Who are the Freemasons and what do they do?

What is a Freemason?

One of the oldest fraternities in the western world, a Freemason is the common name for those initiated into the fraternity of Freemasonry. But, what elements are at work in ones decision to become a one?

From the What is Freemasonry ebook, a Freemason is a man who, in searching for life’s ineffable questions, finds his way into the company of fellow seekers. Comprised of men from every nation, races, social and economic level, all hold similar ideals and beliefs.

The uniting idea is a faith in the divine founded in the certitude in an afterlife. This “belief” is grounded by certain landmark tenants and virtues which ultimately lead in exploration of those invisible questions, leading ultimately to the betterment of all mankind.

More in the series:

What is Freemasonry? – Part 1: What is a Freemason?
What is Freemasonry? – Part 2: How Old is Freemasonry?
What is Freemasonry? – Part 3: Why are Freemason’s Secretive?
What is Freemasonry? – Part 4: Is Freemasonry a Patriotic Body?
What is Freemasonry? – Part 5: Why Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth?
What is Freemasonry? – Part 6: Why is Freemasonry a Ritual Practice?
What is Freemasonry? – Part 7: Why Does Freemasonry Use Odd Symbols?

From the ebook: What is Freemasonry?

art, Albert Gallatin Mackey, masonic author, historian

Albert Gallatin Mackey

masonic author, encyclopedia of freemasonry

In Masonic circles, few names carry the weight that comes with the eminent that of Albert Gallatin Mackey. Mostly known as a Masonic historian, author, and scholar, Mackey was also an educator and a medical doctor prior to his lifting the Masonic pen. Yet, this great accomplishments are eclipsed in the shadow of two of his biggest achievements in collecting and publishing Masonic wisdom and knowledge in his magnum opus, the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, in 1873, and through his Masonic periodical works including The Southern and Western Masonic Miscellany — a project he maintained at his own expensein 1852. Although Mackey’s life work centered on Freemasonry, it didn’t start out that way — beginning with much simpler objective that would come to fuel his passion for chronicling the world of Freemasonry.

Born on March 12, 1807, in Charleston, South Carolina, a young Albert Mackey began his working career as an educator. Once through his studies, Mackey worked as a teacher to earn the resources necessary to attend medical school. Upon completion, Mackey returned to Charleston to begin his life. After twenty years of practicing medicine (1834-1854), he left the profession in order to become a full-time author writing about a variety of subjects but in particular about the Middle Ages, language, and Freemasonry.

An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, 1916

Mackey was initiated into Saint Andrews Lodge No. 10 in Charleston, South Carolina in 1841 where he moved through the lodge chairs. Mackey went on to associate with Solomon’s Lodge, No. 1, in Charleston where, 1842, he was elected “Worshipful Master.” He then held the position of Grand Secretary from 1842 until 1867. Albert Mackey went on to hold numerous positions and to be affiliated with numerous other Masonic Lodges.

In the time that he was affiliated with Freemasonry, Mackey produced many different works about the fraternity. His first Masonic piece, A Lexicon of Freemasonry, was published in 1845. He then wrote The Mystic Tie in 1851, History of Freemasonry in South Carolina in 1861 and, in 1874, the opus he is most known for, the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. At different intervals, Mackey edited the Western Masonic Miscellany (1849-54), the Masonic Quarterly Review (1857-58), the American Freemason (1859-60), Mackey’s National Freemason (1871-74) and the Voice of Freemasonry (1875-79). Said of Mackey and his work to encapsulate the Masonic landmarks:

…his reduction to writing of twenty-five principles of Masonic law, whether or no they are all true landmarks, was a feat of no mean proportions. His list gave other Masonic thinkers a solid foundation from which to take off on expeditions into what was then an unexplored Masonic field. (read more of variations of the landmarks under Masonic Symbols)

After a long and illustrious career, Albert Gallatin Mackey passed away in Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on June 21, 1881. Said before the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction by Past Georgia Grand Master Henry Buist at Mackey’s eulogy:

He was a fearless and gifted speaker; his language was courteous and manner dignified; and occasionally, in his earnestness to maintain what he conceived to be right, he became animated and eloquent. Positive in his convictions, he was bold in their advocacy. His course of action once determined on, supported by an approving conscience no fear or disfavor or discomfiture could swerve him from his fixed purpose. Whatever was the emergency, he was always equal to it. Where others doubted. he was confident; where others faltered, he was immovable; where others queried, he affirmed. He was faithful to every public and Masonic duty. Treachery found no place in his character. He never betrayed a trust. He was eminently sincere and loyal to his friends, and those who were most intimately associated with him learned to appreciate him the most. He was generous and frank in his impulses, and cherished malice toward none, and charity for all. His monument is in the hearts of those who knew him longest and best. He is no longer of this earth. His work among men is ended; his earthly record is complete.

