tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-66282992385346546202024-03-13T03:04:27.816-07:00The Relevant MasonThe Relevant Mason is a Masonic blog discussing the relevancy of Masonic philosophy in todays world of fast food and faster times. The Relevant Mason discusses issues such as Fundamentalism, Christianity, Politics, and the like.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-569751586768736342013-06-23T18:49:00.001-07:002013-06-23T18:49:32.776-07:00Only In Freemasonry<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> I was invited to speak at a Cuban lodge, the Sons of Liberty Lodge in New Jersey by two brothers, one named Moises (Moses) and the other Mohammed. Upon arrival at the lodge one speaker was Swedish with an English accent, one English with a thicker accent still and myself. Some members were vehemently anti-socialist having fled the socialist dictatorship of Fidel Castro or having family members trapped by the same government. One honored guest was an active and public member of the International Socialist Party. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I spoke with law enforcement, psychiatrist, mathematicians, engineers, technicians, carpenters and computer workers that evening as the festivities had ended and I was given the opportunity for some one on one time with many attendees.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The following day I shared lunch with a Muslim brother, a Deist brother and an ordained Gnostic brother. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I reflected upon my travels. I have sat at a table with one of the Isamic worlds greatest anti-Masons, having drafted more than 18 anti-Masonic books, and whose fringe and rouge followers had burst into a Grand Lodge building with machine guns, killed several Masons who were present. I later embraced him as a friend, he called me Brother (and meant it). He was no longer an anti-Mason and I was no longer afraid. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I reflected upon the lodge in which I had the privilege to sit and listened to men open in perfect Arabic only to break stride to say in accented, but perfect English, “God save the Queen!” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I remembered back to a meeting I attended where Muslims, Druze, Jews and Christians joined hands around the altar of Freemasonry under the same banners and symbols hanging within the lodge that drove their counterparts to war with one another just outside the door.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I smiled as I recalled a dinner in Byblos. A royal from Nigeria and business tycoon from Syria argued Christianity, faith, and Freemasonry over a bottle of Lebanese wine for the Nigerian and soda for Muslim. Both smiling, laughing, disagreeing and strategizing their next intellectual move in this game of Socratic discourse.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I witnessed a man of 20 years sit side by side with a man of 80 years and share a wonderful and purposeful conversation. Not seated together by chance, but by choice. Friends with six decades between them.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I watched as a Marine, members of the Army’s elite 10th Special Forces Group, and two retired military pilots listen to a foreigner from a different continent stand on American soil and describe patriotism as evil and a force that drives humans apart and divides them upon artificial lines. They embraced later, purchased his books even, and enjoyed fellowship although they disagreed. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I feel completely safe in declaring that these things occur in no other place in the world save for Freemasonry. It is Freemasonry alone that allows for this level of tolerance, universality and discourse. It is Freemasonry alone that acts as a mighty translator allowing men to speak a singular language that transcends the angry rhetoric of politics and religion. It is Freemasonry alone that grants these men permission to love another more than hate. It was Freemasonry alone that shields from the fear of difference and provides a common mosaic ground upon which to meet.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is not enough to describe the Craft as simply neutral. Neutrality seems infantile in the presence of the tolerance gifted from one Mason to another. Smiles replace snarls and men embrace under an umbrella like no other in the world. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We are quick as a Craft to heed the rants of the anti-Masons that there is no conspiracy to dominate the world. Why? Shouldn’t there be? Shouldn’t we work hard within our communities, our churches and our schools to bring about the kind of universal respect, love and acceptance that can be found within the Craft? The secrets of Freemasonry should remain as such, but should we not labor in every aspect of our lives to allow the light of Freemasonry to shine in every darkened little corner filled with the virus of fundamentalism. Shouldn’t we labor that every speech given filled with hate for another man because of philosophical, religious or political opinion be met with tears from a human race so filled with sadness at the man’s lonely ranting that they hope; like we do, everyone might someday know their peace?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There is not a single religion in the world that has acted as the unifying force of Freemasonry. There is no religion in the world that has shared the lack of violence in its history as Freemasonry. There is no political party more successful than bringing democratic change to a country than Freemasonry. Yet, the Craft is still filled with frightened leaders content to maintain the status quo, captain a sinking ship, and fight the freewill of its members instead of trying to enrich themselves and those around them. We have the freakish fear of religion found in Florida wherein in men have been banned for their faith. We have the schisms caused by outside pseudo-Masonic bodies who would rather have felons in their ranks rather than lose a single member. We have petitions prostituted on the Internet and disguised membership drives rife throughout the country. Why? Because we fear allowing the Craft to be the wonderful unifying force that it is, and we try to dress it as a one size fits all philanthropic or social organization. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Freemasons should be Freemasons, nothing else. When Masons are allowed to practice Masonry it changes the world!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">This originally appeared in a Masonic monthly print magazine called Living Stones. It is run completely </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">independent</span><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;"> of any grand lodge and lead the way in independent print monthly magazines in America. I thank Brother Rob Herd for doing the mag and giving me a voice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><a href="http://www.livingstonesmagazine.com/" target="_blank">Living Stones Magazine</a></span></div>
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Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-89922938250547293402012-12-10T17:46:00.001-08:002012-12-10T17:46:56.034-08:00South Carolina Informs Shrine No Expelled Masons!I am a strong believer in Blue Lodge Masonry being a priority for Masons and was disappointed to see that the Shrine took a stance that seemed in violation of their agreement with Freemasonry as a Fraternity, if not in letter in spirit for certain.<br />
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That being said I think this letter from the Grand Master of South Carolina is a big deal. Kudos to him for supporting the idea that if the Shrine wants a relationship with Masonry it should be supportive of the Grand Lodges in the jurisdictions it operates in. <br />
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<br />Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-82688497492935532482012-12-03T08:38:00.004-08:002012-12-03T08:47:56.930-08:00An Open Letter to the Grand Master of Florida<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Jorge L. Aladro</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dear Most Worshipful Brother Jorge L. Aladro, Grand Master of Masons of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Florida and To All My Brethren in Freemasonry,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I provide this as both an open letter to all Freemasons and a plea to Most Worshipful Brother Jorge L. Aladro, the Grand Master of Masons in Florida. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On November 28, 2012, Brother Aladro took the step of banning Paganism, Wiccan and Odinism, Agnosticism and Gnosticism.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He provided in a written decision, “...any member of the Craft that professes to be a member of one of the groups mentioned above shall tender his resignation or suffer himself to a Trial Commission whose final outcome will be expulsion…”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Brother Jorge, you have declared here that a man is not even provided a fair trial. He is tried and then punished. This is not Masonic.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Most Worshipful Brother Jorge, you are a Knight Commander of the Court of Honor and I likewise share this distinction with you. As one who has been honored for his work in the quarries of Masonry I must remind you of your several obligations. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You have solemnly vowed, “[I] will never countenance persecutions, or the reviling of </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You have vowed, “I furthermore promise and vow, that I will, even at the peril of my life, help every true Brother if he be persecuted for his religion...."</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In justification you have decreed that these faiths are not in keeping with the Landmarks of Masonry. Ironically, the quotes you provide illustrate the tolerance of Masonry and not the intolerance of your personal decree. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You quote as justification of your prejudice (your quotes are in red for ease of understanding), “</span><b><i><span style="color: red; letter-spacing: 0px;">A belief in the existence of one ever living and true God.</span><span style="color: #cc0000; letter-spacing: 0px;">”</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I ask you as a Mason to take notice that this quote does not declare the God of Abraham, Christ the Savior, or of the other names assigned by man to Deity. It specifically provides that a man simply need a belief in God. It is strongly worded because of what it does not say. It is sad that any man could read such a tolerant statement and provide such a bigoted response. We must have the courage as Freemasons to honor the spirit of this Landmark.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;">You provided “</span><span style="color: red; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i>A belief in the immortality of the human soul and a resurrection thereof to a Future Life</i></b></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span style="color: red;">.</span></i></b><span style="color: #7d2709;">”</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I would argue strongly that this is not a Landmark, but even so a short study of history will provide that you have not listed a single faith in your list that does not ascribe to this belief. All of the religions you listed profess a belief in a soul. Paganism is a broad term, but we first hear of the idea of a savior, salvation of the soul, and an afterlife in the so called pagan religions long before Christ was ever known. This is historical fact, and not philosophical truth, that even the most Christian of archeologist and religious scholars would agree with.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Agnosticism is not a religion, but simply a belief that man is not sure and provides he cannot know for certain. It is a broad philosophy and there are certainly agnostics who believe in God and an afterlife, but simply do not profess to know the specifics and are courageous enough in their faith to say, “I am sure of only one truth and the rest I give to God.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A fellow Mason once said, “Knowledge is the most genuine and real of human treasures; for it is Light, as Ignorance is Darkness.” I beg of you in the Masonic sense Brother to educate yourself so that we can cast a light upon this intolerant darkness you have created.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;">You provided, “</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: red;"><b><i>The Volume of the Sacred Law, open upon the altar, is an indispensable furnishing of every regular Lodge while at labor</i></b></span><span style="color: #7d2709;">.</span></span><span style="color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;">”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which provides the most glaring example of the spirit of our Landmarks. The Volume of Sacred law is not given a name here so that the holy book or writings of any faith might be recognized as equally valuable.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Remember these words Brother Jorge, which I am certain you have heard and obligated yourself to, “You must first understand, my Brother, that Freemasonry does not encroach upon the just privileges of religion. The Fraternity does not claim to provide salvation of the soul or entrance into Heaven. It affirms that God exists, that there is benefit in prayer, and that man owes it to himself to return to that Sanctuary which best increases his faith in our Creator—that Omnipotent Being in whom you professed belief prior to joining a Masonic Lodge.” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You finish by declaring wholesale that devoted Brethren and men who love God with all their hearts are somehow Atheist or libertines, the latter a word I am guessing by your choice you are wholly unfamiliar with its meaning and usage at the time it was first referred to in regards to Masonry. You provide, “</span><span style="color: red; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><i>A Mason is obliged, by his tenure, to obey the moral law; and if he rightly understands the art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious libertine</i></b></span><span style="color: #7d2709; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My dear Brother Jorge, no title, throne, or position that man can attain brings with it an unquestionable knowingness. There is not assimilated gnosis that occurs with the gavel of Grand Master. So in that regard I ask you to pray and meditate upon your decision. It is un-Masonic. Worse it shows a certain ignorance of the faiths mentioned and cast a negative light upon the Fraternity, which you were charged in your Entered Apprentice degree never to do. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I ask you Brother Jorge to immediately reverse your decision. I ask you to pick up a book and read about the faiths you have ridiculed with your decision. I ask you to ask for forgiveness from the Brethren you have harmed with your foul decree and say to them that even in power there is error. Level yourself with them and asked their pardon.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So that you might some resources to begin your quest, I have provided them at the end of the list letter as a post script. I do not pretend Brother Jorge that I am enlightened. I am human and full of failure. But, in my failures I have found strength, because with each of them Christ grows within me because he, in his infinite wisdom, has planted a lesson. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I ask that you allow this situation to become as God would want it to be, a chance at growth, wisdom, and reflection.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sincerely,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">R∴W∴B </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Cliff Porter</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">P.S.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My Brother, please keep in mind describing any religious belief is precarious. Just as no Christian closes his eyes and imagines God in exactly the same way, so too, no one man can speak for any of the faiths you have struck out against. In general terms, however, in the Wiccan faith we find:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A belief in a Supreme Being. God is all and within all; all are one God.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Incarnation of God on earth in the form of spiritual energies</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A creative God who created the Universe and is one with it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A belief in an afterlife either through reincarnation or much like the Judaism, a kind of less defined knowing that there is something but it being less defined than the Christian heaven with a mansion and so on.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A salvation that teaches humans can attain spiritual balance and harmony with each other and nature. “Ethical choices are influenced by a belief that one is rewarded or punished within this or after this lifetime for one's choices and an ethical code to do no harm.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For further research into Wicca I recommend www.beliefnet.com and Modern Wicca: A History From Gerald Gardner to the Present by Michael Howard.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As far as Paganism goes, that is a broad term. The term pagan was created by the Christian church to demean all other faiths outside of Christianity and imply that the practitioners were poor and uneducated. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">However, I recommend the study of the Egyptian pantheon as it is one of the most famous of the now pagan faiths. You will be surprised to find a belief in God, a belief in a Father, Mother, and Son trinity. Within the trinity the father or son are killed, they raise again, and rule over both the earth and the afterlife. There are some who believe the lord’s prayer of the Christian faith were taken from a collection of text that exist on both papyri and on pyramid walls now referred to collectively as “The Egyptian Book of the Dead.” You may access this online or by reading my favorite translation “The Egyptian Book of the Dead” translated and edited by Wallace Budge.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think you would benefit as well from reading Samuel Angus’ definitive collegiate work called, “The Mystery Religions” wherein you will be shocked at the origins of Christian practice and worship. In the same vein, but less textbook and more edgy is Timothy Freke’s and Peter Gandy’s, “The Jesus Mysteries.” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In regard to Gnosticism. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Gnosticism is the oldest provable form of Christianity if you use the dating of known Christian text. I believe there is no greater explanation than that of the source and many of these text can be read at www.earlychristianwritings.com</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If, however, you prefer a good book, then I recommend Gnosticism & Early Christianity by Robert M. Grant, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity by David Brakke, and The Psyche in Antiquity: Gnosticism and Early Christianity by Edward F. Edinger and Deborah A. Wesley </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I do not profess to know much of Odinism or Astarte, but I do know that Odin is viewed in much the same way as Christ. The allegorical savior of the world against the evil nemesis and trickster named Loki. It shares many similarities with a faith in Christ and pre-dates the Christian religion. I would not be so quick to judge it.</span></div>
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Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-14663429298752053392012-08-09T13:50:00.001-07:002012-08-09T13:58:16.229-07:00Obligations, Charges, Jesters, and the Shrine<br />
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<br />Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-59492060696385806842012-07-28T09:30:00.000-07:002012-07-28T09:30:00.053-07:00Obligations and Charges, Jesters and the Shrine<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the upcoming issue of Living Stones Magazine in my monthly article I will tackle a discussion of the Royal Order of Jesters or Jesters for short. This group is an invitational body of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Now, they will claim they are not "part of the Shrine." They just happen to be made up of Shriners. The Shrine will likewise claim that they are not Masonic, they just, likewise, happen to be made up of nothing but Freemasons.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">A pin issued by the Jesters depicting a naked Jester with a giant erect penis so large it is forced to rest upon his feet. The Jesters claim mirth is king, but we are left to wonder whether or not their kind of mirth is Masonic</span></h4>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">It is my contention that as Freemasons our obligations never rest. www.livingstonesmagazine.com for the upcoming issue which is available in hardcopy subscription or electronic only.</span></div>
