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00:35In Freemasonry, the stone is one of the primary elements in the development of the order's initiatory system.
00:43Masonic.
00:44In short, stone is the main speculative raw material used by modern Freemasonry.
00:49This allegory, known as the great magic, is the main starting point of the initiatory journey, known as the stone.
00:58angular.
00:58To briefly understand this basic symbolic element, it is important for the beginning student to research it in reliable and sound sources.
01:07origins of the sublime institution.
01:09Starting with operative Freemasonry, which has a history spanning approximately 800 years.
01:14Free from fantasies and jingoism, students will understand that, especially under the influence of the church-state,
01:21Our origins stem from the guilds formed by medieval stonemasons.
01:26whose mission was to build castles, churches, cathedrals, monasteries, chapels, abbeys, public works, and so on.
01:35From the 12th century onwards, these workers, organized into builders' guilds, primarily used limestone as their raw material.
01:45extracted directly from the quarry.
01:47This stone was hewn and squared to become a useful element, that is, cubic and without edges.
01:54in order to be set and leveled on the bases.
01:57As the work progressed, the walls were built according to the demands of the art.
02:02With the emergence of speculative Freemasonry, starting in the 17th century,
02:07especially due to the loss of prestige of the builders' guilds as a result of the decline of the Gothic style.
02:13And with the revival of Greco-Roman culture, crafts were gradually replaced by social builders.
02:20Thus, corporations that previously used limestone in a literal way,
02:25They transformed into speculative associations dedicated to moral and optical construction.
02:31with the goal of improving the human being.
02:33This marked the transition from operative Freemasonry to speculative Freemasonry.
02:38Based on this ideal, the rough stone of the past operational process came to be symbolically compared.
02:44to the man in need of instruction and self-improvement.
02:46This represents the initiatory concept of human improvement that takes place in modern Masonic lodges.
02:52Worthy representatives of the old workshops.
03:01Therefore, the speculative concept of modern Freemasonry is to transform the crude and uneducated man,
03:09just like a stone freshly extracted from the quarry, in a roughly hewn and cubic stone,
03:14Ready to be used in the construction of the walls of a temple dedicated to universal virtue.
03:19This is the essence of the Masonic initiatory allegory, in which each stage of improvement,
03:25apprentice, companion, and master, represents a stage in this symbolic construction.
03:29Within this context, the following are some elements related to the symbolism of this speculative construction proposed by modern Freemasonry.
03:38The stone.
03:39In general terms, the term refers to any piece of rock.
03:43It can also refer to the solid part of a substance or a gravestone, among other meanings.
03:50In Freemasonry, the stone occupies a prominent place in its liturgy as a symbol for speculative Freemasons.
03:56Within Freemasonry, the stone is divided into two main elements: rough stone and cubic stone.
04:03Rough stone is unshaped, rough, and unpolished stone, like that which is extracted from a quarry.
04:10Symbolically, the apprentice mason works on this stone, roughing it out and squaring it, just as stonemasons do with physical stone.
04:17The cubic stone, which is the working element of the fellow Freemason, is the rough stone that has been hewn and shaped.
04:23squared,
04:25Ready to be used in the construction of the building's walls.
04:28Furthermore, the stone also represents the cornerstone, the fundamental element that suggests the first stone laid to begin.
04:36the work.
04:36The cornerstone, or foundation stone, holds extremely important symbolic significance in Masonic liturgy.
04:43Mason. The word derives from stone and refers to a person whose profession is working with stones in construction.
04:50It's the construction worker, the builder of foundations, walls, etc.
04:56Symbolically, in modern Freemasonry, a Freemason is like a stonemason dedicated to the inner construction of man.
05:02That is, to the construction of an enhanced spiritual temple.
05:06The Freemason is seen as a social builder and is commonly called a Freemason.
05:18Freemason. That's the generic term for a Mason.
05:22This expression is also used by the French, such as Fran Masson.
05:26by Italians like Libero Muratore and Germans like Frei Maurer.
05:31These designations were adopted in place of the English term Freemason.
05:36which, according to many authors, refers to operative masons, that is, those who worked with ashlar stones, Freestone,
05:44Stones that were freely hewn and cut, without cracks.
05:48There is also a historical aspect that links the term to a time when many men were servants.
05:54And membership in Freemasonry was restricted only to those who were free.
05:58Thus, the English words Free and Mason only began to be used together at the beginning of the 18th century.
06:07when the constitutions were compiled by James Anderson and published in London in 1723.
06:14In short, the rough stone in Freemasonry is the one that apprentices work on initiatorily to transform into a...
06:21Cubic stone used in construction.
06:24For this squaring task, the apprentice needs to have two fundamental elements at hand,
06:30The mallet represents willpower, and the chisel represents intelligence.
06:34Willpower must be applied intelligently.
06:36Esoterically, the rough stone represents man who still lacks instruction and refinement.
06:42while the cubic stone represents the man who has been perfected and evolved through the knowledge acquired on the initiatory path.
06:49In the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, this path is indicated by the twelve zodiacal columns.
06:54which occupy the tops of the north and south columns.
06:57In conclusion, I believe this summary can provide a basic understanding of this stage of the art.
07:03However, it is important to emphasize that the apprentice has the right to request assistance from the masters of their shop.
07:09who has the obligation to instruct him in this process.
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