In 2001, the Scottish Rite Research Society established the Albert Gallatin Mackey Award for Lifetime Achievement and Excellence in Masonic Scholarship. The lifetime achievement award is given to individuals whose works have received longstanding universal recognition by Masonic scholars and the excellence in Masonic scholarship is presented to individuals whose original works published by the society are distinguished by their superior achievement.

Today you can find the tomb of Albert Gallatin Mackey at Glenwood Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Works by (and with) Albert Gallatin Mackey:

hermetic, freemasonry, masonic tradition

The Hermetic Foundations of the American Republic

hermetic, freemasonry, masonic tradition

How many of us understand what Hermetic thought is, beyond the idea of “hermetically sealed”?

Some time back I attended a lecture, presented by a lodge here in Southern California, by Dr. Stephan Hoeller, the Gnostic “Bishop” of Los Angeles. His title, I assure you, is not a pun or insult, but a very fitting description to a very intelligent man.

The lecture was on The Hermetic Foundations of the American Republic, which essentially suggested that the ideas and efforts of the founding fathers were the result of a broader subcurrent of the intelligentsia within society and whose ideas manifested themselves into the early documents and foundation of the American Republic.

But first, a note on Hermetic thought

A tradition of knowledge said to date into Ancient Egypt, Hermetic thought is associated with the god Thoth, who the Greeks later related to Hermes. Thoth’s title (one of many) was three times great, which the Greeks translated to Hermes Trismegistus or the thrice great Hermes, and who is believed to be the author of the Emerald Tablet, and Asclepius, within the hermetic texts.

It’s thought that Hermeticism flourished in ancient Alexandria, but moved underground and fell out of common knowledge with the fall of Rome and the onset of the middle ages.

The Renaissance brought about this resurgence of knowledge, including a rediscovery of Hermetic texts (see the Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction), brought to Europe by the Medici family from sources in Byzantium. What these texts contained were ancient ideas of wisdom that talked in detail about a dual nature to man and his pursuit to unify them. The two sides were made up of a human lower self that includes feelings, thoughts, sensation, and ego, the human traits we recognize today. The other half consisted of the spirit, that intangible, ineffable thing that gives us that higher conscience. Its efforts were to cultivate the conscious coming together of the initiates self with his spirit.

The idea within Hermetics was the joining of the two, the transformation of two separate elements into a new one. Some believe that Hermetic tradition survived the fall of Rome and the middle ages in the mystical field of Alchemy, which has existed in different forms for many centuries.

With the dawning of the Renaissance, so too brought the return of Hermetic thought which began to seep into Christian tradition. This movement was quickly stamped out by the doctrinal inquisition, which has since walled itself off from and philosophical idea of a personal God consciousness. Some examples of this era of sanitization of this transformative self, he suggests, could be seen in the extermination of both the Templars and Cathars in France. But again, the ideas did not die, nor were they eradicated. The Hermeticists moved underground into the “secret societies” of the age, two of those societies were the Rosicrucian’s and the other was Freemasonry.

One of the traits of Hermetic study was a progression of steps, or degrees, where the initiated would learn different aspects of the knowledge slowly to cultivate the eventual merger into the self, which was the physical and mental awakening of the God conscious, epitomized in the phrase “Know Thyself.”

So this unconscious cognition moved though Europe finding a receptive home in England where it was nurtured and incubated amidst revolution and religious freedom, away from the Catholic Church.

So what does this have to do with the foundation of America?

Many of the ideas, inherent in the fabric of our country within our constitution, have direct connections to the tenants of Hermetic thought. One such connection is the separation of Church and State. Hermetic tradition says that the individual chooses his path to the divine, and is not directed or influenced one way or another. Freedom of religion here is a direct extension of this idea, that the state is the vessel of the people and should not dictate one faith by presuming authority of one faith or another. The initiated must find his self and not be told where or what it is.

Public education is an extension of the Hermetic idea of finding the god consciousness, though the exploration of the physical universe. How does one attain this consciousness, by learning about their physical universe and its furthest reaches. Education creates the “divine metal” of the body, giving it its strength and resiliency.

And lastly, the three branches of government work in conjunction of opposites striving to find a balance for the good of the body, the ultimate attainment of the self.

The lecture made some interesting links and offered some tantalizing food for thought. Somewhere within our collective body of knowledge, behind the fog of memory, lay the history of Freemasonry.

