This whole “master of a lodge” thing is a big deal to those that earn the opportunity. In pre-pandemic times a master typically had very many  challenges  to  address.  Challenges  like  smoothing  opposite  opinions on spending money, challenges like scheduling degrees and special dinners around all the other Masonic events scheduled in our buildings, and doing fund raising in order to be able to provide some philanthropy. All those things came to a pretty quick halt, didn’t they?AS THE SUN RISES IN THE EASTWORSHIPFUL MASTERMICHAEL McKEOWN

During the time we were virtual my main goal was to try to maintain a  sense  of  Masonic  brotherhood  and  a  sense  of  the  mystery  of  our  traditions  and  ritual  despite  that  we  could  not  meet  in  person  nor  practice our ritual. I hoped to inflame the sense of Freemasonry within our hearts and keep us all focused on our commitments to become better men and thereby create better communities, and by extension, a better world. During the time we met on Zoom, our Trestleboard and the Masonic Education period during our Zoom meetings were the only tools I had to work with. This got me to thinking, what exactly are the tools a master has at his disposal to shape a lodge’s ideology, it’s “philosophical stance” if you will; it’s culture?

A key tool is inclusivity. Looking the word up online I find: “the practice or policy of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people  who  might  otherwise  be  excluded  or  marginalized,  such  as  those belonging to minority groups.”

Visitors  to  a  lodge  are  a  minority  group  in  our  dining  rooms.  New  brothers  and  our  elderly  brothers  who’s  friends  from  time  ago  are  gone can also feel like they are a minority group. Lady visitors can be sensitive to not feeling inclusiveness from the other ladies, or from the men. Even a long time attending brother can feel a lack of inclusivity if the lodge’s current cliques accidentally, through inattention to fostering a culture of inclusivity, ignore them.

Inclusivity  means  to  make  everyone  feel  loved  and  welcomed.  I  encourage the master, and indeed all the officers, to carve out a bit of time from your seat at a stated or special dinner and get around the room saying hi. Look people in the eye and tell them you are glad they are there.

Tell a brother you love him; i.e., actually use those words, and feel it in your heart. Feel the love emanating from you and do not think any thought for desire of anything in return. Just express love. Like you’re really glad they’re there. Because you are, in that moment of love you’ve created in your heart, actually very glad they are there.Another way to think of inclusivity is that we’re all on the level before the eyes of the Supreme Being. We are all equal. How could we not “include” a brother, or indeed anyone, in our love and attention when in fact by expressing love and attention we are merely expressing the
love we ourselves are feeling, in a sense, for ourselves? No one “out there” can make us happy, or feel love. Happy is an internal “me” thing. Love exists in our own heart. No one “out there” somehow magically imparts love into our heart. The love is there already.

This gets to the core element of Freemasonry that we are all on the level. Every single human being is, as it’s originating source, the same thing. We are all actually eternal spiritual beings. This is why I encourage all of you in leadership positions everywhere in Freemasonry to eradicate where you find it the culture of Grand Poobahs of all sorts referring to  the  other  officers  as  “my  officers”,  like  the  lodge  is  some  kind  of  fief-dome where one person is above the others for a year. Rather, all the officers, the master (insert appropriate Grand Poobah title here) included, are “the lodge’s officers”.

My point is that from our own most basic languaging as Freemasons we should endeavor to adopt wherever possible words, tone, and culture that supports our OWN root philosophies. We can’t on the one hand have a doctrine that recognizes all humans on the level and turn around and use language that creates a division between the master and the officers, and by extension the officers and the sideliner members.

At one level the “my officers” culture can be seen as a fun opportunity to enjoy the experience of being a king or a queen of sorts; I get that. But  it  belies  Freemasonry’s  core  tenant  which  teaches  us,  as  do  all  of  the  world’s  spiritual  and  mystery  school  traditions  from  which  Freemasonry borrows it’s messages, that at the core, all life is actually one  single  sentient  entity  expressing  itself,  but  that  expression  in  humans, right now at this moment in history, has been forgotten and we have become addicted to our apparent separateness and foolishly believe that to be what’s real.

You  may  have  noticed  that  I  never  sign  my  articles  with  a  PM  or  other titles (and like many of you, I have collected quite a few titles). Just  my  name.  That  is  because,  before  all  of  humanity,  and  you  my  dear  fraternal  brothers,  I  am  merely  another  human  with  a  poorly  trained ego that constantly tells me how to react to situations, which directions I instinctively follow only to discover later my poor ignorant
ego screwed me up again. I am emotional. I am not the most skilled among  my  lodge  brethren  in  nearly  everything  I  can  bring  to  the  lodge. The fact that I am a past master or even a sitting master is not worthy your notice. Because I memorized a set of lectures I can now add letters to my name? I am merely another human who has sought out the enlightenment of Freemasonry and became a brother. Whether I am on the sideline or a sitting master my endeavors as a Freemason are the same: to grow in awareness of my behaviors so I can become a better conduit for the love of the G.A.O.T.U. so that I can be a better example of treating everyone on the level because if all Freemasons made this a priority we could in fact create the global awareness change that Freemasonry has aspired to do for centuries.

Freemasonry’s goal is one of transformation, first of the individual man, and then collectively via the hundred monkey theory, the entire planet.

I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to maybe re-ignite love of our ancient fraternity in you as you watch my own education unfold here in the Trestleboard the last two years, but I am no more or less than any one of you. I don’t want an appendage to my name; I just want to do the best work I can when called upon to do so. That work isn’t always so great in the end, but that gets to the being human part.

I felt emotional last month sitting in the East, looking out on a room of the men I love and respect the most. I imagined us all being recharged with fraternal focus. I imagined each of us going out into the world after the meeting treating everyone with love, respect, and patience. I imagined this spider web of purposeful loving attention spreading across the world resulting in a giant “ah ha” moment where everyone sets aside beliefs that differences are to be hated and instead everyone around the world begins to work equally for the betterment, health and happiness of everyone else.

I’ve  shared  my  most  deep  seated  feelings  about  what  Freemasonry  means to me here in these pages, and I’m hesitant to repeat them, since those of you that read my articles already know them well, yet there are  basic  themes  of  Freemasonry  that  must  be  told  repeatedly.  The  basic messages of Freemasonry are actually quite simple to understand
when told about them, but like all philosophical systems that speak to Truth and the Supreme Being they are very difficult to remember later. It is valuable to hear them over and over. These basic themes have no choice but to be repeatedly told in just about every other breath we take when speaking about our beloved Craft because those basic tenants are exactly all that we are.

Themes like brotherly love, relief, and Truth. Faith, hope, and charity. Wisdom, strength, and beauty. The grave that beckons and the promise of the acacia. Of fidelity of trust. The square and compass. The 3, 5 and 7. Jachin and Boaz. The Point Within the Circle.

How very many “basic tenants” of Freemasonry there are! I hope you, as I, never tire of exploring and expounding on these things so as to further your own understanding of the incredible, great, and Gentle Craft that you committed yourself to one night when a bell tolled for the awakening of your soul.

I am forever yours in the fidelity of Brotherhood,
Michael McKeown