Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16
"The rites of initiation for the Master Mason are much more complex and dramatic than those for the Entered Apprentice and the Fellow Craft, and they reveal the most enduring and most important mystery of all Masonic ritual: the legend of the murdered Master. Prepared in a manner similar to the first two degrees, the candidate is half-dressed, with both arms out of his shirtsleeves, leaving his chest bare; all metal is taken from him; a rope (the cable-tow) is looped about his body;‘and a blindfold, or hoodwink, is in place.
After brief ceremonies similar to those of the first two degrees, the candidate is ready for the administration of the oath of the Master Mason, which the Master of the lodge once again assures him will not interfere with any duty which he owes to his God, his country, or his family. The candidate is on his bare knees in front of the altar, with both palms down on the Holy Bible, on top of which the compass and square have been placed, with both legs of the compass-above the square. The oath may vary considerably in precise wording from place to place because of its history of maintenance by verbal communication only, but everywhere the essential points are the same:
“I, _______, of my own free will and accord. in the presence of Almighty God, and this worshipful lodge of Master Masons, dedicated to God and the holy Saints John, do hereby and hereon most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear. in addition to my former obligations, that I will not reveal the secrets of the Master Mason's degree to anyone of inferior degree, nor to any other being in the known world, except it be to a true and lawful brother or brethren Master Masons, within a body of a just and lawfully constituted lodge of such, and not unto him or them whom I shall only hear so to be, but unto him and them only whom I shall prove so to be, after strict trial and due examination, or lawful information received.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will not give the Master’s word which I shall hereafter receive, neither in the lodge nor out of it, except it be on the five points of fellowship, and then not above my breath. Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will not give the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress except I am in real distress, or for the benefit of the Craft when at work, and should I ever see that sign given or the word accompanying it, and the person who gave it appearing to be in distress, I will fly to his relief at the risk of my life, should there be a greater probability of saving his life than losing my own.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will not be at the initiating, passing, or raising of a candidate in a clandestine lodge, I knowing it to be such, “Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will not be at the initiating of an old man in his dotage, a young man in his nonage, an atheist. an irreligious libertine, an idiot, madman, or woman. Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will not speak evil of a brother Master Mason, neither behind his back nor before his face, but will apprise him of all approaching danger, if in my power. Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will not have illegal carnal intercourse with a Master Mason's wife, mother, sister, or daughter, I knowing them to be such, nor suffer it to be done by others, if in my power to prevent it.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that a Master Mason's secrets, given to me as such, and I knowing them to be such, shall remain as secure and inviolable in my breast as in his own, when communicated to me, murder and treason excepted, and then they left to my own election.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will go on a Master Mason's errand whenever required, even should I have to go bare-foot and bare-handed, if within the length of my cable-tow.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will always remember a brother Master Mason when on my knees offering up my devotions to Almighty Cod.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will aid and assist all poor, indigent Master Masons, their wives and orphans, wheresoever disposed around the globe, as far as is in my power, with. out materially injuring myself or my family.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that if any part of my solemn oath of obligation be omitted at this time, I will hold myself amenable thereto whenever informed. To all of which I do most sincerely promise and swear, with a fixed and steady purpose of mind in me to keep and perform the same, binding myself under no less penalty than to have my body severed in twain and divided to the north and south,my bowels burnt to ashes in the center, and the ashes scattered before the four winds of heaven, that there might not the least track or trace of remembrance remain among men, or Masons, of so vile and perjured a wretch as I should be, were I ever to prove willfully guilty of violating any part of this my solemn oath and obligation of a Master Mason. So help me God, and keep me steadfast in the due performance of the same.”
