Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
you've reached the
internet's home for all things
masonry.
Join on the level podcast as weplumb the depths of our ancient
craft and try to unlock themysteries, dispel the fallacies
and utilize the teachings offreemasonry to unlock the
greatness within each of us.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I have you now, let's
go.
Oh, a little too early in theday for that one no-transcript
(01:12):
coming up.
The trial panel recommended areprimand and he got a free
upgrade.
Can you imagine that?
A free upgrade to an indefinitesuspension?
So while Chris is going to beappealing this decision, out of
an abundance of caution, wethought, hey, why not just keep
on the level as safe as wepossibly can?
So you get me for the timebeing.
(01:34):
If you have any topics you wouldlike to see us cover here on
the show, I do still talk toChris on a regular basis.
So if you have any topics you'dlike to see us discover, leave
them in a comment down below.
We'd really appreciate thefeedback.
So again, guys, thank you verymuch.
So the topic we're going to becovering today actually is
actually a debate that I gotinto somebody online with, and
the debate was about thelegitimacy of Freemasonry and
(01:57):
how old it is.
Is it a bad organization?
Is it a good organization?
Because a lot of the times,that's the type of people you
run into.
So today, one of the peoplethat I was debating actually
brought a book in front of meand said hey, take a look at
this, here is a master Masonturned anti Mason, and so I want
to cover who this guy is, whathe did, and then we're going to
(02:21):
end off, like I said, with alittle bit of housekeeping in
the show.
So hopefully I don't keep youtoo long.
We'll see how things go.
I don't have Chris to bounceour stupid jokes off of.
So you get me.
I'm sorry, this is what you get.
You get the ugly bald guy.
So what we're going to becovering today is a book called
the Master's Carpet, or Masonry,and Baal Worship Identical and
(02:48):
Baal worship identical.
Now, for those of you who don'tknow who Baal is, baal is one
of the three pagan gods that arefound in the Old Testament or
the scriptures.
You can find them scattered allthroughout the Old Testament,
and not only that, but there arealso teachers today who believe
that the three Old Testamentpagan gods that you see were
Baal, ashtoreth and Moloch, wereBale, ashtoreth and Moloch, and
that they believe that thoseentities, whether they be
personality types or whether itbe actual physical entities,
(03:09):
that they actually travelthrough time so that they still
are in existence.
So they're either a humantendency or they are an actual
entity that is still affectingmankind as of today.
So this book is written byEdmund I have no idea how to
pronounce that Ronayne, ronayne,that's what we're going to call
him Ed.
Okay, we're calling him Ed.
(03:29):
So the three entities that wefind in the Old Testament, and
again I want to be clear andkind of give you a little bit of
education on who these peopleare.
I come from a Christianbackground, so you know.
Again, a little bit ofinformation for those who might
not know the history on thesecharacters.
So the three characters that wesee in the Old Testament over
and over again are Baal,ashtoreth in Mesopotamia she was
known as Ishtar and Moloch.
(03:50):
You have Baal, who was theworship of abundance, the
worship of productivity, thosesorts of things, and he was
typically represented by abronze or metal bovine, bull,
cow, one of those things.
And then you have Ashtoreth,who was the one of free love,
and it doesn't matter what theother party of your love looked
(04:12):
like, it was just hey, you getabsolutely everything you want
from a physical and intimatestandpoint.
So again, everything would beon the table.
We would kind of list thatperson.
A little bit of a profane ishow we would list that.
And then, finally, the last oneis Moloch, moloch being the Old
Testament god of childsacrifice.
That's where you get.
Don't let your children passthrough the fires of Moloch.
(04:32):
So Moloch was about childsacrifice.
But again, what a lot of peoplereally key in on is Baal worship
, because whenever theIsraelites came out of Egypt,
what they did is they wereworshiping Baal.
In Egypt, they were alsoworshiping the Egyptian gods,
and so Baal worship.
