What is the purpose of Freemasonry?

"The purpose of Freemasonry is not charity nor is it a fraternal society. These are but attributes which have developed. The real purpose of Masonry is the eternal search for truth, the truth about God, and the immortality of the soul. The various degrees represent the different levels through which the human mind passes while moving from ignorance to knowledge. The collecting of all the symbols and mysteries throughout the ages is but man's search for the divine truth. As we say in our ritual, 'from darkness to light.'" — Rt. Ex. William Adrian Brown (Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Virginia), "Facts, Fables and Fantasies of Freemasonry," Missouri Lodge of Research, 1968

The above quote is the basis for an excellent article titled "From Darkness to Light," on one of my favorite Masonic blogs, Three Ruffians.


Masons | Masonic Philosophy | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Trends in Masonic blogging

Our blogging brother at The North Eastern Corner wrote the other day about how the face of Masonic blogging has changed over time. He notes three trends: centralization, blog fatigue, and extraction.

He points out that the trend towards centralization tends to sublimate the personality of the individual bloggers, and I agree. Part of the pleasure of surfing Masonic blogs is in noting the design, graphics and layout of a particular brother's blog, as well as seeing which links he chose to put on his blog, and what, if any, advertising he showed. All these things, together with his writing, created the individual blogger's online identity and "personality." The centralizing of blogs, such as has been done recently at Bro. Greg Stewart's Freemason Information, lessens the appeal of reading Masonic-theme blogs, for me anyway. I'm not knocking the trend; I'm just adding to the discussion of it on The North Eastern Corner.

Personally I've been suffering blog fatigue for while. Regularly pumping out interesting stories is hard work. My dwindling interest in local Masonic events coupled with my growing knowledge of "improprieties" related to Shriner and Jester activities simply led me to abandon my keyboard for a while.

The North Eastern Corner article points out a third trend in Masonic blogging: extraction, or Masonic blogs going dark or totally disappearing from the web. We've seen a lot of that. For a while there were many newly raised younger Masons who eagerly jumped into blogging with an impressive enthusiasm. Most of these blogs didn't last long; there's only so much a new Mason can say about "next Tuesday I'm returning my Fellowcraft catechism."

The most notable "extraction" in the past year was the unexpected death of well-known Masonic know-it-all Bro. Theron Dunn. Next Wednesday will mark one year since he moved on to the Celestial Lodge.

Bro. Dunn and I seldom agreed on anything.

And I liked that. I found him pompous and self-righteous and often unmovable in his opinions and stance. In that, he was a lot like me.

Debating and arguing with him kept me on my toes. Publicly disagreeing with him helped me hone my writing and my logic skills and often made me think long and hard about an issue. Our "confrontations" strengthened us both, and made us both better Masons. Masons don't have to like each other — we never did — but Masons should ultimately respect each other and treat each other as brothers.

And that we did, even if sometimes it was begrudgingly.

The world of Masonic blogging, like all of life, is constantly changing. I'm glad I'm still here to enjoy it.

Masons | Masonic Blogs | Theron Dunn | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Masonic blog roundup

Work, family, new friends, and a laid-back and lethargic laziness have kept me from posting on The Taper lately.

I must admit... last month some of you spoiled me by sending in your "This is Who I Am" essays, which gave me a chance to keep the blog fresh and current without me having to write anything.

I want to say a sincere "thank you veddy much" to all who participated in the "We All Shine On" get-to-know-you project last month. It's great learning more about Burning Taper readers.

The "This is Who I Am" project is ongoing — submissions are always welcome.

While I've been experiencing my writer's block, Chuckles the Clown's little rhyme has been running through my head, and it wouldn't stop until I posted it.

As Masons, we often do things in threes, consciously and subconsciously, and sometimes, perhaps, semi-consciously. "In Memory Of Chuckles the Clown" was the third in the short series of "In Memory Of..." articles. The first two were "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "In Memory of Eli Stafford."

Not having read any other blogs for the past week or so, I found today that three well-known Masonic bloggers had also featured clowns in their writings this week, thus confirming the pattern of Masonic threes, as well as giving further credence to the belief that all things are inter-connected. Bros. Tom Accuosti, Greg Stewart, and Chris Hodapp wrote about a new study that showed that clowns are universally hated and/or feared by children.

Now, perhaps, we can surmise the real truth behind the death of Chuckles.

There have been some exceptionally good and interesting posts recently on many Masonic blogs.

• Aude Vide Tace wonders how Shrine Clubs in his state get around the Grand Lodge of Kansas' ban on alcohol at all Masonic or Masonic-related functions.


• At Bailey's Buddies blog, they're getting up early to go out and worship Sun Gods, er, I mean, Sun Dogs.


• At Binyan Habayis, Bro. Isaac has noted how Freemasonry has unexpectedly helped many of us by providing opportunities to hone our skills in, and get over our fears of, public speaking. I know having served as Director of Masonic Education in my lodge, as well as reciting rituals, certainly helped me overcome any reticence I may have had about speaking in public.


• Bro. A.C. at Examined Life examines life by musing about his own spiritual faith and how he's moved from a God-with-a-long-white-beard view of the Universe to something more cosmically pantheistic.


• The Existential Cowboy takes a good look at Bro. J. Edgar Hoover's plans to abolish habeus corpus in America during his reign as head of the FBI, and poses some excellent questions about the disappearing right to habeus corpus in today's America.


• Bro. Hodapp at Freemasons for Dummies wrote about Syed Haris Ahmed, the Pakistani-born former Georgia Tech student who videotaped physical targets for al-Queda terrorists. The targets included the Masonic Temple in Washington, DC. Ahmed said that Freemasons are "like the devil."


