One
of the most frequently corrected errors in lodge procedure is the
failure of a Warden to raise or lower his column appropriately. Let
an absent-minded Junior Warden forget to lower his column when the
lodge is called from refreshment to labor, and many a frantic
gesture from the side lines will remind him of his dereliction!
Almost every Brother sitting in the lodge room knows the proper
position of the Wardens' columns during labor or at refreshment, and
will hasten to signal a Warden if the emblem of his office is awry.
"Up in the West during labor; down in the West at refreshment. Down
in the South during labor; up in the South at refreshment." Every
Brother knows that simple rule for positioning the Wardens' columns.
It is generally believed, as stated in Mackey's Encyclopedia, that
the Senior Warden's column represents the pillar Jachin, while the
Junior Warden's column represents the pillar Boaz, those having been
impressive adornments on the Porch of King Solomon's Temple. Their
names signify Establishment and Strength.
If asked for a symbolic explanation of these pieces of furniture,
the average Craftsman will reply that the Junior Warden's column
represents the pillar of beauty, the Senior Warden's, the pillar of
strength. But what has become of the Worshipful Master's column'? He
represents the pillar of wisdom, "because it is necessary that there
should be wisdom to contrive, strength to support, and beauty to
adorn all great and important undertakings."
Some Brethren will explain further that the Wardens' columns are
miniature representations of the pillars usually stationed in the
West, where at one time both Wardens sat, one in the shade of Boaz,
the other in the shade of Jachin. Such an arrangement of the
Wardens' positions may still be found in some European lodges whose
rituals have come from Continental sources.
There is no simple explanation of the origin of the Wardens' columns
nor of what they represent. Like much in Masonic ritual, they are
the result of some interesting changes; yet all well-informed
Brethren will agree that today they are emblematical of the offices
of the two Wardens, and represent their authority, of the Senior
during labor, and of the Junior while the lodge is at refreshment.
As a matter ' of fact, the raising and lowering of the Wardens'
columns made their first appearance in Masonic ritual as late as
1760, well into the period known as Speculative Masonry. The Three
Distinct Knocks, a well-known expose of Masonic ritual published in
London that year, contains the first description of the Wardens' use
of their columns. An almost identical description of the Wardens'
raising and lowering their columns appears in another expose, Jachin
and Boaz, published in 1762.
Unfortunately, there has been comparatively little written about the
Wardens' columns and their uses to show when they were allocated to
those officers, or how and when the raising and lowering of these
miniature pillars became a part of the proper procedure in Masonic
lodges. It is only from such exposes as those noted above that one
can assign an approximate date to the beginning of the practice.
Curiously, William Preston in various editions of his Illustrations
of Freemasonry (1792-1804), in the section dealing with
Installation, assigns the columns to the Deacons. Since the columns
had belonged to the Wardens for at least thirty years earlier, and
since many of the Craft lodges in England did not appoint Deacons at
all, Preston must have been in error, or was introducing an
innovation, which the passage of time has shown to have failed.
Preston also taught that the Senior Deacon's column was to be raised
during labor, and the Junior Deacon's at refreshment.
To those who like Masonic traditions neat and historically logical,
it may be disconcerting to learn that in some lodges the Wardens did
not have columns on their pedestals. They had truncheons, whose
modern function is to serve as billy clubs for policemen. An Irish
lodge in the 18th century had a by-law reading: "there is to be
silence at the first chap of the Master's haler, and likewise at the
first stroke of each Trenchen struck by the Senr and Junr Wardens."
The Rev. George Oliver (1782-1867), a prolific writer about
Freemasonry, quotes an inventory of a lodge at Chester, England, in
1761, which includes "two truncheons for the Wardens." There are
still lodges today which denominate the Wardens' emblems of
authority as truncheons, not columns.
There can be no doubt that the Wardens' columns are the result of
Freemasonry's interest in the art of building, of architecture and
its allied skills and sciences. The operative masons devoted much
time and thought to the design, construction, and ornamentation of
columns and pillars. The orders of architecture were an important
body of knowledge with which they were continuously concerned.
The mediaeval cathedral builders, however, attached greater
significance to the ancient pillars erected by the children of
Lamech than to those on the porch of King Solomon's Temple. On these
ancient pillars were engraved all the then known sciences to
preserve them from destruction by fire or inundation. As such, they
symbolized the esoteric importance of the knowledge of the builder's
art to be guarded and preserved by faithful craftsmen.
In many of the earliest documents of the Craft, the so-called "Old
Charges" or "manuscript constitutions", some of which antedate the
period, of Speculative Freemasonry by at least 300 years, those
primitive pillars of the sons of Lamech are a part of the "history"
of the operative Craft. The Temple of Solomon is inconspicuously
mentioned, but the two pillars on the porch of that temple do not
appear at all.
