At its core the very reason Freemasonry exists is to Initiate men.
Initiation is a practice that has existed for as long as man has roamed the earth. It is an opportunity for a man’s life as he knew it to die, to pass away behind him, and for him to be reborn without the baggage of the past. To be reborn without the errors of his youth. To launch a brand new life, a life he wants to lead. A better life, in which he is a better man.
The great secrets of Freemasonry can’t be taught because they are beyond words. They must be experienced to be understood. And they might well be understood differently by every man to a lesser or greater degree.
My own Masonic Initiation was real. I truly felt my old life pass away, and my new life begin. In the center of that old building in Monroe, I truly felt a form of death, and a rebirth.
I think that as Masons we don’t often talk about this experience. Both because words fail us (I don’t think my words above accurately describe the profound experience I had) and because it is something very private. Something we are likely not comfortable sharing with others.
I also know that for many men, the Initiation isn’t real. They don’t experience a change the way I did. In some cases this may be because the man wasn’t truly ready for Initiation. In other cases it is because the Lodge wasn’t capable of performing the work well enough for it to become a profound experience.
Often I imagine, men for whom the Initiation didn’t take will leave our Craft. In other cases the man may remain. Perhaps he will experience a true Initiation in future Masonic work, almost by accident. I read about one such case recently. A long time member of our Craft was made the ‘Exemplar Candidate’ in a Degree done for practice. He recounted that while he never felt the power of Initiation while being Initiated, Passed, and Raised, he did experience it years and years later while serving as ‘the candidate’ in his Lodge’s practice.
Despite everything that can go wrong, Initiation is an extremely powerful experience for the men of today, just as it was for men thousands of years ago.
And Initiation is at the very heart of Freemasonry.
A man can join a social organization. He doesn’t need to be a Freemason for that.
He can join a charitable organization. He doesn’t need to be a Freemason for that either.
Educational organizations are open to him, even Masonic educational organizations. He doesn’t need to be a Freemason to learn whatever he might like to learn.
But if he wants an opportunity to receive the benefits of a Masonic Initiation, well then he must seek out membership in a Craft Lodge. He must become a Freemason for that.
Masonic Initiation is what makes Freemasonry unique in all the world.
It is the very reason that our Lodges, and the entire superstructure surrounding them exists. Without Initiation, Freemasonry is not Freemasonry. It is nothing whatsoever.
Freemasons, and the leadership of Freemasonry understood this fundamental fact for hundreds of years. Then in some Jurisdictions and in some times, it was seemingly forgotten or brushed aside. The horrific abomination, the innovation that all Masonic leaders promised to avoid was introduced. The ‘one day class,’ ‘Grand Master’s class,’ ‘blue lightning.’ The names were different, but it all came down to the same thing. Making a whole bunch of men into Masons in a single day, by having them watch the Degrees being performed like an audience in a theater.
These ‘classes’ were able to be performed by extending the Grand Master’s ancient (but only ever used in the most extraordinary of circumstances) power of Making A Man A Mason At Sight. Masonic authorities that should have known better said it was OK to declare an auditorium full of men Masons because they watched our Degrees being performed, and the Grand Master was there to make them into Masons At Sight.
What utter nonsense that was, and is.
Nonsense because not a single man who watched a Degree instead of participating in his own Degree ever had an opportunity to be Initiated. Men come to Masonry to receive Initiation, and if they are shunted off to a ‘one day class’ they are robbed of any chance of actually receiving that which they were told they would receive.
This innovation in Masonry is nothing whatsoever but theft of a man’s opportunity at Initiation, carried out in order to increase current membership numbers and current dues.
In the end a Masonic Jurisdiction that removes the very heart and soul from Masonry will fail, for without Initiation, there is not a single facet of Freemasonry that isn’t better realized in some other organization. Again, Masonic Initiation is what makes Freemasonry Freemasonry. It is what makes Freemasonry unique in all the world.
I’m proud that in the Jurisdiction of Washington, I don’t remember a single ‘one day class’ being performed on new men seeking Initiation in all the years I’ve been a Mason. I think that my Jurisdiction flirted with this idea a time or two many years ago, but I believe those must have been before my time as a Mason, for I do not remember them.
When we came out of the pandemic, the Jurisdiction had a huge backlog of Degree Work, and I was asked quite a few times to allow a ‘one day class’ in order to clear it. I was pleased to refuse these requests for all the reasons stated above. I was even prouder to know that the men who followed and will follow me in the East were of the exact same opinion.
I was however very saddened today to see that one United States Grand Jurisdiction that already utilizes these ‘one day classes’ extremely heavily is considering Legislation that would devolve the Grand Master’s ancient power of Making A Man A Mason At Sight to all of that Jurisdiction’s Worshipful Masters.
In other words, the leadership of that Jurisdiction has apparently decided that it wasn’t enough for them to regularly hold ‘one day classes’ whereby they can shovel in members and money while providing nothing. They now want their Worshipful Masters to be able to make the whole scheme even easier. Lodges would simply be able to wait until they have a handful of men ready for the Degrees, sit those men on the sidelines and let them watch, and then the Worshipful Master would simply declare them to be Masons.
Never giving any of those men an opportunity to actually experience Initiation.
Hopefully that Legislation fails. If it does not, hopefully Lodges will refuse to utilize this new power given to their Worshipful Masters. If they do not, hopefully candidates will refuse to petition Lodges that utilize these schemes, turning their attention to Lodges that will endeavor to Initiate them instead.
If nothing else, this entire Craft, and each of its Lodges must do the utmost to ensure that they provide the very finest Initiatory experience possible. The Initiation will not take in all men, but it will in a great many, and that alone transforms a man into a Mason.
If we do not do that, Freemasonry will pass into history, and its death will be deserved, for we will have allowed its very heart and soul to be cut out. We will have removed that which makes Freemasonry Freemasonry from it. We will have turned it from something unique in all the world into something common and profane, into something without worth.
Initiation is what we do. It is what we promise. Let us give every single candidate a truly Legendary Initiatory Experience. Let us give him Freemasonry.
I agree with you about all of that and mainly Freemasonry should not be a way to just get more cash in the Lodge accounts......but I see that too.
I wish I could get around like you do still since I just got that email about the trip to D.C. next year and that sounds great and I would love doing that and in my better days I tended to stay a couple weeks when we went back east but I never made it to D.C to see all those places.
That picture you showed this time is a place I have seen on history programs a couple times with that winding stairway to that floor at the bottom so I had a closeup view of it from top to bottom.......which is my traveling these days.
I tend to watch world history programs so much that the wife will go watch movies on a disc ;-)
As far as changing things in Masonry........well you have more "powers" to do anything than I do since you are our MWPGM and not many of us ever get close to that.
So good luck with that here in our State since you know more members than I do but I did meet more than most since I saw you all at every Zoom meeting we had so you got used to your Masonic mad scientist ........which is why I am always awake when you post these topics since in Geneva it is close to lunch time at CERN......and I just started all my test programs up so it is great this laptop I have next to me at night sends me my emails (windows 11) so I always know when you left something for me to read.
I haven't been to Monroe for a long time but daily talk to an old friend who still lives in Maltby
He tells me Monroe is not like it was when I was going to that old Monroe Middle School in the 60's
Goodnight Brother Cameron
Wow that nice