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.
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I know, its been a few weeks since the holiday… now that the christmas trees down, the bits of wrapping paper out of the nooks and the couch, and all the returns of unwanted gifts made, its time to catch up. With the holidays past and the cold embrace of winter upon us, what better time to catch up with a warm conversation and some reminiscence of what was the Masonic year 2009.
This week on Masonic Central, join us as we go over the highlights (and low lights) of Masonry in 2009 and look ahead at some of the trends that seem to be already charting the course of 2010.
The show goes live promptly at 9pm EST/6pm PST Sunday evening January 24 and the phone lines will be open for your questions and comments. I know it will be a lively show, and I hope you can make it!
Call-in Number for the show is (347) 677-0936 – we have a new high capacity for your call-ins, so don’t be shy and call in!
Weight and volume are very important. Two evenly measured weights on a opposite pans of a scale and you have a perfect balance, so long as your equipment is calibrated correctly. Add more weight to one pan and incrementally the scale will move towards which ever side the heavier burden is applied.
Extrapolate this idea into a larger arena where the medium that surrounds the moving weight is fluid, and with the Newtonian force of gravity, the material closest to, and bonded tightest to the weight will move with it, in effect causing an avalanche of sorts, or at least a heightened shift of position.
Perhaps you could say its an Alchemy of sorts, the transmutation from one thing into another, from one state to another. Neutral buoyancy to weight displacement. From Lead to Gold, or perhaps in this instance, from Gold to Lead.
Its quite a paradigm shift in the way things have been to the way things are to be. What I mean by that is apparently, without much fanfare, the Grand Lodge isn’t just rolling out a few changes for 2010, they are rolling out a battalion of them, for what seems to be for the purpose of improving Pennsylvania Freemasonry and the lives of its members. All said, in their introduction site, the changes are (by category):
Membership Recruitment Members May Selectively Invite Good Men to Join
Three Black Balls Are Now Required to Reject a Candidate
One Day Masonic Journey: October 30, 2010 (at 13 locations and with YR, SR, and Shrine)
All-Star Teams Will Confer District-wide Degrees
An Unlimited Number of Freemasons Can Be Made in One Day
Senior Recruitment Program
Lodges Awarded for Membership Growth and Retention
Membership “Call ‘Em All” Will Continue as “Call to the Craft”
Dues Can Now Be Paid By Credit or Debit
Lodge Notices Are To Be Distributed Electronically
Masonic Ritual Members May Learn Our Ritual From Printed Manuals That Will Be Monitored Closely And Never Used in Open Lodge
Certified Brethren Will Receive a Proficiency Award Pin
Opening and Closing of Meetings May Be Shortened
Grand Lodge Governance District Deputy Grand Masters May Now Serve 10 Years
Some Masonic Districts Will Be Eliminated and Realigned
A Masonic Congress Will Be Held in February 2010
A New Due Process for Suspensions and Expulsions
The Legal Structure of Grand Lodge Will Be Assessed
New Software Will Simplify the Lodge Audit Process
Committee on Masonic Homes Meeting Change
The Dress Code for Masonic Meetings Is Relaxed
On Image and Visibility Open Installations of All Symbolic Lodge Officers
Electronic Guide Will Provide Tours of the Masonic Temple
Masonic Villages Adopt-A-Resident Program
Lodges Will Conduct Monthly Community Service
Members Will Commit A Weekly Random Act of Kindness
Members Will Support Our Military Through “HELP FOR OUR HEROES”
Lodges Will Raise Funds to Support Our Masonic Villages
Masonic Youth Initiatives Will Be Supported By Lodges
On the page from the PA GL, they provide a brief explanation of what each change represents, and the hole that it seeks to fill, and while I am having a hard time understanding (agreeing?) with some of them, I have to say that the approach is an inventive and bold addition of weight to a scale that has long been un-moved by any form of change.
But, this change isn’t without its detractors, and a website has already been published to argue the counter point to the Grand Masters plan, billed as Pennsylvania Masonic Restoration. While I respect the civil dissent, I have to say that the call to arms may be premature given the nature of the changes the Grand Lodge is trying to implement.
