Fellowcraft;

An Interpretation of the Ritual of the Second Degree.

You are now a Fellow Craft. Our purpose is to try to explain some of the meanings of the Degree; a part only, as it would require many evenings to explain it in full.

Many great ideas are embodied therein, which, if understood, will lead to comprehension of others. One of these is the idea of Adulthood.

The Entered Apprentice represents youth standing at the portals of his life, his pathway lighted by the rays of the shining sun. The Master Mason represents the man of years, already on the farther slope of the hill, with the setting sun in his eyes. The Fellow Craft is a man in the prime of life – experienced, strong, resourceful, able to bear the heat and burden of the day.

Only in its narrowest sense can adulthood be described in terms of years. If and when he achieves it, a man discovers that the mere fact that he is forty or fifty years of age has little to do with it. Adulthood is rather a quality of mind and heart.

The man in his middle years carries the responsibilities. It is he upon whom a family depends for support; he is the Atlas on whose shoulders rest the burdens of business.; by his skill and experience the arts are sustained; to his keeping are entrusted the destinies of the State. It is said that in the building of his Temple, King Solomon employed eighty thousand Fellow Crafts, who labored in the mountains and in the quarries. The description is suggestive, for it is by men in the Fellow Craft period in life that the work is done in the mountains and quarries of human experience.

What does the second degree say to the Fellow Craft, whether in Masonry or in the world at large? The answer brings us to the second great idea, that the Fellow Craft is so to equip himself that he will prove adequate to the tasks which will be laid upon him.

What is that equipment? The Degree gives us at least three answers.

The first is that the Fellow Craft must gain direct experience form contact with the realities of existence. You will recall what was said about the Five Senses. Needless to say, that portion of the middle chamber lecture was not intended as a dissertation on either physiology or psychology; it is symbolism, and represents what a man learns though seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting – in short, immediate experience; and a man garners such experience only with the passage of time.

The second answer is education. The possibilities of an individual’s experience are limited. Were we to learn of life only that with which we are brought in contact by our senses, we would be poorly equipped to deal with its complexities and responsibilities. To our store of hard-won experience, we add the experience of others, supplementing ours by the information of countless men which is brought to us through many channels; our own knowledge must be made more nearly complete by the accumulated knowledge of the race.

We have a picture of this in Freemasonry. In the days when Masons were builders of great and costly structures, the apprentice was a mere boy, ten to fifteen years of age, scarcely knowing one tool form another, ignorant of the secrets and arts of the builders. Yet, if worthy and skillful, after seven years he was able to produce his Master’s Piece and perform any task to which the Master might appoint him. How was all this accomplished? Only by the instruction, guidance and inspiration the Master was able to give him as a result of long years of experience and development.

Such is education, symbolized in the Second Degree by the Liberal Arts and Sciences. No doubt you were surprised to hear what was said about grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, and wondered what such schoolroom topics had to do with Masonry. You understand now! The explanation of these subjects was not intended as an academic lecture. Like so much else in the Degree, they are symbols, signifying all that is meant by education.

The third answer is wisdom.

Experience gives us awareness of the world at points of immediate contact; knowledge gives us competence for special tasks in the activities of life. But a man’s life is not confined to his immediate experience; nor is he day and night engaged in the same task; life is richer than that! Wisdom is that quality of judgment by which we are able to adapt our experience and knowledge to a practical solution of our social relations to others, wisdom to make our work conform to the plan of the Great Architect.

The Middle Chamber, which is so conspicuous in the Second Degree, is a symbol of wisdom. Through the Five Senses (Experience), and through knowledge of the Liberal Arts and Sciences (Education), the candidate is called to advance, as on winding stairs, to that maturity of life in which the senses, emotions, intellect, character, work, deeds, habits, and soul of a man are knit together in unity; balanced, poised and adequate (Wisdom).

Excerpted from “The Masonic Scholar: A Manual of Masonic Education for Candidates”

Printed by the Grand Lodge F.&A.M. of California.