Master Mason Lecture Part 2 : Navigating the symbols of this degree

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, chris, yeah, fred, what's a Mason?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
That's a really good question, fred.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
You've reached the internet's home for all things
masonry.
Join Chris and I as we plumbthe depths of our ancient craft,
from the common gavel to thetrowel.
Nothing is off the table, sograb your tools and let's get to
work.
This is On the Level.
Yes, we are back.
I love that intro.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Reminds me of Friends .

Speaker 1 (00:36):
I know it kind of does, or maybe that baseline
kind of reminds you of Seinfelda little bit Right.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
That's what I'm thinking, yeah, right.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Shout out to Jimmy Kamastro over at Sound Lounge,
who created it for us.
What's up, jimmy?
Jimmy does not listen to ourpodcast.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
No.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
He drinks.
He's in the band and he drinksrum every night, so he's not up
this early.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
I've seen him play.
He's a good band, oh yeah, well, he's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
He's an amazing guitar player and musician, for
sure.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
He's had an amazing life.
Yes, sometimes you can look atpeople and you're like he
enjoyed his life.
Wow, like Keith Richards, youknow.
Oh, yeah, yeah, it's like wow,Keith Whoa.
Yeah, you had some good times.
You had some good times baby.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah Well, what's been going on, brother?
How's life?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
A lot.
As always, life is busy.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, you seem extremely more busy than usual
lately.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I apologize for that.
I mean no, that's true, and Ihave been.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, don't apologize , it's the way life is.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'm trying this.
I took a lot off.
I bit a lot off this year, morethan I could chew, and I've
been trying to walk, chew bubblegum and juggle.
Well, I kick a ball with myback foot.
Got you Helping down thehighway this year.
That's been my year.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
And a fine job you're doing, sir.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
I should Might I say she like I'm dropping balls
everywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Man, I'm trying, I'm trying.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
It's busy and I'm loving it.
It's fun.
That's why it's not a big deal,because it's fun.
Most of this is fun.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Well, today is the first day of your ninth month as
we're master of large.
Sarasota Lodge 147.
So.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
I was at a meeting last night Shout out to Orange
Blossom Trail and I was invitedby right Worshifl, John Miles.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Shout out again, shout out again.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Right, worshifl, john Miles, and he connected me with
Patrick Hall and PatrickTessier who were helping they.
They piped me in to an MLTsession.
They were doing an OrangeBlossom trail and they're like
50 guys there and somepresenters and I couldn't drive
there.
It got all messed up All myfault.
So they were kind enough topipe me in via zoom.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
And yeah, I'm doing this presentation and at the end
I couldn't hear anything theguys were saying.
So Patrick Tessier was sittingnear the mic so I could he could
translate basically to me.
Right.
I was like, oh, this guy's justtalking about, he's about to
become Worshifl master and I say, hey, don't get too excited
about that.
And I could literally hear all50 people start cracking up.

(03:12):
I'm like it's a joke that onlythe Worshifl masters get.
I think everyone understands it.
You know, oh, that's ha ha ha.
But I was like, man, this is ajob that was way more difficult
than I anticipated.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
And I anticipated it to be hard.
You did, you did.
We talked about it on the show.
We had a show about it.
You're right, you're becomingthe Worshifl master.
I was like oh, I'm prepared.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, it was hard, and and sobrother Tessier said the good
thing, it's the, it's the bestjob.
No one ever wants to do ittwice, right.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
And I.
We meet guys who are like oh,I'm going to be a third time
Worshifl master and I'm in mysecond lodge I'll be the master
of and I'm, in my mind, thinkingman, I wonder if he goes home
and like plucks on hisfingernails for fun, or just
like jabs metal in his teeth forfun.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Who wants to see that ?
Two or three?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
times.
That's insane.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, you know, I would imagine that it's it's
more necessity.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, desire for the good ones.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
You know, if they don't do it then no one's going
to be there and the lodge willsuffer for it.
So they probably step up and doit.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
That's true Also.
We're in a very active lodge.
We have a lot of people yeah, alot coming in a lot of issues,
a lot of different kinds ofpeople.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
So, yeah, yeah, it's probably a little different than
some lodges.
Yeah, so what?
What was the the gist of yourtalk down there?
What were you talking about?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
We were talking about the Grand Lodge marketing
reimbursement program.
You don't say yeah, there's aFred Packwood has already spoken
to a future grandmaster.
Yes, and.
I think there's something inthe works there for you.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yes, I'm going to be part of it next year and
actually I'm actually lookingforward to it.
That's why I need to get outthere with you and go on these,
these adventures with you.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
So that I can you absolutely love it I know, I do,
I do love that stuff.
You're somewhat representingGrand Lodge not really, but
you're more representing thefuture and the hope for Masonry.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah Right, that's what's exciting about it and a
winning program, a program thatactually is actually beneficial,
it does, it works.
It works, man.
I mean, every time it's triedcorrectly, it works.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
The reason that I think you were asked to become a
Grand Lodge comedian is becauseyou've proven yourself to be
concerned with Masonry at itscore, at its heart, and the
future of it.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Oh God, is that what I've done?

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Uh-huh and people hear that and you know it's good
because it really does dovetailwell with what we're trying to
do with this podcast.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
We're really trying to motivate, empower and really
provoke activity in free Masonryfor members, that's right.
And the Grand Lodge marketingreimbursement program is a
really great extension of that.
You're giving power to thelodges to survive and grow into
the future.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Right and, as we say all the time, now we're finding
that the system works well.
It brings fellas in, but thennow we're all looking at the
result of bringing fellas in andstarting to work on.
Hey guys, we need to talk aboutmentorship.
We need to talk about catechism.
We had a catechism instructionclass scheduled on the 30th, but

(06:32):
our hurricane no it happened.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
It did happen.
Yeah, I didn't go.
I was disappointed because onlyone person from our lodge went.
I was planning to be in aspeaker there, but because it
was the day after the hurricane,there was confusion.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
There was some confusion.
I thought it was cancelled.
I thought it was too.
It wasn't.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
I guess they were just saying be careful we might
cancel it.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Worshipful Ferdon, my apologies.
Yeah, shout out, man, justreschedule that thing, we will
get there.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
This is a Worshipful Tim Ferdon and right honorable
Justin Broom, both from VeniceLodge number 301 in district 23.
They put on a catechisminstructors mentor class.
Basically they had 15 peopleshow up.
Oh, good One of ours went andhe reported back to me that it
was very informative, reallyhelpful, and I think we got a

(07:19):
new catechism instructor out ofthat Do we know who?
Brother Mario Patrick Charles.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Mario.
Shout out to Mario Mario thatman he's amazing, man, he's
amazing.
Do not get in Mario's way, ohno.
I think there's some sort ofvideo game reference there.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Don't get in Mario's way, super Mario, super Mario,
and he's a brother.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Uh-oh brother Super Mario.
I think we're going to have togo with that brother.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Sorry, that's going to be your name.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Super Mario.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Right on, he is.
He's a great.
This is the guy who came infrom the program, I think.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
He did absolutely came in through the program.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
It's funny because they want to know about you and
they asked me about the podcastat this grand lodge thing which
is awkward for me.
I don't like to cross thosethings.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
You're normal.
You don't like to hear yourselftalk like that.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
No, but I was the only one there, so they were
asking about you and I saidactually Fred came in through
the program.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Absolutely did.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
And now you see what happened, like what an asset
pre-nasonry received from that,and it happens in your lodge too
.
You know you can bring in 20guys, and if you get one good
one, it was all worth it.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
It was all worth it, absolutely.
It was free to you anyway.
Yeah, that's right, because inincoming dues and the
reimbursement in itself, there'sreally no reason not to do this
For every worshipful master outthere who's on the fence.
Please get off the fence andget in touch with Chris and
let's get it going, because wehave 32,000 masons in Florida.

(08:53):
There was a time in this statewe had over 80,000.
Let's get there, guys.
We need to get there.
That's what we do, and I knowthere's a lot of people out
there right now recruitment,recruitment, recruitment.
They're yelling at their phoneright now, yelling at me.

Speaker 2 (09:05):
It shouldn't be about numbers.
We shouldn't be about numbers.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
We got to get used to small lodges.
We hear this stuff all the timeand at the end of the day we
say it all the time all's we'redoing is we're doing the same
thing.
This is the modern.
This is a digital bumpersticker.
That's all.
This is we're going to, wherethe people are to say if you're
in, if you have an idea in yourhead to join Masonry, here we

(09:30):
are.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Here we are.
Well, if you've been to adistrict deputy grandmaster
official visit, if you've beento the grandmaster's official
visit, our grandmaster says toevery member of Florida, blue
lodges exist.
With the expectation thatyou're going to make masons,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
That's why.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Grand Lodge gave you a charter.
That's right, and if you're notmaking masons, why should you
have a charter?

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, that, that, yeah, don't.
I'm just telling you right nowdon't mess with this guy man,
okay, he means it.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
I'm telling you you can't tell me that we don't need
numbers when the grandmaster istelling us that, yeah, that's
right Numbers obviously, and whywouldn't we be trying to grow
our numbers respectfully, withyou know, with dignity?

