Masonic Symbolism and Christmas, The Tree

Up here in the Northeastern corner of the United States, while digging through ice and snow from a recent Nor-Easter, I came upon a branch of Douglas fir that I had trimmed off the bottom of our Christmas Tree and thrown out in my front yard for future disposal. Its dark blue-green needles poked out of the icy white snow with a promise of life amidst the coldest winter fury that mother nature could muster. It reminded me of the sprig of Acacia, symbol of the immortality of the soul.

I sometimes think up here in the Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere ,when in the grips of a cold and snowy winter, the evergreens symbolic meaning rings truer than in warmer climes because of its stark contrast with the rest of the environment, but like in the picture above of the famous Tree of Ténéré, an evergreens tenacity for life is evident even in the hottest environment.

That is why the Acacia is an important symbol in Freemasonry and the evergreen tree has become one of the symbols of the Christian celebration of Christmas. But how did the evergreen tree end up in a Christian festival of Christs birth?

There are many myths and stories from all over the globe claiming paternity to the Christmas tree. But we must first discuss the day which Christmas is celebrated around, the Winter Solstice.

The celebration of the Winter Solstice is one of mankind's oldest traditions. It marks the shortest day of the year. After days and months of growing darkness, light begins its gradual return to our planet with a promise of new life and longer days. Mankind has revered this day in one form or another and throughout all of history gathered together to rejoice. The early Christian Church was very good at integrating festivals from all sources, and although the actual date of Christs birth varies according to scholars, December 25 was chosen by Pope Julius in the 4th century bringing the day of Christs birth in harmony with the most cherished celebration in the ancient world.

Now to the Tree.

There are many stories from all over the world about the first Christmas tree.There is an old Scandinavian myth of a fir tree, which sprang from blood drenched soil where two lovers met a violent death, that lit with mysterious lights (like candles) on a certain night during the Christmas season. Another myth is about a chivalrous knight traveling deep in the woods coming upon a gigantic pine tree whose branches were covered with candles. Some were standing straight and some bent in weird crooked shapes and at the top of this tree was a vision of a child with a halo around its head. This represented the tree of life decorated with the deeds of mankind watched over by the Savior.

One of my favorites is of Martin Luther, who, while traveling one Christmas Eve in snow covered country, looked up through the trees and was struck with the beauty of the stars peeking through the dark green boughs above him. He returned home to his family and wanted to share his feelings of the beauty and peace of the scene he just experienced. So he went out side and cut a small fir tree from his garden and placed candles on its branches and lit them for his family to experience.

During Christmas we adopt one or all of these myths and bring an evergreen and decorate it with lights to be shared by all.

I have always loved to go out for a walk at night during snow storms. There is a ethereal quiet and otherworldly glow at night during a snow storm that soothes my soul. During the last snow storm I had to run out on an errand and after I stepped out into the cold and looked out on the beauty surrounding me, called my wife to get the two of them in their snow gear so I could share with them my vision of peace and light.

Christmas is a time to surround yourself with the people you love and share in the light of promise of the new year ahead. My study of esoteric Freemasonry has reignited the spark of deeper thought and philosophy that was smoldering inside of me and I want to share my light with my family and my Brethren.

No matter what celebration of Winter Solstice you practice, may yours be filled with light and love.

M.M.M.

P.S. You may or may not have noticed but I have decided to shed a little further light into my identity by using my initials to identify the man who writes from The North Eastern Corner. Anonymity, while still a security blanket, grows tiresome when shedding truth and light in a dark world.

Discourse On The Chamber of Reflection

They got me, I'll admit it. After having read many stories about this lodge or that instituting a Chamber of Reflection I finally broke down and did a Google search on the subject. I wasn't resisting because I thought the matter trivial, I just thought the name was self explanatory and to be honest it is, to a certain degree.
My first stop was a PDF from the The Institute for Hermetic Studies. It is, from my understanding of it, a third party description on the matter and from the first line it had me hook line and sinker.
" The Chamber of Reflection is one of Freemasonry's most alluring, provoking, and truly esoteric of symbols."
I quickly delved in and found myself as usual, completely smitten with the idea of it. From the aspect of a self proclaimed "esotericly inclined" Freemason, (although I was going to originally put esotericly bent on my description), this was everything I would have liked to happen to me before my initiation. The ritual of self exploration and reflection before taking your first step into the Craft would have been for me extremely satisfying and uplifting. I immediately started to envision convincing my lodge to institute one for new candidates, although that vision was quite fleeting seeing as there are not so many esotericly bent masons in my lodge and after reading a very enlightening Dwight Smith like post on Masonic Musings from Me that thought was completely vanquished.

Never the less it is a subject that holds a prominent position in my mind currently and I would like to open a discussion on the matter.

Does your lodge use a Chamber of Reflection?
If so what jurisdiction are you in?
Although it is a very personal thing, would you share your experience?
How has it affected you as a Freemason?
If you did not have that experience would your opinion of the fraternity change? How?

If your lodge has recently instituted a Chamber of Reflection how did you go about convincing your brethren to do it?
Was it a good change to your lodge?
Has it effected your membership?

