Masonic New Year Dates

HAPPY NEW YEAR

TO THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS' - HAPPY 881

TO THE ROYAL AND SELECT MASTER'S - HAPPY 3009

TO THE ROYAL ARCH - HAPPY 2539

TO THE ANCIENT CRAFT - HAPPY 6009

Merry Christmas

"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." ~Charles Dickens

Lose Your Head - Find Your Heart

Ours is but a journey, some would call us a traveler, our path, a flight of winding stairs.
When we began out journey, we were entrenched in the lower aspects of the mind of our own creation, the realm of the Entered Apprentice.
At this level, as if blinded, we are ego driven individuals, but something in our heart causes us to knock.
“His soul pierces through the shadows of materialism and earthiness toward the Light for which his search has begun. He is prepared for his onward and upward course in Freemasonry.”
In the mind of the Entered Apprentice, the motivating forces, or first three stages of ego are:
Physical survival – meeting the individual’s basic physiological needs so that he or she can survive one more day.
Relationships – meeting the individual’s basic emotional need for love and belonging so that he or she can feel safe and protected.
Self-esteem – meeting the individual’s basic emotional need for respect so that he or she can feel as sense of self-worth.
From the ego’s perspective, all three of these needs are dependency-based. We satisfy them by trying to get what we want from the external world.
Why do so many remain ego driven, and in the dark? Our maps are very difficult to change because our ego is absolutely convinced that its own personal map is the correct view or understanding of reality. As a result, we often find ourselves passionately defending the maps and beliefs we learned in childhood from adults we trusted. We do not often remember how or where we learned a particular belief in childhood because we simply assumed that the adults in our lives knew what they were talking about. We just accepted their wisdom.
The human face of that ego is pride; is arrogant self-importance; is narcissistic self-infatuation; is the need to see oneself as being separate at all times, in all places, through all circumstances, the world of the uninitiated.

It is my belief that the Fellowcraft degree represents transformation, the purposeful move or transformation from ego centered consciousness to soul, or spirit, development. The Fellowcraft Degree addresses the mind and its faculties. We are instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences, which were formulated hundreds of years ago in order to develop and perfect the mental nature. The intention was to prepare the mind for spiritual truths. Light is now beginning to break through.

After one is raised (the symbolic death journey from ego to unity) as a Master Mason, the truth should become self evident of the pitfalls and shortcomings of the ego based consciousness. It is at this level the motivating forces that correspond to the first three stages in the unfolding of the human soul are understood:
Internal cohesion – finding personal meaning in life by uncovering and integrating the motivations of the soul.
Making a difference – acting out the soul’s motivations by making a difference in the lives of other individuals or the community through the expression of our unique abilities.
Service – when making a difference becomes a permanent way of life we enter the path of self-less service

To put it simply, Freemasonry is a path from mind to heart, love, relief, & truth.

Masonic Symbols 101 (A MUST)

You have to check out this gentleman’s videos, they are truly informative! If he isn’t a Mason, he sure should be one!

Our Favorite Metalsmith - Tubal Cain

I couldn’t help but notice the two poems below may look the same, but read them carefully, both were written by Brother Mackey. Although I am sure they were meant to be the same, the endings would certainly convey a different message.

Old Tubal Cain was a man of might
In the days when Earth was young;
By the fierce red light of his furnace bright
The strokes of his hammer rung;
And he lifted high his brawny hand
On the iron glowing clear,
Till the sparks rushed out in scarlet showers,
As he fashioned the sword and spear.
And he sang, "Hurrah for my handiwork!
Hurrah for the spear and sword!
Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well,
For he shall be king and lord!"
To Tubal Cain came many a one,
As he wrought by his roaring fire,
And each one prayed for a strong steel blade
As the crown of his desire:
And he made them weapons sharp and' strong,
Till they shouted loud for glee,

And gave him gifts of pearl and gold,
And spoils of the forest free.

And they sang, "Hurrah for Tubal Cain,
Who hath given us strength anew!

Hurrah for the smith, hurrah for the fire,
And hurrah for the metal true!"
But a sudden change came o'er his heart
Ere the setting of the sun,

And Tubal Cain was filled with pain
For the evil he had done;

He saw that men, with raga and hate,
Made war upon their kind,

That the land was red with the blood they shed
In their lust for carnage blind.

And he said, "Alas! that ever I made,
Or that skill of mine should plan,

The spear and the sword for men whose
joy
Is to slay their fellow-man."
And for many a day old Tubal Cain
Sat brooding o'er his woe;

And his hand forbore to smite the ore,
And his furnace smoldered low.

