Brethren;

When I think about some of the words I have heard as I went

through my Entered Apprentice Degree, the one word that seems to stick in

my mind a lot are the words “Honorable Star and Garter”! I often wonder if

I heard it right, and if many of our Candidates just let it go into one ear and

out the other. The more Entered Apprentice Degrees that I attend, the more

it sticks in my mind. When I think of a “garter”, I picture a wedding and the

ceremonies that involve a “garter” and how it is placed onto the leg of the

bride.

Being inquisitive, I looked up the meaning of the word “garter” in

the dictionary. The dictionary gives the meaning of a “garter” as a band of

elastic to keep up one’s stockings. In another meaning it describes a

“garter” as the “Highest Order of British Knighthood, founded in the mid

“The Order of the Garter” was instituted by King Edward, III, in the

year 1348. The Order consists of the Sovereign and 25 Companions of which

the Prince of Wales is always a member. It signifies how important the Order

is, and also more importantly perhaps, the period from which our Ritual

possibly originated. It is still the pinnacle of Honor in the United Kingdom to

have the “Order of the Garter” bestowed upon you.

There are a lot of words that are from ancient times that we hear in

movies, and words that we read in books, that have to make you wonder if

the writer is a Mason. We, as Masons, recognize these words because they

are part of our history and contained in our Rituals.

Fraternally;

Worshipful Master – 2009