MasonicMinute.com
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Posted at: 10:22 am Of the few things that we truly regard as secret, our forms of recognition carry particular significance to Masons around the world. We know what they are and what they mean, but are we using them correctly? When rising to address… or when entering or leaving… are we really expressing, with the solemnity that is so deserved, our DGs and Ss as we ought? Taking a cue from “The Modern Day Voltaire”, I submit that we are not practicing that which we preach. Let us imagine for a moment that a debate regarding an important Lodge issue is being held in your Lodge. Men on both sides have staked out their rhetorical territorry, and the tone is getting a little testy and heated. When rising to address the East, the Dg is the only thing that makes this debate any different than that held in any Union Hall or VFW Post. It is a physical reminder of our obligation, and is, mostly, ignored when things get hot. Now imagine a WM sitting in the East, but one who has given his Lodge this positive injunction…”During this debate, we will hear from all sides. But when rising to address the issue, each of you WILL take a deep breath, and perform the Dg and S with the type of solemnity you remember from your own degrees.” The man who stands…and slowly, meaningfully and solemnly performs that simple physical Dg…will be reminded about peace and harmony. He will be mindful of the lessons of the Compasses. He will have the time to think and reflect prior to speaking. He will be practicing his Craft, with that promotion of Peace and Harmony that we should all practice. Slow and methodical execution of the Dg and S is a small thing. But given our fast-paced world and the quickness with which we want to do everything, perhaps adding a bit of majesty to our most basic tools will allow us to mature as a Craft, and take us forward to a time when we truly do treat each other as brothers…regardless of our differing opinions… |
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December 29, 2007
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Posted at: 1:07 pm I just walked in the door from having a wonderful walk with my three year old daughter. The thick trees and leaves are a stark contrast to the wide-open spaces of our native Phoenix…but it was nice. Masons are men. Our American Culture has often onerous expectations of us that we can feel great pressure in meeting. At this time of year, there are many of us who only enjoy the moment for a moment…worrying about bills and jobs and so much more. We must be the king of the castle and the good-man to our wives. Our roles as father, friend, neighbor and brother can sometimes seem like too much. In short, the holiday sometimes highlights pressures that we try not to think about too much during the rest of the year. The Mason, however, has his 24 inch gauge. He is equipped to deal with these things. Our Craft gives us that safety-valve that we sometimes do not take advantage of. Brothers help one another…but only when we know that help is needed. The holiday is a time to make certain we ask each other, and ourselves, if we are doing well. If we need help…but more than just asking…we must listen and respond. Let this little holiday wish to you and yours be a word, not of advice, but of empathy. I feel the pressures you do my brother. I have the young family and the job and the family concerns and all that stuff…not the same as you…but close enough to understand. You and I are not alone. If you need me, I am here. If you just want to hear a familiar voice, call me. But more than all this…try to make that enjoyable moment last for more than just a moment today. Merry Christmas my brothers…Merry Christmas. |
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Posted at: 9:05 am [As a rule, MasonicMinute will not promote the constant blathering usually involved with self-serving travel journals. But since I have a Masonic office that corresponds directly to this trip, I will bend the rule…just this once.] The Library and the Museum located at the Offices of the Grand Lodge A. F. & A. M. of the Commonwealth of Virginia are wonderful places with amazing histories…and Marie, the curator of both, is the epitome of grace and hospitality. Nestled on the campus of the Virginia Masonic Home (a beautiful and scenic place) one can find the Library and Museum mentioned above. As we drove-up to the building, we had no idea what would be in store for us. Volumes and periodicals, preserved with love and attention (in spite of the inadequate funding…not a problem isolated to Virginia, but too common among libraries around the country) lined the shelves and walls of the Library. The Museum, also located on the second floor of the GL building is surrounded by portraits of the past Grand Masters, looking down on the history and herritage of the Masons of the Old Dominion. The Museum contains handpainted aprons dated from the late 1700’s, a handmade bed-set with over 20,000 pieces of inlaid wood, and a secretary’s desk of a form and style that rivals anything you might see on the ‘Antiques Roadshow’. None of this compares to the personal attention my guest and I received…and to be sure, we were even treated with a quick glance at the Grand Master’s suite…very nice. The next night, I was privileged to attend the Annual Communication of Norview Lodge #113 in Norfolk. After a great dinner, I was welcomed into the Lodge and witnessed an Election and Installation. Norview #113 was dealing with a great tragedy as their Senior Warden had passed-away in October. The Worshipful Master took the reigns for another year and appointed all the officers that his successor was going to appoint. He also dedicated himself to the same calendar and projects that his successor had planned for. His is a true Brotherly Love…I was happy to witness it. So the lesson for today is that Virginia really is for lovers…even if it is your recently-passed brother who happens to be the target of your love. |
