Solomon’s Masonic Learning
Solomon's Masonic Learning (SML) is a virtual learning environment developed by the Solomon Lodge Education Committee to assist the Master with instructing the Brethren in all areas of Masonic education. Using the Zoom platform, the Education Committee will coordinate and schedule Masonic learning presentations and when available, guest speakers to present in a virtual setting.
9 June 2022
Contact the SML Director for all password protected sessions at: SML@solomon822.com
The registered statistics for the June Solomon’s Masonic Learning session included 7 Entered Apprentice, 2 Fellowcraft, and 23 Master Masons rounding our total to 32 registered attendees. Of these 32 registered guest, 6 Grand Lodges (AF&AMvD, ACGL, California, France, Romania, & Turkey) with a total of 12 separate Lodges were fraternally represented.
Did you attend a live or recorded SML presentation? How did we do?
Guest Speaker
RW Bro. Thomas Litz
RW Brother Thomas is not only the current Deputy Grand Master of ACGL, he is also the Chairman of the Grand Lodge Education Committee and a member of Luftbrücke Lodge No. 838, Solomon Lodge No. 822, and Muenster Lodge No. 831. He has consistently displayed his dedication to the craft with his extensive esoterical research and study as displayed in the numerous papers and articles he has written. Furthermore, his ritual knowledge and dedication is well above average, evident in his ability and willingness to serve in any position from Chaplain to Master. He is remarkably capable of conferring any part of the three degrees.
Masonic Education
The Measure of a Man
The Measure of a Man (Star Trek: The Next Generation).
Written by Melinda M. Snodgrass and directed by Robert Scheerer (13 Feb. 1989), excerpt from season 2, episode 9. Watch the full episode HERE.The Connection between Data and Freemasonry
Written by Bro. Cameron Davis with description of "Data" from WikipediaWhat! A Star Trek video for Masoning Learning? If you will allow me to express the science fiction (sci-fi) geek within me, Star Trek: The Next Generation (season 2, episode 9) The Measure of a Man is one of my all-time favorite Star Trek episodes. You may not believe it, but Star Trek is packed with one moral lesson after another if you are willing to extract a deeper meaning. In the show, the character "Data" is a synthetic life form with artificial intelligence. He is a self-aware, sapient, sentient and anatomically fully functional male android who serves as the second officer and chief operations officer aboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise-D and later the USS Enterprise-E. His positronic brain allows him impressive computational capabilities. In the early years of his life, he experienced ongoing difficulties with understanding various aspects of human behavior and was unable to feel emotion or understand certain human idiosyncrasies which inspired him to strive for his own humanity. This goal eventually led to the addition of an "emotion chip" allowing Data to feel emotions. Although Data's endeavor to increase his humanity and desire for human emotional experience is a significant plot point (and source of humor) throughout the series, he consistently shows a nuanced sense of wisdom, sensitivity, and curiosity, garnering respect from his peers and colleagues. In this episode, cyberneticist Commander Bruce Maddox receives permission to disassemble Data to determine how he functions. However, when Data expresses doubts about Maddox's likelihood of success, he refuses to undergo the procedure and resigns his commission. Data soon finds himself in the center of a judicial inquiry to determine if he is just a machine and a piece of property or a sentient being who has the right to make his own decisions. (Wikipedia)
The character "Data", even as a sci-fi android is an inspiration to humanity. His character reminds us to always activate an inter-drive by fully grasp equality which allow us to grow mentally and spiritually. As Masons, we are all first in the dark and slowly gain Light, one golden ray at a time. While filled with moral lessons, the Star Trek episode The Measure of a Man truly focuses on the characteristics that make him a man and his right to live and grow among humanity. Essentially, it focuses on the equality of life and to some extent, offers a new perspective of how “life” is defined. As a Candidate for Freemasonry, we were all in a state of helpless indigence who were properly prepared to receive the startling truth that in the Lodge all men are equal, meeting on the level and parting on the square. The semantics of the word “equal” however can cause a bit of confusion. Equality is first inculcated into our core belief with the initial prayer we experience in Lodge. We were directed to kneel for the benefit of prayer to invoke the aid of the Deity at which time the Chaplain recites the words - “Endue him with such a competency of Thy Divine Wisdom, that assisted by the secrets of our Masonic art, he may the better unfold the beauties of true Godliness to the honour and glory of thy Holy Name.”
