Wisdom begins with a willingness to learn. It requires attention, patience and awareness of the limits of our own knowledge.
Listening to another person's thoughts, asking an honest question and accepting a well-reasoned correction are all part of the same work: the gradual development of sound judgement.
Strength is revealed in the ability to govern our own actions. We need it to keep our word, accept responsibility and remain consistent when doing so requires effort.
Working on our character means confronting our own vanity, impulsiveness and prejudices. This work requires perseverance and honesty with ourselves.
Beauty emerges where knowledge and action find their proper measure. It can be recognised in a carefully spoken word, a job well done and a relationship that respects the dignity of another person.
In shared work, beauty is reflected in the harmony of the whole, to which each individual contributes through attention and responsibility.
Brotherhood is nurtured through trust, consideration and a willingness to help. It leaves room for differences in experience and opinion, alongside a duty of mutual respect.
Fraternal closeness also carries responsibility: to be honest, to safeguard what is entrusted to us and to encourage others to exercise independent judgement.
The Ten Commandments of Freemasonry
Albert Pike presents the Masonic Decalogue in Morals and Dogma (1871), in the chapter devoted to the Apprentice degree. Within the tradition of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, these teachings offer an ethical guide to self-improvement and our relationships with others.
God is eternal, omnipotent, immutable wisdom, supreme intelligence and inexhaustible love. Adore, revere and love Him! Honour Him by practising the virtues He teaches.
Let your faith be to do good for the joy it brings, and not merely because you consider it a duty. To become the friend of the wise, follow their teachings! The soul is immortal! Do nothing that could debase it.
Strive unceasingly against vice! Do not do to others what you would not wish them to do to you! Accept your destiny and keep the light of wisdom burning.
Honour your parents! Show due respect and honour to the elderly! Teach the young! Protect and defend childhood and innocence.
Love and care for your wife and your children! Love your country and respect its laws.
Let your friend be your other half! Do not let misfortune separate you from him! Do for his memory everything you would have done for him while he lived.
Avoid insincere friendships and flee from them! Be excessive in nothing! Beware of bringing a stain upon your own memory.
Do not let your passions rule you! Learn from the mistakes others have made through passion. Be tolerant of the errors of others.
Listen much, speak little, do good! Forget the wrongs done to you! Return good for evil! Abuse neither your strength nor your power over others.
Strive to know people, so that through them you may come to know yourself! Always seek virtue! Be just! Avoid idleness.
Love one another! Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his Brother, remains in darkness.
Freemasonry uses builders' tools and images as means of moral and philosophical reflection. We return to a symbol with new experience, discovering questions we had not previously known how to ask.
Its meaning also depends on the ritual context. The general interpretations presented here offer an introduction to this language.
The square reminds us of the need to measure our own actions against a standard of right conduct.
It poses a simple yet demanding question: do our actions accord with the principles we profess? The answer is found in our daily choices, especially when no one is watching.
The compasses point to moderation, boundaries and the ability to govern ourselves.
Their symbolism invites us to recognise the moment when personal desire becomes excess and our own freedom encroaches on the freedom of another.
The rough ashlar represents the possibility of being shaped. In it, we may recognise a human being with abilities, habits and shortcomings.
Dressing stone requires patience. Likewise, character changes gradually: through learning, practice, mistakes and a willingness to try again.
The light and dark squares may be read as a reminder of the contrasts that accompany human experience: joy and sorrow, certainty and doubt, success and trial.
Walking across such a floor calls for balance. We strive to preserve moderation and dignity amid the varied circumstances of life.
The tracing board brings symbols together into a whole and directs attention to their relationships. Its content and appearance depend on the rite and the degree in which the work is conducted.
Before it, we pause, observe and reflect. An individual symbol gains deeper meaning when its place within the whole image is understood.
The Sun and Moon belong to the traditional symbolic language of Freemasonry. Their interpretations vary between rites.
As a pair, they can encourage reflection on rhythm, alternation and balance — on the time for action and the time when we pause to understand what we have done.
The traditional mason's level, with its triangular frame and suspended weight, is used to establish a horizontal line. Symbolically, it reminds us of equality in human dignity and the need to approach others without arrogance.
Equality does not erase differences in experience and responsibility. It calls on us to respect a person regardless of position, wealth or title, and to keep our own judgements balanced.
The plumb, a weight suspended from a cord, indicates the vertical. In Masonic symbolism, it may be understood as a call to moral uprightness, consistency and an honest relationship with our own conscience.
Its still line reminds us to examine the rightness of our actions even when it would be easier to follow the expectations of others. To stand upright is to accept responsibility for our words and deeds.
A candle flame draws our attention. In its presence, the space grows quiet, and movements and words become more measured.
In Masonic symbolic language, light is often associated with knowledge, understanding and inner awakening. The pursuit of light entails a willingness to examine our own judgements and to continue learning even when we believe we already know.
The temple gives this work a space and an order. Its columns, floor, tools and lights form a whole in which every detail directs attention towards the meaning of the work.
The work of inner building continues after we leave the temple. What we have understood is tested in life: in our relationships with family, friends, colleagues and people whose beliefs differ from our own.
The light we seek calls us to act with greater care.
