For the past week or so, there's been a hitch in the giddy-up over in the Masonic Corral. It looked like newer comments weren't being posted, yet the "new posts" section over on the right of every page indicated there were new posts.It seems the Corral has outgrown its fences after a nine month pregnancy.
The newer posts are actually being logged. However, on the main pages, apparently there can only be 200 posts.
But if you click on the fine print "- 208 posts -" (currently, 208; this will continue to increase if you continue to leave comments there) just below the title "Masonic Pissing Contest Gets Corralled," it will take you to a page showing the 200 original comments. There's a link at the bottom of that page that says "newer." Follow that link to comments numbered higher than 200.
But let's make things simple.
Consider THIS entry, the one you're now reading, as your new Masonic Corral.
If you've forgotten its purpose, please read the original post again. Then return to THIS post if you feel the need to violate your obligations by speaking ill of your Masonic brethren, or if you want to play "My Masonry is better than your Masonry."
— W.S., still sheriff of these here parts
Masons | Masonic Corral 2 | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com
The Grand Orient of the United States is neither grand nor an orient, discuss.
ReplyDeleteAre you feeling a bit verklempt? ;)
ReplyDeleteScott
Josh claims:"The Grand Orient of the United States is neither grand nor an orient, discuss."
ReplyDeleteOK, please explain your stance and please offer your evidence for "discussion", just lobbing crap out there without presenting the evidence to back your negative, biased claim is un-REASON-able and il-LOGIC-al.
Reason and Logic is in your mainstream teachings, use it please.
Grand Lodges and Grand Orients are independent and sovereign bodies that govern Masonry in a given country, state, or geographical area (termed a jurisdiction).[11] There is no single overarching governing body that presides over world-wide Freemasonry; connections between different jurisdictions depend solely on mutual recognition.
the grand orient of the USA has a confederacy of soveriegn lodges?
that would make them an Orient..?
What, and you forgot to promote the 33° or Fight! The Burning Taper Corral Brawl T-shirt.
ReplyDeleteSheesh... perfect for a Brother during these last 12 Days of [Holiday].
shalom groucho
ReplyDeleteI wear mine with pride!
Hahaha, wow.
ReplyDeleteLet's not take things so seriously. My statement was based on an old charater that Mike Meyers used to play on Saturday night live. In the middle of the skit he simply said "The Holy Roman Empire was neither Holy nor Roman, discuss." I thought it was hillarious for whatever reason. Being that this is the corral, and that the one major issue that is constantly brought up in the comments of the Taper is mainstream versus unrecognized, I thought I'd adapt it to our situation. I personally have not reservations again the G.O.U.S.A. and wish the best for them.
I'm sorry if I offended you, but there's no need for such venom.
how many "freemasons" have alluded to the American Orient Freemasons as "non masons"?
ReplyDeleteso, whether mike myers or a mad TV skit, you did not want to "discuss" your comment, maybe drop the discuss comment then for asthetic purposes, especially if there is no interest in "discussing" Orient masonry VS. American/Anglo style of masonry.
Sorry I assumed you really wanted to discuss it.....
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteDear Brother WS,
ReplyDeleteCan the above comment please be removed due to the "outing" of a person's real name when that person prefers the use of a pseudonym. You've stated in the past (http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2007/12/theron-dunn-outs-widows-son.html) that this is not good form on your blog.
Fraternally,
Charles
BIND YOURSELF WITH THE ILLUSION OF THE GRAND LODGE AND YOU SHALL NEVER CROSS THE PATH OF LIGHT!
ReplyDeleteBELIEVE THE HEART, MORE THAN THE EYES, FOR THE EYES, THEY FOLLOW REASON AND REASON IS BASED UPON WHAT ORDINARY MEN SEE; THEY DO NOT SEE ALL THAT IS THERE, SO REASON IS IN PART A LIE!
IF YOU FOLLOW A LIE YOU WILL NEVER GET TO A TRUE PLACE.
