Every Masonic lodge is different. Every single time I visit and sit in a Masonic lodge meeting I learn something new. I never know if it will be a ritual difference, or local custom, or a bit of education from a Brother, or even some new decorative item I've never seen before. It could just be an offhand comment by a Brother that jogs my thinking in some new way.

I visited Spes Novum Lodge U.D. in Libertyville, Illinois on Friday night to speak at their stated meeting and to enjoy their fellowship. Many thanks to WM Scott Dueball and my friend WB Robert Johnson for their kind invitation. Their new lodge has its own differences that give it a unique flavor and personality, with a small, dedicated membership that truly knows and cares for each other. I know in my heart that these small lodges of less than 30 members are the way to our future by following our past.

Almost 20 years ago, I read in early online Masonic chat rooms and BBSs of a practice conducted in European lodges that few in the U.S. followed. They required their Entered Apprentices and Fellow Craft Masons to write down their thoughts about their degrees and to present them in open lodge as part of their proficiency requirements. Some foreign jurisdictions call this "submitting a piece of architecture." The goal is to make a new member reflect on the lessons of each degree in a way that is more meaningful than just memorization of a catechism (which is important, too) before moving on to the next. We brought this up when we wrote Laudable Pursuit as the Knights of the North back in 2003. The Masonic Restoration Foundation also encouraged the practice about the same time.

Well, it's been a while, but the practice is still rare in the U.S., and that's a damned shame.

The quote above is not from some deep thinking, grizzled old Past Master with a PhD in Philosophy. It came from a paper read by a new Fellow Craft at Spes Novum Lodge on Friday night. They were his thoughts on the lessons of the Entered Apprentice degree. For the last fifteen years, I've said to Masonic audiences that you'd be amazed at the way new Masons see this fraternity and the lessons we can learn from them by asking their thoughts after experiencing the degrees for the first time. More of us need to see the fraternity through the eyes of new members, if only to remind us occasionally what we're all supposed to be doing here.

My own jurisdiction forbids me from publicly naming a Brother until he is a Master Mason, so for the time being I will merely identify him as Brother B.R. He knows who he is, and so do the Brethren in lodge Friday night.

I thank him for reminding all of us what come we here to do. All over again.

The following brief essay was written this month by the son-in-law of Brother Tony Desrosiers. Brother Jeremiah, or Jay, has been a Master Mason for less than a year and is already an officer of his lodge. He still has the "fire in the gut", as they say. His observations and questions are out of love for his lodge, and for Freemasonry. They are presented well and are worthy of our attention and our action. I highly recommend that all Brothers read this.

Read this again. Although plainly written, it is the result of some pretty deep thought. Thank you, Brother Jay.

For many the three dots have been used as the equivalent of a period used for abbreviations in Masonic writing and literature. The symbol’s origin is from the field of mathematics. In mathematics the non-inverted triangle shape (⸫) symbol is used in mathematical proofs as the therefore sign. This dates back to a Swiss mathematician, Johann Rahn, in his book Teutsche Algebra, published in 1659. The triple dot predates 1717 when the first Grand Lodge in the U.K. was established.

Albert Mackey stated that it is futile to trace the triple dot back to the Hebrew three yods, the Tetragrammaton, or other ancient symbols. For usage of the three dots in Freemasonry Mackey further states: “Frequently among English and always among French authors, a Masonic abbreviation is distinguished by three points, ⸫, in a triangular form following the letter, whose peculiar mark was first used, according to Ragon, on the 12th of August, 1774, by the Grand Orient of France, in an address to subordinates. No authoritative explanation of the meaning of these points has been given, but they may be supposed to refer to the three lights around the altar, or perhaps more generally to the number three, and the triangle, both important symbols in the Masonic system."

Usage

From a usage standpoint, the triple dot is placed after letters in a Masonic document, especially formal ones or those using abbreviated Latin, or on a coin, to indicate that such letters are the initials of a Masonic title or of a technical word in Freemasonry, as G⸫M⸫ for Grand Master, G⸫L⸫ for Grand Lodge, W⸫M⸫ for Worshipful Master, and E⸫A⸫ for Entered Apprentice. On an email, you may see a colon followed by a period (:.) or, as noted particularly with European Freemasons, a period followed by a colon (.:). This is far easier on a PC or smart phone than other methods such as changing to a symbols font or, with the use of a numeric pad, adding in 2234, the code for this symbol, on the numeric pad and then pressing Alt+x.

