Journey of a Stone

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Ken JP Stuczynski

Over the years I've explained the journey of consciousness and sentience using the water cycle. We were created (evaporated) from the ocean of Universal Consciousness, live an individuated existence (as vapor and rain), and eventually, through Enlightenment, stream back to the Source. This is described variously in all the mystical traditions of humanity, theistically and non-theistically, from St. John of the Cross's Union with God to D. T. Suzuki's works regarding Satori. But all fingers point to the same moon. What finger does Freemasonry provide?

How do we, as a Living Stone, start our journey? We first became an individuated object when we were cut in the Quarry, where all stone is one united (universal) mass. In Masonry, our journey begins with a recognition of this separation in the form of duty to God. We cannot know Deity until we suffer the realizations of our separateness, after all.

The Lewis is one of the symbols associated with our Frist Degree, clearly visible on the tracing boards of old, but absent from our ritual, at least those versions I am familiar with. Operatively, the lewis is a tool by which a stone is grasped and lifted. At this point, it is clearly no longer within the bosom of Mother Earth, but ready to be worked upon.

In some jurisdictions, there is a "Lewis Jewel" that serves the purpose of recognizing a Brother whose son or father was a Mason (sometimes with allowance extended to grandparents, fathers-in-law, etc.). These jewels may even have multiple bars of names, signifying a line of many generations of Masons. The longest I have seen is six, tracing from well over a hundred years ago to a young gentleman at a neighboring Lodge. Such is the nature of humankind, ever lifting up new generations, yet each stone unique and in need of its own perfections.

The various tools we encounter on our path are all applied either to the drafting of the Stone's purpose or its shaping. The entire work of Masonry is to learn how to shape, and work to fit, each of our stones. What are we fitting it for? The Temple the Lodge is at least twofold in its representation. The first is an edifice brought together by many men, allegorically — the Lodge as a collective body. The second is the building of our personal existence, not just as the refining of an eternal soul, but a record of words and deeds that we shall leave behind.

The former is social; the latter is personal. And work on ourselves as both an Ashlar for its own perfection is intimately connected with how our stone fits into a bulwark of a band of Men and human society overall. We live an often conflicting dichotomy as individuals and as a member of something greater. This is because, as we are separate beings and yet cannot exist outside of Deity, the stone that once had no independent shape is now moved to and around the worksite, searching for its place within the plans of the Grand Architect.

How it fits (or doesn't fit) is a discussion that could never be exhausted, though we shall endeavor that another time. But the point here is that the ultimate goal is to be united in one mass, one existence. This is how we are, even in temporal form, a citizen of two worlds — one of solitary birth and death, and one of Oneness with what during our life can be no more than the "Divine Other".

The cement of Brotherly Love, unlike the mortar of the World that wears and decays, sets our interdependent fates into an intricate framework of time and space. The final result is beyond our human comprehension. However, each of us partakes fully upon the reality of the whole on a higher plane.

The journey ends where it began, to our Eternal Home from whence our eternal soul originally came, adding our journey's experiences to the limitless, yet united, divine existence.

~JP

Bro. Ken JP Stuczynski is a member of West Seneca Lodge No.1111 and recently served as Master of Ken-Ton Lodge No.1186. As webmaster for NYMasons.Org he is on the Communications and Technology Committees for the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. He is also a Royal Arch Mason and 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, serving his second term as Sovereign Prince of Palmoni Council in the Valley of Buffalo, NMJ. He also coordinates a Downtown Square Club monthly lunch in Buffalo, NY. He and his wife served as Patron and Matron of Pond Chapter No.853 Order of the Eastern Star and considered himself a “Masonic Feminist”.

An Interfaith Homily

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Ken JP Stuczynski

{I was on deck a couple of years ago to fill in as the speaker at a Masonic Interfaith breakfast, and although the speaker didn’t show, they called off the sermon and invocation altogether. This unused passage is compiled from the notes intended for use that day.}

I’d like to share with you a puzzle. This is not the kind you hope all the pieces came with the box and have to protect from the cats, but something much larger — something that encompasses all of human experience throughout the ages. This puzzle is the question of the Holy versus the Profane.

