Reames Chapter #28, Royal Arch Masons of Oregon

by Jeff Day

Masons are builders in stone. So what does our Craft of Speculative Masonry teach us concerning stones?

In the Symbolic Degrees, there are really only three stones brought prominently to our attention: The Corner-Stone, the Rough Ashlar, and the Perfect Ashlar. In fact, the latter two aren't even particular stones, but rather, whole classes of stones.

The Corner-Stone

As an Entered Apprentice Mason, we are taught that the first Corner Stone is placed in the Northeast Corner of the Building whereupon to erect the future superstructure, and this idea is extended to the erection of our own inner Temple, it being a Spiritual Building.

The Rough Ashlar & The Perfect Ashlar

We are also told that each one of us is a Living Stone, and that the Tools of Masonry when properly applied to a Rough Ashlar can turn it into a Perfect Ashlar, and make it fit (suitable) for the builder's use. In the Mark Master Degree, the Overseers are charged to receive these Perfect Ashlars (square stones) only. Being the first step taken into York Rite, perhaps this is a subtle indicator that only those who have taken the time to apply those lessons learned in the Symbolic Lodge upon their lives are fit for reception into the Chapter.

As each Mason is represented as a stone, it is significant that Master Masons are taught to use the Trowel to cement the building into one common mass.

The Chapter of Royal Arch Masons introduces us to several other more specific stones:

The "First" Keystone

The first of these particular stones which we encounter is the Keystone of the Mark Master Degree. In reference to this stone, the Degree cites the scripture about the "white stone" in the Book of Revelation. Elsewhere in the Degree, reference is made to another scripture, of which various readings may be found throughout the Bible. While this scripture is presumably used to refer to the same stone, it names it "the Chief Stone of the Corner" and "the Head Stone of the Corner." According to the representation of this stone in Masonic Legend, it is certainly not a Corner Stone, as those are the first stones to be laid in the erection of a building, and this stone is the last stone to be fitted in a piece of architecture. Our ritual says it belonged to one of the principal arches of the Temple. The Latin Vulgate in the original reference to this verse in Psalms 118:22 calls the stone the "caput anguli", which means head corner, or top corner, and the freshest translation from the Hebrew that I could get my hands on (NJPS) also says "chief cornerstone." One way or the other, the idea is that it is an important stone without which the building could not be complete.

The Cope-Stone

The next stone we encounter is used in the Most Excellent Master Degree, and it is, perhaps mistakenly, referred to or depicted as a Key Stone. There is some argument to be made that this is indeed the same stone which was depicted in the Mark Master Degree, however, there are enough differences about its treatment that I will keep them distinct to avoid adding any further confusion to an already confusing subject.

The ritual refers to it as a Cope Stone, which is a more accurate name for it than a Keystone, as it is the stone which completes the building of the entire Temple structure, not merely one of its arches.

The "Cryptic" Keystone

The Royal Arch Degree introduces us to a Keystone that is often mistaken for the Cope-Stone in the Most Excellent Master Degree, but is in fact found at the entrance to the arched vault beneath Solomon's Temple. The Cryptic Degrees explore the subject of the vault more fully, but in the treatment of this subject we are interested only in the stone itself, which is introduced in the Royal Arch Degree. This stone by itself is a fairly simple device, with a direct analogy to be found in the Royal Arch of Solomon (or of Enoch), the 13th Degree of the Scottish Rite. In either version of the degree, it is by the discovery and removal of this stone that the Secret Vault is discovered.

The Foundation Stone (Both of them?)

According to Jewish legend, the Stone of Foundation is the stone upon which the Ark of the Covenant rested in the Holy of Holies. The Select Master Degree in the Cryptic Rite, and by extension, the Royal Arch Degree, imply that there is however, another Foundation Stone, within the Secret Vault of Solomon's Temple. Albert Mackey in his Encylopedia says that "It makes its first appearance in the Royal Arch, and forms indeed the most important symbol of that Degree." It is not evident from the context of this statement whether he speaks of the York Rite or the Scottish Rite version of the Royal Arch Degree, but the Foundation Stone itself certainly features more prominently in the Scottish Rite version of the Degree.

This Foundation Stone has been described as a cubical stone of white poryphyry, buried in the earth except for three inches protruding from the ground. Albert Mackey warns us not to confound this with the Perfect Ashlar, which is sometimes also called the "cubical stone" in continental Freemasonry. While the Scottish Rite Royal Arch Degree has the Ineffable Name inscribed upon the stone itself, the Select Master Degree in the Cryptic Rite has the Word placed upon the Ark which is itself deposited on the Stone of Foundation. The Rabbinical writings of the Talmud concur that the Stone (speaking now of the one in the Holy of Holies, not the one in the Vault) was the receptacle of the Ineffable Name of Deity, and go further to state that the Stone was in the center of the earth, being the Foundation Stone of the earth itself, and that Jacob used the Stone as a pillow upon which to rest his head.

Conclusion

All these stones are fascinating, but what do they mean to you? Do they all represent character traits within us, or individual Masons, as do the stones in the Blue Lodge degrees? Or do they represent concepts, ideas, or some deeper spiritual truth?