Freemasonry is a post-collegiate mostly-all male fraternity dedicated to the social development of the member to form a broader sense of the self and their community.
At the end of a recent dinner, I was unceremoniously handed a fortune cookie.
As per the usual parlance, the ceremony for those that I partook the meal with was that the fortunes would be read aloud and serendipidously commented on, talked and joked about, and otherwise ignored, and that’s the fun of it.
Usually with some randomness, the fortunes include such wisdom about true friendship “There is a true and sincere friendship between you and your friends” or ones outlook on life “You find beauty in ordinary things, do not lose this ability”, and the general feel good topic “It takes more than good memory to have good memories.”
But these post agape parting shots have a fortune telling nature, they are a means to take us, in a short sentence, from where we are now to another space. Little sweet bits of wisdom to take away from the table. A humorous edible fortune teller, that at the crack of its cookie shell, reminds us that we are beautiful, or to plan ahead for something great. The implied message is for the future, just after dinner, just following our last crunch of cookie, or at some indeterminate point down the line. The point is in the message, the small prediction delivered with such surety that you know, just know without a doubt, that what it has to say will come true.
And why not? Any idea placed in the crucible of the mind is capable of manifestation. Even in its simplest expression, you will have a “thrilling time in your future”, or that “something you lost will soon turn up”.
These are meme’s of expression, subliminally placed into your subconscious that have a way of becoming like one of those electronic text display boards that run electronic messages endlessly in their crimson bulb furiosity. The Fortune Cookie Tarot becomes something that you unconsciously look forward to happening. Meme‘s, by the way, are little cultural ideas transferred from one mind to another. Not telepathy, but subconscious pick ups from the chatter and noise from the information around us.
These Fortune Cookie Tarot meme’s are little positive affirmations that help to shape your perception of the future reality to which you embark upon following the feast that you just got up from. A little wonderment to leave the table with.
And what a wonderful thing that is.
Following my dinner out, as I opened my fortune cookie to absorbed the little message, I was dumbstruck. The meme given was a wonderful message, truly a Fortune Cookie Tarot like prediction, one that I couldn’t help to look forward to in my future.
The message read:
You will soon witness a miracle.
The fortune cookie is a form of magickal expression, a way to insert a little subliminal message into your subconscious to alter your present perspective. A synaptic alchemical catalyst, something even the most stalwart of us can prevent from happening.
I recently returned from the 138th Grand Session of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arkansas which was held from February 25-28, 2010 in Pine Bluff. It was a great time with wonderful brotherhood marred by only one disappointing incident not of the making of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arkansas.
One of the items on the agenda of business was to announce and explain the Arkansas Freemason auto license plate as created by Prince Hall Arkansas. This was a project that had been worked on for more than a year and was completed just a few months ago finally receiving state approval. It was noted that there seemed to be an inordinate amount of roadblocks in the path of the completion of this project. But Arkansas Brother Anthony Johnson, who headed the project, continually redid what was rejected in the submission of paperwork. He dotted every I and crossed every T. A few months before Grand Session the Grand Lodge received notification that the Freemason license plate had gone through and was approved. The Grand Lodge session afforded an opportunity for an announcement and explanation of this program.
Briefly stated, the Arkansas Masonic license plate consists of the Square and Compasses and the word “Freemason” at the very bottom of the plate. It is a generic Masonic plate neither mentioning Prince Hall nor Mainstream Masonry. However, a portion of the sale from each license plate is earned by the Prince Hall Grand Lodge.
Now no one expected a round of applause from the Mainstream Grand Lodge of Arkansas. The fact that Prince Hall thought of the project first and had the perseverance to see its adoption through the many hurdles placed in its path is a credit to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. A silent boycott by Mainstream would have been disappointing but not unexpected. However, an open, loud denunciation of Prince Hall and the Freemason license plate is most distressing and uncalled for.
Presented below is the letter from the Mainstream Grand Master of Arkansas with its Seal and his signature to all his chartered Lodges. All or portions of this ruling appeared on many Mainstream Arkansas constituent Lodges’ websites viewable by the public which is why I say this was an open denunciation.
On the chance that the inserted letter is nor fully readable I will retype it and print it here below:
Dear Brother Secretary,
I am sending this letter to your lodge in the hope of heading off a possible problem which has been caused by the State Revenue Department. It has been brought to my attention that the state has come out with with a Freemason license plate. The best I can find out is that this license plate originates from the Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons and part of the money derived form (from) the sale of these license plates goes to a charity sponsored by the Prince Hall Grand Lodge.
After several phone calls to ascertain what the procedure was for obtaining these plates; I came to the conclusion that the method of screening individuals, to see if they were eligible to purchase the plates was not sufficient to ensure that our members could not purchase them. We have laws which strictly prohibit communication and Masonic intercourse with clandestine lodges and members of clandestine lodges. It is my opinion as your Grand Master that the purchase of these license plates would be in contradiction to our laws. Thus I am directing that no member of a subordinate lodge under the jurisdiction of the M.W. Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas purchase the license plates.
