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Candidates/Brothers degrees

jermy Bell

Registered User
I usually ask the EA candidate why do you want to be a mason ?
Answers I get

1. My grandfather was a mason
2. My father was a mason
Somewhere in the family tree there was a mason.
Now, with those 2 said, the candidate never met that family member, or that family member never spoke of freemasonry.

There have been a few who was quite honest on their answer. They either didn't know why or want to be a shriner. I have made the suggestion that we space the time in between degrees so they can make sure this is what they want to be apart of. But I've seen most hit all 3 degrees in less than a month and not come back. But they just had to join.
 

Winter

Premium Member
This is the best argument for having a 6 month period where they get to know the Lodge and the members before being allowed to submit a petition. But the majority of Lodges would never allow a potential revenue source to potentially walk away.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

Bloke

Premium Member
I usually ask the EA candidate why do you want to be a mason ?
Answers I get

1. My grandfather was a mason
2. My father was a mason
Somewhere in the family tree there was a mason.
Now, with those 2 said, the candidate never met that family member, or that family member never spoke of freemasonry.

There have been a few who was quite honest on their answer. They either didn't know why or want to be a shriner. I have made the suggestion that we space the time in between degrees so they can make sure this is what they want to be apart of. But I've seen most hit all 3 degrees in less than a month and not come back. But they just had to join.
I have a lot of exposure to me wanting to become Freemasons. I would add three to the above

3. Brotherhood/fraternity/social
4 Charity -getting involved.
5 Self improvement.

For 1 & 2 - another very good question is "Why do you think he was a Mason" then "Why do you want to become a Freemason"... I think continuing the family tradition is great, but they need to understand why that tradition is worthwhile, and I would suggest (or lead to) the idea that perhaps he GG or Father wanted to improve himself and be around good men..

I actually fine 4 the trickiest, but the simple thing is we are not a service club. The core ideas in Freemasonry are self improvement and treating others around you well, and it is in the second part we get involved in charity, but that's not just about cash, its about benevolence. That can be listening to someone who has a problem or just helping your elderly neighbour bring their shopping in or a stranger change a tyre or simply give them a smile. I often tell me interested in 4 - it depends on their lodge, some are heavily involved in it, some are not, and if they get into a lodge which is not, contact me and I will put them in touch with men working on projects..
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
Its sad really and pisses me off. It feels like American Masonry has become more of a money thing. The more candidates that come in the more money the lodge gets. Quantity over Quality. Whats happen to freemasonry? From what ive gathered, from how it used to be in the past. Freemasonry went from the brothers asking you to join if you were deemed worthy, too anybody can join you just have to ask to be one.

Math and geometry are a part of our teachings. Look up the Gaussian Normal Distribution. It's the bell shaped curve. It's about performance. It's about how no matter how you select a population there's an average with a bell shaped curve of performance around that average.

This math lesson teaches that the way to get quality is to get quantity. The way to increase quality is to be careful about the initial quality of the people.

We need money to operate. Relax about those who send us their annual checks. Then keep coming back to make *yourself* a part of the elite who are there.
 

Castro81

Registered User
Then keep coming back to make *yourself* a part of the elite who are there.[/QUOTE]
it’s difficult to become one of the *elite* when i had no mentor assigned, no one to point me in the right direction. It was basically pay your degrees, pay your dues, want to join the shriners? Scottish rite? York rite? Etc. Etc. By luck the only brother that did bestow some knowledge was a brother that crossed over from PHA. and even then i was left on my own. Im aware that its my responsibility to seek further light, but its difficult when the majority of brothers at lodge seem to care more about the degree floor work, because we always have, no less than 10 candidates or brothers coming thorough or whats for dinner on stated meetings. Its a bit troubling when i have to search the internet for light when my own brothers at lodge either dont care or are in the dark aswell.
 

