A SELF ASSESSMENT OF OUR CRAFT

Jaycee C. Negron S.W.

subpar meals, the lack fellowship opportunities, and the deplorable condition of

our Masonic Lodges? We do it all the time. In fact, it is a common topic among

many Freemasons outside the Lodge. Still, we seem to be suffering from a sort of

cognitive dissonance that prevent us from learning from the mistakes that led us

here in the first place. We seem unwilling to do what the ancient esoteric

institutions did with great success; imparting knowledge which led to wisdom, in a

process that resulted in the making of better men. We don’t teach the “Spirit of

Freemasonry” anymore and for that reason, many Masons don’t understand how

unique Freemasonry is.

On my way home from Masonic event, I find myself wondering how we got

here. How can so many members continue to sit through unpleasantly mediocre

events month after month, year after year and still believe that our fraternity

maintains some kind of relevancy and adds any meaningful value to its

membership or to the community? Are we being honest to ourselves and to those

potential candidates that come knocking on our door looking for what is supposed

to be a life changing experience?

better in any way, when we continue to make the same mistakes, same practices

and promote the same behaviors our brethren made in the past? The same

mistakes which brought us to this sad situation today. I believe we need to be

honest to ourselves and conduct a self-assessment of our fraternity and of the

results it has achieved in our own lives. Are we really better men today than we

were before we embarked on this journey or are we just fooling the world and

ourselves?

Freemasonry claims to achieve in men a transformative experience, but

that statement requires certain measurable results to sustain that claim as an

absolute truth. Self-improvement requires measurable change. It requires

measurable progress, and it should bring about a noticeable and quantifiable

degree of personal transformation. We ought to begin this self-assessment of the

Craft, by evaluating our own Masonic experience since our initiation into the

fraternity. You should explore how your Lodge assisted or facilitated your self-

improvement, if it does not offer its members anything different than what is

already available outside the Masonic Lodge?

organization. They see it as a way of associating themselves with men of good

character and similar religious, political and social beliefs. Others join because

they have a calling for the charitable aspects of the organization, and they

concentrate their energy into this aspect of freemasonry. Then you have the ones

who join and realize that ritual gives them structure and discipline. They find

refuge in a well-choreographed ritual from the chaos they experience in life.

Every one of these men have a role to play within our organization. They are

all necessary and very important to our fraternity. The brothers who joined

because of the fraternal aspects are the ones who serve as the bridge between

our organization and our communities. Those who enjoy the charitable aspects of

Freemasonry go on to do great things for our communities and society in general.

The brethren who found refuge and structure in ritual, play a very important role

within the Craft. These Brothers are the ones who preserve the ritual and the

ones who make sure future generations will be able to enjoy all “Rights, Lights and

Benefits of our beloved organization.

But in the past ten years or so, a different type of men has been walking

through the doors of some Masonic Lodges. These men had a calling. They came
in because they looked for answers to their questions everywhere else and

neither their friends, civic leaders, nor even their religious institutions were able

to answer. These men are not driven by dogma or by superstition. They are driven

by a sincere hunger for knowledge. These men are voracious consumers of

literature, philosophy, theology, and history. They identified Freemasonry as a

source of all these disciplines and walked through the doors ready to experience

and to dive in her mysteries. These Brothers are the students of Freemasonry.

They are very misunderstood by many Freemasons and even accused of being

troublemakers and being spurious and non-traditional Masons.

Nothing can be further from the truth. These Brothers are not trying to

bring innovations to Craft Masonry. They are fighting to restore Craft Masonry to

what it was intended to be. They understand the value of what they have and see

the potential it has for bringing about change in men and in our society. I consider

myself one of these men. I was once a very disappointed Entered Apprentice who

came looking for something special. Something I was convinced I could not get

somewhere else. I found nothing of the sort. I had many questions that went

unanswered. Very few could answer my questions and those who tried could only

cite what was already explained in our ceremony of initiation. I don’t know if you

can imagine the extend of my disappointment. I seriously thought I had made a

ever thought about.

I was assured that if I learned my catechism and advanced to the next

degree, some of my questions will be answered. I was told to be patient. So, that I

did. I learned my catechism and turned in an almost flawless proficiency

examination. After my fellowcraft degree, instead of answers, I ended up with

even more questions that again, no one was able to answer in a coherent manner.

