Written By  Ron Merk
Education Officer: Vancouver & Quadra
Victoria BC Canada

Cable-Tow & Cable Length

Jan/94 - issue 001



Are they the same? How do they differ? Is there a marine
connotation to either?



Cable-Tow:



In the E.A. ritual, the cable-tow is a real object used to
symbolically represent the prevention of a retreat. It is also
capable of a wide-ranging symbolism, e.g., submission, or the
bonding of ignorance. A case can also be made that the cable-tow
represents re-birth or in Masonic use, birth into Masonic life.
Other symbolism can also be attributed to the cable-tow. Can you
think of more?



In a literal sense the cable-tow  is a cable or cord by which
something is towed or drawn. For Masons, particularly in the
E.A. degree the cable-tow is an apt symbol of those forces and
influences which conduct not only the individual, but the human
race out of a condition of ignorance or darkness into one of
light and knowledge.



It should be noted that cable-tow is not found in most
dictionaries. Masonic references are clear that the word is
unique as a Masonic term. Although it seems to have a sea
flavour , there is no historical documentation to support that
assumption. The attachment of a marine flavour is usually driven
from confusing cable-tow with cable length use else where in the
Ob.. (Cable length will be described in a later issue.)



How long is a Cable-Tow?



During the Ob. of the M.M. degree the candidate promises to
answer and obey all lawful ...summonses ... if within the length
of my cable-tow. If it is not a marine measurement, then what is
the measurement? 



The Masonic symbolic allusion of cable-tow length is drive from
the old operative regulations which obligated the medieval mason
to attend the annual or triennial 'Assemblies' except in the
case of sickness or 'in peril of death'. The later versions of
the old charges often mention the distance within which
attendance was obligatory. Variations on this point range from
three to fifty miles.



Nowadays the Candidate's Ob. to answer a Lodge Summons is a
simple promise to attend the Lodge  so long as it is within his
power to do so. No specific distance is involved.    


Cable-Tow & Cable Length - Continued



Feb/94 - issue 002



Cable Length:



In the E.A degree there is a reference to something buried at
least a cable length from shore. A cable or cable's length is
indeed a unit of marine measurement. The Oxford English
Dictionary defines a cable length as "about 100 fathoms: in
marine charts 605.56 feet, or one tenth of a sea mile."



In our rituals it is certain that the intent of specifying the
burial of something at that distance from shore was to make the
object irrecoverable. 



It is interesting to note that this idea of burial from shore
appears in our earliest ritual documents, though the actual use
of the words cable length came later. The first use of the term
appears in the Wilkinson MS., c 1710.



Incidentally, the Oxford English Dictionary cites a number of
special combinations with the word 'cable', e.g., cable-rope,
cable-range, cable-stock, etc., but it does not give 'cable-tow'
 





References -

 The Freemason At Work - Harry Carr 1976

Symbolism Of The Three Degrees - Oliver Street 1924