Whenever the Israelites gotoutside, believe the base of
(04:53):
Mount Sinai, and they weresetting up camp, they were
building the altar before theLord, all these things.
You have Moses that went uponto the mountain and got a
message from God.
That's where the TenCommandments come from.
When he came back down with thefirst iteration of the Ten
Commandments, when he came backdown, he saw that the people had
coerced Aaron to build a moltencow so that they could worship
(05:14):
Baal, because that's what theywere used to.
And so Moses obviously getsangry.
Moses had a bit of a temper.
He gets angry and he throws theTen Commandments, or the
commandments that he got fromGod, down, and then it just it
went haywire from there.
So the Israelites were thenpunished by God and again we see
Baal keep making, you know,reappearances generations later,
(05:34):
all the way down to KingSolomon, and after King Solomon
we see Baal just making thisappearance over and over again,
and even still there's somepeople today and I'm kind of in
this camp where the the Baalworship really didn't go
anywhere.
Whenever you think about a metalcow, or whenever you think
about a golden calf or whateverthe case might be, what's on
Wall Street right now?
There's a giant molten bull andthe little girl that's standing
(05:56):
in front of it defiantly.
That was only recently added,within the last couple of
decades.
So you know it's.
It's an interesting concept.
You know the Bible says thereis nothing new under the sun.
I absolutely love that conceptbecause everything that we see
has been seen before.
Not only has it been seenbefore, it has beaten people
before and it has been beatenbefore.
So it's actually a really neatconcept and for me at least,
(06:17):
that's also very comforting,because anything I face on a
daily basis it doesn't matter ifit's personal interactions,
global stuff, it doesn't matterit has been seen before and it
has been beaten before.
Personally, I find that veryrefreshing.
Let me know what you think inthe comments down below.
So a brief overview of ourgentleman in question here, ed
Edmund Ronan.
(06:38):
Somebody let me know how topronounce this name.
I don't understand.
You've got this.
You got the Leo Taxel guy.
His name was Marie.
Why do these people pick suchdifficult names?
Make it make sense.
So what we have is we have thisgentleman who was born to a
Catholic family on November 5thof 1832 in Ireland.
Imagine that His familyimmigrated to North America in
1851.
So he would have been close toabout 20 years old.
(07:01):
He renounced Catholicism,became an Anglican In 1858,.
He joined the Loyal OrangeOrder.
In 1859, he left the AnglicanChurch which he saw was too
Romanist.
He left the Orange Order in1860.
He joined Harrington Lodgenumber 49 in Quebec but withdrew
his membership when he moved toWisconsin in 1865.
(07:23):
By 1870, he was living inChicago with his family and
affiliated with Keystone Lodgeno 639.
So this was in Chicago in the1800s, late 1800s, where he
served as secretary and waselected as senior warden.
The next year, at the end of1872, he accepted election as
worshipful master.
But over the past year he hadfelt disenfranchised because of
(07:46):
local politics and theinvolvement of several Masons.
His resentment to thefraternity grew as he felt the
Grand Lodge misappropriateddonations from American Masons
as they used the funds torebuild lodges after the Chicago
Fire of 1871, and Ronayne feltthat they should have used it to
feed and clothe the needy.
In late 1874, he finallyrenounced Freemasonry and left
(08:09):
the fraternity.
I've also read he was expelledby the Grand Lodge of Illinois,
but there are no facts orevidence to confirm this.
Now what I just read from youguys is from a website called
thetravelingtemplarcom.
If you go to his website, checkit out.
This brother right here doesphenomenal work of doing real
deep dives into certain topics,whereas I'm trying to give you a
(08:30):
real quick 30,000 foot view inabout 30 minutes or less.
So what we have with thisgentleman is that he went and he
wrote a book called theMaster's Carpet orasonry and
Baal worship identical.
So as he left Freemasonry, hethen decided to condemn
Freemasonry in a time when beinganti-Mason was actually very,
(08:52):
very popular.
Now the one thing I do want tobring up are the generational
types.
