Monday, 10 February 2025, 10:39 AM
Site: The Mason Word
Course: 1. Freemasonry for Non-Masons (Freemasonry for Non-Masons)
Glossary: Some Jargon Explained
R

Relief

Charity is extended to those in the community in which the freemason lives.

Ritual

The method of opening and closing a Lodge, of conferring the Degrees, of Installation, and other duties, constitute a system of ceremonies which are called the ritual. 

Much of masonic ritual is esoteric, and uses language which may now be perceived as archaic.

S

Speculative Freemason

The term 'speculative' refers to those gentlemen who joined lodges of operative masons in the seventeenth century.  By association the term is also applied to present-day Freemasons (sometimes also called Masons).

The terms Freemason and Mason are often used interchangeably, however sometimes for disambiguation the term Freemason is used for the Speculative lodges, and Mason used to describe Operative stonemasons.

T

Truth

Honesty and integrity in personal, business, and public life.

Tyler

The Tyler stands at the front door of the lodge with a sword in hand, symbolizing the need for members to be 'ever watchful and guarded in our words and actions, particularly when before the enemies of Masonry, ever bearing in remembrance those truly Masonic virtues, silence and circumspection'. 

Tyler

In Latin tegere (from which came "thatch") meant cover, roof; regulate were the tiles, pieces, slabs, used roof coverings. A tiler, therefore, is one who makes, or fastens on, tiles. 

In speculative Masonry the Tyler is a workman who closed the building in, and hid its interior from outside view. The guardian of the entrance to the lodge was figuratively called by this name.

An officer of a symbolic lodge, whose duty is to guard the door of the lodge, and to permit no one to pass in who is not duly qualified, and who has not the permission of the Master. A necessary qualification of a Tyler is, therefore, that he should be a Master Mason. Although the lodge may be opened in an inferior degree, no one who has not advanced to the third degree can fulfil of the Tyler.

As the Tyler may be compensated for his services he is considered, in some sense, a servant of the lodge. It is, therefore, his duty to prepare the lodge for its meetings, to arrange the furniture in its proper place, and to make all other arrangements for the convenience of the lodge.

This is a very important office, and, like that of the Master and Wardens, owes its existence, not to any conventional regulations, but to the very landmarks of the order; for, from the peculiar nature, it is evident that there never could have been a meeting of Freemasons for masonic purposes, unless a Tyler had been present to guard the lodge from intrusion. The title is derived from the operative art; for as in operative masonry the tiler, when the edifice is erected, finishes and covers it with the roof of tiles, so in speculative masonry, when the lodge is duly organized, the Tyler closes the door and covers the sacred precincts from all intrusion.