Just a Mason

A Favourite Masonic Moment

2012-01-19T01:18:00.001-08:00

The other night, the Master of a Lodge decided to go around the room and have the members who braved the icy roads introduce themselves and tell the others a bit about themselves. I suppose such an exercise has some benefits, though it gets a little embarrassing going “I” and “me” an awful lot. Then he went around the Lodge room again and asked everyone for their favourite or most memorable Masonic moment.

Naturally, the two may not be the same thing. For one Entered Apprentice in the room, they were, as he really only had the night of his initiation to talk about. Some of my own memorable moments are not particularly favourite ones—it isn’t easy handing in the warrant of your Lodge as Worshipful Master, for example. But I chose one about a visit I had made with members of the Lodge to another jurisdiction when I was a young member in another Lodge, and something kind of amusing involving some brothers who have since departed to the Grand Lodge Above.

What was interesting is a number of the Masons in the room who had been members for a long time gave the same kind of thing as a favourite moment—namely, visiting other Lodges and meeting other Masons who they never would have met under any other circumstances.

One of the joys of belonging to a fraternity like Freemasonry is the instant friendship someone can have with total strangers, a friendship based on altruism. Masons aren’t members for any material gains they can acquire. Anyone who joins for that reason (if he admits such to an investigation committee) will quickly wonder why they just didn’t become members of a Chamber of Commerce or business owners’ group where little more is required than paying an annual fee. Because Freemasonry is not an organisation designed to make some kind of “contacts.” Its purpose is a greater one.

Conversely, it’s sad when officers rise to give the Toast to the Visitors and admit they’ve never, ever been to another Lodge. They’re missing a real blessing by not meeting others.

Freemasons are supposed to lend encouragement to each other to make them all better human beings. It can’t be done without contact of some kind with one another. Meeting face to face, just getting a friendly smile and a laugh or a hand on the shoulder in sympathy or sorrow if need be, is beyond monetary worth. Each time surely must qualify as a favourite Masonic moment.

Is Your Lodge Meeting Cancelled?

2011-10-07T01:32:00.000-07:00

As a Secretary of one Lodge, and a member of several others, I get notices of meetings from quite a few Masonic Lodges. And the most disheartened thing I read is when an urgent e-mail comes through and says something like “The candidate can’t come tonight so the meeting is cancelled.” I have a question.

Why?

Why is the meeting cancelled?

At every emergent communication where degree work is the only thing on the Order of Business, there’s always more to a meeting than that. Every meeting has a report on ill and distressed brethren. Since the assembled members now have time on their hands where they would have done degree work, why not use that time to put the Lodge at refreshment, have each member pick up his cell phone (since almost everyone has one), call a senior or sick brother, then have the Lodge called on a half hour later and everyone report their findings?

Every meeting has a portion where members can offer something for the Good of Freemasonry. That’s a huge open chasm that can be filled with almost anything. It can be used for an educational presentation. It can be used for a discussion—formal or otherwise—about almost anything to do with Freemasonry, including Lodge affairs. Certainly “The Good of Freemasonry” can be, and should be, more than the Junior Warden standing up and inviting people to have a sandwich, or the Worshipful Master to thank people for showing up (or apologising for a low turnout). Members, especially new ones, lament there’s so much to learn about our Craft. Why take away an evening’s opportunity when they can do just that?

Freemasons in parts of Canada should be familiar with the Address to the Brethren where we’re reminded one of the objects of meeting in a Lodge is “social intercourse.” If a planned degree can not take place, why can’t the brethren use the time instead for the all-important fellowship that the fraternity prides itself on? If the brethren of the Lodge don’t want to hang out together, swap stories, and toast our absent brethren (or whoever else), it may mean a bond has not developed amongst the members and there’s a serious social dynamic problem.

It’s perfectly understandable if a snowstorm or power failure results in a meeting cancellation. Or a lack of a quorum of seven for whatever reason. But cancelling a meeting merely because a degree has to be put off? Remember your 24-inch gauge and its lesson of using time wisely. The time which would have been spent in degree work can be beneficially employed in so many other ways. Packing up the gauge with the rest of the tools and going home shouldn’t be one of them.

Carrie Nation, Anti-Mason

2011-06-13T03:40:00.000-07:00

She died 100 years ago this month, yet Carrie Nation’s name is still known today as a hatchet-wielding fighter against alcohol. The reason is simple. Carrie Nation knew the same thing that many people looking for headlines know today—outrageousness attracts attention and outrageousness sells.

Nation didn’t trust mere outrageousness to get her name in the papers. She hired press agents. One was John M. Gregory, who waited until her death (in a story published in the Albuquerque Journal of June 22, 1911) to call her a:

Fearless fanatic, boldly defying the world, greedy for money and seeking the best method for getting it; alive to the value of advertising and quick to grasp the dramatic and sensational, a grafter of the lowest kind; a miser in her love for gold; a glutton for publicity; a leech; a money-vampire...The waste, the injustice, the criminal side of her actions never seemed to enter her head.

But Gregory also waxes about her “simple, motherly character, as lovable as that of any woman I have ever known.” Newspaper reporters weren’t as charitable. Some suggested her antics weren’t coldly calculated for mere publicity, but were the product of a diseased, uncontrollable mind.

While it’s known today that Nation was a strict prohibitionist, what may not be known is she was a strict anti-Mason. This is quite evident in an incident in Pittsburgh in 1908. This item (likely an Associated Press story) comes from the Indiana Evening Advertiser of Indiana, Pennsylvania:

CARRIE NATION ARRESTED
Pittsburg Police Treat Her With Scant Courtesy.
Pittsburg, May 27.—For a tirade delivered against passengers in a street car Mrs. Carrie Nation, the Kansas saloon smasher, was arrested. The technical charge was disorderly conduct. Mrs. Nation was riding in a trailer of a Mount Washington car and on the rear platform three men were smoking cigarets.
“You’re smoking up your brains and money. This air is so polluted with your smoke that my stomach is turning,” said Mrs. Nation.
This evidently put her in a fighting mood. Across the aisle a man sat. On his lapel was a Masonic emblem.
“You should he ashamed to wear that symbol of idolatry,” she shouted. “Heathen idol worshipers is what all of your kind are. You have your worshipful masters. If that isn’t idolatry, what is it?”

The Mason in question was A.L. Dement, an electrician from the Knoxville district. The Pittsburgh Press of the same date gives part of his testimony.

“She became excited and called me a murderer and said that the order was a band of cut-throats and murderers. Your honor, she kept this up this tirade for ten minutes. I thought the woman was crazy. I was embarrassed by her abuse and she caused disorder in the street car by her actions.”

Nation acted as her own lawyer and demanded to cross-examine Bro. Dement. The magistrate agreed but instead of asking about the criminal case, she pressed a bunch of questions about Freemasonry. The magistrate interrupted:

“You will have to stop that, lady. That man is not on trial and neither is his society.”

She was fined $25 plus court costs, which were paid by members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union passing a hat in the courtroom. She paid nary a cent for her crime. But she got lots of publicity. And The Press took advantage of it by having Nation pen an article that ran the following Sunday, spouting about the evils of drink and tobacco. Freemasonry was noticeably absent.

There was more to Nation’s anti-Masonry than wilful ignorance about the purpose of an annually-elected officer of a Lodge. She began her anti-alcohol crusade because her first marriage was a failure. She and her husband Dr. Charles Gloyd separated in 1868 after less than a year, and he died a year later. Not only was he an alcoholic, he was the first Worshipful Master of Holden Lodge No. 262 in Holden, Missouri at the time of the failure of his marriage. It’s quite possible she blamed Masonry for his alcohol intake and their break-up.

The great irony is some Masonic jurisdictions in the United States agreed with Nation’s dogged insistence about the immorality of liquor. Saloon keepers and brewery workers were automatically declared unfit for Masonic membership and Grand Lodges forbade alcohol in buildings where Masons met. At least one Canadian Masonic commentator of that era noted, somewhat sardonically, the double standard that none of the Grand Lodges saw fit to prohibit alcohol consumers from becoming members, just manufacturers and sellers.

Is there anything to be learned from this look back? Well, it may be a good reminder that temperance is a Masonic virtue and “none [should] convert the purposes of refreshment into intemperance and excess.” And that illogical anti-Masonic zealots have always been with us and likely always will be. There’s nothing Masons can do about it. Masons can, however, live their lives according to principles outlined in our ceremonies, to the benefit of their families and their friends, so “the world at large may be convinced of [Freemasonry’s] good effects.”

DeMolay on the Radio, 1935

2011-05-26T03:54:00.000-07:00

How many channels are there on your TV today? And how many of them have a special DeMolay broadcast, featuring top bands, political leaders and the world’s most famous cartoon producer?

The answer to the first must be in the hundreds. The answer to the second is “none.”

But in 1935, when there were only three big networks, the answer was “one.”

I’ve found a couple of newspaper clippings about it. The best one comes from the front page of the Gallup Independent of May 4th that year; Gallup Chapter had formed in New Mexico by 1925. Other Chapters across the U.S. held similar listening parties.

Ideals of DeMolay To Be Broadcast
Members Will “Listen In” at Stag Party at Masonic Hall

The Grand Council of the Order of DeMolay will be on the air from 8:30 to 9:00 p. m. tomorrow evening, Sunday, May 5. The half hour on the air is thru the courtesy of the Columbia Broadcasting System.
KSL, Salt Lake City, as well as Dallas, Tex., and the rest of the Columbia System will have the program at that time. The purpose of the time on the air is to spread the ideals of the order over the United States and Canada.

Speakers for the half hour will include: Hubert L. Pettey, secretary of the Federal Communications commission, Washington, D. C, Hal Kemp and his famous orchestra from the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City; Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse, and Buddy Rogers, Hollywood. All of these men are members of the Legion of Honor of the Order of DeMolay.

President Roosevelt, who is the Honorary Grand Master of the order, has been asked to speak.
At the conclusion of the broadcast the 9 o'clock interpolation of the order will be given. This is a prayer for father, mother and country.
Gallup Chapter of the order has planned a stag party for the occasion at the Masonic hall, with all members, Mason[s] and prospective members invited to attend.

No doubt the records of the International Supreme Council have details about the event somewhere. It was awfully late on the East Coast—a 10:30 p.m. start time—and the network sent other programming to some stations, including a dance music show to the West Coast. In some cities, the DeMolay party started earlier in the evening with the broadcast capping the night’s event.

Also part of the programme were DeMolay founder Frank S. Land, and Donald Novis, who gained great fame a few years later as the tenor on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show. Novis maintained a connection with fellow Senior DeMolay Disney—he sang in the movie Bambi and was a featured act at Disneyland from its opening until his retirement (neither he nor Disney became a Freemason).

But to get back to the original musing—why is it there is room on television for endless shows about self-absorbed celebrities, trailer trash paternity tests, “reality” shows where people deliberately display the nastiest behaviour toward their fellow man, and cartoons designed to rudely shock, but no room for even one half-hour devoted to remind people to be faithful to their friends, treat others with respect, follow the laws of the land and become better people?

Masonic Halls, Then and Now

2011-05-15T20:40:00.000-07:00

What a wonder it was those many years ago when BBSs sprung up all over and you could go on your computer and exchange thoughts and greetings with Masons you had never met.

Today, there’s seemingly no end of places to go on the internet for people interested in Masonic things. Masons have set up forums and blogs, web pages and podcasts, and social media sites as well.

There are non-Masonic sites as well, especially those interested in historical and historical preservation. More and more archives and libraries are digitising, meaning a wealth of material that was once in filing cabinets or sitting benignly on shelves is getting more exposure.

I enjoy looking at old Masonic photos, especially those of halls and meetings rooms. Your local or state/provincial library or archives may have them on line, but one place that does is the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. I’ve been checking out some pictures at random and thought I would post them.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of background about the buildings. I’m sure people can fill me in.

Here is the interior of a Lodge room in Boise, Idaho. It looks like a pretty thin room and likely had just been vacuumed as the altar’s been moved from the centre of the floor. There are some symbols contained in the American Third Degree mounted on the walls, such as the scythe. Freemasonry in Boise dates to 1863.

This is a Lodge room in Camden, Alabama. It appears this Hall was built in 1848. Union troops camped in the Lodge in 1865.

Another thin Lodge room was in Ludlow, Kentucky. Evidently, a member of the Lodge has passed away; the Stewards’ rods (to the right) are draped in black. One wonders if this was built for Masonic purposes, considering there is a door in the southeast, although I’ve been to an old Lodge building where the washroom door is placed there.

Lodge buildings come in all sizes to suit the community (and the income of its members). The Chicago Masonic Temple was famous in its day, built in 1892. It has been demolished for many years. It was 22 storeys and was the scene of several suicides, the first apparently being on January 15, 1898 by an unemployed bookkeeper.

This fine building was in Indianapolis, opened in 1876. Alas, fire destroyed part of it in 1906 and a new, larger building was dedicated almost exactly three years later and is still in use.

Washington, D.C. had a number of Masonic buildings. This one was erected on New York Avenue at a cost of $500,000. President (Bro.) Teddy Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1907. It is now the home of the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Now, for some contrast, let’s go back to the pioneer days in the U.S. West. This hall was in Virginia City, Nevada. You can see the date on the building is 1875, ten years after the city hosted the organisation of the Grand Lodge of Nevada. You can read a history of Freemasonry in Virginia City here.

Masonry came to Shasta, California before the ‘49ers did. A charter for Western Star No. 98 was granted in 1848 by the Grand Lodge of Missouri. This historic Lodge is still meeting and you can read more here.

Gold in 1849 brought dreams of instant wealth and settlers to California, Masons among them. And when the gold ran out, the settlers moved on, Masons among them. They left the remnants of their (temporary) Masonic homes. This building was in Drytown, California. The town may virtually be gone, but the Lodge survived and moved to Plymouth, four miles to the north. By the way, elsewhere in Amador County, you can find “Masonic Caves.”

“The Farthest North Masonic Lodge in the USA” meets in this Ionic-columned building. It is in Fairbanks, Alaska and was first used for Masonic purposes in 1906. You can see the directory of organisations which met there, including DeMolay and Rainbow Girls. Read a bit more here.

Finally, here is the home of Whidby Island No. 15 in Coupeville, Washington. The Hall was built in 1874 and the Lodge itself dates to 1869. I’m sure it will shock some Freemasons to learn the Lodge posts the minutes of its meetings on the internet for all to read. The Lodge’s web site is here, where you can read about the history of the Hall.

It’s unclear when the picture was taken—I’m guessing around 1920—but you can compare it to how the building looks today.

If you’re interested in checking out the photos the Library of Congress has about Masonic topics, you can click here.

Remember Your Absent Brother

2011-01-31T17:48:00.000-08:00

Does attending a meeting of your Lodge really demonstrate true interest in the fraternity? And does non-attending mean a lack of interest?

A Lodge recently looked at suspending a brother for non-payment of dues. No one had heard of him, let alone seen him in Lodge. It appeared he wasn’t contributing much except a cheque and, even then, he stopped contributing that.

It would have been very easy to be lazy Craftsmen and to vote for suspension and save the Lodge the ever-increasing fees to Grand Lodge. But someone decided to check into the situation. It turns out the brother, now 82 years of age, had been hospitalised much of the year and barely had money for medical costs. He hadn’t attended meetings as he had moved to a small town in the 1960s but continued his membership.

It would have been very easy to be lazy Craftsman and simply remit his dues. But a new brother in the Lodge instantly whipped out a chequebook and put out his own money for a brother he didn’t know and likely would never meet.

It was an act of selflessness that serves as an example for Freemasons far senior in the quarries.

The old brother was astounded. He wrote the Lodge and explained how he loved the Craft, had followed the principles of it as best he could and hoped he could live up to those many men in his Lodge years ago who did the same.

Brethren, it’s imperative as Freemasons that we continue to remain in constant contact with each other to lend help and encouragement and just to let a brother know that someone is thinking of them. For while a brother of the Order may not be able to be at meetings, that may not make him any less a brother. Or a Freemason.

The Gift of Yourself

2010-12-01T05:53:00.000-08:00

“It’s another waste of the Lodge funds that your forefathers built up over the years!”

Yes, the crotchety old Past Master was wagging his finger yet again at the room awash with light blue aprons and dark hair. It had almost become a tradition since a wave of younger men had joined several years earlier and revived a sparsely-populated and sad old Lodge on the verge of reluctantly handing the warrant back to Grand Lodge. Whenever a motion came onto the floor, you could be sure Alec Sampson—or “Worshipful Brother Grumpy”, as they called him—would be automatically opposed. Especially when it came to the Lodge treasury.

“You want to give yourselves free dinner and drinks on the Lodge’s dime using Christmas as an excuse,” he exclaimed, as he stated his lack of enthusiasm for the Junior Warden’s plan for a Christmas Party on Saturday night. “And besides, who’s going to be in the mood for Christmas? It’s going to rain that night,” was his parting shot as he sat down to raucous laughter of the Lodge, though he didn’t understand what they found amusing.

The Past Master ignored any further discussion as he sat and mumbled to no one in particular and stewed before the brethren voted in favour of the festive gathering.

“Now, remember,” the Worshipful Master gently reminded, “Make sure you bring a present that we can put under the tree. But nothing too expensive so it looks like we’re giving better gifts to some than others.”

“Hmmpf,” grunted Sampson to himself. “I’ve been on a pension for 20 years. I don’t have the money these young guys with their gas-guzzlers and big-screen TVs have. And they want me to buy something for them?” Then he ‘hmmpf’ed again.

After the meeting, one of Lodge’s new members, a keen Fellow Craft who had attended everything since his initiation several months earlier, innocently went up to the Past Master.

“So, Worshipful Brother Sampson, are you going to the party?” he quietly asked.

“Going?” he said, shocked. “Johnny, do you know why we stopped having them parties years ago? We used to spend all kinds of money on a hall, decorations, a band—we even had a church choir come in one year—and no one showed up. Oh, the brethren said ‘Yeah, don’t worry, I’ll come’ but then they’d make some excuse and stiff the Lodge. That was back in the ’70s. We’d be left with a big, empty room and bills to pay. If a few of us hadn’t donated money to the Lodge we would have been broke.

“The last one I went to was in 1959. One of the guys got liquored up beforehand—probably was at a Shriners do, or something like that—and fell into a huge cake Bro. Wallace’s wife baked. Ruined the whole night. Nope, I’ve had enough of Lodge Christmas Parties,” he added with an air of finality. With that, he went to get his coat and hat and headed for the door.

“Nice young fellow,” admitted Sampson to himself, as he drove away from the hall to his little home not far away, “He means well, and he does good work in the Lodge, but he has the damndest ideas some times.”

Saturday night came, and the grouchy Past Master got set to spend it as he always did: watching some old movies on the TV. So it was a shock after he turned on the set and settled down into his chair that his wife stood in an arched doorway and said:

“So, are you all set to go?”

“Go where, Martha?” he demanded. “A Western with Jimmy Stewart is about to come on.”

Just then, the doorbell rang. “You’ll see,” said the little grey-haired woman as she slowly made her way to the front door and found a young man clutching an open umbrella over his head. It was the Fellow Craft.

“Ohhhh, no!” exclaimed the Past Master, waving his finger in the air just like he did in Lodge all the time. “I see what this is. I’m not going!”

“Now, Alec,” Martha chided, “Johnny called today to see if we wanted a ride to the Christmas Party. I told him my feet still aren’t feeling right, so I can’t go. But you can. He came all the way into town from out in the valley 45 miles away to pick you up.”

“But I’m not dressed for it,” he insisted.

“That’s okay,” said the Fellow Craft, “The guys won’t mind.”

“And I don’t have a present like you guys voted I should have,” he sputtered.

“But you do, Worshipful Brother Sampson,” replied Johnny.

The grumpy Past Master was puzzled by that remark. But then he thought for a moment. Johnny was a good young man and dedicated to the Lodge and, after all, had made an effort to come get him.

“Well, okay, I guess,” he reluctantly and sullenly agreed. “Besides, I know how ‘The Man From Laramie’ turns out anyhow.”

Martha handed him his rumpled coat and a fedora that had seen better days then cracked open the front door. Sampson peered into the damp and menacing sky. “See? I told you it was going to rain. None of you ever listen to me!”

Cheery music with sleigh bells filled the banquet room of the old hall. Brushing the tall ceiling was a healthy Douglas fir, glistening with tinsel, sitting watch in the corner over a mound of presents around its trunk. But the tree isn’t what shocked Sampson. It was the people. The 90-year-old room, big enough to fit 250 when the Hall was built and the Lodge was initiating dozens every year, was packed.

“Where did all these people come from?” Sampson demanded. “A lot of them are friends of the members,” the Fellow Craft replied. “They brought their wives and kids and other friends.”

“Well, the hall certainly looks nice,” said the Past Master, looking around.

“A bunch of us got together and decided to paint the downstairs,” Johnny answered, then pointed. “Dave over there donated the paint. Don brought the rollers and the brushes. We all chipped in to save the Lodge a bit of money.”

At that moment, a well-dressed man in his early 20s, came up to the pair. The Fellow Craft spoke.

“Rob, this is Worshipful Brother Alec Sampson. He was Master of the Lodge in 1957. He’s been a Mason a very long time.”

“That’s great,” smiled the young man. “I’ve read a lot about Freemasonry and it’s the kind of thing I’d like to join. It believes in helping your fellow man and helping the world. And my grandfather was a Mason. He died when I was little but he was great to me and my sister and he used to bring over cookies that grandma baked for us. I think he was a member of this Lodge.”

“Oh?” Sampson’s left eyebrow went up. “Do you know his name?”

“Sure,” laughed the young man. “It’s Alan Wallace.”

Sampson stood stunned as if Santa himself had just bounded down the chimney.

“Alan Wallace was my sponsor into the Lodge,” Sampson said in a low voice. And his wife Emily used to bake things for our functions all the time.”

The young man brightened some more. “Do you want to see her? I brought her,” he asked.

“What? She’s still alive?” Sampson asked, astounded.

“She was when I left her by the punch bowl three minutes ago,” he chuckled. And with that, the young man manoeuvred the old Past Master through the crowded room of revellers over to a little table where a small woman sat primly, wearing a light blue dress and a neat hat that wasn’t too out of style. She looked wide-eyed at her guest for a second or two, then stood up.

“Well, if it isn’t Worshipful Brother Grumpy!” she grinned. “Merry Christmas, Alec. How have you been?”

“I’m doing fine, Emily. I haven’t seen you for years.”

“The Lodge hasn’t had one of these for years,” the widow observed. The young members of the Lodge are really wonderful. They put together a list of all us old-timers and started calling. They offered to bring us to the party and even buy us a little gift. It’s very thoughtful. They want to do something for us on Valentine’s Day, too. Alan would be so proud of them.”

The old Past Master realised now he had not been paying attention to all the discussion during the Lodge meeting about the party. The gifts were for the widows. Not the members.

“I asked one of the young ones if you were coming, but I was told you’re always busy doing something. That’s retirement, isn’t it? You become busier than when you were working.”

Sampson offered a sheepish smile.

“All of us used to have such fun at these years ago. Stanley Phillips and Ted Barnham and John Lee. Ah, they’re all gone now. And Dick Moody. Everyone thought he was drunk but he had a trick leg with a mind of its own sometimes. Remember the Christmas Party his leg gave out and he landed right in the middle of the cake I baked? Alan and I never laughed so hard!”

The widow laughed heartily at the memory. “Well, I’m going to get some more punch. One of the wives of one of the new members brought it. See you in a bit!” And, with that, Emily Wallace spryly made her way into the crowd.

It was then Sampson realised that all the bad feelings he had built up about some of the things the younger members had planned were for naught. They were keeping an eye on the Lodge’s small funds. And they were following the principles of the fraternity by extending a hand of friendship and assistance to widows and senior brethren. And he had made some wrong assumptions about that Christmas Party so many years ago that caused him to stop coming. His thoughts were interrupted.

“So was it nice to see Mrs. Wallace again?” It was the new Fellow Craft.

“You know, Johnny,” he started slowly, “you brothers have done such a wonderful job here. I really have to apologise to you. The Worshipful Master asked everyone to bring a gift and I didn’t bring anything.”

“But, it’s like I said before, you did bring one. Mrs. Wallace told me the one thing that makes her sad is just about all the people she knew in the Lodge when her husband joined are dead. She doesn’t know anyone any more. Except you.

“Worshipful Brother Sampson, you brought a gift no one else could bring. You brought the gift of yourself.”

“Well, I had a little help doing that,” he chuckled. “And because of that, I’ve been given a Christmas gift, too.”

Please read another Masonic Christmas story on this blog by clicking HERE

What’s in a Name?

2010-11-22T05:23:00.001-08:00

You may have met someone whose name has a deliberate Masonic connection. I knew a Bro. Mason and DeMolay who proudly pointed out his middle name was ‘Hiram.’

Granted, Hiram isn’t exclusively Masonic and you may have seen other names that have a familiar ring to a Mason but have no Masonic connection. But there are others that are unmistakeably, exclusively Masonic, and certainly recognisable to anyone in the fraternity. And that’s the case with a radio correspondent during the War.

The man’s name was Royal Arch Gunnison. As a fan of Old Time Radio, someone with a bit of familiarity with the radio news industry, and a Royal Arch Mason, I’ve been curious about him and his name. Gunnison, like most war correspondents, had a story to tell. In his case, it was a very personal one. In the December 13, 1943 edition Time magazine, the radio column begins:

When the Japs came into Manila, Royal Arch Gunnison, Mutual Network war-caster, was still there. He had stayed on the air until U.S. Army engineers blew up the transmitting station and equipment a jump ahead of the Japs. As a result, 34-year-old Gunnison and his wife spent 17 months in Jap concentration camps outside Manila and Shanghai. They reached the U.S. last week on the Gripsholm, bringing fresh news about radio and the war in the Orient.

Gunnison and his wife Marjorie were repatriated from China with 1,438 other internees.

Much like people plugging movies and records on TV talk shows, Gunnison made the rounds to be interviewed. His story appeared in Life on the 20th and in Billboard on the 11th, where he outlined what entertainment was like in prison camps. He wrote a book on his experiences called “So Sorry, No Peace” published in October 1944. A radio show was based on it. This is from the ‘Radio Roundup’ of the Kingsport Times, March 26, 1945.

The horrors inflicted on prisoners of war and civilians in Japanese internment camps will be related in “So Sorry—No Mercy,” [sic] the dramatization on Cavalcade of America Monday (8 p.m. NBC-WKPT). The role of Royal Arch Gunnison, American reporter who was interned for eighteen months, will be played by Movie Star Pat O’Brien. Gunnison, who was thrown out of Germany in 1934, left for the Pacific and quickly realized the Japs were headed for war. He was warned by the Japs to tone down his dispatches, returned to this country and then went back to the Far East in 1941. He made his last broadcast from Manila December 31, 1941, and was taken prisoner by the enemy on January 2, 1942. Filth, bad food and general misery prevailed in the internment camp.
Gunnison returned to this country on the Gripsholm. Formerly foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and the North American Newspaper Alliance, Gunnison will speak on the Cavalcade program from New York.

A far cry from writing sports for the Christian Science Monitor from San Francisco, which is what Gunnison was doing in 1937 into early 1940.

Though he survived the ordeals of a war prisoner, he didn’t survive an accident that took his life. Gunnison headed back to Asia in June 1946. Three months later, he was dead.

ARCH GUNNISON DIES IN CRASH

New York, Sept. 26 (INS)—Mutual Broadcasting System was informed today that Veteran News and Radio reporter Royal Arch Gunnison was among the 19 persons killed yesterday when an RAF Dakota transport crashed in a take-off at Hong Kong airport.
Gunnison, who also represented the North American Newspaper Alliance, was en route to Singapore when the big transport shattered itself against a hillside boulder.
Mrs. Gunnison also received similar word from the British Air Ministry in London. She is reported visiting relatives and friends in the Boston area.
Gunnison was born In Juneau, Alaska. In his younger days, he was torn between conflicting desires to be either a lawyer or an actor. In Geneva, he met several U. S. overseas correspondents, then decided to become one himself.
The veteran reporter was in Manila at the beginning of the Japanese war. He and his wife, the former Marjorie Hathaway, declined an invitation from Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave for Australia, preferring instead to cover the fall of the Philippine capital.
As a result, Gunnison and his wife spent 22 months in captivity. On the basis of this, the reporter wrote a book “So Sorry, No Peace.” They were returned to the United States in an exchange of prisoners and after resting up, Gunnison again returned to the Far East as a radio and news reporter.