Speaker 1 (10:13):
but we need to grow it because Masonry has something
to offer man, it has somethingto offer.
The state of Florida will be abetter place if more men come
together under, you know, thebanner of making themselves
better men for their community.
Come on, man, Come on.
Is this thing on Hello?
Apparently Orange Blossom.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Trail, used it to great effect.
Yeah, and when we travel andtalk about this stuff, there's
usually a lodge in everydistrict that everyone points to
and they had a great experiencewith it.
And then there's always onelodge somebody knows of that
says, oh, it didn't work, it's awasted time.
Well but then when you ask oneor two questions, it becomes a

(10:51):
light very quickly.
Why didn't work for them?

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Right.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
So we spend a lot more time talking about the
culture of your lodge than we dothe nuts and bolts of how the
program works.
Really, now I talk way moreabout bed towards catechism
instructors.
Do you have clicks?
Yes, kill the clicks, kill theclicks.
Do you welcome your new guys?
Do you sit with them?
That's the important stuff.

(11:14):
Does your lodge fall on thepart?
Maybe you should start workingon that.
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 1 (11:19):
That's right, and I think you said the word right
there Culture.
What is the culture in yourlodge?
You know, if I walk into yourlodge for the first time, you
don't know who I am.
What am I going to see?
What am I going to hear?
Is, am I going to get ahandshake from every man that
sees me, walks over and talks tome and asks me who I am, where
I'm from?

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Yeah, they're going to welcome me in a couple of
hugs maybe, Although I'm not ahuggy guy, I know Not even a
half hug I can do the Mason hugyeah the shoulder to shoulder
hug.
I like that one yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
That I like.
That I like because it lookscool.
Yeah, when you meet a brotherin public and you do that, your
cool factor goes up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
You know everybody's like whoa, that was cool yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
But a sloppy.
You know I love you.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Hug, you know where you're just kind of like humping
on his leg.
Not a big fan, oh wow.
No, no, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
I don't think anyone's a big fan, Not a fan
those kind of hugs yeah don't dothat, that's not cool.
So before we get into our thelittle blue book over there
that's next to me, I want towrite a couple wrongs.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Oh, oh boy.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
So the first one is is I got an email.
I have no idea what Fred'sdoing.
No, you have no idea, so I'mspringing this on you, brother.
I got an email from a brother.
Now, brother, I'm looking forhim again.
Sorry, oh, right here, brotherFasio E Okay.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
His last name's E.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, his first name is Fasio, and he just gives us E
.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Oh, fasio E.
Okay, he didn't want to divulgehis last name.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Right, and if I'm messing that up and it's Faso,
forgive me, brother, but if it'sFasio E, that is a cool name,
bro, that is, that's a cool.
That name will sell Fasio E E.
Brother, fasio E E emailed meand I'm just going to read the
email because he's.
I want to comment on the way hewrote this and the way he

(13:07):
approached this whole thing.
Okay, so there's two paragraphshere.
The first one's just anintroduction.
Hey brother, fred, firstly, Ilove the podcast and I'm very
sorry to hear about the loss ofyour son.
I'm sure you have all thesupport you need, but you have
another guy on your team hereand and brother, you, you.
You absolutely bless me withthat, because I do.

(13:28):
I have brothers all over, allover the world who stepped up to
show me a lot of love in myfamily.
Much love out to you and yourfamily.
As far as myself, I am an FC onmy way to being raised.
I have listened to all yourepisodes, except those of the MM
degree lecture, waiting onthose.
Good on you, brother, good onyou.
You don't all of the stuff ispublished, but I think it's.

(13:52):
You know, I think it's prettycool that you've decided to wait
to listen to them, and I'mhoping by now, because this came
in a little while ago, earlyAugust.
I'm hoping by now you've beenraised and you've had a chance
to listen to them All right ontothe last paragraph.
Here One thing has stood out tome that I wanted to bring to
your attention.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 (14:10):
Not a big deal, but I thought I would give you my two
cents.
You tend to bring up Alex Jonesa lot as an example of an
anti-Mason.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
You do do that I do.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Yeah, while I would really consider my, while I
wouldn't really consider myselfa fan of his, and while he does
promote several conspiracytheories that can be quite out
there, you might be surprised athis views on Masonry.
And then he gives me a YouTubelink here which I did watch.
You can ignore the flashy titleon the video and take just

(14:40):
three to four minutes to seewhat he actually has to say on
the matter as he responds to acaller.
It's quite far from yourassumption, from what your
assumptions might be.
Just just thought that youmight want to know that he may
not be the best example to useas an anti-Mason, because he
really isn't one A conspiracytheorist.

(15:00):
A conspiracy theorist mostdefinitely, a wacko potentially,
but an anti-Mason not at all.
Anyway, just thought I might.
Just thought you might want toknow, wishing you and Chris a
great Friday and weekend.
My brothers, I will catch youguys on the next episode.
You absolutely will, fasio, andI really like the way you

(15:20):
worded this, brother.
This is, this is a greatexample on how to, on how to
present an opposing, an opposingargument.
You were cordial, you were, youknow, you were professional,
cordial, you, you, you knew whatyou wanted to say and you said
it in a way that did notthreaten me in any way.
So so I listened, I went and Iwatched the video and, though I

(15:45):
am persuaded slightly and I toldyou in my response that I would
listen to it and then I woulddo a little more research and,
if I found that I was wrong inany way, that I would in fact
talk about it on the podcast,because we are, first and
foremost, all about learninghere.
Even Chris and I want to learnand we want to.
You know, change for the betteron a constant level.

(16:05):
And the one thing I would sayabout it and I wish I could
share the link with everybodyhere, maybe Chris can figure out
a way to do that it's a YouTubeshort of on the Alex Jones
channel.
But anyways, one of the thingsthat I notice about Alex Jones
when he does these shorts isthey're highly edited, and this

(16:27):
one is no exception.
They are edit every five words,breaks to another 10 words,
that breaks to another threewords, that breaks to another 12
words, and and that's a and.
There's two reasons for thatOne.
Is it they're doing it forcontent?
Because the short is trying tomake a point in this short.
The point that they're tryingto make is that, you know, alex

(16:47):
Jones is not necessarily antifree Mason and he's answering to
a caller and it's highly edited, probably for content to keep
it on track, because he'sprobably they edit out all the
rabbit trails and things thatdon't pertain to the topic.
Potentially, the other reasonwhy is because it's not
necessarily true and they'rejust trying to.
You know, they're just tryingto push an agenda there.

(17:10):
I don't think this is the casehere.
I think Alex Jones admits inthis piece that his grandfather
was a free Mason and and Irespect, and I respect that for
him, I'm glad he's not a freeMason.
But here's, here's the otherside of the coin.
Fascio is, if you and I'm sorryto subject you to this, but if
you listen to the last Joe Roganinterview of Alex Jones now,

(17:35):
forgive me, brother, it's threeand a half hours long, so please
don't listen to the whole thing.
That's too many F bombs for oneweek, okay, but but in that, in
that thing, jones goes into apretty long explanation of what
he sees are the evils of freemasonry and he says about people

(17:55):
like you and me, fascio, thatwe don't know, we can't know and
we don't know what our topofficers are up to, which is all
these nefarious things.
You've heard all of them.
I won't go into them again.
So, and that was the most recentpodcast on the Joe Rogan show
that Jones did and that on theshow they were mostly talking

(18:18):
about that giant lawsuit that helost stuff and that all that
was going on.
He's being canceled and hasalmost been completely canceled,
but anyway, which I'm not, I'mnot a big fan of canceling
anybody.
I don't care what they say, itdoesn't matter to me.
Free speeches, free speech inmy opinion.
But the point I'm trying tomake, fascio, is that I agree
with you.
I use him too much to explainanti masonry people who are anti

(18:45):
masonry.
He's not a fan of ours and hevacillates back and forth.
He'll go to well, I'm not.
I'm not against it, I'm neutral.
I have family that were themand then he'll go on this
diatribe about, you know, aboutthe Illuminati and all this
other stuff on Joe Rogan.
So I guess, at the end of theday, alex Jones is not a
reliable source in my opinionwhen it comes to free masonry.

(19:07):
Therefore, I don't think he's agood person, for I'll probably
exclude him from my commentarygoing forward just because I
agree with you, brother.
He's, you know he's.
He's not the best ex, he's notthe best example of an anti
masonry person, because he'sjust vacillates back and forth
too much.
What do you think about?

Speaker 2 (19:26):
that, chris?
Well, I have a short video herewhere Alex Jones openly admits
he's a free mason.
Is that right?
So there's a third one now.
So and this person is saying isit shocking that truth on his
show.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
He says shocking things to get ratings.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Right, right.
He doesn't believe in what he'ssaying, and I have to say that
that's basically it.
Now, lately, people are sayinghere we go with the rabbit hole,
the Alex Jones rabbit hole.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
I knew this was possible.
You could have took us here.
Sorry, you can't blame this oneon me.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Let's just go back to the point I brought it up in
the first place.
I probably won't use himbecause of your email, brother.
You're right, that's not a goodexample.
There's lots of anti-Masonrypeople out there.
I was going through YouTube theother day and I found a pastor
and the tagline on his shortvideo was why free Masonry is

(20:22):
anti-Christian.
And I went to click on it andfor some reason it wouldn't come
up.
So I tried to save it because Iwanted to go back and study it
and maybe do a little show ormaybe write on my sub-stack
about it a little bit to findout what this guy was saying.
There's plenty of otherexamples out there of people who
are legitimately anti-Mason andthe truth is is that the people

(20:44):
who are anti-Mason out therejust don't know Masonry.
They don't get it, they don'tunderstand us.
But if you took the time,whoever you are, if you're
listening in to us, to findthings about us to talk negative
about, here's one, here's thesecret.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Here's one.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Here's the secret.
I'm going to reveal to you oursecret, what we're doing in the
lodge.
We're making good men better.
That's what we're doing.
That's the big secret, bro.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
That doesn't sell news media that doesn't sell.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
I know they're not going to get a lot of clicks off
of that one, but that's the bigsecret, guys.
We're making good men better.
We want to see this countryfilled with men who keep their
word, who work hard, who arehonest, who seek truth from the
heart.
That's our desire as Masons,and if that is nefarious, well

(21:35):
then nefarious I am.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's not nefarious.
It's not nefarious at all.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
And then the second right I'd like to.
The second wrong.
I'd like to write yes.
Last podcast, my partner Chrisasked me a direct question and
he said what is your opinion ofChristian purity?
And I gave the worst answer ofmy life.
Hold the definition of purity,the definition of purity from a
Christian perspective, and Icouldn't get it out and what I

(22:03):
realized is I don't know, Idon't know.
So I kind of looked into it alittle bit and the word purity
is not a word that's exclusiveto any kind of Christian context
.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
No, definitely not yeah it's not.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
For instance, in 1 Timothy 4-12,.
It says don't let anyone thisis the apostle Paul talking to
his protege Timothy, who's avery young man who he's raised
up, and Timothy ended up growingup to pastor a church in the
early, early days ofChristianity in Palestine.
So he's writing him a letter in1 Timothy.
He wrote him two letters, theone we call 1 Timothy, and it

(22:45):
says don't let anyone look downon you because you are young,
but set an example for thebelievers in speech, in conduct,
in love, in faith and in purity.
And what he's saying is thatwhatever standard you live by,
truly live by it, and that'swhat purity is.
Purity is simply like if youpurify water, right, so I'm

(23:07):
taking out the contaminants, I'mmaking the water beneficial to
those who drink it, I'mpurifying it, and that's what
that's.
For me, that's purity.
So if I want to live a life ofpurity, it means I'm trying to
take the contaminants out of mylife, I'm trying to take those
things out of my life that arenegative, that are not pure.

(23:28):
So for me you ask, from aChristian context I don't think
there's any difference.
Acting or striving for purityin your thoughts and deeds is a
universal concept.
Everyone should be trying to bepure in their motives.
How about your motives andsomebody asks you are my motives

(23:51):
pure in this issue?
Am I going at this thing withpure motives?
I need to look at myself andsee if my motives are pure and
if they're not, I need todecontaminate my motives and
move forward.
So that's.
I did the study on it.
I won't bore you with any ofthe background stuff, where the
word comes from and all thatstuff.
That's just boring.
But I wanted to give a decentanswer because I felt like I

(24:14):
just absolutely didn't know.
And my rule is and I share thiswith everybody out there If you
don't know, research and return, research and return.
I don't know everything.
It's certainly true in masonry.
I know nothing in masonry.
People, because of the podcast,ask me questions about masonry
all the time and a lot of timesI have to tell them I don't know

(24:35):
, brother, but I can find outand there's no shame in that.
As a matter of fact, that isyour glory, that makes you a
mason, the reason we're here,the Florida Masonic Monitor.
We have been going through theMaster Mason lecture.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
And the last.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
This is our last one.
We'll be going through that andit's just going through some of
the symbols and the last few.
There's just there's one, two,three, four, five, six, seven of
them that none of it is encoded.
All of it is published.
So well, at the end of thesynth there is.

(25:13):
So we'll probably skip that one, but the rest of it is all
published.
Anyone can read this.
It's all on the website.
So the first one is the Book ofConstitutions Guarded by the
Tyler Sword.
Can you remember that one?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
It reminds us that we should be watchful.
Oh, I messed up already.
The Book of Constitutions,guarded by the Tyler Sword,
reminds us that we should bewatchful and guarded in our
thoughts, words and actions.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
Particularly when before the enemies of masonry,
ever bearing in remembrancethose truly masonic virtues
silence and circumspection.
I love that man, I absolutelylove that, particularly when
before the enemies of masonry.
So this, the constitutionsguarded by the Tyler sword

(26:08):
reminds us to be guarded in ourthoughts and words and actions,
particularly when we're aroundpeople who are anti-masonry,
ever bearing in remembrancethose truly masonic virtues
silence and circumspection.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Circumspection, that's a new one.
Do you know that one?
It seems like a combination ofwords that is ultimately meaning
keep your passions within duebalance.
Circumstrab your passions, yeah, watchful and guarded in our
thoughts, words and actions.

(26:44):
So it's not enough to not saysomething.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Ooh.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Okay, now we're saying don't even think
negatively.
We have to be watchful andguarded in our thoughts too.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Now Right yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
That's going further than we've ever gone in
Freemasonry, who just in thepast has always told us just do
good stuff.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Now we have to be watchful and guarded of our
thoughts.
We can't go, let our mind go tonegative, dark places or bad
places.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Right, because out of the abundance of the heart does
the mouth speak, right?
So what's in your heart, what'sin your mind, the things you
think will event, they come out.
They come out and sometimes,involuntarily so your thought
life in one way or another willcome out.
People will know the things youthink if they hang around you

(27:37):
long enough, because out of yourheart, the things you hold in
your heart, they will come outof your mouth eventually Now.
So circumspection in the Oxforddictionary is the quality of
being wary or unwilling to takerisks.
Prudence so there's the wordprudence, which is a Masonic
concept as well.

(27:57):
Being prudent.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
That comes from the inner apprentice lecture.
That's right.
We talk about prudence.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
And in this way, being prudent and or silent when
necessary, when you're aroundpeople who are anti-Masonic.
You know I have family membersand I know you do too, brother
who are not necessarily friendsof the craft.
No, yeah.
And that's good advice, isn'tit?
Yeah, you don't want to getinto an argument with them over

(28:24):
Masonry, because it's just, it'snot going to go anywhere, it's
not helpful in any way.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, I'm not the best person to argue
Freemasonry's case to areligious zealot.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
No, right, yeah, that's, that's a little.
I mean?

Speaker 2 (28:38):
no, in reality, I don't think any individual is.
You know, no one person's goingto be able to defend this
system, Right?
Because it's colored by yourown actions in your own past and
they view you as the whole ofFreemasonry.
So it's almost pointless to tryto convince them otherwise,
Right?

Speaker 1 (28:56):
And religious zealotry tends to be closed off
to any outside views anyway.
So you know, you're not goingto change them by, you know, by
simply arguing with them,because that just hardens the
other, that just hardens them intheir position, arguing, you
know back and forth.
No, no, it's not that it's this.
No, no, it's not that it's this.

(29:16):
It's no, no, it's like forgetit, let's, let's have a drink.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Well, I mean, let's let's enjoy our time together,
and the first thing I can tellthem is I have so many friends
in Freemasonry and the fastmajority go to the church that
you go to, or one just like it.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Right, right.
I mean it ain't that crazy,it's full of people like you.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
So I don't understand .
You know, it's really is justyou don't understand and that's
okay.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Right.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
It's like sports You're never going to convince
somebody that their team isn'tthe best team in the world.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Doesn't matter how many statues, you're never going
to talk.
John Schaefer out of thePhiladelphia Eagles.
No, exactly it's not going tohappen.
Man Shout out to John it's justnot going to happen.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
The guy bleeds.
Green man, mario, that theMetsucker, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Oh yeah, that's not going to happen.
Man, why do it?
Mike, punch you in the face Inthat case, silence and
circumspection would be highlyadvised.
Yeah, how about the sword?
That's next the sword.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
The sword pointing to a naked heart demonstrates
justice.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, that justice.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
The sword pointing to a naked heart to Right.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
The sword pointing to a naked heart demonstrates that
justice will sooner or laterovertake us, and although our
thoughts, words and actions maybe hidden from the eyes of man,
yet that?
And then we move into the allseeing eye.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
So why would a sword pointed to a naked heart
demonstrate justice?

Speaker 1 (30:45):
Well, because well, because the sword is oh, it's
like your heart's bare.
Well the authority whateverthat authority is, does not bear
the sword in vain.
So they bear the sword.
Lady Justice bears a swordbecause the penalty for
violating justice, for injustice, is death.

(31:06):
So that's, that's the reasonright here.
This is very this they're.
They're pulling a lot of thisstraight from that Bible that's
on your altar, guys.
Is is where this is all comingfrom.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Interesting.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Right, because, well, that's, it's true to the the.
You don't break the law, allright.
There's a famous saying, and Ithink it was Calvin who said it
you don't break the law, the lawbreaks you.
The law is unmovable, itdoesn't move, so you hit against
the law, you hit against thelaw, you hit against the law and
eventually it breaks you.
And that's the way the lawworks.
So we don't technically breakthe law, the law breaks us.