MARK MY WORDS APPRENTICES, I HAVE BEEN THERE. IN THE DWELLING-PLACE OF THE MASTERS, WERE THE DOORS ARE OPENED TO THE STARS, WHEN THEY CHOSE TO OPEN THEM, FOR THEY HAVE TRANSCENDED DEATH, THOUGH ARE WAITING STILL TO BE EVERYTHING FOLLOWING THE TRACE OF THE GREAT AMON.
RED SHALL BE KNOWN AS THE HEART, AND YOU SHALL KNOW WHAT LAYS IN THERE, FOLLOW IT AND THIS MAP USUALLY NEVER FAILS.
IF YOU STEP INSIDE THE CAVE, THE TEMPLE, THE ANSWER TO YOUR SEARCH, KNOW THAT YOU ARE FAR FROM THE END, BUT THE TIME YOU TAKE TO REACH IT, IS PART OF YOU.
BE THE MASTER OF THE CHANGE, TIME IS A SERVANT!
"The truths of philosophy cannot be manifested in words as other sciences can, but through long-continued dialectical inter-change between a Teacher and advanced students, in joint search for Truth. Suddenly a flash of understanding, as it were, is kindled by a sparkthat leaps across, and once it has come into being within the soul it proceeds to nourish itself."
ReplyDeletePlato, Letter VII, 341c
Plato had personally experienced the "flash of understanding" leaping across from his teacher Socrates to himself during dialectical interchange.
Where have all the masonic teachers gone?
"The wise men of old . . . brought down Divine Powers into this mortal place, having drawn them down through Similarity or Sympathy (homoiotêtos): for Similarity is powerful enough to attach beings to one another. For instance, if a wick which has been heated beforehand is placed under a lamp, not far from the flame, you will see it light up even though it has not touched the flame, for the transmission of the flame takes place downwards. By analogy, you may consider the heat already there in the wick to correspond to the Sympathy between things, and its being brought and placed below the flame to correspond to the Sacred Art (hieratikês technês) making use of material things at the right time and in the right way. The transmission of the flame is like the presence of the Divine Light with those who are able to partake of it, and the lighting up of the wick is analogous to both the deification of mortals and to the illumination of material substances, each thing then moves towards that which remains on high [i.e. its divine counterpart] according to its share of the Divine Seed, like the light of the wick once it has been lit."
Proclus, On the Sacred Art
"When he finds out that all his efforts at self-improvement are movements around a circle, that the ego does not really intend to give itself up in surrender to the Overself and therefore only pretends to do so, he realizes that left to himself he cannot succeed in really changing his inner centre of gravity. Help is needed from some outside source if he is to free himself from such a hopeless position."
ReplyDeletePaul Brunton
Oh, wait, american masonic growth is an individual journey...... progress can be made alone?
who needs Teachers for masonic improvements when we have learning tools like: "freemasonry for DUMMIES"! LMAO
Achieving Higher Consciousness Requires an Advanced Teacher of Philosophy
ReplyDeleteOrdinary study--the search for presumed knowledge through an academic teacher or scholastic book--will not enable you to grasp the essence of reality: being and existence, events, sensations, objects, mathematical formulae, and ideas. To gain understanding of Essence or Form, a Perennialist Teacher capable of dialectical interchange is required. As Proclus explains:
"Only the uniting with a higher consciousness bestows the successful completion of processes of the spirit that go beyond reasoning."
The essence of humans, Forms and other terrestrial and transcendental entities can only be grasped through the interpersonal activity of dialectical interchange. An ordinary person--the product of his society's conditioning--cannot through his own individual efforts alone gain comprehension of Reality.
except in american freemasonry which has no need for Teachers! LOL
"Let us review the whole development of this dialogue [Phaedo], in which Socrates brings his hearers to behold the eternal in human personality. The hearers accept his thoughts, and they look into themselves to see if they can find in their inner experiences something which assents to his ideas. They make the objections which strike them. What has happened to the hearers when the dialogue is finished? They have found something within them which they did not possess before. They have not merely accepted an abstract truth, but they have gone through a development. Something has come to life in them which was not living in them before. Is not this to be compared with an initiation? And does not this throw light on the reason for Plato's setting forth his philosophy in the form of conversation? These dialogues are nothing else than the literary form of the events which took place in the sanctuaries of the Mysteries. We are convinced of this from what Plato himself says in many passages. Plato wished to be, as a philosophical teacher, what the initiator into the Mysteries was, as far as this was compatible with the philosophical manner of communication. It is evident how Plato feels himself in harmony with the Mysteries! He only thinks he is on the right path when it is taking him where the Mystic is to be led."