I again became frustrated and considered leaving Freemasonry. I made the

comment to a few of the brethren, and I was once again reminded that to

understand Freemasonry I had to complete the program. So, once again I set out

to work and learned my fellowcraft work and turned in my proficiency, still not

knowing what Freemasonry was about and with just a very superficial

understanding of the symbolism of the Entered Apprentice and Fellowcraft

degrees.

When I was finally “Raised” the sublime degree, I was told that I was now

entitled to all the “Light” the Lodge can bestow. I already had my doubts because

so far, I have not received the “Light” of the E.A. Degree, nor had I received the

“Further Light” of the F.C. Degree but now I was being promised “All the Light” the
Lodge can bestow. Well, there I was. I have gone through the degrees of

Freemasonry and now earned the title of Master Mason. The problem was that I

knew nothing about Freemasonry and now I am considered a Master. A Master of

what exactly? It was at this time when I realized that if I wanted to learn

Masonry’s secrets, I had to search them myself. No one I asked had a clue. Some

had decades in the organization and were great at making excuses for not

knowing anything passed the monitor and the ritual. I decided that I was going to

dedicate my time to read as much as I could and to learn as much as I could learn,

so that any person that walk through our door in the future did not have to suffer

the disappointment I just experienced. You see my dear brethren, the most

important discovery I made while searching for the “Secrets of Freemasonry” was

that Freemasonry doesn’t really teach you anything at all. Freemasonry is a

roadmap that points the student to where the real teachings are contained. The

authors of our Masonic ritual left breadcrumbs for us to follow.

Freemasonry is a combination of multiple esoteric systems which existed

from antiquity. To understand these lessons, there are tasks we must complete

and internal work to be done to get ready for the next. Sadly, we have lost the

ability to explain the design left for us by the Grand Master. We have forgotten

how to read that tracing board and the result is a building without foundation and
with loosely stacked stones that will come crashing down with the slightest gust of

wind. But not everything is lost. We have an opportunity to correct the failures of

the past, but we must first change how we view ourselves and how we view the

Craft.

There is nothing common, average, or mediocre about our organization’s

stated purpose. Freemasonry was founded on certain overt and covert principles.

It is a system which provides a roadmap for humanity to find itself. To remember

who we are and where we came from. These teachings are encoded deep within

our ritual, under layers of symbology, allegorical stories, astronomical teachings,

and theological references which point to other sources of knowledge. The way

we make men better is not by memorizing ritual, giving money to those in need or

making lifelong friends over spaghetti and green beans dinners. They way

Freemasonry makes men better is by giving us an opportunity to transform

ourselves into bearers of “Divine Light.”

The Masonic journey is a journey that teaches men the events which cause

our fall from our original state of union with divinity and gives us the roadmap to

return to that union. That path is not an easy path, and it requires a lot of work. It

requires a system which reveals certain truths to those who follow the path and
do the work. Masonry is a progressive science, and it reveals it secrets to her

students according to their ability to understand them. Lucky for us, she gives us

the key to the cypher within her pages. In three life altering ceremonies she lays

out the roadmap to be followed by her students.

Each degree requires both a level of work and a requirement to prove that

we are worthy of the next level of spiritual awareness. Without it, we may be able

to go through the ceremonies, but the ceremonies will never have the impact they

were designed to have in our lives. Such an important and solemn undertaking is

not something average or mediocre. In fact, nothing about Freemasonry is so why

do we make it so? As an organization, we put ourselves into this precarious

position in which we accepted and normalized mediocrity in our Lodges and

settled for a cheapened Masonic experience.

I will give you one common mistake I see in my own Lodge and in other

Lodges I have visited. A prospective candidate walks through our door and asks

about Freemasonry. He wants to know the qualifications for membership, what is

the Freemasonry all about, and what is the process he needs to follow to become

a member. This is where we make the first mistake. Either out of fear or out of

ignorance, we go out of our way to sanitize what Freemasonry is all about. We talk
about being the one of the oldest and largest “Fraternal” organizations in the

world. We tell them about the charitable aspects of Freemasonry and how we

contribute millions of dollars to help our communities and the country in general.

We love to point out the Shriners and Scottish Rite Hospitals and the scholarships

we give to deserving students every year.

