What Happens in the Fellow Craft Degree?

The Fellow Craft is the second Blue Lodge degree. In Duncan’s 1866 text the candidate swears an obligation “under no less penalty than of having my breast torn open,” climbs a flight of “winding stairs, consisting of three, five, and seven steps” to the Middle Chamber of King Solomon’s Temple, and is shown the letter G, which the lecture says alludes to Geometry and “more particularly to the sacred name of the Deity.”

Key Points

• The obligation’s penalty is “having my breast torn open, my heart plucked out, and placed on the highest pinnacle of the temple” (Duncan, p. 65) (1).
• Duncan notes a variant: “My heart and vitals taken from thence, and thrown over my left shoulder, and carried into the valley of Jehoshaphat” (p. 65) (1).
• The candidate ascends “a flight of winding stairs, consisting of three, five, and seven steps, to a place representing the Middle Chamber of King Solomon’s Temple” (p. 70) (1).
• The letter G alludes to “Geometry, the fifth science; but more particularly to the sacred name of the Deity” (p. 85) (1).
• Manly P. Hall’s private interpretation of this degree says, “The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands” (Hall, ch. IV) (3).

The Obligation and Its Penalty

Duncan prints the Fellow Craft obligation, in which the candidate promises to aid “all poor, distressed, worthy Fellow Crafts” and not to “cheat, wrong, nor defraud a brother of this degree.” It ends: “binding myself under no less penalty than of having my breast torn open, my heart plucked out, and placed on the highest pinnacle of the temple.” (p. 65) (1) The United Grand Lodge of England removed physical penalties from the obligations of all three degrees in 1986 (2).

The Winding Stairs and the Middle Chamber

After the obligation the candidate is prepared again “preparatory to making an ascent through a porch, by a flight of winding stairs, consisting of three, five, and seven steps, to a place representing the Middle Chamber of King Solomon’s Temple, there to receive instructions relative to the wages and jewels of a Fellow Craft.” (p. 70) (1) The lecture that follows treats the liberal arts and sciences.

The Letter G

In the lecture the candidate is asked what he was next shown. “The letter G.” To what does it allude? “Geometry, the fifth science; but more particularly to the sacred name of the Deity, to whom we should all, from the Youngest Entered Apprentice who stands in the northeast corner, to the Worshipful Master who presides in the east, with reverence most devoutly and humbly bow.” (p. 85) (1) The God of the lodge is named as Deity and as the Great Architect, not as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. See What Is the Great Architect of the Universe?

Manly P. Hall on This Degree

Hall wrote in the twentieth century as a private author. His book is not a ritual and no grand lodge adopted it. In his chapter on the Fellow Craft he wrote: “When the Mason learns that the key to the warrior on the block is the proper application of the dynamo of living power, he has learned the mystery of his Craft. The seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy.” (3) Read in context, Hall uses “Lucifer” for raw energy the Mason must master. The sentence is quoted often. It is one writer’s esoteric reading, not a Masonic definition of God.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Letter G a Name for God?

Duncan’s lecture says it alludes to Geometry and “more particularly to the sacred name of the Deity.” (1)

Did Grand Lodges Endorse Hall’s Book?

No grand lodge text cited here adopts it. The publisher’s foreword in the archive.org edition calls it an interpretation “which supplements the monitorial instruction usually given in the lodges.” (3)