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.
Question, what is the most important function of a Masonic Lodge? Is it initiating new members, taking care of widows and orphans, community charity, providing scholarships, marching in parades, esoteric study, brotherly bonding?
The answer is none of the above. The most important function of a Masonic Lodge is to bury its dead. The Masonic funeral service is the most important act of compassion and service that a Masonic Lodge can perform for a Freemason and his family.
Yet too often not enough preparation, practice and elocution go into its performance. It’s often just one more chore, one more duty in the awesome responsibilities of a Worshipful Master.
Obtaining permission to ceremoniously bury members of the Black community in the 1770’s was a major concern of Prince Hall and prompted him to seek out Freemasonry to help him accomplish this end. It has been said by many scholars that way back in the operation of early English and Scottish Lodges, before the formation of the Grand Lodge of England, a funeral ceremony was part of their modus operandi.
If so then the best way for us to honor our grieving Brother’s family and the best way to honor our commitment to God and the best way to follow through with who we really are is to do justice to the ceremony of honoring and saying goodbye to a Brother who has been called to the Celestial Lodge above.
As you watch this video, see in it the fulfillment of that Masonic obligation well done. And think about in your own Lodge of perhaps forming a Masonic Funeral Team who will memorize the service and deliver it with the feeling and the sincerity that befits a Mason and that will do justice to the departing Brother and to God who sits and reins in the heavenly Grand East forever and forever.
Brother Wayne Anderson of Canada sends out a weekly Newsletter on Sundays to anybody who wants to be put on his mailing list. He often sends out some works by H.L. Haywood, one of his favorites. If you would like to be put on Brother Anderson’s newsletter mailing list please do not hesitate to contact him.
This weeks newsletter was on a subject that I have always found fascinating and demonstrates how interwoven with history Freemasonry is.
A lion of Judah sculpture at a synagogue in Florida.
The Lions Paw
By H. L. Haywood
The Mackey Encyclopædia article on this subject is very brief, as may be seen from the following: “A mode of recognition so called because of the rude resemblance made by the hand and fingers to a lion’s paw. It refers to the ‘Lion of the tribe of Judah.'” This is true as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough, for it leaves unanswered the questions of origin and interpretation. Nor does the companion article on the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah” give us much more information. If Mackey refrained from saying more because he knew no more we can sympathize with him, seeing that at this late day there is still very little known about the matter. But we have learned something since Mackey wrote, enough maybe, to set us on the track toward a satisfactory understanding of the matter.
Owing to its appeal to the imagination, and to the fear and reverence it has ever aroused, the lion has often been a favorite with symbolists, especially religious symbolists. Our modern anthropologists and folk-lore experts have furnished us with numberless examples of this, even among primitive folk now living, who are sometimes found worshiping the animal. Among the early peoples of India the lion was often used, and generally with the same significance, as standing for “the divine spirit in man.” Among the early Egyptians it was still more venerated, as may be learned from their monuments, their temples, and especially their sphinxes; if we may trust our authorities in the matter, the Nile dwellers used it as a symbol of the life-giving power of the sun and the sun’s ability to bring about the resurrection of vegetation in the spring time. In some of the sculpture left by the Egyptians to illustrate the rites of the Egyptian Mysteries the candidate is shown lying on a couch shaped like a lion from which he is being raised from the dead level to a living perpendicular. The bas-reliefs at Denderah make this very plain, though they represent the god Osiris being raised instead of a human candidate. “Here,” writes J. E. Harrison in her very interesting little book on “Ancient Art and Ritual,” “the God is represented first as a mummy swathed and lying flat on his bier. Bit by bit he is seen raising himself up in a series of gymnastically impossible positions, till he rises . . . all but erect, between the outstretched wings of Isis, while before him a male figure holds the Crux Ansata, the ‘cross with a handle,’ the Egyptian symbol of life.”
The crux ansata was, as Miss Harrison truly says, the symbol of life. Originally a stick, with a cross-piece at the top for a handle, it was used to measure the overflow of the Nile: but inasmuch as it was this overflow that carried fertility into Egypt, the idea of a life-giving power gradually became transferred to the instrument itself, in the same manner that we attribute to a writer’s “pen” his ability to use words. A few of our Masonic expositors, among whom Albert Pike may be numbered, have seen in the crux ansata the first form of that Lion’s Paw by which the Masonic Horus is raised. If this be the case, the Lion’s Paw is a symbol of life-giving power, an interpretation which fits in very well with our own position as outlined in the two preceding sections.
But it is also possible to trace the Lion’s Paw symbolism to another source. Among the Jews the lion was sometimes used as the emblem of the Tribe of Judah; as the Messiah was expected to spring from that Tribe the Lion was also made to refer to him, as may be seen in the fifth verse of the fifth chapter of the Book of Revelation, where Jesus Christ is called the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” It was from this source, doubtless, that the Comacines, the great Cathedral Builders of the Middle Ages, who were always so loyal to the Scriptures, derived their habitual use of the lion in their sculptures. Of this, Leader Scott, the great authority on the Comacines, writes that, “My own observations have led me to the opinion that in Romanesque or Transition architecture, i.e., between A.D. 1000 and 1200, the lion is to be found between the columns and the arch—the arch resting upon it. In Italian Gothic, i.e., from A.D. 1200 to 1500, it is placed beneath the column. In either position its significance is evident. In the first, it points to Christ as the door of the church; in the second, to Christ, the pillar of faith, springing from the tribe of Judah.” Since the cathedral builders were in all probability among the ancestors of Freemasons it is possible that the Lion symbolism was inherited from the Comacines.
