For Sun and Moon give light. While it is true that there is no real regularity with which the Moon GOVERNS the night; since the night gets along just as well without the Moon as he with her she does give light when she is present. There is no question that the Sun governs and rules the day; without the Sun there would be no day. The Sun of course gives light and life as well. The Worshipful Master rules and governs his lodge as truly as the Sun and Moon rule and govern day and night. There can be no lodge without a Worshipful Master; he is in a very real sense the lodge itself.

There are some things he cannot do that the brethren under him, can do. But without him the brethren can do nothing, while he, without the brethren’s consent or even their assistance, can do much. It is one of the principal functions of the Worshipful Master to disseminate (share) light —- Masonic light to his lodge. That duty is often honored by neglect as by performance, has nothing to do with the fact that it is a duty. So that the inclusion of a symbol of the Worshipful Master, as a giver of light, is to most of us neither fanciful nor absurd, but a logical carrying out of that Masonic doctrine which makes a Master the Giver of Light to his brethren.

The ritual instructs candidates that they behold the Great Lights of Masonry by the illumination of the Lesser Lights. This is an actual fact, but it is also a symbol. The Great Light cannot be read without light; the Square and Compasses cannot be used in the dark, neither can be understood; nor can we make use of them for the noble and glorious purpose taught us in Speculative Masonry, without we receive symbolic light.

Masonic light, from the East; that is, from the Worshipful Master or those he delegates to bring that “good and wholesome instruction” which is at once his duty and his happiness. A lesson is taught in the references to regularity of the heavenly luminaries, as guides for the government of a lodge by the Worshipful Master. The fact that the Moon is not regular in her attendance upon the Sun, or the night, and that she does not, in any such sense as does the sun, govern the period of darkness in which she appears, in no way detracts from the forces of these admonitions.

These phrases are very old and go back to a time when men knew much less of astronomy than they do today; to a time when the moon in popular belief had much greater powers than she actually possesses. We know the moon to have almost no effect upon the earth, as far as our lives are concerned, save as she makes the tides.

Our ancient brethren believed her Light to be full of weird and wonderful powers; moon-struck (from Luna, the moon) and are symbol words of these ancient and now exploded beliefs.

Less than 200 years ago, many crimes, misdemeanors, beneficent influences and beautiful actions were ascribed to the moon, things evil had to be done “in the dark of the moon“; witches were supposed to ride in moonlight, dogs bayed at the moon because by its light they could see what was hidden from mortal eyes, sheeted ghosts preferred moonlight to starlight and incantations were never properly recited unless in the moonlight; the moon gave or withheld crops, influenced the weather and when eclipsed, foretold disaster.

With such a body of belief, it is not surprising that the moon was considered, even by the better educated, to have “governing” powers, whence probably, her inclusion with such abilities into our ritual.

That we know better is in no sense antagonistic to our use of the old, old phrases in our ceremonies. We know better about many things!!!

The knowledge of the art of architecture as set forth in the Middle Chamber lecture, would get no one a job as office boy in a builder’s office today.

Our penalties, never enforced by Masons are wholly symbolic. We have many other ways of transmitting intelligence today which are not included in a list of ways of writing and printing. But we love and repeat the old ritual because it is old; because it is a bond with those who have gone this way before us; because it is the time-tried and well trusted way of making Masons and we would not alter it.

So, we continue to have our moon “govern” the night, and do it “regularly” too, finding in this bond with other men of other times something dear and precious, none the less that the words portray only a fancy. Indeed, the whole matter of the Lesser Lights is such a bond, and such a fancy.

It would be far more accurate if we repeated The Lesser Lights represent the sun, the earth and the moon. As the sun in its gravity, causes the earth to revolve around it in 365 and a fraction of days, and the moon revolves about the earth in approximately 28 days, so the earth is never without Government and light, as all lodges should be. But would you like that sort of ritual?

It should be noted that it is by the light of the Lesser Lights that the Entered Apprentice is led to see those objects which mean so much to a Mason, The Great Lights. The Inestimable Gift of God to Man for the Rule and Guide of His Faith; the tools dedicated to the Craft and to the Master and the Alpha and Omega of Freemasonry.

Light alone is not enough; light must be used. Here too, is symbolism which is well to muse upon. Light from the East, illumination from the Master, is not enough. It is merely a help by which we can see the truth and use it. As the illumination from the Lesser Lights gives us opportunity to see, examine, understand, and live by the great principles of fraternity and brotherhood. Perhaps it is because this is so that the Master is given the Sun and Moon as guides; an erratic Master, one whose light is not well governed, one whose illumination to his brethren is feeble and intermittent, does not make for a well-educated, well-instructed Craft.

But the Master who takes the Sun and Moon for guides, whose light given to his brethren is brilliant and complete when they need it, soft and gentle when they are in the mood, who can be depended upon, whose conduct is in all ways “regular” he is a Master to be cherished and revered, for he is truly “worshipful” in the best sense of the old word, a veritable seventh jewel in the lodge.

As the lodge, as a whole, is a symbol of the world, so a man’s heart should always be to him, a symbol of the lodge.

In it he should carry ever what he may remember of the Great Light, and with spiritual compasses lay out his work, with spiritual square, square both work and actions toward all mankind, more especially a brother Mason.

Therefore, must he carry also in his heart three tiny Lesser Lights, by the light of which he uses his spiritual lodge furnishings.

If he lights these from the torch of love and burns one for friendliness, one for helpfulness and one for Godliness, he will be truly an Initiate in the real sense of that term and find when he stands in the physical temple, about the Altar of Freemasonry, a new satisfaction in the new meaning which the three lesser Lights or Luminaries will, with silent light and soft, imprint upon his heart.