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.
I’m constantly amazed at the new discovery by some of the things in plain sight for centuries. I can’t say for certain about Canada, but American Masonic lodges have been pretty open in recent years, some open across an entire state.
Maybe this video troupe is part of the gotcha media, the one that Sarah Palin was so loth to decry a few years back.
The footage come from Press For Truth, an expose group whose motto is Smashing The Pyramid One Brick At A Time. Presumably, the pyramid bricks are the emblems of the Illuminati/Freemasons? At least that’s what they say in one of their videos.
Go figure.
The group comes out of Canada which might explain it (just kidding). I just like how they say Masonic – “May-zonic”, it just sounds so much cooler.
The first video is a walking tour discovering a Masonic lodge, and the other two are of a propaganda ambush for their video blog. Apparently, they were giving away free DVD’s to share their insights.
Gotcha.
I have to say, the brother they talked to did his best, given the odds and environment of the exchange.
If your into the conspiracy stuff, give the patriot activist Dan Dick’s YouTube channel a watch for more informative videos.
Found this snippet on the blog Brain Pickings and immediately it capture my attention.
Not surprising, the things they wrote weren’t so different than the ones you and I might post today on social media.
A few of my Marginalia favorites from Brain Pickings:
I’m very cold.
New parchment, bad ink; I say nothing more.
The parchment is hairy.
Now I’ve written the whole thing: for Christ’s sake give me a drink.
Of course, most marginalia are notes on the text, but who hasn’t scribbled a complaint or doodled a bit in the margin. Sometimes it was intentional and meant to inspire, or maybe just titillate while in study as with the Rothschild Canticles, produced for a nun at the turn of the fourteenth century that the blog Got Medieval showed us.
Image from Got Medieval
Got Medieval cites one scholar on the marginals as saying of them that they bring a “powerful counterpart to the framed images” while failing to explain why they were included.
Below are a few examples of marginals from monks of the period, some simple sketches, some elaborately executed.
The notations got me thinking about other margin drawings, and quick Google search and who knew that there was a whole philosophy of understanding to their meaning complete with Philosophical ideas about them. Doodles like this, it seems, have links to Freudian psychology characterizing it, in part as paralleled with syncope and intimate revolt.
Looking back at some of my lesser doodles during school, I think I could be persuaded to probably agree.
My favorite modern day marginalia (now called marginals) comes in the form of the tiny illustrations of Sergio Aragonés in MAD Magazine.
Looking at a few of them makes me think of the monks scribble of lament “That’s a hard page and a weary work to read” the relief from which I always found when reading MAD by looking at Aragonés scribbles in the corners.
Looking at them again make me think of the monks lament on how much easier they make looking at the page.
What do you scribble as your marginals? Are you a doodler or a scribbler in the margins?
If all initiations ended like this one, I bet most fraternities would be teeming with members.
It reminds me of the pranks in the Demoulin catalog of Fraternal Supplies from the 30’s. I wonder if it was the inspiration for the short film.
I’m not entirely clear why some would think this short was to indoctrinate children into secret societies, but, I suppose you can make what ever connections to you want from it.
Want to be a member? Want to be a member? The tune will stick with you for the rest of the day.
Look for the quick glimpse of Mickey near the beginning as a little Easter egg.
VC says that the video is so full of symbolism that ” we realize that those who produced it were obviously ‘in the know’. The cartoon is therefore yet another example of occult symbolism that can be seen by all, but meant to be fully understood by few.
The following are two missives sent to me that illustrate a certain sense of disenfranchisement felt by some. Are they systemic undercurrents or simply the aches and pains of a few who have found themselves on the outside of a here-to-fore inclusive order of craftsmen?
I’ll leave it to you to decide.
The first came in an email which, the sender says, was sent to “practically every member listed in the Grand Lodge [of New York in the New York State] Directory.” To how many this was sent out was not said, but the note to me says it was sent to “voting members or delegates eligible to vote.”
The letter, reproduced in its entirety as I received it, was prefaced with an observation which reads…
Much like Arizona, Georgia, Arkansas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Freemasonry under the Grand Lodge of New York is imploding. Trial after trial of hand-selected Commissioners, egged on by an unscrupulous Proctor, approved by the Most Worshipful Grand Master at the behest of the Grand Secretary with only days remaining in their terms, exacting vengeance using the system of Masonic Jurisprudence designed to protect the Craft instead to settle scores and personal prejudices.
Will the Masonic news community assist or will we soon be left to the same fate as the GLNF???
The following letter is being distributed within New York State.
********
It’s almost Installation time. In my years in our Craft, I have attended many Installation ceremonies and every year we hear the same reminders to work in harmony and let nothing disturb the peace and good fellowship of our order. Every time we ballot, we are reminded not to let private piques and quarrels interfere with doing what is right. I wish this applied to Grand Lodge too but these ideas, and even our Constitutions, don’t always seem to apply to officers above a certain rank. I thought we were all supposed to play nice, especially those we look to as examples of our Craft.