For those who wish to use the proper display of this symbol, in MS Word press “Insert” from your tool bar, then press “symbol” from the toolbar and you will find this and a host of other common symbols such as the (°) for the abbreviation for degree/s.

Every Fellowcraft Mason learns of the importance of the liberal arts and sciences,
of which he is instructed there are seven;
namely, Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music
and Astronomy. Unfortunately few Freemasons today take this
instruction with any degree of seriousness and make no further
effort to examine the nature of these arts. Like much of Freemasonry,
the liberal arts and sciences come to us from the Medieval
period, when they were believed to be the sum total of all
knowledge that was worthwhile to a complete education. They
were known as "artes liberales" from the Latin "liber" meaning
Free. In this sense they were the subjects available to free men
and were a contrast from the "artes illiberales", which were
taught for purely economic reasons that a man may earn a living.
These arts were the operative arts of the workmen and were
considered less desirable educational pursuits. While we have
adopted the seven liberal arts and sciences from the Medieval
era, they were known in the Pythagorean and Platonic eras. The
seven liberal arts and sciences were broken into two groups.
One concerning language and the other concerning mathematics.
The first was the "Trivium" or road of three paths and included
grammar, rhetoric and logic. Grammar is that portion of
language that allows us to fine tune our speech like the ashlars
and remove all barbarous expressions. Rhetoric is the art,
which allows us to persuade and have an effect upon the listener.
The last and perhaps most important art of the Trivium is
logic, which permits us the gift of reasoning. In a purely Masonic
sense it allows us to understand our duties to God and towards
each other. The second was the "Quadrivium" or path of
four roads and included arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy.
Arithmetic is the process by which we are able to calculate
all weights and measures, but in a speculative and philosophical
sense can be best summed up by the following quotation:
"For the Freemason, the application of this science is that
he is continually to add to his knowledge, never to subtract
anything from the character of his neighbor, to multiply his benevolence
to his fellow-creatures, and to divide his means with
those in need. Geometry is so fundamentally a part of Freemasonry
as to almost require no explanation, suffice to say it is the
science upon which our very fraternity is founded. It allows us
to create right angled triangles, the symbol of our uprightness
and square actions towards God, one another and our fellow
creatures. Music is a mystery to the Freemason and a mystery
as to its connection to mathematics, but as anyone, who practices
this art, the connection is apparent. Our ancient brother
Pythagoras was perhaps the first to notice the mathematical
correlation between music and numbers. Astronomy is that art
by which we can trace the great symmetry of the hand of the
deity throughout the heavens. Many of our symbols, the sun,
the moon the stars are borrowed from the science of astronomy.
While to our ancient brethren aimed at a blending of all
knowledge, the modern freemason can apply to the seven liberal
arts and sciences a special and appropriate metaphor for a
life of self-improvement and mental growth. This goal is symbolized
in our lodges by the rough and perfect ashlars and by the
Masonic agenda of taking a good man and making him better.

While many readers will know about traditional Catholic opposition to Freemasonry, many may be surprised to discover how Freemasonry engendered significant Protestant opposition as well. David Hackett proposes to give readers the first detailed account of its religious dimension, while remarking that “Catholics were the original operative Masons, working on the great stone castles and cathedrals of the medieval period.” Even after the modern “re-founding” of the Masons by Protestants under Enlightenment influence, it is a “curious phenomenon” that remnants of Catholicism were retained, like celebrations in honor of the patron saints of the medieval stonemasons’ guild.

Catholic involvement with Masonry is somewhat convoluted. With its 1717 re-founding, many Catholics in Europe became members. In less than two decades, however, papal condemnations began to appear. In addition to concerns about its revolutionary aspects, theological objections were raised and deemed far more weighty than the more political dimensions. Religious indifferentism and universalism, confused and confusing religious positions, pagan influences, anti-clericalism, and extreme rationalism formed the heart of papal objections, which bans have perdured into contemporary Catholicism, along with similar prohibitions in Eastern Orthodoxy and many other conservative Christian bodies.

Freemasonry claims to have ancient foundations with occult knowledge and secret ceremonies of initiation, an example of ritual and popular religion, although many Masons have denied it is a religion, which Hackett defines as “shared ideologies and practices that help people become human in relation to transcendent realities.” “Freemasonry’s quest for primeval truth”—like primitivist Christian groups and Mormons—“joining together disparate political and religious leaders” contributed to the secularization of American society by staking out a “least common denominator” approach to religion—a via media between orthodox and evangelical Christianity on the one hand and pure rationalism on the other. Members were encouraged to keep “their particular [denominational] opinions to themselves,” embodying what the author dubs “polite Christianity” or what the 1723 Masonic constitution refers to as “that religion in which all men agree” (hence, the title of the book).

