Broken Working Tools?
Contemplating misuse
I encountered the following words from Rosicrucian, Harvey Spencer Lewis:
“Man may create a perfect piece of machinery, and if it is misused, or it is is allow to be neglected or injured, it will cease to be the perfect thing it was or could be.”
The context of his words, as I understand it, is an argument that we are all created with everything we need or could want in order to reach a state of perfection. But, we misuse, break, or neglect many of these things, these ‘tools’, given by the divine, and from that they can not be used in such a way as to bring perfection.
It speaks, to my mind, as to why and how evil exists in our world. And it relates to the Checkered Pavement on our Lodge Room floor.
It also really makes me wonder about our Masonic Working Tools.
These objects, these tools, symbolize really important lessons in my view. Lessons that, if we apply them properly, can surely go along way towards helping us lead a proper and good life.
But, I’ve seen one of our Working Tools misused in the past.
A Brother was doing something I considered to be quite strange. I asked him why. He explained to me that it was because of a lesson he learned while contemplating one of our Working Tools.
His interpretation of the symbolism of the Tool was clearly a misinterpretation.
In general though, how do we know?
How do we know that we are properly interpreting and using our Masonic Working Tools?
That we are not breaking them, misusing them, or neglecting them?
How do we ensure that they remain sharp, straight, and ready for our use?
Surely one of the ways that we can do this is by discussing our interpretations of them with other Masons. I would argue that for the Worshipful Master wondering about Masonic education in his Lodge, such a discussion might be extremely well received.
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MWB Bailey, I have found in life that there seems to be two ways in which to dangerously apply tools, literally, and metaphorically.
The first of which is to use a tool improperly, and the other is to fail to use it at all. I am curious about your article as to what the circumstances are, and which of these applies, though I understand the need to apply discretion.
MWPGM BAILEY,
"IF I HAD A HAMMER,
I'D HAMMER IN THE MORNING ..."! What Masonic Working Tool was misused? My dad suspended a Masonic Lodge of WV State Policemen, when they were applying a *setting maul" too hard on candidates! Hmmm...