Simple, cheap, and effective. What could be better?
In some ways, learning about Freemasonry is really straightforward. Learn the Work, study the Lectures. You’ll have it down faster than you realize.
If, that is all you want to learn.
But if you want to go deeper, if you want to gaze at that which is hidden behind the veil. If you want to truly learn about Masonic symbology in ways that you can deeply integrate it into your life, well, if you want to learn Freemasonry at that level, it is extremely complex.
How could it be otherwise with thousands upon thousands of books about it published over the course of 300 years. Not to mention millions of pieces of ephemera, countless blog posts, podcasts, and all the rest. Scattered throughout the world.
If you are looking to add the connections between Freemasonry and Western Esotericism into the mix, well then the complexity grows by orders of magnitude.
But this post isn’t designed to make that study seem impossible, not to discourage anyone from making that study. In fact, I think that Freemasonry would be a much better institution if we had significantly more Masons studying Masonry.
Rather, this post is an attempt to offer a way that Freemasonry can be studied. A way that is simple, cheap, and effective. A way that can be put into practice by any Mason anywhere.
The problem with Masonic study is that we forget things. We very often forget things almost immediately.
We will have a sudden flash of insight into a bit of Masonic ritual while taking a shower, thinking that we will remember it later, but in ten minutes when that later comes, we will have forgotten it entirely. This happens to us all, and it happens all the time.
The other thing that can become a challenge, is connecting the dots between ideas. We might have two or three different insights about some part of Masonic symbolism that all correspond with each other into a more perfect whole, but these correspondences can be very difficult to recognize, because the insights themselves came to us at different times and in different places.
This system is designed to compensate for both of those challenges.
I make no claim of the system’s creation at all. It has existed, in very similar form, for hundreds of years. I suppose, like Freemasonry, since Time Immemorial. But, I have found that it works extremely well.
All you need is some bits of fairly strong paper, and a pen or pencil.
I’ve refined that a bit, again, I claim no credit for these refinements, they too have been in place for a very long time.
The system as I use it, goes something like this.
Two little boxes. One to store unused supplies, one to store filled out cards.
A bunch of 3X5 Index Cards.
A daily use bundle of about 14 Index Cards, held together with a little binder clip.
A good quality pen.
A snazzy pouch that can look good carrying 14 or so cards and a pen.
That’s it.
So your daily use gizmo is 10 to 15 Index Cards, either held together with a binder clip or in a pouch, along with a pen.
Then keep these things with you. Keep em in a pocket or on the desk at work. Take them when you go out. Keep them by the recliner in the evenings, the bed at night. Just make a habit of keeping them with you as a part of your everyday carry.
Then when that flash of insight into the symbolism of the Square and Compasses comes, quickly write it down.
When you read that interesting sentence in that Masonic book, write it down.
When you hear a guy say something compelling on that Masonic podcast, write it down.
The cards you’ve written on go in the box you have for that purpose. In no particular order, just get them in there.
Replace them in your daily stack with more blank cards.
That’s it. Nothing to it.
But what you are creating is a very powerful tool. Long ago it was sometimes referred to as a Commonplace Book. Ultimately, it is a storehouse of knowledge, held in easily digestible tidbits, in a form that is created for manipulation.
Here’s where the fun begins. Because you knew that there would be fun didn’t you?
And it’s also where true Masonic knowledge begins.
Sometimes, whenever it feels right to you, take out these cards in some random order, or if you’ve been doing this for a long time so there are far too many cards, take out some random section of them.
Then read the cards.
Just read them, one by one.
In so doing, you will often find that while you had forgotten entirely about whatever it was you wrote down, on some level, your mind had continued mulling it over. You will find that you now possess new insight and new understanding into whatever it was. You will have gained Masonic knowledge and wisdom.
And that is an insight that would make a great Lodge program or discussion topic with your Brothers.
The other thing you will often find while reading these cards one by one is that you will start to see connections between seemingly disparate ideas and concepts. connections and correspondences that you never saw before. This is key to deep understanding.
And once again this is something your Brothers would really enjoy hearing about at Lodge, or even just around the table before or after.
Freemasonry is such a wide field that there is more out there to study than anyone could Master in a lifetime. But so much of it is subjective. So we pick up a bit of understanding here, a tiny speck of wisdom there, but rarely if ever is it whole.
But collecting those little bits of knowledge, and working with them so that we can discover the connections between them, we can gain the wisdom we seek. We can become truly Bright Masons.
I urge you to give this system a try. It works, it costs virtually nothing, and it is super easy to do.
Just a bit more about the stuff:
I use really cheap Index Cards from Staples. As long as the paper is thick enough to survive, I’m happy. But you can get super nice Index Cards made in France online. You can also get waterproof Index Cards online from a company named Rite In The Rain.
I want a pen that is as reliable as a Zippo lighter, so I use a Fisher Space Pen. It writes every single time, it won’t break, and it won’t leak. But, Fisher Space Pen Refills will fit into any pen that uses a Parker style refill. So if you don’t want to spring for an expensive pen, just slap a Fisher refill into any Parker you come across. You’ll get all the benefits without the cost.
I truly like the pouch. Hand made at the Fison Custom Shop in Seattle, out of an old pair of Filson Tin Pants. Very cool!
I love this! It reminds me of a similar tool I have found very useful, for years I have kept a dream journal. I keep a notebook and pen by my bed, and if I find a dream particularly vivid/disturbing/memorable I write it into the notebook as soon as I wake up. Then periodically I go through the notebook and see if I'm able to decipher anything about what that dream might have been trying to tell me. A tip for making the dream journal "easier" to read is to only write one dream per page, and to title each dream as it were a movie title which should come to you easily if the dream is worth putting into the journal.
Very good article. What you are writing about is actually the same method as using "Flash cards". With its help, you can even create different categories, creating topics in an individual way. I first came across the method about 15-20 years ago. It's a very effective method. The key, as you wrote, is that due to the many and regular repetitions, learning will be much easier.