The Design of Freemasonry

A talk by Jay Cole Simser

(given at Specialis Procer Lodge June 28, 2013)
“the design of the Masonic Institution, is to make its votaries wiser, better and consequently happier.”  Masonic Ritual

‎"The true spirit and design of Freemasonry demand an education above and beyond the mere conferring of degrees."—M.W. Bro. John W. Vrooman, Past Grand Master of Masons in New York

The great comedian Alan Sherman once used a joke in his “Peter and the Commissar” which has stuck with me ever since the first time I heard it.

He said,  “We all have heard the saying, which is true as well as witty, that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee.”

Now I actually think the camel is a superior beast.  It is able to store up fluid and go for many days without food or water over pretty unfriendly terrain.  Camels, if well treated, are more inquisitive, affectionate, and attention seeking. However, they are a little more "emotional" than horses and less consistent in their reactions. In other words, they are less predictable than horses. They also seem to need the company of other members of their own species more than horses. Camels also seem smarter than horses about getting themselves out of a precarious situation

However, we did not come here to debate the merits of Camels or horses tonight I am going to talk about Freemasonry. Where it came from and what was it designed to do.

A fragment of lower jaw recovered from a Serbian cave has now been dated as the oldest hominin ancestor found in this part of Europe. The fossil was dated to between 397,000 and 525,000 years old, a time when distinctly Neanderthal traits began to appear in Europe. These ancestors met in Lodges and were responsible for all of the ancient temples, pyramids and other buildings.  They built Stonehenge using marvelous anti-magnetic sleds to move the largest stones  -- right?  If you believe all of that I have a bridge (now in Arizona) I can sell you.  You can believe the first part of the paragraph.  That is provable.  

Modern man may have Neanderthal DNA - We have been around a very long time. However there were no Masonic Lodges at that time no matter what some may claim today.  

My friend Jerry Marsengill once wrote that “Masonic myths and would-be historians who write their Masonic histories as they think they should be written started with the imaginative Dr. Anderson, who made a list of all the men throughout history whom he would have liked to identify as members of the Masonic fraternity, beginning with Adam and ending with the founding of the Grand Lodge in 1717.

In this history he lists such names as Euclid, Abraham, Moses. Charlemagne, etc. and presents a regular succession of Grand Masters from the beginning of the world down to his own time.”  We have these types with us today.  In fact I remember one talk at SP 678 that would fit into that grouping.

Humans first climbed out of forests and found other places to live. Some adapted caves as homes, either temporary or more permanent.  Decorated caves show us that magical rites were performed in them to insure a good hunt so that there would be food on the table.  These were probably the first “churches” or religious centers where humans petitioned the deity or deities as the case may be. A class of priests developed who were able to perform rites and ceremonies to invoke their gods. These caves became sacred sites. In more recent times we have rediscovered them, and we marvel at the artistic sophistication of early humans.”

There is a Masonic extended trowel lecture which speaks of how other creatures also were builders but it states that

“…in man there was a vital spark that the bird, the beaver,
the wasp or the spider never knew; inspiration, not instinct,
guided his budding soul, a divine discontent with his habitation
seized him; the hole in the rocks no longer satisfied his cravings
and he began to build out in God's glorious sunshine; feeble
were his efforts, few his tools and mean his creations, but he was
growing.

Crude shelters took the place of dank and dingy dens; a roof
sheltered him, the embryonic pillars supported the crossbars, and
as the years waxed and waned he built better and better until his
aspirations attained their highest form in the completion of the
magnificent cathedrals of Europe, the masterpieces of his mind
and soul.

You see,

Someone, somewhere at some time came out of the cave, …. Someone, somewhere at sometime figured out a method for passing on …information from one generation to the next – each generation adding on to that knowledge and understanding,

Many of the ancient buildings were designed to facilitate the observation of the skies and the heavenly movements. From these observations grew knowledge of the geometric nature of the universe and the understanding of patterns, which they were then able to put to practical use in building the ancient wonders of the world and eventually the great cathedrals of Europe.

These great gothic cathedrals take some of their design from the branching of the trees in a forest.  When you walk into one of them you are reminded by the great soaring arches of the branches that come together overhead as you walk in the forest.  In fact in the recent royal wedding in Great Britain Catherine had actual trees on each side of the aisle. Their natural extension was the stone arches above.

The evolution of their design culminates in the magnificent Sagrada Família a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926).

Construction of Sagrada Família had commenced in1882, Described as the most complex building ever made. 'The most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages'  - Entire families have given their time, talent and lives to its design and construction, It remains unfinished to this day.

In the same way Masons of the Middle Ages who built the Cathedrals of Europe also gave their time, talent and lives to the design and construction of the Cathedrals.

“These builders were Masonry's progenitors, at first an operative
science, it reached it's fruition as such, mounted yet higher and
became a speculative art. (Its end aim the building of a perfect
character, the realization of the designs on the trestle board of
the Great Architect of the Universe.)”

There are two schools of thought as to the Origins of Freemasonry.  One school - the “romantic” school points to many possible origins i.e. Solomon’s Temple, medieval Knights Templar, Rosicrucian, Essenes, and ancient Egyptians.  The other school, the one that I subscribe to (unless I am engaging in flights of fancy about “Secret Princes of the Hidden Temple) is the “authentic school described in the extended trowel lecture quoted previously.

