THE WORKING TOOLS OF AN ENTERED APPRENTICE
Presented by William Buxton
Wor. Master, Brethren,
Preface: There is nothing new under the sun, and what I am about to present is a compilation of paragraphs picked from several sources, and construed to express in my opinion, the message which was entrusted to me for this occasion.
Tools are the physical objects, which are employed by a craftsman to accomplish his work, and their use generally implies an acquired skill. Masonically, the Working Tools represent psychological capacities, which the Mason must identify, gain control of, and then use in his daily life. The Working Tools represent those moral and spiritual virtues, habits and forces by which a man reshapes the crude and often stubborn materials of his nature to adjust himself to the requirements of human society.
One of the main tasks of an Entered Apprentice is to bring into balance the part of his psyche/soul, which is in contact with the physical world. The Working Tools of an Entered Apprentice are closely related to the physical world, and are appropriate for labour on the Ground Floor, which is the level of this degree. These Working Tools are tools of action. They describe those psychological functions closely related to the physical world.
To become a Mason, a man who has lived planlessly, carelessly, without aim or ideal, must learn to systematize his life, as signified by the Twenty-four Inch Gauge. If he has traits of temper, habits of speech, or defects of character that disturb or injure others, and interfere with his proper place in the Brotherhood, as “corners of rough stones” interfere with putting them into their allotted places in the building, he must rid himself of them with the Common Gavel. In the First Degree the Gavel of passion, and the 24” Gauge of measured choice are the tools of action suited for work in the physical world. As written in our Cipher, we read the following text, which should be memorized by all Entered Apprentices, we read:
The Twenty-Four-Inch Gauge is an instrument used by Operative Masons to measure and lay out their work; but we, as Entered Apprentice Masons, are taught to use it for the more noble and glorious purpose of dividing our time. It being divided into twenty-four equal parts, is emblematical of the twenty-four hours of the day, which we are taught to divide into three equal parts, whereby are found eight hours for the service of God and a distressed Worthy Brother, (and I stress the Importance of the word Worthy) eight hours for our usual vocations, and eight hours for refreshment and sleep.
There is no time to be wasted. There is no time to be idle. There is no time for waiting. The implication is plain; the Entered Apprentice should be always ready to use his tools. He should know that Freemasonry is not only for the Lodge room but also for life. Not to take the Twenty-Four-Inch Gauge into the profane world and by its divisions number the hours for the working of a constructive purpose is to miss the practical application of Masonic Labor and Masonic Charity. To all men, time is all important. A wasted minute cannot be retrieved. A minute is precious. Time must be used productively, or nothing can be accomplished. The man who wastes his own time or that of another squanders away something he can't replace. You will note, too, that two-thirds of a Freemason's time is to be spent in service and work.
We see therefore, that the Twenty-four inches have an obvious reference to time, and we may refine that idea by calling to mind the Biblical passage …”for everything there is a season”… The Twenty-four-inch-Gauge represents the conscious capacity to identify the psychological function, which is appropriate for the moment.
The Common Gavel is an instrument used by Operative Masons to break off the corners of rough stones, the better to fit them for the Builder's use; but we, as Entered Apprentice Masons, are taught to use it for the more noble and glorious purpose of divesting our Hearts and Consciences of all vices and superfluities of Life, thereby fitting our minds, as living stones, for that spiritual building-that house not made with hands-eternal in the heavens.
The Common Gavel is an active tool of force which we equate with the psychological capacity to experience passion, and which we should interpret to include joy, rage, intense commitment, etc. Likewise, we also read in our Cipher:
In the Great Light we read: "The Kingdom of Heaven is within You." We are also there taught that man is made in the image of God. The perfection is already within. All that is required is to remove the roughness and excrescences, to show forth the perfect man and Mason within. Thus the Gavel becomes also the symbol of personal power. It's a powerful instrument. When used for power alone it can be destructive. But power that is channeled toward good purposes will result in constructive achievement. The latter is the manner in which you, as a Mason, should use the power that God gives you.
Equipped with this concept, the individual undertakes first to become aware of these ‘tools’ (actually, the capacities they represent) in this psychological make-up, then bring them under conscious control and finally to keep them in balance. He does this ’without neglecting the ordinary duties of (his) station in life’, that is, by applying the concepts to the day-to-day events of his own life. As anyone who has tried to come to terms with a violent temper or a long-standing obsession with detail will recognize, the business of bringing the Working Tools of analysis and passion under conscious control involves substantial hard work, and this gives certain realism to the term ‘Masonic Labour’. If he perseveres, however, the person who works in this way begins to recognize that he reacts to events less and less frequently and instead finds himself selecting his actions from an increasingly comprehensive repertoire of responses.
This greater choice is the start of what the individual can properly call ’my will’; and with that capacity for greater choice comes the opportunity to make selfish, malicious and destructive choices and the responsibility to choose courses of action which are constructive and integrating. There is a part of the ceremony of both the First and Second Degrees in which the Candidate is required to demonstrate a small bit of the Ritual to the Lodge. This “testing by the Lodge” (normally done through the Wardens) represents the interior processes of conscience by which the developing individual is guided and encouraged to place voluntary limitation on his emerging capacity to choose. This process of self-discipline generally requires that he consider his motivations; and since these are generally unconscious, the effort leads quite naturally to the Second Degree.
As mentioned before, the kingdom is within man, and the kingdom is also without man.
In him there are not as yet manifest those faculties, which will create his future. Man must not and cannot remain as he is now. Only inner growth, the unfoldment of new forces, will give to man a correct understanding of himself, his ways, his future, and give him power to organise life on Earth.
At the present time the general concept "man" is too undifferentiated and includes entirely different categories — those capable of development and those incapable. In men capable of development, new faculties are stirring into life, though not as yet manifest, because for their manifestation they require a special culture, a special education. The new conception of humanity disposes of the idea of equality, which, after all, does not exist. It tries to establish the signs and facts of the differences between men, because humanity will soon need to divide the "progressing" from the "incapable of progress" — the wheat from the tares, for the tares are growing too fast, and choke the growth of the wheat.
This is the key to the understanding of our life, and this key was found long ago!
The enigma was solved long ago. But different thinkers, living in different epochs, finding the solution, expressed it differently; and often, not knowing one another, trod the same path amid enormous difficulties, unaware of their predecessors and contemporaries who had gone and were going along the selfsame path.
Edward Carpenter, directly and without any allegories and symbols, formulated the thought that the existing consciousness by which contemporary man lives is merely the transitory form of another higher consciousness, which is even now manifesting in certain men after appropriate preparation and training. He calls this cosmic consciousness.
I wish to go a step further. As masons we are seekers, seekers for Truth. Truth is one of the three Tenets of our profession. Therefore we must always place direct our thoughts to study in search of our divine identity. But thought, which is free, cannot be bound by any limits. The true motion, which lies at the foundation of everything, is the motion of thought. True energy is the energy of consciousness. And truth itself is motion, and can never lead to stasis, to the cessation of search.
The meaning of life is eternal search. And only in that search can we find things truly new.
Bibliography
Official Cipher, by the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts.
Freemasonry, A Journey through Ritual and Symbol. By W. Kirk MacNulty
Tried and Proven, A lodge system of Masonic Instruction.
Tertium Organum, P. D. Ouspensky