Item #20209 [ Masonic Cipher Ritual ] Fr La To Re. FRATERNAL, Masonic Cipher Ritual.
[ Masonic Cipher Ritual ] Fr La To Re
[ Masonic Cipher Ritual ] Fr La To Re

[ Masonic Cipher Ritual ] Fr La To Re

N.p.: N.d. [circa 1900]. 16mo., pp. [1]-116; pebbled cloth; boards and spine with several scratches and dings; joints split; leaves clean. Surface insect damage to the cloth. Endpapers plain, fore-edge has cloth flap (marbled on the inside with some losses) to close and protect the book but without any closure device. We've reviewed this example with the National Heritage Museum in Lexington MA who has a large collection of Masonic material. They contributed the following understanding of this item "[It is] a Masonic cipher ritual. 'Fr La To Re' stands for 'From Labor to Refreshment a phrase from Masonic ritual. [The first] page covers the part of the ritual where, essentially, the closed/tyled lodge is temporarily recessed (rather than formally closed) so that other business may be carried out in an open lodge (e.g. have a non-Mason give a presentation to the lodge). [ A later page headed ] 'LSI EAD' is the beginning of the examination of the Entered Apprentice. EAD = Entered Apprentice Degree. The cipher itself just abbreviates words (rather than using a substitution code or something along those lines). It's an aide-memoire for a text that has already been (ideally) memorized. ...it's a Masonic Craft/Symbolic/Blue Lodge ritual book because of the names of the officers (WM=Worhipful Master; SW=Senior Warden; JW=Junior Warden) and the names of the degrees (EA=Entered Apprentice; FC=Fellow Craft; MM=Master Mason)." They further noted that many of these Cipher Rituals have false title pages as an attempt to mislead the reader, not present in this example. Fair. Hard Cover. [20209]

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