This morning I was having a conversation with a teacher about soil science. It was the first subject that I had to study when doing course on horticulture. I remember thinking 'boring!". How wrong was I - I loved it. It was fascinating and wonderful. Freemasonry is a bit like that if you put your heart and soul into it.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
This morning I was having a conversation with a teacher about soil science. It was the first subject that I had to study when doing course on horticulture. I remember thinking 'boring!". How wrong was I - I loved it. It was fascinating and wonderful. Freemasonry is a bit like that if you put your heart and soul into it.
Good teachers and parents do not do the homework for their charge, they lead them in the right direction with hints and clues.
Just like Freemasonry does by using symbols and allegories. Why do they do that and not just spell it out?
I agree with cwhite, focusing on the journey instead of the destination. It's a common theme in fremasonry that Light is often best revealed to those who actively seek it.
But I also think that Masonry teaches us, by not spelling it out, that there is no absolute concrete meaning in its symbols beyond what the initiate can discover in their self. Masonry points to the Mystery. It hints that we are dealing with an infinite subjective world, outside of the matrix. A mysterious world where the initiate becomes the Architect of their own Universe.
Welcome Matt. I hope you will find some threads to interest you. Some older threads are worth considering.
As for the Masonic learning process. It is largely based on functionality of the light body.
We start by refining the light body through the practice of morality and brotherly love.
We exercise the light body in a peculiar manner through ritual that may provide opportunity for higher forces to nourish and align that light body.
And as the light body develops it achieves higher faculties including inner sight and may even qualify the owner for participation in the local temple in the heavens.
And a very warm welcome to Matt. Love your post, a man of experience I would say.
I hope you explore this site and share some of your insights with us. We are eager students here and happy to share our treasures and discoveries with others.
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…trailing clouds of glory do we come from God, who is our home -Wordsworth
The ritual has rhythms, sounds and intent that attract Light from beyond. Alignment of the human with the ritual allows the human to be magnetised by those Lights and sometimes one of the 7 Masons who make a lodge perfect may take a direct interest in a brother or in a lodge and bend such to a higher purpose.
I used the word peculiar to indicate that Masonry is more peculiar than might appear.
The first time I looked inwardly at a Masonic lodge I saw a pale blue stream (rather wobbly) entering the building from above. The blue colour had a slight turquoise toning. The light was from Sirius so I called the light Sirius Blue.
The two links in the previous post use blue-turquoise in some of the site graphics.
The use of the term peculiar was really to indicate the non-accidental and uncommon nature of the interaction within the ritual rather than any specific aspect of the process.
I think that it is valid to say that the charismatic Christian "ritual" of declaring oneself for Christ, is related metaphysically to the Masonic candidate's declaration of his/her commitment to the Great Architect of the Universe.
Indeed on occasion the same inner event may occur with both, but it is still rare for the ceremonial to coincide with the inner.
He is being helpful.