I would like to thank in advance any responses from the kind brethren who choose to enlighten me!!

Subduing My Passions

While coaching an Entered Apprentice recently I began reflecting anew upon one of the ideas expressed in the degree, subduing my passions.


I feel sometimes this very important instruction to the new brother gets lost among working tools and the whole experience of the first degree. Being bent upon esotericism like I am, I feel this is probably one of the utmost instructions that we all receive and I constantly remind myself the importance of it.


Passion is a powerful feeling that we all have definitely felt at one time or another for something or someone. It's a chord struck in our soul that cant be silenced. I have, without a doubt succumbed to the spark of passion and let it burn bright, almost to the point of outshining all aspects of my life at one point or another. If you have never been passionate about something you have not lived. It is the spice of life. Passion though, like all spices, if overdone can overpower the the senses to the point of missing what is lies beneath. If we let the chord struck by passion to grow ever louder we cannot hear the rest of the music. That is a great lesson to be had.


It is impossible and undesirable to remove passion from our lives, but it is quite wise to learn to subdue it. By subduing our passions we can hear what is going on around us. If we were to go into lodge overcome with passion we would not be able to bring ourselves to the level needed to labor for the craft. I had many passions that prejudiced everything that I heard around me before I was a Freemason. I would go into a discussion and never really hear what the other people were saying because I would proselytise from my passions. I now am more aware of my passions and try to subdue them, and believe me it is not an easy thing to do, but I labor on.


What come you here to do?


To learn to subdue my passions and improve myself in Masonry.


Have you?

Esoteric.... Run for the Hills!

Why is it that when the word esoteric is mentioned, most brothers want to either laugh it off or skirt the subject at all cost.

Last year I read W. L. Wilmshurst's "The Meaning of Freemasonry", which I thought was quite a good exploration of the more esoteric aspects of The Craft. I remember wanting so bad to discuss some of the more thought provoking subjects in the book at Lodge, but there is almost never a chance during our meetings for discussion. The majority of our time in Lodge is spent initiating new brothers, or preparing to do so. Sometimes it seems to me the whole purpose of my lodge seems to be bringing in new brothers. Now don't get me wrong. My lodge like many others, is growing greyer by the day and absolutely needs new blood to keep things going. But initiating and advancing new brothers cant be the end all be all of our existence. Other than curious specimens like myself, that will keep at something even when there is not much to be had, most young men my age need something other than a meal and small talk and a degree to stay interested in the craft. Again, degree work is very important to the Craft, but I would like to know what happened to the Masonic scholarship that seemed to occur within our walls in the past. Sure we have some education nights, but they almost always revolve around some aspect of the ritual.

What happened to the Masonic thinking of the past that sparked the minds that enlightened the world. Why is it so hard for men, particularly brothers, nowadays to sit around and discuss the more thought provoking aspects of our time. We live in a world that our forefathers could not have even imagined, where communication is easier than eating and yet it seems the best things we can talk about are sports or entertainment. Maybe I am a left over soul from days gone by but there is nothing more interesting or fun for me than to have a discussion of heavy subjects with people who I respect and love.

Our institution is set up perfectly for this purpose. By removing the subjects of politics and religion, which can separate the best of friends, the founders of our order created an ideal forum for the exchange of free thought and information. I have read about traveling Masonic orators packing temples with men and can only imagine how exciting it must have been to be a Freemason back then. When I read transcripts of those speeches I am always amazed by the eloquence and thought of people, who on the majority did not have one tenth of the resources for learning that we take for granted.

The reason we go through the trouble of opening the lodge is to raise the attention level of all present, and to remind us that we are, at that time, not just a bunch of guys hanging out in a hall wearing fancy aprons and jewels. We are Freemasons bound by oath and obligation, committing ourselves to higher work. If we wanted to join just a charitable organization we could have joined the Exchange, Kiwanis, or Lions club or any of the many fine clubs that do just that, but we did not. I looked to join something that was much more than a social club that does charitable work. Did we go through three different initiations with heavy obligations just to get together twice a month and pay the bills or initiate someone new? We are not supposed to. We go through our opening to get us to a different place than the everyday world we live in and to do greater work for the benefit of our brotherhood and our fellow man.

Esoteric by definition of the Merriam-Websters Dictionary is:

1 a: designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone (a body of esoteric legal doctrine — B. N. Cardozo)

b: requiring or exhibiting knowledge that is restricted to a small group (esoteric terminology); broadly : difficult to understand (esoteric subjects)

2 a: limited to a small circle (engaging in esoteric pursuits)

Freemasonry is by these definitions an esoteric society that uses tools of the builder to teach moral lessons to a select few who are initiated into our order. Sometimes I think that the brothers who run away from the term "esoteric", when it comes to our fraternity don't even know what it means. When someone mentions that they are interested in esoteric aspects of Freemasonry around my lodge they are almost always directed to the two philosophical research lodges in our state. If those are the only lodges in Connecticut doing real Masonic work, why do the rest of the lodges in my state bother opening and closing for meetings?