When Freemasonry refers to “rational” religion, this does not envision faith and reason as two wings of the human ascent to the truth, à la Pope John Paul II in Fides et Ratio; on the contrary, its religious equation is reason minus revelation or faith. As Thomas Paine argued, Masonry “is derived from some very ancient religion wholly independent of, and unconnected with that book [the Bible].”

Another interesting historical tidbit informs us of the dependence of Mormonism on Freemasonry, especially in the development of its unique rituals. Likewise interesting is that eleven of Joseph Smith’s original twelve apostles were Masons.

Freemasonry caught on for a variety of reasons, not the least being its ability to forge deep relations independent of (or even in spite of) religious positions, redounding to the social, economic and political advantage of its members. It did not hurt that such prominent founders of the American republic as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and John Hancock were committed members of the Lodge. Interestingly, we learn that in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Lodge members rarely attended church services (only 14 percent among San Franciscan Masons), giving credibility to the popular perception that Freemasonry was a religion unto itself. As part of its “inclusivity,” one lodge was comprised of Druids—whatever that might have meant.

The role of secrecy in the organization cemented relationships, to be sure, but also led to its undoing. John Vanderbilt in 1808 averred that “nothing can be more binding, nothing more sacred or more pious” than those bonds, causing not a few observers to give credence to long-standing accusations of Freemasonry’s involvement in plots to overthrow both political and religious establishments. Women also expressed concern that perhaps their marriage vows were in danger as well.

As often happens in closed societies, some members began to question teachings and practices. Apostate Masons divulged secrets and asserted that blasphemies and sacrileges against Christ and Christianity were part of the regular fare of lodges. One such “whistle-blower” was William Morgan, who was kidnaped and never heard from again. As that disappearance was laid at the door of the Masons (and never convincingly responded to in the public forum), it visited deleterious effects on Freemasonry as lodges in New York State alone lost 60 percent of its membership between 1826 and 1835.

Jews seeking to assimilate into American society joined lodges but, for reasons that have never been very clear, left the Masons and in 1843 founded B’nai B’rith, whose “original constitution avoids mention of God, Torah, or ritual obligations while emphasizing Jewish unity”—an approach clearly in line with its evolution from Freemasonry.

The first Catholic bishop in the United States, John Carroll, apparently winked at Catholic membership in lodges, perhaps because his own brother Daniel belonged to one! While individual Catholics were admitted to lodges, Masonic attitudes toward institutional Catholicism “ranged from tolerance to rabid anti-Catholicism.” In short order, though, Masonry’s welcome mat even for individual Catholics was rolled up with the arrival of waves of Irish, Italian and German immigrants as Masonry supported the nativist American Protective Association.

That development triggered the establishment of the Knights of Columbus as the Catholic response to the bigotry of the Masons and the condemnations of the Holy See. Unlike the Masons, local councils of the Knights have always been inserted into parochial life, never functioning as a parallel or surrogate religious institution. Hackett claims that membership in the Knights has tanked in recent years, like American Freemasonry’s, as evidenced in its “aging, dwindling membership” and “its ill-kept and largely vacant buildings.” In point of fact, however, between 1950 and the present, membership in the Knights has actually doubled.

Although repetitious in many places, this is nonetheless a worthwhile and interesting account of the growth, development and passing of a significant influence on American religious, political and social life.

MASONS

1390: The oldest Masonic text known today, “The Halliwell Manuscript” or “Regius Poem” is said to have been written somewhere between 1390 and the beginning of the 15th century. This text begins with a history of the Craft, starting with Euclid’s invention of geometry in ancient Egypt. The text, written in poetic form, is also the earliest Masonic manuscript containing charges. The introduction of the manuscript is in fact followed by a section containing rules of conduct for a Master Mason, thus giving us an insight of the moral behaviour expected by Masons at the time.

1646: The first documented initiation of an English Freemason. Elias Ashmole, a chemist and antiquarian, recorded the proceedings of his initiation in his diary, where he used to write notes about his life with the intention of writing an autobiography. The entry is important because it is the first evidence known of the making of a speculative Mason, and the first one to be recorded in writing. Elias Ashmole is not the first speculative Mason in history, but he is the first one who recorded the proceedings of his initiation in writing (or at least his is the first record that was ever found), and he even took down the names of the other Masons that were present during his initiation. This gives us the first insight of initiations in speculative Freemasonry.