On the 21 Century Renaissance site, it is easy to see the large one day class as BIG CONCERN to an otherwise interesting program and a potential affront to what has traditionally been Masonry the way its “always” been, which is clearly not the case. Not that one day classes have ever been the norm, the process of Masonry today is an evolved process that had a beginning that came from something else. It evolved, and this one day mass raising is another step in that evolution for better or worse. And, I’ll be open here, I have my own misgivings as to the intention of the one day class process, but taken in parcel with the other items, it becomes an easier bitter pill to swallow.
Some of what I do like in the program:
Three Black Balls Are Now Required to Reject a Candidate:
This is a good way to break a singular majority in a solitary vote. Harmony in the lodge still needs to be met, but giving live or die power to one brother may be to much power in one place.
Dues Can Now Be Paid By Credit or Debit:
This is a fantastic change that really brings things into he 21st Century.
Lodge Notices Are To Be Distributed Electronically:
Another great system/operations update.
A Masonic Congress Will Be Held in February 2010:
This is a great idea and something FmI and Time Bryce have advocated to see for some time. Perhaps this will lead up to something National.
Lodges Will Conduct Monthly Community Service:
This is a Great program, and my guess is that it will be another hard pill to get down. Not that there isn’t a level of charity within the membership, but to be told to do is it quite different than doing it out of will and love. an interesting idea, however, is the opportunity it gives to lodges to explore what that charity looks like, from donating lodge rooms to Boy Scout Troops, hosting voter polling locations, or any other creative measure to give back to the communities from which the membership comes from.
Members Will Commit A Weekly Random Act of Kindness:
This one escapes me, but I like the idea of it. It has a definite Pay It Forward appeal to it.
Personally, I have some concerns for these items, but I’m sure they are being implemented with the utmost caution.
Members May Selectively Invite Good Men to Join.
One Day Masonic Journey: October 30, 2010.
An Unlimited Number of Freemasons Can Be Made in One Day.
Senior Recruitment Program.
All of these are cause for some alarm, but as I mentioned, to enter into the 21st Century Renaissance, we enter into a period of change, just as Europe did in the post Medieval Renaissance.
Members May Learn Our Ritual From Printed Manuals:
This one concerns me too, in that it would be the first state (to my knowledge) to openly WRITE what had here-to-fore only been given in written cipher. Despite the warnings and admonitions, the content will be copied and distributed no matter the level of governance and audit processes. And if not lost in the original content, photocopiers and scanners are very easy to make use of these days (though I do have some security ideas for how to safeguard the material).
All in all, I say lets see what these changes have in store for 2010. The concerns being what they are, the changes do seem to have the over arching growth and good will of the fraternity in mind.
At first blush, the 21st Century Renaissance seems to be mind blowingly radical, but really, the alchemy is in putting into play the ideas of best practice to bring its large membership in the modern age. Hopefully the ambitious shift of their weight shift will be a good one and something others will adapt too and continue the Renaissance of the 21st Mason.
Tobias Churton is a prolific Masonic author and one I’ve come to hold in high esteem. For many, he may not be a regular household name as his work (and residence) come from abroad in the U.K. and in an dense American marketplace of books, his work is less well known here. Nevertheless, its importance is megalithic which is very much evident in his re-released book Freemasonry – The Reality.
Churton is not just a Freemason writing on the fraternity, he also happens to be a scholar and professor at Exeter university, Lecturer in Freemasonry and Rosicrucian’s at the Center for the Study of Western Esotericism. Churton’s published works span the breadth of western mystery traditions encompassing the early Gnostics, Rosicrucian’s, and Freemasons, which pull together many of the offshoots and ideas that went into the composition of the groups today. Churton’s work however is less about dazzling aggrandizement of a mysterious past, focusing instead on the known and with a meticulous hand, reconstructing the holes of the fraternities formation.
In Freemasonry – The Reality, Churton leaves no stone unturned and with his meticulous hand reconstructs the modern day mystery tradition from its most extreme foundational stones buried in the footnotes of history, following each loose thread back into the whole garment of the present day craft. But in this work he also refuses to hold back any punches in his analysis that our present manifestation of the craft is every bit a result of our manufactured past, from the clever arrangement of James Anderson and the constitutions of 1720 and the marrying of the “Speculative” with the “Operative” tracing back the foundation of Masonries earliest of ideas to the early Renaissance work of author Pico Mirandola and the Oration on the Dignity of Man.
