Why should Entered Apprentices study the Trivium and the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences?

In EP 127 of Masonic Muscle, I speak directly to our EAs and review material from the Peace Revolution podcast, especially Episode 7, where we learn about the origins of Rhetoric and what it was meant to teach.

Freemasonry presents us with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences, but too often nobody explains why they matter.

That is a problem.

This episode asks:

How can Masons claim to seek more light if they do not study the very arts Freemasonry places in front of them?

We discuss:

• Entered Apprentices and Masonic study
• Peace Revolution podcast
• the origin of Rhetoric
• Corax of Sicily
• Demosthenes and persuasive speech
• the Trivium: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric
• the Quadrivium
• he Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences
• Sister Miriam Joseph’s The Trivium
• Manly P. Hall on the Liberal Arts
• how the Romans understood education
• Peace Revolution Episode 12 on the history of money
• words, contracts, persuasion, power, and control
• why Masons should understand language
• exercise as discipline for the body and mind
• putting the Mystery back in Masonry

The art of persuasion has been with us for thousands of years.

Words move men.
Words shape contracts.
Words create obligations.
Words build governments.

Words sell lies.
Words reveal truth.

That is why Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric matter.

A Mason who does not understand words can be ruled by words.

A Mason who does not study logic can be trapped by bad arguments.

A Mason who does not understand rhetoric can be moved by persuasion without knowing he is being moved.

That is not freedom.

That is mental weakness.

Freemasonry gives us the Liberal Arts for a reason.

So study them.

Train your body.
Train your mind.
Define your terms.
Think clearly.
Speak with purpose.

Let’s put the Mystery back in Masonry.

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