As the entire world has now been notified by order of our current Grand Master, MW Vincent Libone, Past Grand Master Neal Bidnick was recently expelled from Freemasonry on allegations of a misappropriation of funds that occurred during his term as Grand Master from 2006-2008. To be honest, this really irked me. Every time I turn around, Grand Lodge is asking me for money and we already see too many abuses and indulgences with our funds. Since no legal charges were actually brought or arrests made, however, I was forced to question the voracity of the claims.
I am writing in the hope that you or your Brothers may be able to help me find some answers or logic regarding the circumstances of what appears then to be nothing more than the execution of a personal vendetta against Mr. Bidnick. I have been doing research on my own by speaking with participants and some people close to the situation and what I have found disgusts me. It is difficult, however, to obtain a complete picture without being able to speak with Mr. Bidnick or GM Libone themselves. Perhaps, after reviewing the information that I do have, you or someone closer to our Grand Master may choose to ask him yourselves.
Like a lot of Brothers I have spoken with, I don’t understand why these allegations are coming to light now after no less than four audits of the accounts from Mr. Bidnick’s term were conducted. His predecessors were not audited, nor were his successors, only him by order of Grand Master Libone and the Grand Secretary, Gilbert Savitzky. None of those audits, including one conducted by retired trained SEC auditors at the behest of RW Bill Thomas, found any problems. Luckily for us, five Past Grand Treasurers (an auto mechanic, retired pharmacist, a Stella D’oro delivery driver, a retired marine and a retired DEA agent) appointed by Grand Master Libone were able to determine that misconduct occurred when experienced CPAs and forensic accountants could not.
It’s also public knowledge, also sent out to the world by order of Grand Master Libone, that Mr. Bidnick was suspended earlier this year for marching in a parade. That notice went everywhere but it has not been the practice of our Grand Lodge to send notices of expulsions to every Grand Lodge that we are in communication with. There is a tragic irony that the proclamation of Mr. Bidnick’s suspension for marching in a parade was broadcast around the world even as PGM Gilbert’s son, our junior Past Grand Tiler, sat in a Buffalo jail on four counts of second-degree criminal sexual acts with a 14 year old girl. It leads one to question priorities.
This first suspension was for defiance of an order issued by MW Libone that Mr. Bidnick not appear in public in his capacity as a Past Grand Master anywhere that was on the Grand Lodge calendar; a calendar that is not distributed to anyone outside the Grand Line including Mr. Bidnick. The letter was drawn up in consultation and approval with six Past Grand Masters who saw fit to restrict Mr. Bidnick’s activities because of allegations involving not him but his wife. Not only did MW Gilbert not receive any such restrictions for the actions of his son, he participated in the drafting of the unconstitutional order against Mr. Bidnick. Mr. Bidnick marched in a parade that was not on the Grand Lodge calendar, with Brothers of his Lodge and District in a plain white apron while the top two elected Grand Line officers were on the other side of the state. As a result, he was suspended by a trial commission composed of the same Past Grand Masters who sought to penalize him for the actions of another person.
I looked through our Constitutions since the Notice of Decision on the first trial was distributed and found that it specifically prohibits even the Grand Master from suspending any Brother from the rights and privileges of Freemasonry without a hearing. Not only did these Most Worshipful Brothers violate the Constitutions by participating in the approving of the order, they then disregarded them further by sitting in judgment of the charged violation of their own illegal action, breaking perhaps half a dozen other rules of procedure and laws in the process. They can hardly be considered unbiased commissioners as our Code of Procedure and Constitutions require.
Word of this immoral and improper suspension started to get around and a huge majority of people I spoke with hope that it is the opinion of the Commissioners of Appeals that it should be overturned; the same way it has become apparent to anyone who has read our Constitutions that it should be.
I’ve also heard that Mr. Bidnick’s appeal was sent to Grand Lodge in December. Why has it taken so long for the Commissioners of Appeals to render a decision? Could it be that the office of Grand Secretary has delayed and stonewalled requests for evidence and transcripts when it became obvious that the Suspension would be overturned in time for Mr. Bidnick to run supposedly against MW Libone for the office of Grand Secretary? This was when MW Libone apparently ordered that something else be found to hang Mr. Bidnick on.
The notice distributed by Grand Lodge states that the complaint this time was brought by Mr. Bidnick’s Grand Marshal, RW Kurt Ott. He’s even told people that he was “only following orders” to do so. The charge that was issued questions the travel expenses of a trip that Mr. Bidnick and others took to Italy almost five years ago. I have learned that the Grand Lodge Director of Finance was called to be a witness for the accuser in this case. If there were any problems with the transactions now being questioned, why didn’t she bring them up at the time, or to the auditors who have reviewed the accounts several times prior to the charge being issued against Mr. Bidnick. Despite actuarial, forensic and other evidence presented by Mr. Bidnick’s attorney, I have learned that he was expelled by a trial commission composed of:
RW Lou Juers, who was defeated by Mr. Bidnick in elections for both Deputy Grand Master and Grand Master, the latter election of which he never conceded and made a less than dignified speech at.