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</tbody></table>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-52384923910162989992012-07-07T09:41:00.001-07:002012-07-07T09:41:32.310-07:00The Ashlar You Sought/Thought<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sat and watched a man hold his little girl the other day. He was sitting next to his beautiful wife and he as fulfilled, happy, and enriched. He was also tired. Tired in the way that only a new dad can be. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sat with that same Brother years ago when he said that he would never marry, never have children and never share his life to that degree with anyone.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sat with that same Brother through his proficiencies and we have become great friends. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I had asked him once, “what changed so much?” He gave me a one word response at first, and at the time, it was enough because I understood exactly what he meant. He said, “Masonry.” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Many men come to Masonry for many different reasons. This Brother felt spiritual, but not religious. He wanted something more, was not sure what, but felt that maybe he could find some like minded men among the confines of the lodge. He did, but he found much more than he bargained. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When we allow Masonry to work, it works wonders. Like any working tool of the Great Architect, how it is used and how we change are often a surprise to us. All find what is needed, if they allow for it, but what was needed is not often what was wanted.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sometime later that Brother would tell me, “Masonry taught me that I can give myself to others, that I can, give others what they need because I realize the importance of that need to them and worry much less of its effects on me. God has blessed me, I can do for others without losing myself.” He remains a rock of integrity with a truly giving heart and disposition. He is a changed man, but the ashlar he sought was not in anyway the ashlar he got.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I sought to be a member of my Grandfather’s lodge, to feel closer to him.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When I joined I was a fundamentalist Lutheran who was pretty sure most people outside of the LCMS were going to hell. I wanted something my Grandfather had. I was certain it could only enriched my Lutheran faith.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For me, Masonry allowed me to meet, to know and to love men of varied faiths. Heaven become a lot larger and hell a lot smaller. I was eventually forbidden membership in the church of my youth. Not something I sought or ever imagined.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But I am a better man for it. God’s love has become a bigger part of my life, than God’s wrath. I have noticed that when my God loves, I can likewise love. I remember that when my God hated, I likewise hated.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I hear often from men, “How do you find the time?” They are speaking in reference to my activities within Freemasonry and balancing this with family, work, church, etc. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You must meditate to find the time to meditate. You must practice Freemasonry to find Freemasonry in your life.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I want to live in a world where integrity is prized more than wealth. Where “how” to help is a bigger question than “if” you are going to help.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I know of few places that integrity and a handshake mean trust, love and hope like they do within the Masonic lodge and I would love to live in a world where it did.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That my Brothers is the Relevance of Masonry in a world of war, upheaval and distrust.</span></div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-18653576651498192232012-06-29T21:00:00.000-07:002012-06-29T21:00:03.911-07:00Obligation Negotiable?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVVgb3R1hKA5s4nRn-EoNtK2nIhZD8wXwzxfXPs3eOzShQ3z0eW3BN98gO-KBZwytVpHJbdHQ66RvhiUDxkGzl2JBW5YBrzhRwlQRY0CcLjjTH05cFM_o4fxrXZwPbPRhpfaYt6P5LRA/s1600/Don't+Worry+I'm+Lying.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVVgb3R1hKA5s4nRn-EoNtK2nIhZD8wXwzxfXPs3eOzShQ3z0eW3BN98gO-KBZwytVpHJbdHQ66RvhiUDxkGzl2JBW5YBrzhRwlQRY0CcLjjTH05cFM_o4fxrXZwPbPRhpfaYt6P5LRA/s1600/Don't+Worry+I'm+Lying.jpg" /></a><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I was surfing the Internet a bit on my favorite Masonic haunts and came across a discussion that shocked me a bit. The question posed had do with whether or not it was okay to violate your Masonic obligation for the “good of Freemasonry.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A man by the name of Oliver Cromwell said once, “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.” In other words, don’t believe so strongly in your own infallibility as to become righteous in your indignation. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There is a certain danger in believing our own rhetoric. For the Freemason, it is essentially necessary to love the Craft, hold it dear and want to develop it as it helps to develop us. I was once told by a realtor that they are always excited to hear a couple start talking about all the things they would change about a house they are walking through, because it means on a subconscious level, they have already made it their own. So it would stand to reason that we would want to give to Freemasonry our builders mark upon its stone. But, at what price?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Masonry is a phenomenally wonderful system. We may gripe and complain about some of the things that can drive us a little nutty, but Masonry has always found and provided a system by which it can progress, change and grow. This does not mean there will not be obstacles. There are always obstacles to those things worth achieving. The ignorant will be ignorant, the cruel will be cruel and the envious will be envious and the vindictive will remain as such. Nonetheless, there is the vote. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>We can legislate change, motivate our Brethren, and renew broken spirits to change a tide. We can elect qualified Grand Lodge officers, we can create programs so popular and so fulfilling that even our enemies are uncomfortable standing against them. Every Mason can tell a story about a bad Grand Lodge officer, but few seem to tell stories about how they spent the time and effort to draft a change to their Masonic code or constitutions, visited lodges to speak with Brothers, explain their plan and garner support--and find victory on the day of the vote. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Men will call for Masonic funerals to bring change, but don’t realize they age, entrench and embitter all the while.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There have been a number of offshoot groups to break away from the system to make a stand and they wither to a footnote. Amazing that groups of men made up of people who could not get along with a still bigger group never manages to stay organize.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I have seen men working to bring education and philosophy to their lodges accused of everything from witchcraft and forming new religions to the intentional destruction of the Craft. Yet, I have seen these men persevere and not pervert their integrity by lowering to the level of the accuser.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>To shape the stone that is Masonry is our duty and our calling as Masters of the Craft; we shape it as it shapes us.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The way to fix Masonry has never been, nor will it ever be to act un-Masonic. We can not improve Masonry by violating the very foundations of our initiation and shared experience. When we convince ourselves that the ends justify the means we have convinced ourselves that Masonic philosophy can not actually improve the very institution that houses it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Never convince that your obligation is negotiable or expendable. When we leave this life for that Celestial Lodge we can take little with us, I would like to believe that of the few things we might be able to take, our integrity should be one of them.</span></div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-13216389028666297592011-09-03T19:36:00.001-07:002011-09-03T19:36:26.365-07:00The Brethren<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He is strong in the face of adversity, but in a quiet and reasoned way. He is loved by all that know him for the most part. I say for the most part, because he is so loved that those who don’t care for him wouldn’t dare voice there opinion any more because it would just simply be too unpopular. I had walked down the stairs one day to quit Masonry. He spoke gently to me, this is his way. He doesn’t charge hills the way I tend to do. He is more subtle, but often more effective. With a quiet, but deep voice, he said those things I needed to hear along the way and he give me a voice. He recognized what I needed and without fan fair, without need for thanks or adoration, he provided it.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He is filled with desire and, in some ways, ambition. Not for himself so much as for the Craft. He wants to be a part of something that changes the universe, not for himself, but for the Universe. And if he knows this...then it is enough. He would punch you as soon as look at you in certain circumstances. He has as much love as he does anger. In this we are similar, but it seldom best him, unlike me. He has let me vent, he has agreed and disagreed with me. He has held me up, and he has knocked me down. He has been gentle, and firm. He is a leader in ever sense. He probably considers me a peer, but I consider him a mentor. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Forceful change drives him nuts. He considers me a bit of a grenade, but has loved some of the explosions when he someone has pulled by my pin. He is loving as the day is long. Patient as all get out. When he loves you, he loves you. When he can’t stand you, it shows on his face, in his jaw, and in every part of him once you know how to read him. He sat with me on the couch one day and guided my Masonic journey in many ways. In some regards I believe I have disappointed him, in other ways, I have excelled beyond his expectations. He doesn’t realize how much I love and respect him.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Is not quiet when he should be, and quiet at others when he shouldn’t. His heart is one of the largest I have had witness of. His depth of intellect astonishes me. He grasp of situations is staggering, his grasp of others sometimes not so much. He loves, hurts, and practices Masonry in a well so deep I have not grasped it yet. He has given so much in friendship and conversation I can never repay. I trust him utterly, but sometimes he makes me wince. You should return Brother. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Looks like a dang convict. He is smarter, faster, and harder working than any man I have ever met. His heart is bigger and better than mine. I am not certain there is a dishonest bone in his body. He is better than me. Yet, he trust me as a friend, peer, and sometimes mentor. He is bourbon, not Scotch. He is a metaphysical soldier of sorts. An old soul in some ways, new in others. I will get out of his way. I should. I love him.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Has done more for my personal life than I can ever repay. He will be a Masonic Great. He will be Grand Master someday I am of little doubt. He would utterly deny this. For him Masonry is real, constant, and lived with every breath. We sat on my porch or in his basement and his real and gentle wisdom guided me when I was supposed to guide him. I would participate in discussions with world changers, and his wisdom I would repeat. He probably changed the world. I trust him more than I trust myself. He is goodness in a way that speaks to his many lives. He is a suburban Gandhi of sorts. I miss our talks. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Has a voice like thunder. His presence is dang near Deific. He is a true leader. He gives voice and platform to so many who need it, happy and contented to see the philosophy of Masonry in the lives of men who need men like him to give them a voice. He feels Masonry in his veins and does good as a constant. He gives little concern to gossip and simply does good like a stone against the waves. He doesn’t even realize the power of his labor in this world. He looks a little like Santa. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Is so much younger in person than I imagined him. Smart in a scary way. Magical almost. He has changed the world. He knows it, he enjoys the labor of it and will continue to labor to the end of his time here and will actually prepare for his next life I am certain. I hope we meet again.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Looks like he was dumped out of a bag” is what he said about himself. Its not true, but he is unassuming in some ways. He is a wizard. Not in the Harry Potter goofy way. In the celestial wonderful way. His mind is something I can’t completely comprehend. He loves art in all its forms and cries when he thinks of the complete beauty of the world and the people in it. He is my dad, the one assigned by God, not the one given at birth. He keeps me honest and says things to me that speak to my soul. It is almost as if the world wasn’t ready for him, but Masonry was. He kept the esoteric tradition alive when others would have it die.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A Brother:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Understood rites of passage in a way my immature mind cannot yet wrap around. Someday I’ll get it, he has forced me to study. He is mature, eloquent, and distinguished. He has changed Masonry for the better. People love him, fear him, and kiss up to him a bit. He will labor in the quarry everyday of his life and I wonder if the world will understand the great contributions he has made. I do.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I could go on, probably forever.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I write these few descriptions down because I wanted to answer a question and provide a little something of an epiphany I had.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First, the question. Why am I a Mason? Because of them. I didn’t know why I was a Mason in the beginning. God made me a Mason so that I could be exposed to these men.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Second. I realize that as I grow in Masonry, there is little that is me. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I am my Brethren. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">They each touch me in such a wonderful and powerful way, that the old ego driven me has been molded and changed by these extraordinary men I am humbled to call Brother.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Thank you Brother. You changed me, you made me, you continue to raise me.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-29048411189892485432011-09-01T15:06:00.000-07:002011-09-01T15:06:53.284-07:00A Masonic Response to Stupid Atheism<b><i>This article was originally written and published in Living Stones Magazine. I have had a number of Brothers ask me about the magazine and what my articles are about and what the other articles are all about. I received permission from the editor to share this article written and published in this months issue. I highly recommend the magazine which you can subscribe to at www.livingstonesmagazine.com </i></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A Masonic Response to Stupid Atheism</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;">A belief in Deity is required to be a Freemason, and is considered one of the Ancient Landmarks of Freemasonry. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;">Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723 provide that a Mason was once encouraged to simply blend to the religion of his land</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;">, similar in exactitude to the teachings of the Druze</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;">, but changed here by Anderson influenced by Enlightenment Europeans to read</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;">:</span><br />
<div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“A Mason is obliged by his Tenure, to obey the moral law; and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #1022a3; text-decoration: underline;">Atheist</span></a> nor an irreligious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertine"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px color: #1022a3; text-decoration: underline;">Libertine</span></a>. But though in ancient times Masons were charged in every country to be of the religion of that country or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves: that is, to be Good men and True, or Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denomination or Persuasion they may be distinguished; whereby Masonry becomes the Centre of Union and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among persons that must have remained at a perpetual distance.”</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The explanation given new candidates for a need in the generic belief in Deity and the exclusion of these “stupid Atheist” often the statement that the oath of an atheist is not binding</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, since the oath itself is taken upon a Bible or other Volume of Sacred Law depending the faith of the particular candidate or the standard Masonic practices for the man taking the oath. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I will contend the following:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1. The assertion that the oath of an atheist is not binding is preposterous and the reason for the exclusion of atheist is important, but their oath not being binding is not the reason. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2. The symbols of Masonry point to an ancient truth and provide a better explanation for the reason atheist are excluded from the Craft</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3. The reason for the exclusion gives us a hint to origins of Masonic Philosophy.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We only need to examine a list of famous atheist who were in every way more wonderful than a list of believers to make the historical argument that an atheist will keep his word. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One of my favorite atheist Andrew Carnegie, the famous builder of the largest steel empire in the United States of America. He was also one of the world’s most giving philanthropist. He list writers such as famous Freemason Robert Burns as his heros, respected religious freedom, and even supported his wife in her Presbyterian beliefs by attending church with her. By almost every standard, a man with whom Masonry would find itself at home; less his atheism</span>. </div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Carnegie went so far as to declare a belief, “an Infinite and Eternal Energy from which all things proceed.”</span>As Masons we might be tempted to declare for Carnegie a faith. Yet, it is unfair to classify a man’s faith for him and Carnegie himself made a declaration concerning his faith saying, “I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.”</div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It would be difficult to argue that Carnegie was not a man of his word, philanthropic, or intelligent. Nor is Carnegie an isolated incident in the history of atheism. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The list of decent and good atheist is as long as the list of terrible and seemingly irreligious men of God, who, at first appearances would be very welcomed to the Craft given the limited face value requirements for admission into this valuable Fraternity.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As to point one as well, we should be able that the converse of the argument is true. If the oath of an atheist is not binding, then the oath of a believer should be. Nonetheless, we find a list of horrible men who are Christians, Jews, Muslims, and believers of every kind who violate their oaths. We find list of foresworn Freemasons easy to find, even recently with the violent acts of Anders Behring Breivik.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We might be tempted to claim that none of these oath-breakers “truly” believed or were “truly” Freemasons. The word “truly” being thrown around as the excuse of the morally self-righteous. The fact is list of perfect men filling the ranks of Freemasonry, if extant, is short; more likely it has never existed. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It would stand to reason that if the oath of a believer is easily breakable as provable by history, and if the oath of an atheist is easily keepable as provable by history, there might be another reason for the exclusion of atheist, or the reason for their exclusion must be superfluous. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It is my contention that there is little in Masonic ritual or ancient customs that is superfluous and, that when the seemingly absurd is found within the ranks of our ancient teachings a great truth is often hidden within. The absurd is ofttimes a road marker for hidden wisdom upon the path of Freemasonry. The monitorial portion of the degrees of the Scottish Rite and our most Illustrious Brother Albert Pike would agree stating ofttimes that the symbol and rituals of the Craft intentionally conceal the true meaning of a thing and are designed to do just that. Initiation, being a degreed system or graduated system reveals the truth in stages. Likewise, the real secrets of Masonry seem more internal than external. The most esoteric teachings of the Craft become so, it would seem, because of their ineffable nature.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This ineffability of the nature of our secrets gives way to the first hint of the authentic nature of the exclusion of atheist. What would initially appear a Christian innovation or intolerant invention becomes an important safety mechanism that should adhered to in every instance for the spiritual safety of the practitioner as well for the preservation of the reputation of the institution. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b></b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">When Masonry is relegated to coronations, collars, and back slapping there is little room for an argument of great spiritual sagacity for the prohibition of atheist. When Masonic meetings are little more than minutes and self-aggrandizing minutia the genuine reason for excluding atheist seems more of a personal preference that our devolution into a “look how great I am club.” The state of our Fraternity and our participation in its less than humble or giving activities is a matter of personal embarrassment when witnessed by non-believers. For the non-believer, it would be better that they were kept in the dark as to our personal needs of over elevation for little accomplished, as we would like to keep the public image of a humble souled philanthropist with a devote faith in God. Better to be a working tool of the Divine in the eyes of the damned than a hypocrite with human failings and little humility.