What are the degrees of Masonry?
A degree is a stage or level of membership in our Gentle Craft. A candidate attains a level of membership in a degree ceremony. There are three degrees, called Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. As you can see, the names are taken from the craft guilds. In the Middle Ages, when a person wanted to join a craft, such as the gold smiths or the carpenters or the stonemasons, he was first made an apprentice. As an apprentice, he learned the tools and skills of the trade. When he proved his skills, he became a “Fellow of the Craft” (today we would say “Journeyman”), and when he had exceptional ability, he was known as a Master of the Craft. Each degree in Masonry uses symbols to teach the great lessons of life — the importance of honor and integrity, of being a person on whom others can rely, of being both trusting and trustworthy, of realizing that you have a spiritual nature as well as a physical or animal nature, of the importance of self-control, of knowing how to love
