by Brother C R "CHUCK" DUNNING JR

Originally published in the September 2020 edition
of The Oklahoma Scottish Rite Mason magazine.


 

The title of this piece highlights a theme of immense importance in the Scottish Rite, a theme of wisdom, strength, and beauty that is sorely needed in present times. Many of our degrees confer the title of Knight on their initiates, and teach impressive lessons on the noble virtues Masonic knights should embody and the principles they should serve. We shall examine what the Scottish Rite teaches about those virtues and principles, and how we can employ those lessons for the benefit of all.

Just as Craft Masonry makes speculative use of the language and imagery of operative stonemasonry and architecture, so does the Scottish Rite symbolically employ stories and scenes of knighthood as allegories for making ourselves better human beings. Properly understood, the path of Masonic knighthood does not lead us to become literal warriors ready to do violence against other people. Instead, we honor and seek to emulate the chivalric virtues of discipline, devotion, courage, and perseverance in service to our highest ideals.

Every good knight of old served a cause, creed, or tenets valued as more important than one’s own life. Such a reference point provided inspiration to begin great quests and campaigns, direction when the path seemed unclear or confusing, and motivation during bleak times of frustration and despair. As Masonic knights, we should remember our Principal Tenets are Truth, Relief, and Brotherly Love, and not only for each other, but for everyone. As a traditional closing charge for the Blue Lodge puts it, “all persons have a claim upon your kind offices.” Within the Scottish Rite, this ethos is expanded upon by our official creed:

Human progress is our cause, liberty of thought our supreme wish, freedom of conscience our mission, and the guarantee of equal rights to all people everywhere our ultimate goal.

What does it mean to be a spiritual warrior with such a lofty creed? To be a warrior presumes an enemy. So, who or what are our enemies? In the 30th Degree, Knight Kadosh, we learn they are always ignorance, fanaticism, and tyranny. We are taught that we should not only fight against these destructive forces, but that we also have a duty to protect, defend, and liberate those who are oppressed by them. But, if we are to be speculative knights rather than operative combatants, we must understand that our battles are not waged by taking up literal arms to shed blood. Our campaigns are of the heart and mind, first and foremost within ourselves, and then in the way we conduct ourselves with others.

Just as an actual knight was prepared to leave behind his home and family and shed his own blood, so we too may be called to make great sacrifices for our ideals. Wielding the sword of truth and justice within ourselves, we must be willing to confront, acknowledge, and battle with our own ignorance, prejudice, intolerance, cruelty, and arrogance. We find these inner “enemies” lurking within the shadows of our own souls, such as in our wish to appear more knowledgeable or certain than we actually are, in the temptation to feel proud and self-righteous in comparison to others, or in the desire to “win” an argument rather than have mutually beneficial dialogue. We also find these ruffians in our unquestioning submission to our religious and political communities, or siding with them to the point of ignoring their own shortcomings and failings while exaggerating those of other communities.

Behind all these conflicts, we find very ordinary human fears, and the understandable instinct to protect ourselves and loved ones from the threats we perceive, and easily imagine, in this complicated world. Fear is always behind the armor of our defensiveness, yet the more we try to shield ourselves behind the appearance of toughness and fearlessness, the more fragile and defensive we become. These conditions produce even more conflict within oneself and with others, which leads to further pain and fear. Therefore, a spiritual warrior’s first duty is to face one’s own fears with genuine courage, not in the misguided attempt to destroy them, but to accept and understand them, and find constructive, healthy, life-affirming ways to manage them. The extent to which we have come to reasonable terms with our own fears determines the extent to which we are able to authentically respond with the “kind offices” of Truth, Relief, and Brotherly Love to the fears of others, even to their fears of us and our communities. READ MORE...

Have photos from lodge? Email them to submissions@la-mason.com


UPCOMING EVENTS
Send us your upcoming lodge events!
If you have an upcoming lodge event you would like
featured here in future issues, please use this submission form. 

 

For Checks: Tax-deductible donations can be made through the Masonic Library/Museum Foundation
(501 (c)3 / Fed. I.D. #27.1366610) -. Please include "Hurricane Relief" in Memo section.

 

 

The influence of the Irish in America is identified today with the more than four million Southern Irish immigrants, mainly Catholic, who dominated 19th and 20th century migration. But the pattern in the 18th century was different—and fundamentally so. 

In this presentation, presented in partnership with Quatuor Coronati, the premier lodge of Masonic research, Dr. Ric Berman tracks the impact of the 350,000 Scots-Irish and London Irish who migrated to America between 1730 and 1800, settling in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, the Piedmont (the western parts of North and South Carolina), and the emergent states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. 

This wave of migration was instrumental in introducing Antients Freemasonry to America and blending it with English—or “Moderns”—Freemasonry to create a new form of American Masonry.

Dr. Berman is a widely published author and Masonic expert. His books include The Foundations of Modern Freemasonry; Schism: A study of Antients Freemasonry; Loyalists & Malcontents; Espionage, Diplomacy and the Lodge; and From Roanoke to Raleigh. He is currently working on a history of America’s Grand Lodge of England-appointed colonial Grand Masters.

Dr. Berman is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Life Fellow of the Huguenot Society, and a visiting research fellow at Oxford Brookes University. In addition to his books, he has written numerous journal articles and delivered lectures at Masonic conferences and academic symposia globally. A Freemason for over 40 years, he holds grand rank in the United Grand Lodge of England and is a past master of Quatuor Coronati. He is also a DC Freemason and a member of Fiat Lux No. 1717.

If you have an upcoming lodge event you would like 
featured here in future issues, please use this submission form.