IMPROVING OURSELVES
Grand Orator’s Message
Improving Ourselves iven that we should use our participation in the Craft as an opportunity for self improvement, the questions arises: “What opportunities does Freemasonry offer for self improvement, and how do we accomplish this?”
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The most common definition of Freemasonry is that our rituals and practices teach the principles of morality and virtue; and that by communicating these principles through our lodge work we “make good men better”. While this is certainly true in many respects, it is a definition that only scratches the surface of Freemasonry. There are many other dimensions and opportunities that are offered by the Three Degrees that are not widely recognized. To understand these other opportunities it will be necessary to start with the question: “How did Freemasonry start and what is it for?”
W. Kirk MacNulty Grand Orator
The 1600’s are the time of the end of the Renaissance. Most people think of the Renaissance as an explosion of art, but it was a great deal more. Scholarly research in the 1960’s demonstrated that the Renaissance was started in Florence around 1400 by a group of scholars that wanted a rebirth (renaissance) of the classical philosophies. In the 1490’s two bodies of material arrived in Florence. The first was the Hermetica, a work prepared in Alexandria, Egypt early in the Christian era, which is a statement of Egyptian philosophy with some influence from Christianity and Hellenized Judaism. The other material was composed of Kabalistic writings which found their way to Florence as the Muslims and Jews were forced out of Spain by the Christian Reconquest. These two philosophical works became what is called the Hermetic Kabalistic Tradition.
The practice of Florence: Birthplace of the Renaissance The origin of the HermeticFreemasonry is a Kabalistic Tradition implies that one should observe real puzzle. The most widely accepted idea, the transione’s behavior and learn from the observation. This sort tion from operative lodges where Masons built castles, of objective observation recognizes that one can look to speculative lodges where Masons practice morality at things and “figure out how they work”. As more and seems to me to be too simplistic. The first evidence we more people experienced this realization many new see of modern Freemasonry is to be found in England in concepts emerged; not the least of which was the idea the mid-to-late 1600’s. These were the so-called “casual that one should not simply follow the long established lodges” because there was no formal Masonic organizadoctrines of society, but that one should explore new tion at the time, and were just groups of men meeting ideas as they occur. This led to some extraordinary privately in pubs to discuss things of importance to activities which produced remarkable results. them. In order to know more, we need to understand what the intellectual community must have been thinkIn Europe the Renaissance ended with the Thirty ing at the time, and that requires a look at history. Years War. In England the situation was somewhat continued on page 22 The Voice of Freemasonry
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