Warily Unaware

by Midnight Freemason Guest Contributor

Bro.Steve Leapman

Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who has given us the mind and heart to distinguish between night and day!  - taken from pp. 18-19 The Complete Artscroll Siddur, Mesorah Publications, 1984 / 2001 & with this writer’s adaptation

O wad some Power the giftie gie us / To see oursels as ithers see us!  Such a power or ability would save us a lot of bother and foolish notions; … from “To a Louse by Brother Robert Burns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Louse

Sometimes we don’t realize the force of a moment until it is passed. I place my ego on the sidelines and acknowledge this happens far more often than I wish to admit. Yet, I also believe Masonry’s practices and principles hone my awareness. Through Masonry, I may live a life of response, not reaction. Each moment and every day awaits us as Masons for we actively attend those 24 hours. We honor them in our very first Degree through the Common Gauge. We are not to be workmen whose greatest load is the annual dues card carried in our wallets. 

The rough ashlar is an ample allusion in assisting our cultivation of skills for the journey from novice to artisan. An actively aware Mason studies his progress from Initiate to Mason; wakefulness of your years is not to trifle with your feelings but to fortify you for purpose with perspective. This acuity does not arise from a life devoid of curiosity. “Actively aware Masonry” is but a synonym for willful dedication. The actively aware Mason cannot evade a keen sense of duty which compels him to act to heal a fractured world. The obtuse life is not well suited to an actively aware Mason. 

The stone that needs shaping is a sufficient metaphor for those traits we polish to adorn character. I wish to speak on this gift of “awareness.” The well-honored passage by Brother Burns bespeaks the blessed knowledge of how we are seen. The ancient rabbinic petition praises God for gifts of intellect and soul allowing each of us to make distinctions in the natural domain and amidst those timeless realms of sanctity and morality. 

One is justified to assert Freemasonry’s call to Character mandates Duty. Such is the Faithful Breast obedient to the Attentive Ear. To hear the Word is to convert Speculative awareness to Life’s redemptive Labor. Inner qualifications now recommend external quantifications. Actively aware Masons acquire merits. They apply the Soul’s insights realized through action. 

Neither “intentions” nor “preoccupations” fit the bill. Masonry is after all a Craft. Each Brother daily turns to his Trestle-Board in search of that day’s revealed hence required service. “Required?” Really? Certainly so!

There are certainties beyond our minds and opinions. Masonry enthusiastically welcomes each man’s explorations. Neither Operative nor Speculative Masons can build without absolutes and standards.

This has ramifications Mason's risk at grave peril. When or where, why, or how Masonry concedes God is limited to human “suggestions” or what we “feel” “comfortable with” a question arises to confront the intellectually honest Mason. Can such an Architect be “Grand?” If so, what of we who invoke such Grandeur? 

No! To abandon absolutes is to abandon Geometry itself let alone The Grand Geometrician honored in the Opening Prayer for the Fellowcraft Lodge. Contemporary Masons have no right to remove Deity from the Trestle-Board to which we turn if we evict a Deity why retain obligations? Eroding The Presence is the cost of such concessions. It is why many never return once Raised. They have not been aroused by Awe! They are bereft of Reverence. 

As each labors in community and toils in the care of kin we evolve within as men humbly but confidently aware of the Fatherhood of God. Granted, our semantics vary as they should in a Free Society. Our theology is personal. Our faith must be well-founded. No policy nor marketing scheme can promise this.

A Freemasonry that deserves to endure as our lasting legacy is not about giving away this shiny pin, that ribbon, a badge, a hat, or a title. Imagine explaining to a Medieval Stone Mason, whose grandchildren might see a Cathedral begun by a great-grandparent, that in four or five centuries you only need to spend one day to become a Master Mason and pick up Scottish Rite to boot, breakfast and lunch included! Actively aware Masons are not first and foremost charity workers or case managers. We are not here to gather numbers but to gain the Numinous. The reward of truly Masonic Life is to live in Masonic Light. 

We dare not waste precious moments or material demeaning ourselves and our spirits amidst one-day classes. Our Operative Ancients honed the patience of centuries as they assembled Sanctuaries still inspirational today. Neither Wisdom nor Strength nor Beauty are overnighted to our doorsteps by Amazon Prime! Authentically aware Masonic workmanship exhibits an attention to detail we meagerly comprehend in our age of Internet and Instant Messages.  

Just as the fires of a well-tended domestic hearth comfort all therein, the glow of Divine Glory within man’s sacred privacies fosters healing. Thus, as actively aware Masons, we display resolve when Honor is called to step forward. An authentic Mason is a man aware of who he is and more so Whose he is! A man who is Masonically aware, is one whose behaviors are dignified and dignifying. 

One may know our ceremonies and esoteric forms letter, syllable, and word yet conduct himself so shamefully, belittle other men and Masons so shamelessly as to nullify all the nuances of our beautiful rituals and inspirational rites. Titles shall not hide truths daily demeanor depicts beyond doubt. Are we aware there must be little if any gap between word and deed? Our character marks our figure beyond equivocation or mental evasion. 

