Some Grand Lodges will not recognise other Grand Lodges (territorial politics)
Some Grand Lodges still practice discrimination re religion, colour and sex (despite their protestations to the contrary).
Some Grand Lodges make decisions based on monetary advantage (despite their protestations to the contrary).
Some Grand Lodges make decisions based on peer pressure (if you do that we will... )
Some Grand Lodges are run such a manner that even their own Brn have little respect for them.
All grand statements I know but really all I have said above is that Freemasonry today is just as fallible as the good man or woman in the street.
If Freemasonry disappeared tomorrow would 'the world' be any different? I know it would make a difference to an awful lot of really good and faithful Brn, but would it make a difference to the rest of the world?
(I guess another way of looking at this question is to ask ourselves if Freemasonry has improved us enough (or not) that other people have noticed and been influenced by the way we look at things for better or for worse.)
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
Perhaps it would be useful to distinguish Freemasonry from Grand Lodges - after all Freemasonry pre-existed Grand Lodges.
It could be argued that Grand Lodges are prone to self-capture.
I used the words Grand Lodges instead of Freemasonry purposely because of that point. I am not highly skilled at putting thoughts into words, I get myself into trouble sometimes because of it, the opponents pointing out the very argument I was trying to put across ah well.
"Prone to self-capture" ... the gravity of the individual group becomes so strong that they implode? I have seen that happen in other more socially oriented groups as well.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
As for relevance - I was at a raising last night and noticed during the obligation an energy from TGAOTU coming down upon the candidate.
The energy was not very focussed and tended to get a bit lost by half way through the obligation - but I thought its presence was encouraging
Most encouraging.
The loss of focus half way through. Why do you think that happened? Loss of focus from the Master or the Bro?
So - if Freemasonry is still having an affect on some of the Brn it does not really matter about the outside world? Or do you think that if a Bro is affected s/he cannot help but affect the outside world? (Leaving the we are all one argument aside).
I only ask this because Freemasonry seems to generate an aweful lot of negativity out there. For no good reason that I can see. Ask any mason what the big secret is.
I'm just trying to be provocative at my age this is the best I can do ;D
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
Perhaps it would be useful to distinguish Freemasonry from Grand Lodges - after all Freemasonry pre-existed Grand Lodges.
It could be argued that Grand Lodges are prone to self-capture.
A lot like other spiritual activities, Spirituality existed befor all organisations that want to think 'they' have the say on what people do around their spirituality, Churches, Grand Lodges, Cults etc...
As long as we always keep focus on what is important, ie the Universe and its inhabitants and what we need to do as individuals to keep Harmony, then we are on the correct path, whichever one that is.
Regardless of my statements (above) there are always people in these organisations, Churches, Grand Lodges et al that have the correct path in their sights. Sometimes they get sidetracked by various other meanderings though :-)
The loss of focus half way through. Why do you think that happened?
.... if a Bro is affected s/he cannot help but affect the outside world? (Leaving the we are all one argument aside).
It could be that the obligation has attached to it several other obligations - to Grand Lodge, mother lodge and brethren - with which TGAOTU has no interest.
By the way, as far as I can see TGAOTU is vastly more profound than TMH.
As a Brother becomes more closely associated with TGAOTU s/he has a natural radiance that supports all sentient beings.
As a Brother becomes more closely associated with TGAOTU s/he has a natural radiance that supports all sentient beings.
I am lucky enough to know a few people with this radiance. The funeral on one of them was just yesterday ... they carried his coffin into the chapel to the music from Superman He would have LOVED that. Huge funeral, he touched all who knew him.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
As long as we always keep focus on what is important, ie the Universe and its inhabitants and what we need to do as individuals to keep Harmony, then we are on the correct path, whichever one that is.
Do you think that this desire for Harmony sometimes translates into 'peace at any price' and so some problems are never addressed?
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
imo, freemasonries members interests change over time.. but just like fashion, the patterns in which they change repeat themselves.. i think the best bet for freemasonry to stay relevant, is to adapt to these changes without altering the basics..
apparently weve had quite enough of "superiors" making decisions we do not agree with and we voice our discontent.. this is the first step in adapting to the current fashion.. the next step is reorganization (in process).. after that comes consolidation and xpansion as the transformation is complete and our "suit" resonates better with "todays" fashion..
My friend Coach loved Plato, Henka would you pass this onto him please...
And is such a statement as the following from Plato without weight:
"But it was then lawful to survey the most splendid beauty, when we obtained, together with that blessed choir, this happy vision and contemplation. And we indeed enjoyed this blessed spectacle in conjunction with Jupiter . . . at the same time being initiated in those Mysteries which it is lawful to call the most blessed of all Mysteries. . . . Likewise in consequence of this divine initiation, we became spectators of entire, simple, immovable and blessed visions in the pure light. . . ."
Sheer pious faith could not alone gain one admission into the Mystery Schools. Actual discipline of body and mind, and certain inner unfoldments of faculty were held as requisite for the grasp of deeper truth. Initiation was to some real extent a matter of the mastery of theurgic powers dependent in the main upon purity of life. Esotericism arose primarily from the necessity of safeguarding the use of dynamic knowledge. Religion was far from being the jejune shell of social or mystical sentimentalism that it has so largely come to be at this epoch. It aimed to liberate the powerful forces hidden in the depths of man’s psyche. It bore an immediate reference to individual evolution, in the processes of which nature’s dynamic energies had to be controlled and intelligently directed. What we have derided as "magic" in the religion of old was just the control of subtle powers which we mostly permit to slumber in dormancy beneath the surface of our superficial life. Religion touched man so deeply in olden times that it awakened the potencies of his godlike endowment, an enterprise which concerns us rather little now. The imputation of sacredness to the rites of religion flowed directly from recognition of the vital issues at stake in the soul’s incarnation on earth. And the right to participate in the higher mysteries, of which St. Paul speaks, belonged to those who had won it from nature by the payment of the full price--a life schooled to harmony by intelligent consecration of every personal force.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
but really all I have said above is that Freemasonry today is just as fallible as the good man or woman in the street. 
but really all I have said above is that Freemasonry today is just as fallible as the good man or woman in the street. 
ah well.
at my age this is the best I can do ;D
