Guest editorial: Accepting change within Freemasonry

The following is a guest editorial by Bro. Dylan, a Freemason in Canada.

What we are seeing is change happening, change within Freemasonry.

As a body, our Craft is very resistant to change, and rightly so. We are dedicated to preserving our Ancient Landmarks while at the same time not knowing exactly what they are! Some of the landmarks are obvious, well known and agreed on, but anyone who has done any light research knows that there is no definitive list of what they are....

Our very craft is shrouded in mystery, or as the ritual says "veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." Nothing of the treasure of what Masonry holds in trust for mankind is given openly, obviously. There are no silver platters. We are effectively given a bunch of symbols and obscured meanings and told to go figure it out for ourselves. The meanings and revelations we uncover are innately personal, the Truth of the Mysteries really cannot be shared, it has to be worked for and earned. There is, and cannot be, one definitive form of Masonry. This is why it does differ around the world.

We must be resistant to change in order to make sure that we do not lose things that we do not yet understand the hidden meanings of. Visiting lodges that practice different work in different jurisdictions allows us to discover little pieces of ritual or practice that have already been lost in our own lodges.

But Freemasonry does change, anyone who has even glanced at the Ancient Charges can see that. There was a time when King Solomon was new to the Craft. There was a time when the third degree was a new invention. In our rituals we hearken back to the ancient Egyptians and great Greek philosophers — did they practice the work as we know it today? Did they even use the same set of symbols? — Some, but not all....

It does change. Everything in nature changes. In the natural world the only things that do not change are dead things, and if we study the Hidden Mysteries of Nature, we would understand that.

So Freemasonry is changing, but it does not change lightly or easily. We need both the old guard and the new wave, and we will continue to have them both. In another generation or two, we will go through the same thing again. If we study the history of our Craft we will also see that such change has indeed come before as well.

We need the old guard to defend what we do not fully understand — our Craft and our symbols.

We need the new guard to push for change.

The two together are a dynamic harmony that will play itself out. However, just like in every day life, what is happening provides new opportunities for each of us (including Grand Masters!) to identify rough spots on our own Ashlars. We each have a choice as to whether we wield the chisel to smooth out the rough spots, or to make them more pronounced....

At the end of the day, Masonry is a personal experience for us all.

— Bro. Dylan, Canada

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'Then more Light you shall receive!'

I finally became Worshipful Master of my lodge.

No, not Worshipful Master of Pickens Star Lodge No. 220, F&AM, of Jasper, Georgia, where I was raised and am still a member.

I finally became Master of my own lodge.

While drinking coffee and watching the sun come up, and reading Bro. Theron Dunn's Beacon of Masonic Light blog, all the basic Masonic concepts and symbols I learned so long ago came together in a new way for me, first in a minor and then in a major epiphany. No, the earth didn't shake, and there was no clap of thunder, but I began to see things in a new Light.

Bro. Dunn's most recent blog entry is titled "Who is the Widow?"

The title interested me not only because it's a good question, Masonically speaking, but it hit me on a more personal level, since, out of all the Masonically-themed screen names I could have chosen, I was "led" to use the moniker "Widow's Son" when I began this blog two years ago.

His article speaks of goddesses: Isis, Ishtar, Mary the mother of God. It talks about Hiram Abiff, about spirituality and creative forces.

I enjoyed reading it, and I started to leave a comment, which would have been my first comment ever on his blog.

I wrote, "Indeed a thought-provoking post."

And then, I was at a loss for words. I wanted to express that his article was good, one of the more enjoyable I'd read there.

But what thoughts had it actually provoked?

I sat in silence for a few moments, and then these words almost magickally appeared on the screen, coming from a deeper source within me than my usual level of conscious awareness.

The Lesser Lights:

• Sun = God = Ra = Father = Hiram before his death = Junior Warden = The Plumb


• Moon = Goddess = Isis = Mary = Mother (Earth) = The Widow = Hiram as a dead level = Senior Warden = The Level


• Worshipful Master = Man, or the Potential of (a) Man (or Humanity) = Resurrected Sun Horus = Resurrected Son Jesus = Hiram as a raised perpendicular = The Widow's Son = Worshipful Master = The Square

Here I paused, as I pondered what I'd just written. I sat back, had another cup of coffee, and kept asking myself, "What then, are the greater lights, and what do they represent?"

After a few minutes, and more coffee, I wrote the following. At first, it was a struggle to find the right words. This didn't come as easily; it seemed to have had to filter through my mind, unlike the previous material, which just "appeared."

The square represents our "new," or resurrected self, or that potential in us.

The compasses, as we are told, represents circumscribing our actions, or drawing a circle around ourself, or a concentrated focus.

