I did hear that Adolph Hitler came down hard on Masons, since we were a "Secret Society"? No Mason could safely wear a Masonic Pin, or the "Brownshirts" would arrest that Mason. A secret tiny blue flower pin was adopted. If a Mason was discovered, and refused to say who his Masonic Brothers were, he could be imprisoned. At least he wasn't "Drawn and Quartered" like Jacques DeMolay?
The Nazi's did indeed liquidate Freemasons, and of course they weren't the only ones. It seems that virtually all totalitarian regimes (with the notable exception of Cuba) work to destroy Masonry. Franco in Spain was particularly brutal as well.
I don't know if the Forget Me Not pin story is factual or not, but I don't think it truly matters one way or the other. The important thing about the pin is that it has become a Masonic symbol in its own right, an important one in my view.
In WA, we had a "gun locker" where anyone who was carrying would place his firearm and lock it up, as a past master had demanded no one bring a weapon into lodge (a later master and Marine no longer answering reveille) did away with that nonsense, but the lockers remain. Here in TN, we're rather more relaxed about it, and in fact I was advised that if I ever went to grand lodge, or to the Scottish Rite valley, it would be advisable that I be armed, as those locations were in areas that had fallen on hard times.
At Centralia the Lodge is very heavily armed. We did have one member strongly object some years ago, but no one else seemed to share his view, and as at the time our Grand Lodge elected Officers were heavily armed as well, he couldn't make any Masonic basis for his claims. I'm less sure about the other Lodges I'm a member of, but I believe that at least some are armed in each.
I did have a weird Scottish Rite experience once. We were visiting a city in Texas, and I had seen pictures online of that city's spectacular looking Scottish Rite Temple, the exterior was beautiful. We drove there one evening, just to look at the exterior and to snap a few photos. A police cruiser pulled up (like always I was wearing lots of stuff that identified me as a Mason) and the officers assured us that the neighborhood had gone so bad over the decades that it was sitting in the middle of a hotbed of crime.
I saw that article, and the author appears to have some kind of delusions that torture her. I too was shocked at the phrase “white hot rage.”
Anti-masonry is certainly on the rise. I fear that we don’t have the backbone to take it like we once did, nor do we have the intelligence to capitalize on such a cultural moment.
MWPGM Bailey,
I did hear that Adolph Hitler came down hard on Masons, since we were a "Secret Society"? No Mason could safely wear a Masonic Pin, or the "Brownshirts" would arrest that Mason. A secret tiny blue flower pin was adopted. If a Mason was discovered, and refused to say who his Masonic Brothers were, he could be imprisoned. At least he wasn't "Drawn and Quartered" like Jacques DeMolay?
The Nazi's did indeed liquidate Freemasons, and of course they weren't the only ones. It seems that virtually all totalitarian regimes (with the notable exception of Cuba) work to destroy Masonry. Franco in Spain was particularly brutal as well.
I don't know if the Forget Me Not pin story is factual or not, but I don't think it truly matters one way or the other. The important thing about the pin is that it has become a Masonic symbol in its own right, an important one in my view.
I wrote about this years ago here:
https://emeth.substack.com/p/the-forget-me-not
In WA, we had a "gun locker" where anyone who was carrying would place his firearm and lock it up, as a past master had demanded no one bring a weapon into lodge (a later master and Marine no longer answering reveille) did away with that nonsense, but the lockers remain. Here in TN, we're rather more relaxed about it, and in fact I was advised that if I ever went to grand lodge, or to the Scottish Rite valley, it would be advisable that I be armed, as those locations were in areas that had fallen on hard times.
At Centralia the Lodge is very heavily armed. We did have one member strongly object some years ago, but no one else seemed to share his view, and as at the time our Grand Lodge elected Officers were heavily armed as well, he couldn't make any Masonic basis for his claims. I'm less sure about the other Lodges I'm a member of, but I believe that at least some are armed in each.
I did have a weird Scottish Rite experience once. We were visiting a city in Texas, and I had seen pictures online of that city's spectacular looking Scottish Rite Temple, the exterior was beautiful. We drove there one evening, just to look at the exterior and to snap a few photos. A police cruiser pulled up (like always I was wearing lots of stuff that identified me as a Mason) and the officers assured us that the neighborhood had gone so bad over the decades that it was sitting in the middle of a hotbed of crime.
I'm just trying to figure out which one of us RW brothers down here in the great state of Arkansas is your pick for co-running the world!
You had me crying with all your "power" you possess in the first part. I could only think this must be news to Mrs Bailey! 😆
Good point about not letting anyone walk alone these days.
Never mind "Mrs. Bailey". We all know that I actually hold all the power. I just let MW think he has it,
This lunatic thinking stokes violence. It's libel and should be treated as such.
But remember, even if you are the MWPGM of Washington, I am still the Secretary. Now where did I put that damn phone number.
MW I am with you!
I saw that article, and the author appears to have some kind of delusions that torture her. I too was shocked at the phrase “white hot rage.”
Anti-masonry is certainly on the rise. I fear that we don’t have the backbone to take it like we once did, nor do we have the intelligence to capitalize on such a cultural moment.