You guys have heard me talkabout generational types before,
the different archetypes thatwe find in them.
If you haven't a real quickoverview of that is and please
look up the book called theFourth Turning, and it does a
fantastic job of breaking downthe generational archetypes and
(09:13):
it's shockingly accurate.
I mean, whenever you talk aboutthe archetypes, I'm what's
known as the heroic archetype,which is also known as the
millennial generation.
Before that, it was thegreatest generation.
That was the last iteration ofthe heroic archetype and my
personality type and the thingsthat I do, the way that I think
it fits into that category very,very well.
Likewise, we have our Gen Xbrothers that are known as the
(09:34):
nomadic archetype, and these arekind of like the laid back,
easygoing guys.
They just want everybody to getalong.
Again, brother Chris is afantastic representative of the
Generation X archetype.
While he has plans, thoughts,ideas and is very good at
executing those ideas, they aremuch more laid back and they're
not as stubborn headstrong.
I don't know what name you wantto give it, but it is a
(09:57):
fantastic, a fantastic read.
Before them you have the babyboomer generation, which is
known as the prophetic archetype, and, of course, gen Z coming
up.
Gen Z is known as the artist.
Okay, and we'll get to thathere shortly.
But with the propheticarchetype, what you typically
get is you get a very emotionalperson.
Now, that person could beeither emotional in a good way
or emotional in a bad way.
(10:17):
That is up to the individual asa whole.
We've talked about it beforethat in masonry, the bulk
majority of the propheticarchetype that I find are
typically what are known as thegray wardens.
Now the gray wardens arespecifically found in the
prophetic archetype.
So in the baby boomergeneration likewise, you have
George Washington, who is aprophetic archetype.
You have Winston Churchill, whois a prophetic archetype, but
(10:39):
they were what is known as thegray wardens, meaning they were
not so fixated on their ownpersonal emotions, but they were
looking at the good as a wholeor the good of the whole, and so
they ended up leading theyounger generations, meaning the
heroic archetype.
They would lead the youngergeneration into battle,
conflicts, rebuild, you know,whatever the case might be.
So again you have those, thosesplits right there in the in the
(11:02):
prophetic archetype, and then,of course, with Gen Z being
known as the artist generation,the silent generation would be
the last iteration of the artistarchetype.
And so what that is is you havethe heroic archetype that has
fought whatever this majorconflict is, and then we are in
a time of peace and you have ageneration where their artistry
(11:23):
can flow and it's a beautifulthing to see.
And of course, you see that inthe Gen Zers and, whether you
like it or not, I'm not in thiscamp, I don't even have the app,
but you have these Gen Z kidsthat are doing TikToks and
podcasts and all this otherstuff and they're actually
making really good money.
If they set themselves upproperly, they're actually doing
really well for themselves.
So, again, that would be theGen Z and of course, gen Alpha,
(11:49):
which would be my daughter's age, is the next iteration of the
prophetic archetype.
So I am currently raising thenext generation of the baby
boomers.
Pray for me, please.
So, having said all that,whenever I dive into somebody
who speaks anti masonry, or Idive into anybody from a
historical standpoint, I like tofind out when they were born.
Now, this gentleman was born in1832.
(12:10):
From a generational standpoint,he would be the transcendental
generation, but he's so close tothat cutoff of being the
transcendental generation thathe's kind of that in-between.
So think of like an older GenXer.
That's the type of person thatwe're dealing.
So think of like an older GenXer.
That's the type of person thatwe're dealing with here From an
older Gen Xer standpoint, whilethey are a little more laid back
(12:31):
.
They still do have some ofthose boomer tendencies, or that
prophetic archetype tendency towhere they're going to be a
little more irrational if theyhaven't worked on themselves and
exhibit any sort ofself-discipline.
So that's who we're dealingwith here.
We're dealing with a lateboomer, early Gen Xer.
That's the type of person thatwe're dealing with here.