After brief ceremonies, the blindfold is removed, and the newly sworn Master Mason is taught several secrets of that degree. He learns the penal sign, the hand signal based on the penalty of the Master Mason's oath, which is to pass the hand in a slashing motion, palm downward and thumb toward the body, across his stomach. The due-guard of the Master Mason repeats the position of his hands on the Holy Bible and the compass and square as he took the oath with his upper arms along his sides, forearms out straight, with palms down. To this point, the ceremony is much like that of the first two degrees, but now is added a third sign, the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress of the Master Mason, given with the upper arms parallel to the ground, forearms vertical with hands above the head, palms forward. For those times when the Master Mason is out of sight of possible help, or in the dark, he is taught to summon assistance with the words, “0 Lord, my God, is there no help for a Son of the Widow?” a reference to Hiram, legendary master craftsman at the building of the Temple of Solomon, about whom the initiate has as yet been told nothing. and whom Masons identify with the metalworker that scripture describes as “a son of a widow of Naphtali.”
To this point, the ritual of initiation appears familiar to the newly raised Master Mason because it is so like the ceremonies he has experienced in his initiations for the Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft degrees. He is not surprised when the Worshipful Master calls for a break in the meeting for refreshments and be is conducted back to the anteroom so that he may get dressed to rejoin the meeting as a full-fledged Master Mason. He will be very surprised a few minutes later when he learns that the important part of his initiation has not yet begun, nor even been hinted at. Upon his return to the lodge room, by now bedecked in his Master’s apron, with the ribbon and jewel of a Senior Deacon around his neck, the candidate is surrounded by the lodge members, shaking his hand and congratulating him upon becoming a Master Mason. Fellowship abounds, until the Worshipful Master uses his gavel to call the meeting to order once again. Seeking out the initiate, the Master asks if he considers himself a Master Mason. Upon his affirmative reply the Master corrects him and tells him that he will not be one until he has traveled a road full of peril and danger, meeting with thieves, robbers, and murderers. Only after surviving this impending ordeal will he be able to consider himself a Master Mason. Blindfolded again, the Senior Deacon, as “Conductor,” leads him in a circle around the lodge room as the Worshipful Master begins to tell him the story of the murder of Hiram Abiff, the master builder of Solomon’s temple and who, along with King Solomon himself and Hiram the king of Tyre, was one of the three Grand Masters of the Masonic order.
He explains that during the construction of the Temple of Solomon it was the custom of Hiram Abiff to enter the unfinished Sanctum Sanctorum of the temple each day at “high twelve” (noon), for the purpose of drawing plans on the “trestle-board” for the next day’s labors by the workmen, after which he would offer up his prayers to God and then go out through the south gate of the temple courtyard. The initiate does not know that the rest of the story of Hiram Abiff will be in the form of a play or drama in which he himself has been given the role of the Grand Master he discovers this with a shock as the party escorting him reaches the mythical south gate. There, he is grabbed and shaken by an unseen assailant. His attacker states that Abiff had promised the Fellow Crafts that when the temple was completed they would all be told the secrets of a Master Mason (some lodges say “the Master’s Word”),, so that they might travel to foreign lands to find work and to receive the rewards of a Master Mason. Not content to wait for the completion of the temple, the attacker demands those secrets now.
His Conductor answers for the startled, blindfolded initiate, telling his assailant that he must wait until the temple is completed, and then if found worthy he will be given the secrets of a Master Mason. Not satisfied, the attacker, whose name is Jubela, threatens to take the life of Hiram Abiff if he will not divulge the secrets, and when he is denied, he passes the twenty. four-inch gauge across the throat of the candidate, whereupon the Conductor moves him onto the “west gate of the temple.” At this gate, he is seized by the second assailant, whose name is Jubelo. Once again the Master Mason's secrets are demanded, and when they are not forthcoming, Jubelo threatens him and strikes the candidate on the chest with a square. Conducted on to “the east gate,” the initiate is accosted by the third assailant, whose name is Jubelum. After the candidate, still in the role of Hiram Abiff, refuses to divulge the Master Mason's secrets, even upon pain of death, he is struck on the head by Jubelum’s setting. maul and falls “dead” (pulled to the floor by his Conductor and others).