 A man must emulate that refined awareness of self and centeredness of soul Grand Master Hiram Abiff displayed. On the day he gave fully of himself he faced danger without warning nor hesitation. Those clarities which crisis coalesced in his soul were beyond doubt. GMHA would neither suffer degradation nor diminishment when conscience called out. 

No conscientious Mason sets to his labors in a frenzy. To do this would present a case study in passions run amok. Had our ancient Operative Brethren done so they would not have found ready steady employment. The Cathedrals we cherish today would have collapsed long ago. Lethargy nor shoddiness allow us to cement Living Stones. 

The Compasses serve to circumscribe zeal as they focus on productive ambition. Indeed, man's passions unrestrained breed destruction. Forceful barbarism would never have been able to destroy what could never been built had idleness forestalled Solomon’s plans and deterred King David’s dream. A life without purposeful awareness is the grip and word for entropy.

It is the astutely aware Speculative worker whose edifices we enjoy and cherish. Once the heat of effect cools we find time, space, and place for the Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic intrinsic to the Fellowcraft Degree, its mindset, and our way of life.  We must abandon the woeful immaturity that St. Paul recognized as an encumbrance of growth. 

Those possessing such silliness are not sufficient to pass through our West Gate. Real men of worth, merit, nobility, and character disdain being “marketed!” One cannot sheep-steal souls! Those easily distracted or eventually disinterested will wander in and soon off. Talk about “off or from!” Watch for it! Wait for it! Masons and Masonry must be honest with and within ourselves. When we are unaware of our proximity to Truth we endanger this Grand Fraternity.  

Let us choose otherwise. Let us choose wisely. Let us be actively aware. As Masons we ask, seek, and knock to be molded and guided, taught and inspired by men of dignity, centeredness, and at peace with themselves for they are at peace with their God. As Traveling Men, we tread lightly yet confidently beyond denomination or dogma, unconcerned with political positions and polling. 

What then are our labors? Better question: How then, can we determine what tasks should earn our energy. As Masons, who are actively aware, we see our task beyond doubt is to focus on the soul’s maturity cut, squared, and valued over time. This is why men finally vocalize to a trusted friend or relative, “I think that I’d like to be a Mason! What do I do? Who do I talk to?” 

It is this passion, which we form as the clay from which each individually worthy and well-qualified Brother journeys towards his East. This is the work and worth of an actively aware Mason. We are not some puerile “frat” best suited to an adolescent’s nonage. Rather, Masons await a man’s nascent adulthood as acuity sharpens. As adolescence recedes Moral Geometry guides the emerging adult. The Speculative Astronomy of the Fellowcraft Degree presents stars to steer by. “Active awareness” expands. We navigate by the “G” not by impulsivity.  

Not everyone should seek that vaunted recommendation. As we have bemoaned a lack of readiness at Life’s earliest days, so too one impaired by an aged psyche, experiencing a dotage far less of years than of yearnings. Complacency has constricted one’s morality. The pulse of Life has slowed. Hearts and mentality harden. 

Such souls emulate Exodus’ Pharoah or the unfairly indicted “Pharisees!” No, these were hollow men who lost their mission. Such capitulations to compromise or kings besmirch every ethnicity, era, culture, and cause. It is fallacious anti-Semitism to assign this trait to any singular tribe, certainly not my own. Masonry will demean no man’s religion, dictate no man’s religiosity, and certainly not belittle any man’s faith. Actively aware Masons are Geometrically Correct. 

These “authorities” in truth were far less than valid nor reliable. They were far less sages than stultified minions of institutions collapsed by their betrayals of original intent. We see them vibrant and repugnant today as then! Pray God one’s own soul does not imitate their folly.

Freemasonry’s enterprise is the development of a man’s finest essence. Freemasonry will not surrender to social correctness for we are neither primarily nor preferentially “social.” Masonry is about the man, the citizen, the adult member of his country and culture.

Unaware and toting vices and superfluities of an image, business connections, pins, garlands, lapels, and letterheads, we might balloon numbers. However, these men are soon gone with the winds of disciplined commitment, vital proficiencies, Floor Schools, individual study, and personal prayer. Is this nothing other than a denial of Godliness if not God of which our teachings warn? One seeks Masonry as it appeals, promises profits, and promotes sales! How sorrowful. How blindly empty. How fatal a plague.

The refusal to recognize or revere Our Creator deludes one. He anoints himself as the measure and maker of individual Destiny. Intentional? Probably not! Yet it is detrimental. This is to live as a libertine. Lusts seize tightly the helm aboard the ship of soul. One lives unaware moving hither and thither, helter-skelter through darkness derived the Light Masons revere to illuminate our travels.  Such an unaware soul paves no trail. He stumbles upon it. 

