Masonic Light
May it hold a new dark age at bay.
The values and teachings of Freemasonry are desperately needed in our society today. Perhaps more needed now than at any point in our long and storied history. Our culture is at a tipping point between reason and unreason, between brotherhood for all and countless, ever increasing, divisions between men.
As it has done throughout its history, Freemasonry can point our society towards the proper path. It can provide the ideals and aspirations that good men will seek to achieve.
I believe now, and frankly I have always believed (it seems somehow wrong to quote the Blues Brothers here, but alas, I must) that Freemasonry is “on a mission from God.” I believe that it has a divinely inspired mission to improve its votaries, and by doing so, improve the world around each Mason by some small score.
Properly, as Freemasons, this is our duty. In order to accomplish it, we must live in such a way as to be a credit to our Order, and we must work to keep our Fraternity a strong and vibrant force within the world.
At every step in a candidate’s journey he declares that he is in search of Light. Indeed, Masonry can be defined as a personal quest, a lifetime quest, towards the Light.
In Masonry, Light refers to Truth. Truth is found through Reason. Reason is properly ordered Thought. It is our ability to understand through the application of logic. Through it we are able to properly judge the world around us.
Thought, Reason, Truth, Light.
These are the very things that pulled the western world out of its long dark age, those miserable centuries of unreason following the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. The quest for Truth ultimately brought forth the Renaissance and Enlightenment. All of our advances as a society are owed to this striving on the part of mankind to discover that which his true. Our high standards of living, our concepts of individual rights, our pursuit of justice, and our technology. Without reason, without the quest for Light, none of this would exist.
Over the course of humanity’s existence it is not so long ago that in the western world lives were brutal and short. Filthy men huddled in their huts, cold, often hungry, afraid of natural forces that they had no ability to understand.
If we are not careful, we could find our society returned to just such a state. The veneer of civilization is thin and fragile, barbarism lies just under the surface. The fires of hatred and unreason are being stoked every second of every day, all across the internet, where they are absorbed by hundreds of millions, impacting lives in an extremely negative way.
Today forces are at work in the western world that seek to do away with thought, that find no value in reason, that don’t believe in the very concepts of truth and untruth. These forces seek darkness instead of Light. They seek to destroy the current order, rendering all the progress of centuries moot.
We have known for a long time that people holding these views exist. People who advocate that truth is meaningless, that the only value to be found is in feelings. Those of us who know otherwise, who understand the value of logic and reason, were overly confident in the belief that these intentionally unreasoning people held no meaningful sway. That they were largely ignored. That they could have no strong or lasting influence on our society.
That is not the case. The fact is that people who do not believe in the very ideas of reason and truth have risen to authority in our society, and they do occupy positions from which they can poison our culture.
In Washington State this reaches all the way up to our own Governor’s office. On November 25, 2019 at a meeting of The Governor’s Interagency Council On Health Disparities, a discussion was had that clearly illustrates this point.
The Co-Chair of the Council, Benjamin Danielson summed it up when he said: “The Office of Equities should model practices in decolonizing Boards and other government structures by identifying and dismantling culture bound rules and decorum, time requirements, education, and what we call expertise.”
In other words, he is suggesting that governmental agencies should no longer be bound by rules, bureaucrats should no longer be concerned with either decorum, or putting in a full days work, and that education and expertise are meaningless. His world is not a world I want to live in, for his ideas will lead our society straight back into another dark age. Make no mistake, people today want to take our society there, and they will do so by convincing others that rational thought is not needed.
Like the brutal men who lived during the dark ages, these new unreasoning people thrive on negative emotion. They strive to pit man against man in an orgy of anger. By dividing all people through ever narrowing ‘identities’ and creating ‘victimhood’ they kill the very notions of understanding and compassion.
We can watch this play out, in real time, each and every day. All we have to do is visit our favorite social media site to see rage and hatred served up for everyone, every moment of every day. We can not expose our society to this level of hate and expect it to survive as we know it. We’ve seen the first cracks already.
We can continue to watch people who do not believe in logic and education grow in power, or we can work to counter them. We can continue to see our cities burn, or we can try to lower the temperature. We can continue to tolerate tech monopolies filling our waking hours with content that speaks to our lowest emotions, or we can counsel a turning away.
Freemasonry is the antidote. Freemasonry teaches the importance of education, and man’s duty to continually travel towards the Light. Freemasonry teaches tolerance, understanding, and compassion for all. Freemasonry teaches us to improve our lives, and the lives of those around us by subduing our passions, by learning to control instead of inflame our angers.
Freemasonry is not the Light, rather it is the system that encourages us to find the Light. By doing so we push back against the darkness, each of us just a little bit, but united in this great quest, we can truly have a tremendous impact.