Blindfolded on the ground, the Initiate hears the three murderers decide to bury him in a pile of rubble until “low twelve” (midnight), when they will carry the body away from the temple. To symbolize the burial of Hiram Abiff the candidate is wrapped in a blanket and carried to the side of the room. Soon he hears a bell struck twelve times and is carried from the “rubble” grave to a grave dug on the brow of a hill "west of Mount Moriah” (the Temple Mount). He hears the murderers agree to mark his grave with a sprig of acacia, then set out to escape to Ethiopia across the Red Sea.
Moments later, as the drama continues, King Solomon (played by the Worshipful Master of the lodge) arrives to determine the reason for all the confusion and is told that the Grand Master has disappeared, and that with no plans laid out on the trestle-board the workmen do not know what to do. Solomon orders that all the workmen search for the missing Grand Master, and the candidate in his blanket “grave” hears scuffling and shuffling noises throughout the room. Finally it is reported to King Solomon that Hiram Abiff is not to be found, so a roll call is ordered, which reveals the absence of Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum, collectively known to Masons as the Juwe. Solomon orders that twelve Fellow Crafts be dispatched, three each to the east, west, north, and south, to look for the fugitives. Those sent to the east and south return to report no sighting and no news. The three from the west report that they have news of the Juwe attempting to ship out of the port of Joppa (the ancient name for Jaffa), but prevented by the embargo placed on all shipping by Solomon as part of the manhunt. The three fugitives were reported to have turned back inland toward Jerusalem and the temple.
All are ordered to continue the search and, about fifteen (symbolic) days later, one stops to rest by the sprig of acacia, which comes out of the earth easily. He calls to his companions as another search group joins them to report that, while resting near some rocks, they had heard voices. The first voice, that of Jubela, had said, ‘Oh; that my throat had been cut across, my tongue torn out by its roots, and my body buried in the rough sands of the sea at low-water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours, crc I had been accessory to the death of so good a man as our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff.” The second voice, the report goes on, was that of Jubelo, who had cried, “Oh, that my breast had been torn open, my heart and vitals taken from thence and thrown over my left shoulder, carried into the Valley of Jehosaphat, there to become prey to the wild beasts of the filed and the vultures of the air [some lodges say, “my heart plucked out and placed on the highest pinnacle of the temple, there to be devoured by the vultures of the air”] etc I had conspired in the death of so good a man as our Grand Master Hiram Abiff.” The third had been the voice of Jubelum, louder and more lamenting than the others, “Ah, Jubela and Jubelo, it was I that struck him harder than you both! It was I who gave him the fatal blow! It was I who killed him! Oh, that my body had been severed in twain, my bowels taken from thence and burned to ashes, the ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven, that there might not be the least track or trace of remembrance among men, or Masons, of so vile and perjured a wretch as I am.”
The search party returns to the rocks, captures the three fugitives, and takes them to King Solomon. Kneeling before the king, all three plead guilty and are sentenced to the punishments out of their own mouths. With much clatter and scuffling, the three are taken out of the lodge room, and the candidate, still wrapped in his blanket, hears the groans and cries coming from outside the room. Then he hears a voice announce to the king that the sentences have been earned out.
Next, Solomon orders the twelve Fellow Crafts to search for the grave of Hiram Abiff, telling them that when they find his body to check carefully for any revelation of the Master’s word, or any key to it. Looking for the spot where the acacia had been pulled up, the searchers “discover” the initiate, still in his blanket "grave" in his role as Hiram Abiff. As they open the grave, they are overcome by the stench of the putrefying body and put their hands out in front of them, palms downward (emulating the due- guard of this degree), to ward off the smell. Probing the body, they discover nothing but the ribbon and jewel about his neck, which they take back to King Solomon, reporting that they could find no clue to the Master’s word, which, apparently, is now lost forever. (Some lodges say that the faint letter G appeared on the breast of the decomposing body.)
