Kingman Masonic Lodge No. 22
Free & Accepted Masons

212 North 4th Street
Kingman, Arizona 86401
phone 928 753 3269

The Three Ruffians of the 3rd Degree
Bob Weed
Kingman Lodge #22

As every Mason knows, at the heart of our mysteries is a legend, in which we learn how three unworthy
craftsmen entered into a plot to extort from a famous Mason a secret to which they had no right.

The question is: Why is it that evil men, acting from low motives and for selfish aims, have such power
to throw the race into confusion and bring ruin upon all, defeating and ruining the very thing they hope to gain?
If we can’t answer such questions, we can at least ask another closer to heart. Since everything in Masonry
is symbolic, who are the ruffians and what is the legend trying to tell us? We know the names they were
in the mysteries, but what is the truth back of it all? What lesson are we to learn from this?

To those who trace our symbolism back to the dawn of time and ancient sun worship, the Ruffians can mean the
3 winter months plot to murder the beauty and glory of summer, destroying the life-giving heat of the sun.
The Sun is reborn in the Spring of the Year renewing faith in the Divine plan.

To those who seek the origin of Masonry in Ancient Egypt, it is the drama of Typhon (the spirit of evil),
who slays Osiris (the spirit of good), who is then resurrected, rising in triumph over death.

Those who seek the mysteries in the Bible find meaning in the life and death of Jesus. The three most ruthless
ruffians — the Priest, the Politician and the Mob, put him to death outside the city gates. Which of the
three is the greatest foe of Humanity is hard to tell, but when they work in concert, as they usually do, there
is no crime against man of which they are incapable.
Here they put names to the evil, Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate and the Mob.

In European Lodges the Ruffians are called the three Assassins. They are associated with the downfall of the
Knights Templar and are identified thus: Three renegade Knights falsely accused the Order of vile and evil things,
thus aiding King Phillip of France and Pope Clement to abolish The Order and slay its Grand Master Jacques DeMolay.

Albert Pike identified the Ruffians as three who are the greatest enemies of individual welfare and social progress
as Kingcraft, Priestcraft and the ignorant Mob-Mind. Together they conspire to destroy liberty, without which man
can make no advance.

Kingcraft strikes a blow at the throat, the seat of freedom of speech, a mortal wound.
Priestcraft stabs at the heart of man, the home of freedom of conscience, a near fatal wound since it puts
out the last ray of Divine Light by which man is guided. The ignorant Mob-Mind fells its victim dead with a blow to
the brain, which is the throne of freedom of thought.

No lesson can be plainer. If, by apathy, neglect or stupidity, we suffer free speech, free conscience and free
thought to be destroyed, the Temple of God will be dark, there will be no designs upon the Trestleboard and the
result will be idleness, confusion and chaos.

This is a parable of history. Where there is no light of Divine Vision, the altar fire is extinguished. The Bible
tells us that the people perish. The people meaning the rational group mind. They become an unthinking mob, where
there is no leadership or designs upon the Trestle board. Chaos comes again, and the people are like ignorant
armies striking out in the dark.

Of these three, the most terrible, ruthless and brutal is the ignorant Mob-Mind. No tyrant or priest can reduce a
nation to slavery and control it unless it is already lost in the darkness of ignorance. This does not mean just a
lack of knowledge, but the state of mind in which men refuse (or are afraid) to think, reason or question. When the
‘Great Freedoms of the Mind’ go, everything is lost.

To me, the lesson Pike teaches is that the three Ruffians rob themselves even as they rob their fellow craftsmen of
the most precious secret. A secret, which can’t be extorted, but is only won when we are worthy to receive it.
We can’t have real personal liberty until we are ready for it, and can only become worthy when we actively pursue
the understanding of what it means.

Some of us go even farther than this and find the same three Ruffians hiding in our own hearts. The best example I
have seen is the degree work as performed in a Lodge doing the Scottish Rite first degree. The Worshipful Master,
after the Senior Warden removes the blindfold from the candidate, asks the following question: “ Is there anyone
here that you can identify as an enemy or a foe?” The candidate is turned in a circle stopping as he faces each and
every man in the Lodge. He of course, answers in the negative. The question is put to him again and once again he is shown
every man in the Lodge. The second time he says there is no one present . The third time the question is put to him, the
last man he sees is holding a mirror so that the candidate is presented with himself.
The lesson is that the enemy of man is himself.

After the candidate is so enlightened, he is asked if he is ready to forgive his enemy and begin making the journey into
light. I understand that without confronting the internal evil that is in all of us, we can not progress towards that
perfection we seek. The way it was done was especially moving as all in the Lodge afterwards surrounded the candidate
and pledged to aid and assist in any way they could to facilitate that journey towards light.
.

Why do we do evil and mar the temple that in contained within us?

Socrates stated that the greatest evil is ignorance. No man in his right mind does evil unless he is so blinded by
ignorance that he does not see the right. No man, seeing good and evil side by side, will choose evil unless he is too
blind to see its results. An enlightened self-interest would stop him. Therefore, Socrates advises more knowledge,
more light and a clearer insight.

Plato said that is all true as far as it goes. But the fact is that men do see the right and wrong clearly, and yet
in a dark mood will choose the wrong in spite of knowledge. When the mind is calm and clear, the right is plain. A
storm of passion will stir up sediments in the bottom of the mind, clouding up logic with emotion so that clear
vision fails.

According to Aristotle, we do not get to the truth of the matter until we admit the possibility, in ourselves and
our fellows, of a moral perversity or spirit of sheer mischief, which does wrong, deliberately and in the face of right,
for the sake of wrong and for the love of it. Here truly is the greatest Ruffian, a desperate creature who can only be
overcome by Divine Help.

One does not have to break the head of a Brother to be a Ruffian. One can break his heart, spirit or good name.
Polite ruffianism goes on around us daily and is appalling. A brother can be broken by our inactivity and indifference.
Only by diligent watchfulness can the Ruffians be defeated.