COMMITING TO THE TRUTHS OF FREEMASONRY: FINDING YOUR INNER MASONIC NATURE

These days, authenticity has been bantered around more than usual.  Being hurtful is commonly thought to be wrong-minded. But not everyone subscribes to that concern.  If we want to witness the true character of a person, give them a taste of power.  Freemasons don't use the term at all.  Responsibility, commitment, loyalty, sincerity, and authenticity are terms that reframe demagogy and despotism as destructive, aggrandizing, hubris.  Our sense of leadership is not that of control, but of duty to the people being lead. Freemasonry constitutionally and philosophically respects that each individual has agency. It would make conspiracists swoon if they knew that in fact, deeper levels of meaning unknown to all but a few. Learning about the layers of meaning is subjective, based on ability and curiosity.  If I say to you happiness is the goal, how would you know it is true?  It is an original element of Masonic architecture that has been passed from one to another for centuries. If one is temperamental, control of emotion would open the door. Ignorance is the darkness.  It takes insight to recognize the self in all its glory; warts and all; aspirations, ability, gaps.  A life unexamined is not worth living- Socrates was not being unkind. He was resurrecting a notion, at the end of days, he could not imagine being ignorant of self. Unvarnished. Truthful. Accepting. Insight.  So be afraid. Insight is facing the enemy in us. Those thoughts that hold us back, that confuse and limit our potential. And if a person makes the choice to follow this path in the mind, it will replace what we want to believe with another. Between idealism and failings is our true nature. When a Freemason steps into that level of understanding, the crowd thins. He stands alone. And he is fine with that. In fact, he is happy.