brothers, you should resign your membership.  And only then stop attending meetings.

But these examples are trivial.  Being a Mason is more than attending meetings and honoring the Brethren.  I use them only as simple examples of ways Brothers forget their obligations and, in so doing, demean themselves before God and themselves.  In Roman times, the soul was said to pass before Rhadamanthus, the Judge before the underworld.  He would then ask your departed soul questions, and, of course, seeking preferment the soul might well lie.  (The prospect of an eternity in the lap of Pluto is enough to turn all but the most pious men.)  But your shadow, it is said, which is always with you throughout your mortal life, could only tell the truth when questioned, and would willingly testify against you.  Don’t forget this allegory.  What you willingly give up and disguise to yourself does remain extant and known. Deep inside – you, yourself, know it.  It is no accident that the heart is weighed by Maat in the Chamber of Truth before the gods of the underworld in the Egyptian pantheon.  Your heart knows all – indeed, perhaps it contains all.

Your obligation when made a Mason is more than simply swearing to keep the secrets of Masonry from the uninitiated.  I believe it extends contextually to the squaring of the ashlar, to the application of the Working Tools of the degrees to slough off vice and inculcate virtue. It means to walk by the plumb, stand on the level, act by the square.  If everyday is not a day of relentless self-improvement, you are failing to keep your obligation.  If you are not now reading something regarding philosophy, religion, or the history of Masonry, you should think again.  A Mason is more than a man.  Why?  Because a man will follow his instincts.  A Mason will master them.

Your obligation includes searching and tending the Masonic light.  What is it you ask for at the altar, before God?

Light necessarily shines out from the Lodge, into your study.  It fills your bookshelves and informs your speech.  It is, to quote Hermes Trismegistus, “a good clear vision.”  If meetings at your Lodge are dull or consist of perfunctorily paying bills and nibbling stale bread and swigging worse coffee, then your obligation to the Craft is to come to meetings prepared, and share Light in Masonry.  Your obligation is to quarry and there, amidst the rubbish, find something integral to that spiritual temple in which each Brother should stand as a shining stone.  You can labor for the benefit of your Brothers, and you can make the difference.  A Mason is a man of action, and that action is Craft.  Craft is labor, and labor duty.  There is no honor without duty.  Honor the Fraternity.  Do your duty.  Keep your obligation, and set about a life of constant seeking.  Seek self-improvement.  Seek knowledge of the hidden things.  Bring conversation to the Lodge.  Open up, place your lamp on high, and let your light fill the hearts of your Brothers.  You will be surprised how much shines back.

Gädieke says that, “according to the ancient laws of Freemasonry, every brother must attend his Lodge if he is within the length of his cable tow.” The old writers define the length of a cable tow, which they sometimes called a cable’s length, to be three miles for an Entered Apprentice. But the expression is really symbolic, and as it was defined by the Baltimore Convention in 1842, means the scope of a man’s reasonable ability.

Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry

“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” Hosea XI: 4

Where did the Cable Tow come from?  How did it’s use in ritual originate?  There are various hypotheses expounded by Masonic authors throughout the centuries.  All are interesting.  Some as various as the golden chain worn by Druids in Celtic rites, initiation to the Egyptian mysteries where it bespoke a tie to Amun, the hang man’s noose (and a mystical death and thus rebirth), to the mystery traditions of India and Asia where, we are told, ropes are used for similar purposes in ritual.

Perhaps all or none of these ideas (as well as a great many others, no doubt) are true.  But the origin hardly matters.  Far more important is the symbolic meaning the cable tow imparts, and this is never disputed.  Because, unlike facts themselves, symbols can have more than one meaning.  Indeed, a good symbol has many meanings, resonating around a common center to converge understanding around a common idea.  A competent symbol becomes like petals (plural intended) that lead inexorably through a series of  comprehensions to a common center:  The pistil, where the pollen alights and the seed is born.

