MASONICFX: Recent Episodes
MASONICFX
The Craft is a learning opportunity. The grail we all aspire toward, some level of transformation to a better person is unclear, as is the way one achieves it. As you will find, this is not a short-cut. It is a thought map designed to shape behaviour. I"m inclined to think it places us in an atmosphere of arguments about truth. There is room at this table for one more. A new language, emphasis on control of emotion, it is more like finishing school that combat training. MasonicFX is simply and extension of that. An acquired taste where conversation is about possibilities. Sit in as you like. We stumble along, still trying to find the edge of this interesting universe!
We find ourselves entering a process of a new mindset called masonry. In all of its manifestations, we are exposed to thought provoking ideas. Some, like me tend to think they are intended with the aspiration of a Kantian categorial imperative. Our mature mind reminds us the world is not prone to understand and accept one version of understanding. We can leave that to the arena of religion or politics. What to do with our expanding understanding? What to do when everything we learn and observe is not necessarily simple or confected? Do we find ourselves metaphorically under the lotus tree in a state of enlightenment that includes suffering and degradation as well as beauty and peace? Why do our energies pool where tension exists? Those pesky students of Hermetics send out a calming message; reality is a construct of mind. If everything is mental, then we are looking into the abyss and it is looking back at us. We are imperfect. There is darkness and it can consume us. But there is also beauty, strength and wisdom. Those too are part of reality. While some would doubt our capacity, we also know we grow as we age. We never stop growing until we tell ourselves, for whatever reason, we are done. Too many thoughts cluttering the mind so rejecting anything new is justified. This happens as we sink into our own opinions rather than reactions to the events around us. Age is an advantage. When we absorb values and principles put to us in the metaphors and allegories of masonry, the mind has options. Those options tend to overlap with thoughts that have been passed from generation to generation, in a variety of cultures. I cannot explain why seeing the beauty for what it is kept behind a veil but I can say that veil is like us, impermanent consciousness. Hundreds of explanations of consciousness, unimaginable numbers of interpretations. Let objectivity determine the 'correctness'.
One day, while minding my own busy a knock came to the door. William Leslie Wilmshurst came for a visit and never left. He had written a book- The Meaning of Masonry and being intrigued he had brought along a gift copy. Now years later, Leslie long since passed, his observations continue to refresh thinking. Some but not all men who are made masons, arrive with interest in research. Personally, I'm not sure if that is why we hear them criticized for being followers. I'm not so sure I totally disagree but I do find it tedious their prodigious numbers give them more influence than is justfied. W.L. and I shared similar points of view. I like to think in our own separate ways, we encourage readers to consider a depth of thought not always evident when we gather together. Of course we have defining lodges doing defining things far and away. We can't all live near Edinburgh or Barvaria or Paris or London. I don't regularly worship at Westminster or Roselyn but a visit with them was like that feeling a man gets when his moments with his soult mate are timeless; a second with her equalilng a lifetime with anyone else. I can't tell you much about taste. I like opera and jazz not as better than the rest. You're paradise is yours. Some of us travel through the minds or writers. Some of us don't. Some of us can't. Some of us won't. When Leslie comes to your door, I will say if you have ever wondered about the scaffolding of masonry that frames the Order, you are in for a treat. Obviously the Craft focuses on subjective experience. It's like Richard Feynman sharing his joy with the uncertainty of physics. I wish I could directly ask Leslie about his thoughts on determinism that he illustrates so subtlety in his writings but for now it remains a one-sided debate. Each time we pick absorb ideas, we begin applying them to our point of view (POV).
When we realize we have a need to understand, it is our relationship with a particular way of thinking that surfaces. It is FM. It is one of many mindsets poised for a traveller to discover while passing by. Was life easier when we relied on opinion and didn't trouble ourselves with fact? Easier but not exactly contributing. When a boy comes of age, is when he becomes conscious of his consciousness. I've heard it said, the primary principles of FM are brotherhood, moral integrity and acquistion of knowledge. It is an opinion that fits with a need to chase something that will never completely be defined- our capacity for good. Between the millions of men who were accepted into this brotherhood, there are standards that like the experience of masonry itself, is beyond words. It is a feeling, a feeling we understand but can't describe in a word. Some turn to poetry, to music, to nature in search of description. Some will hesitate until they understand. I am one of them. You I hope, have avoided the trap.I am not as trusting. Blind faith doesn't work - I've seen too much avoidable damage and unhappiness. FM leaves questions of better/worse to the beholder. It is our perrogative to press on, slightly better today than we were yesterday. As the vagarities of life effect us, we face it with a sense of anticipation. Life is not fair but it is accurate, even when we don't see it. That's the beauty of FM. It gently turns attention to the inner man. What does he see beyond what is seen? What we share is enfused into the craft.
If you were asked to describe a perfect moment, what would you say? That's a useful way of thinking about our relationship with masonry. Asking what it is is essential. Is it objective or subjective? The answer to that depends on context. Does the Craft exist? It doesn't happen with a start point. To trace back to the beginning we would need to settle our thinking about 'what it is' we are searching. Around the 17th century socially stratified London was enjoying an expansion of coffee houses. This meant women were barred (no so in France where intellect was more objective). Penny universities; that was the monicer that came from these gatherings of smart men. Their discussions were educational- echoing the dialogues of learning Plato wrote about encounters Socrates had that allowed him to illustrate a method of thought. Even though today our populations are huge, our achievements defining a global community, whether we are more or less sophisticated is in the eye of the beholder. Our cultures do hold hot spots that continue to stimulate discussion over challenging problems of the day. Freemasonry being of a certain vintage, gives us a sense of continuity if not permanance. Has there ever been a science that has ceased because it had exhausted findings? Did mathematics stop when 'fabernaci' numbers were passing through the ages from 200BC in India to the classroom? We are experiencing an acceleration of communication. Powerful electronics have mirrored challenges and struggles. Salacious sells more product than science, until the world is confronted with crisis. Intelligence is still the currency of exchange, but it has not stopped famine, war or pestilence. Is it better than a small handfull of men understand compatibitily and the harmonics of divergent cultures? Maybe we need to deal first with the relationship and meaning of secular and faith.
When we talk about merit, if our goal is to tease out deeper understanding it is inevitable we will ask the question. How can I support meritocracy when I do not think I qualify? To that I would ask, why are men able to criticism their own character with no sense of limit, but when asked to talk about strengths, find that a daunting task? Men of conscience, are raised to realize the fine line between arrogance and self-confidence is easy to violate. Reputations are hard earned and easily shattered. Into that affray, I ask for consideration of factual ability. Can any man admit to his talents without being overbearing? Yes, if we are talking about a mature man, he is capable in ways the rashness of immaturity can never understand. If there is an ingredient that triggers graceful self-confidence, it needs to be put in our drinking water. If you have ever had the pleasure of watching someone focused on their chore, oblivious they were being observed, then you know what I'm saying. Some men do what they can to keep anyone from seeing their vulnerability. Men can live their entire life believing vulnerabilty is weakness, only to arrive at a time of reckoning. Conscience does take time off. How a culture defines conscience tells us everything we need to know. Being acknowledged by peers is a challenge to greatness. Tell a different story. Yes we all can make withering statements about others and ourselves but where does it get us? It is a biased opinion unless it is balanced with the consciousness of our own consciousness. Tell the other story. Tell the story of worth, of valour, of purpose in your own life and actions. If you look for it, you will find it. If you find it, then ask if it is truth or fiction, if you are presenting a falsehood to yourself and the world round? Likely you will find the more you attend to sensibilities, the more satisfying life will be. Not painless or effortless. Real.
As we progress into the teachings of Freemasonry, can we imagine the diversity of results? Like any academic pursuit, there are students full of opinion and expects preserving and passing alone 'truths'. Periodically we see the monetization of some or other applications. Science continues with carefully maintained integrity but that does not stop people from employing misinformation to give them an advantage. An inference becomes causal. A statistical anomaly becomes a prediction. In the broad brush sense of Freemasonry I'll invite us to accept an old arguement, that FM is both Art & Science. Typically the Craft avoids defining how we achieve whatever destinations await the weary worker. If we pick up the working tools is infered when we obligate ourselves as Master Masons. How we apply them is left in our hands. I think it is reasonable to think this process leaves the impression our growth is organic rather than deterministic. It is a point that deserves debate. If we are as many believe, a science, what our process to maintain the integrity of antient intentions? Obviously we could suggest that integrity is left to subjective understanding, indicating objective agreed upon facts do not exist. Of course context changes. Since we are a global phenomena, we have a sense there is compatibility. For many masons this is guarantees comparatives to test integrity. Are our operationalizled assumptions consistent with universal interpretations? I find variation in thinking tend to pick up cultural themes. it encourages comparsion and a reminder one path is not THE path. I also believe this deepens our understanding. For anyone to declare outcomes and progress is determined in advance is false. The fact Grand Lodges begin with specific assumptions as does any legitimate science. As any graduate student knows, defining the research variables is essential. Validation.
News delivered instantly has produced a feeling I am being rushed to keep up. I can't tell you what it does to the struggle with awareness. Being defined as priviledged isn't helpful when changing contexts are being aimed at me to engage in the resolution or consequences of conflicts. It isn't an ideological link but solicitation of donations. All the while, those pesky Nigerian Princes continue to contact telling me about an huge unclaimed inheritance waiting for me in exchange for some personal information. Oh joy. It is getting harder to fall back into ideological slumber, not counting religious zealotry. How I ask, is this different from the thinking for any Athenian? Aren't I responsible to participate in electing representatives? It is hard at times to sort out accountabilities to validate information but aren't I able to make informed decisions? So many of our secrets are hidden in dense information forests waiting for erudite researchers to follow data chains. Machines have all but replaced the need to store information in the recesses of memory. For all the advances we share today in the 'information' age the way we use libraries depends on appetite. Against skewed odds, some people are finding ways to gain access to information and turn that information into a better standard of livilng. Twenty-first century finds the west dominance measured by exploitation in a secular society. So of course we have to wonder if or how values and ethics are shared in a global community. Cynicism is the new optimism. Protect your interests by doubting and questioning. We don't dress like Athenians. We don't condone slavery anymore. We don't elect our generals, but here we are holding power to accounts by assuming our responsibilities as citizens. Time allows us to scrub away private conversations. Hindsight allows us to use what we learn. For the better?
Is it possible we know more about ourselves than we reveal to others? We come into masonry riding a desire to improve. We find the company appealing and receptive. Knowing we have been carefully screened changes our status. Ritual endorsement is effortless. Living up to it, with only your own accountability removes any burden. Secrets remain secret. We tell ourselves it's only us meeting expectations. What's a man to do? It's an essential question. Are we talking about the poor boy who is smarter than his environment? Is he the physicial who saved by child? Is it the man coming to terms with his yearnings? He is 'too sensitive'. Best he sits down and keeps quiet? Is it the man from a family of success? Who has no desire to carry on the family lineage? The uneducated, wealthy farmer who fathered Issac Newton? Charles Darwin did not want to be a doctor like his successful well stationed parents. Disappointments. Maybe Lord Byron, abandoned by his father, resentment toward his mother. Was disappointment the stimulant that triggered genius? If we compare, we are on that continuum of brilliance. No amount of rationalization changes it. So pardon me for sensing that there are pockets, caveats within freemasonry where the tendency is fear of a great unknown- fear of inner capacity. Will I be liked by friends? Will I be accepted by family? I am the priest sworn to an ethical presence, yet I violated oaths and became a Freemason. There is my secret. No one controls the narrative of life. We experience life as it occurs. No on predicts tomorrow. No one predicts death and dying. it is what it is. More the reason to explore your fabric. Let's assume there is a surprise lingering in each of us. If you're prone to misanthropy it's unlikely you're a regular participant. Best we keep it that way. For the rest of us, have you noticed life is bittersweet. Wish you had known earlier?
There is something to be learned about human nature by watching an encounter between wild animals and us. I give you a picture; park bench or a place in the woods, a good book, a thermos of something refreshing. In the stillness, something begins to happen. Birds and small animals begin to come closer, going about their business as they do. A quick motion, a pop or bang sends them scurrying off. So we return to our book and after time, they overcome their hesitence as we offer no threat, and they feel safer. You get the idea. It is a prescription for approaching other people's ideas. I share it hoping it answers a question. How? The stillness and quiet is a language to connect. It doesn't overcome. It doesn't make one any smarter or braver. It is a way to connect. Remove the tendency to judge and criticize and something happens. Tyically people are guarded. Being trusting is seen as a liability a moral weakness. I must admit, piety is no anecdote. Creatures like us trust our senses and experiences. I am a stranger to the world, so people must make assumptions based on their past experience. Threat, maelevolent, dangerous, so be cautious, wary. It makes sense to men like me, that trust is earned not assumed. Respect is earned, not assumed. Reputation is hard earned and easily ruined. The patience required to change assumptions is just enough, not a second more or a second less. Control is inside the mind. For the rationalist in us, it explains a great deal. Not to go into the darkness about this here, when we are talking or teaching, sharing a point of view, subtlely helping listeners lower their guard has many benefits. Why not? Connections- isn't that a part of what we do?
Bear with me, I speak from masonic experiences formed by the influences around me. Some are distant both in time and space and perhaps we should add thought itself. Let me draw your attention to an assumption, that masonry comes to us, not as in form but conceptually. How would anyone know? The answer lies in the way we are shown masonry. Priniciples, tenants, charges and interpretations of something called landmarks, each aspect is left to the imagination of the one who is introduced to the craft. I doubt we could play up the notion of conceptual thinking anymore than has been added over the years. Metaphor, symbol, allegory we are expected to sort out what they even mean. Some, like me would say all this indicates abstract thinking is a 'talent' of sorts, each brings to the table. Of course, nothing accounts for taste. Since we are conceptual, I found it helpful to search for some recognizable framework to bring out collaborations. So far music fits the bill. You have your taste, I have mine. Each of us may be one note in the score, but we are performing as cords. Cords blend notes with intonation. Some prefer serious and predictable, some experimental. Together we are about to perform Beethovens 4th. One hundred twenty-six of us, follow a notational path to ectasy. Once, one of a kind, but it seems fawning to call something so sublme predictable. There is this other group, they play sponteneously, risking it all for that once in a lifetime experience. Think of all the experimental music we are able to access. Miles or Mozart? It would seem odd to argue the point. In their own way, they have tantalized imaginations by being imaginative. They knew to surprise listeners by offering something impossible to predict. All of us come into lodge with expectations. We're taught scales and encouraged to practice which we do alone. When we are ready we rehearse which we do as a group but to perform what?
History is such an advantage. It's like having a window into the past showing consequences. People will mine them looking for trends. Intelligent minds will see what is obvious and looking behind the curtain.What other influences were in play? History reminds us constantly, nothing is static. Physics reminds us everything, including us is an a constant state of motion. Then, some of us break off probing the nature of consciousness in the infinitiy of space because we can. It isn't a question everyone jumps into. The world we live in shows us the reality of diversity. One might be more important in a moment but then be replaced in the next. Just because we have a defined history, our window is more expansive than that of most individuals. We are not superior in any way, but we have access to an unusual point of view (POV). What it tells us depends on what questions we are asking.You'd be right to remind us if we had a capacity to predict, we would be cashing winning betting slips at the racetrack. Even with the advantage of history, someone needs to weigh current information. Roll of the dice. Our lives have qualities that are different than random selection. The difference is in the mind of the beholder. Think of it as a continuous source of preference- an. on-going filter pushing all else aside to leave me with my opinions for my reasons. It sounds churlish I know but you take my point. If only everyone thought like us? That would be frightening. We would accomplish less than we do now. We live and think in this soup of impressions and thoughts. We have studied the process for thousands of years and agreed, it is the primary part of our narrative to be oriented in that cocktail. It can be overwhelming 'see' everything in motion. The path behind looks different. The path ahead changes in the blink of an eye. And here we are, with an ability to create a sense of stability. Amazing.
There is something to be learned about human nature by watching an encounter between wild animals and us. I give you a picture; park bench or a place in the woods, a good book, a thermos of something refreshing. In the stillness, something begins to happen. Birds and small animals begin to come closer, going about their business as they do. A quick motion, a pop or bang sends them scurrying off. So we return to our book and after time, they overcome their hesitence as we offer no threat, and they feel safer. You get the idea. It is a prescription for approaching other people's ideas. I share it hoping it answers a question. How? The stillness and quiet is a language to connect. It doesn't overcome. It doesn't make one any smarter or braver. It is a way to connect. Remove the tendency to judge and criticize and something happens. Tyically people are guarded. Being trusting is seen as a liability a moral weakness. I must admit, piety is no anecdote. Creatures like us trust our senses and experiences. I am a stranger to the world, so people must make assumptions based on their past experience. Threat, maelevolent, dangerous, so be cautious, wary. It makes sense to men like me, that trust is earned not assumed. Respect is earned, not assumed. Reputation is hard earned and easily ruined. The patience required to change assumptions is just enough, not a second more or a second less. Control is inside the mind. For the rationalist in us, it explains a great deal. Not to go into the darkness about this here, when we are talking or teaching, sharing a point of view, subtlely helping listeners lower their guard has many benefits. Why not? Connections- isn't that a part of what we do?
I know there is a sense freemasonry is struggling, but I am here to suggest that depends who is commenting. There are so many benefits of life for so many, but that does not erase suffering. Though it is difficult, there is a sense of common morality. Help the vulnerable. End poverty if you can. Find constructive alternatives to war. Punish transgression. Produce an argument of hope. Thanks to the absolute truths of science and philosophy, we have continued to refine our understanding of the world. The Grand Theory of Everything so evasive for Einstein, still slips through out hands. We might tell ourselves we have an ability to define existence to suit our own narrative, but we know better. Life is all of this and more. We strive to improve, to be better than we were. Along the way we accumulate standards that carry on into the future. We want to be masters of our own situation but we don't like it when the neighbours try the same thing. Even though we don't have complete explanations, change happens around us constantly and we search it for patterns of predictability because that makes us feel safer. Being exposed to those old reliable tools may be the most significant overlooked aspect of masonry if not one of them. Our progress isn't as institutional as our scale of adminstration might like. It's molecular. Individual. Influences in the moment. We can and often do thoroughly enjoy a lodge meeting without a change of atmosphere. We can still be stimulated by conversation, especially when we are with mature brethren, who don't have need to dominant the conversation or prove their worth to anybody. Afterall, we are 300+ years old. We've seen it all before.
Our museums showcase what we were, remnants of a time when craftsmanship was still skills based. The intensity of that Jewish scholar Karl Marx was a reaction to industrialization. He was harshly criticized for suggesting the price society would pay for efficiency. Today he is largely dismissed but for a time his influence was profound. I mention Marx to bring attention to the truth about change- it comes with costs, calculated or not. With that in mind, am I wrong to think masonry has been wrestling with the costs of up scaling operations to an industrial scale? Our history/legends tell a story of a less than 30 masons at a tavern deciding to organize into a larger organization to preserve the best parts and reduce vulnerability. Larger numbers meant we gave up one on one conversations. Intimacy is not entirely lost when the crowd swells but it does move conversation to the club over drinks after a performance. Is it so hard to imagine standard cirriculae being created for the first time to stabilize the 'masonic science'? But how to standardize without leaving too much behind? One way was to speak to future generations in metaphor an symbol. Leave the task of sorting through priorities to the intelligent mind of the future. In this framework, philosphy provided the precision necessary which history proves was a good assumption. Not much of a guess, really. No one could predict the challenges of overseeing masons on a national and international scale. Who could have predicted the decline of the estates we experience in our secular environment, over cooked with advanced communication systems and surviellience. Despite the graveyard of failed models behind us, scholarship continues as do the essential philosophical agreements to disagree. We have changed yet we are the same. Better educated, better informed, perhaps more confused, more alienated. Simplifying the demands of life.
One day I sat with an Innuit elder, in a remote community on an remote Arctic island, talking about the issues facing the people. "Eat like a child, think like a child"; could we ban junk food? He had a point but how to implement or enforce a ban? It wasn't feasible, though it had merit. How often do we find ourselves in this dilemma? Ambivalence drains a person, unable to more forward, unable to stand still, unable to go back in time. What to do? We often find functional denial at work. Avoid, compartmentalize, blame, these of things that weaken our resolve. Extremists find a place in this. Condemning a vulnerable, identifyable portion of the community, makes it easy to foment tension. Politics. Dangerous politics. Fortunately for us, we know how to sort out the differences between consipracy thinking and fact. We also carry with us values that inhibit abuse of others to achieve our purpose. They exist because we are not as divided by tribalism as we might want to believe. I suspect the smartest mason realizes his skepticism is well placed. After a time, he becomes comfortable in that perspective. I wonder if he has a bust of Socrates sitting on a nearby shelf as a reminder? As long as we know one of us is carrying on research into arts and science, we can sleep contented. You know I encourage individuality in masonic growth. We realize we know more than we care to acknowledge. Even though it is sensible to use every advantage available, we are cultural hedonists. The religion of capitalism has fallen apart. Churches are sold as yoga studios. The inefficiencies of capitalism and democracy are frigheningly obvious, but it isn't theorists talking. It's our politics and the strain of a global community. Is it a climax or entropy? While we ponder, men like us are examining these questions from both sides, encouraged through Freemasonry to explore possibility.
Like many of us, I do like drama. Without it this expansive universe draws us along into a metaphoric darkness, like little comets streaking across horizons. Your oracles relate to you of course, but how you intepret and what you do with them is validation for both of us, IMHO. The fact you respond to oracles puts you in a favoured group of people I'd most enjoy meeting. It's your influence. Isn't that an odd word- influence. One day I walked into a national art gallery, to see a display of van Goghs work. Now, years later, the joy I felt standing that perfect distance back, my optical glasses in my pocket, making colours fuse together and realizing he was communicating with me. For a moment, I would like you to try it. You are a visitor, an art lover, an affectionato of atmosphere, a self satisfied man doing things privately, without explanation. I won't ask what you have found but I am willing to listen. To be honest, I like to imagine this is the type of conversation that brought pleasure to those audacious smart guys who mischieviously toyed with the dark arts and piety to expand the quality of life for all mankind. Centuries later we find FM doesn't tamper with our preception. It describes different perspectives. 'I wandered lonely as a cloud"... The Craft respects agency. Occams razor was put to good use, but eventually we face the fact our progress is none other than self-selection. No blame, no excuse. A man taking responsibilty for his growth has reached fulfillment of a task. In our subjective objectivity, where right/wrong is irrelevant, we understand 'it is what it is'. Yes, what you are seeing is real. The limits of character, of intelligence of purpose, the things about men we don't wish to acknowledge but nevertheless know don't make us superior but humble. Where does a man look to find fulfillment and quality of life, his belongings?
Rebuilding masonry, in the style of a variety of influences remains one of the mysteries of life. Would it challenge us to build our lodges according to particular philosophers aims? It is fascinating to consider groups of men were able to do just that, hundreds of years ago and yet we are just discoverying their cleverness. Some might shy away from an attempt to translate ideas into something we could share. When I think of the stunning rooms and buildings dedicated to masonry it makes the tensions and pettiness of life vanish. It takes little to inspire men inclined to contemplative life. They are always open to fresh thinking. With the privacy of their thoughts, they can examine and select what defines them. An answer worth mentioning is philosopher Jean Jacque Rouseau noticing how often the value we have of ourselves comes from the opinion of others. Maybe there is an anecdote to modern day pessimism. Maybe it will be found in places we have not yet considered or valued. If any of it is to be believed, masonry creates atmospheres conducive to reason and imagination. We don't find truth at the end of a gun. The similarities are reconstructions. They are a continuation of the relevance of those ideas. Freemasonry has not stopped evolving. It's popularity changes, following patterns of unique cultures, history and the times. Can we upsell insight? Can we impose tranquility on others? We like to think we cannot compel but we can introduce with respect ideas that have been transformative. Each day is different. Do we find masonry engaging enough to comitt to the way of life? That is mans choice to make, and ours to respect. Is this living withour value judgements? Isn't judgement the means to civility? Are you suggesting mankind is capable of arriving at his own sense of truth?
In a world of BIG picture, grandiosity and exaggeration would it be so hard to believe men are searching for subtlty and civility? We are capable of understanding the young man who reaching maturity finds himself in an impersonnal world. Mercantilism promotes the ideas business is our first interest, thought it isn't and find young men convinced they are emotionaless cogs in the machines of profit and manufacture (which they aren't). Our day to day practice is not aligned with our history. Our actual history is by far the more engaging public relations. Actually I find in in poor taste to speak about branding and narrative. When we loose track of the universality of freemasonry, we begin to worry about membership levels and performance indicators before we are reminded we do not determine the relevance of the Order, despite having confidence in marketing to create both a need and the means to solve that need, for profit. It's undignified to put the solitude of our libraries and discussion tables on display, as bait. If you have ability and interest we will find each other. I cannot understand why I would try to describe masonry to a stranger. I would have no reason.The valuable lessons contained in our framework isn't changed by lineups at our door. We are an intellectual currency that has been exchanged since records were kept. With apology to the might of capitalism, the currency is constantly being refreshed. Attention to detail, contemplation, knowledge and understanding, when picked up seem stimulate interesting conversation. I would only hope we pass along a fuller sense of the masonic experience to next generations.
Understanding the relationship between a man and the Order of Freemasonry is admittedly a process that defines. Most of us will recognize the law of parsimony by its other more familiar name- Occams razor. It is a well recognized tool, because it is easy to learn and immediately useful. " Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history informs us of nothing new or strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human nature". David Hume "Whoever wishes to see the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results". Machiavelli I'm inclined to add to the story of awareness. In a way it is like learning history. We pick up ideas from others, add our own observations and discover familiarities. Good teachers help us learn that ideas can be broken into segments to assist learners. Consider a mans potential sidetracked by impatience when he is confronted with layers of information. In my masonic environment this is ignored. Men are left to their own devices, which strikes me as an oddity of practice in some locations where our 'fraternal' order is established. If Machiavellis point is valid to us, it makes sense that understanding human nature, the aspects that bind us together comes from observing diversity over time. If or how that knowledge effects a man is a simple matter of interpretation. Few men ever find themselves in a position like that. Does he have the confidence to do things "new' to him? Or is he able to share what beauty he finds with us? If this a principled life? There is a way to find out.
Which do you prefer, believing or knowing? If the world describes me in a particular way, giving me characteristics without ever having met, does that change who and what I am? Perfection in my thinking is so far off in the distance, some days it is barely perceptable. I am a small, imperceptible particle in a very big expanding universe. So far, one of those particles that experiences consciousness (as far as we know). No longer do I feel a need to absorb all there is to see and know. There is so much uplifting energy coming from strangers I know but don't know sharing their preoccupations and obsessions, leaning into details, telling me without telling me who and what they believe. But what resonates isn't what they've accumulated but what they are. Genuineness, sincerity, authenticity matters so much more. Perhaps I prefer their company because those are traits I think any person would strive to exhibit. If only I were a cog in a machine; then I could expect every other cog would share equally the properties I have. I know people are troubled AI could out-perform the human brain. We have barely scratched the surface of that organ and have no idea of the full capability, except it functions unlike anything a binary system has been able to accomplish. No sooner do I mention this, that ideas flood in- what potential are we not yet seeing? Since I don't know the 'code' that operates brain and mind function the best I can do is equate language with mind. Understanding is what we can do without ever reaching a destination. But isn't that an interesting metaphor? Until we do, let's agree it deserves to be studied with respect for the magnitude if covers. I can tolerate the outrageousness of genius that makes significant contributions. Genius is isolating. But so is indifference to the things that matter most.
We could be fanciful and not give a fig. I've got mine and to hell with the rest. We could but we can't. The human condition doesn't give us the tools of a misanthrope. We have only to look at the behaviour of children, before we socialize them. With few exceptions, when we are little. we are loving, careing and gentle. It takes years of exposure to lessons that tell us those traits are weakness. A tough man survives. A bully survives best. Except men of justice decided long ago, that unwarranted aggression contradicts the rules of a good life. And it leaves behind fearful and suspicious rhelics. The counter balance has always been conscience- the difference between what we know and what we admit. Of course today we reflect on existence in a universe in which we may be the only bundle of particles that generated consciousness. It is difficult to comprehend. I find it interesting the a small group of men decided to connect and while facing the uncertainty and challenges of life, became determined to improve the condition of life in their own way and the lives of those around him. Some men can absorb new information and adapt. Others cannot. A dear friend talks about deciding if a man cannot or willnot. A man who cannot can be instructed. Perhaps he hasn't had the advantage of clarity. The man who won't, he would be dismissed. Which file men fall into is influenced by the choices they make not by us. Fortunately we introduce ourselves to well read men for whom learning has been self-directed since the moment they matured. Is that all there is? The pronoucement of a clever teenager or the prompt that sparks a journey of discovery. But take care. The journey is fascinatingly endless.
Freemasonry being one. It's a belief system. Why did we choose this particular system? That's a question for the gods to answer if the man doesn't. Why some men follow a belief system of domination while others tap in to the power of metaphysics? I wish I knew. We experience the results of beliefs, but what makes certain ideas 'belief system'? In this article let's make an attempt. There are variatons: Experential, Religious, Myths and Sacred Stories, Ritual and Worship, Religious Community, Art Sacred Entities and Architectures, Ethical. The simplelist answer for why might be exposure at an early age. The people who were involved in our lives when we were children are powerful influences. Whether we go on to align with other beliefs as we age, the early influences are part of the individual equation. I can't explain why someone connects and commits to one and not others. Judging which is better or best is only a quick reflection that happens in hindsight. What a man makes of a belief system is greatly influenced by intelligence and personality. How much thought and how those thoughts are put together weaves a story, his story, his relationship with the world around. So it isn't the belief system per se, but the way it is employed that defines how we experience others. If we speak about zealots it may influence opinion but it doesn't declare the superiority of one belief system over another. But zealots have difficulty acknowledge other thoughts, other opinions might existd parallel their own. When some people ignore the effect of the their manner on others, we refer to psychopathology when they attempt to dominant the agency of all others. If it looks like paranoia and sounds like paranoia it is paranoia. But I digress. Just putting our beliefs in context with other systems is interesting. Now we can ask why? Maybe we will even reconsider another, in a way we had not.
There are many advantages to philosophical discussion, least of which is the way it encourages us to pause. Learning is not uniform for one and all. When we raise an assumption how are we to determine if it is primary, factual, or whimsy? In discussion we are saved that error by learning from others, their interpretations. It rounds out our work. Discovering explanations is encouraging. As Craftsmen we learn to be aware of the rooms reaction to those who have smart conversation. But we also feel the imperative, to politely and modestly follow our own inclination, in the pursuit of answers to lifes questions. With the advantage of hindsight, Masonry provides us with a stimulating archive, the writtings of brethren who like us, were noticing detail. Is it upsetting? I suppose that depends on expectations. The Craft emphasizes gratitude, the anecdote to materialism. But creating the atmosphere were materialistically inclined can consider value in exploring gratitude, that potential is not easily defined. Different times, different men, different places. But the refinement doesn't stop.
Maybe I've missed the point entirely. It wouldn't be the first or the last time. Maybe I've read it all wrong, thinking my observations are at all accurately portraying meaning. But I will admit, there is a relationship between masonry and each of us who asked to be connected through ideas. I know there is clamour about the experience. The freshness is compelling, become aware of your connection with everyone who like you, is practicing the Arts & Science. Even the terms convey as sense of old world romanticism. It is the darndest thing realizing the Craft takes us from the perception of safety fitting our thinking to mainstream into the state of independence. Critical thought changes from disruptive to being a source of stability. What is this alchemy happening while we are learning new combinations of ideas. We wandered unaware, into a warren of ideas as profound as a man can handle. The knowledge is revealed only to those capable of it. If we aren't already of that ilk, masonry helps us understand and accept what makes us unique and similar at the same time. Context and perspective, concentrated in observations are created as if exclusive to our Order when in fact it is a distortion. All ideas are shared, all the time, everywhere. Why just the other day I became excited learning Kant found joy in good intentions, and Hegel found joy in the consequences of those good intentions. I have so many pennies dropping I am sure to die a rich man. What I truly value has changed. Influence and power are no longer influence and power. We are all confirming differences and those differences are important because they connect us to paths of awareness and change, stories with no ending.
Where are those beautiful experiments that gain results? Are we so naive to be unable to appreciate the central purpose of science, replicating successful experiments? So naive or so isolated that we cannot replicate beautiful results? The paradigm of freemasonry is shifting as it does, without asking for the authority to act. It's happening right now where I am, following threads of ideas that go back hundreds of years. If I said to you, when you pick up a brush and paint, you are making a statement, what would you say? If I said, a man had poetry inside, would you quietly move away,as we tend to do when we don't know what good manners suggest? Masonry has idealism and reality carrying it forward. That alone is enough to fuel tensions and conflict. What is also interesting, is the fact masonry is unable to achieve stasis. It is constantly in motion, just as we are. Those combinations of ideas that occur to you are always worth sharing. We like a good story, especiallly one qualified with enough fact to flatter the audience.
Are we followers or free thinkers? A very nice gentlemen recently put this question to a crowd. At times unless we are prone to rashness or a gamble we're fluid, adjusting to circumstance. We have known for a great long time the better hunters were those who thought out the better way to reduce risk and optimize the kill. Big and brash, despite what movies portray about men, usually came to an ignominious end, Even in our sanitized first world, we honour them with higher car insurance rates and a perponderance of youthful deaths. Even at a young age, intelligence begins to shine through. As little people are powerless, they are subjected to the experiments we call parenting. In whatever inglorious state, adulthood happens and we are gifted to the world, assuming more and more the illusion of control over our future. Each one has a story, as idiosyncratic as the next. There are things about FM that set it apart. Acknowledging agency was a defining moment. When it is in our best interest, we follow. When we have gathering enough information from observation and experience, our choices become more or less qualified. It sounds so mechanical but that is us trying to rationalize. We live in this soup of particles, in a state of consciousness, the one trait that distinguishes. Even then men stretch out to explore consciousness, with intoxicating plants that change our sense of reality. In early days, shamen used their compounds to engage with the beyond, to commune with the creator, to ask and understand. But we are of an age with all the benefits history can afford us. Not as reality but as the ideal. If only we could understand enough to predict with more certainty than guessing. You and me? We attempt reason, knowing cause and explanations of phenomena. For us masons, we are inclined to apply this style to know ourselves. Even then we can't do that without understanding the context of life around us. And so it goes. Curioser.
Time has been a good friend to masonry over the centuries. The ideas we entertain are best served up in contemplative calmness. We need time to digest meanings, assuming we know meanings can change as time goes bye. What was once a difficult point of view to grasp, can with patience become familiar and helpful. Time buffers us from intense emotional conflicts. When we realize metaphor and symbol lead back to something inside us, it's too late to abandon our inquiry. Whether private or gregarious, there is a place in the brotherhood. Ritual enables us to address our commitments to one another as we perform, becoming part of the proof, the replication of earlier findings from lifes grand experiment with each of us. Since the Craft is raised on a platform of 'truth' over superstitions, it was bound to show us uncomfortable things. Nature and science aren't much for sentimentalism or for that matter fearing a loss of friends. In fact, if the Craft was anything less that frank, it would dissolve at our feet. How to be frank without being offensive? We have philosophy to thank as we explore those questions others avoid. Everything is not what it seems. Permanance is illusion. Life is illusion. Enjoying what we can, while we can, with a dignity, showing compassion for our fellows, companionship, do we need much more?
The Craft has an provenance that extends beyond the life of man,, a series of expressions about values that are believed to improve. Since we can't improve the mathematics of life as it effects us, we wander into our collective unconsciousness where we find conflicts that have no apparent substance but faint meaning. We are generally inclined to think negativity is problematic so we set out in our own feeble way to implant notions to help us override reality. Soldiers returning from the battlefield medicated themselves with whatever mind altering substance would take them temporarily away from the misery of experience. Although we are able to study masonry, I think we can admit there is tremendous benefit derived from discussing. Modern life gives us tools thought magical only decades ago. We are pressed to adjust at a faster rate than the accelerated flow of invention. Sixty six years. From the time of sustained flight to landing on the moon- sixty six years. Many of us have or will live longer than that. Imagine what another sixty six will bring. Our performance with masonry can be noteworthy, whether or not we slip ignominiously into history or not, it is in this moment, that we exist. The goal before us is unfairly not being tangibly defined. Do ten pushups. Walk 10,000 steps. None of that. Instead we are unwrapped to discover our inclination to hold back, to think less of our ability than our potential. Is it good fortune that masonry sends us out into the world, not to dominant or conquer, but to understand? The plague of an intelligent mind, to know what he doesn't know (Dunning-Kruger effect). Not only are we setting off to understand, but to realize there is a "higher' level of perception, deeper satisfaction, beauty where others ignore. With the accelerated access to information, paralysis is not unlikely, even restorative nostalgia, if we remain static, we can achieve greatness again.
What do you do with the truth? Does it find a person or does a person find truth? Our tendency is to put a brave face on everything. It's called positivity, the new upper hand. The new moral dominance in the contest. Still better, more than willing and able to communicate, in case anyone within earshot might help us by taking us out of our solitude. The 'aha' moment is a menace. In a world high on piety, we have allowed versions of the truth. Versions that satisfy the sense of being more clever than the rest. Except for the fact these little minds don't use their gift contribute to anything, these are driven by honesty, that and a disregard for their own advancement. Why then do some of us find it is best to know the truth about a peson than live under an illusion? Isn't there a risk of paranoia, suspecting everyone is on the game? Just another excuse to avoid something we just don't want to do or think or say. Is that the point? Do old men reach a point dissapointments mount up and they find more reasons to enjoy their own company? Me? I prefer even a casual encounter with a trustworthy person. The world doesn't need rose coloured glasses. And with that said, we begin noticing all the rest. There is so much more to life, to reason, than the manipulations of silly people. The elegance of nature. The thrill of being able to feel what the painter or poet wanted to impose. Joy- no longer as an out of mind experience but because with so much of life being illusion, one finds an ability to deeply and truly appreciate beauty without trying to masquerade. Philosophy, context, being and understanding, there is beauty find those moments when you are with the right people to share an exchange of ideas. Those are special moments with special people. Masonry has been making them easier to find for hundreds of years. Our good fortune.
If you come into Freemasonry you are likely if you are fortunate enough, to fall under the influence of ritual. The sounds, the imagines, the coordination, the story, the execution. This is our way, our manner when we are with each other to show the importance. It is through ritual we come together. That is where we exchange energy, when we gather. And where we confess our fidelity to truth as a lifestyle. Fortunately the privacy of mason has been extended to a man at a keyboard, in his private quarters, late into the night. We can learn for ourselves who was considered anethema and speculate what it revealed. Being reminded there is a part of us that is connected to the best parts of humanity is a big step. Symbolism makes it possible to explore conscience, guilt, remorse, joy and happiness, and the perfection of knowing ugly is also a part of nature. What we see and think is in the mind. How we navigate is in our character. To find the road map to happiness leads us through virtues is too simple. I have an aversion to happiness that comes with a price, especially the demands of virtue on an incomplete man. The doubting Thomas, the skeptic lives among us. So is consensus even possible when he declares 'is truth'? Since are aren't static but in motion, the answer is a qualified yes. Some call this progress. Some call it change. Some call it nothing at all. And yet our attitude is shaped by freemasonry more than many of us might admit.
What were the influences? Regicide? Epidemics? The Great Fire? Or perhaps it was the by-product of what became the age of Enlightenment? The arts show us thinking was changing. It also shows for practical men, the purpose of values lie not in the thought but in there application. For that, the world would need to wait for society to be influenced, church and state. So in a way, we are taught the power of all estates is held by each individual subscriber. As their needs change, their support changes. Thankfully we are of an Order that thought to focus on enduring priniciples. Through time, men and their societies have adapted or not. Sustaining structures adapt. Rigid structure fails, leaving us a reminder. It never occured to me that the purpose of freemasonry was freemasonry but I suspect this is not wide spread. For many nice men that I encounter, their pride and purpose rests inside the social conviviality of. a mason lodge. It is naive to suggest masonry magically stopped being influenced by the greater society. We are after all, human. Legitimacy, authenticity, what we can tolerate changes over time. The struggle for some is to maintain the best parts of our past. That way we assciate what was, with what will be.
Were they kidding when they wrote ritial telling us masonry is a 'beautiful system of morality veiled in allegory'. Before we arrive at that doorway, we have some miles to travel, that will wear out our boots and leave us parched. Of course we have our own examples of beauty, but beautiful systems of morality? To quote from the Wizard of Oz... that's a horse of a different colour. To think in moral terms is hard. I don't believe we are being threaded through the small tiny hole, but haven't we been reminded that even morality can be displaced by competing to be the most moral in the room? It reminds me of brown shoes. When I walk into a shoe store, the selection seems endless and I'll admit there are times when I wish on the shelf there was one pair of brown shoes. That I could handle. Are we correct extending our trust to the abstract notions of Antient and Accepted? Until we take time to examine and consider them, let alone consider changing our thinking by accepting new ideas, 'masonic' reflections, we have our own judgement, hopefully doubtful but fundamentally consistent with a virtuous life. What to do about those who are not? Nothing. There is nothing to do but be in character, carry on silently with life and be the example of a better way. That lets me consider options. I can carry on based on what I've been taught in early life, in my culture according to my version of a good man and examine what contributing philosophers have said on the topic. I'm not. going to lie to you, there are differences but at times many of them seem applicable. I can't argue with Hume, about religion being a response to fear. But Kant makes sense too. There are limits to human understanding, so reasoning is vitally important. Whether it is his assertion of Hermes Trismegistus, or his own,reality is in the mind and yes there is evidence of knowledge that happens beyond direct experience.
Since we are the sole occupant of our own mind,can we assume we accept that individuality is the case for every living soul we meet. We perform certain tasks requiring careful preparation and coordination of large groups. The success of larger groups relies on each man understanding the collective achievement and the contribution of his particular talents. Fortunately the Craft produces so many choices. You may enjoy the knife and fork variety- fair play, while others pursue ideas and answers. While masonry may encourage us to believe there are no bounds to intellectual freedomes, the human boundaries are readily on display. We create a sacred space to protect our interests enough to allow us to explore vital questions. What a lodge concludes is entirely of their making. Think of it as the expression of masonry. There are features with which we declare our fidelity to universal masonic thought and our threat to legitimacy. What we wear, how we conduct ritual, we assure dignity is to be seen in earnest. We do have symbols to remind, mneumonics for those who locate and associate meanings with needs. Nietzche helped clarify, "You have your way, I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, the only way, that does not exist." Fortunately the Craft embraces ethics, a means to calculate what to do in a given situation, without reliance on assumptions. How daring but if it does not hold some willing interest, it is only another imposition. Maybe we are destined to fly closer to the sun.
Realizing we are part of an organization that runs on merit is game changing for most if not all of us. The Holy Grail that puts Machiavelli in his place. A declaration the world is not cynical afterall. Some of us are proof of that. It seems almost luxurious to appreciate what initiation has done. Merit. From time to time, I enjoy delusions as much as the next man. My team is always the best. My choices are always better. And I am like you, equipped with an intellect that can turn truth into a convenient acknowledge of that. So many writers have confirmed what we already knew on the subject. The problem with merit is the problem with truth and by extension the problem of masonry. It is based on truth that is more certain than I am. While I put a pin in that. thought, something strange happens. I proceed to observe the world using that lense. If I am any example, it is realizing as I 'advance' in life I become aware of how much I do not know. Fortunately I live in a world of experts on anything and everything, ready to tell me how I ought to function. Taking us literally by the hand, masonry introduces us to the neighbours. Over there is history, next to philosophy. There are men finding answers and men walking bye. Knowing that is a lesson in itself. The ubiquitous journey of mason has a destination but not an ending. Every day the world is different and we are too. Where there is struggle, I would suggest answers are likely to be found in places we formerly had never considered. Like looking in a mirror.
Keeping in mind we are talking about ideals it is hardly surprising we truly labour over the thinking and skills. Each inititate is introduced through initiation to a world of expectations, Oh so gradually we begin our training while observing the surroundings. We quickly learn groupthink without knowing it is one of thousands. If all we see are shadows on the wall, those outlines are our reality. If nothing else, the Craft begins at the beginning, We face reality as it is, in a universe not of our own making. Fortunately the trail ahead has touchstones. Expectations change as societies change, raising our awareness of overarching values and laws that rule us all. We are not masters of all that is. We are participants in a world of constant change. We are told, all men are born equipped with reason. Why we chose to create consciousness of good triumphing over evil, we reach a point of respect of the beliefs of all men searching and striving for a better life. Has masonry been effected by secularism? Of course. We didn't walk away from questioning. Find the thread that captures your imagination,track it, explore as far as you need. You are the link with the divine that matters. The lynch pin that may not make sense to anyone else but doesn't have a need to impose one belief over others. Fortunately when we gather, we create a fusion of ideas. Is it really so difficult acknowledge the variations of others? Boys try to best their friends because that is what they are taught. But not all boys.
If it doesn't challenge how does it hope to hold your attention? Even the simplest task can be a chore overwhelming for someone. If we lived in different times or felt differently about mutual commitment things might be different. Fortunately for him our Masonic institutions stream him and us according to abikity. It is hard to refine thinking if the plausibility of improvement is not present in the fellows mind already. Again we are fortunate we cultivate our interests enriched by philosophies, with such compassion the idea of experiencing the feel of that atmosphere comes alive. But take care casting aspersions. Other men, learning what influence really is are sure to watch like intense gravity drawing in light. Once you understand compassion for the world around, it feels familiar, predictable and ohvso discrete.
Imagine living in a time when new ideas would be judged by institutional thinkers. Imagine the effect on entire cultures, believing heretical ideas could be irradicated. While the marketplace/agora might well be fickle, it is an ideal place to hide subversion. Knowing the truth would seem to be a tremendous advantage if only the advantage didn't come with some much stickiness. Are you and I convinced the minds that designed masonry had a firm grasp of human nature? Seventeenth and 18th century didn't just appear out of the ether. The usual checks we already know; renaissance, enlightenment, the legitimization of science did not eradicate the status quo entirely. But it did not matter to the progress of mankind. Trial and error, we repeat our foibles and missteps until we accept more efficient ways to define our ambitions. The good life? that is too ambigious to put into practice on a large scale. Consider how difficult it is to live the formula outlined in the Antient and Accepted, by just one man and then compound that difficult by extension to our communities. Especially in masonry it is important to validate all the assumptions it claims. That is how we practice and learn to respect logic and reason, by putting them to use in everyday life. When we pick up the mantle it brings us an awakening. Claiming to life by highest moral and social standards means understanding what that means. We can not master what we do not know unless we accept the premise mankind was born in a state of grace. Reality reminds us values need to be demonstrated in the context of our daily function. Easier for parents to provide this for their child because the state has an obvious mandate to do the same. Right from wrong. Truth from fantasy. Compassion and empathy. The good life once understood needs to be accessible. Imagine the moment a man realizes in the privacy of his own thoughts he is changing? It is as we mature.
I'm inclined to think masonry forms us in some way. I'm also inclined to critical thinking, based in ethics. Masonry I will say, brings out the intelligence and awareness carried in the mind. It gives us vocabulary to describe thought and feeling with the cool logic that time allows when we are standing in front of a marker telling us this green pasture was once a battlefield. Anonymous soldiers who died, not the ones who limped home injured and damaged. Phyric victory. That is the honesty of old men who have lived a life around military powers. Will masonry give us hope reason will one day overcome instinct on a global screen? First, unavoidable accountable is scrapping away subtrefuge. Whose truth is left? Everyone is victor or everyone looses.Tomorrow the world will be smaller than it is today. Differences will melt into commonalities and as long as men have ethics to guide them, despotism will fail. I don't hear people saying much about progress without linking it to a drone attack or dropping bombs. Will mankind continue to be influenced by our art? Will mathematics and science describe reality? Who decides? Philosopher Kings, marketplace (agora) populism, or likeminded individuals coming together? Today, in some places, differences coexist. Science and belief have put don't their swords. Practice your faith as you please and I will practice mine. No unicorns. No riders on a big horse with a white hat. Familiarity isn't breeding contempt. It's creating relationships. Can a man be good because he believes in it? Time is telling us yes.
As we come together, academia 'allows' us to gather inertia that draws us closer and closer to trust and truth. Ah, without the boundless possibilities of youth, we are well taught to be cautious. It distinguishes us on a spectrum of courage, not to be confused with the fact some exercise courage at a different pace than you or me. Some men require a great deal of convincing, reputation being what it is. Don't trust him- he's a stranger. Except for the fact strangers are safer than familiars, mothers have taught us lies without knowing, and they linger in the subconscious waiting to be triggered. Except when we create an atmosphere of safety, we can put our santum sanctorum to use exploring. Finding a group that reciprocates is a delightful atmosphere. Some thrive on them, some use them to work through their assumptions but all of us know frisson. And when we are secure in our advantage, we always probe the unknown, secure that the rationality of others is a lifeline. At the risk of seeming obvious, what is the price of exploring our world view? Does masonry create moral Ninja's? I think there is surprise waiting when we are motivated by symbolic language of morality. The surprise is twofold- one for the mason, one for the receipient. The Craft violates many of the boundaries we have been taught. One's thinking is a perspective, shared with billions of other minds and just as unique. Don't we realize masonry poises questions that re-centre us? Of course some struggle. A familiar way is always in play, until we notice better devices. And in a way that includes our thinking about self. Familiar ways of thinking, familiar vulnerabilities are always in play, until you and I begin realizing better. But don't panic. Life repeats reality until we 'get it'. That's the best part of waking up; those moments of insight could be waiting for us, then why not keep the thought?
As we go about our business, each interprets the challenge presented to us in lodges trying to find a moving balance point. In this article I want to examine this process to see if this is close to our intentions. I've been explaining how influences have impacted masonry where I live, to provide context for what is coming next. I would suggest when lodges approach a values based good life, a mark of their success is the way they communicate their respect for the process. In laboratories and meeting rooms where decisions are being made, I've always encountered a respect and gravitas. Even certain topics elicit dignity, not that the reaction will be similar. CERN, JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE, FUSION, TOLSTOY; words that themselves draw attention to the human condition. Most men may think Masonry is completely unique, and by assocation being part of that membership they too are unique. Masonry is one of the mind maps available to mankind. Kabbalah, (religions), Tarot, Astrology, Numerology, will by necessity provoke strong opinion. We impose our own sense of legitimacy but being capable for understanding but not entirely understanding the appeal. Fortunately the Masonry encourages examination, limited by individual curiosity and motivation. Some men push back on the serious questions. Others must examine them. Does a man appear to demonstrate he has found happiness by understanding the link between happiness and virtue? Aristotle made that observation and history passed it along, where eventually 'freemasonry' incorporated it into ritual practice. Agency being what it is, never allowed this to be orthodoxy. Masonry requires individual understanding, having drawn for us the belief that logic and reasoning will eventually draw us all to validate the design of our practices. Meanwhile, while we are students we beging to assume certain mannerisms, that show us to be inclined.
Whether we are satisfied with Masonry depends where we look for satisfaction. There are few barriers to the experience of masonry other than a lack of imagination and a lack of self-discipline. Those character traits, fortunately are always lurking close bye. Your depth as a person will be evident in some way to those around you. We normalize this thinking by educating ourselves in the ways of freemasonry. Philosophical explanations are such a release that people with that ability have no reason to doubt. Somehow life goes on. If we are curious about the nature of masonry in our context there is an easy way to test it. Simple be yourself. Read as you will, and inevitably like-minded will find you as you find them. Tensions? Those are boyish transgressions, meaningless in the big scheme of things. What is far more interesting I find, is the way the goal of understanding removes conflict. It is uncanny knowing we do not have to participate. I like to think there are ways to rise about it. We work best when we all assume accountability to a greater truth is not asserting our mindset anywhere.
Who is the richer man? The one who is consumed by greed, encouraged by hubris, convincing himself he has merit because he has wealth, or is it the man who has acquired understanding and knows when he has enough? In a way enlightened men are aesthetes. Some climb Machu Pichu, or journey to an ashram, while some wander their own thought, in search. So tell me, can you buy insight without understanding when enough replaces greed? We live in a world that has monetized piety, tolerated suffering and displaced responsibility. Yet there are places immune to it, places where men strive to understand virtue and live accordingly, for the sake of happiness. Happiness seems to be in short supply. It doesn't come from decadence. We can remember when ancient Rome outlawed hurbris for a time. And when wealth made social divisions painfully clear, some historians noticed revolt was sure to happen, did we ever think we were immune to those same forces? Being receptive, what do you see? What do you know?
Fortunate or not, we are in the age of communication. We may feel alone on this blue planet, the only elements with conscience as far as we know. We might have a great deal in common if we took time to look. The communication links are spreading around us organically. It's a bit off putting for those who now value their privacy and freedoms of their childhood that have been undone over time. Though at the time we felt constrained and hard done by. Masonry seems almost presient. The inner man decides what gets through, what is or is not important in a given moment. With all the glitter and white noise, his question is about primacy and purpose. As brethren have greater access to scholarship, we become more knowledgeable and not only more but we are applying what we know to herculean challenges. When we are aware of the elements of a productive mason, it is clear to us when we meet. The spirit of masonry exists whether a man has been initiated or not. Being prudent, we know to exercise judgement with them. "Incontinence is a peculiar form of badness. Unlike vice, incontinence does not involve willing bad behavior. Rather, it consists of knowing what is good but lacking the self-control to do good. Incontinence is not as bad as vice, since it is partially involuntary." Nicomachean Ethics ~Aristotle. The lodge sharing these observations will be cultivating a different sort of compatibility. Intelligent people are revealed when observered. It's the details we appreciate in our deliberations.
The beauty of the Craft is that the more we acquire knowledge from it, to more we are able to apply to our lives. How could we not be awed by references drawn from Aristotle's masterful work- the Nicomachean Ethics. If I'm not completely off balance, he simplified thinking and life for the rest of us by putting forward reasoned propositions to conclude with truth. He gives us three types of motivation; logical, ethical and emotional. I won't go into them here other than to say the world is still complex, but now we have defined a piece on the chess board. His case on happiness is most compelling, explaining the key to happiness is through virtue. It certainly stops the debate about advantages of corruption over ethics. Why live a good life? Because it is the way to happiness that doesn't happen otherwise. The logic is there for us to reexamine and calculate again and again. Within the Craft, we do find men living accordingly and men struggle with their own assumptions. The education of a mason is not to be underestimated. It produces dividends when properly cultivated with assistance of intelligent use of mentoring. If like-minded men would allow the rest to find their own way (or not) I think it would reduce the amount of distraction that has burdened lodges far too long. We are poor judges of others. We are kidding ourselves thinking we can predict the future of anyone. Absorb values, live accordingly and optics change. It takes time for a cynical public to accept candor and trust when they have learned to be suspicious. It is our lot in life to patiently carry on, as we are, whether others accept our growth or not. All men are imperfect. I am imperfect. As frail as those thougths might be, understanding virtue is not simple. Making choices based on virtue is lonely, all in the hope of finding happiness.
It is the eve of the New Year- 2024. It is not to be denied, life as we know it moves on in an expanding infinite universe, with a beginning we cannot find and an ending we do not know. Of the antient landmarks we promise to preserve, we are remarkably selective. We know within the fabric of our Order, there are scholars examining how our principles are effected by the passage of time and cultural movement. Lodges take the education of masons seriously. Learning is exposure to 'masonic' ideas and self directed enquiry. What are we improving if we don't have a base line? What is it we are attempting to improve? Outcomes? Reducing poor decisions? Mistakes? It takes more than a minute to describe what a moral human is like. What does he do? What does he say? We admit we can shape thinking with the help of explanations because that is the raison d'etre of our Brotherhood. But time hasn't slowed for us. We were never a machine. We were never an army. Our history tells us we began and grew organically. Some limbs wither and die, others find new direction and still others thrive. What feeds our growth is something we can't actually define- this thing called intelligence. Is it a way of thinking? Is it memory? Wealth? Accumulation of power? Is it the ingenuity shown in actions? Is it our display of or reverence for the arts? Despite decades of examination, the best we can explain is when it is absent. Masonry would work for most contemporary settings if not for the word merit. Is that the meaning of intelligence, to understand our relationship with merit? If I smile and am friendly then you are obliged to do the same, except that isn't equality in action to be presumptuous. Though our work is serious, it is not gloomy. We can be serious without being solume or tedious. Do we need to treat our purpose with the respect it is due. The tasks of a mason are called challenges for a reason.
There is so much harmony in the world. It doesn't profit weapons manufacturers. It doesn't force accountability on politicians and it doesn't save soldiers carry out their sworn duty. Cynics hate to be reminded we are alike. Social media in the hands of Joe Blow was bound to cause them to sit up and pay attention. Who controls the media? Not the establishment. I know some of you will have been children of the 60's. Defiant, dilettant, refusing to accept an agenda of conflict. But then we grew older. We cut our hair, put on a suit and became the establishment. And now that history is judging us for damaging the planet we have a collective debt to pay. Hoping and praying has never been enough. It's the salve we use in a shell hole, when the world is on fire. We walked away from our churches because we could not accept rigidity. We lost faith when the influencers were found out. We never lost the need to trust, but we became very cautious. There was safety in money as the new god. It never claimed to be moral or improve equality and justice. Nicolo Machivelli was standard reading and he taught the prince how to bend ethics to satisfy his purpose. And when men of conviction react with utter indifference, best to mock and belittle them. Reasoning and ethics has always been toxic to demigods. I know we encourage harmony but there is some satisfaction tearing down the odd despot and righting wrongs. It is worth keeping in mind, each generation needs to do their calculations just as we did. Each generation needs to make mistakes and find ways to correct them. Slowly, we are gettting closer to one global community, recognizing in the infinite universe, there are only seven billion of our species and the dinosaurs were on earth much longer than us. Look for common cause and the greater good. It's there. Find the joy and share it.
To be perfectly honest, I have little interest talking about the craft as a noun. Masonry as a verb, the catalyst of creativety is far more stimulating don't you think? Once in a while, I put on apparal that reminds us of the specialness. We make those special efforts, bringing as much elegance as we can to our event. There is always some bunch doing things differently that are more attractive. We are after all, an audacious, aspirational bunch. Like builders before us, we have an eye for new techniques, new design and engineering. Those vaults, and flying buttresses were genius, so we made them part of our work too. Bring the dignity with you. Bring elegance to a meeting, but don't concern yourself, your preferences will always be an influence and appeal to others when it is right and reflects unspoken comments. Living in the moment is a curious experience. It's liberating to accept that we only live in the moment, that yesterday and tomorrow are in the imagination. When you think on it, can you create magnificent 'masonic' experiences that have principles at the core? Can you do it unintrusively? The ability to listen without judgement, to speak less so you can focus on what others are saying, is observe in silence- these are unusual traits to exhibit. These are behaviours men write about, yours for the taking. Imagine a world without cameras, where a memory is a memory, where things of importance today, fade into the vitality of today. Imagine quietly understanding and not feeling a need to tell it to the world. That's called confidence. You will be mocked for it but you will also make a difference, when by your carriage, you enter a room with elegance, tending to your guests, hearing every word
Maybe what others think, isn't nearly as important as being honest with ourselves. If examining motives and intentions is 'a path to happiness', results hereabouts suggest it has become a bit overgrown with accumulated debris, that it requires concentrated effort to find it. Why? Why would anyone subject themselves to an existence of self-examination when cheating is so easy? Surely, we have all heard the logic; old men advise to stay healthy, avoid doctors and hospitals. It's a version of 'ignorance is bliss'. Cloak this with language describing masonic function especially the part about 'higher moral standards, and we need to go no further to sort out the confusion and compromise that was spurred by 'local tradition'. What is the truth? Is ignorance bliss? Before opening that door, reason tells us living to pursue a life of virtue is impossible without using navigational tools. We were handing 9 of them after we got round to settling on that number, but we conveniently handed them back for safe keeping. Can you think why anyone would give up populist thinking to strike out on his own? Surely the cynic within him would panic at the thought. Ignorance comes out of chaos, easily. Knowledge requires disciplined thinking and patience. Accordingly we live in a state of ignorance/darkness willingly but now are telling ourselves we have chosen to struggle to understand. Truth isn't pretty. Honesty isn't easy. What if we did subscribe to that effort, would motivate us? Let me present an answer and try to convince you it is obvious. The motivation is the setting. It is rare to accomplish this feat alone alone. It is plausible when working alone in the company of like minded. Universities were built on the idea. So, it seems was masonry.
How do we prepare a man for the conversation about to follow him until the end of days? If being redefined is being reborn, then masonry has been doing a very important piece of work for a very long time. The work isn't done because it is appreciated or popular. It is choice made about the importance we place on the thinking of a man, an assumption that it can be influenced for the betterment of the man and those he influences. By presenting teachings in metaphor and allegory, masonry's symbolic language shields us from our harshest critic's potential to make us a dangerous presence. We are quite famous for erudite rationalizations. We draw on reason and philosophy in a way uncommon to most. While we exist as specks on a spectrum populated with 7+billion souls, we notice what connects and what divides. Asking men to moderate their thinking, to turn judgment into understanding and to show the power of self restraint has never been a difficulty. As long as some men are able to convince other men to war, and dominant, we have a role. At initiation we are drawn into an on going deep discussion, Conscience, values, honesty, all are called into question before our harshest judge. Is there a man who reaches adulthood without scars of some sort? Machiavelli taught us a man who assumes the mantel of just a lion is a fool because it is the fox attitude that allows him to identify traps. We can rely on the conversation to ask questions. Whether we fell pressured speaks more about our individual traits as well as whether we hesitate to ignore who and what we are in the bigger scheme of life. Stories about old moral working tools keep their secrets until we recognize the context in which they are vital. Of course we should be temperate in who we select because this lifestyle is not for everyone. I walk along the ocean shore, having the strangest thoughts and then the Craft speaks back..
Like many of you out there, I am grateful for the way masonry has effected me. Adding a touch of old age, that allows me to speak more truthfully and hopefully with decorum, I offer a proposition to change the way we define our relationships and invigorate our priority. Lodges are empty. Attendance is poor. We give pins to old boys who walked away decades ago, as if they did something to contribute in their absence. The main current continues, in one door, out the other. It's a grimy business that we rationalize. Without solutions we discourage conversations which keeps the cycle going. So much energy is invested trying to remodel men who show no interest in the study or understanding of masonic methodology. Year by year, variations on the same themes are tried, with the same results. We accept substandard work, we praise rather than encourage. And because we haven't a way to show them the consequences of sloth, we continue to invite that withering mindset into the Craft because they were once as enthusiastic as a first date that ended badly. Our preoccupation with them, flat-lines the heights our committed brethren might achieve had they received the same attention and concern. So I suggest we do that ourselves. Instead of chasing grown disinterested adults, we show them why we invest by showing the what happens when we apply masonic values, hard team work and imagination.And we never look back. If we put our trust in a virtue, it's time to show the world what we can do when we stop rationalizing and get on with the task. No mason needs permission to ask questions and to think. There never has been a box. Masonry explores. Our learning is discovery. We observe, We listen. We show patience. The others need a change to see it in action. Guilt isn't motivation.
