To Be or Not To Be......Impartial

Three meetings away from the East (maybe) and the trickle of good guidance has already begun. While attentively listened to and carefully pondered there is one piece of advice I have received from a few sources that I appreciate yet have a question to its legitimacy. The recommendation I have received is, if and when I assume the oriental chair, it would be in my best interest to remain neutral in all matters having to do with the lodge. Like a wise and impartial judge......

Alright

So while I can understand the logic behind the admonition, it just doesn't sit right with me or my idea of what a Worshipful Master should be.

The reason my astute Brethren believe that a WM should remain detached is that if the Master of the lodge takes a side or utters an opinion it would create dissension among the craft and who ever was on the other side of the Masters opinion would feel alienated and possibly effect the harmony of the lodge in a negative way.

Okay

Sure

So, in the name of unity the leader of the craft must walk on eggshells for a year, not offend anyone and flutter aimlessly like a great white flag high up on the pole above the fray?

I don't think so.

How does one lead without setting a course?

Not everyone will agree on the course but without direction you go nowhere.

While impartiality may serve a purpose in some matters it is not the top leadership imperative on my dossier next year.

I intend to lead my lodge not be lead by it.

A Mason is given a year by his Brothers to run the craft and if running a lodge means scheduling meetings and degrees for a year and scribbling a John Hancock every now and then, you can leave me off the list. I think a Master is meant to lead and how can you lead without taking a side every now and then. My idea of a Worshipful Master is one who with careful thought and planning lays out his trestleboard and with strong direction sets the craft to work.

You cant get a good stew without stirring the pot and I am getting my spoon ready.

There is much work to be done.

And although everyone may not agree with my decisions or direction they will know exactly why I will do things because I will tell them why with conviction and a clear head.

How did you run your lodge?

How do you think a WM should behave?

Cement

Not to be confused with concrete, cement is a binding agent that, when mixed with other aggregates, can create something that can last for ages.

Lately there has been a great feeling of bonding at my lodge. We meet and have fun doing the labor of Freemasonry. At our last meeting our Junior Warden, a man who was thrust into the South faster than I, stepped up to act as Worshipful Master for an Entered Apprentice degree for four men wishing to become brothers. The JW is a very reserved and quiet man and I freely admit I had my doubts about him stepping up to receive his proficiency by the Grand Lodge, but boy did he shine! In fact, the whole lodge shined that night for the men receiving Masonic light for the first time but just after the opening, as we were going into the degree, I felt an awesome sense of pride for my Brother who performed fantastically. The best thing is that I felt better for him doing well than I had ever felt for myself doing the same! That's Brotherhood. I have felt overwhelming pride for my children before but never for another Mason.

Before the degree I gathered the candidates and gave them a little speech about how that night was for them and how they were about to go through the same initiation that so many of the greatest men in history had gone through and that the whole thing was for them not the officers, not the dignitaries, not the guys on the sidelines, but them. I admonished them to be aware of everything and to soak it all in.....and they did. I watched closely as they went through the ritual and they were never out of place or disorientated and they payed close attention to everything. What a night.

Our District Grand Lecturer, or AGM as he is titled now, asked the WM if he could address the new Brethren after the degree to re-recite the obligation that all Masons take without pause and with emphasis so as to further enlighten them to that which they just went through. Can I say it was amazing! I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it because all of us there received light with that speech. It was one of the best EA degrees I have been to, or been a part of and I really think we sprinkled a little cement on the mix of men gathered.

Speaking of cement.

I have an idea for a lodge night that I want to give a try in my year in the East. I'll call it "Cement Mixing Night" a night to take the aggregate mix of the Brethren and make it concrete. Ideally this would occur during a Table Lodge or Festive Board (cause everything is better during a Table Lodge) but it could happen on a regular meeting night also.

Just like when making concrete, the first thing you have to do is dry mix the different aggregates. Take the Brothers and split up the usual friends and the different age groups and mix them up. The WM should know his lodge well enough to get the "right" mix.