Historical evidence and research suggests the transition from operative Masons of Scotland (first) and (later) England to the speculative society we have today. It took a great many men to work together to build them and the apprentice system was designed to bring youngsters into the work and train them in the builder’s art. At the age of 14 or 15 a young man would be apprenticed to a Master who would be responsible for training him and working with him so that eventually he would be a Master.  It was a system of education. Designed to train the next generation of builders and pass on the knowledge of the builder’s art.  And designed to keep that knowledge only in the hands of those who were members of the craft.  Initiation ceremonies and binding oaths were developed to transmit knowledge and keep it out of the hands of the profane - the uninitiated.

In the days of the operative Masons they met in a place called a lodge, which was a temporary structure near the operative mason’s building site.  Here the Mason could rest and refresh himself from the day’s labor.  Here also Entered Apprentice masons could become Fellows of the Craft and were given certain “secrets” enabling them to travel and work as “Free” Masons.  At that time there were only two designations.  The Entered Apprentice and the Fellow of the Craft.  What we know of as the Master Mason degree was developed later. Masters were simply senior Fellow Crafts.

Wikipedia says that Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system

if you think about it the apprentice system was designed as a system of education.  Not just the masons used it but children were apprenticed in all sorts of professions.     They did not have a general education system as we do today where children would go to a school and learn a general education and at some point graduate wondering what they wanted to do in life.

 It was a system of learning a craft or trade from one who is engaged in it and of paying for the instruction by a given number of years of work. The practice was known in ancient Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome... Typically, in medieval Europe, a master craftsman agreed to instruct a young man, to give him shelter, food, and clothing, and to care for him during illness. The apprentice would bind himself to work for the master for a given time. After that time he would become a journeyman, working for a master for wages, or he set up as a master himself. The medieval guilds supervised the relation of master and apprentice and decided the number of apprentices in a given guild.

The move to a Speculative Fraternity began in Scotland with the admission of non-masons into a lodge. “The starting point however, for the direct line to the modern fraternity lies in England.  

By the 1640s high ranking members of the community (not stonemasons) were initiated and became non-operative “masons”  - this initiation and the conferral of the Mason Word gave us the beginnings of our Masonic Institution of today.  It is absolutely essential to the “design” of Freemasonry

It remained for England to adapt this Masonry for non-operative Masonry into the Gentle Craft that we know today. The myth of its origin is an allegory that hides the true beginnings of Speculative Freemasonry and what it was designed to accomplish.

As noted earlier Masons had some sort of ceremony or ritual to mark the initiation of new members of the craft.  The English masons were different in that they included the history contained in the “Old Charges,” an emphasis on morality, identification of the mason craft with geometry, and the importance of Solomon’s Temple.  All of these, combined with other ingredients, took place in the years around 1600. It is in this late Renaissance phase that modern freemasonry was created.  And I maintain that it was designed for a purpose.  

It was designed to create an institution that reflected the progressive spirit of the age, with ideals of brotherhood, equality, toleration and reason.   It provided an institutional framework for almost any religious or political belief. The lodge system combined with secrecy, ideals of loyalty and secret modes of recognition created an ideal organizational framework into which the members could put their own values and could adapt for their own uses.  The development of Masonry was designed as a place where men could meet together and bond in a way that provided for initiation - a place where a man is given the inner authority to own his own life, to own his own experience, to own his own responsibility.

My friend Robert Davis expresses it best when he says - “Freemasonry exists first and foremost to transform men. And that transformation takes place because one is initiated into a fellowship of men. It is within that fellowship that he is introduced to his own path to self-improvement—the journey that enables him to harmonize his individual need for fulfillment with a collective well-being. This pathway is nothing less than the road to mature masculinity.

The corporate task of freemasonry is to not only erect this path, but to make sure that its members are on it themselves; and those who come after them will also be on it.

The inherent role of any morally based male-only organization is to take on the virtues of manliness, to enhance and extend the male tradition; and to embrace that tradition irrespective of how formidable the demands any present society may place upon it.

Freemasonry’s strength lies in the fact that it offers the right model by which men can grow and achieve balance in their human and spiritual lives. It tenders a medium for collective dialogue in the ways of virtue and ethics. It offers the role of patriarchy to men—male role modeling, if you will—which guides younger men from a sort of boyish impetuosity to mature and manly judgment. It does this by leading them back to timeless, ethical, and spiritual traditions, which facilitate their own transformation and rebirth into manhood.

And it has done this for every generation of men for more than 400 years.”

Specialis Procer Lodge was designed as an example of what I feel a lodge should be.  It was not designed merely to confer degrees.  It was also designed so that the Brothers could grow in knowledge, could increase in wisdom and bond in fraternity.  

Degrees and initiation are important to us and we desire to have rituals that are deeper and with more meaning than just memorized words and pathways traced around the lodge room.  When a man is initiated into our lodge it is important to us that he take time in the Chamber of Reflection to ponder his mortality and what he believes and stands for.  The conclusions he reaches are between him and his God but they should be with him when he enters the lodge room.  

