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The Criticality of our Individual Degrees and Catechisms

Winter

Premium Member
An excellent article this morning on The Midnight Freemasons by W. Bro. William H. Boyd about how important it is for each new Freemason to experience each degrees and returning their catechism individually. I couldn't agree more. One Day Classes, running multiple candidates through together, as well as a deemphasizing the catechism can have nothing but detrimental consequences for the Craft.

 

Glen Cook

G A Cook
Site Benefactor
I would divide the issue. As to the catechism, that has never been a thing outside North America.
 

Chris H

Registered User
Yes. I’ve been a mason in England for over 20 years and I’ve never heard of them. I read the article and I don’t think we have an equivalent here either, apart from learning the answers to some questions asked by the master in the degree, but I imagine that’s the same in North America anyway? I think a point may be is that we seem to be doing OK without them. Or maybe we’re not!
 

Winter

Premium Member
I would divide the issue. As to the catechism, that has never been a thing outside North America.
I agree. And I would ammend the argument that the most important point made in the article is the individuality of each degree as a part of preserving the initiatic process. Lumping candidates in together and performing degrees for multiple candidates either simultaneously or even separately all at the same meeting is doing a grave disservice to these men joining the Craft. It serves only to cheapen the experience. The more candidates added to the event, the more it must be diluted. Conversely, when a single candidate is the sole object of the ritual and attention of all Brothers performing the rites, it cannot fail but to become a more profound event for him an impress upon his psyche, conscious or unconscious, the seriousness of what he is now undertaking.

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Mike Martin

Eternal Apprentice
Premium Member
Yes. I’ve been a mason in England for over 20 years and I’ve never heard of them. I read the article and I don’t think we have an equivalent here either, apart from learning the answers to some questions asked by the master in the degree, but I imagine that’s the same in North America anyway? I think a point may be is that we seem to be doing OK without them. Or maybe we’re not!
The difficulty here is that during the 20th Century masonic boom English Lodges changed focus from the Lectures (known as Catechisms in the US) being major work of a Lodge to Degree Ceremonies. Even the Emulation Lodge of Improvement works the Lectures less than it did at its inception.

The current approach means that new Freemasons are not being taught the "meat" of the Craft that is supposed to earn them the privilege of being Passed and Raised they just learn the most basic Q&A and are never tested further even when the the Master invites the Lodge to do so. When you think about it, when did you last talk to a FC who could actually explain what the "signs, tokens and perfect points of his entrance" were? The first two are mentioned in the Initiation Ceremony often at high speed BUT the perfect points are only explained in the Lecture of the first degree (unless your Lodge uses a pre-Union ceremony). Most US Masons are aware of "Of, At and On" but this would mystify most English brethren.
 
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Bloke

Premium Member
This concept drew my attention:
individual degrees and the related catechisms are the primary tools to train the new mason's mind to think in terms of allegory and symbols and break the mason's dependence on writing and reading the written word
 

Bloke

Premium Member
....the Lectures (known as Catechisms in the US) being major work of a Lodge to Degree Ceremonies. ...
I thought a Catechism was a question and answer ? Or are we using it in the sense of a Statement of Principles ?

I googled:
"This Catechism is simply a series of questions and answers that covers everything a Brother went through in each Degree. "
https://kevinhoman.info/blog/masonic-proficiency/
"Everything", well not in my Masonic World. We have an Emulation based ritual which does have "Questions and Answers" before Passing/Raising which I would described as a Catechism, we also have "extended questions" which never form part of a Degree but are used for education.
 

Bloke

Premium Member
The lectures are definitely not the catechisms here in the US. Curious about that as well.
I think someone has just put their own spin on it substituting the word "Catechism" for "Education", the education being in the lectures..
 

coachn

Coach John S. Nagy
Premium Member
I think someone has just put their own spin on it substituting the word "Catechism" for "Education", the education being in the lectures..
While we're splitting hairs, the lectures are NOT education either. They merely offer overviews of the education that one should be pursuing - generalized "road maps" to be followed to OBTAIN A WORTHY EDUCATION..

