Landmarks

In a quote I made earlier, Farwerck refers to Landmarks as a point in Masonry that lacks a South-European counterpart. Now I run into a nice text which may explain what Farwerck was thinking about.

The text quotes the famous Flemish Freemason Piet van Brabant saying (in my translation):

Traditional Freemasonry has a few unwritten basic rules that are regarded essential requirements without which the Order leaves behind regularity. They are called Landmarks, field stones that mark the border and which cannot be moved.

The term “Landmarks” can’t be derived from the Hebrew language or the Christian tradition. Rather, they can be found in the Northern European tradition. Farmers marked the borders of their lands (aethil) with stones, but they were not just placed at random, they marked the sun at the summer and winter solstices. Within this zone the Sun-god spread Heilagr, or “Divine fluid” over the land and its inhabitants. “The Divine workings were only felt within that piece of land, and consequently all actions were put ‘in the light of the Sun’, or ‘in honor of the Grand Architect of the Universe’. “

The stones were called Eiktamarkr (‘calibration markers’) or Dagsmarkr (‘day markers’) and obviously, when they were to be moved, the markers would become incorrect.

Similarly the Landmarks in Freemasonry mark the borders within which the influence of the GAOTU can be guaranteed. This phrases such as: “Hail!” (“I wish you heilagr“) and “Whence do you hail?” (‘From which lodge are you?’, literally, ‘Where does your heilagr come from?’) are used within Freemasonry.

That is probably quite a different explanation than you usually hear.