JACOB'S LADDER

The most dangerous words in the world are “I assumed!” Assumptions are

good but more often they can be harmful. They can cause us to make

many mistakes in our judgment if we assume our words and actions mean

the same to everyone. They do not. When we assume that Jacob’s ladder

is a part of our tracing board of the first degree and let it rest, we

lose.

Sages of Freemasonry come to teach us that we ought not think that,

because of our base material, we are truly despicable, like mere

plaster on a wall. When we see the  ladder stationed on the earth; and

its top reaches heaven many in masonry do not know that it represents

our soul’s life, which is in the highest sphere.

Jacob’s ladder talks of souls that see God, and they are the highest

of the high, higher than ministering angels, and by this status can

the soul cleave to the Volumes of Sacred Law.

A whole person is like a tree whose roots are above, and whose trunk

extends downward, which is the body, and which is fastened to its

supernal roots. It is left to the tree to bear fruits of wisdom of

just die after its time has come.

This Jacob’s ladder is a small note for brethren to read on their

travels but to expand it that it becomes reading material for new

masons and understanding it is a vital lesson in masonry.

As said that the ladder has thirty staves and four are principal ones

- faith, hope, charity, and prayer, the ladder is very different,

every time you try to step higher, another round automatically gets

added. All the staves are mentioned here.

1.      Belief in God – (Faith)

2.      Detachment from Fruits  (Hope)

3.      Exile from Money (Charity)

4.      Ever memorable obedience to God (Prayer)

5.      True repentance (Humility)

6.      Understanding Purity of Death (Losing terror of death)

7.      Mourning with Joy (Temperance)

8.      Freeing the Soul (being unbounded from praise, anger and

victory over our nature) (Meek)

9.      Forgetting of Wrongs (forgiveness)

10.  Slander (Protecting character)

11.  Vainglory (Reduction of talk)

12.  Lying (Especially of love and love of God)

13.  Despondency (The eighth capital vice)

14.  Leaving of Clamorous (Freedom from Gluttony)

15.  Achieving Purity and Chastity

16.  Freedom from Avarice (Materialism)

17.  Seeking Poverty (Resignation of cares)

18.  Leaving insensibility (Removing all that is dead)

19.  Reduction of Sleep (reduction of any intoxication)

20.  Reduction of body Vigil (the subduing of pompous passions)

21.  Removing puerile cowardice (Being unafraid of dark forces)

22.  Vainglory of achievement of steps climbed (Being proud of

climbing the ladder this far)

23.  Freedom of blasphemous thoughts (Feeling superior to others and God)

24.  Becoming meek and guileless (Becoming  childlike)

25.  Sublime humility

26.  Discernment of thoughts and virtues

27.  Living in Holy Solitude

28.  Step of the blessed prayer (Becoming one SOHUM)

29.  Being able to resurrect the soul

30.  Faith Hope and Love (the Holy Trinity)

The first is the work of the Apprentice; the second is the work of

those who are FellowCraft; the third, of those who have progressed to

the Master Mason; and the fourth is reserved for those who have

achieved perfection Passed Master (NO! NOT PAST).

Brethren at this juncture let me inform you that Masonry (Free) is not

STATIC but DYNAMIC,   it is not a state of being, a state of having

arrived, a state of having made it, but a constant movement or

climbing toward the GA, toward receiving the fullness of God's life.

The position of the Passed Master is not at the top of the ladder

rather it is at the BOTTOM, allowing apprentices to step over their

shoulders.

Now where is the ladder brethren?  It is in our hearts it goes from

one mason to another like building a bridge.  So, dive into your

hearts and start climbing it one step at a time using the rungs of

faith, hope, charity, prayer, humility, love, repentance, gentleness,

kindness, self-control, joy, peace, obedience to God…

Many of us must be brought here back to the edge of the grave from where we were raised, by the lions paw and the full third degree can be explained in very simple terms in the lecture given by the

Worshipful Master.  When he says that bright morning star, what he is actually pointing to the Candidate is the great giant planet Jupiter,

which contains phosphorus essential of life and - phosphate, which is

the vital element of DNA, RNA and ATP. It is a well-known fact that phospholipids form all cell membranes. Simply put, without phosphorus we humans would simply not be human because our consciousness and our

spiritual energy would not exist.

It is through our DNA which contains phosphorus, that we become conscious to the world and who we are in order to live in the light.

Hence, when Jacob slept using a stone under his head which was the Philosopher’s Stone, the dream was how our DNA can be changed not by splicing but by thought change,  one look at the helix structure of our DNA can actually point out that there is a ladder, and that a Mason can change his DNA in his new birth, after rising is the Allegory.

The first step of Jacob’s ladder is the personal purification of your body, mind and soul that is represented by the Moon. The second rung on the ladder is education intelligence managed by Mercury. The third

step is beauty represented by Venus. The fourth rung is the Sun, which is the life-giver. The fifth is competition by Mars to help us fight the good fight. The fight against darkness with light. Against lies

with truth. The sixth rung in the ladder is Jupiter, which is the

symbol of intellectual maturity and judgement. The seventh and last step of the ladder is Saturn which represents the true sage, adept and master of Wisdom. The perfect balance of spiritual and material laws.

All greatness is service and we must obey the laws of the Great

Overseer of the Universe.

Well then brethren, Jacob’s ladder is not all Greek and Latin rather an unique allegory where the eternal circle teaches its infinite

wisdom, seek within said God and ye shall find!

Origen explained it eons ago that there are two ladders in life, the

ascetic ladder that the soul climbs on the earth, with an increase in

virtue, and the soul’s travel after death, climbing up the heavens

towards the light of God. However, the living temple brother that is

YOU surmount it all!