The degree ceremony itself went well. It was very similar to the Entered Apprentice ceremony but was overall much shorter.

Having gotten to take a look at the proficiency work we’ll need in order to pass to the third degree of Master Mason, It is also very similar to the Entered Apprentice work. Probably about 40% of it is almost identical wording, so memorizing it should go much faster, especially now that I know how to read the cipher on my own.

Ultimately, there was no proficiency testing – open or otherwise and everyone was passed without question. There seems to have developed an ego contest between the Worshipful Master and my Masonic mentor, to the point that the W.M. has declared that we will no longer be holding study groups outside of the lodge.

From this point forward, we are to study on our own and if we need help or want to do anything as a group, we can get together at a table in the coalation room after the meetings twice per month.

I have concerns that this won’t work out well considering that most of the other Fellow Craft that just got passed with me, rarely come to meetings in the first place and several of them can barely read the cipher book.

At this point, I’ve decided to stop worrying about the quality of the men that they are passing next to me as there isn’t anything I can do about it anyway. Once I am passed to the degree of Master Mason and have an equal voice in the lodge, I will do all I can to work with new brothers and make them as proficient as possible so that they fully understand and appreciate what the degrees are trying to teach.

I am fortunate in that I have two “older brothers” that I am close with, that have helped me along the way. I very much enjoy seeing them at lodge meetings and as a result, I try harder to get to meetings even when presented with some adversity. These brothers have also helped me with my proficiency and have made it much more interesting than just memorizing words. They have given me some bits of history and explained why some things are done the way that they are.

I understand that people are only going to participate as much as they want to, but I feel that if new brothers are given a good start and are immersed in the work, they will stay stronger members. An example that comes to mind is when a newer brother misses a meeting, someone should make sure they get a call from someone in the lodge to ask if everything is alright and let them know they were missed.

An act as simple as a phone call let’s the new brother know that he is a part of a fraternity, it is noticed when he is not present and that he is cared for. You may also find out that his reason for missing the meeting is something that can be addressed. Maybe his car broke down and it will take a while to be repaired. Well, if it isn’t too much trouble, someone can pick that brother up on the way to to the meeting. This sets the precedent in the newer member’s mind that we help and take care of one another.

If I join a group where I don’t know many people at all, I will naturally be uneasy for the first several meetings until I become comfortable with everyone there and build my own rapport with them. During this time, it is very easy for a new brother to miss meetings and not participate. If that man has an “older brother” looking after him and encouraging him, he is in a much better position to thrive.

Of course, there will always be the men that join Freemasonry and for whatever reason, drop off and don’t attend meetings. There isn’t much that can be done about them, but I believe that the majority of brothers that stray could be encouraged to come back with some simple friendly contact.

Starting a brother’s Masonic journey with a strong and enriching experience will also likely keep some of those brothers from straying in the first place.

This is my sixth post on Freemasonry.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

Technorati Tags: Freemasonry

Related posts:

1. First Degree Completed – Welcome Brother! Last night was a wonderful evening. A friend of mine...
2. Progress in 1st degree studies I am happy to report that my Masonic classmates and...

I am happy to report that my Masonic classmates and I have gotten together several times since my last post for group studies.

The good news is that everyone is farther along now than they were. The bad news is that it became screamingly obvious that only two of us had been studying at all. My friend that I worried was off to a slow start actually ended up looking like one of the stronger members at our first full study group.

Happily by our second study meet all but two Entered Apprentices showed great improvement.

I have adopted the role of Freemason student mentor as I seem to be the most advanced student in the group.

At our first study meet, I paired off with another student who had obviously put little to no study time in on his own. We ran through the full Q and A as well as the obligation three times. I found that he would repeatedly get hung up on the same word or phrases every time. I suggested that he make small short hand notes or reminders in the cipher to aid his memory. He always agreed with me but never did it. I hoped for the best and assumed that he’d seen enough to study on his own.

My hopes were dashed when we got together at the second study meet and practiced in a circle with the group. It became obvious that he had not even thought about his studies since the previous week. I actually think he was worse than the first week.

I will always be more than happy to work with any of my Masonic brethren to help them along but not when they won’t even apply a minimal amount of effort to learning it themselves. The rest of the group has come along gloriously with one other exception. Our trainer has told me that he thinks all but the two mentioned are almost ready to advance.

