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

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