We ask the prospective candidate the reasons why he is thinking about

becoming a Freemason and we normally get the same type of answers because

our questions are not properly formulated. They always repeat what they have

heard from other people in their families or what they heard from a YouTube

video clip: “I want to become a better man and be engaged in making society

better.” We inquire about his marital status and about his believe in a supreme

power and once they answer these questions, we invite them to come back for a

few weeks to meet and greet the brethren and to bring their kids and spouses for

dinner.

After a short conversation with this stranger which just walked in from the

street, we proceed to give them a tour of the Lodge, show them the wall with all

the past masters and talk about the Lodge’s history. This person has not yet met

the minimum requirements to become a Freemason. No investigation has been

our consecrated space and shown our Lodge rooms and the symbols there

displayed without us having yet assessed his intentions and worthiness.

In our initiation ceremony, the candidate enters the Lodge room with his

eyes covered… in total darkness. We teach them that one of the reasons he is

placed in that vulnerable position is to ensure that if he is found unworthy to

continue with the ceremony, that he can be removed without beholding the

“Forms and Beauty” thereof. So, if a worthy candidate who has been investigated

and found worthy to be initiated is made to take the first few steps of his Masonic

journey in total darkness; why do we allow a prophane person to enter and be

shown such a special space? The answer to that is, we don’t consider it that

important. The Lodge room does not have sufficient meaning to us, and we are

completely unaware that by engaging in such a “simple” act of good faith, we are

cheapening the Craft. We are giving away for free something which should be

earned.

To many, that which is obtained without a cost is not considered valuable.

Think about that for a moment. I am absolutely opposed to this practice. I wish

my brethren would see it that way. We are setting up that prospective candidate
for failure from day one, by the mere act of giving him access to a space which

should be considered sacred and to be discovered after having prove himself

worthy. I don’t know about you, but I petitioned to receive the “Mysteries” of

Freemasonry, not the “Degrees” of Freemasonry as the petition reads today. We

must use every opportunity that comes our way to express how special our

Freemasonry is. We don’t have a lack of interests in Freemasonry hindering our

membership numbers. We have a “Branding” problem.

We have lost sight of our own value, either by ignorance or by apathy. The

level at which the majority of Masonic Lodges are operating today is a far cry from

how they performed in years past. A Lodge in which the most intellectually

stimulating event is a short talk on Masonic Lodge Protocol or perhaps a five-

minute talk on the working tools is not an effective Lodge. Nothing insightful,

compelling, intellectual, contemplative, or any meaning fellowship occurs within

our buildings. We maintain the body of Freemasonry, but the spirit left long time

ago. How can we continue to tell the world that we take good men and make

them better? Is this what we have to offer to our friends, family, and our

communities?
 The future of our Lodges and of Freemasonry rest on us today. We cannot

continue to do what we have been doing, because what has been done over and

over, brought us to where we are today. We need to take the helm and correct our

course. We can no longer settle for mediocrity or accept someone else’s

expectations. Specially when that someone else is not even active in the Lodge or

when that person is an avid supporter of the status quo. Sometimes, the best way

to remove a Band-Aid is to hold your breath, count to three and rip it off at once.

We must find ways to distinguish ourselves from other fraternal

organizations and that process starts with changing the perception we have of

ourselves. We must start by believing that being a Freemasons is something worth

our time, money, and effort. A special group which offers something no one else

can offer. Something worth waiting for. But how do we get there? Well, we will not

get there by continuing to do what we have done in the past 60 years. We must

make some drastic changes to the way we think about ourselves, the way we

speak about ourselves and the way we present ourselves to the public and to our

own members. There is no easy way to turn the ship around, but the rewards are

great if we manage to complete the task.

relics from the past. We must apply these lessons in our lives and complete the

work laid out by the G.A.O.T.U. on the master’s board. We must become examples

that young men want to emulate, because they see how Freemasonry worked in

our lives and how the wisdom obtained from our teachings made our lives and

the lives of those around us better.

“The choice always controls the chooser. To be exemplary men, or an

exemplary organization, we must be exceptional in our awareness of who we

are, what we are here to do, what we know, and how we practice what we

know. We must have the courage to be different from the rest of the crowd,

nobler in our expectations and more refined in our way of thinking.” ~Robert G.

Davis PGM Oklahoma.

This is how we rise above the ocean of Masonic mediocrity. This is how we

set our new course!

So Mote It Be!