All cultures have some notion of sacredness, or that which is “holy”, meaning, in its most basic form, “set apart.” Ritual of all sorts are used to create sacred space. We use ceremony to sanctify a building, or a room, or a vessel, for a particular meaningful purpose, or use ritual to make special a place for a gathering to set it apart not only from the outside, in space, but from the rest of the day, in time.

The mezuzah on my home’s door frame contains the passage of Exodus 25:8. “[H]ave them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.” I bring this up because even if there were not religion, we would still have the first sacred space of a human being, Home. It becomes a place separate from the rest of the world, and as such it becomes a special act of trust and generosity to invite someone into it.

But there’s another side to the coin. By making our space special, it must be shielded from the outside world, other people. We build walls between us physically and risk building them spiritually as well. This is the puzzle: How do we find holiness in our own lives and hearts without marking everything — and everyone else — profane?

There is another conflict at work here. Wisdom is the ability to make meaningful distinctions, to not become confused with similitude or resemblances. But Love is the choice to NOT make distinctions, to be unconditional, to not compare or contrast others as more or less deserving of life and dignity. Distinctions can detract from our ability to Love, and the most dangerous distinction of all is THEM versus US.

But tribalism is natural. It is how we create the “sacred” in human societies. It gives an identity to a people as opposed to others we may not trust. We find it wise to distinguish between those binding themselves to certain values, rules, and traditions, and those who don’t, at least by our own estimations and assumptions. Those others go by many names: Foreigners, Gentiles, Heathens, Outsiders, Profanes.

The part of the puzzle Freemasons work at is to have the benefits of Sacred Fraternity without its pitfalls, as “Every human being has a claim upon our kind offices.” From one angle, we are always drawing a line between what is good and true and what is not. But is it to pretend we are different or better than others? Do we puff out chests, claiming the higher moral ground, being more civilized than others?

Or is it made in principle? Perhaps the line we draw is only supposed to be the “due bounds” of basic ethics, showing us that which we ought not do. Will we give in to fear and hate and say we must stoop to be evil to fight evil? Will we say our noble ends can justify any means? Or do we draw that line?

I ask a further question, more to the point: Can we protect the sacred by keeping others out? Any Temple we make can be knocked down, and someone eventually always does. But we, as Masons, are taught to construct a Temple that can’t be touched or even made by human hands — something worthy of the Eternity of the Soul, a Sacred space that transcends the need for “Us” and “Them”. We seek a circle without limits.

“He drew a circle that shut me out-
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle and took him In!”
(Edwin Markham)

Poetry is not unknown among Masons — Goethe, Kipling, Bobby Burns, Rob Morris, even George Washington has written a verse or two. But are flowery words forceful arguments? Or are they among other ridiculous sentiments, such as “Love your enemies” or “Pray for those who hate you.” In real life such notions are ridiculous — not because they are ridiculous in principle, but that they are ridiculously difficult to live by.

Consider a recent event — a school shooting where the killer was a child himself. We can’t help but see our own children when we look at the victims’ faces. But we refuse to even look at the face of the disturbed or tormented child who pulled the trigger as anything more than an animal. We cannot accept them as one of us; they may as well be an alien or demon.

On a larger scale, humanity has always used ethnic and ideological pretexts to wage so-called “Holy Wars”. Even atheistic Stalinism played upon this social psychology, and the death toll was mind-boggling. Perceived differences that break down trust and empathy become the very basis for identifying others as something less than human, consciously or subconsciously. After all, that is the only way to make calls to war seem palatable, and the atrocities that stem from them excusable.

Freemasonry was borne in part as a response to this continuing tragedy. The Reformation and Counter-reformation gave us hundreds of years of massacres, both politically executed and by unorganized mobs, based on denominational allegiances. In our Lodge rooms we forbade sectarian discussion and created a sacred space in which we could all sit, and pray together without fear. And we went a step further, borrowing the attitude of Rosicrucianism — a philosophy that prioritized those things of faith on which all men agree, rather than continue to denounce each other over theological details.

The puzzle is how to make the whole world sacred without losing the sacred. Perhaps the answer can be found within another question, another plight of human existence. Why are we missing so many pieces in our world, and in each of our own hearts?