So he's going to be a littlemore emotional, he's going to be
(12:53):
a little more headstrong, he'sgoing to be a little more rash
in what he does and how hethinks.
So again, if you have a manthat has not worked on himself,
he has not used the workingtools of Freemasonry, then
that's going to be the type ofperson that he is Undisciplined,
emotional, those sorts ofthings.
So kind of put in your mind,that's who we're talking about
here.
But what's super interestingabout it is his main gripe with
(13:14):
Freemasonry wasn't Freemasonry.
His main gripe with Freemasonrywas the Grand Lodge.
So it's super interesting.
You have this guy who was bornin 1832 in Ireland.
He ends up joining multiplelodges, he becomes a member of
multiple orders.
But you notice a pattern withhim and as an employer I look at
this as well you notice apattern that he jumps from
(13:35):
organization to organization,which I think is super
interesting, right?
So this is a guy that he getsinto an organization.
He typically does not like theway that organization is running
, so he leaves said organizationand then he goes to somewhere
else until he can find exactlywhat it is that he's looking for
.
The issue with this type ofmindset and this type of
(13:56):
thinking, no organization isever going to match your ideals,
thoughts and desires exactlythe way you want them.
Unless you open it, you run itand you're the only person who's
a member of it.
Why?
Because there's multiple peoplewith multiple opinions, and
that's totally understandable.
So what we have is he got upsetbecause, after the Chicago
fires in the late 1800s, thisgentleman I can't even call him
(14:20):
a brother because he wasexpelled from masonry 1800s.
What this gentleman I can'teven call him a brother because
he was expelled from masonry.
But what we have is thisgentleman did not like the way
that the Grand Lodge of Illinoiswas appropriating funds.
So after the great fires, afterthe Chicago fires in the late
1800s, what he ends up doing ishe gets mad at the Grand Lodge
and he's like hey, why are youguys giving money to the
particular lodges in order torebuild the lodges when we just
(14:41):
went through a catastrophe.
We should be helping people, weshould be clothing people, we
should be feeding people and inthat aspect I actually agree
with him.
I agree with him.
I think more socialorganizations need to be doing
more in order to help the commonpeople.
Here's a caveat to that thecommon people are always going
to have a catastrophe.
They're always going to have aproblem.
There's always going to behungry, there's always going to
(15:01):
be needy, there's always goingto be homeless.
That will never change.
There is nothing new under thesun.
There is always going to be.
There are always going to bethose parties in any advanced
civilization.
So what we have is he was veryupset at the Grand Lodge.
Okay, so what could he do atthis point?
He's upset at the Grand Lodgefor a misappropriation of funds
Interesting All right.
What could he do in that aspect?
(15:23):
Here's option number one, andthis is what a Mason should do.
So we talk about Masonry beingthe ultimate democratic process,
and a brother of mine who wentto Grand Lodge last year here in
Florida.
One of the things that he saidis it was the most beautiful
things that he had ever seen.
Now, this is a veteran, mindyou, and he's also a millennial,
so he's the prophetic archetype, or sorry, he's the heroic
(15:44):
archetype and so one of thethings that he said is that it
was the most beautiful thing hehad ever seen, because it was
true democracy, true democracy.
I didn't go to Grand Lodge lastyear, so I can't answer that I
do plan on going this year.
I'm already signed up for it.
So I will see you, brothers, atGrand Lodge this year.
But having said that, he wasupset.
Okay, so he has a fork in theroad and now he can do one of
(16:06):
two things Now the good basinand the good man.
If he sees something that isgoing wrong with whether it be
the particular lodge, whether itbe his church, whether it be
government, whether it be, youknow, at the Grand Lodge level,
(16:26):
or you're, in this case, theGrand Lodge of Illinois what he
could do, and what he shouldhave done, is started working
his way up into leadership ofthat Grand Line and then make
the changes from the inside.
I don't know the particularsaround this brothers ordeal, but
I could tell you from apolitics standpoint, because one
of the things that said is thathe got tired of the politics.
