Last week I heard a Brother ask the question:

Since our Lodges aren't meeting, we aren't able to 'do' Masonry. If that goes for a year, or most of a year, why should we have to pay Lodge dues or Grand Lodge assessments?

The basic argument was that Masons aren't getting Masonry during this time, so shouldn't be asked to pay for Masonry.

The Brother's question made no sense to me. I guess that he and I have had very different experiences with Masonry these past few months.

To my mind, Masonry is everywhere right now!

Our Lodges have older and sicker members for whom the virus is of great danger. Hopefully we have all reached out to these Brothers. Doing so is certainly an expression of Masonry.

Our Lodges have Brothers who have lost their jobs and are facing great financial hardship. Washington Masonic Charities is raising money to help, and getting that help where it is needed. That is certainly a strong expression of Masonry, and something our individual Lodges can be doing right now as well.

Lodges, Districts, and Grand Lodges are holding Masonic education video conference meetings. The most interesting Masonic educational discussion I've taken part in in years was held over Zoom by our own District 8. I've always been interested in feminine Freemasonry, so thanks to the Grand Lodge of California I was able to enjoy a long presentation by a female Grand Master. This week I know that some of the Masons I'm close with are going to be attending an educational event hosted by the Grand Lodge of New York. Not a week goes by, almost not a day goes by, that doesn't have one or more of these events.

Many of us enjoy fun side degrees. The Railroad Degree, the Loggers Degree, Shipbuilders, and Pirates all seem popular in our Jurisdiction. Well, I received a side degree via Zoom too, it was great fun.

Lodges and Grand Lodges are hosting regular toasts to build fellowship and to remember our absent Brothers.

For quite literally hundreds of years very well respected Masonic scholars have pointed out that Masons aren't much into actually reading about Freemasonry. Well, we have libraries of books all available. What a great opportunity this pandemic is for us to actually read about our Fraternity, no matter what our interest in it is.

Brothers are creating Masonic blogs, videos, and podcasts at a breakneck pace.

In my opinion there is more Freemasonry available right now than at any previous time. All one must do is take a look to find it. To believe that there is no Masonry simply because we are not able to hold Stated Meetings is a badly false belief.

#Dues #VideoConference #MasonicEducation #SideDegrees #WashingtonMasonicCharities #Pandemic

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

Subscribe to receive posts via email.

Not all, but certainly a great many men become Masons because they are in search of the ancient and esoteric knowledge our Order is purported to hold. Indeed, this knowledge has been a huge membership driver for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, as a group we seem to have some difficulties discussing these things. Perhaps worst of all, decades ago in some kind of misguided public relations scheme many started denying that Freemasonry holds any secrets at all beyond its modes of recognition.

Alas, this discussion requires honesty, so I'll be writing honestly.

Freemasonry does hold secrets. It is a repository of knowledge coming down from a misty past.

Men join to find that knowledge, but unfortunately once they become Master Masons they are often disappointed because nothing they thought that they would find was actually communicated to them.

Generally these men end up going NPD or seeking Demit early in their Masonic careers.

When that happens it is a terrible loss for them individually, and for the rest of us as well, for we have lost whatever talents they would have brought to the fraternity had they remained active within it.

When considering the loss of such a man, we must, as said above, be honest. When it happens, it is our fault. It happens because we, who know better, did not properly communicate with this man during his candidacy.

We let him believe that what he was seeking would be openly communicated to him through the rituals of our Degrees by never communicating to him otherwise.

The fact of the matter is that the profound lessons of Freemasonry are hidden within it. They are veiled.

Even the very definition of Freemasonry we give points out that fact:

“A peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory, and illustrated by symbols.”

Far too often those going through our Degrees miss the 'veiled' part, so it is incumbent upon us to communicate that to them.

There is of course a reason that Masonry veils its secrets. Man doesn't value that which is given to him for free. He only values those things that cost, those things which he must work in order to have. For that reason, Freemasonry makes a man work to uncover the knowledge hidden within. It never communicates it clearly or openly.

So how do we learn that which Masonry has to offer?

By study and reflection.

As Masons seeking knowledge we must read. We must read that which was written by the men who traveled the same journey before us. By doing so we discover what they found for themselves.

