My interpretation of the Masonic Structure

For years, many non-masons (and masons alike) have learned to use one or both of the images above as a means to describe masonic advancement per the various degrees that exist within freemasonry. As one may have noticed, there are a lot of organizations and degrees within the masonic body. Some have been described as adoptive, appendant, concordant etc.

In general, these structures somehow give a false impression which a lot of masons have carried on for years. An example of a false perception is this: being a 32 mason is higher than being a 3 mason. That is completely laughable, but it is a common misinformation spread not only among the profanes, but also masons alike.

These images have done a huge disservice in regards to properly educating all about the true structure of freemasonry, which is no secret. Perhaps it was just laziness that prevented anyone from making an accurate graphic depicting the structure of just the concordant bodies (appendants, allied etc are a different story since some are about to do away with masonic requirements anyway). Some have improperly categorized all those degrees and bodies that are above the third degree within the graphic as  "higher degrees". Henry Wilson Coil in his Masonic Encyclopedia supports my conclusion when he said "Some oppose the term high degrees, because they dislike the implication that the Master's degree is not the highest, but the name is simple and convenient and its long usage would seem to preclude any possibility of avoiding it"

Laziness for short. I know people who walk around answering to titles longer than the first and last names of all their family put together.

In response to this problem of a masonic structure graphic, for a long time I have described it as some form of T-shape structure were regardless of where you are on either the scottish rite or the york rite or both: you are never higher than that of the master mason. Of course, I'm sure my brothers in the York Rite would disagree for reasons only known to master masons, but I'll say this: get suspended from your local lodge and see how your masonic portfolio comes crashing down...all the so-called "higher degrees" and all.

Anyway, I finally decided to put the graphic from my brain into a simple digital format all can see and review.

As you can see, there is no degree higher than that of a master mason according to it. What I have done also, according to my T-theory, is to extend the branch for both concordant rites. The more you advance on each side, the more detailed you are and the more knowledge you get a hold of. But in everything, we all meet on the same level. Sometimes that lesson flies above the heads of some of us.

What do you think?

Perception is reality

I always taught at a young age to "never judge a book by its cover". I have found out over the past week that this mantra, like many mantras I was taught in my childhood, is absolute rubbish.

Take a look around you, a credit score (regardless of inquiry into your financial situation)  is used to determine if you're good enough for a car or a loan, a 2-3 page essay is often used to determine if you're good enough to attend a higher institution, a 15-20 minute interview is used to determine if you'll be a good fit for a company...there's a lot of judgment by perception going around in our society.

In our perfect fraternity, we have ways to clear all doubt and ensure we are looking at the reality of a situation not its perception. .The concept is simply termed "due diligence", however this concept is  lost on most of us. Investigation committees don't investigate, a brother is raised and brothers around do not choose to get to know a brother, but instead they judge him by his actions. They don't try to understand his background, his way of thinking, etc. They hear things, they don't try to ascertain for themselves and check facts, instead blindly believing what they hear.

That's just one of the shames of human nature that's brought into our fraternity. It is quite disappointing and I will confess that I am also a guilty party of this offense. But like I said it is human nature, one of my masonic mentors said it best "If every time I meet Gabe he's drunk, naturally I will assume he's an alcoholic. No matter what recommendations are made of him, my recommendation would be that he's a drunk"

My first college roommate taught me a saying about folks who make assumptions, but in the world we live in, that's just the reality of you and me. We just have to make sure we are making a good presentations of ourselves. It's something to strive to but often I imagine it may lead to a loss of self, and that bothers me because I like myself. However, in order to gain some things in life or go a far while,  you have to lose some of yourself.

Freemasonry: a matter of opinion

There are a few facts within freemasonry: mostly historical. The landmarks are subject to opinion. Yes, I know, there are books about Mackey's 25, but let's be honest: landmarks in freemasonry existed before Mackey. Moreso, there are many Grand Lodges all over the world that do not follow all of the 25 landmarks.

Each mason has their opinion on masonic matters: some wronger than others. However, in my opinion, this craft prospers on the variety of its opinions.

