This article is taken from the June 2020 issue of Fraternal Review titled, “Fortitude”.
As every Mason knows, at the heart of our mysteries lies a legend, in which we learn how three unworthy Craftsmen entered into a plot to extort from a famous Mason a secret to which they had no right. It is all familiar enough, in its setting and sequence; and it is a part of his initiation which no Mason ever forgets. ...
Since everything in Masonry is symbolic, who are the three Ruffians and what is the legend trying to tell us? ... It all depends on the key with which each seeker sets out to unlock the meaning of Masonry.
THE THREE CRAFTSMEN
Albert Pike identified the three Brothers who are the greatest enemies of individual welfare and social progress as Kingcraft, Priestcraft, and the ignorant Mob-Mind. Together they conspire to destroy liberty, without which man can make no advance.
The first strikes a blow at the throat, the seat of freedom of speech, and that is a mortal wound. The second stabs at the heart, the home of freedom of conscience, and that is well-nigh fatal, since it puts out the last ray of Divine light by which man is guided. The third of the foul plotters fells his victim dead with a blow on the brain, which is the throne of freedom of thought.
After this manner Pike expounded the meaning of the three Ruffians, who rob themselves, as they rob their fellow-craftsmen, of the most precious secret of personal and social life. A secret let it be added, which cannot be extorted, but is only won when we are worthy to receive it and have the wit and courage to keep it. For, oddly enough, we cannot have real liberty until we are ready for it, and we can only become worthy of it by seeking and striving for it. ...
THE THREE CAUSES OF SIN
Three great Greek thinkers searched until they found the three causes of sin in the hearts of men. In other words, they hunted in the mountains of the mind until they found the Ruffians.
Socrates said that the chief ruffian is Ignorance — that is, no man in his right mind does evil unless he is so blinded by ignorance that he does not see the right. No man, he said, seeing good and evil side by side, will choose evil unless he is too blind to see its results. An enlightened self-interest would stop him. Therefore, his remedy for the ills of life is knowledge — more light, a clearer insight.
Even so, said Plato; it is all true as far as it goes. But the fact is that men do see right and wrong clearly, and yet in a dark mood they do wrong in spite of knowledge. When the mind is calm and clear the right is plain, but a storm of passion stirs up sediments in the bottom of the mind, and it is so cloudy that clear vision fails. The life of man is like driving a team of horses, one tame and the other wild. So long as the wild horse is held firmly, all goes well. But, often enough, the wild horse gets loose causing a run-away and a wreck.
But that is not all, said Aristotle. We do not get to the bottom truth of the matter until we admit the fact and possibility — in ourselves and in our fellows — of a moral perversity, a spirit of sheer mischief, which does wrong, deliberately and in face of right, calmly and with devilish cunning, for the sake of wrong and for love of it. Here, truly, is the real Ruffian most to be feared—a desperate character he is, who can only be overcome by Divine help.
RUTHLESS RUFFIANS
Thus, three great thinkers capture the Ruffians, hiding somewhere in our own minds. It means much to have them brought before us for judgment, and happy is the man who is wise enough to take them outside the city of his mind and execute them. Nothing else or less will do. To show them any mercy is to invite misery and disaster. They are ruthless, and must be dealt with ruthlessly and at once.
One does not have to break the head of a Brother in order to be a Ruffian. One can break his heart. One can break his home. We can slay his good name. The amount of polite and refined ruffianism that goes on about us every day, is appalling. Watchfulness is wisdom. Only a mind well-tiled, with a faithful inner guard ever at his post, may hope to keep the ruffian spirit out of your heart and mine.
No wise man dare be careless or take any chances with the thoughts and feelings and motives he admits into the Lodge of the Mind, whereof he is Master.
Excerpts from Joseph Fort Newton, “The Ruffians,” Short Talks on Masonry.