EXAMPLE:

1) To point out WHAT the seven liberal arts & sciences ARE by providing a generalized description and then their IMPORTANCE is NOT to educate the listener IN them.

I've seen far too many members claim that they are educated in masonry because they have memorized proficiencies and lectures. They are educated in the maps only, but not in the territories that those maps point members toward!


For Further Light:

 
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Winter

Premium Member
While we're splitting hairs, the lectures are NOT education either. They merely offer overviews of the education that one should be pursuing - generalized "road maps" to be followed to OBTAIN A WORTHY EDUCATION..

EXAMPLE:

1) To point out WHAT the seven liberal arts & sciences ARE by providing a generalized description and then their IMPORTANCE is NOT to educate the listener IN them.

I've seen far too man members claim that they are educated in masonry becuse they have memorized proficiencies and lectues. They are educated in the maps only, but not in the territories that those maps point members toward!


For Futher Light:

You are definitely not wrong here, Coach. I've argued for years that we are given all the tools and lesson plans to obtain a Masonic education and become the enlightened men we are meant to be. Being a Mason was never about rote memorization of ritual and shaking down Brothers for past dues. Take just one small part of just one degree where we are instructed to be true lovers of the seven liberal arts and sciences. If a Brother spent a single year for each of them, reading books or taking courses online, he would have, in a mere seven years of casual study, a better education than the majority of kids graduating from college today.
 

Elexir

Registered User
You are definitely not wrong here, Coach. I've argued for years that we are given all the tools and lesson plans to obtain a Masonic education and become the enlightened men we are meant to be. Being a Mason was never about rote memorization of ritual and shaking down Brothers for past dues. Take just one small part of just one degree where we are instructed to be true lovers of the seven liberal arts and sciences. If a Brother spent a single year for each of them, reading books or taking courses online, he would have, in a mere seven years of casual study, a better education than the majority of kids graduating from college today.

Off-topic: I do find problem here. The education you get from a college is a different form of knowledge (sidenote: there are actually even programs on Bachelor's level on the liberal arts and sciences on certain universities here in Sweden). The big problem has to do with how complex different fields of study are now in comparison to in the antique. This in turn means that how we get knowledge differs. In some sense artes liberales has fully melded with artes illiberales in many fields.
 

Winter

Premium Member
Off-topic: I do find problem here. The education you get from a college is a different form of knowledge (sidenote: there are actually even programs on Bachelor's level on the liberal arts and sciences on certain universities here in Sweden). The big problem has to do with how complex different fields of study are now in comparison to in the antique. This in turn means that how we get knowledge differs. In some sense artes liberales has fully melded with artes illiberales in many fields.
Nobody is saying you are going to become an engineer or a physicist by studying the 7LA&S in your evenings. But having obtained a four year degree from a Big 10 university I can confidently say that my own experience was that the majority of that time was a colossal waste and would have been better spent learning these instead.
 

coachn

Coach John S. Nagy
Premium Member
Off-topic: I do find problem here. The education you get from a college is a different form of knowledge (sidenote: there are actually even programs on Bachelor's level on the liberal arts and sciences on certain universities here in Sweden). The big problem has to do with how complex different fields of study are now in comparison to in the antique. This in turn means that how we get knowledge differs. In some sense artes liberales has fully melded with artes illiberales in many fields.
The study of the 7 Liberal Arts & Sciences was not for the obtaining of knowledge. It was for the obtaining of Wisdom by way of being trained to learn how to learn.

Unfortunately, and with rare exception, one obtains only knowledge from most college classes, and even that is heavily biased, skewed, and filtered. No wisdom is obtained or even encouraged to be obtained.

And, even more unfortunate, one does not have to be schooled in the 7 Liberal Arts & Sciences to attend and pass college courses. All that one has to do is pay, show up, and demand that one is addressed by one's proper "pronoun of preference." Class merit is too often not based upon actual subject performance; it's based upon identity performance and how one can present the subject biased, skewed, and filtered though the lenses of acceptable identity.

imeo...
 