We then reflect upon what we have read to discover if there is something within it applicable to our own lives. We must dig deeply within our fundamental selves in order to find that which speaks to us personally.

Through this reading and reflection we will eventually discover the true secrets of Masonry.

If we communicate these requirements to our candidates, and show them how to get started down the path towards Light, we will find our retention increased, and that is wholly good for our Lodges, and our candidates.

Some thoughts from the distant past on the same subject:

“If you have been disappointed in the three first Degrees; if it has seemed to you that the performance has not come up to the promise, and that the commonplaces which are uttered in them with such an air, the lessons in science and the arts, merely rudimentary and known to every schoolboy, the trite maxims of morality, and the trivial ceremonies are unworthy the serious attention of a grave and sensible man, occupied with the weighty cares of life, and to whom his time is valuable, remember that those ceremonies and lessons come to us from an age when the commonest learning was confined to a select few, when the most ordinary and fundamental principals of morality were new discoveries; and that the three first degrees stand in these later days, like the columns of the old, roofless Druidic temple, in their rude and primeval simplicity, mutilated also and corrupted by the action of time, and the additions and interpolations of illiterate ignorance...”

”...Imagine not that you will become a thorough Mason by learning what is commonly called The Work, or merely by becoming familiar with our traditions. Masonry has a history and a literature. Its allegories and its traditions will teach you much; but much is to be sought elsewhere. The streams of learning that now flow broad and wide must be followed to their heads in the springs that well up in the far distant past, and there you will find the meaning and the origin of Masonry...”

”...let him who desires to understand the harmonious and beautiful proportions of Masonry, read, study, reflect, digest and discriminate.” -Albert Pike, 1857

As Masons it is our duty to make certain that those who come to us seeking Light understand that Freemasonry does not give that Light to those who do not work for it.

It is our duty to explain that the pursuit of Masonic knowledge is a life long quest. If we truly seek to assist those who come to us we will point out the entrance to the path his quest must follow, and direct him to some quality literature that will help him begin his journey.

By doing so we set a man up for a successful Masonic experience, we create a Mason in heart as well as in name, we build a Mason for life.

#MasonicEducation #SecretsOfMasonry #AlbertPike #MemberRetention

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

Subscribe to receive posts via email.

“No one ever joined a Masonic Lodge to pay the bills, or hear the minutes read.”

That's been said by much smarter men than I, for much longer than I've been a Freemason.

It is a fundamental truth that a Lodge ignores at its own peril.

Men become Freemasons in order to learn about Freemasonry, so that they can receive the promise of Freemasonry.

That's it.

If our meetings (that do not include a Degree conferral) focus on the business of the Lodge instead of on Masonry itself we are not providing our members the benefits that they signed up for when they petitioned.

This is not to say that the business of the Lodge should not get done. Certainly taking care of business is vital. It is however my belief that the business of the Lodge should never be allowed to become the focus of the Lodge. Doing business must always remain secondary to teaching and providing Masonry.

Teaching Freemasonry, and sending our Masons home from a meeting with something that will help them to improve their lives is not difficult. It can be accomplished in a myriad of ways, whatever best suits the Lodge, but I'll provide one easy and effective way here for any Lodge that wants to create an ongoing educational forum, without it becoming a large burden for any one individual.

Communicate the importance the Lodge places on education.

The importance a Lodge places on Masonic education is communicated by the educational program's location on the meeting agenda. It needs to be first in prominence.

A Lodge should open and once open immediately move into its educational program. First on the agenda, whenever there is not a Degree to confer.

By doing this a Lodge both communicates that Masonry is the most important item on the night's agenda. It also ensures that there will be enough time available for meaningful discussion to take place.

If Masonic Education is placed last on the agenda, as far too often happens, all the time of the meeting will likely be taken up by less important discussions about things such as the bills, leaving men in a rush to get home, and the Master urging the program to move along quickly.

If time is an issue, ample time needs to be provided to Masonry, if speed needs to be brought into a meeting, the bills and minutes are much more appropriate items to speed through.

How to do it.

One of the easiest, yet also most effective forms of Masonic education is the Round Robin Discussion format.