Well, if “awareness” is crucial state it plainly! Did “awareness” as a virtue and trait get lost in the turmoil during those closing moments of Hiram’s life? Maybe! It was a heinous murder! Though wretched chaos was rampant Solomon ruled. Actively aware Masons buttress the narrative of our Grand Master’s death. As we study Masonry we are not literalists. Our search for Wise Awareness depicts a laudable pursuit. Hiram was a servant of his awareness. He told the assailants, “Better my mortality than your morality!” 

“Active awareness” redeems the atrocity of Hiram’s last moments. Did it tumble away dropped due to a “nerveless grasp? Where is “awareness” listed amongst our Tools? Why doesn’t it appear in the “Furniture of the Lodge?” Can a Mason be authentically Masonic lacking attention to detail, dull to curiosity, or decision-making? Can one be an evolved Mason when only reactive to circumstances? Our charges envision an educated, reflective, involved, and decisively participatory citizen. Such is one aware! Masonry fosters this!

The Masons we wish to find and refine, retain, and become make “active awareness” a prized “internal qualification” one-day programs cannot guarantee. We must advance our capacity to do what our Lodge Secretary accomplishes when he makes a “correct record of all things proper to be written,” as he will “carefully observe the proceedings of the Lodge.”  (Texas Monitor 2023, page 160). 

Post-Script: Now it applies to me and my duty to see! 

Two fine men and exemplary Masons have shown and taught me the impeccable wisdom of The Fellowcraft Lecture. PM Dave Wood of South Bend IN’s Council Oak #745 and JW Kirk Otto of San Antonio’s Perfect Union # 10 are these teachers. Though they have never met their passion for our Craft compels me. In their honor, I learned the Texas Fellowcraft Lecture. I gave it one evening at Triune # 15 here in San Antonio. 

Texas ritual places the delivery of that exquisite prose in the East. The Brother rendering this Lecture is expected to duly use and properly deploy The Gavel. At the point where the WM gathers The Lodge to rise to glorify Deity, I did my duty. I never until this moment “gaveled the Lodge up” as we say here in Southern Texas. So eager to enact the ritual respectfully I was obtuse to my own experience. 

An entire day passed before I realized I had never stood in the East in this fashion. I needed a few days for my ego to surrender to my mind and then onward to my soul. The significance those moments held for me linked me to my father and a man whose years in this life have passed yet his legacy reaches into my days and decisions.  

Once home I pondered the gavel owned and used by Dad’s best friend PM Jack Lawson who in 1977 stood in the East at Abraham C. Treichler # 682 in Elizabethtown, PA. This gavel now rests with esteem in my home. Brother Lawson and his Blue Lodge line are photographed as another heirloom preserved on the wall of the room where I type these words. 

Dad was a local merchant. Decades after Dad and PM Lawson entered the Celestial Lodge I learned a secret. It was my Dad who supplied and engraved the gavels many years ago for Abraham C. Treichler # 682 of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. 

I thank God for the gift of awareness. I thank God for a dawning sense of my ability to contribute. I thank God for how awareness evolves for our Masonry provides implements as metaphors to instruct our expansion of perception.  

I am observant of my time to serve. I am aware of Whom I ultimately serve. It may be in The East, yet I must be in The Lodge we each necessarily build daily. I humbly ponder the photo of Brother Jack. I consider the lessons of word and work he imparted to his officers, Dad, and me. 

Masonry helps me pay my finest attention. To “pay” is to render one’s due share. Masonry beckons me: Cultivate the best man I hope to be. Perhaps I will honor my father and PM Jack as they blessed me. Jack would not reveal any secrets but once he tried to share the Craft he loved so well and loyally! He smiled at me saying fondly, “Stevie, there’s a lot of the Bible in Masonry!”

~SC

Steven M. Leapman was raised in 1996 at what was then Blackmer # 442 in San Diego, CA when serving as a Navy Chaplain. He sees himself as a “returned Mason” come home to active participation in Masonry through MW John R. Heisner Lodge #442. He joined Council Oak Lodge # 745 in South Bend, IN serving as Junior Warden when in 2021 he and his wife moved to San Antonio, TX. There he was warmly welcomed into the Masonic community once again and has become a member of Davy Crockett # 1225 where he serves as Lodge Chaplain. He also serves as Senior Deacon at Antonio’s Triune # 15. He is a member of Northern Masonic Jurisdiction and Southern Masonic Jurisdiction as a 32d Degree Mason. As a member of the San Antonio Scottish Rite community has served as Degree Master for Prince of The Tabernacle 24th Degree and supports the presentation of other degrees during Reunions. He actively attends monthly Continuing Masonic Education Zoom sessions and hopes to write deserving reflections on our beloved Craft. Brother Steve attended American University in Washington, DC in 1981 and 1984 earning degrees in Literature. He attended Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion where in 1990 he graduated with a Master’s in Hebrew Letters (MHL) and was ordained a Rabbi in Cincinnati, OH in 1991. Brother Steve served in the US Navy/ USMC Chaplaincy from 1993-2000. Later he returned to the military community as a mental health professional with the Veterans Administration in Indiana and Texas. He graduated from Indiana University South Bend in 2008. He has been involved with Civilian and Military/Veterans’ Care since then.