So many options. Some come from people who want to control. Some believe we ought to be influenced to their designs, that they know what should occupy our attention more than us. We suffer fatigue from relentless advertising. Broken men will want to escape it. Common sense tells us when we don't know what to do, do nothing. Set to your work with focus but keep your eyes and ears open. Is it history repeating?
Today we carry on as we have, ignoring common sense, ignoring history, until we are standing over the wreckage offering feeble explanations to fill the silence. Our new g-d isn't new anymore. Nietzsche stares out at us from t-shirts while we short out how domination and ideology continue a repeating narrative. Does it matter that we try to examine the impertinent questions that trigger our 'superiors' ? Our masonic beliefs teach us we each have impact, just as we each have agency. We may think change comes from the largest mass of like minded, until we realize how decisions are made and what motivation they serve. The Craft lets us know one may can make a difference. He can leave beauty in his production for generations to experience. Moment by moment science is pulling back veils. We know the effect of a smile. We know a sports field makes a tremendous difference in the development of child. We know having enough to eat, water and shelter in safety are necessary for people and nations to achieve their destiny. It isn't idle talk to perform charitable acts, because someone in our community is in need. Thankfully Masonry has gathered together a library of pneumonics to help us achieve the goal if we are prepared to put in the time and effort. It is unapologetic about our collective purpose which brings us to a fundamental question about relevance. Do we increase marketing value added, thinking that's how insight is instilled? It is what you take with you when you ponder the process of masonry that matters. Entitlement and privilege didn't end when liberty, fraternity and equality became the defining motto. Neither did darkness end when we adopted Aude, Vide, Tace into our vocabulary. If it helps to understand we progress individually, then masonic influence has served a purpose. The tiniest of change is often a harbinger of unstoppable things to come.
Can't you see our complex we are when we pause to reflect? So much is revealed about our understanding of this phenomena called masonry. All surgeons are alike, that they have specialized skill sets. Their specialty within the specialty shows us different applications require even more. I like this analogy. It flatters us all with a motif that is only thought of when needed. We revere the skills of medicine not as a walk around thought but when the context becomes personal. A wife, a child; a best friend, a neighbour, then they become significant. Is it so hard to associate them with a prayer? My affinity for the GAOTU becomes crystal clear but the confusion comes later. Am I the diest I thought I was and is the connection with spirituality still strong? Yes of course there is a point to be made and it involves the way we pause and think about who and what we are. Are we struggling with ambivalence about becoming and being one when we consider our relatiohship with old, masonic oaths? Looking at each other we couldn't tell, so instead we are left to assume each one of us is true to those obligations. When we consider the options, it is not so bad to make that assumption. We see the individuality as differences. We struggling with a longing for the truth to be simple...but it never is. To find a beautiful outcome we need some way to explain contradictions. I think it is for this reason, we shy away. If a brother is disatisfied, he will live in that bubble. The careful observer will see what the casual glance would never suspect. During life of a mason the sense of being one, comes in hindsight. It safely leaves us ground for further improvement, which might be one of the most challenging elements, learning to stop feeding our ego and get on with life. If it is as I believe a truism, we become what we do, I wneed to know, is this clumsy version of a complete man is capable of refinement and sincerity.
We find ourselves on the outside looking in wondering what went wrong. Masonry gave us a new way of being, of thinking, of realizing our relationships with others likeminded and otherwise. Has the gestalt changed so much that our rigidity has shone through? Is it us that has brought on the declining interest in an very old fraternal Order or is it that the values on which it is based are no longer as vital as they once were? Bhuddism isn't a religion but a way of being that embraces all religions. I don't hear concern about relevance; never a concern about the number of people practicing on a given day being up or down over yesterday. The only thing I can imagine is that the way we are measuring our progress isn't encorporating the entire picture. It's not plausible for all members of all lodges to be self-aware, but it is a potential we have never dismissed. The basis of this thinking is despite our mistrusting nature, within all humanity rests a desire to connect, to befriend, to protect and even to suspend disbelief and have a sense we can control what happens to us tomorrow. The future takes us along with it. We can become opinionated. We can act out our concerns but at the end of the day, understanding provides safety. How far we reach toward that understanding is a variable we explore just as people have done before us. But to have meaning requires more than imagination, it requires acting on those ideas. Thats where we find charitable acts, done because they are the ehtical thing to do- the right thing. Today my smart phone can give me quotes from the great minds reminding me what we do what we do, what our thinking says about our relationship with the world around us. Listen. Watch. Silence. When we have learned self-discipline, we must compare notes and ponder.
If we visted the Louvre would I become an artist? If I read Tolstoy would I be a writer? If I sat with Hawking or Feinstein or Newton would I be a physicist? Of course not. I bring this up to illlustrate a point; self awareness grows from within the man. We can dissect the world, we can describe shudder at the horror and wonder at the beauty. We can attempt to stop it with stereotypes so we can examine phenomena more closely, knowing it dissolves into time and is always a small part of a larger picture. I wonder if we are a pivot point for thinking about our place in infinite space? We travel out without the completeness of travelling in. Can we ever truely reach objective thinking, as if we can contour heart and head? It may be popular to think the world events are moving faster than we can comprehend but that is an illusion. Events move with us. We are conscious of things moving around us and yet we continue as spots on spectrums. What is right and just, that is for us to decide. Some find somethings easy to acquire. Some find hard work is necessary to acquire. And why acquire anything at all? We are temporary, in an unending time/space, creating illusions but never able to alter truth. As we age, we begin to define purpose in life, in a desire to reconcile our brief time has not been fettered away but has meaning. Whether our meditation is hoeing rows in the garden, or connecting mind and body awareness, or absorbing beauty through senses, we remind ourselves memories of our past are not our completeness. We learn from life what we need to learn, when we are receptive. Wrapped in the expansion of thinking we call freemasonry, life is audacious. We have no reason to progress and do not deserve happiness, but we do. Contrary or not.
There are places in the world where access to masonry is carefully weighed. Conversations have been had, reasonable conclusions drawn, a sense of direction that heightens the senses is a given. Imagine knowing your participation represents a sense that this particular lodge values what they do to the extent they are selective and you have been chosen for your potential. You are committed based on an understanding you want to be part of that particular lodge. Wouldn't the masonic environment be different if this was commonplace. It is more commonplace than we might suspect. Then why is it not more evident? More often we have this impression because the dialogue needed, is not communicated. There is a mistaken sense that we can build effective lodges without being judgemental. It is not possible to go through a minute in a day without making judgements. What descerning men take into account is the bases of those judgements. Being judgemental certainly a problem when it interferes with understanding and cohesiveness. I call that gotcha moments. The man that claims 'devils advocacy' is steering the conversation. It is the antithesis of shared inspiration when one man is distracted by his own bias. Rather than reasoning, he has stopped weighing the facts and instead interjected opinion. You may have your own opinions but you don't have your own facts. Fact is, opinion is temporary and usually inconsistent with requirements. Inspiration is when a group are working on a similar wave length. When men experience inspired men, they too are inspired. What does it take to inspire you or me? That's the rub isn't it. You know within yourself it is unconscious attitude. No one wears the 'Hi I'm inspired' t-shirt. Inspiration is known as things unfold around us. In some groups that are open about being in touch it happens.
One day Masonry migrated to North America. It took root in Britain and Europe but the stock on which it was based, stretched further back in time and recent memory. When it landed, it left behind class struggles and a devotion to imperialism. This was the land of revolutionary freedom and optimism and the land fraught with the reality of struggle. Against that backdrop, there was something unexpectedly comforting that came with freemasonry that remains with us to this time. It brought an idea for new immigrants that there was something bigger and unifying out there that brought mankind together. Until relatively recent, we looked back on those times with a protective sense of nostalgia. Those were simpler more perfect times. There is a tendency about truth. It is unrelenting. It is the thing that causes despots and authoritarians to manipulate history to draw out a story that favours them. It is the thing that always prevails. Those days of innocent perfection, have fallen away as the truth about authority came to light. Racism, abuse, negligence are facts. So too is denial of the disgust, scorn and ridicule. Masonry may well be one of the most understated anecdotes to alienation in its many forms. Obsession, intolerance, hurbris, addiction, resignation, they are pushed aside by the messaging of a masonic legend. Hiram brings us a world of possibilities, in which we are free to create opportunities. It shatters myths about small towns and dark cities. It focuses on the best of human values carried in the breast of a good man. New ways of thinking came to North American one day. Masonry continues to influence where it came from and where it goes. Is that true power?
Our practice continues. We don't compell a man to find relevance in masonry and we never have. We are cautious the trust we hold in one another is not overrun by charlatans. But when they slip in they are of little subsequence to masonic purposes. Draw your attention to what is happening around you. Look carefully into the shadows and you are likely to find students of the craft. They are not trying to dominant the conversation. They have embraced humility because that is what they found in ritual, the influence of service to mankind. Character that does not require the limelight, or compensation. To be motivated by altruistic reasoning is liberating. It is one of the moments a man is free and knows he is free. Yes of course there are rewards for surrendering to main stream thinking, to look and sound like everyone else, but don't call it freedom. Freedom is free will, to think and act independently is not anarchy or subversion. It is agency, independence. But is it your truth? These beliefs are about using what the Creator have us at birth, enfused with what we gained as we walked through life. If we coould all agree on what it meant to be a decent person, much of our work would be done. At least masonry attempts the impossible. It attempts to draw men together by resetting our our fliters. Gautama Buddha — 'Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Imagine the possiblities. Do we choose material gain? Do we choose dominance? Do we choose a path of enlightenment and brotherly love? Choices made clearer when we sit at the side of philosophers.s
We use other words today. Alchemy branched out into chemistry, psychology, natural philosophy and then philosophy with a dash of science and belief. Today, men approach the Order of Freemasons in an elipitcal, spectrums of understanding on steroroids. Understanding isn't a competion. It is nice to quote ritual but it is not a reflection of understanding the ideas it contains. Efforts to educate brethren have great variations. In my location, the first consistent impression is desparation. Learning is codified into a motivation of success and compliance. To do this, a connection with psyche and individual deeper meaning has to be ignored. The way to do that is not fully understood. One way is to make philosophical injunctions appear elitist. This is a crude idea that ignores the actual humble context of Greek thinkers. The asthete Diogenes lived in a barrel. Socrates ignored popularity, dressing in simple, thread bare robes. He held court in public with students joining as they felt. Plato told us 'I know that I know nothing'. Without hubris. Emphasis was on the heart and mind of the willing student of life, a man who wanted to know if he was a moral creature, if his principles of life were truth or illusion? And so they asked uncomfortable questions and for that they were condemned as being overbearing and dangerous. Masonry guides us toward inner wisdom, to look for what is good in another man, encouraging such positivity with an influence that counteracts mistrust. The real world teaches division, competition and mistrust. Men do not drop their guard easily. They need to feel the consistency and benefit of understanding by receiving it from us. Can you and I access this knowledge? There is one way to know. Todays message has been unpopularly benefical for thousands of years. It will be there for us when we knock. When I am straight, then maybe I can expect that of others. Time tells.
If were are all in possession of these qualities, it would explain what we have been calling indifference. No acclaim needed. No praise, no need for attention. We come from mystery not dominance. Even then we expect discretion. Ours is a world of hegemony, not in any political mention but of an assurance that some men, somewhere are keeping an ethical course in mind, doing what is right, because it is the right thing to do. Is it even possible to measure organizational goals with such a group? It is not written that we need illustrate to our betters what we have done and what we will do. Again, how? How can we measure effectiveness? What question to ask? Those stoics in the crowd shun attention. They may understand it, but not trust efforts to draw attention to their actions while at the same time are happy to evaluate in hindsight, the accomplishments of long lost brethren. Tell me, is there a more difficult task? With enough knowledge to know what we don't know, we know we will never be able to measure 'success' in this group. Tossing out the occasional celebrity name holds little if any meaning for them. Even as a guide, masonry fits the thinking and lifestyle of stoics like a glove on a hand. Self reliant, independent, practical, high standards, level headedness, minimalism, emotional control. I'd say we might want to find a more accurate tool to measure this crowd, but don't expect they can co-opt their inspired beliefs for a mission state or strategy. We aren't speaking their language. And I love that they speak masonry.
Before we became boring and docile, we faced constant threats. History helps us remember the struggles brethren faced. So many yesterdays tell us about men who were maligned, prosecuted and murdered because they were freemasons. It should come as little surprise, a group of men, meeting privately for reasons not revealed to authorities, were considered a menace. We had stepped on toes- church and state varieties that were capable of revenge. Today, we have given explanations to diffuse those tensions, which to a large extent has helped. But men with secrets are always a threat, aren't they? In some places masonry is still actively persecuted. Not so much in North America but religious zealotry never completely disappears. But it does emphasize the need for discretion. Occasionally a thoughtless comment comes back to affirm old suspicions. If most of us were interrogated, there is not much he would or could reveal. If challenged, would the average brother push another brother under the bus or protect his interests. If a man doesn't see a threat, does it exist? As we couldn't stop aggressive religious posturing, we simply stopped attending. When the perversions of fools surfaced, credibility vanished. Some were able to separate the faith from the performance. Others are still wrestling with it. And still others have decided on protection of the innocent. So we do have purpose, we who embrace all faiths, to explain how to be a person of faith and a man of science. Why have so many of the great scientist been people of faith? It is hard to explain in a way that takes in all views on the subject. Can we find meaning in a seculare world? Of course.
Wars have been fought over the collision of cultures, to what end? There is no, one culture. Humanity is spread over a diverse land mass, that in itself effects thinking. Mountain regions may isolate. Coastal communities may absorb and the rest of us are somewhere in between. It seems a stable culture with a sense of hegemony was necessary to give rise to an organization of men, dedicated to self-development. Stability meant it had the advantage of universities, places that drew bright minds, environments that encouraged exploration, that savored this thing called the scientific method. It was an admission that we control very little in this expansive universe, but we are curious. If we are observant, the accumulated findings make it possible for us to postulate, asking questions, especially those that to a point in time don't come with hard fact to give us answers. We go in search, armed with an idea and ethics aspiring to 'learn' what the universe has to offer. It requires the advantage minds equipped to absorb different interpretations. A man stuggling with the exhaustion of survival is in different kind of struggle. Abstract ideas won't competed. Masonry is a gem in a field of indulgence. Some men have advantage that the conditions of survival have created surplus. One of them is leisure time. Some wile it away. Others dedicate themselves to knowledge and some to the betterment of humanity. Which are we? Unusual. We may aspire to define ourselves equal,by way of adopting a new lifestyle, predicated on finding relative truths are not absolute. That atmosphere influences, it brings mediocrity to the surface, it stimulates effort and congratulates innovation but free of the chains of profit, culture within culture. Masonry didn't invite the structure. It too built on it.
Once upon a time when the first cords were struck, we focused on it. Today a sea of hands shoot up, with cell phones at the ready, as if moments like that capture forever frisson. It can't but that doesn't stop the practice. Do we help by mocking them? Do we not think that doing what they must to prolong moments of such excitment and pleasure is justifiable? Today we are in a liminal state adjusting and readjusting to a frank world view, complete with the emotional mindset of each creator. If we all witnessed a single event, we would have to gather all those opinions from eye witnesses, and try to bring them together to explain what actually happened. Knowing this influences reactions. Why argue over differences of opinion, knowing opinions are all equal, some being more equal than others? That's like applying geometry to our thinking or finding that point within a circle. We shape our reality by the way we interpret our senses. That's the clarity of geometry. We are left to understand what we believe are answers to questions raised. The more influenced we are by 'masoninc' values and principles, the more we ought to see them reflected in our understanding. We strive not for uniformity but accuracy. Accuracy is greatly influenced by the way we apply our thinking to the task at hand. Listening, to others and to ourselves; watching others as well as ourselves; being unintrusive toward others and ourselves, critical thought but not criticizing, this unlocking potential is worth practicing when you we are ready.
Would I give up all that I am to be Hiram? Our conversations stay at a superficial level until we begin our journey. Guided by your mentor, step by step we take up the persona of a very special man- the last remaining idealist. Pushing aside greed and domination, we began to see the possiblity of being in a community of shared values that took apart ignorance and prejudice. Morality was curated but not described. You and I were give tools, taught how to use them and left to apply them to our conscience. What we do and how we express masonry follows our gradual absorption of our technical nomenclature. We know we strive. Living in the moment, contemplating, we learn that the greatest satisfaction a man can experience is helping others. Men have always expressed masonry in their own way. We are generic as leaves on a tree and as unique as each leaf. What holds us together is found in ritual. For some it is performance. For others it is understand. For the lodge is the benefiting from the thoughtful contributions of one and all. So rehearse ethics in conversation with mates, to apply them in the profance world where masonry learned is then put to use. Your researches will enrich thinking. Your conversation will influence. And because it is private, gradually assuming traits of a mason is a different way to look at reality. It isn't pretty. We have a duty yet it comes with a capacity to rationalize why we cannot live the good life. Once you begin, never give up on yourself. Keep an open mind. Catch yourself when you feel it closing and to find the answers you seek, explore where you haven't explored before. You are one of those travellers who wrote about the beauty of their journey as a guide to us. It helped a poor boy like me understand spirituality. How has it helped you?
It is truth everything in the universe is in motion. So it might seem a bit overstuffed to use the idea to introduce the effects of temporary experiences in a temporary life. I need to make this point, to make sense an undercurrent of urgency. Experience life optimally we are told. Don't let a minute slip by. In fact I never felt I had control over time. Trying to think in terms of the immediacy of thought was trying enough. Now I'm expected to extract optimal meaning? It makes perfect sense for a man to appreciate the contributions, big or small, including his own, that are necessary to the overall function of society. Though we may have not received mentoring in our youth, masonry picks up that unfinished process. For some it can be an introduction. For others, like reading a book for the second or third time, rexamination gives us new insights, more meaning. Our curiosity and enthusiasm marks us as students. When we become curious and ask why, we identify with philosophy, the field that deals in absolute truths seeking that influence. Masonry introduces a world of symbolic communication, secrets revealed poetically when a man is ready to receive. But experience then teaches us, they are archetypes. Through the Arts and Sciences we are introduced to a simple fact. The world has symbolic meaning, IF we are aware and attentive. No one need know that you think like a poet. It is your inner experience when walking through a field to see those daffodils happily dancing. What change that occurs is first and privately known to you but publically exhibited. We are not the same man at 80, that we were at 30. The way we react to life has an effect on the way we understand ourself and those around us. One more lonely man is hardly noticed. We are sensate, intelligent creatures. We need ideas and activities that challenge our thinking to stop our minds from turning into mush. If it isn't a challegne, why bother?
Can we find relevance? Freemasonry continues to offer a methodology that in the right hands provides context. We can try to minimize the effect, but at the end of the day masonry requires intelligent thinking. Can we be blamed for refocusing masonry? Our collective history tells a story of lodges aware and participating in cultural issues of the day. We decide if we will apply modern ethics or consider their actions using ethics of their day. Today, our priviledged lifestyles depend so much on how we navigate social issues. Are we really any different? In fairness to our legacy, I would want to sit in a lodge of capable brethren, who can talk about the contentious issues of the day without referring to approved correctness. I cannot fault uninformed brethren from trying to fit in with popular thinking. It is an affront to critical thought. Is it even a quandr or simply something we haven't yet talked out? Why do we limit ourselfs the way we do? Is it fear of retribution? How can we be relevant and not be aware of the global as well as local issues? Conflict over there has no bearing when children are hungry and women are beaten here because of our indifference. How do we draw the line? There is no line. There are ethical considerations, held by men who invest attention in philosophical validity. Historically, lodges risked much to confirm beliefs. They were worth the struggle. Today, what is worth the struggle? Freedom to think? Equality? Fraternity? Is the risk in avoiding the conversations or in picking up where the ancients left off. Where will radical thinking take us? Isn't that worth exploring? If only we could do that without attracting unwanted attention. If only.
Joining an enlightened Order doesn't make us more than what we are. Unique, bold, inquisitive, skeptic, stoic, epicurean, floating through time/space all trying to get by the best we can with what we have. This bookmark in time doesn't necessarily recalibrate thought and behaviour as much as matching expectations with those we trust. It's like a liberal education with a caveat attached. Prove what you've learned. Apply what you now know. Influence the world around us with the kindness and manner of an enlightened gentleman. How tantalizingly Masonic. The secret is how. How do we show that care? A fund raiser for a worthy purpose? Acknowledging unsettling ideas that bring us closer to equality? How or whether we make the adjustment is functionally left to us. Can I tell you cerebral masonry is mistaken? It would be foolish to dismiss ideas. Keep in mind masons built cathedrals to last, for public use. Attempts by politics and religion to erase threatening souvenirs brought even more attention to alternative causes. And so masonry was always there- in the background, building and training next generations. Still is.
The reason we value time so much as we mature, is because of potential. Some men exhaust themselves for reasons they haven't examined. Others place high priority on quality of life. Everything is subservient. Are you one of those chasing time and never finding enough? Or are you clearer about priorities and have the skill to make the time? I suppose the answers depend on whethere masonry is essential or preripheral to your thinking and being. To walk up the metaphoric steps, we need to feed and shelter ourselves and those around us. It takes an exceptional fortitude to reflect on meaning while being targeted. How many soldiers have returned scarred deeply by their experience, questioning if a G-d even exists in a world that can justify carnage on such a scale? Masonry allows for Zen-like reflection, of course. Our values endure when put to the test, as an overriding sensitivity in a world unable to find peace. Masonry, if not its practictioners, by design realizes the failing of proselytizing. To make it right and perfect requires little more than a show of respect and an attitude of tolerance toward disenting opinion. When we step over the curb walking into a lodge for the first time, many of us fall flat on our face. Mutual respect and tolerance is an alien sensation in a materialist world and here it is being spoken out loud. To retrain our faculites to act and expect them is daunting. It makes us vulnerable when our expectations are not met. During the early stages when we are testing new ideas but not yet consolidating them, we are prone to missteps and its easy to draw wrong conclusions. Aha, masonry is just like the profance world. Obligations are only fulfilled when you decide it is necessary. Any claim on masonic perrogative is likely to being from an overactive ego drive. We are taught, and many agree, insight is not possible until ego has died. Oh if only masonry were normal...
Curious. Something happens in the mind of a mason and I am one who believes it is important to share the experience, as a way of connecting with each other at a spiritual level. Today we live cheek and jowl with networks of networks. The internet has become a digital 'tree of life' a source of information and understanding. It also contains jetsome and flotsome and plenty of it. Google Scholar may still be a filter between nonsense and legitimate science but that does not change the mainstream influences of monsters and fools. Does this negate the value? Not in the slightest. I like to travel by car, to see sites, visit friends, have adventures going to unfamilar places, with unfamiliar people. That is not diminished when the menace driving when he shouldn't or places others at risk. We propose a philosophical understanding is achieveable, knowing it will attract sensitive, observant types but knowing it also brings in scurrilous adventurers and materialists. Why do we find it impossible to weed out the chafe? There are some very good answers, but they aren't popular. For instance, applying masonic values when selecting an applicant requires a certain maturity of thinking. Evidence shows when knowledge of the methodology is lacking the results are feckless. It is a question we ought to put to curious bystanders- why? why do you want to become a mason? To be effective that mentor would need to offer his own understanding. The difference is between what and why. What makes a mason is much different than why. Masonry offers us a ways of thinking that illustrate plausible motivations, and a map showing how to get where we want to go. It does not tell us those answers. It teaches us the mathematics, leaving the question entirely in our hands. Does this week out politicians and ambitions? No of course not. The transformation happens in the mind, awareness that translates shows up action.
History equips us with clarity but not in all cases. History as Dr Margaret MacMillan has writtten, is prone to being abused to suit particular narratives. It's not statistics that are being manipulated to achieve an outcome, it's history. Where censorship and scars are censored, we can find happiness believing what we are told. The hold is what many of us call loyalty. It has a powerful hold on its citizens. If that's what it takes to be happy, to swallow the thinking, why are the papers full of sensationalism? It boils down to culture, until we are uprooted and thrown into a caldron of critical thinking and truth, our culture is strong. Inserting truth into the mix tends to be startling. Truth isn't pretty but its necessary to achieve insight. Truth. Look at the variety of masonic interpretations around us. We may long to be that reserved, calculated lodge built on legacy and wisdom. We have beautiful shrines to our Order but they are a rarity. When we pick up our tools, it doesn't not automatically make artistry flow through our hands. We may be a very bright, intense freemasonry. We may be a real narcisstic nuisance, easy to identify and ignore. Acknowledging divergent opinion is not suggesting anything goes. A literalist would want to press that point; without singluar thinking we risk chaos. It is a well worn and wrong minded assumption in the context of masonry. Masonry is where the human spirit is liberated. Our methods are not single events but bundles of collatoral influences at a point in time. Because we are always admitting someone into the Order, in a way we are tethered to our start point, on bended knee. However time pushes us into tomorrow. What have we learned? How do we apply that learning in real life? With humility. When we learn rhetorical strength, we can press one another until we find the best outcomes. If a man finds happiness, who am I to deny him?
Time is being very good to masonry generally. Here we are, 600+ years later, still straining under controversies, still attracting audacious men, with abundant curiousity, unmatched. Are we any more an anachronism today than one hundred years back? We can visit shrines where masonry has been elevated into an art form. In the shadows of a cathedral, we find cultured men gathering for an occasion. Fine dining. Relaxed conversation. Provocative speakers. The framework varies from state to state but is recognizable for its simplicity as the Mens House. Today we are as fashionable as a fountain pen, a set of cuff links and a hand tied bowtie. The leveler in this group has always been the same; the ability for informed observation, the philosophical inclination. Some of our practices today would surprise our antient brethren, but there would be enough happening familiar to them. To add to the greatness of masonry requires resources and builders able to tackle construction that will span generations, a message left in stone and brick and beam. These are once in a generation, where our ancient practices assert lasting effects. It isn't lost to us that we are spread around the world. Our Brotherhood is doing fine where masonry is well and completely understood and enjoyed. We balance legend with practicall and domestic duties. It takes planning to make our repeating performances appealing. Will estoeric masonry find traction? How then do we measure our progress? Do we look to compare? Do we acknowledge what we do well and what we need to develope? We do when we surround ourselves with mainstream masonic literature. Legend, mixed with conjecture, opinion and fact. We may be treated as relevant as alchemy or astrology but we are far more and the probing mind of Master Masons will tell you so. As it should be.
Education gives us the tools needed to articulate thought. It is not exclusive but education brings vocabulary with meanings into our bearing. The exchange of ideas is enriched by our use of words. As soon as we think we grasp one meaning, we find context changes understanding, as does intent. Words have more than one meaning. Weclome us masonry where the individual is transformed into a lodge, where ethics prevail. Our collective is where optics are impactful; where being and seeing each other turned out in-kind, reinforces our place in a grand ordered way of thinking and being. It is where we entertain the skeptic and stoic; where enthusiasm is examined for clouding thinking. The product of self-awareness is graphic. Looking at influences mixes guilt with truth. outside the popular ways, looking in, is not to everyone's taste. Challenge after challenge, we learn once an idea is assimilated, we need to find evidence it exists and is valid. Aha, moments. Something stops when that happens. All doubt that one person is insignificant fades away. We learn to value the potential of a social contract. Thanks Rousseau.
Masonry provides a framework to unite. So often we overlook vital points, revealed in ritual that we fail to reexamine. Masonry helps our understanding my presenting archetypes that increase the magnification to make ideas more easily accessed and compared. 'Never to be an enthusiast' is one of them. Yes, we've experienced rashness in our lodges. We've also found a chorus of enthusiasts. What we haven't notices is place for passivity. Can you imagine a laboratory run by enthusiasts? How many missteps would be sent out attempting to best the competition as advertised. Hubris was once so undesireable Rome outlawed it. When the Senate changed that law, we now know the decline of Rome was underway. As masonry is aiming us at unifying the forces that divide, it also tosses us a life-line. When in doubt, do nothing. When discovering, assume a passive manner so not to cloud our progress. Perhaps, without saying it, passivity is the anecdote to egoism. We aren't trying to overcome the problems of ego by killing it, as much as we by taming it. Passivity does that. Can we then begin to 'see' the effect of male ego driving culture? Masonry tells us, without telling us. Recall yourself sitting at the chessboard, revealing your thinking to your opponent through your reactions to moves. Not a word. When we overdue enthusiasm, it becomes meaningless. Like cheering loudly each season for a sports team that can't match expectations of its die-hard fans. The stillness of a passive manner is considered an oddity. It is self-control to examine in thought, options and then act on which is best and at a time that optimizes. We call that temperance. It's a principle. What if the lost knowledge never existed but we need to think so to motivate thinking? What if what was lost, is found within? If that were the case, we would be thinking outside the reach of religion or politics. Free-thinking.
Only enlightened men should apply. There are times I truly think that ought to be nailed on doors of masonic lodges. So much time is wasted trying to rehabilitate or reconfigure men who aren't interested. We know their shortcomings. They see ours, but we go through a pantomime, neither saying out loud, fearing a loss of a relationship. It might seem idealistic, to wonder about the possiblities if all men in our lodges were enlightened, like minded and capable. We have all heard the language used- perfection, excellence and I want to offer some support. They are concepts that need to be operationalized through our individual talents and abilitiles. The emphasis here is about relating to them as masons. I don't wonder this way of conceptualizing the relationship with masonry is lost to men who aren't familiar with the material. That is the nature of our culture. There is always an uncomfortable relationship between the status quo and innovation. Newness has to be tried and tested. At first glance, it is unpopular with the majority. History reminds us. Copernicus,Galileo, Picasso, Helen of Troy, we vilify what we don't understand. It might be one of the painful learnings of a freemason to accept we don't know much at all and catch ourselves being judgemental. At the heart of masonry is a question. Is it possible to remake dogma into awareness? Can a man actually change for the better? And can a man be influences for the better with values he does not understand and hasn't assimillated. Can a man be enlightened who can't relate to that concept? Obviously the answer is no. Masonry gives us the capacity to justify the free radicals who wander off what seems like an important path to understanding. But there you have it. As we like to remind, masonry is not for everyone. But for those who have the ability, it is amazing.
Freemasonry has a magic about it. It makes us hear things that aren't necessarily popular; more like tuning in independent music- stuff without the corporate stamp. It's fair that when we understand an aspect of masonic, we bring that to our lodge for discussion. Where that breaks down because "passions and egotism" have not been tamed, the need for conversing to test our ideas does not stop. I find it tedious to listen to them. They don't contribute, they don't listen, they are much alike and tedious as hell. They made have brilliant ideas, but can't overcome the fraility of their own beliefs. Either that our they don't know what trust and equality feel like. Our lodges are where separations are found. Panning for placer gold does that. We search among the pebbles for nuggets of value. Is it so hard to accept that culture has a bearing on the way we conduct ourselves, as boys, as men, as elders? We are never too far away from the effects of culture within cultures. We enter into a culture that has distinct values, a distinct language, concepts of universality, which values learning and questioning. Where growth continues as long as we live. Better for us to understand finding balance comes after understanding our priorities. It is inconceiveable to think a lodge would not be able to delight our senses every time we gather. Sensible men understand masonry from the first moment. Some get it. Some continue on with 'profane' world influence, no worse off, but no better. For those times when we aren't sure of the appropriate solution, we have tools that let us make those calculations. We don't have a list of answers. We have tools of understanding. Masonic learning is a step as is logos. When in doubt, we have covered that with a neumonic- Audi, Vide, Tace. Our sense of virtue- the alleged key to a better life- outline character taits mankind calls refinement. Trust your senses. Trust masonry.
It is hard to confuse our society today with that of 17th century Britain. Students of history will often pick out 'evidence' and use it to tell us a story about a particular period or way of thinking. We pick it up to answer questions. Not everyone has those questions, not everyone shares a need. How then does a self-made man embrace the freedom of enlightened thinking? Let's separate out the ideal from the awkward. 'Once the passions and egotism could be excised, the ideal of fraternity could be refined.' (Living the Enlightenment, pg 154 Jacobs). That ideal is where for many of us, we find the earliest reliance on metaphors of friendship and family. When we do that, up pops the influence of the Earl of Shaftesbury, whose writings on the social nature of the truly civilized man were so popular in an18th century world. So my questions is about that state of mind. Is a man born with it, or can he acquire it? What does that state of mind say about us? There is a difference about a man who admires talent, one who is jealous and the man who is inspired. I think we are smothered not because we can't understand, but because we haven't established a dialogue, or a space where we can challenge interpretations of the Craft. Of course the qualifier is the line I quoted earlier- 'Once the passions and eqotism could be excised...' It's important because to arrive at enlightenment we require the freedom of inclination. That is another way of acknowledge chaos and madness. Freedom is not a cultivated garden. That may be the outcome but the start is what happens before order is imposed, before we agree to certain collaborations because we value the outcome. Masonry exists on the other side of that freedom. Can that be taught? I don't think it can. But I do think Masonry is enticing. It draws us out, to challenge our own thinking, to expand, to become intellectually and philosophically fearless.
It was bound to happen that we would repeat the question; nature or nuture? what is the significance with masonry study? If we look hard we cannot find a reference to 'take-it-or-leave-it'. We have an unwaivering expectation of gradual self-improvement. And with that comes anecdotes from past generations sharing how they reinforced an atmosphere to enhance the experience. In the background, our Antient Charges outline remedies for problems. Since we are masters of our own imaginations, they have been ignored by all but a small group who keep us balanced. They know it is easier to avoid complications than fix them when they occur. There are always consequences. For many of us, it is where we begin to realize masonry contains a great many dialogues that I call- how to live a good life, step by step. We have all heard brethren talk about a masonic journey. Some of us find it is reasonable to extrapolate- the journey is as valuable as the destination. In many lodges, the room is full of neophytes, unskilled but eager brethren. We assume they have a need that can be met through masonry. I am not in one of those jurisdictions. Here, need is assumed, often wrongly. Confusion is widespread, yet brethren cling to the idea that they want to experience a more atmospheric version of masonry. They've become bored with superficiality, though they may not call it that. So much could be resolved by examining the selection of a candidate. In spite of shortcomings, masonry grows. When quantitative focus falls off, qualitative focus flourishes. And that brings us to an expectation of dignity. If there is an overarching need, it is to be taught how to reason. Command takes a back seat to the work it takes to understand we are complex creatures in a complex world. Order is an illusion. Chaos is an illusion. They are points on a continuum of understanding. We look again at a time when the Arts and Science were part of natural philosophy.
Around the world men join together to perform the rituals of freemasonry. Of course there are those that had compatibility in mind from the start. No choice is offered. Study and you will be rewarded for your efforts. Be aware and you will find yourself. These ideas occur more in some lodges than others. Matching the ceremony with enhanced discussion, in an atmosphere of cordiality has appeal to a man comfortable with the finer things in life. Self-awareness isn't self-consciousness. Excitable types take their seat where mature judgement is comfortable, where they begin to learn about a world in which we learn how to be impactful, how to influence others. Our behaviour, the way we speak, what we speak about, it all becomes purposeful. All is made possible by understanding meaning and context. Within the Craft we are taught alternative interpretations. Best of course that we bring in men capable of reasoning to save confusion. By reputation alone if not by character, a mason takes on a different persona. Our assignments are not so difficult. The fields we study are from a time when science and belief were accepted to compliment one another. Mentors show us possibilities and encourage us to beging unravelling mysteries of the universe. We are shown that if we look for common traits, we can find them in other men. Conflilct becomes difference. Opposition becomes spectrums on which mankind finds itself. Trying to explore the workings of ones mind is an exercise of awareness in which you alone determine how far you travel. While learning patience, thinking strategically has its own rewards, being honest, transparent is always daunting. Saying we have no regrets in life is not the same as admitting them. We are not the same man we were when we were young. Experience teaches a wise man, but not everyman. He learns that service to others is transformative for him as well as the recipients in ways that again alter purpose in life.
I might be prompted to think questions from a curious person about something esoteric or artful were a reflection of something known already. Familiar in a way. What ever our start point, there is room for growth. Whether priviledged or perceived privelege there is no one able to escape conscience, or questioning whether their life represents anything of merit to the world. I think we know money doesn't buy happiness. Celebrity is isolating. Privilege for those with it, is still a distortion. We can recall the early life of the Buddha, protected from the unpleasantness of real life and the education he discovered when he witnessed hunger and degradation before he found enlightenment. But if one is struggling to get bye and provide or faces hunger and sleeping rough, it is survival. It is not difficult for men with a moral core to understand. We are born with it, an emptiness. Most of us learn from mistakes. Some learn to lie to survive, not knowing the price. Do we look to rank and fortune or power to find character? At some point, we realize we cannot go on blaming our struggles on circumstance overwhich we have no control. It is our lot in life to make whatever we can with what we have. The assumption of responsibility is where judgement matures. Education has been a vehicle for change for people who have lived without. Why does the young mother work two jobs, attends classes and raises her son best she can? Why do entire families pool their resources to put the children into the best schools? Why does a mother and father want a better life for their child? Education is about freedom. Education is about living a longer life with fewer diseases and illnesses. For women, and minorities, it is about fighting for equality. And on that spectrum, for hundreds of years, masonry has been introducing men to higher level thinking. Not any man but a man who values learning.
We might never know all the answers to the secrets of life.Yet we never seem capable of stopping. Since the Enlightenment, our collective intellect has had foot to the accelerator. The restraints were cut away and questions exploded with such force, the pursuit itself became part of our culture. The need to acquire information, an ability to process it and now the tools to retrieve archived works, it was inevitable we would build machines to echo the new. Except for our habit of value judgment limits, telling us new is always better, it is still left to us to keep context in mind. Just as brethren have done for centuries, we bring a healty sense of doubt with us. We know, nothing remains the same. Everything is in motion. The only thing that limits us is accepting the idea understanding stops. What this conjures up is a sense that all questions have answers. That I do not know for a fact. Determinists would disagree but my free-will allows me to make 'mistakes'. As much as we try to be consistent, the fates are always involved. Today, 2023 I sit with the rest of the world, stunned by the images of galaxies from a time that ought not to exist, but do. When physicists wonder out loud about an infinite universe, no alpha or omega what is a simple man to think? The world contains more mystery than known fact. But this simple man has a sense of values. He approximates a life influenced by principles he understands. Each day, he puts another piece in the puzzle. Each day, his understanding shifts ever so slightly. And so the life of an observer continues, knowing less and less each day, as he becomes more aware of the unknowables. Such a fool, might have something useful to contribute. We will only know if we chance by and listen.
Being is a room of strangers is one thing. Being in a room of brethren is another. I'm inclined to think those who are on the outside looking in, are those who haven't been told the story of how masonry was built on mutual trust created by a tale of one person. This story includes the way he found to communicate with men of all languages and cultures. How? Symbolically. That meant it would appeal to a certain type of man. Knowing ambition was not limited to religion, business or politics, human values were added. And so it went, until we began tinkering with the model, as groups of men always tend to do. The success of this model comes to us by its endurance over a long period of time in human years. The influences that launched masonry were in two layers. One, the values, aiming at a virtuous life, we can trace back to Socrates. Don't believe it? Argue with him. Infrastructure needing to launch the idea required legitimacy. A history was created. A legend was written and the presence of cultural legitimacy were introduced to enhancements, adventurers, scientists, philosophers, artists, writers, the kind of things that define entire cultures over time. All can be traced back to the faith those men had in their discovery. I suggest, none of this would be possible without their trust in one another. Today, we that same connection is possible, the effect of oral history, building undying trust is within our grasp, within each of us.
Robert Heinlein wrote about isolation in his work, Stranger in Strange Land. If you don't care for science fiction, then skip this part. Like all writers of "good" science fiction, he helped humanity look at itself from a safe distance. Distance is important, especially when we are talking about the intimacy of the human condition. Guilt. Passion. Pain. The idiosyncracies of life. And these many years later I am reminded while physics is rethinking physics-thanks to the Webb telescopes sending us pictures of galaxies that ought not to exist but do- the existence as awaress teaches, also contains this terribly challenging thing called intimacy. What part does this play in Freemasonry? It's like this. Today we largely view mentoring as an objective phenomena. But we also know, lecturing is one sided so we have to question our own understanding. The properties that have drawn men to masonry for 600 years are not the large brush strokes but the intimate discussion. Masonry has itself taken on legendary proportions so legend mixed with factual history is of little concern, except for a certain portion of brethren who need that reality check for consistency. It isn't what we do together. It is what we take away from those experiences, that reminds us of the unique prespective masonry brings to the world. I think of masonry as a recital. Unlike friends, music never lets you down. If you are of that inclination, then what I say next will make sense. You have to tell yourself you can do it-with enough effort and dedication you can achieve the divine within masonry. I cannot tell you what that is, because it is your's to discover. I cannot eat your meal for you. But you already knew that. We introduce children to good music in hopes they will enjoy it, as much as you and me. We teach children values because we hope to give them the tools to a good life. If one becomes a mason, he is showing dedication.
Search as far as you can to find satisfaction, but don't loose track of how impactful your values can be on outcomes. It's startling when we first discover within ourselves we aren't what we want to believe about ourselves. We are the complete package, clear/confused/confident/doubtful. I've never met a man dilberately trying to sabotage his own progress. Some acts can seem odd and even bizarre with convoluted logic but they all are efforts to do the best he can with what he has at hand. Getting by the best way you can, is the basic contract between a man and his creator. When the dawn appears, then we can set to work instilling different perspectives, some that may have been devalued or overlooked. When I listen to myself, it makes more sense when I reveal that my thinking is an attempt to live without being ruled by value judgements. I won't bore you with those details. You will have your own notions if and when you begin that line of questioning. For me, it was a discovery that brought a sense of validation. Aristotle taught me determining right or wrong using my own values, meant I was limiting my thinking and tilting at windmills. Many of his prepositions have left us asking how we know anything to be true without examination? He doesn't tell us we are guessing but that's what he is getting at. When we are being taught by mutual selection, there is a bond that forms; one that is not violated from the outside. It is that bond that was the process of oral history, oral teaching. We gave it up when we found books more efficient, but we never gave up the need or appreciation of the trust formed between two of us at a time. We two could discuss anything and everything and we did. We absorbed information through out studies but with the built in advantage of meaningful discussion. Somewhere I've read that knowledge becomes wisdom when we discuss. I like the premise very much.It makes us think
Can you imagine a world before freemasonry? It's hard, especially in a time of excess and indulgence, to always appreciate how ground breaking masonry was in the day when religiouis persecution was rampant and when despots flexing their muscle tried to define their values as our own. Over time, science prevailed. When it broke through, it was more a way of thought than a single event. We became instantly captured by the potential. Our best and brilliant minds sacrificed for the betterment of one and all, including the illiterate and disenfranchised. One segment of society who had advantage took on responsibilty for another. Relationships were being redefined. Science helped us assign genius where it was found, not with the gentry. Mouth to ear teaching made it possible long before we had permissions from an artificial authority. One man trusting another, to exchange secrets. We were ready to protect that link because we valued it. Even today, we find children of disadvantage achieving greatness, while men continue to suppress them. By comparison, masonic values and principles could easily fall into the 'too good to be true' category. Maybe the reaction isn't entirely cynical. Maybe it's scepticism about something that doesn't happen in real life. We claim we are all that, and so it is up to us to pick up that responsibility and act on them. Me? I like the personal approach. I like caring for someone local, knowing just caring makes a difference. Do I expect recipience of my largesse to bow and acknowledge? Hell no. That would rob them of their dignity. We can celebrate the reputation of the Craft is built on ideals; beyond our grasp but what we strive to achieve. We go after the impossible. Is it feeding and sheltering a family of outcasts? Is it treating lost souls with dignity? Is it sharing our benefits? A good man could do that, right?
Darned difficult to balance the concepts of masonry. Damned near impossible to balance them with first exposed. Masonry is best read with an enquiring mindset. If we trust masonry is a source of first priniciples, we go on to share the excitement of discovering capacities we had not yet experienced. Rarely does a young man have a sense of how to do it, but at a tender age he will begin to understand necessities and extravagances. Limitless erosion, falling into a life where the only intimacy is with a drug driven state of conclusion. Or driven to earn a reputation that exhalts his lineage. The sages who influenced our design were aware what holds humanity together are commonalities at the heart of being human. We find this when we are doing comparative readings. If we look for similiarities in scripture and philosophy, they are there, but that does not stop zealots pointing out the opposite. For men with low expectations, clustering together against a common foe may be the only affirmation they have. Hatred and fear. Masonry isn't a thing as much as it is a concept. Men who espouse those concepts are influential, wherever they be. LIve or dead, they are a countrepoint to some unpleasant versions of rule of law. Gandhi brought a warring nation to its knees without raising a fist. Conscience is a nasty combatant for those unfamiliar with their own. If masonry were a large diamond, the facets would be stunning. We would give names to them and ascribe certain geometry to their relationships. It might be a symbol of all that is good. How would it feel to bring it out everytime we are together and never talk about it? Would we believe boredom wouldn't infect the crowd? Likely we would take it out but have no idea why. Except there is that small gathering who are inspired by it. What do they know, that has escaped us? It's just an expensive stone.
It is unsettling to say this but perhaps curiosity has gotten the better of common sense. I want the experience. I want to judge for myself the influence of ancient landmarks, to articulate the function of masonry and to begin building my personnal cathedral. Enough has been written assuming we share a sense of ambivalence. It is hard to deny the value of pausing to reflect. I like that it comes to us from poets and scientists alike, if we are capable enough to listen. I can't say masonry is a means of excising demons from ones character. Guilt is a strong motivator. But I can say masonry shows the fruitlessness found in pursuit of catastrophizing. We also learn by making mistakes. Some more costly than others, but we learn because we have no choice. Learn or burn. We aren't born with the advantages of life experienced. We may not be complete blanks but we absorb meaning from the people and events that surround us.. What we assume to be conclusive when we are young, often than not is more opinionated than factual. It is nicer to call us Masons than Curios. That's what we are. Curious about the world and the people of our community. We are only huge until we compare our lot with the universe. A small blue dot, orbiting in a goldie locks atmosphere, inhabited by a species that exists no where else. And our struggle is overriden by consciousness, because we absorb more information than we can process in a given moment. I tell you masonry is a pneumonic, without expecting you to believe it. It triggers expansive reasoning, seeing differences and opposites as simply places on spectrums. We know experiences and knowledge can change behaviour and thinking. We do not know how to kill integrity and authenticity and genuiness. Kill what we don't know. Kill the strange. But we cannot stop the entire global community from introducing itself and reflecting our nature. We are social creatures. We are curious.
It is inconceivable to most of us. 13.7 Billion. Just a number. Is it the profit of banks during times of austerity? Certainly not; too low. Is it he wealth extracted from vulnerable people? No. That is far more. It is a calculation for the age of the universe. How many stars? Two hundred billion trillion. Just a number, also hard to conceptualize. It represents the number of stars. Closer to home, 37.2 trillion tells us the number of cells in our body. Ten quadrillion, the number of cellular divisions in that body over the course of one lifetime. Harder to grasp. As science has expanded, life expectancy has increased. Today we are about 8 Billion souls. Of that, calculate 3 Million freemasons; .0375% is us. I would not invest on those odds, and yet here we are, inconceiveable tackling unimaginable tasks. Masonry is not like performing a poem or a song. It is learning a new language and using it in a new way of thinking unsupported by evidence from our senses. Do good men prosper over bad? Socrates tells us they do, but my eyes tell me corruptions is always ahead of justice. Fairness is an illusion. And Nietzche said it out loud- we killed G-d with our use of rationality. We work knowing the we will contribute without necessarily finding the answer but we will contribute because we believe, shortcomings and all in the value of rational thought in the hands of men with conviction and faith. How is this possible? Imagination. Creativity. Time.
Can we imagine a world in which mankind is no longer acting on values and priniciples? The despot manipulates to further his cause, regardless of the down side, breaking a few eggs to make a cake, is how we dismissively think it. Expect it is exploitive. Not that we have difficulty with that, until we personally experience our own vulnerability being exploited. Or until it spreads to the extend it conflicts with our values. This is a rather extreme way of introducing the concept of inclination. Some inclinations seem obviously easier to display than others. Our conversations pivot on power to implement whatever we can tolerate. If you told me concepts can kill, I would argue they are rational explanations for irrational acts. But what would I say about the Craft? Would we think without our beliefs is a sense that our concepts need no analysis or to be operationalized? Brethren in far and distant places may agree with our commonalities, but that does not change lived experience. For example, how have they operationalized concepts of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty when we have not? Are we thinking back to earlier times; to hold a thought is to be guilty of the crime? When we are accused an angry reaction is understandable. Anger like that can make a wrongly accused person appear guilty. I read somewhere, about a perfect inclination of mind. I know we haven't shared our thoughts about what that means, but we do know it is an idea that has a bearing on our thinking and actions. But its only a concept and we are good to ignore them. So please, help me. What do we need to make 'masonic' concepts influential? How do we change ideas into life choices for men without the inclination to understand? Today, fraternal bodies around the world are facing the same question as memberships dissappear. If we are to become a lost generation, a least let it be by an act of commission and not feigning ommision.
As complex as the world around seems on a given day the workings of the human mind are all that plus. We carry with us unfathomable consciousness. It is capacity we barely comprehend yet we conduct our affairs with the sense we are moving forward. We move forward not recklessly but with a sense of security based on what we trust. For some it is mathematics and science. For others it is profiting and for too many it is survival. The rules change when we pursue clean water, food and a safe place to sleep. They change for those living in conditions that do not sustain life and they change for those of us living in safety, secure in our safety who must teach our children to ignore the child living over a grate on a sidewalk, maybe intoxicated to overcome the demons, maybe conscious and aware of the constant threat. To be successful, do I have a conscience that influences my life or do I pretend they are not my problem? Yes life is a struggle. Yes we have science telling us how to reduce poverty and suffering if only we have the courage to use it. There are cracks forming in our armour. The struggle for individual rights, a sense of equality is getting louder, just as education is reaching more people every day. How a person survives overnight is less important than their survival. Knowing this makes well informed people more isolated. The marketplace, the agora wants what it wants; resolution of an illwill thought of the moment. This is no different that it has been. Our progress has always been in the hands of the few. Creators of beauty have always been mocked, unless they had the power to influence the narrative. Why politics? Because it is power. Power to use to impose will. Except for academics and freemasons, such uncomfortable questions are not asked in genteel company. What is it we are actually tolerating?
Here we are, 421 years after we bothered writting down notes that we met and talked. Another generation going through life for the first time, attempting eyes wide open. We might as well atttempt to enjoy a life without dress rehearsals. Making the best of the time we have without isolating is a natural thought. It comes when we realize the metaphor is about us opening our dark temple to a light. Its a simple, powerful idea, one that satisfies on different levels. It does not dissolve unfairness. It does not make us more or less competitive. It acknowledges each has agency. If all the insights of freemasonry are unexplored, do the insights exist? Is it like the tree falling in the forest when no one is around- does it make a sound? These are conventions we use to encourage observation. Thankfully, masonry outlines some basic values as context, so that when pass a tree or walk pass a crowd in the park, we can easily examine and place those artifacts for us to examine and affirm. Everyone likes to feel important. Being observant makes us feel that way, especially when we realize the only difference is living with a purpose in mind vs getting through the day. If you think as I do, being accurate, or thoughtful or observant, in a crowded room in which you are the only one, does not detract at all. It connects us with those conversations we had more than 421 yars ago. We didn't sit down and immediately begin taking minutes. Someone said- these are good conversations, maybe we ought to be writting this down?! We can only guess how many years these 'masonic' conversations happened. So who was first, seems absurd to think. Who cares. The conversation, once started, has never ended. It is made more interesting when we share what we have been reading. Absorbing the ideas of others has always been a satisfying process. So encourage the pints to be filled, loosen tongues to the extent the truths surface, watch truth.
However challenging it is to find and live, the virtue of truth is not always accessible. Take for example what has happened to our heros of days gone by when their secrets were revealed. Whole societies became enraged. Trust was not longer expected. Oversight and accountability became more prevailent and we became a nation of laws. That said, we stopped looking differences in language, faith or complexion as signs of threat. With barely any restraints, humanity began talking directly. The unholy of unholys came to the surface everywhere. People decided what freedoms were necessary and what level of oversight was permissible, without asking permission. Did the estates experience the loss of authority with quiet dignity? We know, of course they did not. Our global principles were put to the test. Virtue stopped being an illusion. Money and wealth were worshiped by opportunists. All was good except, it came at an expense they were not prepared to pay. Damned those speculative freemasons. Damn them for their ability to thread their way through values lessons, with the objectivity of the innocent and the academic in search of truth. Of course, this meant the masonic sense of assistance to the vulnerable resurfaced. Of course, it was at times, an overwhelming project. Heady stuff for men wanting companionship, a dart board and validation. Heros have vanished from our landscape while individuals have continued to earn respect by their ironic display of generosity and courage. It is becoming harder and harder to hate thy neighbour because they are different. Our future is a morality-cleanse. We're prepared to fight for the right thinking it ought to be shared. Though ancient knowledge has been passed on, describing a right life for thousands of years it is as new today as it was when we first sat down and talked about what ought to be. Is this still relevant? It would seem it is.
Frankly, I like differences. Maybe it is because familiarity, maybe it is because friction makes an otherwise tedious existence much more challenging. Eight billion of us bring 8Billion perspectives into play. If you allow, all those perspectives combined will reveal truths. The combination is clarity and accuracy. Today the news is full of concerns about our future. It confuses us by turning to selling news that makes money, to pay the bills. If only news would flag each item according to motivation. It would help to know if something is newsworthy because it appeals to the senses. Slowly, our dignity eroded, deathed by a thousand cuts. Propriety is left to the wealthy. The masses have been seduced by salaciousness, exposed so often its not even noticed. Vulgarity and shock gained attention in an impersonal media. We traded mouth to ear for that efficiency. Change has always been with us. Today we are learning about the universe as a place constantly in motion. Along with our own curiousity we are challenged by others wanting to gain our attention for their reasons. The fatigue has been generational, and more incideous than simple advertisement. We are as manipulated as we want to be. That's what the apron does for us. We select what is or is not relevant after studying what ought to be relevent. So says this overview of 5,000+ years of philosophical arguement being taught to us. I begin to think we are at the seam- between mathematics on one hand and it's match philosophy on the other, in a delightful liminal state. Are we born curious? Some more than others. Are we so confident of our findings that we can be the observer and not a participant? Dg
Serious as life is, there is room to celebrate a fading dominance of that little voice questioning whether we are right or wrong. It is like picking up a recipe and using it until you reach the point where you embellish it with our own touches. Suit yourself in the way you celebrate the yearning to find the best in those around us by learning the secret. It really is important. If I told you we are taught to look for flaws and errors would you ask if there was another lesson? Yes there is. Beginning with what we don't want, doesn't explain what we do want. I don't want creme in my tea. So what do I want? The lesson is as simple as that. Look for the best in a person and you are guaranteed to find it. Don't believe? Of course not. You need to learn to balance this like you did when riding a bicycle without training wheels or a parents firm guiding grip. Looking for it in others, finding it and then considering what those discoveries are doing to your world belief, that is a journey into truth. Is it terrible if you discover something intrinsically beautiful about life? Have you and I realized the universe doesn't cloud our vision we bias? We do that happily, and to our own chagrin. Why is it that knowing this about ourself is self-correcting? It's hard to ignore better ideas when given choices. When we conqueor our own conceits, a mason finds a level of mastery he didn't have. He influences with a glance, a presence, a state of mind. To reinforce our thinking, we turn to the many pneumonics found in ritual and the volumes of material packed into a each symbol. Making excuses is unnessary. Though it is private, we witness men approaching and then avoiding the truth. Truth is daunting but essential when the illusion of life isn't working anymore. Making more of our life is a very good reason to think as a mason. Knowing we can improve the lives of all, is humbling.
Today, we celebrate the efforts of all masons, through all time that carried us to this moment. Every day we aspire to do what is right and good. We know emersing ourselves in fields of ethical convesation is influential. In the darkness of time, there are beacons drawing men together to do just that- to express a collective good will that embraces all mankind. If we allowed ourselves to indulge our own thoughts, we couldn't possibly reach closer to our capacity. We need each other, as much to validate as to challenge. Within the expanse of imagination, we have stunning examples of beauty and grace in lodges built to communicate without words, a seriousness and importance of Arts & Sciences over time. But we make that part of our domestic scenery. A lodge is where we gather, where we conduct our practices and listen to the exchange of ideas. As magnificent structures, they influence as they ought, the creation of lodges where inspired men find comfort. And for men who need to transgress the obvious, our core connects us with ancient knowledge, even the esoteric practices of the kabbalah all mystical and esoteric. To answer our questions there is no shortage of opportunity to explore our relationship with fringe and entirty in the safety of ideas. Is there a link? That depends on the depths of inquiry. Probably. Definitely. But even as we come together with our growing body of knowledge, doubt and time cast long shadows over us. I suspect more brethren are using the privacy of their homes to explore these questions because they are a man stimulated to understand. First priniciple? I'll let you know when I get there. Until then our coming together is the stuff of legend. It is always a good time to celebrate .
Creation. Out of all the billions of galaxies spread throughout the universe, somehow the ingredients of life converged. Chemistry became material and material became billions of divisions until we were created. It's a miracle when you think about the odds. We are alone in this inconceivable space. We are as remarkable as what is around us but we don't see it that way. Is this luck? Is it destiny? Is this by design? Too long ago I stopped believing the GAOTU was a demanding persona. I didn't believe creation was in the hands of Santa. Do good and receive benificence. Doing good is no guarantee. Doing good is what a mindful man does. He puts his being and purpose in context. And when we remove fear based learning, we uncover some interesting facts of our own. We don't control the fates, but it hardly matters. Life itself is the achievement. When we accept the way happiness is achieved, subordinate to all the other forces and laws at play, we begin a self satisfying smile. All 'that philosophical stuff' ? thats always been the grist of this mill. Take whatever opportunity presents itself to reinforce what is good and just for you.
Are we restricted by our history? If we sense we are, is it permanent? Or is it a starting point? We take from masonry what we can. We do with it as we will.Let's not forget, no one said it is for everyone or that it is easy. We have evidence of that in the spread of masonic practices that have dominated far too many conversations, far too long. That would be true if masonry was static. When we think that, we are taking a snapshot. We use it to examine more closely, but we don't loose track of the fact while it gives us a picture to study, it is only an illusion. We can't stop anything, anytime. It's magik. If we want to reduce risk, we learning from the experiences of others. If we are fortunate, we recognize what is credible but never stop exploring what seems improbable. But thats absurd to think. I tell myself history repeats itself. It doesn't but I tell myself to avoid complications, telling myself they are wasteful interruptions. We move forward, along with everything else. Vibrations of different frequency with a difference. One of those vibrations is sensate. It has awareness of itself and all the other vibes. But far too abstract to tell a story. Our learning window is temporary as we are temporary. Masonry quietly extolls us by feeding our curiosity and yearning. True is, we may say it is a universal and it would be true at some level, if we weren't also unique specimens. Masonry may be more like a destination on a chart than a route to that destination. It soothes us knowing this disappointment schmoozle is a search for enlightenment. It doesn't come with clean lines, or binary precision. It comes riding on spectrums. Whether that has value depends on if and how it has been explained. Masonry touches us all in different ways at different times as it always has done. We are creating history everytime we open.
About the only singularity in masonry is the individual who brings perspective and judgement. I would be first to tell you truth is revealed by behaviour. What we do says more about our thinking than any words. Being prone to comparisions is unavoidable if the Craftsman is a dedicated/curious student. We hope he has begun to find his niche. Tolerance, respect, knowledge, these are universals that have grown and followed us over the centuries. Accompanied by the sense that society is gradually and generationally in decline. If it is any worth, the Egyptians left us notes saying they had those concerns 7,000 years ago. La meme chose. Some traits are part of the social fabric. To the outside world, I might not feel so compelled to describe Masonry. Within our walls, I see not point trying to instill a sense of learning in men who are disinterested. It is afterall, a special opportunity. Should a man pass our entrance, he may spend the rest of his days lingering around the door and never stepping through. There is a large, cordial group with him most days. To settle in to our apprenticeship, we need to get over the overwhelming confusion that faces each of us. Some wise sorts 'help' their student by dismissing whatever displeases. Too hard. Too long. Too complicated. Attempts at dumbing down the workings of masonry are as effective as deriding higher learning in general. To think such things is disengenuous. Even the unprepared man, not sure of his direction or potential, is better off in a place where those with purpose are carrying on.
So much effort at achieving the good life can't be a coincidence. It's different for men who's soul has been damaged. It's different for men smart enough to learn from the experience of others. They will be found in libraries, bent over a page covered with their jottings. In search of ideas to confirm and if they have the capacity, to challenge and be challenged. It takes a great deal of searching to find a part of masonry that does not expand into something remarkable when given the slightest contemplation. Supposing there is a hint that there is one right answer to each question, it would not pass the first test of inquisitive ppl. They always begin asking why. What we take from those conversations, like what we take from our studies, widens when we are in discussion. Long ago, we designed an order that enjoyed a cup of coffee, a dram, honest, unbounded conversation, and got the idea it could be duplicated in a fashion in other counties and towns, even in other countries. It would be insulting to their intelligence to spell out how and what they were to do. They gave us hints- spirituality but not religion (because there is a difference between theology and organized religion just as there is between masonic thought and masonic organization. We are born to learn, to be receptive to our surroundings. How far we take it is complex. Opportunity, circumstance, literacy, personality- they aren't causal but they do factor in. Fortunately genius by proxy has taken over the world. Knowledge comes to us, in the palm of a hand. Translation is not so much a barrier. Accountability is on the rise and literacy is being made available to everyone. We are gradually sorting ourselves according to that ubiquitous bell curve. Within the Craft? Oh its happening all the time. As bleakness seems to swallow us one day, the rising sun brings renewal. So is it still worthy of worship? Ask the darkness
We are a community that has endured for longer than we can measure. We have a strength, not built on numbers but on a continued sense of unity. This might be the angst experienced by Grand Lodge representatives- how to influence growth?-how to influence depth? - how to enter the minds of men to examine what motivates and inspires. The answers to these reasonable questions are murky. Put all our finest philosophical minds in one room and they would show us consensus is not an outcome but a process. We will always question and reason. Best answers are temporary, evasive, situational. Without preamble or discourse on how they were reached, they fall somewhere between opinion and popularity. It has been this way because we know there is truth to it. And the more we respect diversity, we hope out of that men will take responsibility for consensus building. Those that do are legends. Those that aren't, have questions to ask and answers to debate. Let's say a lodge membership all read Scottish masonic history. We might not assume they would all have the same reaction, but would they have a framework on which to build. But to build what? I think they would invest on creating atmosphere, conducive to their collective sense of masonry. Scottish culture tends to stabilize anxieties. It is a story of integrity and authenticity. It is one of a number of cites around the world with that capability. Some men reach back to understand their cultural roots. Others focus on survival and moving forward. Is there are right or wrong? But put a small group of like minded ppl together and they have a different potential. Even though masonry an overarching community, it is thousands of smaller cultures, known to tyled lodges that we never see. Is the conversation informed? How does harmonics and the common good play out? As projects in process. Take nothing for granted, everything in moderation and respect the body of knowledge. SMIB
If we thought about it, we might say this is the goal of education in general and higher education in particular. Whether we are bent over a shop table or standing in mock court, ppl are attempting to prove themselves in some way, bettering their condition. It is not a guarantee though we might notice priviledge does become a lifestyle of some. It is not what draws the people striving for a better way, to step into the fracas. It is a simpler connection. If I apply myself I might as well aim high and see what comes. Maybe it is fear of failure. Maybe pride. Maybe it is an unstoppable genius. Whatever the source, doing what it takes has been our consistent call to arms. And in some way, this adage applies nicely to our chosen field of study. Learning enough, that we can extend benefit to family, community and nation. Is it any wonder people roll their eyes? We are community. For all our faults and flaws, we try, imperfectly but we try. And out of the numbers who crowd our doors there is always a handful who are a grade above. Not through ambition but for talent. Since the 16th century and possibly before, men have wanted reliable guidance. How better than to teach a man the tools needed to calculate an ethical path forward? I'm hard pressed to think this is voluntary. Its necessary, that we preserve the kind of knowledge that intimidates oligarch and despot alike. That may be the only level of accountability beyond manipulation. So is there a rightness in that? Absolutely. But make that choice for yourself. So mote it be.
