Michael's Masonic Esoterica
Our recent third degree has made me reflect on what it is men are searching for when they seek out membership in our fraternity, and what it is they think after they learn what they've really become a part of after being raised to Master Mason. Many that I have met as they approach Masonry for the first time don't have a very clear vision of what their experience will be like, or what Freemasonry even is. They might know their grandfather or some other significant figure in their life was a Mason, but Masons of a previous generation were very circumspect about what happens in a lodge, leaving their male descendants with little idea of what Freemasonry is. In many cases these men of today only know their grandfather (or whoever), was a man of good moral character, an upstanding member of their community, and suspect that some of that must have come from their involvement in Freemasonry, and they want to learn it for themselves.
Some men who approach Freemasonry with interest in joining have an interest in the esoteric mystery school kind of thing. A little bit of Googling and watching some YouTube videos will assure these aspirants that Freemasons are the Illuminati controlling the world with unseen hands, and that we know secrets about alchemy and Hermeticism. Luckily no one I have met actually believes any of the wilder stuff that can be found online, but it does spark interest in wanting to learn what it is our secrets really are. And yes, there is a great deal of influence from alchemy and Hermeticism in Blue Lodge Masonry, but Illuminati, hmm, not so much.
After experiencing the 3rd degree, the most common comment I have heard is how impressive it is that those that put on the degree memorized so very much stuff. The average person might have memorized a few songs, maybe a speech or poem they had to memorize in school, very likely they have memorized some prayers. But when they experience the 3rd degree and hear very lengthy prayers, a monster of an obligation, and a 1/2 hour long lecture, they are blown away by the dedication and time such an impressive display of memorizing must have taken.
I believe Freemasonry's insistence on memorizing goes beyond keeping our ritual secret. There are after all only a few things that we are enjoined to keep "secret" that we learn in Freemasonry. Memorizing is a curious thing. We start out barely able to regurgitate the very first sentence, and if we read through the whole thing we are tasked to learn (as best we can through the morass of the cypher, with the same symbols meaning completely different words in different places), it's just incredibly overwhelming. But then as time goes by, sentence after sentence gets recorded in our memory. We run across lists of words that are sometimes listed alphabetically or in reverse, sometimes listed by an order of hierarchy of largeness or importance. Some things we find easier to memorize by incorporating small hand or body motions (perhaps one thing is in one hand, and another in the other). Sometimes we might memorize the first word of each paragraph so that we can keep the paragraphs in order. Some things we might memorize with funny words to keep them in the correct order, like Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice might be "Time For Prune Juice"
These tricks of memorizing put the mind in a position to be able to realize some of the real mysteries of Freemasonry. Those things, or rather I should say the One Thing, can not be spoke of in words, but can only be revealed to a mind that has been prepared. This single core secret of Freemasonry is secret because it can not be spoken about. Not that it is so secret we are mandated not to speak about it, but rather it is of a nature that words fail to describe or explain. As soon as we open our mouths to try to describe it, we are already wrong. Every Mason must discover this secret for himself. In the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry there are degrees which address this subject that are called the "ineffable" degrees. Ineffable because this root secret is impossible to be spoken about directly.
Today as our fraternity is becoming increasingly thin, more so up here in the hinterlands of Lake County, we must travel some distance to pursue our further education in Freemasonry with the York Rite and the Scottish Rite, but for those of you that are interested in expanding your knowledge of what we do in the Blue Lodge means, it is worth it. The York Rite consists of the Royal Arch, where some mysteries of the 3 degrees are explained, and new mysteries are introduced. The Cryptic Council takes that to another level, filling in more information about the Hiramic Legend's historical narrative, and the Commandery, or Knights Templar explains an aspect of our history that is also filled with mystery (Oak Island?).
The Scottish Rite is different. The Scottish Rite explores the esoteric meaning of the philosophy of Freemasonry. The Scottish Rite is known as the "university of Freemasonry". Instead of aprons Scottish Rite Masons wear round hats which we wear at dinner and in the lodge room, and which are not removed during prayers or the Pledge of Allegiance. The Scottish Rite is so popular, and so attractive to Blue Lodge Masons, that we pack the dining room and have sideliners on both the north and south side. At the Scottish Rite Valley in Santa Rosa we share in wonderful catered meals. There are a number of our lodge's members that go; I'm sure if you want to come to dinner you could catch a ride. Many of our member's ladies come also; feel free and bring yours. The dinner is worth the short wait for us while we're in our meeting.
