What Really Goes on at Masonic Meetings?

English can be a beautiful language. Read the poetry of Bro. Robert Service for some enjoyable examples. On the other hand, it can be ignorantly massacred; I’ve probably been guilty of that on occasion.

But written English can be a touch bewildering, and one needs to look no further than the internet. Without face-to-face contact, one is left to use their own logic to divine the meaning or motivation behind an e-mail or a post. I’ve seen too many unfortunate disagreements among Masons on-line—and I’ve probably been guilty of this, too—because someone misinterpreted someone else’s comment.

Freemasons are told to use the Liberal Art of Logic. Sometimes, they don’t use it all that well.

With this in mind, I note a query in the Ask-it-Basket from Ivanhoe, New South Wales which is in the subject line of this post.

So, let’s answer the question of what goes on at Masonic meetings.

There are, essentially, two types of meetings when a Lodge has a formal session. There are regular meetings. In some places in the U.S., they seem to be known as “stated” meetings. These consists of normal, and sometimes boring, content one would find at the business meeting of any organisation:
• Minutes are approved.
• Committees submit reports.
• Membership applications are dealt with.
• Officers are elected.

Many Lodges, unfortunately, still pretend it’s the 19th century, before things like this could be circulated (and read) well in advance and dealt with. Thus members snooze through endless readings of minutes and ad-libbed, unfocused reports on some social event coming up (if the member is extremely unlucky, he will be forced to endure follow-up questions about things that were already mentioned in the report or have nothing to do with it).

Anyone joining a Masonic Lodge has to know something in advance. They are not just committing to following the principles of Freemasonry in their lives. They’re pretty well being asked to commit to attend meetings which may be drab or uninteresting.

On top of all this, there are:
• Reports on sick members and their families, or those who may need help.
• Masonic education.

In a well-organised Lodge, an annual and varied programme is set up. Presentations, debates or general talks take place on Masonic subjects—history, symbolism, philosophy. All members have a chance to stimulate their minds by listening and, better still, contributing. In a well-organised Lodge, a good presenter doesn’t just wing-it or toss together something at the last minute when it comes to education. And everyone should have a chance to contribute.

And, that’s not all. There’s also:
• The good of Freemasonry.

Members are allowed, within reason, the freedom to bring up anything Masonic they feel should be brought up. Best wishes are also brought by visitors from other Lodges.

The second type of meeting is an “emergent” or “emergency” meeting (some Americans use the term “called”), generally for ceremonial work. This kind of meeting consists of conducting the three ceremonies of making someone a full member of the fraternity (the three degrees). There is also a ceremonial changeover of officers, generally once a year. In some places, this is considered Masonic “work” and it is private. In others, it’s used as an opportunity to let family and friends attend to gain some insight into Freemasonry without revealing secrets (handshakes and so on).

Of course, after both types of meetings, there’s a chance for fellowship, which should be the part of any fraternity. My lodges generally have light refreshments and a beer or two, with toasts to honour the Grand Lodge, visitors, new members and absent brethren.

So, that answers the question.

Or does it?

You see, the question wasn’t “What goes on at Masonic meetings?” It was “What really goes on at Masonic meetings?” And this is where the difficulty of communicating in plain English on the internet comes into play and one is left to use their sense of logic to figure out what the question actually means.

Is the word “really” included because of scepticism about what the poster has read somewhere? Is it someone who thinks there’s more to a Masonic gathering than uninteresting minutes and prosaic fraternal greetings, and I’ll spill the beans? Alas, I’ll never know.

Robert Service never had such problems getting his message across. Then again, he never dealt with the internet.

Frankly, I can’t worry too much about paranoid conspiracy nutbars or the wilfully-ignorant lemmings who buy everything on kook-sites which twist common sense and proclaim something evil is afoot. Suffice it to say, I’ve outlined what really happens at Masonic meetings. Except for one thing. There’s the feeling of friendship that is likely the reason some Masons are willing to sit through the maddeningly dull and disorganised parts. For a man with true friends is a fortunate man, indeed.