During the cathedral building period, when symbolism was flowering out on all sides in mediæval life, the lion was one of the most popular figures in the common animal mythology, as may be learned from the Physiologus, the old book in which that mythology has been preserved. According to this record, the people believed that the whelps of the lioness were born dead and that at the end of three days she would howl above them until they were awakened into life. In this the childlike people saw a symbol of Christ’s resurrection after He had lain dead three days in the tomb; from this it naturally resulted that the lion came to be used as a symbol of the Resurrection, and such is the significance of the picture of a lion howling above the whelps, so often found in the old churches and cathedrals.
The early Freemasons, so the records show, read both these meanings,—Christ and Resurrection,—into the symbol as they used it. And when we consider that most of Freemasonry was Christian in belief down at least to the Grand Lodge era, it is reasonable to suppose that the Lion symbol may have been one of the vestiges of that early belief carried over into the modern system. If this be the case the Lion’s Paw has the same meaning, whether we interpret it, with Pike, as an Egyptian symbol, or with Leader Scott, as a Christian emblem, since it stands for the life-giving power, a meaning that perfectly accords with its use in the Third Degree. This also brings it into harmony with our interpretation of Eternal Life for in both its Egyptian and its Christian usages it refers to a raising up to life in this world, and not to a raising in the world to come.
The Hour Glass has always been one of my favorite Masonic symbols. So much so that in my times as Master of a Lodge I often included the litany of the Hour Glass in the funeral or memorial service.
Holding the Hour glass out before me, watching the sand slowly filter down from top to bottom, these words seemed to have an eerie prognostication of life and what a fleeting moment our lives really are.
“Thus wastes man! Today, he puts forth the tender leaves of hope; tomorrow, blossoms and bears his blushing honors thick upon him; the next day comes a frost, which nips the shoot, and when he thinks his greatness is still aspiring, he falls, like autumn leaves, to enrich our mother earth.”
Brother Ezekiel M. Bey has added his poetic thoughts to the meaning of the Hour Glass in verses that should be taken to heart.
Ezekiel M. Bey
The Hour Glass By Ezekiel M. Bey, FPS
I saw an hour glass with crystal sand
The grains fell through a slim sleek band
Wide at the top, wide at the bottom
Each single grain dropped through its model
Its mark was equal to minute’s lesson
To fill the bottom took sixty seconds
Equivalent to an hour I sat to look
As thoughts revealed a shape it took
Those crystal grains disciplined by law
The law of gravity defined it all
We start from top, end up below
We start from spirit, to give-up ghost
But life is beauty and creativity
Depends on what we chose to be
Life has many choices and one is failure
Success defines a Godly Tailor
However, not all success is God divine
Not all who fails is crucified
It’s just the lessons we’re to define
It’s all what you are deep inside
So life itself is but a moment
So treasure it, solstice to solstice
There comes a time to understand
The last grained dropped in the hour glass
“Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.”
– Bro. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) US humorist and author (1835-1910) Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F.& A.M., Missouri, USA
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we made today.”
– Bro. Henry Ford US automobile industrialist (1863-1947) Palestine Lodge No. 357 F.& A.M., Michigan, USA
“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
– Bro. Benjamin Franklin US author, diplomat, inventor, politician, & printer (1706-1790) St. John’s Lodge of Philadelphia, USA
“Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.”
– Bro. Rudyard Kipling British (Indian-born) author (1865-1936) Hope and Perseverance Lodge No. 782. E.C., Lahore, India
“Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.”
– Bro. Will Rogers US humorist and showman (1879-1935) Claremore Lodge No. 53 A.F.& A.M., Oklahoma, USA
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails Daring Greatly so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”
– Bro. Theodore Roosevelt 26th President of the United States Matinecock Lodge No. 806 F.& A.M., Oyster Bay, NY, USA (entitled, “Daring Greatly”)
“I’ve always followed my father’s advice: he told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.”
– Bro. John Wayne US movie actor and director (1907-1979) Marion McDaniel Lodge No. 56 F.& A.M., Arizona, USA
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
– Bro. Oscar Wilde Irish dramatist, novelist and poet (1854-1900) Apollo University Lodge No. 357, Oxford, UK
QUOTATIONS FROM FAMOUS MASONS REGARDING BUSINESS
“Serve the classes, live with the masses. Serve the masses, live with the classes.”
– Bro. John Jacob Astor American Capitalist Holland Lodge No. 8 F.& A.M., NY, USA
“I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.”
“The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
“There is one rule for industrialists and that is: make the best quality goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.”
– Bro. Henry Ford Pioneer Automobile Manufacturer Palestine Lodge No. 357 F.& A.M., Detroit, MI, USA
“I have never known a man who died from overwork, but many who died from doubt.”
– Bro. & Dr. Charles Mayo Cofounder, the Mayo Clinic Rochester Lodge No. 21 A.F.& A.M., Rochester, MN, USA
“I will have no man work for me who has not the capacity to become a partner.”
“The surest way for an executive to kill himself is to refuse to learn how, and when, and to whom to delegate work.”
– Bro. James C. Penny JC Penny Founder Wasatch Lodge No. 1 F.& A.M., Salt Lake City, UT, USA
“It all comes back to the basics. Serve customers the best-tasting food at a good value in a clean, comfortable restaurant, and they’ll keep coming back.”
– Bro. Dave Thomas Wendys Restaurants Sol. D. Bayless Lodge No 359 F.& A.M., Ft. Wayne, IN, USA
“Don’t be misled into believing that somehow the world owes you a living. The boy who believes that his parents, or the government, or any one else owes him his livelihood and that he can collect it without labor will wake up one day and find himself working for another boy who did not have that belief and, therefore, earned the right to have others work for him.”
“Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people.”
– Bro. David Sarnoff Father of television Strict Observance Lodge No. 94 F.& A.M., New York City, USA
“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window.”
– Bro. Steve Wozniak Cofounder Apple Computer Charity Lodge No. 362 F.& A.M., Campbell, CA, USA
QUOTATIONS FROM FAMOUS MASONS REGARDING SPORTS
“Sport must be amateur or it is not sport. Sports played professionally are entertainment.”
– Bro. Avery Brundage President, International Olympic Committee North Shore Lodge No. 937 A.F.& A.M., Chicago, IL, USA
“The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that’s it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it.”
– Bro. Ty Cobb Baseball Great Royston Lodge No. 426 F.& A.M., Detroit, MI, USA
“A champion is someone who gets up when he can’t.”
– Bro. Jack Dempsey Boxing Champion Kenwood Lodge No. 800 A.F.& A.M., Chicago, IL, USA
“I don’t like to sound egotistical, but every time I stepped up to the plate with a bat in my hands, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pitcher.”
– Bro. Rogers Hornsby Baseball Great Beacon Lodge No. 3 A.F.& A.M., St. Louis, MO, USA
“Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals.”
– Bro. & Dr. James Naismith Inventor of Basketball Roswell Lee Lodge A.F.& A.M., Springfield, MA, USA
“I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s golf game: it’s called an eraser.”
– Bro. Arnold Palmer Golf Legend Loyalhanna Lodge No. 275 F.& A.M., Latrobe, PA, USA
“I don’t like the subtle infiltration of ‘something for nothing’ philosophies into the very hearthstone of the American family. I believe that ‘Thou shalt earn the bread by the sweat of thy face’ was a benediction and not a penalty. Work is the zest of life; there is joy in its pursuit.”
– Bro. Branch Rickey Baseball Legend Tuscan Lodge No. 360 A.F.& A.M., St. Louis, MO, USA
“I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.”
– Bro. Sugar Ray Robinson Boxing Champion Joppa Lodge No. 55 PHA, New York, NY, USA
QUOTATIONS FROM FAMOUS MASONS REGARDING POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
“I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.”
“I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”
– Bro. Winston S. Churchill Former Prime Minister of Great Britain Rosemary Lodge 2851 and Studholme Lodge No. 1591, UK
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself…”
“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”
“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.”
– Bro. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) Writer Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F.& A.M., St. Louis, MO, USA
“As long as there are only three to four people on the floor, the country is in good hands. It’s only when you have 50 to 60 in the Senate that you want to be concerned.”
“If you’re hanging around with nothing to do and the zoo is closed, come over to the Senate. You’ll get the same kind of feeling and you won’t have to pay.”
– Bro. Bob Dole Former U.S. Senator & Presidential Candidate Russell Lodge No. 177 A.F.& A.M., Kansas, USA
“If the government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have.”
– Bro. Gerald R. Ford 38th President of the United States Malta Lodge No. 465 F.& A.M., Grand Rapids, MI, USA
“History has to judge every man who served. I don’t know how they’re going to treat me. I may be the worst S.O.B. that ever came down the pike. But I won’t lose any sleep over it. I just like to be remembered as an honest person who tried.”
– Bro. Barry Goldwater Former U.S. Senator & Presidential Candidate Arizona Lodge No. 2 F.& A.M., Phoenix, AZ, USA
“I will not deny that there are men in the district better qualified than I to go to Congress, but gentlemen, these men are not in the race.”
– Bro. Sam Rayburn Former Speaker of the House Constantine Lodge No. 13 A.F.& A.M., Bonham, TX, USA
“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
– Bro. Will Rogers Humorist Claremore Lodge No. 53 A.F.& A.M, Oklahoma, USA (renamed Will Rogers Lodge No. 53 in 1979)
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
– Bro. Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd President of the United States Holland Lodge No. 8 F.& A.M., New York, NY, USA
“When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not guilty’.”
– Bro. Theodore Roosevelt 26th President of the United States Matinecock Lodge No. 806 F.& A.M., Oyster Bay, NY, USA
“A politician is a man who understands government and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead ten or fifteen years.”
– Bro. Harry S. Truman 33rd President of the United States Belton Lodge No. 450 A.F.& A.M., MO, USA
“In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.”
– Bro. Voltaire Writer Lodge of the Nine Sisters (Lodge Les Neuf Soeurs), Paris, France
Keep the Faith.
Freemasonry From the Edge
by W:.Tim Bryce, PM, MPS timb001@phmainstreet.com Palm Harbor, Florida, USA “A Foot Soldier for Freemasonry”
Originally published on FmI in 2008
NOTE: The opinions expressed in this essay are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of any Grand Masonic jurisdiction or any other Masonic related body. As with all of my Masonic articles herein, please feel free to reuse them in Masonic publications or re-post them on Masonic web sites (except Florida). When doing so, please add the following:
Article reprinted with permission of the author and www.FreemasonInformation.com
Please forward me a copy of the publication when it is produced.
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Freemasonry in the United States is at a crossroads and now is the time to do some soul searching and make some tough decisions. The question that needs to be asked is, are Freemasons going to continue to allow the erosion of the power of the local Lodge? Are they going to halt the spread of invasive, centralized Grand Lodge rule over every aspect of Freemason’s lives?
