Masonic EA Degree Work

From the Lodge of the Holy Saint's John at Jerusalem.

To learn to subdue my passions and improve myself in Masonry.

I am, so taken and accepted by all worthy brothers and fellows.

My obligation.

By having been often tried, never denied, and willing to be tried again.

By certain signs, a token, a word, and the perfect points of entrance.

Right angles, horizontals, and perpendiculars.

A certain friendly or brotherly grip whereby one Mason may know another in the dark as well as in the light.

Pectoral, Manual, Guttural and Peddle, which are illustrated by the four cardinal virtues: Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance, Justice

In my heart

Within a legally constituted, duly opened entered apprentice’s lodge

In a room or place adjoining the same

I was divested of all metal, neither naked or clad, barefoot nor shod, hoodwinked, with a cable tow once around my neck. In which condition, I was conducted to the door of the lodge by a friend whom I afterward found to be a brother.

By first meeting resistance and afterward gaining admittance

I was caused to make the regular alarm by giving three distinct knocks on the door without which was answered by a like number within accompanied by the question “who comes here?”

Mr. Full Name, a poor blind candidate, now in total darkness, who desires to be brought to light by receiving and having a part of the rights, light, and benefits of this worshipful entered apprentice’s lodge, erected to God and dedicated to the memory of the holy Saints John as all others have done that have gone this way before him.

If it was of my own free will and accord that I made this request, if I was duly and truly prepared, worthy and well qualified, all which being answered in the affirmative, I was asked by what particular right or benefit I expected to obtain so great a privilege.

By being a man, freeborn, of lawful age, and properly vouched for.

My conductor

To wait until the Worshipful Master could be informed of my request and his answer returned.

Let the candidate enter and be received and do an ancient form.

I was received on the point of a sharp instrument presented to my naked left breast, the moral of which was explained to me

I was conducted to the center of the lodge and caused to kneel for the benefit of lodge prayer.

As a rational and accountable being, In whom I placed my trust

In God

My Trust being in God, my faith was well founded, to rise, follow my conductor, and fear no danger

Once regularly around the lodge, to the Junior Warden in the South, the Senior Warden in the West, and the Worshipful Master in the East, where the same questions were asked and answers given as at the door, with the additional question from the Worshipful Master, "whence cometh the candidate, and wither is he traveling?”

From the West, Traveling toward the East.

Why I left the west and traveled toward the east

In search of light

That I be reconducted to the Senior Warden in the West, who would teach me how to approach the East in the proper manner to obtain light

I was caused to take my first step in masonry by advancing my naked left foot, placing the heal of the right to the hollow of the left, my feet forming right angles, my body erect before the altar, facing the worshipful master in the East

I was made an entered apprentice mason

In due and ancient form

I was caused to kneel upon my naked left knee, my right extended, forming a right angle. My left hand supporting, my right resting upon the Holy Bible, square, and compasses in which position I took upon myself the solemn oath or obligation of an entered apprentice mason.

I have

I, Full Name, of my own free will and accord, in the presence of almighty God and this worshipful entered apprentice’s lodge, erected to God and dedicated to the memory of the holy Saints John, do hereby and here-on sincerely promise and solemnly swear that I will ever hail, keep, and conceal, and never reveal, any of the secret arts, parts, or points of the ancient hidden mysteries of freemasonry, that have been, may now, or shall hereafter be communicated to me as such to any person in the world, except it being in a legally constituted, duly opened, entered apprentice’s lodge, or to a brother of this degree, and not unto him until by due trial, strict examination, or legal information I shall have found him lawfully entitled to the same as myself. I furthermore promise or swear that I will not write, indite, print, stick, stamp, stain, hew, cut, carve, etch, engrave, inlay, or in any other way delineate the least word, syllable, letter, or sign on anything movable or immovable under the canopy of heaven whereby or whereon any of the secrets of freemasonry might become unlawfully known and that through my unworthiness. All this I sincerely promise and solemnly swear without the least hesitation, equivocation, our mental reservation, binding myself under no less a penalty than that of having my throat cut from ear to ear, my tongue torn out at the roots, my body buried in the rough sands of the sea at the low water Mark where the tide ebbs and flows in every twenty four hours should I knowingly violate this, my solemn oath or obligation as an entered apprentice mason. So help me God and keep me steadfast in due performance of the same.

To detach my hands and in a token of my sincerity, kiss the holy Bible

In my present condition, what I most desired?

Light

I did

By order of the worshipful master with the assistance of the brethren.

The three great lights of masonry which are the Holy Bible, Square, and Compasses, also, the representatives of the three lesser lights placed in triangular form around the altar, all which the worshipful master was pleased to explained to me

The worshipful master approaching me from the East with the step, due-guard, and penal sign of an Entered Apprentice Mason, extending to me his right hand in token of friendship and brotherly love, raising me from a right angle to a perpendicular. He proceeded with the assistance of the senior deacon to invest me with the grip and word of an Entered Apprentice Mason and ordered me to salute the Junior and Senior wardens as such and approach the East

A lambskin or white leathern apron which I was ordered to take to the senior warden in the west who would teach me in how to wear it as an Entered Apprentice Mason and return to the East for further instructions

The working tools of an Entered Apprentice Mason which are the 24” gauge and the common gravel, the uses of which the worshipful master was pleased to explain to me.

I was ordered to return to the room or place whence I came and there be invested with that I had been divested and I’m due time, return to the lodge… but before retiring, the worshipful master was pleased to demand of me a small coin or piece of metal that might be laid up in the archives of the lodge as a perpetual memorial that I had there in been made a Mason. After strict search, finding myself destitute, my wants were relieved by a brother and I was permitted to retire.

Being the youngest Entered Apprentice Mason, I was placed in the north east corner of the lodge, my feet forming right angles, my body erect facing the worshipful master in the East who was pleased to say to me I there stood as he believed a just and upright man and Mason and gave me the solemn charge ever to walk and act as such