It is not as if one form is better than the other. They each have a place in our history and into our future. We have always relied on studious brethern to pass on their findings to those who have little if any inclination. Masonry is a steganographers dream, in part because we used symbols to convey elaborate pieces of knowledge. Of course we respect our researchers. Masonology was once a narrow lane of research. But by limiting our reading to works by masons, we ignored the energy, and findings of historians, antiquarians and philosophers at large. Who could have imagined the impact Internet would be having on our Order? Fingertip access was a dream come true for those of us with a job that used the accelearate flow of information. From the outside, it would all seem quite confusing. Thanks to market pressures, user friendly sophistication has moved in. At the heart of both narrative and rational freemasonry is the exchange of ideas. I cannot apoligize for so much overlap. There is an overarching complimentarity in play. As we learn more about diversification, it takes us one step closer to our own unifying theory of the masonic universe. What enlightens me might have little appeal to you and vice versa. By listening to those divergent approaches we fill in gaps. Everyone of us has questions. Whether they are the same questions masons have been asking for hundreds of years is irrelevant. It is our question, in our time line. Huzzah. Huzzah. Huzzah.
As soon as I make that decision, I give up potential of all other choices. When we are children we aren't burdened by this. Everything is potential, no matter the outcome or comparisons. We have nothing to compare. Not a jot of predictibiltly but a wealth of discovery. Smarter people than me, figure this out. It seems like they are more confident that me. But they aren't anymore able to predict outcomes. It's the joy of discovery. Nothing seems to compell me to be philanthropic, or to study the primacy of "speculative masonic thinking". I'm sure this isn't a school of thought, but a description of a window through which the world reveals itself to a humble student. Which then is the challenge? To live with doubt and conjecture or attempt truth? Is this what is meant as I suspect, by the death of will? Metaphysics is only part of the phenomena. As above, so below. Physical and metaphysical. The mathematics of life and living transports us beyond impressions and beliefs to deeper meaning. But the question of us, is it transformative? Not necessarily but it could be. It really doesn't matter until it matters to you. You alone are the measure of efficacy. Walk up to the average person and they would think you odd to be speaking familiarly about history and philosophy. Profane lives also matter, is another way of saying masonry is not about hubris, but hegemony one act at a time. I would hope your search, our search for meaning is enriched by the information and dialogues you are able to experience with brethren.
Does being around men having intelligent conversation influence you? I recall once being asked to schedule a meeting, in which we would be sponteneous and think 'outside the box' about some organizational mischiefs. And I lost my boyish charm explaining I didn't know how to plan sponteneity. No clue. So I sat quietly, befuddled, disappointed at what I heard. As you can tell, it is with me to this day, many decades later. Learning from history, can tell us much about ourselves, if that is what we are questioning. What of rightness or accuracy? Begin with what you have. It may be refined through life, it might be challenged and entirely replaced. Or it might be validating. Being open to those possibiltiies doesn't mean we won't ever again experience disapointments. It means they will be in this broader context- what can we learn from them, can we integrate that learning? Or do we store it away until we find a use. I love that masonry provides the academic in use with incredible challenges at the same time, instilling in us the manner of a gentlemen content knowing what he doesn't know is always greater than his knowledge on a given day. If we aren't sure about masonry, we can act as if we are. We can act with a sense of respect, embracing diversity, challenging ourselves to answer the question about a good life being connected to living a virtuous life. He was infaliable as we know but was Aristole accurate in thinking virtue was the source of a good life? That is where we find ourselves realizing we begin the conversation with a firmer understanding of his terms and our own. We aren't born knowing morality, or are we? Is it something that is lost as we grow old and need to restore? We do become tired. There are days when we aren't inspired or searching but observing. We always know the difference between a pause and avoidance so be generous by brother.
There is no- one way to practice speculative freemasonry. Neither can it be said we are a chaotic lot. Instilling a sense of purpose happens when we are with the Entered Apprentice who asks questions of himself at least in balance with the questions he asks of our Order. How direct we are isn't as important as whether we are sensitive to how vulnerable we all were being overwhelmed by the depth and intensity of our body of work. Helping him adjust to this is like teaching someone about the vastness of mathematics or organic chemistry, or law and justice. That too can excite the imagination or be a daunting sensation we need to overcome. How do we teach our EA to own his effort, to respect his progress and to explore the possibility he may have found a way to unlock potential. It isn't mechanical. It isn't doctrine. If you're a fan of ideas written in metaphor then you will be happy you've been given an apron and tools of identification. Some will find it off putting that steganography was put to use throughout our ritual practice- as if decyphering metaphor and allegory wasn't enough, messages were embedded- concealed information that the unsuspecting would not think to consider. This too is part of learning the symbolic language of a mason. If it is you we are speaking too, have you found contentment? Are you thinking your effort is done or are you inspired by your findings? Isn't it diabolical you can know masonry in that way but be unable to convey that directly to others. We cannot eat another man's meal.
To understand freemasonry, requires lived life. It has bits that require a slow deep read because metaphor is often layered. There are pieces that you want to have on your bed table for years, so its available to infect your thinking. It's not surprising readers struggle with meaning. I think anyone trying to get a masonic education, will already have some familiarity with the classics, the genius of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Proust, Melville, Dante. He will know about a rawness of life through Tolstoy's War and Peace, one of the greatest novels ever written. It sits on my shelf because it contains so much description of thought, his delicate explorations of freemasonry. Agreed, it is easier to appreciate some, but remember Ulysses was offered up by James Joyce defiantly to readers as a 17 year read. It is hard, every chapter an experiment in literary convention. Freemasonry is indespensible to a man who values the private mysteries we absorb from written language. Add philosophy, history and metaphyics, to grasping meaning. Masonry isn't restrained by borders or language and neither should you. There are rich rewards following Scottish, French, Czech and German journeys into critical thinking. This takes nothing away from English masonry. And remember, there is always more to read, that will change the thinking of open minded types. Imagine a life in which imagination and fact flows into the virtuous life of a freemason. Keep asking yourself why- why are certain things boring, why do some works excite and resonate? Read and talk about your work as often as you can, using the lexicon. Continue to indulge. Commit to meta-learning, learning how to learn. Learn the art. Visit MasonicFX. And don't be surprised when understanding becomes an inspiration itself.
To understand freemasonry, requires lived life. It has bits that require a slow deep read because metaphor is often layered. There are pieces that you want to have on your bed table for years, so its available to infect your thinking. It's not surprising readers struggle with meaning. I think anyone trying to get a masonic education, will already have some familiarity with the classics, the genius of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Proust, Melville, Dante. He will know about a rawness of life through Tolstoy's War and Peace, one of the greatest novels ever written. It sits on my shelf because it contains so much description of thought, his delicate explorations of freemasonry. Agreed, it is easier to appreciate some, but remember Ulysses was offered up by James Joyce defiantly to readers as a 17 year read. It is hard, every chapter an experiment in literary convention. Freemasonry is indespensible to a man who values the private mysteries we absorb from written language. Add philosophy, history and metaphyics, to grasping meaning. Masonry isn't restrained by borders or language and neither should you. There are rich rewards following Scottish, French, Czech and German journeys into critical thinking. This takes nothing away from English masonry. And remember, there is always more to read, that will change the thinking of open minded types. Imagine a life in which imagination and fact flows into the virtuous life of a freemason. Keep asking yourself why- why are certain things boring, why do some works excite and resonnate? Read and talk about your work as often as you can, using the lexicon. Continue to indulge. Commit to metalearning, learning how to learn. Learn the art. Visit MasonicFX.
Ever notice that masonry is about imperfection? The ideas derived from Aristotle and Pythagoras don't puncture egos at all, as much as teach us that the entrance to various levels of speculative freemasonry isn't quite wide enough for a person AND an ego. One has to go. Rightly so. To extract the opinions that challenge us, old school seems more effective than smartphones giving our packaged standardized answers to your question. We read on a subject enough to gain a sense of the subject, which brings us into our lodge where we blend our personnal opinions with others. For many of us, it will be the first time intellect holds the higher rank over status. That in itself is affirming for optimists. Everyone needs to be heard. We offer up a terse motto to reinforce certain character traits: Audi Vide Tace- for us the reason, validation threading truths around and away from the tedium of competitors who need to be right. Instead this quieter cohort is trying to do it right rather than be right. When we feel supported, it encourages the same in others. Better to bring it up in a tyled lodge regularly because of our transitory nature. People come and people go. We seem to believe it is preferable to know the good life and live it while we can. So we don't leave anything on the bench. When our time together comes to an end, that's it. Then it will no longer matter who wasted their time trying to best you or me, or chased recognition as a salve for insecurity. Nevertheless we have puzzles to attend. How are we known if our acts if kindnesses are kept so private that no one can trace sincere deeds back to us? It's one of the diabolicals. Learn to listen and watch in silence? Diabolically difficult. But do a deed without drawing any attention is an amazing thing. Being the only one in the world who knows the truth? that redefines selfsatisfaction and so much more, (or so I'm told)
The mind may stand alert at the prospect but it comes at a price. Understanding the reality of existence is going to take us into some undesireable experiences, seeing distress for which there are no simple answers. They too are real. It is an interesting exercise to break down complex questions into components that are simpler to resolve. Then, with the accumulated findings, reconstruct assertions that may or may not be precise. In the big picture, there we allow for this in our science. What we declare today is subject to emerging facts that were not available then. By examining history, we can track stages in the development of thought and science around the world, over the eons and compare. Juxtapose a man into that configuration and we have reason active minds find the challenge irresistable. Should that man lack ethical standards at the start, he will unavoidably grapple with them before he finishes. FM talks to us about repositioning. It takes our perspective beyond ego, to as far as the imagination will take us, and then some. How a man plants his feet on the ground matters less than accomplishing it while being true to the exquisitely crafted values and principles revealed in our language of symbols. There for all to find. Notice how different the manner and attitude of others? Notice their literacy is not the same? That might be notice that knowledge is within itself a type of solitude. Enrich it. What are you reading? What music inspires? Do poets, painters and sculptor 'speak' to you in your private reverie? Masonry will start a man on a search for meaning, but what he does with that search, has everything to do with tenacity and imagination. Of all the people who have studied FM, what or who is telling you, you are undeserving of it's lessons? A difficult past? Social awkwardness? Limits? No matter. A life, to explore with a bag full of landmarks to guide.
If you've ever seen a child discover what a musical instrument can do, you understand the amazement that happens when a person discovers freemasonry holds a similar potential for us to do something that feels beautiful. That pursuit can become the work of a group who respect ability, imagination, appetite, conviviality. If we sound this good alone, imagine what we could do sitting in with others. It is only overwhelming if you aren't respecting your potential. Maybe you won't be a concert soloist. Maybe you'll be a member of the chorus. But you are part of something exceptional without ever intending. You're love affair is with atmospheres created by sounds. Admittedly masonry does indulge a variety of tastes, knowing so well there is a time and moment for all of it. Some muse about the artistry, pagentry, celebration of the human spirit. Others find themselves swept away in a swirl of frisson in a conversation taken up by composers and musicians long ago, in a far off place who are still able to touch hearts whenever their music is heard. How far along the metaphor you go is not obvious to anyone until you notice it yourself. We can quickly pick out themes in our ritual- collaborations, mathematics, harmony, unexpected outcomes, dedication, unending progressing, smooth. When we master our craft, we learn sharing it with the world holds unexpected reward. How we react to acclaim; it can and does define us. But greatness contains modesty, familiarity, fraility, sincerity; qualities that distinguish. It takes metaphor to bring us together in the soundscape of masonry, so when we attempt to reinvent it's all good until we find we've unexpectedly lost something in the translation. Even those forays into the imagination serve a purpose. Can't tell what you'll find until you go there. Find the music in you.
We could look around us and claim what we see and experience indicates decline. We could and many do that include, the disillusioned and discouraged, the disenfranchised, dreamers and idealists will be visited by realists. And who could argue? Except is it possible the strenght of this point of view might be illusion. Whether it is or isn't, how are we to know? Apart from that we would need some reason to invest our thinking in that enterprise. 'So what?' Who would be inconvenienced one way or the other. Does it truly matter that we know the truth? Whose to say it isn't one qualifited opinion in a world of continuous opinions, all on a spectrum that reduces opposition as shades of grey. At some point the extreme edge of one meets the extreme edge of the other. When we speak about opposites, it is us speaking about stereotypes for the purpose of slowing down the vibration temporarily to let us observe more closely. Stereotypes serve a purpose that isn't a problem until we ascribe causality. That A+B=C when all we really have is A=B=C. I suspect we are of the same mind as were those who elevated thinking. Maybe we should read Jan Komenius, or know who was Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī? But we're tribal, as were they. It puts what we and they are thinking and saying in a broader context. Whose truth are we talking about? The one that applies narrowly or the one that might be distant but more accurate? The logic and knowledge of those involved might be self serving or malevolent. Or it could be what seemed right at the time. The greater truth, if there is ultimate truth, will be the measure that matters in the long run. But today, optics matter. How we get there? that's what we strive for- getting there.
Questions are at the heart of exploration. Skepticism isn't intrinsically fear or alarm. When people overthink, it can harden into cynicism, especially if we are impressionable. Whoever claimed you can't teach an old dog new tricks is guessing. I doubt they ever had a dog. Instead of fearing questions, we encourage them. We turn them from unpleasant emotion into inspiration and meaning. We take hold of ideas and when they are precarious as some are, our best are drawn into the frame. Saying I don't know is akin to asking for directions when out for a drive. Many men overwhelmed with pride, are unable to accept the help. What does this say about our future? It's rosey. We are still becoming accustomed to a flood of knowledge. Gradually we will assimilate that information. It is already generating discussion and intellectual honesty. When we get there, we find we have information that can be put to use refining our thinking and our processes. There is nothing new about this. History tells us this type of genius has happened around the globe, in cultures perhaps as far back as 2000BC. A tidal wave if research has revealed every nuanced flaw in our makeup and thrown them into the light without teaching how to close this 'pandoras box'. After the box was emptied of dangers and doubt, it still held a single aspect. Hope. Is this way pre-christian faiths are surging? Gratefully, humans have continued to make sense out of existence. Oddly, or perhaps not oddly at all, the ancient religions and beliefs are back. While it might be a curse to think 'we live in interesting times', we could add, ' we live in amazing times'. Without asking anyone to adapt, to bend over so far that at times it hurts, we move on, into whatever tomorrow brings. Find the contentment if you can.
No amount of effort protects masonry more than carrying on the sense of imagination that has been woven into the stories of a romantic period of masonry that never existed. The history of masonry is less atmospheric and elemental than it is the story of the business of private conversations. Today, the pace of change has quickened. Our beautiful libraries have succumed to virtual space. Instead of books that when read generate deeper questions, the virtual library becomes active with the question asked. Inspiration seems to have been turned on its head. Brotherhood is not longer about familiarity. For reasons that we will explore later, the brotherhood has become faceted. What draws people into this life is now the similarity of taste. Taste in music. Taste in literature. Taste in history and philosophy. The transformation of good to better is channeled through groups with members that interact for the purpose of sharing knowledge in hopes of gaining greater awareness. It is very much experential but one that is as hard to replicate as the mood brought to mind by the music of Erik Sate or Frederic Chopin. After we have trained and been humbled by the vast amount of available material our audience is one person. The next one to be influenced by this one. These capable minds have become a unique history. For people who think of these contributions as transferrable, the struggle goes on to stumble into creativity my themselves. They find the wonder of authenticity and the isolation that follows. When it works, it is exquisite. When it doesn't it is just another night. Attempting the challenge? That's for those who have the confidence.
A truly lovely man once told me he had to sell his boat, because when he walked by, it yelled at him to take it out when he had other things to do. And it was so stressful, he sold the boat. And yes he liked the tranquility of boating. This is a man tuned to the harmony of life, experimenting with it. I can't imagine a living in a world that stops because I've told myself I'm overwhelmed. Why, if that were the case, I'd never circle big challenges before leaping. I'd just quit. I'm wasn't built with the divine in mind. That came later, after I turned away from stereotypes and began questioning. The media assaults my sense each minute of each day with alarm. Advertisers or politicians, it doesn't matter, they attempt to manipulate. Except with people like me, they forgot; I can turn it all off in an instance. All of it. And you are right to ask, if you step out of the mainstream, what's left? What's left are decisions about decisions. Better to find the best influences than to make it up as I go along. Discovering I was a man of faith but not of organized religion took time. I had little idea why I was drawn to fountains and quiet spots, why I could wile away time with a thermos and a book or fished with an unbaited hook. I guess like you, I can admit I needed confirmation. Higher level education is life long. University taught how to study, how to digest and organize thoughts, how to research and best of all, how to read a subject. Though at the time you could not convince me a year was short, but as an old man I can tell you a single year is like the blink of an eye. Time passes quicker even for old men who take their sweet time to die. Faced with ideals, we have much to think about. Can we trust our own senses to invest our valuable time to make the examination of the world a craft? I'll let you know when I'm done.
If you visit my lodge along with a surfeit of hospitality, I hope you would find engaging conversation. Too much about the Craft in Upper Canada is uneven. Evidence of confusion is prevalent. Unfortunately too many participants are not interested in advancing their sense of meaning and purpose. They find the suggestion off-putting. These are the growing pains happening in a lodge hovering around a 165year mark. The accomplishments of yesterday don't hold much value anymore but they were remarkable in developing the infrastructure of masonry across a pioneering landscape. In all fairness, these men were influenced by a crystal clear night skies, fresh rivers and the calming stillness and smells of huge deep forests. Packing a bible and a book of poems was as much luxury was necessity. If we passed La Scala or the Louve on our way home from work, we might have a taste for the sounds and sites. But ours is a beauty that is overwhelming and humbling. Natural and raw. It was helpful to identify one another, gathering together and share readings. There was no one to accept delegation so before service clubs, masons helped less fortunates with no need for attention. This simple romantic sense of community still exists in memories along with a sense of loss about progress. Trees cut and farm fields overbuilt with houses and highways, aesthetics have given way to industry. The 21st woke with a growing proportion of well educated people, including men who brought UK and european sensibilities to our masonic lodges. They have become energized, building on the foundations of early generations, celebrating and reinventing the practice of masonry.
Our community continues to grow. Masonic values are proving their worth each day. Not as an afterthought but realizing Masonry began long before it was written and global. Long before we were taught secrets in ritual code, the underpinnings, values and principles were being examined. After trying the obvious, control by fear, men were separating opinions and truths about that and found one lacking and another incomplete. Before you and I set foot on a path of life, the path was being blazed by earlier generations. The handoff was precarious, which made us wonder if we could improve outcomes by clarifying ideas. We find points in global history where men organized forums and invited thinkersto share their work with other like-minded types. It happened in different cultures at different times which tells us something about humanity generally. Curiosity is not a right. It is a fact. Facts and opinion became distinct. Knowledge and understanding we distinct. Subjective and objective told us about perspective. Physical and metaphysical observations of forces that push and draw in. Not to forget the fates; we have spots in the YinYang symbol-order acknowledging that randomnness. Masonry provided remarkable references; a universe interconnected- Pythagoras; compassion as power- Solomon; integrity that defines us- Hiram. And then there are alchemical references, that for now I leave to you. Thought experiments, it leaves to those with eyes that see. The rest are what they are. Occult elements are there for people on pilgrimage and for them Aristotle and Plato entertain their imagination. If it is not our own genius, we acknowledge those who display it. As we learn humility as respect as we learn about confidence. Life as a Mason is making better choices because we understand. And that doesn't begin to scratch the surface.
Damned interesting stuff, this masonry. It is a bookcover so interesting it is worthy of study by itself. With all the conditions and antecedents that were finally put in writing, early designers came to terms with cost/benefit of writing for us. Something had to be sacrificed. So much had happened in the decades leading up to a legendary meeting of London lodges intent on giving us form. It raises a question. Are the philosophical and historical inferences of 18th century still valid, still in play today? What we take for granted today was treated with suspicion by the estates. Rebellion was in the air. People in Britian and Europe were reaching the breaking point. Rebels told us they wanted stability, but stability that contained rights and protections so everyone knew where they stood. When men were fighting for rights, they were treated as life/death truths, worth dying to perserve. Are we living the consequences? It seems values come with a "fresh by date" after which they need to be renewed. Another way of saying, is there a fresh-by date for obligations? I think we can agree, values are vital in our lodges, but how? How are values kept current? Masonry allows us to enlist all manner of sources, from arts and sciences, to personal conduct and reputation. All it requires is a desire and enough curiosity to turn attention ever slightly, being told by our guides the fishing is best at X time of day, on this section of the river. Since we each experience reality through a unique set of eyes, we might agree, we can't know your misery but we know our own. If they are a similar weight on the heart and mind then we understand human nature. If not the transactions repeated through time, then the mental experiences are always unique. We are fortunate, knowing the fates are in play, that unexpected things happen that test our convictions, but in the meantime, we can live well and be aware.
The other day a lovely mason, steeped in a background of masonry infused with historical charm happened by with a question that I've been waiting to share with others. If Bro Wolfgang Mozart visited your lodge, what impression would he take away? Did I mention this lovely man has attended the very lodges visted by Wolfgang? In fact he is a member who as many have done, found his way to the shores of Canada hoping to build a good life for himself and his family. It was such and interesting question. And after I thought of at least three good excuses to avoid this accounting with time, I collapsed into a chair and began a reality check; what impressions would he take away? First, he would experience a genuine, sincere working mans hospitality. He would eat and drink and eat some more. And laugh? He would experience an unstoppable, unapologetic, hysterical sense of humour created in remote communities. We know how to laugh at ourselves. And the beer? Maybe even a legendary german receipe, cold and abundant. The only question would be the palate: city or urban, Quebecois, maritime sea, prairie, mountain? And being a man of taste, Wolfgang would be discreet about our threadbare faciity, basic ritual and simple lodge adornments. After a life in the courts of Kings, the brother would appreciate honest, simplicity. I imagine someone would bring out a guitar and fiddle and a jug of mares milk just to keep off the chill mind you. But the more interesting talk would be the morning after over coffee. You might think critics would criticize and cynics would find fault as they do and old men would complain about the hour. But they would be drowned out by the excitment of conviviality. We hosted a distant cousin, a crazy lad who fit right in and wasn't too bad at the piano either. When we do better, as we will, it will be Canadian style- warts and all. Decent guys from a decent country with a heart. The door is always open.
Humanity is well past the time we can claim naivety. There are and will always be dissenting opinions just as there will be confusion when opinions of no account are transmutated into truths. It is risky to reveal but unavoidable, masonry offers itself up as a formula, or process to enlightenment. We don't ask for shaolin commitment. We ask only that a man declare and assume oaths and responsibility to commit. In confusion, he is left to find his own way forward, even if that contradicts his responsibilities. Individualism with limits is a path going no where.
If ever there was an argument about pettiness, it is continuous in masonry. Tend to the things that are essential. Tend to them carefully. The rest, they are of little consequence. These are the things that become duties of a good man searching for meaning, sorting through the blurr. It has been said, as we learn history, those records are absorbed into our own history. If given the choice an asthetic might turn down a meal at a Michelin Restaurant. A starving man would consider more than his hunger. So what happens to a puerile sense of right and wrong? As it happens, ritual hints at this very question by bringing forward Aristotele, Plato, Seneca, Pythagorus, Solomon and every mathematician who ever lived. There are elements defining a community that exists in the mind, of a community hidden from sight but the hustle bustle of the marketplace. The ink was still wet on the work of Soinoza and Kant. The epistemolgy of a child born in 1711, David Hume was yet to come out but it was impactful. So did philosophy or mathematics and geometry stop developing? Did history arbitarily stop teaching after the 18th century? Obviously not. When you teach me the signifcance of Eculid, I have that as an influence in my own work. Masonry opens the door for us, audaciously aiming our thinking at Arts & Sciences. By doing so it becomes possible to influence belief by discovery. Trust your senses. Do your own research. Finding your own conclusions but do so with the advantage of a well informed cohort. It is the least that a good man deserves. Living as a man of virtue is a lonely existence. It is inconsistent with the hoi-paloi. It is thinking beyond the ken of uninformed and that for some, that would seem so unacheiveable and perhaps even an elitist idea. If we accept a single barrier, we are defeated. It is repudiation and acceptance of a 'why not' sensibility that compels many of us forward. A well informed mason knows things.
King Solomon could have asked for anything. G-d was so satisfied with his service that he made the offer. Wealth. Power. Land. But he would have none of it. Instead he asked for an understanding heart. So what did Solomon know about wealth? The idea of understanding is oddly satisfying. Some ideas resonant. Some tantalize. T.S.Eliot reminds us in his 1942 poem Little Gidding - "Not known, because not looked for". Learning is as easy and as challenging as looking, asking. Greece turned understanding inside out when they turned to an Oracle at Delphi. And from that period we are left with their maxims to ponder as they did. Three may be better known than the rest: Know Thyself. Nothing In Excess. Surety brings ruin. So as we bend to our labours, we have work to do in the background just to understand. Stobaeous gave up 147 of them: Be Thyself. Control Your Temper. Exercise Nobility- three I've selected at random to be shared. As many of us learning, teaching others is a good way to learn, so doesn't this suggest a good use of Delphic maxims when we are introduced to a person about masonry? Would it have changed your set point to be asked what a particular maxim means to you? No declaration. Just asking for an observation. I believe we would not be speaking with him or her without also having a sense of their ability to contribute, to compromise, having a sense of tolerance, and a questioning mind. We cannot share ideas with a person who has no inclination to trust them. It is what we understand and how we apply that understanding in our constructions, that sets us apart. I like to think there are Brethren with a vision of cathedrals requiring generations of commitment to complete. Right you are Cluny no longer exists except in history as a remarkable achievement. Are we going for immortality too?
If you've ever watched a childs imaginative play, you know what I mean about watching an old man with his stack of records and a turntable, lost in thought. Joy. Each is using the freedom of imagination to add meaning. More likely than not, they are aware of it. But it does have bearing on the way we go about exploring our place (in masonry). No doubt cynics and skeptics are already drawing conclusions about the futility of observing and meaning. I have no interest in trying to convince someone to question when he already know answers to all. Why would anyone want to expose a man to a broader sense of himself if he has no need or interest? But for the fact masonry is rich in symbolic meaning, it tells us what we see, is not always as it seems. Lesser men repeat self defeating mantras so it's important in a way to know we are all lesser men when we start out. When we respect the things we don't know, when we realize billions of people have their own ways of thinking, I would hope we are an influence that help us realize, one opinion may be ethical and another fraught. If I hand you a violin, would we expect you can play? Of course not. So what is different with a new idea? We require time to reason through ideas to learn what they offer? Life in a lodge. If life were only so simple that it could be lived according to a script, surely someone would have ordered us into lanes of bliss and contentment. Masonry may have tapped into the energy of antient thinking, to show us how to live while we ask questions, examine, learn, to find meaning and apply it. Who at first glance would believe that? The profane world would think us a fool if we weren't at times skeptical. Even the confidence built on thousands of years needed to be challenged. And that requires unique ability, curious about a lost journey.
Quitting. We have not discovered what we set out to learn. Time is up. If we aren't careful with our screening, of course there will be those amongst us who do not embrace our values. It is unfair to them. When we stopped communicating symbolically, we risked loss of valuable ideas. How then do we receive masonic lessons? Have we dismissed that form of learning without much concern? ss along those learnings? I would hope they would have a gentle encounter, talking, bantering, sharing ideas, eventually effortlessly sliding into meaning. If I had my way, every mason would have good taste. They would enjoy the arts and take upon themselves the amazement of science, discovering and reveal more of the great unknown. If there is a shared expectation, it is that we preserve and live according to the ancient landmarks. Of course this won't be possible, if they are not taught and learned. Time has been gnawing away at these simple focal points. A squawking cord organ or out of tune piano has given way to exquistitely reproduced musical presentations. Idles suppositions are held up against instance validation. We can do all that and still need an intitmate encounter, to entertain dialogue to draw out what meaning we require. If I met an old King with three daughters, and he favoured the selfish two at the exclusion of the loving third, it still would not match the scholarly critique of Shakespeares work. On occasion, we would benefit from the same latitude unless we are thinking the Craft is a calculus that requires the precision of mathematics and philosophy to work it. Would you allow, that we might need to see the play repeatedly to learning all that it has to offer? Might we agree that each time, we bring presence of mind to serious considerations about the human condition? What beckons to us isn't a pressure external but an internal desire to know.
At the least, we could modestly think there is a time when truth is not evident, even to the greatest mind amongst. In that state of liminal thought, would we seem willing to rush to declare a belief as ersatze truth; without being too concerned it is even complete deep belief-partial will do. When we speak about ethics and morality, we are talking about reasoning and belief itself. For those who haven't given it a second thought, we swore to uphold the fact that fact was superior to belief. We know one to be sustainable while the other is situational. Once upon a time, when we looked up at the sky we saw only seven moving objects of light. The heavens unlocked when a telescope was invented and still today we probe light from our beginnings 13.8 Billion years ago. The time lines aside, tell me, what is the down side of knowing truth? Is it anymore difficult knowing that presuming? I like watching a magician work her illusions. The lady is being sawed in half! An elephant has really disappeared from the stage. He did float! Tricking the senses is fun when we deliberately allow it to happen. Opinions are close cousins to truths that coexist comfortably until we are building a calculus. FM is not exclusive but it does offer worthwhile maxims that enhance a way of thought among the variety. We either use or don't use them. We either ask or don't ask questions of ourself. Some are naturally talented, but most of us need to blend what talent we have. with work hard to improve our skills while respecting natural and knowing when someone is embellishing. At the end of the day, we want to know we are capable of leaving behind what we were and embracing our contributions honestly, modestly. Can you imagine being in the company of 6 others who also value influence over control? Imagine what they could accomplish? They are out there looking for you, as you are looking for them.
I never wanted to admit even a passing curiosity about Alister. Sensuality was beyond good taste. Occult was a violation of my safely proscribed world. And yet, as bizarre as he seemed, Alister defined a boundary of sorts. I can't help but think he manipulated sensationalism. He had intelligence but played the bad boy beyond 'good taste'. His explorations took him into freemasonry as it still does today, drawing men intent on finding new truths, code for studying the dark arts. When I speak with a Wiccan I don't smell brimstone. My soul isn't torched. My faith is no less or more than what it was before we spoke. I'm inclined to notice it converges nicely with pantheism. It subdues me when the supression of female lead religion is explained. And is less puzzling that it is on the rise. As long as people find solice in their faith who am I to be doubting? Freemasonry is an interesting footnote. In the future it may tell people about me and you without them knowing anything more about us. I'd like to think before I'm defined like that, that I have practiced in good faith the arts and sciences and be an influence of good. As for Alister, he still defines boundaries. He's still mocked which tells us there is more to this fellow than meets the eye. Evil? Malicious? I'll have to let you know.
Finding the magic in the ordinary. There is something devilishly compelling in that idea. Let's dispell for a moment any sense we can predict the future. We can no more transform a man that harvest cheese on the moon. If you sold me a ticket to the opera, I don't become a musician, singer or actor. Once I sang. I remember. If you take me a game along the 3rd baseline, with a hotdog in one hand and ballcap attesting to my allegiance, I'll cheer and cheer and cheer. But I'm not a ball player. Once I played it. I remember. When you took me into a library, I read and read, stories about other places, other people, achievement, discoveries and consequences. Ignorance was pushed aside by knowledge. Whether any of this became wisdom, how knowledge is put to use? the jury is out on that. Learning like that taught that there are always people smarter and people not as smart- life is a continuum of unfathomable proportion. Or was that the universe? I think masonry is not simple. I requires practice to learn the skills of a mason. If a man has talent, he will be able to design beautiful things. But cathedrals still need perfect foundations and quarries still need blocks hewn properly. Masonry won't make a man anything that what he is. It will if he is inclined, influence him to explore inner and outter existence; conscious and subconscious; if he is so inclined. He may even discover he has capacity greater than he assumes. But to resolve symbolic language, coded tasks to articulate purpose, one must consolidate what is learned. That requires time. Consolidate is what it is. Unpredictable but soothing.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty- that is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know- What was the poet John Keats thinking at the time that prompted this idea? It has been repeated often, as men tend to do, when they are lost in thought. It isn't a declaration I think, as much as a temptation. When I walk through an art gallery I prefer the company of someone keen to draw in the experience. Especially when they interpret art and share their context I find it a privately valuable moment. Why are some drawn to refinement of thinking while others not? Can one be remodelled? I tend to think it depends on what the individual can bring forward, whether it is a task or a joyful experience willingly begun. Isn't our religion intent on self-discovery? A philosopher might ask how we know our own nature and teach us about sophistry and socratic method. But to know your own thoughts in our culture is a form of acceptance when so many algorythms are telling us they know us better than we know ourselves. Trying to muster confidence in leadership to create order and form collective purpose, has entered the age of global democracy. It is a sticky, distempered clamour that right minded men claim is the best form of accountability. But it is a process, both painful and cumbersome. Some lodges with like-minded gentlemen are able to make it work. Others chipping away at compromise and control, walk hopefully along a precipice.
In an ideal world, I would be with a lodge that is aware. This awareness would translate into respect for the variety of possibilities that are taken up by serious minded gentlemen in pursuit of happiness. Do I know whether what I profess as truth is actually belief? Do I assume that my beliefs are complete and not snippets? Do i accept that I can find contentment exploring a better understanding of virtue? How then can I declare myself a virtuous man if I don't know what it is? But if you ask the questions, I have one for you in return. How much time do I have to respond? Do you want the first reaction that comes to mind? Or are you looking for a qualified opinion? What if I am reconsidering your questions as if for the first time? Are you wanting explanations? In exchange what can I expect from you? Will you bring out compatibility in what I'm saying or attack variations between your own thoughts (of which I have no knowledge). Are you creating an exercise to judge? What question are you attempting to answer? There is no accounting for taste! It is a charming way of reminding us each individual has their own and it is legitimate as far as opinions go. Are you seeking truth? How do we know if an opinion is in fact, a truth? Do we agree on this formula? Won't this bring out passionate reactions? Won't this be best discussed by men able to control their emotion? And are we able to participate assuming change is still in play?
Even if we never played an instrument the music of life would continue to play on inside us. Circumstance, what we make of it, the things and people that influence, those are part of the journey. Maturity and development is also not independent of influences. And yet, we aspire. It is not what we have or are, it is what we make of what we have or are. To that I would add, a goal. At the end of your path, will you know who you are and will you have found contentment? Alright, the world includes dystopic attitudes. But what matters is what you believe. The goodness of people makes us happy. We feel safe when we are with them. Finding a silver lining on a cold wet bleak day happens. it wouldn't matter if those days happened once but they repeat, until we pay attention to the mood it draws out. The mood employed by painters and poets to express depths of our condition so famililar and unspoken. Rather than hide from them or ourselves, our culture has choosen to understand and explain. If only the outcomes were similistic and joyous, but that would be indulgent wouldn't it. Life has beautiful moments punctuated by sadness and tension. The sunshine coming through the trees are somehow more appetizing when they happen against the grey background. If only the frailties of the human condition didn't occur we wouldn't understand what we see, and think and do always has more than one meaning. It makes us look forward to our next encounter with curiosity.
If our how we come together depends on the attention and care we place on those conversations with masonic-curious men. I want to think those conversations reflect prevailing attitudes of a lodge that has had those conversations. Rigid, doctrinaire, don't seem to do us justice but we continue to struggle to find balance by knowing and mindset of a particular lodge brotherhood. Too much of one and too little of the other sets us on a wobbly orbit. How do we find balance? Since it is a search we know balance lies somewhere ahead of us- in our collective future. Because we are an initiatory brotherhood, we are presented with ritual that needs be taught to each EA in a study group in which he is able to explore his own thinking while absorbing new information. Becoming a learner is first in the mind. Becoming excited about possibilities? where do we find that? and how do we know it? Without the conviviality and fellowship, without order and decorum, where profound social differences are mediated and allowed for, a place where men are rewarded for virtue by working an ideology that justifies equality. That kind of lodge operates with consistency provided by guardrails, principles and ethics. What you and I draw from freemasonry that we apply to our own transformative( good to better) you may believe is as unique as opinion~ there is no accounting for taste. OR you might believe it is the point of masonry to bring this together so we can find ourselves. Always and forever there is a tension living in a liminal state. Draw what comfort you might from the fact that you are not alone. And meanwhile we are in a state of becoming encouraged by the beauty and talent of brethren around us. And for that we are fortunate. Is this change or discovering secrets we've hidden in our psyche? Let me know what works for you.
Though we practice Freemasonry, it is not a Constitution, ritual or even protocols that makes us Freemasons. It is our mind, our body, our emotions that are influenced when we allow our personal understanding of the Craft to penetrate. As we are a life in progress, influence is always a potential. What lingers behind, means we are gone but not gone from memory. When our work is found, it is there to be read and considered again, just as we did once so long ago. It would be foolish to think all brethren are or should be absorbed to the depth of alchemists or the sensibility of the occult. The course is directed by ethics and morality. Explore between those pillars, to satisfy curiosity knowing no one else will realize what you discovered. Nor does it bring validation to explain your thinking for approval. Hiram we are told, was alone when he was confronted. Just like you and me. Alone to make decisions, to react and even to sacrifice when presented with a convenient choice that would 'save' or the right choice that would leave harm. It should be uplifting in some way, when we are together. Good food, good drink, celebrating the group moment with our culturally endorsed Festive Board lets us reenact celebration, uplifting influences. There is legitimacy to the small, quiet voice, to the boiserous claimants, contemplation is a step away from the clamour. It would be confusion if not for practices. He should be able to practice his understanding as we agreed- within a framework of values, principles, practices and culture. Even free-thinkers will occur. Even disruption will be kept in check. Learning and understanding are enhanced in dialogue. Criticism is well mannered. Offense avoided. What matters are impressions left that satisfy the mind. That and the continuity of practical potential for self-improvement, artistry and science. Thank G-d- whatever that is.
If we peel away all the external thoughts, there is no better find, that realizing the transformative elixer of masonry has always been a heartbeat away. Learn the lessons well Entered Apprentice. Those skills will serve you well as you move on. Before the Sublime Degree found its way into our rituals, the Fellow marked completion until the legend of Hiram Abiff was being told with references carried from perhaps the most esoteric and misunderstood books of christian scripture- Revelations. Do you deserve the joy of clear vision and clearer thinking? When you can answer that and you have made yourself as worthy as a scholar who has taken understanding as far as his peers made known to him, when you realize if you truly are ready and deserving, your happiness will cease to be dependent on others or anything and be completely within your grasp. Brethren provide the backstop, encouraging struggling, failing and excelling similarly. With the illusion of determinism has shattered and ego begins to crack, that metaphoric lightness begins to shine through. The truth of mathematics and honesty of the arts is your's to enjoy. The task becomes exactly what it is- to live like this is positivity itself. This patience finds its way to others when you take action. Allowing actions to speak for you is humbling and explains leadership by example has a calming effect. Even the fates are in play.
Being unassuming is hard when you have become enthusiastic about finding compelling truths, but there you have it! Masonry. He will get a telling response when ever he is noticed. Being friend to all, having some semblance of social conscience, comfortably learned, doesn't preclude the enthusiasm of a scholar who is joyfully overwhelmed by the depth of learning in his field, a spillover to other fields- celebration that dissolves into silence that isnt awkward, just a change in what is being communicated. I want to tell the world, the talents needed to audition for a position in the Craft is harder today than it once was. But that is elitism, wallowing in indulgence. If we aren't aware we aren't going to benefit from insight. If we don't value character then that is what and who we are. No moral dilemma. It's enough to make a man wonder if freemasonry is an ancient word that means education. Bring your school colours and team songs as you like. Wear the jacket. But there will be a day, when the bunting is less important that the product. Being taught to think. Being socialized into a different life than what you once had, seeing more clearly. Hiram must have been a Zen Master. His koans all put us to the tasks at hand. We learn as we work. And we learn that life has detail that matters when they matter to your scheme. Nice to be recognized but that isn't the goal.
If you told tell me Wolfgang Mozart was a freemason, I pay a different attention to his music. But telling me a manufactured celebrity was a mason doesn't matter much at all. I'm not made different because of the achievements of another person. If I am inspired by their work, then that's about being receptive. Perhaps it is the story of Chopin or Dvorzak or Pushkin and Byron. Did I care that Alan Turing was gay and publically humiliated inspite of his contributions? What makes a man a freemason is knowing the difference between what is popular and what is ethical. If we kept silent about who had been a member, it would underline the significance you and I in all our meagreness, bring to the occasion. Which one of them was a true mason? Washington took one degree. Did anyone harp at Churchill or Prince of Wales for poor attendence or failing to visit? So being on the level must have some qualifiers attached. And the precepts of the order aren't as absolute as Newtonian Mechanics or Platonic Shapes. It is easier to describe what we aren't than to define what it is we are and what we do. If we do the work, if we find satisfaction in it, if we penetrate our opinions with these expansive ideas, who is to say if our character will be improved? Who is to say if the world is a better place? You are. You are honest man who understands how precarious life can be and how doing it right has nothing to do with the outter man and everything to do with character. Smiling for no apparant reason makes a person feel better and has a very lovely effect on most everyone who comes in contact. We're built that way. Were built with an ability to rationalize what we want to rationalize. And out of that wreckage, we have an ability to solve problems. Let that be the lesson. We have more ability than we acknowledge but can't lean toward that potential without applying action. Fascinating.
Once upon a time, were were immigrants with relatively common roots. Our language, religion, work ethic, governance, the structure of our communities, all aspects were heavily influenced. Across a huge landscape, our new pioneering communities took the names of our homelands- too many to list, and so not to forget we were a new land, we appropriated language of first nations. Kanata, Ottawa, Toronto are a few popular versions that blended with Kingston, London, Cambridge and Oxford. People crossed a fierce ocean for opportunity, and of course brought with them the values and culture of their home. Sociologists have taken up this phenomena and observed those who left tend to rigidly adhere to the snapshot in time when they left as if adapting is a sign of disloyalty. Meanwhile, back at home, change and progress continues uninterrupted. Today, racial tensions being what they are, in a struggle for equality we see concern for cultural appropriation which through a masonic lense seems paradoxical. We know where our feet are planted but we also strive to be connected with a very unusual culture that has made inroads in most countries around the world. Eventually old cultures stabilize and take on idiosyncrasies. At the start, we have an advantage of willing cultural exchange within the closed culture of freemasonry. We know, it takes resources in large numbers and sustained to achieve the heights epitomized by symbols of great european cathedrals and castles. And we know adapting old culture is well served when we have an in-depth understanding of what we are doing. You may disagree, but I don't think its resonable to suggest this will be uncomplicated. Life is not a script and emerging cultures, like being a new parent doesn't come with a manual. We can prepare only up to a limit. Then we wing it, using what is available. We have setbacks and we prevail- trial and error- scientific method.
If at the end of a given day we experience an approximation of the original thinking that was built into FM, it is because of the diligence of men bent over their work in the laboratory. Idea theives. They borrow, not to take credit due another as middle managers and bureaucrats tend, but those flashes of ingenuity, compressions of ideas. The collective unconscious, what Jung described as unconsious mind and shared mental concepts. The corridors and rooms in our minds that feed a narrative, not always understood. We have been asked to share the single most important volume of knowledge on Freemason and distribute it to literate confidants. Knowing they would have their own valuations they will succumb to yours for the sake of discussion and illustration. Together the work is read and debated, page by paragraph by sentence, by word. And yet, what comes out of the exercise is more than what went in. If we want to move through time, we pick up a book. It is artificial to think ideas spoken are stand alone, because continuity. There is no beginning, no end. We study snippets knowing this. We refer to stereotypes hoping for clarity, being a reminder that what we experience, what we know is of continuum. If not for geometry and philosophy to guide us, it too would seem chaotic instead of complex. As time wraps around us, we have particular characteristics to emmulate. Joy of understanding is not the bliss of ignorance. Faith is not fact. Happiness is more than a passing emotion. Do we even set our goal to surpass our complacency? Do we commit to the challenges and accept the dignity that our ways have been instilling for 700 years? Assuming we have cultivated a relationship with ritual and released the geni for this bottle, a life time is never going to be enough and yet will be more than ample. Be the Mason that you can be.
Thomas Moores reminder, Utopia is never far from reach. Utopia but at a cost. At least it might be a cost I am willing to pay within my own reality. Soothing is not avoiding or minimizing. Ignorance is not bliss. Faith has given way to reason, but left a shadow outline of a body on the brickwork, that I think is me. I so want to ask that quiet man, going about his business, content with what he has, in love with life, what he does when the corruption of men trickles bye. Pretending to be sincere was long crowed out by a troubling little ritual, concocted for a brotherhood of men. Truth, unvarnished, exacting, incompletely visited at the centre within the circle. Solitary influences, solitary journey. Among masonic aethetes, we notices differences more than the motivating purity of thought and being. Eventually, they are encroaching on the noise with their silent contemplation. And to the passing crowd, they are spoken about. Some repelled, not by their presence but what challenge the present. They take their discipline beyond words and ideas, and make a statement by acting on them. In the moment. What of us? Do we produce aethetes or are they born of what we are? Let's ask Hiram and three collaborators what they think. Was it worth it challenging him? Was it worth dying to preserve Utopia? The passing crowds are so well and properly dressed and coiffed but they know. They know the truth. No one escapes it's grasp. And thank goodness FM acknowledged what we could not. How we live makes a difference. A man may learn what it is he is trying to influence but finding it within himself. "As above, so below."
How do we remain grounded when there is so much happening around to discourage any reasonable man? A few re-readings of ritual produces some interesting findings. This is one that landed on my desktop quiet unexpectedly. Definitive? Absoulutely not. No more or no less interesting that your own. More compelling? If we compare to the extractions passed along to us in good faith. we can ask if our own thoughts resonant? Mine, they automatically do not. If there is another idea, it is always better than mine- except when it isn't. But by combining them, doesn't it make sense that we might find undiscovered synergies? Masonic motifs we are told, are not always on the surface. Some, and we have no idea how many, are allegory within metaphor, within symbolism. If that makes them puzzles then they are secrets from me and likely from you too. What is it that keeps us grounded? I can't say what it is for you, but for me, it is the erudite conversation said in whispers. Disclosures of critical thinking said as if that alone is a violation of commitment. Except, masonry does give legitimacy to skepticism and even cynicism. It is the premise with which we begin- first darkness, then the penetration of light chasing away ignorance and superstition. Of course, when we learn this, we expect the world will now fall at our feet, amazed at our intellectual dexterity. We will be unchallenged when equipped with this secret knowledge. Entitlement and we can measure it's ability to last with a simple experiment. With stopwatch in one hand, push the other into a bucket of water. Begin the count by pulling your hand out and measuring how long the shape of it lasts. Or is that the amount of time our significance lasts when we are gone?
There is comparison. One that might teach us a thing or two about authenticity. Most reasonable men would not have to go as far as my perposterous comparision but judge for yourself. A Chess Grand Master. Has anyone ever earned the designation with as much resolve as this man. Wrong so wrong to compare us, but there you have it. And I have no explanation for the thoughts that run through my head to find the ethical statement that supports our current dilemma- the doubts. But you might say, that is not the point. And I would agree. Unfortunately, I am forced to ask- what is the point if merit is not in play? The playing field has never been level. Today, we are steeped in materialism, not just the lyrics of a pop song but it has become the measure of everything from success and power, to failing. Yet I ask, how do we explain the arts and sciences? All but the most stable universities have had to assess success in terms of viability. It takes money to pay for the frills and genius. And that takes students whose interests seem primarily aimed at professions that come with great responsibility and great financial value. Are we ready to offer a reasonable explanation for this glance at the light of reason? It does not erase awareness as much as stream it toward self-directed learning. And that's what's happened. Not at an industrial level by any means, but as an undercurrent of accountability. Then say it in other words. Say in in plane words but say it in some words. A nation void of ethics, without a statement of principle, is lost. Except for us. We are the exception to those claims. We uphold virtue, principles and morality, even if it is a claim that is a ruthless test of conviction. Only a man who accepts the challenge willilngly earns his way into the narrative. We happen to be a portal that is wider today than it was when great grandfathers walked the halls.
What builds confidence in good men is on display throughout freemasonry. The importance is not occasional or elective. It is strong because our obligations are uncompromising. When we see merit being ignored, it is a bell toll to rally and push back not rashly but to control stability. We would rather be criticized than lower standards. It takes confidence across lodges to be influential. It takes men capable of validating the issues at hand, staying true to our values, to who we are as freemasons. Worldwide, we are getting to know the unknown brother, who represents all the qualities. We prefer avoid shameing or requiring acts of contrition. But to protect truth based systems is a choice, standing in solidarity with each other, asking the hard questions. Right now, old world masonry is gaining more attention by letting the world know the transformation of character is a serious commitment not an evening of distraction. In a place overrun with materilism, we are splitting rather than complying with ideology. Only a man of character can take necessary steps to protect unvarnished truth. What builds confidence is knowledge that is consitent, that we can trust without intemmidate. What we did when universites were attacked, is an uncomfortable mirror of reality. We need continue to encourage the narrative. If we are strong in our convictions, we will deal with any and all attacks as gentlemen. Quiet diplomacy is our wheelhouse. Think long and hard. And enjoy the freedom to weigh in.
The icons of masonic experience are stories. Time is distorted into immediacy of proximity. Past,present and future are unified. How do we calcuate our history? Yes, we needed clerks to run centralized bureaucratic operations. But continuous reference is better than the personnal surveilence of a mobile phone. We have so much source material. Those notes from that lodge on this date curated by those who inherited the value added historic events. Relationships, what we were, who we are and the gossipy bits of history tell the most. There is something quite remarkable living with continuous history. Links with a time when masonry began visiting our shores. London is one of many Grand Lodges. Organizing to cross borders it broke through rules of engagement, the etiquette between church and state. Freemasonry offered such broad, temporate explanations with so much respect and eloquence, there was no need to apologize. What authority prevailed? Reason. Logic. Each member, expressing agency. Magna Carta. I think we can agree, an intelligent person driven by some trigger will navigate relationships to fulfill their part of a plan. We are learning how to influence that is simple, honest and effective. We need to be cautious about unfairly distressing people. Especially to observers who do not fit the criteria and feel they are being excluded. A Mason is expected to navigate with a good reputation intact. Not an easy challenge. What this tells us, Freemasonry is not frivolous. It is life with fullness. The path is difficult. You would only expect to live such a good life, would not be extrodinary to extrodinary people. To think masonry is giving it away is odd. It's like the guy who unlocks the gate of a marble quarry being acknowledged when a finished statue is installed. We do it different. We encourage one another as we benefit from the generated support. Sort of a trademark isn't it?
Legitimacy. The idea that Dutch freemasons took on powerful church and political interests because they sought legitimacy with the Grand Lodge of England is in my opinion, one of the most beautiful declarations about purpose that I've read in many many years. I want to own it, as should every legitimate brother so obligated. We can be as parochial as ever, but it doesn't push us off the primacy of our efforts; to assert our practices to earn the legitimacy of our mother Grand Lodge. We are no more capable of setting standards of masonry as we are capable of producing our own version of geometry or mathematics. If and when we use the tools wisely, creatively we contribute to a body of knowledge accumulated from the finest minds that lived before us. Listening to their music, studying their plays and poetry, contemplating their artwork, enables us to be influenced by that thinking. Apart from the necessity of governance and polity, our success is not determined in our house, but whether it has scratched the surface of legitimacy that no one owns but everyone celebrates. That's why we study the finest philosophers, for their clarity and logic. We know if we want to be accepted into that world of influence, we need to understand the work going on around us today is a continuance of thinking from the best minds. Because we have no need to be influenced by mediocrity. We are quite capable of mastering that on our own. Merit is now what we decide. It is the audience to our performance that matters. Don't expect applause. But we can give ourselves a high-five every now and then.
I'm never sure if it is humility that makes us appreciate and value honesty. But I am sure it isn't a commodity, like music isn't just mathematics but an effect, frisson. Packed in to our work is what the ancient Greeks talk about- trials, that require great courage. Heroics unmatched, proof to the gods. Our Brotherhood seems predicated on a story about a guy we've never met, but that we know intimately- Hiram Abiff. We come into his life at this sensational conclusion to underscore lessons. What they are may not be as interesting as wondering why the lessons cannot be applied uniformly and why men cannot absorb them passively. There is a natural mistrust of truth. For thousands of years we held belief as the source of all truth- physical and metaphysical. Unprovable faith explained our total existence. We lived in awe of power. But like any power unquestioned, it became overbearing. Our writers poured their talents into metaphors so we would remember a source or a lesson that was implausible to us in our natural state, and according to the popular thinking of the day, needed implausible explanations. Burning bush. Wisdom carved into clay tablets. Plausibility was unceded territory. And then came observations that told a different story and an understanding that learning and knowledge was within the capability of all humanity. In retrospect, ppl began communicating sensibility over great distances. Not just any ppl, but ppl who understood things. If only we were all receptive, but we were not. And so the world unfolded based on ability. Merit? What you knew or didn't know had nothing to do with manipulation and everything to do with ability. No sooner was this out of our mouth when we realized, there were powers to were about manipulation to promote their own ends. And no sooner did philosophy form an ethical existence, than science became it's footsoldier.
Since forever we've done it. Since 1390 when the Halliwell Manuscript was produced, we have been exchanging ideas with purpose. Sharing opinions with intimates is intersting. Perspectives, when sought and valued gain reaction that range from disinterest to validation and influence. Our Brotherhood pushes us to be different than we were. It redefines tribe to a worldwide footing. Formerly our thinking was influenced by access to information. Small books of information, that blended philosophy with history and conjecture, gave us context. Like folk-lore, it took advantage of fantastical claims that we use to build sterotypes that do not exist but in the mind. Freemasonry tells stories that we need to hear. Our research gives us greater access to actuals, alerting us to caveats so we can move forward knowing when we are integrating myth. I have no fault with that. When we listen to La Boheme or Queen of Spades, or Tosca or watch As You Have It, Or Midsummers Night Dream we suspend our sense of reality to access the magic. Masonry does not pull back the curtain; it illustrates the joy of magic as well as the need for fact. Intelligent men understand. Masonry is influential. Influence increases as we understand and integrate ideas. Philosophy allows us to calculate for ourselves. The dialetics. Asking us to use stereotypes is only for illustration. Masonry, a methodology with no centre or edge makes us step back in our minds to conceptualize what we see in front of us, something that challenges conventional beliefs. Yes there are separations but yes there are similarities.Who we follow is not he who tells us to follow. It is he who leads. Today, you could be the influence that matters.
Pythagoras speaks on this from his place in our history. 'All bonds without friendship (are) shackles'. If we thought and functioned as a single structure, I doubt we would struggle with such things as tensions. In an ideal world, friendly men would be just that-friendly .: no conflict. How embarrassingly impractical. This is a prescription for subservience. Ugh. We are by far, beautifully complex. And within that complexity, tensions occur naturally. And we, being proudly individual, carry on expressing opinions that are partials without ever expressing that idea. When we pick up partials and treat them as wholes, that is mischievious of us. The mischief fades quickly when we observe and begin understanding. Trouble yourself if you choose, but it is illusion not reality that triggered your emotion. I know what lies behind the magicians curtain but I still like sleight of hand, sawing the lady in half, making rabbits disappear. What would a friend do? He would think kindly of his brother. Disagreeing with a smiling voice is gentle and influential. Ritual helps us by bringing to our attention an expectation we will not act rashly, we will be in control of our emotions. Yet it respects the need for each man to discover on his own, the mechanics. Dad can hold on to your bicycle seat running along side only so long. At the moment he lets go, you and I learn by discovering how inertia works. The hand is off the seat brethren. What are you discovering? Too many of us know better what we should do to protect the harmony of a lodge. Too many hold back. Friends would protect harmony with reminders, with examples and with fair minded judgement. To execute masonry fully, we need the cooperation of each member, He needs to bring his talents and a willingness to adapt. His effort is to routinely employ temperance. Without it, music is discordant. A good idea will fail when offered at the wrong time.
We begin similarly with impressions. If you have wondered about the learnings when surrounded by the chaotic nature of others, you are not alone. The stories we tell one another, help define us. They quickly dissolve into anecdote, during which we recount pesonal experiences, often as a solution to some intemperate problem. Because I experienced X+Y=AO it is a pattern in my mind, therefore I offer it as an answer to todays need for coordination. Anecdotes are interesting stories, more than impressions, the reveal relationships. They too dissolve into opinion. Opinion happens to take over from the pursuit of knowledge because they rely totally on past experience and an assumption that they can be lifted from my context then to your context now. As much as we might compete for dominance, they are still limited to idiosyncratic impression. But they raise an almost stereotypic comparison and in that, they are very useful. Is the opinion factual, or is it based on belief, unprovable assertions inserted when fact is absent. Impression, anecdote, opinion or fact? Which is your truth? Or is truth deterministic? Which is reliable? Which truth does masonry aspire to illustrate? In all these lanes we cannot challege beliefs. Only the mind can do that. Is it the antivaxxer lying in an ICU begging to be vaccinated,making that change when told- it's too late? Or is it the pursuit of happiness by indulding the senses? Whatever the driver, it raises a question about reality. Do we manufacture it or is it awareness based on fact we search. The more we absorb by observing continuity of history, no beginning, no end, the greater our perspective changes. Is that continuity a singularity we share, or particles=waves of insight? It takes a strong will to hold us in balance. I find myself asking; where to we draw the greater strength? Is it drawn from the past? but that only exists in the subsconscious. Or is it drawn from observation?
In ways we cannot begin to understand, FM has been channeling philosophy through a select membership to the world at large. The messages it brings is one of hope and shared purpose. We know it began humbly, able to give men an opportunity to become or use literacy to advance their understanding. It was built long ago when there was nocogent, comprehensive grounded account and gradually built definitions. It left us with follies; fact folding into fiction, producing so many silly theories and confusion. Rather than focus on outcomes it focused on processes leading to outcomes, in our case moral development for men capable of insight. It draws us like moths to light. It is the mathematics of life. Using it, we tease out the implications of our actions and thoughts. I use the term 'we' under advisement. Membership is no guarantee of understanding. Men are, and often do, find awareness unsettling and desirous of stable, familiarity. They like the safety of scaffolding that sorts out thinking for them. That leaves a satisfying exploration of meaning and understanding to poets and philosophers by drawing those traits out of the psychi. Experience teaches us it takes imagination to go deeper into purpose and existence without falling prey to confirmation bias- believing what we want to believe instead of what logic and fact show. If you teeter along this path, complaint becomes observation. Problems become symptoms. Determinism makes room for the fates. Making connections between Arts & Sciences is left to discovery. I would never claim physics should be removed from cirriculae because it is hard and every graduate does not find a job at the Hadron Collider or building space stations. Masonry takes us a step further, ready to tackle imperfection and reality leaving you and me to pick the route and the company we take along. It's a beautiful thing showing appreciation what you have, needs driving wants. Humble beginnings
I don't think this is a topic that comes to mind when we are talking about being. It's far more comfortable to talk about safe topics like banquets and ritual than the more personal disclosure required to talk about morality. If we think about it, masonry encourages living a virtuous life, having principles with a philosophical embrace. I thought religiouse practices had the same or similar goals. Both require an acknowledgement of a higher power. One determines the nature of of that higher power. The other does not. I have a sense that some brethren may have an advantage that philosophical schooling is available as they grew up? But in the main, it has been a passive experience. The priest or minister lectures and comments. The congregation listens. A mason would not expect to have questions poised; what is G-d? How do we know? How can a man be influenced, be transformed to a higher state of thinking without questions? Is understanding a requirement? How do we accomplish understanding without being willingly engaged with well informed mentors? We can't. But we can explore meaning advancing our conversation thoughtfully, subtlely with diplomacy. Crase is easier until it is challenged, and then it falls apart. Ambivalence is easier in a secular world. It drains us emotionally. Confusion is no way to live, but suspending disbelief while we study- that is fundamentally sound if we are also open minded and willing to admit when our thinking is changing. Confirmation bias, yes it exists but it does not prevail if we are taught how to examine thinking. That's an important role and one that masonry has been plying for centuries. Is the objectivity of the scientific method, transformative? If learning from mistakes and trying alternative approaches means we admit truth, then I would agree, my thinking will likely be influenced, like walking in the rain makes me want to carry an umbrella. Thoughtful men.
Even a quick run through of masonic ritual is enough to remind us learning to turn the other cheek is not a simple act. Matthew 5:39. But beneath the surface is one of the most interesting and effective ways to earn respect. Put it out there and it comes back to you in spades. It is next to impossible to find a comment from another person that does not contain at least a sliver that is agreeable- if you take the time to look for it. Continuing to listen and agreeing in part, when feeling provoked is not that difficult if a person is generally honest. When you were imagining the experience of enlightened thought, didn't you once imagine lodges would be like this? Didn't you imagine your thinking would be valued, that judgement would be in an atmosphere dominated by patience and understanding? You're not likely to feel comfortable showing that side of your character if you are not sensing the trust. Neither is the majority of brethren around you, who like you, have a notion of what they want to do but lack the mechanics. They will pour out their hearts to a stranger but be unable to do the same with their life partner at home. It's made bartending a much respected, enduring craft. Every day men are being bombarded with messaging that weighs on their guilt and distress, so it is understandable they would be guarded around strangers because they need to keep their guard up to avoid being completely overwhelmed with the psychology of guilt and blame. It became much worse when charities discovered the psychology of giving. It's easy for a plea on behalf of an innocent victim of circumstance to be unrelenting as bully tactics are applied. A few simple statistics at the right time, all it takes to have people reach for their wallet to make it go away. Or you could do the arithmetic of understanding laid out in front of you in masonic ritual. It's a helluva lot safer to learn life-skills that have been validated.