Equality in Masonry (in my opinion) is often misunderstood or misrepresented in that we fail to apply its full context. I have often heard Brethren express (as I did earlier) that we are all equal in Masonry. I do not disagree to a point but argue that it is much more. What I mean, is that we are all equally Brothers but, equality in a Masonic context does not mean that we are all “equal”. The level teaches us to meet “as equals” in a context of mutual and equal respect. A point of equality emphasizing that no man is greater or better than another, but not in a meaning that no man can achieve greatness beyond another. To me, it also means we all have an equal opportunity to grow, develop, and learn if we simply take the initiative to do so. Therefore, we have an equal responsibility to our own development and can blame no one if we fail to progress. An Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, or Master Mason who fails to allocate time to prepare for proficiency stunts his own growth.
Furthermore, while the Master of the Lodge may meet with the Brethren as an equal, his duties grant him far greater authority over the Lodge than others. Therefore, in this context we cannot say he is “equal”. None in Masonry could argue the Grand Master’s authority supersedes all other individual voices in the Grand Lodge, nor the fact that he has significantly more responsibility. The Grand Master is a Brother and always meets, acts, and parts equally as every other Brother, but he is not “equal”, he is the Grand Master. Nonetheless, every Brother is afforded the same equal opportunities as those afforded to the Grand Master which allow us all to grow in Freemasonry.
So, just as Data is fighting for the equal opportunity to live and grow, we learn that achieving true Masonic equality rest more with the individual and his inter-drive to grow both mentally and spiritually. The measure of a man is then in part measured by his individual effort to exercise true equality in all aspects and nature of the word.
There is no denying that men are often judged by the amount of worldly wealth they have amassed. We hear of a man described as a poor man; a rich man; a man of substance or property; a man of means or comfortably off. Quite often the measure of a man’s success in life is the measure of his material possessions.
Deep set in the heart of every man, there is an acquisitive instinct which compels him not only to surround himself with things which he regards as valuable, but also to defend the objects he has acquired, from anyone who would seek to deprive him of them.
Man is not to be blamed for this instinct. Mother-nature has endowed him with this gift as a necessary part of his self-preservation equipment. Man is, however, to be blamed for allowing his life to be dominated by one instinct instead of subduing his primitive impulses and harmonising them into a good working team, under the leadership of sweet reason. Undue attention to the acquisitive instinct leaves a man groping blindly for satisfaction in a world of plenty. He may even gain the whole world and lose his soul.
He is also to be blamed for measuring successful living by the amount of things acquired; but it is so easy to see and touch the tangible assets. To assess in terms of quantity is mentally easy, because the message is conveyed to the mind through the senses. This is known as perceptual or sensory thinking, and is thought on its lowest plane… the kind of thinking we share with the animals. It concerns itself almost wholly with the physical life.
One of the earliest lessons in Freemasonry instructs the candidate that riches and property do not form the basis of measurement of a man’s worth. There is the frank admission that in a society so widely extended as Freemasonry, there are members of rank and affluence and there is the still franker admission that there are many members who are reduced to the lowest ebb of poverty and distress.
Charity is inculcated as of paramount importance as the cementing power of brotherhood, or that trusteeship of material wealth, which enables the fortunate brother to share without condescension or patronage the burdens of a less fortunate brother. Every brother acknowledging the common Fatherhood of man must by sheer logic answer affirmatively the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
So every candidate for Freemasonry is divested of all moneys and metallic substances and is even deprived of the blessing of material light in order that he may be taught in a dramatic and symbolical manner what a good Freemason understands as the correct place in the scheme of things for worldly possessions. He learns that material wealth is incidental to living, and must indeed be regarded not only as a privilege but also a responsibility.
Henceforth as a Freemason, the gift of worldly possessions, like all other gifts must be purified and dedicated to a nobler purpose than self-aggrandisement.
He is taught in no uncertain terms that a man is not esteemed in a Freemason’s Lodge on account of his worldly possessions, for in the Lodge all men are equal. As brothers, this is obviously correct, for if there is a flaw in the logic of this tenet, then the whole system of Freemasonry would rest on a fallacy.
The only injunction regarding worldly possessions given to a man, young in Freemasonry, is that he shall dedicate himself to such pursuits as will enable him to continue respectable in his life. This is a very noble conception of the place of wealth in the scheme of life. It is to receive sufficient attention from a man, as to enable him to preserve his self-respect and hold his head up among his fellows, but is not to become a dominating and driving force in his life.
The initiate in a state of helpless indigence is properly prepared to receive the startling truth that in the Lodge all men are equal, meeting on the level and parting on the square. In the future he is to be as masonically rich as the monarch, who does not think it derogatory from his dignity to exchange the sceptre for the trowel. His equality with the brethren of the Craft the world over is explained to him in a very plain and convincing language.
