As
Master Masons, we all first experience and then regularly bear witness
to the senseless murder of our ancient Grand Master, Hiram Abiff.
Rather than bestow the secrets of our craft on the unworthy, Hiram was
slain by three impetuous and undeserving Fellow Crafts. Before
receiving the blows that felled him, and even after having been
assaulted, Hiram patiently told his assassins that they would have
obtained that which they sought through patience and perseverance.
Our
tradition informs us that these Fellow Crafts did not deem themselves
worthy of receiving the Master’s word – it leave us to wonder why. Were
there skills not equal to that of their fellows of the second degree?
Perhaps they were over-eager to assume the role of an overseer of the
work before they were fit for the task. It is possible that as the Holy
Temple neared its completion, and as the workers were discharged, there
was no longer a need for additional supervision. We can only speculate
at their true motivation, since the Holy Scripture is silent regarding
the tale of the demise of our Ancient Grand Master. Our legends tell us
that Hiram was a perfected man, which must have contributed to his
enormous access to such a wide variety of mental and manual skills.
The
Book of Kings does indeed tell us that the Inner Court of the temple
had three gates, to the East, South and West, and our tradition dictates
that the ruffians conspired to trap the Widow’s Son there and wrest the
secrets from him.
We
are instructed that the Master first attempted to exit at the South
gate, representing the station of the Junior Warden, and was there met
by Jubela, who, after failing to extract the secrets from Hiram, struck
at his throat with the twenty-four inch gauge.
At
first consideration, the connection to the penalty of the Entered
Apprentice degree seems obvious – but a wooden ruler is hardly a fitting
implement to slice open someone’s throat. It should be noted that no
tools of iron or other metal would have been available to the ruffians,
so we can imagine that they improvised with what was at hand.
It
is of great interest that the Latin word for a gauge or ruler is CANON,
and refers to both the measuring device and to a
set of fundamental legal rules, as used in the term ‘canon law’. It can be
said that the use of the gauge as a weapon can be equated with tyranny,
in the sense that it can be accomplished by interfering with free speech
and expression. The organs of speech are the larynx, which generates
the sound necessary for speech, and the tongue, which forms these
vibrations into recognizable words. Although wounded, the Master
survives the attack.
When
the Master Hiram escapes to the West, he is then confronted by the
Senior Warden as Jubelo, who also attempts to extort the secrets by the
threat of violence. Choosing the wooden square, not the metallic square
we think of as one of the greater lights, he strikes him in the left
breast, in the place where the heart is found. As the heart is the
legendary seat of emotion, we can say that Jubelo attacked Hiram by
striking at his psychological and emotional well-being.
In
the noble art and science of rhetoric, which is recommended to us as
one of the ancient liberal arts, there are traditional names for
specific errors of argument known as ‘logical fallacies’. These are
tools of rhetoric used to invalidate specific elements of an opponent’s
arguments.. Among the more familiar of these is the fallacy called ‘argumentum ad hominem’,
or ‘ad hominem attack’ – meaning that
one attacks the person making the argument or their credibility and not the matter being
debated
Another of these fallacies is the phrase argumentum ad baculum,
which translates literally to ‘appeal to the striking rod’ or ‘appeal
to fear of violence’. By striking the Master in the heart, he attacks
his sense of affection for mankind as well as his love of his Craft.
This is naturally equated with the penalty of the Fellow Craft Mason’s
obligation. The commandments of the divine are that we should love one
another, be charitable to all mankind, and passionately pursue the noble
goals of Freemasonry -- these cannot be obeyed with one’s emotions in
disarray. As a result of this assault on the emotions we see numbness
of the soul, lack of sympathy, falseness, indifference, and treachery as
the result. Injured further, the master survives the second attack.
Having
escaped to the East, our Grand Master was confronted by Jubelum.
Jubelum strikes at the master with the gavel, which in many traditions
is replaced by a larger implement known as a ‘setting maul’. He is
struck on the forehead, which contains the portion of the brain known as
the ‘frontal lobe’, and is known to be the seat of intellect and
reason. In this case, the gavel represents the assault of the mob
mentality upon the intelligence and self-awareness of man, leading to
thoughtless violence and vulgarity, ignorance and inhumanity,
superstition, bigotry, and disempowerment of the logical mind.
It
is interesting that in the case of Jubelum, the attack on the Widow’s
Son is not directly related to the penalty of the Master Mason’s degree
in the same way as the other attacks. It is conceivable, however, that
we can consider the attack of the mob to be representative of a tearing
apart or rending of human civilization by animalistic behavior. When
the ignorant masses gain control, it becomes impossible to apply the
lessons of Freemasonry, which can be said to be essentially fractured
and burned
With
the crippling attacks on the voice and the heart, and the fatal attack
on the brain, the Master is slaughtered -- in the chamber of his own
design -- by Ignorance, Superstition and Tyranny. We must recall that
the central theme of the third degree is not the death of Hiram, but his
raising. Similar to other resurrection stories that are central to
religious and Masonic teaching, death is never permanent, but a
transition from incarnation to incarnation. The wisdom gained by
reflecting on the teachings of Freemasonry is what empowers us to
overcome these enemies of true human liberty.
It
is fitting to think of resurrection as being an indication of
immortality, which is further represented by the acacia sapling
mentioned in the degree and the funeral service. As the central figure
in the blue lodge, we are frequently reminded of the great and noble
deeds of Hiram, the widow’s son, a man for whom we are rightfully
encouraged to imitate. Far more than all other great personages of the
Craft, Hiram Abiff’s life and memory achieve immortality in the eternal
traditions and teachings of Freemasonry.
With thanks to Bro:. Kevin Main
© 2013 Mitch Goldstein
