Bro. Brad Marrs
Premium Member
There has been good discussion lately about Lodge participation, etc. I ran across a great article over at Pillars of the Portico that alludes to this topic.
Gädieke says that, "according to the ancient laws of Freemasonry, every brother must attend his Lodge if he is within the length of his cable tow." The old writers define the length of a cable tow, which they sometimes called a cable's length, to be three miles for an Entered Apprentice. But the expression is really symbolic, and as it was defined by the Baltimore Convention in 1842, means the scope of a man's reasonable ability.
-Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love." Hosea XI: 4
Where did the Cable Tow come from? How did it's use in ritual originate? There are various hypotheses expounded by Masonic authors throughout the centuries. All are interesting. Some as various as the golden chain worn by Druids in Celtic rites, initiation to the Egyptian mysteries where it bespoke a tie to Amun, the hang man's noose (and a mystical death and thus rebirth), to the mystery traditions of India and Asia where, we are told, ropes are used for similar purposes in ritual.
Perhaps all or none of these ideas (as well as a great many others, no doubt) are true. But the origin hardly matters. Far more important is the symbolic meaning the cable tow imparts, and this is never disputed. Because, unlike facts themselves, symbols can have more than one meaning. Indeed, a good symbol has many meanings, resonating around a common center to converge understanding around a common idea. A competent symbol becomes like petals (plural intended) that lead inexorably through a series of comprehensions to a common center: The pistil, where the pollen alights and the seed is born.
So it is that the cable tow leads us inexorably to the obligation. It is a bond, a binding, not just to the brethren of the Lodge who witness the event and ratify it in their differing perceptions - the tree has fallen, and there was a sound - but also before God Himself. By wearing the cable tow I have become tied, ineluctably, to the promise to live a better life as an upright man and Mason. I have joined myself with the words I rendered in speech. They have touched the outside world. They have been heard. And the cable tow embodies them symbolically.
And yet it does also bind the brethren together. This is, perhaps, the most common understanding of the symbol, as we promise to aid those in need, "if within the length of my cable tow." We promise thereby to come to Lodge, to animate the Lodge with our own flesh and blood, our very breath. Without each member, the Lodge is dead - in this light the cable tow is like the sinews that connect the limbs of a larger being, of which each member is just a part. And we promise to be of service to our brothers, to assist them. After all, a Lodge is not the building itself. The building is just a temporary locus whereby the Lodge may be realized. The cable tow is the manifested result - the symbolic equivalent in the tangible world - of the intangible bonds of friendship and brotherly love that make our obligation real. We should never forget that.
We know, also, that cable tows come in varying lengths. The longer your cable tow the greater your spirit in service of Masonry. This length needn't be restricted to the physical plane (although that is certainly part of it). As we progress in Masonry more is said of the cable tow, in some degrees it is given a definite length, but also certain conditions. How far would you walk, barefoot and broken, to relieve a brother suffering? Would you risk your very life?
To wear the cable tow says "Yes, I will. You can rely on me." It says, "I make Masonry, and my Brothers, a priority." These things, then, are also part of this "length". It is a type of commitment, as well as a journey.
These rituals may seem hokey in the modern day, but we can conceive of a time when their message was imminently pertinent. Three miles without a car, in snow, with leather shoes not sealed to the elements such as we enjoy today, was a lot farther then. The road beset by bandits... The tyranny of the nobles.... The hypocrisy of the church.... Behind each corner on this road out of the past hid assemblies absolutely deadly to the aspirant. (Not so today, although the road is still beset by pitfalls perhaps all the more deadly because they appear so benign. While not as imminent, perhaps, the ritual remains, at least in my mind, entirely relevant.)
We learn in the EAº that the cable tow can be used by the conductor to lead the candidate out of the Lodge should he refuse to submit to the forms and ceremonies of the initiation. So there is also an important element of protection and secrecy in its symbolism. It almost says, only the pure of heart can survive the hangman's noose. The mortality of its symbolism shouldn't be neglected - the obligation is couched in mortal terms, breaking it means death. This "stronger tie" is what replaces the cable tow. Only then is it removed, with the former conditions noted by the Master. Now the invisible idea has been wrought. Its symbol here in the material world is no longer necessary, it is sloughed off like chaff from the seed.
The cable tow, then, is obviously a symbol of bonding. Like the Vincula of the medieval sages, used to intend bonds that unite all things in the great chain of sympathies that connects all beings, the cable tow is a material representation of an archetypal process. In the older days people believed that to form correspondences in the archetypal world; the world without bodies, that subtle, invisible world, where the godforms blaze in firelight; it was necessary to use action (a combination of precedent will and physical form) to symbolically render, in time and space, a corresponding meaning. Thus, the power of images was heralded as the seeds of the magical arts. An intended arrangement of actions, that brings disparate objects to a common place to define a paramount meaning, clothe that meaning and birth it. They give it form. The gross bodies of the material world strike like strings; it's from here the invisible music is wrung.
Think of the material world as a vase. It merely partitions space. Air surrounds the vase. Air fills it. Yet the vase is what separates an outside from an inside. How else can the flowers be held up? All dissipates and merges in Oneness. But with form comes purpose. With purpose comes life. And with life comes meaning. The cable tow is this form.
How long is your cable tow? There can be no honor without duty. The length of your cable tow is the sum total of your duty. By it alone is honor rendered to the Fraternity. Perhaps service is rendered in bondage. And yet it is this bondage that sets us free.