The plain fact is, ALL FREEMASONRY IS LOCAL. That was not a contested notion in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The power of decision making rested in the local Lodge and Grand Lodge was more of a facilitator and adviser. It was once the job of Grand Lodge to organize its territory and attend to the ceremonial functions of grandeur and pomp leaving the “running of the business” to each individual chartered Lodge. Oh, there were broad guidelines including in some jurisdictions Landmarks to go by. But in reality the Grand Master used to function much as the present day King or Queen of England does.
That has all gone by the board. We have a new era of Grand Lodge dominance with strict top down rule. Right about now the reader will butt in with the thought that Freemasonry is not a democracy. Well, yes and no. The Worshipful Master of the local Lodge has and has always had unlimited power to rule and govern his Lodge. He can rule it as a democracy or he can rule it by Master’s edict. He has by-laws, rules and regulations of Grand Lodge and the Landmarks to abide by. In generations past Grand Lodge requirements were of a general nature leaving broad room for local interpretation and application. Not so today. Grand Lodge rule is very specific and detail orientated. While the Lodge Master has always been granted absolute power within the guidelines enumerated, the Grand Master has never traditionally been granted such power.
It is only since the 20th century that Grand Lodges and Grand Masters have usurped power and decision making from local Lodges. There are two plausible reasons that we might surmise for the Grand Lodge power grab.
The failure of local Lodges to address the problem of declining membership
The over commitment to buildings, charities and other Grand Lodge promises that could no longer be affordably sustained in the light of a drastic decrease in money coming in.
Where there is a vacuum, someone, something will rush in to fill it. But we need to ask ourselves as Masons is this the best course of action? Is this the best way of governing ourselves or are we actually stifling creativity and strangling development?
Glenn Beck offers some observations in his new book Broke that are applicable. While they are made in the atmosphere of the civil, political world, they can offer Freemasonry some insight.
“The world of innovation and the world that is our federal government are on two separate bullet trains headed in opposite directions. Technology is getting smaller, faster, and is doing more with less; the federal government is getting bigger, slower, and doing less with more. The new trend in business is decentralization; the trend in government is exactly the opposite.”
“Over the last century the government has taken control of virtually everything it could get its hands on, from education to energy, from finance to health care. It’s hard to understate the enormity of what has happened, but consider this: The number of federal regulators has more than tripled over the last fifty years to keep up with the government’s growth.”
“And yet, for all the talk about innovation and technology, most of government’s policy prescriptions remain surprisingly clunky and outmoded. When they want to ‘fix’ the auto industry, they appoint a czar. When they want to tackle environmental issues, they appoint a czar. Health care? Green jobs? Bank bailouts? Czar, czar, czar.”
“It’s ironic, but to cut through the bureaucracy and get things done, politicians like to create another level of bureaucracy.”
“That, of course, is the opposite of how successful companies operate. The tendency in business is toward shifting away from centralized technology and a top down management style and replacing it with a looser, flattened, decentralized management. Out with the old mainframe computer, in with the iPad; out with middle managers in corporate headquarters, in with franchise owners or branch managers who have real authority.”
“The reason this trend is happening is simple: It works. Just look around at the companies that are doing well. I can guarantee you that very few of them have a centralized bureaucracy with workers paid to punch the clock instead of innovate, create and make informed decisions.”
“Technology is decentralizing power and giving individuals more choices and freedom at lower costs and higher quality. The internet itself is about as decentralized a system as could ever be created (although some are even trying to centralize control of that). You can pick the applications you want on your cell phone, do your banking online, buy virtually any product on the planet, and get news from a whole host of sources, some as small as an individual, some as large as a Fortune 500 corporation. And that’s exactly the point: Decentralization helps create more freedom.”
“We are in the midst of a revolution in decision making and control and the reason is simple: Decentralization improves performance, generates new innovations, and empowers individuals by encouraging them to take on greater responsibility in return for greater potential rewards.”
So which model should American Mainstream Freemasonry emulate? There is today a large Masonic presence on the Internet. Is there a need for a Masonic Internet Czar with centralized control to rule and govern Internet Freemasonry?
Where we are today is one step below a feudal Masonic system. In Middle Age England (and elsewhere) Earls and Barons ruled all powerful little fiefdoms much like Grand Lodges in Mainstream Masonry have in every state. The only difference is that in the feudal system money and homage and support had to be passed onto the King. We have no National Grand Master in the United States. That makes our American Masonic System tribal, a bunch of smaller kingdoms, inside the larger territory we know as the United States, answerable to no one.
If you look at Afghanistan today you see a tribal system of government. The President is a mere figurehead, all power being rested in warring tribes. Some African nations have the same model. Before the white man came to America Native American tribes ruled the land. Tribal governance is perhaps the worst way to organize and rule a territory. The levels of dissimilarity grow in a tribal territory and often there are clashes and jealousies. Mexico is on its way to becoming a tribal territory as warring drug cartels assume power the government used to posses.
Tribes develop their own particular styles and ways of doing things that are often quite different from other tribes in their area. This tends to blur any concept of nationality, leaving residents not citizens of a country but rather members of just a tribe.
The antidote to tribalism is not outlawing tribes and replacing them with an all powerful, centralized government, but rather diffusing any institution of total control, restoring localism with a federated national consensus.
That describes where we are at today in American Freemasonry. A host of tyrannical Masonic fiefdoms have been empowered, allowing each jurisdiction to make up whatever rules it desires, often times rules and regulations that destroy the real meaning of Freemasonry. Not only is there no American Masonic identity, neither does the tradition of ALL FREEMASONRY IS LOCAL exist anymore. Local Lodges have been stripped of all of their power.
