HUTCHENS.A90

                       DR. REX R. HUTCHENS, 33ø
            250 South Country Club, Tucson, Arizona  85716

  THE GREAT cathedrals of Europe have one goal as the object of
their existence; they were and are Bibles in stone.  The saints,
the stories from the Bible, God and all His handiworks are to be
found.  Birth, death, the change of seasons, the cycles of
vegetation, no detail of material or spiritual existence is
missed, least of all the Day of Judgment, for a cathedral is a
symbolic ladder between earth and heaven. Its spires beckon eye and
soul upward.

   Though there is a profusion of cathedrals throughout Europe
that are generally termed "Gothic," no two of them are alike, and
none is typical as that word is generally used.  But if one
deserves that word more than the others, it is certainly the
cathedral at Chartres, a small village fifty-five miles southwest
of Paris.

  As a place of worship, Chartres was apparently important even
before the Christian era. Julius Caesar believed a Druidic site was
located there, and modern archaeologists have confirmed at least
parts of the present foundation are that old.  Equally interesting
are the many devastations of the town and whatever religious
sanctuary stood where the great cathedral now rises.  In 753, for
instance, Hunald of Aquatain destroyed both.  In 858 the Vikings
repeated the offense.

  Various miracles and relics make  Chartres  a  place  of
pilgrimage, and by about 1028 it had been enlarged along Romanesque
lines.  In 1030 it was partially destroyed by fire, rebuilt, and
completely burned in 1134. By 1180 a new church rose like the
Phoenix only to have its nave burned in 1194, bringing vault and
walls to the ground.  Only the crypt and the west facade with its
two towers survived.  It is also reported the entire village was
destroyed in this fire .  In  a massive financial and logistical
effort, the cathedral we see today was, in its essentials,
completed in less than thirty years. Yet scars of that awful
conflagration  remain today on the sides of the great spires which
survived it.

  Inexactness in both theory and practice made the construction of
Gothic cathedrals somewhat chancy.  Chartres has stood over seven
hundred years without a crack, but the choir loft of Beauvais
Cathedral crumbled only twelve years after it was built. The master
mason (as architects were then called) of the Chartres seen today
is an unknown genius. His anonymity is a reminder of the Masonic
lesson of the equality of man.  Though his name is not known, his
work endures, exciting wonder in and bringing spiritual solace to
millions.

  In common with the majority of the European cathedrals of the
Middle Ages, Chartres is chiefly composed of simple geometric
patterns that are repeated and elaborated to form the complex
structure and yet give the impression of simplicity, balance and
harmony.  We find proportions of 3, 4, and 5, those of the perfect
Pythagorean right triangle.  We find the square, the circle, the
rectangle squared at one end and a semi-circle on the other end.

  The five-pointed star, long a symbol of man, was used to create
the pointed arch at the top of the slender windows of Chartres;
thus the windows are a celebration of man's earthly journey as an
integrated motif with a stunning panorama of spiritual designs.
The seven-pointed star controls the interior design and
construction motifs.  There are three "tables" carved on the floor
of Chartres: one square, one circular and one rectangular.  The
rectangular table is in a proportion of 2:1; that is, the length is
twice the width. This also is the proportion of King Solomon's
Temple as given in the Holy Writings: "And he built twenty cubits
on the sides of the house,.... And the house, that is, the temple
before it was forty cubits long." (1 Kings 6:16-17)

   In a riot of color and design, the spiritual themes of the great
windows compete for attention with the smaller ones depicting
guilds that had commissioned the great ones.  The art of stained
glass achieved its pinnacle in Chartres, and it is arguably true no
better has yet been achieved.  The competition was immense, and
by the time the charitable desires of guilds and wealthy patrons
were exhausted, 175 windows beckoned the light of the noon sun to
join with the worshippers in the celebration of the Virgin Mary.
Certainly the windows of Chartres inspired many efforts to equal
its magnificenceÄat Sens, Laon, Bourges, and Rouen in France as
well as Canterbury and Lincoln in England.

  Of those in Gothic cathedrals, the only labyrinth remaining is
that at Chartres. These were places upon which the devout could
symbolically make a pilgrimage by following the convoluted path on
their knees.  The Church granted the same privilege for the symbol-
ic pilgrimage as the real one.  The path of the labyrinth forms an
apt metaphor for the quest for knowledge in the Rite because the
teachings of the Degrees are not linear but, like the labyrinth,
bend back upon themselves and do not lead us directly to the object
of our search, the Royal Secret, that is, equilibrium in the
contending forces of human nature.

  Though all of the Gothic cathedrals are magnificent examples of
the stonemason's skill, they are not equally significant to
speculative Masons.  Of those that are, perhaps none is more
important than the cathedral of Chartres. From its celebration of
the Summer Solstice by a striking, and intentional flaw in one of
the stained glass windows, which, only at that time of the year and
at noon precisely, admits the rays of the sun to shine upon a white
stone set in the floor at exactly the right spot to receive them,
to the magnificent design elements within the cathedral itself
controlled by a seven-pointed star, one sees in Chartres Cathedral
the highest expression of the lessons of modern Freemasonry.  It
may seem redundant to speak of Masonic symbolism in a cathedral.
After all, the prolific use of the symbols of the operative craft
have permeated speculative Masonry from its beginnings, and there
exists no higher expression of operative Masonry than the great
cathedrals of Europe.