RW Robert Stack, who was defeated in the election for Deputy Grand Master by Mr. Bidnick.
RW Werner Kniesel, who was not re-nominated as a Trustee of the Masonic Hall and Home, after his term had expired, by Mr. Bidnick but had been appointed by MW Libone back onto the Board of Trustees and now has nominated him for a full term at this Grand Lodge session.
RW Marino Cesarini, who MW Libone is quite publicly endorsing for Deputy Grand Master in spite of a hundred years of Grand Lodge tradition and precedent not to do so.
RW Joseph Quarequio, who was Grand Treasurer under Mr. Bidnick and signed off on all of the finances of his term now being questioned. I am sure that he was asked to recues himself from the Commission because of this conflict but appears he did not. Maybe someone wanted him to be ineligible to be called as a witness by being named as a trial commissioner. Pretty slick.
This commission certainly had an axe or four to grind with Mr. Bidnick and was handpicked by MW Libone to sit in judgment of his supposed opponent for the Grand Secretary’s seat. As icing on this cake of manure and malevolence, rumor has it that Mr. Juers, the Commission Chairman, allegedly stated prior to the trial that he intended to find Mr. Bidnick guilty. Regardless, Mr. Juer’s past and present role in the Jesters (look on the Net and make your own judgment about this group) and his many anti-Semitic public statements are more than enough for me to personally question his integrity and suitability to sit in judgment of anyone.
My Brothers, this isn’t Freemasonry, this was a hit. Regardless of any facts positive or negative, in Mr. Bidnick’s case, it was decided before it began. It is my hope and prayers that it too will be overturned on appeal by anyone who can understand basic accounting principles, but the damage will be done. MW Libone has set himself up to run unopposed and assumes the role of Chief Operational Officer of our Grand Lodge.
I am wondering if the Jurisprudence Committee, comprised of the same Past Grand Masters who facilitated his violations of our Constitutions, will sign off on his actions with a blanket approval and at that point there may be nothing that can be done to revisit this travesty.
You can do something about this. It’s your Grand Lodge and your votes count. Make your delegates familiar with these actions and have them ask questions. Seek out Mr. Bidnick’s attorney. At the very least, until important questions can be asked and answered, I implore you to vote down (or at least table) the Jurisprudence Committee’s report. If you feel the actions outlined here are an acceptable display of Freemasonry, then join the cabal and vote to approve the actions of a man who preaches Faith, Integrity and Trust while scoffing our laws and defecating on our Constitutions in order to tear out the throat of a rival for office. For my own part, I’d like to know what really happened to the man who taught us…
“Because I am a Freemason, I know that the last great lesson of Freemasonry — the value of personal integrity and the sanctity of one’s word — is a lesson for all people in all times; I therefore vow to be a man of my word.”
********
Without reading into the content, the context has a distinct air of frustration over things outside of our (collective) control. You could say this is the type of thing that provoked Martin Luther to nail his 95 thesis on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences to the Castle Church of Wittenberg. And, this same sentiment is coming from the west echoed in a situation arising out of the Grand Lodge of Arizona, the words coming from a post in an on-line forum posted May 1st, 2012, which reads…
…our Grand Master has once again demonstrated he is above the Arizona Masonic Code. Here is the play by play of the events taken by him in the past 15 hours
Yesterday afternoon the Grand Master summoned the elected Deputy Grand Master into his office and in the presence of R:. W:. Junior Grand Warden William A. Garrard Jr, and Senior Grand Deacon Mike Manning, informed the Deputy Grand Master he was suspended from Masonry.
The reason the Grand Master gave for this action, which, in my reading of the AMC, is in conflict with the powers given to him by the Arizona Grand Lodge, was that the Deputy Grand Master did not promptly return his apron and jewel of his office, when he relieved the Deputy Grand Master of his Grand Lodge duties, while he still served as the elected Deputy Grand Master. The meeting was brief but it was recorded to avoid any misunderstanding.
The new Official Grand Lodge Officer line-up as installed by PGM Rowen last evening is as follows:
Deputy Grand Master Jeff Carlton,
SGW William Garrard Jr.
JGW Mike Manning.
These are the new faces of Arizona Masonry. I regret that I cannot support any of them nor can I support anyone who will be appointed to the line by them.
Therefore, I am seriously looking for a new Masonic Home. Anyone who has a suggestion can contact me directly.
********
While much shorter, the same sentiment as the New York email is at play in this on-line forum posting.
The last thought on this comes from something sent to me recently through Facebook within which a brother delicately spelled out his reasons for no longer wanting to be a part of the fraternity. In his note, he mentions life changes, health, family, and employment status as aspects of his decision to re-evaluate his priorities such that Freemasonry no longer fit comfortably with into his life.
To quote Abraham Lincoln
The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. There are few things wholly evil, or wholly good.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), U.S. president.
Speech in the U.S. House of Representatives on internal improvements, June 20, 1848
Without going into deep contemplation on the subject, this is a sentiment that is rippling through many organizations today, not just Freemasonry – is the organization I belong to meeting the needs of its members, in particular this member, me? I can say I’m familiar with a church whose congregation is going through its own crisis of faith, similarly to the ones above, over the administrative dealings not being handled with transparency and to the will of its membership. This can certainly make fair dealing seem to be in short supply and worse still re-evaluate the priorities of such an organization.