Works by Dr. Stephan Hoeller include:

Freemasons’ Civil-Rights Violation in Italy

This comes from a Feedback comment to the website. While impossible to verify the veracity of the details, I re-post this with the intent of designating information. The news of this comes as my own concerns have begun to stir as threads of Nationalism have started to be insidiously woven into the American fabric. For those who question this need only look at the brief examples of Freemasons under nationalistic (read fascist) governments.

The following comes from Libero Muratore, who starts, “Please help us spread this:”

Freemasons’ Civil-Rights violation in Italy

A serious discrimination of Freemasons belonging to the four main Italian Masonic Organization is taking place in these hours.

The Italian Parliamentary Committee on Organized Crime (Commissione Parliamentary Antimafia) has seized the lists of all Freemasons belonging namely to the Grande Oriente d’Italia , Gran Loggia d’Italia degli ALAM, Gran Loggia Regolare d’Italia and Serenissima Gran Loggia d’Italia, in the regions of Sicily and Calabria. These lists include over 4000 names and personal data. The Parliamentary Committee justified this act on the basis of the presence of a high concentration of Freemasons in the two regions of Italy with the highest rate of organized crime.

Italian magistrates and investigators have been enquiring on the connections between criminal organizations such as Sicilian mafia and ‘ndrangheta of Calabria with businessmen, civil-servants and local politicians who in some cases are also Freemasons. During these investigations magistrates have obtained the names of the Freemasons connected with the criminal organizations both through voluntary collaboration of the Masonic organizations involved or through issuing search warrants for their headquarters.

Investigations were limited to the member of Masonic organizations closely related to the people charged with connection with organized crime. But in these days the Parliamentary Committee on Organized Crime led by On. Rosy Bindi (Democratic Party – formerly member of the defunct Christian Democratic Party ) has unanimously taken on a new and unprecedented road to what they call the truth. During hearings in front of the Parliamentary Committee, the Grand Masters of the above mentioned four major Masonic organization of Italy (out of a total of over one hundred smaller Masonic groups) were asked to produce the lists of all the Freemasons in Sicily and Calabria, in spite of the strict laws on privacy. At their denial to comply the Committee issued on March 1, 2017, a search warrant for their headquarters and the lists were finally seized. The Committee strategy, although On. Bindi declared that the names of Freemasons will be kept secret and not handed over to the press, seems to consist in an indiscriminate and utterly general investigation of Freemasons in order to file preventively whoever is in a position to commit any possible illicit act or abuse of power.

Moreover various members of this Committee, specifically Sen. Davide Mattiello (Democratic Party) and On. Claudio Fava ( independent left-wing Member of the Parliament) are submitting to the Parliament different draft laws aimed to limit the rights of Freemason, stating incompatibility between Masonic Brotherhoods and almost any job in the Italian Public Administration, from the army and law enforcement to civil-servants and university professors and researchers.

At the same time one of the leading Italian magazines, l’Espresso from Feb. 10, 2017 – Aboliamo la Massoneria, has recently published a long article invoking a total ban on Freemasonry and a close control on service clubs such as Lions International, Rotary Club and Kiwanis, all accused to be in some way connected to Freemasonry.

Apart from this exploit the rest of the Italian paper press and tv and radio media has been almost silent with the exception of the Radio Radicale web site which is hosting the audio-recordings of all the Parliamentary Committee hearings with the Grand Masters.

As it is to be expected the rest of information on the subject is currently left to a cloud of conspiracy theory web-sites and blogs. It is apparent that the action taken by the Parliamentary Committee on Organized Crime against Freemasons in general represents an arbitrary interference in the private life of citizen without any justified reason, apart that of belonging to what are still fully legal organizations and it is endorsing unjustified rage against Freemasons. The Grand Master of the Grande Oriente d’Italia has even expressed concerns over possible terrorist attacks targeting Masonic Temples after such an appeal appeared on Dabiq, the caliphate magazine.

This conduct clearly represents an attempt of mass surveillance and a violation of articles 12, 18, 19 , 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Parliamentary Committee on Organized Crime has the same enquiring powers of any ordinary magistrate, but it’s not subject to any higher authority since it is composed by Members of the Parliament, thus precluding any possibility of appeal and any right to defense.

Thousands of Freemasons in southern Italy struggle every day against organized crime and corruption conditioning business and politics, it’s not the presence of a few rotten apples that can justify the mass filing of free citizens. We appeal to everyone who cherish the global respect of Civil-Rights to follow up and watch closely the current situation in Italy.

mph, secret teachings author, Great Work

Manly P. Hall – Freemason and Philosopher

Manly P. Hall, 33º Scottish Rite Freemason, raised November 22, 1954, passed to the celestial lodge 1990.