One aspect that stood out to me in crisp detail was the way in which Churton pulls together in several seemingly unrelated bits of history and finds their common connection that brings them into a coherent theme. From early meeting notes, names on a register, royal archives on the guilds, and diary mentions, each of these bread crumbs become the framework by which he assembles the whole work. By digging deep into symbols that at one time held great significance, and in his work he re-illuminates them so as to demystify and put them back into a proper perspective. Case in point, the pentagram, reminding the reader of the earlier Masonic appellation (under Robert Moray) to represent AGAPA (or the Greek word agapein), or love, a geometric perfection.
In the end, the work is extensive and covers thoroughly the origins of Freemasonry and delves specifically (as the name implies) into the reality of the its formation and pre-history. It is not an easy read, or to be taken casually. Rather Churton’s work is something to be savored and consumed slowly and with great thought, because every page is a sequential feast of Masonic history waiting to be consumed.
Author Mark Koltko-Rivera joined Masonic Central on Sunday, September 27, 2009, to talk about Dan Brown’s book The Lost Symbol.
With the release of The Lost Symbol, many have had the opportunity to read though the work and see the results of Dan Brown’s non-Masonic contribution to the mythology of the fraternity. Like his past work, Without a doubt The Lost Symbol is a layered thriller that can be analyzed on many different levels to find a variety of different meanings, not surprisingly, not unlike Freemasonry itself.
This week we welcome Brother Mark Koltko-Rivera, author of the forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol to help us deconstruct some of the underlying ideas of Brown’s book and to look at some of the things that Brown got wrong. Specifically we plan to look at evidence for an actual Masonic message encoded into Brumidi’s famous fresco, “The Apotheosis of Washington”, a message that it appears Dan Brown missed; the round about source of Brown’s idea about apotheosis (humanity becoming gods), and the Masonic connection to that source; Further, we plan to talk about the psychological underpinnings for Dan Brown’s immense popularity, and the implications that has for both Freemasonry as a whole and individual Freemasons.
The Apotheosis of Washington
Br. Mark Koltko-Rivera is the author of the forthcoming book, Discovering The Lost Symbol: Masons, Magic, Mystery Religions, and the Thought that We Could Become Gods. He holds a doctoral degree in counseling psychology from New York University. He is an elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and has been recognized for his scholarship regarding the psychology of world-views, humanistic psychology, and the psychology of religion. Within Freemasonry, Brother Koltko-Rivera is an active member of the Blue Lodge, the Scottish Rite, and the York Rite. His papers on Freemasonry have appeared in The Philalethes, the Scottish Rite Journal, and Heredom. He provided the Masonic content (and the conspiracy fiction) for the recent Wiley publication, Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies.
A second edition of his Freemasonry: An Introduction should also appear in 2010. He also writes the blogs “Freemasonry: Reality, Myth, and Legend” and “Freemasonry 101.”
Things have been quiet on the inter-webs in recent weeks as we start the slow descent down the calendar page to the holidays. Especially as most of north America is under the first major winter storm, I write this as my balmy So Cal thermometer outside tells me its 33 degrees (appropriate, I know).
A question someone asked me recently is if Masonry is relevant today in this age before I could break into the usual elevator speech, I paused for a second to think about the question, and further, to consider the implication of the immediate yes that was already starting to roll off my tongue.
Just like the weather, relativity changes with time, activity, and interest. Relativity seems to go up and down running hot at times as some controversy or exciting event is taking place, or cold in periods of little activity or action. That ultimately, relevance is relative. And in those nanoseconds of answering the question, the thought went to the higher outlook to ask is it relative in an age that itself questions its own relativity.
With so many variables, how can one possible answer (let alone assimilate) the question. Relative is relative. Each individual member, through his own thoughts and outlook, holds the answer. Is it relative, and if so why? But, if your mind drifted to no, then why not? Because it is a member run organization (like the Boy Scouts) relativity is a self generated energy, that is as imaginative as a lodge (or an individual member) can be, then so too will the fraternity be just as imaginative.
Relative becomes our relativity.
A very good friend and brother said to me once that to be interesting you need to be interested, and this applies to all aspects of life, home, work, family, faith, and fraternity. Imagine your relative shift with a subtle adjustment of interest. The relativity of the idea takes on the qualities of your outlook, relativity matches your relativity to the subject.