I am sending your lodge this letter to be read at your next stated communication. I am further directing that the Worshipful Master appoint a phone committee to contact every member of your lodge, who is an Arkansas resident, or that a letter be sent out to the same; informing them that they are not to purchase one of these license plates.
I appreciate your attention to this serious problem and will thank you in advance for your efforts to help ensure that our members are informed and do not inadvertently violate our Masonic law.
Fraternally,
Ronald Hedge, Grand Master
The first thing I expect from a Grand Master is that he have a credible understanding of the terms he uses. The term clandestine refers to pedigree. As in the case of a dog the question would be are you AKC registered and approved? In Masonry it refers to whether you were properly chartered. The fact that all Prince Hall Grand Lodges can trace their lineage back to The Grand Lodge of England’s chartering of African Lodge #459 either directly or indirectly rules out the possibility that Prince Hall is clandestine. Neither is Prince Hall irregular. Every recognized Masonic authority, even Albert Pike, has stated that Prince Hall practices regular Freemasonry and follows the Landmarks.
Furthermore a license plate cannot be clandestine. It is an inanimate object.
There is nothing more common within the ranks of Freemasonry than the misuse of the word communication. The word communication as is commonly applied in Freemasonry denotes a tyled Lodge meeting not a conversation. So in most jurisdictions it is perfectly lawful to discuss Freemasonry, excluding the signs, tokens , grips, words and obligations, with Freemasons from another jurisdiction or another obedience. The Grand Master knows this for later in his letter he talks about reading this information “at your next stated communication.”
However what is most distressing is the prohibition against Masonic discourse. I know that some Grand Lodges on both sides have this ruling yet most carry its application to an absurd degree. If an Arkansas Mainstream Mason meets an Arkansas Prince Hall Mason at the grocery store is it against Masonic law to say hello?
Does my Christian church say to me that another denomination does not follow Christian Theology correctly, therefore you are to have no discourse with them? Does a Republican refuse to talk to a Democrat or vice versa? Is this conduct rooted in the teachings of Freemasonry or the Teachings of the Holy Bible which rests upon the Masonic altar? Or could there be another motivation for what the Grand Master of Arkansas calls “a possible problem?”
I’m going to let the reader draw his/her own conclusions. You are all adults and adept at reading between the lines. But I, for one, am going to ask this Grand Master and others to stop calling Prince Hall Masonry bogus, spurious and clandestine. For a Grand Master to do so is just plain ignorant. Grand Master Hedge, Prince Hall is not irregular or clandestine or bogus it is just unrecognized. You just refuse to recognize Prince Hall. Why can’t you be a bit more gracious in your disagreement?
But I don’t think the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas is stupid. He knows what he is doing and why. It seems that this Grand Master just wants to name call and thereby hurt, demean and degrade other Freemasons. He is acting like a third grade bully. I would point him to our ritual which says, “By the exercise of Brotherly Love we are taught to regard the whole human species as one family.” And I would invite him to crack the Holy Bible once in awhile, that work of God which adorns every American Masonic altar. There are numerous verses that are our rule and guide but the one that comes to mind is, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.”
Finally it becomes incumbent upon me to once again for the umpteenth time to ask when Mainstream Masonry is going to police itself? Recently we can point to Frank Haas’ expulsion in West Virginia and the nasty actions of Georgia Mainstream Masons when a black man was raised in an Atlanta Lodge. There are many more examples too numerous to catalog here. I am fully aware of the tradition of one jurisdiction not messing in the affairs of another jurisdiction. But what ever happened with whispering wise words of advice into the ear of another Brother? Could not a few other Grand Masters pick up the phone? And if push comes to shove, rather than interfere, those Mainstream Grand Lodges that are following the moral authority could wash their hands of these matters by just pulling recognition from what are really rogue Grand Lodges.
And finally I cannot help but ask do you see or hear about such outlandish behavior from Prince Hall Grand Lodges? Do they scream and yell discrimination? Do they impose such rulings on their brethren? Will the Prince Hall Grand Master of Arkansas strike back? I know he won’t, but I will.
In this episode, recorded on March 7, 2010, Dean and Greg are joined by Mark Tabbert and Cliff Porter to talk about Traditional Observance Lodges and the Masonic Restoration Foundation. T.O. (Traditional Observance) Lodges seemed at one time to be a bright spot in the future of Freemasonry. Since this program, the was recorded, it seems the Traditional Lodge movement has slowed.
You may of heard these questions tossed around in some of the more secluded or private conversations at a lodge meeting. Or, perhaps in one of the many web forum discussions that so often ask the meaningful questions about where Masonry has come from, where it resides today, and where its headed. And all the while in those discussions, the term Traditional Observance Lodge or European Concept seems to be mentioned as one of the strongest possible paths of preserving the past and future of the American styled Gentleman’s Craft.
