The Morgan Affair created in the collective Masonic psyche aversions to secrecy, fraternity, and the actual philosophies inculcated in Freemasonry. Masonry would recover in numbers, and even swell during the era of fraternal organizations, but our halls were hollowed of their mystical teachings and we would institute a tradition of placation and apology.
It might prove helpful to examine some of the changes that have occurred in American Craft Masonry and Scottish Rite Masonry to better understand my statement.
Beginning with the Morgan Affair we eliminated the mysticism. As the anti-Masonic Party began its rise to power, the Craft hemorrhaged members. They flooded away for fear that it could tarnish or destroy a political or Christian reputation. This occurred because of an earlier apology and small dose of dangerous pride that allowed us to convince ourselves, in an attempt to convince others, that we were not a secret society. We degenerated to the point that a lack of secrecy and disclaimer is a common theme in apologies that still occur to this day. We have many a website and have interviewed for many a television camera and tout the statement, “we are not a secret society, but a society with secrets.” Sadly, if we would worry less about public and profane opinion, we would not have public awareness programs or anything of the sort. We should be a secret society whose charity is evident only in such a way that whenever good men gather, the community benefits as a result. If we would have maintained the secrets of our membership and treated the society as such, then men would not have had to flee from their associations with us for fear of their reputations.
The natural product of this loss of secrecy and membership was a desire to appease those who decided to point a finger as we voluntarily declared and exposed our membership. To appease these Victorian minded puritans who would usher in a number of successful programs such as the anti-Masonic Party and prohibition (if you caught the sarcasm it was completely intentional) we would begin a ruin of the Craft in apology to deaf ears. We have apologized to a rather loud, but utterly unsuccessful, minority group of fundamentalist pushing an agenda that is counter to personal freedom and choice. We have apologized to those we are sworn to defend against. We are the keepers of freewill, choice, and free conscience. We flung our doors open, hung our heads, and here is the greatest of tragedies, we put to rest our mystical philosophy. So much so, that it has become the real lost word in our lodges. Our spiritualism and mysticism were so tucked away, that there are generations of men who would argue that such “liberal” thoughts and ideas do not occur as part of or as a result of Freemasonry.
This is the same group of people that have actually played a role in the drafting, in part, of a number of Masonic constitutions throughout the Grand Lodges in America. We decided as part of and even prior to prohibition that the grown man with all his faculties should not consume alcoholic beverages. We decided that Masons could not be trusted to perform the duties of a Mason, that the Junior Wardens could not be expected to fulfill their duties, that appendant bodies should follow suit, and we eliminated the grown mans ability to raise a glass and toast his Brothers at an Agape or Festive Board. Hypocrisy abounds with this particular apologetic. We have the Shrine Clubs which have bars in them, we have hospitality suites at our Grand Lodge sessions, we drink at home and with our friends, we just can’t drink with our Masonic friends without sneaking it like we were 15 years old and tipping a sip of our father’s favorite scotch. Nonetheless, listen to the cries of the young men who simply want to toast a fellow Brother, enjoy a great glass of wine with good food as part of the Masonic experience, actually hoist a drink during the Feast of Tishri, and exercise their free choice and freewill. They will tell you that their attempts to overturn this ridiculous, hypocritical, and outdated apology have meant with impassioned speeches of doom and destruction. Well, we are Masons; we study the liberal arts and sciences, do we not? Let’s look at Freemasonry in the rest of the entire civilized world and see what effects allowing a man to consume an alcoholic beverage with his Brother have had. We would find refined scotch tastings, ladies festivals filled with fine wine and dancing, and fellowship spent over a pint of the local brew. No doom and gloom. No destruction. As a matter of fact, Masonry is doing better in many of those places. Oh and lawsuits. Yes, if a man has a beer the Fraternity will get sued if he crashes or the like. Really? Site some examples please. I am looking at the bars and liquor stores in existence and wondering why they have not met this miserable fate. Why haven’t they, because it is bunk and the ramblings of those who espouse bureaucratic and legal fallacy while knowing little of actual facts?
The fundamentalist, the evangelical Christian community with an anti-Masonic slant, the self proclaimed moralist do not like Freemasonry because it encourages free thought, free speech, and freedom of religion. They are never going to like Masonry, they are never going to stop fighting the aims of such groups. It is not in their best interest to do so. They want an uninformed class of members with zealous faith that is based on devotion and not study and reasoned thought. We are, in essence, enemies. We owe them no apology. We should pride ourselves that they consider the Craft a threat to their aims and abolish every foolish addition to Masonic constitutions or sets of by-laws ever created in apology to them.
Allow me to address, what I consider, the strangest of apologies. The apology to the POTENTIAL candidate. Prior to the man ever becoming a member we bow our heads and divert our gaze and offer the following apologies.
1. Sir, we are sorry that it cost money to be a member. Allow us to keep our dues artificially low and under fund the infrastructure and programs of the Craft. Allow us to reduce and remove any quality education, travel, and ritual experience for our members because we have no money to do so. Allow our buildings and temples to fall into disrepair and dilapidation so that we never need charge a reasonable fee for the degrees or the dues that follow. Sir, who might be interested, Masonry is cheap. It’s real affordable. Please sir, we are sorry that we even have to charge, please become a member.
2. Sir, we are sorry that it takes time. We have removed the requirements for memory work, for proficiencies, for participation in lodge even. All we need is about one afternoon of your time and you are a Brother. We are sorry that we used to ask for even the slightest commitment. If we can just have the paltry fee that we discussed and already apologized for above, we will get you rushed through, you will not have to learn anything, as a matter of fact, you won’t learn anything, and we can issue this dues card and get you on the books.
If the aforementioned antics of the present state of apology don’t manage get me a bit riled up, then the apologies we make to the public at large certainly do. The Scottish Rite is suffering greatly from these as we speak and if we don’t wrestle this beautiful and mystical system from the grasp of the Great Apology she will die. She will be a shell of her formal self and she will die.
For instance, so that you might better understand me, Scottish Rite petitions used to require a signature of the future candidate proclaiming the following certain ideology with the following phraseology, “The entire separation of church and state and opposition to every attempt to appropriate public monies—Federal, state, or local—directly or indirectly, for the support of sectarian or private institutions.” Several petitions, including those presently available for download from the Seattle Scottish Rite website have only, “THE SUPREME COUNCIL REQUIRES ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOLLOWING FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES: THE INCULCATION OF PATRIOTISM, RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER, UNDYING LOYALTY TO THE PRINCIPLES OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. DO YOU APPROVE OF THESE PRINCIPLES? ________ YES ________ NO.”
It would not be reasonable to believe that the removal of the wording was arbitrary. Are the ideas of the separation of church and state no longer valid belief systems important for a free government run by its populace and not by its church? Are the ideas of theocracy and despotism somehow more appealing than they used to be and less of threat? I think not. Clearly, the wars and conflicts of the world that are based on religion and the beliefs systems of those fanatical followers who would attempt to enforce their belief system as form of government are evidence enough that the concept is still needed and not out dated. So, if separation of church and state is still a necessary component of free government, free speech, and freewill, then why have we removed it? Let me hypothesize that it was form of apology. Someone somewhere decided that the general public, the profane, might find such a statement as politically incorrect or somehow offensive. I find the logic behind this line of thinking similar to the statement that the New Testament of the Bible is anti-Semitic and telling the story of the Nazarene is of a similar vein. Hogwash! This is the same idiotic thinking that would allow someone to claim a German bias and hatred of the Germanic people for telling the story of the holocaust. We have many a religious man in our ranks, so must we remove this statement for fear that he is a fundamentalist Christian in support of theocracy to ensure that he is comfortable. Incredible as it may seem, this might be yet another apology in action. It is likely an apology to the fundamentalist, whose philosophies are in opposition to those the Rite. No worries Brother. Although your particular philosophies are in direct conflict with those teachings of the Scottish Rite we will remove these offensive writings for you. We will remove the important teachings inculcated within the Rite. We will change the petitioning process so that you, a man with no interest in promoting and participating in our present philosophies, can gain entry. I hope I am not alone in recognizing the absolute absurdity of this.
