It's actually growing . The newer generation I see are mature men who have served in the military who want the same kind of bonding that they had in the military. They are our future leadership and want active roles. More esoteric curiosity than previous generation. I have no doubt we'll survive, no doubt....
Quality of quantity. Freemasonry today is more important today than ever. The Freemason today is more open to the differences that make us up right men and Masons. A generation or more ago we struggled within ourselves when it came to religions and race. We said that we allowed all Free Men but that was not the case. In many jurisdictions they were living a lie. The 'hold outs' of closed minded jurisdictions are ending and we as a Fraternity are growing. Quality or quantity. My 2c.
It Depends. Lodges that offer true freemasonry (A special way of life and masonic education will survive and perhaps grow. Those that are only interested in fraternity will not
It all depends on how lodges meet the expectations of new members.
Also I think we need to come out of the cupboard. Masonry was once a visible aand active part of the community. Now it seems to hide as if it was ashamed.
As was relayed at the lodge leadership retreat last year, in examining the data, if we simply retain 50% of the brothers that quit masonry, we would be fine.
For years we’ve been told that advancing age and poor admissions are the reason for our declining numbers. While it is true that the average age of members is quite high, we’re actually gaining new members at a faster rate than brothers passing on. Younger men, willing and eager to explore the hidden mysteries we’ve been promising they would receive.
Eventually, however, those young men discover they have been sold a bill of goods that isn’t being delivered. So they quit. They just stop coming to lodge, and drop NPD, demit, or move on.
The fraternity can recover. The question is, are lodges willing to do what is necessary for that to happen? Time will tell.
One silver lining of the covid shutdown is that I got to participate in zoom meetings and presentations. There’s a lot going on in WA to rejuvenate Masonry.
I would say the sun is setting on the Craft the way it has been for the last few decades. Business meetings, the acquistion of degrees for the degree's sake and the lapel pin, the pure social club....that sort of Craft is dying. I would also say there is hope of a sunrise, in the sincere seeker of the esoteric, the true initiation, and the desire for authenticity that i have seen in newer brothers. I also see hope of a sunrise in the need of a moral and ethical grounding, free of the specific dogma of a particular religon, but grounded in the mystical traditions of the West. The sunset of the old guard, i think, is now inevitable, the hope of the sunrise is real and tangible, but by no means certain.
>>>So that begs the question in my mind: Will Masonry have to simplify its business in order to meet the needs and desires of the men to come? It isn't lost on me that a very significant percentage of the best Lodges in this Jurisdiction do not own their own buildings. In fact, it is in my view the overwhelming percentage. I often worry that our Real Estate holdings destroy Lodges. There are of course notable exceptions.<<< Many great insitutions, particularly religous and spiritual, have fallen victim to there own material success. Grand temples as an expression of the value of the path are powerful symbols, and can help sustain that organization, BUT you rightly point out that they can become anchors. I don't think there is an easy global way to address this, except to say if your temple is causing more problems than solving, then sell it and rent.
>>>Yet everyone seems so into solo experiences now, and I can't help but read a lot about 'self Initiation.' I'm not sure that self Initiation can truly be an Initiation, but others clearly do. I wonder how much impact that will have on our craft in the future.<<< Again i tend to agree, self iinitiation is a questionable path. I know it can work, but there are dangers. For example, as always, with spiritual development one of the biggest traps is ego inflation. If you self initiate, you alone decide if you are ready, and that is dangerous. Then again, many initiating institutions have abused the power that comes wiith initiation, and that is a good argument for solo work. There is also the issue of finding a qualified initiator, if they are in the phone book you should be suspicious! It is my opinion that if we offer real initiation, with real training and education, and live the lessons of those initiations then we would not have to worry about the impact of the self-initiating trend.
It's actually growing . The newer generation I see are mature men who have served in the military who want the same kind of bonding that they had in the military. They are our future leadership and want active roles. More esoteric curiosity than previous generation. I have no doubt we'll survive, no doubt....
Quality of quantity. Freemasonry today is more important today than ever. The Freemason today is more open to the differences that make us up right men and Masons. A generation or more ago we struggled within ourselves when it came to religions and race. We said that we allowed all Free Men but that was not the case. In many jurisdictions they were living a lie. The 'hold outs' of closed minded jurisdictions are ending and we as a Fraternity are growing. Quality or quantity. My 2c.
It Depends. Lodges that offer true freemasonry (A special way of life and masonic education will survive and perhaps grow. Those that are only interested in fraternity will not
It all depends on how lodges meet the expectations of new members.
Also I think we need to come out of the cupboard. Masonry was once a visible aand active part of the community. Now it seems to hide as if it was ashamed.
As was relayed at the lodge leadership retreat last year, in examining the data, if we simply retain 50% of the brothers that quit masonry, we would be fine.
For years we’ve been told that advancing age and poor admissions are the reason for our declining numbers. While it is true that the average age of members is quite high, we’re actually gaining new members at a faster rate than brothers passing on. Younger men, willing and eager to explore the hidden mysteries we’ve been promising they would receive.
Eventually, however, those young men discover they have been sold a bill of goods that isn’t being delivered. So they quit. They just stop coming to lodge, and drop NPD, demit, or move on.
The fraternity can recover. The question is, are lodges willing to do what is necessary for that to happen? Time will tell.
I say rising.
One silver lining of the covid shutdown is that I got to participate in zoom meetings and presentations. There’s a lot going on in WA to rejuvenate Masonry.
I would say the sun is setting on the Craft the way it has been for the last few decades. Business meetings, the acquistion of degrees for the degree's sake and the lapel pin, the pure social club....that sort of Craft is dying. I would also say there is hope of a sunrise, in the sincere seeker of the esoteric, the true initiation, and the desire for authenticity that i have seen in newer brothers. I also see hope of a sunrise in the need of a moral and ethical grounding, free of the specific dogma of a particular religon, but grounded in the mystical traditions of the West. The sunset of the old guard, i think, is now inevitable, the hope of the sunrise is real and tangible, but by no means certain.
>>>So that begs the question in my mind: Will Masonry have to simplify its business in order to meet the needs and desires of the men to come? It isn't lost on me that a very significant percentage of the best Lodges in this Jurisdiction do not own their own buildings. In fact, it is in my view the overwhelming percentage. I often worry that our Real Estate holdings destroy Lodges. There are of course notable exceptions.<<< Many great insitutions, particularly religous and spiritual, have fallen victim to there own material success. Grand temples as an expression of the value of the path are powerful symbols, and can help sustain that organization, BUT you rightly point out that they can become anchors. I don't think there is an easy global way to address this, except to say if your temple is causing more problems than solving, then sell it and rent.
>>>Yet everyone seems so into solo experiences now, and I can't help but read a lot about 'self Initiation.' I'm not sure that self Initiation can truly be an Initiation, but others clearly do. I wonder how much impact that will have on our craft in the future.<<< Again i tend to agree, self iinitiation is a questionable path. I know it can work, but there are dangers. For example, as always, with spiritual development one of the biggest traps is ego inflation. If you self initiate, you alone decide if you are ready, and that is dangerous. Then again, many initiating institutions have abused the power that comes wiith initiation, and that is a good argument for solo work. There is also the issue of finding a qualified initiator, if they are in the phone book you should be suspicious! It is my opinion that if we offer real initiation, with real training and education, and live the lessons of those initiations then we would not have to worry about the impact of the self-initiating trend.