“To Live Respected, And Die Regretted.”
It is a phrase very often used by Freemasons, encapsulating well I think, one of our most important, if not the most important, of our collective goals.
But how do we ensure that we accomplish that?
How can we be sure that we are living lives worthy of respect?
How can we know that when we die, our passing will be regretted by those who knew us?
I think that Freemasonry’s use of Memento Mori, symbols of death, can help us to answer these questions. That through the contemplation of this symbolism, we can search deeply within ourselves to discover the Truth of this fundamental matter.
Devotion to Santa Muerte (Saint Death); Santisima Muerte (Most Holy Death) is currently the fastest growing new religious movement in the Americas with estimates showing an excess of 12 million followers. These based largely in Mexico and the United States.
The Aztec people venerated a Goddess of death and the underworld Mictecacihuatl. Her veneration was in part wiped out by the Conquistadores, the Catholic Church, and its Inquisition. It was never completely destroyed however, and records of the Inquisition exist showing that the worship of Mictecacihuatl or a representation of her continued, underground, until the devotion again went public not long ago.
Representations and attributes of this ancient mythological Goddess changed over time, under the influence of surrounding culture. These influences include Mexico’s Day Of The Dead traditions, a tradition that is quite meaningful and completely distinct from our own Halloween. European depictions of the Grim Reaper, and the Catrina art of Jose Guadalupe Posada. Images of Santa Muerte today have little resemblance to surviving pre-columbian images of Mictecacihuatl.
Some today believe that Mictecacihuatl (and the rest of the Aztec Pantheon) simply went to sleep with the Conquest, but can be (and in the case of Mictecacihuatl have been) awakened through prayer.
The veneration of Santa Muerte remained hidden within homes (beyond occasional reports) until the 1990’s when it slowly began coming into public light, coming fully out in 2001 when the first public shrine devoted to her was created in Mexico City. It seems to have reached the United States openly around 2005.
Veneration of a mythical deity symbolizing death must surely seem strange and somehow other to most in the English speaking world. Let alone the veneration of Saints, let alone folk and mythological Saints must seem strange to those who did not grow up in the embrace of the Church of Rome (as I did.)
But I would argue that it may not be as strange as it seems at first glance.
For Memento Mori has been a European symbol of contemplation since ancient times, and has always been an important symbol within Freemasonry.
Albert Mackey wrote so long ago in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry:
“Skull and Cross-bones. They are a symbol of mortality and death, and are so used by heralds in funeral achievements. As the means of inciting the mind to the contemplation of the most solemn subjects, the skull and cross-bones are used in the Chamber of Reflection in the French and Scottish Rites, and in all those degrees where that Chamber constitutes a part of the preliminary ceremonies of initiation.”
Indeed Memento Mori has always been with us as Masons. For a time its use was shunted off to our Appendant Rites and Orders, but at least in my Jurisdiction, more and more Craft Lodges are embracing it once again. Including it as a means of creating truly meaningful Masonic experiences.
These two symbols, Memento Mori in the European mind and Mictecacihuatl in the Mesoamerican mind developed perfectly independently of each other, in cultures that had no contact.
But what can these ancient symbols teach us today, as Freemasons?
I believe that they can teach us a great many things…
Contemplation of the images of death can teach us what is important in life.
Does anyone alive today care that Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill had difficulties paying their bills? Or do we remember them as the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the man who saved the world from unspeakable evil?
Do we think that one hundred years from now anyone will care how much money Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates amassed in their lifetimes?
Will the man who grew rich, but ignored and abused his family leave a better legacy than the man who struggled to put food on the table, but reared his children well and with love?
Sit in front of that skull. Contemplate it. Think.
You are dead. Your skull has taken its place. How will you be remembered?
Your answer will show you what is important in life.
Contemplation of the images of death can remind us that time is a fleeting thing.
As humans here on earth, time is our most precious commodity. We only get so much of it. We never know when we are going to run out of it. No matter how many drugs we take, we can only extend it a bit. It is the easiest thing in the world to waste.
Sitting with the skull, contemplating it, reminds us that we are going to die. We are going to die soon. A heck of a lot sooner than we would like.
This realization reminds us that we have very little time here on earth to accomplish that which we seek to do. It reminds us to get up, get out, and do. It reminds us that if we hope to leave a legacy we must do the work, and we must do it today, for tomorrow may well be too late.
Contemplation of the images of death can remind us that death is not an end, it is a beginning.
Death is not something that should be feared, for we have faith in immortality. We know that what is most essentially us will continue after death. That we can and will live on. That we can see, and visit, and know, even when our body lies in the grave.
This is a lesson taught under veils throughout Freemasonry, not only in the symbols of Memento Mori, but Hiram, and Acacia as well. It is a lesson taught under much thinner veils through the celebration of Day of the Dead. Ultimately, it is a universal lesson imparted to humanity by the Divine, no matter how religion and culture have adapted it.
Contemplation of the images of death can remind us that eternity is near.
That we have faults. Deficiencies of character. That it is our duty, as Freemasons, and to ourselves, to amend these deficiencies. To improve ourselves. To ensure that we truly are using the Common Gavel to divest ourselves of our vices, so that we may become a part of that holy house in the heavens.
We do well to bring Memento Mori and the Chamber Of Reflection back into our Craft Lodges. Not as a way of being somehow ‘Cool’ or in disrespectful jest, but as a serious form of contemplation so that our newest Masons are reminded of what is important in their lives, what must change if they are to improve themselves, and as a reminder that their time to accomplish what they will is much shorter than they tend to think.
More importantly, to my mind, we do well to bring Memento Mori, in some form, into our own lives outside of Lodge. To contemplate death. To remind ourselves that it is not an end to be feared, but a holy beginning. To remember that death and the creation of new life are intimately connected.
To learn, for ourselves where our true vices lay so that they may be controlled. To remember that our time on earth is shockingly short when compared to the dreams we hope to accomplish, so we’d better turn off the TV once in awhile. To teach us what ultimately is important to us.
This is our work, as Masons, to do.
Thank you for reading Emeth.
We’ve taken on quite a few new subscribers recently, so I thought that I should give a bit of a Masonic Bio here.
I’m Cameron Bailey, Past Grand Master of the MWGL of Washington. Currently I’m the Senior Warden of Doric Lodge No. 92 in Seattle, Special Deputy for Little Falls No. 176 in Centralia, serve as President of the Centralia Temple Association and am a member of the Conference of Grand Masters of North America’s Commission on Information for Recognition.
I speak only for myself, and not on behalf of any Lodge, Grand Lodge, or any other Masonic Body. To badly paraphrase Bro. Pike, if you think that something I write is nonsense, feel free to gleefully ignore it.
I sincerely hope however that you enjoy it, and that you find value here.
As with every Sunday, tonight we will gather over Zoom for our weekly Rummer and Grapes! We’ll have a great presentation and discussion beginning at 7:30 Pacific time.
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Thank you again for reading Emeth! Together we will create truly legendary Freemasonry!
Very well said
Well written, thank you brother.