There is no roughhouse or play in our initiation. Not for us the jocular yelling and screaming as the craftsmen look for the missing Hiram Abaft. No rough house in the degree but rather an attempt to make the meaning of the degree for the initiate the most profound experience he has ever had.

It is important to us that the winding stair and it pathway showing the Liberal Arts and Sciences be taken literally not figuratively.  We expect our members to become students of Freemasonry and to study and share that study with us.

We have festive boards such as this one where papers are presented to increase our knowledge and as eating together is one of the most profound ways to build our brotherhood we eat together often, and not just cake and coffee but rather a fine meal accompanied by conversation and fellowship.

This lodge is unlike any other I have ever attended.  It was designed that way.  There is an Egregore present - In metaphysical terms; an egregore is the general character that binds a group entity. It may be viewed as the combination of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energies generated by people working together towards the same goal; being a by-product of our personal and collective creative processes.  An egregore is that atmosphere or personality that develops among groups independent of any of its members. It is the feeling or impression you get when walking into a neighborhood that has an ambience distinct from others, or that you may experience visiting a club or association that has been around for a long time. It is a "collective group mind", an autonomous psychic entity made up of, and influencing, the thoughts of a group of people. It is with us when we meet.  I can physically feel its presence....but perhaps I am a bit of a woooo woooo person.  

As sure as I am sitting here giving this paper I am certain that the Masonic fraternity was designed for this to happen.  We were not supposed to be islands alone in the stream but rather a part of a great collective that grows together and advances our own interests as well as the interests of all mankind.

The degrees of Freemasonry were not designed to be given in a hurried, perfunctory or arbitrary manner.  The very act of petitioning and being accepted by all of the members in a unanimous ballot was not designed for any other reason than to show the candidate that he is joining by unanimous consent a fellowship which will be with him for the rest of his life if he will accept it.  As such the Wardens and the Master should convey that acceptance and welcome by the tone of their voice.  All too often that is not the case because it is not understood as such.

Masonry advanced across our country with the advance of the flag. “Three forces for good...the little school, the little church and the little masonic lodge helped shape our nation.  Tens of thousands of men became Masons. Lodge meetings were important to them and they would travel many miles to attend Lodge and sit with their brothers.

Men may be morally qualified to become Masons, and yet fail utterly to improve themselves in the art of Masonry. The failures are those who believe that the ultimate attainment of some degree of spiritual improvement is not worth the steady application that is required to achieve it. For some the collection of pins to wear on a lapel or on a ribbon around a neck is being a successful Mason.  For others the gaining of long and important titles signifying that they wore a “big necklace” for a brief period makes them believe that they are Masons.

Alain Bauer writing in Isaac Newton’s Freemasonry states: “We have long believed the age of information to be liberating. Our society has become one of entertainment and spectacles: the emptiness of primetime television…Freemasonry was created in order to understand complexity, to accept differences, to gather and pose questions, while at the same time to provide, here and there, solutions or tools useful for those who are willing to use them.”

If there is a failure in our modern Freemasonry it is that we have lost sight of what the lodge was designed to do.  It is not there for social advancement or fellowship and “good times” or demonstrating proficiency in a long memorized lecture, although those are all a part of what happens in a successful lodge. No its real purpose is something else. As Joseph Fort Newton says “it is a center of moral and spiritual power, and its power is used, not only to protect the widow and orphan, but also, and still more important, to remove the cause of their woe and need by making men just, gentle, and generous to all their fellow mortals.

Masonry was not made to divide men, but to unite them, leaving each man free to think his own thought and fashion his own system of ultimate truth. All its emphasis rests upon two extremely simple and profound principles—love of God and love of man. Therefore, all through the ages it has been, and is today, a meeting place of differing minds, and a prophecy of the final union of all reverent and devout souls.”

It is essentially necessary that our officers make a thorough study of Masonry in order to keep before the members the real purpose of the Institution. The initiation ceremonies must be done with solemnity and understanding of the symbolism behind every step that the candidate or Brother takes. The proper discharge of the duty of the Worshipful Master to see that the lodge is set to labor under good and wholesome instruction largely determines the success of a lodge. The success can never be computed in numbers, in degrees, or in proficiency in the ritualistic work.

Again Joseph Fort Newton, to my mind has written the best explanation of the design of Freemasonry when he says:
“God works for man through man and seldom, if at all, in any other way. He asks for our voices to speak His truth, for our hands to do His work here below—sweet voices and clean hands to make liberty and love prevail over injustice and hate. Not all of us can be learned or famous, but each of us can be loyal and true of heart, undefiled by evil, undaunted by error, faithful and helpful to our fellow souls. Life is a capacity for the highest things. Let us make it a pursuit of the highest—an eager, incessant quest of truth; a noble utility, a lofty honor, a wise freedom, a genuine service—that through us the Spirit of Masonry may grow and be glorified.
…

He asks, “When is a man a Mason?” and then answers - “When he can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage—which is the root of every virtue. When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and seeks to know, to forgive, and to love his fellow man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea, even in their sins—knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds. When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and above all how to keep friends with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt the birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child. When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life. When star-crowned trees, and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters, subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead. When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid without response. When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be. When he can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin. When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When he has kept faith with himself, with his fellow man, with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song—glad to live, but not afraid to die! Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world.