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Posted at: 3:45 pm You may hear often either from a potential candidate or a man who is already a Mason and would like to expand his Masonic knowledge ask for suggestions as to what books they should read. AEdifico and I were at our lodge and a man who is pulling his 6 month introductory stint asked if there were any Masonic books that we would recommend. AEdifico said that he would not recommend any Masonic books right now, but will gladly lend him some titles once he was raised. This was to prevent the candidate from tainting his experience of the degrees, etc. I could see where AEdifico was coming from, but I thought that a cursory reading list of non-Masonic books would greatly benifit potential candidates as well as active members. So, here is my suggested reading list of non-Masonic books that I believe benifits a Mason in his capacity to think critically as well as his ability to appreciate literature (in no particular order) 1. The Greek Myths by Robert Graves or Bulfinch’s Mythlology 2. The Declaration of Independence and The U.S. Constitution 3. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri 4. Candide by Voltaire 5. Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman 6. The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer 7. The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell 8. Psychology and Alchemy by Carl Jung 9. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius 10. The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine 11. The Social Contract and Other Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau 12. Ramueau’s Nephew and D’Alembert’s Dream by Denis Diderot 13. Common Sense by Thomas Paine 14. The Complete Works of Josephus by Josephus 15. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli 16. Animal Farm by George Orwell 17. Republic by Plato 18. Poetics and Rhetoric by Aristotle 19. Paradise Lost by John Milton 20. Alchemy and Mysticism by Alenxander Roob These books cover a wide range of topics, but I feel that they have benifited my Masonic education in some way. I purposfully left out The Bible, Torah, Koran, Analects, etc because I wanted to focus more on books that didn’t have an entire religion as its product, but this list will get your brain working. I also kept the list at 20 because there would be no point to list my entire library. So please comment with other suggestions because I am always looking for a good book to read! |
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Posted at: 11:05 am Last night I saw another one of those ‘expose’ specials on the Discovery Channel. They did the same thing they always do, but this time there were allusions and some interestingly edited outtakes from what they claim was the ceremony in the Third Degree. I sent a text message to Emeraldi and told him to turn on his television. He was out being a young man and could not be bothered with such trivialities…good for him. I hope he got lucky. Anyway, there were a bunch of guys on this program talking about nothing more than usual. It got me to thinking about this one Enlish guy I saw on TV a few months back. In that interview, he was being asked about the secrets of the fraternity. He plainly said that there were none. I was a bit concerned that he was going to go-off and spill it all…but he suprised me with a simple yet profound statement. He said something like…the secrets are everywhere, handshakes and passwords printed for centuries. But then he said, I know them, and there’s nothing really secret about them…but I have taken an oath to never reveal them. So I won’t. His delivery, of course, was much better than I make it sound here on-screen, but you get the picture. He acknowledged, fearlessly, that there are ’secrets’ and that they have been readily available for anyone who wants to see them. But his HONOR would not allow him to confirm or deny which ones were accurate, or even if they existed. We spend so much time not discussing what we do (for fear of revealing some already public knowledge) that we forget WHY we are not revealing it. I always laugh when I hear some Mason say “It’s a secret” when responding to some question about an innocuous and perfectly publect aspect of our Craft. What he should be saying is something like, “Well, that’s not really secret, but I promised not to talk about it, and my word as a Mason is very important to me.” Wouldn’t an active engagement and a public display of our values serve a better and broader purpose than simple secrecy? If people around the nation and around the world started hearing this sentiment, “I could tell you, but I’d be breaking my word…and we don’t do that”, wouldn’t we be killing two proverbial birds with one simple stone? Knight of old spent much time and energy on public and sometimes gruesome displays of ‘honor’. We hold similar values (but modern sensitivities prevent us from lopping-off the heads of those with whom we disagree). So let’s just take advantage of the moment, and take an example from that guy in England. I can’t tell you, but not because it’s a secret…I can’t tell you because doing so would violate my honor. |
