From the East – November 2021

Greetings Brethren,

With our long awaited Master Mason degree about to take place, I felt compelled to write about its central powerful symbol, the small sprig of Acacia. Though much smaller in size than the giant 18 cubits high pillars we examined in the Fellowcraft degree last month, the Acacia, the symbol of immortality, is the most powerful Masonic symbol of all.

Long before the Masons adopted it as a symbol of immortality, the evergreen Acacia was used in the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, temples, and thrones for its powerful associations with everlasting life. Albert Mackey further points out that the sprig of Acacia symbolizes not just immortality, but initiation and innocence.

Prior to initiation as a Master Mason, the candidate as a Fellowcraft is still innocent of the “deeper and more abiding”
lessons to be given in this degree. He is told that it is a lesson “which human wisdom alone cannot suffice to teach.” He is also advised of the “power and the triumph of an unfaltering faith in God,” which I think leads to the most central and important lesson of the third degree, Faith.

As Carl Claudy writes, “The sprig of Acacia is not only the emblem of a future life but of faith.” Without faith, the sprig holds no power. Claudy also writes, “We cannot reason ourselves into or out of faith.” I am not so sure. I forget, and cannot find the original quote but it was I think, Brother C.K. Chesterton, or maybe C.S. Lewis who wrote, “There is no plan without a planner.”

In the Fellowcraft degree the candidate was instructed in the “mysteries of moral and physical science” and to enjoy “a contemplation of his wonderous works.” The complexities of the design of the Universe are way beyond the space we have here, but the lessons of the three degrees all emphasize the wonder of the planned creation from the original planner, the Great Architect. This leads us back to our original humble, tiny sprig of Acacia. Its great promise and power come not from within it, but from the reasoned and unfaltering faith within us.

Fraternally,
F. Lawrence Vernamonti WM
“The English never draw a line without blurring it.” – Brother Winston Churchill
“What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race.” – Thomas Sowell