The Mark Degree is an appendant order of Freemasonry and is regarded as the “Forth Regular Step in Freemasonry”. It conveys moral and ethical lessons using a ritualised allegory based around the building of King Solomon’s Temple. The ceremonies of Mark Masonry require the candidate to undertake the role of a Fellowcraft, thus the degree is seen as an extension of the Fellowcraft Degree, and the philosophical lessons conveyed are appropriate to that stage in a candidate’s Masonic development.
While the Fellowcraft degree teaches a Mason what the historical wages of a Fellowcraft Mason are, the Mark Master Mason degree teaches a Mason how to earn those wages, how to prove his work is his own, and what the penalty for fraud was during the building of the Temple. The candidate is helped to choose a Mason’s mark, and introduced to another extension of the Hiramic myth, relating to the manufacture, loss, and re-finding of the keystone of the Royal Arch.