I would like to address another apology of the Rite apparently to the general public or no one in particular. Maybe we should classify this one as a preemptive apology. We apologize before anyone is offended in the event that someone might be or could ever be offended. This apology comes in the form of removing different parts of the degree ritual exemplifications. For instance, in symbolism that man should never allow a man to sit in despotic rule over the masses guised as God on earth, claiming his personal orthodoxy as divine will, there used to be a certain stomping on or walking upon a symbol of such a system. No more, nope, gone in many jurisdictions.
Many symbols of the Craft have gone the wayside of this befuddling preemptive apology. The skull and cross bones as a symbol of mortality and the price one should be willing to pay to keep his integrity. The skeletons upon a cross in the 18th degree symbolism have suffered similar fate. It is still listed within the script of the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction, but how many consistories utilize it? Not many.
I was privy to recent discussion of Masonic favoritism in the work place. The statement was made that as Masons we should be careful not to give any other Masons special consideration for employment or services because it might be perceived poorly by those outside the Craft. That someone might legislate against the Fraternity for these unspeakable acts of “good ol’ boyism.” Again, I am forced to ask really? Really? So, the famous Aggies, Air Force Academy grads, alumni of the various Greek clubs, do not participate in such activities? They do and they are unapologetic. The Aggies boast that this is a benefit of graduating from the university. They have alumni clubs that network in hundreds, if not thousands, of cities across the United States. But we must never take a man, whom we believe to be of a high caliber morally and ethically and use this as a good starting place when choosing employees or picking service provider? The idea that we should not is repugnant and flies in the face of common sense. We ought to guard the gate like it was intended to be guarded and then utilize the membership as a foundation for good decision making because Brothers are automatically understood as a the crème of the crop when it comes to integrity and fairness.
Brothers, to whom do we owe the obedience of our obligations? To one another. We owe the Craft and our Brothers. I am encouraging the Craft as a whole to put aside our desires to make the Freemasonry all things to all men. It is not meant to be such vehicle and it never will be. If you try to bend it and shape it as such, you will kill it, and you are killing it in many ways given its present condition.
Stop the apology. Freewill, free thought, free religion, free conscience; they are all laudable pursuits. We do not need to apologize for them. We do not need to apologize for the deep and meaningful way that the philosophies of the Craft improve its men and make them better. We do not need to apologize to anyone except our current membership for letting our guard down and apologizing to those who were not entitled to such for wrongs that were nonexistent. This, by itself, would progress the Craft and heal it more than any catchy slogan or membership drive ever will.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The Great Masonic Apology, by Bro. Cliff Porter
The Lesson of Three, by Bro. T. Justin Robinson
There are so many portions of our fraternity that reflect themselves in this mystical number that it is nearly impossible to describe them all. There are, of course, three initial degrees in the blue lodge; there are three symbols in the Square, Compasses, and the letter G; three geographical locations in lodge, South, West, East, with the North being a place of darkness; and three officers for those stations.
When you go deeper in the degrees it becomes even more apparent; there are three Great Lights and three Lesser lights represented by the three officers of the three geographical locations. This number is also repeated in the very fabric of our degree work.
To bring it to a more broad horizon, three is repeated on a much larger scale starting with our planet's position in the solar system. Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Thus in this aspect three becomes a number representing the creation and sustaining effect of life. A number that can be connected to a solitary degree of distance which is suitable for the flourish of our existence. Three is an ideal position.
Three can also be attributed to the Holy Trinity in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this aspect the number three becomes a relation of faith, spirituality, and religious teachings. Three is a spiritual connection.
Three is representative of the three stages of life, Childhood, Adulthood, and Old Age. In this capacity Three gives us the sum of education, experience, and wisdom. Three is a path of life.
Three is the first prime number that we come to that is more than the sum of its two predecessors. Why is this number so often repeated in the course of our experiences? Is it a divine truth that yet escapes our full understanding or is it merely a set of coincidences that bar any unforeseen explanation?
As Freemasons it is our privilige to be able to investigate such mystical occurences and try to decipher either for our Brethren and the common good or for our own personal benefit, what truth we can come to ourselves in the never ending journey of the sublime path that such metaphysical matters afford us.
Let us begin.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The Sunday Masonic Paper
Brethren,
The Restricted Area of TSS now has "The Sunday Masonic Paper." This is a paper circulated once a week by a small group of Masons who like to discover and share together.
Now, for the first time ever, it is available to all members of TSS with access to the Restricted Areas.
Please jump in, read, write, and discuss.
A special thank you to the creator and moderator of the Sunday Masonic Paper...Worshipful Brother Wayne Anderson of Ontario, Canada.
My Thoughts on Science, Religion, The Great Chain of Being, and Universal Truth, by W.B. Robert Herd
The purpose of this paper comes strictly out of my desire to write down my current thoughts on these subjects and how they relate to one another in my mind. Writing to me is somewhat of a method of thinking out loud and strangely enough allows me to understand more fully a subject that I have been reading or contemplating. I also hope that fellow Brother Freemasons who are starting their journey of study and understanding can use my works as easier stepping stones so as not to have to read the piles of materials that I have to get those coveted bits of knowledge or inspiration.
In Masonry we hear a lot of references regarding Science and Religion as opposites on different poles or different ends of the spectrum from one another. We hear of this rift almost daily in the news, articles and even popular fiction books recently. In our everyday lives we see countless instances of people choosing sides and the numbers of people who find that regardless of what “side” they choose, be it a religious stance or scientific view, they end up finding they are still not supplied with any complete answer. They are unfulfilled and are unsatisfied whichever end of the spectrum they choose. In Freemasonry we are constantly taught the lesson of balance and equilibrium. What is, or what should, be the balance between Religion and Science? Where is it that they both go wrong in failing to answer or fill this vacuum of understanding that we need to fill? What was it that sent them expanding apart from each other? Can there be a “Universal Truth”? Well my friends and Brothers, my opinions on that are just what I want to discuss.
Listening to recent interviews with physicists and astro-biologists, one might imagine that the scientific perspective is similar to the spiritual one that inspires the perennial wisdom tradition, or simply that they also are seeking a Universal Truth. Unfortunately this is not the case, for despite the willingness to search for alien life-forms or multidimensional super-string theories, mainstream science still defines consciousness as a phenomenon of matter rather than as any sort of primary, causative, and unifying being. While ecological interconnections are understood and acknowledged by the scientific community, and some biologists are pursuing signs of intelligence in "mindless" beings, notions of spirit or any Deity as the fountain-source of consciousness are generally dismissed as irrelevant, naïve or even ignorant. For traditional science found in most research labs, schools, and college classes, the true picture of reality is only what sensory data can detect, in other words things that can be seen, touched, taken apart and studied. Every other perspective has been so marginalized and devalued that this materialistic approach is now largely unquestioned even though many people, maybe even a majority, do not believe it adequately describes the whole picture. What I believe needs to happen is an integration of the visions of both science and religion. This type of endeavor I believe is very much welcome in today's climate, where sensory or materialistic data and information are so loudly persuasive that it is hard to find a scientifically acceptable forum even to debate their value, let alone question their supremacy. Spiritual experiences are dismissed as anecdotal, unverifiable, and a spiritual perspective is deemed inadequate or unnecessary to explain how and what life is. But it hasn't always been this way. A few centuries ago our forefathers lived in a universe alive with great spiritual interior connections, and the Great Chain of Being theory was a basic assumption for most of humanity. It was somewhat of a common knowledge subject that today many people have not even heard of. Arthur Lovejoy wrote early last century that the Great Chain of Being was "probably the most widely familiar conception of the general scheme of things, and of the constitutive pattern of the universe" (The Great Chain of Being, p. vii). He traced its idea back to Plato and Aristotle and explained that…
“through the Middle Ages and down to the late eighteenth century, many philosophers, most men of science, and, indeed, most educated men, were to accept without question the conception of the universe as a 'Great Chain of Being,' composed of an immense, or by the strict but seldom rigorously applied logic of the principle of continuity of an infinite number of links, ranging in hierarchical order from the meagerest kind of existents, which barely escape non-existence, through every possible grade up to the ens perfectissimum or, in a somewhat more orthodox version, to the highest possible kind of creature, between which the Absolute Being and the disparity was assumed to be infinite every one of them differing from that immediately above and that immediately below it by the least possible degree of difference.” Ibid., p. 59
This structure, also known as the Hermetic Chain, has also been pictured as a ladder or stair of life, as well as a web connecting every point of life on every plane of being. Below are a few various depictions of it.