(31:43):
And it's a, it's a concept thatrequires a lot of thought.
But if you guys are out there,if your head is is hurting from
that statement, think it throughhow many times you you can
break the law if you, if youconstantly are speeding down the
highway and you get your thirdor fourth ticket.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Okay, catch me first.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Yeah, when they do catch you, what happens?
You go to jail, you lose yourlicense, your insurance rates
are high forever and ever andever, and your life is ruined.
See, the law broke you, you.
You thought you were breakingthe law, but you didn't break
the law.
The law remained the same.
It's still illegal to drivelike a maniac down the highway.
You know over and over againand get these tickets over and

(32:22):
over again.
That's still illegal.
The law didn't change.
What changed was you.
You got broken and and that's Ithink that's the point here
that the sword pointing to thenaked heart demonstrates that
justice will sooner or latertake over.
It will, it will overtake us.
If you're pushing against thelaw, it will break you.

(32:44):
I think that's that's the pointthat's being made here.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
The point that I'm taking is, like you know, I'm
bearing my heart.
Like you're seeing into my soul, my heart is bare and you got a
sword pointed at me like I haveto be honest or you run me
through.
That's, that's that's good.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, that's the same thing, right.
Yeah, it's kind of the sameidea you.
The only, the only sensiblecourse before the bar of justice
is to bear your heart and behonest.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Tell the truth, tell the truth.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
Tell the truth, because otherwise it'll just
break you, you know, and andthat's that's a great point.
So then this one just kind ofmoves right into all seeing eye
pervades the inmost recesses ofthe human heart.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
I'm sure there's more .
That's awesome if you read theoptional stuff.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Yet that this is from the sword part.
Yet that whom the sun, moon andstar obey and under whose
watchful care even cometsperform their their stupendous
revolutions, pervades the inmostrecess of the human heart and
will reward us according to ourmerits, so that there's a it's
it's punishment and reward.

(33:52):
Right, hope, hope, fear ofpunishment, hope of reward is
what's what's being explainedhere.
Right, and there's nothingwrong with a hope of reward.
Doing doing what's right as achild makes your parents happy,
it pleases them, and there'snothing wrong with that.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
Right, we, we right.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
We tend to think that somehow this is you know, we're
supposed to.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
I don't want to go down the road, never mind.
That's a rabbit trail.
That's a very like Easternphilosophy.
If you study any any Easternphilosophy, it's very familial
and their motivations aren'tyou're going to go to hell.
Their motivations are aboutdon't dishonor your parents.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Oh right.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Don't dishonor your grandparents, don't dishonor the
legacy, and they don't do badthings out of fear that they
will hurt the reputation oftheir ancestors.
Right so there is fear in everykind of culture, in the, in our
little Western Christianculture that's born from
Catholicism, fear is a big partof it, right?

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Fear from Roman Catholicism.
Fear is a huge fact.
Yeah they use fear to to wield.
You know the sword of the, youknow that that sword and that's
that's between protest.
The difference betweenProtestant and Roman Catholic is
that less fear.
Well, it's no fear, it is.
It is gratitude for what's beendone for you See.

(35:19):
So I, I try my best, every day,before God, to do what is right
, not out of fear but because ofgratitude.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah thankfulness.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
I'm thankful for all that he has already done for me
and because of that gratitude Ido, I don't want to do anything
that would offend him because ofmy gratitude towards him.
That's the difference and Ithink that's.
You know, in Christian circles,I get, I get, I get this all
the time because in Christiancircles it's it's grace, not law

(35:50):
.
So we are under grace, notunder law.
And because we're under grace,we're, we're grateful and out of
a grateful heart, we obey thelaw.
That's that's the point.
So when Masonry talks aboutbeing rewarded according to our
merits, they say things like youknow, it's a works, works based
righteousness where you, youwork your way into God's
presence.
Now, that's true for somereligious structures.

(36:13):
That's true.
Islam is that way.
You have to work, you have toaccomplish certain goals in life
to be accepted by by Allah.
That's, that's Islam.
Islam believes that.
And Mormonism is the same thing.
Mormonism is the same way Jobwas witnessed, the same way.
You have to behave a certainway.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Well, you can do work for dead relatives that didn't
do the work, even in some faiths.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
Yeah, mormonism, you can.
You can pray for the dead andyou can right, you can act on
behalf of the dead.
Yeah, correct.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
And earn their spot in favor and even older faiths.
You had the karma system right.
Right, yeah, that would bewhere you do good things and
good things happen to you, whichis kind of around.

Speaker 1 (36:52):
Hinduism Right Would be right.

Speaker 2 (36:56):
And do bad things, and bad things happen to you.
So that's a somewhat fear basedsystem that's rewards oriented
as well.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
I think that fear is.
It's funny because we want toblame religion for fear based
systems, but if you've ever seena child who has never been
disciplined, they're, they'renothing but afraid.
If there's no discipline in achild's life whatsoever, there
are no boundaries.
If there is no set goals forlife, they grow up not knowing

(37:25):
who they are and they're themost fearful people you've ever
met.
So fear is is simply part ofthe human experience.
It just all depends on whereyou, how you use that fear.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
I think that the child is kind of in a natural
state of being and wedomesticate them at some point
and I think the child who learnsfrom the book of nature is
going to learn humbleness sooneror later.
They're going to get it Likeyou aren't the center of this
universe.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
You can't go around doing and saying whatever you
want.
You're going to need help, likeit's going to be a harder path
for the person, but they'lllearn those lessons.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
When the book of nature is going to teach them
the reality of life.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Well, and you take two.
You take a six month old childand a one and a half year old
child, boy and girl, and you sitthem down.
They're playing with their toysand the next thing you know the
little boy is is taking all thetoys from the little girl and
he's he's keeping all of them.
He won't let her move, he won'tlet her do anything.
He's completely oppressing her.

(38:30):
Now this child is not even twoyears old.
This child was not taught that.
No, this child, this is what'sinside this child.

Speaker 2 (38:39):
And it's it's.

Speaker 1 (38:40):
It requires a bar of justice, a set of disciplines, a
set of standards to teach thischild as they grow up, like you
said, to, to, to, to learn howto be a decent human being, a
good human being.
Otherwise, that law of naturewill be very negative to them,
because the consequences ofbecoming 18 years old and still

(39:02):
has a lot of, and still having ayear and a half old mentality
are grave.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
Yeah, you might become president.
You might be definitely,definitely qualifies you for a
senator or congressman at least,at least.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, especially if your dad leaves you $5 or $6
million.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
You know small loans.
Yeah, Okay, All right.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
The all seeing eye.
We're going to go pass at theanchor and the arc.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Well, the all seeing eye.
An interesting bid on that isif you look at your dollar bill.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Right, yeah, tell me about that.
You see an all seeing eye onthere, yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
And people always wonder, like I had a friend at
work and he was.
He brought money to me and hesaid look at this, this is a
Masonic thing, I know that.
What does it mean?
And it's one of those thingswhere I was being cheeky and I'm
like, well, you got to join tofind out.
I can't tell you the secret.
Really, it's not a secret.

(39:56):
It's telling you the all seeingeye pervades the inmost
recesses of the human heart andon a back of a $1 bill you'll
see an all seeing eye at the topof an unfinished pyramid, Right
.
So what does this mean,Masonically?
Well, let us tell you these.
There's no secrets to thissymbolism.
The unfinished pyramid you'llfind at the Scottish right

(40:20):
building in DC.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
It's built to be an unfinished pyramid as well.
An unfinished pyramidrepresents that pursuit of
perfection that is neverfinished.
A pyramid is completely perfectin geometry, in its beauty, in
its perfection of itsconceptualization as a design,

(40:45):
but the fact that it'sunfinished represents the fact
that our country's work isunfinished in perfecting itself
and the all.
Seeing eye at the top of theunfinished pyramid means you
better be careful as youcontinue to do your work,
because the creator is lookinginto your soul and so you need
to have a pure heart as you dothe work of perfecting your

(41:09):
building.
It's all right there.
That's a Masonic, highlyMasonic symbol on our currency
and you can't tell me otherwise.
No, no, I'm a free mason.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, no, it's absolutely free.
Mason and a new conceptus whichis over the top.
It means Providence has favoredour undertakings.
And below is Novus everyone'sheard.
Novus ordu Scythlorum, whichmeans a new order of the ages.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
And that's where we get this new world order.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Well, that's right, that's where that comes from,
and all the conspiracy theories,but what they were talking
about was that Providence GodProvidence has blessed our
endeavors to bring about a newworld, the new world through the
Providence of God.
And all of the concepts, all ofthem were based on the goodness

(42:10):
of man being good to man, asystem of checks and balances,
recognizing those three Ruffiansthat are within every man and
creating a system where all ofus could explore our best selves
by helping each other andgrowing with each other within a

(42:32):
community of free speech andlove, and getting through
differences and national sinsand national crimes, and all
this stuff, and that's it'sunfinished.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
It's unfinished.
Sure, we got some work to do,yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
It's always unfinished.
I love the imagery there, yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
And if you look to God, you'll stay on the right
path.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
And how come this country is in such denial over
the masonic roots of theWashington DC and the?
I wonder why it's in suchdenial.
I think it's because it's sucha force for good that the
enemies of good don't reallywant a system of self-government

(43:17):
based on brotherly love andrelief and truth that
encompasses all religious beliefsystems into one house.
That's really powerful andoppressive.
Tyrannical governments cannottolerate that.

