Why Morality?
Pondering a definition of Freemasonry
Here in Washington, right at the start of the Entered Apprentice Degree Lecture, every brand spankin’ new Mason is told that:
“Freemasonry is a system of morality, veiled by allegory and illustrated by symbols.”
I know that other Jurisdictions use a very similar definition, adding a peculiar or particular word or two here or there.
Symbols can be truly powerful things. They can communicate feelings, emotions, and knowledge almost as a form of shorthand. How could I ever hope to convey, as a writer, the feelings that the photo above would generate in a man who was at that place when the bombs fell? I couldn’t do it, no one could do it, words are inadequate to the task. But the symbol can.
Allegory makes complex lessons easy to learn. The Gospels tell us that Jesus of Nazareth largely taught using parables, simple forms of allegory. Those stories have remained with us for two thousand years, known and remembered fondly by billions of people around the world.
If Freemasonry has powerful truths that it seeks to communicate to its votaries, it certainly makes sense that it would do so through symbol and allegory. We can see why the men who developed our Craft so very long ago would have chosen these forms of communication to both veil and illustrate the lessons contained within Freemasonry.
Last night though, in our weekly Zoom gathering, Rummer & Grapes, I heard a question touching on the first phrase in the single sentence definition of Freemasonry contained in our EA Degree Lecture.
Why did the men who so long ago developed Freemasonry, choose ‘morality’ in that definition?
Why did they start there? Why not philosophy? Or hermeticism? Or enlightenment? Or a myriad of other terms?
Our Working Tools use the tools of operative masonry to teach extremely simple moral lessons. Lessons taught, or that should be taught, to children everywhere.
So, why the refresher course?
Undoubtedly Freemasonry has stood the test of time. It has thrived, throughout the world, for hundreds of years. That fact alone proves that the men who developed it, right at the start, had to be exceptional men. Smart men. Geniuses.
So why did these men place simple lessons of morality at the very heart of our Craft? Surely if they wanted it to appear impressive, they could have made a different choice.
But, they didn’t. They chose to place morality into the very definition of Freemasonry.
Why?
Let’s chat about it…
A huge Thank You to VW Andre, for giving me the idea and inspiration for this post!
To me, the answer is simple "By their actions, you shall know them." It is all to easy to over intellectualize rather that act. For me, morality is virtue in action.
I think they chose morality because morality is the pragmatic first step in making a better man, and a better world. Morality governs the person from within their own heart. Plato, in his deep and philosophical debates, tended to conclude with morality, derived from philosophical examination, and that morality was meant to guide behavior. Put differently, if our Masonic forefathers were philosophers, mystics and intellectuals, and they explored the nature of a healthy society and and enlightened person and they were able to cut to the root of those issues, then that wisdom would be communicated to the men who followed them in the form of morality, injunctions on behavior, that would guide a person until such time as they discovered the deeper wisdoms from which the morality was derived for themselves.