SPEAKING OF ADVANCING

I was bummed yet again when I received our latest communication announcing the next meetings and agendas. There was mention of an open proficiency test slated for the next meeting but no sign of a degree ceremony. I asked my mentor If he knew what the deal was as the WM had implied we’d have an advancement this month. My mentor informed me that the officers had held a rehearsal for the 2nd degree ceremony. It had apparently gone so poorly that the Worshipful Master postponed the degree night another month. Arrrrgh!

Now please don’t get the wrong impression of me. I am generally a patient man. The problem here lies in the fact that I have been studying for almost four months for this degree and have been told by master masons that I know the work better than most of them. The issue that I have is that between the students not studying and now apparently the officers not studying I will take about 9 months to complete the three degrees when most of the other brothers took under four and didn’t study as hard.

Now of course I am keeping this all to myself as this blog is more my diary that I express my thoughts to.

My mentor told me off the record that the WM had been convinced not to hold an open proficiency test at the next meeting despite it being stated in the agenda. This will benefit some of the weaker members in the group but my mentor said the two that haven’t applied themselves at all will be left back for a future class when they’re ready.

After speaking to my mentor about the website, he suggested that I go ahead and get started on it as it will benefit the lodge. He said the we’d go and speak with the “other” webmaster together and gently explain our actions.

Hopefully that goes over smoothly as i have a lot more ideas and suggestions for the lodge that I’d like to present once I am raised to the third degree.

I have gotten the framework of the website up and have also gotten a proper domain name. Right now it’s light on content but I’m sure that will be fixed in good time.

This is my fifth post on Freemasonry.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

Technorati Tags: Freemasonry

Related posts:

1. Freemasonry: Second Degree Passed (finally) We finally got passed to the Masonic degree of Fellow...
2. First Degree Completed – Welcome Brother! Last night was a wonderful evening. A friend of mine...

This was my first real meeting since joining and taking the first degree.

I was quite suprised to see that of seven of us that took the first degree, only three of us were present.

I’m already witnessing the personalities of the lodge and am getting an idea about which ones clash.

Over the Summer I heard that the last “class” that went through the degrees were not required to demonstrate their proficiency in the lodge.

Apparently, the members that were instructing the candidates had both been Past Masters. They were asked how the candidates were doing by the Worshipful Master. They replied that the candidates were doing great and were ready to move on. The WM then said Great! Let’s bring them in and test them out. Well this did not go over well with the past masters (now trainers). They felt that their statement that the candidates were ready should suffice and that their integrity was being questioned. They laid down an ultimatum that if the candidates were tested that they would quit training new members and would leave the new member investigative committee. The Worshipful Master thought it over and decided that he could live with that and honored the word of the trainers. That class was not tested in front of the lodge.

Now I’m not mentioning this for the sake of gossip or criticism. I personally don’t care one way or the other as I will be prepared whether or not I’m asked to show what I’ve learned. For me, the whole point of becoming a Mason is to improve myself and cheating would not benefit me.

The reason that I mention this story is because I know one of the other candidates in my class well and I know he hasn’t studied at all with the exception of two times that we got together with the trainers.

You see, he heard the same story I did and it seems he’s expecting to get a free pass. That pisses me off. I have doubts about his reasons for joining as it seems that he’s a member of at least a dozen different groups and organizations and I worry that this will just be one more “club” for him.

It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t think of the Brotherhood as I do. He showed up for the meeting wearing clothes that were beyond casual. I made a friendly comment about it to him and he replied that he had a jacket (pointing to his dirty windbreaker) while chuckling. He was an active member of the Elks for many years and won’t stop talking about it in the lodge. I feel it’s disrespectful to the Brothers and the lodge to carry on that way. I could give you several examples of this type of behavior and thinking but I won’t.

I know as a Mason I should work to see the good in him, but as a Mason I think I’ll resent him if I bust my butt with my degree work and he skates. Not to be malicious but I really don’t think that people that aren’t willing to put in the effort should be passed.

As much as he’s lazy, he will do at least the bare minimum to pass. I’m OK with that. If he passes as he is now, in my opinion, I can’t respect him as a Mason.

The interesting part of this is that we just installed a new Master for the coming year who is very keen on Masonic education. I am hopeful that this may make my whole tirade above a moot point. What I do worry about for the sake of peace in the lodge is whether he and the Brothers doing the training are going to have a major clash if they feel that we shouldn’t be tested in front of the lodge like the last group and the WM feels strongly that we should.

