The Masons Are Coming

Good Luck,

Got my initiation March 26. Fingers crossed.

Originally posted by stumason
I am a Mason, in fact my entire family are Masons......excluding my daughter, she is a Mason-Healey....

I STILL love that joke

Yeah, I love the one:
You could tell your wife, but then you'd have to kill her, joke,

But I guess all you Masons would just be giving the old man props for honesty, huh?

Wow, can I join this club too! I can't wait to have a couple guys come over to interview my family, so as to help prove my worth for being incepted into a club! Yipppie. I remember a similar experience: when I was 9 and we had a neighbourhood treehouse club.

Originally posted by freudling
Wow, can I join this club too! I can't wait to have a couple guys come over to interview my family, so as to help prove my worth for being incepted into a club! Yipppie. I remember a similar experience: when I was 9 and we had a neighbourhood treehouse club.

Firstly, nobody is asking you to join. Any man who wants to join does so of his own volition. If he decides that he doesn't want to discuss his reasons for joining then he can't complain if he's not accepted, can he?
Secondly, you get interviewed for everything in this world. You need to fill in forms just to rent a video. Join any organisation and the chances are that you will have to supply information about yourself.
Sure you can single out Freemasonry and deny reality, but maybe you should still be sitting in that treehouse instead?



[edit on 8-2-2005 by Leveller]

Originally posted by Leveller
Sure you can single out Freemasonry and deny reality, but maybe you should still be sitting in that treehouse instead?

I think these boys are active members in the Incoherently Driveling International Order of Trolls (I.D.I.O.T.); their meeting places are generally under bridges, not in trees...


Do you guys just get off on insulting and degrading organizations and people who value honor, or are you just really that immature and clueless?

Dadgummit did I say the 2nd its the 8th. My new watch reads backwards to the one I have worn for ten years. Yeah the guy bailed out on em, when they asked him to put on his PJs and remove all metals, (standard procedure) he freaked out .


My FC is definitely tonight the 8th not the 2nd, oh well so much for improving I still have a ways to go I guess.

Congrats on making the step to FC.

After tonight you'll be 2/3 of the way there...next stop MM'ville

Originally posted by TgSoe
Well I guess now I'll just try to become a Master Mason first and see where the river leads. I might enter the Scottish Rite later as I am a Huge fan of Masonist Albert Pike.

I know very little about Mr. Pike, and hope you can fill me in on a couple things. I have read opposing views on his having a large part in the development of the KKK. Do you believe that he was involved, or that those who claim he had nothing to do with it are correct? Also, I have read that he apparently tried to edit, amend, or change certain Masonic traditions. Is that something you have any info. on? Other than that, all I know of him is that he was apparently a successful lawyer, and an often quoted, accomplished orator with many admirers. Also, there is supposedly a statue of him in either Washington, DC, or New York, I can't recall which?

Originally posted by BlackGuardXIII

I know very little about Mr. Pike, and hope you can fill me in on a couple things. I have read opposing views on his having a large part in the development of the KKK. Do you believe that he was involved, or that those who claim he had nothing to do with it are correct?

As a Fellowcraft Mason I have found none of the claims of the anti-masons to be correct. I'm not really the person to ask though, I am not allowed to sit in on on a regular lodge meeting until I get my 3rd degree. I would say right now that the accusations are false and probably made up by some angry person who's petition was rejected.

Originally posted by BlackGuardXIII
I know very little about Mr. Pike, and hope you can fill me in on a couple things.

www.masonicinfo.com...

A lot of attention focuses on Pike because his book "Morals and Dogma" is the tool that anti-Masons use when they want to attack Freemasonry. In reality, his influence in Freemasonry was restricted to the Southern states of the US.

"Morals and Dogma" itself is a philisophical work where Pike gives his own interpretation of Freemasonry. It is very heavy reading and it is doubtful wether even most of the Freemasons in Pike's small sphere of influence have read it, let alone those who use it to attack the Order - the anti-mason normally just picks passages from the web and uses those as a weapon. Most of the time these passages have either been corrupted, altered or taken completely out of context.

Pike has absolutely no influence over Freemasonry as a whole. If you were to ask any Freemason outside of the US who he was, I would be suprised if many could tell you. He simply doesn't figure outside of the area where he practiced his Freemasonry. Anti-masons would like you to ignore this fact and they use Pike as if his words speak for the whole of Freemasonry. This is a double deception. They twist his words and apply them where they have no meaning. That's not to say that Pike's work shouldn't be recognised as great literature - far from it. But he only gets the vast majority of his recognition because of the anti-masons.

As for the Klu Klux Klan? There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Pike was involved in it's creation or was ever a member. In fact, history shows otherwise. The subject has been discussed here on ATS and there has never been one solid fact to show that Pike and the KKK were linked in any way.

I didnt realy see a point in starting a brand new thread for this so I figured I would post it here. I filled out my pettion the other day. It was read at last nights stated meeting. i am hoping to hear from my interviewers soon.

Most of the people who post in this forum wont know me from adam but alot of my decision to join was based on conversations with a few of you via u2U. Just wanted to say thanks guys. BTW WTH was up with the broken pencil? That one kinda confused me.