The Master or other designated Mason chooses a topic, and the Lodge discusses it, each Mason getting his chance to talk in turn.

Getting into the details, almost every Lodge has a library of some size or form. From that library topics can be found.

For example:

“We do not assert that this legend (The Hiramic Legend) is true. We only know that it has come to us by tradition. At what time the legend of the death of Hiram took the place of the older legends in the mysteries of Persia, India, and Egypt, we have no information. Nor is it important for us to know. For Masonry is a succession of allegories, the mere vehicles of great lessons in morality and philosophy.”

The above quote is from Albert Pike's Magnum Opus. It communicates a belief, fairly widely held, that Freemasonry is a continuation of the Ancient Mysteries. That it is just the current successor of those earlier Mysteries. That the lessons taught by it are the same lessons taught in the Ancient Mysteries, that those lessons have remained constant, only the legend itself has changed.

The Master can give the quote from the East, or even better provide it in email a few days before the meeting, and then pose some questions about it.

Some that quickly come to mind are:

Do you believe this succession of the Mysteries to be true?

Why or why not?

Is the truth or falsehood of the assertion important to your own personal Masonic journey?

If so, why?

The discussion then moves around the room, with each Mason encouraged to speak, either answering the questions asked, or otherwise giving his perspective on the topic.

When doing this, it is important that every Mason participate, and it is important that everyone remember that there is no right or wrong answers. What one man believes Masonry to be for himself is right for himself, even if others believe something different.

Such a discussion will likely be lively, of interest to the men of the Lodge, and will send those men home with something important to think about as they continue moving along their Masonic path.

Regularly having discussions like that in Lodge is one of the ways the Lodge actually delivers the promise of Masonry that it holds out to its candidates.

The Pandemic

After writing all of the above, I have to acknowledge doing so at a time in which our Lodges can't actually hold Stated Meetings.

I might suggest that during this health crisis, all of our Lodges should be holding virtual meetings using Zoom or other video conferencing platforms.

A discussion as outlined above, even standing alone, would make for a superb virtual meeting.

If your Lodge is lacking in the provision of Masonic education, I strongly encourage you to improve things by bringing in a good educational program. The ideas outlined above are both easy to implement, and extremely effective.

I offer them for your consideration.

#MasonicEducation #Lodge #StatedMeeting #RoundRobin #AncientMysteries #HowTo

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

Subscribe to receive posts via email.

For years I've been telling people that membership in the Scottish Rite Research Society is the best value in all of Freemasonry.

Yesterday that was shown to be true again, so I thought I'd post the claim here.

A beautiful hard bound edition of Albert Pike's Magnum Opus showed up in my mailbox. It's a large and imposing volume, included with my yearly membership of just $55 per year.

As this post is about value, let me explain just what you get for that small cost. It starts with four issues a year of The Plumbline, a newsletter that generally covers a single topic of Masonic Education. Secondly, each year the Society publishes a hardcover book titled Heredom, it is a goodly sized volume that details a number of topics of interest to Masons. I always find Heredom to be fascinating and always find myself reading it cover to cover as soon as it arrives.

Lastly, each year the Society sends each of its members a bonus book of interest to Masons. Sometimes it is a smaller book, sometimes larger, but always something of great interest. This year, as mentioned, it was the Magnum Opus.

This book contains Pike's first revision of the Scottish Rite degree rituals from 4 to 32. I've already begun reading the lectures of each degree, and know that there will be a great deal of wisdom contained within them.

These are not precisely the degrees or lectures that we know today, between completion of the Magnum Opus and today our degrees have been revised a minimum of five different times, including by Pike himself.

In my travels around our Jurisdiction I often hear a desire for further Masonic education. The Scottish Rite Research Society is providing that education in a very big way, at a very small cost. I know that if you join, you will not regret it.

Scottish Rite Research Society

Please note that you do not have to be a Scottish Rite Mason, or even a Mason for that matter in order to join the Society.

#MasonicEducation #ScottishRite #ScottishRiteResearchSociety #AlbertPike

-Cameron

Cameron M. Bailey Past Grand Master The MW Grand Lodge F&AM of Washington

Subscribe to receive posts via email.