From a politics standpoint, heprobably got stonewalled,
because that's typically how itgoes in some of these
(16:46):
organizations.
Again, whether it be church,whether it be politics, whether
it be lodge masonry, masonry asa whole, it doesn't matter what
you typically see is unless youhave an older brother that is
really fixated on hey, thiscraft does not belong to me, it
belongs to the next generationwhat you're going to see is a
stonewalling, because if it'sthe same old, same old, and it's
been that way for two years,five years, a decade, a lifetime
(17:10):
, if it's been that way, well,that's the way that it's always
been and that's the way thatwe're going to keep doing it.
And that was one of my gripeswith church and I to go to is,
whenever you're looking at someof the doctrine lines that
churches follow, it's just theway that it's always been.
Well, so I don't want anythingto change because it's the way
that it's always been.
For example, I go to adenomination called the Church
(17:30):
of Christ.
The Church of Christ believesin no instrumental worship, and
they pull that from Ephesians519, which is a New Testament
scripture that states and it'sbetween commas speaking to each
other in psalms, hymns andspiritual songs, sing and make
melody to the Lord in your heart, and they use that as their
justification to create a rulethat says no instruments.
The problem is, instrumentsaren't mentioned anywhere in
(17:53):
that passage, but it's the waythat it's always been, and I'm
only telling you that as anallegory.
So it's the way that it'salways been, so that's the way
that we're going to keep doingit and that's what you typically
see with the older generation.
Well, it's been around this wayfor 20, 30, 40, 50 years, so
therefore I don't want it tochange.
That's what you will typicallysee.
I'm not saying that that's whatthis brother experienced.
(18:14):
I'm saying that as a commonhuman trait that I have seen
time and time again.
So in that aspect, I could seeand I agree with that.
So he probably should haveworked his way into the grand
line and worked, maybe even be aDDGM, maybe be a committeeman
to public outreach or somethinglike that, and then get those
funds allocated and create lawsand legislation to be able to
(18:35):
help the people a little more.
That's what a good man wouldhave done, but instead what we
have here is we have someone whotheir archetype would dictate
is a little more emotional, alittle more irrational.
If they don't have theself-discipline that they should
have, then you're going to havehim do what he did, and what he
did is he ends up leavingmasonry, denouncing Freemasonry,
(18:56):
and he writes something calledthe Master's Carpet, or Masonry
and Baal Worship Identical, it'sa mouthful, I agree with you.
So, having said that, this is apretty lengthy book, this
gentleman, ed, who ends upwriting almost a 400-page book
and it's detailing a lot of theinformation about Freemasonry.
But here's the interestingthing that I found in this as I
(19:17):
was flipping through and I wasreading about the opening and
closings, the three pillars, Iwas reading about the prayers,
all this other stuff, I saw himdo what I've seen a few people
do, and the one that I'm reallykeying in on right now is
actually a guy that's found onTwitter, commonly known as X, or
currently known as X, and hisname is Kyle is undercover.
Now, what Kyle is undercoverdid in the fall of 2023.
(19:38):
So it was right before I gotraised, because I got raised in
December of 2023, what he endsup doing is he goes in and he
secretly records an entireMaster Mason degree, meaning
this guy went through the entireentered apprentice degree, made
his obligations swore upon theHoly Bible.
Then he gets passed to thedegree of fellow craft, goes in
(20:02):
there, makes his obligation,swears on the Holy Bible.
Then he gets raised to thesublime degree of master Mason,
makes his obligation, swears onthe Bible and then turns around,
goes to the next master Masondegree and records it.
So he recorded the entiremaster Mason degree.
Again, this is a guy who iscurrently found on X.
His screen name is Kyle isundercover or Kyle is based, one
of the two, I can't remember.
Either way he's a Cowan, Ican't stand the guy, but either
(20:24):
way he chopped up the MasterMason degree and it was super
interesting the way that he didit.