We all have varying opinions on everything from the concept of monotheism in our craft to choices in refreshments. What makes us click is our ability to apply the lessons we feel we have learned within our craft to be open and receptive to each other's opinions. We have learned how to use the three tenets of our fraternity to allow our free thoughts flow in harmony:

Brotherly Love: Because at the end of the day, we are brothers. We may have different views, but we have a bind that holds us together like cement that holds ashlars together.

Relief: Because when a worthy brother or person is in distress, we are trained to act first and ask questions later regardless of our opinion on the situation.

Truth: Because we are good men, and each good man holds on and applies his strongest convictions and believes those convictions to the depths of his heart to be true. We can not question another man's truth.

Princes, Priests and Potentates

I have been asked many times from people outside of the fraternity what "degree" of mason am I? "The third" I usually reply. "Oh...you're not even that high. My grandfather was a 32nd" they usually reply. Typically less-informed and dressup masons usually say or think the same way i.e "I'm a 32nd(or 33rd) degree mason ergo I am higher than you"

That is a popular misconception that anyone who has been properly initiated into freemasonry will note how wrong it is. The title (and the attached picture) aptly come to mind and also brings memories of the apron charge every mason has heard before.

There is no degree, no honor in freemasonry  higher than being a master mason. At that degree you have earned the full rights and benefits of a mason, you have shown proficiency in all previous degrees, you have show that you properly understand the foundation and essence of our craft and our fraternity.

By staying as an active master mason, you are entitled to certain unalienable rights that are extended to you till (and even after) death. These rights I would not bother dissecting, but they are the basis and reason why one no longer works as an apprentice and attains that sublime degree of master mason.

Now, back to where I was, the misconception. You see, brothers tend to get lost in their years sojourning as travellers. I have seen too many who feel they can pull rank not only because of the positions they attain as master masons, but the fact that they are in these different "higher houses" and have positions in them give them some impetus of authority or superiority over the craft lodge brothers.

Let them get suspended by their Worshipful or Grand Masters and watch how their masonic edifices crash and tumble to the ground. Whereas a 33rd degree mason who is expelled from the Scottish rite has nothing to heal through except a bruised ego.

This misconception about high degrees is further popularized and spread by some wrong charts/images of the structure of freemasonry. It shows a large square and compass followed by the representation of the Entered Appentice at the bottom of the square and ends with Shriners (or 33rds & KT's) at the top of the compass i.e the screw.

I think that's a very wrong representation. If I had to represent the structure of freemasonry, it'd be a T-structure. You truly do go higher from 1st to 2nd to 3rd, but everything else is on a level along with that 3rd level. Whether you move left or right through each rite (Scottish Rite or York Rite) you get further into albeit deeper and more detailed into each rite...but at the end of it all, you're still on the level as a master mason.

Freethinkers Anonymous

Our fraternity is composed of free-thinkers...allegedly.

Why I say allegedly is because it has hard to make out if a group of people are free-thinkers if they think and act the same way. For example, you see a few so-called freemasons from a lodge/jurisdiction that think and act a certain way. When they are asked certain questions, they respond in a similar fashion almost saying the same words verbatim. It gets funnier with bogus/clandestine masons who would always want to throw out "what of if we were on the side of the road" as their defense when challenged about their organizations bogusness.

On further observation, you see that these brothers were trained and taught the same way. During meetings and conventions, they are trained to be quiet as their leaders stand up and make moves on their behalf without them saying a word. Some are convinced that their voices don't matter until they reach a certain unattainable and immeasurable status within the craft. Also you have the bigger fools: the ones who are told by the grand fools to teach the smaller fools. They do everything and anything it takes to do to earn a title or a position. They are trained to suppress whatever free-mind is left within the so-called lower members of the order.

The ability to have free-thinkers within our craft is what makes our fraternity different. The concept of people from different backgrounds and cultures existing within a space were disagreements were possible, but a sense of respect and tolerance in the name of progressing humanity and improving ourselves is the slogan of our fraternity's cause. However, we are not exactly in an age of enlightenment anymore and the concept of one thinking his own thoughts based on facts, research and humanistic morals is out the window since we have so many instruments of control not only by mass media, but our governments. Freemasonry used to be a threat to most governments because of just the very idea of men thinking on their own, but now, governments welcome freemasonry as harmless fancy dressers.

