Dit rituaal is een amerikaanse vertaling van het franse rituaal, zoals dat halverwege de negentiende eeuw gebruikt werd..
Decorations, Clothing, etc.
The Lodge is arranged as in the First Degree. The part reserved to the right is named the Garden of Eden, and filled with flowers and fruits. In the centre is an appletree bearing fruit and around the trunk is an artificial serpent with an apple in its mouth; it represents the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Upon the altar before the Wor. Mistress, is a lighted wax taper and a gilded tray containing apple jelly. Near the door of Europe is a burning lamp fed with spirits of wine, on which a little salt has been thrown. Near the door of entrance is a table covered with a black cloth, above which is a transparency picturing the death of Abel. On the floor is a picture representative of the five parts of the earth as is in the 1°. Also there is represented: 1. An apple surrounded by a serpent. 2. Adam. 3. Eve. 4. A river watering the tree of knowledge. 5. The Sun. 6. The Moon. 7. The Star in the East. The clothing is the same as that of the First Degree with the addition of a gauze veil for the Sisters. The dignitary officers have black gloves, the rest of the Brothers and Sisters white gloves.
The Mistress of Ceremonies leads the aspirant info the Chamber of Reflection. She takes away the left earring telling her that a Lady Mason should despise the vain ornaments of the world; The asks for her left garter, and exhorts her to submit with fortitude to the necessary trials. She then bandages her eyes with a black band. At the proper moment she leads her to the door and strikes 5 – 5 and then reports to the Sister Depositress in the same words as the latter reports inside to the Wor. Mistress.
Sister Depositress: Worshipful Mistress, at the door of the Lodge is Sister Apprentice ... who has served her time and desires to be received a Companion; in proof of her submission to all that we require of her she has surrendered her jewels, which I now present. They are then placed on the altar.
WM.: Admit her. And questions the Aspirant on her proficiency in the 1°.
WM.: My dear Sister, you will now proceed upon five journeys which are intended to remind you of those five experienced and faithful companions who guide you in the voyage of life. Led 5 limes around.
WM.: These journeys figure to you, my dear Sister, the five senses; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, which should guide you in all things. Sister Mistress of Ceremonies, reconduct our Sister to the entrance of the Temple for further preparation. They lead her back and put a chain on both hands. You are now required to give us proofs of your firmness of faith. They pass her hands over the spirit lamp. Let our Sister be purified by fire. To M.C.: You will now lead the Aspirant by five steps to the Altar of Discretion and cause her to place both hands upon the tree of the terrestrial paradise. This is done and bandage removed. The bandage over your eyes, my dear Sister, represents to you the state of innocence of our first parents and their blind confidence in the promise of the temples. Let the veil be removed Done. You now see before you, my dear Sister, the origin of all our happiness as well as our misfortunes; it represents the Garden of Eden and the tree symbolizes the weakness of the first man who was seduced to evil by her who was as his own flesh, and who, led away by flattery of the spirit of evil, fell together into disobedience to the laws of the Creator who has fashioned them in His own image. It was the beginning of all crime and the cause of the fall of our race from an immortal likeness to God; man had to labor for bread, and woman was overwhelmed with sorrow, thus entailing upon us that grevious death of which the picture is before you. It now only remains for us, my dear Sister, to regulate our lives by the practice of virtue, so as to avoid after this death the fatal punishment which is reserved for the vicious. Reflect seriously upon this subject and endeavor in this 2° to redouble your efforts in the practice of good and to avoid all evil.
Wor. Master: In order to assure ourselves more thoroughly of your discretion and bind you more firmly to us, we have, as in the preceding degree, an Obligation for you to take. Do you willingly consent thereto? Aspirant: I do.