Nowhere can I find a reference about whether he was a Mason. But he was named by a Mason who had been named by a Mason. For his father’s name was also Royal Arch Gunnison, and was a man who fits the 19th-early 20th Century stereotype that “all prominent men were Masons.” His father was a lawyer who was appointed by Teddy Roosevelt to be a district judge in Alaska in 1904 before going into private practice in Juneau five years later. He drove the last spike of the Valdez-Yukon Railway. He was coroneted a 33° member of the Scottish Rite in Seattle in 1916 and, before arriving in Alaska, was a Past Master, a member of the Knights Templar and, yes, a Royal Arch Mason. A DeMolay Chapter in Juneau was named for him in 1932.

And Royal Arch’s father was named ‘Royal Arch’ by his father for a specific reason. Denslow’s Famous Freemasons reveals:

On the evening of June 24, 1873, his father, Christopher B. Gunnison, attended a meeting of his chapter, Binghamton No. 139, and returning home, found that he was the father of a boy whom he promptly named “Royal Arch.”

It may seem odd to young people that a husband was not with his wife for the delivery (this seems to have been something which became popular after the 1950s) and that a father would arbitrarily name his son without the mother having a say in the matter. But, remember, this was in an era when a wife didn’t have voting rights.

Denslow mentions the son but does not mention a Masonic membership. So, it’s quite possible the heroic war correspondent and prisoner of war was not a Mason.

But in considering the ordeal of being interred for 18 months, one can’t help but think of the fortitude needed to survive. Masons in some parts of the English speaking world are reminded:

Fortitude is that noble and steady purpose of the mind, whereby we are enabled to undergo any pain, peril or danger, when prudentially deemed expedient. This virtue should be deeply impressed on the mind of every Mason as a safeguard against any attack that may be made to extort from him any of those valuable secrets with which he has been so solemnly entrusted upon his first admission into the Lodge.

We, as Masons, can find the lessons of Freemasonry in everyday living. Even by contemplating on something as simple as a name.

The Aim of Freemasonry

2010-10-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

Anti-Masons aren’t against Freemasonry for what it is. They’re against it for what they think it is. And they’re invariably wrong.
God-less religion, secret world rulers, blah blah blah. On and on they spout, like water from a damaged dam that, inevitably, comes back to flood their own basement. There’s been documented anti-Mason blather since 1698 and I suspect there always will be. But Freemasonry still survives and, at times, flourishes. It will so long as men join together to assist and encourage each other to follow the principles of virtuous living.
Masons can do little about anti-Masons. Some laugh at their foolishness (it’s pretty easy to do). Some counter misconceptions. Masons have been doing that for generations, too. Today, they do it on the web. Before the web, it was done in the popular press. Here’s an article in the New York Times, dated October 23, 1860. It’s about a packed house, both women and “the sterner sex” gathering for the eighth anniversary of Metropolitan Lodge No. 273. It’s entitled Masonic Ovation; ANNIVERSARY OF METROPOLITAN LODGE AN ADDRESS, A POEM AND A CONCERT. Let’s skip past a list of names of a bunch of Knights Templar Commanderies and see what the story has to say:

As the Grand Lodge entered, Dodworth’s Band, which in full force was stationed on the platform, performed a grand march. The members of the Lodge, who were clad in their regalias, took seats on the platform where already were stationed the choir of the Cooper Union ranged near one of CHICKERING's grand pianos. The decorations of the stage were simply a scroll formed of gas jets, with the words, “Sit Lux et Lux Fuit,” suspended midway between the ceiling and the platform, and the banners of the Lodge.
DANIEL GODWIN, Master of the Metropolitan Lodge, presided and made a brief address, greeting and welcoming those who were present. Then an appropriate opening ode was sung by the Choir, the audience rising and uniting in it. Rev. Mr. CORBIT offered prayer, and the prescribed exercises of the evening proceeded. They consisted of an introductory address, by M.W. JOHN W. SIMONS, Grand Master of Masons, State of New-York; an anniversary oration, by Rev. W.P. CORBIT; and an anniversary poem, by Hon. A.J.H. DUGANNE, with a musical interlude between them.
Mr. SIMONS congratulated Masons upon the rapidity of their increase and upon the respectable position which they now hold in the public estimation. He corrected the prevailing notions concerning the gridiron and goat-riding rites of the brotherhood; declared that its objects, much as they had been misrepresented, were to carry out good projects; asserted that where liberty dwells there is the Mason’s country; and reminded maligners that all of good moral character were at liberty to become acquainted with the arcana of the order.
Mr. DUGANNE’s poem was entitled “King Solomon's Temple.” In it he compared Masonry to the castle in the fairy tale, and Truth to the Princess within awaiting the coming of one earnestly seeking her. In diction of great beauty he pursued the allegory into the very penetralia of the charmed palace.
Mr. COBBITT's address was devoted to a controversion of the ideas often held by the uninformed with regard to Masonic principles. The aim of the Order was to unite mankind in one common brotherhood by God’s Holy Word, which was its chart and compass -- its polar star. A Mason was simply a builder -- as God himself was a builder. It had been charged that Masons claimed that Masonry was superior to Christianity. This was not so. Mountains of censure had been placed upon Masonry, because it had failed often to accomplish what Christianity itself had failed to accomplish. The mistake was in judging Christianity by this standard. Masonry claimed to be subordinate to our glorious Christianity. Where the cedar of Lebanon had failed of healing, why should so much be expected of the hyssop on the wall? They did not claim that Masonry was as perfect as the Gospel. Away with all such slanders. It was charged that there were bad men in the Brotherhood. Well, "let him among you that is without sin cast the first stone." They of the Fraternity were not omniscient. No body of men had been more careful in making rules designed to exclude bad men. Let him who knocked at the door look to it that he was worthy. Masonry was founded upon the best principles. He knew that they had bad men among them, and he wept over it as he wept over the shortcomings of backsliders in Christianity. But from the nature of things, while the world lasted there would be hypocrites and evil-doers. Mr. CORBIT combatted the idea that the Fraternity is wholly a secret society, and that, so far forth as it is a secret society, it was unworthy. Mr. CORBIT brought down the house by saying, Now, would you not like to know the Masonic pass-word to-night? Listen -- [deep silence] -- while I tell you -- [rapt attention] -- unit the password that will admit you -- [slowly] to a Masonic [very slowly] lodge-room is _____ [a pin distinctly heard to drop,] never to be spoken outside of a Masonic lodge-room. [Pronged laughter and applause.] The orator expatiated upon what Masonry had accomplished and the particulars in which it carried out the principles of the Christian Religion.
The exercises were closed with another ode and a benediction.

Incidentally, you’ll notice the Times wrote of the “principles” of a particular religion, as opposed to its dogma about how one worships. Perhaps an examination of Matthew 7:12 and I Corinthians 13:13 is in order as these principles should apply to anyone, regardless of how they believe in the Creator.

Let Masons carry on and practice the tenets of the fraternity and not worry too much those who deliberately dwell in the land of misconceptions. Though it does a Mason good to remind himself what the fraternity is about and to let others know, too.

The Heart of a Mason

2010-10-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

Masonic funerals were, at one time, very common in North America, with a chapel service involving brethren dropping a sprig of acacia onto a coffin, and words at the cemetery during the burial. You still hear of it happening today. Some Grand Lodges also have a memorial service.

But one unique burial happened in California in 1894. The background is so interesting and probably not well known, so what follows is a wire service account at the time it happened:

WRAPPED IN TWO FLAGS
The Heart of Don Ygnacio Herrera y Cairo Re-Interred.
Oakland, Cal., June 23.— A strange incident in the history of Freemasonry, unprecedented in this country, took place at Mountain View cemetery to-day. It was the burial with Masonic rites of the heart of Ygnacio Herrera y Cairo, one of the early governors of Mexico, and a Mason whom the members of the order call a martyr to their cause. The heart has been for a year deposited in a casket in the Masonic temple of Oakland, it having been brought from Mexico to Gethsemane chapel No. 7 [sic] of the Rosa Croix. At the burial place in Mountain View cemetery the foundation stone of a monument was laid by the grand lodge of Masons of the state.
The casket inclosing the heart was wrapped in the two silken flags, one an American and the other a Mexican, and deposited under the foundation stone. Masons from all over the coast were in attendance. Several Mexicans were present.
Shortly after the declaration of Mexico’s independence, Cairo became identified with the Masons and became governor of Hidalgo, Mexico. While in this position he was informed of a plot against the government by the Carmelites. He ordered the plotters thrown into prison and they were punished. For this action on his part it is said he became a marked man. In the course of time Cairo was retired from the governorship and went to live on a farm to pass a quiet life. Soon afterward he was shot to death by Manuel Pelago. Cairo said that his Masonic faith had hastened him to his doom. Before dying he asked one of his brother Masons to take his heart after his death and give it to some chapter of the Rosa Croix for burial. The heart has been since very carefully guarded.

The Los Angeles Times of the same date reported the heart had been deposited in the casket in the walls of Masonic Temple in Oakland on April 24, 1893 “in a place made known only to Masons.” The Times spells Cairo’s last name as “Carrero.”

The clipping you see to the right is from the Evening Argus of Owosso, Michigan, dated October 17, 1893, giving some background prior to the burial the following year.

The heart is only found in American-based ceremonies in connection with the Tyler’s sword and Thomas Webb states that it “demonstrates that justice will, sooner or later, overtake us.” But it has a couple of meanings in popular culture that should apply to Masons as well.

It a symbol used by the world at large to indicate love, and certainly would be suitably emblematic to remind Masons of brotherly love and charity to all. And it is also a symbol of courage (“the heart of a lion”). The opening prayer in the Order of DeMolay’s installation ceremony contains a request of the Almighty to give the incoming leader of the Chapter “the courage to do that which is right.” Those words contain a message as well to all Masons, who can think back to their Third Degree for a concrete example.

Some day, our hearts, too, will be buried, though likely in not so dramatic a fashion as you’ve read about here. Shouldn’t we use them for the greater good while we can?

Yesterday’s Masonic News—and Today

2010-10-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

It’s not terribly likely that a daily newspaper today would include in its columns “At the last meeting the Junior Warden, Will Seward, presided very creditably as master in the chair. Mr. Seward is an exceptionally bright Masonic student and can ably fill any office with which his brethren honor him.” But there was a time it did happen. In fact, the quote is from the Hamilton Daily Democrat of August 8, 1891.

Modern-day brethren may be shocked to learn that newspapers throughout North America had a column devoted to the doings of what were commonly known as ‘secret societies’ before the meaning of that term morphed into something nefarious. Today, meetings of clubs and such are hardly considered news. But there was a time when Canada and the U.S. were more rural than urban, few community organisations existed, and of those, Freemasonry was the premiere fraternal group. Local newspapers covered the community, men in the community routinely belonged to fraternities, so fraternities received coverage. Even big city newspapers reported on annual state or province-wide conventions of various Grand fraternal bodies.

The columns from Hamilton, Ohio caught my eye for two reasons. One was the interesting little graphic headers someone at the paper drew. Several different drawings with different names were used atop the Saturday column of fraternity happenings. I wish the drawing in the column to your left had photocopied better (you can click on it to read it). But the other thing is that coverage wasn’t restricted to ‘regular’ bodies. The “colored” Masons, Oddfellows and Knights of Pythias were routinely included, and the August 15, 1891 column contained a very interesting editorial comment, though not revealing the source of the quote. It’s too bad, because I would love to know who said it.

An exchange says in regard to the above: “The colored lodges work in charters granted by the Grand Lodge of England and the colored Grand and subordinate lodges are not recognized as regular by the white Masonic bodies of the United States on account, chiefly of the prejudice among the latter against their color. This middle wall of partition is destined to go down under the advance being made in education and the elements of good citizenship among the colored people. The Grand Lodge of Ohio came near pulling down this wall.

If you’re interested in reading about the “pulling down,” Bro. David Gray outlines what happened ON THIS PAGE on the Ohio Prince Hall web site. This, by the way, was before the Upton Report to the Grand Lodge of Washington in 1898 regarding the regularity of Prince Hall Masonry which created a such storm in several parts the United States.

Something even more interesting is in the column the following Saturday, wherein is an item about the Chinese Freemasons. I doubt the newspaper had many Chinese readers so my guess it was included for curiosity’s sake.

The charter members of the first Chinese Masonic lodge in the state of Ohio assemble at the laundry of Henry Poyn, on Vine street, in Cincinnati, this week to perfect their organization. During the entire day a stream of visiting brethren from Chicago, Indianapolis and Dayton assisted in the exemplification of the work of the order. A class of twenty novices was instituted the other evening, which with about ten members before, constitute the lodge proper. No name has yet been selected for the lodge.

The photo to the left has been snipped to feature only the Masonic organisations but the column featured blurbs about other “secret” groups, including on the Sons of America, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and a bunch I’ve never heard of, such as the “O. of the N.F.U.”

The columns generally feature rather blasé news about degrees and official visits written in the now-quaint style of the time. But, occasionally, there’s a squib or two that’s interesting and perhaps quietly speaks to the Masons of today. Things like:

• Is there something wrong with publicly letting people know we exist? There wasn’t at one time.
• Is there a need to distance the fraternity from the term “secret societies”? We can just as easily explain the original meaning and everyday use of the term to people. Intelligent people will understand. The ignorant and paranoid already think we’re running the world under Satan’s hand anyway.
• Is there a need for Masons to have a better idea of what is going on in their local and regional Masonic world? Those who read blogs or forums know the answer to that.
• Newspapers treated all legitimate organisations using symbols to better its members with equal respect. Shouldn’t we do the same?

The Loon

2010-10-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

It dawned at me while watching the amazing rescue of the miners trapped in Chile that there were 33 of them. “33,” I pondered. “How long will it take conspiracy loons to whip together some kind of Masonic connection to all this?”

It didn’t take long.

You can read someone’s imagination running wild here.

Anyone can connect anything to anything if they really want to. Some of the most far-fetched things I’ve read in my life involve supposed Masonic connections to world events. World? Nay, in other parts of the universe, too.

Freemasonry and its various ancillary groups have so many symbols, legends, ceremonies and written pontifications about them that even the most addled mind can convolute and mash them to come up with some kind of “proof” about a Masonic link to virtually anything. Using the very same connect-the-dot method employed by the wild and wacky, it was once proved to a hyped-up conspiracy fan that Canada Geese from ancient Egypt founded the United States of America. Naturally, when faced with admitting the ridiculousness of his very own method of “proving” things, the conspiracy fan repeatedly refused to discuss it and moved on to some unrelated topic.

There’s something sad when someone can’t celebrate the human spirit surviving an unimaginable ordeal against the odds but instead plays silly games with numbers looking for hidden meanings. And others nod their head in affirmation because they want to believe in the fanciful.

I’ve never understood why some people are drawn to conspiracy nonsense and even invent it, and why they aren’t able to accept the simple truth—the Masonic fraternity is a non-denominational group of men who use symbols and legendary stories to remind them to be better people. The truth is hidden in plain sight, but they don’t want to see it.

As Masons, we can’t get worked up about the wilfully ignorant. Conspiracy loons use their own twists on logic and won’t listen to rational statements of fact. About all Masons can do is carry on with their labours, striving to be better people and, by extension, make this a better place for us all to live.

(And, as an added bonus, you can listen to a loon on your computer’s media player here. Maybe he’s got a hidden Masonic message!

The Future is the Present

2010-10-15T04:29:00.000-07:00

Being the quiet, unassuming Justa that I am, you will never find me disagreeing with the senior, learned brothers of the Craft. Okay, not often. Okay, maybe more than that.

Like many Masons, I enjoy visiting other Lodges and meeting nice people, seeing good work, and having a beer if I’m in the mood. I was invited to attend a meeting recently and was delighted to see where there had been empty chairs only a couple of years ago there were new Master Masons, enthusiastically looking forward to serving in their offices in the coming term.

During the period for visitors to speak near the end of the meeting, one senior brother bedecked in a shade of dark blue rose and spoke of his delight in being with a room with a number of brethren new to the Craft, and then remarked “You are the future of Freemasonry.”

Well, he was wrong.

They aren’t the future of Freemasonry. They are the present of Freemasonry.

Each of the new Master Masons had assumed the mantle—and, with it, the responsibility—of office. Upon their shoulders rests the organisation and running of the Lodge. Not in the future. But right now. They had better be prepared to accept that fact and start digging in the quarry of their Lodge.

Just as in the construction of a building, each Mason has a role in building his Lodge. The Master drafts the plan, with the consent of his brethren. The officers provide labour in carrying it out. The senior brethren lend their experience and expertise in avoiding any obstructions and difficulties that may disrupt the progress of the labourers. All must work together in harmony for the plan to reach fruition and benefit the Lodge.

But more importantly, all must work.

The Master who has never readied himself to run a meeting or a Lodge and doesn’t know how to construct a plan, the officer who accepts responsibilities and then makes excuses as he shirks his duty to his brothers, the senior brethren who criticise or refuse support because the plan isn’t the same as their plan many years ago do our Craft few favours. Nothing will be built and the Lodge—and with it, all the members—will suffer as an end result.

We are all the future of Freemasonry. For if we treat the future of Freemasonry as being today—this very moment—we will assure ourselves a future as the years roll on.

Initiation in Afghanistan

2010-10-14T03:50:00.000-07:00

Masonry is spread over the whole habitable globe, say our ceremonies. And that was perhaps true when they were written. Since that time a couple of centuries ago, the light of the fraternity has been snuffed out in some parts of that globe by those who don’t believe in the principles of the Craft, especially that a man has the right to worship our Creator according to the dictates of his own conscience.

Some time ago, a Lodge was warranted by one of the Canadian jurisdictions to act like one of the military Lodges of old. It is currently in Afghanistan, where Canadian soldiers have been stationed for several years.

A brother from Victoria-Columbia No. 1 (British Columbia & Yukon) has visited the Lodge and witnessed an historic event. He files this report:

Canada Lodge held our first Ceremonies of Initiation on the evening of October 7, 2010 here at Kandahar Air Field.

Two brothers were initiated. As you can see from the photos, our lodge is now beautifully furnished thanks to the generosity of the brethren from back home. Due to operational requirements we did not (all who had parts) have the chance (though try we did) to do a complete run through before the big night. If I may say so myself, the ceremony was done as well as any I have seen back home (in my limited masonic experience, mind you). All of the parts came together seamlessly and it was quite evident that all of the brethren had put their heart and soul into the perfection of their work. I am truly honoured to have been a part of this historic masonic event.

Our evening ended with a truly Afghan flavour as we were posing for photographs we came under rocket attack and had to hit the floor.

If you would like to see some photos taken after the event, check them out by clicking here.

Best wishes to our new Entered Apprentice Freemasons after a ceremony they will never forget, for more reasons than one. For they have helped add Masonry to another part of our habitable globe.

A True Friend and Brother

2010-10-11T01:45:00.001-07:00

The other evening after a Festive Board, a newish Master Mason (raised within the last year) called me over and asked if I knew so-and-so. The two of them work together.

“He’s a true friend and brother,” I blurted out. And then I stopped and thought about it for a moment. I thought about why I had said it.

The brother is not one for honours. He’s never been Master of a Lodge; he’s never had any aspirations to be one. He probably spent at least six years as a Steward (and more as an “unofficial” Steward) preparing food for each Lodge meeting. And I don’t mean sandwiches or a few cookies. I’m pretty sure he never asked the Lodge for a cent to reimburse him. He was sincerely happy to be of service to his brothers because they meant so much to him.

His Lodge was, unfortunately, victimised by a couple of internal rows over the course of several years. Through it all, he never took sides, never said a bad word about anyone in the Lodge. If only all Masons could say the same thing. Instead, he would express what a wonderful fraternity we had and how much joy it had given to him. And not by parroting ritual; he would explain in his own words what Freemasonry meant to him.

Isn’t this the kind of man a Mason should be? How many of us can really say that we’re thought of as “a true friend and brother”?

Speaking Through Architecture

2010-02-10T02:26:00.000-08:00

With so many stories on the web about Masonic Halls that used to be Masonic Halls, it’s nice to see one where money has been spent to put one back in shape. Click here for a story about a Lodge Hall in New Zealand. You see the Otago Daily Times’ only photo; it’s a shame there are no interior shots.

Of note is the fact the money for the restoration didn’t come from Masons, it seems. It came from grants. Perhaps that’s the only reason it’s now back in shape. Masonic Building Societies and Associations seem notoriously poor and that’s why buildings have to be sold. In some cases, they let buildings fall into disrepair until the point is reached where there’ll never be enough money to fix everything. In others, taxes and utilities are so high the building is beyond the means of a small group of men.

So it’s nice to see at least one building has been preserved and will be open for the public to take a look. Perhaps the building itself, with its restored interior, will silently tell non-Masons a little something about our Craft. And maybe it’ll tell Masons not be complacent and be prepared to budget and spend to maintain our homes before it becomes too expensive—and too late.

Charity Takes a Ride

2010-02-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

Very early in his Masonic career—within a hour or so, I’d say—the new Mason learns about charity. In fact, he hears about it several times in his First Degree, about helping the less fortunate, if possible and practical. We’ll get back to the qualifier in a minute.

Nowhere in any of the Masonic degrees, of which I am aware, does it refer to anything but an individual’s own ability to be charitable. The ceremonies don’t espouse that Lodges, Grand Lodges or groups of Grand Lodges get together on projects or mega-projects. But some Masons seem to think they should. “We must be doing something!” is their rallying cry, as if the Masonic goal of improving one’s self is doing nothing.

Regardless, there’s certainly nothing wrong—and probably a lot of things right—when a group of like-minded Freemasons get together and provide charity they can not provide as individuals. Such a programme was instituted about 20 years ago in British Columbia, where Masons, friends and others assist in giving free rides to cancer patients to and from their treatment. Cancer is a horrible thing—the wife of a P.M. of my Lodge is gamely going through treatment; the apron I wear in Lodge belongs to a PDDGM who died of lymphoma—and any burden than can be lifted from a cancer sufferer by a Mason is a true act of Masonic charity.

So it’s with interest I read of the expansion of the Cancer Car Programme on Vancouver Island in this story in a newspaper in Port Alberni on the western part of the Island. Taking a patient from Port to Victoria is not exactly a Sunday drive (have such things existed since the 1920s?). The folks at the local tourism branch say it takes three hours; likely longer if it snows in winter because cars have to go up a steep hill to Cathedral Grove to get out of town.

The rides aren’t restricted to Masons or their families but to anyone in need, provided the cars can get to them.

There have been a few misguided Masons who, over the years, have coupled the programme with another ‘p’ word—“publicity”—suggesting seeing the cars zipping to and fro is “great advertising for Freemasonry” and “could help us get members.” The chastising schoolmarm dealing with recalcitrant students in those gauze-viewed years of the Sunday Drive had the right idea. Such members should be sent to stand in the corner. But not as punishment. They should stand in the northeast corner of their Lodge and be reminded of the meaning of charity.

However, most Masons involved with the programme with whom I have spoken will, instead, talk about the good feeling they get helping others in need and being able to go forth into the world and altruistically provide something to their fellow man, no matter how small. It is thankfully received, they say.

Of course, Lodges and Grand Lodges should keep in mind the phrase “as their circumstances in life may fairly warrant,” and be careful to ensure they embark on projects that are within their means. The worst thing that could happen is for a group of Masons, down the road, to realise they have created a huge, black hole they can not possibly fill, no matter how charitable they are. It’s something even a new Entered Apprentice should know.

A Call to Labour Over a Place of Refreshment

2010-02-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

With all the stories about Masons being unable to preserve or support the huge buildings erected years ago (apparently, we rule the world but we don’t have money to fix a leaky roof), comes word that someone wants to preserve a Masonic building of sorts. But it’s not the Masons. Read this story from New Zealand here.

It’s hard to tell from this particular story whether Freemasons meet, let alone enjoy an hour or two of refreshment, at this particular establishment.

I’ve always liked the idea of a Masonic pub where brothers of our fraternity can get together in a comfortable, central spot for a time of friendship outside Lodge. It’s kind of an extension of the festive board, with a beer and a chat. And maybe a toast or two after enough beer and chatting. Our Lodge had a Board meeting last night and afterward, the members ended up scattering to various parts of the city for a drink when it would have been nicer for everyone to be at the same spot.

An Instrument of Death — A Play in One Act

2010-01-23T22:21:00.000-08:00

Scene: The Unfinished Temple of King Solomon.
Time: Past High Twelve, as Grand Master Hiram is about to leave by way of the South Gate.

Curtain.

Ruffian: Grand Master Hiram! It is fortunate that I meet you at this time. Behold! The temple upon which I have laboured is almost complete, but I have not received the wages of a Master Mason, promised to me when my work is done. I, therefore, demand of you the secrets of a Master Mason.
Hiram: Craftsman, you have not yet completed your task. At the proper time...
Ruffian: Well, Grand Master Hiram, my girl-friend wants to go out on our night of labour in the Lodge. Masonry is not supposed to interfere with my personal life, right?
Hiram: I guess that’s true, Craftsman.
Ruffian: Observe! I hold an instrument of death. I can deplete the Masonic roll by walking if I have to wait around much longer. You won’t have much of a Lodge left.
Hiram: Oh, very well. Here are the secrets of a Master Mason.
Hiram communicates secrets.
Ruffian: There’s not much reason for me to hang around and work on this building any more. My girl-friend wants to go to the football game tonight. Farewell.
The Ruffian exits. Grand Master Hiram continues to the West Gate.
Ruffian 2: Grand Master Hiram! You agreed to give me the secrets of a Master Mason when the Temple was completed. I realise I haven’t done very much on it, but I’ve got other things going on. Work is really busy. I just don’t have time. This isn’t the 1990s, you know, when guys didn’t have to work as much as I do. But I’m young, so I’m the future of Masonry, you know. You need me. I hold an instrument of death. I will kill the Lodge by leaving it. So, give me the secrets of a Master Mason.
Hiram: But, you say you haven’t done much...
Ruffian 2: Yeah, I know what I promised when I joined. But, you know, stuff happens. And I’ve really been tied up. So, I’ve got my reasons. You said public and private avocations come first. Therefore, give me the secrets of a Master Mason.
Hiram: Oh, I suppose your intentions are good. Here are the secrets.
Hiram communicates secrets.
Ruffian 2: That’s all? I was hoping for a lot more than that. Later.
The Ruffian exits. Grand Master Hiram continues to the East Gate.
Ruffian 3: Grand Master Hiram! I have heard you cavilling with the other two. I not yet an Entered Apprentice, but I desire the secrets of a Master Mason you have given to them. And you know how life is today. I work a lot of hours, I have children at home, I have commitments to...
Hiram: Tell you what, my friend. We have a fast-track class coming up. No labour is required. Simply show up with your chequebook, block out a couple of hours, sit on the side and you will have the secrets of a Master Mason. You can do the labour after, if you’d like. I realise the young people of today...
Ruffian 3: Grand Master Hiram, I am ashamed of you. Would it be that you surrender the secrets of a Master Mason so easily? Should they not be earned? Should not every new Mason have a feeling of a sense of accomplishing a task? Is that not part of the analogy of labour that is outlined in Masonic ceremonies?
Hiram: Well...
Ruffian 3: Is it not better for a young man to wait with patience and join a Masonic Lodge when the time is right instead of making excuses and pushing him through, just as the candidate for each degree is asked to wait with patience before entering for the ceremony?
Hiram: Well...
Ruffian 3: And should not someone in the exalted position you hold be protecting such traditions, the very bedrock which attracts keenly interested new members, as it has for all ages?
Hiram: Well...
Ruffian 3: If your secrets are so easy to obtain, then they are secrets I do not want. I shall retire by the West Gate, which is open wide to the new who are merely curious and the old who would favour shortcuts.
Hiram: But...
Ruffian 3: Grand Master Hiram, I do not hold an instrument of death. You do.
The Ruffian exits.

Curtain.

Auntie Grace, R.I.P.

2009-12-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

You’ve read the story on this blog about Auntie Grace, who gave so much of her love and support to countless Job’s Daughters and DeMolays for decades.