Maybe we are supposed to have something missing, so we have to be dependent upon one another, not just physically, but spiritually and at every other level of our being. Maybe we need the answers to questions only others can ask, coming from places we cannot be, with knowledge we do not have, and understanding we cannot find alone. I believe God has entrusted each of us, however noble or broken a vessel we may be, with a unique spark necessary to light some part of the path for the rest of us.

And maybe it will take all the languages of the world to fill in our crossword. Maybe we must reunite the myriad tribes who split at the fall of the Tower of Babel, and finally hear each other again. And if will finally share those letters and syllables in our hearts, we might just form the Lost Word, recovering the true Law of Love and discovering it anew.

There’s only one time this can ever begin, for ourselves and the World.
The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It is among us.
We can choose our fate together by choosing it within ourselves.
Never cruel or cowardly, never give up, never give in.
Embrace and enfold others without limit or prejudice, and all will be Sacred.

Grand Architect of the Universe, we ask for the strength to do what is right, rather than what is easy. Subdue our passions against one another, and may we always strive to Love one another as you have Loved us. Amen.

~JP

Bro. Ken JP Stuczynski is a member of West Seneca Lodge No.1111 and recently served as Master of Ken-Ton Lodge No.1186. As webmaster for NYMasons.Org he is on the Communications and Technology Committees for the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. He is also a Royal Arch Mason and 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, serving his second term as Sovereign Prince of Palmoni Council in the Valley of Buffalo, NMJ. He also coordinates a Downtown Square Club monthly lunch in Buffalo, NY. He and his wife served as Patron and Matron of Pond Chapter No.853 Order of the Eastern Star and considered himself a “Masonic Feminist”.

Pythagoras and Taxes

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Ken JP Stuczynski

There's a common meme going around saying, "I'm glad school taught me the Pythagorean theorem instead of how to do my taxes. It's come in really handy this Pythagorean theorem season." It's the ultimate extension of many a child's (and adult's) lamentation for being forced to learn anything other than survival or trade skills. Putting aside the fact that the physical structures of civilization are based on such formulae, it is a fair question to ask what personal value a thing can have if we do not believe we will personally use it.

Plato suggests that the only way to properly learn philosophy (the art of life) is to first become proficient in Mathematics, or as it was meant in the true sense of that time and place, Geometry. But who aspires to be a philosopher? Let's look at it another way: you can exist and survive without much knowledge or understanding, but how well can you really live without some level of contemplation and understanding of that existence?

We all start out with a square placed under our hands — a tool that anyone can use to measure the physical world right in front of us. It reveals nothing about the object's nature or place in the world. Someone else will have us prepare the stone according to a greater plan we don't need to know anything about. In fact, the tool used to draft such plans is hidden from your view. Imagination and intellect are waiting to be revealed only upon seeking more Light.

As we wind our way up the staircase of our Masonic progression, we are expected to at least touch upon the broad range of arts and sciences known to man. And if we deny the literal expectation of such learning in our Speculative state, we must at least admit that a Fellow of the Craft in Operative times was no longer a mere beast of burden – an Apprentice – by his learning more than just how to use his hands. He could not even rightfully ask for his wages unless he first advanced through such knowledge. He may be a material point or two shy of Mastery, but the guarded doors to a higher life have been opened unto him. He is no longer on the ground floor, working on stones. He is building his Temple with conscious effort — a deliberate design that can only be done using both Strength and Beauty moderated by Wisdom.

But is Plato right? Is the learning of the language of Creation required to truly have an educated opinion on the things of Creation, including the realm of Man and the World? Does plying the art of Geometry train one's mind to do more than add or subtract his hours and paychecks for the purpose of not getting audited by the IRS? Never mind being "good", if one can even know what that means. Can one become "better" by having a mind opened to the abstract world of pure shapes and forms? Can the ability to form and use models and modes of thinking translate to everyday tasks?

How many have never passed to a place where they can conceive Divine purpose instead of repetitiously take on the labor of a slave? Do we let the lessons of Masonry inspire us to see the bigger picture? And do we expect to receive the wages of that without expanding our life to include the skills of Mind and Spirit? Experience will provide an answer. Such a promise has been made to us. Ask, seek, knock ...