The remedy? The only thing we can do is keep checking the measure of good vs. bad on the scale of our toleration…the answer from which will come to us soon enough, usually when we’ve personally found our disenfranchisement threshold crossed and need to act.
This is a subject I’ve explored on a few occasions, but upon finding these videos, I thought they could better illustrate the working of the Order.
Perhaps unnecessary to say, like most religions the present day Golden Dawn comes in several styles, each practicing in a lineage from the systems founders – William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, and Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers. Of interesting relevancy, each was a Freemason and a member of S.R.I.A., the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia which is a Trinitarian Christian Masonic order.
While the videos present an interesting glimpse of costumed ceremony, I found a tremendous insight in reading The Essential Golden Dawn by Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. The books subtitle is An Introduction to High Magic, but what I found most interesting were the descriptions of the degrees and grades of membership. The Cicero’s do their level best to describe the work, which by most concerned with the order, consider it magic.
“Magic”, the Cicero’s say, “inclines toward thinking and doing while religion gravitates toward feeling and being. The two are very definitely related, but they are not identical. The yearning for the supernatural propels them both, though in different ways.”
As a good primer, The Essential Golden Dawn will satisfy a more than passive curiosity about the system and give you a better than Wikipedia sense of its history and key players. What I found most valuable was the in detail descriptions of the grades.
In contrast, I looked at Israel Regardie’s The Golden Dawn for an examination of the rituals and was surprised by their similarity to, what I can only assume to be, their Masonic inspiration. This parallel is a theme echoed by the Cicero’s when they say of the Golden Dawn that “…the initiation ceremonies of the Golden Dawn are based on a series of mystery plays or ritual dramas in which the officers reenact specific mythologies that are essential to the Western Esoteric Tradition.” Ritual plays, I believe, are the foundation of the Masonic ritual, of at least the third degree. Regardie’s work is an apostasy of sorts given his publication of the Golden Dawn rituals.
Not so much in the details, but in the space between them. Often, the parallels come in the ideas or the word usage which triggers the Masonic memory that a “so mote it be” can do. But reading the rituals for depth, what struck me was the emphasis of trying to derive a greater symbolic meaning from the costumes, wands, rituals, and ephemera.
This parallel is a theme echoed by the Cicero’s when they say of the Golden Dawn that “…the initiation ceremonies of the Golden Dawn are based on a series of mystery plays or ritual dramas in which the officers reenact specific mythologies that are essential to the Western Esoteric Tradition.” Ritual plays, I believe, are the foundation of the Masonic ritual, of at least the third degree. Regardie’s work is an apostasy of sorts given his publication of the Golden Dawn rituals in 1971. Yet, it was his publication of those rituals which most who practice the system today say saved it from extinction.
So, without going into more of the history or the books, have a look at a few videos from the Golden Dawn tradition.
This video has a lot of circumambulation and ritual practice.
I was cleaning up some past posts on the site and happened onto one from 2009 about the 10 Year Anniversary of Phoenix Masonry. In the post was a mention of Brother Henry O. Studley’s tool box, which prompted me to do a quick search for it online.
Wikipedia says of the chest that…
When closed and hanging on a wall it takes up an area of approximately 39 inches by 20 inches with a 9 inch depth. It opens to become a 40 inch by 40 inch tool chest. The chest is made out of , and mother of pearl, materials that were probably taken from the Poole Piano Company’s scrap material. Read more on Wikipedia about Henry O. Studley.
The story goes that before Br. Studley died in 1925, he gave the chest to a friend which has made its way to the Smithsonian in the late 1980s and later into a private collection..
Early in the search I found this…
The tip off link in the video comes at 1:28, but you have to look sharp to catch it. When you watch, try and absorb the craftsmanship.
At the end, the narrator from the DiY channel says “One can only imagine the kind of piano that Mr. Studley was able to build.”
I can imagine Studley building the kind of piano not made by hands…
This collection of Albert Pike Quotes comes from the Apprentice Degree in Morals and Dogma.
While one could extract all manner of quotes from the book, these struck me as most succinct of his teachings as they seem to emit double or triple understandings to their meaning. As he progresses in the degrees you can definitely sense his take on the the more esoteric side of the fraternity, of which this is a taste.
FORCE, unregulated or ill-regulated, is not only wasted in the void, like that of gunpowder burned in the open air, and steam unconfined by science; but, striking in the dark, and its blows meeting only the air, they recoil and bruise itself.
The blind Force of the people is a Force that must be economized, and also managed, as the blind Force of steam, lifting the ponderous iron arms and turning the large wheels, is made to bore and rifle the cannon and to weave the most delicate lace. It must be regulated by Intellect.
Intellect is to the people and the people’s Force, what the slender needle of the compass is to the ship–its soul, always counseling the huge mass of wood and iron, and always pointing to the north.
