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!

Morals and Dogma

Have you read Morals and Dogma?


  • Total voters
    73

drapetomaniac

Premium Member
Premium Member
Have you ever read Morals and Dogma or plan to?

I'm considering reading maybe a chapter a month or something similar.
 

Traveling Man

Premium Member
Nice poll; where's the selection for "I have"?

Or is this one of those, "do you still beat your wife" questions?
 

TexMass

Registered User
I may not. I have been told by active readers that it's a very difficult read on many levels. I have trouble with it if it doesn't keep my interest all the way.
 

Wingnut

Premium Member
believe it or not, Pike actually is easier to understand if you read it out loud. There is also MOrales and Dogma for the 21st century written by 4 North Texas Masons that is just updating the language but not changing the meaning.
 

JTM

"Just in case"
Premium Member
if i read it like i did the bible, i read a few pages a day over several months.

sat it by the john and took my time :)
 

drapetomaniac

Premium Member
Premium Member
believe it or not, Pike actually is easier to understand if you read it out loud. There is also MOrales and Dogma for the 21st century written by 4 North Texas Masons that is just updating the language but not changing the meaning.

This one is also supposed to be synched so you can read it with the original page by page I believe.

I believe de Hoyos is working on something as well due out this year.
 

drapetomaniac

Premium Member
Premium Member
I may not. I have been told by active readers that it's a very difficult read on many levels. I have trouble with it if it doesn't keep my interest all the way.

This is part of why I brought this up. It seems to me this is one of those few items which every mason knows off the top of their head because they hear and repeat it so often.

To me, it strikes me as telling a student "Don't try math it's hard." You build up a lot of stress for someone before someone can even look at the page.

If you can understand absolutely everything in an educational work, I'd suggest moving up a level until you're actually learning.

I've been tempted to put the text in a wikipedia format - which would allow hypertext links to certain terms and concepts...
 

Artificer

Registered User
I agree with others that it is much easier to understand if you read it out loud. There is also no hard and fast rule that you start with the EA degree. I usually suggest that you start with a chapter for a degree that you found particularly compelling, or perhaps the degree you perform in, etc... except for chapter 28 (Knight of the Sun - worked as 27th degree today). That is another matter. :001_smile:
 

Wingnut

Premium Member
This one is also supposed to be synched so you can read it with the original page by page I believe.

I believe de Hoyos is working on something as well due out this year.

Yes it does and has the same paragraph numbers for reference. But I must say it is easier to read BUT its not dumbed down its still a higher level and rather difficult read.
 

Wingnut

Premium Member
Speaking of Good Timing! Brother Artificer is one of the tireless Brothers that wrote M&D for the 21st Century!!!
 

rhitland

Founding Member
Premium Member
I've been tempted to put the text in a wikipedia format - which would allow hypertext links to certain terms and concepts...

That would be quite the laborious task but I bet it would be used very often. I for one us Morals and Dogmas as a reference book. In the end I might end up reading it all but to sit down and read it cover to cover might spoil something for me since I am just a 3rd degree MM. lol
 

Frater Cliff Porter

Premium Member
I have read M/D three times through. Once just without notes, etc...then I marked stuff up and used a bunch of post its and studied some stuff on the second read. Took me a year. Then I did a third read through having studied, took me a few days.

I LOVE this book. Difficult schmifficult I say. It is great, simply one of the most dynamic compilations and interpretations I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is a philosophical, political, and social all at once, yet separately tackling each issue. Loved it, loved, loved it.
 

AhimanBeard

Registered User
I'm not going to lie, and maybe this is just my take, but I feel to those who are only in the blue lodge (or maybe in the york rite), the first three degrees (The ones an average mason should be familiar with) kinda hits you square in the face. On reflection, they initially made the least amount of sense and probably should have made more (for me, someone not yet S.R.).

I will say that it's just the way of impenetrable victorian prose.
For those looking to start again, go to the 4th degree chapter and just read it like a piece of comparative religion and philosophy and it'll become much more enjoyable and accessible.
 

TJGore

Registered User
Smokey613 said:
Do you have that somewhere we can download? If not, I can provide a place for you to upload it.

You can get the book through the gutenberg project. By default if you have an Apple iPad or iPhone the iBook application automatically links into the Gutenberg repository.

If you don't have either of those you can go to www.gutenberg.org and search for the book. It's available in a couple of formats including a kindle, pub, html, plain text, and etc.
 
Top