Changing of the Seasons

by Senior Midnight Freemason Contributor
Gregory J. Knott 33° 

One of the great things about living in the Midwest of the United States is watching the seasons change from one to another.   As I write this, we are in the middle of autumn.  The leaves have changed colors and many have begun dropping gently to the ground.  It was just a few weeks ago that summer was wrapping up and yet winter is shortly on the horizon. The quick changing of the seasons should be a reminder of how quickly time passes through our lives.  

We learn through Freemasonry about the importance of the passing of time and we see it illustrated through the hour-glass. We learn more in the third degree lecture:

The Hour-Glass is an emblem of human life. Behold! how swiftly the sands run, and how rapidly our lives are drawing to a close. We cannot without astonishment behold the little particles which are contained in this machine, how they pass away almost imperceptibly, and yet, to our surprise, in the short space of an hour they are all exhausted. Thus wastes man! To-day he puts forth the tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms, and bears his blushing honors thick upon him, the next day comes a frost, which nips the shoot, and, when he thinks his greatness still aspiring, he falls, like autumn leaves, to enrich oar mother earth. (Duncan’s Ritual)

By studying the lessons of Freemasonry we can understand how fast time flies by us. I encourage you to enjoy your life, embrace your family and friends and remember that tomorrow is never promised!

~GJK

Gregory J. Knott, 33° is a founding member and Senior Contributor of the Midnight Freemasons blog. He is a Past Master of St. Joseph Lodge No. 970 in St. Joseph (IL) and a plural member of Ogden Lodge No. 754 (IL), Homer Lodge No. 199 (IL) and Naval Lodge No. 4 in Washington, DC. He’s a member of the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, Eastern Star and is the Charter Secretary of the Illini High Twelve Club No. 768 in Champaign-Urbana. He is also a member of ANSAR Shrine (IL) and the Eastern Illinois Council No. 356 Allied Masonic Degrees. Greg serves on the Board of Directors of The Masonic Society and is a member of the Scottish Rite Research Society and The Philathes Society. He is a charter member of a new Illinois Royal Arch Chapter, Admiration Chapter U.D., and serves as its Secretary. Greg is very involved in Boy Scouts—an Eagle Scout himself, he is a member of the National Association of Masonic Scouters.

Esotericon - The First of Many Masonic Moonshots

by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor

Bro. Kevin Homan

Many of you have probably heard either through here, or any number of the other Masonic dedicated sites and social media of the recent success of the first inaugural Mid-Atlantic Esotericon held in Manassas Virginia. Many thanks to RWB Johnson for writing about the success of our Conference, and even bigger thanks for your direct involvement in making it a success. As RWB Johnson adequately covers all the details of the event, we won’t rehash them here, what we did find both eye-opening and concerning from his piece however was this line;

“Conversely, The Mid-West Conference of Grand Lodge Education had a whole 20 dudes present.”

This line is eye-opening and disappointing for the sole reason of we were four Brethren who ran a Conference that outgrew its venue in our first year. We had 147 Brethren attend our event, Brethren from as far west as Seattle Washington, and even an international Brother who came down from Canada. We…were four…Brothers. Contrast that with the Mid-West Conference of Grand Lodge Education where you have multiple Grand Lodges coordinating an event, with far more resources at their disposal than we had, and the disparity becomes really clear. Now, we don’t know exactly why this event only was able to pull in twenty Brethren, and while we have some guesses, we will not speculate without knowing concrete facts. 

What we can talk about without speculation is that the hunger for Masonic education is most definitely there, and it’s there for more than just Esoterics, although we certainly know that hunger is there for that as well. No, the appetite for Masonic education is there for ALL topics, as shown by the success of the Masonicon held annually by the Brethren of Ezekiel Bates Lodge in Attleboro MA. The Grand Lodge of Ohio each year hosts Camp Masonry, a multi-day Masonic event combining education, ritual and Degree exemplification all in one weekend, making both ritualists AND education seeking Masons happy at the same time. Of course, and again, our Esotericon was a rousing success with an educational focus of esoterical and mystical topics. What is our point you might be asking? Our point is that the interest in these Masonic topics is absolutely there, so getting more than twenty Brethren to show up to an event shouldn’t be happening, these are the types of things that sell every single ticket or seat available to them and STILL have interest for attendance.

