The “Fellow of the Craft”

Bob Weed Kingman Lodge #22

The Fellowcraft mason, in the labor of the craft, has been elevated to Journeyman status and is entitled to receive journeyman's wages. He has served his time as an Entered Apprentice and has demonstrated his proficiency in the craft. He has made his “masters piece” and is ready to be advanced. In Freemasonry, we ask the Fellowcraft candidate to show proficiency in the EA degree as his masters work. By doing so, he symbolically serves his apprenticeship and is prepared for advancement.

The FellowCraft degree is a call to learning. In it the FellowCraft is taught more lessons about to the square, level and plumb. Also the 5 orders of architecture and the 7 liberal arts. The FellowCraft is encouraged to study and educate himself. The degree is emblematic of Manhood and the lesson for the candidate is; in this degree he is an adult, with responsibilities and consequences. The symbology is one of growth, strength and vitality. The candidate has reached his potential as a man and is ready to go forth and “prove himself”.

In the Entered Apprentice Degree we were introduced to the Square, the level and the plumb. We were told that they were the immovable jewels because they were the jewels of the 3 principal officers of the lodge. “ The square denotes morality, The level equality and the plumb rectitude of life.”

Now in the FC degree we are given more insight into their esoteric meaning and the importance of them in our daily lives. We are received on the angle of a square, lectured about the plumb line that God showed to Amos and told to build our spiritual building upon the level of time. I would like to expand on these three most important symbols to us as masons.

Every man has a conscience. Every mason is told to square his actions by the square of morality. Each is told to live within the square of virtue. Every freemason is expected to carry the conscience of a fellowcraft’s square of virtue” in his breast and is admonished to do nothing which does not fit within its right angle. The lesson from the EA degree to live an ethical, moral and just life is carried forward and expanded.

The level bids us to seek a peaceful and balanced place in our mind undisturbed by the passions which upset and sway us away from the path set out in the Holy Writings of the VSL. This internal serenity and equilibrium is what enables us to accept ourselves for what we have become, recognize what we are capable of and to strive to fulfill our potential as men and masons.

The greatest teaching of the level is equality. That is a truth that needs amplification. Face the fact of reality, men are not equal either by nature or grace. Men are unequal in physical power, mental acuity and moral values. Look around, each has different native abilities, strengths and passions. It is idle to talk of equality of opportunity, no matter how fine it sounds.

IT DOES NOT EXIST.

The man growing up in central Asia does not have the same opportunities as man growing up in central Europe.

What is the equality of which the level is symbolic?

It is the equal right of each man to the full use and development of such power as he has. This must be unhindered by injustice or oppression. The man with a desire for art must be able to pursue it with the same vigor as the man with a passion for building . It is in the free and friendly air of a lodge of masons that the principle of equality finds true meaning and expression.

We meet on the Level and part on the Square.

The level is used to prove horizontals. The operative mason builds his wall course by course, each level and straight. If his wall does not stand ‘on the level ‘, he can demolish it and begin again. Not so the Freemason who builds his building upon the level of time. He can never un-build that which is poorly wrought on that spiritual level. Once past,the opportunity is gone forever.

You must build on the level of time with a true plumb and a right square.The plumb is an instrument used to measure perpendiculars and is emblematic of rectitude of life....that is what we are taught in the lecture Let us re-quote:

And the Lord said unto me, Amos, What seest thou? A plumb line Lord. Then said the Lord, behold, I set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass them by.

The vital part is this: The Lord set a plumb line amidst the people of Israel. He did not set a standard to judge them in a far land or in high heaven. This is a symbolic acknowledgment that the people of Israel had reached a level of maturity where they were able to measure themselves against the standard that God set among them. They were now grown up and were to be held responsible for their own actions. The plumb line is used when the differentiation is between “upright” and close enough.

This is important to the Fellowcraft since it teaches him how to judge his own work. Plumb lines hang alike. All plumbs and all squares and all levels are equally accurate. The difference is one of location, the builder on one side of town would see the plumb line of a builder across town as being off. The angle would be right but the to the craftsman across town, the angle would appear to be wrong.

The FellowCraft learns to judge his work by his own plumb line, not by others. If he erects that which is good work, true and square by his own working tools, his standards alone, then he does well. Only when a FellowCraft is false to his own conscience is he building other than fair and straight.