If Freemasonry and a Masonic Lodge can help a man to become the Mason described by Newton then indeed it has fulfilled the purpose for which it was designed.


References

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/02/2013/serbian-cave-produces-oldest-human-ancestor-in-this-part-of-europe)

Light on Masonry -  The History and Rituals of America’s Most Important Masonic Expose’  by Arturo de Hoyos

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Apprenticeship+system

http://masonicthought.blogspot.com/2012/06/imho.html

The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland’s Century, 1590 0 1710 by David Stevenson

http://robertgdavis.blogspot.com/2007/09/in-defense-of-fraternity.html


Masonic Misinformation - Jerry Marsengill

The Builders - Joseph Fort Newton

http://hedgemason.blogspot.com/2013/03/egregore-of-freemasons.html

Isaac Newton’s Freemasonry – The Alchemy of Science and Mysticism – Alain Bauer

The Shennanigans 6/25/11

 Friday Evening was the Festival of St. John at Specialis Procer Lodge #678 in Des Moines.  You may recall that this is the Lodge that we started and it is different because of the emphasis on Education and Festive Boards (Banquets)  Last year we decided to hold a very special Masonic Event in June - A Festival of St. John.  We have a nice meal and a lecture.  This year the Master arranged for Michael Halleran to speak to us. Michael is the author of The Better Angels of Our Nature - Freemasonry in the American Civil War. It was well received and all seemed to enjoy it.

Then today I was back at the Scottish Rite in Des Moines for the Grand Lodge Educational Symposium which had been one of the goals of Grand Master Craig L. Davis.  I really wanted to stay home to fight the Bronchitis which they decided I have but I also did not want to miss this event.  The event has been held two previous years but was very limited as it was held in a smaller venue.  There were almost 200 Master Masons there and we heard many and varied presentations.  As my friend John noted all of us came away from the Symposium with at least one idea and he was including some of us who could be referred to as "older" Masons.  For some reason I cannot embed the slideshow but you can view the photos of the event by clicking on this link
The Symposium began with the Scottish Rite Flag Lecture given by John Clearman

The Most Important Masonic Speech You Need to Hear.10/23/10

Today at the North Central Conference John Klaus gave a speech which needs to be read by every Masonic Leader. He has graciously allowed me to share it on the Buddy. It is not short but it is well worth your time to read, ponder and digest this important message.

Masonic Membership:

What’s up with that?

It says here I’m supposed to start with a lame joke, so here goes:

How many Royal Arch Masons does it take to change the lightbulb in the Gentlemen’s Necessary?

Well, it takes a minimum of 48.

The High Priest must bring the possibility of changing the bulb before the Chapter. The King and Scribe need to discuss the matter heatedly with the Treasurer. The Principal Sojourner needs to consult Scripture for guidance. The Secretary needs to check all by-laws and minutes for the past fifty years for references to lightbulbs.

The Captain of the Host, the Royal Arch Captain, and the Veil Masters need to find references in Ritual to changing anything, and get into a dandy sword fight off in the northwest corner over their findings.

The Chaplain needs to pray for all present, and for guidance in the ways lightbulbs affect the work of the Chapter.

The Sentinel needs to guard against all fluorescent encroachments.

Then the High Priest needs to consult the Grand High Priest, who repeats the exercise by making a conference call to all the other 19 Grand officers.

Meanwhile, the 15 other Royal Arch Masons present at the Chapter meeting need to raise a righteous ruckus about who installed the light fixture in the first place, and why. Then they argue for the obligatory 90 minutes about whether to call a plumber or a diesel mechanic.

Finally the newest Royal Arch Mason shakes his head and leaves the sidelines to change the bulb.

Now. All who think that’s a really lame joke, vote by the usual sign of a Royal Arch Mason when in Chapter assembled.

Yup. Me too.

Just like with that old, burned-out lightbulb, Masons are pretty good at looking backward, pretty good about discussing minutiae endlessly, and pretty poor about planning for the future.

It’s one of our chief pleasures these days, when serious Freemasons get together to talk about serious things, for several Brothers, or Companions, or Sir Knights to wring their hands, sigh deeply, and say something about how things used to be, and how membership just isn’t what it was.

This is equally true whether one gets together with his local Blue Lodge Brothers, with his Scottish Rite or York Rite Brothers, with his Shrine Brothers, with his Eastern Star Brothers and Sisters, or (and maybe especially) at the meeting of some Grand Body or another.

Indeed, go to a meeting of Masonic youth advisors, and you’ll hear the same laments.

If one were an outsider, one would be forced to conclude that American Freemasonry is an institution that has appeared, strutted and fretted its time upon the stage, and is about to be heard no more. It’s certainly on its last legs. Just ask those who know it best—its members themselves.

That’s one of the problems: outsiders ARE listening in on these conversations!

So maybe we, as Freemasons, as Blue Lodge and York Rite and Scottish Rite and Shrine and Eastern Star Masons, need to take a closer look, so we know, at least, what we’re talking about.

Since I only have access to data from my home jurisdiction of Iowa, I’ll limit my discussion to those specific data—but I’ll bet the data from Iowa are similar to those in many other Grand Jurisdictions. And because I have access only to Craft Masonry data, I’ll use those. However, I’ll bet that my conclusions are equally applicable to all appendant bodies.

