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The Apprentice - A Treatise on the First Degree of Freemasonry
Explored from the perspective of the Scottish Rite degrees of Freemasonry, The Apprentice combines elaborate descriptions, interpretative exploration and links to parallel symbolic constructs to form a working understanding of the meaning behind this first step into the fraternity.
106 pages, Hardcover
First published December 15, 2014
12 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Gregory B. Stewart
5 books20 followersA student of the Western Mystery tradition (Western Esotericism), Greg (Gregory) B. Stewart has explored the rites of initiation through a variety of initiatory systems with the express goal of understanding the deeper meaning behind them. In that process, Greg’s exploration has converged with mainstream and esoteric religious traditions, rituals of religious practice and their intersecting undercurrents. Now, on the other side of that journey, the focus of his attention is on how those intersections relate to the Great Work — a subject he explores in his book series on the Symbolic Lodge.
As devoted student of the esoteric, Greg is a firm believer in the Masonic connection to the Hermetic traditions of antiquity, its evolution through the ages and its present configuration as the antecedent to most present day currents of esoteric and occult practice. Called a masonic “bodhisattva,” he is a self-styled searcher for that which was lost, a Hermetic Hermit and a believer in “what is above is so also below.” You can read his occasional thoughts on the Hermetic tradition on the blog The Hermetic Circle.
Personally, Greg is an artist by nature and education. Professionally, his work spans a wide spectrum of communications, publishing and design. Under the Masonic tradition Greg began his career in 1994 participating in a variety of roles, lodges and organizations. Much of his early written work on Freemasonry can be found in his blog Masonic Traveler covering a period from 2005 to 2009. In 2008 Greg co-hosted and produced the Masonic Central podcast, with Dean Kennedy and went on to publish and produce FreemasonInformation.com — under Masonic Traveler — alongside Fred Milliken, Tim Bryce and other Masonic notables.
As devoted student of the esoteric, Greg is a firm believer in the Masonic connection to the Hermetic traditions of antiquity, its evolution through the ages and its present configuration as the antecedent to most present day currents of esoteric and occult practice. Called a masonic “bodhisattva,” he is a self-styled searcher for that which was lost, a Hermetic Hermit and a believer in “what is above is so also below.” You can read his occasional thoughts on the Hermetic tradition on the blog The Hermetic Circle.
Personally, Greg is an artist by nature and education. Professionally, his work spans a wide spectrum of communications, publishing and design. Under the Masonic tradition Greg began his career in 1994 participating in a variety of roles, lodges and organizations. Much of his early written work on Freemasonry can be found in his blog Masonic Traveler covering a period from 2005 to 2009. In 2008 Greg co-hosted and produced the Masonic Central podcast, with Dean Kennedy and went on to publish and produce FreemasonInformation.com — under Masonic Traveler — alongside Fred Milliken, Tim Bryce and other Masonic notables.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 13, 2017
As an appreciative student of applied philosophy, history, and esoterica, I feel that the author could have written this book in a less convoluted and redundant style. It does contain some interesting thoughts, but nothing I will not find better distilled elsewhere.
July 17, 2017
Great book for the contemplative Masonic student
Brother Stewart has taken great care to show a deeper layer of Masonry. While it might be debatable that modern Freemasonry is a continuation of Ancient Wisdom Traditions, he does present information that there is something more to it than simply being a system of conferring degrees and titles as we see done today. I llike this book.
Brother Stewart has taken great care to show a deeper layer of Masonry. While it might be debatable that modern Freemasonry is a continuation of Ancient Wisdom Traditions, he does present information that there is something more to it than simply being a system of conferring degrees and titles as we see done today. I llike this book.
February 22, 2015
There is a lot of thought packed into this slim little book -- so much so that I intend to let it rest in my mind for a while and then re-read it much more slowly and meditatively to get the full benefit.
Stewart's key idea, one which was new to me, is to express initiation as "Ein Sof into Malkuth" -- or the step from primal chaos into order -- and he makes a good case for it. (I won't go into the details. You can read the book for that.)
What I found challenging about this metaphor is that it essentially collapses the traditional expression of Tree of Life, in which Malkuth is at the bottom and the Ein Sof is invisible above Kether at the top. Despite Stewart's repeated (although not excessively) invocation of "As above, so below, I had to simply release my existing sense of the Tree before I could really grasp what he was getting at. In the end, I found myself seeing the Tree as a sort of ouroboros in which the Ein Sof and Malkuth are not at opposite ends of a spectrum from each other, but part of an infinitely looping path. This is, again, different from any previous models I've seen, which include the idea that each sephiroth contains within it an entire Tree: again an illustration of eternal unity, but with a different focus. Just to be clear, I like Stewart's model, and I'm very interested in how he extends it in his books on the Second and Third Degrees.
Although the book is explicitly about the meaning of the First Degree of Freemasonry in the Scottish Rite, and so draws heavily on Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma," I think it would be of interest to anyone with an interest in Kabbalah, hermetics, or the concept of initiation. That said, I write this as an Entered Apprentice Freemason, and I'm not going to read Stewart's books on the Second and Third Degrees until I experience those rites myself, even though I will do so in a different tradition.
Stewart's key idea, one which was new to me, is to express initiation as "Ein Sof into Malkuth" -- or the step from primal chaos into order -- and he makes a good case for it. (I won't go into the details. You can read the book for that.)
What I found challenging about this metaphor is that it essentially collapses the traditional expression of Tree of Life, in which Malkuth is at the bottom and the Ein Sof is invisible above Kether at the top. Despite Stewart's repeated (although not excessively) invocation of "As above, so below, I had to simply release my existing sense of the Tree before I could really grasp what he was getting at. In the end, I found myself seeing the Tree as a sort of ouroboros in which the Ein Sof and Malkuth are not at opposite ends of a spectrum from each other, but part of an infinitely looping path. This is, again, different from any previous models I've seen, which include the idea that each sephiroth contains within it an entire Tree: again an illustration of eternal unity, but with a different focus. Just to be clear, I like Stewart's model, and I'm very interested in how he extends it in his books on the Second and Third Degrees.
Although the book is explicitly about the meaning of the First Degree of Freemasonry in the Scottish Rite, and so draws heavily on Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma," I think it would be of interest to anyone with an interest in Kabbalah, hermetics, or the concept of initiation. That said, I write this as an Entered Apprentice Freemason, and I'm not going to read Stewart's books on the Second and Third Degrees until I experience those rites myself, even though I will do so in a different tradition.
August 2, 2016
Interesting, but more esoteric than I expected. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I like the esoteric books on Freemasonry. Heavily focused on the Kabbalah. What I was hoping for in this book is a closer look at the teachings from the EA degree work and lectures. You won't really find that here.
November 2, 2015
An excellent and introspective read. As one who works with Entered Apprentice Masons on their degree work, and on understanding the philosophies of our fraternity, this was work my time, and has been worth sharing with others.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews