more light #325
Stories & Allegories
by Ed Halpaus
Grand Lodge Education Officer
Grand Lodge of A. F. & A. M. of Minnesota
Allegory = a story with a hidden meaning – typically a moral or political
one.
Fable= a short story conveying a moral
Parable = a simple story – to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson[1]
The legend of the third degree is such a story: An allegorical story, while
not always accurate to any history, (political or scriptural,) is yet true –
true in the same sense of many of the illustrative stories we might read in
Shakespeare, Aesop, or in the Great Light are true, because they convey a
message of truth and importance.
Instead of dismissing the third degree and its legend as so much necessary
ritual to be endured in order to become a Master Mason, a voting member of a
Lodge, (which, by the way, is obtained after the new Master Mason signs the
Lodge by-laws,) the Master Mason and his mentor will be taking steps in the
right direction when he studies the degree to gain knowledge of the lessons of
truth contained in the different allegories (short stories) contained within the
degree; the allegories within the degree can offer great insight to the Masonic
Student, which will help him become the better man he came into Masonry to learn
to be.
Any Mason who may wonder what there is to study in freemasonry needn’t look
any further than the work, the lectures, and the charges of our three degrees.
It has often been said, and it is a true statement, that the first step into
Masonic Education is our degree work.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that because it’s the first step that it’s
elementary – too elementary to spend time on: it’s not! Most serious Masonic
students and scholars study the three degrees of the Blue Lodge throughout their
lives. You can spend many hundreds of hours in pure enjoyment studying the truth
that can be found in our degree work.
In case you might wonder; the degrees in the Rites are expansions of the
legend of the third degree, so if you get into the allegories and truth of those
degrees – you will be learning the great truths they contain. This is true with
every part of every degree including the Hiramic legend of the third degree.
One of the great things about freemasonry is that there is never shortage of
important things to learn, to write about, to teach the brethren in your lodge,
as well as the young brother you may have the pleasure to mentor.
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