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Post by LorrB on Oct 25, 2010 8:48:08 GMT 9.5
I am a great fan of W. Bro. Julian Rees.. A friend once described the danger, in masonic practice, of what he called ‘displacement activity’, that is, engaging in activities that divert us from the true aim. Concentrating on the appearance of masonic practice – rank, precedence, minor detail, hierarchy and structure – may cause us to lose sight of what real Freemasonry is, what Freemasonry can do, what it surely must do in each one of us, in order to be effective. Some will say that this is too serious, that it takes the fun out of Freemasonry, but I promise you, the rewards are immense, and they ensure that we will never again need any constructs in our lives. It can ensure that, in amongst the wood, we will begin to see real trees, and chart our progress by the way we interpret each one of them. Emphasis mine. Read more of what W.Bro Rees has to say here: www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/middle-chamber.html |
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Post by paul on Oct 25, 2010 12:39:29 GMT 9.5
Perhaps Masonry since 1717 has been more about counting affiliated lodges and brethren than about restriction of entry to the most worthy.
If so there may well have been two effects:
- loss of understanding of the meaning and intent of Masonry
- a revision of objectives to bring them into the range of doable.
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Post by Henka on Oct 25, 2010 13:54:25 GMT 9.5
Masonry took a turn after the failed rebellion of 1745, when the Bonnie Prince fled back to France. Joacobite Freemasonry went with him. Masonry changed in order to keep from being outlawed, seeking Royal patronage from the Hanoverian usurper. That's how my Scots ancestors ended up in the Colonies, incidentally. My Cherokee ones we already here to greet them.  |
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Post by LorrB on Oct 26, 2010 7:18:35 GMT 9.5
I married a Scot who escaped ... makes you wonder whether there is a Monster lurking somewhere over there.. |
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Post by LorrB on Oct 26, 2010 7:36:25 GMT 9.5
Displacement activity... getting back on subject. Last night I watched a TV programme on a priest who went and meditated in the cave of St Anthony, in Egypt, for 21 days.
In those 21 days he went through what I would call withdrawal symptoms by being denied his usual everyday life. It was a real torment for him. Slowly though, something inside himself started to manifest itself, and he started to realise how distracting, numbing, slumber inducing our every day life is. Displacement activity, as Bro Rees mentioned above.
This priest did go back to his normal priestly duties in the UK, but he went back a different man, as he said, he would always have that cave and desert with him, and he said it with a wonderful smile on his face.
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Post by LorrB on Oct 26, 2010 7:38:55 GMT 9.5
A lodge meeting can be seen to be a very short withdrawal from everyday life, does anyone take that sense of something special back out into their everyday life with them?
In times of stress or trauma, do you think to take your mind to that special place?
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Post by julianrees on Nov 21, 2010 8:07:26 GMT 9.5
It's a tough thing to do, but hell, that's what it's about. We MUST keep trying to get to that special place and then to take it with us out into the world.
I was in a wonderful old gothic cathedral (I forget where) looking up at the sunshine streaming in, bathing the stonework in the most wonderful light. A passing priest (I know this sounds tacky, but stay with me) asked me: "Are you looking for something?" and without thinking I answered: "Yes, I'm looking for myself". I guess I found that special place in his cathedral.
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Post by paul on Nov 21, 2010 10:52:56 GMT 9.5
A lodge meeting can be seen to be a very short withdrawal from everyday life, That is certainly so while the brethren work to improve their effective capabilities as genuine Masons. Having made significant progress it is possible for the lodge working then to extend from East to West and from North to South and from the centre of the Earth to the Heavens. In this case, the lodge working is not a withdrawal so much as an extension. |
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Post by LorrB on Nov 22, 2010 8:39:04 GMT 9.5
Bro Julian! How very nice to see you here!!!
And what an excellent topic you provided us with.
