When you accurately describe the land you wish to Travel, you are better able to Navigate within it, through it or around it.
-----------------
For some time now I have described
Freemasonic Ritual as “Roadmaps for
Personal Transformation”. Describing
Ritual in this way has enabled me and quite a few other Brothers to delve into what
these rituals point toward. This view better
enabled us to use these Maps for the ends to which we entered the Society. Perhaps it’s time to describe Freemasonry as
a whole so that members overall shall be enabled to both Better themselves and
the organization. Let’s start with future members.
From the view of incoming Candidates,
the operation of the Fraternity is that which is assumed to be styled after
Medieval Stoneworkers guilds, especially when it comes to what is conveyed as
the hierarchy of the Organization at the Lodge level. They are led to believe that this is how the Stoneworkers’
Lodges were set up and how they did their business. The Lexicon is present throughout the Lodge
as both verbal and symbolic cues, especially while at Labor. They are from the very beginning immersed in
a World that is foreign to them and filled with mystery and confusion.
With time comes clarity, but it is a
clarity wrought towards the reality of the play put before them and without an
anchor, they are swept away by the Performance.
If they are like the majority, they too shall never make the leap to
comprehend fully the truth that is being offered them through allusion.
The Future
So little is shared with Candidates
about what they truly should expect beyond
experiencing the Degree Performances and perhaps doing rudimentary Proficiencies.
This is a statement that I share with
Brothers who have just gone through any one of the Symbolic Lodge Degrees. Feel free to share it as you want, as you can and with proper attributions:
The Roadmap Talk
Congratulations
my Brother. What you have just
experienced is a Roadmap of Masonic Progression provided to you by your loving
Brothers. It is one of Three Roadmaps
that you experience within the Symbolic Lodge Educational system. Each Roadmap provides you directions to make
yourself a Better man.
Your Brothers
shall Coach and Mentor you toward becoming Proficient in remembering each of
these Roadmaps. They shall also help
you to install them within your head and hopefully within your heart.
I caution you
earnestly though to remember always that the work you do installing each Map is
not the Work that makes you a Better man.
That Work is performed by you when you take each map out, Recognize it
for what it is, Understand the Work toward which it points you and then Apply
it by Travelling the Territory it represents doing the Work required of you.
Keep in mind
always that no Map is a Territory.
Should you merely memorize these Maps without following them, you shall
be no Better off than had you not bothered to memorize them at all. Should you want
to be a Better man, you must do the Work that each Degree directs you
toward. Your Brothers should know this
well and you can hopefully rely upon them to assist you in doing just that. If they can’t, find Brothers who can.
Once you have
Traveled these Territories, Learned well their varying Terrains, and
Established the Strengths that each are intended to bring forth within you,
your Word shall open up your world in ways you cannot begin to imagine.
One final word
of caution, Maps are not Substitutes for the real thing. Should you merely memorize these Maps, accept
them as real and Travel not the Territories they direct you toward, you shall
bar yourself from the world they are supposed to offer you.
[pause]
Once again, I
congratulate you and wish you well in all your Travels.
– Brother John S Nagy
For Further Light:
A Brother Asks: What do you think is the biggest challenge Freemasonic Ritual presents to those influenced by it?