She had a heart attack and a stroke this past Sunday. Her kidneys stopped producing urine. Everything else stopped this morning at 5:30.

She was 95 years old.

I am not a good eulogist. Whatever I write comes across as either trite or hopelessly inadequate. So I’m going to post the words of the some of the Majority Members of Job’s Daughters and Senior DeMolays whose lives she touched. They can say it so much better than I.

I met Auntie Grace and Uncle Bert in the early 90's a few years after I joined Job's Daughters. When my brother joined Beaver Chapter, Order of DeMolay, Auntie Grace became a permanent part of our lives. She was with us through our teenage years and as an adult supporter, Auntie Grace was my companion on my travels.

My favourite memory of Auntie Grace was at Beaver Chapter's Installation, the second time I was Sweetheart, when Jeff and the Chapter made her Sweetheart for Life. She sat in the East, tears in her eyes, so proud of 'her boys' and the work they did. What I particularly remember about that moment was that she wanted to catch up on all of the gossip (as we sat in the East), who was receiving what award, who had been elected to what station, what was happening in everyone's life. The members were focused on honouring her, and all she wanted to do was make sure that she hadn't forgotten to send someone a card to recognize their achievements. Auntie Grace would always remember to call, send a card or give a few words of cheer.

She touched so many people's lives and I'm so proud to have known her. I know that she will be joining Uncle Bert and her 'little doggie' (who passed away recently), and that she leaves behind a legacy of kindness and compassion, in the hearts of all who knew and loved her.

She loved every single one of us unconditionally and with her whole heart. I know of several people she helped get through tough times with class and diginity. Myself included. You could always count on her for a loving hug, and cheerful words of encouragement. She will be greatly missed.

She was there for me a lot when I was HQ both times and had problems with my Guardian she was always on my side and very encouraging. I also remember chaparoning GS and rooming with her for bethel 34. She always wanted to take the shampoos and soaps for the womens shelters. Always wanting to help others.

I saw Auntie Grace last month at the Beaver Chapter Installation...we chatted, told me how proud she was of me and kissed me on the cheek. RIP Auntie Grace you will always be loved and never forgotten!!

One journeys through life unexpectedly meeting others on their own journey along the way. Few, I suspect, could ever be accused of giving to all living beings—especially complicated teenagers—unselfless love. Auntie Grace was one of those people. She was on this earth, in her estimation, for others. What a lesson and legacy to leave.

There is a saying that only the good die young. Whoever said it lied. Auntie Grace is proof.

Rest in peace, Grace. And thank you for everything. I hope to meet again some day when my journey is finished.

They Opened Their Golden Gates

2009-11-21T03:20:00.000-08:00

My congratulations to the Freemasons of San Francisco, where a new Lodge has life. You can read about it here.

It’s been over 20 years since I’ve visited San Francisco. It’s such a beautiful city. And they love Canadians down there, as it seems men were always buying me drinks. On my trips down there I managed to visit a number of different Lodges and was appreciative of the friendliness of the brethren down there. A couple of Lodges back then met at the Scottish Rite Temple on Van Ness and Sutter. The Lodge room was absolutely huge with high ceilings and décor which I was told back then would have been impossible to replace. You got to the Lodge room in a rickety old elevator with a gate in the front.

I went through two extremes of visiting. On one hand, I ended up at a Lodge in Marin County with my dues card resting comfortably back at my hotel on the other side of the Bay. My examination consisted of a handshake. Not a Masonic one, just a handshake. “That’s it?” I asked. Yes, that was it. Not even a single question. They were conferring a Second Degree that evening and at the end the District Inspector stood up and jokingly noted that some Work from another state had crept in—and he recognised it because that’s where he was from. The Master then pointed out many of the officers were guards at San Quentin and asked them to stand up. “You shouldn’t have any problems when you’re down here,” he added.

On the other hand, another Lodge assigned two old Past Masters to examine me and started to go through the Third Degree catechism that I don’t even think Masons in California learn any more. I had to explain that my Lodge’s ritual was entirely different, we didn’t have those questions, our signs were different and even our obligation wasn’t the same as theirs. They left me in the ante-room for 20 minutes while the Lodge figured out what to do with me. They finally let me in, but I missed the opening ceremony. Still, they were pleasant old gents who took the Masonic name of ‘caution’ seriously and I gave a bit of a talk on how Masonry was different in my part of the world. There were interested and quite surprised, as everyone assumes Freemasonry is the same the world over.

Another Lodge was fairly young, but small, with a number of Chinese and Filipinos as officers. They offered to give me a tour around town the next day and I could stay with them if I wanted and they really didn’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer. It’s quite remarkable they would be so outgoing with a perfect stranger, so I suppose the point is I really wasn’t a perfect stranger. I was a brother.

Then there was a Lodge which had been ordered out of its long-time meeting place on Market Street by the Grand Master because—gasp!—a restaurant renting space on the ground floor served drinks. On my next trip, the Lodge had ended up amalgamating and I don’t believe it survived much longer.

And another Lodge stunned me by holding off its meeting because the Lodge’s charter had been removed from the building and was with someone who was too sick to attend that night. The Lodge had something like 444 members but there were maybe a dozen scattered about the room that night, and the S.W. stood up to announce he was moving to Washington State.

A couple of Lodges gave me copies of their histories. I have a beautiful golden bound book presented to me by Oriental Lodge No. 144. You can read about the early days of that Lodge on-line here.

My days of travelling to San Francisco are likely over, but I’m sure the members of the new Lodge an ashlar’s throw away from the cable-car line will treat their visitors with the Masonic hospitality that is a hallmark of our American brothers.

Lest We Forget

2009-11-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

My father was in the Army in World War Two. My uncle was in the RCAF and served overseas.

This story is from 1935.

FREE MASONRY IS TARGET OF NAZIS
End of All Masonic Lodges and Abolition of Veterans’ Groups Announced
BERLIN, Aug. 8—(AP)—The end of all Free Masonic lodges in Germany and the abolition of more World war veterans’ organizations were announced today.
Reichsfuerer Hitler’s newspaper, Voelkischer Beobachter, stated that on Saturday the last Masonic lodges in the Reich, the state lodge of Saxony, the Dresden Great lodge, and the “German Brethren Chain” of Leipzig will be dissolved.
Use Law of 1933
Secret police today dissolved the veterans’ “Steel Helmet” formations in Berlin, Brandenburg, Pommerania, and Eastern Mark, the territory along the western ridge of Pomorze, Poland.
The dissolution of the veteran units was accomplished on the basis of the law of Feb. 28, 1933, for the protection of the people and the state. The property of the Steel Helmet units was seized.
After dissolution of the old Prussian Free Mason lodge July 21 and the gradual disappearance of smaller lodges in a year-long campaign, the Free Masons in Germany—first so-called “state enemies”—thus would be wiped out completely.
See Jewish Republic
Hitler’s organ, asserting the secret aim of Free Masonry was a Jewish world republic, said the forthcoming dissolution would “finish a special chapter in world history, and the guardian of the Nazi ideal will be alert.”
Jews accused of trying to hid their race to escape the anti-Semitism appeared to stand in the center of Nazi determination to purify German blood.
Der Angriff, newspaper of Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, minister of propaganda, directed an attack against Jews covering up by becoming Christians, and asked how much longer the Protestant church would continue to baptise Jews.

Now Pinch-Hitting for the Masons...

2009-11-01T23:35:00.000-08:00

In honour of the Boys of November (why is baseball being played so late in the year anyway?), we pass on this bit of news from the Masonic archives.

Lodges are always—or at least should be—places of fellowship and conviviality, and have some kind of events involving the social aspect of a fraternity. One Lodge, I gather in Connecticut, had annual event along the following lines. This story is from the Hartford Courant of October 20, 1959:

Whitey Ford To Appear At Masons’ Sports Night
MANCHESTER (Special) -- Whitey Ford, star left-handed hurler for the New York Yankees, will be “subbing for the sub” when he appears here to night at the Sports Night of the Manchester Lodge of Masons.
Gil McDougald, another outstanding performer for the Yankees, was scheduled to appear here along with Jackie Farrell, Yankee public relations man and two local youths, both in the minor leagues, Moe Morhardt, who signed with the Chicago Cubs last spring as a “bonus baby”, and Gene Johnson, of the Milwaukee farm system.
Substitute Can’t Come
Several days ago, Howard Waddell, chairman of the committee making arrangements for the Sports Night, was informed that McDougald will be hospitalized until the middle of next month and that Bill (Moose) Skowron. Yankee’s first sacker would appear in his place.
Monday, Waddell was again told by Mrs. Skowron that a wrist injury her husband received several weeks ago during the ball season had not healed and that he underwent surgery for it again Sunday night,
The affair will start at 7 p.m. with a dinner at the Masonic Temple.

Kyle Rote was the featured speaker the following year and the event seems to have carried on through the 1960s. I gather the Lodge simply called the Community Relations department of some sports team, arranged for some athletes, and then sold tickets to a dinner as a fund-raiser.

Is your Lodge organised enough to be able to pull off the same kind of thing today?

Congratulations, Anti-Masons!

2009-10-26T02:39:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter To Anti-Masons

Dear Anti-Masons,

On behalf of Baphomet and Jahbulon and the guy with the red suit and pitchfork in that hot place, I’d like to thank your more enthusiastic members for performing their Masonic duty.

Yes, your plan is going just as you hoped. The rantings and ravings by certain of your boisterous flock are continuing to swell our Lodges with new members.

Why, just the other day, a rather tall young man you can find on the internet as ‘Lightseeker’ received his First Degree along with two other men in one of the local Lodges in his area. Oh, this isn’t another one of those “lies” you keep saying we Masons are full of. Read about it HERE. It’s true! I swear on the severed head of Albert Pike we’re keeping alive in the matrix under the Denver Airport. Oh, wait. That’s one of our secrets. Forget I said it.

Secrets! Ah, yes. Baphy and Jabby were telling me just the other day the chuckles they have when your more extreme members spew about Masonic secrets on-line but they do so while hiding their identities and any information about them. Some may call it hypocrisy, but Baphy says it’s hilarity.

Even better, Bro. ‘Lightseeker’ got out and visited a Lodge only a few days later to see a First Degree conferred on two more men. It was great to meet him. Meeting new people is part of the benefits of being a Freemason; people you wouldn’t meet under other circumstances, from different towns and different parts of this dusty old globe. Sure better than sitting behind a keyboard and coming up with new ways to con people into still thinking the Taxil Hoax is real like you guys have to do. But Mrs. Baphy says she’ll send over some Devil’s Food Cake to your anti clubhouse for your next meeting. Devil’s Food Cake! That Mrs. Baphy, always kidding. The other day, she called her husband “an old goat.” Oh, I’m getting off the subject here. Kinda like when you guys post on Usenet. Anyway...

A shame Bro. Trudeau didn’t stay for the Festive Board, because that’s another fun part of belonging to a fraternity. We had pizza. Did you know, antis, if you arrange the slices just right and squint really hard, you can form one of those Washington, D.C. maps? Yeah, the maps that you say is prove we’re evil! Well, you have to squint and drink a lot of beer to get the proper visuals. And not eat the slices. Jabby says that’s the tough part. Feel free to talk about the pizza “proof” on one of your sites. It’ll fit in with everything else you write.

Oh, before I forget, let me tell you guys that a Senior DeMolay is getting his First Degree in another Lodge this week. Come on, antis, you’re slacking off on The Grand Plan. There’s only one of those DeMolays this week! Can one of you guys put out another ‘Satan’s Kindergarten’ book or something, because the 33-plus-degree Masons are sure we’d get a few more that way. What number degree Masons am I talking about? Oh, that’s a secret. You didn’t think all that stuff about “33” being the “highest” was true, did you? It’s just something to give you something to write about on those web-sites of yours. Baphy has a good laugh over that.

So, in closing, thank you again antis for your campaign to post such laughable dis-information about Freemasonry, you continue to help the fraternity gain members.

Yours,
Justa

Son of “Beyond the Valley of the...” etc.

2009-10-26T01:56:00.001-07:00

If Hollywood can have sequel after sequel based on fictional books, so can your humble Justa.

You’ve no doubt read our original post and its sequel with links to newspaper articles spawned by the editorial mantra “We’d better get local reaction to that DaVinci sequel.” Well, we have a couple more.

One is from Owen Sound, Ontario and the other comes from Naperville, Illinois. The picture is from the latter article, linked from the Sun website.

They’re both pretty good articles. I don’t know if the Grand Master in Ontario sent out a news release in advance of his trip to Owen Sound announcing his arrival and his availability to speak to the media about that sequel book. If he did, it’s.... well, it’s pretty progressive on someone’s part. Progressive for Freemasonry, that is.

There’s also this article from Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

It’s a bit of an odd duck journalistic piece because it asks the question “What is Freemasonry?” and never really provides an answer. In fact, I’m bowled over by a couple of things in it, but no more so than this from the reporter:

They won't say, for example, whether any living U.S.
president is a Mason but will list the deceased presidential Masons.

“They” won’t? Who’s “they”? Setting aside the purely American semantical oddity that someone who is no longer in office is still deemed “a U.S. president,” I’ll say that the current incumbent in office and no living former presidents have ever been members of the fraternity. That information should be readily available on the internet. In fact, it’s even in the Illinois newspaper article I’ve linked to.

And unless they do things differently in Masonic Lodges in Cedar Rapids, the reporter got her information a little mixed up:

Two men are seated in the center of the room, behind a table that displays an open holy book

Though she’s quoting a “past Grand High Priest over Iowa’s Freemasons” (does the York Rite really have that much power in that state?), I have my suspicions no one is sitting in the centre of the Lodge room. After all, it’s never been done that way. So, in Masonry, that means it can never happen.

Another Dip Into Justa’s Ask-It Basket

2009-10-18T07:48:00.000-07:00

It’s been several months since we’ve had a look inside our basket to see what queries and comments have been left behind by people looking at this blog. So, let’s do so now.

Woking, Surrey: Funny Masonic Graces
You can tell there’s a cultural difference between Masonry in North America and in the land of the Mother Grand Lodges. Masons occasionally come here hunting for Masonic toasts or graces, and they’re almost always from England and never the United States. American Lodges don’t seem to have a festive board/harmony/South like you find in the British Commonwealth. Americans are more inclined, by my experience anyway, to have dinner before the meetings and even wives and friends are welcome.
That being said, I’m sure some Past Masters would turn up their nose (at an appropriate Masonic angle) at the very idea of a “funny” Grace. After all, the occasion is solemn and is to thank our Creator for sustenance and perhaps health and friendship. Regardless, here’s a story:

The Master calls for everyone to pray attention to the Chaplain for Grace, but the Chaplain is not in his place. The Master briefly panicks, looks around, spots the Senior Deacon and, catching him off-guard, asks him to give thanks to the Great Architect (surprise addresses are also apparently an olde Masonic custom). The Deacon turns his eyes skyward and comes up with this doggerel on the spot:
I’m surprisingly addressing you, Lord.
The grace should be done by the Chaplain.
But he’s stuck in a line at our bar.
It seems with the Devil he’s grapplin.’

Hey, you’re getting this blog for free. Don’t expect Robert Service.

United Kingdom: Masonic room of death.
For a moment, I thought this was the title of an episode of The Simpsons. My guess is the blog visitor might have been looking for information about the Chamber of Reflection, which is used in some rituals outside of the U.K. and North America.
W. Bro. H.L. da Costa of one of the Lodges in Vancouver wrote a paper on it some years ago that can be found at the Grand Lodge of B.C. and Yukon web site.
Compare that to ante-rooms I’ve seen for preparation of candidates, illuminated (oh, the irony!) by fluorescent lights, with chairs and tables stacked against a wall and never-to-be-repaired furniture that had been shoved in a corner years ago to gather dust. Not only does such not provide an opportunity for even the remotest reflection prior to initiation, but it makes our rooms look like a junk yard or a storage room, not the spot where one should be engaging in the serious task of becoming a Mason. The only thought that must come to the candidate’s mind is Masons don’t care an awful lot about their meeting place or ceremonies.

United States: What does it mean when a mason asks three letter or four?
It’s turnaround time, as we have a reference that will likely baffle Freemasons of the British Commonwealth and outside the sphere of American influence.
Grand Lodges in the U.S., for the most part, designate themselves “Free and Accepted Masons” or “Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons.” Numerous tales have developed about why this is so. Myths, being the only explanations heard, are thus passed down from generation to generation as if they’re some kind of Great Masonic Truth.
The one I chuckle at is from those serious-meined chaps who insist it has something to do with ritual; that some other state’s ritual is different because “Oh, they’re Ancient Free and Accepted. We’re Free and Accepted.” Evidently, they’ve never studied the Baltimore Convention and later numerous attempts in the 19th century to come up with a common ritual for all states.
Others inexplicably colour-code it. I’ve read on line how A.F. and A.M. is a code word for “Prince Hall” and F. and A.M. is, for want of a better phrase, “the other kind.” That would be news to Masons in my area, because the designations are the reverse.
Probably closer to the real answer is it dates from the creation of Grand Lodges on the U.S. eastern seaboard during and immediately after the Revolutionary War and whether or not the Lodges which made up the new Grand Lodges stemmed from the “Ancient” Grand Lodge of England. For later Grand Lodges, it’s a stylistic choice. For example, the Grand Lodge of Oregon is A.F. and A.M. Washington State, which sprung from Oregon, is F. and A.M.

Chicago: Why can’t masons discuss what goes on in their meeting?
Here’s a little primer on how just about any club works. If you want to know what happens at their meetings, become a member. Otherwise, it’s really none of your business.
However, Masons can certainly discuss meetings in general terms. In fact, your friendly Justa has done so in this post.

United States: How can you tell if someone is a freemason?
By asking him and getting a “yes” or “no” in response.
Okay, perhaps I’m being unnecessarily glib. I have no idea why the question was asked; it could very well be someone is passing himself off as a Mason as a joke, or for some nefarious reason. If that is the case, an e-mail to the local Grand Lodge office stating the situation and requesting confirmation might suffice.
As for Masons in a private Lodge setting, there are certain methods of authentication, though I admit I’ve been taken aback some times by visiting Past Masters who don’t even know them.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Masonic 50 year member poems.
I can sympathise a bit with the brother who made this enquiry because poetry is not an easy thing to write (if you don’t believe me, you apparently skipped past the beginning of this post). But I’ve said before I really feel when a brother is being honoured for an accomplishment, it is far better to come up with some words personally about the individual and from the heart than just plugging in some generic stuff from the internet.
Still, poetry can always be adapted and if anyone reading has a well-crafted verse or two appropriate for a special night for a special brother, feel free to leave it in the comment box.
Below is something I’ve banged off that’s not exactly Service either. But maybe it’s service-able. (That's a pun. Please laugh).

THE FIFTY-YEAR MASON

Two trembling knees, some covered eyes,
A sword jabbed at his breast.
What happened next was all a blur;
He can’t recall the rest.

They told him of a way of life;
How to act to one another.
‘Twas fifty years ago tonight
They all would call him brother.

For weeks, he learned the ancient words
Of square and rule and trowel
Though incorrectness always brought
An old Past Master’s growl.

The years have passed, some came and went
But in Lodge he still remains.
A reward he’s earned that’s better far
Than mere material gains.

For cash does not a Mason find,
Nor gold for selfish ends.
His fortune is more valuable.
He gains a wealth of friends.

Young men have come; they want to know
Of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty.
Our brother stays to tell them all
Because he knows that is his duty.

“I was taught, so now I teach,
It’s the true Masonic way.
For others will follow in their path
They’ll have to teach some day.”

Let’s celebrate those fifty years
Since the knocks at the Tyler’s door.
And Masons here and Masons far
Do wish him fifty more.

You can peer into other Ask-it-Baskets here and here.

That Ball is Going... Going...

2009-10-17T09:34:00.001-07:00

Since it’s World Series time, your humble Justa “Can of Corn” Mason is marking the season by posting the following cute little news item from 80 years ago this month. Freemasonry only plays a coincidental role in the story but, being a baseball history fan, I thought it was worth passing on.

This is from the Ludington (Michigan) Daily News of October 11, 1929.

Jack Pegs 6 Balls Over Masonic Hall So ‘Pitts’ Pays Bet
An argument about the relative merits of World Series pitchers cost Milton (Pitts) Stalter $5 this morning when Jack Varner backed up his argument with a demonstration of just what he meant by “pitching.”
“Say, listen, some of this stuff about pitchers in the Series gives me a big pain,” Jack is reported to have said. At this point, Stalter differed vociferously with him with the result that Varner could not throw six balls over the Masonic Temple from the sidewalk in front of J.B. Smith Recreation hall.
The balls were secured and a crowd gathered to witness the show. Jack took his coat off, rubbed his hands in the dirt, spit on the ball, wound up and let fly. It cleared the top of the building by at least 30 feet. In quick succession the remaining five balls followed, whereupon Jack collected his bet, remarking “I hate to take this because I failed to tell you that I pitched on the Oklahoma City team for four years.”

The photo of the building in question is from Google Maps. You can’t see it due to the sun’s reflection, but it says “Masonic Temple” at the top and there are symbols in the arches above the windows.

I suspect neither gentleman in this story was a Mason. After all, we all know if one of them was a member of the Craft, six balls wouldn’t have been used. The number would have been three, five or seven.

Coming soon.. a post on baseball and Lodge events.

The Irony of Anti-Masonry

2009-10-15T06:07:00.000-07:00

It was only a matter of time before someone doing a newspaper story on “the Masons’” reaction to the Brown novel would get some reaction from the other side. It seems only fair. And it gives you an idea of how weak the antis’ arguement against Freemasonry really is.

You can read the newspaper story here.

Let me say that if someone feels their religious beliefs are incompatible with Freemasonry, they shouldn’t become members. No one is forcing anyone to join. Such a thing would be silly; you can’t coerce someone into being a good member of a volunteer organisation. But one would hope that someone would be honest enough with themselves that their opposition to Masonic membership is legitimate.

The reporter, in my estimation, puts his finger on the situation in a few short words:

So why would anyone label the Freemasons a cult? Maybe it has to do with members’ mystery-shrouded rituals

If someone strips away the mystery and uses equivalents from normal, every-day life that people are acquainted with, they can see how off-centre some of the arguements against Masonic membership are.

One of the points made by the anti-Mason in the story was:

he also says it’s [Freemasonry is] anti-Christian because it doesn’t require belief in the God of the Bible

That’s quite true. Neither does the 4-H Club, the Book of the Month club, a membership at a gym or the Boy Scouts. Substitute any of these groups for “Freemasonry” and you can see how ridiculous the claim is.

Later, we read:

[Freemasonry] demands that members swear oaths despite the Bible’s proscription against such practices.

Of course, the President of the United States takes an oath of office. Oaths are still common in a court of law. Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath. If an anti went around bleating that the U.S. government, the justice system or being treated by a doctor was anti-Christian, he’d be laughed at as a nut-job.

Ah, but Freemasonry has those “mystery-shrouded rituals.” Most people aren’t Freemasons and don’t know about Freemasonry. Being unfamiliar with it, they’re more willing to buy into false claims of “anti-Christian.” How are they to know otherwise? Make the same claim about the Boy Scouts, and they’ll call BS on it.

A more interesting claim is:

The organization is based on ancient fertility cults, not stoneworkers’ groups and spiritual knowledge

Anti-Masons should realise that just as anyone can connect-the-dots to “prove” untrue things about Freemasonry, anyone can do the same about anything else. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to point out things like Easter eggs and Christmas trees, and connect the next dot to make the claim that Christianity “is based on ancient fertility cults.” The line of reasoning is no different. Such a claim would be laughable, of course. As laughable as the claim about Freemasonry and “ancient fertility rites.”

I don’t know of any fertility rites that show off stonemasons’ tools, have a discourse on the building of a temple from the Old Testament, or give admonitions to be good citizens and help others in need if possible.

Antis seem quite willing to ignore the fact that symbols can be, have been, and are, used in different ways in different eras and places. What someone else did with them is meaningless, as meaningless as what so-called pagans did with trees that today are lovingly decorated by Christian families during the season to honour Christ’s birth (trees topped with a star that antis have linked to Satan, no less).

It’s how Freemasonry uses those symbols that is relevant to its members, not anyone else.

I’m sure many Masons could echo the thoughts of one of the Masons interviewed:

“It [Freemasonry] has helped me solidify my (Christian) faith.”

I would hope so. There’s no reason it should not. Faith is one of the principle virtues outlined in the First Degree. Masons are reminded throughout the ceremonies to follow the tenets of their faith, not to ignore them or toss them away. In fact, that is one of their duties.

Granted, Masons are free to decide their religious beliefs for themselves. In democratic nations, such things are even protected by law. In the United States freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Constitution. Anti-Masons seem to have a problem with that. Yet, were they to screech and parrot each other on web sites that the U.S. Constitution is “anti-Christian,” their beliefs would be readily seen for the foolishness they are.

When it comes to Freemasonry, the ones who cry “cult” are generally the ones who want to dictate what religious beliefs others should follow.

The irony seems to escape them.

The Last Visit

2009-10-13T21:16:00.000-07:00

One of the real joys of Freemasonry is being able to entertain visitors, especially those from far away. I think I enjoy greeting someone from a foreign clime for the first time more than I do going to other Lodges myself, and that’s always a lot of fun.

But imagine entertaining visitors after your Lodge meeting, heading home, only to get up the next morning and be told the grim news that your new friends had been killed in a car accident after leaving the Masonic Hall. And that one is past the age of 90 and another is over 80.

That sad scenario has unfolded near Tulsa, Oklahoma. The only slight difference is a Masonic Lodge was not involved, but one of a number of Masonic-linked organisations, the Order of True Kindred.

Likely even few Freemasons know about the Order, especially outside the United States. You can read about it here.

But first, read about the accident here and/or here.

You will learn about the calibre of women whose lives were taken.

It isn’t much, but let me express my heartfelt sympathies to the families of those killed.

Congratulations, New Brunswick

2009-10-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Freemasonry in one of Canada’s eastern-most provinces has celebrated a birthday this past weekend, and one of the newspapers there has done a little write-up here.

There are a couple of unusual things that struck me about the story, mainly from a journalistic standpoint. Many newspapers and periodicals in the last several decades have put in print variations on the ‘declining membership-only old folks left’ theme. More recently it’s been the ‘membership turnaround-look at all those young people’ angle. But this paper did neither. It simply states:

Nonetheless, they continued to thrive to the point where there are now 3,500 members of the Order of Free and Accepted Masons in 35 lodges spread across New Brunswick.

Nothing about a rise or fall of membership. Just some simple numbers. That’ll drive stats freaks to screech “But it doesn’t tell the whole story!”

You’d think an historical story about an anniversary would have prompted at least a line about Day Number One lo those many years ago. But there’s no mention at all. So, to fill you in, courtesy of Freemasonry in Canada in a piece written by Thomas Walker, PGM:

The history of Freemasonry in New Brunswick may be said to have commenced the 7th November 1783, when Jared Betts wrote from St. Ann’s, N.S., now Fredericton, the capital of New Brunswick, to Joseph Peters, Secretary of Master’s Lodge No. 211, Halifax, to know if he could proceed under a warrant which he held granted by Dermott who is described as the Grand Master of Ireland. The authority in this warrant was denied and a dispensation was actually issued from the two warranted lodges, Nos. 155 and 211, then existing in Halifax.

New Brunswick’s first Lodge was instituted on 7 September 1784 and called Hiram Lodge. It didn’t have a happy time of it. Says Walker:

In 1795 Hiram Lodge “rebelled” against the authority of the Provincial Grand Lodge, at Halifax, by which it had been warranted as No. 17. On September 7th, 1796, its warrant was withdrawn by the Provincial Grand Lodge, and all its members, twenty-two in number, were “expelled for apostacy,” etc.

Walker’s history isn’t any more specific. Of course, if it happened today, Masons would be clucking on it all over the internet. The Grand Lodge of New Brunswick was organised 10 October 1867.

However, the reporter wins points from your friendly Justa for avoiding any tie-in with a book on the market right now, and plainly states the fraternity’s religious requirement, what its general purpose is and reveals some of the fine charity work done by the Atlantickers.

The other odd thing is the opening sentence:

More than 200 years ago, there were no automobiles, said W. G. Macx MacNichol of Dorchester, secretary and past master of the Sussex Lodge No. 4 and public relations officer for the Grand Lodge of New Brunswick.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that stating the obvious?