Author Ken Wilber elaborates: "According to this nearly universal view, reality is a rich tapestry of interwoven levels, reaching from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit. Each senior level 'envelops' or 'enfolds' its junior dimensions a series of nests within nests within nests of Being so that every thing and event in the world is interwoven with every other". To Wilber, the Great Chain is more like a Great Nest, a more organic metaphor for an essentially natural and living process. He explains the hierarchy this way:
“Each senior level in the Great Nest, although it includes its juniors, nonetheless possesses emergent qualities not found on the junior level. Thus, the vital animal body includes matter in its makeup, but it also adds sensations, feelings, and emotions, which are not found in rocks. While the human mind includes bodily emotions in its makeup, it also adds higher cognitive faculties, such as reason and logic, which are not found in plants or other animals. And while the soul includes the mind in its makeup, it also adds even higher cognitions and affects, such as archetypal illumination and vision, not found in the rational mind. And so on.”
In other words, each higher level maintains the essential features of the lower levels but also unveils or brings forward elements not found on those levels. Each higher level, that is, transcends but includes its juniors.
This vision of each level becoming increasingly more complex as it transcends and includes all lower levels is fundamental to Hermetic philosophy, which describes the constitution of entities generally as multidimensional, with infinite gradations of varying degrees. For example, every human being is a compounded entity. There is a god in him, a spiritual ego, a human ego, an animal nature, and the physical body which expresses as best it can the bundle of energies surging through and from within it. Now each of these elements is itself a learning entity on its upward way. The self-consciousness, and the sense of ego, is there; but above that is the vast sense of universal unity, which is the atmosphere and consciousness of the inner god, or a spark of celestial Divinity.
So what happened to this grand vision of interconnected, interdependent life? Western Science, embracing materialism in the process of shaking off the dominance of the narrow Christian religious view, fell on the Great Chain and flattened it. But still, how could such a fundamentally commonsense vision as the Great Chain become irrelevant? One of the problems had to do with how the Great Chain idea was misunderstood. The pre-Enlightenment world saw Divinity expressed everywhere, but this vision united art, morals, ethics, science, religion, and secular processes into an exclusive and often oppressive worldview. Galileo could not freely look through his telescope and report the results because art and morals and science were all fused under the Church, and thus the morals of the Church defined what science could -or could not – do. Artists were not free to explore creativity, people were not free to choose different churches, and scientists could not freely research; their domains were strictly monitored by the Church and policed by the state, each reinforcing the other.
Modern liberty and freedom brought with it the ability to differentiate among these arenas. Anyone can now go to any church or temple, or look through a telescope without being charged with heresy or treason. People are free to distinguish art from ethics, science from religion, and philosophy from both. The upside to the modern scientific perspective is the ability to differentiate various links of the Chain of Being (which helped usher in a much more democratic, less exclusive and oppressive way of life), but the downside is that it declared valid only the bottom link which could be accessed and verified by the senses. Speaking of the collapse of the Great Chain perspective around the late 18th century, author Huston Smith wrote: "Why did the hierarchical outlook then collapse? As it had blanketed human history up to that point, constituting man's primordial tradition and what might almost be called the human unanimity, the force that leveled it must have been powerful, and modern science is the obvious candidate. . . . Modern science requires only one ontological level, the physical . . . [and] challenged by implication the notion that other planes exist" (Forgotten Truth: The Primordial Tradition, pp. 5-6).
It wasn't so much that modern science rejected spirit as that it just didn't need interior or metaphysical domains in order to do its work. In dismissing all subjective interior processes as insignificant, Spirit and Spirituality were simply a couple of the numerous casualties. As technological breakthroughs captured the hearts and minds of researchers, the vision of a living and interconnected universe seemed irrelevant or, worse, superstitious. Take the well-known comment by biologist Richard Dawkins, "Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence."
And so, it came about that the modern West was the first major civilization in the history of the human race to deny substantial reality to the Great Chain of Being. That denial caused a profound and rapidly spreading shift in our view of what's "real," but humanity's universal and historical understanding of the Chain didn't disappear quietly or without notice. There have been repeated attempts to reintroduce spirit into the modern world.
Freemasonry continues to try and rekindle the spirit and the spiritual, as do the efforts of some other postmodernism schools of esoteric studies to reframe the world with spirit at its center. There seems to be even a bit of resurgence recently in the desire for this type of spiritual rekindling separate from Religion. The problem is how might we shift the current popularity of reductionism and strictly logical scientific view? One step is to recognize the flaws and often self-defeating weaknesses inherent in most of our philosophical approaches, including the most important in my mind in that none of them rarely if ever challenge empirical science on its own ground. To do this, one must understand current scientific methodology and then use it to determine and establish the existence of spiritual planes, or what some call the value spheres or those vertical dimensions of depth that give value to our lives.
Science believes itself to be value free. It tells us what is, not what should be. It tells us what we are, not what we can be. It describes the world factually without ascribing any meaning to it. That is why we look to the value spheres of philosophy, art, religion, morals and ethics for that. Science accomplishes its wonders because it utilizes a solid method for discovering fact, (which is not necessarily ever a whole truth), a method that is empirical and experimental and based on evidence and this is the very prescription and method I offer to you to explore and validate authentic spiritual truths. Current science may claim to use only objective data, but I can tell you that it hypocritically does also demonstrate convincingly that it continually relies on intellectual processes, theories and the unproven assumptions of materialism to interpret data itself. It is both naive and wrong to accept the idea that science merely reports what already exists in the material world because science approaches the empirical world with massive conceptual and assumptive apparatuses. Mathematics for a perfect example contains everything from tensor calculus to theoretical numbers to extensive inter-subjective linguistic signs to differential equations. I don’t expect you all to know what all of those are, I barely have just learned of them myself, but let me tell you that virtually all are non-empirical structures found only in interior spaces of theory, not the material world. So science grants validity to some interior modes, but only those that support its own biases. Therefore, to actually fulfill its own empiricism, it must also grant the possibility that there are interior states other than those it uses, states that can be investigated empirically, (though not necessarily physically), and that can be evaluated by specially trained researchers.
We don't call on seismologists to evaluate claims by cardiologists, or entomologists to validate mathematical theorems. Each branch of study requires different specialized training, performs its own experiments, and generates its own data that is then interpreted by its own specialists. Given all that, spirituality can and must be able to stand up to scientific authority by announcing its own means and modes, data and evidence, validities and verifications. It can and already is being done as it has since ancient times, by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts or men who have already developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organizations to the utmost degree. In ancient times, no vision of any one adept was accepted until it was checked and confirmed by the visions of his peers or other adepts, so obtained as to stand as independent evidence of the other adepts, and by centuries of accumulated experiences.
