By
Robert G. Davis, K.
Y. C. H.
In actuality, the
symbolic lessons are of major import and lead credence to the admonition that
the degree should be taken seriously by the Chapter. Certainly, it should be conferred free from
any horseplay or harassment, sometimes wrongly given license here because of an
obvious oversight of one whose experience in lodge administration might
otherwise call for at least a mild reprimand from those companions of his lodge
who have passed the chair themselves.
Historically, the Past Master Degree entered the system of Freemasonry to facilitate the growing popularity of the Royal Arch during the mid-18th century era. The Grand Lodge of the “Ancients” regarded a Lodge Master as more than the chairman, or presiding head, of the lodge. He was considered a fellow superior to his junior brethren. Being installed as a Master, he had passed through an esoteric ceremony of distinction, making him a man of a definitely higher grade. In many lodges, the Master’s Word was only given to those who became Masters of their Lodges. The Mark Master Degree is believed to have been worked in England shortly before the establishment of the Third Degree in 1725. The “Ancients” refused to confer the Royal Arch Degree upon any brother who had not passed through the oriental chair, insisting that such a man was simply not good enough to be a Royal Arch Mason.
The “Moderns,” on the other hand, had no formal ceremony of officer installation prior to the 1750s and were generally quite content with a man becoming Master of the lodge simply by assuming the chair. In fact, the earliest record of an “Installed Master’s” ceremony in a “Moderns” lodge is found in the Minutes of the Anchor and Hope Lodge of Lancashire on November 30, 1769. While it is known that many lodges began working a ceremony of installing their Masters during the latter half of the 18th century, the Premier Grand Lodge did not sanction such ceremonies until the “Ancients” and “Moderns” began working out their ritual differences shortly before the Union of 1813. From a practical
point of view, with the rise in popularity of the Royal Arch Degree and with
the assigning of the government of that degree to Chapters rather than Lodges,
the rule that a candidate had to be an installed Master became unworkable. A system was therefore devised which would
allow a man to “pass the chair” of Worshipful Master without having actually
served in that capacity. He was made a
“Virtual Past Master.” This ceremony,
while distinguishing him as someone different than that of an “Actual Past
Master,” eventually found its form in what we know today as the Past Master
Degree.
In the United
States, the degree is conferred under the jurisdiction of Chapters of Royal
Arch Masons as a grad to qualify a Mark Master Mason to receive the Royal Arch
Degree, or the degree of Most Excellent Master.
The ritual working of the American Past Master can be traced as early as
1783 in Pennsylvania, some 30 years after the first working of the Royal Arch
Degree in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Coincidentally, the earliest record of the Mark Master Degree was the
same year (1783) in a “Mark Lodge” in Connecticut. The inclusion of the Past Master Degree as a
requirement in the York Rite system was tenable up to the 1850s, when the
General Grand Chapter finally concluded the degree was important enough to be
practiced throughout, with its working falling under the jurisdiction of the
Grand Chapter.
In the degree of
Past Master we find a Mark Master ready to assume the Oriental Chair of King
Solomon, his qualifications being that he has been elected to preside over a
lodge of Past Masters. He is given
entrance without alarm, dressed as a Master Mason, and obligated in due
form. He is then conducted to the east
and invested with the jewel, crown, and a gavel of a Symbolic Lodge Master, and
given a charge to care for the properties of the lodge. Once invested, the lodge forms parallel lines
on both sides of the altar for the purpose of honoring the newly installed Past
Master. As everyone then takes their
seats, the lights are removed from the altar and the newly anointed one is
asked to proceed with the usual order of business as the presiding officer of
the lodge. When his work is completed,
the candidate is ordered to surrender his jewel and gavel and is removed from
the Oriental Chair an placed in the northeast corner of the lodge to receive
the lecture. Here, he is informed that
the property of the lodge was missing and is admonished that Masonry could not
exist without the three Great Lights on the altar; just as a man cannot be a
Mason without regard for their guiding influence in his life. He is then once more reminded of the
significance of the Sacred Law, taught to guard it as the fundamental rule of
living, and informed that he is now a Past Master.
Symbolically,
there are several points one can easily observe. First, the candidate enters the lodge without
alarm. The reason for this is that he
has already been initiated, and having symbolically served as Master of his
lodge, he has already prepared himself to be made a Past Master. One is not initiated to the degree of Past
Master; he is inducted to the Oriental Chair and elected to the honor by his
peers. He is given a peculiar grip which
symbolically implies that “three” is stronger than “two” and alludes to the
three planes of a man’s being – the physical, mental, and spiritual. The three-fold cord has the same symbolism;
it is not easily broken because it represents the whole man.