Now, before you get completely honked off, mutter a few cuss words to yourself and your neighbors, and hot-foot it out of here to find some coffee and a doughnut—or even a good, stiff belt—let me say that I really DO believe we have a crisis when it comes to membership.

And I should also warn you against that Great American Pastime, instant gratification. If you stick around, I can almost promise that I’ll make you so mad you’ll want to do something personal about it—to me. To that felicitous end, the hotel is preparing a great vat of hot pine tar in its kitchen even as I speak, and I have arranged at my own expense for the delivery of a semi-load of feathers and a sturdy 12-foot 10x10 rail.

Before you start hollering about how this is a YORK RITE conference, and I have no business discussing Blue Lodge matters here, let me simply remind you of a single fact. The one invariable requirement for becoming a York Rite Mason is that the candidate must FIRST be a Blue Lodge Mason.

The same, of course, is true for the Scottish Rite, the Shrine, and Eastern Star. In fact, in all appendant Masonic bodies, when one ceases to be a Blue Lodge Mason, he simultaneously loses eligibility for ALL Masonic bodies.

As York Rite Masons, we cannot blame the Imperial Shrine for dropping their requirement for York or Scottish membership as a prerequisite for the Shrine. In fact, I would argue that the Imperial Shrine did the Rites a favor. If the Rites don’t have anything to offer on their own, then why should anybody want to join them anyway?

Every man in this room knows the riches to be found in the York Rite, and most of us understand the complementary riches in the Scottish Rite as well.

Thus I suggest that healthy Craft Masonry is at the very center of rebuilding excitement for and membership in the appendant bodies. But what’s the reality where the rubber hits the road, in York and Scottish members’ involvement in their local Lodges?

Let me relate just two very brief comments, one from an experienced York Rite leader, and one from another and equally experienced Scottish Rite leader:

The first has told me on several occasions, “I don’t want anything to do with my local Lodge at all, and I want even less to have to deal with the Grand Lodge of Iowa.”

The second told me, “Maybe if my Blue Lodge were worth attending, I might be there occasionally.”

What do these comments say about the health of Iowa Masonry? More, I submit, than those two men intended.

Back to our crisis. It exists across the whole gamut of Masonic organizations, and it needs to be addressed, and addressed very soon—as in a decade ago.

I’m just not sure we’re looking in the right places to identify the problem. And if we don’t define the problem accurately, I’ll guaran-dang-tee we won’t be very effective in addressing it, let alone in solving it.

Let’s start by looking about the “common knowledge” about this Masonic Membership Mess in which we supposedly are enmeshed.

Everybody knows what the problem is:

· Why, time was when EVERY self-respecting, honest, adult male in town and for miles around just LUSTED to be a Mason! If a guy wanted to join, he had to ask a Mason, too. It was illegal to talk to ANYBODY about Masonry, ’less’n they asked about it first. A father couldn’t even talk to his own sons about Masonry!

· Those who couldn’t be Masons STILL wanted to be Odd Fellows, or Knights of Columbus, or Knights of Pythias, or Woodsmen, or Foresters, or SOMETHING!Heck, they were inventing different outfits, just so’s guys could join ’em—and they did, too!

· I’ll tell ya! We had so much work that we had to do three and four Degrees a night for five nights EVERY WEEK! I remember a time when we had three Thirds on Christmas EVE, and each of those guys got all the extended lectures! Just as we were done, the Grand Master of the North Pole stopped by for a cup of coffee and a ham sandwich. I didn’t get home until 3 in the morning, and—let me tell ya!—I sure did catch what-for when I got there!

· Gosh, I remember sitting in Lodge with 95 guys there, and all of them were members of our own Lodge! I remember when we had three separate Degree teams who could do all three Degrees flawlessly! Sometimes we had to rent the Presbyterian and Baptist Church basements, just so we could do all the work!

Here are some other things that we commonly believe affect Masonic membership:

· Following American involvement in wars, there has been an upsurge in Masonic membership—until Korea, that is, and then the Viet Nam guys wanted nothing to do with us.

· When we got away from extensive memory work, we weren’t really Masons any more. When a man knew all three posting lectures, he not only knew a lot about Masonry, but he was well along to being able to work in any chair or station in any Degree.

· There just aren’t any men anymore who want to be Masons.

· In recent years, more and more men have come into Lodge by the front door, and walked right out the back door.

· Demits and suspensions for non-payment of dues have risen at an alarming rate in recent years.

· We must guard against pricing ourselves out of the market! Dues are getting out of hand!

· We’re a bunch of old men. We’ve been unable to attract younger members for decades, and there are no good reasons for younger men to want to become Masons. And, you know what? That’s just how it is.

Well, maybe. Some of those observations may be accurate, and some may be slightly embroidered by time. There most certainly was a time within living memory when the number of Masons in Iowa was significantly larger than it is today. There was a time when York, and Scottish, and Shrine, and Star membership was larger. There was a time when the youth organizations were much more active.

