Peculiarities of the E.A. Degree

Presented by W. Bro. Vincent Lombardo at Cathedral Lodge No. 643 G.R.C.

February 17, 2010

Pecularities 2

The picture on the left shows a small sculpture found in the Chapel at Rosslyn built in the years 1440 - 50 in Scotland. We can see a Knight Templar and a young man kneeling between two pillars (we call the pillar on the left "Boaz"). The young man is blindfolded, with a noose around his neck and his right hand on a book marked by a cross (most likely taking an oath on a Bible).

The pictures on the right depict a modern candidate, also blindfolded and with a noose (cable tow) around his neck, as you were at your entrance to the lodge earlier this evening.

In the course of the ceremony, you were told that you had been received into "the most ancients and most moral human Institution that ever existed, as every character, figure and emblem has a moral tendency and serves to inculcate the practice of virtue among all its genuine professors."

The Blindfold – represents darkness, and your desire for enlightenment and truth.

The Noose – represents slavery or the state of proscription (outlaw). Slave to your ignorance and, as an outlaw, without the protection of Law or State.

"Neither naked nor shod" – represents your state of indigence – carrying neither money nor metals (weapons), therefore utterly poor and defenseless. By virtue of your Obligation, you are now among brothers, who will afford you light as far as you may desire it; protection and sustenance, if warranted and genuinely needed.


Pecularities 1

I am sure you have noticed that we often impart instructions three times, or in groups of three. This peculiar fixation with the number "three" is not due to the perception that candidates are slow learners, but rather to the notion of sanctity or perfection attributed to the number three since antiquity.

During the ceremony of your initiation, you were presented with three tools (the 24-inch gauge, the mallet, and the chisel) with an explanation of the symbolism attached to each.

But you were also given another tool, which is buried in our ceremonial, perhaps forgotten from the time of operative masons – the formula for drawing a 90-degree angle.

"You will now approach the A. by three steps, the first of about 15 inches, the second of 12 inches, and the third of 9 inches …"

If you divide 15, 12 and 9 by three, you will obtain that formula, which is 5, 4, and 3 – the only means of tracing a right-angled triangle without tools, and, most likely, a formula carefully kept secret in ancient times by operative masons.

There is a lot more to say about the Masonic symbolism of these numbers, if we had more time available to us tonight. You can learn more about it here.


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