Waterloo Masons: Grand River Lodge № 151

Deacons - derivation Greek diakonos meaning servant, helper or messenger¹

Duties - we hear every opening.²

“Three Distinct Knocks”, the 1760 expose of Antients’ practice - in the calling off, the WM whispers to the SD “ ‘tis my Will and Pleasure that this lodge is called off from Work to Refreshment during Pleasure” The SD carries it to the SW. The SW whispers to the JD who goes to the JW and the JW announces it in a loud voice to the lodge.³

We have a remnant of this in the collection of the grips.⁴

In the days when lodges performed their work while eating at table, the Deacons stood behind the WM and SW⁵, and you can imagine it being useful during a noisy banquet to have someone to communicate messages down to the other end of the table.

Albert Mackey

Their duties are a general superintendence over the security of the Lodge; the introduction of distinguished visitors and strangers. They assist in the ceremonies of the Order; carry messages about the Lodge, and see that proper accommodations are afforded to every member. The SD should be appointed by the Master, and the JD by the SW, as they are the special messengers of those two officers.⁶ They are the proxies of the officer by whom they are appointed⁷. - this is the key to remember why they do what they do.

Investiture: “It is your duty to attend to the Worshipful Master, and assist the Wardens in the active duties of the lodge, such as the reception of candidates in the different degrees, and in the immediate practice of our rites and ceremonies.” They are admonished to practice vigilance and attention.⁸

History

The Schaw Statutes say that a Warden – who was to be chosen annually- should “have the charge over every lodge” This regulation was complied with by the Lodge of Edinburgh in 1598, but in the following year the Deacon sat as president, with the Warden as treasurer. This was in accordance with the ordinary usage which prevailed in the early Scottish lodges - that when there was a Deacon as well as a Warden, the Warden acted as treasurer or box-master. Frequently, however, both offices were held by the same person, who we find designated in the minutes of Mary’s Chapel as “Deacon of the Masons and Warden of the Lodge.”

We meet with the same titles – Deacon and Warden – in the records of the Kilwinning (1643), the Atcheson Haven (1700), and the Peebles (1716) lodges. In each of these instances the Deacon was the chief official. Such was also the case in the Hadddington Lodge in 1697, where, apparently there was no Warden.⁹

…in Ireland they date as far back as 1726¹⁰

On the other hand, they were sometimes confused with Stewards, for instance the Lodge at Swalwell, now the Lodge of Industry No. 48, has listed in its minutes of 1733, Matt. Armstrong Senior Decon or Steward and Matt. Lee Junior Decon Deputy Steward. However in 1735 the office of Deacon disappeared and Matthew Lee was elected a Steward.¹¹

What was with that? Well, it had to do with the Antients and the Moderns. 1730 exposes 1751 Antients

The Antients, many deriving from Irish Freemasonry, had Deacons. The Moderns had Stewards. They did the same jobs. And so one can distinguish which camp a lodge belonged to by whether it had Deacons or Stewards. - but nothing in English Freemasonry is without exception: there were lodges with both. If they were Antient the Deacons were the more senior, if Modern, the Stewarts were more senior.

In preparation for Union in 1813, the Lodge of Promulgation recommended adoption of the office of Deacon, calling them “…not only Ancient but useful and necessary Officers…” Interestingly this same body referred to Stewards “not as Officers but as appendages” And so the Deacons became the officers we now know.¹²

However, in some places and at some times they filled the role of IG. The IG has his place in Irish and Scottish lodges, but is unkown in most American lodges, in which the Junior Deacon, acting under the commands of the Junior Warden, admits Brethren, and has a special responsibility for Candidates and visitors¹³

In New Zealand the trowel is the jewel of the JD; in Irish lodges the trowel was the Inner Guard’s weapon, being the sharp instrument on which a candidate was received in the first degree. In the second it is sometimes extended to the candidate to receive his gift at the NE Angle.¹⁴

Wands/rods

Mackey says “The proper badge or ensign of office of a Deacon, which he should always carry when in the discharge of the duties of his office, is a blue rod surmounted by a pine-cone, in imitation of the caduceus, or rod of Mercury, who was the messenger of the gods as is the Deacon of the superior officers of the lodge.”¹⁵ (the Stewards’ are white)

In the beginning of the 19th cent. columns were prescribed…In Webb’s Monitor of 1797 and Orestons’s Ilustrations of 1804 in the installation of the Deacons, it is said “these columns, as badges of your office, I entrust to your care” A short time afterwards the columns were transferred to the Wardens and their appropriate badges and the Deacons were given rods.

