Are they only words?

 It looks as though we are tip-toeing back into Masonry, therefore I am tip-toeing back into blogging. I had the pleasure of attending an Entered Apprentice degree last evening. The degree was very well done with the candidate being the grandson of a very dear friend and brother.

As with all meetings I attend I have a few pet peeves that I always listen for and last night didn't disappoint.....in a fun sort of way.....and hopefully we can learn from it.

During the opening 90% of the time one can rely on the following; keep off all cowans and eavesdroppers...and so on.....instead of; keep off all cowans or eavesdroppers.

One may ask as I did myself last night what is the difference. When I was a DDI this was one of the things that I always tried to hammer home....the correct word is...OR

It turns out that the definition of AND is a functional word to indicate connection or additional items of the same class or type. Whereas the definition of OR means choosing between different possibilities.

There are two more words that have to be examined to understand why the framers of the ritual may have used "or" instead of "and"......those words are.....Cowans.....Eavesdroppers.

Cowan can be defined as a sneak, a pretender, an intruder or in other words one who would be brazen enough to fraudulently "pose" as a Mason....compared to an Eavesdropper who secretly listens without consent to gather information, a spy who operates undercover or in the shadows instead of trying to intrude.

In conclusion the framers and authors of our Masonic ritual made some very wise choices in the words and phrases they used. As has been noted in numerous older posts the creators of our ritual knew very well what they were doing and made the most of the words they used.

So the next time you hear......to keep off all cowans OR eavesdroppers you will know that one word does matter over another word and there is a reason.

Another misused word is PEACEABLY, when it is given wrong it is always replaced with Peacefully. Again, what's the big deal? It may not be a big deal but there is a difference when one gets into researching the difference.

Peaceably means favoring peace, not at conflict.....whereas peacefully means not at war or disturbed by strife currently.

Peaceably indicates peace and harmony while peacefully indicates not currently at war which lends itself to being the exception rather than the norm. Hopefully lodges are in peaceable operations, and that is the norm not the exception.

Those few words.....and when it should be or......and peacefully when it should be peaceably,,,,they may not be a big deal on the surface, but with a little research as to why those particular words were chosen demonstrate remarkable differences in their meaning and usage.

I've said it a hundred times before, we all too quickly take for granted the ritual words of our fraternity and the planning and forethought of our founding fathers in putting everything together and using words for maximum effect.