Turning to Hiram, king of Tyre (the lodge treasurer), Solomon decrees that the first sign given and the first word uttered at the grave shall become part of the rule of the Master Mason's degree until That-Which-Was-Lost is discovered by future generations. All then move to the “grave” and encircle it. King Solomon. upon his first view of the body, raises his hands, palms forward (in the Grand Hailing Sign of Distress of the Master Mason), and cries, “Oh, Lord my God, is there no help for the widow’s son?” Then the king asks that the body be raised from the grave by the grip of the Entered Apprentice, but is told that the flesh leaves the bone when that grip is tried. Then he asks that the body be raised with the grip of the Fellow Craft, but that grip, too, fails to raise the body. Finally, Solomon says that he will try, personally, to raise the body from the grave by using the “Lion’s Paw,” the grip of the Master Mason. Applying the grip (and assisted by several members of the lodge), he raises the candidate’s body to a vertical position and arranges that the candidate’s right foot is inside the right foot of Solomon, their right knees pressed together, their left hands on each other’s backs, with their mouths close to each other’s ears. In some jurisdictions, the Worshipful Master, as King Solomon, whispers to the candidate the Master’s word mahabone and has him whisper the word back, cautioning the new Master that the word must only be passed in this position, called the “five points of fellowship.” As the newly raised Master Mason learns the Master’s word, the blindfold is removed.
Stepping back, the Worshipful Master explains that the five points of fellowship are: Foot-to-Foot, to indicate that a Master Mason will go out of his way, on foot if necessary, to assist a worthy brother; Knee-to-Knee, as a reminder that in his prayers to the Almighty, the Master Mason remembers his brother’s welfare as well as his own; east to-Breast, as a pledge that each Master Mason will keep in his own breast any secrets of a brother when given to him as such, murder and treason excepted; Hand-to-Back, because a Master Mason will always be ready to reach out his hand to support a brother and to defend his character and reputation behind his back, as well as to his face; and Mouth-to-Ear, because a Master Mason will always endeavor to caution and to give good advice to an erring brother in the most friendly manner, pointing out his faults and giving him timely counsel so that he may ward off approaching danger.
Partly because the newly raised Master Mason could hardly be expected to have completely grasped the story of Hiram Abiff encumbered by a blindfold and wrapped in a blanket, the entire “historical account” of the murder of the Grand Master is delivered to him, with detail added. He is told that, after Hiram was pulled from the grave by King Solomon, he was buried beneath (sometimes “near”) the Sanctum Sanctorum of the temple, which was being built to house and honor the Ark of the Covenant. He is told that, according to Masonic tradition, a beautiful monument (now lost) was built to honor the memory of Hiram Abiff. It consisted of a beautiful virgin weeping over a broken column, with a book open before her. In her right hand she held a sprig of acacia; in her left, an urn. Behind her stood Time, counting the ringlets in her hair. It is explained that the broken column represents the unfinished temple, as well as the unfinished life and task of Hiram Abiff. The book is the eternal record of the Grand Master’s virtues and accomplishments. The sprig of acacia symbolizes his immortality and the urn holds his ashes, while the figure of Time reminds us that time, patience, and perseverance accomplish all things. All this, the initiate is told, is the reason why the Master Masons’ lodge is known as the Sanctum Sanctonim of Freemasonry.
The new Master is shown many of the Masonic symbols, with their explanations, none of which is known to have existed in Secret Masonry. (Americans will be most interested in the All- Seeing Eye, the symbol of the Supreme Being, the Great Architect of the Universe, because it appears on every U.S. one-dollar bill, above a topless pyramid, a Masonic symbol for the unfinished Temple of Solomon.)
Thus ends the initiation of the Master Mason, most interesting of the three degrees to us because it contains the unexplained allegory that gave Freemasonry its central identification with the constriction of the Temple of Solomon. Because it freely departs from the biblical account, it most certainly hides clues as to the origins of the Masonic order. Now it was time to address the mysterious words, terms, symbols, and Old Charges of Secret Masonry, beginning with the special Masonic vocabulary that down through the centuries has helped to set it apart from all other organizations, and by the use of which Masons all over the world instantly recognize each other."- Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry by John J. Robinson Pg. 215-223
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