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But, if Masonry is more than a dressed up fish-fry or a dressed down Star and Garter, then we must answer the difficult question of what Masonry “is.” This is no small task within the confines of a Masonic culture in which it is more popular to declare Masonry undefinable, because to define it takes work and labor. It is much easier, albeit intellectually dishonest, to declare Masonry all things to all men so that we need not study and work to come up with a definition and, therefore, application in our daily lives. Also, to define the Craft beyond a good old boys club carries the risk of upsetting the good old boys. Masonry is relegated to a two hour block of time in a lodge room, instead of a philosophy of such depth and greatness it changes lives and simultaneously the world.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For the sake of this paper, we will define the “IS” of Masonry through the language of Masonry; it symbols.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The 47</span><span style="font: 6.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px; vertical-align: 3.0px;"><sup>th </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Problem of Euclide is a common symbol within several of the Masonic rites whose first appearance within Masonic ritual dates back to at least the 17th century. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We read in <i>General Ahiman Rezon </i>of 1868 by Daniel Sickels</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> the following description of the symbol and its place in Masonry:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“THE FORTY-SEVENTH PROBLEM OF EUCLID.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This was an invention of our ancient friend and brother, the great Pythagoras, who, in his travels through Asia, Africa, and Europe, was initiated into the several orders of priesthood. and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason. This wise philosopher enriched his mind abundantly in a general knowledge of things and more especially in Geometry, or Masonry. On this subject he drew out many problems and theorems; and, among the most distinguished, he erected this, which, in the joy of his heart, he called EUREKA, in the Grecian language signifying I have found it; and upon the discovery of which he is said to have sacrificed a hecatomb. It teaches Masons to be general lovers of the arts and sciences.”</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This description is common it or some version similar or nearing it can be found within most of the lectures of the third degree in the United States of America, Emulation Ritual, and within several Scottish Lodges.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">By 1723 the 47</span><span style="font: 6.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px; vertical-align: 3.0px;"><sup>th </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Problem of Euclid was so entrenched in Speculative Masonry, that it was made part of Anderson’s Constitutions. </span>Much attention has been given this “Pythagorean Theorem,” and Bromwell goes so far as to provide the triangle is the only important symbol, the squares being only for illustrative purposes. Bromwell was mistaken.</div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The illusion is multi-fold. The cube is the symbol of man. Metatron’s Cube, the cube as a platonic solid, and many of the great mystical traditions provide the cube as both the basic building material of matter and a geometric representation of man. The true building block of the inner and outer temple, the real and spiritual architecture of the universe.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYYLgpBNVRdIm-G0JFBkh4xfHxIX0ChAnhAjS7In84eHUZ0o90aW4b2zdNTtzvlYRNDQ0ZZ4YKwYKfd9qh3b0tnyBk_dwlKgpF0fMPgyKQa0HOom91DusAf4-jI-CnFnsrdkbW6SguiA/s1600/euclid.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYYLgpBNVRdIm-G0JFBkh4xfHxIX0ChAnhAjS7In84eHUZ0o90aW4b2zdNTtzvlYRNDQ0ZZ4YKwYKfd9qh3b0tnyBk_dwlKgpF0fMPgyKQa0HOom91DusAf4-jI-CnFnsrdkbW6SguiA/s320/euclid.gif" width="298" /></a></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We see see Pharaoh seated upon a cube as an allusion to this very fact. Hindu gods are depicted as standing upon a cube as a symbol of the Divine over man. It is not uncommon to see the cube tied directly to this idea both in religion and in architecture. As noted by Tiffany Whitmire in her article on the topic relates the following:</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> “2. The Hindus</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
Before the Hindus erect any type of building, large or small, for religious purposes they first perform a simple geometric construction on the ground. This means that they construct a square from establishing due East and West. It is from this square that they lay out the entire building. The geometric construction is associated by prayers and religious observances.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3. The Christians</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
The cross is used as the major emblem for the Christian religion. In geometrical terms the cross, elaborated in the Medieval period, is the form of an unfolded cube. It was also associated with kingship. Many of the <a href="http://www.elore.com/el04se01.html">Gothic</a> chuches were built by proportions derived from the geometry inherent in the cube or the double-cube. Many Christian churches are still built in this form today.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4. The Ancient Egyptians</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
The ancient Egyptians used regular <a href="http://www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/geometric/">polygons</a> in their construction, but discovered that these polygons could be increased while keeping the ratio of their sides by the addition of a strictly constructed area. This was named the "gnomon" by the Greeks. The god Osiris was given the recognition for the concept of the ratio-retaining expansion of a rectangular area. Egyptians also used the square as a symbol of kingship.”</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So it is unlikely the square or cube as used to illustrate the 47</span><span style="font: 6.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px; vertical-align: 3.0px;"><sup>th </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Problem of Euclide means nothing. It is unnecessary to draw more than a line to illustrate the triangle and the more common way of illustrating the theorem is circle, not a series of squares. So again, it is unlikely the square or cube mean nothing. Further, whenever the number three appears in Masonry, it is intentional. We must give some attention to the fact that it is three squares or cubes that define the triangle in illustrative measure.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 1px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The metaphysical nature of Pythagoras and his disciples is in little question. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that any symbols used or created by Pythagoras or his followers had no spiritual value or connotation. </span>To the contrary, Pythagoras was revered more the metaphysical nature of his work, than the purely geometric nature of it. In ancient times it is likely the stiffly drawn lines in our present day culture were not as defined.</div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We find ourselves as Masons faced with the obvious conclusions. First, that Masonry is philosophical, is special and is designed to impart a truth. Masonry reveres Pythagoras and this theorem for the same reasons Plato and Aristotle did, he was a spiritual leader and teacher. A philosopher of the greatest kind that would give birth to a new metaphysical culture.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since we have nothing written from the hand of Pythagoras himself, we must examine what is known about him and of him in order to form some level of conclusion. In this regard, deduction of the symbols becomes the surest way to decipher their meaning.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;"><b>Breaking Down the Symbol</b></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">1. The cube since the most ancient of periods has been associated with man and the material. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">2. The cube appears three times as part of the common Masonic symbol of the 47</span><span style="font: 6.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px; vertical-align: 3.0px;"><sup>th </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Problem of Euclid. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">3. Man persuades (and lies) in threes.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">4. The triangle is a symbol of the Divine in many cultures.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">5. The right triangle has been used in ancient architecture and building for thousands of years and is associated, likewise with the Divine.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The 47</span><span style="font: 6.0px 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0.0px; vertical-align: 3.0px;"><sup>th </sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Problem of Euclid is a roadmap for the Divine and, in turn, gives us a clue to the origins of our own Masonic philosophies. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The three squares or cubes relate to the tripartite nature of man. The fact that they illustrate the symbol of the Divine provides the message that man, the universe, and the nature of things can be understood by looking and discovering within man, that all truth and all things Divine can be discovered within man himself. The search is in Masonry is an internal and not an external one.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Eureka, the term ascribed to Pythagoras in Masonic lore upon discover of this ancient truth stems from the Greek “heureka” and means, I have found it.” </span>Masonry could be hard to define for some, but it must be a search for light if our rituals contain any truth at all, as the candidate repeatedly declares his thirst for light and repeatedly is said to receive it. Light is knowledge and I have failed to provide an endnote on this, for any man a Mason who declares that the light referred to in the degrees is other than this, we are so far apart in our agreement on the issue, and they so far outside of a realistic understanding of degrees, there is nothing I can write for him to bring to said light. Go linger in the darkness, this article is not for you.</div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The light of Masonry is a Divine Light, and that light is now illustrated to exist within the tripartite nature of man as illustrated by our symbols.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Eureka! I also declare, for we have found it and it is within us!</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The journey of Masonry is a Gnostic one. It is an Enlightenment Era invention predicated on the ancient mystery schools that declare, “I warn you, whoever you are. Oh, you who wish to probe the arcanes of nature, if you do not find within yourself that which you seek, neither shall you be able to find it outside. If you ignore the excellencies of your own house, how do you intend to find other excellencies? In you is hidden the treasure of treasures. Oh, man, know thyself and thou shall know the Universe and the Gods!”</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Enlightenment had ushered in an Era of Reason, so much so, that it threatened to dislodge the spiritual from its rightful place in the balanced life of a man. The pendulum was beginning to swing so violently away from the Age of Superstition, that even dreams were disregarded as irrational and intellectuals were made to feel less so for having had them.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Masonry served and serves as a mystical tradition that inculcates balance and instructs the candidate that the Divine is within. This approach could be identified as Hermetic or relating to the teaching of Hermes, who is sometimes associated with Hiram.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is partially mistaken and does not take into the account the distinctly Christian flavor of the Enlightenment in Europe or the overtly Christian references purposely removed from Masonic ritual during the unification of the modern and antient grand lodges in England. It was at this time that the Craft was purposely demystified to some degree in hopes of making it more appear more overtly universal.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The belief that the degrees were less than universal at the time comes from the misunderstanding of the mystical or Gnostic Christian references as literal. When taken in the Gnostic manner in which they were intended, the true beauty of the ritual can be understood.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Swedish Rite of Freemasonry is a perfect example of how a purely Gnostic tradition contains direct Christian references that in no way require a belief in a literal Christ and, in some regards, are harmed by such a literal approach to their interpretation. In many ways, it is quite sad that this beautiful tradition has been closed Christians alone. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hiram himself is purposely modeled after Jesus in the Gnostic sense. This being the only logical conclusion when all the other aspects of the Craft are Judaic in nature. The messianic portion must be Christian in flair. This, in turn, is Gnostic.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Gnosticism is nothing more Christianized Hermeticism. Freemasonry is the Enlightenment Era mysticism with Christian overtones, resulting in its Gnostic message in lieu of the pagan Hermetic one. The Gnostic message, heretical as it was in Enlightenment Era Europe, was still more acceptable in nature than the pre-Christian Hermetic one.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The frightening truth of this message is that it is distinctly not in keeping with the current evangelical message of Christian fundamentalist which have rightly identified Masonry as an enemy. Masonry seeks to provide a path to the Divine within, and removes all pretense and ceremony the church would have you believe is necessary for salvation.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Masonic salvation comes in the form of a moral and just life, and exist for the candidate in the here and now; Masonry is not a religion, because the existence of of organized worship is superstitious in comparison to Gnosticism. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Within Gnosticism, God is within you and all around you all the time and the false perception of the fall of man, or the absence of the presence of God is a false one. So just as the triangle of Pythagoras is within the squares, so to God dwells within. Yet, he can be seen throughout everything everywhere. One might say the wisdom of God can be traced through the whole of nature and His glory firmly established by simply experiencing nature and life.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Which brings us to our “stupid atheist.” </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">If the point of the journey is to find the Divine nature of man, then the atheist can not complete this journey; for at the end of it, he must slump exhausted and have no faith to rely on. </span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The man who begins the journey, the profane, is said to be in denial of his true Divine nature. If the end of the journey is designed to reveal this truth, what good would the journey do for man whose label requires him to deny this.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The word stupid derives from the Latin stupidus and means confounded. Confounded derives from the same origins as damned, or damaged.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> This is an apt description of what happens or could happen to a man exposed to the truth for which he is ill prepared.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Within the mystical traditions there is a belief that those ill prepared to confront their Divine nature, or confront it before they are initiated will be driven mad, or produce the opposite effect of wisdom.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our very own Masonic first Grand Master, King Solomon himself, was said to be driven to madness. This comes after using the high truth of the nature of things to build his Temple. Harnessing the wisdom of demons</span>, he grows arrogant, and is subsequently driven mad. </div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The exclusion of atheist is a safety mechanism built in to a Gnostic tradition. The atheist, living an out of balance life, much like the fundamentalist on the other end of the scale, is deemed “not ready” to confront his nature, much more than he is deemed unfit.</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>1</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Albert G. Mackey, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">A Textbook of Masonic Jurisprudence</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (New York: Macoy, 1858)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>2</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Reverend James Anderson D.D., </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Constitutions of Freemasonry 1723</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>3</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Rabie Jarmakani. Personal Interview. 4 July 2011.</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>4</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> John Marshall, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">John Locke, Toleration and early Enlightenment Culture</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>5</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> H.L. Haywood, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Newly-Made Mason: What He and Every Mason Should Know About Masonry</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Chicago: The Masonic History Company, 1948)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>6</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> David Nasaw, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Andrew Carnegie</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (New York: Penguin, 2007)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>7</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> David Nasaw, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Andrew Carnegie</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (New York: Penguin, 2007)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>8</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Andrew Carnegie, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and The Gospel of Wealth</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Seattle: Createspace, 2010)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>9</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Chris Hodapp, “More on the Norway Killer’s Masonic and Templar Connections,” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Freemasonry for Dummies</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, 28 July 2011<http: 07="" 2011="" freemasonsfordummies.blogspot.com="" more-on-norway-killers-masonic-and.html="">.</http:></span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>10</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Daniel Sickels, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">General Ahiman Rezon</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (New York: Masonic Publishing and Manufacturing Company, 1868)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>11</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Reverend James Anderson D.D., </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Constitutions of Freemasonry 1723</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>12</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Henry P.H. Bromwell, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Restorations of Masonic Geometry and Symbolry</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Denver: Henry P.H. Bromwell Masonic Publishing Company, 1905)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>13</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Stephen Skinner, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Sacred Geometry: Deciphering the Code</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (New York: Sterling, 2009)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>14</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Tiffany Whitmire, “Sacred Geometry,” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Sweet Briar College</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, September 1998 <http: sacredgeo.html="" sacredplaces="" www.arthistory.sbc.edu="">.</http:></span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>15</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Huffman, Carl, "Pythagoras", </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2011 Edition)</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http: archives="" entries="" fall2011="" plato.stanford.edu="" pythagoras="">. </http:></span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>16</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Cliff Porter, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Secret Psychology of Freemasonry</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (Colorado: Starr Publishing, 2011)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>17</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> “A Study in Graphic Symbolism,” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Shrine of Wisdom, Volume 30</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> (Surrey, England: Fintry Trust, 1926)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>18</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Douglas Harper, “Eureka,” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Online Etymology Dictionary</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, <http: index.php?term="eureka" www.etymonline.com=""></http:></span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>19</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> William J. Broad, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and the Science Behind Its Lost Secrets</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (New York: Penguin, 2007)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>20</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> John Gascoigne, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Science, Philosophy and Religion in the Age of Enlightenment</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, (London: Ashgate Variorum Publishing, 2010)</span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>21</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Manly P. Hall, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Lost Keys of Freemasonry,</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> (Los Angeles: Hall Publishing, 1924) </span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>22</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Julian Rees, “Through Ritual To Enlightenment,” </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Pietre-Stones: Review of Freemasonry</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">, 20 March 2003, <http: through-ritual-to-enlightenment.html="" www.freemasons-freemasonry.com=""></http:></span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>23</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Douglas Harper, “Damn,” Online Etymology Dictionary, <http: index.php?term="damn" www.etymonline.com=""></http:></span></div><div style="font: 10.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="font: 6.7px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><sup>24</sup></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> F. F. Fleck, </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Wissenschaftliche Reise durch das südliche Deutschland, Italien, Sicilien und Frankreick,(Leipzig, 1837)</span></div><br />
