CLC - ENTERED APPRENTICE - 05.22.17

its use a square cannot be erected and without a square a building cannot be built. The square and compass united are universally as the symbol of a Master Mason and of Freemasonry. Both symbols are much older than Freemasonry. Chinese manuscripts from two thousand years ago give them a significance consistent with our understanding of them in Freemasonry. No symbols in Freemasonry offer so many possible interpretations. But many symbols may mean different things to different men. Each interprets what he can and what he needs from Freemasonry’s symbols. In modern Masonic rituals, the compass is “dedicated to the Craft” and is emblematic of restraint. Years ago the philosopher Burke said “men of intemperate passions cannot be free; passions forge their fetters.” It is our passions in the larger sense; intemperance, excess temper, unjust judgment, intolerance, selfishness; that the spiritual compass seeks to circumscribe. Cornerstone. Symbol of beginning; symbol of sacrifice. Cornerstones are laid in the Northeast corner point, midway between the darkness of the North and the brilliance of the East and were chosen by ancient builders as the point of beginning, a commencement of a new structure. Halfway between, then, is a symbol of a beginning—the traveler has left the darkness and moved towards the light. Those who build have left the “darkness” in which is no building, and progressed far enough toward “light” to lay a foundation stone. Freemasons lay cornerstones and in the hollowed center put

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