The practice of grounding our assertions on experience and evidence is, in all actuality the enduring strength of science itself, so why not investigate spiritual dimensions scientifically as well? Empirical evidence, in the strictest sense, is that which is derived from experiment and observation rather than theory. Moving from the intensely important idea that all knowledge must be ultimately grounded in evidence and experience, many modern scientists reduce this vital insight to the absurd notion that all "real" knowledge must be limited to objective, materialistic, sensory experience. But true empiricism is not limitable to material nature. If empirical science rejects the validity of any and all forms of interior apprehension and knowledge, then it rejects its own validity as well, a great deal of which rests on interior structures and apprehensions that are not delivered by the senses or confirmable by the senses (such as logic and mathematics, to name only two). Science has effectively disregarded its own principles and acted "metaphysically" in denying that universally acknowledged and experienced spiritual or divine states have no reality without performing scientifically valid experiments.
I believe this is partly the reason that large numbers of people are losing their connection to Deity. Even within their own churches and Religious belief systems its popularity seems to be shrinking. I believe this is because science and its popularity and empiricism lead modern followers to rely too much on intellectual tools when neither sensory empiricism, nor pure reason, nor practical reason, nor any combination thereof can see into the realm of the True Spirit. I don’t mean that we should have simple “blind faith”. The intellect can point toward the spiritual, and true spiritual experiences are entirely possible and obtainable. They alone are the final evidence for its own validity and reality, just as mental experiences present evidence for the existence of the intellect. My point is that both science and Religion must address timeless spiritual concepts in a manner that acknowledges and adopts scientific methods, but eschews materialism and reductionism. In Expanding Horizons James Long made a similar point: "when the followers of any faith keep on blindingly clinging to their particular view of truth, after a while it loses its vitality; it loses its living inspiration and therefore its helpfulness. The most important thing in my opinion is not the attainment of truth, but the searching after and the reaching toward a greater and greater understanding of it”.
It has been my experience that the great and secret message of the mystics the world over and throughout all time has been that, with the eye of contemplation, Spirit can be internally seen and proven. With the eye of contemplation, G-d can be seen. With the eye of contemplation, aided by introspection, the greatness within us radiantly unfolds.
Throughout history wise and discriminating people of all lands have sought a Truth which is Universal and Eternal. Yet this has been the main quest not only of philosophers and mystics but of all of us in life's more profound moments. Deep inside ourselves we all long for an Absolute Truth through which we can transcend suffering and death and gain bliss and immortality. Many great thinkers, looking beyond the names and forms of the various religions and philosophies which have existed through history, have looked for tradition of knowledge which reflects the Universal Truth and allows people of every generation to connect with it.
We should recognize what is universal in the different teachings of the world and if we are to discard anything it should be that which is not universal, being careful however to strictly remember that the real unity is self-existent at the core of who we are. It cannot be fabricated or accomplished by removing the differences that exist at the surface. I have heard it explained that “The unity of the ocean exists at its depth, not at the level of the waves, which ever remain turbulent”.
There are others who want to create a universal tradition anew by discarding the Religions of the world, recognizing that all the Religions we possess have become limiting identities. Yet this would be like trying to create a new Science by discarding all that science has previously discovered. We must take what is universal in the teachings of the world, neither validating them at the level of their surface differences, nor discarding all that they have to offer. To do this we must recognize the tradition which has existed and the forms it has created.
I suggest that in order to reinvigorate in our lives the idea of the Great Chain, to reach equilibrium, balance, and Universal Truth, individuals must learn to use Science and its own processes to investigate and apprehend the inner as well as the outer domains common to human experience. We must also learn to be willing to apply our Religions in ways that look more toward Spiritual experience and less towards fundamentalism and its dogmas. This may be difficult for some in mainstream Religions, but I believe it to be no less important than the actual saving of civilization and the Brotherhood or Unity of man.
I believe that thru living and applying this method, the direct union or at least the identity of the individual and Spirit, a union of Science and Religion is possible. A union that is not to be thought of as a mental belief but lived as a direct experience, the very summum bonum of existence, the direct realization of which confers a great liberation, rebirth, or enlightenment on the soul fortunate enough to be immersed in that extraordinary union, a union that is the foundation ground, the goal, the source, and the salvation of the entire world.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Essay on The Architecture of American Freemasonry, by Bro. Justin Robinson
When our Founding Fathers, many of whom were prominent masons, started drafting this countrie's organizational structure, they used their current knowledge of how Freemasonry was structured, to give them an idea of where to go with this country. Before the revolution, this country was 13 colonies; each colony had its own masonry, many with their own Grand Lodge established. Our founding fathers looked at this and figured if it can work for our masonry, it can work for our country.
As our country grew, this same mentality continued to be applied to both freemasonry and the states. Each state had the ability to determine its own laws, its own regulations, and its own rules of settlement, as long as it applied to the government's basic outlining of how a state should operate. Each Grand Lodge that was established also was given the right to govern its own jurisdiction by its own bylaws, rules, and regulations, as long as it adhered to the landmarks which its brother Grand Lodges adhered to. This also gave rise to enhanced understanding of regularity and recognition. As each Grand Lodge must have been established through a regular vote of the majority of masons in the state, this kept the bonds between the states strong.
It wasn't until after the Civil War that the government took control of a large portion of the rights that states had and in essence the states lost that freedom which was intended to always been had, by our Founders. This of course had no effect on the Grand Lodge system of today, as the Grand Lodges continued to not have a governing body over them.
Thus, one can see that today's Grand Lodge system was and is the ideals of our Forefathers, the ones who went this way before us, and it works as well as any establishment can. No single Grand Lodge should have say over the operations of any other Grand Lodge; nor should they interfere with the operations of any other Grand Lodge, as it is not their place nor right to do so.
Our Founding Father's dream lives on today, not through our government, but through our Freemasonry.
Friday, February 29, 2008
TSS: Tarot 101 with Bro. Dave Mavity at www.TheSanctumSanctorum.com
This coming Sunday, March 2nd, TSS will be kicking off a Tarot 101 class in the Entered Apprentice restricted forum. The class will be proctored by Bro. Dave Mavity.
This class will be a basic introduction to Tarot, its symbolism, and correlations with the craft.
If you are an Entered Apprentice or higher and have not registered with the admins to gain access to the restricted forums, please do not wait!
TSS
www.TheSanctumSanctorum.com
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Hourglass, the Scythe and the Sprig of Acacia, by "The Hammer"
As always in life, the unexpected happened: instead of bringing a new brother to light we gathered to say goodbye to a brother, a Past Master who sat in the East for the first time at the age of 86 and passed to the Celestial Lodge at the age of 97. Cliff, in your passing you caused me to pause and reflect on our Craft.
Three of the most meaningful symbols in Freemasonry—the Hourglass, the Scythe, and the Sprig of Acacia—are often the least thought about, except at times of sorrow.
“The Hourglass is an emblem of human life. Behold how swiftly the sand runs and how rapidly our lives are drawing to a close! We cannot, without astonishment, behold the little particles in the device, how they pass almost imperceptibly, and yet, to our surprise, in the short span of an hour, they are all exhausted. Time wastes man. Today he puts forth tender leaves of hope. Tomorrow blossoms and bears his honors; the next day comes a frost which nips the shoot; and when he thinks his greatness is still aspiring, he falls like autumn leaves to enrich our mother earth.”
Our time on earth is short. We establish ourselves; we strive for success, and when we think we have everything where we want them, we fall like autumn leaves. Think of it! We enrich the earth by dying. When the Craft chooses, it can be brutally direct as it enlightens us with the honesty of its Logic.
“The Scythe is an emblem of time, which cuts the brittle thread of life and launches us into eternity.”
