Soo many brothers have left the craft over the past year. There are now talks of changing the rituals in order promote social distancing. If this goes through I plan on petitioning the GL
Sounds a bit odd; rituals with social distancing. COVID has destabilised Freemasonry and other organisations to some extent. Does this mean permanent change or temporary unrest which we must work through to a constructive conclusion?
Distant peaks emerge....clear as day. The hermit's lantern turns to guide the way. Hermit's Way - F. J. Rogers
In my local lodge the DC and another brother visited a Covid-safe lodge initiation. After their report the local lodge decided to ask the next candidate if he was worried about Covid. If not, the lodge will perform the traditional initiation
Covid19 has produced very few excess deaths - but it seems that suicide and domestic violence have increased - along with poverty.
I am waiting for the next pandemic to be announced.
The local Grand Lodge has proposed visiting regions to discover the opinions of the brethren - but apparently there is not the time nor money to visit all the lodges.
Given the number of lodges allegedly intending to become independent, this may be a self-solving problem
Beethoven portrays each death (physical, emotional, mental) as a crisis followed by a calmer period, progressively becoming more remote from the physical world
Most humans do not release the mental world but here Beethoven is portraying an initiate - and in the 3rd movement the initiate steps out in the inner worlds and is progressively copied by nature spirits and angelic beings so that by the end of the third movement the three entity types move as one.
Furtwangler seems to have worked with the energy of spiritual will, under the guidance of El Morya. El Morya at that time was the head of the planet's spiritual schools, both light and dark
The name El Morya can be translated as the divine teacher of awe-full things
Sounds a bit odd; rituals with social distancing. COVID has destabilised Freemasonry and other organisations to some extent. Does this mean permanent change or temporary unrest which we must work through to a constructive conclusion?
It does seem odd, temporary unrest... Here, we are being told by "experts" in the media and government institutions that the best way to get back to normal and enjoy spending time with friends, family and enjoy social gatherings is to get vaccinated. You are then given a vaccine pass to present at social functions. ...---...
Sounds a bit odd; rituals with social distancing. COVID has destabilised Freemasonry and other organisations to some extent. Does this mean permanent change or temporary unrest which we must work through to a constructive conclusion?
I feel as though masonry wants to return to its roots like freestone masons. A brotherhood in the broadest sense. Not just to those who paid the due or got initiated, granted this was the goal of brothers, but not the means of its gathering.
You all know I have not paid or been initiated in the craft and I speak as an observer, but this is what I have seen. It has become "some ones" thought more than an "open" growable thought throughout the brotherhood. Like an overworked curriculum or a rewritten message.
Lodges around here standing empty. I walked near one just this morning and felt so nauseated I thought I was to be sick. and finally, understand the draw. Looking forward to the time when we all realize the futility of seeking wisdom and understanding from broken cisterns.
While contemplating the Mysterious Decline Of The Mystery Schools, I stumbled (in a dull-witted way) on some words that seem relevant to the declining state of our Lodges.
Just as we have our own life-cycle, so may our lodges as temporal entities.
A Mystery school need not undergo a degenerate senescence, any more than a person's declining years need be marked by degradation. But, as with ourselves, the seeds of degeneracy and ambition are too frequently sown in the heyday of material success. Likewise with a genuine Mystery-center, if the challenge of spiritual growth is not met with ever greater austerity of heart than in days of probation, the venomous seeds of inner decay take root and grow. Degradation replaces quiescence, and the school decays. The spirit of the Brotherhood retreats, the rind of ritual remains.
The "rind of ritual" in our lodges may also include the seeking of provincial honurs, and a devotion to the Festive Board, with much sharing of wine.
For hundreds of years the Mysteries had been slowly losing their sanctity; too many had been received into the preliminary degrees not by virtue of inner development, but for temporal reasons. The rites became perfunctory observances, and perception of interior worth diminished. Dogma, ritual, and priestcraft waxed, the spirit of truth and esotericism waned. The few — all too few indeed — who had remained faithful to their sacred pledge fled the precincts of the Mysteries which in later Roman times had become so degenerate as actually to repel from their chambers those whose hearts sought only the genuinely esoteric.
The task remains of managing the temple that extends E to W etc. Parts of that task are coming into the public domain. The deeper aspects (based on spiritual understandings) will require new structures - not necessarily overt.
For example, junior initiates that have learned control of emotions may enter organizations to mentor suitable members
Perhaps we can help build a suitable new structure in a virtual way, here online? Or perhaps the suitable organisation(s) already exist, but I have not tuned into them yet?
Many years ago, the Australian couple (man and woman, both Freemasons) made the introductions for me to join a local lodge. Talking to the Australian couple, I felt a spiritual uplifting. I had hoped to fell the same in my local lodge, and sometimes did, but it was only with two or three of the brethren. Sadly I did not feel that resonance with other brethren.
I would still willingly join a new lodge or other organisation.