Bloke

Premium Member
Then keep coming back to make *yourself* a part of the elite who are there.
it’s difficult to become one of the *elite* when i had no mentor assigned, no one to point me in the right direction. It was basically pay your degrees, pay your dues, want to join the shriners? Scottish rite? York rite? Etc. Etc. By luck the only brother that did bestow some knowledge was a brother that crossed over from PHA. and even then i was left on my own. Im aware that its my responsibility to seek further light, but its difficult when the majority of brothers at lodge seem to care more about the degree floor work, because we always have, no less than 10 candidates or brothers coming thorough or whats for dinner on stated meetings. Its a bit troubling when i have to search the internet for light when my own brothers at lodge either dont care or are in the dark aswell.[/QUOTE]
Well, I learn things from Masons all the time.. but generally not in lodge. Lodge is often like watching a movie, it's the discuss it sparks which is where the interesting things happen. We do get to do that in lodge, but more often it happens outside...
 

Warrior1256

Site Benefactor
it’s difficult to become one of the *elite* when i had no mentor assigned, no one to point me in the right direction.
I was lucky enough to have a mentor that not only taught me to memorize but explained the meaning of what I memorized.
Well, I learn things from Masons all the time.. but generally not in lodge.
I have actually learned much more about Masonry on this forum than I have in lodge.
 

Castro81

Registered User
I have actually learned much more about Masonry on this forum than I have in lodge.[/QUOTE]

How does that make you feel, knowing that you had to come to the internet, when the brothers at lodge cant help you?
 

Keith C

Registered User
How does that make you feel, knowing that you had to come to the internet, when the brothers at lodge cant help you?

You have to realize that many Brothers have no desire to gain esoteric knowledge. You may be in a Lodge where very few have actually sought the Light that is available. I have been very lucky to have met Brothers who are active in the PA Academy of Masonic Knowledge and urged me to go to one of their Symposia when I was an EA, which lit a spark. Conversely, I witnessed a WM tell a potential Candidate that there really WAS NO esoteric knowledge, we just learned the degrees, met and socialized and did some charity work! Check the resources available from your Grand Lodge, learn yourself and bring that knowledge back to your Lodge. Take your thirst for knowledge and spread it to new Brothers by being a Mentor.

Complaining about how something is and not taking action to fix it, just perpetuates the problem. Be an agent for change and make your Lodge better. If you really are bringing in that many new Brothers, help them and soon the New Brothers, with higher knowledge and expectations will be a powerful voice for change.
 

Warrior1256

Site Benefactor
You have to realize that many Brothers have no desire to gain esoteric knowledge.
Exactly.
Check the resources available from your Grand Lodge, learn yourself and bring that knowledge back to your Lodge. Take your thirst for knowledge and spread it to new Brothers by being a Mentor.
Very well said. I and others are trying to do this very thing for those that are interested.
 

Bloke

Premium Member
...Conversely, I witnessed a WM tell a potential Candidate that there really WAS NO esoteric knowledge, we just learned the degrees, met and socialized and did some charity work! ...

Well, that's simply wrong. "The Craft" itself is an esoteric phrase, unless you know it talks about Freemasonry, then you don't understand it.

" esoteric = intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest."

"The Craft" is but one very surface example of esoteric knowledge in Freemasonry.. "Tyler" is another - unless you know what he does.. but there are obviously a lot more and phrases and concepts which are much harder to penetrate.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
Complaining about how something is and not taking action to fix it, just perpetuates the problem. Be an agent for change and make your Lodge better.

The mystical stuff is always individual. Any idea that you can learn in any organization of any sort is misguided.

I was a Mason for years before I first encountered another Brother interested in the mystical stuff. That's how it works. That's how it has always worked for anyone interested in the mystical stuff.
 

Elexir

Registered User
The mystical stuff is always individual. Any idea that you can learn in any organization of any sort is misguided.

I was a Mason for years before I first encountered another Brother interested in the mystical stuff. That's how it works. That's how it has always worked for anyone interested in the mystical stuff.

Depends on where you come from.
Here the mystical stuff is pretty much acknowledged from the start by the material avaible.
 
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