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Post by paul on Mar 22, 2011 11:06:18 GMT 9.5
We are told that time and circumstance may allow the recovery of the lost secrets. This suggests that they are not truly lost.
I wonder therefore why search parties have not been sent forth to identify and recover the lost secrets.
Surely this is a task that Grand Lodges could coordinate.
Or, if GL decide it is a matter for lodges, surely a few lodges could combine to establish working parties.
Why so little apparent effort and even less apparent progress over the centuries?
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Post by LorrB on Mar 22, 2011 12:00:34 GMT 9.5
Because Grand Lodges do not believe they are looking for anything ? It's just words ?
I disagree that progress is not evident. How about the immense interest now in the media re the more hidden aspects of life, seen and unseen.
Time and circumstances are now proving more than the man in the street can deny?
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Post by paul on Mar 22, 2011 12:05:18 GMT 9.5
So do I understand that the "man in the street" is making better progress than Masons?
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Post by LorrB on Mar 22, 2011 14:33:53 GMT 9.5
 Could be..
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Post by paul on Mar 22, 2011 14:36:03 GMT 9.5
Still I wonder why I have heard of no mainstream lodges actively pursuing the lost secrets.
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Post by Cora B on Mar 23, 2011 6:19:51 GMT 9.5
I would speculate that the lost secrets are to be found each within ourselves, and that, once found, we truly see the shape of the stone within, (both within our own Hearts and that of others) and how it fits with the next stone, and thus, how the Temple of Humanity can be erected.
In other words, in the first instance the finding of the lost secret is in individual effort, time and again, but what is next done with that revelation is of collective significance. Crucially, though, it cannot be organised or legislated for. Why? Because it originates from within the Heart - from the point within the Circle from which no Master Mason can err.
With h.g.w.,
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Post by LorrB on Mar 23, 2011 7:37:38 GMT 9.5
With you on that Cora.
Maybe mainstream lodges suffer because of the absence of women. I am not saying that men do not have heart or know where they are in others, but women are much more attune, generally speaking, to recognising what lies behind the words or actions.
Maybe that is why Freemasonry was formed for men in the first place ?
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Post by Cora B on Mar 23, 2011 7:43:55 GMT 9.5
I don't know about that. Men are equally capable as women to find their Inner Truth, and although, on (what from a woman's perspective can only be) a superficial glance at the masculine Orders in amity with UGLE as compared to our Order, I would say that it is true that we are exposed to the esoteric waters much, much sooner, but they do, in time, if they so choose, as well.
The differences are there for a reason. I do not presume to know the reason, but they are there. What matters is that even though the journey is different, all water inexorably returns to the Ocean.
With h.g.w.,
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Post by LorrB on Mar 23, 2011 8:14:51 GMT 9.5
Agree wholeheartedly - not in dispute. I was rather making the point that 'at the beginning of the journey inwards' the female is more receptive (?) to that sort of thing.
ie Doing a quick head count of personal friends, how many of the men that you know, meditate? How many women?
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Post by paul on Mar 23, 2011 8:17:18 GMT 9.5
the finding of the lost secret is in individual effort.... So are lodges not much use in recovering the lost secrets? |
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Post by Cora B on Mar 23, 2011 8:31:51 GMT 9.5
Agree wholeheartedly - not in dispute. I was rather making the point that 'at the beginning of the journey inwards' the female is more receptive (?) to that sort of thing. ie Doing a quick head count of personal friends, how many of the men that you know, meditate? How many women? The spread is roughly equal - but I'm not sure that is relevant. Meditation is but one method of approaching the Centre. |
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Post by Cora B on Mar 23, 2011 8:36:46 GMT 9.5
the finding of the lost secret is in individual effort.... So are lodges not much use in recovering the lost secrets? Quite the contrary. It is in Lodges (or similar gatherings) that we experience our Initiatory Journeys, and that we are given our Working Tools. It is within the social cohesion of these gatherings that we find the support, guidance, structure and discipline to undertake our personal journeys. To give but an example: I have just gone through a 2.5 months' of Depression. I am not quite out of the woods yet, but it is thanks to what I have experienced with the body of my Lodges and the Bosom of my Chapter that I was able to welcome the experience and learn from it -- no matter how difficult it was, and to an extent still is. This is what I mean when I say the Journey is Individual. As my Mentor has always taught me: we may from time to time walk beside one another, but we may never walk each other's Path. With h.g.w., |
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Post by stewartedwards on Mar 23, 2011 16:59:44 GMT 9.5
It is within the social cohesion of these gatherings that we find the support, guidance, structure and discipline to undertake our personal journeys. And this is where I see the real value of Lodges. And why, in a time when more and more people are turning to the New Age, conspiracy world, going it alone, this is where lodges could excell in the coming decades. Or even occassionally in everyday life  Someone clearly likes me - somewhere  Let me share a little secret - the lost secrets are recoverable. |
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Post by paul on Mar 23, 2011 17:43:50 GMT 9.5
The lost secrets are certainly recoverable. I wonder if recovery is contagious.