Whenever he chopped up theMaster Mason degree, he would
put a certain section and say ohwell, this is where they
ritualistically kill thecandidate, twisting it to what
(20:47):
it's not.
So it would be equivalent to mesaying okay, there stands a
circle on my truck.
Well, I'm talking about a tire.
Is it a circle?
Yeah, but does that describethe entirety of what it is?
No, of course it doesn't.
So he ends up writing thisentire thing and even still he
makes a couple of remarks that Ireally don't like.
So whenever we covered the Bornin Blood episode, one of the
things that we talked about isthe point within a circle, and
(21:07):
that was a way to hide thesquare encompasses, or the
Templars to hide the squareencompasses.
So they would send out a youngman into the woods and they
would say, hey, go ahead andprep an area, we're going to
hold a degree tonight.
So he would take two sticks ofequivalent length, he would put
one in the middle and then hewould draw a circle okay, well
right, there's your compass.
And then you would take thesticks and lay them on the
outside of it.
There's your square.
So as a way to hide the squareencompasses, because the
Templars, what we learned inborn in blood by john Robinson
(21:30):
1400, at this point they werenot allowed to have a written
copy of the scriptures.
It was illegal and it wasactually punishable by the
Catholic Church, the RomanCatholic Church.
(21:52):
So one of the things that hesays is that the point within
the circle is a phallic symbol.
That makes absolutely no senseto me.
It's highly offensive.
Kind of the same way they talkabout the symbol of the square
and compasses, the ones that wehave on our rings and on the
back of our trucks and all thisother stuff that it is meant to
symbolize intercourse between amale and female.
So again, I'm kind of in thecamp and this is kind of funny.
(22:16):
I'm kind of in the camp thatthese guys are projecting a
little bit Like I think somebodyhugged them.
Too much or not enough?
Just an opinion, call me crazy,it's just an opinion.
So, too much or not enough?
Just an opinion, call me crazy,it's just an opinion.
So, either way, he goes throughand he starts to list a lot of
the things that we do in ourdegree work, a lot of things
that we do in our ritual.
But then he takes certainaspects of and he says, well, no
(22:36):
, this isn't right because ofthis.
Well, this isn't right becauseof that.
So he twists and distorts,misrepresents what we're doing
within the lodge whenever weopen and close the lodge.
So again, the type of personthat we're dealing with here is
someone who is, again, a littlemore emotional.
He goes through and he writesthis book on again, it's called
the Master's Carpet, and hereferences the handbook of
masonry, he references Manly PHall, he references a lot of
(22:58):
different people in this book,but again, he takes the things
that we have in masonryry and hetwists them and he contorts
them, which is what a lot ofthese anti-masons do, so
whenever they talk about.
Oh well, the masons have theirown Bible.
We do have a Bible that has asquare and compass on it.
Well, in the Ten Commandments,it takes out the first
commandment, which is to have nogods before God of the Old
(23:21):
Testament.
Nope, nope.
Every single Masonic Bible I'veever opened and I have four of
them just in my possession Oneof them is about, I think, from
the 1940s.
It doesn't change anything inthe Bible.
It is a standard King JamesBible which, again, as I've said
before, is not my favoritetranslation of the scriptures.
(23:42):
So again, we're going to getinto a little bit more of that.
Some of the naysayers ofMasonry, what they're going to
do, a little bit more of that,some of the naysayers of masonry
, what they're going to do.
We'll cover that on a futureepisode, but before we do that,
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(25:05):
So what we have with this guy is, again he.
He makes a very emotional and avery rash decision, and what he
decides to do is to write outand spell out all the stuff
about freemasonry and they'reevil because of this, they're
evil because of that, and.
And one of the things that hebrought up and I've heard this
mentioned by christians who arenaysayers about freemasonry
before is that that if somethingis not of Christ, then it is
(25:26):
anti-Christ.
Now, that is something that'staken out of the New Testament
scriptures, something Icompletely agree with.
If it is not of Christ, then itis anti-Christ.