But he rose at last with a cheerful face,
And a bright, courageous eye,

And bared his strong right arm for work,
While -the quick flames mounted high.
And he sang, "Hurrah for my handicraft!"
And the red sparks lit the air;
"Not alone for the blade was the Bright steel made";
And he fashioned the first ploughshare.


TUBAL CAIN #2

Old Tubal Cain was a man of might

In the days when the earth was young;
By the fierce red light of his furnace bright

The strokes of his anvil rung ;
And he lifted high his brawny hand
On the iron growing clear,

Till the sparks rushed out in scarlet showers,
As he fashioned the sword and spear.
And he sang, " Hurrah for my handiwork !
Hurrah for the spear and the sword !
Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well,
For he shall be king and lord ! "
But a sudden change came o'er his heart
Ere the setting of the sun ;

And Tubal Cain was filled with pain
For the evil he had done.

He saw that men, with rage and hate,
Made war upon their kind ;

That the land was red with the blood they shed
In their lust for carnage blind.

And he said, "Alas ! that I ever made,
Or that skill of mine should plan,

The spear and the sword for men whose joy
Is to slay their fellow-man! "
And men, taught wisdom from the past,
In friendship joined their hands,
Hung the sword in the hall, the spear on the wall,
And ploughed the willing lands ;

And sang, "Hurrah for Tubal Cain !
Our stanch good friend is he ;
And for the ploughshare and the plough,
To him our praise shall be.

But while oppression lifts its head,
Or a tyrant would be lord,

Though we may thank him for the plough,
We '11 not forget the sword."

Adi Da Samraj (November 3, 1939 – November 27, 2008)

Some of you may be familiar with Adi Da and some may not. No matter, the sad news is that he has passed (30 Non 2008).

The first time I was introduced to the writings and thoughts of this man was through the writings of Ken Wilber. He was a fascinating man, with a true depth. I hope you enjoy some of his thoughts:
“You spend your entire life within the dream, within this vast adventure, to find the princess in the crystal palace and save her from the dragon, or to wait in the crystal palace to be rescued by the prince. You live an endless, endless adventure, millions and millions of ages, year after year after year, of numberless complications. But at some point along the way, you become serious enough to examine your motivation to seek, to examine the cause, the root, for which this goal is only the symbol. At last one realizes that one cannot find one’s symbolic satisfaction. And this falling into one’s dilemma, then falling through it, is the unqualified Intuition of one’s Ultimate Nature and Real Condition. . . . “The waking state promises something relatively undesirable to one who is suspended in the twilight state of a pleasant dream. Such a one is reluctant to understand, too distracted to be interested in understanding. The ordinary reluctance of people is not truly caused by a premonition that the life, or sadhana, of understanding is so difficult. It is only that they do not yet care about it. Somehow, for the moment, everything seems all right. For the most part, the usual man or woman possesses a relatively healthful physical life, with certain satisfactions, certain opportunities, things to do, books to read, a future of places, physical pleasures, mental pleasures. With all of that, who wants to Awaken? And most people come to Me in that condition. Therefore, I do not take them seriously. I know they are only indulging themselves, even if to others the new arrivals seem to deserve only mercy and the grin of promised salvation. When these seekers come to Me, they make all kinds of complaints about their fundamental suffering. ‘Please give me this salvation, this realization, this release!’ But they are not really looking for that. They are unwilling to endure the discipline of Truth.

“There are certain limitations to the entire adventure and pleasure of ordinary life. You know you are going to die some time, but, essentially, mysteriously, life still seems to be full. Thus, Truth is not likely to enter the usual picture without the intervention of some fundamental, transforming event. But if you are smart, if your life is generated with Conscious Intensity, you do not have to become desperate before you will turn to the Truth. Your circumstances do not have to become empty, corrupted, and diseased. You do not have to wait for the failure of life itself before you will turn to the Truth. Someone who is waiting for life to disprove itself is only indulging himself or herself. There is nothing profound about the search or suffering of such a one. But if one is smart, if one’s life is an intensity, one is always turning to Truth from birth. . . .
“When you become less concerned for your particular search, for your inwardness, for your adventure, you have simply become more sensitive to your Real Condition. You have felt the sunlight falling on your sleeping eyes. When your eyes have opened in the morning light, everything will be obvious to you. And you will know that you have never slept, that you have never dreamed, that you have never been limited to any thing that has appeared. You have never been in any condition that you have assumed. There was always only Reality Itself, your True Nature, Which is Love-Bliss, Consciousness, the Unqualified Intensity.”
–Adi Da, The Method of the Siddhas, pp. 261-265

How about a different point of view on LIGHT!

Vampires In America?

Would you consider this the dumbing down of America?

In 2005, Jerry Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University awarded Hannity an honorary degree, the Nobel for dummies.