All the recent cases of tyrannical Masonic abuse by Grand Lodges are directly proportional to the amount of centralized power they have grabbed. There is nothing in the history and traditions of American Freemasonry that permits lifting of a Lodge’s charter without reason or recourse, expulsion without a Masonic trial, all Masonic trials held at Grand Lodge, refusal to allow private Masonic websites in the jurisdiction, automatic expulsion for legal Masonic discourse via E-Mail, not allowing sponsorship of DeMolay & Rainbow or for them to meet in a Masonic Lodge and the list could go on and on.
Beck tells us this:
“Professor Lino Graglia of the University of Texas Law School once explained that keeping power decentralized and at a local level ‘controls tyranny’ and produces greater diversity and respect for individual preferences. ‘It can be shown arithmetically,’ Graglia wrote, ‘that as an issue is decided by larger units, involving more people, the likelihood increases that fewer people will obtain their preference and more will be disappointed.’”
The choices before us are really narrowed to three.
The status quo – which most will choose
A National Grand Lodge
Decentralization
Choices one and two will only prolong the agony and are or would be the major cause of disillusionment within the Craft.
I stumbled across this post from John Whitehead, a Catholic Historian in Oxford, in his blog Once I Was A Clever Boy who had some interesting thoughts on Catholicism and Freemasonry. In it he said:
Whether Freemasonry is a direct threat in this country [England] or in the English speaking world to Christianity may be doubted by some, but…its essential ideas are not supportive of the Church’s vision and message. Freemasons may not actively plot over their dinners how to do the Church down, but their ideals reinforce post-Enlightenment attitudes and ideas that are not conducive to revealed Catholic Christianity.
His post was based on another by Fr, Ray Blake from St. Mary Magdalen Church in Brighton England. From Fr Ray Blake’s blog – Masonry is a mortal sin…
The basic doctrine of Masonry is that whether we are a Jew, Christian or Muslim, we are all brothers, that these differences are unimportant. Ultimately of course that means that the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the Way to Salvation is undermined and unimportant, that being Catholic or CofE or Baptist or Methodist is immaterial, all are as good as one another. Masonry is ultimately about enshrining Enlightenment values which we see in the American and French Constitutions which are so antipathetic to the Catholic Faith: I mean values like “All men are created equal”, which are now so much part of modern thinking.
This piece also asks an important question:
Who in practice is against such concepts as liberty, equality, fraternity?
To answer:
The truth is that we Catholics are, or at least we would want to qualify such sound bites, as in fact society does in practice. All men are not created equal, some have special needs others have unique abilities, some will cost society dearly, some will contribute greatly.
I wonder then, could you extrapolate and say the Church does not see all men on the level towards God, are some closer to deity than others , no matter their statement of faith? Is there a caste system of faith behind the Roman Church of who is in more Grace than the other?
All this talk stemmed from an older piece Good Catholics Should Not be Masons, written in 2009, in the Catholic Online from an article written by Fr Ashley Beck who is assistant priest of Beckenham in south London, which reiterated something most Masons already knew:
The Catholic Church teaches that Freemasonry and Christianity are incompatible. The Holy See in 1983 reiterated the traditional position that Catholics who are Freemasons are in a state of grave sin and may not receive the sacraments – the Declaration on Masonic Associations was signed by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and makes it clear that local bishops cannot dispense from its provisions.
In this piece, the author gets to the heart of the matter and states:
The overriding problem is that in spite of what Freemasons claim, their way of life is a religion, with all of religion’s hallmarks. You can no more be a Freemason and a Christian than you can be a Muslim and a Christian. Catholics are committed to inter-faith dialogue and mutual respect, but this requires Freemasons to be honest about what they are. For Catholics, thinking about the reasons for the gulf between us can deepen our understanding of the Christian faith.
This rhetoric comes up every few years, and American Masonry quickly disassociates itself with the claim that its “different” than European Masonry and that the Church is OK with membership in both organizations.
Clearly, its not.
I wonder what, if anything, would come from the Vatican on the matter. We do have the 1983 Declaration, but is that valuable now 28 years on? and, I wonder to what degree American Masons pay heed to it, choosing their own free will and Liberty over doctrine? I feel for those brothers, to know that the agent of their faith sees them as in a state of grave sin. To be in a Grave Sin means that the individual still “sin[s] willfully after having the knowledge of the truth, [such that] there is now left no sacrifice for sins.” Essentially, it becomes a premeditated act of offense.
Clearly, these various points raise a number of questions and points, to which I would refer the reader to an article, The Catholic Church and Freemasonry, published last year in which Rev Mr. John J. McManus, JD, JCL – a Church Deacon and attorney, spoke at Gate City Lodge and delved into these topics there and in person. In that presentation, and in the piece, he enumerates 11 positions on why the church and Freemasonry are incompatible which had a significant outcome which lead to the 1983 fundamental conclusion which said:
“Even though Masonic organizations may not in particular cases plot against the faith, it would be still wrong to join them because their basic principles are irreconcilable with those of the Catholic faith.”
Given the tone of the Church, many in the Protestant arena have agreed with the same conclusion.
All of this brings us to some interesting and unanswered questions:
Is a declaration of being a Faith necessary for a dialog between Masons and the Church?
Does it take some proclamation of Faith to necessitate inclusion in an interfaith discussion in a free state?
What greater degree of honesty is the Vatican looking for, or will Masonry forever be incompatible the same way as it see’s Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, or any other non Catholic faith?
Does masonry have the stamina or will to drive the conversation, or is it secure in its own practice without need of any recognition?
