Page 1-6 Flashcards
(22 cards)
Are you a fellow craft mason?
I am. Try me.
By what will you be tried?
By the square.
Why by the square?
Because it is one of the principle working tools of my profession.
What is a square?
An angle of 90 degrees or the one fourth part of a circle.
Where were you preferred to be made a fellow craft mason?
In a room adjacent to the body of a just and legally constituted lodge of fellow craft masons.
How were you preferred?
By being divested of all minerals and metals, neither naked nor clad, barefoot nor shad,
my right breast, knee, and foot bare, hoodwink, and a cable tow twice around my naked right arm,
in which condition I was led to the door by a brother.
Being hoodwink, how did you know there was a door?
By first meeting with resistance and afterward gaining admission.
How did you gain admission?
By giving three distinct knocks at the door from without,
which were answered by a like number from within,
followed by the inquiry who comes here.
Your answer?
Brother, “William Zelaya”, who has been regularly initiated an Entered Apprentice Mason,
and now seeks further light in Masonry by being pass to the degree of fellow craft.
What was then ask?
If this was of my own free will and accord, if I was duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified,
and if I had made the necessary proficiency in the preceding degree,
all of which being answered in the affirmative, I was ask by what further right or benefit I expect to gain admission into a lodge of fellow craft masons.
Your answer?
By the benefit of the pass.
How’d you pass?
I had it not, but my guide had
and gave it for me.
What was then said to you?
That I should wait a time with patience until the worshipful master in the east was inform of my request and his answer return.
What was his answer?
Let him enter.
How were you received?
Upon the angle of the square, applied to my naked right breast, which was to teach me that
as that square is an emblem of truth and morality,
so should truth and morality be the square of my action through life.
What was then done with you?
I was conducted twice around the lodge and caused to stop at the South, West, and East stations, where the same questions were ask, and like answer return as at the door.
What was then done with you?
I was reconducted to the senior warden in the west,
who taught me to advance by two regular steps,
my feet forming a right angle, my body erect facing the east.
What was then said to you?
That before we could proceed any further with the ceremonies of this degree, it would be necessary for me to take an obligation,
by which I would bind myself to keep inviolate all the mysteries of freemasonry, appertaining to the degree of fellow craft masonry,
and was assured that this obligation,
like that I had there to for taken,
would not interfere with the duty I owe to God, my country, my neighbor or myself, it appertained to freemasonry alone.
With this assurance on the part of the master, I was asked if I was willing to proceed.
Were you?
I was.
What was then done with you?
I was made a fellow craft mason in due form.
What is that due form?
Kneeling at the altar on my naked right knee, my left forming the angle of a square, my body erect within the square,
my right hand resting upon the holy bible, square, and compass,
my left arm forming the angle of a square, the hand in the vertical position
in which due form I took the solemn obligation of a fellow craft mason.
Repeat the obligation
I, “state your name”, of my own free will and accord, in the presence of God and this worshipful lodge of fellow craft masons, erected to him, and dedicated to the holy Saint John,
do hereby and here on, solemnly and sincerely, promise and swear,
in addition to my former obligation,
that I will always hail, forever conceal and never reveal any of the secret arts, parts, or points, of the hidden mysteries of freemasonry, appertaining to the degree of a fellow craft mason.
To any person, under the canopy of heaven, except it be, to a true and lawful brother of this degree, or within the body of a just, and legally constituted lodge of fellow craft masons.
And neither unto him nor them, until by strict trial, due examination, or legal information, I shall have found him or them to be as lawfully entitled to the same as I am myself.
I furthermore promise and swear, that I will answer all due signs given to me by the hands of a brother of this degree, and will obey all summons sent from within the body of a just and legally constituted lodge of fellow craft masons, if within the first square or angle of my work.
Furthermore, that I will aid and assist, all distressed worthy brother fellow craft masons, whether so, ever disperse around the globe, so far as I can do so, without serious injury to myself.
Furthermore, that I will not cheat, wrong, or defraud a lodge of fellow craft masons, or a brother of this degree, out of the value of anything, knowingly, and intentionally.
To all this, I do most solemnly and sincerely, promise and swear, with a fixed and steady purpose, to perform the same, without equivocation, mental reservation, or secret evasion of mind in me whatsoever,
Binding myself under no less a penalty, than that having my left breast torn open, my heart taken thence, and given as a pray, to the beast of the field, and the vultures of the air, so help me God and keep me steadfast, in the due observance of this, my solemn obligation, as a fellow craft mason.