It is important to note that the 3rd degree, or Master Mason degree, is as high as one can go in Freemasonry. In the rest of the York Rite there are not numbered degrees like our 1st, 2nd and 3rd. They just have names. In the Scottish Rite the degrees are numbered, up to 32 (the 33rd is an honorary degree). It is not accurate to refer to someone as a "32nd degree Mason". A Freemason can only attain 3 degrees and can only be called a "3rd degree Master Mason". Someone who has attained the 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite is properly referred to as a "32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason".
As Masons we have several primary directives, or goals. Clearly an obvious one is we take "good men and make them better". In the Blue Lodge we are in the business of making Masons. That is our primary focus.
We are not a philanthropy. We may choose to do some philanthropy; Masons are known for their good work in their community, but we are not primarily in the business of philanthropy.
Another goal we share is to bring civility to the world. We do this by example and by our recognition that we are all members of one single human family, stuck on a spaceship that is going endlessly in circles and not getting anywhere. We practice this in the lodge when we disagree about something, maybe about how money should be spent, or an activity that has been suggested. We politely voice our disagreements, vote with our heart, and win or lose we still love and respect our brothers we disagreed with. As Masons we are taught to recognize the fragile nature of our existence; that at any moment we may be re-united with the Supreme Architect in his glorious and celestial lodge were we will be judged, not by our strength of will enforcing our opinions, but rather on our ability to love and respect regardless of differences of opinion on things that ultimately are fleetingly of the physical plane and mean nothing to our eternal life.
As Masons we are taught to live with fidelity, honor, and integrity. We are taught to love, respect, and to support those who lead, and when it is our turn to lead, to do so with equanimity and justice. These behaviors and ethics demonstrate to the world that by becoming a Master Mason we became a better man, and show how the world could be if all of the human species were to adopt these philosophies.
But all these moral lessons come down to the core lesson, the core secret of Freemasonry. It is this core secret that has the opportunity to change the world in a positive way. It is this secret that is the root of creating civility in the world. This secret has to do with an inversion of awareness, the recognition of a mistake of observation we make every single minute of the day. We look out our eyes and we think thoughts with our mind and we say "I see this thing", "I think this thought", but we make a mistake of ownership when we think this way. Can you turn your attention around and see this entity that sees? Can you turn your attention around and see the one who is thinking thoughts?
Another way to think of this is the example of disagreeing over an issue in the lodge. Inside our head we might say "grrr, that guy doesn't get it! I am right and I want to make him understand! But, I am a Mason. I must not behave that way. So I will behave politely and not say grrr." So I ask you, which one are you? Are you the irritated one that growls? Are you the patient one that behaves compassionately? Are you the one that chooses whether to growl or be nice? Who is it that makes the choice of which way to behave? Who is the chooser? Or another more elemental way to ask this question is "who am I?" "I am Michael" except I could change my name. I am not my name. "I am an engineer", but that's an education, and I have since learned other things, so that's not who I am. "I am my body" but if I lost my arm, I wouldn't somehow be 1/5th less me. So who am I? "I am my thoughts", except I choose what things to think about, I am not my thoughts. Thoughts are things "I" observe. On and on the question goes. "Who....Am....I?" Every answer we can give upon examination is not actually who we are, but rather something we have choice over; something we observe. There is only one thing that is exactly the same in all the answers we might give, and that is the sense of awareness itself. I am aware of thoughts. I am aware of the body. I am aware of what I see, before my learned responses tell me what I see means. I am aware of the things I do and choose.
The primary mistake we make as humans is taking ownership of that which belongs to the Supreme Architect. We put our focus on this supposed "I" that does things, sees things, thinks things, and chooses things. The inversion of awareness I am talking about happens from identifying with the sense of awareness rather than identifying with the "seer", the "doer", the "thinker". If we put our sense of identity on Awareness instead of all the changeable stuff, a switch happens. It is the cosmic giggle when we realize that what we were searching for was right there all along but we were ignoring it, so caught up we were in identifying with all the stuff that is not real and ignoring that which is perennial, unceasing, unchanging, always there, right now, in this eternal moment.
I am forever yours in our Gentle Craft,
Michael McKeown
