The Secrets of the Past Master's Degree

To be exalted to the Most Sublime Degree of the Royal Arch a candidate must first have governed a Craft Lodge and be a Past Master.  This regulation was in practice until 1823, for almost eighty years a Companion of the Royal Arch had to be an actual Past Master.  In 1823, it was decided and implemented that those wishing to be exalted could pass through a chair degree and become Virtual Past Masters, tonight we witnessed this degree as conferred by Royal Arch Chapter in North America.  

The charge given to our new Past Masters emphasize that the degree is short, in fact, if you were to time the degree from beginning to end it would take no longer than 10 minutes, give or take a couple.  However, the lessons conveyed are of great importance.  This is true but it takes a little digging to uncover those lessons and why they are essentially necessary before a candidate can be exalted.  Because it is not just the title that is necessary to be exalted, if it was then the regulation that a companion must be an actual Past Master would never have changed.  

First, Masonry is concerned with circular work, even though your entire craft experience has been square work.  But there are hints of that truth when we look at the Great Lights of Freemasonry, eventually the Compasses move above the Square, even though in a Lodge of Master Masons we still talk about square work, the ashlars are still furniture within the lodge, we never see an arch-the physical representation of circular work.  In your Mark Master degree the arch was alluded to, but again, never seen.  In the Past Master Degree you’re still concerned with square work, even the word of the Past Master is an allusion to the work a Past Master does.  However, tonight, you have been given the reason that circular work has been kept from you.

Before you can experience circular work, you must first learn how to square your work.  The lessons conveyed during this degree are reminiscent of the lessons you were taught as an Entered Apprentice: square your work by the square of virtue, keep your passions and prejudices within due bounds, etc.  We are working on material concerns, square concerns.  Remember that the badge of a Past Master is a Square, learn to use that tool.  Think about the overseers in your Mark Degree; how they used the square to measure your work, they allowed the square stone to pass by but they were eventually unwilling to allow the keystone to pass inspection.  These brethren were interested in squarework and squarework only, the keystone and the architecture of the arch were beyond the scope of their ability.
Eventually, these brethren were invested with the secret belonging to the Arch and ordered to find the keystone for the completion of that arch.  Upon retrieval of the keystone though, you never beheld the Arch, that is still to come.  All I can do at this point is reiterate that to unlock the secrets of the Royal Arch you must master yourself, self-a craftsman, yet a ruler of the craft.  If the Royal Arch is an extension of the Master’s Degree, the Mark Master one of the Fellow Craft, then look upon the Past Master’s Degree as the fulfillment of your Entered Apprentice Degree.  If you learn only one thing this evening, remember that the work of the Apprentice is never finished during this mortal coil.  Once you have completed this work you may, if found worthy, be exalted a Companion of the Royal Arch.