Bro. Service couldn’t have put it in more beautiful English.

Oh. He did.

Two Short, Related Masonic Questions

Whose rough ashlar are you working on today?

Is there so little work that needs to be done on one’s own ashlar that you can spend the bulk of your time working on, or gossiping about, every other Mason’s?

Vide, Aude and .. What Was the Other One?

A fellow was directed to me some weeks ago who was interested in joining Freemasonry. I told him any time he wanted to chat, I’d be more than happy to do so.

He certainly is serious about it, as he’s been talking to members of a number of different Lodges and dropping by after their meetings to ask questions and sort of get to know people (he knows no Masons locally).

Finally, we had a chance to talk and he asked me what Lodge I’d recommend to him.

The first thing I told him was I wasn’t going to immediately shout “Join my Lodge!” because that’s probably the advice every other Mason gave to him. I asked him what he was looking for in the fraternity as Lodges have their own personalities and ways of doing things, such as different fees, different content to meetings and so on.

He admitted he had scoped out a Lodge and met with the brethren but then made a remarkable statement. There are quotation marks here but I’m paraphrasing:

“I don’t think I’m going to petition there. They were like a bunch of old ladies. After the meeting, all they were doing was complaining about this and that. I’m not really a negative person and I’m looking for something positive in my life.”

Lest you think the Lodge in question is full of Grumpy Old Past Masters™ it’s not. There’s a fairly large group of younger members who hang out after meetings.

The Lodge just unsold itself.

Freemasonry recognises negativity, but is a positive force in this world. It reminds each member that he carries with him negative traits, and it is those things that one must diligently measure and then lop off with accuracy using his Masonic working tools. Thus he becomes a better person and, by extension, the world around him become a little bit of a better place for all of us.

And while many Masons recognise there could be an improvement in some administrative aspects—and I’ve written about it here—we should also recognise that Freemasons are the face of Freemasonry to those outside the fraternity. What does it say to the outside world when all a Mason does is endlessly moan and whine, complain and criticise? Especially to a young seeker looking to decide to take the momentous step and become a brother among us on the path of life?

Men join Freemasonry because of “a favourable opinion, preconceived of the Order.” A grandfather or a friend is/was a Mason, and because someone admires the way he carried himself in life, they want to be a Mason. But you can flip the coin and find a truism, too. If that same Mason is not held in high regard, it reflects on all Masons, and what inducement is that for someone to wish to become a member?

I’ve said it before. Anti-Masons can never kill Freemasonry. All they can do is belch out the same foul air from the bowels of falsehood. They cannot win because the glowing light of truth wins in the end; Freemasonry is an institution for good, no matter how they may try to portray it otherwise. No, the only thing that can kill Freemasonry is Freemasons.

Even worse that the smell of the deceptive fables of the antis is the aroma of constant negativity from some of our own members.

The best that Freemasons can do is work to improve themselves and improve their Lodges. While doing so, they should bear in mind the Masonic virtue of prudence—if not silence—when non-Masons are present and trying to learn about our Craft.

Masonic Visiting — and Cy Young

This was going to be a post revealing the highlight of a Masonic visit on this date 100 years ago. A headline in the Boston Globe tells it:

MASONS GREET CY YOUNG. Mr Carmel lodge of Lynn is Host of the Famous Pitcher, Who Also Motors Along the Shore.

This is where penuriousness strikes. You see, the newspaper site which tells the story requires a subscription fee. So I’m afraid you won’t be learning from me whether one of the all-time greats of baseball gave a speech on Masonic symbolism (or compared Past Masters to screwballs). Instead, you can read about Cy Young and Masonry here at the Southern Jurisdiction Scottish Rite website. And here is a post from another blog on the coincidences of Masonry and baseball.

Now that your friendly, neighbourhood Justa’s attempt at a blog post has been waylaid, what should I write? Well, let us muse upon the terrestrial globe on one of the pillars found in some Masonic lodges, and the universality it represents.