We’ve blamed everything in sight for the decline. We’ve blamed television; we’ve blamed a more mobile population; we’ve blamed two-income families; we’ve blamed the Democrats, the Republicans, the Communists, the Capitalists, the Europeans, the Mexicans, the Canadians, and the Africans. There’s some very sophisticated sociological analysis that says there was a generation or two of men who weren’t at all interested in fraternalism of any sort. To an extent, many of these have probably contributed to the problem.

Almost all of us have looked at the gross numbers. In Iowa, we all have a notion that Freemasonry in the Grand Jurisdiction of Iowa began with 172 Masons who formed the Grand Lodge in Iowa City in 1844. We all know that membership peaked in the 1950s, and has pretty much declined ever since.

To help to address the problem, I have examined some of our Iowa Blue Lodge membership data, and I want to chat with you about what I found.

There’s NOTHING more boring than graphs. When I was in school, I used to skip the graphs until I absolutely HAD to refer to them.

However, I’ve summarized some of what I found out in a bunch of graphs, and I’ve given you copies. I’m NOT going to examine those puppies in detail, but I WILL refer to them. If you want the numbers, I can supply those as well.

What I’d suggest you do after we’re done here is to put these graphs with the rest of the papers you’ll accumulate at this meeting, and then, sometime when you’re completely snowed in next winter, take them out and try to figure out what they tell you.

Let’s just cut to the chase. What did I find out?

I found out that some of the things “we all know” are absolutely correct, while other of those things are absolutely wrong.

I found out, for instance, that in all the first 165 years of Masonry in the Grand Jurisdiction of Iowa, Freemasons have NEVER comprised even 4% of the total population of the state.

I found out that the most sustained period of rapid growth was NOT during the 1940s and 1950s, but began about 1890 and continued, with the exception of the financial recession of 1907 and 1908, until membership reached more than 91,000 men in 1926. However, even then, membership never increased more than 1% per year—with the exception of the war years of 1914 and 1915, when it rose slightly more than 1% per year.

I found out that between 1885 and 1900, more than 1,000 men were Raised in Iowa every year; that between 1901 and 1912, more than 2,000 men were Raised every year; and that between 1913 and 1930, more than 3,000 were Raised per YEAR. Indeed, in 1920, 7,584 men became Master Masons. Compare that to 263 in 1999, or 254 in 2000.

Clearly something went astray.

Or take a look at the percentage of our fraternity we’ve lost to death. The graph is the bottom one on page 4. Now, 4% per year doesn’t seem like much—but look at what happens beginning about 1926.

Or look at how relatively few we lose to demits, SNPDs, and expulsions.

But THAT doesn’t tell the story either, because when you look at the percentage of NET gains and losses (the graph at the bottom of page 10), you’ll see that there’s FAR too much of that line below zero, going all way back to 1930.

Let’s look, just as an example, at 1955 and 1956, the only two years in Iowa Masonic history when our numbers reached 99,000 members.

In 1955 there were 99,044 Masons in the state. They conferred 2,783 Entered Apprentice Degrees, 2,622 Fellowcraft Degrees, and 2,627 Master Mason Degrees, for a total of 8,032 Masonic Degree conferrals that year. 849 Masons were admitted to Iowa Lodges by certificates of good standing in another Lodge. 458 were Reinstated as members in good standing. That means that the Fraternity gained, on paper at least, 3,934 members in 1955.

However. 1,736 Masons died that year. 1,092 demitted. 1,079 were dropped. 17 withdrew or were expelled. THAT means the Fraternity LOST 3,924 members in 1955.

The net gain was a total of 10—TEN!—one one-hundredth of one percent!

1956, when there were 99,033 Masons on the books, wasn’t much better. There was a total gain of 3.898, and a total loss of 3,878, for a net gain of 20 members. At least the net gain doubled from the previous year!

If those two years were exceptions, I wouldn’t be so upset. Sadly, though, they are all too typical.

This is NOT evidence of a healthy organization! Members are coming in the front door, and walking right OUT the back door. And they’ve been doing it for nearly a century.

We’ve blamed everybody in sight except—ummm—ourselves.

What I’m saying right out loud, Companions, Sir Knights, Nobles, and Brothers, is what Pogo said so many years ago: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Pogo hit the nail on the head.

So what’s the problem?

Well, y’see, Brothers—I think we’re lying to ourselves, and, what’s worse, we’re lying to our candidates.

I think we’ve lost sight of what Freemasonry is all about.

Whether in 1900 or 1960, when we were so busy conferring thousands of Degrees every year, we lost sight of who we really are—or claim to be.

Here’s a heresy for you: Masonry is NOT ritual, nor is ritual Masonry! Sure, our ritual is precious. Sure, our ritual is a supremely important teaching tool. Sure, it’s beautiful, and profound, and meaningful, and all of that. BUT IT IS NOT MASONRY! Not CRAFT Masonry, not York Rite Masonry, not Scottish Rite Masonry, not Shrine Masonry, not Eastern Star Masonry, and not DeMolay, or Rainbow, or Job’s Daughters, or Amaranth Masonry. NOT MASONRY OF ANY SORT!

BUT, you protest, memorizing our ritual teaches us about Masonry. Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. What it teaches us for certain is that those people who can memorize ritual can, in fact, memorize ritual.

Ritual is simply a means to an end. It is an INTRODUCTION to what Freemasonry is all about.There’s a LOT more!