I honestly feel that at this point it should be a requirement for us to be tested since of the three Entered Aprentices at the meeting, I was the only one that was almost ready to be tested. The guy I mentioned above has studied twice for an hour and the third guy hadn’t studied at all. Maybe the other four have been studying, but they didn’t even show up for the meeting so I think it’s doubtful.

I’m also concerned that if the WM sees that all the others in the group are far from ready that we’ll all get held back for study. I can’t see them holding a degree ceremony just for me.

I understand that there are people out there that are “Joiners” and will join as many groups as possible but I don’t understand that mentality if you aren’t even going to fulfill the basic requirements.

Embarrassment alone would prevent me from showing up completely unprepared and clueless.

The Old vs. the New

After the meeting we enjoyed a meal in the collation room. While there I was chatting with the Secretary of the lodge about putting up a proper website for the lodge. It’s good publicity for anything you want to put on it and it also gives you the ability to set up a mailing list. Considering that we are in the electronic age, I think it only makes sense to begin emailing the communications out in addition to snail mail.

The Secretary informed me that one of the senior members had put up a website. When I asked for the address he couldn’t remember it. I asked if he could send email from it and he said no. This didn’t make much sense to me. When I got home I did a quick search and found nothing. I ended up having to CSI search and finally tracked it down. It is an ugly thing. It is hosted on one of the free sites that put ads all over it and make the address a mile long.

Worse still, it looks like someone tinkered on it for a couple of hours then gave up and never bothered to go back. It even has pages displayed the say “type your text for the page here” (obviously a template). The site also looks like it hasn’t been updated in a good two years or more. Suffice it to say that it’s useless and ugly. The dillemma now is whether he would be offended and pissed at me if I put up a proper site with a real web domain and all that’s needed to represent the lodge well.

I really don’t want to come off as the young buck that walks in and wants to toss out all the old timers’ work and replace it with “newer and better”, but I do think that people are prone to doing things the same way reglardless of whether or not it’s the best way. It takes new blood to come in with new suggestions and new spirit.

I mentioned my concern to the Secretary. He didn’t seem concerned about it and suggested I speak with the other member about it. My concern there is that if he thinks that the site he put up is just wonderful, would I have to respect that and drop the issue despite the site being impossible to find and pretty embarrassing to look at.

I hope that as you read this it doesn’t sound like I’m just nagging and complaining. I do enjoy the Craft very much and have had overall very good experiences. I think my biggest problem is that I care about the lodge and only want the best for it, whether it be the best efforts from new members or a great image on the internet.

In the mean time, I have arranged a study session with two of the other apprentices this weekend with one of the trainers and will try to encourage them to get caught up in hopes of at least a partial group of us can move on.

This is my fourth post on Freemasonry. Click here to view my fifth.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

Technorati Tags: Freemasonry

No related posts.

We headed inside the lodge where the tables were set and several very large six foot long party sandwiches and other food awaited. We loaded up our plates and took a seat.

At the table were several masons that I already knew as well as several that I didn’t. One that I knew was a Past Master (several times over, actually) and he took care of the introductions. As we went around the table, I found it very interesting that several of the men at the table were not members of our lodge at all, but came to see and help with our ceremony. There were seven of us being initiated, which is a large number that actually required a special dispensation from the Grand Lodge due to their desire to keep these ceremonies small and personal.

Several of the men I met were past masters and had held the position several times. One gentleman was a member of two lodges and was simultaneously Master of one and Sr. Warden of the other! All of them were very happy that we were joining and were generous in their praise and encouragement.

A couple of the Brothers were feeling comedic and kept making references to various animals – “Hey Joe, did you bring in the snake? No! I brought the Goat, YOU were supposed to bring the snake!”. The comedy went on all during the meal. When one of the candidates would ask where the restroom is, you could guarantee that the directions would be followed with “make sure you step over the snake. He gets mad when you trip on him”.

This was my first time being in the masonic lodge before or during a meeting and I was thoroughly impressed. All of the officers of the lodge were wearing tuxedos with ornate aprons which showed the office that they held or indicated offices that they had held in the past. The non officers were wearing suits and ties (as was I).

I stayed fairly close to the Brothers that I knew and enjoyed the rest of the meal. Before long, it was time to start the meeting. The other candidates and I were brought into a side room that adjoins the lodge (meeting) room.