For the geographically-challenged out there, Lynn is in Massachusetts, and I had the great pleasure of meeting a brother from Massachusetts in Lodge yesterday afternoon. He’s a young man who is in The Harvard Lodge who was very complimentary of a portion of ceremonial work peculiar to western and central Canada I was requested to do at a local Lodge’s installation. At the Festive Board, the brother told a fascinating little story. He grew up in Iran, where his father was a Mason. As a boy, he realised “the dignity and high importance of Freemasonry” by the way his father conducted himself on Lodge nights. Due to well-known political circumstances in Iran, he and his siblings got out of Iran (his father did not), and came to Canada where the family was taken in by a Masonic brother who treated them as his own. The young man eventually moved to the eastern U.S. where he joined the fraternity that meant so much to him. He spoke of how he was now on a visit to Canada, came to Lodge that day and was treated like a brother by people he had never met.

The night before, one of my Lodges welcomed a visitor from Queensland, Australia. I was a little concerned we were neglecting him a bit because we were getting the lodge room and the refreshment area set up and the brother was at least a generation older than the members present (we have no active members over 55 and only a few over 40). Yet at the Festive Board, our new friend explained what a wonderful welcome he had received in a foreign country, how he fit right in instantly, and how privileged he was to be a Mason.

No doubt Freemasons reading this can relate similar stories from their own Lodges or their own visits in unfamiliar climes.

So, considering all this, my thriftiness in regards to subscription newspaper web sites has served some kind of purpose. For it has given you a chance to read little examples of the universality of Freemasonry and the brotherly love of its members—feelings, no doubt, expressed by a future Baseball Hall of Famer as the highlight of a visit to a Lodge in Lynn, Massachusetts one hundred years ago today.

More From Justa’s Ask-It Basket

Masons and non-Masons alike appear to check this web site for answers to a number of queries. So let’s dip into the old Ask-It Basket today and see what we have.

Gulfport, Mississippi: How long will it take to hear from the Secretary after turning in my Masonic petition?
This will vary depending on the Lodge. The petition is read at a regular meeting of the Lodge; regular meetings generally happen once a month in North America, but some Lodges don’t meet in the summer (in the winter up north). The next move is a Committee is formed by the Master to meet with the petitioner, ask him questions, and report back to the Lodge, generally at the next regular meeting. Then a ballot is conducted. The Secretary should—at least he does in my Lodges—notify the petitioner as to the results of the ballot and the date of the First Degree.

Union City Indiana: Do Masons check references?
This is another thing depending on the Lodge. Some may. Some may not.

Wellington, New Zealand: Where were you first prepared to be a Mason?
I’ll stand corrected, but I believe this question is universally asked in English-speaking Lodges which require some kind of catechistical work before advancing to the next degree.
The answer is “In my heart.” The odd thing is while the answer is the same, the question may be different. Some American style rituals will ask “Where were you made a Mason?” while others will ask “Where were you prepared to be made a Mason?”
Personally, I’m not one of those people who believes that you’re a Mason merely because your heart says you are. This attitude appears to be peculiar to Masonry; I never hear of anyone saying (with people agreeing) they’re a “Heart Kinsman” or a “Heart Moose.” Try showing up at a Masonic meeting and saying you can come in because you’re a Mason in your heart.
Being balloted upon and regularly initiated in a warranted Lodge is what makes you a Mason. But without being prepared, that is, a firm belief in the principles of life outlined in the Masonic ceremonies, petitioning for membership is ultimately fruitless.

Ulm, Baden-Württemberg: What is the mean[ing] if you have the Masonic craft lodge [symbol] as a tattoo?
It means you like someone continually sticking a needle in your arm. Or maybe some other place I don’t want to know about.
I know people who have regretted—really, REALLY regretted—certain tattoos they got in a moment of joyous abandon. But I know guys who have a Masonic or DeMolay tattoo and still treat it as a daily reminder to be good to their fellow man. Their arm, or maybe some other place I don’t want to know about, becomes a living Masonic symbol.