I wish I could say there was a solution to the problem. This would involve already existing free-thinkers to take action, but typically such free-thinkers are silenced. It would involve men to teach their candidates what they should think about now how they should think about it. It would involve candidates with an advanced state of intellectual capacity to deduce, rationalize, analyse, interpret and then apply. That seems to be asking too much of this current generation we live in.

Are there real free-thinkers out there?

In the name of Jesus, Free yourself Freemason.

I. Concerning GOD and RELIGION.

A Mason is oblig’d by his Tenure, to obey the moral Law ;

and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid

Atheist, nor an irreligious Libertine. But though in ancient

Times Masons were charg’d in every Country to be of

the Religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet

’tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that

Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular

Opinions to themselves ; that is, to be good Men and true, or

Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations

or Persuasions they may be distinguish’d ; whereby Masonry

becomes the Center of Union, and the Means of conciliating

true Friendship among Persons that must else have remain’d

at a perpetual Distance.

-Anderson's Constitution (1723)

This was the first clause in the constitution of the Premier Grand Lodge of England. This Grand Lodge was the one which Prince Hall requested and received a charter to start up a lodge (African Lodge #459), the first lodge of all black Americans on US soil. This lodge would later become the progenitor of over 40 Prince Hall Grand Lodges all over the world.

Prince Hall, as a man, was a devout christian (no supporting evidence to prove he was a minister however) and in practicing freemasonry, was bound by this constitution to accept all men of all faiths accepting freemasonry as a universal canopy of all men from different faiths. This brings me to the topic of the Christian religion within black America.

According to David Gray in his book "Inside Prince Hall", the black man came as a slave to America either as a believer in an African Traditional Religion or Islam. However on landing the shores of America, he was converted to Christianity as that was seen as a religion for easier control. Naturally his enslavers didn't allow the black man practice his new found religion without supervision, but that supervision ended even before the end of slavery. I might be jumping to conclusions here but it seems the slave-master may have realized he had created a knew slave-driver with Christianity.

For years, the black man in America was oppressed, whipped, denigrated and tormented. However, every Sunday he found some spiritual healing within his oppression at the church. His wounds were soothed as a usually uneducated yet charismatic preacher reminded him that life on earth is nothing but a short toil and there is a better place of peace and tranquility where his spirit shall go and find its final rest. The preacher never empowered his people to stand up and fight, he never empowered his people to be thinkers and movers. The church may have provided support for the community at one point, but for the majority, the church was just a placebo for the problem that were slavery, segregation and social inequality. If such a preacher existed, he was pushed away by his people. Vernon Jones comes to mind, he was the predecessor to Martin Luther King Jr at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. He stood up and told his people to not keep under the leash of their oppressors, he told them to stand and boycott the buses, to farm their own food, to operate their own businesses. He was seen as a radical and was fired from his employment as pastor of his church. He was replaced by a young Martin Luther King Jr, the rest is history.

So what does that have to do with Prince Hall freemasonry? The growth of the African American church has coincided with the growth of Prince Hall Freemasonry. Most of the Prince Hall grand lodges were established after the end of the civil war. During that era of reconstruction, the black church was also participating in the uplift and growth of the community. Welfare was of utmost importance, and the Prince Hall masonic organizations provided succour for those who could not otherwise find life insurance benefits and other endowments anywhere else. The leaders of the churches were usually also involved in these organizations. However, with the disenfranchisement of the black man in America, also came the tightening of the noose of the free thinker within the negro society. The church that was once making strides and showing promise coming out of the enslavement it was engineered to keep Negros in quickly stepped back into its cage and kept the spirituals singing from their pews and pulpits and not the polls.

This enslavement with the christian religion keeps its hold on the free-thinking negro even till today. The Prince hall mason is been engineered and trained to be thought for, to have his decisions made for him. The Prince Hall mason is trained by the design created before he was born to turn down his fellow brothers who may be of other creeds and religions not because it is against any landmark of freemasonry, but because the chains of the christian religion have kept them ignorant and fearful of daring to peek their head out of that slave hold and see what's on the cabin. Some have dared to call their Prince hall lodges and grand lodges "Christian organizations"...but are scared to put it on paper for fear that it goes against the masonic principles Prince Hall vowed to uphold when he became the chartering worshipful master of AL459. They have quickly forgotten what freemasonry is about and confined it to the small area of thinking that religion has defined for them.  They claim to be free but are slaves of the original engineering of their oppressors.

