Freemasonry vs. Masonry

When you separate the Organization of Freemasonry from the Craft of Masonry you start to see the differences.

What can be done to improve both?

Horrifying Bert!

When we take allegorical stories, and try to pass them off as literal, the results can be horrifying!

Can you give an example of a story that should be taken allegorically, but instead is taken literally?

Abiff Character

Hiram Abiff may be a centric character to Freemasonry, but the story surrounding him is not.

How far back can you trace the origins of this story, and what parallels to other stories can be made?

Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat had all of the answers, but refused to cite any of his sources, or explain how he understood.

"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here.  I'm mad.  You're mad."

- Lewis Carroll

Rabbit Hole

Alice was so focused on finding out what was at the bottom of the Rabbit Hole...

...that she didn't take the time to gain the knowledge necessary to understand what she was really looking for.

Contributing Authors

John Theophilus Desaguliers
(12 March 1683 – 29 February 1744)

Elias Ashmole

(23rd May, 1617 - 18th May 1692)

William Preston

(7 August 1742 – 1 April 1818)

Rev. James Anderson, D.D.,

(c.1680 - May 28, 1739)

If you want to know where you're going, you have to know where you've been.

What do you know about their contributions to the craft?

Bacon Wrapped Filet

Masonic Ritual comes from a list of "contributing authors."

Many put their different influences into the mystery play, the ritual, the Hiramic Legend, and so forth.  This continued until it is what it is today.

You might say our ritual is like a Filet Mignon.  A choice cut of beef, wrapped in Bacon.

Parable, Allegory, and Metaphor

What types of figurative language do these three images represent?

Can you explain the differences between them?

Extra Bacon

“I have held up a light in the obscurity of Philosophy, which will be seen centuries after I am dead.  It will be seen amidst the erection of Tombs, Theatres, Foundations, Temples, Orders and Fraternities for nobility and obedience — the establishment of good laws as an example to the World. For I am not raising a Capitol or Pyramid to the Pride of men, but laying a foundation in the human understanding for a holy Temple after the model of the World. For my memory I leave it to Men’s charitable speeches, to foreign Nations and the next Ages, and to my own Country after some Time has elapsed.”

- Francis Bacon

Advancement of Learning (1605), Bk II