Does FM change a person? No. As intriguing as it is a subject, efficacy becomes increasingly possible with an increased awareness and then mastery of guiding principles. For men who are readers, it comes easier than for men who have yet to learn how to read and study. Before you dismiss me out of hand, think about it. Studying any subject in an organized way requires learning to disgest information assigned to us. It is not what we find interesting or entertaining in the moment. It is a task necessary to achieve our goal. FM is as much about mastering ways to absorb information as it is a process of elevating our ambitions and goals by positioning ourselves according to philosophical arguements. Those fortunate amongst us, made have had guidance and support from others. The majority will need to rely on being a self-directed learner, who realizes if he doesn't organize his thinking, no one else will do it for him. He can remain a grotty little sod his whole life, or refine his thinking and manners hoping to find compatibility with others who are personable and able to learn our defining traditions. Many of them are interactive. A thought experiment is insufficient when we are tasked in our attitudes toward others. Masonry draws us out according to ability. It's an odd experience realizing all of us can be described on a normal distribution curve. Oh what do the mathematicians know that they hesitate to share? Or what do we know that we don't want to admit? We are doing well in life if we are entertaining the possiblity of improved existence. In our own way, with what we have, to find joy and satisfaction is valuable. It spreads a feeling of well-being and hope to others. Doing what we can, to help others is a beautiful thing. Doing those things because they are the right thing to do is affirming. People are trustworthy. Strangers are like us. Fear and aggression do not define humanity. Peace and love.
Don't despair. Masonry has always been cloaked in mystery. But if you want to know 'the truth' watch the behaviour of a man. It will reveal all his secrets, all his doubts, his honesty or deceptions. Inside, is where men step on stage to join or not join in the production of harmony. If you have a capacity for compromise and coordinate your actions with those of others on the same page, you will still find masonry elevating. When we rehearse we reveal who has or has not put in the hours. We see you has talent and who is journeyman. Who is the soloist and who is in the chorus? If the troop is confident at the onset about their mutual vulnerabilty, they will experience that evasive compatibilty. In our case, the arts and sciences prompt and remind as well as define. We are entry level learners of a company with headliners. Learning to be at ease with our traditions takes a time. Some are completely satisfied with manners, even if they have missed the point. It's ironic manners that ease social awkwardness are 'taught' with a switch and a sharp tongue. Instead, this troop does it casually, brother to brother, sister to sister and we pick up on them to assure we stay in character. Do old men act like old men? Inescapably we can bristle at the slightest perceived disagreements. Why we can even invent them to ensure we stay in the comfort zone, in the audience looking up at performers who have honed their talents. If we didn't have an audience we wouldn't have a performance.
It is no coincidence freemasonry causes men to be aware and rethink. It is no force of nature, but it acts as if it were. Over there, where it first took root times were different. Generations on, whether eastern or western, it appears men have been able to pick up similarities, selling out loyalty to the tribe. The only uniformity we find is struggle. We want you to acquire masonry but do so with respect that your culture, your history and social climate is altogether unique, as is ours. By exposing you to idealistic notions of achievement, we enlist the truthful supplications of remain of our boyhood as a stepping stone to an expanded mindscape. Be cautious, it will take you out of whatever you call a comfort zone. Superstition will be romanticized. History will become personnal. And you will be encouraged to scratch away at the edges of calculus and philosophy. Habit is made commitment. Commitment alters thinking. Presence of mind implies we grab ideals and imagination and begin interpreting them; ideals becoming sources of motivation to act upon our world. Our language takes on new meaning. The compressions of a good life in ritual are accelerating and expanding. Your participation exposes you to those exertions so prepare to loose your footing; hesitence leaves us. We settle on the knowledge we think we deserve, or that we believe is within our capability risking our real potential will remain dormant. So many man in so many stages of their own development, yet finding common purpose at the most superficial essential level-joining over a meal, absorbing all the psychological elements and likely being unaware at the time any of them are in play. Do we discover or acquire or invent masonry?
What we learn about next generations is tough on conscience. Around the world developed nations are experiencing hardships enveloped in what could arguably be called the greatest existential threat that will never be a headline. Before the eugenisits and authorianians get overly excited, understanding that next generations have decided to live another life will be on our mind. Why have birthrates continued to decline around the world? In Britain, in France and Germany, Japan, Russia, United States, Canada, we do not have enough children being born to maintain our current way of living. Why are so many young couples deciding not to have children? We don't have to go far to find answers. Living in poverty. Living without purpose. People are dying from our negligent use of water and air. Our politicians wave swords at multinationals but otherwise do not to bite the hand that feeds them. Suicide is escalating. The world feels unsafe and hostile. So why are we being held responsible for the sins of our fathers? We are the generation of stewardship at a time when extinction didn't matter. The tobacco lobby, the obsence effects of big pharma and dependence on our cars while tearing holes in the atmosphere. We know the chemical signatures that kill and still collaborate with producers. So why wouldn't next gens assign blame to the generation who did nothing? Why wouldn't young men avoid organizations they associate with complacence? And why would the world not want to keep the nightmare away by pulling a blanket over a few heads? We took what we wanted and told ourselves it wasn't on us. But who could have foreseen this. We released an unrepentent internet industry on the minds of the worlds children. Uncontrolled acess. Is it time to listen? How to make sense of the past? Having values, being moral helps enormously
We want to believe the extent of our will causes things to happen, so we are responsible for the results. This is a misconception. What we essentially need is meaning- not our own meaning but discovering meaning. That is the point at which we begin to flourish. Shoving information at brethren and expecting them to remember is not education. Teaching people how to think is teaching then to argue one point of view, then arguing the opposite point of view. We know well that children need to be challenged by difficulty. Having information shoved out is what creates a miserable existence and explains the very unhappy world we live in, the same discontentment we find in masonic order. Dare we ask if we are happier today than we were when we began? We won't survive being soft with masonic learning. We need to encourage toughness of mind and body because there are forces at play ready to impose on us. This is the argument usually avoided; the purpose of opposites to discover how to think. Our individuation is necessary within service to the whole; not splitting power but organically unfolding potential. That circle? One would hope FM was designed to bring an understanding that deeper realities exist. That circle tells us it is foolish to think we arrive at meaning by linear reasoning. We begin with a force pushing us toward freedom of thought drawn by restraint. Take away one and we stagnant. Understanding that opposition is where we find reality, frees us from the burden of believing by will alone, we can remove opposition. Without the unity of opposition we destroy. Within antagonism is where we find perfection. Entering that circle is where we find we cannot err. Without opposites, we would not exist.
Is it possible our normal includes constant struggle? Is controversy a necessary part of masonry when it promotes the conquest of reason and logic over superstition? If this is the case, unity is possible when we learn the perpetual state reasoning and critical thought is not our nemisis but our most distinguishing trait? Apart from an overzealous set of expectations, what holds us back from this contradiction is previous experience. Imagine, contradiction in itself is not problematic but essential. Context alone does explain it. Contradictions are not value statements if we see them as stereotypes used to contrast and compare. They are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Rushing to conclusions isn't our way of thinking. Such is science based on careful observations {rather than opinions about facts} that we know science clarifies without erasing skepticism. It is skepticism that fuels questions. What, how and why are doorways to understanding. In moments of self-reflection we admit our own progress happens in a state that paces our work- more marathon than sprint. To self-actualize and be a wholesome, well rounding human being, who is and who is motivated by struggle for an ethical existence; I think of this as the contrast between travelling past rapidly so the scene is blurred, and passing by at a pace that allows seeing. A glance into FM confirms we need a theory of chaos. It is part of our process. Patience. Imagination. Intuition. Skepticism. A willingness to explore potential. Those are the chemicals we find in this laboratory of being and presence. But we cannot tell you how to discover or we would. We need you to have that moment of awareness for yourself. If you underestimate FM quite the way you underestimate your own ability, well that's private, a matter of taste. Who would dare to argue with you.
Gullibility, that over willingness to believe is on the reverse side of skepticism and unbelief. So says a Bristol University lecturer on the talents of a poet- William Butler Yeats- Poet Laurier during the time when masonry was expanding. Even in those early days we see the groundwork of skepticism in the air; an unorthodox form of socializing grown out of careful observations. Today, we find that same imperfect framework of Freemasonry has been kept intact, not so the contemporary opinions of brethren. Perceptions has galvanized by us and the ramped up impact of media. Algorithms have quitely been manufactured by faceless interest groups challenging as always for leadership. How we sort out our gains and losses says a lot about the kind of concern we have for our future selves. When the urgency of anxiety drains us, we are still left questioning what the future holds. Even if we prescribe a life of distraction, we are guessing short term answers will satisfy the short term attention. There, there~it will be alright.. Except we yearn for calm believing it is possible if only they who ever they are, were different. We will let ourselves be convinced by the nostalgia associated with the idea. How much time is worth investing, just to learn, just to live a better life that I cant even describe? That lies within you and me. We bring far more to the adventure than we acknowledge even when it seems we are shorting ourselves. Except for the fact I hate those bromides- when we align what we know, what we were born knowing and what we accumulated, is there an answer still elusive? Conjure a perfect image in your mind of the Order of Freemasonry. Conjure an imagine of the perfect experiences, the beliefs, your beliefs of those beliefs and what have you learned? That masonry exists in a physical as well as metaphysical world, just as all we survey. What brings it to mind is the question. Your question.
For many of us, as the weeks pass, we begin to realize an illlusion. Time seems to accelerate. Either that or the list of things we want to experience and accomplish grows until we realize, there might not be enough. Priorities begin to matter more. Satisfaction with what we have, is not such an meaningless phrase. A pill isn't enough to settle our minds and control emotion. We notice a forgotten name for a face so familiar, the misplaced pen knife reminding us to focus. So many distractions. So many determinations. So many choices. Is life over or am I still prone to influences. Can I change my ways. Dare I attempt something so strange, to live a good life? Ah, the charm of self delusion. We fail to see the advantage of efforts that matter in the big scheme of things. And along the way, our group shrinks. At entrance, we are hundreds and thousands. Each year, we stream ourselves according to the filters. Interest is one. Ability another. Diligence a third. And with each, the group thins out, until learning becomes conversational, an exchange of ideas, being challenged until the student becomes the Master and then the Source. Until we acknowledge talent- often not our own but that of others. And if we are lucky, we exchange influences with talent. Each day asking ourselves if happiness is close at hand while trying to understand if it is beauty that brings about the state of mind.
pt1 Can I have a word with skeptics? or should I say the skeptical aspect of everyone that reflects the search for meaning and truth? I would not want to have this conversation before morning coffee, and then maybe following one of those thoughtful walks through the woods when shadows don't obscure as much. More is visible if you're inclined to notice [in painterly fashion] the grey hues that seem to connect each piece of nature with another. If I understood the totality of Freemasonry which I don't I doubt I would be able to instruct, but I might explain protocols and manners are part of a much fuller pallette. It's safe to say FM is a body of knowledge but if you feel it is lacking in some way, perhaps you need to be reminded, it is also a way of thinking. In earlier configurations Master Masons told us about the this ubiquitous path. What they hesitated to explain was the direction of that path moved outward and inward. Outward tells us such things as ways we identify ourselves and one another, protectors of mysteries. Inward, we address questions of immortality, making our own discoveries, to ensure we learn and apply our traditions because we believe. Consider, that you and I were a freemason the moment of initiation. Yet the words are faint until, we discover the mason within. {Where were you made a mason?} FM reminds and acknowledges what is already known. In that way it is like mathematics or philosophy. We know but being reminded of connections is striking. And so it goes within a Brotherhood of Awareness. FM gives you form but the urge of a mason, the talent the willingness, striving, that is what you brought. I can tell you such things but they are empty words until you discover for yourself the truth they contain. Remember, you are that man- who lives quietly, who is satisfied with what he has, both poet and philosopher.
Stay tuned for pt2
The premier short talk on MasonicFX
Stereotypes are such interesting claims. Though they are contentious approximations we seem unable to do without them all the while claiming the moral high ground. Isn't it a particular joy when they are applied for political leverage, or the ever scarring withering character assassination or to boyishly trump rational thinking with an exaggerated bias. If only stereotypes were applied with the dexterity seen in paintings of delicate creatures. They highlight nuanced markers to distinguish a bird species in the field easing our reliance of jumpy binoculars and all the things that annoyingly blur vision. For comparison, stereotypes are a good place to start comparing. There is usually just enough 'truth' in them to appeal to us, given the flawed logic and irrationality. They are the nitrites and saltings of ideas. They can be sinister these stereotypes, yet when we allow ourselves to consider deeper implications, they move thinking. Like when we use them to tune in to our critics. Without a skillset to resolve and understand, mea culpa is often the throwaway battle line. All fine but where does it leave the good guys? When men are capable of keeping a confidence, they move along unencumbered. The fact our stereotype talks about secrecy is grounds enough for skepticism. Listening carefully is not a tactic of manipulation if we want to show respect by elevating public concerns. It is an act of a serious mind, not aimed at ending criticism but inserting understanding while leaving people to draw their own conclusions. What behaviour would you expect from such a man if you were on the receiving end?
It is just for times like this that Freemasonry was developed. The lessons of turmoil are never far from awareness, when our world becomes unstable everyone,suffers. Aide, whether food or intellectural property, assistance with frontier wars, the protections of societies comes under pressure. The world in whatever we describe it, becomes keenly aware that conflict is overwhelmingly painful. Seeing tension on the faces of passers bye is chilling. Finding courage and resolve seems our only hope to push back madness. From a cauldron much like that, Freemasonry stood up, with enough secrecy to ensure awareness we are not alone. So rash but so satisfying to condemn quickly. Living with Brothers who have need to constantly remind what is already known. At best, it's partial, lacking your vision. And in context, the more history we absorb, the more attention we give to understanding layered meanings. Through ritual, symbols, philosophies, questions direct our work and thoughts. We are the labour organization for philosophy. We, the unregulated support for understanding. We are what truth to power produces, contradiction without animus we do it out of curiousity. Let's mix the chemicals and see what happens! Apparantly looking for beauty and understanding is enough to enhance knowledge and discovery of beauty. Apparantly directing dreams gifts us with satisfying results. Apparantly when people like us learn about virtues, and consider arguements that establish the benefits of an ethical existence, it is not only influential but transformative. To get there a man comes to terms with ego, with rashness, with a desire to be popular, in exchange for being respected no longer seeking attention. We begin with experiences that lead us to understanding and trust of capability. To find the tree that will shade you and your awareness, be comfortable being in the forest knowing but not knowing.
There is a time and place. And whenever messaging oversteps we begin to notice things otherwise unacknowledged. Without fanfare. It is interesting that in a world overrun with cynicism and the assertion of power, there are people who show the benefits of a virtuous life. Only when we focus on the facts of power do we begin to understand the advantage of truth over taste. But that is not enough. Even the ancient Greeks struggled with the fickle nature of democracy, but they were convinced it was the superior form of government. This left room for rhetoric and dialectic, so much so that masonry built it into it's philosophy. Not as an imposition but placed to be discovered. It is unreasonable I think, to ask how masonry advances moral structure if it is not being discussed. At least it requires awareness of a sort to even begin discussion. If a man does not value the premise he is unlikely to participate. The way we converge requires two things. First an ability to be influenced by truth. Second, to accept it and move on. Who do we know? That is the role of logic and reason. To be sure, weak conviction wants to replace them with popularity to generate celebrity and opinion. It unburdens us from exploring integrity. It is the soul that makes us immortal, so does a man make up his own morality or does it exist objectively? Merit does exist and we learn where it exists. Not in politics or emotional judgement. Achievement visible to the attentive eye- how steep a mountain did that man climb to achieve what you take as modest and even common, but for him is defining? To take this in we sip at knowledge as a state of mind. If or how we apply knowledge is what we overcome sowe can attend and apply the learnings in life. And as we get there, we learn grace and the appearance of effortlessness. To find contentment is doing things for others. Apply the scientific method and discover.
Unimaginable. Men who have never experienced the lightness of being with others in pursuit- exuding a joy no spoken. Searching out inspiration in a company of other like minded souls, engaging in careful debate, pushing aside, doubt in the human condition. And then, toconsolidate what is learned, taking a step back to be with your thoughts. How we achieve it is not as important as whether you achieve it- understanding. This choice draws us into questioning in a search of information outside personnal experience. If a man determines this is unproductive work, then for him it is. If a man has no interest, then for him it is wasting time that could be put to use according to his inclination. No right or wrong but one is productive, while the other is not. Although they seem at odds they not in conflict until we impose that model of thought. If the flow of men before us cannnot perform to the standards expected, we will want to reexamine how we audition if we value compatibility,universality and equity. We want to respect the freedoms of agency so he owns the ideas he worked to achieve. We inspire by the merit of our thinking and ability to demonstrate it despite barriers. How else do we unlock potential? We take chisel in hand and hammer away at the marble disguising the perfect form within. We may not have the patronage of a Medici but we understand their influence. The talent that unlocks artistry and beauty, that uses geometry and proportion, that reveals philosophy and science is within to be discovered.
Don't doubt for a moment we teach ourselves to focus on unity, universality, and self-deprecation. We want affulence without decadence. We want to be in the company of men capable of ambitions and completions, and want his conscience to be clear. Justifications become reasoning. Motivation becomes logic. One man, one occasion, one influence at a time. The ritual is about us, it is about the man. It turns a boy into a man when he accepts what dominants is not what rests in the heart of a good man. Ours is the lot of the few who look beyond symptoms to sources. How can we fix the source and change the outcome further downstream? By putting men of conscience at the helm. Be successful. Be accomplished. Exhibit a poets sensitivity with a philosophers command. Living a stupid life may be easier to some, but a brother of the Craft refutes that thinking by making his courage and tenacity appear simple. He lives with grace because he appreciates the difference. Many good men come to us, needing their thinking acknowledged. A knowledgeable mentor is key to advancing his well being and assisting his search for meaning. Of course there is turmoil with this unconventional thinking. Politics is the inescapable way we converse at a high level. It does assume logic or reason and is subject to the same enduring need to prove assumptions. We are the balance. We strive best we can, able to explain our moral judgement. It may be labour that we perform but we perform with lightness and grace. Respect is earned and re earned until we are able to satisfy our own conscience- doing as thinking. Doesn't this make me a materialist? Oh my goodness.
If we were all adventurers, we would need to expect long absences while one or the other was off adventuring somewhere. We would anticipate his return, to entertain us with his report but we know him well and his would not be so stiff. Such gossip that fills in the story is for the privileged few in his audience. As we pull our chairs closer, the night carries on until at last we part again, until next time when it might be your turn, your adventure that draws us together. The story is what has held men together for centuries when we reveal and discover common intererests. It is fun to be in the audience as it is to contribute. Our brotherhood has held the attention of men giving them an experience that heightens an oddity about mankind. We complete our understanding by listening and sharing ideas. Every year we can find intensity when we are proximate to student groups, especially those who can maintain some level of good taste, if not sobriety. Sometimes, the more outrageous the better. No one would seriously think of capturing the esprit de corpse? It depends so much on spontaneity. The places people gather has been doing this for centuries. An outdoor cafe in one city, a bistro in another. Tea house over there is the coffee house here. Gentle nights, people strolling by. Curled up in a warm noisy pub with a pint of bitter. They are immediately recognizable. We aren't the same ppl we were. We think differently. The world demands more of us. We laugh, We cry. We believe. And yet something remains familiar, generation to generation. What separates the stars is imagination, what the adventurer brings to the table. Go once to such a place, and it resets your thinking. Go once to a place where the explorers are diving into consciousness and reason, whether surreal or provocative, it is transformative. Sometimes when we forget our way, we are too stiff, but underneath, we are curious to learn.
It's been long overdue so taking up the hot topics of the day comes with no small measure of worry. Especially when we tipple with the ideas of pantheism. Chaos, the fates, probability, call it what you like, the universe is made whole when those variables become as predictable as the warmth of a sunrise or the salty taste of a tear. When conventional language is unable to explain phenomena, we can turn to mathematics and it's twin, philosophy to piece together meaning. If I thought that masonry was a constant source of understanding, I think I would quickly fall apart, knowing as I do, how intimately incompleteness is part of life. Insights appear at the oddest times, for the oddest reasons. So I don't walk around bending to smell a rose, but when I see roses the idea occasionally floats across my consciousness. Is ignorance bliss? In my work we call it the angels kiss- when turmoil and distress fade and the mind rests in an oblivion with one inhabitant. What surprises and inspires passers by is an engaging, curious attitude. Age does not set limits on it. To conjure up images of beautiful lodges, a table laden with tastes to delight the guests, music to compliment and entice the mind, I'd say making it reality begins with a little magical thinking. Why I ask myself whether it should be a requirement to encourage every brother who steps through the door with examples of the calmness that settles over us when we discover philosophies and tailor our thinking. Don't be fooled, there are active minds that do not wear an apron, capable of connecting with our beliefs that prove our words are more than idle thinking. There is disadvantage and suffering, enough to drive us to accept nothing less than success in the way we influence the world. Equity, universality, more than words in the mind of a brother.
Around the world of masonry, we appear to be connecting today's hot intellectual questions with those of the 18th and 19th century, written into ritual. Were is occams razor when we need it? We've made our understanding altogether more complicated than need be. As obscure as we are, as it is simple explanations compete with the idea that if something is above our station it must be barely understood by everyman. Just when we thought the high priests of science have long since been buried, under their own rhetoric here they are, knocking us about. If we were one community, we would still have competing ways of thinking, providing options, better to best. We are many communities brought together when members of each connect with universal truths. Science, art, belief, each and all are distilled to suit the intellectual properties of each tribe. There is a belief that we must compete to achieve dominant universalities. What if in the vastness there are a variety of chains, then it is up to us to reconcile those others with our own. We can't imagine how to have one instruction for the entire world, so we make learning available and invite the world to come forward. That alone makes us adaptive, because masonry has many rituals, many jurisdictions; some more permanent, others emerging but always with ideas relevent to the day. No need to regurgitate bromides until they irritate, being able to compete with a good meal and convivial company is never going to stop. And when they are kept in balance in a lodge, who could complain? Each generation our children are 'smarter' than the generations before them. History is refined, questions mingle with critical thinkers. There is doubt about the way FM is administered but not about the philosophies with it. So we have a stoic settling in to hear from you, your Aristotelian notions not sure he isn't an epicurean.
Do you have a measure of the effect masonry has had on us? Of course it is inconclusive at the granular level. Millions of men, each with his own worldview behind those eyes, means we have the advantage of perspectives. Some will seem frivolous. Others profound. The set point between those positions is not necessarily conclusive in itself. What is a dream today as we have learned, might be the inspiration for discoveries and applications of science tomorrow. In a way, we were there from the beginning. Men who had understanding were those we valued. They became influences that we elevated by ascribing to them the refinements of character. Just as each of us has that capacity, it is likely our own tendencies and humility that keeps us from such arrogance. It is for others to define character and for us to never stop striving. Eventually we relax and loose the sense of competition that so often pushes us away from others. You are fine. Masonry is complicated. You may want to find someone with understanding that resonants through you so you will want to associate with him until you have learned and need to move on. Hopefully you will be settled in your studies. If you like the way masons of Bavaria go about their business, emulate them. If you have found the grace of London or authenticity of Edinburgh masonry you can pick up on those traits too. In all likihood, we absorb so many influences that we become a hybrid version, made tolerant knowing there is no need to validate your thinking further than you have, knowing you have put in the necessary work. Where rationalizing and truth start and stop, I can't tell you. It is a question that we put to ourselves. It is a capability of intellegence, thus the need for a moral rudder. Subservience may not be to a man but an idea. Listen to ritual for cues. It is full of them. Respect your ability to learn when you err and you will do well.
Historical records don't seem to capture the adventure of freemasonry. In this episode, we look into some reasons the Order is content to operate out of the limelight. It strains belief to think we are an operation noted for applying philosophical tendencies in real time. It leaves superficialities to others. Who is to say we are a product of our times. We haven't manufactured stories to sway public opinion. It is this conviction to virtue that has withstood the test of time as if humanity needed to be reminded from time to time. With so much reason to remain underground, is North America preparing to go all in by ignoring the history of europe and british masonry with an ISO? If it didn't require irretrievable levels of moral currency, I am sure it would be seriously considered. Except masonry formed without a voice or champion. Muted diplomacy spread between men who knew the honour system in a predatory world. To suggest the world has lost a sense of principle is to ignore the appeal of tradition. Some comparisons are fraught, like when they appear to not account for minority group perspectives and influences. But being a mason allows us to objectively explore important topics of the day without declaring a political position. Perhaps existential threat is not a political gesture and cynicism not as powerful as it would want us to believe. And perhaps we are influencing people without knowing it. As ever we appreciate intelligence and imagination that has exploded in 21st century world. We treat all peoples like serious thinkers. It would be simplistic to suggest all mankind would be better off following a virtuous life, because given the state of the world, that would not be low on the list. However, that doesn't diminish the importance of this thought, moreso when you seriously consider the possibilities.
One is not made inquisitive or sensitive. These are traits ascribed to an individual in hindsight. They are forms of awareness that thereafter enrich life. The path is a only ever a path and he is receptive to the inspiration it presents. This silly notion isn't where it ends. Why along a path? Are there other forms? And if there are, when associated with a particular philosophy helps reduce tensions by stabilizing the thinking of the human inside, replacing confusion with clarity; clarity that refers to the lack of certainty, unexpected chaos as part of perfect balance. When we feel restricted, too often we are chafing against something no one can control. Learning and applying that idea requires a simple calculation; if I knew that at the time, the outcome would be different. I am not trapped by forces I do not like. I am trapped by misunderstanding. If an individual is present to learn, freemasonry will help him arrive at a place of understanding (not necessarily happiness). Happiness? that rests on another level. That is what you find internally. It is the perfect day. Finding joy in a storm. Seeing the beauty of struggle and conviction. Step back, use the supporting positivity of Freemasonry to enable your thinking to reflect. Be as harsh as your judgement requires or a gentle and forgiving as you require. The geometry remains the same. Since you can't change the circumstance of your birth, what others think of you or what fate has in store, what you can control is your mind, the way you think about the things that happen around you. It is hard to imagine we have a choice until we consider the propositions seriously. No one can make you live a good life. You do that for yourself. Masonry is a pathway to satisfaction. It teaches us how to overcome judgement, how to see the world through the eyes of another, how to find happiness and joy. But only when you are ready to be guided.
There is much to be gained from the presumptions and conclusions drawn from our aspect as a mason. Listen to the way we challenge inequality where we find it. Watch as we attempt to balance opinion with influences. And as we do this, stress lines develop again sending us off on a lonely orbit while the world decides our fate. No Utopian Dream- this reality is fraught. If we weren't thinking philosophically yesterday, existential threat will soon make that de rigueur. Still, we don't remanufacture character or for that matter thinking. We influence those among us who have presence of mind enough to experiment with the potential of declaring yourself a rhelic with the voice of a polymath. Thank you Mr. Prescott for providing a public school education in the classical style. We walk slowly away from Universities- Al-Azhar, Ruperto Carola, Bologna, Salamanaca, Paris, Padua, Naples Federico11, Combra, better for the confidence instill in us as auditors of all we see and experience. Freemasonry gave us reason to pull up to the chess board with friends who didn't need to be convinced of the value it contained. The transparency of awareness made us impossible to threaten, impossible to control. We became the embodiment of a values based world organization; a significant threat to depots and oligarchs. So we kept in our lane as inextinguishable influence, kept in a benign wrapper so as to calm our critics. And today, there we remain. We couldn't scale up the Order as we wished, but we had to try to see if it were possible. So now. we have information that we are prudently putting to use. And as I reckon, we are witnessing a resurgence on an almost imperceptible but honest scale. As long as we trust and value knowledge, we will continue the struggle with all the grace we can muster. Long live Freemasonry.
It seems reasonable from time to time, that we reevaluate our progress over time. Perhaps it's also reasonable as students of the Craft to explore our roots beyond the vague endorsements of a few London lodges showing such initiative that brought them together for a drink and a discussion of evolution. I would wonder, if we want to be taken seriously, we would want to understand events and make connects from the periods of significant development; first with the renaissance and then what poured into and out of the Enlightenment. Punctuating this narrative are references far beyond those time frames. Socratic discussion. Plato rubbing shoulders with Pythagoras. Tantalizing the listener with notions of studying mystery by embracing Arts & Sciences in an delicious process of study. Is the centre within the mind? within the heart? within a symbolic reference to one or both? Knowing how essential is not the same as dealilng with public attitude. He puts in the work and is owe a chance to audition. Graduation is a solitary experience, transcending animus so profound in itself it makes possible the ability to recognize this and similar traps in our logic. For that we praise the possibility well before we accomplish as we would walking into the student rooms of the Medici where talented artists practiced and plyed their business. When you begin to listen to yourself, you begin to influence because you know the difference between hubris and accomplishment is a fine line. Who wants to be a silent influencer in an age of glamour and fame is a rare bird who will never settle for less. It isn't dead people that matter, it's the vitality of their ideas, demonstrated by the merit of what they did and how they shared their talents with the world.
It seems to make sense that equipping a man with a sense of reason would then require the advantage of philosophical discourse. So a very long time ago freemasonry gradually came into focus as a means of organizing thinkers and doers in an experiment. Expose enough men to enlightened conversation and they will be transformed, able to make a meaning contribution to the world around as well as having a balanced sense of self. While the form of masonry we know today is entirely derivative, bringing intelligent men together, in simple conversation became a timeless function. Unfortunately the scholars weren't so portable, those who supported and encouraged questioning, leaving us with a challenge of our time. Can scholarship be injected into a system of masonry that has not been exposed? Somewhere in our background we made a mistake. Freemasonry doesn't make a man anything but what he is. But Freemasonry as a field of study, can influence outcome without pretention. One size fits all is a way to sum up why many lodges in my jurisdiction find themselves wallowing while elsewhere, lodges perform with exquisite movement. Eventually, without design, a small group of men began examining and comparing outcomes. Then they began deconstructing, travelling up the Nile to its source. Of course the map was accurate; our reading of it was flawed because we lost our moral compass. If you think ideas make a man, then give us your proof. What makes you succeptible to teachings? How do we know you are capable of instruction and change? Unlike your suppositions, Freemasonry is articulate and evolving thanks in large measure to timeless lessons in comparative thought. There will always be lodges consumed with volume of turnover. There will always be lodges, a cut above that puts men in the company of listeners, observers that refine thinking.
Some would wonder if men have joined FM because it is stylish. There are masonry dandies- mingling with scholars always eventually finds its own level. Intelligent enough to be drawn to the freedoms of intellectually enlightened company. After a period of entry, they go out into the world to develop their own type of merit. Perhaps it is friendly encouragement. Perhaps it is contemplation of spirituality. Except for times of sleepy impatience of philosophers, they are generally engaging. But such private arguements, when confronted with opportunity, but stumbling over self-doubt onto the path. A mentor will teach you how to carry yourself in front of others. He will teach you that your talent is inspiring for others as their efforts are to you. Private and individual, this type of work redefines who and what you are in this world by teaching you how to live with others and remaining above the negativity by learning alternative explanations. He will support your work toward conformation such that your comfort level will be apparant to one and all. Such is the nature of confidence behind the expression of grace. It is a manner that men admire and try to emulate. At each stage your awareness develops quietly until you burst into the audtion having earned the opportunity. Each one of us exudes an atmosphere and it should be considered that if you can communicate your talents on the level, your manner will diplomatically contribute to harmony. The feeling is so interesting, it becomes self-reinforcing. If this were a matter of following instruction, our entire order would be parapetitic philosophers. Instead we are continually auditioning, continually learning what talent is and being excited by a desire to be part of the performance of a lifetime.
Right from wrong. Good from bad. Who makes the call? What influences bear on us? Understanding ethics could not start at an early enough age, though most children are born with an innate ability to empathize. Some will struggle with ethics as if it is a burden to be endured. Others are elevated to search out common agreement, avoiding the mistakes the come from rashness. And there are many who learn by mistakes as if awakening conscience. Long ago religious leaders were sure fear of enternal damnation was sufficient motivation to maintain order. Even justifying murder was insufficient. We never came out of the Dark Ages because there was never an entrance or exit. We kept righting wrongs. The Renaissance gave us justification to think and think we did. Everyday life didn't improve in any perceptable way. Gradually, and having the advance of hindsight, thinkers were able to define motive and outcome, asserting a primacy that made us rethink our conventions and traditional ways. It didn't stop abuses of power or hubris but it did contribute later to the explosions in libraries and labratories during the early 17th and 18th century as became known as the period of Enlightenment. Those thinkers who positioned to organize Freemasonry were under no utopian illusions. Even to this day we see chaos and order at work in our Lodges. What then for the likes of men who in the 6th stage of life are contemplative? Enjoy the challenge. It isn't fear that makes a man learn. It is natural curiosity given freedom of expression. And what better citations to call us together than those that celebrate imagination- I mean the Arts & Sciences. Inspired. Accidental. Attention to detail. So we ponder dreams and reality as we always have done. Undefeated. Undeterred by the mountains yet to climb.
History can be manipulated. When Professor Margaret MacMillan published her thinking, it gave us an important lesson. The jungle is beautiful and dangerous. When you understand the dangers, you can talk precautions. The apex creature thinking keeps an advantage not by being largest, most powerful or ruthless but by being smarter. It is fanciful for a 21st century FM to translate the world as we like to see it, full of conjecture. Are we carrying on conversations that happened between Egyptian priests and Pythagoras who shared with him their mysteries? Unlikely and unproveable. The history doesn't track. So we take what any sensible mind takes from legend. The stimulus of honour, of loyalty and faith. From the time neolethic artists left their pictograms on rock to a time when the brothers Grim began teaching our children cultural values through their fables, we have have ensured the stories that inspire and define would continue into the future. The time has come to elevate ritual to a level of study deserved by enduring literature. The time is right because we need to reassert the vitality and hidden understandings that actors require to translate the work to an audience. Within the Brotherhood, Ritual is a pivot point of learning. From it spills out profound knowledge, rendered in puzzle. Decipher the puzzle- get the prize. Do this and the etiquettes become more generous and flexible. The impediments that exist in a lodge are contrived by the cowan that lingers in each one of us, projecting a barrier to learning. Alchemy is more than chemistry and fantastical thinking. Philosophy and mathematics do converge. From curiousity to understanding what the observer has been doing in the background- whether we start point is idleness or wild enthusiasm it is anindividual start point, the idea of individualism drawing us to the universality of philosophy and the beauty of imagination.
To find men who have the capability to benefit from FM, requires a generalizable understanding of particular traits. Like merit. Is it so valued that it is the essential qualifier that catches our attention as it should? It would take time. Impatience has too often pushed the task aside. We find traces of this where we replace merit with celebrity, or some aspect that argues the importance of an individual. Both such conditions are no substitute for a simple proof, that a man within his own life, has made a significant contribution of some dimension. If he is able to commit and has a sense of spirituality, our ritual articulates certain tasks against which his progress is measured~completely in his own hands. In order to do this, a lodge needs to be significantly aware. Otherwise selection is a random process, making it very difficult to shape the lodge character. I'd be suspicious of a group that doesn't have shared core beliefs.No two lodges are ever the same. Affinity lodges have experienced a renaissance in some areas. Against a strong cultural backstop, other lodges go about their work with presence of mind, where the business at hand is reverence for one another, heightening the importance of ritual and mutually rewarding association. Some men become very self conscious when exposed to reasoned thinking. Others find the very thought, an exciting opportunity. If a man choose to be limited by his experience, how could he possibly be receptive to the expansiveness of ideas? It is not to suggest every seat is taken by someone who appreciates the arts, but it does suggest an appreciation is much more rewarding that feeling compelled to listen. FM is no accident. It is a rich tapistry offered in symbolic language spoken by intelligent minds. No panacia, except for being sanctuary.
Whether an idea is valuable or corrosive, the ideas that require least effort are those that erode individual well being. By extension, the ideas we take in shape the communities in which we live. We don't dress to make ourselves virtuous. We don't rub shoulders with celebrity thinking that will render us meritorius. Isn't it a shame we can't talk about why science and art were our dutiful core studies? While both rest on individuals asking impossible, unimaginable questions our cirriculum will require courses that bring us to a state of curiousity that always penetrates what is familiar in a sense, replacing what is, with what could be. How we employ that idea rest in your hands, knowing your innovations cannot be arrested. Does this not tell us creativity requires conviction for validation? And does it not tell us the world will be impacted? What if rather than pulling out self-defeating thoughts, it were accompanied by the realization your notions could also open doors to further understanding? While all this might be plausible, none of it matters until a man grasps the meaning of being judged by merit- in his own mind and prepared to face the 'vacissitudes of the market place' where, at his most vulnerable he will learn to cope with his critics. I'm not inclined to think that a virtuous life is a life detached from reality; ignore what you don't like. Embracing it all for what is says and what it is- that requires patience. The anxiety is made into excitement. It is the anxiety that allows the soprano to perform and glory in the audience reaction; the poet to reveal the soul of living, unlocking the human condition. Even attempting to live a virtuous life is an approximation. When is the effort done? Will it all be a bowl of cherries? Will the heavens sing our praise? Or will we find that objective, evasive satisfaction?
How we share the experience of masonry tells us a great deal about the culture of a lodge, far beyond the reach of ritual, or protocols, to a place where administration doesn't go, a reflection of the inhabitants. Older cultures have the advantage. They were built before the colour of public life and living was reduced to a uniform beige, as if the colour blind laws of atrophy were inescapable. Today, when emotional division is manifest in our politics and religion, being otherwise is fraught. Being unable to compromise, we abandoned the task. Yet there is a yearning to be where masonic culture has gained traction. There is a culture of refinement to be enjoyed. It requires dedication and division of labours. It effects all the senses. It is how we communicate who we are, privately. Being materialistic we decided long ago, to change the menu, to something that would appeal to more pedestrian tastes in hopes of attracting interest. It catered to a particular group at the expense of other groups and if success is measured in volumes it was a credit to us all. Until that day when it became listless, tasteless and could not compete with the new menus it was the only version known to masonry in post colonialist areas. The magical mystery tours were over there, never here. Who knew that time would shrink the space between molecules? Who knew the appetite for knowledge would burst out, because the social environment we need to perfect our studies was being brought to us? Who knew we would be on the brink of witnessing the next adaptation of FM as if we are spectators to something wonderful. Is it fair to think FM is a Master Class in living? If we accept the premise, the peformance we see may not be as much a reflection on FM as it is a statement about confusing hopefulness for reality. Too many times we have left the door open without watch. Strangers wandered in,not interested in the work but idly curious.
The culture of FM has been with us for centuries. If only we could know the influence it has brought to bear on the world. The generations who have lived through disaster walk among us with a waryness. Who is to say given the laws of probability that we can't be completely caught by surprise. Preparation is always in mind. How best to prepare while still carrying on our routines? And so it goes for nations that struggle with ethical development. More questions than answers. More confusion and challenge. Inevitably we return a reset point without the posturing of absolutism, perhaps with the jaundiced thoughts of a politician, but always with a sense that tomorrow we will be better off because we have been reminded the consequences of disrespecting the laws of nature. Not that FM is exclusive, but among the various claims for salvation, it has claimed moral high ground without the piety. As if, doing right was as natural as breathing. How this fares in a materialist economy is what we are trying to answer today. Even prayer is a commodity. Faith based practices, as they tend to be, have been used as leverage. Leaders with self serving motives that once would have scandalized nations, have crept into scene. Everything is in play at all times without only reason to divide us between order of a sort and chaos. FM teaches us the advantage of listening quietly, being the last to speak, waiting to hear from all the others, knowing their opinions before speaking. We are plunging into that debate but we are influencing decision makers. Our presence is a symbol of continuity as we continue to take seriously attitudes and manners that swirl and spiral around us. We are adding capacity, through our studies and devotion to the learnings of FM. By doing that, we ground the thinking of entire populations, even those who disagree that we should exist. In a way its a sacrifice that seems the right thing to do.
The assertion of authority has never played well or substituted for thoughtful conversation. Centuries come and go but intelligence always rests on the edge looking toward the stars. Institutional controls subside as they become less fearful and less relevent. Harder and harder to enjoy the advantages of oligarchy when you are being mocked even by the peasants you have starved. Creators have lost their fangs and claws to benevolence and self awareness. How many 'pagan' beliefs were exposed as convincing ploys to subjugate illiterate people. Oppression and suppression have given way. Our new leaders are anti-heros. Collective consciousness is becoming reality. Our historians are exposing commonalities (that don't work with clumsy polictics of division. Ideas generated in the east found fertile ground in the west. Despite western excursion to 'conquer' a manufactuered enemy in the east, the despots could not kill their history or the contributions. Tolerance like that is the corruption and decadence of imperialism. Even morality is being shared not as an anthem, but as a find. FM is only a subtext to all that is around us. When men had experienced revolt, pestilence, poverty and the pointlessness of war, their thirst was slacked by the ideas of Darwin and Newton. We jumped from the absolutism of religion into the probabilistic world of observation and mathematics bringing with us, belief and meaning. Know when to remain silent. Make yourself aware; watch, listen and learn. Become a man of value instead of a man of importance. If our private societies are carriers of philosophical and ethical importance, we will praise our scholars. We will puzzle over their messaging to find what we need. And if we want, we will dedicate ourselves to a moral existence by finding a source. Hindi. Buddhist. Jew. Muslim. Protestant. We are each construct our own plallete unique to bring along.
Would you say FM as you know it, has outlined a path of insight? In all likelihood we might share some thoughts on the subject. Before tossing this old book into the bin, can we say we gave it our best? When we struggled to understand, did we stop in our tracks claiming it was no longer important? Our vision has been murky at best. The results seem to be telling us we gambled and lost. When we remade our experience into something with all the familiar, self-affirming mediocrity, we gave up on ourselves. Transformation was not accessible. Did we make ourselves into low performers without giving ourselves the opportunity to see IF all the excitement was true? Time was, when getting together privately around an altar was enough stimulation. So what happened? We happened. We were similar but different that our fathers and grandfathers. We tired of what we produced. Little men declaring past lineage mattered, soon replaced a notion of life in the moment. We watered the wine but not our taste. Men of imagination looked into our rooms and realized they were unwelcome. They had not found nuturance and neither did many of us. Enter conjecture. We simply made FM what we needed it to be, or so we thought. The noise of the party was so great it disturbed those who were studying. Waiting and wanting inspiration, intelligent conversation, a life of sophistication beyond routine. We need not go into what happened then. To my mind, and I've discovered, the minds of many many other men, is a need to find, understand and savour. The potential has always been there. It still is. FM requires a thoughtful mind, a mind that is able to enjoy the work, and make his contribution to an exchange of ideas. If that is not your situation, don't despair. Freemasons are a complex lot. FM is a challenge. Lazy thinkers might enjoy the atmosphere but they take more than they give.
Albert had an ability to extrapolate from careful observation. He passed along enough pearls that we begin to understand that his mindset, if not his intellect, was valuable and could be influential. One that scholarship fosters is his thoughts on simplicity. I often recall the story of the little girl who lived next door to Mr. Einstein. I like to think with the innocence of childhood she asked the (arguablely) finest mathematical mind of our time to help her learn arithmetic. If you cannot explain your work in the simplist way, you are not fullly understanding your field. FM is as complicated or as simple as you like. For those who watch other masons inspiring one another, researching and producing verifyable findings, and wonder why not here, I apologetically offer an oblique notion hoping to explain how. I break the study of FM into four hard files; philosophy, history, symbolism and ritual. Observations show that lodges addressing each can find balance not seen in lodges lacking in one or more files. The pressure to absorb every aspect is replaced by specialized interests. Ideas are influences not conclusions. You notice this leaves a question- what of spirituality? It is my contention achieving spirituality is the result of that balance. Dipping in to each subject we find complementarity with the next and the other. Within a balanced lodge we find conjecture is replaced by verifyable fact. That is the basis of truth. In order for a lodge to perform confidently, it needs to be a place of trust not judgement. Trust is not only the source of confidence but also happiness. For the lodge (savants) to be influential, they only need to be respectful to earn respect, patient to earn patience, humble to be heard. Since I never claim to be right I rely on your judgement to decide the merit of this thinking.
If only we were all created equal. If only we all had opportunity. If only dreams were reality we would not have suffering. Is it desparation that brings a man to our door? Is it unanswered questions? Perhaps it is a longing for comradery? One mans dignity is not that of another. When we understand the uniqueness of perspective, it helps with acceptance. In that, we would be mistaken to assume insight leads to liberalism because it does not. What we do with knowledge, how we apply it- whether to ourselves of with others constrasts our actions with our values. Littered along the mythical pathway taken by Hiram are mysteries that set out the challenges to Hercules. Proofs not in anyway guaranteed but simply the test. The results eventually will be harsh. Tests of any merit will always teach us about limits. Without that, we place ourselves at risk. Along that path, we also learn the supremacy of one man over another has nothing to do with tests. It has everything to do with humility in leadership. If you believe the right is always materially successful, are you competing with own ego? If dominance is what you value, then here, take it. Be it. But don't pretend it has worth. I like to think within the bowels of FM, it is gnosis that we pass along, generation to generation. Whether it is considered out of line, or contradictory gnosis is validation that engages the mind receptive. Can you imagine a more valuable currency for a brotherhood to preserve and protect? In secret societies we cluster together, debating the form of our knowledge, experimenting, gradually finding our footing only to give it way time and for the entire process to begin again with the next generation. Do our ideals change? Of course. FM gives us the tools to perform calculations- it refers us to a calculus of time and thought. Meanwhile we witness the frivolous and the profane and then look beyond.
There is no epiphany. No Big Bang. Nothing defines the exactness of ideas converging on a moment in time that captured the immense power of imagination, long before Einstein thought to give us context- far more important than knowledge! To what end was masonry brought into existence if not to build on a thread, to weave a tapistry that would excite the mind and stimulate the sense that possibility can be influenced. This was the mindset and this is the means to sharing the endurance of desire. To get there, required insight, self-examination without the caveats of narcissia, with the overbearing sense of power. FM was a leap of faith, idea that men could be taught ideas they would not otherwise bring together that would render them capable of rising above the clamour. Not purpose itself but a formula enabling humanity to find purpose without ever imposing on the independence of thought. What was in the water? Clearly thought control was an illusion of the dark ages. Because no one knows the thoughts of a man. Reason didn't give way to anarchy and chaos. It grounded people, knowing the difference between opinion and fact, subjective and objective. Did it make humanity smarter or did it provide another form of expression? By extension, materialism the latest excurions into utopia has failed the test. So is it possible, masonry has had influence while avoiding political and religious retoric? Not only possible but evidently a rare commodity. To succeed requires commiting to be tested. To find that threshold requires understanding so we study, we listen, we learn to conquer impatience. We find ourselves defined not from within, but by those around us. They raise impressions and we take them seriously. It is at the end of illusion and the beginning of substance where we find innocence has been replaced. So take care what you wish for; it might come true,
Mind to mind. Mouth to ear. A scribble. A mark. A picture telling a story. Poems and music. We connect with an external reality while reserving a sense of self- a mind within a mind. What is always unique is the undeniable contribution and search for meaning. What relevance does a shadow cast on a sunny day have for understanding. What transforms when randomness gives way to patterns we can begin translating. We mix the chemicals in a way unique to view of the world taking place behind those eyes. How we know the value discovering insights from other minds are more or less vital flows from those patterns. Endless discovery. Endless curiosity. Endless (temporary) explanation. Secrecy. Morality. Good Fellowship. They are patterns of practical living. Merit challenges politic. What we know varies from what we say. To delight our senses and tantalize thinking, we have the imagination of poets and philosophers and such music; not for all but for those able, a disserning presence of mind. These exchanges happen at the end of the evening, relaxed where occasionally one open minded pilgrim stumbles into another. Are we reduced to man on man dominance in which materialism decides ethics, right or wrong, virtue or crime? Or does moral judgement take us along another elevated path?
The Order itself is imperfect. It rests on merit- an idea that took root centuries ago. The Landmarks I would argue, are time phenomena that hold a constant delicate relevancy for those who wonder if the past does in fact contain value. Truth and reason are hidden treasures, filed in a library that doesn't distinguish. One subject. A new presumably better idea is prone to immediate exploitation by vest interests whose business it is to persuade and convince. Knowing what we know, doesn't come with moral judgement attached. Without that, we are prone also to manipulation so how do we actually know our own mind when compliance holds so many advantages? What we do with fact and opinion varies greatly. Our education addresses literacy requirements at an individual level as if inside an envelope of cultural value. Our leverage in a multi-cultural setting breaks down without a convincing knowledge of similarity. It is made more opaque by cynicism. Does the cynic even trust himself? Even trusting perception is fraught without a means to confirm it. Ideologues would have you believe confirmation is what they think is in a listeners best interest. It is difficult to keep up with expectations. To fulfill our sense of responsibilty will shape us but is there more than one deadline? If or how we reflect on relationships, commitment, changing roles and purpose matters tremendously as it all unfolds naturally. There in is the passive/powerful notion of objective/subjective awareness. We carry ourselves to meet expectations. We are taught a form of honour and defined commitment. How does this adapt for men who experience separations and divorce, a series of jobs that require relocation, men of intelligence, educated by the classroom discussion and real life experience? Resilience. If we look for resilience in FM, we find it. Contemplation serves us well.
What could possibly be more important that what's on your mind at the moment? Why then does it seem so baseless to bow to the g-ds of materialism in a world with so much deprivation? If you've wondered this, you're not alone. Being a man of conscience places before us dilemma after dilemma until it dawns on us, some problems are bigger than one person and some questions don't have answers at all. Some things bring on our sense of compassion, others trigger conspicuousness. I can load car with thousands of dollars worth of equipment to get away and commune with nature, to get in touch, only to return to the start line again and again asking the same questions but at different times in life. What is important today? Let me ask you in a decade and then a decade on and then on the last day of your life. In my mind each time you answer will reveal your progress until the last when unincumbered you reveal to yourself, what is the important. Compassion, as science has shown, generates a mindset that is beneficial to longevity and quality of life. It eases the mind. A smile and sense of humour hastens healing. Does it really matter how that happens or that it happens? In our 'masonic'revery to infuse joy and goodwill with thoughts of lodge is the long game. Our introduction to ideas makes it possible. It is how we become comfortable with self-discipline within that same lodge- where we have learners not yet accomplished in their work, who stumble, before ingratiating themselves. We accept in that form, the reverence of ritual as it defines and challenges. While it will be dissected for meaning the answer is not the end of pilgrimage, but the start. What makes it work is you; what bearing, what presence of mind, the relevance you make of it. Here we share time to influence one and the other rubbing shoulders with inspired people, sure to inspire us.
Many if not all of the great minds in history, were devout. Me, being of a simple man, began not as sure of myself as I am today, but intelligent enough to think that if the great minds were believers there was something to it. Eversince I've been trying to understand what that something is. For some, we notice the rewards of being conventional. Some more energetic and authoritarian might push back. Some tell themselves it is best to work within the machinery to achieve change. This accomodation is very suitable for most, but it breds discord. If we notice the value harmony, we elevate away, toward challenge and measured risk. We distinguish a logic that approximates our thinking at that moment. We drive forward with a sense of character that accomodates the priniciples of a good life. It is a stage that elevates. Whether it is your path to completion is another personnal matter. FM is a source designed for those of us who see potential before we see the product. Along the way, we find among the casualities those unsuited for the work required. Choosing to identify with a FM lifestyle brings with it certain ideals and responsibilities that we can embrace or avoid but never deny. Who then knows the heart of a mason? He who struggles as part of his pilgrimage or those who carry on with regard to life in the margins, events in their peripheral vision. Life lessions continue. Being wreckless is a risk. Some risks are worth accepting. Selfishness is not a singleminded drive, it is hubris. Your nature as a FM is how history judges a life. We know if we learned from our mistakes or whether we pretend they never happened. We know the tipping point between illusion and life. And as I look deeper into the rabbit hole with you, I notice FM hands us valueable questions for us to answer. It might make a mason but he alone becomes who he is.
Begin by allowing yourself the dignity of being a student. Absorb information. Learn from the ideas of others, about ways to reexamine the world in ways that amaze and satisfy those wondering if life is more than what is seen. The ideas of person who examined existence, knowledge and morality as Nietzsche did, might prompt us to read for ourselves and draw our own conclusions if only it weren't so deep. For many nothing about our private thoughts permit us to question until we see the Newtonian philosophical basis being exercised in thinking of the late 18th century. At what point did we pause and codify free masonry? Was the Union 1813 a step forward in that regard or did we begin to see patterns and connections much earlier that were not necessarily sympatico waiting for confrontation to give us reason to rethink. Today, historians are helping us understand the value of primary source material. So much conjecture has brought the use of secondary sources into tall repute. Compounded by the impatient researcher we were left with illusions of history. Asking our questions not once but twice, and a third, each time brings us closer to 'truth' and objectivity. Are we even conscious we do the same to our own history. How much of it are temporary impressions? If we examine masonry including the unique units within the matrix, be prepared to find life is predictable, not as dramatic as one might like. Hindsight might lead to insight but more likely it will be tedious, stark, but relevent. Putting ourselves under the microscope does not mean we abandon the ability to assess what we find and be amazed we find anything at all. How does a man with insight conduct himself in public? With purpose and confidence.
Of all the oceans of opinion pieces aimed at us each day, those that best apply are the ones that satisfy some part of your own imagination. When the experience of ritual becomes a pursuit of meaning, the background noise softens. Realizing the clamour is a product of struggle is different that thinking the selection of brethren must be as immature as our companions; how else can you explain the clamour? Less likely we are to think the clamorous fulfill a purpose too. Regardless of our priniciples, knowing insight does not come to those who turn away is a way we feel violated. Those choleric types continue to ooze bitterness, but when we apply our masonic calculus, they have miscalculated. When we walk into an art gallery, no one would be so presumptuous to tell guests what they are to think about the work they will see. At least give FM the same credit. Yes it might hold the answers you've longer to find. Yes it may challenge and cause confusion. But like the Divine Comedy in a classical sense, the ending is written by you. To be the comedy, resolution is found in the final chapter. What you take from an art gallery is not determined by others, but by your own curiousity. What is the artist trying to 'say' to viewers through the conveyance of paint and brush; chisel and stone? Daunting? Yes. To know you determine whether beauty is possible, whether you think the expression of honour, of fear, of conquest has merit or meaningless it has no place; that a symphony having no appeal to you, has no place in our culture, narrows the conversation to a question; what is it that you do find worthy? When FM began expounding liberalism, it did so knowing full well, there is more than one form of literacy. Somewhere on that continuum each one of us can be found. Some better, better than some but all different under the skin. Maybe Nietzsche was right afterall. Who knew.
If you came into the order having me taught your manners, the refinements and etiquettes of court will be quite simple. If you are fortunate, you had been carefully chosen, compared to your betters. As we walk passed, we will notice a guide explaining works of various artists to an eager knot of patrons until we find what we search for. Where we linger, moving closer, then back, examining, questioning, satisfying single minded pursuit. What emotion? What point? A transcription of noble gestures? The shortcomings of mankind? Devotion? Tragedy? Look around? We only imagine we know when we quietly pass bye, so not to disturb his revery. Art can be atmospheric, soothing, transformative. Private. An experience made by you, for you. What swirls in your mind? The essential inner experience of von Gothe? The distinctions of deCarte? Impressions? No one else knows the experience as well or in as much detail as you. Bringing your ideas to mind becomes easier when pressed by a good trusted friend, always the dialogue. You and your book. You and your music. You and your art. You and your conscience. You and your creator. And if you have the gift of second sight, your experience will be enhanced in a masonic lodge. Not a panacea for strife, but knowing the truth as far as you can take it, is far better than guessing. Pity those unable to find the justification, the ethic to deal with pain and loss who do not know how to let the self die. Such contemplation, you find takes you farther away from the madding crowd.
The Book of Masonry has never been written. It has been passed along; discovered by some, learned by others unprotected from evolving cultural norms and morays. Enough of the essence has been preserved, such that Masonry continues to thrive, as honoured in some corners as it is fraught in others. Over the centuries, the way we think about secrecy changed. Our secrets conjure memories of journey and risk; the duel of Ajax with Hector; the anger of a church when meaning was tested by science; as we are not as we want to be. No longer having the perrogative of a gentrified mens social club, Masonry has stumbled through a period of materialism leaving it too often in doubt and confused. Our history is unfinished. Our hindsights are partial and unfolding. Until we connect, we externalize an everpresent dissonace. Until we understand the relationship between ideas and self, we walk alone, until we connect by accident with another traveller of similar experiences, confident enough to embrace humility. What we read and how we learn is less important than what we take away. Masonry can slake thrist, but as we know one of us drinking does nothing for the next one until he kneels and sips. So many metaphors colour our thinking as Master Masons. So many options to choose. Select one or some or pass by. Eventually you will find what appeals; call it connecting, or understanding, or nothing at all, you will find what you wish for, perilous or otherwise- truths to live by. Meanwhile, enjoy the tall tales and dreams. It all exists, various planes of masonry. The doing and being of a good man.
It isn't for nothing that the story of our history has been passed along through the centuries. The pieces fall into place for fewer men than you might guess. It seems to happen when he comes in contact with the feeling he has when he holds the thought of masonry. The appeal is not what it answers but what it asks. The value is not what is asked but what answers we give and how we go about answering. So many metaphors, only a hint of self-discipline, the gestalt reckons with awareness. One does not find this what he hears but what he perceives of life. Neitcsche tells us art is the fundamental metaphysical activity of man. It is less an assertion than a question. What is he talking about? Art as according to ritual, we are able to study or art that is paint and paper? When we walk away from our ritual, many forget during the event, he was not in the room present. The words are about him, not of him. What questions are put to him are answered as if he does not have agency. Only when he asks the questions of himself, does he begin to benefit for the answers he discovers. Moment by moment, first any answer, gradually the answer. Questions trigger ideas or they are ignored. Poets tell us this repeatedly. We walk through life with an ability to connect our spirit with our surroundings or distracted and disconnected. The questions reveal the precision of thinking, which is another way of saying they reveal whether we matter, whether we take ourselves seriously enough to ask questions that others mock. Until that day, that moment when life comes together with death. What say you then?
Accountability is knocking at our door again. It is louder and perhaps more persistent that before so some care is needed before we shout back or forget how could the profane world possible know except to ask? If we are collectively fortunate, those that respond will be reservoirs of knowledge able to address the rational and irrational. Expecting an answer will immediately change popular opinion is too naive for an Order as old and documented as Freemasonry. We are right smack in the maelstorm. Entitlement. Exceptionalism. Misogyny. White. Even more salacious thoughts are aimed at us, always have been. How to engage the stranger about the nature of freemasonry when it isn't clear in a lodge? Best to prepare by putting the question to the lodge. With a little imagination, a presentation to bring focus, followed by a relaxed conversation might be a good way to prepare ourselves for provocation. Truth. Truth is the better anedote, whether it is about the pretences or practices- you will know. A question is simple a question, until you judge it wrong or threatening. Many, this team are aware of the effect our own conceits have on an exchange of ideas. Questions are just that, neither good or bad, right or wrong. So when we answer the knock, we would do what we do with guests- extend hospitality without being condescending. A comfortable seat. Tea. Undivided attention. Listening. Watching. Acknowledging truth. Who better than one who understands superstition and ignorance is found in darkness. Are we so forgetful as to think we are immune to doubt? Is it asking too much to suggest we are part of an organization designed to anticipate? The answer to that is no further than the cautions and warnings at play in our ritual. Absorbing knowledge takes time and aim. Whether we understand we need to keep the question in context. Someone is curious and unknown to them is talking to a man whose conscience holds him.
It isn't for nothing that the story of our history has been passed along through the centuries. The pieces fall into place for fewer men than you might guess. It seems to happen when he comes in contact with the feeling he has when he holds the thought of masonry. The appeal is not what it answers but what it asks. The value is not what is asked but what answers we give and how we go about answering. So many metaphors, only a hint of self-discipline, the gestalt reckons with awareness. One does not find this what he hears but what he perceives of life. Neitcsche tells us art is the fundamental metaphysical activity of man. It is less an assertion than a question. What is he talking about? Art as according to ritual, we are able to study or art that is paint and paper? When we walk away from our ritual, many forget during the event, he was not in the room present. The words are about him, not of him. What questions are put to him are answered as if he does not have agency. Only when he asks the questions of himself, does he begin to benefit for the answers he discovers. Moment by moment, first any answer, gradually the answer. Questions trigger ideas or they are ignored. Poets tell us this repeatedly. We walk through life with an ability to connect our spirit with our surroundings or distracted and disconnected. The questions reveal the precision of thinking, which is another way of saying they reveal whether we matter, whether we take ourselves seriously enough to ask questions that others mock. Until that day, that moment when life comes together with death. What say you then?
There is joy in the Order. Whether it comes from clubbing and charitable works or contemplation and discovery, it is an undeniable right of every man to find joy in life. Overcoming our tendency to question intent as if life were a competition elevates the human spirit. Only when acceptance is a task, does it benefit us. Only when living according to principles, do we provide the necessary fee for learning. Ideology is a strong current. However, you distinguish yourself with bearing that shows self-discipline. As we learn, we find more satisfaction in contemplation. That takes us away from the clamour into a solitude where the fraility of group-think becomes thread bare. Within that individuality is where we find spirituality. It sometimes makes me wonder if, like art, the beauty of Freemasonry is transformed by the way it is treated? I could not assert answers any more than our ritual provides answers. Those questions that come to mind when you are alone are possibly a reflection of your own curiousity, an embrace of symbolic language-in spite of yourself. Along the way, fighting off the cleaverness of others is constant. By virtue of the questions they ask, everyone around will seem to be more grounded, so avoid that pitfall. No one, not even the greatest mathematicians have all the answers so be at ease. Learning to control emotion, especially anxiety and fear are awkward efforts for anyone. It happens as we come to terms with what and who we are. Somehow as we age, life becomes too serious for distemper and competition. Is this a truth or the truth?
The wonder of divine geometry, the magisty of ritual steeped in history, legend, and mythology cannot compare with the love and respect of a freemason.
