The Master Mason

The

Learning objectives

Explain why the third degree is called “sublime” and how it completes the sequence of the Craft degrees.
Identify the three central themes of the degree: mortality, fidelity and immortality.
Describe the rights and responsibilities that full membership as a brings.
Recognise the difference between receiving the degree and growing into the character it describes.

The third degree of Freemasonry is the summit of what is usually called Craft or symbolic Masonry. The first two degrees prepare the candidate for it, and many of their lessons only reach their full meaning in its light. Masonic tradition calls it the sublime degree. The word comes from the Latin sublimis, meaning lifted up or raised high, and it suggests something that carries the mind above ordinary concerns. In this course we will study the degree as a whole: its story, its symbols, its working tools, its place in the government of the lodge, and the character it hopes to form.

Before we begin, it is useful to be clear about method. This course does not describe the ceremonies of the lodge, and it does not reveal any words, signs or wording of obligations. Those belong to the private experience of each candidate. What can be studied openly is the meaning of the degree, its history, and the ideas it places before the Mason. These have been discussed in published Masonic literature for nearly three centuries, and they are the proper subject of serious study.

The place of the third degree

The three Craft degrees are often compared to the stages of a human life. The degree speaks of birth and youth, of entering a new world and receiving the first instruction. The degree speaks of maturity, of labour and of the education of the mind through the liberal arts and sciences. The degree speaks of age and of the end of life, and it asks what meaning a human existence can have when it is measured against death.

A second comparison is equally helpful. The first degree addresses the Mason as a moral being who must learn to govern the passions. The second addresses the Mason as a thinking being who must learn to understand the order of the world. The third addresses the Mason as a mortal being who must face the certainty of death and find a reason for hope. In this way the three degrees move from conduct, to knowledge, to meaning. Each is necessary, and none is complete without the others.

Historically, the third degree is the youngest of the three. The earliest records of Scottish and English lodges in the seventeenth century speak of two grades, the apprentice and the fellow of the craft, and the word master often referred to an employer or to the master of a lodge rather than to a separate degree. A distinct third degree appears in the records in the 1720s, and by the 1730s it was widely worked in London. Historians still discuss exactly how and why it arose, a question we will examine in the next lesson. For now it is enough to note that the degree was created to crown a structure that already existed, and that it gave the Craft a new depth of moral and spiritual teaching.

Mortality, fidelity and immortality

Three themes run through the whole of the third degree. The first is mortality. The degree places before the Mason, with unusual directness, the fact that every human life ends. Many traditions of wisdom have taught that a person who honestly faces death begins to live more truthfully. The Roman philosopher Seneca advised his readers to treat each day as if it might be their last, not from fear, but in order to use time well. The third degree makes a similar point through drama and symbol rather than argument.

The second theme is fidelity. The central figure of the degree is honoured not for power or genius but for faithfulness to a trust. The degree asks the Mason to consider what promises mean, what it costs to keep them, and why a community of trust depends on people whose word can be relied upon. Fidelity is the bridge between the first theme and the third. Because life is short, what we do with it matters, and the most important thing we can do is to be faithful to what is good.

The third theme is immortality, or more broadly, hope. The degree does not end in darkness. It moves from loss to restoration, and it affirms that death is not the final word on a human life. Freemasonry does not tell its members what form this hope must take. Members of many religions sit together in the lodge, and each understands the life to come in the light of their own faith. What the degree offers is a shared conviction that human life has a meaning which death cannot cancel.

Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

This verse from the Psalms expresses the spirit of the degree well. To number our days is to recognise that they are limited. To apply our hearts to wisdom is to use that recognition as a motive for living well.

The rights of a

In practical terms, the third degree brings the Mason into full membership of the fraternity. In most jurisdictions an or has limited rights, and much lodge business is conducted only among . A may usually vote on the affairs of the lodge, including the ballot on new candidates. A may hold office, and in time may be elected to the chair of the lodge. A may visit other lodges, at home and abroad, subject to the rules of recognition between . A may vouch for another Mason whom they personally know to be qualified, may take part in the government of the Craft at higher levels, and may receive the support of the fraternity in times of need.

These rights vary in detail from one to another, and every should learn the rules of their own jurisdiction. Some , for example, allow to attend certain business meetings, while others do not. The general principle, however, is the same everywhere. The third degree marks the point at which the Mason becomes a full and responsible member of the community.

Rights in Freemasonry are always joined to duties. A is expected to know and obey the laws of the Craft, to attend the lodge as far as circumstances allow, to contribute to its support, to care for the brethren and their families, and to conduct their life in a way that brings honour rather than discredit to the fraternity. We will return to these duties in the final lessons of this course.

Receiving the degree and becoming a Master

There is an old saying among Masons that the lodge can make a person a in a single evening, but only the person can become one in fact. The ceremony confers a rank and a set of rights. It does not, and cannot, confer the qualities that the rank describes. Those are built slowly, through reflection, study and practice over many years.

This distinction explains why thoughtful Masons speak of the third degree as a beginning rather than an end. The formal sequence of the Craft is complete, but the work it describes has only started. The symbols of the degree are designed to be returned to again and again. A Mason who has been a member for forty years will often say that the degree means something different, and something deeper, than it did on the night it was received. The purpose of a course such as this one is to help that process of understanding to begin well.