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The Gavel
The gavel is an emblem of the authority of the Worthy Matron in governing the Chapter.
By: Billye M. Peeples, MPC
According to the Oxford Dictionary there are seven meanings for the word Gavel. The most important to us is the following meaning: Gave (gae.vel). sh. 4 U.S. A. "A mason's setting Maul" (knight Dict. Mech.).
In the Chapter room, the gavel rapped on the table by the Worthy Matron in calling for attention or silence, open and close meetings, concludes, questions, law, keeping order punctuating actions, sets the rule and will of it's member. The Gavel has two other needs which are indispensable to our success-namely, unity and harmony.
"Perhaps no lodge appliance or symbol is possessed of such deep and absorbing interest to the craft as the Master's mallet or gavel. Nothing in the entire range of Masonic paraphernalia and formulary can boast of an antiquity so unequivocally remote, according to Joseph F. Ford in Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry. (Hunt).
The gavel is the mallet used by the highest or presiding officer to call the membership to order.(Plessner)
Keeping order and punctuating actions
In the hands of the Worthy Matron, the gavel is the symbol of her power and authority. It is the duty of the officer wielding the gavel to use it wisely and with discretion that the affairs of the Chapter may be conducted with dignity, decorum and justice. The wise use of the gavel insures harmo~ious relationships among the members.(plessner)
The Masons have two gavels. The Master's Gavel is a gavel of authority. The second symbolic gavel is the tool of the Entered Apprentice(plessner).
In biblical times, the gavel was a hammer and it was often used to symbolize the power of God or the power of the Word of God.(Jeremiah 23 :29 "Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.
The Gavel within the Star is the emblem of the Worthy Matron. It symbolizes the power and authority of the East. (plessner)
The use of a hammer to keep order was common in medieval institutions such as an Elizabethan guild in Exeter where, "the governor having a small hammer in his hands made for the purpose, when he wilt have silence to be had shall knock the same upon the Board, and who so ever do talk after the second stroke to pay without redemption two pence." (AQC, XL). There is also reference in a biography of the founder of the (Cistercians to" the harsh strokes of the wooden mallet used for calling the brethren together." (AQC, XL)
Symbol of Authority
In a larger sense, gavels symbolize the executive power, as it is the instrument which strikes blows,(Hunt) or it can be thought of as a symbol of authority without the use of force. (Haywood)
The gavel is an emblem of the authority of the Worthy Matron in governing the Chapter. At the installation of a Worthy Matron is told, upon giving this implement. that it constitutes the essential element of her authority over the assembled sisters, without which her efforts to preserve order and subordination would be ineffectual. It is the symbol that inducts her into the possession of the Order of Eastern Star Chapter.
In the middle ages mallets wee thrown and all ground over which they traversed were acknowledged to be possessed by the thrower. This practice gave rise to the symbolism of the mallet indicating the Master's possession of his lodge. (Hunt and Haywood) A somewhat difference use of a thrown hammer is show in an English ordinance of 1462 which is said to have declared that lewd women should remain as far from the territory of Masonic Lodges as a hammer could be hurled. (Hunt.)
The appropriate item for this purpose should be wooden with a flat surface at one end and a pointed surface at the other. French and Spanish Freemasons sometimes refer to it as the "president's hammer" and use an instrument that is flat at both ends. Then slightly pinched, and larger again in the middle. (Macoy) The gavel should not resemble a setting maul. (Hunt)
The gavel is sometimes confused with the setting maul which is a different instrument use for different purposes. (Macoy) The gavel is an implement of both the Worthy Matron and the Associate Matron and it an emblem of power, while the maul is a heavy wooden hammer with which the a mason drives his chisel. The maul is also the weapon with which the Master was traditionally said to have been slain, so itis an emblem of violent death. It is incorrect to use a gavel instead of a heavy maul in the dramatization of the third degree. (Jones}It is also inappropriate to use a little auctioneer's hammer in place of a gavel, as this may connote that the initiate is being sold. (Mackenzie)
In a Master Mason Lodge the gavel is also called a "Hiram" (Macoy) because, like that architect, it governs the Craft and keeps order in the Lodge as Hiram did in the Temple (Mackey & Hunt), or because of the use made of the maul in the third degree. As early as 1739 both gavels and mauls were referred to by that name. (Jones). A negative sense of this implement is found in the Bible, Proverbs 25: 18, "A man that beareth false witness against his neighbor is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow".
Use by Operative and Speculative Masons
Mackey and Coil say the gavel used as a hammer has one flat face opposite the sharp end so that from the top it resembles a gabled roof on a house, and because of this. "gable" becomes the German word "gable" meaning summit or peak (Mackey. Coil. Hunt) or "Giebel" (Macoy) and then the English word "gavel" although in German lodges the gavel is called the "hammer."