You can read an earlier story here.

Auntie Grace

2009-10-11T10:23:00.001-07:00

There’s a 95-year-old woman who has been made happy by some boys she doesn’t know.

They’re Auntie Grace’s children. Well, that’s what she calls them, anyway.

Auntie Grace’s husband and brother both joined one of the local Lodges after World War Two. Pretty soon, she got involved with the new Job’s Daughters Bethel which started not far from her little home. Regal DeMolay Chapter was formed there, too, by members of Beaver Chapter in Vancouver. Year in, and year out, decade after decade, there was Grace, at almost every conceivable function organised by the girls or the boys. Always lending her encouragement and reminding us all how much we meant to her.

Times have been tough for fraternal groups over the last number of years. Grace’s Bethel closed. Her Bethel’s daughter-Bethel closed. Regal DeMolay Chapter closed in the mid ’80s and some of the few remaining members moved across the city boundary to Vancouver and Beaver Chapter. The best part of it was Auntie Grace came in the deal.

The members of Beaver Chapter loved Grace. They loved her so much they did something never done before in the history of DeMolay. They made her Chapter Sweetheart for Life. They even gave her a banner in a little public ceremony.

The guys in Beaver grew out of their teens and vanished into the world of adulthood, but Auntie Grace stayed on. Every meeting sitting with the mothers, and every installation, there she was to give her unconditional love to the dwindling numbers of teenagers who found an interest in the Order of DeMolay.

Beaver Chapter finally faded away. The Chapter’s porch book quietly states it held its last meeting in early 2002, the bulk of those signing were in their early 20s and few new members had joined in a number of years.

There became less and less of DeMolay for Auntie Grace’s boundless moral support, fewer and fewer boys to hear her kind and thoughtful words. Finally, this year, there was one Chapter left in the whole province, with not even enough active members to fill all the offices.

But then something happened. I got a phone call.

We’ll skip my life story but suffice it to say I’m a Senior DeMolay who was connected with Beaver’s Advisory Council through parts of the 1980s and ‘90s. And I had assisted in re-starting another dormant Chapter during that time. That Chapter has ceased operating again, leaving behind a couple of guys who live in Beaver’s old territory.

One of them called me. He explained they wanted to start a Chapter in Vancouver and they asked their dad what to do, and their dad asked the head of the local Filipino-Masonic group what to do, and what to do was to call me. Calling me seems to be a solution to many problems in the Masonic world (even in the Filipino one, even though my family was originally from Scotland).

So, I agreed to help as best as I could, if they found enough guys to form a Chapter and if they knew of enough interested adults to act as Advisors.

And they did.

They spent the entire summer, once a week, drilling the prospective members in the cardinal virtues of DeMolay, the structure of the Order, what it expected of its members. While most teenaged boys are having fun over the summer, these guys were being tested on how much they knew about DeMolay and had to pass before being allowed to be initiated.

In the meantime, a couple of Senior DeMolays in my Lodge called around and, at too-close-to-the-last-minute, dredged up some of the guys who were members when they were in and cobbled together a very makeshift degree team. There was no practice, and some last-minute confusion (we had three Seventh Preceptors at one point) but the guys who used to drive me nuts as an Advisor 15 years ago walked in like they had never left and instinctively conferred the two degrees on ten young men (two others were sick and missed the ceremonies).

The young men received surprise news at their meeting this weekend that they have received permission to operate as a Chapter and Letters Temporary had been sent to the Executive Officer.

The first phone call, after confirming the date and the availability of a meeting place, went to Auntie Grace. For a number of years she was hoping someone, anyone, would re-form her adopted Chapter so she could again put on her banner and come and see more of the young men she considers her sons.

She’ll get a chance to meet her new sons at their institution and installation on November 7th.

Some day, maybe I’ll write the story of what DeMolay means to me and how it changed my life, a story that many others could no doubt write. But, for now, you’re getting a better story. One of a dear, sweet woman, and how a group of young men worked together to make her happy.

Beyond The Valley of the Brown Book Bonus

2009-09-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

If some novelist can write a sequel to a book, your friendly, neighbourhood Justa can do the same thing to a post. As for its name, we can do no better than borrow from the title of a Russ Meyer movie sequel that sort of wasn’t a sequel once Jacqueline Susann’s lawyers got finished with it (this is likely the first time a blog has ever referred to those two individuals in a post about Freemasonry).

This entirely fictional tale takes place in the lobby of a Masonic Hall in, uh, an entirely fictional city. People are gathered around after a DeMolay Advisory Council meeting. One of the DeMolays makes a comment about The Book, referred to in our clever and creative subject header.

Harrumphs an entirely fictional Mason, “You know what the problem is with that book? People will petition Lodges thinking we’re like what’s in it and we’ll have to explain to them we’re not.”

Or something like that. It’s fiction, remember, so I can just make up whatever I said. Oh, uh, I mean the ‘entirely fictional Mason.’

You’ll recall in our original post, remarks were made on the nature of the newspaper business. This post being a sequel, the same shall be done here. Another old trick of the trade is The Sidebar Story. Whether some Masons like or not, Freemasonry is deemed mysterious by some, even outside Omaha, Nebraska. So several news outlets have taken it upon themselves to do sidebars showing that the Freemasons aren’t really all that mysterious at all. You can see each story by clicking on the link (in a shade of Cryptic Rite purple).

Since the job at hand is myth-busting, who’re you gonna call? Jay Kinney! Jay was a somewhat-regular participant a number of years ago on alt.freemasonry, in a time when Masons spent more time there discussing Masonry than laughing at conspiracy nuts. Jay has his own book out and his sidebar story comments have been quoted in some fairly respectable places. Take Time Magazine for example.

Then there’s National Geographic News.

This site in India seems to have re-written the above piece.

National Public Radio took the opportunity to chat with Jay. Oh, and with some Freemason named Brent Morris (stop searching on-line for your name, Brent).

There’s even a little mini-slide show on Belief Net.

And there’s Chris Hodapp’s favourite newspaper, the Omaha World-Herald, which went for an independent source.

So, the oft-lambasted media—with the help of a few knowledgeable brothers—are helping to educate non-Masons about our fraternity which should please even the most harrumphing fictional Mason.

What If

2009-09-20T00:15:00.001-07:00

The question of “What if” may come to the mind of every Mason, especially those on a Masonic Building Association. “What if something happens to our Lodge Hall?”

Something did happen in the university town of Saskatoon, a green oasis along the North Saskatchewan River. You can read about the fire here and not feel ashamed to be a little heartsick afterwards, because any Mason should feel some empathy.

Incidentally, Bro. Wong in the story, if I recall off the top of my head, is one of the flag presenters at the annual Grand Lodge meeting in Saskatchewan.

A later story will only say the fire was accidental.

One wonders what the future will hold for the Freemasons of Saskatoon. Will insurance money—which doesn’t replace priceless artefacts and historical documents—cover the cost of erecting a new temple? Cash doesn’t exactly flow into Masonic coffers like it did in the late ‘40s to early ‘60s when most thought the long parade of petitioners would never stop; Lodges tend to run on very tight budgets. It’s a little ironic the person making the most money from Freemasonry these days isn’t a Mason at all. It’s a fiction writer who’s learned that a combination of mystery and American patriotism sells books.

Personally, I don’t know the answer to “What if” the cement block where some of my Lodges meets were gutted. Renovating a building up to current codes might prove insurmountable financially, I don’t know.

Can you answer “What if” about your Lodge hall?

Brown Book Bonus

2009-09-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

One of the most popular Masonic sites on the internet—for Masons and non-Masons—is that of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, which has been shepherded almost since its conception by a bemused observer of life named Trevor McKeown.

Most of you reading this blog have never had the opportunity to see Trevor, let alone annoy him on an almost daily basis with requests or rants as does your friendly Justa. However, that’s changed, thanks to the latest Saviour of the Publishing World (Without Potter in the Title).

It’s a pretty standard trick of the news trade—at least it was when news was current events and not gossip about people on reality TV shows—to take a national/international story and get a local angle on it if there’s one to be had. Evidently, a pile of newsrooms remembered this when they were told by the Associated Press that Freemasons await Dan Brown novel ‘The Lost Symbol.’ I can think of at least one ex-AP stringer who’s a Mason who hasn’t been awaiting it, but that’s beside the point. Some news outlets got on the blower to those mysterious Masons to get their reaction. That’s why Chris Hodapp of Freemasons for Dummies has suddenly increased in demand, as he outlined on his web site.

But on the lip of the green, damp Pacific forest in the casual cosmopolis monikered Vancouver, the venerable Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s television assignment desk turned to a local source—the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. And, therein concealed, at a desk far too tidy for its own good, resides one Trevor McKeown.

The CBC interviewed Trevor in the Masonic Hall. And for those of you who have not seen the man responsible for one of the finest Masonic web sites anywhere, you can do so by viewing the interview HERE.

See what a bonus Mr. Brown hath wrought? He has given you an unexpected opportunity to electronically turn your visage on Trevor. Sorry you have to sit through a commercial first. I’d do something about it if I could, but while Freemasons control the world, the CBC is not included. No one has ever controlled it.

Not only does the reporter mispronounce Trevor’s name but it’s evident he hasn’t even read the book he’s asking Trevor about because he makes no specific reference to its contents. He also makes it seem like it’s a shocking thing he’s interviewing a Mason when, if you read my previous post on the topic, there are those who’d give anything for a phalanx of cameras to show up and shower upon Freemasonry overly-generous amounts of good, free publicity.

There’s a partial shot of one of the Lodge rooms (the one without the ugly yellow cloth upholstery) though the bulk of the interview takes place in the Grand Lodge Museum which Trevor has lovingly organised.

I haven’t spoken to Trevor to see if hits to the Grand Lodge web site are up because of the book (they were when the first one came out, if I recall). Then again, now that he’s been on TV, he may be too much of a star to talk to me. I’ll have to see if Trevor has a star on his door. Being a bemused observer of life, if there were, he’d hang it upside-down.

Maybe It’s Just Me

2009-09-16T03:25:00.001-07:00

So, I popped by Yahoo’s Home page when I logged on a few minutes ago. And there is it. A header that reads “Secret Society in Spotlight” and a picture of a drawing of a purported Masonic ‘jewel’ with a bunch of symbols I’ve never seen before, and I’ve seen a bunch because I’ve belonged to five Lodges and almost every conceivable concordant body (or at least know about them).

Then I peered around on Facebook. And there is it. Someone’s pointing me to a news story telling me I’m awaiting an endlessly-publicised novel that uses Freemasonry in its plot. And someone else pointing to the same story.

And then I got an e-mail. It’s telling me that the number one concern of brethren in one geographic area is—the media might say bad things about Freemasonry. Instead, they want some sort of publicity campaign (organised by someone else) that will tell the world of the Good Works of Our Ancient Craft with the end result that their Lodges will somehow instantly fill up with new members.

Maybe it’s just me. But do some people have their concerns a little misplaced?

I’ve seen some blog posts, tweets and internet speculation and pontification about the Brown book. And, frankly Scarlett...

One of my Lodges has just finished changing its officers. We’ve got rehearsals for degrees coming up. A couple of petitions to investigate. The new Master and Junior Warden are supposed to be getting together an orientation programme for our new candidates to instruct them more about the degrees they’re taking.

Frankly, shouldn’t any or all of that be more of a priority for my Masonic concerns than some book of fiction, good or bad?

And can someone explain to me why some people think if a newspaper or TV station runs a story that a Masonic Lodge is doing the same charity work service clubs have been doing for decades, anyone will suddenly feel the need to rush to the phone and call to join the fraternity?

Haven’t they talked to petitioners? Haven’t petitioners told them what they’ve told me—they’re joining because of a high opinion of Freemasonry, based on people they know, not because of some fleeting piece of pop culture? (And “fleeting” describes the nature of much of pop culture. Does anyone still see daily stories about the lives of Rob and Amber any more?)

The First Degree working tool lecture concludes with the sentence “Knowledge, grounded on accuracy, aided by labour and sustained by perseverance...” Masons who have frothed themselves up into angst about a book should remember that. If they haven’t got the knowledge, they should acquire it by “conversing with well-informed brethren” about the fraternity so they can honestly and accurately answer questions prompted by the release of something in the literary world. Such knowledge isn’t an epiphany. It takes labour, and that takes wise use of time, which involves perseverance. If they’re able to speak “copiously and fluently” (as an American Masonic lecture states)—and truthfully—to a potential member or even a casually-interested family member or friend, what difference does a novel make? Won’t they then be able to elucidate on it, whether it’s favourable or unfavourable to the fraternity? And shouldn’t passing on that same knowledge to our new members, or calling a sick brother, or helping a friend in need, be a little more of a priority that wringing hands about what the media “might” say about us?

Or maybe it’s just me.

Will You Live Respected and Die Regretted?

2009-07-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

The Masonic blogosphere is almost its own little, tight world. There are a bunch of Masons who blog, many of whom either link to each other or read each others’ posts. At least they’ve probably all heard of each other.

The greater blogosphere is a huge world, full of a diverse range of subjects. Occasionally, someone out there will venture temporarily into the world of Freemasonry with a personal story. Unless you’re really hunting, anyone wrapped up in the Masonic blogosphere will miss it.

One of these posts is on a site called The Reluctant Paladin. Read it HERE. It relates a happily-concluded tale of a man who went on a mission of honour to find his great-grandfather’s Masonic-engraved headstone and rightfully return it to a proper place.

Besides the actual tale itself, what’s interesting about the post is there’s no judgment about Freemasonry. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s just there. It’s just a fact of life. And a small part of a very nice story. Yet the post in itself contains Masonic symbolism, quite unintentional, I’m sure.

Any Master Mason reading should see a Third Degree parallel of how the Mr. Paladin decided to “seek for that which was lost” and relocate something to a place of decent, esteemed interment.

The great-grandfather is like any Mason—“he lived respected and died regretted.” Better still, he is respected even in death, many years later. Isn’t that how we wish things to be after our time inevitably and unexpectly comes and the Supreme Architect and Builder of All reclaims us?

Letter It and Begin—F.O.R.E.

2009-07-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Mr. Freemasonry for Dummies has gone and done it. Chris Hodapp has spilled the truth. The shocking secret about Freemasonry has been revealed! No, I don’t mean in those Dummies books of his. I mean in a recent post on his web site where he linked to this picture:

It is a golf cart upon which rests a mysterious shiny pyramid with an all-seeing eye. Chris has revealed the hitherto secret connection between Freemasonry and golf. Seeing is believing, after all. Unless it’s been Photoshopped. And even then, some people will still believe it.

How can all this be just a coincidence? Look at the evidence!
• Masonic Lodges are blue. Golf courses have a green. Which is kind of like blue.
• Masonic Lodges have a letter ‘G’. You know what THAT means. Golf!
• Masonry loves the number three. A golf course has 18 holes. That’s 3 times 7 (another Masonic number) minus 3. And that’s not even considering a par three hole.
• Golf courses have a sand trap. The Shriners (who are all Masons) have a hot sands ceremony.
• There’s a golf tournament called ‘The Masters.’ Lodges have Worshipful Masters.
• Golf was invented in Scotland—the country that brought you Roslin Chapel which, as we all know, was where Masonry was invented by the Templars fleeing from France (or something like that).
• Make a bad swing or other mistake on the golf course, and you’ll hear complaining. Make a mistake in the ritual at a Lodge meeting, and you’ll hear Past Masters... well, you know the rest.
• Masonry has secret words that mean nothing in the outside world. Golf has something called a mashie niblick.
• Arnold Palmer is a Mason.

I could go on, but what more proof does one need?

The sad thing, it is proof to some people. There are those out there who take a bunch of things that may have some commonality—no matter how contrived—and somehow fashion it into definitive statements about Freemasonry. Thus we read silliness about ‘the Masonic dollar bill’ and ‘Masonic street patterns’ and how Freemasonry runs professions or even countries because some people involved happen to be Masons. Or were 200 years ago.

Tom ~~Acu~~ ~~Accou~~ However-it’s-Spelled once connected Freemasonry with the Wizard of Oz in a wonderful post that bears reading again and again.

If one really wants to, one can connect anything with anything else.

Masons do have one thing, however. The truth. And about all Freemasons can do is coherently express it to strike down misbeliefs. The ill-informed can be educated. Those who deliberately convolute logic to find nefariousness in a fraternity populated by an awful lot of senior citisens—well, they don’t want to be confused with the facts. They want to believe in their own little fantasy.

Now, about that “proof” that Kevin Bacon’s a Mason because there’s a game about Six Degrees...

The Living Trowel

2009-07-22T06:01:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about Freemasonry is being able to meet brothers from all over the world. Unfortunately, few Freemasons get the opportunity to travel to the four corners of the globe and visit in a Lodge in another country. A majority don’t even attend their own Lodge, but that’s another story.

It’s a little disheartening that an inanimate object has been to more Lodge meetings in more places that probably any Masons reading this have. But that describes the Travelling Trowel.

I first read about the trowel in the History of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia by J.T. Marshall. It originated with Justice Lodge No. 753 in New York and was dispatched with this admonition:

As the Trowel teaches all Master Masons that it is their duty to spread the cement of Brotherly Love and affection among the Craft, wherever and whenever opportunity offers, Justice Lodge No. 753, of the Eighth Masonic District, proposes to increase such opportunities by sending forth a SILVER TROWEL to journey among the brethren throughout the length and breadth of the land.

So it was the argentic tool bare a fond farewell to the sidewalks (and the rest) of New York in 1905 to begin its merry sojourn.

Just as Freemasonry cuts across national boundaries, in that members can be found around the globe, so the little trowel ignored national boundaries, too, and journeyed to Victoria, British Columbia on August 7, 1908, accompanied by a delegation from Lebanon No. 104 of Tacoma, Washington. It was received in a special ceremony at which Past Masters of various B.C. Lodges formed a “living trowel.” You can see their names by clicking on the picture of a similar trowel to the left; the best known is General Sir Arthur Currie.

A delegation of Victoria Masons helped the trowel on the next part of its voyage—to Oakland No. 188 in California on September 22, 1908.

Marshall’s history makes a reference to the trowel slowly making its way to the “Highest Hills and the Lowest Vales” in California. The book doesn’t outline much more than that, but I happened upon a story in the Imperial Valley Press, dated Saturday, March 6, 1909:

DIP TROWEL INTO SALTON SEA
Emblem of Unity Visits El Centro and Imperial Valley, Masons Escort it to Lowest Masonic Lodge in World.
The famous traveling trowel of Masonry, which is making its way around the world under escort from one Masonic jurisdiction to another, has reposed in El Centro’s Masonic Hall, has been viewed by the Masons of Imperial Valley, has been dipped with elaborate ceremonies into the Salton Sea, and is now on its journey eastward through Arizona.
About 250 persons participated in the excursion to Salton Sea last Sunday. The traveling trowel was brought to El Centro Saturday evening by an escort of Masons from Los Angeles, chief of whom were B. P. Spencer, Worthy Master of Southern California Lodge, No. 278, and custodian of the traveling trowel while it remained in the jurisdiction of Southern California; Motley H. Flint, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of California; H. W. Lewis, Past Master of Westgate Lodge, No. 3335; B. M. Power, Hollenbeck Lodge, No. 319; W. N. Blood, Highland Park Lodge, No. 382; J. C. Rommell, Sunset Lodge, No. 352; H. S. Jones and A. D. Bronson, Southern California Lodge, No. 275, and E.H. Dickinson, of Tyrian Lodge, Gloucester, Massachusetts.
The party was met by a reception committee of local Masons and was quartered at the Hotel Oregon. Saturday night the traveling trowel was placed in state in the El Centro Masonic Hall and a session of the lodge was attended by Masons from all points of the Valley. After the lodge session a banquet was served.
Early Sunday morning the visiting party were taken by local Masons in automobiles to Calexico, where the excursion train for Salton Sea was started.
Short stops were made at Imperial and Brawley, where the trowel was placed in the Masonic Halls for inspection by the brethren, and the train then proceeded to the Station of Durmid, almost on the northerly line between Imperial and Riverside counties. At this point the ceremonies of dipping the trowel into the sea took place.
After a picnic lunch on the beach, Custodian E. B. Spencer performed the ceremony with appropriate ritual, assisted by the Grand Lodge officers, and several short addresses were given. Some time was spent at the Salt Creek Trestle, where the fish are a great attraction, and late in the afternoon the trip back to Imperial Valley was made without special incident.
From this point the trowel went to Arizona, to be turned over to the custody of officers of the Grand Lodge of that jurisdiction.
The sojourn of the trowel at Brawley was unique In that at this point it reposed at the lowest Masonic lodge in the world, it being 126 feet below sea level. Only a short time before, the trowel was in the care of the lodge at the top of Mount Lowe.

The fact a highlight for Grand Lodge officers was staring at some fish that were not clothed in tartar sauce gives you an indication how the world has changed in 100 years.

The shiny trowel travelled over 20,000 miles, was solemnly put to labour at the laying of the cornerstone for the George Washington Masonic Memorial in 1923, and finally returned home to the proverbial hero’s welcome at Justice Lodge later that year. It is now in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of New York.

Masons are on a journey, too. It is not an easy one—it certainly wasn’t as easy travelling from Canada to California in 1908 as it is today. But it is a journey filled with rewards, in this life and in the life to come. And like the little trowel which was accompanied by members of the Craft, so are we to accompany our brothers in their journey through life. We should do it when possible and if necessary, through kind and thoughtful words and actions, with the goal of helping them be better men so as to make this world a better place.

The trowel which was assisted on its way by members of “the living trowel” still has a living message for Masons today.

Walter Cronkite Was My Brother

2009-07-17T21:33:00.000-07:00

There have been many tributes in the media to the late Walter Cronkite, a man whose integrity has never been questioned, except maybe by a few unsavoury individuals years ago who felt their spin should be universally acknowledged, accepted and regurgitated without question.

This eulogy may be slightly different, for while members of the mainstream media will feel a kinship with one of the last of the TV journalistic giants, your humble blogger feels even more so. For while I am Justa Mason, I am also Justa DeMolay. And while Walter Cronkite was not a Freemason, he was a DeMolay. An active one in his Chapter, at that.

‘Uncle Walter’ was born in St. Joseph, Missouri and moved to Houston, Texas at the age of ten. It was in Houston Chapter he joined Frank Land’s fraternity for boys and promised to “be faithful to every trust committed to me” as millions of others have done. He had a one-line tale about his membership (in what he termed “DeMolay...the junior Masonic order”) in his autobiography A Reporter’s Life. He reported:

“I am one of that number who have an aversion to the slightest hint of regimentation...evident when...I steadfastly marched north while the rest of the fellows reversed smartly and marched south, thus costing our DeMolay drill team a state championship.”

Whether coincidence or an indication of something greater, it should be noted that two of Cronkite’s TV contemporaries—Chet Huntley and John Cameron Swayze—were DeMolays. So was Elmer Lower, the one-time president of ABC News. And on the radio news side, there was commentator Paul Harvey, who passed away earlier this year.

On a smaller scale, I work in a newsroom with two Senior DeMolays. One of them gave me my first office (Fifth Preceptor) some $@#%+* years ago. (Hmm. How did that garble get there?)

I’d like to tell you more about Cronkite’s DeMolay history. To do so, I’ve gone to the web page for the DeMolay Hall of Fame. I can find a guy barred from the Baseball Hall of Fame for gambling. There’s another with at least two drunk driving convictions who pleaded no contest to the same charge this year. And I’ll avoid comment about another entrant lest I be accused of having some kind of U.S. political bias or agenda. But there’s nothing about the Most Trusted Man in America.

Perhaps it’s an oversight. I simply cannot believe Walter Cronkite has been omitted from the DeMolay Hall of Fame.

If he has been so honoured, I would hope the people at DeMolay International would add something to the Hall of Fame Page. If he has not been inducted, the formerly-known-as I.S.C. should rectify the situation forthwith. For DeMolay should be paying tribute to one of its own, just as saddened news reporters around the world have been doing since word of his death.

Walter Cronkite was my Brother. I only hope I can be worthy of it.

Ignorance—Or Is it Our Fault?

2009-07-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

You might have seen this story on the web. Lodge of Lautoka No. 3354 E.C., the subject of the disturbance, apparently meets in temporary premises at the Tokatoka Hotel, close to Nadi Airport.

NZ Mason jailed over sorcery claims
A New Zealand man spent a "wretched" night in a Fiji prison cell after frightened residents and police raided his Freemasons meeting, suspecting witchcraft and sorcery.
The man, who didn't want to be named, blamed "dopey village people" for the raid in which 14 members of the Freemasons Lodge of Lautoka were herded into police cars and jailed for the night.
Police also seized lodge paraphernalia, including wands, compasses and a skull.
(Photo / Rotorua Daily Post)

Read the rest here.

As a side-note, a radio station here in Justa Land broadcast a condensed version of the story, and the following exchange went something like this:

Host 1: You know, I perform sorcery at every Lodge meeting I’m at.
Host 2: Really?
Host 1: Sure. I read the minutes and the members magically fall asleep.

Not-ready-for-Vegas humour notwithstanding, I was struck with the thought of how ignorant the villagers are at the centre of the story. Freemasonry’s been on Fiji since some time in the 19th Century; a couple of founding members of my Lodge were apparently members of a Lodge in Suva at one time over 100 years ago. How can anyone, therefore, not know a little bit about the fraternity, especially in a small village where, presumably, people know their neighbours?

This is not an isolated incident in Fiji. The Lodge Hall in Levuka was burned down by Lovoni villagers during the 2000 coup. Apparently some people believed there were various tunnels running underneath the building, including one going through the centre of the Earth to the Masonic headquarters in Scotland. Lodge Polynesia No.562 S.C. now meets in Suva.

But, then again, misconceptions are not found only a small village in the South Pacific, are they? It doesn’t take more than a couple of seconds to go on-line and find ridiculous conspiracy theories and asinine talk about Baphomet and “Freemasonry is the tool of the Devil” coming from right here in North America where Lodges have been part of the local landscape since the 1730s.

One can chatter on about “Freemasonry needs to be more open” and use the tired buzz-phrase “society with secrets.” But the fact of the matter is Freemasonry is pretty open. If it weren’t, this blog, countless on-line forums, Grand Lodge websites and Dummies/Idiots books wouldn’t exist.

But some people seem to have a need to believe there’s some secret conspiracy going on around them. One that’s linked to the government. One that’s linked to Satan. They need to have a scapegoat. They need to have a bogeyman. So they take snippets of Masonic writings, ages-old made-up nonsense and use the working tools of paranoia to fashion it into some kind of “proof” Freemasonry is evil.

Is that ignorance on their part? Or ours?

I see Chris Hodapp’s blog has picked up the news story, and the respected Mark Koltko-Rivera has made the following comment on it:

Clearly, (1) the folks in Fiji do no better than (2) the typical American evangelical anti-Mason when it comes to not being able to distinguish between (A) ritual objects used for symbolic purposes and (b) the paraphernalia of sorcery.

Mark’s comment really begs a question: does the average person understand the concept of “ritual objects used for symbolic purposes”?

Most of the people I know aren’t Masons. They drive to and from work, they hang out with their kids, watch TV or sports events, go the store or the pub, and indulge in the many mundane facets of day-to-day life. They don’t go around performing a ceremony with a skull pretending it means something else. How can they be expected to know what that’s about when someone else does it?

Is that ignorance on their part? Or ours?

A couple of weeks ago, a woman came by our Masonic hall with a view of renting it for a function. I was introduced to her as “one of the Masons here.” The woman then said: “I saw The Da Vinci Code and the new movie. It’s like that, right?” I had to explain to her the films were a work of fiction.

Is that ignorance on her part? Or ours?

Perhaps it boils down to this:

Years ago, many people could say they had a Mason in their immediate family. He would trundle off with his apron to a meeting, not really saying what he was doing. But he didn’t really need to. The man’s character spoke for him. And because of that Freemasonry was respected. We still hear echoes of this today from young men whose grandfathers were Freemasons and they want to join because of how highly they thought of their grandfather.

Because of the decades-long decline in Masonic membership, a lot of people aren’t exposed to Masons up close. So they don’t know anything about it.

Few (other than nutbars) would think there was some kooky Masonic conspiracy going on if their father or grandfather or best friend was a member of it. And, if that Mason could explain it to others. Knowledge begets knowledge.

