A Brother Asks: Have You been Transformed by Your Masonic Journey Experience?

 

A Brother Asks: Have you experienced any transformation in your Masonic Journey?

Coach: I have absolutely transformed as a result of doing the Masonic Work pointed out by the first two Freemasonic Degrees!

Brother: What did that Masonic Journey look like for you?

Coach: The EA Degree pointed out and affirmed specific Work that I already did over a 7 year period of my pre-Freemasonic life where I worked upon myself.

Brother: What was that work that you did?

Coach: Here is some of the Work that I did during that time:

1) Getting my priorities right, (Plumb, VoSL)
2) Learning how to say "no" appropriately, (Cable Tow)
3) Established standards for myself (Plumb)
4) Establishing boundaries for others, (Compasses)
5) Investing in building inner strengths, (Square of Virtue)
6) Removing distractions, unnecessary, unrewarding things, thoughts, pursuits, activities, & people from my life, (Common Gavel)
7) Expressing my emotions appropriately, (Compasses)
8) Obligating myself to be a better man, (The Flanked Circumpunct)
9) Scheduling and using my available time for life enriching and sustaining activities, and (24 Inch Gauge, Trestle-board, Pencil)
10) Being fair to myself and others (Level)

Among many other things!  I hope you realize these are all Work activities pointed out by the First Degree Ritual.

Brother: I do! What was the result of your doing all of this work?

Coach: I had transformed my heart and brought order to its chaos.

Brother:  Was there more work that you did to transform?

Coach: Yes. The FC Degree pointed out and affirmed the Work that I did over a decade of my prior pre-Freemasonic life where I Worked upon myself to earn two college degrees that required me to know the 7 liberal arts & sciences well-enough to make a living masterfully.  It was encouraging to know that I had already learned what this Degree said that I should learn.

Brother: What was the result?

Coach: I had transformed my mind and brought order to its chaos.

Brother: What else?

Coach: I also learned how to read God’s Great Books.

Brother: What are they?

Coach: Scripture, which is God's revealed Word & Nature, which is God's Word made real.

Brother: How?

Coach: By learning the Trivium and Quadrivium.

Brother: Was there anything else about your Masonic Journey that you want to share?

Coach: Yes! The MM Degree was greatly affirming as well.

Brother: How so?

Coach:  It pointed out to me that I had done the Work of the previous two degrees well-enough to realize the entire 3rd Degree Drama was both a test to see if I had done the Masonic Work pointed toward by the first two degrees and a wonderful celebration of the fact that I had actually done it!

It also showed me that I had already completed my temple and had already erected a basic spiritual building which I am continuing to expand upon it daily!

All this occurred because Freemasonic Ritual showed me that I had already done the Masonic Work pointed out by Ritual prior to joining Freemasonry!

A Brother Asks... Contributing & Indicating Attributes of Maturity & Success

A Brother Asks: What are Attributes that "Contribute to" and are "Indications of" both Maturity and

Success.

My Response: The answer is within Ritual. All that you have to do is Carefully Examine the Development Work that is Required during Apprenticeship that helps Transform Youths to Adulthood. If your Apprenticeship did not Entail the following Skill Development, it's a Clear Indication that you got Cheated and you were Mislead into Thinking that you had Matured enough to Progress.

1. Proper Time Management (24 IG)
2. Proper Judgment (Virtue, 7 LAs&Ss)
3. Proper Impulse Control (Temperance)
4. Proper Planning (Trestle-board, 7 LAs&Ss)
5. Proper Organization (Trestle-board, 7 LAs&Ss)
6. Proper Critical Thinking (Trestle-board, 7 LAs&Ss)
7. Proper Responsibilities (Cable-Tow)
8. Proper Accountabilities (Cable-Tow)
9. Proper Morality (Plumb, Square, VoSL)
10. Proper Standards and Boundaries (Compasses, Cable-Tow, VoSL)
11. Proper Consideration and Civility (Level, Compasses, VoSL, Virtue)
12. Integrity (Word)

They appear in no particular order and the list is not complete.

Here's a question back at ya: Have you truly Received Proper Support to Properly Mature?

F&S,

Brother John S. Nagy

 

A Brother Asks... Making Good Men Better

 

A Brother Asks: How does mastering ritual make good men better?

Response: It doesn't. It no more makes good men better than mastering any other map.

 

It is only by recognizing, understanding and applying it toward the territory it represents that you become better, and only if you do so with the intent and methods of betterment. Otherwise, it just sits on the bookshelf of your mind, collecting dust, being eaten by the mind's silverfish or worse, rotting.

Pointing to it, pulling it out and waving it in the faces of others, or worse, boasting about how well you have preserved it without using it to travel within its alluded to territory, is the ultimate insult to its creation.

Ritual Mastery does not make you Better; Suitably and Appropriately Applying it toward your life does.

IN OTHER WORDS: There Is No Transformation for The Better Without Work That Transforms for The Better! Mastering Ritual is only Installing the Map, but is it not the Work that Occurs to Follow It!!

 

F&S,

 

Brother John S. Nagy