We tend to forget that Freemasonry is, before it is anything else, a FRATERNITY. In its very structure it is SOCIAL. And it is not intended for initiates alone, but for their families and friends as well.

In their zeal to create more Master Masons, our Brethren of the past century—and some of us as well—have concentrated ONLY on the mechanical processes—the ritual, if you will—of making Master Masons.

And then we have abandoned many of them.

Most CERTAINLY we have abandoned their families all too often! Have you ever heard the term “Masonic widow?” Does it describe anybody you know?

And, since not all new Masons have any particular interest in a purely ritualistic organization, and, not learning that there’s more to Masonry than conferring Degrees, they leave—and have left— in droves. They left almost as quickly as they were Raised—or received the York or Scottish Degrees (you get the picture).

I will presume that most of us are high school graduates, and that we gained our diplomas the traditional way. After we attended school for four years, in classrooms, taught by teachers, and covering a substantial curriculum, we were granted diplomas

That’s the way Masonry is SUPPOSED to work. While he is becoming a Master Mason, a man is supposed to meet regularly with a more experienced Brother to discuss Masonry. Typically those meetings should comprise several hours. When he becomes a Master Mason, those Masonic discussions should continue in Lodge, and with Brothers outside of Lodge.

But what really happens?

Well, we drag a guy into an unfamiliar place, surround him with strangers, blindfold him, take off his own clothes, and preach at him for a total of perhaps four hours or so. We give him some fancy titles, and tell him he’s now eligible to teach about Masonry himself.

What would happen if we ran our public schools that way?

We claim to “make good men better.” How are we supposed to do that? By osmosis?

Before you start yelling at me about the posting lectures, let me just point out that those who memorized the posting lectures say, almost to a man, that it was the DISCUSSIONS of Masonry they had with their mentors that were the most important part of that catechism. In jurisdictions that no longer require the posting lectures—like Iowa—it’s not the posting lectures that are missing. It’s the bonding experience of one-on-one discussion. In Iowa, at least, that’s still supposed to happen, even if, apparently, it seldom does.

In Iowa today we have groups of Masons called Masonic Instructors and District Lecturers, who are supervised by a three-member Board of Custodians. These men are experts in our ritual—just to become a member of this elite group, one must memorize our ritual in all three Degrees.And I’m MUCH in favor of these guys!

The original purpose of these experts, however, was not just to be ritual experts. They were to study, understand, and lecture on Masonic philosophy, history, law, and etiquette as well as the ritual. The change in their role in the Fraternity is emblematic of the problems facing our Orders.

A few years ago, while he was Grand Master of Masons in Iowa, Most Worshipful Brother Don Mosier decided to investigate the reasons so many men left the Fraternity so soon after they joined. To that end, he invited ALL Masons in Iowa who had been Masons for three years or less to a series of discussions. Except for the Grand Secretary and one or two other veteran Masons, all other Masons were specifically excluded from these meetings.

Bro. Don asked these newly Raised Masons whether they had received from Masonry what they expected or had been led to expect. What did they LIKE about the Fraternity? What did they DISLIKE about their experiences as Masons?

From every nook and cranny of Iowa the same message came back: we really LIKE the men in our Lodges. We LOVE the idea of Masonry. We like the philosophical goals of the Fraternity, insofar as we know about them.

We’re looking for a fraternity where we can have some social activities with our Brothers—and other social activities that involve our families, including our kids. We’re looking for projects that can benefit our local schools and communities. We’re looking for a fraternity that’s well enough known locally that we can be proud to be members.

NOBODY has taken the time to educate us as Masons. NOBODY has taken the time to have serious discussions about Masonic matters of OUR choice. We were promised more Masonic Light, and we want it! How do we get it? Are there any Masons who want to talk about anything other than ritual, or paying the bills? Why do we have to spend half the meeting time reading minutes and introducing everybody to people who have known then for years?

Seems to me that those are fair observations and questions, and unless we—WE—address them, this outfit really is going to sink faster than the Titanic.

You see, my Brothers, EVERY man in this room has knelt at Masonry’s altar time and time again. In the first three Degrees, blind, symbolically naked, and disoriented, we were asked what we then desired.

The answers we gave are the key to solving our problems. We asked for LIGHT. MORE LIGHT. FURTHER LIGHT IN MASONRY.

And the answer to our plea for light rang loud and clear in that sacred space: “Then you shall receive it!”

But DID you? If you did, how? Have you made a real effort to pass it on? Or do you figure that’s somebody else’s job?

Most Worshipful Brother Neil Neddermeyer, Past Grand Master of Masons in Minnesota, has this on his website:

I’M THE GUY

I’m the guy who asked to join Freemasonry. I’m the guy who paid his dues to join.I’m the guy who stood up in front of you and promised to be faithful and loyal.

I’m the guy who came to the meetings and no one paid any attention to. I tried several times to be friendly to some of the Brothers, but they all had their own buddies to talk to and sit next to. I sat down several times but no one paid any attention to me.

I hoped very much that someone would have asked me to take part in a fund-raising project or something, but no one saw my efforts when I volunteered.

I missed a few meetings after joining because I was sick and couldn’t be there.No one asked me at the next meeting where I had been. I guess it didn’t matter very much to others whether I was there or not.