<div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 14.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-41209571847560113212011-07-15T06:43:00.000-07:002011-07-15T06:43:09.693-07:00My Journey Through Lebanon and Turkey<div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lebanon has turned out to be more extraordinary in every aspect than I could have imagined.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We were met at the gate by security, who said in a Arabic meets Aramaic accent, "Timothy Hogan and Mr. Porter." We said a collective, "Yes?" and looked at one another with equal curiosity. Ushered to the Diplomatic Line at the passport stand and ushered into Lebanon with great speed we met Brothers Peter and Rabi with their driver and were underway on the adventurous highways of Beirut before we really understood what that means. Lanes are only a suggestion in Beirut and for Peter's driver...they are not taken as recommended.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lebanon is a contradiction as plain and beautiful as humanity. Lush trees and countryside, next to rocky hills stripped bare of cedar from the push of human destiny. Rich next to poor, old and new, bombed and remodeled all huddled together under the canopy of a sky that has shined on these cities which have bustled in similar fashion with similar people for millennia. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Byblos, or Giblum (stone squarer) is the longest and most continuously occupied city in the planet. Home to one of our passwords and the center of the "The Book"...literally taken from the city that would change history...over and over and over again.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Taken to lodge we met native Arabic speakers, English speakers, French speakers, and I am sure something else speakers....truly and international lodge whose charter is from the Grand Lodge of New York...America helping unite...it was nice to be reminded of America's potential to bring men together as Tim and I began our presentations on 4th of July. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Several Brothers would wish us a happy Independence Day. And happy, thus far it had been. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We had begun the day in search of ancient ruins. We found them and they did not disappoint. Once again the symbols of our philosophies poured out in stone, but this stone as old as 10,000 years. Symbols of the Entered Apprentice due guard, the six pointed star, the five pointed star, network, lilies, and pomegranates. The desire to unite and to understand ones self clearly a part of the most ancient of mystical initiatic traditions.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Standing in the old Baptismal pools of Jupiter more than 4,500 years dry...but a BAPTISMAL POOL none the less.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">A mosaic coming to us from a thousand years before Christ of a Shepard hold ing a crook and grapes and wreathed in garland that look a lot like thorns...a familiar look to Christians...but much older than the story of our Christ.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dinner with men from several Continents would follow a day of temples, lodges and fellowship. The food was a feast and was enjoyed with Lion's Milk, Mezzo and friends. Tim and I shared a Hookah of light mint and lounged in couches in an open air restaurant where the waiters wore tuxedo type jackets and the guest lounged for hours dressed in everything from formal dress, the gowns of a Sheik, to jeans.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">More lodge visits would follow in the wonderful mix of Masonry called Lebanon. Grand Lodges from all over the world meeting in Lebanon and I was able to hear the opening of lodges in the constitutions of Scotland, England, and America. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The second lodge visit was much different than the first. The building bigger. The Brothers dressed mostly in tuxedos, and a visit from the Grand Master. There was a little more tension in the air for me. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lodge opened and Tim and I were received to the East and then the Grand Master took the Gavel and presided over lodge.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Tim would open and I could tell from the outside that there were some Brothers who didn’t appreciate alchemy as a topic. The majority of these brothers were Christian and in Lebanon this is both a religious and political statement and they took it with seriousness.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“I read the Bible” one Brother said in broken but understandable English, and if the Bible says the flood is the flood, then it is about faith and not alchemy. The Bible, faith, this is what it means.”</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It was fitting that the next discussion would be about perceptions and words.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The question was posed, “If one man reads the Bible and finds love of God, proof of the Divine, and an outpouring of desire to know God by his Brothers that came before him, what do we call it?” </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">No takers, the question to charged with emotion for a place where the last war is still heavily evidenced in bombed out buildings and unpatched bullet holes.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We continued, “If one man calls it faith and another calls it alchemy, are they really talking about different things? Or are these expressions from the same God?” </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The same man who challenged Tim came to me later and kissed me (common in Lebanon), hugged me, and called me friends. Later he sat with me at dinner and we learned much from another. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bridges and tears I thought. Religion, faith, hope, love, and Freemasonry; building bridges over rivers of tears. Where once was misunderstanding and argument, was complete Brotherhood and tolerance. Freemasonry, powerful medicine. Its good to be an architect and builder in a world of destroyers. We have hard work, but glorious labor in front us my Brothers.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Druze.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We met many during out trip and heard one say, “Freemasonry is the religion of the Druze” and he laughed. The Druze, a secret society that requires lineage to be accepted. Stricter than Masonry, you must be born into it. You have grips, hollow columns, reverence of Pythagoras, reverence of Hebraic mystical traditions, circumabulation, etc. It is so similar to Masonry that one its own members calls Freemasonry the religion of the Druze! It is interesting that the Druze degree was removed by the Scottish Rite for the Sufi degree because it was determined Pike was mistaken. I wonder if someone didn’t jump the gun. Because the Druze themselves would claim him correct. This I heard from the mouth of Druze, not from the mouth of experts who claim to know them.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dinner in Byblos is worth noting. A vibrant and undying city. We sat in an open air restaurant with a view of an Ottoman ruins and at a giant tray of deep friend fish, heads and all with a light sesame and dill sauce. The meal itself would look scary, but tasted out of this world.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Christians, Druze, Muslims, Gnostics and an Agnostic man of science sat around this table of fish frozen in death throws by boiling oil, there little eyes creeping me out just a bit as the discussion grew deeper.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Strange to have such a diverse conversation, running from transmigration of souls to radical Islam in the shadow of a war ruin, in a country torn by war, but utterly alive. They use an old bomb shelter as a dance club now, but flags of Hezbollah fly in castles of old as a reminder that the threat has not left.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It almost seems surreal that a people as open, loving, and desirous of simply enjoying life could turn to war. Wars that seems driven by those who are far away. It is almost as if the powers of outside nations ravage the beauty of a people that is so deep the country has been a lighthouse and a flashpoint for millennia.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The Club.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Open only two days and a large line to get in, it was too behold. Built as a coliseum, but couches, tables, and chairs taking the place of bleachers. A three story stage lighting set up surround a 360 degree bar that must of had a 25 meter diameter it seemed, the music booming from rock concert level speakers draped three stories above.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We walked right in. Things go like this with Peter around. He, being one of our host. It would seem that we could go nowhere where smiles, hugs, and kisses did not meet this man. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Wives, friends, Brothers, cousins, sisters, all passed by, sat with us for a minute, and headed off again. The booming music, the lighted tunnel to get in, the friendly but charged atmosphere inside seemed to highlight the dichotomy that is Lebanon. Farmland to cities, ruins to nightclubs, and the most deadly traffic I have ever closed my eyes and prayed in, to the most loving people on earth. Lebanon. Lighthouse and flashpoint for another million years I would guess.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Istanbul.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My return. It was wonderful to see old friends. The hotel was an old Ottoman prison, now a 5 star. The air condition broke in my room and the mattress seemed extra hard. I laughed thinking maybe the spirits had gleaned my employment and thought “finally” we have one of the “them.” </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The schedule would be the one for which we had kept in Lebanon and the one for which I had grown accustomed in Istanbul. Go, go, go and sleep little. We averaged three hours a night I believe and it seems the current of powerful energy that runs deep in this ancient place charges you completely until you leave it, then slump exhausted and trying to recoup and reclaim your lost hours of sleep. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Mr. Oktar would say on air that Islam would be the religion of the whole world and would talk of the end times.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I smiled to myself knowing how this would be received in a very different Western culture that is my home. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It is important to understand words. Islam means to give oneself completely and utterly over to God. In the Gospel of Mark we read, “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So it is that the idea of submission to God is also a Christian ideal, but the fear that the terrorist and Islamic fundamentalist have driven into the minds of the American psyche will cause a visceral reaction. This is normal and proper I imagine, but the idealist in me still hopes for a world where Christians, Jews, Muslims, and all of God’s children can embrace with the same love and respect for one another that is found Masonic lodges around the world. </span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Lodges, microcosms of hope.</span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Verdana; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="color: #66330b; font: 13.0px Verdana; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 16.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-91564154917772690382011-06-22T14:21:00.001-07:002011-06-22T14:21:45.568-07:00New BookFor those who enjoy my writings:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.createspace.com/3616900">https://www.createspace.com/3616900</a>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-49820766132381906812011-06-04T18:14:00.001-07:002011-06-04T18:14:08.277-07:00The Mason that Religion Denied<div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He was a Jew. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She was a divorced Catholic. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He converted for her, but in early 1920’s, enough was enough. She was excommunicated from the church, denied heaven, and he was never considered for membership.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">They raised a son together, both loved God, neither remained religious. It had crushed them.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Their son would join the service to fight in the Pacific Theatre on a destroyer. He had never left California before and his parents did quite well. Wide eyed and mouth a gape . </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The friendships he formed in the Navy would last forever. He loved the Navy except…..</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">It had been a difficult tour this time. The fighting had grown severe and there were many nights he wondered if he would return to the shores of the country, that in combat, he had grown to love so desperately that he could describe it words without getting an unmanly lump in his throat. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">There were nights he couldn’t imagine life not on the ship. Drinking torpedo juice with his companions and nodding in accent as they recounted many a fictional night with beautiful women that likely never existed. He was young in spirit and had not “been” with a woman yet, but under the haze of torpedo juice and highly charged stories...he sure wish he had.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Life was a little terrifying, a little surreal, and a lot exciting.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The strike seemed deafening and the idea of running topside to engage the enemy fighters with what know seemed like a small machine gun was nowhere near as simple as an idea as it once seemed. But, he did it.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">On the deck it was worse then what he had imagined. It was not just planes, it was ships and his entire fleet was under attack.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What seemed like days later, they had won this one. It was the worst battle he had ever seen or would ever see...and they had sunk an enemy ship. What seemed like hundreds of enemy troops littered the ocean, bobbing on the waves. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hours passed as they watched men drown or get eaten. It was as if the sharks, of which he had actually seen only two, knew there had been a catastrophe and sent an alert to their friends. They died in numbers, but they died slowly, and he watched.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He asked why they didn’t pick them up, but was told that it was not possible. He saw that they tried their best to turn away their enemies ships and die with as much dignity as the agonizing death they faced would allow.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He admired them.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He hated God.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then he stopped believing all together.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He was an Atheist, or he wanted to be. He desperately wanted to be.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The bomb dropped and the war ended. The bomb did little to convince him he should believe.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">But there had been good times, great times in those years. He had met the woman of his dreams in a sleepy little farm town in New Jersey. She was firey he would say of her, she spoke her mind a little too much, did everything a “boy could do” and tried like heck to make sure she did it better. He loved her. Not in the way he loved anyone or anything else. He knew immediately that he needed her, that he would be hers in every way for the rest of his life.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">They traveled the world together. They dusted the oceans in a rickety sea plane and toured crevasses in the wilderness of Alaska. They had two beautiful children, one boy and one girl of course. They had a brand new home built in a little valley outside of San Francisco for their growing family for the exorbitant sum of $7,000. They built a large swimming pool for the kids and the house became the neighborhood summer fun center. He crashed go-carts with his little girl and raised his son to help run the company his father had brought him into after the war. They were the first company in California to carry the squeegee. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Life was perfect, but he missed God. It seemed that for the hardships he had witnessed there was beauty at every turn. For ever tear he had shed, their had been many smiles. Who could look upon his children, his wonderful bride, his life filled with joy and doubt the existence of God.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">His mother died without a church funeral. The church would never forgive her. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So he would never forgive the church.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Papa died and had a Masonic funeral. Papa had been his first line signer. Brought into Masonry, the son of an ex-Jew and excommunicated Catholic who couldn’t trust religion, but loved God nonetheless. Convinced he had seen hell, couldn’t understand how to find heaven, he decided to pray. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is what God said:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“I love you.”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He said, “I love you too.”</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He died laughing one afternoon on the couch in the middle of a giant laugh enjoying conversation with is bride of over 50 years in the house they built after the war.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">His friends from the Navy who still survived attended the service, it was standing room only. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">His daughter’s paster conducted a service. The son of a divorced excommunicated Catholic and her Jewish husband never fit in a house God. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He had read many holy books and found one verse striking. He knew it by heart and shared it often. It was read at his funeral as his favorite blues music wafted in the background. The parting words of a heretic:</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> The LORD is my shepherd, <br />
I shall not want. <br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He makes me lie down in green pastures; <br />
He leads me beside quiet waters. <br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> He restores my soul; <br />
He guides me in the paths of righteousness <br />
For His name’s sake.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, <br />
I fear no evil, for You are with me; <br />
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. <br />
</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; <br />
You have anointed my head with oil; <br />
My cup overflows. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br />
Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, <br />