Wor. Master.: You will please kneel, place both hands upon the Holy Bible which lies on the Altar, repeat your name and surname and say after me. Strikes 5 - 5. All rise. I, ..., promise under the penalty of my former oath, to guard the Secrets of a Companion faithfully from an Apprentice, as I have promised to guard those of the Apprentice from the profane. So be it. Raises Aspirant. In the name of the Grand Mistress of the Order and by virtue of the powers entrusted to this Lodge, I receive and constitute you an Adoptive Companion and a member of this Assembly. Strikes 1. All seated. I now present you with this apple which you will cat at once without touching the pippin, or germ of the fruit, which we look upon as symbolizing the source of all evil. He then applies to her lips, by 5 little blows, a trowel carrying perfumed apple jelly. I place the “seal of discretion” upon your lips, to teach you to remember that you are never to open them in such a manner as to divulge our mysteries to the profane. Present yourself to the Worshipful Mistress who will now give you certain tokens of our esteem and regard.
WM.: I give you on behalf of the Companions of this Lodge a warm reception and sisterly welcome. Embraces her as in the 1°. I now restore to you this, your jewelry and present you with the garter of Companionship. This is done as in the First Degree. We have in this as in the preceding degree certain signs, tokens and words by which Companions make themselves known to each other and which you are enjoined by your Obligation to guard equally from the Apprentice and the profane.
These secrets are here explained. Present yourself to the Sisters Inspectress and Depositress, and make yourself known as a Sister Companion.
The Mistress of Ceremonies conducts her to the Inspectress and the Depositress, both examine her in the secrets and the latter then reports.
Sister Depositress: Worshipful Mistress, the sign, token and word given by the Sister Companion are correct.
WM., strikes 5 - 5. All rise: To order! My dear Brothers and Sisters, I call upon you henceforth to recognize Sister ... as a Companion and a member of this Lodge of Adoption; to bear perpetual friendship to her and to render her aid and assistance in case of need. Join with me in welcoming her happy reception. Battery given as in 1°.
Q.: Are you a Sister Companion?
A.: Give me an apple and judge for yourself.
Q.: How were you received a Companion?
A.: By a fruit and a bandage.
Q.: What does the fruit signify?
A.: Sweetness, which is a Masonic virtue.
Q.: What signifies the bandage?
A.: Fraternal union and the strength of a friendship which has virtue for its aim.
Q.: What did you see upon your reception?
A.: The emblem of the beginning of evil.
Q.: What was your own surety?
A.: The principles of Masonry.
Q.: What are those principles?
A.: All the virtues.
Q.: Have you ever traveled?
A.: I have made five journeys, which recalled to my mind five faithful and experienced Companions to guide me through life’s voyage.
Q.: What are those faithful Companions?
A.: The five senses: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, Feeling.
Q.: What did you see?
A.: A black veil covered my eyes but I traveled by the light of reason.
Q.: What did you hear?
A.: The sweet and persuasive voice of wisdom.
Q.: What did you smell?
A.: A sweet and pure perfume.
Q.: What did you taste?
A.: Peace of heart.
Q.: What did you touch?
A.: The hands of friendship.
Q.: Did you pass the fire without danger?
A.: I did, the fire of virtue animates but does not burn.
Q.: What made you a Companion?
A.: The trowel of my own virtue.
Q.: Of what use is the trowel?
A.: To unite our hearts in sentiments of probity and honor, and teach us to forget all offenses which we may have received.
Q.: On reception, what was applied to your lips?
A.: The seal of discretion in order to teach me that my lips should be closed on the mysteries of Masonry.
Q.: Where were you received as a Companion?
A.: In a beautiful garden watered by a river.
Q.: What do you call that garden?
A.: The Garden of Eden which God gave to Adam and Eve to keep.
Q.: Why were they driven therefrom?
A.: For their disobedience.
Q.: What did you see in that Garden?
A.: The tree of knowledge of good and evil watered by a river.
Q.: What do you learn by that emblem?
A.: It teaches me to do good and shun evil.
Q.: What does the river represent?
A.: The stream of life and turbulence of the passions, which as a Sister we are taught to curb.
Q.: What signifies the word Eve at each side of the picture?