I mentioned the radio newscast a little earlier. After the exchange, there was an off-the-air comment:

Host 2: I really don’t know what you do at your meetings.

Is that ignorance on their part? Or ours?

What Really Goes on at Masonic Meetings?

2009-07-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-04T23:15:00.001-07:00

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?

2009-06-16T12:57:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

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. Mt. 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

2009-06-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-05-29T08:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Death in a Lodge Room

2009-05-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

“Remember to perform your allotted task while it is yet day, remembering the night cometh, the best and wisest of us know not how soon, in which no work can be done.”

So the newly-raised Master Mason is told during a vivid ceremony. Over the years, a far more dramatic example of that lesson has, occasionally and quite unexpectedly, been exhibited in the tyled recesses of the Lodge than what is contained in the ritual.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of a rare, but unfortunate, event. This story is from the Chicago Tribune of May 29, 1909.

MASON DIES DURING CEREMONY IN WASHINGTON CHAPTER HALL.
Robert E. Law Stricken by Apoplexy in Temple and Expires Despite Immediate Medical Aid.
Robert E. Law, one of the best known Masons in the state and one of the officials of the organization in Chicago, dropped dead last night during the initiatory ceremonies of Washington chapter No. 43, Royal Arch Masons, which were being held in the lodge rooms on the eighteenth floor of the Masonic Temple.
Mr. Law, who was a past high priest of the chapter, had started to leave the lodge room in company with several friends, when he threw up his hands and fell to the floor. His fellow members lifted him in their arms and carried him to a couch in the parlors. It was thought he had only fainted.
Dr. R.T. Johnson, who was present at the lodge meeting, hurried to the stricken man’s side and applied restoratives, but he died within a few minutes.
The widow of Mr. Law was notified at her home, 107 South Austin avenue, of her husband’s sudden death. The shock caused her to collapse. Physicians were called in to attend to her and it is said her condition is serious.
Mr. Law formerly was connected with the wholesale leather business. He was 50 years old and had been retired several years.
He was past master of the Thomas J. Turner lodge, AF & AM; past high priest of the Washington chapter, and a prominent member of the Shrine. He also was a thirty-second degree Mason.

I have not had the shocking experience of being in a Lodge room when one of our members has met with death. But I’ve heard of it happening locally during my 25 years as a Freemason. Twice, death came to the presiding officer of the Chapter of Rose Croix during a meeting. There was also the demise of Arthur Delamont of Meridian Lodge No. 108, known to the non-Masonic world as the popular and loved leader of the Kitsilano Boys Band. He had just finished giving the Address to the Worshipful Master at his Lodge’s installation when he fell dead of a heart attack. And my mind is a little fuzzy on the exact circumstances, but the Secretary of one local Lodge passed away—if I remember correctly—during the raising of one of his sons.

Then there was the case of Bill Tyre, who became a Mason in Scotland in 1910 and was still going strong in my Mother Lodge when I became a member in 1983. He was an Honorary Past Grand Master, a 33° member of the Scottish Rite, Secretary of the Royal Order of Scotland for several decades, and so on. On a Tuesday afternoon in 1986 he, as usual, sauntered into the Lodge Hall restaurant to have his lunch. He was hanging up his coat when he dropped to the floor. A paramedic who happened to be there couldn’t revive him. Bill was dead of coronary failure at age 98.

The sad irony is the room where he died had been named in his honour only a few months before.

So let this anniversary of W. Bro. Law’s farewell to his earthly journey remind us of the lesson of the 24-inch gauge—to use our time wisely and beneficially to our fellow man during our own pilgrimage from east to west, for the Grand Leveller could fell us at any moment, and we can do more but leave our reputation behind.

Masonic Livestock

2009-05-28T03:53:00.001-07:00

For years, jokes have made the rounds about new initiates riding a Masonic goat. Masons who inflict such talk on prospective members are misguided at best, but that’s a topic for another post.

Much to my surprise, it appears there’s a different kind of livestock connected with Freemasonry—the humble cow.

The story is told in part of a recent Washington Post article on Masonic charity (which actually deals mostly with Scottish Rite and Shrine charity). You can go here to read the full article, but I’ll repost the tale (or is it ‘tail’?) Brent Morris gives about the cow because I find it interesting:

A woman doing her dissertation on Freemasonry in federalist Connecticut came across an odd item in the Masons’ list of holdings: a cow.
“Why would a Masonic lodge have a cow? That was odd. So she researched, and it turns out that a member of the lodge died and left a widow and two children,” Mr. Morris explains.
In those days, Calvinists dominated Connecticut, and one of the tenets of Calvinist theology was that material success reflected on a person's state of grace. Someone who relied on charity had fallen out of God’s favor.
“So the lodge bought a cow. And they didn’t give the cow to the woman”—that would be charity, after all—“they kept the cow. But they said, ‘Would you take care of the cow for us? Now, you’ll have to milk the cow every day, and every spring you’ll have a calf. If you don’t mind the hassle of the calf and the milk every day, then we’d appreciate if you’d look after our cow for us.’”

Perhaps the most surprising part of this article is this special Masonic cow annually procreates on its own. But, then again, there’s not supposed to be any bull in Lodge.

Charity, Masonry and Radio

2009-05-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

It is said that a Masonic Lodge meeting consists of old guys arguing about nothing important for an hour, then repeating it all over again at the next meeting.

In some Lodges, there may be a bit of truth behind that cynicism. But it certainly can’t describe all Lodges through time immemorial. Let’s take, for example, a gala night organised by a Lodge in California in 1933.

This wasn’t a great time for Masonry. Lodges were regretfully suspending members who wanted to pay dues, but had little income for luxuries like a fraternity. But it was a great time for a new industry—radio. It started with amateurish, unpaid local talent in the 1920s, but sponsorship soon allowed stations to pay bigger names to come on the airwaves. Stations joined together to form networks and the pooled resources started attracting the top names of dying vaudeville.

And so it was someone got the idea of combining Masonry and radio in a big extravaganza to help those who were trying to live day-to-day in a Depression. A committee was formed in Eagle Rock Lodge in Los Angeles to organise a Radio Artists Revue, featuring the top talent in local radio, with money going to Masonic charities.

A little more involved than endless discussions about what kind of food to have at meetings, isn’t it?

A squib appeared in the Los Angeles Times of October 26, 1933, announcing the Revue would be held at the Shrine Auditorium on Saturday, November 4. On the 29th, the paper revealed stars from almost every station had agreed to take part. On the 1st, the Times announced Masonic orders from cities of Southern California would be sending delegates. The following day, the paper mentioned obsolete radio sets were being exchanged for tickets.

Here’s what the paper wrote on the day of the event:

MASONS OFFER REVUE IN SHRINE
Eagle Rock Lodge's Program Will Not Be Broadcast
Headliners of Ether Waves to Appear "in Person"
BY CARROLL NYE
An imposing array of radio stars will congregate at Shrine Auditorium this evening to present the Radio Artists Revue of 1933 under the auspices of the Eagle Rock Masonic Lodge. Naylor Rogers is, chairman of the affair, Tom Brenneman [sic], vice-chairman, and J. Howard Johnson, production manager. Among the on the bill are Raymond Paige, Charlie Hamp, Calmon Luboviski, Claire Mellonino, Elvia Allman, Helen Guest, Jose Arias, Lawrence King, Joseph Diskay, members of the Happy Go Lucky Gang, stars of the Gilmore Circus, and many others.
CHARITIES AIDED
Proceeds will be used for Masonic charities. The event will not be broadcast. Raymond Paige is the headliner of the current N.R.A. Radio Show which originates at KHJ and is broadcast by all stations at 9 p.m.

You may be wondering where all the “stars” are. When you think of the Golden Days of Radio, you think of Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Amos and Andy and so on. Remember this was 1933 and the big stars were still in New York and Chicago; the cost of broadcasting from California in those phone-circuit days was prohibitive. But the names you see were among the cream of L.A. radio. To fill you in about some of them:
• Naylor Rogers was the vice-president and General Manager of KNX.
• Charlie Hamp and his ‘One Man Show’ appeared on KNX.
• Calmon Luboviski (violinist) and Claire Mellonino (pianist) had a concert music show on KNX.
• Helen Guest was a pianist on KFI.
• José Arias led a Mexican orchestra known as “The Spanish Serenaders.”
• Lawrence King, tenor, was nicknamed “The Romeo of Song” on KNX.
• Joseph Diskay was billed as a Hungarian tenor on KNX.
• The Happy Go Lucky Gang appeared on KHJ.

Three names on the list I recognise, and one of them should be familiar even if you don’t know the name.

Raymond Paige was one of a number of orchestra leaders in the 1930s who had a late-night network music show. He began his career as an usher at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and later became its conductor. He led the Pittsburgh Symphony and was musical director at Radio City Music Hall in New York when he died in 1965. I haven’t found out if he was a Freemason.

At one time, there was a quintessential morning show called Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club. But before Don McNeill, there was Tom Breneman, who had a morning programme on the fledgling ABC network. He started in Los Angeles radio in 1927 and at the time of the benefit, he had just moved over to KFWB. Breneman’s Breakfast at Sardi’s began in 1941; he opened his own restaurant across from the ABC studios four years later and moved his show there. He was a favourite of housewives and joked about their hats on the air as he put on a goofy one for his audience (yeah, I know, who’d see it on radio?). Breneman was a Mason; newspaper stories mention he received a Masonic funeral when he died of a heart attack in 1948, only age 46. Breneman may not be famous today, but he certainly was at the time of death. Among his honorary pallbearers were some of the top names in radio, including Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante.

But my favourite name on the list is that of Elvia Allman. She had begun her radio career in 1926 and her ability at dialects quickly led her to bigger and bigger things. She was one of a handful of character actresses who made their way around all the comedy shows, playing regular characters on some of them. Allman’s distinctive voice could be heard as man-hungry Cobina on The Bob Hope Show and she appeared with, well, with seemingly all the top comedians. She went into television and was in one of the most famous comedy scenes in the Golden Age of Television as the foreman of a candy making assembly line shouting at Lucy and Ethel as they made chocolates. I first saw her as Elverna Bradshaw on The Beverly Hillbillies and could recognise her voice when I was a kid. I was easily able to hear her in cartoons like ‘I Wanna Be a Sailor’ as the mother parrot and, as it turns out, she lent her voice to a number of Warner Bros. cartoons in the mid 1930s and later at Disney.

Her involvement in this radio revue made me wonder if she was possibly a member of the Eastern Star. Lo and behold, her marker at the crematorium where her remains were placed looks like this (courtesy of findagrave.com):

So there’s some kind of Masonic connection in her family. Which is cool, because I still laugh at her work. And it’s neat when other interests (cartoons and old radio shows) intersect with Freemasonry. Incidentally, she wasn’t married to Baylor when she appeared in the Revue; he was her third husband.

There’s no follow-up story in the Times to say if the event was a success and how much it raised; perhaps that can be found in the Grand Lodge of California proceedings of the day.

One wonders whether Lodge members could, or would, organise such an event today. After all, so much time is spent in Lodge these days discussing more important things than charity. Right?

Petitioners, Knowledge and Commitment

2009-04-20T01:02:00.000-07:00

What questions does a prospective Mason need to answer?

So reads a note in Justa’s Ask-it-Basket from a reader in Libby, Montana.

The answer boils down to the word “need.” If “need” means “required,” that should easily be found in one’s Grand Lodge Book of Constitution and on the investigation committee form.

But if “need” means “should” be able to answer, that’s a whole other story. And one that’s probably a lot more valuable to both the Lodge and the petitioner.

Within the last few days, several Masons have mentioned to me there should be a more rigorous examination of applications for initiation. And I don’t mean credit or background checks; if someone’s shady on either count, they shouldn’t get a petition in the first place. What I think they “should” be able to answer is questions surrounding their knowledge of the fraternity and the commitment that membership entails.

KNOWLEDGE
While more people seem to be trying to get information about the Craft from Masonic forums, blogs and/or Lodge/Grand Lodge websites, or by buying Freemason Dummies or Idiots books (not enough for the authors’ liking, I imagine) there are still men knocking on the door of the Lodge with no clue about what they’re getting into. So it’s probably fair to ask the petitioner:
• Why do you want to be a Mason?
• What do you understand/not understand about Freemasonry?
• Where have you gotten information about the fraternity?
• What is the most attractive part of the Masonic philosophy to you?
• What experience do you have in learning through symbols?

I’ve met with candidates who can not specifically state, let alone articulate, their reason for petitioning to become a Mason. They’ll remark that it’s because of some kind of “feeling” which makes them “attracted” to Freemasonry but know not why. Still others have reasons that really involve no knowledge of the Craft at all, like “my grandfather was a member” or “I want to connect with the past.”

I’ve known candidates to go through their First Degree not understanding a whiff of what happened. At best, they’re confused. At worst, they misunderstand what happened and, as a result, they’re shocked. A whole bunch of “God and Bible talk” was sprung on them. They thought they were coming into a fraternity, not a church. All the “feelings” and dead Masonic relatives in the world aren’t going to keep them as members.

They’re outta here.

There’s a little primer on what Freemasonry is and isn’t on this web site. It’s important for a candidate to know both. It’s important for a candidate to understand that parts of the fraternity’s ceremonies are religious-based but Freemasonry’s not a religion. The difference should be explained. It certainly can be done without going into great specifics about the degrees themselves.

COMMITMENT
There are really two types of commitment. One involves self-improvement. The other involves the nuts-and-bolts operation of the Lodge. While in the Grand Scheme of Life the former is the more important, it is the latter one that gets most of the attention. After all, many Lodges are hurting for officers and a petitioner can pretty well expect to be asked to participate in the affairs of the Lodge. And if he’s any good at doing that, he’ll be shoved into an office faster than you can say “Hey, Junior Steward, get me a beer!”

Of the former type of commitment, the candidate should be able to answer:
• How much time are you willing to make to study the meaning of the fraternity?
• What practical things can you do to be a better person to your fellow creatures?

Commitment to being an active member is pretty basic:
• Will you attend meetings and other functions?
• Can you pay your annual fees?
• Is there any family objection to membership?
• Are you willing and able to labour as an Entered Apprentice and Fellow Craft by learning X amount of memory work by certain specified deadlines?
• Where do you see yourself in life five years from now? Is your life stable enough that you won’t suddenly vanish in six months because of work or family commitments?

Some versions of the ceremonies have a Charge that, more or less, reminds a new member that Freemasonry should not interfere with one’s personal obligations. But a Lodge has to weigh whether it’s beneficial to confer a degree on someone who isn’t going to fraternise with his brothers because he wants to spend time with his kids or is always working late. A Lodge may have to consider that now may not be a good time for that petitioner to join.

One Mason in England told me once his Lodge’s members want to know something else of a petitioner:
• Are you a leader? If so, what kind?

His Lodge interviews each petitioner with the idea the applicant will be Master in five or so years. The members want to find out if he’s capable of being one.

Oh, about those “We need to be a lot more careful about who we let in” statements I’ve been hearing. Frankly, I think Lodges generally have been careful and not irresponsible. People sponsor their buddies sincerely believing they’ll make good members. Lodge members trust the word of their brother Masons who are sponsors; if you can’t believe a Mason, who can you believe? And I have met candidates who don’t know an awful lot about the fraternity but have turned out to be excellent Masons, both in and out of the Lodge room. However, it certainly can’t hurt to ensure our potential candidates can answer a little more than trite, basic questions about Masonic membership. It can’t hurt them or our Lodges, either. We’ll all know each other a little better before those Three Distinct Knocks are heard.

The Purpose of the Symbols of the First Degree

2009-04-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

Quite a number of people land on this web site after hunting with specific terms in search engines. A number have recently been looking for material specifically on the First Degree. I’m not sure what exactly they’re trying to find. There are no secrets here, no degree catechisms, no ritual—in fact, all of those vary around the Masonic world.

I like saying Freemasonry is a fraternity that uses the tools of the stonemason as symbols to remind us to be better people. But that definition is not actually complete.

Freemasonry uses three types of symbols in the First Degree—physical, biblical and numerical.

The physical tools are those involved in building, and how they remind us to be a better man. The 24-inch gauge reminds us not to waste our time; that time is there for a purpose. The gavel, being a tool of labour, reminds us to labour diligently to be better. The northeast corner, where the workman traditionally starts the construction of any building, symbolise the start of constructing ourselves to be more thoughtful and intelligent using Masonic principles. The white apron, used by a builder to keep his clothes clean, reminds to keep our thoughts and actions as clean and pure as that colour and that of the origin of the apron’s material, which is a symbol within a symbol.

Biblical symbols revolve around mainly around King Solomon’s Temple. They partly relate to the first set of symbols. Like a stonemason of old constructing what may have been the most famous building in arguably the most famous book in history, so we as Freemasons are building character. We learn of strength of resolve from the pillar at the left side of the entrance to the Temple. We are told a Masonic Lodge room itself is a place for a holy purpose, as it is deliberately situated in the same direction as the Temple and other less stately places of worship. Granted, a Lodge room does not have the exact same purpose as a church, but the symbolism reminds us we have a duty to follow our Creator by the rules he has given to us. Those rules are symbolised by the sacred book in the Lodge room; the Book is a symbol of an individual’s religious beliefs. We hear of three Grand Masters of the Old Testament involved in the construction of the Temple, though their biographies in our ceremonies are not altogether Biblical but legendary, designed to teach lessons of character. Jacob’s ladder should remind us we are on a journey, a difficult journey as the path is not an easy horizontal stroll, but a climb higher and higher, a task of some effort, using rungs representing the virtues we should exemplify in our lives, mainly faith, hope and charity as found in 1 Corinthians 13:13. When our journey is complete we arrive at our destination, our reward in a life yet to come symbolised by the starry skies or heavens, a reward defined by one’s own faith, for Freemasonry does not define it; that is not for Freemasonry to do.

The symbolism of numbers in Freemasonry can be vague. Indeed, it’s almost left to the Mason, young and old, to ponder, as the meaning of the numbers themselves is not altogether defined in the First Degree, though some definitions are revealed later. The number three is prominent—and prominent at the very start of our ceremony. The would-be Mason gives three distinct knocks at the door before entering. There are three great pillars—Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty. There are three great lights—The Volume of the Sacred Law, square and compasses, making them physical symbols within a numerical one. There are three lesser lights, three principal officers of the Lodge and three assistant officers, three all-important duties—to God, your neighbour and yourself. Some versions of our ceremonies have three working tools; older rituals speak of three methods of serving—with freedom, fervency and zeal. Many more examples can, and should, be found by a studious Mason.

The number is four is less prominent. There are four cardinal virtues. There is the square-shaped apron with its four corners. The Lodge room has four corners, just as we used to hear about the four corners of the globe. And we can also find the number two, sometimes in terms of polar opposites. The chequered pavement is black and white. We can view the rough and perfect ashlars, which symbolise a goal of change from having an unpolished mind to becoming well-educated. Some ceremonies talk of Lodges formerly meeting on high hills and in low dales. There are two pillars at the entrance to King Solomon’s Temple, reminders of the escape of the Israelites from Egypt—a pillar to represent accomplishing a goal, the other to represent preventing one.

Why three? Why four? Why two? Is the existence of these numbers in our ceremonies a mere coincidence? Or have they a deeper hidden meaning, as they did in some ancient philosophies? As such is not outlined in the ceremonies, and as many feel not all our symbols are dogmatic, license is taken to find meaning to these them as part of life’s Masonic journey of self-awareness and self-improvement. For example, one can easily see numbers as an aspect of the Platonic solids, which relate to geometry, used in building structures such as Temples. As Freemasons are builders, one can make an indirect connection between our fraternity and the philosophy of Plato. Numbers were deemed sacred in many parts of the world, such as amongst the Chinese and Mayans. And like Freemasonry, religions and old philosophies speak of polar opposites—heaven and hell in the Christian faith and the yin and yang of classical Chinese thought to name two. None of this means Freemasonry descended from any of these—we’ll never know where it really originated—but it shows a deep commonality with cultures of character improvement in times long past.

Perhaps these ancient echoes are what have attracted the scholarly and philosophically-minded to Freemasonry—though some esoterically-inclined individuals have complained our symbols are too rudimentary, as if they wish complex dogmatic interpretations instead of the freedom of labouring to discover meanings on their own. Nevertheless, the First Degree reminds us that becoming a Freemason is beginning the start of a purposeful and laborious trek down a path adorned with symbols, a path well-trod by countless others through the ages, to a place no living being has yet discovered.

How Do We Run This Lodge, Anyway?

2009-04-13T02:28:00.001-07:00

You know all those grousing Past Masters? The ones who aren’t happy with the ritual, argue over petty things, won’t spend money and think what was good enough for 1961 is good enough for today. Those guys.

Suppose they all dropped dead tomorrow.

Oh, I know what you’re thinking. Squares and compasses across the globe would clang together in unified happiness. Mosaic pavements the world over would brightly flash in rapturous colours. There’d be exuberant dancing on the altars in our Lodge rooms. Okay, maybe not the last one (which happened after a DeMolay installation once, but that’s another story).

Yes, you can hear it, can’t you?

“Now we can do what we want!” joyously says one Mason with sundry piercings in sundry localities best left unseen. “We’ll get this ratty old Hall fixed,” cheerfully adds another with a large skull tattooed on his back. “And we’ll have lots of esoteric discussion, because that’s really what Masonry is, not that crappy cold coffee after meetings,” elatedly opines a third with sundry piercings and a large skull tattoo.

There’s a bit of truth amidst the poetic license, and Masonic Lodges are starting to see it more and more. For many years, some of our Lodges have been kept alive by those old ruffled grouses. Petitions were few and far between—the ruffling sometimes chased away new Masons—so the same guys who joined lo those many years ago kept revolving through the chairs year after year because few new people came to take their place.

That’s changing now. You’ve no doubt seen hither and yon on the web how “things are picking up” and young men of sterling character are attracted to the principles of Freemasonry which, dry spells notwithstanding, have attracted the same kind of men through the generations.

But there’s a problem.

Death doesn’t stop to differentiate between birds, grouse or any other. Nor does Death when it comes to humans, grouse or any other. So not only are Lodges losing those who seem to be endlessly complaining, they’re also losing the great, inspirational old Masons, the kind and knowledgeable ones to look up to and emulate if we only knew how.

The problem is Lodges are suddenly being left without many active older members. And because the boom generation generally didn’t join, they’re not in the Lodge either. So that leaves a lot of young Masons who, though they may have enthusiasm and ideas, haven’t the faintest idea how to put them into action. They wonder about correct protocol and ceremony because they have pride and want to do it right. And they wonder who to look up to, who to go to.

They ask “How do we run this Lodge anyway?” And there’s no one to answer.

There isn’t much one can do about the impending and inevitable arrival of Grand Leveller of Human Greatness. But one local District Deputy decided to address the knowledge gap. Being “young and progressive” (a term in Freemasonry meaning “under 60”) he held a seminar on how a Lodge can handle the transition from one generation to another.

Not only were all the Lodges in his District represented, there were 17 Master Masons and Fellow Crafts and 19 Masters or Past Masters. There was a good balance. The oldest participant was over 90 and has been a Mason since about the end of World War Two.

The District Deputy tells me he was really pleased with the event, as it brought forth a whole pile of discussion and addressed something Lodges generally don’t address. One of my Lodges was told by the District Deputy it was “one bike accident away from disaster” because of the paucity of knowledgeable Past Masters.

So, the seminar is something that your District might want to try. Exchanging ideas never hurts a Lodge.

Oh, by the way, before you start dancing on the altar, let me mention about a Lodge I know where there was an hour-plus discussion on “proper” spending of money. And I don’t think anyone in the room was over 40. Death knows no age. Neither does grousing.

A Short Masonic Look at Cuba—In Pictures

2009-03-18T01:11:00.000-07:00

Someone remarked somewhere—and you can’t get a much more accurate source that that, can you?—that the bulk of Masonic research these days is being done by non-Masons. Cynics might remark Masons don’t have time for research because they’re too busy arguing over what kind of sandwiches to have after the meeting, but I digress.

A (non-argumentative) Past Master of one of my Lodges called the other day and told me about a fellow interested in Freemasonry. The P.M. was in the Eastern Star with this fellow’s aunt, who just passed away last week. The fellow and I have had a chat on the phone and, even though he’s not a Mason, he revealed he’s been photographing Masonic Lodge buildings. And not just any buildings. His pictures are of Lodge Halls in Cuba. And he’s posted a bunch on the internet.

No, these weren’t taken before Fidel Castro gave up his dream of hurling fastballs with the last-place Washington Senators and turned his attention to other mundane things. Canadian tourists still visit Cuba regularly. And, as surprising as it sounds, tourists take pictures. Even in (gasp!) “Communist Cuba.”

It stuns some American brothers that Freemasonry and Communism can co-exist. After all, Commies are the bad guys who want to take away everyone’s freedoms, right? Wasn’t that the point of the Cold War, after all? Setting aside politics, let it be said Freemasonry has survived numerous tribulations on the lovely island nation (including dueling Grand Lodges in the 19th century) and continues today.

I’ve been meaning to post photos of Masonic items I’ve found hither and yon on the web, but the forementioned conversation has given me an excuse. Our brief travelogue begins amidst the plaintive cry of pelican in wind-swept Santa Fe, a fishing village west of Havana. Observe the rays from the all-seeing eye in the tympanum (the triangular area in the pediment).

This is the entrance to the Masonic cemetery in South Havana. Notice the cadena de la fraternidad. I don’t know how many graveyards in the world are exclusively Masonic (as opposed to Masonic sections of cemeteries) but there is one just outside Vancouver.

Lodge Dignity and Virtue works from this building in Viñales and is the only Lodge which meets there. The bust left of the entrance is of José Martí, the Cuba poet and patriot, and chiseled beneath are his words about the purposes of the mysteries of the Masonic Order. Unfortunately, the photo does not take in the full quotation. At least three Lodges in Cuba are named for Martí, and another is named Discípulos de Martí.

And another building sadly in need of paint is in Bahía Honda, about 70 kilometres west of Havana. General Narciso López was another Cuba nationalist, who apparently became a Freemason in Georgia. Many Lodges on the island are named for patroits—and not just Cuban ones. There are Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin Lodges in Havana, while Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lodge works in Central Haiti, Camagüey.

The photos by Robin Thom are on Flickr, and you can find his whole Cuban Masonic picture album HERE. The link will take you to photos of Cuban Masonic sites by others. Especially interesting are those snapped by another individual of the inside of a Masonic Temple in Banes belonging to Logia Hijos de Oriente (Children of the East), which is a really cool name for a Lodge.

Again, Robin is not a Freemason. His late grandfather was, and his grandmother was in Vancouver Chapter No. 2 of the Eastern Star (not exactly a cool name, but at least it’s appropriate).

By the way, the web page of a Lodge on another island—Vancouver Island—has a little pictorial look at a member’s trip to Cuba and more fascinating pictures of Lodge rooms. Go HERE to the site for Malahat Lodge in Mill Bay, north of Victoria.

As the sun sinks slowly in the west and we wave a forlorn farewell to the picturesque palms of the scenic sun-drenched land of lilting sugar cane, let me mention that a number of brothers in one of my Lodges have visited Cuba and met with Masons there. There’s a programme in my Grand Lodge—and in the Grand Lodge of Canada in Ontario—where old, useable Master Mason aprons are donated and sent to the Gran Logia in Havana to give to needy members (see photo to the right from Flickr of Ontarians with a Cuban brother). As you can tell by the pictures of the run-down buildings, Cuban Lodges aren’t wealthy and don’t have spare cash for regalia. I’ve been told of how Cuban brothers have broken down crying over the generosity of Canadian Masons in providing them with their own personal Masonic badge of lambskin. Masons I know have seen the tears of amor fraternal themselves—and you can’t get a much more accurate source that that, can you?

Say, Maybe We DO Run Hollywood! (Or did)

2009-03-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

If you go through those lists of famous Masons, you’ll see a roll-call of Tinseltown types who were permitted to knock on the door of the fraternity. But I’ve stumbled across references to Freemasons and Freemasonry in Hollywood in the most unexpected places, and I’m going to share a couple.

