Live Stone Lodge’s Thanksgiving Baskets For Seniors

Live Stone Lodge No. 152 F&AM: Thanksgiving Food Basket Charity from Odin Clack on Vimeo.

There is a Lodge a few cities away from my Lodge that does some great things, some of the wonderful things that my Lodge does and all the Lodges I have become familiar with in the Prince Hall Texas system. It is Live Stone Lodge No. 152, Grand Prairie, Texas. Today we have a good example of what a caring community can do for others.

To see a video on this event all you have to do is to click on the link and then when the video screen pops up click on the start video arrow in the lower left hand corner.

To all my friends in Mainstream Masonry I want to say that this is a good illustration of the difference between institutionalized charity and personal charity. The charity viewed here by Live Stone Lodge is the type of aid and concern for others and those that have labored that we might be where we are today, that should be a part of the charitable works of the Lodge.

To Live Stone Lodge #152, F & AM and my friend Brother Calvin Thomas who is one of the Brothers there that I know well, I say BRAVO! This Lodge deserves Kudos not only for what it does but also for being part of the 21st century age of technology and for using that technology to display what they are accomplishing. If more Lodges would do likewise think of the increase in favorable impression of Freemasonry that might be generated.

If you have any trouble with that video Link here is another one to try: http://vimeo.com/7817538

In addition Live Stone Lodge offers a full gallery of photos of the event here: http://gallery.me.com/odinclack#100099

I invite you all to drop Live Stone Lodge a line and encourage them to continue in the manner they are proceeding and to tell them how much you enjoyed their video and photographs.

Live Stone Lodge No 152 F & AM
PO Box 531494
Grand Prairie, Texas 75053
info@livestonelodge152.com

Faith

The LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.

Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” Isaiah 8:1-4

This passage will more than likely spark the interest of those who have taken the Order of the Temple of the Commandery in the American York Rite. When I opened up my Bible to examine this bit of scripture, I was not terribly excited. I find the book of Isaiah to be the Revelations of the Old Testament. Interpreting and understanding prophesies is something that I am very uncomfortable with and find that examining such writings typically results in a headache. But determined to find some sort of applicable meaning in this passage, I focused on the task at hand and forged ahead in a bit of Biblical research.

I thought that perhaps the name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz might be the key to understanding this passage. This name is defined in the New International Version of the Bible as “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil.” Considering the last part of the piece of scripture quoted above, this definition does not seem odd. But when considering its place in the Order of the Temple, this meaning does not seem to make much sense.

However, this passage from scripture is actually referring to information found in the seventh chapter of the book of Isaiah. In this chapter, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah, son of Ramaliah King of Israel, have decided to fight Jerusalem and overtake the city. Ahaz, the king of Judah, is troubled by these events, but God sends Isaiah to tell Ahaz:

“It will not take place, it will not happen, for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” Isaiah 7:7-9

These pieces of scripture are relevant to the period during the Order of the Temple when the candidate is symbolically serving his three years as a pilgrim warrior. A pilgrim is a person that is on a spiritual quest, a religious journey. He is a traveler who has humbled himself and whose piety has urged him to seek a holy destination. As a warrior, he is engaged in a cause or conflict. Therefore, the ninth verse of the seventh chapter of Isaiah couldn’t be more applicable: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

But what is faith? Is it that blind belief of something that can not be proven? The eleventh chapter of Hebrews says “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” However, this makes the word faith, as found in Isaiah, seem rather worthless. Considering this definition, without an irrational belief in something with no empirical evidence, you will not stand at all. But what if faith is something more?

The Mason should exhibit wisdom, strength, and beauty in all that he does. If you have no faith in God, you have no wisdom; if you have no faith in yourself, you have no strength; if others have no faith in you, you have no beauty. Therefore, if you have no wisdom, strength, or beauty, you will not stand at all. Perhaps the name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz really means that without this wisdom, strength, and beauty a Mason’s life will be easily plundered and spoiled.

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Message To The Un-Lodged Mason – Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing, Baby

Online Internet Freemasonry tends to be educational, philosophical , reform minded and at times argumentative. Those of us involved in Internet Freemasonry tend to spend more time exploring the fine points of the philosophical side of the Craft, a side we never get from our Lodge, than actually attending our Communications.

This has led to the rise of the un-Lodged Mason. He is a cousin to the un-churched Christian, the un-templed Jew and the un-mosqued Muslim, who belong to that cadre of believers who wish to worship outside of sectarian organized religion, not as a member of a worshipping community but alone.  Thus I hear from some of my Christian friends, “Well you don’t have to go to church to be a good Christian.” Translated into Masonicese you have, “Well you don’t have to go to Lodge to be a good Mason,” which may all be well and true but if one operated in that manner one would be missing something.

Those of who are Masonic writers have to acutely aware of this dichotomy, for if we are not careful we will treat our beloved Fraternity as a concept, a study, a discipline only, and only is the key word here.  Lest anyone think I am a snob here, I am absolutely convinced that Masonic research and study is a necessity for the complete Mason.  I am greatly in favor of esoteric Masonic study groups.  It is difficult to be a Christian without ever having read the Bible nor having any knowledge of what Jesus said and did.  It is equally difficult to be a Mason without appropriate study of the Craft. But it can’t end there.

