Masonic Religion

Excerpt from Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike, Chapter XIII. Royal Arch of Solomon

Every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion; and its teachings are instruction in religion. For here are inculcated disinterestedness, affection, toleration, devotedness, patriotism, truth, a generous sympathy with those who suffer and mourn, pity for the fallen, mercy for the erring, relief for those in want, Faith, Hope, and Charity. Here we meet as brethren, to learn to know and love each other. Here we greet each other gladly, are lenient to each other's faults, regardful of each other's feelings, ready to relieve each other's wants. This is the true religion revealed to the ancient patriarchs; which Masonry has taught for many centuries, and which it will continue to teach as long as time endures. If unworthy passions, or selfish, bitter, or revengeful feelings, contempt, dislike, hatred, enter here, they are intruders and not welcome, strangers uninvited, and not guests.

I enjoyed this little piece by Albert Pike. The application of Masonry to and as religion is one of the sweetest benefits to be had in Freemasonry (by those who are willing to receive it.) Masonry stays clear of the theological and salvific matters of Religion, and therefore is neither a Religion of its own, or the substitute for one, but as the handmaiden of Religion, a Brother should not be afraid to take up what it has to offer, sow it and reap a spiritual harvest from doing so.

My own religion is deeply Masonic (both on a personal level, and a historical level - me being a Mormon.) and I'm glad it is. The Masonic tenets of Liberty and Equality help to keep the whole system grounded for me, and allow me to avoid the type of vain pride that religionists can so easily become filled with and instead show genuine love and respect for all of my fellow beings.

Freemasonry: Monotheistic?

I was recently present at an investigative committee review of a new candidate for Masonry. An interesting question came up, "Are you monotheistic?" This shocked me. The real question, traditionally is "Do you believe in a Supreme Being?" There is a big difference between these two questions. After some dialogue with the candidate, the conclusion was reached that yes he believes there is a "head honcho" and that this satisfied the requirement.

1. How many people think Masonry requires monotheistic belief? Do certain Grand Jurisdictions have this as an official requirement?

2. How many Masons reading this are NOT monotheists? (I am not. I'm a henotheist)

3. What purpose would such a restriction be perceived to serve for the Good of Masonry?

Heredom Archive

Here's an archive of short excerpts from the previous issues of "Heredom" - the journal of the Scottish Rite Research Society. There is a Membership level in SRRS open to anyone, whether Mason or non-Mason. Their publications are fascinating, and I recommend it to any brother looking for a little more Masonic light.

Heredom Archive

Do we need to disassociate with OES?

Darren Simpson's Blog quoted an article by James Downing that I found interesting. However, I was a bit distressed by this portion of the reporter's description of the Lodge room:

The lodge looks simple on the outside, but walk up a flight of stairs and you will find yourself in an ornate meeting room.

A throne on the east wall sits below a pentagram adorned with Masonic symbols. The Worshipful Master -- the head of the lodge -- sits on the throne, according to Galloway.

I'm actually not one to stand up against Pentagrams. In fact, there was one on my own wedding invitation. But, I know a lot of good men would be put off by such a prominent depiction of a pentagram above a throne in a society they are considering joining. But wait, the Pentagram isn't part of the Masonic furnishings... The only thing I can think of, is that OES had an Eastern Star pentagram suspended above the Master's chair. Probably unlit, but it attracted preening eyes of the reporter more than the letter-G (most likely mounted above the pentagram). Since Lodge wasn't opened, neither one was lit. This has now been published and raises red flags for anyone who reads it and has only the popular understanding of the symbol in mind.

Should we try to disassociate with OES and get it out of our lodges? Or maybe we should require OES's pentagram to be draped with a covering when not in use so that it does not create confusion, nor distract from Masonic degree work.

What is Freemasonry?

(Taken from http://kingsolomonslodge.org/freemasonry/what-is-it.php, where any comments on this article should also be posted.)

Freemasonry is often defined as a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. It is the oldest and largest fraternal order on the earth, and has in modern times, as well as in times of old, been a popular subject evoked in works of fiction and conspiracy theories. The aim of Masonry is to take good men and make them better. This aim is accomplished by teaching men what is expected of them as a member of The Craft by way of a special form of instruction using ancient rituals, which we call "degrees", which lay the candidate under solemn obligations, voluntarily assumed in the name of God, to perform those things required of them and abstain from those things prohibited by Masonry.