If its a Table Lodge this is where you can add the "wet" ingredient of choice to stir up the mixture because we all know how certain liquids can loosen up a mixture of people. If not proceed to the next step.

Add cement.

Pair up the mixed Brothers and have them interview each other. It may help to have a standard set of questions to ask or they can just wing it, it's all good. Let them get a good idea of the man they see all the time but may know just cordially. Make sure you set an equal amount of time on each interview to further mix the ingredients.

Now wait. Some mortars take time to set so don't rush to the next step! After an acceptable period have each Brother get up and tell everyone about their Brother they interviewed and ENJOY.

THIS IS WHERE YOU MAKE A BUILDING OUT OF MANY DIFFERENT MATERIALS.

You can't just throw a bunch of aggregates together sprinkle in a little cement and expect an aqueduct. Good Masonry requires a little know how, good materials, and patience. But with this process anything is possible!

What do you think?

Happy building!

The Looming East

So there I was, fresh from practicing the FC obligation in my truck, on my way to my first FC degree in the East, walking down the stairs to our dining facilities when I saw a sight to make any officer stepping up in lodge for a night quiver.... the Right Worshipful Grand Senior Warden innocently chowing down some pizza with the Brothers!

Damn me and my extensive email list!

Calm down, I said to myself, pay no attention to the gleaming purple and gold and get to grabbing all of the other officers stepping up that night and kick em into high gear!

So I did.

And we did.

Other than the fact that my brain, that was two sentences ahead, sometimes overrode my mouth. We put on an excellent degree topped of by our 21 year old Senior Deacons quite beautiful and masterful middle chamber lecture and me delivering an almost perfect and from the heart "G" lecture from the oriental chair. If I do say so myself, that lecture belongs with the Worshipful Master and should not be farmed out like it so often is around the lodges I go to.

The R.W. G.S.W. did not want to be received so he just sat on the sideline with the other regulars enjoying the show but when it came down to the final word, just after me and my big mouth said how it was wonderful to be in the East to pass a dear old friend, he the R.W. one grabbed our newest Fellowcraft and proceeded to see if my friend was indeed proficient in the preceding degree AND what he learned that night from his dear old friend in the East!

Let me just say that my friend, who is one of the most reserved and quiet men who ever came out of Waterford, Ireland, did me and our lodge proud by knowing and doing all of the tokens, words, and signs, including the ones he just learned for the first time, quite well and with no help from the sidelines. He did look like a deer in the headlights standing up in front of everyone next to this towering man in purple and gold but he performed. I was proud.

After it was all over I offered to do another F.C. for our WM so I could improve my performance to which he said "You'll have enough time next year my boy, hold your horses, it's still my year." He's always so right!

A couple of days later I went to our Grand Lodges "Masters of 2010 Seminar" which was quite informative and enjoyable and saw a few of my old friends and former bloggers Traveling Man of the now nonexistent Movable Jewel and Charles Tirrell of the extremely out of date Masonic Renaissance. Its hard to believe that just a couple of years ago we were all VERY VERY involved in the burgeoning Masonic Blogosphere and how it is so different now. It is very sad to me. I really enjoyed our time back then.

Last but not in the least bit least I also saw my friend and Masonic Blog mentor Tom Accuosti of the Tao of Masonry hawking Masonic books, knick knacks and what not for the Grand Lodge and after I got over my initial guffaw and indignation we had a great but short conversation about what it's like to be the last of a dying breed of bloggers and caught up on what was going on in our regular and Masonic lives. If there was only one good thing that came from my blog (and there is allot more) it would be me coming into contact and becoming friends with one of the kindest most rock steady Masons I know....and also Tom Accuosti. Just kidding Tom! I am really the better for knowing you and counting you as a friend and Brother.

All right, all right enough of the sappiness.

