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.
A sub section of relevant materials found through a collection of visual narratives from the web on or about the fraternity of Freemasonry and its outlying topics of interest.
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.
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.
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…
NOTE: This is from my consulting practice, but also has bearing on the management of a Lodge.
One of the reasons AMC’s “Mad Men” television show is so popular is that it tries to authentically depict American attitudes and moods of the early 1960′s, including how business was conducted. Viewers find it fascinating how the Mad Men think, the priorities driving them, and how they interact with employees and customers. Recently, I was going through some of my father’s old papers back when he worked as Product Planning Manager at Remington Rand in New York City, the makers of the UNIVAC computer at the time. In particular, I came across a training manual entitled, “Creative Management Development” from 1961. Evidently it was used as part of a training class to groom managers for the company. Realizing this was from the same period and venue (corporate New York) as “Mad Men” I picked through the manual carefully to see the perspective of management back then.
The manual was rather thick and consisted of several sections featuring different lessons. In particular, I came across a chapter entitled, “Elements of Effective Supervision” which included the following:
“The most effective supervisor is the one who…
Delegates authority
Makes definite assignments and supervises by results
Minimized detailed orders
Uses low pressure
Trains subordinates
Does different work from that done by his subordinates
Spends his time on long-range rather than short-range problems
This is the pattern of what we call general supervision.
As superiors intrude on matters that rightfully should be handled by their subordinates, problems have a tendency to snowball. One subordinate described the situation this way: ‘As long as the boss gives us the right to make our own decisions, we cooperate with him. We report to him all the information he needs to answer to his boss, but the little things we don’t bother him with. But if he doesn’t give us any freedom we can make his life miserable. We can bombard his office with reports on everything we do. We can refuse to make a decision until we talk to him about it. We can stop saving his time by sifting the important from the unimportant and we can keep him on the run.’ “
Each of the seven sections were then explained in greater detail in the manual. The only problem I had between then and now was the distinction of supervisor versus manager. Whereas I tend to see a supervisor as someone working more closely with workers to assure work is performed properly, I tend to see a manager as more as a leader assessing priorities and plotting direction. Although the chapter referred to a “supervisor,” I believe they were actually describing the duties of a “manager.”
For some rather old management advice from over a half century ago, I found it rather refreshing and interesting. It confirms what we’ve been saying for years, that managers need to learn to manage from the bottom-up, not just top-down. Employees should be properly trained, empowered, and allowed to assume responsibility. In other words, managers should manage more and supervise less, which is just the antithesis of today’s micromanagement philosophy.
The management advice from 1961 is every bit as applicable today as it was back then, making it something we should reconsider. Maybe one of the reasons viewers find the “Mad Men” program interesting is because it represents a time when we were more concerned with results as opposed to political correctness. And maybe we wish we could actively participate in such companies as the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency where Don Draper is the charismatic creative director who knows how to make things happen. Maybe he attended the same training course with my father.
Keep the Faith!
Note: All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies.
Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of M&JB Investment Company (M&JB) of Palm Harbor, Florida and has over 30 years of experience in the management consulting field. He can be reached at timb001@phmainstreet.com
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 evolution of Scandinavian Masonry by Dr. Andreas Önnerfors as published on the World Wide Exemplification of Freemasonry, better known as WEoFM.
He is the former director of First Academic center of Freemasonry and Fraternalism at the University of Sheffield.
In this lecture, Dr. Önnerfors explores the history of Scandinavian Freemasonry and the dissemination of Freemasonry in the Danish and Scandinavian world.
Interestingly, he explores this style of Masonry and its strong Christian connections.
Br. John Nagy has been a friend of FmI for a while. You may remember his from his past appearances on the Masonic Central pod cast.
He is the author of the Building… series of books, and his blog Building Builders.
This video below comes from the World Wide Exemplification of Freemasonry, in which he speaks about the Masonic Paradigm which he says is different that what most might be familiar with that will enlighten the viewers Masonic endeavor – called Building Builder.
its a great intro into Masonic leadership from both sides of the learning curve: those being lead and those leading them. Its a great listen for quite literally Building Builders.
A new video out from the World Exemplification of Freemasonry by Br. Dr. Guy L Beck on Freemasonry in the British Empire and the Colonial expansion of Freemasonry into India.
The video WEOFM video explores the expansion of Freemasonry in the Hindu world including the notable Freemason, and Swami, Vivekananda who, while still named Narendranath Dutta, was Initiated in 1884 at Anchor and Hope Lodge No. 1, Kolkotta.
He opens with an excerpt from Professor Jessica Harland-Jacobs, who some may remember was a guest on Masonic Central. Makes for an interesting view.
One of the reasons AMC’s 
Tim Bryce is a writer and the Managing Director of 
