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Yet Another Masonry/Alchemy Post

Dear Unknown Friend,

During the last Lodge of Instruction for Wasatch Lodge No.1 I made the following comments, which a dear Brother suggested be written down for posterity. Apparently, in all the nonsense I normally spew forth, this is considered worthwhile.

These comments were addressed to those Brothers vying for the role of Senior Deacon at an Entered Apprentice Degree.

I come from the school that Freemasonry is first, and foremost, an Initiatic Tradition. As such, the efficacy of the experience to promote change in the candidate should be our singular goal. Nothing can be allowed to compromise the experience of Initiation. Our ritual provides a great deal of information between the lines on how our Initiation works.

As you will all be deaconing,  I would like to speak on the topic of the Deacon. In the not-too-distant-past, the symbol for the Senior Deacon was not an emblazed sun, but Hermes. Hermes is the Olympian God of boundaries, and the travelers who cross them. But more directly to our Masonic interest is the aspect of Hermes as a syncretism of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The meanings behind that association I leave you to explore, but there is one that I want to elaborate upon. Starting with the Hermetic maxim: as above, so below, we understand - hermetically - that we are composed of three natures: our base nature, our higher nature, and our mediating nature, or our aspiration to balance/reconcile the two. In the Initiation, the Candidate represents his own base nature, the Worshipful Master represents his higher nature, and the Senior Deacon represents the mediator. In short, the Deacon is Hermes, escorting the Candidate from the exoteric border (Mundane World/Masonic World), and the esoteric (Base/Higher) border of themselves. The labyrinthine circumambulation through which the Deacon/Hermes guides the candidate, culminates at the center of Lodge/inner place, where all three meet, wisdom is imparted, and a new identity (Brother) is forged. The journey is emblematic of the process through which we may guide ourselves to the place where we may reconcile thesis (higher nature), and anti-thesis (base nature), through synthesis (Initiation).
Regardless of your belief, or disbelief, in this school of thought, the matter remains a simple fact – if you take all this as your guiding attitude when conducting candidates, you ensure the profundity of their experience meaning; which is ultimately our goal.

Again, a few Brothers of my Lodge found this information worthwhile, and asked that I share it publicly. So there you have it.

PotS
J.