Because our obligations are taken in the name of God a man must possess belief in a Supreme Being in order to gain admission into the fraternity, but beyond this simple requirement Masonry places no further restriction or demand upon the religious beliefs of the individual candidate: His religion is his own business, however, Masonry does teach of the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and the Immortality of the Soul. Masonry is not a religion, nor should it ever become the substitute for religion, but it is often said to be the handmaiden of religion, and encourages the individual Mason to be active in his faith and live by the Volume of Sacred Law (Scriptures such as the Holy Bible, Koran, or other holy writings) of his own faith.

Many of our principal symbols derive from the working tools of the Operative Stone Masons guilds of the middle ages, but to the modern Speculative Freemason they are used to teach us moral lessons, for example: The common gavel is an instrument used by operative Masons to break off the rough and superfluous parts of stones, the better to fit them for the builder's use. But we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to make use of it for the more noble and glorious purpose of divesting our hearts and consciences of all the vices and superfluities of life: thereby fitting our minds as living stones for that spiritual building, that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The chief tenets of Masonry are Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth, and a Mason is taught to practice the four cardinal virtues: Temperence, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice. Masons come from all walks of life, and Masonic lodges exist in nearly every country of the world.

Candidates for Masonry must be free born, come under the tongue of good report, and be well recommended. The "free born" requirement is a relic from the days when slavery was common. It is important for a Mason to be free, because he must be able to make decisions for himself in order to be placed under the obligations of the fraternity. Additionally, a man must petition for the Degrees of Masonry by his own free will in order to be considered for membership: No one should ever be induced to become a Mason. If you are wondering why your friend, a member of the Lodge, has not asked you to join the fraternity, it is because that is not in the program: You must ask him, of your own free will, if you desire admission into the mysteries of our ancient and honorable order.

Chapter and Council Degrees

I completed the remainder of my Chapter and Council Degrees on Friday, September 29, 2006.

Prior to this I had gone through the Past Master degree. So I just completed the following degrees:

Chapter:

6° Most Excellent Master
7° Royal Arch

Council:

8° Royal Master
9° Select Master

The degree work was all good (though there was room for improvement). This was our Fall York Rite Festival, and was conferred at the Masonic Center in Cottage Grove, Oregon, so I look forward to attending my "home" Chapter and Council meetings for the first time in the near future. Unfortunately I have to miss this month's convocation because I have a unique opportunity to go camping in a cave that I need to do before it gets much colder.

The meanings and symbolism behind the York Rite degrees is rich and although I benefited from the degrees I know I have a lot to learn as I become more familiar with the ritual. I think doing more than one degree on the same day is unfortunate in that it is so hard to soak in all the information that is presented, especially as the day nears the end.

One little point that I find fascinating is the verb used to indicate ascention to each degree, and I haven't seen it documented anywhere very well except concerning the Blue Lodge degrees. I will list them here, to the best of my ability, with a little help from the Internet to supplement my forgetfulness:

Initiated an Entered Apprentice Mason,
Passed to the Degree of Fellow Craft,
Raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason,
Advanced to the degree of Mark Master Mason,
Inducted into the Oriental Chair as a Past Master,
Received and Acknowledged a Most Excellent Master,
Exalted to the Most Sublime Degree of Royal Arch Mason.

I'm not sure if the Council degrees share the trait of having such a verb? At least, I do not recall any being used during our festival.

Renamed my Blog

I've renamed my personal Masonic blog from "King Solomon's Lodge" (informally King Solomon's Blog) to "Lodgical" thus allowing the title King Solomon's Lodge to be dedicated solely to the blog aggregator. The main URL will remain the same as it has been, but for those three of you who have subscribed to my feed, the feed address has changed:

Posts Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Lodgical
Comments Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LodgicalComments

Calling all recognized Ancient Craft Masons...

I'm a bit concerned that the Internet today isn't reflecting the Masonic reality. Why? There is a disproportionate amount of what Timothy Bonney at Freemasonry Resources calls Fake Masonry, in fact, it feels to me that the Masonic blogosphere is about 30% of this flavor and 70% Recognized Masonry, when in reality the number of recognized Freemasons in the english speaking countries probably dwarfs the others at around 99%. If you were only going by Grand Lodges in the US alone, there are approximately 70 recognized Grand Lodges (counting Prince Hall) that are highly active and no more than 4 (and I'm being generous) unrecognized Grand Lodges that are also very active. That's still 95% recognized. The Internet gives voice to whoever writes on it. Google does not discriminate. KingSolomonsLodge.org has chosen to discriminate ONLY on informational content and not on recognition in order to avoid politics and verifying recognition and authorship at the listed blogs. Yahoo!, MSN, blogspot, Wordpress, etc... They do not discriminate. And this means that whoever yells the loudest looks the biggest.

