A Mason cannot be ordained or elected by ballot. He is evolved through ages of self-purification and spiritual transmutation. There are thousands of Masons who are brethren in name only, for their failure to exemplify the ideals of their Craft makes them unresponsive to the teachings and purpose of Freemasonry. The Masonic life forms the first key of the Temple and without this key none of the doors can be opened. When this fact is better realized and lived, Freemasonry will awake, and speak the Word so long withheld. The speculative Craft will then become operative, and the Ancient Wisdom so long concealed will rise from the ruins of its temple as the greatest spiritual truth yet revealed to man.
I agree, which is another way of saying that a Mason cannot be recruited either. I have always believed that it is a 'calling', and that once called, even if you have to leave it through age, ill health, or family matters you are still a Mason. So Masonry is part of the lesser mysteries, preparing us for the greater, though as we go through the higher degrees we should be getting close perhaps
Several reasons; after the last war Freemasonry I think provided a refuge, a return to sanity for for those scarred by war, a sense that some things hadn't changed, but now we're in the Age of Aquarius, an age that seems inimical to the old ways of doing things. Some thinkers believe that in this age the traditional religions are destined to wither away, that spirituality and quest must take new forms. I think Freemasonry has suffered as a result of this post-modern angst. Yet if Freemasonry can keep what is best from the past while letting go of those traditional religious elements that appear to be weighing it down I do believe it can step into the breach left by the old religions, and be a spiritual path for the future, with the best of the past presented in a way that people can relate to today. Perhaps that is now it's calling.
My father fought in WW2 and it was the highlight of his life. Peacetime was all down hill after being part of a brotherhood fighting against the dark forces.
I suspect many ex-service men found Masonry to be the nearest substitute, and now they are mostly gone from this world.
wow.. that is thought provoking. I know a host of returned soldiers still have problems when returning to civilian life. But I put that down to battle scars, had not quite looked at it from your father's angle. Makes sense.
Adrian... I agree with your post. It seems that even the Vatican might be moving along similar lines Who would have thought!!!
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
> I know a host of returned soldiers still have problems when returning to civilian life. But I put that down to battle scars,
The wars after WW2 were quite ambiguous ethically and morally and there has been much disillusionment amongst the troops. I think that WW2 troops had it much easier.
.. So Masonry is part of the lesser mysteries, ...
I am not so sure that the Greater Mysteries are not present in Masonry. For example, the seven Masons who make a lodge perfect are (I assert) the Logoi of the 7 sacred planets and therefore officers of the nearest temple in the heavens. They necessarily are part of the Greater Mysteries and yet there is held out the possibility that one or more of them may enter an Earthly lodge thus making it perfect. Thus I propose that Masonry is not limited to the lesser Mysteries.
To be fair however, I have only once or twice detected the presence of such a Brother at a lodge meeting. The clearest time there was an eye looking in the East - the eye being much larger than the east wall of the temple. I was struck at the time with the parallel of a human looking into a cage with a canary. We were the canary in the cage - very apt!
Who would have thought!!!