I mean, by definition, that'sexactly what it is.
Well, if that's the case, don'tbe a member at Costco, don't be
a member at Sam's Club.
So if it's not of Christ, thenit's anti-Christ.
So that means, unless I goexclusively to a Christian
grocery store, then it'santi-Christ.
(25:48):
So let's follow that logicalargument to its end.
And the logical argument to itsend is that there's not much out
there that is exclusivelyChristian other than churches.
So you can't sit there and saythat, oh, if it's not of Christ,
then you shouldn't haveanything to do with it, because
you drive a truck that was madeby Christians, non Christians,
muslims, jews, whatever the casemight be.
(26:09):
You drive a vehicle that wasmade by every single one of them
.
You also drive a vehicle thatwas created on an assembly line.
All those parts and everythingwere made by people of different
faiths, walk beliefs, whateverthe case might be.
If you follow the argument toits logical conclusion, you're
riding a horse.
That's exactly what you'redoing.
You're riding a horse towherever you go and it's like oh
(26:33):
, I've got an appointment, I'mcurrently in Tampa and I've got
an appointment in Sarasota.
I'm going to saddle up my horseand I'll see you in three days.
That's essentially what you'redealing with here.
So again, following thatargument to its logical
conclusion can get to be a lotof fun.
So that's what we have.
Again, check out the book,because a lot of naysayers are
going to pull up the master'scarpet or masonry and bell
worship identical Again.
Just kind of thumbing throughit and looking at an overview of
it, it was very easy to dissect, and again, these arguments
(26:55):
that Ed uses in this book.
They aren't new arguments as amatter of fact, a lot of the
arguments today that are againstmasons are actually very
similar to exactly what hequotes here in this book.
So, again, using a little bitof logic, a little bit of
rhetoric we learned about thatin the fellow craft degree you
can very easily dissect andbreak down exactly what he's
saying here.
And it's super easy to do.
I mean super, super easy,because whenever we're on the
(27:17):
inside and we know about thedegrees, we know what they
represent, we know about thepoint within a circle, we know
what the square encompassesrepresent, we know what the
mosaic floor represents, we knowthat the G in the middle of the
square encompasses means greenbeans.
We know these sorts of things.
It's super easy to talk to aprofane who is an anti-Mason and
whenever they say oh, you guysworship the devil, well, the
(27:38):
devil is not mentioned in any ofour degrees.
Absolutely any of them,absolutely any of them.
Will you guys worship Baphomet?
Nope, also incorrect,baphomet's not mentioned in any
of our degrees.
So again, using that little bitof logic and rhetoric is pretty
easy.
But again, the key thing that Iwant to take from this is the
personality type that this guywas.
He had a disagreement with theGrand Lodge and instead of
(28:00):
trying to work with the GrandLodge and to get in there and to
break down those barriers thatis, we've done it this way for
however long Instead he went theopposite route.
Okay, and the opposite routewas the more destructive path
for him to go down.
So again, whenever you'retalking to some of these people,
you're talking to anti-Masons.
Most anti-Masons you're goingto meet in life, or at least the
(28:22):
ones that I've met in life.
They've only got a surfaceunderstanding of Masonry.
They've either saw adocumentary on YouTube or they
heard a preacher talk about itsomewhere or something along
those lines, and that nowdefines their entire belief.
But whenever you have someonewho can critically think and you
can break it down and say, forexample, my sister-in-law we've
talked about this on the showbefore that my sister-in-law
(28:43):
whenever I said that I wasjoining Freemasonry, she got
very serious very quickly andshe was like Matt, don't join
Masons, they're bad people.
What I was able to do and I'vebeen very honest about this
there was a good 10 to 20percent of me whenever I joined
Masonry.
One of the things that I wantedto do is I actually wanted to
see if there was anything wrongor anti-Christian,
(29:03):
anti-Christian, anti-god, youknow.
