The Power Of Thought
It's role in our reality
In my experience, if you ask 100 Masons what Freemasonry does, probably over 90% of the time you are going to get the answer:
“Freemasonry takes a good man and makes him into an even better man.”
With no further explanation.
I think that an explanation never comes, because we really don’t have any idea how it happens.
I believe that most long term, committed Freemasons will tell you that Freemasonry has made them into a better man. I know, without any doubt, that for me personally, it has.
But I also don’t think that Freemasons who would tell you that it has worked, as promised for them, can tell you when that transformation, alchemy if you will, actually happened, or why.
For me, it was a slow process. I presume that it is for others as well.
I suppose that an argument could be made that Freemasonry works for self improvement because it teaches important moral lessons. I don’t think that holds the ring of truth. Those moral lessons are simplistic, nothing that we wouldn’t have received from our parents, Sunday School, or even the Public Schools. I also think that almost all of us are born with a sense of right and wrong, this being a divine spark within ourselves. So I just can’t think that’s it.
It is, I think, the power of thought. The power of thought that changes ourselves, and changes our reality.
Brother Albert Pike wrote:
“Thought is a force, and philosophy should be an energy, finding its aim and its effects in the amelioration of mankind.”
The Gospel of Matthew includes:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Moving backwards from our present time, we see that the power of thought has been an important part of hermeticism. A religious movement exploded in the United States devoted to this idea, calling itself New Thought. Moving forward we have popularization of the concept in things like The Secret.
Ultimately, what it comes down to is the fact that our thoughts manifest and become our reality. We can, if we recognize this truth, create change in our lives, positively impacting ourselves, those around us, and indeed our world.
Our thoughts are powers, emanating from ourselves. Unfocused they bring chaos, resulting in lives that are lived bouncing from one shoal to another, leaving us at the mercy of the vicissitudes of life. But focused they can transform us, and transform the reality around us.
When thinking about focus consider:
“Force, unregulated or ill-regulated, is not only wasted in the void, like that of gunpowder burned in the open air…”
-Albert Pike
Remember when reading the above that thoughts are a force.
So what on earth does all this ‘woo-woo’ have to do with Freemasonry?
When we join an organization with the express intention of improving ourselves, of making ourselves into better men, we are throwing a powerful and focused intention out into the universe. A force that will draw similar energies back towards us so that our intention, if we are open to it, can begin to materialize in our lives.
When we are Initiated and prove our proficiencies we are expending more energy, more thought, more force, flinging that out into the universe as well, calling for our intention to become better men to manifest within our lives.
Lastly, and I think that this is a very important consideration as well, Freemasonry has an egregore, and every Lodge has an egregore. Massive thoughtforms that have been created over hundreds of years as millions upon millions of men, from all over the world, have all banded together with that primary goal in mind, to become better men. Those vast energies, created by the thoughts of millions have an impact on us, and effect in our lives. They help us to manifest that self improvement that we seek.
Does this work for every man?
No, of course not.
It won’t work if a man enters Freemasonry for some reason other than what we expect.
It will not work if a man isn’t dedicated to self improvement, and because of that, to the Craft.
It won’t work if a man’s thoughts about it are scattered, or jump from place to place, never focusing on the goal.
It won’t work if he knows himself to be something other than a good man, for the lie will prevent it.
And I think that it may not work if a particular Lodge’s egregore is sick or somehow twisted because the men of that particular Lodge aren’t dedicated to their own path of self betterment for whatever reason.
But the fact that it doesn’t work for some men does not negate the fact that it does work for countless men.
The fact that it works can be proven by the fact that the ubiquitous answer:
“Freemasonry takes a good man and makes him into an even better man.”
Developed.
It certainly wasn’t developed by a professional public relations team as a part of a slick marketing drive, for it has been with us since time forgotten, accepted as a definition by millions.
This is what Brother Pike meant when he wrote:
“Thought is a force, and philosophy should be an energy, finding its aim and its effects in the amelioration of mankind.”
Our thoughts are powerful. They can change us for better or worse, and they can change our reality for better or worse. We must guard them, and we should direct them towards the good in our own lives, and the good of the world around us.
MW, I also believe in the power of our thoughts. Staying focused, not falling into a pattern of negative thoughts takes a form of training. We need to have something positive to think about, to focus on. Reading and participating in forums like Emeth is a good foundation. I also believe that we need to always be moving forward, even if that forward movement seems to be at a snail’s pace. There is no such thing as stasis in a man’s growth, you’re either growing or dying. It’s the same for the Lodge. Everything in the growth of the Lodge, growth of the man, begins with the guarding of the West Gate. If the Brother’s conducting the petitioner’s background and interview don’t have focused thoughts then the risk of finding an unqualified man knocking on our door increases.
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2. I think Hamlet was being rather existential when he said that. Without a solid moral and ethical grounding, the good and bad of a situation becomes fluid and can be rationalized as either good or bad, BUT in the light of a moral code the situation can be evaluated as good or bad. As Masons we have such a code, and we can evaluate actions. It is the action and evaluated by the code that provides the vector of growth. Egregors play a role in inspiring our thoughts and our choices, but we all are influenced by a choir of egregious. Our family, or culture, our religion, our political party and our fraternity can all have their own egregious, vying for our attention. Like heavenly bodies whose gravitational influence is determined by their mass and their proximity, so too the influence of these various egregious affect us based on their closeness, either specially or in our hearts. I believe our Masonic ritual is intended to bias us toward the Fraternal egregor when we are in Lodge, but we have to work to that end, it's not a passive thing. If you want to be made better, get your mind right, and let your thoughts be inspired by the fraternal egregor (your better angels). Each night before bed, I stand in front of a small Masonic altar I made, and I recite the charge, visualizing my Lodge. Actually I stand in front of it 4 times a day, in the morning, at noon, evening and before bed. As I stand there, I visualize my Lodge and then answer the question "why in the (direction)?" In the morning (facing the sun in the east) I give the sign and dugard of the master mason, at lunch, the entered apprentice facing south, and in the evening facing west the fellow craft. By doing this I am trying to align with the egregor on a regular basis. If I miss a session I include it in the next. It might seem silly, but for me it works.