Unprecidented as it is controversial, freemasonry has been compared with revolutionary thought that stirred church and state to legislate, prosecute and mistrust placed at the feet of a Brotherhood who has been in existence after a 1717 declaration and around cautious tables, for hundreds of years before that. We know ethics are an important part of stable cultures. Principles are a far cry from the gregarious and competitively satisfying profits of a material world. Become a man of conscience, then learn to live within the boundaries of success and a libertarianism. If it is possible to live without embarrassing powerful and vested interests, freemasonry has mastered the art of poise. Respect for those unusual types who proclaim the poets and scientists, musicians and discovers cannot be compared with temporary popularity. How incomplete, however daunting to be taken seriously, for over three hundred years, Freemasonry has been unapologetic and admired for pursuit of lofty ideals. In the hurricane of information that came with 21st Century came a need for contemplation. Infrequently, whether it is because of a grand history or immense intellectual capability, the Brotherhood continues the mystery. Even of it's membership, few have gone into the meaning of secret mysteries which means the richness and potential waits for an intellect to unlock secrets. Where the estates have failed, the simple Brotherhood has continued. It defies reason. It is the geometry of bumblebees and all things that 'should not exist'. As it weathers some rough waters in some places, the brotherhood is otherwise being practiced in fullness, passing on the knowledge and wisdom of times gone. It doesn't hesitate to cast a spell.
If, as Plato and Aristotle suggest, beauty is a form of truth so satisfying as to be a source of (undeniable) pleasure we would be lead to believe that the beauty of speculative freemasonry is an intrinsic for us to consider and receive the benefits as such. I confess often I have felt when that is not valued, the functional face of our brotherhood has taken on aspects of social service clubs. Not that I find that offensive, members openly declaring their efforts receive status of a sort. Whether this is self-serving or altrusim I leave to the reader. My flawed reality assumed a beauty within the nature of freemasonry was there for those curious enough to learn. It took some time for me to realize I was playing with the alternate idea of subjective existence. The beauty of the Craft exists in the mind- rather than objective, subjective beauty. We know previously, art was carefully controlled by religion because there could not be two sources of truth. We know this changed during the renaissance in various European nations, as scientific method helped humanity fullfill a democratic condition. The arts were examined and reexamined for truth in beauty. In the 21st century, philosophical debate has largely been replaced by materialism. Whether beauty is objective or subjective, flows towards interest groups that have absorbed social stratification. Do we consider our symbols and furniture similarly? Do they have meaning whether we value them or not? Immanual Kant was on to something raising questions that didn't confuse but helped us clarify. So if I explain today, Freemasonry is objectively beautiful how would I offer proof? And if I did, would my opinion shape your thinking anymore than the beauty of our philosophy? Probably not. It is simply testiment to a fact about masonry. Our Order puts before us serious questions- the means to examine our nature if we attempt answers.
But it is a melancholy of my own, compounded by many simples,extracted from many objects and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, which, by often rumination, wraps me in the most humourless sadness. As You Like It Wm Shakespeare
Even though you are may not have opportunity in lodge, you may have needed to talk about expansive ideas. You have wondered what it would be like to explore ideas at your own pace. Let's try that here. If you will accept MasonicFX as a pastiche not to replace but enhance lodge experience between gatherings, then I will ask you a few questions. First, if your attitude changes, will you admit it (to yourself)? By surrounding yourself with beauty and wisdom, you breathe an atmosphere that will change you as surely as light conquers darkness. Now,at your age, is the preservation and enhancement of your life too frivolous to take seriously? After life metres out peity you realize spirituality is occurring by your own measure. This brotherhood cannot complete you but can strive to be an incentive to cover the chamber with inspiration as graffiti and open the door of your mind as you enter. Nothing else. The clamour at the door? that's not an indictment of our speculations. It is a reflection of the human condition. We are the continuance of an ancient Brotherhood. Our lessons require understanding and aquiring a vocabulary to communicate using a language of symbols and ritual, a blend of inspiration, experience and contemplation. I know except for in the rashness of youth,applying ideas like enlightenment and wisdom can be daunting. To overcome that natural reaction requires prerequisite humility, self-discipline and self-respect. Even as you progress, ask your questions again and again. And together we will listen for changes as time and discovery deepens understanding.
Overstating concerns is not what the Brotherhood needs to hear. Outlining issues has done little to strengthen our resolve. If we had a shared understanding of the Craft perhaps the dialogue needed to share ideas would have encouraged us to talk about those annoying free radicals that have in the c21st crept up on even the most autocractic administrator. Responses are many. Solutions, few. It brings to mind explanations of three types of patience offered in the Quran; ...endurance, restraint and acceptance. And Ecceliastes 3,1-8, ...to everything there is a time. And Prashat ki tisa ...patience is a companion of wisdom. Even with patience, the Brotherhood could use a frank sit-down about what the hell is going on! Never let it be said we were unaware. Returning to the cloister is no longer a perrogative. The amount of gossip, wearisome forgettable buildings and the collapse of business solutions have taken us to the point we are at today. Are we each convinced the antient wisdom ever had or still has merit? And are we convinced it is worth the 'work'? Even our fondness for history doesn't cloud our thinking. There is an orthodoxy and we've been ignoring it. Why? doesn't matter. Some attention to communication is needed which is why this article begins with echos from monotheastic religions about the presence of a contemplative mind. Let the debate rage as it must. If our beliefs are accurate/true they will prevail. Question them of course, but also consider the ancients may have been on to some genuinely transformative ideas. Look. Holding a tool does not work it. Working a tool creates callouses. Too many hands are baby soft. But wait. Proselytizing, thinking one is capable of rehabilitating the mind of another is too close to narcissim for my comfort. One mind at a time. Find the beauty. Enjoy the silence. Let yourself be discovered.
How it works. Filling boxes with books and articles does nothing to heighten the acuity of masonic literacy. I have lost the capability to have sympathy with ideas that are widespread but useless to next generations of brethren, just as I have no sympathy for the anger and annoyance, that I am not following in step. Syncophancy is not respect. So of the hundreds and thousands of opinion pieces available to us, what is the expectation? Collecting them? Reading them? Understanding? "Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better." ~Epictetus. Think about the entirety of masonic literature and and what holds it together is a process. Often content is passed on randomly. Too often it is handled by those who have read without understanding. Owned without applying what they have learned. In other words they step back from the assimilation of ideas that a lodge is expecting. That awkwardness is off putting until we equip the audience with a way to bridge their thinking to the point of inference. The randomness has happened because time and distance have effected our work. At the heart of this is an intention that you the reader will be made aware that holding qualified opinions about history, symbols and philosphy are well within the parameters. And as Epictetus admonishes- show that you understand and apply what you have learned to your thinking and behaviour because without this, what have trulyyou gained?
Historians called it Bonfire of the Vanities. In the 15th century the Medici had already demonstrated a liberality that at the time was unnerving for Christian extremists, was taken to accounts by an outspoken dominican monk. This is a story of brief notoriety that played on public sentiment. The growth of Florence was unprecidented. Tight rules of conduct and dissention were relaxed under the administration of a powerful family that controlled church and state. It was fertile ground for the odd and unavoidable zealot. Girolama Savonalrola was one who knew how to emflame his congregants. So he aimed his energies at ridding Florence sin by destroying symbols. So his followers dressed in white gowns and garlands went door-to-door collecting sinful objects- artwork, books, cosmetics, dresses etc and burned everything on 7 February 1497. What connects this with masonry? But if we had a masonic bonfire for all symbols of vanity, what would be left? Would we still have purpose? Today, symbols distributed have been distributed in high volume, for very little brotherly input. Compared to the priniciples encapsulating in early masonry, we have a contemporary fascination with them as long as we are not required to adjust behaviour or thinking. I suggest, we are similar, them and us- aligning ourselves intellectually with value based concepts. One additional burden is maintaining messaging that deteriorates when the crowd is so large, intimacy is lost. The aggression between men is about the same. Whether we can have intelligent conversation without distracted by division has tracked us throughout history. Accountability and connection has expanded so we expect a further 'cleansing'? Our order exists around the world. Today we have choices to make. Will we find best practices for a lodge and adapt without waiting for an entire generation to fade can we do this in real time ?
You might think it impertenent of me to bring this up. But I feel compelled and will explain myself fully and hope to your completest satisfaction. Where I am a freemason, like you, I experience the effects of masonry on people around me in varying degrees. And I will admit to you this is one of my secrets. I see unhappiness and it surprises me and doesn't surprise me at the same time. For the longest time I was sensing something wasn't in order, but could not find the words to explain it, to myself or anyone else. And then it came hit me as out of the blue. That expression was familiar but out of context. It was the look of a person who was the only one who had not been invited to the party. The party is masonry and it's been raging on for hundreds of years. Here you are, listening in on MasonicFX, more mature but somewhere in the recesses of your mind, still expectation the invitation. Your invite has arrived. You've simply been trying to accommodate with the rules of being a good mason. Nothing wrong with that, except masonry as you know, is discovery. Discovery of ideas and insights that are inspiring. If you want them, prove it. Show your enthusiasm is mature and real. You can't do that by holding back. Be yourself. Ask the questions out loud. Teach yourself patience by being patient. If you find yourself being self-conscious, start off in a smaller group and listen. And listen more. When you hear a presentation, ask the question. Why is it important (to me) and what difference does it make (to me)? No need to be snobbish. Walk in telling yourself you're there to learn. Look beyond the loud one. Look beyond the important one. Look for the one watching and listening, like you. A mason doesn't find aim in life. Purpose isn't a state of mind. It's discovery. Step by step. Will power, self-discipline, caring for yourself.
It is an old ploy widely known. Work from facts and draw conclusions? Work from conclusions and find facts to substantiate. Given the hundreds and thousands of well preserved opinion pieces available to us, doing the latter is making otherwise mediocre scholarship appear more substantive that it is. For the discerning mind, we need rules of engagement, to help reduce the chaos. Like when I listen (in awe) to students of the khabal, I loose tract of the content so consistently, not because it is boring but because of the zeal with which it is delivered. It imparts the off putting fire and brimstone lectures of the piety that failed to impart the beauty of faith. As coincidence would have it, I had a copy of AQC nearby, Vol LXVI (66) from 1954. And turned to a piece on King Solomon by Bro. Gerard Brett, in which he sites some interesting findings. The root of our Hiramic legend may never be found. Within the Solomon tradition, are 'three strands" that have a bearing on our legends: 'the magician, the wise man and the builder'. He references 1 Kings, iv29-34; Wisdom, vii 17-22. I leave that for you should you be in need of reassurance. What caught my attention was the notion of magician and our apparent preoccupation with the builder. And moreso, it reinforced the need to be well studied in order to put masonic content into a context that you will use or ignore as you please, to draw meaning and relevance from this Order to your life. I can perfectly understand my friend Josep who experienced the energy of spirituality practiced in his lodge over there in his native land and here gasped where he could not find it being practiced. Having said that, I am of a mind that many practices are evolving, breaking out around the surface of the Earth in a study of Arts & Sciences- where metaphysics bursts from logic. By holding a point of view we then reveal ethics and a presence of mind
How is it that living without a past is fraught? If I took to heart the advice contemporary, living in the moment I would find comfort not in the avoidance of past but in acknowledging it is not a priority until I choose it so. History, philosophy, arts, sciences, they feed our minds because we are taken out of the moment to a the safety of time passed. It is what happens today that we focus. And the ability to observe, though expressed in a variety of tastes and opinions? that is how we face a rather unpleasant truth about ourselves. We have existed before. Even if we agree we are reconfiguring our history, we have been here before. This is familiar territory. To reject or accept a belief that to justify our existence requires pennance for conscience is itself an idea that requires a uniqueness- illustrated perhaps as a thought experiment. What if you were able to consider yourself in a deeper historic, philosophical way- would it be sitting on a bench while history passes, selecting memories you understand but do not know? It makes speculative freemasonry a map, not a destination. The acceleration of opinions is nothing new to us. We simply have means to produce and distribute at an unprecidented level. Meaning whether ideas adopted from others until we mature, or epiphany, is only tedious, fraught, when we make it so. Speculative, as a collision of idealism and reality, or the blend of romantism with post modernism, saying we are tedious is an admission it takes attention and time to find the music in notes, truth in beauty.
Speculative freemasonry is if nothing, an anecdote to present day cynicism for a small group within the wider body of masonry. Once we remove extremism and zealotry, it provides followers with a calculus, unfamiliar to moderns; a sustainable spirituality, a prompt to discover within yourself enough happiness to attempt moral and ethical trials and enough to examine living with gravitas, in priviledged communities that vascilate between too much and too little. The world has not knelt down to let us indulge ourselves in male entitlement. Masonry at the core tears away at smugness and superiority over the remnants of diminished religious and political control and tribalism. Not so simple, it asks vis ritual for an acolyte to commit and therein we come face to face with an over inflated sense of our capabilities. Rising to the tests of good life exacts a toll. It alters what and who we are in a very real sense. Unless we are knowledgeable and comfortable with humanists views, it is a daunting prospect to live out life as a mason. Every aspect requires exchange of perspectives to galvinize learning. Coming to terms with the indulgent class structure should make any person doubt the merit of it all. Speculative freemasonry takes us to the edge of knowing and being,sceptic, stoic or epicurean alike. But to examine and then question the orthodoxy of faith is rare character. That is a warning to thinkers. Distraction and denial is functional but leaves us incomplete. And so we have an answer.
It seems we have let ourselves be influenced by a concept called speculative freemasonry, brought into a brotherhood created by literati. As idealized as it was, it recognized genius and integrity, distinguished worthy and unworthy as a euphamism for intelligence. Attentive minds enjoyed the calculus of reason and purpose. Gentry and shop keepers enjoyed an enhancement of reputation- each taken out of their limits of experience to a place of understanding and meaning. Materialism, piety and rank made profane. Speculative masonry modestly given up insights. Even as we pause deciding if heart or head is the route we will follow, a small group dares to explore outside the boundaries of acceptable thinking : heads firmly in the clouds and hearts hoping. Then, ever so cautiously we learn we are the source of unhappiness; internal wrapped in fear of our prideful nature. We begin learning truth is often an annoying state of mind. Considering I alone hold back, is not what I wanted to hear. If only I was a prince, no one would dare speak to me this way. Being taught to reason, can best be approached as an appealing challenge- to know thyself. Believe what you choose, speculative masonry is where we each find that truth is not what others say it is but what we know. (Gnossis). It is where beautiful dreamers congregate, tied one to the other by ideas. Never alone but always alone we begin to emerge, spiritually connected to the wonders of the universe. As every composer, every scientists, every poet and philosopher sets out with perserverance, not knowing the destination, I believe they dreamed and attempted what their dreams revealed. After realizing the shortcomings of the estates, freemasonry picked up the slack, handing us a map, unable to set our destination but briefly letting us visit mysteries and discovery.
Speculative freemasonry is if nothing, an anecdote to present day cynicism for a small group within the wider body of masonry. Once we remove extremism and zealotry, it provides followers with a calculus, unfamiliar to moderns; a sustainable spirituality, a prompt to discover within yourself enough happiness to attempt moral and ethical trials and enough to examine living with gravitas, in priviledged communities that vascilate between too much and too little. The world has not knelt down to let us indulge ourselves in male entitlement. Masonry at the core tears away at smugness and superiority over the remnants of diminished religious and political control and tribalism. Not so simple, it asks vis ritual for an acolyte to commit and therein we come face to face with an over inflated sense of our capabilities. Rising to the tests of good life exacts a toll. It alters what and who we are in a very real sense. Unless we are knowledgeable and comfortable with humanists views, it is a daunting prospect to live out life as a mason. Every aspect requires exchange of perspectives to galvinize learning. Coming to terms with the indulgent class structure should make any person doubt the merit of it all. Speculative freemasonry takes us to the edge of knowing and being,sceptic, stoic or epicurean alike. But to examine and then question the orthodoxy of faith is rare character. That is a warning to thinkers. Distraction and denial is functional but leaves us incomplete. And so we have an answer.
It seems we have let ourselves be influenced by a concept called speculative freemasonry, brought into a brotherhood created by literati. As idealized as it was, it recognized genius and integrity, distinguished worthy and unworthy as a euphamism for intelligence. Attentive minds enjoyed the calculus of reason and purpose. Gentry and shop keepers enjoyed an enhancement of reputation- each taken out of their limits of experience to a place of understanding and meaning. Materialism, piety and rank made profane. Speculative masonry modestly given up insights. Even as we pause deciding if heart or head is the route we will follow, a small group dares to explore outside the boundaries of acceptable thinking : heads firmly in the clouds and hearts hoping. Then, ever so cautiously we learn we are the source of unhappiness; internal wrapped in fear of our prideful nature. We begin learning truth is often an annoying state of mind. Considering I alone hold back, is not what I wanted to hear. If only I was a prince, no one would dare speak to me this way. Being taught to reason, can best be approached as an appealing challenge- to know thyself. Believe what you choose, speculative masonry is where we each find that truth is not what others say it is but what we know. (Gnossis). It is where beautiful dreamers congregate, tied one to the other by ideas. Never alone but always alone we begin to emerge, spiritually connected to the wonders of the universe. As every composer, every scientists, every poet and philosopher sets out with perserverance, not knowing the destination, I believe they dreamed and attempted what their dreams revealed. After realizing the shortcomings of the estates, freemasonry picked up the slack, handing us a map, unable to set our destination but briefly letting us visit mysteries and discovery.
If you and your lodge members picked up brush and pen to develop a concept, what would you include in that architecture? Would your plan be a short or long game? Would you include philosophy or poetry? Religion and politics are divisive. What of fraternity, equality and liberty? The ideals of meaning suffer greatly from interpretation. Would history have a place? If it did, whose history? Would it assume the history of one is the history of everyone? And would music have a place? What music? Such possibility written down would reveal both capability and limits to our thinking. Yet faced with these questions, brethren have built something based on a concept that is beyond compare. In our case, the necessary understanding was not given out. It is provided when we are ready to receive it. Pamphlets have been written and failed because the knowledge comes from within. There are difficult challenges, tests along this journey that prove something about courage and commitment. They are not without risk as we learn from the group of architects. They did not study a completed building. They learned the geometry and techniques needed to turn design into structure. In our case, the intention was a mind palace. To understand, they look time to study whatever arts and science would produce reliable, transferable proof. H+S+A> One. There are many histories, many paths to reason. Answers come with the context. We can't help but notice how well studied were the designers. Unlike us, they had no old temples to look at. We stand and stare, describing what we think is there. They went from knowledge to masonry. Allegory and metaphor had meaning. So was masonry light ahead or behind? Please if you use your time similarly tell me what you discover. Studying the elements did you find purpose and meaning? Did it change you?
Some people react to a threat by running toward while others take shelter. Some react to repeated threat by cowaring, others begin searching for a solution; building codes, sanitation, vaccine and thinkers who research without knowing it will reveal a desired result. Perhaps we all have an alchemist within. Life itself is not a measure of courage as much as it is adaptation. Courage? Good people find courage when called upon. Sometimes we might think of the scientist labouring quietly in the laboratory, over an entire lifetime, dedicated to finding a property or a cure for debilitating disease; then her students picking up the task when her faculties fail, picking up the tools and to the next and the next. Recognition? It does not follow them in their obscurity unless we notice, except for the respect of their own tight communities. Imagine for a moment the damage done when populists devalue that effort? We imprisoned Galileo. Is it so wrong to think there are parallels with our brotherhood? There are those who work feverishly, seeking recognition and reward while others have reason in mind. There are those who work without fanfare focused on an outcome few may be inclined to understand. There is a price to pay for entering a masonic world of contemplation. No applause but mockery; not popular but individuality aimed at the pursuit of inner truth and contentment. But each worthy mason knows, his narrative he is driven by a different, private need to understand the difference between facade and authenticity. For hundreds of years, a small group of people have shared this work amidst ridicule, and distraction, aware that enlightenment is often isolating. Arrogance and hubris has nothing to do with this result. Masonry is a calculus that begins with hope. Watching. Listening. Silently.
Learning is becoming. Becoming is learning. If we were boys we would defend experiential against contemplative learning with the same self-serving results. It is when we read between the lines, (speculative masonry) and if we continue to look into the sun, the point is missed. It is the difference between striving or passivity. Evidence of this comes to us from carefully reading the Ancient Charges- those odd declarations given less import than the index in your book. We created a club-like atmosphere, replacing the spirituality put in place in 1813- the year of reconciliation between those who stood firm for orthodoxy (Ancients) and those who stood for adaptability (Moderns). Conviviality became less refined as expectations faded. Proactive charity gave way to reactive giving because we had faint notions of principles and values on which this is formed. Proactive thinking avoids complications. Reactive deals with existing problems. Masonry has looked further into the future because it was intelligent enough to recognize one from the other. There is a question in this, that each individual faces. Can our emotion be controlled to the extent we can put weight to a line between what we see and how it began? Masonry extolls us to try. It outlines tools that have helped the brotherhood for centuries. Why but why have we abandoned these efforts and asserted our own? Clearly that is in line with materialism and the me-generation. Some would say it aligns with the fears associated with a secular society. To be kind, let's suggest there have always been masons among us who walked with insight, whose disappointment caused their isolation; who saw the supremacy of humanist philosophy over ego. Begin by selecting the instrument; epicurean, stoic or sceptic. Then compare with that inner man who looks at you from the other side of the mirror. Enlightenment lies in shades of grey that fade into light.
So many forms of ritual made it through the turmoil that eventually caused our Grand Lodges to protect us. Somehow, a Grand Lodge is present for a reason. Consistency of organization and historical continuity are important. That said, a comparison of ritual is a useful learning tool, apart from the usual bromide, that ppl believe what they want to believe there are those who have eyes wide open. Let's leave it to F.Scott Fitzgerald: The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. To suggest one ritual is sufficient might say more about a lack of insight about human potential than anything spiritual or philosophical. Which brings me to a question? Is study to reveal secrets and mysteries and (cause a better life) been made into assumption or a goal? If it is assumed, it explains why in many lodges have we neglected to create atmospheres to enhance learning. Popularity has done this to us. How wrong minded of me to think for many, the craft is not democracy but ideological. Where ignoring meritocracy is how I've lowered expectations. Even if we harvested unqualified candidates we cannot in good conscience act surprised with the result. Better to accept all ppl have potential. In that way, we have little to loose from people who go through the motions without understaniding or meaning. Sadly their frequent complaints and expose' are superficially flimsy. Carrying forward our biases, expressing our conceits- that's entitlement. Being careful in the way we judge is how we influence awareness. To judge is to understand it. To understand is to discovery.
Somehow, as we grow older, being presented with 'obscure' facts becomes an absolute joy. Today much of the solemnity of masonry has been lost. Limiting ourselves to collective understandings has been uncomfortable. The intensity of inquiry has not extinguished the desire to pursue deeper meaning. Unfortunately this illusion of masonic practice can be off putting for people who expect our lodges will enrich philosophical learning, only to find otherwise. How then did we sort this? Largely by enjoying surge in membership by removing qualifiers. Please, if you will allow I'll attempt aninadequate explanation: Why tamper with meaning? It is putting ideas with potential to change thinking into the hands of self satisfyed people. This made abstract reasoning an unwanted luxury and fed variations. Passing for a freemason became easier than being one as long as they are never challenged. At those stations where knowledge is exchanged we see an uncomfortable truth. When a mentor appreciates purpose, he will instill the process of finding purpose in another. What then is the nature of our core beliefs-ethical philosophy? This is a polite way of saying that self-awareness requires understanding. Superficial readings beg the question- why does a person not pursue deeper meanings? I think the answer lies in attitudes toward luxury held by people looking for external affirmation, craving validation to comes instead from within. Emerging arts, cutting edge science, poetic notions, refined sociability, conviviality, nuanced conversation are for many just unattainable and impractical. Dare we ever to point out that they are also elements of our brotherhood? So many come to the door as we did. Too many leave disappointed we are not what they expected because we have changed thinking.
Hindsight is an amazing source. Now, in the winter of a life I look back on mine and wonder. If only someone had told me why poetry and reason are constantly in a battle to the death. Gave me names of authors and told me their works would life a weight off my shoulders; would teach me the meaning of happiness and help me organize my thoughts. If only. Aristotle, Homer, Dante; it would have made a difference. Had I known earlier four classical themes in art; Epic,Lyric, Tragic, Comic -it would have shown me a mental path. Right? Had I known the theology of Dante Inferno illustrated situations that would befall me, the familiarity would have helped. Right? Blame was replaced when I stood up and assumed responsibility for all of it. No excuses and a struggle with reason. The mysteries of a good life are readily shown if you know where to look at a price- criticism of your peers. If I pass along any small piece of knowledge, it is a hope of helping a searcher to find challenge in life, to discovery with effort there is purpose in life; whether they live according to purpose or not. Within the folds of a page, an idea is enriched by context. Context is where we find meaning. Learning the context of your life is between you and the inner sense that shares your life, that knows your truths, that rallies your courage. The Craft does not transform the world around. It transforms the inner man.
Find dialogue. Be part of a molecule- proton, neutron or electron it doesn't matter. Find the other two and the connect reveals itself. They, like you are curious and thoughtful. Whether anuma or anibus, can you admit when you are changing? Audi Vide Tace. If only I'd known being truth to myself was no where near selfish or ego. I am incomplete. A mason master.
What is the point? For any man who has paid attention to life around him, he will know what I am about to explain. Even the thought of taking this step with you is a humbling experience. If you have ever been self-conscious, have ever doubted your motive in life, have found yourself hesitant to try, then freemasonry has a message that is worth all the effort and practice. I don't even know the right word to use, because each one is incomplete it is way. When your actions are governed by conviction that you have something to share, something you need to do in life, it is different when you act with purpose. A careful reading of ritual as I do, reveals the point. Freemasonry is a path to demonstrate in the most honest way achieveable that you are capable and have proved to yourself that you understand purpose. It is not found in a book or a pamphlet. It is taught one to another by one who has who has the knowledge and knows that it is a journey an individual takes alone. It is confidence. It is integrity. It is understated power. It is connecting. Living with purpose is the point. What else is there? If you follow this, then you have the intelligence needed. If reveals dimensions of you that otherwise remain dormant. Yes there are other means to this end. But can you describe it as a process of life long development, each day poised to discover meaning because I have yet to find it. Do this with me. Step forward into our philosophical history and we will reveal the magic of wizards, the secrets of alchemists and wisdom of the gods. Accepting mediocrity makes a man hesitate,bottled up not risking to find his true ability. It takes courage to find this truth. Not power. Certainly not wealth and fame. When you find your purpose, then you can live it. And that my brethren, of whatever gender assignment is you, is at the point of the compasses.
Our brotherhood exists because so many of us have committed voluntarily to a way of thought and living. One of the questions respectable people would never ask is about your self-worth. Our modest claim-good men better-addresses the point on behalf. Intellectual development can occur through various paths. Assuming the need to be uncomfortably dedicated is a preconceived mindset unfair to you and me. Take that another step and unlike our brotherhood, it would be a club organized around external functions. On the other hand Masonry is about exposure to significant ideas focusing on discovery of purpose and living accordingly- the inner man. Perhaps it is clearer if think about the Oracle at Delphi. Ask a question. Receive an answer obvious or not. Clarity was yours to discover. In a way, either it takes courage or a resignation or despair. Many come to the door each for their own reasons. Many walk away. Asking the question can be daunting. Such questions reveal much about a person. We are not always able to handle truth. Reserved, convivial and refined are words that describe an atmosphere conducive to learning and reasoning. It gently becomes more obvious if we weigh into knowledge, like meaning of symbols and ritual teaching ethics. The thousand points of light, they are us come together to create. Respect the challenge is difficult in its own way. While Grand Lodges deal with external and internal organizational pressures, spirituality, philosophy and ethics remain extant and in practice so quietly they might go unnoticed. Masonry respects the individual journey. It is a daunting challenge to search for purpose in life. And moreso to self-regulate and live by those values. Is it worthwhile? Find out for yourself. While the world evolves, people will have uneven access to opportunity. Masonry will be there.
You may like to think of personality being the measure of a persons curiousity. Bleak to consider what this expresses about the generally uninspired effort that causes so much division in a lodge, nevertheless an undeniable truth. Symbols unannounced. Unrequited are those hopes that we had about you and me, being allowed the company of the better person of character, who has overcome any shred of self-consciousness to persue the arts and sciences. Not the stuffy excuses but the individuality of your thinking. Which poet attracts? What poem inspires? Each degree probed,until the alchemists are disturbed. Sharing the joy of refined sociability,not the forced reverence of a tourist group of short sighted viewers standing impatiently in the L'ouvre to check off the next box in their scripted little lives. Where and when did we abandon our legacy, keeping our constitution wrapped tightly in a pocket declaring nothing more than materialism. I have a copy of the work, I wear the regalia, I am untasked by purpose and therefore I am a mason. Except for the talentless tangle of egos on display, thinkers and doubters are kept isolated. If ritual awakens the epicurean, the sceptic or even a stoic, we can stifle that grown in the bud. Equality, fraternity, liberty made meaningless is the truest expression of mediocrity we are likely to ever find. With all the callousness boyhood can muster, we have tried and failed to insure education takes a back seat to pride and ambition. Failed because the brotherhood has never stopped searching, never stopped communicating and are realizing the mistake perpetrated on us all- that masonic education requires passivity and compliance. The bubble of thought has once again burst revealing so many notions weighing in on the me-generations self-made ethics and validation by group conspiracy.
It has been called insight and understanding. It has periods in history that mark the progress of humanity. Significant thinkers have always maintained the conversation about the human condition. Self-awareness once the unquestioned prerogative of humans has been presenting us with observations that astound until the lines separating black n white reveal the truth that understanding is daunting. Indifference toward understanding places us on the edge of chaos. But neither can we assume enlightenment without reason. The secrets of ritual have never revealed themselves to a fool. Accepting the challenge of proof is what uncommon men do. Look around the lodge and see for yourself how accurate this is. When we realize a moment of clarity, everything becomes subordinate to understanding. The framework that brilliant men built is only an offering not a promise. Come into the gallery where latent talent is manifest. The dedication and effort, the attention to detail, confirming and capturing beautiful ideas that are your contribution and yours alone. This brick road will take you to findings but not without presenting you with barriers. Overcome them and step along. Bliss? Perhaps something more? A university but so much more; a lifestyle, a reason for being. Sacred geometry is preserved within our brotherhood every time we look behind the curtain. Don't be fooled. Perhaps necessity is the mother of invention.
Reading between the lines is what we do. It is what draws us to the light more so when we find ourselves embraced by fertile mind palaces that brought speculative freemasonry to the point it is today. If you are attentive to ideas, each stone found and put in place takes us one piece closer to completing a puzzle. Doing it without judging yourself or others- try focusing on only what is most important . Yes others need validation by sharing their versions and yes there are many distractions. Maybe it is yearning; if only I had been born to genius and wealth- I would be complete within myself. Tell yourself that until the truth reveals itself. Your intelligence is waiting to be discovered. Like speaking truth to power, it is often unwanted, insufferable unless tempered by a gentle nature. That calmness is buried until you replace one version of you for another more complete. What have you to loose by trying? Overcoming such challenges is the nature of a curious character. You and I call it doubt. Others call it contemplation. You call it anxiety;others call it excitement, waiting for that moment of understanding. Know too that what worries you internally today is temporary. The moment we live in soon passes. Wanting to enrich yourself, is then about comparing great works with your own emerging thinking. There is value in understanding the ideas of the brightest minds that came before. Savouring what you have absorbed, applying knowledge is such an obscure path that through masonry it is a lifelong process. Like you, Buddha, Socrates, Hildegard of Begin and Thomas Aquinas were also people. Hindsight elevated their ideas and our thinking. So who is to say in your own way, you have ability, and are following a similar path? Let your honest hindsight be the judge.
A question that I am often asked- how does a mason put the pieces together? The answer lies within. Contemplation is what the learner brings. Find reliable source material. Studying will produce questions. Write them down. That is a first step to self-directed learning. It seems impossible to find someone who can tie it all together for us better than our own process. You will learn quickly who has understanding. It is wise to find someone who offers a chance to question and who shows his understanding of your learning curve. Well Hiram let me set your mind at ease. You aren't alone and you are not wrong. You are in fact stumbling into a form of learning that itself requires a level of awareness. The uniformity you expected is not where you expected. The brotherhood lies beneath the surface of a club like atmosphere. Your discovery of Aristotelian ideas will set you apart from brethren not inclined to decipher ancient landmarks and symbols. Your learning path is solitary. Your observations are the way of a learner. And being able to recognize this is not as easy as it might seem. You are in an open university- where earnest people gather, where your motives are revealed. Study and you will find this apprenticeship is a lifetime learning process. It is validation that understanding is part of a good life. Finding compatible atmospheres and inspiration is only as hard as you make it. Tackling projects bigger than what you feel capable of understanding is actually part of the process. How does a philosopher break down the lofty, ubiquitous elements? Daunting questions require our patience. If a student cannot relate to the subject does that mean it lacks purpose? The liberating moment for one, can be fraught for the next. How does a learner trust himself enough to suspend disbelief?
If it hasn't happened yet, I'm sure it will soon. There is a process within Freemasonry that begin with essential questions being put out into the ether without a response. Answering those questions requires an effort that no one can impose. It is a pursuit of an underlying talent and insight based on a theory, that with effort any man or woman can be a better person tomorrow than they are today. As we begin we experience tests. Frustration. Isolation. Confusion. Solitude. So many paths taken by others, only hint at the one best suited to our own abilities. Easier to do what we usually do when faced with dissonance- step back. Yet each time we congregate, we are struck with a deafening sound coming from symbols. Mathematical equations pour over us, too many to understand at once. The maddening crowd seems to have an enviable source of energy, while we continue to dream of walking into those inspiring masonic cathedrals where connection to our history is layered. If this proximation is familiar then perhaps it is helpful to point out that our beliefs rest within our solitude where no question is wrong, where black and white fades into shades of grey. If this becomes a hobby, better to take up golf or philately. As you are a person of conscience, the questions will not fade. Command and control, chain-of-command has little to do with inspiration and talent. The magicians secrets are about forming illusion, manipulating the mind using knowledge and practice. So those who come into the Order with pre-conceived notions about us, are bound to be unhappy. Those who self-educate who come with an idealistic sensibility cannot escape the inevitable reality- masonry is complex and requires dedication. The fortunate among us also find inspiration along the way.
Were you instructed to analyze the answer you gave during initiation? Ritual, at first glance provides many of the fundamental ideas that define our direction as Freemasons. When our mentor instructs us on the value and purpose of asking, we begin that journey within, examining your life. 'In my heart'- if that is the case then what does it mean to you? The heart isn't a lodge room. Are we lead to believe the heart represents courage, compassion, dedication, love? And if that is the case, are we then to assume we have been an unacknowledged mason long before we have been enlightened? It seems a stretch but I suppose we could say great musicians, great mathematicians had the potential long before they applied themselves and revealed their talent. But why would we go there except in a moment of altruistic madness? At that level of abstraction, much context would be gained at the expense of lost meaning, or are we talking about a phenomenologists dream? Most of us will need a briefing on this aspect of philosophy before plunging into the abysse. Would I be wrong to ask a brother about his sense of what he has experienced; his outlook, so unique that within the confines of his mind, he makes and finds overlap in consciousness? Exceptional brethren could guide this conversation. They would educate us without making us feel self-conscious or inferior. They would listen to our step by step growth, gaining a better sense of our strengths and weaknesses. The latter gives us reason to focus on the goal, betterment, and motivation for additional effort. If I think I am not a good friend- what then is the difference between me and my ideal self? What would it require of me to be that ideal self? Private conversations with the mind are influenced by an insightful mentor. Find yours and find yourself.
Becoming a mason is if nothing else, a deeply personal experience. To examine ones values, to act with self awareness are not trivial pursuits. What separates the Order from social groups is the unabashed influence of spirituality. Without Iman, Rabbi, Priest or Minister to guide, each capable man steps forward. How to understand the presence of the GAOTU has its beginnings in acknowledgements. Truths/opinions if you like are formed, about the kind of man we are at the beginning. To suggest an individual can possibly know thyself is reasonable if we also address the depth of experience sought after. Superficial gets superficial. Men of conscience are generally more attentive than that. Perhaps the happiness of the Dahli Lama is a respectible model. Whether the entire lodge is prepared to ask, every man is capable. Fair enough he would benefit from dialogue with someone more knowledgable that can communicate with him and one he trusts. Assertings ones 'profane' identity is typical, the stuff of a rough ashlar. It would be reasonable to think that a man who regularly visits rooms draped in symbols would eventually learn their meaning. Perhaps, if he is fortunate he will have deeper, thoughtful understanding. Perhaps he will float along the surface content in his ignorance of the challenges beneath and above. So then I ask you, which man is experiencing true masonry? Does true masonry even belong in the conversation?
Before we even consider a plan we have some structural problems to overcome. This plan will confront the prevailent attitude of the day- the individual truth is the right. It will require each one of us learning the work required to achieve mastery and step forward willingly committing to work as long as required with as much diligence as we can muster. As individuals we accept the utmost responsibility for our conduct. We accept that our potential at the beginning is unknown. We may never know if we hesitate or fail to put forth the extreme effort required. Templates for the lodge, for masonic education, for governance will be replaced through the elevation and development of each willing mason. It is asking everything as you did when you became a mason. Without examination, without purpose life is not worth living. Here is your opportunity to face challenge and display merit from within. Are you ready to dismiss attention to an accident of birth being hailed as a virtue? The values of our community are built gradually, skillfully. Are you ready to exhibit what you have learned at each stage before being allowed access to more? Are you willing to tell the truth, to express your thinking with impartiality? Then and only then will we begin. Watch now as we gradually build, exchange poor workmanship with knowledgeable skillful artificers. As we resurrect old ideas we confront inadequacy with all the complications that come with them. Ideology has served us but not well. At the tipping point, we need replace it with facts and truth. Common values that hold communities together. Let real masonry be your guide
Where I practice Freemasonry, we import history to mix with the young wine of a start up nation. Once, not so long ago our learning was sourced in our Grand Lodge. Gradually science moved forward. New and fascinating uses were commericalized, especially in forms of communication. A simple picture of the earth floating in a black abyss of space came into our thinking the same way the view of a height always fascinated humans. From a day when mathematics and engineering were thought to be magic that warranted protection from the public connecting and sharing ideas overcame all barriers, manmade or otherwise. In a way, time and space was conquered. Immediately we took up the new tools and began exploring masonic sources worldwide. Ready or not, we began a comparitive analysis. And of course we ignored context. We happily compared apples and oranges. Enriched masonic environments were joined with modest architecture. And guess what happened? Questions. How do we get there from here? Can we build on pre-fabricated plans? We surged ahead with a post-war membership that put to rest any sense of shortsighted thinking. Expansion left us breathless. Sustainability? Why would we ask? We were still building. This is why, today as the lost lessons of freemasonry come to task us we have answers. We are not sitting on the edge of the event horizon. We are there in hope, waiting for the courage to grip us and help us stumble forward. Without the fearlessness of youth, we rest on reason to take us to the next level. In the upside down world of masonry, change has begun at lodge level. Our Grand Lodges to preserve the ancient landmarks and Constitutional proggatives need to harvest proof the new tools will be purposeful to our Order. While most of todays communication is positive, it does come with unintended consequence. Meanwhile we search the far corners of the earth for answers.
Freemasonry may well be the mindset that draws attention to hidden potency. To enrich the mind, we need to look up at sacred geometry, at the depths and heights of understanding. Is it wrong to think that Freemasonry exposes the world to process; means to an end? To avoid driving ourselves into a Calvinist frenzy, the genius of masonry responded with conviviality. It makes better sense to wonder if there is truth in the notion that it is the "language and philosophy of symbolism, or the esoteric and the esoteric garb of Truth". Something in that startles and intrigues. I buy the kit with a lofty goal in mind. One day I'll be a star. And then the challenge becomes apparent; the state of mind that focuses and pushes back on what experience and doubt have 'proven'. Distraction or diligence? Most often what we consider genius is the result of hard work. Constant refinement. Day by day, improving slightly and having the wherewithall to notice. Like you, I'm inclined to think of lodges were packaged with this in mind, it would winnow out the crowd. I was sitting one day in the Art Gallery of Scotland. Initimate and expansive. A wonder to the senses. And I noticed the people coming through the doors were dressed according to their station in life, but in earnest- purposeful. Not staring but absorbing. Lost in the shared experience of beautiful minds and it occurred that this might be what we mean when we talk about hidden potency, hidden potential- making a good man better. Should it be daunting? Probably. Yes. Of course. In our secular environment are we built to stand firm when faced with this nebulous challenge? We are built to be fed ideas and experiences that satisfy groupthink. Meanwhile the genius in us, retreats to the shadows- to contemplate. There is purpose to freemasonry. We are probably better off pretending it doesn't exist if we aren't ready for truth.
If we were completely rational, we would be so much easier to control. Our galleries would be empty. Books of poetry would be blank pages. Arrangement would override sponteneous acts. AI would rule. And when we looked up at the stars, they would 'be' shiny unexplanable sparks in the darkness. The aspirational teachings of our ritual, the comradery of our gatherings, active mindshiding in open space, knowledge would cease to drip through the fabric of our symbols. A reality of Utopia would be upon us- dire, bleak, grey on grey as a November sky. Let's embrace the importance of realizing we are both. Rational and emotional. To learn about self, we learn about others. It is part of the sub-text of life that values the time of others and your own sensible appreciation. Growth of character begins as a person overcomes his own reputation to himself. Externallly, Freemasonry gives us pause to enjoy colourful symbols- in the language of poets, fields of daffodils, odes to clouds. The masonic environment has sound bites but isn't a sound bite. To study the geometry of the Craft, is also searching back in time without loosing a moment. And by giving ourself over to masonry, the confusion subsides. Understanding brings light into darkness if we persist and earn respect. Carry your ideas with you. Watch of opporunity to dialogue and learn to listen. As interesting and unique as we are, we are also prone to experiment, searching and discovering. How we communicate is the stuff of a robust masonic presence of mind. And it makes us smile- so much that it drives others to distraction wondering why.
Too often worries have the best of us. Unprepared, we see what is immediate, less so what is to come. Find a task that is rewarding or fail. Presented with proving merit, it is easy to find fault with the Order and feel unnerved by resignation and the injections of a profane world that followed us into the Craft. If we let go of what is familiar what have you? Confusion? If this is familiar you may believe developing insight is not possible. Disbelief and impatience will be your first challenges as you compare your progress with passive learners in the room, waiting for something that will never come. Receiving instruction in the language and protocols, education comes from dialogue all in the search for reason and purpose; serious commitment; deep thinking. Do you realize the difficulty of this uncommon challenge, achieved by uncommon minds? Did you seriously expect answers would be given you to prove what you need? Joining the Craft does not cleanse anyone of habit however, the Order expects mastery of emotion and an open mind. Prepare then to examine life, to apply principles and a post-humanist philosophy. History? Philosophy? Symbolism? Metaphor?- they blend into a cocktail needed to study the Arts & Science while those around mock what they do not understand. Will you be altered by the challenge of insight. Yes. Social rank, achievement, even bombast will not substitute proof and purpose. So ask questions to focus your studies knowing you are beginning gradually as you must. If there is a shortcut no one has found it yet. The steps you take are yours but you are never alone and the company is pretty good.
It may be hard to believe, there was a man who survived the death camps but lost his family to the same suffering and founded a new way of approaching existence and materialism. As a student studying therapy faculty introduced me to a thin book The Will To Meaning. The unfamiliar author, a noted neurologist and psychiatrist and a holocaust survivor- Viktor Frankl offered a stunning notion we know as logotherapy, the foundation of my work for the next thirty years of work. I admit struggling to fit his ideas that drew attention away from the individual to the importance of ideas bigger than the individual. Why here? It was purely happenstance, that I found a value to purer life meaning through the ethos of masonry echoed by Frankl following his discoveries during internment. Materialism means nothing. Lifes meaning is something more important that serving our own needs; something that comes into play as we try to make sense and draw meaning from our lives. I had just read a reference from her work Freemasonry & Politics in Eighteen-Century Europe, by historian Dr.Margaret Jacob. The In 1744, the Grand Master recognized "the Order of Freemasons exisits to form men, agreeable men, good citizens, good subjects...to form in the course oftime a totally spiritual nation, where without denigrating from the various duties required by different states [or conditions], one [nevertheless] creates a new people. Given the situation in Paris at the time, I am disinclined to offer unnecessary comment. As the humanist movement, a la Renaissance as the history of the Greeks and Romans was rediscovered Freemasonry embraced character developed by service/charity to others. During the Renaissance, value and agency of the individual emerged. Freemasonry took us further. Viktor Frankl captured the conviction on which the Order was formed.
It is not enough to assume being a student is a passive event. It is not enough when you try to unlock meaning contained in symbols subtle or iconic. You have agency. You decide the question that will focus your learning. Don't compare yourself to others who are in the middle of their studies. Their progress is no reflection on your beginnings. Be cautious when applying the expectations taught in ritual. Merit and leadership are abstract notions. Reality always falls short of ideals and so too do the people who assume responsibility for the progress of a lodge. Unlike a business, with a profit purpose, we have emotional connections and responsibilities one to the other. We wander into an environment often out of our depth, startled by spiritual expectations, especially coming from a secular society. Whether from books, or spoken word learning florishes in masonry when we discuss. Not surprising when we are reminded about lessons in rhetoric taught to our ancients. Where to begin? I suggest you take on the lessons outlined in our motto. Learn the language by understanding and applying Audi, Vide, Tace to your thinking and life. Take the resulting language with you into a cloud of information. Here is where your question(s) bring focus. Your question may or may not be similar to mine or his. So be it. Not all information is revealed at first. Sometimes we need to visit ideas a second and third time. Prepare to give it just the exact amount of time and effort necessary to achievey your goals. How much? Enough. Anything less will lead to disappointment. You will know when it is enough, in hindsight.Masonry is vast. Context within context. Working in fields helps organize our thinking: Philosophy, History, Symbolism, Ritual. Our studies are clouded by stories and inaccurate information. How to determine what is valid? As masons have done for generations, search out credible credible sources. Discuss.
Your work assignment speaks to your character. Moreso as a Freemason we are equipped with the task of applying reason to our lives. Such is the effect of the long awaited acceleration that challenged religious dogma. Freemasonry pick up the challenge for minds unprepared to accept rounded off stories, meaning came from reasoning. We can be forgiven for thinking being a mason is a passive endeavour. Especially if the challenge of intent has been removed, you will know merit and competence once replaced by rank had clouded the waters. If you are one of those observant types, I have an idea you mind like. Proceed in private. Realize the distractions for what they are- temporary conventions, and focus on the goal- knowing yourself, understanding the world around us. Our ability to pick up the tools of learning are only hampered by hesitance to take that second step. Do you know and understand the principles taught in the First Degree? How have you applied them in your life? What proof have you? What if your 'proof' is superficial? Then that is you. What if the tasks are difficult? If they weren't difficult, they would not be worth the time and investment in your skills. We are shielded in a way from the profane world, until the profane world is allowed to leak into the sacredness of a lodge. Taking too much for granted is as unwise as visiting distemper on all within earshot. Where is the purpose you require? Surely not in the pleasure of being called a mason? If you have pulled yourself up by your bootstraps you will know doing that brings out detractors. Know your place- don't be uppity. You've heard it all before. Educational and professional credentials being mocked- usually by the same type of person- compensating and self-conscious. Education gives us a vocabulary to explain why it is uncomfortable to some, a promise to others.
What have we done with our best intentions? Today, the entire ethos of freemasonry has been locked away, ignored while a large number of older, senior masons do what old men always do; reminisce. From the start,our focus was to establish lodges and build a network extending masonry throughout 1,000,000 sq Km called Ontario. The templates handed to us were made with history unique to other lands, without warnings and caveats. To gain traction we modified criteria. The very definition of a true mason took out provision of purpose and emphasized friendship and kindliness. Lacking a fuller understanding, they were encouraged to focus on being called a mason. Qualifiers and challenges enabling a man to prove his worth, were removed from the conversation. The formula worked so successfully that our number exploded until our own state of incompletion visited us following WW11. Around the world masonry is experiencing similar outcomes. Expecting students of the frontier development plan to come up with a new plan to meet current need, is fraught. It is asking these men to detach from something they hold true and dear. It is asking too much. As we tred water, we lost relevancy. Far from being ahead of trends timid self-conscious decision making failed us. So I ask- how does a man ever learn to prove his worth to himself if freemasonry in Upper Canada has withdrawn the opportunity to find the truth about himself? How can we expect men who are proud to call themselves a mason to take on the work of becoming a mason? We can't. Freemasonry moves on, hidden this pastiche. Insightful masons are in the minority. They won't win popular votes yet they are the guarantee, that validation is found within and that is where they take the path less trodden. Success is what others say about a man, not what he thinks of himself- self absorbed and boring as hell. Step up. Together.
If we keep telling ourselves we are good masons while holding back on challenges and purpose, then we are growing unicorns. On the other side of the veil are tough questions. Questions only a grown man can answer. Are you worthy? Are you able to demonstrate your understanding of the priniciples of the Entered Apprentice and how they have changed your life? What proof to you offer that you are worthy of the next degree? Honest men realize their shortcomings. Good men realize their humility. Which do you believe? The easy path- full of flattery and excuses or an earnest path- purpose discovered through challenges, with a hope that you will find purpose and truth. Do you believe, do you seek the truth knowledge? Do you deserve the challenge? Are you able to go about your work unimpeded by an ambition, an expectation of rank or recognition? If behaving as a mason has left you with questions unanswered, there is another path. It is ancient and arduous and there is no surity that the challenges will be successfully achieved. That weight is on your shoulders and your shoulders alone. Why? At the end of days, truth is all encompassing. The path of proof, of purpose is the way a man prepares. To be put to the test and to face the challenge, adapting, showing resolve and overcoming self doubt, is where you belong. Moralizing is not morality. Words are wishes. Proving your worth is the masonic way. Step up.It is the only way to find if you are worth of the test. Hesitating you learn nothing. It is daunting yes. Maybe it is the task only fools would undertake. Are you foolish enough to face truth? Is that hope what drew you to the Craft? Is that what the Brotherhood has been protecting all these years?
Try. Fail. Try again. A man coming into masonry could be forgiven for expecting he will be connecting with ancient challenges. It is not hard to imagine his disappointment. Doubtful it was a single thought or one influencer who assumed modern men would be put off by a challenge of their own making, even if testing outcomes were conclusive proof of their character. But if the purpose of Freemasonry is not to challenge, won't the hollowed out framework become a social club? How could a man reconcile one with the order? It plays on a mans weaknesses to support his ego and ambitions. To advance him not because of his competence but politically is insincere. Even for a mason wanting and need to prove himself to himself, he is a stranger in a strange land. Happiness is of the profane world variety not the joy of discovery of truths. If there is an orthodoxy within Freemasonry as I believe we are instructed to a daily study of Arts & Science and if there is no accountability, not test of his obligation, what then is unique about the Craft? We have allowed intrusions from the profane world, carried with us and not challeged, to interfere with our sacred space and authenticity far too long. What to do? Discerning masons are leaving their isolation, reacting to a voice of reason and recognition. There is fork in the road. The path to west is well used. The path to the east is empty. It is a path that requires commitment. It is where men lean into the details. It is where men willing to commit to the goal will meet true mentors. And then, if he rises to the best of his abiilty, if he shows the necessary initiative, then he will be worthy of being tested. Tell me, which story appeals to you? Which one is worthy of your precise time? Life is not a dress rehearsal.
Each and every aspect of Freemasonry is precisely where it should be. To suggest otherwise is to suggest geometry and the mathematics on which it is based, is somehow flawed. After decades of appeal to intelligent discerning men, they have begun en masse to ask penetrating questions. We see proof of this the effect of ritual. During the initiatory elements, presence of mind reflects the significant purposefulness of the ceremony. Thereafter, that purposeful aspect becomes suspended. The frankness of Masonry, discoveries that tend toward insight (and character building) is subdued. Where ever and when ever the chemistry is compromised, we see evidence that traces of the profane world having been allowed by us to enter the Lodge, have been tolerated. No one person is blameworthy. To restore and preserve the sanctum sanctorum the thinking that repudiates the slightest but vital intrusions into our belief systems would need restoration. What of the acceptance? It is there for the worthy alone; the opportunity to face unequivocal truths, through purpose that has too often been compromised might feel like sand slipping through our fingers.
Today, our Craftsmen are better equipped than yesterdays. We are poised on the brink of this period of enlightenment reconsidered; a sturdy group of Ancients facing a formidable group of Moderns.
So when we come together, it is in Brotherhood. Quietly and deliberately go about building conservatively. Be intelligently, effectively impartial. Prepare, knowing life pathways have many forks, many decisions, many options. Those based on good mathematics are often harshly accurate, unlike my ego driven likings. Mathematics is truthful- impactful. The Brotherhood is quietly thriving.
Why did we soften masonry? Why did we rewrite Aesopes fables, removing the harshnessof life from lessons? Why did we use propaganda to ensure public awareness was controlled? Cynicism. We would do this if we had a low opinion of people. We would dumb down lessons, to ensure the destination is achieved without need to prove ability to understand. We would begin to contradict notions of competence, with a corrupt politik to maintain as much control and influence as possible to soften accountability. Why? Because unchallenged, we replace competent leadership with politics. What if, the development of character in Masonry required mastery of a series of tasks, and proof of that mastery to the mentors and lodge? What if we removed the test by inserting an equivalency. If a man gives his word to undertake the tasks, he is elevated to a status beyond proving his sincerity or ability. For generations, ethics and challenges have been soften. My guess is that it became important to prosthelytize and easier to convert men to the Order by removing the work. The risk has been pushed forward for future generations to pay the price. Today, we are that future generation and today, we are paying the price. What risk? This modification put the Craft at risk of irrelevancy. Thankfully the risk is not universal. Thankfully there remain, pockets of enduring commitment to the work. Intelligent men who have come to the door looking for their challenges have been disappointed that their merit would never be tested. And they lost interest. The atmosphere created in the literature of Freemasonry became corrupted as easy became the byeword. Lodges no longer became galleries of higher highest education. Chests full of symbols were cloaked. Even scholarship was replaced with mundane business as discusses of receipts and purchases became the first point of business brought into the sanctum sanctorum.
Is a man's performance always the best measure of his ability? Or isn't it accurate to notice most people underestimate their true ability? So often experience of early childhood set in motion the development of self reinforcing perceptions that limit the exercise of capacity. Until. Until a man or woman realizes for multiple reasons they have been carrying an impression of themself that has held them back, the truth and the perception are at odds. Who am I to presume anything about another person. Yet it is interesting to explore the idea that Masonry is a process that overcomes irrational thinking by acknowledging it and enriching a pathway to thinking that reveals an audacious world of unfamiliar notions, striving, full of self-affirmations, directed at exploring how far a person can go, when they stop being their own judge and jury. No one starts out knowing but we do start out understanding. And in the course of intellectual history, we have watershed periods following the trials and tribulations of ideas, many of which we take for granted today. Once, we used shadows to measure time. Today I wear a wrist watch. If you asked me what is time, I know but I do not understand. We are what we do. A Brotherhood, striding forward, courageous enough to ask questions that focus the mind.
Fullfilling the mandate- an idea that on one hand seems to absolve a man of responsibility for his life and on the other speaks to moral geometry in the same way mathematics speaks to metaphysics. It took more than an overactive imagination to think labelling the exchange of ideas between men was necessary. We will never know the motivation but we can speculate to satisfy our own preconceived notions, that it was altruism that caused certain behaviours. That and noticing that moralizing was not morality. If we thought about ways to deepen and broaden the experience of Masonry, we would mix our scientists with our artists in a place where metaphysics and ethics co-exist. The pocket care and testimonial wall hangings might be sufficient where masonry is shopped around to an unending marketplace of men coming of age, except that it begs the accuracy of definition, a place were speculation has been infused with conjecture. If our practices are not achieving the kind of understanding embodied by the Ancient Landmarks, we've simply failed to understand some aspect of the calculus. We won't push aside one aspect for another when they need to coexist, both in the mind and in reality. Today, some of us rationalize the decline of this particular river by looking upstream at processes needed to maintain the flow. Knowing as we do, that we can pause to savour a moment in time, everything and everybody is in a constant state of flux. Some effects are quick. Others take millenium. Each aspect interacts with other influences. And here we are, somewhat astonished at new observations in the same moment other men deny the existence of things they cannot understand. Look for the pocket where you find compatibilty with brethren in whatever define a rewarding experience. Acknowledge it is one form among others that have their own diversity and understanding what holds this universe of ours together, are properties of mathematics.
The body of masonic material is always questioned, ensuring masonry is relevent and impartial. This is the state of mind ubiquitous with the Gentle Craft. The zeitgeist has been and continues to challege status quo, recognize humanist values as a stage of fullfillment. Achievement is based on ability and diligence. When the mind focuses on two or three tasks, it cannot concentrate without priority. Masonry accepting life is a series of choices, puts out a premise of a universal goal, still a choice. Over the years we have built a brotherhood within a brotherhood. Serious minded brethren have prospered from examination of values setting them apart from the expedience of convention. Within our Brotherhood, allowances are made for decisions. Based on principled thinking, doubting the risk of popular groupthink puts us at jeopardy. Symptoms of this are everpresent. We were not born with an influential body of scholars. We did not have the benefit of foundational Grand Lodges with old cultures and layers of history. Upper Canada made masonry successful by modifying expectations, extending the reach across millions of square kilometers. In the 20th century when we judge our performance as a brotherhood, we need to be kindly where we morphed into an ersatz service club. We know building a Grand Lodge Temple with an inspiring architecture and atmosphere of learning has been waiting for a moment when such inspiration triggers impatience. The delays in our work are not about money. Some will doubt the need. For them motivation is slack. Some, engineers and artificers will have less interest in that question, eager to get on with the build to assist the draftman with skills to build. Others focus on 'how'. But without ideas, without singular focus on the goal the brotherhood deals with distractions and self imposed barriers.
Today we are reaping the benefits of quiet diplomacy and the application of ethics fundamental to our Brotherhood. It has the challenges and freedoms of democracy. In a world where subtlety is taken as weakness, where cynicism justifies abuses of power, we have been a group of men who 'see' a difference and dedicate themselves to actually improving quality of life. Using a language that connects us with the universe, we stand in contrast to aggression. Masonic pilgrims living in an imperfect world, stand as testiment that men are also thoughtful, and through insight are a power unlike anyother. 2020 we continue to assess and adapt, always in motion. Unapologetically male, unapologetically studying ideas that work in contemplation, comfortable with metaphysics, yearning for accurate history, philosophical integrity, and discovery of symbolic knowledge, our literacy has grown. We experiment during each generation, with simpler answers only to be lead into the architecture of ancient landmarks. Improvement, meaningless without context, self-examination fueled by maturity, there is a seriousness to a life dedicated to happiness. The process of Masonry is complicated and as simple as that. It requires ability to become a mason after a man has been made a mason. Ability? Is it genius or industriousness or both? We are not an undertaking for men unprepared and unable to commit. And every member is welcome to join the conversation that has been ongoing for hundreds of years.
Each time we meet, each time we open a lodge, each time we lean into a meaningful conversation, we reinvent the occasion of Freemasonry. Lofty words are said about us to others. The secret? No embellishments are needed. They don't matter. We are doing what thoughtful people have done for centuries. We connect with purpose. I like it that we aren't all the product of atrophy. Not at all. We are a cross section of life, rich with enthusiasts, despair, optimists brushing aside a sense of dystopia. Even when we embarrass ourselves, clinging to familiar notions when we are honest enough to appreciate being part of a Brotherhood is hard. Thinking of some entity greater than ego- setting my needs aside for the greater good-why would I want to step away from the mindset so prevailent that allows a man to protect himself from being lost in the struggle of individualism? Damn those humanists. Damn you Spinoza. Step away David Hume. Who cares about ancient philosophies? Damn you. Now I am not a sheep. All Hiram did was inspire me to open my eyes widely and accept thte fact I am one mind, a man with agency, one of billions, who has a unique perspective, unravelling secret.Am I anxious struggling with unanswered questions? Not at all. The work is unfinished. I read, I listen, I am aware enough to know I have little to say. Audi Vide Tace? Damn it all.
We live in a nation in transition. From a resource based economy today we are knowledge based. In spite of short sighted politics a nation has grown and flourished. The appeal of Canada is often touted to anyone who cares about comparisions. Not for a moment should we think masonry is immune to social trends. Population trends have been calculated and largely ignored for over 50 years. Statistical analysis has grown into the sophisticated potential of algorythms that present us with news, political views and marketing. We have awakened from a slumber, wrongly thinking yesterday was slow and even paced unlike the rapidity and chaos of today. Today has always been what it is; new and as familiar was the thoughts we construct to link yesterday, today and tommorow. Though it is hard at times to distinguish service club from philosophical brotherhood, Freemasonry is regaining a foothold in our culture to the astonishment of about everyone. Ignoring the clamour to declare itself a business, to competitively market it's wares, to espouse philanthropic intent, introductory students of the craft stopped asking questions to become anxious that the world is walking by, leaving us behind, dismissing the more adventurous among us who, undaunted are using the internet to discover for themselves if there actually is deeper meaning to a material life. We are learning that good enough isn't a standard for sustainabilty. Knowing it money isn't morality, moralizing isn't ethics, sorting every knock to determine first if a man has the ability, these aspects are changing what what freemasonry has been lacking when good enough isn't enough. Authority and instruction is not replacement for reasoning, during moments of contemplation, quitetude advancing the highest values of mankind. Now compare in your mind, the feel of this lodge and ask youself what it takes to make it happen? Curious?
Unlike those who occupy their time providing for themselves, Freemasonry galvanized men of equal distance in a belief that collaboration builds palaces. Each one, no matter how small the task, makes an essential contribution. If we become what we do as Aristole suggests, exposure to beauty will enhance our experience. An educated mind is one that examines reasoning, travels and learns through the experiences of others and is inspired by inspired people and discovery. So great is the tragedy of a man's failure for reasons beyond his control, being made worse by his lack of preparation. Living a smug existence creates the grounds for disorientation when the seriousness of life knocks on our door. We are never alone. Beneath the behaviour of a stupid man, lies a soul and mind that aspires to find acceptance. To know himself. Fortunately or perhaps inevitably a Brotherhood formed long ago, to carry out this framework, generation to generation. We are poised on the threshold of opportunity. Are we aware within us there the courage to ask the question?
Since no one is to blame where freemasonry-lite leaves doubt about our capacity to live up to advance billing, then every true mason is responsible. And please let me be within that group of mature masons who assume responsibility is an act of maturity. To my great shame, I have failed a primary expectation. I fear being ostracized and trade off my obligation to you. Where you need me to be impartial, I crumble. Give me a ballot- I do not exercise judgement. An inexperienced master, a bully secretary a few conspirators sent to ensure the needs of a lodge supercede respect for the candidate and marginal candidates with substandard work, are accepted by the Master builder. And I support this with my white ballot while hypocritically noticing their disinterest. A smile, perfect attendence and little if any appetite for discovery, recidivism so poor, meetings ridiculously boring, and me in my piety enabling this gaming of everything I privately believe. And from this point, I cannot and will not support substandards. This I promise. Freemasonry is a thinking mans experience. Today, we tolerate a few ego fueled firestorms and carry out the pastiche, dishonestly holding back. Freemason is not altered by the way we've been complicite. Wisdom of the East- Audi, Vida, Tace- extracted from China to Japan and into a guiding motto the lads ignore, has not stopped us making Freemasonry into a club by stripping out those uncomfortable truths. Ethics? No one cites the evidence of unethical behaviour Metaphysics? Not for simple minded. Meetings that inspire are few and far between, until time and space created this flawless mirror reflecting our actions. And for this- I apologize for letting you down. I did think I had entered an order where advancement depended on merit. I have not lived up to that ideal because I stopped listening. Audi. Join me brethren. I am not alone.
