Fellow craft

The Fellow Craft degree is symbolically emblematic of manhood, representing a period of continued schooling, research, and intellectual development 1. Where the first degree signifies youth and basic fundamentals, the second degree serves as an urge to study and a glorification of education 1. Historically structured by William Preston and later modified by Thomas Smith Webb, its symbolic instruction incorporates the Five Orders of Architecture, the Five Senses, and the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences 1.

The specific signs, tokens, obligations, and ceremonial pass-words belong to the lodge ceremonies themselves; they are received from one brother to another and are not to be had from books nor from any enquiry made outside the lodge. What the sources outline are the central symbols, structural themes, and moral instruction communicated during the degree.

Three primary symbols anchor the degree: the brazen Pillars, the Flight of Winding Stairs leading to the Middle Chamber by steps of three, five, and seven, and the Letter "G" 1. During the ceremony, the candidate—addressed as a brother rather than a candidate—is received with an instruction rather than a warning 1. The circumambulation around the lodge room is longer than in the preceding degree, symbolizing that the journey through manhood is longer than that through youth 1.

The degree expands upon the candidate's duties toward his brethren, introduces the pass—which Claudy reads as a moral lesson against hypocrisy or spuriousness in one's Masonry—and shifts the position of the Square and Compasses upon the Volume of the Sacred Law to represent additional light 1. Furthermore, the cable tow is presented not as a physical restraint, but as a symbolic tie measuring the scope of a Mason's reasonable ability to answer a summons and serve his fellows 1.