A.: It recalls to me our origin and that we should avoid all temptation to evil.
Q.: Why must a Companion not eat the apple’s pippin?
A.: Because the pippin represents the germ of forbidden fruit.
Q.: What is the principle aim of Adoptive Masonry?
A.: To make one another happy.
Q.: How is that felicity reached?
A.: By union and virtue.
Q.: Give the sign of Comp. (Given).
Q.: Give me the word. (Given).
Q.: What signifies this word?
A.: The peace and concord subsisting between the Brothers and Sisters which the Sybil predicted after the overthrow of the Tower of Confusion.
Q.: What is the duty of a Companion?
A.: To listen, obey, work and be silent upon our mysteries to the profane.
Wor. Master: My dear Brothers and Sisters, our five senses are the arteries of sentimental life and are as necessary to us as our intellect, for they are the organs through which the soul breathes exterior impressions and transmits their intelligent breath; one can do nothing well without their assistance; yet unfortunately our senses are the very faculties by which we are most easily led into evil, so that it is necessary to guide their influence by the severe rules of reason and virtue. To fulfill properly the essential conditions imposed by the five journeys which you have undertaken as Companions it is necessary that these faculties be brought to our aid.
Feeling, has a sentimental charm, so sweet and impressionable that when exercised in the flexible trials of art, with a fine and subtle appreciation of form, it becomes so graduated to the state of the other perceptions, if inspired by the acquirements of practical geometry, that the hand which conducts the chisel never wanders, but maintains itself at that height of thought by which the artist is inspired.
Seeing, is a faculty which is very susceptible to error by false impression, and often misleads by the attractions of perspective, or the warmth of imagination in unreasonable appreciation of objects; it guides the hand of the artist, comments on the plan of the work, aids the difficulty of mediation, and ceases not until it says: it is good.
Hearing, by communicating to us the harmonious language of the sense, renders us attentive and reserved in our labors; it conducts us methodically, and by its aid we relax or quicken our blows; its subtle instincts admirably help the creations of genius and leads to perfection.
Tasting, is a sense without which we can do nothing well, it is one of the lights of nature which leads us to the sublime, and is the only principle by which the artist can attain celebrity. For taste gives the seal of immortality to the works of the spirit; you will see this illustrated in a crowd of things which fall and vanish with the circumstances which gave them celebrity; if they had been possessed of that universal taste which presides, with justice and precision, in the composition of a work, and which secure the admiration of the least intelligent people, they would still have been as durable in their reputations as are the Cathedrals of Milan and Strasburg, and the names of artists like those of Phidias or Praxiteles, would pass down from century to century.
Smell, is the most capricious of all our
senses, and the most extraordinary of the qualities of human physiology; we
ought to consider it as the last link of the chain which unites our dual nature;
it enables us to appreciate the exterior qualities of material things, and is
our special ambient and the communicating intelligence of the surroundings.
Smell further enables us to distinguish the essential
qualities of certain bodies and facilitates the analysis.
It is for these reasons, my dear Brothers and Sisters, that we owe so much to our
five senses in all the practical surroundings of life. In the lessons of
Adoptive Masonry they have, moreover, a practical application by which we are
to be morally guided and which I will now explain to you. Smelling teaches us
that the most exquisite perfume is useless in our great work without the
practice of virtue to render us happy in this world and in that which is to come
after it. Hearing implies to us this moral lesson, that we are to close our ears
to calumny and to everything which can undermine prudence and virtue. Tasting,
teaches us that we ought to adopt a temperate way of life in order to maintain
our bodily health, to refresh ourselves with moderation and incite each other to
good actions without immoderately considering the delicacies of the table.
Seeing teaches us to raise our thoughts above terrestrial things, and in viewing
the beautiful works of nature to guide our minds in the right way and offer the
homage of our grateful hearts to Him who gave them for our edification. Feeling,
teaches up that every time we take each others’ hands we thus renew our
Obligation to aid one another in the necessitics and dangers of life.