Speaker 2 (43:35):
Well, I think this is you know for how many hundreds
of years we've had a countrythat has taught a certain
history, and so there'sobviously we're many generations
of people down the line.
We aren't taught this stuff inschool.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Our parents don't talk about it.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Our churches don't mention it.
So when a weirdo comes up andsays, oh, you know, this is a
Masonic experiment, of courseyour reaction is gonna be like
nut job.

Speaker 1 (43:59):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
What are you talking about?
Everyone I've ever known saysotherwise.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Right, right, and who are you to?

Speaker 2 (44:05):
challenge my you know entire belief system, so I get
that aspect of it.
It's not something I can evertell someone out of the blue,
right, or would, now that I'm alittle more experienced in
Freemasonry, because they don'treceive it well and you sound
like a crazy person to them.
But if it's somebody in my life, like my wife's family and I

(44:25):
can slowly get them used to theidea of.
Freemasonry and they start tosee it as not a bad thing.
Then at some point I can inject.
Well, you know, this is aMasonic experiment, right?
And they're a little more opento hearing more.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah, and just fly a helicopter over Washington DC
and look at the way the streetsare laid out.
I mean look at the way themonuments are laid out.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
This is a country that people say it's a Christian
country, a Christian nation,but it's well.
I probably agree with you thatmost of the founders were
Christian.
I don't think it was intendedto be a specific faith-based
religion.
I do believe, if you read anyof our works, that it is meant
to be a spiritual-based country.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Right.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
We admit there is a creator and a God and that we
all are endowed with the samerights from our creator.
It's in our constitution.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
The belief in a Supreme being is part of the
makeup of our country, I think.
I agree, it is.
It is.
You gotta go Calling itChristian might be taking it a
little bit too far, but I get itbecause it was the predominant
faith.
But I think their slant was alittle more Masonic in nature,
that they wanted this place tobe a bigger tent for all people

(45:39):
of faith to come together andlive in union under law.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
Right, it had to be because they left England and
France and Holland where thechurch had become part of the
government and the governmenthad become part of the church.
And as soon as that happens, itonly takes about a generation
to where the guillotines are setup and the gallows are set up

(46:03):
out front of the churchbuildings and people are being
hung and murdered.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
For heresy.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
And for heresy, and so they came here to get away
from that and to pursue theirreligious structures and beliefs
as they understood them.
Now, the bulk of them most ofthem were Christian.
Yeah, very faithfully, becausethe Protestant Reformation in

(46:29):
the mid 1500s had spurred thisexodus out of England I mean,
I'm sorry, out of Europe to comeacross to the New World to be
left alone to do what theywanted to do.
The 13 colonies believe it ornot, all 13 colonies had state
churches.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
They did.
Rhode Island was.
I believe Rhode Island was theonly one, not the only one.
It was Quaker, but Virginia wasPresbyterian.
The official church of thestate of Virginia was the
Presbyterian church and thiswent on for 100 years.
Man and all of these, all ofthese and the constitution of
the United States was written tomake sure that that state

(47:13):
church does not become thefederal government church.
Right, and the federalgovernment church would become
an oppressive tyrant, like italways does, whether it's
Christian or not.
It could be secular.
Right now there's a lot ofpeople who believe our federal
government is becoming areligion unto itself and now
it's pushing its own agendareligiously and fervently upon

(47:35):
everybody, because big, giantcentralized systems always
become oppressive, they alwaysbecome tyrannical and it always
mimics religion.
It looks and feels like areligion, it just absolutely
does?

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Any system of control is gonna share common
attributes, I guess.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
That's right and that's why our founding fathers,
who were Masonic and happenedto be Christian men, most of
them, but held these Masonicprinciples was we need to
separate this.
There needs to be checks andbalances and we already know the
law.
If you look at the mural abovethe Supreme Court, in the center
of it is Moses, but if I'm notmistaken somebody email me if

(48:19):
I'm wrong on this but I thinkAristotle's in there and Plato's
in there.
I think there's all these greatthinkers of all time are found
on that building, on the SupremeCourt, building up there, on
that apex.
Now, that's not no Christianorganization would do that.
This was a Masonic idea thatall the thoughts, all the

(48:42):
thought processes, all thebelief structures of the entire
world come together under thissystem of government that was
created and it's tough to deny,yes, most of them were
Christians because they werefleeing Europe as Europe was
expelling all the Protestantsout of there.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
There's nothing wrong with that.
Look at most of your lodgeshere in Florida.
Most of the people in them areChristian.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
Yeah, I mean we have by far, by far, it's a huge
number.
You get a Christian Bible, yeah, as part of your master's
degree.
We have it on the altar ofeverything that we do.
That's important.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
But it's not a church right.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
No, it's not a church , nor is it a religion.
You have a place for that.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
That's right and it's important in the lives of most
of our members, the church andthey do participate, like you.
We'll continue to probably getmore involved the more you get
into Freemasonry in your church.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Oh, absolutely, it's happening now.
It's already happening.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
They strengthen each other, but if you try to merge
them together, things are gonnaget ugly.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Yeah, yeah, that's right and that's why I don't
believe in the separation ofchurch and state was a letter
written by Jefferson to theDanbury Baptist.
It was just a comment that hemade in passing.
The gist of the letter wassomething totally different.
It was an out of context thingand people have used that

(50:02):
comment to say not freedom fromreligion, but freedom from
religion, that the federalgovernment's job is to make sure
there's no religion anywhereever.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
No, that's not true.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Right and that's just ridiculous, but they are
purging all the semilances ofreligion out of their midst.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
As far as the government's concern, and the
funny thing is I couldn'tdisagree more on that one.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
The more they do it, the harder it gets for them,
because people are not gonna beforced out of any of their
beliefs.
You can't force people to notbelieve something Right and it's
just not gonna work.
No, it's not gonna work.
You have to embrace people'sbeliefs.
That's right, not encouragethem.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
But it works well in masonry because I do have good
friends in my own lodge that areMuslim, pagan, buddhist every
other flavor you can imagine andwe sometimes sit together and
talk about the big questions.
We just did this the othernight and it's an awesome

(51:10):
experience.
It is, it is.
It is not to be missed.
When you love someone andrespect them you're curious what
their viewpoint is when it'sdifferent than yours.
If you are a thinking personand you wanna learn your mind,
you gotta be watchful andguarded in your thoughts.
If your mind is automaticallytaking somebody else's

(51:32):
statements and trying to tearthem down to fit into your
personal belief system insteadof listening and trying to
understand what they're talkingabout, you gotta check your
thoughts, Because this is how wegrow.
When somebody else is talkingand they're saying something
that doesn't compute with yourown thinking, you gotta be

(51:52):
listening and, instead oftearing it down, thinking about
what's the follow-up question toask to understand this better,
so saying well, you know you'rewrong, because my book says this
.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Your mind needs to go to a place of this.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
You know what?
Let me ask you, because what Iwas taught is way different than
what you're saying.
What I was taught was this what?

Speaker 1 (52:13):
do you think?

Speaker 2 (52:14):
about that or how do you address that?
Like that's how you have acivil discourse is approach it
from a place of learning, notfrom a place of judgment and
trying to make somebody else fitinto your box.
Right, that's right.
And the fun thing is, as youtalk, you're more open to moving
.
We've had conversations andI've moved closer to your

(52:37):
opinion.
Right, yeah, after we've talkedabout them Right, and someday,
sooner or later you'll movecloser to mine at some point.
Absolutely, and that's whatit's all about.

Speaker 1 (52:44):
Remember I say it all the time know what you believe
and know why you believe it.
These are important issues andyou have to take the time to
study them.
It's not that hard.
We're meeting in the middle.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
We're meeting in the middle.
Neither one of us are sittingon the other edge of our streams
, yelling at each other.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
No, no, because now we're bathing in the waters
together.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Now we're bathing in the waters hopefully with our
swim trunks on, obviously.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Well, the tide hasn't gone out yet so, who knows, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nono no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nono please don't hug me真的很.
You know that.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
If you're bugged and no close hugging please.

Speaker 1 (53:14):
Well, that was quite a that was quite a rabbit trail
goes some symbolism for you.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
There goes a little symbolism Welcome that was
exciting actually it's true andyou know, I, you, you, you tell
people I'm a center-left personand that you're center-right
person and I think that's fair.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Yeah, I agree with.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
Yeah and it's hard, just hard in these, this
political climate right to labelyourself that way, because you
become the enemy of a lot ofpeople.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
It's true, it's oh, I believe me, man.
I I absolutely know to callmyself Center-right.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
By a bunch of.
Christians Well even the righthates you.
Oh they hate.
Oh they hate is gonna hate youmore.
Oh they.
You're losing everywhere whenyou label yourself these days
right.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
And and if you'd know me, you know that I'm not a
political person anymore.
I used to be.
I used to be very much apolitical person.
I worked in the politicalsystem, I did my precinct work,
I did all that stuff and I havechecked out of it and I've never
been happier now a lot ofpeople say well, you have a
responsibility to stay in thereand be miserable.
You know it's like no, I don't.
I don't have to participate.