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He was a Mason. </span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He was my grandfather.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Religion never loved him, but God always had.</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">***I write this as the Bishop of Canterbury recently renewed objections to Masonry. I write this for every person persecuted for their political, philosophical or religions opinion. I write this for the Masons that religion has hated. I write this for the children that God has loved. The whole of his creation.***</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This article was written for Living Stones Magazine. For monthly articles by the Relevant Mason please visit www.livingstonesmagazine.com</span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-47975714541709985712011-05-18T18:43:00.001-07:002011-05-18T18:43:55.671-07:00The Progressive/Destructive Line<div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Peace and harmony prevailing....a Masonic mantra if there ever was one. We say as part of our opening in Preston-Webb lodges that we would like to ensure that we not part unless things are harmonious.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We quote from scripture and provide Master Masons that no contention should exist among Masons.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yet, we fail.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">I want to address what has become on the greatest detriments in Masonry and is a common practice throughout the Craft, the largest body of Masons in the world being in the United States, even if were limited to the United States, it would still be a problem.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The progressive line and our concern for saving the feelings of one Brother hurts an entire lodge or jurisdiction. No place, more than Masonry, allows for the unfit to seek power. You can do so with a frown, no force, and feigned hurt feelings. </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">And it is our fault. </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We must keep in mind that the truly fit don’t mind the labor required to actually earn the spot, title, or position. In fact, the truly fit want to earn it. It is the slack of mind and lazy or ill suited that wish for something easy, most of all because they could never possibly earn it. They are undeserving and would fail to gain a spot just as they fail to fill the position with any quality once it is actually obtained.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">If we applied the idea of a progressive line in the world at large it would be immediately abhorred as it should be.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Imagine that your child applies for a college and he is told that the medical school slots only go to those appointed by those already in charge. That many years ago a few ill suited men were appointed to the leadership and selection board. Nobody wanted to hurt their feelings and all voted to keep advancing them. There was also a belief that although they had never done a good job in a single position, they would rise to the occasion and do a good job in the highest positions. Unfortunately and quite shockingly this did not occur. Since this time the corpus ignoramus have surrounded themselves with ill suited men and use nepotism and foolish pandering to their egos as the general standard for admission. </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">For this reason, your child can not be accepted to medical school, but we would like him to keep coming to the college and paying his tuition. There are not actually any programs, no education, and nothing really to keep him coming back because the corpus ignoramus keep voting down all programs that they don’t understand...which is most programs.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Yet, allow for this system in Masonry. </span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Masonry has within its halls teachings of courage, integrity and tenacity unto death. That great and celebrated son of the widow that is the archetype of the Master Mason died for his Word, which might be fittingly the lost word if we don’t find them within our halls.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Masonry is filled with good men who have loving hearts and the unfit take advantage of the tolerance and desires to mentor of others.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">It is tough, sad, and frustrating to do the right thing, to be honest, to work at evaluating one another and advancing men into the leadership of the lodge that will be good for the lodge and the position will likewise be good for them.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The common argument against statements, such as those contained in this paper, is that as Masons we must be tolerant and steer clear of judgement. In reality, it is easier to prove courage, honesty and making tough decisions from Masonic ritual than it is to argue harmony to the sake of detriment.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Every time a Mason votes a man into a lodge when no background has been done and complains later that the committee never does a good job...needs to ask himself why he votes in the affirmative on a single petition until the practice changes.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Ever time a principle officer is voted in who doesn’t learn the ritual, doesn’t conduct himself like a Mason, or chases the title of “Past” before the present was ever obtained and we sit silently by while it happens...we promote this destructive practice as if we supported it.</span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div><div style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">For those who will claim that as one man they can not do it...then I claim that one man is the image of one God, and that with faith we can move mountains. Good ideas are not an aerobic exercise. We need change and the change is only going to happen when we do something, not think something.</span></div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-78467459641523472252011-05-12T11:48:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:43:03.635-07:00A Poem by me...<b>THE GARDEN</b><br />
<br />
I walked in the garden of love and hate<br />
I was looking for justice, but instead found fate<br />
<br />
I knelt at the altar of orthodox religion<br />
I saw its god, Prejudice and Superstition<br />
<br />
I climbed a stairwell of three, five, and seven<br />
It led me to Truth, but not unto heavenCliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-34530336271492180802010-11-16T13:08:00.001-08:002010-11-16T13:08:05.873-08:00DEFINING FREEMASONRYWhat came you here to do? It is a reasonable question. If you have made it thus far, and your lodge is doing its job, then the Fraternity should have the expectation that you have an idea of your purpose, certain desires and expectations are necessary. If you have a goal, then how can you achieve it at all, if you have not a plan? If you have no goal, then what is the purpose?<br />
<br />
It has become common place in the Fraternity, for the sake of false harmony, to claim that the Fraternity is all things to all men and that any and all symbols mean only what the particular viewer intends for them to mean. Worse, foolish statements such as, “You can’t truly define the Craft” have become the norm in a sea of idle minds that would rather leave the Craft with no definition than have the courage to define it for themselves, or more courageous still, discover what the actual definition is.<br />
<br />
False tolerance has become the mantra of the liberally minded and fear of failure causes even the most brave to keep their definitions to themselves, all to the detriment of the Craft.<br />
<br />
Freemasonry is extraordinary. It changes lives, it builds buildings, it establishes governments when we want to be honest about it. It is the best of teachings and one of the most just and beautiful philosophies that has ever existed, and we, as its guardians and tylers of enlightenment, refuse to define it for the purpose of false harmony. <br />
<br />
In fear of offending those who have never and will never appreciate the philosophies of Masonry, we have removed our mystical tradition to the point that we know it not. So, even the most loving men in lodge, with good intentions, refuse to assign meaning to a symbol so that a man who might assign a different meaning might not be offended. Or, worse, the Brother is afraid that he is weak minded and might be found wrong by someone who he considered intellectually superior. Intellectual cowardice is the sin of the man who should have never been allowed in the first place, for the sword is as much a Masonic working tool as any other.<br />
<br />
It is the first working tool, presented to the tyler, by the symbolic mind of the lodge to guard the psychological work of betterment when the lodge is in session. This is to say, symbolically, that the layout of the lodge and the positions of the stations and places are symbols in and of themselves of the human consciousness and the first working tool of the lodge is a sword to guard it during its work. Courage is necessary so that moral relativism never creeps in.<br />
<br />
Those who have little of the second working tool of Masonry, patience, often rush to the Eastern philosophies for fast food enlightenment, and after an elementary introduction to comparative religion, believe they have found truth, or with a Google search begin assigning Buddhist meanings, or other such traditions, to the rich and deep philosophies of Masonry. The tragic result is often some bogus teaching or preaching that morality is subjective, than there is no duality, and that each man must decide for himself how to interpret Masonry. Skuvbalon! As the Apostle Paul might have said.<br />
<br />
Masonry is definable. It is labor. Its philosophies have absolutes and some of them include:<br />
<br />
1. There is a God<br />
2. There is right<br />
3. There is wrong<br />
4. There is good <br />
5. There is bad<br />
6. There is moral<br />
7. There is immoral<br />
<br />
Masonry, by design, provides a path to discovering how duality and unity exist in a material universe that should not be shrugged off for some fake and unworkable philosophy that does not assign importance to the material existence or pretends that all things are relative. Part of the journey the neophyte or initiate is on teaches one to learn and assign value to himself, to others, to his world, and to God.<br />
<br />
Masonry assigns symbols or implements with meanings. The supreme importance in the meaning of a symbol, is the meaning assigned by the creator of that symbol in a given circumstance. In other words, we must try to determine the meaning assigned to the symbols by the original creators of Masonry to determine what mysteries were hidden in the degrees for us to discover. If we do not believe there was an original intent for the symbols and rituals of the Craft, then we are left with belief that they were randomly thrown to together for everyone to judge for themselves the point of the entire thing. I find this idea intolerable and foolish. Masonry teaches, in its own degrees, a reference for order and definition. It states within its rituals time and again, continent to continent that Geometry is revered by Masons. Our symbols themselves are often blatantly referencing systems of order, foundation, and structure. We refer to the Mason himself as a Temple that must be designed, built, and improved upon.<br />
<br />
So let us briefly examine the symbols and emblems presented, the archetypes they represent, and define Masonry; less it remained undefined and without value.<br />
<br />
The candidate for Masonry is first instructed to be silent. He has others who speak for him in most regards, he is told to trust his God and his conductor, he is advised to organize his time, and to rid his life of vice.<br />
<br />
Then, after proving that he is dedicated to silent service to God, he is placed upon a foundation where he is told that duality is necessary. He is given pillars as symbols of duality and he is first allowed to observe them, them pass through them, and then enter into the heart of them beyond. He is told that the pillars contain the secrets of Masonry within them. This teaching stems from the oldest of the Masonic Noachite legends and ancient mystical traditions concerning the secrets of society and psychology wherein the original pillars were brick and bronze. These substances having a meaning of their own. It is upon this journey that he travels into the heart of the earth, for it is necessary to journey across the mosaic of life and material existence understanding and inculcating all she has to truly appreciate the spiritual spark within us. <br />
<br />
We learn that it is within OUR middle chamber that the next phase of our journey begins and that once there we are to labor. The pillars contain emblems of earth and creation, the symbol of the pillar and globe symbols of generative force, wisdom as a crown upon the symbol of raw intellectual power. We were first shown the very nature of the earth in chalk, charcoal and clay. We are lectured as to her powers of nature to both poison and heal. As as Fellowcraft we journey through the earth, through ourselves, through the universe and recognize the power of duality and the importance of study and work. We are told that if we study the nature of things, that we will understand Nature and Things.<br />
<br />
Foolish statements can not be born in the earth, for she never lies regardless of our beliefs or personal norms that we call truths. The earth and Nature never wage in ridiculous discussions of what is truth. For her, they are a constant and they never error. We can believe that we can fly, and she will have as fall as we leap. We can believe that we can breath underwater and she gently drowns us with the truth. She is real, beautiful and constant. She knows of evil, of good, of right and wrong. Incorrect statements of the none existence of evil elude her lips. She is born in reality, and the spirit is a very real part of that reality.<br />
<br />
It is in our final approach to a new beginning that the material, the old way of looking at things dies a horrible death and returns forever to the earth and remains with her. Our material self, which was a good man to begin with we should remember, is honored in death and buried nearer the temple with honors, this is to say that it remains forever a part of us and it was for a short time during our awakening that we misunderstood this until the symbol of the evergreen and immortality reminded us of it.<br />
<br />
The symbols of our personal evils; those of want, impatiences and a lack of disinterestedness are brutally killed removing the error of harsh and foolish speech (the symbol relating to the throat), the error of an impassioned and unreasoned emotion (the heart) and intentional ignorance (the gut, the place of intuition and at one time seat of the soul or mind in ancient mystical traditions which is why we still say ‘gut instinct’).<br />
<br />
This ushers in a time of a Substitute Word. A time when we live in the world and not of it. A time when a shadow of the True Word can be felt, but never fully comprehended. In reality, this is the closest we get in our present convention. The Craft lodge degrees end there because in this world there is no True Word. We bear the material as our burden on this road, it must be embraced and realized, so it can be utilized with self control. <br />
<br />
Masonry teaches that our lives in this present existence should not be discarded and despised with hopeful wishes of an afterlife. It does not take time with decisions of the Gods and discussions of salvation. <br />
<br />
Masonry is a philosophy of the here and now and it teaches us that we are working tools, to be loved, to be worked, to be worn. That God is closer than we think and the journey into the earth, is as much a journey within our selves.<br />
<br />
It teaches that if we want to know God we can find him, but that once we admit a love for him and a trust for him, we must labor in this present existence. Masonry despises the lazy and has little use for the fools, the stupid, and the false.<br />
<br />
Masonry is a philosophy of personal awareness and enlightenment with definable symbols, realtime lessons and a real life application.<br />
<br />
So Brethren, next time someone says that Masonry is hard to define, define it for them. If we fail to define the Craft, then the Craft has no meaning. There is a very material, administrative, real danger in assigning no definition or no meaning to Masonry. It would mean that by default Masonry has no value. When this occurs statements like, “Masonry is many things to many men” is perverted into a belief that Masonry must be all things to all men. Then dues are reduced or remain artificially low so that Masonry can be fiscally of no consequence or sacrifice. Petitions are prostituted as waste paper and liter the tables of every lodge so that anyone might find one and fill itout. Members are sought like cattle instead of cultivated like an important commodity. <br />
<br />
Define Masonry my Brethren, or you will lose it.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-28916998221034886892010-09-03T09:08:00.000-07:002010-09-03T09:08:18.174-07:00The Religion of MasonryI received a letter from a Brother who was spiritually destitute and filled with guilt. I have contacted him and received his permission to use his letter in part and my response. His letter read in part, <b>“Brother Cliff thank you for this weekend. I will never be able to express in words what it meant to me. There is something I feel compelled to discuss with you as you seem studied in the spiritual side of Masonry. I feel guilty about this weekend. When we were in lodge I had what I would call a spiritual experience. Never having one before, I was uncertain how to describe it, but it could be called filled with the Holy Spirit or maybe Pentecostal in the way that I felt. <br />
<br />
I am a very religious man. I go to church every Sunday, and Wednesday Bible study. Yet, there I was in lodge having my first religious experience. I could feel the Holy Spirit move through me. So how can I say that Masonry is not a religion for me, if in lodge I am having a religious experience?”<br />
<i></i></b><br />
My response to him, because I believe the topic should be addressed.<br />
<br />
My Dearest Brother (Name Withheld),<br />
<br />
Thank for the kind words about our lodge. Without bragging I will say that every man in that room worked hard to create that lodge and they deserve your kind words more than I, so I will pass them along as appropriate.<br />
<br />
As to the other matter, if I may, I am going to ramble a bit and maybe even rant (as I am known to do). <br />
<br />
When my little boy was born I was terrified. I had been married for more than a decade, I had a house filled with nice breakable things, I didn’t want for any toy that I spied and simply purchased as will with no college educations or school clothes to think of. I was young in appearance, but old in spirit and very, very set in my ways.<br />
<br />
Having been present for his birth, the nurse handed my little boy to me just after I had cut his umbilical cord and they had wiped his mouth and nose free of debris. I looked down at him, still very afraid, and he opened his little eyes just for second, if that long, before closing them to let out a scream that would become very familiar in the next few weeks, it being the only words he knew at the time.<br />
<br />
But in that “instant of time, without change of place or situation” I viewed creation, I viewed the power of God to work through his people to create, I saw good and perfect, I saw the product of love, I saw raw and infinite potential…I fell so deeply in love that for the first time in my life I understood just fractionally what it meant to know that I was a child of God and to be loved that way by our Creator changed me forever. <br />
<br />
I had a religious, spiritual, and life changing experience.<br />
<br />
A couple of years later, I would be asked to leave the church that I had returned to because of the birth of my son, because I was a Freemason. Devastated, angry, and hurt; I left.<br />
<br />
I was faced with some incredible choices at that point. There I stood a Heretic, outside of the graces of the church, administratively stricken from the Book of Life by God’s administrators on earth to find my way “out of this darkness, this wilderness of doubt and dismay.” <br />
<br />
It was God’s voice and presence that would guide me, more accurately, shout at me so that I could hear him through and above my own cries of anger at him for leaving me, abandoning me in my darkest hour.<br />
<br />
But the Lord, being kind and pure, shouted at me with a whisper, one so powerful I found myself unable to refuse him. <br />
<br />
………..and it happened in Lodge!<br />
<br />
Having not been a “good Mason,” I thought to myself as a gazed down upon the ring I wore on my finger that had caused all the problems, I should at least attend lodge if I am going to hell for it.<br />
<br />
That is when he whispered.<br />
<br />
I began to take it all in, God’s handy work. Men. Men born the same way as my little boy, precious and true, a perfect gift from a perfect God. He would set a path in front of all of them, all varied, none of them the same, but those paths would lead to God, because you could not escape an omnipotent and omnipresence God who loved you like a child. You could, as some children do, choose not to have a relationship with your parents, but the love is too strong and too wonderful to die. You could shut a door and draw the shutters and pretend the light did not exist, but you are fooling only yourself.<br />
<br />
God was everywhere, all the time, and more importantly, his love, as evidenced in his Creation, was as constant as the material Universe that I lived, loved, and breathed in. Life and creation were worship, loving my family was worship, loving myself was worship, doing good was worship, waking everyday and going to bed at night were worship, faith was an action and God a constant; and Brother, Masonry for you can be a form a worship, without ever being your “religion.”<br />
<br />
Just because we shut the door of a lodge room and declare it tyled, does not mean that God has left the room. He shines as a light in your life and he should. He will be with you at dinner, with you at church, with you outdoors and in, and he will be with you in lodge. <br />
<br />
It is my guess, that if God’s love is as powerful and extraordinary as I fractionally comprehended it to be through the eyes of my little boy staring up at me, then maybe, just maybe God leans down and kisses us upon the forehead or lovingly ruffles our hair just a bit as I am compelled to do with my son. <br />
<br />
Maybe, just maybe, you felt God’s touch that day in lodge in because God loves you with all his heart, whenever and wherever you are, and in that instant of time, he simply reached out to touch one of his little ones.<br />
<br />
Be well Brother, feel no guilt. God loves you and so do I.<br />
<br />
YIB,<br />
<br />
CliffCliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-65916346976874992462010-07-09T15:20:00.000-07:002010-07-09T15:20:14.436-07:00Wizards, Wackjobs, and WeirdoesThey snickered when he walked by, the two Brothers, longtime past masters and longtime members of the lodge, both slightly deaf, thought they were whispering. “Is he a wizard or just a wackjob?” the man had asked. Both giggled and snorted a bit, the other responded, “I don’t see a wand in his hand, but nothing would surprise me with this lot.”<br />
<br />
The Wizards actions that brought such ridicule, the study of the esoteric areas of Masonry. He had read a paper the other day during good of the order and the paper was about speculative alchemy, since which time he was branded “one of those.” <br />
<br />
Generally, my style is not a rant so much as it is a story. This writing is categorically a rant, so if you suffer from rantaphobia, I recommend reading no further. If you believe that men with less than 50 years in the Craft should keep quite and learn their place and that holding a dues card deems a man a Mason or an event merely taking place in a Masonic lodge is enough to deem it a Masonic event, again, I implore you, read no further.<br />
<br />
Long gone are the fun filled days of my Masonic youth when I was overtly offended by statements that started with “back in my day” and ended with some sort of immoral moral story that included me sitting down, shutting up and simply being happy I was a Mason. I have reached a point that I am only saddened that a Brother has sat in lodge so many times and found so little in the way of Masonry. It seems that you can have 20 years of experience, or one days worth of experience over and over again for 20 years, depending on how you choose to see it, or more importantly for this rant, choose not to see it.<br />
<br />
