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THE LETTER OF THE Master of the Lodge

 

SOUND SYMBOLS

 

Dearest Brother,
I periodically happen to re-read excerpts from the excellent "The Emulation Rite - An authentic way of spiritual realization" by Taillades.
In his introduction to the Rite, the author recalls how disparate symbols have converged in this tradition which, although coming from very different contexts, have come to form a solid and coherent system.
In particular, during my last re-reading I focused on where it reads:
“In our spiritual work we are going to use above all the tools of the stonemason's trade as symbols. But the lodge itself, the ritual, the gestures, the words, the signs, the degrees, the ambulations, the lodge framework, the rhythm, the myth, etc. they are as many symbols of the Masonic tradition. In the established list there are mainly figurative symbols (proper to the traditions of sedentary peoples), but there is no shortage of sound symbols (proper to the traditions of nomadic peoples), such as Batteries.” (1)
In fact, there is no shortage of blows or batteries of blows in the ritual, to mark particular moments: an example of a single blow is that of the brothers during the Initiation ceremony, the battery of blows instead is often used as a greeting. And let's not forget the knitting of the Master of the Lodge and of the Wardens, or those of the Guards, to mark the various stages of the work.
Taillades underlines that the "sound symbols" are typical of the tradition of nomadic peoples, and here we must necessarily refer to the shamanic drum, which has a central function in marking the rhythm of the ancestral rites of many peoples.
The sudden sound blow or the series of blows not only serve to underline a particular moment of a ceremony, but are intended to induce a shock among those present. The image of the brother who is perhaps dozing a bit and is almost awakened by the shirt that falls in the silence of the temple can make you smile, but in reality even the most vigilant participant in the meeting warns, if he is present of what is happening, a kind of caesura, when the sound of the blow arrives, or when he is called to participate in a battery of blows. In that moment, in fact, not only the mental aspect of the brothers is involved, but the ritual directly stimulates their bodily part, which is precisely the most ancestral level that is stimulated in the rituality of primitive peoples, as underlined by Taillades.
This seems to me a depth and richness of our ritual that conflicts with the cold and austere intellectual image that is sometimes superficially and unjustly attributed to it.

 

See you soon!

 

S&F

W.M. M.B. Master of Lodge

 

(1) D.Taillades, Il Rito Emulation, Torino, HM 2016, pag. 29-30