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Post by Cora B on Mar 23, 2011 17:50:13 GMT 9.5
The lost secrets are certainly recoverable. I wonder if recovery is contagious. It only takes a tiny flame to render darkness less than dark. |
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Post by Cora B on Mar 23, 2011 17:54:08 GMT 9.5
Absolutely. The whole point of the initiatic journey is that it accelerates that which otherwise might be acquired in life. That is not by any means to say, however, that life in itself does not offer the circumstances to experience these points of acceleration, too. Free will and all that Oh, totally. |
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Post by stewartedwards on Mar 24, 2011 1:30:58 GMT 9.5
The lost secrets are certainly recoverable. I wonder if recovery is contagious. I think so, but as with all such things you need "critical mass". I have sat with far too many mason who have been "frustrated by the system" to think that one man in a lodge can successfully outshine surrounding darkness and/or apathy. That said one man can illuminate the way. And if you get two men in one lodge, it will be easier for the third to take those courageous steps and so on and so fourth. The advantage that I have is that having done it from the outside, and frequently told precisely how I did it as I was doing it over the past decade on the masonic internet (you see there is method in my madness), I have proven that it is possible. Now I know that this has touched some hearts and inspired some masons in all sorts of differing ways, and I also know that I have caused others to pause and think, which is the first stage of moving forwards. So any masons who thinks that t is all "mummery" can look at what I have done. - "But he is on the outside so it cant be" I hear them weep and wail - yes but that meant that I had to work very hard without the lodge support that masons have. What took me many thousands of hours should (he says in theory) be quicker and easier for those in lodges. Now this places me in a rather unique position. Some masons have made their (lets me polite about this) dislike of me very clear. While others appear to respect what I have achieved since the millennium. And even in the conspiracy world some see me as the fabled chap who will sort the masonic world out. All of which I do find rather amusing as I am just a bloke who has struggled to get through life, more often than not simply bumbling and stumbling my way. Anyhow, my point. I know (mainly as masons have thanked me etc) that I have made a positive difference to individual masons, to a lodge and hopefully to a fraternity. And if an outside can do this - what excuse has the masonic world got?  I will pick on ugles tenets here as they are very good for this purpose. All the masonic world has to do is get back to basics, how you do this involves touching hearts so that thought can be generated and them illuminating the way. I have done all of this in person, and on the masonic web. Is it contagious? Well ask yourself this are there and masons who have ever ridiculed me, then given me grief then listened and moved forwards? Yes. While I have since the end of 2009 backed of (a decade is enough for any man to harp on) I have left the masonic world with a volume of information, energy and hopefully some inspiration, along with the solutions, combined with precisely what I did and how I did it. I can only hope that you all use it wisely. But as time passes and as I fade away I expect that more and more masons will reflect that I may have had a point, and hopefully they will then find the will to reilluminate. I will be watching with interest from the sidelines, with my popcorn and cola, to see if the masonic world can achieve it. I would expect that a year or two from now will be when the energy from my work will peak and quite frankly if by then my work of the first decade of this millennium hasn't helped the masonic world "contagiously" then it isn't likely to do so anytime soon. (All sorts of esoteric reasons for this). But the really dumbfounding bit from my perspective is that all masons have to do is - be masons Specifically a True mason as defined by ugle who knows what striving in the third tenet means (the second tenet is fairly well covered). The real key for contagion is ugle. If ugle can reilluminate itself then that will flow out to amity and also to non amity. Just need Her Majesty The Queen to tell me that I have Royal Blood and UGLE is well sorted ;D As this is rather unlikely, the fate of the masonic world lies in its own hands. I wish it and you all well. (You see I have it from the bloke above down the white light tunnel at the gates that I have indeed done enough - though interestingly he did ask me to come back and not walk through those open gates [and yes for the scientists I do know brain chemicals going do lally on hospital antibiotics in a fever spike as my body was closing down on me]). Hopefully by the time that I next get to those gates I will see that that the masonic world has reilluminated and rejuvinated. But just as I had to do the work, the masonic world has also to do the work. The question is does it really want to leave its comfort zone? |
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Post by LorrB on Mar 24, 2011 7:59:33 GMT 9.5
Leaving the comfort zone.. words worthy of contemplation.
We have lost members in the past because other members simply annoyed them.
How does one conquer the world, or one's self, without being annoyed? The tools in a lodge are supposed to help us work through it, round it, above it, ....
Maybe Brn in a lodge do not realise that 'annoyances' are the clues to where their next 'challenge' or 'work' lies.
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Post by paul on Mar 24, 2011 8:17:21 GMT 9.5
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Post by LorrB on Mar 24, 2011 11:39:29 GMT 9.5
The Societas Rosicruciana (or Rosicrucian Society) is a Rosicrucian order which limits its membership to Christian Master Masons
Obviously the secrets of other belief systems and women are a bit beyond their ken.
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Could be..
Someone clearly likes me - somewhere 