Thought is a force, and philosophy should be an energy, finding its aim and its effects in the amelioration of mankind.
The two great motors are Truth and Love.
The POWER of the Deity Himself is in equilibrium with His WISDOM. Hence the only results are HARMONY.
Deeds of daring dazzle history, and form one class of the guiding lights of man. They are the stars and coruscation from that great sea of electricity, the Force inherent in the people.
To strive, to brave all risks, to perish, to persevere, to be true to one’s self, to grapple body to body with destiny, to surprise defeat by the little terror it inspires, now to confront unrighteous power, now to defy intoxicated triumph–these are the examples that the nations need and the light that electrifies them.
It is the force of the people that sustains all these despotisms, the basest as well as the best.
Less glory is more liberty.
Thus the spirit of liberty and innovation is reduced by bayonets, and principles are struck dumb by cannon-shot; while the monks mingle with the troopers, and the Church militant and jubilant, Catholic or Puritan, sings Te Deums for victories over rebellion.
The force of the people is exhausted in indefinitely prolonging things long since dead; in governing mankind by embalming old dead tyrannies of Faith; restoring dilapidated dogmas; re gilding faded, worm-eaten shrines; whitening and rouging ancient and barren superstitions; saving society by multiplying parasites; perpetuating superannuated institutions; enforcing the worship of symbols as the actual means of salvation; and tying the dead corpse of the Past, mouth to mouth, with the living Present.
Despotisms, seen in the past, become respectable, as the mountain, bristling with volcanic rock, rugged and horrid, seen through the haze of distance is blue and smooth and beautiful.
The sight of a single dungeon of tyranny is worth more, to dispel illusions, and create a holy hatred of despotism, and to direct FORCE aright, than the most eloquent volumes.
The FORCE of the people cannot, by its unrestrained and fitful action, maintain and continue in action and existence a free Government once created. That Force must be limited, restrained, conveyed by distribution into different channels…
The FORCE of the people, or the popular will, in action and exerted, symbolized by the GAVEL, regulated and guided by and acting within the limits of LAW and ORDER, symbolized by the TWENTY-FOUR-INCH RULE, has for its fruit LIBERTY, EQUALITY, and FRATERNITY,–liberty regulated by law; equality of rights in the eye of the law; brotherhood with its duties and obligations as well as its benefits.
The rough Ashlar is the PEOPLE, as a mass, rude and unorganized. The perfect Ashlar, or cubical stone, symbol of perfection, is the STATE, the rulers deriving their powers from the con-sent of the governed…
Though Masonry neither usurps the place of, nor apes religion, prayer is an essential part of our ceremonies. It is the aspiration of the soul toward the Absolute and Infinite Intelligence, which is the One Supreme Deity, most feebly and mis-understandingly characterized as an “ARCHITECT.”
The unknown is an ocean, of which conscience is the compass. Thought, meditation, prayer, are the great mysterious pointing of the needle. It is a spiritual magnetism that thus connects the human soul with the Deity.
It is but a shallow scoff to say that prayer is absurd, because it is not possible for us, by means of it, to persuade God to change His plans.
Our free agency and our will are forces. We do not absurdly cease to make efforts to attain wealth or happiness, prolong life, and continue health, because we cannot by any effort change what is predestined. If the effort also is predestined, it is not the less our effort, made of our free will. So, likewise, we pray. Will is a force. Thought is a force. Prayer is a force.
Man is not to be comprehended as a starting-point, or progress as a goal, without those two great forces, Faith and Love. Prayer is sublime.
Every Lodge is a Temple, and as a whole, and in its details symbolic. The Universe itself supplied man with the model for the first temples reared to the Divinity.
It is the Master of this Lodge, of the Universe, Hermes, of whom Khurum(Hiram) is the representative, that is one of the lights of the Lodge.
To study and seek to interpret correctly the symbols of the Universe, is the work of the sage and philosopher. It is to decipher the writing of God, and penetrate into His thoughts.
… Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty, are the perfections of everything, and nothing can endure without them.
… there should be Wisdom to conceive, Strength to support, and Beauty to adorn, all great and important undertakings.
The Wisdom and Power of the Deity are in equilibrium.
Omnipotent power, infinite, and existing alone, would necessarily not be constrained to consistency.
The laws of God are not obligatory on us because they are the enactments of His POWER, or the expression of His WILL; but because they express His infinite WISDOM. They are not right because they are His laws, but His laws because they are right.
Wisdom, Power, and Harmony constitute one Masonic triad
…the wisdom of the Architect is displayed in combining, as only a skillful Architect can do, and as God has done everywhere,–for example, in the tree, the human frame, the egg, the cells of the honeycomb–strength, with grace, beauty, symmetry, proportion, lightness, ornamentation.
Harmony in this, as in all the Divine, the material, and the human, is the result of equilibrium, of the sympathy and opposite action of contraries; a single Wisdom above them holding the beam of the scales.
To reconcile the moral law, human responsibility, free-will, with the absolute power of God; and the existence of evil with His absolute wisdom, and goodness, and mercy,–these are the great enigmas of the Sphinx.
