Getting back into the craft....the RIGHT way!

Most of our members are Shriners also so the younger guys usually hang out after the meeting and play poker (for bragging rights only) or smoke a cigar and have a drink or two.

 

Sounds great!

 

LOL...Thanks Bloke, but I'm not a drinker lol. I haven't had any alcohol since the 90's lol. Never was my thing, but I feel what you're saying! lol

 

Thanks for the info Bro Hill. Healing isn't a big deal anymore. I don't mind going back through it over again for the sake of being made correctly, I was just concerned about that hazing stuff, can't mess with that. No issues with background here, and the proficiency part; I'm a little rusty but as I said, I don't mind the whole process again. I just want to be made RIGHT. That's the bottom line for me-I want to be recognized and legit.

 

True..I didn't think you could lol. I thought maybe something changed.

 

Well, you have to make allowances for us Australians... we have a rep to maintain

I'd like to be a candidate again.... do you know how close the ritual of the ceremony is to that you've experienced ? They might be quite different..

 

I'm sure its a few differences, but I can imagine its not too far off from what I went through. I have interacted with many brothers over the past years; PHA, "bogus" ( now that I know) etc, and its things that I've heard that changes here and there, but its always been on par with what I went through myself. Most I have come across over the years have never really said much about what's "bogus" and what isn't. The few that I have come across that did simply said they "couldn't speak masonically" once the question of the GL came up. But nobody ever really EXPLAINED WHY. They didn't educate me (us) on the reason why they couldn't speak masonically. One guy, a PHA brother I knew long before we took those steps finally stood up to the plate and broke it all the way down for us. After that, it was a wrap for me.

 

I share the difference between Clandestine, Recognized, and Unrecognized. Many people inside the craft don't know the difference. There is a lot to learn but you have to be open to hearing the difference.

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Yes, that's kind of what my friend did. He went into the differences, then explained to us about "lineage" and tracing back. He also went into explaining about John G. Jones, and that's pretty much when everything hit home for us.

 

O, interesting - were you working under a Jones Lodge ? Did it strike you as a big organisation (in comparison to, say "regular" Freemasonry which the members of the board basically come from, hence the Australians and Americans and English and Canadians and Indians and etc etc here

 

John G. Jones is considered the father of clandestine freemasonry. He was a high ranking PHA freemason at one time and then got expelled. He was a prominent attorney as well. He also founded the PHA Shriners who reorganized after he was expelled. He created many clandestine grand lodges. He got thrown out of one of the first ones and just did it again. http://www.thephylaxis.org/bogus/johnjones.php

 

Yes we were a part of JGJ. But in the area I'm from, the Chicago area, there are a TON of them around.

 

Thanks, he's interesting because he often comes up when talking clandestine American Freemasonry

 

Interesting... thanks

 

Yea, that is exactly what my friend told us. Once he explained all that to us, then we kind of made the conscious decision to stop associating ourselves with the John G. Jones lodges and go legit. As a "4 letter" mason (John G. Jones) we got told that PHA "calls us clandestine because we are not 3 letter masons like most African-American men are who are masons". The more brothers I met who were AF&AM (JGJ)/Modern/International members, they all had something close in comparison to the same explanation of what was told to them. I was young at the time, and some of these guys were much older than I was. Nobody would really explain further past that, they kind of just pushed it off, which is what bugged me, but as a young "mason" you are proud and think you are joining a brotherhood of men making good men better-so you don't question much. During this time, the internet wasn't as readily available as it is now where one can go just research and find out. The friend I have who is Prince Hall was friends with me many years prior to either of us joining a lodge, so he sat me and 2 of my other friends down like "yo, this is whats up with that sh*t you joined, and I'm gonna give you the real talk". He broke it all the way down for us, even the history about JGJ being expelled and creating lodges all over-which is probably why there are so many in the Chicago area, given the history. So, here I am today, trying to get right lol

 

I don't even use references to letters. The letters don't really matter. What matters is belonging to a regular and/or recognized grand lodge. Hardly anyone in my grand lodge talks about us being 4 letter. There are many clandestine grand lodges that are 4 letter. The number of letters don't determine regularity.

 

Here is an article about letters. It is mostly true but probably needs to be updated. http://www.masonic-lodge-of-education.com/af-and-am-vs-f-and-am-states.html

 

Well I learned that many years later that the letter references made no difference. Its more about being recognized and having a lineage back to a recognized Grand Lodge, but that's what was TAUGHT to us back then as to why PHA masons didn't recognize us. It was never taught to us about recognized vs. clandestine, vs. regular. None of that. So back then, all we had to go by was what was being taught to us by "many men who had gone before you"

 

About to check it out now, thanks Bro Richard

 

That's cool little article.. .thank you.

UGLV of AF&AM