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Welcome to Lewis Masonic
Helping you to make a daily advancement in your Masonic knowledge.
Welcome to the home of Lewis Masonic in the United States of America. Lewis Masonic is the world’s oldest Masonic Publishing company, founded in 1886 in London England. In those days the focus of the company was exclusively on ritual books from Masonic Craft degrees. Nowadays Lewis Masonic publishes Masonic texts of all kinds. Within the pages of this website you will find an extensive range of Masonic books to cover every area of Masonic interest.
The Aim of Lewis Masonic
Lewis Masonic, as its name suggests, was founded with the aim of supporting Freemasons and Freemasonry, its aim being like the 'Lewis' to give every Freemason the tools to better himself and to help him to make his daily advancement in Masonic knowledge.
What is a 'L
ewis'?
Lewis Masonic was named after the Masonic Symbol of a 'Lewis'. A Lewis is 'a three-pronged iron cramp that is inserted in a prepared cavity in stone by which it may be lowered and lifted with precision'. The name comes from the Latin word Leuis, meaning to levitate or lift.
In speculative Freemasonry a Lewis can often be found in a lodge, attached to a 'perfect Ashlar' - a finished stone - that in turn is suspended from a tripod or derrick. In Freemasonry a Lewis represents strength. The grip of the Lewis that lifts the stone is likened to the grip given to raise the candidate in the third degree. This, to many Freemasons, represents one's own ability to improve oneself and rise above one's vices and faults. A Lewis has also come to be the term used to describe the son of a Freemason. The reason for this is quite simple as is described in the explanation of the first degree tracing board. The duty of the son of a Mason is
to support his parents in the same way a Lewis supports and lifts a rock.