What then emerges? In most Masonic locales, there is a G within the merged square and compasses, or sometimes the Volume of Sacred Law, often the Holy Bible in Western cultures. The Bible here is not meant to be taken literally, but as a symbol, as are the square and compasses.

The VSL, or the letter G, must then represent the merging of the square and compasses, which leads to Gnosis, or enlightenment.

I sat back, satisfied that I'd written some good material, and had some more coffee.

I re-read what I'd written. I especially kept going back to the part in the lesser lights section about the Sun, and the Junior Warden. The thought that I'd never progressed past the office of Junior Warden kept popping into my head.

The myth of Ra, Isis and Horus is fairly well-known. But there's a player in the myth that isn't always mentioned. It's the same player found in the God/Mary/Jesus saga.

Darkness. Set. Satan.

In my mind, I began to overlay the Egyptian and Christian myths with the Hiramic legend, and that I overlaid on my own Masonic life. When I was Junior Warden of my lodge, I was, literally, accosted by three Past Masters whom I've semi-jokingly referred to in my mind and in print as the Three Ruffians, Jubelo, Jubela, and Jubelum. Those three were inspired to take the actions they did by one from the Grand Lodge, a man highly regarded by some in Masonry yet who to me has long represented the North, or Darkness. I had long blamed them for my "downfall," not only for knocking me out of my station in the lodge and off my path to the East in "real life," but also for derailing my Masonic-spiritual path.

In hindsight, I should thank them. Their actions, rude and unpleasant though they were, sent me online to seek my Masonic path to More Light. This blog, along with my regular reading of other Masonic blogs and sites, was a direct result of their seemingly unmasonic behavior. Had I continued in the normal progression to the East, I'd never have learned the many things I have learned. I'd just be "one of the guys," mumbling through rituals I had little understanding of, looking forward to receiving one of those gaudy Past Master's blue nylon jackets my lodge is fond of presenting to Past Masters.

Today I found that Light I'd long sought. I don't just mean the minor epiphany of better understanding the three lesser lights. I'm fascinated by myths and gods and goddesses and what they represent, but that's not the major revelation.

The major revelation is that I created the problems I had in lodge all by myself. Yes, the Ruffians and the Grand Lodge leader of the pack were wrong in their actions, at least in my eyes. But they were following their Paths as they best saw fit. What they did changed my Path, as I was not yet ready, or worthy, to sit in the East, neither physically in a lodgeroom, nor metaphorically-spiritually as captain of my own ship.

I'd never have come to understand the Masonic symbols — or lessons — had I remained "in the line." I'd never in a million years learn what Masonry "really" is sitting in regular lodge meetings in that lodge. It took being shunned by them, being away from them, to lead me to where I am today.

So I say a belated thank you to the Three Ruffians, and to the Man from the North. Without you I'd be just another soon-to-be Past Master of a physical lodge in rural north Georgia.

Because of you, today I accept the Master's chair of my own lodge, that is, my own life.

Masons | Masonic Lessons | Small Town Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Masonic Symbols | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

What does the letter G mean?

A blog entry on MasonicMinute.com made me wonder what Burning Taper readers think about the letter G, often seen inside the square and compasses on Masonic rings, bumper stickers, etc., and in the East inside a blue lodge.

In Georgia, the University of Georgia is most everyone’s favorite college football team, though not mine. The letter G, usually rendered in red, white and black, standing for the University of Georgia, adorns auto license tags, bumper stickers and rear window decals, and is a commonly seen symbol in everyday life, especially during the fall football season.

Several years ago I was having dinner with my sister, who didn’t know I was a Mason and who really didn’t know much about Freemasonry. She noticed the Masonic ring I was wearing, which has a G inside the square and compasses. After staring at my ring for a moment, she asked me, incredulously but in all sincerity, "When did you become a Georgia fan?"

What do you think the ORIGINAL meaning of the letter G was, masonically-speaking?



Masons | Masonic Letter G | Masonic Symbols | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Graffiti and Masonic calipers

An "old and ugly" ashlar has finally been smoothed.

The four-star Renaissance Providence Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island, opened in May in a never-completed Masonic building whose cornerstone was laid in 1926.

After two years of construction, the Masons abandoned the unfinished building when they ran out of money. (Five years later, during the height of the Great Depression,
Bro. Fredrick I. Dana, the treasurer for the Scottish Rite Trust of Rhode Island, the group who was paying for construction, was sent to prison for embezzlement.)

The uncompleted building sat idle until 2004, when hotel developer Sage Hospitality of Denver started work on the property.

In 1926, the estimated cost to complete the opulent, monumental building as a Masonic center was $2.5 million. Completing it as a luxury hotel in 2007 ran the bill up to $100,000,000.00 (one hundred million dollars). Typical rates for one of its 272 rooms are between $199 and $319 a night. Parking is additional, at $25 per day.

