Dear Brethren,
Ask any ten masons what the "landmarks" of Freemasonry are, and you will get ten different interpretations with no two alike, and all reasonably correct.
What are landmarks anyway? Websters College Dictionary defines landmarks as a "prominent or conspicuous object on land that serves as a guide for travelers." If we treat this allegorically, as we are taught to do, we can apply it to Freemasonry. The landmarks would then seem to be things that are immovable and unchangeable, not necessarily just in a physical sense, but also on the order of a mental landmark, something that we know and feel to be correct.
The landmarks, therefore, will consist of a variety of precepts, both physical and mental, i.e., a belief in God and his teachings, the three degrees and their meaning, a Grand Master and his authority, the offices required to run a Lodge, the qualifications of a candidate, the Masonic rights of a Master, and the Masonic Authority that governs all this. All of these precepts are considered landmarks and are unique to the Brotherhood of Masonry.
If we each think of what Masonry means to us as an individual and what it would be like if some portion of rules, regulations and rituals were removed, we see that a landmark can be a very personal thing, one which we feel the Brotherhood would be diminished if some part of what we do is lost.
As Master Masons we are cautioned that "the ancient landmarks we are carefully to preserve and never suffer them to be infringed, nor countenance a deviation from established customs." By conforming to these precepts, we not only preserve the landmarks, but all Freemasonry and the Brotherhood as well.
Fraternally,
Robert James Rawding
Woshipful Master
