Masonic Education
If we expect Masons in Lodge we must give them a compelling reason to attend
Properly speaking, Freemasonry is a Mystery School. It is not one of the mystery religions from the ancient world, but it is the inheritor of those traditions. The lessons it seeks to teach its initiates are those same lessons that have been with us since the dawn of time.
Manley P. Hall wrote:
“The true Masonic Lodge is a Mystery School, a place where candidates are taken out of the follies and foibles of the world and instructed in the mysteries of life, relationships, and the identity of that germ of spiritual essence within…”
Albert Pike wrote:
“…the Legend of the Master’s Degree is but another form of that of the Mysteries, reaching back, in one shape or other, to the remotest of antiquity.”
But how many of us can say that our Lodges resemble anything like a Mystery School? Or that they provide any meaningful instruction at all?
Our Worshipful Masters are in place to Give the Craftsmen good and wholesome instruction for their Labors.
How many even attempt to perform this primary duty?
A commenter in an Emeth discussion this week wrote this about the contrast between Emeth and his Lodge:
“I am getting more of what I was looking for in the two months of this discussion group than I got in 3 years of active involvement with my local lodge.”
What does that say about his Lodge?
What does it say about Freemasonry as a whole?
This is a problem. It is a very serious problem.
If a Lodge hopes to survive, it has to solve this problem.
If a Lodge hopes to fulfill the promise of Freemasonry for its members, it has to solve this problem.
The vast majority of men will not remain active members of a Lodge, unless the Lodge provides them with a compelling reason to come.
I think it likely that Freemasonry, and our Lodges, lost their way when it grew so shockingly fast in the years following the two World Wars. Lodge memberships reached epic highs, and in some cases, Lodges were conferring Degrees on a daily basis.
When that tidal wave of new initiates first struck, those conferring the Degrees and mentoring the new candidates would have been men who were experienced in Masonry, and who likely understood Masonry.
But they would have been very quickly overwhelmed by the work. They would have passed those duties on to the men they had Made into Masons. Men who were less educated in Masonry and who had less understanding of it.
These men in turn would have then become overwhelmed, and passed the duties to the Men they had Made. These men would have been even less well educated, even less well informed, because they had learned from men who had less knowledge.
This process would have naturally continued until Masons were being Made who could learn nothing from the men who made them, because those men knew nothing of Masonry and had no understanding of it.
Likewise, this would have led to the degradation of our Lodge meetings. As the Lodge became overwhelmed with Degree work, all of its energy would have been directed towards those efforts. The actual Stated Meetings of the Lodge would have naturally become nothing more than the business of the Lodge, and scheduling of the upcoming Degrees.
The old members of the Lodge, the men who were Masons before the membership tidal wave hit probably understood that their meetings were being badly degraded, but probably assumed that things would return to normal after the wave had passed.
In my view, this didn’t work, because of course by the time the wave did pass, no one in the Officers chairs knew of Stated Meetings that did anything beyond the business of the Lodge.
Through these twin follies Freemasonry had lost the very thing that had led to the tremendous desire of men in society to become Freemasons. It had killed the very thing that drew men to it in the first place.
And our Lodges have been on a downhill slope ever since.
We, as Masons, can either chose to continue doing things the same way we are doing them, or we can chose to return our Lodges to what they were prior to their degradation. The choice is ours. Do we re-vitalize Freemasonry, or do we stand around, shaking our heads, watching as it dies?
We truly do have that choice.
We have that choice because we have wonderful old books available to us that explain what Masonry is supposed to be. We can emulate what we read within their covers.
We also have current authors, writing books and other things, that try to convince us to see, and teach, the hidden glories of our Ancient Craft. We can learn from them.
When you sit in a Lodge meeting, and you hear, month after month, the Master call for the minutes of the previous meeting to be read, even though they were approved at the prior meeting, even though they can be posted, even though they can be emailed to everyone prior to the meeting… Well, if you want to save your Lodge, never allow a Master to do that again. For doing that is killing your Lodge.