Lightning Strike, or How Symbols Play Tricks on Us - Part 3 of a series

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Patrick Dey

Very often in esoteric Masonic research papers and books, we will find instances of Masons relating Freemasonry back to some ancient mystery cult or another. They will take the few artifacts and written accounts if there are any, of these cults and spin them into something that resembles Freemasonry. Such writings were barely acceptable in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but this really is no longer acceptable, at least academically. Their agenda appears to be that they want Freemasonry to be the inheritors of an ancient lineage of initiation rites. Albert Pike does this. Albert Mackey does this. Manly P. Hall does this. It would be nauseating to survey every Masonic author who is guilty of such parallelomania — the phenomenon of someone seeing similarities between two or more religions or cultures, in which they begin to force more similarities than are really there, sometimes completely fabricating information to push their agenda of making these things appear similar.

In many instances, they suggest that all the ancient mystery cults were the same thing, with only minor variations from region to region. Such was presumed before World War I and II, and during the time of the Great Wars, universities were largely concerned with the sciences to support the war effort. However, after World War II, many academics and funding was opened back up for research into these ancient cults. What we now understand about these cults is less certain than previously presented, and that they are all very different from each other. We call them “mystery cults” because it is a mystery what went on in their rites. It is a mystery, hence, a “mystery cult.” That is why we call them that, and there is nothing deeper than that. We know a great deal more about these groups today than we did a century ago, and what we know from archaeology has yielded many things that do appear to resemble something like Freemasonry, but just as much is totally different.

I think of Nietzsche’s example of a “lightning strike” (On the Genealogy of Morals, §13). It is two words, but one thing. Nietzsche uses this to illustrate how language plays tricks on us. We take the two words of “lightning strike” to presume that the “doer” does the “doing,” but really a lightning strike is simply one thing: an action, a doing, and we let our language trick us into viewing this term otherwise.

This sort of trick that language plays on us, I think, is being played on us when we use the term “religion.” Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity, Roman paganism, indigenous American religions, Satanism, et al, are all examples of what we call “religion.” But are they? They are very different things, and there is no solid definition of “religion” that totally encapsulates these “religions.” Satanists do not believe in God. Daoism does not necessarily believe in the personification of Deity, but more of an all-pervading energy or animus that endows the nature of all things. Is belief in a god or gods necessary to be a religion? Buddhists do not necessarily believe this world is real, but an illusion we have created for ourselves and that we must escape by extinguishing our being (nirvana). What even is religion? It is complicated, and the more we truly survey the different examples of religion, the more we may begin to ask ourselves: are these all examples of “religion”? or are they all different things that we only have one word to describe them?

This is what Nietzsche is saying with “lightning strike.” Do not let language play tricks on you. “Our who science is still, in spite of all its coldness, of all its freedom from passion, a dupe of the tricks of language…” thus spake Nietzsche.

Mystery cults, their artifacts, symbols, and the vague descriptions that survive of their rites, et al, makes this problem so much worse, because herein we have entered the same problem of language tricking us, but the language is not a simple signified-signifier relationship, but something much more vague and open to interpretation: symbols, allegory, myth, and legend. “Lightning” is a signifier for a very specific idea (the signified idea of lightning), and “strike” is another signifier for another very specific idea (that of striking). But introduce a symbol like a point within a circle, and we open up a world of complex and interrelating and differing ideas represented in an image that acknowledges that these ideas cannot be fully expressed in a single sign.

Let us quickly recap the conceptions of symbols as being used here and previously explored in the first post of this series, “What Even are Symbols?” published on this blog on December 20, 2023. I believe Jean Baudrillard best understood the use and conception of symbols, namely that they are a system of signs and signifiers, but that they deny that the complete totality of all it expresses can be represented in an image. This is unlike a simulacrum, a copy of something, such as a portrait of a person. We know it is not that person, but a good representation of their likeness. A symbol, on the other hand, essentially denies that the entire reality of something can be fully represented, and thus denies reality and creates a sign to stand in for a reality that cannot be represented.

If that seems vague, you are on the right page, because symbols are vague and multifaceted. They are not as simple as a nice portrait of a famous person. You do not look at a portrait of George Washington and say to yourself, “Well, the complexity of his life and beliefs are so grand and magnanimous that this cannot be a portrait of George Washington.” But if you show the image of a point within a circle, and someone says, “That is the symbol for the sun!” they will be immediately met by numerous voices declaring other things, like the duad, the image of unity, the first principle of Euclidean geometry, et al. Symbols tend to be so vague and multifaceted that they become much more open to interpretation and speculation than, say, what the words “lightning strike” mean.

