[777 The Great Work]

Originally Posted by judykott

I absolutely love the illustrations that you use for your posts. It is learning about history and art at the same time. Would you be able to go into more detail about the picture with George Washington in it and talk about the ceremony and what it represents down to the choice of hexagonal frame with the blazing stars. Thanks

THE STONE THAT THE BUILDERS REJECTED WILL BECOME THE HEAD CORNER STONE


This statement is applicable to all mankind, and is deeply symbolic.



The stone is taken from the quarry in its rude and natural state, and is a stone made ready by the hands of the workman, to be adjusted by the working tools of the craft.The Rough stone is not a stone that was merely picked up somewhere. It is a stone that has been selected.
Some work has to be done.

It was apparently a good stone. It was a stone that showed good prospects of being capable ,of being made into Perfection. If it had not been a good stone, it would never have been cut out from the quarry.The stone cannot be merely picked up somewhere, it must be selected.

Before we are ready to be initiated, some work must be done . We must stand certain basic tests. Our stone must be apparently of good material. The stone from the beginnng, must show good prospects of being capable of being made into a perfect addition to our spiritual temple.

When we are changing a Rough Ashlar into a Perfect Ashlar, we take away and never add to. We chip ,and chip away ,until all the the rough edges are smooth.

We remove the visible flaws, and never create by chemical means or otherwise, a new material.

We use that which is already there ,and develops it into the Perfect stone.

A common, unknown workman may have cut a huge piece of marble from the quarry. But it takes a master artisan to shape it to perfection. With this stone we take away much of the roughness, remove the sharp points and obliterate the visible defects.

The shapeless mass is a man or woman's character, and each one of us is his or her own Architect, creating
perfect Ashlar ,fit to be tried by the square of our own conscience.We are either making ourselves into a stumbling block or a stepping stone? A faulty Ashlar will endanger the Spiritual temple we are endeavoring to build.

We learn that it is only by continual grinding and many applications of the square that the stone can be brought to a true cube.

Now we are ready to hand the stone over to the builder, who cuts a beveled hole at the top, so that the stone can be attached to a lewis/tripod ,and be hoisted up ready to be placed on the base, assigned to it by the Builder. Then we are reminded that the rope, the lewis, and the crane represent the all sustaining power of God,

When our final summons comes, we will find that the great Builder will have prepared a place for us in that Great Spiritual Temple not made with hands eternal in the Heavens.

The Blazing star is sirius the dog star of wisdom, and feminine intuition. The compass represents Pi and also spirit trapped in matter, or the Cube.

From a geometric point of view. Looking at the perfect Ashlar, we notice that it has six equal and exactly similar sides, and that no matter how it is placed down, on the level, it must stand on one of its faces and present a similar face to the observer, from any point of view. It is the only geometrical body which requires no support, when placed in line with similar cubes, demands its own space, and lines up with the others on top, bottom and sides..



It is the simplest thing in the world. We take a hammer and chisel and from a massive, shapeless rock, we knock off all the stone we do not want, and there is the statue. It was there all the time.