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Posted at: 3:06 pm By now, those of you who have read the blog below, and voted in the poll, are probably anxious to know what actually happened on that night not too long ago… To be fair, I encourage those of you who have not read the blog below to do so before going-on in this one. It’s just no fun if you get the rest of the story first…I believe Paul Harvey would agree. So there we were on that fateful night. Candidate ready, Lodge filling with brothers waiting to witness the greatest spectacle in Freemasonry…the Third Degree. But two members were not there. They play very important roles in the drama that is our ritual. Their absence could have been overcome, and the majority of you would have had your wish. But I decided against that. In my Lodge…so long as I am the Master…nobody gets a sub-standard degree. So I opened on the First Degree, giving a couple of the newer members the opportunity to see an opening and a closing. I gave a few words on what I believe Masonry ought to be, what it means to me, and what I think it ought to mean to my brothers. Then I opened the floor for discussion. No minutes, no correspondence, no bills. Just conversaiton in a tiled Lodge. And what a conversation it became! Brothers from old Past Masters to some of our most recently created Master Masons stood and shared their thoughts. They spoke, unscripted, from the heart about our Craft. They listened respectfully to each other, and got to know each other better - as Masons - in the perfect place for that to happen, in Lodge. Now, I know that many of you would have just gone along and done the degree anyway. In fact, by an overwhelming two-thirds of the poll respondents (as of this writing), you would have given that candidate a degree. Each of us makes choices, and each of us must live with those choices. I chose to suspend the conferring of the degree until I decided that the Lodge was ready to give it. My Lodge, my choice. And the candidate stood-up in that room and thanked me for not allowing him to have a sub-standard degree. THAT’s when I knew I had made the right decision. We are still in a rut my brothers. We still focus on numbers and ‘getting them through’ the degrees. This is not Masonry, this is a factory mentality that betrays the traditions of our Craft. I do not agree with the majority who responded to the poll, as it is my right (and not to mention, my blog). But I do not blame or belittle any of you for making the choice you made. It is, after all, your choice. What I am doing, however, is challenging each one of you to be introspective and learn from this little excercise. Why do it if you are not doing it exactly as you know you should? Who among us is in such a rush to confer degrees…and why the rush anyway? Who cares if the candidate is ready - or thinks he’s ready - to receive the degree…it’s not his choice!! In 1916, a man named, Frank C. Higgins wrote the following as a part of the intro to one of his books: “…American Masonry has been, little by little, so divested of all connection with the pursuit of the deeper Masonic significances, as to have become, on the side of progressive speculation, a pale shadow of the Old World Craft.” That quote embodies the spirit of what happened at our Lodge the other night. We recognized that we have to get back to doing it right, or not doing it at all. We are men, obligated by our word, committed to the practice of our Craft. When we surrender ourselves to today - doing things more easily or more quickly - we betray the trust that we took upon ourselves. I don’t regret for one second the decision I made to postpone the degree. I also don’t pretend that all my decisions are or will be the right ones. |
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Posted at: 6:05 pm I recently heard the tale of a Lodge Master who had a choice to make. It seemed that he had a Fellowcraft at his Lodge, on a night set-up for his raising to the Third Degree. Many brothers had arrived to participate, but two important members of the degree team were not able to be there. What did the Master do? On the one hand, he could have cancelled the degree. This would have resulted in doing something else with all those men who arrived dressed for the evening from other Lodges. And on the other hand, he could have given the candidate his degree, but substituted-in key players in the drama, resulting in an accomplished goal and one more Master Mason. So what did he do? Did he allow the degree or not? The answer, my brothers, is as individual as all the Worshipful Masters in all of the Lodges in all the World. The better question to ask is this…what would YOU have done? Would you have punted? Would you have given that man the degree that he and the other guests in the Lodge were expecting? What would you do? The answer that you give to this question reveals much about the Craft, but much more about YOU. So I am including a poll at the end of this blog, and I am looking for commentary. But please remember, if you were there on Tuesday night, when that Master had to make the decision, don’t tell what happened till others have had a chance to comment…we don’t want to spoil the surprise… (I’ll give the rest of the story in a later blog). n
Do YOU, the Master, put on the degree?
