Climate Change of Freemasonry: Alive in the 21st Century
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent,
but the one most responsive to change.
Charles Darwin
It is my intention to explain the effect of the longest, continuous conversation; always offered mouth to ear, between men of good character sharing their unsatisfied curiosity about the point of it all.
This conversation has been on-going thousands of years. It was once shrouded in superstition but when rationality was applied, rather than being trivialized, it was actually validated. And today, we know this as the craft of freemasonry. Many before us have entered the depths to mine for information and came away changed. What they left behind has been incomprehensible for all but those few, brave enough, with sufficient curiosity to enter the darkness. Only by doing that, can a man achieve insight.
What then can the history of freemasonry reveal about the moral compass that guides us? What can it tell us about our changing climate? Will we survive or sit in stupefied bliss over days gone by as our opportunity fades?
What then can the history of freemasonry reveal about the moral compass that guides us? What can it tell us about our changing climate? Will we survive or sit in stupefied bliss over days gone by as our opportunity fades?
Bear with me as I attempt to explain the way men of the craft have successfully passed on the alchemy of mixing consciousness and conscience; achieving a state of perfect awareness by realizing there is much to be learned from fundamental failures. In fact, if we do not learn from our failures we will never achieve our goal and reach our objective.
Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Confucious
An Introduction
Freemasonry has a fourfold claim on our regard; its antiquity, its history, its adaptability and its inspiration.[1] Within that structure, freemasonry is offered up as the embodiment of principles based on fundamental truths. It is implied, deeper levels of insight are achievable through the principals and practices of freemasonry. We are challenged to achieve an ideal; a state of ethical and moral development which benefits mankind.
This is the ethos every freemason is given.
That being the case, one might suspect when freemasons gather it is an opportunity to step away from the pressures and demands of day to day life for thoughtful discussion about principals of life. Moral development is a contemplative process, but most of us would struggle to truly understand what that means and why it is important. This does not mean we are thoughtful but it does reflect the complexity of this question.
Occult and esoteric are descriptors of an important aspect of the fraternity that is often ignored. Yet a freemason is part of an occult[2], esoteric[3] group that claims to have a path to enlightenment. Here we are in the 21st century; new age men living by old world values. We have experienced the public exposure of human frailty in Kings and Popes; values of decency being challenged; propagandists fomenting fear to control people by misleading. How then are the claims of freemasonry any different than those of so many pretenders?
Declaring support of basic human values and respect for all faiths and creeds, it claims to do things that many great societies have not achieved; an assembly of men of good reputation whose proof of that fact is a further willingness to commit acts of charity; to offer aid to the unfortunate; men who hold themselves to a higher ethical standard. But the refusal to accept celebrity status raises suspicion; fuels the conspiracy theorists and casts shadows of cynicism. What are they hiding? Are they truly what they claim to be?
Is it this sense of in authenticity and mistrust that shrinks our roles? Or are we doing something wrong in striving for moral success?
Not only does history explain the problem, but it reveals the remedy in startling detail.
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?
Robert Browning
In this paper, I want to explore the symbiotic relationship between the goals and objectives of freemasonry. [4] The concerns about quality of membership are in this respect, the canary in a coal mine. Where the antients at all concerned about dwindling membership? If they were what did they know that we don’t? They faced great problems with dire consequences. In the day, free, unrestricted thought was threatening to church and state and could cost a man his life. The conversation continued despite severe criticism and persecution that forced them underground.
We agonize that the value of freemasonry is being trivialized by erosion in the quality of men we accept and it is this point, the sense our order is in decline that is a so shortsighted.
To move forward we need to resolve this dreadfully self-defeating practice; a belief that freemasonry has been in decline since the 17th-18th centuries, a period of intellectual growth; the age of reason and enlightenment.[5]
Let me attempt to persuade you that the potential of freemasonry was only partially revealed in the past and prove that our actual and true potential lies in our collective future.
The Antient Charges are time markers that record changes taking place that freed mankind from servitude. Imagine a time when people were told what to think and then threatened if they believed their senses. If you believed the world was round, you were wrong, no matter that your telescope proved the universe was a great expanse that the world was not at the centre. This opinion did not agree with the authority of the church and was therefore dangerous. Recant or be condemned. Distort the truth to appease authority. Imagine that you are a man of the 16th century who began, despite church and state, became aware that superstition based on falsehoods and deception was being perpetuated to maintain control over the people. By shedding the polemics of politics and religion, masonic philosophy became a maxim for freedom of thought.