It was not until approximately 1700 that King Solomon's Pillars
began to appear in Masonic writing and ritual documents. The
Dumfries, No. 4 MS, usually dated 1700-1725, mentions those pillars
and gives them a strong Christian symbolism. It also answers two
test questions about pillars as follows: "How many pillars is in
your Lodge'? Three. What are these? Ye square, the Compas and ye
bible."
Because of the secrecy maintained by Masons about ritualistic
matters, it is on the ritual texts of 18th century exposes that we
depend for knowledge of the part played by pillars in the
development of the Craft's rituals and ceremonies.
The Grand Mystery of Freemasons Discovered, 1724, mentions the
pillars of Solomon's Temple, but gives them this significance: they
represent the "Strength and Stability of the Church in all ages."
Samuel Prichard's Masonry Dissected, 1730, the first expose to
reveal a third degree in Masonic ritual, refers to "Three Pillars"
that "support the Lodge . . . Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty." This
seems to be the earliest mention of those three virtues symbolized
by pillars, which of course had no reference to those in the "Old
Charges" or to those on the Porch of Solomon's Temple. They were
purely symbolic; they had not yet become a part of the lodge
furniture.
In those early days of Speculative Masonry, the Wardens' duties were
probably different from those they have now. Some writers believe
they had duties similar to those of the Deacons today. They had no
pedestals or pillars, because the latter were usually drawn on the
floor, or "floor cloth", to be referred to during ritualistic
instruction, but were certainly not then a part of the Wardens'
equipment.
The other interpretation of the Wardens' Columns as representations
of Jachin and Boaz, the two pillars of Solomon's Temple, was also
introduced into Masonic ritual at an early period of Speculative
Masonry. Again, it is in the exposes of the early rituals that this
development can be traced.
In A Mason's Examination, 1723, appears this test question: "Where
was the first Lodge kept? In Solomon's Porch; the two Pillars were
called Jachin and Boaz." Nothing, however, establishes a connection
between the pillars and the Wardens. The Grand Mystery, etc.
mentioned above also names the two pillars Jachin and Boaz. A number
of other such publications in the 1720's and 1730's also identify
them by those names.
How miniature representations of Jachin and Boaz came to the
pedestals of the Senior and Junior Wardens is still a matter for
speculation; obviously it is a part of the variegated development of
Masonic ritual in the 18th century. As symbols of the pillars on the
Porch of King Solomon's Temple, or as representations of the three
principal orders of architecture which the three principal officers
of a lodge symbolize, they are to be found in the earliest
catechisms and lectures of Speculative Freemasonry.
Undoubtedly, as suggested by contemporary references and
illustrations, the pillars soon became artistically designed pieces
of furniture to stand in the lodge room as objects for study. There
was probably no uniformity of practice in this development. Some
lodges had large columns, some small, some drew them on the floor
cloth. Some had no pillars at all.
From the creation of such pillars, and from their association with
the three principal officers of the lodge undoubtedly came the
columns of the Wardens. They are relics of those earlier larger
pieces of lodge furniture. From the traditions of operative craft
lodges had lingered the conception of the Senior Warden as the
officer in charge of the workmen; his column naturally represented
his authority and superintendence. To give the Junior Warden some
similar authority, an imaginative speculative ritualist probably hit
on the idea of putting him in charge of the Craft during
refreshment. That idea had been foreshadowed in Anderson's 1723
Constitutions; Regulation XXIII put the Grand Wardens in charge of
the annual Feast.
By 1760, as suggested by the publication of Three Distinct Knocks,
the Wardens of a lodge had acquired miniature columns representing
the pillars, Jachin and Boaz, which they carried in processions and
raised or lowered on their pedestals to indicate whether the lodge
was at labor or refreshment. That procedure was apparently confirmed
by the Lodge of Promulgation which paved the way for the union in
1813 of the "Modern" and "Ancient" Grand Lodges in England.
Thus the raising and lowering of the Wardens' columns became
sanctioned by custom and Grand Lodge approval. It is not a
complicated or mysterious symbolic act; it is a simple means to
indicate silently to entering Brethren the status of the lodge.
Since the Junior Warden's column is erect during refreshment, logic
suggests that it be similarly arranged when the lodge is closed,
i.e., not at labor. Generally, however, the Wardens' columns are
left just as they happen to be placed at the time of closing, except
in those Jurisdictions whose official ritual has decreed a proper
positioning of the Wardens' columns at closing.
For another interesting speculation on the origin of the Junior
Warden's column, our readers are referred to the February, 1959,
Short Talk Bulletin, "The Better to Observe the Time." |
