The term Fellow Craft is so awkward a title for a level of membership that it almost certainly began in some more conventional form, only to be bent out of shape to force it into some new mold. One meaning of that strange term might be “another craft,” which would make no sense as the title of a degree of membership, so it can be assumed that at some point the term had been “Fellow of the Craft,” which may be revealing. “Fellow” means a peer, an equal, as in a fellow of the Royal Society. Used in the Masonic “guild” concept, it appears to be an attempt to position a level between Apprentice and Master, designating the Fellow Craft as the equivalent of the journeyman. However, we have already seen that the journeyman was not a “fellow” of the guild—only Masters enjoyed that status. This gives support to the point made by early Masonic writers that in Secret Masonry there were only two degrees, the Entered Apprentice (the Scots say Intrant) and the Fellow. The title of Master was not representative of a degree but rather indicated the master of a lodge. The original Master Mason, then, was a master of men, not the master of a craft. The Fellow Craft was in every way the full member.
This point is supported by the diary of Elias Ashmole, the English antiquary whose collections provided the base for the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. A diary entry indicates that he became a Freemason on October 16, 1646, about seventy years before Freemasonry revealed itself in 1717. To the point, a much later entry on March 11, 1682, records his attendance at a lodge meeting in London. He says, “I was the Senior Fellow among them (it being thirty-five years since I was admitted).” It seems safe to assume that someone of Ashmole’s stature would not have spent thirty-five years in the second degree if the third degree had existed in his day.
As to the Fellow Craft initiation ceremony, it is primarily a series of variations on the Entered Apprentice degree, with none of the dramatic change that characterizes the Master’s ritual, although the lecture following is most revealing. This time the right breast, leg, and foot are bare, rather than the left. The cable-tow rope is looped twice around the initiate’s neck instead of once (in some jurisdictions the rope is looped around the shoulder). Again, the candidate is “hoodwinked,” or blindfolded. That term may be another indication of age, and originally may have meant (remembering the livery worn by the rebels at Beverly, Scarborough, and York) that a hood was pulled down over his face, as the hawk is “hoodwinked” in falconry. This meaning certainly was in use before the term came to indicate trickery and deception. Some have suggested that the blindfold is used in the ceremony to add drama and instill an exciting note of fear. The real reason is much simpler than that: In secret societies, especially illicit secret societies, the blindfold is a necessary precaution, used to make certain that the candidate does not see the face of any other member until after he has passed through the initiation, assumed the obligations of his oath, and been admitted.
After being guided through the ceremony, passing around the lodge room from station to station, the candidate once again finds himself before the altar, still blindfolded, where he takes the oath of the second degree. He is guided into a position that has him kneeling on his bare right knee. His right hand is on the compass and square on the Bible, while his left hand is raised with his upper arm horizontal and his forearm vertical, thus forming a square. Once again, the Master of the lodge assures him that the oath will not interfere with his duty to God or country. The candidate then repeats after the Master:
“I,———, of my own free will and accord, in the presence of Almighty God and this Worshipful Lodge of Fellow Craft Masons, erected to God and dedicated to the holy Saints John, do hereby and hereon most solemnly promise and swear, in addition to my former obligation, that I will not give the secrets of the degree of a Fellow Craft Mason to anyone of an inferior degree, nor to any other being in the known world, except it be to a true and lawful brother, or brethren Fellow Craft Masons, or within the body of a just and lawfully constituted lodge of such; and not unto him nor unto them whom I only hear so to be, but only unto him or unto them whom I shall find so to be, after strict trial and due examination, or lawful information. Furthermore, I do promise and swear that I will not knowingly harm this lodge, nor a brother of this degree myself, nor suffer it to be done by others, if in my power to prevent it.
“Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will obey all regular signs and summonses given, handed, sent, or thrown to me by the hand of a brother Fellow Craft Mason, or from the body of a just and lawfully constituted lodge of such; provided it be within the length of my cable-tow, or a square and angle of my work. Furthermore do I promise and swear that I will aid and assist all poor and penniless brethren Fellow Crafts, their widows and orphans, wheresoever disposed around the globe, they applying to me as such, as far as in my power without injuring myself and family. To all of which I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear without the least hesitation, mental reservation, or self-evasion of mind in me whatever, binding myself under no less penalty than to have my left breast torn open and my heart and vitals taken from thence and thrown over my left shoulder and carried into the valley of Jehosaphat, there to become a prey to the wild beasts of the field and the wild vultures of the air, if ever I should prove willfully guilty of violating any part of this my solemn oath or obligation of a Fellow Craft Mason, so help me God, and keep me steadfast in the performance of the same.”