Waxing philosophic, brushing up against Arthurian legend, historic truth was fluid for many writers to the extent we took all for truth. Until the humour was on us, an organization of such gravitas could not live on fabrication. And it that period, a re-examination of earliler work began the authentic progress of a Brotherhood, unlike anything else. Today, in Upper Canada and other similar states, hesitance has distracted us from the inspired work that was being built. Affirmation and validation, a body of self evident truths was constructed with metaphor that has withstood the harsh winds of cynicism and been a muted rally cry for insightful minds. If not for the prejudice shown to Irishmen in London, the Antients might never have galvanized Irish and Scottish in a repudiation of the Premier Grand Lodge. The influence reached across the Atlantic, unstopped by elitist distinctions because the cultural makeup of the Celts was firm and old battles were remembered. Today, in a secular environment, we have compromised the uniqueness of Freemasonry. Serious scholarship was pushed to the periphery. The calibre of an applicant became unimportant. Contemplation was pushed aside by those who distorted discovery into a feeble attempt to tell a man how and what to think. An initiatory body of work was compromised from within. And still, even hobbled, it has held enough appeal that millions have been drawn in. We simply quantified quality. It required deafness. When faux masonry was described, we did not hear the warning. Even today, moralizing is substitued for morality begging the question, have we reached the point of listening to ourselves? Together, we are stronging and better than we are individually. Individually we make discoveries that satisfy the mind. Sharing that process, respecting the apprentice needs to make his own discovery, is sharing. Freemasonry is a pilgramage of discovery forever.
We know the difference. We know what effort feels like. We know dominating conversation or tossing around ideas as if directing the thoughts of brethren, is not mentoring. It is not even instruction or training. Why then do we struggle to listen carefully enough to understand the apprentice in each one of us? Audi. Vide. Tace. The diabolical lessons on which all other adventures depend. Freemasonry has always been distinct from any other experience. The club atmosphere is such a departure. Since no one is singularly responsible for this hollowing out of character changing Masonic experiences, then all of us are to blame. Afraid are we, to trust that geometry of the Cathedrals is still reliable? If this offends acceptablity- prove your work. So we can know one another in that matter; distinguishing journeyman from apprentice, thoughful from ennui. If you have heard someone suggest we would be better men if it weren't for the fact we are masons voluntarily, that loveable brother is grasping at straws. Insight has never been ordered up. Never. Though weak command will criticize a man confused by orders, neither authority nor force of numbers or ego, at best uncomfortable, has ever or can ever make speculation true. If we were confident in our abilities, supported by facts/science and imagination/arts we would be bold and be employing 5POF as more than flattering words. Ignorance seems more the threat than trying and failing. Acting rashly and being tastelessly is not appropriate as we know it. Right and wrong, black and white. are ideas that divide us. Being right, based on limited reasoning, at the expense of others is what it is- embarrassing. The lessons and experience of Freemasonry teaches us what to do and where consistent with our ethics, creates an environment that encourages effort, effort he needs to achieve beyond his grasp.
You've heard me talk about discovery. As a little boy walking along the north shores of Prince Edward Island after a storm it was all discovery. Pockets full of them. And I've shared with you the sense that process of Masonry is fluid discovery. But indulge me with a further observation. It's hard to stay focused. Here is a perspective that helps us to sustain the effort we need. Imagine we are at the door of Hagia Sophie, standing there with anticipation. As we step inside, we are overwhelmed by an architecture unlike anything we have seen, designed to hold a respository of knowledge distilled from time and cultures of the world. That's about when an inner voices begins its work. Am I excited? Do I like this? I don't know what to do? Do I pick up a book? What if I can't understand the ideas. I don't like this anymore. It's sunny outside. I'm leaving and you can't stop me. And so it goes when a man is unfamiliar with high level mentoring/coaching/instruction. Standing before him with a raw talent, takes trust to place yourself in the hands of a man who can take you to the next level. Optimizing strenghts is only part of the training of a those that excel. Exposing weaknesses lets us know where we need to compensate- perhaps with extra specific training targets to compliment your natural talents. That requires control of one's ego. Listening as someone points out where you are vulnerable is an ingredient not explained to most of us. Wondering how to be better tomorrow than we are today- facing inadequacy alone- that is a secret prison found in our mind palace. Until you give yourself your complete effort to be the man you know yourself to be. In Masonic parlance, he is confident, understated, inspirational, secure within himself. Content. Controlling the demons that a chessmaster knows too well, when triggered, will enable a man to defeat himself. Go back inside.Enjoy.
How many ways can a good man show generosity? Is it obvious that Freemasonry elivates the mind, influences behaviour and instills a sense of conviction? Is renewal constant and part of the obligation of a Brotherhood so obvious yet so obscure? Plato brought to mind the distinction between opinion and truth. After we scrub away good manners, diplomacy and discretion, each man has a unique and equal perspective- opinions. We also acknowledge some opinions being equal, also are expert. He went on to describe perhaps idealistically, that if we press another man to explore his reasoning reveals the difference between his thinking and yours and mine. By doing that, knowing those differences takes us steps closer to 'knowing who we are'. That chases down the axiomatic purpose of a life - 'know thyself'. Within that process is another; creating the atmosphere that allows this exchange of ideas. Good manners and avoiding distemper are essential if we want to create the atmosphere. (Audi, vide, tace.) Walking a fine line- spirited and encouraging but not aggressive. Finding truth is a different matter, purposeful not friendly- out of all the opinions, truth requires a singlular outcome. With this in mind, it becomes obvious when a man confuses his opinion for truth and attempts to press that error on his companions. Don't be guilty of that. Be sensitive and try this way of reasoning before judging. See if your experience is consistent with Plato. Perhaps the Socratic method has some validity. Courage, energy and commitment are not uniformly at work. So be part of the break-out group. It is a step, one of many that will follow.
How did we come up with this? Once when we were boys, the distinctions were made easier by birthright. Advances in literature, the arts and sciences were the prerogative of the Church or Monarch according to the convention extant. When reason entered the picture it made a mess of rank and privilege. All so simple, everyone knew his place. And then great thoughts became shared. Mankind became literate in fits and spurts but gained enough traction to unpack classical studies. Bloody Renaissance. Damnable Enlightenment. Reformation and Counter Reformation be damned. Life was so simple until reason itself was validated. Always, along the way were men of discerning ability able to articulate their presence of mind. Not much different than today, when you think about it. Except we have ignored equality for women as the good little chauvinists we were. So many men conventional and otherwise became drawn together, in an assembly of Brotherhood that cultivated an exchange of ideas. As if time would never stand still, knowing well the timelessness of the quest for truth would spring from the hearts of men forever and a day, fed by fact nurtured with imagination, with the bravery of a young boy whistling bravely and loudly as he crept into the night, crossing by the village graveyard. Trace back to the names of those men who risked change- Kant, Hume, Spinoza, Homer, Plato, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Socrates, now names that drip understanding, in an eclipse of imagination the forerunners of the global community, hundreds of years before the first space travellers photographed the blue sphere floating in a vast dark vacuum defining mankind as a singularity, existing on the fringes. Passing one to the next, secrets as hidden as the geometry of a wave, the physics of a star, the truth of a poet. We were unapologetically given an opportunity to understand ethics as well as apply them to our daily life. Discuss.
Imagination may well be one of the most paradoxical aspects of a Mason. And when we are receptive to inspiration, it does just that. It tells us about us. Whether we are born to privilege or not, we have choices to make that define the kind of man we are in the act of becoming. Audacious. Comfortable. Until that moment when we frankly answer the question: Who Am I? Why would such a man mingle with ideas that border on darkness and mischief? We find we are capable of holding in mind a disagreeable thought. To comprehend our capacity and one needs only to experience ideas through the eyes of another. And then ask the question. What does that capacity allow you to understand? Today I was introduced to the vintage work of Wm Meeson- An Introduction to Freemasonry 1775, and came away with a sense that not only is there a subtext to Freemasonry but it is nuanced. A secret there to be discovered when a man asks the question, why? . Wouldn't it be simple if someone else could answer that question for you and me? Except it would be the thinking of another, leaving a space for your authenticity to appear on the horizon. How you might ask, does imagination have value? Good question. Value depends on the depth of the question. And that is the mystery. Giving us the tools does not mean we know what to do with them. But don't be surprised if there is genius where it is least expected.
To be sure, Freemasonry has been a resilient gold standard. Infallible? Perhaps. Aspirational? Conclusively. Mentors come and go. The best are those who understand how to instill a sense of trust and authenticity in others. Carrot and stick expects us to do the next thing right. Ethics and values teach us to do the next right thing. There are growing lists of examples of military and competitive sports franchises achieving greater success when they have brought values based training and education that recognizes the humaness of an individual, stark contrast to powerful systems that treat people as commodities. We could call it volunteering but isn't it likely we are witnessing opportunity? Today educators know that teaching happens when students are receptive. Entire philosphies have been built around ways to enhance those opportunities and optimize learning. The results have been stunning. Communicating and sharing this wonderful outcome faces barriers even as common sense tells us the value. When we have worked enough, studied enough, laughed at our shortcomings, or learned from our own mistakes and grown, those insights are known only to a single person. No fanfare. No recognition. No ego stroking. Growth happening without carrot/stick. It is odd in a way, that each of us tends to believe the mountain we climb is steeper than yours. The Order only shows the path, but the motivation is individual. Character isn't limited to what happens to a man. Character is a measure of how we react to what happens. So many choices, how is a man to know which to make? Fortunately for us, Freemasonry covers that abundantly, in ritual steeped in values and ethics and morality; not standing around moralilzing, but applying our values becomes a moral imperetive.
Freedom of thought might sound sweet when the heel of oppression is being applied. Without preparation freedom is escape that brings with it emotional baggage. Anger is a temporary emotion. When men cannot control their emotion, conflict is inevitable. Freemasonry provides reasoning, ethics when absorbed allow a group of men the ability to anticipate harmony, teaching what to do when that atmosphere is threatened. It would seem simple but it isn't. Aggression, whether lions of society or business find ways to assure their own comfort through the attitudes most familiar. Mistrust and cynicism doesn't vanish when a man walks through the door. Thoughtful men speak to us about conceits, suggesting if avoid being governed by them requires awareness. After studying this phenomena, the health benefits of a contemplative personae made it the holy grail of wishful thinking. Freemasonry is respectfully, an uneven process. If he has the courage to ask, answers are revealed. Insight is not necessarily a beautifl innocent panacea. It is about unvarnished truth. As if we ever thought being a Freemason did not have a price. Maybe this alone is how our mysterious, old order became known for acting with subtlety. The exchange of ideas and information can happen in a whisper, yet we shout. Imagination happens in the mind of an individual. Promoting groupthink was so popular when efficiency was G-dlessly applied to isolate contemplation. Somehow, a man connected to our community inspires. And as he progresses with his study of ethics, meaning and understanding becomes his only purpose. Ask the question, do the work and we find subtlety and lightness underfoot for all to savour or mock according to his inclination. Bring in a metaphor. Unpack secret knowledge. All is unknown and meaningless until the question. So does meaning exist? Let's talk about it shall we?
Freedom of thought might sound sweet when the heel of oppression is being applied. Without preparation freedom is escape that brings with it emotional baggage. Anger is a temporary emotion. When men cannot control their emotion, conflict is inevitable. Freemasonry provides reason when ethics are absorbed to allow a group of men the ability to live in harmony, teaching what to do when that atmosphere is threatened. It would seem simple but it isn't. Aggression, whether from lions of society or business types rough attitude most familiar is assuring. Mistrust and cynicism doesn't vanish when a man walks through the door. Thoughtful men speak to us about conceits, suggesting if avoid being governed by them requires awareness. After studying the phenomena the health benefits of a contemplative personae made it the holy grail of wishful thinking. Freemasonry is respectfully, an uneven process. If he has the courage to ask, answers are revealed. Insight is not necessarily a beautiful innocent panacea. It is about unvarnished truth. As if we ever thought being a Freemason did not have a price. Maybe this alone is how our mysterious, old order became known for acting with subtlety. The exchange of ideas and information can happen in a whisper, yet we shout. Imagination happens in the mind of an individual. Promoting groupthink was so popular when efficiency was G-dlessly applied to isolate contemplation. Somehow, a man connected to our community inspires. And as he progresses with his study of ethics, meaning and understanding becomes his only purpose. Ask the question, do the work and we find subtlety and lightness underfoot for all to savour or mock according to his inclination. Bring in a metaphor. Unpack secret knowledge. All is unknown and meaningless until the question. So does meaning exist? Let's talk about it shall we?
When it occurred isn't as important as why. When did it become wrong to allow the candidate and lodge completion of a thought? The reason I bring this up is a question that has tempted various criticisms, not of ritual but the performance. Imagine listening to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.5 if each musician played as if it were a solo piece; punctuated by him walking to centre stage,while the audience waited and continued while he took his seat, while we waited while each musician did similarly. After so much attention went into the creation of our ritual, it is curious that we transformed it into something quite hard to recognize. Once upon a time, coffee beans were purchased unroasted, taken home, roasted to taste and made into the drink. To compare that with the watery cup handed to us at the drive way window is a large step. Coffee is coffee afterall. Are we suggesting ritual is somehow maluable to popular taste without losing something in the translation? Ridiculous. Shifting focus repeatedly during ritual is not random. It is widespread and deliberate. I'm thinking following plot, embedded with old world language, metaphor, mystery and metaphysics is important to extract symbolic meaning. So much parading interrupts every single phrase, every overreaching impression. Why the debate brethren? Why can I not have a moment uninterrupted, to follow the stream? Shakespeare being read-out to an audience would be a calamity, unless we were with actors during their intimate rehearsals where they are sorting meaning to allow appropriate emotional tone to be imparted. I am thinking ritual so revered as ours would be treated with similar respect? Maybe, we intended that a quick superficial glance was enough. Maybe we were wrong making that assumption. Maybe that explains our current state of thinking. Effort is the price we pay for being part of an ancient brotherhood.
Making choices and knowing what choices are possible- such an interesting notion. There are those who take literally, the ideas of our initiation. There are others who think in terms of the metaphor. But the purveyors of those sentiments are not on a collision course, nor are they able to judge which is right. Conflict so baseless interrupts the harmony we share, to our mutual detriment until we embrace fluid choice selection. I am so curious, to ask both gentlemen what they have absorbed from masonic ritual that has been transformative. Within the Masonic Community, differences that cannot be resolved emotionally and intellectually are often transformed into a safer form- the piques and quarrels that seem insurmountable to some. Control/command and ego are two prevalent safe forms. Anyone who claims grown men cannot and do not express emotion has ignored the fact that no human of any age can stop expressing emotion. Easier to ignore and make up a false explanation. What varies is the ability to pick up those cues. Look for them. They are ever-present. Given that men express a full range of emotion at all times, is it feasible to expect presence? We were when during initiation. For some masons, what followed was a let-down of sorts; a feeling of abandonment; the mediocrity of routine. They are not wrong. They have tasted presence. Why we change impressive atmosphere to routine practice? Who knows. Over time, timeless arts have maintained the requirement that the audience have presence. It is only an effort until it becomes effortless. It is excitement brought to the performance, inspired and elicited by artistry. It is anticipation of an event. It is the reputation of the impresario and the players. It is music, the libretto, the room, the sound, the costumes worn on stage as well as in the orchestra and audience. Create the atmosphere that enhances presence and voila. Too old school?
Before we unleashed our theologians and bureaucrats on the world, we had poetic, remarkably imaginative explanations. The world was alive with mystique. Fairies and dwarfs reinforced the wisdom of mother and father. And then we were taught reason. Science gave us consistency and answers for unimaginable propositions. Beyond the world of rationalization and reason are those places of altered states of thinking. Beyond reason within powerful worlds of politics, wealth and religion the birth of a fraternal order was created. In that moment, we began to accept possibility- a brotherhood of mankind, governed by reason, stronger, safer together; anecdote for selfishness of men who never quite live up to the nobility of their charge. No longer living under threat but free to choose. In Upper Canada, we didn't have wizards and philosophers in our forests. We didn't connect experience with a philosophers stone. Our booklets explained impersonally a bond of fraternity without that context. And even today, we are found out where imagination is needed, we have whitewashed those walls, as if eccentricity didn't exist. A life made sterile is hardly the inspiration of stories from the highlands, the mists over the heath and the darkness behind ancient city doors. Working with what was at hand, applying scientific management failed to overwhelm the human condition. Fast forward even today we find ourselves about to unlock a large portmandeau, unsure what secrets will be revealed, but receptive to the possiblity of a magic. That magic is one in which we live in harmony, secretly carrying out a plan to influence by example the harsh world, revealing one of comfort and familiarity. The drive for discovery of meaning is what a mason gives of himself, searching for selflessly in selfish times.
Begin to study our Order and the world becomes nuanced. But worse, the eager student finds how quickly he has uncorked the bottle and freed a free thinking, generous and mischieveous genie. Bedeviling as it is, our long memories enrich the experience. Understanding facts and events without context is superficial until we want to know how and why phenomena happened as they did. No one that I know has surrendered his apron because we have a rich history, full of challenging ideas. No milque toast start for Freemasonry is found values founded in the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment. We flatter ourselves believing our situation is uniquely fraught. We have always been an Order of discovery. A man stumbling through life, discovers defining moments, knowledge that deepens his thinking and understanding. And he begins asking the larger questions; what is a good life? is honesty better than dishonesty? Is God a noun or verb? what is an ethical life? Discovery that surges forward, like a repeating incoming tide. And even today, impatience is at play pushing us back into patterns of thinking and behaviour of the comfort zone we hear so much about. Better to reinvent Freemasonry into something we understand. Don't think for a moment tampering with the Craft won't have ramifications. So obvious it is that the level of scholarship is a litmus test for effective Freemasonry. Look in any direction, during any time in our history and the evidence is striking. There is no dumbing down of Freemasonry- philosophy, history and symbolism, only rationalizing human fraity. And it takes talent to balance needs with wants. How do we collectively preserve a way of thinking that is not popular? How to we create those opportunities for a man to discover us, without intrude? Commitment is his to give. Perhaps we are closer to discovering the path. After all we are brotherhood.
Enter an atmosphere with an altered state of thinking, of choices focused on growth of character. Purposeful, philanthropic but not a charity, rich in ancient philosophies relevent today, reflective nostalgia that pushes back on restorative Luddites. Restore your natural curiousity, uncertain but focused on findings. It is there if you look for it. Meditation. Transcendent. Transformative. Galvanizing music. Become famililar, build your mind palace. Fill it with discovery. Put on your apron and enter from the west, tell yourself you are seeking wisdom in the east through a portal fraught with failed attempts. Excuses. Distraction. Mockery. Until that moment you knew was there. Hidden secrets. Feel that which draws/drew us forward toward the light. Another plane of awareness.Bliss. A Brotherhood awaits you. Are you mustering even now, the courage to facetruths? Your truths. Now open your eyes, open your mind to the wishe-come-true. And look deeply into the stillness of the ritual. Hiram will be your guide. Examine as you will and know thyself.
When we were boys, the world seemed a blurr. Subject to the controlled influence of adults, no one moves into adulthood with baggage of some sort. No one. How we deal with that- that's an intimate tale, where failure and successes are remembered over time in whithering detail. Because life comes to us without a script. Serious, not necessarily solemn. Through time, observant minds began finding patterns that Freemasons have sourced for a long time. Our history, symbolism and philosophy harmonize, incredibly across landscapes, inhabited by peoples defined by unique history and geography. Moderns and Ancients, protectors of true purpose, carefully brought their scholars together to find compromise, teaching us they were aware of a greater purpose; the benefit of harmony. They gave us a rare opportunity, (that we have tried to soften). The Craft requires study, a calling for thinking men. So, today I urge you to take your singular experience to a higher plane. Face the darkness. Face the unknown. Explore metaphysical presence. Go where ritual takes you. Find where ritual is being performed, that focuses on you in the perpetuate character of a candidate. Search to find solace in a lodge away from the distractions of familiarity. Barely adequate. Short effort won't get you there. Your life is short. It isn't a dress rehearsal. You want to improve- then pay the piper and move on.
The Craft is the embodiment of ideas, great ideas. It is the answer to the question. It knows us so deeply, so accurately, it anticipates conflicts and aggression. If you are intelligent, you will live a life learning how to understand slivers of information. And by doing that, you will learn to side-step cruelty, hypocracy, the baser instincts of a man while still contributing to brotherhood. Freemasonry teaches us what to do and how to do it- if we are able to pick up the tools. Follow the truth. The truth is that mankind has always believed for every question there is an answer even when there are questions we cannot answer. Think for a moment- what word have we lost? Why can we not know that truth? Fear or wisdom? Are we sure we want the answer we seek? Are we sure we can live with ourselves, with that knowledge? Wasn't Abiff attacked? Wasn't the great ideal, overwhelmed by conspirators wanting something he held? When we cannot uniformly judge candidates, the West Gate opens to all. And when talent isn't there, when they outnumber the wise among us, they fear what they do not understand. Freemasonry is hard to understand. It takes work, and we know we are too lazy and taught that self-care is selfish, to embrace mindfulness, the mitochondria. Self-awareness is not hidden until we hide it from ourselves. Meanwhile keeping our head in the game is easier if we followed a simple, sophistication. Audi. Vide. Tace. si vi viverer in pace. But that takes courage.And that takes humility. Such amazing ideas. Such amazing men.
Reflective or restorative sentiment? One toxic, the other beautiful. Like the sailor who never learns to swim, fear of a powerful ocean turns to respect for it, respect being key to survival. Knowledge provides a modicum of security but risk is what it is. What risk to an old Order? Ennui. Indifference. Complacence. Sloth. Our Brotherhood is based on access to knowledge and use of imagination. Philosophy, symbolism and history come as easily to us as industry allows. If there is inspiration in the messaging, if there is perfection in a Lodge at work, it is because of the collective intellectual property of indivduals contributing to the symphony. The West Gate is where we winnow out those better suited to the audience than the stage. Symphonies vary slightly in size each chair waiting for talented artists who feel the chemistry and experience the impact, knowing each note, each instrument has it's place and time. And so my clumsy metaphor for the Lodge is wrapped. Laziness doesn't belong there any more than a no-talent conductor leading a no-talent orchestra. Ah, that's the easier part. Knowing how to get there from where we are- that is the challenge. First we talk. We draw everyone together, because it will take everyone to achieve the goal. Everyone has a place. Do you think for a minute performance doesn't need lighting and sound, ticket sellers, ushers, advertising that stimulates and a receptive audience to celebrate success. Everyone has a place in achieving the goal of striving to employ the imagination, to furnish the mind palace with the Catherdral that all can see. We are timeless. Are we artists?
It doesn't require the darker notions of Alistair Crowley to show us there are beautiful paradoxes inside the body of philosophical discussion. Not we are indulge completely in philosophy, we clearly set ourselves to philanthropy. Committing well intended deeds is not without it's critics. We live in an age of cynicism and suspicion, for good reason. When any group has influence, it must be held to accounts. Otherwise it becomes overbearing. Not that we ever wanted a choir of syncophants to blindly extoll our virtues, we move forward focusing on individual development. Just when we begin enjoying the simplicity of compliance to authority, we chuck that out for something much more authentic- reasoning. As diabolical is it is, teaching men to reason has been on-going for thousands of years. History reveals how, it raises the human condition beyond religious and political notions. It teaches us that we too can soar up toward the sun, with risk of failure being the price of the perspective as we take a step back. What we learn is that lofty views are not always beautiful. History unvarnished and unmanipulated, is a source of learning. So knowing about risk, we self regulate, a way of protecting ourselve as me move into the great unknown. While there are similarities between men, there are also idiosyncracies. Adding the need to translate ideas to reflect local conditions and history will encourage men to think and apply their reasoning and should encourage us to look for the variations and unique cultures within our broader constitutional protections. We need look no further than our own ability to commit to Brotherhood, to know we are safe and secure and the honesty to know if we are avoiding the workload. Freemasonry is transformative. It is not easy and never meant to be. So enjoy the metaphor. Pick up the tools and set to your work. Are you masterful or not? A mirror reveals so darned much.
Scientific discovery blocked by demagoguery or superstition simple waits until someone, somewhere, somewhen, makes the discovery. Which is more plausible? Art is a single expression, that can't wait, timeless in its expression. We are servants of these notions. If we learn to control emotion, think before we speak, to listen, watch, silently, act with grace, gentle in the face of insubordination and aggression- that earned the sobriquet- Gentle Craft. Gentle and thoughtful is not weak or silly, though the loutish mind would like us to believe otherwise. Is a principled life worth living? Is it truly more powerful than ignorance? Is it only a hypocrit who takes the vows of a freemason and sets about denying agape, denying true happiness is achieveable through our collective behaviour toward one another and within our conscience? On the 26th January, 1911, Richard Strauss comic opera Der Rosenkavalier debuted in Dresden. It is a story as old as time, about dishonest assumptions about the nature of women, as a wealthy, middle-aged woman takes a young timid man for her lover, though she cannot have an intelligent conversation with him and he has more carnal goals than a mutually rewarding relationship. So flawed, often criticized but wildly popular from the first performance. It like Freemasonry is an allegory, messaging of artistic persuation that disarmingly garnishes discretion, exploring controversy. Is this why men become distracted and impose ego in an especial atmosphere of a lodge? Is it because they are overwhelmed that they attempt to withdrawn into a conflicted comfort zone? No need then for an audience; an individual struggle, but to permit disruption of the harmony of a lodge would be an obvious innovation- and we know that we have given our word never to allow or faciliate that. As you wish
Masonry is relationships. Relationships between a man and his conscience; between one man and another; between conflicts and resolution; between receiving and giving back. Not accepting that relationships are a means, a formula, a route to discovery, this helps us understand why 'shop manuals' created in earnest replacing the intimacy with content don't work. When you are I are receptive, a window into the mind opens by itself. That is learning. You and I can describe a relationship but we cannot explain as easily, the emotional currency. When our actions and words are consistent, we communicate an authenticity, genuineness and sincerity on which trust grows. Where does growth occur? Is it external? Is it an internal phenomena? To prepare ourselves to expose our vulnerable moments, we begin with such a conversation. One never sees the validation of the Great Architect unless he looks for it. Neither does he understand his conceits, and the areas peculiar to his character known only to himself, that require his attention until he accepts responsibility. The threads of this are woven into hundreds of years of masonic tapestry, hung as a connection and learning from the past.
There was a time I can still recall, when the world was a simpler place. Asking too many questions was frowned upon. Knowing my place in the order of life was expected and doing otherwise left one vulnerable to manipulations. Today, after a full and satisfying life my questions have less to do with the failings of mankind and more to do with understanding. "We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time." T.S.Eliott.- as if we needed a motivation. I remember being taught that words and ideas can have more than one meaning. There was a difference between literal and relative meaning. It helps me understand the animosity of fundamentalists. As a mason, it explains a great deal about the way education is subbordinated in many lodges across Upper Canada. Not to be unkind, there is a gap that has been with us for a long time, literal interpretations become fact. Growing evidence suggests we need to speak about the value of metaphor and allegory, as well as historical tipping points that influenced the context. Meaning. If we do not understand the meaning of what we are doing, especially as we are members of an Order pronouncing abstract reasoning as core beliefs, we are not only languishing without purpose but waiting for that moment to arrive. In Upper Canada, that quiet moment is now a clamour.
There was a time when we new little and were amazed by much. Although Greek mythology gave us this metaphor so very long ago, except for a few descerning minds, today it has taken on such proportions that many cultures have succumed to the warnings. Variations are known by different names; flattery, advertising, it is a play on confirmation bias- agreeing with what confirms preconceived notions. Drink this brand, drive this car and be manly, attractive to the ladies. Use this cosmetic and rediscover timeless youth. Get rich quick. Gain power and insight. Live longer. As the story goes, Narcissus was walking past the pool. Today might be forgiven for feeling burdened by an unrelenting force of competition for our attention in a materialistic culture. Politicians deceive. Snake oil salesmen still pitch us the latest cure. "...sometimes words have two meanings." Isn't it reasonable then, to think that bright, thoughtful young men approaching middle age might question if the clamour is all there is? Where has authenticity gone, questioning yet hopeful for sincere, genuine affirmation? Imperfect as we might be, we follow beautiful ideas, beautiful mathematics that do just that. For some, Freemasonry can be the anecdote of illusion, shallowness, flattery. Less than our best effort is a compromise to ritual that we might want to rethink. Understanding isn't competition. But through the muscular arguements is an intimate conversation, where ideas can be tried and tested. After all, insight happens within the mind of those who watch; who listen; quietly. Be that Mason.
It was not that long ago our Grand Lodge came into existence. Our memories may be short on some things but not about the frequency of interlodge visiting. Meetings were better attended and Freemasonry was utopian. My how our perspective has grown into the 21st Century. Our naisant days are beyond our grasp. Though there was never a second thought that lodges were permanent and membership would thrive, reality has interrupted that beautiful, uncomplicated thinking. Upper Canada, like every place on the planet has changed. Life within the Lodge has been buffeted by shifting societal roles. Our history once comforting to a small population, has unravelled uncomfortable truths- all for the betterment of the nation but an intrusion into that utopia. Small is now growing. Where we live and who we call neighbours is more pluralistic. Unable to keep stride with change, Freemasonry internally was still an harmonious island of solice; content to focus on very gentle requirements for members. Uniformity, if ever there was such a thing, became islands of divergent thinking. Today, hindsight is telling us which island was ahead of the curve and which fell behind. While indepth analysis was left in the box, understanding why, understanding motivation and inspiration was assumed in the grandist teleological manner. From the vantage point of 30,000ft, a small minority saw this coming, unable to shift perspective to think about the unpleasantness of our vulnerability. Until the inevitable consequences were upon us, we were indifferent. We drove ahead without using seat belts. Knocked about, we found participation fading quickly leaving us to scramble for answers. We became all too aware we were lacking a meaningful vehicle to deal with dessenting points of view. And though lacking animus, a disconnection filled in the vaccum of silence. 20th Century brought us here it is time to live in the moment.
What and why. If I were asked to identify the ethos of Freemasonry in Upper Canada, these ideas come immediately to mind. An ancient fraternal order appeals to men for whom the larger questions of life are personal and private. Why Masonry deserves a reasoned response. Fifteenth century was a time when science was 'truth to power' unravelling the estates and taking human agency to a new level- why has elements of the Enlightenment, the Reformation and counter reformation, as well as nation, seen clearly on the Scottish landscape. A civil war, plague and a fire that razed London gave reason to question beliefs. And time did not stand still when London bureaucrats successfully sold the idea of linkage, in what we know as a Grand Lodge. Embracing humanist philosophy, the freedom to think and reason undermined demagoguery and demagogues. We did not to wait long for the system that tolerated poverty, the greatest element of social exploitation, was attacked up by gentrified women in Britain and embraced by the naisant Order. What. What and why are elements that exist within the Craft always in balance; if you will allow, the protons of our molecular structure. The generation of Masonry around the world required translation and adaptation to the locale. Authority and uniformity were replaced with Constitutional accountability- the work of each Grand Lodge. Today, we clamour to address the a paradox; seeming decline in membership as migration takes on epic proportion worldwide and our numbers increase. To understand, we need look no further than the type of men who reluctantly receive the William Mercer Wilson Award- a group of self-effacing men who remained active, in service of the lodge, the foot soldiers. They are unusal because unlike the rest of us, they do not seek recognition; rank does not eclipse being a mason. So what inspires and appeals to them? Has anyone asked? Audi, Vide, Tace.
Maybe. Maybe the reality of Freemasonry is a shadow of the ideal. It would be harsh to think an ideal Freemasonry would be tolerable certainly if we draw anything from the work of Thomas More. Utopia has limits. So too does Freemasonry. Accepting that is not a distortion as much as a fact for those who struggle with becoming. Nice to think about but to what end. Here in Upper Canada, we are transitioning, from rough to polished. Lodges are closing in greater numbers than ever before. The membership is well into the winter season, to the extent that questions are being raised about the vitality and relevance of the Ancient Order. At some point, we can surely acknowledge that sense of loss has brought our natural state of caution, to admit privately that we need something more. But what? It is apparant. that we have opportunity to build and a taste for inspired builders to show their skills. It is paradoxical that we will need to remember, those knocking at the door are unaware of demise. Should we be careful to insure the are not introduced to our sense of loss? Perhaps visiting across a district could be curtailed. Perhaps it is a time to go-to-ground and not continuallly remind ourselves of the good-old-days that were what they were. Today has a different pace, just like you and me comparing us as boys to us as mature men- a futile comparison. Change is less overwhelming if we take it out of the Lodge. Change is what tomorrow brings. Changes is about the seasons. Change ensures every new day is stimulating and challenging. Suggesting that quantity is quality may justify thinking we are in decline, but are we? Was ever there a man who benefited from the experience of Freemasonry, whose character gained traction, who lived a principled life, and are we to say, he does not represent the success of everything we represent because he was only one man? Reflection.
Why the flow through? Retention problems are noticable from both ends and when I went to the Constitution and history for solutions, found they are not proscriptive but very much leaving the way we address to that wonderful mixture of knowledge and imagination that is our ethos. When we connect with an applicant, the setting matters. What if we tried to unpack some of the confusion that happens to the perimeters of Ancient and Accepted Freemasonry? Our rhetoric implies we initiate a man providing him an opportunity for character development. It is not uncommon to hear discussions that commodify membership. Business models happen when we try to redefine the Craft as business. In practice, I wonder that we have unintentionally commodified initiants. Freemasonry offers so much that unless a lodge would be thoughtful about the environment it is introduction to a man, it could be blind to the sense it is failing to meet expectations. Wouldn't it be ever so easy to simply focus on what was wrong? And we tend to much more of that without considering the issue might well be disappointment. I wonder if you agree, that talking to the man about time would be a good place to start. Freemasonry also requires the time to balance responsibilities. No one intends you to feel an all consuming masonic schedule will supercede life. If we are completely honest with him, we would tell him how important it is that he first respect his own time. Entering the Craft might be suitable today or tomorrow or at a time when you will not feel overloaded. This is how we encourage mature, reflection. Is Freemasonry a behaviour or an intellectual pursuit or elements of both? How does compliance enter into the process?
Every man has his own challenges in life. What drives a good man? Like the challenges, answers come from the unique history and situation of the commentator. Learning not to accept less than our best, less than the best that Freemasonry has to offer is fraught. Control of emotion. Embracing humility, striving for a level of charity in which the recipient never knows the source- it's all so confusing especially in the clamour of a world in which to feel special is to enter a competitive use of the new, old tools of social media. While the crowd surges forward,straining the imagination, discoveries have been on-going. While the future contains all the potential of Freemasonry. Along the way be make some surprising and some disconcerning discoveries that test our reasoning. Tempted as we are by the quick fix, so many solutions offered; they lead us as they always have done, into a state of disappointment, always searching. Accumulate knowledge, then add imagination and you have the formulae knowing they are little without application. They exist not in a glibe comment, but in the inspired behaviour of the individual. So when we think of freemasonry, embrace the authenticity and genuousness. The rest, doesn't matter. Learn the ritual and ceremony- protocol and spirit of the occasion. Our responsibility is passage- extending to the next generation the wisdom and dignity of days that go make to a time-out-of-mind.
Once, long before you and me were born, ideas were being exchanged somewhere, somehow. Ideology grew when new ideas made people restless. Searching for the easy path was the way most learned to resolve their conflicts. Simple. Simple until ideas were dissected and shown to have complexity. The spread of ideas did not and still does not happen uniformly. Whereever we are, we are at the ragged edge of learning. Testing our resolve is the surge of the radically new. We could call it resistence, but that would ignore the way people absorb innovation by digesting and adapting. Always, innovation is welcomed by some, resisted by others, coming on as a growing storm of change. From the first waivering chill, to winds that scream and darkness that consumes lightness, the experience is even individual. I remember well, that there was a man who ran for and failed to gain election to the highest political office in our land, who humans walked with dinosaurs. It frighened me, that this was a man who spoke for a section of the nation ready to argue speciously the merit of belief over fact. Until those thoughtful men leaned into conversation around their small table, to relax, to reason and confidently explore their disagreements what later became a movement was shifting colliding like tectonic plates underfoot, unseen and always floating. Reason broke through but did not remove barriers of tribalism show us a new realty, of dream fulfilment, ridding mankind of tensions by shifting attitudes and growing confidence. Entrance to those tables required intelligence to share evidence, physical and metaphysical. And as they did, we did. Freemasonry offered an accommodation not replacement; a means to navigate superstition and manipulation; a way to think about invention and change with the goal of something called happiness. Irreligious to pious, respectful of questions that we put to ourselves about purpose and meaning.
So very long ago a story was written that celebrated a man, lost in the romantic notions of civalry in a time that had passed him bye. The story by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, made him the greatest Spanish writer for his work El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha ( The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha, Part 1. That was first published in 1604 and Part 2 in 1610. The book has been translated into 60+ languages, about an old man on a quest, acting according to a code of civalry to protect and preserve the honour of a peasant woman, Dulcina Del Tobosa the object of his obsession, who has no knowledge of his chivalric dedication to her. A magnificent read, Don Quixote lets us consider the madness that comes from living in the past, imaginary world and one that tolerates the beautiful madness of a journey with a poor man Sancho Panza made his squire. Truth be known, Don Quixote charming in his delusion teaches us that living in the past is part fantasy, part escape but not real. This became a movement for Masonry the moment it was partially identified as not wanting to change without distinguishing orbit. It would take a meagre mind to disallow the balance between reality wearing rose coloured glasses. Reality is uneffected but a life could be ruinned if the fantasy were carried on.
Begin with a story, your story and let me ask you a question. How did you approach the idea of Freemasonry? Did you assume your understanding of it was comprehensive? When did you become receptive to exploring the behaviour of a freemason? Most people believe what they want to believe. Science calls it confirmation bias. We select that which is consistent with our own ideas and push away those parts that contradict us. How easy it is to find kindred spirits along the easy path. Add some embroidery to this thinking and soon you will stray from the very bond that you pledged to accept. There are even signs of this. Let me share a list of more familiar; Gossip. Judging. Negativity, Complaining, Excuses, Embroidery, Dogmatism (confusing opinions for fact). When you hear them, do yourself a favour: do not be the audience. When you speak, speak honestly, be authentic, express integrity and with care and concern. What would you make of an old man, defending the honour of a woman who has no knowledge of his actions? What if the old fool was motivated by chivalry? What if wealthy people mocked him for their own pleasure? Is he teaching us something helpful? Today, we can succumb to algorythms that 'anticipate' our interests and what we ought to know. If we accept someone else thinking for us, are we any more grounded than Don Quixote? Best to progress along masonic lines, that encourage curiosity and a search for meaning. Eventually transformation takes us not as a passive member of the audience but an actor on the stage- to a place where understanding is the norm.
How can a man be other than his limited experiences without imagination? Suggesting that by being exposed to a process without understanding that one is capable of change is a bit skewed? To think that insight can be commodified relies too much on wishful thinking. No one would suggest wishful thinking is unhealthy but neither would any reasonable mason believe accomplishing a meaningful life only requires wishing. Proportion and place. These are the necessary context. Petulance like criticism and complaining, heightens inconvenience as if the world deserves another dose of thoughtlessness. Perhaps instead of looking at a tracing board, we should be looking into a mirror, asking ourselves the important question in life. Don't have a question? Is it time you did? Only one man knows that answer. We are so close to experiencing the fullness of Freemasonry; the promised experience that changes a man. Not compromise. Not half measures. Not good enough. All in. If your ideal mentor is one who can communicate with you; who can encourage without praising, who can realistically identify your strengths and with you, acknowledge weaknesses as areas requiring training- then you have found a brother. The others are illusions. You'll know the difference when you meet him. Until then, absorb what is around that inspires and helps you focus. Ideas. Then notice the calmness within. And notice the difference between what you aspire to be and your true self. Don't tell a soul. That is your secret and your path. Begin the experience of connecting existence to those intimate truths. If you seek the best in mankind, you will find it. If you stretch- "A mans reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for"- you grow.
Recently I sat in an audience of brethren listening to a speaker who spoke in measured tones. It was so surprising when he explained something no one ever wanted to hear but every honest man in the room knew to be true. The short form was like this; Freemasonry extends to improve good men. When we compromise any aspect of ritual we are violating the opportunity vital to his growth whether we are aware or not. From a time when we held oral history in our palms, every word mattered. Today, we are able to rationalize compromises we make. Generation's on, the cascade has not lead to improvement but erosion. Dare we look into the mirror thrust before us? Look deeply; do you see the truth? Freemasonry is enduring. Great ideas in the minds of smart men have spun an intriguing tapestry that too often we fold away in a drawer, keeping it out of mind. Efforts are made occasionally to resurrect it. Not conspicuously. Not to compete with shallow effort. Making sure we don't really expect we could or should tolerate the discomfort that we bring forth as we come out of our own ego. Where the estates have failed, Freemasonry stands up to contrast cynicism and piety similarly- proding us gently to examine our lives. We may want the anecdote for shallowness but that is where we are today. A small group, authentically prepared, able to share the prespective from both sides of the mirror. Character building happens when you least expect it. Preparation is not necessary. And the timing is never right. Neither does the task ever fade.
Masonry comes to us intact. It would be disappointing if the very things that are intended to change, improve, challenge and mold character were prone to tampering. Unconscienceable as it might be to change any of the elements that are impactful, it could occur, by happenstance, miscommunication. Let's use a thought experiment to see where it takes us. What if anything less than a precise execution of ritual and scholarship lead to erosion of an element within the chemistry both needed and promised, in terms of character development? There are those moments of reflection, when sit back when you do, with deas that describe and define. And when you think of the Craft, the mind drifts maybe to expectations, opportunitites, shortcomings, accomplishments that are fleeting and the next challenge before us. Then consider the question; is Freemasonry the better option? Where men be limited by their personal experiences, where our minds cling to ideas we have and resist new, outside ones experience, there is a world much unfamiliar, more wonderous. Into that fracas we are accepted as apprentices; men with hopes, dreams and ambitions. Optimism, believing in common purpose for all, including the stranger, knowing secrets means understanding; a palatte of imagination. So be audacious, be the exception; the man who finds inner confidence to listen, to learn from mistakes, to deliberately be silent, alert and motivated by a curiosity about the truth. Will those beautiful ideas apply if I remain passive? First steps are fraught. Next steps,is sustaining progress given all lifes vissisitudes. You can be exposed to ideas framed by others, until that moment when you realizing the responsibility of honesty frames your own aware of balance. Is subtlety in your field of vision? Harmony can be heard but not by those who turn away.
Adjustment is key to the application of our practices. In a way, it is a sensible contrast to the authority that normally imposes 'democratic' states isn't it? Freemasonry is, in that way, influential as it is an unenforceable ethical mindset. The key to Masonic values is a compassionate embrace given unevenly, accepted unevenly but based on trust. Where dedication is strong, freemasonry lives in the heart of man. And it requires little more and yet much more to pass from one generation to the next. Such as being adjusted to the historical specificity of each nation, each province, each district, each lodge in practice and theoretical formulations. This is a type of foundation for achievement of authentic sustaining expansion of respect for character development. Though ability varies person to person, knowledge is valued. When scholars pass along knowledge to less capable brethren we suceed answering the age old question: does one need to be a genius to understand genius? Service in all it's many shared aspects is a composite of unique chemistry, unique in time/space. Yet in our minds, we see the patterns. The beauty of this is how sensitive this is to manipulation- as happens when men have tried to commodify compassion. Pathetic puppy pictures must work? Right? So we apply reason and have been passing along the dignity and mystery of Freemasonry to endless generations.
There are so many ways a man becomes a Freemason. To cite them would be about as clear as the calculation for Pi. Why? The science of craft masonry is difficult to define. Every single piece of defining 'hard-evidence' is open to analysis. Even the most intellectual analysis does not capture the feeling of masonry. It gives us reason to extol and encourage one another. It defines our community so inclusively that every stranger, every culture, every faith, every calamity is encompassed within the framework. Nothing is shouldered out of the way. But if you woke from a deep sleep expecting uniformity, you would likely be very surprised with what you saw. Groups of men connect with masonry as a charity, a service club with life altering obligations. You would find an open university where tolerance is a given. While the tip of intellectual activity carries out a calculus, the body, conservative by nature, is not thrilled by philosophical proofs alone. No imagine would do it justice. The way freemasonry is best captured, is in the mind. A community able to discern expectations from reality, shifts the definition of success. Striving is not a measure of success. In fact, the journey may be more important or as important as reaching the destination. Nostalgia and wishful thinking hasn't made us immune to the four seasons of a life. As we age, some aspects worthy of our on-going attention are preserved. Longevity is measured in centuries. Yes, it is a stiff litmus test, but it teaches us so much about the blend of imagination and skills needed to maintain a course. Hindsight teaches us what we need to pass along to the next generation and all this is apart from the spread and stability of interest. We all realize we are mortal but that does not mean we embrace the moment without struggling to say goodbye. Life is fleeting, and masonry is an amazing path.
Why do it? What's it's value? And why me, in my life? There are so many less demanding windmills Ancient makes it rich even in cultures that have gone beyond abundance, continuing a new form of exploitation. Murky business. So why not tilt at flimsy windmills. Some have an open mind. Others do not. It is virtually impossible to experience masonry without some view of why you do it. A life unexamined is not worth living, a dictum accorded to Socrates at his trial in Plato's Apology. We know equality applies more to one person than the next. We know opportunity is greater for people born to privilege. We know what happens when people can anticipate life. We know there are no absolutes in life. We know we cannot stop change. We know people wrongly assume their opinions are truths. Despite so many caveats Freemasonry began to extract unusual tasks from a member. Turn a questioning eye toward religion but keep your faith. Learn to observe. Learn silence. Learn to listen. Education- best in small groups- 3 or 4, enough intimacy to talk or during those rare occasions inviting an academic to provide insights.
The etiquette of masonry would seem obvious to a casual onlooker. Underlying that, is what I think we can call symbolic manners. 14th century notes reveal proceedings of a Scottish lodge. From a nation in which a King was an authority declared over the land, not people, in England a King or Queen was about subjects and land. It makes me think that the early Scottish Lodges operating where 13th, 14th century legends William Wallace and Robert The Bruce represented the primacy of a man, so the independence of a lodge would never be in doubt. It is disengenuous to question the merit of Grand Lodge institutions. Freemasonry is not troubled, but confusion is out there where answers are being sought about 21st Century relevance and performance of the Order. What has this to do with independent or constitutional legitimacy is everything. Few of us who would think to serve warm beer to a guest are tolerant of insensitivity in a lodge. In mason-speak, the most thoughtful gesture of sincerity is good ritual. Poor work reveals too much. We can be part of a great organization, but membership does not change our nature. So what bearing does this have in the broader role of freemasonry? Everything. Our rationalilzation does not matter a fig to a curious, high performing man. This is where each one of us can change the narrative. However you say it, any less than fine work cannot be accepted. Not everyone is capable. It takes ability. Ignoring this has consequences. Many lodges are experiencing those consequences first hand. This is why our ritual is carefully worked to ensure a continuous current. It takes effort and commitment by all of us, all the time. When we are succesful, we present masonry, our lodges, our membership and our sensitivity to a guest in the best possible light. This is where we reignite and inspire. Then or now? Which local custom tofollow?
A man doesn't mature in a vaccum. He reaches and age of understanding, with experiences unique to his life, stumbling forward perhaps learning from his mistakes but more often not at the first lesson. The age it happens is not clear. For some, awareness begins, albeit incomplete, at an early age. It has something to do with overcoming the baseless opinions that fill a young mans mind. Some never quite arrive. They become a pastiche of what they believe is owed or expected. Until that day when something happens that triggers a need, a yearning, a search. He doesn't need convincing. He may not even be aware. Words do not come easily. They do not compete well with all the noises in his head, or the turmoil of an uncertain future. That gap is where Freemasonry can offer site to the blind. The impossible becomes possible. Freemasonry erases what came before, redefining as dishonest moments fall away until he sees himself and us. Tobias Churton is a powerful researcher and thinker. When he explained Accepted Masonry I felt surprised, the way I am when Sherlock or Poirot are deductive with the logic so obvious when it is made known. At the time, I thought it was external, until remembering that acceptance of others is foremost, based on acceptance of self. Unvarnished. Honest. Like the effect on an audience of the tragic ending of the two lovers inTosca, or the senselessness of vendetta in Romeo and Juliette, without the fanfare stands Freemasonry. Lessons, profound and meaningful are woven into an atmosphere that offers without guarantee the possiblity of a bond. Standing, waiting passively for it, is like the man who waits for inspiration to occur. He waits and waits, until it begins to understand that inspiration comes to those who look for it. Set aside the operational bumps and constant adjustments. Eye on the goal, that need to connect.
Being an emerging culture, in a young, aspiring nation, spread over 5 time zones where a good quality of life, governing an educated population capable of critical thinking- that was and is fertile ground for Masonry in Upper Canada where today, I find myself musing on stale preoccupations over the condition. Pressed so closely into the trees, we haven't seen the forest for over a hundred years so it surprises some that communities are evolving, people are moving around, lodges are fading as naturally as the change of seasons. Freemasonry has travelled well across thousands of km of ocean, yet with an immediacy borne out by our history. Without the benefit of a gentry, or merchantile elite, Masonry has grown from the middle leaning toward all the benefits and pitfalls of elected accountabilities. Were we enough? We were pious enough? Were we without complaint? Were expectations in line? Did we meet expectations? Fascinated though we might be by the history this mysterious alchemy of applied Arts and Sciences, we have out of necessity had to create much of the context ourselves. Fortunately, accelerated migration and a strong work ethic handed us unchallenged source of new members. Perhaps it is unfair to compare the enthusiasm with the South Sea bubble except that it suits us. the 1720's were are different time. Right you are. Unlike those Scots, we didn't aspire to establish a new world trading block promising huge returns for those adventurous enough to invest. But armed with hind-sight we can find a parallel; disappointment when reality overtook enthusiam. In fairness, we made masonry accesible across and enormous landmass without precident. And it worked, initially. When the forces that gave rise to unrestrained growth adapted, there for everyone to see, unfortunately our unchecked aspirations did not. Until now.
Ask the questions. Progress from simple. Once you've mastered them, move on to the next question that challenges you. Remember, there isn't an order to follow. Next is a matter of searching out the thing that requires your attention in that moment. And when it is accomplished, as the question- what is my duty to myself? Exercise? Labouring? Reading? Thoughtfulness toward your partner? Tolerance? Sleep? Planning? A meal? Knowledge is what happens when we are learning. Data, facts are loose, floating in the cosmos until we put them into a context. How do we do that? We ask a question. Some thinkers believe that existence depends on definition. Until something is defined it doesn't exist. Does meaning float around, does it exist waiting for us to discover or is meaning constructed by awareness and understanding? Pity the poor mason who does not graps the ethics and philosophy of the Order. On this history is kind, explaining how in days past, scholars studied and passed on knowledge to brethren who were illiterate, not as hubris but as a kindness so a brother in spite of his circumstance could be learned. Different ways of learning have always been available. Always there have been others ready to tell us what and how to think. In Latin, that is known as -major pain in the ass-. Perhaps we are derivative, reflecting ideas of others, until we come to the moment when our ideas become genuinely our own. Some time ago, I recall sitting with a patient who was struggling, needing authentication. He was the expert, not me. He had been and continued.
It is difficult to compare Upper Canada to the old cultures that gave birth to us. History teaches us of a convention that injects ancient references into contemporary developments to borrow on the gravitas of time. It brings legitimacy, answering as it does, a question before it has been asked. It appeals to sentimental familiarity. Unless people are aware of the convention, it sways opinion. Branding. Creating markets. Filling a need. Simply peace of mind by targeted advertising. Tell us something we want to hear so we can accept a product. In Upper Canada, the engine of Freemasonry gave us legitimacy but little else. If we settle for good enough, we should probably stop using superlatives to describe our goals. We don't have cultural monuments in our towns. No boards show where a King slept on a given night. No ancient battlefields. No evidence of Roman occupation. Westminster, St. Pauls, the Ashmolean, the Victoria and Albert are way over there, out of sight. Not a henge in sight. Our aesthetics are not urbane. Public displays of art often come from the can of a graffiti artist than the hands of a sculptor or landscape architect. If we assme in our mind, that Lodges are where we find expressions of mediavel aesthetics mergingn with modernism, we've fallen short a little. If we held our lodges in monuments to architectural genius, one would want to think the performance of ritual would be spellbinding. We would expect to sit with men who are have a scholars grasp of masonry with the humility and dignity of a gentleman. We are in a weakened state if we hold to the notion that the zenith of Freemasonry is behind us. We become at best, a reinactment, a pastiche that confounds the honest moments of our progress. It will never be any better until we strive as a fraternity to achieve better, not because it is better and that is worse but because it is antithetical to do any less.
It is simple and complicated in the same instance. It is a particle and a wave. Freemasonry is many things and exposes itself occasionally, to like minded men. That is the rub.
As I was reading about the changes happening within my Masonic community I had an 'aha" moment. Upper Canada is a large land area. Long ago in our history, as communities grew, warrants were issued and access to Freemasonry was made possible where good men were getting on with building and raising. Fast forward until today, that land mass is still enormous, but the distribution of communities and masonry has followed opportunity. Often, these communities were small enough to support a single masonic lodge. In a way, the lodge was a symbol indistinguishable from the community itself. Even with the passage of a few generations, progress and opportunity were the main landmarks. Between our borders 7,000km apart, young men and families travelled away to education and job opportunities. Canada is a developed nation that has been swinging above its weight class from the beginning. It is one of the favoured countries renowed for quality of life and enjoyment. Through 17th, 18th 19th and 20th centuries, ambitious people arrived to find the rewards of secure balanced life. Ontario became the most populous province. Cities have gained international status. Urbanization has changed the way we link.
Across the jurisdiction lodges that have fulfilled their purpose are going dark. It is as if we are loosing a family member. We are shedding members and our growth model is flexing under a strain. While this is happening, there are lodges that audaciously continue to grow and thrive. Maybe there is a common reason for this diversity. Maybe it is as simple as messaging. Grand Lodge has provided concerned oversight and offered resources. Is it possible that lodges who listened, are doing better than those that chose another path? This is not a comment about the nature of the programs but maybe they are an important litmus test. Time will tell.
IF a man has not understood the subtext of Freemasonry, is he able to achieve an attitude of self-examination? Imagine an apprentice showing insouciance. A curious temperment for an apprentice would you say? Why come into a values based Order then resist? Freemasonry provides opportunity to learn and apply what has been learned to our being. Self-examination,conscience, self-control, morality, validation; call it what you will, growth is never imposed or passive. It requires desire. Self-help gurus have written many books feeding an appetite of hopeful people who have not realized the potential for change does not come externally by from within. A Master Mason becomes answerable for his thoughts and actions.That simple idea is a journey of sorts; one that requires a willing, honest mind. If we define luck as that moment when opportunity meets preparation, obligation is preparation, masonry is the opportunity then we are lucky by design.
Along with all the other fabulous and fantastical parts of freemason is a narrative. One part is unassailable, that without study/practice is inaccessible; levels that contain the intellectual themes~ history, philosophy and symbolism. One part is of us, in terms of adapting as part of a singularity called a Brotherhood, our ability to commit, honouring our word. When we are shown the names of celebrities, politicians, scientists, artists who were brethren, it is not to suggest for a moment that being one makes one a good freemason. Would it inspire a man who is insecure or is it what some consider advertising? If I am self-aware, then labouring in the garden may well be one path to enlightenment. How we get there through the dynamic Craftwork makes the difference, all the while supported by the principles, ethics and philosophy of Ancient & Accepted Freemasonry.
Referring to a mason as a volunteer is terribly unfair though not altogether unwarranted. The division of labour has long separated voluntary and involuntary. There is a loud dustup about this-whether we might call it exploitation of the many pay to for the disproportional advantages of the few? Craft Masonry is such a unique metaphor in that context. As we seek to improve, it provides a framework of ethical standards . Each act we perform in masonry defines not only our own effort, but whether or not we have invested the necessary effort to achieve purposeful altruistic outcome. Each action we take also goes beyond ourselves, validating claims and effecting our reputation in an environment of suspicion and cynicism. Reputation is what others think of us not improved by a single act or will power but over time by conviction. Whether a man's reputation improves depends on his diligence and commitment. Realizing people at large love supporting an underdog only time restores trust. The damage to one's ego isn't the opinions of others. It is when ego doesn 't care that he errs. At the end of all the excuses we can concieve, is the truth that we either accept responsibility and grow or make excuses and remain small. Masonry gives us opportunity to practice our convictions, without enforcement, without encouragement, without reward. You know what is expected. It is much more and easily dismissed. But you did give your oath and accepted the obligations of a Mason willingly. Best to buckle down to begin understanding the reason you and I do what we do. Without understanding the reason, we cannot progress. We are the Rosencavalier until we come to terms with what we actually know to be true. No embellishment. No audience. It is what we call character- doing what we do, when no one is with us watching.
Thoughout history we find examples of conflict gradually building, then peace gradually restored. If we have stockpiled guns then we need targets often with an ability to justify harm to an enemy. The enemy is us I think. For those who believe in destiny, in which hatred and cowardice are equally weak, for those who want to overcome cynicism and despair, it is possible to live in a mindstate of hope. It is inextinquishable faith. And if we look closely, we will notice vigilence is not fear, madness does not define us, that mistakes happen when we stop listening. For hundreds of years we have been writing about hope. We feel compelled to pass the message on to validate and perhaps inspire. Does the cradle of Freemasonry being a parapetetic Order, reflect this sentiment? We are the active contemplative acolyte, dreamers who are busy and aware. We are the traveller experiencing moments of discovery. And when we realize we are not alone in questioning, not alone striving to understand, not alone putting matters into our own perspective we experience a bond. No one ever said insight is all or nothing. Understanding is partial. Each time we ask the question, we form a different answer. Concrete thinkers tend to be unable absorb how an answer can change over time. Historians better than most, report change. What then have we mastered? We respect and repeat the great questions. Sometimes we even find an answer. Just when we think we have done, we find that time is only a point in time. That everything changes and truth endures.
How we think about Masonry depends on the viewing lense at the moment. If we think about it, considering the many philanthropic acts is a proof, not to mention the hundreds of smaller acts of generosity that flow continuously that there is a bond of friendship, only made complicated by the distractions of daily turmoil. Even as fatigue fades we are drawn again to our unusual commitments. We work andwork pleasantly, anticipating our fellows to the best of our ability. Doesn't the imagination run wild with thoughts of the potential; mind palaces, art work; monumental temples; scholarship. Those darned freemasons- fearless in their pursuits, doing where others only dream even as they chafe against the practical pace of nature; Yin-Yang- the achievement of balanced elements. Savouring each honest moment is enlightening. We are defined by so more than our human failings. Blindspots? We have more than a few. Audacious? We grow intellectually and spiritually through time, always meeting with the disapproval of ideologues. In Masonic terms, obedience is the servant of inspiration just as truth is the servant of a questionning intellect. This offers a hope of understanding, of enlightenment, knowing that day is coming when we will question the purpose of existence; have I fullfilled my destiny in life? Has my life been meaningful? Am I loved? Have I loved? When social rank dissolves. When conscience prevails. Who among us knew conscience is the harbinger of natural law? Once not so long ago, organized religion tried to think and reason for mankind. It failed, leaving a few with a longing to return to simpler days, and the many wrestling with new liberal choices. Why is authority so much easier than reason; we don't know. Inspiration is our grail. True masonry is a choice and expression of understanding .
There is a thread. It isn't obvious or timelimited. It isn't garrish nor gender specific. It follows no formal religion but it does adhere to certain beliefs. Fragments may be all that we have to form the basis of a story about a people and a time long ago. Periodically, treasures are uncovered to our amazement and put to quick use to serve our curiosity. In a sense, what has not been found can be thought of as secrets. We use the most plausible explanations based on the information available to us as any given time, knowing that new discovery could change our assumptions. Faith is constructed to be beyond scrutiny, so it pleases those who wrestle selectively with facts to claim in absolute terms, what we know is guesswork. For the rest, holding on to the consistency of mathematics we are comfortable with two propositions; at a certain level of reasoning, fact is fluid; and fluidity is a fact.
Today, we well know as Masons, that living an ethical life is not an imposition but something to be accepted. To make great gains, it is important to ask a great deal of masons to ask a great deal of themselves. Be mindful then, of the need to be mindful and be as charitable and generous as your spirit requires. Without that authenticity a man is faking his charity toward others. Has Masonry asked a great deal from you? Listen for it. The change so desireable, will always require effort, even the effort to accept without being constrained by expectations. Living as a good man, is not an act. It is a state of mind, coming to terms with the idea of masonry, feeling the bond of friendship that connects- ancient practices with current thinking. You and I were there in the beginning, bringing out ideas that lead us to enlightenment without an end. Learning from mistakes was possible when men felt they were in the company of trusted brethren. Trust breeds confidence to strive.
Conflict is what it is. Whether we moralize or not, progress will always be possible when people are able to conquer their sense of nihilism. In some ways, it is a noble, necessary expression of our humanity; like trying to prevent suicide. We can be soothing to survivors as we should, but each instance is a complex story, hard to formulate into a commodity we can define well enough to study. Whether furtive or not, Masonry emphasis humanist values while knowing well, there as men whose muscularity is their vulnerability- anger and fear. Masonry is hardly uniform. No utopian promise here. No faux piety. Far from it. Masonry is a daily practice aimed at effort, diligence and mastery of the task. We look, talk and act as if we are aware. We cannot reach that state unless we accept fallibility. Imagine all that AND an atmosphere of acceptance? There is a place for validation if that is needed. In the midst of what can only be described as a vibrant atmosphere, is a place for contemplation in coexistence with very little chafing. The more like minded members in a the Lodge, the more compatible are expectations and outcomes. It is consistency that we provide in a dynamic market community. Out dated? Not as long as there is a desire and need. Ethics and values are after all, stabilizers. As is Brotherhood.