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
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Post by LorrB on Nov 22, 2010 8:45:23 GMT 9.5
Having made significant progress it is possible for the lodge working then to extend from East to West and from North to South and from the centre of the Earth to the Heavens. In this case, the lodge working is not a withdrawal so much as an extension. I was involved in a conversation recently which was about Dark Vs Light. I was trying to suggest that maybe what seems to us to be Dark is only our lack of capacity to see the Light everywhere.  It went over their heads. I even used the Spectrum scale to illustrate the point I was trying to make. Maybe I should have used Pauls word ... extension. |
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Post by Henka on Nov 22, 2010 8:50:32 GMT 9.5
Having made significant progress it is possible for the lodge working then to extend from East to West and from North to South and from the centre of the Earth to the Heavens. In this case, the lodge working is not a withdrawal so much as an extension. I was involved in a conversation recently which was about Dark Vs Light. I was trying to suggest that maybe what seems to us to be Dark is only our lack of capacity to see the Light everywhere. It went over their heads. I even used the Spectrum scale to illustrate the point I was trying to make. Maybe I should have used Pauls word ... extension. That probably wouldn't have worked either. |
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Post by LorrB on Nov 22, 2010 8:54:42 GMT 9.5
I guess I found that special place in his cathedral. This statement generated so many wonderful thoughts ... .. especially that of the truly humbled person who naturally exudes the atmosphere of a great and holy place. Humility is a naturally occurring by-product of enlightenment it seems. Meditatation upon this gave me some insight into why the priestly duties necessarily comes before prophecy and kingship. |
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Post by paul on Nov 22, 2010 8:55:18 GMT 9.5
There are various aspects to what seems dark. Some are:
- high frequency energies that are outside the range of perception and hence dark to view (although often with bright outer edges)
- incoming positive energies that accidentally activate the defense systems of the persona and that therefore may be labeled/perceived as dark to justify their rejection
- involutionary energies (at any level of consciousness)
Of course both darkness and light have their places in Creation - being the manifestation of the Creator breathing out then in.
The local aspects of Creation may become unbalanced with inappropriate Light or inappropriate Darkness.
For example, spiritual seekers often become blinded by the Light. Such blinding by the Light can lead to ill-founded fundamentalism and exclusivity
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Post by LorrB on Nov 22, 2010 9:06:40 GMT 9.5
Blinded by the Light... I have wondered about the Darkness that descended upon Golgotha after the Crucifixion. Symbolically, was that darkness a result of the curtain being torn from TOP to BOTTOM and the subjects being literally blinded by the Light that was bought into the world at that time?
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Post by paul on Nov 22, 2010 9:40:15 GMT 9.5
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Post by julianrees on Dec 4, 2010 4:21:34 GMT 9.5
It's only my own personal thing about darkness, and the evil that it often represents, but for what it is worth, and in a masonic context, here it is:
There is no darkness so black that we cannot move towards the light.
There is no slavery or submission so great that we cannot set out on the road to freedom.
There is no Jacob's ladder, no winding staircase so steep, that we cannot ascend.
There is no veil so obscure that we cannot penetrate it.
And there is no evil so intractable that we cannot tread it underfoot, and lift our eyes to a brighter horizon.
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Post by LorrB on Dec 6, 2010 8:18:02 GMT 9.5
... reminds me of ... do promise to persevere throughout the ordeal of your initiation?
Takes a life time it seems.
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sallyroberts
Beauty
"Let us serve according to our means and our strength"
Posts: 21
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Post by sallyroberts on Feb 16, 2011 3:04:50 GMT 9.5
How lovely to see you here, Bro.'. Julian! What a wonderful thought that you "found yourself" there with the light streaming in! I would love to know where it was! It's a tough thing to do, but hell, that's what it's about. We MUST keep trying to get to that special place and then to take it with us out into the world. I was in a wonderful old gothic cathedral (I forget where) looking up at the sunshine streaming in, bathing the stonework in the most wonderful light. A passing priest (I know this sounds tacky, but stay with me) asked me: "Are you looking for something?" and without thinking I answered: "Yes, I'm looking for myself". I guess I found that special place in his cathedral. |
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Post by paul on Feb 22, 2011 14:52:43 GMT 9.5
There is no darkness so black that we cannot move towards the light.. I am not sure that some deeply depressed humans would agree with that. I met a woman who had been spiritually disabled for several lives. She wished death but had some instinct that she would be reborn in the same trouble. As she carried some significant spiritual seeds, she was targeted by a being of profound darkness - a being that operates at a higher plane than the human soul body. Accordingly her efforts, great though they were, both Christian and spiritual, were not sufficient to bring her out of the darkness. |
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Post by LorrB on Feb 23, 2011 6:56:15 GMT 9.5
That does not seem fair... what hope for her? And if we attain significant spiritual seeds... how do we avoid the same fate? (I know .. tyle the lodge ... however!)
I have an instinct that if in darkness we only have to turn to face the light and, as the Mark Ritual says, help with come from above (cliffs .. those placed there to reach down and help those below on the water).
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It went over their heads. I even used the Spectrum scale to illustrate the point I was trying to make.