What is at the center of the Church’s disdain for Masonry such that as it will sit with other faiths and recognize their values but squirms and frets at the inclusion of Freemasonry because it believes in the idea of equality of man? Isn’t that the purpose of interfaith dialogues, recognizing the universality of faiths role to mankind?
Should Masonry align itself with the Church doctrine and strip away its Universal tenets and bring itself more into measure with those of the Catholic Church so as to bring the two organizations together so as to have these dialogs?
Does it even matter to Masonry that its tenets intersect the doctrine of the Church?
If Masonry had a patron saint in Hollywood, Nicolas Cage would be the guy.
I’ll admit, there are a lot of actors who in the past fit the bill including the stalwarts like John Wayne, Audie Murphy, Ernest Borgnine, Clark Gable, or Roy Rogers. Some amongst that list have been more vocal and out front about their affiliation, which is, in the end a personal choice.
No, I say patron saint to Masonry because Cage seems to have a track record of making movies in and around the subject matter that circles that of Freemasonry without any open connection to his affiliation with the fraternity.
Think of it as a parallel line of thought, or of art imitating life.
I don’t think the making of these films is to suggest that Cage or his producers are doing it intentionally. Hollywood films, as you’ve seen in the end of film credits, involve a lot of people with a degree of diversity from film to film. The common denominator in this scheme is types of roles played by Nicolas Cage himself.
Is he doing it intentionally or is there some cosmic push that’s at work directing Cage towards these roles?
This is just a quick list of films that, I think, could be argued as being pro-Masonic or at least positive towards Masonic tradition.
National Treasure 2004
The Wicker Man 2006
National Treasure: Book of Secrets 2007
Knowing 2009
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice 2010
Season of the Witch 2011
Now these are just a few of the 60+ films he’s stared since his silver screen debut in 1980, but in these six films, you can get a sense of a recurring theme.
National Treasure, released in 2004, we find Cage playing amateur historian and treasure hunter Benjamin Gates who after deciphering a secret code on the back of the U.S. constitution, stumbles on to the lost treasure of the Knights Templars, protected in modern times by the Freemasons, who we meet in agent Sandusky as played by Harvey Keitel.
The Wicker Man, a remake of the film of the same name from 1973, has Cage playing Edward Malus, an American policeman who goes on the search for his missing daughter, when he inadvertently finds himself in the middle of an English Wiccan/Pagan Society to become the Burning Wickerman himself at the end. The link to Masonry, though less obvious in the film, is that modern Wiccan/Paganism was founded by Freemason Gerald Gardner who popularized its reemergence in the 1950’s.
National Treasure 2 saw the return of Benjamin Gates on the trail of the Book of Secrets, which included mentions of the Scottish Rite’s Albert Pike, and the founding fathers. The pre-release advertising of the film leaned heavily on the Masonic connections of its predecessor, while this film itself focused on another “fraternity” the Knights of the Golden Circle. This films success has been successful enough to the talk of a National Treasure 3 in the future.
In Knowing, Cage played Professor Jonathan “John” Koestler, Astrophysicists by day and numerologist (read here gematria, the Hebrew system of words and phrases assigned by their numerical value as seen in the study of Kabbalah) by night that discovers the secret coming end times by decoding the written number sequences found in a 50 year old school time capsule.
Though less overt, the film plays up his ability to read the prophecy and down his ability to its inevitability.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from 2010, while a remake of the animated Disney film of the same name, held true to this same series where Cage played Balthazar Blake, a sorcerer trained by Merlin who’s magic is more akin to Alchemy and the power of the mind, a theme prevalent in many Rosicrucian circles and similar to the idea of the Kybalion, that everything is mental – the power of the mind. A strong theme in the film links the ideas of magick to modern physics and the science behind energy.
In the new film Season of the Witch, Cage plays Behman, a long standing (Templar?) Knight of the crusades who grows weary of the holy Catholic Church’s work in slaughtering innocent people, only to be pulled in to one last mission to save an innocent girl possessed by the spirit of a powerful demon. How to slay the demon and its ilk is a Latin reading of the “Wisdom of King Solomon”, a powerful spell that destroys witches and demons.
Again, this is only 10% of his on screen time, but its not terribly hard to see a pattern here of Knights Templars, Freemasons, Magick/Alchemy/Kabbalah, and King Solomon each of which are keys components to the study of Freemasonry.
Without a doubt, one could argue that just as much of his work is about quirky guys doing quirky things – from stealing cars in Gone in Sixty Seconds to stealing Diapers in Raising Arizona.
But none of his filmography follows the same pattern of the six films listed above, and even fewer actors in Hollywood have the same resume of cinema choices that parallel such a recurring theme, unless their character is reprising a role in a sequel. Harrison Ford comes to mind in the Indiana Jones franchise, but here again he is playing a reprisal of a character, not a different character with a recurring thematic undercurrent.
So how does all of this make Nicolas Cage the Silver Screen Saint of Freemasonry? Simply by continuing to play roles in films where he champions the ideas of the fraternity, even the more esoteric ideas, and by keeping it in a positive light.
Will every viewer of these films see the connection? Probably not, but for those with eyes to see, with so many loose connections its hard to miss the underlying current. The other possibility is that Cage has simply been typecast as the ‘guy’ who plays these roles so successfully at the box office that he has become the go to man for the everyman cinema esoteric.
Who knows, based on his resume, maybe we’ll see Cage in the role of Robert Langdon in the film adaptation of The Lost Symbol as its rumored that Tom Hanks may have scheduling conflicts.
