MasonicMinute.com

aedifico42| On Digging Deeper…

Posted at: 11:15 am

While many of our contemporaries - especially those of us who read a great deal and tend to take the Craft very seriously - encourage the ‘average’ Mason to get off his ass and learn more…we don’t do too good of a job guiding others.

Part of that, I believe, is the fact that there are too few Masons around the United States who have the kind of mentoring the need to guide them.  For example…who would know to look to Bullfinch or Graves (or, actually, both) to learn lessons about the first three York Rite (Blue Lodge) degrees? 

In Arizona, we are lucky to have an Education Academy that focuses on the esoteric, philosophic and historical aspects of the Craft.  We also have the usual ‘leadership development’ and ‘administrative/budgeting’ conferences…but nobody really joined our fraternity to learn how to be an effective listener with clean books….right?

At our Academy, we encourage learning and debate.  Since its inception a few years ago, there have been lectures on Gematria, debates about the Templar connection, new versions of current rituals and a whole host of other topics too numerous and interesting to name here.  In fact, some of the greatest Masonic learning occurs over a glass of the good stuff and a cigar, late in the evening…usually in an outdoor setting (Spring in Arizona is wonderful).

In fact, there are so many good mentors being developed in Arizona (and by mentor, I speak of a man well-enough versed in the Craft to guide another on the path to further light) that the future is very very bright.  The big problem that I have here is this…I do not want to spread this light over the internet.

Sure it’s selfish…but who cares?  This is my fraternity…and if you are not a part of it, why should I give you a clear look into the inner-workings of the knowledge and light we have to offer?  Besides, spoon-feeding information over the internet does not allow for the kind of personal contact and fellowship one can get from the one-on-one interactions that live teaching provides.

So, I put this out there as, I guess, an idea for others.  Get a couple of guys together from your local lodges and have a saturday afternoon of papers.  Have a nice meal afterwards, then sit around and talk about it all over drinks.  It is a perfect way to get to know your brothers, and to learn from each other.

This is the kind of digging deeper…at least a method that I know works…that we should continue to promote.  Yes, it does require preparation and planning…but there are no better memories built than those made with friends over a campfire…trading stories and information the old-fashioned way.

Dig deeper my brothers…

P.S.  I will continue to skip…like a rock over a pond…onto and into topics of esoteric interest and of philosophic nature as I have…but I think we ought to do more on a local level with the guys around us.  Don’t get me wrong, I like the cyber-Masonic community very much.  I just find myself more and more impressed with the Masons around me, and I hope that everyone out there in CyberMasonia will soon start feeling the same way.

MasonicMinute.com