You all may be wondering what our special sauce was that made our first-time event a success. While we’d love to claim it was hard, and a lot of blood sweat and tears went into the making of the Esotericon, the reality is ANY Mason or group of Masons can put together a successful event like this with limited resources. Now, that’s not to say it was an entirely pain-free event, it was not. We certainly have some things to improve upon for next year’s Con, but we also got lucky in that we did not have anything seriously terrible go wrong. So, how did four Brethren run a successful first-time event you may be asking yourself? Here’s how;

• We started our planning early, especially the social media campaign. After our initial discussions, and our consensus that we would go forward with our event we created our Facebook page, Twitter and Google accounts and put teasers out there as we came up with our speaker list.

• We put together a truly kick ass group of speakers, and got all but one of our initial list of eight speakers. 

• With our speakers set, we opened our sale on event tickets…without announcing our speaker lineup. For the first several months of ticket sales we sold tickets for a ten-dollar discount, and also offered a limited run of pre-event tickets to a brewery the night before. We created an incentive for people to buy tickets early.

• After a week we started our announcement of speakers, releasing a new speaker each week after that. Each speaker announcement coincided with a bump in ticket sales. It was a way to keep the event fresh in the minds of those following us and interested in attending.

• We would be remiss to point out that two Brethren of our Organizers are Masonic podcast hosts…we got some really good advertising on the Masonic Roundtable and Whence Came You Podcasts. Don’t fret if you don’t know any of the hosts on these shows, they’re really nice guys and I’m sure they’d be happy to help out if they can.

• Good planning. We planned everything out, put it on a scheduled and held occasional meetings when we felt they were necessary. We enlisted our local Rainbow and Demolay for help and encouraged donations to their organizations from the attendees.

• Last but not least, frequent communication with our attendees. We tried to let our attendees know what was going on when there was something important to relate to them. Whether it be asking for shirt sizes, meal preference, etc. we made sure we stayed in touch from time to time.

All this is to say, anybody, any Mason can run one of these. All it takes is an idea, a plan, a bit of dedication and with the interest out there in Masonic education the Brethren will come. Whether you’re a Grand Lodge, a group of Grand Lodges or just a group of four Brethren like ourselves, if you’re interested in putting on an educational program similar to what we did, please, reach out to us. We want to see these events pop up all across the Masonic World, and we want them to be a success. Masonic education never truly went away, but it has been neglected for far too long. If we’re going to stem the flow of Brethren out of our Lodges, if we’re going to hold the interest of the Millenial and future generations, and give them a reason to join, its going to take more than just four Brethren to effect that change. Join us, let’s do something great together!


~Joe, Jason, Jon and Kevin - Hosts and organizers of the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Esotericon

Bro Kevin Homan was Raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in August of 2007 at Olive Branch Lodge No. 114 in Leesburg, VA., and since then, has like many Masons, involved himself in more and more bodies. In addition to being a Past Master of Olive Branch Lodge, Kevin is a member of Potomac Chapter No. 88, RAM, currently serves as the Eminent Commander of Piedmont Commandery No. 26 and the Alexandria Scottish Rite Bodies. Additionally Bro Kevin is a member of several of the York RIte invitational Bodies.

Bro Homan has been married to his wife Hillary for the past ten years and they have three wonderful (mostly) children. When he’s not doing something with his family or the Lodge Kevin enjoys a good glass of Scotch, the occasional cigar and reading a good book in his office, which “smells of leather-bound books and rich mahogany”.