Whatever the case might be, Iwanted to see if there was
anything nefarious withinFreemasonry and instead what I
found was the exact opposite,especially whenever I went
through York Rite.
York Rite only, I mean, furtherbolstered all of my beliefs.
I mean it was awesome.
And, of course, whenever youstart to get into that mindset
where you start to criticallythink about Freemasonry the
(29:25):
arguments for against, you know,you start to use logic and
rhetoric and lodge meetingswhenever you have discussion or
debate or whatever the casemight be, it actually opened me
up to in the Christian mindsetbecause, again, we have
thousands of denominationsacross the United States and
across the world.
It actually opened up tocritically think about the
scriptures and critically thinkabout what I'm being taught on
(29:47):
Sunday mornings and so on Sundaymornings, most churches here in
the United States, you're goingto get this kind of like
feminine, romanticized versionof the scriptures and so I'm
personally I'm not crazy aboutthat.
It absolutely it speaks nothingto me, no-transcript worked up.
(30:33):
You feel yourself start to getemotionally involved in the
conversation, disengage.
It is totally okay to back awayfrom that conversation and to
come back and revisit itwhenever you can circumscribe
your passions, Okay.
So again, that is a very briefoverview of Ed Ronan's I still
don't know if I'm pronouncingthat word properly the Master's
(30:55):
Carpet.
I know we didn't dive into thetext all that much, but I wanted
to tell you who this guy was.
Seek out the book.
You can find it for free.
I'll try to post it in thecomments down below.
Like I said, it is a veryinteresting read because
whenever you read through thisbook you're going to hear a lot
of modern day anti-Masonsediment from this right here.
(31:16):
So again, almost everythingthat is spoken poorly about
Freemasonry we can trace back tothe Confessions of the Knights
Templar, the Leo Taxel hoax orthis guy right here, the
master's carpet.
So again, the more you knowabout your opposition's argument
, the easier that conversationgoes, because whenever they say,
well, you guys have goats inthe back, yes, no, we don't.
(31:38):
So, either way, seek it out,read the stuff that is
anti-Masonic.
Read it.
It's okay to read it.
But, again, critically thinkabout it.
And that's one thing that Ireally want to encourage you
guys on is to be able tocritically think on some of
these things.
Having said that, we have comingup the Grand Lodge Grand
Communication.
So again, brothers, I just wantto give you a friendly heads up
(32:03):
.
On Sunday night, at the localshrine, that is there from, I
believe, 6 to 9 pm, there'sactually going to be a freedom
party being hosted, so, and it'sbeing hosted by Three Ruffian
Cigars.
So definitely hop on Facebook,seek that out.
You're going to find it on the,on the on the level page.
You're going to find it on theThree Ruffian page.
Definitely seek that out.
It's going to be a great time.
Pick you up some Three Ruffianscigars while you're there.
I hope to see you all at GrandLodge.
(32:25):
I really do.
Definitely come by, shake myhand, say hi to me, tell me that
you don't like me and my baldhead, that I look like the
dollar store.
Mr Clean, you're not going tooffend me at all, brothers.
So that is going to be a veryfast, very quick overview of the
master's carpet and Ed Ronain,who was eventually expelled from
Freemasonry.
Some reports have said thathe's been expelled from
(32:47):
Freemasonry.
So, brothers, that is all Ihave for you today.
It's been a very quick episode.
We're going to try to do acouple of more before Grand
Lodge starts.
We're going to be covering awider range of topics.
For example, one of the onesthat I'm researching right now
is Grand Lodges within thestates unrecognizing one another
.
That has nothing to do withPrince Hall Freemasonry.
(33:10):
So Prince Hall Freemasonry andthe recognition or
non-recognition thereof has beena huge point of contention
between Grand Lodges between thestates.
But there are plenty ofexamples of states not
recognizing other states' GrandLodges.
We're going to dive into thatin the next episode, but for now
, my name is Matt.
I am Brother Junior Deacon fromLakeland Lodge 91.
And On the Level podcast is out.