TenMinuteMasonry

  The Most Dangerous Talk in Masonry This talk was given at our annual holiday dinner for widows and family members.   How often have you asked your husband or boyfriend what they did at the Masons that night?   And the reply was “nothing much”.    Then you wonder why they go? Tonight, I am going to share with you what we are really learning and doing at some of our lodge meetings.   This is not secret information; in fact, it is information that can easily be found by search engines. First a little story.    A new dating app was created.   Instead of swiping left or right, this one lets you have only one chance to pick the right man.   Each group of men are on a different level of the app.   But there are only 6 levels. Each level up costs another $100.00. So, a lady decides it must be a good app if it costs so much and pays her $100.00.   It says, “Welcome to level one men.   These men all have jobs and wor...

  Masonic To-Do List       Now that you are a mason, just going to lodge meetings is not the only thing you are asked to do. We made promises in our oaths and obligations,   and thru the ceremonies and working tools we have learned what directions we are to head in our life. If you remember the degrees, the first was to get rid of rough edges, then the second made us into perfect ashlers thru the plumb, square, and level, and the third set us to find out where we fit best for the builders use.   We already know that this process can take many years to a lifetime of work.    We know our creator has a plan for each of us.   We need to improve ourselves to be able to take advantage of those plans.   We have all heard the phrase, “He was in the right place at the right time.”   The same thing applies to what can happen when we are in a place to be the “right person, at any time a need may arise”. So lets outline our ...

  The Third Degree, That’s It? Finally, we made our lives a blank slate with the first degree, refined our lives with years of study to improve all aspects of our lives with the second degree.   Now we obtain the last and highest degree. What do we learn? In some crafts the working tools are the skiret, pencil, and compass.   In Kentucky, we learn the working tool of a Master Mason is a trowel.   The simple trowel.   Used to spread cement to bind stones together. Symbolically it is to spread brotherly love and affection.   The principal of Masonry has always been to perfect the individual and to guide mankind toward a better, harmonious development. In essence, we took a stone and made it into a rough ashler with the gavel and gauge, then in second degree made it into a perfect ashler with the plumb, square and level.   Now in the third, we find out where to place the stone for the builders use and set the stone in place. Now that we have l...

  You finally made it thru the fellowcraft degree.   You have learned starting from the ‘blank slate’ after the entered apprentice degree about Equality, Virtue, and Morality.     You are now in great position to finally after months and months of study to learn about the third degree. Well, not so fast.   Now we have the lectures of this degree with all the pillars and steps leading to who knows where.   So we are still not ready for that third degree.    How much more perfect do you need to be? So first we learned about some pillars with the earth and solar system on them.   Contemplation of the wonders of the earth and the sky should inspire us with the works of Deity.    Also to encourage studying the wonders of astronomy, geography, navigation.   All those things which advanced ancient civilizations. They have recently deciphered some Summerian texts that show how much they knew about the celestial bodies and ev...

  Fellowcraft tools To reach this point in our masonic journey, we went thru the working tools of an entered apprentice.    We used the 24 inch gauge to learn about time management, and the common gavel and chisel to get rid of bad vices and issues that take away from becoming our best selves.   So in essence, the first degree has given us a ‘clean slate’ to work with.   We have removed any ‘crap’ and made time to do what is important in our lives. Now we start the second degree with what to start filling our lives with.   The goal is to make ourselves valuable members of society.   We have 3 working tools.   The square is morality .   The square is to square our lives.   Square to what?    First is God’s Word, his commandments, to live in brotherly love with mankind.   It is to God that we must give and account.     The level is equality .   All men are created equal.   His sun shines o...

  THE COMMON GAVEL The common gavel is used to break off the corners of rough stones for building. We use this analogy that we divest ourselves of all vices and superfluities of life, to fit our minds for that spiritual building in heaven. The Masonic gavel is  a symbol of getting rid of excesses and vices of life , the same way a stone is being made smooth by stonemasons. It helps us shape our lives into spiritual beings that live a life that pleases God, the Creator and the Master Architect of the Universe. It is not adapted to giving polish or ornamentation to the stone, and hence it should symbolize only that training of the new Freemason which is designed to give some limited skill and moral training,    We learn that skill without industry(actual work) is to no avail.   It is said that labor is the lot of man; for the heart may conceive, and the head devise in vain, if the hand be not prompt to execute the design.   I have a CD set calle...

  The 24 inch Gauge-Time Management that fits your life The 24 inch Gauge teaches us to use 8 hours for Service of God and distressed worthy brothers, 8 for our work, and 8 for refreshment and sleep.    This is a generic rule, but we can plan our lives within these guidelines.   It is the first working tool we teach.   Without good time planning we can find ourselves wasting the other tools. All of us have 24 hours in a day.   Rich or Poor, Man, Woman, Child, Animal, we all live under the same solar cycles.   We all get a different number of 24 hour days depending on God’s divine providence however.    We can also buy more hours in a day.    Companies and other people pay for peoples hours all the time.    They do this because your time is needed to get work done and they intend to make more from your time than they are paying you. If you pay someone to mow your grass, that is freeing up your time or inability to do ...