Acacia Lodge #1
Ancient, Accepted and Esoteric Freemasons
A A & E F

The Candidate's Lecture

Lecturer: Congratulations on completing the Candidate's Ritual.

The first part of this ritual was the reading of The Master Mason Lodge. This paper was intended to familiarize you with the layout of the lodge and the nine officers of a Lodge of regular Master Masons.

The Lodge is laid out in a rectangle which is longer than it is wide. This alludes to the fact that all humans are taller than they are wide and that the Lodge is a symbol of your body. In Masonry it is said that the Masonic Lodge is the Temple of King Solomon in all his wisdom. You are the Temple of King Solomon and you are the wise king that runs that temple.

In the middle of the lodge is an altar. In the middle of your body is an altar which is your heart. As the altar in a Masonic Lodge is the Heart of the Temple, so your heart is the altar in your personal temple. Here the Divine resides in you as it does in the Masonic Lodge.

The Master of the Lodge presides in the east. This represents the head of the lodge. The head does the thinking and in Masonry we assign the direction east to the art of thinking and the Element of Air which represents thinking. As your head is above your body, so the east of the Lodge is raised up above the rest of the Lodge.

The Master of the Lodge is the chief executive officer of the lodge just as your mind is the CEO of your body. As the Lodge does whatever the Master decides, so does your body accomplish the intentions of your mind.

In regular Freemasonry, the Master of the Lodge is called the Worshipful Master. This appellation does not mean regular Masons worship the Master. Rather it indicates the level of respect Masons hold for the office of Master of the Lodge. In Esoteric Freemasonry we hold the same level of respect for the office as regular Masons but we use the simple title of that office.

The stations for the Senior and Junior Wardens are raised above the rest of the lodge to a lesser extent.This is to show that these officers are elevated above the rest of the Masons but to a lesser degree than the Master of the Lodge. I hasten to mention that any man or woman raised above the other members of the craft are neither better people or Masons than any of the other members. They are merely in a position of tenuous and temporary authority within the lodge.

In front and to the north and south of the Senior Warden's station stand two pillars. The white pillar in the south represents to Pillar of Fire which is the Left Hand of the Divine. The Pillar of Fire is also called the Pillar of Wisdom. You will learn much more about this pillar as you progress through the degrees of Masonry.

The black pillar in the north is the Pillar of Strength which is the Right Hand of the Divine. This is the Pillar of Cloud or the Pillar of Water mentioned in the Books attributed to Moses. The Pillar of Strength is also called the Pillar of Power. You will learn much about this pillar as well.

The Junior Warden presides over the Pillar of Strength and the Senior Warden presides over the Pillar of Wisdom while the Master of the Lodge presides over the Lodge. The Master also presides over the invisible pillar in the lodge, the Pillar of Beauty.

These three officers are the three primary officials in the Lodge. They are also the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue, the primary sounds of Ee, Ah, and Oh and the representatives of the Spirit, Soul and Ego as you will learn later in your Masonic work. Answering to these three primary officers are six minor officers representing the secondary and tertiary colors, sounds and spiritual aspects as you will also learn later.

It will serve you well to continue studying The Master Mason Lodge and the rest of the degree lectures as they are presented to you and come into your possession. It will also serve you well to continue studying The Candidate's Ritual until you understand it very well. It is to this ritual we now turn our attention.

When you arrived at the main entrance door to the building, you found the door locked and you could not enter. You knocked three times on the door as previously instructed and the door opened. This is to teach you that many times in life our way is blocked. We think we've come upon a brick wall through which there is no passage. But upon further examination we discover it to be a door upon which we knock and the door is opened.

Not only was the door opened for you but a friendly person greeted you and a friendly hand reached out to you. This is to teach you that the Universe opens doors for us almost daily and those doors are opened by people who extend their hands to us in friendship. It is written: Ask and it will be given unto you, knock and it will be opened.