So what would be the solution for this? Why should a black Muslim brother (keeping in mind a lot of the black men who came into this country as slaves were Muslim) should be denied entrance or acceptance into a lodge of Freemasons because of a stubborn reluctance to understand his religion? Would the Prince hall mason learn to separate the practice of freemasonry from this entrapment of religion?

The reverence of God is never defined in a religion. The founding fathers of America were mostly masons and Deists. Each person should have their own preference and means to which they worship their creator. However, within freemasonry, each person should be accepted and able to work in the craft all under the same canopy.

THE MISEDUCATION OF THE PRINCE HALL MASON

I was wondering the other day: what are the things we as Prince Hall masons have got wrong or not completely correct? What things can be worked on and need fixing?


1) History: A lot of us lack a sense or zeal for history. History is not too deep or difficult, it is simply recognizing where we as Prince Hall masons have come from and come through. It should be something elementary every Prince Hall should understand, from the Charter of 1784 down to the history of your own lodge. A lot of our grand lodges don't have historians, and a lot of those who have historians grimshaw their histories providing completely wrong information and some pointing in the complete wrong directions for their members to search. A lack of proper records-keeping and archiving by some of our GL's have resorted to some of us resorting to other means of retrieving information about our own grand lodges/lodges. A few of our grand lodges have libraries and archives, and even fewer allow their members access them. A lot of our lodges' archives are not always safeguarded and insured thereby when they get lost, or destroyed by nature, our generations have lost a chance to learn about who we are or where they come from in the craft. Also I'm not sure if majority of the membership seems to be nonchalant about these kind of things. Speaking of membership...

2) Membership: I understand, to a certain extent, Freemasonry is a business. It is in the business of making good men better, and in this business, money is key. However, the need for money to run our lodges and grand lodges, but it seems to me that a lot of our bodies close their eyes to the sorts of men we bring into our fraternity just because their money keeps the light on. This is a growing challenge all over the world with our frail fraternity where we have more members on the roll answering to being called a mason rather than being made masons themselves. They have cheapened the brand that we call freemasonry. Their characters are relatively unknown and hardly vouched for. Some are the victims of a troublesome society and imperfect upbringing to where the craft could have honed them into better people, they are not those sorts. The tools of freemasonry are used to make perfect stones out of rough ones..not sand. Perhaps with better education from their older members, they would not have been this bad. One needs time to grow in this craft, but a lot of men come into the craft with a stubbed foot. And these people are allowed (once again thanks  to the almighty dollar) to go through the other masonic bodies without even a chance to understand the degrees or bodies they belong to already...and once again, education would have fixed this, but ...you know...let's make that number 3.

3) Education: Poor education of candidates leads to having lackluster masons. Masons who get dropped after their first year of getting raised...masons who are all about talking and not about working for their lodges. Not only do they lack in terms of ritualistic work and masonic education but basic education as well. I have been in lodges were the grammar of those brothers as young as I am was atrocious. I am not saying this because I am some sort of grammar expert (clearly I'm not) but I have no problems in pronouncing some words like...say...eavesdropper. There is a critical flaw when you allow in a brother with no proper education gain access to the complicated and allegorical science of freemasonry. There's gross misinterpretation and misdirection of the brother especially when no one sits him down to teach him. There's a big problem when he walks around saying he's a mason  with a shirt that reads "THE LORD IS MY SHEPARD"....A past grand master of my grand lodge once stated :

"None should be admitted into the mysteries of Freemasonry who are uneducated. None should be accepted for their money alone, but for their internal qualifications; their moral and educational qualities. Education is power; it moves the great levers of nations; it makes men better citizens, better mechanics and better Masons; it prepares one for the race of life. An uneducated man is unfit for the mysteries of Masonry and is completely out of place in a Masonic lodge"

Moving on. When we are sure of the members ability to learn and proactively seek information and learn and be open-minded...there should be a structured masonic educational process. Most of our lodges and grand lodges lack that. How are we going to effectively educate our masons without any sort of curriculum?