The Dimensions of the Lodge, our Brethren of the York Rite say, “are unlimited, and its covering no less than the canopy of Heaven.” “To this object,” they say, “the mason’s mind is continually directed, and thither he hopes at last to arrive by the aid of the theological ladder which Jacob in his vision saw ascending from earth to Heaven; the three principal rounds of which are denominated Faith, Hope, and Charity; and which admonish us to have Faith in God, Hope in Immortality, and Charity to all mankind.”
The Square is a right angle, formed by two right lines. It is adapted only to a plane surface, and belongs only to geometry, earth-measurement, that trigonometry which deals only with planes, and with the earth, which the ancients supposed to be a plane. The Compass describes circles, and deals with spherical trigonometry, the science of the spheres and heavens. The former, therefore, is an emblem of what concerns the earth and the body; the latter of what concerns the heavens and the soul.
… still the divine ever mingles with the human; with the earthly the spiritual intermixes; and there is something spiritual in the commonest duties of life.
… woe to that people which, seeking the material only, forgets that it has a soul.
Genuflection before the idol or the dollar atrophies the muscle which walks and the will which moves.
Hieratic or mercantile absorption diminishes the radiance of a people, lowers its horizon by lowering its level, and deprives it of that understanding of the universal aim, at the same time human and divine, which makes the missionary nations.
A free people, forgetting that it has a soul to be cared for, devotes all its energies to its material advancement.
The citizens copy after the State, and regard wealth, pomp, and luxury as the great goods of life. Such a nation creates wealth rapidly, and distributes it badly. Thence the two extremes, of monstrous opulence and monstrous misery; all the enjoyment to a few, all the privations to the rest, that is to say, to the people; Privilege, Exception, Monopoly, Feudality, springing up from Labor itself: a false and dangerous situation, which, making Labor a blinded and chained Cyclops, in the mine, at the forge, in the workshop, at the loom, in the field, over poisonous fumes, in miasmatic cells, in unventilated factories, founds public power upon private misery, and plants the greatness of the State in the suffering of the individual.
It is a greatness ill constituted, in which all the material elements are combined, and into which no moral element enters. If a people, like a star, has the right of eclipse, the light ought to return.
The Sun is the ancient symbol of the life-giving and generative power of the Deity. To the ancients, light was the cause of life; and God was the source from which all light flowed; the essence of Light, the Invisible Fire, developed as flame manifested as light and splendor.
The Sun was His manifestation and visible image; and the Sabæans worshiping the Light–God, seemed to worship the Sun, in whom they saw the manifestation of the Deity.
The “Master of Life” was the Supreme Deity, above both, and manifested through both; Zeus, the Son of Saturn, become King of the Gods; Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, become the Master of Life; Dionysus or Bacchus, like Mithras, become the author of Light and Life and Truth.
The Sun and Moon represent the two grand principles of all generations, the active and passive, the male and the female. The Sun represents the actual light. He pours upon the Moon his fecundating rays; both shed their light upon their offspring, the Blazing Star, or HORUS, and the three form the great Equilateral Triangle, in the center of which is the omnific letter of the Kabbalah, by which creation is said to have been effected.”
The word Prudentia means, in its original and fullest signification, Foresight; and, accordingly, the Blazing Star has been regarded as an emblem of Omniscience, or the All-seeing Eye, which to the Egyptian Initiates was the emblem of Osiris, the Creator. With the YOD in the center, it has the kabbalistic meaning of the Divine Energy, manifested as Light, creating the Universe.
The JUSTICE and MERCY of God are in equilibrium, and the result is HARMONY, because a Single and Perfect Wisdom presides over both.
…the great commandment of Masonry is this: “A new commandment give I unto you: that ye love one another! He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, remaineth still in the darkness.”
Many great deeds are done in the small struggles of life. There is, we are told, a determined though unseen bravery, which defends itself, foot to foot, in the darkness, against the fatal invasion of necessity and of baseness.
There are noble and mysterious triumphs, which no eye sees, which no renown rewards, which no flourish of trumpets salutes.
Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battle-fields, which have their heroes, – heroes obscure, but sometimes greater than those who become illustrious. The Mason should struggle in the same manner, and with the same bravery, against those invasions of necessity and baseness, which come to nations as well as to men. He should meet them, too, foot to foot, even in the darkness, and protest against the national wrongs and follies; against usurpation and the first inroads of that hydra, Tyranny.
The protest of the Right against the Fact persists forever.
Whatever occurs, we should have Faith in the Justice and over-ruling Wisdom of God, and Hope for the Future, and Loving-kindness for those who are in error. God makes visible to men His will in events; an obscure text, written in a mysterious language. Men make their translations of it forthwith, hasty, incorrect, full of faults, omissions, and misreading.
It is absurd to say that Error, wounded, writhes in pain, and dies amid her worshipers. Truth conquers slowly. There is a wondrous vitality in Error. Truth, indeed, for the most part, shoots over the heads of the masses; or if an error is prostrated for a moment, it is up again in a moment, and as vigorous as ever. It will not die when the brains are out, and the most stupid and irrational errors are the longest-lived.
