The Landmarks
Masonic Landmarks are the “rules” that define Masonry: if you take away a Landmark, you’re not “doing” Masonry anymore. A true Landmark will have been a part of Freemasonry since “time immemorial”. Some of the things Masons think of as “Landmarks” today are not really very “ancient”; people want to think of them as Landmarks because they feel important; but just because something isn’t strictly a Landmark, it doesn’t mean that it’s not important. Its just that a true Landmark is Landmark is absolutely immutable! Other things will be changed, and come and go from Masonic practice, but any Lodge or Grand Lodge that tries to get rid of a Landmark is no longer practicing Regular Masonry. So the Landmarks are the very core of the practice.
Using this very strictest definition of a Landmark, I would conclude that the following are the essential Landmarks of Freemasonry:
1. That any candidate for membership must profess belief in a Supreme Being.
2. That all candidates for Masonry must be male, of 21 years of age (or 18 in the case of a Lewis), free and of good report.
3. That all candidates must profess a belief that existence continues after death.
4. That all Masons and Masonic Lodges must demonstrate allegiance to the sovereign of his native land, and obedience to the Craft.
5. That the V.S.L. is an essential part of the Lodge, and must be kept open and in plain view while the Lodge is open.
6. That all Masons and Lodges must keep secret the signs, grips, and tokens.
7. That the Apron is the true badge of a Mason, and must be used at all times when a Mason is in the Lodge.
These are the clearest and oldest elements of Freemasonry; and I have come to feel that meditating on the significance of these rules helps one to develop insight into Masonry as a universal practice. These Landmarks are important and are the gold standard of true Masonry not just for arbitrary reasons, but because every one of them has a moral foundation without which all of the rest of Masonic learning and philosophy becomes baseless.
It is my sincere pleasure to present these brief thoughts for your consideration, on the orders of my Worshipful Master and very good friend and Brother, Jason Said.
John Tarnowski