Originally posted by zombiemann
BTW WTH was up with the broken pencil? That one kinda confused me.

Did you get a broken pencil as well or are you asking me what the deal was with it?

If you got one as well you'll find out soon enough what its all about.

Originally posted by BlackGuardXIII


I know very little about Mr. Pike, and hope you can fill me in on a couple things. I have read opposing views on his having a large part in the development of the KKK. Do you believe that he was involved, or that those who claim he had nothing to do with it are correct?

There is no evidence that Pike was ever affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan. He did not mention the group in any of his writings, nor did any original Klan documents mention Pike.

Also, I have read that he apparently tried to edit, amend, or change certain Masonic traditions. Is that something you have any info. on?

In the early 1860's, the Supreme Council 33° of the Scottish Rite appointed a committee to revise the degree rituals under its jurisdiction (4° - 33°). Pike was appointed chairman of the committee, and did practically all of the work himself. At the time he was a 32° member, but was given the 33° probably so he could revise it.

He was elected Grand Commander of the Supreme Council several years later, and revised them a few more times before his death in 1891.

Also, there is supposedly a statue of him in either Washington, DC, or New York, I can't recall which?

The National Albert Pike Memorial is located across from the U.S. Department of Labor in Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C.

A photo of the monument can be seen here.

No i havent gotten one. I havent even been interviewed yet. I was just wondering becuase nobody ever explained it

I was wondering last night who actually wrote the rituals for the first 3 degrees of Masonry. Do you have any clue? And how long have they been exactly the way they are today?

Originally posted by TgSoe
I was wondering last night who actually wrote the rituals for the first 3 degrees of Masonry. Do you have any clue? And how long have they been exactly the way they are today?

The actual rituals of today are based on the medieval operative stonemason rituals, but philosophical flourishes began to be added in the 1600's, probably by many different people. The Lectures used are generally derivations from Webb and Cross.

Each jurisdiction uses a slightly a different ritual, but all the basics were in place by the mid 1720's.

Originally posted by TgSoe

Originally posted by zombiemann
BTW WTH was up with the broken pencil? That one kinda confused me.

Did you get a broken pencil as well or are you asking me what the deal was with it?

If you got one as well you'll find out soon enough what its all about.

I haven't heard or seen anything about a broken pencil yet, what's up with that? Hmm... If I know Masons there is some kind of symbolism there; damned if I can imagine what it is though. I will say that the Texas petition is ALOT different than the one in Arkansas. No spaces for personal references (there were 5 on the AR petition), and they want to know where you've lived and worked for the last fifteen years; SS#, are you married, have you been married, if so where does your ex-wife live, dependents addresses, have you ever changed your name, if so when and where, the whole deal... Other than that it's all pretty basic, no coercion, mercenary objectives, do you have a belief in a Supreme Being, Divine Truth of the Scripture, belief in the Constitution and so on...

Stated meeting was cool. The OES cooked up some good grub for the meeting and the guys were nice... Some of them were a tad quiet but here I am just walking in off the street not knowing anyone, what do you expect? I tried to give them a heads up that I was coming and all but it was still a little awkward until we sat down to eat and got to visiting. Again, they assumed that I was ignorant to the whole business, which I'm not, but that's OK, I got my petition and met the officers and some PMs so all in all it went well I think. Still gotta wait til June though...

So TgSoe, how was it? I mean I know you can't say, but was it more or less what you were expecting?

[edit on 2/9/05 by The Axeman]

Originally posted by The Axeman
So TgSoe, how was it? I mean I know you can't say, but was it more or less what you were expecting?

It has been an interesting experience Axeman, its no where near what the order of Nine Angels (A run ten miles a day elitist satanic group)suggest an initiate do which is move out into the wilderness and live for three months alone, surviving on your on wits. But it's a lot of fun. The catechism has got a lot of catchy phrases in it that make it fun and easier to learn as well. The other guy and I stumbled a bit towards the end but a word or two got us going again. The way we did it, he got a question I got a question. I learned his lines as well but didn't have to say them for the sake of time.

I understand the one dayers have the obligation read to them and simply answered by saying," I do" The whole thing was based on the EA degree ritual that we had already experienced. So we could reflect back on everything that happened January 11 2005.

After we stood proficiency on the EA we came back in and went through the FC degree ritual. Now we'll start learning the FC catechism.

The pencil thing will all come later.

Originally posted by TgSoe
The pencil thing will all come later.

Yeah, I get that alot.

So I told the guys about you saying that you had three pages of memory work to learn and they just chuckled and said something like "3 pages?! That's it?!?!" Something like 1500 words here, I think... When I was told that one of the other guys was like "Now don't scare him off, boys!"

I figure I can handle it though.

All in all I think they were impressed with my attitude, which of course was positive and enthusiastic. The guy I talked to most was a real nice dude, real outgoing type. I think I'm going to call him up next week and see if he wants to just get together and have a cup of coffee or something and chat a bit. I think it will be better if I make myself known and let them get to know me, that way my proposer and second will not be signing for a guy off the street, you know? Anyway, The waiting period gets shorter with every passing day, though you'll probably already be a MM by the time I get my EA heh. But hey, what can you do? Rules are rules.

[edit on 2/10/05 by The Axeman]