My time as Master is coming and I will be devoting my blog to litmus testing ideas I want to shove down the throats of my unsuspecting lodge so be ready!

THERE IS LOTS OF WORK TO BE DONE!

Brown, Books, and Busy!

The problem with being a young father and working and being the Senior Warden of my lodge is that I have no free time.... Well, I get some every now and then but it usually at night after getting the kids to bed, cleaning up, getting things ready for the next day and by that time I am already asleep or so tuned out that vegging in front of the tube is about the only thing I can muster. I think about great things to write but usually they come to me at times when I can't possibly write.

My lodge is back up and running with about 15 men in various stages of early brotherhood. The other night we opened on the Master Masons Degree and I had no idea "Why I am a Master Mason". For those of you who don't know, the Senior Warden goes through a question answer session with the W.M. in the opening and closing ritual pertaining to the particular degree being opened on, and it had been so long since we had opened on that degree that I had no idea what the answer was, but I said that it was so I could earn a Masters Wages to support my Family Friends and Orphans, which earned some giggles from the sidelines. Which, by the way, is something we all of the sudden have! Brothers on the sidelines! And not past masters! It's quite great.

This Thursday I decided I would heap another straw on my shoulder and step up to the East to be Worshipful Master for a Fellowcraft Degree. I have seen it and been a part of it so many times it can't be that hard, right? I never really realized all of the extra little speeches that are made by the WM in this degree until I started studying for this degree. An old friend of mine will be going through it so I hope I will deliver, we'll see.

I really miss being able to post more often to my little blog. Speaking of which, I received an email back in August from a publisher or publicist offering me a copy of a new Masonic book pre-release. Thinking it was a solicitation for me to buy the book early I replied "......a FREE copy?...." to which she replied, yes of course to which I promptly sent my address and received it the next day. The Book was "The Masonic Myth" by Brother Jay Kinney and unfortunately for them I was hospitalized with pneumonia just after I received the book and although I started reading it before it was released they did not get the massive amount of preorders that would have come with a review from me because I am only writing about it now, a month after it came out. Brother Kinney does a great job breaking down the "Myth" even going so far as to give a play by play of the degree ceremonies all the while never revealing the "secrets" we have obligated ourselves to. It is a good background book for those wanting to learn about allot of things about Freemasonry in a short amount of time. My only problem I had with the book was his seemingly dismissive attitude towards the esoteric side of the craft and those men who have written about it. Which seemed strange coming from the Publisher and editor in chief of Gnosis an esoteric journal and the co-author of Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions. Maybe I just read it wrong or I am still recovering from my illness but that is what I took from the book.

And finally, speaking of books, I received Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, the day it came out from Amazon and finished it within five days. I had really enjoyed his previous books and this one was no different. It was a thoroughly enjoyable joyride of a book and I am sorry I ever doubted old Dan. He had always written enough truth into his books to make you really wonder about things and shame on us Masons for thinking he would have trashed us because there really is nothing to trash, sorry Kooks! The entire book was very pro Masonry and there is a part where the central character Robert Langdon, gives the best lecture as to why the fraternity is such a good thing in the world that I am sorry the best argument for the Freemasons can come from an outsider and fiction author.

Anyways, its getting late and I have to get back to memorizing allot of parts about corn, wine and oil!

There is much work to be done.

P.S. I want to thank the Brothers who find the time to email me and ask questions or just send an atta boy. You can never understand how much these correspondences mean to me and my writing.

Sincerely,

Matt

It's Coming

Sunday morning. Newspaper, coffee, kids eating breakfast, getting ready for church.......... spit out coffee!

Alright so I didn't spit out my coffee but I did blurt out a OMG!

In today's Parade Magazine there is a excerpt of the new book by a certain writer that is coming out on Tuesday. Well, let me say that when I do get my copy I will probably read it in an evening or two, but so far it sounds like it is going to be a battle between the (a) church and the brotherhood of Freemasons. In the excerpt a man is going through a (final) degree where he will finally have fully infiltrated the Masons or some appendant body where the final degree involves drinking wine from a skull?