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Posted at: 11:00 am If there is one thing in this world I can’t stand is when some yokel sees a 25 second bit on CNN and hears a soundbite from someone afterwords and forms a very strong, vocal opinion regarding said 25 second story without knowing any of the facts. We ‘eMasons’ have that same probelm and I’ve seen it now for a few years. The happenings in Ohio, West Virginia, Georgia or anywhere else concerns nobody but those brothers in that jurisdiction. I have seen much commentary from men outside of these jurisdictions giving opinions that they know absolutely nothing about. I dealt with this last year when Arizona got famous when the GM signed an edict not allowing the AZ Masons to enter the Shrine Temple in Phoenix. All of a sudden everybody on the net thinks they know whats going on in AZ. Hell, there were brothers from CANADA denouncing this and that as if they knew the whole story when in fact the AZ Masons didn’t even know all the facts at the time. Same thing goes for the GL of California banning CA Masons from joining the Creeping Serpents. I am a Creeping Serpent from AZ and I have heard rumors about what the CA guys have been doing with it over there, but in no way does that give me a green light to start throwing insults this way or that. There were comments left by Masons that don’t even work and have never heard of the Creeping Serpents talking about “you guys make Masonry look bad!” and yadda yadda yadda. C’mon guys, if you don’t know the facts, ask questions or please be quiet until the issue becomes clear. Same thing with the shooting a few years ago in New York, the news agencies didn’t recognize that it wasn’t at a lodge funtion and just because guys use the same building as a Masonic lodge doesn’t mean they are meeting Masonically. Masons everywhere were snickering in knowing this fact muttering “stupid local news, they don’t know anything”. Well, brethren the same narrow mindedness bleeds into our circles as well and I think being in a fraternity so engrained with the search for truth we must remember that the truth isn’t always known right off the bat. So please, let Ohio, Georgia, West Virginia, Arizona and all other jurisdictions handle their own business, they are soveriegn after all. If certain issues have sparked your curiosity, do some research and contact a brother from that jurisdiction but don’t go onto Masonic messageboards and blogsites and start ranting about things that you do not fully comprehend yet. |
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Posted at: 11:48 pm I was waiting for this to become a topic… Recently, West Virginia, Ohio and Georgia have seen their share of controversy…in fact many of the flames are still being fanned. But the baseline questions are not really being asked. For example; “are we a democracy?” “do American ‘rights’ apply to Masons…arguably the makers of this Nation?” “do Masons deserve Due Process from the Craft?” I’ll answer all three right here: no, no and no. We are the founders of the Nation that believes that the “Rule of Law” is something like its own God. It is the Secular Religion of the United States…where no Man is above the Law, and no single Man should be able to transgress that Law without being held accountable. (I will leave-out any present political discussions because ‘regular’ politics is, frankly, boring when seen in comparison to Masonry.) But We, as Masons, are not committed to, nor are we sworn to uphold the Rule of Law. We are sworn to uphold a system that pre-dates American Democracy and the Constitution which grew out of the deliberations of great men at the birth of our Nation. Our rules have not changed much since the time of the formation of UGLE, and we are in no position at this point in time to claim that the rights we expect as citizens should apply to us as Masons. Masonry has its own rules, and those rules are very old. ANY rights that are granted to Masons in ANY jurisdiction are granted as a matter of Grace from the Grand Lodge or the Grand Master. Manipulation of the process by ‘gaveling down’ a dissenter or by ‘tabeling’ discussion on certain points is perfectly acceptable and is not un-Masonic. We may not like it, but that’s the way it