The jewel of the
office is the square, which is the emblem of the material world and figures
interestingly into the symbology of the right triangle as a representation of
the complete man. The Master’s hat, or
crown, symbolizes that the candidate is the “anointed one” of the lodge given
the right to lead. The gavel is an
emblem of authority, but in the text of this degree, it alludes to a man’s
authority over himself. It is within
each man’s power to shape his life by such deeds and actions so to lead him to
self-improvement. Further, the lodge of
Past Masters is dedicated to the Saints john.
The word “John” comes from the Hebrew “Jochonan” or “Yochonan,” which
means “favored of G-d.” Thus, the lodge
as used here refers to a state of existence rather than a place. It is a state of completeness of being, and
symbolically alludes to what was lost in the Master Mason Degree, and to that
which we seek in our quest for the “True Word.”
The Past Master
Degree is also a degree very much connected with moral geometry. In the symbolic structure of Ancient Craft
Masonry, the Blue Lodge represents a line, whose number is three. It forms the foundation of learning and
understanding. The Chapter represents
the square whose number is 9, or 3 x 3.
The Council represents the cube, in which we find 3 x 9, or 27, which
forms the cube and comprehends the whole of Ancient Craft Masonry. This same symbology can be found in the
Middle Chamber of the Fellowcraft Degree, where the candidate is told of the
point, line, superficies, and solid. In
the journey of the initiate from Symbolic Masonry to the Royal Arch, through
the three degrees of Mark Master, Past Master, and Most Excellent Master, we
behold the outlines of a cube. Here it
represents the attainment of perfection.
In applying this
idea to our candidate, we see the Mark Master as an individual working in the
quarries, shaping the rough ashlar of his own possibilities into the perfect
ashlar of individual improvement. The
Past Master then, in presiding, provides the second dimension of one’s role in
participating in the progress of self and society. His position gives him both length and
breadth, forming the mathematical square.
One should be a Past Master of the Art of Masonry in the highest sense so he may be eligible to receive the sublime degree of the Royal Arch. It is for this reason that every Chapter should make it possible for the candidate to acquire an intimate knowledge of Masonry. After all, one cannot be initiated a Past Master; he is inducted into the Oriental Chair as a distinguished honor of his supposed understanding of the responsibilities of a Master – the responsibilities of learning Masonry and assisting others to learn.
The Past Master
Degree is also the fifth degree in Ancient Craft Masonry. The number five is symbolic of union. We are also told that the color of the degree
is purple, which is that of the second veil.
Purple is a combination color between blue and scarlet, those showing
the connection of Symbolic Masonry and the Royal Arch Degree. The Past Master Degree then becomes the point
of union, or apex, between Symbolic Masonry and the Royal Arch.
The number five
also figures particularly in the advancement of Masonry. Again, in the Fellowcraft Degree, we have 3,
5, and 7 steps leading to the Middle Chamber.
The first three represent the first three degrees of Masonry. The fifth degree of Past Master s logically
the fifth step to the seventh degree of Royal Arch. The number 5 further alludes to geometry, the
fifth of the liberal arts and sciences, giving the Past Master a peculiar
relationship to this moral science. It
is interesting to note that the number five is the hypotenuse of a right angle
with the sides of three and four. There
are three degrees in Symbolic Masonry; four in the Chapter. A full and complete comprehension of these
would make the Past Master (representing the number 5 or the union) a real
adept in Craft Masonry. And, of course,
in Masonry, the right triangle represents the complete man, striving ever
upward to perfection. This symbology
represents man’s evolution from his physical to his spiritual being. The horizontal line can be thought of as the
lowest plane of purely physical existence and we “travel upon that level of
time” in search of our human soul, which is represented by the perpendicular
line. It is joined to the horizontal by
the “perfect angle” – a right angle, described as an angle of “ninety degrees
or the fourth part of a circle,” analogous to the perfect union of the mental
with the physical to form the complete man, composed of body, mind, and spirit.
This complete man
is the Master Mason, ready to develop himself.
The labor he is called to perform is to be Worshipful Master of his
lodge, which is himself. As such he
wears the jewel of his office, a square, or fourth part of a circle,
representing the above-mentioned union.
Our candidate, advancing through the degrees of the Chapter, represents
the complete man not yet perfected. But,
as a Past Master, he is divested of the square and invested with the triangle,
a compass opened to 60 degrees, a symbol of the perfect man. He has completed his work in the lodge and
will not pass this way again. He is now
working at different labor – developing himself as a spiritual being.
The Past Master
Degree then is essential to maintaining the integrity of the whole of the
Chapter system of degrees. In fact, to
not confer this degree would, in essence, destroy the symbolism of the number
five in the masonic sequence of 3, 5, 7, and 9, and would undermine the hidden
truths which may be contained therein.
Like all other
degrees of Masonry, it is indeed a degree with more meaning than form.
(Reprinted from The Royal Arch Mason, Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2000, pages 3 - 6)
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