Looking at the degrees as an ongoing Masonic education, you can relate the EA degree to elementary school; the FC degree to High School

and the MM Degree to College. Once you have finished the degrees, you are encouraged to continue studying, focusing on the ritual.

The EA degree is the doorway into masonry . As in everything in life, there must be groundwork laid for further development and

In the EA degree you are given your first look at the lodge and how it works. So, What is a lodge?

1 - Lodge - an English word meaning to house or shelter. In the middle ages, operative masons traveled from town to town as they were

contracted to build cathedrals and other large official buildings. They needed places to live in while they fulfilled these contracts. They built

barracks for themselves; these places of food and shelter were also used as their meeting places. A traveling mason would be able to find

one of these lodges and , proving themselves as brothers, they were able to obtain “lodging”.

Having said that, let us address the more important definition to us as speculative masons of a lodge of Masons. In the first degree, we are

taught that a lodge is a certain number of brothers duly assembled , with a VSL, square and compasses and a charter or dispensation. So the

most important definition of a lodge of masons is the brothers who comprise that lodge and meet in masonic fellowship and brotherhood.

A lodge of Master Masons is called a “Blue Lodge”. – All Lodges of Ancient Craft Masonry are called “Blue Lodges”. Blue being the

distinctive Masonic Color, from the Blue Vault of heaven which is the covering of a symbolic Lodge.

An entered apprentice is a mason to the extent that he is called brother and has certain rights. He is not yet a mason in the legal masonic sense,

(Not having received all of the light of masonry)

The First degree teaches a number of important lessons that are built upon in the next two degrees.

They are:

1 - The necessity of a BELIEF IN GOD -

2 - Trust in the FIDELITY of a brother -

3 - The reason for CHARITY to all mankind (but especially to a brother)

4 - The necessity for SECRECY

5 - The meaning of BROTHERLY LOVE

6 - The reason for RELIEF

7 - The greatness of TRUTH

8 - The advantage of TEMPERANCE

9 - The value of FORTITUDE

10 - The part played in Masonic life by PRUDENCE

11 - The equality of strict JUSTICE

Freemasonry’s only dogma consists of a MORAL and ETHICAL principle. In a nutshell –

ALWAYS DO WHAT IS RIGHT.

The ritual contains many allusions to this principle;

1 - Purity of Life and conduct

2 - Being a good man and true

3 - Practice the domestic and public virtues

4 - Square your actions by the square of virtue and display discretion, virtue and dignity.

The whole doctrine of Freemasonry will be learned at the altar and is contained within the angle of a SQUARE, the points of the extended

COMPASS and the pages of the VOLUME OF SACRED LAW.

A - The square is the instrument by which we measure that which we build. You must measure yourself against a standard that you set. The

standard is not as important as the fact that we do measure our progress.

The key is to set standards that are at a higher level than you are presently at but are attainable. ( You can always set new ones when you reach the ones you have set).

We also use it to measure ourselves against the principles and teachings of Freemasonry. We try to Square our actions by the Square. We always try to be square in our dealings with others . As long as we keep the teachings of the square and practice them, we are refining and improving our own spiritual and moral being.

B - The compass is the instrument we use metaphorically to circumscribe our lives and our conduct. Again we set our boundaries.

We strive to keep our passions within those due bounds that we set. It is a very basic set of rules that we have for ourselves. Always do right. N

Never cheat or wrong a brother (or any person) knowingly. If we wrong someone unknowingly, it is incumbent on us to try to make it right. The

simple rules ( like the 10 commandments) are guides for life. They are useless if those they apply to lack the basic character to abide by them.

Ethical rules, unlike most laws, are observed only by ethical people.

Honor codes are meaningless to people without honor. We strive to always be the person to whom the ethical rules and honor code resonates

to the very heart of our being. We do the right thing because it is the right thing. In the Holy Bible, which is the Volume of Sacred Law that

I follow, is an observance of such an inherently immoral action. The passage is :

“For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul.”

C - The volume of sacred law is that moral and ethical trestle board given to us by the Great Architect of the Universe and by whose teachings we keep our feet firmly upon the path marked out for all men.

One of the most important points I want to make is that Masonry does not try to make you into a good man. You are expected to be a “good man