There is a shift in the Craft right now, a rent in the fae* as it were. Like all transitions, even the initiatory one that all Masons are supposed to go through, there are ripples and currents and instabilities. There is always a death before a rebirth. (For those who are now thinking, “Man, this guy must be one of those wizards, wackjobs, or weirdoes”…that answer is yes, and had you paid the least attention during your MM degree, your 18th degree, or the Order of the Temple you would have noticed there is a slight allusion death and rebirth in all of these). <br />
<br />
The Craft as a whole is undergoing regeneration, an evolution of devolution as it were, a return to the philosophical, alchemical, and psychological aspects of Masonry. I am a proud to be a member of the transitional team, and don’t mind the ripples. Nonetheless, I have noticed that as the pendulum swings, the grumblings of those who would prefer to do nothing have grown louder. Because the cacophony has drowned out a few voices of education I find far more melodious lately, I have decided to address them.<br />
<br />
First, I would like to address the statements that seem loudest. <br />
<br />
“Just because you want Masonry to be mystical, spiritual, or include other hocus pocus, does not mean that it does.”<br />
<br />
“What in the heck does alchemy have to do with Masonry at all?”<br />
<br />
“Pike, Wilmshurst, Hall and others were weirdoes or oddballs and don’t speak for the Craft. Heck, most men in Masonry are never going to read those crackpots anyway.”<br />
<br />
I have addressed these individually before and/or with groups. But, today I want to discuss, at least briefly, the converse or the root of the argument. Not the psychological or philosophical origins which are likely to do with unfit men being made Masons with little or no thought given to the work in attempts to bolster numbers and keep dues artificially low….that, is another argument for another day.<br />
<br />
No, I want to discuss the foundation of the argument from rhetorical standpoint. I mean rhetorical in the traditional and academic sense of invention or discovery, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. I believe that the invention or discovery of the argument against Masonry as an alchemical art, a mystical tradition, or spiritual undertaking is flawed. So, I will make my argument here.<br />
<br />
The converse to Masonry as a mystical tradition of metaphysical transformation generally takes the position that Masonry is a highly stylized social group with moral lessons imparted to its members. In short, it is a social order for good men to get together on occasion and help serve their community. <br />
<br />
If this is the case, I find most of Masonry difficult, if not impossible to explain. When Masonry is regarded as a purely mystical tradition designed for transformation all of these misgivings and difficult explanations dissolve.<br />
<br />
So, if Masonry is nothing more that a social and charitable order and all of the mystical and metaphysical “stuff” is drummed up by the wizards, wackjobs, and weirdoes, then I ask WHY:<br />
<br />
1. Do we (the Craft) bother with a tiered initiatic system that includes archaic language modeled after the mystical traditions of Greece, Egypt, Persia, etc? Why not simply allow people in after a back ground check? Shared experience is attained easily enough by going to dinner together or consuming alcoholic beverages together. Why initiate at all?<br />
<br />
2. Do the penalties and passwords directly correlate to alchemical operations in place and written about in the 1400 and 1500’s long before the public acknowledgment of Freemasonry in 1717. Alchemical operations include taking an herb that is torn out by its roots, placed in liquid, agitated twice in a day while remaining buried in a sand bath during the remainder of the operation. Any of this seem familiar? The passwords for the various degrees have direct alchemical allusions, why would the drafters of the operation make these connections, for pure coincidence? The highest point of a distillation apparatus was referred to as the pinnacle of the temple. It continues like this throughout all of alchemy and ancient alchemical text.<br />
<br />
3. Does the neophyte’s journey culminate in an ancient death ritual similar to those found in ancient mystery schools designed for the sole purpose of spiritual enlightenment?<br />
<br />
4. Is the word “mysteries” or “mystery” specifically included in many Masonic rituals if there isn’t one? Is this a lie?<br />
<br />
I will be honest, if Masonry is a purely social order with some charitable intentions; it does a miserable job it. My arguments for this are as follows:<br />
<br />
1. You can’t talk to the lodge without first addressing the Master which slows communication, which is the primary objective in a purely social event.<br />
<br />
2. There is very little actual socializing during lodge and many lodges don’t have dinners anymore or the dinners are so terrible they have become a point of jest and humor within the ranks of the Fraternity.<br />
<br />
3. We give very little money away for a charity.<br />
<br />
4. We barely help ourselves. Brothers will fall away from lodge without being noticed and rarely receive so much as a phone call before his NPD letter is mailed.<br />
<br />
5. Men rush home instead of socializing because meetings are filled with minutes, paying bills, and petty arguments all while sitting in the same seat and next to the same person you always sit next to. This is not social.<br />
<br />
As a purely social or charitable order, Masonry utterly fails and becomes nothing more than bizarre and archaic ritual with no meaning. Further complicating the issue, it would mean that several parts of the rituals used throughout the world are filled with outright lies. The rituals and charges of the various orders of Masonry speak to mystery, enlightenment, and a need to study the deeper meanings and converse with well informed adepts and Brothers. If Masonry is a social club that teaches the golden rule, what is left to “study.” We could some it up with, “Hey that’s naughty, stop it.” Those lessons are learned prior to grade school for most and certainly don’t require an elaborate death ritual to inculcate them.<br />
<br />
So it is, I must relegate myself to the denizens of the wizards, wackjobs and weirdoes that will study as the ritual begs, search as the charges recommend, and never stop trying to build the temple, hone the stone, and perfect the ashlar.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-68860083015960664042010-06-24T15:12:00.001-07:002010-06-24T15:12:15.410-07:00Five Minutes with Ali“Its about five minutes away,” Ali said, with a warm smile and a slight accent that is not quite like any accent I had ever heard before. The Turkish language is a fun one to listen to. It is not Russian, its not Arabic, its not Persian, its Turkish. From an outsider’s perspective it sounds a little forceful almost as if the two people speaking it are about to launch into a fight only to witness the conversation end with a hug and some laughter.<br />
<br />
This is a story about how five minutes with Ali and Freemasonry changed the universe.<br />
<br />
For the story to make sense, we must first travel back in time, to his childhood and beyond, to understand how it all happened. Not Ali’s, but the young boy who would someday meet with Ali.<br />
<br />
His neighborhood was a poor one he thought now. It never seemed that way as a child when there was nothing to compare it to. He always had a bicycle, lots of friends, and a few square blocks packed with people was the extent of his known universe. His father had been an abusive alcoholic and drug user and faith played little part in his growing. Hope, he had learned, was a falsehood. Life was tough and the tougher you become the better off you would be. Expect the worst and you won’t be disappointed was a lesson best learned early to save you from the severity of attack by never being caught off guard.<br />
<br />
At the age of 12, the boys father would meet with a violent death. It was no surprise to the young man. His father lived a violent life, it was fitting and expected he would die a violent death.<br />
<br />
The largest shift in his life would not be that his father died, it would be that he would finish his boyhood with his grandparents. A wonderful little neighborhood where you didn’t have to worry about where to ride your bicycle, friendly folks, and plenty to do. But, it was not was not the neighborhood or the people in it that made such a fantastic influence upon our young man, it was his grandparents, especially his grandfather that would have play such an important role in this story. The grandfather was a Freemason. He was not vocal about it, but he was a Freemason. This same grandfather, paid for the young boy to goto the best private school in the area and it happened to be a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod school. <br />
<br />
It was culture shock, but the young man thrived. The boy became a Lutheran, and with the zeal of a reformed smoker who can not help but to tell everyone how deadly their smoking was and just how bad it was for them, the boy proselytized the beauty of Lutheranism and the dangers and evils of Catholicism. The boy just knew with his whole heart that heaven was reserved for Lutherans and all others were destined for the fiery place. He remembers now, with a tear, telling his little Catholic friend that the Pope was an anti-Christ and being awed at how hearing this his little friend did not immediately repent and accept Lutheranism the path to heaven. Wow! How ignorant could a person be the boy would think. How could a person hear the only real truth of Lutheranism and not embrace with with speed?<br />
<br />
It was in this very school, being paid for by his grandfather, that he would learn that Freemasonry was a cult its members were dangerous. Knowing that his grandfather was a Mason it was vital that he rush home the very same day that he learned members of the “the Lodge” were secretly duped into Satanism and going to hell and save his grandfather.<br />
<br />
His grandfather was the kindest, smartest, and most loving man that the boy had ever known. He would single handedly change the boys opinion of what it meant to be a man. Being a man was talking softly, but with weight. Being man was loving a woman and not demeaning them. Being a man was knowing Shakespeare, quoting poetry, and holding your own while facing down a bully. All of these things he had seen emulated by his grandfather. This made it all the more important to save him from hell the young man thought.<br />
<br />
He ran home the whole way, there was no time to waste with his grandfather’s soul at stake and clearly in the grasp of a Satanic cult. Grandpa was home and sitting at the kitchen table for moment. “Grandpa! You are in a cult, the Freemasons are a cult, you are going to hell,” he exclaimed. “Well, my day was fine thank you for asking,” his Grandfather said, “and how was your day?” he continued. “Grandpa, don’t you understand, the Freemasons are a cult, they are Satanic!” <br />
<br />
His grandfather smiled and said, just a minute. He left the room and returned with the Bible that had been presented to him when he was “raised” to Master Mason and a small ritual book the boy had no idea at the time what that meant. His grandfather said, “Come take look, there isn’t anything sinister about it and I can explain some of it for you.” The boy rebuked in the name of Jesus as he had been taught and refused to even gaze upon something from a Satanic cult for fear Satan could enter his heart through this seemingly innocuous tools. The breathless rebuking continued as his grandfather sat patiently for the boy to take a breath. When he did the grandfather spoke softly, “Son, the school I send you to is a good one. They have their beliefs and I have man. I am sending you there for your education, not mine. If you ever have an honest question about the Freemasons I will do my best to answer it for you, but I won’t argue with you and I won’t apologize for Masonry. It doesn’t need my arguing for it and it doesn’t need my apology. Now, you pay attention in that school of yours, but keep in mind that when it comes to faith, that is often a very personal journey and you shouldn’t be so quick to assume that so many people are going to hell.” His grandfather smiled another warm smile, got up from his seat, ruffled the young man’s hair a bit in a loving manner, and walked away. That was the end of the conversation. His grandfather passed never having resolved that issue with the young man.<br />
<br />
The young man joined the Army and would serve in the first Gulf War. This would continue to shape his views of the world and especially of Islam. War is a funny thing, in that you see the absolute best of people and the absolute worst on both sides, depending on which side you were on, it seemed to the young man, determined which parts for each side you chose to remember.<br />
<br />
He would serve eight years in the Army before entering a career in law enforcement. By time he did, he was a strong icon of the conservative American White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. The world was a very black and white place for the young man. Republicans were good and Democrats were evil. Lutherans were good, everything else was not. He was very much on the road to fundamentalism and it was an easy and comfortable ride. He remembered attending a church group function where he was told, “Those who claim you should have an open mind are claiming this so that Satan has room to enter.” <br />
<br />
Something continued to haunt him though. Why were so many of the men in his life that he loved and respected, a number of them were members of the same law enforcement department he had joined a month after leaving the military, members of the Freemasons? He would see their rings, their tie clips, and the like and they were all good men. How could so many be duped into a cult. The answer was simple. They were not duped and there was more to Masonry that met they eye.<br />
<br />
It was at his dinning room table with his mentor and friend Steve he would ask the question that would change it all. “So, how does a person become a Freemason anyway?” Steve smiled from ear to ear and said, “I thought you would never ask.” The young man joined wanting to feel closer to his grandfather, and having researched the Craft, came to the believe the church, in this issue, was simply mistaken. He was not attending as regular as he used to because too many questions seemed to haunt him. If Lutherans were the only people going to heaven, why would God create so many people to simply send them to hell? What was the point in time and space that only Lutherans, or only Christians for that matter, could enter heaven? If God had told the Jews they were his chosen people, why would he change that and renege on a promise?<br />
<br />
After joining Freemasonry, the young man felt moved to return to church and did so. He had not given it much thought on the Sunday he walked into the church wearing his Master Masons ring. The arguments of old had long gone from his mind and he had forgotten how strong the church felt about Masonry. He wouldn’t forget for long. He was immediately approached and asked about the ring. Ultimately, he was issued an ultimatum. He could choose the church or he could choose Masonry, but he could not choose both. He has always had a strong response to ultimatums and he left that particular church never to return.<br />
<br />
He searched in vein for a church doctrine or biblical dogma that was in conflict with Freemasonry and could find none. So it was, so he was, so he had become when he was offered an opportunity to travel to Istanbul to meet with a controversial spiritual and political leader who had written several books on Masonry, none of them positive. The Grand Lodge of Turkey had once been bombed by extremist and a number of Islamic radicals and fundamentalist believed that Masonry was evil. <br />
<br />
The warnings were dire. “Do not go!” Some counseled that is was likely a “trap.” “Islamic countries are dangerous ground. What do you really think this trip can do, what can one person or a couple of people do to change things?”<br />
<br />
He went anyway, the all did.<br />
<br />
Ali and Eti were the first to greet the young man and his traveling companions. All had come as a small group of Freemasons, one who was an orthodox Jewish Brother. <br />
<br />
Ali explained we were about five minutes from the hotel, that we could drop off our bags and grab something to eat. <br />
<br />
Weekend traffic in Istanbul is a bit of a tricky thing. It is both exhilarating and terrifying and any lines painted on the street or traffic signals hanging overhead are clearly just loose suggestions. He was slightly out of breath by the time the half hour trip to the hotel was completed.<br />
<br />
Ali said they should all meet back down in the lobby in about five minutes and we could walk to get some food, it was only about a five minute walk.<br />
<br />
About 20 minutes later Ali appeared in the lobby and they walked for about 15 minutes to one of the finest dining experiences one can possibly have. It turns out that a few thousand years as the center for cultural exchange and trade makes a society rich. Not in gold, but in culture, history, food, art, and all the things that make Turkey an almost surreal experience where every step, breath, and blink are filled with layers and layers of history. Marble is born down by several inches where the footsteps of kings, potentates, and sultans once walked. Holy men and world leaders have lived. loved, conquered and lost in the city. It was as if every bit contained 100 years of experience.<br />
<br />
The group had only four days to tour four thousand years and they were determined to do so in between meetings and television appearances. It was a whirlwind.<br />
<br />
It was on the last night of their visit they would change the universe.<br />
<br />
Ali was Muslim and informed us that he really needed to pray in Mosque and although he hated to leave us for a moment, the prayer would only take him about five minutes.<br />
<br />
Everyone chuckled, as it had become clear that Ali always said five minutes. Ali laughed himself and promised that he was being more accurate this time around. The young man said, “Ali, can we go with you and pray?” Ali seemed a little taken aback and asked to confirm he had heard him right? <br />
<br />
Ali walked them through the purification and bathing that one does before prayer and walked us to a quite area in the mosque and explained the prayer, the movements, and the words for us. <br />
<br />
That is when it happened, that is when the universe changed, altered, and would never be the same for it.<br />
<br />
There in a small mosque, at one time occupied by Jews, Christians and Muslims during its lengthy history, a small group of men who were Islamic, Jewish, and Christian would line up and pray together.<br />
<br />
After the prayer, he looked up and several older men seemed to have stop cold. Ali explained the situation and smiles filled the room. The young man was patted on the back and blessed by man who was moved by the display. <br />
<br />
So it was that a young man who had embraced fundamentalism would take a chance on meeting with a devote anti-Mason in an Islamic country and would find an epiphany. <br />
<br />
Christians, Muslims, and Jews, some of them Freemasons lined up in a little mosque and prayed together. The result, smiles. <br />
<br />
Five minutes with Ali and Freemasonry had changed him forever. The power of one man who has witnessed tolerance, admiration, and respect for people of all cultures is powerful medicine for a world so ill.<br />
<br />
A onetime Lutheran Fundamentalist had met with a onetime anti-Mason and they enjoyed another, they learned from one another, and they respected one another. <br />
<br />
The relevance of Masonry is tolerance, the relevance of Masonry is prayer together with your Brothers and fellows, and the relevance of Masonry is changing the universe one five minute interval at a time. <br />
<br />
Thank you Ali, I look forward to seeing you again.....in about five minutes.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-34213056811731541462010-04-20T09:10:00.000-07:002010-04-20T09:10:31.167-07:00Value Meal MasonryAlmost eerie shadows bounced and danced their solemn dance to the candlelight casting its shadows and souls upon the walls of the lodge, the temple. The men moved in silence in a circumambulation around their altar. Dress in tailcoats, their hands gloved, the aprons of the finest lambskin. <br />
<br />
The Brothers took their seats and the lodge was called to order, the ritual perfect and well practiced. The booming voice of the Worshipful Master and wraps of the gavel calling something forward from deep within everyone that the work at hand was important.<br />
<br />
Classical music wafted through the air and hung heavy on the deeper notes, the vibration touching the very souls of the men who sat through it. The business of the night was a discussion of philosophy and it went well. <br />
<br />
At the conclusion of lodge, the men retired to the dining room for a tradition Agape celebration with toast, fine food, and fine wine. <br />
<br />
The taste of the foods blossomed well with the wine selected for that dinner and it was with bitter sweetness that the Brethren pulled their chairs from the table for the final toast of the evening. <br />
<br />
Cigars and Scotch followed as the men discussed their views on religion, politics, and the fraternity well into the night.<br />
<br />
The next morning the men headed off to work. Tradesmen of all types, policemen, military, Brothers from all walks of life headed out from their suburban homes to their cubicles, cop cars, and offices to earn a living. <br />
<br />
I have the great fortune to belong the lodge described above and so does my Brother, friend, and neighbor.<br />
<br />
We often sit together on my porch solving the world’s problems both with a glass of bourbon and I with a cigar. It was during one of these sessions my friend, who is a Fellow Craft, spoke his prophetic words of wisdom about lodge, specifically his lodge experience and one of the reasons Masonry is important to him and should be treated as such.<br />
<br />
“You know,” he began with a tone in his voice echoing his contemplation, “my whole life is average, I live in an average home, I have an average job, and I shop at superstores for my average food, my average clothes, and my average television. I love that Masonry is not average. I love that once a month I get treat something special and that I feel special because of it. I’m glad we don’t experience Wal-Mart Masonry. I don’t want quicker, easier, or cheaper. I don’t need my Masonry in bulk with low quality materials. I don’t want Wal-Mart Masonry that one day of my month.”<br />
<br />