Your guide led you to the door of the Candidate's Preparation Room, which door was also locked and you could not gain entry. But to reinforce the previous lesson, your guide knocked on the door and it was opened to you. Not only was the door opened to you but two more people greeted you and extended their right hand to you in friendship. This is to teach you two things.

First, as you continue to ask, it will continue to be given unto you, and as you continue to knock, doors will continue to open for you. This reinforces the previous lesson. Secondly, it teaches you that when other people willingly help you the results multiply. At first one person offered to assist and now three are willing to work on your behalf. Where there was one person with a mission, now there are four sharing that mission.

You were shown the clothing and props of our rituals in that room. Nothing was withheld from you though many things you do not yet understand. This is to teach you that everything we need to live our lives is right here in plain sight. All we need to do is learn how to recognize and use these things to accomplish our goals and purposes.

Your questions were answered and your guide knocked on yet a third door to bar your way. You could hear discussions on the other side of the door and the door was opened. But this time the door was not opened for your entry but to ask who was there and for what purpose. You were asked four questions which you answered and you were then told to wait with patience and the door was closed to you.

This is to teach you that in life we may come upon some doors from time to time that are only partially opened to us and we are questioned and told to wait with patience until some task is completed so we may gain entry. Most of the time the task is something we must do. At other times the task is something others must do before the door will open for you. In this case, the task was done by others as they considered your answers to the questions you were asked.

The first question was why you knocked on the door. Your answer was because you wanted to become a Candidate so you could decide whether to become a Mason or not. This is a worthy purpose. Gathering information so you can make a decision is always a worthy purpose for knocking on any door.

The second question was whether you made this request of your own free will. Your answer was that you were requesting entry of your own free will and accord. Had you given any negative answer, you would have been escorted out of the Lodge. This is to teach you that the only worth pursuits in life are those you enter into freely without coercion or undue influence from others.

The third question was to verify you were of lawful age and willing to work to attain your goal. Were you not known to be of lawful age we would have required your parent or guardian to give permission for you to continue. What we really wanted to know is if you were willing to work. We really don't want to waste our time helping anybody who doesn't want to do the necessary inner work to become the person they're destined to become. Those who refuse to do their inner work never achieve that worthy goal.

Finally you were asked if you believe in the Divine Creator whom Esoteric Freemasons call the Grand Architect of the Universe. This belief is fundamental to Esoteric Freemasonry. It's impossible to seek guidance from a Divine Creator if you don't believe in the existence of that Divine Creator. If you had denied believing in the Grand Architect of the Universe, we would have parted ways right then and there. Since you answered in the affirmative, you were asked to wait with patience while your request was being considered.

Patience is a skill that when cheerfully learned will always serve you well. Waiting with patience at the proper time and place is a necessary discipline we are asked to learn as a Mason. In due time, the door was opened to you and you were allowed to enter the Lodge in order to be instructed on our ways.

You were led randomly about the Lodge from one officer to another while you learned each officer's place or station and duty. This is to teach you not about the functions of the officers of the Lodge but that learning what you desire to learn is often a random journey. In the end, your success in life is all about your ability to pull all of these random skills together to express your individual uniqueness and fulfill your life's mission of helping other people.

The stations of the three principal officers in the Lodge are in the east, west and south. These three elected officers occupy the three stations in the Lodge, namely east, west and south. You are well advised to learn the stations and duty of these officers and the things they represent. This knowledge will serve you well as you proceed through the degrees of Esoteric Freemasonry.

All other officers have their place elsewhere about the Lodge close to the place where each performs his or her duty for the benefit of the Lodge.

To review the officers, their duty and station or place in the Lodge and the esoteric property they represent, I give you now this chart. This chart you may keep whether you decide to become a Mason and join this Lodge or not. There is more to this chart than meets the eye but many of these things are hidden and unknown to you at this stage of your life. More will be revealed as you progress through the degrees of Freemasonry.

Chart of Lodge Officers in an Esoteric Lodge