Now, we all know that I have not joined any of the other bodies associated with Freemasonry but I have never heard of such a thing and I have read allot of esoteric stuff. The chamber of reflection involves a skull and crossed bones as a "memento mori", but drinking wine out of one? I guess I'm am still part of the unlearned underlings of the "real" power brokers in Masonry.

All I know is we better be as informed as we have ever been and be ready to answer allot of questions!

Peacocks and Pomposity

You know 'em.

What is it about our fraternity that leads a man to the very un-masonic act of pomposity?....Well duh!

Let me rephrase the question.

What can we as a brotherhood do to limit those who treat every medallion attached to the rear of their automobile as a P.H.D., from tainting the perception of the craft?

Boorish behavior is the net result of someone taking their membership of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons to that umpteenth degree of ridiculousness and making sure everyone around them knows about it. They never give anyone a chance to share and care more about "the Brotherhood" than brotherhood. They permeate our society and due to their unmitigated devotion to the craft, regularly end up in some form of leadership position.

Unfortunately for us, the nature of a volunteer organization rewards men of such constitution and there is not much we can do about it. When I was in the Navy (another volunteer organization) I encountered many of these types and they are always a sour note to my old sea stories. Arms full of stripes and a chest full of ribbons did not always make a great sailor and the same notion holds true to Freemasonry. You can be called a "Knight" or "Monarch" or whatever but if you treat a Brother Master Mason like an inferior you are not a true Brother.

I treat every one the same as I would liked to be treated. Be he a candidate in search of light or a fifty year Past Grand Master, and that should be our conduct to everyone! Non Masons included.

I will admit that many of these "peacocks" have devoted tremendous amounts of time and energy to Freemasonry and their ardor is not unappreciated, but sometimes I cringe when those guys get a hold of a new candidate and hold court for a while.

It is not what we are about.

Or is it????

***SECRET MEMO***DO NOT READ***

(gentlemen set your phasers to snark)

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>>>THANK YOU FOR ENTERING SECRET PASSCODE <<<

9th through 17th degree masons (cause thats the rank of the real secret leaders, heh heh, sorry 33rd's.....stroke white cat here). As we all know, because we actually wrote it, there will be a new book released in the month of Septembiconus that will heighten the interest in our brotherhood.

Unbeknownst to all, but knowenst to us, we have already laid the ground work to secretly keep our secret intentions and meetings secret and I would like to reiterate the plan for those who have just earned the rank of 000000000013579 in seret.

Firstly,

If your lodge has done actually nothing to create or maintain a "website"....bravo. You are the frontline of keeping those whipper snappers who use the interweb for everything from finding anything out about our wonderful fraternity. Sure there are plenty of "sites" out there but if there were young men who wanted to join you in your particular area they can find out nothing about you unless they accidently stumble upon a meeting, somehow.

Secondly,

For those who have a had "website" forced upon you by an overbearing Grand Lodge who actually maintains and pays for it. Don't do anything with it. I repeat DON"T DO ANYTHING WITH IT. Make sure that the pages are the same standard ones that were forced upon you and if you can, make sure that if you do anything write a message from the East from 2003 that states how excited you are about the upcoming picnic or whatever mundane thing you can think of. We really want those techy types to think that we are the most out of date boring organization out there. THAT'LL keep em out!

Everything will go according to plan if we maintain that our fraternity is your grandfathers or great granfathers thing and not anything that would appeal to a "modern" man...

Our numbers will fall back to their proper pre-enlightenment size and we can go back to the ice cream socials and sock hops that we all fondly remember.

From the North Eastern Corner,

Matt M. Morris

(because you already knew my name)

>>>END OF TRANSMISSION<<<

the book is coming???!!!???

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