It is that part of Masonic instruction, which is not veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.
He is received into the Lodge, held firmly in the bondage of ignorance, and I think he must very soon after his entrance be comforted and thrilled by the request the brethren make on his behalf to the G.A.O.T.U.
“Endue him with such a competency of Thy Divine Wisdom, that assisted by the secrets of our Masonic art, he may the better unfold the beauties of true Godliness to the honour and glory of thy Holy Name.”
Here in one powerful supplication is the revelation to the candidate of the source of our equality, the store house of the wealth which the brethren are willing to share with him, and the purpose for which this new wealth is to be used.
Here he comes face to face with Masonic truth. There is a transference of emphasis from things material and temporal, to things spiritual and eternal. He finds that a man’s worth will be measured by the quality of his spiritual and mental worth. He has been received into a society of men, who prize truth, honour and virtue above the advantages of rank and fortune. No longer is the quantitative analysis important. The qualitative aspect has superseded it. Material things no longer count. Ideals take precedence and we have man’s motive taken to the higher plane of conceptual or constructive thinking, which is the differentiation between man and beast. It is that power which was given to man when he was made in the likeness of the Great Architect and it is for a full competency of that Divine spark which we supplicate.
The most important aspect of his entry into Freemasonry is that membership alone is not sufficient. It is not the brethren who will ensure for the candidate the blessing of a full and useful life. This task is left to the candidate himself. The wealth of a noble mind is not presented gratis to the candidate merely because he has joined.
Only the way is opened for him. The Personal Spiritual Journey.
He must do the travelling himself. In the supplication the words” that he may the better unfold” are significant. Indeed, he is told that the initiation ceremony is but the foundation on which he himself must build his own superstructure perfect in its parts and honourable to the builder. He has qualified by a general desire for knowledge, and by a sincere wish founded on worthy motives to be ranked among the members, and he has been well and worthily recommended as a fit man to participate in the richness of Masonic experience… but the task of attaining to that richness and fullness of life, is left almost entirely with him.
Freemasonry will assist him, but the effort remains as an individual one.
So we find in the ritual, instructions which are the last word in directness. The new brother is left in no doubt whatever, as to how the effort is to be made. He cannot at the end of any ceremony feel bewildered as to what is expected of him. The demands on his effort are unmistakable, direct and final. They are unequivocal.
First and foremost he is to use the V.O.S.L. not keep it as an ornament. He must regulate his actions by its divine precepts. Thus he can always know whether his effort to become rich, is proceeding according to the plan of unerring truth and justice. He is not told to understand or contemplate the moral, social, civic and domestic virtues, but actively to practice them.
So strong are the instructions that at one point he is told to be exemplary in the discharge of his duties…not merely faithfully obedient, but so active in interpreting the spirit of the law, that his conduct besides being correct is an example to others. He must keep his emotional life under control by following rigorously a prudent and well-regulated course of discipline, such as to preserve his mental and physical faculties in their fullest energies so that he can exert the talents with which he has been blessed.
He must keep within the length of his cable tow by making quite sure that none of his actions overstep the boundaries set down by the four cardinal virtues of Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice. He is to value education for its own sake….as a polish or adornment to the life of the spirit enabling him to delve more deeply into the hidden stores of rich and happy human experience. He is to study such of the liberal arts and sciences as fall within the compass of his attainments.
And so, one might go on showing, not only from the first, but also from the second and third degrees, examples of plain demands made by the Craft on a brother who would attain the great and valuable privilege of true Masonic living.
So many and so great are the efforts demanded that even in the first degree a man might be pardoned for thinking that the task set is beyond him. Were we gifted with a mortal life seven times the allotted span of three score and ten, we could never measure up to the Masonic ideal.
Herein lies the great strength of Freemasonry. The possibilities are unlimited. It is for each one of us to decide how far he will make his own the treasures of character which Freemasonry offers us. We enter the Craft of our own free will and accord, as free men, and we remain free.
At no time does Freemasonry reduce us to servitude to an institution. The exercise of free will is never taken from us. Each must decide for himself how great his effort will be, but each must also realize that his attainment will always be commensurate with his effort.
In the last analysis it is to the G.A.O.T.U. that we must measure up. The quantitative results of our earthly striving will remain behind. We cannot take them with us. We shall stand in the Grand Lodge above still in a state of helpless indigence, but we shall take with us the qualitative result of our earthly striving. As the spirit has grown, so will it stand for judgement. He will be a happy Craftsman who, on rendering an account of his stewardship in the Grand Lodge above, receives that highest of all commendations,
“Well done, true and faithful servant.”
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