(54:21):
Don't with you and your insanity.
I just don't.
It's not a suicide pact.
I don't have to go down thisroad with you.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
You don't?
I mean you don't have to likewatch the news channel.
Nope like you don't have towatch the debates you don't have
to every time someone in theoffice says something, throw
your two cents in.
You don't have to do no.
However, I think, as a citizenof our country, we owe it to
people to participate in thepolitical process, and I know

(54:49):
you don't have to, but I don'tthink it hurts to At least kind
of, like you know, stay up onthe minimum of what's happening.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
I and I do, I do.
I know you very much.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
So and you're totally capable of voting.
I know you know in your mindwho's who's the least, least of
the evils that you have.
I'm still registered as anindependent, yeah and so I mean
I would encourage you toparticipate, at least in the
form of voting, but definitelynot tell me.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
I would vote for JFK Jr I.
Okay, I would have to, I wouldhave to actually become a
Democrat.
I think I don't think it.
In the no I didn't appendic,can vote for Jeff.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Do you do you know?
I would just don't vote in theprimaries right, right, that's
right.

Speaker 1 (55:28):
sit out the primary.
Yes, that's why I stopped beingan independent, cuz I was like
man, I'm missing out on a halfof this process.
Yeah, I don't know, they'repretty much.
It's pretty much fade itcomplete, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (55:39):
it is at this point.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Yeah, almost a joke.
Yeah, the primary process is agood job.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Yeah, all the political system is now all my
Republican.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
People that I know they're all big on.
You know super Tuesday iscoming for Iowa and the Iowa
caucus is coming.
It's like guys.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Yeah, seriously wait when it's over first thing the
front-runner isn't going to Iowathis year.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Okay, so he's already said he's and he's not gonna do
any debates this year.
So what do you?
What are we talking about here?
Why even bother, I think?
Anyway, I don't want to go downthat road.
But at.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
We know there is a road to go down there, though,
which is there's a his a lot ofhistorical things happening
right now, whether whicheverside of the road you're on, but
you can't deny that we're livingin crazy times like crazy
literally are standing on theprecipice of electing a
president who may be servingfrom prison and I'm not saying

(56:36):
he should and I'm not sayingthat I Advocate for this or that
, but this is a possibilityright now.
That this could happen you couldnever have.
No one in our past could everhave imagined we'd be at this
place.
We have a really good Chance ofelecting a president who also

(56:56):
has a really good chance ofpotentially serving from prison
or From an ALF, if we go theother way you know, an assisted
living facility.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
I saw.
Biden on the news the other dayand I voted for Biden, just
being clear.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
I would.
I would vote for a wombat overthe other guy, and that's the
thing.
It's not like you're voting forthe best.
They're not giving you goodoptions.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
No, that's the problem.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Even my party, at which I am a member of I'm so
frustrated with everyone isfrustrated with every party.
That's the best we can do.
The Crip Keeper Is the best wehave to produce out of all the
people alive and working in ourgovernment today.
Get your crap together, peopleWell, I.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Think that the only way our crap comes together is
through some, some pain andsuffering, because humans
respond to that when, when wecan, when we have to deal with
the day-to-day Necessities oftaking care of each other, then
all of a sudden this stuffmatters again and I think you
know, if you look down throughhistory, societies have changed

(58:00):
for the better by going througha storm and you guys know I've
talked about all the time.
Rough seas make good sailorsrough seas make good sailors and
and I've said it before and Iknow there's a lot of brothers
out there that agree with me,masonic brothers that agree with
me that we're in.
We're in for some rough seas.
It's gonna get tough and thisis a great time for masonry.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
Yeah, step up.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
We need shine more than ever more than ever, we
need a multiplex of People inthe Florida community who are
willing to come together andhelp each other in what I
believe is going to be a verytough time Maybe as tough as the
Great Depression, in my opinion.
But I hope not, but but I knowI hope not to.
I hope I'm wrong.
I hope I have to apologize toall my family for all the things

(58:44):
.
I've been putting them throughthese past five years, but I
Don't think I am.
But let's not talk about that.
Let's move on to our next topic.
Let's see here the anchor andthe arc.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Oh, that's an interesting one because it's
such a biblical reference.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Oh, is it really?
I didn't know anything about.
You want me to read or you wantto do it?

Speaker 2 (59:04):
You don't get the arc as a biblical reference.
Oh, the arc I do, absolutelyyeah the anchor and arc are
emblems of a well-grounded hopeand a well-spent life.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
They are emblematic of that divine arc which safely
Waffs us over the temptuous seasof trouble, and the anchor
which shall safely moor us to apeaceful harbor when the, where
the wicked sees from troublingand the weary shall find rest.
Oh, that's beautiful man,that's really great.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
So these people who eat babies and worship Satan are
actually showing you symbolsfrom the book that you know of
revelation.
Here, and we're talking aboutthe arc, is a Masonic symbol.
That the arc it in Mason Is aMasonic symbol.
Here it is the arc.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
Yeah, that's I love.
I let me read the whole thingagain, because it's really
beautifully written.
The anchor and the arc areemblems of a well-grounded hope
and a well-spent life.
They are emblematic of thatdivine arc which safely warfs us
over this to Temptuous sea oftroubles, and that anchor which
safely, which shall safely, moorus to a peaceful harbor when

(01:00:14):
the wicked sees from troublingand the weary shall find rest.
That's pretty good man Now thearc it's.
This is the Masonicinterpretation.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Yeah of Noah's.
Ark yes, so right, yeah, it's asymbol of hope and I love the
for the future.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
I love how Masonry takes these, these concepts and
ideas, and and and uses them forall of these different you know
, stories and and allegories,yeah, that they use, you know.
There's a, there's a lot oftheology behind the art, you
know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
But I mean, this is so simple.
Christian, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
And Jewish, judeo, christian perspective Absolutely
.
Yeah, that's Old Testament,right, this is a this would be
yeah, yeah, of course, it is sixseven, and it is a symbol of
hope.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Right like one man got word.
Hey, yeah, yeah, this isn'tgoing well.
We have to reset here, and it'sa symbol of hope that even in
that kind of a purge we cansurvive.
We can last the storm and comeout the other side Hopefully
better, if we remember how wegot here in the first place.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Right, it's it is the absolute picture of grace and
mercy to start over again, tobegin again, you know, because
it let's.
Let's be honest the story ofthe ark is a story of judgment
and.
Judgment carried out and onlyeight were saved.
And from the those eight, aSecond new chance, a new chance

(01:01:44):
to do it again, you know, bygrace and by mercy was given,
and from that line you know thatson Seth, from that line came
the line Of, of Abraham, and andall of that stuff that goes
forward.

Speaker 2 (01:01:59):
So think about grace and mercy when you think about
the fact that God killedmillions of people.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Yeah, I mean, we could get into that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
It's the grace and mercy don't seem to go well with
that story.
I guess it does for thesurvivors.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Well, I mean it's that's a deep conversation and
there's a lot of theology behindit.
Yeah let's pass that one overfor this broadcast.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
We'll go, we'll go for that next, but it look it's
a very interesting subject ofconversation right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Well, and that suffice it to say on my part, is
that the scripture says thatmercy, justice without mercy, is
an abomination to God.
Justice without mercy is anabomination to God.
So take that concept and andFilter all of this, this whole
idea of judgment versus mercy.

(01:02:47):
You know, and and all of that,and and you begin, you can begin
to understand that you know,without judgment, I mean, I Love
my children, I love them todeath and I I don't want anyone
to harm them or hurt them.
Those who would do harm to them, I'm gonna stop them.

(01:03:08):
Mm-hmm, I'm gonna judge them.
Judgment, my judgment is gonnacome down upon the man who is
trying to harm my children.

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
Mm-hmm right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
So if you got to look at, you got to kind of get the
concept from that point.
Yeah societies that go downthese roads.
They get to the point where itgets like like the, the Aztec
society.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
They absolutely in hearts out.
They're ripping hearts out.

Speaker 1 (01:03:31):
They're killing their own children.
Yeah because the harvest wasn'tgoing well.
They're throwing their childreninto a fire, right, you know.
And the drums?
The reason they play the drumsloud, the drum circle, you know
why to drown out the screams ofthe children.
You know here the babies, soyou don't hear the baby
screaming as they throw them inthe fire.
So when societies go down theseroads and they get to that
point, well then, that's notgood then judgment and justice

(01:03:53):
comes in and and starts it anewand brings a new Loving mercy.
That's the best I can do here inthis context.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
I hope.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
I hope I haven't peed off every single person out
there Not everyone, but I'm surethere's a couple of people that
understand it.
But to me and the anchor, theanchor is grunting yourself
right.

Speaker 2 (01:04:14):
You're not floating willy-nilly on the oceans
forever.

Speaker 1 (01:04:17):
Like you need an anchor and anchor right, truth,
truth and and goodness right.
We, we all desire the goodthings in life, that we desire
them, and and to find them intruth, and to know who we are in
truth.
These are the, the good thingsthat God has given us, and we do
well to guard ourselves, tocircumscribe our passions and to

(01:04:41):
keep in check our vices.
That we would not go down thoseroads but we would go down a
higher road, yeah, a better roadto better things, to that
providence would bless us andgive us that bounty that we all
look for.
You know those relationships Ihave a great relationship with
you.
I am grateful to God for itevery day, see, and and that

(01:05:01):
relationship was built.
You know, I don't know whereI'm going with this, but that
relationship was built over timethat the two of us now have
together.
Yeah, as a it was given to us.
I don't know where I'm going.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
We kind of took it from our families and our work.
Ain't nobody given us anythinghere.