There is the notion of “omnism” or “religious pluralism,” or that all religions are essentially true and can be respected. Yet, we know that Hinduism and Daoism and Christianity and Islam et al are not the same thing. Personally, I believe that God speaks more than one language, and therefore speaks more than one religion. Yet, these “religions” are not inherently the same thing, and they differ greatly, sometimes not resembling each other in any way whatsoever. In fact, some religions are so different, it is hard to comprehend how they can essentially be the same thing.

Thus, why would we expect anything different in the ancient world? The Cult of Isis was a Greco-Roman cult that appropriated an Egyptian goddess into a Roman cult via Greece. The Cult at Samothrace is a Chthonic religious cult, similar to the Cult at Lemnos, but essentially different, and probably both rooted in some neo-Hittite cult. These differ from the numerous cults of Mithras, a vast number of different civic associations of Roman soldiers that worshipped the Romanization of a minor Persian god, Mithras. These differ still from the various cults of Jesus Christ. When talking about the different forms of Christianity in the early centuries, we will call unorthodox cults as being “heresy,” coming from the Latin haeresis, literally meaning “choice [of belief].” These Christian cults can be very wild, such as the various “gnostic” sects, which were not a singular Christian movement, but rather a catch-all category of Christian heretics.

Let us clear something up before proceeding. When I say “cult,” I do not mean it in its current derogatory conception, but rather the sociological conception of a religious group that is very new, in which the vast majority of its members were not born into this religious group. The group is usually formed in protest of a particular institutional religion, and then as more members join it, it becomes a cult, and as more people are born into this cult, it becomes a denomination of an institutional religion. (See the work of Howard P. Becker).

Understanding how cults arise, how different religions can be, and questioning whether or not these are all religions or if we have no other word to describe all these different spiritual movements, we return to how Masons can presume all these different cults can be the same thing, of which Freemasonry is an inheritor thereof.

When dealing with the complex and vague language of symbols, which do not establish a particular reality, but rather deny reality, we can read whatever we want into them. This is why we can find anything from any mystery cult of the ancient world and point to it, saying, “That’s Masonic!” But is it?

I believe the cults of Mithras are the best case study for this phenomenon. The reason is that the Mithraic cults are the mystery cults of the ancient world that we know the most about. St. Jerome, Porphyry, Origen, and others write about this cult. We have graffiti and sculptural representations of their rites and myth cycle. Of all the ancient mystery cults, the cults of Mithras are the ones that we know the most about. Contrast this to the Cult at Eleusis, in which the best we can describe their rites is that there were “things done,” “things shown,” and “things said.” That is, like, super duper clear. Thanks, archaeologists!

The great central image of the Mithraic cults, the Tauroctony, is probably one of the best examples. This image depicts Mithras slaying the bull. Here Mithras represents the sun conquering the dark (the bull’s crescent horns being associated with the moon). Flanking each side of this scene are two figures, Cautes and Cautopates, the former with a raised torch and the other with a lower torch, representing the winter and summer solstices, respectively. They represent the extremes of the sun, being low and cold, and being high and hot. But Mithras is in the middle, representing a balance between the extremes (for more on the astrological interpretation of this image, I recommend the works of the Mithraic scholar Roger Beck). If an interpretation of that image sounds familiar to something in Masonry, you are on the right page: this is the interpretation of the circumpunct bounded by two perpendicular parallel lines. The point within the circle is the classic symbol of the sun, while the parallel lines represent the Holy Saints John, who represent the extremes of the summer and winter solstices, and that we should seek a balance between.

So, do we presume the Mithraic cults are a precursor to Freemasonry? I do not see how we could. The cults of Mithras were stomped out by Theodosius I in the 4th century. The European economy would not become sophisticated enough to support the guild system until the 9th and 10th centuries, and even then, we do not see the earliest stonemason guilds until the 11th century. How could there be a connection over a seven-hundred-year gap? Esoteric speculations of these groups hiding out in secret are more on brand for conspiracy theorists than anything academically tenable. But the similarity of the symbols of the Tauroctony and the circumpunct is quite strong — and I will admit that they are strikingly similar, if not astoundingly similar in conception and interpretation. However, we are letting the language of symbols cloud our judgment when we presume that just because two different groups thought up the same thing, then they must be linked, when in fact there is no solid (or even flimsy) evidence to support such.

Years ago I gave a lecture at a Masonic symposium on the subject of the similarities between the cults of Mithras and Freemasonry, and I prefaced the talk with the firm assertion that there is no link between the two. They have a lot of similarities, but just as many differences. To illustrate my point of how two cultures can have something very similar and be so remote in time and geography that there is no way to connect the two, I used the example of Yggdrasil and the contemporary Navajo sandpainting “The Healing Way,” both of which have striking similarities. They have three roots, three levels, three branches or ears of corn, a rainbow bridge, and a bird on top. However, the Norse could not have had any contact with the Navajo. That is preposterous. Yet several Masons in the room started speculating how Vikings could have come across the Atlantic and transmitted across indigenous American tribes to eventually get to the American Southwest. And I just put my face in my hands. I was just trying to illustrate how crazy it would be to presume that there could be a link between the two groups, and here you all are trying to connect them!