Surry Hills, NSW: General Electric Masonic symbol.
There is a joke that goes “How many Masons does it take to change a light bulb?” (Some Freemasons still seem to get yuks out of this old joke; their favourite tired cliché punch line will no doubt come to mind reading this). Other than that, there’s no connection between G.E. and Masonry. Though I’d bet some creative mind, or Tom Accuosti, could write a paper tying in Freemasonry with the G.E. slogan “We bring good things to life.” It’d be better than wasting time with inane Facebook quizzes.

Midland, Michigan: Why three knocks to enter as a Mason?
This may be one of those things for which there is no answer. I can’t find my copy of Early Masonic Catechisms, but “three great knocks” are listed in Prichard’s Masonry Dissected, an exposure of a Masonic ritual of 1730, so the practice has been around a long time. Why three? One could build a whole paper based on speculation about why three knocks are given, as opposed to maybe four (for the four elements).
The knocking part is explained in lectures or examinations of various versions of the ceremonies, the New South Wales ritual reading: “They have an allusion to an ancient and venerable exhortation: Seek, and ye shall find; ask, and ye shall received; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7 and Luke 11:9)

Fleet, Hampshire: Masonic platonic symbols.
The platonic bodies are outlined in a rather verbose lecture found in English Royal Arch Chapters and they can be found on the floor of the Chapter room. I can’t speak for American Chapters, but the bodies are not found in Canada, and neither is the lecture.

Rochester, New York: Which is better—Elks or Masons?
Despite the fact the First Degree Tracing Board lecture contains the boast “Freemasonry, however, is not only the most ancient, but the most moral institution that ever existed...” this is probably a matter of personal preference.
Any regular fraternal organisation, in my estimation, does good work, the Elks included.
You can read more of the history of the Elks here and notice the influence Masonry had (the obsolete “stupid joke” part of the ceremony certainly never had a part in the Masonic degrees). The Elks were certainly a part of popular culture; Fred Allen did “Elk’s tooth” jokes on occasion. Fictional radio character Fibber McGee was an Elk and frequent mention was made on Fibber McGee and Molly in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s about the Elks Club; Dick LeGrand played Ole, the Swedish janitor of the club.
American brethren may not be aware the fine custom of ‘The Eleven O’Clock Toast’ derives from Masonry; English Masons still toast absent brethren at 9 o’clock on Lodge nights. Or at least they should.

Washington, District of Columbia: Brent Morris.
Brent, stop Googling yourself. It’s unbecoming.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions for the Ask-It Basket.

Mel Blanc and His Shriner Buddies

Mel Blanc was a part of everyone’s childhood. There was a time you couldn’t get away from him. Warner Bros. cartoons were on TV every day (except sacred Sundays at one time), and there was Mel as the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck (my favourite), Sylvester, Porky, Foghorn Leghorn, and the list goes on. You could hear him as Barney Rubble on The Flintstones. And, at night, a local station ran old-time radio shows and there was Mel again as Jack Benny’s violin teacher (as well as a broken-down pre-Chrysler product), a “happy” postman delivering to George and Gracie, and a Mexican talking to a hayseed named Judy Canova.

Today would have been Mel’s 101st birthday.

Mel was a Mason, and I’ve documented his comments about Masonry and the Shrine from his autobiography at THIS post. But I’ve stumbled across another reference to his life as a Shriner in a recent hunt through old newspapers. This one is from The News of Van Nuys, California dated January 20, 1970. Besides Blanc’s name, I’m sure you’ll recognise one other, maybe a third if you’re a fan of 1960s sitcoms.