The true Mason is not creed-bound. He realizes with the divine illumination of his lodge that as a Mason his religion must be universal: Christ, Buddha or Mohammed, the name means little, for he recognizes only the light and not the bearer. He worships at every shrine, bows before every altar, whether in temple, mosque or cathedral, realizing with his truer understanding the oneness of all spiritual truth.
-Manly P. Hall

mph
Manly Palmer Hall

Manly Hall is an icon of sorts to Freemasonry. His name and memory today are falling into some obscurity to many newer Freemasons, but his works remain important to the Masons education.

Born on March 18, 1901 in Peterborough, Ontario. Studying early on the ancient mystery and wisdom schools, he began a public role as a speaker and writer on philosophy, religion, and science. Much of his work has transformed the Western Mystery teachings that we recognize today. His philosophy is summed into a note he signed into a student’s book that reads, “To learn is to live, to study is to grow, and growth is the measurement of life. The mind must be taught to think, the heart to feel, and the hands to labor. When these have been educated to their highest point, then is the time to offer them to the service of their fellowman, not before.” Self Unfoldment By Disciplines of Realization.”

Much of his work, specifically about Freemasonry, was done before he was initiated and raised. Using the materials available to him at the time in public institutions, his works delved the many writings from history to find the essence of their connections in word and meaning, collected specifically in his work The Secret Teachings of All Ages in 1928. This work collected and brought back to light wisdom from forgotten “sages” whose ideas, faiths and societies had been long forgotten and ignored by modern scholarship.

In 1934 Mr. Hall founded the Philosophical Research Society, dedicating it to the ensoulment of all arts, sciences, and crafts, and devoted to the one basic purpose of advancing the brotherhood of all that lives, to meet all lovers of wisdom on a common ground. The society still exists in a limited capacity today in its same location in Los Angeles now designated as a Historical Cultural Site. Around it has evolved the University of Philosophical Research, a distance learning graduate program nationally DEAC accredited program offering degrees in Consciousness Studies and Transformational Psychology.

Hall, writing several books on the subject of Freemasonry put himself in the vanguard of Albert Pike and W.L. Wilmshurst with his works The Lost Keys of Freemasonry, Masonic Orders of Fraternity, Freemasonry of the Ancient Egyptian and The Secret Destiny of America. This last focusing on his belief that our continent was set aside for a great experiment of enlightened self-government by ancient philosophers, and that the seeds of this plan for the founding of America were planted one thousand years before the Christian era and is partly revealed in the symbolism of the Great Seal of the United States. This same idea is tied to Francis Bacon’s book The New Atlantis from 1624, of whom Hall had a particular interest.

Hall passed onto the the celestial lodge on August 29, 1990. While his final years attracted a degree of turmoil and mystery, the legacy of his Great Work lives on in the Philosophical Research Society and in his writings. One of the great aspects of Hall is that his work transcended Freemasonry finding resonance in all of the ancient wisdom and thought including Rosicrucian’s, astrology, the Bible, Tarot, dreams, mysticism, Eastern and Western philosophy, religion, psychology, symbology and reincarnation.

Of all of the lessons that a Mason can take away from his work is to open our eyes and be aware of the depth and light that we have before us from ALL ages of the great mysteries. Freemasonry is but one channel to that light, and thanks to Brother Hall, we have a new lens from which to view more.


The Secret Teachings of All Ages – Reader’s Edition

The classic work since 1928, Hall’s masterful encyclopedia of ancient mythology, ritual, symbolism, and the arcane mysteries of the ages is available in a compact and easy to read edition.

Like no other book of the twentieth century, Manly P. Hall’s legendary The Secret Teachings of All Ages is a codex to the ancient occult and esoteric traditions of the world. Students of hidden wisdom, ancient symbols, and arcane practices treasure Hall’s magnum opus above all other works.

Probably one of the best primers into the Western Mystery Tradition, you can find Manly P. Halls opus on Amazon.

Master of the Mysteries: New Revelations on the Life of Manly Palmer Hall

To understand the depth of Hall’s life and work, Louis Sahagan has assembled one the best biographies on the Master of the Mysteries, breathing life into dark recesses of life that was both remarkable and tragic.

This new edition contains dozens of previously unknown love letters from his wife Marie Bauer. They are the closest we will come to an autobiographical portrait of these Los Angeles mystics in love.

