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Below are two competing institutions, with less time on track than Freemasonry, but that offer the same set of principals and ideas, so why not them? These other groups are service bodies that do a lot for their communities, and for their membership. They have similarities with Freemasonry, and are community minded, so why not them? What has been the drawing force in Freemasonry to keep us coming back?

The two groups are The Lions Club and Rotary International

The Lions Club says about itself:

Lions club members are men and women who strive to make a difference in their local community as well as communities worldwide. Their volunteer efforts go beyond the support of vision care, to addressing unmet health and education needs worldwide.
MembershipLions Clubs International is the world’s largest service club organization with 1.3 million members in approximately 45,000 clubs in 200 countries and geographical areas.

It goes on to say that it is an invitation only body.

The Rotary Ininternational says about itself:

Rotary club members are part of a diverse group of professional leaders working to address various communities and international service needs. Through community service and other means, Rotary club members help promote peace and understanding throughout the world. Our members are our most important asset. They are the force that allows Rotary to carry out its many humanitarian efforts and achieve its mission.

Membership levels in the US, according to their own publication, stand at 377,138 as of January 2007

So with just these two in mind, why Freemasonry, if these groups are “nearly identical” to it in what they represent? From the surface, they are non denominational and do not espouse a need for a belief in the Divine, which means they are more secular, but is that why we are Freemasons? Their membership levels are not nearly as high, and I doubt they reach the volume of charity Freemasonry proclaims ($4 million ever day) with our apendant bodies Shrine hospitals.

So why Freemasonry?

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Reprinted From FreemasonInformation.com
MASONIC LOBBYISTS
by:. Tim Bryce, PM, MPS
timb001@phmainstreet.com
Palm Harbor, Florida, USA
“A Foot Soldier for Freemasonry”

We have discussed Masonic membership trends on more than one occasion in the past. Some Masons believe our decline was inevitable as membership was over inflated following WW II and that a decline was well overdue. This has led to several experimental programs, such as the “fast track” one-day class, which is still considered controversial in many Masonic circles, and lowering the age requirement to 18. Even with these inventions, our numbers continue to dwindle.

The decline in membership is having a ripple affect throughout the fraternity, including the allied and appendant bodies of Freemasonry. As a small example, in my area alone, the number of chapters of the OES and High 12 have diminished sharply, Jobs Daughters and DeMolay have closed their doors, and all of the Rites and Shrine organizations have reported significant losses. I recently heard from a Michigan Shriner who reported his temple’s membership had declined by 800 members over the last two years. Many other jurisdictions are reporting similar declines in membership.

So, as membership in the Craft Lodges decline, so goes the allied and appendant bodies who recruit Freemasons for their orders, which is why the Shrine waived the requirement to be a Scottish or York Rite Mason prior to becoming a Shriner. The Scottish and York Rites are still reeling from this decision. Further, rumors abound that the Shrine will someday create a new class of Shriner thereby allowing non-Masons to join their organization. Regardless, knowing their survival depends on the Craft Lodges, these bodies have begun to take a more proactive approach to working with Grand Lodges; perhaps too “proactive.”

Some Grand Lodges are beginning to feel the squeeze of the allied and appendant bodies, particularly the Scottish Rite who uses their coveted 33rd degree as an incentive to cooperate with Scottish Rite policy. As one Past Grand Master recently lamented to me, “As long as the Sovereign Grand Inspector General is allowed to run our Grand Lodge, and we have Grand Masters looking for a white hat, they will listen to whatever he wants, and we will have censorship of everything that would limit his influence. His exact words are, ‘Grand Masters Govern for one year, I Govern forever. I am the Grand Lodge.’”

Such words are disturbing to Masonic purists who believe the dog should wag the tail and not the other way around. It is also rumored that the Scottish Rite is heavily involved in establishing policy for the Conference of North American Grand Masters. But the Scottish Rite is not alone in terms of accusations of meddling as the Shrine in some jurisdictions is viewed as flexing its muscles now and then. Whether these accusations are true or not is immaterial, a perception is emerging among Masons that the Grand Lodges are beginning to dance to someone else’s tune. And why not? Since the survival of the allied and appendant bodies depends on the Grand Lodges, why wouldn’t they want to take control, particularly when Grand Lodges are ambivalent when it comes to membership?