-Pillars of the Portico
Gädieke says that, "according to the ancient laws of Freemasonry, every brother must attend his Lodge if he is within the length of his cable tow." The old writers define the length of a cable tow, which they sometimes called a cable's length, to be three miles for an Entered Apprentice. But the expression is really symbolic, and as it was defined by the Baltimore Convention in 1842, means the scope of a man's reasonable ability.
-Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love." Hosea XI: 4
Where did the Cable Tow come from? How did it's use in ritual originate? There are various hypotheses expounded by Masonic authors throughout the centuries. All are interesting. Some as various as the golden chain worn by Druids in Celtic rites, initiation to the Egyptian mysteries where it bespoke a tie to Amun, the hang man's noose (and a mystical death and thus rebirth), to the mystery traditions of India and Asia where, we are told, ropes are used for similar purposes in ritual.
Perhaps all or none of these ideas (as well as a great many others, no doubt) are true. But the origin hardly matters. Far more important is the symbolic meaning the cable tow imparts, and this is never disputed. Because, unlike facts themselves, symbols can have more than one meaning. Indeed, a good symbol has many meanings, resonating around a common center to converge understanding around a common idea. A competent symbol becomes like petals (plural intended) that lead inexorably through a series of comprehensions to a common center: The pistil, where the pollen alights and the seed is born.
So it is that the cable tow leads us inexorably to the obligation. It is a bond, a binding, not just to the brethren of the Lodge who witness the event and ratify it in their differing perceptions - the tree has fallen, and there was a sound - but also before God Himself. By wearing the cable tow I have become tied, ineluctably, to the promise to live a better life as an upright man and Mason. I have joined myself with the words I rendered in speech. They have touched the outside world. They have been heard. And the cable tow embodies them symbolically.
And yet it does also bind the brethren together. This is, perhaps, the most common understanding of the symbol, as we promise to aid those in need, "if within the length of my cable tow." We promise thereby to come to Lodge, to animate the Lodge with our own flesh and blood, our very breath. Without each member, the Lodge is dead - in this light the cable tow is like the sinews that connect the limbs of a larger being, of which each member is just a part. And we promise to be of service to our brothers, to assist them. After all, a Lodge is not the building itself. The building is just a temporary locus whereby the Lodge may be realized. The cable tow is the manifested result - the symbolic equivalent in the tangible world - of the intangible bonds of friendship and brotherly love that make our obligation real. We should never forget that.
We know, also, that cable tows come in varying lengths. The longer your cable tow the greater your spirit in service of Masonry. This length needn't be restricted to the physical plane (although that is certainly part of it). As we progress in Masonry more is said of the cable tow, in some degrees it is given a definite length, but also certain conditions. How far would you walk, barefoot and broken, to relieve a brother suffering? Would you risk your very life?
To wear the cable tow says "Yes, I will. You can rely on me." It says, "I make Masonry, and my Brothers, a priority." These things, then, are also part of this "length". It is a type of commitment, as well as a journey.
These rituals may seem hokey in the modern day, but we can conceive of a time when their message was imminently pertinent. Three miles without a car, in snow, with leather shoes not sealed to the elements such as we enjoy today, was a lot farther then. The road beset by bandits... The tyranny of the nobles.... The hypocrisy of the church.... Behind each corner on this road out of the past hid assemblies absolutely deadly to the aspirant. (Not so today, although the road is still beset by pitfalls perhaps all the more deadly because they appear so benign. While not as imminent, perhaps, the ritual remains, at least in my mind, entirely relevant.)
We learn in the EAº that the cable tow can be used by the conductor to lead the candidate out of the Lodge should he refuse to submit to the forms and ceremonies of the initiation. So there is also an important element of protection and secrecy in its symbolism. It almost says, only the pure of heart can survive the hangman's noose. The mortality of its symbolism shouldn't be neglected - the obligation is couched in mortal terms, breaking it means death. This "stronger tie" is what replaces the cable tow. Only then is it removed, with the former conditions noted by the Master. Now the invisible idea has been wrought. Its symbol here in the material world is no longer necessary, it is sloughed off like chaff from the seed.
The cable tow, then, is obviously a symbol of bonding. Like the Vincula of the medieval sages, used to intend bonds that unite all things in the great chain of sympathies that connects all beings, the cable tow is a material representation of an archetypal process. In the older days people believed that to form correspondences in the archetypal world; the world without bodies, that subtle, invisible world, where the godforms blaze in firelight; it was necessary to use action (a combination of precedent will and physical form) to symbolically render, in time and space, a corresponding meaning. Thus, the power of images was heralded as the seeds of the magical arts. An intended arrangement of actions, that brings disparate objects to a common place to define a paramount meaning, clothe that meaning and birth it. They give it form. The gross bodies of the material world strike like strings; it's from here the invisible music is wrung.
Think of the material world as a vase. It merely partitions space. Air surrounds the vase. Air fills it. Yet the vase is what separates an outside from an inside. How else can the flowers be held up? All dissipates and merges in Oneness. But with form comes purpose. With purpose comes life. And with life comes meaning. The cable tow is this form.
How long is your cable tow? There can be no honor without duty. The length of your cable tow is the sum total of your duty. By it alone is honor rendered to the Fraternity. Perhaps service is rendered in bondage. And yet it is this bondage that sets us free.
-Pillars of the Portico