..when a person is occupied with things that he sees established in the finest order and directed by divine management, will not the unremitting contemplation of them and a certain familiarity with them stimulate him to the best and to admiration for the Maker of everything, in whom are all happiness and every good[6]
The age of reason took us out of the age of superstition when Thomas Hobbes questioned the nature of authority. Until that time, rulers assumed an authority over the people. Hobbes turned the question on its head with his notion that authority of the state must come from the consent of those governed.[7] This is the same notion that was already practiced in the governance of masonic lodges in
Jean Jacques Rousseau took theses concepts to a new and higher level stating that in a natural state, all men were equal and basically good but corrupted by the advances of science and art in society. So unpopular was this indictment of (French) society that his book was immediately banned and Rousseau fled his native
History teaches us that these progressive ideas, were already being practiced inside the walls of masonic lodges across
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing
Oscar Wilde
The appeal to antiquity is a strong influence of masonry. A good example of this claim to our regard, from work ascribed to King James 1st. In 1604 scribes began writing a new version of the bible. It was finished in 1611. Today we know the common language used during that time in
We have been entrusted with invaluable, irreplaceable information. How strange it would be for anyone but a mason to obligate to an organization based on science and spirituality, accountability and a life style of personal and social conduct and not use the opportunity. If it isn’t been used, if it isn’t read or probed for the deeper meaning this source of improvement and moral suasion is little more than a souvenir.
Philosophy is a kind of journey, ever learning yet never arriving
at the ideal perfection of truth.
Albert Pike
The historical draw of freemasonry is influential because it is a gathering place for creation and invention. Innovators have always been considered a threat to social stability. Thinking outside the box is strange and breeds non-compliance. But this crucible of new ideas not well tolerated because people expect perfection without failure and that folly is what separates genius from failure.
We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps[11]
We study history to learn more about who we are because people feel a life has more meaning if they are part of a much larger group, especially one that predated their existence with a hope they will be carried by association into the future.[12] But more importantly freemasonry speaks to us about the continuity between past and future. According to well known Canadian historian, Dr. Margaret McMillan history tells us who we are and who we are not. It contains every good act and every act of malice and it is critical that someone understands both views. Without that balance, we are most likely to repeat mistakes. It must be accurate and verifiable.
Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius[13]
So history can be manipulated and is not a source of indisputable truth. Over time truths become revealed through observable patterns, or the loops of time.[14]
And God created man to his own image,[15]
Orville and Wilbur Wright were brothers who owned a bicycle shop. They were mechanics. They are credited with inventing the first aeroplane but the story of their success is a story of expecting failure.
The Smithsonian institute advertised grants for the development of a heavier than air flying machine. The elder brother Wilbur wrote back asking for information about funding. When the Smithsonian learned they were only bicycle mechanics, they rebuffed the brothers and instead backed a group of engineers- the experts.
The brothers experimented for 6 years trying to get a vehicle off the ground. During their experiments when the craft crashed, they examined it to learn what had gone wrong. They repaired the damage and tried again and again as they learned from each mistake. They built a plane that was as light as they could make it and found a place with the most consistent uplift air currents in
They brought their tools, their plane and piles and piles of wood. They new each time the plane crashed it broke. But they also know each time it broke, they could learn from each mistake, repair and try again.
The first flight was so slow, one of the brothers ran alongside holding the wing tip from touching the ground. The very first flight was shorter than the length of a 747 and did not go as high as the fuselage.
But the expert engineers had been the popular choice of the Smithsonian and planned their launch from a boat anchored in the
The snub so upset the boys that for 36 years, they refused the request from the Smithsonian to add this first plane to the museum collection.[16]
This illustrates an important point for all of us. People believe what they want to believe and in order to achieve success, we must be prepared to accept and learn from failure and we must anticipate criticism and complaint from people stuck in the belief that success comes without effort.
Relying on luck places a high premium on success. Try as we might, there are certain indisputable facts. Fortunate for us, these unassailable truths were articulated in the first millennium as The Universal Laws.[17]
1. The Law of Perpetual Transmutation Of Energy
2. The Law of Vibration (aka The Law Of Attraction)
3. The Law of Relativity
4. The Law of Polarity or The Law Of Opposites
5. The Law of Rhythm
6. The Law of Cause And Effect
7. The Law of Gender
One is speaking most loudly to freemasons- the Law of Polarity. Within the facets of this law is the premise that each failure contains the seed of success. When we make mistakes and acknowledge our error we progress.
