Copper Board

Yesterday, we briefly mentioned the pyramids in Arizona and how they had reminded me of the Royal Arch. What do pyramids have to do with Royal Arch Chapter Degrees? Every Mark Master Mason is well familiar with the phrase, “the stone which the builders rejected.” In our ritual, on the surface, it refers only to the keystone, which “because of its peculiar form and beauty” was passed on from one overseer to another until it was finally “heaved over among the rubble.”

The Most Excellent Master’s Degree oration reminds us however, that “the ritual is not complete in its explanations” and “one who merely attends and watches ‘the’ many degrees will fall short of ‘their’ meanings, hidden secrets and philosophies.”

So, let’s “cause a search to be made” that we may discover another truth here.

History informs us that Egypt was at one time invaded by an Eastern nation called Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, who compelled the people of the land to close their idolatrous temples, and enlisted them to erect the Great Pyramid. The Egyptians had, therefore, no personal interest in the work.

In the opinion of Professor Flinders Petrie, a recognized authority on Egyptian archaeology, the stones used in all important parts of the Great Pyramid were carefully cut to size at the quarries, and specially marked to fit their allotted places before being conveyed to the site of the building. During the erecting operations, which the Greek historian Herodotus says took thirty years, the workmen would find one stone lying among the others, namely, the head cornerstone, the purpose of which must have been for some time incomprehensible, for the Great Pyramid was the first example of that style of architecture, and the builders cannot have known of its finished design. We can imagine seeing these ignorant men conjecturing and puzzling over this stone, and, as it did not then appear what place it would occupy, rejecting it as of no use. It doubtless became, as the Apostle indicates, a “stone of stumbling,” and a “rock of offense.”

Apparently the workmen did not understand that this peculiarly shaped stone was a little model of the monument they were erecting; it contains the angles to which the outer stones were required to be cut. When the building was nearing completion, however, they beheld with wonder that the very stone they had rejected as useless was the only one which could crown their work! Thus, the stone which the builders rejected, refused, disallowed, the same became the head cornerstone.

Stone, or rock, means law, together with the fullness or completeness thereof. The pyramid of Cheops was constructed in accordance with the law, i.e., light in the east, darkness in the west. “As it is above, so it will be below.” The capstone, or capestone, of the pyramid was an exact model of the pyramid itself, and was looked upon as a stone of singular form and beauty. In the course of time it became covered with the “rubbish of the temple,” where after “diligent search”, it was “brought to light” and “raised” to its proper position, which resulted in the “celebrating of the capestone.” Thus, “the stone (law) which the builders rejected, the same is become the headstone of the corner.” (Luke 20:17).
Friend, today, if we are to be builders of personal character, we cannot reject the capstone of the superstructure or the foundation stone (knowledge) upon which we might build a moral and Masonic edifice.