April 2008

Dear Sir & Brother

You are summoned to attend a  Stated Communication of your Lodge, to be held in the Masonic Hall, Arthur Square, Belfast, on Thursday 24th April 2008, at the hour of 7 o’clock precisely.

W. Bro. H..Rodgers, Secretary
hugh.rodgers@glandore551.co.uk

Agenda:

Minutes

Correspondence

AOB

Board of Purposes
17th April 2008

Our Ancient Landmarks

In Freemasonry the term ‘Ancient Landmarks’ is used in out ritual, but the landmarks are never defined. What are these ‘Ancient Landmarks’?

The term "Landmark" is found in Deuteronomy 19:14 "Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it.” In the same way today, the landmarks of Freemasonry are our inheritance and define Freemasonry as passed down to us.

Many Masonic scholars have tried to define our Ancient Landmarks, yet no list has ever gained universal acceptance.
In 1856, Dr. Albert Gallatin Mackey, 33°, attempted to set down the actual Landmarks as he saw them. He determined there were 25 in all. Seven years later, in 1863, George Oliver published Freemason's Treasury in which he listed 40 Landmarks. In the last century, a number of American Grand Lodges attempted the daunting task of enumerating the Landmarks, ranging from West Virginia (7) and New Jersey (10) to Nevada (39) and Kentucky (54).

Albert Pike wrote in 1924: "There is no common agreement in regard to what are and what are not 'Landmarks.' That has never been definitely settled." A universal agreed definition of the ‘Ancient Landmarks’ of Freemasonry may never be attainable, but the list below at least helps us understand the nature of such Landmarks.

1. A belief in one God and only one God, tripartite yet triune.
2. The VSL open and in full view as an essential and indispensable part of a lodge at labour;
3. The need for a Freemason to be male, free-born and of mature age.
4. The Symbolism of Freemasonry
5. Belief in the immortality of the soul.
6. The Hiramic legend of the Third Degree.

Mackey laid down three requisite characteristics of Landmarks, which continue to be generally accepted today. These are: (1) immemorial antiquity (2) universality (3) absolute irrevocability. The examples above appear to fulfil Makey’s criteria but, as society changes, for how much longer will Freemasonry continue to observe and maintain even this limited list?

References:
The Landmarks of Freemasonry, Percy Jantz, March 8, 2004
Masonic Landmarks, Michael A. Botelho, 32°, K.C.C.H