Masons elect Grand Masters on the belief they will provide unbiased leadership. They want people who will focus on the problems and opportunities confronting the Craft Lodges, such as membership. They do not want leaders who are easily influenced and manipulated by others, be it a Masonic body or otherwise. We most definitely do not need the meddling of Masonic lobbyists.

One last note on membership; I do not believe our problem with the decline of membership can be solved on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis; that it must be solved in a uniform manner throughout the fraternity. A uniform policy on membership, public relations, etc. will greatly facilitate getting the word out to the fine young men out there who yearn for what Freemasonry has to offer, yet know nothing about it. Currently, the only way this can happen in North America, is through the Conference of Grand Masters, but if this is indeed controlled by the Scottish Rite, perhaps we should clear it with them first.

Keep the Faith.

NOTE: The opinions expressed in this essay are my own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of any Grand Masonic jurisdiction or any other Masonic related body. As with all of my Masonic articles herein, please feel free to reuse them in Masonic publications or re-post them on Masonic web sites (except Florida). When doing so, please add the following:

Please forward me a copy of the publication when it is produced.

Copyright © 2007 by Tim Bryce.

Article reprinted with permission of the author and www.FreemasonInformation.com

Please forward me a copy of the publication when it is produced.

He gives a great first person analysis of the degrees, and how he came to be receiving them.

If your on-line, I definitely recommend looking him up.

From Darkness to Light – So Mote It Be.

The Burning Taper, who has done a great job of keeping on the subject, yesterday posted a distancing press release found on the Scottish Rite message boards, but it looks like word in the press now is that the partnership for “no money” may be going to court.

The Star-Gazette.com, out of Elmira New York, Frank Cicci Jr‘s (the former owner of the nascent Rite-Mobile) hometown, is reporting yesterday that Cicci is “seeking to put veteran Jay Sauter in his No. 34 Chevy after alleging that Conz and Scottish Rite have defaulted on their contract with his team to run the full Busch Series schedule.”

Further the article said:

The Frank Cicci Racing statement said Cicci has retained legal council against BC Motorsports and Brian Conz for default and non-payment according to the terms of a binding contract that commits them to a 35 NASCAR Busch Series race schedule with Frank Cicci Racing.

It went on to say that

“Conz’s Web site now shows no affiliation with Frank Cicci Racing other than a few pictures of the car from the original D.C. appearance.”

but as of minutes ago, the Conz site is just 404 (not found).

So much for doing things on the square.

Like the brother at the Burning Taper said, “not all press is good press, and something like this makes All of Freemasonry look bad”. Just like the question of membership, as a body, who really is watching our West Gate? Maybe the Rite forgets exactly what Pike even said…

But that which is the greatest battle, and in which the truest honor and most real success are to be won, is that which our intellect and reason and moral sense, our spiritual natures, fight against our sensual appetites and evil passions, our earthly and material or animal nature. Therein only are the true glories of heroism to be won, there only the successes that entitle us to triumphs.
Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma
32nd degree, the Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret

Its a great idea, and I’m all about it. But what I am finding is that it is making me extremely BUSY! So with that said, I present to you, those brothers in ear shot of the lodge, our first “official” education event, with a guest lecturer, that is Free and Open to the public.

The ad here is going in a local college paper, the Daily Sundial, next week.

Details to the event, if anyone is interested in going, are:

Masonic Education Forum A free and open to the public event March 3rd, 2007 At 7pm

A Journey through The Art of Rhetoric

We all know politicians and others study persuasiveness, but for the general public?
How does one “craft” an effective persuasive piece? How does one effectively “deliver” it? How relevant is understanding the art of rhetoric in today’s world? How important is it for the speaker?…for the listener?

Join us for a light seasonal buffet as Worshipful. Mark R. Sandstrom, professional Pastor and Masonic District Inspector (and former Grand Chaplain) Free and Accepted Masons of California, leads a stimulating, non-sectarian discussion covering the many facets of the art of persuasive, emotion invoking presentations

Location:
The Boulevard Masonic Center
Hollywood Masonic Lodge
19626 Ventura Blvd.,
Tarzana, CA 91356
RSVP to 818 564 6355 or
Email: hollywoodlodge@gmail.com
On-Line Here

This went out as a press release to local media yesterday too.