From the episode: “A Traditional Observance Lodge is a specific model under the Masonic Restoration Foundation that has implemented a series of best practices that have been studied and taken from Europe, South America and Colonial American Masonry from the US and returned the focus of the lodge to the initiatic experience.”
But, from a top down view, Traditional Observance Lodges work to preserve a “pure” form of Masonry, and something that necessitated a point of restoration. To get back to a point of origin. Ultimately in the middle of our modern day busy lives and hastened schedules, TO lodges strive to make better lackluster meetings and breathe a point of restoration of tradition in Freemasonry. Which brings us to the Masonic Restoration Foundation. At its heart, the Masonic Restoration Foundation is about identifying solutions and ways to implement them. That goal is aimed at reinforcing and expanding positive trends at local, state and national levels in Freemasonry.
“Curious about how to bring Masonry into the Tradition it came from?” “What’s this new Concept I’ve heard about called European Masonry?” This is the episode to listen to and find out.
The MRF provides education and training to individuals, lodges and Grand Lodges on ways to establish quality programs, academic excellence and social relevance in their Masonic communities that will be a match with the needs of the new Mason.
As American Freemasonry faces some of the most important challenges in its history the MRF stands to ensure a sense of purpose and identity for the Craft.
Listen to this episode of Masonic Central as they talk about the Masonic Restoration Foundation, Traditional Observance Lodges (TO) and the European Concept Lodge (EC). Marc Conrad and Cliff Porter, both of whom are active Board members of the Masonic Restoration Foundation join the show to discuss all things forward in Freemasonry. What exactly is a EC lodge? Are TO lodges the wave of the future? How do I start the conversation on forming a TO lodge? Listen in and ask the questions with us as we explore the TO and EC lodge archetypes with the Board of the Masonic Restoration Foundation.
In the episode there’s a mention of Robert Davis who was a guest on Masonic Central in 2008.
One of my forte’s as a writer and a Mason is to be able to bring up touchy subjects such as Prince Hall recognition, alcohol in the Lodge, Grand Lodge government, etc. This has garnered me a lot of recognition, mostly positive, but there are some Brothers who object to my airing our dirty laundry in public. Some have suggested I should just stick to the philosophical and esoteric side of the fraternity and leave administrative subjects alone.
I guess I view myself as the kid who says, “the Emperor has no clothes.” For example, we recently concluded the Grand Communications in my jurisdiction where the Grand Master and Grand Secretary reported on membership. Since my year in the East (2003) I have been monitoring membership statistics as reported by the Grand Lodge. On the average we have been losing approximately 1,200 members per year. 2008 also represents the year when we officially went under the 50,000 mark in terms of members.
Interestingly, we raised more Brothers in 2008 than 2003 (a total of 1,355 in 2008), but I also noticed we continue to lose Brothers due to Suspension for Non-Payment of Dues and for those who simply take a Dimit (a total of 1,512 in 2008). This deficit has been with us ever since I started to monitor these statistics and probably well before it. One has to wonder why these Brothers are dropping out. I can only think of three reasons: to possibly transfer to another Masonic jurisdiction; they no longer enjoy it, or; they simply no longer see the value in Freemasonry. I can understand transfers, but this is a minuscule number. However, the latter reasons suggests to me that Freemasonry is slowly becoming irrelevant. Frankly, I suspect Florida is not alone in this regards.
We can pretend to ignore these numbers and maintain the status quo or we can face it like men, talk about it, and try to come up with new and imaginative ideas for addressing the problem.
I find it interesting that people want me to write about what happened in the fraternity 100 years ago. Although this may very well be of interest, I am more concerned with what the state of our fraternity will be 100 years from now. The question that keeps bouncing through my mind is how will our successors remember us, “As the generation who dropped the ball or the group who picked it up and ran for a touchdown?” This can only be done by holding frank and candid discussions on the problems of the day, not by sticking our heads in the sand. I tend to believe it is more unMasonic to ignore a problem than to talk about it.
My critics have accused me of being too pessimistic. Actually, I’m not. To paraphrase Bro. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), “I am an optimist who hasn’t arrived.”
Keep the Faith.
Freemasonry From the Edge
by W:.Tim Bryce, PM, MPS timb001@phmainstreet.com Palm Harbor, Florida, USA “A Foot Soldier for Freemasonry” Originally published in 2008.
NOTE: The opinions expressed in this essay are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of any Grand Masonic jurisdiction or any other Masonic related body. As with all of my Masonic articles herein, please feel free to reuse them in Masonic publications or re-post them on Masonic web sites (except Florida). When doing so, please add the following:
Article reprinted with permission of the author and www.FreemasonInformation.com. Please forward me a copy of the publication when it is produced.
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