There has to also be the human touch.  The whole benefit of community is to be able to interact with living, breathing human beings.  When I attend church I experience what community can do in the magnification of the power of the Holy Spirit in group action.  I am also never able to inspire myself as much as a good preacher or a good Masonic ritualist can.  This concept of community is something Scott Peck put into words:

“If we are going to use the word meaningfully we must restrict it to a group of individuals who have learned how to communicate honestly with each other, whose relationships go deeper than their masks of composure, and who have developed some significant commitment to “rejoice together, mourn together,” and to “delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own.” Like electricity, it is profoundly lawful. Yet there remains something about it that is inherently mysterious, miraculous, unfathomable. Thus there is no adequate one-sentence definition of genuine community. Community is something more than the sum of its parts, its individual members. What is this “something more?” Even to begin to answer that, we enter a realm that is not so much abstract as almost mystical. It is a realm where words are never fully suitable and language itself falls short. The analogy of a gem comes to mind. The seeds of community reside in humanity – a social species – just as a gem originally resides in the earth. But it is not yet a gem, only a potential one. So it is that geologists refer to a gem in the rough simply as a stone. A group becomes a community in somewhat the same way that a stone becomes a gem – through a process of cutting and polishing. Once cut and polished, it is something beautiful. But to describe its beauty, the best we can do is to describe its facets. Community, like a gem, is multifaceted, each facet a mere aspect of a whole that defies description.”

If Scott Peck were a Mason perhaps he would have used the lesson of the rough ashlar and the perfect ashlar.

So what we can say about Freemasonry is that it is not only a study, a philosophy but an interaction of community gathered together to practice, teach the virtues of the Craft in a mode of human interaction whereby those in the community seek to inspire and bolster each other. And the larger the community and the more interaction that takes place the greater the pride and enthusiasm that is generated.  Note that we certainly are not speaking here about a business meeting.  But the two main aspects of Freemasonry can feed on each other.  Study and research encourages community Masonic participation and community Masonic participation encourages study and research.

I was reminded of the importance of the human touch when I traveled to meet fellow Masonic Information writer Terence Satchell. (who may or may not agree with these views).   Actually we both drove about half way to each other and met in the middle.  Although Terence and I have  sent numerous E-Mails back and forth to each other and chatted online, we never had met face to face.  That meeting in person was so much more valuable and more heartwarming and personal than electronic communication that it led me to write this message. We explored each other as a person with the ability to feel the emotion and the nuance of each others communication.  A bond was forged that was impossible to create in any other manner.

And that is the message for today.  Virtual Freemasonry is very nice but it is no match for the real thing.  Virtual camaraderie is not the real thing either.  It lacks the substance and the ability to reach to the very core of being, the human soul.  There is no substitute for the real thing.

Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby                  
Ain’t nothing like the real thing
Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby
Ain’t nothing like the real thing

I got your picture hangin’ on the wall
It can’t see or come to me when I call your name
I realize it’s just a picture in a frame

I read your letters when you’re not near
But they don’t move me
And they don’t groove me like when I hear
Your sweet voice whispering in my ear

Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby
Ain’t nothing like the real thing

I play the game, a fantasy
I pretend I’m not in reality
I need the shelter of your arms to comfort me

No other sound is quite the same as your name
No touch can do half as much to make me feel better
So let’s stay together

I got some memories to look back on
And though they help me when you phone
I’m well aware nothing can take the place of being there

So let me get the real thing
So let me get the real thing
Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby
Ain’t nothing like the real thing
Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby
Ain’t nothing like the real thing

Lon Milo Duquette on Masonic Central

Within in Freemasonry, there are many titles and attributes bestowed upon its members, but few come to the table with the appellation of Magus, with a large number of books from their pen and a many years of practice under their talismaned hand, and in that list none stand out more than Brother Lon Milo Duquette.

Missed the live show? Listen now!

A Mason for more than a decade, Br. Duquette has spent many more of his years studying the realms of the tarot, Qabalah, Thelema, and Enochian Vision magic. Capturing the essence of these studies in the quote from Alister Crowley in his saying that “Magick was defined as the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with WILL”, which has lead Br. Duquette to his position within the OTO.

In this show, we will explore some of the magical connections that Masonry may (or may not have) and what lessons we can find within the sage wisdom and teaching of the Masonic patriarch King Solomon, beyond his mere wisdom through his reputation as a powerful magician.

No mere parlor tricks here. It stands to be an excellent program of magical conversation, and delightful insight.

Join us as we meet and talk Lon Milo Duquette this Sunday on Masonic Central, November 29th starting at 6pm PDT / 9pm EST.

Look for links to the show soon.

We encourage your questions and comments to the show by calling (347) 677-0936 during the program. The show goes live promptly at the hour. On Blog Talk Radio at 6pm PST/9pm EST.

Download the podcast!

Listen to Masonic Central on Blog Talk Radio

I am Thankful

…for we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us…
John Winthrop

I am Thankful

“God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have. For I will impart unto thee, for the love of God and men, a relation of the true state of Solomon’s House. Son, to make you know the true state of Solomon’s House, I will keep this order. First, I will set forth unto you the end of our foundation. Secondly, the preparations and instruments we have for our works. Thirdly, the several employments and functions whereto our fellows are assigned. And fourthly, the ordinances and rites which we observe.

“The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible….

… I give thee leave to publish it, for the good of other nations; for we here are in God’s bosom, a land un- known.”

Francis Bacon – The New Atlantis

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Revelation 21:1-3

This collection of seemingly unrelated passages all seem to speak to the promise of a new world, a “new Jerusalem“, a crowning jewel of the world.  I am thankful for the discovery of my country, the founding of our city upon a hill.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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