It is one of the oldest working tools used by man, as illustrated by stories of Scandinavian mythology where Thor. the principal god, was given a special hammer or mallet which always struck its targets with great force and then it should continue to be used to destroy the enemies of that which is good and true.(Hunt)
In the hands of one chosen to rule the Chapter it is an emblem of power. Let us remember that 'he who would rule must first learn the great lesson of obedience and the observance of every obligation heretofore taken; squaring his (or her) actions by the square of virtue and keeping his (or her) passions within due bounds."(Teny)
Let it be a constant thought of every leader that "he/she only can teach who has passed through the severe school of self-discipline."(Terry)
Self-control is the essential qualification of the presiding officer of the Order, and yet how difficult to attain that self-mastery which should be the goal of every life. (Terry)
It is used on stone to make a rough shaping of dressing, with the finishing done with a chisel and mallet or maul. Gavel is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (1901) as a mason's setting maul or a presiding officer's hammer, and it is said to be an American usage. (AQC, 101 and XL) The name "gavel" was not known in England before the nineteenth century. (Jones)
The Source of Will Power
The one universal principle, or energy, when directed by intelligence, becomes Will. Woman's only source of will power lies in her ability to receive energy and then persistently direct it into channels of her own choosing. In the Chapter room, the Worthy Matron should use the gavel with force and directs it intelligently to the accomplishment of a predetermined purpose. She should first in the exercise of will power to have a hand an adequate supply of energy.
Significance
The gavel, then, while by its form typical of virility and creative energy, has come to have an added significance. It signified that energy is directed by intelligence. And as energy directed by intelligence persistently to a predetermined end is will, the gavel has come to be recognized by it use as the symbol of the human will. (Zain)
Freemason's are taught that the common gavel is one of the working tools of an Entered Apprentice. It is used by operative masons to break off the comers of rough ashlars and thus fit them the better for the builder's use.(Street) The gavel is adopted in Speculative Freemasonry to admonish them of their duty, often painful(Hunt) of divesting their minds and consciences of all the vices and impurities of life, thereby fitting their bodies (Mackey and Macoy) or minds as living stones for the spiritual building, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (Mackey)
The gavel in the hands ofthe Worthy Matron represents the force of conscience, it is her will power, through which we as Sisters govern our actions.
The gavel is an instrument common to the lowest and the highest in the Chapter. When one has attained the highest rank in the Chapter by becoming its Worthy Matron, the same implement of a gavel is placed in her hand as a reminder that we all need to continue to strive for improvements in our manner and character. Albert Pike felt the mallet and chisel (and gavel) symbolized development of the intellect of each individual and of society. He wrote. " ... a man's intellect is all his own, held direct form God, an inalienable fief {meaning. n. [[Fr: see fee]] under feudalism, heritable land held from a lord in return for service }. It is the most potent of weapons .... Society hangs spintually together .... The free country, in which intellect and genius govern, will endure ... To elevate the people by teaching loving-kindness and wisdom, with power to him who teaches best; and so to develop the free State from the rough ashlar; -this is the great labor in which Masonry desires to lend a helping hand."
Presentation of Gavel
It gives me pleasure to present to you the gavel which is the emblem of your authority to preside over this Chapter. I know you will wield it in a manner which will bring credit to you and honor to the membership. Each time you rap this gavel I know it will be not to demonstrate your authority, but to signify the adoption of another progressive step in the fine work of this organization. It is with pleasure that I tender to you the gavel of authority and the symbol of your new office.
References
Ars Quatour Coronatorum, Transaction of Quoatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076. Volume XL, 1928 published by W. J. Parrett, LTD .. Margate, page 202. Volume 101 for the year 1988, published October 1989 by Butler & Tanner LTD., Frome and London. page 3
Bessell. Paul N. Gavels in Freemasonry, February 1995. parts of this paper have been reproduced with the permission of Paul LVI. Bessell
Coil, Henry W. Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, published by Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, New York 1961, page 271
Haywood, H. L., Symbolical Masonry: An Interpretations of the Three Degrees, published by George H. Doran Company. New York, 1923, pages 160-161
Hunt. Charles C., Masonic Symbolism, published by Laurance Press Co .. Cedar Rapids. Iowa, 1939, pages 25 1-256
Jones, Bernard E., Freemasons' Guide and Compendium, published Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Company, New York, 1950, pages 430-431
Mackenzie. Kenneth R. H., IX(editor), The Royal Masonic Cyclopedia of History, Rites. Symbolism, and Biography, published by J.w. Bouton, New York 1877, page 243
Mackey, Albert G., (revised and enlarged by Robert I. Clegg), Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, published by Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co., Inc., 1946. Volume I, page 388
Macoy. Robert, General History, Cyclopedia, and Dictionary of Freemasonry, published by Masonic Publishing Company, New York, 1869, page 153
Pike, Albert, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, published by the Supreme Council of the ThirtyThird Degree for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, 1871, pages 30-32
Plessner, Shirley, Symbolism of the Eastern Star, Gilbert Publishing Company, Cleveland, Ohio, pages 106-107
Robert, Henry P., Robert's Rules of Order, published by Scott, Foreman and Company. Glenview, Illinois, 1951, page 293
Street, Oliver D. Symbolism of the Three Degrees, published by the Masonic Service Association of the United States, Washington, D.C. 1924 pages 32-34
Terry, Sarah H., The Second Mile, published by Macoy publishing and Masonic Supply .. Inc., Richmond, Virginia. page 55
Zain, C. C., Ancient Masonry, published by The Church of Light, Los Angeles, CA. pages 4 1-42, 44, 46, 69. 72,