ReplyDeleteRudolph Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact
American Freemasons can have dialect if it excludes religion and politics, which are the two most important topics that effect us today.
STAY AWAY FROM THOSE TOPICS, if you want to grow and progress?
LMAO
"The subject on which Plato had not written and would never write, must be something about which all writing would be futile. It must be a feeling, a sentiment, an experience, which is not gained by instantaneous communication, but by making oneself one with it, in heart and soul. The reference is to the inner education which Plato was able to give those he selected."
ReplyDeleteRudolph Steiner, Christianity as Mystical Fact
Good thing we have written texts for DUMMIES.
In the Seventh Letter, Plato says clearly, "I certainly have composed no work in regard to [dialectic], nor shall I ever do so in the future, for there is no way of putting it in words like other studies."
ReplyDeleteHe then elaborates:
"Thus much at least, I can say about all writers, past or future, who say they know the things to which I devote myself, whether by hearing the teaching of me or of others, or by their own discoveries-that according to my view it is not possible for them to have any real skill in the matter. There neither is nor ever will be a treatise of mine on the subject. For it does not admit of exposition like other branches of knowledge.
"Yet this much I know-that if the things were written or put into words, it would be done best by me, and that, if they were written badly, I should be the person most pained. Again, if they had appeared to me to admit adequately of writing and exposition, what task in life could I have performed nobler than this, to write what is of great service to mankind and to bring the nature of things into the light for all to see?
Plato here indicates that the special experience of higher knowledge CANNOT be transmitted through writing.
"But I do not think it a good thing for men that there should be a disquisition, as it is called, on this topic-except for some few, who are able with a little teaching to find it out for themselves.
There are a few people, Plato indicates, who can take a small amount of delineation of higher knowledge in written form and figure out the rest for themselves.
"As for the rest, it would fill some of them quite illogically with a mistaken feeling of contempt, and others with lofty and vain-glorious expectations, as though they had learnt something high and mighty.
Most people, Plato says, would inspect any expression of higher knowledge in written form and either feel it to be inferior or consider it to be something already within their impressive store of knowledge.
"Further, on account of the weakness of language, these [i.e., the four: the name, the definition, the image, and the knowledge] attempt to show what each thing is like, not less than what each thing is. For this reason no man of intelligence will venture to express his philosophical views in language, especially not in language that is unchangeable, which is true of that which is set down in written characters."
Here Plato indicates that the experience of Higher Knowledge cannot be expressed or encapsulated in a fixed form; that it is a living, organic interchange which evolves and requires that the Seeker evolve with it.
"Therefore every man of worth, when dealing with matters of worth, will be far from exposing them to ill feeling and misunderstanding among men by committing them to writing. In one word, then, it may be known from this that, if one sees written treatises composed by anyone, either the laws of a lawgiver, or in any other form whatever, these are not for that man the things of most worth, if he is a man of worth, but that his treasures are laid up in the fairest spot that he possesses. But if these things were worked at by him as things of real worth, and committed to writing, then surely, not gods, but men 'have themselves bereft him of his wits.'"
wise advice brothers..........
Wise advice:
ReplyDeleteThree is a series.
Four is spam.
I'm not sure what Seven is but I'm sure it's something.
never before have I turned on you
ReplyDeleteya look too good to me
your beady eyes nearly cut me into
and I just can't let ya be
well it's a free-for-all
and I heard it said
you can bet your life
the stakes are high and so am I
it's in the air toni-i-ight
I see you there with your
cheshire grin I got my eyes on you
ya shake your tail feathers in my face
no tellin what i might do
well looky here ya sweet young thing
cause the magic's in my hands
when in doubt i whip it out
I got me a rock and roll band
It's a free-for-all
ooh, baby
ooh, I gotya
aaaaaaa
Happy and Safe Holidays All!