Entertainers Shrine Unit to Be Led by Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc, “the man of 1000 Voices,” who is known throughout the world for his movie, radio and television work, has been elected president of the Show Business Shrine Club of Al Malaikah Temple.
Blanc and other officers and directors will be installed at a dinner-dance to be held on Friday beginning at 7 p.m. in the Empire Room of Sportsmen’s Lodge, 12533 Ventura Blvd. Music and entertainment will be supplied by Manny Harmon and his orchestra.
Other new officers are Bart Conrad, first vice president; Bernie B. Lane, second vice president; Don De Fore, third vice president, and Eugene L. Zola, secretary-treasurer.
Newly elected directors are Ernest Borgnine, Tom Frandsen, Manny Harmon, John F. Golden, George B. Hunt, Paul Miller, Ralph L. Blink, Milt Canfield, William F. Hertz, Leonard D. Hess, Ben S. Levy, Theo Nowak Jr., Joe Popkin, Arthur H. Rockwell and Max Salit. Levy is chaplain, Max Kleckner is publicity chairman.
Blanc has gained international recognition by circling the world with humor for many years in a variety of performing arts — first on radio, then via animated cartoons in motion picture theaters, followed by recordings and television.
Even after more than three decades, Blanc’s voices Bugs Bunny, Sylvester Cat and Speedy Gonzales (plus a string of other distinctive characters) stall are delighting an estimated 30,000,000 daily throughout the world.
Born in San Francisco 59 years ago, Blanc was reared in Portland. Ore. He started in show business, he says, “entertaining students and teachers, getting big laughs and lousy grades.” In his early teens, he created the cackle later to become Woody Woodpecker.
Blanc and his wife Estelle, who costarred with him on his early radio shows, live in Pacific Palisades. Their son Noel is president of Mel Blanc Associates.

Borgnine is an Oscar-winner who is still gainfully employed at age 93 (any comment about his rather rowdy short marriage to Ethel Merman is best left unsaid). And Don De Fore wasted his talents in such inane laugh-tracked filled comedies like Hazel and Ozzie and Harriet. But De Fore had the lead in a great 1950s TV comedy pilot which cynically looked at the television business. It was too ahead of its time. He was a 33° member of the Scottish Rite, says his obit.

So though Mel has been dead for almost 20 years, he still lives on in the wonderful characters he helped bring to life. And, we hope, in his work with other Masons who put on a fez to help children in need.

It Was So Much Better Back Then. Really.

You know how it was “back when I was Worshipful Master.” You should. You’ve no doubt heard the old timers spout those favourite, treasured words as an introduction to stories about Masonic life in the 1950s. To hear them tell it, there were constantly holding extra nights for degrees, Lodge rooms were bulging with Freemasons, hundreds would show up to gala events. It was just so much bigger and better back then.

Uh, maybe not.

Here’s a Time Magazine article (by Senior DeMolay Fred Kiewit) from August 26, 1957. Yes, 1957. Just for fun, let’s make notes about how things have changed in 52 years.

Apathy on Lodge Night
Founded and operated for a seemingly infinite variety of reasons, ranging from royal good fellowship, to mutual financial benefit (low-cost insurance), to generously financed works of public good will,† the nation’s 248 major fraternal orders (125,861 local chapters) have shared as never before in the golden bounty of U.S. prosperity. Since 1947, overall membership in the Masonic order, biggest U.S. fraternity, has climbed 10% to 4,000,000; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, second largest, reports a husky 25% gain in new dues-paying brethren to a total of 1,200,000. From Calais, Me. to Elsinore, Calif., more than 20 million U.S. males are entitled to participate in the mysteries and handclasps of one lodge or more. Estimated total assets of all the orders, including hundreds of plush new lodge halls: a thunderous $10 billion, more than the combined assets of General Motors and General Electric.

