Now open to the public, the Chamber of Reflection at the Grand Lodge of Masons of Massachusetts, in Boston.Posted on 08/26/2009 9:58:37 AM PDT by BGHater
A replica of a mildewed 14th- century scroll has been unfurled and displayed at a library in New York. An eagle clutching arrows and ribbons, on a tattered flag made around 1803, has just been restored and framed for viewing at a Philadelphia museum. Near Boston a museum exhibition decodes cryptic symbols like compasses and columns embossed on metal badges and embroidered onto aprons.
That the public is now being enthusiastically shown these previously hidden-away items indicates that Freemasons in America are trying to shed their reclusive, somewhat fusty image. Tour guides at the groups’ lavishly ornamented lodges, mostly built around 1900, are explaining ceremonial rituals in newly restored rooms with murals of ancient builders polishing stones and vitrines full of gold pendants and domed velvet hats.
“We’re trying to help more people hear our story accurately,” said H. Robert Huke, the communications and development director at the Grand Lodge of Masons of Massachusetts, an 1899 state headquarters in downtown Boston covered in sunburst mosaics. When curiosity seekers get to visit Masonic rooms, he added, “they’re less inclined to think we’re trying to control the world and run the banks.”
Freemasons have been portrayed as conspirators in books like Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” and “The Lost Symbol” (due on Sept. 15) and the “National Treasure” movies starring Nicolas Cage. The truth is less entertaining. Founded around 1600 by British stonemasons, the men-only clubs hold closed sessions mainly to teach ecumenical ethics codes and raise money for charity, especially medical care. On their lodge walls and ceremonial clothing, motifs like eyes, beehives and drafting tools refer to virtues like steadfastness, tolerance and industriousness.
Now open to the public, the Chamber of Reflection at the Grand Lodge of Masons of Massachusetts, in Boston.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You are not getting it. The local archdiocese granted the annulment, but they were overruled by the Vatican.
I am getting it.
Your point is irrelevant to the point of un-earned honors or favors, be it from the RCCor whomever.
I am not casting dispursions at the RCC.
I could have just as easily used John Kerry and his fake Bronze Stars, as an example, but Kennedy is in the news.
Read Pike’s book.
It’s full of Luciferianism.
Also, in my book, the white lambskin in the Blue Lodge ritual qualifies as “pagan trash” (your words).
The white lambskin of the Blue Lodge ritual represents the Lamb of Judea that was sacrificed for our sins, by whose sacrifice we are made clean, and not through any act of our own.
That’s Jesus Christ, BTW.
If Jesus Christ is “pagan trash” to you, you’ve got problems.
Does the lodge teach that truth to all masons, whether they be Jew, Muslim or agnostic?
Do they expect and require verbal expression of that truth?
“Does the lodge teach that truth to all masons, whether they be Jew, Muslim or agnostic?”
Not sure an agnostic could join, and muslims would undoubtedly be confused, but, yes, what the lambskin represents is printed in the monitor of the lodge, which is supplied to every mason. It’s very publically available.
“Do they expect and require verbal expression of that truth?”
No, if they chose to reject that truth, that’s between them and God. We’re a mere fraternity, not a religion.
The more the ‘mysteries’ are revealed the more Freemasonry will be undermined and diminished.
I’m opposed to all this ‘secret telling’ business. Preserve tradition and the order.
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