Two Sides
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing a god can give to me that I can't give to myself
I put my beliefs in the things I believe and a god can take care of himself
There's not enough love in the world for me to think about wasting my time
It's not that I don't believe at all but I can't need a heavenly sign
I can achieve the things I need without getting down on my knees
I can respect your religion but I don't want to pay your fees
I don't want to hear you talk about things you think that I need
So don't help me back on my feet again until you can hear me plead
Just look in the holy book of crooks and tell me what you can find
All the rules and regulations made to manipulate your mind
Don't pretend that you're blind, just open your mind and study historical times
The bigger the loss
The bigger the cost
The bigger the cross
And its crimes
I don't believe in god that I need to worship
I don't believe that I need to get down on my knees
I don't believe that voice from above can help me
I only believe in that I can see and the things I can achieve
Whatever belief you belong to there's still always a reason to doubt
And there's always another opinion as to what life is all about
There's always a bigger dimension and a different point of view
So I don't want to try to change you that decision is up to you
Whatever your final choice is and however you chose to live
You better be happy for what you can get and happy with what you can give
There's only one thing to remember there is only one thing you can do
And that is to do unto others as you'd have others do unto you
Two sides two sides to every story
Two stories more makes four new ones to chose
Four sides four sides to every story
Four stories more makes eight new ones to chose
Eight sides eight sides to every story
Eight stories more now which one should you chose
Now which one can you use
clawfinger
Holy Cow,
ReplyDeleteI stumbled upon this by accident, thought I would see what was going on. Now, I am sorry that I did!
"When any government, or any church(Grand Lodge or Grand Master) for that matter , undertakes to say to its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know", the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives."
ReplyDelete-- Robert Heinlein
I'm glad that there doesn't seem to be a need for this corral anymore. Has the bickering finally stopped on all sides? If it has, then the principles of Freemasonry score a victory here.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"There's nothing a god can give to me that I can't give to myself"
ReplyDeleteClawfinger rocks! Great album.
2 Many Bowls wrote:
ReplyDelete"This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know"
Seriously curious; did any GL say you couldn't read anything, or is it that they did not want it in their library? See, there is a distinct difference there to me. I can go to a public library run by a private entity with a book, and if they don't want it on their shelves for whatever reason they have the right (or should, at least) to not put it there. If they told me I couldn't read the book myself, see, that's where we have a disagreement.
yes, we were told to take down from our website, offering as reading material for the lodge, thomas paine and voltaire and other 18th century writers and philosophers, and we were told to remove it as suggestions to read to get a feel for the environment in which freemasonry was publicly born and nurtured.
ReplyDeletenothing nefarious
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI withdraw all previous comments and apologize to the Brothers on this forum whom I have had disagreements with in the past. My previous stance had been as a strong apologist for the GOUSA, in particular for Halcyon and Jeff Peace since they seemed to be the targets of public attacks, but I will not longer take such stances as I am resigned from that institution.
ReplyDeleteI am still a "liberal" Freemason in my heart, which means that I believe in equality of gender, race, belief, etc. So, we may still have our differences, but so long as we recognize and nurture our differences we can work together in Freemasonry for the betterment of the Craft and society, in general.
As a general statement of clarity, I would like it to be known for the public record that the old GOUSA website domain (grandorientusa.org) is in my possession. Its fate has not been ultimately decided yet due to the cicumstances surrounding my decision to take it down. However, had it been legally owned by the GOUSA at any point in the past, it would have been reclaimed by this point. Therefore, further claims of "theft", "stealing", or "hijacking" of the domain or website are considered male fide and the domain is open to the highest bidder.
S&F,
Aaron
"I am still a "liberal" Freemason in my heart, which means that I believe in equality of gender, race, belief, etc. So, we may still have our differences, but so long as we recognize and nurture our differences we can work together in Freemasonry for the betterment of the Craft and society, in general."
ReplyDeleteRarely do I recall reading such a fine and clear statement. Thank you.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletevoltairesghost@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteFrat.,
Aaron