I’m a fan of Hollywood’s Golden Age of Animation, when truly creative minds, hands and voices came up with some of the funniest comedy you’ll find anywhere. Yes, voices. Mel Blanc documents his Masonic and Shrine membership in his autobiography. While Walter Lantz, whose Woody Woodpecker cartoons were released by Universal, was not a Mason, Universal’s founder Carl Laemmle was—and Lantz’s autobiography has the picture you see on the right of Laemmle and the King of Jazz, Paul Whiteman, full of Shriney splendour.

Recently, someone has posted old editions of Boxoffice magazine at Issuu.com. Out of curiosity, I decided to check to see if there were any Masonic references. I haven’t gone through all 38 pages of them, but have spotted a couple I thought I’d pass on.

Herb Yates was the founder of Republic Studios. But, to my surprise, he was also a Mason (before he dumped his wife and ran off with Vera Hrubá Ralston). Even more to my surprise is the information contained in the last sentence of this piece from Boxoffice, 12 February 1944:

Honor Herb Yates At Masonic Meet
Herbert J. Yates has been named honorary life president of the newly formed Republic Level Club, comprised of Masons on the lot. Al Rogell was elected president; Al Wilson, first vice-president; Lou Physioec, second vice-president, and Al Newman, secretary and treasurer. Presidents of Masonic clubs in all other major studios were honoured guests at the first meeting. The new organization plans to hold regular meetings on the last Monday of every month.

If anyone knows more about these clubs on studio lots, please send a comment. It’s the first I’ve heard of such a thing.

Republic, by the way, had among its roster of stars John Wayne, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, Masons all. I believe the former Marion Morrison joined late in life. However, Republic was also responsible for Zombies of the Stratosphere, none of whom were members of the Craft. Though there have been some dreadfully dull Lodge meetings I’ve attended where everyone comes out like a zombie.

Al Rogell was a director, as was his brother Sid. They both get a mention in another Boxoffice story, from 18 September 1943:

Masonic Service Group Gets Patriotic Short
HOLLYWOOD—“Your Son Is My Brother,” a short subject filmed as a contribution to the war effort, has just been completed by Hollywood’s motion picture industry and turned over to the Masonic Service Ass’n. It is designed to show all Masons what the fraternity is doing for the armed forces and why Masonic bodies should subscribe funds for expansion of services rendered to fighting men.
Produced by Sid Rogell and directed by Al Rogell, the short was filmed at RKO Radio studios. Mel Riddle prepared the script and players who appear in the film are Una O’Connor, Frank Craven, Richard Quine, Matt Briggs, Effie Parnell, Paul McVeigh, Bruce Edward, Richard Davies, Russell Gleason, Wally Brown, Herb Evers, Stan Gilbert, Dick Stockton, Joan Barclay, Margaret Landry and Charlotte Winters.
The picture will be shown only to Masonic bodies for the purpose of interesting memberships in the Masonic service centers, more than 40 of which are now in operation near cantonments in this country.

Finally, a little story for all those people who bemoan how many Masonic buildings have been sold over the last number of years:

Opens Glendale Temple
GLENDALE, CAL.—Louis Kaplan has opened his new Temple Theatre, converted from the Old Masonic Temple, charging a 10-cent admission. House has 750 seats.

The 10-cent admission should be a giveaway that this didn’t happen recently. This comes from the edition of 3 December 1938.

Yes, it may be true that all those “famous Masons” in Hollywood are dead. Masonic clubs on the lot may have died with the old studio system. But you can rest assured there’s at least one thing that hasn’t changed at all. After all, that’s Masonry. And that’s show biz!

Why Attend Masonic Lodge Nights?

2009-02-18T03:30:00.001-08:00

My father always wanted a Packard. He never did get one; the fact he could only afford a Hudson Hornet gives you an idea of why.

“Ask the Man Who Owns One” was Packard’s slogan. But the ad motto doesn’t only apply to a long deceased line of luxury cars. It applies to Masons, too, with a bit of a twist. For we get search questions here on our blog from people who—rather logically, we might add—feel you should “Ask the Man Who is One.”

Today’s question in Justa’s Ask-it-Basket comes from Columbia, South Carolina. It is the subject header you see above.

It difficult to tell whether the query is from a disenchanted member who thinks attending is a waste of time and wants to know whether there really is a legitimate reason, or from a non-Mason who wonders what the benefit is to getting dressed up a couple of times a month and aiming one’s car (whether it was made by Packard or not) at the parking lot of the local Lodge Hall.

Regardless of the reason for the question, I’ll see if I can answer it.

• Fellowship. The guys in the Lodge are generally nice, genuine people and it’s enjoyable to spend a bit of time with them. We joke, we lend each other moral support (and sometimes more than that when someone’s going through a personal hell); there’s no phoniness or B.S. involved in our relationships with each other.
Some people joining the Lodge tell me how shallow the world is and they’re looking for friends with some substance.
• Ceremonies. Yeah, the language can be a bit convoluted and the lectures can be wordy, but at every meeting something will be expressed in the ceremonies of Freemasonry to remind you to be a better person to yourself and your fellow man.
Adults of each generation seem to wail how the world’s falling apart, that the planet’s rife with crime and selfishness and how things used to be so much better. Whether true or not, through each generation, the Lodge is a place tyled from the inhumanities of the outside world, where one can reflect on the purpose of life and the life beyond.
• Learning. This goes hand-in-hand with ceremonies. A well-organised Lodge with thoughtful members should feature meetings with a portion set aside for discussion, debate or simple opinion on any of the things encompassing the vast subject of Freemasonry. One can learn from another’s perspective.

Newer members look around at our empty Lodge rooms and ask me where everyone is. Maybe 20% of the membership shows up any given night. I’ve elucidated on some of the reasons before on this blog—members can be sick, working or out of town. Maybe they’ve decided to spend time with their kids or other loved ones. Maybe there’s been an unfortunate personality conflict between brothers. Maybe they’ve had enough of the disorganisation that can unfortunately infect the Easts of some Lodges.

Whether any of that is true, the fact is those of us who attend Lodge meetings apparently feel the good outweighs any of the bad and getting together as brothers in a tyled room is a fruitful application of our 24-inch gauge.

And I ought to know. You’ve asked the man who is one.

P.S.: As you might tell by the drawing above of the same Super 8 convertible that’s in my garage, you’ve asked the man who owns one.

Time and Experience

2009-01-18T16:08:00.000-08:00

One of the delights of the Masonic ceremonies is that the same gemstones can be found each of the three quarries, if I may term the degrees as such. They’re coated in different matter, depending on the quarry, but not too much exertion can result in a shiny display.

Time is one of the many gemstones. The first instrument placed into the hands of the workman is the 24-inch gauge to teach a Mason he is limited by time and is directed, in a general way, how his time should be used.

In the Third Degree comes a sublime lesson of time in the reading of Ecclesiastes 12:1-7.

The new Mark Master Mason learns about time as well, at least those who receive the Mark Degree in western and central Canada. But there is also another little gem contained therein and no exertion is needed to find it, other than opening one’s ears. Since the Mark Degree ritual is not the same worldwide, there are many who are not familiar with this wonderful little exhortation, so I will quote it in full:

Brethren, it is my duty to exhort you to receive the wages allotted to you with thankfulness. Remember, that it is the internal and not the external qualifications that recommend a man to be a Mason.

No matter what his work, the humblest craftsman has a right to as great a reward as the highest, provided he has faithfully performed the task set before him. The nature of our institution ordains this, for the youngest member may, in reality, be more earnest in his researches than the oldest and be rewarded with more light in Masonry in consequence.

He, like the young craftsman so recently represented by our brother, having made a discovery in Masonic science, renders more benefit to the institution than a member who, though of long standing, has learned nothing but the simplest routine of the degree; just as the Keystone was of much greater importance to the building than the ordinary stones.

It is not the length of time you have been a mason, but the proper use of that time that will entitle you to the wages of wisdom and knowledge. You recall that the Keystone found by our brother at the eleventh hour, although at first rejected by the builders, became the chief stone of the corner, while you who had wrought in the quarries from the earliest hours, exhibited only specimens of the skill of the ordinary workmen.

Remember also that the Grand Geometrician of the Universe will make no distinction of persons in the distribution of his beneficence, but will give alike to all who endeavour to obey His Divine commands.

Brethren, let me once more exhort you to receive the wages allotted to you with thankfulness.

Recently, a new Mason posted on a message board that he was new in the Craft and intimated he didn’t feel he should be blogging about it because he didn’t have the experience in Masonry.

I can’t speak for the new Brother, but we should all remember than no matter how long one has been in the Craft, we have all had one experience that is the same—we have all gone through the three degrees and had the lessons in them exposed to our eyes and ears. This puts a new Master Mason on the same level as a senior brother when it comes to relating his experience going through the ceremonies and what they mean to him. Should the new Master Mason be attentive and comtemplative, there’s always the chance he has found something he is able to express to broaden the knowledge of his brothers—no matter how long they have been in Freemasonry. After all, who has learned more—the contientious worker in the quarries, or one who has laid down his working tools long ago to instead carp and complain about how the labour was once conducted so much better.

True, the new Mason may not have had the time to knock off every excrescence, but his diligence and perserverence will result in a shapeless mass turning into a thing of beauty as the gemstone is revealed. That is the purpose of Masonic labour, and the best use of time and (even limited) experience, for member young and old.

A Masonic New Year’s Resolution

2008-12-31T12:58:00.000-08:00

To not make a rough ashlar even rougher by misapplying the working tools of Freemasonry.

Fidelity, Masonry and Christmas — A Story

2008-12-11T03:49:00.000-08:00

There it sat, wrapped in green paper with drawings of little candy canes, surrounded by a carefully-tied broad red ribbon. The smell of the cookies inside the package lingered in the air. The Master’s wife had baked several dozen of the Christmas treats and put them into little parcels to be delivered to the widows of members of the Lodge. The Master had driven around to drop them off, along with a card and a holiday wish from their late husband’s brothers in Masonry. But one package remained on the dining room table.

“All of the guys jumped up and volunteered at the last meeting to take these to the widows, but I’m the only one who’s been doing it,” thought the Master to himself. “I know! I’ll call around and see who can deliver the last one.”

He punched some numbers into his cell phone. The Senior Warden answered.

“Dave, it’s Rick,” said the Master cheerfully. “Mrs. Wilson’s cookies are over here and I was wondering if you could drop them off? We talked to her a few days ago and told her we’d do it tonight, and...”

“Yeah, I’d like to,” replied the Senior Warden, “but tonight’s a really bad night. You know Thursday’s my Warcraft night and I’m kicking ass.”

“Can’t you play some other night?”

“Not now. I’m the middle of this. Maybe tomorrow, if I’m not at a new level in a few hours.”

The Master thanked him and put a call in to the Junior Deacon.

“Steve, remember you said you could help deliver the widows’ Christmas presents? Mrs. Wilson’s is sitting here...”

“I’m sorry,” said the Junior Deacon. “I know I said that, but my office Christmas party is tonight and I have to go to that. The boss kind of expects it.”

“Can’t you say ‘no’ to him?”

“Well, you know he doesn’t have a high opinion of us to begin with because he wants me to work late all the time and I can’t if something with the Lodge is happening. Besides, drinks are free. Talk to you next meeting.”

The Junior Deacon hung up. Somewhat forlornly, the Master tried a few other members, all of whom had promised they would personally hand out gifts to the widows. But one was going out with some buddies that night. Another was too tired after work. Yet another said the widow lived too far out of the way for him. Still another had a concordant body meeting he wanted to go to. Finally, the Master tried the last person on his list, a Past Master of the Lodge.

“I need your help. Last meeting you said you’d help deliver the widow’s gifts. Mrs. Wilson’s is sitting here and...”

“Wilson?!” he interrupted. “Did you know her husband? He dumped on me the whole year I was in the chair. He kept giving me hell for all kinds of little things.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with his widow. It’s a Lodge tradition we go out and deliver...”

“And another thing,” butted in the Past Master. “Last meeting you came down to the altar at the wrong time. And you gave the wrong knocks to close the Lodge. Can’t you follow traditions? Don’t you pay attention at practices or know what’s in your ritual book?”

“We were talking about Mrs. Wilson...”

“Wilson. The hell with him.” With that the cell went dead.

The Master prepared to pick up the lonely little parcel when the phone rang unexpectedly in the other room. He picked up the receiver.

“My name is Mrs. Lane,” the feeble old voice at the other end quavered. “I live next door to Gladys Wilson. I thought I’d better call you. She has been taken to the hospital.”

“What!?” answered the stunned Master.

“I had invited her over for dinner tonight, but she said she couldn’t come because she was waiting for the Masons. She got a little tired while waiting and went to call someone to see if there was a problem, but she slipped on the carpet and fell. I think she had been on the floor for awhile. It looks pretty serious. I thought I’d better call you.”

“My father was a Mason a long time ago,” Mrs. Lane went on. “He didn’t talk about it much, but all I know is when I was a girl during the Depression, the Masons helped us. One Christmas we had nothing. And there was about two feet of snow. But a bunch of the Masons came over with a tree and a huge baked turkey. They put up the tree and decorated it, then we ate the turkey and they sang Christmas carols to me and my three sisters until it was bedtime. It was so wonderful. I learned then that when times are tough, you can depend on the Masons.”

“Thank you for calling me, Mrs. Lane,” said the Master.

“It’s just too bad someone didn’t get here a little earlier because this probably wouldn’t have happened,” added the old woman. “But God bless you Masons.”

“Yes, thanks again,” replied the Master, and gently hung up the phone.

And as the Master put on his jacket, and picked up the little wrapped parcel to take to the hospital in the clear, moon-lit evening, he wondered if the Masons today really were as dependable as their forefathers. Or, if the admonition of not letting “public and private avocations” interfere with Masonry had turned into nothing more than a convenient excuse.

Note: the Christmas story “The Gift of Yourself” can be found by clicking HERE. The post “Masonic Thoughts at Christmas” can be found HERE

What Every New Mason Should Know

2008-12-07T01:49:00.000-08:00

Someone in Switzerland did a web search of the subject above and came upon this humble blog. Whether they found something to their satisfaction, I don’t know. But in case they didn’t, allow me to pour forth a few thoughts and a couple of stories I wanted to tell but couldn’t figure out how to make them really relevant until just now.

NOT SO GOOD
Every new Mason should know he may be joining a Lodge that is less than overwhelmingly impressive, a semi-moribund Lodge with elderly members or ill-instructed Masons of a few years’ standing who don’t remember—or know—what to do, or how things operate and how to execute them.

Every new Mason should know that the novelty of being a Mason will wear off. That leaves him the seeing the same three degrees over and over, and the same general uninteresting routine at business meetings. The new Mason should be prepared for this eventuality. Many are not, which may explain why over the decades we have continued to lose newer members (the trend is not a new one).

Every new Mason should know he’ll be disappointed if he’s joining because he expects—or wants—Freemasonry to be exclusively some kind of party-hearty social club, organised charity or hidden retreat for deep philosophical pontification. It has elements of all three, but it is none of them.

GOOD
Every new Mason should know he is among friends. One of my Lodges held its installation Thursday night. Four of the new Entered Apprentices showed up (a fifth had car trouble). This was their first Lodge meeting since their Entered Apprentice Degree. During refreshment, they all sat at the same table. Being the Grumpy Old Past Master™ I thought this was a bad sign; they should mingle with all their brothers, harrumph, harrumph (G.O.P.M’s are good at harrumphing). But then one of the guys came over to two of the new E.A’s, who had been chatting merrily, looked at one, then said to the other, “Is he your friend?” “He is now,” replied the new E.A., who then related how the five of them got together on their own last week to get to know each other.

Building friendships. What a great thing.

Every new Mason should know that there’s a brother to help you. During the evening mentioned above, the Board of Installed Masters convened, with non-W.M’s and P.M’s outside. After the Board was closed and those inside were congratulating the new W.M. on his installation, your demure correspondent Justa peeked outside the door to tell the guys the Lodge would be called on and the M.M’s would be re-admitted. Then I got the stunning news. “Lex has had an allergic reaction and Scott has taken him to hospital.” Apparently, the guys standing outside the room all wanted to do something, but Scott took command and told the others to stay behind and get invested into office while he made the quick trip a mile away to the hospital and stayed with our bro. to make sure he was going to be alright.

We were all stunned again during the social period when Scott walked in with Lex. Everyone burst into spontaneous, unanimous applause. The guys came over to see if Lex was okay, including all our brand-new Entered Apprentices who didn’t even know him—other than he was a Bro. Mason who had been in trouble. Lex looked a little pale but was fine the rest of the night. He could have gone home but he wanted to be with his brothers because he told me before the meeting he was so looking forward to installation night.

Brothers you can count on. What a great thing.

I’ve being trying to come up with a post about why people stay in Freemasonry, why it is they cope with disorganised and seemingly-pointless Lodge meetings, petty arguments and some guys who really could do a better job of following what it is our ritual teaches. I still haven’t written that post but it boils down, in part, to the fact they have found the good outweighs the not-so-good. You can ask my brother Lex.

And that’s what every new Mason should know.

The Skirret

2008-12-06T00:21:00.000-08:00

The question did have a familiar sound to it.

Peter had been asked to present the Third Degree working tools to the Master at the installation of the other Lodge that now meets in his local Masonic Hall. There was only one problem. The guy who asked him to present the tools forgot that Peter’s Lodge has different tools in the Third than Peter’s does (note to conspriracy kooks—how can Masons rule the world when we can’t even make up our minds what kind of symbols we use?). Peter’s Lodge uses an American-type ritual which has a trowel, a fine symbol, but one that strikes me as more appropriate for the First Degree. The other Lodge uses a ritual that has its basis in English ceremonies draughted after the Union of the two English Grand Lodges in 1813. That Lodge has three tools—the skirret, the pencil and the compasses.

When Peter got a copy of the ritual he needed for the presentation, he looked at me and said “What’s a skirret?”

It was at that point where real Masonry and on-line Masonry violently collided because I immediately thought of Tom the Masonic Tao Guy. For Peter’s question is the same one which Tom has asked on occasion, believing one of our symbols is either a Masonic Blue-coloured ferret or some kind of Asian water lily.

“It’s that flat spool with the string around it,” I said, waving a finger at the box of tools, then assuring Peter that I was not giving him some kind of skirret-related Masonic sign also not found in his Lodge.

The skirret is a measure—one that is to ensure the foundation of a building is straight by laying down the string as a marker. It is related, symbolically, to the 24-inch gauge and the plumb rule, but has a specific connotation to the Third Degree. The main subject of the Third Degree is one’s mortality and immortality. The skirret represents the foundation of the way of life we are to follow as laid down to us by our Creator—keeping it on the straight and narrow, so to speak, using our Masonic principles. The other two tools of the degree follow naturally, and all three are interrelated. The pencil bears a relationship to the All-Seeing Eye of the Second Degree closing ceremony. But the pencil reminds us that not only does the Eye of the Almighty observe whether (and how) we follow the conduct symbolised by the skirret, He remembers what He observes. And the compasses symbolise what fate He has in store for us at the final hour, according what he has recorded (symbolised by the pencil) of our behaviour (symbolised by the skirret) throughout our existence in this Earthly life, during which we are to work with the tools of the other degrees and follow the principles of Freemasonry. Thus all three are symbols of our belief in the Creator and of an individual Mason’s religious faith.

We should allow the skirret, therefore, to remind us to start building our character on a proper foundation—namely, the many virtues of behaviour found in the Masonic ceremonies, and in the Holy Word of the Almighty. And we should allow this tool to remind us why we should do so—the end of our life shall end some day, and we should prepare now for what comes next.

The Self-Motivated Mason

2008-12-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

“Have you appointed an investigation committee yet?” said the weary Secretary to the Master of the Lodge.

The question was rhetorical. The Secretary knew the answer. And you know the answer, too, because there wouldn’t be a need for me to post if the answer were “yes.”

We’ll get back to this scenario in a moment.

One of the questions that might well be asked of every petitioner, even for affiliation, is: “Are you a self-motivator?” While Freemasonry instructs by symbols and allegory, and while a good Master should ensure discussion on Masonic topics is stimulated at meetings to provide knowledge, it is very much up to the individual Brother to learn for himself, and then take those lessons he’s learned into the world at large.

Freemasons are supposed to be workers. There is really no place in the fraternity for the lazy Craftsman who expects everything to be done for him and handed to him. King Solomon’s Temple would never have been built if the labourers expected someone else to do the job. So it is in Freemasonry. Instruction is given in our degrees. Tools are given to a Mason with which to work. The new Entered Apprentice is given the admonition from Homer’s Ilyad—“Labour is the lot of man.” No one can force him to do labour in our Masonic quarries. He must pick up the tools on his own and work on his faults. While others can help, he needs to motivate himself to do it.

The self-motivated Mason will also prove to be a good officer for the Lodge. And a vital one. It doesn’t take much intelligence to figure this out: officers have assigned ceremonial work. There is a progression of office. A junior officer should know several years in advance what ritual he is required to learn. It is the labour of his office. The sooner he starts on it, the better. It doesn’t bode well for a Lodge when, on a degree night, an officer is expected to do his work and then says “I’ve been too busy learn it.” The officer knew he had to learn it, and had plenty of time to prepare—he simply put it off and put it off until it was too late. He winds up inconveniencing his brothers and his Lodge as a result of his lack of self-motivation.

What happens to those men when they end up in the East? Those are the Masters who answer “no” to the weary Secretary at the start of our story.

And those are the Lodges that have a problem.

So one can see the necessity of self-motivation—for a man’s Lodge, for his own character, and ultimately his daily life.

The Cost of a Friend

2008-11-23T01:25:00.000-08:00

It was really unfortunate he joined when he did.

A young man, awaiting his initiation into the Craft, enthusiastically told me on the night of his First Degree he was following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who belonged to a Masonic Lodge in one of the cities in the British Columbia interior. “Let’s see if I can find him,” I said. You see, there was a time when the annual Grand Lodge Proceedings listed every Mason in the jurisdiction. And we dug out a water-stained copy of a book from the early 1950s and, sure enough, there was his grandfather. He was so delighted to see the name.

That was a couple of years ago.

Today, the young man doesn’t attend Lodge. His roommate (who belongs to the same Lodge) had to do a sell job on him to get him to pay his dues for this past year under threat of suspension. “But he’ll never come back,” I was told.

What happened?

See my opening sentence. The young man had been directed to a Lodge that had been failing for quite a number of years. It had gone through internal bickering. Some of the leaders weren’t the best; they were elected due to being the only available bodies. The ritual was poor; no one seemed to know what to do or say, or joked when mistakes were made. There were no programmes. There was continual disorganisation and lots of it. The bulk of the active membership was over 80 and not in the best of health.

The roommate and I were discussing this with another brother the other night. The Lodge has gained an officer-line full of affiliates over the past year; good, solid young guys who will take over the Lodge and get it running well. The “another brother” is the latest to apply for affiliation and he has directed a friend of his to the Lodge for initiation. He shook his head when hearing the story about the dues. He asked how much they were. “$150 or so.” Then he told me what Freemasonry meant to him.

“I can pick up the phone and call a brother at 2 in the morning and talk to him. That’s worth $150 a year to me.”

The cost of a friend can never be determined as friendship is priceless. It’s a shame the young brother at the start of our story got turned off before he could find that out for himself.

Freemasonry is a Journey, Not a Race

2008-10-28T06:07:00.000-07:00

An e-mail came to me the other day from the brother of a prospective member. He is also a Brother; he’s a Fellowcraft in another Lodge. His brother has said he’d like to join the fraternity and the two of us have spoken twice now since June. Due to his business schedule, the summer break and our Lodge’s own schedule, our members have had only one opportunity to meet with him to enable him to get to know us and for us to know him before the petition handed out.

The Fellowcraft sent me a note wondering whether there was some kind of hold-up. A hold-up caused by disorganisation or apathy or people deliberately throwing sand in the gears is a thing not to be tolerated, but not all hold-ups are bad.

For Freemasonry is a journey, not a race. In some versions of the ritual, the candidate is told, after knocking at the door, to “wait with patience.” One must be patient to be a Freemason. Our ceremonies are not something that should be picked up at a drive-through window. While they contain basic lessons by which to live, those lessons are implemented during one’s entire life. Our ceremonies take a lifetime to study for as you study, some new thought or meaning will pop up, leading you down another path of study. That can’t be done instantly.

While my Grand Lodge’s Constitution allows degrees a minimum 14 days apart, and one Lodge I know will be raising guys in early December who received their First Degree two months earlier, what is the hurry? Is it not more beneficial to let applicants learn as much about the principles and operation of our fraternity before they join (without spoiling things by obtaining secrets)? And to meet, and learn about, the men who’ll be his brothers? Then, once in, is it not more beneficial to let the new Mason contemplate between degrees and/or, better still, make a presentation about one of the principles or lessons that he’s found the most meaningful, or the most challenging, or maybe even the most confusing? There’s no need to rush. After all, despite the woeful prognistications of some, Freemasonry isn’t going anywhere. It’ll live and breathe so long as its members adhere to the tenets of the Craft and are willing to regularly meet to masterly transmit them to those who come after.

A journey takes time. In some rituals, we are reminded by the Hourglass that time is fleeting, faster than we ever realise. Time, as the 24-inch gauge symbolises, must be used properly and wisely. That means Masters of Lodges must get their new members into the habit of thinking about, and openly discussing with their brethren, what is contained in our ceremonies. Our meetings must help them on their journey. Meetings must offer something of value, something other than monotonous routine business and a plate of hastily-prepared homemade sandwiches afterward. For those Lodges likely don’t offer fellowship either, as unsatisfied members can’t wait to rush home after the final toast. I’ve seen it. It’s a travesty.

None of this can be done in an instant. None of it can be rushed. A Masonic Lodge has a chequered pavement, not a chequered flag. And for a good reason. Freemasonry is a journey, not a race.

The Invisible Working Tool of a Masonic Lodge

2008-10-26T03:24:00.000-07:00

Our working tools, descended from those of the operative stonemason we’re told, are applied to our morals. Those of the First Degree inform the new Mason to organise his life to enable him to improve himself as he carries out his responsibilities outside of Lodge. Those of the Second Degree specify some of the principles a Freemason should follow throughout his life. Those of the Third are a reminder that a Higher Power is making note of how well you use the tools of the earlier degrees, and will reward you when your life on this earth has ended. In the American-originated ritual, a different tool is given prominence in the Third Degree, and can be viewed as a cause-and-effect, or vice versa, with the five points outlined in the second section.

But there’s another working tool that could be said to be fitting for our Lodges themselves, one perhaps used by our operative forbears.

The scales.

Justice and equality are something talked about in the ceremonies of Freemasonry, and the scales symbolise both. Justice is among our four cardinal virtues outlined in the First Degree Tracing Board explanation. A new Fellowcraft is reminded to “hold the scales of justice with equal poise.” And the principal of equality is outlined in all three degrees. This old representation of the scales, found in my Grand Lodge’s Proceedings of the late 19th century, shows it was viewed by some Masons as having importance.

But I’m not talking about individual Masons. I’m talking about the Lodge itself. And the idea of balance.

Masonic Lodges must have balance in order to succeed.

There was Lodge I knew which was populated by old men. Wonderful, sincere, people with the kind of character and deportment one would like to find in every Mason (I don’t measure up to them). But they were elderly. And there were few of them, the scythe of time taking its toll through illness and death. They couldn’t do the ceremonies all that well any more, there was fumbling over how to conduct Lodge affairs, with the Secretary constantly pawing through a briefcase looking for things he forgot while everyone waited then waited some more. Discussions went in circles because people couldn’t hear or understand what was being talked about. Young men came. They took one or two looks and never came back.

There was a Lodge I knew which was populated by young men. They’ve revitalised their Lodge. But the old-timers were gone. “How do we do this?” they asked. And nobody knew. There was no one to provide instruction or advice on customs, lodge operations, even matters of ritual.

There needs to be a balance. A Lodge needs men of all ages. Young ones to bring new ideas and enthusiasm. Older ones to provide guidance and instruction. And ones in between to provide a bridge to ensure not one of the aforementioned groups is all that is left.

There was a Lodge I knew which prided itself on its work. The ritual was done well, exceptionally well most of the time. The mantra was to strive for perfection; that’s why we have a perfect ashlar in Lodge, right? The new members received the benefit of the lessons of the fraternity with expressive nuances of delivery. But meeting after meeting, it was degrees, degrees, degrees. The new members wanted to do something more, but there was no time. There was always another degree to be conferred. The new members dropped away.