Masonry should be an energy; finding its aim and effect in the amelioration of mankind.
Morality is Faith in full bloom. Contemplation should lead to action, and the absolute be practical; the ideal be made air and food and drink to the human mind. Wisdom is a sacred communion. It is only on that condition that it ceases to be a sterile love of Science, and becomes the one and supreme method by which to unite Humanity and arouse it to concerted action. Then Philosophy becomes Religion.
…Masonry, like History and Philosophy, has eternal duties…
To be true, and to seek to find and learn the Truth, are the great objects of every good Mason.
On this national Holiday, we are to reflect and celebrate one of the greatest Americans in our pantheon of Founding Fathers, Martin Luther King, Jr. One of his many contributions to our American way of life came at one of his darkest hours which produced one of his brightest writings in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In it, king gives us an insight to the truth behind his protests and a reflection in how far afield we, as a nation, have walked from justice which we derive out of our own understanding of the moral law.
Masonry speaks at many levels about the Moral Law, how it is a rule and guide to what ‘being’ a Freemason is all about.
In 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his Letter from a Birmingham Jail which was an answer to his criticism for his peaceful protests in the south in pursuit of equality between white and black Americans.
In his letter, King writes to address criticism made against his presence in the Alabama protests to southern religious leaders who, in their collective opinion, thought the American Negro should wait for their equality, which King says acts as a “tranquilizing thalidomide” which, in the African American ear rings as a justice “never” to be had.
If you’ve never taken the time to read his letter, I highly suggest you not only read it, but take some time to understand his meaning and intent behind it, especially on this day of remembrance.
But, my purpose here is to look at his teaching of the Moral Law and how that squares with the Masonic understanding as taught in the fraternity’s catechism. In his letter King, talking about the unjust laws of segregation, says that a just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. He says “Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
At the time of his writing, segregation was a daily reality for black Americans, which “distorts the soul and damages the personality” giving the “…segregator a false sense of superiority, and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.”
So what does this have to do with the Moral Law of Masonry? First we need to understand how masonry sees the Moral Law, which is something I explored in 2010 in Whence came the Moral Law in Freemasonry?In that piece, the question asked was “Is the Moral Law from a religious perspective, as in given to man by the Great Architect, or a man made law constructed with religious ideas but applied in a humanistic manner so as to apply to our interaction with one another?” My conclusion, after looking at several sources, was that the idea of the Moral Law was best exemplified as being “…the virtues which we ought to cultivate, always tend to our own happiness, and that the best means of promoting them consists in living with men in that perfect union and charity which are cemented by mutual benefits.”
In essence, the Moral Law could be distilled down to living of the Golden Rule which, in the Christian faith, comes from Matthew 7:12 which says:
“In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law of the prophets.”
Interestingly this is a Rule, Law, or Code that is in nearly every faith system.
So, what lesson can we take away from Kings Injunction of the Moral Law and the Masonic application of it? Essentially, King and his peaceful protest to fight injustice in American society was a challenge to fight a law of segregation that was out of harmony with the moral law, even though many felt that it was. His example was to examine a just and unjust law saying “An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself…difference made legal” while “a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow that is willing to follow itself,” or “sameness” made legal.
The greatest stumbling block to this sameness is not the extremist of ideal but the “…moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” In other words, not going with the status quo and working to make things better for all.
Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love?
Martin Luther King Jr.
Further in the letter King asks “…Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love?” He also writes about the role of religious institutions and their lethargy in the movement to end segregation as “…a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a taillight behind our community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice.” which I believe could be applied to religiously concerned fraternities who hold so dearly to be upholders of the idea of a Moral Law.
Needless to say, King was angry at the position religious leaders of the south had taken and puts the challenge to them to aspire to justice and the upholding of the moral law saying “There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early church Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.” But he goes on to challenge the church saying “The contemporary church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound…so often the arch-supporter of the status quo” that “…if the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant ‘Social Club’ with no meaning for the twentieth century (emphasis mine).”
Again, on this Martin Luther King Jr. National Holiday, I strongly recommend reading his letter so as to gain a better understanding of the past within which it was written and to apply that understanding to the injustice that remains to this day, now nearly 60 years since its writing. When you read it ask yourself if your institutions of association application put you in the headlights or the taillights leading to higher levels of justice. As you read it, reflect on the ideals of the Moral Law, in society and in Masonry, and what it means to you in your faith, practice, and understanding of justice, as without it no law could be truly just.
Caught this on Facebook this morning, good find Br. James.
Shaq shows off his Masonic ring, the “ring of his profession.” I like his response to what it is. Listen to the conversation and you’ll get an idea of how most people respond when they see one.
The U.S. Constitution says in the first amendment that
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
The enactment of this prohibition prevented the Federal government from establishing a national church or religion or to excessively involve itself in religion in general but particularly to the benefit of one religion over another.