Speaker 1 (01:05:19):
The build-up was great though, wasn't it?
I was just going there, I wasgoing, going, going and a
powerful finishing.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Gonna rip the head off at the end, see.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
Do we want to keep going?
Yeah, we're almost there.
We're almost there.
We got a little time left.
On the table.
Our arc are, oh, the anchor inthe arc our beautiful symbols of
Freemasonry.
And the anchor in the arc isthat as the okay.
So the next one is the 47thproblem of Euclid which is also
known as the Pythagorean theorem.

Speaker 2 (01:05:54):
Correct.
That's what you were taught inschool was the Pythagorean
theorem.
We call it the 47th problem ofEuclid, but is an emblem of
education to us.

Speaker 1 (01:06:07):
Yep, you only read it , the 40 yeah.
I've 47th problem of Euclid wasan invention of our ancient
friend and brother, of ourancient friend and brother, the
great Pythagoras, who, in histravels through Asia, africa and
Europe, was Initiated intoseveral orders of priesthood and
raised to the sublime degree ofmaster Mason.

(01:06:28):
This wise philosopher Enrichedhis mind abundantly in a general
knowledge of things.

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
He was raised to the sublime degree of master Mason.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
He was indeed.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
Pythagoras.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Pythagoras who lived in it doesn't give us a date,
but well, what would you guesshis life?
When he lived.
Yeah, I'm gonna say probablylike 400 BC.
Okay, right around that timenow Freemasonry in Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Teaching teaches us that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
I I like what you did there, but here we are saying
that he was raised.

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
This is a person Some 1300 years before Freemasonry
teaches us Freemasonry startedis now admitting that this man
was a master.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Should we look it up?

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
interesting, yeah, okay, so while you're doing that
, you haven't been in school ina while.
We all know of the Pythagoreantheorem, but what is it?
It basically Establishes thatany right angle, in any right
angle, the square of two sidesconnected to the right angle is

(01:07:35):
Equal to the square of the thirdside, correct?

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
the hypotenuse and I've used that equation many
times in building to squarecorners, large corners.
Oh yeah, absolutely yeah, andwe called it the the 6 8 10, the
6 8 10 rule.
So six foot on the square, sixfoot, eight foot and then across
the.
The connection Would be tenfeet and if you create that,

(01:07:58):
it's always square.
That corner is a hundredpercent square, and that could
be, that could be, that could beinches, feet, miles, or it
doesn't matter.
It's always the same.
But guess what?

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
this is also called the 3, 4, 5 triangle 3, 4, 5 as
well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:14):
Yep 6, 8, 10.
3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 it's, it's inmultiples of three.

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
This is the a squared plus b squared equals c squared
, correct?

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
So the different references, that's the equation
right, that's the how theequation is written out.
But Pythagoras he died in 570BC, so I was right around 400 in
that era.

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
Between 400 and 500 is when he there you go, yeah,
yeah, and still that's a good1200 years before Freemason
re-existed and according to theGrand Lodge of England shall I
read that again?

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
then let's see Africa .
Asia was initiated into severalorders of priesthood and Raised
to the sublime degree of masterMason.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
So, having died at the rut in 570 BC, one could say
, perhaps he was an operativeMason, because Understanding
this science was right it stillis and always will be science
will look like magic to peoplethat don't understand it.
So imagine there is no publicschool system, right?

(01:09:16):
Only the few have knowledge,few.
And when you have knowledgelike this that always a Squared
plus b squared will equal csquared, that is magic to people
that understand science right.
You, as an Operative Mason, canwalk into a building and you
know the 6, 8, 9 rule, right 6,8, 10.

Speaker 1 (01:09:35):
Yeah, 6 8, 10, right, or you can look at it, go
mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
Oh, needs to be that and to someone else They'd be
like.
Is he talking to God?
How does he?
Know how Like yeah in a way heis because he studied the book
of nature.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Well, I showed that this is how it works and it
makes people mad too, because Iremember being Superintendent on
a job and going out to a giantslab and Pulling six foot one
direction, six foot anotherdirection, off the corner and
then stretching my tape acrossfrom end to end, hoping to find
ten feet and finding nine footthree, 9 foot 6 inches, which

(01:10:09):
makes that thing four inches outof square good not good.
Not good on a slab that big.
That was a bad day for thoseguys.
They had to fix that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:16):
Well, today it's common knowledge.
Today we teach this to kids inschool.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
This is how we right, right yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
There was a time when this would have been sacred
knowledge.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
So you only buy a huge right.
And it was a lovely by mastermason, master mason's, and it
was a trade secret.
Yeah, it was a trade secret.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
Yeah, trade secret is a better way to say it.
Yeah, scary way to say it.
Right, I love that.
That's a great point.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
That's a great point.
So so if Pythagoras was raisedto the sublime degree of master
mason and he died in 570 BC,well, we'll just leave that
there.
This wise philosopher enrichedhis mind abundantly in a general
knowledge of things, and moreespecially in geometry or

(01:11:03):
Masonry, making the distinctionthere, masonry and geometry
being the same thing.
On this subject, he drew outmany problems and theorems, and
among the most distinguished, heerected this which, in the joy
of his heart, is called YucraEureka In the generic language,

(01:11:25):
signifying.
I have found it and upon thediscovery of which he said he
said is to have sacrificed ahektadome.
It teaches masons to be generallovers of arts and sign.
I'm going to have to read thatone again, everybody.
Page 122 in the Masonic Monitor.

(01:11:48):
This is your homework.
Get it out and read page 122,the 47th problem of Euclid,
because this is huge man, I digthis, this is huge Right.
Oh, I'm jumping in, I'm jumpingin.
I'll have more on this later.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
Yeah, this is great.
So what is the 345?

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
Yeah right, you said different numbers, right, 345.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Like if you use the lowest common.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
Is 345.
Yeah, 3 foot, 4 foot equals 5foot.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
So what is 3 plus 4 plus 5 equal 12.
12.
So they're alluding to the factthat they started with a gauge
that had 12 equal parts.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
Oh right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
And that they divided those 12 parts into a perfect
triangle and then understoodthat that 345 was the secret,
the secret to everythingGeometry related, and in
building it's the foundation ofall measurement systems.
To this day.
It comes to life whendetermining what computer size
you want to buy, measuring spacefor your new TV using a ladder.

(01:12:52):
Even if you don't have a strongknowledge today of geometry,
you use that.
You use it at some point inyour life every day.
We all do, and so obviously itwas an important theorem that
this person created, and mastermasons would have used it every
day too, but it would absolutelyhave been something they would
have kept secret in their day.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
Yeah, way too powerful for everyone to have
access to this information.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
That's just so good.
All right, the hourglass.
And we can't do the synthbecause it's coded.

Speaker 2 (01:13:27):
Oh really.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
Yeah, we can do the hourglass.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
The whole thing's coded or just the optional?

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
The bottom half of it .

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Yeah, Probably best to stay away from it.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
Anyway, the synth is cool and if you're not amazing,
you don't get the synth.
We get that.
That's ours.

Speaker 2 (01:13:41):
I don't even know how to pronounce that properly.
Is it sys?

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
Right the sys.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
It's.

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
S-Y-T-H-E.
S-c-y-t-h-e.

Speaker 2 (01:13:51):
Okay, scythe, scythe.
Oh, it could be, scythe.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
Boy, what Boy duh.

Speaker 2 (01:13:59):
I didn't know either, hey folks, folks.

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
did we ever tell you we were geniuses?
We've told you over and overagain we have no idea what we're
doing.
This is just more proof of it.
Scythe.
Right and the one thing we cansay about this he is an emblem
of time.
He's an emblem of time.
That's all you get.
That's all you're going to getfrom us.

Speaker 2 (01:14:18):
Well, you know what a scythe is in the real world,
Just like basically used forharvesting things right, Right
yeah.
Everything has its time,including its end time.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
Right.
We call that a sickle right.
Is that the sickle, the sickle?

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
I just Googled scythe and it says a scythe is an
agricultural hand tool formowing grass or harvesting crops
.
Right, it's historically usedto cut down or reap edible
grains before the process ofthreshing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:46):
Threshing.
Oh right, okay, wow, tyingthings up here nicely, aren't we
All right?
The hourglass let's end it onthe hourglass.
It's an emblem of human life.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:55):
Hourglass is an emblem of human life.
Behold how swiftly the sandsrun and how rapidly our lives
are drawing to a close.
We cannot without astonishmentbehold the little particles
which are contained in thismachine, how they pass away
almost imperceptibly, and yet,to our surprise, in the short
space of an hour they are allexhausted.

(01:15:17):
Thus wastes man.
Today he puts forth the tenderleaves of hope.
Tomorrow blossoms and bears hisblushing honors thick upon him.
The next day comes a frostwhich nips the shoot, and when
he thinks his greatness is stillaspiring, he falls like autumn
leaves to enrich the MotherEarth.

Speaker 2 (01:15:38):
So beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
That is so good.