In Ahiman Rezon of 1807 they were called staves.

In the Masons Manual of 1822, wands.

He says all subsequent references call them rods¹⁶.

(However in Canada, we call them Wands.)

Why do they carry at 45 degrees? Grasp 1/3 from the top. The wand is carried so that the emblem is visible from the side, and the dove always flies forward.¹⁷ In England carry the rods vertically.

Carrying a wand as a mark of power and authority - Moses’s staff, a king’s sceptre, a bishop’s staff, the mace of parliament and the black rod of the Senate, the caduceus, a white wand carried by the old Roman heralds, and more particularly the staff carried by Mercury or Hermes, the messenger of the gods - originally believed to have been an olive branch, and could have been an emblem of piece in the way a sword was an emblem of war - so we have the good cop/bad cop in the Deacon and Tyler. Physicians of old carried wands, and the wand of Aesclepius, has become the symbol of the medical profession.

The Roman staff came to be known as a virga, which in French became virge or verge, and was the origin of the church officer called the verger, who carried a staff of office preceding a church dignitary. Bringing in the Master and Wardens in England, and here in Canada, bringing in the DDGM under the wands.

The wands allow the bearer to walk around the lodge at will. But they do tend to square the lodge anyway. Why? To avoid stepping on the tracing board drawn on the floor¹⁸

In the 18th century the Deacon’s jewel was often a figure of Mercury, with winged feet and helmet, his left foot on a globe and his left hand holding a caduceus.¹⁹

After Union the emblem was changed to a dove bearing an olive branch in its mouth.

The Dove in ancient symbolism represented purity, innocence and peace, and has in many ways been regarded as a messenger. The first Dove sent forth by Noah, from the Ark, returned with its message that the waters had not subsided. The second Dove's message was that the waters were receding and the trees were showing. The third Dove did not return which revealed to Noah the implied message that the flood was ending enabling the bird to return to its natural habitat.²⁰

Doves are related to pigeons, and both pigeons and doves have been used to carry messages for ages.

Sinclair Bruce says that in the “Mark” degree, the Mercury is the emblem of the Deacon, not the Dove. I have no personal experience of this, but it makes sense, considering that the Mark Mason is a degree which comes from the Antients.²¹

Also, there are some lodges in the north-east of England, five in Durham and two in Yorkshire, which use a sun for the SD and a crescent moon for the JD²²

Mackey says that since they are the proxies of the officer by whom they are appointed, their jewel, in allusion to the necessity of circumspection and justice is a square and compasses. In the center, the SD wears a sun, and the JD, a moon, which serve to distinguish their respective ranks.²³ So here we even have the Deacon wearing a S&Cs, like the DDGM!

Preparation of the Candidate

• responsibility of the Steward, but the Deacon should check the preparation before proceeding. Take some practice steps. In the 2nd and 3rd, inform him about saluting when passing the Master. Practice the winding steps and the grave steps.

• biblical texts tend to show a similar prep for entering the Jewish Temple - Talmudic Baracoth insists “no man shall go into the Temple with his staff, nor with shoes on his feet, nor with his outer garment, nor with money tied up in his purse”

According to Jones, the special clothes are for three reasons

1. to ensure the Candidate conceals no weapon of defence or offense, which may have had meaning hundreds of years ago
2. by uncovering the heart, to reveal sex, but even more likely, in view of the wellnigh universal tradition that the heart is the seat of the soul, to suggest the Candidate’s fervency and sincerity, and lastly
3. as evidence of the Candidate’s humility, perhaps the greatest of all the qualities that freemasonry sets out to teach.²⁴

Slipshod - Ruth 4:7

Now in former times it was the custom in Israel… to confirm the transaction by one of the parties removing his sandal and giving it to the other. In Israel this was the form of ratification in the presence of witnesses²⁵

The JD then completes the preparation:

The Blindfold or hoodwink is an emblem not only of secrecy, but of darkness that vanishes in the light of initiation

The Cable Tow was the means by which the Candidate was led, symbolically in a state of bondage, through part of the ceremony. The wearing of the cable tow may be thought to be at variance with the fundamental tenet that the Candidate must be a free man. Although the halter in this case signifies only bondage to a state of ignorance, we feel that the Irish and Bristol workings offer an acceptable symbolism in this regard, the Candidate wearing the sign of servitude only until he is about to take the Obligation. Then it is removed and thrown contemptuously on the floor behind him, the Conductor, in the Irish working, informing him that naught but a free man may be made a freemason.²⁶

Circumambulation - walking around

Perambulation - walking through

Preambulation - walking before

Clockwise - the direction assumed to be taken by the sun. There are only two major occasions when we move counter-clockwise: the first is when ascending the winding stair in the second degree, uncertain of what we will find around that corner. The other time is approaching the casket to deposit a sprig of evergreen to dispel uncertainty.

