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popejackson posted:This thread is awful long and I didn't read through all of it. Can someone give me a quick answer on how I can begin the process to join? Do I just show up to a meeting and introduce myself? If you are not patient enough to read the thread(which is long, but interesting!), you might need to consider that some lodges will make you wait quite a while to become a member. Are you patient enough?
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Feb 2, 2015 14:27
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Meeting with the local lodge tonight for my interview.
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Mar 1, 2015 00:25
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Double post ahoy! Looks like April 9 I'll get initiated as an EA, absent a black ball out of nowhere.
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Mar 2, 2015 19:16
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Excellent! Good to hear. How WAS your enquiry, anyway? I assume that it went well, obviously, but how did you feel about the guys?
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Mar 3, 2015 07:13
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Real good. Around my age, some shared interests. Good folks.
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Mar 3, 2015 15:29
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So most of you will probably remember me talking about learning all the lectures in my first year (last year). In the next two months, I get to face the downside to doing it, as our lodge will be doing two degrees a month for the next three months. I will be delivering all three lectures within two months, one of which being the degree for our annual inspection, with the Grand Master present. Wish me luck, brethren.
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Mar 3, 2015 17:12
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So my middle school is totally a front for a masonic conspiracy who cleverly concealed their involvement with totally obvious landscaping, right? (... they are clearly playing a very deep game.) https://www.google.com/maps/@41.5567759,-87.5020911,178m/data=!3m1!1e3
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Mar 3, 2015 22:16
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dwarf74 posted:So my middle school is totally a front for a masonic conspiracy who cleverly concealed their involvement with totally obvious landscaping, right? (... they are clearly playing a very deep game.) An unmarked car has been despatched to your location. It will be easier for everyone if you quietly go with them.
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Mar 4, 2015 10:42
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Loomer posted:An unmarked car has been despatched to your location. I did. They handed me a casserole and went on their way. 
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Mar 4, 2015 15:51
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J.D., not I.G. Help.
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Mar 16, 2015 11:47
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Loomer posted:J.D., not I.G. Help. IT BEGINS
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Mar 16, 2015 22:40
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Hello Brothers, I'm an EA from Europe (Romania) and I'll be getting my FC degree next meeting  Last lodge meeting a question came up regarding the Volume of Sacred Law used. We're all of the same religion (orthodox Christians) and we were wondering how things are happening in a more heterogeneous lodge. I'll spoiler the question below, if it's not OK for me to post it here, please PM me to remove it. If there are Brothers of various religions, are any holy books other than the Bible opened up during regular communications? (not degrees, I know they can choose the Holy Book they want to be obligated on). Is anything read from them?
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Mar 27, 2015 14:52
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cosmin posted:Hello Brothers, I don't think you need to spoiler that, it's not too revealing. One of the lodges I'm a member at, the Holy Bible is opened ever time, but even the non-Christians in the lodge (well, the one) recognizes it as just a symbol for whatever our personal choice is. At another lodge - a Traditional Observance lodge - the Holy Bible, Torah, and Quran are all placed on the altar. That lodge is a bit more... open-minded, I suppose. Living in the American South, it's rare to see anyone who isn't a Christian. But during the degrees, the candidate can use any book he wishes on the altar.
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Mar 27, 2015 15:24
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Cool Corn covered it pretty well. Over here in California some lodges depending on their membership will use multiple volumes of sacred law, the ones that make sense based on the members beliefs. The volume used during a degree will be the one of choice of the person receiving the degree.
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Mar 27, 2015 20:28
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My parents were going through my deceased grandfather's things and found his mason ring. As a note, my grandfather has no male descendants (he had one daughter, who had two granddaughters including myself) and he has no contact with anyone from his side of the family. I'm a woman so I only do OES, but I'm the only person in our entire extended family that participates in any kind of masonic tradition. I can't even get my dad interested. I feel like it would be inappropriate to wear the ring since I'm not a mason, but would it be considered tacky if I put it around a chain and wore it like a necklace? My grandmother currently wears his wedding band around her neck.
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Mar 27, 2015 22:03
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legsarerequired posted:My parents were going through my deceased grandfather's things and found his mason ring. I seriously doubt any masons would think it's tacky. You might get invited to masonic events though.