But have we failed to understand our past errors? At lot of things happened in the 30’s. The first Mickey Mouse comic strip was published and Greta Garbo did her first talkie. The British Parliament created the
The conditions that lead to high enrollment have passed but it may have been misguided use high membership as a benchmark of success. But it may be possible to re-tool our thinking to balance quality and quantity of membership.
Men of the 30’s who increased the ranks of masonic lodges, are now passing on in the same proportion as when they joined. In that sense, we are returning to a state of equilibrium- the balance of attrition and initiations.
This is a calculation that we can better understand by looking at the economic and demographic events that will shape our society in the near future. In 2020, for the first time in world history, the majority of people on earth will be over the age of 65. Globally, more female babies are being born than males. The world we live in, from this point in time will be inhabited by more women and older men.
As our membership continues to fall off, our influence on sons and grandsons will also drop off. We would be wise to find another way to attract bright young men to freemasonry.
Every mason is both learner and teacher. I propose that the commitment of masons within a single lodge is sufficient to create the alchemy needed to change knowledge into wisdom. I further purpose a Grand Lodge that fosters the development of philosophical exploration will lead us confidently into the next millennium.
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
Anonymous
There is restlessness among masons. Recidivism is a nagging concern. Well intended solutions have been ineffective causing frustration. The problem has not been accurately identified and we continue to speak to the converted.
Each failed attempt serves a vital purpose. It has taken us one step closer to the solution.
Let’s begin by making some fundamental assumptions. First, young men of today continue to search for meaning. The appeal of freemasonry is the mystery, the esoteric and occult teachings as a source of stability is a chaotic world.
INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY:
Aristole said of history: If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development. An anonymous writer left us this missive: History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time. It was George Bernard Shaw who alleged: We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future
History is about memories that have been communicated to someone else about something that happened in another time. We do not and can not live in history any more than we can live in the future. The past and the future exist only in our minds. Reality is after all,in the present.
History: Definition: Although commonly used to refer to events which happened earlier in time, 'history' in academic study is either the study of the past or the product of our attempts to understand the past, rather than the past itself.[18]
Dr. Margaret Macmillan is the great grand daughter of the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George; a member of the Order of Canada, past provost of Trinity College, and current warden of St. Antony's College at
Bearing in mind the tendency of people to believe what they want to believe, even when evidence contradicts, historians report their discoveries which we generalize to the current period to check if those facts agree with our own viewpoint.
John Keats
The intoxication of nostalgia should never be the price of progress. Neither should progress be the ruin of memories.
Luddites flourished In Britain from about 1811 to 1816. They were groups of men who worked hand looms, who organized to destroy machinery used mostly in the textile industry.[21]
The weavers work had developed over thousands of years. It was a slow and labour intensive task. Crafters controlled the pace of work. Quality was obviously honed skill of each weaver and the basis of his reputation which brought new buyers to his door. When steam driven looms became available mill operates were able to reduce the labour force, produce material around the clock, increasing efficiency, lower costs and take advantage of an insatiable market. In the minds of workers, the machine was a threat to their livelihood so it was obvious to attack the mills and demolish new-fangled technology.
Today, we do not remember the Luddite movement as a movement of desperation by simple people wanting to protect their income. We do not remember the oppressive, dangerous factory environments that spawned labour laws that included rights for children. The term Luddite has been passed down through history as a reminder of something far more profound: that to struggle against progress is futile.
If we are wise, we will find a way to convey the message of freemasonry to the brightest young minds. We will take expose our masonic principles to the test of credibility and we will challenge ourselves to carry on our portion of the conversation to the next generation, learning as we go along; confident that success is a by-product of what lies on the shop floor. .
We have profound respect for our history but while we have been gathering information and gaining a firmer understanding of our architecture we have made a very large and very erroneous assumption. We have assumed that freemasonry reached it’s zenith back in the mists of time. And that certainly is a mistake. Just as progress in science, philosophy and the arts cannot be stopped, neither can progress within freemasonry be arrested. The potential of Antient Free and Accept Freemasons has not yet been achieved. We need not fear progress. We need not fear making mistakes. What we must fear is apathy.
It rests with us to take the wisdom of the past, add the knowledge of the 21st Century and embrace our potential just as the antients did.
