The Mark Master Mason degree
The Mark celebrates the skill and craft of the stonemason. It traces its roots to the operative masons’ guilds, whose members had to prove their ability before they could take on the expert work, with records reaching back well before 1546.
When you join, you choose your own personal mark, an emblem that is unique to you within your lodge and stays with you for life. In earlier centuries these marks were the first form of quality control, identifying whose hand had shaped each stone.
The ceremony is warm, good-humoured and genuinely enjoyable, with a clear lesson about honest work, fair reward and perseverance. Many Freemasons describe the Mark as one of the most rewarding steps they take.
The Royal Ark Mariner degree
The Royal Ark Mariner degree is worked under the banner of the Mark and is closely linked to it. Its ceremony draws on the story of Noah and the Ark, with themes of faith, hope and safe deliverance.
A Royal Ark Mariner lodge is moored to a Mark lodge, and advancement into the Mark is the usual route to elevation as a Royal Ark Mariner. Together the two offer a rounded and memorable experience.
An ethos of charity and caring
Charity is central to the Mark, and it is one of the things that draws people to it. The Mark Benevolent Fund, founded in 1868, is among the most generous charitable bodies in Freemasonry and supports Masonic and non-Masonic causes alike.
Close to home
The Province funded and presented two fully equipped ambulances to St John Ambulance, one in Jersey and one in Guernsey.
Across the community
Nationally the Fund has given many millions of pounds to hospices, medical research, young people’s charities and disaster relief.
Fellowship first
Alongside the giving, the Mark is known for its warmth and good company. Charity and fellowship go hand in hand.
How the Mark relates to Craft Freemasonry
The Mark sits alongside the Craft, not above or below it. A member completes his Craft Freemasonry first, then may choose to add the Mark and, in time, the Royal Ark Mariner.
Craft first
Members join Freemasonry through a Craft lodge and become Master Masons.
Then the Mark
A Master Mason may be advanced into the Mark degree at any time thereafter.
And the RAM
Mark Master Masons may go on to be elevated as Royal Ark Mariners.