MASONIC DEGREES
There are three, called Entered
Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. As you can see, the names are taken
from the craft guilds. In the Middle Ages, when a person wanted to join a craft,
such as the gold smiths or the carpenters or the stonemasons, he was first
apprenticed. As an apprentice, he learned the tools and skills of the trade.
When he had proved his skills, he became a "Fellow of the Craft"
(today we would say "Journeyman"), and when he had exceptional
ability, he was known as a Master of the Craft.
The degrees are plays in which the candidate participates. Each degree uses
symbols to teach, just as plays did in the Middle Ages and as many theatrical
productions do today. (We'll talk about symbols a little later.)
The Masonic degrees teach the great lessons of life -- the importance of
honor and integrity, of being a person on whom others can rely, of being both
trusting and trustworthy, of realizing that you have a spiritual nature as well
as a physical or animal nature, of the importance of self-control, of knowing
how to love and be loved, of knowing how to keep confidential what others tell
you so that they can "open up" without fear.
Let's examine first each degree that is part of the Blue Lodge -
also known as Symbolic Degrees.
Entered Apprentice
Fellowcraft
Master Mason
back to top
|