Until we return to that search mapped out by Ashmole, Desaigulier,
For all of our shortcomings and imperfections we are a sincere group of men, trying however incomplete to make the world a better place. The only way we can better ourselves is to first understand our own nature, by doing as men have done since the sun first rose on the horizon, by asking the imponderable questions and then on faith alone, preserve a firm belief that we and all mankind have a capacity to improve.
We are not a force, nor a power but an influence. Amidst the terror of war, disease and hunger, crime and social pressure, we endure as living representatives that integrity is not dead; that an act of charity to a stranger binds us all in one thought; though selfless acts we embody the very best characteristics of humanity.
Carl Jung said, as far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. It may even be assumed that just as the unconscious affects us, so the increase in our consciousness affects the unconscious.[22]
We need to carry on the conversation based on truths. One of the prime truths is the consequences of our actions. The concept of freemasonry challenged the divine rights of church and state. Was the outcome valid? As well as defining a democratic state, the concept had an unintended negative effect.
In the 30’s was it helpful to cultivate higher membership? Lodges spread throughout urban and rural communities across the country. Fees from all those men, enabled our Foundation to fund medical research that has proven dividends effecting men, women and children across our country and beyond. Those intended benefits far outweigh the picture we now face; dwindling membership from attrition leaving us to consider downsizing. We will simply solve this new problem and continue to move on from there. But history again shows that in this instance and in all instances, there are unintended, effects.
Whether we study the 600 degrees of an Egyptian cult, the effect of Papal Bulls or the symbolism of an ashlar, there is an essential point. Our antient brethren were generous in the lesson left for us. If we advance by merit, if we embrace ideas of universality and equality, our individual and collective voice will take on a new dimension. The man who achieves insight through masonry, speaks with confidence and moral authority. Men in his company experience trust and safety and when that happens we will once again become a threat to established authority by peaceful means. The greatest conversation is rich with time proven ideas. It is important that we pass on the conversation to a next generation of thinking men; the consequences of every success and every failure are fertile ground for freemasonic education. Our versatility brought us out of the dark ages and if we trust our history, it will propel us well into the 21st century.
Progress and change does not stop nor can it be stopped. If one notices that merit has been replaced by entitlement, he will also realize that in the larger scale, the rigidity that goes with it will collapse; history repeating the inevitable truth that expectations within the order have changed, in spite of the appearances to the contrary.
Freemasonry is experiencing climate change. It has been wasteful to spend our days speculating over culpability. It does not matter how we reached this point because the ideology of the entire order is larger than Grand Lodge and the organic variation of lodges throughout the world. The masonic neighbourhood is a more predictable place than ever it was and yet we lack standardized measures to compare the qualities essential to
Fiat Lux
Dg
[1] Owed to Symbolism in Craft Masonry. Lewis Masonic 1976
[2] oc·cult (
-k
lt
, 
klt
) adj.
1. Of, relating to, or dealing with supernatural influences, agencies, or phenomena.
2. Beyond the realm of human comprehension; inscrutable.
3. Available only to the initiate; secret: occult lore.
4. Hidden from view; concealed.
[3] es·o·ter·ic (
s-tr
k) adj.
1.
a. Intended for or understood by only a particular group: an esoteric cult.
b. Of or relating to that which is known by a restricted number of people.
2.
a. Confined to a small group: esoteric interests
b. Not publicly disclosed; confidential.
[4] sym·bi·o·sis (smb
-
ss, -b
-) n. pl. sym·bi·o·ses (-sz)
1. Biology A close, prolonged association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member.
2. A relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.
[5] Thomas Paine
[6] De revolutionibus, Nicholas Copernicus
[7] Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes 1651
[8] An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. John Locke 1690
[9] The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Jean Jacques Rousseau 1750
[10] The Book of Constitution, Grand Lodge of
[11] Siddharath, Herman Hesse
[12] The Uses and Abuses of History, Dr. Margaret MacMillan, Viking
[14] homage to Fractal geometry. Benoit Mandelbrot
[15] Genesis 5:1 Douay-Rheims Bible
[16] Newt Gingrich,
[17] http://www.mind-your-reality.com/universal_laws_1.html
[18] http://europeanhistory.about.com/library/glossaryhist/bldefhistory.htm
[19]
[20] The Uses and Abuses of History; MacMillan Margaret. Penguin Group
[21] http://www.themodernword.com/Pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html
[22] Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Carl Gustav Jung, Pg 326
1 comment:
Brilliant work Dale.... Let there be light indeed..... Fraternally ... John O'C
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