The Symbol, Or That Which Is Symbolized

It is important that as Freemasons, we don't confuse the two

Recently in one of my Lodges, we’ve been discussing the use of the Lodge Room itself. Whether or not it is appropriate to use it for fun events with non-Masons or not, or if it should be kept somehow sacred.

Victory Masonic Temple, Bremerton WA

Having listened to arguments on both sides for quite some time now, I think that the debate is largely the result of a confusion of the symbol for what is symbolized.

Lodge Rooms are not the Lodge. The Lodge is the collection of Masons meeting within the Lodge Room.

Likewise, while Lodges hold sacred space periodically, they are not, in themselves sacred.

I think that this is very well illustrated by the history of Freemasonry, as we know it.

The simple fact is that for most of Masonic history, our Ancient Craft did not own Temples dedicated to Freemasonry. Rather, Masonic Lodges met where they could. We know that for a great many Lodges, including here in the United States, that was the local tavern. Down at the local dive bar.

I don’t imagine that behaviors in bars have changed a lot through history, so I imagine that we can picture in our minds how it must have been. The Masons retire to a back room of some sort, closing the door to the drunken men’s shouts and boasts, the drunken women’s come-ons. That profane word was closed off, on the other side of the door.

But none of the space, not even that back room, would have been considered sacred.

Indeed, Speculative Masons are builders of sacred space. But not builders of sacred space in the physical world, we leave that to the Operative Masons.

Instead, we build sacred space through our ritualistic Lodge openings. And we return that space to the profane world through our ritualistic Lodge closings.

All of this is a long way of explaining that yes, our Lodge Rooms are sacred. But they are only sacred in that time between the Opening and the Closing of the Lodge. When the Lodge is not open, they belong to the profane world.

There are a lot of reasons why a Lodge might not want to use its Lodge Room for purposes other than Masonry. But a belief that the Room is somehow sacred in and of itself should not be one of those reasons.