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Man, we know how to use words.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
That is so good, and you know, wow, masonry's not
afraid to talk about death.
We're not afraid to talk, we'reafraid to have a room of
contemplation about death, butwe're not afraid to actually
talk about death.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
We need to fix that.
Rules don't always make sense.

Speaker 1 (01:16:00):
I was talking to a brother.
My granddaughter's such atangled web.
We weave with all this stuff inlife, but my granddaughter is
my adopted granddaughter.
My son adopted her from aprevious marriage, from my
daughter-in-law, but they'restill in contact with their
original grandparents, so theywere out visiting the other day

(01:16:24):
and I met them at my one.
My other granddaughter is acheerleader, so we went out to
you know, to hang out with herand see her do her thing, and
turns out he's a Mason.
Oh, no way, yeah, and he's aMason at that.
The downtown Denver Lodge thatI showed you those pictures of,
that I was trying to get in andthere was nobody there.
It's a very famous old lodge indowntown Denver on the 16th

(01:16:45):
Street Mall.
Anyway, he is an ancient andaccepted Mason.
They are ancient and acceptedmasons.

Speaker 2 (01:16:52):
Ancient, free and accepted.
Free and accepted AFNM.
I think AFNM right.

Speaker 1 (01:16:58):
And it was just, it was really just an interesting,
you know, conversation that Iwas, you know, able to have with
him.
I don't know where I was goingwith that, but thank you for
getting to the end here.
We ended on the hourglass.

Speaker 2 (01:17:13):
That is a beautiful explanation of time and why it's
a symbol of human life.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
Yeah, oh where I was going is that the ancient and
accepted Freemasons still usethe chamber of reflection.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
Oh yeah, do they, yeah, they still do.
I think it's a jurisdictionalthing.
I think each state decides that.

Speaker 1 (01:17:32):
Yeah, I think so.
But they, he says they use allof them, the coffin, all that
stuff.
They do all of it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
Maybe they'll bring it back to Florida someday.

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
I hope so.
I hope so too yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:43):
I think it was a mistake.
Through, you know, we say thatwe're not going to change the
system.
And then we go and change thesystem.

Speaker 1 (01:17:49):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Why Let it be?
It's there like for a reason.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
I think every single man should contemplate the day
of his death.
We should be Memento more man.
Remember that you must die.
Remember every day.
Remember it, because you willlive your life differently.
I guarantee.

Speaker 2 (01:18:10):
That's true.
People don't think about theirdemise and their death enough.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
Yeah, that's for sure , I know you shouldn't have it
always on your mind.

Speaker 2 (01:18:18):
That can be negative too, but it doesn't hurt to
remind yourself of and stayhumble being.
It's a fight to stay humble inlife.

Speaker 1 (01:18:29):
Yes, especially when you're so good.
Is it hard to be humble whenyou're perfect?
I don't know.
I haven't met that person yet.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
I mean, I met some better people than others, and
that just shows you who's doingthe work.

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
It's like the ritual.
You've been doing the work.
When you see the ritual perform, it's the same in life.
You know who's done the work onthemselves.
When you see how they behave inthe world.
Yeah, that's right, man, andstaying humble is hard.
It takes a hard work to alwaysremember I have an hourglass on
my desk.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
Yeah, I remember seeing that yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:05):
I do look at it sometimes when I flip it I think
about that.
I never thought about it quitein the way it was described, how
imperceptible the movement ofthe grains are as individuals.
It's happening.

Speaker 1 (01:19:17):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
And then that plays out in all of time and all of
reality.
That's happening, time ispassing and sometimes it's
imperceptible as it does, butyou'll notice the effects sooner
or later, so don't waste yourtime.
How many times can Freemason rehammer that home, especially in

(01:19:42):
the Master Mason degree,especially?

Speaker 1 (01:19:43):
in this one.

Speaker 2 (01:19:44):
Don't waste your time .
Don't waste your time.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
Don't waste your time .

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
Your time is limited and it's not like you're doing
it because your fear somethingbad is going to happen if you
don't do all this good stuff.
You're doing it because yourtime is limited and we all want
to do as much good stuff as wecan with the time that we have
Right.
It's not a fear-based thing.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
Yeah, I feel compelled to just tell everybody
out there are you separatedfrom somebody because of pride
or ego or offense?
The hourglass continues to dropthat sand man.
Every grain keeps going by.
Don't let that happen.
Don't let that happen.
Humble yourself, don't putyourself in a dangerous

(01:20:27):
situation, but don't let time goby over an offense.
Mend the fences, man.
You only have one life.
This is the only life you get.
The hourglass continues to run.
Mend those fences.
Do it today, whatever it is.
Are you separated from someone?
Has something happened in yourlife where?

(01:20:47):
the only thing that has tohappen for healing is for you to
change your opinion.
Then change it, Then get outthere and do it, do it today.
I don't know who that's for,but it's for you, brother, if
you're listening.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
It's a good message.
And that really is the end ofthe explanation of the emblems
of the Master Mason degree thatwe can talk about.
There are other emblems.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
There's many others, and if you're a Master Mason,
you have every reason to go toyour open books class in the
23rd District here in Florida,because our most worshipful
broom is turning our open booksclass into an actual what

(01:21:34):
instruct the time of instruction.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
I believe that he has said that's going to happen,
yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:21:40):
So get down there and open those books and understand
your craft man.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
Listen, we were at open books a couple of weeks ago
.
There's a picture out there onthe internet.
It's a bunch of guys sittingaround a book and really trying
our best to learn this stuff,the right way.

Speaker 1 (01:22:00):
Oh yeah, I've seen that picture.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
It was difficult in the beginning, our instructor.
It was kind of like aread-through on a play.
It certainly was we all had theopen books and the instructors
looking at what the words say,and we're reading the words from
our books, which we never do.
We always try to see how muchwe know from memory and so when
you do that, you know what youknow, right, and you don't know

(01:22:25):
what you don't know.
But when you read it you'regetting it right.
And so his thing was read eachletter, stop doing it from
memory.
And he could hear when somebodywas doing it from memory and
say go back and read it thistime.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
I know you're doing it from memory.

Speaker 2 (01:22:38):
That was me and I know you know it, but I need you
to look at those letters andread them to me one at a time.
And it was like a laboriousprocess.

Speaker 1 (01:22:47):
But it made a difference Wow.
Big difference?
I think Big difference yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:52):
I mean, I corrected so many wrongs and I didn't even
tell people I was just makinglittle dots next to words that I
was like oh, I haven't seenthat one wrong, Holy cow.
And I repeat, could you repeatwhat that word was?

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
That's what I thought you said.
Okay, dot next to that word.
Got to remember that one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:10):
You need to do that to perfect your ritual work, and
that is the proper way to studyit is.
It's one letter at a time.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
It's called mindfulness.

Speaker 2 (01:23:20):
Mindfulness.
Mindfulness to practice in amindful way.
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
To actually consider every last jot tittle, every
single one.
Yeah, that's right.
So, brother, once again anotherpodcast that I'm really into.
Man, this was great.
Yeah, I really enjoyed it, man.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
We've now done bits from all three degrees to learn
more about the exploration ofhow you can apply them to your
life.

Speaker 1 (01:23:46):
And now the three lectures.
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
Bits from the three lectures and how you can apply
some of that to your life.

Speaker 1 (01:23:52):
Now, we've always said that we're going to go back
and pick a big one, big one andreally dissect it.
Do some homework.

Speaker 2 (01:23:58):
I think we're ready for that now.
I think so too.
To just take one thing and justreally look at it from every
angle.

Speaker 1 (01:24:07):
We'll talk about that this week and we'll put
something together.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
Okay, and then next week let's put out a If you have
any suggestions, email Fred atbondilevelwithfredandchristcom
and tell him what to do.
Tell me what to do, that'sright.
I'm the boss of Fred, that'sright.

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
And another shout out to our guy Fazio E.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
Brother, thanks.

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
Thanks for the email, man.
I really appreciate it.
And you guys, the other emailsI'm getting to you.
I'm getting better at answeringthem.
I apologize, it's just there'sso much on our plates these days
we don't get paid to do this,so this is a part-time gig
that's becoming a full-time gig,our second full-time job.
So we're doing the best we can.
Please always know that we loveyou guys.

(01:24:52):
Man, we're so grateful that youguys continue to listen and if
you listen to the very end hereyou can hear the music coming on
.
You are our hero, man.
Thanks for hanging with us tothe very end.
It means a lot to us.
We love you, yeah, chris.
So anything you want to saybefore we go out, brother, I

(01:25:12):
just want a big hug from afriend.
Okay, I knew that was coming.
I knew that was coming.

Speaker 2 (01:25:18):
He's looking at me like okay, Anything else from
Chris no.
I do appreciate today.
Every day that we get to talkabout Freemasonry is special to
me, and you're a big part ofspreading light in Freemasonry
now, so it's great to watch yougrow as a Mason and spread your
wings.

Speaker 1 (01:25:38):
I appreciate it.
Thank you for everything thatyou're doing Well, it's my
pleasure and it's my honor.
And it's our honor to sign offone more time.
This has been a production ofon the level with Fred and Chris
.
We'll see you guys next time.

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Master Mason Lecture Part 2 : Navigating the symbols of this degree

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