Perfect Ashlar and the Lewis
Why this matters
On the floor of every Lodge, in a published place, stands a perfect ashlar: a cube of stone, true on every face, ready to be set. Next to it (in some Lodges, on it) sits an iron device called a lewis. The lewis is a dovetailed wedge that locks into a slot cut in the top of a finished stone, so that the stone can be hoisted into the wall by a crane without slipping. In the published Masonic vocabulary, the lewis is also the name given (in some jurisdictions) to the son of a Mason: the man being prepared to lift the work after his father.
The perfect ashlar is the published other half of the rough ashlar's lesson, and most Masons never look at it carefully. The lewis is the published bridge between generations of the Craft. Together they answer the question the gavel raised: what is the finished stone for, and who lifts it into place? The published answer is small, concrete, and easy to miss.
What this chapter is
The perfect ashlar (a cubic stone, true on every face) is the published emblem of the work the Mason does on himself. The lewis is the iron device that lifts such a stone into place; in some jurisdictions it is also the name given to the son of a Mason.
How to practise it
A lesson walks the same seven steps every time. Read the intro, study the material, then drill it through Quick Fire, Matchup, Sequence, Flashcards, and the Mix capstone. Each step opens to the next; no choices to make in the middle of the work.
What if · take it further ▸
Sit with this
- Look at the perfect ashlar in your Lodge room. (Most Lodges have one in plain sight, somewhere near the Senior Warden's station.) Walk around it. Notice that every face is the same. The published lesson lands in the looking.
- If your Lodge has a lewis tradition (a published place where a Mason's son is acknowledged), find out what it looks like in practice. If your Lodge does not, ask why. The published practice varies by jurisdiction and the variation is itself worth knowing.
Connect to
- The Common Gavel and the Rough Ashlar
The Common Gavel and the Rough Ashlar. The starting stone, treated in full.
- The Working Tools as a Set
The Working Tools as a Set. Where the ashlars sit relative to the tools.
- The Grand Lodge of New Mexico
The Grand Lodge of New Mexico. Lewis practice in NM is published in the GL-NM Code.