He is new to Masonry and his lodge is “special” because we make it so. He does not come from the Masonic experiences most of had when we formed our lodge. He was initiated into our lodge and has “grown up” there. Nonetheless, he hit on something quite profound. How much of Masonry has suffered as we moved to Wal-Mart Masonry. <br />
<br />
As tracing boards that were profoundly beautiful and steeped in artistic imagery moved to PowerPoint presentations, as quality wrought ritual moved to stuttered lines from a man moved into the progressive line to quickly, as Festive Boards moved to paper plates and plastic forks, as dressing for lodge meant no holes in your jeans—what disservice have we done to ourselves and to our Craft as we turned to the convenience and cost of Wal-Mart Masonry. <br />
<br />
When there is little value placed in the trappings of the lodge, when there is little value placed on the experience itself, when there is more emphasis placed on completing things quickly and with little cost, how can we believe that men will find value in the thing itself, in the finished product?<br />
<br />
We are often men of average means, of average lives. I am content to buy my food at the at largest store for the cheapest price. I am content to buy my clothes from the sales rack, but should I be content with generic low-cost Masonry? <br />
<br />
If we are to believe our own brochures and websites we make good men better. How do we do this by treating everything like it should be quicker, cheaper, and in bulk? Do I really want my Masonry from the superstore with little thought given to its intrinsic and philosophical values? Do I want my morality in a low cost buy six and the seventh one is free?<br />
<br />
If we practice our own philosophies then kneeling at the altar of Masonry should be more than a slight distraction before we head downstairs for a ham sandwich with generic mayonnaise and fruit punch because soda is cost prohibitive. <br />
<br />
If we practice our own philosophies then changing a man’s life and actually improving him should be thought of as an experience worthy wearing socks that match and having on something more profound than a pair of blue jeans.<br />
<br />
We are supposed to invoke the blessing of Deity before our undertakings and yet we approach our Creator with hurried expressions and a distain as we bicker about bills and provide little or no education.<br />
<br />
The Craft turned into a superstore of membership at one time. We worshipped at the altar of large numbers so that we could keep our dues artificially low and provide some bang for the buck. Then, as the membership dwindled, the dollars stayed low, and the experience was hacked to bare minimum so that we didn’t “waste” our member’s time. Waste their time—with Masonry…..<br />
<br />
The Fraternity can no longer afford Wal-Mart Masonry. To save Masonry we must change our thinking from quantity to quality. It is not about how many men are Masons, but how many men should be Masons. Masonry can no longer afford the quick sale, the PDF petition available for all who might want one.<br />
<br />
The Fraternity must learn to value itself, so that others might see value within it. The tough thing about making Masonry valuable is that it takes effort. Meetings can’t be thrown to together, meals can’t be nuked, and Brothers can’t be raised in an afternoon with no memory work.<br />
<br />
We love to hail Freemasonry as the home of our Founding Fathers….well, then work to make it the Masonry they would have revered and let’s leave our value meal days behind us.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-8763814517832021762010-03-27T08:38:00.001-07:002010-03-27T08:38:20.308-07:00Thoughts from a Slightly Older MasonsIt was years ago, funny how time flies, that I had written a short paper called “Thoughts from a Young Mason.” I railed on the many programs that failed to recognize the need for a fulfilling Masonic experience that lacked educational aspects. I recommended several changes that would not be difficult or costly to implement.<br />
<br />
The speech was intended as a parting speech, in that, I thought it would make me so unpopular I would be run out of the Fraternity for having the gall to go against, what was then, the status quo. As with many things in my life, I learned a lesson. I learned that age was not the divider I thought it was. I learned that Masons old, young, tall, thin, new, seasoned, and the like were, in the end, Masons. Many were unfulfilled by business meetings with little or no education, many felt that the degrees were extraordinary and deserved further study, many identified with the ideas presented and desired changes, progressions, and fulfillment. <br />
<br />
The speech became a paper, the paper and article, and the article spread on the Internet to the degree it was e-mailed to me as a “MUST READ” and listed as having an “anonymous author.” I laughed. <br />
<br />
The article still floats around the cyber Masonic world and even now, years later, I received an e-mail from a Brother thanking me and finishing with the question, “So how old are you?” He had not realized the article was written years ago and I responded as such and indicated my current age. The response, “Wow, the way you wrote that, I thought you were actually young.” Ahh, life lessons.<br />
<br />
But my space is limited, and I should probably get to the point or, at least, identify the point and meander towards it.<br />
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Most will likely not remember this, but I wrote that article when a man several decades my senior began to lecture me on what young Masons want. It spurred me towards action, not that I was offended, but I realized there was a complete misunderstanding of what young men coming to the Craft and to the Scottish Rite were searching for and I wanted to set the record straight.<br />
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It amazes me how things come full circle and so the same Brother who, years ago, had spurred my writing frenzy has once again captured my attention and fired my passions. The other day he made the statement that Masonic education was a waste of time and hoped the “fad” that had been going on would die out soon; he continued then, that he hoped the “young guys” that had been “acting like they were running things” would learn a lesson. He didn’t elaborate on what the lesson might be.<br />
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This time, I must admit, my immediate response was anger. Why? Well after the first article things changed with my Masonic experience, not because the article per se, but because change was in the wind, and the collective voice of the unfilled Masons, young and old, had ushered in desperately needed changes. The Supreme Council started the Master Craftsman program which was a success by anyone’s standards. Blue Lodges around the States began shifting their focus to a fulfilling educational experience and my local Scottish Rite was excelling in every way. Meetings had become interesting; reunions were filled with debate, discussion, and study. Every aspect was progressing and growing our members. Members of the “last class” were jumping into things at the following meetings with both feet. All the way around, I had no complaints accept those brought on by my own lack of patience. <br />
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So, I had to wonder, what lesson would the “young” men learn? Why was Masonic education, to this Brother, a fad? <br />
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I was truly baffled until I had one of those small epiphanies. This brother was not angry, he was not ignorant, although his statements were, he was not a “bad” Brother. He was afraid. <br />
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The Masonry he recognized was passing away before him and he wished for a time, for men, for friends that were no longer there. Life has little stability, and with Masonry, at a minimum, the tradition, ever unchanging, offers a bit of safety net. A little cornerstone where even the rooms in which we meet have changed little for hundreds of years; it is traditional and it is safe.<br />
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This story is not new. There is a lodge in which the Past Masters all sit in the North and grumble. They are collectively referred to in a respectful, but humorous manner, as the Northern Lights. <br />
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The things is, we are all moving north, if you catch my “drift,” and yes, the pun was intended. There will be a time that the familiar will bring comfort and the desire will be to see the young “learn their lesson.” <br />
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BUT…<br />
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This division represents a failure on both sides of the issue so to speak. Education need not be lofty and difficult to understand. Sharing personal experiences, expounding on a symbol, discussing the inner meanings and life application of the degrees are valuable to all Masons in Masonry. Nor does education need be, nor should it be, a pursuit of the young. What lesson are we applying in Masonry when we believe we have learned all it has to offer?<br />
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We need to work to make education applicable, interesting, and valuable to all of our members. There are many aspects to Masonry and we cannot allow ourselves to focus the resources of our educational programs solely on singular object or particular personal interest. We need to fulfill our members and that means working hard to do so.<br />
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That being said Brothers, and this if for my scared friend, we cannot allow the fear of change to give birth to ignorance, disparagement and discontent. Time will temper our young friends, life will mature them and Masonry will improve them. Wishing upon them the negative or viewing education as adversarial is foolish, regardless of our age.<br />
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The sad lesson of the Northern Lights is the fact they have relegated themselves to irrelevancy through their negativity. Rather than becoming trusted mentors, they are viewed as humorous grumblers. If we react with anger, fear, or distain to all things that are unfamiliar because discomfort moves us to this, we will only isolate ourselves and remove our relevance and influence that our years and training could have provided. <br />
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If our voices are always angry and become nothing more than echoes from the dark part of the lodge, sitting alone and hoping a similar fate upon the happy and fulfilled members we have no influence, no say, and no personal growth.<br />
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Brethren, our numbers our stabilizing, our experiences are improving, and our knowledge of the Craft is growing. If just a few Brothers with an idea could form the great nation we know call home, imagine the force and impact our Fraternity could have on our individual communities if our members chose to work together.<br />
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The greatest thing that we can learn in Masonry is that we have more to learn. Let’s learn about one another, lets respect our various approaches to Masonry, lets end the ignorance, lets shed our fear, and lets change ourselves and maybe just the world.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-72444982136696194502010-02-09T13:00:00.000-08:002010-02-09T13:58:40.184-08:00Power, Truth and SymbolThe power of the symbol is unmistakable. We only need to drive a vehicle, holding it steady, to one side or another of a dotted line to recognize its power and hold over our psyche and our behavior. If it were not recognized as such a powerful tool it would be enough to train drivers to simply stay on one side of the road. Yet, we provide this symbol as a strong and powerful reminder of just where we are supposed to stay.<br />
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If this word picture is not compelling then I ask you to imagine a man going to a large evangelical church with a pentagram on his chest, exposed for all to see and the reaction that he might receive. <br />
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The symbol is so powerful that simply rotating it can change the psychological and physiological response to it. Take the same pentagram worn by our churchgoer and rotate it upside and it seems more ominous and evil than before. Let’s take the cross, widely accepted in today’s culture as the central symbol of the Christian faith, and turn it upside down; now it is a symbol of Satan and the dark arts. I find it amazing that a simple 180 degrees can change a symbol of hope and regeneration into a symbol of black magic, demons, and despair. <br />
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Allow me to digress for a moment in an attempt to illustrate a point. One morning I had listened to CNN and the words “moral responsibility” popped out of someone’s mouth and what riveted my attention afterward was that it had been preceded by the words “Federal Government.” History teaches that whenever the government begins to administer and inflict a moral responsibility upon you, you can be certain that it has little to do with morality, responsibility, or common sense; so I listened. <br />
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This particular story was in regards to the Jenna Six and the noose as a symbol of hate. The story continued that the symbol of the noose should be banned because of its attachment to the innocent killing of African Americans. There will be those, with whom I will lose a little ground because once such a symbol enters into the story, the emotion attached is so powerful that reasonable debate and articulated reason leave the room. Regardless, I will continue with the illustration as I think it is a good one and an important one. <br />
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Trying to ban the noose as a symbol is a failure in recognizing the true power of the symbol. The problem with the logic of banning a symbol is that it is based on a presupposition that is completely false. That presumption is that banning the symbol of will ban or remove the belief behind it. This does not eradicate the true power of the symbol which is the belief system they represent. You could ban the cross and there would still be Christians, you could ban the noose and there would still be hate and bigotry. <br />
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This story also illustrates the degradation of the symbol to the worship of the symbol itself. When faith is not reasoned, educated, or investigated it has the tendency to move toward the favorite religion of the ignorant and lazy, which is idolatry in its most base sense. What is meant is that the worship of symbols without truly understanding the stories, allegories, and belief systems behind them. This shallowness of believe manifest in religious wars, bigotry, and religious intolerance so prevalent in today’s world. The ease of allowing someone else to tell you what you believe is intoxicating in ways and leads to the ignorant obedience to the pulpit. Never having picked up and read their own holy books, these so called believers, these worshipers of the symbol itself, have the audacity to condemn others who actually read theirs, screaming aloud that they are heretics, sinners, and doomed to some fiery fate. For instance, this was the threat of the Gnostic current within Christianity and why it was so harshly stamped out by those who saw the church as a political foundation for power to administer on behalf of God, which of course, they do through degrading the tradition to an almost superstitious belief in the symbols themselves. All of a sudden the wine is literally blood, holy water can repel evil spirits and the like.<br />
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Why all this talk of religion, of current events, of hate, idolatry, bigotry even and what can it have to do with Freemasonry? In a word: Everything.<br />
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If Masonry has a religion it is the symbol. Not the ignorant worship of the symbol for the thing it represents, but for the devoted research, study, and inculcation of the meaning behind the symbol. The reality that the symbol, by itself, is a beautiful allegory of meaning when combined and mixed with the inquisitive mind and the working spirit that does not lay idle in hope that someone will tell it what to believe.<br />
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Understanding this truth, and the reality of the situation, is important to save Masonry from devolving into a system of ignorant tradition that becomes what it should vehemently labor against. <br />
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When, for the sake of harmony, for the sake of expediency, for the sake of laziness, we move quickly through the work, fail to uphold the highest standards, or fail to guard the West Gate against the ignorant and lazy Masonry is destined to the fate of foolish leadership or egomaniacal title collection that will bulldoze and destroy the philosophers of the Craft for fear that their own ignorance will be exposed and their titles recognized by others as ill received.<br />
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Allowing these men to lead results in a fundamentalism of sorts that holds highest the most ridiculous elements of the Craft while sacrificing its most sacrosanct to the fringe and barely tolerated. All of a sudden, and at once, the obligation becomes a gray area, we argue with anger, we guard foolish behaviors because we know no other behaviors, because we have opted for habit instead of devoted research, one being so much quicker and easier than the others. <br />
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We tell ourselves that someday we will study, that someday we will learn, but until then we spend our energies in Masonry climbing ladders and arguing against progression because we fear it for we have not studied it.<br />
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Preposterous statements that the Chamber of Reflection is a purely Christian Rite entitled to the Commandery are made by ignorant men whose only knowledge of the Chamber is their participation in it during a particular Christian Rite. Insufferable jewel collectors claim that Masonry is being wrongly crafted into the image of a few. They do this and claim this because a five minute Internet search is the pinnacle of their research and they fear discovery as a fraud armed with shallow philosophies if the true aim of Masonry is adhered to. <br />
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These men worship the symbol, dig no deeper than a facial examination of the lectures, and believe wrongly that some of the legend should be taken as literal history and that the discovery of alchemy and mysticism is a “stretch.” <br />
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These men commit the greatest of Masonic sins if such a thing exists because they allow the ritual and rites, without study, to become Masonry; the very thing Free Masonry should stamp out. The power of the symbol is the beliefs in the archetypal spirit of man that they tug at and represent. If Masonry is allowed to degrade into a set of working tools with elementary lectures explaining rudimentary moral concepts the Fraternity will die because its philosophies already have. <br />
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We must, within the Craft, utilize the philosophies of the Craft. We must educate and inform our Brothers so that they can form their own opinions without relying on the opinions of others. We must combat ignorance with logic. The brick of mortar of any institution is just that. It does not possess a conscience and does not have a “moral” anything. The minute we are put down, relegated, or denigrated for philosophies that stand behind the symbol and are told that there is nothing more to the symbol than a simple explanation or definition, or that the symbol is powerful for the symbol itself we should rise up, study, educate, and remember that if we put aside Masonic philosophies to fight on their behalf we have likewise been infected with the virus of ignorance and fundamentalism. <br />
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We must combat these things with Masonry, with philosophy, with open minds, loving hearts, and education. <br />