is! Our Craft (this, of course, depends on the jurisdiction you belong to…but the general ideas apply everywhere) is more like a Knightly Order than a government. We are all expected to observe certain moral and ethical boundaries, but when we run afoul of the man in charge, he snaps us on the wrist. Nothing wrong with that! Look. The bottom line is this…we are a men’s club. Yes it’s anathema for a guy like me to say this, but in the right context, it’s true. We’re nothing more than a well-dressed (in most cases) gang that has a swell club-house and more secret passwords than anybody else. Feelings will get hurt and people will get pissed-off. That’s life. Deal with it. My solution is this…grow-up. Too many of us take the silly things in life too seriously. For example…some of my brothers are concerned that raising dues will drive-away members. Big deal! If not raising dues means you can’t run your building…it’s a no-brainer! Get over it! As for the question of Due Process, forget about it. The penalty for being a bad Mason is that you now have to hang-out with the VFW guys instead. ouch. But more importantly…tough toasties! Brotherhood is a two way street. If you can’t get along with your brothers to the point where they actually take the time to charge you with an offense and threaten to try you…quit! Masonry does not need more members! Let me say that again for those of you who just went blank and need somebody to slap the back of your head: MASONRY DOES NOT NEED MORE MEMBERS!!! Masonry needs better members who are willing to pay and play. Pay, by giving their time and energy and resources to the Lodge and the Craft…and Play, by teaching others and being the lifelong learners that Masons should be. Don’t come to me with your Due Process and gripes about our little monarchist authoritarianism. If you don’t like our rules, take your ball and go home. Freemasonry is and ought to be an exclusive men’s organization where we get to do what we want…not what YOU think we ought to do. If you can’t get along, go away. This is not a place for those who want to do their own thing or be their own person…that’s what Rotary International and the Toastmasters are for. We are a pseudo-religious cult which selects members based on our own biases and preferences. Without apology. Get over it. And you don’t get no stinkin’ Due Process! |
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Posted at: 11:15 pm It seems that Arizona is not the only place in the United States where the boundaries of right as between the Grand Lodge and her subordinates is being tested. I direct you to the burning taper here: http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2007/11/halcyon-lodge-letter-to-former-halcyon.html for more information. But alas, the problem is not with the choices that men make…I see the problem with the way they make their choices. I don’t know a thing about what is happening in Ohio…and frankly it doesn’t interest me anyway. I write tonight on the uproar, not the subject thereof. In reading the entries on the blog cited above, I could not help read some of the nastiness and grumpiness that overflowed into my eyes from the screen. How un-Masonic to make accusations in all directions - no matter what the subject. I don’t have a dog in the fight, but I don’t see why there would be a fight! It is not Masonic to call names or make accusations, and it is totally unproductive for the parties in this debate to air their dirty laundry over the internet. Have we no compasses left?! Uproar is almost never productive. Discourse and listening are usually the way to make the twain-ends of an issue come together. It is the peace and harmony of a Lodge…our global Lodge…that is disturbed when brother Masons resort to immature attacks. That having been said, I am just as guilty of that kind of name-calling as anybody else! But that does not excuse me any-more than it should excuse our beligerent brothers in Ohio! Goodwill, patient listening and tolerance of ideas (no matter how diverse). These are three unnamed Masonic principles that we should look to in times of tumult. I only hope that our brothers in Ohio can calm-down long-enough to sit-down and work things out. Sheesh! |
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