Advanced Freemasonry

Pacific Northwest Style

I often wonder about what might have been our highest form of Freemasonry in the past. Not the highest Degrees, or other such nonsense, for we know that long ago those Degrees were often just sold to the highest bidder.

No, the highest form of Freemasonry. It’s fullest flowering.

We can’t know of course, for so much is lost to the mist of time, but when pondering such things my mind often flows to Paris and the Lodge of the Nine Sisters when Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, John Paul Jones, and Antoine Court de Gebelin were members there.

I like to imagine that this Lodge operated much like the famous Parisian Salons that brought people together to discuss all that was important in society at the time. I like to imagine that Franklin and his fellow Masons met in Nine Sisters Lodge to discuss the philosophical, cultural, and social issues of the day. Seeking understanding together.

If that is what happened, I surely have to believe that to be the highest form of Freemasonry.

Photo by Peter Bryan on Unsplash

We can, of course, do those very things, hold the same sorts of discussions today.

And, frankly, we should. If we aren’t, we are missing out on something really positive that in a perfect world would be a part of our Masonic experience.

There are of course a number of prerequisites to having a truly superb discussion like this. Time. Relaxation. Trust. Openness. Probably a lot more things that I can’t think of. But whatever might be on that list, it is undoubtedly true that without a willingness to openly speak, a discussion will never be a truly powerful exploration.

And of course, some environments are much better for this than others.

I’m wholly a child of the Pacific Northwest. Of Cascadia as I like to think of it. Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, maybe a bit more.

So, honestly, I don’t really know how it goes anywhere else. Do folks elsewhere enjoy going camping? Beats the heck out of me. Seems to me that for folks who’ve lived their lives in New York City, maybe a big lawn is sort of like wilderness. For folks who’ve lived their lives in places in the Midwest, maybe the bugs keep them out of the unsettled areas. Probably not, but hey, I’ve honestly got no idea, because I’ve never lived anywhere but here.

Here, we like to camp. We like spending time in nature. I think that is pretty clearly one of the primary reasons why so many successful young people want to call the Seattle area home, because of the seemingly limited recreational opportunities this area has to offer. Traveling one hour west from my home will find me standing on a Pacific Ocean Beach. One hour east from my home will find me in the heart of the Cascade mountain range.

All this is a long way of saying that we like to go camping here in the Pacific Northwest.

We like to sit around a campfire, in the dark, talking with each other.

(I mean, sure, not everyone does. Mrs. Bailey hates the idea of camping for example. But you get the idea, lots of us really enjoy the flash of flames and the scent of smoke.)

I wouldn’t say that I’ve planned a Masonic camping trip for this summer, rather I just picked a date for a Masonic camping trip and invited everyone to join me. No actual planning involved.

But, I think I’ve got a goodly number of Masons coming along.

And it is going to be a really excellent time.

Four nights (for me and some anyway, others might not be able to stay the entire time) sitting around a campfire, beer, bourbon, or something else in hand, talking.

Is there anything better in all the world?

No.

Except…

This is a Masonic camping trip.

So for awhile now, I’ve been saving some of the very best contemporary writing I’ve been able to find that addresses the ‘big questions’ of life. The philosophical, social, and cultural questions we face today.

Four nightly campfires, four topics for deep philosophical and Masonic discussion. All sprouting from the minds of today’s best thinkers.

I’ve no doubt but that the talks around the campfire will also include ghost stories, lots of humor, ribbing, personal reflections, and all the rest. But we’ll go for something deep too. Something Masonic. Something that I would consider to be advanced Masonry.

And a huge side benefit of that?

One doesn’t have to be a Mason to be included in Masonic discussions like this. Wives, families, prospects, friends, all can, and should be included in discussions of this sort. Because it allows others to actually see the very best of what Freemasonry can be.

I don’t know what people who live elsewhere, people for whom REI stores aren’t reverenced like churches, do for fun. Maybe camping isn’t a fun thing where some other people live, or isn’t fun for some Lodges of men.

But discussions like this, in whatever setting is most conducive for a Lodge to have them, are truly wonderful and powerful things. They give a Mason something to take home with himself and ponder in days to come. And that is what makes a really vital Masonic experience.

Plus, as a side benefit, it drives membership better than anything else. Let a non-Mason have a great experience with Masons and that’ll make him want to become a part of what we offer.

So do it.

In whatever form suits you, and your Lodge. Trust me, done well, you’ll like it!

If you want to go camping with us, as of this writing there are a small number of spots still available. All the details are here:

---

If you are looking for more from me, everything I wrote last week is here.