The Romans closely observed the custom of a formal procession three times around a sacred place or object, and always sunwise - that is, with the devotee’s right side on the inner side of the procession; indeed, it was part of their ceremony of purification²⁷

In our degrees however, the Candidate’s right side is not nearest the altar at all times. Sometime the Deacon is between him and the altar and other times not. When he first enters the Deacon is on his right, protecting the altar from the uninitiated man. Once he has taken the obligation and received the secrets and proved he has the secrets, the Deacon moves to his left.

Similarly in the second degree, the Deacon is on the candidate’s right on entering the lodge. Once he proves himself in the former degree the Deacon moves to his left. When supporting his arm in the angle of a square during the obligation, the Deacon is obviously on his left, and he stays on left, albeit a pace behind, during the floor work, stepping forward on his left to prompt. However, he then moves to the candidate’s right before he escorts him to the Wardens, perhaps to show that he is once again suspect until he has proved himself in that degree, after which the Deacon moves off to the left.

In the Third, of course, there are Deacons on either side, the Senior being on his right, protecting the altar.²⁸

Red Book p.11 “10. Do not place the wand in the holder until the candidate assents to take the obligation.”²⁹ Why?

Saluting through the Deacon when passing the WM. - the SD when proceeding to the SE angle in the 2nd and the JD during the perambulations in the Third. Note that during this you should bring the wand to a vertical position.³⁰ Why?

W. L. WILMSHURST wrote in “The Ceremony of Passing”: The perambulations in the present Degree, therefore, signify the Candidate's willing forward motion towards perfection under the urge of his own heart's promptings. You remember the Pilgrims' March in Wagner's "Tannhauser," where the music so graphically suggests the resolute persistent plod-plod of weary but courageous feet, toiling through dangers and difficulties, up hill and down dale, but ever onwards to a distant but assured goal. It represents, and was meant to represent, the inward urge that impels all aspirants along the path of Light, and therefore may be thought of as admirably illustrating what is implied by these cere­monial perambulations of the Masonic pilgrim. Let us think of these mystical journeys about the Lodge as typifying his soul's continued forward movement to the goal of his desire; let us see in the deacon who companions and guides him, the impersonation of his own unerring enlightened conscience; let us discern in the salutes he makes to his superiors during his progress, his recogni­tion of spiritual powers higher than himself, and, in the examina­tions he has to undergo, the testings, the ordeals and titles to advancement which every soul experiences upon its upward way. There is, you see, a wealth of significance (usually wholly unper­ceived) concealed within these ceremonial details.³¹

Just a few more points

Q. How does the Deacon carry the box when collecting the ballot?

A. The Deacon carries the ballot box with the right hand, extending the box over the left arm, while averting the eyes to the right when the ballot is being deposited.³²

In some lodges, they ballot at the altar, and the Deacons control the entry to the balloting area with their wands. Why? For both, of course, simply the secrecy of the ballot.

Meeting the Challenge - Offer assistance to the D of C in escorting guests to the head table (see. Duties Mackey, p.2)

• be prepared to substitute at short notice for the other Deacon³³ (means the JD needs to learn the SD’s part) And the SD should be learning the work of the JW

Even more, the Deacons should be learning about the whole Craft. MW Bro. William Pellow, in the Proceedings of 1984, said of the correspondence course: “We would like to see every lodge officer involved in this course, especially the Junior Deacon. In four years, the Junior Deacon could complete all four phases of the course. By the time he is elected Worshipful Master, he would be extremely confident and competent to provide outstanding leadership for his lodge. Perhaps the individual lodges can see merit in recommending the Junior Deacon to commence his studies and perhaps even sponsor him toward that end.”³⁴

To sum up, as the Lodge of Promulgation said, the Deacons are “not only Ancient but useful and necessary Officers” And I might add, versatile: At various times and in various places they have filled the role of Warden, sat as president or Master of operative lodges, performed the duties of the IG, been called Stewards (even though considered as appendages), acted as proxies for the senior officers, worn jewels that look like the DDGMs, followed the path of the sun and are symbolically, “the impersonation of [^the Candidate’s] own unerring enlightened conscience” Well done, Brother Deacons.

-- Part of this presentation was given by R.W. Bro. David Cameron. The full presentation was given Oct. 29 in Hamilton District A