Our lives—our deaths, a difficult subject for us to confront, but as Freemasons, we are prepared for we know that we live our lives according to the tenets of the Craft, immortality
awaits us.
Deaths frees us towards that “clouded canopy or starry-bedecked Heaven where all good Masons hope at last to arrive” knowing that if we “have erected our spiritual building in accordance with the designs of the Supreme Architect of the Universe in that great Book of Revelation which is our Masonic trestle board,” if we have lived our lives as “true” men, a glorious immortality will be ours.
As we reflect upon the scythe we find the words very direct.
“Behold what havoc, the scythe of time makes upon the human race! If, by chance, we should escape the numerous ills incident to childhood and youth and with health and vigor attain years of manhood, yet, withal, we must soon be cut down by the all-devouring scythe of time and be gathered into the land where our fathers have gone before us.”
Reality presented in Masonic terms; words we do not enjoy hearing, but words we must reflect upon and understand if we are to complete our lives as Master Masons.
In the description of the hourglass, we fall like autumn leaves to enrich our mother earth from our graves. In the description of the scythe, we are gathered into the land into our graves. While it presents an uncomfortable reflection, the grave is a most important symbol in Freemasonry. Let’s pause for a moment and recall GMHA lying in his. Reflect upon the meaning paying special attention “to the lessons of integrity, fidelity and immortality” that are portrayed.
In the light of this, should we fear death? Absolutely not, for we know the earth is a comforting place, if we have lived our lives according to the teachings of the Craft.
“There is nothing more zealous than clay, our mother earth, for it alone of all the elements has never proved unfriendly to man and when at last we are called upon to pass through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, she once more receives us, and tenderly enfolds our remains within her bosom, thus admonishing us that, as from the earth we came, so to the earth we must surely return.”
Our mother earth has never proved unfriendly to man. She tenderly enfolds our remains within her bosom. These words are there to comfort, not scare us.
The hourglass admonishes us to make the most of our lives, not to waste a tiny particle or minute, the scythe is the symbol for the end of life, but it is the Sprig of Acacia that is the most important symbol in all Freemasonry because it is the symbol for what awaits us at the end of the successful life’s journey—immortality. The sprig of acacia reminds each of us that we have a soul which lives beyond the grave, but only if we conduct ourselves as “true” men.
The sprig of acacia is the reminder of those things we must accomplish as Masons to achieve eternal life.
“These emblems of the operative Mason’s art indicate the labors he is to perform, the dangers he is to encounter, and the preparations he is to make in the up rearing of that spiritual fabric wherein his soul shall find rest forever and forevermore.”
Everywhere we look in the Standard Work, we come upon those tenets, emblems and symbols we must fully reflect upon and understand if we are to achieve immortality.
The Logic of Freemasonry is obvious. If we perform all the duties set forth in our degrees to God, our neighbor and ourselves, if we make the most of the best in ourselves, if we divest our hearts and consciences of all the vices and superfluities of life, we will then fit our minds “as living stones, for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.”
That’s it my brothers...the perfect definition of immortality— “that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” And immortality and what we must do to achieve it is one of the basic tenets of Freemasonry. Never, ever forget: “the true man is the human image of the Mason’s God” and the Mason’s God is immortal and so are you if you become the “true” man.
Monday, February 11, 2008
TSS: www.TheSanctumSanctorum.com
What is www.TheSanctumSanctorum.com (TSS)?
TSS is a resource for Masonic education and networking established by Freemasons to educate the Craft and the general public on what Freemasonry is all about.
It is designed to put into electronic practice the three principal tenets of Freemasonry--Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth.
It is a window into which the world of Freemasonry may look and see the true reflection of Freemasonry around the world.
Why is there a need for www.TheSanctumSanctorum.com?
The internet is rife with inaccurate information about Freemasonry.
TSS was created as a public forum where people with a genuine interest in the ancient Craft may come to ask sincere questions and get replies from experienced Freemasons.
TSS is an online masonic community, where Freemasons from around the globe can learn from each other.
I am a member of Co-masonry. May I join the forum?
TSS has a policy prohibiting anyone claiming to be a Freemason who is not a member of a Grand Lodge or Orient that is not recognised by at least one regular Grand Lodge, as defined by the various regular Grand Lodges of North America.
Is this just “another” forum about masonry? What is different about www.TheSanctumSanctorum.com?
TSS is firmly committed to providing quality educational discourse about Freemasonry on the web.
Some of the very best minds in Freemasonry have gathered at TSS to assist the developing Freemason get the most out of his Craft, and to assist the public to understand Freemasonry.
At TSS we are constantly developing projects and programs to meet our goal of providing quality interactive and educational experiences about Freemasonry.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Form Your Own Blue Lodge, by WB William A. Isabelle
Brethren, there seems to be a number of very intelligent brothers who, by their contributions, seem to be saying a lot of the same things.
"How can I improve the Craft in my area?"
"How can I give back to the Craft, what it has given to me?"
"How can I enact positive and progressive changes in the Craft?"
"How can I create a Masonic environment, that will attract new Masons?"
"Where do I go to find Masons my age, who share my perspectives and my interests?"
These kinds of questions seem to be coming up more and more frequently in discussions amongst brothers everywhere, and there is no easy answer.
However, there does exist an opportunity to perhaps explore these kinds of questions in a new light.
If you know other Masons like yourself, who are as motivated as you are, who are seeking more light in Masonry, and are dedicated and dependable brothers, then I have a suggestion for you...
Form a new Blue Lodge in your jurisdiction.
Create your own Lodge. Build a Masonic Temple around the shared interests and pursuits that you and brothers like you, share and enjoy as Masons and as friends.
Most of us have never even considered the prospect of forming our own Blue Lodge, but I am here to tell you brothers, that it is not really that difficult a task to accomplish.
Where do you think all the Lodges in your area came from in the first place? Brothers just like you, thats where.
If you feel like you're "banging your head against the wall" in your Lodge and there doesn't seem to be an opportunity for you to make a contribution of your own unique talents and abilities to the established practices and Landmarks of your Lodge, then start your own.
Every Grand Jurisdiction has it's own individual requirements for forming new Lodges, but there are a few things that are necessary which are the same everywhere, and here is a shopping list:
1) A like-minded group of twenty or so Master Masons
2) A progressive Grand Lodge, willing to support growth and change in their own backyard.
3) A "Petition for Dispensation" available from the respective Grand Lodge administration office.
4) Money. Starting your own Lodge requires resources and money, you will have expenses, foreseeable and unforeseen.
5) Brothers who are proficient and can confer the 3 Degrees of Masonry.
6) Brothers who can chair the elected and appointed offices of the Lodge.
7) An appropriate place to meet as a Masonic Lodge.
8) Lodge furniture and regalia, most of which can be collected as donations of surplus items from supportive and established Lodges in your area.
9) A meeting schedule that all of the members of your effort can abide by and commit to.
10) The gumption and dedication to see your project through to conclusion and constitution of your very own Blue Lodge.
There you have it, brothers. For those of you who feel like you are being held back in your current Lodge, and would like to do more than the average bear to strengthen and improve Freemasonry in your neighborhood, round up the brothers who you already know feel as you do and start your own Blue Lodge.
You will never regret it, because it is easier to build a new Lodge from the ground up, than it is to try and fix an old broken Lodge that doesn't want to help itself.
Freemasonry is an individual journey, brethren. Don't ever stop looking for new and undiscovered roads to take in your travels.
Friday, February 8, 2008
What Young Freemasons Want, by WB William A. Isabelle
Why do young men go out of their way to become Freemasons in the first place?
Why did you become a Freemason?
A generation or so ago, there was something called “anti-establishmentarianism”. As an attitude, this notion changed the world we live in today.
Today, we have “political-correctness”: no one is a winner or a loser; everyone is now a participant with no set standard to follow, or to be held to.