In the meantime, pop some popcorn and spend a few evenings watching Cage in these movies and see if you don’t see some connection deeper than a square and compass on a ring or on the bumper of a car as with most Masonic mentions in movies. You might just see him as a patron saint of Masonry too.
Perhaps you remember Derek Gordon who resigned from the Grand Lodge of Arkansas after they gave him so much unwarranted grief. Here is a great mind with assets that would be of great benefit to any Lodge. His latest venture with the assistance of the masterful genius of Brother Dave Daugherty, is the development of a Masonic Wiki, http://www.masonicwiki.info.
Now if you are like me and the only Wiki you have heard about is Wiki Leaks and you have little idea of what a Wiki is all about, don’t be intimidated by past perception or prejudice. The concept is one of sharing. Not only do you get to enjoy all the information on the website but you also have the opportunity to add material. That’s what a Wiki is all about – shared input.
This Wiki project is based on the exact same software of that popular, worldwide information site, Wikipedia. It is easy to use, friendly to search through and has unlimited potential in Masonic research and scholarship. To post something you simply search and create a page detailing whatever it is you seek to discuss.
There are a few other English speaking Masonic Wikis but they are not well maintained. They are full of spam because they are not a secure site. You won’t find that at masonicwiki.info. First of all you have to be a Mason to post and then only after you have registered with the site. Gordon & Daugherty have five moderators working the site and they block all spam and malicious content. You won’t find the flaming screaming that you can experience on many Masonic Forums. Gordon particularly emphasizes this point.
“Users can read, edit and add content so long as they are registered. Modified content will show with revisions and is reviewed by one of five moderators to ensure it isn’t scathing. Our contact page offers a method to E-Mail us when something needs review. Our platform is monitored to protect the sanctity of Masonry and to avoid attacks between bitter foes.”
This is important because Masonic Wiki is open to all Obedience and Jurisdictions across the board. This site is not an arm of Mainstream Masonry’s Conference of Grand Masters nor will it get involved in issues of who is a legitimate Mason and who is not. It is beholden to no one but open to everyone who will enter its portals in peace and harmony and respect for divergent views.
The Site offers a breakdown by Continent and then by country. It also offers headings of Masonic Poetry, Articles, Websites, Blogs and Supplies. In addition you get a list of topics. Here are only a few examples:
Masonic Libraries & Museums
Research Lodges
Prince Hall Freemasonry
Feminine Obediences
Allied Masonic Degrees
Grand College of Rites
National Sojourners
Daughters of the Nile
And many, many more, or create a topic of your choice.
Gordon has smartly also scooped up domains for www.masonicwiki.com, www.masonicwiki.net and www.masonicwiki.org. If you are looking for Masonic Wiki they all take you to the same place. The site also has the ability to upload images and audio and Gordon will put in video too if there is a demand for it. It has an international flavor as you can also choose Spanish and French languages in addition to English. Gordon told the Beehive that he is trying to put together an agreement with a German Masonic Wiki, some sort of merger or co-operative effort.
It is obvious that Masonic Wiki is here to build bridges of understanding. Once again Gordon tells us the purpose of Masonic Wiki,
“…is to bring all sorts of information about Masonry together in one location, to share information among Masons of all backgrounds and in all places so that we can gain further light and understanding about one another.”
Most Freemasons will tell you that Freemasonry is universal. Masonic Wiki lives and practices that concept proving it to be true. Won’t you join them?
You might remember a previous story from The Beehive on Mike McCabe and how he was unceremoniously bounced out of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. Granted McCabe is an intense fellow but he was and still is passionate about his Freemasonry. And he did much in his tenure within the Grand Lodge of New Jersey and was recognized by his Grand Lodge for superior achievement. Yet his insistence to do things correctly and “by the book” landed him in trouble with a Grand Lodge whose officers liked to violate its Constitution and do whatever they felt like.
McCabe deserves a lot more credit than he is being given which is so often the plight of an expelled Brother. It needs to be pointed out that McCabe was present on the deck of the Battleship USS New Jersey on September 22, 2002 where formal recognition between PHA & Mainstream Masonry in New Jersey was ratified.
And it was he who a scant three weeks later on October 16, 2002 as Master of Mainstream Justice Lodge No. 285, Linwood New Jersey welcomed the visitation of Prince Hall Lodges No. 16, Hiram Abiff and No. 27, Prince Hall along with the Grand Masters of both Grand Lodges and other Past Grand Masters and dignitaries.
McCabe and his officers worked hard to put together one of the first joint meetings of PHA & Mainstream Masonry in the state of New Jersey. As a long time champion of Prince Hall Masonry, McCabe endeavored to make the occasion memorial and remembered by casting a plate with front and back inscriptions which you see here pictured.
But The Beehive cannot help but wonder at perhaps how much trouble championing Prince Hall might get you in. PGM Frank Haas of West Virginia met with Prince Hall Officers in the hopes of starting recognition. Derek Gordon of Arkansas championed Prince Hall recognition and boldly denounced the Grand Lodge ruling that the generic license plate created by Prince Hall Arkansas was clandestine. Counting McCabe all three, of course, have been expelled.
It’s a new year. 2011 is upon us. And Freemasonry is still with us. But is it really thriving as it could be? That is the question to be answered as we forge ahead into another decade. What can we do to make it better?
Now every time I pose questions like this I get the reply – YOU WANT TO CHANGE MASONRY?
Not really. I have no desire to touch the rituals that we use at all. But there is a lot that goes into Freemasonry besides ritual.
