From the Office of the Right Worshipful Grand Lecturer
May 4, 2010
The lights
It has always been know that the Square and Compasses were generally used as an emblem of the craft of Freemasonry, often in conjunction with the plumb the square and the level. After the 14 th century the book sacred to the Lodge was a copy of the Old Charges or old Constitutions and it rested on a pedestal in front of the Master when an apprentice took his oath on it. Around 1725 the Bible took place of the Old Charges as a more binding element for when the apprentice took his obligation the bible was then deemed to be the Volume of Sacred Law. The Bible was surrounded were the book lay on the pedestal (not an alter at this time) by three candles, the origin, it is reasonable to believe of the Three Lesser Lights. It is believed that at this time the Square and Compasses stood for the Craft of Masonry; the Bible stood for the Obligation and the pledge wherein the Candidate swore to be faithful to that art.
The symbolism of the Three Lesser Lights is a little more difficult to explain a Mason has no clue in his own daily experience to the significance of the position of the Sun and Moon, astronomical objects, and the Master, who is incumbent of an office which has not discoverable connection with astronomy. When dealing with operative Masons we see that in typical contracts there is reference to the working hours of the day, usually for six months in the summer the working day was one or two hours longer than in the winter. The day was governed not by a clock but by the hours of daylight, therefore the Sun meant the working day and the Moon would represent the night or non-working day. From then until a period within the memory of men still living the working day was regulated not by an arbitrary schedule of so many hours, but according to the seasonal alterations of day and night. The master then would be the Lodge at work, for the Craftsmen began labor when he called on, and ceased when he called off. The Lesser Lights therefore represent a working Lodge because the verb “to work” belongs to the definition of the word “Lodge.” Thus if the Greater Lights represent Freemasonry as a whole, the Lesser Lights represent a particular Lodge, in which case “Greater” and “Lesser” have a meaning which is obvious for the Fraternity as a whole is in every sense greater that a local Lodge. Also, and not to crowd the interpretation beyond reasonable limits, it is by means of the Lesser Lights, or Lodge, that a Candidate finds, or has revealed to him, the world-wide Fraternity.
P.M. Edward J.A. Moore
RW Grand Lecturer