Ordo Ab Chao | Symbols and Symbolism

In this installment of Symbols and Symbolism, we explore the origins of the Latin phrase ordo ab chao better known as order out of chaos. Often taken as an esoteric alliteration of transformation, the source of this oft used Latin phrase has its roots deeply embedded in the origin story of the Scottish Rite in the Americas.

While philosophically esoteric, the phrase holds closer to the literal movement from darkness into light, with the formation of the Scottish Rite at Charleston.

Mackey, in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, describes the phrase, thus:

A Latin expression, meaning Order out of Chaos. A motto of the Thirty-third Degree, and having the same allusion as lux e tenebrious (this Latin phrase belongs to the Latin translation of the Gospel of John“et lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eam non conprehenderunt,” meaning “The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it”). The invention of this motto is to be attributed to the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Charleston, and it is first met with in the Patent of Count Alexandre Francois Auguste de Grasse, dated February 1, 1802. When De Grasse afterward carried the rite over to France and established a Supreme Council there, he changed the motto, and, according to Lenning in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry 1822 or 1828, Ordo ab hoc, Order Out of This, was used by him and his Council in all their documents.

Order of the Sovereign Grand Inspectors General

The phrase appears on the grand decorations of the Order of the Sovereign Grand Inspectors General. The decoration rests on a Teutonic Cross which sits below a nine-pointed star, formed by three triangles of gold, one upon the other, and interlaced. From the lower part of the left side toward the upper part of the right extends a sword, and, in the opposite direction, a hand of Justice. In the middle is the shield of the Order, blue; upon the shield is an eagle like that on the banner; on the dexter side of the shield is a golden balance, and on the sinister a golden compass resting on a golden square. Around the whole shield runs a stripe of blue, lettered in gold with the Latin words ” ORDO AB CHAO;” and this stripe is enclosed by a double circle formed by two serpents of gold, each holding his tail in his mouth. Of the smaller triangles formed by the intersection of the principal ones, those nine that are nearest the blue stripe are coloured red, and on each is one of the letters that constitute the word S. A. P. I. E. N. T. I. A. (Latin: wisdom, discernment, memory)

You can read more installments of Mackey’s Encyclopedia under Symbols & Symbolism here on this site and video of these segments on YouTube.

Managing the Future of Freemasonry – An Interview with Dr David West

I spent some time talking with the author of Managing the Future of Freemasonry: The Book of Optimism, Dr. David West, about his work, the past and future of Freemasonry and what is at stake in moving into 21st-century fraternalism. Some of his ideas may surprise you, but when you consider what he says I think you may find some resonance in his ideas in addressing what’s at stake as we move into the new millennium.

Greg Stewart (GS) – Let’s start with who is Dr David West BA PhD

Managing the Future of Freemasonry A Book of Optimism
Managing the Future of Freemasonry A Book of Optimism

David West (DW) – I gained my first degree in Philosophy from the University of Exeter and my Doctorate of and in Philosophy from the University of Leicester. I taught university in England and Canada for several years, publishing in the academic press. My later business career included Ford and Xerox (President’s Award for exceptional service.) I served on several quasi-governmental committees on the future of work, was the special adviser to a Cabinet Minister (a bit like an Under-Secretary of State) and later founded The Working Manager Ltd, creating the core content of its web-based management education process. My books include:

My mother lodge is St Laurence No. 5511, a fast growing lodge which grows by 12% each year and is the subject of two of my books. I am a member of two other Craft lodges and three RA chapters under the English Constitution and am in the process of joining the Mark and the Royal & Select to trace Neville Barker Cryer’s footsteps in The Royal Arch Journey. I served as Grand Registrar of the Masonic Province of Essex and am now Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden.

I lecture on such Masonic topics as The cowboy, the devil and the Masonic hoax, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, The King and Raquel Welch, Never be short of candidates again, The law of paradoxical intent and King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. I write for The Square magazine.

I have been married to Jenny, a retired Consultant Clinical Psychologist, for forty-eight years and we have two children, one a lawyer on the side of the angels and the other a professional musician. We live in London, England.

GS – Tell us what’s behind your book, Managing the Future of Freemasonry: The Book of Optimism.

This book is based on the view that the golden years of Freemasonry have passed with the departure of a world never likely to return. We cannot pretend that our membership problem will simply go away. If we are to rescue our order, we must take an objective look at ourselves and understand the society we now face. Our challenge will be to renew our ideals and bring them to the attention of a new audience, one that we as yet know little about. This will require hard work, open-mindedness, creativity and above all leadership. The optimism that runs through this book depends upon our ability to change, knowing that holding on to the past will be the last thing our order does.