We need to ensure that we are strong Masons, that we build strength into our Lodges so that they may serve as bastions of Light in a darkening world. This is our duty to ourselves, our children, our fraternity, and our God.
Discussion Recap
This past week we had great in depth discussions covering a range of topics from Civil Liberties, providing candidates Meaningful Degrees, the future of our Fraternity with our first edition of the Tiny Book Club, the esoteric meanings of the Square & Compass, and even future Zoom gatherings. Personally I found tremendous enjoyment in each of these discussions, and I think that they are a great way that we can learn from and support each other. I was particularly gratified to see that both the Tiny Book Club concept, and the idea of regular Zoom gatherings for Emeth were well received.
Our discussion about how Lodges can ensure that they provide Meaningful Degrees was quite spirited. Glenn G. started us out with a number of great points: Knowing, and properly delivering the work, utilizing a Chamber of Reflection, and requiring a solid, traditional Proficiency. Larry W. added to the call for Posting Lectures to prove Proficiency, and the need to emote and use proper non verbal cues while performing ritual. Steve M. made the important point that more of us need to learn the Lectures. Certainly as older members pass, this need grows more compelling each year. Franklyn G. hit on the need for good music and proper lighting to help set the mood for each Degree. Todd B. made the important point that we truly should be doing only a single Degree at a time.
In our Tiny Book Club discussion Bob B. brought up a number of great points, touching upon Masonic Education, the role the Lodge can play in helping its members grow past fears of public speaking, the need for us to get out of our Lodge buildings, and the importance of mentorship. Franklyn G. hit on the need to ‘Pay Wages,’ and also to reach out to Brothers who have stopped attending. Todd talked of the need for Lodges to be active in the community, and for members of the Lodge to socialize together, truly becoming a band of friends and Brothers. He also mentioned MasonicCon, maybe we should consider creating one for Washington. Glenn G. talked about our Lodges needing to offer members a compelling reason to attend, good meals, great fellowship, and the problems with the progressive line concept.
When discussing the meaning of the symbolism of the moving positions of the Square & Compass, we each had our own ideas as to how we interpret the symbol for ourselves. This is how it should be, as Freemasonry is properly non dogmatic. I think we all benefited from reading others interpretations, and thank everyone who added their own unique thoughts to the discussion.
Discussing Emeth’s schedule, we seemed to all agree that a Zoom gathering on Sundays at 7:30PM would be a great thing. Cigars and Spirits, together through modern technology. More information about that can be found below.
In our discussion about Extra Masonic Bodies, it quickly became clear that across the readership of Emeth, folks here are engaged with many of them, in addition to our Blue Lodges. Todd talked about his membership in many of them, but the need to keep the focus on the Blue Lodge as the basis of all. Sopheak S. shared his agreement for a Blue Lodge focus, but talked of the strong networking potential of our other Masonic groups. Brian W. wrote about the joy he finds in the Shrine, and concerns he has found when listening to members of another organization that seems to believe it is somehow more enlightened than others. Bob B. talked of his own experiences with other bodies, and the fact that some never visit their Lodge again once they become active elsewhere. He also talked about issues around buildings, and the sharing of buildings. Finally he filled us in on Kennewick Lodge’s future plans for their building, it is going to be quite beautiful when its done. Franklyn G. discussed the groups he is a member of, and told us his reasons for joining them.
All of these discussions remain active and available. Please add your own voice! The more who participate, the better our discussions will be.
And look for next week’s discussion topics, starting bright and early Monday morning.
New Feature Coming
Beginning next Sunday at 7:30PM we will be gathering via Zoom, to discuss that morning’s post, or whatever else was talked about here in Emeth the week prior. We’ll also talk of our own successes and challenges, using toasts to honor and spread good wishes to each other.
It will be a tightly focused gathering, not too long, so that we can all get back to our lives after enjoying good conversation and great fellowship. I hope that your schedule will allow you to join us!
The Zoom invitation and gathering will be limited to Emeth’s paying subscribers. The model is not sustainable otherwise. If you find value in what we are building here, I hope that you will consider a paid subscription to support the work.
Thank You!
To all of you who are reading this, thank you. I am honored that you are spending your valuable time reading my words.
A big thank you to everyone who is participating in our discussions. Your input and ideas help us to all become better Masons, and if applied, will help to strengthen our Fraternity.
Lastly, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of you who have signed up for paid subscriptions to Emeth. So, Thank You! Your faith in me, and in this endeavor at community building is appreciated more than you can ever know.
URL
Emeth now has its own URL, just in case we ever need to move, or have need for a static web presence. We can be found through it at:
http://www.emeth.community
Excellent thoughts my brother.