Parents no longer discipline their children; “they talk about their issues”; children no longer fear consequences because they don’t have any.
Men no longer have a definable role in society.
The term “man’s work” is sexist and discriminatory; Using such phraseology is considered to be harassment.
Most of Generation X came from broken homes, from parents who got divorced because they could, unlike many of our grandparents who really believed it was “’till death do us part”.
Most young men of today who are becoming the young Freemasons of today, do so because they perceive our fraternity as a bastion, an island of social constants where your word is your bond and the prerequisite is that you must be a man, good and true.
Most young Freemasons today are starved for adequate role-models because the society of today seeks to produce an androgynous homogeny, where the consideration of one’s Manhood is a misnomer, because today we seek to achieve “Actualized Persondom”.
What most young Freemasons want is a place where they can go and be around MEN. Men who have contributed in their way to the greatness and growth of the modern world. Men who have wisdom, and are not Dr. Phil.
What young Freemasons want is to make their mark on the world, because we believe it is our right and our responsibility to do so.
What young Freemasons want is to be a part of something greater than ourselves, something that will last longer than the popularity of the latest and greatest video gaming console.
What young Freemasons want is to be good Freemasons; the problem is that we don't have enough good examples to follow, because for most of us, we’re a generation too late.
I'm a young Freemason, and I want to leave the world, my Craft and Fraternity better than I found it.
Thank you.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
TSS: Interactive Alchemy 101 with WB Timothy W. Hogan
Available only in the restricted Master Mason forum.
Date and time the course begins will be announced this weekend on TSS.
Bro. Hogan has written The Alchemical Keys to Masonic Ritual, and Revelation of the Holy Grail.
www.TheSanctumSanctorum.com
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Order not Chaos, by "The Hammer"
The following is a presentation I give to newly passed Fellowcrafts, explaining what we as Freemasons expect of them as Masons and as members of society.
The Second Degree Charge gives a blueprint for how a well-ordered human family can function effectively. The passage I am talking about begins “In the providence of God, with the breath of life, each of us became a member of the human family.” The most significant aspect of this sentence is that it begins with the words “in the providence of God.” Everything in life happens “in the providence of God;” everything in Freemasonry happens “in the providence of God.” This is order. This is a wise and serious truth.
What is it that happens in the providence of God? With the breath of life, we go from being one, to being one of many. Further, we understand that as we grow we face the needs and responsibilities of life and if as adults, we are fortunate enough to join the Masonic Fraternity, then as Fellowcrafts we understand that we face a duty to our neighbor. In these few words we are reminded that as Masons, we have a duty to that human family we joined when we took our first breath of life. What is the nature of this duty? “God never brought us into being to live in the narrow groove of a selfish individualism, but as brethren, one of another, in mutual dependence and support.” The nature of this duty is that we are to live as brethren, as a Masonic Fraternity, in mutual dependence and support, not “in the groove of a selfish individualism.” The “groove of a selfish individualism” is the place where those live who have not seen the Light. Brothers mutually depend upon each other. Brothers mutually support each other. Reflect. This is order. This is a wise and serious truth.
Is there more order for the human family? “No household can fashion the home where dissension and selfishness knell the death of unity and peace.” The foundation of the human family is the home, not the household, the home. What is the difference? The home is a place where dissension and selfishness have been banned forever. Dissension and selfishness live in the household; unity and peace live in the home. Masons live in homes because we live in mutual dependence and support, others live in households. This is order. This is a wise and serious truth.
Is there a further order for the human family? “No community can protect character where petty strife is born of mischievous tongues.” Why must character be protected? We understand this answer too. “Your manhood does not depend upon your position, but upon your character. The establishment as well as the acknowledgement of true manhood is in your own hands. Do not have two characters; one for your fellows and another for privacy. Be a true man in your own home as well as out in life.” Here is reference to that most profound of all Masonic concepts - the true man. To Masons, the texture of our characters is absolute. It is protected in a community - a community composed of homes whose inhabitants are true men, living in mutual dependence and support, as brothers. This is order. This is a wise and serious truth.
True men live in homes, communities and cities. “No city can become a place of prosperous growth whose citizens care little and do less for its advancement.” True men live in homes, communities, cities and states. “No State can derive the benefit of its own resources whose people obey but the one law of individual inclination and greed.” True men are the real resources of the State and true men could never obey but the one law of individual inclination and greed. Finally, true men are ordered by a government. “No government can stand firm whose adherents are blind to the unalterable law, in union is strength, in harmony is peace.” True men understand the importance of this order. True men live as brethren in mutual dependence and support. This is a wise and serious truth.
On the surface in this passage our Founders suggest an order for the human family as it could work today. There is the individual, the home, the community, the city, the state and finally the government. Masonically, each entity should be inhabited by true men living in mutual dependence and support - the more true men the better the human family; the more successful the established order.
However, just below the surface I believe that what we have is another brilliant example of Masonic double meaning. This passage not only presents a blueprint for order in the human family, but it presents a blueprint for order in the Masonic Family as well. Reflect! “No household can become a home where dissention and selfishness knell the death of unity and peace.” It is no stretch to say that no group of men can become a successful Masonic Lodge where dissention and selfishness knell the death of unity and peace. Be a true man in your own home and your Masonic Lodge where we all should live as brethren in mutual dependence and support.
To carry this further: no Masonic Lodge can protect character, in other words, function as ordered by our tenets, where petty strife is born of mischievous tongues. No Masonic Lodge can become a place of prosperous growth where brothers care little and do less for its advancement. No Masonic Lodge can derive the benefit of its own resources, its true men, when its brothers obey but the one law of individual inclination and greed. No Masonic Lodge can stand firm whose brothers are blind to the unalterable law in union is strength, in harmony is peace. No Masonic Lodge can function properly where men do not exhibit mutual dependence and support; where brothers do not show each other the full respect implicit in these words. Your Masonic Lodge is a home. This is a most wise and serious truth.
It makes no difference whether we are talking about citizens, people, adherents, or brothers. To make the human family work, to make our Lodges work, we must adhere to the few basic principles of order stated so eloquently in the Second Degree Charge. We must banish dissention, selfishness and petty strife born of mischievous tongues to achieve unity and peace. We must care and do everything in our power to advance the cause of Freemasonry. We must banish individual inclination and greed and live as true men understanding that in union there is strength, in harmony there is peace and in brotherhood there is mutual dependence and support.
Why? Because as Masons, we are told that although we are but one man among many, we cannot escape or shirk our share in this great responsibility. No matter what we may think; no matter how insignificant we may feel, ours is the responsibility of helping maintain order in the human family of which the Masonic family is an integral part. So my brothers, there are really two responsibilities implied in the admonition “you cannot escape or shirk your share in this great responsibility;” one as a member of the human family, and the other as a member of the Masonic family. No matter what you do, you should not escape or shirk either. You might have been able to as just another member of the human family, but as a member of the Masonic human family, as a true man, never.
In the Providence of God, our great responsibility is to our neighbor who lives in a home, a community, a city, a state, and who is ordered by a government. In the Providence of God, our great responsibility is to our Masonic Family which is ordered by the tenets of the Craft. Both responsibilities are fulfilled as the true man strives to order his existence by living in His Providence, mutually dependent upon and supportive of his brethren, never forgetting that he is the human image of the Mason's God and that this is THE most wise and serious truth of all.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Thoughts From a Young Mason, by G. Cliff Porter, 32°
I do not mean this to be a commentary on the division of young and old, but rather to be a proclamation of a young Mason concerning what I believe we want. This is so we might all improve our understanding of one another and progress our fraternity.