I compare our current situation with the years following 1800, a period in which 42% of English lodges were lost. In the earlier 18th century, the ideals of Freemasonry were in keeping with those of our craftsmen and tradesmen brethren. Those ideals were lost during the first part of the industrial revolution and Freemasonry almost died in massive social and economic changes during which the majority of these crafts and trades disappeared. There was no leadership during this vital time for our order and our survival was almost entirely accidental as, eventually, Freemasonry found a new source of membership in the growth of the middle class.

Odd as it may seem, given that the period saw two world wars, little changed in the social and moral life from 1850 to 1950, and the middle class sustained Freemasonry for a hundred years. We assumed that this would go on forever but, during the 1950s, a quite sudden change occurred, one which began the end of the middle class — and which despite promptings, our leadership currently seems content to ignore. Unless we recognize these changes, we will be unable to recognize the opportunities open to us.

This is a book of optimism. I believe that we can achieve a resurgence. More than this, I believe that we can become more relevant to and more important in society than ever before. I examine the absence of common ethical principles in today’s society and argue that this absence makes the moral life near to impossible. I argue that Freemasonry is a moral order, one in which the moral life can be sustained in the face of this new dark age. This is our purpose, our function in society. It is what we are here for. I argue that making the choice to become a Freemason provides a meaning to life, something that many men are looking for and that, in providing this meaning, we shall save ourselves.

There are many implications of this, one of these is that we must cease to listen to the siren voice of [public relations], and make a positive statement of what we are and what we offer. It is clear that the false gods of PR are seeking to change the excellences of our order, and they must be resisted. I describe the form of leadership we require, one that makes the three grand principles the basis of all we do. These principles also turn out to be the principles of effective management. I will not say that it will be easy and I recognize that resistance will be strong. There are many brethren who would see their lodge go dark rather than accept change. Many lodges will go under, but then many always have.

We must take action now, just as we did not take action back in 1830. We cannot rely on luck again.

GS – What, in a nutshell, did Masonry do in the 1830s to make that change? Or was it more of a social change (like the industrial revolution) that preceded the change mid-century?

DW – In the 1830s, there was no leadership in freemasonry capable of recognizing the need for change, let alone make it. Our survival in Europe at least was solely a matter of the serendipitous rise of the middle class.

GS – What inspired this work? What made you put pen to paper?

DW – I have been working up to this book in all my earlier works. I care deeply about Freemasonry but I am equally deeply worried about the emperor’s new clothes. There seems to be very little written in the UK which is anything other than hagiography, even if there is a lot more virility in American writers such as John Bizzack, Richard A. Graeter, Andrew Hammer and Kirk C. White. Reading Rudyard Kipling again, I became convinced that he loved the ideals and ritual of Freemasonry but not its management, which is why he attended lodge so remarkably rarely after he left India. I think we must talk about the management of Freemasonry before it is too late.

GS – Given its subject matter, without giving away all of your ideas, what do you think is behind the drop in numbers?

DW – The social democracy of the 1960s and 1970s seemed to be leading towards a more egalitarian and caring state, but from 1980 such decency was replaced by greed on the one hand and fear of poverty on the other. The establishment showed that it could not be trusted, with the absence of a relationship between pay and performance at the top, continued crime and dishonesty within the finance industry, expenses fiddles and cash-for-access in government, sex crimes among media personalities, racial gang rape, organized pedophilia, hucksterism, ‘clever’ tax schemes, fiddled automotive performance reports, unreliable drug studies, and too many other sins to mention. Life has become harder-edged and uncaring with fewer spiritual values.

Respect for senior management has declined to an all-time low and there is a meanness about life. The focus on money, an outcome of Thatcherism and Reaganomics, is not an environment in which Freemasonry can flourish. Brotherly love, relief and truth do not fit with greed and self-interest. Austerity has meant that the men that we seek to recruit and retain have less time, less money, less energy and less security. Brethren can not commit to regular attendance at lodge because they simply do not know what demands their employers will put on them. These changes go along with other uncertainties in religious belief and the role of the sexes.

GS – Is there any one “silver bullet” that lodges or even individual masons can do, starting today, to change that tide?

DW – As I say in my book, Things to do when you have nothing to do, when faced with a problem, we try to solve it on the basis of our experience. When we fail, we rarely question our experience and thus repeat the same failed attempts. The law of paradoxical intent holds that by doing something different, even the opposite of what we usually do, we will be more likely to succeed; in terms of Masonic recruitment that: Being busy not seeking candidates will actually cause them to appear.