It can be confusing. Are we on the stage or in the audience? On this one, we are onstage, telling our audience that change is coming, and their viseral reaction is what we need to face what comes. Change. It's never over till it's over. No need to fear it but we often do. You and I are simple souvenirs, the flotsam of change. Maybe we want to linger over nastalgia, afraid if we don't we might forget a faces, a laught, the sound of a voice, a tear. And yes, Masonry resounds with memories, secrets of a life, that we never quite extinguish, that will never be forgotten and not come again. Never. It is only a brief time we have to experience Craftwork in all it's abundance and glory, as we stumble forward, just as convinced and confident as the Ancient Brethren that achieved immortality in our hearts. Behaviours- speaking more loudly more beautifully than words. The walk with ghosts ever mindful we need to show them we have confidence. We are capable, respectful and more than able to share the beauty of Freemasonry with future generations, in all its many colours and aspects. The poetry, the mathematics, inspiring to humanity, able to contemplate artistry and admire the strength of service to others, able to see the truths where others attempt to obscure it with embellishment. Those few who respect honour and dignity, with a desire to put their own needs aside to authentically assist, careful not to be an imposition, satisfied with being a catalyst, never the outcome. Imperfect but audacious. Unstoppable. The conquest of goodness. Freemasonry is an idea, complicated, difficult that offers understanding in exchange for unwaivering effort. So mote it be.
PLUS TOUT CHANGER DE CHOSES, PLUS TON RESTE LE MEME
Masonry thrives on the notion that we each begin modest and humble. Easier for us to speak about it than to walk the walk. Jon Kabot-Zinn captured it for us: "What is more, any superficial or romantic notions we might harbour of becoming a better person-more calm or more clear or more compassionate-don't endure for long when we face the turbulence of our lives." In the masonic zeitgeist, the contemplative mind poises endless questions of us. Masonry expands on this and invites us into the process of exploring truths and facts and fancy. To absorb core-beliefs we are asked us to step beyond accumulated knowledge. We like to use the metaphor of light into darkness; understanding replacing ignorance. Core beliefs have much to do with how we believe ourselves to be. I find some solace provided by Aristotle: ”We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” I'm not sure what excellence is but it sounds good. And I know what a habit is. I think an excellent person would be insufferable unless excellence included keeping ego at bay. What would motivate us? Imagine how far we could go, the heights we could reach if ego was not let into any Lodge. No competitiveness. Harmony. This asks a great deal of us. How do we keep these noble goals in focus during the turbulent day? Only when we understand the power of the symbols we wear or pocket, do they speak gently and to us and refocus. None of this is enforceable. So we need to think about those nearby who haven't had the mentoring he deserved or has been faithful but lowered expectations. How then do we bring the Lodge together? Knowledge, understanding, and imagination. Some have experimented with shortcuts. But they transparently lack authenticity and sincerity. Imagine your effect.
Capture the essence of Masonry by being the True Mason. Can't understand it all? No worries. Act like a good person. Smile. Be generous and lose the attitude. Select an aspect of our motto to guide you. Audi Vide, Tace. I recommend you begin in silence just as if you were fortunate enough to be selected into Pythagoreanrian school. You cannot respect another human being until you respect yourself. The instructions for that are generosity, charity, lovingkindness. Oh, at the beginning yes you're incomplete. Yes, you're going through the motions. How do you think true Masons reach the top step? They began just like you. More questions. Few answers. Full of opinions with very little knowledge. Stumbling along the path. Questioning their own sincerity. Stop talking about now. Be respectful. You are a student, learning. No one except a man with an out of control ego, or a hatred for humanity, expects you to be anything else. Respect the time to learn. You deserve it. Don't know how to listen to yourself? No worries. Ask the question. Why? Why am I trying to be a Mason? Oh; thought you were? No, no, no, no. We gave you an opportunity to become a better, enhanced version. Begin to communicate with your behaviour. How do you act generously without imposing yourself on someone, anyone? How do you become known as authentic? sincere? Good questions. Can you think critically? Takes time. Four hundred+ years before you, men have been thinking about ethics and doing it without being big knobs. So you walk into a place where mature men can talk. Notice the atmosphere? How about the good-natured, respectful laughter, intelligence? What's been keeping you? We've been waiting.
Now let's work on making it the most exceptional experience and perhaps you will prove yourself worthy.
Why would masonry be built on ideas of an aesthetic life? But there you have it- every Fellow-Craft is directed to study the Arts and Sciences. Trusting souls will jump into the task but lately too many quickly realize it is all unenforceable- like doing the right thing- acting with charity and generosity when there is no personal gain. Trusting in the common purpose of all humanity. If a man cannot find an answer himself, I ask you who have, whether he deserves to go through life without the enrichment of aestheticism. Does he not deserve it? Should we encourage him? Perhaps it is easier to offer high praise for mediocre work instead of being honest with him. But doesn't the 5POF remind us he is worthy? Science helps us understand the beauty of existence. The Arts project that knowledge into the future. Even as satisfying our emotional judgment is returning to the marketplace, as anger is a temporary emotion, those decisions, however, satisfying at the moment, however popular, never endure. If principles and ethics were enforceable our utopia would be repugnant because it would erase our personal judgment to adhere. The essence of Freemasonry is clear, truthful and honest. It is an opportunity, so the membership is at a constant vibrant state of accomplishment. No edge. No beginning. No end.
Drawing people toward an idea without answering the deeper questions seems fraught. Planning by a core of committed Masons may not be the most balanced or productive way. How different would balance feel? Moving forward, membership has access to an explosion of social media connections. The media while defining, isn't the message to us. Various platforms have given us access to an unprecedented amount of information. It is difficult for those who lack filters, or have difficulty pulling information together into coherent packages. Grand Lodges have been setting to the exercise of insight and foresight with solid results. Unlike a business, our large numbers of participants are pulled together for a unique purpose. We are and have always been a brotherhood. Not gender sensitive, the bond of friendship brought together men of conscience, men of ideas. When we experience trust, it is the foundation of confidence. Trust is a delicate balance. Too muscular and it is troublesome, avoiding parrhesia erodes confidence, vascillating, toward balance. But with insight, participants can find comfort in the currents around us and notice the agency of each and every mason, especially as we move forward in time. Always moving. Being uninformed leaves us vulnerable. Moreso during periods of transition when our Achilles heel is exposed as protective as we are of the social contract that began formal organization- preservation of the Ancient Landmarks in exchange for acceptance of a uniformity of sorts. Freemasonry is organic and as such, has many functions happening simultaneously. Higher order change will have a greater effect of course but this will not arrest the beneficial functions. We can rethink our relationship toward Grand Lodge as our representatives make recommendations to take us forward. Some decisions will require our trust in leadership.
No doubt many have accepted the evidence that the idea of a global community is aan impossibility. Optimists tell us there is good in everyone. Druids or indigenous peoples refered to a connection with the spirits that inhabit all living things; rivers and streams, trees and plans, all creatures and the stars. Why not this creature- humans? Is reality a persception of choices we make or an externality? Set those notions aside for a moment and consider how confusing it could be to validate our idea of common purpose, of peace and harmony, of agape. What would happen to a healthy person if we subjected them to constant messages of suffering and aggression and censored acts that inspired and validated the brotherhood notion? Cynicism? Masonry may well be the looming rabbit hole that we jump into where truth, fact and reality are more than imaginary. Lewis Carroll gave us "Why, sometimes I have thought 6 impossible things before breakfast". As he glided down a glassy river with a friend and the three young daughters of his much respected Dean at Christs Church, the little girls begged for a story. Later one asked him to write it down- is there a serious message in the fantasy? Is it so impossible to consider a Brotherhood of good people, strangers alike from far and distant places, who look and sound different who enjoy the most amazing tastes in food, could be hidden from view by their forced invisibility? Are you and I so mature we suppress imagination? A Brotherhood of men by different mothers? Not so impossible for the likes of discerning Masons are we have here. We may be invisible to the world, but the idea of masonry definity exists. We may be misunderstood at times and seem absorbed in a fantastical world of symbols,ritual, philosophy, and fraternity. Our rhythm and pace is not always in sync but even as we stumble, we always move forward.
The image of Freemasonry has faded with time in the minds of some. Unfairly but not unjustly. Our history is as much a challenge as it is unique, enough to temper penetrating minds. What if it were different? Instead of plodding along as an ersatz social service club, Masonry expressed its true nature? What if Lodges sponsored public events, solely to promote the arts. If we feel held back by assumptions and our cohort, then we have need to dig deeper. What if you and I gave more consideration of meritocracy? Tilting at windmills? Idealistic? What if we exhibited the pleasure of Arts & Sciences as a theme? WHAT IF Lodges sponsored a night with the current laureate- Georgette Lablanc? What if we decided it was beneficial to express our social currency- what about the inequality of misogyny for instance? In many cultures, domestic violence punctuates the experience of women and children. Too much? Domestic violence is an ugly truth. Imagine commiting ongoing support of women's shelters . It would demonstrate something about us- and along with awareness would define Masonry without a word. As people of conscience, doing what we can to protect children and women is not a choice. What if Lodges sponsored local competitions in literature or science? Juried art shows? What if we sponsored homes for the care of elderly Masons and their spouses? You get the picture? It is too uncomfortable to think we have become a pastiche of what we aspire to be. It is daunting. If we express notions of universality, how do we demonstrate that commitment? Ideals are the root of inspiration, as varied as the minds of people searching. Beauty is the last and the one pillar of three?Dreaming and being open-minded is not a weakness. Especially where there is a love of the arts and sciences. Now we show it.
Engaging with a can-do attitiude. Freemasonry is in sound condition as ever was the case especially with my guest. Craft work is how we move forward. Canada is a young but audacious place. Freemasonry has a bearing today as it always has. We will examine the changing context and see if we can inspire one another. Listen is as two dedicated masons connect as brothers by different mothers.
What has been happening to us is a combination; changing events, changing attitudes. Truth to power. Our effort has been uneven but sincere. Some join us for the novelty. Some want to join the search for meaning in a world of insincerity where interactions is too often, driven by a profit motive. The powerful get bigger. The needs of the common man were made irrelevant. The one with the most unique experiences wins; a replacement for impactful experiences with meaning. Expectations of a fraternal order shifted, in part, driven by a better understanding of the returning soldier unable to leave the battlefield terror, fears made tolerable by the way we find validation in obligations and ritual cleansings. What was a Grand Lodge to do? For some, being popular became as important as being respected. Rapid growth was bound to stop, and it has. Expectations that soared during the disorienting days of early 20th Century changed just as quickly. Consumerism, wealth, technology, religion, culture, and politics left many people feeling empty. Where to find a good life? Elites are no longer trusted. The estates were no longer reliable. And mass migrations of humanity began in search of security and opportunity. How do we trust the stranger? We became as Robert Heinlen knew, Strangers in a Strange Land. But some of us were fortunate to find a bond within the opportunity of Freemasonry, to examine the secrets of our hearts knowing that we have barely scratched the surface and already finding how alike we are.
Rosslyn Chapel. Few buildings are more powerful in the history of Masonic thought than this ubiquitous countryside folly. To dismiss it as architecture built as decoration disguising some other purpose, may simply be easier on the uninitiated than for us. Let's take a deep breath and begin again. Why are we still killing the talented apprentice that comes along 1:1000? Let us not quibble about whether we commit the deed. Let us assume if we can ever agree on the evidence, that there is a satisfactory answer. What could possibly motivate us to be satisfied that the perpetrator was contrite when this is nothing short of an existential threat. Has Masonic bureaucracy become swollen? Why yes it has grown probably citing teleological effort; bureaucracy meets the needs of Masonry. So killing off talent is necessary to preserve the integrity of Masonry as we know it? Does this statement explain to you the state we are in today? So worried are we of innovation that we label every creative idea, every innovation, a threat to our integrity. Does that seem inconsistent with the meritocracy narrative? It is reasonable to think the pushback of Grand Lodge drives innovation underground leaving behind an approval driven largely by awkward Luddite fears. Louis Leroy the French critic had a point to make when he rejected Claude Monet's painting- Impression, Sunrise as not at all real art but nothing more than impressions. But little did he know, Monet was painting in a new style that was to excite Paris when the audacious unknowns, rejected from a major jury show, rented a gallery and filled it with the work of Renoir, Manet, Degas, Cezanne, Matisse, Pizzaro. Who knew? We can slowly murder the apprentice but we cannot deny talent. That we actually supported and encouraged the artistry of Masonry, for Leroy would remain an insult to real Masonry. And yet it is part of our narrative.
In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically. Freemasons do communicate and learn using symbols. Is it so implausible to consider the ultimate Masonic experience can be codified and taught to all of us who flounder in the wings? The key for Craft Masonry is to put some serious thought into the question we want to answer. Personally and privately, I think we suffer at times from myopia so let's pull it into focus. If we knew what it was and followed the formula it would reveal the variables and constants and the relationship between them. So let me lead off the search with a few observations. First, a Lodge doesn't have to be a retreat of Masonic scholarship but it needs to expose each member to the finest scholarship. The cohort of Officers need to be thoroughly dedicated to the success of the Entered Apprentice. For each member, the Lodge needs to choose the right mentor. Settling for indifferent or weak mentors produces the result it deserves. And Most of all, the members themselves must be inspired, determined and hard working.
Do we dare tamper with the capricious nature of Masonry to cultivate pearls in our oyster beds? It is compelling to think if this formula were applied to start today, what amazing capability would be developed. We begin with the vision that withstands corrosion: pushback and impatience. Then we set our Lodge right, selecting and assembling audacious groups from far and wide to test a set of ideas, bringing order out of what appears to be unanswerable problems. Can it be done? That depends on how quickly we trust geometry and push aside our sciolism. An idea fraught. Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt~ Wm Shakespeare
They are known as FANG. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google, four companies that rank among the largest, four companies that have ripped into the existing paradigm without apology with eyes only on the horizon. Masonry over the centuries has been buffeted by many events. Today, the world is experiencing redefinition, not in the mind of a despot or leader; nor from a dominant culture. It has been simmering since Professor Mcluhan mentioned its properties. It feeds our human proclivity new and better ways to communicate. Can Freemasonry survive the impulse to link everyone, everywhere, all the time? Given what you know of the state of Masonry, it is not within the lodge that is most vulnerable, but to our relative position in the minds of those who stroll through the agora, noticing that which is relevant. Where will we be in twenty years?
How I asked myself, does the idea of speaking the truth to those in power, generalize and apply in masonry? Fearing reprisals from the villagers, immediately I pulled down the shades and retired into the night hoping to avoid discovery. Such was my experience as a mason that I felt the presence of an unpleasant menace at my elbow. But let me pull back a step to explain a context for you. In a thoughtful company, disagreement is a means to reveal the truth and clarify the murk of ideas. I even understood how the Socratic method would be employed, or I thought I did. Once upon a time, I believed masonry provided an opportunity to be part of the thoughtful discussion. I took seriously the idea that masonry was a meritocracy, where instruction was provided by well informed, sensible mentors. By now you can see my dilemma. Where did such a place ever exist except in the recesses of naive thinking? But unlike those who might be discouraged by the initiatory experience, I had capable support from my sponsors that carried me through the disappointment that clouded an otherwise unique first set of experiences.
My crystal ball tells me Masonry was always vulnerable to populist appeal and over time, may have experimented with the intoxifying effect of influencing the thinking of an audience. If our raison d'etre has mischievously slipped off track, righting it would require a special tool; the willingness to speak truthfully- what the ancient Greeks knew as parrhesia. How horrible for me. Was this sophistry, using rhetoric to persuade an audience or Plato and Socrates practicing the dialectic, using discussion to break apart complex issues to find essential truth or knowledge? Habit being what it is, I brace myself to the pushback and the isolation what will inevitably happen unless the practice is itself welcomed. Good or animus.
Freemasonry occupies a unique place in the spectrum of human experience. Many experience this as entering a new place with high expectations and obligations. Each is left to make choices. There is so much information, it is easier to recognize as a large, beautiful library. In spite of ourselves, we hope each new apprentice will be curious enough to select an area of study. Apprentices, especially those struggling with confidence may find this a daunting aspect. Much easier to disguise our reluctance by being reluctant and pulled away by other responsibilities. Masonry only asks us to find a balance between our many responsibilities in life, including those of the Craft. It is easier for some to thinking linearly, with one duty important and the others subordinate to it. Freemasonry frames our thinking in a bold, universal purpose- to replace ignorance with the lightness of understanding. How does it compare? It is unenforceable. In your heart, you know if you have been diligent in your researches. It is not for me to know or judge your effort. Masonry does not escape fiduciary responsibilities. We organize ourselves as such. Our constitutions have endured. The items do not fail us but they are vulnerable to interpretation. Ritual is defining and it too is sensitive to the temperament and effort of participants. And we answer for missteps about perspective on that participation. Some believe they are on the stage, portraying a role in stories of the human condition. Others find themselves in the audience, watching a morality play, being impacted by the theatre workshop. Not everyone does well on stage under the pressure of performance. There are many other useful ways to be part of a portrayal. Continuity is important to us, not to block us but to encourage us to strive, not to settle for second best or good enough. Imagine listening to a discordant orchestra. Do we reach for a book or not?
Whether we apply ourselves to being a true Mason, whether we are housekeepers in the palace or students of understanding, we stand shoulder to shoulder with opportunity. When we ask the question of ourselves the first answer may not be the most accurate but the first impulse that comes to mind. I wonder what advantage comes from only studying 'masonic' publications, only associating with brethren, only attending Masonic function? Some of us come into the Order with ambitions. It produces a sense of accomplishment; but does it define? What needs are fulfilled? The secrets revealed at those within the human heart. Are you open minded and applying yourself to the duties? You alone know the truth. Are you as generous and charitable with need in mind or pose? You know.
Behind every discovery are curious minds, with imaginations that move beyond what is, to what could be. Freemasonry is an explosion of imagination. It is the fusion of past/present/future into a moment in time. With unwritten landmarks, unenforceable obligations, principles and ethics, we can only marvel that it ever existed at all. If not for a capricious moment in time, chemicals mixed spontaneously with little thought of the long-term consequence, masonry would have remained a practice for the highlands. Time passes and lets us sanitize history. Average men become heroes. Hard work and diligence becomes a talent. For every problem science answers, it produces more questions as does masonry. As if 500 years vanished in the blink of an eye, masons today are applying the tenants of masonry in a variety of forms. There is always a push and pull. Push wants us to advertise accomplishments and generosity. Pull cautions us to be prudent, understated, and in control.
Time does matter. In 1998, Stephen Hawking wrote an essay for Prospect Magazine, on the 10th anniversary of his book A Brief History of Time. (prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/evenbrieferhistoryoftime). He explained the idea came from lectures he gave at Harvard in 1982. By 1984 he had a first draft. "I told my literary agent that I wanted my book on airport bookstalls. The agent made polite noises, but clearly didn't think it was possible." He picked publisher Bantam Books which assigned an editor, Peter Guzzardi, "who made me rewrite my first draft in terms that he could understand." and then changed the title From The Big Bang to Black Holes, A Short History of Time to A Brief History of Time. People had always wanted answers to the big questions. Where did we come from? How did the world begin? What is the meaning and design behind it all? Scriptural explains on creation had seemed less credible. Superstition offers far-fetched answers. And many people felt the 'real science was too difficult for them. Hawking took up the challenge. "Not everyone can be or wants to be a theoretical physicist, but most people can understand the basic ideas, if they are presented clearly without equations." It was a difficult read for me. But it did leave a taste. " It does not matter too much if people can't follow all the arguments. They can still get the flavour of the intellectual quest: to understand the universe on the basis of rational laws." So though we don't understand time, we use it. Freemasonry is an enduring sensate form of it that people unknowingly use to measure time and progress. Consider, how our continuous history; uneven, without valance, unenforceable self-development, based on endurable but ancient ethics- us.
Freemasonry is the architechture which enables and encourages self exploration. There are superstructures of academic research, applications and New Age hoodoo. For some it is a mystical experience, enlightening, philosophically fullfilling. It is a ripe medium for sophistry for which it pays a handsome price in terms of gaps in credibility. Think of the number of people actually practicing religion with little comparitive understanding and you have a window into the practice of masonry for some members. Some are completely satisfied being part of an event without needing to understand. Hard as it is to fathom, this is a challenge penetrating the ethos of freemasonry. Each generation brings about renewal and reinvention that generally preserves the ancient landmarks as was the acception offered to the old lodges. Nietzsche reminded us, it is good to express a thing twice right at the onset and so to give it a right foot and also a left foot. Truth can surely stand on one leg, but with two it will be able to walk and get around. What is the other expression? Freemasonry is the escape. It does not create a world of misery, then offer itself as path to salvation. It accepts what is and imagines what could be. He also felt art is the proper task of life. So think of masonry in it's truest artistic form. If the frustrations of the experience of masonry have not revealed answers, it is because the nature of insight and therefore the nature of freemasonry is to perform the oracles work- to answer with a question; one that if the acolyte is sinceren in pursuit of enlightenment, requires contemplation. Those who come to masonry hoping it is a shortcut to nirvana; hope springs eternal but answers require fullness. So live life as an artist and be cautious about such things. After all, I hate it when I think someone an idiot only to find out I'm wrong.
We use symbols not just as sources of information but as intermediaries between reality and the unknown. Masonic symbols are definitive, representing powerful forces, fears, countervailing against a shocking reality of man's inhumanity to man; symbols reporting an understanding of the depths of human experience. What shields us from time? Time works a mystery on us. Partly it is the mystery of introduction. Here is a story of a temple, that fell and rebuilt. That story is about the mind palace that is inside the architecture of the human brain. We come from nothing. We live. We are no more. After acknowledging the struggle the purpose of all creatures to exist- we become the destroyer. And from this, we preserve an unenforceable ethical standard for living. Our minds within masonry are exposed to bliss behind closed doors. Those doors require insight. Some are the simple philosophy of a child that we lose as we mature and bear responsibility and see the failures. Do we pretend they do not exist and turn our gaze away? Do we succumb and withdraw? Do we accept? Do we deny? How does an ethical being deal with the meanness and sadness of an exploited, uninspired, illiterate life? Overwhelming or otherwise kept in proportion by centuries of thought on issues of freedom and democracy; equality and universality. Our symbols like us, are anecdotes for symbols of pain and fear. Thoughtful, contemplative, but unassuming men moving through life on a wave of curiosity and the boldness of scientific/objective inquiry. We identify less with false confidence, jingoism, paranoia and more with observable fact. Masons communicated those lofty ideas on the nature of humanity, through a universal shorthand language. Having them is only part of the story. Distinguishing ourselves means answers to questions we've asked. And the secrets remain, locked in the confines of a loving heart.
We need to look no further than a Lodge to understand why a dignified, thoughtful attitude toward Masonry resonates so deeply. Lodges are the cells that are necessary for masonry to exist. It is pure speculation to suggest one element is more important than another. Each cell has a prescribed function. Some operate at a high level. Domesticity gives way to philosophy, erudite conversation, ethics and operationalizing the obligations. Each member is a fluid. At once bringing out the individual experience and function while flowing into an organic function. Our antiquarians and biographers continue to supply us with insights. As time goes by, the fascination with personality and celebrity has faded. In a noisy, chaotic, crazy world, there is symmetry and a beautiful calculus that we may not fully understand, drawing minds toward the Craft. In a sense, we are more aware today that the world is spinning with more outcomes, more innovation from more locations than one can cover in a walking casually through a library. We are such an interesting creature forever fascinated with the newest forms of communication. 0.01% of all lifeforms, directly accountable for 83% of extinctions of life-forms. This information is daunting, though indispensable to the Craft. To suggest Masonry has a foot on the brakes, ignores the progressive however unpopular message of universality. We lean into the challenge with our foot on the accelerator. We are out ahead of urbanization and population growth. We are aware of the street optics where the chafing of assimilation is happening. We hold political ideologues accountable for the unstated effects of their policies that are far more opaque than understandable. And if we are dedicated scholars of the Craft, we stop stumbling like the proverbial toddler learn to walk and speak thoughtfully about challenges facing humanity. True masonry displaces pessimism with dignity. Carry on.
Come to think of it, a great deal of attention is focused on masonic weather. Does the broader climate issues of Masonry effect Masonic weather patterns? If it does, what are the indicators of that C-change? No one would fault us for failing to take in the gestalt. Not likely that you or I will be chided for that. Too often we become self-conscious by an erudite give and take which would take us to think on broader terms. It is much easier to look back at Culloden and determine why we lost. Hindsight is generous like that. Wrong season. Wrong choice of battleground. Logistical problems with reinforcements creating a vulnerability to be exploited. Overwhelming strike force. Likely a combination. But imagine that we leave the battlefield for a moment and calculate the short and long-term impact. Hindsight may have reduced conjecture on the subject but clearly, it remains a hot debate. Enter stage left, a crowd of unconventional men who sparked interest in philosophical, metaphysical, political and insight. They were unique to their time. If you subscribe to the idea that all greatness comes for talent, you won't be pleased with an opinion that suggests talent is a term that refers to hard work and imagination. What some men call genius, and the spectator sport that grows from that perspective gets gutted by this notion; that you and I are not excused because we aren't one of the chosen genii. Not at all. We are participants who, with hard work and imagination are capable of so much more than mediocrity. And in our heart of hearts, were secrets not revealed are kept- we know this for a fact. No praise. No recruitment. If you step forward, you will be properly encouraged and exposed to brilliance. What you take from the experience, what you learn or do not learn, whether you grow because you begin to understand and acknowledge 'self' is completely unenforceable. Unenforceable. Diabolical.
As lumpy as discovery! This is a fair description of the way masonry absorbs half-lives. Half-lives are those with potential unexpressed; incomplete, unexplored, a mind unfulfilled. It is where the secrets of the heart find safe harbour, as much as studio as a laboratory where the unchained mind finds comfort. Dogma doesn't do well in this environment. Where we find thoughtful masons aware a calculus does exist but may not be understood or rarely acknowledged. Even approaching this level of understanding is complicated. Being a fan of music, you already no the best arrangements begin with the introduction that takes us gently to the moment when the music is right. Atmosphere matters. The props, the costumes, the setting, the build-up of anticipation comes pours through ceremony and ritual. Attention to detail describes for us effort worthy of the Craft or effort that settles around a lesser standard. Overly sensitive boys wasted much of their early years troubled by honesty. True Masonry is a gentle, thoughtful perfect mentorship, where we discover a feeling of support and honest confirmation. For many of us this is a familiar but rare experience. This is we commit to improvement without self-consciousness. We leave praise behind and replace it with encouragement. And the work itself begins in the privacy of your heart. Audi, Vide, Tace
How we define our world depends on things taken for granted in the briskness of day-to-day activity. Humans like predictability. Living in peace has advantages over facing threat. We are willing to compromise many of our impulses for the advantages of coordination. Imagine arriving at a traffic light if everyone decided for themselves what each colour meant? I like to think our comprehension of Freemasonry suffers from reductionist thinking. Time has been generous to our purposes. Always guided by the preservation of the ancient landmarks, we have been acceptably innovative in the way we function. Scholarship is vital to understand that matrix and where we stray from our studies we find confused purpose is sure to follow. Studying philosophy in historical context broadens our horizon as individuals and organizationally. It balances our focus which too often has been framed in administrative function as if we need reassurance century to century that an agreement did take place. Lodges accepted the terms of inclusion in exchange for specific pledges that have been uninterrupted to this moment. Uniformity was not part of the arrangement. Continuity was. There wasn't global rule as much as there was global connectivity. Freemasonry was among the first if not the first rudimentary social networking using a media uncontrolled by church or state. So careful to avoid controversy, nevertheless controversy has found us repeatedly. We needed to commit to privacy and silence. We didn't do well with either aspect. Yet the Order has remained a touchstone, a reference point, absorbed into the language of every adult and child on the planet. We are from before. We are made of mythology and stories, accomplishment and creativity. We are Freemasonry stumbling imperfectly through the ages, serving purposes on many layers aspiring to be slightly better tomorrow than we are today.
What if the way we connect with one another as humans was improved? What if machines began to understand emotion? While humans struggle with emotional intelligence, science has created technology that understands common sense. Inevitably the world around us will continue to change at an accelerated rate. Lets examine how will this effect Masonry by examining a statement that has become a cliche: we never did things that way before (we shouldn't change). Technology and the way we communicate with people is changing at a quickening pace. Humanity has always been slavishly adapting any new forms of communication that improves outcomes. We are symbiotically linked; and as AI accelerates our learning how will we determine those stopping points? Will these amazing feats of interaction and efficiency fundamentally separate from Masonry that in a misused sense of nostalgia, give over decision making to 'machines'"?" We aren't looking at whether we will change, but how. How will we continue to reinvent Masonry but at a level of intelligence beyond a human mind? AI contains tremendous potential. IF. If we release ourselves to absorb new technology and information we will thrive but is this going to be a choice? Will we have a choice? Look around. The way we evaluate progress depends heavily on our scholarship and comprehension. And can we afford to ignore the larger ethical questions that are coming our way?
What was in play prior to the Big Bang? Early in history, we were able to communicate by spoken word and symbols. Did those symbols morph into the stories and mystery of artwork? Or was there a distinct school of Masonic Art? And was that art designated by artist masons? If we thought that, we would be rewriting the meaning of art and that would be disastrous. But if we examine this question, will we find a body of work that can be the lost corpus of Masonry? Art in its various forms, tells us about civilizations and the people who inhabited the cities and countryside that made up the population. Were we to curate a show of Masonic Art, I believe our understanding would depend greatly on how we looked at and thought about it. Music, the most ancient art form may be the most open secret display of Masonic Art. How far back we cannot say, but we do know musical accompaniment played an important role when Masons met. Instrumental and vocals added to the sense of solemnity and celebration, making Masonry very unique. One might be excused for thinking Masonry has parallels with a religious ceremony and would be unchallenged. When theocracy proved to be a harsh master, it taught us the value of to separating spiritual guidance and church cannon from civil law. For generations, this was a technicality that ran in the background. Fast forward to the 1970's and we find an active press and Politik running through organized religions. Shocking exposes of abuse by officials began the ethical tipping point for now on multiple generations. The music has faded in many ways in those churches, as it has for completely different reasons in Masonic Lodges.
If you haven't read George Orwell, get a copy of Animal Farm and 1984 and prepare to be challenged in a way that recalibrated "masonic" material never can. He writes about the risks taken when we abrogate individual responsibility. Not good. It's a slippery slope to go from thinking based on facts to thinking to comply with authority, to adhere to an ideology. Not everyone wants to do the work needed to validate assumptions that are edgy. Unconscious bias is one of those. Years ago, psychologists conducted an experiment to test for bias. The flashed faces and asked participants to give them a positive or negative response. The findings were analyzed and the experts determined that we could show bias toward a race without actually being aware, unconscious bias was born. Fast forward decades later and we learn that science has been a little sloppy. The assumption is not accurate. Josh Kraushaar laid out the consequences for us. " The unconscious-bias industry diminishes personal responsibility, renders well-meaning, guilt-stricken (people) vulnerable to baseless ideological re-education, and empowers an elite that is by this point inexcusably rebuking (people) for made-up sins. Oh I know this is less than a thorough explanation but it doesn't stray too far from Mr. Orwell's delightful books on the subject of personal responsibility. I suggest you research the back story of each book before you jump in to them for those aha moments. Meanwhile, judge with kindness as a true Mason would.
It was insight about the need, appeal and the vigilance of men seeking to use the opportunity that brought Freemasonry from the highlands of Scotland into the hands of ambitious builders. By professing a standard of living based on ethics and principles, Freemasonry never quite becomes deterministic. It leans toward shamanic or clairvoyant areas of the imagination. For those with an appetite for metaphysics, it is rewarding. And for the man of lesser ability, it offers a fond subordination that assures order while assuaging anxieties. If we search for answers, we learn that being transfixed has little use. We enter states of deeper contemplation through commonplace, situational demands of life. We can be assured of an enriched experience of a life well beyond achievements in the marketplace or the esteem of our fellows. Life is a serious but not necessarily solemn matter for a true Mason. Next generations have been watching and asking questions. Is that all there is? The unhealthy lifestyles, with too little time for family, sacrifices made for a job, for gain; they are no longer incentives. We have created what we have wished for; a generation that values the quality of life over quantity. Jobs with high social esteem, that consume and define a person have lost incentive. We have wanted our children to experience equality. And they are. And we are lurching forward to adapt to change. Distance and time have been conquered by social media. For many of us, what a man has for dinner each day and why he would think we would need to know is still a puzzle. But for networks of friends, they continue on a global level. Many of us will remember the first pictures of earth from space; a blue global with swirls of clouds floating in darkness. It changed us forever into a global community that we could see first hand. Watch what you wish for- it might come true? We are restless.
Perhaps society is most often limited by what we do not say and do not do, rather than our actions and words. Take for example the convergence of two phenomena; one biological, one created by humans- illness of the brain/mind and prisons. The original asylums were created by Catholic monks to shelter mentally ill people from public violence. Ignorance then as now, continued to mock what we didn't understand. During recent times, governments took it upon themselves to reduce stigma by simply reforming facilities. The results were mixed. Social scientists have examined them and liberalized thinking has revealed we have moved mentally ill people into the prison system. Used a rather fluid ethic, we use sentencing to isolate any corrupting influences from their presence that might contaminant polite society. In prison, psychiatric symptoms were not treated. Physical and mental abuse reflected our capacity for inhumane treatment, not so much under wrap but complete with an ethical argument to justify our actions. Today we realize our thinking has been incomplete. Just as history goes, questions do not usually reveal answers at the first asking. Sometimes we ask and second, third and more each time coming closer to insight. As a Freemason, we can hardly avoid asking questions of ourselves. As ridiculous as it seems, essential questions may require patience. How we live during that period of exploration can actually define us. How do we treat our lives as a regent- in waiting for the opportunity to rule over ourselves? Do we live compensating for early unpleasant experience or using our intellect, gather ideas from watching others and gradually becoming our own mind? What if you and I have an enormous but unrevealed talent? What if with commitment and diligence, we can overcome 'settling' for mediocre performance and find a confidence and grace that pleases the world?
Once we past the fascination with the administration of Freemasonry, is there a subtext? And if there is, what is it? Recently I listened to a fellow being interviewed about Freemasonry and he stumbled over the question of gender bias. Could it be, I said to myself, that the accepted orthodoxy is one of exclusion? When he told the host women were not allowed, I felt a chill on the back of my neck. Why would we encourage the day when a challenge to this claim drags us before a Human Rights Tribunal? This wasn't the only reason but I found a meager explanation was not a reflection of the Craft but a muscular tack. We are part of a men's group. A woman wishes to attend. Do we change the nature of the group so she can attend? The outpouring of conditions went from a trickle to a torrent. Is a gender-specific group ever justified? Are such justifications ethical and acceptable to the larger society? First, Freemasonry is accessible for women. It is not an inferior form. There are forms of Freemasonry that encourage co-masonry- participation of men and women. What the speaker was saying skipped over a nuanced conversation. Sometimes we are sophisticated. Sometimes we stumble forward like the proverbial toddler learning to walk.
Daming with praise. It's a phrase I've heard over the years but never gave it much thought. That is until I began noticing some odd outcomes in Lodges. I found the mathematics wasn't adding up. Let me explain. A few years ago I sat through a performance that pressed on my good manners. It was obvious the person had not prepared. Yet praise flowed copiously after the final act. Maybe this was my apple falling from the tree inspiring me to understand the question of gravity? If the feeble effort was enough to gain praise, why over a generation were expectations low? This question took me along one of those pathways full of aha moments. One interesting fork had me deciding if praise and encouragement were the same. They are not. The latter builds on effort and audacity. The former is an end- perfection needs no further effort. One encourages effort. The other concludes the opposite conclusion. It made me think, praise is a luxury few of us can afford.It seems cruel to think that there is a problem with praise, but there is. In a summary of his work Solitude: A Singular Life in a Crowded World and The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in an Age of Constant Connection The author Michael Harris raises some interesting points. "If you believe the praise, you are letting other people control what you think about your work because by this point, so intimately invested in that work- you're also letting those people control what you think about yourself." Is accepting praise making me fraught to deal with the inevitable criticism? Is that why the objective comment is rarely tabled? I'm not going to say I know the answers. I will say it helps we make sense of the performance of Freemasonry. If the Master passes inferior work, who is at fault when the cathedral is poorly built?
We aspire. I know we do, because it says so in the Fellow Craft ritual. It says we hope to ascend. Not that the rest makes sense but if you think about it, really think about it- it does make sense. I wasn't there during the thoughtful development of Masonic Ritual. It makes sense no errant clergyman was able to expedite unnoticed our system of ritual as he had with the craftwork- technical stuff. Too much scrutiny and accountability I'm afraid. Every mature, thoughtful person understands potential untapped, somewhere in there; in the consciousness of being. If we thought about such things, such questions would fit into our awareness of agency. What is that difference between the untapped you and competitive achievement? Or are we imprisoned by emotional rectitude, by experience, my birth, and rank? Don't think for a moment, everyone who aspires to self-improvement will be a high achiever. Some of us are more equal than others. As much as we talk about it, many societies are rooted in misogyny, gender bias, gentrification. In that regard, Freemasonry is an outlier, perhaps THE outlier. The subtlety is not lost on us. What if- to achieve understanding we needed to enter a place in the mind that we don't usually understand or acknowledge? Thanks to the minds that formed Freemasonry to meet a need, the same time period that gave imagination a boost in the arts and sciences also gave us fundamental knowledge of the mind. One aspect is cited in the Fellow Craft ritual. We aspire to enter a mind palace. Mnemonics. How do law clerks and interns learn some much detail? How could a Freemason expand his capacity to learn? Where we do commit work to memory, we know our capacity to learn increases. It becomes easier to commit longer passages to memory. In that moment, we learn that reciting is not understanding. It is a tool, a means to an end- a key
The benefits of living a Masonic life are too often left opaque. Perhaps it is thought that articulating would be like describing G-d or defining motivation to the creator. Human minds are incapable of such efforts after all. But benefits do come to us, not as magical thinking, not as wish fulfillment but results. An article in Forbes caught me by surprise when it printed an article by a licensed clinical social worker, Amy Morin who seemed to have captured an understanding without the link to our Craft. Does her itemized list resonant and apply to the mature Freemason? Things we avoid 1. Waste Time Feeling Sorry for Ourselves. 2.Give Away Our Power 3. Shy Away from Change 4.Waste Energy on Things We Can't Control 5. Worry About Pleasing Others 6.Fear Taking Calculated Risks 7.Dwell on the Past 8.Make the Same Mistakes Over and Over 9.Resent Other People's Success 10.Give Up After Failure 11.Fear Alone Time 12. Feel the World Owes Them Anything 13. Expect Immediate Results. We are taught to route out ignorance, which includes our own. Aude. Vide. Tace. The motto gives us vital tools. As we begin to discern the world objectively, it comes with learnings in grace; that it is better to remain silent when we do not know what to do; know that ability varies and some knowledge will not then be known to everyone. We learn to respect effort and diligence, and optimism and honesty, sincerity and authenticity, knowing that there is always a price to be paid for truth.
Is conflict more than human conceit? Is it a natural artifact of a community? With the benefits of predictability comes a price, a need to willingly comply. The way this was put by a poet- feeling comfortable in harness- is the way a gentleman might say it. Why do we seem to make compromise so difficult? Why, as if it was not a steep curve to climb, do men mix the muscularity of boyhood with pride and honor? Given the fork in the road, why is the well-trodden path bordered by so much avoidable tension? We want to acknowledge equality, yet we know some are born with more of what we call intelligence than others. Maybe if we could account for dubious parenting- what actually takes place behind closes doors, we would have enough context to understand. All supposition. Speculation. External. Freemasonry must seem ridiculous to cynics looking at this question. Poor people are not as intelligent as wealthy. Nice people are better than ill-mannered types. Certain neighbourhoods, skin tone, and accents are book covers. If this were the case, there would be little need for Freemasonry and even less need for vague propositions. The Craft comes in shades, an enriched palette in the hands of an artist or whatever metaphor is suitable to the observer. It allows us to avoid problems in life and when problems occur, the principles and etiquette illustrate what to do. Why ask the questions when the answer is openly given- and you accepted. Audi Vide Tace
Today. How can something produced in the human mind remain constant throughout the universe? The laws of motion explained by Issac Newton are a constant. But these same laws apply to all the distant galaxies. Math permeates the universe. Einstein wondered how is it possible that mathematics, something produced in the human mind, does so well explaining the universe. Noble Prize-winning physicists, Eugene Vikner referred to this as the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics which we neither understand nor deserve. When I first heard this reference, I was overwhelmed. After years of searching for definitions that applied to Freemasonry, it was revealed in mathematics. Such a strong parallel with the Order starts with a question. How is it Freemasonry answers so many questions? Freemasonry is then the epitome of this definition: unreasonable effectiveness. How is it that groups of men carrying on the laws of a philosophical order without understanding or deserving the answer? That is the science we experience. Not knowingly following rules of mathematics, but influenced by infallible laws.
It didn't matter if the cannonball or the feather understood the physics offered by Galileo. Both were influenced similarly by the laws of gravity. Freemasons are the parallel, following with mathematical accuracy. Whether we understand or not, the laws apply
Did you know our Order has appealed to men with celebrity, rank, and high station? That is an old bromide, but one that has remarkable endurance. Philosophers teach there first-year students about the fallacious argument. I recall having one of those ah-ha moments when I realized what they were and how they were used. An appeal to celebrity, rank or station is an example. Here is the question to ask. What qualifies an actor, a celebrity or a person of rank to speak on any subject with authority? Answer- nothing. It does draw attention to our thoughts if someone who is known to an audience agrees with us. Accepting it is manipulative quickly sucks the air out of stuffed shirts. That is how freemasons come to understand disingenuous behavior on one hand, as well as authenticity on the other. People have the ability to observe, or they do not. So we ask ourselves, can it be taught? Can we teach every member to learn to be insightful? The simple answer is no. We can take him to the studio of talented artists. He may be repelled, feeling he doesn't belong. All the mentoring in the world cannot overcome such resistance. Or, he may be overwhelmed and unsure if he belongs, hesitates and shies away. If he responds to mentoring, he can access talents he never knew he had. The one who comes with talent may not be the aggressive, competitive one. Though they attract attention, unless able to understand humility, they are less palatable. Then there is Freemasonry. It defines ideals within the agency of a human, or what Campbell refers to as striving for bliss. If you know a man, who goes quietly about his business- whether a lion or a lamb or somewhere in between, he inspires who is approachable and accepts us as an equal. What inspires? Certainly not hegemony, celebrity, famous or wealthy and certainly not hubris.
Following the history of Freemasonry tends to focus exclusively on administration. Today, we loose a great deal by defining the nature of Grand Lodge according to the organization links. New facts are helping us answer questions about the start. Four lodges did not meet at the Goose and Gridiron. The Apple Tree Lodge did not exist at the time, but within the immediate area, 15 bars had Apple Tree in the name. 1717 was a small meeting that established that there was interest in creating a Grand Lodge- in the future. We find, in minutes from the period that in September 1723 oaths were given to the Old Lodges never to abandon the Ancient Landmarks. In exchange, the Old Lodges gave over administrative control to the new Grand Master- The Earl of Montague. The rally point was not fraternalism and since ritual was not to be developed into the 3 degree system until the early 1730's the benefits of ancient oaths and obligations were not available. To understand the dynamics of our First Grand Ldoge, we need to understand the backstory.
I won't get into the misogynistic attitudes of the estates. No need. They are self-evident. They are evidence at best of male chauvinism, at worse of stupidity. To explain the process over 10s of centuries, let me bring to mind the Nike swoop. The artificial division of genders was and is intellectual bankruptcy.We crawled into the Rennaisance not as conquering heroes but sheep that escaped the shepherd. From a time when Italy was a cluster of principalities, Florence had become a centre of imagination from 15th century on. The estates of control were forever altered by events they could neither predict or suppress. Who knew the pushy upstart John Wycliffe would commit to translating scripture? Who could have guessed that translation would challenge a 1,000 years of dominance by the Roman Catholicism. And who then would guess it would put into motion influences that created the opening for a populist humanist movement. It was like injecting oxygen into a vacuum. Human beings thrived in a period that unleashed creativity and a freedom of the human spirit. And my God did we experiment. The masquerade of Florence was a manifestation of liberty, that could not have happened in any other place. Well before the Baroque and then Rococo Period, the gentry of Europe and Britain began for the first time, to travel for enjoyment, subscribing to a Grand Tour into the nightlife of risk takers. Intellectually, the Arts burst barriers wide open. It claimed a sensory experience that violated social restrictions and people lined up for heretofore, forbidden sensations. Taking a big historical step into 17th century Britain, we find a violent 10 year window of secular, political and military activity. We would be disingenuous to think people literate and illiterate could not be influenced. Is it feasible to think the foundations of Freemasonry were forged by blood and suffering? Appeal today? Yes
If we were a service club, our participation would acknowledge an obvious and open mandate. If we were a religion, though we might be close to Buddhism, we would be a singular variant on faith. We commit charitable acts, but we fail the test for a charity. Freemasonry is a presence, not a singularity but an attitude. If we meet the test that cements true Freemasons, we are more controversial than any constitutionally based corporation, institute or estate. All aspects of being, of purpose, of agency, of faith, are on the examination table of a Lodge. We are the interlocutor, who seek out and appreciate this binding, imperfect, confident atmosphere in which to contemplate. No need for posturing, or muscular statements; these are people tasked with self-control and silence. There is no politics in Freemasonry. This is a concrete impression of manners. As a gentleman understands, there are two topics that make us seem fools. Politics is one. Religion is the other. We choose to not appear foolish. Nevertheless, our apprenticeship begins uniformly but progresses based on talent. It is many orchestras. All entertaining. Some more accomplished than others. Some are brought together by a desire and curiousity; if every musician is the best what does the sound of that music? Freemasonry stretches the boundaries. It teaches how to uses tools but leaves usage to the imagination and desire of the individual. This is how and why Freemasonry is reconfigured everywhere, every day. It endures as thought itself. Far be it from me to suggest it will never be popular but always essential. And if Plato left us with a truism it is this: A Life Unexamined, Is Not Worth Living. What the hell was he thinking?
These days, authenticity has been bantered around more than usual. Being hurtful is commonly thought to be wrong-minded. But not everyone subscribes to that concern. If we want to witness the true character of a person, give them a taste of power. Freemasons don't use the term at all. Responsibility, commitment, loyalty, sincerity, and authenticity are terms that reframe demagogy and despotism as destructive, aggrandizing, hubris. Our sense of leadership is not that of control, but of duty to the people being lead. Freemasonry constitutionally and philosophically respects that each individual has agency. It would make conspiracists swoon if they knew that in fact, deeper levels of meaning unknown to all but a few. Learning about the layers of meaning is subjective, based on ability and curiosity. If I say to you happiness is the goal, how would you know it is true? It is an original element of Masonic architecture that has been passed from one to another for centuries. If one is temperamental, control of emotion would open the door. Ignorance is the darkness. It takes insight to recognize the self in all its glory; warts and all; aspirations, ability, gaps. A life unexamined is not worth living- Socrates was not being unkind. He was resurrecting a notion, at the end of days, he could not imagine being ignorant of self. Unvarnished. Truthful. Accepting. Insight. So be afraid. Insight is facing the enemy in us. Those thoughts that hold us back, that confuse and limit our potential. And if a person makes the choice to follow this path in the mind, it will replace what we want to believe with another. Between idealism and failings is our true nature. When a Freemason steps into that level of understanding, the crowd thins. He stands alone. And he is fine with that. In fact, he is happy.
Audi. Vide. Tace. Ony a fool would undertake a task motivated intending to win an award. True masonry instills a desire in us to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Self-development for freemasons is a net. Most men being in their conceits, small-minded, initially fall through and are not harvested until they have grown. Enthusiasts and libertines fail to make the next harvest either. Real Freemasonry is the competition without gamesmanship, where our competitor is none other than yourself. Ponder this for a moment. An example comes to mind, Bro. George Washington- for no other reason than his name came up a few days ago in a reference. George was initiated when he was just twenty and never went beyond that. But such is the continued use of fallacious argument to appeal to a person celebrity rather than the strength of his position. It would be better the influence of his leadership become the focus, than his political rank. But that would require study. And so is revealed the fallacious argument. It is simply lazy thinking. Why would masonry exalt celebrity and still claim equality? It couldn't and it is a weakness. Better to refocus our attention on the learned nature of our environments, the lounges and libraries we create to enable Brethren to relax in comfort as they learn, enveloped by music, embraced by the artwork and framed by symbolism as old as time itself. And what can we do to help? Ask yourself that question. Methinks we take too much for granted. Where to start?
Masonry is so much more than a solid constitution. It's history reveals not the pinnacle of achievement but achieves significant in their time. Today, the opportunities arise to greet us, with the challenge: to settle or risk a walk down a path built on the aspirations of great thinkers who helped us arrive at this masonic moment. Do we restrain the entered apprentices? Do we in ignorance tether them to a lexicon of reenactment? By accounting for our teaching methods, we can calculate with some accuracy, how and why growth is sporadic. Once upon a time, all knowledge was determined from incomplete ideology until it was (inevitably) confronted by the observable world of science. It is not whether we cling energetically to a status quo but at what cost do we perform our ritual without realizing it was meant to lead to an enduring good life, dependent solely on a person's mind. Twenty-five centuries ago, the rare genius of Confucious revealed a world based on rules- ethics, the 5 virtues and applied philosophy. Do nothing for yourself that you would not do to another. For Confucious, philosophy of living had to be applied in all aspects of daily life making ritual a link between the ancestors and us. Through scholarship, the secrets of living the good life are revealed. If a superficial skim through chapter headings taught physics or chemistry or mathematics, then we would not have colleges and universities. We would not take information and make it known by debate and discussion. But that is what Socrates gave us. So powerful is the elixir of freemasonry that men often express changes based on the superficial.
The connection between self-development and masonry is obscure. Yet for over 700 years, people have gathered in various configurations to work through ideas by debate. Perhaps Hegel was not as prescience we want to believe. Perhaps defining ideas through debate as he said, came to him through a leaked comment about early lodge meetings? To this day, the layered insights of thousands of masons make it difficult to lay claim to this grail quest of existence. Doing slightly better tomorrow than today. It is a modest claim but contains the same confident gradualism most achievers well understand. Most things worth pursuing require commitment. Commitment requires patience. Patience requires self-awareness. Wealth and fame do not instill happiness. Happiness is an internal process so what we do externally does not produce the fountain of youth. One must actively seek it, every day, every hour, every minute. Masonry has done. Let us not pretend modern science is the start of every idea. The ancient Greeks scuttled that idea in 5th century BC, as an enriched ground of ideas that gave out notice of heliocentrism and molecules and many other observations well before the latter-day "discoverers" rediscovered them centuries later. As such, doing things selflessly produces a deep sense of satisfaction. Recognition for assistance and aid is unnecessary to achieve nirvana. And that lesson has been an open lesson of Freemasonry, open as if any secret can be hidden if one is a student of behaviour. What a person does, reveals far more about them than anything they might say. Audi Vide Tace, si vis vivere in pace. Hear, see, be silent if you would live in peace.
What I enjoy most about masonry and something I think is often misunderstood about the Craft, is that it isn't as some would make you believe, institutional but fluid.
All it takes is panic for the things sacred about our communities to be exchanged for what is expedient. Panic. We know making decisions formed by panic causes injury that endures. The bookmarks of history tell a continuing tale. Where complacency takes root, the conditions of panic thrive. Where panic thrives decline is not far behind. However lofty our beliefs however clear our thinking in periods of calm, we will be challenged as Masons when we stand out from the crowd, keeping control of our emotions when those around us are unable to do so. This is where the secrecy of our community gains its reputation. When joining the crowd is expected, craftsmen are taught to quietly go about their business, being unassuming, understanding that they understand a dynamic process that the crowd does not. Easier for them, as us, to follow expedient thinking. Diplomatic of us to control when and how we react or if we even react. Contrary to bullish opinion, when we do not know what to do, doing nothing is preferable to mistakes. If you are not with us, you are against us. If you do not stand behind us, then you stand in front of us. Aggressive, patriotic. Jingoism is the virus of emotional thought. Today, we are listening. We aren't in front of a mob. In the fracas, we say and do what is expedient to survive. The other option, the road less travelled is to not allow yourself to be in that position. But know this. Masonry is about self-development. It is not a singular idea but a process. At the end, we will know intuitively if we have made ethical decisions or followed the flock. We will know precisely when we are rationalizing our behaviour. And we will judge ourselves kindly for it, because we are a Mason. And we will begin to comprehend the distinction between expedient and meaningful life.
Imagination. Communication. How far can those elements take us? We are creatures of one, and followers of the other. Where people are confused, they tend to be anxious. Where masonic literacy is low, anxiety is highest. So the progress of the Order will be as lumpy as the fits and spurts of interest in education. Freemasonry is on the threshold of an exciting time in our history. It has taken 600 years for us to reach this point, this moment. Beyond the dreams of dreamers; from the Alchemists laboratories, Freemasonry has appealed to people of vision. The limits of religion and been brought into the common understanding. Governments of the world have been on a march successfully reducing poverty, while leaders have failed the tests of virtue and morality. And nature has been always asserting her dominance as the air we breath and the oceans we need have become toxic by our collective negligence.d the light For all the grotesques that continue to exist, for all the conceits of man, the human race is an audacious species. Whatever may come, Freemasonry will bring purpose and direction even as last rays of light fail, the beacon from the East will be there, in the hearts and minds of the builders.
We have realized Freemasonry being a universal calling, is not a choice for all people. That choice is being made clearer because we are communicators or the very ideas that give reason and freedom to the world. It could be no other way. As humble and opaque as ever; as an Order awkward and brilliant, easy to mock, we are that story that has prevailed through it all. The proof is in the grip, a smile and an extension of friendship. Our work continues.
Above all, we are ruled by our human nature. We are curious creatures, creatures of imagination with an insatiable appetite for the newest form of communication. The 15th century accelerated how and what we communicated producing a means to distribute ideas. In the 14th century, Wm Wycliffe was creating quite a stir, translating the Bible directly from Hebrew daring to step on the authority of clerics. Exercising a robust authority over people echoed the earliest days of Christianity when it had no power. As an idea, it competed for followers with other ideas. There was never an exit plan to reach a point where dominion over the people by church bureaucracy would be complete. Since the impact of Constantine at Nicean 325, the Christian church had felt this insecurity warranted control. Catholic and Protestant factions battled for supremacy wielding wealth against one another and the will of the people, even against King and Country. The 14th century was a watershed period. It began with existence and the universe being defined by scripture controlled by an elite and in an inaccessible language (Latin). It ended with observation being the threshold for understanding- the age of scientific inquiry exploded onto Europe. Change is always a lumpy affair. Slivers begin in forward-thinking minorities, with marginalized holdouts thinking progress is either good or bad, resisting what they choose to deny. This is how the Craft not so much discovered but valued study of the symbolism of the Arts and Sciences. Symbolic communication conveyed profound messages of a humanist movement in a rush to confirm individual responsibility for our destiny. It was truly the Enlightenment.
Self-development is not for everyone. Those faced with hunger and danger, experience existential immediacy. Self-development may be a lesser notion. What is important to your existence? That is a question for the ages. If. Metaphorically, we seem unable to stand up for low aspirations. In our context, we are surrounded by people who left totalitarian conditions attracted by a culture where rule of law prevails.Predictable, articulated standards of living and coexistence, able and willing to defend. Where accountability failed we experienced shameful violations of human rights. But in this land- we fix. And we enjoy a good life. One needs to be intelligent to be interested and engaged to contribute and benefit. And within that framework, a sub-culture has existed, one focused thoughts of liberty, equality, and justice prepared to activate. Working together for common purpose, we remain shrewdly apolitical, understated activists. When we do not know what to say to fools, we say nothing. Provocateurs find little benefit poking at us. Muscular discussion is met with indifference. Disciplined self-control is an unassailable threshold. Silence cannot be broken.
Nuanced acts of charity, thinking big, acting smallscale breaks out spontaneously, serving a need of our partners here on this journey through life. Bringing light into darkness, that is masonry.
If we do not understand something, does it mean that it doesn't exist? Within the Craft, if our true potential is underestimated, does the meanMasonry has an entire aspect that exists but is undiscovered?Perhaps the answers lie in our symbolic history, in the arts, Insufficient you think? Let's consider then that the period of the Renaissance occurred within a historical context. Let's for a moment use what we know of that period of time. Italy was not as it is today. It was a cluster of Principalities. We know the Medici became influential because of their penchant for art, for politics for ambition. We also know the Medici nurtured the arts but Masons would ask why and how? For the answer to that, we have to look further back in history to the events that freed the imagination from the restriction of religious control. And for that we can for a moment, consider Wm Wycliffe a man that translated the Bible from the original Hebrew. For centuries leading up to this, the church had complete control. Liturgy was offered in Latin. The common man was essentially illiterate and few read Latin except clergy. Wycliffe broke the rules of control and translated directly. This is where the imagination comes into play in two distinct ways. A century earlier printing presses were invented. And this is where one man began not only printing the Bible but printing it for the first time, in the common language. People were able to make their own translation. They discovered a God of benevolence, compassion, and understanding. Clerics who for centuries controlled their flocks with expressions of misogyny, damnation and fear recognized the threat. So did King Henry. The power of the Cardinals was eroding quickly. He stepped in an literally looted the remnants of that power. For this, men of such imagination were labelled heretics and burned. The ideas florished. Art became the vehicle.
Self-development. Wealth and power however they appear, require many others to exploit. Learning to live with that may be one reason money does not buy happiness. While committing acts of humility in the service of others, acts of charity, empathizing with the people ignored and unheard- that's Masonry. Science recently 'discovered' helping others is (the)resilience source of a contentment transferable to those who perform those actions. Self-development is at the core of masonry, whether that is intellectual, spiritual, emotional; internal or external. If being in the presence of scholarly men, is affirming then so be it. If drinking from the cup of knowledge is suitable, it is found in masonry. Comfort, challenge, familiarity, it is about meaning. It is about understanding. It is about wanting. So farm boys have been reading Byron secretly, and listening to Brahms and favouring Shelley over Wordsworth and influencing the rest of us as sources of inspiration. Helping a neighbour, facing down critics with a controlled temper, masonry is a process, never imposed, many times confusing and always challenging. Ideas become a way of life. And the life becomes the quest. It pleases the imagination to be one.
Life is not meant to be easy. That is why it happens without a sheet of instructions. Oh my yes, various faiths have created a version to a comfortable life. Some prefer to cite dominance of their way to help them elevate their metaphor. Others sit under the tree searching for the insight that helps comprehension. And then there is you, assigning yourself to an Order than in itself is an enigma. A simple description cannot be forced. It is a simple as Einstein teaching the child next door her mathematics or as challenging as E=MC2. Why would you care? Why should you? If education for the sake of knowledge doesn't lead to profit, what good? There you are- chasing rainbows of ideas, absorbed in the belief the commitment has so much potential for a good life. (Personally brethren, it is true). To the outside world, we are that ubiquitous fulfillment of a freemason. Filled with uncertainty, pushing away from celebrity, you must be up to something suspicious.
The Ancients would be amazed. Sitting beside us, imagine the wonder of learning that we can talk to a brother anytime. What do you think would be his first impressions? That oral history would be preserved? That the disembodied voice was from people he knew. Doubtful he would be longing to travel by cart to your house to talk. Might he be thinking about isolation because others would be like him, have more frequency? The appeal of communication to our species is not a choice. We immediately follow the innovation. Each innovation brings out changes in how we access information and one another. Does anyone think he could anticipate the internet? Communication is an exchange of information and meaning. As often happens in the laboratory, he would be not have the perspective to address unintended findings that answered other questions. How would we prepare him but respectfully and gradually? Why is because those who grew up with a gradual introduction realize innovations in communication unleash imagination. are Internet piggy-backed access to information into every conversation. Any new tool or instrument requires practice to master. The internet opened the libraries, galleries and laboratories of the world. The chains of censorship have been removed. Oppressed people finding new freedoms, overdue the expression of power, until their practice reveals how to master the responsibilities of individual freedom. While others already threaten the despot and autocrat. And there is masonry, discretely validating oral history. The stream of new direct communication includes false statements. How can we discern truth? Who is speaking and how many are listening are two axes that have been reliable for Masons in the past and continually validated today. Is the world ready to learn from us, that reliance on oral history is not new and is valid?
When I was a boy, my church taught, that man, being in the likeness of G-d held dominion over all creatures. Funny the things you remember as you get older. Since I'm not capable of much original thought, I paraphrase the well-known historian, Professor Bettany Hughes who made what seemed to me an uncanny observation- we are a species of memory. Imagine, a woman defining freemasonry so precisely. Not only are we the epitome of genetic memory, we came at that awareness by a much more circuitous route that the neurology. It may seem to many we were founded on speculation. All ideas are speculative. Except some are also the truth, fluid, accurate. Today, we are reinforced in our beliefs by science that concurs. Modern medicine may tell us what is happening. But masonry tells us how to employ that knowledge to the benefit of all humanity. The growth of the individual serves the many. Masons. We are readers. We explore history with great interest and in detail. But what aspect of history is up to the architecture of a mind. Ample evidence pours forth, reinforcing our beliefs. But to separate our points of view from idle speculation for the sake of authenticating it to listeners takes a well-read speaker to put his observations into context. Masonry validates ethics and principles from our reflection on the history of thought. Masonry is not quite a catechism. Oaths and obligations taken without having an understand push us to articulate our thoughts. The reveal tells us a great deal about the speaker. Combine that with the observation of his behaviour and we well 'know' that person. Attendance? Uniform du jour? Walking into a surgery does not make us a surgeon. A thousand times, the passive seeker experiences so little until that moment when he realizes the need to test his ability, to accept the challenge. Masonry is neither a cannon or passive. It is opportunity.
Sometimes when I'm walking alone, along that bloody path through life, it is great to have masonry walking with me. Life is not the culmination of a well thought out plan. There is nothing wrong with that. Oh I have an approximation in mind. Being happy. Having enough to pay the bills and bringing some comforts to the people I love. Just when I get ahead of myself and start to plan- that is when the Grand Geometrician laughs at me out loud. I'm reminded that science is discovery. It is as certain as predictable as the next breakthrough in our understanding. If you understand yourself, or know and can admit that, then you are one of the fortunate few. And walking with you along that path, stumbling over the odd tree root, hopefully stepping into the marsh hopeful for a firm footing, the likes of me has the companionship of masonry. To put doubt into perspective, there is the geometry of Pythagoras and a pneumonic that mention of his name prompts> silence. Still the mind. Still the mouth. It is a secret dialogue, known only to the student mason. Threadbare suited. Undereducated. Tradesman. Professional. Philosopher or artist. To listen is to learn. What is the moment that catches our ear? To inspire. To feel excited and renewed day by day. It is unnecessary translations of thought and mood that bring misery. It is masonic training that allows a fellow to learn how to achieve the centre.
We might believe we actually have a single familiar home. But freemasonry explodes that notion by putting our lives into a universal context. The moment we sign on, we become part of a legacy, a diaspora wandering into self-evidence with a considerable amount of uncertainty. To do this, part of the mason has become impenetrable. On that we rely. Regardless of circumstance, if a person has the resilience and intelligence, silence becomes a disguise to allow us to disappear on demand. So often the taunts of conspiracists fuel mischievousness. As if the fertile culture of Britain where follies and mad dogs found a welcome, masonry had everything it needed to regain and renew a sense of purposefulness at any moment.