If even simple language can deceive us, then symbols are like a trickster god. Symbols as a language are the chief deceivers of esoteric exploration. When we find two or more similar symbols, we are compelled to find links, even making up links, to try and force a connection that is not there. It is fun to explore such things, and even enjoyable to speculate, but at the end of the day, we need to reel ourselves back in and consider the reality of a reasonable connection or just wishful thinking.

Seeker beware.

~PD

Patrick M. Dey is a Past Master of Nevada Lodge No. 4 in the ghost town of Nevadaville, Colorado, and currently serves as their Secretary, and is also a Past Master of Research Lodge of Colorado. He is a Past High Priest of Keystone Chapter No. 8, Past Illustrious Master of Hiram Council No. 7, Past Commander of Flatirons Commandery No. 7. He currently serves as the Exponent (Suffragan) of Colorado College, SRICF of which he is VIII Grade (Magister). He is the Editor of the Rocky Mountain Mason magazine, serves on the Board of Directors of the Grand Lodge of Colorado’s Library and Museum Association, and is the Deputy Grand Bartender of the Grand Lodge of Colorado (an ad hoc, joke position he is very proud to hold). He holds a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Colorado, Denver, and works in the field of architecture in Denver, where he resides with wife and son.

Are the so-called “Higher” Degrees actually Symbolic? or Sorcery? Part 2 of a series

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Patrick Dey

In the first part to this essay, we looked at what symbols are from a philosophical point of view, largely relying on Jean Baudrillard’s conception of them as a simulacrum, a distortion that conceals reality, because symbols deny that reality can ever be faithfully expressed and thus must generate a signifier that stands in owing to this absence. I personally favor Baudrillard’s conception of what symbols are, and I find his system of the four orders of simulacra to be helpful in understanding Symbolic Craft Masonry as it transitions into the so-called “higher” degrees.

As was discussed in the conclusion of Part I, we looked at how we as Free and Accepted Masons are symbolic craftsmen, symbolic stonemasons building symbolic temples, which at once conceals the reality of the stonemason guild heritage we have inherited and denies that the reality of the stonemasons of old can be fully expressed as a reflection in ourselves. But the so-called higher degrees in Masonry — Scottish Rite, York Rite, Shrine, et cetera — are a different problem. Royal Arch Masons are not a real thing. Nor are Select Masters, or the Order of the Red Cross, or the Knight of the East, or the Knight of the Sword, et cetera. These never existed. These are not real things. The only degrees of the appendant bodies that is based on something real are the Order of Malta and the Order of the Temple — the Knights Hospitallers and the Knights Templar. Sure, there are some things based on real orders, such as Saint Thomas of Acon. Then there are some weird ones, like the Masonic Rosicrucians, which did not really exist, but rather was a sort of literary fiction of millenarianism and a call for a greater reformation that the Protestant Reformation failed to achieve. Rosicrucians were believed to have been real for a long time, but today we know historically they did not actually exist.

This is no longer symbolic in the way the Blue Lodge Degrees are symbolic. In fact, they fall specifically into what Baudrillard designates as the third order of simulacra, one that “masks the absence of a profound reality.” He calls this order the “order of sorcery,” as it merely “plays being an appearance.” It conjures a reality that never actually existed.

This is exactly what these higher degrees are: they conjure something that never even existed, be it a Knight of the East and West or a Most Excellent Master, and claims we are now the symbolic manifestation of this title. The symbolic has to be based on something real, something that will yield a sign that may be utilized. A symbol has meaning — in fact, it has many meanings; it is a plethora. It is so much a plethora of meanings that it cannot claim to faithfully represent everything, and that the symbol must stand in for a reality that is inexpressible. Not so with sorcery. It makes up a reality. It conjures appearances like the sorcerer conjures spirits and shades of the dead. The sorcerer does not call upon a real person and they show up in the flesh, but rather calls up the shadowy image of someone who no longer is, or something that never existed, like a demon or an angel (note: Baudrillard is a Post Structuralist philosopher, an atheist, and in particular Nietzschean in that he follows the principle that God is dead).

This is the trap hidden within the higher degrees of Masonry: that these degrees are symbolic or based on something that actually existed, when in fact we know deep down there was never any such thing as a Perfect Master or Master of the Symbolic Lodge — I mean that Scottish Rite Degree right there fully embodies this very simulacrum: there could not have been a real Master of the Symbolic Lodge because the Symbolic Lodge is by its name symbolic of an actual real lodge, and the Master of such cannot be based on anything real. One becomes a symbolic Master of the Symbolic Lodge is simply ridiculous. It does not need a reality to pretend that it is real.

Much the same can be said about offices and titles within the Masonic bodies themselves.