I will be on hand, as will my brothers, to answer any questions you may have about the lecture, Freemasonry, or anything else.

Now I need to start working on my letter for the lodge publication…

As direct as it can get, this brother is true to his heart and open in what he feels and says. I look forward to reading his growth in Freemasonry and in his knowledge of it.

When you have the time, I suggest checking him out.

Tidings from the West

The theme is a common one to the on-line masonic community who realized a while back that Freemasonry is not well represented on line and, that in the process of searching for good information, more negative than positive floats to the top.

Greeting to you brother Bondi. I hope the On-Line Freemason casts its light far.

After watching the original episode of Oprah on the 8th and her follow-up on the 17th (where the “O” did some fancy dancing to the “no this isn’t an anti Christian message” song), I had to admit that I felt compelled to see exactly what the secret was really about.

And after watching it tonight, I’ll be damned, the message it presents is pretty spot on.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Probably some new age hocus-pocus or some motivational speakers saying you have the power to do what you want (which is was in many ways), but this video took it step further. It said something I have been saying (and doing) for a while now though my own sort of personal discovery of all things Masonic. The message was that we (people) are a part of the God conscious universe, and that our energy resonates with the rest of the universe, and that this energy, when harmonized, has the potential of ANYTHING, good or bad. This harmonic energy is what we put out into the universe also attracts back to us, depending on what we think, feel, desire, wish, or pray for. And our attitudes contribute to what we get in return.

From the Masonic perspective, the degrees of masonry illustrate our ascension into this thought. That, as we are initiated into this ideation and taught how to interpret from what we learn our ultimate step, the placement at the doorway of God, the inner chamber of K.S.T. Our thoughts attenuated to this celestial divine, not without as some external force, but within, as our own manifestation of that Creative Force. We, widow’s sons, are the creators of our universe.

The philosophy in “The Secret” should be simple to understand by any Freemason who watches it. Even simpler now that it has been broken down to its barest components, which are: “Know Thy Self”, and “Follow Your Bliss”. With these two axioms, you can control your universe.

For those wondering though, where the producers came up with this Secret Teaching, they give you glimpses at the beginning alluding to their origins, The Knights Templar, Rosicrucian’s, The Romans, the Egyptians, and so one…But there may be some true point of origin here. Out of Hermetica, there comes a myth, the myth of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus. On this tablet were written 13 points of wisdom and these points create the foundation of transformative thought.

The 13 points of the tablet are:

1. The truth, certainty, truest, without untruth.
2. What is above is like what is below. What is below is like what is above. The miracle of unity is to be attained.
3. Everything is formed from the contemplation of unity, and all things come about from unity, by means of adaptation.
4. Its parents are the Sun and Moon.
5. It was borne by the wind and nurtured by the Earth.
6. Every wonder is from it 6a. and its power is complete.
7. Throw it upon earth, 7a) and earth will separate from fire. The impalpable separated from the palpable.
8. Through wisdom it rises slowly from the world to heaven. Then it descends to the world combining the power of the upper and the lower.
9. Thus you will have the illumination of all the world, and darkness will disappear.
10. This is the power of all strength- it overcomes that which is delicate and penetrates through solids. 11a) This was the means of the creation of the world.
11. And in the future wonderful developments will be made, and this is the way.
12. I am Hermes the Threefold Sage, so named because I hold the three elements of all wisdom.
13. And thus ends the revelation of the work of the Sun.

From these points you can learn the secret.

The one thing I don’t agree with necessarily is that “The secret”, as “the Secret” calls itself, is still only wisdom for those who care to know about it. The owners of “the secret” didn’t hide it. It has been alive and vital in the mystery schools of antiquity for eons, all anyone has to do to gain the secret is just ask…

Maybe, as in ages past, this is the new mode of transference. This is how the secret teachings of the ages are to be communicated to the masses, to merge with our subconscious and manifest into our daily life, so it is never forgotten again.

Either way, I do recommend giving “the Secret” a watching if you have the time, I found it a great reinforcement of my Masonic principals and ideas.

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My brother at Prosperos Books found an article in Scientific American about child development and symbolic thinking. Some of the interesting points he made from it were that Symbolic thinking is a Hallmark of being human, that errors are common, and understanding a symbols both requires seeing it as itself and as depicting something else. It strikes me as a dimensional understanding something.

I think I may have to track this article down…