Originally posted by Szerablyn
1) Are people like Jay Z, Lady Gaga, and such crappy artists part of freemasonry through anyway?
No.
Appareantly the offices of MTV in Canada are situated in a Lodge, is that true? If this is true, I would like to know with all respect,
what the hell happened to the craft of some centuries ago? how can you turn from being an organization with people such as Goethe and Mozart, to a
thing based in the mere consumism and power on earth?
Here is a bit of info
on that. I think the obvious thing is that 100 years ago lodges had more membership, and more wealth, and could build grander temples in the hearts of
major cities. Of course, today, with a different economy, and fewer members, and commercial real estate being what it is, the Masons cannot afford to
own the buildings that they built.
The building where my lodge currently meets pays about $60,000 per year in property taxes. There's only so long they'll be able to keep that up
before they'll have to sell the building. Increased dues, or renting out to other lodges on other nights of the week can only get you so far...
2) Perhaps this is part of your secrets, but is there really a relation between you and what could happen in 2012?
No. There are no
"end time" myths or allegories in Freemasonry. No numerological ties to the Mayan calendar, either.
3) Are there both white and black lodges? I ask this because for me there seems to be many contradictory stuff in your
teachings.
No, it's not contradictory. It's the nature of the universe that there is both light and darkness. There's no need for the two to operate
separately, because there is good and evil in all men.
Of that Equilibrium between Good and Evil, and Light and Darkness in the world, which
assures us that all is the work of the Infinite Wisdom and of an Infinite Love; and that there is no rebellious demon of Evil, or Principle of
Darkness co-existent and in eternal controversy with God, or the Principle of Light and of Good: by attaining to the knowledge of which equilibrium we
can, through Faith, see that the existence of Evil, Sin, Suffering, and Sorrow in the world, is consistent with the Infinite Goodness as well as with
the Infinite Wisdom of the Almighty.
Sympathy and Antipathy, Attraction and Repulsion, each a Force of nature, are contraries, in the souls of men and in the Universe of spheres and
worlds; and from the action and opposition of each against the other, result Harmony, and that movement which is the Life of the Universe and the Soul
alike. They are not antagonists of each other. The force that repels a Planet from the Sun is no more an evil force, than that which attracts the
Planet toward the central Luminary; for each is created and exerted by the Deity, and the result is the harmonious movement of the obedient Planets in
their elliptic orbits, and the mathematical accuracy and unvarying regularity of their
movements.*
4) Last but not least, I would like to know if Freemasonry is declining right now? You were the promoters of the "Enlightenment", the
State of Right rather than the Divine one, and basically gave the bases to the "Modernity". However, now that we're in a global crisis were
people are trying to create a Posmoderniity, all of these masonic values of freedom, equity, and fraternity seem to dissapear.
I woud say
yes, obviously there's been a decline. Our numbers peaked shortly after WWII and have been declining steadily ever since. Thus one of my arguments
that there simply aren't as many Masons in politics today as people want to believe. There USED TO BE more Masons in politics, because there USED TO
BE more Masons period. But as the ranks have declined, the number of brothers in "positions of power" has declined proportionally.
That said, I think we might be on the verge of a rebound, though it's hard to say how far it will go. There is an active young population who want to
take an activist stance and DO something. They're communal people who want to work together with their friends. There are millions of people reading
Dan Brown novels and saying, what IS this Freemasonry thing, anyway?
[edit on 3/5/2010 by JoshNorton]