(In reciting the penalty of the oath, a variation says, “. . . no less penalty then having my breast torn open, my heart plucked out and placed on the highest pinnacle of the temple.” Quite apart from the fact that there is no indication that the Temple of Solomon had any pinnacles, the version using these words, with vital organs thrown over the left shoulder, has been cited by one anti-Mason as evidence that the brutal mutilations inflicted on several women in London by the murderer known as Jack the Ripper were not mindless butchery, but mutilation administered in conformity with this penalty of the oath of the Fellow Craft Mason.)
After taking the oath, the blindfold is removed and the new Fellow Craft is taught the handgrip and password of this degree. He is also taught the penal sign, which calls to mind the penalty of having the heart plucked from his breast; he is shown how to move his flat right hand across his left breast, then let it drop to his side. As with the first degree, the due-guard of the Fellow Craft repeats the positions that his hands were in as he took the oath: the right hand in front of him waist high, palm down (as he held his hand on the Bible and compass and square), and his left arm raised, forming a square.
In the second part of his initiation, the newly made Fellow Craft Mason is directed to a symbolic (or real, if the lodge is sufficiently affluent) spiral staircase leading to the Middle Chamber of the Temple of Solomon, reached by passing between two columns. These columns, he is told, represent Jachin and Boaz, the great bronze columns that flanked the outer porch of the Temple of Solomon. On top of each is a globe, one representing a map of the world and the other a map of the heavens (although neither would have been available at Solomon’s court). Contemplation of these two globes is meant to motivate all Masons to study astronomy, geography, and navigation. The initiate is told that the original columns were hollow and used to protect the secret documents of Masonry from flood and fire.
The initiate next learns that Freemasonry incorporates both Operative (working) and Speculative (allegorical) Masonry and is told that Freemasons built the biblical Temple of Solomon, in addition to many other notable stone structures.
The first three steps to the Middle Chamber represent youth, manhood, and old age, equated to the initiation as Entered Apprentice in his youth, maturation into knowledge and good works as a Fellow Craft, and living out his days as a Master Mason in confidence of immortal life, as he reflects on his honorable life as a Freemason. The three steps are also said to stand for wisdom, strength, and beauty.
The next five steps have two symbolic meanings. First, they represent the five orders of architecture: Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. Second, they are said to represent the five senses: hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting.
The next seven steps are linked symbolically with a whole catalog of sevens, including the seven years of famine, the seven years of construction of the temple, the seven wonders of the world, and the seven planets, but most significantly they are said to symbolize the seven liberal arts and sciences, which are grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, astronomy, and, most emphatically, geometry. The initiate is encouraged in the lecture of this degree to dedicate himself to the study of the liberal arts, to the extent that this degree takes on more of the flavor of a university fraternity than a mutually protective secret society.
The Worshipful Master calls the new Fellow Craft’s attention to the large golden letter G usually suspended from the ceiling or mounted on the wall above the Master’s chair. This is the G found in the current compass-and-square badge of Freemasonry, and it stands for Geometry. It is explained that the Fellow Craft degree is founded on the science of geometry, which is the central theme of the entire Masonic order. It is with this science that man comprehends the universe, the movements of the planets, and the cycle of the seasons. Especially is geometry of use to man in the Masonic science of architecture, and it is the basis for a Masonic designation of the Supreme Being as the Great Architect of the Universe. The initiate is told that geometry is so important to Masonry that the two terms were once synonymous.
In our search for origins, however, it should be borne in mind that the entire aura of learning, and the emphasis on geometry, are not part of the basic ritual. They are presented and extolled in the lecture following, an almost certain sign that they were added at a much later date. More of the clues being sought would be found in the initiation ceremony of the Master Mason, the most mystic ritual in all of Masonry, centered on the legend of the beating and murder of the master builder of the Temple of Solomon.