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Mar 28, 2015 02:09
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cosmin posted:Hello Brothers, In my lodge in Rural Australia, we only use the Bible though we do have a few non-Christian masons (including myself). No readings from anything else are permitted under the Grand Lodge ritual, though we do explain we use it primarily as a symbol. legsarerequired posted:My parents were going through my deceased grandfather's things and found his mason ring. It would not be tacky, but some might find it inappropriate. Ignore those people. What matters is you're honouring your grandpa in a way that I'm sure he'd feel proud of as a Mason, and keeping the Masonic tradition alive in the family. By rights, that ring should either be buried with him, returned to the lodge, or given to the person in the family most appropriate - and the OES granddaughter in a family with no interest is absolutely that person. Any mason who thinks its inappropriate after hearing why you're wearing it as a necklace can gently caress off and should be reminded of the tenet of B.L.
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Mar 28, 2015 03:27
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Loomer posted:It would not be tacky, but some might find it inappropriate. Ignore those people. What matters is you're honouring your grandpa in a way that I'm sure he'd feel proud of as a Mason, and keeping the Masonic tradition alive in the family. By rights, that ring should either be buried with him, returned to the lodge, or given to the person in the family most appropriate - and the OES granddaughter in a family with no interest is absolutely that person. Any mason who thinks its inappropriate after hearing why you're wearing it as a necklace can gently caress off and should be reminded of the tenet of B.L. The depressing thing here is that we found his apron and his ring four months after he was buried.  I asked my parents about the apron back when we were preparing for his funeral, but my grandma's packrat tendencies are so bad that we basically can't find anything. It turned out to be buried under clothes that he hadn't fit in for years, decades' old photos of people who she doesn't remember, piles of Luby's receipts, etc. Cleaning her house has been an on-going project for at least three years now, and we still didn't find his stuff until this week. I wish I'd have unearthed it in time so I could have kept the tradition going. :\EDIT: What I really hate is that his stuff was in this dresser-set with his old guns. My mom is extremely terrified of guns and she made me promise to never look in his dresser while going through their stuff, because she had this idea that they could accidentally discharge or something while I was shuffling things. The rest of the house was in such awful shape (piles of receipts with cat poops, a wagon inexplicably filled with oyster shells, etc) that I sort of just waved it off and focused on that. legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Mar 28, 2015 |
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Mar 28, 2015 04:33
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Thank you all for your answers re: VSL, I have another question that's more of a research homework for me but I haven't found many references online so I was wondering if any you has read anything about it: the symbolism of the pomegranate in freemasonry. I've read about the pomegranates on the capitals of the pillars (Kings 7:20) and the more obvious google searches and this is not a homework help type of post (because I actually enjoy the research), but if you have any references or personal knowledge, I'd love to hear!
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Mar 30, 2015 07:23
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The pomegranate, from the exuberance of its seeds, denotes plenty.
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Mar 30, 2015 14:28
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The new issue of Knight Templar magazine has a pretty interesting article in it - "Masonic Philosophical Differences in the 21st Century". I think it'll be good for
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Apr 2, 2015 21:11
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Tonight the lodge votes on my petition 
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Apr 2, 2015 21:39
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Beerdeer posted:Tonight the lodge votes on my petition If a black goat is left at your doorstep... Don't leave home tonight.
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Apr 2, 2015 23:22
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Glorified Scrivener posted:The new issue of Knight Templar magazine has a pretty interesting article in it - "Masonic Philosophical Differences in the 21st Century". I think it'll be good for As an outsider who has followed this thread from the beginning, the neo-ancient description fits almost perfectly the impression I've gotten from most of you and what I would be looking for if I ever join.
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Apr 3, 2015 08:48
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Yes, consider me a neo-antient with the caveat that I do not approve of excessively high dues. If the dues are sufficient to cover a good South, maintain the temple and its furnishings in good form, and allow for prudent and generous charity, there is no need to artificially raise them. Men of worth with little wealth will be lost, while men of no worth but that of their wallet will be enticed.