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What is the relevance of Masonry people wonder….well I wonder where in the world would a philosophy designed to unite and eradicate ignorance and laziness serve a great good. Then I wonder where in the world it would not.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-4123618545207568352010-01-04T13:05:00.001-08:002010-01-04T13:06:42.029-08:00Answering Dan Brown QuestionI was asked the other day how one should answer questions about Dan Brown's new book the Lost Symbol.<br /><br />My answer was and remains as follows:<br /><br />My recommendation is not to apologize for Masonry and not to spend your time trying to "debunk" the Lost Symbol. In general, it was accurate. Masonry, in my estimation is a transformative art that does have the capability to transform matter.<br /><br />It is fine and accurate to say, "I'm sorry, but I can't talk about that." But why should we nitpick the novel when it is so utterly positive. In many ways Dan Brown got Masonry better than some of its own members. The perspective that it is special, should be guarded and treated as such, and has the power to transform lives is 100% accurate.<br /><br />Look people in the eye and say, "Yes we are a secret society, slightly less secretive these days and I believe this is the to the detriment of the Craft because the mystery we do have and is under the constant apology of so called intellectuals lining up at the cameras on behalf of Masonry in hopes of garnering numbers is sickening. The Craft is not for everyone, most men should not be members, not because the Craft is bad, but because they truly are not good enough in heart, mind and spirit to be members. That is what makes it special.<br /><br />You may call me an elitist, but I must be honest, the world could use a little more elitism, a world where people cared to their core about themselves, about others, and about the condition of the world. A world where people hated the idea of remaining idle and spent their time, energy and money truly trying to improve themselves, and therefore, their community.<br /><br />So go ahead, line up. Let the Christmas Christians and the closest conspiratorialist line up to declare we are evil. You likely know that in your heart of hearts, even if you had a dues card, the true secrets of Masonry would allude you just like they alluded the villain in Dan Browns' story."Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-22136407221928000992009-09-18T06:08:00.000-07:002009-09-18T06:14:00.866-07:00Dan Brown Got It Right“The doughnuts are on the table in the back Brother, make sure you don’t spill your coffee.” The night would be a busy one, the minutes were not read from just before they had gone dark, so there would be the minutes from that meeting and the installation. The speakers would be mentioned again and a brief tidbit of each speech would be reflected upon again in the event that something had been missed the first time.<br /><br />This meeting is a little different, Dan Brown’s new book, the Lost Symbol, had arrived in mailboxes and many people had read it, had at least unwrapped it, and many more would read what everyone was saying about it on Google, and pretend to have read it, and some, as is their general approach to things, would have already formed a strong opinion of it (these folks never have anything other than strong opinions) without have read or researched the book at all. The strongest opinions, it would appear, are born of ether and not research, so it is best not to let them go.<br /><br />The discussion this day, following the minutes, would be how to “handle” Brown’s book and what a Brother might say or do if approached by a potential member….and that’s where Dan got it right and the Craft got it wrong Brothers.<br /><br />The constant downturn of membership has not stopped those who just know how to fix it from taking the reigns of every “Masonic” situation and turning it into a membership problem. We don’t have a membership problem, we have a perspective problem. <br /><br />There has been a debate brewing within Masonry for years and to some degree Masonic education has caught on enough that not even the appendant bodies can ignore it. To some degree, Scottish Rite Masonry is leading the charge in this, at a conservative pace, but much better than no pace at all, which is the educational programming some lodges have chosen to follow.<br /><br />The debate has been between educational Masonry and membership Masonry and is sometimes taken as esoteric Masonry versus exoteric, or that which is sometimes deemed “Fish Fry” Masonry as a term which is specifically meant as lightly derogatory to the form Masonry which is loaded with lapel pins, pancake breakfast, fish fry’s, and a believe that Masonry is a predominately good Christian organization that should really step up its efforts to relieve the poor or give to charity. <br /><br />The question of the debate regardless of the side of the table you are sitting on, regardless of whether you thought you were only arguing membership or not, is HOW TO DEFINE MASONRY. A failure to realize this has created the reactionary stance of grabbing for members wherever we might find them. Those that lean towards educational based lodge experiences tend to be of the esoteric bent, but not always. There are a number of academically inclined Masons with little regard for some of the esoteric aspects of Masonry as an applied philosophy and enjoy the esoteric as research project as one might delve into anything that is little or less known. The membership camp is of the belief that a healthy lodge is one that is doing a lot of degree work and the biggest problem with Masonry is the shotty degree work and the lazy people these days wanting to stay home in front of their televisions instead of dragging butt to lodge and working to keep things going.<br /><br />What is really being argued here is this. Group A would like to define Masonry as:<br /><br />A philosophical and Initiatic society.<br /><br />Group B would like to define Masonry as:<br /><br />A fraternal organization that does good deeds.<br /><br />Because we have failed to define ourselves in the recent decades when young men asked about us, society has done it for us. The answer was that an organization that can even define itself is, in large part, irrelevant. Thus, you had, “Freemasons, huh, I think my grandpa was one of those.” <br /><br />Enter the Da Vanci Code. Brown defined the Fraternity in a roundabout way with his book. He defined the role of the secret society, which, by default, Masonry got some of the attention. Brown said that secret societies kept secrets and that some of those secrets could rock the collective consciousness of mankind back on its heels. This caused a problem for the Craft, in that, we were not prepared to discuss the Craft to that degree, because so many members of the Fraternity had not studied a single Masonic book, researched a degree, and in no way could discuss academically, philosophically, or intellectually a question about or accusation against the Fraternity. So, the argument became that there were no secrets at all, Google could find them for you, we are not ancient, our origins are not debatable, and whatever we are or wherever we come from, we are not mystical, spiritual, chivalric, or old. We are likely a modern English invention of men who like to dress up in the old days (we have often done away with that so please don’t let it keep you from joining), perform ritual (hey, we are not doing the WHOLE ritual anymore so please don’t let that keep you from joining), and meet in private (private isn’t like secret, there is nothing nefarious, or even interesting that happens in private and if you miss a meeting or all of them we understand, but if you could pay your dues on time or near on time or only one year late, that would be great). So, in effect, we communicated:<br /><br />1. We are a Fraternity, not a secret society.<br /><br />2. We don’t have secrets, and even when we did, they weren’t valuable or useful in any manner.<br /><br />3. We don’t take ourselves or the work seriously.<br /><br />4. We really need members (read in we are hurting for membership because we do not offer anything of value.)<br /><br />5. We are not sure why we are doing it either, we have said it isn’t secret, it isn’t really Fraternal because real Fraternities demand participation, and we are not really……relevant…hmmm….hey did we mention that there are brochures and petitions on the table in the back.<br /><br />6. We have no mysticism, mystery, or spirituality. We don’t want these things in lodge because they might offend an evangelical Christian, which by the way, we accept men of all faiths, but really we are mostly Christian and work hard to make sure that no Christian, even the ones with motives ulterior to the Craft, are offended, because like we discussed earlier, we are not sure what our motives are beyond seeking membership. (Note: if your only motive is to grow, you will likely see some growth. But keep this in mind, even weeds and viruses like to grow, and if this is your only motive, someone will make a living trying to destroy or eradicate you.)<br /><br />7. Ooh, ooh, ooh….we give money to stuff.<br /><br />My Brothers, this reaction is detrimental. I have seen it occur for another reason, besides knee jerk. It occurs when we do not know our own Craft or seek to deny or apologize for it.<br /><br />If you are a Mason and you are attending a lodge where education is absent, if you have read little on Masonry, little on philosophy, if you have done the chairs but never conducted an in depth study of the ritual you used, if you believe that Masonic philosophy is the rote memorization of words, if you have recommended a man to the Craft whom you did not know very well simply to sign the first line and get another warm body, if you first learned of the theories in the Da Vinci code from the Da Vinci code but had been a Mason for decades, you must educate yourself and then others. Because my Brothers, when we are not helping the Craft, we are hurting it and it is important as Masons, that we conduct regular and honest self examinations. If our lodge is stagnant, it might because our frustrations with Masonry never move beyond ideas and conversations in the coffee room or parking lot. If you have a frustration, a question, a problem, a desire and do not move on it, do not act on it, then you are adding to the death of all good ideas that die in committees of inaction, even the informal ones.<br /><br />My Brethren, it is time to declare that the Craft, is, in fact, a philosophical and Initiatic society. I am disheartened that Dan Brown took the time discover Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and the ancient mysteries and we still have members who have never studied the Pythagorean or Hermetic philosophy and cannot speak to the influences of each upon the rituals in our Craft. I am disheartened that Carl Jung used our philosophies to develop his understanding of speculative alchemy, yet most of our own members are not aware of the power of alchemy in a person’s life.<br /><br />I am completely and utterly disheartened that the Lost Symbol is being addressed as a potential membership grab. Oh, we are not calling it that. We are claiming that we should be ready to answer the questions when they come, and with this I agree. It is the underlying message that there will be all kinds of folks, read in healthy young potential members, asking those questions. <br /><br />We are not ready for those men and those who answer the question might just get this one drastically wrong. Before we can answer anything to anyone on the outside, we better finally answer the question of what we are first, and we better get it right. Our list of answers should have the following:<br /><br />1. We do have secrets.<br /><br />2. We do practice a form of ancient mysticism.<br /><br />3. We are spiritual in a way that is so deep, so devote, so beautiful that we have trouble putting it in words. For reasons I can’t explain in material and mundane ways I am drawn to lodge, drawn to the ritual, and drawn to our ancient practices. I love it, but I can’t completely explain why and that is part of the secret…how it touches each of us.<br /><br />4. There are esoteric aspects to Masonry that border on the fantastic. (If you have not studied as much as you would have liked, or maybe even that you should have, this is a great time to be honest and say, “Look, there is a whole lot of stuff out there that I have not studied yet in depth, you could make a lifetime study of our deepest and truest philosophies and some men, like Pike, Hall, and Wilmshurst have. And it’s not just the old guys, we have guys like Kirk MacNulty, Tim Hogan, Mark Koltko-Rivera, and others deeply affected by the Craft who are creating a whole lot of wonderful and philosophical material to devour anew.)<br /><br />5. And…we better have this one ready to….”No, I can’t recommend you.” And Brothers, stand tall when you do this. You do not owe an apology to the man who shouldn’t be a member and you don’t have to start this one with, “I am sorry, but no.” Why are you sorry for protecting your Craft?<br /><br />Brothers all, Dan Brown got it right. In so far as the Fraternity is a guardian of a lost secret. Dan Brown got right when we said that we harbor ancient wisdom. Dan Brown got it right when we studied the Kybalion, the Zohar, and the mystical traditions. Dan Brown got right. Will you? <br /><br />We have a choice here. We can read the ancient tomes, the current philosophies, and the blooming Masonic writers. We can meditate upon our discoveries and utilize Masonic philosophy as a more than passive part of our existence. But first we must face some hard and brutal truths.<br /><br />The Fraternity is not for everyone. It never was intended as such and is never going to work as a roof for all houses. When we have lodges that are failing, when young men go to a lodge after reading the “Lost Symbol” or books like it, or after reading the Kybalion, Morals and Dogma, or some old tome on alchemy and find poorly executed ritual by men who have never read a Masonic book in their life and believe that planning the next cooking event is of paramount importance, we have allowed a major and critical disservice to the Craft.<br /><br />We must allow for idea that some lodges are going to die and it is likely because they should. Masonry is Lockean in its function and capitalist in its design. Don’t misunderstand me. I am speaking metaphorically of capitalism and providing that when the product has failed to meet the consumers expectation it should die so that the new and improved ideas and functions rise from the ashes as a new phoenix takes flight, or at worst, which still isnt’ bad, something that is not functioning properly stops functioning. I am aghast that we can be collectively upset in large numbers at a bailout of governmental proportions, but seem content to bailout failing lodges by joining their ranks in name only to keep a number alive. We don’t meet in lodges, we meet as a lodge.<br /><br />A smaller, more precise, and properly funded Craft is needed. You want a successful Grand Lodge, cut away the failing and unused lodges, focus your efforts on those that will drive Masonry forward and truly understand it. We clamor for members, but those same misinformed and ill intentioned men end up in chairs stalling change at your Grand Lodge level and voting against even the smallest of necessary budget increases. <br /><br />If a lodge is not a philosophical, enriching, and enlightening gathering of good men who study, know, and love Masonry, it should not be a lodge. Dan Brown has managed to discover the Hermetic origins of our philosophies, but we have members who have never read a single Masonic piece of literature. Right now, as we try to progress the Craft, the mantra goes that Masonry can be different things to different men. No it can’t. The proof is the fact that in many places it is failing. It will continue to fail until it defines itself and does so properly. <br /><br />When you define the Craft as a purely fraternal and social order it will go the way of all the other purely social and fraternal orders that at one time tried to model themselves after Masonry. They collectively lacked Masonic philosophy and they died. <br /><br />When a man comes into your lodge and says, “How has Kabbalah and the Zohar influenced what you practice here?” You should not be hearing the word Zohar for the first time. It should not be expected that we are all Kabbalist, it should not be expected that we are all Hermetic adepts, it should not be expected that we all know astronomy, alchemy, and the seven liberal arts and sciences as experts, but we should all be Masons. We should know why we do the things we do and we should have answer in our hearts and minds as to the true power of Masonry. <br /><br />Instead of worrying about whether the Lost Symbol will create members, we should hope that we could create Masons. If we are going to make Masons, we can’t have our senior members learning about their Craft from teasers in a Dan Brown novel. We need to be Masons, to make Masons.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-46314441672039153932009-09-15T07:29:00.000-07:002009-09-15T07:57:21.425-07:00The Lost Symbol of Masonry FoundmbolHe tripped over it in a small graveyard at the edge of the world; the lost symbol of Masonry. The weather had been superb in a kind of sweltering tropical island way. He had stepped out of the little condo he was staying it and it immediately looked as if he had been running through sprinklers and his clothes took on the appearance of an avocado skin, lightly wrinkled and clinging to the flesh beneath.<br /><br />The great thing about island life is that you simply pull your shirt off and ride your bike anyway he thought. What was the point of getting bent out of shape about anything? It was the only place on earth that people seemed to drive 20 miles an hour wherever they went regardless of the speed limit when they took the time to drive an actual automobile through the ragtag mixture of strange makemegoes that dominated the streets of Old Town.<br /><br />On the bicycle then and off to wherever the wind dragged him or the shade made more practical to ride to. It almost called him in a way. The old island cemetery, with its eerie above ground sarcophaguses, seemed to promise adventure and mystery. The collection of tombstones seemed an army of broken promises, sad stories, and lives cut short. The sandy earth below had not held the heavy granite graves and markers in place, the stones leaning this way and that. The burial locations were seemingly picked with a dart, having no rhyme or reason to them.<br /><br />Surrounded with a giant iron fence, it took a little time, but a pattern did emerge. There were smaller gates once inside, as if the dead would choose not to mingle. A circle and inner circle if you will, a court of rank even among the solemnity of the dead.<br /><br />The cemetery had been divided. There was a Catholic section, a Jewish section, and a general, sorry you died section it would appear, and three small “Masonic” sections, in that, the areas were not fenced, but signs, plagues, and various forms of decoration made declarations that the Brethren laid to rest in the designated areas had been members of a particular lodge.<br /><br />He toured them all. The Catholic section had an extraordinary number of saints, crucifixes, and crosses of various shapes and sizes. Lots of rote verse about the toil of life and the rest brought upon by death. The Jewish section had a lot of Davidic seals and stars and multiple Hebraic writings.<br /><br />The Masonic sections had some of what you might expect. Squares and compasses, a few skulls and crossbones, some double headed eagles, some Templar crosses, and the normal Masonic fare. But as he wondered the different tombs, reading the words of memento left in tribute……<br /><br />He tripped hard and landed at the foot of a grave. One of the slightly elevated island style graves with a small cement rim around the edge of the grave and gravel filling in the top. A small plague at the head of the grave read, “In Christ Jesus We are Saved,” with a small cross and rose next to it. Then, as he righted himself, the grave adjacent to it had a Star of David in the center and in Hebrew the words, “He was a father, a brother, and a friend.” The grave next to it had an engraving of the Virgin Mary wrapped in a blanket and glowing. The words read, “Into the fold we shall enter once again.”<br /><br />In a world where people pierce, tattoo, dress, fight, and work so hard to be different. In a world where your race, your lineage, your family name are all reasons for separation. In a world where standing out is more important than standing up, Masons are buried together.<br /><br />Why is that so important? Because those Brothers attended lodge together in life.<br /><br />In a world where we build fences to divide the dead, the Lost Symbol of Masonry is found.Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6628299238534654620.post-80925410333715312282009-08-17T15:57:00.000-07:002009-08-17T16:03:34.672-07:00Last Saturday He Died<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_tEquJhC7sF09F4uzKVEscJ0wnt0cDPpEW0sL3eFnIzsuF7VL2xF4Ijv34_ABk2CI1XKiPj8DYqAnnJIazn69wwSJV7_Xj9Rsb2ce3cq6tY3PKX-2eH88HCuJqwndqim2HJ5M-TEa0w/s1600-h/logo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371072141952620050" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 182px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_tEquJhC7sF09F4uzKVEscJ0wnt0cDPpEW0sL3eFnIzsuF7VL2xF4Ijv34_ABk2CI1XKiPj8DYqAnnJIazn69wwSJV7_Xj9Rsb2ce3cq6tY3PKX-2eH88HCuJqwndqim2HJ5M-TEa0w/s200/logo.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>It was like the air was a solid. Like one of the dreams where you are trying to punch or grab something and your hand can’t move fast enough. Palpable would not be an accurate enough term as it would not provide an explanation for the material and mystical, almost electrical, feeling to the entire milieu.<br /><br />Men rehearsed their parts in quite corners, the whispered voices coming together to sound like an ancient language in chant to their God. The smell of frankincense and Cyprus oil wafted through the lodge as the small pot of incense carried their prayers for a positive experience to God.<br /><br />Their uniforms were impeccable, each member caring for the presentation they were each about to play a role in, regardless of if it was a keynote speech for the night, or offering energy from a sideline.<br /><br />It was time, the candidate had arrived. Hoodwinked in dark black velvet slowly walked to the black room of plaster walls and stone floors, he looked as if he were being lead to his death. The Expert draped in a dark black robe himself, jaunting the candidate from his somber step in darkness. The heartbeat of everyone in the room playing a steady beat to the rising excitement.<br /><br />He would be warned. If curiosity had brought him there, he should leave, if he found differences among men and could not consider them, he should leave. But, if he truly wanted light and enlightenment with a pure heart he should proceed.<br /><br />The room was dimly light. A single candle guided his focus when the hood had been removed. His eyes adjusted quickly to the dimly lit room. The skull of a man who he knew not stared back at him. He mustered the courage to touch it and as almost immediately he almost regretted the decision, his hand pulling back, it was real.<br /><br />He wondered for a minute how this poor soul had ended up an ornament in this darkened chamber of morose décor. The thought flashed it could have been someone who had not heed the warning he was given before he entered. No he thought nobody would ever do something like that, then again, the skull was real.<br /><br />He turned his attention to the questions in front him, none of them easy, and all at once, the sands of the hourglass seem to fall all too quickly and he wondered if he could answer all the questions. They were not easy and all of them required reflection.<br /><br />Then he died……<br /><br />His body was taken by a friend to the preparation room. He was prepared and he traveled in darkness, wondering if he had made the right decisions in life.<br /><br />His soul, no material attachments to it, no metal to weigh it down, floated in circular succession around the symbol and altar of Deity. He was tried over and over. Did he have freewill? Could he exercise it here? Could he meet the requirements to truly be brought into the light? Then he was forced to recognize just how dismal situation was. He asked for something material, when the material had already been shed, and he realized he was lost, yet he stood firm ready for judgment and honest in his own self assessment, “I have nothing.”<br /><br />Then it was done, like a dream, returned to the material world with all its trials, trappings, and tribulations. Not alone though, he learned that he friends, were there all of the while, that he was not just among friends, but family. A family of brothers that would support him in his darkest hour, guide him when he feared for himself, and let go when he felt he should walk alone. They were all upon an individual journey, but seemed at the same time to journey together.<br /><br />What’s that he wondered? Was that a stairwell in the dim light?</div>Cliff Porterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08225842898777528860noreply@blogger.com1