Other Rites: Parfait Maître Irlandais - Leçons

Leçons - Lectures

Q. Are you a Perfect Irish Master?
A. Interrogate me and my answers will make you recognize me.
Q. How have you been announced in lodge?
A. By four knocks.
Q. Whom did you meet at the door of the lodge?
A. The brother Junior-Warden, who awaited me in order to instruct me.
Q. What did he teach you?

A. He let me know the excellence of this degree and the duty which it requires.
Q. Who introduced you?
A. The Senior Warden.
Q. Where did he place you?
A. In the West of the lodge.
Q. What did he do with you?
A. He had me put the right knee on the floor and made me pronounce the word: Givi.
Q. What signifies this word?
A. Bend the knees.
Q. What did the Very Perfect Illustrious answer?
A. Ki.
Q. What does this word signify?
A. Rise.
Q. What did the Senior Warden then do?
A. He placed a drawn sword under my chin and made me perambulate four times around the lodge, which is the emblem of the temple of Solomon.
Q. Why did you have a drawn sword under the chin?
A. To recall my first obligation and to show that I had rather have my tongue cut out than reveal the secrets, which were confided to me.
Q. What do the four perambulations you have to make signify?
A. The four ages of Man: his birth, his adolescence, his old age and his death.
Q. How did you arrive at the base of the throne of the Very Perfect Illustrious?
A. By four measured steps, which brought me to the four parts of the temple.
Q. What does this step signify?
A. The entire inspection we have over all workmen and the works of the temple and the lodge.
Q. What did the Very Perfect Illustrious do with you?
A. Upon the testimony he received about my zeal, he received me Prevost and Judge over all workmen and then gave me possession of the heart of Hiram.
Q. What did he give to you after this?
A. A golden key, the attribute of my degree, a Sign, A Token, and two Words.
Q. What is the purpose of the key?
A. To open the case of ebony in order to take out the designs.
Q. How do the Perfect Irish Masters wear this key?
A. They wear it hanging on a ribbon of a fiery colour.
Q. What does it signify?
A. That only we know the place where the heart of Hiram reposes.
Q. Where does it repose?
A. In a golden urn, closed and placed under the secind step of the middle chanber when mounting.
Q. How do you have yourself made known as a Perfect Irish Master?
A. By my Sign, Words, and Token.
Q. Give them to me!
A. Here they are ... he gives them.
Q. What did you perceive on entering the lodge?
A. The knotted cord placed in the form of a canopy under which hung a case of ebony wood and a triangle surrounding a Gஃ and an Aஃ intertwined,
Q. What does the case contain?
A. All of the plans and designs of the lodge.
Q. What do the two letters Gஃ and Aஃ signify?
A. That God has been the Geometrist and the Architect of His temple bu the designs with which He inspired Solomon.
Q. What more did you see?
A. A key, a balance, and different letters of which the meaning is known to me.
Q. What does the balance signify?
A. The exactitude with which we have to fulfil our functions: being committed to ending the strife which may occur between the workmen.
Q. What do the letters JஃHஃSஃ signify?
A. The first is the initial of the Great Architect of the Universe, the second that of the Architect of the temple and the third that of the Master, who as the first discovered the corpse of Hiram.
Q. Where were you placed?
A. In the middle chamber.
Q. On what did you work?
A. On the tomb of Hiram.
Q. Where was he buried?
A. In the sanctuary of the temple.
Q. What is the purpose of the pouch you wear on your apron?
A. To contain the designs which the Masters have to take the proportions of, on the drawing-boards.
Q. What do the red, blue, and black rosettes signify?
A. The red represents the blood Hiram shed, the blue the fidelity of the Perfect Irish Masters and the black the mourning of the true Masters the death of our Worshipful Master Hiram.
Q. How many lights are there in the lodge of the Perfect Irish Masters?
A. Sixteen.
Q. How are they placed?
A. By fours, on the four cardinal points of the Tracing Board of the lodge.
Q. What is your age?
A. Sixty four years or the square number of four times four.
Q. What is the hour?
A. The night did already proceed.

After this answer the Very Perfect Illustrious gives four knocks as before with his mallet on the altar, which serve as a signal to all of the brethren to rise and to stand to order. After the wardens have repeated them on their own mallets, the Very Perfect Illustrious says to the whole assembly: My brethren, it is time to leave the work, the lodge of the Perfect Irish Masters is closed. Let us do our duty by four times four. The wardens repeat the same thing and all give together the Sign, clap sixteen times, by four times four as before, with their hands. When this is done they embrace each other. Then the alms-box for the poor circulates and after the usual banquet each retires in peace.

~Finis~