The common line in Freemasonry goes something like…
There are two forms of Masonry, Operative and Speculative. Operative Masons build structures out of stone. Speculative Masons use the tools of Masonry to build character, and “that house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”
I think that is fine as far as it goes, but I’m not sure that it is completely correct however, and as Masons we are charged with discovering Truth, so I’d like to explore that a bit with today’s essay.
I argue that today’s ‘speculative’ Freemasons are also operative Masons in the sense that we too build.
What do we build?
We build, or create, sacred space.
We do this through our ritual.
It was vitally important to the ancients that their sacred spaces were ‘The Center Of The World.’
Properly oriented, these sacred spaces were indeed the center of the world because a line ran through them, East to West and extending forever. A second line ran through them, North to South, also extending forever. The intersection of these two lines was the center of the world. Using this theory, of course there can be, and are, more than a single center of the world, but it was important to the ancients, and it is now, that our sacred spaces are that center of the world.
For example note that the sides of the Giza Pyramids are all oriented North/South and East/West. Note also the explanations in Masonic ritual that both the Tabernacle and the Temple central to our allegory were laid out so as to catch the first rays of the rising sun in the East.
And we maintain that still today:
“A Lodge is situated due East and West, because after Moses, pursued by Pharaoh and his hosts, had safely conducted the Children of Israel through the Red Sea, he erected, by Divine command, a Tabernacle which he placed due East and West to receive the first rays of the rising sun…”
“This Tabernacle was a model for King Solomon’s Temple; for which reason all Masonic Lodges are, or should be, situated due East and West.”
-Standard Work, F&AM of Washington, emphasis added.
When we open Lodge, the directions South, West, and East are called out and their proper places noted. (North is implied.) By doing so, we are drawing those lines, the intersection of which denotes the center of our Lodge as the center of the world. Thus, by opening Lodge we are creating, building, a sacred space.
We later return that space to the profane, not I think through our closing ritual, but through the clapping and disbursement that quickly follows.
In this way I think it is fair to say that the Freemasons of today remain Operative, are still builders. Not builders of structures, but builders of spiritual, sacred, spaces within our profane world.
If this is true, then it is reasonable to ask what we are doing within that sacred space that we have created?
Do we create sacred space, then do nothing but pay the bills, read the minutes, and argue over business? If we do that, and nothing else, are we not profaning that which is sacred? Is that not sacrilege?
Is this not why our ritual demands at least some form of Masonic education at every Stated Meeting? So that something sacred actually takes place within the sacred space we’ve built?
I think that if we can realize that through our ritual we are creating a sacred space within the physical world we will start to use more care with what happens within that space. Undoubtedly and above all, Masonry should take place within that space.
MW, a very good read to remind us of our sacred spaces. Whether we’re in Lodge or our personal sacred space, the operative work we put into creating that space will determine what we receive while we’re in it.
Moses went to Egypt for study; a preparation and final Initiation into the Mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To be able to understand the Old Testament, and much of the New, it is necessary to become "Egyptianized," or baptized by the spirit of the Egyptians' knowledge of the Drama of Heaven. Their symbolic religion was for the masses; astronomical first, and agricultural second. Their creed was a combination of both life and salvation, as written and enacted in the skies.
The Greater Mysteries of the Egyptian Initiation, like all Arcane initiations, include the doctrine of the One and only, the Supreme God, but illustrating that the sun, moon and stars were minor divinities, i.e., forces. This doctrine of the ONE God was not, as so many have believed, original with the Jews, but was taught them by the Egyptianized or Initiated Moses, who tried his best, but unsuccessfully, as did the Nazarene later, to teach his people the great Mystery.
Mankind, including myself, are generally simple in their ideas and desires. As yet untrammeled by creeds, man did not depend on faith outside of themselves, but found God as the source of life and truth in the depths within himself. He learned to Know God in the love which engenders life. Some miss the point and wander in the desert, in search of what was lost, without ever finding.
(Source: Mysteries of Osiris or Ancient Egyptian Initiation. Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer. 1908)
Moses and his people were followers of Yahweh and diverted from its Egyptian roots, by confessing faith to an idea and God outside of themselves. We are told that Yahweh instructs Moses to take his people out of Egypt to worship and make blood sacrifices to him. The Pharos told the Yahwist they were not permitted to do so in the Temple, but were free to leave and practice their religion. Moses was promised by Yahweh it would just be a three day journey, where they would arrive to a promised land of milk and honey (Exodus 3:17-18). This three day journey lasted for 40 years, and they never reached the promised land of milk and honey. –Moreover, Yahweh wanted to kill all of the people that came with Moses (Exodus 32:10-14), but Moses persuades him by saying the Egyptians would point out that he (Yahweh), is a liar and a murderer.
If we are to be a school of Masonic education, we have to face, what some may perceive uncomfortable truths, we should be looking at what our ancient brothers left for us to investigate. If anyone is interested, I have written an article which further illustrates the characteristics of Yahweh (Tetragrammaton), and the wanderers who found the lost word, as illustrated by Yah-sh-weh; the center of man (Pentagrammaton). Web link: https://truthprevails.life/topics/f/pentagrammaton-1
I for one, have found when you discover the past, the darkness of the future becomes clear. Nothing is new under the sun.