~JP

Bro. Ken JP Stuczynski is a member of West Seneca Lodge No.1111 and recently served as Master of Ken-Ton Lodge No.1186. As webmaster for NYMasons.Org he is on the Communications and Technology Committees for the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. He is also a Royal Arch Mason and 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, serving his second term as Sovereign Prince of Palmoni Council in the Valley of Buffalo, NMJ. He also coordinates a Downtown Square Club monthly lunch in Buffalo, NY. He and his wife served as Patron and Matron of Pond Chapter No.853 Order of the Eastern Star and considered himself a “Masonic Feminist”.

The Lodge as a Memory Palace

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Bro. Ken JP Stuczynski

Earlier this year, I attended a virtual presentation by hermeticicst and memory scholar, Brother Martin Faulkes, on the "Tomb of Christian Rosenkreuz as a Memory Palace." A memory palace is a visualization of a place that one uses to associate with information they wish to remember. It could be any sort of places you can imagine, such as a grove, or a castle, or somewhere you used to live. The point is that you can place objects or ideas in the rooms or parts of the "palace" in such a way they are easy to visualize, and therefore remember. The theory of his presentation is that whether or not the tomb was a real place, it may be an encoding of truths and concepts within the descriptions of its design and ornamentation.

As best we know, Lodges did not originally have dedicated spaces. They could be held in taverns (such as the Goose and Gridiron or the Green Dragon), in someone's residence, or even outdoors. The "Lodge" was drawn on the floor or ground, perhaps with chalk, charcoal, or markings upon clay, later to be mopped or wiped away by the newest initiate. We can expect it to have been what eventually became Tracing Boards — collective images of symbolism for each of the degrees. The arrangements are not mere collages, but memorable scenes with each of the symbols in a specific place relative to the others.

For example, the First Degree is depicted with a chequered floor surrounded by three pillars and the sky open to see the sun, the moon, and the all-seeing eye. There are other objects and symbols as well, but the point is that it means nothing to the uninitiated but has vivid meaning to those who pay attention to the lectures.

The Second Degree is depicted of a porch between two pillars, beyond which is a winding staircase of a particular configuration. I think it no coincidence that we use the details of such imagery in what is perhaps the most daunting lecture given in Craft Masonry. Weaving myriad subjects, arts, and sciences into a story, navigating in a symbolic space of imagined form, is arguably the best way to teach and remember such a thing. The journey through the Middle Chamber alone can be said to be in the form of a memory palace, but each of our degrees – and many beyond – use the physical space of our work as a particular imaginary space. Within each place, we find an orientation of objects and lessons.

It was a custom at one time in some places to whip a servant or slave in each of the boundary corners of a property, so that they would have such an indelible recollection of them so as to be expected to bear clear witness regarding any disputes over their location. We do very particular work in very particular places within our Lodge rooms. Is there anyone among us who does not recall the exact part of the room in which we were given a new name, or were lifted by the hand in the Sublime Degree? Does not standing in that place evoke something a profane would not feel?

It seems we have erected and dedicated each Lodge Room as a model of the Memory Palaces of the degree work. The words of ritual of opening and closing, repeated twice at every communication, are clearly intended to orally preserve (memorize) the duties of each station and place. The proclamation of the location of these offices "draw the Lodge" in its orientation and boundaries (as they should be, even if the particular physical room may not allow it). The catechism is the oral preservation (memorization) of the experience of the degree work by use of narratives and ambulations within a structured symbolic space.

Those of us who are aware of the esoteric dimension of Masonry appreciate that symbols give physical form to things that cannot be readily seen, or spoken of, or even known. But what if the entire Lodge Room is a memory-inducing storehouse for it all and not just the creation of Sacred Space? If we had to, using only our memory of our physical Temples, could we recall all the lessons and tools of our Craft sitting in a dark room or under the covers of our bed? I think even those of us who have not put effort into it would recall better than we expect. And perhaps that is all by design.

~JP

Bro. Ken JP Stuczynski is a member of West Seneca Lodge No.1111 and recently served as Master of Ken-Ton Lodge No.1186. As webmaster for NYMasons.Org he is on the Communications and Technology Committees for the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. He is also a Royal Arch Mason and 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, serving his second term as Sovereign Prince of Palmoni Council in the Valley of Buffalo, NMJ. He also coordinates a Downtown Square Club monthly lunch in Buffalo, NY. He and his wife served as Patron and Matron of Pond Chapter No.853 Order of the Eastern Star and considered himself a “Masonic Feminist”.