• From Darkness to Light shines some light on Iranian Freemasonry.


• Bro. Brian of Grail Seekers tells you everything you want to know about Grail chalices from all over the world.


• Our friends at Homegrown Revolution tell us how to catch and eat a rat. I pray that's something none of us will ever have a need to do, but hey, it can't hurt to increase your survival skill set. Bon appetit!


• Bro. John pokes a stick at the press, asking why they investigate and report all sorts of odd things about presidential candidates, but refuse to report on their more irrational, i.e., religious beliefs.


• Bro. Osiris at the Kingdom of Conscience takes a bold look at black magick, gematria, King Solomon, and Freemasonry. Good to see him posting again after a prolonged absence.


• Masonic Crusade's Masonic crusade is maturing. The blog will soon begin a point-by-point discussion of the changes that were inspired by former Grand Master of West Virginia Haas and approved by the brethren of West Virginia, before they were overruled by later grand masters, one of whom expelled Bro. Haas from Masonry. Stay tuned.


• Masonic Minute has posted some great material lately. My favorite was the three-video series about astrotheology, a topic of great interest to me.


• Bro. Silence Dogood of The Middle Chamber gives us a glimpse inside his heart with "Why We Come to Lodge."


• British Bro. Ben of Middlesex-Fire explores the differences in the way Entered Apprentices wear their aprons and the differences between U.K. and U.S. Masonic funerals.


• Our brother at Movable Jewel tells us of the joys and the stresses of being installed as Junior Warden of his lodge and as Senior Warden of Connecticut's Philosophic Lodge of Research within a few days of each other.


• Reporter Sandy Frost tells of how she herself has been drawn into a 2006 lawsuit by the Shriners Hospitals for Children and The Imperial Council of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine of North America (aka the Shriners) in an attempt to silence her.


• Waking the Midnight Sun continues to bemuse and baffle me with tales of a day-glo chain-letter Jesus and pharmaceutical nightmares.


• The new blog Wisdom, Strength and a Beauty continues to impress me. Video of the Brazilian Capoeira — a fight, a dance, a game, a ritual — is stunning and mesmerizing.

The Masonic blogosphere is in good hands with these (and other) bloggers and writers.

Masons | Masonic Threes | Clowns | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Best Masonic blogs of 2007

All the news channels and entertainment shows do a year-end wrap-up of "best of's," "top tens," etc., so I thought I'd play along. Feel free to add your own favorites, etc., to the list.

There are many great Masonic-themed blogs, all contributing in their own way to the online Masonic experience. I send my thanks and best wishes to all of you, listed here or not, who have shared your views and visions of Freemasonry via blogs and by commenting on others' blogs this year.

• Masonic blog I'm most glad (gladdest?) to see back in action after a too-long absence: Kingdom of Conscience.


• Masonic blog I wish would get back to regular updates: The Examined Life.


• Ballsiest Masonic blog: Masonic Crusade, which has been following the West Virginia situation, where the sitting Grand Master expelled a recent Past Grand Master.


• Most interesting Masonic blog that doesn't link to The Burning Taper: Aude Vide Tace.


• Most balanced Masonic blog: Masonic Traveler.


• Best international Masonic blogs: Grail Quest (Danish-Irish) and Middlesex-Fire (British).


• Most introspective and thought-provoking Masonic blog: Movable Jewel.


• Masonic blog with the best sense of humor: Tao of Masonry.


• Masonic blog most into discussing the symbolism and meaning of Freemasonry: Resurrexion.


• Most Masonically useful blog: Masonic Renaissance.


• New Masonic blog with lots of potential: The North Eastern Corner.


• Best new Masonic blog of 2007: The Middle Chamber.

I wish all my Masonic brothers and sisters, as well as the rest of the world, a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.

* * *

Want more "top ten of 2007" stories? Be sure to read Jennifer Emick's Top Ten AltReligion Events of 2007.

Image: From Pretty Much Amazing

Masons | Masonic Blogs | Best of 2007 | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Rejected

Last week, I applied to BlogBurst to request Burning Taper be added to their network.

According their website, "Pluck's BlogBurst network is an opt-in aggregation and syndication service that brings high-quality, topical blogs together with high-traffic web sites. With BlogBurst, bloggers gain visibility, audience reach and traffic through placement on major online publishers and media destinations in real time."

In other words, they get your blog tied in with the Big Boys of publishing, such as Reuters, USA Today, Gannett, Fox News and Internet Broadcasting.

The Burning Taper didn't qualify.

Thank you for requesting an invitation to BlogBurst.

At this time your blog is not a good match for the BlogBurst network. A blog can be denied an invitation for many reasons, including quality as compared to other blogs in the network, needs of our current set of publishing partners, and topical focus. We invite you to visit our blog guidelines at http://www.blogburst.com/blogger/guidelines.html for more information on what we look for in blogs.

Our network of publishing customers is quickly growing and we encourage you to check back with us occasionally. We expect for some blogs not invited at this time to be a part of the BlogBurst network in the future.

Thank you for your interest in BlogBurst, and best wishes.

Best Regards,

The BlogBurst Team

With so many articles being written these days in the mainstream press about Freemasonry, I was hoping they'd be interested.

If any readers here who are also bloggers — Masonic or otherwise — apply to BlogBurst, I'd be interested in hearing of your results.

You can apply here.

Masons | Masonic Blogs | BlogBurst.com | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com