I suppose since we’re here, we might as well discuss the fourth order simulacrum, in which this is something that does not even need reality, it does not care if there is a reality, it is pure simulation. It neither needs to reflect, conceal, or deny reality, it is what is now real. It is “hyperreal.” It produces without regard for reality whatsoever. The best way I can describe this is in “content creation” on social media platforms. You may have found videos on YouTube that make you start to lose your sense of direction as to what this video even accomplishes: something like a reaction video to a critique video of an analysis video of a movie that is loosely based on historical events. Sometimes you find reaction videos to reaction videos to… you get it. What is even happening here? Are we creating videos just to create videos? Looking for any excuse to upload content to generate views and reactions and comments so advertisements have a place to sell us stuff we don’t need? And what do we call these people? “Content creators.” It is not about creating something visionary or artistic or original or to explore something meaningful, but to simply create content for the sake of creating content. This dives into what Baudrillard calls “hyperreal,” “hyperproduction,” and such terms.

If I had to designate anything in Masonry that meets this hyperreality of the fourth order of simulacra, it would be the endless proliferation of more Masonic bodies, more offices, more committees, more degrees, more dues cards, more, more, more. We all know these kinds of Masons. It is not about what they can contribute to Masonry, what they get out of Masonry, or even what they enjoy about Masonry, but the accumulation of titles and offices for the sake of accumulating titles and offices. We have lost any semblance of the origins of Freemasonry, and in fact, we no longer care. We have lost any vestige of what it means to be a Mason, and what makes a man and Mason, and who we are supposed to be as Masons, and really we no longer care. The real value, the most precious meaning that underlines all of the Masonic institution, it no longer makes a difference. It is the endless accumulation of as mabt accolades as possible just so we can have them, and any regard for the real value that makes Masonry what it is, it simply is not regarded.

I am certain that if Baudrillard were alive today, he would shake his head and say “Patrick, please stop doing this to my work.” And I am probably stretching his philosophy to match some criticism I have of Masonry that he would hate me for. Yet, it is exactly what I saw myself falling into as I continued to move forward in Masonry. I originally wanted to only do esoteric research and writing when I became a Mason. I wanted to know what the Masons knew so that it may further my studies. And as the years went on, I found myself more and more concerned with being in officer lines, and accepting any invitation to a Masonic body that came my way. I found myself driving everywhere across the State of Colorado every night doing something, and none of it was fun. Most of it was boring, and furthermore, I only ever seemed to complain about everything I had to go to. Then the Covid lockdown happened and suddenly I had an opportunity to reassess why I was doing any of this anyway. Then I was married, and then I became a father, and that happened within a very short period. I realize that none of this was what I wanted to do when I became a Mason. I was so far away from what gave me joy, that I became a miserable person chasing titles and offices. That was when I started to revisit things I enjoyed: reading, writing, studying, research, philosophy, mysticism, et cetera. I revisited Baudrillard’s work, because — well, firstly, because I was doing research on Douglas Darden, and I wanted to get a better idea of how Baudrillard influenced his architectural designs — but secondly, because something about Baudrillard resonated with how I was feeling. There was something “unreal” or even “hyperreal” about chasing titles and offices.

This essay has been an attempt (essay) at describing the dangers I feel are inherent in the so-called higher degrees, and especially in the chasing of titles and offices. Is that why you became a Mason? It is not why I became a Mason, and it took becoming miserable for me to realize that. For me, it started with something symbolic.

The symbolic is not dangerous unto itself, so long as we recognize it for what it is: a concealment of a reality that cannot be fully expressed, and so it must deny reality and create an image that substitutes the reality that is not expressible. There is joy in the symbolic, because symbols are useful. That is the power of Masonic symbolism: they are useful to us, and we should always be endeavoring to further explore and utilize the power they hold. But beyond the symbolic, what value is there? Is there a value to chasing degrees that are based on nothing that ever existed? Do they even serve a purpose or have utility? Or is their only utility the obtaining of those degree titles? Is that what Masonry is about? Does that even serve the individual Mason, or does it even serve the fraternity itself?

Some of these Masons I have known, and I have asked them: “Why do you do this?” And I have heard quite a few respond with: “It is the only way I will matter.” With that, I want to hang my head and sob.

Me personally, it does not matter, and that is why I resigned from a number of officer lines, including a Grand Line, and turned down other appointments to other lines, and demitted from several bodies, and turned down invitations to other bodies. I love the symbolic. It is what brought me into Masonry, and anything beyond the symbolic is probably not for me. I suppose there are Masons who just enjoy helping and being a part of things, and so any opportunity to participate and help, they say “yes!” Don’t get me wrong, because I love the “yes! Masons.”

All I advise is to assess why you became a Mason. You do not have to keep the same goals you had when you became a Mason. Everyone grows and changes over the years, and that is wonderful. But are you being true to yourself as a Mason? The value and meaning in these things are all that matters. Truly. And if you lose sight of what is real and meaningful to you as an individual. If being a title-seeker is the only way to make your life meaningful, then something was missed along the way.