   As our Craft's symbols are disguised and hidden under many
"veils" or interpretations, so are the symbols of the great
cathedrals so hidden, concealing far more than their most obvious
meaning within their design.  Like the Ritual of the Craft, the
cathedral gives up its lessons only grudgingly and demands as a
tithe constant study and meditation.  For example, the Masonic
equivalent of the symbol of the Summer Solstice mentioned above is
the celebration of St. John (the Baptist) Day.  Also, the
previously noted seven-pointed star is, or should be, a symbol
familiar to all Scottish Rite Masons.  It is distinctive here in
that it is not one of the many familiar geometric designs that may
be fashioned by the use of only the compasses and straight edge.
Its formation is, therefore, at best only an approximation.
Nonetheless the geometer(s) who designed Chartres allowed only
the slightest errors to creep into the plan, and the presence of
this star as a guiding feature is one of the more peculiar and
intriguing aspects of Chartres' design.  As Scottish Rite Masons we
know of this star as a symbol of the seven Amesha Spenta or
"Bountious Immortals" of the ancient Persian creed of Zoroaster and
as a symbol of the seven colors of light in the rainbow which
themselves represent the seven liberal arts and sciences taught in
the Fellowcraft Degree.

   It is a peculiar and significant event that at Chartres human
knowledge, as opposed to spiritual knowledge, is given great
weight. The Fellowcrafts of modern Freemasonry are honored, over
five hundred years early, by the sculptural addition of Priscian
as Grammar, Cicero as Rhetoric, Aristotle as Logic, Nicomachus as
Arithmetic, Euclid as Geometry, Pythagoras as Music, Ptolemy as
Astronomy.

   The spiritual relationship between modern speculative Freema-
sonry and architecture is far greater than is usually
appreciated. The symbolic unity far exceeds the simple imitation of
working tools as symbols or even Geometry as a common foundation.
The Gothic cathedrals rose vertically as befits a spiritual
edifice, parallel to the crypt of Enoch in the 13th Degree. As the
Gothic Age declined at the advent of the Italian Renaissance, we
see Filippo Burnelleschi designing a foundling hospital in
Florence along horizontal lines; like Solomon's crypt in the 14th
Degree, it speaks of specific earthly concerns.

  As the temples and cathedrals of medieval Europe were often based
on the human figure (see figure above), so too do the symbols of
the Scottish Rite point to man.  The cathedral itself, being a
massive stone structure, is a type of contending forces.  Gravity
threatens at every turn to bring down the structure, and yet it is
gravity through the weight of the stones and their resistance to
its force which gives the cathedral its great strength.

   Similarly the Scottish Rite does not ask of men to be ascetics
or monastics; we are to live in the world, secure that the
judgement of our future resides in our present moral conduct.  We
do not seek to destroy the body but to enlarge the soul.  We seek
rather to harmonize the earthly and spiritual nature of man,
seeing in the universe a model for that harmony.  We accept the
contending forces within our nature, for from such comes the
balance of a fruitful and peaceful life.

   The Scottish Rite, properly understood, is a cathedral of
human philosophy.  As the great cathedrals of medieval Europe are
but the totality and integration of very simple geometric figures,
so the Thirty-second Degree is the pinnacle of the Rite, being
the totality and integration of the symbols of the Degrees  which
have preceded it.  The result of union is Harmony; for the
cathedral, it is aesthetic Harmony, pleasing the eye and
uplifting the spirit; for the Thirtysecond Degree, it is
philosophical Harmony, enriching the mind and elevating the soul to
the contemplation of spiritual ideas.


Noted as the author of A Bridge to Light, Broþ Rex R. Hutchens is
a Past Master of Epes Randolph Lodge No. 32 and Master of Adobe
Lodge No. 41 as well as Senior Warden of the Lodge of Perfection,
Tucson Scottish Rite Bodies.  Presently an instructor in philosophy
at Pima Community College, Illþ Hutchens is also active in York
Rite and several scholarly research societies.

                         WHY I BECAME A MASON My father was a
   Mason. Although he and my mother passed away at a young age,
   leaving eleven small children behind, my father ensured we would
   be taken care of. Seven of us were placed in the Masonic
   Children's Home in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Thanks to my Dad and many
   other Masons for their contributions, my three sisters, three
   brothers and myself were kindly supported in our time of need.
   We learned respect, honesty and love in the Home. As I told the
   Brethren when I petitioned the Lodge, I believe these values are
   the key to Masonry. Being accepted into the Craft, I hoped
   someday I could help children the same way my family and I were
   helped. Through Masonry, I am now working diligently toward that
   goal. Joe Frank Sperry, 32ø, Guthrie, Oklahoma, Scottish Rite
   Bodies