1696: The first recorded ritual, found in the Edinburgh Register House manuscript. Thanks to this record we can imagine what a Masonic ritual in the late 1600s would be like, and it shows the earliest evidence of a two degree system. The third degree first appeared quite a few years later, somewhere between 1723 and 1730, and it spread slowly within the craft until it became part of the Masonic system.

1717: This year marks the formation of the first Grand Lodge in the world and the start of lodges being governed by Grand Lodges. The first Grand Lodge was formed in London on the 24th June, 1717. It is today known as the United Grand Lodge of England and governs more than 8,000 lodges. The Grand Lodge of England is one of the three home Grand Lodges together with the Grand Lodge of Ireland, founded in 1725, and the Grand Lodge of Scotland, founded in 1736. These three home Grand Lodges are known to have started taking Freemasonry overseas to other countries.

1723: In this year an important Freemasonic writing was published: James Anderson’s Constitutions. Handwritten notes of the constitutions could already be found before this date, but now for the first time these were easily accessible in a small printed book. Anderson’s Constitutions began with a short history of Freemasonry (which, however, is widely considered fictitious), followed by a set of general rules of conduct for a Freemason; i.e. the charges. These were followed by Payne’s Regulations which dictated rules on how lodges should be governed, which every Grand Master should follow. The final section contains songs which would be used in rituals. Anderson’s Constitutions were reprinted by Benjamin Franklin in 1734, the same year in which he was elected Grand Master of the Lodge of Pennsylvania. He was also responsible for the printing of the first article about Freemasonry in North America, which he had published in ‘The Pennsylvania Gazette’ four years earlier, in December 1730. The Constitutions kept on being modified in the following years even until 1815, when the Grand Lodge of England changed slightly the part where Anderson wrote about a Freemason’s religion. While Anderson’s original Constitutions said that “a stupid Atheist” and “an irreligious libertine” can never be Freemasons, the Grand Lodge of England modified this and wrote that it doesn’t matter what religion one follows as long as “he believes in the glorious Architect of Heaven and Earth, and practices the sacred duties of morality”. This is still relevant to Freemasons today.

1751: This year marks the division between the ‘Antients’ and the ‘Moderns’, which lasted 63 years. It started when a Grand Lodge of Irish Masons arrived in London stating that the original Grand Lodge had changed; thus calling it one of the ‘Moderns’ while calling themselves the ‘Antients’ as they had not made any innovations, unlike the Grand Lodge of London, they claimed. This division also spread abroad and lasted for about 63 years with the ‘Modern’ and the ‘Antient’ lodges not considering each other regular lodges. The schism was ended in 1813, when the two Grand Lodges united and formed the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE). One major change that resulted from this unification was the culmination of a trend during the latter half of the 1700's to remove references to Christianity from the ritual, so that men of all beliefs and religions could participate in the Fraternity's rituals without compromising their personal beliefs.

1772: During this year, William Preston staged a gala at his own expense to introduce his system of lectures. Later that year they were published by Preston as "Ilustrations of Masonry", which went through 12 editions. Many of the lectures we have today in America are drawn directly or indirectly from the "Ilustrations". Perhaps Preston's greatest contribution, however, was to change the focus of Freemasonry at the time from the bar and dining room to much more emphasis on the moral and philosophical. His influence on Modern Freemasonry cannot be overestimated.

1797: Thomas Smith Webb, born in Massachussetts, published his "Freemason's Monitor, or Illustrations of Masonry". He had come in contact with Freemasons from England who were students of Preston, and he studied and learned that system, including the Lectures. In his book, he openly admitted that much of what he wrote was lifted directly from Preston's work, but he re-arranged the Lectures and edited them to some extent, to make them "fit" the American system better. Webb is looked upon by most authentic Masonic scholars as the Father of American Masonic Ritual. Many of his students learned his system and spread his work throughout most of the United States.

1826: This is the year of the Morgan Affair. William Morgan had threatened to write a book revealing all the secrets of the Freemasons and in 1826 he disappeared from Batavia, New York. What really happened to him is still a mystery, but the Freemasons were blamed for his disappearance and this led to the formation of many anti­Masonic groups in New York and in the whole United States, which organized protests against Freemasonry. Because of the Morgan Affair, many masons left the Craft. While before the Morgan Affair the Grand Lodge of New York governed 227 lodges, a few years after the Morgan Affair only 41 were left. However, Freemasonry in the United States tripled in the 1850s. By the end of the 1850s there were more than 5000 lodges with over 200,000 Masons.

