My Freemasonry | Freemason Information and Discussion Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Masonic philosophy

BryanMaloney

Premium Member
hermeticism very enlightening

There is nothing specifically Masonic about Hermeticism. There are Hermetic Masons, but one need not embrace or study Hermeticism to have a full Masonic experience any more than one need be Christian to have a full Masonic experience.
 

brother josh

Registered User
There is nothing specifically Masonic about Hermeticism. There are Hermetic Masons, but one need not embrace or study Hermeticism to have a full Masonic experience any more than one need be Christian to have a full Masonic experience.

You are indeed correct I was referring to the question as it states masonic philosophy or philosophy that strikes a cord with you hence why I put hermeticism since to me it strikes a cord


Sent From My Freemasonry Pro App
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
There is nothing specifically Masonic about Hermeticism.

This is correct but it does not work both ways. There is much specifically Hermetic to be found in the degrees and lessons of Masonry. It's there for the looking and up to the individual Mason whether to do that looking.

Notice the same combination works for the Old Testament. There is nothing specifically Masonic about the Old Testament. There is much specifically Old Testament to be found in the degrees and lessons of Masonry. It's there for the looking and up to the individual Mason whether to do that looking.

It's optional to reference the chapters of Kings I and Kings II used in our degrees and it is also optional to search out the many other less direct Masonic tie ins to the Old Testament. Just as it's possible to not study the Hermetic content that is present in the degrees.

There are Hermetic Masons, but one need not embrace or study Hermeticism to have a full Masonic experience any more than one need be Christian to have a full Masonic experience.

Exactly.

The asymmetry of how these topics work is one of my favorite aspects of Masonic philosophy - Content having to do with (insert any one of a ton of different topics here) is there for the looking but there is no requirement to look. We lead ourselves to many waters but we don't make any of us drink of any of them.

It's a compound/amalgam of many lessons. Individual responsibility - We chose whether and what to learn. Love of learning - We offer a richer menu of topics than any one man can learn in a lifetime. Tolerance for difference - Our degrees include what some may think incompatible material and our membership includes brothers who would never have met without the asylum of our tiled spaces. Universality of learning - Our degrees contain such a wide variety of topics assembled from so many sources. Compatibility of science and religion - Second degree long form lecture.

For computer geeks there's the story of how "perl" got its name. Larry Wall was writing computer scripts as usual for his job. He wondered if he could make the process simpler by adding the many tools together into a single unified tool. He developed a hybrid language that's more of an amalgam than an alloy. Yet when the parts were swirled together without melting them into an alloy it became beautiful. So he named it after a gem with a swirl of color - Perl is named after pearls.

Masonry is a pearl like that computer story.
 

BroBook

Premium Member
Remember what you know and know you know nothing!!!


Bro Book
M.W.U.G.L. Of Fl: P.H.A.
Excelsior # 43
At pensacola
 

rebis

Premium Member
The greatest encounter of a lifetime is the encounter with one's self.


Sent From My Freemasonry Pro App
 

davidterrell80

Past Master
Premium Member
As every rough ashlar is different... and requires the individualized application of the working tools. I do not believe there is a single masonic philosophy. I believe in the perfect ashlar as a desired endstate; and, a Mason does what he must to place himself in position to become such.

JF Newton's answer to the question "When is a man a Mason?" provides me with an indirect but satisfactory statement that describes the behaviors of one who lives in accordance with the essence of "masonic philosophy." By reading it "against the grain" one can, with prayerful study, determine the specifics of the individualized philosophy in which one is weak... and with hope and faith, one is encouraged strive to come closer to this ideal; even within the multitudinous spiritual and cultural traditions our paths must cross as we return from West to East...to the God who gave us.

Masonic philosophy, to me, consists of what ever tenets that, inculcated in the individual, allows that man to break off his unique rough and superfluous parts; to become the Mason Newton envisioned, of whom he said:

"When he can look out over the rivers, the hills and the far horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope and courage, which is the root of every virtue. When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as vile, as divine, as diabolic and as lonely as himself; and seeks to know, to forgive and to love his fellow man. When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea even in their sins - knowing that each man fights a hard fight against many odds. When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them and above all, how to keep friends with himself. When he loves flowers, can hunt birds without a gun and feels the thrill of an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child. When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries of life. When starcrowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing waters subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long dead. When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand seeks his aid without response. When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold of divine things and see majestic meanings in life, whatever the name of that faith may be. When he can look into a wayside puddle and sees something beyond mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow mortal and see something beyond sin. When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope. When he has kept faith with himself, with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit of a song; glad to live, but not afraid to die! Such a man has found the only secret of Freemasonry, and the one which it is trying to give to all the world."​
 

promason

Registered User
magnific weekend everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!blessings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!continue make good better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!yep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Top