Well, I'm calling for Recognized Masons to Yell Louder! There are probably many Masons out there who would actually be very great at running their own blog and sharing their thoughts and insights into Masonic education. I am not trying to declare a war on unrecognized Masonry, I am simply asking that those of you who are able to, please blog about YOUR Masonry, so that the statistics will begin to come back into the balance and accurately reflect the real world.

I will gladly assist any Masons who wish to begin an adventure in blogging to get started, just contact me by email or comment and I will do whatever I can to assist.

Lets spread the light of Ancient Craft Masonry - please do not take this as a message to bash on clandestine or unrecognized groups - that is FAR from my point, but rather demonstrate that genuine recognized Masonry is alive and well. At 95% we would take our rightful place as the defacto Internet voices of the craftsmen, and the other 5% would still be able to speak but their audience would be more deliberate instead of people generally seeking Masonic information.

We need more Masonic bloggers!

Note: I hold a certain amount of respect for those who are participating in some of those groups that are currently unrecognized. It must take some guts to take such a leap of faith, and I trust that the majority of them are decent men. However, on both sides of the fence some of the individuals and groups are lacking in judgment and are bringing discredit to the good name of the Fraternity. I value personal integrity very highly, and as such, I recommend that all Masons live up to every aspect of their Masonic obligations to the fullest extent possible. If everyone would do this, we would not even have this issue to begin with!

A Mug

My wife and I have been designing some merchandise on Zazzle, and I decided to do a couple of pieces for my Masonic Brethren:

Masonic Square & Compasses by islesmay
Get this custom mug at Zazzle

Welcome "Guerilla Masonry"

Guerilla Masonry

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to the most recent blog added to the aggregator at www.KingSolomonsLodge.org, "Guerilla Masonry." It is not new, the first posts being from February 2006, but it somehow slipped under the radar when I was previously scouring for quality Masonic blogs. Lets show our support for this brother's efforts by making a special effort to read his posts and help catch him up on the late start here.

KingSolomonsLodge.org Email Subscription

For those who prefer email over feedreaders, or don't yet know or intend to know what a feedreader is, King Solomon's Lodge - The Path to Masonic Blogs is now available by Email subscription!

Blogger Recent Comments

For anyone who has been feeling jealous of my Recent Comments sidebar module, a feature which is scarce to be achieved with Blogger, I am pleased to announce that it is now freely available for anyone using Blogger from this site. Just sign up, go to Recent Comments for Blogger, click "Add", copy and paste the generated address into your Blog's "Comment Notification Email" and copy and paste the Javascript snippet into your Blog Template. That's it! Enjoy.

Past Master

Tonight I received the Past Master degree in York Rite (August 21, 2006). It was better than I expected. I had relatively low expectations for it, basing my knowledge off of the Public Installation of Officers for Blue Lodge that I have witnessed. It was a little more involved. Kudos to our long departed Brother Thomas Smith Webb who first incorporated this ceremony into York Rite, for improving it to the point where it can rightly be considered a degree of its own.

Masonic Fellowship

Last night, I went over to one of my Masonic brother's homes with another Lodge member. We kicked back, shared stories, and had a good time. There was some beer involved on their part -- I don't drink, and I was pleased that they respected my choice and provided me with a nice vanilla soda. Being men with integrity and morals, I knew I could count on them to respect my own decisions, and don't think I would have even gone if it had been with anyone other than my lodge Brethren.

Anyway, we had a great time talking and it was just very relaxing after an evening of degree rehearsal.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

Psalm 133 (A Song of degrees of David.)

Jack Chick Reading List

Was cruising over Jack Chick's anti-Masonic material, and ran across a list of names, which he claimed are occultists or sorcerers in the Masonic fraternity. While I cannot vouch for all or any of this information, I thought to myself: Geez, this looks like a good reading list of charismatic, and unique authors, whether or not they are all Masons, and at least some of them are. Remember, I do not take responsibility for the statements made in this list, it is attributed to chick.com:

• Arthur Edward Waite - occult writer and Masonic historian.
• Dr. Wynn Westcott - member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and founding member of the occult Order of the Golden Dawn.
• S. L. MacGregor Mathers - co-founder of the Golden Dawn.
• Aleister Crowley - master satanist of this century and founder of the anti-christ religion of Thelema.
• Dr. Gerard Encaussé - (Papus) masterful author, teacher of the Tarot and leader of the occult Martinistes society.
• Dr. Theodore Reuss - head of the O.T.O., a German occult/satanic society which made Crowley its head for the British Isles.
• George Pickingill - the master warlock (male witch) of 19th century England, leader of the "Pickingill covens."
• Annie Besant - leader of the occult Theosophical society and Co-Masonic hierarch. (Yes, there are female Masons!)
• Alice Bailey - founder of the New Age organization, Lucis (formerly Lucifer) Trust.
• Bishop C. W. Leadbetter - Theosophist, mentor to the failed New Age "Christ", Krishnamurti, and prelate in the occult Liberal Catholic Church.
• Manly P. Hall - Rosicrucian adept, author, founder of the Philosophical Research Society.
• Gerald B. Gardner - founder of the modern Wiccan (white Witchcraft) revival.
• Alex Sanders - self-styled "King of the Witches" in London and one of the most influential leaders of Wicca after Gardner.

A fascinating list. I would argue that the Masons in this list indeed, for the most part, bring credit rather than discredit to the Craft. Not to mention that they help keep all the fudies scared away from our ranks.

Masonic Information Updated

Greetings Brethren,

I have just done extensive reworking of the Masonic Information section available through the links in the upper right portion of www.kingsolomonslodge.org.

I would encourage you all to read through it to help me improve its content. I know there is still much room for improvement, for example, I would like eventually to have short degree summaries available for as many of the rites and bodies as possible.

I am at this time keeping the "Masonic Information" section limited to bodies concordant, appendant, and open to members of regular (recognized) Craft Masonry as defined by general consensus of the United States Grand Lodges. (Meaning that Prince Hall is considered recognized.)

There is also room for a Comment thread at the bottom of each page, which I am experimenting with.

Enjoy!

Envoy Cites Tyre - Jerusalem Biblical Ties

Envoy Cites Tyre-Jerusalem Biblical Ties

Wow, old King Hiram got in the news!

Some New Masonic Vocabulary

I heard some new Masonic terms, and I thought I'd share them. The more common one first, which many of you may already be familiar with:

GRAND EAST: The place where the Grand Lodge holds its communications and from which place the edicts are issued. (Definition from http://www.masonicworld.com/education/files/masonicdictionary.htm )

But today I read something about "Grand West"

After some research, the meaning seems to be either of these, depending on the jurisdiction:

1) The Deputy Grand Master, or Grand Senior Warden.

2) ALL of the Past and Sitting Masters of any Lodge, or (and perhaps the same people), the Voting Members of a Grand Lodge.

What if "The Solomon Key" does something else?

I'm going to play a game of "What if?":

What if Dan Brown's upcoming book, tenatively titled "The Solomon Key," spurs support for some controversial history or controversial interpretations of Masonry that some of the Brethren accept, while some are indifferent, and others fervently reject? Many people have been wondering what the fraternity will do to handle the publicity, in order to capitalize on it and reap the harvest of those men whom it may attract to the Fraternity.

However, if "The Da Vinci Code" has taught us anything, it seems to have divided opinions of the Christians (whose own history was the subject) right down the middle. Many people heralded the message of The Da Vinci Code, and encouraged study of Brown's, and other alternative views of their history, while many more have treated it as a heretical view, necessary to be defended against.

This disagreement had all the potential to create a schism in Christianity, except for one thing - Christianity is already schismed. There are so many churches and many of them recognize each other, but they agree to disagree on many of the finer points of their doctrine and theology.

Freemasonry, at least in the United States, is not schismed in this manner. Or, rather, any schism that exists is unbalanced, because the "regular" Grand Lodges outweigh any other competing system by an incredibly enormous amount. So what if the content of this book presents something which gains equally strong opposing views by members of The Craft? Views that some of the Brethren will welcome as a valid attraction for new candidates, and others will utterly reject as "clandestine views" (or, "heretical", as it may be.)

If this happens, will we be prepared to maintain harmony within the Lodge? Can we respect our fellow brethren, if they think things, and even encourage things different than our own personal views? Can we survive through a 50/50 split opinion on a popular and relevant topic?

I'm making no claims as to what the issue itself might be, merely looking at Dan Brown's track record, and he sure seems to know how to pull the right strings.

If you haven't already, you may want to listen to X-Oriente #005 The Perfect Storm in connection with this post, as it was part of my inspiration to write this.

Lesser Light in the Court

I went to court today to give my plea concerning a speeding ticket. I was sad to see that the court room was not at all like the ones depicted on TV, with all the beautiful woodwork and paneling. But most of all, I was amazed that a gavel was not used in this court to rap people down.

Everyone did arise while the Judge entered the room, so there was a little bit of ceremonial left.

What's with the lack of a gavel? Is this some type of Counter-Conspiracy? I feel sort of sleighted.