It occurred to me that some may not know what young Masons really want. Worse, I think it is often misunderstood or misstated. We “young Masons” or new Masons bear some of the responsibility for this. We are often uncomfortable declaring our desires, our disappointments, and our frustrations. And what do we do? We quietly stop appearing at meetings and simply slip off the rolls. We return to our communities outside the lodge disheartened with Masonry, and—unfortunately for the fraternity—we will often share our disappointments with our friends. Sadly, we then join a group of Masons as diverse as the lodge itself: unfulfilled Masons.
Well, Brethren, I don’t intend to become an unfulfilled Mason. So here I stand. It is vital for the members of the Craft to understand one another so that we can create an environment that is beneficial for all.
Initially, we must discuss Blue Lodge, the birth place of the Master Mason, for without it, Scottish Rite Masonry does not exist. The young man approaching the Craft today does so to supplement and add to what his church and family have already given him. A certain tugging at his soul speaks to him to seek a deeper meaning in life, in family, and in God. He researches and desires an initiation into the esoteric and ancient quest for Truth. He requests a petition with these hopes in mind. Why shouldn’t he? The eloquent writings of Masonic scholars, including the Scottish Rite’s Albert Pike, have hinted at the existence of such knowledge, and Masonic writings abound with hints of this very thing.
What does this man find once he joins? For too many, it’s membership drives, one-day classes, poor and hastily planned ritual, late nights, and a push to become an officer before he is even proficient as a Master Mason. If that man has made it through the three degrees hoping that at the end of his journey some of the promises might be fulfilled, he only learns phrases like “progressive science” and “self-improvement.”
Excitedly, he stands up in lodge one day or approaches a small group of brethren in the parking lot and explains some ideas that he has for lodge and changes he might like to see. He is immediately told, “It has never been done that way, they won’t allow it, and anyway it’s against the rules.”
He swiftly learns that they won’t allow much of anything, and worse, no one will claim to be a member of them. They are the most elusive, but most powerful members of Masonry. They are responsible for every poor, hasty, or frustrating decision ever made, and more importantly, they rigidly enforce their number one rule: NO CHANGES.
I bring up them as it leads into discussing what they have decided the young Mason or unfulfilled Mason is looking for. I will attempt to list some of the most common things I’ve heard. Make no mistake, I am listing these because they are misconceptions, and we do not want them.
X 1. Young Masons want everything easier and faster, which leads to one-day raisings, watered down ritual, and little or no memory work.
This simply is not true. Once I arrive at the West Gate and am permitted entry, I want a fulfilling and life-changing experience on which I can build a better understanding of my relationship to my brethren and my God. I don’t mind hard work. To the contrary, and this is a big one, I want to feel like I have achieved something. I don’t want to be handed a pin, given a handshake, and told thank you for your small fee, and by the way, here is your membership card. I want my path to be challenging and enlightening.
X 2. Young Masons want or need low dues.
I am very willing to pay higher dues. I do, however, want a quality experience—educational, social, and community—for my money. I don’t need low dues. If the fraternity does not value itself, why should I value it? Can something that comes so cheaply have real value? These are questions I asked myself when I saw Masonry’s low dues schedules.
X 3. Young Masons want it to be easy to get in.
I don’t want to believe that just any man could or should get in. I wish that every investigations committee treated their assignment with the importance it should have—if we did not worship at the altar of bigness. I already belong to the community at large, and that costs me nothing in time or money. I would like the Fraternity to be guarded and to care greatly about the men who enter it. If I am going to call a man my brother, I want to be able to trust him. I don’t trust everybody who shows up with some money in one hand, and a petition in the other. I have seen brothers sign both lines of a petition, as if increasing our numbers is the only thing that counts. Let us care about our fraternity enough to guard it against those who do not deserve the title of Master Mason and brother.
These observations would prove of little value, if I did not offer some solutions and provide an explanation of how they might be applied to the Scottish Rite.
It begins with ensuring a quality Blue Lodge experience. We as Master Masons should return Masonry from a primarily social institution to one that studies ancient symbolism and the truths so revealed. Encourage and allow the candidate to have a meaningful experience in the initiatic phase of his degree work. Follow up with quality education and instruction in regards to the symbolism and, more importantly, how to apply it to his life.
The concepts I provide above are succinct, but no less complete. Let us address how they might apply directly to Scottish Rite Masonry and tie it all together.
Scottish Rite Freemasonry is the graduate faculty, the pinnacle of Masonic thought and study, the “University of Masonry.” This implies a higher learning and higher level of understanding, research, and study for its members.
Outside of reunions, I cannot remember any Masonic instruction on the Scottish Rite degrees ever being presented—even once—in the years of my involvement. The cure is simple really: treat Scottish Rite Masonry as the university it purports to be.
Do not thrust an application at men the night they are raised Master Masons as if the only thing of importance is a signature and $250. It debases the man’s night, for one, and it says that the man—without further evaluation—is ready for the degrees of the Scottish Rite, which debases our membership.
Do not rush through a reunion like it must be done in three hurried days or it doesn’t count. Many of us “Young Masons” work 50 or 60 hours a week and earn about a week of vacation a year. Our wives don’t want us to burn two of those precious days on another Masonic event. No candidate can take in what the degrees have to offer in three days. To pretend they can says that all Scottish Rite has to offer can be learned in 72 hours. Let’s back off the tight three-day schedules. Offer the degrees throughout the year. Offer some degrees at the stated communications and have a few Saturdays thrown in.
And if it takes a man a couple of years to reach the 32nd Degree, so what? If the man understands what has been presented, if the degrees were done with brothers that knew and understood the work, and if each degree was treated as a special event, then the brother is not going to mind the time. Remember, it is not the speed of the education, but the quality of it that young and unfulfilled Masons are interested in.
Bring education and discussion to the forefront of the meetings.
Period.
You are not going to retain young Masons without real change. It is not about a gimmick or a slogan. It is about improving men within the fraternity who seek a higher understanding and deeper meaning of the Craft.
Let the Scottish Rite take its rightful place as the University of Masonry. Let’s improve our men and make them better. Let every aspect of Scottish Rite Masonry radiate perfection in ritual and education.
It is not going to be easy because we are asking you to imagine a Masonry many have never seen in their lifetime. I am asking you to see beyond your own personal experiences and allow progress in this beautiful philosophy and science of ours.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
The Initiatic Experience, by W.B. Robert Herd
I’ll begin with a simple definition of “initiation” from the Columbia Encyclopedia as it would relate to our subject:
Coming from the Latin, initiation implies a beginning. The related verb initiates means to begin or start a particular action, event, circumstance, or happening.
The initiatic process is often compared to a simultaneous death and rebirth, because as well as being a beginning, it also implies an ending of existence as one level drops away leading to ascension of the next.
From time immemorial, initiations have been performed by many--maybe even most--cultures, races, religions and philosophical orders. The purpose may be as simple as initiating a boy into manhood, or as complex as initiating priests into priesthood. Mankind has carried out this practice throughout all of time to assist in answering those eternal questions.
Where does it all come from, this quest, this need to solve life’s mysteries, where the simplest of questions can never be answered? Why are we here? What is the soul?Many different initiatic orders have been formed to assist in the quest to search for more light. They are too numerous to name all; however, I would like to list a few that are of great importance in understanding the origins of Freemasonry and its philosophies toward the initiatic process. It is not possible or practical for me to elaborate on them to any depth in this paper, but hopefully this will challenge the reader to take it upon themselves to further their knowledge by studying these concepts in depth, and finding their own ties to our fraternity.
Egyptian Priesthoods: There were many different orders of priesthoods in ancient Egypt, teaching practical sciences as well as religious, spiritual and philosophical ones.
Hermeticism: Hermeticism is a magical and religious movement stemming from the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. It consists of some of the most ancient and most widely adopted philosophies.
Alchemy: Alchemy is a system of esoterica, initiation, and spiritual development. It is one of the few initiatic systems that put equal emphasis on the outer, physical work of the world as well as the inner, spiritual work of the soul.