The short answer to the question asked of me was yes, Freemasonry is relative, for the simple reason that I see it as so. It’s important to me and vary valuable, and that my relativity of it is relevant.
Ever stop to think for a few moments where some of your favorite Masonic books and imprints come from? Or how certain books get published (or don’t end up in print)? What about e-books, or that really rare hard to find text that you heard mentioned once, but can’t seem to find?
This week on Masonic Central we step out side of the electronic publishing world and into the traditional publishing one as we host a very special guest in publisher and author Michael Poll, who is the owner of Cornerstone Book Publishers and its retail site Lost Word.
Missed the live show? Listen Now!
Br. Michael’s dedicated work to the Masonic community has included services such as: original content and reprint publisher, used book seller and search service, and gift item and ephemera supplier, all the while remaining a small family run store. In addition to his work in publishing Masonic books, he has published two of his own including Masonic Words and Phrases, and The Freemasons Key – A Study of Masonic Symbolism.
In addition to several lodge memberships, Michael is also a Founding Fellow and 1st Vice-President of The Masonic Society, a Fellow of the Philalethes Society and a contributor to Heredom, the publication of the Scottish Rite Research Society.
Join us as we meet and talk to Br. Michael Poll this Sunday, December 6th, starting at 6pm PDT / 9pm EST. We encourage your questions and comments to the show by calling (347) 677-0936 during the program.
The show goes live promptly at the hour. On Blog Talk Radio at 6pm PST/9pm EST.
How difficult is it to imagine two enemy combatants coming face to face on a smoke swept battle field, deep animosity boiling within towards one another, such that minutes before both exchanged volleys of gunfire at one another in the hopes of ending the others life with prejudice.
And then, as if struck by a lightening bolt from the heavens, the bitterness and drive that had sought to make one the survivor and the other a casualty of the brutal warring between them dissolves; amidst the strum and drang around them they find themselves able to meet on a level that transcends the uniforms they are covered with and sides they hold allegiance to. The lightening strike that they are struck by comes as if from a divine power, an instant transcendence from their brutal human nature such that this divine bolt strikes and with such a force brings them both to a level that neither can truly fathom from the brutality that they are surrounded by. The two men are transcended from the barbaric engines fueled by the nature to win into the better angels of their nature.
From the bolt that struck them, they realize that they are family. More specifically, that they’re Brothers.
Michael Halleran (better known around here as aude vide tace) explores just this transcendence of our nature in his forth coming book Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War. Br. Halleran’s approach in this book is not another reexamination of fraternal lore, instead he explores the evidence, providing a critical examination of Masonry in the armies of both North and South, illuminating how Masonic fraternization worked in practice on both sides of the line.
And, by his own admission, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War, is the first academic study of Masonry’s role in the War Between the States.
Why this is important makes for an interesting story. Several months back I had the opportunity to sit in a presentation given by Brother Halleran on the subject and was enthralled at the stories that he described of two enemy combatants who, upon realizing they were brothers, did what they could to exercise their mystical tie.
From the evidence in the book, the tales that take shape include the
Confederate GeneralL Lewis A. Armistead
extraordinary funeral of Lt. Commander John E. Hart to the oft-told legend of the death of Confederate General Lewis A. Armistead at Gettysburg. Throughout Better Angels examines primary source material to determine and construct what actually occurred. Other areas that Brother Halleran examines are Masonry in regimental lodges, among prisoners of war, and Masonry in battle.
At its heart, Better Angels details the response of the fraternity to America’s greatest calamity, documenting in many instances the war was not only one of brother against brother, but of Brother against Brother.
Having had the opportunity to see Br. Halleran’s presentation and witness first hand his evidence consisting of images of soldiers, their masonic ephemera, and the degree to which these soldiers held Masonry to the heart, it became apparent to me that truly the better angels of their natures prevailed.
In the months leading up to his extraordinary book being released, you can find a sneak peek on his publishers website at Alabama University Press and on Br. Michael’s own website at http://michaelhalleran.com.
Join us for this episode as author Lon Milo DuQuette joined Masonic Central on Sunday, November 29th, 2009, to talk about magick, esoteric Freemasonry and the his masonic journey.
