Freemasonry: No Longer Needed??

[yorick]

Everybody knows where they are, when they meet and how they can be found. For the most part, their symbols signs and passwords can be discovered in an ordinary library. And the wisdom that they pretend to possess can equally be revealed through the Christian Bible, Koran, Torah or any other sacred scripture.

It used to be that only men could be made masons, but now there is widescale movement sweeping the nation whereby both men and women attend their lodges on equal footing. "Universal Masonry" is the rallying cry. Search this phrase on your home computer and you will even find public chat rooms and message boards where anybody can participate.

Since the dawn of the Aquarian year of Plato's perfected astral calendar, there has been widespread acceptance of spiritual awakening in the population at large. Surely everybody is aware of this. At popular tv, computer games and bookstores the chit-chat of the hour suggests that we must all be jumping on the new-age bandwagon where mysterious formulae trespass from fiction into fact.

What I am wondering is whether or not secretive transmission of occult wisdom will soon become so commonplace that privileged lodges and affiliated groups will silently disolve as their hoopla and regalia remains significant only to those who choose to mimic anscestors, whom they have never met, through such adornment.

This is not a personal concern of mine as I have very little use for organizations that base their foundation entirely upon secretive and superficial modes of recognition, but I have raised this question to the forum at large as an open issue. Any comments?


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[Lotus7Productions]

I take it you werent in a fraternity in college...

[el3so]

And the wisdom that they pretend to possess can equally be revealed through the Christian Bible, Koran, Torah or any other sacred scripture.

What I am wondering is whether or not secretive transmission of occult wisdom will soon become so commonplace that privileged lodges and affiliated groups will silently disolve as their hoopla and regalia remains significant only to those who choose to mimic anscestors, whom they have never met, through such adornment.

Most masonic lodges seem more interested in scratching each other's back and helping out by whatever means when a fellow member gets in trouble than transmitting occult wisdom.

But hey, if it's just an old and international service club with some very rich and very powerful members, it's less of a conspiracy and more of a real thing.

[Texas Carnie Roadshow]

I'm not too worried about the Masons.
It's the Shriners that scare me.

[Jimbo]

Yorick-First, most "secret societies" are really not so secret any more, as far as occult wisdom or knowledge goes I wouldn't worry to much about that, I imagine most sercret societies, or let's call them organizations have more modern agendas and don't really concern themselves with occult and/or mystical stuff, it's all alot of pomp & window dressing...look no further than S&B, GWB's group from Yale....

[yorick]

Sadly, lodges are closing everywhere. Attrition exceeds enrolment and many new initiates are walking away or scarcely attending lodge functions at all.

Masonry was never intended as a social fraternity that limits itself to bake-sales and becomes subject to it's own internal political system. Presently no lodges within state grand lodge jurisdictions are free to embark on their own projects without GL approval. And those who rise to the top are often 2nd rate little people who use masonry to enhance an otherwise lost sense of aristocracy and nobility here in the USA....... social climbers, back-slappers and nespots who would have no where to go without pompous ceremony and sanctimonious self-glorification.

The instructive initiatic system ought to enhance anyone's appreciation of the life experience through awakening subliminal thoughts by transmission of understanding and applying symbolic meaning to everyday events. This is where origins of freemasonry stashed it's "jealously guarded" secrets...... in an initiatic system that invites self-discovery on the part of the initiate.

Instead such instruction has become painfully rote with little attention being paid to development of original architecture on the part of the freemason himself. Gone are the days of throwing tea into Boston Harbor as one masonic lodge had done entirely on it's own initiative.

Those who walk away tend to be quickly dissatisfied with the social/political agenda. This is unfortunate - that surface precludes substance and that masonry has become so far removed from having a more direct influence on events.

Either everybody has Nth degree qualities and potential or nobody does. Mystical schools at this time have either thrown their doors wide open or they have gone into hibernation. Harvey Spencer Lewis FRC is quoted as saying there will come an era when occult transmission of wisdom shall become commonplace, even taught in public schools.

[Lotus7Productions]

You're fucking weird. Are you pulling this outta a text book?

What am I talking about? I don't give a shit.

[yorick]

No text or alternative source, just my experience with masonry....... but i must have said something that cut you to the quick.

(:=

[coldharvest]

Are you from an East lodge or West?
As long as you remember where you're prepared to be a mason it doesn't matter

[DawnC71]

When I was a senior in High School, I had to complete my last year at Myrtle beach High School in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. That summer I worked in a t-shirt shop on the beach and one of the first major "thematic" weeks they have is the Bike Rally week where all the motorcycle enthusiasts come down to ride their bikes, hold a rally, and party. This week also happens to coincide with Shriner's week which features guys who wish to raise money for Shriners Hospitals in the region and party. I asked one of the hotel owners in the area who was the more problematic partier..a Shriner or a Biker? They said the Shriners were far more disruptive and destructive of hotel property than the Bikers. They would much rather have a hotel full of bikers partying than a hotel full of Shriners.

Somehow it really shattered the Gods-of-partying-and-anything-outlaw images I had of bikers. Now I think, all that one needs to do in order to be a true party animal one only needs to dress up like a clown, get a kids tri-cycle, and ride it around in a Shriner's parade....after all you have to be REALLY fucking stoned to do that, right?

[yorick]

East / West?? ? - How about Black or White then step on it. Working between Nadir and Zenith it's really a question of North / South, you understand.

(:= n pro x


Dawn, you are murduring this thread with your understanding of thelema.

[DawnC71]

what the hell is thelema?

I did not intend to murder it at all but hey, just add one more notch in my murdered threads belt.

[SRR]

This is the perfect ruse.... what with 9/11's blowing open of conspiracy theories, the Freemasons are trying to drive underground where they operate best. The faster people forget about them, the sooner they can get back to controlling the world as they have since the Venetian accord of 1434.

I'm not sure about that date. No one is, really.

[jonas]

They have to be secretive...if one of us were to learn the secret handshakes think what havoc could be caused...

[yorick]

Jonas from the old board? Shit, Harpo Marx hacked that handshake to death with his leg-pull routine. Master Masons there - Harp and Chico for sure, but not Groucho.

And speakin of famous masons: Oliver Hardy and the Howard brothers too, Moe and Curly....... nyuck, nyuck, nyuck!!


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