1843: The Baltimore Convention, held in the city of that name in Maryland, was held this year. Its President was John Dove. For many reasons, but chief among them the loss of membership and skilled lecturers caused by the anti-Masonic movement within the United States, and the resulting disarray of rituals and practices among the various Grand Lodges and their respective subordinate lodges, there was a popular call among many Grand Lodges to unify the various Grand Jurisdictions under a single National Grand Lodge. Although this attempt failed, many beneficial policies that were put forth during the convention were ultimately adopted by all Grand Jurisdictions in the U.S. Among them was the practice of issuing "Dues Cards" or Certificates of Good Standing, a recognition of Webb's Monitor of containing the most authentic Masonic Lectures and practices, and other matters of jurisprudence.
The great object of the Convention, that of producing a uniform ritual of the 3 degrees that would be adopted by all Grand Lodges, was not achieved. However, although the Convention lacked the executive power to enforce its recommendations to the Grand Lodges, many of these recommendations were later adopted by all Grand Lodges, and the influence of this Convention upon Freemasonry in the United States was immense.

Several "word pairs" in Masonic ritual make interesting studies, such as "duly and truly," "worthy and well-qualified," free will and accord," "parts and points," "hele and conceal."

At first glance, it may seem that these are so arranged only for emphasis.
In Middle Age English writing, especially in the 13th and 14th Centuries, when Freemasonry was in the process of formation, England had two languages. One was Norman-French; the other Anglo-Saxon. To make sure of understanding, word pairs were much in use -- a word of similar meaning being taken from each language.

The apparent redundancy or expression in a number of places in Masonic ritual may be traced back to these Middle Ages. The perpetuation of such usage now, when clarity of thought and understanding might be served as well with one word, is one of the many proofs that Freemasonry delights to embrace that which is venerated and ancient."

The Famous H.O. Studley Tool ChestLook closely, Brethren.

The Bridge Builder
BY WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE

DEDICATED TO ALL PAST MASTERS WHO SERVE
DALLAS MASONIC LODGE NO. 182 SO WELL

An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

A BEAUTIFUL LEGEND.
Dear Brother: - Forty years ago Theodore Tilton in a public lecture delivered in the old Methodist church of this city, told this beautiful legend as to how King Solomon selected a location for the Temple.

Two brothers were left an estate to be divided equally between them. One was married and had a family of children, the other was unmarried and a cripple. After the estate, which consisted principally of grain and live stock, had been equally divided, the married brother decided that his brother who was a cripple ought to have the largest share; and the brother who was a cripple came to a like conclusion, thinking that his brother who had a family ought to have the larger part. Under cover of night they both planned to carry out their purpose of giving a share to the other. It so happened that they fixed upon the same hour and place, and where these two brothers met, each seeking to convey to the other a part of his inheritance, King Solomon built the Temple for the worship of God. Yours fraternally,

S. H. Bauman,

Mt. Vernon, Iowa.
Reprinted from "The Builder", June 1915

THE PALACE

When I was a king and a mason, a master proven and skilled,
I cleared me ground for a Palace, such as a King should build.
I decreed and dug down to my levels; presently, under the silt,
I came on the wreck of a Palace, such as a King had built.

There was no worth in the fashion; there was no wit in the plan;
Hither and thither, aimless, the ruined footings ran.
Masonry, brute, mishandled, but carven on every stone,
"After me cometh a Builder; tell him I, too, have known."

Swift to my use in my trenches, where my well-planned groundworks grew,
I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars, and cut and rest them anew.
Lime I milled of his marbles; burned it, slaked it, and spread;
Taking and leaving at pleasure the gifts of the humble dead.

Yet I despised not nor gloried, yet, as we wrenched them apart,
I read in the razed foundation the heart of that Builder's heart.
As he had risen and pleaded, so did I understand
The form of the dream he had followed in the face of the thing he had planned.

When I was a King and a Mason, in the open noon of my pride,
They sent me a Word from the Darkness; they whispered and called me aside.
They said, "The end is forbidden." They said, "Thy use is fulfilled.
Thy Palace shall stand as that other's, the spoil of a King who shall build."

I called my men from my trenches, my quarries, my wharves, and my sheers;
All I had wrought I abandoned to the faith of the faithless years.
Only I cut on the timber; only I carved on the stone:
"After me cometh a Builder; tell him I, too, have known."

(The Palace, Rudyard Kipling)