It is the willingness to see oneself as slightly different that makes a mason complete his part of the bargain. Long ago men and women noticed wanderers for whom adventure made them chafe in the confines of the rules. They were the embodiment of rule breakers. Questioning orthodoxy, asking questions, probing. Publicity, drawing attention was painfully isolating, so they stayed safely and innocuously underfoot. But what scandal this provoked when their association's we found out. Relationships beyond convention violated the coercion of class stratification. Mixing with our betters undermined social controls. Cats lying with dogs; sheep with wolves.
It is a fair question to ask how masonry has continued in an unbroken line from the inception? But the question is devilish in its simplicity.
The Greek G-ds had human failings like jealousy, greed, avarice, narcissism along with great powers. Citizens of Athens lived within a canon that determined a daily devotion each day to a different G-d. Do we need to believe there is an end of time? Often misunderstood, the ancient Greeks referred to this as the apocalypse; being a word that in Greek means- pulling back the veil, not an end. Some faiths teach devotees that each ending marks a new beginning.
It is a background to what makes freemasonry function today, but it is a vivid background that speaks loudly not only to a keen membership but refutes uncertainty and treacherous environments. The 21st Century is if nothing else, a time of the unimaginable became imaginable. Freemasonry scholars carefully manage the growth of ideas within and about masonry. When in doubt, masonry moves cautiously and out of time. When our impatience fuels petulance, the Masonic mind (and it does exist) is able to reclaim the centre, finding a calm in the storm by being (unnervingly) contemplative.
You and I live a single life with a certain outcome. A Masonic year is time-out-of-mind. The formula for a masonic year= the lifetime of a man. Today that average is 1=79 years. We delve into the serious questions knowing we cannot investigate until a response is clear. The Agora has an urgency. Similarly, politicians and business rely on opportunism, right frame of reference at the right time. Science is the most compatible process to masonry. Each experiment takes us one step closer to a finding. If we abandon the scientific method, we make rash and self-defeating mistakes. That echoes the pace if not the process of masonry. Only it is difficult for most of us to equate the broad strokes of Masonry, with the achievements of science. So we don't.
In the part of the world where some live: the pursuit of knowledge, the progress of science and thought has reminded me of parallels; like the architecture of analysis. So can we better understand the way we make decisions if we think of ideas as atoms and ideas as molecules? Ideas as molecules are dynamic; more space than mass. Take a moment to 'see' how different groups of atoms form into molecules. Changing one atom changes the molecular performance and its relationship with other molecules. Like understanding ethics and principles. Adding one or more ethnic/molecule changes the energy. And doing this may enable us to understand the architecture of the mind as masons searching for that ubiquitous light of knowledge. It also lets us examine the distinction between each atom/ideas. Let me make a clumsy attempt to understand free thought. In the wider orbit of thought, we are today expressing the effects of the enlightenment; that period of thought when superstition was replaced by reason and nature. Influence and manipulation of public attitude have become a commodity, one that has a strong magnetic field with a consciously and surreptitiously. Publishing is now a cottage industry. Invention coming from so many points. And within the Order that exists neither secret nor public; apolitical yet influential; benign yet purposeful; purporting good but treated with suspicion; known but unknown; we do not feast on a common ideology. Held together in abstract commonness, divided by strength and ability; this agent of conscience is an opportunity. Whether a person takes advantage depends on a mindset. William Wordsworth sorted this beautifully in the 7th line of his poem Rainbow:child is the father of man. If we can accept that premise, then we can accept how difficult it is for some to grasp
Sometimes when I'm walking alone, along that bloody path through life, it is great to have masonry walking with me. Life is not the culmination of a well thought out plan. There is nothing wrong with that. Oh I have an approximation in mind. Being happy. Having enough to pay the bills and bringing some comforts to the people I love. Just when I get ahead of myself and start to plan- that is when the Grand Geometrician laughs at me out loud. I'm reminded that science is discovery. It is as certain as predictable as the next breakthrough in our understanding. If you understand yourself, or know and can admit that, then you are one of the fortunate few. And walking with you along that path, stumbling over the odd tree root, hopefully stepping into the marsh hopeful for a firm footing, the likes of me has the companionship of masonry. To put doubt into perspective, there is the geometry of Pythagoras and a pneumonic that mention of his name prompts> silence. Still the mind. Still the mouth. It is a secret dialogue, known only to the student mason. Threadbare suited. Undereducated. Tradesman. Professional. Philosopher or artist. To listen is to learn. What is the moment that catches our ear? To inspire. To feel excited and renewed day by day. It is unnecessary translations of thought and mood that bring misery. It is masonic training that allows a fellow to learn how to achieve the centre.
Mention of the life journey has been found by anthropologists and sociologists in various locations from diverse cultures, enough to suggest common awareness may be something embedded in our DNA, an indication of what some would surmise is our ancient unexplained mind. If there is one single key to understanding that journey, or many, masonry may have been benefiting and trading on that universal belief. Is a life predestined? Today, except for some outliers, astrology is mocked, not so in ancient times when our oldest cultures relied heavily upon it to explain what otherwise was beyond reason. We replaced "the dark ages", as we underline in notions of the chaos of superstition and the stability and safety of reason. Belief is very very powerful state of mind. And we know many great thinkers have been able to combine faith and reason/ belief and science. What is it they know that we do not? It is a comforting metaphor that many people accept the GAOU has created life with a purpose in mind for each of us. To make this work, we tend ignore the premise GAOU is genderless, and beyond a human capacity to define the divine. GAOU becomes a man, a boy, a son, human. Yet GAOU is beyond what the human mind can conceive. Deists like me, were influenced by Professor Einstein who it is said witnessed nature as proof of the existence of GAOU. Of course, I like symmetry that includes chaos. In that sense, all masons should use Occams razor.
Ahh, the crossroads; the fork asking the question we all must answer. By omission or default- it doesn't matter. What matters is what we reveal about ourselves. One road is so crowded, bustling along with clouds of dust from foot traffic. Grim-faced and burdened with the weight of impatience; perhaps fearful of a realization life, their life is impermanent; acting as if life sentences us to an ultimate misfortune. Convinced we are all brought into this world, not of this world. No neutrinos passing through them, by G-d. Not a molecule of stardust to be found in their awareness. If it can't be seen it doesn't exist. Though 99% of a molecule is empty, though we cannot come to terms with time, they are slaves to it. Rushing ahead, pretending it can be cheated by illusion. Meaning? Nothing matters but this moment. Imagination? For children. Science is the dominant occupation over art. Einstein was wrong to believe G-d is evident in the order of nature and the universe that we barely understand. A thousand years ago, mathematics was favoured to occupy and entertain. Today he uses it to distinguish between himself as a have vs the 99% have-nots. Along the other path is the true mason, he who knows there is more to life than conflict and hubris. Who finds peace in the company of friends. Who finds beauty in the sparkle of an eye, a cloudburst, a sunset. Inspired by the knowledge that an aggressor damages his own soul. The path less travelled can be a lonely trail. It is where a man can contemplate his purpose for being, where if finds the simple tasks bring happiness. And he hears a sound on that path, music that fills his heart and mind with notions of what could be. Would you care to join him? Join us?
Everyday, Everywhere. Everyone. On insistence. Inspiration is something more; something different. Evangelism, zeal, enthusiasm- aspects of a reality, apart from an Order like Masonry. Perhaps Masonry speaks more clearly to a stoic but never would we claim it speaks to all. There is that other factor. That je ne sais quoi. There is much that we may know, not understand. How better to express this phenomenon, this sense of wonder, this work, than symbolically. Ennui
If you were a physicist do you think you would be familiar with Faraday's work? If you were Michael Faraday, would you have familiarized yourself with the works of Humphry Davy or William Thomas Brande? But we are us. Does history have lessons for us as we come to terms with Masonry? Who are the pivotal thinkers of the day who will propel masonry into the future? Given the inclination of the agora, the rashness of our peers- would we revile or accept their challenging ways? Progress, change is a lumpy affair. Rarely adopted holis bolis. Often new ideas- outliers- are comfortable to young, open minds; the courageous, immortality of youth pressing against boundaries that come into existence when they only are observed. They are essential to organizations that thrive if care is taken with the introduction. Offered as a clumsy threat starts Luddites dancing wildly. Offered as a curious off shoot starts conversation.
If we could roll back time; if every man one of us took serious his oaths; if we employed the tools left for us by Pythagorean notions; the concept of Masonry would be a silent and collective presence for good in the global community. Convincing an opponent the threat on the chess board is without substance has been exploited; turning an apparent weakness into a very apparent strength. Would it be stretching reality too much to consider the hegemony of Masonry? Would it be reasonable to suggest to Grand Masters, the influence of Masonry is not apparent in vacillations picked up by the most observant Grand Lodge? What if the draw of Masonry has continued to appeal to contemplative minds? And what if those minds are compelled to forward the practices of Masonry within their agency? I think it would be difficult to measure but the thought itself opens up incredible possibilities for our future. Nothing combative is spoken about the status quo by those who carry out an ethical lifestyle. It would take a fool to believe a man could become better through education, or learning that happens with a goal- to morph knowledge into wisdom. Not aggressively but competing within. That silly little game of hitting a little ball around fields into holes in the ground is anemic without appreciating that it is a test of concentration and control of emotion. A true golfer, like a true mason, competes within and when he is successful he understands its secrets. It gives us some satisfaction to consider there may be masonic dark matter that accounts for the greatest influence of great ideas that does not follow the expected behaviour of membership but is far larger than what is visible to us. The ideas of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Reformation and Counter Reformation would be lost to in time if not for learners, inspired by a short but unforgettable brush with Masonry. Insight.
Hindsight is such a wonderful asset. For without it, how could we have studied nascent societies and cultures? Without them where would we have realized our beginnings? But it took much more than remnants left behind to connect us with their genius. The contemplative mind has never slept. In whatever romanticized setting is needed to conjure, masonry owes a great deal of its firm grounding to ancient philosophers. Too often the fuller impact of masonry is obscured. We try to make a better world. However productive, diligent workers are one aspect of a greater process. In that sense, the values of Masonry are universal. And even that captures a stream of thought for which we are indebted to a great thinker and author Kong Qui a Chinese teacher and philosopher who left his mark during a life well lived, born 28 September, 551 BC. We know him by another more common name- Confucius. Confucius taught us that belonging and our role in the family was immensely important. He enjoyed the finer things of life as much as the next man, but he did not think good men should devote their time and energy to the pursuit of personal gain and he didn't believe in immoderate action anywhere, anytime by anyone. It was for Confucius, a way to answer corruption through transforming society by instilling the values of family in rulers. A ruler had a right heaven granted to rule. However, if a ruler is corrupt, the people have the right to rebel. Respect, honour, and duty but if that fails, you have the right to overthrow. He shared an egalitarian view with Socrates- his students were not chosen from the privileged social elite. Anyone, even the poorest could be a moral person, a superior man. This was a commitment to meritocracy. And similarly, Masonic students hold an ideal to become the perfect moral person. We struggle to be human.
What do we do when we can't quite see the light? To ensure the passion that gripped us during initiation continues to encourage is at times like trying with a firm grip, drops flowing through our fingers? The great mystery of our Order is embracing and then discovering our spiritual self in very subtle and abstract ways. The Order cannot and would not compel us to study. That drive comes from within, truly the embodiment of Galileo's thoughts on teaching and learning. " You cannot teach a man anything.; you can only help him find it within." Occasionally, we have an experience of a man who is most vulnerable, incredibly intelligent, kind, authentic and sincere. The greatest minds cannot prepare us for discovery.
The answer, when it is discovered, is a form of understanding that we hold close. How then, do we apply this knowledge, this awareness to our lives?
Acknowledgement is only a partial success for the Order. As history reveals, Masonry has never been popular. It has a philosophical architecture that doesn't suit the marketplace and never has. Espousing principles by which to live a better life has been actively challenged in various inventions by church and state. Despite the express effort to demystify, the thoughtlessness of idle chatter and the odd effort to rebuff, masonry is widely accepted as a secret society. When people make decisions based on emotion, they wade into irrational thoughts. It can be a fine line between indifference and irritation. Do we really expect the general public to be enthusiastic about a society of men? Perhaps at best this is naive or is it a little self-serving? Audacious? Perhaps. Masonry is the difference between tuning in popular music and analyzing opera. One pleases the ear in the moment. The other has extracted deep emotion from audiences for centuries. Millions have an appetite for the one. A select small audience of devotees is entranced by the drama and gravitas. Being part of an esoteric movement means being prepared for unyielding criticism. Some would understand the way society is structured makes this inescapable. We are made to be self-conscious about our public image though titillating stories from the past, being mindful and finding the maturity to be responsive. Masonry, does not change the essential man but influences character for those humble and sensitive enough to seek. It is not meant to be difficult but it is also without purpose for those who feel constrained by the task before them. I once began asking why I hated things before understanding? To this day, without a suitable answer it is hard to hate. Everything can be explored by the courageous. Some forces are greater than ambitions. Is there an answer for every question.
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself- Galileo Galilei
What is the appeal of Masonry that has echoed since 16th century? Let's be reminded the 16th century was unparalleled. It opened with uncanny, inspired invention, disturbingly beautiful paintings, and sculpture of Michelangelo; midway the writings of Shakespeare that taught the world existence is nuanced and with meaning and purpose. And taking us to another plane it ended with the discoveries by Galileo that forever changed the way we think about the universe. They were teaching us agency, without peer as attested by Donatello, Titian, Botticelli who share the 14th to 17th century period of the Rennaisance. They were for many, an outstanding embodiment of Renaissance of humanity. Today, we find their influences in the broadest workings of Masonry. Inspiration, beauty, curiousity, and courage. We distilled principles and ethics from history and helped humanity find these unifying forces were not manmade. God? The Self-Help phenomena of the 80's and 90's failed because it negated self-discovery and the value of struggle. Yes, it is imperfect. Yes, it is optimistic. Yes it is audacious. Yesterday and tomorrow exist only in our imagination. Today, in the moment is where you find masonry and masons.
Oh my. Sometimes the most obvious things are invisible to me. Do I think Masonry is in decline? No, not for a moment. Do I think Masonry is experiencing confusion? No more that usual. Can or should anything be done to ground masonry to our satisfaction? To this I say, it is the stakeholders of masonry that feel vulnerable. It is the shareholders that exhibit diplomacy at the highest level. Never attempting to extinguish criticism Masonry becomes re-energized when it is hit with recurring themes. It may be new to us, but Masonry is an intelligent old sage that has been mentoring men somewhere on this earth for well over 500 years. Of course. When we have a probing conversation with friends, we learn more about one another and ourselves. When we are pushing out of our smugness, we find the security in open-mindedness, comes at a price. Learning to skills of a diplomat requires mastery of emotion that is beyond the grasp of boys and fools. I'm noticing there has been a shift going on without anyone giving permission. It is as if a higher power were actually guiding us. We want to believe we were born out of raucousness at the same time we are humbled by the daunting brilliance of rational thought, blending sciences and the arts. The bar is different in different places. Our work is spiritual but not religious. It is an opportunity without evaluation. To avoid conflict, it offers praise rather than encouragement. While my appearance shows the effects of time, personality can continue to grow. Masonry acknowledges that fact. It is not meant to be languid. Change is never popular until the purpose is obvious. In the coming days, we will find comfort in orthodox thinking. Actors at the Globe Theatre study their lines by studying the meaning. Understanding and meaning is what fuels Masonry. Coming days will find salons opening.
Hundreds of years of history provided us with an opportunity to answer the ubiquitous question- are people capable of learning from history? Recall being what it is, I will not suggest all history is accurate. As Dr. Margaret McMillan has observed from a loftier perch than mine; history can and has been manipulated to serve an ideology many times. Examples of this are legion. I like to think there is a nobility within the fabric of Masonry, that shows us the benefits of diplomacy when we are confronted. You may be inclined, as I am, to think a principled approach to confrontation allows one to influence outcomes to a greater extent that confrontation and conflict.
Forever and a day, youthful exuberance has felt compelled to tighten the grip when pushed, convinced pushing back is totally justified.
We think on an organization level and function individually. It came about by providing a format for discerning gentlemen to discuss ideals. Some tested the boundaries for propriety in the day. No organization can claim to spontaneously exist. No 'Big Bang". The evolution of Masonry has been the interest of historians and antiquarians for centuries. Philosophers tracing the evolution of thought gave reason to reflect on the orthodoxy of masonry with the development of reason. The 19th century showed us that some had mastered the purpose of history. For Georg Hegel " History reveals the actualization of freedom". " We learn from history, that we do not learn from history." Masonry has thrived in various settings because the planks on which it was built, are flexible. People have agency. And as a result, we exist in a multitude of cultures. Societies express norms and morays that may not always be obvious. So superimposing an ideology has always failed. The engine for our vitality is change. Change cannot be stopped. It is as inevitable as our own mortality.A culture is a culture is a culture. All societies provide elemental functions necessary to the stability and sustainability. Are all people the same? They all contain 11 organ systems. But each has a history unique to the individual. Each has a personality. Are they the same? If we parse out what similarities there are, it does not necessarily define the person unless we want to believe that you and I are residual- left behind when all other aspects are calculated. Asking the question allows us to consider who it is that benefits from Masonic principles. Do we perform with the needs in mind of shareholders or stakeholders? Are corporate goals kept in balance with the needs of stakeholders like us? Are we an audience or actors on stage?
Why are we so inspired by the acts of other people? What is it that stirs us deeply? It is us the corpus of masonry that has changed so greatly, the product of societal change that has made us shy from our spiritual presence? If we consider each of us arrives at this point from a unique path through the past, and if we take into account that masonry cultivates the mind, the counter balance for the independence of thought is a strong sense of community. It is also uncommon for a man to have an answer to the larger social problems he experiences. Does he have an obligation to address need? He does if he is a mason. Why? Because we are all of one nature. Circumstance is unpredictable. permanence is illusory. This too will pass. Life would be different if we had a dress rehearsal. Masonry is a tool that improves performance with practice. A principled life brings value when it is applied with imagination and purpose. Does this suggest masonry is an ideology? Is listening to Mozart ideology? Is the study of the Arts & Sciences an ideology? Is walking with a close friend ideology? Masonry is about meaning. What does it all mean? What is my role in the bigger picture? Does my life matter?
If you practice masonry, you will find your path includes some surprises and, if you are diligent, rewards that feed the soul.
No good act goes without punishment? I don't remember who passed along that adage- but it came to mind while thinking about the movement of masonry through time. I cannot tell you whether it is drawn or pushed forward. But I know it moves because we can trace the ideas that have formed masonry back to early societies that continue to exist in the imagination. Is the truth that masonry conceals a malevolent nature? Such a reasonable question must be asked. Was the science behind E=MC2 without valance? Clearly not. Science had been weaponized. Despite the cautions and fears of chemists and physicists who recognized the potential for harm, mankind succumbed to our Achilles heal- aggression, and fear. By using the Socratic method, masonry has been able to produce compelling answers based on values that drive an ethical worldview. We have not hesitated to ask the question ourselves. Are we up to mischief? Hard as it may seem, would a good man waste his time participating in an Order that has mischief at the core? Would a reasonable man, exposed to mischief become mischievous himself? Would he be able to conceal that mischievousness? Our membership grows old together. The risk if there is one is of being predictable, of being charitable for not gain. In some ways, the Order pits the lower nature of society against itself. In that sphere, nothing is to be trusted at face value. Exploitation being at the heart of our marketplace and Politik, though it is not seen in the agora, someone is, therefore, being fleeced by Masonry. This is the obvious and convenient explanation for their secrecy. And that dear brethren is an example of false confidence. If one is fearful and anxious, best go with false answers than face the unknown. The response given by masonry is not by argument. The answer is by example and with humility.
Masonry was a product of reason and curiousity. Without colonialism, we should doubt it would have spread to the extent it has. Time has not been kind to our colonial overlords. Colonialism is a historical footnote associated with imperialism. Science has discovered a chemistry that produced colonialism had a detrimental environmental effect, feeding on the exploitation of cultures less relentless. Superstition and religion are now in the same chapter. Belief now is a polarity- not always beneficial. And non-believers are told they are unhappy and aimless because they have rejected orthodoxy. For so long, we tried to be the best subjects of the Monarchs, better than any other colony. More obedient. More subservient. Enjoying a false confidence is the price paid for the status quo. But now geometry has taken us into new-old ideas and we are able to rely on the tenants of masonry to stabilize our lives and community.
Myths run something like this. All Lodges were filled with brilliant wealthy gentlemen, a liberal company of servere class boundaries- gentry and merchant. Where are the brilliant minds that once filled the rows of lodges? That never was. In days past, things were clearer, life was easier.
Hegel the great professor. Hegel the mind who offered us a way to understand in a way, that reason dispelled the familiar tones of religious superstition but not belief. Those individual freedoms were not the prerogative of France but of humanity and just in time to juxtapose such beliefs at the doorstep of the Great War and wars ever after. Can we? Should we discuss Masonic history as an outlier of such radical thinking, or continue to examine it from the safety of middle-class existence?
When Masonic foundations were being laid, the middle class didn't exist. That group that life according to rules, had not become a lifestyle. By coinciding with powerful political and social forces, masonry avoided life-ending conflict. But such a price we paid and pay. No longer content to challenge capitalism, electing leaders who were generally caretakers, has become the norm. Compliance became a point of familiarity; Roles within the dominant wind class became accessible, safe, predictable and sought after. Group goals in exchange for willingly giving up a freedom for liberty. So at a time when it was safe to discuss radical ideas and when one could draw whatever inference he or she felt evident.
We don't dance anymore. But we still have the feeling. Don't let our age fool you. Life has not sapped away- age is a process that makes us fuller, richer, a wine to savor for those who have a taste for it. If anyone taught you the best of masonry was lost in history- they were testing you. You can't be faulted for believing it- even for a moment. Some blends, some chemicals have instant reactions. Others require time, or pressure, or even a change in temperature before we get an effect. The past is an opportunity for chemistry to take effect. Can your future be predicted? In a sense, what comes tomorrow is the blend of all the colours of a rainbow, sequences out of step become sequences with a purpose. All the practice, having faith in a great mentor, dedication to the goal- to see how far, how much talent we have locked inside, failure becoming translucent lessons. Until we become our future. So are we so audacious to think as such? Or are we thinking masonry has made the choice for us; that we drew a line in the sand of time and imagination and made a choice that we had enough ideas. There was no room for anymore. New ideas were a threat; ripples in the pond. Or do new ideas excite you? Does knowing that living a principled life has benefit, compel you to be a caricature of yourself as a man worthy of being known as a true Mason? Oh, so very many challenges to face alone. Discouragement. Fear. Failure. Ego. Hubris, Humility. Emerging in the knowledge that you know so very little, in a world of experts. And Mason in you, find bliss- the light of understanding. Dg
Awareness may be the result of spontaneous combustion; but more likely it is the product of unrestrained thinking. Where convention did not ask or answer the question; where the think grew impatient, isolated from the mainstream, on the edge, driven by imagination > where masonry has its roots in the mind. Always- this revelation is known to some but not others among the Gentle Craft. Where and why? This answers for us, why we promote the richness of our past with such enthusiasm but have no response to why we accept the outcome of our misplaced enthusiasms. The future of masonry has the potential for greater feats than anything we can pull from our past. I am an unabashed enthusiast for the Masonic universe to come. The way we are looking at history is changing. Colonialism is being left behind- not so the social and economic disasters left along the trail. Our laboratories have accumulated new tools, new techniques. Our scientists, our thinkers are productions of the Enlightenment; of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation and manifestos citing the inalienable right to freedom of thought and freedom of speech. Science and art fold one into the other. And we communicate events and thought in nano-seconds from the other side of the Earth. And Masonry knows there is a greater mass of masonry that has not yet been found: knowing without understanding. It is the grand theory of the Craft, if such a thing could exist, speaks to the unseen; intelligence defined as knowledge/experience without imagination. So isn't our direction about setting aside our history without insulting the Masonic gods and if they be the traits of man as the Greek Gods, petty, powerful, frail, understood - so be it- that may delay but cannot stop gravity that is bending toward us. Pulling us out of orbit is a mass so great. But we aren't seeing it yet.
Think of all masonry as a body of work. Now join me as I visit every Grand Master to exchange his teachings for an idea. Why do we not measure the success of our lodges in terms of the quality and function of teamwork? And then, why do we not help lodges transform each particle into coordinated, harmonic streams? Recently I spoke with a lodge officer new and eager- you know the type, pure joy, about drop offs. For a time, the lodge was on autopilot, month by month of initiations. This for many older members was the sought after success. Except there was a masonic elephant in the room. After initiation, few folllowed up; fewer went on to advance their degree work; perhaps 1 in 20 committed. The officer explained how difficult it was for younger members to juggle his family, occupational and masonic schedules. You'll become and officer. You'll join us for regional activities. You'll join us for a pint. This seems to push away new members. So can anything be done to alter the status quo? Of course! We change expectations. We change the narrative to make it welcoming and we add a measurement of teamwork that balances the needs of new boys with the needs of the lodge.
Teamwork. We regularly pour such enormous talent onto the field but don't tell them what is the game. We seem comfortable watching the ensuing confusion and frustration as they head for the exits leaving the loyals to shrink. How sad. How unnecessary. The issue isn't attracting talent or their commitment. It's understanding how the game is played and how to get it right. The mentoring is a narrative that speaks about things that inspire us and a view that teaches the part each performs, big or small, to achieve our goal. Teams have individual talents complemented by common knowledge that if each of us performs our role, the goal is within reach. We carry one another. We encourage.
Intrusions. It seems, despite ideology and power cultures around the world are unable to slip fully out of the grip of conscience. Fears turn to anger. Anger turns to danger. History becomes a pawn to be used and abused to justify unconscionable acts. Natural law should be so kind to humanity. When we speak of the corpus, we ask repeatedly ' have we progressed'? Piques and quarrels tend to contort the ego- unable to control emotion allow us to glibly opine that we have not. And then we have what I consider the embodiment of conscience- beyond our practical illusions, even outside our design- the presence of natural law becomes our teacher, our mentor, our guide. Somehow thinking in terms of black and white might be the antithesis of masonry. Masonry is a debate, in which ethics and principles measure who we are and who we seem to be- internally and externally. We adorn ourselves with symbols. Even our quite private gathering places challenge us to achieve harmony and balance. Surely we must tell our apprentices that the true mason begins in a mind that lacks understanding. We begin with approximations of lofty principles; temperance, truth, authenticity, honour, dignity, self-sacrifice, charity. But we are not uniform in our construction. We are the hoi polloi; a cacophony of talent, desire and opinion. Masons are that sense the embodiment of intrusions. By today's standard, modesty and discretion are not what our grandfathers experienced. Less afraid to expose abuses of power- whether in the home or through the estates (first to fifth). We share opinion and ideas freely, in a free fall threat to despotism, demagoguery, and superstition. And we stand in silent oration, an embodiment of harsh unequivocal truths. Humble. Frail . Audacious.
We had the delphic oracle and did come away with answers. We are only at the beginning stage of understanding the human mind. Complex with a capability to renew itself that sets back our desperate reliance on logic. Conscience. Belief and fact. To define masonry one would need to understand. Masonry may be aspirational but today- we are unprepared to be tasked by the search for understanding. In a western world, we have separated that part of our being from the material world. It isn't complicated because we think that way. the understanding of 'the way'
On My Street. (Edith Piaf> Zazz)
"Teleological theories differ on the nature of the end that actions ought to promote. Eudaemonist theories (Greek eudaimonia, "happiness") holds that ethics consists in some function or activity appropriate to a man as a human being. They tend to emphasize the cultivation of virtue or excellence in the agent as the end of all action. These could be the classical virtues- courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom- promoting the Greek ideal of man as the 'rational animal" or the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. (Encyclopedia Brittania). Masonry has been mining this geometry for a great long time.
We step off the high street of knowledge into a darkened side alley. It curves so much the end isn't seen. The sounds are different. Men hurry by, bent to their purpose. Younger ones step through in earnest as students have done since they walked the streets of the east and middle east. They stand up from their trade, oddly observant, oddly confident that they know what they don't know. If we look back it doesn't help reach the goal- but it confirms we finally have a compass in hand and are navigating an ocean as masons have always done.
Oceans of information, carry us to self-directed learners. So many like-minded people who disappear into the shadows as quickly as they come out- but a flash of apron, a subtle grip and we move past one another, as audacious as a sunrise over, or as intoxicating as a candle lite dinner. I hope we meet soon.
The twelve labours of Heracles or Hercules (Greek: ο? ?ρακλ?ους ?θλοι, hoi Herakleous athloi) are a series of episodes concerning a penance carried out by Heracles, the greatest of the Greek heroes, whose name was later Romanised as Hercules. They were accomplished over 12 years at the service of King Eurystheus.
When I think about guiding our apprentices, we are imparting knowledge of a sort, for personal development. Over the years, our masonic libraries have accumulated collections of opinion pieces. Some are more valuable than others- a status we grant begrudgingly to experts among us. Age gives credibility. So does rank. Both have more to do with a sense of celebrity than validity. For hundreds of years, a celebrity of the day has been dragged out to convince people- by virtue of their recognizability- there is merit in what they are saying- completely fallacious but it feeds a habit. What sections as exist within the 'masonic corpus' generally explain our means justify the ends- teleology; masonic ethics is consequential. Is the only opposing notion left to us- deontological- the morality of an action are independent of the outcome. So what is the use of this for me? To understand this purpose we need to look into an interesting branch Greek philosophy- eudaemonism. It is uncanny that eudaemonism contains so much that is at the heart of masonry. When you reflect on learning through the accomplishment of demanding tasks, what does it say to you? A respect of intelligence and beauty opens the mind.
We are of freemasonry. Freemasonry is a spiritual, intellectual, emotional state of mind- beyond three dimension- beyond infinite past, infinite future- existing only in a moment- but such a powerful emotional experience it is. We are COMMUNITY, that connects humanity as one family, beyond the stars awareness of what matters. We have broken the early covenant: every life is sacred. every life can know the secrets. we have shared the sacred geometry knowing that amongst us, there are those with genius who will create great things, solve dire problems, answers to each question of the universe. You and I practice the celebration of insight whether we have it or not. Respect. And if we ask what is that religion upon which all mankind can agree? It is compassion.
We are so much more than data. More than ego-centric consciousness. The existence of masonry flows in an uncanny way toward analysis of the more thoughtful 'environmentalists'. Being connected to nature, we are all environmental warriors with a sense of insufficiency. Is that all there is? Being happy, finding contentment with what we have, aspirational, in part utopian being continually pushed aside through time, as a mature human condition is all there; all around us, waiting patiently for a new narrative. We look at the truth of interdependent lives. Mind boggling. Overwhelmed by proportion and complexity. How? How do we follow our purist masonic ethos? What validates our work, is about revolution that draws all mankind toward adaptation. Within these vast processes, there is a sense of business as usual. Just as there is also a sense of unraveling; rolling back the carpet to examine the cost of our progress; and in a way- just as space/time, the masonic universe accelerates with increasing forces of change, a living, interwoven system. Masonry became a vehicle for mindfulness; awareness of connected identity.
Perception is reality? If I accept that I accept a duality exists about the Craft. Whose perception matters? Is it important, those outside the door have a favourable opinion of those within? Encouraging unrestrained opportunity is about as sensible as suppressing the natural rights of mankind. That seems to be a proof that perception can, in the looseness of some minds, at some moments of distraction- can be made a reality. You are right to point out that perception varies. It always has always will. And I can't disagree with you. But when the hoi polloi wanted Socrates dead, fact/reality was ignored. The perception that changed 7 years later and made his accusers and judges place statutes around the city to honour him couldn't save his life. The trial of Socrates has taught us about a vulnerability that is part of humankind. Is the Gentle Craft actually claiming immunity to judgment by perception? For certain, becoming a true mason blends talent, ability, curiousity and a desire to understand. It is a rich palette of ideas made available to the discerning member to do with as he chooses.
Perhaps attendance is not metaphysical. The advances of science are too complicated and best left for others. Perhaps class stratification is what the masonic wind leaves behind in the mind. Some bits fall short. No one has ever died because he lacked imagination but many have died for lack of water! But in our search for authenticity and meaning, some people are afraid of us. Did we occur by evolution or were we created?
Whether obligations are taken seriously matters little. Masonry is an echo that began 14th 15th century, a sound that began in the distance in different locations, but a sound nevertheless that harmonized indistinct from the winds. The sound was as lyrical and soothing as it was informative. Immanuel Kant noticed that science is organized knowledge; wisdom, organized life. Nature gave the listeners a sense of purpose and order. There was balance. Men facing the chaotic ethics of religion, of rule, of a time when natural law was emerging in the collective conscience, began to understand common purpose was a sanctuary. Listeners are an obscure lot; a small portion of all peoples. The sound echoes over savagery, pestilence, and starvation. Common purpose. As imperfect as is masonry, it rewrites the work of nature into symphonies. It has as many homes as there are sources of the winds, with the same restraints- flowing across borders, over time, unending.
One would have to be mad to accept the challenges of self-improvement in a secular environment, no? Is it so wrong to pick up the utensils left behind by people we have not known, at a time when the mists of time have relevance? Confusion, of course, confusion. who could sit at this feast without confusion? Why ever would we tamper with a poor fools self-consciousness? And if we are onboard when we launch ourselves off, we don't even know where this ship headed. Is it sufficient to head off toward aspiration, hope and that cruelest of all taskmasters- self-improvement? So many questions, that we can't learn until we defeat one of the great warriors of existence- silence.
So is it within the grasp of a man in the market to be cultured so that he can have a choice that a privileged man can never know- choices that define the best of everything.
I can't tell you that the best music is jazz, or classical; voice or instrumental. Is a feast of garden grown sweet potatoes and chicken with delightful company, surrounded by a good drink, good music on a summer's evening better than a night at the opera before dining at a fine restaurant? Or is it true the mason in me can be completely happy with whatever circumstance cause him?
Where is the contentment to be found? Well, it's obvious. Discovery is a product of imagination, courage, curiousity, patience. Masonic literature is about as defining as saying what has been written is as important as what will be written. The best of everything is to move through life competing only with yourself, with tolerance and perseverance, with the business of a work in progress.
Happiness is being.
Every day is a good day to be a mason. Seeking the secrets of life. Never knowing if we have the capacity. Would we understand if we made a discovery? Are our truths so dominant? Is it possible another will confront me with their truth and be right?
Is the history section more important that the sciences? Or the volumes filed in business more important than the depth of the humanities? Odd thoughts. That would be like ideologues who feel the need to make science support their political goals. And about as effective.
MasonicFX is about influence through opportunity. Based on a belief that a forge melts raw components into something new, freemasonry is then a social and intellectual melting pot.
I am not for a moment suggesting masonic lodges we grow under the tutelage of art curators, or a choreographer. When it comes to discourse, one could argue lodges feast on a sparse diet frequently served. But why? The answer may be something familiar to all but a bittersweet serving.
Long ago, we began praising one another; confusing this with encouragement after decades we are harvesting the outcome. Too often I fear, great and deep ideas are taught by very weak teachers. We don't seem to have realized that we have curbed our masonic ambitions of stillness and insight and settled to the horror of bright minds for 'good enough'.
Do you know of an appendant order that is not trying to redefine itself? Setting our judges loose on the matter- we redefine the dilemma from awareness to confrontation. Luddites comfortably ensconced on the dock while the fleet sails on.
There is no benefit to imposing change. It is happening around us all the time. We neither hasten or slow the pace. Whether we embrace change and savour it how separate, contemplative masons have managed to keep alive the principles and philosophy of our Craft. At initiation we enter a forge that reordered us molecularly. As our eyes open- what did you see?
Hello friend, once again I find myself seeking approval from you; not as a declaration of emotional neediness, but as a statement of inclusion.
Our collective is a multifaceted celebration of all that is the best of humanity. Is it not an inalienable right. Dilettantes among us will poise over this, as will the general public. Why do we sustain a gender specific platform? And why is it closed? What is the purpose and value of participation in organizations that existed in the time of the guilds founded on ideas of antient philosophy and culture?
The planets have moved around us and we have moved within them. Plying the trade for men's souls has become decentralized; either left to zealots on a battlefield or those whose with historic responsibility that enslaves change. We are at a point in human history in which the shortcomings of our fathers have been visited on us. Some misguided sense of loyalty has left us wanting each and every time we try to justify or align to their myopia. Redistribution began but stopped when those who experienced for the first time advantage formerly given as a birthright became addicted to it. The wreckage of European colonialism smolders on each continent. Hard fought rights are trivialized by a parade of disaffected generations. They are right to laugh at reminders- it could happen again. Right because when we are visited again, it will be so much worse that it was before. We are ill prepared to exist outside our systems. Kings and Caliphs are souvenirs. Paranoia plays on weak minds. All occurs with one exception. That galvanizing sense of commonality we struggle to suppress, the Babylon where too much outward happiness was sinful enough to warrant punishing divisions into language tribes; all the failings combined are dwarfed by what is coming. The things required to sustain life itself have become polluted by our failing to understand cumulative effect. If we wrote ritual today, what metaphor would we play on? Dead trees, dead forests? Neglect killed the last unicorn? Nowhere to run. Tainted air. Fouled water. Protective layers weakened causing ecological change. Does the calculus of masonry include these calculations? Are contemporary masons, students of science and the arts become stewards of extinction? Can we awaken the alchemists?
Confusion and conflict or simplicity and order? Which is our goal? 18th Century poets directed our attention to the value found in nature- where simplicity and order were found. Many older people reach and age where they declare they have enough ideas and close themselves to new, innovation. In other words- they atrophy. Dilettantes do not do the work needed to understand- but they are a profligate bunch, louder than the nuanced conversation of true masons. What can nature teach us about simplicity and order? Equipped with that knowledge, would masonry be more accessible?
Optics are become reality. Displacement of the middle class; polarization of wealth; nationalism; avoidance of celebrity; nouveau riche and conspicuous display; all or singularly these thoughtful notions are valid- each in its way. Depots have tried. Autocrats tried. Terrorists tried. Politicians feed on it. What is hope? What is imagination?
Geometry is at the core of masonry. So one would have to be crazy to dismiss the architecture of our community. Do we define community as personal as a man who looks only at this footsteps as he returns each day from his labours? Do common values set the boundaries of community, in which we begin to understand that people aspire to the same thing. Are we faith-based: believe as I believe or we there will be animosity. There are a few exceptions on earth, places 'time has forgotten'. This is not to say sentimentalism is not a powerful force. Ultimately our views matter little. Reality is what it is. We live. We strive to get bye the best way we can. We die. The advantages of the minority are not the opportunity for all. But there are a set of principles which have been a good men have been guided, that weak minded men have used to justify the insanity of war.
How will masonry react? There will be concern over volumes such that we will down-size. In a sense, returning to levels of an earlier time. We will have to adjust thinking from centralization. Masonry seems to be so much more than a democratic structure. Masons give their support or not. Grand Lodges are in service to the membership. Most receive overwhelming support- blind or well informed notwithstanding.
Masonry calls it light. Philosophers call it the essential. Call it what you will- those who can surrender their innocence for optimism. Those who cannot associate with those who can, drawn by an undefinable gravity. Regardless of motive or ability, all are the better for it. Masonry is goal directed. Trying to define them is one of the most interesting social aspects of the craft. An endless array, facets cut to reveal the depths of masonry, a bag of diamonds- some reflecting dullness, others as if on fire- revealed when a master mason rises to the questions. Artistry becomes evident by his approach to the instruments, measured by his timing, his grace, the ability to harmonize with his group, and for some- to harmonize with the global community.
Utopia, like masonry is a construct of man's thinking. Plato wrote to us about Atlantis. Possibly he was being mischievious, knowing well that it existed in the imagination but his mention would prompt others to search for landmarks? Or we could be even more generous and connect the Philosopher, not as a mason but fraternally. To think membership in the Craft is a step up for the entire world is worldly. You could say hubris. But I think it a way, for most of mankind, the ideals of masonry are a step up; the stuff mothers teach their sons and daughters. Even then we surely know there are exceptions. There are people who do not need masonry- considerate, beautiful, curious, generous and enlightened; our neighbours.
Perhaps we have ridden on the coat-tails of the courts too long. The secret has been let out. We carry forward the burden of outdated assumptions that the women and illiterate are unworthy of the secrets of the Gentle Craft. Can we then teach a man how to balance that collision with his values?
George Washington has become a legend for people of the United States. His life is punctuated by noble thinking and a humanistic philosophy. Whether he actually said and did all the wonderful things is of less concern than the fact he has been absorbed into mythology. But who could argue with such homilies as this: " A good moral character is the first essential. It is highly important not only to be learned but to be virtuous".
It is that latter portion 'to be virtuous' that is the strain of Prometheus. And for good reason. For thousands of years, philosophical theorists have always and continue strive to identify the evasive comprehensive model. And I fear we need to heed the warning of Daedalus to his son Icarus. Only a foolish person would take his caution literally- and only a fool would ignore it. Daedalus the Master Craftsman, built the labyrinth. But what interests us is the wooden frame, coated with feathers held in place with wax- the means to escape Crete. In his youthful enthusiasm, the son soared in a state of amazement, higher and higher- until the heat of the sun melted away the wax plunging Icarus into the sea.
What amazing state? What sun would be the risk to masonry? The wonderful metaphor seems to tell us too much light can be dangerous. Does this mean the philosophy and principles of masonry must be kept in perspective to avoid falling from the sky?
But today we examine what limits there are to maintain a safe escape from ignorance to insight.
No struggle can be greater than that within the consciousness of mankind. Striving to understand is not a proof of concept. Striving means defining a process that is affected by 'free radicals'. The balance between knowledge and imagination is an unbroken middle earth of forces. Unbroken because the geometry teaches us one without the other is unsatisfying. How do we measure the progress of masonic values? Since the masonic epoch, history and culture have evolved. There wasn't a defining moment. No single event, but a process of interacting ideas and events is where we track the genesis of masonry; philosophy, integrated with science and the arts, it became if such a thing can exist- a theological hybrid. It can be argued, our early architecture needed constitutional protection against a hostile, violent world it became resilient. Whether we acknowledge the science or not, those processes remain in view.
We wear watches but we don't have time. Many of us were raised to accept a paradigm of superiority. Mankind is not part of nature but created to dominate; above and detached. Mastery of nature; technology out of control- the results of all these things are now being visited on us. Scientists revealed in the 80's that we are in the midst of a mass extinction. Who cared? Business went on as usual- delusionally aiming toward a future of continued economic growth. Today there are more depressed people. Development has created mass loneliness. Though our existence is a product of our part in the universe, an evolutionary process 200,000 years along on this slim planet- we have lost the understanding.
I don't know anymore that the ethos of masonry was intended to be achievable. Over 500 years- we have been housekeepers of the relics left by the builders. Our greatest struggle is knowing we do not have a narrative that helps us address this reality. We are coterminous. A we-they dichotomy never existed except in our minds. If we are a cohort striving to achieve greater awareness, and if it is difficult for us as a group to create the new narrative that addresses the existential threat, then is this not an indictment of the entire human race? Business as usual is driving us toward extinction. Our sense of permanence, essential to our sense of self, is unravelling. As a mason, I worry for mankind- because my brethren, the enlightened are accepting darkness. Do masonic values die if there is no one around to contemplate them? Our permanence is an illusion. Should I learn the happy songs and passively accept the destruction of mother earth? Does it matter that we dream?
The history of Masonry is more akin to that of the ancient Greeks than it is to a country. To paraphrase Bertrand Russell, masonic history is an account of about men on their paths to understand the world. We have not yet turned our inquiry on man himself. We explore theft, adultery and deceit through the examination of values and principles. As historiographers cover a wide range. The narrative can hardly be called history- more a story about history salted with some identifiable facts. Until masonry, this type of history was told in poetry. It isn't at all a critical travel guide- being self-consciously aimed. This avoids being in poor taste. However this uniqueness leaves the reader with two views; first, there are gaps to be filled by academicals and second, the customs, manners and geography is literary. Masonic history is a literary art. In M-history the subject and its audience are one- generously telling us what is revealed by our human past: tell us about ourselves. Of course, it reads differently than analytical history. If not for the clumsiness of the comparision, writers are at the business of religious history with a passing notice to scientific history.
Being aware- is a process of becoming. With that in mind, I began realizing what I think is a sensible connection with masonic history. It answered the question of the holy grail. It explained the ingredient that links past, present and future of masonry. Imagination. If we separate our protection of metaphor, devalue allegory and live in a geometrically emotional state- we see how masonry has been suffocating under its own weight since the 19th century. Masons are challenged to disinfect our lives of superstition with the light of knowledge. Being rational does not reduce imagination. Though a person lives as an atheist, atheism does not rid mankind of faith. The genetic code of masonry has mutated at various points but it remains deterministic. Without imagination, the masonic culture collapses. Entry into the ethos of masonry, what was required of those men of the Royal Society; philosophers, alchemists, theologians, royal, merchant, banker: the requirement was imagination- going beyond what is to the dream state of 'what could be'. Their appetites were so keen the fuel of imagination if you will 'our tastes' were written down as a course of study- arts and sciences. Cuneiform is the earliest form of writing. Even though the epic poem Gilgamesh was written in Cuneiform- the first use was by bookkeepers; records of taxation. Cuneiform scholarship reveals that the story of Gilgamesh was part of the borrowing of Judaism and Christianity. The great moral story of the flood story- the paradigm of G-ds judgment with a promise of forgiveness- is of human imagination. It is the best part of consciousness, what makes us what we are. For many generations, masons have been busy bookkeepers- telling us that doing good deeds makes one a better person. The stable foundation of the Gentle Craft has always been imagination. Perhaps it is time for us to feast again?
After the cynicism passes over, as it always does, we will be faced with a period of uncertainty; to step back and work with the establishment we so vehemently rejected or create a new attempt at the inclusive society? Up to now, we have not been able to widely communicate this idea. Until now, despots held hostages as long as they could operate in the shadows. Today, there are curious eyes everywhere in the shadows. Have you noticed how hard it is to adjust to the influx of so many refugees and how unconscionable it would be to abandon them to despots? For masons, perhaps the choice is clear. No choice exists. No one wants to visit this complexity but visit it we must. It is already upon us and men of good faith and judgment know what needs to be done. Face the challenge and do not succumb to doubt.
Masons have been helping others for much longer than we have been organized into Grand Lodges. Our Grand Lodges protect our constitutional right to exist and sort out attempts at infringements by people who may be afraid of what they don't understand. We are not all being or all knowing, or everywhere. We are people who struggle with our own humility and imperfection everyday. And we have given oaths that attest to what we believe to be. And we work hard to honour those oaths. One of them is about the greater good, about helping others, about not inconveniencing anyone.
Join us at MasonicFX to celebrate all that is Masonry and give thanks.
Merry Christmas Brethren. I am greatful you have my back.
Let's wrap up 2016 by claiming our audacious nature. It wasn't magic that gave root to Masonry. Rigid class structures proved more malleable than first thought. There could be symbiosis. So join us today to discuss a proposition- was the vehicle that carried masonry along related to development and decline of the compromise class- those in the middle.
Tincture: a slight trace of something
So power is the elixir of masonry that it has effect on men. Is it self-serving? In the sense that carrying out an act of true charity- with an understanding of a masons five levels, brings on a deep level of self-satisfaction, one could argue that yes it is self-serving. That would take a cynicism undeserved by a gentleman of the craft. It would confuse many to wonder if altruism exists only as a state of mind.
Masonry has its share of critics, rather sophomoric to my way of thinking but nevertheless influential. Always we have been at risk for not being politically correct. Today- a resurgence of populism and nationalism is gripping the Politik tightly. So be cautious. Beware my brethren. Those obvious old white men are up to something. New terms have entered our lexicon. I am fascinated by the term post-truth.
Post-truth politics is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored.Wikipedia
It doesn't matter what we actually are, we will be condemned by what others say we are. Repeat it enough, appeal to the emotional state of disconnected people, need to blame someone for their suffering and masonry becomes an attractive target. Collateral damage. Are we better holding our confusing unsatisfactory course- head down? Do we recommit to spiritual, character growth? Do we prepare for an inglorious martyrdom and weather the storm?
Low moments are coming.
Scientists noticed some time ago, that people gained deep satisfaction from acts of kindness toward others. I like to think before observant scientists wrote it down, people knew. Why it happens that way, I don't really know. I don't really care to know. When you consciously try this, noticed the effect for yourself. Maybe expecting it matters? Maybe it is a primal act that controls our minds. It is true. Because it is true, it is self-fulfilling. To my thinking, that process is what makes it an insight of masonic quality.
After the zealots have torn into scriptures and mocked other faiths, we must wonder why one would want to hurt feelings like that? Though we know there are many claiming to be true believers who twist the care of humanity into a knot of menace and murder- acts of kindness remain possible.
Social media plying the marketplace. Our personal records bought and sold. We hold to accounts the claims of "leaders" and witness their failings. Media isn't the enemy. It is a window of understanding.
Too many men become isolated, thinking there is no trust, nothing authentic in their world. But we find strength gathering like-minded open minded together to ask what can be done to re-balance?
That rebalancing act is what we know as Masonry. Afloat in a sea of tears and fears. Curious, humble students of the Gentle Craft.
MasonicFX- we go where your dreams go!
While we have been sitting still, puzzled about our next step, the world has changed as it ever does- partial gain. It would be odd to think masonic lodges have been immunized to cultural changes would it not? Unless we declared our collective preoccupation with history is enough to carry us forward, our actions would reveal so much more than any sentiment. We live in the moment, moving toward tomorrow. Yesterday is passed.
There is a fascination within the walls of the Lodge. You could be forgiven for thinking it is a preoccupation with the past. Meeting agenda are not chock-a-block with historical reference though. There is a repressed conversation about admitting what we collectively don't know about the Craft. We talk, we meet, we rarely find consensus but we like chased goals. Except Masonry is about the journey not the destination.
Real really should talk!
MasonicFX
When did we begin to think Masonry would never require maintenance? There is no -auto correct sequence. No software that sends an alert to our dashboard. Just the soft, quiet expelling of air as if from a threadbare tire. The foundation was built strong. Our buildings are failing. The materials we had at hand owe us nothing. Boards warp. Staircases creak. Windows accumulate grime making sunshine opaque. As hairlines receded and dark turned to grey, we've grown complacent. The trouble with complacency is that it is frequently accessorized by apathy.
Masonry today is strong and relevant as ever it has been. There is a false confidence that is demanding payment. Relying on a Grand Lodge, often all too ready to exercise the finest edge of autocratic leadership, democratically elected so without responsibility for the masonic weather.
Are we claiming to be slaves to maths and sciences? We don't act that way in general. Are we to believe the figures that reveal a change of seasons, a winter in hibernation are sufficient to lose confidence that we audacious men who won't be pushed back, have a purpose more important than all the shortsighted leadership, all the cultural change around us, all that modernity can serve?
We are in a perpetual state of renewal. Striving to achieve a goal that is always just beyond our grasp.
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for? - Robert Browning
When we think historically, we often fail to notice that history is not of the moment. Masonry has been a study of capturing a perception that something has been lost if the 18th century is not relived. That would be a culture comfortable with their assertions of landmarks- beliefs, forms of language, dress and congregation. Charged with the Acception, Masonry is passed from one mind to the next; with a narrative that may be failing to illustrate it is audacious. Accept the goals, work within the principles and ethics of a good life and be aware for yourself. This is the school for the development of singlemindedness. Awareness being the singularity. Simplicity being release from our comfort zone into the great unknown. A lost word. A temple destroyed. Secrets known but not expressed without 3. Occult, alchemical, conscientious, self-disciplined. Good natured.
In each of us- a mason- are the ingredients needed to renew and restore our belief patterns, an opportunity of a lifetime. Diaspora- pockets of men for whom joining the group is not rewarding who find their path to enlightenment is unencumbered- that it is possible to be actively committed when the stairs are too much to navigate; when age and health determine our hours of labour and rest; not a failure but a mason embracing our landmarks differently at different points in his life.
Once the Acceptance is given- it remains hopeful to our last breath.
MFX
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”
? Plato
We are the problem. We are the beginning, the middle and the end of it. We have no one else to fault. We take responsibility. Our achievements are not failures. They are witness to a conviction that to strive for anything worthwhile, we must attempt that which is unreasonable. Otherwise, we limit ourselves by our own lack of self-confidence.
We attempt to prove to the world that like-minded men are drawn to the exploration of ideas, are respectful of the damage done by ignorance and have a desire at an individual level to not accept the status quo but to do what one can do to contribute to the greater good. Education for the masses?- the masonic value of greater good resonants. Peace through common understanding. The futility of war. Global brotherhood. Rising above differences of race, of religion, of culture. Masonry.
Living in fear, anxious, experiencing life as navigation of dangers and threat- bleak, unhappy and resigned. Hunger and poverty make us struggle to survive. Excessive wealth is touted as success , a success against that struggle. Excessive wealth feeds on the need for millions of people to live in poverty, to exchange their portion unwillingly, to give to those in advantaged positions, more of their portion needed to survive. The tolerance for this is one of the significant conceits of civilization.
Try as we might masonry will eventually come to this realization- that the system of capitalism is anathematic to the values of masonry. So I ask you, is masonry a guiding influence or a mirror?
Masonry is as simple as a simple mind and as demanding as a skillful master. So much about fame is fleeting. The minimum requirement is honourable behaviour.
Did the world need masonry? That conversation is lofty perhaps for an organization as humble as masonry. The question deserves discussion-debate, threads of ideas of the contemplative mind. A glib answer does disservice, disdainful to the interlocutor, a stain on the fabric of the Order. Why is it so complicated? There was no stark beginning. No doctrine. No politik. More a presence that gradually grew. The existence of masonry through centuries of change is testament to its relevance as a way of thinking that evolved into a theory of intellectual and characterological development that has been as agelessly satisfying as a glass of your best wine or as quenching as a sip of cool spring water. For many, it became a lifestyle that we defined. Masonry taught man to live and act according to values. Masonry offered sanctuary for men who risked derision if discovered wondering about their 'inner being', conscience and purpose. Where scripture had been cannon, doubting and questioning was heretical. Time was kind to the gatherings of masonry rinsing away the unessential. His challenge of being became a worthwhile curiosity. Masons were geeks with interests that didn't bring immediate gain but sufficient to bring forward mocking of their insight and understanding. Who knew mathematics was art? It gave him a forum to be bright and thoughtful. Then it educated him and provided him a vocabulary and process for discussion. When the conversation drifted on into the night, men experienced trust and inalienable truths came to the surface as it always does. That became the difference between that part of us that we want to show the world, and what we truly are: men in pursuit of happiness. MasonicFX
In the life of every organization, there is a time to stand back, to consider the purpose intended and whether it has achieved. Masonry did not start out as a tide rushing into every nook and cranny of society. What it became was a process. When we began writing about that process was when the question began: Is that all there is?
Organizing around a process has been the crowning achievement of masonry. That and being forged out of necessity, if it is possible to claim that the necessity of masonry came easily to the mind. The platform of masonry was intellect. One had to be a thinker in order to understand the significance of what was being proposed. The need to be contemplative was quickly overcome by the appeal of being associated with thoughtful discussion between grown men who made no claim to piety but had simpler objectives- reason and scholarship.
Join MasonicFX when we delve into the purpose behind the jingoism.
Can you imagine trying to live the life of another person or in another time? It's possible in the imagination. Reconstructionists may be dreamers. They may be trying to live in another time, but try as they may the result is the same. Life goes on in the moment. Does it matter ? What happens when masonry slips into this disguise? Trying to live in the past objectives the craft and is at odds with a process. So yes- it matters greatly because so many men come to our doors asking - is that all there is? Whether thousands claim the earth is flat, it travels and reacts as if it is a globe. Whether we objectify Masonry, the curiosity of thoughtful men is fed by ideas drawn together by an irrepressible force. I've been reading again and I'll use the author to illustrate my point. Duff Cooper- Viscount Norwich had an important job in Britain during WW11. Few even know his name but his contribution to victory is part of history. But that isn't why I bring him up. His writings reveal a thoughtful, well-educated man; a keen and subtle observer of human nature. The title of his first book- Old Men Forget- is a truism; not a challenge but an observation. Unless we have an unvarnished grasp of our history, we pasteurize it into what we want to believe. Accuracy is important. If we fail to realize the importance of past events and understand that importance positive or negative, we cannot inform next generations and the book on what was learned is forgotten. Try as we will to perpetuate confusion, if you will, trying to change the course of time, each generation lives in its own time with all the advantages and challenges that life places on us. Are the goals and objectives of freemasonry dated? Or does each generation of masons relearn, accept and repeat the validation of timeless knowledge?
It takes a mature mind to ask the essential questions. Who am I? What is my purpose? It is the passage of time that creates a proper atmosphere for these searches of conscience. Of course, MasonicFX began asking the question that leads to a truthful sense of self. What would the world be like if I never existed? Wouldn't it be an impatient audience listening to me describe my minds sense of my own place in the order of the universe! If a man is able to be serious-minded, he can ask this of himself. Today, we ask a much more general sense; what would the world be like if Masonry never existed? We begin in the Socratic method to probe meaning, with a question? How do we know we have a purpose?
Masonry is not famous for being a period of influence. It does not encourage the dominance of new beliefs over what exists in your mind. Masonry uses a unique language of discovery and study taught in metaphor and symbols. It tells us stories that reveal principles of life. How to survive. Looking beyond appearance. The darkness of greed, avarice and ignorance. The reliability of maths and scientific evidence and in the same instance, the limits of humanity to be of one mind. Masonry does not produce anything but it galvanizes the contribution of thousands of men into an Order of those who do. In this sense, it is a mirror of ourselves in history.
What I believe it produces that is so valuable, is a counter-point to hubris arrogance and greed. Masonry argues the importance of insight and study. It assumes leadership is a service and it dares to speak to the essential aspects that are common to all men posing essential questions. This is work for the singular mind. Is this a valid purpose for the existence of Masonry? It lets us reflect while we surge forward into the opportunity of the future.
Masonry, in Canada; a young country, neither formal or romantic. There is an excitement that reflects youthful self-consciousness as if we are waiting, expectant of beauty and greatness to come. Imagining as we do how it is possible to enhance the natural beauty of our three ocean shores; the bon homme of a francophone heritage,the hospitality of the Maritimes. Our middle earth is full of lakes and forests that remind us how close we are to earliest pioneers. We visit the prairies and experience a vastness of space under star filled skies and calm peace. To be reminded to revere life, we have the arctic to learn the sound of our heartbeat, to reflect on the smallness of mankind, to respect the power of nature. As if G-d has reached up out of the earth, the west coast mountains are our ladder between heaven and earth- it overwhelms. How to think our future could ever overcome anything when we live in such beauty- but we try. Our nation's symbols wildlife tell the world about our soul as a people. It isn't a declaration or fear that binds a man to this country. It is respect- for a lake, a river, a shore, a sky, a forest, a mountain - that understanding binds us.
Paris doesn't have mountains. You can't hear your heartbeat in London. But when they were 159 years old, compared to us today- they were messy. Athens, Rome, Madrid, Moscow, Bejing, are all places out of the past. Canada is still becoming. Masonry is a time traveller, convincing dreamers and pragmatists to follow a map of the mind leaving a legacy of good deeds. How could masonry escape youthful exuberance?
In the 21st century, we might be Quixotic but what is wrong with thinking that you can make the world a better place and develop character along the way?
It isn't whether it will happen. It already has. And so smoothly hardly a mason noticed. The cache of masonry has been shifted. Public accessibility came at a cost. While we stand looking at each other puzzled, the world is moving just as quickly as it ever has done. Crowd sourcing has pushed direct marketing into the hands of anyone. The definition of universality is a practical reality, through the World Wide Web, fringe and disenfranchised groups have found a voice. Some of it-good. Some of it radicalized and disturbed. Terrorism has taught us the vulnerability of peace, as if we had been lulled by two World Wars into believe peace was achievable without sacrifice. As the battlefield came to the streets of Damascus, Aleppo, New York and Paris citizen accountability has be re-evaluated. With such open access to information, how are we exploring and teaching ethics? How are we promoting morality and humanism? And in this startling environment, Masonry assuming the personna of a sphynx - has used the stoney ambiguous stare one time too often and created a gap that is now being filled by a Smart Phone.
Is technology forcing change on us or is this the end of structural masonry as we know it? Today MasonFX discusses the limits of our capacity to adapt.
Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth. Is it possible Albert Einstein had Masonry in mind when he said it? And is it possible we Craft Masons owe a debt to the man from Ulm? Trying to re-enact the enlightenment as a time of discovery and depth really does do justice to the period. Oh dear, are made of the stuff-stout enough to handle the truth? Finding truth is what ethical men do because it is uncomfortable. In this country, our claim to innocence piety or hubris has been removed in shame. Inhumane acts will do that every time. Maybe, it is time to examine the claim that Masonry was birthed of high moral standards and see if there is any truth to the statement. The 18th century was a period of remarkable stories folded inside remarkable events. It was a time when the Grand Tour began- for the first time, people traveled for enjoyment. Most children died before the age of 5. But in the 18th century, we see the growth of ideas about given children time to enjoy life and grow before being put into toil to survive. It was a time of break outs. Respectable citizens enjoyed masquerades in Venice, where they gambled and drank, where they were anonymous, flirtatious, outrageous and sensual. Hogarth produced a picture for us, a vignette of happily drunk masons finding their way home. And masonry made fantasy into reality. In restricted class consciousness, common rubbed shoulders with royalty could experience a special sense of equality that did not exist outside Lodge doors. It is hard to imagine masonry attracted men because it was severe. More likely it was able to compete well with the numerous gentlemen's drinking clubs like the secretive, notorious Hellfire Club. And that zest for life dressed in our Sunday finery is still with us.
Think about masonry as an art form of the period and some interesting things happen.
Mocked and suppressed. Incomplete. The history of some art forms tells more about us than we may realize. Baroque- incomprehensible in the day. Rococo- an affront to good taste, all the blending of colours and form and pleasure and work itself telling us of the naughtiness of the day that connects us. Impressionists were scorned by the major galleries of Paris, so they made their own show- and the rest is history.
We were never so lively or interesting as our history. The story about masonry is a concoction using symbols, compressing the history of thought and culture into a stream of consciousness. Innuendo played a big part in the development of mystery, discovery, and genius. I don't subscribe for a second that masonry began through the Grand Lodge of England. It is difficult to chart a big bang event. We became something beautiful, something almost imaginary with all the stains removed. So we can be forgiven for thinking we are a pious institution. We recorded reality and produced fantasy. This is why we can't replicate the past and why that desire is insatiable.
Masonry, like Rococo always presented as this great enlightenment where science triumphs at a time when Linnaeus classified the natural world; from an age of sophistication into an era of awkwardness. Pre-Darwinian, we were gawking at a fanciful intellectual processor, a product of the brooding natural man.
The overall design is absolutely compelling. What was there left to conquer but man's need to become conscious?