Within in Freemasonry, there are many titles and attributes bestowed upon its members, but few come to the table with the appellation of Magus. With a number of books having flowed from from his pen and a good many years of practice under an adept hand, Brother Lon Milo DuQuette is a stand-out example of bridging the esoteric with the obvious. Obvious at least to a few.
A Mason for many years, DuQuette has spent a substantial amount of time in the study of the realms of the tarot, Kabbalah, Thelema and Enochian Vision magic. Capturing the essence of DuQuette’s work, a quote from Aleister Crowley comes to mind in his saying,
“Magick was defined as the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with WILL.”
It’s that path in the conformity of will that led Masonic Brother DuQuette to his position within the Ordo Templi Orientis which itself has a rich history and modern day contribution to the occult practice.
In this episode, we explore the magical connections that Masonry may (or may not have) exist and what lessons we can find within the sage wisdom and teaching of the Masonic patriarch King Solomon.
No mere parlor tricks here. It is an excellent program of magical conversation, and delightful insights.
In the spirit of the Thanksgiving holiday, tonight’s show is a detour from the norm with a duet of suprise mystery guests. It offers a unique glimpse into a little seen segment of Masonry that we know will delight and entertain you on this last Sunday before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Missed the live program? Listen Now!
I hope you can make it for this fun and festive program.
Join us this week as we meet and talk with these surprise mystery guests this Sunday on Masonic Central, November 22nd starting at 6pm PDT / 9pm EST. We encourage your questions and comments to the show by calling (347) 677-0936 during the program. The show goes live promptly at the hour. On Blog Talk Radio at 6pm PST/9pm EST
Most holidays can be associated into the Masonic calendar and celebrated without much connectivity to the fraternity, patriotism and religious veneration aside. One holiday, not widely celebrated in the U.S., comes to us from the south in the form of a celebration (and perhaps veneration) of the Dead in the Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos.
Suggested to have origins in the ancient past, the celebrations roots grow out of the distant Aztecs dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, who is the queen of the Aztec underworld and watcher of the deceased’s bones. Today the celebration is a hybrid of this ancient practice and the more modern Catholic celebration of the All Saints Day, which venerates all known (and unknown) Catholic saints. In this Latinized tradition, the feast extends to the remembrance of all those who have passed in the previous year to remember their spirits.
The resonance to Freemasonry comes in the veneration of the idea of Hiram Abiff, the Grand Master himself, as the fraternity venerates his role in every Masons making. It strikes me that the idea of veneration is truly at the heart of our being. Not to say that it is a ritualized worship, but rather a means of remembrance of his spirit upon the fraternity.
Día de los Muertos altar
Traditionally, Día de los Muertos is celebrated with the construction of private altars to honor the deceased, the making and decorating of sugar skulls which is a gift to both those still living and those departed, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed. The meaning behind the offerings of food is representative a welcoming gesture (called ofrendas) to bring the departed with the foods spiritual essence. Further, the celebrants go upon visitation to their graves with these as gifts and stand watch for their spirits through the night.
Again, this resonates with the tradition of Freemasonry, in that it is in the spirit of Grand Master Hiram that all Freemasons strive to emulate and represent, and it’s through the ceremonies of the degrees and that his essence is to be imparted through his wisdom and actions.
Día de los Muertos Catrina figures
Also, there is a tremendous symbolic connectivity in the use of the skull and skeleton imagery, in that their application in the Día de los Muertos tradition closely follows its use in the Masonic tradition as a remembrance of the place where each of us is destined for. Further, that no matter our status in life, we all are equalized and made to look the same in death. The Calavera mask (skull mask) and the full calacas (skeleton) led to the more recent Día de los Muertos attribution of the Catrina figures, which are today a prominent inclusion to the day’s celebration.
It is in these symbolic gestures that I suggest Día de los Muertos most resonates on this most spooky of holidays, and that in the giving of sugar treats to young ghouls and goblins to pause for a moment and reflect on the passing and upon the spirit of those brothers who have passed before us and to leave one sweet treat should their spirit be passing by.
In memory of the spirit, for a moment forget the reality of ones life lived and instead remember their presence of spirit.
Happy Halloween.
Día de los Muertos sugar skulls – Photo by Glen Van Etten, licensed under Creative Commons
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