Two artistic themes were used, in various combinations, in the interior of the hotel. Since the building had spent its life "on the streets," so to speak, it was covered with three-quarters of a century's worth of graffiti. The hotel developers chose to carry on this theme by decorating many of the guestrooms and the hotel's restaurant with graffiti, some of it done by local street graffiti "artists" who a few years earlier had practiced their art on the unfinished Masonic building.

Blended with the graffiti are neo-Masonic symbols, including what is being called Masonic "calipers." An eye in a triangle, which they call "the all-knowing eye," is visible in the staircase banister leading to the hotel's restaurant, which is called "The Temple Downtown."

Links:
Official hotel site
Article from The Providence Journal
Article from The Boston Globe
Flash slideshow of exterior sketches
Photo slideshow of interiors
Fun facts about the building

Masons | Masonic Building | Renaissance Providence Hotel | Freemasonry | Rhode Island | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Audio podcast of 'A Tour of the Masonic Lodge'

I've been asked by a couple of readers to produce some of my Masonic lectures and articles as audio podcasts. I began that project last night.

You can now listen to "A Tour of the Masonic Lodge," which is a lecture based on W. L. Wilmshurst's book The Meaning of Masonry, discussing some of the symbols in a lodge, including the great and lesser lights, the officers' stations, and the checkerboard floor. I originally delivered this talk to my blue lodge in April, 2005, and posted it on The Burning Taper in February, 2006.

I'll be adding more podcasts as time allows. Keep your eye on the righthand menu bar for new audio material.

Masons | Masonic Trial | Small Town Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Georgia | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Former slave city's first black cop, perhaps first black Mason in Texas

There are many Masonic symbols seldom used anymore, at least around here — the beehive, for example. I'm sure there are many other symbols once common but now unused.

Perhaps someone more scholarly in these matters can tell me this: Are or were swinging gates a Masonic symbol?

There's a fascinating story in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram (and other news sites, including the Bradenton (Fla.) Herald, where I read this story) about the Texas city's first black police officer.

Until recently, it had been assumed that the city, like most other towns in the southern U.S., had hired its first black cops in the 1950s or later.

Police Sgt. Kevin Foster, who is research director for the proposed Fort Worth Police and Firefighters Memorial, discovered something interesting as he went though old police and city documents looking for records of officers and firefighters who had died in the line of duty.

He came across an old roster that had the abbreviation "Col." after some of the names. He assumed these were men who had served in the military, perhaps the Civil War, before becoming police officers.

He later figured out that "Col." stood for colored.

One of those "coloreds" was Hagar Tucker, who had been born a slave in 1842. Freed in 1865, by 1867 he was a property owner and a registered voter, an amazing thing for a black man living in the KKK-days of 19th century Texas.

Tucker's former owner was a Fort Worth city alderman, and in the early 1870s, he used his influence to have Tucker hired as a policeman. The city was looking for a "big buck Negro" who could police black neighborhoods, one who could command the respect of both blacks and whites.

Tucker died in 1892. His headstone, found in a section reserved for blacks in a large Fort Worth cemetery, was deteriorating, so recently, the Fort Worth Police Historical Association, with the help of several police officers' organizations, duplicated the Tucker headstone markings and had them reproduced onto a granite stone that has been placed at the grave. That marker was formally dedicated yesterday during a special ceremony that included a re-enactment of Tucker receiving his badge.

The article calls the symbols on Tucker's tombstone Masonic, but doesn't discuss whether any research has been done into whether Tucker was actually a Freemason. If so, and if he was a member of a regular "white" lodge in Texas, this would be even more unusual and unexpected than finding a black police officer in Texas in the 1870s.

Do any of our Texas brethren have access to old Grand Lodge records? Could you check to see if Hagar Tucker was ever a member?

Though the writer of the news story, Bob Ray Sanders, thinks the tombstone markings are Masonic, I'm not convinced. Two columns and a star — of course these could be Masonic. But swinging doors instead of a square and compasses?

It sounds like Tucker was an industrious soul. After his stint as a police officer, he worked as a porter, then a grocer and finally as a "room washer and cleaner." But could he, or his survivors, have afforded what was certainly an expensive headstone? Or did his former master and benefactor William B. Tucker, Sr., pay for it?

And was William B. Tucker, Sr., a Freemason?

Do the swinging doors represent freedom, either into the afterlife, or, perhaps, freedom from slavery?

Your ideas?

Image: Hagar Tucker's headstone. Photo by Tom Pennington, Star-Telegram.

Masons | Masonic History | Fort Worth, Texas | Freemasonry | Hagar Tucker | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com