Glen Cook

G A Cook
Site Benefactor
Could it not be for both, or for obtaining knowledge leading to wisdom?
The study of the 7 Liberal Arts & Sciences was not for the obtaining of knowledge. It was for the obtaining of Wisdom by way of being trained to learn how to learn.

….

imeo...
 

coachn

Coach John S. Nagy
Premium Member
Could it not be for both, or for obtaining knowledge leading to wisdom?
When that knowledge is merely a stepping stone, yes. But to seek only knowledge is not the reason for the 7LAs&Ss study.

The 7LAs&Ss study is also a stepping stone toward the wisdom necessary build one's spiritual building. That erection can't be raised with knowledge alone; it must be done with Wisdom as well!
 
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Mike Martin

Eternal Apprentice
Premium Member
The lectures are definitely not the catechisms here in the US. Curious about that as well.
Obviously I could be wrong as my comparison/assumption is only based on what I've been told and what I've read from US brethren over the last couple of decades.

However, you're all in a position to help me with my masonic learning of the day as below is a link to the Lectures that I'm referring to and if you have a look you can correct me: https://archive.org/details/The_Lectures_Of_The_Three_Degrees_In_Craft_Masonry
 

Winter

Premium Member
Interesting. It appears that the author has taken the lectures themselves and structured them as a catechism in the question and answer style. I have seen versions of these before, notably in a pamphlet I purchased from a vendor at Grand Lodge a long time ago called Masonic Catch-E-Chism I believe. I'll have to find it on my book shelf. I'm not sure if this style was part of a degree or simply a teaching style for the material. It makes much more sense now why you were using the term the way you were. I can only speak for my jurisdiction in that the lectures are most definitely not learned in this style and the catechism refers to a different part of the degrees.

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Mike Martin

Eternal Apprentice
Premium Member
For clarity that is a modern version where someone has updated the language of the originals, here's one from 1874 that would accompany the degree ceremonies from Perfect workings: https://archive.org/details/cu31924030313070

It's interesting to note that all of the different variations of the degree ceremonies worked in England are supposed to have their own version as that is how the brethren are supposed to learn about each of the degrees they go through. Each brother was required to answer questions on the Lecture before they could progress to the next degree, sadly this has been reduced to a very minor test of memory today. The Emulation and Taylor's workings publish the Lectures in separate books to accompany their Ceremonies books but often Proposers are not aware of them and only furnish their charges with the "ritual book".

The "Lectures" were compiled by William Preston (1742 - 1818) who I think you guys are aware of over there but I don't think you all know what an impact he had here. He traveled extensively compiling the lectures worked in many Lodges and were initially published in his work "Illustrations of Masonry" in 1772. They carried on in use after the Union of 1813 and had at least equal weight with degree ceremonies being the work of a Lodge but as I mentioned earlier fell into semi-decay from the mid 20th Century.

They should not to be confused with general lectures which can be on any topic but delivered within a Lodge which is called off.
 

Bloke

Premium Member
Some interesting and good comment there. Me, I often describe Degrees as "Primers" ("an elementary textbook that serves as an introduction to a subject of study or is used for teaching children to read".) Some would say you need to join Other Orders to understand those Degrees (and there is merit in doing so) but the lessons of Freemasonry are in the ceremonial (words and concepts) of the Three Degrees which should then be applied in daily life. Degrees are the primers for that, but are only the beginning.. and as I also often say, it is not just what you "know" about Freemasonry, but what you think (reflect and consider) about it which really counts. Experiencing a Degree Ceremony is only a start and not an end in itself, too many Freemasons think they are an end in themselves. I might hold the "rank" of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason, but everyday gives me the chance and often, challenge, to be one,.. or not...

I agree (with Coach) that thinking process is important, but you don't need to be a Rhodes Scholar to truly be a Freemason, what you really need is a good heart and moral compass, then many of the lessons are intuitive rather than learned, but they can be developed. That's why "making good men better" does make sense to me, especually when you emulate good examples from others and correct in yourself what you see as their defects, but some of those defects are best detected by logical process, not just around emotions..
 
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