# The History of the Esoteric School 1904–1914, Volume Two

## GA 265

### Ritual Text for Opening the Lodge

*Text from Rudolf Steiner's original manuscript[^1]  
Notebook archive number 611,  
supplemented with a few details about the ritual from the participants'*

Master (to the right of the altar in the east): What is the mason's first duty in the lodge?

Administrator (to the left of the altar in the east):  
To see if the lodge is covered.  
(It is necessary to check whether the lodge is covered, i.e. whether there are any profane people at the lodge's door or brothers and sisters of other degrees, and whether the doors are carefully locked).  
The lodge is covered.

Master: If the lodge is covered in the prescribed manner, our work can begin.

Master: Hammer blow (three times):  
Wisdom guides our building (lighting the light)

2nd overseer (south): Hammer blow (three times):  
Beauty adorns it (lighting the light)

1st overseer (west):  
Hammer blow (three times):  
Strength lead him forth (lighting the lamp).

Master: Brother (sister), 2nd overseer, your permanent place in the lodge?

Answer: In the south.

Master: Why are you placed there?

Answer: To be the sun in the meridian, and to call the sisters and brothers to labor, that the temple may be built.

Master: Brother (sister) 1st overseer, your permanent place in the lodge?

Answer: In the west.

Master: Why are you placed there?

Answer: To be the setting sun and to give the sisters and brothers back to profane life after work is done, after they have received strength and power in the lodge for their outer work.

Master: Where is the Master's place in the lodge?

Administrator: In the east.

Teacher: Why is the teacher there?

Administrator: Just as the sun rises in the east to illuminate and enliven the day, so the venerable teacher fills the work inside the lodge with light and life.

Speaking to the others:

The venerable master will say the prayer that puts the meaning of brotherhood into your hearts. Rise and listen to it in the sign... of the 3rd degree:

Master: Brothers of the past, let your work become our wisdom; we take the compass and the standard from your hands. May your work done be the strength of our soul, may it be the strength of our hands.

Brothers of the present, if you are wiser than we, let your wisdom shine in our souls, so that we may become revealers of your thoughts of God. Master:

Brothers of the future, if you carry the plan of construction in your will, let your strength flow into our limbs, so that we may become the body for the great souls.

Master: Hammer blow

The man on the left (administrant): It is my duty in the Order of the Misraim to draw your attention, my sisters and brothers, to the stroke of the holy T (Tau) sign. At a significant hour, you received its sacred meaning, with the bandage over your eyes. From this you know that it tells you how the exalted name of God sounds in the innermost part of your being. The sound of the T encompasses the great mystery of the world. What is to be given to you from the East as a teaching will establish the power of the T in your inner being. What is given to you as a spiritual word in the T is to become the essence of your own being.

The path of the holy T from the altar of the East will be laid upon your heart: write down the word that is spoken to you.

Master: T-stroke

2. Overseer (South): It is my task, in the order of the Misraim service, to call you my sisters and brothers to work. May that which the worker in the building of the Temple of Humanity calls “beauty” inspire my commission. You are to work on the building that beholds its stones in the heart, its connecting links in well-measured thoughts, and its cement in the power of the will. Look into the world that quickens your hearts; whose wisdom trains your thoughts; whose seed-forces nourish your will. All this is a beautiful expression of hidden spiritual beings. Take into your inner being the forces of these beings and what lives in you will flow out as “beauty”. Master:

The path to this beauty will be laid upon your heart by the altar of the East: write down the word that is then spoken to you.

Master: T-strike

1. Overseer (West): It is my duty in the service of the Order of Misraim to dismiss you, my sisters and brothers, from work. What the laborer in the building of the temple of humanity calls “strength” may inspire my commission. Let the work you have learned take effect when you leave the gates of this temple for your outer life; let what can shape hearts into building blocks of the great temple flow from your hearts into the other humanity; let what can create connecting links for this structure take effect in your thoughts; let what can be putty for the stones of this temple pour forth from your will. Do only what comes from the authenticity of your heart, to which the care of your thoughts leads you, to which the strength of your will has steeled you. You yourselves will become an image of your archetype through this; and the strength will come from you, which shapes the world. The path to this strength will be laid out for you from the altar of the east. Write down the word that will be spoken to you.

Administrator (East): Learn to be silent and you will have power.

2. Overseer (South): Give up power and you will have will.

1. Overseer (West): Give up will and you will have feeling. Give up feeling and you will have knowledge.

Master: Instruction (temple legend)[^2]

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[^1]: This wording applied equally to the first, second and third degrees, with slight deviations for each degree.

[^2]: If necessary, the ritual for admission to the 1st or for promotion to the 2nd or for elevation to the 3rd followed instead of the instruction.