secret

A question on the secrets of Freemasonry

July 25, 2009 by Greg Stewart

I had this question posed to me today in an email from a brother on Facebook.

As freemasons, we are under oath and obligation to keep the secrets of masonry. Based on your understanding what are the secrets with so much material out on our craft?

My thoughts on formulating an answer are below. I’m sure its not the only answer, but one that seemed fitting in answering the question. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on the matter too.

Secret is a relative term. Is it the signs, tokens, words, or ideas and philosophy.

With so much published today, by the fraternity itself over the years, it makes me wonder what the craft itself holds as secret.

If anything, the secrets it possesses are those that even few masons truly comprehend, the state and nature of the divine, our connection to it, and how we communicate it.

Our best tool in keeping the secrets has been to not teach the meaning of masonry to its fullest potential, and its in that quest that we discover what the secret meaning is.

Ben Franklin is purported to of said that “the only secret of Freemasonry is that there is no secret” and maybe that is truer than what many realize. But as much weight that the society places on secrecy still begs the question of what its secrets might be.

Is it fraternalism? Is it some hermetic wisdom? Is it merely a collection of tokens or words?

Secret meetings…

May 20, 2009 by Greg Stewart

Imagine if the richest people in the world got together to decide how you and your charitable dollars (given in person or through your hard spent marketed dollars) were parted. Well, on the heels of our conspiracy show this last Sunday, Tom Accousti of the Tao of Masonry pointed us to a Fox story about “secret” meeting of the richest entertainment/marketers who recently met behind closed doors to talk about charity.

The hit parade read like any secret G7 committee meeting: Buffett, Gates, Rockefeller, Turner, Winfrey, Bloomberg, Soros, all to discuss what they should do in light of the financial crisis.

From Irish Central who broke the news:

“Each attendee was given 15 minutes to deliver a presentation on how they saw the future global economic climate, the future priorities for philanthropy, and what they felt the elite group should do.”

But, following our show Sunday, it makes me wonder, perhaps there is a secret cabal out there, only its not the Freemason’s calling the shots anymore, its the shining faces of capitolism 🙂

Other invitees included Eli and Edythe Broad, whose current fortune is estimated at $5.2B by Forbes Magazine; John Morgridge, former CEO of Cisco and his wife Tashia; Peter Peterson, senior chairman of the Blackstone Group; Julian Robertson, founder of Tiger Management Corp.; and Patty Stonesifer, former CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

I’m curious to see what their conclusions are…

What Will Be Your Legacy?

May 17, 2009 by The Euphrates

This article comes from RWB Dean Behrens, Senior Grand Warden for the Grand Lodge of South Dakota. The article originally appeared in the Grand Lodge of South Dakota’s publication The Masonic Messenger. You can visit the Grand Lodge’s website here.

What will be your legacy?

Is it too soon, or too late, for any one of us to ask ourselves that question? Just what is a legacy anyway?

I found this definition of legacy online at www.thefreedictionary.com . Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past. That seems fairly straight forward. The something in this definition could be anything. I like to think that it can definitely apply to your Masonic legacy.

When you became a Mason your Masonic predecessors left a Masonic legacy for you. It included the building you were raised in, perhaps some money in the treasury, a set of principles, beliefs, values, some rules and a bunch of other stuff that only you know about. The intangible parts of this legacy are unique to each new Mason. That is because Masonry will mean something different to each individual Mason. Some have said that this is the only true secret about Masonry. Your Masonry is your secret.

The physical assets you leave as part of your legacy are, of course, important for those Masons you will leave behind. These can ensure that your Brothers will have the ability to meet comfortably and continue to promote Masonry in your community so that they and their community can be the better because of Masonry and its principles. So keep those in mind.

The intangible are perhaps even more important. My experience is that the most valuable person in an organization is the one that is hardly missed when he/she is away for a period of time. They have organized things so well, trained other so well and set such an example that everything works smoothly even when they are not there. Those that do the opposite generally create chaos when they are gone even for a very short time. They have created job security and proved to others how great and invaluable they are to the organization, or so they often think. Be mindful that it can be amazing what can be done if no one cares who gets the credit.

Please keep your legacy in mind in everything you do as a Mason. Not for you, but for those you will leave behind, both in Masonry and in your community.

What will be your legacy?

Fraternally,
Dean Behrens
Senior Grand Warden