The First Degree

            The phrase that I remember most among all the words of my First Degree are: “My Brother, this concludes the degree.  You will be seated among the Brethren.”  I did not remember much of what had transpired in the last hour, but I felt total relief that it was over and that I was now “in” instead of “out.”  That was a most happy time and I am sure that I was grinning from ear-to-ear, proud to wear the flap up!  During the hand shaking and the celebratory meal, I continued to enjoy my new status and thought very little about what had happened. It was not until the next day that I realized that I knew almost nothing about what I had seen or heard during my initiation.  I could go back and recall some the movements and a few of the words but very few.  I had to admit that I still knew almost nothing about Freemasonry.  It has taken me quite a while to feel that I am comfortable with what the first degree is about and how it connects to the future.  I attended as many First Degree initiations as I could find and read everything available from the Lodge library and the internet.  I also talked with all the more “elder” masons I could catch sitting still.  I want to share with you my thoughts and feelings about what this all means and why it is important.

            As you well know, an “operative” Entered Apprentice was a bearer of burden.  It was he who extracted the rough ashlars from the quarry, squared up the shape, and made it available to the master builder for use in the building.  This was normally the first real job a young person had and it took seven years to learn the lessons, prepare a project for judgment, and earn advancement to the next higher level.  So it is with us in Freemasonry today.  While the initial degree work requires much less time now, it will still take more than a month or a year to learn all that is required to be a fully qualified Entered Apprentice.  The goal of the entire degree is well summed up in the Entered Apprentice Candidate’s Lecture on the use of the common gavel.  If you can not immediately remember it, go look it up.  It is to achieve that statement that we work.  It will take all the information that we have been given in this First Degree to begin to accomplish that task.

            I found that an exercise will help prepare for the hard work ahead.  Find a room away from interruptions for fifteen or twenty minutes.  Sit comfortably but upright in a straight backed chair, your arms and hands on the arm rests or hanging loosely with your hands in your lap and your feet flat on the floor.  With your eyes open and your mind relaxed but alert, observe each thing in your room one at a time.  Get a sense that they are all outside of you, separate and a being on their own.  Take some time with each item and realize how they work without you.  The aim here is to get a feeling for who you are and who you are not.  Decide on how you receive benefits from each thing through your five senses.  That is the only way we have to interpret the material world outside of us. Sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch connect us to our outside world.  Without them we would know nothing about the world about us.  It would not exist for us.  On the other hand, if we receive information about something through any of the five senses, it is only about the world outside of us.  The word for this is “exoteric” from a Greek word meaning “outside”.  Everything that exits in the material world is “outside” of us.  It is our job to learn to control the passions we acquire for the material things that are outside of us.  Any physical benefit we receive from them is only physical – making our body feel better.  What a big job!  How can we get this thing started let alone done?

            We start by actually studying the parts of the First Degree.  Study well The Entered Apprentice Candidate’s Lecture.  It will take a while but it is well worth it as it contains many answers to our initial questions.  Study carefully what Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth mean to you.  Know the Cardinal Virtues and how they affect you.  My brother, be true to yourself and look for what truly exists, not for what you want to be there.  You must begin to know yourself, what you believe and what you value.  You will be making value judgments on the things that are external to you and learning to control them.

            You may well be surprised to find that things you have held to be true are really not so.  Your value system may well change.  Priorities become different.  You will also find yourself beginning to become the “better man” that you have been seeking and that Freemasonry has planned to help you create.  This will help us get to the Second Degree next time. 

This article first appeared in the Missouri Freemason Magazine in 2010.