So it is that the cable tow leads us inexorably to the obligation.  It is a bond, a binding, not just to the brethren of the Lodge who witness the event and ratify it in their differing perceptions – the tree has fallen, and there was a sound – but also before God Himself.  By wearing the cable tow I have become tied, ineluctably, to the promise to live a better life as an upright man and Mason.  I have joined myself with the words I rendered in speech.  They have touched the outside world.  They have been heard.  And the cable tow embodies them symbolically.

And yet it does also bind the brethren together.  This is, perhaps, the most common understanding of the symbol, as we promise to aid those in need, “if within the length of my cable tow.”  We promise thereby to come to Lodge, to animate the Lodge with our own flesh and blood, our very breath.  Without each member, the Lodge is dead ­– in this light the cable tow is like the sinews that connect the limbs of a larger being, of which each member is just a part.  And we promise to be of service to our brothers, to assist them.  After all, a Lodge is not the building itself. The building is just a temporary locus whereby the Lodge may be realized.  The cable tow is the manifested result – the symbolic equivalent in the tangible world – of the intangible bonds of friendship and brotherly love that make our obligation real.  We should never forget that.

We know, also, that cable tows come in varying lengths.  The longer your cable tow the greater your spirit in service of Masonry.  This length needn’t be restricted to the physical plane (although that is certainly part  of it).  As we progress in Masonry more is said of the cable tow, in some degrees it is given a definite length, but also certain conditions.  How far would you walk, barefoot and broken, to relieve a brother suffering?  Would you risk your very life?

To wear the cable tow says “Yes, I will.  You can rely on me.”  It says, “I make Masonry, and my Brothers, a priority.” These things, then, are also part of this “length”.  It is a type of commitment, as well as a journey.

These rituals may seem hokey in the modern day, but we can conceive of a time when their message was imminently pertinent.  Three miles without a car, in snow, with leather shoes not sealed to the elements such as we enjoy today, was a lot farther then.  The road beset by bandits…  The tyranny of the nobles….  The hypocrisy of the church….  Behind each corner on this road out of the past hid assemblies absolutely deadly to the aspirant.  (Not so today, although the road is still beset by pitfalls perhaps all the more deadly because they appear so benign.  While not as imminent, perhaps, the ritual remains, at least in my mind, entirely relevant.)

We learn in the EAº that the cable tow can be used by the conductor to lead the candidate out of the Lodge should he refuse to submit to the forms and ceremonies of the initiation.  So there is also an important element of protection and secrecy in its symbolism.  It almost says, only the pure of heart can survive the hangman’s noose.  The mortality of its symbolism shouldn’t be neglected – the obligation is couched in mortal terms, breaking it means death.  This “stronger tie” is what replaces the cable tow.  Only then is it removed, with the former conditions noted by the Master.  Now the invisible idea has been wrought.  Its symbol here in the material world is no longer necessary, it is sloughed off like chaff from the seed.

The cable tow, then, is obviously a symbol of  bonding.  Like the Vincula of the medieval sages, used to intend bonds that unite all things in the great chain of sympathies that connects all beings, the cable tow is a material representation of an archetypal process.  In the older days people believed that to form correspondences in the archetypal world; the world without bodies, that subtle, invisible world, where the godforms blaze in firelight; it was necessary to use action (a combination of precedent will and physical form) to symbolically render, in time and space, a corresponding meaning.  Thus, the power of images was heralded as the seeds of the magical arts.  An intended arrangement of actions, that brings disparate objects to a common place to define a paramount meaning, clothe that meaning and birth it.  They give it form.  The gross bodies of the material world strike like strings; it’s from here the invisible music is wrung.

Think of the material world as a vase. It merely partitions space. Air surrounds the vase.  Air fills it.  Yet the vase is what separates an outside from an inside.  How else can the flowers be held up?  All dissipates and merges in Oneness.  But with form comes purpose.  With purpose comes life. And with life comes meaning.  The cable tow is this form.

How long is your cable tow?  There can be no honor without duty. The length of your cable tow is the sum total of your duty.  By it alone is honor rendered to the Fraternity.  Perhaps service is rendered in bondage.  And yet it is this bondage that sets us free.