The full significance of the Masonic Apron can be explained as follow:
a- The Apron is the symbol of the corporeal vesture and condition of the soul that survives death and not of the temporal physical body.
b- The soul creates its own body, or “apron”, by its desires and thoughts and, depending if these are pure or impure, the body will be transparent and white, or dense and opaque.
c- The investiture of the candidate with the Apron in each degree by the Senior Warden is meant to inculcate this truth. The Senior Warden represents the soul, which clothes itself with its own self-made vesture in a way that indicates its progress or regress.
d- The white apron of the First Degree indicates the purity of soul to be attained at that stage.
e- The pale blue rosettes added to the apron in the Second Degree indicate that progress has been made in the science of regeneration, and that the candidate’s spirituality is developing. Blue, the colour of the sky, is associated with devotion to spiritual concerns.
f- In the Third Degree, the progress made are indicated by the increased blue decorations of the Apron, as well as by its silver tassels and the silver serpent used to fasten the apron strings. In the First and second degrees no metal appears on the apron as the candidate, at that stage, is divesting himself of all base metal and transmuting them in spiritual riches. With Mastership he has attained and influx of these riches under the emblem of the tassels of silver, a precious metal associated with the soul, as gold with its great value and warm colour is associated with Spirit. The silver serpent is the emblem of Divine Wisdom knitting the soul’s new-made vesture together.
g- The pale blue and silver of the Master Mason’s Apron becomes deep blue with gold ornamentation when he becomes an Officer of the Grand Lodge as these Officers are assumed to have evolved to still deeper spirituality and transmuted themselves from silver to gold. (3)
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