The next meeting I decided to stay at home and watch TV. The following meeting I attended, no one asked me where I was when the last meeting was held.

You might say I’m a good guy, a good family man who holds a responsible job, loves his community and his country.

You know who else I am? I’m the guy who never came back.

It amuses me when I think back on how the heads of the organization and the members were discussing why the organization was losing members.

It amuses me now to think that they spend so much time looking for new members when I was there all the time.

All they needed to do was make me feel needed, wanted, and welcome.

But there’s more.

Each of us has sworn sacred oaths on a Volume of Sacred Law. We have sworn to behave in very specific ways, not just while we are in Lodge, but also in our everyday lives. Do we live in accord to what we swore there? Or are we forsworn by large and small acts every day of our lives.

Bro. Dan Weatherington, a Mason from South Carolina, has put the challenge this way:

NOT ONE PERSON

Not one person ever joined Masonry because George Washington was a Mason.Not one person ever joined Masonry because Harry Truman was a Mason. Not one person ever joined because of any of our great Masonic heroes. Joining doesn’t make you any of those people.

Not one person ever joined in order to give a million dollars a day to charity, or homes, or crippled children. You don’t have to be a member to give money.

Not one person ever joined because our ritual is outstanding, or our minutes are accurate, or a hundred other things we worry about They don’t know about our ritual.

They joined because someone they knew and admired was a Mason. It could have been a father, a friend, a man down the street, or someone a thousand miles away. Who, it didn’t matter.

They admired him and wanted to do the things he did, and they did it by the millions.

Want to help our growth? Be the kind of man someone admires. Someone will notice.

You see, my Brothers, Companions, Sir Knights, the best—the only—way to attract men to our Fraternity is to act like a Mason in all our doings. And that means being enough of a friend to others that we can discuss Masonry with them.

Once we have Raised a new Master Mason, our duties have only begun—and this is even more true in Chapter, Council, and Commandery. We OWE that new member something.

In Craft Masonry, we stress time and again the tenets of Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth. But do we demonstrate them? Do we show our new Brothers genuine brotherly love? Do we demonstrate enough relief to show concern for our new member in times of his adversity? Do we assist him on his Masonic journey in search of truth?

So how do we fix it?

Pogo told us. We have met the enemy, and he is us. So it’s up to us to fix it. I don’t mean “us” institutionally. I mean EACH of us. Individually.

It requires that we live our lives according to the tenets of our Order. It means that each of us will have to learn how to think and to behave like a Mason. And it means we need to start paying attention to our Lodges, our Chapters, our Councils, our Commanderies.

That’s a big assignment. No generation for the past century has really achieved it.

But what happens if we work at it, and get at least a part of it right?

Brother Bob Conley, Past Grand Master of Masons in Michigan, and Brother Bob Davis, one of the pre-eminent Masonic scholars in the country, are both students of fraternalism and society.Both of them stress several things:

· This generation of men between the ages of 20 and 40 are looking for exactly the kinds of experiences Freemasonry can offer. They are more open to these ideas than any of the three preceding generations have been.

· This cohort of young men are more open to Masonry’s ideas and structures than any other cohort SINCE WORLD WAR I.

· The men who petition our Lodges and our appendant bodies for membership today are often more knowledgeable about Freemasonry BEFORE they petition than are many Masonic veterans.

· However, if these men do NOT find what they know Masonry has to offer, they will leave more quickly even than their predecessors.

· Single-sex organizations like Masonry are more important to young men today than they have been since World War II.

So here’s a simple plan—one each of us can put in place today:

1. Get to know men who are not Masons, and discuss Masonry with those who are already Masons in character, but not yet in name. Have a pocket petition handy.Make use of the Invitation to Petition, if appropriate. If you don’t have those tools in your Grand Jurisdiction, see how you can get them.

2. If you’re not already, get actively involved in your Craft Lodge. If you don’t like what’s happening there, find a Lodge more to your liking. This is our source of new York Rite Masons in particular and new Masons in general.

3. TALK AND LEARN ABOUT MASONRY! Do it in Lodge. Do it in Chapter, Council, and Commandery. Do it with your Brothers at the coffee shop. Spend some time reading about Masonry. Talk about how much Masonry means to you with your non-Masonic friends.

4. Tell your Blue Lodge Brothers about how much you enjoy your York Rite affiliation. Have a petition handy.

When I became a Mason, I swore solemn oaths on a Volume of Sacred Law I consider to be divinely inspired.

A part of that volume deals with Jesus of Nazareth, whom I personally believe to be God appearing on earth as a man. But our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters also recognize Him as a great prophet. So his ideas are important to believers of many faiths.

In one of the books of that volume, a book named after a man called Matthew, we learn about the early ministry of Jesus. Here’s what it says—and, I submit, this is a message with great Masonic meaning.

And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people. Then His fame went throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments, and those who were demon-possessed, epileptics, and paralytics; and He healed them.Great multitudes followed Him—from Galilee, and from Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

My Brothers, let YOUR Masonic light so shine! Let OUR Masonic light so shine. We CAN bring light to a world wandering in darkness.

Amen.

So mote it be.

Click on graphs to embiggen.