Today we need to recognize the fact that we are in the Information Age and take advantage of it. We also need to perhaps curtail some of the Grand Power and stop Freemasonry from becoming a centralized bureaucracy. This is not changing what Freemasonry is and stands for but rather streamlining how it operates.
Thinking along these lines has led me to random musings. Many are subjects I have proposed and written about previously. Many are also in common practice these days, but a lot depends on your jurisdiction. All of what is to follow are thoughts that are incomplete. Nothing written here is meant to neither comprise a complete list nor take advantage of all the possibilities that exist. Many good ideas are not here, not thought of and not expressed.
This is where you the reader come into play. You may want to eliminate some suggestions here and add some excellent ideas not mentioned. Please do not hesitate to do so in the COMMENTS section. If we put many heads together on one task the result can often times be truly amazing. So be my guest, have at it.
Please do not expect these suggestions to be in logical sequence or follow some sort of organizational chart. They are truly random musings. The theme here is the business/operational aspect of Freemasonry not the ritualistic/programming side. The latter could be another article in the future.
FINANCIAL
Each Lodge ought to own its own building and property. They ought not to belong to the Grand Lodge.
Each Lodge should employ a financial advisor to manage its investments.
Each Lodge should apply for non profit tax exempt status.
Lodges in urban and heavy suburban areas should all meet in the same building. One large building with greater amenities will have one heating/AC bill, one cost of insurance and one building and grounds to maintain. America’s insistence on a separate Lodge Building for each Lodge does not make economic sense nor is it copied by European counterparts.
Lodges should increase their dues to cover the complete costs of their operations and eliminate all fund raisers. Time spent on fund raisers is time taken away from Freemasonry.
Lodges should open a Pay Pal account making it easier for members to budget and pay their dues and make other special contributions.
GRAND LODGE
Grand Lodge should:
Offer a group discount insurance plan for all the Lodges in its jurisdiction.
Allow the consumption of alcoholic beverages in appropriate places within the Masonic building.
Allow Lodges to rent space to any upright, righteous and ethical organization. That would include, but not be limited to, Co-Masonry, Female Masonry, GOUSA, and Knights of Columbus. Renting space is an economic decision not one which sponsors or endorses organizations.
Allow Lodges to decide the floor work they will use and the dress code they will enforce.
Provide Grand Lodge Library lending by mail. Set up a Grand Lodge E-reader program and offer it to any dues carrying member of the jurisdiction.
Provide local Lodges with Masonic training, instructional and educational movies and power point presentations.
Conduct seminars at Grand Lodge for Masonic training, development and education.
Provide a statewide Speaker’s Bureau available for use by any Lodge.
Allow and encourage District wide degrees and special degree teams with an option of using special costumes.
Permit public installation of officers.
Allow Lodges to meet as frequently or as infrequently as they desire.
The Local Lodge is the only entity to set proficiency requirements and would be the sole judge of the proficiency attainment of a candidate.
Require all Grand Lodge Officers, including the Grand Master, to pass a written test on Masonic knowledge.
Operate a Grand Lodge library that will copy all its public domain literature to computer, that will offer computers and DVD players on the premises and that will also purchase the latest in Masonic literature by today’s Masonic authors.
Permit all chartered Lodges to file all Grand Lodge documents and reports electronically.
LOCAL LODGES
Should maximize their finances by renting out their building whenever possible. This includes the use of the Lodge building for public special events such as wedding receptions, baby showers, anniversary parties, etc. as well as permanent tenets.
Employ the use of Lodge computers for the Lodge and computerize Lodge minutes and all Lodge documentation and correspondence.
Provide a media room or a media section to its Lodge room.
Endeavor to provide suitable kitchen and dining accommodations and serve Lodge suppers as a regular part of most Masonic Communications.
Appoint a standing Investigating committee and train them in the art of Masonic investigation.
Reform the balloting procedure to an unpublished and unrevealed vote by the Investigating Committee. Any Brother who had any knowledge of why an applicant should not be admitted would communicate that information to an Investigating Committee member. Only good reasons would be accepted by the Investigating Committee as cause to deny an applicant.
Employ the use of movies and power point presentations as part of its ritual, instruction and education of candidates and members.
Freemasonry in the United States is at a crossroads and now is the time to do some soul searching and make some tough decisions. The question that needs to be asked is, are Freemasons going to continue to allow the erosion of the power of the local Lodge? Are they going to halt the spread of invasive, centralized Grand Lodge rule over every aspect of Freemason’s lives?
, released in 2004, we find Cage playing amateur historian and treasure hunter Benjamin Gates who after deciphering a secret code on the back of the U.S. constitution, stumbles on to the lost treasure of the Knights Templars, protected in modern times by the Freemasons, who we meet in agent Sandusky as played by Harvey Keitel.
, a remake of the film of the same name
saw the return of Benjamin Gates on the trail of the Book of Secrets, which included mentions of the Scottish Rite’s Albert Pike, and the founding fathers. The pre-release advertising of the film leaned heavily on the Masonic connections of its predecessor, while this film itself focused on another “fraternity” the Knights of the Golden Circle. This films success has been successful enough to the talk of a National Treasure 3 in the future.
, Cage played Professor Jonathan “John”
from 2010, while a remake of the animated Disney film of the same name, held true to this same series where Cage played Balthazar Blake, a sorcerer trained by Merlin who’s magic is more akin to Alchemy and the power of the mind, a theme prevalent in many Rosicrucian circles and similar to the idea of the Kybalion, that everything is mental – the power of the mind. A strong theme in the film links the ideas of magick to modern physics and the science behind energy.