There was a Lodge I knew which had a full social calender. The officers honed their skills at organising fun events. There was plenty of partying (without those formal Masonic toasts getting in the way) and the guys got together outside of Lodge to watch sports, play pool or poker, or hit up the bar. But they soon found their ranks dropping. While their work in Lodge was good, members wanted something a little more. And the older ones weren’t interested in Texas Hold’em nor could afford expensive pints at the pub.

There was a Lodge I knew which filled its meetings with education. After all, that’s the mantra you hear everywhere: “There’s not enough Masonic education.” They fixed that problem. They had some of the finest speakers you could desire—but not too members many came after awhile. There was no social programme; the festive board was not much more than tea and cookies with, remarkably, little discussion of the matters discussed during the meeting, especially those of a so-called “esoteric nature” which were either too much to digest or went over the heads of some of the Freemasons present.

There needs to be a balance. “The object of meeting of a Lodge is of a two-fold nature: moral instruction and social intercourse,” is how M.W. Bro. Otto Klotz of the Grand Lodge of Canada (Ontario) succinctly put it. A full and varied design on the Master’s tracing board ensures something for everyone. If there’s something of interest, the less likely the member is to quietly walk away and decide he’s out of the routine of coming to Lodge, and is satisfied with that.

So it is well that in planning and executing the affairs of your Lodge, you keep in mind the scales. You won’t see them during a meeting, but they remain invisible in the box of working tools of every successful Lodge.

Justa’s Masonic Ask-it-Basket

2008-10-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

This humble blog comes up in search engines when people enter specific terms. I can see the searches because ~~Freemasons rule the world~~ they come up in my live feed window. Some of the searches are a bit baffling but no one ever e-mails me an enquiry for information to satisfy the curiosity which brought them here. However, allow me to gingerly open the Ask-it-Basket and comment about two different search terms that recent came up, as they’re slightly related.

Where to Find Out About a Mason Membership
How to join the Masons? The easiest thing to do, if you don’t know any Masons where you live, is do a web search with “Mason” (or “Freemason”) and the name of your city or province/state/whatever. A Lodge or Grand Lodge web site should come up in the responses. Look for the contact button. A Grand Lodge can always direct you to a Lodge in your local area.

Some Lodges are also listed in the phone book (locally, it’s under “M”) but there’s generally not someone at the Lodge hall 24 hours a day; they’re only there when the Lodge has a function.

After making contact with some local Masons, they may—if they don’t, they should—invite you to several functions to let you get to know some of the members and vice versa. You must be sponsored by two members to join a Lodge and complete an application form in which you fill in your name, address, phone number, etc. The form used by my main Lodge also deals with age and residency requirements, you have to attest you believe in God (whatever name you know Him is up to you) and you are not applying because someone is forcing you into it, or you expect to make business connections or get perks of that nature (“mercenary or other unworthy motives”). Most Lodges require a financial deposit as well.

The application is read at a business meeting, and then a committee of three Lodge members is appointed to meet with you to find out your reasons for applying and ask whatever questions come to mind (and feel free to ask questions of your own). In some places, this is done at home where your partner can sit in on the chat and ask questions, too, as Masonic membership mustn’t interfere with one’s family life. The committee then reports at the next business meeting (generally a month later, depending on the time of year), and the members have a secret vote. If the vote is favourable, you’ll be told by the Lodge when to show up for your First Degree and what fees are being charged for it.

There are two common misconceptions about applying for membership. The first is that someone must be related to a Mason to join, which is not true at all. The second is that someone must be invited to become a member. The very opposite is true. Don’t wait for, or expect, an invitation. You must ask to join. Someone must apply because it is their idea to do so and have a good enough opinion of Freemasonry that they would like to become a member.

What Kind of People Are in the Freemasons
The Secretary of one of my Lodges likes to tell of how he’s sat in Lodge with a Supreme Court judge next to a ditchdigger. There are people of all types of occupations; people I never would have met otherwise as they are not in my particular social circles. The Master of the Lodge mentioned above is a professional engineer. The Senior Warden is in charge of security for a number of buildings, including some local hospitals. The Junior Warden delivers for a courier company. But we all have something in common. We’ve all taken the same obligation to follow the principles of Freemasonry as best as we can. We all believe in assisting those in need if we’re able and it’s practicable, becoming better educated, following our own faith, attempting to be better people. Freemasons are young and old, and come from various races, religions, countries, political stripes and sexual orientations.

Sure, there’s occasionally someone who joins for the wrong reasons, or someone who unfortunately really strays from what the Masonic degrees teach. And there are times you can get a little annoyed at something one of the guys in the Lodge does. But on more than one occasion, even amongst the young guys in my own Lodge, I have heard how they feel Freemasonry is a family. As was once remarked to me: the kind of people in the Freemasons are brothers you have never met.

And that’s how every Mason should look at someone who is petitioning their Lodge—should he be your brother? If you ask-it me, anyway.
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A Man of Honour

2008-10-18T07:17:00.000-07:00

A guy in one of my Lodges has a bunch of tattoos. I can’t possibly imagine the attraction of sticking a buzzing, ink-filled needle into one’s body, but my Brother had a distinct purpose in doing so in this case. He had a message for others—and himself.

One is his tattoos is in script and reads “Death before dishonour.” In fact, that motto is one of the things which attracted him to join Freemasonry.

Honour, we are told upon viewing First Degree Tracing Board, is one of the distinguishing characteristics that should “ever be found in the breast of a Free and Accepted Mason.”

The principle of honour weaves it way through the various degrees.

Masons are reminded to reveal certain things only to other Masons and then only under the proper circumstances. In olden days, such secrets could be valuable. They proved your legitimacy as a Freemason and could open the door to assistance from a local Lodge and its individual members, just as they did to our operative forbears. In this day of welfare, unemployment insurance, Medicare, and so on, Masonic Lodges aren’t required to financially assist sojourners—or even their own members—as much. And in an era of mass communications, it’s far easier to determine membership besides having someone demonstrate a handshake or whatever. But the secrets still serve a purpose. They show a Mason is a man of honour and, as a man of honour, he would rather suffer death than improperly divulge them. On the night of the Third Degree, this lesson of death before dishonour is a prominent part of the legend that every candidate takes part in.

Why is being a man of honour so important?

Bro. Frank A. Marshall put the reason in succinct and clear words I still remember after learning them almost 37 years ago:

“You know that the young man whose word is as good as his bond, who can be absolutely relied upon to fulfil his promises, if humanly possible, enjoys the esteem and confidence of all good men.”

Honour speaks to one’s reputation. Who wants to be known as someone who can’t be counted on, who says one thing and does another, who makes promises with every intention of ignoring them if they’re too inconvenient, who is coloured “with the stain of falsehood and dishonour”?

Even the little things count. Suppose you tell me “Yes, I’ll do that part in the degree” or “Sure, I’ll show up next Thursday and help clean up the hall” but then decide you’d rather play Warcraft or go to the hockey game and don’t bother doing what you say you’d do.

If I can’t rely on you to fulfil such comparatively unimportant promises, how can I trust you if I, or my family, are in distress and need your help with something that’s really important?

As falsehood and dishonour are stained together, so the reverse is true. Trust is a product of honour. To put in dramatic perspective, in the words of Bro. Nelson King of Toronto:

“I would like you to turn to the Brother beside you and grasp his hand with the Grip of a Mason. Now I want you to ask yourself how many Masons would you trust with your life savings, your home, your family’s well being, and even your life, on that Grip.”

Imagine what our world would be like if everyone’s word were as good as their bond. Answering Nelson’s question would require absolutely no thought.

While each Mason can’t do anything about everyone in the world, he can do something about his own character. Employing the lessons of our Craft, the distinguishing characteristic of honour should be tattooed onto his life and consciousness. Using signs and symbols is a lot less painful than a buzzing needle, and maybe a little less cool, but it’s just as effective.

Madame Zaniskey at the Lodge

2008-10-14T00:37:00.000-07:00

One of my Lodges has, for a couple of years, been in the habit of inviting prospective members to our festive board to meet the members. When I joined the Craft, such would have horrified the assorted nay-sayers. “No Masonic toasts when non-Masons are present!” my young ears heard on more than one evening. “It’s always been done that way!”

As a new Mason, the first job I took on (besides a Steward’s position) was researching my Mother Lodge’s history, going through minutes, petitions, correspondence, installation programmes, etc. And I quickly learned when someone said “It’s always been done that way!” there was a distinct possibility that wasn’t the case at all.

So it is with prohibitions regarding non-Masons at the festive board, and Masonic toasts drunk thereat.

The founder of the Lodge at the opening of this post was from New South Wales who arrived in Canada in 1903 and gathered his Australian and New Zealand Masonic friends (with a couple of Scotsmen from Fiji and an Irishman or two) to form a Lodge. He was, for a time, independently wealthy through real estate which gave him the opportunity to travel. Somehow, he managed to be invited to the Coronation of George V in 1911 and it is likely that is when the following incident took place, related in The Square magazine of September 1922:

THERE is a practice growing (wisely or unwisely) of inviting the profane to entertain Masons at their dinners and banquets. In fact, some lodges go so far as to hire theatrical talent for this purpose. But I think it redounds more to the credit of Masonry if the lodge members furnish the necessary entertainment amongst themselves.
I was present at a banquet of Sterndale-Bennett Lodge in London when an incident occurred which was uniquely pleasing and interesting. At that time there was an artiste singing at the Opera House, a Madame Zaniskey, drawing large audiences. At the lodge banquet this noted singer contributed two selections, with encores. As they were required on the programme, the singer and her pianist were escorted from their apartments to a small platform specially prepared from which they were at once escorted back to their apartments at the finish of each item.
Towards the close of the banquet, a Past Master rose to propose the health of the Worshipful Master. Evidently, judging by the manner in which the toast was received, the Worshipful Master was much beloved and esteemed by the brethren. The proposer narrated how they were indebted to the Worshipful Master for the pleasure they had enjoyed that evening in listening to the noted singer, Madame Zaniskey. During the week, he explained, the Worshipful Master had invited several of the brethren to a theatre party to hear the celebrated and popular singer. At the close of the performance, the Worshipful Master asked them how it would be to invite the lady to sing at their next banquet. They all said it would be grand, of course, but the fee would be too high.
“Well,” said the Worshipful Master, “we’ll go ‘round to her rooms and ask her as I have had the pleasure of meeting her.”
The members of the party were introduced to Madame by the Worshipful Master, who then preferred their request.
“I shall be delighted,” was the gracious answer, “and there shall be no fee whatever.”
“The lady has delighted us with her singing this evening,” continued the proposer of the toast, “and I now have the permission of the Worshipful Master to inform you that the lady is his own beloved wife. That is the reason this lodge has been honored this evening by the distinguished artiste.”
This announcement was received with vociferous cheers, and a demand was made for the reappearance of the singer. For the third time, she was escorted to the platform, where she sang “Annie Laurie,” and received an ovation. Nothing would do the brethren but the lady should take a seat at the banquet table beside her husband, the Worshipful Master of the lodge. Her name was coupled with his in the toast, and when the pair stood up to acknowledge the toast they were cheered to the echo. It was one instance where the admission of a profane to a Masonic banquet was accompanied by pleasing and delightful results.

So the moral of this post is for Masters, and those aspiring to the Chair, to make sure their trestleboard has a design or two (and to see that the design is executed) for the opportunity for non-Masons interested in Freemasonry to meet with the members of the Lodge. Remind the nay-sayers you may get some good members out of it. And perhaps an opera singer. After all, it’s always been done that way.

Would Brett Favre Visit Your Lodge?

2008-10-13T01:21:00.000-07:00

You know the drill. Listen to minutes, hear correspondence, fall asleep as guys argue that a $5 dues increase is too much, etc.

Does that sound like your Lodge? Or does the story below sound like your Lodge?

This is taken from the Oshkosh Northwestern of Oct. 12, 1938—70 years ago:

GRIDIRON, CAGE LUMINARIES WILL TALK TO MASONS
Members of Oshkosh All Stars, Green Bay Packers to Appear at Meeting Monday Evening

Members of the Blue lodges of the Masonic fraternity and members of Oshkosh chapter, Order of DeMolay, are looking forward with interest to a program to be presented at the Masonic temple, Monday evening, Oct. 17.
Some of the outstanding players in the field of professional sports—representatives of the Oshkosh All Stars and of the Green Bay Packers—will appear on the program with Bob Heiss, Milwaukee radio announcer, as the master of ceremonies.
The program will begin at 6:30 o’clock with a banquet in the dining room of the Masonic temple.
Members of Oshkosh lodge, No. 27, of Centennial lodge, No. 205, and of the DeMolay chapter are being invited to attend. Visiting Masons are also being asked to be present and the men are being urged to bring their sons and some other teen-age boy they know.
WILL BE INTERVIEWED
Lonnie Darling, owner and manager of the Oshkosh All Stars, will be present with members of his noted professional basketball team. The players will be interviewed by Bob Heiss so that those who attend will be able to become better acquainted with these favorites of the indoor sport.
Champ Seibold, Oshkosh’s representative on the Green Bay Packers, will also be a highlight on the program and it is possible that other members of the famed football team will be present to appear on the program.
An inspirational address will be given by Roy Holly, Waupaca, who is active in work with young men and whose talks always carry something of value. He is commissioner of the Waupaca district of Twin Lakes council, Boy Scouts of America, and serves during the summer months as assistant camp director at Twin Lakes reservation.
Music and entertainment numbers will be presented to round out the program.

One must appreciate the work that must have gone into putting together a programme like this. But are Lodges willing to do the same kind of thing today? Or is it just easier doing the same old dull routine everyone’s used to?

As craftsmen, we are supposed to be labouring. That means not resting and taking it easy. That should apply equally to organising the fellowship and educational portions of Lodge functions as well as using the symbolic tools in daily life to improve a Freemason’s character.

So, maybe some 70 years later, it is possible to get Brett Favre to a Lodge meeting. Though I don’t think they’d want to see him in Oshkosh these days.

We’re All Travelling on the Same Road

2008-10-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

Please read THIS at The Masonic Minute. It’s especially poignant for me for reasons I don’t wish to discuss publicly.

However, I’ll mention a little tale of a Lodge I’ve visited on occasion.

This was a Lodge that was struggling for some years. It was like many; the brethren got elderly and few new Masons joined to take their place. Chairs had to be filled by P.Ms. When the Lodge ran out of P.Ms, the chairs were vacant. There was pessismism, the confines of the Lodge room were thick with it. There was talk—it might have even got to the motion stage—of handing in the warrant. But they got some outside help, and somehow, they got applications from some younger men who brought in friends. The new Masons prided themselves on their work. They put together social activities around stuff they were interested in. The Lodge was suddenly back in business.

During this time, one of the old-timers who had never been through the chairs sat quietly and attended whenever his health, or his wife’s, would permit it. After one installation, I sat with him and remarked about how well the Lodge was now doing with “all these young people” (nothing seems to excite Freemasons more than seeing men with dark-coloured hair and light-coloured aprons). I can’t remember his entire remark, but he plainly said “I don’t know anybody any more.”

You see, while the new guys had the greatest respect for him—he was even honoured by the Grand Lodge upon his Lodge’s request—they all hung out with each other. He was long past the age where he’d go bar-hopping with them or to the types of events they organised. They sat with each other after the meeting, leaving him on his own or with any of the few old-timers who were still up to coming. It’s like going to a family Christmas dinner except instead of a kids’ table, there’s a seniors’ table.

So, I urge our younger members to make an effort to reach out to our elderly brethren, especially when they see them all on their own after a meeting. As the posting on Masonic Minute reminds us, we might be surprised about what they can teach us. We are all brothers and we are all travelling on the same road.

Oh, THAT’S Why It’s “Mason City”

2008-10-05T02:01:00.000-07:00

In the post below, I mentioned news stories about the decline the Freemasonry and the turnaround of Freemasonry.

HERE’s one in today’s paper in, as it turns out, appropriately-named Mason City, Iowa.

Incidentally, since we’re talking newspapers, the Galveston Daily News of this date 100 years ago had this brief item:

Chinese Masons of Galveston held an all-night initiation and celebration, attended by the grand master of the Chinese Masons of America, Henry Wong Sam Duck of San Francisco.

I wonder if our Masonic forefathers had that kind of stamina.

Dancing With the Stars Masons

2008-10-04T01:52:00.000-07:00

Someone should some time put together a paper on Freemasonry in Newspapers, tracing the way Masonry has been treated in the popular press over the years.

Recently, the trend seems to be “Young people are joining Freemasonry” stories. A few years ago all the stories were about “The Greying of Freemasonry” and how it was big at one time but today filled with old and dying members.

However, if you go back 100 years, you’ll find a little fraternal section in the paper, listing Lodge meetings and occasionally news, like if a DDGM was visiting. Grand Lodge meetings were covered with long lists of new officers. Grand Royal Arch Chapter, too.

But a surprising mention, to me, came in a radio programming column highlight for WSB Atlanta, one of the big powerhouse stations of the U.S. south. On Thursday, October 4, 1928, the listings read:
10:30 p.m.—Atlanta Masonic Club.

In those days when network radio was just beginning, stations filled great swaths of ether at night with music. Dance orchestras were hugely popular. So I can only presume that the Masons in Atlanta had/have a dance floor in their Temple and the band or orchestra was broadcast via a live pick-up. Either than, or someone snuck a mike into a meeting to let people hear P.Ms complain “That’s not how we did it in 1884!”

If any Brother in The Big Peach can tell me more about the radio broadcast or the club, I’d appreciate it.

Heading north, there’s this story in a local paper of the same date:

James Heald Is Honored By Local DeMolay Chapter
James Heald was honored at the last meeting of the Sheboygan Chapter, Order of the DeMolay, when he was presented with a past councillor's button. Appropriate ceremonies were conducted, the presentation being made by "Dad" H. W. Timmer, who has been active in the promotion of the welfare of the chapter.
The chapter has been making fine progress. Members have attended meetings regularly, and new candidates are being initiated at nearly every meeting. At the last meeting, five took their first degree, and at the one on Oct. 15, nine will receive their DeMolay degree.
A successful baseball season has been closed by the chapter, and preparations are now underway for winter sports, such as bowling, basketball, volleyball and drill team work. The chapter entered the statewide contest to sell DeMolay to Wisconsin.

I’m pretty sure one of the reasons DeMolay was so incredibly popular at one time was because of its huge involvement in sports. I’ve read in a number of small-town papers in byegone days about DeMolay teams entered in leagues, with stories and standings duly printed in the local paper. The exposure couldn’t have hurt. I can’t think of the last time I saw DeMolay mentioned in a newspaper, other than in the obit of an Advisor. Obits, unfortunately, still make up the bulk of mentions of Freemasonry as well.

The Spirit of Masonry

2008-09-27T02:37:00.000-07:00

Justa's note: This is by an anonymous Past Grand Master, and published in 'The Square' of June 1922 (Vol. 2 No. 6)

THE spirit of Masonry has dwelt among all men, in all climes and in all ages. The outward manifestations of Masonry, its structural form and some of its ceremonial have reflected the changeful growth of the human family, but the spirit of our Order is the same today as it was yesterday. Spirit is changeless and eternal; forms are mutable and variable.

Rites and ceremonies are only employed to express ideas. As Masons, we do not have to be too concerned about material things, say, for instance, the precise dates when particular passwords were used, whether the signs used by the builders of Solomon's Temple were brought to Jerusalem by the Tyrians or the Phoenecians, whether the rites we practice are identical with those into which Pythagoras was initiated. These may be of importance from an historical standpoint; but it is with the inner life of man that Masonry is most concerned. We who dwell in the blazing light of this century should never confound the shadow with the substance, should never mistake rites and ceremonies for the spirit itself, should not live so closely to the shadow as to escape the bright reality, nor be so devoted to that which may change as to forget the unchangeable spirit.

If we let our minds hark back to the time we first knelt at a Masonic Altar, we will remember the solemn obligations we then took, which made us members of a body of men whose sole aim was to uplift mankind. Every candidate who knelt at the Altar of Masonry was there introduced to the finest code of morals ever laid down for the guidance of man. Our ancient brethren had no idea at the time they drafted these useful maxims on their trestle board what a foundation they were laying. They had no idea at that time how fruitful the seed would be that they were sowing. One thing, though, they were sure of—one thing they made sure of—that no matter what manner of man it was who knocked at the outer door of Masonry, be he prince or peasant, before that door could be opened to him he must first confess his faith in God, the Architect and Master Builder of the World. Those wise men could never have realized that the light of Masonry they were kindling would flame into abeacon that would dart its rays into every known quarter of this old world of ours. Neither can they have realized that they were taking in the first recruits of an army that was destined to do more for mankind than any other body of men that ever existed.

This was not brought about by binding members down to a certain religion. Masonry is not a religion, in the general sense of the term; it is a form of worship in which all good men may unite. It leaves each man free to think his own thoughts and fashion his own conception of ultimate truth. Therefore, all through the ages, Masonry has been, as it is today, a meeting-place of differing minds.

In the days of old, some one man framed a dogma and declared it to be the eternal truth. Presently another man framed another dogma, declaring it to be the eternal truth. So began the unholy hatreds of religion as each sought to impose his private beliefs upon the other; so came to be written some of the blackest pages of history.

Against such things Masonry has made perpetual protest in a voice which is becoming the eloquence of the world. Masonry has substituted friendship for persecution. The result is to be seen on every hand in the change of heart now taking place in the religious world by reason of an exchange of thought and courtesy. The various sects, so long estranged, are today learning to unite upon the things most worth while and least open to debate, that is to say, they are moving to wards the Masonic position. When they arrive there, Masonry will preside over a scene prophesied in the Order from the beginning. When that day is ushered in, men, when they meet, will not ask “What is your creed?” but “What is your need? Then Masonry, having fulfilled a part of its sublime mission on earth, will rejoice high above all dogmas that bind, all bigotries that blind, all bitterness that divides, for it will have written across the soul of humanity the eternal verities of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

When we look back along the line of receding ages, we see being laid the broad foundations of our institution, and we watch its gradual extension until within its walls are found citizens of every nation speaking one common language, the language of truth, of virtue and of friendship, unassociated with political power, unconnected with particular creeds. In all countries, Masonry has flourished when nations prospered and when mind was free. In every land where learning and virtue have arisen superior to intolerance and fanaticism, Masonry has been supported by the wise and patronised by the great.

Masonry has no mystery so sacred but that every honest and upright man may become the possessor of it. The doors of our lodges are now, and ever have been, open to all the good who seek initiation. To the base, the profligate and the vicious only are they closed. If any man be honest, if he loves virtue, let him seek our Temples. If he does so in a true spirit, he will learn that to be a perfect Mason is to be a perfect man, true to his God, his country and himself.

Our symbols are to be traced among nations wide as the poles asunder; they can be found to this day on the pyramids of Egypt and on the ancient structures of every continent. Why this universal presence and permanence? Because the foundations of Masonry rest not on the mutable and perishable circumstances of external life, but on sentiments which spring from, and appeal to, the most deep-seated affections of our nature. It was fitting, therefore, that our symbols should be carved indelibly and universally.

We are taught to regard the whole human race as the children of one Father, our brethren, whom we ought to treat with justice, relieve in want and comfort in sorrow. For ourselves, we are taught to be prudent, temperate, enduring and just, and, as citizens, to be loyal and peaceful. Under every emblem in our lodges there lie solemn and important truths tending to purify the morals, improve the understanding and bind the human family more closely together.

Masonry binds men more closely together than any other human institunion, for it cements friendships, succors the shipwrecked and the exiled, sets the prisoner free, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits the widow and the orphan, and even arrests the uplifted steel thirsting for a foeman's blood. In some of our lodges are those whose birth is noble, whose possessions are vast, whose talents are great, whose tastes are refined. By their side sit those who possess none of these things, and whom the outer world deems insignificant. Yet to them the rich and powerful, man yields precedence and obedience in the lodge, and each learns to read and value the mind of the other, and to feel a deep sympathy, one for the other, in the wants and pains of their common nature. The scrupulous exclusion from our lodges of all topics of religious and political nature, those fruitful sources of envenomed dissention elsewhere, maintains this good feeling and gives permanence to our institution.

The first Masons, in those dark ages when might was right, guarded with jealous care the feeble ray of light which was in hourly danger of being extinguished by the violence of rude and untutored savages. And that first feeble spark, so nobly guarded, has since been fanned into the divine fire that now purifies and enlightens the earth.

We must incorporate into our lives the teachings which Masonry imparts. We must not think only of the good fellowship which is fostered in the Lodge. We must take home to ourselves the true fruits of Masonry—the deep spiritual import that is wrapped up in all its ceremonies, which, if rightly comprehended, will lift us higher and higher toward that ever-living Grand Lodge where the world’s Great Architect wields the gavel for all eternity.

The Shriners' Ballet

2008-09-19T23:20:00.000-07:00

What's not on YouTube? There's always something to be stumbled upon by accident, such as this clip from a 1980s TV special with Tom Bosley and Chita Rivera called The Shriners' Ballet.

If this doesn't play, then go to YouTube directly.

To be honest, I've seen Bye Bye Birdie and I don't remember the Shriners' Ballet at all. I guess that means I get an "F" in show tunes and they take away my Carol Channing and Ethel Merman records.

Maybe That’s Where the Goat Story Comes From

2008-09-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

Our District Deputy was visiting a Job’s Daughters’ meeting some time ago and he told of how one of the girls gave a little talk about the Masons.

She was talking about Masonic Halls and why Lodges meet on the second storey. She informed her eager audience it was to avoid people listening in and livestock.

Livestock? The District Deputy wondered and wondered where she got that idea. So he asked.

“Oh,” said the Jobie very earnestly, “I heard that the Masons were worried about cows and eavesdroppers.”

True story.

Just Your Average Lodge Meeting, Right?

2008-09-13T01:56:00.000-07:00

Is this some kind of record? Your friendly Justa has three Lodge meetings within 24 hours. In three different Masonic Halls, for that matter. Yeah, I know. Three’s a Masonic number.

One of my Lodges had a raising last night. I’m about to snooze a bit, then get up and head to a Lodge for a morning installation. After they close, I have to grab the bus and head across town to another installation.

Hmm. And I’m Sr. Warden on Monday then have another installation on Tuesday. Oh well.

The raising was, well, I hope I don’t have to go through this again. The Master is out of town. The I.P.M. hasn’t been all year. The Secretary, who does the bulk of the raising ceremony, hasn’t been to Lodge since March as he’s recovering from heart problems. The Treasurer is at a Grand Royal Arch Chapter meeting. The Jr. Deacon is in Korea. The Sr. Steward has moved out of the area. Then I got notified 80 minutes before the meeting the Jr. Warden isn’t coming and didn’t order food. And then I got to the hall and the Sr. Warden said “I’m not doing anything tonight, am I?” (he wasn’t kidding).

Amazing how we are still organised enough to run the world, isn’t it?

Anyway, we went from horses—t to horseshoes. The first stroke of luck was when a PM who we haven’t seen (his wife has not been well and he’s trying to run his own business now) showed up and agreed to fill in as J.W. The Chaplain had already agreed a week ago to double as J.D. One of our occasionally-attending M.Ms walked in, and he and the Chaplain managed to rustle up food and beer with the assistance of the building manager. And then the Olde Guarde arrived for the first time in months. Our retired Organist agreed to play. One of our PMs who has trouble getting around now agreed to sit on the side and enjoy the meeting. And our Secretary felt well enough to come and, unbeknownst to me as I had spent my spare time learning the raising, he fully expected to do his usual part. Our candidate did a fine job with his F.C. exam and the Third Degree went well, though the version of the obligation I gave him was a muddle of a bunch of stuff. And I did some ‘Emulation’ work in the opening, which I didn’t realise until the Sr. Warden asked me later what I was doing (for his part, the S.W. just peered at the book prior to the meeting and easily got up the piece he was supposed to do; he’s done it before).

Something else stunning happened that I’ll try to sum up briefly. There’s a Mason and a Senior DeMolay who got into a freak accident over the summer and has been left a quadriplegic. He had no health care and needs a pile of money for a special wheelchair. One of the members of the Lodge who doesn’t attend meetings due to work sent a note that he and his wife are going to help spearhead a fund-raiser for him. He’s already working with the brother’s girl-friend on it.