By calling for previously approved minutes to be read again the Master is not killing his lodge on purpose of course, but he is killing it nevertheless.
Try to convince him that mind numbing and unnecessary business items on the Lodge agenda harm the Lodge. If he can be convinced, and amends his way of doing things, that is great. If he insists on doing it in the same old tired way, well, in that case, a man who does understand must be elected to the East the next time around. We can not be wedded to the Progressive Line if it brings us unsuitable leaders.
Meeting minutes are one example only. Other aspects of deadly meeting content need to be removed from Lodge agendas as well. Needless, drawn out, and boring business items need to be ruthlessly cut and minimized so that the Lodge can focus on what will actually interest the men of the Lodge.
My ideal Stated Meeting night goes something like this:
-An excellent meal. Prepared by brothers, by ladies of brothers, or catered. But whomever prepares it, it must be excellent. Increase the expected dinner donation amount high enough to ensure that it can be excellent.
Include wine or spirits. Dinner with nothing but water, coffee, and off brand soda pop is not in keeping with the oldest, largest, richest, noblest fraternity in the world. When did we decide it was OK to become so common? So cheap?
-Ritualistically Open the Stated Meeting, and then immediately begin the night’s Masonic education program. Nothing else should be done between the Opening and the program. It needs to be first on the agenda, each and every time. It should also hold the longest time slot on the program. It should not be given 5 minutes, when the business that no one wants to hear takes an hour. The majority of every single meeting should be the program.
I know that some Masters don’t feel confident about running an educational program. They don’t feel that they know enough. That is OK. Let the Lodge run the program. All the Master has to do is randomly choose a small section from one of the three Degree Lectures. Read it out, and then have the Lodge discuss it, Round Robin style. Require everyone in the room to give their thoughts about it. You’ll be surprised at how much is learned, and how much the Brothers enjoy it, especially after the first couple of times, after they have a chance to build up some courage talking, explaining their own views of the ritual.
If you run out of Lecture snippets, well, then start doing the same thing with Morals and Dogma. We know that every Lodge has a few copies around. Just do it, and keep doing it. It will make a big difference in the Lodge as time goes on.
-After the program, then it is OK to handle the business of the Lodge. Do so as quickly as possible, and cut everything that is non essential. Trust me, introducing Cameron Bailey as the Deputy Grand Master, in his own Lodge, when every man in the Lodge has known him for years, when every man in the Lodge is well aware that he is the DGM is not essential. Stop doing that stuff. Please. It is dull as dirt. It drives men away from Masonry. Plus, quite frankly, it is absurd. It is one thing if he is visiting a Lodge, but his own Lodge?
-Close the meeting. Preferably less than one and a half hours have passed since it was opened. No meeting should ever go beyond one and a half hours, because that is just about the maximum amount of time men can give any meeting their attention. If it is going on too long, table some business, get the men out of there before they start going stir crazy.
-Head out to the dining room, or if one is available, the library. Break out a fine spirit, and if legally allowed in the building (if no employees work in a building it is legally allowed in Washington State) some good quality cigars. Enjoy each other as Brothers, over spirits, and maybe cigars. Toast each other’s successes, toast the Lodge, toast all the good things in life.
Do these things and you will have created a compelling evening that men will want to go out of their way to attend. You will be providing both the education, and the fellowship that Freemasonry has always promised to provide, but all too frequently does not. You will begin to see your Lodge start to thrive.
That is Freemasonry. Try it, I think you will like it!
Zoom Zoom!
Like every Sunday, I’ll open Zoom at 7:30 this evening. Login information will go out via email to those with a paid subscription to Emeth at 5:00 PM.
If you would like to join in this Zoom gathering, but need to upgrade your subscription to do so, please do it before 5:00 this afternoon to ensure that you receive the information.
