Why These Three Passages Work Together
Introduction: Movement Around an Unchanging Center
Circumambulation in Freemasonry is not decorative motion. It is instruction enacted through the body. The candidate moves; the altar remains fixed. This contrast teaches a central Masonic truth: meaning is approached progressively, not seized all at once. The Scriptures paired with circumambulation in each degree are therefore not interchangeable readings but carefully ordered texts that correspond to the moral and existential development of the man who walks.
Taken together, Psalm 133, 1 Corinthians 13, and Ecclesiastes 12 form a coherent human arc. They speak, in sequence, to belonging, responsibility, and mortality. The altar does not change. The Scriptures do—because the candidate does.
Circumambulation as Progressive Formation
Ritual scholars consistently note that ritual movement functions as embodied pedagogy rather than symbolic illustration alone (Bell, 1992; Eliade, 1958). In Freemasonry, circumambulation teaches that truth has a stable center, but access to that truth depends on readiness. What can be received at one stage may overwhelm or distort at another.
The progression of Scripture across the three degrees reflects this principle. Each text answers a different existential question appropriate to the Mason’s stage of formation. Read together, they do not contradict but complete one another.
Psalm 133: You Belong
Psalm 133 is used during the circumambulation of the First Degree, when the Entered Apprentice is new, unformed, and largely untested. The Psalm reads, in part, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 133:1, KJV). Its imagery is deliberately gentle and downward-moving: oil flowing from the head to the beard, dew descending upon the mountains.
Biblical scholars note that Psalm 133 is not instructional but declarative; it announces a condition rather than prescribing a task (Brueggemann, 2014). Unity is presented as a gift received, not an achievement earned. The Apprentice is therefore taught belonging before understanding. He is placed within a moral community prior to being given tools, knowledge, or authority.
From a formative perspective, this ordering is essential. As Paul Ricoeur argues, identity is first narrative and communal before it becomes ethical or reflective (Ricoeur, 1992). In Masonic terms, the man must know where he stands before he can be held accountable for how he walks.
1 Corinthians 13: You Are Responsible for How You Live
The Second Degree introduces the Fellow Craft to learning, proportion, and labor. With knowledge comes risk: pride, instrumental thinking, and the temptation to mistake skill for wisdom. It is at this stage that Paul’s triad—faith, hope, and charity—is introduced.
Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 13 is corrective, not sentimental. He explicitly subordinates knowledge, eloquence, and even faith itself to charity, concluding that without love, all other attainments amount to nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1–3, KJV). Modern commentators emphasize that agapē in this passage refers to chosen, disciplined conduct rather than emotion (Thiselton, 2000; Hays, 2011).
Placed within the context of circumambulation, the lesson becomes embodied. The Fellow Craft is literally in motion, symbolizing productive labor, yet he is reminded that advancement without charity deforms the builder. Faith provides grounding, hope sustains effort across time, but charity governs behavior in the present. As Aquinas later systematized, charity is the form of the virtues because it orders their use toward the good (Summa Theologiae, II–II, q.23).
The Second Degree thus answers a different question than the First. No longer “Where do you belong?” but “How must you live now that you are capable of growth?”
Ecclesiastes 12: You Will Not Live Forever
The Third Degree confronts the Mason with a truth postponed by the earlier stages: mortality. Ecclesiastes 12 offers one of the Hebrew Bible’s most arresting meditations on aging and death. The flourishing almond tree, traditionally interpreted as a symbol of whitening hair, marks the approach of life’s end, culminating in the stark declaration that “man goeth to his long home” (Ecclesiastes 12:5, KJV).
Wisdom literature scholars emphasize that Ecclesiastes is not nihilistic but clarifying. By stripping away illusions of permanence, it restores urgency and seriousness to human action (Fox, 2004). This passage would be destructive if introduced too early. Without belonging and ethical formation, mortality leads to despair. Introduced at the Master Mason stage, however, it sharpens responsibility rather than negating it.
Augustine observed that memory of death disciplines love and orders desire, forcing the individual to ask what truly endures (Enchiridion). In the Third Degree, the Mason is compelled to reckon with time not as an abstraction but as a diminishing resource. The question is no longer how to learn or even how to live well in theory, but what meaning remains when postponement is no longer possible.
Why the Order Matters
Individually, each passage teaches a truth. Together, and in sequence, they teach a life.
Belonging without responsibility degenerates into sentimentality. Responsibility without mortality encourages endless deferral. Mortality without belonging or moral formation collapses into fear or cynicism. The ritual structure prevents these distortions by matching instruction to readiness.
Circumambulation binds the sequence together by reinforcing a final lesson: the center is stable. Truth does not evolve to suit the candidate. The candidate evolves in relation to truth. As N. T. Wright notes in his discussion of Pauline ethics, formation precedes transformation; character is shaped over time through disciplined practices, not instantaneous insight (Wright, 2013).
Conclusion: Approaching Truth by Stages
Psalm 133 teaches the Mason that he belongs.
1 Corinthians 13 teaches him that he is responsible for how he lives.
Ecclesiastes 12 teaches him that he will not live forever.
Circumambulation weaves these truths into a single journey. The man walks. The altar remains. The Scriptures change because the man must be addressed differently as he grows. Freemasonry thus teaches not by overwhelming revelation, but by staged encounter, forming character capable of bearing the weight of truth when it finally comes into full view.
References
Augustine. (1999). Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love (B. Ramsey, Trans.). New City Press. (Original work composed c. 421)
Aquinas, T. (1981). Summa Theologiae (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.). Christian Classics. (Original work composed 1265–1274)
Bell, C. (1992). Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. Oxford University Press.
Brueggemann, W. (2014). The Psalms and the Life of Faith. Fortress Press.
Eliade, M. (1958). Rites and Symbols of Initiation (W. R. Trask, Trans.). Harper & Row.
Fox, M. V. (2004). Ecclesiastes: The JPS Bible Commentary. Jewish Publication Society.
Hays, R. B. (2011). First Corinthians. Westminster John Knox Press.
Ricoeur, P. (1992). Oneself as Another (K. Blamey, Trans.). University of Chicago Press.
Thiselton, A. C. (2000). The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text. Eerdmans.
The Holy Bible, King James Version. (1769/2017). Cambridge University Press.
Wright, N. T. (2013). Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press.
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