The delivery of the charge given to an entered apprentice encourages the study of the liberal arts and sciences, and to make a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge. Whilst at another lodge meeting, the WM Eric Palfreyman of Victory Lodge No 6238 who meet at Hope Street, Liverpool, remarked that their next meeting was likely to be a short meeting. Other than confirming the minutes of the last meeting and some other business they had to attend to; they were not planning to perform a ceremony.
That was food for thought for Paul McLachlan of Liverpool Mercantile Lodge No 4319, who spoke about the delivery of ‘nuggets’ at an earlier meeting of their lodge. For those not familiar with the concepts of ‘nuggets’, these are short informative articles about aspects of Freemasonry taken from Solomon. Solomon is the online virtual learning resource which is designed to support a broader programme of learning and development within lodges and chapters, and is accessed through the weblink https://solomon.ugle.org.uk/
Within the virtual learning resource are a whole host of nuggets with a wealth of information on a myriad of topics. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been introduced and for those familiar with ChatGPT there is now also Solomon GPT, through which questions can be asked, as a personal mentor using AI will guide your learning.
WM Eric invited Paul to attend their next meeting and to deliver a short talk based on the nuggets Paul had explained earlier. The meeting day having approached, the lodge was opened in fine form by WM Eric, assisted by his senior warden, Peter McCarthy and junior warden, Arthur Roberts.
Eric then explained to the lodge that visitor Paul McLachlan, would deliver a short talk on two aspects of Freemasonry that perhaps are not always fully explained. The ‘wearing of white gloves’ and ‘standing in the north-east’, both nuggets taken from Solomon and further study of the first degree ceremony.
Paul explained that the wearing of white gloves was a practice inherited from operative Masons, who wore them to protect their hands and were sometimes presented by their employers at the start of a building project. One of the first mentions of this practice in Freemasonry dates to 1599 when Donald Ian Fraser of Kilwinning Lodge, Ayrshire was presented with a pair of white gloves at his initiation. Paul, further explaining the symbolism of the gloves and parallels to modern society.
Paul then spoke about the significance of ‘standing in the north-east’, which is the place where a candidate for initiation is placed within the lodge, and his feelings for charity tested. Explaining that a candidate enters the lodge from the north, in a place of darkness in Masonic terms, and is taken to the east, where knowledge is found. Therefore, the north-east is representative of the foundation of that knowledge and is typically the place where the foundation stone of a building would typically be laid, in the north-east corner.
Both talks were very interesting, and Paul explained to the brethren and visitors of how to access Solomon and where further information could be found. Eric, congratulated Paul on his talk which was met with acclamation.
The lodge being duly closed, the brethren and visitors retired to the splendid surroundings of the Egyptian Dining Room, to further discussions and enjoy dinner and the company of Victory Lodge brethren, where it was fair to say that a daily advancement in Masonic knowledge had certainly been achieved.