Far Out

by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor

Ken JP Stuczynski

It was the first time he seriously looked at the Charter. Written on what looked like actual paper, it was dated "6169 A.L." The eldest Past Master proudly pointed out it was dated exactly 100 Earth-years after Tranquility Lodge’s first communication of any Lodge, not on Earth. Apparently, it still exists. It was naturally chartered under the Grand Lodge of Texas, thanks to a document brought with Brother "Buzz" Aldrin on Humankind's first landing on its solitary moon. Not altogether coincidental, that was exactly another hundred years previous.

Freemasonry clearly traced back to before any forays into space. Maybe that's why the ritual seemed so odd. It wasn't just the archaic language--difficult to comprehend at times. Both "moon" and "sun" were used in the singular, while he lived his whole life on a world with two of one and three of the other. And why divide the 24-inch gauge into three parts instead of six when there are two full sleep periods between sunsets? His brain caught up with his thoughts and recalled days on Grandmother Earth are roughly half as short. Or... were his twice as long? And what if he lived on the innermost planet of his system, which is tidally locked? There is no sunrise or sunset there at all.

By the time he had been a Mason a full year, or what his world considered a year, he realized nothing in the ritual was arbitrary. The roles of a lonely Sun and lonely Moon filled some special place in Humankind's psyche. He could either resign himself to unrelatability, or let it take him back to an earlier time, one where such things were much more physical realities than vague symbols.

Here was a chance to hold the sort of tools that were used centuries ago, by countless hands over an eon or more. He could recreate their use in his mind as if he were working with actual stones, building a grand edifice by sheer will and skill rather than artificial calculation and the strength of machines. If not for ritual, he would never have contemplated the rawness ⁠⁠– or rather a purity ⁠– of such Geometric knowledge. He couldn't express it in spiritual terms, but it felt like an immortal marrow to the bones of all mortal technological advancements.

Most Lodge meetings were "Personal Observance", meaning that except for Labor to Refreshment and collation, there was no presence at a distance of any kind, be it audio, video, or holographic. It was like the days of yore when people, out of necessity, gathered together face to face or not at all. There was something so... human about it, something he didn't even know he had been missing. And he discovered the custom of the physical handshake was perpetuated or even revived on some worlds simply because it was preserved by Masonic tradition. Taken for granted by the masses, it tied Humanity together across space and time.

There were a lot of other meanings to all this, or so he started to understand. But to experience a tradition so rooted in early human existence took him to a place where he sat among ancient brethren who freely breathed natural air at all times, bare feet touching Terra Firma. The stories and objects in the degree lessons were not so far removed from everyday existence but were visible, accessible in a palpable way.

He couldn't expect them to look forward to a distant future and see all that has happened since. They might have doubted their Craft would survive after building with stone was replaced with other materials and processes. They may have wondered if Humankind would destroy itself, if not suffer a geologic or cosmic disaster before escaping the solitary tenancy bounded by Earth's gravity.

But perhaps they did look up at the firmament and wondered if some descendant among the stars would someday return the gesture with a shared contemplative spirit.

And he wondered how much Masons back on Grandmother Earth take for granted the configurations of their Masonic Work. Surely they must realize its perpetual testament to Humankind's nature and place within creation at his original home. Or perhaps they don't.

~JP

Bro. Ken JP Stuczynski is a member of West Seneca Lodge No.1111 and recently served as Master of Ken-Ton Lodge No.1186. As webmaster for NYMasons.Org, he is on the Communications and Technology Committees for the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. He is also a Royal Arch Mason and 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason, serving his second term as Sovereign Prince of Palmoni Council in the Valley of Buffalo, NMJ. He also coordinates a Downtown Square Club monthly lunch in Buffalo, NY. He and his wife served as Patron and Matron of Pond Chapter No.853 Order of the Eastern Star and considered himself a "Masonic Feminist".

As a masonic speaker throughout New York State, he has also given presentations at town hall meetings regarding the use of technology in the Craft. His numerous Empire State Mason articles have been republished in Arizona and New Jersey. To aid in his outreach on these topics, he authored "Webmastering the Craft: Fraternity in a Digital World", available worldwide in softcover and eBook.