Let me repeat. This is a guy who can not attend Lodge meetings. But he wants to do something to help a brother. From another Lodge. In another District.

Isn’t that something?

So, despite the cluster you read above, and the fact I’ve got to find some time to sleep before a full day of Masonry again in a few hours, it wasn’t a bad night.

To Be One—Go On the Radio

2008-09-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

A guy I worked with for a couple of years has been asking for almost that length of time “When are you going to get me in the Masons?” He says it just about every time I see him because I’m always (it seems. OK, I am) doing Lodge stuff.

Normally, the conversation is between us, but he decided to take it to a different level.

He was doing a play-by-play sports event the other day when my name came up on the broadcast, and he then went on to the colour commentator about how he keeps asking to join the Masons and I won’t let him in.

No one in his audience flooded him with petitions after the broadcast, though it was an interesting variation on ASK1.

A Prospective Mason and the Dinosaur

2008-07-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

I refuse to own a cell phone. I don’t see why I need one. I don’t want to be bothered 24 hours a day; anyone who wants to talk to me can leave a message on my answering machine.

That’s just what a brother did the other day. This brother was our Chaplain for a few years but doesn’t get to Lodge meetings because he’s got a new job and is working most nights. He used to be employed by the Shrine, taking kids to their hospital treatment in Portland. He stopped in at the Shrine office the other day, at the same time someone wandered in who had been friends with a late member of Fez Fraternity. The two chatted for a bit and the conversation turned to how to join a Lodge. The inevitable conclusion was I was a person who should be talking with him.

Anyway, like many guys interested in Freemasonry, he’s read things on-line about it, both the hilarious conspiracy nonsense and the things from Masonic web sites. I thought about this as I’ve read two fine blog pieces in the last couple of days that are probably ideal to direct your prospective members to.

Ben Rowe at The Chequered Carpet tackles the subject of what Freemasonry is HERE. There is lots to think about. In fact, I sent this link out to the members of the above-mentioned Lodge and one of our E.As wrote back saying how it answered what was in a dream of his.

Ben is 22 and I’m still floored he's already Sr. Deacon of his Lodge.

The other item is HERE and comes from Nick Johnson at The Millenial Freemason. It is directed squarely at prospective members. Nick is at the comparatively old age of 26 (which is when I became a Freemason).

Again I say there is lots of good material in the Masonic E-World for the reading—some symbolical, some historical, some philosophical and some practical. These are two great examples if your Lodge has someone considering whether to petition.

As for the prospective Freemason mentioned above, I’m meeting with him at a pub near his place next week. I asked him how I’d recognise him, and he told me when I got there at the appointed hour, he could call me on my cell phone.

Oh. Yeah.

Ontario Does the Right Thing

2008-07-18T00:16:00.000-07:00

A Past Grand Master of my jurisdiction stood up in my Grand Lodge’s annual meeting in 2000 and stated “If we are going to wait until the Grand of Canada in Ontario [recognises Prince Hall Masonry in Ontario] it will be the year 2050.”

I’m most delighted to inform you he was wrong. And I’m sure he’ll be just as delighted.

Dean over at Freemason’s Corner has passed on a note from Bro. Peter Renzland in Toronto that recognition has been approved by his Grand Lodge.

Congratulations to my brothers in Ontario. By “brothers”, I mean both Prince Hall and non-Prince Hall, as my Grand Lodge recognises both Grand Lodges (after the P.G.M’s pessimistic statement above, we didn’t wait much longer).

This is such wonderful news. I’m just elated.

Members of the Grand Lodge of Canada (a misnomer since 1867) should be familiar with the line in the General Address that “the object...of meeting in a Lodge is of a two-fold nature—moral instruction and social intercourse.” Certainly they’ll enjoy fellowship at a Prince Hall meeting. But they will receive moral instruction in a different package, as the ceremonies of their Lodges come from the U.S.A. and are quite different than the ritual used by almost all Lodges in Ontario.

My only bit of advice I would give my Ontario Masonic colleagues is what I wrote to members of my own jurisdiction after the Past Grand Master mentioned above worked to have the local Prince Hall G.L. recognised. Don’t take recognition for granted when the novelty wears off a few years from now. Continue to visits each other’s Lodges. Therein, you’ll not only find your brothers—you’ll find they’ll become your friends.

A Mason and a Christian

2008-07-16T02:53:00.000-07:00

There are some people out there who think they know me better than I do. They’ve never met me, never seen me or heard me. They may never have even read anything I’ve posted on line.

But they know me—so well, that they know my religion. Or what’s not my religion.

You see, they know I’m not a Christian, even though I’ve been one since a little boy. I can’t be, they say, because I’m a Freemason. And why can’t Freemasons be Christians? It’s because, well, they can’t be.

I’ve read all their claims and arguments. Some are goofy. Some are sad. Some are misguided. But in the end, despite all they say, I’m still talking to God’s Son when I feel the need to. No Masonic ceremony or law tells me not to pray to Him, nor to reject the Good News message of John 3:16. Nor would it. That’s because how I worship God isn’t relevant to Freemasonry, as it is not a religion.

While the “how” isn’t relevant, the action itself is. The ceremonies remind me, and every newly-made Mason in his First Degree, that there is a duty:

“...to God, in never mentioning His name but with that reverential awe which is due from a creature to his Creator, to implore his aid in all your laudable undertakings, and to esteem Him as the chief good.”

For a Christian, that means praying to Christ, right? So where’s the problem?

Well, some get hung up on the fact it’s an old tradition that religion must never be discussed in a Masonic Lodge meeting. They seem to think Christians should be able try to convert people 24/7. They should remember the admonishment in Ecclesiastes 3:1—“to everything there is a season.” Ecclesiastes 3:7 continues: “a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” If you’re into a big business meeting with a client, you wouldn’t stop everything to harangue about Jesus. It is not “a time to speak.” If you’re a cashier at a grocery store, you wouldn’t do it to a customer with a huge line of shoppers behind him. Nor at your strata council meeting in the middle of a financial debate. And you certainly wouldn’t do it at a meeting of any other association or a fraternity, as it would break down in an argument over whose religious beliefs are right.

There’s witnessing. And then there’s effective witnessing. The scenarios just mentioned would not result in effective witnessing and just might close ears instead.

Then there’s the claim Christ is somehow denied because He is not mentioned by that name in the Lodge’s ceremonies. The term “Great Architect of the Universe” is used as just one part of the building analogy found throughout the Masonic ritual designed to apply it to our character. One’s own religion defines who “The Great Architect” is; for any Christian, it would be God the Father (see Genesis 1).

I await someone to claim that when Tommy Lasorda talks about that “Great Dodger in the Sky” he’s referring to someone other than our Almighty Creator and therefore Christians should not play baseball.

It seems the height of foolishness for anyone to claim that if someone’s a Christian and doesn’t mention the word “God” or “Christ” specifically, a prayer won’t get to Him. How can anyone really think He’s so stupid He doesn’t know who’s talking to Him? Or think He’s so weak that those prayers somehow will be mysteriously hijacked by someone or something else? Isn’t He almighty enough to prevent that?

Still others rail about some kind of “Masonic god” named Jahbulon or Baphomet or some other such nonsense. They say people in the “higher degrees” know all about this stuff. Yet they never can quote from any degree which says any of this. The best they can do is take a snippet from a 19th century book of some Mason’s personal musings about comparative religion, find a context that suits their pre-determined “Masonic god” conclusion, and pontificate away.

I’ve always been amused the idea that, somehow, I don’t know about these ceremonies because I’m too “low grade”—but anti-Masons who are “no grade” know all about them.

And since Jahbulon doesn’t exist, how can you pray to it?

Then there’s the argument stemming from 2 Corinthians 6 about being “unequally yoked” with non-believers (verse 14). The key word here is, perhaps, “unequally.” In Freemasonry, a Christian is not bound in an inferior position to non-Christians where the non-Christian tells him what religious beliefs he must have (later verses in that Chapter deal with matters of worship). Freemasons are equal in matters of their personal religion. As mentioned, they’re never given any forced instructions on what they must think. Rather, each is reminded to follow the faith he already believes in. That’s obviously Christianity for any Christian.

However, if someone really, truly sees some kind of incompatibility between the fraternity and their religion, there’s a simple solution—don’t join. Freemasonry doesn’t solicit unwilling members. It doesn’t tell a non-Mason how to behave or what to believe. It’d be nice if the reverse always held true.

Talk to a Senior Brother Today

2008-07-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

You hear or read more and more these days about how boomers didn’t join Freemasonry, so Lodges now have members who are young or old and not many in between. That’s what makes THIS touching poem at Shane Hale’s cleverly-named “Light Switch On” blog not only a good read, but a message for all Masons.

The poem brings to mind two personal stories.

This year has been a tough one for one of my Lodges in that three of the four longest-serving active members have stopped coming due to their health—including our Secretary of 27 years. He received his First Degree more than 50 years ago and dearly loves the fraternity.

Most of the active members of the Lodge are comparatively new as we’re, more or less, rebuilding, while simultaneously the “all-devouring scythe of time” cuts down the senior Past Masters who had kept the Lodge alive in a 15-year game of musical chairs. The new guys don’t really know the old guys all that well. Yet nothing has been more personally pleasing to me to talk to our venerable Secretary and hear that our newer members have been using their 24-inch gauge wisely “for the service of...a distressed worthy brother” (though my Lodge’s ritual doesn’t have that line). Several have given him a call to see how he’s doing. He’s so happy that the guys care.

Isn’t that part of what our fraternity is about?

The Lodge was founded in 1906 by a P.M. of Lodge Cootamundra St. John No. 124 in New South Wales. One of his friends affiliated in 1907 and two years later had a son. The founder was asked to be the boy’s godfather. The son turned 21 in 1930 and became a Freemason in his local Lodge. He is 99 years old and probably the longest-serving Masonic member in British Columbia right now.

His Lodge just turned 100 last Friday but, unfortunately, he doesn’t have the physical ability to get up the long flights of stairs in his Lodge hall and was unable to attend the anniversary meeting. But he’s not forgotten. Not only are members of his own Lodge in communication with him, so are members of other Lodges in his District who go to visit him to say hello and talk about the old days. And they’re planning his 100th birthday celebration is a location where stairs are not a burden.

Isn’t that part of what our fraternity is about?

One of the greatest hockey broadcasters of all time is a gentle fellow named Jim Robson. Every game, during an interruption in the play, Jim would always give a special welcome to hospital patients, the shut-ins, the blind and those who couldn’t get out to hockey games, hoping they enjoyed the broadcast. Jim isn’t a Mason. But if a non-Mason can express care and concern for someone, shouldn’t Masons charged with the principle of brotherly love be doing it, too?

Not all of us are able to pick up a senior brother who hasn’t attended in many years like the hero of the poem on Shane’s blog, but aren’t we able to pick up a phone and call?

Isn’t that part of what our fraternity is about?

Masonry and Life

2008-07-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

This is taken from The Square, a monthly Masonic newspaper published in Vancouver for a few years in the 1920s. The issue is dated August 1922. The newspaper was edited by Bro. Robert Templeton of Cascade No. 12 (who never served in office in his Lodge). I don't know anything about the author.

MASONRY AND LIFE
By William Jack

EVERYTHING good and permanent in this world of ours owes its origin to some necessity of the human soul. No institution can survive long unless it is founded on the actual needs of the race. Our public school system has sprung out of the desire of the human mind for knowledge. Our churches are established on the universally felt necessity of help from Heaven in meeting the temptations and bearing the burdens of life. The printing press and the newspaper were called into existence because the world needed some method of preserving its investigations and circulating its information.
Masonry had four sources of origin in the human mind: (1). Masonry sprang from the demand of the race for the presence of God in human affairs and a revelation of the divine to human hearts. When Masonry was born the number of persons who believed in God as the self-existent Cause of All Things was comparatively small, and it was therefore necessary to stereotype the existence of God and crystallize the eternal truths of morality in some form that would not be affected by the changes of history; (2). Masonry had its origin in the social instincts of man. Some institution was demanded that would stand for the brotherhood of the race, and emphasize the thought that a true development of the moral nature could not be attained in solitude, but by the friction of hearts in social converse; (3). Masonry had its origin in the human love for the secret and mysterious. This is the soil in which our oral and unwritten work has been planted, and out of which has grown the strict secrecy of the Order; (4). Masonry had its origin in the tendency of the human mind towards the concrete. The philosopher loves abstractions, but the human race at large has never been interested in abstractions. Masonry was designed for the common people, the great middle class of the world.
Masonry consists of an almost endless series of pictures so presented to the mind as to leave lasting impressions. Masonry is an album of realistic scenes drawn from actual life covering the journey all the way from the cradle to the grave. This is what is meant by the symbolism of Masonry—human life illustrated. It is very easy to see, therefore, that when we investigate the symbolism of Masonry we are digging in that part of the rich field where the priceless treasure of its true meaning may be found.
All the sciences, all the different steps of learning, all the vast outreaches of the mind are represented in the Masonic lodge room. This, looked at from a material standpoint, has a mighty influence in the formation of character. When a man becomes a Mason, his eyes are opened to see not only this little planet, but other worlds in space above him, and his life must therefore be enlarged, and he must take a sublimer view of human destiny. This is one of the grand results of Masonry, to show the works of creation in their true magnitude. A Mason thus looks through nature up to nature’s God, and devoutly worships him as the Supreme Architect of the Universe whose eye is ever upon him and to whom he is responsible for every thought and act of his life.
When a man enters a Masonic lodge room for the first time he is symbolically taken back to the early days of his youth. He is supposed to be starting out in life. His condition is that of complete ignorance. The outer world from which he would separate himself by the mystic rites of our Order lies behind him in a scene of confusion and turmoil. If he ever gets into a lodge it is because he places his reliance on God and is seeking for light. Every symbol of the Entered Apprentice points to the fact that the candidate desires to make a new start in life. He is represented as being dissatisfied with his past habits, associations and courses, and as having an earnest desire to begin a new career. During the ceremony he is reminded that the serious work of life has now begun. He is provided with working tools. He is taught that on his own efforts depends his future success. A holy ambition is inspired in his soul to excel in all laudable undertakings. The Entered Apprentice degree represents and provides for the period of youth. The follies of idleness, intemperance and sensuality are pictured before him, and he is exhorted to honor the name of God, to act on the square with all men and to avoid any irregularity which might impair his faculties or debase the dignity of his profession.
The second degree of Masonry symbolizes the stage of manhood. The lessons of wisdom and virtue which he received in his youth as an Entered Apprentice are now to produce their active fruits. The working and thinking period of life has now arrived. The rewards of industry are set forth in most impressive emblematic forms, and the candidate is taught that by faithful work in due time he will be entitled to receive wages. The second degree illustrates the power of the human mind. The duty of study and investigation is inculcated. The reasoning faculty is called forth.
But the true beauties and resplendent glories of Masonry are seen in the sublime degree of a Master Mason, which symbolizes the stage of old age after the period of active life has been passed. Those virtues are taught and those hopes inspired which are calculated to comfort our declining days and prepare us for the exalted joys of the future glorious existence. As an Entered Apprentice, the Mason is taught those elementary principles which fit him to confront and grapple with the temptations of opening manhood; as a Fellow Craft he is taught to investigate and patiently to climb the mountain of knowledge, economising the forces of life by concentration instead of expending them by diffusion; as a Master Mason he is taught that truth so hard to learn, which the seasons and the passing years and the tolling bell and the open grave are constantly preaching to us, that he must die and present his work for inspection to the Supreme Builder. The Master Mason represents man after all the labors of life are over; it is the time of fleeting shadows and farewells spoken hopefully and yearnings for a sight of the heavenly temple. The Master Mason is a pilgrim watching for the dawn of the morning to which so many of the emblems among which he has lived, pointed. The working tools are laid aside, and the sprig of acacia is cherished as the eloquent expression of his belief in the immortality of the soul.
Masonry is an attempt to carry over and concentrate the results and victories of the past into the present and the future. It is the vehicle in which the experience of one age is transported into the succeeding age. Nearly all the institutions of man are coeval only with the age in which they are founded. Politics and political parties are constantly changing. They are only the scaffolding with which to construct new apartments in the temple of state, and when these are completed they are torn down. Social customs are born and die with an age. Methods of business—the forms of social and domestic life—the usages and laws of governments—are never uniform or stable. With Masonry, the old man departs and the young man is initiated and a new membership occupies the seats of the lodge; but there has been no change in the institution—Masonry still remains the same old Order of fraternal greetings, of mutual assistance and of social concord.

It’s Vancouver in 2010

2008-07-07T00:22:00.000-07:00

No, I’m not talking about the Winter Olympics™, although the games will take place on Canada’s balmy West Coast then. I’m talking about the Grand Conclave meeting of the Order of Secret Monitor. An e-mail’s been sent to me revealing an invitation from my Conclave to host the annual assembly has been accepted.

Most Masons in North America don’t know about the OSM; they think everything in Freemasonry is either York Rite or Scottish Rite because of some chart Jeremy Cross or someone made about 180 years ago. A post about the Secret Monitor can be found HERE for those of you who want more information.

Grand Conclave is held in the same spot as the Grand Council meeting of the Allied Masonic Degrees of Canada so, I presume, Grand Council will be held here, too. The Secret Monitor isn’t under the Allied Degrees in Canada any more but, because many members belong to both, it’s cheaper to have both Grand bodies meet on the same week.

The Allied Degrees is an invitational body open to Royal Arch Masons. I enjoy the AMD. Its purpose is two-fold: to hear papers on Masonic subjects and to keep alive several of the old side-degrees. The side degrees are nice; they’re fairly short and contain little lessons dealing with some Masonic principle. In the Knights of Constantinople Degree, it’s humility. In the St. Lawrence the Martyr Degree, it’s charity and hospitality. More can be learned about the Allied Degrees HERE.

Neither the Secret Monitor nor Allied Degrees meet more than a few times a year, so they don’t take up a lot of time.

This will be the first time either Grand body will have met in annual session west of Winnipeg, so it promises to be an exciting time, as there’ll be a chance to meet some new Freemasons. Though I’m waiting for someone to say to me: “We need someone to do this at Grand Conclave.” I can only hope it’s not something Olympic-sized.

Pass The Port, Mr. Sartre

2008-07-06T23:09:00.000-07:00

This site seems to talk more about Tom Accuosti than it does your humble blogger. It’s because he’s more interesting than I. After all, I’m a Past Master, a Past Grand Steward, a Past District Deputy and, well, I’m pretty much in the past. But I’m not on the Crop Circle Planning & Zoning Commission like Tom. Or a member of Team Osiris Obelisk Siting and Surveying. However, I do spell “aluminium” properly. And I have a name no one mispronounces.

Tom’s name makes a return to this portion of the Masonic Blogosphere with the revelation our Bro. has made an appearance on Greg Stewart’s podcast at Masonic Central.

Radio talk shows—and that’s what this podcast boils down to—aren’t really my thing. I worked on talk shows at one point of my career. However, I wanted to hear Tom’s voice because we’ve been exchanging notes since he appeared on alt.freemasonry before even joining the Craft.

Naturally, I haven’t listened to the whole programme. I’ve only gotten as far as the first nine minutes because Tom made this statement about what he expected before joining:

“I had this vague idea in my head that I was going to go into a Lodge, and there were going to be a whole bunch of...real thinkers and movers and we were going to, like, hang around, drinking scotch, smoking cigars and talking about philosophy most of the night.”

Tom said that sounded off the wall.

My questions are..

Why does that sound off the wall?

And why don’t Lodges do this?

Here are some wild guesses.

• For a long period of time, Lodges were so busy conferring degrees that they didn’t have a lot of time for Masonic education of any kind. When the candidate pool dried up about 20, 30 years ago, Lodges had forgotten how to do education.
• As a result of the above drying, guys now join and are shoved into the East so fast, they spend their year trying to figure out basic protocol, how to run a meeting, and what to do (and when) during degree conferrals—sometimes ending their year still not knowing. In other words, Masters don’t “set the Craft to work and give them good and wholesome instruction for their labours.” They don’t know how.
• The endless business of the Lodge gets in the way and takes up precious time. Balloting, minutes, Treasurer’s reports, correspondence, discussions about stuff that should be decided by the Master or organised in committee. And on and on.
• No one ever thought of doing it.
• Maybe philosophical waxing is not a North American thing. After all, some people here actually deem Dancing With the Stars and something called Brangelina’s babies as being worthy of significant amounts of discourse time.

No, Tom, it shouldn’t be off the wall. It should be stupefyingly easy to do. All a Master has to do is, before the start of his year, come up with a philosophical statement/question-of-the-month for every month. And then open it for discussion, either in Lodge or at a point in the Festive Board.

Sure, we’re not all thinkers with a capital T. But Freemasons are supposed to be intelligent people, capable of understanding the principles, symbols and allegories of the fraternity. That being the case, they should be bright—and able—enough to feed off each other during a discussion and raise points or comments that perhaps they never even contemplated before.

It’s worth a try. If it fails, what’s lost? It can’t be any worse than a monotone recitation of bills that need paying.

Oh, and make mine Courvoisier—though I’ll settle for another Grolsch.

Grand Masters of the Past Speak

2008-07-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

These were culled from reviews in the Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Idaho, 1888. The written word had such a lovely rhythm back then.

In every degree, in every measure of advancement, in every step of progress, the intelligent Mason is perpetually environed with the ever-increasing light of accumulating intelligence in things good and true until he goes to take his place in that living Temple, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens...What, indeed, is Masonry but as sounding brass and a hollow, ghastly mockery, unless its principles are lived out, not in the empty delusions of signs and ceremonial and ritual, but in the sublime reality of a good and true life.
George S. Hallmark, Florida, 1888.

Freemasonry teaches the things that are true and noble, and offers abundant opportunities for the development of mind and heart. Truths that ennoble, purify, and bless our race are strongly impressed upon us. We are urged in the most forcible manner, by every possible lesson, to the performance of such duties as will make good, true, and noble men and earnest workers for the good of society. It teaches us to be better husbands and fathers, more earnest and zealous citizens, and it charges us to be loyal to the country in which we live; it pledges us to the advancement of the civilization of man and the practice of the cardinal virtues.
Mortimer Nyde, Indiana, 1888.

When you meet, if you have no work, instead of going through the form of opening and closing with a dull routine (and I have seen it done), then hastening home as if a task had been accomplished, discuss some points in Masonry on which your minds are not perfectly clear; get light from others. None are too old to learn. Post yourselves upon the lectures, drill your officers; in short, let each lodge try to be the color-bearer.
Florian H. Nash, Indian Territory, 1887.

The lectures and symbols of Freemasonry are replete with wise and valued truths. The candidate for Masonry, from his entrance as an Entered Apprentice until he stands endowed with all the rights and privileges of a Master Mason, finds along his pathway lessons of wisdom—lessons moralizing, instructing, refining, ennobling and elevating. Human life, with its brevity, will be exemplified by the swiftly-running sands of the hour-glass, and he will be reminded how swiftly the hours speed. Brethren, let us not forget that these short hours make the days; the days, weeks; weeks, months; months; years; and when we stand at the end of even this comparatively lengthy period, how brief seems its span and how narrow the gulf which it has made.
Charles K. Constant, Nebraska, 1887.

What Would Noah Do .. And Should We Do It?

2008-07-04T04:26:00.000-07:00

There was a time—and we aren’t going back to the days of Noah when most Past Masters were actually young—when one of my Masonic Lodges didn’t have to worry about candidates. That’s because it didn’t have any. The Lodge didn’t raise a single Freemason in seven years. Another one of my Lodges had, I think, four guys in seven years.

However, things turned a few years ago around thanks to a bunch of things unexpectedly falling together for both Lodges and they’ve been busy with degree-work. The first Lodge I mentioned now has four Fellowcrafts as of the end of the Masonic year.

The incoming Master is getting his schedule together for the coming term—the Lodge only meets once a month, eight months a year—and was asking whether we should put the F.C’s through in Noah-like two-by-two fashion or have four raisings at four meetings.

I really don’t know what to suggest to him, other than to explain what the procedure should be (in my opinion) if we raise them in pairs.

One of the advantages of doing it that way is we don’t bore everyone with a bunch of Third Degrees in a row. While members certainly like the ceremony, I’m sure they don’t want to sit through it seemingly every meeting. Another advantage is this would free up two meetings at which the Master could do some education and/or instructional stuff that he’d like to see more often. The Lodge has so busy with degree work (single candidates in many cases), it hasn’t been doing a lot of anything else.

However, the D.C. doesn’t particularly like the idea, and neither do some of the other members. They say the candidate’s experience is diminished when he is paired with someone—he alone should be in the spotlight. As well, the ceremonies are designed for one person, and the floorwork can become awkward with all those people stomping around out there.

It’s hard to say which is better. I received my three Craft degrees on my own; my Mother Lodge was just treading water at that point. But in my Royal Arch Chapter, I went through with someone else. In retrospect, I don’t know if there was much of a difference; I was still left confused by some of what happened either way.

I like the idea of having more meetings available for the education of a Mason, especially something interactive instead of a dry speech. But we should remember our degrees are education, too. How many times is it said someone watching for the biddle-teenth time has learned something new?

The main thing, perhaps, is that the degree is well-conferred and conveys some kind of understanding of what it is about Freemasonry the degree is trying to instruct.

In a way, we’re fortunate we only have four Fellowcrafts. The other Lodge mentioned at the start of this post just initiated four men (with part of the ceremony done in pairs; it didn’t work too badly). It now has six Entered Apprentices with at least one petition on the way. The incoming Master has decided to do only two Masons at a time so it’ll mean some pretty tired officers by the end of next June.

But, as some P.Ms have said, it’s better than having no one. Those fallow days of no petitioners lasted a lot longer than 40 days and 40 nights.

Trivial in the Past = History Today

2008-07-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

There was a day you could go to the movies and see a newsreel and a cartoon before settling in to watch the feature attraction. People laughed at Bugs and Porky, Tom and Jerry, maybe even Heckle and Jeckle. But those little reels weren’t Citizen Kane or The Lost Weekend or even Singing in the Rain, so nobody took them too seriously as film. That changed when kids of the 1960s like me who grew up watching them on TV realised they didn’t know anything about the cartoons’ creators or the studios because no one bothered to document it. So, now you can find countless books of histories and criticisms (some with words so big, Bugs would hit you with an anvil if you used any of them) about the Golden Age of Animation. It’s because someone now deems cartoons Important.

There was a day as well, in the early 1990s, when something existed called a Bulletin Board System. There were dozens of these amateur BBSs around town, and I discovered some of them exchanged posts on something called FidoNet and—better still—some carried the Freemasonry echo. That meant Masons who owned a home computer and a modem—and few I knew then did—could call a BBS phone number and connect to read stuff about Freemasonry. Sure, messages to the echo sometimes took a day to be seen, but it was new. It was novel. Freemasons around the world actually communicating with each other. All at 1200 baud! (I later upgraded to 14,400. I don’t want to tell you how much the modem cost then). There were similar sorts of things going on; CompuServe had a Masonic forum at the same time. But, in that day, most Masons wouldn’t have considered any of this activity worthy of study itself, anymore than film critics watching cartoons in 1944. It wasn’t Important—not compared to a real Masonic meeting with the ever-exciting, always-been-done-that-way droning of the Secretary for the first 45 minutes.

Ah, but as Mighty Mouse would say, “Here I come to save the day!”

The “I” in this case is Trevor McKeown, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon. He’s been asked to make a presentation in Lodge Quatuor Coronati in London on a history of Masonic activity online.

In a way, Trevor’s a bit of an odd choice. While he has set up one of the finest Masonic web sites in the world, he’s always had a bit of disdain for other aspects of the internet, such as mailing lists and the Usenet newsgroups which eventually replaced FidoNet. However, he is a thorough researcher and I (not Mighty Mouse in this case, either) am looking forward to reading his paper on what is a rather unwieldy and uncharted subject. And I have no doubt, like the first books on animated cartoon history, others will eventually add and build upon it, filling in blanks.

One of the people doing that may be Jim Tresner. He has had the foresight to review a few blogs (not this effort, it being a very modest one) in the current Scottish Rite Journal, an American publication. It’s good to see someone is recording their existence which future internet historians may study. And who knows? Those historians may very well decide bloggers are Important. Just like Citizen Kane. Or Bugs and Porky. Then again, they might just call us Daffy.

The End. Or as Porky says ... Well, you know the line.