Masonic Traveling Men

By Guest Contributor: Bro. Byron J. Collier

Over the last weekend in September my Lodge road tripped to Washington, D.C. While there, we toured the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA, which is a pilgrimage I believe every Mason should make at least once in his lifetime. We also visited Lodge Sojourner Kilwinning #1798 at the Takoma Park Masonic Temple of Washington, D.C., where we were treated to a greater understanding of Scottish ritual, and we were treated to genuine fellowship and hospitality by our brethren in the nation’s capital.

Through travel and exposure to the unfamiliar we learn that the differences we believe to be set in stone are not nearly so concrete, and further understanding one’s past allows for its lessons to be learned from and expanded upon.

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial is more than a colossal memorial and museum. It is a tourist attraction and destination; research center and library; community center; performing arts center and concert hall; banquet and celebration site; and meeting site for local and countless visiting Masonic lodges and organizations. However, first and foremost, it is a memorial to honor and perpetuate the memory, character and virtues of the man who best exemplifies what Freemasons are and ought to be, Brother George Washington.

At the Memorial I saw some of the early faces of American Freemasonry, their relics, and depictions of Masonic life from the nation’s inception. From the original charter of George Washington’s Lodge to his and other national leaders’ actual aprons and jewels, I was presented with tangible presentations of our collective Masonic past, American history and how the two twains intertwined. What particularly struck me was how those faces of the past have evolved into my brethren today. There appeared a certain air of contentment on the faces of our Masonic forefathers that permeates the ages, right to the pictures I took of my brethren that weekend. We are the living embodiment of the premise that all men - when on the level, can be brothers and their perceived differences are in fact the glue that binds them together.

The brethren of Lodge Sojourner Kilwinning # 1798 are themselves a unique story in diversity and tradition simultaneously.

Founded in the later part of the 20th century in January 1992 by a special dispensation for the formation of a new Lodge by the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, with the expressed purpose of serving as a Lodge for foreign Masons living in the Washington area, and especially to "... permit and encourage the preservation of cherished Scottish traditions and practices". Some of the founders of Sojourner Kilwinning had not been active in any Lodge, for some 17 years (!), and the enthusiasm they displayed working in Scottish ritual was inspiring and wonderful to watch.

Most of the founding members of the Lodge are from Africa and the Caribbean, originating from mostly Scottish Constitution Lodges, but also English. It was explained to us that they have a founder from a Scottish Lodge, and several Americans, some of whom joined Freemasonry when in the armed forces while deployed on tours in Scotland and Korea.

The primary purpose of their Lodge is "to bring together Masons whose mother Lodges are in amity with the Grand Lodges of England, Scotland and Ireland". The Brethren who have come together to form the Lodge were described as Sojourners - "those who stay temporarily in another place" while Kilwinning was chosen because of the links held with a small town in Ayrshire, Scotland, that holds a special place in Scottish Masonic history. The number, 1798, was the next number in sequence on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, but is not a sequential number in DC.

In good Scottish tradition, the festive board held that night was a fine affair with many of us Brethren earning our supper with anecdotes, humor, and the occasional interesting toast!

The world outside our sacred walls is rife with division and strife. Innocent blood is spilled and suspicion drives the machine’s retrograde motion. The simple truths of Freemasonry are low whispers in a din of white noise – but we must listen for those whispers! The example of fellowship itself doesn’t change the world, but it does plant seeds and change the ground in which they rest. By living as brethren for all to see we offer the world a better path by example. I pray fervently that it will be followed.

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BYRON J. COLLIER has over 20 years experience working in the financial services industry. As Founder of Artemis Capital Group, LLC,   Byron has served as its President and Managing Member since 2003. He was a Vice President of Investment Banking with Chicago Investment Group, LLC and held management positions within Global Custody at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., (JP Morgan), and Consumer Lending at United Jersey Bank (Bank of America). Byron received his baccalaureate degree from Howard University, Washington DC, and continued with graduate studies in International Business and Commercial Finance at New York University, New York, NY.

Byron served on the Business Advisory Board of Datameg Corporation (OTCBB: DTMG) and is actively involved with local community services including his church as Superintendent of Sunday School for the Ebenezer Baptist Church in New Brunswick, NJ. His interest in world history and cultures has led him to extensively study religions, philosophies, and esoteric traditions, which ultimately led him to the Masonic Fraternity.

Byron was raised to Light this past June and is a member of Jerusalem Lodge No. 26, in Plainfield, New Jersey. As a true lover of knowledge, Byron seeks to discover the meaning and Light that is present within the diaspora that is mankind and, applying this Light to his own spiritual path, help others in their journeys.

If you would like to contribute to The Laudable Pursuit, please send articles or ideas to: Editor@TheLaudablePursuit.com

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The Scottish Rite and Noetic Science

BY: ROBERT G. DAVIS, 33*, GRAND CROSS

One of the major threads in Dan Brown's 2009 Freemason based thriller, The Lost Symbol, is an explanation of the work of fictional physicist Katherine Solomon, who in the book is a leading researcher in the field of Noetic Science. Sponsored by the Smithsonian, Solomon studies the untapped potential of the human mind.

Although we have not given it the same name, Noetic Science is a theme which repeats itself many times throughout the Degrees of Freemasonry.