Candidates will come to those energetic lodges that are involved, active and ready for something new — and thus feel good about themselves. People will rarely talk about dull, gray lodges that are doing nothing interesting but they will talk about lodges that are busy, exciting and vibrant. Members who feel good about their lodge will talk to friends, relations and neighbors about it; not overtly to recruit but simply because they are excited about the lodge — and excitement is infectious.

GS – “Being busy not seeking candidates,” what, in your opinion, are some of the things lodges could (or should) be busy doing?
 
DW – I use the ‘law’ of paradoxical intent. I wrote a whole book on what lodges can do. It is on Amazon. Things to Do When You Have Nothing to Do …: Or How to Find Those Candidates Who Have Been Looking for You All This Time. Just a few of the chapter descriptions include:
  • An entertainment using 18th century exposures of the ritual, featuring Prichard’s‘Masonry Dissected’ and exposing a dreadful cover up. ?- The truth about the words
  • Shock! Horror!The established theory is wrong.? – A White Table?
  • The complete ‘how-to’ with a full script and a discussion of openness.? – Success??
  • The design and use of websites, a caution, being interesting, contacts and how to manage them, getting to know candidates, mentoring recruits.? – Triple!
  • How to initiate three candidates at one meeting in a dramatic but personal way.? – Music for Exposure!

GS – From your perspective, what was the hardest thing about writing this book?

DW – As with all books, deciding what NOT to include.

GS – Any glimpse of what you chose NOT to include?

DW – I very nearly wrote a program for change but realized that it was too detailed. I would have liked to have gone into more detail on middle class values and their development and on change of employment 1799 to 1899. [I] could have gone on forever!

GS – Any plans for future books?

DW – I am currently working on an update of my leadership book, Employee Engagement and the failure of leadership and collecting material for a series of essays for a book to be called Masonic legends and puzzles. The latter keeps interrupting work on the former. I find that books being researched are almost alive; like pets demanding constant attention.

GS – Where can people find you? Any social or traditional websites?

DW – I avoid social media but the website of my mother lodge http://stlaurencelodge.org.uk/ contains a lot that I agree with and also includes information on our busy lodge.


In doing this interview, Dr. West included the following statement on the craft. He listed it as his Statement for Freemasonry, which reads:

  • Freemasonry is a moral practice. We enable good men to live respected and die regretted.
  • There are periodic intervals in human experience when the moral life comes under attack. Now is such a time, and we must respond.
  • We will become a reservoir of social capital, enabling society to preserve the virtue of trust.
  • We will provide a bastion for the virtues in an amoral world, maintaining a community within which the moral life is lived.
  • In choosing to become a Freemason, a man accepts an obligation to live according to the virtues of the order. Such a choice cannot be made lightly.
  • There is no sense in which a man can say, ‘I want to be a Freemason but not a good one.’
  • To be a good Freemason is to exhibit specific virtues. The most important of these are the three grand principles — brotherly love, relief and truth — and the four cardinal virtues — prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice.

My thanks to Dr. David West for taking the time (and having the patience) for getting this interview out there.

You can read the press release on his books publication here, and you can find Managing the Future of Freemasonry: The Book of Optimism on Amazon.

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Great Architect of the Universe – Symbols and Symbolism

In this installment of Symbols and Symbolism, we look at Albert Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry definition of the Great Architect of the Universe, more aptly know as the deity or God. While an obvious connection to the cosmic power at hand in in the mysterious workings of the cosmos, his definition is an interesting skirting of an obvious connection to a Christian appellation and connection to the Christianization of Freemasonry as he opines “… it cannot be denied that since the advent of Christianity a Christian element has been almost imperceptibly infused into the Masonic system, at least among Christian Masons” So then, how does Mackey define the aspect of deity at work in the doings of Freemasonry – as a Great Architect of the Universe.

Read: What Does the G Stand For in Freemasonry

You can read more installments of Mackey’s Encyclopedia under Symbols & Symbolism here on this site and video of these segments on YouTube.

From Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry:

The title applied in the technical language of Freemasonry to the Deity.

It is appropriate that a society founded on the principles of architecture, which symbolizes the terms of that science to moral purposes, and whose members profess to be the architects of a spiritual temple should view the Divine Being, under whose holy law they are constructing that edifice, as their Master Builder or Great Architect. Sometimes, but less correctly, the title “Grand Architect of the Universe” is found.

Why a Masonic Ring on the Donald Trump Statue?

By now you’ve heard the sensational news of five Donald Trump statues, The Emperor Has No Balls, that were placed around the country. If you haven’t heard about it, you can read about it in Slate, the Daily Beast and in the The Washington Post – just to name a few. Even Chris Hodapp, over at Freemasons for Dummies, made a mention of it (taking no public sides in the political debate) on the day the statues appeared.