As in previous weeks, we can talk about what was discussed on Emeth over the past week, talk about what we would like to discuss in the future, and of course toast each other and our Ancient Craft. We should also Toast the memories of our departed Brother Prince Phillip, Most Worshipful Brother Wayne Deming, and all the Brothers who have passed over the last year.
The meeting agenda will be tight, and like always, limited to 40 minutes.
I look forward to seeing you this evening!
Discussion Recap
Our chatting in Let’s Discuss Masonic Civility seems to show that most, if not all of us agree that we have Brothers getting carried away on Social Media from time to time. Bob wondered if the Grand Lodge could step in, I hope I explained well enough how that could become problematic. It was suggested by others that just not responding when someone else was being uncivil helps, and I think that is very true. Mike reminded us of the Closing Charge, a small part of our ritual which, if we truly live by it, will help us to become the better men we hope to be. From there the conversation devolved to our Lizard Overlords, 90th Degree Freemasons, and much else light hearted.
I did suggest a book:
The Ancient Stuart Roots of Bonnie Prince Charlie's Role as Hidden Grand Master
I recommend it again here because it truly is superb. Just make sure you buy the English edition, or are fluent in French.
Let’s Discuss Truth was an extremely interesting discussion to me. We had very thought provoking ideas from Jack, Bob, Franklyn, Tig, and Todd. Each stand alone, so I don’t want to summarize them here, please just head to the thread and read them for yourself. It is an excellent discussion.
Let’s Discuss Whispering Good Counsel was a discussion that I was looking forward to, because I don’t think that I’m very good at it. We had some great thoughts from Todd, Glenn, Clayton, and Franklyn. One thing we all recognize I think is that none of us are perfect, and that we can all benefit from the whispers of our Brothers from time to time. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be good at it, but I recognize its importance as explained in our Closing Charge.
Let’s Discuss Freemasonry & Society grew out of our discussion about Civility, and something that Glenn pointed out in that discussion. He, Roy, Bob, Russell, and Jack all provided solid perspective of where our Craft stands today, and in the past. It was an excellent discussion, and I urge you to follow the link to check it out.
Our Live Open Thread discussion was extremely frank. I enjoyed it, I learned from it, and I think that it was a very important discussion for us to have.
All of these discussions remain open, please do feel free to add your own thoughts to them. The more people who participate, the greater our ability to learn from each other.
Thank You!
I must start by giving a tremendous Thank You to everyone who has paid for a subscription to Emeth. This site has a wonderful future, it means a great deal to me, and it is only possible through your generous support. Thank You!
This past week was another week of tremendous subscriber growth. If this is your first Sunday essay from Emeth, Thank You for subscribing. It is great to have you here, and I hope that you will join in our discussions!
As always, Thank You to everyone who reads Emeth. I am humbled by the fact that you are willing to give me your time and attention. I hope that you always find something of value here.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to everyone who joins in the discussions here on Emeth. I’ve learned a lot from each of you, and I know that everyone else has too. Thank You for taking the time to share your perspective, experiences, and wisdom with us.
Thank You to everyone who shares Emeth on Social Media and in other ways. Our growth is due to your promotion, and I certainly appreciate it. The more people we can get involved here, the greater the impact Emeth can have on our Fraternity.
Thank you all.
Just in case you missed it:
I think it is important for us to remember that what a man is given freely, he will likely not value. But what he must work to have, he will value highly. I believe that is one of the reasons Freemasonry has always veiled its truths.
I agree with the statements made thus far. One point about the timing of the meeting that I feel strongly about is the business items. Business of the Lodge should be done outside the lodge meeting by committees and then the meeting time reserved for reports of the said committees. Too many times, the work is assigned a committee chair and one or two members to get something done/investigated. Then at the meeting a report is requested. But instead of reporting what was found or what is needed, the committee chair starts his work with the lodge members. Discussions ensure, suggestions are made, and time is wasted. Had the work been done by the committee members, the chair could spend 2-3 minutes giving status and save much needed time for education. Just one suggestion for getting our meetings back to the true business of Masonry...educating our brothers and each other in becoming better men.