The idea is that most of us have barely scratched the surface of our mental and spiritual capabilities. The Degrees of the Rite give us an understanding that the mind, like the logos, was with God in the beginning, is made in the image of God, and therefore has the potential to be accessed for remarkably metaphysical and powerful purposes. Noetic scientists envision their studies as explorations into the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing. They sometimes refer to it as “inner knowing,”--exploring the nature and potential of consciousness. We think of it as the “inner way” or the transformative art of Masonry. Whenever we have an insight or intuition relating to an allegory presented in our ritual that suddenly becomes clear to us for the first time; whenever we are enlightened by our ability to find clarity through reason to a problem we have never before been able to solve; or whenever our senses warn us of an impending danger, causing us to consciously divert our path away from it, we are experiencing the inner way.

Again, we call this work the transformative art of our fraternity. Our studious focus and meditation on the deeper nature of our teachings can literally transform or change us for the better. But the noetic part is that our collective discipline in working together toward perfecting our mind, soul and spirit can also change society for the better. Jung called this type of change as affecting the collective unconscious. Jung saw the collective unconscious as being the repository of all current and past religious, spiritual and mythological symbols and experiences. And these things are imbedded in the genetic dna of all of us. These things form the map of our psyche—the archetypes of all things which have pre-existed us—the thinking processes deep within us which we inherit even if we don’t know it.

The collective unconscious, then, is a kind of universal mind. Since it exists in all of us, it can be manipulated in the direction of good or evil. Dan Brown’s fear in The Living Symbol is that, if the forces for good in the world do not become aware of this metaphysical power of the mind and will, it can be captured and manipulated for evil purposes.

The hope of the Scottish Rite, as the enemy of all spiritual and mental tyranny, is that by projecting the balance of faith, logic, and reason into the minds of mankind, it can develop the wider human potential and creative capacities for good in the world.
By supporting individuals in the transformation of their own consciousness, we lay the cornerstone for a collective transformation in the world which is built on freedom, wisdom and love.

Methinks this is what Dan Brown wanted us to discover in his book.

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What Are The Rags Of Our Righteousness?

BY: ROBERT G. DAVIS, 33*, GRAND CROSS

The interrogatories of Craft Masonry are said to have been penned by William Preston and appear in the ritual workings of the Entered Apprentice Degree sometime after 1772. Prior to this, the preparation room was used for different purposes. In the earliest days of Speculative Masonry, the candidate was “made” a Mason in the preparation room by having the obligations administered to him by the Master before he ever stepped foot into the lodge. This was the case during the late 17th century period and remained common through the first two decades of the 1700’s.

As degree workings became more formalized, the “making ceremony” was moved into the lodge room itself and the anteroom became the waiting area for the candidate while the Master opened the lodge. Once the lodge was opened, the Master asked if anyone was in waiting to be “made.” The Wardens and the proposer retired to prepare the candidate. He was relieved of his metals, asked some basic questions such as name, occupation, and place of residence, and then left to his own reflections for at least half an hour. His proposer sat with him, and he was not allowed to talk. Guards (likely the deacons) stood near with swords drawn.

While all this was taking place, the lodge set up its trestleboard, or set of figures drawn into the floor with charcoal and chalk, set in an oblong square.

Preston changed all this with his formal interrogatories; and these are adopted and in use today. After the questions are asked in the preparation room, the Deacon gives the candidate a charge which informs him of the seriousness of the journey he is about to take, and suggests that, through the language and hieroglyphics of our ceremonies, we may come to understand the meaning of death and rebirth.

And then he is given a warning. He is told that his status in life is not enough to gain him a place in heaven; that indeed he must become poor and destitute, blind and naked. Of course, he doesn’t realize this at the time, but what he is being told is that we will be communicating with his soul rather than his body from this point forward; because we already know it is only his soul that is capable of interpreting and understanding the allegories we will present to him. And then we add another very brief and eccentric afterthought—that “he must be divested of the rags of his own righteousness…. .” Now, what in heaven’s name does this mean? Why would we divest someone of their righteousness?

Righteousness is defined as conformity of life to the requirements of the Divine or Moral Law. This would seem a very Masonic plan. Righteousness means virtue, or integrity—again, a central Masonic goal. To be righteous is to be morally right or justifiable. So again, why are we divesting our man of his own moral justification?

Well, I’m not sure. But I think we are imploring him to consider what righteousness means to him. The operative word in our admonition is that we are divesting him of the rags of his own righteousness. This would imply we are suggesting the validity in which he defines righteousness is worthy of his reconsideration. Because righteousness is a subjective thing. Like Truth. It is a virtue which has been so broadly used throughout history that one hardly knows what to make of it.

For instance, Barclay complained about the greediness of some merchants in mixing European plants with Indian wrappers and calling it righteous and legitimate tobacco. What does that mean? It was said of George Washington that he was righteous in the treatment of his slaves? Now there’s an oxymoron. We have been told over and over again that America has a righteous government. Oh really?

You get the idea. A man does not even get to knock on the door of Freemasonry before he is told to set aside what he has already been taught, or told, or ordered, or mandated in so far as his moral code is concerned. You see, we are not so much interested in what someone or something has already made of him. Freemasonry asks him to set aside the assumptions of his past; be divested of his subjective upbringing, bear the nakedness of his own heart, and be clothed in the purity of his soul. Only then can he objectively learn what he does not know; and begin the great and important undertaking of re-discovering himself.

It is only when he makes this mystic journey within that he can take on the mantel of righteousness; and know that he is justified in his moral standing.

So, regardless of our station in life, or where we are on our own journey, it never hurts to occasionally stop and ponder this significant question for ourselves:

What are the rags of my own righteousness?

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