This was my first chance to get a good look at the other initiates. We were told to change into ceremonial clothing that was provided. Once that was done, one of the Brothers told us to chat for a bit as we would have to wait for the meeting to get through its normal agenda before our part started.

In the time that we talked I got my first impressions of my soon to be brethren. One of them was talking almost non stop at roughly 90 miles per hour. I attributed that to nervousness. He appeared to be in his mid twenties. It seemed like every chance he got, he was mentioning that he sells insurance. My impression as of now is that he seems to be one of those guys that joins in hopes of making immense business contacts and helping his career. This seems pretty selfish to me, but hopefully he’ll get something more out of it than that.

The 2nd fellow was in his early fifties and was nice enough. He mentioned several times that he had been a very active member of the Elks lodge and was in fact a past Exalted Ruler. He seemed genuinely interested in joining the Freemasons for the right reasons, but he also seemed to be a member of a number of other organizations.

The 3rd fellow was a friend of the Worshipful Master. He said they’d been friends for over 20 years and that he never knew that the WM was a Freemason. Once he found out and learned more about it, he was quite excited to join.

The other three initiates (I was the seventh) were pretty quiet and reserved and seemed a bit nervous. The one thing that definitely surprised me was that most of these guys didn’t seem to know much about Freemasonry at all, other than the very  basics. Some of the questions they asked were beyond basic. Now I wonder if I am an over achiever. When I decided I was going to commit to this, I went out and read a half dozen books to learn all that I could about what Freemasonry is and was and where it came from (no, I had no interest in learning “the secrets” as I look forward to learning them in the lodge.

I hate to be pessimistic, but I can’t help but feel that if someone is truly excited and interested in a topic like Freemasonry, they should be eager to embrace it and learn it. I worry that some of these guys could become “Ring Wearers”. This is what the active Freemasons call the members that just go through the 3 degrees to become a  Master Mason and thereby earn the right to wear the square and compass ring. Once they attain the ring, they stop coming to meetings and have to be chased to even pay their annual dues.

It is after the initiation that the treasurer of the lodge came over and collected our initiation fees as well as our first year dues. The initiation was $150 and the annual dues are $100 in my lodge. I had to lay out $250 total (which to me was surprisingly inexpensive). I’d have gladly paid substantially more than that considering the money either goes to charity or for the upkeep of the lodge, etc.

When it was time to begin our ceremony, they ended up breaking us up into two groups in order to keep the ceremony personal and meaningful. As I’m still not sure what I can discuss and what not, I will not talk about the ceremony here. Suffice it to say that there is an element of trust you must place in your new Brothers (nothing to worry about though) and that it is a MUCH longer event than you think and is very involved. Lastly, just when you think you’re done, realize it’s only the intermission and roughly the half way point!

My close friend (who is already a Master Mason) came over to me after the ceremony and meeting were over and pinned an Entered Apprentice pin to my lapel. He said that since I will not be able to advance to the 2nd degree until after summer (as the lodge goes dark till September), he wanted me to be able to show my status in the mean time. This was very touching for me.

We finished the evening back in the dining room being congratulated by all of our new Brothers and welcomed. We ate some cake and made the rounds trying to remember everyones names. The lodge is holding a dinner-dance in two weeks that is open to friends and family. I will be attending and look forward to it.

This is my 3rd post on Freemasonry. Click here to view my 4th.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

Technorati Tags: Freemasonry

Related posts:

1. Freemasonry: Second Degree Passed (finally) We finally got passed to the Masonic degree of Fellow...
2. Progress in 1st degree studies I am happy to report that my Masonic classmates and...

I did get an accidental peek into the ceremony while reading my latest Freemasonry book  Born in blood. I came to a section where they analyze the oaths that each degree candidate must take for clues to their historical origins. Well, I didn’t realize that they tell you the actual oaths. I’m deliberately trying NOT to discover the secrets of the rituals as I’ve been told that it ruins the experience.

Well, now I had a more serious concern because the book detailed the Entered Apprentice oath including a question and answer portion where the initiate is asked a series of questions that he really isn’t supposed to know the answer to. Once I read the proper answers, they made sense, but now I had the dilemma of going through the ceremony pretending I didn’t know the answers (which seems like a bit of a lie) or answering the questions correctly (which I’m technically not supposed to know the answers to).

Well, my conscience was eased when I told a friend (and past master of the lodge) of my concern. He smiled and said, “Don’t worry about that. You will be guided through the rituals by a fellow Brother. That Brother will generally answer for you or will whisper in your ear the proper response”. Whew!

