Page 27 - ASHLAR - Jan-Mar 2020

N A L G R
I O
G E AND LODGE
The Ashlar R Vol. XV Issue IV
degrees, is a reminder that to the freemason students and authors: others prefer the more
at large 'speculative' simply means non- familiar expression of 'speculative' for all
operative. who have entered the post-operative
fraternity.
It is worth looking at how dictionaries define
'speculative'. Excluding financial usage, one A transition? Symbolic or speculative
finds that the term 'speculative' refers to masonry (in the sense of Douglas and
ideas such as conjecture, meditation, Jones) thus owes much to what was the
reflection, examination, contemplation Worshipful Company of Freemasons of the
observation and theory. They all suggest the City of London. Not only does our Craft
opposite of manual labour and seem to justify derive from it almost certainly its name and
the use of 'speculative' to distinguish those much of its principle of government; it also
who did not (and do not) practice the gets from it or from general guild practice the
operative craft. titles of its chief officers, and it finances itself
in much the same way, its system of
In their 'Genesis of Freemasonry' published admission fees and quarterages having
in 1947, Douglas Knoop and G.P. Jones (the originated in the Company. Far more
latter not a freemason) gave their important than these is the great likelihood
understanding of the meaning of speculative that our Craft inherited through the
(or symbolic) Masonry as: 'a peculiar system 'Acception' within the Company some large
of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated part of its esoteric system.
by symbols' - familiar words indeed! Arguing
that 'speculative' (with this meaning) is an
inappropriate term to describe masons who
entered the Craft between the early 1600s
merely for its social advantages, they
suggested that 'non-operative masons'
described them better. They held that in
those times, morality and symbolism were
not lessons to be learned in lodge. Their
opinion has found favour with some Masonic

R.W. Bro. Jamshed Casad Nagpur Past Masters' Lodge No.342 2nd March 2020
R.W.Bro. Suresh Talwar Lodge Malwa No.37 5th March 2020
R.W.Bro. Himmatlal Gandhi Lodge Malwa No.37 8th March 2020

W.Bro. Prakash Karat Lodge Radiance No.116 10th March 2020
(Ruling Master of the Lodge)
W. Bro. Harshadrai Joshi Lodge Fellowship No.140 21st March 2020

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