The outcome of this prohibition in the 200 plus years since its signing is today a pantheon of religious practice across America and a change in the national practice of faith. In effect, the establishment of religious freedom has allowed for a unique form of national religion to emerge with its own set of practices, rituals, and traditions. It is in effect, an American religion, established in the vacuum of any other religious tradition.
So as to make the point, every year 25 million Christmas trees are sold in the United States, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. Each one of these 30 million trees are placed prominently in the home, business, or Public Square, and then decorated with elaborate representations of riches and finery so as to make this mundane tree of wood and leaf become something of a dramatic representation of splendor. Once decorated, many place equally stunning packages of varying size and decoration beneath it. And lastly, to punctuate the bedazzled tree and packages, many households hold elaborate parties within which many a carol is sung in its presence and special libations of holiday beverages (Eggnog anyone?) poured in commemoration of the trees decoration.
Dog Nativity Scene Even Jesus Would Love! from bestweekever.tv http://www.bestweekever.tv/2010-12-21/dog-nativity-scene/
Amidst the special tree are a few ancillary affects which include a mysterious pot bellied man in a red suit who spreads cheer and mirth through magical gift giving, to whom many a child is taught to set out offerings of milk and cookies. And, under many of those trees is a small decorative Crèche, often remade with the pop culture cons of the day in representation of its historical significance.
Amazingly, nowhere is this ritual practice and performance written down or made sacred through any writing or sacred tradition.
Rather, its ideas are passed to the public through the things we buy such as the soft drink Coke, or its harder cousin Budweiser which annually make images of how to celebrate the holiday with their products. Or, in even more rabid devices created to influence your decisions in making purchases of gifts quelling your need to buy and collect for yourself and appealing to your need to appease the wants of those you love.
No, this American Religious tradition is unique and one within which art imitates life which is imitating art. Not many of us pull the candy canes and twinkle lights out in October, yet stores slowly begin to remind us of the coming tree adulating season.
Mind you, they’re not saying here comes the Christ’s Mass, their saying here comes Christmas, here come the holidays, or just simply Happy Holidays.
In case you didn’t make the connection, every December 25th, we celebrate Christmas which, as religious traditions go, is the birth of the Christian Christ Jesus. Yet, in the increasingly secular and religiously diverse America, we’ve kept the name of christmas (note the lowercase c) and created our own national religious holiday season.
But, this American Religion isn’t alone in its incorporation of the holiday and, in case you missed them, other religious holidays happen in December which only help to lend themselves to the greater notion of a Holiday Season so as to recognize everyone’s faith.
Islam celebrated Ashura on the 5th. Ashura is the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar marking the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram. It is a Shi’a Muslim day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala on 10 Muharram in the year 61 AH (680 A.D.)
Buddhism, the much admired Eastern tradition, had Bodhi Day on the 8th which is celebrated as the day that the historical Buddha experience enlightenment.
Catholic Christians Celebrate several special days along with the Christian Mass including Saint Nicholas Day on the 6th. Saint Nick is perhaps the origin of the idea of Santa Clause as he is commonly called Nikolaos the Wonderworker for his secret gift giving. Also in December is The Immaculate Conception day on the 8th which celebrates belief in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And the Feast Day for the Virgin of Guadalupe on the 12th which is to commemorate the vision on the Tepeyac hill by the recently converted Aztec Indian, Juan Diego, of the Nahuatl Virgin Mary.
Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, is celebrated from the 21st through the 28th in remembrance of the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt.
Pagan/Wiccan communities celebrate the Solstice with a Yule celebration on the 22nd. Yule is most likely the Germanic source for much of our winter arboreal adulation as it is a winter holiday consisting of feasting and celebration at the changing of the solstice. Today, the burning of a Yule log is a common theme which harkens back to this tradition.
On the 26th, Zoroastrian’s celebrate Zarathosht Diso, the death of Prophet Zarathushtra. The celebration of this holiday, held annually on December 26th is often a private and personal one held within homes and temples without an external manifestation.
Not to forget in Masonic tradition, St. John the Evangelist’s feast day on December 27th, most commonly celebrated on or near the solstice and a day to reconnect with your Masonic brothers after having been away. Often, if celebrated, it is with a Festive Board or Table Lodge.
And, one of my personal favorites is the remembrance of Saturnalia, the Roman era festival held in celebration in honor of the god Saturn, the father of the god Jupiter. In ancient times, this feast took place from December 17 through the 23rd and is thought to of begun around 217 B.C.E. Ironically (or perhaps not) the holiday consisted of celebrations, gift giving, and visiting of friends. The customary greeting for the holiday was “Io, Saturnalia!” Io pronounced “e-o”) which is a Latin interjection such as “ho” as in “Ho, praise to Saturn.”
With so many holidays and celebrations going on in December, it’s ok to step back and look at the months many celebrations and say Happy Holidays without stepping on your religious toes or secular admonishment of religion. Because Congress shall “make no law respecting an establishment of religion” its up to us to celebrate however we want – be it as one of the 30 million christmas tree buyers or as Buddhist celebrating the day of enlightenment. In either case, it make no difference, by the fact of our communal celebration we together are creating an American Religious Holiday.