So my suggestion to any aspiring Freemasons reading this, if you are like me and don’t want to spoil the surprise, be careful how much reading you do and you are bound to trip over some spoilers that you didn’t intend to!

BTW, I loved the book (Born in blood) and will do a short post on it in the near future.

This is my 2nd post on Freemasonry. Click here to view my 3rd.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

Technorati Tags: Freemasonry

Related posts:

1. Freemasons For Dummies – Book Review This is the first masonic book that I’ve read. Upon...

Bob, immediately pulled out Freemasons For Dummies and said, “You MUST start with this one. It’s not too heavy and will give you a good idea of the basics without overwhelming you with insider jargon that you don’t understand yet”. Sweet!

I can’t thank Bob enough. Now, keep in mind that this book is not going to make you a masonic scholar or anything. It is however, a great primer to get your feet wet. When you finish reading the book, you’ll understand the basics of Freemasonry such as the stories of The Craft’s evolution from the operative masons – a stone mason’s guild in the middle ages to the transformation in England in the early 1700′s into speculative masonry which was the philosophical and esoteric arm rather than the physical cutting of stone.

You’ll also understand things that I can (thankfully) now take for granted. Like the most basic question “What is masonry??”. He’s actually got in his table of comments, the perfect question: Is it a charity? A church? A social club??. He answers all of those questions in enough detail to make you happy but stops short of being boring.

Chapter 2 gives a good history of The Craft from its roots (possibly back to King Solomon’s Temple) right up to today. He ventures into areas of speculation such as “Did the Freemasons secretly orchestrate the French Revolution?”, which I appreciate as it gives yet more insight into the fraternity and you start to understand where the conspiracy theorists go when they’re looking for material on the “Evils” of masonry.

Chapters 3 and 4 go over the philosophy of Freemasonry, politics, and the interaction of the world’s major religions. Suffice it to say that there is a reason that discussion of politics and religion is forbidden in the lodge. Oh, you’ll learn that too in these chapters.

Without tearing into a blow by blow, suffice it to say that Part 2 of the book goes into the workings of the lodge, the hierarchy of the lodges, symbols and symbolism, and spends a good amount of time blowing apart myths, misconceptions and outright lies about masonry.

Part 3 is allllll about the appendant bodies of Freemasonry (and there are MANY!). These include The Shriners, DeMolay, etc… I didn’t find this part of the book terribly interesting primarily because most of them require that you already be a third degree Master Mason in the blue lodge before you can join them. Well, I have a ways to go before I’m even eligible for those and may have vastly different opinions about joining them by the time I’ve been in long enough to choose to.



Part 4 is titled “Freemasonry Today and Tomorrow” and discusses the ebb and flow of membership in the masons and touches on whether masonry is still relevant in the modern world. The author covers different angles some lodges are taking to try to encourage membership and whether they are good for The Craft or not. He looks into the futures and reasons why Freemasonry will still be relevant in the future and why he feels men will still turn to it.

In summary, this is a great book for the total beginner like myself, who wants to get a solid foundation of knowledge about Freemasonry early on. I would even recommend this book to someone that is considering joining, but hasn’t yet made up their mind. This book will give you a quick peek into the world of Freemasonry and will help you decide if it’s what you are looking for.

 Freemasons For Dummies

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

Technorati Tags: Christopher Hodapp, Freemasonry, Freemasons for Dummies, masons

Related posts:

1. Freemasonry: Second Degree Passed (finally) We finally got passed to the Masonic degree of Fellow...
2. A Week To Entered Apprentice By this time next week, I’ll have joined the Brotherhood...
3. Deciding To Become A Freemason I’ve known that the masons exist for years. Unfortunately, that’s...

In the years in between, I would occasionally see the square and compass (as I have discovered the odd “G” symbol is called) on the back of a car or a license plate, but never had the opportunity to speak to anyone about it.

Over the summer last year, I became acquainted with a gentleman that had recently joined a volunteer community group that I belong to. As we were having lunch one day, I noticed he was wearing a masonic ring. I casually asked him about it, half expecting the “cute” answers I’d gotten before about “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you”. To my surprise he was more than happy to tell me about it.

Q: What are the Freemasons?
A: The Freemasons are a fraternity. Their primary focus is “making good men better”. It’s all about improving yourself and making positive changes in your life.