I do not want to blame Masonry for the fault of people. Masonry did not create the problem of title-seeking and abandoning many men in the desert of the real. People do that in everything, be it Masonry, YouTube videos, politics, yoga, church, bridge clubs, Google Earth photo-locations, Wikipedia entries, name it. This happens in everything. Seriously, did you know that if you upload enough photos and locate them in Google Earth, you get invited to a secret Google club? I know a former Mason who became infatuated with this. I digress. Masonry did prove to be fertile grounds for this kind of phenomenon to occur.

Without a conductor to follow and put our trust in, sometimes, many times, this Masonic journey becomes uncertain. O Mother Lodge, how far we’ve wandered. From that blindfolded interim where we had no way of conducting ourselves, uncertain of our future, we had to trust someone else, and now we are our own conductors, and I personally feel too many good men and Masons have fallen into a trap that is neither meaningful to themselves or Masonry.

To conclude, I will simply say: never lose sight of what you believe in. It is the difference between a trap into a meaningless desert and what provides you with a meaningful existence.

~PD

Patrick M. Dey is a Past Master of Nevada Lodge No. 4 in the ghost town of Nevadaville, Colorado, and currently serves as their Secretary, and is also a Past Master of Research Lodge of Colorado. He is a Past High Priest of Keystone Chapter No. 8, Past Illustrious Master of Hiram Council No. 7, Past Commander of Flatirons Commandery No. 7. He currently serves as the Exponent (Suffragan) of Colorado College, SRICF of which he is VIII Grade (Magister). He is the Editor of the Rocky Mountain Mason magazine, serves on the Board of Directors of the Grand Lodge of Colorado’s Library and Museum Association, and is the Deputy Grand Bartender of the Grand Lodge of Colorado (an ad hoc, joke position he is very proud to hold). He holds a Masters of Architecture degree from the University of Colorado, Denver, and works in the field of architecture in Denver, where he resides with wife and son.

Secret Charity

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

Jim Stapleton

Several years ago, I heard the following story of Masonic charity from an older Brother:

 

A Lodge put together boxes of food to donate to families in need. After the boxes were assembled, the Lodge members set out into the community and distributed the boxes on porches of people they knew to be in need. When the boxes were discovered at the houses, the recipients were surprised by the good deeds. Overwhelmed with joy, they checked to see the source of the food. However, when they looked to see where the boxes came from, there were no notes attached. There was nothing to identify the source of the baskets. So, the families had no idea who had bestowed the gifts, making it a complete mystery..

 

Upon hearing the tale, a Brother that was listening asked why such a generous and selfless act was kept a secret? He said that from a public relations perspective, Masons should work to actively promote these kinds of positive stories. The response from the older Mason was that this is what Masons do and that we don’t seek out praise when performing charity. 

 

I understand the sentiment but with all due respect to that Brother, I am not sure if I totally agree with that idea. Yes, there are definitely some situations where we would want to be discreet. We don’t want to embarrass people in need or to seem opportunistic. For example, a Brother that has fallen on some hard times might struggle paying their Lodge dues. As a result they might seek out assistance from their Worshipful Master or Secretary regarding the payment of dues. We shouldn’t be broadcasting that info so that everyone knows about those individual situations. That should be kept private between those Brothers. 

 

In the example about the food baskets, drawing attention to the people that received the gifts could be extremely embarrassing for them. Revealing their identities would clearly be wrong, especially if they did not give their consent. We should always strive to help those in need while also preserving their dignity. However, should we keep our charitable works completely hidden? Don’t we have a duty as a Fraternity to let the public know that we are doing good works? Are we missing a chance to demonstrate the true nature of the Fraternity? Sadly, we live in a world where many in our society either have no awareness that Freemasons exist, or only know of us through conspiracy theories.

 

One possible approach to the basket distribution would have been to take pictures of the assembled baskets that could have been shared via social media. Those pictures could have included captions stating that the Brothers were going to distribute the food to families experiencing food insecurity. If such images were shared in online community groups, it would have been a guaranteed way to receive positive exposure and to let people know that we exist. Perhaps it could have even resulted in interest from potential candidates looking for ways to help others.

 

My Lodge participates in an Adopt a Highway program where we go out and clean a section of highly traveled road several times a year. Usually when we are out collecting trash we take pictures and post them to our social media accounts. Then we share the info through the local community’s social media groups to let people know that we exist AND that we are helping to improve and beautify the environment. The feedback is usually very positive and full of gratitude. It shows that Masons care.

 

Of course, we should avoid the appearance of bragging or coming off as insincere. That would be tasteless and inappropriate. Our messages regarding our charity should be authentic so that we have a genuine connection with those around us. As many in our Fraternity are concerned about membership levels,  it does not seem that as an organization we should let opportunities to demonstrate our benevolence slip by quietly. We should proudly highlight our good deeds.

~JS

Jim Stapleton is the Senior Warden of USS New Jersey Lodge No. 62. He is also a member of the New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786. Jim received the Distinguished White Apron Award from the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. He was awarded the Daniel Carter Beard Masonic Scouter Award. Jim is also a member of the Society of King Solomon.