The Middle Chamber

by Harold C. "Pete" Peterson, MPS

There are many things we do not know, but we know enough about them to appease most of our curiosity.This blissful state of ignorance can be supposed to be harmless enough in most cases. There are some areas, however, that may only wait for the proper inducement to catapult the seeker into vigorous and diligent search for deeper understanding. Freemasonry has many such pockets of information that we may understand comfortably at more than one level. While we dare not say that Masons do wrong who halt at the earliest level of understanding, we may truly rejoice when others go beyond and share their new found understanding. That kind of discovery motivates this paper.

The only Maonic reference to the middle chamber occurs in the Fellow Craft Lecture. This lecture refers to the middle chamber without description or explanation. I do not know if we are being told that the earliest Fellow Craft knew about this room and its purpose. Early ritual composers may have felt that the purpose of the room could or should not be explained in the ritual. We should not be surprised at the absence of explanation here as ritual rarely explains its symbols. This room and the truth it symbolizes, however, may stand outside that postulate.

We can easily believe that the cost of building was such that any room had a specific and well-planned use. This would especially be true if the room were mentioned in a non-technical description of the structure. The above suggestion leads us to wonder if the room (as a symbol) should be examined in the light of Masonic truth. Study may reveal truth that adds importance to the Second Degree.

An electronic concordance of the Bible (King James Version) found only one reference to a middle chamber. This reference in 1 Kings 6:8 rests in a description of King Solomon's Temple. The description therein bears resemblance to the floor movements and descriptions contained in the Second Degree Lecture. These specific rooms (the only ones noted) had only one entry on the south side.

The importance of this room is obviously not regarded as crucial to understanding the role of the temple in worship. We, too, can miss the importance of this room if we fail to understand formal worship practiced in Israel at Solomon's time. We must understand that formal worship occurred at several levels of participation and that any of these levels required very specific preparations. This chamber (the one on the second, not the first nor third, floor) was where they performed a portion of their preparation for formal worship. They stored their vestments there and possibly some of the vessels they would use in formal worship in the temple. Knowing this about the middle chamber establishes its importance in the Second Degree.

Israel did not enter into worship casually. Certain protocol must be followed specifically to meet together for worship. While this was true for the congregation, Exodus 29 describes the additional protocol for the priests. The vestments of worship were never to become common or profane. This meant dedicated or separate storage. If the middle chamber was thus dedicated, the vestments could be stored there without becoming profane. The common was on one side of this room and the Holy on the other side. The Priest would leave the common and prepare to enter Holy in this space.

This room was not the Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy of Holies, but a room to prepare one to minister before the Holy of Holies. There many priestly duties to be performed that required this preparation room be used. The Holy of Holies was restricted to the one High Priest once a year. The other priests had frequent duties to perform that required physical preparation away from the common or outside. This room was the place of separation from outside influence. Not even the congregation that would assemble for worship would gain admission here. The purpose of the middle chamber then became threefold. It was a place to store vestments and vessels used by the priests in the practice of formal worship. It was a place of separation. A place where the priests could remove themselves from the ordinary. It was, finally a place of preparation. The priest separated from the ordinary prepared to lead in worship.

No lesson is ever really learned until there is a way to live its teaching. Some lessons teach only intellectual discipline, but that discipline guides further reading, study and writing or speaking. The lesson of the middle chamber has more than an intellectual application though the intellect is significantly involved. The Fellow Craft entering the middle chamber is separated from the general population of men. He was initiated into the mysteries of the Entered Apprentice Degree. He is already familiar with some Masonic truth and light. He is now enjoined to prepare for the mysteries of the Master Mason Degree. The mysteries discovered in the midle chamber begin that preparation.

It is important to communicate to the candidate approaching the middle chamber that he is more than other men but less than a Mason. It is also vital that the Fellow Craft know that this preparation is not merely an intermediate station. This preparation of character, this test of integrity and this recognition of loyalty prepares him for the next step in Masonry. It would even be proper to challenge him with the never ending quest to fully know Masonry. This is an important milestone in the path of continuing Masonic instruction.

The designs of Freemasonry are on the trestle board. The Fellow Craft has not seen all of them yet, but you know where he must go. We must encourage the Fellow Craft to make progress through this degree as the necessary preparations for the Third Degree. This must appear to the candidate as an important part of his Masonic growth. One of your duties as a counselor is to engage the candidate's confidence and enlist his commitment. You can only do that by affirming his importance to you, his Lodge and the Fraternity.

The Fellow Craft is, and has been since his Entered Apprentice Degree, more than an ordinary man who is apart from men yet among men. He is apart from men by his sojourn through our mysteries. His understanding becomes more complete with each degree he obtains (and this includes the degrees of the York and Scottish Rites). The Fellow Craft lives and works among men and you can help him express the joys of his sojourn to others.

We come as all brothers and fellows have come before us. This common preparation builds a strong bond between brethren. Counselors can strengthen that bond with their individual instruction of candidates. These are the formative days of early growth and preparation. This is where the love of the Fraternity is implanted and nurtured. If we wait until the Master Mason proficiency is completed to give a Mason love of the Fraternity, he may find nothing worth loving. He may go through the degrees as steps to nowhere in particular. Your job in this middle chamber is vital. You may nurture a future leader in the Fraternity here in the middle chamber of Masonic preparation for that noble Masonic life.

©This article, appearing in the August 1999 edition of "The Philalethes", was copied in its entirety with the express permission of The Philalethes Society.