Q: Is it a religion?
A: No. Freemasonry encourages you to be active in your own religion, but is not a religion. One of the requirements of becoming a mason is that you believe in a supreme being and the immortality of the soul. Masons come from many faiths and includes Christians, Jews, Muslims and many other faiths.

Q: I’ve heard masonry is a type of cult that perform odd rituals. Is that true?
A: No. Masonry is not a cult. There are many rituals that are performed. These could more accurately be described as plays or short stories that are used as teaching aids. Masonry teaches its lessons through acting out stories and allegory. The goal is for the student to be able to understand the moral of the story and reflect on what it means in his own life.

Q: How often do you meet?
A: In our area, we generally have two meetings per month. We break for the summer months and reconvene in September.

Q: Why did you become a mason?
A: My father was a mason and always had a passion for it. When I joined, I really enjoyed the idea of belonging to a large brotherhood. One of the great things about masonry is that we pledge to always help another mason if at all possible. A good example was once we had an illness on my wife’s side of the family. We had to make a last minute flight out of state. We got to the airport and tried to buy a ticket, but the ticket agent said the flight was full and there was only one ticket left. My wife became upset and explained the situation to the ticket agent, asking if there was anything they could do. At this moment, a gentleman walked over to me and said, “Here, take my seat”. I looked at him astonished and said, “Why thank you, but why?” The gentleman looked at me and then looked down at his waist, where I noticed a large masonic belt buckle. He had noticed my masonic ring and wanted to help a fellow mason in need.

Q: Why haven’t any of the masons I’ve spoken to asked me to join?
A: Masons are not allowed to ask anyone to join. The person who’s interested must ask to join on their own. The idea being that a man should only join of his own free will and desire and not be pressured in any way.

I really enjoyed the conversation and learned a lot. I did not immediately decide to join, but instead decided to let it sink in and think it over for a while. During this time, I spoke with many other people I know, telling them that I’m considering joining. I was fairly surprised to discover that a good many of the people that I sought advice from were actually masons. I had known some of these people for years and never realized.

The one event that finally pushed me to join was when I spoke to a very good friend of mine several months later and he told me that he had had a similar conversation to mine with the same gentleman that I did and had decided to join several months earlier. He had already filled out the application and had started the process. My friend is someone I have great respect for and the thought of becoming masonic Brothers with him and experiencing the degrees of membership together sealed the deal for me.

I contacted the Master of the local lodge (unbeknownst to me, another acquaintance of mine) and told him I’d like to join. He sent me an application, which I filled out. I was notified that I’d be contacted by an investigative committee, who would want to interview me.

About a week later, I got a call from yet another acquaintance of mine who informed me that he was on the investigative committee and wanted to set up a date for us to get together so he could ask me some questions and tell me about the Freemasons.

We met about a week later. He arrived with another mason that I didn’t know. We sat down and had a very pleasant chat. They asked me about my interest in the masons, asked how much I know about them and my reasons for wanting to join. They verified that my wife and family were ok with me joining and asked if I had any questions. After some Q and A they left and said I’d be hearing from them.

About a month later, I got a call saying that I had been approved by the investigative committee and that I would be voted on by the membership at an upcoming meeting. Apparently, there is a process that must be followed which involves my name being announced at two or three meetings, giving everyone a chance to comment. Following this requirement, a formal vote is held at a meeting. A box or container is passed around with black and white spheres or cubes in it. The members will select a white one for a Yes vote or black for a No vote – Hence the term “being blackballed”. They place their selection in a container within the container. The vote must be unanimous in order to bring in a new member. One black vote will rule out the petitioner from joining.

Luckily, I got a letter saying that I had been voted in. At the end of May, I will be attending my initiation and will become an Entered Apprentice.

Once I decided to join, I decided to try to get educated on the topic. I picked up several books including Freemasons For Dummies, Solomon’s Builders, Freemasons: A History and Exploration of the World’s Oldest Secret Society, Born in Blood and Cracking the Freemasons Code.

I chose these books, not wanting to learn any of the masonic secrets, but more a history of the masons and what they do. So far, all of these books have taught me a great deal about the Brotherhood. I’ll be writing reviews of each of them in the near future. In the mean time, I am patiently waiting for my first degree ceremony.

This is my 1st post on Freemasonry. Click here to view my 2nd.

Click here for the full index of my Freemasonry posts

Technorati Tags: Freemasonry

No related posts.