UNITED GRAND LODGE OF ENGLAND
APPROVED ORATION
“THE INITIATES PREPARATION”
ORATION NUMBER: OR09044
LEVEL: BEGINNER
First Degree
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THE INITIATE’S PREPARATION
No brother will forget the day on which he became a Freemason.
The ceremony that he passed through was founded on the ancient
initiation ceremony of a Mason, a temple builder, and symbolised
the eternal search of the soul of man for spiritual light and
understanding.
Masonry instructs us by means of symbols, and its ceremonies are
dramatic parables. If you are an Entered Apprentice it must not be
expected that you will understand the full meaning immediately.
There are many levels of meaning, just as there are many degrees
of understanding, and you must search for the meaning yourself.
These will be unfolded gradually, but always remember that every
part of the ceremony has a hidden meaning and ponder all this in
your heart.
Being properly prepared also refers to the state of your heart and
soul as you sought admission into our Order. “Seek and ye shall
find, ask and ye shall have, knock and it shall be opened unto you”.
Before you were prepared for Initiation by the Tyler and introduced
into the Lodge room it was ascertained that you were willing to
submit yourself, unconditionally, to the rules of our fraternity. “A
man, who has been properly prepared to be initiated into
Freemasonry, is a symbol of a pure and uncorrupted man, as the
Craft wishes and requires having as a member”.
You were prepared in a particular way. Your physical preparation
was to be considered as the outward expression of your inner
preparation which precedes all true initiation and the form was very
ancient. Let us consider some of the things that happened to you at
your initiation and try to explain them.
In general, your clothing as a candidate is evidence of humility, one
of the greatest of all qualities that Freemasonry attempts to teach.
You were deprived of all metals for three especial reasons -
First, that you might bring nothing either offensive or defensive into
the Lodge to disturb its harmony.
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Second, as no doubt you remember from the ceremony, you were
received in a seeming state of poverty to serve as a warning to your
own heart that should you meet a brother in distressed
circumstances you should do to him as you would wish him to do to
you.
Third, that such was the excellence of the craft in those days, the
building of King Solomon’s Temple was completed without the aid of
metallic tools. As we read in the First Book of Kings, “The house,
when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was
brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any
tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.”
You gave up all symbols of wealth to show also that you were ready
to renounce material values and exchange them for spiritual ones.
Being deprived of money and metallic substances is not only
emblematic of being poor and penniless, but can also stress the
polluting influence they create. This is mentioned several times in
the Volume of the Sacred Law.
Our present day procedure is probably a survival of the idea of
pollution. Since you are symbolically erecting a temple within
yourself, you should resist all temptations which might cause
pollution. You came into the Lodge as you came into the world,
without material goods, and throughout life you should be ever
mindful of the opportunity to dispense help and assistance to the
needy.
You were slip shod as a gesture of reverence; an allusion to a
certain passage in scripture when the Lord spoke to Moses from the
Burning Bush saying ‘put thy shoes from off thy feet for the ground
whereon thou standest is Holy’. There is also reference to physical
preparation in The Jewish Talmud which states that ‘no man shall
go into the Temple with his staff, nor with his shoes on his feet, nor
wearing outer garment or with money tied up in his purse’. The
inference to be drawn from the slipshod condition is that,
symbolically, a candidate is entering upon consecrated ground, in a
state suggesting sincerity and honest intention.
You were hoodwinked, that your mind might conceive before your
eyes were enabled to discover the beauties of Freemasonry. As you
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were received in a state of darkness you were reminded to keep the
World so in respect of Masonic secrets. Moreover, had you refused
to go through the ceremony you would have been led from the
Lodge without observing its form! That darkness that you went
through also symbolises the humility which acknowledged your
ignorance of the higher truths which were unveiled to you.
Here is part of an old catechism of the eighteenth century:
Q. Why was you hoodwink’d?
A. That my heart might conceal or conceive, before my eyes
did discover.
Q. The second reason, Brother?
A. As I was in darkness at that time, I should keep all the world
in darkness.
The reason why a cable-tow with a running noose was placed about
your neck was explained in part during the ceremony. In ancient
times the Entered Apprentice wore the cable-tow to impress on his
mind his duty to keep within hail, so as to come in due time
whenever summoned by his Lodge, unless prevented by sickness.
The cable-tow is also a symbol of bondage, and that bondage is a
state of ignorance of the ritual of Freemasonry. The cable tow or
halter has from time immemorial been a symbol of captivity,
serfdom and slavery. Conquerors in ancient and medieval times
made leaders of defeated peoples appear before them wearing
halters.
Your left breast was made bare to indicate that there was no veil
between you and your fellow Masons, and that in your heart there
was no evil intention. It would also reveal gender as none save
freeborn men of mature age can be made Freemasons, but is also
likely due to the universal tradition that the heart, associated with
the left breast, is the seat of the soul, thereby signifying the
candidate’s fervency and sincerity, and to remind us that the heart is
the most delicate of the human organs, that it stimulates life and is,
symbolically, the repository of our emotions. Your right arm was also
bare, as a token of singleness of purpose and sincerity, and that the
Brethren might see that you carried no weapon about you.
Your left knee was bare in order that you could kneel at the altar
with nothing between you and the earth – from which we all spring.
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Your right foot was formed in a square; your right hand was placed
on the Volume of the Sacred Law, while your left was employed in
supporting the compasses, one point presented to your naked left
breast. It was in this position that you took your great and solemn
obligation of an Entered Apprentice Freemason.
You gained admission to the Lodge by three distinct knocks which
allude to the biblical exhortation already mentioned, ‘Seek and ye
shall find, ask and ye shall have, knock and it shall be opened unto
you’. There can be no better illustration of this than your presence
as a Freemason. For you sought in your own mind; you asked of a
friend whom you knew to be a Brother; and the door of
Freemasonry was opened unto you.