Funerals & Prizefights. Even as they burn their mortgages, contribute heavily to charities and tend their investments, lodge officials have bumped up against a discouraging fact of 1957: the old prestige and royal good fellowship just aren’t there any more. Evidence: fewer than 15% of the nation’s joiners, whether Odd Fellows, Shriners, Eagles or Woodmen, bother to show up for lodge meetings, except on rare special occasions, e.g., a New Year’s Eve party. Explains a once-earnest, now-backsliding Chicago businessman-joiner (Masons, Maccabees, Woodmen of the World): “I know I should attend. But all of a sudden, on a lodge night, I realize I haven’t been home with the family for three nights running. Then there’ll be a damn good prizefight on TV. You know what loses out.”* From the Elks to the Moose, fraternal leaders blame home TV, the automobile, the country club for the new apathy among the brethren. “The young people want something a little faster,” admits Odd Fellow Edward McCarty of Lamed, Kans. (pop. 4,447). The lodge has lost its old appeal of exclusiveness and its local VIP leaders, e.g., the town bankers. Says a Missouri Mason: “Men just won’t go out to see their mailman drone through a meeting.” Even members’ funerals, once a must for most orders, get scant attendance. Commented one Knights of Pythias bigwig in Birmingham: “The brothers just don’t have the whole spirit.”

Martinis & Stardust. To combat the downward trend, many U.S. lodges are hopefully evolving into family-style social clubs, adding TV, air conditioning, bowling alleys, restaurants. Says an Atlanta Eagle: “Our best weapons are bingo, dancing, and a good bar.” In San Mateo, Calif., the Elks boosted attendance from 40% to 70% of enrolled membership by installing a swimming pool. In bone-dry Princeton, Ky. (pop. 5,388), one lodge makes its slot machines and beer parlor a drawing card. The Knights of Columbus’ San Salvador Council No. 1 in New Haven, Conn, holds “National Nights,” when it serves up Irish, Italian or Polish dinners. But the new devices have yet to boost attendance at solemn, often boring business meetings. Says one Boise (Idaho) Moose: “We have lots of social members, very few real brothers.” Says a Seymour (Ind.) Elk: “The Elks’ bar serves the crispest martini in town, but I don’t attend meetings because I’m afraid they might try to make me an officer.”

Deciding that gimmicks are not enough, white-thatched, big-time Mason Frank S. Land, 67, of Kansas City, Mo., former Imperial Potentate of the Shrine for North America, who founded Masonry’s Order of DeMolay, last week announced a new experimental drive to restore the prestige of the nation’s biggest fraternal order. Next month Land will launch a new bellwether Masonic echelon: the Ancient and Honorable Guild of the Leather Apron, with faithful attendance at Masonic affairs a prime membership qualification. First among his prospective apron wearers: Missouri's U.S. Senator Stuart Symington, Kansas Tycoon Harry Darby, ex-President Harry Truman. Such VIPs, duly enlisted, hopes Booster Land, will constitute “a band of leaders, men with Stardust on them, who will bring back the rank and file to the lodges.”

But in Grand Junction, Colo., the newsletter of the Mason’s Local Mesa Lodge No. 55 dealt with the problem head-on in a poignant little verse:

Say, son, let’s go to lodge tonight.
We haven’t been for years.
Let’s don our little aprons white
And sit among the peers.
I want to hear the gavel ring,
to hear the organ play . . .
Pass up bridge or picture show,
your wrestling bout or fight
Switch off that darned old radio;
Let’s go to lodge tonight.

† Examples: the Shriners maintain 17 hospitals for crippled children; the Knights of Columbus donate $1,000,000 a year to charities; the Loyal Order of Moose operates a campus-style home for 800 needy offspring of deceased members.
*While the night-meeting fraternal orders languish, the civic-minded lunching clubs, e.g., Kiwanis (membership: 250,000), Rotary (450,000) and Lions (564,000) are booming. Explains one Kansas City Kiwanian: “It's the new release valve. At a Kiwanis lunch, a man can find relief from business thinking for an hour or two during a hectic day.”

Let’s see. Contained in the article are cries of woe about:
• Falling attendance.
• Boring meetings.
• Men want to spend time with families instead of go to Lodge.
• More things to do in today’s busy world.
• ‘Important’ people don’t join any more.
• New members shoved into chairs too quickly.
• Too many ‘knife and fork’ members.

Good thing Freemasonry didn’t have any of those problems “way back when.”

Oh. Wait a minute.