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Apr 3, 2015 17:15
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Loomer posted:Yes, consider me a neo-antient with the caveat that I do not approve of excessively high dues. If the dues are sufficient to cover a good South, maintain the temple and its furnishings in good form, and allow for prudent and generous charity, there is no need to artificially raise them. Men of worth with little wealth will be lost, while men of no worth but that of their wallet will be enticed. Same. That particular idea I feel runs counter to Masonic principles. Consider the attire of the EA initiate, and the reasons thereof. I understand the idea behind excessively high dues, but if think that it would ultimately be detrimental to the fraternity. Also: tomorrow night, I will be delivering the FC lecture to a packed house for my lodge's inspection. The Grand Master of our state will be there, along with representative bodies from every lodge in our district. I'm very excited, as this is my favorite lecture to deliver. If you are an ohio mason, PM me. If you're close enough, you could swing by the meeting and say hello!
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Apr 5, 2015 14:58
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Beerdeer posted:Tonight the lodge votes on my petition Have you heard back yet? E: Taking charge of the EM degree for the Arch tomorrow. making GBS threads myself a little bit.
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Apr 5, 2015 15:29
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Innerguard posted:Have you heard back yet? I did! Taking my EA this Thursday at 7!
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Apr 5, 2015 22:48
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It has just fully struck me that they have made me JD, without having had a chance to be a S., O.G., or I.G. and observe the JD, right before a Third Degree with a planned First later in the year, and in all likelihood, I will be acting as JD at our installation. help
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Apr 21, 2015 08:04
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Hey, I know catholics are told by the pope that they cannot join our fraternity and that many kind of ignore that or pretend ignorance, but how about protestants? Reason for asking is that my kids will likely go to a protestant school as it is the closest to our new house and it looks good but I don't want no troubles for them being a MM myself and my wife asked me not to mention it during the talks we'll be having. Loomer posted:help
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Apr 30, 2015 13:18
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There are so many different flavors of Protestant that it is impossible to say. There are certainly some that think we're the spawn of Satan and so on.
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Apr 30, 2015 14:19
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If Protestantism were a problem for Freemasonry, there would be no Freemasons in the American Southeast / Bible Belt 
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Apr 30, 2015 14:39
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This is a neat article I found in seconds googling "protestant freemason" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_Freemasonry_within_Christianity I have many opinions about all the things in this wikipedia entry. e: the talk page too. Solvent fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 14:58
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The book "A Pilgrim's Path" is a really good look at Freemasonry and its compatibility with American Protestantism.
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Apr 30, 2015 16:14
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What *IS* the current deal with Catholicism? I know the KofC were sort of our opposite number for Catholics at one point.
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Apr 30, 2015 21:40
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To my knowledge, the Grand Lodge of the Philippines is composed of mostly Catholics, and because I reside on the Pacific coast of the USA, I've me a bunch of Catholic Masons. It looks like the old papal decree doesn't carry much weight any longer, at least in practice anyway.
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Apr 30, 2015 23:29
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Solvent posted:To my knowledge, the Grand Lodge of the Philippines is composed of mostly Catholics, and because I reside on the Pacific coast of the USA, I've me a bunch of Catholic Masons. I'm just one of many Catholic masons. I never saw it as a big deal. As for Protestants, it reminds me of a brother who is a minister in real life. He absolutely refused to be lodge chaplain. Something about needing a change of scenery.
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May 1, 2015 01:42
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When I visited lodge in Ireland and asked exactly about that, the answer I got was along the lines of "of course we're Catholic, we're Irish. But the Pope isn't Irish, so we don't care much about that."
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May 1, 2015 04:19
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Paramemetic posted:When I visited lodge in Ireland and asked exactly about that, the answer I got was along the lines of "of course we're Catholic, we're Irish. But the Pope isn't Irish, so we don't care much about that." I need to visit Ireland. Thanks for the great responses and further thought made me realise that whatever my personal beliefs are, I will leave them out of the worldly education of my kids. The upside of a Christian school is that they educate broadly on all religions, as opposed to none at all. More knowledge is good.
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May 1, 2015 07:29
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COOL CORN posted:The book "A Pilgrim's Path" is a really good look at Freemasonry and its compatibility with American Protestantism. Not to be confused with The Pilgrim's Progress, which is a very different book.
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May 1, 2015 14:24
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