Rosicrucianism: The Rosicrucian Order, devoted to the study of ancient mystical, philosophical, and religious doctrines, was concerned with the application of these doctrines to modern life.
Pythagoreanism: This order held that reality, at its deepest level, is mathematical; that philosophy can be used for spiritual purification; that the soul can rise to union with the divine; and that certain symbols have mystical significance.
Gnosticism: The doctrines of certain pre-Christian, Jewish, and early Christian sects that valued the revealed knowledge of God and of the origin and end of the human race as a means of attaining spiritual redemption.
These are but a few examples of other initiatic orders with ties to Freemasonry via a system of initiatic processes and a passing down and mixing of philosophies. This brings us to the very important question…
What is or what should be the Initiatic Experience in the context of Freemasonry?
I emphasize that the following are my personal opinions and beliefs. I firmly believe that no one man can speak for all of Freemasonry. I offer this to you as the product of only my own thoughts and study and will keep this general so as not to violate the basic principals of my obligations or expose any of our work to anyone who may not be a Freemason.
The brethren conducting the initiation, who are in possession of a certain knowledge and state of being in respect to each of the degrees, transfer this knowledge or state to the candidate being initiated.The energy of this transmission, it is important to note, is as important as the knowledge itself.
Think of it in terms of how solemn our degrees are to the initiate when they are done by brethren who truly know and understand the work, and are not just transmitting words, but feelings or “energy” to the candidate as well. This is a portion of the initiatic energy I’m speaking of. The transfer of this “energy”, via the initiatic experience, is intended to cause a fundamental process of change within the candidate, be that physical, mental, spiritual or a combination thereof.
Modern Freemasonry deals with this tripartite nature of man (physical, mental, spiritual) in that order by means of the three degrees.
We first teach the initiate about the physical portions of his environment in the lodge and of the necessary control of his physical outward actions in the first degree. Then we touch on the mental state and encourage him to study and improve his mind and further his knowledge by educating him with a base knowledge of the sciences to gain intellect in the second degree. Lastly, in the third degree, we expound on the spiritual side of man and convey to the candidate those contemplations of the eternal cycle of man’s spirit.
Birth, life, death, rebirth.
Recognizing the tripartite nature of man is essential to understanding what I will call the Mystery, because the Mystery is that which cannot be distinguished by the physical being through the senses, or by the mental being through the intellect, but rather is perceived directly by the spirit…that element of man’s being that is one with what some call the Grand Architect of the Universe, Universal Truth or simply stated our unconscious connection to the Divine. My definition of Mystery rests upon the premise that there is a reality beyond the material plane.
Freemasonry consists of many men with many diverse beliefs, but with one common understanding and belief in a greater Creator.
However, it would be unreasonable to expect a reader who does not view himself as sharing that belief in a non-physical reality to accept this premise without question.
Instead, I ask any reader not a brother to consider what this message refers to as the “spiritual” or “non-material” existence, as that which he himself believes is incomprehensible to the senses, but nevertheless a reality that transcends his mere self.
To one man, this may be a Deity; to another, the vital essence that animates all living creatures; and to yet another, this may be a simple mysterious force of electricity, which is present throughout the universe.
My belief is that it is a form of connection between us and Deity.
Yet, how do we explain what is not physical, or mental; how do we explain, much less communicate to an initiate this concept? For this I will ask you to remember back to the “energy” I wrote of earlier--energy that we as Initiators are trying to convey or transfer to the candidate in our Initiatic Order, carrying out our goal of providing a complete Initiatic Experience for the candidate.
Any number of experiences may cause man to consider the existence of an unseen reality. It may be that he is suddenly controlled by the mysterious and powerful emotion of Love; he may be moved by an overwhelming spirit of Brotherhood; he may feel the penetrating presence of the All Seeing Eye while searching his soul in a chamber of reflection; or perhaps he feels his spirit affected by an inspiring work of music. Whatever the circumstance, such exalted experiences result in an awakening of consciousness. This is the goal of the Initiatic Experience within Freemasonry, my brethren, this awakening of an individual to his connection to the spiritual plane. The individual is no longer blissfully ignorant of a non-material existence and begins to thirst for direct communion with the spiritual reality that he senses. In essence, a part of him has stopped existing, and a new part has started a journey, fulfilling the basic definition of initiation given previously.
To quench his desire to explore this higher consciousness, he may now delve into music, poetry, philosophy, and other intangible arts that inspire this feeling beyond the limitations of the body and the mind.
The Greek figure Orpheus, a poet and musician, represented this idea that the transcendent Mystery can be expressed through the arts.
Since ancient times, art and music have been the two primary means through which man achieved this Mysterious illumination. The second degree, I believe, is what best lays this out for the initiate. He has been through his first initiation and learned to control his vices, the better to open his mind to the teachings of the liberal arts and sciences, music of course being one of them that I will use as an example.
Entrapped in his “tomb of flesh,” man still struggles to express himself through this spiritual language, and he attempts to communicate it to others. Inspired by music, he sings or plays with such passion that he may awaken his own spirit and the spirit of others to a form of recognition of the Mystery. Thus, music and the other arts and sciences, as modes of human expression, are not merely incidental to human civilization, but are intrinsic and essential to it. Plato taught that through music, a definite purification takes place within the soul, and man’s regeneration is thereby advanced.
Love and Brotherhood are other examples of this intangible force.
When the Initiate is awakened to the mysterious power of these “energies”, the whole ethical and moral tone of his life is advanced. Because he now understands that there is a universal Mystery of which he and every other human being is a part, he no longer perceives himself as an individual, but rather as an element of one great consciousness. He no longer identifies himself with the body or mind, which emphasizes his individuality, but instead with the spirit, which affirms his universality. With this heightened consciousness comes the understanding that “Fraternity” refers not only to Freemasonry, but to the brotherhood of Man. It is experienced in the informal social gatherings as well as felt in the lodge room. It is encountered in the degree work and taught in the lectures.
A powerful example of the Mystery of brotherhood and fraternity makes itself known through the grip, one of the secrets of the order. Our veins have tingled as the handshake of a stranger has become a brother's grip.
There is, in truth, mysticism in fraternity.
We cannot comprehend or explain it in entirety; it cannot be counted, weighed, or shown. We can only feel it in our spirit. These words impart the message that the Mystery is no less real than that which we perceive through the physical senses or through the intellect. It is a clear lesson on faith, and the acceptance as reality of that which one cannot see, leading us to that sublime degree which exemplifies the virtues and benefits of faith.
These are the energies I believe we seek to transfer during the Initiatic Experience of our candidates.
Without proper attention to details, study, practice and a solemn regard for the rituals, this transferal cannot be obtained or yet worse an opposite energy can be transferred. Think of the times in our lodges where uneducated brethren have given poor lectures or sloppy work. Not only were there not a strong positive energies communicated to that candidate, but likely a strong negative one. Instilling disinterest in him for the craft or for the work, a pity for the brother who gave the poor work, a distraction from what was to be communicated by him resulting in an incomplete presentation sending the candidate down a path possibly not desired. In using the analogy of music again, it’s as if a musician were playing him a beautifully written piece of music on a piano out of tune…the discord and disharmony felt by his spirit could be almost physically painful.
In closing let me say I am excited about the Enlightenment Club concept and its goal of bringing Freemasonry back to a plane of practicing and conferring knowledge regarding man’s spiritual transcendence. Practicing this new concept gives me the feeling of being initiated into a new order, in that we are in effect beginning a new path, a new quest. I know that through continued education and attention to conferring a complete, positive and sublime Initiatic Experience, we can transfer positive, inspiring energy and allow ourselves and our candidates that communion with the Divine by opening them up to the Mystery within them…which I believe has always truly been the purpose of the Initiatic Experience of Freemasonry.