As strange as the appearance of this statue was, even stranger was the inclusion of a Masonic Ring on the nude presidential contender, rendering a strange message on an even stranger figure upon which to associate it. The inclusion reminded me of a
certain car commercial that ran during a certain super football game in 2013 with a devilish Willem DaFoe (you can read about it here and here) sporting the square and compass on his finger which ended up garnering nearly 3000 signatures to have the image removed.

masonic ring, Donald Trump, statue

Masonic ring on Donald Trump Statue

And yet, here we have another example of the iconic square and compass stealthy sneaking its way back into the material culture*, now poised eloquently on one of the most in-eloquent of presidential candidates in an unflattering of pose. Alas, the Hans Christian Andersen appellation of the Emperor Has No Clothes is perhaps one allegorical tale to be told about the presidential contender. But, an emperor without balls, wearing a Masonic Ring? The only question I can imagine on the minds of most Freemasons (after the obvious statement of how ludicrous it is) is …why? Why a Masonic ring on a naked Donald Trump?

I wondered that too. So, I asked the artist behind the statue “Ginger” (aka Joshua Monroe), why. Why a naked Donald Trump wearing only a Masonic Ring?

I should probably say that replicas of the sculpture, which are now priced at $10,000 with multiple buyers lining up, was a commissioned piece by the activist collective Indecline. In a recent press release, Indecline says “Museums in Miami (Wynwood), Germany, Arizona and California have also contacted INDECLINE in attempts to secure Trump statues for gallery shows.” The statue (and by circumstance, the ring upon it) further seeps into the material culture.

This was my conversation with the artist Ginger about it.

GS: A masonic ring is a pretty unique thing to have on hand, even for an artist. After watching the making of video where you cast the model (at bottom), was the ring the models or something you had on hand in your studio?

Ginger: It was not very hard to acquire the ring. Then the model was not [a mason] as I believe most Mason’s would want nothing to do with a project like this. I meant absolutely no disrespect to the Masons but they are the world’s most recognizable secret society.

GS: It’s an interesting juxtaposition, the naked figure clad only in a Masonic square and compass ring. The Washington Post mentioned that it represented his (Trumps) access to secret or elitist power (attributing to the artist “emblematic of privilege, secret handshakes and cloistered groups of powerful people). I’m curious, as an artist, is that a real part of the philosophy you see in [Trump] or just a design element meant to connect disparate elements into a new reality? Was the inclusion of the ring just a “secret society” prop, or did you mean to link the “naked emperor” with a Masonic ring as his only garment (which itself has a strangely symbolic reverse meaning within Freemasonry)?

Ginger: The reason that I myself chose to put the Masonic ring into the sculpture was to symbolize the fact that Donald Trump, who I know is not a mason, is most definitely involved in secret dealings and secret societies that the general public will never be aware of.

My grandfather was a high-ranking mason. I myself, being a legacy, have been asked to join several times by several members. As far as owning the Mason’s ring there’s actually artist and vendors that sell them on the street.

GS: Having a background in art, I think I understand how the ring is being used, but I know that a huge community of Freemasons are just dumbstruck (if not outright offended) at its use. Knowing that it’s the artist prerogative to choose what goes in or stays out of a piece is their own, I wonder what your thought is about how the community-at-large reads or interprets the association? Do you have any thought on how the community of Freemasons would interpret the inclusion? (Do you care or does it matter?)?

Ginger: I considered it a very tongue and cheek wink to the secret societies and their Quest To Rule The World. I have many friends who are masons and they joke about their meetings being held Pinky and the Brain style to try and take over the world. But it’s mostly crappy food that their wives have made. I myself have done lots of Charity and volunteer work and that’s why I’ve been approached by Masons I respect what you do and I hope you guys are not offended.

GS: I’m curious, do you see Trump as an emperor with no cloths because of what he’s done before the election or because he’s running now? Do you think it’s that secret access that makes him so naked?

Ginger: The title of the installment was actually set in stone long before the collective even found me as an artist.

The overall concept and look was their idea and their political statement. I am just the artist who brought it to life. However it was my idea to add the Mason ring not to insult Masons but  [it] suggests his involvement in secret societies.

Also the saggy inflamed butt was my idea.

– End

And there you have it.

The Emperor Has No Balls from Indecline on Vimeo.

*Material culture is defined as: the physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or have made. The term tends to be relevant only in archaeological and anthropological studies, but it specifically means all material evidence which can be attributed to culture, past or present.

From Wikipedia, Material Culture.


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